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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Westward Ho!, by Charles Kingsley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Westward Ho!
+
+Author: Charles Kingsley
+
+Release Date: May 13, 2006 [EBook #1860]
+Last Updated: March 15, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WESTWARD HO! ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Donald Lainson
+
+
+
+
+
+WESTWARD HO!
+
+
+by Charles Kingsley
+
+
+
+TO
+
+THE RAJAH SIR JAMES BROOKE, K.C.B.
+
+AND
+
+GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, D.D.
+
+BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND
+
+
+THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
+
+
+By one who (unknown to them) has no other method of expressing his
+admiration and reverence for their characters.
+
+That type of English virtue, at once manful and godly, practical and
+enthusiastic, prudent and self-sacrificing, which he has tried to depict
+in these pages, they have exhibited in a form even purer and more
+heroic than that in which he has drest it, and than that in which it was
+exhibited by the worthies whom Elizabeth, without distinction of rank or
+age, gathered round her in the ever glorious wars of her great reign.
+
+C. K.
+
+FEBRUARY, 1855.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+I.     HOW MR. OXENHAM SAW THE WHITE BIRD
+
+II.    HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE FIRST TIME
+
+III.   OF TWO GENTLEMEN OF WALES, AND HOW THEY HUNTED WITH THE HOUNDS, AND
+           YET RAN WITH THE DEER
+
+IV.    THE TWO WAYS OF BEING CROST IN LOVE
+
+V.     CLOVELLY COURT IN THE OLDEN TIME
+
+VI.    THE COMBES OF THE FAR WEST
+
+VII.   THE TRUE AND TRAGICAL HISTORY OF MR. JOHN OXENHAM OF PLYMOUTH
+
+VIII.  HOW THE NOBLE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE WAS FOUNDED
+
+IX.    HOW AMYAS KEPT HIS CHRISTMAS DAY
+
+X.     HOW THE MAYOR OF BIDEFORD BAITED HIS HOOK WITH HIS OWN FLESH
+
+XI.    HOW EUSTACE LEIGH MET THE POPE'S LEGATE
+
+XII.   HOW BIDEFORD BRIDGE DINED AT ANNERY HOUSE
+
+XIII.  HOW THE GOLDEN HIND CAME HOME AGAIN
+
+XIV.   HOW SALVATION YEO SLEW THE KING OF THE GUBBINGS
+
+XV.    HOW MR. JOHN BRIMBLECOMBE UNDERSTOOD THE NATURE OF AN OATH
+
+XVI.   THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE
+
+XVII.  HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS, AND FOUND NO MEN THEREIN
+
+XVIII. HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS AT MARGARITA
+
+XIX.   WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA
+
+XX.    SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS
+
+XXI.   HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION UNDER THE TREE AT HIGUEROTE
+
+XXII.  THE INQUISITION IN THE INDIES
+
+XXIII. THE BANKS OF THE META
+
+XXIV.  HOW AMYAS WAS TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL
+
+XXV.   HOW THEY TOOK THE GOLD-TRAIN
+
+XXVI.  HOW THEY TOOK THE GREAT GALLEON
+
+XXVII. HOW SALVATION YEO FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN
+
+XXVIII.HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE THIRD TIME
+
+XXIX.  HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS STOPPED BY THE QUEEN'S COMMAND
+
+XXX.   HOW THE ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS
+
+XXXI.  THE GREAT ARMADA
+
+XXXII. HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA
+
+XXXIII. HOW AMYAS LET THE APPLE FALL
+
+
+
+
+WESTWARD HO!
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+HOW MR. OXENHAM SAW THE WHITE BIRD
+
+     “The hollow oak our palace is,
+        Our heritage the sea.”
+
+All who have travelled through the delicious scenery of North Devon must
+needs know the little white town of Bideford, which slopes upwards from
+its broad tide-river paved with yellow sands, and many-arched old bridge
+where salmon wait for autumn floods, toward the pleasant upland on the
+west. Above the town the hills close in, cushioned with deep oak woods,
+through which juts here and there a crag of fern-fringed slate; below
+they lower, and open more and more in softly rounded knolls, and fertile
+squares of red and green, till they sink into the wide expanse of hazy
+flats, rich salt-marshes, and rolling sand-hills, where Torridge joins
+her sister Taw, and both together flow quietly toward the broad surges
+of the bar, and the everlasting thunder of the long Atlantic swell.
+Pleasantly the old town stands there, beneath its soft Italian sky,
+fanned day and night by the fresh ocean breeze, which forbids alike the
+keen winter frosts, and the fierce thunder heats of the midland; and
+pleasantly it has stood there for now, perhaps, eight hundred years
+since the first Grenville, cousin of the Conqueror, returning from the
+conquest of South Wales, drew round him trusty Saxon serfs, and free
+Norse rovers with their golden curls, and dark Silurian Britons from
+the Swansea shore, and all the mingled blood which still gives to the
+seaward folk of the next county their strength and intellect, and, even
+in these levelling days, their peculiar beauty of face and form.
+
+But at the time whereof I write, Bideford was not merely a pleasant
+country town, whose quay was haunted by a few coasting craft. It was
+one of the chief ports of England; it furnished seven ships to fight the
+Armada: even more than a century afterwards, say the chroniclers, “it
+sent more vessels to the northern trade than any port in England, saving
+(strange juxtaposition!) London and Topsham,” and was the centre of a
+local civilization and enterprise, small perhaps compared with the
+vast efforts of the present day: but who dare despise the day of small
+things, if it has proved to be the dawn of mighty ones? And it is to the
+sea-life and labor of Bideford, and Dartmouth, and Topsham, and Plymouth
+(then a petty place), and many another little western town, that England
+owes the foundation of her naval and commercial glory. It was the men
+of Devon, the Drakes and Hawkins', Gilberts and Raleighs, Grenvilles and
+Oxenhams, and a host more of “forgotten worthies,” whom we shall learn
+one day to honor as they deserve, to whom she owes her commerce, her
+colonies, her very existence. For had they not first crippled, by their
+West Indian raids, the ill-gotten resources of the Spaniard, and then
+crushed his last huge effort in Britain's Salamis, the glorious fight of
+1588, what had we been by now but a popish appanage of a world-tyranny
+as cruel as heathen Rome itself, and far more devilish?
+
+It is in memory of these men, their voyages and their battles, their
+faith and their valor, their heroic lives and no less heroic deaths,
+that I write this book; and if now and then I shall seem to warm into
+a style somewhat too stilted and pompous, let me be excused for my
+subject's sake, fit rather to have been sung than said, and to have
+proclaimed to all true English hearts, not as a novel but as an epic
+(which some man may yet gird himself to write), the same great message
+which the songs of Troy, and the Persian wars, and the trophies of
+Marathon and Salamis, spoke to the hearts of all true Greeks of old.
+
+
+One bright summer's afternoon, in the year of grace 1575, a tall and
+fair boy came lingering along Bideford quay, in his scholar's gown,
+with satchel and slate in hand, watching wistfully the shipping and the
+sailors, till, just after he had passed the bottom of the High Street,
+he came opposite to one of the many taverns which looked out upon the
+river. In the open bay window sat merchants and gentlemen, discoursing
+over their afternoon's draught of sack; and outside the door was
+gathered a group of sailors, listening earnestly to some one who stood
+in the midst. The boy, all alive for any sea-news, must needs go up
+to them, and take his place among the sailor-lads who were peeping and
+whispering under the elbows of the men; and so came in for the following
+speech, delivered in a loud bold voice, with a strong Devonshire accent,
+and a fair sprinkling of oaths.
+
+“If you don't believe me, go and see, or stay here and grow all over
+blue mould. I tell you, as I am a gentleman, I saw it with these eyes,
+and so did Salvation Yeo there, through a window in the lower room; and
+we measured the heap, as I am a christened man, seventy foot long, ten
+foot broad, and twelve foot high, of silver bars, and each bar between
+a thirty and forty pound weight. And says Captain Drake: 'There, my lads
+of Devon, I've brought you to the mouth of the world's treasure-house,
+and it's your own fault now if you don't sweep it out as empty as a
+stock-fish.'”
+
+“Why didn't you bring some of they home, then, Mr. Oxenham?”
+
+“Why weren't you there to help to carry them? We would have brought
+'em away, safe enough, and young Drake and I had broke the door abroad
+already, but Captain Drake goes off in a dead faint; and when we came
+to look, he had a wound in his leg you might have laid three fingers in,
+and his boots were full of blood, and had been for an hour or more; but
+the heart of him was that, that he never knew it till he dropped,
+and then his brother and I got him away to the boats, he kicking and
+struggling, and bidding us let him go on with the fight, though every
+step he took in the sand was in a pool of blood; and so we got off. And
+tell me, ye sons of shotten herrings, wasn't it worth more to save him
+than the dirty silver? for silver we can get again, brave boys: there's
+more fish in the sea than ever came out of it, and more silver in Nombre
+de Dios than would pave all the streets in the west country: but of such
+captains as Franky Drake, Heaven never makes but one at a time; and if
+we lose him, good-bye to England's luck, say I, and who don't agree, let
+him choose his weapons, and I'm his man.”
+
+He who delivered this harangue was a tall and sturdy personage, with a
+florid black-bearded face, and bold restless dark eyes, who leaned, with
+crossed legs and arms akimbo, against the wall of the house; and seemed
+in the eyes of the schoolboy a very magnifico, some prince or duke at
+least. He was dressed (contrary to all sumptuary laws of the time) in
+a suit of crimson velvet, a little the worse, perhaps, for wear; by his
+side were a long Spanish rapier and a brace of daggers, gaudy enough
+about the hilts; his fingers sparkled with rings; he had two or three
+gold chains about his neck, and large earrings in his ears, behind one
+of which a red rose was stuck jauntily enough among the glossy black
+curls; on his head was a broad velvet Spanish hat, in which instead of a
+feather was fastened with a great gold clasp a whole Quezal bird, whose
+gorgeous plumage of fretted golden green shone like one entire precious
+stone. As he finished his speech, he took off the said hat, and looking
+at the bird in it--
+
+“Look ye, my lads, did you ever see such a fowl as that before? That's
+the bird which the old Indian kings of Mexico let no one wear but their
+own selves; and therefore I wear it,--I, John Oxenham of South Tawton,
+for a sign to all brave lads of Devon, that as the Spaniards are the
+masters of the Indians, we're the masters of the Spaniards:” and he
+replaced his hat.
+
+A murmur of applause followed: but one hinted that he “doubted the
+Spaniards were too many for them.”
+
+“Too many? How many men did we take Nombre de Dios with? Seventy-three
+were we, and no more when we sailed out of Plymouth Sound; and before we
+saw the Spanish Main, half were gastados, used up, as the Dons say, with
+the scurvy; and in Port Pheasant Captain Rawse of Cowes fell in with us,
+and that gave us some thirty hands more; and with that handful, my lads,
+only fifty-three in all, we picked the lock of the new world! And whom
+did we lose but our trumpeter, who stood braying like an ass in
+the middle of the square, instead of taking care of his neck like a
+Christian? I tell you, those Spaniards are rank cowards, as all bullies
+are. They pray to a woman, the idolatrous rascals! and no wonder they
+fight like women.”
+
+“You'm right, captain,” sang out a tall gaunt fellow who stood close to
+him; “one westcountry-man can fight two easterlings, and an easterling
+can beat three Dons any day. Eh! my lads of Devon?
+
+     “For O! it's the herrings and the good brown beef,
+       And the cider and the cream so white;
+     O! they are the making of the jolly Devon lads,
+       For to play, and eke to fight.”
+
+“Come,” said Oxenham, “come along! Who lists? who lists? who'll make his
+fortune?
+
+     “Oh, who will join, jolly mariners all?
+        And who will join, says he, O!
+     To fill his pockets with the good red goold,
+        By sailing on the sea, O!”
+
+“Who'll list?” cried the gaunt man again; “now's your time! We've got
+forty men to Plymouth now, ready to sail the minute we get back, and we
+want a dozen out of you Bideford men, and just a boy or two, and then
+we'm off and away, and make our fortunes, or go to heaven.
+
+     “Our bodies in the sea so deep,
+        Our souls in heaven to rest!
+     Where valiant seamen, one and all,
+        Hereafter shall be blest!”
+
+“Now,” said Oxenham, “you won't let the Plymouth men say that the
+Bideford men daren't follow them? North Devon against South, it is.
+Who'll join? who'll join? It is but a step of a way, after all, and
+sailing as smooth as a duck-pond as soon as you're past Cape Finisterre.
+I'll run a Clovelly herring-boat there and back for a wager of twenty
+pound, and never ship a bucketful all the way. Who'll join? Don't think
+you're buying a pig in a poke. I know the road, and Salvation Yeo, here,
+too, who was the gunner's mate, as well as I do the narrow seas, and
+better. You ask him to show you the chart of it, now, and see if he
+don't tell you over the ruttier as well as Drake himself.”
+
+On which the gaunt man pulled from under his arm a great white buffalo
+horn covered with rough etchings of land and sea, and held it up to the
+admiring ring.
+
+“See here, boys all, and behold the pictur of the place, dra'ed out
+so natural as ever was life. I got mun from a Portingal, down to the
+Azores; and he'd pricked mun out, and pricked mun out, wheresoever he'd
+sailed, and whatsoever he'd seen. Take mun in your hands now, Simon
+Evans, take mun in your hands; look mun over, and I'll warrant you'll
+know the way in five minutes so well as ever a shark in the seas.”
+
+And the horn was passed from hand to hand; while Oxenham, who saw that
+his hearers were becoming moved, called through the open window for
+a great tankard of sack, and passed that from hand to hand, after the
+horn.
+
+The school-boy, who had been devouring with eyes and ears all which
+passed, and had contrived by this time to edge himself into the inner
+ring, now stood face to face with the hero of the emerald crest, and got
+as many peeps as he could at the wonder. But when he saw the sailors,
+one after another, having turned it over a while, come forward and offer
+to join Mr. Oxenham, his soul burned within him for a nearer view of
+that wondrous horn, as magical in its effects as that of Tristrem, or
+the enchanter's in Ariosto; and when the group had somewhat broken up,
+and Oxenham was going into the tavern with his recruits, he asked boldly
+for a nearer sight of the marvel, which was granted at once.
+
+And now to his astonished gaze displayed themselves cities and harbors,
+dragons and elephants, whales which fought with sharks, plate ships
+of Spain, islands with apes and palm-trees, each with its name
+over-written, and here and there, “Here is gold;” and again, “Much gold
+and silver;” inserted most probably, as the words were in English, by
+the hands of Mr. Oxenham himself. Lingeringly and longingly the boy
+turned it round and round, and thought the owner of it more fortunate
+than Khan or Kaiser. Oh, if he could but possess that horn, what needed
+he on earth beside to make him blest!
+
+“I say, will you sell this?”
+
+“Yea, marry, or my own soul, if I can get the worth of it.”
+
+“I want the horn,--I don't want your soul; it's somewhat of a stale
+sole, for aught I know; and there are plenty of fresh ones in the bay.”
+
+And therewith, after much fumbling, he pulled out a tester (the only one
+he had), and asked if that would buy it?
+
+“That! no, nor twenty of them.”
+
+The boy thought over what a good knight-errant would do in such case,
+and then answered, “Tell you what: I'll fight you for it.”
+
+“Thank 'ee, sir!
+
+“Break the jackanapes's head for him, Yeo,” said Oxenham.
+
+“Call me jackanapes again, and I break yours, sir.” And the boy lifted
+his fist fiercely.
+
+Oxenham looked at him a minute smilingly. “Tut! tut! my man, hit one of
+your own size, if you will, and spare little folk like me!”
+
+“If I have a boy's age, sir, I have a man's fist. I shall be fifteen
+years old this month, and know how to answer any one who insults me.”
+
+“Fifteen, my young cockerel? you look liker twenty,” said Oxenham, with
+an admiring glance at the lad's broad limbs, keen blue eyes, curling
+golden locks, and round honest face. “Fifteen? If I had half-a-dozen
+such lads as you, I would make knights of them before I died. Eh, Yeo?”
+
+“He'll do,” said Yeo; “he will make a brave gamecock in a year or
+two, if he dares ruffle up so early at a tough old hen-master like the
+captain.”
+
+At which there was a general laugh, in which Oxenham joined as loudly as
+any, and then bade the lad tell him why he was so keen after the horn.
+
+“Because,” said he, looking up boldly, “I want to go to sea. I want to
+see the Indies. I want to fight the Spaniards. Though I am a gentleman's
+son, I'd a deal liever be a cabin-boy on board your ship.” And the lad,
+having hurried out his say fiercely enough, dropped his head again.
+
+“And you shall,” cried Oxenham, with a great oath; “and take a galloon,
+and dine off carbonadoed Dons. Whose son are you, my gallant fellow?”
+
+“Mr. Leigh's, of Burrough Court.”
+
+“Bless his soul! I know him as well as I do the Eddystone, and his
+kitchen too. Who sups with him to-night?”
+
+“Sir Richard Grenville.”
+
+“Dick Grenville? I did not know he was in town. Go home and tell your
+father John Oxenham will come and keep him company. There, off with you!
+I'll make all straight with the good gentleman, and you shall have your
+venture with me; and as for the horn, let him have the horn, Yeo, and
+I'll give you a noble for it.”
+
+“Not a penny, noble captain. If young master will take a poor mariner's
+gift, there it is, for the sake of his love to the calling, and
+Heaven send him luck therein.” And the good fellow, with the impulsive
+generosity of a true sailor, thrust the horn into the boy's hands, and
+walked away to escape thanks.
+
+“And now,” quoth Oxenham, “my merry men all, make up your minds what
+mannered men you be minded to be before you take your bounties. I want
+none of your rascally lurching longshore vermin, who get five pounds
+out of this captain, and ten out of that, and let him sail without them
+after all, while they are stowed away under women's mufflers, and
+in tavern cellars. If any man is of that humor, he had better to cut
+himself up, and salt himself down in a barrel for pork, before he meets
+me again; for by this light, let me catch him, be it seven years hence,
+and if I do not cut his throat upon the streets, it's a pity! But if any
+man will be true brother to me, true brother to him I'll be, come wreck
+or prize, storm or calm, salt water or fresh, victuals or none, share
+and fare alike; and here's my hand upon it, for every man and all! and
+so--
+
+     “Westward ho! with a rumbelow,
+        And hurra for the Spanish Main, O!”
+
+After which oration Mr. Oxenham swaggered into the tavern, followed by
+his new men; and the boy took his way homewards, nursing his precious
+horn, trembling between hope and fear, and blushing with maidenly
+shame, and a half-sense of wrong-doing at having revealed suddenly to a
+stranger the darling wish which he had hidden from his father and mother
+ever since he was ten years old.
+
+Now this young gentleman, Amyas Leigh, though come of as good blood as
+any in Devon, and having lived all his life in what we should even
+now call the very best society, and being (on account of the valor,
+courtesy, and truly noble qualities which he showed forth in his most
+eventful life) chosen by me as the hero and centre of this story,
+was not, saving for his good looks, by any means what would be called
+now-a-days an “interesting” youth, still less a “highly educated” one;
+for, with the exception of a little Latin, which had been driven into
+him by repeated blows, as if it had been a nail, he knew no books
+whatsoever, save his Bible, his Prayer-book, the old “Mort d'Arthur” of
+Caxton's edition, which lay in the great bay window in the hall, and the
+translation of “Las Casas' History of the West Indies,” which lay beside
+it, lately done into English under the title of “The Cruelties of the
+Spaniards.” He devoutly believed in fairies, whom he called pixies; and
+held that they changed babies, and made the mushroom rings on the downs
+to dance in. When he had warts or burns, he went to the white witch
+at Northam to charm them away; he thought that the sun moved round the
+earth, and that the moon had some kindred with a Cheshire cheese.
+He held that the swallows slept all the winter at the bottom of the
+horse-pond; talked, like Raleigh, Grenville, and other low persons,
+with a broad Devonshire accent; and was in many other respects so very
+ignorant a youth, that any pert monitor in a national school might have
+had a hearty laugh at him. Nevertheless, this ignorant young savage,
+vacant of the glorious gains of the nineteenth century, children's
+literature and science made easy, and, worst of all, of those improved
+views of English history now current among our railway essayists, which
+consist in believing all persons, male and female, before the year 1688,
+and nearly all after it, to have been either hypocrites or fools, had
+learnt certain things which he would hardly have been taught just now
+in any school in England; for his training had been that of the old
+Persians, “to speak the truth and to draw the bow,” both of which savage
+virtues he had acquired to perfection, as well as the equally savage
+ones of enduring pain cheerfully, and of believing it to be the finest
+thing in the world to be a gentleman; by which word he had been taught
+to understand the careful habit of causing needless pain to no human
+being, poor or rich, and of taking pride in giving up his own pleasure
+for the sake of those who were weaker than himself. Moreover, having
+been entrusted for the last year with the breaking of a colt, and the
+care of a cast of young hawks which his father had received from Lundy
+Isle, he had been profiting much, by the means of those coarse and
+frivolous amusements, in perseverance, thoughtfulness, and the habit
+of keeping his temper; and though he had never had a single “object
+lesson,” or been taught to “use his intellectual powers,” he knew the
+names and ways of every bird, and fish, and fly, and could read, as
+cunningly as the oldest sailor, the meaning of every drift of cloud
+which crossed the heavens. Lastly, he had been for some time past, on
+account of his extraordinary size and strength, undisputed cock of the
+school, and the most terrible fighter among all Bideford boys; in which
+brutal habit he took much delight, and contrived, strange as it may
+seem, to extract from it good, not only for himself but for others,
+doing justice among his school-fellows with a heavy hand, and succoring
+the oppressed and afflicted; so that he was the terror of all the
+sailor-lads, and the pride and stay of all the town's boys and girls,
+and hardly considered that he had done his duty in his calling if he
+went home without beating a big lad for bullying a little one. For the
+rest, he never thought about thinking, or felt about feeling; and had
+no ambition whatsoever beyond pleasing his father and mother, getting by
+honest means the maximum of “red quarrenders” and mazard cherries,
+and going to sea when he was big enough. Neither was he what would be
+now-a-days called by many a pious child; for though he said his Creed
+and Lord's Prayer night and morning, and went to the service at the
+church every forenoon, and read the day's Psalms with his mother every
+evening, and had learnt from her and from his father (as he proved well
+in after life) that it was infinitely noble to do right and infinitely
+base to do wrong, yet (the age of children's religious books not having
+yet dawned on the world) he knew nothing more of theology, or of his
+own soul, than is contained in the Church Catechism. It is a question,
+however, on the whole, whether, though grossly ignorant (according to
+our modern notions) in science and religion, he was altogether untrained
+in manhood, virtue, and godliness; and whether the barbaric narrowness
+of his information was not somewhat counterbalanced both in him and in
+the rest of his generation by the depth, and breadth, and healthiness of
+his education.
+
+So let us watch him up the hill as he goes hugging his horn, to tell all
+that has passed to his mother, from whom he had never hidden anything
+in his life, save only that sea-fever; and that only because he foreknew
+that it would give her pain; and because, moreover, being a prudent and
+sensible lad, he knew that he was not yet old enough to go, and that, as
+he expressed it to her that afternoon, “there was no use hollaing till
+he was out of the wood.”
+
+So he goes up between the rich lane-banks, heavy with drooping ferns and
+honeysuckle; out upon the windy down toward the old Court, nestled
+amid its ring of wind-clipt oaks; through the gray gateway into the
+homeclose; and then he pauses a moment to look around; first at the wide
+bay to the westward, with its southern wall of purple cliffs; then at
+the dim Isle of Lundy far away at sea; then at the cliffs and downs of
+Morte and Braunton, right in front of him; then at the vast yellow sheet
+of rolling sand-hill, and green alluvial plain dotted with red cattle,
+at his feet, through which the silver estuary winds onward toward the
+sea. Beneath him, on his right, the Torridge, like a land-locked lake,
+sleeps broad and bright between the old park of Tapeley and the charmed
+rock of the Hubbastone, where, seven hundred years ago, the Norse rovers
+landed to lay siege to Kenwith Castle, a mile away on his left hand; and
+not three fields away, are the old stones of “The Bloody Corner,”
+ where the retreating Danes, cut off from their ships, made their last
+fruitless stand against the Saxon sheriff and the valiant men of Devon.
+Within that charmed rock, so Torridge boatmen tell, sleeps now the old
+Norse Viking in his leaden coffin, with all his fairy treasure and his
+crown of gold; and as the boy looks at the spot, he fancies, and almost
+hopes, that the day may come when he shall have to do his duty against
+the invader as boldly as the men of Devon did then. And past him, far
+below, upon the soft southeastern breeze, the stately ships go sliding
+out to sea. When shall he sail in them, and see the wonders of the deep?
+And as he stands there with beating heart and kindling eye, the cool
+breeze whistling through his long fair curls, he is a symbol, though he
+knows it not, of brave young England longing to wing its way out of its
+island prison, to discover and to traffic, to colonize and to civilize,
+until no wind can sweep the earth which does not bear the echoes of an
+English voice. Patience, young Amyas! Thou too shalt forth, and westward
+ho, beyond thy wildest dreams; and see brave sights, and do brave deeds,
+which no man has since the foundation of the world. Thou too shalt face
+invaders stronger and more cruel far than Dane or Norman, and bear thy
+part in that great Titan strife before the renown of which the name of
+Salamis shall fade away!
+
+Mr. Oxenham came that evening to supper as he had promised: but as
+people supped in those days in much the same manner as they do now, we
+may drop the thread of the story for a few hours, and take it up again
+after supper is over.
+
+“Come now, Dick Grenville, do thou talk the good man round, and I'll
+warrant myself to talk round the good wife.”
+
+The personage whom Oxenham addressed thus familiarly answered by a
+somewhat sarcastic smile, and, “Mr. Oxenham gives Dick Grenville” (with
+just enough emphasis on the “Mr.” and the “Dick,” to hint that a liberty
+had been taken with him) “overmuch credit with the men. Mr. Oxenham's
+credit with fair ladies, none can doubt. Friend Leigh, is Heard's great
+ship home yet from the Straits?”
+
+The speaker, known well in those days as Sir Richard Grenville,
+Granville, Greenvil, Greenfield, with two or three other variations, was
+one of those truly heroical personages whom Providence, fitting always
+the men to their age and their work, had sent upon the earth whereof it
+takes right good care, not in England only, but in Spain and Italy, in
+Germany and the Netherlands, and wherever, in short, great men and great
+deeds were needed to lift the mediaeval world into the modern.
+
+And, among all the heroic faces which the painters of that age have
+preserved, none, perhaps, hardly excepting Shakespeare's or Spenser's,
+Alva's or Farina's, is more heroic than that of Richard Grenville, as it
+stands in Prince's “Worthies of Devon;” of a Spanish type, perhaps
+(or more truly speaking, a Cornish), rather than an English, with just
+enough of the British element in it to give delicacy to its massiveness.
+The forehead and whole brain are of extraordinary loftiness, and
+perfectly upright; the nose long, aquiline, and delicately pointed;
+the mouth fringed with a short silky beard, small and ripe, yet firm
+as granite, with just pout enough of the lower lip to give hint of that
+capacity of noble indignation which lay hid under its usual courtly calm
+and sweetness; if there be a defect in the face, it is that the eyes are
+somewhat small, and close together, and the eyebrows, though delicately
+arched, and, without a trace of peevishness, too closely pressed
+down upon them, the complexion is dark, the figure tall and graceful;
+altogether the likeness of a wise and gallant gentleman, lovely to all
+good men, awful to all bad men; in whose presence none dare say or do a
+mean or a ribald thing; whom brave men left, feeling themselves nerved
+to do their duty better, while cowards slipped away, as bats and
+owls before the sun. So he lived and moved, whether in the Court of
+Elizabeth, giving his counsel among the wisest; or in the streets of
+Bideford, capped alike by squire and merchant, shopkeeper and sailor; or
+riding along the moorland roads between his houses of Stow and Bideford,
+while every woman ran out to her door to look at the great Sir Richard,
+the pride of North Devon; or, sitting there in the low mullioned window
+at Burrough, with his cup of malmsey before him, and the lute to which
+he had just been singing laid across his knees, while the red western
+sun streamed in upon his high, bland forehead, and soft curling locks;
+ever the same steadfast, God-fearing, chivalrous man, conscious (as far
+as a soul so healthy could be conscious) of the pride of beauty, and
+strength, and valor, and wisdom, and a race and name which claimed
+direct descent from the grandfather of the Conqueror, and was tracked
+down the centuries by valiant deeds and noble benefits to his native
+shire, himself the noblest of his race. Men said that he was proud; but
+he could not look round him without having something to be proud of;
+that he was stern and harsh to his sailors: but it was only when he saw
+in them any taint of cowardice or falsehood; that he was subject, at
+moments, to such fearful fits of rage, that he had been seen to snatch
+the glasses from the table, grind them to pieces in his teeth, and
+swallow them: but that was only when his indignation had been aroused by
+some tale of cruelty or oppression, and, above all, by those West Indian
+devilries of the Spaniards, whom he regarded (and in those days rightly
+enough) as the enemies of God and man. Of this last fact Oxenham was
+well aware, and therefore felt somewhat puzzled and nettled, when, after
+having asked Mr. Leigh's leave to take young Amyas with him and set
+forth in glowing colors the purpose of his voyage, he found Sir Richard
+utterly unwilling to help him with his suit.
+
+“Heyday, Sir Richard! You are not surely gone over to the side of those
+canting fellows (Spanish Jesuits in disguise, every one of them, they
+are), who pretended to turn up their noses at Franky Drake, as a pirate,
+and be hanged to them?”
+
+“My friend Oxenham,” answered he, in the sententious and measured style
+of the day, “I have always held, as you should know by this, that Mr.
+Drake's booty, as well as my good friend Captain Hawkins's, is lawful
+prize, as being taken from the Spaniard, who is not only hostis humani
+generis, but has no right to the same, having robbed it violently, by
+torture and extreme iniquity, from the poor Indian, whom God avenge, as
+He surely will.”
+
+“Amen,” said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+“I say Amen, too,” quoth Oxenham, “especially if it please Him to avenge
+them by English hands.”
+
+“And I also,” went on Sir Richard; “for the rightful owners of the said
+goods being either miserably dead, or incapable, by reason of their
+servitude, of ever recovering any share thereof, the treasure, falsely
+called Spanish, cannot be better bestowed than in building up the state
+of England against them, our natural enemies; and thereby, in building
+up the weal of the Reformed Churches throughout the world, and the
+liberties of all nations, against a tyranny more foul and rapacious than
+that of Nero or Caligula; which, if it be not the cause of God, I, for
+one, know not what God's cause is!” And, as he warmed in his speech, his
+eyes flashed very fire.
+
+“Hark now!” said Oxenham, “who can speak more boldly than he? and yet he
+will not help this lad to so noble an adventure.”
+
+“You have asked his father and mother; what is their answer?”
+
+“Mine is this,” said Mr. Leigh; “if it be God's will that my boy should
+become, hereafter, such a mariner as Sir Richard Grenville, let him go,
+and God be with him; but let him first bide here at home and be
+trained, if God give me grace, to become such a gentleman as Sir Richard
+Grenville.”
+
+Sir Richard bowed low, and Mrs. Leigh catching up the last word--
+
+“There, Mr. Oxenham, you cannot gainsay that, unless you will be
+discourteous to his worship. And for me--though it be a weak woman's
+reason, yet it is a mother's: he is my only child. His elder brother is
+far away. God only knows whether I shall see him again; and what are all
+reports of his virtues and his learning to me, compared to that sweet
+presence which I daily miss? Ah! Mr. Oxenham, my beautiful Joseph is
+gone; and though he be lord of Pharaoh's household, yet he is far away
+in Egypt; and you will take Benjamm also! Ah! Mr. Oxenham, you have no
+child, or you would not ask for mine!”
+
+“And how do you know that, my sweet madam!” said the adventurer, turning
+first deadly pale, and then glowing red. Her last words had touched him
+to the quick in some unexpected place; and rising, he courteously laid
+her hand to his lips, and said--“I say no more. Farewell, sweet madam,
+and God send all men such wives as you.”
+
+“And all wives,” said she, smiling, “such husbands as mine.”
+
+“Nay, I will not say that,” answered he, with a half sneer--and then,
+“Farewell, friend Leigh--farewell, gallant Dick Grenville. God send I
+see thee Lord High Admiral when I come home. And yet, why should I come
+home? Will you pray for poor Jack, gentles?”
+
+“Tut, tut, man! good words,” said Leigh; “let us drink to our merry
+meeting before you go.” And rising, and putting the tankard of malmsey
+to his lips, he passed it to Sir Richard, who rose, and saying, “To the
+fortune of a bold mariner and a gallant gentleman,” drank, and put the
+cup into Oxenham's hand.
+
+The adventurer's face was flushed, and his eye wild. Whether from the
+liquor he had drunk during the day, or whether from Mrs. Leigh's last
+speech, he had not been himself for a few minutes. He lifted the cup,
+and was in act to pledge them, when he suddenly dropped it on the table,
+and pointed, staring and trembling, up and down, and round the room, as
+if following some fluttering object.
+
+“There! Do you see it? The bird!--the bird with the white breast!”
+
+Each looked at the other; but Leigh, who was a quick-witted man and an
+old courtier, forced a laugh instantly, and cried--“Nonsense, brave Jack
+Oxenham! Leave white birds for men who will show the white feather. Mrs.
+Leigh waits to pledge you.”
+
+Oxenham recovered himself in a moment, pledged them all round, drinking
+deep and fiercely; and after hearty farewells, departed, never hinting
+again at his strange exclamation.
+
+After he was gone, and while Leigh was attending him to the door, Mrs.
+Leigh and Grenville kept a few minutes' dead silence. At last--“God help
+him!” said she.
+
+“Amen!” said Grenville, “for he never needed it more. But, indeed,
+madam, I put no faith in such omens.”
+
+“But, Sir Richard, that bird has been seen for generations before the
+death of any of his family. I know those who were at South Tawton when
+his mother died, and his brother also; and they both saw it. God help
+him! for, after all, he is a proper man.”
+
+“So many a lady has thought before now, Mrs. Leigh, and well for him if
+they had not. But, indeed, I make no account of omens. When God is ready
+for each man, then he must go; and when can he go better?”
+
+“But,” said Mr. Leigh, who entered, “I have seen, and especially when
+I was in Italy, omens and prophecies before now beget their own
+fulfilment, by driving men into recklessness, and making them run
+headlong upon that very ruin which, as they fancied, was running upon
+them.”
+
+“And which,” said Sir Richard, “they might have avoided, if, instead of
+trusting in I know not what dumb and dark destiny, they had trusted in
+the living God, by faith in whom men may remove mountains, and quench
+the fire, and put to flight the armies of the alien. I too know, and
+know not how I know, that I shall never die in my bed.”
+
+“God forfend!” cried Mrs. Leigh.
+
+“And why, fair madam, if I die doing my duty to my God and my queen? The
+thought never moves me: nay, to tell the truth, I pray often enough that
+I may be spared the miseries of imbecile old age, and that end which
+the old Northmen rightly called 'a cow's death' rather than a man's. But
+enough of this. Mr. Leigh, you have done wisely to-night. Poor Oxenham
+does not go on his voyage with a single eye. I have talked about him
+with Drake and Hawkins; and I guess why Mrs. Leigh touched him so home
+when she told him that he had no child.”
+
+“Has he one, then, in the West Indies?” cried the good lady.
+
+“God knows; and God grant we may not hear of shame and sorrow fallen
+upon an ancient and honorable house of Devon. My brother Stukely is woe
+enough to North Devon for this generation.”
+
+“Poor braggadocio!” said Mr. Leigh; “and yet not altogether that too,
+for he can fight at least.”
+
+“So can every mastiff and boar, much more an Englishman. And now come
+hither to me, my adventurous godson, and don't look in such doleful
+dumps. I hear you have broken all the sailor-boys' heads already.”
+
+“Nearly all,” said young Amyas, with due modesty.. “But am I not to go
+to sea?”
+
+“All things in their time, my boy, and God forbid that either I or your
+worthy parents should keep you from that noble calling which is the
+safeguard of this England and her queen. But you do not wish to live and
+die the master of a trawler?”
+
+“I should like to be a brave adventurer, like Mr. Oxenham.”
+
+“God grant you become a braver man than he! for, as I think, to be bold
+against the enemy is common to the brutes; but the prerogative of a man
+is to be bold against himself.”
+
+“How, sir?”
+
+“To conquer our own fancies, Amyas, and our own lusts, and our ambition,
+in the sacred name of duty; this it is to be truly brave, and truly
+strong; for he who cannot rule himself, how can he rule his crew or his
+fortunes? Come, now, I will make you a promise. If you will bide quietly
+at home, and learn from your father and mother all which befits a
+gentleman and a Christian, as well as a seaman, the day shall come when
+you shall sail with Richard Grenville himself, or with better men than
+he, on a nobler errand than gold-hunting on the Spanish Main.”
+
+“O my boy, my boy!” said Mrs. Leigh, “hear what the good Sir Richard
+promises you. Many an earl's son would be glad to be in your place.”
+
+“And many an earl's son will be glad to be in his place a score years
+hence, if he will but learn what I know you two can teach him. And now,
+Amyas, my lad, I will tell you for a warning the history of that Sir
+Thomas Stukely of whom I spoke just now, and who was, as all men know,
+a gallant and courtly knight, of an ancient and worshipful family in
+Ilfracombe, well practised in the wars, and well beloved at first by our
+incomparable queen, the friend of all true virtue, as I trust she will
+be of yours some day; who wanted but one step to greatness, and that
+was this, that in his hurry to rule all the world, he forgot to rule
+himself. At first, he wasted his estate in show and luxury, always
+intending to be famous, and destroying his own fame all the while by
+his vainglory and haste. Then, to retrieve his losses, he hit upon the
+peopling of Florida, which thou and I will see done some day, by God's
+blessing; for I and some good friends of mine have an errand there as
+well as he. But he did not go about it as a loyal man, to advance the
+honor of his queen, but his own honor only, dreaming that he too should
+be a king; and was not ashamed to tell her majesty that he had rather be
+sovereign of a molehill than the highest subject of an emperor.”
+
+“They say,” said Mr. Leigh, “that he told her plainly he should be a
+prince before he died, and that she gave him one of her pretty quips in
+return.”
+
+“I don't know that her majesty had the best of it. A fool is many times
+too strong for a wise man, by virtue of his thick hide. For when she
+said that she hoped she should hear from him in his new principality,
+'Yes, sooth,' says he, graciously enough. 'And in what style?' asks she.
+'To our dear sister,' says Stukely: to which her clemency had nothing to
+reply, but turned away, as Mr. Burleigh told me, laughing.”
+
+“Alas for him!” said gentle Mrs. Leigh. “Such self-conceit--and Heaven
+knows we have the root of it in ourselves also--is the very daughter of
+self-will, and of that loud crying out about I, and me, and mine, which
+is the very bird-call for all devils, and the broad road which leads to
+death.”
+
+“It will lead him to his,” said Sir Richard; “God grant it be not upon
+Tower-hill! for since that Florida plot, and after that his hopes of
+Irish preferment came to naught, he who could not help himself by fair
+means has taken to foul ones, and gone over to Italy to the Pope, whose
+infallibility has not been proof against Stukely's wit; for he was soon
+his Holiness's closet counsellor, and, they say, his bosom friend; and
+made him give credit to his boasts that, with three thousand soldiers he
+would beat the English out of Ireland, and make the Pope's son king of
+it.”
+
+“Ay, but,” said Mr. Leigh, “I suppose the Italians have the same fetch
+now as they had when I was there, to explain such ugly cases; namely,
+that the Pope is infallible only in doctrine, and quoad Pope; while
+quoad hominem, he is even as others, or indeed, in general, a deal
+worse, so that the office, and not the man, may be glorified thereby.
+But where is Stukely now?”
+
+“At Rome when last I heard of him, ruffling it up and down the Vatican
+as Baron Ross, Viscount Murrough, Earl Wexford, Marquis Leinster, and
+a title or two more, which have cost the Pope little, seeing that
+they never were his to give; and plotting, they say, some hare-brained
+expedition against Ireland by the help of the Spanish king, which must
+end in nothing but his shame and ruin. And now, my sweet hosts, I must
+call for serving-boy and lantern, and home to my bed in Bideford.”
+
+And so Amyas Leigh went back to school, and Mr. Oxenham went his way to
+Plymouth again, and sailed for the Spanish Main.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE FIRST TIME
+
+     “Si taceant homines, facient te sidera notum,
+         Sol nescit comitis immemor esse sui.”
+
+                             Old Epigram on Drake.
+
+Five years are past and gone. It is nine of the clock on a still, bright
+November morning; but the bells of Bideford church are still ringing for
+the daily service two hours after the usual time; and instead of going
+soberly according to wont, cannot help breaking forth every five minutes
+into a jocund peal, and tumbling head over heels in ecstasies of joy.
+Bideford streets are a very flower-garden of all the colors, swarming
+with seamen and burghers, and burghers' wives and daughters, all
+in their holiday attire. Garlands are hung across the streets, and
+tapestries from every window. The ships in the pool are dressed in all
+their flags, and give tumultuous vent to their feelings by peals of
+ordnance of every size. Every stable is crammed with horses; and
+Sir Richard Grenville's house is like a very tavern, with eating
+and drinking, and unsaddling, and running to and fro of grooms and
+serving-men. Along the little churchyard, packed full with women,
+streams all the gentle blood of North Devon,--tall and stately men, and
+fair ladies, worthy of the days when the gentry of England were by due
+right the leaders of the people, by personal prowess and beauty, as well
+as by intellect and education. And first, there is my lady Countess of
+Bath, whom Sir Richard Grenville is escorting, cap in hand (for her good
+Earl Bourchier is in London with the queen); and there are Bassets
+from beautiful Umberleigh, and Carys from more beautiful Clovelly, and
+Fortescues of Wear, and Fortescues of Buckland, and Fortescues from all
+quarters, and Coles from Slade, and Stukelys from Affton, and St. Legers
+from Annery, and Coffins from Portledge, and even Coplestones from
+Eggesford, thirty miles away: and last, but not least (for almost all
+stop to give them place), Sir John Chichester of Ralegh, followed
+in single file, after the good old patriarchal fashion, by his eight
+daughters, and three of his five famous sons (one, to avenge his
+murdered brother, is fighting valiantly in Ireland, hereafter to rule
+there wisely also, as Lord Deputy and Baron of Belfast); and he meets
+at the gate his cousin of Arlington, and behind him a train of four
+daughters and nineteen sons, the last of whom has not yet passed the
+town-hall, while the first is at the Lychgate, who, laughing, make way
+for the elder though shorter branch of that most fruitful tree; and so
+on into the church, where all are placed according to their degrees, or
+at least as near as may be, not without a few sour looks, and shovings,
+and whisperings, from one high-born matron and another; till the
+churchwardens and sidesmen, who never had before so goodly a company to
+arrange, have bustled themselves hot, and red, and frantic, and end by
+imploring abjectly the help of the great Sir Richard himself to tell
+them who everybody is, and which is the elder branch, and which is the
+younger, and who carries eight quarterings in their arms, and who only
+four, and so prevent their setting at deadly feud half the fine
+ladies of North Devon; for the old men are all safe packed away in the
+corporation pews, and the young ones care only to get a place whence
+they may eye the ladies. And at last there is a silence, and a looking
+toward the door, and then distant music, flutes and hautboys, drums and
+trumpets, which come braying, and screaming, and thundering merrily
+up to the very church doors, and then cease; and the churchwardens
+and sidesmen bustle down to the entrance, rods in hand, and there is a
+general whisper and rustle, not without glad tears and blessings from
+many a woman, and from some men also, as the wonder of the day enters,
+and the rector begins, not the morning service, but the good old
+thanksgiving after a victory at sea.
+
+And what is it which has thus sent old Bideford wild with that “goodly
+joy and pious mirth,” of which we now only retain traditions in
+our translation of the Psalms? Why are all eyes fixed, with greedy
+admiration, on those four weather-beaten mariners, decked out with knots
+and ribbons by loving hands; and yet more on that gigantic figure who
+walks before them, a beardless boy, and yet with the frame and stature
+of a Hercules, towering, like Saul of old, a head and shoulders above
+all the congregation, with his golden locks flowing down over his
+shoulders? And why, as the five go instinctively up to the altar, and
+there fall on their knees before the rails, are all eyes turned to the
+pew where Mrs. Leigh of Burrough has hid her face between her hands,
+and her hood rustles and shakes to her joyful sobs? Because there was
+fellow-feeling of old in merry England, in county and in town; and
+these are Devon men, and men of Bideford, whose names are Amyas Leigh of
+Burrough, John Staveley, Michael Heard, and Jonas Marshall of Bideford,
+and Thomas Braund of Clovelly: and they, the first of all English
+mariners, have sailed round the world with Francis Drake, and are come
+hither to give God thanks.
+
+It is a long story. To explain how it happened we must go back for a
+page or two, almost to the point from whence we started in the last
+chapter.
+
+For somewhat more than a twelvemonth after Mr. Oxenham's departure,
+young Amyas had gone on quietly enough, according to promise, with the
+exception of certain occasional outbursts of fierceness common to all
+young male animals, and especially to boys of any strength of character.
+His scholarship, indeed, progressed no better than before; but his home
+education went on healthily enough; and he was fast becoming, young as
+he was, a right good archer, and rider, and swordsman (after the old
+school of buckler practice), when his father, having gone down on
+business to the Exeter Assizes, caught (as was too common in those days)
+the gaol-fever from the prisoners; sickened in the very court; and died
+within a week.
+
+And now Mrs. Leigh was left to God and her own soul, with this young
+lion-cub in leash, to tame and train for this life and the life to
+come. She had loved her husband fervently and holily. He had been often
+peevish, often melancholy; for he was a disappointed man, with an estate
+impoverished by his father's folly, and his own youthful ambition, which
+had led him up to Court, and made him waste his heart and his purse in
+following a vain shadow. He was one of those men, moreover, who possess
+almost every gift except the gift of the power to use them; and though
+a scholar, a courtier, and a soldier, he had found himself, when he was
+past forty, without settled employment or aim in life, by reason of
+a certain shyness, pride, or delicate honor (call it which you will),
+which had always kept him from playing a winning game in that very world
+after whose prizes he hankered to the last, and on which he revenged
+himself by continual grumbling. At last, by his good luck, he met with
+a fair young Miss Foljambe, of Derbyshire, then about Queen Elizabeth's
+Court, who was as tired as he of the sins of the world, though she had
+seen less of them; and the two contrived to please each other so well,
+that though the queen grumbled a little, as usual, at the lady for
+marrying, and at the gentleman for adoring any one but her royal self,
+they got leave to vanish from the little Babylon at Whitehall, and
+settle in peace at Burrough. In her he found a treasure, and he knew
+what he had found.
+
+Mrs. Leigh was, and had been from her youth, one of those noble old
+English churchwomen, without superstition, and without severity, who
+are among the fairest features of that heroic time. There was a certain
+melancholy about her, nevertheless; for the recollections of her
+childhood carried her back to times when it was an awful thing to be a
+Protestant. She could remember among them, five-and-twenty years ago,
+the burning of poor blind Joan Waste at Derby, and of Mistress Joyce
+Lewis, too, like herself, a lady born; and sometimes even now, in her
+nightly dreams, rang in her ears her mother's bitter cries to God,
+either to spare her that fiery torment, or to give her strength to bear
+it, as she whom she loved had borne it before her. For her mother, who
+was of a good family in Yorkshire, had been one of Queen Catherine's
+bedchamber women, and the bosom friend and disciple of Anne Askew. And
+she had sat in Smithfield, with blood curdled by horror, to see the
+hapless Court beauty, a month before the paragon of Henry's Court,
+carried in a chair (so crippled was she by the rack) to her fiery doom
+at the stake, beside her fellow-courtier, Mr. Lascelles, while the very
+heavens seemed to the shuddering mob around to speak their wrath and
+grief in solemn thunder peals, and heavy drops which hissed upon the
+crackling pile.
+
+Therefore a sadness hung upon her all her life, and deepened in the days
+of Queen Mary, when, as a notorious Protestant and heretic, she had had
+to hide for her life among the hills and caverns of the Peak, and was
+only saved, by the love which her husband's tenants bore her, and by his
+bold declaration that, good Catholic as he was, he would run through
+the body any constable, justice, or priest, yea, bishop or cardinal, who
+dared to serve the queen's warrant upon his wife.
+
+So she escaped: but, as I said, a sadness hung upon her all her life;
+and the skirt of that dark mantle fell upon the young girl who had been
+the partner of her wanderings and hidings among the lonely hills; and
+who, after she was married, gave herself utterly up to God.
+
+And yet in giving herself to God, Mrs. Leigh gave herself to her
+husband, her children, and the poor of Northam Town, and was none the
+less welcome to the Grenvilles, and Fortescues, and Chichesters, and
+all the gentle families round, who honored her husband's talents, and
+enjoyed his wit. She accustomed herself to austerities, which often
+called forth the kindly rebukes of her husband; and yet she did so
+without one superstitious thought of appeasing the fancied wrath of God,
+or of giving Him pleasure (base thought) by any pain of hers; for her
+spirit had been trained in the freest and loftiest doctrines of Luther's
+school; and that little mystic “Alt-Deutsch Theologie” (to which the
+great Reformer said that he owed more than to any book, save the Bible,
+and St. Augustine) was her counsellor and comforter by day and night.
+
+And now, at little past forty, she was left a widow: lovely still
+in face and figure; and still more lovely from the divine calm which
+brooded, like the dove of peace and the Holy Spirit of God (which indeed
+it was), over every look, and word, and gesture; a sweetness which had
+been ripened by storm, as well as by sunshine; which this world had
+not given, and could not take away. No wonder that Sir Richard and Lady
+Grenville loved her; no wonder that her children worshipped her; no
+wonder that the young Amyas, when the first burst of grief was over, and
+he knew again where he stood, felt that a new life had begun for him;
+that his mother was no more to think and act for him only, but that he
+must think and act for his mother. And so it was, that on the very day
+after his father's funeral, when school-hours were over, instead of
+coming straight home, he walked boldly into Sir Richard Grenville's
+house, and asked to see his godfather.
+
+“You must be my father now, sir,” said he, firmly.
+
+And Sir Richard looked at the boy's broad strong face, and swore a great
+and holy oath, like Glasgerion's, “by oak, and ash, and thorn,” that
+he would be a father to him, and a brother to his mother, for Christ's
+sake. And Lady Grenville took the boy by the hand, and walked home
+with him to Burrough; and there the two fair women fell on each other's
+necks, and wept together; the one for the loss which had been, the
+other, as by a prophetic instinct, for the like loss which was to come
+to her also. For the sweet St. Leger knew well that her husband's fiery
+spirit would never leave his body on a peaceful bed; but that death (as
+he prayed almost nightly that it might) would find him sword in
+hand, upon the field of duty and of fame. And there those two vowed
+everlasting sisterhood, and kept their vow; and after that all things
+went on at Burrough as before; and Amyas rode, and shot, and boxed, and
+wandered on the quay at Sir Richard's side; for Mrs. Leigh was too
+wise a woman to alter one tittle of the training which her husband had
+thought best for his younger boy. It was enough that her elder son had
+of his own accord taken to that form of life in which she in her secret
+heart would fain have moulded both her children. For Frank, God's
+wedding gift to that pure love of hers, had won himself honor at home
+and abroad; first at the school at Bideford; then at Exeter College,
+where he had become a friend of Sir Philip Sidney's, and many another
+young man of rank and promise; and next, in the summer of 1572, on his
+way to the University of Heidelberg, he had gone to Paris, with (luckily
+for him) letters of recommendation to Walsingham, at the English
+Embassy: by which letters he not only fell in a second time with Philip
+Sidney, but saved his own life (as Sidney did his) in the Massacre of
+St. Bartholomew's Day. At Heidelberg he had stayed two years, winning
+fresh honor from all who knew him, and resisting all Sidney's entreaties
+to follow him into Italy. For, scorning to be a burden to his parents,
+he had become at Heidelberg tutor to two young German princes, whom,
+after living with them at their father's house for a year or more, he at
+last, to his own great delight, took with him down to Padua, “to
+perfect them,” as he wrote home, “according to his insufficiency, in all
+princely studies.” Sidney was now returned to England; but Frank found
+friends enough without him, such letters of recommendation and diplomas
+did he carry from I know not how many princes, magnificos, and learned
+doctors, who had fallen in love with the learning, modesty, and virtue
+of the fair young Englishman. And ere Frank returned to Germany he had
+satiated his soul with all the wonders of that wondrous land. He had
+talked over the art of sonneteering with Tasso, the art of history
+with Sarpi; he had listened, between awe and incredulity, to the daring
+theories of Galileo; he had taken his pupils to Venice, that their
+portraits might be painted by Paul Veronese; he had seen the palaces of
+Palladio, and the merchant princes on the Rialto, and the argosies of
+Ragusa, and all the wonders of that meeting-point of east and west; he
+had watched Tintoretto's mighty hand “hurling tempestuous glories o'er
+the scene;” and even, by dint of private intercession in high places,
+had been admitted to that sacred room where, with long silver beard and
+undimmed eye, amid a pantheon of his own creations, the ancient Titian,
+patriarch of art, still lingered upon earth, and told old tales of the
+Bellinis, and Raffaelle, and Michael Angelo, and the building of St.
+Peter's, and the fire at Venice, and the sack of Rome, and of kings and
+warriors, statesmen and poets, long since gone to their account, and
+showed the sacred brush which Francis the First had stooped to pick up
+for him. And (license forbidden to Sidney by his friend Languet) he had
+been to Rome, and seen (much to the scandal of good Protestants at home)
+that “right good fellow,” as Sidney calls him, who had not yet eaten
+himself to death, the Pope for the time being. And he had seen the
+frescos of the Vatican, and heard Palestrina preside as chapel-master
+over the performance of his own music beneath the dome of St. Peter's,
+and fallen half in love with those luscious strains, till he was
+awakened from his dream by the recollection that beneath that same dome
+had gone up thanksgivings to the God of heaven for those blood-stained
+streets, and shrieking women, and heaps of insulted corpses, which he
+had beheld in Paris on the night of St. Bartholomew. At last, a few
+months before his father died, he had taken back his pupils to their
+home in Germany, from whence he was dismissed, as he wrote, with rich
+gifts; and then Mrs. Leigh's heart beat high, at the thought that the
+wanderer would return: but, alas! within a month after his father's
+death, came a long letter from Frank, describing the Alps, and the
+valleys of the Waldenses (with whose Barbes he had had much talk about
+the late horrible persecutions), and setting forth how at Padua he had
+made the acquaintance of that illustrious scholar and light of the age,
+Stephanus Parmenius (commonly called from his native place, Budaeus),
+who had visited Geneva with him, and heard the disputations of their
+most learned doctors, which both he and Budaeus disliked for their hard
+judgments both of God and man, as much as they admired them for their
+subtlety, being themselves, as became Italian students, Platonists of
+the school of Ficinus and Picus Mirandolensis. So wrote Master Frank,
+in a long sententious letter, full of Latin quotations: but the letter
+never reached the eyes of him for whose delight it had been penned: and
+the widow had to weep over it alone, and to weep more bitterly than ever
+at the conclusion, in which, with many excuses, Frank said that he had,
+at the special entreaty of the said Budaeus, set out with him down the
+Danube stream to Buda, that he might, before finishing his travels,
+make experience of that learning for which the Hungarians were famous
+throughout Europe. And after that, though he wrote again and again to
+the father whom he fancied living, no letter in return reached him from
+home for nearly two years; till, fearing some mishap, he hurried back to
+England, to find his mother a widow, and his brother Amyas gone to the
+South Seas with Captain Drake of Plymouth. And yet, even then, after
+years of absence, he was not allowed to remain at home. For Sir Richard,
+to whom idleness was a thing horrible and unrighteous, would have him up
+and doing again before six months were over, and sent him off to Court
+to Lord Hunsdon.
+
+There, being as delicately beautiful as his brother was huge and strong,
+he had speedily, by Carew's interest and that of Sidney and his Uncle
+Leicester, found entrance into some office in the queen's household; and
+he was now basking in the full sunshine of Court favor, and fair ladies'
+eyes, and all the chivalries and euphuisms of Gloriana's fairyland, and
+the fast friendship of that bright meteor Sidney, who had returned with
+honor in 1577, from the delicate mission on behalf of the German and
+Belgian Protestants, on which he had been sent to the Court of Vienna,
+under color of condoling with the new Emperor Rodolph on his father's
+death. Frank found him when he himself came to Court in 1579 as lovely
+and loving as ever; and, at the early age of twenty-five, acknowledged
+as one of the most remarkable men of Europe, the patron of all men of
+letters, the counsellor of warriors and statesmen, and the confidant and
+advocate of William of Orange, Languet, Plessis du Mornay, and all the
+Protestant leaders on the Continent; and found, moreover, that the son
+of the poor Devon squire was as welcome as ever to the friendship of
+nature's and fortune's most favored, yet most unspoilt, minion.
+
+Poor Mrs. Leigh, as one who had long since learned to have no self,
+and to live not only for her children but in them, submitted without a
+murmur, and only said, smiling, to her stern friend--“You took away my
+mastiff-pup, and now you must needs have my fair greyhound also.”
+
+“Would you have your fair greyhound, dear lady, grow up a tall and
+true Cotswold dog, that can pull down a stag of ten, or one of those
+smooth-skinned poppets which the Florence ladies lead about with a ring
+of bells round its neck, and a flannel farthingale over its loins?”
+
+Mrs. Leigh submitted; and was rewarded after a few months by a letter,
+sent through Sir Richard, from none other than Gloriana herself, in
+which she thanked her for “the loan of that most delicate and flawless
+crystal, the soul of her excellent son,” with more praises of him than I
+have room to insert, and finished by exalting the poor mother above the
+famed Cornelia; “for those sons, whom she called her jewels, she
+only showed, yet kept them to herself: but you, madam, having two as
+precious, I doubt not, as were ever that Roman dame's, have, beyond her
+courage, lent them both to your country and to your queen, who therein
+holds herself indebted to you for that which, if God give her grace, she
+will repay as becomes both her and you.” Which epistle the sweet mother
+bedewed with holy tears, and laid by in the cedar-box which held her
+household gods, by the side of Frank's innumerable diplomas and letters
+of recommendation, the Latin whereof she was always spelling over
+(although she understood not a word of it), in hopes of finding, here
+and there, that precious excellentissimus Noster Franciscus Leighius
+Anglus, which was all in all to the mother's heart.
+
+But why did Amyas go to the South Seas? Amyas went to the South Seas for
+two causes, each of which has, before now, sent many a lad to far worse
+places: first, because of an old schoolmaster; secondly, because of a
+young beauty. I will take them in order and explain.
+
+Vindex Brimblecombe, whilom servitor of Exeter College, Oxford (commonly
+called Sir Vindex, after the fashion of the times), was, in those days,
+master of the grammar-school of Bideford. He was, at root, a godly and
+kind-hearted pedant enough; but, like most schoolmasters in the old
+flogging days, had his heart pretty well hardened by long, baneful
+license to inflict pain at will on those weaker than himself; a power
+healthful enough for the victim (for, doubtless, flogging is the best of
+all punishments, being not only the shortest, but also a mere bodily and
+animal, and not, like most of our new-fangled “humane” punishments, a
+spiritual and fiendish torture), but for the executioner pretty certain
+to eradicate, from all but the noblest spirits, every trace of chivalry
+and tenderness for the weak, as well, often, as all self-control and
+command of temper. Be that as it may, old Sir Vindex had heart enough
+to feel that it was now his duty to take especial care of the fatherless
+boy to whom he tried to teach his qui, quae, quod: but the only outcome
+of that new sense of responsibility was a rapid increase in the number
+of floggings, which rose from about two a week to one per diem, not
+without consequences to the pedagogue himself.
+
+For all this while, Amyas had never for a moment lost sight of his
+darling desire for a sea-life; and when he could not wander on the quay
+and stare at the shipping, or go down to the pebble-ridge at Northam,
+and there sit, devouring, with hungry eyes, the great expanse of ocean,
+which seemed to woo him outward into boundless space, he used to console
+himself, in school-hours, by drawing ships and imaginary charts upon his
+slate, instead of minding his “humanities.”
+
+Now it befell, upon an afternoon, that he was very busy at a map, or
+bird's-eye view of an island, whereon was a great castle, and at the
+gate thereof a dragon, terrible to see; while in the foreground came
+that which was meant for a gallant ship, with a great flag aloft, but
+which, by reason of the forest of lances with which it was crowded,
+looked much more like a porcupine carrying a sign-post; and, at the
+roots of those lances, many little round o's, whereby was signified
+the heads of Amyas and his schoolfellows, who were about to slay that
+dragon, and rescue the beautiful princess who dwelt in that enchanted
+tower. To behold which marvel of art, all the other boys at the same
+desk must needs club their heads together, and with the more security,
+because Sir Vindex, as was his custom after dinner, was lying back in
+his chair, and slept the sleep of the just.
+
+But when Amyas, by special instigation of the evil spirit who haunts
+successful artists, proceeded further to introduce, heedless of
+perspective, a rock, on which stood the lively portraiture of Sir
+Vindex--nose, spectacles, gown, and all; and in his hand a brandished
+rod, while out of his mouth a label shrieked after the runaways,
+“You come back!” while a similar label replied from the gallant bark,
+“Good-bye, master!” the shoving and tittering rose to such a pitch that
+Cerberus awoke, and demanded sternly what the noise was about. To which,
+of course, there was no answer.
+
+“You, of course, Leigh! Come up, sir, and show me your exercitation.”
+
+Now of Amyas's exercitation not a word was written; and, moreover,
+he was in the very article of putting the last touches to Mr.
+Brimblecombe's portrait. Whereon, to the astonishment of all hearers, he
+made answer--
+
+“All in good time, sir!” and went on drawing.
+
+“In good time, sir! Insolent, veni et vapula!”
+
+But Amyas went on drawing.
+
+“Come hither, sirrah, or I'll flay you alive!”
+
+“Wait a bit!” answered Amyas.
+
+The old gentleman jumped up, ferula in hand, and darted across the
+school, and saw himself upon the fatal slate.
+
+“Proh flagitium! what have we here, villain?” and clutching at his
+victim, he raised the cane. Whereupon, with a serene and cheerful
+countenance, up rose the mighty form of Amyas Leigh, a head and
+shoulders above his tormentor, and that slate descended on the bald
+coxcomb of Sir Vindex Brimblecombe, with so shrewd a blow that slate and
+pate cracked at the same instant, and the poor pedagogue dropped to the
+floor, and lay for dead.
+
+After which Amyas arose, and walked out of the school, and so quietly
+home; and having taken counsel with himself, went to his mother, and
+said, “Please, mother, I've broken schoolmaster's head.”
+
+“Broken his head, thou wicked boy!” shrieked the poor widow; “what didst
+do that for?”
+
+“I can't tell,” said Amyas, penitently; “I couldn't help it. It looked
+so smooth, and bald, and round, and--you know?”
+
+“I know? Oh, wicked boy! thou hast given place to the devil; and now,
+perhaps, thou hast killed him.”
+
+“Killed the devil?” asked Amyas, hopefully but doubtfully.
+
+“No, killed the schoolmaster, sirrah! Is he dead?”
+
+“I don't think he's dead; his coxcomb sounded too hard for that. But had
+not I better go and tell Sir Richard?”
+
+The poor mother could hardly help laughing, in spite of her terror,
+at Amyas's perfect coolness (which was not in the least meant for
+insolence), and being at her wits' end, sent him, as usual, to his
+godfather.
+
+Amyas rehearsed his story again, with pretty nearly the same
+exclamations, to which he gave pretty nearly the same answers; and
+then--“What was he going to do to you, then, sirrah?”
+
+“Flog me, because I could not write my exercise, and so drew a picture
+of him instead.”
+
+“What! art afraid of being flogged?”
+
+“Not a bit; besides, I'm too much accustomed to it; but I was busy, and
+he was in such a desperate hurry; and, oh, sir, if you had but seen his
+bald head, you would have broken it yourself!”
+
+Now Sir Richard had, twenty years ago, in like place, and very much
+in like manner, broken the head of Vindex Brimblecombe's father,
+schoolmaster in his day, and therefore had a precedent to direct him;
+and he answered--“Amyas, sirrah! those who cannot obey will never be fit
+to rule. If thou canst not keep discipline now, thou wilt never make a
+company or a crew keep it when thou art grown. Dost mind that, sirrah?”
+
+“Yes,” said Amyas.
+
+“Then go back to school this moment, sir, and be flogged.”
+
+“Very well,” said Amyas, considering that he had got off very cheaply;
+while Sir Richard, as soon as he was out of the room, lay back in his
+chair, and laughed till he cried again.
+
+So Amyas went back, and said that he was come to be flogged; whereon the
+old schoolmaster, whose pate had been plastered meanwhile, wept tears of
+joy over the returning prodigal, and then gave him such a switching as
+he did not forget for eight-and-forty hours.
+
+But that evening Sir Richard sent for old Vindex, who entered,
+trembling, cap in hand; and having primed him with a cup of sack,
+said--“Well, Mr. Schoolmaster! My godson has been somewhat too much for
+you to-day. There are a couple of nobles to pay the doctor.”
+
+“O Sir Richard, gratias tibi et Domino! but the boy hits shrewdly
+hard. Nevertheless I have repaid him in inverse kind, and set him an
+imposition, to learn me one of Phaedrus his fables, Sir Richard, if you
+do not think it too much.”
+
+“Which, then? The one about the man who brought up a lion's cub, and was
+eaten by him in play at last?”
+
+“Ah, Sir Richard! you have always a merry wit. But, indeed, the boy is a
+brave boy, and a quick boy, Sir Richard, but more forgetful than Lethe;
+and--sapienti loquor--it were well if he were away, for I shall never
+see him again without my head aching. Moreover, he put my son Jack upon
+the fire last Wednesday, as you would put a football, though he is a
+year older, your worship, because, he said, he looked so like a roasting
+pig, Sir Richard.”
+
+“Alas, poor Jack!”
+
+“And what's more, your worship, he is pugnax, bellicosus, gladiator,
+a fire-eater and swash-buckler, beyond all Christian measure; a
+very sucking Entellus, Sir Richard, and will do to death some of her
+majesty's lieges erelong, if he be not wisely curbed. It was but a month
+agone that he bemoaned himself, I hear, as Alexander did, because there
+were no more worlds to conquer, saying that it was a pity he was so
+strong; for, now he had thrashed all the Bideford lads, he had no sport
+left; and so, as my Jack tells me, last Tuesday week he fell upon a
+young man of Barnstaple, Sir Richard, a hosier's man, sir, and plebeius
+(which I consider unfit for one of his blood), and, moreover, a man full
+grown, and as big as either of us (Vindex stood five feet four in his
+high-heeled shoes), and smote him clean over the quay into the mud,
+because he said that there was a prettier maid in Barnstaple (your
+worship will forgive my speaking of such toys, to which my fidelity
+compels me) than ever Bideford could show; and then offered to do the
+same to any man who dare say that Mistress Rose Salterne, his worship
+the mayor's daughter, was not the fairest lass in all Devon.”
+
+“Eh? Say that over again, my good sir,” quoth Sir Richard, who had thus
+arrived, as we have seen, at the second count of the indictment. “I say,
+good sir, whence dost thou hear all these pretty stories?”
+
+“My son Jack, Sir Richard, my son Jack, ingenui vultus puer.”
+
+“But not, it seems, ingenui pudoris. Tell thee what, Mr. Schoolmaster,
+no wonder if thy son gets put on the fire, if thou employ him as a
+tale-bearer. But that is the way of all pedagogues and their sons,
+by which they train the lads up eavesdroppers and favor-curriers, and
+prepare them--sirrah, do you hear?--for a much more lasting and hotter
+fire than that which has scorched thy son Jack's nether-tackle. Do you
+mark me, sir?”
+
+The poor pedagogue, thus cunningly caught in his own trap, stood
+trembling before his patron, who, as hereditary head of the Bridge
+Trust, which endowed the school and the rest of the Bideford charities,
+could, by a turn of his finger, sweep him forth with the besom
+of destruction; and he gasped with terror as Sir Richard went
+on--“Therefore, mind you, Sir Schoolmaster, unless you shall promise me
+never to hint word of what has passed between us two, and that neither
+you nor yours shall henceforth carry tales of my godson, or speak his
+name within a day's march of Mistress Salterne's, look to it, if I do
+not--”
+
+What was to be done in default was not spoken; for down went poor old
+Vindex on his knees:--
+
+“Oh, Sir Richard! Excellentissime, immo praecelsissime Domine et
+Senator, I promise! O sir, Miles et Eques of the Garter, Bath, and
+Golden Fleece, consider your dignities, and my old age--and my great
+family--nine children--oh, Sir Richard, and eight of them girls!--Do
+eagles war with mice? says the ancient!”
+
+“Thy large family, eh? How old is that fat-witted son of thine?”
+
+“Sixteen, Sir Richard; but that is not his fault, indeed!”
+
+“Nay, I suppose he would be still sucking his thumb if he dared--get up,
+man--get up and seat yourself.”
+
+“Heaven forbid!” murmured poor Vindex, with deep humility.
+
+“Why is not the rogue at Oxford, with a murrain on him, instead of
+lurching about here carrying tales and ogling the maidens?”
+
+“I had hoped, Sir Richard--and therefore I said it was not his
+fault--but there was never a servitorship at Exeter open.”
+
+“Go to, man--go to! I will speak to my brethren of the Trust, and to
+Oxford he shall go this autumn, or else to Exeter gaol, for a strong
+rogue, and a masterless man. Do you hear?”
+
+“Hear?--oh, sir, yes! and return thanks. Jack shall go, Sir Richard,
+doubt it not--I were mad else; and, Sir Richard, may I go too?”
+
+And therewith Vindex vanished, and Sir Richard enjoyed a second mighty
+laugh, which brought in Lady Grenville, who possibly had overheard the
+whole; for the first words she said were--
+
+“I think, my sweet life, we had better go up to Burrough.”
+
+So to Burrough they went; and after much talk, and many tears, matters
+were so concluded that Amyas Leigh found himself riding joyfully towards
+Plymouth, by the side of Sir Richard, and being handed over to Captain
+Drake, vanished for three years from the good town of Bideford.
+
+And now he is returned in triumph, and the observed of all observers;
+and looks round and round, and sees all faces whom he expects, except
+one; and that the one which he had rather see than his mother's? He is
+not quite sure. Shame on himself!
+
+And now the prayers being ended, the rector ascends the pulpit, and
+begins his sermon on the text:--
+
+“The heaven and the heaven of heavens are the Lord's; the whole earth
+hath he given to the children of men;” deducing therefrom craftily, to
+the exceeding pleasure of his hearers, the iniquity of the Spaniards
+in dispossessing the Indians, and in arrogating to themselves the
+sovereignty of the tropic seas; the vanity of the Pope of Rome in
+pretending to bestow on them the new countries of America; and the
+justice, valor, and glory of Mr. Drake and his expedition, as testified
+by God's miraculous protection of him and his, both in the Straits of
+Magellan, and in his battle with the Galleon; and last, but not least,
+upon the rock by Celebes, when the Pelican lay for hours firmly fixed,
+and was floated off unhurt, as it were by miracle, by a sudden shift of
+wind.
+
+Ay, smile, reader, if you will; and, perhaps, there was matter for a
+smile in that honest sermon, interlarded, as it was, with scraps of
+Greek and Hebrew, which no one understood, but every one expected as
+their right (for a preacher was nothing then who could not prove himself
+“a good Latiner”); and graced, moreover, by a somewhat pedantic and
+lengthy refutation from Scripture of Dan Horace's cockney horror of the
+sea--
+
+     “Illi robur et aes triplex,” etc.
+
+and his infidel and ungodly slander against the impias rates, and their
+crews.
+
+Smile, if you will: but those were days (and there were never less
+superstitious ones) in which Englishmen believed in the living God, and
+were not ashamed to acknowledge, as a matter of course, His help and
+providence, and calling, in the matters of daily life, which we now
+in our covert atheism term “secular and carnal;” and when, the sermon
+ended, the communion service had begun, and the bread and the wine were
+given to those five mariners, every gallant gentleman who stood near
+them (for the press would not allow of more) knelt and received the
+elements with them as a thing of course, and then rose to join with
+heart and voice not merely in the Gloria in Excelsis, but in the Te
+Deum, which was the closing act of all. And no sooner had the clerk
+given out the first verse of that great hymn, than it was taken up by
+five hundred voices within the church, in bass and tenor, treble and
+alto (for every one could sing in those days, and the west-country folk,
+as now, were fuller than any of music), the chant was caught up by the
+crowd outside, and rang away over roof and river, up to the woods of
+Annery, and down to the marshes of the Taw, in wave on wave of harmony.
+And as it died away, the shipping in the river made answer with their
+thunder, and the crowd streamed out again toward the Bridge Head,
+whither Sir Richard Grenville, and Sir John Chichester, and Mr.
+Salterne, the Mayor, led the five heroes of the day to await the pageant
+which had been prepared in honor of them. And as they went by, there
+were few in the crowd who did not press forward to shake them by the
+hand, and not only them, but their parents and kinsfolk who walked
+behind, till Mrs. Leigh, her stately joy quite broken down at last,
+could only answer between her sobs, “Go along, good people--God a mercy,
+go along--and God send you all such sons!”
+
+“God give me back mine!” cried an old red-cloaked dame in the crowd; and
+then, struck by some hidden impulse, she sprang forward, and catching
+hold of young Amyas's sleeve--
+
+“Kind sir! dear sir! For Christ his sake answer a poor old widow woman!”
+
+“What is it, dame?” quoth Amyas, gently enough.
+
+“Did you see my son to the Indies?--my son Salvation?”
+
+“Salvation?” replied he, with the air of one who recollected the name.
+
+“Yes, sure, Salvation Yeo, of Clovelly. A tall man and black, and
+sweareth awfully in his talk, the Lord forgive him!”
+
+Amyas recollected now. It was the name of the sailor who had given him
+the wondrous horn five years ago.
+
+“My good dame,” said he, “the Indies are a very large place, and your
+son may be safe and sound enough there, without my having seen him.
+I knew one Salvation Yeo. But he must have come with--By the by,
+godfather, has Mr. Oxenham come home?”
+
+There was a dead silence for a moment among the gentlemen round; and
+then Sir Richard said solemnly, and in a low voice, turning away from
+the old dame,--
+
+“Amyas, Mr. Oxenham has not come home; and from the day he sailed, no
+word has been heard of him and all his crew.”
+
+“Oh, Sir Richard! and you kept me from sailing with him! Had I known
+this before I went into church, I had had one mercy more to thank God
+for.”
+
+“Thank Him all the more in thy life, my child!” whispered his mother.
+
+“And no news of him whatsoever?”
+
+“None; but that the year after he sailed, a ship belonging to Andrew
+Barker, of Bristol, took out of a Spanish caravel, somewhere off the
+Honduras, his two brass guns; but whence they came the Spaniard knew
+not, having bought them at Nombre de Dios.”
+
+“Yes!” cried the old woman; “they brought home the guns, and never
+brought home my boy!”
+
+“They never saw your boy, mother,” said Sir Richard.
+
+“But I've seen him! I saw him in a dream four years last Whitsuntide, as
+plain as I see you now, gentles, a-lying upon a rock, calling for a drop
+of water to cool his tongue, like Dives to the torment! Oh! dear me!”
+ and the old dame wept bitterly.
+
+“There is a rose noble for you!” said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+“And there another!” said Sir Richard. And in a few minutes four or five
+gold coins were in her hand. But the old dame did but look wonderingly
+at the gold a moment, and then--
+
+“Ah! dear gentles, God's blessing on you, and Mr. Cary's mighty good to
+me already; but gold won't buy back childer! O! young gentleman! young
+gentleman! make me a promise; if you want God's blessing on you this
+day, bring me back my boy, if you find him sailing on the seas! Bring
+him back, and an old widow's blessing be on you!”
+
+Amyas promised--what else could he do?--and the group hurried on; but
+the lad's heart was heavy in the midst of joy, with the thought of John
+Oxenham, as he walked through the churchyard, and down the short street
+which led between the ancient school and still more ancient town-house,
+to the head of the long bridge, across which the pageant, having
+arranged “east-the-water,” was to defile, and then turn to the right
+along the quay.
+
+However, he was bound in all courtesy to turn his attention now to the
+show which had been prepared in his honor, and which was really well
+enough worth seeing and hearing. The English were, in those days, an
+altogether dramatic people; ready and able, as in Bideford that day, to
+extemporize a pageant, a masque, or any effort of the Thespian art short
+of the regular drama. For they were, in the first place, even down to
+the very poorest, a well-fed people, with fewer luxuries than we, but
+more abundant necessaries; and while beef, ale, and good woollen clothes
+could be obtained in plenty, without overworking either body or soul,
+men had time to amuse themselves in something more intellectual
+than mere toping in pot-houses. Moreover, the half century after the
+Reformation in England was one not merely of new intellectual freedom,
+but of immense animal good spirits. After years of dumb confusion and
+cruel persecution, a breathing time had come: Mary and the fires of
+Smithfield had vanished together like a hideous dream, and the mighty
+shout of joy which greeted Elizabeth's entry into London, was the
+key-note of fifty glorious years; the expression of a new-found strength
+and freedom, which vented itself at home in drama and in song; abroad
+in mighty conquests, achieved with the laughing recklessness of boys at
+play.
+
+So first, preceded by the waits, came along the bridge toward the
+town-hall a device prepared by the good rector, who, standing by, acted
+as showman, and explained anxiously to the bystanders the import of
+a certain “allegory” wherein on a great banner was depicted Queen
+Elizabeth herself, who, in ample ruff and farthingale, a Bible in one
+hand and a sword in the other, stood triumphant upon the necks of two
+sufficiently abject personages, whose triple tiara and imperial crown
+proclaimed them the Pope and the King of Spain; while a label, issuing
+from her royal mouth, informed the world that--
+
+     “By land and sea a virgin queen I reign,
+     And spurn to dust both Antichrist and Spain.”
+
+Which, having been received with due applause, a well-bedizened lad,
+having in his cap as a posy “Loyalty,” stepped forward, and delivered
+himself of the following verses:--
+
+     “Oh, great Eliza! oh, world-famous crew!
+     Which shall I hail more blest, your queen or you?
+     While without other either falls to wrack,
+     And light must eyes, or eyes their light must lack.
+     She without you, a diamond sunk in mine,
+     Its worth unprized, to self alone must shine;
+     You without her, like hands bereft of head,
+     Like Ajax rage, by blindfold lust misled.
+     She light, you eyes; she head, and you the hands,
+     In fair proportion knit by heavenly hands;
+     Servants in queen, and queen in servants blest;
+     Your only glory, how to serve her best;
+     And hers how best the adventurous might to guide,
+     Which knows no check of foemen, wind, or tide,
+     So fair Eliza's spotless fame may fly
+     Triumphant round the globe, and shake th' astounded sky!”
+
+With which sufficiently bad verses Loyalty passed on, while my Lady Bath
+hinted to Sir Richard, not without reason, that the poet, in trying to
+exalt both parties, had very sufficiently snubbed both, and intimated
+that it was “hardly safe for country wits to attempt that euphuistic,
+antithetical, and delicately conceited vein, whose proper fountain was
+in Whitehall.” However, on went Loyalty, very well pleased with himself,
+and next, amid much cheering, two great tinsel fish, a salmon and a
+trout, symbolical of the wealth of Torridge, waddled along, by means
+of two human legs and a staff apiece, which protruded from the fishes'
+stomachs. They drew (or seemed to draw, for half the 'prentices in the
+town were shoving it behind, and cheering on the panting monarchs of
+the flood) a car wherein sate, amid reeds and river-flags, three or
+four pretty girls in robes of gray-blue spangled with gold, their heads
+wreathed one with a crown of the sweet bog-myrtle, another with hops
+and white convolvulus, the third with pale heather and golden fern. They
+stopped opposite Amyas; and she of the myrtle wreath, rising and bowing
+to him and the company, began with a pretty blush to say her say:--
+
+     “Hither from my moorland home,
+     Nymph of Torridge, proud I come;
+     Leaving fen and furzy brake,
+     Haunt of eft and spotted snake,
+     Where to fill mine urns I use,
+     Daily with Atlantic dews;
+     While beside the reedy flood
+     Wild duck leads her paddling brood.
+     For this morn, as Phoebus gay
+     Chased through heaven the night mist gray,
+     Close beside me, prankt in pride,
+     Sister Tamar rose, and cried,
+     'Sluggard, up! 'Tis holiday,
+     In the lowlands far away.
+     Hark! how jocund Plymouth bells,
+     Wandering up through mazy dells,
+     Call me down, with smiles to hail,
+     My daring Drake's returning sail.'
+     'Thine alone?' I answer'd.  'Nay;
+     Mine as well the joy to-day.
+     Heroes train'd on Northern wave,
+     To that Argo new I gave;
+     Lent to thee, they roam'd the main;
+     Give me, nymph, my sons again.'
+     'Go, they wait Thee,' Tamar cried,
+     Southward bounding from my side.
+     Glad I rose, and at my call,
+     Came my Naiads, one and all.
+     Nursling of the mountain sky,
+     Leaving Dian's choir on high,
+     Down her cataracts laughing loud,
+     Ockment leapt from crag and cloud,
+     Leading many a nymph, who dwells
+     Where wild deer drink in ferny dells;
+     While the Oreads as they past
+     Peep'd from Druid Tors aghast.
+     By alder copses sliding slow,
+     Knee-deep in flowers came gentler Yeo
+     And paused awhile her locks to twine
+     With musky hops and white woodbine,
+     Then joined the silver-footed band,
+     Which circled down my golden sand,
+     By dappled park, and harbor shady,
+     Haunt of love-lorn knight and lady,
+     My thrice-renowned sons to greet,
+     With rustic song and pageant meet.
+     For joy! the girdled robe around
+     Eliza's name henceforth shall sound,
+     Whose venturous fleets to conquest start,
+     Where ended once the seaman's chart,
+     While circling Sol his steps shall count
+     Henceforth from Thule's western mount,
+     And lead new rulers round the seas
+     From furthest Cassiterides.
+     For found is now the golden tree,
+     Solv'd th' Atlantic mystery,
+     Pluck'd the dragon-guarded fruit;
+     While around the charmed root,
+     Wailing loud, the Hesperids
+     Watch their warder's drooping lids.
+     Low he lies with grisly wound,
+     While the sorceress triple-crown'd
+     In her scarlet robe doth shield him,
+     Till her cunning spells have heal'd him.
+     Ye, meanwhile, around the earth
+     Bear the prize of manful worth.
+     Yet a nobler meed than gold
+     Waits for Albion's children bold;
+     Great Eliza's virgin hand
+     Welcomes you to Fairy-land,
+     While your native Naiads bring
+     Native wreaths as offering.
+     Simple though their show may be,
+     Britain's worship in them see.
+     'Tis not price, nor outward fairness,
+     Gives the victor's palm its rareness;
+     Simplest tokens can impart
+     Noble throb to noble heart:
+     Graecia, prize thy parsley crown,
+     Boast thy laurel, Caesar's town;
+     Moorland myrtle still shall be
+     Badge of Devon's Chivalry!”
+
+And so ending, she took the wreath of fragrant gale from her own head,
+and stooping from the car, placed it on the head of Amyas Leigh, who
+made answer--
+
+“There is no place like home, my fair mistress and no scent to my taste
+like this old home-scent in all the spice-islands that I ever sailed
+by!”
+
+“Her song was not so bad,” said Sir Richard to Lady Bath--“but how came
+she to hear Plymouth bells at Tamar-head, full fifty miles away? That's
+too much of a poet's license, is it not?”
+
+“The river-nymphs, as daughters of Oceanus, and thus of immortal
+parentage, are bound to possess organs of more than mortal keenness;
+but, as you say, the song was not so bad--erudite, as well as
+prettily conceived--and, saving for a certain rustical simplicity and
+monosyllabic baldness, smacks rather of the forests of Castaly than
+those of Torridge.”
+
+So spake my Lady Bath; whom Sir Richard wisely answered not; for she was
+a terribly learned member of the college of critics, and disputed even
+with Sidney's sister the chieftaincy of the Euphuists; so Sir Richard
+answered not, but answer was made for him.
+
+“Since the whole choir of Muses, madam, have migrated to the Court of
+Whitehall, no wonder if some dews of Parnassus should fertilize at times
+even our Devon moors.”
+
+The speaker was a tall and slim young man, some five-and-twenty years
+old, of so rare and delicate a beauty, that it seemed that some Greek
+statue, or rather one of those pensive and pious knights whom the old
+German artists took delight to paint, had condescended to tread awhile
+this work-day earth in living flesh and blood. The forehead was very
+lofty and smooth, the eyebrows thin and greatly arched (the envious
+gallants whispered that something at least of their curve was due to
+art, as was also the exceeding smoothness of those delicate cheeks).
+The face was somewhat long and thin; the nose aquiline; and the languid
+mouth showed, perhaps, too much of the ivory upper teeth; but the
+most striking point of the speaker's appearance was the extraordinary
+brilliancy of his complexion, which shamed with its whiteness that of
+all fair ladies round, save where open on each cheek a bright red spot
+gave warning, as did the long thin neck and the taper hands, of sad
+possibilities, perhaps not far off; possibilities which all saw with an
+inward sigh, except she whose doting glances, as well as her resemblance
+to the fair youth, proclaimed her at once his mother, Mrs. Leigh
+herself.
+
+Master Frank, for he it was, was dressed in the very extravagance of
+the fashion,--not so much from vanity, as from that delicate instinct
+of self-respect which would keep some men spruce and spotless from one
+year's end to another upon a desert island; “for,” as Frank used to say
+in his sententious way, “Mr. Frank Leigh at least beholds me, though
+none else be by; and why should I be more discourteous to him than
+I permit others to be? Be sure that he who is a Grobian in his own
+company, will, sooner or later, become a Grobian in that of his
+friends.”
+
+So Mr. Frank was arrayed spotlessly; but after the latest fashion of
+Milan, not in trunk hose and slashed sleeves, nor in “French standing
+collar, treble quadruple daedalian ruff, or stiff-necked rabato, that
+had more arches for pride, propped up with wire and timber, than five
+London Bridges;” but in a close-fitting and perfectly plain suit of
+dove-color, which set off cunningly the delicate proportions of his
+figure, and the delicate hue of his complexion, which was shaded from
+the sun by a broad dove-colored Spanish hat, with feather to match,
+looped up over the right ear with a pearl brooch, and therein a crowned
+E, supposed by the damsels of Bideford to stand for Elizabeth, which
+was whispered to be the gift of some most illustrious hand. This same
+looping up was not without good reason and purpose prepense; thereby all
+the world had full view of a beautiful little ear, which looked as if
+it had been cut of cameo, and made, as my Lady Rich once told him, “to
+hearken only to the music of the spheres, or to the chants of cherubim.”
+ Behind the said ear was stuck a fresh rose; and the golden hair was all
+drawn smoothly back and round to the left temple, whence, tied with a
+pink ribbon in a great true lover's knot, a mighty love-lock, “curled as
+it had been laid in press,” rolled down low upon his bosom. Oh, Frank!
+Frank! have you come out on purpose to break the hearts of all Bideford
+burghers' daughters? And if so, did you expect to further that triumph
+by dyeing that pretty little pointed beard (with shame I report it) of
+a bright vermilion? But we know you better, Frank, and so does your
+mother; and you are but a masquerading angel after all, in spite of
+your knots and your perfumes, and the gold chain round your neck which a
+German princess gave you; and the emerald ring on your right fore-finger
+which Hatton gave you; and the pair of perfumed gloves in your left
+which Sidney's sister gave you; and the silver-hilted Toledo which an
+Italian marquis gave you on a certain occasion of which you never choose
+to talk, like a prudent and modest gentleman as you are; but of which
+the gossips talk, of course, all the more, and whisper that you saved
+his life from bravoes--a dozen, at the least; and had that sword for
+your reward, and might have had his beautiful sister's hand beside, and
+I know not what else; but that you had so many lady-loves already that
+you were loath to burden yourself with a fresh one. That, at least, we
+know to be a lie, fair Frank; for your heart is as pure this day as when
+you knelt in your little crib at Burrough, and said--
+
+     “Four corners to my bed
+     Four angels round my head;
+     Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
+     Bless the bed that I lie on.”
+
+And who could doubt it (if being pure themselves, they have instinctive
+sympathy with what is pure), who ever looked into those great deep blue
+eyes of yours, “the black fringed curtains of whose azure lids,”
+ usually down-dropt as if in deepest thought, you raise slowly, almost
+wonderingly each time you speak, as if awakening from some fair dream
+whose home is rather in your platonical “eternal world of supra-sensible
+forms,” than on that work-day earth wherein you nevertheless acquit
+yourself so well? There--I must stop describing you, or I shall catch
+the infection of your own euphuism, and talk of you as you would have
+talked of Sidney or of Spenser, or of that Swan of Avon, whose song
+had just begun when yours--but I will not anticipate; my Lady Bath is
+waiting to give you her rejoinder.
+
+“Ah, my silver-tongued scholar! and are you, then, the poet? or have
+you been drawing on the inexhaustible bank of your friend Raleigh, or my
+cousin Sidney? or has our new Cygnet Immerito lent you a few unpublished
+leaves from some fresh Shepherd's Calendar?”
+
+“Had either, madam, of that cynosural triad been within call of my
+most humble importunities, your ears had been delectate with far nobler
+melody.”
+
+“But not our eyes with fairer faces, eh? Well, you have chosen your
+nymphs, and had good store from whence to pick, I doubt not. Few
+young Dulcineas round but must have been glad to take service under so
+renowned a captain?”
+
+“The only difficulty, gracious countess, has been to know where to fix
+the wandering choice of my bewildered eyes, where all alike are fair,
+and all alike facund.”
+
+“We understand,” said she, smiling;--
+
+     “Dan Cupid, choosing 'midst his mother's graces,
+     Himself more fair, made scorn of fairest faces.”
+
+The young scholar capped her distich forthwith, and bowing to her with a
+meaning look,
+
+
+“'Then, Goddess, turn,' he cried, 'and veil thy light; Blinded by thine,
+what eyes can choose aright?'”
+
+
+“Go, saucy sir,” said my lady, in high glee: “the pageant stays your
+supreme pleasure.”
+
+And away went Mr. Frank as master of the revels, to bring up the
+'prentices' pageant; while, for his sake, the nymph of Torridge was
+forgotten for awhile by all young dames, and most young gentlemen: and
+his mother heaved a deep sigh, which Lady Bath overhearing--
+
+“What? in the dumps, good madam, while all are rejoicing in your joy?
+Are you afraid that we court-dames shall turn your Adonis's brain for
+him?”
+
+“I do, indeed, fear lest your condescension should make him forget that
+he is only a poor squire's orphan.”
+
+“I will warrant him never to forget aught that he should recollect,”
+ said my Lady Bath.
+
+And she spoke truly. But soon Frank's silver voice was heard calling
+out--
+
+“Room there, good people, for the gallant 'prentice lads!”
+
+And on they came, headed by a giant of buckram and pasteboard armor,
+forth of whose stomach looked, like a clock-face in a steeple, a human
+visage, to be greeted, as was the fashion then, by a volley of quips and
+puns from high and low.
+
+Young Mr. William Cary, of Clovelly, who was the wit of those parts,
+opened the fire by asking him whether he were Goliath, Gogmagog, or
+Grantorto in the romance; for giants' names always began with a G. To
+which the giant's stomach answered pretty surlily--
+
+“Mine don't; I begin with an O.”
+
+“Then thou criest out before thou art hurt, O cowardly giant!”
+
+“Let me out, lads,” quoth the irascible visage, struggling in his
+buckram prison, “and I soon show him whether I be a coward.”
+
+“Nay, if thou gettest out of thyself, thou wouldst be beside thyself,
+and so wert but a mad giant.”
+
+“And that were pity,” said Lady Bath; “for by the romances, giants have
+never overmuch wit to spare.”
+
+“Mercy, dear lady!” said Frank, “and let the giant begin with an O.”
+
+“A ----”
+
+“A false start, giant! you were to begin with an O.”
+
+“I'll make you end with an O, Mr. William Cary!” roared the testy tower
+of buckram.
+
+“And so I do, for I end with 'Fico!'”
+
+“Be mollified, sweet giant,” said Frank, “and spare the rash youth of
+yon foolish knight. Shall elephants catch flies, or Hurlo-Thrumbo stain
+his club with brains of Dagonet the jester? Be mollified; leave thy
+caverned grumblings, like Etna when its windy wrath is past, and
+discourse eloquence from thy central omphalos, like Pythoness
+ventriloquizing.”
+
+“If you do begin laughing at me too, Mr. Leigh ----” said the giant's
+clock-face, in a piteous tone.
+
+“I laugh not. Art thou not Ordulf the earl, and I thy humblest squire?
+Speak up, my lord; your cousin, my Lady Bath, commands you.”
+
+And at last the giant began:--
+
+     “A giant I, Earl Ordulf men me call,--
+     'Gainst Paynim foes Devonia's champion tall;
+     In single fight six thousand Turks I slew;
+     Pull'd off a lion's head, and ate it too:
+     With one shrewd blow, to let St. Edward in,
+     I smote the gates of Exeter in twain;
+     Till aged grown, by angels warn'd in dream,
+     I built an abbey fair by Tavy stream.
+     But treacherous time hath tripped my glories up,
+     The stanch old hound must yield to stancher pup;
+     Here's one so tall as I, and twice so bold,
+     Where I took only cuffs, takes good red gold.
+     From pole to pole resound his wondrous works,
+     Who slew more Spaniards than I e'er slew Turks;
+     I strode across the Tavy stream: but he
+     Strode round the world and back; and here 'a be!”
+
+“Oh, bathos!” said Lady Bath, while the 'prentices shouted applause. “Is
+this hedge-bantling to be fathered on you, Mr. Frank?”
+
+“It is necessary, by all laws of the drama, madam,” said Frank, with a
+sly smile, “that the speech and the speaker shall fit each other. Pass
+on, Earl Ordulf; a more learned worthy waits.”
+
+Whereon, up came a fresh member of the procession; namely, no less
+a person than Vindex Brimblecombe, the ancient schoolmaster, with
+five-and-forty boys at his heels, who halting, pulled out his
+spectacles, and thus signified his forgiveness of his whilom broken
+head:--
+
+“That the world should have been circumnavigated, ladies and gentles,
+were matter enough of jubilation to the student of Herodotus and Plato,
+Plinius and ---- ahem! much more when the circumnavigators are Britons;
+more, again, when Damnonians.”
+
+“Don't swear, master,” said young Will Cary.
+
+“Gulielme Cary, Gulielme Cary, hast thou forgotten thy--”
+
+“Whippings? Never, old lad! Go on; but let not the license of the
+scholar overtop the modesty of the Christian.”
+
+“More again, as I said, when, incolae, inhabitants of Devon; but,
+most of all, men of Bideford school. Oh renowned school! Oh schoolboys
+ennobled by fellowship with him! Oh most happy pedagogue, to whom it has
+befallen to have chastised a circumnavigator, and, like another Chiron,
+trained another Hercules: yet more than Hercules, for he placed
+his pillars on the ocean shore, and then returned; but my scholar's
+voyage--”
+
+“Hark how the old fox is praising himself all along on the sly,” said
+Cary.
+
+“Mr. William, Mr. William, peace;--silentium, my graceless pupil. Urge
+the foaming steed, and strike terror into the rapid stag, but meddle not
+with matters too high for thee.”
+
+“He has given you the dor now, sir,” said Lady Bath; “let the old man
+say his say.”
+
+“I bring, therefore, as my small contribution to this day's feast; first
+a Latin epigram, as thus--”
+
+“Latin? Let us hear it forthwith,” cried my lady.
+
+And the old pedant mouthed out--
+
+     “Torriguiam Tamaris ne spernat; Leighius addet
+     Mox terras terris, inclyte Drake, tuis.”
+
+“Neat, i' faith, la!” Whereon all the rest, as in duty bound, approved
+also.
+
+“This for the erudite: for vulgar ears the vernacular is more consonant,
+sympathetic, instructive; as thus:--
+
+     “Famed Argo ship, that noble chip, by doughty Jason's steering,
+     Brought back to Greece the golden fleece, from Colchis home
+          careering;
+     But now her fame is put to shame, while new Devonian Argo,
+     Round earth doth run in wake of sun, and brings wealthier cargo.”
+
+“Runs with a right fa-lal-la,” observed Cary; “and would go nobly to a
+fiddle and a big drum.”
+
+     “Ye Spaniards, quake! our doughty Drake a royal swan is tested,
+     On wing and oar, from shore to shore, the raging main who
+          breasted:--
+     But never needs to chant his deeds, like swan that lies a-dying,
+     So far his name, by trump of fame, around the sphere is flying.”
+
+“Hillo ho! schoolmaster!” shouted a voice from behind; “move on, and
+make way for Father Neptune!” Whereon a whole storm of raillery fell
+upon the hapless pedagogue.
+
+“We waited for the parson's alligator, but we wain't for yourn.”
+
+“Allegory! my children, allegory!” shrieked the man of letters.
+
+“What do ye call he an alligator for? He is but a poor little starved
+evat!”
+
+“Out of the road, old Custis! March on, Don Palmado!”
+
+These allusions to the usual instrument of torture in West-country
+schools made the old gentleman wince; especially when they were followed
+home by--
+
+“Who stole Admiral Grenville's brooms, because birch rods were dear?”
+
+But proudly he shook his bald head, as a bull shakes off the flies, and
+returned to the charge once more.
+
+
+“Great Alexander, famed commander, wept and made a pother, At conquering
+only half the world, but Drake had conquer'd t'other; And Hercules to
+brink of seas!--”
+
+
+“Oh--!”
+
+And clapping both hands to the back of his neck, the schoolmaster began
+dancing frantically about, while his boys broke out tittering, “O! the
+ochidore! look to the blue ochidore! Who've put ochidore to maister's
+poll!”
+
+It was too true: neatly inserted, as he stooped forward, between his
+neck and his collar, was a large live shore-crab, holding on tight with
+both hands.
+
+“Gentles! good Christians! save me! I am mare-rode! Incubo, vel ab
+incubo, opprimor! Satanas has me by the poll! Help! he tears my jugular;
+he wrings my neck, as he does to Dr. Faustus in the play. Confiteor!--I
+confess! Satan, I defy thee! Good people, I confess! [Greek text]! The
+truth will out. Mr. Francis Leigh wrote the epigram!” And diving through
+the crowd, the pedagogue vanished howling, while Father Neptune, crowned
+with sea-weeds, a trident in one hand, and a live dog-fish in the other,
+swaggered up the street surrounded by a tall bodyguard of mariners, and
+followed by a great banner, on which was depicted a globe, with Drake's
+ship sailing thereon upside down, and overwritten--
+
+     “See every man the Pelican,
+        Which round the world did go,
+     While her stern-post was uppermost,
+        And topmasts down below.
+     And by the way she lost a day,
+        Out of her log was stole:
+     But Neptune kind, with favoring wind,
+        Hath brought her safe and whole.”
+
+“Now, lads!” cried Neptune; “hand me my parable that's writ for me, and
+here goeth!”
+
+And at the top of his bull-voice, he began roaring--
+
+     “I am King Neptune bold,
+       The ruler of the seas
+     I don't understand much singing upon land,
+       But I hope what I say will please.
+
+     “Here be five Bideford men,
+       Which have sail'd the world around,
+     And I watch'd them well, as they all can tell,
+       And brought them home safe and sound.
+
+     “For it is the men of Devon.
+       To see them I take delight,
+     Both to tack and to hull, and to heave and to pull,
+       And to prove themselves in fight.
+
+     “Where be those Spaniards proud,
+       That make their valiant boasts;
+     And think for to keep the poor Indians for their sheep,
+       And to farm my golden coasts?
+
+     “'Twas the devil and the Pope gave them
+       My kingdom for their own:
+     But my nephew Francis Drake, he caused them to quake,
+       And he pick'd them to the bone.
+
+     “For the sea my realm it is,
+       As good Queen Bess's is the land;
+     So freely come again, all merry Devon men,
+       And there's old Neptune's hand.”
+
+“Holla, boys! holla! Blow up, Triton, and bring forward the freedom of
+the seas.”
+
+Triton, roaring through a conch, brought forward a cockle-shell full of
+salt-water, and delivered it solemnly to Amyas, who, of course, put a
+noble into it, and returned it after Grenville had done the same.
+
+“Holla, Dick Admiral!” cried neptune, who was pretty far gone in liquor;
+“we knew thou hadst a right English heart in thee, for all thou standest
+there as taut as a Don who has swallowed his rapier.”
+
+“Grammercy, stop thy bellowing, fellow, and on; for thou smellest vilely
+of fish.”
+
+“Everything smells sweet in its right place. I'm going home.”
+
+“I thought thou wert there all along, being already half-seas over,”
+ said Cary.
+
+“Ay, right Upsee-Dutch; and that's more than thou ever wilt be, thou
+'long-shore stay-at-home. Why wast making sheep's eyes at Mistress
+Salterne here, while my pretty little chuck of Burrough there was
+playing at shove-groat with Spanish doubloons?”
+
+“Go to the devil, sirrah!” said Cary. Neptune had touched on a sore
+subject; and more cheeks than Amyas Leigh's reddened at the hint.
+
+“Amen, if Heaven so please!” and on rolled the monarch of the seas; and
+so the pageant ended.
+
+The moment Amyas had an opportunity, he asked his brother Frank,
+somewhat peevishly, where Rose Salterne was.
+
+“What! the mayor's daughter? With her uncle by Kilkhampton, I believe.”
+
+Now cunning Master Frank, whose daily wish was to “seek peace and ensue
+it,” told Amyas this, because he must needs speak the truth: but he was
+purposed at the same time to speak as little truth as he could, for fear
+of accidents; and, therefore, omitted to tell his brother how that he,
+two days before, had entreated Rose Salterne herself to appear as the
+nymph of Torridge; which honor she, who had no objection either to
+exhibit her pretty face, to recite pretty poetry, or to be trained
+thereto by the cynosure of North Devon, would have assented willingly,
+but that her father stopped the pretty project by a peremptory
+countermove, and packed her off, in spite of her tears, to the said
+uncle on the Atlantic cliffs; after which he went up to Burrough, and
+laughed over the whole matter with Mrs. Leigh.
+
+“I am but a burgher, Mrs. Leigh, and you a lady of blood; but I am too
+proud to let any man say that Simon Salterne threw his daughter at your
+son's head;--no; not if you were an empress!”
+
+“And to speak truth, Mr. Salterne, there are young gallants enough in
+the country quarrelling about her pretty face every day, without making
+her a tourney-queen to tilt about.”
+
+Which was very true; for during the three years of Amyas's absence, Rose
+Salterne had grown into so beautiful a girl of eighteen, that half North
+Devon was mad about the “Rose of Torridge,” as she was called; and
+there was not a young gallant for ten miles round (not to speak of her
+father's clerks and 'prentices, who moped about after her like so many
+Malvolios, and treasured up the very parings of her nails) who would
+not have gone to Jerusalem to win her. So that all along the vales of
+Torridge and of Taw, and even away to Clovelly (for young Mr. Cary was
+one of the sick), not a gay bachelor but was frowning on his fellows,
+and vying with them in the fashion of his clothes, the set of his ruffs,
+the harness of his horse, the carriage of his hawks, the pattern of his
+sword-hilt; and those were golden days for all tailors and armorers,
+from Exmoor to Okehampton town. But of all those foolish young lads
+not one would speak to the other, either out hunting, or at the archery
+butts, or in the tilt-yard; and my Lady Bath (who confessed that there
+was no use in bringing out her daughters where Rose Salterne was in the
+way) prophesied in her classical fashion that Rose's wedding bid fair
+to be a very bridal of Atalanta, and feast of the Lapithae; and poor
+Mr. Will Cary (who always blurted out the truth), when old Salterne once
+asked him angrily in Bideford Market, “What a plague business had he
+making sheep's eyes at his daughter?” broke out before all bystanders,
+“And what a plague business had you, old boy, to throw such an apple of
+discord into our merry meetings hereabouts? If you choose to have such
+a daughter, you must take the consequences, and be hanged to you.” To
+which Mr. Salterne answered with some truth, “That she was none of his
+choosing, nor of Mr. Cary's neither.” And so the dor being given, the
+belligerents parted laughing, but the war remained in statu quo; and
+not a week passed but, by mysterious hands, some nosegay, or languishing
+sonnet, was conveyed into The Rose's chamber, all which she stowed away,
+with the simplicity of a country girl, finding it mighty pleasant; and
+took all compliments quietly enough, probably because, on the authority
+of her mirror, she considered them no more than her due.
+
+And now, to add to the general confusion, home was come young Amyas
+Leigh, more desperately in love with her than ever. For, as is the
+way with sailors (who after all are the truest lovers, as they are the
+finest fellows, God bless them, upon earth), his lonely ship-watches
+had been spent in imprinting on his imagination, month after month, year
+after year, every feature and gesture and tone of the fair lass whom he
+had left behind him; and that all the more intensely, because, beside
+his mother, he had no one else to think of, and was as pure as the day
+he was born, having been trained as many a brave young man was then,
+to look upon profligacy not as a proof of manhood, but as what the old
+Germans, and those Gortyneans who crowned the offender with wool, knew
+it to be, a cowardly and effeminate sin.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+OF TWO GENTLEMEN OF WALES, AND HOW THEY HUNTED WITH THE HOUNDS, AND YET
+RAN WITH THE DEER
+
+     “I know that Deformed; he has been a vile thief this seven years;
+     he goes up and down like a gentleman: I remember his name.”--Much
+     Ado About Nothing.
+
+Amyas slept that night a tired and yet a troubled sleep; and his mother
+and Frank, as they bent over his pillow, could see that his brain was
+busy with many dreams.
+
+And no wonder; for over and above all the excitement of the day, the
+recollection of John Oxenham had taken strange possession of his mind;
+and all that evening, as he sat in the bay-windowed room where he had
+seen him last, Amyas was recalling to himself every look and gesture
+of the lost adventurer, and wondering at himself for so doing, till
+he retired to sleep, only to renew the fancy in his dreams. At last he
+found himself, he knew not how, sailing westward ever, up the wake of
+the setting sun, in chase of a tiny sail which was John Oxenham's.
+Upon him was a painful sense that, unless he came up with her in time,
+something fearful would come to pass; but the ship would not sail. All
+around floated the sargasso beds, clogging her bows with their long
+snaky coils of weed; and still he tried to sail, and tried to fancy that
+he was sailing, till the sun went down and all was utter dark. And then
+the moon arose, and in a moment John Oxenham's ship was close aboard;
+her sails were torn and fluttering; the pitch was streaming from her
+sides; her bulwarks were rotting to decay. And what was that line of
+dark objects dangling along the mainyard?--A line of hanged men! And,
+horror of horrors, from the yard-arm close above him, John Oxenham's
+corpse looked down with grave-light eyes, and beckoned and pointed, as
+if to show him his way, and strove to speak, and could not, and pointed
+still, not forward, but back along their course. And when Amyas looked
+back, behold, behind him was the snow range of the Andes glittering in
+the moon, and he knew that he was in the South Seas once more, and that
+all America was between him and home. And still the corpse kept pointing
+back, and back, and looking at him with yearning eyes of agony, and lips
+which longed to tell some awful secret; till he sprang up, and woke with
+a shout of terror, and found himself lying in the little coved chamber
+in dear old Burrough, with the gray autumn morning already stealing in.
+
+Feverish and excited, he tried in vain to sleep again; and after an
+hour's tossing, rose and dressed, and started for a bathe on his beloved
+old pebble ridge. As he passed his mother's door, he could not help
+looking in. The dim light of morning showed him the bed; but its
+pillow had not been pressed that night. His mother, in her long white
+night-dress, was kneeling at the other end of the chamber at her
+prie-dieu, absorbed in devotion. Gently he slipped in without a word,
+and knelt down at her side. She turned, smiled, passed her arm around
+him, and went on silently with her prayers. Why not? They were for him,
+and he knew it, and prayed also; and his prayers were for her, and for
+poor lost John Oxenham, and all his vanished crew.
+
+At last she rose, and standing above him, parted the yellow locks from
+off his brow, and looked long and lovingly into his face. There was
+nothing to be spoken, for there was nothing to be concealed between
+these two souls as clear as glass. Each knew all which the other meant;
+each knew that its own thoughts were known. At last the mutual gaze was
+over; she stooped and kissed him on the brow, and was in the act to
+turn away, as a tear dropped on his forehead. Her little bare feet were
+peeping out from under her dress. He bent down and kissed them again and
+again; and then looking up, as if to excuse himself,--
+
+“You have such pretty feet, mother!”
+
+Instantly, with a woman's instinct, she had hidden them. She had been a
+beauty once, as I said; and though her hair was gray, and her roses had
+faded long ago, she was beautiful still, in all eyes which saw deeper
+than the mere outward red and white.
+
+“Your dear father used to say so thirty years ago.”
+
+“And I say so still: you always were beautiful; you are beautiful now.”
+
+“What is that to you, silly boy? Will you play the lover with an old
+mother? Go and take your walk, and think of younger ladies, if you can
+find any worthy of you.”
+
+And so the son went forth, and the mother returned to her prayers.
+
+He walked down to the pebble ridge, where the surges of the bay have
+defeated their own fury, by rolling up in the course of ages a rampart
+of gray boulder-stones, some two miles long, as cunningly curved, and
+smoothed, and fitted, as if the work had been done by human hands, which
+protects from the high tides of spring and autumn a fertile sheet of
+smooth, alluvial turf. Sniffing the keen salt air like a young sea-dog,
+he stripped and plunged into the breakers, and dived, and rolled, and
+tossed about the foam with stalwart arms, till he heard himself hailed
+from off the shore, and looking up, saw standing on the top of the
+rampart the tall figure of his cousin Eustace.
+
+Amyas was half-disappointed at his coming; for, love-lorn rascal, he had
+been dreaming all the way thither of Rose Salterne, and had no wish
+for a companion who would prevent his dreaming of her all the way back.
+Nevertheless, not having seen Eustace for three years, it was but civil
+to scramble out and dress, while his cousin walked up and down upon the
+turf inside.
+
+Eustace Leigh was the son of a younger brother of Leigh of Burrough, who
+had more or less cut himself off from his family, and indeed from his
+countrymen, by remaining a Papist. True, though born a Papist, he had
+not always been one; for, like many of the gentry, he had become a
+Protestant under Edward the Sixth, and then a Papist again under Mary.
+But, to his honor be it said, at that point he had stopped, having
+too much honesty to turn Protestant a second time, as hundreds did, at
+Elizabeth's accession. So a Papist he remained, living out of the way
+of the world in a great, rambling, dark house, still called “Chapel,”
+ on the Atlantic cliffs, in Moorwinstow parish, not far from Sir Richard
+Grenville's house of Stow. The penal laws never troubled him; for, in
+the first place, they never troubled any one who did not make conspiracy
+and rebellion an integral doctrine of his religious creed; and next,
+they seldom troubled even them, unless, fired with the glory of
+martyrdom, they bullied the long-suffering of Elizabeth and her council
+into giving them their deserts, and, like poor Father Southwell in
+after years, insisted on being hanged, whether Burleigh liked or not.
+Moreover, in such a no-man's-land and end-of-all-the-earth was that old
+house at Moorwinstow, that a dozen conspiracies might have been hatched
+there without any one hearing of it; and Jesuits and seminary priests
+skulked in and out all the year round, unquestioned though unblest; and
+found a sort of piquant pleasure, like naughty boys who have crept
+into the store-closet, in living in mysterious little dens in a lonely
+turret, and going up through a trap-door to celebrate mass in a secret
+chamber in the roof, where they were allowed by the powers that were to
+play as much as they chose at persecuted saints, and preach about hiding
+in dens and caves of the earth. For once, when the zealous parson
+of Moorwinstow, having discovered (what everybody knew already) the
+existence of “mass priests and their idolatry” at Chapel House, made
+formal complaint thereof to Sir Richard, and called on him, as the
+nearest justice of the peace, to put in force the act of the fourteenth
+of Elizabeth, that worthy knight only rated him soundly for a
+fantastical Puritan, and bade him mind his own business, if he wished
+not to make the place too hot for him; whereon (for the temporal
+authorities, happily for the peace of England, kept in those days
+a somewhat tight hand upon the spiritual ones) the worthy parson
+subsided,--for, after all, Mr. Thomas Leigh paid his tithes regularly
+enough,--and was content, as he expressed it, to bow his head in the
+house of Rimmon like Naaman of old, by eating Mr. Leigh's dinners
+as often as he was invited, and ignoring the vocation of old Father
+Francis, who sat opposite to him, dressed as a layman, and calling
+himself the young gentleman's pedagogue.
+
+But the said birds of ill-omen had a very considerable lien on the
+conscience of poor Mr. Thomas Leigh, the father of Eustace, in the form
+of certain lands once belonging to the Abbey of Hartland. He more than
+half believed that he should be lost for holding those lands; but he did
+not believe it wholly, and, therefore, he did not give them up; which
+was the case, as poor Mary Tudor found to her sorrow, with most of her
+“Catholic” subjects, whose consciences, while they compelled them to
+return to the only safe fold of Mother Church (extra quam nulla salus),
+by no means compelled them to disgorge the wealth of which they had
+plundered that only hope of their salvation. Most of them, however, like
+poor Tom Leigh, felt the abbey rents burn in their purses; and, as John
+Bull generally does in a difficulty, compromised the matter by a second
+folly (as if two wrong things made one right one), and petted foreign
+priests, and listened, or pretended not to listen, to their plottings
+and their practisings; and gave up a son here, and a son there, as a
+sort of a sin-offering and scapegoat, to be carried off to Douay, or
+Rheims, or Rome, and trained as a seminary priest; in plain English, to
+be taught the science of villainy, on the motive of superstition. One of
+such hapless scapegoats, and children who had been cast into the fire to
+Moloch, was Eustace Leigh, whom his father had sent, giving the fruit of
+his body for the sin of his soul, to be made a liar of at Rheims.
+
+And a very fair liar he had become. Not that the lad was a bad fellow at
+heart; but he had been chosen by the harpies at home, on account of his
+“peculiar vocation;” in plain English, because the wily priests had seen
+in him certain capacities of vague hysterical fear of the unseen (the
+religious sentiment, we call it now-a-days), and with them that tendency
+to be a rogue, which superstitious men always have. He was now a tall,
+handsome, light-complexioned man, with a huge upright forehead, a very
+small mouth, and a dry and set expression of face, which was always
+trying to get free, or rather to seem free, and indulge in smiles and
+dimples which were proper; for one ought to have Christian love, and
+if one had love one ought to be cheerful, and when people were cheerful
+they smiled; and therefore he would smile, and tried to do so; but his
+charity prepense looked no more alluring than malice prepense would have
+done; and, had he not been really a handsome fellow, many a woman who
+raved about his sweetness would have likened his frankness to that of a
+skeleton dancing in fetters, and his smiles to the grins thereof.
+
+He had returned to England about a month before, in obedience to the
+proclamation which had been set forth for that purpose (and certainly
+not before it was needed), that, “whosoever had children, wards,
+etc., in the parts beyond the seas, should send in their names to the
+ordinary, and within four months call them home again.” So Eustace was
+now staying with his father at Chapel, having, nevertheless, his private
+matters to transact on behalf of the virtuous society by whom he
+had been brought up; one of which private matters had brought him to
+Bideford the night before.
+
+So he sat down beside Amyas on the pebbles, and looked at him all over
+out of the corners of his eyes very gently, as if he did not wish to
+hurt him, or even the flies on his back; and Amyas faced right round,
+and looked him full in the face with the heartiest of smiles, and held
+out a lion's paw, which Eustace took rapturously, and a great shaking of
+hands ensued; Amyas gripping with a great round fist, and a quiet quiver
+thereof, as much as to say, “I AM glad to see you;” and Eustace pinching
+hard with white, straight fingers, and sawing the air violently up and
+down, as much as to say, “DON'T YOU SEE how glad I am to see you?” A
+very different greeting from the former.
+
+“Hold hard, old lad,” said Amyas, “before you break my elbow. And where
+do you come from?”
+
+“From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in
+it,” said he, with a little smile and nod of mysterious self-importance.
+
+“Like the devil, eh? Well, every man has his pattern. How is my uncle?”
+
+Now, if there was one man on earth above another, of whom Eustace Leigh
+stood in dread, it was his cousin Amyas. In the first place, he knew
+Amyas could have killed him with a blow; and there are natures, who,
+instead of rejoicing in the strength of men of greater prowess than
+themselves, look at such with irritation, dread, at last, spite;
+expecting, perhaps, that the stronger will do to them what they feel
+they might have done in his place. Every one, perhaps, has the same
+envious, cowardly devil haunting about his heart; but the brave men,
+though they be very sparrows, kick him out; the cowards keep him, and
+foster him; and so did poor Eustace Leigh.
+
+Next, he could not help feeling that Amyas despised him. They had not
+met for three years; but before Amyas went, Eustace never could argue
+with him, simply because Amyas treated him as beneath argument. No doubt
+he was often rude and unfair enough; but the whole mass of questions
+concerning the unseen world, which the priests had stimulated in his
+cousin's mind into an unhealthy fungus crop, were to Amyas simply, as he
+expressed it, “wind and moonshine;” and he treated his cousin as a
+sort of harmless lunatic, and, as they say in Devon, “half-baked.” And
+Eustace knew it; and knew, too, that his cousin did him an injustice.
+“He used to undervalue me,” said he to himself; “let us see whether he
+does not find me a match for him now.” And then went off into an agony
+of secret contrition for his self-seeking and his forgetting that
+“the glory of God, and not his own exaltation,” was the object of his
+existence.
+
+There, dear readers, Ex pede Herculem; I cannot tire myself or you
+(especially in this book) with any wire-drawn soul-dissections. I have
+tried to hint to you two opposite sorts of men,--the one trying to be
+good with all his might and main, according to certain approved methods
+and rules, which he has got by heart, and like a weak oarsman, feeling
+and fingering his spiritual muscles over all day, to see if they are
+growing; the other not even knowing whether he is good or not, but just
+doing the right thing without thinking about it, as simply as a little
+child, because the Spirit of God is with him. If you cannot see the
+great gulf fixed between the two, I trust that you will discover it some
+day.
+
+But in justice be it said, all this came upon Eustace, not because he
+was a Romanist, but because he was educated by the Jesuits. Had he been
+saved from them, he might have lived and died as simple and honest a
+gentleman as his brothers, who turned out like true Englishmen (as did
+all the Romish laity) to face the great Armada, and one of whom was
+fighting at that very minute under St. Leger in Ireland, and as brave
+and loyal a soldier as those Roman Catholics whose noble blood has
+stained every Crimean battlefield; but his fate was appointed otherwise;
+and the Upas-shadow which has blighted the whole Romish Church, blighted
+him also.
+
+“Ah, my dearest cousin!” said Eustace, “how disappointed I was this
+morning at finding I had arrived just a day too late to witness your
+triumph! But I hastened to your home as soon as I could, and learning
+from your mother that I should find you here, hurried down to bid you
+welcome again to Devon.”
+
+“Well, old lad, it does look very natural to see you. I often used to
+think of you walking the deck o' nights. Uncle and the girls are all
+right, then? But is the old pony dead yet? And how's Dick the smith, and
+Nancy? Grown a fine maid by now, I warrant. 'Slid, it seems half a life
+that I've been away.
+
+“And you really thought of your poor cousin? Be sure that he, too,
+thought of you, and offered up nightly his weak prayers for your safety
+(doubtless, not without avail) to those saints, to whom would that
+you--”
+
+“Halt there, coz. If they are half as good fellows as you and I take
+them for, they'll help me without asking.”
+
+“They have helped you, Amyas.”
+
+“Maybe; I'd have done as much, I'm sure, for them, if I 'd been in their
+place.”
+
+“And do you not feel, then, that you owe a debt of gratitude to them;
+and, above all, to her, whose intercessions have, I doubt not, availed
+for your preservation? Her, the star of the sea, the all-compassionate
+guide of the mariner?”
+
+“Humph!” said Amyas. “Here's Frank; let him answer.”
+
+And, as he spoke, up came Frank, and after due greetings, sat down
+beside them on the ridge.
+
+“I say, brother, here's Eustace trying already to convert me; and
+telling me that I owe all my luck to the Blessed Virgin's prayers for
+me.
+
+“It may be so,” said Frank; “at least you owe it to the prayers of that
+most pure and peerless virgin by whose commands you sailed; the sweet
+incense of whose orisons has gone up for you daily, and for whose sake
+you were preserved from flood and foe, that you might spread the fame
+and advance the power of the spotless championess of truth, and right,
+and freedom,--Elizabeth, your queen.”
+
+Amyas answered this rhapsody, which would have been then both
+fashionable and sincere, by a loyal chuckle. Eustace smiled meekly, but
+answered somewhat venomously nevertheless--
+
+“I, at least, am certain that I speak the truth, when I call my
+patroness a virgin undefiled.”
+
+Both the brothers' brows clouded at once. Amyas, as he lay on his back
+on the pebbles, said quietly to the gulls over his head--“I wonder what
+the Frenchman whose head I cut off at the Azores, thinks by now about
+all that.”
+
+“Cut off a Frenchman's head?” said Frank.
+
+“Yes, faith; and so fleshed my maiden sword. I'll tell you. It was
+in some tavern; I and George Drake had gone in, and there sat this
+Frenchman, with his sword on the table, ready for a quarrel (I found
+afterwards he was a noted bully), and begins with us loudly enough about
+this and that; but, after awhile, by the instigation of the devil, what
+does he vent but a dozen slanders against her majesty's honor, one atop
+of the other? I was ashamed to hear them, and I should be more ashamed
+to repeat them.”
+
+“I have heard enough of such,” said Frank. “They come mostly through
+lewd rascals about the French ambassador, who have been bred (God help
+them) among the filthy vices of that Medicean Court in which the Queen
+of Scots had her schooling; and can only perceive in a virtuous freedom
+a cloak for licentiousness like their own. Let the curs bark; Honi soit
+qui mal y pense is our motto, and shall be forever.”
+
+“But I didn't let the cur bark; for I took him by the ears, to show him
+out into the street. Whereon he got to his sword, and I to mine; and a
+very near chance I had of never bathing on the pebble ridge more; for
+the fellow did not fight with edge and buckler, like a Christian, but
+had some newfangled French devil's device of scryming and foining with
+his point, ha'ing and stamping, and tracing at me, that I expected to be
+full of eyelet holes ere I could close with him.”
+
+“Thank God that you are safe, then!” said Frank. “I know that play well
+enough, and dangerous enough it is.”
+
+“Of course you know it; but I didn't, more's the pity.”
+
+“Well, I'll teach it thee, lad, as well as Rowland Yorke himself,
+
+     'Thy fincture, carricade, and sly passata,
+     Thy stramazon, and resolute stoccata,
+     Wiping maudritta, closing embrocata,
+     And all the cant of the honorable fencing mystery.'”
+
+“Rowland Yorke? Who's he, then?”
+
+“A very roystering rascal, who is making good profit in London just now
+by teaching this very art of fence; and is as likely to have his mortal
+thread clipt in a tavern brawl, as thy Frenchman. But how did you escape
+his pinking iron?”
+
+“How? Had it through my left arm before I could look round; and at that
+I got mad, and leapt upon him, and caught him by the wrist, and then had
+a fair side-blow; and, as fortune would have it, off tumbled his head on
+to the table, and there was an end of his slanders.”
+
+“So perish all her enemies!” said Frank; and Eustace, who had been
+trying not to listen, rose and said--
+
+“I trust that you do not number me among them?”
+
+“As you speak, I do, coz,” said Frank. “But for your own sake, let
+me advise you to put faith in the true report of those who have daily
+experience of their mistress's excellent virtue, as they have of the
+sun's shining, and of the earth's bringing forth fruit, and not in the
+tattle of a few cowardly back-stair rogues, who wish to curry favor with
+the Guises. Come, we will say no more. Walk round with us by Appledore,
+and then home to breakfast.”
+
+But Eustace declined, having immediate business, he said, in Northam
+town, and then in Bideford; and so left them to lounge for another
+half-hour on the beach, and then walk across the smooth sheet of turf to
+the little white fishing village, which stands some two miles above the
+bar, at the meeting of the Torridge and the Taw.
+
+Now it came to pass, that Eustace Leigh, as we have seen, told his
+cousins that he was going to Northam: but he did not tell them that
+his point was really the same as their own, namely, Appledore; and,
+therefore, after having satisfied his conscience by going as far as the
+very nearest house in Northam village, he struck away sharp to the left
+across the fields, repeating I know not what to the Blessed Virgin all
+the way; whereby he went several miles out of his road; and also, as
+is the wont of crooked spirits, Jesuits especially (as three centuries
+sufficiently testify), only outwitted himself. For his cousins going
+merrily, like honest men, along the straight road across the turf,
+arrived in Appledore, opposite the little “Mariner's Rest” Inn, just in
+time to see what Eustace had taken so much trouble to hide from them,
+namely, four of Mr. Thomas Leigh's horses standing at the door, held by
+his groom, saddles and mail-bags on back, and mounting three of them,
+Eustace Leigh and two strange gentlemen.
+
+“There's one lie already this morning,” growled Amyas; “he told us he
+was going to Northam.”
+
+“And we do not know that he has not been there,” blandly suggested
+Frank.
+
+“Why, you are as bad a Jesuit as he, to help him out with such a fetch.”
+
+“He may have changed his mind.”
+
+“Bless your pure imagination, my sweet boy,” said Amyas, laying his
+great hand on Frank's head, and mimicking his mother's manner. “I
+say, dear Frank, let's step into this shop and buy a penny-worth of
+whipcord.”
+
+“What do you want with whipcord, man?”
+
+“To spin my top, to be sure.”
+
+“Top? how long hast had a top?”
+
+“I'll buy one, then, and save my conscience; but the upshot of this
+sport I must see. Why may not I have an excuse ready made as well as
+Master Eustace?”
+
+So saying, he pulled Frank into the little shop, unobserved by the party
+at the inn-door.
+
+“What strange cattle has he been importing now? Look at that
+three-legged fellow, trying to get aloft on the wrong side. How he claws
+at his horse's ribs, like a cat scratching an elder stem!”
+
+The three-legged man was a tall, meek-looking person, who had bedizened
+himself with gorgeous garments, a great feather, and a sword so long
+and broad, that it differed little in size from the very thin and stiff
+shanks between which it wandered uncomfortably.
+
+“Young David in Saul's weapons,” said Frank. “He had better not go in
+them, for he certainly has not proved them.”
+
+“Look, if his third leg is not turned into a tail! Why does not some one
+in charity haul in half-a-yard of his belt for him?”
+
+It was too true; the sword, after being kicked out three or four times
+from its uncomfortable post between his legs, had returned unconquered;
+and the hilt getting a little too far back by reason of the too great
+length of the belt, the weapon took up its post triumphantly behind,
+standing out point in air, a tail confest, amid the tittering of the
+ostlers, and the cheers of the sailors.
+
+At last the poor man, by dint of a chair, was mounted safely, while his
+fellow-stranger, a burly, coarse-looking man, equally gay, and rather
+more handy, made so fierce a rush at his saddle, that, like “vaulting
+ambition who o'erleaps his selle,” he “fell on t'other side:” or would
+have fallen, had he not been brought up short by the shoulders of the
+ostler at his off-stirrup. In which shock off came hat and feather.
+
+“Pardie, the bulldog-faced one is a fighting man. Dost see, Frank? he
+has had his head broken.”
+
+“That scar came not, my son, but by a pair of most Catholic and
+apostolic scissors. My gentle buzzard, that is a priest's tonsure.”
+
+“Hang the dog! O, that the sailors may but see it, and put him over the
+quay head. I've a half mind to go and do it myself.”
+
+“My dear Amyas,” said Frank, laying two fingers on his arm, “these
+men, whosoever they are, are the guests of our uncle, and therefore
+the guests of our family. Ham gained little by publishing Noah's shame;
+neither shall we, by publishing our uncle's.”
+
+“Murrain on you, old Franky, you never let a man speak his mind, and
+shame the devil.”
+
+“I have lived long enough in courts, old Amyas, without a murrain on
+you, to have found out, first, that it is not so easy to shame the
+devil; and secondly, that it is better to outwit him; and the only way
+to do that, sweet chuck, is very often not to speak your mind at all.
+We will go down and visit them at Chapel in a day or two, and see if we
+cannot serve these reynards as the badger did the fox, when he found him
+in his hole, and could not get him out by evil savors.”
+
+“How then?”
+
+“Stuck a sweet nosegay in the door, which turned reynard's stomach at
+once; and so overcame evil with good.”
+
+“Well, thou art too good for this world, that's certain; so we will go
+home to breakfast. Those rogues are out of sight by now.”
+
+Nevertheless, Amyas was not proof against the temptation of going over
+to the inn-door, and asking who were the gentlemen who went with Mr.
+Leigh.
+
+“Gentlemen of Wales,” said the ostler, “who came last night in a pinnace
+from Milford-haven, and their names, Mr. Morgan Evans and Mr. Evan
+Morgans.”
+
+“Mr. Judas Iscariot and Mr. Iscariot Judas,” said Amyas between his
+teeth, and then observed aloud, that the Welsh gentlemen seemed rather
+poor horsemen.
+
+“So I said to Mr. Leigh's groom, your worship. But he says that those
+parts be so uncommon rough and mountainous, that the poor gentlemen, you
+see, being enforced to hunt on foot, have no such opportunities as young
+gentlemen hereabout, like your worship; whom God preserve, and send a
+virtuous lady, and one worthy of you.”
+
+“Thou hast a villainously glib tongue, fellow!” said Amyas, who was
+thoroughly out of humor; “and a sneaking down visage too, when I come to
+look at you. I doubt but you are a Papist too, I do!”
+
+“Well, sir! and what if I am! I trust I don't break the queen's laws by
+that. If I don't attend Northam church, I pay my month's shilling for
+the use of the poor, as the act directs; and beyond that, neither you
+nor any man dare demand of me.”
+
+“Dare! act directs! You rascally lawyer, you! and whence does an ostler
+like you get your shilling to pay withal? Answer me.” The examinate
+found it so difficult to answer the question, that he suddenly became
+afflicted with deafness.
+
+“Do you hear?” roared Amyas, catching at him with his lion's paw.
+
+“Yes, missus; anon, anon, missus!” quoth he to an imaginary landlady
+inside, and twisting under Amyas's hand like an eel, vanished into the
+house, while Frank got the hot-headed youth away.
+
+“What a plague is one to do, then? That fellow was a Papist spy!”
+
+“Of course he was!” said Frank.
+
+“Then, what is one to do, if the whole country is full of them?”
+
+“Not to make fools of ourselves about them, and so leave them to make
+fools of themselves.”
+
+“That's all very fine: but--well, I shall remember the villain's face if
+I see him again.”
+
+“There is no harm in that,” said Frank.
+
+“Glad you think so.”
+
+“Don't quarrel with me, Amyas, the first day.”
+
+“Quarrel with thee, my darling old fellow! I had sooner kiss the dust
+off thy feet, if I were worthy of it. So now away home; my inside cries
+cupboard.”
+
+In the meanwhile Messrs. Evans and Morgans were riding away, as fast
+as the rough by-lanes would let them, along the fresh coast of the bay,
+steering carefully clear of Northam town on the one hand, and on the
+other, of Portledge, where dwelt that most Protestant justice of the
+peace, Mr. Coffin. And it was well for them that neither Amyas Leigh,
+nor indeed any other loyal Englishman, was by when they entered, as they
+shortly did, the lonely woods which stretch along the southern wall of
+the bay. For there Eustace Leigh pulled up short; and both he and his
+groom, leaping from their horses, knelt down humbly in the wet grass,
+and implored the blessing of the two valiant gentlemen of Wales,
+who, having graciously bestowed it with three fingers apiece, became
+thenceforth no longer Morgan Evans and Evan Morgans, Welshmen and
+gentlemen; but Father Parsons and Father Gampian, Jesuits, and gentlemen
+in no sense in which that word is applied in this book.
+
+After a few minutes, the party were again in motion, ambling steadily
+and cautiously along the high table-land, towards Moorwinstow in the
+west; while beneath them on the right, at the mouth of rich-wooded
+glens, opened vistas of the bright blue bay, and beyond it the sandhills
+of Braunton, and the ragged rocks of Morte; while far away to the north
+and west the lonely isle of Lundy hung like a soft gray cloud.
+
+But they were not destined to reach their point as peaceably as they
+could have wished. For just as they got opposite Clovelly dike, the huge
+old Roman encampment which stands about midway in their journey, they
+heard a halloo from the valley below, answered by a fainter one far
+ahead. At which, like a couple of rogues (as indeed they were), Father
+Campian and Father Parsons looked at each other, and then both stared
+round at the wild, desolate, open pasture (for the country was then all
+unenclosed), and the great dark furze-grown banks above their heads; and
+Campian remarked gently to Parsons, that this was a very dreary spot,
+and likely enough for robbers.
+
+“A likelier spot for us, Father,” said Eustace, punning. “The old Romans
+knew what they were about when they put their legions up aloft here to
+overlook land and sea for miles away; and we may thank them some day for
+their leavings. The banks are all sound; there is plenty of good water
+inside; and” (added he in Latin), “in case our Spanish friends--you
+understand?”
+
+“Pauca verba, my son!” said Campian: but as he spoke, up from the ditch
+close beside him, as if rising out of the earth, burst through the
+furze-bushes an armed cavalier.
+
+“Pardon, gentlemen!” shouted he, as the Jesuit and his horse recoiled
+against the groom. “Stand, for your lives!”
+
+“Mater caelorum!” moaned Campian; while Parsons, who, as all the world
+knows, was a blustering bully enough (at least with his tongue), asked:
+What a murrain right had he to stop honest folks on the queen's highway?
+confirming the same with a mighty oath, which he set down as peccatum
+veniale, on account of the sudden necessity; nay, indeed fraus pia, as
+proper to support the character of that valiant gentleman of Wales, Mr.
+Evan Morgans. But the horseman, taking no notice of his hint, dashed
+across the nose of Eustace Leigh's horse, with a “Hillo, old lad! where
+ridest so early?” and peering down for a moment into the ruts of the
+narrow track-way, struck spurs into his horse, shouting, “A fresh
+slot! right away for Hartland! Forward, gentlemen all! follow, follow,
+follow!”
+
+“Who is this roysterer?” asked Parsons, loftily.
+
+“Will Cary, of Clovelly; an awful heretic: and here come more behind.”
+
+And as he spoke four or five more mounted gallants plunged in and out of
+the great dikes, and thundered on behind the party; whose horses, quite
+understanding what game was up, burst into full gallop, neighing and
+squealing; and in another minute the hapless Jesuits were hurling along
+over moor and moss after a “hart of grease.”
+
+Parsons, who, though a vulgar bully, was no coward, supported the
+character of Mr. Evan Morgans well enough; and he would have really
+enjoyed himself, had he not been in agonies of fear lest those precious
+saddle-bags in front of him should break from their lashings, and
+rolling to the earth, expose to the hoofs of heretic horses, perhaps to
+the gaze of heretic eyes, such a cargo of bulls, dispensations, secret
+correspondences, seditious tracts, and so forth, that at the very
+thought of their being seen, his head felt loose upon his shoulders. But
+the future martyr behind him, Mr. Morgan Evans, gave himself up at once
+to abject despair, and as he bumped and rolled along, sought vainly for
+comfort in professional ejaculations in the Latin tongue.
+
+“Mater intemerata! Eripe me e--Ugh! I am down! Adhaesit pavimento
+venter!--No! I am not! El dilectum tuum e potestate canis--Ah! Audisti
+me inter cornua unicornium! Put this, too, down in--ugh!--thy account in
+favor of my poor--oh, sharpness of this saddle! Oh, whither, barbarous
+islanders!”
+
+Now riding on his quarter, not in the rough track-way like a cockney,
+but through the soft heather like a sportsman, was a very gallant knight
+whom we all know well by this time, Richard Grenville by name; who had
+made Mr. Cary and the rest his guests the night before, and then ridden
+out with them at five o'clock that morning, after the wholesome early
+ways of the time, to rouse a well-known stag in the glens at Buckish, by
+help of Mr. Coffin's hounds from Portledge. Who being as good a Latiner
+as Campian's self, and overhearing both the scraps of psalm and the
+“barbarous islanders,” pushed his horse alongside of Mr. Eustace
+Leigh, and at the first check said, with two low bows towards the two
+strangers--
+
+“I hope Mr. Leigh will do me the honor of introducing me to his guests.
+I should be sorry, and Mr. Cary also, that any gentle strangers should
+become neighbors of ours, even for a day, without our knowing who they
+are who honor our western Thule with a visit; and showing them ourselves
+all due requital for the compliment of their presence.”
+
+After which, the only thing which poor Eustace could do (especially as
+it was spoken loud enough for all bystanders), was to introduce in due
+form Mr. Evan Morgans and Mr. Morgan Evans, who, hearing the name, and,
+what was worse, seeing the terrible face with its quiet searching eye,
+felt like a brace of partridge-poults cowering in the stubble, with a
+hawk hanging ten feet over their heads.
+
+“Gentlemen,” said Sir Richard blandly, cap in hand, “I fear that your
+mails must have been somewhat in your way in this unexpected gallop. If
+you will permit my groom, who is behind, to disencumber you of them
+and carry them to Chapel, you will both confer an honor on me, and be
+enabled yourselves to see the mort more pleasantly.”
+
+A twinkle of fun, in spite of all his efforts, played about good Sir
+Richard's eye as he gave this searching hint. The two Welsh gentlemen
+stammered out clumsy thanks; and pleading great haste and fatigue from
+a long journey, contrived to fall to the rear and vanish with their
+guides, as soon as the slot had been recovered.
+
+“Will!” said Sir Richard, pushing alongside of young Cary.
+
+“Your worship?”
+
+“Jesuits, Will!”
+
+“May the father of lies fly away with them over the nearest cliff!”
+
+“He will not do that while this Irish trouble is about. Those fellows
+are come to practise here for Saunders and Desmond.”
+
+“Perhaps they have a consecrated banner in their bag, the scoundrels!
+Shall I and young Coffin on and stop them? Hard if the honest men may
+not rob the thieves once in a way.”
+
+“No; give the devil rope, and he will hang himself. Keep thy tongue at
+home, and thine eyes too, Will.”
+
+“How then?”
+
+“Let Clovelly beach be watched night and day like any mousehole. No one
+can land round Harty Point with these south-westers. Stop every fellow
+who has the ghost of an Irish brogue, come he in or go he out, and send
+him over to me.”
+
+“Some one should guard Bude-haven, sir.”
+
+“Leave that to me. Now then, forward, gentlemen all, or the stag will
+take the sea at the Abbey.”
+
+And on they crashed down the Hartland glens, through the oak-scrub and
+the great crown-ferns; and the baying of the slow-hound and the tantaras
+of the horn died away farther and fainter toward the blue Atlantic,
+while the conspirators, with lightened hearts, pricked fast across
+Bursdon upon their evil errand. But Eustace Leigh had other thoughts
+and other cares than the safety of his father's two mysterious guests,
+important as that was in his eyes; for he was one of the many who had
+drunk in sweet poison (though in his case it could hardly be called
+sweet) from the magic glances of the Rose of Torridge. He had seen her
+in the town, and for the first time in his life fallen utterly in love;
+and now that she had come down close to his father's house, he looked on
+her as a lamb fallen unawares into the jaws of the greedy wolf, which
+he felt himself to be. For Eustace's love had little or nothing of
+chivalry, self-sacrifice, or purity in it; those were virtues which were
+not taught at Rheims. Careful as the Jesuits were over the practical
+morality of their pupils, this severe restraint had little effect in
+producing real habits of self-control. What little Eustace had learnt of
+women from them, was as base and vulgar as the rest of their teaching.
+What could it be else, if instilled by men educated in the schools of
+Italy and France, in the age which produced the foul novels of Cinthio
+and Bandello, and compelled Rabelais in order to escape the rack and
+stake, to hide the light of his great wisdom, not beneath a bushel, but
+beneath a dunghill; the age in which the Romish Church had made
+marriage a legalized tyranny, and the laity, by a natural and pardonable
+revulsion, had exalted adultery into a virtue and a science? That all
+love was lust; that all women had their price; that profligacy, though
+an ecclesiastical sin, was so pardonable, if not necessary, as to be
+hardly a moral sin, were notions which Eustace must needs have gathered
+from the hints of his preceptors; for their written works bear to this
+day fullest and foulest testimony that such was their opinion; and that
+their conception of the relation of the sexes was really not a whit
+higher than that of the profligate laity who confessed to them. He
+longed to marry Rose Salterne, with a wild selfish fury; but only that
+he might be able to claim her as his own property, and keep all others
+from her. Of her as a co-equal and ennobling helpmate; as one in whose
+honor, glory, growth of heart and soul, his own were inextricably wrapt
+up, he had never dreamed. Marriage would prevent God from being angry
+with that, with which otherwise He might be angry; and therefore the
+sanction of the Church was the more “probable and safe” course. But as
+yet his suit was in very embryo. He could not even tell whether Rose
+knew of his love; and he wasted miserable hours in maddening thoughts,
+and tost all night upon his sleepless bed, and rose next morning fierce
+and pale, to invent fresh excuses for going over to her uncle's house,
+and lingering about the fruit which he dared not snatch.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE TWO WAYS OF BEING CROST IN LOVE
+
+     “I could not love thee, dear, so much,
+     Loved I not honor more.”--LOVELACE.
+
+And what all this while has become of the fair breaker of so many
+hearts, to whom I have not yet even introduced my readers?
+
+She was sitting in the little farm-house beside the mill, buried in the
+green depths of the valley of Combe, half-way between Stow and Chapel,
+sulking as much as her sweet nature would let her, at being thus
+shut out from all the grand doings at Bideford, and forced to keep a
+Martinmas Lent in that far western glen. So lonely was she, in fact,
+that though she regarded Eustace Leigh with somewhat of aversion, and
+(being a good Protestant) with a great deal of suspicion, she could not
+find it in her heart to avoid a chat with him whenever he came down to
+the farm and to its mill, which he contrived to do, on I know not what
+would-be errand, almost every day. Her uncle and aunt at first looked
+stiff enough at these visits, and the latter took care always to make a
+third in every conversation; but still Mr. Leigh was a gentleman's
+son, and it would not do to be rude to a neighboring squire and a good
+customer; and Rose was the rich man's daughter and they poor cousins,
+so it would not do either to quarrel with her; and besides, the
+pretty maid, half by wilfulness, and half by her sweet winning tricks,
+generally contrived to get her own way wheresoever she went; and
+she herself had been wise enough to beg her aunt never to leave them
+alone,--for she “could not a-bear the sight of Mr. Eustace, only
+she must have some one to talk with down here.” On which her aunt
+considered, that she herself was but a simple country-woman; and that
+townsfolks' ways of course must be very different from hers; and that
+people knew their own business best; and so forth, and let things go
+on their own way. Eustace, in the meanwhile, who knew well that the
+difference in creed between him and Rose was likely to be the very
+hardest obstacle in the way of his love, took care to keep his private
+opinions well in the background; and instead of trying to convert the
+folk at the mill, daily bought milk or flour from them, and gave it
+away to the old women in Moorwinstow (who agreed that after all, for
+a Papist, he was a godly young man enough); and at last, having taken
+counsel with Campian and Parsons on certain political plots then on
+foot, came with them to the conclusion that they would all three go to
+church the next Sunday. Where Messrs. Evan Morgans and Morgan Evans,
+having crammed up the rubrics beforehand, behaved themselves in a most
+orthodox and unexceptionable manner; as did also poor Eustace, to the
+great wonder of all good folks, and then went home flattering himself
+that he had taken in parson, clerk, and people; not knowing in his
+simple unsimplicity, and cunning foolishness, that each good wife in the
+parish was saying to the other, “He turned Protestant? The devil turned
+monk! He's only after Mistress Salterne, the young hypocrite.”
+
+But if the two Jesuits found it expedient, for the holy cause in which
+they were embarked, to reconcile themselves outwardly to the powers
+that were, they were none the less busy in private in plotting their
+overthrow.
+
+Ever since April last they had been playing at hide-and-seek through the
+length and breadth of England, and now they were only lying quiet till
+expected news from Ireland should give them their cue, and a great
+“rising of the West” should sweep from her throne that stiff-necked,
+persecuting, excommunicate, reprobate, illegitimate, and profligate
+usurper, who falsely called herself the Queen of England.
+
+For they had as stoutly persuaded themselves in those days, as they
+have in these (with a real Baconian contempt of the results of sensible
+experience), that the heart of England was really with them, and that
+the British nation was on the point of returning to the bosom of the
+Catholic Church, and giving up Elizabeth to be led in chains to the feet
+of the rightful Lord of Creation, the Old Man of the Seven Hills.
+And this fair hope, which has been skipping just in front of them for
+centuries, always a step farther off, like the place where the rainbow
+touches the ground, they used to announce at times, in language which
+terrified old Mr. Leigh. One day, indeed, as Eustace entered his
+father's private room, after his usual visit to the mill, he could
+hear voices high in dispute; Parsons as usual, blustering; Mr. Leigh
+peevishly deprecating, and Campian, who was really the sweetest-natured
+of men, trying to pour oil on the troubled waters. Whereat Eustace (for
+the good of the cause, of course) stopped outside and listened.
+
+“My excellent sir,” said Mr. Leigh, “does not your very presence here
+show how I am affected toward the holy cause of the Catholic faith? But
+I cannot in the meanwhile forget that I am an Englishman.”
+
+“And what is England?” said Parsons: “A heretic and schismatic Babylon,
+whereof it is written, 'Come out of her, my people, lest you be partaker
+of her plagues.' Yea, what is a country? An arbitrary division of
+territory by the princes of this world, who are naught, and come to
+naught. They are created by the people's will; their existence depends
+on the sanction of him to whom all power is given in heaven and
+earth--our Holy Father the Pope. Take away the latter, and what is a
+king?--the people who have made him may unmake him.”
+
+“My dear sir, recollect that I have sworn allegiance to Queen
+Elizabeth!”
+
+“Yes, sir, you have, sir; and, as I have shown at large in my writings,
+you were absolved from that allegiance from the moment that the bull of
+Pius the Fifth declared her a heretic and excommunicate, and thereby to
+have forfeited all dominion whatsoever. I tell you, sir, what I thought
+you should have known already, that since the year 1569, England has had
+no queen, no magistrates, no laws, no lawful authority whatsoever; and
+that to own allegiance to any English magistrate, sir, or to plead in an
+English court of law, is to disobey the apostolic precept, 'How dare you
+go to law before the unbelievers?' I tell you, sir, rebellion is now not
+merely permitted, it is a duty.”
+
+“Take care, sir; for God's sake, take care!” said Mr. Leigh. “Right or
+wrong, I cannot have such language used in my house. For the sake of my
+wife and children, I cannot!”
+
+“My dear brother Parsons, deal more gently with the flock,” interposed
+Campian. “Your opinion, though probable, as I well know, in the eyes of
+most of our order, is hardly safe enough here; the opposite is at least
+so safe that Mr. Leigh may well excuse his conscience for accepting it.
+After all, are we not sent hither to proclaim this very thing, and to
+relieve the souls of good Catholics from a burden which has seemed to
+them too heavy?”
+
+“Yes,” said Parsons, half-sulkily, “to allow all Balaams who will to
+sacrifice to Baal, while they call themselves by the name of the Lord.”
+
+“My dear brother, have I not often reminded you that Naaman was allowed
+to bow himself in the house of Rimmon? And can we therefore complain of
+the office to which the Holy Father has appointed us, to declare to such
+as Mr. Leigh his especial grace, by which the bull of Pius the Fifth
+(on whose soul God have mercy!) shall henceforth bind the queen and the
+heretics only; but in no ways the Catholics, at least as long as the
+present tyranny prevents the pious purposes of the bull?”
+
+“Be it so, sir; be it so. Only observe this, Mr. Leigh, that our brother
+Campian confesses this to be a tyranny. Observe, sir, that the bull does
+still bind the so-called queen, and that she and her magistrates are
+still none the less usurpers, nonentities, and shadows of a shade. And
+observe this, sir, that when that which is lawful is excused to the
+weak, it remains no less lawful to the strong. The seven thousand who
+had not bowed the knee to Baal did not slay his priests; but Elijah did,
+and won to himself a good reward. And if the rest of the children of
+Israel sinned not in not slaying Eglon, yet Ehud's deed was none the
+less justified by all laws human and divine.”
+
+“For Heaven's sake, do not talk so, sir! or I must leave the room. What
+have I to do with Ehud and Eglon, and slaughters, and tyrannies? Our
+queen is a very good queen, if Heaven would but grant her repentance,
+and turn her to the true faith. I have never been troubled about
+religion, nor any one else that I know of in the West country.”
+
+“You forget Mr. Trudgeon of Launceston, father, and poor Father Mayne,”
+ interposed Eustace, who had by this time slipped in; and Campian added
+softly--
+
+“Yes, your West of England also has been honored by its martyrs, as well
+as my London by the precious blood of Story.”
+
+“What, young malapert?” cried poor Leigh, facing round upon his son,
+glad to find any one on whom he might vent his ill-humor; “are you too
+against me, with a murrain on you? And pray, what the devil brought
+Cuthbert Mayne to the gallows, and turned Mr. Trudgeon (he was always a
+foolish hot-head) out of house and home, but just such treasonable talk
+as Mr. Parsons must needs hold in my house, to make a beggar of me and
+my children, as he will before he has done.”
+
+“The Blessed Virgin forbid!” said Campian.
+
+“The Blessed Virgin forbid? But you must help her to forbid it, Mr.
+Campian. We should never have had the law of 1571, against bulls, and
+Agnus Deis, and blessed grains, if the Pope's bull of 1569 had not made
+them matter of treason, by preventing a poor creature's saving his soul
+in the true Church without putting his neck into a halter by denying the
+queen's authority.”
+
+“What, sir?” almost roared Parsons, “do you dare to speak evil of the
+edicts of the Vicar of Christ?”
+
+“I? No. I didn't. Who says I did? All I meant was, I am sure--Mr.
+Campian, you are a reasonable man, speak for me.”
+
+“Mr. Leigh only meant, I am sure, that the Holy Father's prudent
+intentions have been so far defeated by the perverseness and invincible
+misunderstanding of the heretics, that that which was in itself meant
+for the good of the oppressed English Catholics has been perverted to
+their harm.”
+
+“And thus, reverend sir,” said Eustace, glad to get into his father's
+good graces again, “my father attaches blame, not to the Pope--Heaven
+forbid!--but to the pravity of his enemies.”
+
+“And it is for this very reason,” said Campian, “that we have brought
+with us the present merciful explanation of the bull.”
+
+“I'll tell you what, gentlemen,” said Mr. Leigh, who, like other weak
+men, grew in valor as his opponent seemed inclined to make peace, “I
+don't think the declaration was needed. After the new law of 1571 was
+made, it was never put in force till Mayne and Trudgeon made fools of
+themselves, and that was full six years. There were a few offenders,
+they say, who were brought up and admonished, and let go; but even that
+did not happen down here, and need not happen now, unless you put my son
+here (for you shall never put me, I warrant you) upon some deed which
+had better be left alone, and so bring us all to shame.”
+
+“Your son, sir, if not openly vowed to God, has, I hope, a due sense
+of that inward vocation which we have seen in him, and reverences his
+spiritual fathers too well to listen to the temptations of his earthly
+father.”
+
+“What, sir, will you teach my son to disobey me?”
+
+“Your son is ours also, sir. This is strange language in one who owes a
+debt to the Church, which it was charitably fancied he meant to pay in
+the person of his child.”
+
+These last words touched poor Mr. Leigh in a sore point, and breaking
+all bounds, he swore roundly at Parsons, who stood foaming with rage.
+
+“A plague upon you, sir, and a black assizes for you, for you will come
+to the gallows yet! Do you mean to taunt me in my own house with that
+Hartland land? You had better go back and ask those who sent you where
+the dispensation to hold the land is, which they promised to get me
+years ago, and have gone on putting me off, till they have got my money,
+and my son, and my conscience, and I vow before all the saints, seem now
+to want my head over and above. God help me!”--and the poor man's eyes
+fairly filled with tears.
+
+Now was Eustace's turn to be roused; for, after all, he was an
+Englishman and a gentleman; and he said kindly enough, but firmly--
+
+“Courage, my dearest father. Remember that I am still your son, and not
+a Jesuit yet; and whether I ever become one, I promise you, will depend
+mainly on the treatment which you meet with at the hands of these
+reverend gentlemen, for whom I, as having brought them hither, must
+consider myself as surety to you.”
+
+If a powder-barrel had exploded in the Jesuits' faces, they could not
+have been more amazed. Campian looked blank at Parsons, and Parsons at
+Campian; till the stouter-hearted of the two, recovering his breath at
+last--
+
+“Sir! do you know, sir, the curse pronounced on those who, after putting
+their hand to the plough, look back?”
+
+Eustace was one of those impulsive men, with a lack of moral courage,
+who dare raise the devil, but never dare fight him after he has been
+raised; and he now tried to pass off his speech by winking and making
+signs in the direction of his father, as much as to say that he was only
+trying to quiet the old man's fears. But Campian was too frightened,
+Parsons too angry, to take his hints: and he had to carry his part
+through.
+
+“All I read is, Father Parsons, that such are not fit for the kingdom of
+God; of which high honor I have for some time past felt myself unworthy.
+I have much doubt just now as to my vocation; and in the meanwhile have
+not forgotten that I am a citizen of a free country.” And so saying, he
+took his father's arm, and walked out.
+
+His last words had hit the Jesuits hard. They had put the poor
+cobweb-spinners in mind of the humiliating fact, which they have had
+thrust on them daily from that time till now, and yet have never learnt
+the lesson, that all their scholastic cunning, plotting, intriguing,
+bulls, pardons, indulgences, and the rest of it, are, on this side
+the Channel, a mere enchanter's cloud-castle and Fata Morgana, which
+vanishes into empty air by one touch of that magic wand, the constable's
+staff. “A citizen of a free country!”--there was the rub; and they
+looked at each other in more utter perplexity than ever. At last Parsons
+spoke.
+
+“There's a woman in the wind. I'll lay my life on it. I saw him blush up
+crimson yesterday when his mother asked him whether some Rose Salterne
+or other was still in the neighborhood.”
+
+“A woman! Well, the spirit may be willing, though the flesh be weak. We
+will inquire into this. The youth may do us good service as a layman;
+and if anything should happen to his elder brother (whom the saints
+protect!) he is heir to some wealth. In the meanwhile, our dear brother
+Parsons will perhaps see the expediency of altering our tactics somewhat
+while we are here.”
+
+And thereupon a long conversation began between the two, who had been
+sent together, after the wise method of their order, in obedience to the
+precept, “Two are better than one,” in order that Campian might restrain
+Parsons' vehemence, and Parsons spur on Campian's gentleness, and so
+each act as the supplement of the other, and each also, it must be
+confessed, gave advice pretty nearly contradictory to his fellow's if
+occasion should require, “without the danger,” as their writers have it,
+“of seeming changeable and inconsistent.”
+
+The upshot of this conversation was, that in a day or two (during which
+time Mr. Leigh and Eustace also had made the amende honorable, and
+matters went smoothly enough) Father Campian asked Father Francis,
+the household chaplain, to allow him, as an especial favor, to hear
+Eustace's usual confession on the ensuing Friday.
+
+Poor Father Francis dared not refuse so great a man; and assented with
+an inward groan, knowing well that the intent was to worm out some
+family secrets, whereby his power would be diminished, and the Jesuits'
+increased. For the regular priesthood and the Jesuits throughout England
+were toward each other in a state of armed neutrality, which wanted but
+little at any moment to become open war, as it did in James the First's
+time, when those meek missionaries, by their gentle moral tortures,
+literally hunted to death the poor Popish bishop of Hippopotamus (that
+is to say, London) for the time being.
+
+However, Campian heard Eustace's confession; and by putting to him such
+questions as may be easily conceived by those who know anything about
+the confessional, discovered satisfactorily enough, that he was what
+Campian would have called “in love:” though I should question much
+the propriety of the term as applied to any facts which poor prurient
+Campian discovered, or indeed knew how to discover, seeing that a swine
+has no eye for pearls. But he had found out enough: he smiled, and set
+to work next vigorously to discover who the lady might be.
+
+If he had frankly said to Eustace, “I feel for you; and if your desires
+are reasonable, or lawful, or possible, I will help you with all my
+heart and soul,” he might have had the young man's secret heart, and
+saved himself an hour's trouble; but, of course, he took instinctively
+the crooked and suspicious method, expected to find the case the worst
+possible,--as a man was bound to do who had been trained to take the
+lowest possible view of human nature, and to consider the basest motives
+as the mainspring of all human action,--and began his moral torture
+accordingly by a series of delicate questions, which poor Eustace dodged
+in every possible way, though he knew that the good father was too
+cunning for him, and that he must give in at last. Nevertheless, like a
+rabbit who runs squealing round and round before the weasel, into whose
+jaws it knows that it must jump at last by force of fascination, he
+parried and parried, and pretended to be stupid, and surprised, and
+honorably scrupulous, and even angry; while every question as to her
+being married or single, Catholic or heretic, English or foreign,
+brought his tormentor a step nearer the goal. At last, when Campian,
+finding the business not such a very bad one, had asked something about
+her worldly wealth, Eustace saw a door of escape and sprang at it.
+
+“Even if she be a heretic, she is heiress to one of the wealthiest
+merchants in Devon.”
+
+“Ah!” said Campian, thoughtfully. “And she is but eighteen, you say?”
+
+“Only eighteen.”
+
+“Ah! well, my son, there is time. She may be reconciled to the Church:
+or you may change.”
+
+“I shall die first.”
+
+“Ah, poor lad! Well; she may be reconciled, and her wealth may be of use
+to the cause of Heaven.”
+
+“And it shall be of use. Only absolve me, and let me be at peace. Let
+me have but her,” he cried piteously. “I do not want her wealth,--not I!
+Let me have but her, and that but for one year, one month, one day!--and
+all the rest--money, fame, talents, yea, my life itself, hers if it be
+needed--are at the service of Holy Church. Ay, I shall glory in showing
+my devotion by some special sacrifice,--some desperate deed. Prove me
+now, and see what there is I will not do!”
+
+And so Eustace was absolved; after which Campian added,--
+
+“This is indeed well, my son: for there is a thing to be done now, but
+it may be at the risk of life.”
+
+“Prove me!” cried Eustace, impatiently.
+
+“Here is a letter which was brought me last night; no matter from
+whence; you can understand it better than I, and I longed to have shown
+it you, but that I feared my son had become--”
+
+“You feared wrongly, then, my dear Father Campian.”
+
+So Campian translated to him the cipher of the letter.
+
+“This to Evan Morgans, gentleman, at Mr. Leigh's house in Moorwinstow,
+Devonshire. News may be had by one who will go to the shore of Clovelly,
+any evening after the 25th of November, at dead low tide, and there
+watch for a boat, rowed by one with a red beard, and a Portugal by his
+speech. If he be asked, 'How many?' he will answer, 'Eight hundred and
+one.' Take his letters and read them. If the shore be watched, let him
+who comes show a light three times in a safe place under the cliff
+above the town; below is dangerous landing. Farewell, and expect great
+things!”
+
+“I will go,” said Eustace; “to-morrow is the 25th, and I know a sure and
+easy place. Your friend seems to know these shores well.”
+
+“Ah! what is it we do not know?” said Campian, with a mysterious smile.
+“And now?”
+
+“And now, to prove to you how I trust to you, you shall come with me,
+and see this--the lady of whom I spoke, and judge for yourself whether
+my fault is not a venial one.”
+
+“Ah, my son, have I not absolved you already? What have I to do with
+fair faces? Nevertheless, I will come, both to show you that I trust
+you, and it may be to help towards reclaiming a heretic, and saving a
+lost soul: who knows?”
+
+So the two set out together; and, as it was appointed, they had just got
+to the top of the hill between Chapel and Stow mill, when up the lane
+came none other than Mistress Rose Salterne herself, in all the glories
+of a new scarlet hood, from under which her large dark languid eyes
+gleamed soft lightnings through poor Eustace's heart and marrow. Up
+to them she tripped on delicate ankles and tiny feet, tall, lithe, and
+graceful, a true West-country lass; and as she passed them with a
+pretty blush and courtesy, even Campian looked back at the fair innocent
+creature, whose long dark curls, after the then country fashion, rolled
+down from beneath the hood below her waist, entangling the soul of
+Eustace Leigh within their glossy nets.
+
+“There!” whispered he, trembling from head to foot. “Can you excuse me
+now?”
+
+“I had excused you long ago;” said the kindhearted father. “Alas, that
+so much fair red and white should have been created only as a feast for
+worms!”
+
+“A feast for gods, you mean!” cried Eustace, on whose common sense the
+naive absurdity of the last speech struck keenly; and then, as if to
+escape the scolding which he deserved for his heathenry--
+
+“Will you let me return for a moment? I will follow you: let me go!”
+
+Campian saw that it was of no use to say no, and nodded. Eustace darted
+from his side, and running across a field, met Rose full at the next
+turn of the road.
+
+She started, and gave a pretty little shriek.
+
+“Mr. Leigh! I thought you had gone forward.”
+
+“I came back to speak to you, Rose--Mistress Salterne, I mean.”
+
+“To me?”
+
+“To you I must speak, tell you all, or die!” And he pressed up close to
+her. She shrank back, somewhat frightened.
+
+“Do not stir; do not go, I implore you! Rose, only hear me!” And
+fiercely and passionately seizing her by the hand, he poured out the
+whole story of his love, heaping her with every fantastic epithet of
+admiration which he could devise.
+
+There was little, perhaps, of all his words which Rose had not heard
+many a time before; but there was a quiver in his voice, and a fire in
+his eye, from which she shrank by instinct.
+
+“Let me go!” she said; “you are too rough, sir!”
+
+“Ay!” he said, seizing now both her hands, “rougher, perhaps, than the
+gay gallants of Bideford, who serenade you, and write sonnets to you,
+and send you posies. Rougher, but more loving, Rose! Do not turn away!
+I shall die if you take your eyes off me! Tell me,--tell me, now
+here--this moment--before we part--if I may love you!”
+
+“Go away!” she answered, struggling, and bursting into tears. “This is
+too rude. If I am but a merchant's daughter. I am God's child. Remember
+that I am alone. Leave me; go! or I will call for help!”
+
+Eustace had heard or read somewhere that such expressions in a woman's
+mouth were mere facons de parler, and on the whole signs that she had no
+objection to be alone, and did not intend to call for help; and he only
+grasped her hands the more fiercely, and looked into her face with keen
+and hungry eyes; but she was in earnest, nevertheless, and a loud shriek
+made him aware that, if he wished to save his own good name, he must
+go: but there was one question, for an answer to which he would risk his
+very life.
+
+“Yes, proud woman! I thought so! Some one of those gay gallants has been
+beforehand with me. Tell me who--”
+
+But she broke from him, and passed him, and fled down the lane.
+
+“Mark it!” cried he, after her. “You shall rue the day when you despised
+Eustace Leigh! Mark it, proud beauty!” And he turned back to join
+Campian, who stood in some trepidation.
+
+“You have not hurt the maiden, my son? I thought I heard a scream.”
+
+“Hurt her! No. Would God that she were dead, nevertheless, and I by her!
+Say no more to me, father. We will home.” Even Campian knew enough of
+the world to guess what had happened, and they both hurried home in
+silence.
+
+And so Eustace Leigh played his move, and lost it.
+
+Poor little Rose, having run nearly to Chapel, stopped for very shame,
+and walked quietly by the cottages which stood opposite the gate, and
+then turned up the lane towards Moorwinstow village, whither she was
+bound. But on second thoughts, she felt herself so “red and flustered,”
+ that she was afraid of going into the village, for fear (as she said to
+herself) of making people talk, and so, turning into a by-path, struck
+away toward the cliffs, to cool her blushes in the sea-breeze. And there
+finding a quiet grassy nook beneath the crest of the rocks, she sat down
+on the turf, and fell into a great meditation.
+
+Rose Salterne was a thorough specimen of a West-coast maiden, full of
+passionate impulsive affections, and wild dreamy imaginations, a fit
+subject, as the North-Devon women are still, for all romantic and gentle
+superstitions. Left early without mother's care, she had fed her fancy
+upon the legends and ballads of her native land, till she believed--what
+did she not believe?--of mermaids and pixies, charms and witches,
+dreams and omens, and all that world of magic in which most of the
+countrywomen, and countrymen too, believed firmly enough but twenty
+years ago. Then her father's house was seldom without some merchant, or
+sea-captain from foreign parts, who, like Othello, had his tales of--
+
+        “Antres vast, and deserts idle,
+     Of rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads reach heaven.”
+
+And,--
+
+     “And of the cannibals that each other eat,
+     The anthropophagi, and men whose heads
+     Do grow beneath their shoulders.”
+
+All which tales, she, like Desdemona, devoured with greedy ears,
+whenever she could “the house affairs with haste despatch.” And when
+these failed, there was still boundless store of wonders open to her in
+old romances which were then to be found in every English house of the
+better class. The Legend of King Arthur, Florice and Blancheflour, Sir
+Ysumbras, Sir Guy of Warwick, Palamon and Arcite, and the Romaunt of the
+Rose, were with her text-books and canonical authorities. And lucky it
+was, perhaps, for her that Sidney's Arcadia was still in petto, or Mr.
+Frank (who had already seen the first book or two in manuscript, and
+extolled it above all books past, present, or to come) would have surely
+brought a copy down for Rose, and thereby have turned her poor little
+flighty brains upside down forever. And with her head full of these, it
+was no wonder if she had likened herself of late more than once to some
+of those peerless princesses of old, for whose fair hand paladins and
+kaisers thundered against each other in tilted field; and perhaps she
+would not have been sorry (provided, of course, no one was killed) if
+duels, and passages of arms in honor of her, as her father reasonably
+dreaded, had actually taken place.
+
+For Rose was not only well aware that she was wooed, but found the said
+wooing (and little shame to her) a very pleasant process. Not that she
+had any wish to break hearts: she did not break her heart for any of her
+admirers, and why should they break theirs for her? They were all very
+charming, each in his way (the gentlemen, at least; for she had long
+since learnt to turn up her nose at merchants and burghers); but one of
+them was not so very much better than the other.
+
+Of course, Mr. Frank Leigh was the most charming; but then, as a
+courtier and squire of dames, he had never given her a sign of real
+love, nothing but sonnets and compliments, and there was no trusting
+such things from a gallant, who was said (though, by the by, most
+scandalously) to have a lady love at Milan, and another at Vienna, and
+half-a-dozen in the Court, and half-a-dozen more in the city.
+
+And very charming was Mr. William Cary, with his quips and his jests,
+and his galliards and lavoltas; over and above his rich inheritance;
+but then, charming also Mr. Coffin of Portledge, though he were a little
+proud and stately; but which of the two should she choose? It would be
+very pleasant to be mistress of Clovelly Court; but just as pleasant to
+find herself lady of Portledge, where the Coffins had lived ever since
+Noah's flood (if, indeed, they had not merely returned thither after
+that temporary displacement), and to bring her wealth into a family
+which was as proud of its antiquity as any nobleman in Devon, and might
+have made a fourth to that famous trio of Devonshire Cs, of which it is
+written,--
+
+     “Crocker, Cruwys, and Copplestone,
+     When the Conqueror came were all at home.”
+
+And Mr. Hugh Fortescue, too--people said that he was certain to become a
+great soldier--perhaps as great as his brother Arthur--and that would
+be pleasant enough, too, though he was but the younger son of an
+innumerable family: but then, so was Amyas Leigh. Ah, poor Amyas! Her
+girl's fancy for him had vanished, or rather, perhaps, it was very much
+what it always had been, only that four or five more girl's fancies
+beside it had entered in, and kept it in due subjection. But still, she
+could not help thinking a good deal about him, and his voyage, and the
+reports of his great strength, and beauty, and valor, which had already
+reached her in that out-of-the-way corner; and though she was not in the
+least in love with him, she could not help hoping that he had at least
+(to put her pretty little thought in the mildest shape) not altogether
+forgotten her; and was hungering, too, with all her fancy, to give him
+no peace till he had told her all the wonderful things which he had seen
+and done in this ever-memorable voyage. So that, altogether, it was no
+wonder, if in her last night's dream the figure of Amyas had been even
+more forward and troublesome than that of Frank or the rest.
+
+But, moreover, another figure had been forward and troublesome enough in
+last night's sleep-world; and forward and troublesome enough, too, now
+in to-day's waking-world, namely, Eustace, the rejected. How strange
+that she should have dreamt of him the night before! and dreamt, too,
+of his fighting with Mr. Frank and Mr. Amyas! It must be a warning--see,
+she had met him the very next day in this strange way; so the first half
+of her dream had come true; and after what had past, she only had to
+breathe a whisper, and the second part of the dream would come true
+also. If she wished for a passage of arms in her own honor, she could
+easily enough compass one: not that she would do it for worlds! And
+after all, though Mr. Eustace had been very rude and naughty, yet still
+it was not his own fault; he could not help being in love with her.
+And--and, in short, the poor little maid felt herself one of the most
+important personages on earth, with all the cares (or hearts) of the
+country in her keeping, and as much perplexed with matters of weight as
+ever was any Cleophila, or Dianeme, Fiordispina or Flourdeluce, in verse
+run tame, or prose run mad.
+
+Poor little Rose! Had she but had a mother! But she was to learn her
+lesson, such as it was, in another school. She was too shy (too proud
+perhaps) to tell her aunt her mighty troubles; but a counsellor she must
+have; and after sitting with her head in her hands, for half-an-hour
+or more, she arose suddenly, and started off along the cliffs towards
+Marsland. She would go and see Lucy Passmore, the white witch; Lucy knew
+everything; Lucy would tell her what to do; perhaps even whom to marry.
+
+Lucy was a fat, jolly woman of fifty, with little pig-eyes, which
+twinkled like sparks of fire, and eyebrows which sloped upwards and
+outwards, like those of a satyr, as if she had been (as indeed she had)
+all her life looking out of the corners of her eyes. Her qualifications
+as white witch were boundless cunning, equally boundless good nature,
+considerable knowledge of human weaknesses, some mesmeric power, some
+skill in “yarbs,” as she called her simples, a firm faith in the virtue
+of her own incantations, and the faculty of holding her tongue. By dint
+of these she contrived to gain a fair share of money, and also (which
+she liked even better) of power, among the simple folk for many miles
+round. If a child was scalded, a tooth ached, a piece of silver was
+stolen, a heifer shrew-struck, a pig bewitched, a young damsel crost in
+love, Lucy was called in, and Lucy found a remedy, especially for the
+latter complaint. Now and then she found herself on ticklish ground, for
+the kind-heartedness which compelled her to help all distressed damsels
+out of a scrape, sometimes compelled her also to help them into one;
+whereon enraged fathers called Lucy ugly names, and threatened to send
+her into Exeter gaol for a witch, and she smiled quietly, and hinted
+that if she were “like some that were ready to return evil for evil,
+such talk as that would bring no blessing on them that spoke it;” which
+being translated into plain English, meant, “If you trouble me, I will
+overlook (i. e. fascinate) you, and then your pigs will die, your horses
+stray, your cream turn sour, your barns be fired, your son have St.
+Vitus's dance, your daughter fits, and so on, woe on woe, till you are
+very probably starved to death in a ditch, by virtue of this terrible
+little eye of mine, at which, in spite of all your swearing and
+bullying, you know you are now shaking in your shoes for fear. So you
+had much better hold your tongue, give me a drink of cider, and leave
+ill alone, lest you make it worse.”
+
+Not that Lucy ever proceeded to any such fearful extremities. On the
+contrary, her boast, and her belief too, was, that she was sent into
+the world to make poor souls as happy as she could, by lawful means,
+of course, if possible, but if not--why, unlawful ones were better than
+none; for she “couldn't a-bear to see the poor creatures taking on;
+she was too, too tender-hearted.” And so she was, to every one but her
+husband, a tall, simple-hearted rabbit-faced man, a good deal older than
+herself. Fully agreeing with Sir Richard Grenville's great axiom,
+that he who cannot obey cannot rule, Lucy had been for the last
+five-and-twenty years training him pretty smartly to obey her, with the
+intention, it is to be charitably hoped, of letting him rule her in
+turn when his lesson was perfected. He bore his honors, however, meekly
+enough, having a boundless respect for his wife's wisdom, and a firm
+belief in her supernatural powers, and let her go her own way and earn
+her own money, while he got a little more in a truly pastoral method
+(not extinct yet along those lonely cliffs), by feeding a herd of some
+dozen donkeys and twenty goats. The donkeys fetched, at each low-tide,
+white shell-sand which was to be sold for manure to the neighboring
+farmers; the goats furnished milk and “kiddy-pies;” and when there was
+neither milking nor sand-carrying to be done, old Will Passmore just
+sat under a sunny rock and watched the buck-goats rattle their horns
+together, thinking about nothing at all, and taking very good care
+all the while neither to inquire nor to see who came in and out of his
+little cottage in the glen.
+
+The prophetess, when Rose approached her oracular cave, was seated on
+a tripod in front of the fire, distilling strong waters out of
+penny-royal. But no sooner did her distinguished visitor appear at the
+hatch, than the still was left to take care of itself, and a clean
+apron and mutch having been slipt on, Lucy welcomed Rose with endless
+courtesies, and--“Bless my dear soul alive, who ever would have thought
+to see the Rose of Torridge to my poor little place!”
+
+Rose sat down: and then? How to begin was more than she knew, and she
+stayed silent a full five minutes, looking earnestly at the point of
+her shoe, till Lucy, who was an adept in such cases, thought it best
+to proceed to business at once, and save Rose the delicate operation
+of opening the ball herself; and so, in her own way, half fawning, half
+familiar--
+
+“Well, my dear young lady, and what is it I can do for ye? For I guess
+you want a bit of old Lucy's help, eh? Though I'm most mazed to see ye
+here, surely. I should have supposed that pretty face could manage they
+sort of matters for itself. Eh?”
+
+Rose, thus bluntly charged, confessed at once, and with many blushes and
+hesitations, made her soon understand that what she wanted was “To have
+her fortune told.”
+
+“Eh? Oh! I see. The pretty face has managed it a bit too well already,
+eh? Tu many o' mun, pure fellows? Well, 'tain't every mayden has her
+pick and choose, like some I know of, as be blest in love by stars
+above. So you hain't made up your mind, then?”
+
+Rose shook her head.
+
+“Ah--well,” she went on, in a half-bantering tone. “Not so asy, is it,
+then? One's gude for one thing, and one for another, eh? One has the
+blood, and another the money.”
+
+And so the “cunning woman” (as she truly was), talking half to herself,
+ran over all the names which she thought likely, peering at Rose all the
+while out of the corners of her foxy bright eyes, while Rose stirred the
+peat ashes steadfastly with the point of her little shoe, half angry,
+half ashamed, half frightened, to find that “the cunning woman” had
+guessed so well both her suitors and her thoughts about them, and tried
+to look unconcerned at each name as it came out.
+
+“Well, well,” said Lucy, who took nothing by her move, simply because
+there was nothing to take; “think over it--think over it, my dear life;
+and if you did set your mind on any one--why, then--then maybe I might
+help you to a sight of him.”
+
+“A sight of him?”
+
+“His sperrit, dear life, his sperrit only, I mane. I 'udn't have no
+keeping company in my house, no, not for gowld untowld, I 'udn't; but
+the sperrit of mun--to see whether mun would be true or not, you'd like
+to know that, now, 'udn't you, my darling?”
+
+Rose sighed, and stirred the ashes about vehemently.
+
+“I must first know who it is to be. If you could show me that--now--”
+
+“Oh, I can show ye that, tu, I can. Ben there's a way to 't, a sure way;
+but 'tis mortal cold for the time o' year, you zee.”
+
+“But what is it, then?” said Rose, who had in her heart been longing for
+something of that very kind, and had half made up her mind to ask for a
+charm.
+
+“Why, you'm not afraid to goo into the say by night for a minute, are
+you? And to-morrow night would serve, too; 't will be just low tide to
+midnight.”
+
+“If you would come with me perhaps--”
+
+“I'll come, I'll come, and stand within call, to be sure. Only do ye
+mind this, dear soul alive, not to goo telling a crumb about mun, noo,
+not for the world, or yu'll see naught at all, indeed, now. And beside,
+there's a noxious business grow'd up against me up to Chapel there; and
+I hear tell how Mr. Leigh saith I shall to Exeter gaol for a witch--did
+ye ever hear the likes?--because his groom Jan saith I overlooked
+mun--the Papist dog! And now never he nor th' owld Father Francis goo by
+me without a spetting, and saying of their Ayes and Malificas--I do
+know what their Rooman Latin do mane, zo well as ever they, I du!--and a
+making o' their charms and incantations to their saints and idols! They
+be mortal feared of witches, they Papists, and mortal hard on 'em, even
+on a pure body like me, that doth a bit in the white way; 'case why you
+see, dear life,” said she, with one of her humorous twinkles, “tu to a
+trade do never agree. Do ye try my bit of a charm, now; do ye!”
+
+Rose could not resist the temptation; and between them both the charm
+was agreed on, and the next night was fixed for its trial, on the
+payment of certain current coins of the realm (for Lucy, of course,
+must live by her trade); and slipping a tester into the dame's hand as
+earnest, Rose went away home, and got there in safety.
+
+But in the meanwhile, at the very hour that Eustace had been prosecuting
+his suit in the lane at Moorwinstow, a very different scene was being
+enacted in Mrs. Leigh's room at Burrough.
+
+For the night before, Amyas, as he was going to bed, heard his brother
+Frank in the next room tune his lute, and then begin to sing. And
+both their windows being open, and only a thin partition between the
+chambers, Amyas's admiring ears came in for every word of the following
+canzonet, sung in that delicate and mellow tenor voice for which Frank
+was famed among all fair ladies:--
+
+      “Ah, tyrant Love, Megaera's serpents bearing,
+     Why thus requite my sighs with venom'd smart?
+       Ah, ruthless dove, the vulture's talons wearing,
+     Why flesh them, traitress, in this faithful heart?
+       Is this my meed?  Must dragons' teeth alone
+       In Venus' lawns by lovers' hands be sown?
+
+      “Nay, gentlest Cupid; 'twas my pride undid me.
+     Nay, guiltless dove; by mine own wound I fell.
+       To worship, not to wed, Celestials bid me:
+     I dreamt to mate in heaven, and wake in hell;
+       Forever doom'd, Ixion-like, to reel
+       On mine own passions' ever-burning wheel.”
+
+At which the simple sailor sighed, and longed that he could write such
+neat verses, and sing them so sweetly. How he would besiege the ear
+of Rose Salterne with amorous ditties! But still, he could not be
+everything; and if he had the bone and muscle of the family, it was but
+fair that Frank should have the brains and voice; and, after all, he was
+bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, and it was just the same as
+if he himself could do all the fine things which Frank could do; for as
+long as one of the family won honor, what matter which of them it was?
+Whereon he shouted through the wall, “Good night, old song-thrush; I
+suppose I need not pay the musicians.”
+
+“What, awake?” answered Frank. “Come in here, and lull me to sleep with
+a sea-song.”
+
+So Amyas went in, and found Frank laid on the outside of his bed not yet
+undrest.
+
+“I am a bad sleeper,” said he; “I spend more time, I fear, in burning
+the midnight oil than prudent men should. Come and be my jongleur,
+my minnesinger, and tell me about Andes, and cannibals, and the
+ice-regions, and the fire-regions, and the paradises of the West.”
+
+So Amyas sat down, and told: but somehow, every story which he tried to
+tell came round, by crooked paths, yet sure, to none other point than
+Rose Salterne, and how he thought of her here and thought of her there,
+and how he wondered what she would say if she had seen him in this
+adventure, and how he longed to have had her with him to show her that
+glorious sight, till Frank let him have his own way, and then out came
+the whole story of the simple fellow's daily and hourly devotion to her,
+through those three long years of world-wide wanderings.
+
+“And oh, Frank, I could hardly think of anything but her in the church
+the other day, God forgive me! and it did seem so hard for her to be the
+only face which I did not see--and have not seen her yet, either.”
+
+“So I thought, dear lad,” said Frank, with one of his sweetest smiles;
+“and tried to get her father to let her impersonate the nymph of
+Torridge.”
+
+“Did you, you dear kind fellow? That would have been too delicious.”
+
+“Just so, too delicious; wherefore, I suppose, it was ordained not to
+be, that which was being delicious enough.”
+
+“And is she as pretty as ever?”
+
+“Ten times as pretty, dear lad, as half the young fellows round have
+discovered. If you mean to win her and wear her (and God grant you may
+fare no worse!) you will have rivals enough to get rid of.”
+
+“Humph!” said Amyas, “I hope I shall not have to make short work with
+some of them.”
+
+“I hope not,” said Frank, laughing. “Now go to bed, and to-morrow
+morning give your sword to mother to keep, lest you should be tempted to
+draw it on any of her majesty's lieges.”
+
+“No fear of that, Frank; I am no swash-buckler, thank God; but if any
+one gets in my way, I'll serve him as the mastiff did the terrier,
+and just drop him over the quay into the river, to cool himself, or my
+name's not Amyas.”
+
+And the giant swung himself laughing out of the room, and slept all
+night like a seal, not without dreams, of course, of Rose Salterne.
+
+The next morning, according to his wont, he went into his mother's room,
+whom he was sure to find up and at her prayers; for he liked to say his
+prayers, too, by her side, as he used to do when he was a little boy. It
+seemed so homelike, he said, after three years' knocking up and down
+in no-man's land. But coming gently to the door, for fear of disturbing
+her, and entering unperceived, beheld a sight which stopped him short.
+
+Mrs. Leigh was sitting in her chair, with her face bowed fondly down
+upon the head of his brother Frank, who knelt before her, his face
+buried in her lap. Amyas could see that his whole form was quivering
+with stifled emotion. Their mother was just finishing the last words
+of a well-known text,--“for my sake, and the Gospel's, shall receive a
+hundred-fold in this present life, fathers, and mothers, and brothers,
+and sisters.”
+
+“But not a wife!” interrupted Frank, with a voice stifled with sobs;
+“that was too precious a gift for even Him to promise to those who gave
+up a first love for His sake!”
+
+“And yet,” said he, after a moment's silence, “has He not heaped me with
+blessings enough already, that I must repine and rage at His refusing me
+one more, even though that one be--No, mother! I am your son, and God's;
+and you shall know it, even though Amyas never does!” And he looked up
+with his clear blue eyes and white forehead; and his face was as the
+face of an angel.
+
+Both of them saw that Amyas was present, and started and blushed. His
+mother motioned him away with her eyes, and he went quietly out, as one
+stunned. Why had his name been mentioned?
+
+Love, cunning love, told him all at once. This was the meaning of last
+night's canzonet! This was why its words had seemed to fit his own heart
+so well! His brother was his rival. And he had been telling him all his
+love last night. What a stupid brute he was! How it must have made poor
+Frank wince! And then Frank had listened so kindly; even bid him God
+speed in his suit. What a gentleman old Frank was, to be sure! No wonder
+the queen was so fond of him, and all the Court ladies!--Why, if it
+came to that, what wonder if Rose Salterne should be fond of him too?
+Hey-day! “That would be a pretty fish to find in my net when I come to
+haul it!” quoth Amyas to himself, as he paced the garden; and clutching
+desperately hold of his locks with both hands, as if to hold his poor
+confused head on its shoulders, he strode and tramped up and down the
+shell-paved garden walks for a full half hour, till Frank's voice (as
+cheerful as ever, though he more than suspected all) called him.
+
+“Come in to breakfast, lad; and stop grinding and creaking upon those
+miserable limpets, before thou hast set every tooth in my head on edge!”
+
+Amyas, whether by dint of holding his head straight, or by higher means,
+had got the thoughts of the said head straight enough by this time; and
+in he came, and fell to upon the broiled fish and strong ale, with a
+sort of fury, as determined to do his duty to the utmost in all matters
+that day, and therefore, of course, in that most important matter of
+bodily sustenance; while his mother and Frank looked at him, not without
+anxiety and even terror, doubting what turn his fancy might have taken
+in so new a case; at last--
+
+“My dear Amyas, you will really heat your blood with all that strong
+ale! Remember, those who drink beer, think beer.”
+
+“Then they think right good thoughts, mother. And in the meanwhile,
+those who drink water, think water. Eh, old Frank? and here's your
+health.”
+
+“And clouds are water,” said his mother, somewhat reassured by his
+genuine good humor; “and so are rainbows; and clouds are angels'
+thrones, and rainbows the sign of God's peace on earth.”
+
+Amyas understood the hint, and laughed. “Then I'll pledge Frank out
+of the next ditch, if it please you and him. But first--I say--he must
+hearken to a parable; a manner mystery, miracle play, I have got in
+my head, like what they have at Easter, to the town-hall. Now then,
+hearken, madam, and I and Frank will act.” And up rose Amyas, and shoved
+back his chair, and put on a solemn face.
+
+Mrs. Leigh looked up, trembling; and Frank, he scarce knew why, rose.
+
+“No; you pitch again. You are King David, and sit still upon your
+throne. David was a great singer, you know, and a player on the viols;
+and ruddy, too, and of a fair countenance; so that will fit. Now, then,
+mother, don't look so frightened. I am not going to play Goliath, for
+all my cubits; I am to present Nathan the prophet. Now, David, hearken,
+for I have a message unto thee, O King!
+
+“There were two men in one city, one rich, and the other poor: and the
+rich man had many flocks and herds, and all the fine ladies in Whitehall
+to court if he liked; and the poor man had nothing but--”
+
+And in spite of his broad honest smile, Amyas's deep voice began to
+tremble and choke.
+
+Frank sprang up, and burst into tears: “Oh! Amyas, my brother, my
+brother! stop! I cannot endure this. Oh, God! was it not enough to have
+entangled myself in this fatal fancy, but over and above, I must meet
+the shame of my brother's discovering it?”
+
+“What shame, then, I'd like to know?” said Amyas, recovering himself.
+“Look here, brother Frank! I've thought it all over in the garden; and
+I was an ass and a braggart for talking to you as I did last night.
+Of course you love her! Everybody must; and I was a fool for not
+recollecting that; and if you love her, your taste and mine agree, and
+what can be better? I think you are a sensible fellow for loving her,
+and you think me one. And as for who has her, why, you're the eldest;
+and first come first served is the rule, and best to keep to it.
+Besides, brother Frank, though I'm no scholar, yet I'm not so blind but
+that I tell the difference between you and me; and of course your chance
+against mine, for a hundred to one; and I am not going to be fool enough
+to row against wind and tide too. I'm good enough for her, I hope; but
+if I am, you are better, and the good dog may run, but it's the best
+that takes the hare; and so I have nothing more to do with the matter
+at all; and if you marry her, why, it will set the old house on its legs
+again, and that's the first thing to be thought of, and you may just as
+well do it as I, and better too. Not but that it's a plague, a horrible
+plague!” went on Amyas, with a ludicrously doleful visage; “but so
+are other things too, by the dozen; it's all in the day's work, as the
+huntsman said when the lion ate him. One would never get through the
+furze-croft if one stopped to pull out the prickles. The pig didn't
+scramble out of the ditch by squeaking; and the less said the sooner
+mended; nobody was sent into the world only to suck honey-pots. What
+must be must, man is but dust; if you can't get crumb, you must fain
+eat crust. So I'll go and join the army in Ireland, and get it out of
+my head, for cannon balls fright away love as well as poverty does; and
+that's all I've got to say.” Wherewith Amyas sat down, and returned to
+the beer; while Mrs. Leigh wept tears of joy.
+
+“Amyas! Amyas!” said Frank; “you must not throw away the hopes of years,
+and for me, too! Oh, how just was your parable! Ah! mother mine! to
+what use is all my scholarship and my philosophy, when this dear simple
+sailor-lad outdoes me at the first trial of courtesy!”
+
+“My children, my children, which of you shall I love best? Which of you
+is the more noble? I thanked God this morning for having given me one
+such son; but to have found that I possess two!” And Mrs. Leigh laid her
+head on the table, and buried her face in her hands, while the generous
+battle went on.
+
+“But, dearest Amyas!--”
+
+“But, Frank! if you don't hold your tongue, I must go forth. It
+was quite trouble enough to make up one's mind, without having you
+afterwards trying to unmake it again.”
+
+“Amyas! if you give her up to me, God do so to me, and more also, if I
+do not hereby give her up to you!”
+
+“He had done it already--this morning!” said Mrs. Leigh, looking up
+through her tears. “He renounced her forever on his knees before me!
+only he is too noble to tell you so.”
+
+“The more reason I should copy him,” said Amyas, setting his lips, and
+trying to look desperately determined, and then suddenly jumping up,
+he leaped upon Frank, and throwing his arms round his neck, sobbed out,
+“There, there, now! For God's sake, let us forget all, and think about
+our mother, and the old house, and how we may win her honor before we
+die! and that will be enough to keep our hands full, without fretting
+about this woman and that.--What an ass I have been for years! instead
+of learning my calling, dreaming about her, and don't know at this
+minute whether she cares more for me than she does for her father's
+'prentices!”
+
+“Oh, Amyas! every word of yours puts me to fresh shame! Will you believe
+that I know as little of her likings as you do?”
+
+“Don't tell me that, and play the devil's game by putting fresh hopes
+into me, when I am trying to kick them out. I won't believe it. If she
+is not a fool, she must love you; and if she don't, why, be hanged if
+she is worth loving!”
+
+“My dearest Amyas! I must ask you too to make no more such speeches to
+me. All those thoughts I have forsworn.”
+
+“Only this morning; so there is time to catch them again before they are
+gone too far.”
+
+“Only this morning,” said Frank, with a quiet smile: “but centuries have
+passed since then.”
+
+“Centuries? I don't see many gray hairs yet.”
+
+“I should not have been surprised if you had, though,” answered Frank,
+in so sad and meaning a tone that Amyas could only answer--
+
+“Well, you are an angel!”
+
+“You, at least, are something even more to the purpose, for you are a
+man!”
+
+And both spoke truth, and so the battle ended; and Frank went to his
+books, while Amyas, who must needs be doing, if he was not to dream,
+started off to the dockyard to potter about a new ship of Sir Richard's,
+and forget his woes, in the capacity of Sir Oracle among the sailors.
+And so he had played his move for Rose, even as Eustace had, and lost
+her: but not as Eustace had.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CLOVELLY COURT IN THE OLDEN TIME
+
+          “It was among the ways of good Queen Bess,
+             Who ruled as well as ever mortal can, sir,
+           When she was stogg'd, and the country in a mess,
+             She was wont to send for a Devon man, sir.”
+
+                                         West Country Song.
+
+The next morning Amyas Leigh was not to be found. Not that he had gone
+out to drown himself in despair, or even to bemoan himself “down by the
+Torridge side.” He had simply ridden off, Frank found, to Sir Richard
+Grenville at Stow: his mother at once divined the truth, that he was
+gone to try for a post in the Irish army, and sent off Frank after him
+to bring him home again, and make him at least reconsider himself.
+
+So Frank took horse and rode thereon ten miles or more: and then, as
+there were no inns on the road in those days, or indeed in these, and
+he had some ten miles more of hilly road before him, he turned down
+the hill towards Clovelly Court, to obtain, after the hospitable humane
+fashion of those days, good entertainment for man and horse from Mr.
+Cary the squire.
+
+And when he walked self-invited, like the loud-shouting Menelaus, into
+the long dark wainscoted hall of the court, the first object he beheld
+was the mighty form of Amyas, who, seated at the long table, was
+alternately burying his face in a pasty, and the pasty in his face, his
+sorrows having, as it seemed, only sharpened his appetite, while young
+Will Cary, kneeling on the opposite bench, with his elbows on the table,
+was in that graceful attitude laying down the law fiercely to him in a
+low voice.
+
+“Hillo! lad,” cried Amyas; “come hither and deliver me out of the hands
+of this fire-eater, who I verily believe will kill me, if I do not let
+him kill some one else.”
+
+“Ah! Mr. Frank,” said Will Cary, who, like all other young gentlemen of
+these parts, held Frank in high honor, and considered him a very oracle
+and cynosure of fashion and chivalry, “welcome here: I was just longing
+for you, too; I wanted your advice on half-a-dozen matters. Sit down,
+and eat. There is the ale.”
+
+“None so early, thank you.”
+
+“Ah no!” said Amyas, burying his head in the tankard, and then mimicking
+Frank, “avoid strong ale o' mornings. It heats the blood, thickens
+the animal spirits, and obfuscates the cerebrum with frenetical and
+lymphatic idols, which cloud the quintessential light of the pure
+reason. Eh? young Plato, young Daniel, come hither to judgment! And yet,
+though I cannot see through the bottom of the tankard already, I can see
+plain enough still to see this, that Will shall not fight.”
+
+“Shall I not, eh? who says that? Mr. Frank, I appeal to you, now; only
+hear.”
+
+“We are in the judgment-seat,” said Frank, settling to the pasty.
+“Proceed, appellant.”
+
+“Well, I was telling Amyas, that Tom Coffin, of Portledge; I will stand
+him no longer.”
+
+“Let him be, then,” said Amyas; “he could stand very well by himself,
+when I saw him last.”
+
+“Plague on you, hold your tongue. Has he any right to look at me as he
+does, whenever I pass him?”
+
+“That depends on how he looks; a cat may look at a king, provided she
+don't take him for a mouse.”
+
+“Oh, I know how he looks, and what he means too, and he shall stop, or I
+will stop him. And the other day, when I spoke of Rose Salterne”--“Ah!”
+ groaned Frank, “Ate's apple again!”--“(never mind what I said) he burst
+out laughing in my face; and is not that a fair quarrel? And what is
+more, I know that he wrote a sonnet, and sent it to her to Stow by a
+market woman. What right has he to write sonnets when I can't? It's not
+fair play, Mr. Frank, or I am a Jew, and a Spaniard, and a Papist; it's
+not!” And Will smote the table till the plates danced again.
+
+“My dear knight of the burning pestle, I have a plan, a device, a
+disentanglement, according to most approved rules of chivalry. Let us
+fix a day, and summon by tuck of drum all young gentlemen under the
+age of thirty, dwelling within fifteen miles of the habitation of that
+peerless Oriana.”
+
+“And all 'prentice-boys too,” cried Amyas, out of the pasty.
+
+“And all 'prentice-boys. The bold lads shall fight first, with good
+quarterstaves, in Bideford Market, till all heads are broken; and the
+head which is not broken, let the back belonging to it pay the penalty
+of the noble member's cowardice. After which grand tournament, to which
+that of Tottenham shall be but a flea-bite and a batrachomyomachy--”
+
+“Confound you, and your long words, sir,” said poor Will, “I know you
+are flouting me.”
+
+“Pazienza, Signor Cavaliere; that which is to come is no flouting, but
+bloody and warlike earnest. For afterwards all the young gentlemen
+shall adjourn into a convenient field, sand, or bog--which last will be
+better, as no man will be able to run away, if he be up to his knees
+in soft peat: and there stripping to our shirts, with rapiers of equal
+length and keenest temper, each shall slay his man, catch who catch can,
+and the conquerors fight again, like a most valiant main of gamecocks
+as we are, till all be dead, and out of their woes; after which the
+survivor, bewailing before heaven and earth the cruelty of our Fair
+Oriana, and the slaughter which her basiliscine eyes have caused, shall
+fall gracefully upon his sword, and so end the woes of this our lovelorn
+generation. Placetne Domini? as they used to ask in the Senate at
+Oxford.”
+
+“Really,” said Cary, “this is too bad.”
+
+“So is, pardon me, your fighting Mr. Coffin with anything longer than a
+bodkin.”
+
+“Bodkins are too short for such fierce Bobadils,” said Amyas; “they
+would close in so near, that we should have them falling to fisticuffs
+after the first bout.”
+
+“Then let them fight with squirts across the market-place; for by heaven
+and the queen's laws, they shall fight with nothing else.”
+
+“My dear Mr. Cary,” went on Frank, suddenly changing his bantering tone
+to one of the most winning sweetness, “do not fancy that I cannot feel
+for you, or that I, as well as you, have not known the stings of love
+and the bitterer stings of jealousy. But oh, Mr. Cary, does it not seem
+to you an awful thing to waste selfishly upon your own quarrel that
+divine wrath which, as Plato says, is the very root of all virtues, and
+which has been given you, like all else which you have, that you may
+spend it in the service of her whom all bad souls fear, and all virtuous
+souls adore,--our peerless queen? Who dares, while she rules England,
+call his sword or his courage his own, or any one's but hers? Are there
+no Spaniards to conquer, no wild Irish to deliver from their oppressors,
+that two gentlemen of Devon can find no better place to flesh their
+blades than in each other's valiant and honorable hearts?”
+
+“By heaven!” cried Amyas, “Frank speaks like a book; and for me, I do
+think that Christian gentlemen may leave love quarrels to bulls and
+rams.”
+
+“And that the heir of Clovelly,” said Frank, smiling, “may find more
+noble examples to copy than the stags in his own deer-park.”
+
+“Well,” said Will, penitently, “you are a great scholar, Mr. Frank, and
+you speak like one; but gentlemen must fight sometimes, or where would
+be their honor?”
+
+“I speak,” said Frank, a little proudly, “not merely as a scholar,
+but as a gentleman, and one who has fought ere now, and to whom it has
+happened, Mr. Cary, to kill his man (on whose soul may God have mercy);
+but it is my pride to remember that I have never yet fought in my own
+quarrel, and my trust in God that I never shall. For as there is nothing
+more noble and blessed than to fight in behalf of those whom we love,
+so to fight in our own private behalf is a thing not to be allowed to a
+Christian man, unless refusal imports utter loss of life or honor;
+and even then, it may be (though I would not lay a burden on any man's
+conscience), it is better not to resist evil, but to overcome it with
+good.”
+
+“And I can tell you, Will,” said Amyas, “I am not troubled with fear of
+ghosts; but when I cut off the Frenchman's head, I said to myself, 'If
+that braggart had been slandering me instead of her gracious majesty, I
+should expect to see that head lying on my pillow every time I went to
+bed at night.'”
+
+“God forbid!” said Will, with a shudder. “But what shall I do? for to
+the market tomorrow I will go, if it were choke-full of Coffins, and a
+ghost in each coffin of the lot.”
+
+“Leave the matter to me,” said Amyas. “I have my device, as well as
+scholar Frank here; and if there be, as I suppose there must be, a
+quarrel in the market to-morrow, see if I do not--”
+
+“Well, you are two good fellows,” said Will. “Let us have another
+tankard in.”
+
+“And drink the health of Mr. Coffin, and all gallant lads of the North,”
+ said Frank; “and now to my business. I have to take this runaway youth
+here home to his mother; and if he will not go quietly, I have orders to
+carry him across my saddle.”
+
+“I hope your nag has a strong back, then,” said Amyas; “but I must go on
+and see Sir Richard, Frank. It is all very well to jest as we have been
+doing, but my mind is made up.”
+
+“Stop,” said Cary. “You must stay here tonight; first, for good
+fellowship's sake; and next, because I want the advice of our Phoenix
+here, our oracle, our paragon. There, Mr. Frank, can you construe that
+for me? Speak low, though, gentlemen both; there comes my father; you
+had better give me the letter again. Well, father, whence this morning?”
+
+“Eh, company here? Young men, you are always welcome, and such as you.
+Would there were more of your sort in these dirty times! How is your
+good mother, Frank, eh? Where have I been, Will? Round the house-farm,
+to look at the beeves. That sheeted heifer of Prowse's is all wrong;
+her coat stares like a hedgepig's. Tell Jewell to go up and bring her in
+before night. And then up the forty acres; sprang two coveys, and picked
+a leash out of them. The Irish hawk flies as wild as any haggard still,
+and will never make a bird. I had to hand her to Tom, and take the
+little peregrine. Give me a Clovelly hawk against the world, after
+all; and--heigh ho, I am very hungry! Half-past twelve, and dinner not
+served? What, Master Amyas, spoiling your appetite with strong ale?
+Better have tried sack, lad; have some now with me.”
+
+And the worthy old gentleman, having finished his oration, settled
+himself on a great bench inside the chimney, and put his hawk on a perch
+over his head, while his cockers coiled themselves up close to the warm
+peat-ashes, and his son set to work to pull off his father's boots, amid
+sundry warnings to take care of his corns.
+
+“Come, Master Amyas, a pint of white wine and sugar, and a bit of a
+shoeing-horn to it ere we dine. Some pickled prawns, now, or a rasher
+off the coals, to whet you?”
+
+“Thank you,” quoth Amyas; “but I have drunk a mort of outlandish
+liquors, better and worse, in the last three years, and yet never found
+aught to come up to good ale, which needs neither shoeing-horn before
+nor after, but takes care of itself, and of all honest stomachs too, I
+think.”
+
+“You speak like a book, boy,” said old Cary; “and after all, what a
+plague comes of these newfangled hot wines, and aqua vitaes, which have
+come in since the wars, but maddening of the brains, and fever of the
+blood?”
+
+“I fear we have not seen the end of that yet,” said Frank. “My friends
+write me from the Netherlands that our men are falling into a swinish
+trick of swilling like the Hollanders. Heaven grant that they may not
+bring home the fashion with them.”
+
+“A man must drink, they say, or die of the ague, in those vile swamps,”
+ said Amyas. “When they get home here, they will not need it.”
+
+“Heaven grant it,” said Frank; “I should be sorry to see Devonshire
+a drunken county; and there are many of our men out there with Mr.
+Champernoun.”
+
+“Ah,” said Cary, “there, as in Ireland, we are proving her majesty's
+saying true, that Devonshire is her right hand, and the young children
+thereof like the arrows in the hand of the giant.”
+
+“They may well be,” said his son, “when some of them are giants
+themselves, like my tall school-fellow opposite.”
+
+“He will be up and doing again presently, I'll warrant him,” said old
+Cary.
+
+“And that I shall,” quoth Amyas. “I have been devising brave deeds;
+and see in the distance enchanters to be bound, dragons choked, empires
+conquered, though not in Holland.”
+
+“You do?” asked Will, a little sharply; for he had had a half suspicion
+that more was meant than met the ear.
+
+“Yes,” said Amyas, turning off his jest again, “I go to what Raleigh
+calls the Land of the Nymphs. Another month, I hope, will see me abroad
+in Ireland.”
+
+“Abroad? Call it rather at home,” said old Cary; “for it is full of
+Devon men from end to end, and you will be among friends all day long.
+George Bourchier from Tawstock has the army now in Munster, and Warham
+St. Leger is marshal; George Carew is with Lord Grey of Wilton (Poor
+Peter Carew was killed at Glendalough); and after the defeat last year,
+when that villain Desmond cut off Herbert and Price, the companies were
+made up with six hundred Devon men, and Arthur Fortescue at their head;
+so that the old county holds her head as proudly in the Land of Ire as
+she does in the Low Countries and the Spanish Main.”
+
+“And where,” asked Amyas, “is Davils of Marsland, who used to teach me
+how to catch trout, when I was staying down at Stow? He is in Ireland,
+too, is he not?”
+
+“Ah, my lad,” said Mr. Cary, “that is a sad story. I thought all England
+had known it.”
+
+“You forget, sir, I am a stranger. Surely he is not dead?”
+
+“Murdered foully, lad! Murdered like a dog, and by the man whom he had
+treated as his son, and who pretended, the false knave! to call him
+father.”
+
+“His blood is avenged?” said Amyas, fiercely.
+
+“No, by heaven, not yet! Stay, don't cry out again. I am getting
+old--I must tell my story my own way. It was last July,--was it not,
+Will?--Over comes to Ireland Saunders, one of those Jesuit foxes, as the
+Pope's legate, with money and bulls, and a banner hallowed by the Pope,
+and the devil knows what beside; and with him James Fitzmaurice, the
+same fellow who had sworn on his knees to Perrott, in the church at
+Kilmallock, to be a true liegeman to Queen Elizabeth, and confirmed it
+by all his saints, and such a world of his Irish howling, that Perrott
+told me he was fain to stop his own ears. Well, he had been practising
+with the King of France, but got nothing but laughter for his pains, and
+so went over to the Most Catholic King, and promises him to join Ireland
+to Spain, and set up Popery again, and what not. And he, I suppose,
+thinking it better that Ireland should belong to him than to the Pope's
+bastard, fits him out, and sends him off on such another errand as
+Stukely's,--though I will say, for the honor of Devon, if Stukely lived
+like a fool, he died like an honest man.”
+
+“Sir Thomas Stukely dead too?” said Amyas.
+
+“Wait a while, lad, and you shall have that tragedy afterwards. Well,
+where was I? Oh, Fitzmaurice and the Jesuits land at Smerwick, with
+three ships, choose a place for a fort, bless it with their holy water,
+and their moppings and their scourings, and the rest of it, to purify
+it from the stain of heretic dominion; but in the meanwhile one of
+the Courtenays,--a Courtenay of Haccombe, was it?--or a Courtenay of
+Boconnock? Silence, Will, I shall have it in a minute--yes, a Courtenay
+of Haccombe it was, lying at anchor near by, in a ship of war of his,
+cuts out the three ships, and cuts off the Dons from the sea. John and
+James Desmond, with some small rabble, go over to the Spaniards. Earl
+Desmond will not join them, but will not fight them, and stands by to
+take the winning side; and then in comes poor Davils, sent down by the
+Lord Deputy to charge Desmond and his brothers, in the queen's name, to
+assault the Spaniards. Folks say it was rash of his lordship: but I
+say, what could be better done? Every one knows that there never was a
+stouter or shrewder soldier than Davils; and the young Desmonds, I have
+heard him say many a time, used to look on him as their father. But
+he found out what it was to trust Englishmen turned Irish. Well,
+the Desmonds found out on a sudden that the Dons were such desperate
+Paladins, that it was madness to meddle, though they were five to one;
+and poor Davils, seeing that there was no fight in them, goes back for
+help, and sleeps that night at some place called Tralee. Arthur Carter
+of Bideford, St. Leger's lieutenant, as stout an old soldier as Davils
+himself, sleeps in the same bed with him; the lacquey-boy, who is now
+with Sir Richard at Stow, on the floor at their feet. But in the dead of
+night, who should come in but James Desmond, sword in hand, with a dozen
+of his ruffians at his heels, each with his glib over his ugly face,
+and his skene in his hand. Davils springs up in bed, and asks but this,
+'What is the matter, my son?' whereon the treacherous villain, without
+giving him time to say a prayer, strikes at him, naked as he was,
+crying, 'Thou shalt be my father no longer, nor I thy son! Thou shalt
+die!' and at that all the rest fall on him. The poor little lad (so he
+says) leaps up to cover his master with his naked body, gets three or
+four stabs of skenes, and so falls for dead; with his master and Captain
+Carter, who were dead indeed--God reward them! After that the ruffians
+ransacked the house, till they had murdered every Englishman in it, the
+lacquey-boy only excepted, who crawled out, wounded as he was, through
+a window; while Desmond, if you will believe it, went back, up to his
+elbows in blood, and vaunted his deeds to the Spaniards, and asked
+them--'There! Will you take that as a pledge that I am faithful to you?'
+And that, my lad, was the end of Henry Davils, and will be of all who
+trust to the faith of wild savages.”
+
+“I would go a hundred miles to see that Desmond hanged!” said Amyas,
+while great tears ran down his face. “Poor Mr. Davils! And now, what is
+the story of Sir Thomas?”
+
+“Your brother must tell you that, lad; I am somewhat out of breath.”
+
+“And I have a right to tell it,” said Frank, with a smile. “Do you know
+that I was very near being Earl of the bog of Allen, and one of the
+peers of the realm to King Buoncompagna, son and heir to his holiness
+Pope Gregory the Thirteenth?”
+
+“No, surely!”
+
+“As I am a gentleman. When I was at Rome I saw poor Stukely often; and
+this and more he offered me on the part (as he said) of the Pope, if I
+would just oblige him in the two little matters of being reconciled to
+the Catholic Church, and joining the invasion of Ireland.”
+
+“Poor deluded heretic,” said Will Cary, “to have lost an earldom for
+your family by such silly scruples of loyalty!”
+
+“It is not a matter for jesting, after all,” said Frank; “but I saw Sir
+Thomas often, and I cannot believe he was in his senses, so frantic was
+his vanity and his ambition; and all the while, in private matters as
+honorable a gentleman as ever. However, he sailed at last for Ireland,
+with his eight hundred Spaniards and Italians; and what is more, I
+know that the King of Spain paid their charges. Marquis Vinola--James
+Buoncompagna, that is--stayed quietly at Rome, preferring that Stukely
+should conquer his paternal heritage of Ireland for him while he took
+care of the bona robas at home. I went down to Civita Vecchia to see
+him off; and though his younger by many years, I could not but take
+the liberty of entreating him, as a gentleman and a man of Devon, to
+consider his faith to his queen and the honor of his country. There were
+high words between us; God forgive me if I spoke too fiercely, for I
+never saw him again.”
+
+“Too fiercely to an open traitor, Frank? Why not have run him through?”
+
+“Nay, I had no clean life for Sundays, Amyas; so I could not throw away
+my week-day one; and as for the weal of England, I knew that it was
+little he would damage it, and told him so. And at that he waxed utterly
+mad, for it touched his pride, and swore that if the wind had not been
+fair for sailing, he would have fought me there and then; to which I
+could only answer, that I was ready to meet him when he would; and he
+parted from me, saying, 'It is a pity, sir, I cannot fight you now; when
+next we meet, it will be beneath my dignity to measure swords with you.'
+
+“I suppose he expected to come back a prince at least--Heaven knows; I
+owe him no ill-will, nor I hope does any man. He has paid all debts now
+in full, and got his receipt for them.”
+
+“How did he die, then, after all?”
+
+“On his voyage he touched in Portugal. King Sebastian was just sailing
+for Africa with his new ally, Mohammed the Prince of Fez, to help King
+Abdallah, and conquer what he could. He persuaded Stukely to go with
+him. There were those who thought that he, as well as the Spaniards, had
+no stomach for seeing the Pope's son King of Ireland. Others used to
+say that he thought an island too small for his ambition, and must needs
+conquer a continent--I know not why it was, but he went. They had heavy
+weather in the passage; and when they landed, many of their soldiers
+were sea-sick. Stukely, reasonably enough, counselled that they should
+wait two or three days and recruit; but Don Sebastian was so mad for the
+assault that he must needs have his veni, vidi, vici; and so ended with
+a veni, vidi, perii; for he Abdallah, and his son Mohammed, all perished
+in the first battle at Alcasar; and Stukely, surrounded and overpowered,
+fought till he could fight no more, and then died like a hero with all
+his wounds in front; and may God have mercy on his soul!”
+
+“Ah!” said Amyas, “we heard of that battle off Lima, but nothing about
+poor Stukely.”
+
+“That last was a Popish prayer, Master Frank,” said old Mr. Cary.
+
+“Most worshipful sir, you surely would not wish God not to have mercy on
+his soul?”
+
+“No--eh? Of course not: but that's all settled by now, for he is dead,
+poor fellow.”
+
+“Certainly, my dear sir. And you cannot help being a little fond of him
+still.”
+
+“Eh? why, I should be a brute if I were not. He and I were
+schoolfellows, though he was somewhat the younger; and many a good
+thrashing have I given him, and one cannot help having a tenderness for
+a man after that. Beside, we used to hunt together in Exmoor, and have
+royal nights afterward into Ilfracombe, when we were a couple of mad
+young blades. Fond of him? Why, I would have sooner given my forefinger
+than that he should have gone to the dogs thus.”
+
+“Then, my dear sir, if you feel for him still, in spite of all his
+faults, how do you know that God may not feel for him still, in spite of
+all his faults? For my part,” quoth Frank, in his fanciful way, “without
+believing in that Popish Purgatory, I cannot help holding with Plato,
+that such heroical souls, who have wanted but little of true greatness,
+are hereafter by some strait discipline brought to a better mind;
+perhaps, as many ancients have held with the Indian Gymnosophists, by
+transmigration into the bodies of those animals whom they have resembled
+in their passions; and indeed, if Sir Thomas Stukely's soul should now
+animate the body of a lion, all I can say is that he would be a very
+valiant and royal lion; and also doubtless become in due time heartily
+ashamed and penitent for having been nothing better than a lion.”
+
+“What now, Master Frank? I don't trouble my head with such matters--I
+say Stukely was a right good-hearted fellow at bottom; and if you plague
+my head with any of your dialectics, and propositions, and college quips
+and quiddities, you sha'n't have any more sack, sir. But here come the
+knaves, and I hear the cook knock to dinner.”
+
+After a madrigal or two, and an Italian song of Master Frank's, all
+which went sweetly enough, the ladies rose, and went. Whereon Will Cary,
+drawing his chair close to Frank's, put quietly into his hand a dirty
+letter.
+
+“This was the letter left for me,” whispered he, “by a country fellow
+this morning. Look at it and tell me what I am to do.”
+
+Whereon Frank opened, and read--
+
+     “Mister Cary, be you wary
+        By deer park end to-night.
+     Yf Irish ffoxe com out of rocks
+        Grip and hold hym tight.”
+
+“I would have showed it my father,” said Will, “but--”
+
+“I verily believe it to be a blind. See now, this is the handwriting of
+a man who has been trying to write vilely, and yet cannot. Look at
+that B, and that G; their formae formativae never were begotten in a
+hedge-school. And what is more, this is no Devon man's handiwork. We say
+'to' and not 'by,' Will, eh? in the West country?”
+
+“Of course.”
+
+“And 'man,' instead of 'him'?”
+
+“True, O Daniel! But am I to do nothing therefore?”
+
+“On that matter I am no judge. Let us ask much-enduring Ulysses here;
+perhaps he has not sailed round the world without bringing home a device
+or two.”
+
+Whereon Amyas was called to counsel, as soon as Mr. Cary could be
+stopped in a long cross-examination of him as to Mr. Doughty's famous
+trial and execution.
+
+Amyas pondered awhile, thrusting his hands into his long curls; and
+then--
+
+“Will, my lad, have you been watching at the Deer Park End of late?”
+
+“Never.”
+
+“Where, then?”
+
+“At the town-beach.”
+
+“Where else?
+
+“At the town-head.”
+
+“Where else?”
+
+“Why, the fellow is turned lawyer! Above Freshwater.”
+
+“Where is Freshwater?”
+
+“Why, where the water-fall comes over the cliff, half-a-mile from the
+town. There is a path there up into the forest.”
+
+“I know. I'll watch there to-night. Do you keep all your old haunts
+safe, of course, and send a couple of stout knaves to the mill, to watch
+the beach at the Deer Park End, on the chance; for your poet may be a
+true man, after all. But my heart's faith is, that this comes just to
+draw you off from some old beat of yours, upon a wild-goose chase. If
+they shoot the miller by mistake, I suppose it don't much matter?”
+
+“Marry, no.”
+
+     “'When a miller's knock'd on the head,
+     The less of flour makes the more of bread.'”
+
+“Or, again,” chimed in old Mr. Cary, “as they say in the North--
+
+     “'Find a miller that will not steal,
+     Or a webster that is leal,
+     Or a priest that is not greedy,
+     And lay them three a dead corpse by;
+     And by the virtue of them three,
+     The said dead corpse shall quicken'd be.'”
+
+“But why are you so ready to watch Freshwater to-night, Master Amyas?”
+
+“Because, sir, those who come, if they come, will never land at
+Mouthmill; if they are strangers, they dare not; and if they are
+bay's-men, they are too wise, as long as the westerly swell sets in. As
+for landing at the town, that would be too great a risk; but Freshwater
+is as lonely as the Bermudas; and they can beach a boat up under the
+cliff at all tides, and in all weathers, except north and nor'west. I
+have done it many a time, when I was a boy.”
+
+“And give us the fruit of your experience now in your old age, eh? Well,
+you have a gray head on green shoulders, my lad; and I verily believe
+you are right. Who will you take with you to watch?”
+
+“Sir,” said Frank, “I will go with my brother; and that will be enough.”
+
+“Enough? He is big enough, and you brave enough, for ten; but still, the
+more the merrier.”
+
+“But the fewer, the better fare. If I might ask a first and last favor,
+worshipful sir,” said Frank, very earnestly, “you would grant me two
+things: that you would let none go to Freshwater but me and my brother;
+and that whatsoever we shall bring you back shall be kept as secret as
+the commonweal and your loyalty shall permit. I trust that we are not so
+unknown to you, or to others, that you can doubt for a moment but that
+whatsoever we may do will satisfy at once your honor and our own.”
+
+“My dear young gentleman, there is no need of so many courtier's words.
+I am your father's friend, and yours. And God forbid that a Cary--for I
+guess your drift--should ever wish to make a head or a heart ache; that
+is, more than--”
+
+“Those of whom it is written, 'Though thou bray a fool in a mortar, yet
+will not his folly depart from him,'” interposed Frank, in so sad a tone
+that no one at the table replied; and few more words were exchanged,
+till the two brothers were safe outside the house; and then--
+
+“Amyas,” said Frank, “that was a Devon man's handiwork, nevertheless; it
+was Eustace's handwriting.”
+
+“Impossible!”
+
+“No, lad. I have been secretary to a prince, and learnt to interpret
+cipher, and to watch every pen-stroke; and, young as I am, I think that
+I am not easily deceived. Would God I were! Come on, lad; and strike no
+man hastily, lest thou cut off thine own flesh.”
+
+So forth the two went, along the park to the eastward, and past the
+head of the little wood-embosomed fishing-town, a steep stair of houses
+clinging to the cliff far below them, the bright slate roofs and white
+walls glittering in the moonlight; and on some half-mile farther, along
+the steep hill-side, fenced with oak wood down to the water's edge, by
+a narrow forest path, to a point where two glens meet and pour their
+streamlets over a cascade some hundred feet in height into the sea
+below. By the side of this waterfall a narrow path climbs upward from
+the beach; and here it was that the two brothers expected to meet the
+messenger.
+
+Frank insisted on taking his station below Amyas. He said that he was
+certain that Eustace himself would make his appearance, and that he
+was more fit than Amyas to bring him to reason by parley; that if Amyas
+would keep watch some twenty yards above, the escape of the messenger
+would be impossible. Moreover, he was the elder brother, and the post of
+honor was his right. So Amyas obeyed him, after making him promise that
+if more than one man came up the path, he would let them pass him before
+he challenged, so that both might bring them to bay at the same time.
+
+So Amyas took his station under a high marl bank, and, bedded in
+luxuriant crown-ferns, kept his eye steadily on Frank, who sat down on
+a little knoll of rock (where is now a garden on the cliff-edge) which
+parts the path and the dark chasm down which the stream rushes to its
+final leap over the cliff.
+
+There Amyas sat a full half-hour, and glanced at whiles from Frank to
+look upon the scene around. Outside the southwest wind blew fresh and
+strong, and the moonlight danced upon a thousand crests of foam; but
+within the black jagged point which sheltered the town, the sea did
+but heave, in long oily swells of rolling silver, onward into the black
+shadow of the hills, within which the town and pier lay invisible,
+save where a twinkling light gave token of some lonely fisher's wife,
+watching the weary night through for the boat which would return with
+dawn. Here and there upon the sea, a black speck marked a herring-boat,
+drifting with its line of nets; and right off the mouth of the
+glen, Amyas saw, with a beating heart, a large two-masted vessel
+lying-to--that must be the “Portugal”! Eagerly he looked up the glen,
+and listened; but he heard nothing but the sweeping of the wind across
+the downs five hundred feet above, and the sough of the waterfall upon
+the rocks below; he saw nothing but the vast black sheets of oak-wood
+sloping up to the narrow blue sky above, and the broad bright hunter's
+moon, and the woodcocks, which, chuckling to each other, hawked to and
+fro, like swallows, between the tree-tops and the sky.
+
+At last he heard a rustle of the fallen leaves; he shrank closer and
+closer into the darkness of the bank. Then swift light steps--not down
+the path, from above, but upward, from below; his heart beat quick and
+loud. And in another half-minute a man came in sight, within three yards
+of Frank's hiding-place.
+
+Frank sprang out instantly. Amyas saw his bright blade glance in the
+clear October moonlight.
+
+“Stand in the queen's name!”
+
+The man drew a pistol from under his cloak, and fired full in his face.
+Had it happened in these days of detonators, Frank's chance had been
+small; but to get a ponderous wheel-lock under weigh was a longer
+business, and before the fizzing of the flint had ceased, Frank had
+struck up the pistol with his rapier, and it exploded harmlessly over
+his head. The man instantly dashed the weapon in his face and closed.
+
+The blow, luckily, did not take effect on that delicate forehead, but
+struck him on the shoulder: nevertheless, Frank, who with all his grace
+and agility was as fragile as a lily, and a very bubble of the earth,
+staggered, and lost his guard, and before he could recover himself,
+Amyas saw a dagger gleam, and one, two, three blows fiercely repeated.
+
+Mad with fury, he was with them in an instant. They were scuffling
+together so closely in the shade that he was afraid to use his sword
+point; but with the hilt he dealt a single blow full on the ruffian's
+cheek. It was enough; with a hideous shriek, the fellow rolled over at
+his feet, and Amyas set his foot on him, in act to run him through.
+
+“Stop! stay!” almost screamed Frank; “it is Eustace! our cousin
+Eustace!” and he leant against a tree.
+
+Amyas sprang towards him: but Frank waved him off.
+
+“It is nothing--a scratch. He has papers: I am sure of it. Take them;
+and for God's sake let him go!”
+
+“Villain! give me your papers!” cried Amyas, setting his foot once more
+on the writhing Eustace, whose jaw was broken across.
+
+“You struck me foully from behind,” moaned he, his vanity and envy even
+then coming out, in that faint and foolish attempt to prove Amyas not so
+very much better a man.
+
+“Hound, do you think that I dare not strike you in front? Give me your
+papers, letters, whatever Popish devilry you carry; or as I live, I will
+cut off your head, and take them myself, even if it cost me the shame
+of stripping your corpse. Give them up! Traitor, murderer! give them, I
+say!” And setting his foot on him afresh, he raised his sword.
+
+Eustace was usually no craven: but he was cowed. Between agony and
+shame, he had no heart to resist. Martyrdom, which looked so splendid
+when consummated selon les regles on Tower Hill or Tyburn, before
+pitying, or (still better) scoffing multitudes, looked a confused,
+dirty, ugly business there in the dark forest; and as he lay, a stream
+of moonlight bathed his mighty cousin's broad clear forehead, and his
+long golden locks, and his white terrible blade, till he seemed, to
+Eustace's superstitious eye, like one of those fair young St. Michaels
+trampling on the fiend, which he had seen abroad in old German pictures.
+He shuddered; pulled a packet from his bosom, and threw it from him,
+murmuring, “I have not given it.”
+
+“Swear to me that these are all the papers which you have in cipher or
+out of cipher. Swear on your soul, or you die!”
+
+Eustace swore.
+
+“Tell me, who are your accomplices?”
+
+“Never!” said Eustace. “Cruel! have you not degraded me enough already?”
+ and the wretched young man burst into tears, and hid his bleeding face
+in his hands.
+
+One hint of honor made Amyas as gentle as a lamb. He lifted Eustace up,
+and bade him run for his life.
+
+“I am to owe my life, then, to you?”
+
+“Not in the least; only to your being a Leigh. Go, or it will be worse
+for you!” And Eustace went; while Amyas, catching up the precious
+packet, hurried to Frank. He had fainted already, and his brother had
+to carry him as far as the park before he could find any of the other
+watchers. The blind, as far as they were concerned, was complete. They
+had heard and seen nothing. Whosoever had brought the packet had landed
+they knew not where; and so all returned to the court, carrying Frank,
+who recovered gradually, having rather bruises than wounds; for his foe
+had struck wildly, and with a trembling hand.
+
+Half-an-hour after, Amyas, Mr. Cary, and his son Will were in deep
+consultation over the following epistle, the only paper in the packet
+which was not in cipher:--
+
+
+“'DEAR BROTHER N. S. in Chto. et Ecclesia.
+
+“This is to inform you and the friends of the cause, that S. Josephus
+has landed in Smerwick, with eight hundred valiant Crusaders, burning
+with holy zeal to imitate last year's martyrs of Carrigfolium, and
+to expiate their offences (which I fear may have been many) by the
+propagation of our most holy faith. I have purified the fort (which they
+are strenuously rebuilding) with prayer and holy water, from the stain
+of heretical footsteps, and consecrated it afresh to the service of
+Heaven, as the first-fruits of the isle of saints; and having displayed
+the consecrated banner to the adoration of the faithful, have returned
+to Earl Desmond, that I may establish his faith, weak as yet, by reason
+of the allurements of this world: though since, by the valor of his
+brother James, he that hindered was taken out of the way (I mean Davils
+the heretic, sacrifice well-pleasing in the eyes of Heaven!), the young
+man has lent a more obedient ear to my counsels. If you can do anything,
+do it quickly, for a great door and effectual is opened, and there are
+many adversaries. But be swift, for so do the poor lambs of the Church
+tremble at the fury of the heretics, that a hundred will flee before one
+Englishman. And, indeed, were it not for that divine charity toward
+the Church (which covers the multitude of sins) with which they are
+resplendent, neither they nor their country would be, by the carnal
+judgment, counted worthy of so great labor in their behalf. For they
+themselves are given much to lying, theft, and drunkenness, vain
+babbling, and profane dancing and singing; and are still, as S. Gildas
+reports of them, 'more careful to shroud their villainous faces in bushy
+hair, than decently to cover their bodies; while their land (by
+reason of the tyranny of their chieftains, and the continual wars and
+plunderings among their tribes, which leave them weak and divided,
+an easy prey to the myrmidons of the excommunicate and usurping
+Englishwoman) lies utterly waste with fire, and defaced with corpses of
+the starved and slain. But what are these things, while the holy virtue
+of Catholic obedience still flourishes in their hearts? The Church cares
+not for the conservation of body and goods, but of immortal souls.
+
+“If any devout lady shall so will, you may obtain from her liberality a
+shirt for this worthless tabernacle, and also a pair of hose; for I am
+unsavory to myself and to others, and of such luxuries none here has
+superfluity; for all live in holy poverty, except the fleas, who have
+that consolation in this world for which this unhappy nation, and those
+who labor among them, must wait till the world to come.*
+
+“Your loving brother,
+
+“N. S.”
+
+     * See note at end of chapter.
+
+“Sir Richard must know of this before daybreak,” cried old Cary. “Eight
+hundred men landed! We must call out the Posse Comitatus, and sail with
+them bodily. I will go myself, old as I am. Spaniards in Ireland? not a
+dog of them must go home again.”
+
+“Not a dog of them,” answered Will; “but where is Mr. Winter and his
+squadron?”
+
+“Safe in Milford Haven; a messenger must be sent to him too.”
+
+“I'll go,” said Amyas: “but Mr. Cary is right. Sir Richard must know all
+first.”
+
+“And we must have those Jesuits.”
+
+“What? Mr. Evans and Mr. Morgans? God help us--they are at my uncle's!
+Consider the honor of our family!”
+
+“Judge for yourself, my dear boy,” said old Mr. Cary, gently: “would
+it not be rank treason to let these foxes escape, while we have this
+damning proof against them?”
+
+“I will go myself, then.”
+
+“Why not? You may keep all straight, and Will shall go with you. Call a
+groom, Will, and get your horse saddled, and my Yorkshire gray; he will
+make better play with this big fellow on his back, than the little pony
+astride of which Mr. Leigh came walking in (as I hear) this morning. As
+for Frank, the ladies will see to him well enough, and glad enough, too,
+to have so fine a bird in their cage for a week or two.”
+
+“And my mother?”
+
+“We'll send to her to-morrow by daybreak. Come, a stirrup cup to start
+with, hot and hot. Now, boots, cloaks, swords, a deep pull and a warm
+one, and away!”
+
+And the jolly old man bustled them out of the house and into their
+saddles, under the broad bright winter's moon.
+
+“You must make your pace, lads, or the moon will be down before you are
+over the moors.” And so away they went.
+
+Neither of them spoke for many a mile. Amyas, because his mind was fixed
+firmly on the one object of saving the honor of his house; and Will,
+because he was hesitating between Ireland and the wars, and Rose
+Salterne and love-making. At last he spoke suddenly.
+
+“I'll go, Amyas.”
+
+“Whither?”
+
+“To Ireland with you, old man. I have dragged my anchor at last.”
+
+“What anchor, my lad of parables?”
+
+“See, here am I, a tall and gallant ship.”
+
+“Modest even if not true.”
+
+“Inclination, like an anchor, holds me tight.”
+
+“To the mud.”
+
+“Nay, to a bed of roses--not without their thorns.”
+
+“Hillo! I have seen oysters grow on fruit-trees before now, but never an
+anchor in a rose-garden.”
+
+“Silence, or my allegory will go to noggin-staves.”
+
+“Against the rocks of my flinty discernment.”
+
+“Pooh--well. Up comes duty like a jolly breeze, blowing dead from the
+northeast, and as bitter and cross as a northeaster too, and tugs
+me away toward Ireland. I hold on by the rosebed--any ground in a
+storm--till every strand is parted, and off I go, westward ho! to get my
+throat cut in a bog-hole with Amyas Leigh.”
+
+“Earnest, Will?”
+
+“As I am a sinful man.”
+
+“Well done, young hawk of the White Cliff!”
+
+“I had rather have called it Gallantry Bower still, though,” said
+Will, punning on the double name of the noble precipice which forms the
+highest point of the deer park.
+
+“Well, as long as you are on land, you know it is Gallantry Bower still:
+but we always call it White Cliff when you see it from the sea-board, as
+you and I shall do, I hope, to-morrow evening.”
+
+“What, so soon?”
+
+“Dare we lose a day?”
+
+“I suppose not: heigh-ho!”
+
+And they rode on again in silence, Amyas in the meanwhile being not a
+little content (in spite of his late self-renunciation) to find that one
+of his rivals at least was going to raise the siege of the Rose garden
+for a few months, and withdraw his forces to the coast of Kerry.
+
+As they went over Bursdon, Amyas pulled up suddenly.
+
+“Did you not hear a horse's step on our left?”
+
+“On our left--coming up from Welsford moor? Impossible at this time of
+night. It must have been a stag, or a sownder of wild swine: or may be
+only an old cow.”
+
+“It was the ring of iron, friend. Let us stand and watch.”
+
+Bursdon and Welsford were then, as now, a rolling range of dreary
+moors, unbroken by tor or tree, or anything save few and far between
+a world-old furze-bank which marked the common rights of some distant
+cattle farm, and crossed then, not as now, by a decent road, but by a
+rough confused track-way, the remnant of an old Roman road from Clovelly
+dikes to Launceston. To the left it trended down towards a lower range
+of moors, which form the watershed of the heads of Torridge; and thither
+the two young men peered down over the expanse of bog and furze, which
+glittered for miles beneath the moon, one sheet of frosted silver, in
+the heavy autumn dew.
+
+“If any of Eustace's party are trying to get home from Freshwater, they
+might save a couple of miles by coming across Welsford, instead of going
+by the main track, as we have done.” So said Amyas, who though (luckily
+for him) no “genius,” was cunning as a fox in all matters of tactic and
+practic, and would have in these days proved his right to be considered
+an intellectual person by being a thorough man of business.
+
+“If any of his party are mad, they'll try it, and be stogged till the
+day of judgment. There are bogs in the bottom twenty feet deep. Plague
+on the fellow, whoever he is, he has dodged us! Look there!”
+
+It was too true. The unknown horseman had evidently dismounted below,
+and led his horse up on the other side of a long furze-dike; till coming
+to the point where it turned away again from his intended course, he
+appeared against the sky, in the act of leading his nag over a gap.
+
+“Ride like the wind!” and both youths galloped across furze and heather
+at him; but ere they were within a hundred yards of him, he had leapt
+again on his horse, and was away far ahead.
+
+“There is the dor to us, with a vengeance,” cried Cary, putting in the
+spurs.
+
+“It is but a lad; we shall never catch him.”
+
+“I'll try, though; and do you lumber after as you can, old heavysides;”
+ and Cary pushed forward.
+
+Amyas lost sight of him for ten minutes, and then came up with him
+dismounted, and feeling disconsolately at his horse's knees.
+
+“Look for my head. It lies somewhere about among the furze there; and
+oh! I am as full of needles as ever was a pin-cushion.”
+
+“Are his knees broken?”
+
+“I daren't look. No, I believe not. Come along, and make the best of a
+bad matter. The fellow is a mile ahead, and to the right, too.”
+
+“He is going for Moorwinstow, then; but where is my cousin?”
+
+“Behind us, I dare say. We shall nab him at least.”
+
+“Cary, promise me that if we do, you will keep out of sight, and let me
+manage him.”
+
+“My boy, I only want Evan Morgans and Morgan Evans. He is but the cat's
+paw, and we are after the cats themselves.”
+
+And so they went on another dreary six miles, till the land trended
+downwards, showing dark glens and masses of woodland far below.
+
+“Now, then, straight to Chapel, and stop the foxes' earth? Or through
+the King's Park to Stow, and get out Sir Richard's hounds, hue and cry,
+and queen's warrant in proper form?”
+
+“Let us see Sir Richard first; and whatsoever he decides about my uncle,
+I will endure as a loyal subject must.”
+
+So they rode through the King's Park, while Sir Richard's colts came
+whinnying and staring round the intruders, and down through a rich
+woodland lane five hundred feet into the valley, till they could hear
+the brawling of the little trout-stream, and beyond, the everlasting
+thunder of the ocean surf.
+
+Down through warm woods, all fragrant with dying autumn flowers, leaving
+far above the keen Atlantic breeze, into one of those delicious Western
+combes, and so past the mill, and the little knot of flower-clad
+cottages. In the window of one of them a light was still burning. The
+two young men knew well whose window that was; and both hearts beat
+fast; for Rose Salterne slept, or rather seemed to wake, in that
+chamber.
+
+“Folks are late in Combe to-night,” said Amyas, as carelessly as he
+could.
+
+Cary looked earnestly at the window, and then sharply enough at Amyas;
+but Amyas was busy settling his stirrup; and Cary rode on, unconscious
+that every fibre in his companion's huge frame was trembling like his
+own.
+
+“Muggy and close down here,” said Amyas, who, in reality, was quite
+faint with his own inward struggles.
+
+“We shall be at Stow gate in five minutes,” said Cary, looking back and
+down longingly as his horse climbed the opposite hill; but a turn of the
+zigzag road hid the cottage, and the next thought was, how to effect an
+entrance into Stow at three in the morning without being eaten by the
+ban-dogs, who were already howling and growling at the sound of the
+horse-hoofs.
+
+However, they got safely in, after much knocking and calling, through
+the postern gate in the high west wall, into a mansion, the description
+whereof I must defer to the next chapter, seeing that the moon has
+already sunk into the Atlantic, and there is darkness over land and sea.
+
+Sir Richard, in his long gown, was soon downstairs in the hall; the
+letter read, and the story told; but ere it was half finished--
+
+“Anthony, call up a groom, and let him bring me a horse round.
+Gentlemen, if you will excuse me five minutes, I shall be at your
+service.”
+
+“You will not go alone, Richard?” asked Lady Grenville, putting her
+beautiful face in its nightcoif out of an adjoining door.
+
+“Surely, sweet chuck, we three are enough to take two poor polecats of
+Jesuits. Go in, and help me to boot and gird.”
+
+In half an hour they were down and up across the valley again, under the
+few low ashes clipt flat by the sea-breeze which stood round the lonely
+gate of Chapel.
+
+“Mr. Cary, there is a back path across the downs to Marsland; go and
+guard that.” Cary rode off; and Sir Richard, as he knocked loudly at the
+gate--
+
+“Mr. Leigh, you see that I have consulted your honor, and that of your
+poor uncle, by adventuring thus alone. What will you have me do now,
+which may not be unfit for me and you?”
+
+“Oh, sir!” said Amyas, with tears in his honest eyes, “you have shown
+yourself once more what you always have been--my dear and beloved master
+on earth, not second even to my admiral Sir Francis Drake.”
+
+“Or the queen, I hope,” said Grenville, smiling, “but pocas palabras.
+What will you do?”
+
+“My wretched cousin, sir, may not have returned--and if I might watch
+for him on the main road--unless you want me with you.”
+
+“Richard Grenville can walk alone, lad. But what will you do with your
+cousin?”
+
+“Send him out of the country, never to return; or if he refuses, run him
+through on the spot.”
+
+“Go, lad.” And as he spoke, a sleepy voice asked inside the gate, “Who
+was there?”
+
+“Sir Richard Grenville. Open, in the queen's name?”
+
+“Sir Richard? He is in bed, and be hanged to you. No honest folk come at
+this hour of night.”
+
+“Amyas!” shouted Sir Richard. Amyas rode back.
+
+“Burst that gate for me, while I hold your horse.”
+
+Amyas leaped down, took up a rock from the roadside, such as Homer's
+heroes used to send at each other's heads, and in an instant the door
+was flat on the ground, and the serving-man on his back inside, while
+Sir Richard quietly entering over it, like Una into the hut, told the
+fellow to get up and hold his horse for him (which the clod, who knew
+well enough that terrible voice, did without further murmurs), and then
+strode straight to the front door. It was already opened. The household
+had been up and about all along, or the noise at the entry had aroused
+them.
+
+Sir Richard knocked, however, at the open door; and, to his
+astonishment, his knock was answered by Mr. Leigh himself, fully
+dressed, and candle in hand.
+
+“Sir Richard Grenville! What, sir! is this neighborly, not to say
+gentle, to break into my house in the dead of night?”
+
+“I broke your outer door, sir, because I was refused entrance when I
+asked in the queen's name. I knocked at your inner one, as I should
+have knocked at the poorest cottager's in the parish, because I found
+it open. You have two Jesuits here, sir! and here is the queen's warrant
+for apprehending them. I have signed it with my own hand, and, moreover,
+serve it now, with my own hand, in order to save you scandal--and it may
+be, worse. I must have these men, Mr. Leigh.”
+
+“My dear Sir Richard--!”
+
+“I must have them, or I must search the house; and you would not put
+either yourself or me to so shameful a necessity?”
+
+“My dear Sir Richard!--”
+
+“Must I, then, ask you to stand back from your own doorway, my dear
+sir?” said Grenville. And then changing his voice to that fearful lion's
+roar, for which he was famous, and which it seemed impossible that lips
+so delicate could utter, he thundered, “Knaves, behind there! Back!”
+
+This was spoken to half-a-dozen grooms and serving-men, who, well armed,
+were clustered in the passage.
+
+“What? swords out, you sons of cliff rabbits?” And in a moment, Sir
+Richard's long blade flashed out also, and putting Mr. Leigh gently
+aside, as if he had been a child, he walked up to the party, who
+vanished right and left; having expected a cur dog, in the shape of a
+parish constable, and come upon a lion instead. They were stout fellows
+enough, no doubt, in a fair fight: but they had no stomach to be hanged
+in a row at Launceston Castle, after a preliminary running through the
+body by that redoubted admiral and most unpeaceful justice of the peace.
+
+“And now, my dear Mr. Leigh,” said Sir Richard, as blandly as ever,
+“where are my men? The night is cold; and you, as well as I, need to be
+in our beds.”
+
+“The men, Sir Richard--the Jesuits--they are not here, indeed.”
+
+“Not here, sir?”
+
+“On the word of a gentleman, they left my house an hour ago. Believe me,
+sir, they did. I will swear to you if you need.”
+
+“I believe Mr. Leigh of Chapel's word without oaths. Whither are they
+gone?”
+
+“Nay, sir--how can I tell? They are--they are, as I may say, fled, sir;
+escaped.”
+
+“With your connivance; at least with your son's. Where are they gone?”
+
+“As I live, I do not know.”
+
+“Mr. Leigh--is this possible? Can you add untruth to that treason from
+the punishment of which I am trying to shield you?”
+
+Poor Mr. Leigh burst into tears.
+
+“Oh! my God! my God! is it come to this? Over and above having the fear
+and anxiety of keeping these black rascals in my house, and having to
+stop their villainous mouths every minute, for fear they should hang me
+and themselves, I am to be called a traitor and a liar in my old age,
+and that, too, by Richard Grenville! Would God I had never been born!
+Would God I had no soul to be saved, and I'd just go and drown care in
+drink, and let the queen and the Pope fight it out their own way!” And
+the poor old man sank into a chair, and covered his face with his hands,
+and then leaped up again.
+
+“Bless my heart! Excuse me, Sir Richard--to sit down and leave you
+standing. 'S life, sir, sorrow is making a hawbuck of me. Sit down, my
+dear sir! my worshipful sir! or rather come with me into my room, and
+hear a poor wretched man's story, for I swear before God the men are
+fled; and my poor boy Eustace is not home either, and the groom tells me
+that his devil of a cousin has broken his jaw for him; and his mother is
+all but mad this hour past. Good lack! good lack!”
+
+“He nearly murdered his angel of a cousin, sir!” said Sir Richard,
+severely.
+
+“What, sir? They never told me.”
+
+“He had stabbed his cousin Frank three times, sir, before Amyas, who is
+as noble a lad as walks God's earth, struck him down. And in defence
+of what, forsooth, did he play the ruffian and the swashbuckler, but to
+bring home to your house this letter, sir, which you shall hear at your
+leisure, the moment I have taken order about your priests.” And walking
+out of the house he went round and called to Cary to come to him.
+
+“The birds are flown, Will,” whispered he. “There is but one chance for
+us, and that is Marsland Mouth. If they are trying to take boat there,
+you may be yet in time. If they are gone inland we can do nothing till
+we raise the hue and cry to-morrow.”
+
+And Will galloped off over the downs toward Marsland, while Sir Richard
+ceremoniously walked in again, and professed himself ready and happy to
+have the honor of an audience in Mr. Leigh's private chamber. And as we
+know pretty well already what was to be discussed therein, we had better
+go over to Marsland Mouth, and, if possible, arrive there before Will
+Cary: seeing that he arrived hot and swearing, half an hour too late.
+
+
+Note.--I have shrunk somewhat from giving these and other sketches (true
+and accurate as I believe them to be) of Ireland during Elizabeth's
+reign, when the tyranny and lawlessness of the feudal chiefs had reduced
+the island to such a state of weakness and barbarism, that it was
+absolutely necessary for England either to crush the Norman-Irish
+nobility, and organize some sort of law and order, or to leave Ireland
+an easy prey to the Spaniards, or any other nation which should go to
+war with us. The work was done--clumsily rather than cruelly; but wrongs
+were inflicted, and avenged by fresh wrongs, and those by fresh again.
+May the memory of them perish forever! It has been reserved for this
+age, and for the liberal policy of this age, to see the last ebullitions
+of Celtic excitability die out harmless and ashamed of itself, and
+to find that the Irishman, when he is brought as a soldier under the
+regenerative influence of law, discipline, self-respect, and loyalty,
+can prove himself a worthy rival of the more stern Norse-Saxon warrior.
+God grant that the military brotherhood between Irish and English,
+which is the special glory of the present war, may be the germ of a
+brotherhood industrial, political, and hereafter, perhaps, religious
+also; and that not merely the corpses of heroes, but the feuds and
+wrongs which have parted them for centuries, may lie buried, once and
+forever, in the noble graves of Alma and Inkerman.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE COMBES OF THE FAR WEST
+
+            “Far, far from hence
+     The Adriatic breaks in a warm bay
+     Among the green Illyrian hills, and there
+     The sunshine in the happy glens is fair,
+     And by the sea and in the brakes
+     The grass is cool, the sea-side air
+     Buoyant and fresh, the mountain flowers
+     More virginal and sweet than ours.”
+
+                                  MATTHEW ARNOLD.
+
+And even such are those delightful glens, which cut the high table-land
+of the confines of Devon and Cornwall, and opening each through its
+gorge of down and rock, towards the boundless Western Ocean. Each is
+like the other, and each is like no other English scenery. Each has its
+upright walls, inland of rich oak-wood, nearer the sea of dark green
+furze, then of smooth turf, then of weird black cliffs which range out
+right and left far into the deep sea, in castles, spires, and wings
+of jagged iron-stone. Each has its narrow strip of fertile meadow, its
+crystal trout stream winding across and across from one hill-foot to the
+other; its gray stone mill, with the water sparkling and humming round
+the dripping wheel; its dark, rock pools above the tide mark, where the
+salmon-trout gather in from their Atlantic wanderings, after each autumn
+flood: its ridge of blown sand, bright with golden trefoil and crimson
+lady's finger; its gray bank of polished pebbles, down which the
+stream rattles toward the sea below. Each has its black field of jagged
+shark's-tooth rock which paves the cove from side to side, streaked with
+here and there a pink line of shell sand, and laced with white foam from
+the eternal surge, stretching in parallel lines out to the westward,
+in strata set upright on edge, or tilted towards each other at strange
+angles by primeval earthquakes;--such is the “mouth”--as those coves are
+called; and such the jaw of teeth which they display, one rasp of which
+would grind abroad the timbers of the stoutest ship. To landward,
+all richness, softness, and peace; to seaward, a waste and howling
+wilderness of rock and roller, barren to the fisherman, and hopeless to
+the shipwrecked mariner.
+
+In only one of these “mouths” is a landing for boats, made possible by
+a long sea-wall of rock, which protects it from the rollers of the
+Atlantic; and that mouth is Marsland, the abode of the White Witch, Lucy
+Passmore; whither, as Sir Richard Grenville rightly judged, the Jesuits
+were gone. But before the Jesuits came, two other persons were standing
+on that lonely beach, under the bright October moon, namely, Rose
+Salterne and the White Witch herself; for Rose, fevered with curiosity
+and superstition, and allured by the very wildness and possible danger
+of the spell, had kept her appointment; and, a few minutes before
+midnight, stood on the gray shingle beach with her counsellor.
+
+“You be safe enough here to-night, miss. My old man is snoring sound
+abed, and there's no other soul ever sets foot here o' nights, except
+it be the mermaids now and then. Goodness, Father, where's our boat? It
+ought to be up here on the pebbles.”
+
+Rose pointed to a strip of sand some forty yards nearer the sea, where
+the boat lay.
+
+“Oh, the lazy old villain! he's been round the rocks after pollock this
+evening, and never taken the trouble to hale the boat up. I'll trounce
+him for it when I get home. I only hope he's made her fast where she is,
+that's all! He's more plague to me than ever my money will be. O deary
+me!”
+
+And the goodwife bustled down toward the boat, with Rose behind her.
+
+“Iss, 'tis fast, sure enough: and the oars aboard too! Well, I never!
+Oh, the lazy thief, to leave they here to be stole! I'll just sit in the
+boat, dear, and watch mun, while you go down to the say; for you must
+be all alone to yourself, you know, or you'll see nothing. There's the
+looking-glass; now go, and dip your head three times, and mind you don't
+look to land or sea before you've said the words, and looked upon the
+glass. Now, be quick, it's just upon midnight.”
+
+And she coiled herself up in the boat, while Rose went faltering down
+the strip of sand, some twenty yards farther, and there slipping off her
+clothes, stood shivering and trembling for a moment before she entered
+the sea.
+
+She was between two walls of rock: that on her left hand, some twenty
+feet high, hid her in deepest shade; that on her right, though much
+lower, took the whole blaze of the midnight moon. Great festoons of live
+and purple sea-weed hung from it, shading dark cracks and crevices, fit
+haunts for all the goblins of the sea. On her left hand, the peaks of
+the rock frowned down ghastly black; on her right hand, far aloft, the
+downs slept bright and cold.
+
+The breeze had died away; not even a roller broke the perfect stillness
+of the cove. The gulls were all asleep upon the ledges. Over all was a
+true autumn silence; a silence which may be heard. She stood awed, and
+listened in hope of a sound which might tell her that any living thing
+beside herself existed.
+
+There was a faint bleat, as of a new-born lamb, high above her head;
+she started and looked up. Then a wail from the cliffs, as of a child
+in pain, answered by another from the opposite rocks. They were but the
+passing snipe, and the otter calling to her brood; but to her they
+were mysterious, supernatural goblins, come to answer to her call.
+Nevertheless, they only quickened her expectation; and the witch had
+told her not to fear them. If she performed the rite duly, nothing
+would harm her: but she could hear the beating of her own heart, as she
+stepped, mirror in hand, into the cold water, waded hastily, as far as
+she dare, and then stopped aghast.
+
+A ring of flame was round her waist; every limb was bathed in lambent
+light; all the multitudinous life of the autumn sea, stirred by her
+approach, had flashed suddenly into glory;--
+
+
+“And around her the lamps of the sea nymphs, Myriad fiery globes, swam
+heaving and panting, and rainbows, Crimson and azure and emerald, were
+broken in star-showers, lighting Far through the wine-dark depths of the
+crystal, the gardens of Nereus, Coral and sea-fan and tangle, the blooms
+and the palms of the ocean.”
+
+
+She could see every shell which crawled on the white sand at her feet,
+every rock-fish which played in and out of the crannies, and stared at
+her with its broad bright eyes; while the great palmate oarweeds which
+waved along the chasm, half-seen in the glimmering water, seemed to
+beckon her down with long brown hands to a grave amid their chilly
+bowers. She turned to flee; but she had gone too far now to retreat;
+hastily dipping her head three times, she hurried out to the sea-marge,
+and looking through her dripping locks at the magic mirror, pronounced
+the incantation--
+
+     “A maiden pure, here I stand,
+     Neither on sea, nor yet on land;
+     Angels watch me on either hand.
+     If you be landsman, come down the strand;
+     If you be sailor, come up the sand;
+     If you be angel, come from the sky,
+     Look in my glass, and pass me by;
+     Look in my glass, and go from the shore;
+     Leave me, but love me for evermore.”
+
+The incantation was hardly finished, her eyes were straining into the
+mirror, where, as may be supposed, nothing appeared but the sparkle of
+the drops from her own tresses, when she heard rattling down the pebbles
+the hasty feet of men and horses.
+
+She darted into a cavern of the high rock, and hastily dressed herself:
+the steps held on right to the boat. Peeping out, half-dead with terror,
+she saw there four men, two of whom had just leaped from their horses,
+and turning them adrift, began to help the other two in running the boat
+down.
+
+Whereon, out of the stern sheets, arose, like an angry ghost, the portly
+figure of Lucy Passmore, and shrieked in shrillest treble--
+
+“Eh! ye villains, ye roogs, what do ye want staling poor folks' boats by
+night like this?”
+
+The whole party recoiled in terror, and one turned to run up the beach,
+shouting at the top of his voice, “'Tis a marmaiden--a marmaiden asleep
+in Willy Passmore's boat!”
+
+“I wish it were any sich good luck,” she could hear Will say; “'tis my
+wife, oh dear!” and he cowered down, expecting the hearty cuff which he
+received duly, as the White Witch, leaping out of the boat, dared any
+man to touch it, and thundered to her husband to go home to bed.
+
+The wily dame, as Rose well guessed, was keeping up this delay chiefly
+to gain time for her pupil: but she had also more solid reasons for
+making the fight as hard as possible; for she, as well as Rose, had
+already discerned in the ungainly figure of one of the party the same
+suspicious Welsh gentleman, on whose calling she had divined long
+ago; and she was so loyal a subject as to hold in extreme horror her
+husband's meddling with such “Popish skulkers” (as she called the whole
+party roundly to their face)--unless on consideration of a very handsome
+sum of money. In vain Parsons thundered, Campian entreated, Mr. Leigh's
+groom swore, and her husband danced round in an agony of mingled fear
+and covetousness.
+
+“No,” she cried, “as I am an honest woman and loyal! This is why you
+left the boat down to the shoore, you old traitor, you, is it? To help
+off sich noxious trade as this out of the hands of her majesty's quorum
+and rotulorum? Eh? Stand back, cowards! Will you strike a woman?”
+
+This last speech (as usual) was merely indicative of her intention to
+strike the men; for, getting out one of the oars, she swung it round and
+round fiercely, and at last caught Father Parsons such a crack across
+the shins, that he retreated with a howl.
+
+“Lucy, Lucy!” shrieked her husband, in shrillest Devon falsetto, “be you
+mazed? Be you mazed, lass? They promised me two gold nobles before I'd
+lend them the boot!”
+
+“Tu?” shrieked the matron, with a tone of ineffable scorn. “And do yu
+call yourself a man?”
+
+“Tu nobles! tu nobles!” shrieked he again, hopping about at oar's
+length.
+
+“Tu? And would you sell your soul under ten?”
+
+“Oh, if that is it,” cried poor Campian, “give her ten, give her
+ten, brother Pars--Morgans, I mean; and take care of your shins, Offa
+Cerbero, you know--Oh, virago! Furens quid faemina possit! Certainly she
+is some Lamia, some Gorgon, some--”
+
+“Take that, for your Lamys and Gorgons to an honest woman!” and in
+a moment poor Campian's thin legs were cut from under him, while the
+virago, “mounting on his trunk astride,” like that more famous one on
+Hudibras, cried, “Ten nobles, or I'll kep ye here till morning!” And the
+ten nobles were paid into her hand.
+
+And now the boat, its dragon guardian being pacified, was run down to
+the sea, and close past the nook where poor little Rose was squeezing
+herself into the farthest and darkest corner, among wet sea-weed and
+rough barnacles, holding her breath as they approached.
+
+They passed her, and the boat's keel was already in the water; Lucy had
+followed them close, for reasons of her own, and perceiving close to the
+water's edge a dark cavern, cunningly surmised that it contained Rose,
+and planted her ample person right across its mouth, while she grumbled
+at her husband, the strangers, and above all at Mr. Leigh's groom, to
+whom she prophesied pretty plainly Launceston gaol and the gallows;
+while the wretched serving-man, who would as soon have dared to leap off
+Welcombe Cliff as to return railing for railing to the White Witch, in
+vain entreated her mercy, and tried, by all possible dodging, to keep
+one of the party between himself and her, lest her redoubted eye should
+“overlook” him once more to his ruin.
+
+But the night's adventures were not ended yet; for just as the boat was
+launched, a faint halloo was heard upon the beach, and a minute after,
+a horseman plunged down the pebbles, and along the sand, and pulling his
+horse up on its haunches close to the terrified group, dropped, rather
+than leaped, from the saddle.
+
+The serving-man, though he dared not tackle a witch, knew well enough
+how to deal with a swordsman; and drawing, sprang upon the newcomer, and
+then recoiled--
+
+“God forgive me, it's Mr. Eustace! Oh, dear sir, I took you for one of
+Sir Richard's men! Oh, sir, you're hurt!”
+
+“A scratch, a scratch!” almost moaned Eustace. “Help me into the boat,
+Jack. Gentlemen, I must with you.”
+
+“Not with us, surely, my dear son, vagabonds upon the face of the
+earth?” said kind-hearted Campian.
+
+“With you, forever. All is over here. Whither God and the cause
+lead”--and he staggered toward the boat.
+
+As he passed Rose, she saw his ghastly bleeding face, half bound up with
+a handkerchief, which could not conceal the convulsions of rage, shame,
+and despair, which twisted it from all its usual beauty. His eyes glared
+wildly round--and once, right into the cavern. They met hers, so full,
+and keen, and dreadful, that forgetting she was utterly invisible, the
+terrified girl was on the point of shrieking aloud.
+
+“He has overlooked me!” said she, shuddering to herself, as she
+recollected his threat of yesterday.
+
+“Who has wounded you?” asked Campian.
+
+“My cousin--Amyas--and taken the letter!”
+
+“The devil take him, then!” cried Parsons, stamping up and down upon the
+sand in fury.
+
+“Ay, curse him--you may! I dare not! He saved me--sent me here!”--and
+with a groan, he made an effort to enter the boat.
+
+“Oh, my dear young gentleman,” cried Lucy Passmore, her woman's heart
+bursting out at the sight of pain, “you must not goo forth with a grane
+wound like to that. Do ye let me just bind mun up--do ye now!” and she
+advanced.
+
+Eustace thrust her back.
+
+“No! better bear it, I deserve it--devils! I deserve it! On board, or we
+shall all be lost--William Cary is close behind me!”
+
+And at that news the boat was thrust into the sea, faster than ever it
+went before, and only in time; for it was but just round the rocks, and
+out of sight, when the rattle of Cary's horsehoofs was heard above.
+
+“That rascal of Mr. Leigh's will catch it now, the Popish villain!” said
+Lucy Passmore, aloud. “You lie still there, dear life, and settle your
+sperrits; you'm so safe as ever was rabbit to burrow. I'll see what
+happens, if I die for it!” And so saying, she squeezed herself up
+through a cleft to a higher ledge, from whence she could see what passed
+in the valley.
+
+“There mun is! in the meadow, trying to catch the horses! There comes
+Mr. Cary! Goodness, Father, how a rid'th! he's over wall already! Ron,
+Jack! ron then! A'll get to the river! No, a wain't! Goodness, Father!
+There's Mr. Cary cotched mun! A's down, a's down!”
+
+“Is he dead?” asked Rose, shuddering.
+
+“Iss, fegs, dead as nits! and Mr. Cary off his horse, standing
+overthwart mun! No, a bain't! A's up now. Suspose he was hit wi' the
+flat. Whatever is Mr. Cary tu? Telling wi' mun, a bit. Oh dear, dear,
+dear!”
+
+“Has he killed him?” cried poor Rose.
+
+“No, fegs, no! kecking mun, kecking mun, so hard as ever was futeball!
+Goodness, Father, who did ever? If a haven't kecked mun right into
+river, and got on mun's horse and rod away!”
+
+And so saying, down she came again.
+
+“And now then, my dear life, us be better to goo hoom and get you sommat
+warm. You'm mortal cold, I rackon, by now. I was cruel fear'd for ye:
+but I kept mun off clever, didn't I, now?”
+
+“I wish--I wish I had not seen Mr. Leigh's face!”
+
+“Iss, dreadful, weren't it, poor young soul; a sad night for his poor
+mother!”
+
+“Lucy, I can't get his face out of my mind. I'm sure he overlooked me.”
+
+“Oh then! who ever heard the like o' that? When young gentlemen do
+overlook young ladies, tain't thikketheor aways, I knoo. Never you think
+on it.”
+
+“But I can't help thinking of it,” said Rose. “Stop. Shall we go home
+yet? Where's that servant?”
+
+“Never mind, he wain't see us, here under the hill. I'd much sooner to
+know where my old man was. I've a sort of a forecasting in my inwards,
+like, as I always has when aught's gwain to happen, as though I shuldn't
+zee mun again, like, I have, miss. Well--he was a bedient old soul,
+after all, he was. Goodness, Father! and all this while us have forgot
+the very thing us come about! Who did you see?”
+
+“Only that face!” said Rose, shuddering.
+
+“Not in the glass, maid? Say then, not in the glass?”
+
+“Would to heaven it had been! Lucy, what if he were the man I was fated
+to--”
+
+“He? Why, he's a praste, a Popish praste, that can't marry if he would,
+poor wratch.”
+
+“He is none; and I have cause enough to know it!” And, for want of a
+better confidant, Rose poured into the willing ears of her companion the
+whole story of yesterday's meeting.
+
+“He's a pretty wooer!” said Lucy at last, contemptuously. “Be a brave
+maid, then, be a brave maid, and never terrify yourself with his unlucky
+face. It's because there was none here worthy of ye, that ye seed none
+in glass. Maybe he's to be a foreigner, from over seas, and that's why
+his sperit was so long a coming. A duke, or a prince to the least, I'll
+warrant, he'll be, that carries off the Rose of Bideford.”
+
+But in spite of all the good dame's flattery, Rose could not wipe that
+fierce face away from her eyeballs. She reached home safely, and crept
+to bed undiscovered: and when the next morning, as was to be expected,
+found her laid up with something very like a fever, from excitement,
+terror, and cold, the phantom grew stronger and stronger before her, and
+it required all her woman's tact and self-restraint to avoid betraying
+by her exclamations what had happened on that fantastic night. After a
+fortnight's weakness, however, she recovered and went back to Bideford:
+but ere she arrived there, Amyas was far across the seas on his way to
+Milford Haven, as shall be told in the ensuing chapters.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE TRUE AND TRAGICAL HISTORY OF MR. JOHN OXENHAM OF PLYMOUTH
+
+     “The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew;
+       The furrow follow'd free;
+     We were the first that ever burst
+       Into that silent sea.”
+
+                          The Ancient Mariner.
+
+It was too late and too dark last night to see the old house at Stow. We
+will look round us, then, this bright October day, while Sir Richard and
+Amyas, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, are pacing up and down the
+terraced garden to the south. Amyas has slept till luncheon, i. e. till
+an hour ago: but Sir Richard, in spite of the bustle of last night, was
+up and in the valley by six o'clock, recreating the valiant souls of
+himself and two terrier dogs by the chase of sundry badgers.
+
+Old Stow House stands, or rather stood, some four miles beyond the
+Cornish border, on the northern slope of the largest and loveliest of
+those combes of which I spoke in the last chapter. Eighty years after
+Sir Richard's time there arose there a huge Palladian pile, bedizened
+with every monstrosity of bad taste, which was built, so the story runs,
+by Charles the Second, for Sir Richard's great-grandson, the heir of
+that famous Sir Bevil who defeated the Parliamentary troops at Stratton,
+and died soon after, fighting valiantly at Lansdowne over Bath. But,
+like most other things which owed their existence to the Stuarts,
+it rose only to fall again. An old man who had seen, as a boy, the
+foundation of the new house laid, lived to see it pulled down again,
+and the very bricks and timber sold upon the spot; and since then the
+stables have become a farm-house, the tennis-court a sheep-cote, the
+great quadrangle a rick-yard; and civilization, spreading wave on
+wave so fast elsewhere, has surged back from that lonely corner of the
+land--let us hope, only for a while.
+
+But I am not writing of that great new Stow House, of the past glories
+whereof quaint pictures still hang in the neighboring houses; nor of
+that famed Sir Bevil, most beautiful and gallant of his generation,
+on whom, with his grandfather Sir Richard, old Prince has his pompous
+epigram--
+
+     “Where next shall famous Grenvil's ashes stand?
+     Thy grandsire fills the sea, and thou the land.”
+
+I have to deal with a simpler age, and a sterner generation; and with
+the old house, which had stood there, in part at least, from gray and
+mythic ages, when the first Sir Richard, son of Hamon Dentatus, Lord of
+Carboyle, the grandson of Duke Robert, son of Rou, settled at Bideford,
+after slaying the Prince of South-Galis, and the Lord of Glamorgan, and
+gave to the Cistercian monks of Neath all his conquests in South Wales.
+It was a huge rambling building, half castle, half dwelling-house, such
+as may be seen still (almost an unique specimen) in Compton Castle
+near Torquay, the dwelling-place of Humphrey Gilbert, Walter Raleigh's
+half-brother, and Richard Grenville's bosom friend, of whom more
+hereafter. On three sides, to the north, west, and south, the lofty
+walls of the old ballium still stood, with their machicolated turrets,
+loopholes, and dark downward crannies for dropping stones and fire on
+the besiegers, the relics of a more unsettled age: but the southern
+court of the ballium had become a flower-garden, with quaint terraces,
+statues, knots of flowers, clipped yews and hollies, and all the
+pedantries of the topiarian art. And toward the east, where the vista
+of the valley opened, the old walls were gone, and the frowning Norman
+keep, ruined in the Wars of the Roses, had been replaced by the rich
+and stately architecture of the Tudors. Altogether, the house, like the
+time, was in a transitionary state, and represented faithfully enough
+the passage of the old middle age into the new life which had just burst
+into blossom throughout Europe, never, let us pray, to see its autumn or
+its winter.
+
+From the house on three sides, the hill sloped steeply down, and the
+garden where Sir Richard and Amyas were walking gave a truly English
+prospect. At one turn they could catch, over the western walls, a
+glimpse of the blue ocean flecked with passing sails; and at the next,
+spread far below them, range on range of fertile park, stately avenue,
+yellow autumn woodland, and purple heather moors, lapping over and over
+each other up the valley to the old British earthwork, which stood black
+and furze-grown on its conical peak; and standing out against the sky on
+the highest bank of hill which closed the valley to the east, the lofty
+tower of Kilkhampton church, rich with the monuments and offerings of
+five centuries of Grenvilles. A yellow eastern haze hung soft over park,
+and wood, and moor; the red cattle lowed to each other as they stood
+brushing away the flies in the rivulet far below; the colts in the
+horse-park close on their right whinnied as they played together, and
+their sires from the Queen's Park, on the opposite hill, answered them
+in fuller though fainter voices. A rutting stag made the still woodland
+rattle with his hoarse thunder, and a rival far up the valley gave back
+a trumpet note of defiance, and was himself defied from heathery brows
+which quivered far away above, half seen through the veil of eastern
+mist. And close at home, upon the terrace before the house, amid romping
+spaniels and golden-haired children, sat Lady Grenville herself, the
+beautiful St. Leger of Annery, the central jewel of all that glorious
+place, and looked down at her noble children, and then up at her more
+noble husband, and round at that broad paradise of the West, till life
+seemed too full of happiness, and heaven of light.
+
+And all the while up and down paced Amyas and Sir Richard, talking long,
+earnestly, and slow; for they both knew that the turning point of the
+boy's life was come.
+
+“Yes,” said Sir Richard, after Amyas, in his blunt simple way, had told
+him the whole story about Rose Salterne and his brother,--“yes, sweet
+lad, thou hast chosen the better part, thou and thy brother also, and it
+shall not be taken from you. Only be strong, lad, and trust in God that
+He will make a man of you.”
+
+“I do trust,” said Amyas.
+
+“Thank God,” said Sir Richard, “that you have yourself taken from my
+heart that which was my great anxiety for you, from the day that your
+good father, who sleeps in peace, committed you to my hands. For all
+best things, Amyas, become, when misused, the very worst; and the love
+of woman, because it is able to lift man's soul to the heavens, is also
+able to drag him down to hell. But you have learnt better, Amyas; and
+know, with our old German forefathers, that, as Tacitus saith, Sera
+juvenum Venus, ideoque inexhausta pubertas. And not only that, Amyas;
+but trust me, that silly fashion of the French and Italians, to be
+hanging ever at some woman's apron string, so that no boy shall count
+himself a man unless he can vagghezziare le donne, whether maids or
+wives, alas! matters little; that fashion, I say, is little less hurtful
+to the soul than open sin; for by it are bred vanity and expense, envy
+and heart-burning, yea, hatred and murder often; and even if that be
+escaped, yet the rich treasure of a manly worship, which should be kept
+for one alone, is squandered and parted upon many, and the bride at last
+comes in for nothing but the very last leavings and caput mortuum of
+her bridegroom's heart, and becomes a mere ornament for his table, and
+a means whereby he may obtain a progeny. May God, who has saved me from
+that death in life, save you also!” And as he spoke, he looked down
+toward his wife upon the terrace below; and she, as if guessing
+instinctively that he was talking of her, looked up with so sweet
+a smile, that Sir Richard's stern face melted into a very glory of
+spiritual sunshine.
+
+Amyas looked at them both and sighed; and then turning the conversation
+suddenly--
+
+“And I may go to Ireland to-morrow?”
+
+“You shall sail in the 'Mary' for Milford Haven, with these letters to
+Winter. If the wind serves, you may bid the master drop down the river
+tonight, and be off; for we must lose no time.”
+
+“Winter?” said Amyas. “He is no friend of mine, since he left Drake and
+us so cowardly at the Straits of Magellan.”
+
+“Duty must not wait for private quarrels, even though they be just ones,
+lad: but he will not be your general. When you come to the marshal, or
+the Lord Deputy, give either of them this letter, and they will set you
+work,--and hard work too, I warrant.
+
+“I want nothing better.”
+
+“Right, lad; the best reward for having wrought well already, is to have
+more to do; and he that has been faithful over a few things, must find
+his account in being made ruler over many things. That is the true and
+heroical rest, which only is worthy of gentlemen and sons of God. As for
+those who, either in this world or the world to come, look for idleness,
+and hope that God shall feed them with pleasant things, as it were with
+a spoon, Amyas, I count them cowards and base, even though they call
+themselves saints and elect.”
+
+“I wish you could persuade my poor cousin of that.”
+
+“He has yet to learn what losing his life to save it means, Amyas. Bad
+men have taught him (and I fear these Anabaptists and Puritans at home
+teach little else), that it is the one great business of every one to
+save his own soul after he dies; every one for himself; and that that,
+and not divine self-sacrifice, is the one thing needful, and the better
+part which Mary chose.”
+
+“I think men are inclined enough already to be selfish, without being
+taught that.”
+
+“Right, lad. For me, if I could hang up such a teacher on high as an
+enemy of mankind, and a corrupter of youth, I would do it gladly. Is
+there not cowardice and self-seeking enough about the hearts of us
+fallen sons of Adam, that these false prophets, with their baits of
+heaven, and their terrors of hell, must exalt our dirtiest vices into
+heavenly virtues and the means of bliss? Farewell to chivalry and to
+desperate valor, farewell to patriotism and loyalty, farewell to England
+and to the manhood of England, if once it shall become the fashion of
+our preachers to bid every man, as the Jesuits do, take care first of
+what they call the safety of his soul. Every man will be afraid to die
+at his post, because he will be afraid that he is not fit to die. Amyas,
+do thou do thy duty like a man, to thy country, thy queen, and thy God;
+and count thy life a worthless thing, as did the holy men of old. Do
+thy work, lad; and leave thy soul to the care of Him who is just and
+merciful in this, that He rewards every man according to his work. Is
+there respect of persons with God? Now come in, and take the letters,
+and to horse. And if I hear of thee dead there at Smerwick fort, with
+all thy wounds in front, I shall weep for thy mother, lad; but I shall
+have never a sigh for thee.”
+
+If any one shall be startled at hearing a fine gentleman and a warrior
+like Sir Richard quote Scripture, and think Scripture also, they must
+be referred to the writings of the time; which they may read not without
+profit to themselves, if they discover therefrom how it was possible
+then for men of the world to be thoroughly ingrained with the Gospel,
+and yet to be free from any taint of superstitious fear, or false
+devoutness. The religion of those days was such as no soldier need have
+been ashamed of confessing. At least, Sir Richard died as he lived,
+without a shudder, and without a whine; and these were his last words,
+fifteen years after that, as he lay shot through and through, a captive
+among Popish Spaniards, priests, crucifixes, confession, extreme
+unction, and all other means and appliances for delivering men out of
+the hands of a God of love:--
+
+“Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind; for that
+I have ended my life as a true soldier ought, fighting for his country,
+queen, religion, and honor: my soul willingly departing from this body,
+leaving behind the lasting fame of having behaved as every valiant
+soldier is in his duty bound to do.”
+
+Those were the last words of Richard Grenville. The pulpits of those
+days had taught them to him.
+
+But to return. That day's events were not over yet. For, when they went
+down into the house, the first person whom they met was the old steward,
+in search of his master.
+
+“There is a manner of roog, Sir Richard, a masterless man, at the door;
+a very forward fellow, and must needs speak with you.”
+
+“A masterless man? He had better not to speak to me, unless he is in
+love with gaol and gallows.”
+
+“Well, your worship,” said the steward, “I expect that is what he does
+want, for he swears he will not leave the gate till he has seen you.”
+
+“Seen me? Halidame! he shall see me, here and at Launceston too, if he
+likes. Bring him in.”
+
+“Fegs, Sir Richard, we are half afeard. With your good leave--”
+
+“Hillo, Tony,” cried Amyas, “who was ever afeard yet with Sir Richard's
+good leave?”
+
+“What, has the fellow a tail or horns?”
+
+“Massy no: but I be afeard of treason for your honor; for the fellow is
+pinked all over in heathen patterns, and as brown as a filbert; and a
+tall roog, a very strong roog, sir, and a foreigner too, and a mighty
+staff with him. I expect him to be a manner of Jesuit, or wild Irish,
+sir; and indeed the grooms have no stomach to handle him, nor the dogs
+neither, or he had been under the pump before now, for they that saw him
+coming up the hill swear that he had fire coming out of his mouth.”
+
+“Fire out of his mouth?” said Sir Richard. “The men are drunk.”
+
+“Pinked all over? He must be a sailor,” said Amyas; “let me out and see
+the fellow, and if he needs putting forth--”
+
+“Why, I dare say he is not so big but what he will go into thy pocket.
+So go, lad, while I finish my writing.”
+
+Amyas went out, and at the back door, leaning on his staff, stood a
+tall, raw-boned, ragged man, “pinked all over,” as the steward had said.
+
+“Hillo, lad!” quoth Amyas. “Before we come to talk, thou wilt please to
+lay down that Plymouth cloak of thine.” And he pointed to the cudgel,
+which among West-country mariners usually bore that name.
+
+“I'll warrant,” said the old steward, “that where he found his cloak he
+found purse not far off.”
+
+“But not hose or doublet; so the magical virtue of his staff has
+not helped him much. But put down thy staff, man, and speak like a
+Christian, if thou be one.”
+
+“I am a Christian, though I look like a heathen; and no rogue, though
+a masterless man, alas! But I want nothing, deserving nothing, and only
+ask to speak with Sir Richard, before I go on my way.”
+
+There was something stately and yet humble about the man's tone and
+manner which attracted Amyas, and he asked more gently where he was
+going and whence he came.
+
+“From Padstow Port, sir, to Clovelly town, to see my old mother, if
+indeed she be yet alive, which God knoweth.”
+
+“Clovally man! why didn't thee say thee was Clovally man?” asked all the
+grooms at once, to whom a West-countryman was of course a brother. The
+old steward asked--
+
+“What's thy mother's name, then?”
+
+“Susan Yeo.”
+
+“What, that lived under the archway?” asked a groom.
+
+“Lived?” said the man.
+
+“Iss, sure; her died three days since, so we heard, poor soul.”
+
+The man stood quite silent and unmoved for a minute or two; and then
+said quietly to himself, in Spanish, “That which is, is best.”
+
+“You speak Spanish?” asked Amyas, more and more interested.
+
+“I had need to do so, young sir; I have been five years in the Spanish
+Main, and only set foot on shore two days ago; and if you will let me
+have speech of Sir Richard, I will tell him that at which both the ears
+of him that heareth it shall tingle; and if not, I can but go on to Mr.
+Cary of Clovelly, if he be yet alive, and there disburden my soul; but I
+would sooner have spoken with one that is a mariner like to myself.”
+
+“And you shall,” said Amyas. “Steward, we will have this man in; for all
+his rags, he is a man of wit.” And he led him in.
+
+“I only hope he ben't one of those Popish murderers,” said the old
+steward, keeping at a safe distance from him as they entered the hall.
+
+“Popish, old master? There's little fear of my being that. Look here!”
+ And drawing back his rags, he showed a ghastly scar, which encircled his
+wrist and wound round and up his fore-arm.
+
+“I got that on the rack,” said he, quietly, “in the Inquisition at
+Lima.”
+
+“O Father! Father! why didn't you tell us that you were a poor
+Christian?” asked the penitent steward.
+
+“Because I have had naught but my deserts; and but a taste of them
+either, as the Lord knoweth who delivered me; and I wasn't going to make
+myself a beggar and a show on their account.”
+
+“By heaven, you are a brave fellow!” said Amyas. “Come along straight to
+Sir Richard's room.”
+
+So in they went, where Sir Richard sat in his library among books,
+despatches, state-papers, and warrants; for though he was not yet, as in
+after times (after the fashion of those days) admiral, general, member
+of parliament, privy councillor, justice of the peace, and so forth, all
+at once, yet there were few great men with whom he did not correspond,
+or great matters with which he was not cognizant.
+
+“Hillo, Amyas, have you bound the wild man already, and brought him in
+to swear allegiance?”
+
+But before Amyas could answer, the man looked earnestly on him--“Amyas?”
+ said he; “is that your name, sir?”
+
+“Amyas Leigh is my name, at your service, good fellow.”
+
+“Of Burrough by Bideford?”
+
+“Why then? What do you know of me?”
+
+“Oh sir, sir! young brains and happy ones have short memories; but old
+and sad brains too long ones often! Do you mind one that was with Mr.
+Oxenham, sir? A swearing reprobate he was, God forgive him, and hath
+forgiven him too, for His dear Son's sake--one, sir, that gave you a
+horn, a toy with a chart on it?”
+
+“Soul alive!” cried Amyas, catching him by the hand; “and are you he?
+The horn? why, I have it still, and will keep it to my dying day, too.
+But where is Mr. Oxenham?”
+
+“Yes, my good fellow, where is Mr. Oxenham?” asked Sir Richard, rising.
+“You are somewhat over-hasty in welcoming your old acquaintance, Amyas,
+before we have heard from him whether he can give honest account of
+himself and of his captain. For there is more than one way by which
+sailors may come home without their captains, as poor Mr. Barker of
+Bristol found to his cost. God grant that there may have been no such
+traitorous dealing here.”
+
+“Sir Richard Grenville, if I had been a guilty man to my noble captain,
+as I have to God, I had not come here this day to you, from whom
+villainy has never found favor, nor ever will; for I know your
+conditions well, sir; and trust in the Lord, that if you will be pleased
+to hear me, you shall know mine.”
+
+“Thou art a well-spoken knave. We shall see.”
+
+“My dear sir,” said Amyas, in a whisper, “I will warrant this man
+guiltless.”
+
+“I verily believe him to be; but this is too serious a matter to be left
+on guess. If he will be sworn--”
+
+Whereon the man, humbly enough, said, that if it would please Sir
+Richard, he would rather not be sworn.
+
+“But it does not please me, rascal! Did I not warn thee, Amyas?”
+
+“Sir,” said the man, proudly, “God forbid that my word should not be as
+good as my oath: but it is against my conscience to be sworn.”
+
+“What have we here? some fantastical Anabaptist, who is wiser than his
+teachers.”
+
+“My conscience, sir--”
+
+“The devil take it and thee! I never heard a man yet begin to prate of
+his conscience, but I knew that he was about to do something more than
+ordinarily cruel or false.”
+
+“Sir,” said the man, coolly enough, “do you sit here to judge me
+according to law, and yet contrary to the law swear profane oaths, for
+which a fine is provided?”
+
+Amyas expected an explosion: but Sir Richard pulled a shilling out and
+put it on the table. “There--my fine is paid, sirrah, to the poor of
+Kilkhampton: but hearken thou all the same. If thou wilt not speak an
+oath, thou shalt speak on compulsion; for to Launceston gaol thou goest,
+there to answer for Mr. Oxenham's death, on suspicion whereof, and of
+mutiny causing it, I will attach thee and every soul of his crew that
+comes home. We have lost too many gallant captains of late by treachery
+of their crews, and he that will not clear himself on oath, must be held
+for guilty, and self-condemned.”
+
+“My good fellow,” said Amyas, who could not give up his belief in the
+man's honesty, “why, for such fantastical scruples, peril not only your
+life, but your honor, and Mr. Oxenham's also? For if you be examined by
+question, you may be forced by torment to say that which is not true.”
+
+“Little fear of that, young sir!” answered he, with a grim smile; “I
+have had too much of the rack already, and the strappado too, to care
+much what man can do unto me. I would heartily that I thought it lawful
+to be sworn: but not so thinking, I can but submit to the cruelty of
+man; though I did expect more merciful things, as a most miserable and
+wrecked mariner, at the hands of one who hath himself seen God's ways
+in the sea, and His wonders in the great deep. Sir Richard Grenville,
+if you will hear my story, may God avenge on my head all my sins from my
+youth up until now, and cut me off from the blood of Christ, and, if it
+were possible, from the number of His elect, if I tell you one whit more
+or less than truth; and if not, I commend myself into the hands of God.”
+
+Sir Richard smiled. “Well, thou art a brave ass, and valiant, though an
+ass manifest. Dost thou not see, fellow, how thou hast sworn a ten-times
+bigger oath than ever I should have asked of thee? But this is the way
+with your Anabaptists, who by their very hatred of forms and ceremonies,
+show of how much account they think them, and then bind themselves out
+of their own fantastical self-will with far heavier burdens than ever
+the lawful authorities have laid on them for the sake of the commonweal.
+But what do they care for the commonweal, as long as they can save, as
+they fancy, each man his own dirty soul for himself? However, thou art
+sworn now with a vengeance; go on with thy tale: and first, who art
+thou, and whence?”
+
+“Well, sir,” said the man, quite unmoved by this last explosion; “my
+name is Salvation Yeo, born in Clovelly Street, in the year 1526, where
+my father exercised the mystery of a barber surgeon, and a preacher of
+the people since called Anabaptists, for which I return humble thanks to
+God.”
+
+Sir Richard.--Fie! thou naughty knave; return thanks that thy father was
+an ass?
+
+Yeo.--Nay, but because he was a barber surgeon; for I myself learnt
+a touch of that trade, and thereby saved my life, as I will tell
+presently. And I do think that a good mariner ought to have all
+knowledge of carnal and worldly cunning, even to tailoring and
+shoemaking, that he may be able to turn his hand to whatsoever may hap.
+
+Sir Richard.--Well spoken, fellow: but let us have thy text without thy
+comments. Forwards!
+
+Yeo.--Well, sir. I was bred to the sea from my youth, and was with
+Captain Hawkins in his three voyages, which he made to Guinea for negro
+slaves, and thence to the West Indies.
+
+Sir Richard.--Then thrice thou wentest to a bad end, though Captain
+Hawkins be my good friend; and the last time to a bad end thou camest.
+
+Yeo.--No denying that last, your worship: but as for the former, I
+doubt--about the unlawfulness, I mean; being the negroes are of the
+children of Ham, who are cursed and reprobate, as Scripture declares,
+and their blackness testifies, being Satan's own livery; among whom
+therefore there can be none of the elect, wherefore the elect are not
+required to treat them as brethren.
+
+Sir Richard.--What a plague of a pragmatical sea-lawyer have we here?
+And I doubt not, thou hypocrite, that though thou wilt call the negroes'
+black skin Satan's livery, when it serves thy turn to steal them, thou
+wilt find out sables to be Heaven's livery every Sunday, and up with a
+godly howl unless a parson shall preach in a black gown, Geneva fashion.
+Out upon thee! Go on with thy tale, lest thou finish thy sermon at
+Launceston after all.
+
+Yeo.--The Lord's people were always a reviled people and a persecuted
+people: but I will go forward, sir; for Heaven forbid but that I should
+declare what God has done for me. For till lately, from my youth up,
+I was given over to all wretchlessness and unclean living, and was by
+nature a child of the devil, and to every good work reprobate, even as
+others.
+
+Sir Richard.--Hark to his “even as others”! Thou new-whelped Pharisee,
+canst not confess thine own villainies without making out others as bad
+as thyself, and so thyself no worse than others? I only hope that thou
+hast shown none of thy devil's doings to Mr. Oxenham.
+
+Yeo.--On the word of a Christian man, sir, as I said before, I kept true
+faith with him, and would have been a better friend to him, sir, what is
+more, than ever he was to himself.
+
+Sir Richard.--Alas! that might easily be.
+
+Yeo.--I think, sir, and will make good against any man, that Mr. Oxenham
+was a noble and valiant gentleman; true of his word, stout of his sword,
+skilful by sea and land, and worthy to have been Lord High Admiral of
+England (saving your worship's presence), but that through two great
+sins, wrath and avarice, he was cast away miserably or ever his soul was
+brought to the knowledge of the truth. Ah, sir, he was a captain worth
+sailing under!
+
+And Yeo heaved a deep sigh.
+
+Sir Richard.--Steady, steady, good fellow! If thou wouldst quit
+preaching, thou art no fool after all. But tell us the story without
+more bush-beating.
+
+So at last Yeo settled himself to his tale:--
+
+“Well, sirs, I went, as Mr. Leigh knows, to Nombre de Dios, with Mr.
+Drake and Mr. Oxenham, in 1572, where what we saw and did, your worship,
+I suppose, knows as well as I; and there was, as you've heard maybe,
+a covenant between Mr. Oxenham and Mr. Drake to sail the South Seas
+together, which they made, your worship, in my hearing, under the tree
+over Panama. For when Mr. Drake came down from the tree, after seeing
+the sea afar off, Mr. Oxenham and I went up and saw it too; and when we
+came down, Drake says, 'John, I have made a vow to God that I will sail
+that water, if I live and God gives me grace;' which he had done, sir,
+upon his bended knees, like a godly man as he always was, and would I
+had taken after him! and Mr. O. says, 'I am with you, Drake, to live or
+die, and I think I know some one there already, so we shall not be quite
+among strangers;' and laughed withal. Well, sirs, that voyage, as you
+know, never came off, because Captain Drake was fighting in Ireland; so
+Mr. Oxenham, who must be up and doing, sailed for himself, and I, who
+loved him, God knows, like a brother (saving the difference in our
+ranks), helped him to get the crew together, and went as his gunner.
+That was in 1575; as you know, he had a 140-ton ship, sir, and seventy
+men out of Plymouth and Fowey and Dartmouth, and many of them old hands
+of Drake's, beside a dozen or so from Bideford that I picked up when I
+saw young Master here.”
+
+“Thank God that you did not pick me up too.”
+
+“Amen, amen!” said Yeo, clasping his hands on his breast. “Those seventy
+men, sir,--seventy gallant men, sir, with every one of them an immortal
+soul within him,--where are they now? Gone, like the spray!” And he
+swept his hands abroad with a wild and solemn gesture. “And their blood
+is upon my head!”
+
+Both Sir Richard and Amyas began to suspect that the man's brain was not
+altogether sound.
+
+“God forbid, my man,” said the knight, kindly.
+
+“Thirteen men I persuaded to join in Bideford town, beside William
+Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade. And what if it be said to me at
+the day of judgment, 'Salvation Yeo, where are those fourteen whom thou
+didst tempt to their deaths by covetousness and lust of gold?' Not that
+I was alone in my sin, if the truth must be told. For all the way out
+Mr. Oxenham was making loud speech, after his pleasant way, that he
+would make all their fortunes, and take them to such a Paradise, that
+they should have no lust to come home again. And I--God knows why--for
+every one boast of his would make two, even to lying and empty fables,
+and anything to keep up the men's hearts. For I had really persuaded
+myself that we should all find treasures beyond Solomon his temple,
+and Mr. Oxenham would surely show us how to conquer some golden city or
+discover some island all made of precious stones. And one day, as the
+captain and I were talking after our fashion, I said, 'And you shall be
+our king, captain.' To which he, 'If I be, I shall not be long without
+a queen, and that no Indian one either.' And after that he often jested
+about the Spanish ladies, saying that none could show us the way to
+their hearts better than he. Which speeches I took no count of then,
+sirs: but after I minded them, whether I would or not. Well, sirs, we
+came to the shore of New Spain, near to the old place--that's Nombre
+de Dios; and there Mr. Oxenham went ashore into the woods with a boat's
+crew, to find the negroes who helped us three years before. Those are
+the Cimaroons, gentles, negro slaves who have fled from those devils
+incarnate, their Spanish masters, and live wild, like the beasts
+that perish; men of great stature, sirs, and fierce as wolves in
+the onslaught, but poor jabbering mazed fellows if they be but a bit
+dismayed: and have many Indian women with them, who take to these
+negroes a deal better than to their own kin, which breeds war enough, as
+you may guess.
+
+“Well, sirs, after three days the captain comes back, looking heavy
+enough, and says, 'We played our trick once too often, when we played
+it once. There is no chance of stopping another reco (that is, a
+mule-train, sirs) now. The Cimaroons say that since our last visit
+they never move without plenty of soldiers, two hundred shot at least.
+Therefore,' he said, 'my gallants, we must either return empty-handed
+from this, the very market and treasury of the whole Indies, or do such
+a deed as men never did before, which I shall like all the better for
+that very reason.' And we, asking his meaning, 'Why,' he said, 'if Drake
+will not sail the South Seas, we will;' adding profanely that Drake was
+like Moses, who beheld the promised land afar; but he was Joshua, who
+would enter into it, and smite the inhabitants thereof. And, for our
+confirmation, showed me and the rest the superscription of a letter: and
+said, 'How I came by this is none of your business: but I have had it in
+my bosom ever since I left Plymouth; and I tell you now, what I forbore
+to tell you at first, that the South Seas have been my mark all along!
+such news have I herein of plate-ships, and gold-ships, and what not,
+which will come up from Quito and Lima this very month, all which, with
+the pearls of the Gulf of Panama, and other wealth unspeakable, will be
+ours, if we have but true English hearts within us.'
+
+“At which, gentles, we were like madmen for lust of that gold, and
+cheerfully undertook a toil incredible; for first we run our ship
+aground in a great wood which grew in the very sea itself, and then took
+out her masts, and covered her in boughs, with her four cast pieces of
+great ordnance (of which more hereafter), and leaving no man in her,
+started for the South Seas across the neck of Panama, with two small
+pieces of ordnance and our culverins, and good store of victuals, and
+with us six of those negroes for a guide, and so twelve leagues to a
+river which runs into the South Sea.
+
+“And there, having cut wood, we made a pinnace (and work enough we had
+at it) of five-and-forty foot in the keel; and in her down the stream,
+and to the Isle of Pearls in the Gulf of Panama.”
+
+“Into the South Sea? Impossible!” said Sir Richard. “Have a care what
+you say, my man; for there is that about you which would make me sorry
+to find you out a liar.”
+
+“Impossible or not, liar or none, we went there, sir.”
+
+“Question him, Amyas, lest he turn out to have been beforehand with
+you.”
+
+The man looked inquiringly at Amyas, who said--
+
+“Well, my man, of the Gulf of Panama I cannot ask you, for I never was
+inside it, but what other parts of the coast do you know?”
+
+“Every inch, sir, from Cabo San Francisco to Lima; more is my sorrow,
+for I was a galley-slave there for two years and more.”
+
+“You know Lima?”
+
+“I was there three times, worshipful gentlemen, and the last was
+February come two years; and there I helped lade a great plate-ship, the
+Cacafuogo,' they called her.”
+
+Amyas started. Sir Richard nodded to him gently to be silent, and then--
+
+“And what became of her, my lad?”
+
+“God knows, who knows all, and the devil who freighted her. I broke
+prison six weeks afterwards, and never heard but that she got safe into
+Panama.”
+
+“You never heard, then, that she was taken?”
+
+“Taken, your worships? Who should take her?”
+
+“Why should not a good English ship take her as well as another?” said
+Amyas.
+
+“Lord love you, sir; yes, faith, if they had but been there. Many's the
+time that I thought to myself, as we went alongside, 'Oh, if Captain
+Drake was but here, well to windward, and our old crew of the “Dragon”!'
+Ask your pardon, gentles: but how is Captain Drake, if I may make so
+bold?”
+
+Neither could hold out longer.
+
+“Fellow, fellow!” cried Sir Richard, springing up, “either thou art the
+cunningest liar that ever earned a halter, or thou hast done a deed
+the like of which never man adventured. Dost thou not know that Captain
+Drake took that 'Cacafuogo' and all her freight, in February come two
+years?”
+
+“Captain Drake! God forgive me, sir; but--Captain Drake in the South
+Seas? He saw them, sir, from the tree-top over Panama, when I was with
+him, and I too; but sailed them, sir?--sailed them?”
+
+“Yes, and round the world too,” said Amyas, “and I with him; and took
+that very 'Cacafuogo' off Cape San Francisco, as she came up to Panama.”
+
+One glance at the man's face was enough to prove his sincerity. The
+great stern Anabaptist, who had not winced at the news of his mother's
+death, dropt right on his knees on the floor, and burst into violent
+sobs.
+
+“Glory to God! Glory to God! O Lord, I thank thee! Captain Drake in
+the South Seas! The blood of thy innocents avenged, O Lord! The spoiler
+spoiled, and the proud robbed; and all they whose hands were mighty have
+found nothing. Glory, glory! Oh, tell me, sir, did she fight?”
+
+“We gave her three pieces of ordnance only, and struck down her
+mizzenmast, and then boarded sword in hand, but never had need to strike
+a blow; and before we left her, one of her own boys had changed her
+name, and rechristened her the 'Cacaplata.'”
+
+“Glory, glory! Cowards they are, as I told them. I told them they never
+could stand the Devon mastiffs, and well they flogged me for saying it;
+but they could not stop my mouth. O sir, tell me, did you get the ship
+that came up after her?”
+
+“What was that?”
+
+“A long race-ship, sir, from Guayaquil, with an old gentleman on
+board,--Don Francisco de Xararte was his name, and by token, he had a
+gold falcon hanging to a chain round his neck, and a green stone in the
+breast of it. I saw it as we rowed him aboard. O tell me, sir, tell me
+for the love of God, did you take that ship?”
+
+“We did take that ship, and the jewel too, and her majesty has it at
+this very hour.”
+
+“Then tell me, sir,” said he slowly, as if he dreaded an answer; “tell
+me, sir, and oh, try and mind--was there a little maid aboard with the
+old gentleman?”
+
+“A little maid? Let me think. No; I saw none.”
+
+The man settled his features again sadly.
+
+“I thought not. I never saw her come aboard. Still I hoped, like; I
+hoped. Alackaday! God help me, Salvation Yeo!”
+
+“What have you to do with this little maid, then, good fellow!” asked
+Grenville.
+
+“Ah, sir, before I tell you that, I must go back and finish the story of
+Mr. Oxenham, if you will believe me enough to hear it.”
+
+“I do believe thee, good fellow, and honor thee too.”
+
+“Then, sir, I can speak with a free tongue. Where was I?”
+
+“Where was he, Amyas?”
+
+“At the Isle of Pearls.”
+
+“And yet, O gentles, tell me first, how Captain Drake came into the
+South Seas:--over the neck, as we did?”
+
+“Through the Straits, good fellow, like any Spaniard: but go on with thy
+story, and thou shalt have Mr. Leigh's after.”
+
+“Through the Straits! O glory! But I'll tell my tale. Well, sirs
+both--To the Island of Pearls we came, we and some of the negroes. We
+found many huts, and Indians fishing for pearls, and also a fair house,
+with porches; but no Spaniard therein, save one man; at which Mr.
+Oxenham was like a man transported, and fell on that Spaniard, crying,
+'Perro, where is your mistress? Where is the bark from Lima?' To which
+he boldly enough, 'What was his mistress to the Englishman?' But Mr. O.
+threatened to twine a cord round his head till his eyes burst out; and
+the Spaniard, being terrified, said that the ship from Lima was expected
+in a fortnight's time. So for ten days we lay quiet, letting neither
+negro nor Spaniard leave the island, and took good store of pearls,
+feeding sumptuously on wild cattle and hogs until the tenth day, when
+there came by a small bark; her we took, and found her from Quito, and
+on board 60,000 pezos of gold and other store. With which if we had been
+content, gentlemen, all had gone well. And some were willing to go back
+at once, having both treasure and pearls in plenty; but Mr. O., he
+waxed right mad, and swore to slay any one who made that motion again,
+assuring us that the Lima ship of which he had news was far greater and
+richer, and would make princes of us all; which bark came in sight on
+the sixteenth day, and was taken without shot or slaughter. The taking
+of which bark, I verily believe, was the ruin of every mother's son of
+us.”
+
+And being asked why, he answered, “First, because of the discontent
+which was bred thereby; for on board was found no gold, but only 100,000
+pezos of silver.”
+
+Sir Richard Grenville.--Thou greedy fellow; and was not that enough to
+stay your stomachs?
+
+Yeo answered that he would to God it had been; and that, moreover, the
+weight of that silver was afterwards a hindrance to them, and fresh
+cause of discontent, as he would afterwards declare. “So that it had
+been well for us, sirs, if we had left it behind, as Mr. Drake left his
+three years before, and carried away the gold only. In which I do see
+the evident hand of God, and His just punishment for our greediness
+of gain; who caused Mr. Oxenham, by whom we had hoped to attain great
+wealth, to be a snare to us, and a cause of utter ruin.”
+
+“Do you think, then,” said Sir Richard, “that Mr. Oxenham deceived you
+wilfully?”
+
+“I will never believe that, sir: Mr. Oxenham had his private reasons for
+waiting for that ship, for the sake of one on board, whose face would
+that he had never seen, though he saw it then, as I fear, not for the
+first time by many a one.” And so was silent.
+
+“Come,” said both his hearers, “you have brought us thus far, and you
+must go on.”
+
+“Gentlemen, I have concealed this matter from all men, both on my voyage
+home and since; and I hope you will be secret in the matter, for the
+honor of my noble captain, and the comfort of his friends who are alive.
+For I think it shame to publish harm of a gallant gentleman, and of an
+ancient and worshipful family, and to me a true and kind captain, when
+what is done cannot be undone, and least said soonest mended. Neither
+now would I have spoken of it, but that I was inwardly moved to it for
+the sake of that young gentleman there” (looking at Amyas), “that
+he might be warned in time of God's wrath against the crying sin of
+adultery, and flee youthful lusts, which war against the soul.”
+
+“Thou hast done wisely enough, then,” said Sir Richard; “and look to it
+if I do not reward thee: but the young gentleman here, thank God, needs
+no such warnings, having got them already both by precept and example,
+where thou and poor Oxenham might have had them also.”
+
+“You mean Captain Drake, your worship?”
+
+“I do, sirrah. If all men were as clean livers as he, the world would be
+spared one half the tears that are shed in it.”
+
+“Amen, sir. At least there would have been many a tear spared to us and
+ours. For--as all must out--in that bark of Lima he took a young
+lady, as fair as the sunshine, sir, and seemingly about two or
+three-and-twenty years of age, having with her a tall young lad of
+sixteen, and a little girl, a marvellously pretty child, of about a
+six or seven. And the lady herself was of an excellent beauty, like a
+whale's tooth for whiteness, so that all the crew wondered at her, and
+could not be satisfied with looking upon her. And, gentlemen, this was
+strange, that the lady seemed in no wise afraid or mournful, and bid
+her little girl fear naught, as did also Mr. Oxenham: but the lad kept a
+very sour countenance, and the more when he saw the lady and Mr. Oxenham
+speaking together apart.
+
+“Well, sir, after this good luck we were minded to have gone straight
+back to the river whence we came, and so home to England with all speed.
+But Mr. Oxenham persuaded us to return to the island, and get a few more
+pearls. To which foolishness (which after caused the mishap) I verily
+believe he was moved by the instigation of the devil and of that lady.
+For as we were about to go ashore, I, going down into the cabin of the
+prize, saw Mr. Oxenham and that lady making great cheer of each other
+with, 'My life,' and 'My king,' and 'Light of my eyes,' and such toys;
+and being bidden by Mr. Oxenham to fetch out the lady's mails, and take
+them ashore, heard how the two laughed together about the old ape of
+Panama (which ape, or devil rather, I saw afterwards to my cost), and
+also how she said that she had been dead for five years, and now that
+Mr. Oxenham was come, she was alive again, and so forth.
+
+“Mr. Oxenham bade take the little maid ashore, kissing her and playing
+with her, and saying to the lady, 'What is yours is mine, and what is
+mine is yours.' And she asking whether the lad should come ashore, he
+answered, 'He is neither yours nor mine; let the spawn of Beelzebub stay
+on shore.' After which I, coming on deck again, stumbled over that very
+lad, upon the hatchway ladder, who bore so black and despiteful a face,
+that I verily believe he had overheard their speech, and so thrust him
+upon deck; and going below again, told Mr. Oxenham what I thought, and
+said that it were better to put a dagger into him at once, professing to
+be ready so to do. For which grievous sin, seeing that it was
+committed in my unregenerate days, I hope I have obtained the grace of
+forgiveness, as I have that of hearty repentance. But the lady cried
+out, 'Though he be none of mine, I have sin enough already on my soul;'
+and so laid her hand on Mr. Oxenham's mouth, entreating pitifully. And
+Mr. Oxenham answered laughing, when she would let him, 'What care we?
+let the young monkey go and howl to the old one;' and so went ashore
+with the lady to that house, whence for three days he never came forth,
+and would have remained longer, but that the men, finding but few
+pearls, and being wearied with the watching and warding so many
+Spaniards, and negroes came clamoring to him, and swore that they
+would return or leave him there with the lady. So all went on board
+the pinnace again, every one in ill humor with the captain, and he with
+them.
+
+“Well, sirs, we came back to the mouth of the river, and there began our
+troubles; for the negroes, as soon as we were on shore, called on Mr.
+Oxenham to fulfil the bargain he had made with them. And now it came out
+(what few of us knew till then) that he had agreed with the Cimaroons
+that they should have all the prisoners which were taken, save the gold.
+And he, though loath, was about to give up the Spaniards to them, near
+forty in all, supposing that they intended to use them as slaves: but
+as we all stood talking, one of the Spaniards, understanding what was
+forward, threw himself on his knees before Mr. Oxenham, and shrieking
+like a madman, entreated not to be given up into the hands of 'those
+devils,' said he, 'who never take a Spanish prisoner, but they roast him
+alive, and then eat his heart among them.' We asked the negroes if this
+was possible? To which some answered, What was that to us? But others
+said boldly, that it was true enough, and that revenge made the best
+sauce, and nothing was so sweet as Spanish blood; and one, pointing
+to the lady, said such foul and devilish things as I should be ashamed
+either for me to speak, or you to hear. At this we were like men amazed
+for very horror; and Mr. Oxenham said, 'You incarnate fiends, if you had
+taken these fellows for slaves, it had been fair enough; for you were
+once slaves to them, and I doubt not cruelly used enough: but as for
+this abomination,' says he, 'God do so to me, and more also, if I
+let one of them come into your murderous hands.' So there was a great
+quarrel; but Mr. Oxenham stoutly bade put the prisoners on board
+the ships again, and so let the prizes go, taking with him only the
+treasure, and the lady and the little maid. And so the lad went on to
+Panama, God's wrath having gone out against us.
+
+“Well, sirs, the Cimaroons after that went away from us, swearing
+revenge (for which we cared little enough), and we rowed up the river
+to a place where three streams met, and then up the least of the three,
+some four days' journey, till it grew all shoal and swift; and there we
+hauled the pinnace upon the sands, and Mr. Oxenham asked the men whether
+they were willing to carry the gold and silver over the mountains to the
+North Sea. Some of them at first were loath to do it, and I and others
+advised that we should leave the plate behind, and take the gold only,
+for it would have cost us three or four journeys at the least. But Mr.
+Oxenham promised every man 100 pezos of silver over and above his wages,
+which made them content enough, and we were all to start the morrow
+morning. But, sirs, that night, as God had ordained, came a mishap by
+some rash speeches of Mr. Oxenham's, which threw all abroad again; for
+when we had carried the treasure about half a league inland, and hidden
+it away in a house which we made of boughs, Mr. O. being always full of
+that his fair lady, spoke to me and William Penberthy of Marazion, my
+good comrade, and a few more, saying, 'That we had no need to return
+to England, seeing that we were already in the very garden of Eden, and
+wanted for nothing, but could live without labor or toil; and that it
+was better, when we got over to the North Sea, to go and seek out some
+fair island, and there dwell in joy and pleasure till our lives' end.
+And we two,' he said, 'will be king and queen, and you, whom I can
+trust, my officers; and for servants we will have the Indians, who, I
+warrant, will be more fain to serve honest and merry masters like us
+than those Spanish devils,' and much more of the like; which words I
+liked well,--my mind, alas! being given altogether to carnal pleasure
+and vanity,--as did William Penberthy, my good comrade, on whom I trust
+God has had mercy. But the rest, sirs, took the matter all across, and
+began murmuring against the captain, saying that poor honest mariners
+like them had always the labor and the pain, while he took his delight
+with his lady; and that they would have at least one merry night before
+they were slain by the Cimaroons, or eaten by panthers and lagartos;
+and so got out of the pinnace two great skins of Canary wine, which were
+taken in the Lima prize, and sat themselves down to drink. Moreover,
+there were in the pinnace a great sight of hens, which came from the
+same prize, by which Mr. O. set great store, keeping them for the lady
+and the little maid; and falling upon these, the men began to blaspheme,
+saying, 'What a plague had the captain to fill the boat with dirty live
+lumber for that giglet's sake? They had a better right to a good supper
+than ever she had, and might fast awhile to cool her hot blood;' and
+so cooked and ate those hens, plucking them on board the pinnace, and
+letting the feathers fall into the stream. But when William Penberthy,
+my good comrade, saw the feathers floating away down, he asked them if
+they were mad, to lay a trail by which the Spaniards would surely track
+them out, if they came after them, as without doubt they would. But they
+laughed him to scorn, and said that no Spanish cur dared follow on
+the heels of true English mastiffs as they were, and other boastful
+speeches; and at last, being heated with wine, began afresh to murmur at
+the captain. And one speaking of his counsel about the island, the rest
+altogether took it amiss and out of the way; and some sprang up crying
+treason, and others that he meant to defraud them of the plate which he
+had promised, and others that he meant to desert them in a strange land,
+and so forth, till Mr. O., hearing the hubbub, came out to them from
+the house, when they reviled him foully, swearing that he meant to cheat
+them; and one Edward Stiles, a Wapping man, mad with drink, dared to say
+that he was a fool for not giving up the prisoners to the negroes, and
+what was it to him if the lady roasted? the negroes should have her yet;
+and drawing his sword, ran upon the captain: for which I was about to
+strike him through the body; but the captain, not caring to waste steel
+on such a ribald, with his fist caught him such a buffet behind the ear,
+that he fell down stark dead, and all the rest stood amazed. Then Mr.
+Oxenham called out, 'All honest men who know me, and can trust me, stand
+by your lawful captain against these ruffians.' Whereon, sirs, I, and
+Penberthy my good comrade, and four Plymouth men, who had sailed with
+Mr. O. in Mr. Drake's ship, and knew his trusty and valiant conditions,
+came over to him, and swore before God to stand by him and the lady.
+Then said Mr. O. to the rest, 'Will you carry this treasure, knaves,
+or will you not? Give me an answer here.' And they refused, unless he
+would, before they started, give each man his share. So Mr. O. waxed
+very mad, and swore that he would never be served by men who did not
+trust him, and so went in again; and that night was spent in great
+disquiet, I and those five others keeping watch about the house of
+boughs till the rest fell asleep, in their drink. And next morning, when
+the wine was gone out of them, Mr. O. asked them whether they would go
+to the hills with him, and find those negroes, and persuade them after
+all to carry the treasure. To which they agreed after awhile, thinking
+that so they should save themselves labor; and went off with Mr.
+Oxenham, leaving us six who had stood by him to watch the lady and the
+treasure, after he had taken an oath of us that we would deal justly and
+obediently by him and by her, which God knows, gentlemen, we did. So
+he parted with much weeping and wailing of the lady, and was gone seven
+days; and all that time we kept that lady faithfully and honestly,
+bringing her the best we could find, and serving her upon our bended
+knees, both for her admirable beauty, and for her excellent conditions,
+for she was certainly of some noble kin, and courteous, and without
+fear, as if she had been a very princess. But she kept always within the
+house, which the little maid (God bless her!) did not, but soon learned
+to play with us and we with her, so that we made great cheer of her,
+gentlemen, sailor fashion--for you know we must always have our minions
+aboard to pet and amuse us--maybe a monkey, or a little dog, or a
+singing bird, ay, or mice and spiders, if we have nothing better to
+play withal. And she was wonderful sharp, sirs, was the little maid, and
+picked up her English from us fast, calling us jolly mariners, which I
+doubt but she has forgotten by now, but I hope in God it be not so;” and
+therewith the good fellow began wiping his eyes.
+
+“Well, sir, on the seventh day we six were down by the pinnace clearing
+her out, and the little maid with us gathering of flowers, and William
+Penberthy fishing on the bank, about a hundred yards below, when on
+a sudden he leaps up and runs toward us, crying, 'Here come our hens'
+feathers back again with a vengeance!' and so bade catch up the little
+maid, and run for the house, for the Spaniards were upon us.
+
+“Which was too true; for before we could win the house, there were full
+eighty shot at our heels, but could not overtake us; nevertheless, some
+of them stopping, fixed their calivers and let fly, killing one of the
+Plymouth men. The rest of us escaped to the house, and catching up the
+lady, fled forth, not knowing whither we went, while the Spaniards,
+finding the house and treasure, pursued us no farther.
+
+“For all that day and the next we wandered in great misery, the lady
+weeping continually, and calling for Mr. Oxenham most piteously, and
+the little maid likewise, till with much ado we found the track of our
+comrades, and went up that as best we might: but at nightfall, by good
+hap, we met the whole crew coming back, and with them 200 negroes or
+more, with bows and arrows. At which sight was great joy and embracing,
+and it was a strange thing, sirs, to see the lady; for before that she
+was altogether desperate: and yet she was now a very lioness, as soon
+as she had got her love again; and prayed him earnestly not to care
+for that gold, but to go forward to the North Sea, vowing to him in my
+hearing that she cared no more for poverty than she had cared for her
+good name, and then--they being a little apart from the rest--pointed
+round to the green forest, and said in Spanish--which I suppose they
+knew not that I understood,--'See, all round us is Paradise. Were it not
+enough for you and me to stay here forever, and let them take the gold
+or leave it as they will?'
+
+“To which Mr. Oxenham--'Those who lived in Paradise had not sinned as we
+have, and would never have grown old or sick, as we shall.'
+
+“And she--'If we do that, there are poisons enough in these woods, by
+which we may die in each other's arms, as would to Heaven we had died
+seven years agone!'
+
+“But he--'No, no, my life. It stands upon my honor both to fulfil my
+bond with these men, whom I have brought hither, and to take home to
+England at least something of my prize as a proof of my own valor.'
+
+“Then she smiling--'Am I not prize enough, and proof enough?' But he
+would not be so tempted, and turning to us offered us the half of that
+treasure, if we would go back with him, and rescue it from the Spaniard.
+At which the lady wept and wailed much; but I took upon myself to
+comfort her, though I was but a simple mariner, telling her that it
+stood upon Mr. Oxenham's honor; and that in England nothing was esteemed
+so foul as cowardice, or breaking word and troth betwixt man and man;
+and that better was it for him to die seven times by the Spaniards, than
+to face at home the scorn of all who sailed the seas. So, after much
+ado, back they went again; I and Penberthy, and the three Plymouth men
+which escaped from the pinnace, keeping the lady as before.
+
+“Well, sirs, we waited five days, having made houses of boughs as
+before, without hearing aught; and on the sixth we saw coming afar off
+Mr. Oxenham, and with him fifteen or twenty men, who seemed very weary
+and wounded; and when we looked for the rest to be behind them, behold
+there were no more; at which, sirs, as you may well think, our hearts
+sank within us.
+
+“And Mr. O., coming nearer, cried out afar off, 'All is lost!' and so
+walked into the camp without a word, and sat himself down at the foot
+of a great tree with his head between his hands, speaking neither to the
+lady or to any one, till she very pitifully kneeling before him, cursing
+herself for the cause of all his mischief, and praying him to avenge
+himself upon that her tender body, won him hardly to look once upon her,
+after which (as is the way of vain and unstable man) all between them
+was as before.
+
+“But the men were full of curses against the negroes, for their
+cowardice and treachery; yea, and against high Heaven itself, which had
+put the most part of their ammunition into the Spaniards' hands; and
+told me, and I believe truly, how they forced the enemy awaiting them in
+a little copse of great trees, well fortified with barricades of boughs,
+and having with them our two falcons, which they had taken out of the
+pinnace. And how Mr. Oxenham divided both the English and the negroes
+into two bands, that one might attack the enemy in front, and the
+other in the rear, and so set upon them with great fury, and would have
+utterly driven them out, but that the negroes, who had come on with much
+howling, like very wild beasts, being suddenly scared with the shot and
+noise of the ordnance, turned and fled, leaving the Englishmen alone; in
+which evil strait Mr. O. fought like a very Guy of Warwick, and I verily
+believe every man of them likewise; for there was none of them who had
+not his shrewd scratch to show. And indeed, Mr. Oxenham's party had once
+gotten within the barricades, but the Spaniards being sheltered by
+the tree trunks (and especially by one mighty tree, which stood as I
+remembered it, and remember it now, borne up two fathoms high upon its
+own roots, as it were upon arches and pillars), shot at them with such
+advantage, that they had several slain, and seven more taken alive, only
+among the roots of that tree. So seeing that they could prevail nothing,
+having little but their pikes and swords, they were fain to give back;
+though Mr. Oxenham swore he would not stir a foot, and making at the
+Spanish captain was borne down with pikes, and hardly pulled away by
+some, who at last reminding him of his lady, persuaded him to come away
+with the rest. Whereon the other party fled also; but what had become
+of them they knew not, for they took another way. And so they miserably
+drew off, having lost in men eleven killed and seven taken alive,
+besides five of the rascal negroes who were killed before they had time
+to run; and there was an end of the matter.*
+
+     * In the documents from which I have drawn this veracious
+     history, a note is appended to this point of Yeo's story,
+     which seems to me to smack sufficiently of the old
+     Elizabethan seaman, to be inserted at length.
+
+     “All so far, and most after, agreeth with Lopez Vaz his
+     tale, taken from his pocket by my Lord Cumberland's mariners
+     at the river Plate, in the year 1586.  But note here his
+     vainglory and falsehood, or else fear of the Spaniard.
+
+     “First, lest it should be seen how great an advantage the
+     Spaniards had, he maketh no mention of the English calivers,
+     nor those two pieces of ordnance which were in the pinnace.
+
+     “Second, he saith nothing of the flight of the Cimaroons:
+     though it was evidently to be gathered from that which he
+     himself saith, that of less than seventy English were slain
+     eleven, and of the negroes but five.  And while of the
+     English seven were taken alive, yet of the negroes none.
+     And why, but because the rascals ran?
+
+     “Thirdly, it is a thing incredible, and out of experience,
+     that eleven English should be slain and seven taken, with
+     loss only of two Spaniards killed.
+
+     “Search now, and see (for I will not speak of mine own small
+     doings), in all those memorable voyages, which the worthy
+     and learned Mr. Hakluyt hath so painfully collected, and
+     which are to my old age next only to my Bible, whether in
+     all the fights which we have endured with the Spaniards,
+     their loss, even in victory, hath not far exceeded ours.
+     For we are both bigger of body and fiercer of spirit, being
+     even to the poorest of us (thanks so the care of our
+     illustrious princes), the best fed men of Europe, the most
+     trained to feats of strength and use of weapons, and put our
+     trust also not in any Virgin or saints, dead rags and bones,
+     painted idols which have no breath in their mouths, or St.
+     Bartholomew medals and such devil's remembrancers; but in
+     the only true God and our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom
+     whosoever trusteth, one of them shall chase a thousand.  So
+     I hold, having had good experience; and say, if they have
+     done it once, let them do it again, and kill their eleven to
+     our two, with any weapon they will, save paper bullets blown
+     out of Fame's lying trumpet.  Yet I have no quarrel with the
+     poor Portugal; for I doubt not but friend Lopez Vaz had
+     looking over his shoulder as he wrote some mighty black
+     velvet Don, with a name as long as that Don Bernaldino
+     Delgadillo de Avellaneda who set forth lately his
+     vainglorious libel of lies concerning the last and fatal
+     voyage of my dear friends Sir F. Drake and Sir John Hawkins,
+     who rest in peace, having finished their labors, as would
+     God I rested.  To whose shameless and unspeakable lying my
+     good friend Mr. Henry Savile of this county did most pithily
+     and wittily reply, stripping the ass out of his lion's skin;
+     and Sir Thomas Baskerville, general of the fleet, by my
+     advice, send him a cartel of defiance, offering to meet him
+     with choice of weapons, in any indifferent kingdom of equal
+     distance from this realm; which challenge he hath prudently
+     put in his pipe, or rather rolled it up for one of his
+     Spanish cigarros, and smoked it, and I doubt not, found it
+     foul in the mouth.”
+
+“But the next day, gentlemen, in came some five-and-twenty more, being
+the wreck of the other party, and with them a few negroes; and these
+last proved themselves no honester men than they were brave, for there
+being great misery among us English, and every one of us straggling
+where he could to get food, every day one or more who went out never
+came back, and that caused a suspicion that the negroes had betrayed
+them to the Spaniards, or, maybe, slain and eaten them. So these fellows
+being upbraided, with that altogether left us, telling us boldly,
+that if they had eaten our fellows, we owed them a debt instead of the
+Spanish prisoners; and we, in great terror and hunger, went forward and
+over the mountains till we came to a little river which ran northward,
+which seemed to lead into the Northern Sea; and there Mr. O.--who, sirs,
+I will say, after his first rage was over, behaved himself all through
+like a valiant and skilful commander--bade us cut down trees and make
+canoes, to go down to the sea; which we began to do, with great labor
+and little profit, hewing down trees with our swords, and burning them
+out with fire, which, after much labor, we kindled; but as we were
+a-burning out of the first tree, and cutting down of another, a great
+party of negroes came upon us, and with much friendly show bade us flee
+for our lives, for the Spaniards were upon us in great force. And so we
+were up and away again, hardly able to drag our legs after us for hunger
+and weariness, and the broiling heat. And some were taken (God help
+them!) and some fled with the negroes, of whom what became God alone
+knoweth; but eight or ten held on with the captain, among whom was I,
+and fled downward toward the sea for one day; but afterwards finding, by
+the noise in the woods, that the Spaniards were on the track of us, we
+turned up again toward the inland, and coming to a cliff, climbed up
+over it, drawing up the lady and the little maid with cords of liana
+(which hang from those trees as honeysuckle does here, but exceeding
+stout and long, even to fifty fathoms); and so breaking the track, hoped
+to be out of the way of the enemy.
+
+“By which, nevertheless, we only increased our misery. For two fell from
+that cliff, as men asleep for very weariness, and miserably broke their
+bones; and others, whether by the great toil, or sunstrokes, or eating
+of strange berries, fell sick of fluxes and fevers; where was no drop
+of water, but rock of pumice stone as bare as the back of my hand, and
+full, moreover, of great cracks, black and without bottom, over which
+we had not strength to lift the sick, but were fain to leave them there
+aloft, in the sunshine, like Dives in his torments, crying aloud for
+a drop of water to cool their tongues; and every man a great stinking
+vulture or two sitting by him, like an ugly black fiend out of the pit,
+waiting till the poor soul should depart out of the corpse: but nothing
+could avail, and for the dear life we must down again and into the
+woods, or be burned up alive upon those rocks.
+
+“So getting down the slope on the farther side, we came into the woods
+once more, and there wandered for many days, I know not how many;
+our shoes being gone, and our clothes all rent off us with brakes and
+briars. And yet how the lady endured all was a marvel to see; for she
+went barefoot many days, and for clothes was fain to wrap herself in Mr.
+Oxenham's cloak; while the little maid went all but naked: but ever she
+looked still on Mr. Oxenham, and seemed to take no care as long as he
+was by, comforting and cheering us all with pleasant words; yea, and
+once sitting down under a great fig-tree, sang us all to sleep with
+very sweet music; yet, waking about midnight, I saw her sitting still
+upright, weeping very bitterly; on whom, sirs, God have mercy; for she
+was a fair and a brave jewel.
+
+“And so, to make few words of a sad matter, at last there were none left
+but Mr. Oxenham and the lady and the little maid, together with me and
+William Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade. And Mr. Oxenham always
+led the lady, and Penberthy and I carried the little maid. And for food
+we had fruits, such as we could find, and water we got from the leaves
+of certain lilies which grew on the bark of trees, which I found by
+seeing the monkeys drink at them; and the little maid called them
+monkey-cups, and asked for them continually, making me climb for them.
+And so we wandered on, and upward into very high mountains, always
+fearing lest the Spaniards should track us with dogs, which made the
+lady leap up often in her sleep, crying that the bloodhounds were upon
+her. And it befell upon a day, that we came into a great wood of ferns
+(which grew not on the ground like ours, but on stems as big as a
+pinnace's mast, and the bark of them was like a fine meshed net, very
+strange to see), where was very pleasant shade, cool and green; and
+there, gentlemen, we sat down on a bank of moss, like folk desperate and
+fordone, and every one looked the other in the face for a long while.
+After which I took off the bark of those ferns, for I must needs be
+doing something to drive away thought, and began to plait slippers for
+the little maid.
+
+“And as I was plaiting, Mr. Oxenham said, 'What hinders us from dying
+like men, every man falling on his own sword?' To which I answered that
+I dare not; for a wise woman had prophesied of me, sirs, that I should
+die at sea, and yet neither by water or battle, wherefore I did not
+think right to meddle with the Lord's purposes. And William Penberthy
+said, 'That he would sell his life, and that dear, but never give it
+away.' But the lady said, 'Ah, how gladly would I die! but then la
+paouvre garse,' which is in French 'the poor maid,' meaning the little
+one. Then Mr. Oxenham fell into a very great weeping, a weakness I never
+saw him in before or since; and with many tears besought me never
+to desert that little maid, whatever might befall; which I promised,
+swearing to it like a heathen, but would, if I had been able, have kept
+it like a Christian. But on a sudden there was a great cry in the
+wood, and coming through the trees on all sides Spanish arquebusiers,
+a hundred strong at least, and negroes with them, who bade us stand
+or they would shoot. William Penberthy leapt up, crying 'Treason!' and
+running upon the nearest negro ran him through, and then another, and
+then falling on the Spaniards, fought manfully till he was borne down
+with pikes, and so died. But I, seeing no thing better to do, sate
+still and finished my plaiting. And so we were all taken, and I and Mr.
+Oxenham bound with cords; but the soldiers made a litter for the lady
+and child, by commandment of Senor Diego de Trees, their commander, a
+very courteous gentleman.
+
+“Well, sirs, we were brought down to the place where the house of boughs
+had been by the river-side; there we went over in boats, and found
+waiting for us certain Spanish gentlemen, and among others one old and
+ill-favored man, gray-bearded and bent, in a suit of black velvet, who
+seemed to be a great man among them. And if you will believe me, Mr.
+Leigh, that was none other than the old man with the gold falcon at his
+breast, Don Francisco Xararte by name, whom you found aboard of the Lima
+ship. And had you known as much of him as I do, or as Mr. Oxenham did
+either, you had cut him up for shark's bait, or ever you let the cur
+ashore again.
+
+“Well, sirs, as soon as the lady came to shore, that old man ran upon
+her sword in hand, and would have slain her, but some there held him
+back. On which he turned to, and reviled with every foul and spiteful
+word which he could think of, so that some there bade him be silent for
+shame; and Mr. Oxenham said, 'It is worthy of you, Don Francisco, thus
+to trumpet abroad your own disgrace. Did I not tell you years ago that
+you were a cur; and are you not proving my words for me?'
+
+“He answered, 'English dog, would to Heaven I had never seen you!'
+
+“And Mr. Oxenham, 'Spanish ape, would to Heaven that I had sent
+my dagger through your herring-ribs when you passed me behind St.
+Ildegonde's church, eight years last Easter-eve.' At which the old man
+turned pale, and then began again to upbraid the lady, vowing that
+he would have her burnt alive, and other devilish words, to which she
+answered at last--
+
+“'Would that you had burnt me alive on my wedding morning, and spared me
+eight years of misery!' And he--
+
+“'Misery? Hear the witch, senors! Oh, have I not pampered her, heaped
+with jewels, clothes, coaches, what not? The saints alone know what 'I
+have spent on her. What more would she have of me?'
+
+“To which she answered only but this one word, 'Fool!' but in so
+terrible a voice, though low, that they who were about to laugh at the
+old pantaloon, were more minded to weep for her.
+
+“'Fool!' she said again, after a while, 'I will waste no words upon you.
+I would have driven a dagger to your heart months ago, but that I
+was loath to set you free so soon from your gout and your rheumatism.
+Selfish and stupid, know when you bought my body from my parents, you
+did not buy my soul! Farewell, my love, my life! and farewell, senors!
+May you be more merciful to your daughters than my parents were to me!'
+And so, catching a dagger from the girdle of one of the soldiers, smote
+herself to the heart, and fell dead before them all.
+
+“At which Mr. Oxenham smiled, and said, 'That was worthy of us both. If
+you will unbind my hands, senors, I shall be most happy to copy so fair
+a schoolmistress.'
+
+“But Don Diego shook his head, and said--
+
+“'It were well for you, valiant senor, were I at liberty to do so; but
+on questioning those of your sailors whom I have already taken, I cannot
+hear that you have any letters of license, either from the queen of
+England, or any other potentate. I am compelled, therefore, to ask you
+whether this is so; for it is a matter of life and death.'
+
+“To which Mr. Oxenham answered merrily, that so it was: but that he
+was not aware that any potentate's license was required to permit a
+gentleman's meeting his lady love; and that as for the gold which they
+had taken, if they had never allowed that fresh and fair young May to be
+forced into marrying that old January, he should never have meddled with
+their gold; so that was rather their fault than his. And added, that if
+he was to be hanged, as he supposed, the only favor which he asked for
+was a long drop and no priests. And all the while, gentlemen, he still
+kept his eyes fixed on the lady's corpse, till he was led away with me,
+while all that stood by, God reward them for it, lamented openly the
+tragical end of those two sinful lovers.
+
+“And now, sirs, what befell me after that matters little; for I never
+saw Captain Oxenham again, nor ever shall in this life.”
+
+“He was hanged, then?”
+
+“So I heard for certain the next year, and with him the gunner and
+sundry more: but some were given away for slaves to the Spaniards,
+and may be alive now, unless, like me, they have fallen into the cruel
+clutches of the Inquisition. For the Inquisition now, gentlemen, claims
+the bodies and souls of all heretics all over the world (as the devils
+told me with their own lips, when I pleaded that I was no Spanish
+subject); and none that it catches, whether peaceable merchants or
+shipwrecked mariners, but must turn or burn.”
+
+“But how did you get into the Inquisition?”
+
+“Why, sir, after we were taken, we set forth to go down the river again;
+and the old Don took the little maid with him in one boat (and bitterly
+she screeched at parting from us and from the poor dead corpse), and Mr.
+Oxenham with Don Diego de Trees in another, and I in a third. And from
+the Spaniards I learnt that we were to be taken down to Lima, to the
+Viceroy; but that the old man lived hard by Panama, and was going
+straight back to Panama forthwith with the little maid. But they said,
+'It will be well for her if she ever gets there, for the old man swears
+she is none of his, and would have left her behind him in the woods,
+now, if Don Diego had not shamed him out of it.' And when I heard that,
+seeing that there was nothing but death before me, I made up my mind
+to escape; and the very first night, sirs, by God's help, I did it,
+and went southward away into the forest, avoiding the tracks of the
+Cimaroons, till I came to an Indian town. And there, gentlemen, I got
+more mercy from heathens than ever I had from Christians; for when they
+found that I was no Spaniard, they fed me and gave me a house, and
+a wife (and a good wife she was to me), and painted me all over in
+patterns, as you see; and because I had some knowledge of surgery and
+blood-letting, and my fleams in my pocket, which were worth to me a
+fortune, I rose to great honor among them, though they taught me more of
+simples than ever I taught them of surgery. So I lived with them merrily
+enough, being a very heathen like them, or indeed worse, for they
+worshipped their Xemes, but I nothing. And in time my wife bare me a
+child; in looking at whose sweet face, gentlemen, I forgot Mr. Oxenham
+and his little maid, and my oath, ay, and my native land also. Wherefore
+it was taken from me, else had I lived and died as the beasts which
+perish; for one night, after we were all lain down, came a noise outside
+the town, and I starting up saw armed men and calivers shining in the
+moonlight, and heard one read in Spanish, with a loud voice, some fool's
+sermon, after their custom when they hunt the poor Indians, how God had
+given to St. Peter the dominion of the whole earth, and St. Peter
+again the Indies to the Catholic king; wherefore, if they would all
+be baptized and serve the Spaniard, they should have some monkey's
+allowance or other of more kicks than pence; and if not, then have
+at them with fire and sword; but I dare say your worships know that
+devilish trick of theirs better than I.”
+
+“I know it, man. Go on.”
+
+“Well--no sooner were the words spoken than, without waiting to hear
+what the poor innocents within would answer (though that mattered
+little, for they understood not one word of it), what do the villains
+but let fly right into the town with their calivers, and then rush
+in, sword in hand, killing pell-mell all they met, one of which shots,
+gentlemen, passing through the doorway, and close by me, struck my poor
+wife to the heart, that she never spoke word more. I, catching up the
+babe from her breast, tried to run: but when I saw the town full of
+them, and their dogs with them in leashes, which was yet worse, I knew
+all was lost, and sat down again by the corpse with the babe on my
+knees, waiting the end, like one stunned and in a dream; for now I
+thought God from whom I had fled had surely found me out, as He did
+Jonah, and the punishment of all my sins was come. Well, gentlemen, they
+dragged me out, and all the young men and women, and chained us together
+by the neck; and one, catching the pretty babe out of my arms, calls
+for water and a priest (for they had their shavelings with them), and no
+sooner was it christened than, catching the babe by the heels, he dashed
+out its brains,--oh! gentlemen, gentlemen!--against the ground, as if it
+had been a kitten; and so did they to several more innocents that night,
+after they had christened them; saying it was best for them to go to
+heaven while they were still sure thereof; and so marched us all for
+slaves, leaving the old folk and the wounded to die at leisure. But when
+morning came, and they knew by my skin that I was no Indian, and by my
+speech that I was no Spaniard, they began threatening me with torments,
+till I confessed that I was an Englishman, and one of Oxenham's crew.
+At that says the leader, 'Then you shall to Lima, to hang by the side of
+your captain the pirate;' by which I first knew that my poor captain was
+certainly gone; but alas for me! the priest steps in and claims me for
+his booty, calling me Lutheran, heretic, and enemy of God; and so, to
+make short a sad story, to the Inquisition at Cartagena I went, where
+what I suffered, gentlemen, were as disgustful for you to hear, as
+unmanly for me to complain of; but so it was, that being twice racked,
+and having endured the water-torment as best I could, I was put to the
+scarpines, whereof I am, as you see, somewhat lame of one leg to this
+day. At which I could abide no more, and so, wretch that I am! denied my
+God, in hope to save my life; which indeed I did, but little it profited
+me; for though I had turned to their superstition, I must have two
+hundred stripes in the public place, and then go to the galleys for
+seven years. And there, gentlemen, ofttimes I thought that it had been
+better for me to have been burned at once and for all: but you know
+as well as I what a floating hell of heat and cold, hunger and thirst,
+stripes and toil, is every one of those accursed craft. In which hell,
+nevertheless, gentlemen, I found the road to heaven,--I had almost said
+heaven itself. For it fell out, by God's mercy, that my next comrade was
+an Englishman like myself, a young man of Bristol, who, as he told me,
+had been some manner of factor on board poor Captain Barker's ship, and
+had been a preacher among the Anabaptists here in England. And, oh! Sir
+Richard Grenville, if that man had done for you what he did for me, you
+would never say a word against those who serve the same Lord, because
+they don't altogether hold with you. For from time to time, sir, seeing
+me altogether despairing and furious, like a wild beast in a pit, he set
+before me in secret earnestly the sweet promises of God in Christ,--who
+says, 'Come to me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will refresh
+you; and though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as
+snow,--till all that past sinful life of mine looked like a dream when
+one awaketh, and I forgot all my bodily miseries in the misery of my
+soul, so did I loathe and hate myself for my rebellion against that
+loving God who had chosen me before the foundation of the world, and
+come to seek and save me when I was lost; and falling into very despair
+at the burden of my heinous sins, knew no peace until I gained sweet
+assurance that my Lord had hanged my burden upon His cross, and washed
+my sinful soul in His most sinless blood, Amen!”
+
+And Sir Richard Grenville said Amen also.
+
+“But, gentlemen, if that sweet youth won a soul to Christ, he paid
+as dearly for it as ever did saint of God. For after a three or four
+months, when I had been all that while in sweet converse with him, and
+I may say in heaven in the midst of hell, there came one night to the
+barranco at Lima, where we were kept when on shore, three black devils
+of the Holy Office, and carried him off without a word, only saying to
+me, 'Look that your turn come not next, for we hear that you have had
+much talk with the villain.' And at these words I was so struck cold
+with terror that I swooned right away, and verily, if they had taken me
+there and then, I should have denied my God again, for my faith was but
+young and weak: but instead, they left me aboard the galley for a few
+months more (that was a whole voyage to Panama and back), in daily dread
+lest I should find myself in their cruel claws again--and then nothing
+for me, but to burn as a relapsed heretic. But when we came back to
+Lima, the officers came on board again, and said to me, 'That heretic
+has confessed naught against you, so we will leave you for this time:
+but because you have been seen talking with him so much, and the Holy
+Office suspects your conversion to be but a rotten one, you are adjudged
+to the galleys for the rest of your life in perpetual servitude.'”
+
+“But what became of him?” asked Amyas.
+
+“He was burned, sir, a day or two before we got to Lima, and five others
+with him at the same stake, of whom two were Englishmen; old comrades of
+mine, as I guess.”
+
+“Ah!” said Amyas, “we heard of that when we were off Lima; and they
+said, too, that there were six more lying still in prison, to be burnt
+in a few days. If we had had our fleet with us (as we should have had if
+it had not been for John Winter) we would have gone in and rescued them
+all, poor wretches, and sacked the town to boot: but what could we do
+with one ship?”
+
+“Would to God you had, sir; for the story was true enough; and among
+them, I heard, were two young ladies of quality and their confessor,
+who came to their ends for reproving out of Scripture the filthy and
+loathsome living of those parts, which, as I saw well enough and too
+well, is liker to Sodom than to a Christian town; but God will avenge
+His saints, and their sins. Amen.”
+
+“Amen,” said Sir Richard: “but on with thy tale, for it is as strange as
+ever man heard.”
+
+“Well, gentlemen, when I heard that I must end my days in that galley, I
+was for awhile like a madman: but in a day or two there came over me, I
+know not how, a full assurance of salvation, both for this life and the
+life to come, such as I had never had before; and it was revealed to me
+(I speak the truth, gentlemen, before Heaven) that now I had been tried
+to the uttermost, and that my deliverance was at hand.
+
+“And all the way up to Panama (that was after we had laden the
+'Cacafuogo') I cast in my mind how to escape, and found no way: but just
+as I was beginning to lose heart again, a door was opened by the Lord's
+own hand; for (I know not why) we were marched across from Panama to
+Nombre, which had never happened before, and there put all together into
+a great barranco close by the quay-side, shackled, as is the fashion, to
+one long bar that ran the whole length of the house. And the very first
+night that we were there, I, looking out of the window, spied, lying
+close aboard of the quay, a good-sized caravel well armed and just
+loading for sea; and the land breeze blew off very strong, so that the
+sailors were laying out a fresh warp to hold her to the shore. And it
+came into my mind, that if we were aboard of her, we should be at sea
+in five minutes; and looking at the quay, I saw all the soldiers who had
+guarded us scattered about drinking and gambling, and some going into
+taverns to refresh themselves after their journey. That was just at
+sundown; and half an hour after, in comes the gaoler to take a last look
+at us for the night, and his keys at his girdle. Whereon, sirs (whether
+by madness, or whether by the spirit which gave Samson strength to rend
+the lion), I rose against him as he passed me, without forethought or
+treachery of any kind, chained though I was, caught him by the head,
+and threw him there and then against the wall, that he never spoke word
+after; and then with his keys freed myself and every soul in that
+room, and bid them follow me, vowing to kill any man who disobeyed my
+commands. They followed, as men astounded and leaping out of night into
+day, and death into life, and so aboard that caravel and out of the
+harbor (the Lord only knows how, who blinded the eyes of the idolaters),
+'with no more hurt than a few chance-shot from the soldiers on the quay.
+But my tale has been over-long already, gentlemen--”
+
+“Go on till midnight, my good fellow, if you will.”
+
+“Well, sirs, they chose me for captain, and a certain Genoese for
+lieutenant, and away to go. I would fain have gone ashore after all, and
+back to Panama to hear news of the little maid: but that would have been
+but a fool's errand. Some wanted to turn pirates: but I, and the Genoese
+too, who was a prudent man, though an evil one, persuaded them to run
+for England and get employment in the Netherland wars, assuring them
+that there would be no safety in the Spanish Main, when once our escape
+got wind. And the more part being of one mind, for England we sailed,
+watering at the Barbadoes because it was desolate; and so eastward
+toward the Canaries. In which voyage what we endured (being taken by
+long calms), by scurvy, calentures, hunger, and thirst, no tongue can
+tell. Many a time were we glad to lay out sheets at night to catch
+the dew, and suck them in the morning; and he that had a noggin of
+rain-water out of the scuppers was as much sought to as if he had been
+Adelantado of all the Indies; till of a hundred and forty poor wretches
+a hundred and ten were dead, blaspheming God and man, and above all
+me and the Genoese, for taking the Europe voyage, as if I had not sins
+enough of my own already. And last of all, when we thought ourselves
+safe, we were wrecked by southwesters on the coast of Brittany, near to
+Cape Race, from which but nine souls of us came ashore with their lives;
+and so to Brest, where I found a Flushinger who carried me to Falmouth
+and so ends my tale, in which if I have said one word more or less than
+truth, I can wish myself no worse, than to have it all to undergo a
+second time.”
+
+And his voice, as he finished, sank from very weariness of soul; while
+Sir Richard sat opposite him in silence, his elbows on the table,
+his cheeks on his doubled fists, looking him through and through with
+kindling eyes. No one spoke for several minutes; and then--
+
+“Amyas, you have heard this story. You believe it?”
+
+“Every word, sir, or I should not have the heart of a Christian man.”
+
+“So do I. Anthony!”
+
+The butler entered.
+
+“Take this man to the buttery; clothe him comfortably, and feed him with
+the best; and bid the knaves treat him as if he were their own father.”
+
+But Yeo lingered.
+
+“If I might be so bold as to ask your worship a favor?--”
+
+“Anything in reason, my brave fellow.”
+
+“If your worship could put me in the way of another adventure to the
+Indies?”
+
+“Another! Hast not had enough of the Spaniards already?”
+
+“Never enough, sir, while one of the idolatrous tyrants is left
+unhanged,” said he, with a right bitter smile. “But it's not for that
+only, sir: but my little maid--Oh, sir! my little maid, that I swore to
+Mr. Oxenham to look to, and never saw her from that day to this! I must
+find her, sir, or I shall go mad, I believe. Not a night but she comes
+and calls to me in my dreams, the poor darling; and not a morning but
+when I wake there is my oath lying on my soul, like a great black cloud,
+and I no nearer the keeping of it. I told that poor young minister of it
+when we were in the galleys together; and he said oaths were oaths, and
+keep it I must; and keep it I will, sir, if you'll but help me.”
+
+“Have patience, man. God will take as good care of thy little maid as
+ever thou wilt.”
+
+“I know it, sir. I know it: but faith's weak, sir! and oh! if she were
+bred up a Papist and an idolater; wouldn't her blood be on my head then,
+sir? Sooner than that, sooner than that, I'd be in the Inquisition again
+to-morrow, I would!”
+
+“My good fellow, there are no adventures to the Indies forward now: but
+if you want to fight Spaniards, here is a gentleman will show you the
+way. Amyas, take him with you to Ireland. If he has learnt half the
+lessons God has set him to learn, he ought to stand you in good stead.”
+
+Yeo looked eagerly at the young giant.
+
+“Will you have me, sir? There's few matters I can't turn my hand to:
+and maybe you'll be going to the Indies again, some day, eh? and take me
+with you? I'd serve your turn well, though I say it, either for gunner
+or for pilot. I know every stone and tree from Nombre to Panama, and all
+the ports of both the seas. You'll never be content, I'll warrant, till
+you've had another turn along the gold coasts, will you now?”
+
+Amyas laughed, and nodded; and the bargain was concluded.
+
+So out went Yeo to eat, and Amyas having received his despatches, got
+ready for his journey home.
+
+“Go the short way over the moors, lad; and send back Cary's gray when
+you can. You must not lose an hour, but be ready to sail the moment the
+wind goes about.”
+
+So they started: but as Amyas was getting into the saddle, he saw that
+there was some stir among the servants, who seemed to keep carefully out
+of Yeo's way, whispering and nodding mysteriously; and just as his foot
+was in the stirrup, Anthony, the old butler, plucked him back.
+
+“Dear father alive, Mr. Amyas!” whispered he: “and you ben't going by
+the moor road all alone with that chap?”
+
+“Why not, then? I'm too big for him to eat, I reckon.”
+
+“Oh, Mr. Amyas! he's not right, I tell you; not company for a
+Christian--to go forth with creatures as has flames of fire in their
+inwards; 'tis temptation of Providence, indeed, then, it is.”
+
+“Tale of a tub.”
+
+“Tale of a Christian, sir. There was two boys pig-minding, seed him at
+it down the hill, beside a maiden that was taken mazed (and no wonder,
+poor soul!) and lying in screeching asterisks now down to the mill--you
+ask as you go by--and saw the flames come out of the mouth of mun, and
+the smoke out of mun's nose like a vire-drake, and the roaring of mun
+like the roaring of ten thousand bulls. Oh, sir! and to go with he after
+dark over moor! 'Tis the devil's devices, sir, against you, because
+you'm going against his sarvants the Pope of Room and the Spaniard; and
+you'll be Pixy-led, sure as life, and locked into a bog, you will, and
+see mun vanish away to fire and brimstone, like a jack-o'-lantern. Oh,
+have a care, then, have a care!”
+
+And the old man wrung his hands, while Amyas, bursting with laughter,
+rode off down the park, with the unconscious Yeo at his stirrup,
+chatting away about the Indies, and delighting Amyas more and more by
+his shrewdness, high spirit, and rough eloquence.
+
+They had gone ten miles or more; the day began to draw in, and the
+western wind to sweep more cold and cheerless every moment, when Amyas,
+knowing that there was not an inn hard by around for many a mile ahead,
+took a pull at a certain bottle which Lady Grenville had put into his
+holster, and then offered Yeo a pull also.
+
+He declined; he had meat and drink too about him, Heaven be praised!
+
+“Meat and drink? Fall to, then, man, and don't stand on manners.”
+
+Whereon Yeo, seeing an old decayed willow by a brook, went to it, and
+took therefrom some touchwood, to which he set a light with his knife
+and a stone, while Amyas watched, a little puzzled and startled,
+as Yeo's fiery reputation came into his mind. Was he really a
+salamander-sprite, and going to warm his inside by a meal of burning
+tinder? But now Yeo, in his solemn methodical way, pulled out of his
+bosom a brown leaf, and began rolling a piece of it up neatly to the
+size of his little finger; and then, putting the one end into his mouth
+and the other on the tinder, sucked at it till it was a-light; and
+drinking down the smoke, began puffing it out again at his nostrils with
+a grunt of deepest satisfaction, and resumed his dog-trot by Amyas's
+side, as if he had been a walking chimney.
+
+On which Amyas burst into a loud laugh, and cried--
+
+“Why, no wonder they said you breathed fire? Is not that the Indians'
+tobacco?”
+
+“Yea, verily, Heaven be praised! but did you never see it before?”
+
+“Never, though we heard talk of it along the coast; but we took it for
+one more Spanish lie. Humph--well, live and learn!”
+
+“Ah, sir, no lie, but a blessed truth, as I can tell, who have ere now
+gone in the strength of this weed three days and nights without eating;
+and therefore, sir, the Indians always carry it with them on their
+war-parties: and no wonder; for when all things were made none was made
+better than this; to be a lone man's companion, a bachelor's friend,
+a hungry man's food, a sad man's cordial, a wakeful man's sleep, and a
+chilly man's fire, sir; while for stanching of wounds, purging of rheum,
+and settling of the stomach, there's no herb like unto it under the
+canopy of heaven.”
+
+The truth of which eulogium Amyas tested in after years, as shall be
+fully set forth in due place and time. But “Mark in the meanwhile,” says
+one of the veracious chroniclers from whom I draw these facts, writing
+seemingly in the palmy days of good Queen Anne, and “not having” (as he
+says) “before his eyes the fear of that misocapnic Solomon James I. or
+of any other lying Stuart,” “that not to South Devon, but to North; not
+to Sir Walter Raleigh, but to Sir Amyas Leigh; not to the banks of Dart,
+but to the banks of Torridge, does Europe owe the day-spring of the
+latter age, that age of smoke which shall endure and thrive, when the
+age of brass shall have vanished like those of iron and of gold; for
+whereas Mr. Lane is said to have brought home that divine weed (as
+Spenser well names it) from Virginia, in the year 1584, it is hereby
+indisputable that full four years earlier, by the bridge of Putford in
+the Torridge moors (which all true smokers shall hereafter visit as a
+hallowed spot and point of pilgrimage) first twinkled that fiery beacon
+and beneficent lodestar of Bidefordian commerce, to spread hereafter
+from port to port and peak to peak, like the watch-fires which
+proclaimed the coming of the Armada or the fall of Troy, even to the
+shores of the Bosphorus, the peaks of the Caucasus, and the farthest
+isles of the Malayan sea, while Bideford, metropolis of tobacco, saw her
+Pool choked with Virginian traders, and the pavement of her Bridgeland
+Street groaning beneath the savory bales of roll Trinadado, leaf, and
+pudding; and her grave burghers, bolstered and blocked out of their own
+houses by the scarce less savory stock-fish casks which filled cellar,
+parlor, and attic, were fain to sit outside the door, a silver pipe
+in every strong right hand, and each left hand chinking cheerfully the
+doubloons deep lodged in the auriferous caverns of their trunk-hose;
+while in those fairy-rings of fragrant mist, which circled round their
+contemplative brows, flitted most pleasant visions of Wiltshire farmers
+jogging into Sherborne fair, their heaviest shillings in their pockets,
+to buy (unless old Aubrey lies) the lotus-leaf of Torridge for its
+weight in silver, and draw from thence, after the example of the
+Caciques of Dariena, supplies of inspiration much needed, then as now,
+in those Gothamite regions. And yet did these improve, as Englishmen,
+upon the method of those heathen savages; for the latter (so Salvation
+Yeo reported as a truth, and Dampier's surgeon Mr. Wafer after him),
+when they will deliberate of war or policy, sit round in the hut of the
+chief; where being placed, enter to them a small boy with a cigarro of
+the bigness of a rolling-pin and puffs the smoke thereof into the face
+of each warrior, from the eldest to the youngest; while they, putting
+their hand funnel-wise round their mouths, draw into the sinuosities of
+the brain that more than Delphic vapor of prophecy; which boy presently
+falls down in a swoon, and being dragged out by the heels and laid by to
+sober, enter another to puff at the sacred cigarro, till he is dragged
+out likewise; and so on till the tobacco is finished, and the seed of
+wisdom has sprouted in every soul into the tree of meditation, bearing
+the flowers of eloquence, and in due time the fruit of valiant action.”
+ With which quaint fact (for fact it is, in spite of the bombast) I end
+the present chapter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+HOW THE NOBLE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE WAS FOUNDED
+
+     “It is virtue, yea virtue, gentlemen, that maketh gentlemen; that
+     maketh the poor rich, the base-born noble, the subject a sovereign,
+     the deformed beautiful, the sick whole, the weak strong, the most
+     miserable most happy.  There are two principal and peculiar gifts
+     in the nature of man, knowledge and reason; the one commandeth, and
+     the other obeyeth: these things neither the whirling wheel of
+     fortune can change, neither the deceitful cavillings of worldlings
+     separate, neither sickness abate, neither age abolish.”--LILLY's
+     Euphues, 1586.
+
+It now falls to my lot to write of the foundation of that most
+chivalrous brotherhood of the Rose, which after a few years made itself
+not only famous in its native country of Devon, but formidable, as will
+be related hereafter, both in Ireland and in the Netherlands, in the
+Spanish Main and the heart of South America. And if this chapter shall
+seem to any Quixotic and fantastical, let them recollect that the
+generation who spoke and acted thus in matters of love and honor were,
+nevertheless, practised and valiant soldiers, and prudent and crafty
+politicians; that he who wrote the “Arcadia” was at the same time, in
+spite of his youth, one of the subtlest diplomatists of Europe; that
+the poet of the “Faerie Queene” was also the author of “The State
+of Ireland;” and if they shall quote against me with a sneer Lilly's
+“Euphues” itself, I shall only answer by asking--Have they ever read
+it? For if they have done so, I pity them if they have not found it, in
+spite of occasional tediousness and pedantry, as brave, righteous, and
+pious a book as man need look into: and wish for no better proof of
+the nobleness and virtue of the Elizabethan age, than the fact that
+“Euphues” and the “Arcadia” were the two popular romances of the day. It
+may have suited the purposes of Sir Walter Scott, in his cleverly drawn
+Sir Piercie Shafton, to ridicule the Euphuists, and that affectatam
+comitatem of the travelled English of which Languet complains; but over
+and above the anachronism of the whole character (for, to give but one
+instance, the Euphuist knight talks of Sidney's quarrel with Lord Oxford
+at least ten years before it happened), we do deny that Lilly's book
+could, if read by any man of common sense, produce such a coxcomb,
+whose spiritual ancestors would rather have been Gabriel Harvey and
+Lord Oxford,--if indeed the former has not maligned the latter, and
+ill-tempered Tom Nash maligned the maligner in his turn.
+
+But, indeed, there is a double anachronism in Sir Piercie; for he does
+not even belong to the days of Sidney, but to those worse times which
+began in the latter years of Elizabeth, and after breaking her mighty
+heart, had full license to bear their crop of fools' heads in the
+profligate days of James. Of them, perhaps, hereafter. And in the
+meanwhile, let those who have not read “Euphues” believe that, if they
+could train a son after the fashion of his Ephoebus, to the great
+saving of their own money and his virtue, all fathers, even in these
+money-making days, would rise up and call them blessed. Let us
+rather open our eyes, and see in these old Elizabeth gallants our own
+ancestors, showing forth with the luxuriant wildness of youth all the
+virtues which still go to the making of a true Englishman. Let us not
+only see in their commercial and military daring, in their political
+astuteness, in their deep reverence for law, and in their solemn sense
+of the great calling of the English nation, the antitypes or rather
+the examples of our own: but let us confess that their chivalry is only
+another garb of that beautiful tenderness and mercy which is now, as
+it was then, the twin sister of English valor; and even in their
+extravagant fondness for Continental manners and literature, let us
+recognize that old Anglo-Norman teachableness and wide-heartedness,
+which has enabled us to profit by the wisdom and civilization of all
+ages and of all lands, without prejudice to our own distinctive national
+character.
+
+And so I go to my story, which, if any one dislikes, he has but to turn
+the leaf till he finds pasturage which suits him better.
+
+Amyas could not sail the next day, or the day after; for the southwester
+freshened, and blew three parts of a gale dead into the bay. So having
+got the “Mary Grenville” down the river into Appledore pool, ready to
+start with the first shift of wind, he went quietly home; and when
+his mother started on a pillion behind the old serving-man to ride
+to Clovelly, where Frank lay wounded, he went in with her as far as
+Bideford, and there met, coming down the High Street, a procession of
+horsemen headed by Will Cary, who, clad cap-a-pie in a shining armor,
+sword on thigh, and helmet at saddle-bow, looked as gallant a young
+gentleman as ever Bideford dames peeped at from door and window. Behind
+him, upon country ponies, came four or five stout serving-men, carrying
+his lances and baggage, and their own long-bows, swords, and bucklers;
+and behind all, in a horse-litter, to Mrs. Leigh's great joy, Master
+Frank himself. He deposed that his wounds were only flesh-wounds, the
+dagger having turned against his ribs; that he must see the last of
+his brother; and that with her good leave he would not come home to
+Burrough, but take up his abode with Cary in the Ship Tavern, close to
+the Bridge-foot. This he did forthwith, and settling himself on a couch,
+held his levee there in state, mobbed by all the gossips of the town,
+not without white fibs as to who had brought him into that sorry plight.
+
+But in the meanwhile he and Amyas concocted a scheme, which was put
+into effect the next day (being market-day); first by the innkeeper, who
+began under Amyas's orders a bustle of roasting, boiling, and frying,
+unparalleled in the annals of the Ship Tavern; and next by Amyas
+himself, who, going out into the market, invited as many of his old
+schoolfellows, one by one apart, as Frank had pointed out to him, to a
+merry supper and a “rowse” thereon consequent; by which crafty scheme,
+in came each of Rose Salterne's gentle admirers, and found himself, to
+his considerable disgust, seated at the same table with six rivals, to
+none of whom had he spoken for the last six months. However, all were
+too well bred to let the Leighs discern as much; and they (though, of
+course, they knew all) settled their guests, Frank on his couch lying
+at the head of the table, and Amyas taking the bottom: and contrived, by
+filling all mouths with good things, to save them the pain of speaking
+to each other till the wine should have loosened their tongues and
+warmed their hearts. In the meanwhile both Amyas and Frank, ignoring the
+silence of their guests with the most provoking good-humor, chatted,
+and joked, and told stories, and made themselves such good company, that
+Will Cary, who always found merriment infectious, melted into a jest,
+and then into another, and finding good-humor far more pleasant than
+bad, tried to make Mr. Coffin laugh, and only made him bow, and to
+make Mr. Fortescue laugh, and only made him frown; and unabashed
+nevertheless, began playing his light artillery upon the waiters, till
+he drove them out of the room bursting with laughter.
+
+So far so good. And when the cloth was drawn, and sack and sugar became
+the order of the day, and “Queen and Bible” had been duly drunk with all
+the honors, Frank tried a fresh move, and--
+
+“I have a toast, gentlemen--here it is. 'The gentlemen of the Irish
+wars; and may Ireland never be without a St. Leger to stand by a
+Fortescue, a Fortescue to stand by a St. Leger, and a Chichester to
+stand by both.'”
+
+Which toast of course involved the drinking the healths of the three
+representatives of those families, and their returning thanks, and
+paying a compliment each to the other's house: and so the ice cracked a
+little further; and young Fortescue proposed the health of “Amyas Leigh
+and all bold mariners;” to which Amyas replied by a few blunt kindly
+words, “that he wished to know no better fortune than to sail round the
+world again with the present company as fellow-adventurers, and so give
+the Spaniards another taste of the men of Devon.”
+
+And by this time, the wine going down sweetly, caused the lips of them
+that were asleep to speak; till the ice broke up altogether, and every
+man began talking like a rational Englishman to the man who sat next
+him.
+
+“And now, gentlemen,” said Frank, who saw that it was the fit moment
+for the grand assault which he had planned all along; “let me give you
+a health which none of you, I dare say, will refuse to drink with heart
+and soul as well as with lips;--the health of one whom beauty and virtue
+have so ennobled, that in their light the shadow of lowly birth
+is unseen;--the health of one whom I would proclaim as peerless in
+loveliness, were it not that every gentleman here has sisters, who might
+well challenge from her the girdle of Venus: and yet what else dare
+I say, while those same lovely ladies who, if they but use their own
+mirrors, must needs be far better judges of beauty than I can be, have
+in my own hearing again and again assigned the palm to her? Surely, if
+the goddesses decide among themselves the question of the golden apple,
+Paris himself must vacate the judgment-seat. Gentlemen, your hearts, I
+doubt not, have already bid you, as my unworthy lips do now, to drink
+'The Rose of Torridge.'”
+
+If the Rose of Torridge herself had walked into the room, she could
+hardly have caused more blank astonishment than Frank's bold speech.
+Every guest turned red, and pale, and red again, and looked at the other
+as much as to say, “What right has any one but I to drink her? Lift
+your glass, and I will dash it out of your hand;” but Frank, with sweet
+effrontery, drank “The health of the Rose of Torridge, and a double
+health to that worthy gentleman, whosoever he may be, whom she is fated
+to honor with her love!”
+
+“Well done, cunning Frank Leigh!” cried blunt Will Cary; “none of us
+dare quarrel with you now, however much we may sulk at each other. For
+there's none of us, I'll warrant, but thinks that she likes him the best
+of all; and so we are bound to believe that you have drunk our healths
+all round.”
+
+“And so I have: and what better thing can you do, gentlemen, than to
+drink each other's healths all round likewise: and so show yourselves
+true gentlemen, true Christians, ay, and true lovers? For what is love
+(let me speak freely to you, gentlemen and guests), what is love, but
+the very inspiration of that Deity whose name is Love? Be sure that not
+without reason did the ancients feign Eros to be the eldest of the gods,
+by whom the jarring elements of chaos were attuned into harmony and
+order. How, then, shall lovers make him the father of strife? Shall
+Psyche wed with Cupid, to bring forth a cockatrice's egg? or the soul be
+filled with love, the likeness of the immortals, to burn with envy and
+jealousy, division and distrust? True, the rose has its thorn: but it
+leaves poison and stings to the nettle. Cupid has his arrow: but he
+hurls no scorpions. Venus is awful when despised, as the daughters of
+Proetus found: but her handmaids are the Graces, not the Furies. Surely
+he who loves aright will not only find love lovely, but become himself
+lovely also. I speak not to reprehend you, gentlemen; for to you (as
+your piercing wits have already perceived, to judge by your honorable
+blushes) my discourse tends; but to point you, if you will but permit
+me, to that rock which I myself have, I know not by what Divine good
+hap, attained; if, indeed, I have attained it, and am not about to be
+washed off again by the next tide.”
+
+Frank's rapid and fantastic oratory, utterly unexpected as it was, had
+as yet left their wits no time to set their tempers on fire; but when,
+weak from his wounds, he paused for breath, there was a haughty
+murmur from more than one young gentleman, who took his speech as
+an impertinent interference with each man's right to make a fool of
+himself; and Mr. Coffin, who had sat quietly bolt upright, and looking
+at the opposite wall, now rose as quietly, and with a face which tried
+to look utterly unconcerned, was walking out of the room: another
+minute, and Lady Bath's prophecy about the feast of the Lapithae might
+have come true.
+
+But Frank's heart and head never failed him.
+
+“Mr. Coffin!” said he, in a tone which compelled that gentleman to turn
+round, and so brought him under the power of a face which none could
+have beheld for five minutes and borne malice, so imploring, tender,
+earnest was it. “My dear Mr. Coffin! If my earnestness has made me
+forget even for a moment the bounds of courtesy, let me entreat you to
+forgive me. Do not add to my heavy griefs, heavy enough already, the
+grief of losing a friend. Only hear me patiently to the end (generously,
+I know, you will hear me); and then, if you are still incensed, I can
+but again entreat your forgiveness a second time.”
+
+Mr. Coffin, to tell the truth, had at that time never been to Court; and
+he was therefore somewhat jealous of Frank, and his Court talk, and his
+Court clothes, and his Court company; and moreover, being the eldest
+of the guests, and only two years younger than Frank himself, he was a
+little nettled at being classed in the same category with some who were
+scarce eighteen. And if Frank had given the least hint which seemed
+to assume his own superiority, all had been lost: but when, instead
+thereof, he sued in forma pauperis, and threw himself upon Coffin's
+mercy, the latter, who was a true-hearted man enough, and after all had
+known Frank ever since either of them could walk, had nothing to do but
+to sit down again and submit, while Frank went on more earnestly than
+ever.
+
+“Believe me; believe me, Mr. Coffin, and gentlemen all, I no more
+arrogate to myself a superiority over you than does the sailor hurled
+on shore by the surge fancy himself better than his comrade who is still
+battling with the foam. For I too, gentlemen,--let me confess it, that
+by confiding in you I may, perhaps, win you to confide in me,--have
+loved, ay and do love, where you love also. Do not start. Is it a matter
+of wonder that the sun which has dazzled you has dazzled me; that
+the lodestone which has drawn you has drawn me? Do not frown, either,
+gentlemen. I have learnt to love you for loving what I love, and to
+admire you for admiring that which I admire. Will you not try the same
+lesson: so easy, and, when learnt, so blissful? What breeds more close
+communion between subjects than allegiance to the same queen? between
+brothers, than duty to the same father? between the devout, than
+adoration for the same Deity? And shall not worship for the same beauty
+be likewise a bond of love between the worshippers? and each lover see
+in his rival not an enemy, but a fellow-sufferer? You smile and say in
+your hearts, that though all may worship, but one can enjoy; and that
+one man's meat must be the poison of the rest. Be it so, though I deny
+it. Shall we anticipate our own doom, and slay ourselves for fear of
+dying? Shall we make ourselves unworthy of her from our very eagerness
+to win her, and show ourselves her faithful knights, by cherishing
+envy,--most unknightly of all sins? Shall we dream with the Italian
+or the Spaniard that we can become more amiable in a lady's eyes, by
+becoming hateful in the eyes of God and of each other? Will she love
+us the better, if we come to her with hands stained in the blood of
+him whom she loves better than us? Let us recollect ourselves rather,
+gentlemen; and be sure that our only chance of winning her, if she be
+worth winning, is to will what she wills, honor whom she honors, love
+whom she loves. If there is to be rivalry among us, let it be a rivalry
+in nobleness, an emulation in virtue. Let each try to outstrip the other
+in loyalty to his queen, in valor against her foes, in deeds of courtesy
+and mercy to the afflicted and oppressed; and thus our love will indeed
+prove its own divine origin, by raising us nearer to those gods whose
+gift it is. But yet I show you a more excellent way, and that is
+charity. Why should we not make this common love to her, whom I am
+unworthy to name, the sacrament of a common love to each other? Why
+should we not follow the heroical examples of those ancient knights, who
+having but one grief, one desire, one goddess, held that one heart was
+enough to contain that grief, to nourish that desire, to worship that
+divinity; and so uniting themselves in friendship till they became but
+one soul in two bodies, lived only for each other in living only for
+her, vowing as faithful worshippers to abide by her decision, to find
+their own bliss in hers, and whomsoever she esteemed most worthy of
+her love, to esteem most worthy also, and count themselves, by that her
+choice, the bounden servants of him whom their mistress had condescended
+to advance to the dignity of her master?--as I (not without hope that I
+shall be outdone in generous strife) do here promise to be the faithful
+friend, and, to my ability, the hearty servant, of him who shall be
+honored with the love of the Rose of Torridge.”
+
+He ceased, and there was a pause.
+
+At last young Fortescue spoke.
+
+“I may be paying you a left-handed compliment, sir: but it seems to me
+that you are so likely, in that case, to become your own faithful friend
+and hearty servant (even if you have not borne off the bell already
+while we have been asleep), that the bargain is hardly fair between such
+a gay Italianist and us country swains.”
+
+“You undervalue yourself and your country, my dear sir. But set your
+mind at rest. I know no more of that lady's mind than you do: nor shall
+I know. For the sake of my own peace, I have made a vow neither to see
+her, nor to hear, if possible, tidings of her, till three full years are
+past. Dixi?”
+
+Mr. Coffin rose.
+
+“Gentlemen, I may submit to be outdone by Mr. Leigh in eloquence, but
+not in generosity; if he leaves these parts for three years, I do so
+also.”
+
+“And go in charity with all mankind,” said Cary. “Give us your hand,
+old fellow. If you are a Coffin, you were sawn out of no wishy-washy
+elm-board, but right heart-of-oak. I am going, too, as Amyas here can
+tell, to Ireland away, to cool my hot liver in a bog, like a Jack-hare
+in March. Come, give us thy neif, and let us part in peace. I was minded
+to have fought thee this day--”
+
+“I should have been most happy, sir,” said Coffin.
+
+--“But now I am all love and charity to mankind. Can I have the pleasure
+of begging pardon of the world in general, and thee in particular? Does
+any one wish to pull my nose; send me an errand; make me lend him five
+pounds; ay, make me buy a horse of him, which will be as good as giving
+him ten? Come along! Join hands all round, and swear eternal friendship,
+as brothers of the sacred order of the--of what. Frank Leigh? Open thy
+mouth, Daniel, and christen us!”
+
+“The Rose!” said Frank quietly, seeing that his new love-philtre was
+working well, and determined to strike while the iron was hot, and carry
+the matter too far to carry it back again.
+
+“The Rose!” cried Cary, catching hold of Coffin's hand with his right,
+and Fortescue's with his left. “Come, Mr. Coffin! Bend, sturdy oak! 'Woe
+to the stiffnecked and stout-hearted!' says Scripture.”
+
+And somehow or other, whether it was Frank's chivalrous speech, or
+Cary's fun, or Amyas's good wine, or the nobleness which lies in every
+young lad's heart, if their elders will take the trouble to call it out,
+the whole party came in to terms one by one, shook hands all round, and
+vowed on the hilt of Amyas's sword to make fools of themselves no more,
+at least by jealousy: but to stand by each other and by their lady-love,
+and neither grudge nor grumble, let her dance with, flirt with, or marry
+with whom she would; and in order that the honor of their peerless dame,
+and the brotherhood which was named after her, might be spread through
+all lands, and equal that of Angelica or Isonde of Brittany, they would
+each go home, and ask their fathers' leave (easy enough to obtain in
+those brave times) to go abroad wheresoever there were “good wars,” to
+emulate there the courage and the courtesy of Walter Manny and Gonzalo
+Fernandes, Bayard and Gaston de Foix. Why not? Sidney was the hero of
+Europe at five-and-twenty; and why not they?
+
+And Frank watched and listened with one of his quiet smiles (his eyes,
+as some folks' do, smiled even when his lips were still), and only said:
+“Gentlemen, be sure that you will never repent this day.”
+
+“Repent?” said Cary. “I feel already as angelical as thou lookest, Saint
+Silvertongue. What was it that sneezed?--the cat?”
+
+“The lion, rather, by the roar of it,” said Amyas, making a dash at the
+arras behind him. “Why, here is a doorway here! and--”
+
+And rushing under the arras, through an open door behind, he returned,
+dragging out by the head Mr. John Brimblecombe.
+
+Who was Mr. John Brimblecombe?
+
+If you have forgotten him, you have done pretty nearly what every one
+else in the room had done. But you recollect a certain fat lad, son of
+the schoolmaster, whom Sir Richard punished for tale-bearing three years
+before, by sending him, not to Coventry, but to Oxford. That was the
+man. He was now one-and-twenty, and a bachelor of Oxford, where he
+had learnt such things as were taught in those days, with more or less
+success; and he was now hanging about Bideford once more, intending to
+return after Christmas and read divinity, that he might become a parson,
+and a shepherd of souls in his native land.
+
+Jack was in person exceedingly like a pig: but not like every pig: not
+in the least like the Devon pigs of those days, which, I am sorry to
+say, were no more shapely than the true Irish greyhound who pays
+Pat's “rint” for him; or than the lanky monsters who wallow in German
+rivulets, while the village swineherd, beneath a shady lime, forgets his
+fleas in the melody of a Jew's harp--strange mud-colored creatures, four
+feet high and four inches thick, which look as if they had passed their
+lives, as a collar of Oxford brawn is said to do, between two tight
+boards. Such were then the pigs of Devon: not to be compared with the
+true wild descendant of Noah's stock, high-withered, furry, grizzled,
+game-flavored little rooklers, whereof many a sownder still grunted
+about Swinley down and Braunton woods, Clovelly glens and Bursdon moor.
+Not like these, nor like the tame abomination of those barbarous times,
+was Jack: but prophetic in face, figure, and complexion, of Fisher Hobbs
+and the triumphs of science. A Fisher Hobbs' pig of twelve stone, on
+his hind-legs--that was what he was, and nothing else; and if you do not
+know, reader, what a Fisher Hobbs is, you know nothing about pigs,
+and deserve no bacon for breakfast. But such was Jack. The same plump
+mulberry complexion, garnished with a few scattered black bristles; the
+same sleek skin, looking always as if it was upon the point of bursting;
+the same little toddling legs; the same dapper bend in the small of the
+back; the same cracked squeak; the same low upright forehead, and tiny
+eyes; the same round self-satisfied jowl; the same charming sensitive
+little cocked nose, always on the look-out for a savory smell,--and
+yet while watching for the best, contented with the worst; a pig of
+self-helpful and serene spirit, as Jack was, and therefore, like him,
+fatting fast while other pigs' ribs are staring through their skins.
+
+Such was Jack; and lucky it was for him that such he was; for it was
+little that he got to fat him at Oxford, in days when a servitor meant
+really a servant-student; and wistfully that day did his eyes, led by
+his nose, survey at the end of the Ship Inn passage the preparations
+for Amyas's supper. The innkeeper was a friend of his; for, in the first
+place, they had lived within three doors of each other all their lives;
+and next, Jack was quite pleasant company enough, beside being a
+learned man and an Oxford scholar, to be asked in now and then to the
+innkeeper's private parlor, when there were no gentlemen there, to
+crack his little joke and tell his little story, sip the leavings of the
+guests' sack, and sometimes help the host to eat the leavings of their
+supper. And it was, perhaps, with some such hope that Jack trotted off
+round the corner to the Ship that very afternoon; for that faithful
+little nose of his, as it sniffed out of a back window of the school,
+had given him warning of Sabean gales, and scents of Paradise, from the
+inn kitchen below; so he went round, and asked for his pot of small ale
+(his only luxury), and stood at the bar to drink it; and looked inward
+with his little twinkling right eye, and sniffed inward with his little
+curling right nostril, and beheld, in the kitchen beyond, salad in
+stacks and fagots: salad of lettuce, salad of cress and endive, salad of
+boiled coleworts, salad of pickled coleworts, salad of angelica, salad
+of scurvy-wort, and seven salads more; for potatoes were not as yet, and
+salads were during eight months of the year the only vegetable. And on
+the dresser, and before the fire, whole hecatombs of fragrant victims,
+which needed neither frankincense nor myrrh; Clovelly herrings and
+Torridge salmon, Exmoor mutton and Stow venison, stubble geese and
+woodcocks, curlew and snipe, hams of Hampshire, chitterlings of Taunton,
+and botargos of Cadiz, such as Pantagruel himself might have devoured.
+And Jack eyed them, as a ragged boy eyes the cakes in a pastrycook's
+window; and thought of the scraps from the commoners' dinner, which were
+his wages for cleaning out the hall; and meditated deeply on the unequal
+distribution of human bliss.
+
+“Ah, Mr. Brimblecombe!” said the host, bustling out with knife and apron
+to cool himself in the passage. “Here are doings! Nine gentlemen to
+supper!”
+
+“Nine! Are they going to eat all that?”
+
+“Well, I can't say--that Mr. Amyas is as good as three to his trencher:
+but still there's crumbs, Mr. Brimblecombe, crumbs; and waste not
+want not is my doctrine; so you and I may have a somewhat to stay our
+stomachs, about an eight o'clock.”
+
+“Eight?” said Jack, looking wistfully at the clock. “It's but four now.
+Well, it's kind of you, and perhaps I'll look in.”
+
+“Just you step in now, and look to this venison. There's a breast! you
+may lay your two fingers into the say there, and not get to the bottom
+of the fat. That's Sir Richard's sending. He's all for them Leighs, and
+no wonder, they'm brave lads, surely; and there's a saddle-o'-mutton! I
+rode twenty miles for mun yesterday, I did, over beyond Barnstaple; and
+five year old, Mr. John, it is, if ever five years was; and not a tooth
+to mun's head, for I looked to that; and smelt all the way home like any
+apple; and if it don't ate so soft as ever was scald cream, never you
+call me Thomas Burman.”
+
+“Humph!” said Jack. “And that's their dinner. Well, some are born with a
+silver spoon in their mouth.”
+
+“Some be born with roast beef in their mouths, and plum-pudding in
+their pocket to take away the taste o' mun; and that's better than empty
+spunes, eh?”
+
+“For them that get it,” said Jack. “But for them that don't--” And with
+a sigh he returned to his small ale, and then lingered in and out of the
+inn, watching the dinner as it went into the best room, where the guests
+were assembled.
+
+And as he lounged there, Amyas went in, and saw him, and held out his
+hand, and said--
+
+“Hillo, Jack! how goes the world? How you've grown!” and passed
+on;--what had Jack Brimblecombe to do with Rose Salterne?
+
+So Jack lingered on, hovering around the fragrant smell like a fly round
+a honey-pot, till he found himself invisibly attracted, and as it were
+led by the nose out of the passage into the adjoining room, and to that
+side of the room where there was a door; and once there he could not
+help hearing what passed inside; till Rose Salterne's name fell on his
+ear. So, as it was ordained, he was taken in the fact. And now behold
+him brought in red-hand to judgment, not without a kick or two from
+the wrathful foot of Amyas Leigh. Whereat there fell on him a storm of
+abuse, which, for the honor of that gallant company, I shall not give in
+detail; but which abuse, strange to say, seemed to have no effect on the
+impenitent and unabashed Jack, who, as soon as he could get his breath,
+made answer fiercely, amid much puffing and blowing.
+
+“What business have I here? As much as any of you. If you had asked me
+in, I would have come: but as you didn't, I came without asking.”
+
+“You shameless rascal!” said Cary. “Come if you were asked, where there
+was good wine? I'll warrant you for that!”
+
+“Why,” said Amyas, “no lad ever had a cake at school but he would
+dog him up one street and down another all day for the crumbs, the
+trencher-scraping spaniel!”
+
+“Patience, masters!” said Frank. “That Jack's is somewhat of a gnathonic
+and parasitic soul, or stomach, all Bideford apple-women know; but I
+suspect more than Deus Venter has brought him hither.”
+
+“Deus eavesdropping, then. We shall have the whole story over the town
+by to-morrow,” said another; beginning at that thought to feel somewhat
+ashamed of his late enthusiasm.
+
+“Ah, Mr. Frank! You were always the only one that would stand up for me!
+Deus Venter, quotha? 'Twas Deus Cupid, it was!”
+
+A roar of laughter followed this announcement.
+
+“What?” asked Frank; “was it Cupid, then, who sneezed approval to our
+love, Jack, as he did to that of Dido and Aeneas?”
+
+But Jack went on desperately.
+
+“I was in the next room, drinking of my beer. I couldn't help that,
+could I? And then I heard her name; and I couldn't help listening then.
+Flesh and blood couldn't.”
+
+“Nor fat either!”
+
+“No, nor fat, Mr. Cary. Do you suppose fat men haven't souls to be saved
+as well as thin ones, and hearts to burst, too, as well as stomachs?
+Fat! Fat can feel, I reckon, as well as lean. Do you suppose there's
+naught inside here but beer?”
+
+And he laid his hand, as Drayton might have said, on that stout bastion,
+hornwork, ravelin, or demilune, which formed the outworks to the citadel
+of his purple isle of man.
+
+“Naught but beer?--Cheese, I suppose?”
+
+“Bread?”
+
+“Beef?”
+
+“Love!” cried Jack. “Yes, Love!--Ay, you laugh; but my eyes are not so
+grown up with fat but what I can see what's fair as well as you.”
+
+“Oh, Jack, naughty Jack, dost thou heap sin on sin, and luxury on
+gluttony?”
+
+“Sin? If I sin, you sin: I tell you, and I don't care who knows it, I've
+loved her these three years as well as e'er a one of you, I have. I've
+thought o' nothing else, prayed for nothing else, God forgive me! And
+then you laugh at me, because I'm a poor parson's son, and you fine
+gentlemen: God made us both, I reckon. You?--you make a deal of giving
+her up to-day. Why, it's what I've done for three miserable years as
+ever poor sinner spent; ay, from the first day I said to myself, 'Jack,
+if you can't have that pearl, you'll have none; and that you can't
+have, for it's meat for your masters: so conquer or die.' And I couldn't
+conquer. I can't help loving her, worshipping her, no more than you; and
+I will die: but you needn't laugh meanwhile at me that have done as much
+as you, and will do again.”
+
+“It is the old tale,” said Frank to himself; “whom will not love
+transform into a hero?”
+
+And so it was. Jack's squeaking voice was firm and manly, his pig's
+eyes flashed very fire, his gestures were so free and earnest, that the
+ungainliness of his figure was forgotten; and when he finished with
+a violent burst of tears, Frank, forgetting his wounds, sprang up and
+caught him by the hand.
+
+“John Brimblecombe, forgive me! Gentlemen, if we are gentlemen, we
+ought to ask his pardon. Has he not shown already more chivalry, more
+self-denial, and therefore more true love, than any of us? My friends,
+let the fierceness of affection, which we have used as an excuse for
+many a sin of our own, excuse his listening to a conversation in which
+he well deserved to bear a part.”
+
+“Ah,” said Jack, “you make me one of your brotherhood; and see if I do
+not dare to suffer as much as any of you! You laugh? Do you fancy none
+can use a sword unless he has a baker's dozen of quarterings in his
+arms, or that Oxford scholars know only how to handle a pen?”
+
+“Let us try his metal,” said St. Leger. “Here's my sword, Jack; draw,
+Coffin! and have at him.”
+
+“Nonsense!” said Coffin, looking somewhat disgusted at the notion of
+fighting a man of Jack's rank; but Jack caught at the weapon offered to
+him.
+
+“Give me a buckler, and have at any of you!”
+
+“Here's a chair bottom,” cried Cary; and Jack, seizing it in his left,
+flourished his sword so fiercely, and called so loudly to Coffin to come
+on, that all present found it necessary, unless they wished blood to be
+spilt, to turn the matter off with a laugh: but Jack would not hear of
+it.
+
+“Nay: if you will let me be of your brotherhood, well and good: but if
+not, one or other I will fight: and that's flat.”
+
+“You see, gentlemen,” said Amyas, “we must admit him or die the death;
+so we needs must go when Sir Urian drives. Come up, Jack, and take the
+oaths. You admit him, gentlemen?”
+
+“Let me but be your chaplain,” said Jack, “and pray for your luck when
+you're at the wars. If I do stay at home in a country curacy, 'tis not
+much that you need be jealous of me with her, I reckon,” said Jack, with
+a pathetical glance at his own stomach.
+
+“Sia!” said Cary: “but if he be admitted, it must be done according to
+the solemn forms and ceremonies in such cases provided. Take him into
+the next room, Amyas, and prepare him for his initiation.”
+
+“What's that?” asked Amyas, puzzled by the word. But judging from the
+corner of Will's eye that initiation was Latin for a practical joke,
+he led forth his victim behind the arras again, and waited five minutes
+while the room was being darkened, till Frank's voice called to him to
+bring in the neophyte.
+
+“John Brimblecombe,” said Frank, in a sepulchral tone, “you cannot be
+ignorant, as a scholar and bachelor of Oxford, of that dread sacrament
+by which Catiline bound the soul of his fellow-conspirators, in order
+that both by the daring of the deed he might have proof of their
+sincerity, and by the horror thereof astringe their souls by adamantine
+fetters, and Novem-Stygian oaths, to that wherefrom hereafter the
+weakness of the flesh might shrink. Wherefore, O Jack! we too have
+determined, following that ancient and classical example, to fill, as he
+did, a bowl with the lifeblood of our most heroic selves, and to pledge
+each other therein, with vows whereat the stars shall tremble in their
+spheres, and Luna, blushing, veil her silver cheeks. Your blood alone is
+wanted to fill up the goblet. Sit down, John Brimblecombe, and bare your
+arm!”
+
+“But, Mr. Frank!--” said Jack, who was as superstitious as any old
+wife, and, what with the darkness and the discourse, already in a cold
+perspiration.
+
+“But me no buts! or depart as recreant, not by the door like a man, but
+up the chimney like a flittermouse.”
+
+“But, Mr. Frank!”
+
+“Thy vital juice, or the chimney! Choose!” roared Cary in his ear.
+
+“Well, if I must,” said Jack; “but it's desperate hard that because you
+can't keep faith without these barbarous oaths, I must take them too,
+that have kept faith these three years without any.”
+
+At this pathetic appeal Frank nearly melted: but Amyas and Cary had
+thrust the victim into a chair and all was prepared for the sacrifice.
+
+“Bind his eyes, according to the classic fashion,” said Will.
+
+“Oh no, dear Mr. Cary; I'll shut them tight enough, I warrant: but not
+with your dagger, dear Mr. William--sure, not with your dagger? I can't
+afford to lose blood, though I do look lusty--I can't indeed; sure, a
+pin would do--I've got one here, to my sleeve, somewhere--Oh!”
+
+“See the fount of generous juice! Flow on, fair stream. How he
+bleeds!--pints, quarts! Ah, this proves him to be in earnest!”
+
+“A true lover's blood is always at his fingers' ends.”
+
+“He does not grudge it; of course not. Eh, Jack? What matters an odd
+gallon for her sake?”
+
+“For her sake? Nothing, nothing! Take my life, if you will: but--oh,
+gentlemen, a surgeon, if you love me! I'm going off--I 'm fainting!”
+
+“Drink, then, quick; drink and swear! Pat his back, Cary. Courage, man!
+it will be over in a minute. Now, Frank!--”
+
+And Frank spoke--
+
+
+“If plighted troth I fail, or secret speech reveal, May Cocytean ghosts
+around my pillow squeal; While Ate's brazen claws distringe my spleen
+in sunder, And drag me deep to Pluto's keep, 'mid brimstone, smoke, and
+thunder!”
+
+
+“Placetne, domine?”
+
+“Placet!” squeaked Jack, who thought himself at the last gasp, and
+gulped down full three-quarters of the goblet which Cary held to his
+lips.
+
+“Ugh--Ah--Puh! Mercy on us! It tastes mighty like wine!”
+
+“A proof, my virtuous brother,” said Frank, “first, of thy
+abstemiousness, which has thus forgotten what wine tastes like; and
+next, of thy pure and heroical affection, by which thy carnal senses
+being exalted to a higher and supra-lunar sphere, like those Platonical
+daemonizomenoi and enthusiazomenoi (of whom Jamblichus says that they
+were insensible to wounds and flame, and much more, therefore, to evil
+savors), doth make even the most nauseous draught redolent of that
+celestial fragrance, which proceeding, O Jack! from thine own inward
+virtue, assimilates by sympathy even outward accidents unto its own
+harmony and melody; for fragrance is, as has been said well, the song
+of flowers, and sweetness, the music of apples--Ahem! Go in peace, thou
+hast conquered!”
+
+“Put him out of the door, Will,” said Amyas, “or he will swoon on our
+hands.”
+
+“Give him some sack,” said Frank.
+
+“Not a blessed drop of yours, sir,” said Jack. “I like good wine as well
+as any man on earth, and see as little of it; but not a drop of
+yours, sirs, after your frumps and flouts about hanging-on and
+trencher-scraping. When I first began to love her, I bid good-bye to all
+dirty tricks; for I had some one then for whom to keep myself clean.”
+
+And so Jack was sent home, with a pint of good red Alicant wine in him
+(more, poor fellow, than he had tasted at once in his life before);
+while the rest, in high glee with themselves and the rest of the world,
+relighted the candles, had a right merry evening, and parted like good
+friends and sensible gentlemen of devon, thinking (all except Frank)
+Jack Brimblecombe and his vow the merriest jest they had heard for
+many a day. After which they all departed: Amyas and Cary to Winter's
+squadron; Frank (as soon as he could travel) to the Court again;
+and with him young Basset, whose father Sir Arthur, being in London,
+procured for him a page's place in Leicester's household. Fortescue and
+Chicester went to their brothers in Dublin; St. Leger to his uncle
+the Marshal of Munster; Coffin joined Champernoun and Norris in the
+Netherlands; and so the Brotherhood of the Rose was scattered far and
+wide, and Mistress Salterne was left alone with her looking-glass.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+HOW AMYAS KEPT HIS CHRISTMAS DAY
+
+     “Take aim, you noble musqueteers,
+     And shoot you round about;
+     Stand to it, valiant pikemen,
+     And we shall keep them out.
+     There's not a man of all of us
+     A foot will backward flee;
+     I'll be the foremost man in fight,
+     Says brave Lord Willoughby!”
+
+                   Elizabethan Ballad.
+
+It was the blessed Christmas afternoon. The light was fading down; the
+even-song was done; and the good folks of Bideford were trooping home
+in merry groups, the father with his children, the lover with his
+sweetheart, to cakes and ale, and flapdragons and mummer's plays, and
+all the happy sports of Christmas night. One lady only, wrapped close in
+her black muffler and followed by her maid, walked swiftly, yet sadly,
+toward the long causeway and bridge which led to Northam town.
+Sir Richard Grenville and his wife caught her up and stopped her
+courteously.
+
+“You will come home with us, Mrs. Leigh,” said Lady Grenville, “and
+spend a pleasant Christmas night?”
+
+Mrs. Leigh smiled sweetly, and laying one hand on Lady Grenville's arm,
+pointed with the other to the westward, and said:
+
+“I cannot well spend a merry Christmas night while that sound is in my
+ears.”
+
+The whole party around looked in the direction in which she pointed.
+Above their heads the soft blue sky was fading into gray, and here and
+there a misty star peeped out: but to the westward, where the downs and
+woods of Raleigh closed in with those of Abbotsham, the blue was webbed
+and turfed with delicate white flakes; iridescent spots, marking the
+path by which the sun had sunk, showed all the colors of the dying
+dolphin; and low on the horizon lay a long band of grassy green. But
+what was the sound which troubled Mrs. Leigh? None of them, with their
+merry hearts, and ears dulled with the din and bustle of the town, had
+heard it till that moment: and yet now--listen! It was dead calm. There
+was not a breath to stir a blade of grass. And yet the air was full of
+sound, a low deep roar which hovered over down and wood, salt-marsh and
+river, like the roll of a thousand wheels, the tramp of endless armies,
+or--what it was--the thunder of a mighty surge upon the boulders of the
+pebble ridge.
+
+“The ridge is noisy to-night,” said Sir Richard. “There has been wind
+somewhere.”
+
+“There is wind now, where my boy is, God help him!” said Mrs. Leigh: and
+all knew that she spoke truly. The spirit of the Atlantic storm had sent
+forward the token of his coming, in the smooth ground-swell which was
+heard inland, two miles away. To-morrow the pebbles, which were now
+rattling down with each retreating wave, might be leaping to the ridge
+top, and hurled like round-shot far ashore upon the marsh by the
+force of the advancing wave, fleeing before the wrath of the western
+hurricane.
+
+“God help my boy!” said Mrs. Leigh again.
+
+“God is as near him by sea as by land,” said good Sir Richard.
+
+“True, but I am a lone mother; and one that has no heart just now but to
+go home and pray.”
+
+And so Mrs. Leigh went onward up the lane, and spent all that night in
+listening between her prayers to the thunder of the surge, till it was
+drowned, long ere the sun rose, in the thunder of the storm.
+
+And where is Amyas on this same Christmas afternoon?
+
+Amyas is sitting bareheaded in a boat's stern in Smerwick bay, with the
+spray whistling through his curls, as he shouts cheerfully--
+
+“Pull, and with a will, my merry men all, and never mind shipping a sea.
+Cannon balls are a cargo that don't spoil by taking salt-water.”
+
+His mother's presage has been true enough. Christmas eve has been the
+last of the still, dark, steaming nights of the early winter; and the
+western gale has been roaring for the last twelve hours upon the Irish
+coast.
+
+The short light of the winter day is fading fast. Behind him is a
+leaping line of billows lashed into mist by the tempest. Beside him
+green foam-fringed columns are rushing up the black rocks, and falling
+again in a thousand cataracts of snow. Before him is the deep and
+sheltered bay: but it is not far up the bay that he and his can see; for
+some four miles out at sea begins a sloping roof of thick gray cloud,
+which stretches over their heads, and up and far away inland, cutting
+the cliffs off at mid-height, hiding all the Kerry mountains, and
+darkening the hollows of the distant firths into the blackness of night.
+And underneath that awful roof of whirling mist the storm is howling
+inland ever, sweeping before it the great foam-sponges, and the gray
+salt spray, till all the land is hazy, dim, and dun. Let it howl on! for
+there is more mist than ever salt spray made, flying before that gale;
+more thunder than ever sea-surge wakened echoing among the cliffs of
+Smerwick bay; along those sand-hills flash in the evening gloom red
+sparks which never came from heaven; for that fort, now christened by
+the invaders the Fort Del Oro, where flaunts the hated golden flag of
+Spain, holds San Josepho and eight hundred of the foe; and but three
+nights ago, Amyas and Yeo, and the rest of Winter's shrewdest hands,
+slung four culverins out of the Admiral's main deck, and floated them
+ashore, and dragged them up to the battery among the sand-hills; and now
+it shall be seen whether Spanish and Italian condottieri can hold their
+own on British ground against the men of Devon.
+
+Small blame to Amyas if he was thinking, not of his lonely mother at
+Burrough Court, but of those quick bright flashes on sand-hill and
+on fort, where Salvation Yeo was hurling the eighteen-pound shot with
+deadly aim, and watching with a cool and bitter smile of triumph the
+flying of the sand, and the crashing of the gabions. Amyas and his party
+had been on board, at the risk of their lives, for a fresh supply of
+shot; for Winter's battery was out of ball, and had been firing stones
+for the last four hours, in default of better missiles. They ran the
+boat on shore through the surf, where a cove in the shore made landing
+possible, and almost careless whether she stove or not, scrambled
+over the sand-hills with each man his brace of shot slung across his
+shoulder; and Amyas, leaping into the trenches, shouted cheerfully to
+Salvation Yeo--
+
+“More food for the bull-dogs, Gunner, and plums for the Spaniards'
+Christmas pudding!”
+
+“Don't speak to a man at his business, Master Amyas. Five mortal times
+have I missed; but I will have that accursed Popish rag down, as I'm a
+sinner.”
+
+“Down with it, then; nobody wants you to shoot crooked. Take good iron
+to it, and not footy paving-stones.”
+
+“I believe, sir, that the foul fiend is there, a turning of my shot
+aside, I do. I thought I saw him once: but, thank Heaven, here's ball
+again. Ah, sir, if one could but cast a silver one! Now, stand by, men!”
+
+And once again Yeo's eighteen-pounder roared, and away. And, oh glory!
+the great yellow flag of Spain, which streamed in the gale, lifted
+clean into the air, flagstaff and all, and then pitched wildly down
+head-foremost, far to leeward.
+
+A hurrah from the sailors, answered by the soldiers of the opposite
+camp, shook the very cloud above them: but ere its echoes had died away,
+a tall officer leapt upon the parapet of the fort, with the fallen flag
+in his hand, and rearing it as well as he could upon his lance point,
+held it firmly against the gale, while the fallen flagstaff was raised
+again within.
+
+In a moment a dozen long bows were bent at the daring foeman: but Amyas
+behind shouted--
+
+“Shame, lads! Stop and let the gallant gentleman have due courtesy!”
+
+So they stopped, while Amyas, springing on the rampart of the battery,
+took off his hat, and bowed to the flag-holder, who, as soon as relieved
+of his charge, returned the bow courteously, and descended.
+
+It was by this time all but dark, and the firing began to slacken on
+all sides; Salvation and his brother gunners, having covered up their
+slaughtering tackle with tarpaulings, retired for the night, leaving
+Amyas, who had volunteered to take the watch till midnight; and the rest
+of the force having got their scanty supper of biscuit (for provisions
+were running very short) lay down under arms among the sand-hills, and
+grumbled themselves to sleep.
+
+He had paced up and down in the gusty darkness for some hour or more,
+exchanging a passing word now and then with the sentinel, when two
+men entered the battery, chatting busily together. One was in complete
+armor; the other wrapped in the plain short cloak of a man of pens
+and peace: but the talk of both was neither of sieges nor of sallies,
+catapult, bombard, nor culverin, but simply of English hexameters.
+
+And fancy not, gentle reader, that the two were therein fiddling while
+Rome was burning; for the commonweal of poetry and letters, in that same
+critical year 1580, was in far greater danger from those same hexameters
+than the common woe of Ireland (as Raleigh called it) was from the
+Spaniards.
+
+Imitating the classic metres, “versifying,” as it was called in
+contradistinction to rhyming, was becoming fast the fashion among the
+more learned. Stonyhurst and others had tried their hands at hexameter
+translations from the Latin and Greek epics, which seem to have been
+doggerel enough; and ever and anon some youthful wit broke out in
+iambics, sapphics, elegiacs, and what not, to the great detriment of the
+queen's English and her subjects' ears.
+
+I know not whether Mr. William Webbe had yet given to the world any
+fragments of his precious hints for the “Reformation of English poetry,”
+ to the tune of his own “Tityrus, happily thou liest tumbling under a
+beech-tree:” but the Cambridge Malvolio, Gabriel Harvey, had succeeded
+in arguing Spenser, Dyer, Sidney, and probably Sidney's sister, and the
+whole clique of beaux-esprits round them, into following his model of
+
+     “What might I call this tree?  A laurel?  O bonny laurel!
+     Needes to thy bowes will I bowe this knee, and vail my bonetto;”
+
+after snubbing the first book of “that Elvish Queene,” which was then
+in manuscript, as a base declension from the classical to the romantic
+school.
+
+And now Spenser (perhaps in mere melancholy wilfulness and want of
+purpose, for he had just been jilted by a fair maid of Kent) was wasting
+his mighty genius upon doggerel which he fancied antique; and some
+piratical publisher (bitter Tom Nash swears, and with likelihood that
+Harvey did it himself) had just given to the world,--“Three proper
+wittie and familiar Letters, lately past between two University
+men, touching the Earthquake in April last, and our English reformed
+Versifying,” which had set all town wits a-buzzing like a swarm of
+flies, being none other than a correspondence between Spenser and
+Harvey, which was to prove to the world forever the correctness and
+melody of such lines as,
+
+     “For like magnificoes, not a beck but glorious in show,
+     In deede most frivolous, not a looke but Tuscanish always.”
+
+Let them pass--Alma Mater has seen as bad hexameters since. But then the
+matter was serious. There is a story (I know not how true) that Spenser
+was half bullied into re-writing the “Faerie Queene” in hexameters, had
+not Raleigh, a true romanticist, “whose vein for ditty or amorous ode
+was most lofty, insolent, and passionate,” persuaded him to follow
+his better genius. The great dramatists had not yet arisen, to form
+completely that truly English school, of which Spenser, unconscious of
+his own vast powers, was laying the foundation. And, indeed, it was not
+till Daniel, twenty years after, in his admirable apology for rhyme, had
+smashed Mr. Campian and his “eight several kinds of classical numbers,”
+ that the matter was finally settled, and the English tongue left to go
+the road on which Heaven had started it. So that we may excuse Raleigh's
+answering somewhat waspish to some quotation of Spenser's from the three
+letters of “Immerito and G. H.”
+
+“Tut, tut, Colin Clout, much learning has made thee mad. A good old
+fishwives' ballad jingle is worth all your sapphics and trimeters, and
+'riff-raff thurlery bouncing.' Hey? have I you there, old lad? Do you
+mind that precious verse?”
+
+“But, dear Wat, Homer and Virgil--”
+
+“But, dear Ned, Petrarch and Ovid--”
+
+“But, Wat, what have we that we do not owe to the ancients?”
+
+“Ancients, quotha? Why, the legend of King Arthur, and Chevy Chase too,
+of which even your fellow-sinner Sidney cannot deny that every time
+he hears it even from a blind fiddler it stirs his heart like a
+trumpet-blast. Speak well of the bridge that carries you over, man! Did
+you find your Redcross Knight in Virgil, or such a dame as Una in old
+Ovid? No more than you did your Pater and Credo, you renegado baptized
+heathen, you!”
+
+“Yet, surely, our younger and more barbarous taste must bow before
+divine antiquity, and imitate afar--”
+
+“As dottrels do fowlers. If Homer was blind, lad, why dost not poke
+out thine eye? Ay, this hexameter is of an ancient house, truly, Ned
+Spenser, and so is many a rogue: but he cannot make way on our rough
+English roads. He goes hopping and twitching in our language like a
+three-legged terrier over a pebble-bank, tumble and up again, rattle and
+crash.”
+
+“Nay, hear, now--
+
+     'See ye the blindfolded pretty god that feathered archer,
+        Of lovers' miseries which maketh his bloody game?' *
+
+True, the accent gapes in places, as I have often confessed to Harvey,
+but--”
+
+     * Strange as it may seem, this distich is Spenser's own; and
+     the other hexameters are all authentic.
+
+Harvey be hanged for a pedant, and the whole crew of versifiers, from
+Lord Dorset (but he, poor man, has been past hanging some time since)
+to yourself! Why delude you into playing Procrustes as he does with the
+queen's English, racking one word till its joints be pulled asunder, and
+squeezing the next all a-heap as the Inquisitors do heretics in their
+banca cava? Out upon him and you, and Sidney, and the whole kin. You
+have not made a verse among you, and never will, which is not as lame a
+gosling as Harvey's own--
+
+     'Oh thou weathercocke, that stands on the top of Allhallows,
+     Come thy ways down, if thou dar'st for thy crown, and take the wall
+     on us.'
+
+“Hark, now! There is our young giant comforting his soul with a ballad.
+You will hear rhyme and reason together here, now. He will not miscall
+'blind-folded,' 'blind-fold-ed, I warrant; or make an 'of' and a 'which'
+and a 'his' carry a whole verse on their wretched little backs.”
+
+And as he spoke, Amyas, who had been grumbling to himself some Christmas
+carol, broke out full-mouthed:--
+
+     “As Joseph was a-walking
+     He heard an angel sing--
+     'This night shall be the birth night
+     Of Christ, our heavenly King.
+
+     His birthbed shall be neither
+     In housen nor in hall,
+     Nor in the place of paradise,
+     But in the oxen's stall.
+
+     He neither shall be rocked
+     In silver nor in gold,
+     But in the wooden manger
+     That lieth on the mould.
+
+     He neither shall be washen
+     With white wine nor with red,
+     But with the fair spring water
+     That on you shall be shed.
+
+     He neither shall be clothed
+     In purple nor in pall,
+     But in the fair white linen
+     That usen babies all.'
+
+     As Joseph was a-walking
+     Thus did the angel sing,
+     And Mary's Son at midnight
+     Was born to be our King.
+
+     Then be you glad, good people,
+     At this time of the year;
+     And light you up your candles,
+     For His star it shineth clear.”
+
+“There, Edmunde Classicaster,” said Raleigh, “does not that simple
+strain go nearer to the heart of him who wrote 'The Shepherd's
+Calendar,' than all artificial and outlandish
+
+     'Wote ye why his mother with a veil hath covered his face?'
+
+Why dost not answer, man?”
+
+But Spenser was silent awhile, and then,--
+
+“Because I was thinking rather of the rhymer than the rhyme. Good
+heaven! how that brave lad shames me, singing here the hymns which his
+mother taught him, before the very muzzles of Spanish guns; instead of
+bewailing unmanly, as I have done, the love which he held, I doubt not,
+as dear as I did even my Rosalind. This is his welcome to the winter's
+storm; while I, who dream, forsooth, of heavenly inspiration, can but
+see therein an image of mine own cowardly despair.
+
+     'Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath has wasted,
+     Art made a mirror to behold my plight.'*
+
+Pah! away with frosts, icicles, and tears, and sighs--”
+
+     * “The Shepherd's Calendar.”
+
+“And with hexameters and trimeters too, I hope,” interrupted Raleigh:
+“and all the trickeries of self-pleasing sorrow.”
+
+“--I will set my heart to higher work than barking at the hand which
+chastens me.”
+
+“Wilt put the lad into the 'Faerie Queene,' then, by my side? He
+deserves as good a place there, believe me, as ever a Guyon, or even as
+Lord Grey your Arthegall. Let us hail him. Hallo! young chanticleer of
+Devon! Art not afraid of a chance shot, that thou crowest so lustily
+upon thine own mixen?”
+
+“Cocks crow all night long at Christmas, Captain Raleigh, and so do I,”
+ said Amyas's cheerful voice; “but who's there with you?”
+
+“A penitent pupil of yours--Mr. Secretary Spenser.”
+
+“Pupil of mine?” said Amyas. “I wish he'd teach me a little of his art;
+I could fill up my time here with making verses.”
+
+“And who would be your theme, fair sir?” said Spenser.
+
+“No 'who' at all. I don't want to make sonnets to blue eyes, nor black
+either: but if I could put down some of the things I saw in the Spice
+Islands--”
+
+“Ah,” said Raleigh, “he would beat you out of Parnassus, Mr. Secretary.
+Remember, you may write about Fairyland, but he has seen it.”
+
+“And so have others,” said Spenser; “it is not so far off from any one
+of us. Wherever is love and loyalty, great purposes, and lofty souls,
+even though in a hovel or a mine, there is Fairyland.”
+
+“Then Fairyland should be here, friend; for you represent love, and
+Leigh loyalty; while, as for great purposes and lofty souls, who so fit
+to stand for them as I, being (unless my enemies and my conscience are
+liars both) as ambitious and as proud as Lucifer's own self?”
+
+“Ah, Walter, Walter, why wilt always slander thyself thus?”
+
+“Slander? Tut.--I do but give the world a fair challenge, and tell it,
+'There--you know the worst of me: come on and try a fall, for either
+you or I must down.' Slander? Ask Leigh here, who has but known me a
+fortnight, whether I am not as vain as a peacock, as selfish as a fox,
+as imperious as a bona roba, and ready to make a cat's paw of him or any
+man, if there be a chestnut in the fire: and yet the poor fool cannot
+help loving me, and running of my errands, and taking all my schemes and
+my dreams for gospel; and verily believes now, I think, that I shall be
+the man in the moon some day, and he my big dog.”
+
+“Well,” said Amyas, half apologetically, “if you are the cleverest man
+in the world what harm in my thinking so?”
+
+“Hearken to him, Edmund! He will know better when he has outgrown this
+same callow trick of honesty, and learnt of the great goddess Detraction
+how to show himself wiser than the wise, by pointing out to the world
+the fool's motley which peeps through the rents in the philosopher's
+cloak. Go to, lad! slander thy equals, envy thy betters, pray for an eye
+which sees spots in every sun, and for a vulture's nose to scent
+carrion in every rose-bed. If thy friend win a battle, show that he has
+needlessly thrown away his men; if he lose one, hint that he sold it;
+if he rise to a place, argue favor; if he fall from one, argue divine
+justice. Believe nothing, hope nothing, but endure all things, even to
+kicking, if aught may be got thereby; so shalt thou be clothed in purple
+and fine linen, and sit in kings' palaces, and fare sumptuously every
+day.”
+
+“And wake with Dives in the torment,” said Amyas. “Thank you for
+nothing, captain.”
+
+“Go to, Misanthropos,” said Spenser. “Thou hast not yet tasted the
+sweets of this world's comfits, and thou railest at them?”
+
+“The grapes are sour, lad.”
+
+“And will be to the end,” said Amyas, “if they come off such a devil's
+tree as that. I really think you are out of your mind, Captain Raleigh,
+at times.”
+
+“I wish I were; for it is a troublesome, hungry, windy mind as man ever
+was cursed withal. But come in, lad. We were sent from the lord deputy
+to bid thee to supper. There is a dainty lump of dead horse waiting for
+thee.”
+
+“Send me some out, then,” said matter-of-fact Amyas. “And tell his
+lordship that, with his good leave, I don't stir from here till morning,
+if I can keep awake. There is a stir in the fort, and I expect them out
+on us.”
+
+“Tut, man! their hearts are broken. We know it by their deserters.”
+
+“Seeing's believing. I never trust runaway rogues. If they are false to
+their masters, they'll be false to us.”
+
+“Well, go thy ways, old honesty; and Mr. Secretary shall give you a
+book to yourself in the 'Faerie Queene'--'Sir Monoculus or the Legend of
+Common Sense,' eh, Edmund?”
+
+“Monoculus?”
+
+“Ay, Single-eye, my prince of word-coiners--won't that fit?--And give
+him the Cyclops head for a device. Heigh-ho! They may laugh that win.
+I am sick of this Irish work; were it not for the chance of advancement
+I'd sooner be driving a team of red Devons on Dartside; and now I am
+angry with the dear lad because he is not sick of it too. What a plague
+business has he to be paddling up and down, contentedly doing his duty,
+like any city watchman? It is an insult to the mighty aspirations of our
+nobler hearts,--eh, my would-be Ariosto?”
+
+“Ah, Raleigh! you can afford to confess yourself less than some, for you
+are greater than all. Go on and conquer, noble heart! But as for me, I
+sow the wind, and I suppose I shall reap the whirlwind.”
+
+“Your harvest seems come already; what a blast that was! Hold on by me,
+Colin Clout, and I'll hold on by thee. So! Don't tread on that pikeman's
+stomach, lest he take thee for a marauding Don, and with sudden dagger
+slit Cohn's pipe, and Colin's weasand too.”
+
+And the two stumbled away into the darkness, leaving Amyas to stride up
+and down as before, puzzling his brains over Raleigh's wild words and
+Spenser's melancholy, till he came to the conclusion that there was some
+mysterious connection between cleverness and unhappiness, and thanking
+his stars that he was neither scholar, courtier, nor poet, said grace
+over his lump of horseflesh when it arrived, devoured it as if it had
+been venison, and then returned to his pacing up and down; but this time
+in silence, for the night was drawing on, and there was no need to tell
+the Spaniards that any one was awake and watching.
+
+So he began to think about his mother, and how she might be spending
+her Christmas; and then about Frank, and wondered at what grand Court
+festival he was assisting, amid bright lights and sweet music and gay
+ladies, and how he was dressed, and whether he thought of his brother
+there far away on the dark Atlantic shore; and then he said his prayers
+and his creed; and then he tried not to think of Rose Salterne, and of
+course thought about her all the more. So on passed the dull hours, till
+it might be past eleven o'clock, and all lights were out in the battery
+and the shipping, and there was no sound of living thing but the
+monotonous tramp of the two sentinels beside him, and now and then a
+grunt from the party who slept under arms some twenty yards to the rear.
+
+So he paced to and fro, looking carefully out now and then over the
+strip of sand-hill which lay between him and the fort; but all was blank
+and black, and moreover it began to rain furiously.
+
+Suddenly he seemed to hear a rustle among the harsh sand-grass. True,
+the wind was whistling through it loudly enough, but that sound was
+not altogether like the wind. Then a soft sliding noise; something had
+slipped down a bank, and brought the sand down after it. Amyas stopped,
+crouched down beside a gun, and laid his ear to the rampart, whereby
+he heard clearly, as he thought, the noise of approaching feet; whether
+rabbits or Christians, he knew not, but he shrewdly guessed the latter.
+
+Now Amyas was of a sober and business-like turn, at least when he was
+not in a passion; and thinking within himself that if he made any noise,
+the enemy (whether four or two-legged) would retire, and all the sport
+be lost, he did not call to the two sentries, who were at the opposite
+ends of the battery; neither did he think it worth while to rouse the
+sleeping company, lest his ears should have deceived him, and the whole
+camp turn out to repulse the attack of a buck rabbit.
+
+So he crouched lower and lower beside the culverin, and was rewarded in
+a minute or two by hearing something gently deposited against the mouth
+of the embrasure, which, by the noise, should be a piece of timber.
+
+“So far, so good,” said he to himself; “when the scaling ladder is up,
+the soldier follows, I suppose. I can only humbly thank them for giving
+my embrasure the preference. There he comes! I hear his feet scuffling.”
+
+He could hear plainly enough some one working himself into the mouth of
+the embrasure: but the plague was, that it was so dark that he could
+not see his hand between him and the sky, much less his foe at two yards
+off. However, he made a pretty fair guess as to the whereabouts, and,
+rising softly, discharged such a blow downwards as would have split a
+yule log. A volley of sparks flew up from the hapless Spaniard's armor,
+and a grunt issued from within it, which proved that, whether he was
+killed or not, the blow had not improved his respiration.
+
+Amyas felt for his head, seized it, dragged him in over the gun, sprang
+into the embrasure on his knees, felt for the top of the ladder, found
+it, hove it clean off and out, with four or five men on it, and then of
+course tumbled after it ten feet into the sand, roaring like a town bull
+to her majesty's liege subjects in general.
+
+Sailor-fashion, he had no armor on but a light morion and a cuirass,
+so he was not too much encumbered to prevent his springing to his legs
+instantly, and setting to work, cutting and foining right and left at
+every sound, for sight there was none.
+
+Battles (as soldiers know, and newspaper editors do not) are usually
+fought, not as they ought to be fought, but as they can be fought; and
+while the literary man is laying down the law at his desk as to how many
+troops should be moved here, and what rivers should be crossed there,
+and where the cavalry should have been brought up, and when the flank
+should have been turned, the wretched man who has to do the work finds
+the matter settled for him by pestilence, want of shoes, empty stomachs,
+bad roads, heavy rains, hot suns, and a thousand other stern warriors
+who never show on paper.
+
+So with this skirmish; “according to Cocker,” it ought to have been
+a very pretty one; for Hercules of Pisa, who planned the sortie, had
+arranged it all (being a very sans-appel in all military science) upon
+the best Italian precedents, and had brought against this very hapless
+battery a column of a hundred to attack directly in front, a company of
+fifty to turn the right flank, and a company of fifty to turn the left
+flank, with regulations, orders, passwords, countersigns, and what not;
+so that if every man had had his rights (as seldom happens), Don Guzman
+Maria Magdalena de Soto, who commanded the sortie, ought to have taken
+the work out of hand, and annihilated all therein. But alas! here stern
+fate interfered. They had chosen a dark night, as was politic; they had
+waited till the moon was up, lest it should be too dark, as was politic
+likewise: but, just as they had started, on came a heavy squall of rain,
+through which seven moons would have given no light, and which washed
+out the plans of Hercules of Pisa as if they had been written on a
+schoolboy's slate. The company who were to turn the left flank walked
+manfully down into the sea, and never found out where they were going
+till they were knee-deep in water. The company who were to turn the
+right flank, bewildered by the utter darkness, turned their own flank
+so often, that tired of falling into rabbit-burrows and filling their
+mouths with sand, they halted and prayed to all the saints for a compass
+and lantern; while the centre body, who held straight on by a trackway
+to within fifty yards of the battery, so miscalculated that short
+distance, that while they thought the ditch two pikes' length off, they
+fell into it one over the other, and of six scaling ladders, the only
+one which could be found was the very one which Amyas threw down again.
+After which the clouds broke, the wind shifted, and the moon shone out
+merrily. And so was the deep policy of Hercules of Pisa, on which hung
+the fate of Ireland and the Papacy, decided by a ten minutes' squall.
+
+But where is Amyas?
+
+In the ditch, aware that the enemy is tumbling into it, but unable to
+find them; while the company above, finding it much too dark to attempt
+a counter sortie, have opened a smart fire of musketry and arrows on
+things in general, whereat the Spaniards are swearing like Spaniards (I
+need say no more), and the Italians spitting like venomous cats; while
+Amyas, not wishing to be riddled by friendly balls, has got his back
+against the foot of the rampart, and waits on Providence.
+
+Suddenly the moon clears; and with one more fierce volley, the English
+sailors, seeing the confusion, leap down from the embrasures, and to it
+pell-mell. Whether this also was “according to Cocker,” I know not: but
+the sailor, then as now, is not susceptible of highly-finished drill.
+
+Amyas is now in his element, and so are the brave fellows at his heels;
+and there are ten breathless, furious minutes among the sand-hills; and
+then the trumpets blow a recall, and the sailors drop back again by twos
+and threes, and are helped up into the embrasures over many a dead and
+dying foe; while the guns of Fort del Oro open on them, and blaze away
+for half an hour without reply; and then all is still once more. And in
+the meanwhile, the sortie against the deputy's camp has fared no better,
+and the victory of the night remains with the English.
+
+Twenty minutes after, Winter and the captains who were on shore were
+drying themselves round a peat-fire on the beach, and talking over the
+skirmish, when Will Cary asked--
+
+“Where is Leigh? who has seen him? I am sadly afraid he has gone too
+far, and been slain.”
+
+“Slain? Never less, gentlemen!” replied the voice of the very person in
+question, as he stalked out of the darkness into the glare of the fire,
+and shot down from his shoulders into the midst of the ring, as he might
+a sack of corn, a huge dark body, which was gradually seen to be a man
+in rich armor; who being so shot down, lay quietly where he was dropped,
+with his feet (luckily for him mailed) in the fire.
+
+“I say,” quoth Amyas, “some of you had better take him up, if he is to
+be of any use. Unlace his helm, Will Cary.”
+
+“Pull his feet out of the embers; I dare say he would have been glad
+enough to put us to the scarpines; but that's no reason we should put
+him to them.”
+
+As has been hinted, there was no love lost between Admiral Winter
+and Amyas; and Amyas might certainly have reported himself in a more
+ceremonious manner. So Winter, whom Amyas either had not seen, or had
+not chosen to see, asked him pretty sharply, “What the plague he had to
+do with bringing dead men into camp?”
+
+“If he's dead, it's not my fault. He was alive enough when I started
+with him, and I kept him right end uppermost all the way; and what would
+you have more, sir?”
+
+“Mr. Leigh!” said Winter, “it behoves you to speak with somewhat
+more courtesy, if not respect, to captains who are your elders and
+commanders.”
+
+“Ask your pardon, sir,” said the giant, as he stood in front of the fire
+with the rain steaming and smoking off his armor; “but I was bred in
+a school where getting good service done was more esteemed than making
+fine speeches.”
+
+“Whatsoever school you were trained in, sir,” said Winter, nettled at
+the hint about Drake; “it does not seem to have been one in which you
+learned to obey orders. Why did you not come in when the recall was
+sounded?”
+
+“Because,” said Amyas, very coolly, “in the first place I did not hear
+it; and in the next, in my school I was taught when I had once started
+not to come home empty-handed.”
+
+This was too pointed; and Winter sprang up with an oath--“Do you mean to
+insult me, sir?”
+
+“I am sorry, sir, that you should take a compliment to Sir Francis Drake
+as an insult to yourself. I brought in this gentleman because I thought
+he might give you good information; if he dies meanwhile, the loss will
+be yours, or rather the queen's.”
+
+“Help me, then,” said Cary, glad to create a diversion in Amyas's favor,
+“and we will bring him round;” while Raleigh rose, and catching Winter's
+arm, drew him aside, and began talking earnestly.
+
+“What a murrain have you, Leigh, to quarrel with Winter?” asked two or
+three.
+
+“I say, my reverend fathers and dear children, do get the Don's talking
+tackle free again, and leave me and the admiral to settle it our own
+way.”
+
+There was more than one captain sitting in the ring, but discipline, and
+the degrees of rank, were not so severely defined as now; and Amyas, as
+a “gentleman adventurer,” was, on land, in a position very difficult
+to be settled, though at sea he was as liable to be hanged as any other
+person on board; and on the whole it was found expedient to patch the
+matter up. So Captain Raleigh returning, said that though Admiral Winter
+had doubtless taken umbrage at certain words of Mr. Leigh's, yet that
+he had no doubt that Mr. Leigh meant nothing thereby but what was
+consistent with the profession of a soldier and a gentleman, and worthy
+both of himself and of the admiral.
+
+From which proposition Amyas found it impossible to dissent; whereon
+Raleigh went back, and informed Winter that Leigh had freely retracted
+his words, and fully wiped off any imputation which Mr. Winter might
+conceive to have been put upon him, and so forth. So Winter returned,
+and Amyas said frankly enough--
+
+“Admiral Winter, I hope, as a loyal soldier, that you will understand
+thus far; that naught which has passed to-night shall in any way prevent
+you finding me a forward and obedient servant to all your commands, be
+they what they may, and a supporter of your authority among the men,
+and honor against the foe, even with my life. For I should be ashamed if
+private differences should ever prejudice by a grain the public weal.”
+
+This was a great effort of oratory for Amyas; and he therefore, in order
+to be safe by following precedent, tried to talk as much as he could
+like Sir Richard Grenville. Of course Winter could answer nothing to it,
+in spite of the plain hint of private differences, but that he should
+not fail to show himself a captain worthy of so valiant and trusty
+a gentleman; whereon the whole party turned their attention to the
+captive, who, thanks to Will Cary, was by this time sitting up, standing
+much in need of a handkerchief, and looking about him, having been
+unhelmed, in a confused and doleful manner.
+
+“Take the gentleman to my tent,” said Winter, “and let the surgeon see
+to him. Mr. Leigh, who is he?--”
+
+“An enemy, but whether Spaniard or Italian I know not; but he seemed
+somebody among them, I thought the captain of a company. He and I cut at
+each other twice or thrice at first, and then lost each other; and after
+that I came on him among the sand-hills, trying to rally his men, and
+swearing like the mouth of the pit, whereby I guess him a Spaniard. But
+his men ran; so I brought him in.”
+
+“And how?” asked Raleigh. “Thou art giving us all the play but the
+murders and the marriages.”
+
+“Why, I bid him yield, and he would not. Then I bid him run, and he
+would not. And it was too pitch-dark for fighting; so I took him by the
+ears, and shook the wind out of him, and so brought him in.”
+
+“Shook the wind out of him?” cried Cary, amid the roar of laughter which
+followed. “Dost know thou hast nearly wrung his neck in two? His vizor
+was full of blood.”
+
+“He should have run or yielded, then,” said Amyas; and getting up,
+slipped off to find some ale, and then to sleep comfortably in a dry
+burrow which he scratched out of a sandbank.
+
+The next morning, as Amyas was discussing a scanty breakfast of biscuit
+(for provisions were running very short in camp), Raleigh came up to
+him.
+
+“What, eating? That's more than I have done to-day.”
+
+“Sit down, and share, then.”
+
+“Nay, lad, I did not come a-begging. I have set some of my rogues to dig
+rabbits; but as I live, young Colbrand, you may thank your stars that
+you are alive to-day to eat. Poor young Cheek--Sir John Cheek, the
+grammarian's son--got his quittance last night by a Spanish pike,
+rushing headlong on, just as you did. But have you seen your prisoner?”
+
+“No; nor shall, while he is in Winter's tent.”
+
+“Why not, then? What quarrel have you against the admiral, friend
+Bobadil? Cannot you let Francis Drake fight his own battles, without
+thrusting your head in between them?”
+
+“Well, that is good! As if the quarrel was not just as much mine, and
+every man's in the ship. Why, when he left Drake, he left us all, did he
+not?”
+
+“And what if he did? Let bygones be bygones is the rule of a Christian,
+and of a wise man too, Amyas. Here the man is, at least, safe home,
+in favor and in power; and a prudent youth will just hold his tongue,
+mumchance, and swim with the stream.”
+
+“But that's just what makes me mad; to see this fellow, after deserting
+us there in unknown seas, win credit and rank at home here for being the
+first man who ever sailed back through the Straits. What had he to do
+with sailing back at all! As well make the fox a knight for being the
+first that ever jumped down a jakes to escape the hounds. The fiercer
+the flight the fouler the fear, say I.”
+
+“Amyas! Amyas! thou art a hard hitter, but a soft politician.”
+
+“I am no politician, Captain Raleigh, nor ever wish to be. An honest
+man's my friend, and a rogue's my foe; and I'll tell both as much, as
+long as I breathe.”
+
+“And die a poor saint,” said Raleigh, laughing. “But if Winter invites
+you to his tent himself, you won't refuse to come?”
+
+“Why, no, considering his years and rank; but he knows too well to do
+that.”
+
+“He knows too well not to do it,” said Raleigh, laughing as he walked
+away. And verily in half-an-hour came an invitation, extracted of
+course, from the admiral by Raleigh's silver tongue, which Amyas could
+not but obey.
+
+“We all owe you thanks for last night's service, sir,” said Winter, who
+had for some good reasons changed his tone. “Your prisoner is found to
+be a gentleman of birth and experience, and the leader of the assault
+last night. He has already told us more than we had hoped, for which
+also we are beholden to you; and, indeed, my Lord Grey has been asking
+for you already.”
+
+“I have, young sir,” said a quiet and lofty voice; and Amyas saw limping
+from the inner tent the proud and stately figure of the stern deputy,
+Lord Grey of Wilton, a brave and wise man, but with a naturally harsh
+temper, which had been soured still more by the wound which had crippled
+him, while yet a boy, at the battle of Leith. He owed that limp to Mary
+Queen of Scots; and he did not forget the debt.
+
+“I have been asking for you; having heard from many, both of your last
+night's prowess, and of your conduct and courage beyond the promise of
+your years, displayed in that ever-memorable voyage, which may well be
+ranked with the deeds of the ancient Argonauts.”
+
+Amyas bowed low; and the lord deputy went on, “You will needs wish
+to see your prisoner. You will find him such a one as you need not be
+ashamed to have taken, and as need not be ashamed to have been taken by
+you: but here he is, and will, I doubt not, answer as much for himself.
+Know each other better, gentlemen both: last night was an ill one for
+making acquaintances. Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto, know
+the hidalgo, Amyas Leigh!”
+
+As he spoke, the Spaniard came forward, still in his armor, all save his
+head, which was bound up in a handkerchief.
+
+He was an exceedingly tall and graceful personage, of that sangre azul
+which marked high Visigothic descent; golden-haired and fair-skinned,
+with hands as small and white as a woman's; his lips were delicate but
+thin, and compressed closely at the corners of the mouth; and his pale
+blue eye had a glassy dulness. In spite of his beauty and his carriage,
+Amyas shrank from him instinctively; and yet he could not help
+holding out his hand in return, as the Spaniard, holding out his, said
+languidly, in most sweet and sonorous Spanish--
+
+“I kiss his hands and feet. The senor speaks, I am told, my native
+tongue?”
+
+“I have that honor.”
+
+“Then accept in it (for I can better express myself therein than in
+English, though I am not altogether ignorant of that witty and learned
+language) the expression of my pleasure at having fallen into the
+hands of one so renowned in war and travel; and of one also,” he added,
+glancing at Amyas's giant bulk, “the vastness of whose strength, beyond
+that of common mortality, makes it no more shame for me to have been
+overpowered and carried away by him than if my captor had been a paladin
+of Charlemagne's.”
+
+Honest Amyas bowed and stammered, a little thrown off his balance by the
+unexpected assurance and cool flattery of his prisoner; but he said--
+
+“If you are satisfied, illustrious senor, I am bound to be so. I
+only trust that in my hurry and the darkness I have not hurt you
+unnecessarily.”
+
+The Don laughed a pretty little hollow laugh: “No, kind senor, my head,
+I trust, will after a few days have become united to my shoulders;
+and, for the present, your company will make me forget any slight
+discomfort.”
+
+“Pardon me, senor; but by this daylight I should have seen that armor
+before.”
+
+“I doubt it not, senor, as having been yourself also in the forefront of
+the battle,” said the Spaniard, with a proud smile.
+
+“If I am right, senor, you are he who yesterday held up the standard
+after it was shot down.”
+
+“I do not deny that undeserved honor; and I have to thank the courtesy
+of you and your countrymen for having permitted me to do so with
+impunity.”
+
+“Ah, I heard of that brave feat,” said the lord deputy. “You should
+consider yourself, Mr. Leigh, honored by being enabled to show courtesy
+to such a warrior.”
+
+How long this interchange of solemn compliments, of which Amyas was
+getting somewhat weary, would have gone on, I know not; but at that
+moment Raleigh entered hastily--
+
+“My lord, they have hung out a white flag, and are calling for a
+parley!”
+
+The Spaniard turned pale, and felt for his sword, which was gone; and
+then, with a bitter laugh, murmured to himself--“As I expected.”
+
+“I am very sorry to hear it. Would to Heaven they had simply fought it
+out!” said Lord Grey, half to himself; and then, “Go, Captain Raleigh,
+and answer them that (saving this gentleman's presence) the laws of
+war forbid a parley with any who are leagued with rebels against their
+lawful sovereign.”
+
+“But what if they wish to treat for this gentleman's ransom?”
+
+“For their own, more likely,” said the Spaniard; “but tell them, on my
+part, senor, that Don Guzman refuses to be ransomed; and will return to
+no camp where the commanding officer, unable to infect his captains with
+his own cowardice, dishonors them against their will.”
+
+“You speak sharply, senor,” said Winter, after Raleigh had gone out.
+
+“I have reason, Senor Admiral, as you will find, I fear, erelong.”
+
+“We shall have the honor of leaving you here, for the present, sir, as
+Admiral Winter's guest,” said the lord deputy.
+
+“But not my sword, it seems.”
+
+“Pardon me, senor; but no one has deprived you of your sword,” said
+Winter.
+
+“I don't wish to pain you, sir,” said Amyas, “but I fear that we were
+both careless enough to leave it behind last night.”
+
+A flash passed over the Spaniard's face, which disclosed terrible depths
+of fury and hatred beneath that quiet mask, as the summer lightning
+displays the black abysses of the thunder-storm; but like the summer
+lightning it passed almost unseen; and blandly as ever, he answered:
+
+“I can forgive you for such a neglect, most valiant sir, more easily
+than I can forgive myself. Farewell, sir! One who has lost his sword is
+no fit company for you.” And as Amyas and the rest departed, he plunged
+into the inner tent, stamping and writhing, gnawing his hands with rage
+and shame.
+
+As Amyas came out on the battery, Yeo hailed him:
+
+“Master Amyas! Hillo, sir! For the love of Heaven, tell me!”
+
+“What, then?”
+
+“Is his lordship stanch? Will he do the Lord's work faithfully, root and
+branch: or will he spare the Amalekites?”
+
+“The latter, I think, old hip-and-thigh,” said Amyas, hurrying forward
+to hear the news from Raleigh, who appeared in sight once more.
+
+“They ask to depart with bag and baggage,” said he, when he came up.
+
+“God do so to me, and more also, if they carry away a straw!” said Lord
+Grey. “Make short work of it, sir!”
+
+“I do not know how that will be, my lord; as I came up a captain shouted
+to me off the walls that there were mutineers; and, denying that he
+surrendered, would have pulled down the flag of truce, but the soldiers
+beat him off.”
+
+“A house divided against itself will not stand long, gentlemen. Tell
+them that I give no conditions. Let them lay down their arms, and trust
+in the Bishop of Rome who sent them hither, and may come to save them
+if he wants them. Gunners, if you see the white flag go down, open your
+fire instantly. Captain Raleigh, we need your counsel here. Mr. Cary,
+will you be my herald this time?”
+
+“A better Protestant never went on a pleasanter errand, my lord.”
+
+So Cary went, and then ensued an argument, as to what should be done
+with the prisoners in case of a surrender.
+
+I cannot tell whether my Lord Grey meant, by offering conditions which
+the Spaniards would not accept, to force them into fighting the quarrel
+out, and so save himself the responsibility of deciding on their
+fate; or whether his mere natural stubbornness, as well as his just
+indignation, drove him on too far to retract: but the council of war
+which followed was both a sad and a stormy one, and one which he had
+reason to regret to his dying day. What was to be done with the enemy?
+They already outnumbered the English; and some fifteen hundred of
+Desmond's wild Irish hovered in the forests round, ready to side with
+the winning party, or even to attack the English at the least sign of
+vacillation or fear. They could not carry the Spaniards away with them,
+for they had neither shipping nor food, not even handcuffs enough for
+them; and as Mackworth told Winter when he proposed it, the only plan
+was for him to make San Josepho a present of his ships, and swim home
+himself as he could. To turn loose in Ireland, as Captain Touch urged,
+on the other hand, seven hundred such monsters of lawlessness, cruelty,
+and lust, as Spanish and Italian condottieri were in those days, was
+as fatal to their own safety as cruel to the wretched Irish. All the
+captains, without exception, followed on the same side. “What was to be
+done, then?” asked Lord Grey, impatiently. “Would they have him murder
+them all in cold blood?”
+
+And for a while every man, knowing that it must come to that, and yet
+not daring to say it; till Sir Warham St. Leger, the marshal of Munster,
+spoke out stoutly: “Foreigners had been scoffing them too long and too
+truly with waging these Irish wars as if they meant to keep them alive,
+rather than end them. Mercy and faith to every Irishman who would show
+mercy and faith, was his motto; but to invaders, no mercy. Ireland was
+England's vulnerable point; it might be some day her ruin; a terrible
+example must be made of those who dare to touch the sore. Rather pardon
+the Spaniards for landing in the Thames than in Ireland!”--till Lord
+Grey became much excited, and turning as a last hope to Raleigh, asked
+his opinion: but Raleigh's silver tongue was that day not on the side
+of indulgence. He skilfully recapitulated the arguments of his
+fellow-captains, improving them as he went on, till each worthy soldier
+was surprised to find himself so much wiser a man than he had thought;
+and finished by one of his rapid and passionate perorations upon his
+favorite theme--the West Indian cruelties of the Spaniards, “. . .
+by which great tracts and fair countries are now utterly stripped of
+inhabitants by heavy bondage and torments unspeakable. Oh, witless
+Islanders!” said he, apostrophizing the Irish, “would to Heaven that you
+were here to listen to me! What other fate awaits you, if this viper,
+which you are so ready to take into your bosom, should be warmed to
+life, but to groan like the Indians, slaves to the Spaniard; but to
+perish like the Indians, by heavy burdens, cruel chains, plunder and
+ravishment; scourged, racked, roasted, stabbed, sawn in sunder, cast to
+feed the dogs, as simple and more righteous peoples have perished ere
+now by millions? And what else, I say, had been the fate of Ireland
+had this invasion prospered, which God has now, by our weak hands,
+confounded and brought to naught? Shall we then answer it, my lord,
+either to our conscience, our God, or our queen, if we shall set loose
+men (not one of whom, I warrant, but is stained with murder on murder)
+to go and fill up the cup of their iniquity among these silly sheep?
+Have not their native wolves, their barbarous chieftains, shorn, peeled,
+and slaughtered them enough already, but we must add this pack of
+foreign wolves to the number of their tormentors, and fit the Desmond
+with a body-guard of seven, yea, seven hundred devils worse than
+himself? Nay, rather let us do violence to our own human nature, and
+show ourselves in appearance rigorous, that we may be kind indeed; lest
+while we presume to be over-merciful to the guilty, we prove ourselves
+to be over-cruel to the innocent.”
+
+“Captain Raleigh, Captain Raleigh,” said Lord Grey, “the blood of these
+men be on your head!”
+
+“It ill befits your lordship,” answered Raleigh, “to throw on your
+subordinates the blame of that which your reason approves as necessary.”
+
+“I should have thought, sir, that one so noted for ambition as Captain
+Raleigh would have been more careful of the favor of that queen for
+whose smiles he is said to be so longing a competitor. If you have not
+yet been of her counsels, sir, I can tell you you are not likely to be.
+She will be furious when she hears of this cruelty.”
+
+Lord Grey had lost his temper: but Raleigh kept his, and answered
+quietly--
+
+“Her majesty shall at least not find me among the number of those who
+prefer her favor to her safety, and abuse to their own profit that
+over-tenderness and mercifulness of heart which is the only blemish
+(and yet, rather like a mole on a fair cheek, but a new beauty) in her
+manifold perfections.”
+
+At this juncture Cary returned.
+
+“My lord,” said he, in some confusion, “I have proposed your terms; but
+the captains still entreat for some mitigation; and, to tell you truth,
+one of them has insisted on accompanying me hither to plead his cause
+himself.”
+
+“I will not see him, sir. Who is he?”
+
+“His name is Sebastian of Modena, my lord.”
+
+“Sebastian of Modena? What think you, gentlemen? May we make an
+exception in favor of so famous a soldier?”
+
+“So villainous a cut-throat,” said Zouch to Raleigh, under his breath.
+
+All, however, were for speaking with so famous a man; and in came, in
+full armor, a short, bull-necked Italian, evidently of immense strength,
+of the true Caesar Borgia stamp.
+
+“Will you please to be seated, sir?” said Lord Grey, coldly.
+
+“I kiss your hands, most illustrious: but I do not sit in an enemy's
+camp. Ha, my friend Zouch! How has your signoria fared since we fought
+side by side at Lepanto? So you too are here, sitting in council on the
+hanging of me.”
+
+“What is your errand, sir? Time is short,” said the lord deputy.
+
+“Corpo di Bacco! It has been long enough all the morning, for my
+rascals have kept me and my friend the Colonel Hercules (whom you know,
+doubtless) prisoners in our tents at the pike's point. My lord deputy,
+I have but a few words. I shall thank you to take every soldier in the
+fort--Italian, Spaniard, and Irish--and hang them up as high as Haman,
+for a set of mutinous cowards, with the arch-traitor San Josepho at
+their head.”
+
+“I am obliged to you for your offer, sir, and shall deliberate presently
+as to whether I shall not accept it.”
+
+“But as for us captains, really your excellency must consider that we
+are gentlemen born, and give us either buena querra, as the Spaniards
+say, or a fair chance for life; and so to my business.”
+
+“Stay, sir. Answer this first. Have you or yours any commission to show
+either from the King of Spain or any other potentate?”
+
+“Never a one but the cause of Heaven and our own swords. And with them,
+my lord, we are ready to meet any gentlemen of your camp, man to man,
+with our swords only, half-way between your leaguer and ours; and I
+doubt not that your lordship will see fair play. Will any gentleman
+accept so civil an offer? There sits a tall youth in that corner
+who would suit me very well. Will any fit my gallant comrades with
+half-an-hour's punto and stoccado?”
+
+There was a silence, all looking at the lord deputy, whose eyes were
+kindling in a very ugly way.
+
+“No answer? Then I must proceed to exhortation. So! Will that be
+sufficient?”
+
+And walking composedly across the tent, the fearless ruffian quietly
+stooped down, and smote Amyas Leigh full in the face.
+
+Up sprang Amyas, heedless of all the august assembly, and with a single
+buffet felled him to the earth.
+
+“Excellent!” said he, rising unabashed. “I can always trust my instinct.
+I knew the moment I saw him that he was a cavalier worth letting blood.
+Now, sir, your sword and harness, and I am at your service outside!”
+
+The solemn and sententious Englishmen were altogether taken aback by the
+Italian's impudence; but Zouch settled the matter.
+
+“Most noble captain, will you be pleased to recollect a certain little
+occurrence at Messina, in the year 1575? For if you do not, I do; and
+beg to inform this gentleman that you are unworthy of his sword, and
+had you, unluckily for you, been an Englishman, would have found the
+fashions of our country so different from your own that you would have
+been then hanged, sir, and probably may be so still.”
+
+The Italian's sword flashed out in a moment: but Lord Grey interfered.
+
+“No fighting here, gentlemen. That may wait; and, what is more, shall
+wait till--Strike their swords down, Raleigh, Mackworth! Strike their
+swords down! Colonel Sebastian, you will be pleased to return as you
+came, in safety, having lost nothing, as (I frankly tell you) you
+have gained nothing, by your wild bearing here. We shall proceed to
+deliberate on your fate.”
+
+“I trust, my lord,” said Amyas, “that you will spare this braggart's
+life, at least for a day or two. For in spite of Captain Zouch's
+warning, I must have to do with him yet, or my cheek will rise up in
+judgment against me at the last day.”
+
+“Well spoken, lad,” said the colonel, as he swung out. “So! worth a
+reprieve, by this sword, to have one more rapier-rattle before the
+gallows! Then I take back no further answer, my lord deputy? Not even
+our swords, our virgin blades, signor, the soldier's cherished bride?
+Shall we go forth weeping widowers, and leave to strange embrace the
+lovely steel?”
+
+“None, sir, by heaven!” said he, waxing wroth. “Do you come hither,
+pirates as you are, to dictate terms upon a foreign soil? Is it not
+enough to have set up here the Spanish flag, and claimed the land
+of Ireland as the Pope's gift to the Spaniard; violated the laws of
+nations, and the solemn treaties of princes, under color of a mad
+superstition?”
+
+“Superstition, my lord? Nothing less. Believe a philosopher who has not
+said a pater or an ave for seven years past at least. Quod tango
+credo, is my motto; and though I am bound to say, under pain of the
+Inquisition, that the most holy Father the Pope has given this land of
+Ireland to his most Catholic Majesty the King of Spain, Queen Elizabeth
+having forfeited her title to it by heresy,--why, my lord, I believe it
+as little as you do. I believe that Ireland would have been mine, if I
+had won it; I believe religiously that it is not mine, now I have lost
+it. What is, is, and a fig for priests; to-day to thee, to-morrow to me.
+Addio!” And out he swung.
+
+“There goes a most gallant rascal,” said the lord deputy.
+
+“And a most rascally gallant,” said Zouch. “The murder of his own page,
+of which I gave him a remembrancer, is among the least of his sins.”
+
+“And now, Captain Raleigh,” said Lord Grey, “as you have been so earnest
+in preaching this butchery, I have a right to ask none but you to
+practise it.”
+
+Raleigh bit his lip, and replied by the “quip courteous--”
+
+“I am at least a man, my lord, who thinks it shame to allow others to do
+that which I dare not do myself.”
+
+Lord Grey might probably have returned “the countercheck quarrelsome,”
+ had not Mackworth risen--
+
+“And I, my lord, being in that matter at least one of Captain Raleigh's
+kidney, will just go with him to see that he takes no harm by being bold
+enough to carry out an ugly business, and serving these rascals as their
+countrymen served Mr. Oxenham.”
+
+“I bid you good morning, then, gentlemen, though I cannot bid you God
+speed,” said Lord Grey; and sitting down again, covered his face with
+his hands, and, to the astonishment of all bystanders, burst, say the
+chroniclers, into tears.
+
+Amyas followed Raleigh out. The latter was pale, but determined, and
+very wroth against the deputy.
+
+“Does the man take me for a hangman,” said he, “that he speaks to me
+thus? But such is the way of the great. If you neglect your duty,
+they haul you over the coals; if you do it, you must do it on your
+own responsibility. Farewell, Amyas; you will not shrink from me as a
+butcher when I return?”
+
+“God forbid! But how will you do it?”
+
+“March one company in, and drive them forth, and let the other cut them
+down as they come out.--Pah!”
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+It was done. Right or wrong, it was done. The shrieks and curses had
+died away, and the Fort del Oro was a red shambles, which the soldiers
+were trying to cover from the sight of heaven and earth, by dragging the
+bodies into the ditch, and covering them with the ruins of the rampart;
+while the Irish, who had beheld from the woods that awful warning, fled
+trembling into the deepest recesses of the forest. It was done; and
+it never needed to be done again. The hint was severe, but it was
+sufficient. Many years passed before a Spaniard set foot again in
+Ireland.
+
+The Spanish and Italian officers were spared, and Amyas had Don Guzman
+Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto duly adjudged to him, as his prize
+by right of war. He was, of course, ready enough to fight Sebastian
+of Modena: but Lord Grey forbade the duel: blood enough had been shed
+already. The next question was, where to bestow Don Guzman till his
+ransom should arrive; and as Amyas could not well deliver the gallant
+Don into the safe custody of Mrs. Leigh at Burrough, and still less into
+that of Frank at Court, he was fain to write to Sir Richard Grenville,
+and ask his advice, and in the meanwhile keep the Spaniard with him upon
+parole, which he frankly gave,--saying that as for running away, he had
+nowhere to run to; and as for joining the Irish he had no mind to turn
+pig; and Amyas found him, as shall be hereafter told, pleasant company
+enough. But one morning Raleigh entered--
+
+“I have done you a good turn, Leigh, if you think it one. I have talked
+St. Leger into making you my lieutenant, and giving you the custody of
+a right pleasant hermitage--some castle Shackatory or other in the midst
+of a big bog, where time will run swift and smooth with you, between
+hunting wild Irish, snaring snipes, and drinking yourself drunk with
+usquebaugh over a turf fire.”
+
+“I'll go,” quoth Amyas; “anything for work.” So he went and took
+possession of his lieutenancy and his black robber tower, and there
+passed the rest of the winter, fighting or hunting all day, and chatting
+and reading all the evening, with Senor Don Guzman, who, like a good
+soldier of fortune, made himself thoroughly at home, and a general
+favorite with the soldiers.
+
+At first, indeed, his Spanish pride and stateliness, and Amyas's English
+taciturnity, kept the two apart somewhat; but they soon began, if not
+to trust, at least to like each other; and Don Guzman told Amyas, bit by
+bit, who he was, of what an ancient house, and of what a poor one; and
+laughed over the very small chance of his ransom being raised, and
+the certainty that, at least, it could not come for a couple of years,
+seeing that the only De Soto who had a penny to spare was a fat old dean
+at St. Yago de Leon, in the Caracas, at which place Don Guzman had been
+born. This of course led to much talk about the West Indies, and the
+Don was as much interested to find that Amyas had been one of Drake's
+world-famous crew, as Amyas was to find that his captive was the
+grandson of none other than that most terrible of man-hunters, Don
+Ferdinando de Soto, the conqueror of Florida, of whom Amyas had read
+many a time in Las Casas, “as the captain of tyrants, the notoriousest
+and most experimented amongst them that have done the most hurts,
+mischiefs, and destructions in many realms.” And often enough his blood
+boiled, and he had much ado to recollect that the speaker was his guest,
+as Don Guzman chatted away about his grandfather's hunts of innocent
+women and children, murders of caciques and burnings alive of guides,
+“pour encourager les autres,” without, seemingly, the least feeling that
+the victims were human beings or subjects for human pity; anything, in
+short, but heathen dogs, enemies of God, servants of the devil, to be
+used by the Christian when he needed, and when not needed killed down
+as cumberers of the ground. But Don Guzman was a most finished gentleman
+nevertheless; and told many a good story of the Indies, and told it
+well; and over and above his stories, he had among his baggage two
+books,--the one Antonio Galvano's “Discoveries of the World,” a mine
+of winter evening amusement to Amyas; and the other, a manuscript book,
+which, perhaps, it had been well for Amyas had he never seen. For it was
+none other than a sort of rough journal which Don Guzman had kept as a
+lad, when he went down with the Adelantado Gonzales Ximenes de Casada,
+from Peru to the River of Amazons, to look for the golden country of El
+Dorado, and the city of Manoa, which stands in the midst of the White
+Lake, and equals or surpasses in glory even the palace of the Inca
+Huaynacapac; “all the vessels of whose house and kitchen are of gold
+and silver, and in his wardrobe statues of gold which seemed giants, and
+figures in proportion and bigness of all the beasts, birds, trees, and
+herbs of the earth, and the fishes of the water; and ropes, budgets,
+chests, and troughs of gold: yea, and a garden of pleasure in an Island
+near Puna, where they went to recreate themselves when they would take
+the air of the sea, which had all kind of garden herbs, flowers, and
+trees of gold and silver of an invention and magnificence till then
+never seen.”
+
+Now the greater part of this treasure (and be it remembered that these
+wonders were hardly exaggerated, and that there were many men alive then
+who had beheld them, as they had worse things, “with their corporal and
+mortal eyes”) was hidden by the Indians when Pizarro conquered Peru and
+slew Atahuallpa, son of Huaynacapac; at whose death, it was said, one
+of the Inca's younger brothers fled out of Peru, and taking with him
+a great army, vanquished all that tract which lieth between the great
+Rivers of Amazons and Baraquan, otherwise called Maranon and Orenoque.
+
+There he sits to this day, beside the golden lake, in the golden city,
+which is in breadth a three days' journey, covered, he and his court,
+with gold dust from head to foot, waiting for the fulfilment of the
+ancient prophecy which was written in the temple of Caxamarca, where his
+ancestors worshipped of old; that heroes shall come out of the West, and
+lead him back across the forests to the kingdom of Peru, and restore him
+to the glory of his forefathers.
+
+Golden phantom! so possible, so probable, to imaginations which were yet
+reeling before the actual and veritable prodigies of Peru, Mexico, and
+the East Indies. Golden phantom! which has cost already the lives
+of thousands, and shall yet cost more; from Diego de Ordas, and Juan
+Corteso, and many another, who went forth on the quest by the Andes, and
+by the Orinoco, and by the Amazons; Antonio Sedenno, with his ghastly
+caravan of manacled Indians, “on whose dead carcasses the tigers being
+fleshed, assaulted the Spaniards;” Augustine Delgado, who “came to a
+cacique, who entertained him with all kindness, and gave him beside much
+gold and slaves, three nymphs very beautiful, which bare the names
+of three provinces, Guanba, Gotoguane, and Maiarare. To requite which
+manifold courtesies, he carried off, not only all the gold, but all the
+Indians he could seize, and took them in irons to Cubagua, and sold them
+for slaves; after which, Delgado was shot in the eye by an Indian, of
+which hurt he died;” Pedro d'Orsua, who found the cinnamon forests of
+Loxas, “whom his men murdered, and afterwards beheaded Lady Anes his
+wife, who forsook not her lord in all his travels unto death,” and many
+another, who has vanished with valiant comrades at his back into the
+green gulfs of the primaeval forests, never to emerge again. Golden
+phantom! man-devouring, whose maw is never satiate with souls of heroes;
+fatal to Spain, more fatal still to England upon that shameful day, when
+the last of Elizabeth's heroes shall lay down his head upon the block,
+nominally for having believed what all around him believed likewise
+till they found it expedient to deny it in order to curry favor with the
+crowned cur who betrayed him, really because he alone dared to make one
+last protest in behalf of liberty and Protestantism against the incoming
+night of tyranny and superstition. Little thought Amyas, as he devoured
+the pages of that manuscript, that he was laying a snare for the life of
+the man whom, next to Drake and Grenville, he most admired on earth.
+
+But Don Guzman, on the other hand, seemed to have an instinct that that
+book might be a fatal gift to his captor; for one day ere Amyas had
+looked into it, he began questioning the Don about El Dorado. Whereon
+Don Guzman replied with one of those smiles of his, which (as Amyas said
+afterwards) was so abominably like a sneer, that he had often hard work
+to keep his hands off the man--
+
+“Ah! You have been eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, senor?
+Well; if you have any ambition to follow many another brave captain
+to the pit, I know no shorter or easier path than is contained in that
+little book.”
+
+“I have never opened your book,” said Amyas; “your private manuscripts
+are no concern of mine: but my man who recovered your baggage read
+part of it, knowing no better; and now you are at liberty to tell me as
+little as you like.”
+
+The “man,” it should be said, was none other than Salvation Yeo, who
+had attached himself by this time inseparably to Amyas, in quality of
+body-guard: and, as was common enough in those days, had turned soldier
+for the nonce, and taken under his patronage two or three rusty bases
+(swivels) and falconets (four-pounders), which grinned harmlessly enough
+from the tower top across the cheerful expanse of bog.
+
+Amyas once asked him, how he reconciled this Irish sojourn with his vow
+to find his little maid? Yeo shook his head.
+
+“I can't tell, sir, but there's something that makes me always to think
+of you when I think of her; and that's often enough, the Lord knows.
+Whether it is that I ben't to find the dear without your help; or
+whether it is your pleasant face puts me in mind of hers; or what, I
+can't tell; but don't you part me from you, sir, for I'm like Ruth,
+and where you lodge I lodge; and where you go I go; and where you
+die--though I shall die many a year first--there I'll die, I hope and
+trust; for I can't abear you out of my sight; and that's the truth
+thereof.”
+
+So Yeo remained with Amyas, while Cary went elsewhere with Sir Warham
+St. Leger, and the two friends met seldom for many months; so that
+Amyas's only companion was Don Guzman, who, as he grew more familiar,
+and more careless about what he said and did in his captor's presence,
+often puzzled and scandalized him by his waywardness. Fits of deep
+melancholy alternated with bursts of Spanish boastfulness, utterly
+astonishing to the modest and sober-minded Englishman, who would often
+have fancied him inspired by usquebaugh, had he not had ocular proof of
+his extreme abstemiousness.
+
+“Miserable?” said he, one night in one of these fits. “And have I not
+a right to be miserable? Why should I not curse the virgin and all the
+saints, and die? I have not a friend, not a ducat on earth; not even a
+sword--hell and the furies! It was my all: the only bequest I ever had
+from my father, and I lived by it and earned by it. Two years ago I had
+as pretty a sum of gold as cavalier could wish--and now!”--
+
+“What is become of it, then? I cannot hear that our men plundered you of
+any.”
+
+“Your men? No, senor! What fifty men dared not have done, one woman did!
+a painted, patched, fucused, periwigged, bolstered, Charybdis, cannibal,
+Megaera, Lamia! Why did I ever go near that cursed Naples, the common
+sewer of Europe? whose women, I believe, would be swallowed up by
+Vesuvius to-morrow, if it were not that Belphegor is afraid of their
+making the pit itself too hot to hold him. Well, sir, she had all of
+mine and more; and when all was gone in wine and dice, woodcocks' brains
+and ortolans' tongues, I met the witch walking with another man. I had
+a sword and a dagger; I gave him the first (though the dog fought well
+enough, to give him his due), and her the second; left them lying across
+each other, and fled for my life,--and here I am! after twenty years of
+fighting, from the Levant to the Orellana--for I began ere I had a
+hair on my chin--and this is the end!--No, it is not! I'll have that El
+Dorado yet! the Adelantado made Berreo, when he gave him his daughter,
+swear that he would hunt for it, through life and death.--We'll see
+who finds it first, he or I. He's a bungler; Orsua was a bungler--Pooh!
+Cortes and Pizarro? we'll see whether there are not as good Castilians
+as they left still. I can do it, senor. I know a track, a plan; over the
+Llanos is the road; and I'll be Emperor of Manoa yet--possess the jewels
+of all the Incas; and gold, gold! Pizarro was a beggar to what I will
+be!”
+
+Conceive, sir, he broke forth during another of these peacock fits,
+as Amyas and he were riding along the hill-side; “conceive! with forty
+chosen cavaliers (what need of more?) I present myself before the golden
+king, trembling amid his myriad guards at the new miracle of the mailed
+centaurs of the West; and without dismounting, I approach his throne,
+lift the crucifix which hangs around my neck, and pressing it to my
+lips, present it for the adoration of the idolater, and give him his
+alternative; that which Gayferos and the Cid, my ancestors, offered
+the Soldan and the Moor--baptism or death! He hesitates; perhaps
+smiles scornfully upon my little band; I answer him by deeds, as Don
+Ferdinando, my illustrious grandfather, answered Atahuallpa at Peru, in
+sight of all his court and camp.”
+
+“With your lance-point, as Gayferos did the Soldan?” asked Amyas,
+amused.
+
+“No, sir; persuasion first, for the salvation of a soul is at stake. Not
+with the lance-point, but the spur, sir, thus!”--
+
+And striking his heels into his horse's flanks, he darted off at full
+speed.
+
+“The Spanish traitor!” shouted Yeo. “He's going to escape! Shall we
+shoot, sir? Shall we shoot?”
+
+“For Heaven's sake, no!” said Amyas, looking somewhat blank,
+nevertheless, for he much doubted whether the whole was not a ruse on
+the part of the Spaniard, and he knew how impossible it was for his
+fifteen stone of flesh to give chase to the Spaniard's twelve. But he
+was soon reassured; the Spaniard wheeled round towards him, and began to
+put the rough hackney through all the paces of the manege with a grace
+and skill which won applause from the beholders.
+
+“Thus!” he shouted, waving his hand to Amyas, between his curvets and
+caracoles, “did my illustrious grandfather exhibit to the Paynim emperor
+the prowess of a Castilian cavalier! Thus!--and thus!--and thus, at
+last, he dashed up to his very feet, as I to yours, and bespattering
+that unbaptized visage with his Christian bridle foam, pulled up his
+charger on his haunches, thus!”
+
+And (as was to be expected from a blown Irish garron on a peaty Irish
+hill-side) down went the hapless hackney on his tail, away went his
+heels a yard in front of him, and ere Don Guzman could “avoid his
+selle,” horse and man rolled over into neighboring bog-hole.
+
+“After pride comes a fall,” quoth Yeo with unmoved visage, as he lugged
+him out.
+
+“And what would you do with the emperor at last?” asked Amyas when the
+Don had been scrubbed somewhat clean with a bunch of rushes. “Kill him,
+as your grandfather did Atahuallpa?”
+
+“My grandfather,” answered the Spaniard, indignantly, “was one of those
+who, to their eternal honor, protested to the last against that most
+cruel and unknightly massacre. He could be terrible to the heathen; but
+he kept his plighted word, sir, and taught me to keep mine, as you have
+seen to-day.”
+
+“I have, senor,” said Amyas. “You might have given us the slip easily
+enough just now, and did not. Pardon me, if I have offended you.”
+
+The Spaniard (who, after all, was cross principally with himself and the
+“unlucky mare's son,” as the old romances have it, which had played him
+so scurvy a trick) was all smiles again forthwith; and Amyas, as they
+chatted on, could not help asking him next--
+
+“I wonder why you are so frank about your own intentions to an enemy
+like me, who will surely forestall you if he can.”
+
+“Sir, a Spaniard needs no concealment, and fears no rivalry. He is the
+soldier of the Cross, and in it he conquers, like Constantine of old.
+Not that you English are not very heroes; but you have not, sir, and
+you cannot have, who have forsworn our Lady and the choir of saints, the
+same divine protection, the same celestial mission, which enables the
+Catholic cavalier single-handed to chase a thousand Paynims.”
+
+And Don Guzman crossed himself devoutly, and muttered half-a-dozen Ave
+Marias in succession, while Amyas rode silently by his side, utterly
+puzzled at this strange compound of shrewdness with fanaticism, of
+perfect high-breeding with a boastfulness which in an Englishman would
+have been the sure mark of vulgarity.
+
+At last came a letter from Sir Richard Grenville, complimenting Amyas
+on his success and promotion, bearing a long and courtly message to Don
+Guzman (whom Grenville had known when he was in the Mediterranean, at
+the battle of Lepanto), and offering to receive him as his own guest
+at Bideford, till his ransom should arrive; a proposition which the
+Spaniard (who of course was getting sufficiently tired of the Irish
+bogs) could not but gladly accept; and one of Winter's ships, returning
+to England in the spring of 1581, delivered duly at the quay of Bideford
+the body of Don Guzman Maria Magdalena. Raleigh, after forming for
+that summer one of the triumvirate by which Munster was governed after
+Ormond's departure, at last got his wish and departed for England and
+the Court; and Amyas was left alone with the snipes and yellow mantles
+for two more weary years.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+HOW THE MAYOR OF BIDEFORD BAITED HIS HOOK WITH HIS OWN FLESH
+
+     “And therewith he blent, and cried ha!
+     As though he had been stricken to the harte.”
+
+                              Palamon and Arcite.
+
+So it befell to Chaucer's knight in prison; and so it befell also to Don
+Guzman; and it befell on this wise.
+
+He settled down quietly enough at Bideford on his parole, in better
+quarters than he had occupied for many a day, and took things as they
+came, like a true soldier of fortune; till, after he had been with
+Grenville hardly a month, old Salterne the Mayor came to supper.
+
+Now Don Guzman, however much he might be puzzled at first at our strange
+English ways of asking burghers and such low-bred folk to eat and drink
+above the salt, in the company of noble persons, was quite gentleman
+enough to know that Richard Grenville was gentleman enough to do only
+what was correct, and according to the customs and proprieties. So after
+shrugging the shoulders of his spirit, he submitted to eat and drink at
+the same board with a tradesman who sat at a desk, and made up ledgers,
+and took apprentices; and hearing him talk with Grenville neither
+unwisely nor in a vulgar fashion, actually before the evening was out
+condescended to exchange words with him himself. Whereon he found him
+a very prudent and courteous person, quite aware of the Spaniard's
+superior rank, and making him feel in every sentence that he was aware
+thereof; and yet holding his own opinion, and asserting his own rights
+as a wise elder in a fashion which the Spaniard had only seen before
+among the merchant princes of Genoa and Venice.
+
+At the end of supper, Salterne asked Grenville to do his humble roof the
+honor, etc. etc., of supping with him the next evening, and then turning
+to the Don, said quite frankly, that he knew how great a condescension
+it would be on the part of a nobleman of Spain to sit at the board of
+a simple merchant: but that if the Spaniard deigned to do him such
+a favor, he would find that the cheer was fit enough for any rank,
+whatsoever the company might be; which invitation Don Guzman, being on
+the whole glad enough of anything to amuse him, graciously condescended
+to accept, and gained thereby an excellent supper, and, if he had chosen
+to drink it, much good wine.
+
+Now Mr. Salterne was, of course, as a wise merchant, as ready as any man
+for an adventure to foreign parts, as was afterwards proved by his great
+exertions in the settlement of Virginia; and he was, therefore, equally
+ready to rack the brains of any guest whom he suspected of knowing
+anything concerning strange lands; and so he thought no shame, first to
+try to loose his guest's tongue by much good sack, and next, to ask him
+prudent and well-concocted questions concerning the Spanish Main, Peru,
+the Moluccas, China, the Indies, and all parts.
+
+The first of which schemes failed; for the Spaniard was as abstemious
+as any monk, and drank little but water; the second succeeded not over
+well, for the Spaniard was as cunning as any fox, and answered little
+but wind.
+
+In the midst of which tongue-fence in came the Rose of Torridge, looking
+as beautiful as usual; and hearing what they were upon, added, artlessly
+enough, her questions to her father's: to her Don Guzman could not but
+answer; and without revealing any very important commercial secrets,
+gave his host and his host's daughter a very amusing evening.
+
+Now little Eros, though spirits like Frank Leigh's may choose to call
+him (as, perhaps, he really is to them) the eldest of the gods, and
+the son of Jove and Venus, yet is reported by other equally good
+authorities, as Burton has set forth in his “Anatomy of Melancholy,” to
+be after all only the child of idleness and fulness of bread. To which
+scandalous calumny the thoughts of Don Guzman's heart gave at least a
+certain color; for he being idle (as captives needs must be), and also
+full of bread (for Sir Richard kept a very good table), had already
+looked round for mere amusement's sake after some one with whom to fall
+in love. Lady Grenville, as nearest, was, I blush to say, thought of
+first; but the Spaniard was a man of honor, and Sir Richard his host; so
+he put away from his mind (with a self-denial on which he plumed himself
+much) the pleasure of a chase equally exciting to his pride and his love
+of danger. As for the sinfulness of the said chase, he of course thought
+no more of that than other Southern Europeans did then, or than (I blush
+again to have to say it) the English did afterwards in the days of the
+Stuarts. Nevertheless, he had put Lady Grenville out of his mind; and so
+left room to take Rose Salterne into it, not with any distinct purpose
+of wronging her: but, as I said before, half to amuse himself, and half,
+too, because he could not help it. For there was an innocent freshness
+about the Rose of Torridge, fond as she was of being admired, which was
+new to him and most attractive. “The train of the peacock,” as he
+said to himself, “and yet the heart of the dove,” made so charming a
+combination, that if he could have persuaded her to love no one but him,
+perhaps he might become fool enough to love no one but her. And at that
+thought he was seized with a very panic of prudence, and resolved to
+keep out of her way; and yet the days ran slowly, and Lady Grenville
+when at home was stupid enough to talk and think about nothing but her
+husband; and when she went to Stow, and left the Don alone in one corner
+of the great house at Bideford, what could he do but lounge down to the
+butt-gardens to show off his fine black cloak and fine black feather,
+see the shooting, have a game or two of rackets with the youngsters, a
+game or two of bowls with the elders, and get himself invited home to
+supper by Mr. Salterne?
+
+And there, of course, he had it all his own way, and ruled the roast
+(which he was fond enough of doing) right royally, not only on account
+of his rank, but because he had something to say worth hearing, as a
+travelled man. For those times were the day-dawn of English commerce;
+and not a merchant in Bideford, or in all England, but had his
+imagination all on fire with projects of discoveries, companies,
+privileges, patents, and settlements; with gallant rivalry of the brave
+adventures of Sir Edward Osborne and his new London Company of Turkey
+Merchants; with the privileges just granted by the Sultan Murad Khan
+to the English; with the worthy Levant voyages of Roger Bodenham in
+the great bark Aucher, and of John Fox, and Lawrence Aldersey, and John
+Rule; and with hopes from the vast door for Mediterranean trade, which
+the crushing of the Venetian power at Famagusta in Cyprus, and the
+alliance made between Elizabeth and the Grand Turk, had just thrown
+open. So not a word could fall from the Spaniard about the Mediterranean
+but took root at once in right fertile soil. Besides, Master Edmund
+Hogan had been on a successful embassy to the Emperor of Morocco; John
+Hawkins and George Fenner had been to Guinea (and with the latter Mr.
+Walter Wren, a Bideford man), and had traded there for musk and civet,
+gold and grain; and African news was becoming almost as valuable as West
+Indian. Moreover, but two months before had gone from London Captain
+Hare in the bark Minion, for Brazil, and a company of adventurers with
+him, with Sheffield hardware, and “Devonshire and Northern kersies,”
+ hollands and “Manchester cottons,” for there was a great opening for
+English goods by the help of one John Whithall, who had married a
+Spanish heiress, and had an ingenio and slaves in Santos. (Don't smile,
+reader, or despise the day of small things, and those who sowed the seed
+whereof you reap the mighty harvest.) In the meanwhile, Drake had proved
+not merely the possibility of plundering the American coasts, but
+of establishing an East Indian trade; Frobisher and Davis, worthy
+forefathers of our Parrys and Franklins, had begun to bore their way
+upward through the Northern ice, in search of a passage to China which
+should avoid the dangers of the Spanish seas; and Anthony Jenkinson, not
+the least of English travellers, had, in six-and-twenty years of travel
+in behalf of the Muscovite Company, penetrated into not merely Russia
+and the Levant, but Persia and Armenia, Bokhara, Tartary, Siberia, and
+those waste Arctic shores where, thirty years before, the brave Sir Hugh
+Willoughby,
+
+          “In Arzina caught,
+     Perished with all his crew.”
+
+Everywhere English commerce, under the genial sunshine of Elizabeth's
+wise rule, was spreading and taking root; and as Don Guzman talked
+with his new friends, he soon saw (for he was shrewd enough) that they
+belonged to a race which must be exterminated if Spain intended to
+become (as she did intend) the mistress of the world; and that it was
+not enough for Spain to have seized in the Pope's name the whole new
+world, and claimed the exclusive right to sail the seas of America; not
+enough to have crushed the Hollanders; not enough to have degraded the
+Venetians into her bankers, and the Genoese into her mercenaries; not
+enough to have incorporated into herself, with the kingdom of Portugal,
+the whole East Indian trade of Portugal, while these fierce islanders
+remained to assert, with cunning policy and texts of Scripture, and, if
+they failed, with sharp shot and cold steel, free seas and free trade
+for all the nations upon earth. He saw it, and his countrymen saw it
+too: and therefore the Spanish Armada came: but of that hereafter. And
+Don Guzman knew also, by hard experience, that these same islanders, who
+sat in Salterne's parlor, talking broad Devon through their noses, were
+no mere counters of money and hucksters of goods: but men who, though
+they thoroughly hated fighting, and loved making money instead, could
+fight, upon occasion, after a very dogged and terrible fashion, as well
+as the bluest blood in Spain; and who sent out their merchant ships
+armed up to the teeth, and filled with men who had been trained from
+childhood to use those arms, and had orders to use them without mercy
+if either Spaniard, Portugal, or other created being dared to stop their
+money-making. And one evening he waxed quite mad, when, after having
+civilly enough hinted that if Englishmen came where they had no right to
+come, they might find themselves sent back again, he was answered by a
+volley of--
+
+“We'll see that, sir.”
+
+“Depends on who says 'No right.'”
+
+“You found might right,” said another, “when you claimed the Indian
+seas; we may find right might when we try them.”
+
+“Try them, then, gentlemen, by all means, if it shall so please your
+worships; and find the sacred flag of Spain as invincible as ever was
+the Roman eagle.”
+
+“We have, sir. Did you ever hear of Francis Drake?”
+
+“Or of George Fenner and the Portugals at the Azores, one against
+seven?”
+
+“Or of John Hawkins, at St. Juan d'Ulloa?”
+
+“You are insolent burghers,” said Don Guzman, and rose to go.
+
+“Sir,” said old Salterne, “as you say, we are burghers and plain men,
+and some of us have forgotten ourselves a little, perhaps; we must beg
+you to forgive our want of manners, and to put it down to the strength
+of my wine; for insolent we never meant to be, especially to a noble
+gentleman and a foreigner.”
+
+But the Don would not be pacified; and walked out, calling himself
+an ass and a blinkard for having demeaned himself to such a company,
+forgetting that he had brought it on himself.
+
+Salterne (prompted by the great devil Mammon) came up to him next day,
+and begged pardon again; promising, moreover, that none of those who had
+been so rude should be henceforth asked to meet him, if he would deign
+to honor his house once more. And the Don actually was appeased, and
+went there the very next evening, sneering at himself the whole time for
+going.
+
+“Fool that I am! that girl has bewitched me, I believe. Go I must, and
+eat my share of dirt, for her sake.”
+
+So he went; and, cunningly enough, hinted to old Salterne that he
+had taken such a fancy to him, and felt so bound by his courtesy and
+hospitality, that he might not object to tell him things which he would
+not mention to every one; for that the Spaniards were not jealous of
+single traders, but of any general attempt to deprive them of their
+hard-earned wealth: that, however, in the meanwhile, there were plenty
+of opportunities for one man here and there to enrich himself, etc.
+
+Old Salterne, shrewd as he was, had his weak point, and the Spaniard had
+touched it; and delighted at this opportunity of learning the mysteries
+of the Spanish monopoly, he often actually set Rose on to draw out the
+Don, without a fear (so blind does money make men) lest she might be
+herself drawn in. For, first, he held it as impossible that she would
+think of marrying a Popish Spaniard as of marrying the man in the moon;
+and, next, as impossible that he would think of marrying a burgher's
+daughter as of marrying a negress; and trusted that the religion of the
+one, and the family pride of the other, would keep them as separate as
+beings of two different species. And as for love without marriage, if
+such a possibility ever crossed him, the thought was rendered absurd;
+on Rose's part by her virtue, on which the old roan (and rightly) would
+have staked every farthing he had on earth; and on the Don's part, by a
+certain human fondness for the continuity of the carotid artery and the
+parts adjoining, for which (and that not altogether justly, seeing
+that Don Guzman cared as little for his own life as he did for his
+neighbor's) Mr. Salterne gave him credit. And so it came to pass, that
+for weeks and months the merchant's house was the Don's favorite haunt,
+and he saw the Rose of Torridge daily, and the Rose of Torridge heard
+him.
+
+And as for her, poor child, she had never seen such a man. He had, or
+seemed to have, all the high-bred grace of Frank, and yet he was cast in
+a manlier mould; he had just enough of his nation's proud self-assertion
+to make a woman bow before him as before a superior, and yet tact enough
+to let it very seldom degenerate into that boastfulness of which the
+Spaniards were then so often and so justly accused. He had marvels to
+tell by flood and field as many and more than Amyas; and he told
+them with a grace and an eloquence of which modest, simple, old Amyas
+possessed nothing. Besides, he was on the spot, and the Leighs were not,
+nor indeed were any of her old lovers; and what could she do but amuse
+herself with the only person who came to hand?
+
+So thought, in time, more ladies than she; for the country, the north of
+it at least, was all but bare just then of young gallants, what with the
+Netherland wars and the Irish wars; and the Spaniard became soon welcome
+at every house for many a mile round, and made use of his welcome so
+freely, and received so much unwonted attention from fair young dames,
+that his head might have been a little turned, and Rose Salterne have
+thereby escaped, had not Sir Richard delicately given him to understand
+that in spite of the free and easy manners of English ladies, brothers
+were just as jealous, and ladies' honors at least as inexpugnable, as
+in the land of demureness and duennas. Don Guzman took the hint well
+enough, and kept on good terms with the country gentlemen as with their
+daughters; and to tell the truth, the cunning soldier of fortune found
+his account in being intimate with all the ladies he could, in order to
+prevent old Salterne from fancying that he had any peculiar predilection
+for Mistress Rose.
+
+Nevertheless, Mr. Salterne's parlor being nearest to him, still remained
+his most common haunt; where, while he discoursed for hours about
+
+     “Antres vast and deserts idle,
+     And of the cannibals that each other eat,
+     Of Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
+     Do grow beneath their shoulders,”
+
+to the boundless satisfaction of poor Rose's fancy, he took care to
+season his discourse with scraps of mercantile information, which kept
+the old merchant always expectant and hankering for more, and made it
+worth his while to ask the Spaniard in again and again.
+
+And his stories, certainly, were worth hearing. He seemed to have been
+everywhere, and to have seen everything: born in Peru, and sent home to
+Spain at ten years old; brought up in Italy; a soldier in the Levant; an
+adventurer to the East Indies; again in America, first in the islands,
+and then in Mexico. Then back again to Spain, and thence to Rome, and
+thence to Ireland. Shipwrecked; captive among savages; looking down the
+craters of volcanoes; hanging about all the courts of Europe; fighting
+Turks, Indians, lions, elephants, alligators, and what not? At
+five-and-thirty he had seen enough for three lives, and knew how to make
+the best of what he had seen.
+
+He had shared, as a lad, in the horrors of the memorable siege of
+Famagusta, and had escaped, he hardly knew himself how, from the hands
+of the victorious Turks, and from the certainty (if he escaped being
+flayed alive or impaled, as most of the captive officers were) of ending
+his life as a Janissary at the Sultan's court. He had been at the Battle
+of the Three Kings; had seen Stukely borne down by a hundred lances,
+unconquered even in death; and had held upon his knee the head of the
+dying King of Portugal.
+
+And now, as he said to Rose one evening, what had he left on earth, but
+a heart trampled as hard as the pavement? Whom had he to love? Who loved
+him? He had nothing for which to live but fame: and even that was denied
+to him, a prisoner in a foreign land.
+
+Had he no kindred, then? asked pitying Rose.
+
+“My two sisters are in a convent;--they had neither money nor beauty;
+so they are dead to me. My brother is a Jesuit, so he is dead to me. My
+father fell by the hands of Indians in Mexico; my mother, a penniless
+widow, is companion, duenna--whatsoever they may choose to call
+it--carrying fans and lapdogs for some princess or other there in
+Seville, of no better blood than herself; and I--devil! I have lost even
+my sword--and so fares the house of De Soto.”
+
+Don Guzman, of course, intended to be pitied, and pitied he was
+accordingly. And then he would turn the conversation, and begin telling
+Italian stories, after the Italian fashion, according to his auditory:
+the pathetic ones when Rose was present, the racy ones when she was
+absent; so that Rose had wept over the sorrows of Juliet and Desdemona,
+and over many another moving tale, long before they were ever enacted
+on an English stage, and the ribs of the Bideford worthies had shaken to
+many a jest which Cinthio and Bandello's ghosts must come and make for
+themselves over again if they wish them to be remembered, for I shall
+lend them no shove toward immortality.
+
+And so on, and so on. What need of more words? Before a year was out,
+Rose Salterne was far more in love with Don Guzman than he with her; and
+both suspected each other's mind, though neither hinted at the truth;
+she from fear, and he, to tell the truth, from sheer Spanish pride of
+blood. For he soon began to find out that he must compromise that blood
+by marrying the heretic burgher's daughter, or all his labor would be
+thrown away.
+
+He had seen with much astonishment, and then practised with much
+pleasure, that graceful old English fashion of saluting every lady on
+the cheek at meeting, which (like the old Dutch fashion of asking young
+ladies out to feasts without their mothers) used to give such cause of
+brutal calumny and scandal to the coarse minds of Romish visitors from
+the Continent; and he had seen, too, fuming with jealous rage, more than
+one Bideford burgher, redolent of onions, profane in that way the velvet
+cheek of Rose Salterne.
+
+So, one day, he offered his salute in like wise; but he did it when she
+was alone; for something within (perhaps a guilty conscience) whispered
+that it might be hardly politic to make the proffer in her father's
+presence: however, to his astonishment, he received a prompt though
+quiet rebuff.
+
+“No, sir; you should know that my cheek is not for you.”
+
+“Why,” said he, stifling his anger, “it seems free enough to every
+counter-jumper in the town!”
+
+Was it love, or simple innocence, which made her answer apologetically?
+
+“True, Don Guzman; but they are my equals.”
+
+“And I?”
+
+“You are a nobleman, sir; and should recollect that you are one.”
+
+“Well,” said he, forcing a sneer, “it is a strange taste to prefer the
+shopkeeper!”
+
+“Prefer?” said she, forcing a laugh in her turn; “it is a mere form
+among us. They are nothing to me, I can tell you.”
+
+“And I, then, less than nothing?”
+
+Rose turned very red; but she had nerve to answer--
+
+“And why should you be anything to me? You have condescended too much,
+sir, already to us, in giving us many a--many a pleasant evening. You
+must condescend no further. You wrong yourself, sir, and me too. No,
+sir; not a step nearer!--I will not! A salute between equals means
+nothing: but between you and me--I vow, sir, if you do not leave me this
+moment, I will complain to my father.”
+
+“Do so, madam! I care as little for your father's anger, as you for my
+misery.”
+
+“Cruel!” cried Rose, trembling from head to foot.
+
+“I love you, madam!” cried he, throwing himself at her feet. “I adore
+you! Never mention differences of rank to me more; for I have forgotten
+them; forgotten all but love, all but you, madam! My light, my lodestar,
+my princess, my goddess! You see where my pride is gone; remember I
+plead as a suppliant, a beggar--though one who may be one day a prince,
+a king! ay, and a prince now, a very Lucifer of pride to all except to
+you; to you a wretch who grovels at your feet, and cries, 'Have mercy
+on me, on my loneliness, my homelessness, my friendlessness.' Ah, Rose
+(madam I should have said, forgive the madness of my passion), you know
+not the heart which you break. Cold Northerns, you little dream how a
+Spaniard can love. Love? Worship, rather; as I worship you, madam; as
+I bless the captivity which brought me the sight of you, and the ruin
+which first made me rich. Is it possible, saints and Virgin! do my own
+tears deceive my eyes, or are there tears, too, in those radiant orbs?”
+
+“Go, sir!” cried poor Rose, recovering herself suddenly; “and let me
+never see you more.” And, as a last chance for life, she darted out of
+the room.
+
+“Your slave obeys you, madam, and kisses your hands and feet forever
+and a day,” said the cunning Spaniard, and drawing himself up, walked
+serenely out of the house; while she, poor fool, peeped after him out
+of her window upstairs, and her heart sank within her as she watched his
+jaunty and careless air.
+
+How much of that rhapsody of his was honest, how much premeditated, I
+cannot tell: though she, poor child, began to fancy that it was all a
+set speech, when she found that he had really taken her at her word, and
+set foot no more within her father's house. So she reproached herself
+for the cruelest of women; settled, that if he died, she should be his
+murderess; watched for him to pass at the window, in hopes that he might
+look up, and then hid herself in terror the moment he appeared round
+the corner; and so forth, and so forth:--one love-making is very like
+another, and has been so, I suppose, since that first blessed marriage
+in Paradise, when Adam and Eve made no love at all, but found it
+ready-made for them from heaven; and really it is fiddling while Rome
+is burning, to spend more pages over the sorrows of poor little Rose
+Salterne, while the destinies of Europe are hanging on the marriage
+between Elizabeth and Anjou: and Sir Humphrey Gilbert is stirring heaven
+and earth, and Devonshire, of course, as the most important portion
+of the said earth, to carry out his dormant patent, which will give to
+England in due time (we are not jesting now) Newfoundland, Nova Scotia,
+and Canada, and the Northern States; and to Humphrey Gilbert himself
+something better than a new world, namely another world, and a crown of
+glory therein which never fades away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+HOW EUSTACE LEIGH MET THE POPE'S LEGATE
+
+     “Misguided, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
+     Thou see'st to be too busy is some danger.”
+
+                                        Hamlet.
+
+It is the spring of 1582-3. The gray March skies are curdling hard and
+high above black mountain peaks. The keen March wind is sweeping harsh
+and dry across a dreary sheet of bog, still red and yellow with the
+stains of winter frost. One brown knoll alone breaks the waste, and on
+it a few leafless wind-clipt oaks stretch their moss-grown arms, like
+giant hairy spiders, above a desolate pool which crisps and shivers in
+the biting breeze, while from beside its brink rises a mournful cry, and
+sweeps down, faint and fitful, amid the howling of the wind.
+
+Along the brink of the bog, picking their road among crumbling rocks and
+green spongy springs, a company of English soldiers are pushing fast,
+clad cap-a-pie in helmet and quilted jerkin, with arquebus on shoulder,
+and pikes trailing behind them; stern steadfast men, who, two years
+since, were working the guns at Smerwick fort, and have since then seen
+many a bloody fray, and shall see more before they die. Two captains
+ride before them on shaggy ponies, the taller in armor, stained and
+rusted with many a storm and fray, the other in brilliant inlaid cuirass
+and helmet, gaudy sash and plume, and sword hilt glittering with gold,
+a quaint contrast enough to the meager garron which carries him and his
+finery. Beside them, secured by a cord which a pikeman has fastened to
+his own wrist, trots a bare-legged Irish kerne, whose only clothing is
+his ragged yellow mantle, and the unkempt “glib” of hair, through which
+his eyes peer out, right and left, in mingled fear and sullenness. He is
+the guide of the company, in their hunt after the rebel Baltinglas; and
+woe to him if he play them false.
+
+“A pleasant country, truly, Captain Raleigh,” says the dingy officer to
+the gay one. “I wonder how, having once escaped from it to Whitehall,
+you have the courage to come back and spoil that gay suit with bog-water
+and mud.”
+
+“A very pleasant country, my friend Amyas; what you say in jest, I say
+in earnest.”
+
+“Hillo! Our tastes have changed places. I am sick of it already, as you
+foretold. Would Heaven that I could hear of some adventure Westward-ho!
+and find these big bones swinging in a hammock once more. Pray what has
+made you so suddenly in love with bog and rock, that you come back to
+tramp them with us? I thought you had spied out the nakedness of the
+land long ago.”
+
+“Bog and rock? Nakedness of the land? What is needed here but prudence
+and skill, justice and law? This soil, see, is fat enough, if men were
+here to till it. These rocks--who knows what minerals they may hold? I
+hear of gold and jewels found already in divers parts; and Daniel, my
+brother Humphrey's German assayer, assures me that these rocks are of
+the very same kind as those which yield the silver in Peru. Tut, man!
+if her gracious majesty would but bestow on me some few square miles of
+this same wilderness, in seven years' time I would make it blossom like
+the rose, by God's good help.”
+
+“Humph! I should be more inclined to stay here, then.”
+
+“So you shall, and be my agent, if you will, to get in my mine-rents and
+my corn-rents, and my fishery-rents, eh? Could you keep accounts, old
+knight of the bear's-paw?”
+
+“Well enough for such short reckonings as yours would be, on the profit
+side at least. No, no--I'd sooner carry lime all my days from Cauldy to
+Bideford, than pass another twelve-month in the land of Ire, among
+the children of wrath. There is a curse upon the face of the earth, I
+believe.”
+
+“There is no curse upon it, save the old one of man's sin--'Thorns and
+thistles it shall bring forth to thee.' But if you root up the thorns
+and thistles, Amyas, I know no fiend who can prevent your growing wheat
+instead; and if you till the ground like a man, you plough and barrow
+away nature's curse, and other fables of the schoolmen beside,” added
+he, in that daring fashion which afterwards obtained for him (and never
+did good Christian less deserve it) the imputation of atheism.
+
+“It is sword and bullet, I think, that are needed here, before plough
+and harrow, to clear away some of the curse. Until a few more of these
+Irish lords are gone where the Desmonds are, there is no peace for
+Ireland.”
+
+“Humph! not so far wrong, I fear. And yet--Irish lords? These very
+traitors are better English blood than we who hunt them down. When Yeo
+here slew the Desmond the other day, he no more let out a drop of Irish
+blood, than if he had slain the lord deputy himself.”
+
+“His blood be on his own head,” said Yeo, “He looked as wild a savage as
+the worst of them, more shame to him; and the ancient here had nigh cut
+off his arm before he told us who he was: and then, your worship, having
+a price upon his head, and like to bleed to death too--”
+
+“Enough, enough, good fellow,” said Raleigh. “Thou hast done what was
+given thee to do. Strange, Amyas, is it not? Noble Normans sunk into
+savages--Hibernis ipsis hiberniores! Is there some uncivilizing venom in
+the air?”
+
+“Some venom, at least, which makes English men traitors. But the Irish
+themselves are well enough, if their tyrants would let them be. See now,
+what more faithful liegeman has her majesty than the Inchiquin, who,
+they say, is Prince of Themond, and should be king of all Ireland, if
+every man had his right?”
+
+“Don't talk of rights in the land of wrongs, man. But the Inchiquin
+knows well that the true Irish Esau has no worse enemy than his
+supplanter, the Norman Jacob. And yet, Amyas are even these men worse
+than we might be, if we had been bred up masters over the bodies and
+souls of men, in some remote land where law and order had never come?
+Look at this Desmond, brought up a savage among savages, a Papist among
+Papists, a despot among slaves; a thousand easy maidens deeming it honor
+to serve his pleasure, a thousand wild ruffians deeming it piety to
+fulfil his revenge: and let him that is without sin among us cast the
+first stone.”
+
+“Ay,” went on Raleigh to himself, as the conversation dropped. “What
+hadst thou been, Raleigh, hadst thou been that Desmond whose lands thou
+now desirest? What wilt thou be when thou hast them? Will thy children
+sink downwards, as these noble barons sank? Will the genius of tyranny
+and falsehood find soil within thy heart to grow and ripen fruit? What
+guarantee hast thou for doing better here than those who went before
+thee? And yet, cannot I do justice and love mercy? Can I not establish
+plantations, build and sow, and make the desert valleys laugh with corn?
+Shall I not have my Spenser with me, to fill me with all noble thoughts,
+and raise my soul to his heroic pitch? Is not this true knight-errantry,
+to redeem to peace and use, and to the glory of that glorious queen whom
+God has given to me, a generous soil and a more generous race? Trustful
+and tenderhearted they are--none more; and if they be fickle and
+passionate, will not that very softness of temper, which makes them so
+easily led to evil, make them as easy to be led towards good? Yes--here,
+away from courts, among a people who should bless me as their benefactor
+and deliverer--what golden days might be mine! And yet--is this but
+another angel's mask from that same cunning fiend ambition's stage? And
+will my house be indeed the house of God, the foundations of which are
+loyalty, and its bulwarks righteousness, and not the house of fame,
+whose walls are of the soap-bubble, and its floor a sea of glass mingled
+with fire? I would be good and great--When will the day come when I
+shall be content to be good, and yet not great, like this same simple
+Leigh, toiling on by my side to do his duty, with no more thought for
+the morrow than the birds of God? Greatness? I have tasted that cup
+within the last twelve months; do I not know that it is sweet in the
+mouth, but bitter in the belly? Greatness? And was not Essex great, and
+John of Austria great, and Desmond great, whose race, but three
+short years ago, had stood for ages higher than I shall ever hope to
+climb--castles, and lands, and slaves by thousands, and five hundred
+gentlemen of his name, who had vowed to forswear God before they
+forswore him and well have they kept their vow! And now, dead in a
+turf-hovel, like a coney in a burrow! Leigh, what noise was that?”
+
+“An Irish howl, I fancied: but it came from off the bog; it may be only
+a plover's cry.”
+
+“Something not quite right, sir captain, to my mind,” said the ancient.
+“They have ugly stories here of pucks and banshees, and what not of
+ghosts. There it was again, wailing just like a woman. They say the
+banshee cried all night before Desmond was slain.”
+
+“Perhaps, then, this one may be crying for Baltinglas; for his turn is
+likely to come next--not that I believe in such old wives' tales.”
+
+“Shamus, my man,” said Amyas to the guide, “do you hear that cry in the
+bog?”
+
+The guide put on the most stolid of faces, and answered in broken
+English--
+
+“Shamus hear naught. Perhaps--what you call him?--fishing in ta pool.”
+
+“An otter, he means, and I believe he is right. Stay, no! Did you not
+hear it then, Shamus? It was a woman's voice.”
+
+“Shamus is shick in his ears ever since Christmas.”
+
+“Shamus will go after Desmond if he lies,” said Amyas. “Ancient, we had
+better send a few men to see what it is; there may be a poor soul taken
+by robbers, or perhaps starving to death, as I have seen many a one.”
+
+“And I too, poor wretches; and by no fault of their own or ours either:
+but if their lords will fall to quarrelling, and then drive each other's
+cattle, and waste each other's lands, sir, you know--”
+
+“I know,” said Amyas, impatiently; “why dost not take the men, and go?”
+
+“Cry you mercy, noble captain, but--I fear nothing born of woman.”
+
+“Well, what of that?” said Amyas, with a smile.
+
+“But these pucks, sir. The wild Irish do say that they haunt the pools;
+and they do no manner of harm, sir, when you are coming up to them; but
+when you are past, sir, they jump on your back like to apes, sir,--and
+who can tackle that manner of fiend?”
+
+“Why, then, by thine own showing, ancient,” said Raleigh, “thou may'st
+go and see all safely enough, and then if the puck jumps on thee as thou
+comest back, just run in with him here, and I'll buy him of thee for a
+noble; or thou may'st keep him in a cage, and make money in London by
+showing him for a monster.”
+
+“Good heavens forefend, Captain Raleigh! but you talk rashly! But if I
+must, Captain Leigh--
+
+           'Where duty calls
+            To brazen walls,
+     How base the slave who flinches'
+
+Lads, who'll follow me?”
+
+“Thou askest for volunteers, as if thou wert to lead a forlorn hope.
+Pull away at the usquebaugh, man, and swallow Dutch courage, since thine
+English is oozed away. Stay, I'll go myself.”
+
+“And I with you,” said Raleigh. “As the queen's true knight-errant, I
+am bound to be behindhand in no adventure. Who knows but we may find a
+wicked magician, just going to cut off the head of some saffron-mantled
+princess?” and he dismounted.
+
+“Oh, sirs, sirs, to endanger your precious--”
+
+“Pooh,” said Raleigh. “I wear an amulet, and have a spell of art-magic
+at my tongue's end, whereby, sir ancient, neither can a ghost see me,
+nor I see them. Come with us, Yeo, the Desmond-slayer, and we will shame
+the devil, or be shamed by him.”
+
+“He may shame me, sir, but he will never frighten me,” quoth Yeo; “but
+the bog, captains?”
+
+“Tut! Devonshire men, and heath-trotters born, and not know our way over
+a peat moor!”
+
+And the three strode away.
+
+They splashed and scrambled for some quarter of a mile to the knoll,
+while the cry became louder and louder as they neared.
+
+“That's neither ghost nor otter, sirs, but a true Irish howl, as Captain
+Leigh said; and I'll warrant Master Shamus knew as much long ago,” said
+Yeo.
+
+And in fact, they could now hear plainly the “Ochone, Ochonorie,” of
+some wild woman; and scrambling over the boulders of the knoll, in
+another minute came full upon her.
+
+She was a young girl, sluttish and unkempt, of course, but fair enough:
+her only covering, as usual, was the ample yellow mantle. There she sat
+upon a stone, tearing her black dishevelled hair, and every now and then
+throwing up her head, and bursting into a long mournful cry, “for all
+the world,” as Yeo said, “like a dumb four-footed hound, and not a
+Christian soul.”
+
+On her knees lay the head of a man of middle age, in the long soutane of
+a Romish priest. One look at the attitude of his limbs told them that he
+was dead.
+
+The two paused in awe; and Raleigh's spirit, susceptible of all poetical
+images, felt keenly that strange scene,--the bleak and bitter sky, the
+shapeless bog, the stunted trees, the savage girl alone with the corpse
+in that utter desolation. And as she bent her head over the still face,
+and called wildly to him who heard her not, and then, utterly unmindful
+of the intruders, sent up again that dreary wail into the dreary air,
+they felt a sacred horror, which almost made them turn away, and leave
+her unquestioned: but Yeo, whose nerves were of tougher fibre, asked
+quietly--
+
+“Shall I go and search the fellow, captain?”
+
+“Better, I think,” said Amyas.
+
+Raleigh went gently to the girl, and spoke to her in English. She looked
+up at him, his armor and his plume, with wide and wondering eyes, and
+then shook her head, and returned to her lamentation.
+
+Raleigh gently laid his hand on her arm, and lifted her up, while Yeo
+and Amyas bent over the corpse.
+
+It was the body of a large and coarse-featured man, but wasted and
+shrunk as if by famine to a very skeleton. The hands and legs were
+cramped up, and the trunk bowed together, as if the man had died of cold
+or famine. Yeo drew back the clothes from the thin bosom, while the girl
+screamed and wept, but made no effort to stop him.
+
+“Ask her who it is? Yeo, you know a little Irish,” said Amyas.
+
+He asked, but the girl made no answer. “The stubborn jade won't tell, of
+course, sir. If she were but a man, I'd make her soon enough.”
+
+“Ask her who killed him?”
+
+“No one, she says; and I believe she says true, for I can find no wound.
+The man has been starved, sirs, as I am a sinful man. God help him,
+though he is a priest; and yet he seems full enough down below. What's
+here? A big pouch, sirs, stuffed full of somewhat.”
+
+“Hand it hither.”
+
+The two opened the pouch; papers, papers, but no scrap of food. Then a
+parchment. They unrolled it.
+
+“Latin,” said Amyas; “you must construe, Don Scholar.”
+
+“Is it possible?” said Raleigh, after reading a moment. “This is indeed
+a prize! This is Saunders himself!”
+
+Yeo sprang up from the body as if he had touched an adder. “Nick
+Saunders, the Legacy, sir?”
+
+“Nicholas Saunders, the legate.”
+
+“The villain! why did not he wait for me to have the comfort of killing
+him? Dog!” and he kicked the corpse with his foot.
+
+“Quiet! quiet! Remember the poor girl,” said Amyas, as she shrieked at
+the profanation, while Raleigh went on, half to himself:
+
+“Yes, this is Saunders. Misguided fool, and this is the end! To this
+thou hast come with thy plotting and thy conspiring, thy lying and thy
+boasting, consecrated banners and Pope's bulls, Agnus Deis and holy
+waters, the blessing of all saints and angels, and thy Lady of the
+Immaculate Conception! Thou hast called on the heavens to judge between
+thee and us, and here is their answer! What is that in his hand, Amyas?
+Give it me. A pastoral epistle to the Earl of Ormond, and all nobles of
+the realm of Ireland; 'To all who groan beneath the loathsome tyranny
+of an illegitimate adulteress, etc., Nicholas Saunders, by the grace
+of God, Legate, etc.' Bah! and this forsooth was thy last meditation!
+Incorrigible pedant! Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni!”
+
+He ran his eye through various other documents, written in the usual
+strain: full of huge promises from the Pope and the king of Spain;
+frantic and filthy slanders against Elizabeth, Burghley, Leicester,
+Essex (the elder), Sidney, and every great and good man (never mind
+of which party) who then upheld the commonweal; bombastic attempts to
+terrify weak consciences, by denouncing endless fire against those who
+opposed the true faith; fulsome ascriptions of martyrdom and sanctity to
+every rebel and traitor who had been hanged for the last twenty
+years; wearisome arguments about the bull In Caena Domini, Elizabeth's
+excommunication, the nullity of English law, the sacred duty of
+rebellion, the right to kill a prince impenitently heretical, and the
+like insanities and villainies, which may be read at large in Camden,
+the Phoenix Britannicus, Fox's Martyrs, or, surest of all, in the
+writings of the worthies themselves.
+
+With a gesture of disgust, Raleigh crammed the foul stuff back again
+into the pouch. Taking it with them, they walked back to the company,
+and then remounting, marched away once more towards the lands of the
+Desmonds; and the girl was left alone with the dead.
+
+An hour had passed, when another Englishman was standing by the wailing
+girl, and round him a dozen shockheaded kernes, skene on thigh and
+javelin in hand, were tossing about their tawny rags, and adding their
+lamentations to those of the lonely watcher.
+
+The Englishman was Eustace Leigh; a layman still, but still at his old
+work. By two years of intrigue and labor from one end of Ireland to the
+other, he had been trying to satisfy his conscience for rejecting “the
+higher calling” of the celibate; for mad hopes still lurked within that
+fiery heart. His brow was wrinkled now; his features harshened; the
+scar upon his face, and the slight distortion which accompanied it, was
+hidden by a bushy beard from all but himself; and he never forgot it for
+a day, nor forgot who had given it to him.
+
+He had been with Desmond, wandering in moor and moss for many a month
+in danger of his life; and now he was on his way to James Fitz-Eustace,
+Lord Baltinglas, to bring him the news of Desmond's death; and with
+him a remnant of the clan, who were either too stout-hearted, or too
+desperately stained with crime, to seek peace from the English, and, as
+their fellows did, find it at once and freely.
+
+There Eustace stood, looking down on all that was left of the most
+sacred personage of Ireland; the man who, as he once had hoped, was to
+regenerate his native land, and bring the proud island of the West once
+more beneath that gentle yoke, in which united Christendom labored for
+the commonweal of the universal Church. There he was, and with him all
+Eustace's dreams, in the very heart of that country which he had vowed,
+and believed as he vowed, was ready to rise in arms as one man, even to
+the baby at the breast (so he had said), in vengeance against the Saxon
+heretic, and sweep the hated name of Englishman into the deepest abysses
+of the surge which walled her coasts; with Spain and the Pope to back
+him, and the wealth of the Jesuits at his command; in the midst
+of faithful Catholics, valiant soldiers, noblemen who had pledged
+themselves to die for the cause, serfs who worshipped him as a
+demigod--starved to death in a bog! It was a pretty plain verdict on the
+reasonableness of his expectations; but not to Eustace Leigh.
+
+It was a failure, of course; but it was an accident; indeed, to have
+been expected, in a wicked world whose prince and master, as all
+knew, was the devil himself; indeed, proof of the righteousness of
+the cause--for when had the true faith been other than persecuted and
+trampled under foot? If one came to think of it with eyes purified from
+the tears of carnal impatience, what was it but a glorious martyrdom?
+
+“Blest Saunders!” murmured Eustace Leigh; “let me die the death of the
+righteous, and let my last end he like this! Ora pro me, most excellent
+martyr, while I dig thy grave upon this lonely moor, to wait there for
+thy translation to one of those stately shrines, which, cemented by the
+blood of such as thee, shall hereafter rise restored toward heaven, to
+make this land once more 'The Isle of Saints.'”
+
+The corpse was buried; a few prayers said hastily; and Eustace Leigh was
+away again, not now to find Baltinglas; for it was more than his life
+was worth. The girl had told him of the English soldiers who had passed,
+and he knew that they would reach the earl probably before he did. The
+game was up; all was lost. So he retraced his steps, as a desperate
+resource, to the last place where he would be looked for, and after a
+month of disguising, hiding, and other expedients, found himself again
+in his native county of Devon, while Fitz-Eustace Viscount Baltinglas
+had taken ship for Spain, having got little by his famous argument
+to Ormond in behalf of his joining the Church of Rome, “Had not thine
+ancestor, blessed Thomas of Canterbury, died for the Church of Rome,
+thou hadst never been Earl of Ormond.” The premises were certainly
+sounder than those of his party were wont to be; for it was to expiate
+the murder of that turbulent hero that the Ormond lands had been granted
+by Henry II.: but as for the conclusion therefrom, it was much on a par
+with the rest.
+
+And now let us return to Raleigh and Amyas, as they jog along their
+weary road. They have many things to talk of; for it is but three days
+since they met.
+
+Amyas, as you see, is coming fast into Raleigh's old opinion of Ireland.
+Raleigh, under the inspiration of a possible grant of Desmond's lands,
+looks on bogs and rocks transfigured by his own hopes and fancy, as if
+by the glory of a rainbow. He looked at all things so, noble fellow,
+even thirty years after, when old, worn out, and ruined; well for him
+had it been otherwise, and his heart had grown old with his head! Amyas,
+who knows nothing about Desmond's lands, is puzzled at the change.
+
+“Why, what is this, Raleigh? You are like children sitting in the
+market-place, and nothing pleases you. You wanted to get to Court, and
+you have got there; and are lord and master, I hear, or something very
+like it, already--and as soon as fortune stuffs your mouth full of
+sweet-meats, do you turn informer on her?”
+
+Raleigh laughed insignificantly, but was silent.
+
+“And how is your friend Mr. Secretary Spenser, who was with us at
+Smerwick?”
+
+“Spenser? He has thriven even as I have; and he has found, as I have,
+that in making one friend at Court you make ten foes; but 'Oderint dum
+metuant' is no more my motto than his, Leigh. I want to be great--great
+I am already, they say, if princes' favor can swell the frog into an ox;
+but I want to be liked, loved--I want to see people smile when I enter.”
+
+“So they do, I'll warrant,” said Amyas.
+
+“So do hyenas,” said Raleigh; “grin because they are hungry, and I may
+throw them a bone; I'll throw you one now, old lad, or rather a good
+sirloin of beef, for the sake of your smile. That's honest, at least,
+I'll warrant, whosoever's else is not. Have you heard of my brother
+Humphrey's new project?”
+
+“How should I hear anything in this waste howling wilderness?”
+
+“Kiss hands to the wilderness, then, and come with me to Newfoundland!”
+
+“You to Newfoundland?”
+
+“Yes. I to Newfoundland, unless my little matter here is settled at
+once. Gloriana don't know it, and sha'n't till I'm off. She'd send me to
+the Tower, I think, if she caught me playing truant. I could hardly get
+leave to come hither; but I must out, and try my fortune. I am over ears
+in debt already, and sick of courts and courtiers. Humphrey must go next
+spring and take possession of his kingdom beyond seas, or his patent
+expires; and with him I go, and you too, my circumnavigating giant.”
+
+And then Raleigh expounded to Amyas the details of the great
+Newfoundland scheme, which whoso will may read in the pages of Hakluyt.
+
+Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Raleigh's half-brother, held a patent for
+“planting” the lands of Newfoundland and “Meta Incognita” (Labrador).
+He had attempted a voyage thither with Raleigh in 1578, whereof I never
+could find any news, save that he came back again, after a heavy brush
+with some Spanish ships (in which his best captain, Mr. Morgan, was
+killed), having done nothing, and much impaired his own estate: but now
+he had collected a large sum; Sir Gilbert Peckham of London, Mr. Hayes
+of South Devon, and various other gentlemen, of whom more hereafter, had
+adventured their money; and a considerable colony was to be sent out the
+next year, with miners, assayers, and, what was more, Parmenius Budaeus,
+Frank's old friend, who had come to England full of thirst to see the
+wonders of the New World; and over and above this, as Raleigh told Amyas
+in strictest secrecy, Adrian Gilbert, Humphrey's brother, was turning
+every stone at Court for a patent of discovery in the North-West;
+and this Newfoundland colony, though it was to produce gold, silver,
+merchandise, and what not, was but a basis of operations, a halfway
+house from whence to work out the North-West passage to the Indies--that
+golden dream, as fatal to English valor as the Guiana one to
+Spanish--and yet hardly, hardly to be regretted, when we remember the
+seamanship, the science, the chivalry, the heroism, unequalled in the
+history of the English nation, which it has called forth among those
+our later Arctic voyagers, who have combined the knight-errantry of the
+middle age with the practical prudence of the modern, and dared for duty
+more than Cortez or Pizarro dared for gold.
+
+Amyas, simple fellow, took all in greedily; he knew enough of the
+dangers of the Magellan passage to appreciate the boundless value of a
+road to the East Indies which would (as all supposed then) save half the
+distance, and be as it were a private possession of the English, safe
+from Spanish interference; and he listened reverently to Sir Humphrey's
+quaint proofs, half true, half fantastic, of such a passage, which
+Raleigh detailed to him--of the Primum Mobile, and its diurnal motion
+from east to west, in obedience to which the sea-current flowed westward
+ever round the Cape of Good Hope, and being unable to pass through the
+narrow strait between South America and the Antarctic Continent, rushed
+up the American shore, as the Gulf Stream, and poured northwestward
+between Greenland and Labrador towards Cathay and India; of that most
+crafty argument of Sir Humphrey's--how Aristotle in his book “De Mundo,”
+ and Simon Gryneus in his annotations thereon, declare that the world
+(the Old World) is an island, compassed by that which Homer calls the
+river Oceanus; ergo, the New World is an island also, and there is
+a North-West passage; of the three brothers (names unknown) who had
+actually made the voyage, and named what was afterwards called Davis's
+Strait after themselves; of the Indians who were cast ashore in Germany
+in the reign of Frederic Barbarossa who, as Sir Humphrey had learnedly
+proved per modum tollendi, could have come only by the North-West; and
+above all, of Salvaterra, the Spaniard, who in 1568 had told Sir Henry
+Sidney (Philip's father), there in Ireland, how he had spoken with a
+Mexican friar named Urdaneta, who had himself come from Mar del Zur (the
+Pacific) into Germany by that very North-West passage; at which last
+Amyas shook his head, and said that friars were liars, and seeing
+believing; “but if you must needs have an adventure, you insatiable soul
+you, why not try for the golden city of Manoa?”
+
+“Manoa?” asked Raleigh, who had heard, as most had, dim rumors of the
+place. “What do you know of it?”
+
+Whereon Amyas told him all that he had gathered from the Spaniard; and
+Raleigh, in his turn, believed every word.
+
+“Humph!” said he after a long silence. “To find that golden emperor;
+offer him help and friendship from the queen of England; defend him
+against the Spaniards; if we became strong enough, conquer back all Peru
+from the Popish tyrants, and reinstate him on the throne of the Incas,
+with ourselves for his body-guard, as the Norman Varangians were to
+the effeminate emperors of Byzant--Hey, Amyas? You would make a gallant
+chieftain of Varangs. We'll do it, lad!”
+
+“We'll try,” said Amyas; “but we must be quick, for there's one Berreo
+sworn to carry out the quest to the death; and if the Spaniards once get
+thither, their plan of works will be much more like Pizarro's than like
+yours; and by the time we come, there will be neither gold nor city
+left.”
+
+“Nor Indians either, I'll warrant the butchers; but, lad, I am promised
+to Humphrey; I have a bark fitting out already, and all I have, and
+more, adventured in her; so Manoa must wait.”
+
+“It will wait well enough, if the Spaniards prosper no better on the
+Amazon than they have done; but must I come with you? To tell the truth,
+I am quite shore-sick, and to sea I must go. What will my mother say?”
+
+“I'll manage thy mother,” said Raleigh; and so he did; for, to cut a
+long story short, he went back the month after, and he not only took
+home letters from Amyas to his mother, but so impressed on that good
+lady the enormous profits and honors to be derived from Meta Incognita,
+and (which was most true) the advantage to any young man of sailing
+with such a general as Humphrey Gilbert, most pious and most learned of
+seamen and of cavaliers, beloved and honored above all his compeers by
+Queen Elizabeth, that she consented to Amyas's adventuring in the
+voyage some two hundred pounds which had come to him as his share of
+prize-money, after the ever memorable circumnavigation. For Mrs.
+Leigh, be it understood, was no longer at Burrough Court. By Frank's
+persuasion, she had let the old place, moved up to London with her
+eldest son, and taken for herself a lodging somewhere by Palace Stairs,
+which looked out upon the silver Thames (for Thames was silver then),
+with its busy ferries and gliding boats, across to the pleasant fields
+of Lambeth, and the Archbishop's palace, and the wooded Surrey hills;
+and there she spent her peaceful days, close to her Frank and to the
+Court. Elizabeth would have had her re-enter it, offering her a small
+place in the household: but she declined, saying that she was too old
+and heart-weary for aught but prayer. So by prayer she lived, under the
+sheltering shadow of the tall minster where she went morn and even to
+worship, and to entreat for the two in whom her heart was bound up; and
+Frank slipped in every day if but for five minutes, and brought with him
+Spenser, or Raleigh, or Dyer, or Budaeus or sometimes Sidney's self: and
+there was talk of high and holy things, of which none could speak better
+than could she; and each guest went from that hallowed room a humbler
+and yet a loftier man. So slipped on the peaceful months, and few
+and far between came Irish letters, for Ireland was then farther from
+Westminster than is the Black Sea now; but those were days in which
+wives and mothers had learned (as they have learned once more, sweet
+souls!) to walk by faith and not by sight for those they love: and Mrs.
+Leigh was content (though when was she not content?) to hear that Amyas
+was winning a good report as a brave and prudent officer, sober, just,
+and faithful, beloved and obeyed alike by English soldiers and Irish
+kernes.
+
+Those two years, and the one which followed, were the happiest which she
+had known since her husband's death. But the cloud was fast coming up
+the horizon, though she saw it not. A little longer, and the sun would
+be hid for many a wintry day.
+
+Amyas went to Plymouth (with Yeo, of course, at his heels), and there
+beheld, for the first time, the majestic countenance of the philosopher
+of Compton castle. He lodged with Drake, and found him not over-sanguine
+as to the success of the voyage.
+
+“For learning and manners, Amyas, there's not his equal; and the queen
+may well love him, and Devon be proud of him: but book-learning is not
+business: book-learning didn't get me round the world; book-learning
+didn't make Captain Hawkins, nor his father neither, the best
+ship-builders from Hull to Cadiz; and book-learning, I very much fear,
+won't plant Newfoundland.”
+
+However, the die was cast, and the little fleet of five sail assembled
+in Cawsand Bay. Amyas was to go as a gentleman adventurer on board of
+Raleigh's bark; Raleigh himself, however, at the eleventh hour, had been
+forbidden by the queen to leave England. Ere they left, Sir Humphrey
+Gilbert's picture was painted by some Plymouth artist, to be sent up to
+Elizabeth in answer to a letter and a gift sent by Raleigh, which, as a
+specimen of the men and of the time, I here transcribe*--
+
+
+“BROTHER--I have sent you a token from her Majesty, an anchor guided
+by a lady, as you see. And further, her Highness willed me to send you
+word, that she wisheth you as great good hap and safety to your ship as
+if she were there in person, desiring you to have care of yourself as of
+that which she tendereth and, therefore, for her sake, you must provide
+for it accordingly. Furthermore, she commandeth that you leave your
+picture with her. For the rest I leave till our meeting, or to the
+report of the bearer, who would needs be the messenger of this good
+news. So I commit you to the will and protection of God, who send us
+such life and death as he shall please, or hath appointed.
+
+“Richmond, this Friday morning,
+
+“Your true Brother,
+
+“W. RALEIGH.”
+
+     * This letter was a few years since in the possession of Mr.
+     Pomeroy Gilbert, fort-major at Dartmouth, a descendant of
+     the admiral's.
+
+“Who would not die, sir, for such a woman?” said Sir Humphrey (and he
+said truly), as he showed that letter to Amyas.
+
+“Who would not? But she bids you rather live for her.”
+
+“I shall do both, young man; and for God too, I trust. We are going in
+God's cause; we go for the honor of God's Gospel, for the deliverance of
+poor infidels led captive by the devil; for the relief of my distressed
+countrymen unemployed within this narrow isle; and to God we commit our
+cause. We fight against the devil himself; and stronger is He that is
+within us than he that is against us.”
+
+Some say that Raleigh himself came down to Plymouth, accompanied the
+fleet a day's sail to sea, and would have given her majesty the slip,
+and gone with them Westward-ho, but for Sir Humphrey's advice. It is
+likely enough: but I cannot find evidence for it. At all events, on the
+11th June the fleet sailed out, having, says Mr. Hayes, “in number about
+260 men, among whom we had of every faculty good choice, as shipwrights,
+masons, carpenters, smiths, and such like, requisite for such an action;
+also mineral men and refiners. Beside, for solace of our people and
+allurement of the savages, we were provided of musique in good variety;
+not omitting the least toys, as morris-dancers, hobby-horses, and
+May-like conceits, to delight the savage people, whom we intended to win
+by all fair means possible.” An armament complete enough, even to that
+tenderness towards the Indians, which is so striking a feature of
+the Elizabethan seamen (called out in them, perhaps, by horror at the
+Spanish cruelties, as well as by their more liberal creed), and to the
+daily service of God on board of every ship, according to the simple
+old instructions of Captain John Hawkins to one of his little squadrons,
+“Keep good company; beware of fire; serve God daily; and love one
+another”--an armament, in short, complete in all but men. The sailors
+had been picked up hastily and anywhere, and soon proved themselves a
+mutinous, and, in the case of the bark Swallow, a piratical set. The
+mechanics were little better. The gentlemen-adventurers, puffed up with
+vain hopes of finding a new Mexico, became soon disappointed and surly
+at the hard practical reality; while over all was the head of a sage and
+an enthusiast, a man too noble to suspect others, and too pure to
+make allowances for poor dirty human weaknesses. He had got his scheme
+perfect upon paper; well for him, and for his company, if he had asked
+Francis Drake to translate it for him into fact! As early as the second
+day, the seeds of failure began to sprout above ground. The men of
+Raleigh's bark, the Vice-Admiral, suddenly found themselves seized, or
+supposed themselves seized, with a contagious sickness, and at midnight
+forsook the fleet, and went back to Plymouth; whereto Mr. Hayes can only
+say, “The reason I never could understand. Sure I am that Mr. Raleigh
+spared no cost in setting them forth. And so I leave it unto God!”
+
+But Amyas said more. He told Butler the captain plainly that, if the
+bark went back, he would not; that he had seen enough of ships deserting
+their consorts; that it should never be said of him that he had followed
+Winter's example, and that, too, on a fair easterly wind; and finally
+that he had seen Doughty hanged for trying to play such a trick; and
+that he might see others hanged too before he died. Whereon Captain
+Butler offered to draw and fight, to which Amyas showed no repugnance;
+whereon the captain, having taken a second look at Amyas's thews and
+sinews, reconsidered the matter, and offered to put Amyas on board of
+Sir Humphrey's Delight, if he could find a crew to row him.
+
+Amyas looked around.
+
+“Are there any of Sir Francis Drake's men on board?”
+
+“Three, sir,” said Yeo. “Robert Drew, and two others.”
+
+“Pelicans!” roared Amyas, “you have been round the world, and will you
+turn back from Westward-ho?”
+
+There was a moment's silence, and then Drew came forward.
+
+“Lower us a boat, captain, and lend us a caliver to make signals with,
+while I get my kit on deck; I'll after Captain Leigh, if I row him
+aboard all alone to my own hands.”
+
+“If I ever command a ship, I will not forget you,” said Amyas.
+
+“Nor us either, sir, we hope; for we haven't forgotten you and your
+honest conditions,” said both the other Pelicans; and so away over the
+side went all the five, and pulled away after the admiral's lantern,
+firing shots at intervals as signals. Luckily for the five desperadoes,
+the night was all but calm. They got on board before the morning, and so
+away into the boundless West.*
+
+     * The Raleigh, the largest ship of the squadron, was of only
+     200 tons burden; The Golden Hind, Hayes' ship, which
+     returned safe, of 40; and The Squirrel (whereof more
+     hereafter), of 10 tons!  In such cockboats did these old
+     heroes brave the unknown seas.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+HOW BIDEFORD BRIDGE DINED AT ANNERY HOUSE
+
+     “Three lords sat drinking late yestreen,
+     And ere they paid the lawing,
+     They set a combat them between,
+     To fight it in the dawing”--Scotch Ballad.
+
+Every one who knows Bideford cannot but know Bideford bridge; for it is
+the very omphalos, cynosure, and soul, around which the town, as a body,
+has organized itself; and as Edinburgh is Edinburgh by virtue of its
+castle, Rome Rome by virtue of its capitol, and Egypt Egypt by virtue of
+its pyramids, so is Bideford Bideford by virtue of its bridge. But all
+do not know the occult powers which have advanced and animated the
+said wondrous bridge for now five hundred years, and made it the chief
+wonder, according to Prince and Fuller, of this fair land of Devon:
+being first an inspired bridge, a soul-saving bridge, an alms-giving
+bridge, an educational bridge, a sentient bridge, and last, but not
+least, a dinner-giving bridge. All do not know how, when it began to
+be built some half mile higher up, hands invisible carried the stones
+down-stream each night to the present site; until Sir Richard Gurney,
+parson of the parish, going to bed one night in sore perplexity and fear
+of the evil spirit who seemed so busy in his sheepfold, beheld a vision
+of an angel, who bade build the bridge where he himself had so kindly
+transported the materials; for there alone was sure foundation amid the
+broad sheet of shifting sand. All do not know how Bishop Grandison of
+Exeter proclaimed throughout his diocese indulgences, benedictions, and
+“participation in all spiritual blessings for ever,” to all who would
+promote the bridging of that dangerous ford; and so, consulting alike
+the interests of their souls and of their bodies, “make the best of both
+worlds.”
+
+All do not know, nor do I, that “though the foundation of the bridge
+is laid upon wool, yet it shakes at the slightest step of a horse;” or
+that, “though it has twenty-three arches, yet one Wm. Alford (another
+Milo) carried on his back for a wager four bushels salt-water measure,
+all the length thereof;” or that the bridge is a veritable esquire,
+bearing arms of its own (a ship and bridge proper on a plain field),
+and owning lands and tenements in many parishes, with which the said
+miraculous bridge has, from time to time, founded charities, built
+schools, waged suits at law, and finally (for this concerns us most)
+given yearly dinners, and kept for that purpose (luxurious and liquorish
+bridge that it was) the best stocked cellar of wines in all Devon.
+
+To one of these dinners, as it happened, were invited in the year 1583
+all the notabilities of Bideford, and beside them Mr. St. Leger
+of Annery close by, brother of the marshal of Munster, and of Lady
+Grenville; a most worthy and hospitable gentleman, who, finding riches
+a snare, parted with them so freely to all his neighbors as long as he
+lived, that he effectually prevented his children after him from falling
+into the temptations thereunto incident.
+
+Between him and one of the bridge trustees arose an argument, whether
+a salmon caught below the bridge was better or worse than one caught
+above; and as that weighty question could only be decided by practical
+experiment, Mr. St. Leger vowed that as the bridge had given him a good
+dinner, he would give the bridge one; offered a bet of five pounds that
+he would find them, out of the pool below Annery, as firm and flaky a
+salmon as the Appledore one which they had just eaten; and then, in the
+fulness of his heart, invited the whole company present to dine with him
+at Annery three days after, and bring with them each a wife or daughter;
+and Don Guzman being at table, he was invited too.
+
+So there was a mighty feast in the great hall at Annery, such as had
+seldom been since Judge Hankford feasted Edward the Fourth there; and
+while every one was eating their best and drinking their worst, Rose
+Salterne and Don Guzman were pretending not to see each other, and
+watching each other all the more. But Rose, at least, had to be very
+careful of her glances; for not only was her father at the table, but
+just opposite her sat none other than Messrs. William Cary and Arthur
+St. Leger, lieutenants in her majesty's Irish army, who had returned on
+furlough a few days before.
+
+Rose Salterne and the Spaniard had not exchanged a word in the last six
+months, though they had met many times. The Spaniard by no means avoided
+her company, except in her father's house; he only took care to obey
+her carefully, by seeming always unconscious of her presence, beyond the
+stateliest of salutes at entering and departing. But he took care, at
+the same time, to lay himself out to the very best advantage whenever
+he was in her presence; to be more witty, more eloquent, more romantic,
+more full of wonderful tales than he ever yet had been. The cunning
+Don had found himself foiled in his first tactic; and he was now
+trying another, and a far more formidable one. In the first place, Rose
+deserved a very severe punishment, for having dared to refuse the love
+of a Spanish nobleman; and what greater punishment could he inflict than
+withdrawing the honor of his attentions, and the sunshine of his smiles?
+There was conceit enough in that notion, but there was cunning too;
+for none knew better than the Spaniard, that women, like the world, are
+pretty sure to value a man (especially if there be any real worth in
+him) at his own price; and that the more he demands for himself, the
+more they will give for him.
+
+And now he would put a high price on himself, and pique her pride, as
+she was too much accustomed to worship, to be won by flattering it. He
+might have done that by paying attention to some one else: but he was
+too wise to employ so coarse a method, which might raise indignation, or
+disgust, or despair in Rose's heart, but would have never brought her to
+his feet--as it will never bring any woman worth bringing. So he quietly
+and unobtrusively showed her that he could do without her; and she, poor
+fool, as she was meant to do, began forthwith to ask herself--why? What
+was the hidden treasure, what was the reserve force, which made him
+independent of her, while she could not say that she was independent of
+him? Had he a secret? how pleasant to know it! Some huge ambition? how
+pleasant to share in it! Some mysterious knowledge? how pleasant to
+learn it! Some capacity of love beyond the common? how delicious to have
+it all for her own! He must be greater, wiser, richer-hearted than she
+was, as well as better-born. Ah, if his wealth would but supply her
+poverty! And so, step by step, she was being led to sue in forma
+pauperis to the very man whom she had spurned when he sued in like form
+to her. That temptation of having some mysterious private treasure, of
+being the priestess of some hidden sanctuary, and being able to thank
+Heaven that she was not as other women are, was becoming fast too much
+for Rose, as it is too much for most. For none knew better than the
+Spaniard how much more fond women are, by the very law of their sex,
+of worshipping than of being worshipped, and of obeying than of being
+obeyed; how their coyness, often their scorn, is but a mask to hide
+their consciousness of weakness; and a mask, too, of which they
+themselves will often be the first to tire.
+
+And Rose was utterly tired of that same mask as she sat at table at
+Annery that day; and Don Guzman saw it in her uneasy and downcast looks,
+and thinking (conceited coxcomb) that she must be by now sufficiently
+punished, stole a glance at her now and then, and was not abashed when
+he saw that she dropped her eyes when they met his, because he saw her
+silence and abstraction increase, and something like a blush steal into
+her cheeks. So he pretended to be as much downcast and abstracted as she
+was, and went on with his glances, till he once found her, poor thing,
+looking at him to see if he was looking at her; and then he knew his
+prey was safe, and asked her, with his eyes, “Do you forgive me?” and
+saw her stop dead in her talk to her next neighbor, and falter, and drop
+her eyes, and raise them again after a minute in search of his, that
+he might repeat the pleasant question. And then what could she do but
+answer with all her face and every bend of her pretty neck, “And do you
+forgive me in turn?”
+
+Whereon Don Guzman broke out jubilant, like nightingale on bough, with
+story, and jest, and repartee; and became forthwith the soul of the
+whole company, and the most charming of all cavaliers. And poor Rose
+knew that she was the cause of his sudden change of mood, and blamed
+herself for what she had done, and shuddered and blushed at her own
+delight, and longed that the feast was over, that she might hurry home
+and hide herself alone with sweet fancies about a love the reality of
+which she felt she dared not face.
+
+It was a beautiful sight, the great terrace at Annery that afternoon;
+with the smart dames in their gaudy dresses parading up and down in twos
+and threes before the stately house; or looking down upon the park, with
+the old oaks, and the deer, and the broad land-locked river spread out
+like a lake beneath, all bright in the glare of the midsummer sun; or
+listening obsequiously to the two great ladies who did the honors, Mrs.
+St. Leger the hostess, and her sister-in-law, fair Lady Grenville. All
+chatted, and laughed, and eyed each other's dresses, and gossiped about
+each other's husbands and servants: only Rose Salterne kept apart, and
+longed to get into a corner and laugh or cry, she knew not which.
+
+“Our pretty Rose seems sad,” said Lady Grenville, coming up to her.
+“Cheer up, child! we want you to come and sing to us.”
+
+Rose answered she knew not what, and obeyed mechanically.
+
+She took the lute, and sat down on a bench beneath the house, while the
+rest grouped themselves round her.
+
+“What shall I sing?”
+
+“Let us have your old song, 'Earl Haldan's Daughter.'”
+
+Rose shrank from it. It was a loud and dashing ballad, which chimed in
+but little with her thoughts; and Frank had praised it too, in happier
+days long since gone by. She thought of him, and of others, and of her
+pride and carelessness; and the song seemed ominous to her: and yet for
+that very reason she dared not refuse to sing it, for fear of suspicion
+where no one suspected; and so she began per force--
+
+
+I.
+
+“It was Earl Haldan's daughter, She look'd across the sea; She look'd
+across the water, And long and loud laugh'd she; 'The locks of six
+princesses Must be my marriage-fee, So hey bonny boat, and ho bonny
+boat! Who comes a wooing me?'
+
+II.
+
+“It was Earl Haldan's daughter, She walk'd along the sand; When she was
+aware of a knight so fair, Come sailing to the land. His sails were all
+of velvet, His mast of beaten gold, And 'hey bonny boat, and ho bonny
+boat, Who saileth here so bold?'
+
+III.
+
+“'The locks of five princesses I won beyond the sea; I shore their
+golden tresses, To fringe a cloak for thee. One handful yet is wanting,
+But one of all the tale; So hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat! Furl up
+thy velvet sail!'
+
+IV.
+
+“He leapt into the water, That rover young and bold; He gript Earl
+Haldan's daughter, He shore her locks of gold; 'Go weep, go weep, proud
+maiden, The tale is full to-day. Now hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat!
+Sail Westward-ho, and away!'”
+
+
+As she ceased, a measured voice, with a foreign accent, thrilled through
+her.
+
+“In the East, they say the nightingale sings to the rose; Devon, more
+happy, has nightingale and rose in one.”
+
+“We have no nightingales in Devon, Don Guzman,” said Lady Grenville;
+“but our little forest thrushes sing, as you hear, sweetly enough to
+content any ear. But what brings you away from the gentlemen so early?”
+
+“These letters,” said he, “which have just been put into my hand; and
+as they call me home to Spain, I was loath to lose a moment of that
+delightful company from which I must part so soon.”
+
+“To Spain?” asked half-a-dozen voices: for the Don was a general
+favorite.
+
+“Yes, and thence to the Indies. My ransom has arrived, and with it
+the promise of an office. I am to be Governor of La Guayra in Caracas.
+Congratulate me on my promotion.”
+
+A mist was over Rose's eyes. The Spaniard's voice was hard and flippant.
+Did he care for her, after all? And if he did, was it nevertheless
+hopeless? How her cheeks glowed! Everybody must see it! Anything to turn
+away their attention from her, and in that nervous haste which makes
+people speak, and speak foolishly too, just because they ought to be
+silent, she asked--
+
+“And where is La Guayra?”
+
+“Half round the world, on the coast of the Spanish Main. The loveliest
+place on earth, and the loveliest governor's house, in a forest of palms
+at the foot of a mountain eight thousand feet high: I shall only want a
+wife there to be in paradise.”
+
+“I don't doubt that you may persuade some fair lady of Seville to
+accompany you thither,” said Lady Grenville.
+
+“Thanks, gracious madam: but the truth is, that since I have had the
+bliss of knowing English ladies, I have begun to think that they are the
+only ones on earth worth wooing.”
+
+“A thousand thanks for the compliment; but I fear none of our free
+English maidens would like to submit to the guardianship of a duenna.
+Eh, Rose? how should you like to be kept under lock and key all day by
+an ugly old woman with a horn on her forehead?”
+
+Poor Rose turned so scarlet that Lady Grenville knew her secret on the
+spot, and would have tried to turn the conversation: but before she
+could speak, some burgher's wife blundered out a commonplace about
+the jealousy of Spanish husbands; and another, to make matters better,
+giggled out something more true than delicate about West Indian masters
+and fair slaves.
+
+“Ladies,” said Don Guzman, reddening, “believe me that these are but the
+calumnies of ignorance. If we be more jealous than other nations, it is
+because we love more passionately. If some of us abroad are profligate,
+it is because they, poor men, have no helpmate, which, like the
+amethyst, keeps its wearer pure. I could tell you stories, ladies, of
+the constancy and devotion of Spanish husbands, even in the Indies, as
+strange as ever romancer invented.”
+
+“Can you? Then we challenge you to give us one at least.”
+
+“I fear it would be too long, madam.”
+
+“The longer the more pleasant, senor. How can we spend an hour better
+this afternoon, while the gentlemen within are finishing their wine?”
+
+Story-telling, in those old times, when books (and authors also, lucky
+for the public) were rarer than now, was a common amusement; and as the
+Spaniard's accomplishments in that line were well known, all the ladies
+crowded round him; the servants brought chairs and benches; and Don
+Guzman, taking his seat in the midst, with a proud humility, at Lady
+Grenville's feet, began--
+
+“Your perfections, fair and illustrious ladies, must doubtless have
+heard, ere now, how Sebastian Cabota, some forty-five years ago, sailed
+forth with a commission from my late master, the Emperor Charles the
+Fifth, to discover the golden lands of Tarshish, Ophir, and Cipango; but
+being in want of provisions, stopped short at the mouth of that mighty
+South American river to which he gave the name of Rio de la Plata, and
+sailing up it, discovered the fair land of Paraguay. But you may not
+have heard how, on the bank of that river, at the mouth of the Rio
+Terceiro, he built a fort which men still call Cabot's Tower; nor have
+you, perhaps, heard of the strange tale which will ever make the tower a
+sacred spot to all true lovers.
+
+“For when he returned to Spain the year after, he left in his tower a
+garrison of a hundred and twenty men, under the command of Nuno de Lara,
+Ruiz Moschera, and Sebastian da Hurtado, old friends and fellow-soldiers
+of my invincible grandfather Don Ferdinando da Soto; and with them
+a jewel, than which Spain never possessed one more precious, Lucia
+Miranda, the wife of Hurtado, who, famed in the court of the emperor
+no less for her wisdom and modesty than for her unrivalled beauty,
+had thrown up all the pomp and ambition of a palace, to marry a poor
+adventurer, and to encounter with him the hardships of a voyage round
+the world. Mangora, the cacique of the neighboring Timbuez Indians (with
+whom Lara had contrived to establish a friendship), cast his eyes on
+this fair creature, and no sooner saw than he coveted; no sooner coveted
+than he plotted, with the devilish subtilty of a savage, to seize by
+force what he knew he could never gain by right. She soon found out his
+passion (she was wise enough--what every woman is not--to know when she
+is loved), and telling her husband, kept as much as she could out of her
+new lover's sight; while the savage pressed Hurtado to come and visit
+him, and to bring his lady with him. Hurtado, suspecting the snare, and
+yet fearing to offend the cacique, excused himself courteously on
+the score of his soldier's duty; and the savage, mad with desire and
+disappointment, began plotting against Hurtado's life.
+
+“So went on several weeks, till food grew scarce, and Don Hurtado and
+Don Ruiz Moschera, with fifty soldiers, were sent up the river on a
+foraging party. Mangora saw his opportunity, and leapt at it forthwith.
+
+“The tower, ladies, as I have heard from those who have seen it, stands
+on a knoll at the meeting of the two rivers, while on the land side
+stretches a dreary marsh, covered with tall grass and bushes; a fit
+place for the ambuscade of four thousand Indians, which Mangora, with
+devilish cunning, placed around the tower, while he himself went boldly
+up to it, followed by thirty men, laden with grain, fruit, game, and all
+the delicacies which his forests could afford.
+
+“There, with a smiling face, he told the unsuspecting Lara his sorrow
+for the Spaniards' want of food; besought him to accept the provision he
+had brought, and was, as he had expected, invited by Lara to come in and
+taste the wines of Spain.
+
+“In went he and his thirty fellow-bandits, and the feast continued,
+with songs and libations, far into the night, while Mangora often looked
+round, and at last boldly asked for the fair Miranda: but she had shut
+herself into her lodging, pleading illness.
+
+“A plea, fair ladies, which little availed that hapless dame, for no
+sooner had the Spaniards retired to rest, leaving (by I know not what
+madness) Mangora and his Indians within, than they were awakened by the
+cry of fire, the explosion of their magazine, and the inward rush of the
+four thousand from the marsh outside.
+
+“Why pain your gentle ears with details of slaughter? A few fearful
+minutes sufficed to exterminate my bewildered and unarmed countrymen, to
+bind the only survivors, Miranda (innocent cause of the whole tragedy)
+and four other women with their infants, and to lead them away in
+triumph across the forest towards the Indian town.
+
+“Stunned by the suddenness of the evils which had passed, and still
+more by the thought of those worse which were to come (as she too
+well foresaw), Miranda travelled all night through the forest, and was
+brought in triumph at day-dawn before the Indian king to receive her
+doom. Judge of her astonishment, when, on looking up, she saw that he
+was not Mangora.
+
+“A ray of hope flashed across her, and she asked where he was.
+
+“'He was slain last night,' said the king; 'and I, his brother Siripa,
+am now cacique of the Timbuez.'
+
+“It was true; Lara, maddened with drink, rage, and wounds, had caught up
+his sword, rushed into the thick of the fight, singled out the traitor,
+and slain him on the spot; and then, forgetting safety in revenge, had
+continued to plunge his sword into the corpse, heedless of the blows of
+the savages, till he fell pierced with a hundred wounds.
+
+“A ray of hope, as I said, flashed across the wretched Miranda for a
+moment; but the next she found that she had been freed from one bandit
+only to be delivered to another.
+
+“'Yes,' said the new king, in broken Spanish; 'my brother played a bold
+stake, and lost it; but it was well worth the risk, and he showed his
+wisdom thereby. You cannot be his queen now: you must content yourself
+with being mine.'
+
+“Miranda, desperate, answered him with every fierce taunt which she
+could invent against his treachery and his crime; and asked him, how he
+came to dream that the wife of a Christian Spaniard would condescend
+to become the mistress of a heathen savage; hoping, unhappy lady, to
+exasperate him into killing her on the spot. But in vain; she only
+prolonged thereby her own misery. For, whether it was, ladies, that the
+novel sight of divine virtue and beauty awed (as it may have awed me ere
+now), where it had just before maddened; or whether some dream crossed
+the savage (as it may have crossed me ere now), that he could make the
+wisdom of a mortal angel help his ambition, as well as her beauty his
+happiness; or whether (which I will never believe of one of those dark
+children of the devil, though I can boldly assert it of myself) some
+spark of boldness within him made him too proud to take by force what
+he could not win by persuasion, certain it is, as the Indians themselves
+confessed afterwards, that the savage only answered her by smiles; and
+bidding his men unbind her, told her that she was no slave of his, and
+that it only lay with her to become the sovereign of him and all
+his vassals; assigned her a hut to herself, loaded her with savage
+ornaments, and for several weeks treated her with no less courtesy
+(so miraculous is the power of love) than if he had been a cavalier of
+Castile.
+
+“Three months and more, ladies, as I have heard, passed in this misery,
+and every day Miranda grew more desperate of all deliverance, and saw
+staring her in the face, nearer and nearer, some hideous and shameful
+end; when one day going down with the wives of the cacique to draw water
+in the river, she saw on the opposite bank a white man in a tattered
+Spanish dress, with a drawn sword in his hand; who had no sooner espied
+her, than shrieking her name, he plunged into the stream, swam across,
+landed at her feet, and clasped her in his arms. It was no other,
+ladies, incredible as it may seem, than Don Sebastian himself, who had
+returned with Ruiz Moschera to the tower, and found it only a charred
+and bloodstained heap of ruins.
+
+“He guessed, as by inspiration, what had passed, and whither his lady
+was gone; and without a thought of danger, like a true Spanish gentleman
+and a true Spanish lover, darted off alone into the forest, and
+guided only by the inspiration of his own loyal heart, found again his
+treasure, and found it still unstained and his own.
+
+“Who can describe the joy, and who again the terror, of their meeting?
+The Indian women had fled in fear, and for the short ten minutes that
+the lovers were left together, life, to be sure, was one long kiss.
+But what to do they knew not. To go inland was to rush into the enemy's
+arms. He would have swum with her across the river, and attempted it;
+but his strength, worn out with hunger and travel, failed him; he drew
+her with difficulty on shore again, and sat down by her to await their
+doom with prayer, the first and last resource of virtuous ladies, as
+weapons are of cavaliers.
+
+“Alas for them! May no true lovers ever have to weep over joys so soon
+lost, after having been so hardly found! For, ere a quarter of an hour
+was passed, the Indian women, who had fled at his approach, returned
+with all the warriors of the tribe. Don Sebastian, desperate, would
+fain have slain his wife and himself on the spot; but his hand sank
+again--and whose would not but an Indian's?--as he raised it against
+that fair and faithful breast; in a few minutes he was surrounded,
+seized from behind, disarmed, and carried in triumph into the village.
+And if you cannot feel for him in that misery, fair ladies, who have
+known no sorrow, yet I, a prisoner, can.”
+
+Don Guzman paused a moment, as if overcome by emotion; and I will not
+say that, as he paused, he did not look to see if Rose Salterne's eyes
+were on him, as indeed they were.
+
+“Yes, I can feel with him; I can estimate, better than you, ladies, the
+greatness of that love which could submit to captivity; to the loss of
+his sword; to the loss of that honor, which, next to god and his mother,
+is the true Spaniard's deity. There are those who have suffered that
+shame at the hands of valiant gentlemen” (and again Don Guzman looked
+up at Rose), “and yet would have sooner died a thousand deaths; but he
+dared to endure it from the hands of villains, savages, heathens; for he
+was a true Spaniard, and therefore a true lover: but I will go on with
+my tale.
+
+“This wretched pair, then, as I have been told by Ruiz Moschera himself,
+stood together before the cacique. He, like a true child of the devil,
+comprehending in a moment who Don Sebastian was, laughed with delight at
+seeing his rival in his power, and bade bind him at once to a tree, and
+shoot him to death with arrows.
+
+“But the poor Miranda sprang forward, and threw herself at his feet, and
+with piteous entreaties besought for mercy from him who knew no mercy.
+
+“And yet love and the sight of her beauty, and the terrible eloquence of
+her words, while she invoked on his head the just vengeance of Heaven,
+wrought even on his heart: nevertheless the pleasure of seeing her, who
+had so long scorned him, a suppliant at his feet, was too delicate to
+be speedily foregone; and not till she was all but blind with tears,
+and dumb with agony of pleading, did he make answer, that if she would
+consent to become his wife, her husband's life should be spared. She, in
+her haste and madness, sobbed out desperately I know not what consent.
+Don Sebastian, who understood, if not the language, still the meaning
+(so had love quickened his understanding), shrieked to her not to lose
+her precious soul for the sake of his worthless body; that death was
+nothing compared to the horror of that shame; and such other words as
+became a noble and valiant gentleman. She, shuddering now at her own
+frailty, would have recalled her promise; but Siripa kept her to it,
+vowing, if she disappointed him again, such a death to her husband as
+made her blood run cold to hear of; and the wretched woman could only
+escape for the present by some story, that it was not the custom of her
+race to celebrate nuptials till a month after the betrothment; that the
+anger of Heaven would be on her, unless she first performed in solitude
+certain religious rites; and lastly, that if he dared to lay hands
+on her husband, she would die so resolutely, that every drop of water
+should be deep enough to drown her, every thorn sharp enough to stab
+her to the heart: till fearing lest by demanding too much he should lose
+all, and awed too, as he had been at first by a voice and looks which
+seemed to be, in comparison with his own, divine, Siripa bade her go
+back to her hut, promising her husband life; but promising too, that
+if he ever found the two speaking together, even for a moment, he would
+pour out on them both all the cruelty of those tortures in which the
+devil, their father, has so perfectly instructed the Indians.
+
+“So Don Sebastian, being stripped of his garments, and painted after
+the Indian fashion, was set to all mean and toilsome work, amid the
+buffetings and insults of the whole village. And this, ladies, he
+endured without a murmur, ay, took delight in enduring it, as he would
+have endured things worse a thousand times, only for the sake, like a
+true lover as he was, of being near the goddess whom he worshipped, and
+of seeing her now and then afar off, happy enough to be repaid even by
+that for all indignities.
+
+“And yet, you who have loved may well guess, as I can, that ere a week
+had passed, Don Sebastian and the Lady Miranda had found means, in spite
+of all spiteful eyes, to speak to each other once and again; and to
+assure each other of their love; even to talk of escape, before the
+month's grace should be expired. And Miranda, whose heart was full of
+courage as long as she felt her husband near her, went so far as to plan
+a means of escape which seemed possible and hopeful.
+
+“For the youngest wife of the cacique, who, till Miranda's coming,
+had been his favorite, often talked with the captive, insulting and
+tormenting her in her spite and jealousy, and receiving in return only
+gentle and conciliatory words. And one day when the woman had been
+threatening to kill her, Miranda took courage to say, 'Do you fancy that
+I shall not be as glad to be rid of your husband, as you to be rid of
+me? Why kill me needlessly, when all that you require is to get me forth
+of the place? Out of sight, out of mind. When I am gone, your husband
+will soon forget me, and you will be his favorite as before.' Soon,
+seeing that the girl was inclined to listen, she went on to tell her
+of her love to Don Sebastian, entreating and adjuring her, by the love
+which she bore the cacique, to pity and help her; and so won upon the
+girl, that she consented to be privy to Miranda's escape, and even
+offered to give her an opportunity of speaking to her husband about it;
+and at last was so won over by Miranda, that she consented to keep all
+intruders out of the way, while Don Sebastian that very night visited
+Miranda in her hut.
+
+“The hapless husband, thirsting for his love, was in that hut, be sure,
+the moment that kind darkness covered his steps:--and what cheer these
+two made of each other, when they once found themselves together,
+lovers must fancy for themselves: but so it was, that after many a
+leave-taking, there was no departure; and when the night was well-nigh
+past, Sebastian and Miranda were still talking together as if they had
+never met before, and would never meet again.
+
+“But it befell, ladies (would that I was not speaking truth, but
+inventing, that I might have invented something merrier for your ears),
+it befell that very night, that the young wife of the cacique, whose
+heart was lifted up with the thought that her rival was now at last
+disposed of, tried all her wiles to win back her faithless husband;
+but in vain. He only answered her caresses by indifference, then by
+contempt, then insults, then blows (for with the Indians, woman is
+always a slave, or rather a beast of burden), and went on to draw such
+cruel comparisons between her dark skin and the glorious fairness of the
+Spanish lady, that the wretched girl, beside herself with rage, burst
+out at last with her own secret. 'Fool that you are to madden yourself
+about a stranger who prizes one hair of her Spanish husband's head more
+than your whole body! Much does your new bride care for you! She is at
+this moment in her husband's arms!'
+
+“The cacique screamed furiously to know what she meant; and she, her
+jealousy and hate of the guiltless lady boiling over once for all, bade
+him, if he doubted her, go see for himself.
+
+“What use of many words? They were taken. Love, or rather lust,
+repelled, turned in a moment into devilish hate; and the cacique,
+summoning his Indians, bade them bind the wretched Don Sebastian to a
+tree, and there inflicted on him the lingering death to which he had at
+first been doomed. For Miranda he had more exquisite cruelty in store.
+And shall I tell it? Yes, ladies, for the honor of love and of Spain,
+and for a justification of those cruelties against the Indians which are
+so falsely imputed to our most Christian nation, it shall be told: he
+delivered the wretched lady over to the tender mercies of his wives; and
+what they were is neither fit for me to tell, nor you to hear.
+
+“The two wretched lovers cast themselves upon each other's neck; drank
+each other's salt tears with the last kisses; accused themselves as
+the cause of each other's death; and then, rising above fear and grief,
+broke out into triumph at thus dying for and with each other; and
+proclaiming themselves the martyrs of love, commended their souls to
+God, and then stepped joyfully and proudly to their doom.”
+
+“And what was that?” asked half-a-dozen trembling voices.
+
+“Don Sebastian, as I have said, was shot to death with arrows; but as
+for the Lady Miranda, the wretches themselves confessed afterwards, when
+they received due vengeance for their crimes (as they did receive it),
+that after all shameful and horrible indignities, she was bound to
+a tree, and there burned slowly in her husband's sight, stifling her
+shrieks lest they should wring his heart by one additional pang, and
+never taking her eyes, to the last, off that beloved face. And so died
+(but not unavenged) Sebastian de Hurtado and Lucia Miranda,--a Spanish
+husband and a Spanish wife.”
+
+The Don paused, and the ladies were silent awhile, for, indeed, there
+was many a gentle tear to be dried; but at last Mrs. St. Leger spoke,
+half, it seemed, to turn off the too painful impression of the over-true
+tale, the outlines whereof may be still read in old Charlevoix.
+
+“You have told a sad and a noble tale, sir, and told it well; but,
+though your story was to set forth a perfect husband, it has ended
+rather by setting forth a perfect wife.”
+
+“And if I have forgotten, madam, in praising her to praise him also,
+have I not done that which would have best pleased his heroical and
+chivalrous spirit? He, be sure, would have forgotten his own virtue in
+the light of hers; and he would have wished me, I doubt not, to do the
+same also. And beside, madam, where ladies are the theme, who has time
+or heart to cast one thought upon their slaves?” And the Don made one of
+his deliberate and highly-finished bows.
+
+“Don Guzman is courtier enough, as far as compliments go,” said one of
+the young ladies; “but it was hardly courtier-like of him to find us so
+sad an entertainment, upon a merry evening.”
+
+“Yes,” said another; “we must ask him for no more stories.”
+
+“Or songs either,” said a third. “I fear he knows none but about
+forsaken maidens and despairing lovers.”
+
+“I know nothing at all about forsaken ladies, madam; because ladies are
+never forsaken in Spain.”
+
+“Nor about lovers despairing there, I suppose?”
+
+“That good opinion of ourselves, madam, with which you English are
+pleased to twit us now and then, always prevents so sad a state of mind.
+For myself, I have had little to do with love; but I have had still less
+to do with despair, and intend, by help of Heaven, to have less.”
+
+“You are valiant, sir.”
+
+“You would not have me a coward, madam?” and so forth.
+
+Now all this time Don Guzman had been talking at Rose Salterne, and
+giving her the very slightest hint, every now and then, that he was
+talking at her; till the poor girl's face was almost crimson with
+pleasure, and she gave herself up to the spell. He loved her still;
+perhaps he knew that she loved him: he must know some day. She felt now
+that there was no escape; she was almost glad to think that there was
+none.
+
+The dark, handsome, stately face; the melodious voice, with its rich
+Spanish accent; the quiet grace of the gestures; the wild pathos of
+the story; even the measured and inflated style, as of one speaking of
+another and a loftier world; the chivalrous respect and admiration for
+woman, and for faithfulness to woman--what a man he was! If he had been
+pleasant heretofore, he was now enchanting. All the ladies round felt
+that, she could see, as much as she herself did; no, not quite as much,
+she hoped. She surely understood him, and felt for his loneliness more
+than any of them. Had she not been feeling for it through long and sad
+months? But it was she whom he was thinking of, she whom he was speaking
+to, all along. Oh, why had the tale ended so soon? She would gladly have
+sat and wept her eyes out till midnight over one melodious misery after
+another; but she was quite wise enough to keep her secret to herself;
+and sat behind the rest, with greedy eyes and demure lips, full of
+strange and new happiness--or misery; she knew not which to call it.
+
+In the meanwhile, as it was ordained, Cary could see and hear through
+the window of the hall a good deal of what was going on.
+
+“How that Spanish crocodile ogles the Rose!” whispered he to young St.
+Leger.
+
+“What wonder? He is not the first by many a one.”
+
+“Ay--but--By heaven, she is making side-shots at him with those
+languishing eyes of hers, the little baggage!”
+
+“What wonder? He is not the first, say I, and won't be the last. Pass
+the wine, man.”
+
+“I have had enough; between sack and singing, my head is as mazed as a
+dizzy sheep. Let me slip out.”
+
+“Not yet, man; remember you are bound for one song more.”
+
+So Cary, against his will, sat and sang another song; and in the
+meanwhile the party had broken up, and wandered away by twos and threes,
+among trim gardens and pleasaunces, and clipped yew-walks--
+
+     Where west-winds with musky wing
+     About the cedarn alleys fling
+     Nard and cassia's balmy smells--”
+
+admiring the beauty of that stately place, long since passed into other
+hands, and fallen to decay, but then (if old Prince speaks true) one of
+the noblest mansions of the West.
+
+At last Cary got away and out; sober, but just enough flushed with wine
+to be ready for any quarrel; and luckily for him, had not gone twenty
+yards along the great terrace before he met Lady Grenville.
+
+“Has your ladyship seen Don Guzman?”
+
+“Yes--why, where is he? He was with me not ten minutes ago. You know he
+is going back to Spain.”
+
+“Going! Has his ransom come?”
+
+“Yes, and with it a governorship in the Indies.”
+
+“Governorship! Much good may it do the governed.”
+
+“Why not, then? He is surely a most gallant gentleman.”
+
+“Gallant enough--yes,” said Cary, carelessly. “I must find him, and
+congratulate him on his honors.”
+
+“I will help you to find him,” said Lady Grenville, whose woman's eye
+and ear had already suspected something. “Escort me, sir.”
+
+“It is but too great an honor to squire the Queen of Bideford,” said
+Cary, offering his hand.
+
+“If I am your queen, sir, I must be obeyed,” answered she, in a meaning
+tone. Cary took the hint, and went on chattering cheerfully enough.
+
+But Don Guzman was not to be found in garden or in pleasaunce.
+
+“Perhaps,” at last said a burgher's wife, with a toss of her head, “your
+ladyship may meet with him at Hankford's oak.”
+
+“At Hankford's oak! what should take him there?”
+
+“Pleasant company, I reckon” (with another toss). “I heard him and
+Mistress Salterne talking about the oak just now.”
+
+Cary turned pale and drew in his breath.
+
+“Very likely,” said Lady Grenville, quietly. “Will you walk with me so
+far, Mr. Cary?”
+
+“To the world's end, if your ladyship condescends so far.” And off they
+went, Lady Grenville wishing that they were going anywhere else, but
+afraid to let Cary go alone; and suspecting, too, that some one or other
+ought to go.
+
+So they went down past the herds of deer, by a trim-kept path into
+the lonely dell where stood the fatal oak; and, as they went, Lady
+Grenville, to avoid more unpleasant talk, poured into Cary's unheeding
+ears the story (which he probably had heard fifty times before) how old
+Chief-justice Hankford (whom some contradictory myths make the man who
+committed Prince Henry to prison for striking him on the bench), weary
+of life and sickened at the horrors and desolations of the Wars of the
+Roses, went down to his house at Annery there, and bade his keeper shoot
+any man who, passing through the deer-park at night, should refuse to
+stand when challenged; and then going down into that glen himself, and
+hiding himself beneath that oak, met willingly by his keeper's hand the
+death which his own dared not inflict: but ere the story was half done,
+Cary grasped Lady Grenville's hand so tightly that she gave a little
+shriek of pain.
+
+“There they are!” whispered he, heedless of her; and pointed to the oak,
+where, half hidden by the tall fern, stood Rose and the Spaniard.
+
+Her head was on his bosom. She seemed sobbing, trembling; he talking
+earnestly and passionately; but Lady Grenville's little shriek made them
+both look up. To turn and try to escape was to confess all; and the
+two, collecting themselves instantly, walked towards her, Rose wishing
+herself fathoms deep beneath the earth.
+
+“Mind, sir,” whispered Lady Grenville as they came up; “you have seen
+nothing.”
+
+“Madam?”
+
+“If you are not on my ground, you are on my brother's. Obey me!”
+
+Cary bit his lip, and bowed courteously to the Don.
+
+“I have to congratulate you, I hear, senor, on your approaching
+departure.”
+
+“I kiss your hands, senor, in return; but I question whether it be a
+matter of congratulation, considering all that I leave behind.”
+
+“So do I,” answered Cary, bluntly enough, and the four walked back to
+the house, Lady Grenville taking everything for granted with the most
+charming good humor, and chatting to her three silent companions
+till they gained the terrace once more, and found four or five of
+the gentlemen, with Sir Richard at their head, proceeding to the
+bowling-green.
+
+Lady Grenville, in an agony of fear about the quarrel which she knew
+must come, would have gladly whispered five words to her husband: but
+she dared not do it before the Spaniard, and dreaded, too, a faint or
+a scream from the Rose, whose father was of the party. So she walked
+on with her fair prisoner, commanding Cary to escort them in, and the
+Spaniard to go to the bowling-green.
+
+Cary obeyed: but he gave her the slip the moment she was inside the
+door, and then darted off to the gentlemen.
+
+His heart was on fire: all his old passion for the Rose had flashed up
+again at the sight of her with a lover;--and that lover a Spaniard! He
+would cut his throat for him, if steel could do it! Only he recollected
+that Salterne was there, and shrank from exposing Rose; and shrank, too,
+as every gentleman should, from making a public quarrel in another man's
+house. Never mind. Where there was a will there was a way. He could get
+him into a corner, and quarrel with him privately about the cut of
+his beard, or the color of his ribbon. So in he went; and, luckily or
+unluckily, found standing together apart from the rest, Sir Richard, the
+Don, and young St. Leger.
+
+“Well, Don Guzman, you have given us wine-bibbers the slip this
+afternoon. I hope you have been well employed in the meanwhile?”
+
+“Delightfully to myself, senor,” said the Don, who, enraged at being
+interrupted, if not discovered, was as ready to fight as Cary, but
+disliked, of course, an explosion as much as he did; “and to others, I
+doubt not.”
+
+“So the ladies say,” quoth St. Leger. “He has been making them all cry
+with one of his stories, and robbing us meanwhile of the pleasure we had
+hoped for from some of his Spanish songs.”
+
+“The devil take Spanish songs!” said Cary, in a low voice, but loud
+enough for the Spaniard. Don Guzman clapt his hand on his sword-hilt
+instantly.
+
+“Lieutenant Cary,” said Sir Richard, in a stern voice, “the wine has
+surely made you forget yourself!”
+
+“As sober as yourself, most worshipful knight; but if you want a Spanish
+song, here's one; and a very scurvy one it is, like its subject--
+
+       “Don Desperado
+        Walked on the Prado,
+     And there he met his enemy.
+        He pulled out a knife, a,
+        And let out his life, a,
+     And fled for his own across the sea.”
+
+And he bowed low to the Spaniard.
+
+The insult was too gross to require any spluttering.
+
+“Senor Cary, we meet?”
+
+“I thank your quick apprehension, Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor
+de Soto. When, where, and with what weapons?”
+
+“For God's sake, gentlemen! Nephew Arthur, Cary is your guest; do you
+know the meaning of this?”
+
+St. Leger was silent. Cary answered for him.
+
+“An old Irish quarrel, I assure you, sir. A matter of years' standing.
+In unlacing the senor's helmet, the evening that he was taken prisoner,
+I was unlucky enough to twitch his mustachios. You recollect the fact,
+of course, senor?”
+
+“Perfectly,” said the Spaniard; and then, half-amused and half-pleased,
+in spite of his bitter wrath, at Cary's quickness and delicacy in
+shielding Rose, he bowed, and--
+
+“And it gives me much pleasure to find that he whom I trust to have the
+pleasure of killing tomorrow morning is a gentleman whose nice sense of
+honor renders him thoroughly worthy of the sword of a De Soto.”
+
+Cary bowed in return, while Sir Richard, who saw plainly enough that the
+excuse was feigned, shrugged his shoulders.
+
+“What weapons, senor?” asked Will again.
+
+“I should have preferred a horse and pistols,” said Don Guzman after
+a moment, half to himself, and in Spanish; “they make surer work of it
+than bodkins; but” (with a sigh and one of his smiles) “beggars must not
+be choosers.”
+
+“The best horse in my stable is at your service, senor,” said Sir
+Richard Grenville, instantly.
+
+“And in mine also, senor,” said Cary; “and I shall be happy to allow you
+a week to train him, if he does not answer at first to a Spanish hand.”
+
+“You forget in your courtesy, gentle sir, that the insult being with me,
+the time lies with me also. We wipe it off to-morrow morning with simple
+rapiers and daggers. Who is your second?”
+
+“Mr. Arthur St. Leger here, senor: who is yours?”
+
+The Spaniard felt himself alone in the world for one moment; and then
+answered with another of his smiles,--
+
+“Your nation possesses the soul of honor. He who fights an Englishman
+needs no second.”
+
+“And he who fights among Englishmen will always find one,” said Sir
+Richard. “I am the fittest second for my guest.”
+
+“You only add one more obligation, illustrious cavalier, to a two-years'
+prodigality of favors, which I shall never be able to repay.”
+
+“But, Nephew Arthur,” said Grenville, “you cannot surely be second
+against your father's guest, and your own uncle.”
+
+“I cannot help it, sir; I am bound by an oath, as Will can tell you. I
+suppose you won't think it necessary to let me blood?”
+
+“You half deserve it, sirrah!” said Sir Richard, who was very angry: but
+the Don interposed quickly.
+
+“Heaven forbid, senors! We are no French duellists, who are mad enough
+to make four or six lives answer for the sins of two. This gentleman
+and I have quarrel enough between us, I suspect, to make a right bloody
+encounter.”
+
+“The dependence is good enough, sir,” said Cary, licking his sinful
+lips at the thought. “Very well. Rapiers and shirts at three tomorrow
+morning--Is that the bill of fare? Ask Sir Richard where, Atty? It is
+against punctilio now for me to speak to him till after I am killed.”
+
+“On the sands opposite. The tide will be out at three. And now, gallant
+gentlemen, let us join the bowlers.”
+
+And so they went back and spent a merry evening, all except poor Rose,
+who, ere she went back, had poured all her sorrows into Lady Grenville's
+ear. For the kind woman, knowing that she was motherless and guileless,
+carried her off into Mrs. St. Leger's chamber, and there entreated her
+to tell the truth, and heaped her with pity but with no comfort. For
+indeed, what comfort was there to give?
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+Three o'clock, upon a still pure bright midsummer morning. A broad
+and yellow sheet of ribbed tide-sands, through which the shallow river
+wanders from one hill-foot to the other, whispering round dark knolls
+of rock, and under low tree-fringed cliffs, and banks of golden broom.
+A mile below, the long bridge and the white walled town, all sleeping
+pearly in the soft haze, beneath a cloudless vault of blue. The
+white glare of dawn, which last night hung high in the northwest, has
+travelled now to the northeast, and above the wooded wall of the hills
+the sky is flushing with rose and amber.
+
+A long line of gulls goes wailing up inland; the rooks from Annery come
+cawing and sporting round the corner at Landcross, while high above them
+four or five herons flap solemnly along to find their breakfast on the
+shallows. The pheasants and partridges are clucking merrily in the long
+wet grass; every copse and hedgerow rings with the voice of birds, but
+the lark, who has been singing since midnight in the “blank height of
+the dark,” suddenly hushes his carol and drops headlong among the corn,
+as a broad-winged buzzard swings from some wooded peak into the abyss of
+the valley, and hangs high-poised above the heavenward songster. The air
+is full of perfume; sweet clover, new-mown hay, the fragrant breath of
+kine, the dainty scent of sea-weed wreaths and fresh wet sand. Glorious
+day, glorious place, “bridal of earth and sky,” decked well with bridal
+garlands, bridal perfumes, bridal songs,--What do those four cloaked
+figures there by the river brink, a dark spot on the fair face of the
+summer morn?
+
+Yet one is as cheerful as if he too, like all nature round him, were
+going to a wedding; and that is Will Cary. He has been bathing down
+below, to cool his brain and steady his hand; and he intends to stop Don
+Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto's wooing for ever and a day.
+The Spaniard is in a very different mood; fierce and haggard, he is
+pacing up and down the sand. He intends to kill Will Cary; but then?
+Will he be the nearer to Rose by doing so? Can he stay in Bideford?
+Will she go with him? Shall he stoop to stain his family by marrying a
+burgher's daughter? It is a confused, all but desperate business; and
+Don Guzman is certain but of one thing, that he is madly in love with
+this fair witch, and that if she refuse him, then, rather than see her
+accept another man, he would kill her with his own hands.
+
+Sir Richard Grenville too is in no very pleasant humor, as St. Leger
+soon discovers, when the two seconds begin whispering over their
+arrangements.
+
+“We cannot have either of them killed, Arthur.”
+
+“Mr. Cary swears he will kill the Spaniard, sir.”
+
+“He sha'n't. The Spaniard is my guest. I am answerable for him to Leigh,
+and for his ransom too. And how can Leigh accept the ransom if the man
+is not given up safe and sound? They won't pay for a dead carcass, boy!
+The man's life is worth two hundred pounds.”
+
+“A very bad bargain, sir, for those who pay the said two hundred for
+the rascal; but what if he kills Cary?”
+
+“Worse still. Cary must not be killed. I am very angry with him, but he
+is too good a lad to be lost; and his father would never forgive us. We
+must strike up their swords at the first scratch.”
+
+“It will make them very mad, sir.”
+
+“Hang them! let them fight us then, if they don't like our counsel. It
+must be, Arthur.”
+
+“Be sure, sir,” said Arthur, “that whatsoever you shall command I shall
+perform. It is only too great an honor to a young man as I am to find
+myself in the same duel with your worship, and to have the advantage of
+your wisdom and experience.”
+
+Sir Richard smiles, and says--“Now, gentlemen! are you ready?”
+
+The Spaniard pulls out a little crucifix, and kisses it devoutly,
+smiting on his breast; crosses himself two or three times, and
+says--“Most willingly, senor.”
+
+Cary kisses no crucifix, but says a prayer nevertheless.
+
+Cloaks and doublets are tossed off, the men placed, the rapiers measured
+hilt and point; Sir Richard and St. Leger place themselves right and
+left of the combatants, facing each other, the points of their drawn
+swords on the sand. Cary and the Spaniard stand for a moment quite
+upright, their sword-arms stretched straight before them, holding the
+long rapier horizontally, the left hand clutching the dagger close to
+their breasts. So they stand eye to eye, with clenched teeth and pale
+crushed lips, while men might count a score; St. Leger can hear the
+beating of his own heart; Sir Richard is praying inwardly that no life
+may be lost. Suddenly there is a quick turn of Cary's wrist and a leap
+forward. The Spaniard's dagger flashes, and the rapier is turned aside;
+Cary springs six feet back as the Spaniard rushes on him in turn. Parry,
+thrust, parry--the steel rattles, the sparks fly, the men breathe fierce
+and loud; the devil's game is begun in earnest.
+
+Five minutes have the two had instant death a short six inches off from
+those wild sinful hearts of theirs, and not a scratch has been given.
+Yes! the Spaniard's rapier passes under Cary's left arm; he bleeds.
+
+“A hit! a hit! Strike up, Atty!” and the swords are struck up instantly.
+
+Cary, nettled by the smart, tries to close with his foe, but the seconds
+cross their swords before him.
+
+“It is enough, gentlemen. Don Guzman's honor is satisfied!”
+
+“But not my revenge, senor,” says the Spaniard, with a frown. “This duel
+is a l'outrance, on my part; and, I believe, on Mr. Cary's also.”
+
+“By heaven, it is!” says Will, trying to push past. “Let me go, Arthur
+St. Leger; one of us must down. Let me go, I say!”
+
+“If you stir, Mr. Cary, you have to do with Richard Grenville!” thunders
+the lion voice. “I am angry enough with you for having brought on this
+duel at all. Don't provoke me still further, young hot-head!”
+
+Cary stops sulkily.
+
+“You do not know all, Sir Richard, or you would not speak in this way.”
+
+“I do, sir, all; and I shall have the honor of talking it over with Don
+Guzman myself.”
+
+“Hey!” said the Spaniard. “You came here as my second, Sir Richard, as I
+understood, but not as my counsellor.”
+
+“Arthur, take your man away! Cary! obey me as you would your father,
+sir! Can you not trust Richard Grenville?”
+
+“Come away, for God's sake!” says poor Arthur, dragging Cary's sword
+from him; “Sir Richard must know best!”
+
+So Cary is led off sulking, and Sir Richard turns to the Spaniard,
+
+“And now, Don Guzman, allow me, though much against my will, to speak to
+you as a friend to a friend. You will pardon me if I say that I cannot
+but have seen last night's devotion to--”
+
+“You will be pleased, senor, not to mention the name of any lady to whom
+I may have shown devotion. I am not accustomed to have my little affairs
+talked over by any unbidden counsellors.”
+
+“Well, senor, if you take offence, you take that which is not given.
+Only I warn you, with all apologies for any seeming forwardness, that
+the quest on which you seem to be is one on which you will not be
+allowed to proceed.”
+
+“And who will stop me?” asked the Spaniard, with a fierce oath.
+
+“You are not aware, illustrious senor,” said Sir Richard, parrying the
+question, “that our English laity look upon mixed marriages with full as
+much dislike as your own ecclesiastics.”
+
+“Marriage, sir? Who gave you leave to mention that word to me?”
+
+Sir Richard's brow darkened; the Spaniard, in his insane pride, had
+forced upon the good knight a suspicion which was not really just.
+
+“Is it possible, then, Senor Don Guzman, that I am to have the shame of
+mentioning a baser word?”
+
+“Mention what you will, sir. All words are the same to me; for, just or
+unjust, I shall answer them alike only by my sword.”
+
+“You will do no such thing, sir. You forget that I am your host.”
+
+“And do you suppose that you have therefore a right to insult me? Stand
+on your guard, sir!”
+
+Grenville answered by slapping his own rapier home into the sheath with
+a quiet smile.
+
+“Senor Don Guzman must be well enough aware of who Richard Grenville is,
+to know that he may claim the right of refusing duel to any man, if he
+shall so think fit.”
+
+“Sir!” cried the Spaniard, with an oath, “this is too much! Do you dare
+to hint that I am unworthy of your sword? Know, insolent Englishman, I
+am not merely a De Soto, though that, by St. James, were enough for you
+or any man. I am a Sotomayor, a Mendoza, a Bovadilla, a Losada, a--sir!
+I have blood royal in my veins, and you dare to refuse my challenge?”
+
+“Richard Grenville can show quarterings, probably, against even Don
+Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto, or against (with no offence to
+the unquestioned nobility of your pedigree) the bluest blood of Spain.
+But he can show, moreover, thank God, a reputation which raises him
+as much above the imputation of cowardice, as it does above that of
+discourtesy. If you think fit, senor, to forget what you have just, in
+very excusable anger, vented, and to return with me, you will find me
+still, as ever, your most faithful servant and host. If otherwise, you
+have only to name whither you wish your mails to be sent, and I shall,
+with unfeigned sorrow, obey your commands concerning them.”
+
+The Spaniard bowed stiffly, answered, “To the nearest tavern, senor,”
+ and then strode away. His baggage was sent thither. He took a boat down
+to Appledore that very afternoon, and vanished, none knew whither. A
+very courteous note to Lady Grenville, enclosing the jewel which he had
+been used to wear round his neck, was the only memorial he left behind
+him: except, indeed, the scar on Cary's arm, and poor Rose's broken
+heart.
+
+Now county towns are scandalous places at best; and though all parties
+tried to keep the duel secret, yet, of course, before noon all Bideford
+knew what had happened, and a great deal more; and what was even worse,
+Rose, in an agony of terror, had seen Sir Richard Grenville enter her
+father's private room, and sit there closeted with him for an hour and
+more; and when he went, upstairs came old Salterne, with his stick in
+his hand, and after rating her soundly for far worse than a flirt, gave
+her (I am sorry to have to say it, but such was the mild fashion of
+paternal rule in those times, even over such daughters as Lady Jane
+Grey, if Roger Ascham is to be believed) such a beating that her poor
+sides were black and blue for many a day; and then putting her on a
+pillion behind him, carried her off twenty miles to her old prison at
+Stow mill, commanding her aunt to tame down her saucy blood with bread
+of affliction and water of affliction. Which commands were willingly
+enough fulfilled by the old dame, who had always borne a grudge against
+Rose for being rich while she was poor, and pretty while her daughter
+was plain; so that between flouts, and sneers, and watchings, and pretty
+open hints that she was a disgrace to her family, and no better than she
+should be, the poor innocent child watered her couch with her tears for
+a fortnight or more, stretching out her hands to the wide Atlantic, and
+calling wildly to Don Guzman to return and take her where he would, and
+she would live for him and die for him; and perhaps she did not call in
+vain.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+HOW THE GOLDEN HIND CAME HOME AGAIN
+
+     “The spirits of your fathers
+       Shall start from every wave;
+     For the deck it was their field of fame,
+       And ocean was their grave.”
+
+                                CAMPBELL.
+
+“So you see, my dear Mrs. Hawkins, having the silver, as your own eyes
+show you, beside the ores of lead, manganese, and copper, and above all
+this gossan (as the Cornish call it), which I suspect to be not merely
+the matrix of the ore, but also the very crude form and materia prima
+of all metals--you mark me?--If my recipes, which I had from Doctor Dee,
+succeed only half so well as I expect, then I refine out the luna, the
+silver, lay it by, and transmute the remaining ores into sol, gold.
+Whereupon Peru and Mexico become superfluities, and England the mistress
+of the globe. Strange, no doubt; distant, no doubt: but possible, my
+dear madam, possible!”
+
+“And what good to you if it be, Mr. Gilbert? If you could find a
+philosopher's stone to turn sinners into saints, now--but naught save
+God's grace can do that; and that last seems ofttimes over long in
+coming.” And Mrs. Hawkins sighed.
+
+“But indeed, my dear madam, conceive now.--The Comb Martin mine thus
+becomes a gold mine, perhaps inexhaustible; yields me wherewithal to
+carry out my North-West patent; meanwhile my brother Humphrey holds
+Newfoundland, and builds me fresh ships year by year (for the forests of
+pine are boundless) for my China voyage.”
+
+“Sir Humphrey has better thoughts in his dear heart than gold, Mr.
+Adrian; a very close and gracious walker he has been this seven year. I
+wish my Captain John were so too.”
+
+“And how do you know I have naught better in my mind's eye than gold?
+Or, indeed, what better could I have? Is not gold the Spaniard's
+strength--the very mainspring of Antichrist? By gold only, therefore,
+can we out-wrestle him. You shake your head, but say, dear madam (for
+gold England must have), which is better, to make gold bloodlessly at
+home, or take it bloodily abroad?”
+
+“Oh, Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Gilbert! is it not written, that those who make
+haste to be rich, pierce themselves through with many sorrows? Oh, Mr.
+Gilbert! God's blessing is not on it all.”
+
+“Not on you, madam? Be sure that brave Captain John Hawkins's star
+told me a different tale, when I cast his nativity for him.--Born under
+stormy planets, truly, but under right royal and fortunate ones.”
+
+“Ah, Mr. Adrian! I am a simple body, and you a great philosopher, but
+I hold there is no star for the seaman like the Star of Bethlehem; and
+that goes with 'peace on earth and good will to men,' and not with such
+arms as that, Mr. Adrian. I can't abide to look upon them.”
+
+And she pointed up to one of the bosses of the ribbed oak-roof, on which
+was emblazoned the fatal crest which Clarencieux Hervey had granted
+years before to her husband, the “Demi-Moor proper, bound.”
+
+“Ah, Mr. Gilbert! since first he went to Guinea after those poor
+negroes, little lightness has my heart known; and the very day that that
+crest was put up in our grand new house, as the parson read the first
+lesson, there was this text in it, Mr. Gilbert, 'Woe to him that
+buildeth his house by iniquity, and his chambers by wrong. Shalt thou
+live because thou closest thyself in cedar?' And it went into my ears
+like fire, Mr. Gilbert, and into my heart like lead; and when the parson
+went on, 'Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice?
+Then it was well with him,' I thought of good old Captain Will; and--I
+tell you, Mr. Gilbert, those negroes are on my soul from morning until
+night! We are all mighty grand now, and money comes in fast, but the
+Lord will require the blood of them at our hands yet, He will!”
+
+“My dearest madam, who can prosper more than you? If your husband copied
+the Dons too closely once or twice in the matter of those negroes (which
+I do not deny,) was he not punished at once when he lost ships, men, all
+but life, at St. Juan d'Ulloa?”
+
+“Ay, yes,” she said; “and that did give me a bit of comfort, especially
+when the queen--God save her tender heart!--was so sharp with him for
+pity of the poor wretches, but it has not mended him. He is growing fast
+like the rest now, Mr. Gilbert, greedy to win, and niggardly to spend
+(God forgive him!) and always fretting and plotting for some new gain,
+and envying and grudging at Drake, and all who are deeper in the
+snare of prosperity than he is. Gold, gold, nothing but gold in
+every mouth--there it is! Ah! I mind when Plymouth was a quiet little
+God-fearing place as God could smile upon: but ever since my John, and
+Sir Francis, and poor Mr. Oxenham found out the way to the Indies, it's
+been a sad place. Not a sailor's wife but is crying 'Give, give,' like
+the daughters of the horse-leech; and every woman must drive her
+husband out across seas to bring her home money to squander on hoods and
+farthingales, and go mincing with outstretched necks and wanton eyes;
+and they will soon learn to do worse than that, for the sake of gain.
+But the Lord's hand will be against their tires and crisping-pins, their
+mufflers and farthingales, as it was against the Jews of old. Ah, dear
+me!”
+
+The two interlocutors in this dialogue were sitting in a low
+oak-panelled room in Plymouth town, handsomely enough furnished, adorned
+with carving and gilding and coats of arms, and noteworthy for many
+strange knickknacks, Spanish gold and silver vessels on the sideboard;
+strange birds and skins, and charts and rough drawings of coast which
+hung about the room; while over the fireplace, above the portrait of old
+Captain Will Hawkins, pet of Henry the Eighth, hung the Spanish ensign
+which Captain John had taken in fair fight at Rio de la Hacha fifteen
+years before, when, with two hundred men, he seized the town in despite
+of ten hundred Spanish soldiers, and watered his ship triumphantly at
+the enemy's wells.
+
+The gentleman was a tall fair man, with a broad and lofty forehead,
+wrinkled with study, and eyes weakened by long poring over the crucible
+and the furnace.
+
+The lady had once been comely enough, but she was aged and worn, as
+sailors' wives are apt to be, by many sorrows. Many a sad day had she
+had already; for although John Hawkins, port-admiral of Plymouth, and
+patriarch of British shipbuilders, was a faithful husband enough, and
+as ready to forgive as he was to quarrel, yet he was obstinate and
+ruthless, and in spite of his religiosity (for all men were religious
+then) was by no means a “consistent walker.”
+
+And sadder days were in store for her, poor soul. Nine years hence she
+would be asked to name her son's brave new ship, and would christen it
+The Repentance, giving no reason in her quiet steadfast way (so says
+her son Sir Richard) but that “Repentance was the best ship in which
+we could sail to the harbor of heaven;” and she would hear that Queen
+Elizabeth, complaining of the name for an unlucky one, had re-christened
+her The Dainty, not without some by-quip, perhaps, at the character
+of her most dainty captain, Richard Hawkins, the complete seaman and
+Euphuist afloat, of whom, perhaps, more hereafter.
+
+With sad eyes Mrs. (then Lady) Hawkins would see that gallant bark sail
+Westward-ho, to go the world around, as many another ship sailed; and
+then wait, as many a mother beside had waited, for the sail which never
+returned; till, dim and uncertain, came tidings of her boy fighting for
+four days three great Armadas (for the coxcomb had his father's heart in
+him after all), a prisoner, wounded, ruined, languishing for weary years
+in Spanish prisons. And a sadder day than that was in store, when a
+gallant fleet should round the Ram Head, not with drum and trumpet, but
+with solemn minute-guns, and all flags half-mast high, to tell her
+that her terrible husband's work was done, his terrible heart broken by
+failure and fatigue, and his body laid by Drake's beneath the far-off
+tropic seas.
+
+And if, at the close of her eventful life, one gleam of sunshine opened
+for a while, when her boy Richard returned to her bosom from his Spanish
+prison, to be knighted for his valor, and made a privy councillor for
+his wisdom; yet soon, how soon, was the old cloud to close in again
+above her, until her weary eyes should open in the light of Paradise.
+For that son dropped dead, some say at the very council-table, leaving
+behind him naught but broken fortunes, and huge purposes which never
+were fulfilled; and the stormy star of that bold race was set forever,
+and Lady Hawkins bowed her weary head and died, the groan of those
+stolen negroes ringing in her ears, having lived long enough to see her
+husband's youthful sin become a national institution, and a national
+curse for generations yet unborn.
+
+I know not why she opened her heart that night to Adrian Gilbert, with
+a frankness which she would hardly have dared to use to her own family.
+Perhaps it was that Adrian, like his great brothers, Humphrey and
+Raleigh, was a man full of all lofty and delicate enthusiasms, tender
+and poetical, such as women cling to when their hearts are lonely; but
+so it was; and Adrian, half ashamed of his own ambitious dreams, sate
+looking at her a while in silence; and then--
+
+“The Lord be with you, dearest lady. Strange, how you women sit at home
+to love and suffer, while we men rush forth to break our hearts and
+yours against rocks of our own seeking! Ah well! were it not for
+Scripture, I should have thought that Adam, rather than Eve, had been
+the one who plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree.”
+
+“We women, I fear; did the deed nevertheless; for we bear the doom of it
+our lives long.”
+
+“You always remind me, madam, of my dear Mrs. Leigh of Burrough, and her
+counsels.”
+
+“Do you see her often? I hear of her as one of the Lord's most precious
+vessels.”
+
+“I would have done more ere now than see her,” said he with a blush,
+“had she allowed me: but she lives only for the memory of her husband
+and the fame of her noble sons.”
+
+As he spoke the door opened, and in walked, wrapped in his rough
+sea-gown, none other than one of those said noble sons.
+
+Adrian turned pale.
+
+“Amyas Leigh! What brings you hither? how fares my brother? Where is the
+ship?”
+
+“Your brother is well, Mr. Gilbert. The Golden Hind is gone on to
+Dartmouth, with Mr. Hayes. I came ashore here, meaning to go north to
+Bideford, ere I went to London. I called at Drake's just now, but he was
+away.”
+
+“The Golden Hind? What brings her home so soon?”
+
+“Yet welcome ever, sir,” said Mrs. Hawkins. “This is a great surprise,
+though. Captain John did not look for you till next year.”
+
+Amyas was silent.
+
+“Something is wrong!” cried Adrian. “Speak!”
+
+Amyas tried, but could not.
+
+“Will you drive a man mad, sir? Has the adventure failed? You said my
+brother was well.”
+
+“He is well.”
+
+“Then what--Why do you look at me in that fashion, sir?” and springing
+up, Adrian rushed forward, and held the candle to Amyas's face.
+
+Amyas's lip quivered, as he laid his hand on Adrian's shoulder.
+
+“Your great and glorious brother, sir, is better bestowed than in
+settling Newfoundland.”
+
+“Dead?” shrieked Adrian.
+
+“He is with the God whom he served!”
+
+“He was always with Him, like Enoch: parable me no parables, if you love
+me, sir!”
+
+“And, like Enoch, he was not; for God took him.”
+
+Adrian clasped his hands over his forehead, and leaned against the
+table.
+
+“Go on, sir, go on. God will give me strength to hear all.”
+
+And gradually Amyas opened to Adrian that tragic story, which Mr. Hayes
+has long ago told far too well to allow a second edition of it from me:
+of the unruliness of the men, ruffians, as I said before, caught up at
+hap-hazard; of conspiracies to carry off the ships, plunder of fishing
+vessels, desertions multiplying daily; licenses from the general to the
+lazy and fearful to return home: till Adrian broke out with a groan--
+
+“From him? Conspired against him? Deserted from him? Dotards, buzzards!
+Where would they have found such another leader?”
+
+“Your illustrious brother, sir,” said Amyas, “if you will pardon me, was
+a very great philosopher, but not so much of a general.”
+
+“General, sir? Where was braver man?”
+
+“Not on God's earth, but that does not make a general, sir. If Cortez
+had been brave and no more, Mexico would have been Mexico still. The
+truth is, sir, Cortez, like my Captain Drake, knew when to hang a man;
+and your great brother did not.”
+
+Amyas, as I suppose, was right. Gilbert was a man who could be angry
+enough at baseness or neglect, but who was too kindly to punish it; he
+was one who could form the wisest and best-digested plans, but who could
+not stoop to that hail-fellow-well-met drudgery among his subordinates
+which has been the talisman of great captains.
+
+Then Amyas went on to tell the rest of his story; the setting sail from
+St. John's to discover the southward coast; Sir Humphrey's chivalrous
+determination to go in the little Squirrel of only ten tons, and
+“overcharged with nettings, fights, and small ordnance,” not only
+because she was more fit to examine the creeks, but because he had heard
+of some taunt against him among the men, that he was afraid of the sea.
+
+After that, woe on woe; how, seven days after they left Cape Raz, their
+largest ship, the Delight, after she had “most part of the night” (I
+quote Hayes), “like the swan that singeth before her death, continued in
+sounding of trumpets, drums, and fifes, also winding of the comets and
+hautboys, and, in the end of their jollity, left off with the battle and
+doleful knells,” struck the next day (the Golden Hind and the Squirrel
+sheering off just in time) upon unknown shoals; where were lost all but
+fourteen, and among them Frank's philosopher friend, poor Budaeus; and
+those who escaped, after all horrors of cold and famine, were cast on
+shore in Newfoundland. How, worn out with hunger and want of clothes,
+the crews of the two remaining ships persuaded Sir Humphrey to sail
+toward England on the 31st of August; and on “that very instant, even in
+winding about,” beheld close alongside “a very lion in shape, hair, and
+color, not swimming, but sliding on the water, with his whole body; who
+passed along, turning his head to and fro, yawning and gaping wide,
+with ugly demonstration of long teeth and glaring eyes; and to bid us
+farewell (coming right against the Hind) he sent forth a horrible voice,
+roaring or bellowing as doth a lion.” “What opinion others had thereof,
+and chiefly the general himself, I forbear to deliver; but he took it
+for bonum omen, rejoicing that he was to war against such an enemy, if
+it were the devil.”
+
+“And the devil it was, doubtless,” said Adrian, “the roaring lion who
+goes about seeking whom he may devour.”
+
+“He has not got your brother, at least,” quoth Amyas.
+
+“No,” rejoined Mrs. Hawkins (smile not, reader, for those were days in
+which men believed in the devil); “he roared for joy to think how many
+poor souls would be left still in heathen darkness by Sir Humphrey's
+death. God be with that good knight, and send all mariners where he is
+now!”
+
+Then Amyas told the last scene; how, when they were off the Azores, the
+storms came on heavier than ever, with “terrible seas, breaking short
+and pyramid-wise,” till, on the 9th September, the tiny Squirrel nearly
+foundered and yet recovered; “and the general, sitting abaft with a
+book in his hand, cried out to us in the Hind so oft as we did approach
+within hearing, 'We are as near heaven by sea as by land,' reiterating
+the same speech, well beseeming a soldier resolute in Jesus Christ, as I
+can testify he was.
+
+“The same Monday, about twelve of the clock, or not long after, the
+frigate (the Squirrel) being ahead of us in the Golden Hind, suddenly
+her lights were out; and withal our watch cried, the general was cast
+away, which was true; for in that moment the frigate was devoured and
+swallowed up of the sea.”
+
+And so ended (I have used Hayes' own words) Amyas Leigh's story.
+
+“Oh, my brother! my brother!” moaned poor Adrian; “the glory of his
+house, the glory of Devon!”
+
+“Ah! what will the queen say?” asked Mrs. Hawkins through her tears.
+
+“Tell me,” asked Adrian, “had he the jewel on when he died?”
+
+“The queen's jewel? He always wore that, and his own posy too, 'Mutare
+vel timere sperno.' He wore it; and he lived it.”
+
+“Ay,” said Adrian, “the same to the last!”
+
+“Not quite that,” said Amyas. “He was a meeker man latterly than he used
+to be. As he said himself once, a better refiner than any whom he had on
+board had followed him close all the seas over, and purified him in the
+fire. And gold seven times tried he was, when God, having done His work
+in him, took him home at last.”
+
+And so the talk ended. There was no doubt that the expedition had
+been an utter failure; Adrian was a ruined man; and Amyas had lost his
+venture.
+
+Adrian rose, and begged leave to retire; he must collect himself.
+
+“Poor gentleman!” said Mrs. Hawkins; “it is little else he has left to
+collect.”
+
+“Or I either,” said Amyas. “I was going to ask you to lend me one of
+your son's shirts, and five pounds to get myself and my men home.”
+
+“Five? Fifty, Mr. Leigh! God forbid that John Hawkins's wife should
+refuse her last penny to a distressed mariner, and he a gentleman born.
+But you must eat and drink.”
+
+“It's more than I have done for many a day worth speaking of.”
+
+And Amyas sat down in his rags to a good supper, while Mrs. Hawkins told
+him all the news which she could of his mother, whom Adrian Gilbert had
+seen a few months before in London; and then went on, naturally enough,
+to the Bideford news.
+
+“And by the by, Captain Leigh, I've sad news for you from your place;
+and I had it from one who was there at the time. You must know a Spanish
+captain, a prisoner--”
+
+“What, the one I sent home from Smerwick?”
+
+“You sent? Mercy on us! Then, perhaps, you've heard--”
+
+“How can I have heard? What?”
+
+“That he's gone off, the villain?”
+
+“Without paying his ransom?”
+
+“I can't say that; but there's a poor innocent young maid gone off with
+him, one Salterne's daughter--the Popish serpent!”
+
+“Rose Salterne, the mayor's daughter, the Rose of Torridge!”
+
+“That's her. Bless your dear soul, what ails you?”
+
+Amyas had dropped back in his seat as if he had been shot; but he
+recovered himself before kind Mrs. Hawkins could rush to the cupboard
+for cordials.
+
+“You'll forgive me, madam; but I'm weak from the sea; and your good ale
+has turned me a bit dizzy, I think.”
+
+“Ay, yes, 'tis too, too heavy, till you've been on shore a while. Try
+the aqua vitae; my Captain John has it right good; and a bit too fond of
+it too, poor dear soul, between whiles, Heaven forgive him!”
+
+So she poured some strong brandy and water down Amyas's throat, in spite
+of his refusals, and sent him to bed, but not to sleep; and after a
+night of tossing, he started for Bideford, having obtained the means for
+so doing from Mrs. Hawkins.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+HOW SALVATION YEO SLEW THE KING OF THE GUBBINGS
+
+     “Ignorance and evil, even in full flight, deal terrible backhanded
+     strokes at their pursuers.”--HELPS.
+
+Now I am sorry to say, for the honor of my country, that it was by no
+means a safe thing in those days to travel from Plymouth to the north of
+Devon; because, to get to your journey's end, unless you were minded to
+make a circuit of many miles, you must needs pass through the territory
+of a foreign and hostile potentate, who had many times ravaged the
+dominions, and defeated the forces of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and
+was named (behind his back at least) the King of the Gubbings. “So now
+I dare call them,” says Fuller, “secured by distance, which one of more
+valor durst not do to their face, for fear their fury fall upon him. Yet
+hitherto have I met with none who could render a reason of their name.
+We call the shavings of fish (which are little worth) gubbings; and sure
+it is that they are sensible that the word importeth shame and disgrace.
+
+“As for the suggestion of my worthy and learned friend, Mr. Joseph
+Maynard, that such as did inhabitare montes gibberosos, were called
+Gubbings, such will smile at the ingenuity who dissent from the truth of
+the etymology.
+
+“I have read of an England beyond Wales, but the Gubbings land is a
+Scythia within England, and they pure heathens therein. It lieth nigh
+Brent. For in the edge of Dartmoor it is reported that, some two hundred
+years since, two bad women, being with child, fled thither to hide
+themselves; to whom certain lewd fellows resorted, and this was their
+first original. They are a peculiar of their own making, exempt from
+bishop, archdeacon, and all authority, either ecclesiastical or civil.
+They live in cots (rather holes than houses) like swine, having all in
+common, multiplied without marriage into many hundreds. Their language
+is the dross of the dregs of the vulgar Devonian; and the more learned
+a man is, the worse he can understand them. During our civil wars no
+soldiers were quartered upon them, for fear of being quartered amongst
+them. Their wealth consisteth in other men's goods; they live by
+stealing the sheep on the moors; and vain is it for any to search their
+houses, being a work beneath the pains of any sheriff, and above the
+power of any constable. Such is their fleetness, they will outrun many
+horses; vivaciousness, they outlive most men; living in an ignorance of
+luxury, the extinguisher of life. They hold together like bees; offend
+one, and all will revenge his quarrel.
+
+“But now I am informed that they begin to be civilized, and tender their
+children to baptism, and return to be men, yea, Christians again. I hope
+no CIVIL people amongst us will turn barbarians, now these barbarians
+begin to be civilized.” *
+
+     * Fuller, p. 398.
+
+With which quip against the Anabaptists of his day, Fuller ends his
+story; and I leave him to set forth how Amyas, in fear of these same
+Scythians and heathens, rode out of Plymouth on a right good horse, in
+his full suit of armor, carrying lance and sword, and over and above two
+great dags, or horse-pistols; and behind him Salvation Yeo, and five
+or six north Devon men (who had served with him in Ireland, and were
+returning on furlough), clad in head-pieces and quilted jerkins, each
+man with his pike and sword, and Yeo with arquebuse and match, while two
+sumpter ponies carried the baggage of this formidable troop.
+
+They pushed on as fast as they could, through Tavistock, to reach before
+nightfall Lydford, where they meant to sleep; but what with buying the
+horses, and other delays, they had not been able to start before
+noon; and night fell just as they reached the frontiers of the enemy's
+country. A dreary place enough it was, by the wild glare of sunset. A
+high tableland of heath, banked on the right by the crags and hills of
+Dartmoor, and sloping away to the south and west toward the foot of the
+great cone of Brent-Tor, which towered up like an extinct volcano (as
+some say that it really is), crowned with the tiny church, the votive
+offering of some Plymouth merchant of old times, who vowed in sore
+distress to build a church to the Blessed Virgin on the first point of
+English land which he should see. Far away, down those waste slopes,
+they could see the tiny threads of blue smoke rising from the dens of
+the Gubbings; and more than once they called a halt, to examine whether
+distant furze-bushes and ponies might not be the patrols of an advancing
+army. It is all very well to laugh at it now, in the nineteenth century,
+but it was no laughing matter then; as they found before they had gone
+two miles farther.
+
+On the middle of the down stood a wayside inn; a desolate and
+villainous-looking lump of lichen-spotted granite, with windows
+paper-patched, and rotting thatch kept down by stones and straw-banks;
+and at the back a rambling court-ledge of barns and walls, around which
+pigs and barefoot children grunted in loving communion of dirt. At the
+door, rapt apparently in the contemplation of the mountain peaks which
+glowed rich orange in the last lingering sun-rays, but really watching
+which way the sheep on the moor were taking, stood the innkeeper, a
+brawny, sodden-visaged, blear-eyed six feet of brutishness, holding up
+his hose with one hand, for want of points, and clawing with the other
+his elf-locks, on which a fair sprinkling of feathers might denote:
+first, that he was just out of bed, having been out sheep-stealing
+all the night before; and secondly, that by natural genius he had
+anticipated the opinion of that great apostle of sluttishness,
+Fridericus Dedekind, and his faithful disciple Dekker, which last speaks
+thus to all gulls and grobians: “Consider that as those trees of cobweb
+lawn, woven by spinners in the fresh May mornings, do dress the curled
+heads of the mountains, and adorn the swelling bosoms of the valleys; or
+as those snowy fleeces, which the naked briar steals from the innocent
+sheep to make himself a warm winter livery, are, to either of them
+both, an excellent ornament; so make thou account, that to have feathers
+sticking here and there on thy head will embellish thee, and set thy
+crown out rarely. None dare upbraid thee, that like a beggar thou hast
+lain on straw, or like a travelling pedlar upon musty flocks; for those
+feathers will rise up as witnesses to choke him that says so, and to
+prove thy bed to have been of the softest down.” Even so did those
+feathers bear witness that the possessor of Rogues' Harbor Inn, on
+Brent-Tor Down, whatever else he lacked, lacked not geese enough to keep
+him in soft lying.
+
+Presently he spies Amyas and his party coming slowly over the hill,
+pricks up his ears, and counts them; sees Amyas's armor; shakes his head
+and grunts; and then, being a man of few words, utters a sleepy howl--
+
+“Mirooi!--Fushing pooale!”
+
+A strapping lass--whose only covering (for country women at work in
+those days dispensed with the ornament of a gown) is a green bodice and
+red petticoat, neither of them over ample--brings out his fishing-rod
+and basket, and the man, having tied up his hose with some ends of
+string, examines the footlink.
+
+“Don vlies' gone!”
+
+“May be,” says Mary; “shouldn't hay' left mun out to coort. May be old
+hen's ate mun off. I see her chocking about a while agone.”
+
+The host receives this intelligence with an oath, and replies by a
+violent blow at Mary's head, which she, accustomed to such slight
+matters, dodges, and then returns the blow with good effect on the shock
+head.
+
+Whereon mine host, equally accustomed to such slight matters, quietly
+shambles off, howling as he departs--
+
+“Tell Patrico!”
+
+Mary runs in, combs her hair, slips a pair of stockings and her best
+gown over her dirt, and awaits the coming guests, who make a few long
+faces at the “mucksy sort of a place,” but prefer to spend the night
+there than to bivouac close to the enemy's camp.
+
+So the old hen who has swallowed the dun fly is killed, plucked, and
+roasted, and certain “black Dartmoor mutton” is put on the gridiron, and
+being compelled to confess the truth by that fiery torment, proclaims
+itself to all noses as red-deer venison. In the meanwhile Amyas has put
+his horse and the ponies into a shed, to which he can find neither
+lock nor key, and therefore returns grumbling, not without fear for his
+steed's safety. The baggage is heaped in a corner of the room, and Amyas
+stretches his legs before a turf fire; while Yeo, who has his notions
+about the place, posts himself at the door, and the men are seized with
+a desire to superintend the cooking, probably to be attributed to the
+fact that Mary is cook.
+
+Presently Yeo comes in again.
+
+“There's a gentleman just coming up, sir, all alone.”
+
+“Ask him to make one of our party, then, with my compliments.” Yeo goes
+out, and returns in five minutes.
+
+“Please, sir, he's gone in back ways, by the court.”
+
+“Well, he has an odd taste, if he makes himself at home here.”
+
+Out goes Yeo again, and comes back once more after five minutes, in high
+excitement.
+
+“Come out, sir; for goodness' sake come out. I've got him. Safe as a rat
+in a trap, I have!”
+
+“Who?”
+
+“A Jesuit, sir.”
+
+“Nonsense, man!”
+
+“I tell you truth, sir. I went round the house, for I didn't like the
+looks of him as he came up. I knew he was one of them villains the
+minute he came up, by the way he turned in his toes, and put down his
+feet so still and careful, like as if he was afraid of offending God at
+every step. So I just put my eye between the wall and the dern of the
+gate, and I saw him come up to the back door and knock, and call 'Mary!'
+quite still, like any Jesuit; and the wench flies out to him ready to
+eat him; and 'Go away,' I heard her say, 'there's a dear man;' and then
+something about a 'queer cuffin' (that's a justice in these canters'
+thieves' Latin); and with that he takes out a somewhat--I'll swear it
+was one of those Popish Agnuses--and gives it her; and she kisses it,
+and crosses herself, and asks him if that's the right way, and then puts
+it into her bosom, and he says, 'Bless you, my daughter;' and then I was
+sure of the dog: and he slips quite still to the stable, and peeps in,
+and when he sees no one there, in he goes, and out I go, and shut to the
+door, and back a cart that was there up against it, and call out one of
+the men to watch the stable, and the girl's crying like mad.”
+
+“What a fool's trick, man! How do you know that he is not some honest
+gentleman, after all?”
+
+“Fool or none, sir; honest gentlemen don't give maidens Agnuses. I've
+put him in; and if you want him let out again, you must come and do it
+yourself, for my conscience is against it, sir. If the Lord's enemies
+are delivered into my hand, I'm answerable, sir,” went on Yeo as Amyas
+hurried out with him. “'Tis written, 'If any let one of them go, his
+life shall be for the life of him.'”
+
+So Amyas ran out, pulled back the cart grumbling, opened the door, and
+began a string of apologies to--his cousin Eustace.
+
+Yes, here he was, with such a countenance, half foolish, half venomous,
+as reynard wears when the last spadeful of earth is thrown back, and
+he is revealed sitting disconsolately on his tail within a yard of the
+terriers' noses.
+
+Neither cousin spoke for a minute or two. At last Amyas--
+
+“Well, cousin hide-and-seek, how long have you added horse-stealing to
+your other trades?”
+
+“My dear Amyas,” said Eustace, very meekly, “I may surely go into an inn
+stable without intending to steal what is in it.”
+
+“Of course, old fellow,” said Amyas, mollified, “I was only in jest. But
+what brings you here? Not prudence, certainly.”
+
+“I am bound to know no prudence save for the Lord's work.”
+
+“That's giving away Agnus Deis, and deceiving poor heathen wenches, I
+suppose,” said Yeo.
+
+Eustace answered pretty roundly--
+
+“Heathens? Yes, truly; you Protestants leave these poor wretches
+heathens, and then insult and persecute those who, with a devotion
+unknown to you, labor at the danger of their lives to make them
+Christians. Mr. Amyas Leigh, you can give me up to be hanged at Exeter,
+if it shall so please you to disgrace your own family; but from this
+spot neither you, no, nor all the myrmidons of your queen, shall drive
+me, while there is a soul here left unsaved.”
+
+“Come out of the stable, at least,” said Amyas; “you don't want to make
+the horses Papists, as well as the asses, do you? Come out, man, and go
+to the devil your own way. I sha'n't inform against you; and Yeo here
+will hold his tongue if I tell him, I know.”
+
+“It goes sorely against my conscience, sir; but being that he is your
+cousin, of course--”
+
+“Of course; and now come in and eat with me; supper's just ready, and
+bygones shall be bygones, if you will have them so.”
+
+How much forgiveness Eustace felt in his heart, I know not: but he knew,
+of course, that he ought to forgive; and to go in and eat with Amyas was
+to perform an act of forgiveness, and for the best of motives, too, for
+by it the cause of the Church might be furthered; and acts and motives
+being correct, what more was needed? So in he went; and yet he never
+forgot that scar upon his cheek; and Amyas could not look him in the
+face but Eustace must fancy that his eyes were on the scar, and peep
+up from under his lids to see if there was any smile of triumph on that
+honest visage. They talked away over the venison, guardedly enough at
+first; but as they went on, Amyas's straightforward kindliness warmed
+poor Eustace's frozen heart; and ere they were aware, they found
+themselves talking over old haunts and old passages of their
+boyhood--uncles, aunts, and cousins; and Eustace, without any sinister
+intention, asked Amyas why he was going to Bideford, while Frank and his
+mother were in London.
+
+“To tell you the truth, I cannot rest till I have heard the whole story
+about poor Rose Salterne.”
+
+“What about her?” cried Eustace.
+
+“Do you not know?”
+
+“How should I know anything here? For heaven's sake, what has happened?”
+
+Amyas told him, wondering at his eagerness, for he had never had the
+least suspicion of Eustace's love.
+
+Eustace shrieked aloud.
+
+“Fool, fool that I have been! Caught in my own trap! Villain, villain
+that he is! After all he promised me at Lundy!”
+
+And springing up, Eustace stamped up and down the room, gnashing
+his teeth, tossing his head from side to side, and clutching with
+outstretched hands at the empty air, with the horrible gesture (Heaven
+grant that no reader has ever witnessed it!) of that despair which still
+seeks blindly for the object which it knows is lost forever.
+
+Amyas sat thunderstruck. His first impulse was to ask, “Lundy? What
+knew you of him? What had he or you to do at Lundy?” but pity conquered
+curiosity.
+
+“Oh, Eustace! And you then loved her too?”
+
+“Don't speak to me! Loved her? Yes, sir, and had as good a right to love
+her as any one of your precious Brotherhood of the Rose. Don't speak to
+me, I say, or I shall do you a mischief!”
+
+So Eustace knew of the brotherhood too! Amyas longed to ask him how; but
+what use in that? If he knew it, he knew it; and what harm? So he only
+answered:
+
+“My good cousin, why be wroth with me? If you really love her, now is
+the time to take counsel with me how best we shall--”
+
+Eustace did not let him finish his sentence. Conscious that he had
+betrayed himself upon more points than one, he stopped short in his
+walk, suddenly collected himself by one great effort, and eyed Amyas
+from underneath his brows with the old down look.
+
+“How best we shall do what, my valiant cousin?” said he, in a meaning
+and half-scornful voice. “What does your most chivalrous Brotherhood of
+the Rose purpose in such a case?”
+
+Amyas, a little nettled, stood on his guard in return, and answered
+bluntly--
+
+“What the Brotherhood of the Rose will do, I can't yet say. What it
+ought to do, I have a pretty sure guess.”
+
+“So have I. To hunt her down as you would an outlaw, because forsooth
+she has dared to love a Catholic; to murder her lover in her arms, and
+drag her home again stained with his blood, to be forced by threats and
+persecution to renounce that Church into whose maternal bosom she has
+doubtless long since found rest and holiness!”
+
+“If she has found holiness, it matters little to me where she has found
+it, Master Eustace, but that is the very point that I should be glad to
+know for certain.”
+
+“And you will go and discover for yourself?”
+
+“Have you no wish to discover it also?”
+
+“And if I had, what would that be to you?”
+
+“Only,” said Amyas, trying hard to keep his temper, “that, if we had the
+same purpose, we might sail in the same ship.”
+
+“You intend to sail, then?”
+
+“I mean simply, that we might work together.”
+
+“Our paths lie on very different roads, sir!”
+
+“I am afraid you never spoke a truer word, sir. In the meanwhile, ere we
+part, be so kind as to tell me what you meant by saying that you had met
+this Spaniard at Lundy?”
+
+“I shall refuse to answer that.”
+
+“You will please to recollect, Eustace, that however good friends we
+have been for the last half-hour, you are in my power. I have a right to
+know the bottom of this matter; and, by heaven, I will know it.”
+
+“In your power? See that you are not in mine! Remember, sir, that you
+are within a--within a few miles, at least, of those who will obey me,
+their Catholic benefactor, but who owe no allegiance to those Protestant
+authorities who have left them to the lot of the beasts which perish.”
+
+Amyas was very angry. He wanted but little more to make him catch
+Eustace by the shoulders, shake the life out of him, and deliver him
+into the tender guardianship of Yeo; but he knew that to take him at
+all was to bring certain death on him, and disgrace on the family; and
+remembering Frank's conduct on that memorable night at Clovelly, he kept
+himself down.
+
+“Take me,” said Eustace, “if you will, sir. You, who complain of us that
+we keep no faith with heretics, will perhaps recollect that you asked me
+into this room as your guest, and that in your good faith I trusted when
+I entered it.”
+
+The argument was a worthless one in law; for Eustace had been a prisoner
+before he was a guest, and Amyas was guilty of something very like
+misprision of treason in not handing him over to the nearest justice.
+However, all he did was, to go to the door, open it, and bowing to his
+cousin, bid him walk out and go to the devil, since he seemed to have
+set his mind on ending his days in the company of that personage.
+
+Whereon Eustace vanished.
+
+“Pooh!” said Amyas to himself, “I can find out enough, and too much, I
+fear, without the help of such crooked vermin. I must see Cary; I must
+see Salterne; and I suppose, if I am ready to do my duty, I shall learn
+somehow what it is. Now to sleep; to-morrow up and away to what God
+sends.”
+
+“Come in hither, men,” shouted he down the passage, “and sleep here.
+Haven't you had enough of this villainous sour cider?”
+
+The men came in yawning, and settled themselves to sleep on the floor.
+
+“Where's Yeo?”
+
+No one knew; he had gone out to say his prayers, and had not returned.
+
+“Never mind,” said Amyas, who suspected some plot on the old man's part.
+“He'll take care of himself, I'll warrant him.”
+
+“No fear of that, sir;” and the four tars were soon snoring in concert
+round the fire, while Amyas laid himself on the settle, with his saddle
+for a pillow.
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+
+It was about midnight, when Amyas leaped to his feet, or rather fell
+upon his back, upsetting saddle, settle, and finally, table, under the
+notion that ten thousand flying dragons were bursting in the window
+close to his ear, with howls most fierce and fell. The flying dragons
+past, however, being only a flock of terror-stricken geese, which flew
+flapping and screaming round the corner of the house; but the noise
+which had startled them did not pass; and another minute made it evident
+that a sharp fight was going on in the courtyard, and that Yeo was
+hallooing lustily for help.
+
+Out turned the men, sword in hand, burst the back door open, stumbling
+over pails and pitchers, and into the courtyard, where Yeo, his back
+against the stable-door, was holding his own manfully with sword and
+buckler against a dozen men.
+
+Dire and manifold was the screaming; geese screamed, chickens screamed,
+pigs screamed, donkeys screamed, Mary screamed from an upper window;
+and to complete the chorus, a flock of plovers, attracted by the noise,
+wheeled round and round overhead, and added their screams also to that
+Dutch concert.
+
+The screaming went on, but the fight ceased; for, as Amyas rushed into
+the yard, the whole party of ruffians took to their heels, and vanished
+over a low hedge at the other end of the yard.
+
+“Are you hurt, Yeo?”
+
+“Not a scratch, thank Heaven! But I've got two of them, the ringleaders,
+I have. One of them's against the wall. Your horse did for t'other.”
+
+The wounded man was lifted up; a huge ruffian, nearly as big as Amyas
+himself. Yeo's sword had passed through his body. He groaned and choked
+for breath.
+
+“Carry him indoors. Where is the other?”
+
+“Dead as a herring, in the straw. Have a care, men, have a care how you
+go in! the horses are near mad!”
+
+However, the man was brought out after a while. With him all was over.
+They could feel neither pulse nor breath.
+
+“Carry him in too, poor wretch. And now, Yeo, what is the meaning of all
+this?”
+
+Yeo's story was soon told. He could not get out of his Puritan head the
+notion (quite unfounded, of course) that Eustace had meant to steal
+the horses. He had seen the inn-keeper sneak off at their approach; and
+expecting some night-attack, he had taken up his lodging for the night
+in the stable.
+
+As he expected, an attempt was made. The door was opened (how, he could
+not guess, for he had fastened it inside), and two fellows came in, and
+began to loose the beasts. Yeo's account was, that he seized the big
+fellow, who drew a knife on him, and broke loose; the horses, terrified
+at the scuffle, kicked right and left; one man fell, and the other
+ran out, calling for help, with Yeo at his heels; “Whereon,” said
+Yeo, “seeing a dozen more on me with clubs and bows, I thought best to
+shorten the number while I could, ran the rascal through, and stood on
+my ward; and only just in time I was, what's more; there's two arrows in
+the house wall, and two or three more in my buckler, which I caught up
+as I went out, for I had hung it close by the door, you see, sir, to be
+all ready in case,” said the cunning old Philistine-slayer, as they went
+in after the wounded man.
+
+But hardly had they stumbled through the low doorway into the
+back-kitchen when a fresh hubbub arose inside--more shouts for help.
+Amyas ran forward breaking his head against the doorway, and beheld, as
+soon as he could see for the flashes in his eyes, an old acquaintance,
+held on each side by a sturdy sailor.
+
+With one arm in the sleeve of his doublet, and the other in a not over
+spotless shirt; holding up his hose with one hand, and with the other
+a candle, whereby he had lighted himself to his own confusion; foaming
+with rage, stood Mr. Evan Morgans, alias Father Parsons, looking,
+between his confused habiliments and his fiery visage (as Yeo told him
+to his face), “the very moral of a half-plucked turkey-cock.” And behind
+him, dressed, stood Eustace Leigh.
+
+“We found the maid letting these here two out by the front door,” said
+one of the captors.
+
+“Well, Mr. Parsons,” said Amyas; “and what are you about here? A pretty
+nest of thieves and Jesuits we seem to have routed out this evening.”
+
+“About my calling, sir,” said Parsons, stoutly. “By your leave, I
+shall prepare this my wounded lamb for that account to which your man's
+cruelty has untimely sent him.”
+
+The wounded man, who lay upon the floor, heard Parsons' voice, and
+moaned for the “Patrico.”
+
+“You see, sir,” said he, pompously, “the sheep know their shepherd's
+voice.”
+
+“The wolves you mean, you hypocritical scoundrel!” said Amyas, who could
+not contain his disgust. “Let the fellow truss up his points, lads, and
+do his work. After all, the man is dying.”
+
+“The requisite matters, sir, are not at hand,” said Parsons, unabashed.
+
+“Eustace, go and fetch his matters for him; you seem to be in all his
+plots.”
+
+Eustace went silently and sullenly.
+
+“What's that fresh noise at the back, now?”
+
+“The maid, sir, a wailing over her uncle; the fellow that we saw sneak
+away when we came up. It was him the horse killed.”
+
+It was true. The wretched host had slipped off on their approach, simply
+to call the neighboring outlaws to the spoil; and he had been filled
+with the fruit of his own devices.
+
+“His blood be on his own head,” said Amyas.
+
+“I question, sir,” said Yeo, in a low voice, “whether some of it will
+not be on the heads of those proud prelates who go clothed in purple
+and fine linen, instead of going forth to convert such as he, and then
+wonder how these Jesuits get hold of them. If they give place to the
+devil in their sheepfolds, sure he'll come in and lodge there. Look,
+sir, there's a sight in a gospel land!”
+
+And, indeed, the sight was curious enough. For Parsons was kneeling by
+the side of the dying man, listening earnestly to the confession which
+the man sobbed out in his gibberish, between the spasms of his wounded
+chest. Now and then Parsons shook his head; and when Eustace returned
+with the holy wafer, and the oil for extreme unction, he asked him, in a
+low voice, “Ballard, interpret for me.”
+
+And Eustace knelt down on the other side of the sufferer, and
+interpreted his thieves' dialect into Latin; and the dying man held
+a hand of each, and turned first to one and then to the other stupid
+eyes,--not without affection, though, and gratitude.
+
+“I can't stand this mummery any longer,” said Yeo. “Here's a soul
+perishing before my eyes, and it's on my conscience to speak a word in
+season.”
+
+“Silence!” whispered Amyas, holding him back by the arm; “he knows them,
+and he don't know you; they are the first who ever spoke to him as if
+he had a soul to be saved, and first come, first served; you can do no
+good. See, the man's face is brightening already.”
+
+“But, sir, 'tis a false peace.”
+
+“At all events he is confessing his sins, Yeo; and if that's not good
+for him, and you, and me, what is?”
+
+“Yea, Amen! sir; but this is not to the right person.”
+
+“How do you know his words will not go to the right person, after all,
+though he may not send them there? By heaven! the man is dead!”
+
+It was so. The dark catalogue of brutal deeds had been gasped out; but
+ere the words of absolution could follow, the head had fallen back, and
+all was over.
+
+“Confession in extremis is sufficient,” said Parsons to Eustace
+(“Ballard,” as Parsons called him, to Amyas's surprise), as he rose. “As
+for the rest, the intention will be accepted instead of the act.”
+
+“The Lord have mercy on his soul!” said Eustace.
+
+“His soul is lost before our very eyes,” said Yeo.
+
+“Mind your own business,” said Amyas.
+
+“Humph; but I'll tell you, sir, what our business is, if you'll step
+aside with me. I find that poor fellow that lies dead is none other than
+the leader of the Gubbings; the king of them, as they dare to call him.”
+
+“Well, what of that?”
+
+“Mark my words, sir, if we have not a hundred stout rogues upon us
+before two hours are out; forgive us they never will; and if we get off
+with our lives, which I don't much expect, we shall leave our horses
+behind; for we can hold the house, sir, well enough till morning, but
+the courtyard we can't, that's certain!”
+
+“We had better march at once, then.”
+
+“Think, sir; if they catch us up--as they are sure to do, knowing the
+country better than we--how will our shot stand their arrows?”
+
+“True, old wisdom; we must keep the road; and we must keep together; and
+so be a mark for them, while they will be behind every rock and bank;
+and two or three flights of arrows will do our business for us. Humph!
+stay, I have a plan.” And stepping forward he spoke--
+
+“Eustace, you will be so kind as to go back to your lambs; and tell
+them, that if they meddle with us cruel wolves again to-night, we are
+ready and willing to fight to the death, and have plenty of shot and
+powder at their service. Father Parsons, you will be so kind as to
+accompany us; it is but fitting that the shepherd should be hostage for
+his sheep.”
+
+“If you carry me off this spot, sir, you carry my corpse only,” said
+Parsons. “I may as well die here as be hanged elsewhere, like my
+martyred brother Campian.”
+
+“If you take him, you must take me too,” said Eustace.
+
+“What if we won't?”
+
+“How will you gain by that? you can only leave me here. You cannot make
+me go to the Gubbings, if I do not choose.”
+
+Amyas uttered sotto voce an anathema on Jesuits, Gubbings, and things in
+general. He was in a great hurry to get to Bideford, and he feared that
+this business would delay him, as it was, a day or two. He wanted to
+hang Parsons, he did not want to hang Eustace; and Eustace, he knew,
+was well aware of that latter fact, and played his game accordingly; but
+time ran on, and he had to answer sulkily enough:
+
+“Well then; if you, Eustace, will go and give my message to your
+converts, I will promise to set Mr. Parsons free again before we come to
+Lydford town; and I advise you, if you have any regard for his life,
+to see that your eloquence be persuasive enough; for as sure as I am
+an Englishman, and he none, if the Gubbings attack us, the first
+bullet that I shall fire at them will have gone through his scoundrelly
+brains.”
+
+Parsons still kicked.
+
+“Very well, then, my merry men all. Tie this gentleman's hands behind
+his back, get the horses out, and we'll right away up into Dartmoor,
+find a good high tor, stand our ground there till morning, and then
+carry him into Okehampton to the nearest justice. If he chooses to delay
+me in my journey, it is fair that I should make him pay for it.”
+
+Whereon Parsons gave in, and being fast tied by his arm to Amyas's
+saddle, trudged alongside his horse for several weary miles, while Yeo
+walked by his side, like a friar by a condemned criminal; and in order
+to keep up his spirits, told him the woful end of Nicholas Saunders the
+Legate, and how he was found starved to death in a bog.
+
+“And if you wish, sir, to follow in his blessed steps, which I heartily
+hope you will do, you have only to go over that big cow-backed hill
+there on your right hand, and down again the other side to Crawmere
+pool, and there you'll find as pretty a bog to die in as ever Jesuit
+needed; and your ghost may sit there on a grass tummock, and tell your
+beads without any one asking for you till the day of judgment; and much
+good may it do you!”
+
+At which imagination Yeo was actually heard, for the first and last time
+in this history, to laugh most heartily.
+
+His ho-ho's had scarcely died away when they saw shining under the moon
+the old tower of Lydford castle.
+
+“Cast the fellow off now,” said Amyas.
+
+“Ay, ay, sir!” and Yeo and Simon Evans stopped behind, and did not come
+up for ten minutes after.
+
+“What have you been about so long?”
+
+“Why, sir,” said Evans, “you see the man had a very fair pair of hose
+on, and a bran-new kersey doublet, very warm-lined; and so, thinking it
+a pity good clothes should be wasted on such noxious trade, we've just
+brought them along with us.”
+
+“Spoiling the Egyptians,” said Yeo as comment.
+
+“And what have you done with the man?”
+
+“Hove him over the bank, sir; he pitched into a big furze-bush, and for
+aught I know, there he'll bide.”
+
+“You rascal, have you killed him?
+
+“Never fear, sir,” said Yeo, in his cool fashion. “A Jesuit has as many
+lives as a cat, and, I believe, rides broomsticks post, like a witch. He
+would be at Lydford now before us, if his master Satan had any business
+for him there.”
+
+Leaving on their left Lydford and its ill-omened castle (which, a
+century after, was one of the principal scenes of Judge Jeffreys's
+cruelty), Amyas and his party trudged on through the mire toward
+Okehampton till sunrise; and ere the vapors had lifted from the mountain
+tops, they were descending the long slopes from Sourton down, while
+Yestor and Amicombe slept steep and black beneath their misty pall; and
+roaring far below unseen,
+
+     “Ockment leapt from crag and cloud
+     Down her cataracts, laughing loud.”
+
+The voice of the stream recalled these words to Amyas's mind. The nymph
+of Torridge had spoken them upon the day of his triumph. He recollected,
+too, his vexation on that day at not seeing Rose Salterne. Why, he had
+never seen her since. Never seen her now for six years and more! Of her
+ripened beauty he knew only by hearsay; she was still to him the lovely
+fifteen years' girl for whose sake he had smitten the Barnstaple draper
+over the quay. What a chain of petty accidents had kept them from
+meeting, though so often within a mile of each other! “And what a lucky
+one!” said practical old Amyas to himself. “If I had seen her as she is
+now, I might have loved her as Frank does--poor Frank! what will he
+say? What does he say, for he must know it already? And what ought I to
+say--to do rather, for talking is no use on this side the grave, nor on
+the other either, I expect!” And then he asked himself whether his old
+oath meant nothing or something; whether it was a mere tavern frolic, or
+a sacred duty. And he held, the more that he looked at it, that it meant
+the latter.
+
+But what could he do? He had nothing on earth but his sword, so he could
+not travel to find her. After all, she might not be gone far. Perhaps
+not gone at all. It might be a mistake, an exaggerated scandal. He
+would hope so. And yet it was evident that there had been some passages
+between her and Don Guzman. Eustace's mysterious words about the promise
+at Lundy proved that. The villain! He had felt all along that he was a
+villain; but just the one to win a woman's heart, too. Frank had been
+away--all the Brotherhood away. What a fool he had been, to turn the
+wolf loose into the sheepfold! And yet who would have dreamed of
+it? . . .
+
+“At all events,” said Amyas, trying to comfort himself, “I need not
+complain. I have lost nothing. I stood no more chance of her against
+Frank than I should have stood against the Don. So there is no use for
+me to cry about the matter.” And he tried to hum a tune concerning the
+general frailty of women, but nevertheless, like Sir Hugh, felt that “he
+had a great disposition to cry.”
+
+He never had expected to win her, and yet it seemed bitter to know that
+she was lost to him forever. It was not so easy for a heart of his make
+to toss away the image of a first love; and all the less easy because
+that image was stained and ruined.
+
+“Curses on the man who had done that deed! I will yet have his heart's
+blood somehow, if I go round the world again to find him. If there's no
+law for it on earth, there's law in heaven, or I'm much mistaken.”
+
+With which determination he rode into the ugly, dirty, and stupid town
+of Okehampton, with which fallen man (by some strange perversity) has
+chosen to defile one of the loveliest sites in the pleasant land of
+Devon. And heartily did Amyas abuse the old town that day; for he was
+detained there, as he expected, full three hours, while the Justice
+Shallow of the place was sent for from his farm (whither he had gone
+at sunrise, after the early-rising fashion of those days) to take Yeo's
+deposition concerning last night's affray. Moreover, when Shallow came,
+he refused to take the depositions, because they ought to have been made
+before a brother Shallow at Lydford; and in the wrangling which ensued,
+was very near finding out what Amyas (fearing fresh loss of time and
+worse evils beside) had commanded to be concealed, namely, the presence
+of Jesuits in that Moorland Utopia. Then, in broadest Devon--
+
+“And do you call this Christian conduct, sir, to set a quiet man like me
+upon they Gubbings, as if I was going to risk my precious life--no, nor
+ever a constable to Okehampton neither? Let Lydfor' men mind Lydfor'
+roogs, and by Lydfor' law if they will, hang first and try after; but
+as for me, I've rade my Bible, and 'He that meddleth with strife is like
+him that taketh a dog by the ears.' So if you choose to sit down and ate
+your breakfast with me, well and good: but depositions I'll have none.
+If your man is enquired for, you'll be answerable for his appearing, in
+course; but I expect mortally” (with a wink), “you wain't hear much more
+of the matter from any hand. 'Leave well alone is a good rule, but leave
+ill alone is a better.'--So we says round about here; and so you'll say,
+captain, when you be so old as I.”
+
+So Amyas sat down and ate his breakfast, and went on afterwards a long
+and weary day's journey, till he saw at last beneath him the broad
+shining river, and the long bridge, and the white houses piled up the
+hill-side; and beyond, over Raleigh downs, the dear old tower of Northam
+Church.
+
+Alas! Northam was altogether a desert to him then; and Bideford, as it
+turned out, hardly less so. For when he rode up to Sir Richard's door,
+he found that the good knight was still in Ireland, and Lady Grenville
+at Stow. Whereupon he rode back again down the High Street to that same
+bow-windowed Ship Tavern where the Brotherhood of the Rose made their
+vow, and settled himself in the very room where they had supped.
+
+“Ah! Mr. Leigh--Captain Leigh now, I beg pardon,” quoth mine host.
+“Bideford is an empty place now-a-days, and nothing stirring, sir. What
+with Sir Richard to Ireland, and Sir John to London, and all the young
+gentlemen to the wars, there's no one to buy good liquor, and no one to
+court the young ladies, neither. Sack, sir? I hope so. I haven't brewed
+a gallon of it this fortnight, if you'll believe me; ale, sir, and aqua
+vitae, and such low-bred trade, is all I draw now-a-days. Try a pint of
+sherry, sir, now, to give you an appetite. You mind my sherry of old?
+Jane! Sherry and sugar, quick, while I pull off the captain's boots.”
+
+Amyas sat weary and sad, while the innkeeper chattered on.
+
+“Ah, sir! two or three like you would set the young ladies all alive
+again. By-the-by, there's been strange doings among them since you were
+here last. You mind Mistress Salterne!”
+
+“For God's sake, don't let us have that story, man! I heard enough of it
+at Plymouth!” said Amyas, in so disturbed a tone that mine host looked
+up, and said to himself--
+
+“Ah, poor young gentleman, he's one of the hard-hit ones.”
+
+“How is the old man?” asked Amyas, after a pause.
+
+“Bears it well enough, sir; but a changed man. Never speaks to a soul,
+if he can help it. Some folk say he's not right in his head; or turned
+miser, or somewhat, and takes naught but bread and water, and sits up
+all night in the room as was hers, turning over her garments. Heaven
+knows what's on his mind--they do say he was over hard on her, and that
+drove her to it. All I know is, he has never been in here for a drop
+of liquor (and he came as regular every evening as the town clock, sir)
+since she went, except a ten days ago, and then he met young Mr. Cary at
+the door, and I heard him ask Mr. Cary when you would be home, sir.”
+
+“Put on my boots again. I'll go and see him.”
+
+“Bless you, sir! What, without your sack?”
+
+“Drink it yourself, man.”
+
+“But you wouldn't go out again this time o' night on an empty stomach,
+now?”
+
+“Fill my men's stomachs for them, and never mind mine. It's market-day,
+is it not? Send out, and see whether Mr. Cary is still in town;” and
+Amyas strode out, and along the quay to Bridgeland Street, and knocked
+at Mr. Salterne's door.
+
+Salterne himself opened it, with his usual stern courtesy.
+
+“I saw you coming up the street, sir. I have been expecting this honor
+from you for some time past. I dreamt of you only last night, and many
+a night before that too. Welcome, sir, into a lonely house. I trust the
+good knight your general is well.”
+
+“The good knight my general is with God who made him, Mr. Salterne.”
+
+“Dead, sir?”
+
+“Foundered at sea on our way home; and the Delight lost too.”
+
+“Humph!” growled Salterne, after a minute's silence. “I had a venture in
+her. I suppose it's gone. No matter--I can afford it, sir, and more,
+I trust. And he was three years younger than I! And Draper Heard was
+buried yesterday, five years younger.--How is it that every one can die,
+except me? Come in, sir, come in; I have forgotten my manners.”
+
+And he led Amyas into his parlor, and called to the apprentices to run
+one way, and to the cook to run another.
+
+“You must not trouble yourself to get me supper, indeed.”
+
+“I must though, sir, and the best of wine too; and old Salterne had a
+good tap of Alicant in old time, old time, old time, sir! and you must
+drink it now, whether he does or not!” and out he bustled.
+
+Amyas sat still, wondering what was coming next, and puzzled at the
+sudden hilarity of the man, as well as his hospitality, so different
+from what the innkeeper had led him to expect.
+
+In a minute more one of the apprentices came in to lay the cloth, and
+Amyas questioned him about his master.
+
+“Thank the Lord that you are come, sir,” said the lad.
+
+“Why, then?”
+
+“Because there'll be a chance of us poor fellows getting a little broken
+meat. We'm half-starved this three months--bread and dripping, bread and
+dripping, oh dear, sir! And now he's sent out to the inn for chickens,
+and game, and salads, and all that money can buy, and down in the cellar
+haling out the best of wine.”--And the lad smacked his lips audibly at
+the thought.
+
+“Is he out of his mind?”
+
+“I can't tell; he saith as how he must save mun's money now-a-days; for
+he've a got a great venture on hand: but what a be he tell'th no man.
+They call'th mun 'bread and dripping' now, sir, all town over,” said the
+prentice, confidentially, to Amyas.
+
+“They do, do they, sirrah! Then they will call me bread and no dripping
+to-morrow!” and old Salterne, entering from behind, made a dash at the
+poor fellow's ears: but luckily thought better of it, having a couple of
+bottles in each hand.
+
+“My dear sir,” said Amyas, “you don't mean us to drink all that wine?”
+
+“Why not, sir?” answered Salterne, in a grim, half-sneering tone,
+thrusting out his square-grizzled beard and chin. “Why not, sir? why
+should I not make merry when I have the honor of a noble captain in my
+house? one who has sailed the seas, sir, and cut Spaniards' throats; and
+may cut them again too; eh, sir? Boy, where's the kettle and the sugar?”
+
+“What on earth is the man at?” quoth Amyas to himself--“flattering me,
+or laughing at me?”
+
+“Yes,” he ran on, half to himself, in a deliberate tone, evidently
+intending to hint more than he said, as he began brewing the sack--in
+plain English, hot negus; “Yes, bread and dripping for those who can't
+fight Spaniards; but the best that money can buy for those who can. I
+heard of you at Smerwick, sir--Yes, bread and dripping for me too--I
+can't fight Spaniards: but for such as you. Look here, sir; I should
+like to feed a crew of such up, as you'd feed a main of fighting-cocks,
+and then start them with a pair of Sheffield spurs a-piece--you've a
+good one there to your side, sir: but don't you think a man might carry
+two now, and fight as they say those Chineses do, a sword to each hand?
+You could kill more that way, Captain Leigh, I reckon?”
+
+Amyas half laughed.
+
+“One will do, Mr. Salterne, if one is quick enough with it.”
+
+“Humph!--Ah--No use being in a hurry. I haven't been in a hurry. No--I
+waited for you; and here you are and welcome, sir! Here comes supper, a
+light matter, sir, you see. A capon and a brace of partridges. I had no
+time to feast you as you deserve.”
+
+And so he ran on all supper-time, hardly allowing Amyas to get a word
+in edge-ways; but heaping him with coarse flattery, and urging him to
+drink, till after the cloth was drawn, and the two left alone, he grew
+so outrageous that Amyas was forced to take him to task good-humoredly.
+
+“Now, my dear sir, you have feasted me royally, and better far than I
+deserve, but why will you go about to make me drunk twice over, first
+with vainglory and then with wine?”
+
+Salterne looked at him a while fixedly, and then, sticking out his
+chin--“Because, Captain Leigh, I am a man who has all his life tried the
+crooked road first, and found the straight one the safer after all.”
+
+“Eh, sir? That is a strange speech for one who bears the character of
+the most upright man in Bideford.”
+
+“Humph. So I thought myself once, sir; and well I have proved it. But
+I'll be plain with you, sir. You've heard how--how I've fared since you
+saw me last?”
+
+Amyas nodded his head.
+
+“I thought so. Shame rides post. Now then, Captain Leigh, listen to me.
+I, being a plain man and a burgher, and one that never drew iron in my
+life except to mend a pen, ask you, being a gentleman and a captain
+and a man of honor, with a weapon to your side, and harness to your
+back--what would you do in my place?”
+
+“Humph!” said Amyas, “that would very much depend on whether 'my place'
+was my own fault or not.”
+
+“And what if it were, sir? What if all that the charitable folks of
+Bideford--(Heaven reward them for their tender mercies!)--have been
+telling you in the last hour be true, sir,--true! and yet not half the
+truth?”
+
+Amyas gave a start.
+
+“Ah, you shrink from me! Of course a man is too righteous to forgive
+those who repent, though God is not.”
+
+“God knows, sir--”
+
+“Yes, sir, God does know--all; and you shall know a little--as much as I
+can tell--or you understand. Come upstairs with me, sir, as you'll drink
+no more; I have a liking for you. I have watched you from your boyhood,
+and I can trust you, and I'll show you what I never showed to mortal man
+but one.”
+
+And, taking up a candle, he led the way upstairs, while Amyas followed
+wondering.
+
+He stopped at a door, and unlocked it.
+
+“There, come in. Those shutters have not been opened since she--” and
+the old man was silent.
+
+Amyas looked round the room. It was a low wainscoted room, such as one
+sees in old houses: everything was in the most perfect neatness.
+The snow-white sheets on the bed were turned down as if ready for an
+occupant. There were books arranged on the shelves, fresh flowers on the
+table; the dressing-table had all its woman's mundus of pins, and rings,
+and brushes; even the dressing-gown lay over the chair-back. Everything
+was evidently just as it had been left.
+
+“This was her room, sir,” whispered the old man.
+
+Amyas nodded silently, and half drew back.
+
+“You need not be modest about entering it now, sir,” whispered he, with
+a sort of sneer. “There has been no frail flesh and blood in it for many
+a day.”
+
+Amyas sighed.
+
+“I sweep it out myself every morning, and keep all tidy. See here!”
+ and he pulled open a drawer. “Here are all her gowns, and there are her
+hoods; and there--I know 'em all by heart now, and the place of every
+one. And there, sir--”
+
+And he opened a cupboard, where lay in rows all Rose's dolls, and the
+worn-out playthings of her childhood.
+
+“That's the pleasantest place of all in the room to me,” said he,
+whispering still, “for it minds me of when--and maybe, she may become a
+little child once more, sir; it's written in the Scripture, you know--”
+
+“Amen!” said Amyas, who felt, to his own wonder, a big tear stealing
+down each cheek.
+
+“And now,” he whispered, “one thing more. Look here!”--and pulling out a
+key, he unlocked a chest, and lifted up tray after tray of necklaces
+and jewels, furs, lawns, cloth of gold. “Look there! Two thousand pound
+won't buy that chest. Twenty years have I been getting those things
+together. That's the cream of many a Levant voyage, and East Indian
+voyage, and West Indian voyage. My Lady Bath can't match those pearls in
+her grand house at Tawstock; I got 'em from a Genoese, though, and paid
+for 'em. Look at that embroidered lawn! There's not such a piece in
+London; no, nor in Alexandria, I'll warrant; nor short of Calicut, where
+it came from. . . . Look here again, there's a golden cup! I bought that
+of one that was out with Pizarro in Peru. And look here, again!”--and
+the old man gloated over the treasure.
+
+“And whom do you think I kept all these for? These were for her
+wedding-day--for her wedding-day. For your wedding-day, if you'd been
+minded, sir! Yes, yours, sir! And yet, I believe, I was so ambitious
+that I would not have let her marry under an earl, all the while I was
+pretending to be too proud to throw her at the head of a squire's son.
+Ah, well! There was my idol, sir. I made her mad, I pampered her up with
+gewgaws and vanity; and then, because my idol was just what I had made
+her, I turned again and rent her.
+
+“And now,” said he, pointing to the open chest, “that was what I meant;
+and that” (pointing to the empty bed) “was what God meant. Never mind.
+Come downstairs and finish your wine. I see you don't care about it all.
+Why should you! you are not her father, and you may thank God you are
+not. Go, and be merry while you can, young sir! . . . And yet, all this
+might have been yours. And--but I don't suppose you are one to be won
+by money--but all this may be yours still, and twenty thousand pounds to
+boot.”
+
+“I want no money, sir, but what I can earn with my own sword.”
+
+“Earn my money, then!”
+
+“What on earth do you want of me!”
+
+“To keep your oath,” said Salterne, clutching his arm, and looking up
+into his face with searching eyes.
+
+“My oath! How did you know that I had one?”
+
+“Ah! you were well ashamed of it, I suppose, next day! A drunken frolic
+all about a poor merchant's daughter! But there is nothing hidden that
+shall not be revealed, nor done in the closet that is not proclaimed on
+the house-tops.”
+
+“Ashamed of it, sir, I never was: but I have a right to ask how you came
+to know it?”
+
+“What if a poor fat squinny rogue, a low-born fellow even as I am,
+whom you had baffled and made a laughing-stock, had come to me in my
+loneliness and sworn before God that if you honorable gentlemen would
+not keep your words, he the clown would?”
+
+“John Brimblecombe?”
+
+“And what if I had brought him where I have brought you, and shown
+him what I have shown you, and, instead of standing as stiff as any
+Spaniard, as you do, he had thrown himself on his knees by that bedside,
+and wept and prayed, sir, till he opened my hard heart for the first
+and last time, and I fell down on my sinful knees and wept and prayed by
+him?”
+
+“I am not given to weeping, Mr. Salterne,” said Amyas; “and as for
+praying, I don't know yet what I have to pray for, on her account: my
+business is to work. Show me what I can do; and when you have done that,
+it will be full time to upbraid me with not doing it.”
+
+“You can cut that fellow's throat.”
+
+“It will take a long arm to reach him.”
+
+“I suppose it is as easy to sail to the Spanish Main as it was to sail
+round the world.”
+
+“My good sir,” said Amyas, “I have at this moment no more worldly goods
+than my clothes and my sword, so how to sail to the Spanish Main, I
+don't quite see.”
+
+“And do you suppose, sir, that I should hint to you of such a voyage if
+I meant you to be at the charge of it? No, sir; if you want two thousand
+pounds, or five, to fit a ship, take it! Take it, sir! I hoarded money
+for my child: and now I will spend it to avenge her.”
+
+Amyas was silent for a while; the old man still held his arm, still
+looked up steadfastly and fiercely in his face.
+
+“Bring me home that man's head, and take ship, prizes--all! Keep the
+gain, sir, and give me the revenge!”
+
+“Gain? Do you think I need bribing, sir? What kept me silent was the
+thought of my mother. I dare not go without her leave.”
+
+Salterne made a gesture of impatience.
+
+“I dare not, sir; I must obey my parent, whatever else I do.”
+
+“Humph!” said he. “If others had obeyed theirs as well!--But you are
+right, Captain Leigh, right. You will prosper, whoever else does not.
+Now, sir, good-night, if you will let me be the first to say so. My old
+eyes grow heavy early now-a-days. Perhaps it's old age, perhaps it's
+sorrow.”
+
+So Amyas departed to the inn, and there, to his great joy, found Cary
+waiting for him, from whom he learnt details, which must be kept for
+another chapter, and which I shall tell, for convenience' sake, in my
+own words and not in his.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+HOW MR. JOHN BRIMBLECOMBE UNDERSTOOD THE NATURE OF AN OATH
+
+     “The Kynge of Spayn is a foul paynim,
+     And lieveth on Mahound;
+     And pity it were that lady fayre
+     Should marry a heathen hound.”
+
+                           Kyng Estmere.
+
+About six weeks after the duel, the miller at Stow had come up to
+the great house in much tribulation, to borrow the bloodhounds. Rose
+Salterne had vanished in the night, no man knew whither.
+
+Sir Richard was in Bideford: but the old steward took on himself to send
+for the keepers, and down went the serving-men to the mill with all the
+idle lads of the parish at their heels, thinking a maiden-hunt very good
+sport; and of course taking a view of the case as favorable as possible
+to Rose.
+
+They reviled the miller and his wife roundly for hard-hearted old
+heathens; and had no doubt that they had driven the poor maid to throw
+herself over cliff, or drown herself in the sea; while all the women of
+Stow, on the other hand, were of unanimous opinion that the hussy had
+“gone off” with some bad fellow; and that pride was sure to have a fall,
+and so forth.
+
+The facts of the case were, that all Rose's trinkets were left behind,
+so that she had at least gone off honestly; and nothing seemed to be
+missing, but some of her linen, which old Anthony the steward broadly
+hinted was likely to be found in other people's boxes. The only trace
+was a little footmark under her bedroom window. On that the bloodhound
+was laid (of course in leash), and after a premonitory whimper, lifted
+up his mighty voice, and started bell-mouthed through the garden gate,
+and up the lane, towing behind him the panting keeper, till they reached
+the downs above, and went straight away for Marslandmouth, where the
+whole posse comitatus pulled up breathless at the door of Lucy Passmore.
+
+Lucy, as perhaps I should have said before, was now a widow, and found
+her widowhood not altogether contrary to her interest. Her augury about
+her old man had been fulfilled; he had never returned since the night on
+which he put to sea with Eustace and the Jesuits.
+
+     * “Some natural tears she shed, but dried them soon”
+
+as many of them, at least, as were not required for purposes of
+business; and then determined to prevent suspicion by a bold move; she
+started off to Stow, and told Lady Grenville a most pathetic tale: how
+her husband had gone out to pollock fishing, and never returned: but how
+she had heard horsemen gallop past her window in the dead of night, and
+was sure they must have been the Jesuits, and that they had carried off
+her old man by main force, and probably, after making use of his
+services, had killed and salted him down for provision on their voyage
+back to the Pope at Rome; after which she ended by entreating protection
+against those “Popish skulkers up to Chapel,” who were sworn to do her a
+mischief; and by an appeal to Lady Grenville's sense of justice, as to
+whether the queen ought not to allow her a pension, for having had her
+heart's love turned into a sainted martyr by the hands of idolatrous
+traitors.
+
+Lady Grenville (who had a great opinion of Lucy's medical skill, and
+always sent for her if one of the children had a “housty,” i. e. sore
+throat) went forth and pleaded the case before Sir Richard with such
+effect, that Lucy was on the whole better off than ever for the next two
+or three years.  But now--what had she to do with Rose's disappearance?
+and, indeed, where was she herself?  Her door was fast; and round it her
+flock of goats stood, crying in vain for her to come and milk them;
+while from the down above, her donkeys, wandering at their own sweet
+will, answered the bay of the bloodhound with a burst of harmony.
+
+“They'm laughing at us, keper, they neddies; sure enough, we'm lost our
+labor here.”
+
+But the bloodhound, after working about the door a while, turned down
+the glen, and never stopped till he reached the margin of the sea.
+
+“They'm taken water.  Let's go back, and rout out the old witch's
+house.”
+
+“'Tis just like that old Lucy, to lock a poor maid into shame.”
+
+And returning, they attacked the cottage, and by a general plebiscitum,
+ransacked the little dwelling, partly in indignation, and partly, if the
+truth be told, in the hope of plunder; but plunder there was none.  Lucy
+had decamped with all her movable wealth, saving the huge black cat
+among the embers, who at the sight of the bloodhound vanished up the
+chimney (some said with a strong smell of brimstone), and being viewed
+outside, was chased into the woods, where she lived, I doubt not, many
+happy years, a scourge to all the rabbits of the glen.
+
+The goats and donkeys were driven off up to Stow; and the mob returned,
+a little ashamed of themselves when their brief wrath was past; and a
+little afraid, too, of what Sir Richard might say.
+
+He, when he returned, sold the donkeys and goats, and gave the money to
+the poor, promising to refund the same, if Lucy returned and gave
+herself up to justice.  But Lucy did not return; and her cottage, from
+which the neighbors shrank as from a haunted place, remained as she had
+left it, and crumbled slowly down to four fern-covered walls, past which
+the little stream went murmuring on from pool to pool--the only voice,
+for many a year to come, which broke the silence of that lonely glen.
+
+A few days afterwards, Sir Richard, on his way from Bideford to Stow,
+looked in at Clovelly Court, and mentioned, with a “by the by,” news
+which made Will Cary leap from his seat almost to the ceiling.  What it
+was we know already.
+
+“And there is no clue?” asked old Cary; for his son was speechless.
+
+“Only this; I hear that some fellow prowling about the cliffs that night
+saw a pinnace running for Lundy.”
+
+Will rose, and went hastily out of the room.
+
+In half an hour he and three or four armed servants were on board a
+trawling-skiff, and away to Lundy.  He did not return for three days,
+and then brought news: that an elderly man, seemingly a foreigner, had
+been lodging for some months past in a part of the ruined Moresco
+Castle, which was tenanted by one John Braund; that a few weeks since a
+younger man, a foreigner also, had joined him from on board a ship: the
+ship a Flushinger, or Easterling of some sort.  The ship came and went
+more than once; and the young man in her.  A few days since, a lady and
+her maid, a stout woman, came with him up to the castle, and talked with
+the elder man a long while in secret; abode there all night; and then
+all three sailed in the morning.  The fishermen on the beach had heard
+the young man call the other father.  He was a very still man, much as a
+mass-priest might be.  More they did not know, or did not choose to
+know.
+
+Whereon old Cary and Sir Richard sent Will on a second trip with the
+parish constable of Hartland (in which huge parish, for its sins, is
+situate the Isle of Lundy, ten miles out at sea); who returned with the
+body of the hapless John Braund, farmer, fisherman, smuggler, etc.;
+which worthy, after much fruitless examination (wherein examinate was
+afflicted with extreme deafness and loss of memory), departed to Exeter
+gaol, on a charge of “harboring priests, Jesuits, gipsies, and other
+suspect and traitorous persons.”
+
+Poor John Braund, whose motive for entertaining the said ugly customers
+had probably been not treason, but a wife, seven children, and arrears
+of rent, did not thrive under the change from the pure air of Lundy to
+the pestiferous one of Exeter gaol, made infamous, but two years after
+(if I recollect right), by a “black assizes,” nearly as fatal as that
+more notorious one at Oxford; for in it, “whether by the stench of the
+prisoners, or by a stream of foul air,” judge, jury, counsel, and
+bystanders, numbering among them many members of the best families in
+Devon, sickened in court, and died miserably within a few days.
+
+John Braund, then, took the gaol-fever in a week, and died raving in
+that noisome den: his secret, if he had one, perished with him, and
+nothing but vague suspicion was left as to Rose Salterne's fate.  That
+she had gone off with the Spaniard, few doubted; but whither, and in
+what character?  On that last subject, be sure, no mercy was shown to
+her by many a Bideford dame, who had hated the poor girl simply for her
+beauty; and by many a country lady, who had “always expected that the
+girl would be brought to ruin by the absurd notice, beyond what her
+station had a right to, which was taken of her,” while every young
+maiden aspired to fill the throne which Rose had abdicated.  So that, on
+the whole, Bideford considered itself as going on as well without poor
+Rose as it had done with her, or even better.  And though she lingered
+in some hearts still as a fair dream, the business and the bustle of
+each day soon swept that dream away, and her place knew her no more.
+
+And Will Cary?
+
+He was for a while like a man distracted.  He heaped himself with all
+manner of superfluous reproaches, for having (as he said) first brought
+the Rose into disgrace, and then driven her into the arms of the
+Spaniard; while St. Leger, who was a sensible man enough, tried in vain
+to persuade him that the fault was not his at all; that the two must
+have been attached to each other long before the quarrel; that it must
+have ended so, sooner or later; that old Salterne's harshness, rather
+than Cary's wrath, had hastened the catastrophe; and finally, that the
+Rose and her fortunes were, now that she had eloped with a Spaniard, not
+worth troubling their heads about.  Poor Will would not be so comforted.
+He wrote off to Frank at Whitehall, telling him the whole truth, calling
+himself all fools and villains, and entreating Frank's forgiveness; to
+which he received an answer, in which Frank said that Will had no reason
+to accuse himself; that these strange attachments were due to a
+synastria, or sympathy of the stars, which ruled the destinies of each
+person, to fight against which was to fight against the heavens
+themselves; that he, as a brother of the Rose, was bound to believe,
+nay, to assert at the sword's point if need were, that the incomparable
+Rose of Torridge could make none but a worthy and virtuous choice; and
+that to the man whom she had honored by her affection was due on their
+part, Spaniard and Papist though he might be, all friendship, worship,
+and loyal faith for evermore.
+
+And honest Will took it all for gospel, little dreaming what agony of
+despair, what fearful suspicions, what bitter prayers, this letter had
+cost to the gentle heart of Francis Leigh.
+
+He showed the letter triumphantly to St. Leger; and he was quite wise
+enough to gainsay no word of it, at least aloud; but quite wise enough,
+also, to believe in secret that Frank looked on the matter in quite a
+different light; however, he contented himself with saying:
+
+“The man is an angel as his mother is!” and there the matter dropped for
+a few days, till one came forward who had no mind to let it drop, and
+that was Jack Brimblecombe, now curate of Hartland town, and “passing
+rich on forty pounds a year.
+
+“I hope no offence, Mr. William; but when are you and the rest going
+after--after her?”  The name stuck in his throat.
+
+Cary was taken aback.
+
+“What's that to thee, Catiline the blood-drinker?” asked he, trying to
+laugh it off.
+
+“What?  Don't laugh at me, sir, for it's no laughing matter.  I drank
+that night naught worse, I expect, than red wine.  Whatever it was, we
+swore our oaths, Mr. Cary; and oaths are oaths, say I.”
+
+“Of course, Jack, of course; but to go to look for her--and when we've
+found her, cut her lover's throat.  Absurd, Jack, even if she were worth
+looking for, or his throat worth cutting.  Tut, tut, tut--”
+
+But Jack looked steadfastly in his face, and after some silence:
+
+How far is it to the Caracas, then, sir?”
+
+“What is that to thee, man?”
+
+“Why, he was made governor thereof, I hear; so that would be the place
+to find her?”
+
+“You don't mean to go thither to seek her?” shouted Cary, forcing a
+laugh.
+
+“That depends on whether I can go, sir; but if I can scrape the money
+together, or get a berth on board some ship, why, God's will must be
+done.”
+
+Will looked at him, to see if he had been drinking, or gone mad; but the
+little pigs' eyes were both sane and sober.
+
+Will knew no answer.  To laugh at the poor fellow was easy enough; to
+deny that he was right, that he was a hero and cavalier, outdoing
+romance itself in faithfulness, not so easy; and Cary, in the first
+impulse, wished him at the bottom of the bay for shaming him.  Of
+course, his own plan of letting ill alone was the rational, prudent,
+irreproachable plan, and just what any gentleman in his senses would
+have done; but here was a vulgar, fat curate, out of his senses,
+determined not to let ill alone, but to do something, as Cary felt in
+his heart, of a far diviner stamp.
+
+“Well,” said Jack, in his stupid steadfast way, “it's a very bad
+look-out; but mother's pretty well off, if father dies, and the maidens
+are stout wenches enough, and will make tidy servants, please the Lord.
+And you'll see that they come to no harm, Mr. William, for old
+acquaintance' sake, if I never come back.”
+
+Cary was silent with amazement.
+
+“And, Mr. William, you know me for an honest man, I hope.  Will you lend
+me a five pound, and take my books in pawn for them, just to help me
+out?”
+
+“Are you mad, or in a dream?  You will never find her!”
+
+“That's no reason why I shouldn't do my duty in looking for her, Mr.
+William.”
+
+“But, my good fellow, even if you get to the Indies, you will be clapt
+into the Inquisition, and burnt alive, as sure as your name is Jack.”
+
+“I know that,” said he, in a doleful tone; “and a sore struggle of the
+flesh I have had about it; for I am a great coward, Mr. William, a dirty
+coward, and always was, as you know: but maybe the Lord will take care
+of me, as He does of little children and drunken men; and if not, Mr.
+Will, I'd sooner burn, and have it over, than go on this way any longer,
+I would!” and Jack burst out blubbering.
+
+“What way, my dear old lad?” said Will, softened as he well might be.
+
+“Why, not--not to know whether--whether--whether she's married to him or
+not--her that I looked up to as an angel of God, as pure as the light of
+day; and knew she was too good for a poor pot-head like me; and prayed
+for her every night, God knows, that she might marry a king, if there
+was one fit for her--and I not to know whether she's living in sin or
+not, Mr. William.--It's more than I can bear, and there's an end of it.
+And if she is married to him they keep no faith with heretics; they can
+dissolve the marriage, or make away with her into the Inquisition; burn
+her, Mr. Cary, as soon as burn me, the devils incarnate!”
+
+Cary shuddered; the fact, true and palpable as it was, had never struck
+him before.
+
+“Yes! or make her deny her God by torments, if she hasn't done it
+already for love to that--I know how love will make a body sell his
+soul, for I've been in love.  Don't you laugh at me, Mr. Will, or I
+shall go mad!”
+
+“God knows, I was never less inclined to laugh at you in my life, my
+brave old Jack.”
+
+“Is it so, then?  Bless you for that word!” and Jack held out his hand.
+“But what will become of my soul, after my oath, if I don't seek her
+out, just to speak to her, to warn her, for God's sake, even if it did
+no good; just to set before her the Lord's curse on idolatry and
+Antichrist, and those who deny Him for the sake of any creature, though
+I can't think he would be hard on her,--for who could?  But I must speak
+all the same.  The Lord has laid the burden on me, and done it must be.
+God help me!”
+
+“Jack,” said Cary, “if this is your duty, it is others'.”
+
+“No, sir, I don't say that; you're a layman, but I am a deacon, and the
+chaplain of you all, and sworn to seek out Christ's sheep scattered up
+and down this naughty world, and that innocent lamb first of all.”
+
+“You have sheep at Hartland, Jack, already.”
+
+“There's plenty better than I will tend them, when I am gone; but none
+that will tend her, because none love her like me, and they won't
+venture.  Who will?  It can't be expected, and no shame to them?”
+
+“I wonder what Amyas Leigh would say to all this, if he were at home?”
+
+“Say?  He'd do.  He isn't one for talking.  He'd go through fire and
+water for her, you trust him, Will Cary; and call me an ass if he
+won't.”
+
+“Will you wait, then, till he comes back, and ask him?”
+
+“He may not be back for a year and more.”
+
+“Hear reason, Jack.  If you will wait like a rational and patient man,
+instead of rushing blindfold on your ruin, something may be done.”
+
+“You think so!”
+
+“I cannot promise; but--”
+
+“But promise me one thing.  Do you tell Mr. Frank what I say--or rather,
+I'll warrant, if I knew the truth, he has said the very same thing
+himself already.”
+
+“You are out there, old man; for here is his own handwriting.”
+
+Jack read the letter and sighed bitterly.  “Well, I did take him for
+another guess sort of fine gentleman.  Still, if my duty isn't his, it's
+mine all the same.  I judge no man; but I go, Mr. Cary.”
+
+“But go you shall not till Amyas returns.  As I live, I will tell your
+father, Jack, unless you promise; and you dare not disobey him.”
+
+“I don't know even that, for conscience' sake,” said Jack, doubtfully.
+
+“At least, you stay and dine here, old fellow, and we will settle
+whether you are to break the fifth commandment or not, over good brewed
+sack.”
+
+Now a good dinner was (as we know) what Jack loved, and loved too oft in
+vain; so he submitted for the nonce, and Cary thought, ere he went, that
+he had talked him pretty well round.  At least he went home, and was
+seen no more for a week.
+
+But at the end of that time he returned, and said with a joyful voice--
+
+“I have settled all, Mr. Will.  The parson of Welcombe will serve my
+church for two Sundays, and I am away for London town, to speak to Mr.
+Frank.”
+
+“To London?  How wilt get there?”
+
+“On Shanks his mare,” said Jack, pointing to his bandy legs.  “But I
+expect I can get a lift on board of a coaster so far as Bristol, and
+it's no way on to signify, I hear.”
+
+Cary tried in vain to dissuade him; and then forced on him a small loan,
+with which away went Jack, and Cary heard no more of him for three
+weeks.
+
+At last he walked into Clovelly Court again just before supper-time,
+thin and leg-weary, and sat himself down among the serving-men till Will
+appeared.
+
+Will took him up above the salt, and made much of him (which indeed the
+honest fellow much needed), and after supper asked him in private how he
+had sped.
+
+“I have learnt a lesson, Mr. William.  I've learnt that there is one on
+earth loves her better than I, if she had but had the wit to have taken
+him.”
+
+“But what says he of going to seek her?”
+
+“He says what I say, Go! and he says what you say, Wait.”
+
+“Go?  Impossible!  How can that agree with his letter?”
+
+“That's no concern of mine.  Of course, being nearer heaven than I am,
+he sees clearer what he should say and do than I can see for him.  Oh,
+Mr. Will, that's not a man, he's an angel of God; but he's dying, Mr.
+Will.”
+
+“Dying?”
+
+“Yes, faith, of love for her.  I can see it in his eyes, and hear it in
+his voice; but I am of tougher hide and stiffer clay, and so you see I
+can't die even if I tried.  But I'll obey my betters, and wait.”
+
+And so Jack went home to his parish that very evening, weary as he was,
+in spite of all entreaties to pass the night at Clovelly.  But he had
+left behind him thoughts in Cary's mind, which gave their owner no rest
+by day or night, till the touch of a seeming accident made them all
+start suddenly into shape, as a touch of the freezing water covers it in
+an instant with crystals of ice.
+
+He was lounging (so he told Amyas) one murky day on Bideford quay, when
+up came Mr. Salterne.  Cary had shunned him of late, partly from
+delicacy, partly from dislike of his supposed hard-heartedness.  But
+this time they happened to meet full; and Cary could not pass without
+speaking to him.
+
+“Well, Mr. Salterne, and how goes on the shipping trade?”
+
+“Well enough, sir, if some of you young gentlemen would but follow Mr.
+Leigh's example, and go forth to find us stay-at-homes new markets for
+our ware.”
+
+“What? you want to be rid of us, eh?”
+
+“I don't know why I should, sir.  We sha'n't cross each other now, sir,
+whatever might have been once.  But if I were you, I should be in the
+Indies about now, if I were not fighting the queen's battles nearer
+home.”
+
+“In the Indies?  I should make but a poor hand of Drake's trade.” And so
+the conversation dropped; but Cary did not forget the hint.
+
+“So, lad, to make an end of a long story,” said he to Amyas; “if you are
+minded to take the old man's offer, so am I: and Westward-ho with you,
+come foul come fair.”
+
+“It will be but a wild-goose chase, Will.”
+
+“If she is with him, we shall find her at La Guayra.  If she is not, and
+the villain has cast her off down the wind, that will be only an
+additional reason for making an example of him.”
+
+“And if neither of them are there, Will, the Plate-fleets will be; so it
+will be our own shame if we come home empty-handed.  But will your
+father let you run such a risk?”
+
+“My father!” said Cary, laughing.  “He has just now so good hope of a
+long string of little Carys to fill my place, that he will be in no lack
+of an heir, come what will.”
+
+“Little Carys?”
+
+“I tell you truth.  I think he must have had a sly sup of that fountain
+of perpetual youth, which our friend Don Guzman's grandfather went to
+seek in Florida; for some twelvemonth since, he must needs marry a
+tenant's buxom daughter; and Mistress Abishag Jewell has brought him one
+fat baby already.  So I shall go, back to Ireland, or with you: but
+somewhere.  I can't abide the thing's squalling, any more than I can
+seeing Mistress Abishag sitting in my poor dear mother's place, and
+informing me every other day that she is come of an illustrious house,
+because she is (or is not) third cousin seven times removed to my
+father's old friend, Bishop Jewell of glorious memory.  I had
+three-parts of a quarrel with the dear old man the other day; for after
+one of her peacock-bouts, I couldn't for the life of me help saying,
+that as the Bishop had written an Apology for the people of England, my
+father had better conjure up his ghost to write an apology for him, and
+head it, 'Why green heads should grow on gray shoulders.'”
+
+“You impudent villain!  And what did he say?”
+
+Laughed till he cried again, and told me if I did not like it I might
+leave it; which is just what I intend to do.  Only mind, if we go, we
+must needs take Jack Brimblecombe with us, or he will surely heave
+himself over Harty Point, and his ghost will haunt us to our dying day.”
+
+“Jack shall go.  None deserves it better.”
+
+After which there was a long consultation on practical matters, and it
+was concluded that Amyas should go up to London and sound Frank and his
+mother before any further steps were taken.  The other brethren of the
+Rose were scattered far and wide, each at his post, and St. Leger had
+returned to his uncle, so that it would be unfair to them, as well as a
+considerable delay, to demand of them any fulfilment of their vow.
+And, as Amyas sagely remarked, “Too many cooks spoil the broth, and
+half-a-dozen gentlemen aboard one ship are as bad as two kings of
+Brentford.”
+
+With which maxim he departed next morning for London, leaving Yeo with
+Cary.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE
+
+     “He is brass within, and steel without,
+     With beams on his topcastle strong;
+     And eighteen pieces of ordinance
+     He carries on either side along.”
+
+                         Sir Andrew Barton.
+
+Let us take boat, as Amyas did, at Whitehall-stairs, and slip down ahead
+of him under old London Bridge, and so to Deptford Creek, where remains,
+as it were embalmed, the famous ship Pelican, in which Drake had sailed
+round the world. There she stands, drawn up high and dry upon the sedgy
+bank of Thames, like an old warrior resting after his toil. Nailed upon
+her mainmast are epigrams and verses in honor of her and of her captain,
+three of which, by the Winchester scholar, Camden gives in his History;
+and Elizabeth's self consecrated her solemnly, and having banqueted on
+board, there and then honored Drake with the dignity of knighthood. “At
+which time a bridge of planks, by which they came on board, broke under
+the press of people, and fell down with a hundred men upon it, who,
+notwithstanding, had none of them any harm. So as that ship may seem to
+have been built under a lucky planet.”
+
+There she has remained since as a show, and moreover as a sort of
+dining-hall for jovial parties from the city; one of which would seem
+to be on board this afternoon, to judge from the flags which bedizen the
+masts, the sounds of revelry and savory steams which issue from those
+windows which once were portholes, and the rushing to and fro along the
+river brink, and across that lucky bridge, of white-aproned waiters from
+the neighboring Pelican Inn. A great feast is evidently toward, for
+with those white-aproned waiters are gay serving men, wearing on their
+shoulders the city-badge. The lord mayor is giving a dinner to certain
+gentlemen of the Leicester house party, who are interested in foreign
+discoveries; and what place so fit for such a feast as the Pelican
+itself?
+
+Look at the men all round; a nobler company you will seldom see.
+Especially too, if you be Americans, look at their faces, and reverence
+them; for to them and to their wisdom you owe the existence of your
+mighty fatherland.
+
+At the head of the table sits the lord mayor; whom all readers will
+recognize at once, for he is none other than that famous Sir Edward
+Osborne, clothworker, and ancestor of the dukes of Leeds, whose romance
+now-a-days is in every one's hands. He is aged, but not changed, since
+he leaped from the window upon London Bridge into the roaring tide
+below, to rescue the infant who is now his wife. The chivalry and
+promptitude of the 'prentice boy have grown and hardened into the
+thoughtful daring of the wealthy merchant adventurer. There he sits, a
+right kingly man, with my lord Earl of Cumberland on his right hand, and
+Walter Raleigh on his left; the three talk together in a low voice on
+the chance of there being vast and rich countries still undiscovered
+between Florida and the River of Canada. Raleigh's half-scientific
+declamation and his often quotations of Doctor Dee the conjuror, have
+less effect on Osborne than on Cumberland (who tried many an adventure
+to foreign parts, and failed in all of them; apparently for the simple
+reason that, instead of going himself, he sent other people), and
+Raleigh is fain to call to his help the quiet student who sits on his
+left hand, Richard Hakluyt, of Oxford. But he is deep in talk with a
+reverend elder, whose long white beard flows almost to his waist, and
+whose face is furrowed by a thousand storms; Anthony Jenkinson by name,
+the great Asiatic traveller, who is discoursing to the Christ-church
+virtuoso of reindeer sledges and Siberian steppes, and of the fossil
+ivory, plain proof of Noah's flood, which the Tungoos dig from the
+ice-cliffs of the Arctic sea. Next to him is Christopher Carlile,
+Walsingham's son-in-law (as Sidney also is now), a valiant captain,
+afterwards general of the soldiery in Drake's triumphant West Indian
+raid of 1585, with whom a certain Bishop of Carthagena will hereafter
+drink good wine. He is now busy talking with Alderman Hart the
+grocer, Sheriff Spencer the clothworker, and Charles Leigh (Amyas's
+merchant-cousin), and with Aldworth the mayor of Bristol, and William
+Salterne, alderman thereof, and cousin of our friend at Bideford. For
+Carlile, and Secretary Walsingham also, have been helping them heart
+and soul for the last two years to collect money for Humphrey and Adrian
+Gilbert's great adventures to the North-West, on one of which Carlile
+was indeed to have sailed himself, but did not go after all; I never
+could discover for what reason.
+
+On the opposite side of the table is a group, scarcely less interesting.
+Martin Frobisher and John Davis, the pioneers of the North-West passage,
+are talking with Alderman Sanderson, the great geographer and “setter
+forth of globes;” with Mr. Towerson, Sir Gilbert Peckham, our old
+acquaintance Captain John Winter, and last, but not least, with Philip
+Sidney himself, who, with his accustomed courtesy; has given up his
+rightful place toward the head of the table that he may have a knot of
+virtuosi all to himself; and has brought with him, of course, his two
+especial intimates, Mr. Edward Dyer and Mr. Francis Leigh. They too are
+talking of the North-West passage: and Sidney is lamenting that he is
+tied to diplomacy and courts, and expressing his envy of old Martin
+Frobisher in all sorts of pretty compliments; to which the other replies
+that,
+
+“It's all very fine to talk of here, a sailing on dry land with a
+good glass of wine before you; but you'd find it another guess sort of
+business, knocking about among the icebergs with your beard frozen fast
+to your ruff, Sir Philip, specially if you were a bit squeamish about
+the stomach.”
+
+“That were a slight matter to endure, my dear sir, if by it I could win
+the honor which her majesty bestowed on you, when her own ivory hand
+waved a farewell 'kerchief to your ship from the windows of Greenwich
+Palace.”
+
+“Well, sir, folks say you have no reason to complain of lack of favors,
+as you have no reason to deserve lack; and if you can get them by
+staying ashore, don't you go to sea to look for more, say I. Eh, Master
+Towerson?”
+
+Towerson's gray beard, which has stood many a foreign voyage, both fair
+and foul, wags grim assent. But at this moment a Waiter enters, and--
+
+“Please my lord mayor's worship, there is a tall gentleman outside,
+would speak with the Right Honorable Sir Walter Raleigh.”
+
+“Show him in, man. Sir Walter's friends are ours.”
+
+Amyas enters, and stands hesitating in the doorway.
+
+“Captain Leigh!” cry half a-dozen voices.
+
+“Why did you not walk in, sir?” says Osborne. “You should know your way
+well enough between these decks.”
+
+“Well enough, my lords and gentlemen. But, Sir Walter--you will excuse
+me”--and he gave Raleigh a look which was enough for his quick wit.
+Turning pale as death, he rose, and followed Amyas into an adjoining
+cabin. They were five minutes together; and then Amyas came out alone.
+
+In few words he told the company the sad story which we already know.
+Ere it was ended, noble tears were glistening on some of those stern
+faces.
+
+“The old Egyptians,” said Sir Edward Osborne, “when they banqueted, set
+a corpse among their guests, for a memorial of human vanity. Have we
+forgotten God and our own weakness in this our feast, that He Himself
+has sent us thus a message from the dead?”
+
+“Nay, my lord mayor,” said Sidney, “not from the dead, but from the
+realm of everlasting life.”
+
+“Amen!” answered Osborne. “But, gentlemen, our feast is at an end. There
+are those here who would drink on merrily, as brave men should, in spite
+of the private losses of which they have just had news; but none here
+who can drink with the loss of so great a man still ringing in his
+ears.”
+
+It was true. Though many of the guests had suffered severely by the
+failure of the expedition, they had utterly forgotten that fact in the
+awful news of Sir Humphrey's death; and the feast broke up sadly and
+hurriedly, while each man asked his neighbor, “What will the queen say?”
+
+Raleigh re-entered in a few minutes, but was silent, and pressing many
+an honest hand as he passed, went out to call a wherry, beckoning Amyas
+to follow him. Sidney, Cumberland, and Frank went with them in another
+boat, leaving the two to talk over the sad details.
+
+They disembarked at Whitehall-stairs; Raleigh, Sidney, and Cumberland
+went to the palace; and the two brothers to their mother's lodgings.
+
+Amyas had prepared his speech to Frank about Rose Salterne, but now that
+it was come to the point, he had not courage to begin, and longed that
+Frank would open the matter. Frank, too, shrank from what he knew must
+come, and all the more because he was ignorant that Amyas had been to
+Bideford, or knew aught of the Rose's disappearance.
+
+So they went upstairs; and it was a relief to both of them to find that
+their mother was at the Abbey; for it was for her sake that both dreaded
+what was coming. So they went and stood in the bay-window which looked
+out upon the river, and talked of things indifferent, and looked
+earnestly at each other's faces by the fading light, for it was now
+three years since they had met.
+
+Years and events had deepened the contrast between the two brothers; and
+Frank smiled with affectionate pride as he looked up in Amyas's face,
+and saw that he was no longer merely the rollicking handy sailor-lad,
+but the self-confident and stately warrior, showing in every look and
+gesture,
+
+     “The reason firm, the temperate will,
+     Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill,”
+
+worthy of one whose education had been begun by such men as Drake and
+Grenville, and finished by such as Raleigh and Gilbert. His long locks
+were now cropped close to the head; but as a set-off, the lips and chin
+were covered with rich golden beard; his face was browned by a thousand
+suns and storms; a long scar, the trophy of some Irish fight, crossed
+his right temple; his huge figure had gained breadth in proportion to
+its height; and his hand, as it lay upon the window-sill, was hard and
+massive as a smith's. Frank laid his own upon it, and sighed; and Amyas
+looked down, and started at the contrast between the two--so slender,
+bloodless, all but transparent, were the delicate fingers of the
+courtier. Amyas looked anxiously into his brother's face. It was
+changed, indeed, since they last met. The brilliant red was still on
+either cheek, but the white had become dull and opaque; the lips were
+pale, the features sharpened; the eyes glittered with unnatural fire:
+and when Frank told Amyas that he looked aged, Amyas could not help
+thinking that the remark was far more true of the speaker himself.
+
+Trying to shut his eyes to the palpable truth, he went on with his chat,
+asking the names of one building after another.
+
+“And so this is old Father Thames, with his bank of palaces?”
+
+“Yes. His banks are stately enough; yet, you see, he cannot stay to look
+at them. He hurries down to the sea; and the sea into the ocean; and the
+ocean Westward-ho, forever. All things move Westward-ho. Perhaps we may
+move that way ourselves some day, Amyas.”
+
+“What do you mean by that strange talk?”
+
+“Only that the ocean follows the primum mobile of the heavens, and flows
+forever from east to west. Is there anything so strange in my thinking
+of that, when I am just come from a party where we have been drinking
+success to Westward-ho?”
+
+“And much good has come of it! I have lost the best friend and the
+noblest captain upon earth, not to mention all my little earnings, in
+that same confounded gulf of Westward-ho.”
+
+“Yes, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's star has set in the West--why not? Sun,
+moon, and planets sink into the West: why not the meteors of this lower
+world? why not a will-o'-the-wisp like me, Amyas?”
+
+“God forbid, Frank!”
+
+“Why, then? Is not the West the land of peace, and the land of dreams?
+Do not our hearts tell us so each time we look upon the setting sun, and
+long to float away with him upon the golden-cushioned clouds? They bury
+men with their faces to the East. I should rather have mine turned
+to the West, Amyas, when I die; for I cannot but think it some divine
+instinct which made the ancient poets guess that Elysium lay beneath the
+setting sun. It is bound up in the heart of man, that longing for the
+West. I complain of no one for fleeing away thither beyond the utmost
+sea, as David wished to flee, and be at peace.”
+
+“Complain of no one for fleeing thither?” asked Amyas. “That is more
+than I do.”
+
+Frank looked inquiringly at him; and then--
+
+“No. If I had complained of any one, it would have been of you just now,
+for seeming to be tired of going Westward-ho.”
+
+“Do you wish me to go, then?”
+
+“God knows,” said Frank, after a moment's pause. “But I must tell you
+now, I suppose, once and for all. That has happened at Bideford which--”
+
+“Spare us both, Frank; I know all. I came through Bideford on my way
+hither; and came hither not merely to see you and my mother, but to ask
+your advice and her permission.”
+
+“True heart! noble heart!” cried Frank. “I knew you would be stanch!”
+
+“Westward-ho it is, then?”
+
+“Can we escape?”
+
+“We?”
+
+“Amyas, does not that which binds you bind me?”
+
+Amyas started back, and held Frank by the shoulders at arm's length; as
+he did so, he could feel through, that his brother's arms were but skin
+and bone.
+
+“You? Dearest man, a month of it would kill you!”
+
+Frank smiled, and tossed his head on one side in his pretty way.
+
+“I belong to the school of Thales, who held that the ocean is the mother
+of all life; and feel no more repugnance at returning to her bosom again
+than Humphrey Gilbert did.”
+
+“But, Frank,--my mother?”
+
+“My mother knows all; and would not have us unworthy of her.”
+
+“Impossible! She will never give you up!”
+
+“All things are possible to them that believe in God, my brother; and
+she believes. But, indeed, Doctor Dee, the wise man, gave her but this
+summer I know not what of prognostics and diagnostics concerning me. I
+am born, it seems, under a cold and watery planet, and need, if I am to
+be long-lived, to go nearer to the vivifying heat of the sun, and there
+bask out my little life, like fly on wall. To tell truth, he has bidden
+me spend no more winters here in the East; but return to our native
+sea-breezes, there to warm my frozen lungs; and has so filled my
+mother's fancy with stories of sick men, who were given up for lost in
+Germany and France, and yet renewed their youth, like any serpent or
+eagle, by going to Italy, Spain, and the Canaries, that she herself will
+be more ready to let me go than I to leave her all alone. And yet I must
+go, Amyas. It is not merely that my heart pants, as Sidney's does, as
+every gallant's ought, to make one of your noble choir of Argonauts,
+who are now replenishing the earth and subduing it for God and for the
+queen; it is not merely, Amyas, that love calls me,--love tyrannous and
+uncontrollable, strengthened by absence, and deepened by despair; but
+honor, Amyas--my oath--”
+
+And he paused for lack of breath, and bursting into a violent fit of
+coughing, leaned on his brother's shoulder, while Amyas cried,
+
+“Fools, fools that we were--that I was, I mean--to take that fantastical
+vow!”
+
+“Not so,” answered a gentle voice from behind: “you vowed for the
+sake of peace on earth, and good-will toward men, and 'Blessed are the
+peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.' No my sons,
+be sure that such self-sacrifice as you have shown will meet its full
+reward at the hand of Him who sacrificed Himself for you.”
+
+“Oh, mother! mother!” said Amyas, “and do you not hate the very sight of
+me--come here to take away your first-born?”
+
+“My boy, God takes him, and not you. And if I dare believe in such
+predictions, Doctor Dee assured me that some exceeding honor awaited you
+both in the West, to each of you according to your deserts.”
+
+“Ah!” said Amyas. “My blessing, I suppose, will be like Esau's, to live
+by my sword; while Jacob here, the spiritual man, inherits the kingdom
+of heaven, and an angel's crown.”
+
+“Be it what it may, it will surely be a blessing, as long as you are
+such, my children, as you have been. At least my Frank will be safe from
+the intrigues of court, and the temptations of the world. Would that I
+too could go with you, and share in your glory! Come, now,” said she,
+laying her head upon Amyas's breast, and looking up into his face with
+one of her most winning smiles, “I have heard of heroic mothers ere
+now who went forth with their sons to battle, and cheered them on to
+victory. Why should I not go with you on a more peaceful errand? I could
+nurse the sick, if there were any; I could perhaps have speech of that
+poor girl, and win her back more easily than you. She might listen to
+words from a woman--a woman, too, who has loved--which she could not
+hear from men. At least I could mend and wash for you. I suppose it is
+as easy to play the good housewife afloat as on shore? Come, now!”
+
+Amyas looked from one to the other.
+
+“God only knows which of the two is less fit to go. Mother! mother! you
+know not what you ask. Frank! Frank! I do not want you with me. This
+is a sterner matter than either of you fancy it to be; one that must be
+worked out, not with kind words, but with sharp shot and cold steel.”
+
+“How?” cried both together, aghast.
+
+“I must pay my men, and pay my fellow-adventurers; and I must pay them
+with Spanish gold. And what is more, I cannot, as a loyal subject of
+the queen's, go to the Spanish Main with a clear conscience on my own
+private quarrel, unless I do all the harm that my hand finds to do, by
+day and night, to her enemies, and the enemies of God.”
+
+“What nobler knight-errantry?” said Frank, cheerfully; but Mrs. Leigh
+shuddered.
+
+“What! Frank too?” she said, half to herself; but her sons knew what she
+meant. Amyas's warlike life, honorable and righteous as she knew it
+to be, she had borne as a sad necessity: but that Frank as well should
+become “a man of blood,” was more than her gentle heart could face at
+first sight. That one youthful duel of his he had carefully concealed
+from her, knowing her feeling on such matters. And it seemed too
+dreadful to her to associate that gentle spirit with all the ferocities
+and the carnage of a battlefield. “And yet,” said she to herself, “is
+this but another of the self-willed idols which I must renounce one by
+one?” And then, catching at a last hope, she answered--
+
+“Frank must at least ask the queen's leave to go; and if she permits,
+how can I gainsay her wisdom?”
+
+And so the conversation dropped, sadly enough.
+
+But now began a fresh perplexity in Frank's soul, which amused Amyas at
+first, when it seemed merely jest, but nettled him a good deal when
+he found it earnest. For Frank looked forward to asking the queen's
+permission for his voyage with the most abject despondency and terror.
+Two or three days passed before he could make up his mind to ask for
+an interview with her; and he spent the time in making as much interest
+with Leicester, Hatton, and Sidney, as if he were about to sue for a
+reprieve from the scaffold.
+
+So said Amyas, remarking, further, that the queen could not cut his head
+off for wanting to go to sea.
+
+“But what axe so sharp as her frown?” said Frank in most lugubrious
+tone.
+
+Amyas began to whistle in a very rude way.
+
+“Ah, my brother, you cannot comprehend the pain of parting from her.”
+
+“No, I can't. I would die for the least hair of her royal head, God
+bless it! but I could live very well from now till Doomsday without ever
+setting eyes on the said head.”
+
+“Plato's Troglodytes regretted not that sunlight which they had never
+beheld.”
+
+Amyas, not understanding this recondite conceit, made no answer to it,
+and there the matter ended for the time. But at last Frank obtained his
+audience; and after a couple of hours' absence returned quite pale and
+exhausted.
+
+“Thank Heaven, it is over! She was very angry at first--what else could
+she be?--and upbraided me with having set my love so low. I could only
+answer, that my fatal fault was committed before the sight of her had
+taught me what was supremely lovely, and only worthy of admiration. Then
+she accused me of disloyalty in having taken an oath which bound me to
+the service of another than her. I confessed my sin with tears, and when
+she threatened punishment, pleaded that the offence had avenged itself
+heavily already,--for what worse punishment than exile from the sunlight
+of her presence, into the outer darkness which reigns where she is not?
+Then she was pleased to ask me, how I could dare, as her sworn servant,
+to desert her side in such dangerous times as these; and asked me how I
+should reconcile it to my conscience, if on my return I found her dead
+by the assassin's knife? At which most pathetic demand I could only
+throw myself at once on my own knees and her mercy, and so awaited
+my sentence. Whereon, with that angelic pity which alone makes her
+awfulness endurable, she turned to Hatton and asked, 'What say you,
+Mouton? Is he humbled sufficiently?' and so dismissed me.”
+
+“Heigh-ho!” yawned Amyas;
+
+     “If the bridge had been stronger,
+     My tale had been longer.”
+
+“Amyas! Amyas!” quoth Frank, solemnly, “you know not what power over the
+soul has the native and God-given majesty of royalty (awful enough in
+itself) when to it is superadded the wisdom of the sage, and therewithal
+the tenderness of the woman. Had I my will, there should be in every
+realm not a salique, but an anti-salique law: whereby no kings, but only
+queens should rule mankind. Then would weakness and not power be to man
+the symbol of divinity; love, and not cunning, would be the arbiter of
+every cause; and chivalry, not fear, the spring of all obedience.”
+
+“Humph! There's some sense in that,” quoth Amyas. “I'd run a mile for
+a woman when I would not walk a yard for a man; and--Who is this our
+mother is bringing in? The handsomest fellow I ever saw in my life!”
+
+Amyas was not far wrong; for Mrs. Leigh's companion was none other than
+Mr. Secretary, Amyas's Smerwick Fort acquaintance; alias Colin Clout,
+alias Immerito, alias Edmund Spenser. Some half-jesting conversation had
+seemingly been passing between the poet and the saint; for as they came
+in she said with a smile (which was somewhat of a forced one)--“Well,
+my dear sons, you are sure of immortality, at least on earth; for Mr.
+Spenser has been vowing to me to give your adventure a whole canto to
+itself in his 'Faerie Queene'.”
+
+“And you no less, madam,” said Spenser. “What were the story of the
+Gracchi worth without the figure of Cornelia? If I honor the fruit, I
+must not forget the stem which bears it. Frank, I congratulate you.”
+
+“Then you know the result of my interview, mother?”
+
+“I know everything, and am content,” said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+“Mrs. Leigh has reason to be content,” said Spenser, “with that which is
+but her own likeness.”
+
+Spare your flattery to an old woman, Mr. Spenser. When, pray, did I”
+ (with a most loving look at Frank) “refuse knighthood for duty's sake?”
+
+“Knighthood?” cried Amyas. “You never told me that, Frank!”
+
+“That may well be, Captain Leigh,” said Spenser; “but believe me, her
+majesty (so Hatton assures me) told him this day, no less than that by
+going on this quest he deprived himself of that highest earthly honor,
+which crowned heads are fain to seek from their own subjects.”
+
+Spenser did not exaggerate. Knighthood was then the prize of merit only;
+and one so valuable, that Elizabeth herself said, when asked why she did
+not bestow a peerage upon some favorite, that having already knighted
+him, she had nothing better to bestow. It remained for young Essex to
+begin the degradation of the order in his hapless Irish campaign, and
+for James to complete that degradation by his novel method of raising
+money by the sale of baronetcies; a new order of hereditary knighthood
+which was the laughing-stock of the day, and which (however venerable
+it may have since become) reflects anything but honor upon its first
+possessors.
+
+“I owe you no thanks, Colin,” said Frank, “for having broached my
+secret: but I have lost nothing after all. There is still an order of
+knighthood in which I may win my spurs, even though her majesty refuse
+me the accolade.”
+
+“What, then? you will not take it from a foreign prince?”
+
+Frank smiled.
+
+“Have you never read of that knighthood which is eternal in the heavens,
+and of those true cavaliers whom John saw in Patmos, riding on white
+horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, knights-errant in the
+everlasting war against the False Prophet and the Beast? Let me but
+become worthy of their ranks hereafter, what matter whether I be called
+Sir Frank on earth?”
+
+“My son,” said Mrs. Leigh, “remember that they follow One whose vesture
+is dipped, not in the blood of His enemies, but in His own.”
+
+“I have remembered it for many a day; and remembered, too, that the
+garments of the knights may need the same tokens as their captain's.”
+
+“Oh, Frank! Frank! is not His precious blood enough to cleanse all sin,
+without the sacrifice of our own?”
+
+“We may need no more than His blood, mother, and yet He may need ours,”
+ said Frank.
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+How that conversation ended I know not, nor whether Spenser fulfilled
+his purpose of introducing the two brothers and their mother into his
+“Faerie Queene.” If so, the manuscripts must have been lost among those
+which perished (along with Spenser's baby) in the sack of Kilcolman by
+the Irish in 1598. But we need hardly regret the loss of them; for the
+temper of the Leighs and their mother is the same which inspires every
+canto of that noblest of poems; and which inspired, too, hundreds in
+those noble days, when the chivalry of the Middle Ages was wedded to the
+free thought and enterprise of the new.
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+So mother and sons returned to Bideford, and set to work. Frank
+mortgaged a farm; Will Cary did the same (having some land of his own
+from his mother). Old Salterne grumbled at any man save himself spending
+a penny on the voyage, and forced on the adventurers a good ship of two
+hundred tons burden, and five hundred pounds toward fitting her out;
+Mrs. Leigh worked day and night at clothes and comforts of every kind;
+Amyas had nothing to give but his time and his brains: but, as Salterne
+said, the rest would have been of little use without them; and day after
+day he and the old merchant were on board the ship, superintending
+with their own eyes the fitting of every rope and nail. Cary went about
+beating up recruits; and made, with his jests and his frankness, the
+best of crimps: while John Brimblecombe, beside himself with joy,
+toddled about after him from tavern to tavern, and quay to quay, exalted
+for the time being (as Cary told him) into a second Peter the Hermit;
+and so fiercely did he preach a crusade against the Spaniards, through
+Bideford and Appledore, Clovelly and Ilfracombe, that Amyas might have
+had a hundred and fifty loose fellows in the first fortnight. But he
+knew better: still smarting from the effects of a similar haste in the
+Newfoundland adventure, he had determined to take none but picked men;
+and by dint of labor he obtained them.
+
+Only one scapegrace did he take into his crew, named Parracombe; and
+by that scapegrace hangs a tale. He was an old schoolfellow of his
+at Bideford, and son of a merchant in that town--one of those unlucky
+members who are “nobody's enemy but their own”--a handsome, idle,
+clever fellow, who used his scholarship, of which he had picked up some
+smattering, chiefly to justify his own escapades, and to string songs
+together. Having drunk all that he was worth at home, he had in a
+penitent fit forsworn liquor, and tormented Amyas into taking him to
+sea, where he afterwards made as good a sailor as any one else,
+but sorely scandalized John Brimblecombe by all manner of heretical
+arguments, half Anacreontic, half smacking of the rather loose doctrines
+of that “Family of Love” which tormented the orthodoxy and morality of
+more than one Bishop of Exeter. Poor Will Parracombe! he was born a few
+centuries too early. Had he but lived now, he might have published
+a volume or two of poetry, and then settled down on the staff of a
+newspaper. Had he even lived thirty years later than he did, he might
+have written frantic tragedies or filthy comedies for the edification of
+James's profligate metropolis, and roistered it in taverns with Marlowe,
+to die as Marlowe did, by a footman's sword in a drunken brawl. But in
+those stern days such weak and hysterical spirits had no fair vent for
+their “humors,” save in being reconciled to the Church of Rome, and
+plotting with Jesuits to assassinate the queen, as Parry and Somerville,
+and many other madmen, did.
+
+So, at least, some Jesuit or other seems to have thought, shortly after
+Amyas had agreed to give the spendthrift a berth on board. For one day
+Amyas, going down to Appledore about his business, was called into the
+little Mariners' Rest inn, to extract therefrom poor Will Parracombe,
+who (in spite of his vow) was drunk and outrageous, and had vowed the
+death of the landlady and all her kin. So Amyas fetched him out by the
+collar, and walked him home thereby to Bideford; during which walk Will
+told him a long and confused story; how an Egyptian rogue had met him
+that morning on the sands by Boathythe, offered to tell his fortune,
+and prophesied to him great wealth and honor, but not from the Queen of
+England; had coaxed him to the Mariners' Rest, and gambled with him
+for liquor, at which it seemed Will always won, and of course drank his
+winnings on the spot; whereon the Egyptian began asking him all sorts of
+questions about the projected voyage of the Rose--a good many of which,
+Will confessed, he had answered before he saw the fellow's drift;
+after which the Egyptian had offered him a vast sum of money to do some
+desperate villainy; but whether it was to murder Amyas or the queen,
+whether to bore a hole in the bottom of the good ship Rose or to set the
+Torridge on fire by art-magic, he was too drunk to recollect exactly.
+Whereon Amyas treated three-quarters of the story as a tipsy dream,
+and contented himself by getting a warrant against the landlady for
+harboring “Egyptians,” which was then a heavy offence--a gipsy disguise
+being a favorite one with Jesuits and their emissaries. She of course
+denied that any gipsy had been there; and though there were some who
+thought they had seen such a man come in, none had seen him go out
+again. On which Amyas took occasion to ask, what had become of the
+suspicious Popish ostler whom he had seen at the Mariners' Rest three
+years before; and discovered, to his surprise, that the said ostler
+had vanished from the very day of Don Guzman's departure from Bideford.
+There was evidently a mystery somewhere: but nothing could be proved;
+the landlady was dismissed with a reprimand, and Amyas soon forgot the
+whole matter, after rating Parracombe soundly. After all, he could not
+have told the gipsy (if one existed) anything important; for the special
+destination of the voyage (as was the custom in those times, for fear of
+Jesuits playing into the hands of Spain) had been carefully kept secret
+among the adventurers themselves, and, except Yeo and Drew, none of the
+men had any suspicion that La Guayra was to be their aim.
+
+And Salvation Yeo?
+
+Salvation was almost wild for a few days, at the sudden prospect of
+going in search of his little maid, and of fighting Spaniards once more
+before he died. I will not quote the texts out of Isaiah and the Psalms
+with which his mouth was filled from morning to night, for fear of
+seeming irreverent in the eyes of a generation which does not believe,
+as Yeo believed, that fighting the Spaniards was as really fighting in
+God's battle against evil as were the wars of Joshua or David. But the
+old man had his practical hint too, and entreated to be sent back to
+Plymouth to look for men.
+
+“There's many a man of the old Pelican, sir, and of Captain Hawkins's
+Minion that knows the Indies as well as I, and longs to be back again.
+There's Drew, sir, that we left behind (and no better sailing-master for
+us in the West-country, and has accounts against the Spaniards, too; for
+it was his brother, the Barnstaple man, that was factor aboard of poor
+Mr. Andrew Barker, and got clapt into the Inquisition at the Canaries);
+you promised him, sir, that night he stood by you on board the Raleigh:
+and if you'll be as good as your word, he'll be as good as his; and
+bring a score more brave fellows with him.”
+
+So off went Yeo to Plymouth, and returned with Drew and a score of old
+never-strikes. One look at their visages, as Yeo proudly ushered them
+into the Ship Tavern, showed Amyas that they were of the metal which he
+wanted, and that, with the four North-Devon men who had gone round the
+world with him in the Pelican (who all joined in the first week), he had
+a reserve-force on which he could depend in utter need; and that utter
+need might come he knew as well as any.
+
+Nor was this all which Yeo had brought; for he had with him a letter
+from Sir Francis Drake, full of regrets that he had not seen “his dear
+lad” as he went through Plymouth. “But indeed I was up to Dartmoor,
+surveying with cross-staff and chain, over my knees in bog for a three
+weeks or more. For I have a project to bring down a leat of fair water
+from the hill-tops right into Plymouth town, cutting off the heads
+of Tavy, Meavy, Wallcomb, and West Dart, and thereby purging Plymouth
+harbor from the silt of the mines whereby it has been choked of late
+years, and giving pure drink not only to the townsmen, but to the fleets
+of the queen's majesty; which if I do, I shall both make some poor
+return to God for all His unspeakable mercies, and erect unto myself a
+monument better than of brass or marble, not merely honorable to me, but
+useful to my countrymen.” * Whereon Frank sent Drake a pretty epigram,
+comparing Drake's projected leat to that river of eternal life whereof
+the just would drink throughout eternity, and quoting (after the fashion
+of those days) John vii. 38; while Amyas took more heed of a practical
+appendage to the same letter, which was a list of hints scrawled for
+his use by Captain John Hawkins himself, on all sea matters, from
+the mounting of ordnance to the use of vitriol against the scurvy, in
+default of oranges and “limmons;” all which stood Amyas in good stead
+during the ensuing month, while Frank grew more and more proud of his
+brother, and more and more humble about himself.
+
+     * This noble monument of Drake's piety and public spirit
+     still remains in full use.
+
+For he watched with astonishment how the simple sailor, without genius,
+scholarship, or fancy, had gained, by plain honesty, patience, and
+common sense, a power over the human heart, and a power over his work,
+whatsoever it might be, which Frank could only admire afar off. The men
+looked up to him as infallible, prided themselves on forestalling his
+wishes, carried out his slightest hint, worked early and late to win
+a smile from him; while as for him, no detail escaped him, no drudgery
+sickened him, no disappointment angered him, till on the 15th of
+November, 1583, dropped down from Bideford Quay to Appledore Pool the
+tall ship Rose, with a hundred men on board (for sailors packed close
+in those days), beef, pork, biscuit, and good ale (for ale went to sea
+always then) in abundance, four culverins on her main deck, her poop and
+forecastle well fitted with swivels of every size, and her racks so full
+of muskets, calivers, long bows, pikes, and swords, that all agreed so
+well-appointed a ship had never sailed “out over Bar.”
+
+The next day being Sunday, the whole crew received the Communion
+together at Northam Church, amid a mighty crowd; and then going on board
+again, hove anchor and sailed out over the Bar before a soft east wind,
+to the music of sacbut, fife, and drum, with discharge of all ordnance,
+great and small, with cheering of young and old from cliff and strand
+and quay, and with many a tearful prayer and blessing upon that gallant
+bark, and all brave hearts on board.
+
+And Mrs. Leigh who had kissed her sons for the last time after the
+Communion at the altar-steps (and what more fit place for a mother's
+kiss?) went to the rocky knoll outside the churchyard wall, and watched
+the ship glide out between the yellow denes, and lessen slowly hour by
+hour into the boundless West, till her hull sank below the dim horizon,
+and her white sails faded away into the gray Atlantic mist, perhaps
+forever.
+
+And Mrs. Leigh gathered her cloak about her, and bowed her head and
+worshipped; and then went home to loneliness and prayer.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS, AND FOUND NO MEN THEREIN
+
+     “The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out;
+     At one stride comes the dark.”
+
+                                   COLERIDGE.
+
+Land! land! land! Yes, there it was, far away to the south and west,
+beside the setting sun, a long blue bar between the crimson sea and
+golden sky. Land at last, with fresh streams, and cooling fruits, and
+free room for cramped and scurvy-weakened limbs. And there, too, might
+be gold, and gems, and all the wealth of Ind. Who knew? Why not? The old
+world of fact and prose lay thousands of miles behind them, and before
+them and around them was the realm of wonder and fable, of boundless
+hope and possibility. Sick men crawled up out of their stifling
+hammocks; strong men fell on their knees and gave God thanks; and all
+eyes and hands were stretched eagerly toward the far blue cloud, fading
+as the sun sank down, yet rising higher and broader as the ship rushed
+on before the rich trade-wind, which whispered lovingly round brow
+and sail, “I am the faithful friend of those who dare!” “Blow freshly,
+freshlier yet, thou good trade-wind, of whom it is written that He makes
+the winds His angels, ministering breaths to the heirs of His salvation.
+Blow freshlier yet, and save, if not me from death, yet her from worse
+than death. Blow on, and land me at her feet, to call the lost lamb
+home, and die!”
+
+So murmured Frank to himself, as with straining eyes he gazed upon that
+first outlier of the New World which held his all. His cheeks were thin
+and wasted, and the hectic spot on each glowed crimson in the crimson
+light of the setting sun. A few minutes more, and the rainbows of the
+West were gone; emerald and topaz, amethyst and ruby, had faded into
+silver-gray; and overhead, through the dark sapphire depths, the Moon
+and Venus reigned above the sea.
+
+“That should be Barbados, your worship,” said Drew, the master; “unless
+my reckoning is far out, which, Heaven knows, it has no right to be,
+after such a passage, and God be praised.”
+
+“Barbados? I never heard of it.”
+
+“Very like, sir: but Yeo and I were here with Captain Drake, and I was
+here after, too, with poor Captain Barlow; and there is good harborage
+to the south and west of it, I remember.”
+
+“And neither Spaniard, cannibal, or other evil beast,” said Yeo. “A very
+garden of the Lord, sir, hid away in the seas, for an inheritance to
+those who love Him. I heard Captain Drake talk of planting it, if ever
+he had a chance.”
+
+“I recollect now,” said Amyas, “some talk between him and poor Sir
+Humphrey about an island here. Would God he had gone thither instead of
+to Newfoundland!”
+
+“Nay, then,” said Yeo, “he is in bliss now with the Lord; and you would
+not have kept him from that, sir?”
+
+“He would have waited as willingly as he went, if he could have served
+his queen thereby. But what say you, my masters? How can we do better
+than to spend a few days here, to get our sick round, before we make the
+Main, and set to our work?”
+
+All approved the counsel except Frank, who was silent.
+
+“Come, fellow-adventurer,” said Cary, “we must have your voice too.”
+
+“To my impatience, Will,” said he, aside in a low voice, “there is but
+one place on earth, and I am all day longing for wings to fly thither:
+but the counsel is right. I approve it.”
+
+So the verdict was announced, and received with a hearty cheer by the
+crew; and long before morning they had run along the southern shore of
+the island, and were feeling their way into the bay where Bridgetown now
+stands. All eyes were eagerly fixed on the low wooded hills which slept
+in the moonlight, spangled by fireflies, with a million dancing stars;
+all nostrils drank greedily the fragrant air, which swept from the land,
+laden with the scent of a thousand flowers; all ears welcomed, as a
+grateful change from the monotonous whisper and lap of the water, the
+hum of insects, the snore of the tree-toads, the plaintive notes of the
+shore-fowl, which fill a tropic night with noisy life.
+
+At last she stopped; at last the cable rattled through the hawsehole;
+and then, careless of the chance of lurking Spaniard or Carib, an
+instinctive cheer burst from every throat. Poor fellows! Amyas had much
+ado to prevent them going on shore at once, dark as it was, by reminding
+them that it wanted but two hours of day.
+
+“Never were two such long hours,” said one young lad, fidgeting up and
+down.
+
+“You never were in the Inquisition,” said Yeo, “or you'd know better how
+slow time can run. Stand you still, and give God thanks you're where you
+are.”
+
+“I say, Gunner, be there goold to that island?”
+
+“Never heard of none; and so much the better for it,” said Yeo, dryly.
+
+“But, I say, Gunner,” said a poor scurvy-stricken cripple, licking his
+lips, “be there oranges and limmons there?”
+
+“Not of my seeing; but plenty of good fruit down to the beach, thank the
+Lord. There comes the dawn at last.”
+
+Up flushed the rose, up rushed the sun, and the level rays glittered on
+the smooth stems of the palm-trees, and threw rainbows across the foam
+upon the coral-reefs, and gilded lonely uplands far away, where now
+stands many a stately country-seat and busy engine-house. Long lines of
+pelicans went clanging out to sea; the hum of the insects hushed, and a
+thousand birds burst into jubilant song; a thin blue mist crept upward
+toward the inner downs, and vanished, leaving them to quiver in the
+burning glare; the land-breeze, which had blown fresh out to sea all
+night, died away into glassy calm, and the tropic day was begun.
+
+The sick were lifted over the side, and landed boat-load after boat-load
+on the beach, to stretch themselves in the shade of the palms; and in
+half-an-hour the whole crew were scattered on the shore, except some
+dozen worthy men, who had volunteered to keep watch and ward on board
+till noon.
+
+And now the first instinctive cry of nature was for fruit! fruit! fruit!
+The poor lame wretches crawled from place to place plucking greedily the
+violet grapes of the creeping shore vine, and staining their mouths
+and blistering their lips with the prickly pears, in spite of Yeo's
+entreaties and warnings against the thorns. Some of the healthy began
+hewing down cocoa-nut trees to get at the nuts, doing little thereby but
+blunt their hatchets; till Yeo and Drew, having mustered half-a-dozen
+reasonable men, went off inland, and returned in an hour laden with the
+dainties of that primeval orchard,--with acid junipa-apples, luscious
+guavas, and crowned ananas, queen of all the fruits, which they had
+found by hundreds on the broiling ledges of the low tufa-cliffs;
+and then all, sitting on the sandy turf, defiant of galliwasps and
+jackspaniards, and all the weapons of the insect host, partook of the
+equal banquet, while old blue land-crabs sat in their house-doors and
+brandished their fists in defiance at the invaders, and solemn cranes
+stood in the water on the shoals with their heads on one side, and
+meditated how long it was since they had seen bipeds without feathers
+breaking the solitude of their isle.
+
+And Frank wandered up and down, silent, but rather in wonder than
+in sadness, while great Amyas walked after him, his mouth full
+of junipa-apples, and enacted the part of showman, with a sort of
+patronizing air, as one who had seen the wonders already, and was above
+being astonished at them.
+
+“New, new; everything new!” said Frank, meditatively. “Oh, awful
+feeling! All things changed around us, even to the tiniest fly and
+flower; yet we the same, the same forever!”
+
+Amyas, to whom such utterances were altogether sibylline and
+unintelligible, answered by:
+
+“Look, Frank, that's a colibri. You 've heard of colibris?”
+
+Frank looked at the living gem, which hung, loud humming, over some
+fantastic bloom, and then dashed away, seemingly to call its mate, and
+whirred and danced with it round and round the flower-starred bushes,
+flashing fresh rainbows at every shifting of the lights.
+
+Frank watched solemnly awhile, and then:
+
+“Qualis Natura formatrix, si talis formata? Oh my God, how fair must be
+Thy real world, if even Thy phantoms are so fair!”
+
+“Phantoms?” asked Amyas, uneasily. “That's no ghost, Frank, but a jolly
+little honey-sucker, with a wee wife, and children no bigger than peas,
+but yet solid greedy little fellows enough, I'll warrant.”
+
+“Not phantoms in thy sense, good fellow, but in the sense of those who
+know the worthlessness of all below.”
+
+“I'll tell you what, brother Frank, you are a great deal wiser than me,
+I know; but I can't abide to see you turn up your nose as it were at
+God's good earth. See now, God made all these things; and never a man,
+perhaps, set eyes on them till fifty years agone; and yet they were as
+pretty as they are now, ever since the making of the world. And why
+do you think God could have put them here, then, but to please
+Himself”--and Amyas took off his hat--“with the sight of them? Now, I
+say, brother Frank, what's good enough to please God, is good enough to
+please you and me.”
+
+“Your rebuke is just, dear old simple-hearted fellow; and God forgive
+me, if with all my learning, which has brought me no profit, and my
+longings, which have brought me no peace, I presume at moments, sinner
+that I am, to be more dainty than the Lord Himself. He walked in
+Paradise among the trees of the garden, Amyas; and so will we, and
+be content with what He sends. Why should we long for the next world,
+before we are fit even for this one?”
+
+“And in the meanwhile,” said Amyas, “this earth's quite good enough, at
+least here in Barbados.”
+
+“Do you believe,” asked Frank, trying to turn his own thoughts, “in
+those tales of the Spaniards, that the Sirens and Tritons are heard
+singing in these seas?”
+
+“I can't tell. There's more fish in the water than ever came out of it,
+and more wonders in the world, I'll warrant, than we ever dreamt of; but
+I was never in these parts before; and in the South Sea, I must say, I
+never came across any, though Yeo says he has heard fair music at night
+up in the Gulf, far away from land.”
+
+“The Spaniards report that at certain seasons choirs of these nymphs
+assemble in the sea, and with ravishing music sing their watery loves.
+It may be so. For Nature, which has peopled the land with rational
+souls, may not have left the sea altogether barren of them; above all,
+when we remember that the ocean is as it were the very fount of all
+fertility, and its slime (as the most learned hold with Thales of
+Miletus) that prima materia out of which all things were one by one
+concocted. Therefore, the ancients feigned wisely that Venus, the mother
+of all living things, whereby they designed the plastic force of nature,
+was born of the sea-foam, and rising from the deep, floated ashore upon
+the isles of Greece.”
+
+“I don't know what plastic force is; but I wish I had had the luck to be
+by when the pretty poppet came up: however, the nearest thing I ever saw
+to that was maidens swimming alongside of us when we were in the South
+Seas, and would have come aboard, too; but Drake sent them all off again
+for a lot of naughty packs, and I verily believe they were no better.
+Look at the butterflies, now! Don't you wish you were a boy again, and
+not too proud to go catching them in your cap?”
+
+And so the two wandered on together through the glorious tropic woods,
+and then returned to the beach to find the sick already grown cheerful,
+and many who that morning could not stir from their hammocks, pacing up
+and down, and gaining strength with every step.
+
+“Well done, lads!” cried Amyas, “keep a cheerful mind. We will have the
+music ashore after dinner, for want of mermaids to sing to us, and those
+that can dance may.”
+
+And so those four days were spent; and the men, like schoolboys on
+a holiday, gave themselves up to simple merriment, not forgetting,
+however, to wash the clothes, take in fresh water, and store up a
+good supply of such fruit as seemed likely to keep; until, tired with
+fruitless rambles after gold, which they expected to find in every bush,
+in spite of Yeo's warnings that none had been heard of on the island,
+they were fain to lounge about, full-grown babies, picking up shells and
+sea-fans to take home to their sweethearts, smoking agoutis out of the
+hollow trees, with shout and laughter, and tormenting every living thing
+they could come near, till not a land-crab dare look out of his hole, or
+an armadillo unroll himself, till they were safe out of the bay, and
+off again to the westward, unconscious pioneers of all the wealth, and
+commerce, and beauty, and science which has in later centuries made that
+lovely isle the richest gem of all the tropic seas.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS AT MARGARITA
+
+     P. Henry.  Why, what a rascal art thou, then, to praise him so for
+     running!
+     Falstaff.  O' horseback, ye cuckoo! but a-foot, he will not budge a
+     foot.
+     P. Henry.  Yes, Jack, upon instinct.
+     Falstaff.  I grant ye, upon instinct.
+
+                                                  Henry IV.  Pt. I.
+
+They had slipped past the southern point of Grenada in the night, and
+were at last within that fairy ring of islands, on which nature had
+concentrated all her beauty, and man all his sin. If Barbados had been
+invested in the eyes of the newcomers with some strange glory, how much
+more the seas on which they now entered, which smile in almost perpetual
+calm, untouched by the hurricane which roars past them far to northward!
+Sky, sea, and islands were one vast rainbow; though little marked,
+perhaps, by those sturdy practical sailors, whose main thought was of
+Spanish gold and pearls; and as little by Amyas, who, accustomed to the
+scenery of the tropics, was speculating inwardly on the possibility of
+extirpating the Spaniards, and annexing the West Indies to the domains
+of Queen Elizabeth. And yet even their unpoetic eyes could not behold
+without awe and excitement lands so famous and yet so new, around
+which all the wonder, all the pity, and all the greed of the age had
+concentrated itself. It was an awful thought, and yet inspiriting, that
+they were entering regions all but unknown to Englishmen, where the
+penalty of failure would be worse than death--the torments of the
+Inquisition. Not more than five times before, perhaps, had those
+mysterious seas been visited by English keels; but there were those
+on board who knew them well, and too well; who, first of all British
+mariners, had attempted under Captain John Hawkins to trade along those
+very coasts, and, interdicted from the necessaries of life by Spanish
+jealousy, had, in true English fashion, won their markets at the sword's
+point, and then bought and sold honestly and peaceably therein. The old
+mariners of the Pelican and the Minion were questioned all day long for
+the names of every isle and cape, every fish and bird; while Frank stood
+by, listening serious and silent.
+
+A great awe seemed to have possessed his soul; yet not a sad one: for
+his face seemed daily to drink in glory from the glory round him; and
+murmuring to himself at whiles, “This is the gate of heaven,” he stood
+watching all day long, careless of food and rest, as every forward
+plunge of the ship displayed some fresh wonder. Islands and capes hung
+high in air, with their inverted images below them; long sand-hills
+rolled and weltered in the mirage; and the yellow flower-beds, and huge
+thorny cacti like giant candelabra, which clothed the glaring slopes,
+twisted, tossed, and flickered, till the whole scene seemed one blazing
+phantom-world, in which everything was as unstable as it was fantastic,
+even to the sun itself, distorted into strange oval and pear-shaped
+figures by the beds of crimson mist through which he sank to rest. But
+while Frank wondered, Yeo rejoiced; for to the southward of that setting
+sun a cluster of tall peaks rose from the sea; and they, unless his
+reckonings were wrong, were the mountains of Macanao, at the western end
+of Margarita, the Isle of Pearls, then famous in all the cities of
+the Mediterranean, and at the great German fairs, and second only in
+richness to that pearl island in the gulf of Panama, which fifteen years
+before had cost John Oxenham his life.
+
+The next day saw them running along the north side of the island, having
+passed undiscovered (as far as they could see) the castle which the
+Spaniards had built at the eastern end for the protection of the pearl
+fisheries.
+
+At last they opened a deep and still bight, wooded to the water's edge;
+and lying in the roadstead a caravel, and three boats by her. And at
+that sight there was not a man but was on deck at once, and not a mouth
+but was giving its opinion of what should be done. Some were for sailing
+right into the roadstead, the breeze blowing fresh toward the shore (as
+it usually does throughout those islands in the afternoon). However,
+seeing the billows break here and there off the bay's mouth, they
+thought it better, for fear of rocks, to run by quietly, and then
+send in the pinnace and the boat. Yeo would have had them show Spanish
+colors, for fear of alarming the caravel; but Amyas stoutly refused,
+“counting it,” he said, “a mean thing to tell a lie in that way, unless
+in extreme danger, or for great ends of state.”
+
+So holding on their course till they were shut out by the next point,
+they started; Cary in the largest boat with twenty men, and Amyas in
+the smaller one with fifteen more; among whom was John Brimblecombe,
+who must needs come in his cassock and bands, with an old sword of his
+uncle's which he prized mightily.
+
+When they came to the bight's mouth, they found, as they had expected,
+coral rocks, and too many of them; so that they had to run along the
+edge of the reef a long way before they could find a passage for the
+boats. While they were so doing, and those of them who were new to the
+Indies were admiring through the clear element those living flower-beds,
+and subaqueous gardens of Nereus and Amphitrite, there suddenly appeared
+below what Yeo called “a school of sharks,” some of them nearly as long
+as the boat, who looked up at them wistfully enough out of their wicked
+scowling eyes.
+
+“Jack,” said Amyas, who sat next to him, “look how that big fellow
+eyes thee: he has surely taken a fancy to that plump hide of thine, and
+thinks thou wouldst eat as tender as any sucking porker.”
+
+Jack turned very pale, but said nothing.
+
+Now, as it befell, just then that very big fellow, seeing a parrot-fish
+come out of a cleft of the coral, made at him from below, as did two or
+three more; the poor fish finding no other escape, leaped clean into the
+air, and almost aboard the boat; while just where he had come out of
+the water, three or four great brown shagreened noses clashed together
+within two yards of Jack as he sat, each showing its horrible rows of
+saw teeth, and then sank sulkily down again, to watch for a fresh bait.
+At which Jack said very softly, “In manus tuas, Domine!” and turning his
+eyes in board, had no lust to look at sharks any more.
+
+So having got through the reef, in they ran with a fair breeze, the
+caravel not being now a musket-shot off. Cary laid her aboard before
+the Spaniards had time to get to their ordnance; and standing up in the
+stern-sheets, shouted to them to yield. The captain asked boldly enough,
+in whose name? “In the name of common sense, ye dogs,” cries Will; “do
+you not see that you are but fifty strong to our twenty?” Whereon up the
+side he scrambled, and the captain fired a pistol at him. Cary knocked
+him over, unwilling to shed needless blood; on which all the crew
+yielded, some falling on their knees, some leaping overboard; and the
+prize was taken.
+
+In the meanwhile, Amyas had pulled round under her stern, and boarded
+the boat which was second from her, for the nearest was fast alongside,
+and so a sure prize. The Spaniards in her yielded without a blow, crying
+“Misericordia;” and the negroes, leaping overboard, swam ashore like
+sea-dogs. Meanwhile, the third boat, which was not an oar's length
+off, turned to pull away. Whereby befell a notable adventure: for John
+Brimblecombe, casting about in a valiant mind how he should distinguish
+himself that day, must needs catch up a boat-hook, and claw on to her
+stern, shouting, “Stay, ye Papists! Stay, Spanish dogs!”--by which, as
+was to be expected, they being ten to his one, he was forthwith pulled
+overboard, and fell all along on his nose in the sea, leaving the hook
+fast in her stern.
+
+Where, I know not how, being seized with some panic fear (his lively
+imagination filling all the sea with those sharks which he had just
+seen), he fell a-roaring like any town-bull, and in his confusion never
+thought to turn and get aboard again, but struck out lustily after the
+Spanish boat, whether in hope of catching hold of the boat-hook which
+trailed behind her, or from a very madness of valor, no man could
+divine; but on he swam, his cassock afloat behind him, looking for all
+the world like a great black monk-fish, and howling and puffing, with
+his mouth full of salt water, “Stay, ye Spanish dogs! Help, all good
+fellows! See you not that I am a dead man? They are nuzzling already at
+my toes! He hath hold of my leg! My right thigh is bitten clean off!
+Oh that I were preaching in Hartland pulpit! Stay, Spanish dogs! Yield,
+Papist cowards, least I make mincemeat of you; and take me aboard!
+Yield, I say, or my blood be on your heads! I am no Jonah; if he swallow
+me, he will never cast me up again! it is better to fall into the hands
+of man, than into the hands of devils with three rows of teeth apiece.
+In manus tuas. Orate pro anima--!”
+
+And so forth, in more frantic case than ever was Panurge in that his
+ever-memorable seasickness; till the English, expecting him every minute
+to be snapped up by sharks, or brained by the Spaniard's oars, let fly a
+volley into the fugitives, on which they all leaped overboard like their
+fellows; whereon Jack scrambled into the boat, and drawing sword with
+one hand, while he wiped the water out of his eyes with the other, began
+to lay about him like a very lion, cutting the empty air, and crying,
+“Yield, idolaters! Yield, Spanish dogs!” However, coming to himself
+after a while, and seeing that there was no one on whom to flesh his
+maiden steel, he sits down panting in the sternsheets, and begins
+stripping off his hose. On which Amyas, thinking surely that the good
+fellow had gone mad with some stroke of the sun, or by having fallen
+into the sea after being overheated with his rowing, bade pull
+alongside, and asked him in heaven's name what he was doing with his
+nether tackle. On which Jack, amid such laughter as may be conceived,
+vowed and swore that his right thigh was bitten clean through, and to
+the bone; yea, and that he felt his hose full of blood; and so would
+have swooned away for imaginary loss of blood (so strong was the
+delusion on him) had not his friends, after much arguing on their part,
+and anger on his, persuaded him that he was whole and sound.
+
+After which they set to work to overhaul their maiden prize, which they
+found full of hides and salt-pork; and yet not of that alone; for in
+the captain's cabin, and also in the sternsheets of the boat which
+Brimblecombe had so valorously boarded, were certain frails of leaves
+packed neatly enough, which being opened were full of goodly pearls,
+though somewhat brown (for the Spaniards used to damage the color in
+their haste and greediness, opening the shells by fire, instead of
+leaving them to decay gradually after the Arabian fashion); with which
+prize, though they could not guess its value very exactly, they went off
+content enough, after some malicious fellow had set the ship on fire,
+which, being laden with hides, was no nosegay as it burnt.
+
+Amyas was very angry at this wanton damage, in which his model,
+Drake, had never indulged; but Cary had his jest ready. “Ah!” said he,
+“'Lutheran devils' we are, you know; so we are bound to vanish, like
+other fiends, with an evil savor.”
+
+As soon, however, as Amyas was on board again, he rounded his friend
+Mr. Brimblecombe in the ear, and told him he had better play the man a
+little more, roaring less before he was hurt, and keeping his breath
+to help his strokes, if he wished the crew to listen much to his
+discourses. Frank, hearing this, bade Amyas leave the offender to him,
+and so began upon him with--
+
+“Come hither, thou recreant Jack, thou lily-livered Jack, thou
+hysterical Jack. Tell me now, thou hast read Plato's Dialogues, and
+Aristotle's Logic?”
+
+To which Jack very meekly answered, “Yes.”
+
+“Then I will deal with thee after the manner of those ancient sages, and
+ask whether the greater must not contain the less?”
+
+Jack. Yes, sure.
+
+Frank. And that which is more than a part, contain that part, more than
+which it is?
+
+Jack. Yes, sure.
+
+Frank. Then tell me, is not a priest more than a layman?
+
+Jack (who was always very loud about the dignity of the priesthood,
+as many of his cloth are, who have no other dignity whereon to stand)
+answered very boldly, “Of course.”
+
+Frank. Then a priest containeth a man, and is a man, and something
+over--viz, his priesthood?
+
+Jack (who saw whither this would lead). I suppose so.
+
+Frank. Then, if a priest show himself no man, he shows himself all the
+more no priest?
+
+“I'll tell you what, Master Frank,” says Jack, “you may be right by
+logic; but sharks aren't logic, nor don't understand it neither.”
+
+Frank. Nay but, my recalcitrant Jack, my stiff-necked Jack, is it the
+part of a man to howl like a pig in a gate, because he thinks that is
+there which is not there?
+
+Jack had not a word to say.
+
+Frank. And still more, when if that had been there, it had been the duty
+of a brave man to have kept his mouth shut, if only to keep salt water
+out, and not add the evil of choking to that of being eaten?
+
+“Ah!” says Jack, “that's all very fine; but you know as well as I that
+it was not the Spaniards I was afraid of. They were Heaven's handiwork,
+and I knew how to deal with them; but as for those fiends' spawn of
+sharks, when I saw that fellow take the fish alongside, it upset me
+clean, and there's an end of it!”
+
+Frank. Oh, Jack, Jack, behold how one sin begets another! Just now thou
+wert but a coward, and now thou art a Manichee. For thou hast imputed
+to an evil creator that which was formed only for a good end, namely,
+sharks, which were made on purpose to devour useless carcasses like
+thine. Moreover, as a brother of the Rose, thou wert bound by the vow of
+thy brotherhood to have leaped joyfully down that shark's mouth.
+
+Jack. Ay, very likely, if Mistress Rose had been in his stomach; but I
+wanted to fight Spaniards just then, not to be shark-bitten.
+
+Frank. Jack, thy answer savors of self-will. If it is ordained that thou
+shouldst advance the ends of the Brotherhood by being shark-bitten,
+or flea-bitten, or bitten by sharpers, to the detriment of thy carnal
+wealth, or, shortly, to suffer any shame or torment whatsoever, even to
+strappado and scarpines, thou art bound to obey thy destiny, and not,
+after that vain Roman conceit, to choose the manner of thine own death,
+which is indeed only another sort of self-murder. We therefore consider
+thee as a cause of scandal, and a rotten and creaking branch, to be
+excised by the spiritual arm, and do hereby excise thee, and cut thee
+off.
+
+Jack. Nay faith, that's a little too much, Master Frank. How long have
+you been Bishop of Exeter?
+
+Frank. Jack, thy wit being blinded, and full of gross vapors, by reason
+of the perturbations of fear (which, like anger, is a short madness,
+and raises in the phantasy vain spectres,--videlicet, of sharks and
+Spaniards), mistakes our lucidity. For thy Manicheeism, let his lordship
+of Exeter deal with it. For thy abominable howling and caterwauling,
+offensive in a chained cur, but scandalous in a preacher and a brother
+of the Rose, we do hereby deprive thee of thine office of chaplain to
+the Brotherhood; and warn thee, that unless within seven days thou do
+some deed equal to the Seven Champions, or Ruggiero and Orlando's self,
+thou shalt be deprived of sword and dagger, and allowed henceforth to
+carry no more iron about thee than will serve to mend thy pen.
+
+“And now, Jack,” said Amyas, “I will give thee a piece of news. No
+wonder that young men, as the parsons complain so loudly, will not
+listen to the Gospel, while it is preached to them by men on whom they
+cannot but look down; a set of softhanded fellows who cannot dig, and
+are ashamed to beg; and, as my brother has it, must needs be parsons
+before they are men.
+
+“Frank. Ay, and even though we may excuse that in Popish priests and
+friars, who are vowed not to be men, and get their bread shamefully
+and rascally by telling sinners who owe a hundred measures to sit down
+quickly and take their bill and write fifty: yet for a priest of the
+Church of England (whose business is not merely to smuggle sinful souls
+up the backstairs into heaven, but to make men good Christians by making
+them good men, good gentlemen, and good Englishmen) to show the white
+feather in the hour of need, is to unpreach in one minute all that he
+had been preaching his life long.
+
+“I tell thee,” says Amyas, “if I had not taken thee for another guess
+sort of man, I had never let thee have the care of a hundred brave lads'
+immortal souls--”
+
+And so on, both of them boarding him at once with their heavy shot,
+larboard and starboard, till he fairly clapped his hands to his ears
+and ran for it, leaving poor Frank laughing so heartily, that Amyas was
+after all glad the thing had happened, for the sake of the smile which
+it put into his sad and steadfast countenance.
+
+The next day was Sunday; on which, after divine service (which they
+could hardly persuade Jack to read, so shamefaced was he; and as for
+preaching after it, he would not hear of such a thing), Amyas read
+aloud, according to custom, the articles of their agreement; and then
+seeing abreast of them a sloping beach with a shoot of clear water
+running into the sea, agreed that they should land there, wash the
+clothes, and again water the ship; for they had found water somewhat
+scarce at Barbados. On this party Jack Brimblecombe must needs go,
+taking with him his sword and a great arquebuse; for he had dreamed last
+night (he said) that he was set upon by Spaniards, and was sure that the
+dream would come true; and moreover, that he did not very much care if
+they did, or if he ever got back alive; “for it was better to die than
+be made an ape, and a scarecrow, and laughed at by the men, and badgered
+with Ramus his logic, and Plato his dialectical devilries, to confess
+himself a Manichee, and, for aught he knew, a turbaned Turk, or Hebrew
+Jew,” and so flung into the boat like a man desperate.
+
+So they went ashore, after Amyas had given strict commands against
+letting off firearms, for fear of alarming the Spaniards. There they
+washed their clothes, and stretched their legs with great joy, admiring
+the beauty of the place, and then began to shoot the seine which they
+had brought on shore with them. “In which,” says the chronicler, “we
+caught many strange fishes, and beside them, a sea-cow full seven feet
+long, with limpets and barnacles on her back, as if she had been a stick
+of drift-timber. This is a fond and foolish beast: and yet pious withal;
+for finding a corpse, she watches over it day and night until it decay
+or be buried. The Indians call her manati; who carries her young
+under her arm, and gives it suck like a woman; and being wounded, she
+lamenteth aloud with a human voice, and is said at certain seasons to
+sing very melodiously; which melody, perhaps, having been heard in those
+seas, is that which Mr. Frank reported to be the choirs of the Sirens
+and Tritons. The which I do not avouch for truth, neither rashly deny,
+having seen myself such fertility of Nature's wonders that I hold him
+who denieth aught merely for its strangeness to be a ribald and an
+ignoramus. Also one of our men brought in two great black fowls which
+he had shot with a crossbow, bodied and headed like a capon, but bigger
+than any eagle, which the Spaniards call curassos; which, with that
+sea-cow, afterwards made us good cheer, both roast and sodden, for the
+cow was very dainty meat, as good as a four-months' calf, and tender and
+fat withal.”
+
+After that they set to work filling the casks and barricos, having laid
+the boat up to the outflow of the rivulet. And lucky for them it was,
+as it fell out, that they were all close together at that work, and not
+abroad skylarking as they had been half-an-hour before.
+
+Now John Brimblecombe had gone apart as soon as they landed, with a
+shamefaced and doleful countenance; and sitting down under a great tree,
+plucked a Bible from his bosom, and read steadfastly, girded with his
+great sword, and his arquebuse lying by him. This too was well for him,
+and for the rest; for they had not yet finished their watering, when
+there was a cry that the enemy was on them; and out of the wood,
+not twenty yards from the good parson, came full fifty shot, with a
+multitude of negroes behind them, and an officer in front on horseback,
+with a great plume of feathers in his hat, and his sword drawn in his
+hand.
+
+“Stand, for your lives!” shouted Amyas: and only just in time; for there
+was ten good minutes lost in running up and down before he could get his
+men into some order of battle. But when Jack beheld the Spaniards, as if
+he had expected their coming, he plucked a leaf and put it into the
+page of his book for a mark, laid the book down soberly, caught up his
+arquebuse, ran like a mad dog right at the Spanish captain, shot him
+through the body stark dead, and then, flinging the arquebuse at the
+head of him who stood next, fell on with his sword like a very Colbrand,
+breaking in among the arquebuses, and striking right and left such ugly
+strokes, that the Spaniards (who thought him a very fiend, or Luther's
+self come to life to plague them) gave back pell-mell, and shot at him
+five or six at once with their arquebuses: but whether from fear of him,
+or of wounding each other, made so bad play with their pieces, that he
+only got one shrewd gall in his thigh, which made him limp for many a
+day. But as fast as they gave back he came on; and the rest by this time
+ran up in good order, and altogether nearly forty men well armed. On
+which the Spaniards turned, and went as fast as they had come, while
+Cary hinted that, “The dogs had had such a taste of the parson, that
+they had no mind to wait for the clerk and people.”
+
+“Come back, Jack! are you mad?” shouted Amyas.
+
+But Jack (who had not all this time spoken one word) followed them
+as fiercely as ever, till, reaching a great blow at one of the
+arquebusiers, he caught his foot in a root; on which down he went, and
+striking his head against the ground, knocked out of himself all the
+breath he had left (which between fatness and fighting was not much),
+and so lay. Amyas, seeing the Spaniards gone, did not care to pursue
+them: but picked up Jack, who, staring about, cried, “Glory be! glory
+be!--How many have I killed? How many have I killed?”
+
+“Nineteen, at the least,” quoth Cary, “and seven with one back
+stroke;” and then showed Brimblecombe the captain lying dead, and two
+arquebusiers, one of which was the fugitive by whom he came to his fall,
+beside three or four more who were limping away wounded, some of them by
+their fellows' shot.
+
+“There!” said Jack, pausing and blowing, “will you laugh at me any more,
+Mr. Cary; or say that I cannot fight, because I am a poor parson's son?”
+
+Cary took him by the hand, and asked pardon of him for his scoffing,
+saying that he had that day played the best man of all of them; and
+Jack, who never bore malice, began laughing in his turn, and--
+
+“Oh, Mr. Cary, we have all known your pleasant ways, ever since you used
+to put drumble-drones into my desk to Bideford school.” And so they went
+to the boats, and pulled off, thanking God (as they had need to do) for
+their great deliverance: while all the boats' crew rejoiced over Jack,
+who after a while grew very faint (having bled a good deal without
+knowing it), and made as little of his real wound as he made much the
+day before of his imaginary one.
+
+Frank asked him that evening how he came to show so cool and approved a
+valor in so sudden a mishap.
+
+“Well, my masters,” said Jack, “I don't deny that I was very downcast on
+account of what you said, and the scandal which I had given to the crew;
+but as it happened, I was reading there under the tree, to fortify my
+spirits, the history of the ancient worthies, in St. Paul his eleventh
+chapter to the Hebrews; and just as I came to that, 'out of weakness
+were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies
+of the aliens,' arose the cry of the Spaniards. At which, gentlemen,
+thinking in myself that I fought in just so good a cause as they, and,
+as I hoped, with like faith, there came upon me so strange an assurance
+of victory, that I verily believed in myself that if there had been
+a ten thousand of them, I should have taken no hurt. Wherefore,” said
+Jack, modestly, “there is no credit due to me, for there was no valor
+in me whatsoever, but only a certainty of safety; and any coward would
+fight if he knew that he were to have all the killing and none of the
+scratches.”
+
+Which words he next day, being Sunday, repeated in his sermon which he
+made on that chapter, with which all, even Salvation Yeo himself, were
+well content and edified, and allowed him to be as godly a preacher as
+he was (in spite of his simple ways) a valiant and true-hearted comrade.
+
+They brought away the Spanish officer's sword (a very good blade), and
+also a great chain of gold which he wore about his neck; both of which
+were allotted to Brimblecombe as his fair prize; but he, accepting the
+sword, steadfastly refused the chain, entreating Amyas to put it into
+the common stock; and when Amyas refused, he cut it into links and
+distributed it among those of the boat's crew who had succored him,
+winning thereby much good-will. “And indeed” (says the chronicler),
+“I never saw in that worthy man, from the first day of our
+school-fellowship till he was laid in his parish church of Hartland
+(where he now sleeps in peace), any touch of that sin of covetousness
+which has in all ages, and in ours no less than others, beset especially
+(I know not why) them who minister about the sanctuary. But this man,
+though he was ugly and lowly in person, and in understanding simple, and
+of breeding but a poor parson's son, had yet in him a spirit so loving
+and cheerful, so lifted from base and selfish purposes to the worship
+of duty, and to a generosity rather knightly than sacerdotal, that all
+through his life he seemed to think only that it was more blessed to
+give than to receive. And all that wealth which he gained in the wars he
+dispersed among his sisters and the poor of his parish, living unmarried
+till his death like a true lover and constant mourner (as shall be said
+in place), and leaving hardly wherewith to bring his body to the
+grave. At whom if we often laughed once, we should now rather envy him,
+desiring to be here what he was, that we may be hereafter where he is.
+Amen.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA
+
+       “Great was the crying, the running and riding,
+     Which at that season was made in the place;
+        The beacons were fired, as need then required,
+     To save their great treasure they had little space.”
+
+                                       Winning of Cales.
+
+The men would gladly have hawked awhile round Margarita and Cubagua for
+another pearl prize. But Amyas having, as he phrased it, “fleshed his
+dogs,” was loth to hang about the islands after the alarm had been
+given. They ran, therefore, south-west across the mouth of that great
+bay which stretches from the Peninsula of Paria to Cape Codera, leaving
+on their right hand Tortuga, and on their left the meadow-islands of the
+Piritoos, two long green lines but a few inches above the tideless sea.
+Yeo and Drew knew every foot of the way, and had good reason to know it;
+for they, the first of all English mariners, had tried to trade along
+this coast with Hawkins. And now, right ahead, sheer out of the sea from
+base to peak, arose higher and higher the mighty range of the Caracas
+mountains; beside which all hills which most of the crew had ever seen
+seemed petty mounds. Frank, of course, knew the Alps; and Amyas the
+Andes; but Cary's notions of height were bounded by M'Gillicuddy's
+Reeks, and Brimblecombe's by Exmoor; and the latter, to Cary's infinite
+amusement, spent a whole day holding on by the rigging, and staring
+upwards with his chin higher than his nose, till he got a stiff neck.
+Soon the sea became rough and chopping, though the breeze was fair and
+gentle; and ere they were abreast of the Cape, they became aware of
+that strong eastward current which, during the winter months, so often
+baffles the mariner who wishes to go to the westward. All night long
+they struggled through the billows, with the huge wall of Cape Codera a
+thousand feet above their heads to the left, and beyond it again, bank
+upon bank of mountain, bathed in the yellow moonlight.
+
+Morning showed them a large ship, which had passed them during the night
+upon the opposite course, and was now a good ten miles to the eastward.
+Yeo was for going back and taking her. Of the latter he made a matter of
+course; and the former was easy enough, for the breeze blowing dead off
+the land, was a “soldier's wind, there and back again,” for either ship;
+but Amyas and Frank were both unwilling.
+
+“Why, Yeo, you said that one day more would bring us to La Guayra.”
+
+“All the more reason, sir, for doing the Lord's work thoroughly, when He
+has brought us safely so far on our journey.”
+
+“She can pass well enough, and no loss.”
+
+“Ah, sirs, sirs, she is delivered into your hands, and you will have to
+give an account of her.”
+
+“My good Yeo,” said Frank, “I trust we shall give good account enough
+of many a tall Spaniard before we return: but you know surely that La
+Guayra, and the salvation of one whom we believe dwells there, was our
+first object in this adventure.”
+
+Yeo shook his head sadly. “Ah, sirs, a lady brought Captain Oxenham to
+ruin.”
+
+“You do not dare to compare her with this one?” said Frank and Cary,
+both in a breath.
+
+“God forbid, gentlemen: but no adventure will prosper, unless there is a
+single eye to the Lord's work; and that is, as I take it, to cripple
+the Spaniard, and exalt her majesty the queen. And I had thought that
+nothing was more dear than that to Captain Leigh's heart.”
+
+Amyas stood somewhat irresolute. His duty to the queen bade him follow
+the Spanish vessel: his duty to his vow, to go on to La Guayra. It may
+seem a far-fetched dilemma. He found it a practical one enough.
+
+However, the counsel of Frank prevailed, and on to La Guayra he went. He
+half hoped that the Spaniard would see and attack them. However, he went
+on his way to the eastward; which if he had not done, my story had had a
+very different ending.
+
+About mid-day a canoe, the first which they had seen, came staggering
+toward them under a huge three-cornered sail. As it came near, they
+could see two Indians on board.
+
+“Metal floats in these seas, you see,” quoth Cary. “There's a fresh
+marvel, for you, Frank.”
+
+“Expound,” quoth Frank, who was really ready to swallow any fresh
+marvel, so many had he seen already.
+
+“Why, how else would those two bronze statues dare to go to sea in such
+a cockleshell, eh? Have I given you the dor now, master courtier!”
+
+“I am long past dors, Will. But what noble creatures they are! and how
+fearlessly they are coming alongside! Can they know that we are English,
+and the avengers of the Indians?”
+
+“I suspect they just take us for Spaniards, and want to sell their
+cocoa-nuts. See, the canoe is laden with vegetables.”
+
+“Hail them, Yeo!” said Amyas. “You talk the best Spanish, and I want
+speech of one of them.”
+
+Yeo did so; the canoe, without more ado, ran alongside, and lowered her
+felucca sail, while a splendid Indian scrambled on board like a cat.
+
+He was full six feet high, and as bold and graceful of bearing as Frank
+or Amyas's self. He looked round for the first moment smilingly, showing
+his white teeth; but the next, his countenance changed; and springing to
+the side, he shouted to his comrade in Spanish--
+
+“Treachery! No Spaniard,” and would have leaped overboard, but a dozen
+strong fellows caught him ere he could do so.
+
+It required some trouble to master him, so strong was he, and so
+slippery his naked limbs; Amyas, meanwhile, alternately entreated the
+men not to hurt the Indian, and the Indian to be quiet, and no harm
+should happen to him; and so, after five minutes' confusion, the
+stranger gave in sulkily.
+
+“Don't bind him. Let him loose, and make a ring round him. Now, my man,
+there's a dollar for you.”
+
+The Indian's eyes glistened, and he took the coin.
+
+“All I want of you is, first, to tell me what ships are in La Guayra,
+and next, to go thither on board of me, and show me which is the
+governor's house, and which the custom-house.”
+
+The Indian laid the coin down on the deck, and crossing himself, looked
+Amyas in the face.
+
+“No, senor! I am a freeman and a cavalier, a Christian Guayqueria,
+whose forefathers, first of all the Indians, swore fealty to the King of
+Spain, and whom he calls to this day in all his proclamations his most
+faithful, loyal, and noble Guayquerias. God forbid, therefore, that I
+should tell aught to his enemies, who are my enemies likewise.”
+
+A growl arose from those of the men who understood him; and more than
+one hinted that a cord twined round the head, or a match put between the
+fingers, would speedily extract the required information.
+
+“God forbid!” said Amyas; “a brave and loyal man he is, and as such
+will I treat him. Tell me, my brave fellow, how do you know us to be his
+Catholic majesty's enemies?”
+
+The Indian, with a shrewd smile, pointed to half-a-dozen different
+objects, saying to each, “Not Spanish.”
+
+“Well, and what of that?”
+
+“None but Spaniards and free Guayquerias have a right to sail these
+seas.”
+
+Amyas laughed.
+
+“Thou art a right valiant bit of copper. Pick up thy dollar, and go thy
+way in peace. Make room for him, men. We can learn what we want without
+his help.”
+
+The Indian paused, incredulous and astonished. “Overboard with you!”
+ quoth Amyas. “Don't you know when you are well off?”
+
+“Most illustrious senor,” began the Indian, in the drawling sententious
+fashion of his race (when they take the trouble to talk at all), “I
+have been deceived. I heard that you heretics roasted and ate all true
+Catholics (as we Guayquerias are), and that all your padres had tails.”
+
+“Plague on you, sirrah!” squeaked Jack Brimblecombe. “Have I a tail?
+Look here!”
+
+“Quien sabe? Who knows?” quoth the Indian through his nose.
+
+“How do you know we are heretics?” said Amyas.
+
+“Humph! But in repayment for your kindness, I would warn you,
+illustrious senor, not to go on to La Guayra. There are ships of war
+there waiting for you; and moreover, the governor Don Guzman sailed to
+the eastward only yesterday to look for you; and I wonder much that you
+did not meet him.”
+
+“To look for us! On the watch for us!” said Cary. “Impossible; lies!
+Amyas, this is some trick of the rascal's to frighten us away.”
+
+“Don Guzman came out but yesterday to look for us? Are you sure you
+spoke truth?”
+
+“As I live, senor, he and another ship, for which I took yours.”
+
+Amyas stamped upon the deck: that then was the ship which they had
+passed!
+
+“Fool that I was to have been close to my enemy, and let my opportunity
+slip! If I had but done my duty, all would have gone right!”
+
+But it was too late to repine; and after all, the Indian's story was
+likely enough to be false.
+
+“Off with you!” said he; and the Indian bounded over the side into his
+canoe, leaving the whole crew wondering at the stateliness and courtesy
+of this bold sea-cavalier.
+
+So Westward-ho they ran, beneath the mighty northern wall, the highest
+cliff on earth, some seven thousand feet of rock parted from the sea
+by a narrow strip of bright green lowland. Here and there a patch of
+sugar-cane, or a knot of cocoa-nut trees, close to the water's edge,
+reminded them that they were in the tropics; but above, all was savage,
+rough, and bare as an Alpine precipice. Sometimes deep clefts allowed
+the southern sun to pour a blaze of light down to the sea marge, and
+gave glimpses far above of strange and stately trees lining the glens,
+and of a veil of perpetual mist which shrouded the inner summits; while
+up and down, between them and the mountain side, white fleecy clouds
+hung motionless in the burning air, increasing the impression of
+vastness and of solemn rest, which was already overpowering.
+
+“Within those mountains, three thousand feet above our heads,” said
+Drew, the master, “lies Saint Yago de Leon, the great city which the
+Spaniards founded fifteen years agone.”
+
+“Is it a rich place?” asked Cary.
+
+“Very, they say.”
+
+“Is it a strong place?” asked Amyas.
+
+“No forts to it at all, they say. The Spaniards boast, that Heaven has
+made such good walls to it already, that man need make none.”
+
+“I don't know,” quoth Amyas. “Lads, could you climb those hills, do you
+think?”
+
+“Rather higher than Harty Point, sir: but it depends pretty much on
+what's behind them.”
+
+And now the last point is rounded, and they are full in sight of the
+spot in quest of which they have sailed four thousand miles of sea. A
+low black cliff, crowned by a wall; a battery at either end. Within, a
+few narrow streets of white houses, running parallel with the sea, upon
+a strip of flat, which seemed not two hundred yards in breadth; and
+behind, the mountain wall, covering the whole in deepest shade. How that
+wall was ever ascended to the inland seemed the puzzle; but Drew, who
+had been off the place before, pointed out to them a narrow path, which
+wound upwards through a glen, seemingly sheer perpendicular. That was
+the road to the capital, if any man dare try it. In spite of the shadow
+of the mountain, the whole place wore a dusty and glaring look. The
+breaths of air which came off the land were utterly stifling; and no
+wonder, for La Guayra, owing to the radiation of that vast fire-brick
+of heated rock, is one of the hottest spots upon the face of the whole
+earth.
+
+Where was the harbor? There was none. Only an open roadstead, wherein
+lay tossing at anchor five vessels. The two outer ones were small
+merchant caravels. Behind them lay two long, low, ugly-looking craft, at
+sight of which Yeo gave a long whew.
+
+“Galleys, as I'm a sinful saint! And what's that big one inside of them,
+Robert Drew? She has more than hawseholes in her idolatrous black sides,
+I think.”
+
+“We shall open her astern of the galleys in another minute,” said Amyas.
+“Look out, Cary, your eyes are better than mine.”
+
+“Six round portholes on the main deck,” quoth Will.
+
+“And I can see the brass patararoes glittering on her poop,” quoth
+Amyas. “Will, we're in for it.”
+
+“In for it we are, captain.
+
+     “Farewell, farewell, my parents dear.
+     I never shall see you more, I fear.
+
+“Let's go in, nevertheless, and pound the Don's ribs, my old lad of
+Smerwick. Eh? Three to one is very fair odds.”
+
+“Not underneath those fort guns, I beg leave to say,” quoth Yeo. “If the
+Philistines will but come out unto us, we will make them like unto Zeba
+and Zalmunna.”
+
+“Quite true,” said Amyas. “Game cocks are game cocks, but reason's
+reason.”
+
+“If the Philistines are not coming out, they are going to send a
+messenger instead,” quoth Cary. “Look out, all thin skulls!”
+
+And as he spoke, a puff of white smoke rolled from the eastern fort, and
+a heavy ball plunged into the water between it and the ship.
+
+“I don't altogether like this,” quoth Amyas. “What do they mean by
+firing on us without warning? And what are these ships of war doing
+here? Drew, you told me the armadas never lay here.”
+
+“No more, I believe, they do, sir, on account of the anchorage being so
+bad, as you may see. I'm mortal afeared that rascal's story was true,
+and that the Dons have got wind of our coming.”
+
+“Run up a white flag, at all events. If they do expect us, they must
+have known some time since, or how could they have got their craft
+hither?”
+
+“True, sir. They must have come from Santa Marta, at the least; perhaps
+from Cartagena. And that would take a month at least going and coming.”
+
+Amyas suddenly recollected Eustace's threat in the wayside inn. Could he
+have betrayed their purpose? Impossible!
+
+“Let us hold a council of war, at all events, Frank.”
+
+Frank was absorbed in a very different matter. A half-mile to the
+eastward of the town, two or three hundred feet up the steep mountain
+side, stood a large, low, white house embosomed in trees and gardens.
+There was no other house of similar size near; no place for one. And was
+not that the royal flag of Spain which flaunted before it? That must be
+the governor's house; that must be the abode of the Rose of Torridge!
+And Frank stood devouring it with wild eyes, till he had persuaded
+himself that he could see a woman's figure walking upon the terrace
+in front, and that the figure was none other than hers whom he sought.
+Amyas could hardly tear him away to a council of war, which was a sad,
+and only not a peevish one.
+
+The three adventurers, with Brimblecombe, Yeo, and Drew, went apart upon
+the poop; and each looked the other in the face awhile. For what was
+to be done? The plans and hopes of months were brought to naught in an
+hour.
+
+“It is impossible, you see,” said Amyas, at last, “to surprise the town
+by land, while these ships are here; for if we land our men, we leave
+our ship without defence.”
+
+“As impossible as to challenge Don Guzman while he is not here,” said
+Cary.
+
+“I wonder why the ships have not opened on us already,” said Drew.
+
+“Perhaps they respect our flag of truce,” said Cary. “Why not send in a
+boat to treat with them, and to inquire for--
+
+“For her?” interrupted Frank. “If we show that we are aware of her
+existence, her name is blasted in the eyes of those jealous Spaniards.”
+
+“And as for respecting our flag of truce, gentlemen,” said Yeo, “if you
+will take an old man's advice, trust them not. They will keep the same
+faith with us as they kept with Captain Hawkins at San Juan d'Ulloa, in
+that accursed business which was the beginning of all the wars; when
+we might have taken the whole plate-fleet, with two hundred thousand
+pounds' worth of gold on board, and did not, but only asked license to
+trade like honest men. And yet, after they had granted us license, and
+deceived us by fair speech into landing ourselves and our ordnance, the
+governor and all the fleet set upon us, five to one, and gave no quarter
+to any soul whom he took. No, sir; I expect the only reason why they
+don't attack us is, because their crews are not on board.”
+
+“They will be, soon enough, then,” said Amyas. “I can see soldiers
+coming down the landing-stairs.”
+
+And, in fact, boats full of armed men began to push off to the ships.
+
+“We may thank Heaven,” said Drew, “that we were not here two hours
+agone. The sun will be down before they are ready for sea, and the
+fellows will have no stomach to go looking for us by night.”
+
+“So much the worse for us. If they will but do that, we may give them
+the slip, and back again to the town, and there try our luck; for I
+cannot find it in my heart to leave the place without having one dash at
+it.”
+
+Yeo shook his head. “There are plenty more towns along the coast more
+worth trying than this, sir: but Heaven's will be done!”
+
+And as they spoke, the sun plunged into the sea, and all was dark.
+
+At last it was agreed to anchor, and wait till midnight. If the ships
+of war came out, they were to try to run in past them, and, desperate
+as the attempt might be, attempt their original plan of landing to the
+westward of the town, taking it in flank, plundering the government
+storehouses, which they saw close to the landing-place, and then
+fighting their way back to their boats, and out of the roadstead. Two
+hours would suffice if the armada and the galleys were but once out of
+the way.
+
+Amyas went forward, called the men together, and told them the plan. It
+was not very cheerfully received: but what else was there to be done!
+
+They ran down about a mile and a half to the westward, and anchored.
+
+The night wore on, and there was no sign of stir among the shipping;
+for though they could not see the vessels themselves, yet their lights
+(easily distinguished by their relative height from those in the town
+above) remained motionless; and the men fretted and fumed for weary
+hours at thus seeing a rich prize (for of course the town was paved with
+gold) within arm's reach, and yet impossible.
+
+Let Amyas and his men have patience. Some short five years more, and the
+great Armada will have come and gone; and then that avenging storm,
+of which they, like Oxenham, Hawkins, and Drake, are but the
+avant-couriers, will burst upon every Spanish port from Corunna to
+Cadiz, from the Canaries to Havana, and La Guayra and St. Yago de Leon
+will not escape their share. Captain Amyas Preston and Captain Sommers,
+the colonist of the Bermudas, or Sommers' Islands, will land, with a
+force tiny enough, though larger far than Leigh's, where Leigh dare not
+land; and taking the fort of Guayra, will find, as Leigh found, that
+their coming has been expected, and that the Pass of the Venta, three
+thousand feet above, has been fortified with huge barricadoes, abattis,
+and cannon, making the capital, amid its ring of mountain-walls,
+impregnable--to all but Englishmen or Zouaves. For up that seven
+thousand feet of precipice, which rises stair on stair behind the town,
+those fierce adventurers will climb hand over hand, through rain and
+fog, while men lie down, and beg their officers to kill them, for no
+farther can they go. Yet farther they will go, hewing a path with their
+swords through woods of wild plantain, and rhododendron thickets, over
+(so it seems, however incredible) the very saddle of the Silla,* down
+upon the astonished “Mantuanos” of St. Jago, driving all before them;
+and having burnt the city in default of ransom, will return triumphant
+by the right road, and pass along the coast, the masters of the deep.
+
+     * Humboldt says that there is a path from Caravellada to St.
+     Jago, between the peaks, used by smugglers.  This is
+     probably the “unknowen way of the Indians,” which Preston
+     used.
+
+I know not whether any men still live who count their descent from those
+two valiant captains; but if such there be, let them be sure that the
+history of the English navy tells no more Titanic victory over nature
+and man than that now forgotten raid of Amyas Preston and his comrade,
+in the year of grace 1595.
+
+But though a venture on the town was impossible, yet there was another
+venture which Frank was unwilling to let slip. A light which now shone
+brightly in one of the windows of the governor's house was the lodestar
+to which all his thoughts were turned; and as he sat in the cabin with
+Amyas, Cary, and Jack, he opened his heart to them.
+
+“And are we, then,” asked he, mournfully, “to go without doing the very
+thing for which we came?”
+
+All were silent awhile. At last John Brimblecombe spoke.
+
+“Show me the way to do it, Mr. Frank, and I will go.”
+
+“My dearest man,” said Amyas, “what would you have? Any attempt to see
+her, even if she be here, would be all but certain death.”
+
+“And what if it were? What if it were, my brother Amyas? Listen to me. I
+have long ceased to shrink from Death; but till I came into these magic
+climes, I never knew the beauty of his face.”
+
+“Of death?” said Cary. “I should have said, of life. God forgive me! but
+man might wish to live forever, if he had such a world as this wherein
+to live.”
+
+“And do you forget, Cary, that the more fair this passing world of time,
+by so much the more fair is that eternal world, whereof all here is but
+a shadow and a dream; by so much the more fair is He before whose throne
+the four mystic beasts, the substantial ideas of Nature and her powers,
+stand day and night, crying, 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, Thou
+hast made all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created!'
+My friends, if He be so prodigal of His own glory as to have decked
+these lonely shores, all but unknown since the foundation of the world,
+with splendors beyond all our dreams, what must be the glory of His face
+itself! I have done with vain shadows. It is better to depart and to be
+with Him, where shall be neither desire nor anger, self-deception nor
+pretence, but the eternal fulness of reality and truth. One thing I
+have to do before I die, for God has laid it on me. Let that be done
+to-night, and then, farewell!”
+
+“Frank! Frank! remember our mother!”
+
+“I do remember her. I have talked over these things with her many a
+time; and where I would fain be, she would fain be also. She sent me out
+with my virgin honor, as the Spartan mother did her boy with the shield,
+saying, 'Come back either with this, or upon this;' and one or the other
+I must do, if I would meet her either in this life or in the next. But
+in the meanwhile do not mistake me; my life is God's, and I promise not
+to cast it away rashly.”
+
+“What would you do, then?”
+
+“Go up to that house, Amyas, and speak with her, if Heaven gives me an
+opportunity, as Heaven, I feel assured, will give.”
+
+“And do you call that no rashness?”
+
+“Is any duty rashness? Is it rash to stand amid the flying bullets, if
+your queen has sent you? Is it more rash to go to seek Christ's lost
+lamb, if God and your own oath hath sent you? John Brimblecombe answered
+that question for us long ago.”
+
+“If you go, I go with you!” said all three at once.
+
+“No. Amyas, you owe a duty to our mother and to your ship. Cary, you are
+heir to great estates, and are bound thereby to your country and to your
+tenants. John Brimblecombe--”
+
+“Ay!” squeaked Jack. “And what have you to say, Mr. Frank, against my
+going?--I, who have neither ship nor estates--except, I suppose, that I
+am not worthy to travel in such good company?”
+
+“Think of your old parents, John, and all your sisters.”
+
+“I thought of them before I started, sir, as Mr. Cary knows, and
+you know too. I came here to keep my vow, and I am not going to turn
+renegade at the very foot of the cross.”
+
+“Some one must go with you, Frank,” said Amyas; “if it were only to
+bring back the boat's crew in case--” and he faltered.
+
+“In case I fall,” replied Frank, with a smile. “I will finish your
+sentence for you, lad; I am not afraid of it, though you may be for me.
+Yet some one, I fear, must go. Unhappy me! that I cannot risk my own
+worthless life without risking your more precious lives!”
+
+“Not so, Mr. Frank! Your oath is our oath, and your duty ours!” said
+John. “I will tell you what we will do, gentlemen all. We three will
+draw cuts for the honor of going with him.”
+
+“Lots?” said Amyas. “I don't like leaving such grave matters to chance,
+friend John.”
+
+“Chance, sir? When you have used all your own wit, and find it fail you,
+then what is drawing lots but taking the matter out of your own weak
+hands, and laying it in God's strong hands?”
+
+“Right, John!” said Frank. “So did the apostles choose their successor,
+and so did holy men of old decide controversies too subtle for them;
+and we will not be ashamed to follow their example. For my part, I have
+often said to Sidney and to Spenser, when we have babbled together of
+Utopian governments in days which are now dreams to me, that I would
+have all officers of state chosen by lot out of the wisest and most fit;
+so making sure that they should be called by God, and not by man alone.
+Gentlemen, do you agree to Sir John's advice?”
+
+They agreed, seeing no better counsel, and John put three slips of paper
+into Frank's hand, with the simple old apostolic prayer--
+
+“Show which of us three Thou hast chosen.”
+
+The lot fell upon Amyas Leigh.
+
+Frank shuddered, and clasped his hands over his face.
+
+“Well,” said Cary, “I have ill-luck to-night: but Frank goes at least in
+good company.”
+
+“Ah, that it had been I!” said Jack; “though I suppose I was too poor a
+body to have such an honor fall on me. And yet it is hard for flesh and
+blood; hard indeed to have come all this way, and not to see her after
+all!”
+
+“Jack,” said Frank, “you are kept to do better work than this, doubt
+not. But if the lot had fallen on you--ay, if it had fallen on a three
+years' child, I would have gone up as cheerfully with that child to lead
+me, as I do now with this my brother! Amyas, can we have a boat, and a
+crew? It is near midnight already.”
+
+Amyas went on deck, and asked for six volunteers. Whosoever would come,
+Amyas would double out of his own purse any prize-money which might fall
+to that man's share.
+
+One of the old Pelican's crew, Simon Evans of Clovelly, stepped out at
+once.
+
+“Why six only, captain? Give the word, and any and all of us will go
+up with you, sack the house, and bring off the treasure and the lady,
+before two hours are out.”
+
+“No, no, my brave lads! As for treasure, if there be any, it is sure to
+have been put all safe into the forts, or hidden in the mountains; and
+as for the lady, God forbid that we should force her a step without her
+own will.”
+
+The honest sailor did not quite understand this punctilio: but--
+
+“Well, captain,” quoth he, “as you like; but no man shall say that you
+asked for a volunteer, were it to jump down a shark's throat, but what
+you had me first of all the crew.”
+
+After this sort of temper had been exhibited, three or four more came
+forward--Yeo was very anxious to go, but Amyas forbade him.
+
+“I'll volunteer, sir, without reward, for this or anything; though”
+ (added he in a lower tone) “I would to Heaven that the thought had never
+entered your head.”
+
+“And so would I have volunteered,” said Simon Evans, “if it were the
+ship's quarrel, or the queen's; but being it's a private matter of the
+captain's, and I've a wife and children at home, why, I take no shame to
+myself for asking money for my life.”
+
+So the crew was made up; but ere they pushed off, Amyas called Cary
+aside--
+
+“If I perish, Will--”
+
+“Don't talk of such things, dear old lad.”
+
+“I must. Then you are captain. Do nothing without Yeo and Drew. But if
+they approve, go right north away for San Domingo and Cuba, and try the
+ports; they can have no news of us there, and there is booty without
+end. Tell my mother that I died like a gentleman; and mind--mind, dear
+lad, to keep your temper with the men, let the poor fellows grumble as
+they may. Mind but that, and fear God, and all will go well.”
+
+The tears were glistening in Cary's eyes as he pressed Amyas's hand, and
+watched the two brothers down over the side upon their desperate errand.
+
+They reached the pebble beach. There seemed no difficulty about finding
+the path to the house--so bright was the moon, and so careful a survey
+of the place had Frank taken. Leaving the men with the boat (Amyas had
+taken care that they should be well armed), they started up the beach,
+with their swords only. Frank assured Amyas that they would find a path
+leading from the beach up to the house, and he was not mistaken. They
+found it easily, for it was made of white shell sand; and following it,
+struck into a “tunal,” or belt of tall thorny cactuses. Through this
+the path wound in zigzags up a steep rocky slope, and ended at a
+wicket-gate. They tried it, and found it open.
+
+“She may expect us,” whispered Frank.
+
+“Impossible!”
+
+“Why not? She must have seen our ship; and if, as seems, the townsfolk
+know who we are, how much more must she! Yes, doubt it not, she still
+longs to hear news of her own land, and some secret sympathy will draw
+her down towards the sea to-night. See! the light is in the window
+still!”
+
+“But if not,” said Amyas, who had no such expectation, “what is your
+plan?”
+
+“I have none.”
+
+“None?”
+
+“I have imagined twenty different ones in the last hour; but all are
+equally uncertain, impossible. I have ceased to struggle--I go where
+I am called, love's willing victim. If Heaven accept the sacrifice, it
+will provide the altar and the knife.”
+
+Aymas was at his wits' end. Judging of his brother by himself, he had
+taken for granted that Frank had some well-concocted scheme for gaining
+admittance to the Rose; and as the wiles of love were altogether out of
+his province, he had followed in full faith such a sans-appel as he held
+Frank to be. But now he almost doubted of his brother's sanity, though
+Frank's manner was perfectly collected and his voice firm. Amyas, honest
+fellow, had no understanding of that intense devotion, which so many in
+those days (not content with looking on it as a lofty virtue, and yet
+one to be duly kept in its place by other duties) prided themselves on
+pampering into the most fantastic and self-willed excesses.
+
+Beautiful folly! the death-song of which two great geniuses were
+composing at that very moment, each according to his light. For, while
+Spenser was embalming in immortal verse all that it contained of noble
+and Christian elements, Cervantes sat, perhaps, in his dungeon, writing
+with his left hand Don Quixote, saddest of books, in spite of all its
+wit; the story of a pure and noble soul, who mistakes this actual life
+for that ideal one which he fancies (and not so wrongly either) eternal
+in the heavens: and finding instead of a battlefield for heroes in God's
+cause, nothing but frivolity, heartlessness, and godlessness, becomes a
+laughing-stock,--and dies. One of the saddest books, I say again, which
+man can read.
+
+Amyas hardly dare trust himself to speak, for fear of saying too much;
+but he could not help saying--
+
+“You are going to certain death, Frank.”
+
+“Did I not entreat,” answered he, very quietly, “to go alone?”
+
+Amyas had half a mind to compel him to return: but he feared Frank's
+obstinacy; and feared, too, the shame of returning on board without
+having done anything; so they went up through the wicket-gate, along a
+smooth turf walk, into what seemed a pleasure-garden, formed by the hand
+of man, or rather of woman. For by the light, not only of the moon, but
+of the innumerable fireflies, which flitted to and fro across the sward
+like fiery imps sent to light the brothers on their way, they could see
+that the bushes on either side, and the trees above their heads, were
+decked with flowers of such strangeness and beauty, that, as Frank
+once said of Barbados, “even the gardens of Wilton were a desert in
+comparison.” All around were orange and lemon trees (probably the only
+addition which man had made to Nature's prodigality), the fruit of
+which, in that strange colored light of the fireflies, flashed in their
+eyes like balls of burnished gold and emerald; while great white tassels
+swinging from every tree in the breeze which swept down the glade,
+tossed in their faces a fragrant snow of blossoms, and glittering drops
+of perfumed dew.
+
+“What a paradise!” said Amyas to Frank, “with the serpent in it, as of
+old. Look!”
+
+And as he spoke, there dropped slowly down from a bough, right before
+them, what seemed a living chain of gold, ruby, and sapphire. Both
+stopped, and another glance showed the small head and bright eyes of a
+snake, hissing and glaring full in their faces.
+
+“See!” said Frank. “And he comes, as of old, in the likeness of an angel
+of light. Do not strike it. There are worse devils to be fought with
+to-night than that poor beast.” And stepping aside, they passed the
+snake safely, and arrived in front of the house.
+
+It was, as I have said, a long low house, with balconies along the upper
+story, and the under part mostly open to the wind. The light was still
+burning in the window.
+
+“Whither now?” said Amyas, in a tone of desperate resignation.
+
+“Thither! Where else on earth?” and Frank pointed to the light,
+trembling from head to foot, and pushed on.
+
+“For Heaven's sake! Look at the negroes on the barbecue!”
+
+It was indeed time to stop; for on the barbecue, or terrace of white
+plaster, which ran all round the front, lay sleeping full twenty black
+figures.
+
+“What will you do now? You must step over them to gain an entrance.”
+
+“Wait here, and I will go up gently towards the window. She may see me.
+She will see me as I step into the moonlight. At least I know an air by
+which she will recognize me, if I do but hum a stave.”
+
+“Why, you do not even know that that light is hers!--Down, for your
+life!”
+
+And Amyas dragged him down into the bushes on his left hand; for one
+of the negroes, wakening suddenly with a cry, had sat up, and began
+crossing himself four or five times, in fear of “Duppy,” and mumbling
+various charms, ayes, or what not.
+
+The light above was extinguished instantly.
+
+“Did you see her?” whispered Frank.
+
+“No.”
+
+“I did--the shadow of the face, and the neck! Can I be mistaken?” And
+then, covering his face with his hands, he murmured to himself, “Misery!
+misery! So near and yet impossible?”
+
+“Would it be the less impossible were you face to face? Let us go back.
+We cannot go up without detection, even if our going were of use. Come
+back, for God's sake, ere all is lost! If you have seen her, as you say,
+you know at least that she is alive, and safe in his house--”
+
+“As his mistress? or as his wife? Do I know that yet, Amyas, and can I
+depart until I know?” There was a few minutes' silence, and then Amyas,
+making one last attempt to awaken Frank to the absurdity of the whole
+thing, and to laugh him, if possible, out of it, as argument had no
+effect--
+
+“My dear fellow, I am very hungry and sleepy; and this bush is very
+prickly; and my boots are full of ants--”
+
+“So are mine.--Look!” and Frank caught Amyas's arm, and clenched it
+tight.
+
+For round the farther corner of the house a dark cloaked figure stole
+gently, turning a look now and then upon the sleeping negroes, and came
+on right toward them.
+
+“Did I not tell you she would come?” whispered Frank, in a triumphant
+tone.
+
+Amyas was quite bewildered; and to his mind the apparition seemed
+magical, and Frank prophetic; for as the figure came nearer, incredulous
+as he tried to be, there was no denying that the shape and the walk were
+exactly those of her, to find whom they had crossed the Atlantic. True,
+the figure was somewhat taller; but then, “she must be grown since I saw
+her,” thought Amyas; and his heart for the moment beat as fiercely as
+Frank's.
+
+But what was that behind her? Her shadow against the white wall of the
+house. Not so. Another figure, cloaked likewise, but taller far, was
+following on her steps. It was a man's. They could see that he wore a
+broad sombrero. It could not be Don Guzman, for he was at sea. Who then?
+Here was a mystery; perhaps a tragedy. And both brothers held their
+breaths, while Amyas felt whether his sword was loose in the sheath.
+
+The Rose (if indeed it was she) was within ten yards of them, when she
+perceived that she was followed. She gave a little shriek. The cavalier
+sprang forward, lifted his hat courteously, and joined her, bowing low.
+The moonlight was full upon his face.
+
+“It is Eustace, our cousin! How came he here, in the name of all the
+fiends?”
+
+“Eustace! Then that is she, after all!” said Frank, forgetting
+everything else in her.
+
+And now flashed across Amyas all that had passed between him and Eustace
+in the moorland inn, and Parracombe's story, too, of the suspicious
+gipsy. Eustace had been beforehand with them, and warned Don Guzman! All
+was explained now: but how had he got hither?
+
+“The devil, his master, sent him hither on a broomstick, I suppose: or
+what matter how? Here he is; and here we are, worse luck!” And, setting
+his teeth, Amyas awaited the end.
+
+The two came on, talking earnestly, and walking at a slow pace, so that
+the brothers could hear every word.
+
+“What shall we do now?” said Frank. “We have no right to be
+eavesdroppers.”
+
+“But we must be, right or none.” And Amyas held him down firmly by the
+arm.
+
+“But whither are you going, then, my dear madam?” they heard Eustace
+say in a wheedling tone. “Can you wonder if such strange conduct should
+cause at least sorrow to your admirable and faithful husband?”
+
+“Husband!” whispered Frank faintly to Amyas. “Thank God, thank God! I am
+content. Let us go.”
+
+But to go was impossible; for, as fate would have it, the two had
+stopped just opposite them.
+
+“The inestimable Senor Don Guzman--” began Eustace again.
+
+“What do you mean by praising him to me in this fulsome way, sir? Do you
+suppose that I do not know his virtues better than you?”
+
+“If you do, madam” (this was spoken in a harder tone), “it were wise for
+you to try them less severely, than by wandering down towards the beach
+on the very night that you know his most deadly enemies are lying in
+wait to slay him, plunder his house, and most probably to carry you off
+from him.”
+
+“Carry me off? I will die first!”
+
+“Who can prove that to him? Appearances are at least against you.”
+
+“My love to him, and his trust for me, sir!”
+
+“His trust? Have you forgotten, madam, what passed last week, and why he
+sailed yesterday?”
+
+The only answer was a burst of tears. Eustace stood watching her with a
+terrible eye; but they could see his face writhing in the moonlight.
+
+“Oh!” sobbed she at last. “And if I have been imprudent, was it not
+natural to wish to look once more upon an English ship? Are you not
+English as well as I? Have you no longing recollections of the dear old
+land at home?”
+
+Eustace was silent; but his face worked more fiercely than ever.
+
+“How can he ever know it?”
+
+“Why should he not know it?”
+
+“Ah!” she burst out passionately, “why not, indeed, while you are here?
+You, sir, the tempter, you the eavesdropper, you the sunderer of loving
+hearts! You, serpent, who found our home a paradise, and see it now a
+hell!”
+
+“Do you dare to accuse me thus, madam, without a shadow of evidence?”
+
+“Dare? I dare anything, for I know all! I have watched you, sir, and I
+have borne with you too long.”
+
+“Me, madam, whose only sin towards you, as you should know by now, is to
+have loved you too well? Rose! Rose! have you not blighted my life for
+me--broken my heart? And how have I repaid you? How but by sacrificing
+myself to seek you over land and sea, that I might complete your
+conversion to the bosom of that Church where a Virgin Mother stands
+stretching forth soft arms to embrace her wandering daughter, and cries
+to you all day long, 'Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden,
+and I will give you rest!' And this is my reward!”
+
+“Depart with your Virgin Mother, sir, and tempt me no more! You have
+asked me what I dare; and I dare this, upon my own ground, and in my
+own garden, I, Donna Rosa de Soto, to bid you leave this place now and
+forever, after having insulted me by talking of your love, and tempted
+me to give up that faith which my husband promised me he would respect
+and protect. Go, sir!”
+
+The brothers listened breathless with surprise as much as with rage.
+Love and conscience, and perhaps, too, the pride of her lofty alliance,
+had converted the once gentle and dreamy Rose into a very Roxana; but it
+was only the impulse of a moment. The words had hardly passed her lips,
+when, terrified at what she had said, she burst into a fresh flood of
+tears; while Eustace answered calmly:
+
+“I go, madam: but how know you that I may not have orders, and that,
+after your last strange speech, my conscience may compel me to obey
+those orders, to take you with me?”
+
+“Me? with you?”
+
+“My heart has bled for you, madam, for many a year. It longs now that
+it had bled itself to death, and never known the last worst agony of
+telling you--”
+
+And drawing close to her he whispered in her ear--what, the brothers
+heard not--but her answer was a shriek which rang through the woods, and
+sent the night-birds fluttering up from every bough above their heads.
+
+“By Heaven!” said Amyas, “I can stand this no longer. Cut that devil's
+throat I must--”
+
+“She is lost if his dead body is found by her.”
+
+“We are lost if we stay here, then,” said Amyas; “for those negroes will
+hurry down at her cry, and then found we must be.”
+
+“Are you mad, madam, to betray yourself by your own cries? The negroes
+will be here in a moment. I give you one last chance for life, then:”
+ and Eustace shouted in Spanish at the top of his voice, “Help, help,
+servants! Your mistress is being carried off by bandits!”
+
+“What do you mean, sir?”
+
+“Let your woman's wit supply the rest: and forget not him who thus saves
+you from disgrace.”
+
+Whether the brothers heard the last words or not, I know not; but taking
+for granted that Eustace had discovered them, they sprang to their feet
+at once, determined to make one last appeal, and then to sell their
+lives as dearly as they could.
+
+Eustace started back at the unexpected apparition; but a second glance
+showed him Amyas's mighty bulk; and he spoke calmly--
+
+“You see, madam, I did not call without need. Welcome, good cousins. My
+charity, as you perceive, has found means to outstrip your craft; while
+the fair lady, as was but natural, has been true to her assignation!”
+
+“Liar!” cried Frank. “She never knew of our being--”
+
+“Credat Judaeus!” answered Eustace; but, as he spoke, Amyas burst
+through the bushes at him. There was no time to be lost; and ere the
+giant could disentangle himself from the boughs and shrubs, Eustace had
+slipped off his long cloak, thrown it over Amyas's head, and ran up the
+alley shouting for help.
+
+Mad with rage, Amyas gave chase: but in two minutes more Eustace was
+safe among the ranks of the negroes, who came shouting and jabbering
+down the path.
+
+He rushed back. Frank was just ending some wild appeal to Rose--
+
+“Your conscience! your religion!--”
+
+“No, never! I can face the chance of death, but not the loss of him. Go!
+for God's sake, leave me!”
+
+“You are lost, then,--and I have ruined you!”
+
+“Come off, now or never,” cried Amyas, clutching him by the arm, and
+dragging him away like a child.
+
+“You forgive me?” cried he.
+
+“Forgive you?” and she burst into tears again.
+
+Frank burst into tears also.
+
+“Let me go back, and die with her--Amyas!--my oath!--my honor!” and he
+struggled to turn back.
+
+Amyas looked back too, and saw her standing calmly, with her hands
+folded across her breast, awaiting Eustace and the servants; and he half
+turned to go back also. Both saw how fearfully appearances had put her
+into Eustace's power. Had he not a right to suspect that they were there
+by her appointment; that she was going to escape with them? And would
+not Eustace use his power? The thought of the Inquisition crossed their
+minds. “Was that the threat which Eustace had whispered?” asked he of
+Frank.
+
+“It was,” groaned Frank, in answer.
+
+For the first and last time in his life, Amyas Leigh stood irresolute.
+
+“Back, and stab her to the heart first!” said Frank, struggling to
+escape from him.
+
+Oh, if Amyas were but alone, and Frank safe home in England! To charge
+the whole mob, kill her, kill Eustace, and then cut his way back again
+to the ship, or die,--what matter? as he must die some day,--sword in
+hand! But Frank!--and then flashed before his eyes his mother's hopeless
+face; then rang in his ears his mother's last bequest to him of that
+frail treasure. Let Rose, let honor, let the whole world perish, he must
+save Frank. See! the negroes were up with her now--past her--away for
+life! and once more he dragged his brother down the hill, and through
+the wicket, only just in time; for the whole gang of negroes were within
+ten yards of them in full pursuit.
+
+“Frank,” said he, sharply, “if you ever hope to see your mother again,
+rouse yourself, man, and fight!” And, without waiting for an answer, he
+turned, and charged up-hill upon his pursuers, who saw the long bright
+blade, and fled instantly.
+
+Again he hurried Frank down the hill; the path wound in zigzags, and he
+feared that the negroes would come straight over the cliff, and so cut
+off his retreat: but the prickly cactuses were too much for them, and
+they were forced to follow by the path, while the brothers (Frank having
+somewhat regained his senses) turned every now and then to menace
+them: but once on the rocky path, stones began to fly fast; small ones
+fortunately, and wide and wild for want of light--but when they reached
+the pebble-beach? Both were too proud to run; but, if ever Amyas prayed
+in his life, he prayed for the last twenty yards before he reached the
+water-mark.
+
+“Now, Frank! down to the boat as hard as you can run, while I keep the
+curs back.”
+
+“Amyas! what do you take me for? My madness brought you hither: your
+devotion shall not bring me back without you.”
+
+“Together, then!”
+
+And putting Frank's arm through his, they hurried down, shouting to
+their men.
+
+The boat was not fifty yards off: but fast travelling over the pebbles
+was impossible, and long ere half the distance was crossed, the negroes
+were on the beach, and the storm burst. A volley of great quartz pebbles
+whistled round their heads.
+
+“Come on, Frank! for life's sake! Men, to the rescue! Ah! what was
+that?”
+
+The dull crash of a pebble against Frank's fair head! Drooping like
+Hyacinthus beneath the blow of the quoit, he sank on Amyas's arm. The
+giant threw him over his shoulder, and plunged blindly on,--himself
+struck again and again.
+
+“Fire, men! Give it the black villains!”
+
+The arquebuses crackled from the boat in front. What were those
+dull thuds which answered from behind? Echoes? No. Over his head the
+caliver-balls went screeching. The governors' guard have turned out,
+followed them to the beach, fixed their calivers, and are firing over
+the negroes' heads, as the savages rush down upon the hapless brothers.
+
+If, as all say, there are moments which are hours, how many hours was
+Amyas Leigh in reaching that boat's bow? Alas! the negroes are there as
+soon as he, and the guard, having left their calivers, are close behind
+them, sword in hand. Amyas is up to his knees in water--battered with
+stones--blinded with blood. The boat is swaying off and on against the
+steep pebble-bank: he clutches at it--misses--falls headlong--rises
+half-choked with water: but Frank is still in his arms. Another heavy
+blow--a confused roar of shouts, shots, curses--a confused mass of
+negroes and English, foam and pebbles--and he recollects no more.
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+He is lying in the stern-sheets of the boat; stiff, weak, half blind
+with blood. He looks up; the moon is still bright overhead: but they are
+away from the shore now, for the wave-crests are dancing white before
+the land-breeze, high above the boat's side. The boat seems strangely
+empty. Two men are pulling instead of six! And what is this lying heavy
+across his chest? He pushes, and is answered by a groan. He puts his
+hand down to rise, and is answered by another groan.
+
+“What's this?”
+
+“All that are left of us,” says Simon Evans of Clovelly.
+
+“All?” The bottom of the boat seemed paved with human bodies. “Oh
+God! oh God!” moans Amyas, trying to rise. “And where--where is Frank?
+Frank!”
+
+“Mr. Frank!” cries Evans. There is no answer.
+
+“Dead?” shrieks Amyas. “Look for him, for God's sake, look!” and
+struggling from under his living load, he peers into each pale and
+bleeding face.
+
+“Where is he? Why don't you speak, forward there?”
+
+“Because we have naught to say, sir,” answers Evans, almost surlily.
+
+Frank was not there.
+
+“Put the boat about! To the shore!” roars Amyas.
+
+“Look over the gunwale, and judge for yourself, sir!”
+
+The waves are leaping fierce and high before a furious land-breeze.
+Return is impossible.
+
+“Cowards! villains! traitors! hounds! to have left him behind.”
+
+“Listen you to me, Captain Amyas Leigh,” says Simon Evans, resting on
+his oar; “and hang me for mutiny, if you will, when we're aboard, if we
+ever get there. Isn't it enough to bring us out to death (as you knew
+yourself, sir, for you're prudent enough) to please that poor young
+gentleman's fancy about a wench; but you must call coward an honest man
+that have saved your life this night, and not a one of us but has his
+wound to show?”
+
+Amyas was silent; the rebuke was just.
+
+“I tell you, sir, if we've hove a stone out of this boat since we got
+off, we've hove two hundredweight, and, if the Lord had not fought for
+us, she'd have been beat to noggin-staves there on the beach.”
+
+“How did I come here, then?”
+
+“Tom Hart dragged you in out of five feet water, and then thrust the
+boat off, and had his brains beat out for reward. All were knocked down
+but us two. So help me God, we thought that you had hove Mr. Frank on
+board just as you were knocked down, and saw William Frost drag him in.”
+
+But William Frost was lying senseless in the bottom of the boat. There
+was no explanation. After all, none was needed.
+
+“And I have three wounds from stones, and this man behind me as many
+more, beside a shot through his shoulder. Now, sir, be we cowards?”
+
+“You have done your duty,” said Amyas, and sank down in the boat, and
+cried as if his heart would break; and then sprang up, and, wounded as
+he was, took the oar from Evans's hands. With weary work they made the
+ship, but so exhausted that another boat had to be lowered to get them
+alongside.
+
+The alarm being now given, it was hardly safe to remain where they were;
+and after a stormy and sad argument, it was agreed to weigh anchor and
+stand off and on till morning; for Amyas refused to leave the spot till
+he was compelled, though he had no hope (how could he have?) that Frank
+might still be alive. And perhaps it was well for them, as will appear
+in the next chapter, that morning did not find them at anchor close to
+the town.
+
+However that may be, so ended that fatal venture of mistaken chivalry.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS
+
+     “Full seven long hours in all men's sight
+       This fight endured sore,
+     Until our men so feeble grew,
+       That they could fight no more.
+     And then upon dead horses
+       Full savorly they fed,
+     And drank the puddle water,
+       They could no better get.
+
+     “When they had fed so freely
+       They kneeled on the ground,
+     And gave God thanks devoutly for
+       The favor they had found;
+     Then beating up their colors,
+       The fight they did renew;
+     And turning to the Spaniards,
+       A thousand more they slew.”
+
+       The Brave Lord Willoughby.  1586.
+
+When the sun leaped up the next morning, and the tropic light
+flashed suddenly into the tropic day, Amyas was pacing the deck, with
+dishevelled hair and torn clothes, his eyes red with rage and weeping,
+his heart full--how can I describe it? Picture it to yourselves, picture
+it to yourselves, you who have ever lost a brother; and you who have
+not, thank God that you know nothing of his agony. Full of impossible
+projects, he strode and staggered up and down, as the ship thrashed
+close-hauled through the rolling seas. He would go back and burn the
+villa. He would take Guayra, and have the life of every man in it in
+return for his brother's. “We can do it, lads!” he shouted. “If Drake
+took Nombre de Dios, we can take La Guayra.” And every voice shouted,
+“Yes.”
+
+“We will have it, Amyas, and have Frank too, yet,” cried Cary; but Amyas
+shook his head. He knew, and knew not why he knew, that all the ports in
+New Spain would never restore to him that one beloved face.
+
+“Yes, he shall be well avenged. And look there! There is the first crop
+of our vengeance. And he pointed toward the shore, where between them
+and the now distant peaks of the Silla, three sails appeared, not five
+miles to windward.
+
+“There are the Spanish bloodhounds on our heels, the same ships which we
+saw yesterday off Guayra. Back, lads, and welcome them, if they were a
+dozen.”
+
+There was a murmur of applause from all around; and if any young heart
+sank for a moment at the prospect of fighting three ships at once, it
+was awed into silence by the cheer which rose from all the older men,
+and by Salvation Yeo's stentorian voice.
+
+“If there were a dozen, the Lord is with us, who has said, 'One of you
+shall chase a thousand.' Clear away, lads, and see the glory of the Lord
+this day.”
+
+“Amen!” cried Cary; and the ship was kept still closer to the wind.
+
+Amyas had revived at the sight of battle. He no longer felt his wounds,
+or his great sorrow; even Frank's last angel's look grew dimmer every
+moment as he bustled about the deck; and ere a quarter of an hour had
+passed, his voice cried firmly and cheerfully as of old--
+
+“Now, my masters, let us serve God, and then to breakfast, and after
+that clear for action.”
+
+Jack Brimblecombe read the daily prayers, and the prayers before a
+fight at sea, and his honest voice trembled, as, in the Prayer for
+all Conditions of Men (in spite of Amyas's despair), he added, “and
+especially for our dear brother Mr. Francis Leigh, perhaps captive among
+the idolaters;” and so they rose.
+
+“Now, then,” said Amyas, “to breakfast. A Frenchman fights best fasting,
+a Dutchman drunk, an Englishman full, and a Spaniard when the devil is
+in him, and that's always.”
+
+“And good beef and the good cause are a match for the devil,” said Cary.
+“Come down, captain; you must eat too.”
+
+Amyas shook his head, took the tiller from the steersman, and bade him
+go below and fill himself. Will Cary went down, and returned in five
+minutes, with a plate of bread and beef, and a great jack of ale,
+coaxed them down Amyas's throat, as a nurse does with a child, and then
+scuttled below again with tears hopping down his face.
+
+Amyas stood still steering. His face was grown seven years older in
+the last night. A terrible set calm was on him. Woe to the man who came
+across him that day!
+
+“There are three of them, you see, my masters,” said he, as the crew
+came on deck again. “A big ship forward, and two galleys astern of her.
+The big ship may keep; she is a race ship, and if we can but recover
+the wind of her, we will see whether our height is not a match for her
+length. We must give her the slip, and take the galleys first.”
+
+“I thank the Lord,” said Yeo, “who has given so wise a heart to so young
+a general; a very David and Daniel, saving his presence, lads; and if
+any dare not follow him, let him be as the men of Meroz and of Succoth.
+Amen! Silas Staveley, smite me that boy over the head, the young monkey;
+why is he not down at the powder-room door?”
+
+And Yeo went about his gunnery, as one who knew how to do it, and had
+the most terrible mind to do it thoroughly, and the most terrible faith
+that it was God's work.
+
+So all fell to; and though there was comparatively little to be done,
+the ship having been kept as far as could be in fighting order all
+night, yet there was “clearing of decks, lacing of nettings, making of
+bulwarks, fitting of waist-cloths, arming of tops, tallowing of pikes,
+slinging of yards, doubling of sheets and tacks,” enough to satisfy even
+the pedantical soul of Richard Hawkins himself. Amyas took charge of
+the poop, Cary of the forecastle, and Yeo, as gunner, of the main-deck,
+while Drew, as master, settled himself in the waist; and all was ready,
+and more than ready, before the great ship was within two miles of them.
+
+And now while the mastiffs of England and the bloodhounds of Spain are
+nearing and nearing over the rolling surges, thirsting for each other's
+blood, let us spend a few minutes at least in looking at them both, and
+considering the causes which in those days enabled the English to face
+and conquer armaments immensely superior in size and number of ships,
+and to boast that in the whole Spanish war but one queen's ship, the
+Revenge, and (if I recollect right) but one private man-of-war, Sir
+Richard Hawkins's Dainty, had ever struck their colors to the enemy.
+
+What was it which enabled Sir Richard Grenville's Revenge, in his last
+fearful fight off the Azores, to endure, for twelve hours before she
+struck, the attack of eight Spanish armadas, of which two (three times
+her own burden) sank at her side; and after all her masts were gone, and
+she had been boarded three times without success, to defy to the last
+the whole fleet of fifty-four sail, which lay around her, waiting for
+her to sink, “like dogs around the dying forest king”?
+
+What enabled young Richard Hawkins's Dainty, though half her guns were
+useless through the carelessness or treachery of the gunner, to maintain
+for three days a running fight with two Spaniards of equal size with
+her, double the weight of metal, and ten times the number of men?
+
+What enabled Sir George Cary's illustrious ship, the Content, to fight,
+single-handed, from seven in the morning till eleven at night, with
+four great armadas and two galleys, though her heaviest gun was but
+one nine-pounder, and for many hours she had but thirteen men fit for
+service?
+
+What enabled, in the very year of which I write, those two “valiant
+Turkey Merchantmen of London, the Merchant Royal and the Tobie,”
+ with their three small consorts, to cripple, off Pantellaria in the
+Mediterranean, the whole fleet of Spanish galleys sent to intercept
+them, and return triumphant through the Straits of Gibraltar?
+
+And lastly, what in the fight of 1588, whereof more hereafter, enabled
+the English fleet to capture, destroy, and scatter that Great Armada,
+with the loss (but not the capture) of one pinnace, and one gentleman of
+note?
+
+There were more causes than one: the first seems to have lain in the
+build of the English ships; the second in their superior gunnery and
+weight of metal; the third (without which the first would have been
+useless) in the hearts of the English men.
+
+The English ship was much shorter than the Spanish; and this (with
+the rig of those days) gave them an ease in manoeuvring, which utterly
+confounded their Spanish foes. “The English ships in the fight of 1588,”
+ says Camden, “charged the enemy with marvellous agility, and having
+discharged their broadsides, flew forth presently into the deep, and
+levelled their shot directly, without missing, at those great ships of
+the Spaniards, which were altogether heavy and unwieldy.” Moreover, the
+Spanish fashion, in the West Indies at least, though not in the ships
+of the Great Armada, was, for the sake of carrying merchandise, to build
+their men-of-war flush-decked, or as it was called “race” (razes), which
+left those on deck exposed and open; while the English fashion was to
+heighten the ship as much as possible at stem and stern, both by
+the sweep of her lines, and also by stockades (“close fights and
+cage-works”) on the poop and forecastle, thus giving to the men
+a shelter, which was further increased by strong bulkheads
+(“cobridgeheads”) across the main-deck below, dividing the ship thus
+into a number of separate forts, fitted with swivels (“bases, fowlers,
+and murderers”) and loopholed for musketry and arrows.
+
+But the great source of superiority was, after all, in the men
+themselves. The English sailor was then, as now, a quite amphibious
+and all-cunning animal, capable of turning his hand to everything, from
+needlework and carpentry to gunnery or hand-to-hand blows; and he
+was, moreover, one of a nation, every citizen of which was not merely
+permitted to carry arms, but compelled by law to practise from
+childhood the use of the bow, and accustomed to consider sword-play
+and quarter-staff as a necessary part and parcel of education, and the
+pastime of every leisure hour. The “fiercest nation upon earth,” as
+they were then called, and the freest also, each man of them fought for
+himself with the self-help and self-respect of a Yankee ranger, and once
+bidden to do his work, was trusted to carry it out by his own wit as
+best he could. In one word, he was a free man.
+
+The English officers, too, as now, lived on terms of sympathy with their
+men unknown to the Spaniards, who raised between the commander and the
+commanded absurd barriers of rank and blood, which forbade to his pride
+any labor but that of fighting. The English officers, on the other hand,
+brought up to the same athletic sports, the same martial exercises, as
+their men, were not ashamed to care for them, to win their friendship,
+even on emergency to consult their judgment; and used their rank, not to
+differ from their men, but to outvie them; not merely to command and be
+obeyed, but, like Homer's heroes, or the old Norse Vikings, to lead and
+be followed. Drake touched the true mainspring of English success when
+he once (in his voyage round the world) indignantly rebuked some coxcomb
+gentlemen-adventurers with--“I should like to see the gentleman that
+will refuse to set his hand to a rope. I must have the gentlemen to hale
+and draw with the mariners.” But those were days in which her majesty's
+service was as little overridden by absurd rules of seniority, as by
+that etiquette which is at once the counterfeit and the ruin of true
+discipline. Under Elizabeth and her ministers, a brave and a shrewd man
+was certain of promotion, let his rank or his age be what they might;
+the true honor of knighthood covered once and for all any lowliness of
+birth; and the merchant service (in which all the best sea-captains,
+even those of noble blood, were more or less engaged) was then a
+nursery, not only for seamen, but for warriors, in days when Spanish
+and Portuguese traders (whenever they had a chance) got rid of English
+competition by salvos of cannon-shot.
+
+Hence, as I have said, that strong fellow-feeling between officers and
+men; and hence mutinies (as Sir Richard Hawkins tells us) were all but
+unknown in the English ships, while in the Spanish they broke out on
+every slight occasion. For the Spaniards, by some suicidal pedantry, had
+allowed their navy to be crippled by the same despotism, etiquette,
+and official routine, by which the whole nation was gradually frozen to
+death in the course of the next century or two; forgetting that, fifty
+years before, Cortez, Pizarro, and the early Conquistadores of America
+had achieved their miraculous triumphs on the exactly opposite method
+by that very fellow-feeling between commander and commanded by which the
+English were now conquering them in their turn.
+
+Their navy was organized on a plan complete enough; but on one which
+was, as the event proved, utterly fatal to their prowess and unanimity,
+and which made even their courage and honor useless against the assaults
+of free men. “They do, in their armadas at sea, divide themselves into
+three bodies; to wit, soldiers, mariners, and gunners. The soldiers and
+officers watch and ward as if on shore; and this is the only duty they
+undergo, except cleaning their arms, wherein they are not over curious.
+The gunners are exempted from all labor and care, except about the
+artillery; and these are either Almaines, Flemings, or strangers; for
+the Spaniards are but indifferently practised in this art. The mariners
+are but as slaves to the rest, to moil and to toil day and night; and
+those but few and bad, and not suffered to sleep or harbor under the
+decks. For in fair or foul weather, in storms, sun, or rain, they must
+pass void of covert or succor.”
+
+This is the account of one who was long prisoner on board their ships;
+let it explain itself, while I return to my tale. For the great ship is
+now within two musket-shots of the Rose, with the golden flag of Spain
+floating at her poop; and her trumpets are shouting defiance up the
+breeze, from a dozen brazen throats, which two or three answer lustily
+from the Rose, from whose poop flies the flag of England, and from her
+fore the arms of Leigh and Cary side by side, and over them the ship and
+bridge of the good town of Bideford. And then Amyas calls:
+
+“Now, silence trumpets, waits, play up! 'Fortune my foe!' and God and
+the Queen be with us!”
+
+Whereon (laugh not, reader, for it was the fashion of those musical
+as well as valiant days) up rose that noble old favorite of good Queen
+Bess, from cornet and sackbut, fife and drum; while Parson Jack, who had
+taken his stand with the musicians on the poop, worked away lustily at
+his violin, and like Volker of the Nibelungen Lied.
+
+“Well played, Jack; thy elbow flies like a lamb's tail,” said Amyas,
+forcing a jest.
+
+“It shall fly to a better fiddle-bow presently, sir, an I have the
+luck--”
+
+“Steady, helm!” said Amyas. “What is he after now?”
+
+The Spaniard, who had been coming upon them right down the wind under a
+press of sail, took in his light canvas.
+
+“He don't know what to make of our waiting for him so bold,” said the
+helmsman.
+
+“He does though, and means to fight us,” cried another. “See, he is
+hauling up the foot of his mainsail, but he wants to keep the wind of
+us.”
+
+“Let him try, then,” quoth Amyas. “Keep her closer still. Let no one
+fire till we are about. Man the starboard guns; to starboard, and wait,
+all small arm men. Pass the order down to the gunner, and bid all fire
+high, and take the rigging.”
+
+Bang went one of the Spaniard's bow guns, and the shot went wide.
+Then another and another, while the men fidgeted about, looking at the
+priming of their muskets, and loosened their arrows in the sheaf.
+
+“Lie down, men, and sing a psalm. When I want you, I'll call you. Closer
+still, if you can, helmsman, and we will try a short ship against a long
+one. We can sail two points nearer the wind than he.”
+
+As Amyas had calculated, the Spaniard would gladly enough have stood
+across the Rose's bows, but knowing the English readiness, dare not for
+fear of being raked; so her only plan, if she did not intend to shoot
+past her foe down to leeward, was to put her head close to the wind, and
+wait for her on the same tack.
+
+Amyas laughed to himself. “Hold on yet awhile. More ways of killing a
+cat than choking her with cream. Drew, there, are your men ready?”
+
+“Ay, ay, sir!” and on they went, closing fast with the Spaniard, till
+within a pistol-shot.
+
+“Ready about!” and about she went like an eel, and ran upon the opposite
+tack right under the Spaniard's stern. The Spaniard, astounded at the
+quickness of the manoeuvre, hesitated a moment, and then tried to get
+about also, as his only chance; but it was too late, and while his
+lumbering length was still hanging in the wind's eye, Amyas's bowsprit
+had all but scraped his quarter, and the Rose passed slowly across his
+stern at ten yards' distance.
+
+“Now, then!” roared Amyas. “Fire, and with a will! Have at her,
+archers: have at her, muskets all!” and in an instant a storm of bar and
+chain-shot, round and canister, swept the proud Don from stem to stern,
+while through the white cloud of smoke the musket-balls, and the still
+deadlier cloth-yard arrows, whistled and rushed upon their venomous
+errand. Down went the steersman, and every soul who manned the
+poop. Down went the mizzen topmast, in went the stern-windows and
+quarter-galleries; and as the smoke cleared away, the gorgeous painting
+of the Madre Dolorosa, with her heart full of seven swords, which, in
+a gilded frame, bedizened the Spanish stern, was shivered in splinters;
+while, most glorious of all, the golden flag of Spain, which the last
+moment flaunted above their heads, hung trailing in the water. The ship,
+her tiller shot away, and her helmsman killed, staggered helplessly a
+moment, and then fell up into the wind.
+
+“Well done, men of Devon!” shouted Amyas, as cheers rent the welkin.
+
+“She has struck,” cried some, as the deafening hurrahs died away.
+
+“Not a bit,” said Amyas. “Hold on, helmsman, and leave her to patch her
+tackle while we settle the galleys.”
+
+On they shot merrily, and long ere the armada could get herself to
+rights again, were two good miles to windward, with the galleys sweeping
+down fast upon them.
+
+And two venomous-looking craft they were, as they shot through the
+short chopping sea upon some forty oars apiece, stretching their long
+sword-fish snouts over the water, as if snuffing for their prey. Behind
+this long snout, a strong square forecastle was crammed with soldiers,
+and the muzzles of cannon grinned out through portholes, not only in the
+sides of the forecastle, but forward in the line of the galley's course,
+thus enabling her to keep up a continual fire on a ship right ahead.
+
+The long low waist was packed full of the slaves, some five or six to
+each oar, and down the centre, between the two banks, the English could
+see the slave-drivers walking up and down a long gangway, whip in hand.
+A raised quarter-deck at the stern held more soldiers, the sunlight
+flashing merrily upon their armor and their gun-barrels; as they neared,
+the English could hear plainly the cracks of the whips, and the yells as
+of wild beasts which answered them; the roll and rattle of the oars,
+and the loud “Ha!” of the slaves which accompanied every stroke, and the
+oaths and curses of the drivers; while a sickening musky smell, as of
+a pack of kennelled hounds, came down the wind from off those dens of
+misery. No wonder if many a young heart shuddered as it faced, for the
+first time, the horrible reality of those floating hells, the cruelties
+whereof had rung so often in English ears, from the stories of their own
+countrymen, who had passed them, fought them, and now and then passed
+years of misery on board of them. Who knew but what there might be
+English among those sun-browned half-naked masses of panting wretches?
+
+“Must we fire upon the slaves?” asked more than one, as the thought
+crossed him.
+
+Amyas sighed.
+
+“Spare them all you can, in God's name; but if they try to run us down,
+rake them we must, and God forgive us.”
+
+The two galleys came on abreast of each other, some forty yards apart.
+To outmanoeuvre their oars as he had done the ship's sails, Amyas knew
+was impossible. To run from them was to be caught between them and the
+ship.
+
+He made up his mind, as usual, to the desperate game.
+
+“Lay her head up in the wind, helmsman, and we will wait for them.”
+
+They were now within musket-shot, and opened fire from their bow-guns;
+but, owing to the chopping sea, their aim was wild. Amyas, as usual,
+withheld his fire.
+
+The men stood at quarters with compressed lips, not knowing what was
+to come next. Amyas, towering motionless on the quarter-deck, gave his
+orders calmly and decisively. The men saw that he trusted himself, and
+trusted him accordingly.
+
+The Spaniards, seeing him wait for them, gave a shout of joy--was the
+Englishman mad? And the two galleys converged rapidly, intending to
+strike him full, one on each bow.
+
+They were within forty yards--another minute, and the shock would come.
+The Englishman's helm went up, his yards creaked round, and gathering
+way, he plunged upon the larboard galley.
+
+“A dozen gold nobles to him who brings down the steersman!” shouted
+Cary, who had his cue.
+
+And a flight of arrows from the forecastle rattled upon the galley's
+quarter-deck.
+
+Hit or not hit, the steersman lost his nerve, and shrank from the coming
+shock. The galley's helm went up to port, and her beak slid all but
+harmless along Amyas's bow; a long dull grind, and then loud crack on
+crack, as the Rose sawed slowly through the bank of oars from stem to
+stern, hurling the wretched slaves in heaps upon each other; and ere
+her mate on the other side could swing round, to strike him in his new
+position, Amyas's whole broadside, great and small, had been poured into
+her at pistol-shot, answered by a yell which rent their ears and hearts.
+
+“Spare the slaves! Fire at the soldiers!” cried Amyas; but the work was
+too hot for much discrimination; for the larboard galley, crippled
+but not undaunted, swung round across his stern, and hooked herself
+venomously on to him.
+
+It was a move more brave than wise; for it prevented the other galley
+from returning to the attack without exposing herself a second time to
+the English broadside; and a desperate attempt of the Spaniards to board
+at once through the stern-ports and up the quarter was met with such a
+demurrer of shot and steel, that they found themselves in three minutes
+again upon the galley's poop, accompanied, to their intense disgust, by
+Amyas Leigh and twenty English swords.
+
+Five minutes' hard cutting, hand to hand, and the poop was clear. The
+soldiers in the forecastle had been able to give them no assistance,
+open as they lay to the arrows and musketry from the Rose's lofty stern.
+Amyas rushed along the central gangway, shouting in Spanish, “Freedom
+to the slaves! death to the masters!” clambered into the forecastle,
+followed close by his swarm of wasps, and set them so good an example
+how to use their stings, that in three minutes more there was not a
+Spaniard on board who was not dead or dying.
+
+“Let the slaves free!” shouted he. “Throw us a hammer down, men. Hark!
+there's an English voice!”
+
+There is indeed. From amid the wreck of broken oars and writhing limbs,
+a voice is shrieking in broadest Devon to the master, who is looking
+over the side.
+
+“Oh, Robert Drew! Robert Drew! Come down, and take me out of hell!”
+
+“Who be you, in the name of the Lord!”
+
+“Don't you mind William Prust, that Captain Hawkins left behind in the
+Honduras, years and years agone? There's nine of us aboard, if your shot
+hasn't put 'em out of their misery. Come down, if you've a Christian
+heart, come down!”
+
+Utterly forgetful of all discipline, Drew leaps down hammer in hand, and
+the two old comrades rush into each other's arms.
+
+Why make a long story of what took but five minutes to do? The nine men
+(luckily none of them wounded) are freed, and helped on board, to be
+hugged and kissed by old comrades and young kinsmen; while the remaining
+slaves, furnished with a couple of hammers, are told to free themselves
+and help the English. The wretches answer by a shout; and Amyas, once
+more safe on board again, dashes after the other galley, which has
+been hovering out of reach of his guns: but there is no need to trouble
+himself about her; sickened with what she has got, she is struggling
+right up wind, leaning over to one side, and seemingly ready to sink.
+
+“Are there any English on board of her?” asks Amyas, loath to lose the
+chance of freeing a countryman.
+
+“Never a one, sir, thank God.”
+
+So they set to work to repair damages; while the liberated slaves,
+having shifted some of the galley's oars, pull away after their comrade;
+and that with such a will, that in ten minutes they have caught her up,
+and careless of the Spaniard's fire, boarded her en masse, with yells
+as of a thousand wolves. There will be fearful vengeance taken on those
+tyrants, unless they play the man this day.
+
+And in the meanwhile half the crew are clothing, feeding, questioning,
+caressing those nine poor fellows thus snatched from living death;
+and Yeo, hearing the news, has rushed up on deck to welcome his old
+comrades, and--
+
+“Is Michael Heard, my cousin, here among you?”
+
+Yes, Michael Heard is there, white-headed rather from misery than age;
+and the embracings and questionings begin afresh.
+
+“Where is my wife, Salvation Yeo?”
+
+“With the Lord.”
+
+“Amen!” says the old man, with a short shudder. “I thought so much; and
+my two boys?”
+
+“With the Lord.”
+
+The old man catches Yeo by the arm.
+
+“How, then?” It is Yeo's turn to shudder now.
+
+“Killed in Panama, fighting the Spaniards; sailing with Mr. Oxenham; and
+'twas I led 'em into it. May God and you forgive me!”
+
+“They couldn't die better, cousin Yeo. Where's my girl Grace?”
+
+“Died in childbed.”
+
+“Any childer?”
+
+“No.”
+
+The old man covers his face with his hands for a while.
+
+“Well, I've been alone with the Lord these fifteen years, so I must not
+whine at being alone a while longer--'t won't be long.”
+
+“Put this coat on your back, uncle,” says some one.
+
+“No; no coats for me. Naked came I into the world, and naked I go out of
+it this day, if I have a chance. You'm better to go to your work, lads,
+or the big one will have the wind of you yet.”
+
+“So she will,” said Amyas, who has overheard; but so great is the
+curiosity on all hands, that he has some trouble in getting the men
+to quarters again; indeed, they only go on condition of parting among
+themselves with them the new-comers, each to tell his sad and strange
+story. How after Captain Hawkins, constrained by famine, had put them
+ashore, they wandered in misery till the Spaniards took them; how,
+instead of hanging them (as they at first intended), the Dons fed and
+clothed them, and allotted them as servants to various gentlemen about
+Mexico, where they throve, turned their hands (like true sailors) to all
+manner of trades, and made much money, and some of them were married,
+even to women of wealth; so that all went well, until the fatal year
+1574, when, “much against the minds of many of the Spaniards themselves,
+that cruel and bloody Inquisition was established for the first time in
+the Indies;” and how from that moment their lives were one long
+tragedy; how they were all imprisoned for a year and a half, not for
+proselytizing, but simply for not believing in transubstantiation;
+racked again and again, and at last adjudged to receive publicly, on
+Good Friday, 1575, some three hundred, some one hundred stripes, and to
+serve in the galleys for six or ten years each; while, as the crowning
+atrocity of the Moloch sacrifice, three of them were burnt alive in the
+market-place of Mexico; a story no less hideous than true, the details
+whereof whoso list may read in Hakluyt's third volume, as told by
+Philip Miles, one of that hapless crew; as well as the adventures of Job
+Hortop, a messmate of his, who, after being sent to Spain, and seeing
+two more of his companions burnt alive at Seville, was sentenced to
+row in the galleys ten years, and after that to go to the “everlasting
+prison remediless;” from which doom, after twenty-three years of
+slavery, he was delivered by the galleon Dudley, and came safely home to
+Redriff.
+
+The fate of Hortop and his comrades was, of course, still unknown to
+the rescued men; but the history even of their party was not likely to
+improve the good feeling of the crew toward the Spanish ship which was
+two miles to leeward of them, and which must be fought with, or fled
+from, before a quarter of an hour was past. So, kneeling down upon the
+deck, as many a brave crew in those days did in like case, they “gave
+God thanks devoutly for the favor they had found;” and then with one
+accord, at Jack's leading, sang one and all the Ninety-fourth Psalm:*
+
+     “Oh, Lord, thou dost revenge all wrong;
+       Vengeance belongs to thee,” etc.
+
+     * The crew of the Tobie, cast away on the Barbary coast a
+     few years after, “began with heavy hearts to sing the
+     twelfth Psalm, 'Help, Lord, for good and godly men,' etc.
+     Howbeit, ere we had finished four verses, the waves of the
+     sea had stopped the breaths of most.”
+
+And then again to quarters; for half the day's work, or more than half,
+still remained to be done; and hardly were the decks cleared afresh,
+and the damage repaired as best it could be, when she came ranging up to
+leeward, as closehauled as she could.
+
+She was, as I said, a long flush-decked ship of full five hundred tons,
+more than double the size, in fact, of the Rose, though not so lofty in
+proportion; and many a bold heart beat loud, and no shame to them, as
+she began firing away merrily, determined, as all well knew, to wipe out
+in English blood the disgrace of her late foil.
+
+“Never mind, my merry masters,” said Amyas, “she has quantity and we
+quality.”
+
+“That's true,” said one, “for one honest man is worth two rogues.”
+
+“And one culverin three of their footy little ordnance,” said another.
+“So when you will, captain, and have at her.”
+
+“Let her come abreast of us, and don't burn powder. We have the wind,
+and can do what we like with her. Serve the men out a horn of ale all
+round, steward, and all take your time.”
+
+So they waited for five minutes more, and then set to work quietly,
+after the fashion of English mastiffs, though, like those mastiffs, they
+waxed right mad before three rounds were fired, and the white splinters
+(sight beloved) began to crackle and fly.
+
+Amyas, having, as he had said, the wind, and being able to go nearer it
+than the Spaniard, kept his place at easy point-blank range for his two
+eighteen-pounder culverins, which Yeo and his mate worked with terrible
+effect.
+
+“We are lacking her through and through every shot,” said he. “Leave the
+small ordnance alone yet awhile, and we shall sink her without them.”
+
+“Whing, whing,” went the Spaniard's shot, like so many humming-tops,
+through the rigging far above their heads; for the ill-constructed
+ports of those days prevented the guns from hulling an enemy who was to
+windward, unless close alongside.
+
+“Blow, jolly breeze,” cried one, “and lay the Don over all thou
+canst.--What the murrain is gone, aloft there?”
+
+Alas! a crack, a flap, a rattle; and blank dismay! An unlucky shot had
+cut the foremast (already wounded) in two, and all forward was a mass of
+dangling wreck.
+
+“Forward, and cut away the wreck!” said Amyas, unmoved. “Small arm men,
+be ready. He will be aboard of us in five minutes!”
+
+It was too true. The Rose, unmanageable from the loss of her head-sail,
+lay at the mercy of the Spaniard; and the archers and musqueteers had
+hardly time to range themselves to leeward, when the Madre Dolorosa's
+chains were grinding against the Rose's, and grapples tossed on board
+from stem to stern.
+
+“Don't cut them loose!” roared Amyas. “Let them stay and see the fun!
+Now, dogs of Devon, show your teeth, and hurrah for God and the queen!”
+
+And then began a fight most fierce and fell: the Spaniards, according to
+their fashion, attempting to board, the English, amid fierce shouts of
+“God and the queen!” “God and St. George for England!” sweeping them
+back by showers of arrows and musquet balls, thrusting them down with
+pikes, hurling grenades and stink-pots from the tops; while the swivels
+on both sides poured their grape, and bar, and chain, and the great
+main-deck guns, thundering muzzle to muzzle, made both ships quiver and
+recoil, as they smashed the round shot through and through each other.
+
+So they roared and flashed, fast clenched to each other in that devil's
+wedlock, under a cloud of smoke beneath the cloudless tropic sky; while
+all around, the dolphins gambolled, and the flying-fish shot on from
+swell to swell, and the rainbow-hued jellies opened and shut their cups
+of living crystal to the sun, as merrily as if man had never fallen, and
+hell had never broken loose on earth.
+
+So it raged for an hour or more, till all arms were weary, and all
+tongues clove to the mouth. And sick men, rotting with scurvy,
+scrambled up on deck, and fought with the strength of madness; and tiny
+powder-boys, handing up cartridges from the hold, laughed and cheered
+as the shots ran past their ears; and old Salvation Yeo, a text upon his
+lips, and a fury in his heart as of Joshua or Elijah in old time, worked
+on, calm and grim, but with the energy of a boy at play. And now and
+then an opening in the smoke showed the Spanish captain, in his suit
+of black steel armor, standing cool and proud, guiding and pointing,
+careless of the iron hail, but too lofty a gentleman to soil his glove
+with aught but a knightly sword-hilt: while Amyas and Will, after the
+fashion of the English gentlemen, had stripped themselves nearly as bare
+as their own sailors, and were cheering, thrusting, hewing, and hauling,
+here, there, and everywhere, like any common mariner, and filling them
+with a spirit of self-respect, fellow-feeling, and personal daring,
+which the discipline of the Spaniards, more perfect mechanically, but
+cold and tyrannous, and crushing spiritually, never could bestow. The
+black-plumed senor was obeyed; but the golden-locked Amyas was followed,
+and would have been followed through the jaws of hell.
+
+The Spaniards, ere five minutes had passed, poured en masse into the
+Rose's waist, but only to their destruction. Between the poop and
+forecastle (as was then the fashion) the upper-deck beams were left open
+and unplanked, with the exception of a narrow gangway on either side;
+and off that fatal ledge the boarders, thrust on by those behind, fell
+headlong between the beams to the main-deck below, to be slaughtered
+helpless in that pit of destruction, by the double fire from the
+bulkheads fore and aft; while the few who kept their footing on
+the gangway, after vain attempts to force the stockades on poop and
+forecastle, leaped overboard again amid a shower of shot and arrows.
+The fire of the English was as steady as it was quick; and though
+three-fourths of the crew had never smelt powder before, they proved
+well the truth of the old chronicler's saying (since proved again more
+gloriously than ever, at Alma, Balaklava, and Inkerman), that “the
+English never fight better than in their first battle.”
+
+Thrice the Spaniards clambered on board, and thrice surged back before
+that deadly hail. The decks on both sides were very shambles; and Jack
+Brimblecombe, who had fought as long as his conscience would allow him,
+found, when he turned to a more clerical occupation, enough to do in
+carrying poor wretches to the surgeon, without giving that spiritual
+consolation which he longed to give, and they to receive. At last there
+was a lull in that wild storm. No shot was heard from the Spaniard's
+upper-deck.
+
+Amyas leaped into the mizzen rigging, and looked through the smoke. Dead
+men he could descry through the blinding veil, rolled in heaps, laid
+flat; dead men and dying: but no man upon his feet. The last volley had
+swept the deck clear; one by one had dropped below to escape that
+fiery shower: and alone at the helm, grinding his teeth with rage, his
+mustachios curling up to his very eyes, stood the Spanish captain.
+
+Now was the moment for a counter-stroke. Amyas shouted for the boarders,
+and in two minutes more he was over the side, and clutching at the
+Spaniard's mizzen rigging.
+
+What was this? The distance between him and the enemy's side was
+widening. Was she sheering off? Yes--and rising too, growing bodily
+higher every moment, as if by magic. Amyas looked up in astonishment and
+saw what it was. The Spaniard was heeling fast over to leeward away from
+him. Her masts were all sloping forward, swifter and swifter--the end
+was come, then!
+
+“Back! in God's name back, men! She is sinking by the head!” And with
+much ado some were dragged back, some leaped back--all but old Michael
+Heard.
+
+With hair and beard floating in the wind, the bronzed naked figure,
+like some weird old Indian fakir, still climbed on steadfastly up the
+mizzen-chains of the Spaniard, hatchet in hand.
+
+“Come back, Michael! Leap while you may!” shouted a dozen voices.
+Michael turned--
+
+“And what should I come back for, then, to go home where no one knoweth
+me? I'll die like an Englishman this day, or I'll know the rason why!”
+ and turning, he sprang in over the bulwarks, as the huge ship rolled
+up more and more, like a dying whale, exposing all her long black
+hulk almost down to the keel, and one of her lower-deck guns, as if in
+defiance, exploded upright into the air, hurling the ball to the very
+heavens.
+
+In an instant it was answered from the Rose by a column of smoke, and
+the eighteen-pound ball crashed through the bottom of the defenceless
+Spaniard.
+
+“Who fired? Shame to fire on a sinking ship!”
+
+“Gunner Yeo, sir,” shouted a voice up from the main-deck. “He's like a
+madman down here.”
+
+“Tell him if he fires again, I'll put him in irons, if he were my own
+brother. Cut away the grapples aloft, men. Don't you see how she drags
+us over? Cut away, or we shall sink with her.”
+
+They cut away, and the Rose, released from the strain, shook her
+feathers on the wave-crest like a freed sea-gull, while all men held
+their breaths.
+
+Suddenly the glorious creature righted herself, and rose again, as if in
+noble shame, for one last struggle with her doom. Her bows were deep in
+the water, but her after-deck still dry. Righted: but only for a moment,
+long enough to let her crew come pouring wildly up on deck, with cries
+and prayers, and rush aft to the poop, where, under the flag of Spain,
+stood the tall captain, his left hand on the standard-staff, his sword
+pointed in his right.
+
+“Back, men!” they heard him cry, “and die like valiant mariners.”
+
+Some of them ran to the bulwarks, and shouted “Mercy! We surrender!” and
+the English broke into a cheer and called to them to run her alongside.
+
+“Silence!” shouted Amyas. “I take no surrender from mutineers. Senor,”
+ cried he to the captain, springing into the rigging and taking off his
+hat, “for the love of God and these men, strike! and surrender a buena
+querra.”
+
+The Spaniard lifted his hat and bowed courteously, and answered,
+“Impossible, senor. No querra is good which stains my honor.”
+
+“God have mercy on you, then!”
+
+“Amen!” said the Spaniard, crossing himself.
+
+She gave one awful lounge forward, and dived under the coming swell,
+hurling her crew into the eddies. Nothing but the point of her poop
+remained, and there stood the stern and steadfast Don, cap-a-pie in his
+glistening black armor, immovable as a man of iron, while over him the
+flag, which claimed the empire of both worlds, flaunted its gold aloft
+and upwards in the glare of the tropic noon.
+
+“He shall not carry that flag to the devil with him; I will have it
+yet, if I die for it!” said Will Cary, and rushed to the side to leap
+overboard, but Amyas stopped him.
+
+“Let him die as he has lived, with honor.”
+
+A wild figure sprang out of the mass of sailors who struggled and
+shrieked amid the foam, and rushed upward at the Spaniard. It was
+Michael Heard. The Don, who stood above him, plunged his sword into the
+old man's body: but the hatchet gleamed, nevertheless: down went the
+blade through headpiece and through head; and as Heard sprang onward,
+bleeding, but alive, the steel-clad corpse rattled down the deck into
+the surge. Two more strokes, struck with the fury of a dying man, and
+the standard-staff was hewn through. Old Michael collected all his
+strength, hurled the flag far from the sinking ship, and then stood
+erect one moment and shouted, “God save Queen Bess!” and the English
+answered with a “Hurrah!” which rent the welkin.
+
+Another moment and the gulf had swallowed his victim, and the poop, and
+him; and nothing remained of the Madre Dolorosa but a few floating spars
+and struggling wretches, while a great awe fell upon all men, and a
+solemn silence, broken only by the cry
+
+     “Of some strong swimmer in his agony.”
+
+And then, suddenly collecting themselves, as men awakened from a dream,
+half-a-dozen desperate gallants, reckless of sharks and eddies, leaped
+overboard, swam towards the flag, and towed it alongside in triumph.
+
+“Ah!” said Salvation Yeo, as he helped the trophy up over the side; “ah!
+it was not for nothing that we found poor Michael! He was always a good
+comrade--nigh as good a one as William Penberthy of Marazion, whom the
+Lord grant I meet in bliss! And now, then, my masters, shall we inshore
+again and burn La Guayra?”
+
+“Art thou never glutted with Spanish blood, thou old wolf?” asked Will
+Cary.
+
+“Never, sir,” answered Yeo.
+
+“To St. Jago be it,” said Amyas, “if we can get there; but--God help
+us!”
+
+And he looked round sadly enough; while no one needed that he should
+finish his sentence, or explain his “but.”
+
+The foremast was gone, the main-yard sprung, the rigging hanging in
+elf-locks, the hull shot through and through in twenty places, the deck
+strewn with the bodies of nine good men, beside sixteen wounded down
+below; while the pitiless sun, right above their heads, poured down a
+flood of fire upon a sea of glass.
+
+And it would have been well if faintness and weariness had been all that
+was the matter; but now that the excitement was over, the collapse came;
+and the men sat down listlessly and sulkily by twos and threes upon the
+deck, starting and wincing when they heard some poor fellow below cry
+out under the surgeon's knife; or murmuring to each other that all was
+lost. Drew tried in vain to rouse them, telling them that all depended
+on rigging a jury-mast forward as soon as possible. They answered only
+by growls; and at last broke into open reproaches. Even Will Cary's
+volatile nature, which had kept him up during the fight, gave way, when
+Yeo and the carpenter came aft, and told Amyas in a low voice--
+
+“We are hit somewhere forward, below the water-line, sir. She leaks a
+terrible deal, and the Lord will not vouchsafe to us to lay our hands on
+the place, for all our searching.”
+
+“What are we to do now, Amyas, in the devil's name?” asked Cary,
+peevishly.
+
+“What are we to do, in God's name, rather,” answered Amyas, in a low
+voice. “Will, Will, what did God make you a gentleman for, but to know
+better than those poor fickle fellows forward, who blow hot and cold at
+every change of weather!”
+
+“I wish you'd come forward and speak to them, sir,” said Yeo, who had
+overheard the last words, “or we shall get naught done.”
+
+Amyas went forward instantly.
+
+“Now then, my brave lads, what's the matter here, that you are all
+sitting on your tails like monkeys?”
+
+“Ugh!” grunts one. “Don't you think our day's work has been long enough
+yet, captain?”
+
+“You don't want us to go in to La Guayra again, sir? There are enough of
+us thrown away already, I reckon, about that wench there.”
+
+“Best sit here, and sink quietly. There's no getting home again, that's
+plain.”
+
+“Why were we brought out here to be killed?”
+
+“For shame, men!” cries Yeo; “you're no better than a set of
+stiff-necked Hebrew Jews, murmuring against Moses the very minute after
+the Lord has delivered you from the Egyptians.”
+
+Now I do not wish to set Amyas up as a perfect man; for he had his
+faults, like every one else; nor as better, thank God, than many and
+many a brave and virtuous captain in her majesty's service at this very
+day: but certainly he behaved admirably under that trial. Drake had
+trained him, as he trained many another excellent officer, to be as
+stout in discipline, and as dogged of purpose, as he himself was: but
+he had trained him also to feel with and for his men, to make allowances
+for them, and to keep his temper with them, as he did this day. True, he
+had seen Drake in a rage; he had seen him hang one man for a mutiny
+(and that man his dearest friend), and threaten to hang thirty more;
+but Amyas remembered well that that explosion took place when having, as
+Drake said publicly himself, “taken in hand that I know not in the world
+how to go through with; it passeth my capacity; it hath even bereaved
+me of my wits to think of it,” . . . and having “now set together by
+the ears three mighty princes, her majesty and the kings of Spain
+and Portugal,” he found his whole voyage ready to come to naught, “by
+mutinies and discords, controversy between the sailors and gentlemen,
+and stomaching between the gentlemen and sailors.” “But, my masters”
+ (quoth the self-trained hero, and Amyas never forgot his words), “I must
+have it left; for I must have the gentlemen to haul and draw with the
+mariner, and the mariner with the gentlemen. I would like to know him
+that would refuse to set his hand to a rope!”
+
+And now Amyas's conscience smote him (and his simple and pious soul took
+the loss of his brother as God's verdict on his conduct), because he had
+set his own private affection, even his own private revenge, before the
+safety of his ship's company, and the good of his country.
+
+“Ah,” said he to himself, as he listened to his men's reproaches, “if
+I had been thinking, like a loyal soldier, of serving my queen, and
+crippling the Spaniard, I should have taken that great bark three days
+ago, and in it the very man I sought!”
+
+So “choking down his old man,” as Yeo used to say, he made answer
+cheerfully--
+
+“Pooh! pooh! brave lads! For shame, for shame! You were lions
+half-an-hour ago; you are not surely turned sheep already! Why, but
+yesterday evening you were grumbling because I would not run in and
+fight those three ships under the batteries of La Guayra, and now
+you think it too much to have fought them fairly out at sea? What has
+happened but the chances of war, which might have happened anywhere?
+Nothing venture, nothing win; and nobody goes bird-nesting without a
+fall at times. If any one wants to be safe in this life, he'd best stay
+at home and keep his bed; though even there, who knows but the roof
+might fall through on him?”
+
+“Ah, it's all very well for you, captain,” said some grumbling younker,
+with a vague notion that Amyas must be better off than he, because he
+was a gentleman. Amyas's blood rose.
+
+“Yes, sirrah! it is very well for me, as long as God is with me: but He
+is with every man in this ship, I would have you to know, as much as
+He is with me. Do you fancy that I have nothing to lose? I who have
+adventured in this voyage all I am worth, and more; who, if I fail, must
+return to beggary and scorn? And if I have ventured rashly, sinfully,
+if you will, the lives of any of you in my own private quarrel, am I not
+punished? Have I not lost--?”
+
+His voice trembled and stopped there, but he recovered himself in a
+moment.
+
+“Pish! I can't stand here chattering. Carpenter! an axe! and help me to
+cast these spars loose. Get out of my way, there! lumbering the scuppers
+up like so many moulting fowls! Here, all old friends, lend a hand!
+Pelican's men, stand by your captain! Did we sail round the world for
+nothing?”
+
+This last appeal struck home, and up leaped half-a-dozen of the old
+Pelicans, and set to work at his side manfully to rig the jury-mast.
+
+“Come along!” cried Cary to the malcontents; “we're raw longshore
+fellows, but we won't be outdone by any old sea-dog of them all.” And
+setting to work himself, he was soon followed by one and another, till
+order and work went on well enough.
+
+“And where are we going, when the mast's up?” shouted some saucy hand
+from behind.
+
+“Where you daren't follow us alone by yourself, so you had better keep
+us company,” replied Yeo.
+
+“I'll tell you where we are going, lads,” said Amyas, rising from his
+work. “Like it or leave it as you will, I have no secrets from my crew.
+We are going inshore there to find a harbor, and careen the ship.”
+
+There was a start and a murmur.
+
+“Inshore? Into the Spaniards' mouths?”
+
+“All in the Inquisition in a week's time.”
+
+“Better stay here, and be drowned.”
+
+“You're right in that last,” shouts Cary. “That's the right death for
+blind puppies. Look you! I don't know in the least where we are, and I
+hardly know stem from stern aboard ship; and the captain may be right or
+wrong--that's nothing to me; but this I know, that I am a soldier, and
+will obey orders; and where he goes, I go; and whosoever hinders me must
+walk up my sword to do it.”
+
+Amyas pressed Cary's hand, and then--
+
+“And here's my broadside next, men. I'll go nowhere, and do nothing
+without the advice of Salvation Yeo and Robert Drew; and if any man in
+the ship knows better than these two, let him up, and we'll give him a
+hearing. Eh, Pelicans?”
+
+There was a grunt of approbation from the Pelicans; and Amyas returned
+to the charge.
+
+“We have five shot between wind and water, and one somewhere below. Can
+we face a gale of wind in that state, or can we not?”
+
+Silence.
+
+“Can we get home with a leak in our bottom?”
+
+Silence.
+
+“Then what can we do but run inshore, and take our chance? Speak! It's
+a coward's trick to do nothing because what we must do is not pleasant.
+Will you be like children, that would sooner die than take nasty physic,
+or will you not?”
+
+Silence still.
+
+“Come along now! Here's the wind again round with the sun, and up to the
+north-west. In with her!”
+
+Sulkily enough, but unable to deny the necessity, the men set to work,
+and the vessel's head was put toward the land; but when she began to
+slip through the water, the leak increased so fast, that they were kept
+hard at work at the pumps for the rest of the afternoon.
+
+The current had by this time brought them abreast of the bay of
+Higuerote; and, luckily for them, safe out of the short heavy swell
+which it causes round Cape Codera. Looking inland, they had now to the
+south-west that noble headland, backed by the Caracas Mountains, range
+on range, up to the Silla and the Neguater; while, right ahead of them
+to the south, the shore sank suddenly into a low line of mangrove-wood,
+backed by primaeval forest. As they ran inward, all eyes were strained
+greedily to find some opening in the mangrove belt; but none was to
+be seen for some time. The lead was kept going; and every fresh heave
+announced shallower water.
+
+“We shall have very shoal work off those mangroves, Yeo,” said Amyas; “I
+doubt whether we shall do aught now, unless we find a river's mouth.”
+
+“If the Lord thinks a river good for us, sir, He'll show us one.” So on
+they went, keeping a south-east course, and at last an opening in the
+mangrove belt was hailed with a cheer from the older hands, though
+the majority shrugged their shoulders, as men going open-eyed to
+destruction.
+
+Off the mouth they sent in Drew and Cary with a boat, and watched
+anxiously for an hour. The boat returned with a good report of two
+fathoms of water over the bar, impenetrable forests for two miles up,
+the river sixty yards broad, and no sign of man. The river's banks were
+soft and sloping mud, fit for careening.
+
+“Safe quarters, sir,” said Yeo, privately, “as far as Spaniards go. I
+hope in God it may be as safe from calentures and fevers.”
+
+“Beggars must not be choosers,” said Amyas. So in they went.
+
+They towed the ship up about half-a-mile to a point where she could not
+be seen from the seaward; and there moored her to the mangrove-stems.
+Amyas ordered a boat out, and went up the river himself to reconnoitre.
+He rowed some three miles, till the river narrowed suddenly, and was all
+but covered in by the interlacing boughs of mighty trees. There was no
+sign that man had been there since the making of the world.
+
+He dropped down the stream again, thoughtfully and sadly. How many years
+ago was it that he passed this river's mouth? Three days. And yet how
+much had passed in them! Don Guzman found and lost--Rose found and
+lost--a great victory gained, and yet lost--perhaps his ship lost--above
+all, his brother lost.
+
+Lost! O God, how should he find his brother?
+
+Some strange bird out of the woods made mournful answer--“Never, never,
+never!”
+
+How should he face his mother?
+
+“Never, never, never!” wailed the bird again; and Amyas smiled bitterly,
+and said “Never!” likewise.
+
+The night mist began to steam and wreathe upon the foul beer-colored
+stream. The loathy floor of liquid mud lay bare beneath the mangrove
+forest. Upon the endless web of interarching roots great purple crabs
+were crawling up and down. They would have supped with pleasure upon
+Amyas's corpse; perhaps they might sup on him after all; for a heavy
+sickening graveyard smell made his heart sink within him, and his
+stomach heave; and his weary body, and more weary soul, gave themselves
+up helplessly to the depressing influence of that doleful place.
+The black bank of dingy leathern leaves above his head, the endless
+labyrinth of stems and withes (for every bough had lowered its own
+living cord, to take fresh hold of the foul soil below); the web of
+roots, which stretched away inland till it was lost in the shades of
+evening--all seemed one horrid complicated trap for him and his; and
+even where, here and there, he passed the mouth of a lagoon, there was
+no opening, no relief--nothing but the dark ring of mangroves, and here
+and there an isolated group of large and small, parents and children,
+breeding and spreading, as if in hideous haste to choke out air and sky.
+Wailing sadly, sad-colored mangrove-hens ran off across the mud into the
+dreary dark. The hoarse night-raven, hid among the roots, startled the
+voyagers with a sudden shout, and then all was again silent as a grave.
+The loathly alligators, lounging in the slime, lifted their horny
+eyelids lazily, and leered upon him as he passed with stupid savageness.
+Lines of tall herons stood dimly in the growing gloom, like white
+fantastic ghosts, watching the passage of the doomed boat. All was foul,
+sullen, weird as witches' dream. If Amyas had seen a crew of skeletons
+glide down the stream behind him, with Satan standing at the helm, he
+would have scarcely been surprised. What fitter craft could haunt that
+Stygian flood?
+
+That night every man of the boat's crew, save Amyas, was down with
+raging fever; before ten the next morning, five more men were taken, and
+others sickening fast.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION UNDER THE TREE AT HIGUEROTE
+
+     “Follow thee?  Follow thee?  Wha wad na follow thee?  Lang hast
+     thou looed and trusted us fairly.”
+
+Amyas would have certainly taken the yellow fever, but for one reason,
+which he himself gave to Cary. He had no time to be sick while his men
+were sick; a valid and sufficient reason (as many a noble soul in
+the Crimea has known too well), as long as the excitement of work is
+present, but too apt to fail the hero, and to let him sink into the pit
+which he has so often over-leapt, the moment that his work is done.
+
+He called a council of war, or rather a sanitary commission, the
+next morning; for he was fairly at his wits' end. The men were
+panic-stricken, ready to mutiny: Amyas told them that he could not see
+any possible good which could accrue to them by killing him, or--(for
+there were two sides to every question)--being killed by him; and then
+went below to consult. The doctor talked mere science, or nonscience,
+about humors, complexions, and animal spirits. Jack Brimblecombe, mere
+pulpit, about its being the visitation of God. Cary, mere despair,
+though he jested over it with a smile. Yeo, mere stoic fatalism, though
+he quoted Scripture to back the same. Drew, the master, had nothing to
+say. His “business was to sail the ship, and not to cure calentures.”
+
+Whereon Amyas clutched his locks, according to custom; and at last broke
+forth--“Doctor! a fig for your humors and complexions! Can you cure
+a man's humors, or change his complexion? Can an Ethiopian change his
+skin, or a leopard his spots? Don't shove off your ignorance on God,
+sir. I ask you what's the reason of this sickness, and you don't know.
+Jack Brimblecombe, don't talk to me about God's visitation; this looks
+much more like the devil's visitation, to my mind. We are doing God's
+work, Sir John, and He is not likely to hinder us. So down with the
+devil, say I. Cary, laughing killed the cat, but it won't cure a
+Christian. Yeo, when an angel tells me that it's God's will that we
+should all die like dogs in a ditch, I'll call this God's will; but not
+before. Drew, you say your business is to sail the ship; then sail her
+out of this infernal poison-trap this very morning, if you can, which
+you can't. The mischief's in the air, and nowhere else. I felt it run
+through me coming down last night, and smelt it like any sewer: and
+if it was not in the air, why was my boat's crew taken first, tell me
+that?”
+
+There was no answer.
+
+“Then I'll tell you why they were taken first: because the mist, when
+we came through it, only rose five or six feet above the stream, and we
+were in it, while you on board were above it. And those that were taken
+on board this morning, every one of them, slept on the main-deck, and
+every one of them, too, was in fear of the fever, whereby I judge two
+things,--Keep as high as you can, and fear nothing but God, and we're
+all safe yet.”
+
+“But the fog was up to our round-tops at sunrise this morning,” said
+Cary.
+
+“I know it: but we who were on the half-deck were not in it so long as
+those below, and that may have made the difference, let alone our having
+free air. Beside, I suspect the heat in the evening draws the poison out
+more, and that when it gets cold toward morning, the venom of it goes
+off somehow.”
+
+How it went off Amyas could not tell (right in his facts as he was), for
+nobody on earth knew I suppose, at that day; and it was not till
+nearly two centuries of fatal experience that the settlers in America
+discovered the simple laws of these epidemics which now every child
+knows, or ought to know. But common sense was on his side; and Yeo rose
+and spoke--
+
+“As I have said before, many a time, the Lord has sent us a very young
+Daniel for judge. I remember now to have heard the Spaniards say, how
+these calentures lay always in the low ground, and never came more than
+a few hundred feet above the sea.”
+
+“Let us go up those few hundred feet, then.”
+
+Every man looked at Amyas, and then at his neighbor.
+
+“Gentlemen, 'Look the devil straight in the face, if you would hit him
+in the right place.' We cannot get the ship to sea as she is; and if we
+could, we cannot go home empty-handed; and we surely cannot stay here to
+die of fever.--We must leave the ship and go inland.”
+
+“Inland?” answered every voice but Yeo's.
+
+“Up those hundred feet which Yeo talks of. Up to the mountains; stockade
+a camp, and get our sick and provisions thither.”
+
+“And what next?”
+
+“And when we are recruited, march over the mountains, and surprise St.
+Jago de Leon.”
+
+Cary swore a great oath. “Amyas! you are a daring fellow!”
+
+“Not a bit. It's the plain path of prudence.”
+
+“So it is, sir,” said old Yeo, “and I follow you in it.”
+
+“And so do I,” squeaked Jack Brimblecombe.
+
+“Nay, then, Jack, thou shalt not outrun me. So I say yes too,” quoth
+Cary.
+
+“Mr. Drew?”
+
+“At your service, sir, to live or die. I know naught about stockading;
+but Sir Francis would have given the same counsel, I verily believe, if
+he had been in your place.”
+
+“Then tell the men that we start in an hour's time. Win over the
+Pelicans, Yeo and Drew; and the rest must follow, like sheep over a
+hedge.”
+
+The Pelicans, and the liberated galley-slaves, joined the project at
+once; but the rest gave Amyas a stormy hour. The great question was,
+where were the hills? In that dense mangrove thicket they could not see
+fifty yards before them.
+
+“The hills are not three miles to the south-west of you at this moment,”
+ said Amyas. “I marked every shoulder of them as we ran in.”
+
+“I suppose you meant to take us there?”
+
+The question set a light to a train--and angry suspicions were blazing
+up one after another, but Amyas silenced them with a countermine.
+
+“Fools! if I had not wit enow to look ahead a little farther than you
+do, where would you be? Are you mad as well as reckless, to rise against
+your own captain because he has two strings to his bow? Go my way, I
+say, or, as I live, I'll blow up the ship and every soul on board, and
+save you the pain of rotting here by inches.”
+
+The men knew that Amyas never said what he did not intend to do; not
+that Amyas intended to do this, because he knew that the threat would be
+enough. So they, agreed to go; and were reassured by seeing that the old
+Pelican's men turned to the work heartily and cheerfully.
+
+There is no use keeping the reader for five or six weary hours, under a
+broiling (or rather stewing) sun, stumbling over mangrove roots, hewing
+his way through thorny thickets, dragging sick men and provisions up
+mountain steeps, amid disappointment, fatigue, murmurs, curses, snakes,
+mosquitoes, false alarms of Spaniards, and every misery, save cold,
+which flesh is heir to. Suffice it that by sunset that evening they had
+gained a level spot, a full thousand feet above the sea, backed by an
+inaccessible cliff which formed the upper shoulder of a mighty mountain,
+defended below by steep wooded slopes, and needing but the felling of a
+few trees to make it impregnable.
+
+Amyas settled the sick under the arched roots of an enormous cottonwood
+tree, and made a second journey to the ship, to bring up hammocks and
+blankets for them; while Yeo's wisdom and courage were of inestimable
+value. He, as pioneer, had found the little brook up which they forced
+their way; he had encouraged them to climb the cliffs over which it
+fell, arguing rightly that on its course they were sure to find some
+ground fit for encampment within the reach of water; he had supported
+Amyas, when again and again the weary crew entreated to be dragged no
+farther, and had gone back again a dozen times to cheer them upward;
+while Cary, who brought up the rear, bullied and cheered on the
+stragglers who sat down and refused to move, drove back at the sword's
+point more than one who was beating a retreat, carried their burdens for
+them, sang them songs on the halt; in all things approving himself the
+gallant and hopeful soul which he had always been: till Amyas, beside
+himself with joy at finding that the two men on whom he had counted
+most were utterly worthy of his trust, went so far as to whisper to them
+both, in confidence, that very night--
+
+“Cortez burnt his ships when he landed. Why should not we?”
+
+Yeo leapt upright; and then sat down again, and whispered--
+
+“Do you say that, captain? 'Tis from above, then, that's certain; for
+it's been hanging on my mind too all day.”
+
+“There's no hurry,” quoth Amyas; “we must clear her out first, you
+know,” while Cary sat silent and musing. Amyas had evidently more
+schemes in his head than he chose to tell.
+
+The men were too tired that evening to do much, but ere the sun rose
+next morning Amyas had them hard at work fortifying their position. It
+was, as I said, strong enough by nature; for though it was commanded by
+high cliffs on three sides, yet there was no chance of an enemy coming
+over the enormous mountain-range behind them, and still less chance
+that, if he came, he would discover them through the dense mass of
+trees which crowned the cliff, and clothed the hills for a thousand feet
+above. The attack, if it took place, would come from below; and against
+that Amyas guarded by felling the smaller trees, and laying them with
+their boughs outward over the crest of the slope, thus forming an abatis
+(as every one who has shot in thick cover knows to his cost) warranted
+to bring up in two steps, horse, dog, or man. The trunks were sawn into
+logs, laid lengthwise, and steadied by stakes and mould; and three or
+four hours' hard work finished a stockade which would defy anything
+but artillery. The work done, Amyas scrambled up into the boughs of the
+enormous ceiba-tree, and there sat inspecting his own handiwork, looking
+out far and wide over the forest-covered plains and the blue sea beyond,
+and thinking, in his simple straightforward way, of what was to be done
+next.
+
+To stay there long was impossible; to avenge himself upon La Guayra was
+impossible; to go until he had found out whether Frank was alive or dead
+seemed at first equally impossible. But were Brimblecombe, Cary, and
+those eighty men to be sacrificed a second time to his private interest?
+Amyas wept with rage, and then wept again with earnest, honest prayer,
+before he could make up his mind. But he made it up. There were a
+hundred chances to one that Frank was dead; and if not, he was equally
+past their help; for he was--Amyas knew that too well--by this time
+in the hands of the Inquisition. Who could lift him from that pit? Not
+Amyas, at least! And crying aloud in his agony, “God help him! for I
+cannot!” Amyas made up his mind to move. But whither? Many an hour he
+thought and thought alone, there in his airy nest; and at last he went
+down, calm and cheerful, and drew Cary and Yeo aside. They could not,
+he said, refit the ship without dying of fever during the process; an
+assertion which neither of his hearers was bold enough to deny. Even
+if they refitted her, they would be pretty certain to have to fight the
+Spaniards again; for it was impossible to doubt the Indian's story, that
+they had been forewarned of the Rose's coming, or to doubt, either, that
+Eustace had been the traitor.
+
+“Let us try St. Jago, then; sack it, come down on La Guayra in the rear,
+take a ship there, and so get home.”
+
+“Nay, Will. If they have strengthened themselves against us at La
+Guayra, where they had little to lose, surely they have done so at St.
+Jago, where they have much. I hear the town is large, though new; and
+besides, how can we get over these mountains without a guide?”
+
+“Or with one?” said Cary, with a sigh, looking up at the vast walls of
+wood and rock which rose range on range for miles. “But it is strange to
+find you, at least, throwing cold water on a daring plot.”
+
+“What if I had a still more daring one? Did you ever hear of the golden
+city of Manoa?”
+
+Yeo laughed a grim but joyful laugh. “I have, sir; and so have the old
+hands from the Pelican and the Jesus of Lubec, I doubt not.”
+
+“So much the better;” and Amyas began to tell Cary all which he had
+learned from the Spaniard, while Yeo capped every word thereof with
+rumors and traditions of his own gathering. Cary sat half aghast as
+the huge phantasmagoria unfolded itself before his dazzled eyes; and at
+last--
+
+“So that was why you wanted to burn the ship! Well, after all, nobody
+needs me at home, and one less at table won't be missed. So you want to
+play Cortez, eh?”
+
+“We shall never need to play Cortez (who was not such a bad fellow after
+all, Will), because we shall have no such cannibal fiends' tyranny to
+rid the earth of, as he had. And I trust we shall fear God enough not to
+play Pizarro.”
+
+So the conversation dropped for the time, but none of them forgot it.
+
+In that mountain-nook the party spent some ten days and more. Several of
+the sick men died, some from the fever superadded to their wounds;
+some, probably, from having been bled by the surgeon; the others mended
+steadily, by the help of certain herbs which Yeo administered, much
+to the disgust of the doctor, who, of course, wanted to bleed the poor
+fellows all round, and was all but mutinous when Amyas stayed his hand.
+In the meanwhile, by dint of daily trips to the ship, provisions
+were plentiful enough,--beside the raccoons, monkeys, and other small
+animals, which Yeo and the veterans of Hawkins's crew knew how to catch,
+and the fruit and vegetables; above all, the delicious mountain cabbage
+of the Areca palm, and the fresh milk of the cow-tree, which they
+brought in daily, paying well thereby for the hospitality they received.
+
+All day long a careful watch was kept among the branches of the mighty
+ceiba-tree. And what a tree that was! The hugest English oak would have
+seemed a stunted bush beside it. Borne up on roots, or rather walls,
+of twisted board, some twelve feet high, between which the whole
+crew, their ammunitions, and provisions, were housed roomily, rose
+the enormous trunk full forty feet in girth, towering like some tall
+lighthouse, smooth for a hundred feet, then crowned with boughs, each of
+which was a stately tree, whose topmost twigs were full two hundred
+and fifty feet from the ground. And yet it was easy for the sailors to
+ascend; so many natural ropes had kind Nature lowered for their use, in
+the smooth lianes which hung to the very earth, often without a knot or
+leaf. Once in the tree, you were within a new world, suspended between
+heaven and earth, and as Cary said, no wonder if, like Jack when he
+climbed the magic bean-stalk, you had found a castle, a giant, and a few
+acres of well-stocked park, packed away somewhere amid that labyrinth of
+timber. Flower-gardens at least were there in plenty; for every limb was
+covered with pendent cactuses, gorgeous orchises, and wild pines; and
+while one-half the tree was clothed in rich foliage, the other half,
+utterly leafless, bore on every twig brilliant yellow flowers, around
+which humming-birds whirred all day long. Parrots peeped in and out of
+every cranny, while, within the airy woodland, brilliant lizards basked
+like living gems upon the bark, gaudy finches flitted and chirruped,
+butterflies of every size and color hovered over the topmost twigs,
+innumerable insects hummed from morn till eve; and when the sun went
+down, tree-toads came out to snore and croak till dawn. There was more
+life round that one tree than in a whole square mile of English soil.
+
+And Amyas, as he lounged among the branches, felt at moments as if he
+would be content to stay there forever, and feed his eyes and ears
+with all its wonders--and then started sighing from his dream, as he
+recollected that a few days must bring the foe upon them, and force
+him to decide upon some scheme at which the bravest heart might falter
+without shame. So there he sat (for he often took the scout's place
+himself), looking out over the fantastic tropic forest at his feet,
+and the flat mangrove-swamps below, and the white sheet of foam-flecked
+blue; and yet no sail appeared; and the men, as their fear of fever
+subsided, began to ask when they would go down and refit the ship, and
+Amyas put them off as best he could, till one noon he saw slipping
+along the shore from the westward, a large ship under easy sail, and
+recognized in her, or thought he did so, the ship which they had passed
+upon their way.
+
+If it was she, she must have run past them to La Guayra in the night,
+and have now returned, perhaps, to search for them along the coast.
+
+She crept along slowly. He was in hopes that she might pass the river's
+mouth: but no. She lay-to close to the shore; and, after a while, Amyas
+saw two boats pull in from her, and vanish behind the mangroves.
+
+Sliding down a liane, he told what he had seen. The men, tired of
+inactivity, received the news with a shout of joy, and set to work to
+make all ready for their guests. Four brass swivels, which they had
+brought up, were mounted, fixed in logs, so as to command the path; the
+musketeers and archers clustered round them with their tackle ready, and
+half-a-dozen good marksmen volunteered into the cotton-tree with their
+arquebuses, as a post whence “a man might have very pretty shooting.”
+ Prayers followed as a matter of course, and dinner as a matter of
+course also; but two weary hours passed before there was any sign of the
+Spaniards.
+
+Presently a wreath of white smoke curled up from the swamp, and then the
+report of a caliver. Then, amid the growls of the English, the Spanish
+flag ran up above the trees, and floated--horrible to behold--at the
+mast-head of the Rose. They were signalling the ship for more hands;
+and, in effect, a third boat soon pushed off and vanished into the
+forest.
+
+Another hour, during which the men had thoroughly lost their temper, but
+not their hearts, by waiting; and talked so loud, and strode up and down
+so wildly, that Amyas had to warn them that there was no need to betray
+themselves; that the Spaniards might not find them after all; that they
+might pass the stockade close without seeing it; that, unless they hit
+off the track at once, they would probably return to their ship for the
+present; and exacted a promise from them that they would be perfectly
+silent till he gave the word to fire.
+
+Which wise commands had scarcely passed his lips, when, in the path
+below, glanced the headpiece of a Spanish soldier, and then another and
+another.
+
+“Fools!” whispered Amyas to Cary; “they are coming up in single file,
+rushing on their own death. Lie close, men!”
+
+The path was so narrow that two could seldom come up abreast, and so
+steep that the enemy had much ado to struggle and stumble upwards. The
+men seemed half unwilling to proceed, and hung back more than once;
+but Amyas could hear an authoritative voice behind, and presently there
+emerged to the front, sword in hand, a figure at which Amyas and Cary
+both started.
+
+“Is it he?”
+
+“Surely I know those legs among a thousand, though they are in armor.”
+
+“It is my turn for him, now, Cary, remember! Silence, silence, men!”
+
+The Spaniards seemed to feel that they were leading a forlorn hope. Don
+Guzman (for there was little doubt that it was he) had much ado to get
+them on at all.
+
+“The fellows have heard how gently we handled the Guayra squadron,”
+ whispers Cary, “and have no wish to become fellow-martyrs with the
+captain of the Madre Dolorosa.”
+
+At last the Spaniards get up the steep slope to within forty yards of
+the stockade, and pause, suspecting a trap, and puzzled by the complete
+silence. Amyas leaps on the top of it, a white flag in his hand; but his
+heart beats so fiercely at the sight of that hated figure, that he can
+hardly get out the words--
+
+“Don Guzman, the quarrel is between you and me, not between your men and
+mine. I would have sent in a challenge to you at La Guayra, but you were
+away; I challenge you now to single combat.”
+
+“Lutheran dog, I have a halter for you, but no sword! As you served us
+at Smerwick, we will serve you now. Pirate and ravisher, you and yours
+shall share Oxenham's fate, as you have copied his crimes, and learn
+what it is to set foot unbidden on the dominions of the king of Spain.”
+
+“The devil take you and the king of Spain together!” shouts Amyas,
+laughing loudly. “This ground belongs to him no more than it does to
+me, but to the Queen Elizabeth, in whose name I have taken as lawful
+possession of it as you ever did of Caracas. Fire, men! and God defend
+the right!”
+
+Both parties obeyed the order; Amyas dropped down behind the stockade
+in time to let a caliver bullet whistle over his head; and the Spaniards
+recoiled as the narrow face of the stockade burst into one blaze of
+musketry and swivels, raking their long array from front to rear.
+
+The front ranks fell over each other in heaps; the rear ones turned and
+ran; overtaken, nevertheless, by the English bullets and arrows, which
+tumbled them headlong down the steep path.
+
+“Out, men, and charge them. See! the Don is running like the rest!” And
+scrambling over the abattis, Amyas and about thirty followed them fast;
+for he had hope of learning from some prisoner his brother's fate.
+
+Amyas was unjust in his last words. Don Guzman, as if by miracle, had
+been only slightly wounded; and seeing his men run, had rushed back and
+tried to rally them, but was borne away by the fugitives.
+
+However, the Spaniards were out of sight among the thick bushes before
+the English could overtake them; and Amyas, afraid lest they should
+rally and surround his small party, withdrew sorely against his will,
+and found in the pathway fourteen Spaniards, but all dead. For one of
+the wounded, with more courage than wisdom, had fired on the English
+as he lay; and Amyas's men, whose blood was maddened both by their
+desperate situation, and the frightful stories of the rescued
+galley-slaves, had killed them all before their captain could stop them.
+
+“Are you mad?” cries Amyas, as he strikes up one fellow's sword. “Will
+you kill an Indian?”
+
+And he drags out of the bushes an Indian lad of sixteen, who, slightly
+wounded, is crawling away like a copper snake along the ground.
+
+“The black vermin has sent an arrow through my leg; and poisoned too,
+most like.”
+
+“God grant not: but an Indian is worth his weight in gold to us now,”
+ said Amyas, tucking his prize under his arm like a bundle. The lad, as
+soon as he saw there was no escape, resigned himself to his fate with
+true Indian stoicism, was brought in, and treated kindly enough, but
+refused to eat. For which, after much questioning, he gave as a reason,
+that he would make them kill him at once; for fat him they should not;
+and gradually gave them to understand that the English always (so
+at least the Spaniards said) fatted and ate their prisoners like
+the Caribs; and till he saw them go out and bury the bodies of the
+Spaniards, nothing would persuade him that the corpses were not to be
+cooked for supper.
+
+However, kind words, kind looks, and the present of that inestimable
+treasure--a knife, brought him to reason; and he told Amyas that he
+belonged to a Spaniard who had an “encomienda” of Indians some fifteen
+miles to the south-west; that he had fled from his master, and lived
+by hunting for some months past; and having seen the ship where she lay
+moored, and boarded her in hope of plunder, had been surprised therein
+by the Spaniards, and forced by threats to go with them as a guide in
+their search for the English. But now came a part of his story which
+filled the soul of Amyas with delight. He was an Indian of the Llanos,
+or great savannahs which lay to the southward beyond the mountains, and
+had actually been upon the Orinoco. He had been stolen as a boy by some
+Spaniards, who had gone down (as was the fashion of the Jesuits even
+as late as 1790) for the pious purpose of converting the savages by the
+simple process of catching, baptizing, and making servants of those
+whom they could carry off, and murdering those who resisted their gentle
+method of salvation. Did he know the way back again? Who could ask such
+a question of an Indian? And the lad's black eyes flashed fire, as Amyas
+offered him liberty and iron enough for a dozen Indians, if he would
+lead them through the passes of the mountains, and southward to the
+mighty river, where lay their golden hopes. Hernando de Serpa, Amyas
+knew, had tried the same course, which was supposed to be about one
+hundred and twenty leagues, and failed, being overthrown utterly by the
+Wikiri Indians; but Amyas knew enough of the Spaniards' brutal method
+of treating those Indians, to be pretty sure that they had brought that
+catastrophe upon themselves, and that he might avoid it well enough by
+that common justice and mercy toward the savages which he had learned
+from his incomparable tutor, Francis Drake.
+
+Now was the time to speak; and, assembling his men around him, Amyas
+opened his whole heart, simply and manfully. This was their only hope
+of safety. Some of them had murmured that they should perish like John
+Oxenham's crew. This plan was rather the only way to avoid perishing
+like them. Don Guzman would certainly return to seek them; and not only
+he, but land-forces from St. Jago. Even if the stockade was not forced,
+they would be soon starved out; why not move at once, ere the Spaniards
+could return, and begin a blockade? As for taking St. Jago, it was
+impossible. The treasure would all be safely hidden, and the town well
+prepared to meet them. If they wanted gold and glory, they must seek it
+elsewhere. Neither was there any use in marching along the coast, and
+trying the ports: ships could outstrip them, and the country was already
+warned. There was but this one chance; and on it Amyas, the first and
+last time in his life, waxed eloquent, and set forth the glory of the
+enterprise, the service to the queen, the salvation of heathens, and
+the certainty that, if successful, they should win honor and wealth and
+everlasting fame, beyond that of Cortez or Pizarro, till the men, sulky
+at first, warmed every moment; and one old Pelican broke out with--
+
+“Yes, sir! we didn't go round the world with you for naught; and watched
+your works and ways, which was always those of a gentleman, as you
+are--who spoke a word for a poor fellow when he was in a scrape, and saw
+all you ought to see, and naught that you ought not. And we'll follow
+you, sir, all alone to ourselves; and let those that know you worse
+follow after when they're come to their right mind.”
+
+Man after man capped this brave speech; the minority, who, if they liked
+little to go, liked still less to be left behind, gave in their consent
+perforce; and, to make a long story short, Amyas conquered, and the plan
+was accepted.
+
+“This,” said Amyas, “is indeed the proudest day of my life! I have lost
+one brother, but I have gained fourscore. God do so to me and more also,
+if I do not deal with you according to the trust which you have put in
+me this day!”
+
+We, I suppose, are to believe that we have a right to laugh at Amyas's
+scheme as frantic and chimerical. It is easy to amuse ourselves with the
+premises, after the conclusion has been found for us. We know, now, that
+he was mistaken: but we have not discovered his mistake for ourselves,
+and have no right to plume ourselves on other men's discoveries. Had we
+lived in Amyas's days, we should have belonged either to the many wise
+men who believed as he did, or to the many foolish men, who not only
+sneered at the story of Manoa, but at a hundred other stories, which we
+now know to be true. Columbus was laughed at: but he found a new world,
+nevertheless. Cortez was laughed at: but he found Mexico. Pizarro: but
+he found Peru. I ask any fair reader of those two charming books, Mr.
+Prescott's Conquest of Mexico and his Conquest of Peru, whether the true
+wonders in them described do not outdo all the false wonders of Manoa.
+
+But what reason was there to think them false? One quarter, perhaps, of
+America had been explored, and yet in that quarter two empires had been
+already found, in a state of mechanical, military, and agricultural
+civilization superior, in many things, to any nation of Europe. Was
+it not most rational to suppose that in the remaining three-quarters
+similar empires existed? If a second Mexico had been discovered in the
+mountains of Parima, and a second Peru in those of Brazil, what right
+would any man have had to wonder? As for the gold legends, nothing was
+told of Manoa which had not been seen in Peru and Mexico by the bodily
+eyes of men then living. Why should not the rocks of Guiana have been
+as full of the precious metals (we do not know yet that they are not) as
+the rocks of Peru and Mexico were known to be? Even the details of the
+story, its standing on a lake, for instance, bore a probability with
+them. Mexico actually stood in the centre of a lake--why should not
+Manoa? The Peruvian worship centred round a sacred lake--why not that
+of Manoa? Pizarro and Cortez, again, were led on to their desperate
+enterprises by the sight of small quantities of gold among savages, who
+told them of a civilized gold-country near at hand; and they found that
+those savages spoke truth. Why was the unanimous report of the Carib
+tribes of the Orinoco to be disbelieved, when they told a similar tale?
+Sir Richard Schomburgk's admirable preface to Raleigh's Guiana proves,
+surely, that the Indians themselves were deceived, as well as deceivers.
+It was known, again, that vast quantities of the Peruvian treasure had
+been concealed by the priests, and that members of the Inca family had
+fled across the Andes, and held out against the Spaniards. Barely fifty
+years had elapsed since then;--what more probable than that this remnant
+of the Peruvian dynasty and treasure still existed? Even the story of
+the Amazons, though it may serve Hume as a point for his ungenerous and
+untruthful attempt to make Raleigh out either fool or villain, has
+come from Spaniards, who had with their own eyes seen the Indian women
+fighting by their husbands' sides, and from Indians, who asserted the
+existence of an Amazonian tribe. What right had Amyas, or any man, to
+disbelieve the story? The existence of the Amazons in ancient Asia, and
+of their intercourse with Alexander the Great, was then an accredited
+part of history, which it would have been gratuitous impertinence to
+deny. And what if some stories connected these warlike women with the
+Emperor of Manoa, and the capital itself? This generation ought surely
+to be the last to laugh at such a story, at least as long as the
+Amazonian guards of the King of Dahomey continue to outvie the men in
+that relentless ferocity, with which they have subdued every neighboring
+tribe, save the Christians of Abbeokuta. In this case, as in a hundred
+more, fact not only outdoes, but justifies imagination; and Amyas spoke
+common sense when he said to his men that day--
+
+“Let fools laugh and stay at home. Wise men dare and win. Saul went to
+look for his father's asses, and found a kingdom; and Columbus, my men,
+was called a madman for only going to seek China, and never knew, they
+say, until his dying day, that he had found a whole new world instead
+of it. Find Manoa? God only, who made all things, knows what we may find
+beside!”
+
+So underneath that giant ceiba-tree, those valiant men, reduced by
+battle and sickness to some eighty, swore a great oath, and kept that
+oath like men. To search for the golden city for two full years to come,
+whatever might befall; to stand to each other for weal or woe; to obey
+their officers to the death; to murmur privately against no man, but
+bring all complaints to a council of war; to use no profane oaths, but
+serve God daily with prayer; to take by violence from no man, save from
+their natural enemies the Spaniards; to be civil and merciful to all
+savages, and chaste and courteous to all women; to bring all booty and
+all food into the common stock, and observe to the utmost their faith
+with the adventurers who had fitted out the ship; and finally, to march
+at sunrise the next morning toward the south, trusting in God to be
+their guide.
+
+“It is a great oath, and a hard one,” said Brimblecombe; “but God will
+give us strength to keep it.” And they knelt all together and received
+the Holy Communion, and then rose to pack provisions and ammunition,
+and lay down again to sleep and to dream that they were sailing home
+up Torridge stream--as Cavendish, returning from round the world, did
+actually sail home up Thames but five years afterwards--“with mariners
+and soldiers clothed in silk, with sails of damask, and topsails of
+cloth of gold, and the richest prize which ever was brought at one time
+unto English shores.”
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+The Cross stands upright in the southern sky. It is the middle of the
+night. Cary and Yeo glide silently up the hill and into the camp,
+and whisper to Amyas that they have done the deed. The sleepers are
+awakened, and the train sets forth.
+
+Upward and southward ever: but whither, who can tell? They hardly think
+of the whither; but go like sleep-walkers, shaken out of one land of
+dreams, only to find themselves in another and stranger one. All around
+is fantastic and unearthly; now each man starts as he sees the figures
+of his fellows, clothed from head to foot in golden filigree; looks up,
+and sees the yellow moonlight through the fronds of the huge tree-ferns
+overhead, as through a cloud of glittering lace. Now they are hewing
+their way through a thicket of enormous flags; now through bamboos forty
+feet high; now they are stumbling over boulders, waist-deep in cushions
+of club-moss; now they are struggling through shrubberies of heaths and
+rhododendrons, and woolly incense-trees, where every leaf, as they brush
+past, dashes some fresh scent into their faces, and
+
+     “The winds, with musky wing,
+     About the cedarn alleys fling
+     Nard and cassia's balmy smells.”
+
+Now they open upon some craggy brow, from whence they can see far below
+an ocean of soft cloud, whose silver billows, girdled by the mountain
+sides, hide the lowland from their sight.
+
+And from beneath the cloud strange voices rise; the screams of thousand
+night-birds, and wild howls, which they used at first to fancy were the
+cries of ravenous beasts, till they found them to proceed from nothing
+fiercer than an ape. But what is that deeper note, like a series
+of muffled explosions,--arquebuses fired within some subterranean
+cavern,--the heavy pulse of which rolls up through the depths of the
+unseen forest? They hear it now for the first time, but they will hear
+it many a time again; and the Indian lad is hushed, and cowers close
+to them, and then takes heart, as he looks upon their swords and
+arquebuses; for that is the roar of the jaguar, “seeking his meat from
+God.”
+
+But what is that glare away to the northward? The yellow moon is ringed
+with gay rainbows; but that light is far too red to be the reflection
+of any beams of hers. Now through the cloud rises a column of black and
+lurid smoke; the fog clears away right and left around it, and shows
+beneath, a mighty fire.
+
+The men look at each other with questioning eyes, each half suspecting,
+and yet not daring to confess their own suspicions; and Amyas whispers
+to Yeo--
+
+“You took care to flood the powder?”
+
+“Ay, ay, sir, and to unload the ordnance too. No use in making a noise
+to tell the Spaniards our whereabouts.”
+
+Yes; that glare rises from the good ship Rose. Amyas, like Cortez of
+old, has burnt his ship, and retreat is now impossible. Forward into the
+unknown abyss of the New World, and God be with them as they go!
+
+The Indian knows a cunning path: it winds along the highest ridges of
+the mountains; but the travelling is far more open and easy.
+
+They have passed the head of a valley which leads down to St. Jago.
+Beneath that long shining river of mist, which ends at the foot of
+the great Silla, lies (so says the Indian lad) the rich capital of
+Venezuela; and beyond, the gold-mines of Los Teques and Baruta, which
+first attracted the founder Diego de Losada; and many a longing eye is
+turned towards it as they pass the saddle at the valley head; but the
+attempt is hopeless, they turn again to the left, and so down towards
+the rancho, taking care (so the prudent Amyas had commanded) to break
+down, after crossing, the frail rope bridge which spans each torrent and
+ravine.
+
+They are at the rancho long before daybreak, and have secured there,
+not only fourteen mules, but eight or nine Indians stolen from off
+the Llanos, like their guide, who are glad enough to escape from their
+tyrants by taking service with them. And now southward and away, with
+lightened shoulders and hearts; for they are all but safe from pursuit.
+The broken bridges prevent the news of their raid reaching St. Jago
+until nightfall; and in the meanwhile, Don Guzman returns to the river
+mouth the next day to find the ship a blackened wreck, and the camp
+empty; follows their trail over the hills till he is stopped by a broken
+bridge; surmounts that difficulty, and meets a second; his men are
+worn out with heat, and a little afraid of stumbling on the heretic
+desperadoes, and he returns by land to St. Jago; and when he arrives
+there, has news from home which gives him other things to think of than
+following those mad Englishmen, who have vanished into the wilderness.
+“What need, after all, to follow them?” asked the Spaniards of each
+other. “Blinded by the devil, whom they serve, they rush on in search of
+certain death, as many a larger company has before them, and they will
+find it, and will trouble La Guayra no more forever.” “Lutheran dogs and
+enemies of God,” said Don Guzman to his soldiers, “they will leave their
+bones to whiten on the Llanos, as may every heretic who sets foot on
+Spanish soil!”
+
+Will they do so, Don Guzman? Or wilt thou and Amyas meet again upon a
+mightier battlefield, to learn a lesson which neither of you yet has
+learned?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE INQUISITION IN THE INDIES
+
+
+My next chapter is perhaps too sad; it shall be at least as short as I
+can make it; but it was needful to be written, that readers may judge
+fairly for themselves what sort of enemies the English nation had to
+face in those stern days.
+
+Three weeks have passed, and the scene is shifted to a long, low range
+of cells in a dark corridor in the city of Cartagena. The door of one is
+open; and within stand two cloaked figures, one of whom we know. It is
+Eustace Leigh. The other is a familiar of the Holy Office.
+
+He holds in his hand a lamp, from which the light falls on a bed of
+straw, and on the sleeping figure of a man. The high white brow, the
+pale and delicate features--them too we know, for they are those of
+Frank. Saved half-dead from the fury of the savage negroes, he has been
+reserved for the more delicate cruelty of civilized and Christian men.
+He underwent the question but this afternoon; and now Eustace, his
+betrayer, is come to persuade him--or to entrap him? Eustace himself
+hardly knows whether of the two.
+
+And yet he would give his life to save his cousin.
+
+His life? He has long since ceased to care for that. He has done what
+he has done, because it is his duty; and now he is to do his duty
+once more, and wake the sleeper, and argue, coax, threaten him into
+recantation while “his heart is still tender from the torture,” so
+Eustace's employers phrase it.
+
+And yet how calmly he is sleeping! Is it but a freak of the lamplight,
+or is there a smile upon his lips? Eustace takes the lamp and bends over
+him to see; and as he bends he hears Frank whispering in his dreams his
+mother's name, and a name higher and holier still.
+
+Eustace cannot find the heart to wake him.
+
+“Let him rest,” whispers he to his companion. “After all, I fear my
+words will be of little use.”
+
+“I fear so too, sir. Never did I behold a more obdurate heretic. He did
+not scruple to scoff openly at their holinesses.”
+
+“Ah!” said Eustace; “great is the pravity of the human heart, and the
+power of Satan! Let us go for the present.”
+
+“Where is she?”
+
+“The elder sorceress, or the younger?”
+
+“The younger--the--”
+
+“The Senora de Soto? Ah, poor thing! One could be sorry for her, were
+she not a heretic.” And the man eyed Eustace keenly, and then quietly
+added, “She is at present with the notary; to the benefit of her soul, I
+trust--”
+
+Eustace half stopped, shuddering. He could hardly collect himself enough
+to gasp out an “Amen!”
+
+“Within there,” said the man, pointing carelessly to a door as they
+went down the corridor. “We can listen a moment, if you like; but don't
+betray me, senor.”
+
+Eustace knows well enough that the fellow is probably on the watch to
+betray him, if he shows any signs of compunction; at least to report
+faithfully to his superiors the slightest expression of sympathy with
+a heretic; but a horrible curiosity prevails over fear, and he pauses
+close to the fatal door. His face is all of a flame, his knees knock
+together, his ears are ringing, his heart bursting through his ribs, as
+he supports himself against the wall, hiding his convulsed face as well
+as he can from his companion.
+
+A man's voice is plainly audible within; low, but distinct. The notary
+is trying that old charge of witchcraft, which the Inquisitors, whether
+to justify themselves to their own consciences, or to whiten their
+villainy somewhat in the eyes of the mob, so often brought against their
+victims. And then Eustace's heart sinks within him as he hears a woman's
+voice reply, sharpened by indignation and agony--
+
+“Witchcraft against Don Guzman? What need of that, oh God! what need?”
+
+“You deny it then, senora? we are sorry for you; but--”
+
+A confused choking murmur from the victim, mingled with words which
+might mean anything or nothing.
+
+“She has confessed!” whispered Eustace; “saints, I thank you!--she--”
+
+A wail which rings through Eustace's ears, and brain, and heart! He
+would have torn at the door to open it; but his companion forces him
+away. Another, and another wail, while the wretched man hurries off,
+stopping his ears in vain against those piercing cries, which follow
+him, like avenging angels, through the dreadful vaults.
+
+He escaped into the fragrant open air, and the golden tropic moonlight,
+and a garden which might have served as a model for Eden; but man's hell
+followed into God's heaven, and still those wails seemed to ring through
+his ears.
+
+“Oh, misery, misery, misery!” murmured he to himself through grinding
+teeth; “and I have brought her to this! I have had to bring her to it!
+What else could I? Who dare blame me? And yet what devilish sin can I
+have committed, that requires to be punished thus? Was there no one to
+be found but me? No one? And yet it may save her soul. It may bring her
+to repentance!”
+
+“It may, indeed; for she is delicate, and cannot endure much. You
+ought to know as well as I, senor, the merciful disposition of the Holy
+Office.”
+
+“I know it, I know it,” interrupted poor Eustace, trembling now for
+himself. “All in love--all in love.--A paternal chastisement--”
+
+“And the proofs of heresy are patent, beside the strong suspicion
+of enchantment, and the known character of the elder sorceress.
+You yourself, you must remember, senor, told us that she had been a
+notorious witch in England, before the senora brought her hither as her
+attendant.”
+
+“Of course she was; of course. Yes; there was no other course open. And
+though the flesh may be weak, sir, in my case, yet none can have proved
+better to the Holy Office how willing is the spirit!”
+
+And so Eustace departed; and ere another sun had set, he had gone to the
+principal of the Jesuits; told him his whole heart, or as much of it,
+poor wretch, as he dare tell to himself; and entreated to be allowed to
+finish his novitiate, and enter the order, on the understanding that he
+was to be sent at once back to Europe, or anywhere else; “Otherwise,”
+ as he said frankly, “he should go mad, even if he were not mad already.”
+ The Jesuit, who was a kindly man enough, went to the Holy Office, and
+settled all with the Inquisitors, recounting to them, to set him above
+all suspicion, Eustace's past valiant services to the Church. His
+testimony was no longer needed; he left Cartagena for Nombre that very
+night, and sailed the next week I know not whither.
+
+I say, I know not whither. Eustace Leigh vanishes henceforth from these
+pages. He may have ended as General of his Order. He may have worn out
+his years in some tropic forest, “conquering the souls” (including, of
+course, the bodies) of Indians; he may have gone back to his old work
+in England, and been the very Ballard who was hanged and quartered three
+years afterwards for his share in Babington's villainous conspiracy:
+I know not. This book is a history of men,--of men's virtues and sins,
+victories and defeats; and Eustace is a man no longer: he is become a
+thing, a tool, a Jesuit; which goes only where it is sent, and does good
+or evil indifferently as it is bid; which, by an act of moral suicide,
+has lost its soul, in the hope of saving it; without a will, a
+conscience, a responsibility (as it fancies), to God or man, but only to
+“The Society.” In a word, Eustace, as he says himself, is “dead.” Twice
+dead, I fear. Let the dead bury their dead. We have no more concern with
+Eustace Leigh.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE BANKS OF THE META
+
+                                        “My mariners,
+     Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with
+          me--Death closes all: but something ere the end,
+     Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
+     Not unbecoming men that strove with gods!”
+
+                                         TENNYSON'S Ulysses.
+
+Nearly three years are past and gone since that little band had knelt
+at evensong beneath the giant tree of Guayra--years of seeming blank,
+through which they are to be tracked only by scattered notes and
+mis-spelt names. Through untrodden hills and forests, over a space of
+some eight hundred miles in length by four hundred in breadth, they had
+been seeking for the Golden City, and they had sought in vain. They had
+sought it along the wooded banks of the Orinoco, and beyond the roaring
+foam-world of Maypures, and on the upper waters of the mighty Amazon.
+They had gone up the streams even into Peru itself, and had trodden the
+cinchona groves of Loxa, ignorant, as all the world was then, of their
+healing virtues. They had seen the virgin snows of Chimborazo towering
+white above the thundercloud, and the giant cone of Cotopaxi blackening
+in its sullen wrath, before the fiery streams rolled down its sides.
+Foiled in their search at the back of the Andes, they had turned
+eastward once more, and plunged from the alpine cliffs into “the green
+and misty ocean of the Montana.” Slowly and painfully they had worked
+their way northward again, along the eastern foot of the inland
+Cordillera, and now they were bivouacking, as it seems, upon one of the
+many feeders of the Meta, which flow down from the Suma Paz into the
+forest-covered plains. There they sat, their watch-fires glittering
+on the stream, beneath the shadow of enormous trees, Amyas and Cary,
+Brimblecombe, Yeo, and the Indian lad, who has followed them in all
+their wanderings, alive and well: but as far as ever from Manoa, and
+its fairy lake, and golden palaces, and all the wonders of the Indian's
+tale. Again and again in their wanderings they had heard faint rumors of
+its existence, and started off in some fresh direction, to meet only a
+fresh disappointment, and hope deferred, which maketh sick the heart.
+
+There they sit at last--four-and-forty men out of the eighty-four who
+left the tree of Guayra:--where are the rest?
+
+     “Their bones are scatter'd far and wide,
+     By mount, by stream, and sea.”
+
+Drew, the master, lies on the banks of the Rio Negro, and five brave
+fellows by him, slain in fight by the poisoned arrows of the Indians, in
+a vain attempt to penetrate the mountain-gorges of the Parima. Two more
+lie amid the valleys of the Andes, frozen to death by the fierce slaty
+hail which sweeps down from the condor's eyrie; four more were drowned
+at one of the rapids of the Orinoco; five or six more wounded men are
+left behind at another rapid among friendly Indians, to be recovered
+when they can be: perhaps never. Fever, snakes, jaguars, alligators,
+cannibal fish, electric eels, have thinned their ranks month by month,
+and of their march through the primeval wilderness no track remains,
+except those lonely graves.
+
+And there the survivors sit, beside the silent stream, beneath the
+tropic moon; sun-dried and lean, but strong and bold as ever, with the
+quiet fire of English courage burning undimmed in every eye, and the
+genial smile of English mirth fresh on every lip; making a jest of
+danger and a sport of toil, as cheerily as when they sailed over the bar
+of Bideford, in days which seem to belong to some antenatal life. Their
+beards have grown down upon their breasts; their long hair is knotted
+on their heads, like women's, to keep off the burning sunshine; their
+leggings are of the skin of the delicate Guazu-puti deer; their shirts
+are patched with Indian cotton web; the spoils of jaguar, puma, and ape
+hang from their shoulders. Their ammunition is long since spent, their
+muskets, spoilt by the perpetual vapor-bath of the steaming woods, are
+left behind as useless in a cave by some cataract of the Orinoco: but
+their swords are bright and terrible as ever; and they carry bows of
+a strength which no Indian arm can bend, and arrows pointed with the
+remnants of their armor; many of them, too, are armed with the pocuna
+or blowgun of the Indians--more deadly, because more silent, than the
+firearms which they have left behind them. So they have wandered, and so
+they will wander still, the lords of the forest and its beasts; terrible
+to all hostile Indians, but kindly, just, and generous to all who will
+deal faithfully with them; and many a smooth-chinned Carib and
+Ature, Solimo and Guahiba, recounts with wonder and admiration the
+righteousness of the bearded heroes, who proclaimed themselves the
+deadly foes of the faithless and murderous Spaniard, and spoke to them
+of the great and good queen beyond the seas, who would send her warriors
+to deliver and avenge the oppressed Indian.
+
+The men are sleeping among the trees, some on the ground, and some in
+grass-hammocks slung between the stems. All is silent, save the heavy
+plunge of the tapir in the river, as he tears up the water-weeds for
+his night's repast. Sometimes, indeed, the jaguar, as he climbs from one
+tree-top to another after his prey, wakens the monkeys clustered on the
+boughs, and they again arouse the birds, and ten minutes of unearthly
+roars, howls, shrieks, and cacklings make the forest ring as if all
+pandemonium had broke loose; but that soon dies away again; and, even
+while it lasts, it is too common a matter to awaken the sleepers,
+much less to interrupt the council of war which is going on beside
+the watch-fire, between the three adventurers and the faithful Yeo. A
+hundred times have they held such a council, and in vain; and, for aught
+they know, this one will be as fruitless as those which have gone before
+it. Nevertheless, it is a more solemn one than usual; for the two years
+during which they had agreed to search for Manoa are long past, and some
+new place must be determined on, unless they intend to spend the rest of
+their lives in that green wilderness.
+
+“Well,” says Will Cary, taking his cigar out of his mouth, “at least we
+have got something out of those last Indians. It is a comfort to have a
+puff at tobacco once more, after three weeks' fasting.”
+
+“For me,” said Jack Brimblecombe, “Heaven forgive me! but when I get the
+magical leaf between my teeth again, I feel tempted to sit as still as a
+chimney, and smoke till my dying day, without stirring hand or foot.”
+
+“Then I shall forbid you tobacco, Master Parson,” said Amyas; “for we
+must be up and away again to-morrow. We have been idling here three
+mortal days, and nothing done.”
+
+“Shall we ever do anything? I think the gold of Manoa is like the gold
+which lies where the rainbow touches the ground, always a field beyond
+you.”
+
+Amyas was silent awhile, and so were the rest. There was no denying that
+their hopes were all but gone. In the immense circuit which they had
+made, they had met with nothing but disappointment.
+
+“There is but one more chance,” said he at length, “and that is, the
+mountains to the east of the Orinoco, where we failed the first time.
+The Incas may have moved on to them when they escaped.”
+
+“Why not?” said Cary; “they would so put all the forests, beside the
+Llanos and half-a-dozen great rivers, between them and those dogs of
+Spaniards.”
+
+“Shall we try it once more?” said Amyas. “This river ought to run
+into the Orinoco; and once there, we are again at the very foot of the
+mountains. What say you, Yeo?”
+
+“I cannot but mind, your worship, that when we came up the Orinoco,
+the Indians told us terrible stories of those mountains, how far they
+stretched, and how difficult they were to cross, by reason of the cliffs
+aloft, and the thick forests in the valleys. And have we not lost five
+good men there already?”
+
+“What care we? No forests can be thicker than those we have bored
+through already; why, if one had had but a tail, like a monkey, for
+an extra warp, one might have gone a hundred miles on end along the
+tree-tops, and found it far pleasanter walking than tripping in withes,
+and being eaten up with creeping things, from morn till night.”
+
+“But remember, too,” said Jack, “how they told us to beware of the
+Amazons.”
+
+“What, Jack, afraid of a parcel of women?”
+
+“Why not?” said Jack, “I wouldn't run from a man, as you know; but a
+woman--it's not natural, like. They must be witches or devils. See how
+the Caribs feared them. And there were men there without necks, and with
+their eyes in their breasts, they said. Now how could a Christian tackle
+such customers as them?”
+
+“He couldn't cut off their heads, that's certain; but, I suppose, a poke
+in the ribs will do as much for them as for their neighbors.”
+
+“Well,” said Jack, “if I fight, let me fight honest flesh and blood,
+that's all, and none of these outlandish monsters. How do you know but
+that they are invulnerable by art-magic?”
+
+“How do you know that they are? And as for the Amazons,” said Cary,
+“woman's woman, all the world over. I'll bet that you may wheedle them
+round with a compliment or two, just as if they were so many burghers'
+wives. Pity I have not a court-suit and a Spanish hat. I would have
+taken an orange in one hand and a handkerchief in the other, gone all
+alone to them as ambassador, and been in a week as great with Queen
+Blackfacealinda as ever Raleigh is at Whitehall.”
+
+“Gentlemen!” said Yeo, “where you go, I go; and not only I, but every
+man of us, I doubt not; but we have lost now half our company, and spent
+our ammunition, so we are no better men, were it not for our swords,
+than these naked heathens round us. Now it was, as you all know, by the
+wonder and noise of their ordnance (let alone their horses, which is a
+break-neck beast I put no faith in) that both Cortez and Pizarro, those
+imps of Satan, made their golden conquests, with which if we could have
+astounded the people of Manoa--”
+
+“Having first found the said people,” laughed Amyas. “It is like the
+old fable. Every craftsman thinks his own trade the one pillar of the
+commonweal.”
+
+“Well! your worship,” quoth Yeo, “it may be that being a gunner I
+overprize guns. But it don't need slate and pencil to do this sum--Are
+forty men without shot as good as eighty with?”
+
+“Thou art right, old fellow, right enough, and I was only jesting for
+very sorrow, and must needs laugh about it lest I weep about it. Our
+chance is over, I believe, though I dare not confess as much to the
+men.”
+
+“Sir,” said Yeo, “I have a feeling on me that the Lord's hand is against
+us in this matter. Whether He means to keep this wealth for worthier men
+than us, or whether it is His will to hide this great city in the secret
+place of His presence from the strife of tongues, and so to spare them
+from sinful man's covetousness, and England from that sin and luxury
+which I have seen gold beget among the Spaniards, I know not, sir; for
+who knoweth the counsels of the Lord? But I have long had a voice within
+which saith, 'Salvation Yeo, thou shalt never behold the Golden City
+which is on earth, where heathens worship sun and moon and the hosts of
+heaven; be content, therefore, to see that Golden City which is above,
+where is neither sun nor moon, but the Lord God and the Lamb are the
+light thereof.”
+
+There was a simple majesty about old Yeo when he broke forth in
+utterances like these, which made his comrades, and even Amyas and Cary,
+look on him as Mussulmans look on madmen, as possessed of mysterious
+knowledge and flashes of inspiration; and Brimblecombe, whose pious soul
+looked up to the old hero with a reverence which had overcome all his
+Churchman's prejudices against Anabaptists, answered gently,--
+
+“Amen! amen! my masters all: and it has been on my mind, too, this long
+time, that there is a providence against our going east; for see how
+this two years past, whenever we have pushed eastward, we have fallen
+into trouble, and lost good men; and whenever we went Westward-ho, we
+have prospered; and do prosper to this day.”
+
+“And what is more, gentlemen,” said Yeo, “if, as Scripture says, dreams
+are from the Lord, I verily believe mine last night came from Him; for
+as I lay by the fire, sirs, I heard my little maid's voice calling of
+me, as plain as ever I heard in my life; and the very same words, sirs,
+which she learned from me and my good comrade William Penberthy to say,
+'Westward-ho! jolly mariners all!' a bit of an ungodly song, my masters,
+which we sang in our wild days; but she stood and called it as plain as
+ever mortal ears heard, and called again till I answered, 'Coming! my
+maid, coming!' and after that the dear chuck called no more--God grant I
+find her yet!--and so I woke.”
+
+Cary had long since given up laughing at Yeo about the “little maid;”
+ and Amyas answered,--
+
+“So let it be, Yeo, if the rest agree: but what shall we do to the
+westward?”
+
+“Do?” said Cary; “there's plenty to do; for there's plenty of gold,
+and plenty of Spaniards, too, they say, on the other side of these
+mountains: so that our swords will not rust for lack of adventures, my
+gay knights-errant all.”
+
+So they chatted on; and before night was half through a plan was
+matured, desperate enough--but what cared those brave hearts for that?
+They would cross the Cordillera to Santa Fe de Bogota, of the wealth
+whereof both Yeo and Amyas had often heard in the Pacific: try to seize
+either the town or some convoy of gold going from it; make for the
+nearest river (there was said to be a large one which ran northward
+thence), build canoes, and try to reach the Northern Sea once more; and
+then, if Heaven prospered them, they might seize a Spanish ship, and
+make their way home to England, not, indeed, with the wealth of Manoa,
+but with a fair booty of Spanish gold. This was their new dream. It was
+a wild one: but hardly more wild than the one which Drake had fulfilled,
+and not as wild as the one which Oxenham might have fulfilled, but for
+his own fatal folly.
+
+Amyas sat watching late that night, sad of heart. To give up the
+cherished dream of years was hard; to face his mother, harder still: but
+it must be done, for the men's sake. So the new plan was proposed next
+day, and accepted joyfully. They would go up to the mountains and rest
+awhile; if possible, bring up the wounded whom they had left behind; and
+then, try a new venture, with new hopes, perhaps new dangers; they were
+inured to the latter.
+
+They started next morning cheerfully enough, and for three hours or more
+paddled easily up the glassy and windless reaches, between two green
+flower-bespangled walls of forest, gay with innumerable birds and
+insects; while down from the branches which overhung the stream long
+trailers hung to the water's edge, and seemed admiring in the clear
+mirror the images of their own gorgeous flowers. River, trees, flowers,
+birds, insects,--it was all a fairy-land: but it was a colossal one; and
+yet the voyagers took little note of it. It was now to them an everyday
+occurrence, to see trees full two hundred feet high one mass of yellow
+or purple blossom to the highest twigs, and every branch and stem one
+hanging garden of crimson and orange orchids or vanillas. Common to them
+were all the fantastic and enormous shapes with which Nature bedecks her
+robes beneath the fierce suns and fattening rains of the tropic forest.
+Common were forms and colors of bird, and fish, and butterfly, more
+strange and bright than ever opium-eater dreamed. The long processions
+of monkeys, who kept pace with them along the tree-tops, and proclaimed
+their wonder in every imaginable whistle, and grunt, and howl, had
+ceased to move their laughter, as much as the roar of the jaguar and the
+rustle of the boa had ceased to move their fear; and when a brilliant
+green and rose-colored fish, flat-bodied like a bream, flab-finned like
+a salmon, and saw-toothed like a shark, leapt clean on board of the
+canoe to escape the rush of the huge alligator (whose loathsome snout,
+ere he could stop, actually rattled against the canoe within a foot of
+Jack Brimblecombe's hand), Jack, instead of turning pale, as he had done
+at the sharks upon a certain memorable occasion, coolly picked up the
+fish, and said, “He's four pound weight! If you can catch 'pirai' for
+us like that, old fellow, just keep in our wake, and we'll give you the
+cleanings for wages.”
+
+Yes. The mind of man is not so “infinite,” in the vulgar sense of that
+word, as people fancy; and however greedy the appetite for wonder may
+be, while it remains unsatisfied in everyday European life, it is as
+easily satiated as any other appetite, and then leaves the senses of
+its possessor as dull as those of a city gourmand after a lord mayor's
+feast. Only the highest minds--our Humboldts, and Bonplands, and
+Schomburgks (and they only when quickened to an almost unhealthy
+activity by civilization)--can go on long appreciating where Nature is
+insatiable, imperious, maddening, in her demands on our admiration. The
+very power of observing wears out under the rush of ever new objects;
+and the dizzy spectator is fain at last to shut the eyes of his soul,
+and take refuge (as West Indian Spaniards do) in tobacco and stupidity.
+The man, too, who has not only eyes but utterance,--what shall he do
+where all words fail him? Superlatives are but inarticulate, after all,
+and give no pictures even of size any more than do numbers of feet and
+yards: and yet what else can we do, but heap superlative on superlative,
+and cry, “Wonderful, wonderful!” and after that, “wonderful, past all
+whooping”? What Humboldt's self cannot paint, we will not try to daub.
+The voyagers were in a South American forest, readers. Fill up the
+meaning of those words, each as your knowledge enables you, for I cannot
+do it for you.
+
+Certainly those adventurers could not. The absence of any attempt at
+word-painting, even of admiration at the glorious things which they saw,
+is most remarkable in all early voyagers, both Spanish and English. The
+only two exceptions which I recollect are Columbus--(but then all was
+new, and he was bound to tell what he had seen)--and Raleigh; the two
+most gifted men, perhaps, with the exception of Humboldt, who ever set
+foot in tropical America; but even they dare nothing but a few feeble
+hints in passing. Their souls had been dazzled and stunned by a great
+glory. Coming out of our European Nature into that tropic one, they had
+felt like Plato's men, bred in the twilight cavern, and then suddenly
+turned round to the broad blaze of day; they had seen things awful and
+unspeakable: why talk of them, except to say with the Turks, “God is
+great!”
+
+So it was with these men. Among the higher-hearted of them, the grandeur
+and the glory around had attuned their spirits to itself, and kept up in
+them a lofty, heroical, reverent frame of mind; but they knew as little
+about the trees and animals in an “artistic” or “critical” point
+of view, as in a scientific one. This tree the Indians called one
+unpronounceable name, and it made good bows; that, some other name, and
+it made good canoes; of that, you could eat the fruit; that produced the
+caoutchouc gum, useful for a hundred matters; that was what the Indians
+(and they likewise) used to poison their arrows with; from the ashes of
+those palm-nuts you could make good salt; that tree, again, was full of
+good milk if you bored the stem: they drank it, and gave God thanks, and
+were not astonished. God was great: but that they had discovered long
+before they came into the tropics. Noble old child-hearted heroes, with
+just romance and superstition enough about them to keep them from that
+prurient hysterical wonder and enthusiasm, which is simply, one often
+fears, a product of our scepticism! We do not trust enough in God, we do
+not really believe His power enough, to be ready, as they were, as every
+one ought to be on a God-made earth, for anything and everything being
+possible; and then, when a wonder is discovered, we go into ecstasies
+and shrieks over it, and take to ourselves credit for being susceptible
+of so lofty a feeling, true index, forsooth, of a refined and cultivated
+mind.
+
+They paddled onward hour after hour, sheltering themselves as best they
+could under the shadow of the southern bank, while on their right hand
+the full sun-glare lay upon the enormous wall of mimosas, figs, and
+laurels, which formed the northern forest, broken by the slender shafts
+of bamboo tufts, and decked with a thousand gaudy parasites; bank upon
+bank of gorgeous bloom piled upward to the sky, till where its outline
+cut the blue, flowers and leaves, too lofty to be distinguished by the
+eye, formed a broken rainbow of all hues quivering in the ascending
+streams of azure mist, until they seemed to melt and mingle with the
+very heavens.
+
+And as the sun rose higher and higher, a great stillness fell upon the
+forest. The jaguars and the monkeys had hidden themselves in the darkest
+depths of the woods. The birds' notes died out one by one; the very
+butterflies ceased their flitting over the tree-tops, and slept with
+outspread wings upon the glossy leaves, undistinguishable from the
+flowers around them. Now and then a colibri whirred downward toward
+the water, hummed for a moment around some pendent flower, and then
+the living gem was lost in the deep blackness of the inner wood, among
+tree-trunks as huge and dark as the pillars of some Hindoo shrine; or
+a parrot swung and screamed at them from an overhanging bough; or a
+thirsty monkey slid lazily down a liana to the surface of the stream,
+dipped up the water in his tiny hand, and started chattering back, as
+his eyes met those of some foul alligator peering upward through the
+clear depths below. In shaded nooks beneath the boughs, the capybaras,
+rabbits as large as sheep, went paddling sleepily round and round,
+thrusting up their unwieldy heads among the blooms of the blue
+water-lilies; while black and purple water-hens ran up and down upon the
+rafts of floating leaves. The shining snout of a freshwater dolphin rose
+slowly to the surface; a jet of spray whirred up; a rainbow hung upon
+it for a moment; and the black snout sank lazily again. Here and there,
+too, upon some shallow pebbly shore, scarlet flamingoes stood dreaming
+knee-deep, on one leg; crested cranes pranced up and down, admiring
+their own finery; and ibises and egrets dipped their bills under water
+in search of prey: but before noon even those had slipped away, and
+there reigned a stillness which might be heard--such a stillness (to
+compare small things with great) as broods beneath the rich shadows of
+Amyas's own Devon woods, or among the lonely sweeps of Exmoor, when the
+heather is in flower--a stillness in which, as Humboldt says, “If beyond
+the silence we listen for the faintest undertones, we detect a stifled,
+continuous hum of insects, which crowd the air close to the earth; a
+confused swarming murmur which hangs round every bush, in the cracked
+bark of trees, in the soil undermined by lizards, millepedes, and
+bees; a voice proclaiming to us that all Nature breathes, that under a
+thousand different forms life swarms in the gaping and dusty earth, as
+much as in the bosom of the waters, and the air which breathes around.”
+
+At last a soft and distant murmur, increasing gradually to a heavy roar,
+announced that they were nearing some cataract; till turning a point,
+where the deep alluvial soil rose into a low cliff fringed with delicate
+ferns, they came full in sight of a scene at which all paused: not with
+astonishment, but with something very like disgust.
+
+“Rapids again!” grumbled one. “I thought we had had enough of them on
+the Orinoco.”
+
+“We shall have to get out, and draw the canoes overland, I suppose.
+Three hours will be lost, and in the very hottest of the day, too.”
+
+“There's worse behind; don't you see the spray behind the palms?”
+
+“Stop grumbling, my masters, and don't cry out before you are hurt.
+Paddle right up to the largest of those islands, and let us look about
+us.”
+
+In front of them was a snow-white bar of raging foam, some ten feet
+high, along which were ranged three or four islands of black rock. Each
+was crested with a knot of lofty palms, whose green tops stood out clear
+against the bright sky, while the lower half of their stems loomed hazy
+through a luminous veil of rainbowed mist. The banks right and left
+of the fall were so densely fringed with a low hedge of shrubs, that
+landing seemed all but impossible; and their Indian guide, suddenly
+looking round him and whispering, bade them beware of savages; and
+pointed to a canoe which lay swinging in the eddies under the largest
+island, moored apparently to the root of some tree.
+
+“Silence all!” cried Amyas, “and paddle up thither and seize the canoe.
+If there be an Indian on the island, we will have speech of him: but
+mind and treat him friendly; and on your lives, neither strike nor
+shoot, even if he offers to fight.”
+
+So, choosing a line of smooth backwater just in the wake of the island,
+they drove their canoes up by main force, and fastened them safely
+by the side of the Indian's, while Amyas, always the foremost, sprang
+boldly on shore, whispering to the Indian boy to follow him.
+
+Once on the island, Amyas felt sure enough, that if its wild tenant had
+not seen them approach, he certainly had not heard them, so deafening
+was the noise which filled his brain, and seemed to make the very leaves
+upon the bushes quiver, and the solid stone beneath his feet to reel and
+ring. For two hundred yards and more above the fall nothing met his eye
+but one white waste of raging foam, with here and there a transverse
+dyke of rock, which hurled columns of spray and surges of beaded water
+high into the air,--strangely contrasting with the still and silent
+cliffs of green leaves which walled the river right and left, and more
+strangely still with the knots of enormous palms upon the islets, which
+reared their polished shafts a hundred feet into the air, straight and
+upright as masts, while their broad plumes and golden-clustered fruit
+slept in the sunshine far aloft, the image of the stateliest repose amid
+the wildest wrath of Nature.
+
+He looked round anxiously for the expected Indian; but he was nowhere to
+be seen; and, in the meanwhile, as he stept cautiously along the island,
+which was some fifty yards in length and breadth, his senses, accustomed
+as they were to such sights, could not help dwelling on the exquisite
+beauty of the scene; on the garden of gay flowers, of every imaginable
+form and hue, which fringed every boulder at his feet, peeping out amid
+delicate fern-fans and luxuriant cushions of moss; on the chequered
+shade of the palms, and the cool air, which wafted down from the
+cataracts above the scents of a thousand flowers. Gradually his ear
+became accustomed to the roar, and, above its mighty undertone, he could
+hear the whisper of the wind among the shrubs, and the hum of myriad
+insects; while the rock manakin, with its saffron plumage, flitted
+before him from stone to stone, calling cheerily, and seeming to lead
+him on. Suddenly, scrambling over the rocky flower-beds to the other
+side of the isle, he came upon a little shady beach, which, beneath a
+bank of stone some six feet high, fringed the edge of a perfectly still
+and glassy bay. Ten yards farther, the cataract fell sheer in thunder:
+but a high fern-fringed rock turned its force away from that quiet nook.
+In it the water swung slowly round and round in glassy dark-green rings,
+among which dimpled a hundred gaudy fish, waiting for every fly and worm
+which spun and quivered on the eddy. Here, if anywhere, was the place to
+find the owner of the canoe. He leapt down upon the pebbles; and as he
+did so, a figure rose from behind a neighboring rock, and met him face
+to face.
+
+It was an Indian girl; and yet, when he looked again,--was it an Indian
+girl? Amyas had seen hundreds of those delicate dark-skinned daughters
+of the forest, but never such a one as this. Her stature was taller,
+her limbs were fuller and more rounded; her complexion, though tanned by
+light, was fairer by far than his own sunburnt face; her hair, crowned
+with a garland of white flowers, was not lank, and straight, and black,
+like an Indian's, but of a rich, glossy brown, and curling richly and
+crisply from her very temples to her knees. Her forehead, though low,
+was upright and ample; her nose was straight and small; her lips, the
+lips of a European; her whole face of the highest and richest type of
+Spanish beauty; a collar of gold mingled with green beads hung round her
+neck, and golden bracelets were on her wrists. All the strange and dim
+legends of white Indians, and of nations of a higher race than Carib, or
+Arrowak, or Solimo, which Amyas had ever heard, rose up in his memory.
+She must be the daughter of some great cacique, perhaps of the lost
+Incas themselves--why not? And full of simple wonder, he gazed upon
+that fairy vision, while she, unabashed in her free innocence, gazed
+fearlessly in return, as Eve might have done in Paradise, upon the
+mighty stature, and the strange garments, and above all, on the bushy
+beard and flowing yellow locks of the Englishman.
+
+He spoke first, in some Indian tongue, gently and smilingly, and made
+a half-step forward; but quick as light she caught up from the ground a
+bow, and held it fiercely toward him, fitted with the long arrow,
+with which, as he could see, she had been striking fish, for a line of
+twisted grass hung from its barbed head. Amyas stopped, laid down his
+own bow and sword, and made another step in advance, smiling still,
+and making all Indian signs of amity: but the arrow was still pointed
+straight at his breast, and he knew the mettle and strength of the
+forest nymphs well enough to stand still and call for the Indian boy;
+too proud to retreat, but in the uncomfortable expectation of feeling
+every moment the shaft quivering between his ribs.
+
+The boy, who had been peering from above, leaped down to them in a
+moment; and began, as the safest method, grovelling on his nose upon the
+pebbles, while he tried two or three dialects; one of which at last she
+seemed to understand, and answered in a tone of evident suspicion and
+anger.
+
+“What does she say?”
+
+“That you are a Spaniard and a robber, because you have a beard.”
+
+“Tell her that we are no Spaniards, but that we hate them; and are come
+across the great waters to help the Indians to kill them.”
+
+The boy translated his speech. The nymph answered by a contemptuous
+shake of the head.
+
+“Tell her, that if she will send her tribe to us, we will do them no
+harm. We are going over the mountains to fight the Spaniards, and we
+want them to show us the way.”
+
+The boy had no sooner spoken, than, nimble as a deer, the nymph had
+sprung up the rocks, and darted between the palm-stems to her canoe.
+Suddenly she caught sight of the English boat, and stopped with a cry of
+fear and rage.
+
+“Let her pass!” shouted Amyas, who had followed her close. “Push your
+boat off, and let her pass. Boy, tell her to go on; they will not come
+near her.”
+
+But she hesitated still, and with arrow drawn to the head, faced first
+on the boat's crew, and then on Amyas, till the Englishmen had shoved
+off full twenty yards.
+
+Then, leaping into her tiny piragua, she darted into the wildest whirl
+of the eddies, shooting along with vigorous strokes, while the English
+trembled as they saw the frail bark spinning and leaping amid the
+muzzles of the alligators, and the huge dog-toothed trout: but with the
+swiftness of an arrow she reached the northern bank, drove her canoe
+among the bushes, and leaping from it, darted through some narrow
+opening in the bush, and vanished like a dream.
+
+“What fair virago have you unearthed?” cried Cary, as they toiled up
+again to the landing-place.
+
+“Beshrew me,” quoth Jack, “but we are in the very land of the nymphs,
+and I shall expect to see Diana herself next, with the moon on her
+forehead.”
+
+“Take care, then, where you wander hereabouts, Sir John: lest you end as
+Actaeon did, by turning into a stag, and being eaten by a jaguar.”
+
+“Actaeon was eaten by his own hounds, Mr. Cary, so the parallel don't
+hold. But surely she was a very wonder of beauty!”
+
+Why was it that Amyas did not like this harmless talk? There had come
+over him the strangest new feeling; as if that fair vision was his
+property, and the men had no right to talk about her, no right to have
+even seen her. And he spoke quite surlily as he said--
+
+“You may leave the women to themselves, my masters; you'll have to deal
+with the men ere long: so get your canoes up on the rock, and keep good
+watch.”
+
+“Hillo!” shouted one in a few minutes, “here's fresh fish enough to feed
+us all round. I suppose that young cat-a-mountain left it behind her
+in her hurry. I wish she had left her golden chains and ouches into the
+bargain.”
+
+“Well,” said another, “we'll take it as fair payment, for having made
+us drop down the current again to let her ladyship pass.”
+
+“Leave that fish alone,” said Amyas; “it is none of yours.”
+
+“Why, sir!” quoth the finder in a tone of sulky deprecation.
+
+“If we are to make good friends with the heathens, we had better not
+begin by stealing their goods. There are plenty more fish in the river;
+go and catch them, and let the Indians have their own.”
+
+The men were accustomed enough to strict and stern justice in their
+dealings with the savages: but they could not help looking slyly at
+each other, and hinting, when out of sight, that the captain seemed in a
+mighty fuss about his new acquaintance.
+
+However, they were expert by this time in all the Indian's fishing
+methods; and so abundant was the animal life which swarmed around every
+rock, that in an hour fish enough lay on the beach to feed them all;
+whose forms and colors, names and families, I must leave the reader to
+guess from the wondrous pages of Sir Richard Schomburgk, for I know too
+little of them to speak without the fear of making mistakes.
+
+A full hour passed before they saw anything more of their Indian
+neighbors; and then from under the bushes shot out a canoe, on which all
+eyes were fixed in expectation.
+
+Amyas, who expected to find there some remnant of a higher race, was
+disappointed enough at seeing on board only the usual half-dozen of
+low-browed, dirty Orsons, painted red with arnotto: but a gray-headed
+elder at the stern seemed, by his feathers and gold ornaments, to be
+some man of note in the little woodland community.
+
+The canoe came close up to the island; Amyas saw that they were unarmed,
+and, laying down his weapons, advanced alone to the bank, making all
+signs of amity. They were returned with interest by the old man, and
+Amyas's next care was to bring forward the fish which the fair nymph
+had left behind, and, through the medium of the Indian lad, to give the
+cacique (for so he seemed to be) to understand that he wished to render
+every one his own. This offer was received, as Amyas expected, with
+great applause, and the canoe came alongside; but the crew still seemed
+afraid to land. Amyas bade his men throw the fish one by one into the
+boat; and then proclaimed by the boy's mouth, as was his custom with all
+Indians, that he and his were enemies of the Spaniards, and on their
+way to make war against them,--and that all which they desired was a
+peaceable and safe passage through the dominions of the mighty potentate
+and renowned warrior whom they beheld before them; for Amyas argued
+rightly enough, that even if the old fellow aft was not the cacique, he
+would be none the less pleased at being mistaken for him.
+
+Whereon the ancient worthy, rising in the canoe, pointed to heaven,
+earth, and the things under, and commenced a long sermon, in tone,
+manner, and articulation, very like one of those which the great
+black-bearded apes were in the habit of preaching every evening when
+they could get together a congregation of little monkeys to listen, to
+the great scandal of Jack, who would have it that some evil spirit set
+them on to mimic him; which sermon, being partly interpreted by the
+Indian lad, seemed to signify, that the valor and justice of the white
+men had already reached the ears of the speaker, and that he was sent to
+welcome them into those regions by the Daughter of the Sun.
+
+“The Daughter of the Sun!” quoth Amyas; “then we have found the lost
+Incas after all.”
+
+“We have found something,” said Cary; “I only hope it may not be a
+mare's nest, like many another of our finding.”
+
+“Or an adder's,” said Yeo. “We must beware of treachery.”
+
+“We must beware of no such thing,” said Amyas, pretty sharply. “Have I
+not told you fifty times, that if they see that we trust them, they will
+trust us, and if they see that we suspect them, they will suspect us?
+And when two parties are watching to see who strikes the first blow,
+they are sure to come to fisticuffs from mere dirty fear of each other.”
+
+Amyas spoke truth; for almost every atrocity against savages which had
+been committed by the Spaniards, and which was in later and worse times
+committed by the English, was wont to be excused in that same base fear
+of treachery. Amyas's plan, like that of Drake, and Cook, and all
+great English voyagers, had been all along to inspire at once awe
+and confidence, by a frank and fearless carriage; and he was not
+disappointed here. He bade the men step boldly into their canoes, and
+follow the old Indian whither he would. The simple children of the
+forest bowed themselves reverently before the mighty strangers, and then
+led them smilingly across the stream, and through a narrow passage in
+the covert, to a hidden lagoon, on the banks of which stood, not Manoa,
+but a tiny Indian village.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+HOW AMYAS WAS TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL
+
+     “Let us alone.  What pleasure can we have
+        To war with evil?  Is there any peace
+     In always climbing up the climbing wave?
+        All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave
+     In silence; ripen, fall, and cease:
+        Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease.”
+
+                                                       TENNYSON.
+
+Humboldt has somewhere a curious passage; in which, looking on some
+wretched group of Indians, squatting stupidly round their fires,
+besmeared with grease and paint, and devouring ants and clay, he
+somewhat naively remarks, that were it not for science, which teaches
+us that such is the crude material of humanity, and this the state from
+which we all have risen, he should have been tempted rather to look upon
+those hapless beings as the last degraded remnants of some fallen and
+dying race. One wishes that the great traveller had been bold enough
+to yield to that temptation, which his own reason and common sense
+presented to him as the real explanation of the sad sight, instead
+of following the dogmas of a so-called science, which has not a fact
+whereon to base its wild notion, and must ignore a thousand facts in
+asserting it. His own good sense, it seems, coincided instinctively with
+the Bible doctrine, that man in a state of nature is a fallen being,
+doomed to death--a view which may be a sad one, but still one more
+honorable to poor humanity than the theory, that we all began as some
+sort of two-handed apes. It is surely more hopeful to believe that those
+poor Otomacs or Guahibas were not what they ought to be, than to believe
+that they were. It is certainly more complimentary to them to think that
+they had been somewhat nobler and more prudent in centuries gone by,
+than that they were such blockheads as to have dragged on, the son after
+the father, for all the thousands of years which have elapsed since man
+was made, without having had wit enough to discover any better food than
+ants and clay.
+
+Our voyagers, however, like those of their time, troubled their heads
+with no such questions. Taking the Bible story as they found it, they
+agreed with Humboldt's reason, and not with his science; or, to speak
+correctly, agreed with Humboldt's self, and not with the shallow
+anthropologic theories which happened to be in vogue fifty years ago;
+and their new hosts were in their eyes immortal souls like themselves,
+“captivated by the devil at his will,” lost there in the pathless
+forests, likely to be lost hereafter.
+
+And certainly facts seemed to bear out their old-fashioned theories;
+although these Indians had sunk by no means so low as the Guahibas whom
+they had met upon the lower waters of the same river.
+
+They beheld, on landing, a scattered village of palm-leaf sheds, under
+which, as usual, the hammocks were slung from tree to tree. Here
+and there, in openings in the forest, patches of cassava and indigo
+appeared; and there was a look of neatness and comfort about the little
+settlement superior to the average.
+
+But now for the signs of the evil spirit. Certainly it was no good
+spirit who had inspired them with the art of music; or else (as Cary
+said) Apollo and Mercury (if they ever visited America) had played their
+forefathers a shabby trick, and put them off with very poor instruments,
+and still poorer taste. For on either side of the landing-place were
+arranged four or five stout fellows, each with a tall drum, or long
+earthen trumpet, swelling out in the course of its length into several
+hollow balls from which arose, the moment the strangers set foot on
+shore, so deafening a cacophony of howls, and groans, and thumps, as
+fully to justify Yeo's remark, “They are calling upon their devil, sir.”
+ To which Cary answered, with some show of reason, that “they were the
+less likely to be disappointed, for none but Sir Urian would ever come
+to listen to such a noise.”
+
+“And you mark, sirs,” said Yeo, “there's some feast or sacrifice toward.
+I'm not overconfident of them yet.”
+
+“Nonsense!” said Amyas, “we could kill every soul of them in
+half-an-hour, and they know that as well as we.”
+
+But some great demonstration was plainly toward; for the children of the
+forest were arrayed in two lines, right and left of the open space, the
+men in front, and the women behind; and all bedizened, to the best of
+their power, with arnotto, indigo, and feathers.
+
+Next, with a hideous yell, leapt into the centre of the space a
+personage who certainly could not have complained if any one had taken
+him for the devil, for he had dressed himself up carefully for that very
+intent, in a jaguar-skin with a long tail, grinning teeth, a pair of
+horns, a plume of black and yellow feathers, and a huge rattle.
+
+“Here's the Piache, the rascal,” says Amyas.
+
+“Ay,” says Yeo, “in Satan's livery, and I've no doubt his works are
+according, trust him for it.”
+
+“Don't be frightened, Jack,” says Cary, backing up Brimblecombe from
+behind. “It's your business to tackle him, you know. At him boldly, and
+he'll run.”
+
+Whereat all the men laughed; and the Piache, who had intended to produce
+a very solemn impression, hung fire a little. However, being accustomed
+to get his bread by his impudence, he soon recovered himself, advanced,
+smote one of the musicians over the head with his rattle to procure
+silence; and then began a harangue, to which Amyas listened patiently,
+cigar in mouth.
+
+“What's it all about, boy?”
+
+“He wants to know whether you have seen Amalivaca on the other shore of
+the great water?”
+
+Amyas was accustomed to this inquiry after the mythic civilizer of
+the forest Indians, who, after carving the mysterious sculptures which
+appear upon so many inland cliffs of that region, returned again whence
+he came, beyond the ocean. He answered, as usual, by setting forth the
+praises of Queen Elizabeth.
+
+To which the Piache replied, that she must be one of Amalivaca's seven
+daughters, some of whom he took back with him, while he broke the legs
+of the rest to prevent their running away, and left them to people the
+forests.
+
+To which Amyas replied, that his queen's legs were certainly not broken;
+for she was a very model of grace and activity, and the best dancer in
+all her dominions; but that it was more important to him to know whether
+the tribe would give them cassava bread, and let them stay peaceably on
+that island, to rest a while before they went on to fight the clothed
+men (the Spaniards), on the other side of the mountains.
+
+On which the Piache, after capering and turning head over heels with
+much howling, beckoned Amyas and his party to follow him; they did so,
+seeing that the Indians were all unarmed, and evidently in the highest
+good humor.
+
+The Piache went toward the door of a carefully closed hut, and crawling
+up to it on all-fours in most abject fashion, began whining to some one
+within.
+
+“Ask what he is about, boy.”
+
+The lad asked the old cacique, who had accompanied them, and received
+for answer, that he was consulting the Daughter of the Sun.
+
+“Here is our mare's nest at last,” quoth Cary, as the Piache from whines
+rose to screams and gesticulations, and then to violent convulsions,
+foaming at the mouth, and rolling of the eyeballs, till he suddenly sank
+exhausted, and lay for dead.
+
+“As good as a stage play.”
+
+“The devil has played his part,” says Jack; “and now by the rules of all
+plays Vice should come on.”
+
+“And a very fair Vice it will be, I suspect; a right sweet Iniquity, my
+Jack! Listen.”
+
+And from the interior of the hut rose a low sweet song, at which all
+the simple Indians bowed their heads in reverence; and the English were
+hushed in astonishment; for the voice was not shrill or guttural, like
+that of an Indian, but round, clear, and rich, like a European's; and as
+it swelled and rose louder and louder, showed a compass and power which
+would have been extraordinary anywhere (and many a man of the party,
+as was usual in musical old England, was a good judge enough of such
+a matter, and could hold his part right well in glee, and catch, and
+roundelay, and psalm). And as it leaped, and ran, and sank again, and
+rose once more to fall once more, all but inarticulate, yet perfect in
+melody, like the voice of bird on bough, the wild wanderers were rapt
+in new delight, and did not wonder at the Indians as they bowed their
+heads, and welcomed the notes as messengers from some higher world. At
+last one triumphant burst, so shrill that all ears rang again, and then
+dead silence. The Piache, suddenly restored to life, jumped upright, and
+recommenced preaching at Amyas.
+
+“Tell the howling villain to make short work of it, lad! His tune won't
+do after that last one.”
+
+The lad, grinning, informed Amyas that the Piache signified their
+acceptance as friends by the Daughter of the Sun; that her friends were
+theirs, and her foes theirs. Whereon the Indians set up a scream of
+delight, and Amyas, rolling another tobacco leaf up in another strip of
+plantain, answered,--
+
+“Then let her give us some cassava,” and lighted a fresh cigar.
+
+Whereon the door of the hut opened, and the Indians prostrated
+themselves to the earth, as there came forth the same fair apparition
+which they had encountered upon the island, but decked now in
+feather-robes, and plumes of every imaginable hue.
+
+Slowly and stately, as one accustomed to command, she walked up to
+Amyas, glancing proudly round on her prostrate adorers, and pointing
+with graceful arms to the trees, the gardens, and the huts, gave him to
+understand by signs (so expressive were her looks, that no words were
+needed) that all was at his service; after which, taking his hand, she
+lifted it gently to her forehead.
+
+At that sign of submission a shout of rapture rose from the crowd; and
+as the mysterious maiden retired again to her hut, they pressed round
+the English, caressing and admiring, pointing with equal surprise to
+their swords, to their Indian bows and blow-guns, and to the trophies
+of wild beasts with which they were clothed; while women hastened off
+to bring fruit, and flowers, and cassava, and (to Amyas's great anxiety)
+calabashes of intoxicating drink; and, to make a long story short, the
+English sat down beneath the trees, and feasted merrily, while the drums
+and trumpets made hideous music, and lithe young girls and lads danced
+uncouth dances, which so scandalized both Brimblecombe and Yeo, that
+they persuaded Amyas to beat an early retreat. He was willing enough
+to get back to the island while the men were still sober; so there were
+many leave-takings and promises of return on the morrow, and the party
+paddled back to their island-fortress, racking their wits as to who or
+what the mysterious maid could be.
+
+Amyas, however, had settled in his mind that she was one of the lost
+Inca race; perhaps a descendant of that very fair girl, wife of the
+Inca Manco, whom Pizarro, forty years before, had, merely to torture
+the fugitive king's heart, as his body was safe from the tyrant's reach,
+stripped, scourged, and shot to death with arrows, uncomplaining to the
+last.
+
+They all assembled for the evening service (hardly a day had passed
+since they left England on which they had not done the same); and after
+it was over, they must needs sing a Psalm, and then a catch or two, ere
+they went to sleep; and till the moon was high in heaven, twenty mellow
+voices rang out above the roar of the cataract, in many a good old tune.
+Once or twice they thought they heard an echo to their song: but they
+took no note of it, till Cary, who had gone apart for a few minutes,
+returned, and whispered Amyas away.
+
+“The sweet Iniquity is mimicking us, lad.”
+
+They went to the brink of the river; and there (for their ears were by
+this time dead to the noise of the torrent) they could hear plainly the
+same voice which had so surprised them in the hut, repeating, clear
+and true, snatches of the airs which they had sung. Strange and solemn
+enough was the effect of the men's deep voices on the island, answered
+out of the dark forest by those sweet treble notes; and the two young
+men stood a long while listening and looking out across the eddies,
+which swirled down golden in the moonlight: but they could see nothing
+beyond save the black wall of trees. After a while the voice ceased, and
+the two returned to dream of Incas and nightingales.
+
+They visited the village again next day; and every day for a week or
+more: but the maiden appeared but rarely, and when she did, kept her
+distance as haughtily as a queen.
+
+Amyas, of course, as soon as he could converse somewhat better with his
+new friends, was not long before he questioned the cacique about
+her. But the old man made an owl's face at her name, and intimated by
+mysterious shakes of the head, that she was a very strange personage,
+and the less said about her the better. She was “a child of the Sun,”
+ and that was enough.
+
+“Tell him, boy,” quoth Cary, “that we are the children of the Sun by
+his first wife; and have orders from him to inquire how the Indians
+have behaved to our step-sister, for he cannot see all their tricks down
+here, the trees are so thick. So let him tell us, or all the cassava
+plants shall be blighted.”
+
+“Will, Will, don't play with lying!” said Amyas: but the threat was
+enough for the cacique, and taking them in his canoe a full mile down
+the stream, as if in fear that the wonderful maiden should overhear him,
+he told them, in a sort of rhythmic chant, how, many moons ago (he
+could not tell how many), his tribe was a mighty nation, and dwelt in
+Papamene, till the Spaniards drove them forth. And how, as they wandered
+northward, far away upon the mountain spurs beneath the flaming cone
+of Cotopaxi, they had found this fair creature wandering in the forest,
+about the bigness of a seven years' child. Wondering at her white skin
+and her delicate beauty, the simple Indians worshipped her as a god,
+and led her home with them. And when they found that she was human like
+themselves, their wonder scarcely lessened. How could so tender a being
+have sustained life in those forests, and escaped the jaguar and the
+snake? She must be under some Divine protection: she must be a daughter
+of the Sun, one of that mighty Inca race, the news of whose fearful
+fall had reached even those lonely wildernesses; who had, many of them,
+haunted for years as exiles the eastern slopes of the Andes, about the
+Ucalayi and the Maranon; who would, as all Indians knew, rise again
+some day to power, when bearded white men should come across the seas to
+restore them to their ancient throne.
+
+So, as the girl grew up among them, she was tended with royal honors,
+by command of the conjuror of the tribe, that so her forefather the Sun
+might be propitious to them, and the Incas might show favor to the poor
+ruined Omaguas, in the day of their coming glory. And as she grew, she
+had become, it seemed, somewhat of a prophetess among them, as well
+as an object of fetish-worship; for she was more prudent in council,
+valiant in war, and cunning in the chase, than all the elders of the
+tribe; and those strange and sweet songs of hers, which had so surprised
+the white men, were full of mysterious wisdom about the birds, and the
+animals, and the flowers, and the rivers, which the Sun and the Good
+Spirit taught her from above. So she had lived among them, unmarried
+still, not only because she despised the addresses of all Indian youths,
+but because the conjuror had declared it to be profane in them to mingle
+with the race of the Sun, and had assigned her a cabin near his own,
+where she was served in state, and gave some sort of oracular responses,
+as they had seen, to the questions which he put to her.
+
+Such was the cacique's tale; on which Cary remarked, probably not
+unjustly, that he “dared to say the conjuror made a very good thing of
+it:” but Amyas was silent, full of dreams, if not about Manoa, still
+about the remnant of the Inca race. What if they were still to be found
+about the southern sources of the Amazon? He must have been very near
+them already, in that case. It was vexatious; but at least he might
+be sure that they had formed no great kingdom in that direction, or he
+should have heard of it long ago. Perhaps they had moved lately from
+thence eastward, to escape some fresh encroachment of the Spaniards; and
+this girl had been left behind in their flight. And then he recollected,
+with a sigh, how hopeless was any further search with his diminished
+band. At least, he might learn something of the truth from the maiden
+herself. It might be useful to him in some future attempt; for he
+had not yet given up Manoa. If he but got safe home, there was many a
+gallant gentleman (and Raleigh came at once into his mind) who would
+join him in a fresh search for the Golden City of Guiana; not by the
+upper waters, but by the mouth of the Orinoco.
+
+So they paddled back, while the simple cacique entreated them to tell
+the Sun, in their daily prayers, how well the wild people had treated
+his descendant; and besought them not to take her away with them, lest
+the Sun should forget the poor Omaguas, and ripen their manioc and their
+fruit no more.
+
+Amyas had no wish to stay where he was longer than was absolutely
+necessary to bring up the sick men from the Orinoco; but this, he well
+knew, would be a journey probably of some months, and attended with much
+danger.
+
+Cary volunteered at once, however, to undertake the adventure, if
+half-a-dozen men would join him, and the Indians would send a few young
+men to help in working the canoe: but this latter item was not an easy
+one to obtain; for the tribe with whom they now were, stood in some fear
+of the fierce and brutal Guahibas, through whose country they must pass;
+and every Indian tribe, as Amyas knew well enough, looks on each tribe
+of different language to itself as natural enemies, hateful, and made
+only to be destroyed wherever met. This strange fact, too, Amyas and his
+party attributed to delusion of the devil, the divider and accuser; and
+I am of opinion that they were perfectly right: only let Amyas take care
+that while he is discovering the devil in the Indians, he does not give
+place to him in himself, and that in more ways than one. But of that
+more hereafter.
+
+Whether, however, it was pride or shyness which kept the maiden aloof,
+she conquered it after a while; perhaps through mere woman's curiosity;
+and perhaps, too, from mere longing for amusement in a place so
+unspeakably stupid as the forest. She gave the English to understand,
+however, that though they all might be very important personages, none
+of them was to be her companion but Amyas. And ere a month was past, she
+was often hunting with him far and wide in the neighboring forest, with
+a train of chosen nymphs, whom she had persuaded to follow her example
+and spurn the dusky suitors around. This fashion, not uncommon, perhaps,
+among the Indian tribes, where women are continually escaping to
+the forest from the tyranny of the men, and often, perhaps, forming
+temporary communities, was to the English a plain proof that they were
+near the land of the famous Amazons, of whom they had heard so often
+from the Indians; while Amyas had no doubt that, as a descendant of the
+Incas, the maiden preserved the tradition of the Virgins of the Sun, and
+of the austere monastic rule of the Peruvian superstition. Had not that
+valiant German, George of Spires, and Jeronimo Ortal too, fifty years
+before, found convents of the Sun upon these very upper waters?
+
+So a harmless friendship sprang up between Amyas and the girl, which
+soon turned to good account. For she no sooner heard that he needed a
+crew of Indians, than she consulted the Piache, assembled the tribe, and
+having retired to her hut, commenced a song, which (unless the Piache
+lied) was a command to furnish young men for Cary's expedition,
+under penalty of the sovereign displeasure of an evil spirit with an
+unpronounceable name--an argument which succeeded on the spot, and the
+canoe departed on its perilous errand.
+
+John Brimblecombe had great doubts whether a venture thus started by
+direct help and patronage of the fiend would succeed; and Amyas himself,
+disliking the humbug, told Ayacanora that it would be better to have
+told the tribe that it was a good deed, and pleasing to the Good Spirit.
+
+“Ah!” said she, naively enough, “they know better than that. The Good
+Spirit is big and lazy; and he smiles, and takes no trouble: but the
+little bad spirit, he is so busy--here, and there, and everywhere,” and
+she waved her pretty hands up and down; “he is the useful one to have
+for a friend!” Which sentiment the Piache much approved, as became his
+occupation; and once told Brimblecombe pretty sharply, that he was a
+meddlesome fellow for telling the Indians that the Good Spirit cared for
+them; “for,” quoth he, “if they begin to ask the Good Spirit for what
+they want, who will bring me cassava and coca for keeping the bad spirit
+quiet?” This argument, however forcible the devil's priests in all ages
+have felt it to be, did not stop Jack's preaching (and very good and
+righteous preaching it was, moreover), and much less the morning and
+evening service in the island camp. This last, the Indians, attracted
+by the singing, attended in such numbers, that the Piache found his
+occupation gone, and vowed to put an end to Jack's Gospel with a
+poisoned arrow.
+
+Which plan he (blinded by his master, Satan, so Jack phrased it) took
+into his head to impart to Ayacanora, as the partner of his tithes and
+offerings; and was exceedingly astonished to receive in answer a box on
+the ear, and a storm of abuse. After which, Ayacanora went to Amyas,
+and telling him all, proposed that the Piache should be thrown to the
+alligators, and Jack installed in his place; declaring that whatsoever
+the bearded men said must be true, and whosoever plotted against them
+should die the death.
+
+Jack, however, magnanimously forgave his foe, and preached on, of course
+with fresh zeal; but not, alas! with much success. For the conjuror,
+though his main treasure was gone over to the camp of the enemy, had a
+reserve in a certain holy trumpet, which was hidden mysteriously in a
+cave on the neighboring hills, not to be looked on by woman under pain
+of death; and it was well known, and had been known for generations,
+that unless that trumpet, after fastings, flagellations, and other
+solemn rites, was blown by night throughout the woods, the palm-trees
+would bear no fruit; yea, so great was the fame of that trumpet, that
+neighboring tribes sent at the proper season to hire it and the blower
+thereof, by payment of much precious trumpery, that so they might be
+sharers in its fertilizing powers.
+
+So the Piache announced one day in public, that in consequence of the
+impiety of the Omaguas, he should retire to a neighboring tribe, of more
+religious turn of mind; and taking with him the precious instrument,
+leave their palms to blight, and themselves to the evil spirit.
+
+Dire was the wailing, and dire the wrath throughout the village.
+Jack's words were allowed to be good words; but what was the Gospel in
+comparison of the trumpet? The rascal saw his advantage, and began
+a fierce harangue against the heretic strangers. As he maddened, his
+hearers maddened; the savage nature, capricious as a child's, flashed
+out in wild suspicion. Women yelled, men scowled, and ran hastily to
+their huts for bows and blow-guns. The case was grown critical. There
+were not more than a dozen men with Amyas at the time, and they had only
+their swords, while the Indian men might muster nearly a hundred. Amyas
+forbade his men either to draw or to retreat; but poisoned arrows were
+weapons before which the boldest might well quail; and more than one
+cheek grew pale, which had seldom been pale before.
+
+“It is God's quarrel, sirs all,” said Jack Brimblecombe; “let Him defend
+the right.”
+
+As he spoke, from Ayacanora's hut arose her magic song, and quivered
+aloft among the green heights of the forest.
+
+The mob stood spell-bound, still growling fiercely, but not daring to
+move. Another moment, and she had rushed out, like a very Diana, into
+the centre of the ring, bow in hand, and arrow on the string.
+
+The fallen “children of wrath” had found their match in her; for her
+beautiful face was convulsed with fury. Almost foaming in her passion,
+she burst forth with bitter revilings; she pointed with admiration to
+the English, and then with fiercest contempt to the Indians; and at
+last, with fierce gestures, seemed to cast off the very dust of her
+feet against them, and springing to Amyas's side, placed herself in the
+forefront of the English battle.
+
+The whole scene was so sudden, that Amyas had hardly discovered whether
+she came as friend or foe, before her bow was raised. He had just time
+to strike up her hand, when the arrow flew past the ear of the offending
+Piache, and stuck quivering in a tree.
+
+“Let me kill the wretch!” said she, stamping with rage; but Amyas held
+her arm firmly.
+
+“Fools!” cried she to the tribe, while tears of anger rolled down her
+cheeks. “Choose between me and your trumpet! I am a daughter of the Sun;
+I am white; I am a companion for Englishmen! But you! your mothers were
+Guahibas, and ate mud; and your fathers--they were howling apes! Let
+them sing to you! I shall go to the white men, and never sing you to
+sleep any more; and when the little evil spirit misses my voice, he will
+come and tumble you out of your hammocks, and make you dream of ghosts
+every night, till you grow as thin as blow-guns, and as stupid as
+aye-ayes!”*
+
+     * Two-toed sloths.
+
+This terrible counter-threat, in spite of the slight bathos involved,
+had its effect; for it appealed to that dread of the sleep world which
+is common to all savages: but the conjuror was ready to outbid the
+prophetess, and had begun a fresh oration, when Amyas turned the tide
+of war. Bursting into a huge laugh at the whole matter, he took the
+conjuror by his shoulders, sent him with one crafty kick half-a-dozen
+yards off upon his nose; and then, walking out of the ranks, shook hands
+round with all his Indian acquaintances.
+
+Whereon, like grown-up babies, they all burst out laughing too, shook
+hands with all the English, and then with each other; being, after all,
+as glad as any bishops to prorogue the convocation, and let unpleasant
+questions stand over till the next session. The Piache relented, like
+a prudent man; Ayacanora returned to her hut to sulk; and Amyas to his
+island, to long for Cary's return, for he felt himself on dangerous
+ground.
+
+At last Will returned, safe and sound, and as merry as ever, not having
+lost a man (though he had had a smart brush with the Guahibas). He
+brought back three of the wounded men, now pretty nigh cured; the other
+two, who had lost a leg apiece, had refused to come. They had Indian
+wives; more than they could eat; and tobacco without end: and if it were
+not for the gnats (of which Cary said that there were more mosquitoes
+than there was air), they should be the happiest men alive. Amyas could
+hardly blame the poor fellows; for the chance of their getting home
+through the forest with one leg each was very small, and, after all,
+they were making the best of a bad matter. And a very bad matter it
+seemed to him, to be left in a heathen land; and a still worse matter,
+when he overheard some of the men talking about their comrades' lonely
+fate, as if, after all, they were not so much to be pitied. He said
+nothing about it then, for he made a rule never to take notice of any
+facts which he got at by eavesdropping, however unintentional; but he
+longed that one of them would say as much to him, and he would “give
+them a piece of his mind.” And a piece of his mind he had to give within
+the week; for while he was on a hunting party, two of his men were
+missing, and were not heard of for some days; at the end of which time
+the old cacique come to tell him that he believed they had taken to the
+forest, each with an Indian girl.
+
+Amyas was very wroth at the news. First, because it had never happened
+before: he could say with honest pride, as Raleigh did afterwards when
+he returned from his Guiana voyage, that no Indian woman had ever been
+the worse for any man of his. He had preached on this point month after
+month, and practised what he preached; and now his pride was sorely
+hurt.
+
+Moreover, he dreaded offence to the Indians themselves: but on this
+score the cacique soon comforted him, telling him that the girls, as far
+as he could find, had gone off of their own free will; intimating that
+he thought it somewhat an honor to the tribe that they had found favor
+in the eyes of the bearded men; and moreover, that late wars had so
+thinned the ranks of their men, that they were glad enough to find
+husbands for their maidens, and had been driven of late years to kill
+many of their female infants. This sad story, common perhaps to every
+American tribe, and one of the chief causes of their extermination,
+reassured Amyas somewhat: but he could not stomach either the loss of
+his men, or their breach of discipline; and look for them he would. Did
+any one know where they were? If the tribe knew, they did not care to
+tell: but Ayacanora, the moment she found out his wishes, vanished into
+the forest, and returned in two days, saying that she had found the
+fugitives; but she would not show him where they were, unless he
+promised not to kill them. He, of course, had no mind for so rigorous a
+method: he both needed the men, and he had no malice against them,--for
+the one, Ebsworthy, was a plain, honest, happy-go-lucky sailor, and
+as good a hand as there was in the crew; and the other was that same
+ne'er-do-weel Will Parracombe, his old schoolfellow, who had been
+tempted by the gipsy-Jesuit at Appledore, and resisting that bait, had
+made a very fair seaman.
+
+So forth Amyas went, with Ayacanora as a guide, some five miles upward
+along the forest slopes, till the girl whispered, “There they are;”
+ and Amyas, pushing himself gently through a thicket of bamboo, beheld
+a scene which, in spite of his wrath, kept him silent, and perhaps
+softened, for a minute.
+
+On the farther side of a little lawn, the stream leapt through a chasm
+beneath overarching vines, sprinkling eternal freshness upon all around,
+and then sank foaming into a clear rock-basin, a bath for Dian's self.
+On its farther side, the crag rose some twenty feet in height, bank upon
+bank of feathered ferns and cushioned moss, over the rich green beds of
+which drooped a thousand orchids, scarlet, white, and orange, and made
+the still pool gorgeous with the reflection of their gorgeousness. At
+its more quiet outfall, it was half-hidden in huge fantastic leaves and
+tall flowering stems; but near the waterfall the grassy bank sloped
+down toward the stream, and there, on palm-leaves strewed upon the turf,
+beneath the shadow of the crags, lay the two men whom Amyas sought,
+and whom, now he had found them, he had hardly heart to wake from their
+delicious dream.
+
+For what a nest it was which they had found! the air was heavy with
+the scent of flowers, and quivering with the murmur of the stream, the
+humming of the colibris and insects, the cheerful song of birds, the
+gentle cooing of a hundred doves; while now and then, from far away,
+the musical wail of the sloth, or the deep toll of the bell-bird, came
+softly to the ear. What was not there which eye or ear could need? And
+what which palate could need either? For on the rock above, some strange
+tree, leaning forward, dropped every now and then a luscious apple upon
+the grass below, and huge wild plantains bent beneath their load of
+fruit.
+
+There, on the stream bank, lay the two renegades from civilized life.
+They had cast away their clothes, and painted themselves, like the
+Indians, with arnotto and indigo. One lay lazily picking up the fruit
+which fell close to his side; the other sat, his back against a cushion
+of soft moss, his hands folded languidly upon his lap, giving himself up
+to the soft influence of the narcotic coca-juice, with half-shut dreamy
+eyes fixed on the everlasting sparkle of the waterfall--
+
+     “While beauty, born of murmuring sound,
+     Did pass into his face.”
+
+Somewhat apart crouched their two dusky brides, crowned with fragrant
+flowers, but working busily, like true women, for the lords whom they
+delighted to honor. One sat plaiting palm fibres into a basket; the
+other was boring the stem of a huge milk-tree, which rose like some
+mighty column on the right hand of the lawn, its broad canopy of leaves
+unseen through the dense underwood of laurel and bamboo, and betokened
+only by the rustle far aloft, and by the mellow shade in which it bathed
+the whole delicious scene.
+
+Amyas stood silent for awhile, partly from noble shame at seeing two
+Christian men thus fallen of their own self-will; partly because--and
+he could not but confess that--a solemn calm brooded above that glorious
+place, to break through which seemed sacrilege even while he felt it
+a duty. Such, he thought, was Paradise of old; such our first parents'
+bridal bower! Ah! if man had not fallen, he too might have dwelt forever
+in such a home--with whom? He started, and shaking off the spell,
+advanced sword in hand.
+
+The women saw him, and springing to their feet, caught up their long
+pocunas, and leapt like deer each in front of her beloved. There they
+stood, the deadly tubes pressed to their lips, eyeing him like tigresses
+who protect their young, while every slender limb quivered, not with
+terror, but with rage.
+
+Amyas paused, half in admiration, half in prudence; for one rash step
+was death. But rushing through the canes, Ayacanora sprang to the front,
+and shrieked to them in Indian. At the sight of the prophetess the women
+wavered, and Amyas, putting on as gentle a face as he could, stepped
+forward, assuring them in his best Indian that he would harm no one.
+
+“Ebsworthy! Parracombe! Are you grown such savages already, that you
+have forgotten your captain? Stand up, men, and salute!”
+
+Ebsworthy sprang to his feet, obeyed mechanically, and then slipped
+behind his bride again, as if in shame. The dreamer turned his head
+languidly, raised his hand to his forehead, and then returned to his
+contemplation.
+
+Amyas rested the point of his sword on the ground, and his hands upon
+the hilt, and looked sadly and solemnly upon the pair. Ebsworthy broke
+the silence, half reproachfully, half trying to bluster away the coming
+storm.
+
+“Well, noble captain, so you've hunted out us poor fellows; and want to
+drag us back again in a halter, I suppose?”
+
+“I came to look for Christians, and I find heathens; for men, and I find
+swine. I shall leave the heathens to their wilderness, and the swine to
+their trough. Parracombe!”
+
+“He's too happy to answer you, sir. And why not? What do you want of us?
+Our two years vow is out, and we are free men now.”
+
+“Free to become like the beasts that perish? You are the queen's
+servants still, and in her name I charge you--
+
+“Free to be happy,” interrupted the man. “With the best of wives, the
+best of food, a warmer bed than a duke's, and a finer garden than an
+emperor's. As for clothes, why the plague should a man wear them where
+he don't need them? As for gold, what's the use of it where Heaven sends
+everything ready-made to your hands? Hearken, Captain Leigh. You've been
+a good captain to me, and I'll repay you with a bit of sound advice.
+Give up your gold-hunting, and toiling and moiling after honor and
+glory, and copy us. Take that fair maid behind you there to wife; pitch
+here with us; and see if you are not happier in one day than ever you
+were in all your life before.”
+
+“You are drunk, sirrah! William Parracombe! Will you speak to me, or
+shall I heave you into the stream to sober you?”
+
+“Who calls William Parracombe?” answered a sleepy voice.
+
+“I, fool!--your captain.”
+
+“I am not William Parracombe. He is dead long ago of hunger, and labor,
+and heavy sorrow, and will never see Bideford town any more. He is
+turned into an Indian now; and he is to sleep, sleep, sleep for a
+hundred years, till he gets his strength again, poor fellow--”
+
+“Awake, then, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ
+shall give thee light! A christened Englishman, and living thus the life
+of a beast?”
+
+“Christ shall give thee light?” answered the same unnatural abstracted
+voice. “Yes; so the parsons say. And they say too, that He is Lord of
+heaven and earth. I should have thought His light was as near us here
+as anywhere, and nearer too, by the look of the place. Look round!”
+ said he, waving a lazy hand, “and see the works of God, and the place of
+Paradise, whither poor weary souls go home and rest, after their masters
+in the wicked world have used them up, with labor and sorrow, and made
+them wade knee-deep in blood--I'm tired of blood, and tired of gold.
+I'll march no more; I'll fight no more; I'll hunger no more after vanity
+and vexation of spirit. What shall I get by it? Maybe I shall leave my
+bones in the wilderness. I can but do that here. Maybe I shall get home
+with a few pezos, to die an old cripple in some stinking hovel, that a
+monkey would scorn to lodge in here. You may go on; it'll pay you. You
+may be a rich man, and a knight, and live in a fine house, and drink
+good wine, and go to Court, and torment your soul with trying to
+get more, when you've got too much already; plotting and planning to
+scramble upon your neighbor's shoulders, as they all did--Sir Richard,
+and Mr. Raleigh, and Chichester, and poor dear old Sir Warham, and all
+of them that I used to watch when I lived before. They were no happier
+than I was then; I'll warrant they are no happier now. Go your ways,
+captain; climb to glory upon some other backs than ours, and leave us
+here in peace, alone with God and God's woods, and the good wives that
+God has given us, to play a little like school children. It's long since
+I've had play-hours; and now I'll be a little child once more, with the
+flowers, and the singing birds, and the silver fishes in the stream,
+that are at peace, and think no harm, and want neither clothes, nor
+money, nor knighthood, nor peerage, but just take what comes; and their
+heavenly Father feedeth them, and Solomon in all his glory was not
+arrayed like one of these--and will He not much more feed us, that are
+of more value than many sparrows?”
+
+“And will you live here, shut out from all Christian ordinances?”
+
+“Christian ordinances? Adam and Eve had no parsons in Paradise. The Lord
+was their priest, and the Lord was their shepherd, and He'll be ours
+too. But go your ways, sir, and send up Sir John Brimblecombe, and let
+him marry us here Church fashion (though we have sworn troth to each
+other before God already), and let him give us the Holy Sacrament once
+and for all, and then read the funeral service over us, and go his ways,
+and count us for dead, sir--for dead we are to the wicked worthless
+world we came out of three years ago. And when the Lord chooses to call
+us, the little birds will cover us with leaves, as they did the babies
+in the wood, and fresher flowers will grow out of our graves, sir, than
+out of yours in that bare Northam churchyard there beyond the weary,
+weary, weary sea.”
+
+His voice died away to a murmur, and his head sank on his breast.
+
+Amyas stood spell-bound. The effect of the narcotic was all but
+miraculous in his eyes. The sustained eloquence, the novel richness of
+diction in one seemingly drowned in sensual sloth, were, in his eyes,
+the possession of some evil spirit. And yet he could not answer the Evil
+One. His English heart, full of the divine instinct of duty and public
+spirit, told him that it must be a lie: but how to prove it a lie? And
+he stood for full ten minutes searching for an answer, which seemed to
+fly farther and farther off the more he sought for it.
+
+His eye glanced upon Ayacanora. The two girls were whispering to her
+smilingly. He saw one of them glance a look toward him, and then say
+something, which raised a beautiful blush in the maiden's face. With a
+playful blow at the speaker, she turned away. Amyas knew instinctively
+that they were giving her the same advice as Ebsworthy had given to him.
+Oh, how beautiful she was! Might not the renegades have some reason on
+their side after all.
+
+He shuddered at the thought: but he could not shake it off. It glided
+in like some gaudy snake, and wreathed its coils round all his heart
+and brain. He drew back to the other side of the lawn, and thought and
+thought--
+
+Should he ever get home? If he did, might he not get home a beggar?
+Beggar or rich, he would still have to face his mother, to go through
+that meeting, to tell that tale, perhaps, to hear those reproaches, the
+forecast of which had weighed on him like a dark thunder-cloud for two
+weary years; to wipe out which by some desperate deed of glory he had
+wandered the wilderness, and wandered in vain.
+
+Could he not settle here? He need not be a savage, he and his might
+Christianize, civilize, teach equal law, mercy in war, chivalry to
+women; found a community which might be hereafter as strong a barrier
+against the encroachments of the Spaniard, as Manoa itself would have
+been. Who knew the wealth of the surrounding forests? Even if there were
+no gold, there were boundless vegetable treasures. What might he not
+export down the rivers? This might be the nucleus of a great commercial
+settlement--
+
+And yet, was even that worth while? To settle here only to torment
+his soul with fresh schemes, fresh ambitions; not to rest, but only to
+change one labor for another? Was not your dreamer right? Did they not
+all need rest? What if they each sat down among the flowers, beside an
+Indian bride? They might live like Christians, while they lived like the
+birds of heaven.--
+
+What a dead silence! He looked up and round; the birds had ceased to
+chirp; the parroquets were hiding behind the leaves; the monkeys were
+clustered motionless upon the highest twigs; only out of the far depths
+of the forest, the campanero gave its solemn toll, once, twice, thrice,
+like a great death-knell rolling down from far cathedral towers. Was
+it an omen? He looked up hastily at Ayacanora. She was watching him
+earnestly. Heavens! was she waiting for his decision? Both dropped their
+eyes. The decision was not to come from them.
+
+A rustle! a roar! a shriek! and Amyas lifted his eyes in time to see a
+huge dark bar shoot from the crag above the dreamer's head, among the
+group of girls.
+
+A dull crash, as the group flew asunder; and in the midst, upon the
+ground, the tawny limbs of one were writhing beneath the fangs of a
+black jaguar, the rarest and most terrible of the forest kings. Of one?
+But of which? Was it Ayacanora? And sword in hand, Amyas rushed madly
+forward; before he reached the spot those tortured limbs were still.
+
+It was not Ayacanora, for with a shriek which rang through the woods,
+the wretched dreamer, wakened thus at last, sprang up and felt for his
+sword. Fool! he had left it in his hammock! Screaming the name of his
+dead bride, he rushed on the jaguar, as it crouched above its prey, and
+seizing its head with teeth and nails, worried it, in the ferocity of
+his madness, like a mastiff-dog.
+
+The brute wrenched its head from his grasp, and raised its dreadful paw.
+Another moment and the husband's corpse would have lain by the wife's.
+
+But high in air gleamed Amyas's blade; down with all the weight of his
+huge body and strong arm, fell that most trusty steel; the head of the
+jaguar dropped grinning on its victim's corpse;
+
+     “And all stood still, who saw him fall,
+     While men might count a score.”
+
+“O Lord Jesus,” said Amyas to himself, “Thou hast answered the devil
+for me! And this is the selfish rest for which I would have bartered the
+rest which comes by working where Thou hast put me!”
+
+They bore away the lithe corpse into the forest, and buried it under
+soft moss and virgin mould; and so the fair clay was transfigured into
+fairer flowers, and the poor, gentle, untaught spirit returned to God
+who gave it.
+
+And then Amyas went sadly and silently back again, and Parracombe walked
+after him, like one who walks in sleep.
+
+Ebsworthy, sobered by the shock, entreated to come too: but Amyas
+forbade him gently,--
+
+“No, lad, you are forgiven. God forbid that I should judge you or any
+man! Sir John shall come up and marry you; and then, if it still be your
+will to stay, the Lord forgive you, if you be wrong; in the meanwhile,
+we will leave with you all that we can spare. Stay here and pray to God
+to make you, and me too, wiser men.”
+
+And so Amyas departed. He had come out stern and proud; but he came back
+again like a little child.
+
+Three days after Parracombe was dead. Once in camp he seemed unable to
+eat or move, and having received absolution and communion from good Sir
+John, faded away without disease or pain, “babbling of green fields,”
+ and murmuring the name of his lost Indian bride.
+
+Amyas, too, sought ghostly council of Sir John, and told him all which
+had passed through his mind.
+
+“It was indeed a temptation of Diabolus,” said that simple sage; “for he
+is by his very name the divider who sets man against man, and tempts
+one to care only for oneself, and forget kin and country, and duty
+and queen. But you have resisted him, Captain Leigh, like a true-born
+Englishman, as you always are, and he has fled from you. But that is no
+reason why we should not flee from him too; and so I think the sooner we
+are out of this place, and at work again, the better for all our souls.”
+
+To which Amyas most devoutly said, “Amen!” If Ayacanora were the
+daughter of ten thousand Incas, he must get out of her way as soon as
+possible.
+
+The next day he announced his intention to march once more, and to
+his delight found the men ready enough to move towards the Spanish
+settlements. One thing they needed: gunpowder for their muskets. But
+that they must make as they went along; that is, if they could get the
+materials. Charcoal they could procure, enough to set the world on fire;
+but nitre they had not yet seen; perhaps they should find it among the
+hills: while as for sulphur, any brave man could get that where there
+were volcanoes. Who had not heard how one of Cortez' Spaniards, in like
+need, was lowered in a basket down the smoking crater of Popocatepetl,
+till he had gathered sulphur enough to conquer an empire? And what a
+Spaniard could do an Englishman could do, or they would know the reason
+why. And if they found none--why clothyard arrows had done Englishmen's
+work many a time already, and they could do it again, not to mention
+those same blow-guns and their arrows of curare poison, which, though
+they might be useless against Spaniards' armor, were far more valuable
+than muskets for procuring food, from the simple fact of their silence.
+
+One thing remained; to invite their Indian friends to join them. And
+that was done in due form the next day.
+
+Ayacanora was consulted, of course, and by the Piache, too, who was glad
+enough to be rid of the rival preacher, and his unpleasantly good news
+that men need not worship the devil, because there was a good God above
+them. The maiden sang most melodious assent; the whole tribe echoed it;
+and all went smoothly enough till the old cacique observed that before
+starting a compact should be made between the allies as to their share
+of the booty.
+
+Nothing could be more reasonable; and Amyas asked him to name his terms.
+
+“You take the gold, and we will take the prisoners.”
+
+“And what will you do with them?” asked Amyas, who recollected poor John
+Oxenham's hapless compact made in like case.
+
+“Eat them,” quoth the cacique, innocently enough.
+
+Amyas whistled.
+
+“Humph!” said Cary. “The old proverb comes true--'the more the merrier:
+but the fewer the better fare.' I think we will do without our red
+friends for this time.”
+
+Ayacanora, who had been preaching war like a very Boadicea, was much
+vexed.
+
+“Do you too want to dine off roast Spaniards?” asked Amyas.
+
+She shook her head, and denied the imputation with much disgust.
+
+Amyas was relieved; he had shrunk from joining the thought of so fair a
+creature, however degraded, with the horrors of cannibalism.
+
+But the cacique was a man of business, and held out stanchly.
+
+“Is it fair?” he asked. “The white man loves gold, and he gets it. The
+poor Indian, what use is gold to him? He only wants something to eat,
+and he must eat his enemies. What else will pay him for going so far
+through the forests hungry and thirsty? You will get all, and the
+Omaguas will get nothing.”
+
+The argument was unanswerable; and the next day they started without the
+Indians, while John Brimblecombe heaved many an honest sigh at leaving
+them to darkness, the devil, and the holy trumpet.
+
+And Ayacanora?
+
+When their departure was determined, she shut herself up in her hut, and
+appeared no more. Great was the weeping, howling, and leave-taking on
+the part of the simple Indians, and loud the entreaties to come again,
+bring them a message from Amalivaca's daughter beyond the seas, and help
+them to recover their lost land of Papamene; but Ayacanora took no part
+in them; and Amyas left her, wondering at her absence, but joyful and
+light-hearted at having escaped the rocks of the Sirens, and being at
+work once more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+HOW THEY TOOK THE GOLD-TRAIN
+
+     “God will relent, and quit thee all thy debt,
+     Who ever more approves, and more accepts
+     Him who imploring mercy sues for life,
+     Than who self-rigorous chooses death as due,
+     Which argues over-just, and self-displeased
+     For self-offence, more than for God offended.”
+
+                               Samson Agonistes.
+
+A fortnight or more has passed in severe toil, but not more severe than
+they have endured many a time before. Bidding farewell once and
+forever to the green ocean of the eastern plains, they have crossed the
+Cordillera; they have taken a longing glance at the city of Santa Fe,
+lying in the midst of rich gardens on its lofty mountain plateau, and
+have seen, as was to be expected, that it was far too large a place for
+any attempt of theirs. But they have not altogether thrown away their
+time. Their Indian lad has discovered that a gold-train is going down
+from Santa Fe toward the Magdalena; and they are waiting for it beside
+the miserable rut which serves for a road, encamped in a forest of oaks
+which would make them almost fancy themselves back again in Europe, were
+it not for the tree-ferns which form the undergrowth; and were it not,
+too, for the deep gorges opening at their very feet; in which, while
+their brows are swept by the cool breezes of a temperate zone, they
+can see far below, dim through their everlasting vapor-bath of rank hot
+steam, the mighty forms and gorgeous colors of the tropic forest.
+
+They have pitched their camp among the tree-ferns, above a spot where
+the path winds along a steep hill-side, with a sheer cliff below of many
+a hundred feet. There was a road there once, perhaps, when Cundinamarca
+was a civilized and cultivated kingdom; but all which Spanish misrule
+has left of it are a few steps slipping from their places at the bottom
+of a narrow ditch of mud. It has gone the way of the aqueducts, and
+bridges, and post-houses, the gardens and the llama-flocks of that
+strange empire. In the mad search for gold, every art of civilization
+has fallen to decay, save architecture alone; and that survives only in
+the splendid cathedrals which have risen upon the ruins of the temples
+of the Sun, in honor of a milder Pantheon; if, indeed, that can be
+called a milder one which demands (as we have seen already) human
+sacrifices, unknown to the gentle nature-worship of the Incas.
+
+And now, the rapid tropic vegetation has reclaimed its old domains,
+and Amyas and his crew are as utterly alone, within a few miles of an
+important Spanish settlement, as they would be in the solitudes of the
+Orinoco or the Amazon.
+
+In the meanwhile, all their attempts to find sulphur and nitre have been
+unavailing; and they have been forced to depend after all (much to Yeo's
+disgust) upon their swords and arrows. Be it so: Drake took Nombre de
+Dios and the gold-train there with no better weapons; and they may do as
+much.
+
+So, having blocked up the road above by felling a large tree across it,
+they sit there among the flowers chewing coca, in default of food and
+drink, and meditating among themselves the cause of a mysterious roar,
+which has been heard nightly in their wake ever since they left the
+banks of the Meta. Jaguar it is not, nor monkey: it is unlike any sound
+they know; and why should it follow them? However, they are in the land
+of wonders; and, moreover, the gold train is far more important than any
+noise.
+
+At last, up from beneath there was a sharp crack and a loud cry.
+The crack was neither the snapping of a branch, nor the tapping of a
+woodpecker; the cry was neither the scream of the parrot, nor the howl
+of the monkey.
+
+“That was a whip's crack,” said Yeo, “and a woman's wail. They are close
+here, lads!”
+
+“A woman's? Do they drive women in their gangs?” asked Amyas.
+
+“Why not, the brutes? There they are, sir. Did you see their basnets
+glitter?”
+
+“Men!” said Amyas, in a low voice, “I trust you all not to shoot till
+I do. Then give them one arrow, out swords, and at them! Pass the word
+along.”
+
+Up they came, slowly, and all hearts beat loud at their coming.
+
+First, about twenty soldiers, only one-half of whom were on foot; the
+other half being borne, incredible as it may seem, each in a chair on
+the back of a single Indian, while those who marched had consigned their
+heaviest armor and their arquebuses into the hands of attendant slaves,
+who were each pricked on at will by the pike of the soldier behind them.
+
+“The men are mad to let their ordnance out of their hands.”
+
+“Oh, sir, an Indian will pray to an arquebus not to shoot him; he sure
+their artillery is safe enough,” said Yeo.
+
+“Look at the proud villains,” whispered another, “to make dumb beasts of
+human creatures like that!”
+
+“Ten shot,” counted the business-like Amyas, “and ten pikes; Will can
+tackle them up above.”
+
+Last of this troop came some inferior officer, also in his chair, who,
+as he went slowly up the hill, with his face turned toward the gang
+which followed, drew every other second the cigar from his lips, to
+inspirit them with those pious ejaculations to the various objects of
+his worship, divine, human, anatomic, wooden and textile, which earned
+for the pious Spaniards of the sixteenth century the uncharitable
+imputation of being at once the most fetish-ridden idolaters and the
+most abominable swearers of all Europeans.
+
+“The blasphemous dog!” said Yeo, fumbling at his bow-string, as if
+he longed to send an arrow through him. But Amyas had hardly laid his
+finger on the impatient veteran's arm, when another procession followed,
+which made them forget all else.
+
+A sad and hideous sight it was: yet one too common even then in those
+remoter districts, where the humane edicts were disregarded which the
+prayers of Dominican friars (to their everlasting honor be it spoken)
+had wrung from the Spanish sovereigns, and which the legislation of that
+most wise, virtuous, and heroic Inquisitor (paradoxical as the words may
+seem), Pedro de la Gasca, had carried into effect in Peru,--futile and
+tardy alleviations of cruelties and miseries unexampled in the
+history of Christendom, or perhaps on earth, save in the conquests of
+Sennacherib and Zingis Khan. But on the frontiers, where negroes were
+imported to endure the toil which was found fatal to the Indian, and all
+Indian tribes convicted (or suspected) of cannibalism were hunted down
+for the salvation of their souls and the enslavement of their bodies,
+such scenes as these were still too common; and, indeed, if we are to
+judge from Humboldt's impartial account, were not very much amended even
+at the close of the last century, in those much-boasted Jesuit missions
+in which (as many of them as existed anywhere but on paper) military
+tyranny was superadded to monastic, and the Gospel preached with fire
+and sword, almost as shamelessly as by the first Conquistadores.
+
+A line of Indians, Negroes, and Zambos, naked, emaciated, scarred with
+whips and fetters, and chained together by their left wrists, toiled
+upwards, panting and perspiring under the burden of a basket held up
+by a strap which passed across their foreheads. Yeo's sneer was but
+too just; there were not only old men and youths among them, but women;
+slender young girls, mothers with children, running at their knee;
+and, at the sight, a low murmur of indignation rose from the ambushed
+Englishmen, worthy of the free and righteous hearts of those days, when
+Raleigh could appeal to man and God, on the ground of a common humanity,
+in behalf of the outraged heathens of the New World; when Englishmen
+still knew that man was man, and that the instinct of freedom was
+the righteous voice of God; ere the hapless seventeenth century had
+brutalized them also, by bestowing on them, amid a hundred other bad
+legacies, the fatal gift of negro-slaves.
+
+But the first forty, so Amyas counted, bore on their backs a burden
+which made all, perhaps, but him and Yeo, forget even the wretches who
+bore it. Each basket contained a square package of carefully corded
+hide; the look whereof friend Amyas knew full well.
+
+“What's in they, captain?”
+
+“Gold!” And at that magic word all eyes were strained greedily forward,
+and such a rustle followed, that Amyas, in the very face of detection,
+had to whisper--
+
+“Be men, be men, or you will spoil all yet!”
+
+The last twenty, or so, of the Indians bore larger baskets, but more
+lightly freighted, seemingly with manioc, and maize-bread, and other
+food for the party; and after them came, with their bearers and
+attendants, just twenty soldiers more, followed by the officer in
+charge, who smiled away in his chair, and twirled two huge mustachios,
+thinking of nothing less than of the English arrows which were itching
+to be away and through his ribs. The ambush was complete; the only
+question how and when to begin?
+
+Amyas had a shrinking, which all will understand, from drawing bow in
+cool blood on men so utterly unsuspicious and defenceless, even though
+in the very act of devilish cruelty--for devilish cruelty it was, as
+three or four drivers armed with whips lingered up and down the slowly
+staggering file of Indians, and avenged every moment's lagging, even
+every stumble, by a blow of the cruel manati-hide, which cracked like
+a pistol-shot against the naked limbs of the silent and uncomplaining
+victim.
+
+Suddenly the casus belli, as usually happens, arose of its own accord.
+
+The last but one of the chained line was an old gray-headed man,
+followed by a slender graceful girl of some eighteen years old, and
+Amyas's heart yearned over them as they came up. Just as they passed,
+the foremost of the file had rounded the corner above; there was a
+bustle, and a voice shouted, “Halt, senors! there is a tree across the
+path!”
+
+“A tree across the path?” bellowed the officer, with a variety of
+passionate addresses to the Mother of Heaven, the fiends of hell, Saint
+Jago of Compostella, and various other personages; while the line of
+trembling Indians, told to halt above, and driven on by blows below,
+surged up and down upon the ruinous steps of the Indian road, until the
+poor old man fell grovelling on his face.
+
+The officer leaped down, and hurried upward to see what had happened. Of
+course, he came across the old man.
+
+“Sin peccado concebida! Grandfather of Beelzebub, is this a place to lie
+worshipping your fiends?” and he pricked the prostrate wretch with the
+point of his sword.
+
+The old man tried to rise: but the weight on his head was too much for
+him; he fell again, and lay motionless.
+
+The driver applied the manati-hide across his loins, once, twice, with
+fearful force; but even that specific was useless.
+
+“Gastado, Senor Capitan,” said he, with a shrug. “Used up. He has been
+failing these three months!”
+
+“What does the intendant mean by sending me out with worn-out cattle
+like these? Forward there!” shouted he. “Clear away the tree, senors,
+and I'll soon clear the chain. Hold it up, Pedrillo!”
+
+The driver held up the chain, which was fastened to the old man's wrist.
+The officer stepped back, and flourished round his head a Toledo blade,
+whose beauty made Amyas break the Tenth Commandment on the spot.
+
+The man was a tall, handsome, broad-shouldered, high-bred man; and Amyas
+thought that he was going to display the strength of his arm, and the
+temper of his blade, in severing the chain at one stroke.
+
+Even he was not prepared for the recondite fancies of a Spanish
+adventurer, worthy son or nephew of those first conquerors, who used to
+try the keenness of their swords upon the living bodies of Indians, and
+regale themselves at meals with the odor of roasting caciques.
+
+The blade gleamed in the air, once, twice, and fell: not on the chain,
+but on the wrist which it fettered. There was a shriek--a crimson
+flash--and the chain and its prisoner were parted indeed.
+
+One moment more, and Amyas's arrow would have been through the throat
+of the murderer, who paused, regarding his workmanship with a satisfied
+smile; but vengeance was not to come from him.
+
+Quick and fierce as a tiger-cat, the girl sprang on the ruffian, and
+with the intense strength of passion, clasped him in her arms, and
+leaped with him from the narrow ledge into the abyss below.
+
+There was a rush, a shout; all faces were bent over the precipice.
+The girl hung by her chained wrist: the officer was gone. There was a
+moment's awful silence; and then Amyas heard his body crashing through
+the tree-tops far below.
+
+“Haul her up! Hew her in pieces! Burn the witch!” and the driver,
+seizing the chain, pulled at it with all his might, while all springing
+from their chairs, stooped over the brink.
+
+Now was the time for Amyas! Heaven had delivered them into his hands.
+Swift and sure, at ten yards off, his arrow rushed through the body of
+the driver, and then, with a roar as of the leaping lion, he sprang like
+an avenging angel into the midst of the astonished ruffians.
+
+His first thought was for the girl. In a moment, by sheer strength, he
+had jerked her safely up into the road; while the Spaniards recoiled
+right and left, fancying him for the moment some mountain giant or
+supernatural foe. His hurrah undeceived them in an instant, and a cry
+of “English! Lutheran dogs!” arose, but arose too late. The men of Devon
+had followed their captain's lead: a storm of arrows left five Spaniards
+dead, and a dozen more wounded, and down leapt Salvation Yeo, his white
+hair streaming behind him, with twenty good swords more, and the work of
+death began.
+
+The Spaniards fought like lions; but they had no time to fix their
+arquebuses on the crutches; no room, in that narrow path, to use their
+pikes. The English had the wall of them; and to have the wall there, was
+to have the foe's life at their mercy. Five desperate minutes, and not a
+living Spaniard stood upon those steps; and certainly no living one lay
+in the green abyss below. Two only, who were behind the rest, happening
+to be in full armor, escaped without mortal wound, and fled down the
+hill again.
+
+“After them! Michael Evans and Simon Heard; and catch them, if they run
+a league.”
+
+The two long and lean Clovelly men, active as deer from forest training,
+ran two feet for the Spaniard's one; and in ten minutes returned, having
+done their work; while Amyas and his men hurried past the Indians, to
+help Cary and the party forward, where shouts and musket shots announced
+a sharp affray.
+
+Their arrival settled the matter. All the Spaniards fell but three or
+four, who scrambled down the crannies of the cliff.
+
+“Let not one of them escape! Slay them as Israel slew Amalek!” cried
+Yeo, as he bent over; and ere the wretches could reach a place of
+shelter, an arrow was quivering in each body, as it rolled lifeless down
+the rocks.
+
+“Now then! Loose the Indians!”
+
+They found armorers tools on one of the dead bodies, and it was done.
+
+“We are your friends,” said Amyas. “All we ask is, that you shall help
+us to carry this gold down to the Magdalena, and then you are free.”
+
+Some few of the younger grovelled at his knees, and kissed his feet,
+hailing him as the child of the Sun: but the most part kept a stolid
+indifference, and when freed from their fetters, sat quietly down where
+they stood, staring into vacancy. The iron had entered too deeply into
+their soul. They seemed past hope, enjoyment, even understanding.
+
+But the young girl, who was last of all in the line, as soon as she was
+loosed, sprang to her father's body, speaking no word, lifted it in her
+thin arms, laid it across her knees, kissed the fallen lips, stroked
+the furrowed cheeks, murmured inarticulate sounds like the cooing of a
+woodland dove, of which none knew the meaning but she, and he who heard
+not, for his soul had long since fled. Suddenly the truth flashed on
+her; silent as ever, she drew one long heaving breath, and rose erect,
+the body in her arms.
+
+Another moment, and she had leaped into the abyss.
+
+They watched her dark and slender limbs, twined closely round the old
+man's corpse, turn over, and over, and over, till a crash among the
+leaves, and a scream among the birds, told that she had reached the
+trees; and the green roof hid her from their view.
+
+“Brave lass!” shouted a sailor.
+
+“The Lord forgive her!” said Yeo. “But, your worship, we must have these
+rascals' ordnance.”
+
+“And their clothes too, Yeo, if we wish to get down the Magdalena
+unchallenged. Now listen, my masters all! We have won, by God's good
+grace, gold enough to serve us the rest of our lives, and that without
+losing a single man; and may yet win more, if we be wise, and He thinks
+good. But oh, my friends, remember Mr. Oxenham and his crew; and do
+not make God's gift our ruin, by faithlessness, or greediness, or any
+mutinous haste.”
+
+“You shall find none in us!” cried several men. “We know your worship.
+We can trust our general.”
+
+“Thank God!” said Amyas. “Now then, it will be no shame or sin to
+make the Indians carry it, saving the women, whom God forbid we
+should burden. But we must pass through the very heart of the Spanish
+settlements, and by the town of Saint Martha itself. So the clothes and
+weapons of these Spaniards we must have, let it cost us what labor it
+may. How many lie in the road?”
+
+“Thirteen here, and about ten up above,” said Cary.
+
+“Then there are near twenty missing. Who will volunteer to go down over
+cliff, and bring up the spoil of them?”
+
+“I, and I, and I;” and a dozen stepped out, as they did always when
+Amyas wanted anything done; for the simple reason, that they knew that
+he meant to help at the doing of it himself.
+
+“Very well, then, follow me. Sir John, take the Indian lad for your
+interpreter, and try and comfort the souls of these poor heathens. Tell
+them that they shall all be free.”
+
+“Why, who is that comes up the road?”
+
+All eyes were turned in the direction of which he spoke. And, wonder of
+wonders! up came none other than Ayacanora herself, blow-gun in hand,
+bow on back, and bedecked in all her feather garments, which last were
+rather the worse for a fortnight's woodland travel.
+
+All stood mute with astonishment, as, seeing Amyas, she uttered a cry
+of joy, quickened her pace into a run, and at last fell panting and
+exhausted at his feet.
+
+“I have found you!” she said; “you ran away from me, but you could not
+escape me!” And she fawned round Amyas, like a dog who has found his
+master, and then sat down on the bank, and burst into wild sobs.
+
+“God help us!” said Amyas, clutching his hair, as he looked down upon
+the beautiful weeper. “What am I to do with her, over and above all
+these poor heathens?”
+
+But there was no time to be lost, and over the cliff he scrambled; while
+the girl, seeing that the main body of the English remained, sat down on
+a point of rock to watch him.
+
+After half-an-hour's hard work, the weapons, clothes, and armor of the
+fallen Spaniards were hauled up the cliff, and distributed in bundles
+among the men; the rest of the corpses were thrown over the precipice,
+and they started again upon their road toward the Magdalena, while Yeo
+snorted like a war-horse who smells the battle, at the delight of once
+more handling powder and ball.
+
+“We can face the world now, sir! Why not go back and try Santa Fe, after
+all?”
+
+But Amyas thought that enough was as good as a feast, and they held on
+downwards, while the slaves followed, without a sign of gratitude, but
+meekly obedient to their new masters, and testifying now and then by a
+sign or a grunt, their surprise at not being beaten, or made to carry
+their captors. Some, however, caught sight of the little calabashes of
+coca which the English carried. That woke them from their torpor,
+and they began coaxing abjectly (and not in vain) for a taste of that
+miraculous herb, which would not only make food unnecessary, and enable
+their panting lungs to endure that keen mountain air, but would rid
+them, for awhile at least, of the fallen Indian's most unpitying foe,
+the malady of thought.
+
+As the cavalcade turned the corner of the mountain, they paused for one
+last look at the scene of that fearful triumph. Lines of vultures were
+already streaming out of infinite space, as if created suddenly for the
+occasion. A few hours and there would be no trace of that fierce fray,
+but a few white bones amid untrodden beds of flowers.
+
+And now Amyas had time to ask Ayacanora the meaning of this her strange
+appearance. He wished her anywhere but where she was: but now that she
+was here, what heart could be so hard as not to take pity on the poor
+wild thing? And Amyas as he spoke to her had, perhaps, a tenderness in
+his tone, from very fear of hurting her, which he had never used before.
+Passionately she told him how she had followed on their track day and
+night, and had every evening made sounds, as loud as she dared, in hopes
+of their hearing her, and either waiting for her, or coming back to see
+what caused the noise.
+
+Amyas now recollected the strange roaring which had followed them.
+
+“Noises? What did you make them with?”
+
+Ayacanora lifted her finger with an air of most self-satisfied mystery,
+and then drew cautiously from under her feather cloak an object at which
+Amyas had hard work to keep his countenance.
+
+“Look!” whispered she, as if half afraid that the thing itself should
+hear her. “I have it--the holy trumpet!”
+
+There it was verily, that mysterious bone of contention; a handsome
+earthen tube some two feet long, neatly glazed, and painted with quaint
+grecques and figures of animals; a relic evidently of some civilization
+now extinct.
+
+Brimblecombe rubbed his little fat hands. “Brave maid! you have cheated
+Satan this time,” quoth he; while Yeo advised that the “idolatrous
+relic” should be forthwith “hove over cliff.”
+
+“Let be,” said Amyas. “What is the meaning of this, Ayacanora? And why
+have you followed us?”
+
+She told a long story, from which Amyas picked up, as far as he could
+understand her, that that trumpet had been for years the torment of her
+life; the one thing in the tribe superior to her; the one thing which
+she was not allowed to see, because, forsooth, she was a woman. So she
+determined to show them that a woman was as good as a man; and hence
+her hatred of marriage, and her Amazonian exploits. But still the Piache
+would not show her that trumpet, or tell her where it was; and as for
+going to seek it, even she feared the superstitious wrath of the tribe
+at such a profanation. But the day after the English went, the Piache
+chose to express his joy at their departure; whereon, as was to be
+expected, a fresh explosion between master and pupil, which ended, she
+confessed, in her burning the old rogue's hut over his head, from which
+he escaped with loss of all his conjuring-tackle, and fled raging into
+the woods, vowing that he would carry off the trumpet to the neighboring
+tribe. Whereon, by a sudden impulse, the young lady took plenty of coca,
+her weapons, and her feathers, started on his trail, and ran him to
+earth just as he was unveiling the precious mystery. At which sight
+(she confessed) she was horribly afraid, and half inclined to run; but,
+gathering courage from the thought that the white men used to laugh at
+the whole matter, she rushed upon the hapless conjuror, and bore off her
+prize in triumph; and there it was!
+
+“I hope you have not killed him?” said Amyas.
+
+“I did beat him a little; but I thought you would not let me kill him.”
+
+Amyas was half amused with her confession of his authority over her; but
+she went on--
+
+“And then I dare not go back to the Indians; so I was forced to come
+after you.”
+
+“And is that, then, your only reason for coming after us?” asked stupid
+Amyas.
+
+He had touched some secret chord--though what it was he was too busy to
+inquire. The girl drew herself up proudly, blushing scarlet, and said:
+
+“You never tell lies. Do you think that I would tell lies?”
+
+On which she fell to the rear, and followed them steadfastly, speaking
+to no one, but evidently determined to follow them to the world's end.
+
+They soon left the highroad; and for several days held on downwards,
+hewing their path slowly and painfully through the thick underwood. On
+the evening of the fourth day, they had reached the margin of a river,
+at a point where it seemed broad and still enough for navigation. For
+those three days they had not seen a trace of human beings, and the spot
+seemed lonely enough for them to encamp without fear of discovery, and
+begin the making of their canoes. They began to spread themselves along
+the stream, in search of the soft-wooded trees proper for their purpose;
+but hardly had their search begun, when, in the midst of a dense
+thicket, they came upon a sight which filled them with astonishment.
+Beneath a honeycombed cliff, which supported one enormous cotton-tree,
+was a spot of some thirty yards square sloping down to the stream,
+planted in rows with magnificent banana-plants, full twelve feet high,
+and bearing among their huge waxy leaves clusters of ripening
+fruit; while, under their mellow shade, yams and cassava plants were
+flourishing luxuriantly, the whole being surrounded by a hedge of orange
+and scarlet flowers. There it lay, streaked with long shadows from the
+setting sun, while a cool southern air rustled in the cotton-tree, and
+flapped to and fro the great banana-leaves; a tiny paradise of art and
+care. But where was its inhabitant?
+
+Aroused by the noise of their approach, a figure issued from a cave in
+the rocks, and, after gazing at them for a moment, came down the garden
+towards them. He was a tall and stately old man, whose snow-white beard
+and hair covered his chest and shoulders, while his lower limbs were
+wrapt in Indian-web. Slowly and solemnly he approached, a staff in one
+hand, a string of beads in the other, the living likeness of some old
+Hebrew prophet, or anchorite of ancient legend. He bowed courteously to
+Amyas (who of course returned his salute), and was in act to speak, when
+his eye fell upon the Indians, who were laying down their burdens in
+a heap under the trees. His mild countenance assumed instantly an
+expression of the acutest sorrow and displeasure; and, striking his
+hands together, he spoke in Spanish:
+
+“Alas! miserable me! Alas! unhappy senors! Do my old eyes deceive me,
+and is it one of those evil visions of the past which haunt my dreams
+by night; or has the accursed thirst of gold, the ruin of my race,
+penetrated even into this my solitude? Oh, senors, senors, know you not
+that you bear with you your own poison, your own familiar fiend, the
+root of every evil? And is it not enough for you, senors, to load
+yourselves with the wedge of Achan, and partake his doom, but you must
+make these hapless heathens the victims of your greed and cruelty,
+and forestall for them on earth those torments which may await their
+unbaptized souls hereafter?”
+
+“We have preserved, and not enslaved these Indians, ancient senor,” said
+Amyas, proudly; “and to-morrow will see them as free as the birds over
+our heads.”
+
+“Free? Then you cannot be countrymen of mine! But pardon an old man,
+my son, if he has spoken too hastily in the bitterness of his own
+experience. But who and whence are you? And why are you bringing into
+this lonely wilderness that gold--for I know too well the shape of those
+accursed packets, which would God that I had never seen!”
+
+“What we are, reverend sir, matters little, as long as we behave to you
+as the young should to the old. As for our gold, it will be a curse or
+a blessing to us, I conceive, just as we use it well or ill; and so is
+a man's head, or his hand, or any other thing; but that is no reason for
+cutting off his limbs for fear of doing harm with them; neither is it
+for throwing away those packages, which, by your leave, we shall deposit
+in one of these caves. We must be your neighbors, I fear, for a day
+or two; but I can promise you, that your garden shall be respected, on
+condition that you do not inform any human soul of our being here.”
+
+“God forbid, senor, that I should try to increase the number of my
+visitors, much less to bring hither strife and blood, of which I have
+seen too much already. As you have come in peace, in peace depart. Leave
+me alone with God and my penitence, and may the Lord have mercy on you!”
+
+And he was about to withdraw, when, recollecting himself, he turned
+suddenly to Amyas again--
+
+“Pardon me, senor, if, after forty years of utter solitude, I shrink at
+first from the conversation of human beings, and forget, in the habitual
+shyness of a recluse, the duties of a hospitable gentleman of Spain.
+My garden, and all which it produces, is at your service. Only let me
+entreat that these poor Indians shall have their share; for heathens
+though they be, Christ died for them; and I cannot but cherish in my
+soul some secret hope that He did not die in vain.”
+
+“God forbid!” said Brimblecombe. “They are no worse than we, for aught
+I see, whatsoever their fathers may have been; and they have fared no
+worse than we since they have been with us, nor will, I promise you.”
+
+The good fellow did not tell that he had been starving himself for the
+last three days to cram the children with his own rations; and that
+the sailors, and even Amyas, had been going out of their way every five
+minutes, to get fruit for their new pets.
+
+A camp was soon formed; and that evening the old hermit asked Amyas,
+Cary, and Brimblecombe to come up into his cavern.
+
+They went; and after the accustomed compliments had passed, sat down on
+mats upon the ground, while the old man stood, leaning against a slab of
+stone surmounted by a rude wooden cross, which evidently served him as
+a place of prayer. He seemed restless and anxious, as if he waited for
+them to begin the conversation; while they, in their turn, waited for
+him. At last, when courtesy would not allow him to be silent any longer,
+he began with a faltering voice:
+
+“You may be equally surprised, senors, at my presence in such a spot,
+and at my asking you to become my guests even for one evening, while I
+have no better hospitality to offer you.”
+
+“It is superfluous, senor, to offer us food in your own habitation when
+you have already put all that you possess at our command.”
+
+“True, senors: and my motive for inviting you was, perhaps, somewhat of
+a selfish one. I am possessed by a longing to unburthen my heart of a
+tale which I never yet told to man, and which I fear can give to you
+nothing but pain; and yet I will entreat you, of your courtesy, to hear
+of that which you cannot amend, simply in mercy to a man who feels that
+he must confess to some one, or die as miserable as he has lived. And
+I believe my confidence will not be misplaced, when it is bestowed upon
+you. I have been a cavalier, even as you are; and, strange as it may
+seem, that which I have to tell I would sooner impart to the ears of a
+soldier than of a priest; because it will then sink into souls which can
+at least sympathize, though they cannot absolve. And you, cavaliers, I
+perceive to be noble, from your very looks; to be valiant, by your mere
+presence in this hostile land; and to be gentle, courteous, and prudent,
+by your conduct this day to me and to your captives. Will you, then,
+hear an old man's tale? I am, as you see, full of words; for speech,
+from long disuse, is difficult to me, and I fear at every sentence lest
+my stiffened tongue should play the traitor to my worn-out brain: but
+if my request seems impertinent, you have only to bid me talk as a host
+should, of matters which concern his guests, and not himself.”
+
+The three young men, equally surprised and interested by this exordium,
+could only entreat their host to “use their ears as those of his
+slaves,” on which, after fresh apologies, he began:
+
+“Know, then, victorious cavaliers, that I, whom you now see here as a
+poor hermit, was formerly one of the foremost of that terrible band who
+went with Pizarro to the conquest of Peru. Eighty years old am I this
+day, unless the calendar which I have carved upon yonder tree deceives
+me; and twenty years old was I when I sailed with that fierce man from
+Panama, to do that deed with which all earth, and heaven, and hell
+itself, I fear, has rung. How we endured, suffered, and triumphed; how,
+mad with success, and glutted with blood, we turned our swords against
+each other, I need not tell to you. For what gentleman of Europe knows
+not our glory and our shame?”
+
+His hearers bowed assent.
+
+“Yes; you have heard of our prowess: for glorious we were awhile, in
+the sight of God and man. But I will not speak of our glory, for it is
+tarnished; nor of our wealth, for it was our poison; nor of the sins of
+my comrades, for they have expiated them; but of my own sins, senors,
+which are more in number than the hairs of my head, and a burden too
+great to bear. Miserere Domine!”
+
+And smiting on his breast, the old warrior went on:
+
+“As I said, we were mad with blood; and none more mad than I. Surely it
+is no fable that men are possessed, even in this latter age, by devils.
+Why else did I rejoice in slaying? Why else was I, the son of a noble
+and truthful cavalier of Castile, among the foremost to urge upon
+my general the murder of the Inca? Why did I rejoice over his dying
+agonies? Why, when Don Ferdinando de Soto returned, and upbraided us
+with our villainy, did I, instead of confessing the sin which that noble
+cavalier set before us, withstand him to his face, ay, and would have
+drawn the sword on him, but that he refused to fight a liar, as he said
+that I was?”
+
+“Then Don de Soto was against the murder? So his own grandson told me.
+But I had heard of him only as a tyrant and a butcher.”
+
+“Senor, he was compact of good and evil, as are other men: he has paid
+dearly for his sin; let us hope that he has been paid in turn for his
+righteousness.”
+
+John Brimblecombe shook his head at this doctrine, but did not speak.
+
+“So you know his grandson? I trust he is a noble cavalier?”
+
+Amyas was silent; the old gentleman saw that he had touched some sore
+point, and continued:
+
+“And why, again, senors, did I after that day give myself up to cruelty
+as to a sport; yea, thought that I did God service by destroying the
+creatures whom He had made; I who now dare not destroy a gnat, lest I
+harm a being more righteous than myself? Was I mad? If I was, how then
+was I all that while as prudent as I am this day? But I am not here to
+argue, senors, but to confess. In a word, there was no deed of blood
+done for the next few years in which I had not my share, if it were but
+within my reach. When Challcuchima was burned, I was consenting; when
+that fair girl, the wife of Inca Manco, was tortured to death, I smiled
+at the agonies at which she too smiled, and taunted on the soldiers, to
+try if I could wring one groan from her before she died. You know what
+followed, the pillage, the violence, the indignities offered to the
+virgins of the Sun. Senors, I will not pollute your chaste ears with
+what was done. But, senors, I had a brother.”
+
+And the old man paused awhile.
+
+“A brother--whether better or worse than me, God knows, before whom he
+has appeared ere now. At least he did not, as I did, end as a rebel
+to his king! There was a maiden in one of those convents, senors, more
+beautiful than day: and (I blush to tell it) the two brothers of whom
+I spoke quarrelled for the possession of her. They struck each other,
+senors! Who struck first I know not; but swords were drawn, and--The
+cavaliers round parted them, crying shame. And one of those two
+brothers--the one who speaks to you now--crying, 'If I cannot have her,
+no man shall!' turned the sword which was aimed at his brother, against
+that hapless maiden--and--hear me out, senors, before you flee from my
+presence as from that of a monster!--stabbed her to the heart. And as
+she died--one moment more, senors, that I may confess all!--she looked
+up in my face with a smile as of heaven, and thanked me for having rid
+her once and for all from Christians and their villainy.”
+
+The old man paused.
+
+“God forgive you, senor!” said Jack Brimblecombe, softly.
+
+“You do not, then, turn from me, do not curse me? Then I will try you
+farther still, senors. I will know from human lips, whether man can do
+such deeds as I have done, and yet be pitied by his kind; that so I may
+have some hope, that where man has mercy, God may have mercy also. Do
+you think that I repented at those awful words? Nothing less, senors
+all. No more than I did when De Soto (on whose soul God have mercy)
+called me--me, a liar! I knew myself a sinner; and for that very reason
+I was determined to sin. I would go on, that I might prove myself right
+to myself, by showing that I could go on, and not be struck dead from
+heaven. Out of mere pride, senors, and self-will, I would fill up the
+cup of my iniquity; and I filled it.
+
+“You know, doubtless, senors, how, after the death of old Almagro, his
+son's party conspired against Pizarro. Now my brother remained faithful
+to his old commander; and for that very reason, if you will believe it,
+did I join the opposite party, and gave myself up, body and soul, to do
+Almagro's work. It was enough for me, that the brother who had struck
+me thought a man right, for me to think that man a devil. What Almagro's
+work was, you know. He slew Pizarro, murdered him, senors, like a dog,
+or rather, like an old lion.”
+
+“He deserved his doom,” said Amyas.
+
+“Let God judge him, senor, not we; and least of all of us I, who drew
+the first blood, and perhaps the last, that day. I, senors, it was
+who treacherously stabbed Francisco de Chanes on the staircase, and so
+opened the door which else had foiled us all; and I--But I am speaking
+to men of honor, not to butchers. Suffice it that the old man died like
+a lion, and that we pulled him down, young as we were, like curs.
+
+“Well, I followed Almagro's fortunes. I helped to slay Alvarado. Call
+that my third murder, if you will, for if he was traitor to a traitor, I
+was traitor to a true man. Then to the war; you know how Vaca de Castro
+was sent from Spain to bring order and justice where was naught but
+chaos, and the dance of all devils. We met him on the hills of Chupas.
+Peter of Candia, the Venetian villain, pointed our guns false, and
+Almagro stabbed him to the heart. We charged with our lances, man
+against man, horse against horse. All fights I ever fought” (and the old
+man's eyes flashed out the ancient fire) “were child's play to that day.
+Our lances shivered like reeds, and we fell on with battle-axe and mace.
+None asked for quarter, and none gave it; friend to friend, cousin to
+cousin--no, nor brother, O God! to brother. We were the better armed:
+but numbers were on their side. Fat Carbajal charged our cannon like an
+elephant, and took them; but Holguin was shot down. I was with Almagro,
+and we swept all before us, inch by inch, but surely, till the night
+fell. Then Vaca de Castro, the licentiate, the clerk, the schoolman,
+the man of books, came down on us with his reserve like a whirlwind.
+Oh! cavaliers, did not God fight against us, when He let us, the men of
+iron, us, the heroes of Cuzco and Vilcaconga, be foiled by a scholar in
+a black gown, with a pen behind his ear? We were beaten. Some ran; some
+did not run, senors; and I did not. Geronimo de Alvarado shouted to
+me, 'We slew Pizarro! We killed the tyrant!' and we rushed upon the
+conqueror's lances, to die like cavaliers. There was a gallant gentleman
+in front of me. His lance struck me in the crest, and bore me over my
+horse's croup: but mine, senors, struck him full in the vizor. We both
+went to the ground together, and the battle galloped over us.
+
+“I know not how long I lay, for I was stunned: but after awhile I lifted
+myself. My lance was still clenched in my hand, broken but not parted.
+The point of it was in my foeman's brain. I crawled to him, weary and
+wounded, and saw that he was a noble cavalier. He lay on his back, his
+arms spread wide. I knew that he was dead: but there came over me the
+strangest longing to see that dead man's face. Perhaps I knew him. At
+least I could set my foot upon it, and say, 'Vanquished as I am, there
+lies a foe!' I caught hold of the rivets, and tore his helmet off. The
+moon shone bright, senors, as bright as she shines now--the glaring,
+ghastly, tell-tale moon, which shows man all the sins which he tries to
+hide; and by that moonlight, senors, I beheld the dead man's face. And
+it was the face of my brother!
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+“Did you ever guess, most noble cavaliers, what Cain's curse might be
+like? Look on me, and know!
+
+“I tore off my armor and fled, as Cain fled--northward ever, till I
+should reach a land where the name of Spaniard, yea, and the name of
+Christian, which the Spaniard has caused to be blasphemed from east to
+west, should never come. I sank fainting, and waked beneath this rock,
+this tree, forty-four years ago, and I have never left them since, save
+once, to obtain seeds from Indians, who knew not that I was a Spanish
+Conquistador. And may God have mercy on my soul!”
+
+The old man ceased; and his young hearers, deeply affected by his tale,
+sat silent for a few minutes. Then John Brimblecombe spoke:
+
+“You are old, sir, and I am young; and perhaps it is not my place to
+counsel you. Moreover, sir, in spite of this strange dress of mine, I am
+neither more nor less than an English priest; and I suppose you will not
+be willing to listen to a heretic.”
+
+“I have seen Catholics, senor, commit too many abominations even with
+the name of God upon their lips, to shrink from a heretic if he speak
+wisely and well. At least, you are a man; and after all, my heart yearns
+more and more, the longer I sit among you, for the speech of beings of
+my own race. Say what you will, in God's name!”
+
+“I hold, sir,” said Jack, modestly, “according to holy Scripture, that
+whosoever repents from his heart, as God knows you seem to have done, is
+forgiven there and then; and though his sins be as scarlet, they shall
+be white as snow, for the sake of Him who died for all.”
+
+“Amen! Amen!” said the old man, looking lovingly at his little crucifix.
+“I hope and pray--His name is Love. I know it now; who better? But, sir,
+even if He have forgiven me, how can I forgive myself? In honor, sir, I
+must be just, and sternly just, to myself, even if God be indulgent;
+as He has been to me, who has left me here in peace for forty years,
+instead of giving me a prey to the first puma or jaguar which howls
+round me every night. He has given me time to work out my own salvation;
+but have I done it? That doubt maddens me at whiles. When I look upon
+that crucifix, I float on boundless hope: but if I take my eyes from
+it for a moment, faith fails, and all is blank, and dark, and dreadful,
+till the devil whispers me to plunge into yon stream, and once and for
+ever wake to certainty, even though it be in hell.”
+
+What was Jack to answer? He himself knew not at first. More was wanted
+than the mere repetition of free pardon.
+
+“Heretic as I am, sir, you will not believe me when I tell you, as a
+priest, that God accepts your penitence.”
+
+“My heart tells me so already, at moments. But how know I that it does
+not lie?”
+
+“Senor,” said Jack, “the best way to punish oneself for doing ill, seems
+to me to go and do good; and the best way to find out whether God means
+you well, is to find out whether He will help you to do well. If you
+have wronged Indians in time past, see whether you cannot right them
+now. If you can, you are safe. For the Lord will not send the devil's
+servants to do His work.”
+
+The old man held down his head.
+
+“Right the Indians? Alas! what is done, is done!”
+
+“Not altogether, senor,” said Amyas, “as long as an Indian remains alive
+in New Granada.”
+
+“Senor, shall I confess my weakness? A voice within me has bid me a
+hundred times go forth and labor, for those oppressed wretches, but I
+dare not obey. I dare not look them in the face. I should fancy that
+they knew my story; that the very birds upon the trees would reveal my
+crime, and bid them turn from me with horror.”
+
+“Senor,” said Amyas, “these are but the sick fancies of a noble spirit,
+feeding on itself in solitude. You have but to try to conquer.”
+
+“And look now,” said Jack, “if you dare not go forth to help the
+Indians, see now how God has brought the Indians to your own door. Oh,
+excellent sir--”
+
+“Call me not excellent,” said the old man, smiting his breast.
+
+“I do, and shall, sir, while I see in you an excellent repentance, an
+excellent humility, and an excellent justice,” said Jack. “But oh, sir,
+look upon these forty souls, whom we must leave behind, like sheep which
+have no shepherd. Could you not teach them to fear God and to love each
+other, to live like rational men, perhaps to die like Christians? They
+would obey you as a dog obeys his master. You might be their king, their
+father, yea, their pope, if you would.”
+
+“You do not speak like a Lutheran.”
+
+“I am not a Lutheran, but an Englishman: but, Protestant as I am, God
+knows, I had sooner see these poor souls of your creed, than of none.”
+
+“But I am no priest.”
+
+“When they are ready,” said Jack, “the Lord will send a priest. If you
+begin the good work, you may trust to Him to finish it.”
+
+“God help me!” said the old warrior.
+
+The talk lasted long into the night, but Amyas was up long before
+daybreak, felling the trees; and as he and Cary walked back to
+breakfast, the first thing which they saw was the old man in his garden
+with four or five Indian children round him, talking smilingly to them.
+
+“The old man's heart is sound still,” said Will. “No man is lost who
+still is fond of little children.”
+
+“Ah, senors!” said the hermit as they came up, “you see that I have
+begun already to act upon your advice.”
+
+“And you have begun at the right end,” quoth Amyas; “if you win the
+children, you win the mothers.”
+
+“And if you win the mothers,” quoth Will, “the poor fathers must needs
+obey their wives, and follow in the wake.”
+
+The old man only sighed. “The prattle of these little ones softens
+my hard heart, senors, with a new pleasure; but it saddens me, when I
+recollect that there may be children of mine now in the world--children
+who have never known a father's love--never known aught but a master's
+threats--”
+
+“God has taken care of these little ones. Trust that He has taken care
+of yours.”
+
+That day Amyas assembled the Indians, and told them that they must obey
+the hermit as their king, and settle there as best they could: for if
+they broke up and wandered away, nothing was left for them but to fall
+one by one into the hands of the Spaniards. They heard him with their
+usual melancholy and stupid acquiescence, and went and came as they were
+bid, like animated machines; but the negroes were of a different temper;
+and four or five stout fellows gave Amyas to understand that they had
+been warriors in their own country, and that warriors they would be
+still; and nothing should keep them from Spaniard-hunting. Amyas saw
+that the presence of these desperadoes in the new colony would both
+endanger the authority of the hermit, and bring the Spaniards down
+upon it in a few weeks; so, making a virtue of necessity, he asked them
+whether they would go Spaniard-hunting with him.
+
+This was just what the bold Coromantees wished for; they grinned and
+shouted their delight at serving under so great a warrior, and then set
+to work most gallantly, getting through more in the day than any ten
+Indians, and indeed than any two Englishmen.
+
+So went on several days, during which the trees were felled, and the
+process of digging them out began; while Ayacanora, silent and moody,
+wandered into the woods all day with her blow-gun, and brought home
+at evening a load of parrots, monkeys, and curassows; two or three old
+hands were sent out to hunt likewise; so that, what with the game and
+the fish of the river, which seemed inexhaustible, and the fruit of the
+neighboring palm-trees, there was no lack of food in the camp. But what
+to do with Ayacanora weighed heavily on the mind of Amyas. He opened his
+heart on the matter to the old hermit, and asked him whether he would
+take charge of her. The latter smiled, and shook his head at the notion.
+“If your report of her be true, I may as well take in hand to tame a
+jaguar.” However, he promised to try; and one evening, as they were
+all standing together before the mouth of the cave, Ayacanora came up
+smiling with the fruit of her day's sport; and Amyas, thinking this a
+fit opportunity, began a carefully prepared harangue to her, which he
+intended to be altogether soothing, and even pathetic,--to the effect
+that the maiden, having no parents, was to look upon this good old man
+as her father; that he would instruct her in the white man's religion
+(at which promise Yeo, as a good Protestant, winced a good deal), and
+teach her how to be happy and good, and so forth; and that, in fine, she
+was to remain there with the hermit.
+
+She heard him quietly, her great dark eyes opening wider and wider, her
+bosom swelling, her stature seeming to grow taller every moment, as she
+clenched her weapons firmly in both her hands. Beautiful as she always
+was, she had never looked so beautiful before; and as Amyas spoke of
+parting with her, it was like throwing away a lovely toy; but it must be
+done, for her sake, for his, perhaps for that of all the crew.
+
+The last words had hardly passed his lips, when, with a shriek of
+mingled scorn, rage, and fear, she dashed through the astonished group.
+
+“Stop her!” were Amyas's first words; but his next were, “Let her
+go!” for, springing like a deer through the little garden and over the
+flower-fence, she turned, menacing with her blow-gun the sailors, who
+had already started in her pursuit.
+
+“Let her alone, for Heaven's sake!” shouted Amyas, who, he scarce knew
+why, shrank from the thought of seeing those graceful limbs struggling
+in the seamen's grasp.
+
+She turned again, and in another minute her gaudy plumes had vanished
+among the dark forest stems, as swiftly as if she had been a passing
+bird.
+
+All stood thunderstruck at this unexpected end to the conference. At
+last Aymas spoke:
+
+“There's no use in standing here idle, gentlemen. Staring after her
+won't bring her back. After all, I'm glad she's gone.”
+
+But the tone of his voice belied his words. Now he had lost her, he
+wanted her back; and perhaps every one present, except he, guessed why.
+
+But Ayacanora did not return; and ten days more went on in continual
+toil at the canoes without any news of her from the hunters. Amyas, by
+the by, had strictly bidden these last not to follow the girl, not even
+to speak to her, if they came across her in their wanderings. He was
+shrewd enough to guess that the only way to cure her sulkiness was to
+outsulk her; but there was no sign of her presence in any direction; and
+the canoes being finished at last, the gold, and such provisions as they
+could collect, were placed on board, and one evening the party prepared
+for their fresh voyage. They determined to travel as much as possible by
+night, for fear of discovery, especially in the neighborhood of the few
+Spanish settlements which were then scattered along the banks of the
+main stream. These, however, the negroes knew, so that there was no fear
+of coming on them unawares; and as for falling asleep in their night
+journeys, “Nobody,” the negroes said, “ever slept on the Magdalena; the
+mosquitoes took too good care of that.” Which fact Amyas and his crew
+verified afterwards as thoroughly as wretched men could do.
+
+The sun had sunk; the night had all but fallen; the men were all on
+board; Amyas in command of one canoe, Cary of the other. The Indians
+were grouped on the bank, watching the party with their listless
+stare, and with them the young guide, who preferred remaining among the
+Indians, and was made supremely happy by the present of Spanish sword
+and an English axe; while, in the midst, the old hermit, with tears in
+his eyes, prayed God's blessing on them.
+
+“I owe to you, noble cavaliers, new peace, new labor, I may say, new
+life. May God be with you, and teach you to use your gold and your
+swords better than I used mine.”
+
+The adventurers waved their hands to him.
+
+“Give way, men,” cried Amyas; and as he spoke the paddles dashed into
+the water, to a right English hurrah! which sent the birds fluttering
+from their roosts, and was answered by the yell of a hundred monkeys,
+and the distant roar of the jaguar.
+
+About twenty yards below, a wooded rock, some ten feet high, hung over
+the stream. The river was not there more than fifteen yards broad; deep
+near the rock, shallow on the farther side; and Amyas's canoe led the
+way, within ten feet of the stone.
+
+As he passed, a dark figure leapt from the bushes on the edge, and
+plunged heavily into the water close to the boat. All started. A jaguar?
+No; he would not have missed so short a spring. What, then? A human
+being?
+
+A head rose panting to the surface, and with a few strong strokes the
+swimmer had clutched the gunwale. It was Ayacanora!
+
+“Go back!” shouted Amyas. “Go back, girl!”
+
+She uttered the same wild cry with which she had fled into the forest.
+
+“I will die, then!” and she threw up her arms. Another moment, and she
+had sunk.
+
+To see her perish before his eyes! who could bear that? Her hands
+alone were above the surface. Amyas caught convulsively at her in the
+darkness, and seized her wrist.
+
+A yell rose from the negroes: a roar from the crew as from a cage of
+lions. There was a rush and a swirl along the surface of the stream; and
+“Caiman! caiman!” shouted twenty voices.
+
+Now, or never, for the strong arm! “To larboard, men, or over we go!”
+ cried Amyas, and with one huge heave he lifted the slender body upon
+the gunwale. Her lower limbs were still in the water, when, within arm's
+length, rose above the stream a huge muzzle. The lower jaw lay flat, the
+upper reached as high as Amyas's head. He could see the long fangs
+gleam white in the moonshine; he could see for one moment full down the
+monstrous depths of that great gape, which would have crushed a buffalo.
+Three inches, and no more, from that soft side, the snout surged up--
+
+There was the gleam of an axe from above, a sharp ringing blow, and the
+jaws came together with a clash which rang from bank to bank. He had
+missed her! Swerving beneath the blow, his snout had passed beneath
+her body, and smashed up against the side of the canoe, as the striker,
+overbalanced, fell headlong overboard upon the monster's back.
+
+“Who is it?”
+
+“Yeo!” shouted a dozen.
+
+Man and beast went down together, and where they sank, the moonlight
+shone on a great swirling eddy, while all held their breaths, and
+Ayacanora cowered down into the bottom of the canoe, her proud spirit
+utterly broken, for the first time, by the terror of that great need,
+and by a bitter loss. For in the struggle, the holy trumpet, companion
+of all her wanderings, had fallen from her bosom; and her fond hope of
+bringing magic prosperity to her English friends had sunk with it to the
+bottom of the stream.
+
+None heeded her; not even Amyas, round whose knees she clung, fawning
+like a spaniel dog: for where was Yeo?
+
+Another swirl; a shout from the canoe abreast of them, and Yeo rose,
+having dived clean under his own boat, and risen between the two.
+
+“Safe as yet, lads! Heave me a line, or he'll have me after all.”
+
+But ere the brute reappeared, the old man was safe on board.
+
+“The Lord has stood by me,” panted he, as he shot the water from
+his ears. “We went down together: I knew the Indian trick, and being
+uppermost, had my thumbs in his eyes before he could turn: but he
+carried me down to the very mud. My breath was nigh gone, so I left go,
+and struck up: but my toes tingled as I rose again, I'll warrant. There
+the beggar is, looking for me, I declare!”
+
+And, true enough, there was the huge brute swimming slowly round and
+round, in search of his lost victim. It was too dark to put an arrow
+into his eye; so they paddled on, while Ayacanora crouched silently at
+Amyas's feet.
+
+“Yeo!” asked he, in a low voice, “what shall we do with her?”
+
+“Why ask me, sir?” said the old man, as he had a very good right to ask.
+
+“Because, when one don't know oneself, one had best inquire of one's
+elders. Besides, you saved her life at the risk of your own, and have a
+right to a voice in the matter, if any one has, old friend.”
+
+“Then, my dear young captain, if the Lord puts a precious soul under
+your care, don't you refuse to bear the burden He lays on you.”
+
+Amyas was silent awhile; while Ayacanora, who was evidently utterly
+exhausted by the night's adventure, and probably by long wanderings,
+watchings, and weepings which had gone before it, sank with her head
+against his knee, fell fast asleep, and breathed as gently as a child.
+
+At last he rose in the canoe, and called Cary alongside.
+
+“Listen to me, gentlemen, and sailors all. You know that we have a
+maiden on board here, by no choice of our own. Whether she will be a
+blessing to us, God alone can tell: but she may turn to the greatest
+curse which has befallen us ever since we came out over Bar three years
+ago. Promise me one thing, or I put her ashore the next beach, and that
+is, that you will treat her as if she were your own sister; and make an
+agreement here and now, that if the maid comes to harm among us, the man
+that is guilty shall hang for it by the neck till he's dead, even though
+he be I, Captain Leigh, who speak to you. I'll hang you, as I am a
+Christian; and I give you free leave to hang me.”
+
+“A very fair bargain,” quoth Cary, “and I for one will see it kept to.
+Lads, we'll twine a double strong halter for the captain as we go down
+along.”
+
+“I am not jesting, Will.”
+
+“I know it, good old lad,” said Cary, stretching out his own hand to him
+across the water through the darkness, and giving him a hearty shake. “I
+know it; and listen, men! So help me God! but I'll be the first to back
+the Captain in being as good as his word, as I trust he never will need
+to be.”
+
+“Amen!” said Brimblecombe. “Amen!” said Yeo; and many an honest voice
+joined in that honest compact, and kept it too, like men.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+HOW THEY TOOK THE GREAT GALLEON
+
+     “When captains courageous, whom death could not daunt,
+     Did march to the siege of the city of Gaunt,
+     They muster'd their soldiers by two and by three,
+     But the foremost in battle was Mary Ambree.
+     When brave Sir John Major was slain in her sight,
+     Who was her true lover, her joy and delight,
+     Because he was murther'd most treacherouslie,
+     Then vow'd to avenge him fair Mary Ambree.”
+
+                                 Old Ballad, A. D. 1584.
+
+One more glance at the golden tropic sea, and the golden tropic
+evenings, by the shore of New Granada, in the golden Spanish Main.
+
+The bay of Santa Marta is rippling before the land-breeze one sheet of
+living flame. The mighty forests are sparkling with myriad fireflies.
+The lazy mist which lounges round the inner hills shines golden in
+the sunset rays; and, nineteen thousand feet aloft, the mighty peak of
+Horqueta cleaves the abyss of air, rose-red against the dark-blue
+vault of heaven. The rosy cone fades to a dull leaden hue; but only for
+awhile. The stars flash out one by one, and Venus, like another moon,
+tinges the eastern snows with gold, and sheds across the bay a long
+yellow line of rippling light. Everywhere is glory and richness. What
+wonder if the earth in that enchanted land be as rich to her inmost
+depths as she is upon the surface? The heaven, the hills, the sea, are
+one sparkling garland of jewels--what wonder if the soil be jewelled
+also? if every watercourse and bank of earth be spangled with emeralds
+and rubies, with grains of gold and feathered wreaths of native silver?
+
+So thought, in a poetic mood, the Bishop of Cartagena, as he sat in
+the state cabin of that great galleon, The City of the True Cross, and
+looked pensively out of the window towards the shore. The good man was
+in a state of holy calm. His stout figure rested on one easy-chair, his
+stout ankles on another, beside a table spread with oranges and limes,
+guavas and pine-apples, and all the fruits of Ind.
+
+An Indian girl, bedizened with scarfs and gold chains, kept off the
+flies with a fan of feathers; and by him, in a pail of ice from the
+Horqueta (the gift of some pious Spanish lady, who had “spent” an Indian
+or two in bringing down the precious offering), stood more than one
+flask of virtuous wine of Alicant. But he was not so selfish, good man,
+as to enjoy either ice or wine alone; Don Pedro, colonel of the soldiers
+on board, Don Alverez, intendant of his Catholic majesty's customs at
+Santa Marta, and Don Paul, captain of mariners in The City of the
+True Cross, had, by his especial request, come to his assistance that
+evening, and with two friars, who sat at the lower end of the table,
+were doing their best to prevent the good man from taking too bitterly
+to heart the present unsatisfactory state of his cathedral town, which
+had just been sacked and burnt by an old friend of ours, Sir Francis
+Drake.
+
+“We have been great sufferers, senors,--ah, great sufferers,” snuffled
+the bishop, quoting Scripture, after the fashion of the day, glibly
+enough, but often much too irreverently for me to repeat, so boldly were
+his texts travestied, and so freely interlarded by grumblings at Tita
+and the mosquitoes. “Great sufferers, truly; but there shall be a
+remnant,--ah, a remnant like the shaking of the olive tree and the
+gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.--Ah! Gold? Yes, I trust
+Our Lady's mercies are not shut up, nor her arms shortened.--Look,
+senors!”--and he pointed majestically out of the window. “It looks gold!
+it smells of gold, as I may say, by a poetical license. Yea, the very
+waves, as they ripple past us, sing of gold, gold, gold!”
+
+“It is a great privilege,” said the intendant, “to have comfort so
+gracefully administered at once by a churchman and a scholar.”
+
+“A poet, too,” said Don Pedro. “You have no notion what sweet sonnets--”
+
+“Hush, Don Pedro--hush! If I, a mateless bird, have spent an idle hour
+in teaching lovers how to sing, why, what of that? I am a churchman,
+senors; but I am a man and I can feel, senors; I can sympathize; I can
+palliate; I can excuse. Who knows better than I how much human nature
+lurks in us fallen sons of Adam? Tita!”
+
+“Um?” said the trembling girl, with a true Indian grunt.
+
+“Fill his excellency the intendant's glass. Does much more treasure come
+down, illustrious senor? May the poor of Mary hope for a few more crumbs
+from their Mistress's table?”
+
+“Not a pezo, I fear. The big white cow up there”--and he pointed to the
+Horqueta--“has been milked dry for this year.”
+
+“Ah!” And he looked up at the magnificent snow peak. “Only good to cool
+wine with, eh? and as safe for the time being as Solomon's birds.”
+
+“Solomon's birds? Explain your recondite allusion, my lord.”
+
+“Enlighten us, your excellency, enlighten us.”
+
+“Ah! thereby hangs a tale. You know the holy birds who run up and down
+on the Prado at Seville among the ladies' pretty feet,--eh? with hooked
+noses and cinnamon crests? Of course. Hoopoes--Upupa, as the classics
+have it. Well, senors, once on a time, the story goes, these hoopoes
+all had golden crowns on their heads; and, senors, they took the
+consequences--eh? But it befell on a day that all the birds and beasts
+came to do homage at the court of his most Catholic majesty King
+Solomon, and among them came these same hoopoes; and they had a little
+request to make, the poor rogues. And what do you think it was? Why,
+that King Solomon would pray for them that they might wear any sort of
+crowns but these same golden ones; for--listen, Tita, and see the snare
+of riches--mankind so hunted, and shot, and trapped, and snared them,
+for the sake of these same golden crowns, that life was a burden to
+bear. So Solomon prayed, and instead of golden crowns, they all received
+crowns of feathers; and ever since, senors, they live as merrily as
+crickets in an oven, and also have the honor of bearing the name of his
+most Catholic majesty King Solomon. Tita! fill the senor commandant's
+glass. Fray Gerundio, what are you whispering about down there, sir?”
+
+Fray Gerundio had merely commented to his brother on the bishop's story
+of Solomon's birds with an--
+
+“O si sic omnia!--would that all gold would turn to feathers in like
+wise!”
+
+“Then, friend,” replied the other, a Dominican, like Gerundio, but of a
+darker and sterner complexion, “corrupt human nature would within a week
+discover some fresh bauble, for which to kill and be killed in vain.”
+
+“What is that, Fray Gerundio?” asked the bishop again.
+
+“I merely remarked, that it were well for the world if all mankind were
+to put up the same prayer as the hoopoes.”
+
+“World, sir? What do you know about the world? Convert your Indians,
+sir, if you please, and leave affairs of state to your superiors. You
+will excuse him, senors” (turning to the Dons, and speaking in a lower
+tone). “A very worthy and pious man, but a poor peasant's son; and
+beside--you understand. A little wrong here; too much fasting and
+watching, I fear, good man.” And the bishop touched his forehead
+knowingly, to signify that Fray Gerundio's wits were in an
+unsatisfactory state.
+
+The Fray heard and saw with a quiet smile. He was one of those excellent
+men whom the cruelties of his countrymen had stirred up (as the
+darkness, by mere contrast, makes the light more bright), as they did
+Las Casas, Gasca, and many another noble name which is written in the
+book of life, to deeds of love and pious daring worthy of any creed or
+age. True Protestants, they protested, even before kings, against the
+evil which lay nearest them, the sin which really beset them; true
+liberals, they did not disdain to call the dark-skinned heathen their
+brothers; and asserted in terms which astonish us, when we recollect the
+age in which they were spoken, the inherent freedom of every being who
+wore the flesh and blood which their Lord wore; true martyrs, they
+bore witness of Christ, and received too often the rewards of such,
+in slander and contempt. Such an one was Fray Gerundio; a poor, mean,
+clumsy-tongued peasant's son, who never could put three sentences
+together, save when he waxed eloquent, crucifix in hand, amid some
+group of Indians or negroes. He was accustomed to such rebuffs as the
+bishop's; he took them for what they were worth, and sipped his wine in
+silence; while the talk went on.
+
+“They say,” observed the commandant, “that a very small Plate-fleet will
+go to Spain this year.”
+
+“What else?” says the intendant. “What have we to send, in the name of
+all saints, since these accursed English Lutherans have swept us out
+clean?”
+
+“And if we had anything to send,” says the sea-captain, “what have we to
+send it in? That fiend incarnate, Drake--”
+
+“Ah!” said his holiness; “spare my ears! Don Pedro, you will oblige my
+weakness by not mentioning that man;--his name is Tartarean, unfit
+for polite lips. Draco--a dragon--serpent--the emblem of Diabolus
+himself--ah! And the guardian of the golden apples of the West, who
+would fain devour our new Hercules, his most Catholic majesty. Deceived
+Eve, too, with one of those same apples--a very evil name, senors--a
+Tartarean name,--Tita!”
+
+“Um!”
+
+“Fill my glass.”
+
+“Nay,” cried the colonel, with a great oath, “this English fellow is of
+another breed of serpent from that, I warrant.”
+
+“Your reason, senor; your reason?”
+
+“Because this one would have seen Eve at the bottom of the sea, before
+he let her, or any one but himself, taste aught which looked like gold.”
+
+“Ah, ah!--very good! But--we laugh, valiant senors, while the Church
+weeps. Alas for my sheep!”
+
+“And alas for their sheepfold! It will be four years before we can get
+Cartagena rebuilt again. And as for the blockhouse, when we shall get
+that rebuilt, Heaven only knows, while his majesty goes on draining the
+Indies for his English Armada. The town is as naked now as an Indian's
+back.”
+
+“Baptista Antonio, the surveyor, has sent home by me a relation to the
+king, setting forth our defenceless state. But to read a relation and
+to act on it are two cocks of very different hackles, bishop, as all
+statesmen know. Heaven grant we may have orders by the next fleet to
+fortify, or we shall be at the mercy of every English pirate!”
+
+“Ah, that blockhouse!” sighed the bishop. “That was indeed a villainous
+trick. A hundred and ten thousand ducats for the ransom of the town!
+After having burned and plundered the one-half--and having made me
+dine with them too, ah! and sit between the--the serpent, and his
+lieutenant-general--and drunk my health in my own private wine--wine
+that I had from Xeres nine years ago, senors and offered, the shameless
+heretics, to take me to England, if I would turn Lutheran, and find me a
+wife, and make an honest man of me--ah! and then to demand fresh ransom
+for the priory and the fort--perfidious!”
+
+“Well,” said the colonel, “they had the law of us, the cunning rascals,
+for we forgot to mention anything but the town, in the agreement. Who
+would have dreamed of such a fetch as that?”
+
+“So I told my good friend the prior, when he came to me to borrow the
+thousand crowns. It was Heaven's will. Unexpected like the thunderbolt,
+and to be borne as such. Every man must bear his own burden. How could I
+lend him aught?”
+
+“Your holiness's money had been all carried off by them before,” said
+the intendant, who knew, and none better, the exact contrary.
+
+“Just so--all my scanty savings! desolate in my lone old age. Ah,
+senors, had we not had warning of the coming of these wretches from
+my dear friend the Marquess of Santa Cruz, whom I remember daily in my
+prayers, we had been like to them who go down quick into the pit. I too
+might have saved a trifle, had I been minded: but in thinking too much
+of others, I forgot myself, alas!”
+
+“Warning or none, we had no right to be beaten by such a handful,” said
+the sea-captain; “and a shame it is, and a shame it will be, for many a
+day to come.”
+
+“Do you mean to cast any slur, sir, upon the courage and conduct of his
+Catholic majesty's soldiers?” asked the colonel.
+
+“I?--No; but we were foully beaten, and that behind our barricades too,
+and there's the plain truth.”
+
+“Beaten, sir! Do you apply such a term to the fortunes of war? What more
+could our governor have done? Had we not the ways filled with poisoned
+caltrops, guarded by Indian archers, barred with butts full of earth,
+raked with culverins and arquebuses? What familiar spirit had we, sir,
+to tell us that these villains would come along the sea-beach, and not
+by the high-road, like Christian men?”
+
+“Ah!” said the bishop, “it was by intuition diabolic, I doubt not, that
+they took that way. Satanas must need help those who serve him; and for
+my part, I can only attribute (I would the captain here had piety enough
+to do so) the misfortune which occurred to art-magic. I believe these
+men to have been possessed by all fiends whatsoever.”
+
+“Well, your holiness,” said the colonel, “there may have been devilry
+in it; how else would men have dared to run right into the mouths of our
+cannon, fire their shot against our very noses, and tumble harmless over
+those huge butts of earth?”
+
+“Doubtless by force of the fiends which raged with them,” interposed the
+bishop.
+
+“And then, with their blasphemous cries, leap upon us with sword and
+pike? I myself saw that Lieutenant-General Carlisle hew down with one
+stroke that noble young gentleman the ensign-bearer, your excellency's
+sister's son's nephew, though he was armed cap-a-pie. Was not art-magic
+here? And that most furious and blaspheming Lutheran Captain Young, I
+saw how he caught our general by the head, after the illustrious Don
+Alonzo had given him a grievous wound, threw him to the earth, and so
+took him. Was not art-magic here?”
+
+“Well, I say,” said the captain, “if you are looking for art-magic, what
+say you to their marching through the flank fire of our galleys, with
+eleven pieces of ordnance, and two hundred shot playing on them, as if
+it had been a mosquito swarm? Some said my men fired too high: but that
+was the English rascals' doing, for they got down on the tide beach.
+But, senor commandant, though Satan may have taught them that trick, was
+it he that taught them to carry pikes a foot longer than yours?”
+
+“Ah, well,” said the bishop, “sacked are we; and San Domingo, as I hear,
+in worse case than we are; and St. Augustine in Florida likewise; and
+all that is left for a poor priest like me is to return to Spain, and
+see whether the pious clemency of his majesty, and of the universal
+Father, may not be willing to grant some small relief or bounty to the
+poor of Mary--perhaps--(for who knows?) to translate to a sphere of
+more peaceful labor one who is now old, senors, and weary with many
+toils--Tita! fill our glasses. I have saved somewhat--as you may have
+done, senors, from the general wreck; and for the flock, when I am no
+more, illustrious senors, Heaven's mercies are infinite; new cities will
+rise from the ashes of the old, new mines pour forth their treasures
+into the sanctified laps of the faithful, and new Indians flock toward
+the life-giving standard of the Cross, to put on the easy yoke and light
+burden of the Church, and--”
+
+“And where shall I be then? Ah, where? Fain would I rest, and fain
+depart. Tita! sling my hammock. Senors, you will excuse age and
+infirmities. Fray Gerundio, go to bed!”
+
+And the Dons rose to depart, while the bishop went on maundering,--
+
+“Farewell! Life is short. Ah! we shall meet in heaven at last. And there
+are really no more pearls?”
+
+“Not a frail; nor gold either,” said the intendant.
+
+“Ah, well! Better a dinner of herbs where love is, than--Tita!”
+
+“My breviary--ah! Man's gratitude is short-lived, I had hoped--You have
+seen nothing of the Senora Bovadilla?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“Ah! she promised:--but no matter--a little trifle as a keepsake--a gold
+cross, or an emerald ring, or what not--I forget. And what have I to do
+with worldly wealth!--Ah! Tita! bring me the casket.”
+
+And when his guests were gone, the old man began mumbling prayers out of
+his breviary, and fingering over jewels and gold, with the dull greedy
+eyes of covetous old age.
+
+“Ah!--it may buy the red hat yet!--Omnia Romae venalia! Put it by, Tita,
+and do not look at it too much, child. Enter not into temptation. The
+love of money is the root of all evil; and Heaven, in love for the
+Indian, has made him poor in this world, that he may be rich in faith.
+Ah!--Ugh!--So!”
+
+And the old miser clambered into his hammock. Tita drew the mosquito
+net over him, wrapt another round her own head, and slept, or seemed to
+sleep; for she coiled herself up upon the floor, and master and slave
+soon snored a merry bass to the treble of the mosquitoes.
+
+It was long past midnight, and the moon was down. The sentinels, who had
+tramped and challenged overhead till they thought their officers were
+sound asleep, had slipped out of the unwholesome rays of the planet to
+seek that health and peace which they considered their right, and slept
+as soundly as the bishop's self.
+
+Two long lines glided out from behind the isolated rocks of the Morro
+Grande, which bounded the bay some five hundred yards astern of the
+galleon. They were almost invisible on the glittering surface of the
+water, being perfectly white; and, had a sentinel been looking out, he
+could only have descried them by the phosphorescent flashes along their
+sides.
+
+Now the bishop had awoke, and turned himself over uneasily; for the wine
+was dying out within him, and his shoulders had slipped down, and his
+heels up, and his head ached! so he sat upright in his hammock, looked
+out upon the bay, and called Tita.
+
+“Put another pillow under my head, child! What is that? a fish?”
+
+Tita looked. She did not think it was a fish: but she did not choose to
+say so; for it might have produced an argument, and she had her reasons
+for not keeping his holiness awake.
+
+The bishop looked again; settled that it must be a white whale, or
+shark, or other monster of the deep; crossed himself, prayed for a safe
+voyage, and snored once more.
+
+Presently the cabin-door opened gently, and the head of the senor
+intendant appeared.
+
+Tita sat up; and then began crawling like a snake along the floor, among
+the chairs and tables, by the light of the cabin lamp.
+
+“Is he asleep?”
+
+“Yes: but the casket is under his head.”
+
+“Curse him! How shall we take it?”
+
+“I brought him a fresh pillow half-an-hour ago; I hung his hammock wrong
+on purpose that he might want one. I thought to slip the box away as I
+did it; but the old ox nursed it in both hands all the while.”
+
+“What shall we do, in the name of all the fiends? She sails to-morrow
+morning, and then all is lost.”
+
+Tita showed her white teeth, and touched the dagger which hung by the
+intendant's side.
+
+“I dare not!” said the rascal, with a shudder.
+
+“I dare!” said she. “He whipt my mother, because she would not give me
+up to him to be taught in his schools, when she went to the mines. And
+she went to the mines, and died there in three months. I saw her go,
+with a chain round her neck; but she never came back again. Yes; I dare
+kill him! I will kill him! I will!”
+
+The senor felt his mind much relieved. He had no wish, of course, to
+commit the murder himself; for he was a good Catholic, and feared the
+devil. But Tita was an Indian, and her being lost did not matter so
+much. Indians' souls were cheap, like their bodies. So he answered, “But
+we shall be discovered!”
+
+“I will leap out of the window with the casket, and swim ashore. They
+will never suspect you, and they will fancy I am drowned.”
+
+“The sharks may seize you, Tita. You had better give me the casket.”
+
+Tita smiled. “You would not like to lose that, eh? though you care
+little about losing me. And yet you told me that you loved me!”
+
+“And I do love you, Tita! light of my eyes! life of my heart! I swear,
+by all the saints, I love you. I will marry you, I swear I will--I will
+swear on the crucifix, if you like!”
+
+“Swear, then, or I do not give you the casket,” said she, holding out
+the little crucifix round her neck, and devouring him with the wild eyes
+of passionate unreasoning tropic love.
+
+He swore, trembling, and deadly pale.
+
+“Give me your dagger.”
+
+“No, not mine. It may be found. I shall be suspected. What if my sheath
+were seen to be empty?”
+
+“Your knife will do. His throat is soft enough.”
+
+And she glided stealthily as a cat toward the hammock, while her
+cowardly companion stood shivering at the other end of the cabin, and
+turned his back to her, that he might not see the deed.
+
+He stood waiting, one minute--two--five? Was it an hour, rather? A cold
+sweat bathed his limbs; the blood beat so fiercely within his temples,
+that his head rang again. Was that a death-bell tolling? No; it was the
+pulses of his brain. Impossible, surely, a death-bell. Whence could it
+come?
+
+There was a struggle--ah! she was about it now; a stifled cry--Ah! he
+had dreaded that most of all, to hear the old man cry. Would there be
+much blood? He hoped not. Another struggle, and Tita's voice, apparently
+muffled, called for help.
+
+“I cannot help you. Mother of Mercies! I dare not help you!” hissed he.
+“She-devil! you have begun it, and you must finish it yourself!”
+
+A heavy arm from behind clasped his throat. The bishop had broken loose
+from her and seized him! Or was it his ghost? or a fiend come to drag
+him down to the pit? And forgetting all but mere wild terror, he opened
+his lips for a scream, which would have wakened every soul on board. But
+a handkerchief was thrust into his mouth and in another minute he found
+himself bound hand and foot, and laid upon the table by a gigantic
+enemy. The cabin was full of armed men, two of whom were lashing up
+the bishop in his hammock; two more had seized Tita; and more were
+clambering up into the stern-gallery beyond, wild figures, with bright
+blades and armor gleaming in the starlight.
+
+“Now, Will,” whispered the giant who had seized him, “forward and
+clap the fore-hatches on; and shout Fire! with all your might. Girl!
+murderess! your life is in my hands. Tell me where the commander sleeps,
+and I pardon you.”
+
+Tita looked up at the huge speaker, and obeyed in silence. The intendant
+heard him enter the colonel's cabin, and then a short scuffle, and
+silence for a moment.
+
+But only for a moment; for already the alarm had been given, and mad
+confusion reigned through every deck. Amyas (for it was none other) had
+already gained the poop; the sentinels were gagged and bound; and every
+half-naked wretch who came trembling up on deck in his shirt by the main
+hatchway, calling one, “Fire!” another, “Wreck!” and another, “Treason!”
+ was hurled into the scuppers, and there secured.
+
+“Lower away that boat!” shouted Amyas in Spanish to his first batch of
+prisoners.
+
+The men, unarmed and naked, could but obey.
+
+“Now then, jump in. Here, hand them to the gangway as they come up.”
+
+It was done; and as each appeared he was kicked to the scuppers, and
+bundled down over the side.
+
+“She's full. Cast loose now and off with you. If you try to board again
+we'll sink you.”
+
+“Fire! fire!” shouted Cary, forward. “Up the main hatchway for your
+lives!”
+
+The ruse succeeded utterly; and before half-an-hour was over, all the
+ship's boats which could be lowered were filled with Spaniards in their
+shirts, getting ashore as best they could.
+
+“Here is a new sort of camisado,” quoth Cary. “The last Spanish one
+I saw was at the sortie from Smerwick: but this is somewhat more
+prosperous than that.”
+
+“Get the main and foresail up, Will!” said Amyas, “cut the cable; and we
+will plume the quarry as we fly.”
+
+“Spoken like a good falconer. Heaven grant that this big woodcock may
+carry a good trail inside!”
+
+“I'll warrant her for that,” said Jack Brimblecombe. “She floats so
+low.”
+
+“Much of your build, too, Jack. By the by, where is the commander?”
+
+Alas! Don Pedro, forgotten in the bustle, had been lying on the deck
+in his shirt, helplessly bound, exhausting that part of his vocabulary
+which related to the unseen world. Which most discourteous act seemed at
+first likely to be somewhat heavily avenged on Amyas; for as he spoke, a
+couple of caliver-shots, fired from under the poop, passed “ping” “ping”
+ by his ears, and Cary clapped his hand to his side.
+
+“Hurt, Will?”
+
+“A pinch, old lad--Look out, or we are 'allen verloren' after all, as
+the Flemings say.”
+
+And as he spoke, a rush forward on the poop drove two of their best men
+down the ladder into the waist, where Amyas stood.
+
+“Killed?” asked he, as he picked one up, who had fallen head over heels.
+
+“Sound as a bell, sir: but they Gentiles has got hold of the firearms,
+and set the captain free.”
+
+And rubbing the back of his head for a minute, he jumped up the ladder
+again, shouting--
+
+“Have at ye, idolatrous pagans! Have at ye, Satan's spawn!”
+
+Amyas jumped up after him, shouting to all hands to follow; for there
+was no time to be lost.
+
+Out of the windows of the poop, which looked on the main-deck, a galling
+fire had been opened, and he could not afford to lose men; for, as far
+as he knew, the Spaniards left on board might still far outnumber the
+English; so up he sprang on the poop, followed by a dozen men, and there
+began a very heavy fight between two parties of valiant warriors, who
+easily knew each other apart by the peculiar fashion of their armor. For
+the Spaniards fought in their shirts, and in no other garments: but the
+English in all other manner of garments, tag, rag, and bobtail; and yet
+had never a shirt between them.
+
+The rest of the English made a rush, of course, to get upon the poop,
+seeing that the Spaniards could not shoot them through the deck; but
+the fire from the windows was so hot, that although they dodged behind
+masts, spars, and every possible shelter, one or two dropped; and Jack
+Brimblecombe and Yeo took on themselves to call a retreat, and with
+about a dozen men, got back, and held a council of war.
+
+What was to be done? Their arquebuses were of little use; for the
+Spaniards were behind a strong bulkhead. There were cannon: but where
+was powder or shot? The boats, encouraged by the clamor on deck, were
+paddling alongside again. Yeo rushed round and round, probing every gun
+with his sword.
+
+“Here's a patararo loaded! Now for a match, lads.”
+
+Luckily one of the English had kept his match alight during the scuffle.
+
+“Thanks be! Help me to unship the gun--the mast's in the way here.”
+
+The patararo, or brass swivel, was unshipped.
+
+“Steady, lads, and keep it level, or you'll shake out the priming. Ship
+it here; turn out that one, and heave it into that boat, if they come
+alongside. Steady now--so! Rummage about, and find me a bolt or two,
+a marlin-spike, anything. Quick, or the captain will be over-mastered
+yet.”
+
+Missiles were found--odds and ends--and crammed into the swivel up to
+the muzzle: and, in another minute, its “cargo of notions” was crashing
+into the poop-windows, silencing the fire from thence effectually enough
+for the time.
+
+“Now, then, a rush forward, and right in along the deck!” shouted Yeo;
+and the whole party charged through the cabin-doors, which their shot
+had burst open, and hewed their way from room to room.
+
+In the meanwhile, the Spaniards above had fought fiercely: but, in
+spite of superior numbers, they had gradually given back before the
+“demoniacal possession of those blasphemous heretics, who fought,
+not like men, but like furies from the pit.” And by the time that
+Brimblecombe and Yeo shouted from the stern-gallery below that the
+quarter-deck was won, few on either side but had their shrewd scratch to
+show.
+
+“Yield, senor!” shouted Amyas to the commander, who had been fighting
+like a lion, back to back with the captain of mariners.
+
+“Never! You have bound me, and insulted me! Your blood or mine must wipe
+out the stain!”
+
+And he rushed on Amyas. There was a few moments' heavy fence between
+them; and then Amyas cut right at his head. But as he raised his arm,
+the Spaniard's blade slipped along his ribs, and snapped against the
+point of his shoulder-blade. An inch more to the left, and it would have
+been through his heart. The blow fell, nevertheless, and the commandant
+fell with it, stunned by the flat of the sword, but not wounded;
+for Amyas's hand had turned, as he winced from his wound. But the
+sea-captain, seeing Amyas stagger, sprang at him, and, seizing him by
+the wrist, ere he could raise his sword again, shortened his weapon to
+run him through. Amyas made a grasp at his wrist in return, but, between
+his faintness and the darkness, missed it.--Another moment, and all
+would have been over!
+
+A bright blade flashed close past Amyas's ear; the sea-captain's grasp
+loosened, and he dropped a corpse; while over him, like an angry lioness
+above her prey, stood Ayacanora, her long hair floating in the wind, her
+dagger raised aloft, as she looked round, challenging all and every one
+to approach.
+
+“Are you hurt?” panted she.
+
+“A scratch, child.--What do you do here? Go back, go back.”
+
+Ayacanora slipped back like a scolded child, and vanished in the
+darkness.
+
+The battle was over. The Spaniards, seeing their commanders fall, laid
+down their arms, and cried for quarter. It was given; the poor fellows
+were tied together, two and two, and seated in a row on the deck; the
+commandant, sorely bruised, yielded himself perforce; and the galleon
+was taken.
+
+Amyas hurried forward to get the sails set. As he went down the
+poop-ladder, there was some one sitting on the lowest step.
+
+“Who is here--wounded?”
+
+“I am not wounded,” said a woman's voice, low, and stifled with sobs.
+
+It was Ayacanora. She rose, and let him pass. He saw that her face was
+bright with tears; but he hurried on, nevertheless.
+
+“Perhaps I did speak a little hastily to her, considering she saved my
+life; but what a brimstone it is! Mary Ambree in a dark skin! Now then,
+lads! Get the Santa Fe gold up out of the canoes, and then we will put
+her head to the north-east, and away for Old England. Mr. Brimblecombe!
+don't say that Eastward-ho don't bring luck this time.”
+
+It was impossible, till morning dawned, either to get matters into any
+order, or to overhaul the prize they had taken; and many of the men were
+so much exhausted that they fell fast asleep on the deck ere the surgeon
+had time to dress their wounds. However, Amyas contrived, when once the
+ship was leaping merrily, close-hauled against a fresh land-breeze,
+to count his little flock, and found out of the forty-four but six
+seriously wounded, and none killed. However, their working numbers were
+now reduced to thirty-eight, beside the four negroes, a scanty crew
+enough to take home such a ship to England.
+
+After awhile, up came Jack Brimblecombe on deck, a bottle in his hand.
+
+“Lads, a prize!”
+
+“Well, we know that already.”
+
+“Nay, but--look hither, and laid in ice, too, as I live, the luxurious
+dogs! But I had to fight for it, I had. For when I went down into the
+state cabin, after I had seen to the wounded; whom should I find loose
+but that Indian lass, who had just unbound the fellow you caught--”
+
+“Ah! those two, I believe, were going to murder the old man in the
+hammock, if we had not come in the nick of time. What have you done with
+them?”
+
+“Why, the Spaniard ran when he saw me, and got into a cabin; but the
+woman, instead of running, came at me with a knife, and chased me round
+the table like a very cat-a-mountain. So I ducked under the old man's
+hammock, and out into the gallery; and when I thought the coast was
+clear, back again I came, and stumbled over this. So I just picked it
+up, and ran on deck with my tail between my legs, for I expected
+verily to have the black woman's knife between my ribs out of some dark
+corner.”
+
+“Well done, Jack! Let's have the wine, nevertheless, and then down to
+set a guard on the cabin doors for fear of plundering.”
+
+“Better go down, and see that nothing is thrown overboard by Spaniards.
+As for plundering, I will settle that.”
+
+And Amyas walked forward among the men.
+
+“Muster the men, boatswain, and count them.”
+
+“All here, sir, but the six poor fellows who are laid forward.”
+
+“Now, my men,” said Amyas, “for three years you and I have wandered
+on the face of the earth, seeking our fortune, and we have found it at
+last, thanks be to God! Now, what was our promise and vow which we made
+to God beneath the tree of Guayra, if He should grant us good fortune,
+and bring us home again with a prize? Was it not, that the dead should
+share with the living; and that every man's portion, if he fell, should
+go to his widow or his orphans, or if he had none, to his parents?”
+
+“It was, sir,” said Yeo, “and I trust that the Lord will give these men
+grace to keep their vow. They have seen enough of His providences by
+this time to fear Him.”
+
+“I doubt them not; but I remind them of it. The Lord has put into our
+hands a rich prize; and what with the gold which we have already, we are
+well paid for all our labors. Let us thank Him with fervent hearts
+as soon as the sun rises; and in the meanwhile, remember all, that
+whosoever plunders on his private account, robs not the adventurers
+merely, but the orphan and the widow, which is to rob God; and makes
+himself partaker of Achan's curse, who hid the wedge of gold, and
+brought down God's anger on the whole army of Israel. For me, lest you
+should think me covetous, I could claim my brother's share; but I hereby
+give it up freely into the common stock, for the use of the whole ship's
+crew, who have stood by me through weal and woe, as men never stood
+before, as I believe, by any captain. So, now to prayers, lads, and then
+to eat our breakfast.”
+
+So, to the Spaniards' surprise (who most of them believed that the
+English were atheists), to prayers they went.
+
+After which Brimblecombe contrived to inspire the black cook and the
+Portuguese steward with such energy that, by seven o'clock, the latter
+worthy appeared on deck, and, with profound reverences, announced to
+“The most excellent and heroical Senor Adelantado Captain Englishman,”
+ that breakfast was ready in the state-cabin.
+
+“You will do us the honor of accompanying us as our guest, sir, or our
+host, if you prefer the title,” said Amyas to the commandant, who stood
+by.
+
+“Pardon, senor: but honor forbids me to eat with one who has offered to
+me the indelible insult of bonds.”
+
+“Oh!” said Amyas, taking off his hat, “then pray accept on the spot my
+humble apologies for all which has passed, and my assurances that the
+indignities which you have unfortunately endured, were owing altogether
+to the necessities of war, and not to any wish to hurt the feelings of
+so valiant a soldier and gentleman.”
+
+“It is enough, senor,” said the commandant, bowing and shrugging his
+shoulders--for, indeed, he too was very hungry; while Cary whispered to
+Amyas--
+
+“You will make a courtier, yet, old lad.”
+
+“I am not in jesting humor, Will: my mind sadly misgives me that we
+shall hear black news, and have, perhaps, to do a black deed yet, on
+board here. Senor, I follow you.”
+
+So they went down, and found the bishop, who was by this time unbound,
+seated in a corner of the cabin, his hands fallen on his knees, his eyes
+staring on vacancy, while the two priests stood as close against the
+wall as they could squeeze themselves, keeping up a ceaseless mutter of
+prayers.
+
+“Your holiness will breakfast with us, of course; and these two frocked
+gentlemen likewise. I see no reason for refusing them all hospitality,
+as yet.”
+
+There was a marked emphasis on the last two words, which made both monks
+wince.
+
+“Our chaplain will attend to you, gentlemen. His lordship the bishop
+will do me the honor of sitting next to me.”
+
+The bishop seemed to revive slowly as he snuffed the savory steam;
+and at last, rising mechanically, subsided into the chair which Amyas
+offered him on his left, while the commandant sat on his right.
+
+“A little of this kid, my lord? No--ah--Friday, I recollect. Some of
+that turtle-fin, then. Will, serve his lordship; pass the cassava-bread
+up, Jack! Senor commandant! a glass of wine? You need it after your
+valiant toils. To the health of all brave soldiers--and a toast from
+your own Spanish proverb, 'To-day to me, tomorrow to thee!'”
+
+“I drink it, brave senor. Your courtesy shows you the worthy countryman
+of General Drake, and his brave lieutenant.”
+
+“Drake! Did you know him, senor?” asked all the Englishmen at once.
+
+“Too well, too well--” and he would have continued; but the bishop burst
+out--
+
+“Ah, senor commandant! that name again! Have you no mercy? To sit
+between another pair of--, and my own wine, too! Ugh, ugh!”
+
+The old gentleman, whose mouth had been full of turtle the whole time,
+burst into a violent fit of coughing, and was only saved from apoplexy
+by Cary's patting him on the back.
+
+“Ugh, ugh! The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, and their
+precious balms. Ah, senor lieutenant Englishman! May I ask you to pass
+those limes?--Ah! what is turtle without lime?--Even as a fat old man
+without money! Nudus intravi, nudus exeo--ah!”
+
+“But what of Drake?”
+
+“Do you not know, sir, that he and his fleet, only last year, swept the
+whole of this coast, and took, with shame I confess it, Cartagena, San
+Domingo, St. Augustine, and--I see you are too courteous, senors, to
+express before me what you have a right to feel. But whence come you,
+sir? From the skies, or the depth of the sea?”
+
+“Art-magic, art-magic!” moaned the bishop.
+
+“Your holiness! It is scarcely prudent to speak thus here,” said the
+commandant, who was nevertheless much of the same opinion.
+
+“Why, you said so yourself, last night, senor, about the taking of
+Cartagena.”
+
+The commandant blushed, and stammered out somewhat--“That it was
+excusable in him, if he had said, in jest, that so prodigious and
+curious a valor had not sprung from mortal source.”
+
+“No more it did, senor,” said Jack Brimblecombe, stoutly: “but from Him
+who taught our 'hands to war, and our fingers to fight.'”
+
+The commandant bowed stiffly. “You will excuse me, sir preacher: but I
+am a Catholic, and hold the cause of my king to be alone the cause of
+Heaven. But, senor captain, how came you thither, if I may ask? That you
+needed no art-magic after you came on board, I, alas! can testify but
+too well: but what spirit--whether good or evil, I ask not--brought you
+on board, and whence? Where is your ship? I thought that all Drake's
+squadron had left six months ago.”
+
+“Our ship, senor, has lain this three years rotting on the coast near
+Cape Codera.”
+
+“Ah! we heard of that bold adventure--but we thought you all lost in the
+interior.”
+
+“You did? Can you tell me, then, where the senor governor of La Guayra
+may be now?”
+
+“The Senor Don Guzman de Soto,” said the commandant, in a somewhat
+constrained tone, “is said to be at present in Spain, having thrown up
+his office in consequence of domestic matters, of which I have not the
+honor of knowing anything.”
+
+Amyas longed to ask more: but he knew that the well-bred Spaniard would
+tell him nothing which concerned another man's wife; and went on.
+
+“What befell us after, I tell you frankly.”
+
+And Amyas told his story, from the landing at Guayra to the passage down
+the Magdalena. The commandant lifted up his hands.
+
+“Were it not forbidden to me, as a Catholic, most invincible senor, I
+should say that the Divine protection has indeed--”
+
+“Ah,” said one of the friars, “that you could be brought, senors, to
+render thanks for your miraculous preservation to her to whom alone it
+is due, Mary, the fount of mercies!”
+
+“We have done well enough without her as yet,” said Amyas, bluntly.
+
+“The Lord raised up Nebuchadnezzar of old to punish the sins of the
+Jewish Church; and He has raised up these men to punish ours!” said Fray
+Gerundio.
+
+“But Nebuchadnezzar fell, and so may they,” growled the other to
+himself. Jack overheard him.
+
+“I say, my lord bishop,” called he from the other end of the table. “It
+is our English custom to let our guests be as rude as they like; but
+perhaps your lordship will hint to these two friars, that if they wish
+to keep whole skins, they will keep civil tongues.”
+
+“Be silent, asses! mules!” shouted the bishop, whose spirits were
+improving over the wine, “who are you, that you cannot eat dirt as well
+as your betters?”
+
+“Well spoken, my lord. Here's the health of our saintly and venerable
+guest,” said Cary: while the commandant whispered to Amyas, “Fat old
+tyrant! I hope you have found his money--for I am sure he has some on
+board, and I should be loath that you lost the advantage of it.”
+
+“I shall have to say a few words to you about that money this morning,
+commandant: by the by, they had better be said now. My lord bishop, do
+you know that had we not taken this ship when we did, you had lost not
+merely money, as you have now, but life itself?”
+
+“Money? I had none to lose! Life?--what do you mean?” asked the bishop,
+turning very pale.
+
+“This, sir. That it ill befits one to lie, whose throat has been saved
+from the assassin's knife but four hours since. When we entered the
+stern-gallery, we found two persons, now on board this ship, in the very
+act, sir, and article, of cutting your sinful throat, that they might
+rob you of the casket which lay beneath your pillow. A moment more, and
+you were dead. We seized and bound them, and so saved your life. Is that
+plain, sir?”
+
+The bishop looked steadfastly and stupidly into Amyas's face, heaved a
+deep sigh, and gradually sank back in his chair, dropping the glass from
+his hand.
+
+“He is in a fit! Call in the surgeon! Run!” and up jumped kind-hearted
+Jack, and brought in the surgeon of the galleon.
+
+“Is this possible, senor?” asked the commandant.
+
+“It is true. Door, there! Evans! go and bring in that rascal whom we
+left bound in his cabin!”
+
+Evans went, and the commandant continued--
+
+“But the stern-gallery? How, in the name of all witches and miracles,
+came your valor thither?”
+
+“Simply enough, and owing neither to witch nor miracle. The night before
+last we passed the mouth of the bay in our two canoes, which we had
+lashed together after the fashion I had seen in the Moluccas, to keep
+them afloat in the surf. We had scraped the canoes bright the day
+before, and rubbed them with white clay, that they might be invisible at
+night; and so we got safely to the Morro Grande, passing within half a
+mile of your ship.”
+
+“Oh! my scoundrels of sentinels!”
+
+“We landed at the back of the Morro, and lay there all day, being
+purposed to do that which, with your pardon, we have done. We took our
+sails of Indian cloth, whitened them likewise with clay which we had
+brought with us from the river (expecting to find a Spanish ship as we
+went along the coast, and determined to attempt her, or die with honor),
+and laid them over us on the canoes, paddling from underneath them. So
+that, had your sentinels been awake, they would have hardly made us
+out, till we were close on board. We had provided ourselves, instead
+of ladders, with bamboos rigged with cross-pieces, and a hook of strong
+wood at the top of each; they hang at your stern-gallery now. And the
+rest of the tale I need not tell you.”
+
+The commandant rose in his courtly Spanish way,--
+
+“Your admirable story, senor, proves to me how truly your nation, while
+it has yet, and I trust will ever have, to dispute the palm of valor
+with our own, is famed throughout the world for ingenuity, and for
+daring beyond that of mortal man. You have succeeded, valiant captain,
+because you have deserved to succeed; and it is no shame to me to
+succumb to enemies who have united the cunning of the serpent with the
+valor of the lion. Senor, I feel as proud of becoming your guest as I
+should have been proud, under a happier star, of becoming your host.”
+
+“You are, like your nation, only too generous, senor. But what noise is
+that outside? Cary, go and see.”
+
+But ere Cary could reach the door, it was opened; and Evans presented
+himself with a terrified face.
+
+“Here's villainy, sir! The Don's murdered, and cold; the Indian lass
+fled; and as we searched the ship for her, we found an Englishwoman, as
+I'm a sinful man!--and a shocking sight she is to see!”
+
+“An Englishwoman?” cried all three, springing forward.
+
+“Bring her in!” said Amyas, turning very pale; and as he spoke, Yeo and
+another led into the cabin a figure scarcely human.
+
+An elderly woman, dressed in the yellow “San Benito” of the Inquisition,
+with ragged gray locks hanging about a countenance distorted by
+suffering and shrunk by famine. Painfully, as one unaccustomed to the
+light, she peered and blinked round her. Her fallen lip gave her a
+half-idiotic expression; and yet there was an uneasy twinkle in the eye,
+as of boundless terror and suspicion. She lifted up her fettered wrist
+to shade her face; and as she did so, disclosed a line of fearful scars
+upon her skinny arm.
+
+“Look there, sirs!” said Yeo, pointing to them with a stern smile.
+“Here's some of these Popish gentry's handiwork. I know well enough how
+those marks came;” and he pointed to the similar scars on his own wrist.
+
+The commandant, as well as the Englishmen, recoiled with horror.
+
+“Holy Virgin! what wretch is this on board my ship? Bishop, is this the
+prisoner whom you sent on board?”
+
+The bishop, who had been slowly recovering his senses, looked at her a
+moment; and then thrusting his chair back, crossed himself, and almost
+screamed, “Malefica! Malefica! Who brought her here? Turn her away,
+gentlemen; turn her eye away; she will bewitch, fascinate”--and he began
+muttering prayers.
+
+Amyas seized him by the shoulder, and shook him on to his legs.
+
+“Swine! who is this? Wake up, coward, and tell me, or I will cut you
+piecemeal!”
+
+But ere the bishop could answer, the woman uttered a wild shriek, and
+pointing to the taller of the two monks, cowered behind Yeo.
+
+“He here?” cried she, in broken Spanish. “Take me away! I will tell you
+no more. I have told you all, and lies enough beside. Oh! why is he come
+again? Did they not say that I should have no more torments?”
+
+The monk turned pale: but like a wild beast at bay, glared firmly round
+on the whole company; and then, fixing his dark eyes full on the woman,
+he bade her be silent so sternly, that she shrank down like a beaten
+hound.
+
+“Silence, dog!” said Will Cary, whose blood was up, and followed his
+words with a blow on the monk's mouth, which silenced him effectually.
+
+“Don't be afraid, good woman, but speak English. We are all English
+here, and Protestants too. Tell us what they have done for you.”
+
+“Another trap! another trap!” cried she, in a strong Devonshire accent.
+“You be no English! You want to make me lie again, and then torment me.
+Oh! wretched, wretched that I am!” cried she, bursting into tears. “Whom
+should I trust? Not myself: no, nor God; for I have denied Him! O Lord!
+O Lord!”
+
+Amyas stood silent with fear and horror; some instinct told him that he
+was on the point of hearing news for which he feared to ask. But Jack
+spoke--
+
+“My dear soul! my dear soul! don't you be afraid; and the Lord will
+stand by you, if you will but tell the truth. We are all Englishmen, and
+men of Devon, as you seem to be by your speech; and this ship is ours;
+and the pope himself sha'n't touch you.”
+
+“Devon?” she said doubtingly; “Devon! Whence, then?”
+
+“Bideford men. This is Mr. Will Cary, to Clovelly. If you are a Devon
+woman, you've heard tell of the Carys, to be sure.”
+
+The woman made a rush forward, and threw her fettered arms round Will's
+neck,--
+
+“Oh, Mr. Cary, my dear life! Mr. Cary! and so you be! Oh, dear soul
+alive! but you're burnt so brown, and I be 'most blind with misery. Oh,
+who ever sent you here, my dear Mr. Will, then, to save a poor wretch
+from the pit?”
+
+“Who on earth are you?”
+
+“Lucy Passmore, the white witch to Welcombe. Don't you mind Lucy
+Passmore, as charmed your warts for you when you was a boy?”
+
+“Lucy Passmore!” almost shrieked all three friends. “She that went off
+with--”
+
+“Yes! she that sold her own soul, and persuaded that dear saint to
+sell hers; she that did the devil's work, and has taken the devil's
+wages;--after this fashion!” and she held up her scarred wrists wildly.
+
+“Where is Dona de--Rose Salterne?” shouted Will and Jack.
+
+“Where is my brother Frank?” shouted Amyas.
+
+“Dead, dead, dead!”
+
+“I knew it,” said Amyas, sitting down again calmly.
+
+“How did she die?”
+
+“The Inquisition--he!” pointing to the monk. “Ask him--he betrayed her
+to her death. And ask him!” pointing to the bishop; “he sat by her and
+saw her die.”
+
+“Woman, you rave!” said the bishop, getting up with a terrified air, and
+moving as far as possible from Amyas.
+
+“How did my brother die, Lucy?” asked Amyas, still calmly.
+
+“Who be you, sir?”
+
+A gleam of hope flashed across Amyas--she had not answered his question.
+
+“I am Amyas Leigh of Burrough. Do you know aught of my brother Frank,
+who was lost at La Guayra?”
+
+“Mr. Amyas! Heaven forgive me that I did not know the bigness of you.
+Your brother, sir, died like a gentleman as he was.”
+
+“But how?” gasped Amyas.
+
+“Burned with her, sir!”
+
+“Is this true, sir?” said Amyas, turning to the bishop, with a very
+quiet voice.
+
+“I, sir?” stammered he, in panting haste. “I had nothing to do--I was
+compelled in my office of bishop to be an unwilling spectator--the
+secular arm, sir; I could not interfere with that--any more than I can
+with the Holy Office. I do not belong to it--ask that gentleman--sir!
+Saints and angels, sir! what are you going to do?” shrieked he, as Amyas
+laid a heavy hand upon his shoulder, and began to lead him towards the
+door.
+
+“Hang you!” said Amyas. “If I had been a Spaniard and a priest like
+yourself, I should have burnt you alive.”
+
+“Hang me?” shrieked the wretched old Balaam; and burst into abject howls
+for mercy.
+
+“Take the dark monk, Yeo, and hang him too. Lucy Passmore, do you know
+that fellow also?”
+
+“No, sir,” said Lucy.
+
+“Lucky for you, Fray Gerundio,” said Will Cary; while the good friar
+hid his face in his hands, and burst into tears. Lucky it was for
+him, indeed; for he had been a pitying spectator of the tragedy. “Ah!”
+ thought he, “if life in this mad and sinful world be a reward, perhaps
+this escape is vouchsafed to me for having pleaded the cause of the poor
+Indian!”
+
+But the bishop shrieked on.
+
+“Oh! not yet. An hour, only an hour! I am not fit to die.”
+
+“That is no concern of mine,” said Amyas. “I only know that you are not
+fit to live.”
+
+“Let us at least make our peace with God,” said the dark monk.
+
+“Hound! if your saints can really smuggle you up the back-stairs
+to heaven, they will do it without five minutes' more coaxing and
+flattering.”
+
+Fray Gerundio and the condemned man alike stopped their ears at the
+blasphemy.
+
+“Oh, Fray Gerundio!” screamed the bishop, “pray for me. I have treated
+you like a beast. Oh, Fray, Fray!”
+
+“Oh, my lord! my lord!” said the good man, as with tears streaming
+down his face he followed his shrieking and struggling diocesan up the
+stairs, “who am I? Ask no pardon of me. Ask pardon of God for all your
+sins against the poor innocent savages, when you saw your harmless sheep
+butchered year after year, and yet never lifted up your voice to save
+the flock which God had committed to you. Oh, confess that, my lord!
+confess it ere it be too late!”
+
+“I will confess all about the Indians, and the gold, and Tita too, Fray;
+peccavi, peccavi--only five minutes, senors, five little minutes' grace,
+while I confess to the good Fray!”--and he grovelled on the deck.
+
+“I will have no such mummery where I command,” said Amyas, sternly. “I
+will be no accomplice in cheating Satan of his due.”
+
+“If you will confess,” said Brimblecombe, whose heart was melting fast,
+“confess to the Lord, and He will forgive you. Even at the last moment
+mercy is open. Is it not, Fray Gerundio?”
+
+“It is, senor; it is, my lord,” said Gerundio; but the bishop only
+clasped his hands over his head.
+
+“Then I am undone! All my money is stolen! Not a farthing left to buy
+masses for my poor soul! And no absolution, no viaticum, nor anything! I
+die like a dog and am damned!”
+
+“Clear away that running rigging!” said Amyas, while the dark Dominican
+stood perfectly collected, with something of a smile of pity at
+the miserable bishop. A man accustomed to cruelty, and firm in his
+fanaticism, he was as ready to endure suffering as to inflict it;
+repeating to himself the necessary prayers, he called Fray Gerundio to
+witness that he died, however unworthy, a martyr, in charity with all
+men, and in the communion of the Holy Catholic Church; and then, as
+he fitted the cord to his own neck, gave Fray Gerundio various petty
+commissions about his sister and her children, and a little vineyard far
+away upon the sunny slopes of Castile; and so died, with a “Domine, in
+manus tuas,” like a valiant man of Spain.
+
+Amyas stood long in solemn silence, watching the two corpses dangling
+above his head. At last he drew a long breath, as if a load was taken
+off his heart.
+
+Suddenly he looked round to his men, who were watching eagerly to know
+what he would have done next.
+
+“Hearken to me, my masters all, and may God hearken too, and do so to
+me, and more also, if, as long as I have eyes to see a Spaniard, and
+hands to hew him down, I do any other thing than hunt down that accursed
+nation day and night, and avenge all the innocent blood which has been
+shed by them since the day in which King Ferdinand drove out the Moors!”
+
+“Amen!” said Salvation Yeo. “I need not to swear that oath, for I have
+sworn it long ago, and kept it. Will your honor have us kill the rest of
+the idolaters?”
+
+“God forbid!” said Cary. “You would not do that, Amyas?”
+
+“No; we will spare them. God has shown us a great mercy this day, and we
+must be merciful in it. We will land them at Cabo Velo. But henceforth
+till I die no quarter to a Spaniard.”
+
+“Amen!” said Yeo.
+
+Amyas's whole countenance had changed in the last half-hour. He seemed
+to have grown years older. His brow was wrinkled, his lip compressed,
+his eyes full of a terrible stony calm, as of one who had formed a great
+and dreadful purpose, and yet for that very reason could afford to be
+quiet under the burden of it, even cheerful; and when he returned to the
+cabin he bowed courteously to the commandant, begged pardon of him
+for having played the host so ill, and entreated him to finish his
+breakfast.
+
+“But, senor--is it possible? Is his holiness dead?”
+
+“He is hanged and dead, senor. I would have hanged, could I have caught
+them, every living thing which was present at my brother's death, even
+to the very flies upon the wall. No more words, senor; your conscience
+tells you that I am just.”
+
+“Senor,” said the commandant--“one word--I trust there are no
+listeners--none of my crew, I mean; but I must exculpate myself in your
+eyes.”
+
+“Walk out, then, into the gallery with me.”
+
+“To tell you the truth, senor--I trust in Heaven no one overhears.--You
+are just. This Inquisition is the curse of us, the weight which is
+crushing out the very life of Spain. No man dares speak. No man dares
+trust his neighbor, no, not his child, or the wife of his bosom. It
+avails nothing to be a good Catholic, as I trust I am,” and he crossed
+himself, “when any villain whom you may offend, any unnatural son or
+wife who wishes to be rid of you, has but to hint heresy against you,
+and you vanish into the Holy Office--and then God have mercy on you,
+for man has none. Noble ladies of my family, sir, have vanished
+thither, carried off by night, we know not why; we dare not ask why. To
+expostulate, even to inquire, would have been to share their fate. There
+is one now, senor--Heaven alone knows whether she is alive or dead!--It
+was nine years since, and we have never heard; and we shall never hear.”
+
+And the commandant's face worked frightfully.
+
+“She was my sister, senor!”
+
+“Heavens! sir, and have you not avenged her?”
+
+“On churchmen, senor, and I a Catholic? To be burned at the stake in
+this life, and after that to all eternity beside? Even a Spaniard
+dare not face that. Beside, sir, the mob like this Inquisition, and an
+Auto-da-fe is even better sport to them than a bull-fight. They would be
+the first to tear a man in pieces who dare touch an Inquisitor. Sir,
+may all the saints in heaven obtain me forgiveness for my blasphemy, but
+when I saw you just now fearing those churchmen no more than you feared
+me, I longed, sinner that I am, to be a heretic like you.”
+
+“It will not take long to make a brave and wise gentleman who has
+suffered such things as you have, a heretic, as you call it--a free
+Christian man, as we call it.”
+
+“Tempt me not, sir!” said the poor man, crossing himself fervently. “Let
+us say no more. Obedience is my duty; and for the rest the Church must
+decide, according to her infallible authority--for I am a good Catholic,
+senor, the best of Catholics, though a great sinner.--I trust no one has
+overheard us!”
+
+Amyas left him with a smile of pity, and went to look for Lucy Passmore,
+whom the sailors were nursing and feeding, while Ayacanora watched them
+with a puzzled face.
+
+“I will talk to you when you are better, Lucy,” said he, taking her
+hand. “Now you must eat and drink, and forget all among us lads of
+Devon.”
+
+“Oh, dear blessed sir, and you will send Sir John to pray with me? For
+I turned, sir, I turned: but I could not help it--I could not abear the
+torments: but she bore them, sweet angel--and more than I did. Oh, dear
+me!”
+
+“Lucy, I am not fit now to hear more. You shall tell me all to-morrow;”
+ and he turned away.
+
+“Why do you take her hand?” said Ayacanora, half-scornfully. “She is
+old, and ugly, and dirty.”
+
+“She is an Englishwoman, child, and a martyr, poor thing; and I would
+nurse her as I would my own mother.”
+
+“Why don't you make me an Englishwoman, and a martyr? I could learn how
+to do anything that that old hag could do!”
+
+“Instead of calling her names, go and tend her; that would be much
+fitter work for a woman than fighting among men.”
+
+Ayacanora darted from him, thrust the sailors aside, and took possession
+of Lucy Passmore.
+
+“Where shall I put her?” asked she of Amyas, without looking up.
+
+“In the best cabin; and let her be served like a queen, lads.”
+
+“No one shall touch her but me;” and taking up the withered frame in her
+arms, as if it were a doll, Ayacanora walked off with her in triumph,
+telling the men to go and mind the ship.
+
+“The girl is mad,” said one.
+
+“Mad or not, she has an eye to our captain,” said another.
+
+“And where's the man that would behave to the poor wild thing as he
+does?”
+
+“Sir Francis Drake would, from whom he got his lesson. Do you mind his
+putting the negro lass ashore after he found out about--”
+
+“Hush! Bygones be bygones, and those that did it are in their graves
+long ago. But it was too hard of him on the poor thing.”
+
+“If he had not got rid of her, there would have been more throats than
+one cut about the lass, that's all I know,” said another; “and so there
+would have been about this one before now, if the captain wasn't a born
+angel out of heaven, and the lieutenant no less.”
+
+“Well, I suppose we may get a whet by now. I wonder if these Dons have
+any beer aboard.”
+
+“Naught but grape vinegar, which fools call wine, I'll warrant.”
+
+“There was better than vinegar on the table in there just now.”
+
+“Ah,” said one grumbler of true English breed, “but that's not for poor
+fellows like we.”
+
+“Don't lie, Tom Evans; you never were given that way yet, and I don't
+think the trade will suit a good fellow like you.”
+
+The whole party stared; for the speaker of these words was none other
+than Amyas himself, who had rejoined them, a bottle in each hand.
+
+“No, Tom Evans. It has been share and share alike for three years,
+and bravely you have all held up, and share alike it shall be now, and
+here's the handsel of it. We'll serve out the good wine fairly all round
+as long as it lasts, and then take to the bad: but mind you don't get
+drunk, my sons, for we are much too short of hands to have any stout
+fellows lying about the scuppers.”
+
+But what was the story of the intendant's being murdered? Brimblecombe
+had seen him run into a neighboring cabin; and when the door of it
+was opened, there was the culprit, but dead and cold, with a deep
+knife-wound in his side. Who could have done the deed? It must have been
+Tita, whom Brimblecombe had seen loose, and trying to free her lover.
+
+The ship was searched from stem to stern: but no Tita. The mystery was
+never explained. That she had leapt overboard, and tried to swim ashore,
+none doubted: but whether she had reached it, who could tell? One thing
+was strange; that not only had she carried off no treasure with her,
+but that the gold ornaments which she had worn the night before, lay
+together in a heap on the table, close by the murdered man. Had she
+wished to rid herself of everything which had belonged to her tyrants?
+
+The commandant heard the whole story thoughtfully.
+
+“Wretched man!” said he, “and he has a wife and children in Seville.”
+
+“A wife and children?” said Amyas; “and I heard him promise marriage to
+the Indian girl.”
+
+That was the only hint which gave a reason for his death. What if,
+in the terror of discovery and capture, the scoundrel had dropped any
+self-condemning words about his marriage, any prayer for those whom he
+had left behind, and the Indian had overheard them? It might be so; at
+least sin had brought its own punishment.
+
+And so that wild night and day subsided. The prisoners were kindly used
+enough; for the Englishman, free from any petty love of tormenting,
+knows no mean between killing a foe outright, and treating him as a
+brother; and when, two days afterwards, they were sent ashore in the
+canoes off Cabo Velo, captives and captors shook hands all round; and
+Amyas, after returning the commandant his sword, and presenting him with
+a case of the bishop's wine, bowed him courteously over the side.
+
+“I trust that you will pay us another visit, valiant senor capitan,”
+ said the Spaniard, bowing and smiling.
+
+“I should most gladly accept your invitation, illustrious senor
+commandant; but as I have vowed henceforth, whenever I shall meet a
+Spaniard, neither to give nor take quarter, I trust that our paths to
+glory may lie in different directions.”
+
+The commandant shrugged his shoulders; the ship was put again before the
+wind, and as the shores of the Main faded lower and dimmer behind her,
+a mighty cheer broke from all on board; and for once the cry from every
+mouth was Eastward-ho!
+
+Scrap by scrap, as weakness and confusion of intellect permitted her,
+Lucy Passmore told her story. It was a simple one after all, and Amyas
+might almost have guessed it for himself. Rose had not yielded to the
+Spaniard without a struggle. He had visited her two or three times at
+Lucy's house (how he found out Lucy's existence she herself could never
+tell, unless from the Jesuits) before she agreed to go with him. He had
+gained Lucy to his side by huge promises of Indian gold; and, in fine,
+they had gone to Lundy, where the lovers were married by a priest, who
+was none other, Lucy would swear, than the shorter and stouter of the
+two who had carried off her husband and his boat--in a word, Father
+Parsons.
+
+Amyas gnashed his teeth at the thought that he had had Parsons in his
+power at Brenttor down, and let him go. It was a fresh proof to him that
+Heaven's vengeance was upon him for letting one of its enemies escape.
+Though what good to Rose or Frank the hanging of Parsons would have
+been, I, for my part, cannot see.
+
+But when had Eustace been at Lundy? Lucy could throw no light on that
+matter. It was evidently some by-thread in the huge spider's web of
+Jesuit intrigue, which was, perhaps, not worth knowing after all.
+
+They sailed from Lundy in a Portugal ship, were at Lisbon a few days
+(during which Rose and Lucy remained on board), and then away for the
+West Indies; while all went merry as a marriage bell. “Sir, he would
+have kissed the dust off her dear feet, till that evil eye of Mr.
+Eustace's came, no one knew how or whence.” And, from that time, all
+went wrong. Eustace got power over Don Guzman, whether by threatening
+that the marriage should be dissolved, whether by working on his
+superstitious scruples about leaving his wife still a heretic, or
+whether (and this last Lucy much suspected) by insinuations that her
+heart was still at home in England, and that she was longing for Amyas
+and his ship to come and take her home again; the house soon became a
+den of misery, and Eustace the presiding evil genius. Don Guzman had
+even commanded him to leave it--and he went; but, somehow, within a week
+he was there again, in greater favor than ever. Then came preparations
+to meet the English, and high words about it between Don Guzman and
+Rose; till a few days before Amyas's arrival, the Don had dashed out
+of the house in a fury, saying openly that she preferred these Lutheran
+dogs to him, and that he would have their hearts' blood first, and hers
+after.
+
+The rest was soon told. Amyas knew but too much of it already. The very
+morning after he had gone up to the villa, Lucy and her mistress were
+taken (they knew not by whom) down to the quay, in the name of the Holy
+Office, and shipped off to Cartagena.
+
+There they were examined, and confronted on a charge of witchcraft,
+which the wretched Lucy could not well deny. She was tortured to
+make her inculpate Rose; and what she said, or did not say, under the
+torture, the poor wretch could never tell. She recanted, and became a
+Romanist; Rose remained firm. Three weeks afterwards, they were brought
+out to an Auto-da-fe; and there, for the first time, Lucy saw Frank
+walking, dressed in a San Benito, in that ghastly procession. Lucy was
+adjudged to receive publicly two hundred stripes, and to be sent to
+“The Holy House” at Seville to perpetual prison. Frank and Rose, with
+a renegade Jew, and a negro who had been convicted of practising “Obi,”
+ were sentenced to death as impenitent, and delivered over to the
+secular arm, with prayers that there might be no shedding of blood. In
+compliance with which request, the Jew and the negro were burnt at one
+stake, Frank and Rose at another. She thought they did not feel it more
+than twenty minutes. They were both very bold and steadfast, and held
+each other's hand (that she would swear to) to the very last.
+
+And so ended Lucy Passmore's story. And if Amyas Leigh, after he had
+heard it, vowed afresh to give no quarter to Spaniards wherever he
+should find them, who can wonder, even if they blame?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+HOW SALVATION YEO FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN
+
+     “All precious things, discover'd late,
+        To them who seek them issue forth;
+     For love in sequel works with fate,
+        And draws the veil from hidden worth.”
+
+                         The Sleeping Beauty.
+
+And so Ayacanora took up her abode in Lucy's cabin, as a regularly
+accredited member of the crew.
+
+But a most troublesome member; for now began in her that perilous crisis
+which seems to endanger the bodies and souls of all savages and savage
+tribes, when they first mingle with the white man; that crisis which,
+a few years afterwards, began to hasten the extermination of the North
+American tribes; and had it not been for the admirable good sense and
+constancy of Amyas, Ayacanora might have ended even more miserably than
+did the far-famed Pocahontas, daughter of the Virginian king; who, after
+having been received at Court by the old pedant James the First,
+with the honors of a sister sovereign, and having become the reputed
+ancestress of more than one ancient Virginian family, ended her days in
+wretchedness in some Wapping garret.
+
+For the mind of the savage, crushed by the sight of the white man's
+superior skill, and wealth, and wisdom, loses at first its self-respect;
+while his body, pampered with easily obtained luxuries, instead
+of having to win the necessaries of life by heavy toil, loses its
+self-helpfulness; and with self-respect and self-help vanish all the
+savage virtues, few and flimsy as they are, and the downward road toward
+begging and stealing, sottishness and idleness, is easy, if not sure.
+
+And down that road, it really seemed at first, that poor Ayacanora was
+walking fast. For the warrior-prophetess of the Omaguas soon became, to
+all appearance, nothing but a very naughty child; and the Diana of the
+Meta, after she had satisfied her simple wonder at the great floating
+house by rambling from deck to deck, and peeping into every cupboard
+and cranny, manifested a great propensity to steal and hide (she was too
+proud or too shy to ask for) every trumpery which smit her fancy; and
+when Amyas forbade her to take anything without leave, threatened
+to drown herself, and went off and sulked all day in her cabin.
+Nevertheless, she obeyed him, except in the matter of sweet things.
+Perhaps she craved naturally for the vegetable food of her native
+forests; at all events the bishop's stores of fruit and sweetmeats
+diminished rapidly; and what was worse, so did the sweet Spanish wine
+which Amyas had set apart for poor Lucy's daily cordial. Whereon another
+severe lecture, in which Amyas told her how mean it was to rob poor
+sick Lucy; whereat she, as usual, threatened to drown herself; and was
+running upon deck to do it, when Amyas caught her and forgave her. On
+which a violent fit of crying, and great penitence and promises; and
+a week after, Amyas found that she had cheated Satan and her own
+conscience by tormenting the Portuguese steward into giving her some
+other wine instead: but luckily for her, she found Amyas's warnings
+about wine making her mad so far fulfilled, that she did several foolish
+things one evening, and had a bad headache next morning; so the murder
+was out, and Amyas ordered the steward up for a sound flogging; but
+Ayacanora, honorably enough, not only begged him off, but offered to be
+whipped instead of him, confessing that the poor fellow spoke truly when
+he swore that she had threatened to kill him, and that he had given her
+the wine in bodily fear for his life.
+
+However, her own headache and Amyas's cold looks were lesson enough, and
+after another attempt to drown herself, the wilful beauty settled down
+for awhile; and what was better, could hardly be persuaded, thenceforth
+to her dying day, to touch fermented liquors.
+
+But, in the meanwhile, poor Amyas had many a brains-beating as to how
+he was to tame a lady who, on the least provocation, took refuge in
+suicide. Punish her he dared not, even if he had the heart. And as for
+putting her ashore, he had an instinct, and surely not a superstitious
+one, that her strange affection for the English was not unsent by
+Heaven, and that God had committed her into his charge, and that He
+would require an account at his hands of the soul of that fair lost
+lamb.
+
+So, almost at his wits' end, he prayed to God, good simple fellow, and
+that many a time, to show him what he should do with her before she
+killed either herself, or what was just as likely, one of the crew; and
+it seemed best to him to make Parson Jack teach her the rudiments of
+Christianity, that she might be baptized in due time when they got home
+to England.
+
+But here arose a fresh trouble--for she roundly refused to learn of
+Jack, or of any one but Amyas himself; while he had many a good reason
+for refusing the office of schoolmaster; so, for a week or two more,
+Ayacanora remained untaught, save in the English tongue, which she
+picked up with marvellous rapidity.
+
+And next, as if troubles would never end, she took a violent dislike,
+not only to John Brimblecombe, whose gait and voice she openly mimicked
+for the edification of the men; but also to Will Cary, whom she never
+allowed to speak to her or approach her. Perhaps she was jealous of his
+intimacy with Amyas; or perhaps, with the subtle instinct of a woman,
+she knew that he was the only other man on board who might dare to make
+love to her (though Will, to do him justice, was as guiltless of any
+such intention as Amyas himself). But when she was remonstrated with,
+her only answer was that Cary was a cacique as well as Amyas, and that
+there ought not to be two caciques; and one day she actually proposed to
+Amyas to kill his supposed rival, and take the ship all to himself;
+and sulked for several days at hearing Amyas, amid shouts of laughter,
+retail her precious advice to its intended victim.
+
+Moreover, the negroes came in for their share, being regarded all along
+by her with an unspeakable repugnance, which showed itself at first in
+hiding from them whenever she could, and, afterwards, in throwing at
+them everything she could lay hands on, till the poor Quashies, in
+danger of their lives, complained to Amyas, and got rest for awhile.
+
+Over the rest of the sailors she lorded it like a very princess, calling
+them from their work to run on her errands and make toys for her,
+enforcing her commands now and then by a shrewd box on the ears; while
+the good fellows, especially old Yeo, like true sailors, petted her,
+obeyed her, even jested with her, much as they might have done with a
+tame leopard, whose claws might be unsheathed and about their ears at
+any moment. But she amused them, and amused Amyas too. They must of
+course have a pet; and what prettier one could they have? And as for
+Amyas, the constant interest of her presence, even the constant
+anxiety of her wilfulness, kept his mind busy, and drove out many a sad
+foreboding about that meeting with his mother, and the tragedy which
+he had to tell her, which would otherwise, so heavily did they weigh on
+him, have crushed his spirit with melancholy, and made all his worldly
+success and marvellous deliverance worthless in his eyes.
+
+At last the matter, as most things luckily do, came to a climax; and it
+came in this way.
+
+The ship had been slipping along now for many a day, slowly but steadily
+before a favorable breeze. She had passed the ring of the West India
+islands, and was now crawling, safe from all pursuit, through the vast
+weed-beds of the Sargasso Sea. There, for the first time, it was thought
+safe to relax the discipline which had been hitherto kept up, and to
+“rummage” (as was the word in those days) their noble prize. What they
+found, of gold and silver, jewels, and merchandise, will interest no
+readers. Suffice it to say, that there was enough there, with the other
+treasure, to make Amyas rich for life, after all claims of Cary's and
+the crew, not forgetting Mr. Salterne's third, as owner of the ship,
+had been paid off. But in the captain's cabin were found two chests, one
+full of gorgeous Mexican feather dresses, and the other of Spanish and
+East Indian finery, which, having come by way of Havana and Cartagena,
+was going on, it seemed, to some senora or other at the Caracas. Which
+two chests were, at Cary's proposal, voted amid the acclamations of
+the crew to Ayacanora, as her due and fit share of the pillage, in
+consideration of her Amazonian prowess and valuable services.
+
+So the poor child took greedy possession of the trumpery, had them
+carried into Lucy's cabin, and there knelt gloating over them many an
+hour. The Mexican work she chose to despise as savage; but the Spanish
+dresses were a treasure; and for two or three days she appeared on the
+quarter-deck, sunning herself like a peacock before the eyes of Amyas in
+Seville mantillas, Madrid hats, Indian brocade farthingales, and I know
+not how many other gewgaws, and dare not say how put on.
+
+The crew tittered: Amyas felt much more inclined to cry. There is
+nothing so pathetic as a child's vanity, saving a grown person aping a
+child's vanity; and saving, too, a child's agony of disappointment when
+it finds that it has been laughed at instead of being admired. Amyas
+would have spoken, but he was afraid: however, the evil brought its own
+cure. The pageant went on, as its actor thought, most successfully
+for three days or so; but at last the dupe, unable to contain herself
+longer, appealed to Amyas,--“Ayacanora quite English girl now; is she
+not?”--heard a titter behind her, looked round, saw a dozen honest
+faces in broad grin, comprehended all in a moment, darted down the
+companion-ladder, and vanished.
+
+Amyas, fully expecting her to jump overboard, followed as fast as he
+could. But she had locked herself in with Lucy, and he could hear her
+violent sobs, and Lucy's faint voice entreating to know what was the
+matter.
+
+In vain he knocked. She refused to come out all day, and at even they
+were forced to break the door open, to prevent Lucy being starved.
+
+There sat Ayacanora, her finery half torn off, and scattered about the
+floor in spite, crying still as if her heart would break; while poor
+Lucy cried too, half from fright and hunger, and half for company.
+
+Amyas tried to comfort the poor child, assured her that the men should
+never laugh at her again; “But then,” added he, “you must not be
+so--so--” What to say he hardly knew.
+
+“So what?” asked she, crying more bitterly than ever.
+
+“So like a wild girl, Ayacanora.”
+
+Her hands dropped on her knees: a strong spasm ran through her
+throat and bosom, and she fell on her knees before him, and looked up
+imploringly in his face.
+
+“Yes; wild girl--poor, bad wild girl. . . . But I will be English girl
+now!”
+
+“Fine clothes will never make you English, my child,” said Amyas.
+
+“No! not English clothes--English heart! Good heart, like yours! Yes, I
+will be good, and Sir John shall teach me!”
+
+“There's my good maid,” said Amyas. “Sir John shall begin and teach you
+to-morrow.”
+
+“No! Now! now! Ayacanora cannot wait. She will drown herself if she is
+bad another day! Come, now!”
+
+And she made him fetch Brimblecombe, heard the honest fellow patiently
+for an hour or more, and told Lucy that very night all that he had said.
+And from that day, whenever Jack went in to read and pray with the
+poor sufferer, Ayacanora, instead of escaping on deck as before, stood
+patiently trying to make it all out, and knelt when he knelt, and tried
+to pray too--that she might have an English heart; and doubtless her
+prayers, dumb as they were, were not unheard.
+
+So went on a few days more, hopefully enough, without any outbreak, till
+one morning, just after they had passed the Sargasso-beds. The ship
+was taking care of herself; the men were all on deck under the awning,
+tinkering, and cobbling, and chatting; Brimblecombe was catechising his
+fair pupil in the cabin; Amyas and Cary, cigar in mouth, were chatting
+about all heaven and earth, and, above all, of the best way of getting
+up a fresh adventure against the Spaniards as soon as they returned;
+while Amyas was pouring out to Will that dark hatred of the whole
+nation, that dark purpose of revenge for his brother and for Rose, which
+had settled down like a murky cloud into every cranny of his heart and
+mind. Suddenly there was a noise below; a scuffle and a shout,
+which made them both leap to their feet; and up on deck rushed Jack
+Brimblecombe, holding his head on with both his hands.
+
+“Save me! save me from that she-fiend! She is possessed with a legion!
+She has broken my nose--torn out half my hair!--and I'm sure I have none
+to spare! Here she comes! Stand by me, gentlemen both! Satanas, I defy
+thee!” And Jack ensconced himself behind the pair, as Ayacanora whirled
+upon deck like a very Maenad, and, seeing Amyas, stopped short.
+
+“If you had defied Satan down below there,” said Cary, with a laugh, “I
+suspect he wouldn't have broken out on you so boldly, Master Jack.”
+
+“I am innocent--innocent as the babe unborn! Oh! Mr. Cary! this is too
+bad of you, sir!” quoth Jack indignantly, while Amyas asked what was the
+matter.
+
+“He looked at me,” said she, sturdily.
+
+“Well, a cat may look at a king.”
+
+“But he sha'n't look at Ayacanora. Nobody shall but you, or I'll kill
+him!”
+
+In vain Jack protested his innocence of having even looked at her. The
+fancy (and I verily believe it was nothing more) had taken possession of
+her. She refused to return below to her lesson. Jack went off grumbling,
+minus his hair, and wore a black eye for a week after.
+
+“At all events,” quoth Cary, re-lighting his cigar, “it's a fault on the
+right side.”
+
+“God give me grace, or it may be one on the wrong side for me.”
+
+“He will, old heart-of-oak!” said Cary, laying his arm around Amyas's
+neck, to the evident disgust of Ayacanora, who went off to the side,
+got a fishing-line, and began amusing herself therewith, while the ship
+slipped on quietly and silently as ever, save when Ayacanora laughed and
+clapped her hands at the flying-fish scudding from the bonitos. At last,
+tired of doing nothing, she went forward to the poop-rail to listen to
+John Squire the armorer, who sat tinkering a headpiece, and humming a
+song, mutato nomine, concerning his native place--
+
+     “Oh, Bideford is a pleasant place, it shines where it stands,
+     And the more I look upon it, the more my heart it warms;
+     For there are fair young lasses, in rows upon the quay,
+     To welcome gallant mariners, when they come home from say.”
+
+“'Tis Sunderland, John Squire, to the song, and not Bidevor,” said his
+mate.
+
+“Well, Bidevor's so good as Sunderland any day, for all there's
+no say-coals there blacking a place about; and makes just so good
+harmonies, Tommy Hamblyn--
+
+     “Oh, if I was a herring, to swim the ocean o'er,
+     Or if I was a say-dove, to fly unto the shoor,
+     To fly unto my true love, a waiting at the door,
+     To wed her with a goold ring, and plough the main no moor.”
+
+Here Yeo broke in--
+
+“Aren't you ashamed, John Squire, to your years, singing such carnal
+vanities, after all the providences you have seen? Let the songs of Zion
+be in your mouth, man, if you must needs keep a caterwauling all day
+like that.”
+
+“You sing 'em yourself then, gunner.”
+
+“Well,” says Yeo, “and why not?” And out he pulled his psalm-book, and
+began a scrap of the grand old psalm--
+
+     “Such as in ships and brittle barks
+        Into the seas descend,
+     Their merchandise through fearful floods
+        To compass and to end;
+     There men are forced to behold
+        The Lord's works what they be;
+     And in the dreadful deep the same,
+        Most marvellous they see.”
+
+“Humph!” said John Squire. “Very good and godly: but still I du like
+a merry catch now and then, I du. Wouldn't you let a body sing
+'Rumbelow'--even when he's heaving of the anchor?”
+
+“Well, I don't know,” said Yeo; “but the Lord's people had better
+praise the Lord then too, and pray for a good voyage, instead of howling
+about--
+
+       “A randy, dandy, dandy O,
+        A whet of ale and brandy O,
+     With a rumbelow and a Westward-ho!
+        And heave, my mariners all, O!”
+
+“Is that fit talk for immortal souls? How does that child's-trade sound
+beside the Psalms, John Squire?”
+
+Now it befell that Salvation Yeo, for the very purpose of holding up to
+ridicule that time-honored melody, had put into it the true nasal twang,
+and rung it out as merrily as he had done perhaps twelve years before,
+when he got up John Oxenham's anchor in Plymouth Sound. And it befell
+also that Ayacanora, as she stood by Amyas's side, watching the men, and
+trying to make out their chat, heard it, and started; and then, half to
+herself, took up the strain, and sang it over again, word for word, in
+the very same tune and tone.
+
+Salvation Yeo started in his turn, and turned deadly pale.
+
+“Who sung that?” he asked quickly.
+
+“The little maid here. She's coming on nicely in her English,” said
+Amyas.
+
+“The little maid?” said Yeo, turning paler still. “Why do you go about
+to scare an old servant, by talking of little maids, Captain Amyas?
+Well,” he said aloud to himself, “as I am a sinful saint, if I hadn't
+seen where the voice came from, I could have sworn it was her; just as
+we taught her to sing it by the river there, I and William Penberthy of
+Marazion, my good comrade. The Lord have mercy on me!”
+
+All were silent as the grave whenever Yeo made any allusion to that lost
+child. Ayacanora only, pleased with Amyas's commendation, went humming
+on to herself--
+
+     “And heave, my mariners all, O!”
+
+Yeo started up from the gun where he sat.
+
+“I can't abear it! As I live, I can't! You, Indian maiden, where did you
+learn to sing that there?”
+
+Ayacanora looked up at him, half frightened by his vehemence, then at
+Amyas, to see if she had been doing anything wrong; and then turned
+saucily away, looked over the side, and hummed on.
+
+“Ask her, for mercy's sake--ask her, Captain Leigh!”
+
+“My child,” said Amyas, speaking in Indian, “how is it you sing that so
+much better than any other English? Did you ever hear it before?”
+
+Ayacanora looked up at him puzzled, and shook her head; and then--
+
+“If you tell Indian to Ayacanora, she dumb. She must be English girl
+now, like poor Lucy.”
+
+“Well then,” said Amyas, “do you recollect, Ayacanora--do you
+recollect--what shall I say? anything that happened when you were a
+little girl?”
+
+She paused awhile; and then moving her hands overhead--
+
+“Trees--great trees like the Magdalena--always nothing but trees--wild
+and bad everything. Ayacanora won't talk about that.”
+
+“Do you mind anything that grew on those trees?” asked Yeo, eagerly.
+
+She laughed. “Silly! Flowers and fruit, and nuts--grow on all trees, and
+monkey-cups too. Ayacanora climbed up after them--when she was wild. I
+won't tell any more.”
+
+“But who taught you to call them monkey-cups?” asked Yeo, trembling with
+excitement.
+
+“Monkey's drink; mono drink.”
+
+“Mono?” said Yeo, foiled on one cast, and now trying another. “How did
+you know the beasts were called monos?”
+
+“She might have heard it coming down with us,” said Cary, who had joined
+the group.
+
+“Ay, monos,” said she, in a self-justifying tone. “Faces like little
+men, and tails. And one very dirty black one, with a beard, say Amen in
+a tree to all the other monkeys, just like Sir John on Sunday.”
+
+This allusion to Brimblecombe and the preaching apes upset all but old
+Yeo.
+
+“But don't you recollect any Christians?--white people?”
+
+She was silent.
+
+“Don't you mind a white lady?”
+
+“Um?”
+
+“A woman, a very pretty woman, with hair like his?” pointing to Amyas.
+
+“No.”
+
+“What do you mind, then, beside those Indians?” added Yeo, in despair.
+
+She turned her back on him peevishly, as if tired with the efforts of
+her memory.
+
+“Do try to remember,” said Amyas; and she set to work again at once.
+
+“Ayacanora mind great monkeys--black, oh, so high,” and she held up her
+hand above her head, and made a violent gesture of disgust.
+
+“Monkeys? what, with tails?”
+
+“No, like man. Ah! yes--just like Cooky there--dirty Cooky!”
+
+And that hapless son of Ham, who happened to be just crossing the
+main-deck, heard a marlingspike, which by ill luck was lying at hand,
+flying past his ears.
+
+“Ayacanora, if you heave any more things at Cooky, I must have you
+whipped,” said Amyas, without, of course, any such intention.
+
+“I'll kill you, then,” answered she, in the most matter-of-fact tone.
+
+“She must mean negurs,” said Yeo; “I wonder where she saw them, now.
+What if it were they Cimaroons?”
+
+“But why should any one who had seen whites forget them, and yet
+remember negroes?” asked Cary.
+
+“Let us try again. Do you mind no great monkeys but those black ones?”
+ asked Amyas.
+
+“Yes,” she said, after a while,--“devil.”
+
+“Devil?” asked all three, who, of course, were by no means free from the
+belief that the fiend did actually appear to the Indian conjurors, such
+as had brought up the girl.
+
+“Ay, him Sir John tell about on Sundays.”
+
+“Save and help us!” said Yeo; “and what was he like unto?”
+
+She made various signs to intimate that he had a monkey's face, and
+a gray beard like Yeo's. So far so good: but now came a series of
+manipulations about her pretty little neck, which set all their fancies
+at fault.
+
+“I know,” said Cary, at last, bursting into a great laugh. “Sir Urian
+had a ruff on, as I live! Trunk-hose too, my fair dame? Stop--I'll make
+sure. Was his neck like the senor commandant's, the Spaniard?”
+
+Ayacanora clapped her hands at finding herself understood, and the
+questioning went on.
+
+“The 'devil' appeared like a monkey, with a gray beard, in a
+ruff;--humph!--”
+
+“Ay!” said she in good enough Spanish, “Mono de Panama; viejo diablo de
+Panama.”
+
+Yeo threw up his hands with a shriek--“Oh Lord of all mercies! Those
+were the last words of Mr. John Oxenham! Ay--and the devil is surely
+none other than the devil Don Francisco Xararte! Oh dear! oh dear! oh
+dear! my sweet young lady! my pretty little maid! and don't you know me?
+Don't you know Salvation Yeo, that carried you over the mountains,
+and used to climb for the monkey-cups for you, my dear young lady? And
+William Penberthy too, that used to get you flowers; and your poor dear
+father, that was just like Mr. Cary there, only he had a black beard,
+and black curls, and swore terribly in his speech, like a Spaniard, my
+dear young lady?”
+
+And the honest fellow, falling on his knees, covered Ayacanora's hands
+with kisses; while all the crew, fancying him gone suddenly mad, crowded
+aft.
+
+“Steady, men, and don't vex him!” said Amyas. “He thinks that he has
+found his little maid at last.”
+
+“And so do I, Amyas, as I live,” said Cary.
+
+“Steady, steady, my masters all! If this turn out a wrong scent after
+all, his wits will crack. Mr. Yeo, can't you think of any other token?”
+
+Yeo stamped impatiently. “What need then? it's her, I tell ye, and
+that's enough! What a beauty she's grown! Oh dear! where were my eyes
+all this time, to behold her, and not to see her! 'Tis her very mortal
+self, it is! And don't you mind me, my dear, now? Don't you mind
+Salvation Yeo, that taught you to sing 'Heave my mariners all, O!'
+a-sitting on a log by the boat upon the sand, and there was a sight of
+red lilies grew on it in the moss, dear, now, wasn't there? and we made
+posies of them to put in your hair, now?”--And the poor old man ran on
+in a supplicating, suggestive tone, as if he could persuade the girl
+into becoming the person whom he sought.
+
+Ayacanora had watched him, first angry, then amused, then attentive, and
+at last with the most intense earnestness. Suddenly she grew crimson,
+and snatching her hands from the old man's, hid her face in them, and
+stood.
+
+“Do you remember anything of all this, my child?” asked Amyas, gently.
+
+She lifted up her eyes suddenly to his, with a look of imploring agony,
+as if beseeching him to spare her. The death of a whole old life,
+the birth of a whole new life, was struggling in that beautiful face,
+choking in that magnificent throat, as she threw back her small head,
+and drew in her breath, and dashed her locks back from her temples, as
+if seeking for fresh air. She shuddered, reeled, then fell weeping on
+the bosom, not of Salvation Yeo, but of Amyas Leigh.
+
+He stood still a minute or two, bearing that fair burden, ere he could
+recollect himself. Then,--
+
+“Ayacanora, you are not yet mistress of yourself, my child. You were
+better to go down, and see after poor Lucy, and we will talk about it
+all to-morrow.”
+
+She gathered herself up instantly, and with eyes fixed on the deck slid
+through the group, and disappeared below.
+
+“Ah!” said Yeo, with a tone of exquisite sadness; “the young to the
+young! Over land and sea, in the forests and in the galleys, in battle
+and prison, I have sought her! And now!--”
+
+“My good friend,” said Amyas, “neither are you master of yourself yet.
+When she comes round again, whom will she love and thank but you?”
+
+“You, sir! She owes all to you; and so do I. Let me go below, sir. My
+old wits are shaky. Bless you, sir, and thank you for ever and ever!”
+
+And Yeo grasped Amyas's hand, and went down to his cabin, from which he
+did not reappear for many hours.
+
+From that day Ayacanora was a new creature. The thought that she was
+an Englishwoman; that she, the wild Indian, was really one of the
+great white people whom she had learned to worship, carried in it some
+regenerating change: she regained all her former stateliness, and with
+it a self-restraint, a temperance, a softness which she had never shown
+before. Her dislike to Cary and Jack vanished. Modest and distant as
+ever, she now took delight in learning from them about England and
+English people; and her knowledge of our customs gained much from the
+somewhat fantastic behaviour which Amyas thought good, for reasons
+of his own, to assume toward her. He assigned her a handsome cabin to
+herself, always addressed her as madam, and told Cary, Brimblecombe, and
+the whole crew that as she was a lady and a Christian, he expected them
+to behave to her as such. So there was as much bowing and scraping
+on the poop as if it had been a prince's court: and Ayacanora, though
+sorely puzzled and chagrined at Amyas's new solemnity, contrived to
+imitate it pretty well (taking for granted that it was the right thing);
+and having tolerable masters in the art of manners (for both Amyas and
+Cary were thoroughly well-bred men), profited much in all things, except
+in intimacy with Amyas, who had, cunning fellow, hit on this parade of
+good manners, as a fresh means of increasing the distance between him
+and her. The crew, of course, though they were a little vexed at losing
+their pet, consoled themselves with the thought that she was a “real
+born lady,” and Mr. Oxenham's daughter, too; and there was not a man on
+board who did not prick up his ears for a message if she approached him,
+or one who would not have, I verily believe, jumped overboard to do her
+a pleasure.
+
+Only Yeo kept sorrowfully apart. He never looked at her, spoke to her,
+met her even, if he could. His dream had vanished. He had found her! and
+after all, she did not care for him? Why should she?
+
+But it was hard to have hunted a bubble for years, and have it break
+in his hand at last. “Set not your affections on things on the earth,”
+ murmured Yeo to himself, as he pored over his Bible, in the vain hope of
+forgetting his little maid.
+
+But why did Amyas wish to increase the distance between himself and
+Ayacanora? Many reasons might be given: I deny none of them. But the
+main one, fantastic as it may seem, was simply, that while she had
+discovered herself to be an Englishwoman, he had discovered her to be a
+Spaniard. If her father were seven times John Oxenham (and even that the
+perverse fellow was inclined to doubt), her mother was a Spaniard--Pah!
+one of the accursed race; kinswoman--perhaps, to his brother's
+murderers! His jaundiced eyes could see nothing but the Spanish element
+in her; or, indeed, in anything else. As Cary said to him once, using a
+cant phrase of Sidney's, which he had picked up from Frank, all heaven
+and earth were “spaniolated,” to him. He seemed to recollect nothing but
+that Heaven had “made Spaniards to be killed, and him to kill them.” If
+he had not been the most sensible of John Bulls, he would certainly have
+forestalled the monomania of that young Frenchman of rank, who, some
+eighty years after him, so maddened his brain by reading of the Spanish
+cruelties, that he threw up all his prospects and turned captain of
+filibusters in the West Indies, for the express purpose of ridding them
+of their tyrants; and when a Spanish ship was taken, used to relinquish
+the whole booty to his crew, and reserve for himself only the pleasure
+of witnessing his victims' dying agonies.
+
+But what had become of that bird-like song of Ayacanora's which had
+astonished them on the banks of the Meta, and cheered them many a time
+in their anxious voyage down the Magdalena? From the moment that she
+found out her English parentage, it stopped. She refused utterly to sing
+anything but the songs and psalms which she picked up from the English.
+Whether it was that she despised it as a relic of her barbarism, or
+whether it was too maddening for one whose heart grew heavier and
+humbler day by day, the nightingale notes were heard no more.
+
+So homeward they ran, before a favoring southwest breeze: but long
+ere they were within sight of land, Lucy Passmore was gone to her rest
+beneath the Atlantic waves.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE THIRD TIME
+
+     “It fell about the Martinmas,
+         When nights were lang and mirk,
+     That wife's twa sons cam hame again,
+         And their hats were o' the birk.
+
+     “It did na graw by bush or brae,
+         Nor yet in ony shough;
+     But by the gates o' paradise
+         That birk grew fair eneugh.”
+
+                The Wife of Usher's Well.
+
+It is the evening of the 15th of February, 1587, and Mrs. Leigh (for
+we must return now to old scenes and old faces) is pacing slowly up and
+down the terrace-walk at Burrough, looking out over the winding river,
+and the hazy sand-hills, and the wide western sea, as she has done every
+evening, be it fair weather or foul, for three weary years. Three years
+and more are past and gone, and yet no news of Frank and Amyas, and
+the gallant ship and all the gallant souls therein; and loving eyes in
+Bideford and Appledore, Clovelly and Ilfracombe, have grown hollow with
+watching and with weeping for those who have sailed away into the West,
+as John Oxenham sailed before them, and have vanished like a dream, as
+he did, into the infinite unknown. Three weary years, and yet no word.
+Once there was a flush of hope, and good Sir Richard (without Mrs.
+Leigh's knowledge), had sent a horseman posting across to Plymouth, when
+the news arrived that Drake, Frobisher, and Carlisle had returned with
+their squadron from the Spanish Main. Alas! he brought back great news,
+glorious news; news of the sacking of Cartagena, San Domingo, Saint
+Augustine; of the relief of Raleigh's Virginian Colony: but no news of
+the Rose, and of those who had sailed in her. And Mrs. Leigh bowed her
+head, and worshipped, and said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
+away; blessed be the name of the Lord!”
+
+Her hair was now grown gray; her cheeks were wan; her step was feeble.
+She seldom went from home, save to the church, and to the neighboring
+cottages. She never mentioned her sons' names; never allowed a word to
+pass her lips, which might betoken that she thought of them; but every
+day, when the tide was high, and red flag on the sandhills showed that
+there was water over the bar, she paced the terrace-walk, and devoured
+with greedy eyes the sea beyond in search of the sail which never came.
+The stately ships went in and out as of yore; and white sails hung off
+the bar for many an hour, day after day, month after month, year after
+year: but an instinct within told her that none of them were the sails
+she sought. She knew that ship, every line of her, the cut of every
+cloth; she could have picked it out miles away, among a whole fleet, but
+it never came, and Mrs. Leigh bowed her head and worshipped, and went
+to and fro among the poor, who looked on her as an awful being, and one
+whom God had brought very near to Himself, in that mysterious heaven of
+sorrow which they too knew full well. And lone women and bed-ridden men
+looked in her steadfast eyes, and loved them, and drank in strength from
+them; for they knew (though she never spoke of her own grief) that she
+had gone down into the fiercest depths of the fiery furnace, and was
+walking there unhurt by the side of One whose form was as of the Son
+of God. And all the while she was blaming herself for her “earthly”
+ longings, and confessing nightly to Heaven that weakness which she could
+not shake off, which drew her feet at each high tide to the terrace-walk
+beneath the row of wind-clipt trees.
+
+But this evening Northam is in a stir. The pebble ridge is thundering
+far below, as it thundered years ago: but Northam is noisy enough
+without the rolling of the surge. The tower is rocking with the pealing
+bells: the people are all in the streets shouting and singing round
+bonfires. They are burning the pope in effigy, drinking to the queen's
+health, and “So perish all her enemies!” The hills are red with bonfires
+in every village; and far away, the bells of Bideford are answering
+the bells of Northam, as they answered them seven years ago, when Amyas
+returned from sailing round the world. For this day has come the news
+that Mary Queen of Scots is beheaded in Fotheringay; and all England,
+like a dreamer who shakes off some hideous nightmare, has leapt up in
+one tremendous shout of jubilation, as the terror and the danger of
+seventeen anxious years is lifted from its heart for ever.
+
+Yes, she is gone, to answer at a higher tribunal than that of the
+Estates of England, for all the noble English blood which has been
+poured out for her; for all the noble English hearts whom she has
+tempted into treachery, rebellion, and murder. Elizabeth's own words
+have been fulfilled at last, after years of long-suffering,--
+
+     “The daughter of debate,
+       That discord aye doth sow,
+     Hath reap'd no gain where former rule
+       Hath taught still peace to grow.”
+
+And now she can do evil no more. Murder and adultery, the heart which
+knew no forgiveness, the tongue which could not speak truth even for its
+own interest, have past and are perhaps atoned for; and her fair face
+hangs a pitiful dream in the memory even of those who knew that either
+she, or England, must perish.
+
+     “Nothing is left of her
+     Now, but pure womanly.”
+
+And Mrs. Leigh, Protestant as she is, breathes a prayer, that the Lord
+may have mercy on that soul, as “clear as diamond, and as hard,” as she
+said of herself. That last scene, too, before the fatal block--it could
+not be altogether acting. Mrs. Leigh had learned many a priceless lesson
+in the last seven years; might not Mary Stuart have learned something
+in seventeen? And Mrs. Leigh had been a courtier, and knew, as far as a
+chaste Englishwoman could know (which even in those coarser days was not
+very much), of that godless style of French court profligacy in which
+poor Mary had had her youthful training, amid the Medicis, and the
+Guises, and Cardinal Lorraine; and she shuddered, and sighed to
+herself”--To whom little is given, of them shall little be required!”
+ But still the bells pealed on and would not cease.
+
+What was that which answered them from afar out of the fast darkening
+twilight? A flash, and then the thunder of a gun at sea.
+
+Mrs. Leigh stopped. The flash was right outside the bar. A ship in
+distress it could not be. The wind was light and westerly. It was a
+high spring-tide, as evening floods are always there. What could it be?
+Another flash, another gun. The noisy folks of Northam were hushed at
+once, and all hurried into the churchyard which looks down on the broad
+flats and the river.
+
+There was a gallant ship outside the bar. She was running in, too, with
+all sails set. A large ship; nearly a thousand tons she might be; but
+not of English rig. What was the meaning of it? A Spanish cruiser about
+to make reprisals for Drake's raid along the Cadiz shore! Not that,
+surely. The Don had no fancy for such unscientific and dare-devil
+warfare. If he came, he would come with admiral, rear-admiral, and
+vice-admiral, transports, and avisos, according to the best-approved
+methods, articles, and science of war. What could she be?
+
+Easily, on the flowing tide and fair western wind, she has slipped
+up the channel between the two lines of sandhill. She is almost off
+Appledore now. She is no enemy; and if she be a foreigner, she is a
+daring one, for she has never veiled her topsails,--and that, all know,
+every foreign ship must do within sight of an English port, or stand the
+chance of war; as the Spanish admiral found, who many a year since
+was sent in time of peace to fetch home from Flanders Anne of Austria,
+Philip the Second's last wife.
+
+For in his pride he sailed into Plymouth Sound without veiling topsails,
+or lowering the flag of Spain. Whereon, like lion from his den, out
+rushed John Hawkins the port admiral, in his famous Jesus of Lubec
+(afterwards lost in the San Juan d'Ulloa fight), and without argument or
+parley, sent a shot between the admiral's masts; which not producing the
+desired effect, alongside ran bold Captain John, and with his next
+shot, so says his son, an eye-witness, “lackt the admiral through and
+through;” whereon down came the offending flag; and due apologies were
+made, but not accepted for a long time by the stout guardian of her
+majesty's honor. And if John Hawkins did as much for a Spanish fleet in
+time of peace, there is more than one old sea-dog in Appledore who will
+do as much for a single ship in time of war, if he can find even an iron
+pot to burn powder withal.
+
+The strange sail passed out of sight behind the hill of Appledore; and
+then there rose into the quiet evening air a cheer, as from a hundred
+throats. Mrs. Leigh stood still, and listened. Another gun thundered
+among the hills; and then another cheer.
+
+It might have been twenty minutes before the vessel hove in sight again
+round the dark rocks of the Hubbastone, as she turned up the Bideford
+river. Mrs. Leigh had stood that whole time perfectly motionless, a pale
+and scarcely breathing statue, her eyes fixed upon the Viking's rock.
+
+Round the Hubbastone she came at last. There was music on board, drums
+and fifes, shawms and trumpets, which wakened ringing echoes from every
+knoll of wood and slab of slate. And as she opened full on Burrough
+House, another cheer burst from her crew, and rolled up to the hills
+from off the silver waters far below, full a mile away.
+
+Mrs. Leigh walked quickly toward the house, and called her maid,--
+
+“Grace, bring me my hood. Master Amyas is come home!”
+
+“No, surely? O joyful sound! Praised and blessed be the Lord, then;
+praised and blessed be the Lord! But, madam, however did you know that?”
+
+“I heard his voice on the river; but I did not hear Mr. Frank's with
+him, Grace!”
+
+“Oh, be sure, madam, where the one is the other is. They'd never part
+company. Both come home or neither, I'll warrant. Here's your hood,
+madam.”
+
+And Mrs. Leigh, with Grace behind her, started with rapid steps towards
+Bideford.
+
+Was it true? Was it a dream? Had the divine instinct of the mother
+enabled her to recognize her child's voice among all the rest, and at
+that enormous distance; or was her brain turning with the long effort of
+her supernatural calm?
+
+Grace asked herself, in her own way, that same question many a time
+between Burrough and Bideford. When they arrived on the quay the
+question answered itself.
+
+As they came down Bridgeland Street (where afterwards the tobacco
+warehouses for the Virginia trade used to stand, but which then was but
+a row of rope-walks and sailmakers' shops), they could see the strange
+ship already at anchor in the river. They had just reached the lower end
+of the street, when round the corner swept a great mob, sailors, women,
+'prentices, hurrahing, questioning, weeping, laughing: Mrs. Leigh
+stopped; and behold, they stopped also.
+
+“Here she is!” shouted some one; “here's his mother!”
+
+“His mother? Not their mother!” said Mrs. Leigh to herself, and turned
+very pale; but that heart was long past breaking.
+
+The next moment the giant head and shoulders of Amyas, far above the
+crowd, swept round the corner.
+
+“Make a way! Make room for Madam Leigh!”--And Amyas fell on his knees at
+her feet.
+
+She threw her arms round his neck, and bent her fair head over his,
+while sailors, 'prentices, and coarse harbor-women were hushed into holy
+silence, and made a ring round the mother and the son.
+
+Mrs. Leigh asked no question. She saw that Amyas was alone.
+
+At last he whispered, “I would have died to save him, mother, if I
+could.”
+
+“You need not tell me that, Amyas Leigh, my son.”
+
+Another silence.
+
+“How did he die?” whispered Mrs. Leigh.
+
+“He is a martyr. He died in the----”
+
+Amyas could say no more.
+
+“The Inquisition?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+A strong shudder passed through Mrs. Leigh's frame, and then she lifted
+up her head.
+
+“Come home, Amyas. I little expected such an honor--such an honor--ha!
+ha! and such a fair young martyr, too; a very St. Stephen! God, have
+mercy on me; and let me not go mad before these folk, when I ought to be
+thanking Thee for Thy great mercies! Amyas, who is that?”
+
+And she pointed to Ayacanora, who stood close behind Amyas, watching
+with keen eyes the whole.
+
+“She is a poor wild Indian girl--my daughter, I call her. I will tell
+you her story hereafter.”
+
+“Your daughter? My grand-daughter, then. Come hither, maiden, and be my
+grand-daughter.”
+
+Ayacanora came obedient, and knelt down, because she had seen Amyas
+kneel.
+
+“God forbid, child! kneel not to me. Come home, and let me know whether
+I am sane or mazed, alive or dead.”
+
+And drawing her hood over her face, she turned to go back, holding Amyas
+tight by one hand, and Ayacanora by the other.
+
+The crowd let them depart some twenty yards in respectful silence, and
+then burst into a cheer which made the old town ring.
+
+Mrs. Leigh stopped suddenly.
+
+“I had forgotten, Amyas. You must not let me stand in the way of your
+duty. Where are your men?”
+
+“Kissed to death by this time; all of them, that is, who are left.”
+
+“Left?”
+
+“We went out a hundred, mother, and we came home forty-four--if we are
+at home. Is it a dream, mother? Is this you? and this old Bridgeland
+Street again? As I live, there stands Evans the smith, at his door,
+tankard in hand, as he did when I was a boy!”
+
+The brawny smith came across the street to them; but stopped when he saw
+Amyas, but no Frank.
+
+“Better one than neither, madam!” said he, trying a rough comfort. Amyas
+shook his hand as he passed him; but Mrs. Leigh neither heard nor saw
+him nor any one.
+
+“Mother,” said Amyas, when they were now past the causeway, “we are rich
+for life.”
+
+“Yes; a martyr's death was the fittest for him.”
+
+“I have brought home treasure untold.”
+
+“What, my boy?”
+
+“Treasure untold. Cary has promised to see to it to-night.”
+
+“Very well. I would that he had slept at our house. He was a kindly lad,
+and loved Frank. When did he?”--
+
+“Three years ago, and more. Within two months of our sailing.”
+
+“Ah! Yes, he told me so.”
+
+“Told you so?”
+
+“Yes; the dear lad has often come to see me in my sleep; but you never
+came. I guessed how it was--as it should be.”
+
+“But I loved you none the less, mother!”
+
+“I know that, too: but you were busy with the men, you know, sweet;
+so your spirit could not come roving home like his, which was free.
+Yes--all as it should be. My maid, and do you not find it cold here in
+England, after those hot regions?”
+
+“Ayacanora's heart is warm; she does not think about cold.”
+
+“Warm? perhaps you will warm my heart for me, then.”
+
+“Would God I could do it, mother!” said Amyas, half reproachfully.
+
+Mrs. Leigh looked up in his face, and burst into a violent flood of
+tears.
+
+“Sinful! sinful that I am!”
+
+“Blessed creature!” cried Amyas, “if you speak so I shall go mad.
+Mother, mother, I have been dreading this meeting for months. It has
+been a nightmare hanging over me like a horrible black thunder-cloud; a
+great cliff miles high, with its top hid in the clouds, which I had to
+climb, and dare not. I have longed to leap overboard, and flee from it
+like a coward into the depths of the sea.--The thought that you might
+ask me whether I was not my brother's keeper--that you might require his
+blood at my hands--and now, now! when it comes! to find you all love,
+and trust, and patience--mother, mother, it's more than I can bear!” and
+he wept violently.
+
+Mrs. Leigh knew enough of Amyas to know that any burst of this kind,
+from his quiet nature, betokened some very fearful struggle; and the
+loving creature forgot everything instantly, in the one desire to soothe
+him.
+
+And soothe him she did; and home the two went, arm in arm together,
+while Ayacanora held fast, like a child, by the skirt of Mrs. Leigh's
+cloak. The self-help and daring of the forest nymph had given place to
+the trembling modesty of the young girl, suddenly cast on shore in a new
+world, among strange faces, strange hopes, and strange fears also.
+
+“Will your mother love me?” whispered she to Amyas, as she went in.
+
+“Yes; but you must do what she tells you.”
+
+Ayacanora pouted.
+
+“She will laugh at me, because I am wild.”
+
+“She never laughs at any one.”
+
+“Humph!” said Ayacanora. “Well, I shall not be afraid of her. I thought
+she would have been tall like you; but she is not even as big as me.”
+
+This hardly sounded hopeful for the prospect of Ayacanora's obedience;
+but ere twenty-four hours had passed, Mrs. Leigh had won her over
+utterly; and she explained her own speech by saying that she thought so
+great a man ought to have a great mother. She had expected, poor thing,
+in her simplicity, some awful princess with a frown like Juno's own, and
+found instead a healing angel.
+
+Her story was soon told to Mrs. Leigh, who of course, woman-like,
+would not allow a doubt as to her identity. And the sweet mother never
+imprinted a prouder or fonder kiss upon her son's forehead, than
+that with which she repaid his simple declaration, that he had kept
+unspotted, like a gentleman and a Christian, the soul which God had put
+into his charge.
+
+“Then you have forgiven me, mother?”
+
+“Years ago I said in this same room, what should I render to the Lord
+for having given me two such sons? And in this room I say it once again.
+Tell me all about my other son, that I may honor him as I honor you.”
+
+And then, with the iron nerve which good women have, she made him give
+her every detail of Lucy Passmore's story and of all which had happened
+from the day of their sailing to that luckless night at Guayra. And when
+it was done, she led Ayacanora out, and began busying herself about the
+girl's comforts, as calmly as if Frank and Amyas had been sleeping in
+their cribs in the next room.
+
+But she had hardly gone upstairs, when a loud knock at the door was
+followed by its opening hastily; and into the hall burst, regardless of
+etiquette, the tall and stately figure of Sir Richard Grenville.
+
+Amyas dropped on his knees instinctively. The stern warrior was quite
+unmanned; and as he bent over his godson, a tear dropped from that iron
+cheek, upon the iron cheek of Amyas Leigh.
+
+“My lad! my glorious lad! and where have you been? Get up, and tell me
+all. The sailors told me a little, but I must hear every word. I knew
+you would do something grand. I told your mother you were too good a
+workman for God to throw away. Now, let me have the whole story. Why, I
+am out of breath! To tell truth, I ran three-parts of the way hither.”
+
+And down the two sat, and Amyas talked long into the night; while Sir
+Richard, his usual stateliness recovered, smiled stern approval at each
+deed of daring; and when all was ended, answered with something like a
+sigh:
+
+“Would God that I had been with you every step! Would God, at least,
+that I could show as good a three-years' log-book, Amyas, my lad!”
+
+“You can show a better one, I doubt not.”
+
+“Humph! With the exception of one paltry Spanish prize, I don't know
+that the queen is the better, or her enemies the worse, for me, since we
+parted last in Dublin city.”
+
+“You are too modest, sir.”
+
+“Would that I were; but I got on in Ireland, I found, no better than my
+neighbors; and so came home again, to find that while I had been wasting
+my time in that land of misrule, Raleigh had done a deed to which I can
+see no end. For, lad, he has found (or rather his two captains, Amadas
+and Barlow, have found for him) between Florida and Newfoundland, a
+country, the like of which, I believe, there is not on the earth for
+climate and fertility. Whether there be gold there, I know not, and it
+matters little; for there is all else on earth that man can want; furs,
+timber, rivers, game, sugar-canes, corn, fruit, and every commodity
+which France, Spain, or Italy can yield, wild in abundance; the savages
+civil enough for savages, and, in a word, all which goes to the making
+of as noble a jewel as her majesty's crown can wear. The people call it
+Wingandacoa; but we, after her majesty, Virginia.”
+
+“You have been there, then?”
+
+“The year before last, lad; and left there Ralf Lane, Amadas, and some
+twenty gentlemen, and ninety men, and, moreover, some money of my own,
+and some of old Will Salterne's, which neither of us will ever see
+again. For the colony, I know not how, quarrelled with the Indians (I
+fear I too was over-sharp with some of them for stealing--if I was, God
+forgive me!), and could not, forsooth, keep themselves alive for twelve
+months; so that Drake, coming back from his last West Indian voyage,
+after giving them all the help he could, had to bring the whole party
+home. And if you will believe it, the faint-hearted fellows had not been
+gone a fortnight, before I was back again with three ships and all that
+they could want. And never was I more wroth in my life, when all I found
+was the ruins of their huts, which (so rich is the growth there) were
+already full of great melons, and wild deer feeding thereon--a pretty
+sight enough, but not what I wanted just then. So back I came; and being
+in no overgood temper, vented my humors on the Portugals at the Azores,
+and had hard fights and small booty. So there the matter stands, but not
+for long; for shame it were if such a paradise, once found by Britons,
+should fall into the hands of any but her majesty; and we will try again
+this spring, if men and money can be found. Eh, lad?”
+
+“But the prize?”
+
+“Ah! that was no small make-weight to our disasters, after all. I
+sighted her for six days' sail from the American coast: but ere we could
+lay her aboard it fell dead calm. Never a boat had I on board--they
+were all lost in a gale of wind--and the other ships were becalmed two
+leagues astern of me. There was no use lying there and pounding her till
+she sank; so I called the carpenter, got up all the old chests, and with
+them and some spars we floated ourselves alongside, and only just in
+time. For the last of us had hardly scrambled up into the chains, when
+our crazy Noah's ark went all aboard, and sank at the side, so that if
+we had been minded to run away, Amyas, we could not; whereon, judging
+valor to be the better part of discretion (as I usually do), we fell to
+with our swords and had her in five minutes, and fifty thousand pounds'
+worth in her, which set up my purse again, and Raleigh's too, though I
+fear it has run out again since as fast as it ran in.”
+
+And so ended Sir Richard's story.
+
+Amyas went the next day to Salterne, and told his tale. The old man had
+heard the outlines of it already: but he calmly bade him sit down, and
+listened to all, his chin upon his hand, his elbows on his knees. His
+cheek never blanched, his lips never quivered throughout. Only when
+Amyas came to Rose's marriage, he heaved a long breath, as if a weight
+was taken off his heart.
+
+“Say that again, sir!”
+
+Amyas said it again, and then went on; faltering, he hinted at the
+manner of her death.
+
+“Go on, sir! Why are you afraid? There is nothing to be ashamed of
+there, is there?”
+
+Amyas told the whole with downcast eyes, and then stole a look at his
+hearer's face. There was no sign of emotion: only somewhat of a proud
+smile curled the corners of that iron mouth.
+
+“And her husband?” asked he, after a pause.
+
+“I am ashamed to have to tell you, sir, that the man still lives.”
+
+“Still lives, sir?”
+
+“Too true, as far as I know. That it was not my fault, my story bears me
+witness.”
+
+“Sir, I never doubted your will to kill him. Still lives, you say? Well,
+so do rats and adders. And now, I suppose, Captain Leigh, your worship
+is minded to recruit yourself on shore a while with the fair lass whom
+you have brought home (as I hear) before having another dash at the
+devil and his kin!”
+
+“Do not mention that young lady's name with mine, sir; she is no more to
+me than she is to you; for she has Spanish blood in her veins.”
+
+Salterne smiled grimly.
+
+“But I am minded at least to do one thing, Mr. Salterne, and that is, to
+kill Spaniards, in fair fight, by land and sea, wheresoever I shall meet
+them. And, therefore, I stay not long here, whithersoever I may be bound
+next.”
+
+“Well, sir, when you start, come to me for a ship, and the best I have
+is at your service; and, if she do not suit, command her to be fitted as
+you like best; and I, William Salterne, will pay for all which you shall
+command to be done.”
+
+“My good sir, I have accounts to square with you after a very different
+fashion. As part-adventurer in the Rose, I have to deliver to you your
+share of the treasure which I have brought home.”
+
+“My share, sir? If I understood you, my ship was lost off the coast of
+the Caracas three years agone, and this treasure was all won since?”
+
+“True; but you, as an adventurer in the expedition, have a just claim
+for your share, and will receive it.”
+
+“Captain Leigh, you are, I see, as your father was before you, a just
+and upright Christian man: but, sir, this money is none of mine, for it
+was won in no ship of mine.--Hear me, sir! And if it had been, and
+that ship”--(he could not speak her name)--“lay safe and sound now by
+Bideford quay, do you think, sir, that William Salterne is the man to
+make money out of his daughter's sin and sorrow, and to handle the price
+of blood? No, sir! You went like a gentleman to seek her, and like a
+gentleman, as all the world knows, you have done your best, and I thank
+you: but our account ends there. The treasure is yours, sir; I have
+enough, and more than enough, and none, God help me, to leave it to, but
+greedy and needy kin, who will be rather the worse than the better for
+it. And if I have a claim in law for aught--which I know not, neither
+shall ever ask--why, if you are not too proud, accept that claim as a
+plain burgher's thank-offering to you, sir, for a great and a noble love
+which you and your brother have shown to one who, though I say it, to my
+shame, was not worthy thereof.”
+
+“She was worthy of that and more, sir. For if she sinned like a woman,
+she died like a saint.”
+
+“Yes, sir!” answered the old man, with a proud smile; “she had the right
+English blood in her, I doubt not; and showed it at the last. But now,
+sir, no more of this. When you need a ship, mine is at your service;
+till then, sir, farewell, and God be with you.”
+
+And the old man rose, and with an unmoved countenance, bowed Amyas
+to the door. Amyas went back and told Cary, bidding him take half of
+Salterne's gift: but Cary swore a great oath that he would have none of
+it.
+
+“Heir of Clovelly, Amyas, and want to rob you? I who have lost
+nothing,--you who have lost a brother! God forbid that I should ever
+touch a farthing beyond my original share!”
+
+That evening a messenger from Bideford came running breathless up to
+Burrough Court. The authorities wanted Amyas's immediate attendance, for
+he was one of the last, it seemed, who had seen Mr. Salterne alive.
+
+Salterne had gone over, as soon as Amyas departed, to an old
+acquaintance; signed and sealed his will in their presence with a firm
+and cheerful countenance, refusing all condolence; and then gone home,
+and locked himself into Rose's room. Supper-time came, and he did not
+appear. The apprentices could not make him answer, and at last called
+in the neighbors, and forced the door. Salterne was kneeling by his
+daughter's bed; his head was upon the coverlet; his Prayer-book was
+open before him at the Burial Service; his hands were clasped in
+supplication; but he was dead and cold.
+
+His will lay by him. He had left all his property among his poor
+relations, saving and excepting all money, etc., due to him as owner and
+part-adventurer of the ship Rose, and his new bark of three hundred tons
+burden, now lying East-the-water; all which was bequeathed to Captain
+Amyas Leigh, on condition that he should re-christen that bark the
+Vengeance,--fit her out with part of the treasure, and with her sail
+once more against the Spaniard, before three years were past.
+
+And this was the end of William Salterne, merchant.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS STOPPED BY THE QUEEN'S COMMAND
+
+     “The daughter of debate,
+        That discord still doth sow,
+     Shall reap no gain where former rule
+        Hath taught still peace to grow.
+     No foreign banish'd wight
+        Shall anker in this port
+     Our realm it brooks no stranger's force;
+        Let them elsewhere resort.”
+
+                        QU. ELIZABETH. 1569.
+
+And now Amyas is settled quietly at home again; and for the next twelve
+months little passes worthy of record in these pages. Yeo has installed
+himself as major domo, with no very definite functions, save those of
+walking about everywhere at Amyas's heels like a lank gray wolf-hound,
+and spending his evenings at the fireside, as a true old sailor
+does, with his Bible on his knee, and his hands busy in manufacturing
+numberless nicknacks, useful and useless, for every member of the
+family, and above all for Ayacanora, whom he insults every week by
+humbly offering some toy only fit for a child; at which she pouts, and
+is reproved by Mrs. Leigh, and then takes the gift, and puts it away
+never to look at it again. For her whole soul is set upon being
+an English maid; and she runs about all day long after Mrs. Leigh,
+insisting upon learning the mysteries of the kitchen and the still-room,
+and, above all, the art of making clothes for herself, and at last for
+everybody in Northam. For first, she will be a good housewife, like Mrs.
+Leigh; and next a new idea has dawned on her: that of helping others.
+To the boundless hospitality of the savage she has been of course
+accustomed: but to give to those who can give nothing in return, is a
+new thought. She sees Mrs. Leigh spending every spare hour in working
+for the poor, and visiting them in their cottages. She sees Amyas, after
+public thanks in church for his safe return, giving away money, food,
+what not, in Northam, Appledore, and Bideford; buying cottages and
+making them almshouses for worn-out mariners; and she is told that
+this is his thank-offering to God. She is puzzled; her notion of
+a thank-offering was rather that of the Indians, and indeed of the
+Spaniards,--sacrifices of human victims, and the bedizenment of the
+Great Spirit's sanctuary with their skulls and bones. Not that Amyas,
+as a plain old-fashioned churchman, was unmindful of the good old
+instinctive rule, that something should be given to the Church itself;
+for the vicar of Northam was soon resplendent with a new surplice, and
+what was more, the altar with a splendid flagon and salver of plate
+(lost, I suppose, in the civil wars) which had been taken in the great
+galleon. Ayacanora could understand that: but the almsgiving she could
+not, till Mrs. Leigh told her, in her simple way, that whosoever gave
+to the poor, gave to the Great Spirit; for the Great Spirit was in them,
+and in Ayacanora too, if she would be quiet and listen to him, instead
+of pouting, and stamping, and doing nothing but what she liked. And the
+poor child took in that new thought like a child, and worked her fingers
+to the bone for all the old dames in Northam, and went about with Mrs.
+Leigh, lovely and beloved, and looked now and then out from under her
+long black eyelashes to see if she was winning a smile from Amyas. And
+on the day on which she won one, she was good all day; and on the day on
+which she did not, she was thoroughly naughty, and would have worn out
+the patience of any soul less chastened than Mrs. Leigh's. But as for
+the pomp and glory of her dress, there was no keeping it within bounds;
+and she swept into church each Sunday bedizened in Spanish finery, with
+such a blaze and rustle, that the good vicar had to remonstrate humbly
+with Mrs. Leigh on the disturbance which she caused to the eyes and
+thoughts of all his congregation. To which Ayacanora answered, that she
+was not thinking about them, and they need not think about her; and that
+if the Piache (in plain English, the conjuror), as she supposed, wanted
+a present, he might have all her Mexican feather-dresses; she would
+not wear them--they were wild Indian things, and she was an English
+maid--but they would just do for a Piache; and so darted upstairs,
+brought them down, and insisted so stoutly on arraying the vicar
+therein, that the good man beat a swift retreat. But he carried off
+with him, nevertheless, one of the handsomest mantles, which, instead
+of selling it, he converted cleverly enough into an altar-cloth; and for
+several years afterwards, the communion at Northam was celebrated upon a
+blaze of emerald, azure, and crimson, which had once adorned the sinful
+body of some Aztec prince.
+
+So Ayacanora flaunted on; while Amyas watched her, half amused, half in
+simple pride of her beauty; and looked around at all gazers, as much as
+to say, “See what a fine bird I have brought home!”
+
+Another great trouble which she gave Mrs. Leigh was her conduct to the
+ladies of the neighborhood. They came, of course, one and all, not only
+to congratulate Mrs. Leigh, but to get a peep at the fair savage; but
+the fair savage snubbed them all round, from the vicar's wife to Lady
+Grenville herself, so effectually, that few attempted a second visit.
+
+Mrs. Leigh remonstrated, and was answered by floods of tears. “They only
+come to stare at a poor wild Indian girl, and she would not be made a
+show of. She was like a queen once, and every one obeyed her; but here
+every one looked down upon her.” But when Mrs. Leigh asked her, whether
+she would sooner go back to the forests, the poor girl clung to her like
+a baby, and entreated not to be sent away, “She would sooner be a slave
+in the kitchen here, than go back to the bad people.”
+
+And so on, month after month of foolish storm and foolish sunshine; but
+she was under the shadow of one in whom was neither storm nor sunshine,
+but a perpetual genial calm of soft gray weather, which tempered down
+to its own peacefulness all who entered its charmed influence; and the
+outbursts grew more and more rare, and Ayacanora more and more rational,
+though no more happy, day by day.
+
+And one by one small hints came out which made her identity certain, at
+least in the eyes of Mrs. Leigh and Yeo. After she had become familiar
+with the sight of houses, she gave them to understand that she had seen
+such things before. The red cattle, too, seemed not unknown to her;
+the sheep puzzled her for some time, and at last she gave Mrs. Leigh to
+understand that they were too small.
+
+“Ah, madam,” quoth Yeo, who caught at every straw, “it is because she
+has been accustomed to those great camel sheep (llamas they call them)
+in Peru.”
+
+But Ayacanora's delight was a horse. The use of tame animals at all was
+a daily wonder to her; but that a horse could be ridden was the crowning
+miracle of all; and a horse she would ride, and after plaguing Amyas for
+one in vain (for he did not want to break her pretty neck), she proposed
+confidentially to Yeo to steal one, and foiled in that, went to the
+vicar and offered to barter all her finery for his broken-kneed pony.
+But the vicar was too honest to drive so good a bargain, and the matter
+ended, in Amyas buying her a jennet, which she learned in a fortnight to
+ride like a very Gaucho.
+
+And now awoke another curious slumbering reminiscence. For one day, at
+Lady Grenville's invitation, the whole family went over to Stow; Mrs.
+Leigh soberly on a pillion behind the groom, Ayacanora cantering round
+and round upon the moors like a hound let loose, and trying to make
+Amyas ride races with her. But that night, sleeping in the same room
+with Mrs. Leigh, she awoke shrieking, and sobbed out a long story how
+the “Old ape of Panama,” her especial abomination, had come to her
+bedside and dragged her forth into the courtyard, and how she had
+mounted a horse and ridden with an Indian over great moors and high
+mountains down into a dark wood, and there the Indian and the horses
+vanished, and she found herself suddenly changed once more into a
+little savage child. So strong was the impression, that she could not be
+persuaded that the thing had not happened, if not that night, at least
+some night or other. So Mrs. Leigh at last believed the same, and told
+the company next morning in her pious way how the Lord had revealed in
+a vision to the poor child who she was, and how she had been exposed in
+the forests by her jealous step-father, and neither Sir Richard nor his
+wife could doubt but that hers was the true solution. It was probable
+that Don Xararte, though his home was Panama, had been often at Quito,
+for Yeo had seen him come on board the Lima ship at Guayaquil, one
+of the nearest ports. This would explain her having been found by the
+Indians beyond Cotopaxi, the nearest peak of the Eastern Andes, if, as
+was but too likely, the old man, believing her to be Oxenham's child,
+had conceived the fearful vengeance of exposing her in the forests.
+
+Other little facts came to light one by one. They were all connected
+(as was natural in a savage) with some animal or other natural object.
+Whatever impressions her morals or affections had received, had been
+erased by the long spiritual death of that forest sojourn; and Mrs.
+Leigh could not elicit from her a trace of feeling about her mother, or
+recollection of any early religious teaching. This link, however, was
+supplied at last, and in this way.
+
+Sir Richard had brought home an Indian with him from Virginia. Of his
+original name I am not sure, but he was probably the “Wanchese” whose
+name occurs with that of “Manteo.”
+
+This man was to be baptized in the church at Bideford by the name of
+Raleigh, his sponsors being most probably Raleigh himself, who may have
+been there on Virginian business, and Sir Richard Grenville. All the
+notabilities of Bideford came, of course, to see the baptism of the
+first “Red man” whose foot had ever trodden British soil, and the mayor
+and corporation-men appeared in full robes, with maces and tipstaffs, to
+do honor to that first-fruits of the Gospel in the West.
+
+Mrs. Leigh went, as a matter of course, and Ayacanora would needs go
+too. She was very anxious to know what they were going to do with the
+“Carib.”
+
+“To make him a Christian.”
+
+“Why did they not make her one?”
+
+Because she was one already. They were sure that she had been christened
+as soon as she was born. But she was not sure, and pouted a good deal
+at the chance of an “ugly red Carib” being better off than she was.
+However, all assembled duly; the stately son of the forest, now
+transformed into a footman of Sir Richard's, was standing at the font;
+the service was half performed when a heavy sigh, or rather groan, made
+all eyes turn, and Ayacanora sank fainting upon Mrs. Leigh's bosom.
+
+She was carried out, and to a neighboring house; and when she came to
+herself, told a strange story. How, as she was standing there trying to
+recollect whether she too had ever been baptized, the church seemed
+to grow larger, the priest's dress richer; the walls were covered with
+pictures, and above the altar, in jewelled robes, stood a lady, and in
+her arms a babe. Soft music sounded in her ears; the air was full (on
+that she insisted much) of fragrant odor which filled the church like
+mist; and through it she saw not one, but many Indians, standing by the
+font; and a lady held her by the hand, and she was a little girl again.
+
+And after, many questionings, so accurate was her recollection, not only
+of the scene, but of the building, that Yeo pronounced:
+
+“A christened woman she is, madam, if Popish christening is worth
+calling such, and has seen Indians christened too in the Cathedral
+Church at Quito, the inside whereof I know well enough, and too well,
+for I sat there three mortal hours in a San Benito, to hear a friar
+preach his false doctrines, not knowing whether I was to be burnt or not
+next day.”
+
+So Ayacanora went home to Burrough, and Raleigh the Indian to
+Sir Richard's house. The entry of his baptism still stands,
+crooked-lettered, in the old parchment register of the Bideford baptisms
+for 1587-3:
+
+     “Raleigh, a Winganditoian: March 26.”
+
+His name occurs once more, a year and a month after:
+
+     “Rawly, a Winganditoian, April 1589.”
+
+But it is not this time among the baptisms. The free forest wanderer has
+pined in vain for his old deer-hunts amid the fragrant cedar woods,
+and lazy paddlings through the still lagoons, where water-lilies sleep
+beneath the shade of great magnolias, wreathed with clustered vines; and
+now he is away to “happier hunting-grounds,” and all that is left of
+him below sleeps in the narrow town churchyard, blocked in with dingy
+houses, whose tenants will never waste a sigh upon the Indian's grave.
+There the two entries stand, unto this day; and most pathetic they have
+seemed to me; a sort of emblem and first-fruits of the sad fate of that
+worn-out Red race, to whom civilization came too late to save, but not
+too late to hasten their decay.
+
+But though Amyas lay idle, England did not. That spring saw another and
+a larger colony sent out by Raleigh to Virginia, under the charge of one
+John White. Raleigh had written more than once, entreating Amyas to take
+the command, which if he had done, perhaps the United States had begun
+to exist twenty years sooner than they actually did. But his mother had
+bound him by a solemn promise (and who can wonder at her for asking, or
+at him for giving it?) to wait at home with her twelve months at least.
+So, instead of himself, he sent five hundred pounds, which I suppose
+are in Virginia (virtually at least) until this day; for they never came
+back again to him.
+
+But soon came a sharper trial of Amyas's promise to his mother; and
+one which made him, for the first time in his life, moody, peevish, and
+restless, at the thought that others were fighting Spaniards, while
+he was sitting idle at home. For his whole soul was filling fast with
+sullen malice against Don Guzman. He was losing the “single eye,” and
+his whole body was no longer full of light. He had entered into the
+darkness in which every man walks who hates his brother; and it lay upon
+him like a black shadow day and night. No company, too, could be more
+fit to darken that shadow than Salvation Yeo's. The old man grew more
+stern in his fanaticism day by day, and found a too willing listener in
+his master; and Mrs. Leigh was (perhaps for the first and last time
+in her life) seriously angry, when she heard the two coolly debating
+whether they had not committed a grievous sin in not killing the Spanish
+prisoners on board the galleon.
+
+It must be said, however (as the plain facts set down in this book
+testify), that if such was the temper of Englishmen at that day,
+the Spaniards had done a good deal to provoke it; and were just then
+attempting to do still more.
+
+For now we are approaching the year 1588, “which an astronomer of
+Konigsberg, above a hundred years before, foretold would be an admirable
+year, and the German chronologers presaged would be the climacterical
+year of the world.”
+
+The prophecies may stand for what they are worth; but they were at least
+fulfilled. That year was, indeed, the climacterical year of the world;
+and decided once and for all the fortunes of the European nations, and
+of the whole continent of America.
+
+No wonder, then, if (as has happened in each great crisis of the human
+race) some awful instinct that The Day of the Lord was at hand, some dim
+feeling that there was war in heaven, and that the fiends of darkness
+and the angels of light were arrayed against each other in some mighty
+struggle for the possession of the souls of men, should have tried
+to express itself in astrologic dreams, and, as was the fashion then,
+attributed to the “rulers of the planetary houses” some sympathy with
+the coming world-tragedy.
+
+But, for the wise, there needed no conjunction of planets to tell them
+that the day was near at hand, when the long desultory duel between
+Spain and England would end, once and for all, in some great
+death-grapple. The war, as yet, had been confined to the Netherlands, to
+the West Indies, and the coasts and isles of Africa; to the quarters,
+in fact, where Spain was held either to have no rights, or to have
+forfeited them by tyranny. But Spain itself had been respected by
+England, as England had by Spain; and trade to Spanish ports went on as
+usual, till, in the year 1585, the Spaniard, without warning, laid an
+embargo on all English ships coming to his European shores. They were to
+be seized, it seemed, to form part of an enormous armament, which was to
+attack and crush, once and for all--whom? The rebellious Netherlanders,
+said the Spaniards: but the queen, the ministry, and, when it was just
+not too late, the people of England, thought otherwise. England was the
+destined victim; so, instead of negotiating, in order to avoid fighting,
+they fought in order to produce negotiation. Drake, Frobisher, and
+Carlisle, as we have seen, swept the Spanish Main with fire and sword,
+stopping the Indian supplies; while Walsingham (craftiest, and yet most
+honest of mortals) prevented, by some mysterious financial operation,
+the Venetian merchants from repairing the Spaniards' loss by a loan; and
+no Armada came that year.
+
+In the meanwhile, the Jesuits, here and abroad, made no secret, among
+their own dupes, of the real objects of the Spanish armament. The
+impious heretics,--the Drakes and Raleighs, Grenvilles and Cavendishes,
+Hawkinses and Frobishers, who had dared to violate that hidden sanctuary
+of just half the globe, which the pope had bestowed on the defender of
+the true faith,--a shameful ruin, a terrible death awaited them, when
+their sacrilegious barks should sink beneath the thunder of Spanish
+cannon, blessed by the pope, and sanctified with holy water and prayer
+to the service of “God and his Mother.” Yes, they would fall, and
+England with them. The proud islanders, who had dared to rebel against
+St. Peter, and to cast off the worship of “Mary,” should bow their
+necks once more under the yoke of the Gospel. Their so-called queen,
+illegitimate, excommunicate, contumacious, the abettor of free-trade,
+the defender of the Netherlands, the pillar of false doctrine throughout
+Europe, should be sent in chains across the Alps, to sue for her life at
+the feet of the injured and long-suffering father of mankind, while
+his nominee took her place upon the throne which she had long since
+forfeited by her heresy.
+
+“What nobler work? How could the Church of God be more gloriously
+propagated? How could higher merit be obtained by faithful Catholics?
+It must succeed. Spain was invincible in valor, inexhaustible in wealth.
+Heaven itself offered them an opportunity. They had nothing now to fear
+from the Turk, for they had concluded a truce with him; nothing from the
+French, for they were embroiled in civil war. The heavens themselves
+had called upon Spain to fulfil her heavenly mission, and restore to
+the Church's crown this brightest and richest of her lost jewels. The
+heavens themselves called to a new crusade. The saints, whose altars
+the English had rifled and profaned, called them to a new crusade. The
+Virgin Queen of Heaven, whose boundless stores of grace the English
+spurned, called them to a new crusade. Justly incensed at her own wrongs
+and indignities, that 'ever-gracious Virgin, refuge of sinners, and
+mother of fair love, and holy hope,' adjured by their knightly honor all
+valiant cavaliers to do battle in her cause against the impious harlot
+who assumed her titles, received from her idolatrous flatterers the
+homage due to Mary alone, and even (for Father Parsons had asserted it,
+therefore it must be true) had caused her name to be substituted for
+that of Mary in the Litanies of the Church. Let all who wore within a
+manly heart, without a manly sword, look on the woes of 'Mary,'--her
+shame, her tears, her blushes, her heart pierced through with daily
+wounds, from heretic tongues, and choose between her and Elizabeth!”
+
+So said Parsons, Allen, and dozens more; and said more than this, too,
+and much which one had rather not repeat; and were somewhat surprised
+and mortified to find that their hearers, though they granted the
+premises, were too dull or carnal to arrive at the same conclusion. The
+English lay Romanists, almost to a man, had hearts sounder than their
+heads, and, howsoever illogically, could not help holding to the strange
+superstition that, being Englishmen, they were bound to fight for
+England. So the hapless Jesuits, who had been boasting for years past
+that the persecuted faithful throughout the island would rise as one man
+to fight under the blessed banner of the pope and Spain, found that the
+faithful, like Demas of old, forsook them and “went after this present
+world;” having no objection, of course, to the restoration of Popery:
+but preferring some more comfortable method than an invasion which would
+inevitably rob them of their ancestral lands and would seat needy and
+greedy Castilians in their old country houses, to treat their tenants as
+they had treated the Indians of Hispaniola, and them as they had treated
+the caciques.
+
+But though the hearts of men in that ungodly age were too hard to melt
+at the supposed woes of the Mary who reigned above, and too dull to turn
+rebels and traitors for the sake of those thrones and principalities in
+supra-lunar spheres which might be in her gift: yet there was a Mary
+who reigned (or ought to reign) below, whose woes (like her gifts) were
+somewhat more palpable to the carnal sense. A Mary who, having every
+comfort and luxury (including hounds and horses) found for her by the
+English Government, at an expense which would be now equal to some
+twenty thousand a year, could afford to employ the whole of her jointure
+as Queen Dowager of France (probably equal to fifty thousand a year
+more), in plotting the destruction of the said government, and the
+murder of its queen; a Mary who, if she prospered as she ought, might
+have dukedoms, and earldoms, fair lands and castles to bestow on her
+faithful servants; a Mary, finally, who contrived by means of an angel
+face, a serpent tongue, and a heart (as she said herself) as hard as
+a diamond, to make every weak man fall in love with her, and, what was
+worse, fancy more or less that she was in love with him.
+
+Of her the Jesuits were not unmindful; and found it convenient, indeed,
+to forget awhile the sorrows of the Queen of Heaven in those of the
+Queen of Scots. Not that they cared much for those sorrows; but they
+were an excellent stock-in-trade. She was a Romanist; she was “beautiful
+and unfortunate,” a virtue which, like charity, hides the multitude of
+sins; and therefore she was a convenient card to play in the great game
+of Rome against the Queen and people of England; and played the poor
+card was, till it got torn up by over-using. Into her merits or demerits
+I do not enter deeply here. Let her rest in peace.
+
+To all which the people of England made a most practical and terrible
+answer. From the highest noble to the lowest peasant, arose one
+simultaneous plebiscitum: “We are tired of these seventeen years of
+chicanery and terror. This woman must die: or the commonweal of England
+perish!” We all know which of the two alternatives was chosen.
+
+All Europe stood aghast: but rather with astonishment at English
+audacity, than with horror at English wickedness. Mary's own French
+kinsfolk had openly given her up as too bad to be excused, much less
+assisted. Her own son blustered a little to the English ambassador;
+for the majesty of kings was invaded: whereon Walsingham said in open
+council, that “the queen should send him a couple of hounds, and that
+would set all right.” Which sage advice (being acted on, and some deer
+sent over and above) was so successful that the pious mourner, having
+run off (Randolph says, like a baby to see the deer in their cart),
+returned for answer that he would “thereafter depend wholly upon her
+majesty, and serve her fortune against all the world; and that he only
+wanted now two of her majesty's yeoman prickers, and a couple of her
+grooms of the deer.” The Spaniard was not sorry on the whole for the
+catastrophe; for all that had kept him from conquering England long ago
+was the fear lest, after it was done, he might have had to put the crown
+thereof on Mary's head, instead of his own. But Mary's death was as
+convenient a stalking-horse to him as to the pope; and now the Armada
+was coming in earnest.
+
+Elizabeth began negotiating; but fancy not that she does nothing more,
+as the following letter testifies, written about midsummer, 1587.
+
+
+“F. Drake to Captain Amyas Leigh. This with haste.
+
+“DEAR LAD,
+
+“As I said to her most glorious majesty, I say to you now. There are two
+ways of facing an enemy. The one to stand off, and cry, 'Try that again,
+and I'll strike thee'; the other to strike him first, and then, 'Try
+that at all, and I'll strike thee again.' Of which latter counsel her
+majesty so far approves, that I go forthwith (tell it not in Gath) down
+the coast, to singe the king of Spain's beard (so I termed it to her
+majesty, she laughing), in which if I leave so much as a fishing-boat
+afloat from the Groyne unto Cadiz, it will not be with my good will, who
+intend that if he come this year, he shall come by swimming and not by
+sailing. So if you are still the man I have known you, bring a good ship
+round to Plymouth within the month, and away with me for hard blows and
+hard money, the feel of both of which you know pretty well by now.
+
+“Thine lovingly,
+
+“F. Drake.”
+
+
+Amyas clutched his locks over this letter, and smoked more tobacco the
+day he got it than had ever before been consumed at once in England. But
+he kept true to his promise; and this was his reply:--
+
+
+
+“Amyas Leigh to the Worshipful Sir F. Drake, Admiral of her Majesty's
+Fleet in Plymouth.
+
+“MOST HONORED SIR,
+
+“A magician keeps me here, in bilboes for which you have no picklock;
+namely, a mother who forbids. The loss is mine: but Antichrist I can
+fight any year (for he will not die this bout, nor the next), while my
+mother--but I will not trouble your patience more than to ask from you
+to get me news, if you can, from any prisoners of one Don Guzman Maria
+Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto; whether he is in Spain or in the Indies;
+and what the villain does, and where he is to be found. This only I
+entreat of you, and so remain behind with a heavy heart.
+
+“Yours to command in all else, and I would to Heaven, in this also,
+
+“AMYAS LEIGH.”
+
+
+I am sorry to have to say, that after having thus obeyed his mother,
+Master Amyas, as men are too apt to do, revenged himself on her by being
+more and more cross and disagreeable. But his temper amended much,
+when, a few months after, Drake returned triumphant, having destroyed
+a hundred sail in Cadiz alone, taken three great galleons with immense
+wealth on board, burnt the small craft all along the shore, and offered
+battle to Santa Cruz at the mouth of the Tagus. After which it is
+unnecessary to say, that the Armada was put off for yet another year.
+
+This news, indeed, gave Amyas little comfort; for he merely observed,
+grumbling, that Drake had gone and spoiled everybody else's sport: but
+what cheered him was news from Drake that Don Guzman had been heard of
+from the captain of one of the galleons; that he was high in favor in
+Spain, and commandant of soldiers on board one of the largest of the
+marquis's ships.
+
+And when Amyas heard that, a terrible joy took possession of him. When
+the Armada came, as come it would, he should meet his enemy at last! He
+could wait now patiently: if--and he shuddered at himself, as he found
+himself in the very act of breathing a prayer that Don Guzman might not
+die before that meeting.
+
+In the meanwhile, rumor flew thousand-tongued through the length and
+breadth of the land; of vast preparations going on in Spain and Italy;
+of timber felled long before for some such purpose, brought down to the
+sea, and sawn out for shipbuilding; of casting of cannon, and drilling
+of soldiers; of ships in hundreds collecting at Lisbon; of a crusade
+preached by Pope Sixtus the Fifth, who had bestowed the kingdom of
+England on the Spaniard, to be enjoyed by him as vassal tributary to
+Rome; of a million of gold to be paid by the pope, one-half down at
+once, the other half when London was taken; of Cardinal Allen writing
+and printing busily in the Netherlands, calling on all good Englishmen
+to carry out, by rebelling against Elizabeth, the bull of Sixtus the
+Fifth, said (I blush to repeat it) to have been dictated by the Holy
+Ghost; of Inquisitors getting ready fetters and devil's engines of all
+sorts; of princes and noblemen, flocking from all quarters, gentlemen
+selling their private estates to fit out ships; how the Prince of
+Melito, the Marquess of Burgrave, Vespasian Gonzaga, John Medicis,
+Amadas of Savoy, in short, the illegitimate sons of all the southern
+princes, having no lands of their own, were coming to find that
+necessary of life in this pleasant little wheat-garden. Nay, the Duke of
+Medina Sidonia had already engaged Mount-Edgecombe for himself, as the
+fairest jewel of the south; which when good old Sir Richard Edgecombe
+heard, he observed quietly, that in 1555 he had the pleasure of
+receiving at his table at one time the admirals of England, Spain, and
+the Netherlands, and therefore had experience in entertaining Dons; and
+made preparations for the visit by filling his cellars with gunpowder,
+with a view to a house-warming and feu-de-joie on the occasion. But as
+old Fuller says, “The bear was not yet killed, and Medina Sidonia might
+have catched a great cold, had he no other clothes to wear than the skin
+thereof.”
+
+So flew rumor, false and true, till poor John Bull's wits were well-nigh
+turned: but to the very last, after his lazy fashion, he persuaded
+himself that it would all come right somehow; that it was too great news
+to be true; that if it was true, the expedition was only meant for the
+Netherlands; and, in short, sat quietly over his beef and beer for many
+a day after the French king had sent him fair warning, and the queen,
+the ministry, and the admirals had been assuring him again and again
+that he, and not the Dutchman, was the destined prey of this great
+flight of ravenous birds.
+
+At last the Spaniard, in order that there should be no mistake about the
+matter, kindly printed a complete bill of the play, to be seen still in
+Van Meteran, for the comfort of all true Catholics, and confusion of all
+pestilent heretics; which document, of course, the seminary priests used
+to enforce the duty of helping the invaders, and the certainty of their
+success; and from their hands it soon passed into those of the devout
+ladies, who were not very likely to keep it to themselves; till John
+Bull himself found his daughters buzzing over it with very pale faces
+(as young ladies well might who had no wish to follow the fate of
+the damsels of Antwerp), and condescending to run his eye through it,
+discovered, what all the rest of Europe had known for months past, that
+he was in a very great scrape.
+
+Well it was for England, then, that her Tudor sovereigns had compelled
+every man (though they kept up no standing army) to be a trained
+soldier. Well it was that Elizabeth, even in those dangerous days of
+intrigue and rebellion, had trusted her people enough, not only to leave
+them their weapons, but (what we, forsooth, in these more “free” and
+“liberal” days dare not do) to teach them how to use them. Well it
+was, that by careful legislation for the comfort and employment of “the
+masses” (term then, thank God, unknown), she had both won their hearts,
+and kept their bodies in fighting order. Well it was that, acting as
+fully as Napoleon did on “la carriere ouverte aux talens,” she had
+raised to the highest posts in her councils, her army, and her navy, men
+of business, who had not been ashamed to buy and sell as merchants and
+adventurers. Well for England, in a word, that Elizabeth had pursued
+for thirty years a very different course from that which we have been
+pursuing for the last thirty, with one exception, namely, the leaving as
+much as possible to private enterprise.
+
+There we have copied her: would to Heaven that we had in some other
+matters! It is the fashion now to call her a despot: but unless every
+monarch is to be branded with that epithet whose power is not as
+circumscribed as Queen Victoria's is now, we ought rather to call her
+the most popular sovereign, obeyed of their own free will by the freest
+subjects which England has ever seen; confess the Armada fight to have
+been as great a moral triumph as it was a political one; and (now that
+our late boasting is a little silenced by Crimean disasters) inquire
+whether we have not something to learn from those old Tudor times, as
+to how to choose officials, how to train a people, and how to defend a
+country.
+
+To return to the thread of my story.
+
+January, 1587-8, had well-nigh run through, before Sir Richard Grenville
+made his appearance on the streets of Bideford. He had been appointed in
+November one of the council of war for providing for the safety of the
+nation, and the West Country had seen nothing of him since. But one
+morning, just before Christmas, his stately figure darkened the old
+bay-window at Burrough, and Amyas rushed out to meet him, and bring him
+in, and ask what news from Court.
+
+“All good news, dear lad, and dearer madam. The queen shows the spirit
+of a very Boadicea or Semiramis; ay, a very Scythian Tomyris, and if she
+had the Spaniard before her now, would verily, for aught I know, feast
+him as the Scythian queen did Cyrus, with 'Satia te sanguine, quod
+sitisti.'”
+
+“I trust her most merciful spirit is not so changed already,” said Mrs.
+Leigh.
+
+“Well, if she would not do it, I would, and ask pardon afterwards, as
+Raleigh did about the rascals at Smerwick, whom Amyas knows of. Mrs.
+Leigh, these are times in which mercy is cruelty. Not England alone,
+but the world, the Bible, the Gospel itself, is at stake; and we must do
+terrible things, lest we suffer more terrible ones.”
+
+“God will take care of world and Bible better than any cruelty of ours,
+dear Sir Richard.”
+
+“Nay, but, Mrs. Leigh, we must help Him to take care of them! If those
+Smerwick Spaniards had not been--”
+
+“The Spaniard would not have been exasperated into invading us.”
+
+“And we should not have had this chance of crushing him once and for
+all; but the quarrel is of older standing, madam, eh, Amyas? Amyas, has
+Raleigh written to you of late?”
+
+“Not a word, and I wonder why.”
+
+“Well; no wonder at that, if you knew how he has been laboring. The
+wonder is, whence he got the knowledge wherewith to labor; for he never
+saw sea-work to my remembrance.”
+
+“Never saw a shot fired by sea, except ours at Smerwick, and that
+brush with the Spaniards in 1579, when he sailed for Virginia with Sir
+Humphrey; and he was a mere crack then.”
+
+“So you consider him as your pupil, eh? But he learnt enough in the
+Netherland wars, and in Ireland too, if not of the strength of ships,
+yet still of the weakness of land forces; and would you believe it, the
+man has twisted the whole council round his finger, and made them give
+up the land defences to the naval ones.”
+
+“Quite right he, and wooden walls against stone ones for ever! But as
+for twisting, he would persuade Satan, if he got him alone for half an
+hour.”
+
+“I wish he would sail for Spain then, just now, and try the powers of
+his tongue,” said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+“But are we to have the honor, really?”
+
+“We are, lad. There were many in the council who were for disputing the
+landing on shore, and said--which I do not deny--that the 'prentice
+boys of London could face the bluest blood in Spain. But Raleigh argued
+(following my Lord Burleigh in that) that we differed from the Low
+Countries, and all other lands, in that we had not a castle or town
+throughout, which would stand a ten days' siege, and that our ramparts,
+as he well said, were, after all, only a body of men. So, he argued, as
+long as the enemy has power to land where he will, prevention, rather
+than cure, is our only hope; and that belongs to the office, not of an
+army, but of a fleet. So the fleet was agreed on, and a fleet we shall
+have.”
+
+“Then here is his health, the health of a true friend to all bold
+mariners, and myself in particular! But where is he now?”
+
+“Coming here to-morrow, as I hope--for he left London with me, and so
+down by us into Cornwall, to drill the train-bands, as he is bound
+to do, being Seneschal of the Duchies and Lieutenant-General of the
+county.”
+
+“Besides Lord Warden of the Stanneries! How the man thrives!” said Mrs.
+Leigh.
+
+“How the man deserves to thrive!” said Amyas; “but what are we to do?”
+
+“That is the rub. I would fain stay and fight the Spaniards.”
+
+“So would I; and will.”
+
+“But he has other plans in his head for us.”
+
+“We can make our own plans without his help.”
+
+“Heyday, Amyas! How long? When did he ask you to do a thing yet and you
+refuse him?”
+
+“Not often, certainly; but Spaniards I must fight.”
+
+“Well, so must I, boy: but I have given a sort of promise to him,
+nevertheless.”
+
+“Not for me too, I hope?”
+
+“No: he will extract that himself when he comes; you must come and sup
+to-morrow, and talk it over.”
+
+“Be talked over, rather. What chestnut does the cat want us monkeys to
+pull out of the fire for him now, I wonder?”
+
+“Sir Richard Grenville is hardly accustomed to be called a monkey,” said
+Mrs. Leigh.
+
+“I meant no harm; and his worship knows it, none better: but where is
+Raleigh going to send us, with a murrain?”
+
+“To Virginia. The settlers must have help: and, as I trust in God, we
+shall be back again long before this armament can bestir itself.”
+
+So Raleigh came, saw, and conquered. Mrs. Leigh consented to Amyas's
+going (for his twelve-month would be over ere the fleet could start)
+upon so peaceful and useful an errand; and the next five months were
+spent in continual labor on the part of Amyas and Grenville, till seven
+ships were all but ready in Bideford river, the admiral whereof was
+Amyas Leigh.
+
+But that fleet was not destined ever to see the shores of the New World:
+it had nobler work to do (if Americans will forgive the speech) than
+even settling the United States.
+
+It was in the long June evenings, in the year 1588; Mrs. Leigh sat in
+the open window, busy at her needle-work; Ayacanora sat opposite to her,
+on the seat of the bay, trying diligently to read “The History of the
+Nine Worthies,” and stealing a glance every now and then towards the
+garden, where Amyas stalked up and down as he had used to do in happier
+days gone by. But his brow was contracted now, his eyes fixed on the
+ground, as he plodded backwards and forwards, his hands behind his back,
+and a huge cigar in his mouth, the wonder of the little boys of Northam,
+who peeped in stealthily as they passed the iron-work gates, to see the
+back of the famous fire-breathing captain who had sailed round the world
+and been in the country of headless men and flying dragons, and then
+popped back their heads suddenly, as he turned toward them in his walk.
+And Ayacanora looked, and looked, with no less admiration than the
+urchins at the gate: but she got no more of an answering look from Amyas
+than they did; for his head was full of calculations of tonnage and
+stowage, of salt pork and ale-barrels, and the packing of tools and
+seeds; for he had promised Raleigh to do his best for the new colony,
+and he was doing it with all his might; so Ayacanora looked back again
+to her book, and heaved a deep sigh. It was answered by one from Mrs.
+Leigh.
+
+“We are a melancholy pair, sweet chuck,” said the fair widow. “What is
+my maid sighing about, there?”
+
+“Because I cannot make out the long words,” said Ayacanora, telling a
+very white fib.
+
+“Is that all? Come to me, and I will tell you.”
+
+Ayacanora moved over to her, and sat down at her feet.
+
+“H--e, he, r--o, ro, i--c--a--l, heroical,” said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+“But what does that mean?”
+
+“Grand, good, and brave, like--”
+
+Mrs. Leigh was about to have said the name of one who was lost to her
+on earth. His fair angelic face hung opposite upon the wall. She paused
+unable to pronounce his name; and lifted up her eyes, and gazed on the
+portrait, and breathed a prayer between closed lips, and drooped her
+head again.
+
+Her pupil caught at the pause, and filled it up for herself--
+
+“Like him?” and she turned her head quickly toward the window.
+
+“Yes, like him, too,” said Mrs. Leigh, with a half-smile at the gesture.
+“Now, mind your book. Maidens must not look out of the window in school
+hours.”
+
+“Shall I ever be an English girl?” asked Ayacanora.
+
+“You are one now, sweet; your father was an English gentleman.”
+
+Amyas looked in, and saw the two sitting together.
+
+“You seem quite merry there,” said he.
+
+“Come in, then, and be merry with us.”
+
+He entered, and sat down; while Ayacanora fixed her eyes most
+steadfastly on her book.
+
+“Well, how goes on the reading?” said he; and then, without waiting for
+an answer--“We shall be ready to clear out this day week, mother, I do
+believe; that is, if the hatchets are made in time to pack them.”
+
+“I hope they will be better than the last,” said Mrs. Leigh. “It seems
+to me a shameful sin to palm off on poor ignorant savages goods which we
+should consider worthless for ourselves.”
+
+“Well, it's not over fair: but still, they are a sight better than they
+ever had before. An old hoop is better than a deer's bone, as Ayacanora
+knows,--eh?”
+
+“I don't know anything about it,” said she, who was always nettled at
+the least allusion to her past wild life. “I am an English girl now, and
+all that is gone--I forget it.”
+
+“Forget it?” said he, teasing her for want of something better to do.
+“Should not you like to sail with us, now, and see the Indians in the
+forests once again?”
+
+“Sail with you?” and she looked up eagerly.
+
+“There! I knew it! She would not be four-and-twenty hours ashore, but
+she would be off into the woods again, bow in hand, like any runaway
+nymph, and we should never see her more.”
+
+“It is false, bad man!” and she burst into violent tears, and hid her
+face in Mrs. Leigh's lap.
+
+“Amyas, Amyas, why do you tease the poor fatherless thing?”
+
+“I was only jesting, I'm sure,” said Amyas, like a repentant schoolboy.
+“Don't cry now, don't cry, my child, see here,” and he began fumbling in
+his pockets; “see what I bought of a chapman in town to-day, for you, my
+maid, indeed, I did.”
+
+And out he pulled some smart kerchief or other, which had taken his
+sailor's fancy.
+
+“Look at it now, blue, and crimson, and green, like any parrot!” and he
+held it out.
+
+She looked round sharply, snatched it out of his hand, and tore it to
+shreds.
+
+“I hate it, and I hate you!” and she sprang up and darted out of the
+room.
+
+“Oh, boy, boy!” said Mrs. Leigh, “will you kill that poor child? It
+matters little for an old heart like mine, which has but one or two
+chords left whole, how soon it be broken altogether; but a young heart
+is one of God's precious treasures, Amyas, and suffers many a long pang
+in the breaking; and woe to them who despise Christ's little ones!”
+
+“Break your heart, mother?”
+
+“Never mind my heart, dear son; yet how can you break it more surely
+than by tormenting one whom I love, because she loves you?”
+
+“Tut! play, mother, and maids' tempers. But how can I break your heart?
+What have I done? Have I not given up going again to the West Indies for
+your sake? Have I not given up going to Virginia, and now again settled
+to go after all, just because you commanded? Was it not your will? Have
+I not obeyed you, mother, mother? I will stay at home now, if you will.
+I would rather rust here on land, I vow I would, than grieve you--” and
+he threw himself at his mother's knees.
+
+“Have I asked you not to go to Virginia? No, dear boy, though every
+thought of a fresh parting seems to crack some new fibre within me, you
+must go! It is your calling. Yes; you were not sent into the world to
+amuse me, but to work. I have had pleasure enough of you, my darling,
+for many a year, and too much, perhaps; till I shrank from lending you
+to the Lord. But He must have you. . . . It is enough for the poor old
+widow to know that her boy is what he is, and to forget all her anguish
+day by day, for joy that a man is born into the world. But, Amyas,
+Amyas, are you so blind as not to see that Ayacanora--”
+
+“Don't talk about her, poor child. Talk about yourself.”
+
+“How long have I been worth talking about? No, Amyas, you must see it;
+and if you will not see it now, you will see it one day in some sad and
+fearful prodigy; for she is not one to die tamely. She loves you, Amyas,
+as a woman only can love.”
+
+“Loves me? Well, of course. I found her, and brought her home; and I
+don't deny she may think that she owes me somewhat--though it was no
+more than a Christian man's duty. But as for her caring much for me,
+mother, you measure every one else's tenderness by your own.”
+
+“Think that she owes you somewhat? Silly boy, this is not gratitude,
+but a deeper affection, which may be more heavenly than gratitude, as
+it may, too, become a horrible cause of ruin. It rests with you, Amyas,
+which of the two it will be.”
+
+“You are in earnest?”
+
+“Have I the heart or the time to jest?”
+
+“No, no, of course not; but, mother, I thought it was not comely for
+women to fall in love with men?”
+
+“Not comely, at least, to confess their love to men. But she has never
+done that, Amyas; not even by a look or a tone of voice, though I have
+watched her for months.”
+
+“To be sure, she is as demure as any cat when I am in the way. I only
+wonder how you found it out.”
+
+“Ah,” said she, smiling sadly, “even in the saddest woman's soul there
+linger snatches of old music, odors of flowers long dead and turned to
+dust--pleasant ghosts, which still keep her mind attuned to that which
+may be in others, though in her never more; till she can hear her own
+wedding-hymn re-echoed in the tones of every girl who loves, and sees
+her own wedding-torch re-lighted in the eyes of every bride.”
+
+“You would not have me marry her?” asked blunt, practical Amyas.
+
+“God knows what I would have--I know not; I see neither your path nor
+my own--no, not after weeks and months of prayer. All things beyond are
+wrapped in mist; and what will be, I know not, save that whatever else
+is wrong, mercy at least is right.”
+
+“I'd sail to-morrow, if I could. As for marrying her, mother--her birth,
+mind me--”
+
+“Ah, boy, boy! Are you God, to visit the sins of the parents upon the
+children?”
+
+“Not that. I don't mean that; but I mean this, that she is half a
+Spaniard, mother; and I cannot!--Her blood may be as blue as King
+Philip's own, but it is Spanish still! I cannot bear the thought that my
+children should have in their veins one drop of that poison.”
+
+“Amyas! Amyas!” interrupted she, “is this not, too, visiting the
+parents' sins on the children?”
+
+“Not a whit; it is common sense,--she must have the taint of their
+bloodthirsty humor. She has it--I have seen it in her again and again.
+I have told you, have I not? Can I forget the look of her eyes as
+she stood over that galleon's captain, with the smoking knife in her
+hand.--Ugh! And she is not tamed yet, as you can see, and never will
+be:--not that I care, except for her own sake, poor thing!”
+
+“Cruel boy! to impute as a blame to the poor child, not only the errors
+of her training, but the very madness of her love!”
+
+“Of her love?”
+
+“Of what else, blind buzzard? From the moment that you told me the story
+of that captain's death, I knew what was in her heart--and thus it is
+that you requite her for having saved your life!”
+
+“Umph! that is one word too much, mother. If you don't want to send me
+crazy, don't put the thing on the score of gratitude or duty. As it is,
+I can hardly speak civilly to her (God forgive me!) when I recollect
+that she belongs to the crew who murdered him”--and he pointed to the
+picture, and Mrs. Leigh shuddered as he did so.
+
+“You feel it! You know you feel it, tender-hearted, forgiving angel as
+you are; and what do you think I must feel?”
+
+“Oh, my son, my son!” cried she, wringing her hands, “if I be wretch
+enough to give place to the devil for a moment, does that give you a
+right to entertain and cherish him thus day by day?”
+
+“I should cherish him with a vengeance, if I brought up a crew of
+children who could boast of a pedigree of idolaters and tyrants, hunters
+of Indians, and torturers of women! How pleasant to hear her telling
+Master Jack, 'Your illustrious grand-uncle the pope's legate, was
+the man who burned Rose Salterne at Cartagena;' or Miss Grace, 'Your
+great-grandfather of sixteen quarterings, the Marquis of this, son of
+the Grand-equerry that, and husband of the Princess t'other, used to
+feed his bloodhounds, when beef was scarce, with Indians' babies!' Eh,
+mother? These things are true, and if you can forget them, I cannot. Is
+it not enough to have made me forego for awhile my purpose, my business,
+the one thing I live for, and that is, hunting down the Spaniards as I
+would adders or foxes, but you must ask me over and above to take one to
+my bosom?”
+
+“Oh, my son, my son! I have not asked you to do that; I have only
+commanded you, in God's name, to be merciful, if you wish to obtain
+mercy. Oh, if you will not pity this poor maiden, pity yourself; for God
+knows you stand in more need of it than she does!”
+
+Amyas was silent for a minute or two; and then,--
+
+“If it were not for you, mother, would God that the Armada would come!”
+
+“What, and ruin England?”
+
+“No! Curse them! Not a foot will they ever set on English soil, such a
+welcome would we give them. If I were but in the midst of that fleet,
+fighting like a man--to forget it all, with a galleon on board of me to
+larboard, and another to starboard--and then to put a linstock in the
+magazine, and go aloft in good company--I don't care how soon it comes,
+mother, if it were not for you.”
+
+“If I am in your way, Amyas, do not fear that I shall trouble you long.”
+
+“Oh, mother, mother, do not talk in that way! I am half-mad, I think,
+already, and don't know what I say. Yes, I am mad; mad at heart, though
+not at head. There's a fire burning me up, night and day, and nothing
+but Spanish blood will put it out.”
+
+“Or the grace of God, my poor wilful child! Who comes to the door?--so
+quickly, too?”
+
+There was a loud hurried knocking, and in another minute a serving-man
+hurried in with a letter.
+
+“This to Captain Amyas Leigh with haste, haste!”
+
+It was Sir Richard's hand. Amyas tore it open; and “a loud laugh laughed
+he.”
+
+“The Armada is coming! My wish has come true, mother!”
+
+“God help us, it has! Show me the letter.”
+
+It was a hurried scrawl.
+
+
+“DR. GODSON,--Walsingham sends word that the Ada. sailed from Lisbon to
+the Groyne the 18. of May. We know no more, but have commandment to stay
+the ships. Come down, dear lad, and give us counsel; and may the Lord
+help His Church in this great strait.
+
+“Your loving godfather,
+
+“R. G.”
+
+
+“Forgive me, mother, mother, once for all!” cried Amyas, throwing his
+arms round her neck.
+
+“I have nothing to forgive, my son, my son! And shall I lose thee,
+also?”
+
+“If I be killed, you will have two martyrs of your blood, mother!--”
+
+Mrs. Leigh bowed her head, and was silent. Amyas caught up his hat and
+sword, and darted forth toward Bideford.
+
+Amyas literally danced into Sir Richard's hall, where he stood talking
+earnestly with various merchants and captains.
+
+“Gloria, gloria! gentles all! The devil is broke loose at last; and now
+we know where to have him on the hip!”
+
+“Why so merry, Captain Leigh, when all else are sad?” said a gentle
+voice by his side.
+
+“Because I have been sad a long time, while all else were merry, dear
+lady. Is the hawk doleful when his hood is pulled off, and he sees the
+heron flapping right ahead of him?”
+
+“You seem to forget the danger and the woe of us weak women, sir?”
+
+“I don't forget the danger and the woe of one weak woman, madam, and she
+the daughter of a man who once stood in this room,” said Amyas, suddenly
+collecting himself, in a low stern voice. “And I don't forget the danger
+and the woe of one who was worth a thousand even of her. I don't forget
+anything, madam.”
+
+“Nor forgive either, it seems.”
+
+“It will be time to talk of forgiveness after the offender has repented
+and amended; and does the sailing of the Armada look like that?”
+
+“Alas, no! God help us!”
+
+“He will help us, madam,” said Amyas.
+
+“Admiral Leigh,” said Sir Richard, “we need you now, if ever. Here are
+the queen's orders to furnish as many ships as we can; though from these
+gentlemen's spirit, I should say the orders were well-nigh needless.”
+
+“Not a doubt, sir; for my part, I will fit my ship at my own charges,
+and fight her too, as long as I have a leg or an arm left.”
+
+“Or a tongue to say, never surrender, I'll warrant!” said an old
+merchant. “You put life into us old fellows, Admiral Leigh: but it
+will be a heavy matter for those poor fellows in Virginia, and for my
+daughter too, Madam Dare, with her young babe, as I hear, just born.”
+
+“And a very heavy matter,” said some one else, “for those who have
+ventured their money in these cargoes, which must lie idle, you see, now
+for a year maybe--and then all the cost of unlading again--”
+
+“My good sir,” said Grenville, “what have private interests to do
+with this day? Let us thank God if He only please to leave us the bare
+fee-simple of this English soil, the honor of our wives and daughters,
+and bodies safe from rack and fagot, to wield the swords of freemen in
+defence of a free land, even though every town and homestead in England
+were wasted with fire, and we left to rebuild over again all which our
+ancestors have wrought for us in now six hundred years.”
+
+“Right, sir!” said Amyas. “For my part, let my Virginian goods rot
+on the quay, if the worst comes to the worst. I begin unloading the
+Vengeance to-morrow; and to sea as soon as I can fill up my crew to a
+good fighting number.”
+
+And so the talk ran on; and ere two days were past, most of the
+neighboring gentlemen, summoned by Sir Richard, had come in, and great
+was the bidding against each other as to who should do most. Cary and
+Brimblecombe, with thirty tall Clovelly men, came across the bay, and
+without even asking leave of Amyas, took up their berths as a matter of
+course on board the Vengeance. In the meanwhile, the matter was taken
+up by families. The Fortescues (a numberless clan) offered to furnish
+a ship; the Chichesters another, the Stukelys a third; while the
+merchantmen were not backward. The Bucks, the Stranges, the Heards,
+joyfully unloaded their Virginian goods, and replaced them with powder
+and shot; and in a week's time the whole seven were ready once more for
+sea, and dropped down into Appledore pool, with Amyas as their admiral
+for the time being (for Sir Richard had gone by land to Plymouth to join
+the deliberations there), and waited for the first favorable wind to
+start for the rendezvous in the Sound.
+
+At last, upon the twenty-first of June, the clank of the capstans rang
+merrily across the flats, and amid prayers and blessings, forth sailed
+that gallant squadron over the bar, to play their part in Britain's
+Salamis; while Mrs. Leigh stood watching as she stood once before,
+beside the churchyard wall: but not alone this time; for Ayacanora stood
+by her side, and gazed and gazed, till her eyes seemed ready to burst
+from their sockets. At last she turned away with a sob,--
+
+“And he never bade me good-bye, mother!”
+
+“God forgive him! Come home and pray, my child; there is no other rest
+on earth than prayer for woman's heart!”
+
+They were calling each other mother and daughter then? Yes. The sacred
+fire of sorrow was fast burning out all Ayacanora's fallen savageness;
+and, like a Phoenix, the true woman was rising from those ashes, fair,
+noble, and all-enduring, as God had made her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+HOW THE ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS
+
+     “Oh, where be these gay Spaniards,
+     Which make so great a boast O?
+     Oh, they shall eat the gray-goose feather,
+       And we shall eat the roast O!”
+
+                                  Cornish Song.
+
+What if the spectators who last summer gazed with just pride upon the
+noble port of Plymouth, its vast breakwater spanning the Sound, its
+arsenals and docks, its two estuaries filled with gallant ships, and
+watched the great screw-liners turning within their own length by force
+invisible, or threading the crowded fleets with the ease of the tiniest
+boat,--what if, by some magic turn, the nineteenth century, and all the
+magnificence of its wealth and science, had vanished--as it may vanish
+hereafter--and they had found themselves thrown back three hundred years
+into the pleasant summer days of 1588?
+
+Mount Edgecombe is still there, beautiful as ever: but where are the
+docks, and where is Devonport? No vast dry-dock roofs rise at the
+water's edge. Drake's island carries but a paltry battery, just raised
+by the man whose name it bears; Mount Wise is a lone gentleman's house
+among fields; the citadel is a pop-gun fort, which a third-class steamer
+would shell into rubble for an afternoon's amusement. And the shipping,
+where are they? The floating castles of the Hamoaze have dwindled to
+a few crawling lime-hoys; and the Catwater is packed, not as now, with
+merchant craft, but with the ships who will to-morrow begin the greatest
+sea-fight which the world has ever seen.
+
+There they lie, a paltry squadron enough in modern eyes; the largest of
+them not equal in size to a six-and-thirty-gun frigate, carrying less
+weight of metal than one of our new gun-boats, and able to employ even
+that at not more than a quarter of our modern range. Would our modern
+spectators, just come down by rail for a few hours, to see the cavalry
+embark, and return tomorrow in time for dinner, have looked down upon
+that petty port, and petty fleet, with a contemptuous smile, and begun
+some flippant speech about the progress of intellect, and the triumphs
+of science, and our benighted ancestors? They would have done so, doubt
+it not, if they belonged to the many who gaze on those very triumphs
+as on a raree-show to feed their silly wonder, or use and enjoy them
+without thankfulness or understanding, as the ox eats the clover thrust
+into his rack, without knowing or caring how it grew. But if any of them
+were of the class by whom those very triumphs have been achieved; the
+thinkers and the workers, who, instead of entering lazily into other
+men's labors, as the mob does, labor themselves; who know by hard
+experience the struggles, the self-restraints, the disappointments, the
+slow and staggering steps, by which the discoverer reaches to his prize;
+then the smile of those men would not have been one of pity, but rather
+of filial love. For they would have seen in those outwardly paltry
+armaments the potential germ of that mightier one which now loads the
+Black Sea waves; they would have been aware, that to produce it, with
+such materials and knowledge as then existed, demanded an intellect, an
+energy, a spirit of progress and invention, equal, if not superior, to
+those of which we now so loudly boast.
+
+But if, again, he had been a student of men rather than of machinery,
+he would have found few nobler companies on whom to exercise his
+discernment, than he might have seen in the little terrace bowling-green
+behind the Pelican Inn, on the afternoon of the nineteenth of July.
+Chatting in groups, or lounging over the low wall which commanded a
+view of the Sound and the shipping far below, were gathered almost
+every notable man of the Plymouth fleet, the whole posse comitatus
+of “England's forgotten worthies.” The Armada has been scattered by a
+storm. Lord Howard has been out to look for it, as far as the Spanish
+coast; but the wind has shifted to the south, and fearing lest the Dons
+should pass him, he has returned to Plymouth, uncertain whether the
+Armada will come after all or not. Slip on for a while, like Prince Hal,
+the drawer's apron; come in through the rose-clad door which opens
+from the tavern, with a tray of long-necked Dutch glasses, and a silver
+tankard of wine, and look round you at the gallant captains, who are
+waiting for the Spanish Armada, as lions in their lair might wait for
+the passing herd of deer.
+
+See those five talking earnestly, in the centre of a ring, which longs
+to overhear, and yet is too respectful to approach close. Those soft
+long eyes and pointed chin you recognize already; they are Walter
+Raleigh's. The fair young man in the flame-colored doublet, whose arm
+is round Raleigh's neck, is Lord Sheffield; opposite them stands, by
+the side of Sir Richard Grenville, a man as stately even as he, Lord
+Sheffield's uncle, the Lord Charles Howard of Effingham, lord high
+admiral of England; next to him is his son-in-law, Sir Robert Southwell,
+captain of the Elizabeth Jonas: but who is that short, sturdy, plainly
+dressed man, who stands with legs a little apart, and hands behind his
+back, looking up, with keen gray eyes, into the face of each speaker?
+His cap is in his hands, so you can see the bullet head of crisp brown
+hair and the wrinkled forehead, as well as the high cheek bones, the
+short square face, the broad temples, the thick lips, which are yet firm
+as granite. A coarse plebeian stamp of man: yet the whole figure and
+attitude are that of boundless determination, self-possession, energy;
+and when at last he speaks a few blunt words, all eyes are turned
+respectfully upon him;--for his name is Francis Drake.
+
+A burly, grizzled elder, in greasy sea-stained garments, contrasting
+oddly with the huge gold chain about his neck, waddles up, as if he had
+been born, and had lived ever since, in a gale of wind at sea. The upper
+half of his sharp dogged visage seems of brick-red leather, the lower of
+badger's fur; and as he claps Drake on the back, and, with a broad Devon
+twang, shouts, “be you a coming to drink your wine, Francis Drake, or
+be you not?--saving your presence, my lord;” the lord high admiral only
+laughs, and bids Drake go and drink his wine; for John Hawkins, admiral
+of the port, is the patriarch of Plymouth seamen, if Drake be their
+hero, and says and does pretty much what he likes in any company on
+earth; not to mention that to-day's prospect of an Armageddon fight has
+shaken him altogether out of his usual crabbed reserve, and made him
+overflow with loquacious good-humor, even to his rival Drake.
+
+So they push through the crowd, wherein is many another man whom one
+would gladly have spoken with face to face on earth. Martin Frobisher
+and John Davis are sitting on that bench, smoking tobacco from long
+silver pipes; and by them are Fenton and Withrington, who have both
+tried to follow Drake's path round the world, and failed, though by no
+fault of their own. The man who pledges them better luck next time,
+is George Fenner, known to “the seven Portugals,” Leicester's pet, and
+captain of the galleon which Elizabeth bought of him. That short prim
+man in the huge yellow ruff, with sharp chin, minute imperial, and
+self-satisfied smile, is Richard Hawkins, the Complete Seaman, Admiral
+John's hereafter famous and hapless son. The elder who is talking with
+him is his good uncle William, whose monument still stands, or should
+stand, in Deptford Church; for Admiral John set it up there but one year
+after this time; and on it record how he was, “A worshipper of the true
+religion, an especial benefactor of poor sailors, a most just arbiter
+in most difficult causes, and of a singular faith, piety, and prudence.”
+ That, and the fact that he got creditably through some sharp work at
+Porto Rico, is all I know of William Hawkins: but if you or I, reader,
+can have as much or half as much said of us when we have to follow him,
+we shall have no reason to complain.
+
+There is John Drake, Sir Francis' brother, ancestor of the present stock
+of Drakes; and there is George, his nephew, a man not overwise, who has
+been round the world with Amyas; and there is Amyas himself, talking
+to one who answers him with fierce curt sentences, Captain Barker of
+Bristol, brother of the hapless Andrew Barker who found John Oxenham's
+guns, and, owing to a mutiny among his men, perished by the Spaniards in
+Honduras, twelve years ago. Barker is now captain of the Victory, one of
+the queen's best ships; and he has his accounts to settle with the Dons,
+as Amyas has; so they are both growling together in a corner, while all
+the rest are as merry as the flies upon the vine above their heads.
+
+But who is the aged man who sits upon a bench, against the sunny south
+wall of the tavern, his long white beard flowing almost to his waist,
+his hands upon his knees, his palsied head moving slowly from side to
+side, to catch the scraps of discourse of the passing captains? His
+great-grandchild, a little maid of six, has laid her curly head upon his
+knees, and his grand-daughter, a buxom black-eyed dame of thirty, stands
+by him and tends him, half as nurse, and half, too, as showman, for he
+seems an object of curiosity to all the captains, and his fair nurse has
+to entreat again and again, “Bless you, sir, please now, don't give him
+no liquor, poor old soul, the doctor says.” It is old Martin Cockrem,
+father of the ancient host, aged himself beyond the years of man, who
+can recollect the bells of Plymouth ringing for the coronation of Henry
+the Eighth, and who was the first Englishman, perhaps, who ever set foot
+on the soil of the New World. There he sits, like an old Druid Tor of
+primeval granite amid the tall wheat and rich clover crops of a modern
+farm. He has seen the death of old Europe and the birth-throes of the
+new. Go to him, and question him; for his senses are quick as ever;
+and just now the old man seems uneasy. He is peering with rheumy eyes
+through the groups, and seems listening for a well-known voice.
+
+“There 'a be again! Why don't 'a come, then?”
+
+“Quiet, gramfer, and don't trouble his worship.”
+
+“Here an hour, and never speak to poor old Martin! I say, sir”--and the
+old man feebly plucks Amyas's cloak as he passes. “I say, captain, do 'e
+tell young master old Martin's looking for him.”
+
+“Marcy, gramfer, where's your manners? Don't be vexed, sir, he'm a'most
+a babe, and tejous at times, mortal.”
+
+“Young master who?” says Amyas, bending down to the old man, and smiling
+to the dame to let him have his way.
+
+“Master Hawkins; he'm never been a-near me all day.”
+
+Off goes Amyas; and, of course, lays hold of the sleeve of young Richard
+Hawkins; but as he is in act to speak, the dame lays hold of his,
+laughing and blushing.
+
+“No, sir, not Mr. Richard, sir; Admiral John, sir, his father; he always
+calls him young master, poor old soul!” and she points to the grizzled
+beard and the face scarred and tanned with fifty years of fight and
+storm.
+
+Amyas goes to the Admiral, and gives his message.
+
+“Mercy on me! Where be my wits? Iss, I'm a-coming,” says the old hero in
+his broadest Devon, waddles off to the old man, and begins lugging at
+a pocket. “Here, Martin, I've got mun, I've got mun, man alive; but his
+Lordship keept me so. Lookee here, then! Why, I do get so lusty of late,
+Martin, I can't get to my pockets!”
+
+And out struggle a piece of tarred string, a bundle of papers, a
+thimble, a piece of pudding-tobacco, and last of all, a little paper of
+Muscovado sugar--then as great a delicacy as any French bonbons would be
+now--which he thrusts into the old man's eager and trembling hand.
+
+Old Martin begins dipping his finger into it, and rubbing it on his
+toothless gums, smiling and nodding thanks to his young master; while
+the little maid at his knee, unrebuked, takes her share also.
+
+“There, Admiral Leigh; both ends meet--gramfers and babies! You and I
+shall be like to that one day, young Samson!”
+
+“We shall have slain a good many Philistines first, I hope.”
+
+“Amen! so be it; but look to mun! so fine a sailor as ever drank liquor;
+and now greedy after a hit of sweet trade! 'tis piteous like; but I
+bring mun a hit whenever I come, and he looks for it. He's one of my own
+flesh like, is old Martin. He sailed with my father Captain Will, when
+they was both two little cracks aboard of a trawler; and my father
+went up, and here I am--he didn't, and there he is. We'm up now, we
+Hawkinses. We may be down again some day.”
+
+“Never, I trust,” said Amyas.
+
+“'Tain't no use trusting, young man: you go and do. I do hear too much
+of that there from my lad. Let they ministers preach till they'm black
+in the face, works is the trade!” with a nudge in Amyas's ribs. “Faith
+can't save, nor charity nether. There, you tell with him, while I go
+play bowls with Drake. He'll tell you a sight of stories. You ask him
+about good King Hal, now, just--”
+
+And off waddled the Port Admiral.
+
+“You have seen good King Henry, then, father?” said Amyas, interested.
+
+The old man's eyes lighted at once, and he stopped mumbling his sugar.
+
+“Seed mun? Iss, I reckon. I was with Captain Will when he went to meet
+the Frenchman there to Calais--at the Field, the Field--”
+
+“The Field of the Cloth of Gold, gramfer,” suggested the dame.
+
+“That's it. Seed mun? Iss, fegs. Oh, he was a king! The face o' mun like
+a rising sun, and the back o' mun so broad as that there” (and he held
+out his palsied arms), “and the voice of mun! Oh, to hear mun swear if
+he was merry, oh, 'tas royal!--Seed mun? Iss, fegs! And I've seed mun do
+what few has; I've seed mun christle like any child.”
+
+“What--cry?” said Amyas. “I shouldn't have thought there was much cry in
+him.”
+
+“You think what you like--”
+
+“Gramfer, gramfer, don't you be rude, now--
+
+“Let him go on,” said Amyas.
+
+“I seed mun christle; and, oh dear, how he did put hands on mun's face;
+and 'Oh, my gentlemen,' says he, 'my gentlemen! Oh, my gallant men!'
+Them was his very words.”
+
+“But when?”
+
+“Why, Captain Will had just come to the Hard--that's to Portsmouth--to
+speak with mun, and the barge Royal lay again the Hard--so; and our boot
+alongside--so; and the king he standth as it might be there, above my
+head, on the quay edge, and she come in near abreast of us, looking most
+royal to behold, poor dear! and went to cast about. And Captain Will,
+saith he, 'Them lower ports is cruel near the water;' for she had not
+more than a sixteen inches to spare in the nether overloop, as I heard
+after. And saith he, 'That won't do for going to windward in a say,
+Martin.' And as the words came out of mun's mouth, your worship, there
+was a bit of a flaw from the westward, sharp like, and overboard goeth
+my cap, and hitth against the wall, and as I stooped to pick it up, I
+heard a cry, and it was all over!”
+
+“He is telling of the Mary Rose, sir.”
+
+“I guessed so.”
+
+“All over: and the cry of mun, and the screech of mun! Oh, sir, up to
+the very heavens! And the king he screeched right out like any maid, 'Oh
+my gentlemen, oh my gallant men!' and as she lay on her beam-ends, sir,
+and just a-settling, the very last souls I seen was that man's father,
+and that man's. I knowed mun by their armor.”
+
+And he pointed to Sir George Carew and Sir Richard Grenville.
+
+“Iss! Iss! Drowned like rattens. Drowned like rattens!”
+
+“Now; you mustn't trouble his worship any more.”
+
+“Trouble? Let him tell till midnight, I shall be well pleased,” said
+Amyas, sitting down on the bench by him. “Drawer! ale--and a parcel of
+tobacco.”
+
+And Amyas settled himself to listen, while the old man purred to
+himself--
+
+“Iss. They likes to hear old Martin. All the captains look upon old
+Martin.”
+
+“Hillo, Amyas!” said Cary, “who's your friend? Here's a man been telling
+me wonders about the River Plate. We should go thither for luck there
+next time.”
+
+“River Plate?” said old Martin. “It's I knows about the River Plate;
+none so well. Who'd ever been there, nor heard of it nether, before
+Captain Will and me went, and I lived among the savages a whole year;
+and audacious civil I found 'em if they 'd had but shirts to their
+backs; and so was the prince o' mun, that Captain Will brought home to
+King Henry; leastwise he died on the voyage; but the wild folk took it
+cruel well, for you see, we was always as civil with them as Christians,
+and if we hadn't been, I should not have been here now.”
+
+“What year was that?”
+
+“In the fifteen thirty: but I was there afore, and learnt the speech
+o' mun; and that's why Captain Will left me to a hostage, when he tuked
+their prince.”
+
+“Before that?” said Cary; “why, the country was hardly known before
+that.”
+
+The old man's eyes flashed up in triumph.
+
+“Knowed? Iss, and you may well say that! Look ye here! Look to mun!” and
+he waved his hand round--“There's captains! and I'm the father of 'em
+all now, now poor Captain Will's in gloory; I, Martin Cockrem! . . .
+Iss, I've seen a change. I mind when Tavistock Abbey was so full
+o' friars, and goolden idols, and sich noxious trade, as ever was a
+wheat-rick of rats. I mind the fight off Brest in the French wars--Oh,
+that was a fight, surely!--when the Regent and the French Carack were
+burnt side by side, being fast grappled, you see, because of Sir Thomas
+Knivet; and Captain Will gave him warning as he ran a-past us, saying,
+says he--”
+
+“But,” said Amyas, seeing that the old man was wandering away, “what do
+you mind about America?”
+
+“America? I should think so! But I was a-going to tell you of the
+Regent--and seven hundred Englishmen burnt and drowned in her, and nine
+hundred French in the Brest ship, besides what we picked up. Oh dear!
+But about America.”
+
+“Yes, about America. How are you the father of all the captains?”
+
+“How? you ask my young master! Why, before the fifteen thirty, I was up
+the Plate with Cabot (and a cruel fractious ontrustful fellow he was,
+like all they Portingals), and bid there a year and more, and up the
+Paraguaio with him, diskivering no end; whereby, gentles, I was the
+first Englishman, I hold, that ever sot a foot on the New World, I was!”
+
+“Then here's your health, and long life, sir!” said Amyas and Cary.
+
+“Long life? Iss, fegs, I reckon, long enough a'ready! Why, I mind the
+beginning of it all, I do. I mind when there wasn't a master mariner
+to Plymouth, that thought there was aught west of the Land's End except
+herrings. Why, they held them, pure wratches, that if you sailed right
+west away far enough, you'd surely come to the edge, and fall over
+cleve. Iss--'Twas dark parts round here, till Captain Will arose; and
+the first of it I mind was inside the bar of San Lucar, and he and I
+were boys about a ten year old, aboord of a Dartmouth ship, and went
+for wine, and there come in over the bar he that was the beginning of it
+all.”
+
+“Columbus?”
+
+“Iss, fegs, he did, not a pistol-shot from us; and I saw mun stand on
+the poop, so plain as I see you; no great shakes of a man to look
+to nether; there's a sight better here, to plase me, and we was
+disappointed, we lads, for we surely expected to see mun with a goolden
+crown on, and a sceptre to a's hand, we did, and the ship o' mun all
+over like Solomon's temple for gloory. And I mind that same year, too,
+seeing Vasco da Gama, as was going out over the bar, when he found
+the Bona Speranza, and sailed round it to the Indies. Ah, that was the
+making of they rascally Portingals, it was! . . . And our crew told what
+they seen and heerd: but nobody minded sich things. 'Twas dark parts,
+and Popish, then; and nobody knowed nothing, nor got no schooling, nor
+cared for nothing, but scrattling up and down alongshore like to prawns
+in a pule. Iss, sitting in darkness, we was, and the shadow of death,
+till the day-spring from on high arose, and shined upon us poor
+out-o'-the-way folk--The Lord be praised! And now, look to mun!” and he
+waved his hand all round--“Look to mun! Look to the works of the Lord!
+Look to the captains! Oh blessed sight! And one's been to the Brazils,
+and one to the Indies, and the Spanish Main, and the North-West, and the
+Rooshias, and the Chinas, and up the Straits, and round the Cape,
+and round the world of God, too, bless His holy name; and I seed the
+beginning of it; and I'll see the end of it too, I will! I was born into
+the old times: but I'll see the wondrous works of the new, yet, I will!
+I'll see they bloody Spaniards swept off the seas before I die, if my
+old eyes can reach so far as outside the Sound. I shall, I knows it. I
+says my prayers for it every night; don't I, Mary? You'll bate mun, sure
+as Judgment, you'll bate mun! The Lord'll fight for ye. Nothing'll stand
+against ye. I've seed it all along--ever since I was with young master
+to the Honduras. They can't bide the push of us! You'll bate mun off
+the face of the seas, and be masters of the round world, and all that
+therein is. And then, I'll just turn my old face to the wall, and depart
+in peace, according to his word.
+
+“Deary me, now, while I've been telling with you, here've this little
+maid been and ate up all my sugar!”
+
+“I'll bring you some more,” said Amyas; whom the childish bathos of the
+last sentence moved rather to sighs than laughter.
+
+“Will ye, then? There's a good soul, and come and tell with old Martin.
+He likes to see the brave young gentlemen, a-going to and fro in their
+ships, like Leviathan, and taking of their pastime therein. We had
+no such ships to our days. Ah, 'tis grand times, beautiful times
+surely--and you'll bring me a bit sugar?”
+
+“You were up the Plate with Cabot?” said Cary, after a pause. “Do you
+mind the fair lady Miranda, Sebastian de Hurtado's wife?”
+
+“What! her that was burnt by the Indians? Mind her? Do you mind the sun
+in heaven? Oh, the beauty! Oh, the ways of her! Oh, the speech of her!
+Never was, nor never will be! And she to die by they villains; and all
+for the goodness of her! Mind her? I minded naught else when she was on
+deck.”
+
+“Who was she?” asked Amyas of Cary.
+
+“A Spanish angel, Amyas.”
+
+“Humph!” said Amyas. “So much the worse for her, to be born into a
+nation of devils.”
+
+“They'em not all so bad as that, yer honor. Her husband was a proper
+gallant gentleman, and kind as a maid, too, and couldn't abide that De
+Solis's murderous doings.”
+
+“His wife must have taught it him, then,” said Amyas, rising. “Where did
+you hear of these black swans, Cary?”
+
+“I have heard of them, and that's enough,” answered he, unwilling to
+stir sad recollections.
+
+“And little enough,” said Amyas. “Will, don't talk to me. The devil is
+not grown white because he has trod in a lime-heap.”
+
+“Or an angel black because she came down a chimney,” said Cary; and so
+the talk ended, or rather was cut short; for the talk of all the groups
+was interrupted by an explosion from old John Hawkins.
+
+“Fail? Fail? What a murrain do you here, to talk of failing? Who made
+you a prophet, you scurvy, hang-in-the-wind, croaking, white-livered son
+of a corby-crow?”
+
+“Heaven help us, Admiral Hawkins, who has put fire to your culverins in
+this fashion?” said Lord Howard.
+
+“Who? my lord! Croakers! my lord! Here's a fellow calls himself the
+captain of a ship, and her majesty's servant, and talks about failing,
+as if he were a Barbican loose-kirtle trying to keep her apple-squire
+ashore! Blurt for him, sneak-up! say I.”
+
+“Admiral John Hawkins,” quoth the offender, “you shall answer this
+language with your sword.”
+
+“I'll answer it with my foot; and buy me a pair of horn-tips to my
+shoes, like a wraxling man. Fight a croaker? Fight a frog, an owl! I
+fight those that dare fight, sir!”
+
+“Sir, sir, moderate yourself. I am sure this gentleman will show himself
+as brave as any, when it comes to blows: but who can blame mortal man
+for trembling before so fearful a chance as this?”
+
+“Let mortal man keep his tremblings to himself, then, my lord, and not
+be like Solomon's madmen, casting abroad fire and death, and saying, it
+is only in sport. There is more than one of his kidney, your lordship,
+who have not been ashamed to play Mother Shipton before their own
+sailors, and damp the poor fellows' hearts with crying before they're
+hurt, and this is one of them. I've heard him at it afore, and I'll
+present him, with a vengeance, though I'm no church-warden.”
+
+“If this is really so, Admiral Hawkins--”
+
+“It is so, my lord! I heard only last night, down in a tavern below,
+such unbelieving talk as made me mad, my lord; and if it had not been
+after supper, and my hand was not oversteady, I would have let out a
+pottle of Alicant from some of their hoopings, and sent them to Dick
+Surgeon, to wrap them in swaddling-clouts, like whining babies as
+they are. Marry come up, what says Scripture? 'He that is fearful and
+faint-hearted among you, let him go and'--what? son Dick there? Thou'rt
+pious, and read'st thy Bible. What's that text? A mortal fine one it is,
+too.”
+
+“'He that is fearful and faint-hearted among you, let him go back,'”
+ quoth the Complete Seaman. “Captain Merryweather, as my father's
+command, as well as his years, forbid his answering your challenge, I
+shall repute it an honor to entertain his quarrel myself--place, time,
+and weapons being at your choice.”
+
+“Well spoken, son Dick!--and like a true courtier, too! Ah! thou hast
+the palabras, and the knee, and the cap, and the quip, and the innuendo,
+and the true town fashion of it all--no old tarry-breeks of a sea-dog,
+like thy dad! My lord, you'll let them fight?”
+
+“The Spaniard, sir; but no one else. But, captains and gentlemen,
+consider well my friend the Port Admiral's advice; and if any man's
+heart misgives him, let him, for the sake of his country and his queen,
+have so much government of his tongue to hide his fears in his own
+bosom, and leave open complaining to ribalds and women. For if the
+sailor be not cheered by his commander's cheerfulness, how will the
+ignorant man find comfort in himself? And without faith and hope, how
+can he fight worthily?”
+
+“There is no croaking aboard of us, we will warrant,” said twenty
+voices, “and shall be none, as long as we command on board our own
+ships.”
+
+Hawkins, having blown off his steam, went back to Drake and the bowls.
+
+“Fill my pipe, Drawer--that croaking fellow's made me let it out, of
+course! Spoil-sports! The father of all manner of troubles on earth,
+be they noxious trade of croakers! 'Better to meet a bear robbed of her
+whelps,' Francis Drake, as Solomon saith, than a fule who can't keep his
+mouth shut. What brought Mr. Andrew Barker to his death but croakers?
+What stopped Fenton's China voyage in the '82, and lost your nephew
+John, and my brother Will, glory and hard cash too, but croakers? What
+sent back my Lord Cumberland's armada in the '86, and that after they'd
+proved their strength, too, sixty o' mun against six hundred Portugals
+and Indians; and yet wern't ashamed to turn round and come home
+empty-handed, after all my lord's expenses that he had been at? What
+but these same beggarly croakers, that be only fit to be turned into
+yellow-hammers up to Dartymoor, and sit on a tor all day, and cry 'Very
+little bit of bread, and no chee-e-ese!' Marry, sneak-up! say I again.”
+
+“And what,” said Drake, “would have kept me, if I'd let 'em, from ever
+sailing round the world, but these same croakers? I hanged my best
+friend for croaking, John Hawkins, may God forgive me if I was wrong,
+and I threatened a week after to hang thirty more; and I'd have done it,
+too, if they hadn't clapped tompions into their muzzles pretty fast.”
+
+“You'm right, Frank. My old father always told me--and old King Hal
+(bless his memory!) would take his counsel among a thousand;--'And, my
+son,' says he to me, 'whatever you do, never you stand no croaking; but
+hang mun, son Jack, hang mun up for an ensign. There's Scripture for
+it,' says he (he was a mighty man to his Bible, after bloody Mary's
+days, leastwise), 'and 'tis written,' says he, 'It's expedient that one
+man die for the crew, and that the whole crew perish not; so show you
+no mercy, son Jack, or you'll find none, least-wise in they manner of
+cattle; for if you fail, they stamps on you, and if you succeeds, they
+takes the credit of it to themselves, and goes to heaven in your shoes.'
+Those were his words, and I've found mun true.--Who com'th here now?”
+
+“Captain Fleming, as I'm a sinner.”
+
+“Fleming? Is he tired of life, that he com'th here to look for a halter?
+I've a warrant out against mun, for robbing of two Flushingers on the
+high seas, now this very last year. Is the fellow mazed or drunk, then?
+or has he seen a ghost? Look to mun!”
+
+“I think so, truly,” said Drake. “His eyes are near out of his head.”
+
+The man was a rough-bearded old sea-dog, who had just burst in from the
+tavern through the low hatch, upsetting a drawer with all his glasses,
+and now came panting and blowing straight up to the high admiral,--
+
+“My lord, my lord! They'm coming! I saw them off the Lizard last night!”
+
+“Who? my good sir, who seem to have left your manners behind you.”
+
+“The Armada, your worship--the Spaniard; but as for my manners, 'tis no
+fault of mine, for I never had none to leave behind me.”
+
+“If he has not left his manners behind,” quoth Hawkins, “look out for
+your purses, gentlemen all! He's manners enough, and very bad ones they
+be, when he com'th across a quiet Flushinger.”
+
+“If I stole Flushingers' wines, I never stole negurs' souls, Jack
+Hawkins; so there's your answer. My lord, hang me if you will; life's
+short and death's easy 'specially to seamen; but if I didn't see the
+Spanish fleet last sun-down, coming along half-moon wise, and full seven
+mile from wing to wing, within a four mile of me, I'm a sinner.”
+
+“Sirrah,” said Lord Howard, “is this no fetch, to cheat us out of your
+pardon for these piracies of yours?”
+
+“You'll find out for yourself before nightfall, my lord high admiral.
+All Jack Fleming says is, that this is a poor sort of an answer to a man
+who has put his own neck into the halter for the sake of his country.”
+
+“Perhaps it is,” said Lord Howard. “And after all, gentlemen, what can
+this man gain by a lie, which must be discovered ere a day is over,
+except a more certain hanging?”
+
+“Very true, your lordship,” said Hawkins, mollified. “Come here, Jack
+Fleming--what wilt drain, man? Hippocras or Alicant, Sack or John
+Barleycorn, and a pledge to thy repentance and amendment of life.”
+
+“Admiral Hawkins, Admiral Hawkins, this is no time for drinking.”
+
+“Why not, then, my lord? Good news should be welcomed with good wine.
+Frank, send down to the sexton, and set the bells a-ringing to cheer up
+all honest hearts. Why, my lord, if it were not for the gravity of my
+office, I could dance a galliard for joy!”
+
+“Well, you may dance, port admiral: but I must go and plan, but God give
+to all captains such a heart as yours this day!”
+
+“And God give all generals such a head as yours! Come, Frank Drake,
+we'll play the game out before we move. It will be two good days before
+we shall be fit to tackle them, so an odd half-hour don't matter.”
+
+“I must command the help of your counsel, vice-admiral,” said Lord
+Charles, turning to Drake.
+
+“And it's this, my good lord,” said Drake, looking up, as he aimed his
+bowl. “They'll come soon enough for us to show them sport, and yet slow
+enough for us to be ready; so let no man hurry himself. And as example
+is better than precept, here goes.”
+
+Lord Howard shrugged his shoulders, and departed, knowing two things:
+first, that to move Drake was to move mountains; and next, that when the
+self-taught hero did bestir himself, he would do more work in an hour
+than any one else in a day. So he departed, followed hastily by most of
+the captains; and Drake said in a low voice to Hawkins:
+
+“Does he think we are going to knock about on a lee-shore all the
+afternoon and run our noses at night--and dead up-wind, too--into the
+Dons' mouths? No, Jack, my friend. Let Orlando-Furioso-punctilio-fire-
+eaters go and get their knuckles rapped. The following game is the game,
+and not the meeting one. The dog goes after the sheep, and not afore
+them, lad. Let them go by, and go by, and stick to them well to
+windward, and pick up stragglers, and pickings, too, Jack--the prizes,
+Jack!”
+
+“Trust my old eyes for not being over-quick at seeing signals, if I be
+hanging in the skirts of a fat-looking Don. We'm the eagles, Drake; and
+where the carcase is, is our place, eh?”
+
+And so the two old sea-dogs chatted on, while their companions dropped
+off one by one, and only Amyas remained.
+
+“Eh, Captain Leigh, where's my boy Dick?”
+
+“Gone off with his lordship, Sir John.”
+
+“On his punctilios too, I suppose, the young slashed-breeks. He's half
+a Don, that fellow, with his fine scholarship, and his fine manners,
+and his fine clothes. He'll get a taking down before he dies, unless he
+mends. Why ain't you gone too, sir?”
+
+“I follow my leader,” said Amyas, filling his pipe.
+
+“Well said, my big man,” quoth Drake. “If I could lead you round the
+world, I can lead you up Channel, can't I?--Eh? my little bantam-cock of
+the Orinoco? Drink, lad! You're over-sad to-day.”
+
+“Not a whit,” said Amyas. “Only I can't help wondering whether I shall
+find him after all.”
+
+“Whom? That Don? We'll find him for you, if he's in the fleet. We'll
+squeeze it out of our prisoners somehow. Eh, Hawkins? I thought all the
+captains had promised to send you news if they heard of him.”
+
+“Ay, but it's ill looking for a needle in a haystack. But I shall find
+him. I am a coward to doubt it,” said Amyas, setting his teeth.
+
+“There, vice-admiral, you're beaten, and that's the rubber. Pay up
+three dollars, old high-flyer, and go and earn more, like an honest
+adventurer.”
+
+“Well,” said Drake, as he pulled out his purse, “we'll walk down now,
+and see about these young hot-heads. As I live, they are setting to tow
+the ships out already! Breaking the men's backs over-night, to make them
+fight the lustier in the morning! Well, well, they haven't sailed round
+the world, Jack Hawkins.”
+
+“Or had to run home from San Juan d'Ulloa with half a crew.
+
+“Well, if we haven't to run out with half crews. I saw a sight of our
+lads drunk about this morning.”
+
+“The more reason for waiting till they be sober. Besides, if everybody's
+caranting about to once each after his own men, nobody'll find nothing
+in such a scrimmage as that. Bye, bye, Uncle Martin. We'm going to blow
+the Dons up now in earnest.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+THE GREAT ARMADA
+
+     “Britannia needs no bulwarks,
+        No towers along the steep,
+     Her march is o'er the mountain wave,
+        Her home is on the deep.”
+
+        CAMPBELL, Ye Mariners of England.
+
+And now began that great sea-fight which was to determine whether Popery
+and despotism, or Protestantism and freedom, were the law which God had
+appointed for the half of Europe, and the whole of future America. It
+is a twelve days' epic, worthy, as I said in the beginning of this book,
+not of dull prose, but of the thunder-roll of Homer's verse: but having
+to tell it, I must do my best, rather using, where I can, the words of
+contemporary authors than my own.
+
+“The Lord High Admirall of England, sending a pinnace before, called
+the Defiance, denounced war by discharging her ordnance; and presently
+approaching with in musquet-shot, with much thundering out of his own
+ship, called the Arkroyall (alias the Triumph), first set upon the
+admirall's, as he thought, of the Spaniards (but it was Alfonso de
+Leon's ship). Soon after, Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher played stoutly
+with their ordnance on the hindmost squadron, which was commanded by
+Recalde.” The Spaniards soon discover the superior “nimbleness of the
+English ships;” and Recalde's squadron, finding that they are getting
+more than they give, in spite of his endeavors, hurry forward to join
+the rest of the fleet. Medina the Admiral, finding his ships scattering
+fast, gathers them into a half-moon; and the Armada tries to keep solemn
+way forward, like a stately herd of buffaloes, who march on across the
+prairie, disdaining to notice the wolves which snarl around their track.
+But in vain. These are no wolves, but cunning hunters, swiftly horsed,
+and keenly armed, and who will “shamefully shuffle” (to use Drake's own
+expression) that vast herd from the Lizard to Portland, from Portland
+to Calais Roads; and who, even in this short two hours' fight, have made
+many a Spaniard question the boasted invincibleness of this Armada.
+
+One of the four great galliasses is already riddled with shot, to the
+great disarrangement of her “pulpits, chapels,” and friars therein
+assistant. The fleet has to close round her, or Drake and Hawkins
+will sink her; in effecting which manoeuvre, the “principal galleon of
+Seville,” in which are Pedro de Valdez and a host of blue-blooded Dons,
+runs foul of her neighbor, carries away her foremast, and is, in spite
+of Spanish chivalry, left to her fate. This does not look like victory,
+certainly. But courage! though Valdez be left behind, “our Lady,” and
+the saints, and the bull Caena Domini (dictated by one whom I dare not
+name here), are with them still, and it were blasphemous to doubt. But
+in the meanwhile, if they have fared no better than this against a
+third of the Plymouth fleet, how will they fare when those forty
+belated ships, which are already whitening the blue between them and the
+Mewstone, enter the scene to play their part?
+
+So ends the first day; not an English ship, hardly a man, is hurt.
+It has destroyed for ever, in English minds, the prestige of boastful
+Spain. It has justified utterly the policy which the good Lord Howard
+had adopted by Raleigh's and Drake's advice, of keeping up a running
+fight, instead of “clapping ships together without consideration,” in
+which case, says Raleigh, “he had been lost, if he had not been better
+advised than a great many malignant fools were, who found fault with his
+demeanor.”
+
+Be that as it may, so ends the first day, in which Amyas and the other
+Bideford ships have been right busy for two hours, knocking holes in a
+huge galleon, which carries on her poop a maiden with a wheel, and bears
+the name of Sta. Catharina. She had a coat of arms on the flag at her
+sprit, probably those of the commandant of soldiers; but they were shot
+away early in the fight, so Amyas cannot tell whether they were De
+Soto's or not. Nevertheless, there is plenty of time for private
+revenge; and Amyas, called off at last by the admiral's signal, goes
+to bed and sleeps soundly.
+
+But ere he has been in his hammock an hour, he is awakened by Cary's
+coming down to ask for orders.
+
+“We were to follow Drake's lantern, Amyas; but where it is, I can't
+see, unless he has been taken up aloft there among the stars for a new
+Drakium Sidus.”
+
+Amyas turns out grumbling: but no lantern is to be seen; only a sudden
+explosion and a great fire on board some Spaniard, which is gradually
+got under, while they have to lie-to the whole night long, with nearly
+the whole fleet.
+
+The next morning finds them off Torbay; and Amyas is hailed by a
+pinnace, bringing a letter from Drake, which (saving the spelling, which
+was somewhat arbitrary, like most men's in those days) ran somewhat
+thus:--
+
+
+“DEAR LAD,--I have been wool-gathering all night after five great hulks,
+which the Pixies transfigured overnight into galleons, and this morning
+again into German merchantmen. I let them go with my blessing; and
+coming back, fell in (God be thanked!) with Valdez' great galleon;
+and in it good booty, which the Dons his fellows had left behind, like
+faithful and valiant comrades, and the Lord Howard had let slip past
+him, thinking her deserted by her crew. I have sent to Dartmouth a sight
+of noblemen and gentlemen, maybe a half-hundred; and Valdez himself, who
+when I sent my pinnace aboard must needs stand on his punctilios, and
+propound conditions. I answered him, I had no time to tell with him; if
+he would needs die, then I was the very man for him; if he would live,
+then, buena querra. He sends again, boasting that he was Don Pedro
+Valdez, and that it stood not with his honor, and that of the Dons in
+his company. I replied, that for my part, I was Francis Drake, and my
+matches burning. Whereon he finds in my name salve for the wounds of
+his own, and comes aboard, kissing my fist, with Spanish lies of holding
+himself fortunate that he had fallen into the hands of fortunate Drake,
+and much more, which he might have kept to cool his porridge. But I have
+much news from him (for he is a leaky tub); and among others, this,
+that your Don Guzman is aboard of the Sta. Catharina, commandant of her
+soldiery, and has his arms flying at her sprit, beside Sta. Catharina at
+the poop, which is a maiden with a wheel, and is a lofty built ship of
+3 tier of ordnance, from which God preserve you, and send you like luck
+with.
+
+“Your deare Friend and Admirall,
+
+“F. Drake.
+
+“She sails in this squadron of Recalde. The Armada was minded to smoke
+us out of Plymouth; and God's grace it was they tried not: but their
+orders from home are too strait, and so the slaves fight like a bull
+in a tether, no farther than their rope, finding thus the devil a hard
+master, as do most in the end. They cannot compass our quick handling
+and tacking, and take us for very witches. So far so good, and better
+to come. You and I know the length of their foot of old. Time and light
+will kill any hare, and they will find it a long way from Start to
+Dunkirk.”
+
+
+“The admiral is in a gracious humor, Leigh, to have vouchsafed you so
+long a letter.”
+
+“St. Catherine! why, that was the galleon we hammered all yesterday!”
+ said Amyas, stamping on the deck.
+
+“Of course it was. Well, we shall find her again, doubt not. That
+cunning old Drake! how he has contrived to line his own pockets, even
+though he had to keep the whole fleet waiting for him.”
+
+“He has given the lord high admiral the dor, at all events.”
+
+“Lord Howard is too high-hearted to stop and plunder, Papist though he
+is, Amyas.”
+
+Amyas answered by a growl, for he worshipped Drake, and was not too just
+to Papists.
+
+The fleet did not find Lord Howard till nightfall; he and Lord Sheffield
+had been holding on steadfastly the whole night after the Spanish
+lanterns, with two ships only. At least there was no doubt now of the
+loyalty of English Roman Catholics, and indeed, throughout the fight,
+the Howards showed (as if to wipe out the slurs which had been cast on
+their loyalty by fanatics) a desperate courage, which might have thrust
+less prudent men into destruction, but led them only to victory. Soon a
+large Spaniard drifts by, deserted and partly burnt. Some of the men are
+for leaving their place to board her; but Amyas stoutly refuses. He has
+“come out to fight, and not to plunder; so let the nearest ship to her
+have her luck without grudging.” They pass on, and the men pull long
+faces when they see the galleon snapped up by their next neighbor,
+and towed off to Weymouth, where she proves to be the ship of Miguel
+d'Oquenda, the vice-admiral, which they saw last night, all but blown up
+by some desperate Netherland gunner, who, being “misused,” was minded to
+pay off old scores on his tyrants.
+
+And so ends the second day; while the Portland rises higher and clearer
+every hour. The next morning finds them off the island. Will they try
+Portsmouth, though they have spared Plymouth? The wind has shifted
+to the north, and blows clear and cool off the white-walled downs of
+Weymouth Bay. The Spaniards turn and face the English. They must mean
+to stand off and on until the wind shall change, and then to try for
+the Needles. At least, they shall have some work to do before they round
+Purbeck Isle.
+
+The English go to the westward again: but it is only to return on the
+opposite tack; and now begin a series of manoeuvres, each fleet trying
+to get the wind of the other; but the struggle does not last long, and
+ere noon the English fleet have slipped close-hauled between the Armada
+and the land, and are coming down upon them right before the wind.
+
+And now begins a fight most fierce and fell. “And fight they did
+confusedly, and with variable fortunes; while, on the one hand, the
+English manfully rescued the ships of London, which were hemmed in
+by the Spaniards; and, on the other side, the Spaniards as stoutly
+delivered Recalde being in danger.” “Never was heard such thundering of
+ordnance on both sides, which notwithstanding from the Spaniards
+flew for the most part over the English without harm. Only Cock, an
+Englishman” (whom Prince claims, I hope rightfully, as a worthy of
+Devon), “died with honor in the midst of the enemies in a small ship of
+his. For the English ships, being far the lesser, charged the enemy with
+marvellous agility; and having discharged their broadsides, flew forth
+presently into the deep, and levelled their shot directly, without
+missing, at those great and unwieldy Spanish ships.” “This was the most
+furious and bloody skirmish of all” (though ending only, it seems, in
+the capture of a great Venetian and some small craft), “in which the
+lord admiral fighting amidst his enemies' fleet, and seeing one of his
+captains afar off (Fenner by name, he who fought the seven Portugals at
+the Azores), cried, 'O George, what doest thou? Wilt thou now frustrate
+my hope and opinion conceived of thee? Wilt thou forsake me now?' With
+which words he being enflamed, approached, and did the part of a most
+valiant captain;” as, indeed, did all the rest.
+
+Night falls upon the floating volcano; and morning finds them far past
+Purbeck, with the white peak of Freshwater ahead; and pouring out past
+the Needles, ship after ship, to join the gallant chase. For now from
+all havens, in vessels fitted out at their own expense, flock the
+chivalry of England; the Lords Oxford, Northumberland, and Cumberland,
+Pallavicin, Brooke, Carew, Raleigh, and Blunt, and many another
+honorable name, “as to a set field, where immortal fame and honor was to
+be attained.” Spain has staked her chivalry in that mighty cast; not a
+noble house of Arragon or Castile but has lent a brother or a son--and
+shall mourn the loss of one: and England's gentlemen will measure their
+strength once for all against the Cavaliers of Spain. Lord Howard has
+sent forward light craft into Portsmouth for ammunition: but they will
+scarce return to-night, for the wind falls dead, and all the evening the
+two fleets drift helpless with the tide, and shout idle defiance at each
+other with trumpet, fife, and drum.
+
+The sun goes down upon a glassy sea, and rises on a glassy sea again.
+But what day is this? The twenty-fifth, St. James's-day, sacred to the
+patron saint of Spain. Shall nothing be attempted in his honor by
+those whose forefathers have so often seen him with their bodily eyes,
+charging in their van upon his snow-white steed, and scattering Paynims
+with celestial lance? He might have sent them, certainly, a favoring
+breeze; perhaps, he only means to try their faith; at least the galleys
+shall attack; and in their van three of the great galliasses (the fourth
+lies half-crippled among the fleet) thrash the sea to foam with three
+hundred oars apiece; and see, not St. James leading them to victory, but
+Lord Howard's Triumph, his brother's Lion, Southwell's Elizabeth Jonas,
+Lord Sheffield's Bear, Barker's Victory, and George Fenner's Leicester,
+towed stoutly out, to meet them with such salvoes of chain-shot,
+smashing oars, and cutting rigging, that had not the wind sprung up
+again toward noon, and the Spanish fleet come up to rescue them, they
+had shared the fate of Valdez and the Biscayan. And now the fight
+becomes general. Frobisher beats down the Spanish admiral's mainmast;
+and, attacked himself by Mexia and Recalde, is rescued by Lord Howard;
+who, himself endangered in his turn, is rescued in his turn; “while
+after that day” (so sickened were they of the English gunnery) “no
+galliasse would adventure to fight.”
+
+And so, with variable fortune, the fight thunders on the livelong
+afternoon, beneath the virgin cliffs of Freshwater; while myriad
+sea-fowl rise screaming up from every ledge, and spot with their black
+wings the snow-white wall of chalk; and the lone shepherd hurries down
+the slopes above to peer over the dizzy edge, and forgets the wheatear
+fluttering in his snare, while he gazes trembling upon glimpses of tall
+masts and gorgeous flags, piercing at times the league-broad veil of
+sulphur-smoke which welters far below.
+
+So fares St. James's-day, as Baal's did on Carmel in old time, “Either
+he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey; or peradventure
+he sleepeth, and must be awaked.” At least, the only fire by which he
+has answered his votaries, has been that of English cannon: and the
+Armada, “gathering itself into a roundel,” will fight no more, but make
+the best of its way to Calais, where perhaps the Guises' faction may
+have a French force ready to assist them, and then to Dunkirk, to join
+with Parma and the great flotilla of the Netherlands.
+
+So on, before “a fair Etesian gale,” which follows clear and bright
+out of the south-southwest, glide forward the two great fleets, past
+Brighton Cliffs and Beachy Head, Hastings and Dungeness. Is it a battle
+or a triumph? For by sea Lord Howard, instead of fighting is rewarding;
+and after Lord Thomas Howard, Lord Sheffield, Townsend, and Frobisher
+have received at his hands that knighthood, which was then more
+honorable than a peerage, old Admiral Hawkins kneels and rises up Sir
+John, and shaking his shoulders after the accolade, observes to the
+representative of majesty, that his “old woman will hardly know herself
+again, when folks call her My Lady.”
+
+And meanwhile the cliffs are lined with pike-men and musketeers, and by
+every countryman and groom who can bear arms, led by their squires and
+sheriffs, marching eastward as fast as their weapons let them, towards
+the Dover shore. And not with them alone. From many a mile inland come
+down women and children, and aged folk in wagons, to join their feeble
+shouts, and prayers which are not feeble, to that great cry of mingled
+faith and fear which ascends to the throne of God from the spectators of
+Britain's Salamis.
+
+Let them pray on. The danger is not over yet, though Lord Howard has had
+news from Newhaven that the Guises will not stir against England, and
+Seymour and Winter have left their post of observation on the Flemish
+shores, to make up the number of the fleet to an hundred and forty
+sail--larger, slightly, than that of the Spanish fleet, but of not more
+than half the tonnage, or one third the number of men. The Spaniards are
+dispirited and battered, but unbroken still; and as they slide to their
+anchorage in Calais Roads on the Saturday evening of that most memorable
+week, all prudent men know well that England's hour is come, and that
+the bells which will call all Christendom to church upon the morrow
+morn, will be either the death-knell or the triumphal peal of the
+Reformed faith throughout the world.
+
+A solemn day that Sabbath must have been in country and in town. And
+many a light-hearted coward, doubtless, who had scoffed (as many did) at
+the notion of the Armada's coming, because he dare not face the thought,
+gave himself up to abject fear, “as he now plainly saw and heard that of
+which before he would not be persuaded.” And many a brave man, too, as
+he knelt beside his wife and daughters, felt his heart sink to the very
+pavement, at the thought of what those beloved ones might be enduring a
+few short days hence, from a profligate and fanatical soldiery, or from
+the more deliberate fiendishness of the Inquisition. The massacre of St.
+Bartholomew, the fires of Smithfield, the immolation of the Moors,
+the extermination of the West Indians, the fantastic horrors of the
+Piedmontese persecution, which make unreadable the too truthful pages
+of Morland,--these were the spectres, which, not as now, dim and distant
+through the mist of centuries, but recent, bleeding from still gaping
+wounds, flitted before the eyes of every Englishman, and filled his
+brain and heart with fire.
+
+He knew full well the fate in store for him and his. One false step, and
+the unspeakable doom which, not two generations afterwards, befell the
+Lutherans of Magdeburg, would have befallen every town from London to
+Carlisle. All knew the hazard, as they prayed that day, and many a day
+before and after, throughout England and the Netherlands. And none knew
+it better than she who was the guiding spirit of that devoted land,
+and the especial mark of the invaders' fury; and who, by some Divine
+inspiration (as men then not unwisely held), devised herself the daring
+stroke which was to anticipate the coming blow.
+
+But where is Amyas Leigh all this while? Day after day he has been
+seeking the Sta. Catharina in the thickest of the press, and cannot come
+at her, cannot even hear of her: one moment he dreads that she has sunk
+by night, and balked him of his prey; the next, that she has repaired
+her damages, and will escape him after all. He is moody, discontented,
+restless, even (for the first time in his life) peevish with his men. He
+can talk of nothing but Don Guzman; he can find no better employment,
+at every spare moment, than taking his sword out of the sheath, and
+handling it, fondling it, talking to it even, bidding it not to fail him
+in the day of vengeance. At last, he has sent to Squire, the armorer,
+for a whetstone, and, half-ashamed of his own folly, whets and polishes
+it in bye-corners, muttering to himself. That one fixed thought of
+selfish vengeance has possessed his whole mind; he forgets England's
+present need, her past triumph, his own safety, everything but his
+brother's blood. And yet this is the day for which he has been longing
+ever since he brought home that magic horn as a fifteen years boy; the
+day when he should find himself face to face with an invader, and
+that invader Antichrist himself. He has believed for years with Drake,
+Hawkins, Grenville, and Raleigh, that he was called and sent into the
+world only to fight the Spaniard: and he is fighting him now, in such a
+cause, for such a stake, within such battle-lists, as he will never
+see again: and yet he is not content, and while throughout that gallant
+fleet, whole crews are receiving the Communion side by side, and rising
+with cheerful faces to shake hands, and to rejoice that they are sharers
+in Britain's Salamis, Amyas turns away from the holy elements.
+
+“I cannot communicate, Sir John. Charity with all men? I hate, if ever
+man hated on earth.”
+
+“You hate the Lord's foes only, Captain Leigh.”
+
+“No, Jack, I hate my own as well.”
+
+“But no one in the fleet, sir?”
+
+“Don't try to put me off with the same Jesuit's quibble which that false
+knave Parson Fletcher invented for one of Doughty's men, to drug his
+conscience withal when he was plotting against his own admiral. No,
+Jack, I hate one of whom you know; and somehow that hatred of him keeps
+me from loving any human being. I am in love and charity with no man,
+Sir John Brimblecombe--not even with you! Go your ways in God's name,
+sir! and leave me and the devil alone together, or you'll find my words
+are true.”
+
+Jack departed with a sigh, and while the crew were receiving the
+Communion on deck, Amyas sate below in the cabin sharpening his sword,
+and after it, called for a boat and went on board Drake's ship to ask
+news of the Sta. Catharina, and listened scowling to the loud chants and
+tinkling bells, which came across the water from the Spanish fleet. At
+last, Drake was summoned by the lord admiral, and returned with a secret
+commission, which ought to bear fruit that night; and Amyas, who had
+gone with him, helped him till nightfall, and then returned to his own
+ship as Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, to the joy and glory of every soul on
+board, except his moody self.
+
+So there, the livelong summer Sabbath-day, before the little high-walled
+town and the long range of yellow sandhills, lie those two mighty
+armaments, scowling at each other, hardly out of gunshot. Messenger
+after messenger is hurrying towards Bruges to the Duke of Parma, for
+light craft which can follow these nimble English somewhat better than
+their own floating castles; and, above all, entreating him to put to sea
+at once with all his force. The duke is not with his forces at Dunkirk,
+but on the future field of Waterloo, paying his devotions to St. Mary
+of Halle in Hainault, in order to make all sure in his Pantheon, and
+already sees in visions of the night that gentle-souled and pure-lipped
+saint, Cardinal Allen, placing the crown of England on his head. He
+returns for answer, first, that his victual is not ready; next, that his
+Dutch sailors, who have been kept at their post for many a week at the
+sword's point, have run away like water; and thirdly, that over and
+above all, he cannot come, so “strangely provided” of great ordnance and
+musketeers are those five-and-thirty Dutch ships, in which round-sterned
+and stubborn-hearted heretics watch, like terriers at a rat's hole, the
+entrance of Nieuwport and Dunkirk. Having ensured the private patronage
+of St. Mary of Halle, he will return to-morrow to make experience of its
+effects: but only hear across the flats of Dixmude the thunder of the
+fleets, and at Dunkirk the open curses of his officers. For while he
+has been praying and nothing more, the English have been praying, and
+something more; and all that is left for the Prince of Parma is, to
+hang a few purveyors, as peace offerings to his sulking army, and then
+“chafe,” as Drake says of him, “like a bear robbed of her whelps.”
+
+For Lord Henry Seymour has brought Lord Howard a letter of command from
+Elizabeth's self; and Drake has been carrying it out so busily all that
+Sunday long, that by two o'clock on the Monday morning, eight fire-ships
+“besmeared with wild-fire, brimstone, pitch, and resin, and all their
+ordnance charged with bullets and with stones,” are stealing down the
+wind straight for the Spanish fleet, guided by two valiant men of Devon,
+Young and Prowse. (Let their names live long in the land!) The ships are
+fired, the men of Devon steal back, and in a moment more, the heaven is
+red with glare from Dover Cliffs to Gravelines Tower; and weary-hearted
+Belgian boors far away inland, plundered and dragooned for many a
+hideous year, leap from their beds, and fancy (and not so far wrongly
+either) that the day of judgment is come at last, to end their woes, and
+hurl down vengeance on their tyrants.
+
+And then breaks forth one of those disgraceful panics, which so often
+follow overweening presumption; and shrieks, oaths, prayers, and
+reproaches, make night hideous. There are those too on board who
+recollect well enough Jenebelli's fire-ships at Antwerp three years
+before, and the wreck which they made of Parma's bridge across the
+Scheldt. If these should be like them! And cutting all cables, hoisting
+any sails, the Invincible Armada goes lumbering wildly out to sea, every
+ship foul of her neighbor.
+
+The largest of the four galliasses loses her rudder, and drifts helpless
+to and fro, hindering and confusing. The duke, having (so the Spaniards
+say) weighed his anchor deliberately instead of leaving it behind him,
+runs in again after awhile, and fires a signal for return: but his
+truant sheep are deaf to the shepherd's pipe, and swearing and praying
+by turns, he runs up Channel towards Gravelines picking up stragglers
+on his way, who are struggling as they best can among the flats and
+shallows: but Drake and Fenner have arrived as soon as he. When Monday's
+sun rises on the quaint old castle and muddy dykes of Gravelines town,
+the thunder of the cannon recommences, and is not hushed till night.
+Drake can hang coolly enough in the rear to plunder when he thinks fit;
+but when the battle needs it, none can fight more fiercely, among the
+foremost; and there is need now, if ever. That Armada must never be
+allowed to re-form. If it does, its left wing may yet keep the English
+at bay, while its right drives off the blockading Hollanders from
+Dunkirk port, and sets Parma and his flotilla free to join them, and to
+sail in doubled strength across to the mouth of Thames.
+
+So Drake has weighed anchor, and away up Channel with all his squadron,
+the moment that he saw the Spanish fleet come up; and with him Fenner
+burning to redeem the honor which, indeed, he had never lost; and ere
+Fenton, Beeston, Crosse, Ryman, and Lord Southwell can join them, the
+Devon ships have been worrying the Spaniards for two full hours into
+confusion worse confounded.
+
+But what is that heavy firing behind them? Alas for the great galliasse!
+She lies, like a huge stranded whale, upon the sands where now stands
+Calais pier; and Amyas Preston, the future hero of La Guayra, is
+pounding her into submission, while a fleet of hoys and drumblers look
+on and help, as jackals might the lion.
+
+Soon, on the south-west horizon, loom up larger and larger two mighty
+ships, and behind them sail on sail. As they near a shout greets the
+Triumph and the Bear; and on and in the lord high admiral glides stately
+into the thickest of the fight.
+
+True, we have still but some three-and-twenty ships which can cope at
+all with some ninety of the Spaniards: but we have dash, and daring, and
+the inspiration of utter need. Now, or never, must the mighty struggle
+be ended. We worried them off Portland; we must rend them in pieces
+now; and in rushes ship after ship, to smash her broadsides through and
+through the wooden castles, “sometimes not a pike's length asunder,”
+ and then out again to re-load, and give place meanwhile to another. The
+smaller are fighting with all sails set; the few larger, who, once in,
+are careless about coming out again, fight with top-sails loose, and
+their main and foreyards close down on deck, to prevent being boarded.
+The duke, Oquenda, and Recalde, having with much ado got clear of the
+shallows, bear the brunt of the fight to seaward; but in vain. The day
+goes against them more and more, as it runs on. Seymour and Winter have
+battered the great San Philip into a wreck; her masts are gone by the
+board; Pimentelli in the San Matthew comes up to take the mastiffs
+off the fainting bull, and finds them fasten on him instead; but the
+Evangelist, though smaller, is stouter than the Deacon, and of all the
+shot poured into him, not twenty “lackt him thorough.” His masts are
+tottering; but sink or strike he will not.
+
+“Go ahead, and pound his tough hide, Leigh,” roars Drake off the poop
+of his ship, while he hammers away at one of the great galliasses. “What
+right has he to keep us all waiting?”
+
+Amyas slips in as best he can between Drake and Winter; as he passes he
+shouts to his ancient enemy,--
+
+“We are with you, sir; all friends to-day!” and slipping round Winter's
+bows, he pours his broadside into those of the San Matthew, and then
+glides on to re-load; but not to return. For not a pistol shot to
+leeward, worried by three or four small craft, lies an immense galleon;
+and on her poop--can he believe his eyes for joy?--the maiden and the
+wheel which he has sought so long!
+
+“There he is!” shouts Amyas, springing to the starboard side of the
+ship. The men, too, have already caught sight of that hated sign; a
+cheer of fury bursts from every throat.
+
+“Steady, men!” says Amyas, in a suppressed voice. “Not a shot! Re-load,
+and be ready; I must speak with him first;” and silent as the grave,
+amid the infernal din, the Vengeance glides up to the Spaniard's
+quarter.
+
+“Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto!” shouts Amyas from the
+mizzen rigging, loud and clear amid the roar.
+
+He has not called in vain. Fearless and graceful as ever, the tall,
+mail-clad figure of his foe leaps up upon the poop-railing, twenty feet
+above Amyas's head, and shouts through his vizor,--
+
+“At your service, sir whosoever you may be.”
+
+A dozen muskets and arrows are levelled at him; but Amyas frowns them
+down. “No man strikes him but I. Spare him, if you kill every other soul
+on board. Don Guzman! I am Captain Sir Amyas Leigh; I proclaim you a
+traitor and a ravisher, and challenge you once more to single combat,
+when and where you will.”
+
+“You are welcome to come on board me, sir,” answers the Spaniard, in a
+clear, quiet tone; “bringing with you this answer, that you lie in your
+throat;” and lingering a moment out of bravado, to arrange his scarf, he
+steps slowly down again behind the bulwarks.
+
+“Coward!” shouts Amyas at the top of his voice.
+
+The Spaniard re-appears instantly. “Why that name, senor, of all
+others?” asks he in a cool, stern voice.
+
+“Because we call men cowards in England, who leave their wives to be
+burnt alive by priests.”
+
+The moment the words had passed Amyas's lips, he felt that they were
+cruel and unjust. But it was too late to recall them. The Spaniard
+started, clutched his sword-hilt, and then hissed back through his
+closed vizor,--
+
+“For that word, sirrah, you hang at my yardarm, if Saint Mary gives me
+grace.”
+
+“See that your halter be a silken one, then,” laughed Amyas, “for I
+am just dubbed knight.” And he stepped down as a storm of bullets rang
+through the rigging round his head; the Spaniards are not as punctilious
+as he.
+
+“Fire!” His ordnance crash through the stern-works of the Spaniard; and
+then he sails onward, while her balls go humming harmlessly through his
+rigging.
+
+Half-an-hour has passed of wild noise and fury; three times has the
+Vengeance, as a dolphin might, sailed clean round and round the Sta.
+Catharina, pouring in broadside after broadside, till the guns are
+leaping to the deck-beams with their own heat, and the Spaniard's sides
+are slit and spotted in a hundred places. And yet, so high has been his
+fire in return, and so strong the deck defences of the Vengeance, that a
+few spars broken, and two or three men wounded by musketry, are all her
+loss. But still the Spaniard endures, magnificent as ever; it is the
+battle of the thresher and the whale; the end is certain, but the work
+is long.
+
+“Can I help you, Captain Leigh?” asked Lord Henry Seymour, as he passes
+within oar's length of him, to attack a ship ahead. “The San Matthew has
+had his dinner, and is gone on to Medina to ask for a digestive to it.”
+
+“I thank your lordship: but this is my private quarrel, of which I
+spoke. But if your lordship could lend me powder--”
+
+“Would that I could! But so, I fear, says every other gentleman in the
+fleet.”
+
+A puff of wind clears away the sulphurous veil for a moment; the sea is
+clear of ships towards the land; the Spanish fleet are moving again up
+Channel, Medina bringing up the rear; only some two miles to their right
+hand, the vast hull of the San Philip is drifting up the shore with the
+tide, and somewhat nearer the San Matthew is hard at work at her pumps.
+They can see the white stream of water pouring down her side.
+
+“Go in, my lord, and have the pair,” shouts Amyas.
+
+“No, sir! Forward is a Seymour's cry. We will leave them to pay the
+Flushingers' expenses.” And on went Lord Henry, and on shore went the
+San Philip at Ostend, to be plundered by the Flushingers; while the
+San Matthew, whose captain, “on a hault courage,” had refused to save
+himself and his gentlemen on board Medina's ship, went blundering
+miserably into the hungry mouths of Captain Peter Vanderduess and four
+other valiant Dutchmen, who, like prudent men of Holland, contrived to
+keep the galleon afloat till they had emptied her, and then “hung up her
+banner in the great church of Leyden, being of such a length, that being
+fastened to the roof, it reached unto the very ground.”
+
+But in the meanwhile, long ere the sun had set, comes down the darkness
+of the thunderstorm, attracted, as to a volcano's mouth, to that vast
+mass of sulphur-smoke which cloaks the sea for many a mile; and heaven's
+artillery above makes answer to man's below. But still, through smoke
+and rain, Amyas clings to his prey. She too has seen the northward
+movement of the Spanish fleet, and sets her topsails; Amyas calls to
+the men to fire high, and cripple her rigging: but in vain: for three or
+four belated galleys, having forced their way at last over the shallows,
+come flashing and sputtering up to the combatants, and take his fire
+off the galleon. Amyas grinds his teeth, and would fain hustle into the
+thick of the press once more, in spite of the galleys' beaks.
+
+“Most heroical captain,” says cary, pulling a long face, “if we do, we
+are stove and sunk in five minutes; not to mention that Yeo says he has
+not twenty rounds of great cartridge left.”
+
+So, surely and silent, the Vengeance sheers off, but keeps as near
+as she can to the little squadron, all through the night of rain and
+thunder which follows. Next morning the sun rises on a clear sky, with
+a strong west-north-west breeze, and all hearts are asking what the day
+will bring forth.
+
+They are long past Dunkirk now; the German Ocean is opening before them.
+The Spaniards, sorely battered, and lessened in numbers, have, during
+the night, regained some sort of order. The English hang on their skirts
+a mile or two behind. They have no ammunition, and must wait for more.
+To Amyas's great disgust, the Sta. Catharina has rejoined her fellows
+during the night.
+
+“Never mind,” says Cary; “she can neither dive nor fly, and as long as
+she is above water, we--What is the admiral about?”
+
+He is signalling Lord Henry Seymour and his squadron. Soon they
+tack, and come down the wind for the coast of Flanders. Parma must be
+blockaded still; and the Hollanders are likely to be too busy with their
+plunder to do it effectually. Suddenly there is a stir in the Spanish
+fleet. Medina and the rearmost ships turn upon the English. What can it
+mean? Will they offer battle once more? If so, it were best to get
+out of their way, for we have nothing wherewith to fight them. So the
+English lie close to the wind. They will let them pass, and return to
+their old tactic of following and harassing.
+
+“Good-bye to Seymour,” says Cary, “if he is caught between them and
+Parma's flotilla. They are going to Dunkirk.”
+
+“Impossible! They will not have water enough to reach his light craft.
+Here comes a big ship right upon us! Give him all you have left, lads;
+and if he will fight us, lay him alongside, and die boarding.”
+
+They gave him what they had, and hulled him with every shot; but his
+huge side stood silent as the grave. He had not wherewithal to return
+the compliment.
+
+“As I live, he is cutting loose the foot of his mainsail! the villain
+means to run.”
+
+“There go the rest of them! Victoria!” shouted Cary, as one after
+another, every Spaniard set all the sail he could.
+
+There was silence for a few minutes throughout the English fleet;
+and then cheer upon cheer of triumph rent the skies. It was over. The
+Spaniard had refused battle, and thinking only of safety, was pressing
+downward toward the Straits again. The Invincible Armada had cast away
+its name, and England was saved.
+
+“But he will never get there, sir,” said old Yeo, who had come upon deck
+to murmur his Nunc Domine, and gaze upon that sight beyond all human
+faith or hope: “Never, never will he weather the Flanders shore, against
+such a breeze as is coming up. Look to the eye of the wind, sir, and see
+how the Lord is fighting for His people!”
+
+Yes, down it came, fresher and stiffer every minute out of the gray
+north-west, as it does so often after a thunder-storm; and the sea began
+to rise high and white under the “Claro Aquilone,” till the Spaniards
+were fain to take in all spare canvas, and lie-to as best they could;
+while the English fleet, lying-to also, awaited an event which was in
+God's hands and not in theirs.
+
+“They will be all ashore on Zealand before the afternoon,” murmured
+Amyas; “and I have lost my labor! Oh, for powder, powder, powder! to go
+in and finish it at once!”
+
+“Oh, sir,” said Yeo, “don't murmur against the Lord in the very day of
+His mercies. It is hard, to be sure; but His will be done.”
+
+“Could we not borrow powder from Drake there?”
+
+“Look at the sea, sir!”
+
+And, indeed, the sea was far too rough for any such attempt. The
+Spaniards neared and neared the fatal dunes, which fringed the shore for
+many a dreary mile; and Amyas had to wait weary hours, growling like a
+dog who has had the bone snatched out of his mouth, till the day wore
+on; when, behold, the wind began to fall as rapidly as it had risen. A
+savage joy rose in Amyas's heart.
+
+“They are safe! safe for us! Who will go and beg us powder? A cartridge
+here and a cartridge there?--anything to set to work again!”
+
+Cary volunteered, and returned in a couple of hours with some quantity:
+but he was on board again only just in time, for the south-wester had
+recovered the mastery of the skies, and Spaniards and English were
+moving away; but this time northward. Whither now? To Scotland? Amyas
+knew not, and cared not, provided he was in the company of Don Guzman de
+Soto.
+
+The Armada was defeated, and England saved. But such great undertakings
+seldom end in one grand melodramatic explosion of fireworks, through
+which the devil arises in full roar to drag Dr. Faustus forever into the
+flaming pit. On the contrary, the devil stands by his servants to the
+last, and tries to bring off his shattered forces with drums beating and
+colors flying; and, if possible, to lull his enemies into supposing that
+the fight is ended, long before it really is half over. All which the
+good Lord Howard of Effingham knew well, and knew, too, that Medina had
+one last card to play, and that was the filial affection of that dutiful
+and chivalrous son, James of Scotland. True, he had promised faith to
+Elizabeth: but that was no reason why he should keep it. He had been
+hankering and dabbling after Spain for years past, for its absolution
+was dear to his inmost soul; and Queen Elizabeth had had to warn him,
+scold him, call him a liar, for so doing; so the Armada might still find
+shelter and provision in the Firth of Forth. But whether Lord Howard
+knew or not, Medina did not know, that Elizabeth had played her card
+cunningly, in the shape of one of those appeals to the purse, which, to
+James's dying day, overweighed all others save appeals to his vanity.
+“The title of a dukedom in England, a yearly pension of 5000 pounds, a
+guard at the queen's charge, and other matters” (probably more hounds
+and deer), had steeled the heart of the King of Scots, and sealed the
+Firth of Forth. Nevertheless, as I say, Lord Howard, like the rest of
+Elizabeth's heroes, trusted James just as much as James trusted others;
+and therefore thought good to escort the Armada until it was safely past
+the domains of that most chivalrous and truthful Solomon. But on the
+4th of August, his fears, such as they were, were laid to rest. The
+Spaniards left the Scottish coast and sailed away for Norway; and the
+game was played out, and the end was come, as the end of such matters
+generally comes, by gradual decay, petty disaster, and mistake; till
+the snow-mountain, instead of being blown tragically and heroically to
+atoms, melts helplessly and pitiably away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA
+
+     “Full fathom deep thy father lies;
+        Of his bones are corals made;
+     Those are pearls which were his eyes;
+        Nothing of him that doth fade,
+     But doth suffer a sea-change
+        Into something rich and strange;
+     Fairies hourly ring his knell,
+     Hark! I hear them.  Ding dong bell.”
+
+                           The Tempest.
+
+Yes, it is over; and the great Armada is vanquished. It is lulled for
+awhile, the everlasting war which is in heaven, the battle of Iran and
+Turan, of the children of light and of darkness, of Michael and his
+angels against Satan and his fiends; the battle which slowly and seldom,
+once in the course of many centuries, culminates and ripens into a
+day of judgment, and becomes palpable and incarnate; no longer a mere
+spiritual fight, but one of flesh and blood, wherein simple men may
+choose their sides without mistake, and help God's cause not merely with
+prayer and pen, but with sharp shot and cold steel. A day of judgment
+has come, which has divided the light from the darkness, and the sheep
+from the goats, and tried each man's work by the fire; and, behold, the
+devil's work, like its maker, is proved to have been, as always, a lie
+and a sham, and a windy boast, a bladder which collapses at the merest
+pinprick. Byzantine empires, Spanish Armadas, triple-crowned papacies,
+Russian despotisms, this is the way of them, and will be to the end of
+the world. One brave blow at the big bullying phantom, and it vanishes
+in sulphur-stench; while the children of Israel, as of old, see the
+Egyptians dead on the sea-shore,--they scarce know how, save that God
+has done it, and sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb.
+
+And now, from England and the Netherlands, from Germany and Geneva, and
+those poor Vaudois shepherd-saints, whose bones for generations past
+
+     “Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;”
+
+to be, indeed, the seed of the Church, and a germ of new life, liberty,
+and civilization, even in these very days returning good for evil to
+that Piedmont which has hunted them down like the partridges on the
+mountains;--from all of Europe, from all of mankind, I had almost said,
+in which lay the seed of future virtue and greatness, of the destinies
+of the new-discovered world, and the triumphs of the coming age of
+science, arose a shout of holy joy, such as the world had not heard
+for many a weary and bloody century; a shout which was the prophetic
+birth-paean of North America, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific
+Islands, of free commerce and free colonization over the whole earth.
+
+“There was in England, by the commandment of her majesty,” says Van
+Meteran, “and likewise in the United Provinces, by the direction of the
+States, a solemn festival day publicly appointed, wherein all persons
+were solemnly enjoined to resort unto ye Church, and there to render
+thanks and praises unto God, and ye preachers were commanded to exhort
+ye people thereunto. The aforesaid solemnity was observed upon the 29th
+of November: which day was wholly spent in fasting, prayer, and giving
+of thanks.
+
+“Likewise the Queen's Majesty herself, imitating ye ancient Romans, rode
+into London in triumph, in regard of her own and her subjects' glorious
+deliverance. For being attended upon very solemnly by all ye principal
+Estates and officers of her Realm, she was carried through her said City
+of London in a triumphant Chariot, and in robes of triumph, from her
+Palace unto ye said Cathedral Church of St. Paul, out of ye which ye
+Ensigns and Colours of ye vanquished Spaniards hung displayed. And
+all ye Citizens of London, in their liveries, stood on either side ye
+street, by their several Companies, with their ensigns and banners, and
+the streets were hanged on both sides with blue Cloth, which, together
+with ye foresaid banners, yielded a very stately and gallant prospect.
+Her Majestie being entered into ye Church together with her Clergy and
+Nobles, gave thanks unto God, and caused a public Sermon to be preached
+before her at Paul's Cross; wherein none other argument was handled,
+but that praise, honour, and glory might be rendered unto God, and that
+God's Name might be extolled by thanksgiving. And with her own princely
+voice she most Christianly exhorted ye people to do ye same; whereunto
+ye people, with a loud acclamation, wished her a most long and happy
+life to ye confusion of her foes.”
+
+Yes, as the medals struck on the occasion said, “It came, it saw, and it
+fled!” And whither? Away and northward, like a herd of frightened deer,
+past the Orkneys and Shetlands, catching up a few hapless fishermen as
+guides; past the coast of Norway, there, too, refused water and food by
+the brave descendants of the Vikings; and on northward ever towards the
+lonely Faroes, and the everlasting dawn which heralds round the Pole the
+midnight sun.
+
+Their water is failing; the cattle must go overboard; and the wild
+northern sea echoes to the shrieks of drowning horses. They must
+homeward at least, somehow, each as best he can. Let them meet again
+at Cape Finisterre, if indeed they ever meet. Medina Sidonia, with some
+five-and twenty of the soundest and best victualled ships, will lead
+the way, and leave the rest to their fate. He is soon out of sight; and
+forty more, the only remnant of that mighty host, come wandering wearily
+behind, hoping to make the south-west coast of Ireland, and have help,
+or, at least, fresh water there, from their fellow Romanists. Alas for
+them!--
+
+     “Make Thou their way dark and slippery,
+     And follow them up ever with Thy storm.”
+
+For now comes up from the Atlantic, gale on gale; and few of that
+hapless remnant reached the shores of Spain.
+
+And where are Amyas and the Vengeance all this while?
+
+At the fifty-seventh degree of latitude, the English fleet, finding
+themselves growing short of provision, and having been long since out of
+powder and ball, turn southward toward home, “thinking it best to leave
+the Spaniard to those uncouth and boisterous northern seas.” A few
+pinnaces are still sent onward to watch their course: and the English
+fleet, caught in the same storms which scattered the Spaniards, “with
+great danger and industry reached Harwich port, and there provide
+themselves of victuals and ammunition,” in case the Spaniards should
+return; but there is no need for that caution. Parma, indeed, who cannot
+believe that the idol at Halle, after all his compliments to it, will
+play him so scurvy a trick, will watch for weeks on Dunkirk dunes,
+hoping against hope for the Armada's return, casting anchors, and
+spinning rigging to repair their losses.
+
+     “But lang, lang may his ladies sit,
+     With their fans intill their hand,
+     Before they see Sir Patrick Spens
+     Come sailing to the land.”
+
+The Armada is away on the other side of Scotland, and Amyas is following
+in its wake.
+
+For when the lord high admiral determined to return, Amyas asked
+leave to follow the Spaniard; and asked, too, of Sir John Hawkins,
+who happened to be at hand, such ammunition and provision as could be
+afforded him, promising to repay the same like an honest man, out of
+his plunder if he lived, out of his estate if he died; lodging for that
+purpose bills in the hands of Sir John, who, as a man of business,
+took them, and put them in his pocket among the thimbles, string, and
+tobacco; after which Amyas, calling his men together, reminded them once
+more of the story of the Rose of Torridge and Don Guzman de Soto, and
+then asked:
+
+“Men of Bideford, will you follow me? There will be plunder for those
+who love plunder; revenge for those who love revenge; and for all of us
+(for we all love honor) the honor of having never left the chase as long
+as there was a Spanish flag in English seas.”
+
+And every soul on board replied, that they would follow Sir Amyas Leigh
+around the world.
+
+There is no need for me to detail every incident of that long and weary
+chase; how they found the Sta. Catharina, attacked her, and had to sheer
+off, she being rescued by the rest; how when Medina's squadron left the
+crippled ships behind, they were all but taken or sunk, by thrusting
+into the midst of the Spanish fleet to prevent her escaping with Medina;
+how they crippled her, so that she could not beat to windward out into
+the ocean, but was fain to run south, past the Orkneys, and down through
+the Minch, between Cape Wrath and Lewis; how the younger hands were
+ready to mutiny, because Amyas, in his stubborn haste, ran past two or
+three noble prizes which were all but disabled, among others one of
+the great galliasses, and the two great Venetians, La Ratta and La
+Belanzara--which were afterwards, with more than thirty other vessels,
+wrecked on the west coast of Ireland; how he got fresh water, in spite
+of certain “Hebridean Scots” of Skye, who, after reviling him in an
+unknown tongue, fought with him awhile, and then embraced him and his
+men with howls of affection, and were not much more decently clad, nor
+more civilized, than his old friends of California; how he pacified his
+men by letting them pick the bones of a great Venetian which was going
+on shore upon Islay (by which they got booty enough to repay them for
+the whole voyage), and offended them again by refusing to land and
+plunder two great Spanish wrecks on the Mull of Cantire (whose crews, by
+the by, James tried to smuggle off secretly into Spain in ships of his
+own, wishing to play, as usual, both sides of the game at once; but
+the Spaniards were stopped at Yarmouth till the council's pleasure was
+known--which was, of course, to let the poor wretches go on their way,
+and be hanged elsewhere); how they passed a strange island, half black,
+half white, which the wild people called Raghary, but Cary christened it
+“the drowned magpie;” how the Sta. Catharina was near lost on the Isle
+of Man, and then put into Castleton (where the Manx-men slew a whole
+boat's-crew with their arrows), and then put out again, when Amyas
+fought with her a whole day, and shot away her mainyard; how the
+Spaniard blundered down the coast of Wales, not knowing whither he went;
+how they were both nearly lost on Holyhead, and again on Bardsey Island;
+how they got on a lee shore in Cardigan Bay, before a heavy westerly
+gale, and the Sta. Catharina ran aground on Sarn David, one of those
+strange subaqueous pebble-dykes which are said to be the remnants of the
+lost land of Gwalior, destroyed by the carelessness of Prince Seithenin
+the drunkard, at whose name each loyal Welshman spits; how she got off
+again at the rising of the tide, and fought with Amyas a fourth time;
+how the wind changed, and she got round St. David's Head;--these, and
+many more moving incidents of this eventful voyage, I must pass over
+without details, and go on to the end; for it is time that the end
+should come.
+
+It was now the sixteenth day of the chase. They had seen, the evening
+before, St. David's Head, and then the Welsh coast round Milford
+Haven, looming out black and sharp before the blaze of the inland
+thunder-storm; and it had lightened all round them during the fore part
+of the night, upon a light south-western breeze.
+
+In vain they had strained their eyes through the darkness, to catch, by
+the fitful glare of the flashes, the tall masts of the Spaniard. Of
+one thing at least they were certain, that with the wind as it was, she
+could not have gone far to the westward; and to attempt to pass them
+again, and go northward, was more than she dare do. She was probably
+lying-to ahead of them, perhaps between them and the land; and when, a
+little after midnight, the wind chopped up to the west, and blew stiffly
+till day break, they felt sure that, unless she had attempted the
+desperate expedient of running past them, they had her safe in the mouth
+of the Bristol Channel. Slowly and wearily broke the dawn, on such a day
+as often follows heavy thunder; a sunless, drizzly day, roofed with low
+dingy cloud, barred and netted, and festooned with black, a sign that
+the storm is only taking breath awhile before it bursts again; while all
+the narrow horizon is dim and spongy with vapor drifting before a chilly
+breeze. As the day went on, the breeze died down, and the sea fell to a
+long glassy foam-flecked roll, while overhead brooded the inky sky, and
+round them the leaden mist shut out alike the shore and the chase.
+
+Amyas paced the sloppy deck fretfully and fiercely. He knew that the
+Spaniard could not escape; but he cursed every moment which lingered
+between him and that one great revenge which blackened all his soul.
+The men sate sulkily about the deck, and whistled for a wind; the sails
+flapped idly against the masts; and the ship rolled in the long troughs
+of the sea, till her yard-arms almost dipped right and left.
+
+“Take care of those guns. You will have something loose next,” growled
+Amyas.
+
+“We will take care of the guns, if the Lord will take care of the wind,”
+ said Yeo.
+
+“We shall have plenty before night,” said Cary, “and thunder too.”
+
+“So much the better,” said Amyas. “It may roar till it splits the
+heavens, if it does but let me get my work done.”
+
+“He's not far off, I warrant,” said Cary. “One lift of the cloud, and we
+should see him.”
+
+“To windward of us, as likely as not,” said Amyas. “The devil fights
+for him, I believe. To have been on his heels sixteen days, and not sent
+this through him yet!” And he shook his sword impatiently.
+
+So the morning wore away, without a sign of living thing, not even a
+passing gull; and the black melancholy of the heaven reflected itself
+in the black melancholy of Amyas. Was he to lose his prey after all?
+The thought made him shudder with rage and disappointment. It was
+intolerable. Anything but that.
+
+“No, God!” he cried, “let me but once feel this in his accursed heart,
+and then--strike me dead, if Thou wilt!”
+
+“The Lord have mercy on us,” cried John Brimblecombe. “What have you
+said?”
+
+“What is that to you, sir? There, they are piping to dinner. Go down. I
+shall not come.”
+
+And Jack went down, and talked in a half-terrified whisper of Amyas's
+ominous words.
+
+All thought that they portended some bad luck, except old Yeo.
+
+“Well, Sir John,” said he, “and why not? What better can the Lord do
+for a man, than take him home when he has done his work? Our captain is
+wilful and spiteful, and must needs kill his man himself; while for me,
+I don't care how the Don goes, provided he does go. I owe him no grudge,
+nor any man. May the Lord give him repentance, and forgive him all his
+sins: but if I could but see him once safe ashore, as he may be ere
+nightfall, on the Mortestone or the back of Lundy, I would say, 'Lord,
+now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,' even if it were the
+lightning which was sent to fetch me.”
+
+“But, master Yeo, a sudden death?”
+
+“And why not a sudden death, Sir John? Even fools long for a short life
+and a merry one, and shall not the Lord's people pray for a short death
+and a merry one? Let it come as it will to old Yeo. Hark! there's the
+captain's voice!”
+
+“Here she is!” thundered Amyas from the deck; and in an instant all were
+scrambling up the hatchway as fast as the frantic rolling of the ship
+would let them.
+
+Yes. There she was. The cloud had lifted suddenly, and to the south a
+ragged bore of blue sky let a long stream of sunshine down on her tall
+masts and stately hull, as she lay rolling some four or five miles to
+the eastward: but as for land, none was to be seen.
+
+“There she is; and here we are,” said Cary; “but where is here? and
+where is there? How is the tide, master?”
+
+“Running up Channel by this time, sir.”
+
+“What matters the tide?” said Amyas, devouring the ship with terrible
+and cold blue eyes. “Can't we get at her?”
+
+“Not unless some one jumps out and shoves behind,” said Cary. “I shall
+down again and finish that mackerel, if this roll has not chucked it to
+the cockroaches under the table.”
+
+“Don't jest, Will! I can't stand it,” said Amyas, in a voice which
+quivered so much that Cary looked at him. His whole frame was trembling
+like an aspen. Cary took his arm, and drew him aside.
+
+“Dear old lad,” said he, as they leaned over the bulwarks, “what is
+this? You are not yourself, and have not been these four days.”
+
+“No. I am not Amyas Leigh. I am my brother's avenger. Do not reason
+with me, Will: when it is over I shall be merry old Amyas again,” and he
+passed his hand over his brow.
+
+“Do you believe,” said he, after a moment, “that men can be possessed by
+devils?”
+
+“The Bible says so.”
+
+“If my cause were not a just one, I should fancy I had a devil in me. My
+throat and heart are as hot as the pit. Would to God it were done, for
+done it must be! Now go.”
+
+Cary went away with a shudder. As he passed down the hatchway he looked
+back. Amyas had got the hone out of his pocket, and was whetting away
+again at his sword-edge, as if there was some dreadful doom on him, to
+whet, and whet forever.
+
+The weary day wore on. The strip of blue sky was curtained over again,
+and all was dismal as before, though it grew sultrier every moment; and
+now and then a distant mutter shook the air to westward. Nothing could
+be done to lessen the distance between the ships, for the Vengeance had
+had all her boats carried away but one, and that was much too small
+to tow her: and while the men went down again to finish dinner, Amyas
+worked on at his sword, looking up every now and then suddenly at the
+Spaniard, as if to satisfy himself that it was not a vision which had
+vanished.
+
+About two Yeo came up to him.
+
+“He is ours safely now, sir. The tide has been running to the eastward
+for this two hours.”
+
+“Safe as a fox in a trap. Satan himself cannot take him from us!”
+
+“But God may,” said Brimblecombe, simply.
+
+“Who spoke to you, sir? If I thought that He--There comes the thunder at
+last!”
+
+And as he spoke an angry growl from the westward heavens seemed to
+answer his wild words, and rolled and loudened nearer and nearer, till
+right over their heads it crashed against some cloud-cliff far above,
+and all was still.
+
+Each man looked in the other's face: but Amyas was unmoved.
+
+“The storm is coming,” said he, “and the wind in it. It will be
+Eastward-ho now, for once, my merry men all!”
+
+“Eastward-ho never brought us luck,” said Jack in an undertone to Cary.
+But by this time all eyes were turned to the north-west, where a black
+line along the horizon began to define the boundary of sea and air, till
+now all dim in mist.
+
+“There comes the breeze.”
+
+“And there the storm, too.”
+
+And with that strangely accelerating pace which some storms seem to
+possess, the thunder, which had been growling slow and seldom far away,
+now rang peal on peal along the cloudy floor above their heads.
+
+“Here comes the breeze. Round with the yards, or we shall be taken
+aback.”
+
+The yards creaked round; the sea grew crisp around them; the hot air
+swept their cheeks, tightened every rope, filled every sail, bent her
+over. A cheer burst from the men as the helm went up, and they staggered
+away before the wind, right down upon the Spaniard, who lay still
+becalmed.
+
+“There is more behind, Amyas,” said Cary. “Shall we not shorten sail a
+little?”
+
+“No. Hold on every stitch,” said Amyas. “Give me the helm, man.
+Boatswain, pipe away to clear for fight.”
+
+It was done, and in ten minutes the men were all at quarters, while
+the thunder rolled louder and louder overhead, and the breeze freshened
+fast.
+
+“The dog has it now. There he goes!” said Cary.
+
+“Right before the wind. He has no liking to face us.”
+
+“He is running into the jaws of destruction,” said Yeo. “An hour more
+will send him either right up the Channel, or smack on shore somewhere.”
+
+“There! he has put his helm down. I wonder if he sees land?”
+
+“He is like a March hare beat out of his country,” said Cary, “and don't
+know whither to run next.”
+
+Cary was right. In ten minutes more the Spaniard fell off again, and
+went away dead down wind, while the Vengeance gained on him fast.
+After two hours more, the four miles had diminished to one, while the
+lightning flashed nearer and nearer as the storm came up; and from the
+vast mouth of a black cloud-arch poured so fierce a breeze that Amyas
+yielded unwillingly to hints which were growing into open murmurs, and
+bade shorten sail.
+
+On they rushed with scarcely lessened speed, the black arch following
+fast, curtained by the flat gray sheet of pouring rain, before which the
+water was boiling in a long white line; while every moment behind the
+watery veil, a keen blue spark leapt down into the sea, or darted zigzag
+through the rain.
+
+“We shall have it now, and with a vengeance; this will try your tackle,
+master,” said Cary.
+
+The functionary answered with a shrug, and turned up the collar of his
+rough frock, as the first drops flew stinging round his ears. Another
+minute and the squall burst full upon them, in rain, which cut like
+hail--hail which lashed the sea into froth, and wind which whirled off
+the heads of the surges, and swept the waters into one white seething
+waste. And above them, and behind them and before them, the lightning
+leapt and ran, dazzling and blinding, while the deep roar of the thunder
+was changed to sharp ear-piercing cracks.
+
+“Get the arms and ammunition under cover, and then below with you all,”
+ shouted Amyas from the helm.
+
+“And heat the pokers in the galley fire,” said Yeo, “to be ready if the
+rain puts our linstocks out. I hope you'll let me stay on deck, sir, in
+case--”
+
+“I must have some one, and who better than you? Can you see the chase?”
+
+No; she was wrapped in the gray whirlwind. She might be within half a
+mile of them, for aught they could have seen of her.
+
+And now Amyas and his old liegeman were alone. Neither spoke; each knew
+the other's thoughts, and knew that they were his own. The squall blew
+fiercer and fiercer, the rain poured heavier and heavier. Where was the
+Spaniard?
+
+“If he has laid-to, we may overshoot him, sir!”
+
+“If he has tried to lay-to, he will not have a sail left in the
+bolt-ropes, or perhaps a mast on deck. I know the stiff-neckedness of
+those Spanish tubs. Hurrah! there he is, right on our larboard bow!”
+
+There she was indeed, two musket-shots' off, staggering away with canvas
+split and flying.
+
+“He has been trying to hull, sir, and caught a buffet,” said Yeo,
+rubbing his hands. “What shall we do now?”
+
+“Range alongside, if it blow live imps and witches, and try our luck
+once more. Pah! how this lightning dazzles!”
+
+On they swept, gaining fast on the Spaniard. “Call the men up, and to
+quarters; the rain will be over in ten minutes.”
+
+Yeo ran forward to the gangway; and sprang back again, with a face white
+and wild--
+
+“Land right ahead! Port your helm, sir! For the love of God, port your
+helm!”
+
+Amyas, with the strength of a bull, jammed the helm down, while Yeo
+shouted to the men below.
+
+She swung round. The masts bent like whips; crack went the fore-sail
+like a cannon. What matter? Within two hundred yards of them was the
+Spaniard; in front of her, and above her, a huge dark bank rose through
+the dense hail, and mingled with the clouds; and at its foot, plainer
+every moment, pillars and spouts of leaping foam.
+
+“What is it, Morte? Hartland?”
+
+It might be anything for thirty miles.
+
+“Lundy!” said Yeo. “The south end! I see the head of the Shutter in the
+breakers! Hard a-port yet, and get her close-hauled as you can, and the
+Lord may have mercy on us still! Look at the Spaniard!”
+
+Yes, look at the Spaniard!
+
+On their left hand, as they broached-to, the wall of granite sloped down
+from the clouds toward an isolated peak of rock, some two hundred feet
+in height. Then a hundred yards of roaring breaker upon a sunken shelf,
+across which the race of the tide poured like a cataract; then, amid a
+column of salt smoke, the Shutter, like a huge black fang, rose waiting
+for its prey; and between the Shutter and the land, the great galleon
+loomed dimly through the storm.
+
+He, too, had seen his danger, and tried to broach-to. But his clumsy
+mass refused to obey the helm; he struggled a moment, half hid in foam;
+fell away again, and rushed upon his doom.
+
+“Lost! lost! lost!” cried Amyas madly, and throwing up his hands, let go
+the tiller. Yeo caught it just in time.
+
+“Sir! sir! What are you at? We shall clear the rock yet.”
+
+“Yes!” shouted Amyas, in his frenzy; “but he will not!”
+
+Another minute. The galleon gave a sudden jar, and stopped. Then one
+long heave and bound, as if to free herself. And then her bows lighted
+clean upon the Shutter.
+
+An awful silence fell on every English soul. They heard not the roaring
+of wind and surge; they saw not the blinding flashes of the lightning;
+but they heard one long ear-piercing wail to every saint in heaven rise
+from five hundred human throats; they saw the mighty ship heel over from
+the wind, and sweep headlong down the cataract of the race, plunging her
+yards into the foam, and showing her whole black side even to her keel,
+till she rolled clean over, and vanished for ever and ever.
+
+“Shame!” cried Amyas, hurling his sword far into the sea, “to lose my
+right, my right! when it was in my very grasp! Unmerciful!”
+
+A crack which rent the sky, and made the granite ring and quiver; a
+bright world of flame, and then a blank of utter darkness, against which
+stood out, glowing red-hot every mast, and sail, and rock, and Salvation
+Yeo as he stood just in front of Amyas, the tiller in his hand. All
+red-hot, transfigured into fire; and behind, the black, black night.
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+A whisper, a rustling close beside him, and Brimblecombe's voice said
+softly:
+
+“Give him more wine, Will; his eyes are opening.”
+
+“Hey day?” said Amyas, faintly, “not past the Shutter yet! How long she
+hangs in the wind!”
+
+“We are long past the Shutter, Sir Amyas,” said Brimblecombe.
+
+“Are you mad? Cannot I trust my own eyes?”
+
+There was no answer for awhile.
+
+“We are past the Shutter, indeed,” said Cary, very gently, “and lying in
+the cove at Lundy.”
+
+“Will you tell me that that is not the Shutter, and that the
+Devil's-limekiln, and that the cliff--that villain Spaniard only
+gone--and that Yeo is not standing here by me, and Cary there forward,
+and--why, by the by, where are you, Jack Brimblecombe, who were talking
+to me this minute?”
+
+“Oh, Sir Amyas Leigh, dear Sir Amyas Leigh,” blubbered poor Jack, “put
+out your hand, and feel where you are, and pray the Lord to forgive you
+for your wilfulness!”
+
+A great trembling fell upon Amyas Leigh; half fearfully he put out his
+hand; he felt that he was in his hammock, with the deck beams close
+above his head. The vision which had been left upon his eye-balls
+vanished like a dream.
+
+“What is this? I must be asleep? What has happened? Where am I?”
+
+“In your cabin, Amyas,” said Cary.
+
+“What? And where is Yeo?”
+
+“Yeo is gone where he longed to go, and as he longed to go. The same
+flash which struck you down, struck him dead.”
+
+“Dead? Lightning? Any more hurt? I must go and see. Why, what is this?”
+ and Amyas passed his hand across his eyes. “It is all dark--dark, as I
+live!” And he passed his hand over his eyes again.
+
+There was another dead silence. Amyas broke it.
+
+“Oh, God!” shrieked the great proud sea-captain, “Oh, God, I am blind!
+blind! blind!” And writhing in his great horror, he called to Cary to
+kill him and put him out of his misery, and then wailed for his
+mother to come and help him, as if he had been a boy once more; while
+Brimblecombe and Cary, and the sailors who crowded round the cabin-door,
+wept as if they too had been boys once more.
+
+Soon his fit of frenzy passed off, and he sank back exhausted.
+
+They lifted him into their remaining boat, rowed him ashore, carried him
+painfully up the hill to the old castle, and made a bed for him on
+the floor, in the very room in which Don Guzman and Rose Salterne had
+plighted their troth to each other, five wild years before.
+
+Three miserable days were passed within that lonely tower. Amyas,
+utterly unnerved by the horror of his misfortune, and by the
+over-excitement of the last few weeks, was incessantly delirious; while
+Cary, and Brimblecombe, and the men nursed him by turns, as sailors
+and wives only can nurse; and listened with awe to his piteous
+self-reproaches and entreaties to Heaven to remove that woe, which,
+as he shrieked again and again, was a just judgment on him for his
+wilfulness and ferocity. The surgeon talked, of course, learnedly about
+melancholic humors, and his liver's being “adust by the over-pungency
+of the animal spirits,” and then fell back on the universal panacea of
+blood-letting, which he effected with fear and trembling during a short
+interval of prostration; encouraged by which he attempted to administer
+a large bolus of aloes, was knocked down for his pains, and then thought
+it better to leave Nature to her own work. In the meanwhile, Cary had
+sent off one of the island skiffs to Clovelly, with letters to his
+father, and to Mrs. Leigh, entreating the latter to come off to the
+island: but the heavy westerly winds made that as impossible as it was
+to move Amyas on board, and the men had to do their best, and did it
+well enough.
+
+On the fourth day his raving ceased: but he was still too weak to be
+moved. Toward noon, however, he called for food, ate a little, and
+seemed revived.
+
+“Will,” he said, after awhile, “this room is as stifling as it is dark.
+I feel as if I should be a sound man once more if I could but get one
+snuff of the sea-breeze.”
+
+The surgeon shook his head at the notion of moving him: but Amyas was
+peremptory.
+
+“I am captain still, Tom Surgeon, and will sail for the Indies, if I
+choose. Will Cary, Jack Brimblecombe, will you obey a blind general?”
+
+“What you will in reason,” said they both at once.
+
+“Then lead me out, my masters, and over the down to the south end.
+To the point at the south end I must go; there is no other place will
+suit.”
+
+And he rose firmly to his feet, and held out his hands for theirs.
+
+“Let him have his humor,” whispered Cary. “It may be the working off of
+his madness.”
+
+“This sudden strength is a note of fresh fever, Mr. Lieutenant,”
+ said the surgeon, “and the rules of the art prescribe rather a fresh
+blood-letting.”
+
+Amyas overheard the last word, and broke out:
+
+“Thou pig-sticking Philistine, wilt thou make sport with blind Samson?
+Come near me to let blood from my arm, and see if I do not let blood
+from thy coxcomb. Catch him, Will, and bring him me here!”
+
+The surgeon vanished as the blind giant made a step forward; and they
+set forth, Amyas walking slowly, but firmly, between his two friends.
+
+“Whither?” asked Cary.
+
+“To the south end. The crag above the Devil's-limekiln. No other place
+will suit.”
+
+Jack gave a murmur, and half-stopped, as a frightful suspicion crossed
+him.
+
+“That is a dangerous place!”
+
+“What of that?” said Amyas, who caught his meaning in his tone. “Dost
+think I am going to leap over cliff? I have not heart enough for that.
+On, lads, and set me safe among the rocks.”
+
+So slowly, and painfully, they went on, while Amyas murmured to himself:
+
+“No, no other place will suit; I can see all thence.”
+
+So on they went to the point, where the cyclopean wall of granite cliff
+which forms the western side of Lundy, ends sheer in a precipice of some
+three hundred feet, topped by a pile of snow-white rock, bespangled with
+golden lichens. As they approached, a raven, who sat upon the topmost
+stone, black against the bright blue sky, flapped lazily away, and sank
+down the abysses of the cliff, as if he scented the corpses underneath
+the surge. Below them from the Gull-rock rose a thousand birds, and
+filled the air with sound; the choughs cackled, the hacklets wailed,
+the great blackbacks laughed querulous defiance at the intruders, and a
+single falcon, with an angry bark, dashed out from beneath their feet,
+and hung poised high aloft, watching the sea-fowl which swung slowly
+round and round below.
+
+It was a glorious sight upon a glorious day. To the northward the glens
+rushed down toward the cliff, crowned with gray crags, and carpeted with
+purple heather and green fern; and from their feet stretched away to
+the westward the sapphire rollers of the vast Atlantic, crowned with a
+thousand crests of flying foam. On their left hand, some ten miles to
+the south, stood out against the sky the purple wall of Hartland cliffs,
+sinking lower and lower as they trended away to the southward along the
+lonely ironbound shores of Cornwall, until they faded, dim and blue,
+into the blue horizon forty miles away.
+
+The sky was flecked with clouds, which rushed toward them fast upon the
+roaring south-west wind; and the warm ocean-breeze swept up the cliffs,
+and whistled through the heather-bells, and howled in cranny and in
+crag,
+
+     “Till the pillars and clefts of the granite
+        Rang like a God-swept lyre;”
+
+while Amyas, a proud smile upon his lips, stood breasting that genial
+stream of airy wine with swelling nostrils and fast-heaving chest,
+and seemed to drink in life from every gust. All three were silent for
+awhile; and Jack and Cary, gazing downward with delight upon the glory
+and the grandeur of the sight, forgot for awhile that their companion
+saw it not. Yet when they started sadly, and looked into his face, did
+he not see it? So wide and eager were his eyes, so bright and calm his
+face, that they fancied for an instant that he was once more even as
+they.
+
+A deep sigh undeceived them. “I know it is all here--the dear old sea,
+where I would live and die. And my eyes feel for it; feel for it--and
+cannot find it; never, never will find it again forever! God's will be
+done!”
+
+“Do you say that?” asked Brimblecombe, eagerly.
+
+“Why should I not? Why have I been raving in hell-fire for I know not
+how many days, but to find out that, John Brimblecombe, thou better man
+than I?”
+
+“Not that last: but Amen! Amen! and the Lord has indeed had mercy upon
+thee!” said Jack, through his honest tears.
+
+“Amen!” said Amyas. “Now set me where I can rest among the rocks
+without fear of falling--for life is sweet still, even without eyes,
+friends--and leave me to myself awhile.”
+
+It was no easy matter to find a safe place; for from the foot of the
+crag the heathery turf slopes down all but upright, on one side to a
+cliff which overhangs a shoreless cove of deep dark sea, and on the
+other to an abyss even more hideous, where the solid rock has sunk away,
+and opened inland in the hillside a smooth-walled pit, some sixty feet
+square and some hundred and fifty in depth, aptly known then as now,
+as the Devil's-limekiln; the mouth of which, as old wives say, was once
+closed by the Shutter-rock itself, till the fiend in malice hurled it
+into the sea, to be a pest to mariners. A narrow and untrodden cavern at
+the bottom connects it with the outer sea; they could even then hear the
+mysterious thunder and gurgle of the surge in the subterranean adit,
+as it rolled huge boulders to and fro in darkness, and forced before it
+gusts of pent-up air. It was a spot to curdle weak blood, and to make
+weak heads reel: but all the fitter on that account for Amyas and his
+fancy.
+
+“You can sit here as in an arm-chair,” said Cary, helping him down to
+one of those square natural seats so common in the granite tors.
+
+“Good; now turn my face to the Shutter. Be sure and exact. So. Do I face
+it full?”
+
+“Full,” said Cary.
+
+“Then I need no eyes wherewith to see what is before me,” said he, with
+a sad smile. “I know every stone and every headland, and every wave too,
+I may say, far beyond aught that eye can reach. Now go, and leave me
+alone with God and with the dead!”
+
+They retired a little space and watched him. He never stirred for many
+minutes; then leaned his elbows on his knees, and his head upon his
+hands, and so was still again. He remained so long thus, that the pair
+became anxious, and went towards him. He was asleep, and breathing quick
+and heavily.
+
+“He will take a fever,” said Brimblecombe, “if he sleeps much longer
+with his head down in the sunshine.”
+
+“We must wake him gently if we wake him at all.” And Cary moved forward
+to him.
+
+As he did so, Amyas lifted his head, and turning it to right and left,
+felt round him with his sightless eyes.
+
+“You have been asleep, Amyas.”
+
+“Have I? I have not slept back my eyes, then. Take up this great useless
+carcase of mine, and lead me home. I shall buy me a dog when I get to
+Burrough, I think, and make him tow me in a string, eh? So! Give me your
+hand. Now march!”
+
+His guides heard with surprise this new cheerfulness.
+
+“Thank God, sir, that your heart is so light already,” said good Jack;
+“it makes me feel quite upraised myself, like.”
+
+“I have reason to be cheerful, Sir John; I have left a heavy load behind
+me. I have been wilful, and proud, and a blasphemer, and swollen with
+cruelty and pride; and God has brought me low for it, and cut me off
+from my evil delight. No more Spaniard-hunting for me now, my masters.
+God will send no such fools as I upon His errands.”
+
+“You do not repent of fighting the Spaniards.”
+
+“Not I: but of hating even the worst of them. Listen to me, Will and
+Jack. If that man wronged me, I wronged him likewise. I have been a
+fiend when I thought myself the grandest of men, yea, a very avenging
+angel out of heaven. But God has shown me my sin, and we have made up
+our quarrel forever.”
+
+“Made it up?”
+
+“Made it up, thank God. But I am weary. Set me down awhile, and I will
+tell you how it befell.”
+
+Wondering, they set him down upon the heather, while the bees hummed
+round them in the sun; and Amyas felt for a hand of each, and clasped it
+in his own hand, and began:
+
+“When you left me there upon the rock, lads, I looked away and out to
+sea, to get one last snuff of the merry sea-breeze, which will never
+sail me again. And as I looked, I tell you truth, I could see the water
+and the sky; as plain as ever I saw them, till I thought my sight was
+come again. But soon I knew it was not so; for I saw more than man could
+see; right over the ocean, as I live, and away to the Spanish Main. And
+I saw Barbados, and Grenada, and all the isles that we ever sailed by;
+and La Guayra in Caracas, and the Silla, and the house beneath it where
+she lived. And I saw him walking with her on the barbecue, and he loved
+her then. I saw what I saw; and he loved her; and I say he loves her
+still.
+
+“Then I saw the cliffs beneath me, and the Gull-rock, and the Shutter,
+and the Ledge; I saw them, William Cary, and the weeds beneath the merry
+blue sea. And I saw the grand old galleon, Will; she has righted with
+the sweeping of the tide. She lies in fifteen fathoms, at the edge of
+the rocks, upon the sand; and her men are all lying around her, asleep
+until the judgment-day.”
+
+Cary and Jack looked at him, and then at each other. His eyes were
+clear, and bright, and full of meaning; and yet they knew that he
+was blind. His voice was shaping itself into a song. Was he inspired?
+Insane? What was it? And they listened with awe-struck faces, as the
+giant pointed down into the blue depths far below, and went on.
+
+“And I saw him sitting in his cabin, like a valiant gentleman of Spain;
+and his officers were sitting round him, with their swords upon the
+table at the wine. And the prawns and the crayfish and the rockling,
+they swam in and out above their heads: but Don Guzman he never heeded,
+but sat still, and drank his wine. Then he took a locket from his bosom;
+and I heard him speak, Will, and he said: 'Here's the picture of my fair
+and true lady; drink to her, senors all.' Then he spoke to me, Will,
+and called me, right up through the oar-weed and the sea: 'We have had
+a fair quarrel, senor; it is time to be friends once more. My wife and
+your brother have forgiven me; so your honor takes no stain.' And I
+answered, 'We are friends, Don Guzman; God has judged our quarrel and
+not we.' Then he said, 'I sinned, and I am punished.' And I said, 'And,
+senor, so am I.' Then he held out his hand to me, Cary; and I stooped to
+take it, and awoke.”
+
+He ceased: and they looked in his face again. It was exhausted, but
+clear and gentle, like the face of a new-born babe. Gradually his head
+dropped upon his breast again; he was either swooning or sleeping, and
+they had much ado to get him home. There he lay for eight-and-forty
+hours, in a quiet doze; then arose suddenly, called for food, ate
+heartily, and seemed, saving his eyesight, as whole and sound as ever.
+The surgeon bade them get him home to Northam as soon as possible,
+and he was willing enough to go. So the next day the Vengeance sailed,
+leaving behind a dozen men to seize and keep in the queen's name any
+goods which should be washed up from the wreck.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+HOW AMYAS LET THE APPLE FALL
+
+     “Would you hear a Spanish lady,
+       How she woo'd an Englishman?
+     Garments gay and rich as may be,
+        Deck'd with jewels had she on.”
+
+                   Elizabethan Ballad.
+
+It was the first of October. The morning was bright and still; the skies
+were dappled modestly from east to west with soft gray autumn cloud, as
+if all heaven and earth were resting after those fearful summer months
+of battle and of storm. Silently, as if ashamed and sad, the Vengeance
+slid over the bar, and passed the sleeping sand-hills and dropped her
+anchor off Appledore, with her flag floating half-mast high; for the
+corpse of Salvation Yeo was on board.
+
+A boat pulled off from the ship, and away to the western end of the
+strand; and Cary and Brimblecombe helped out Amyas Leigh, and led him
+slowly up the hill toward his home.
+
+The crowd clustered round him, with cheers and blessings, and sobs of
+pity from kind-hearted women; for all in Appledore and Bideford knew
+well by this time what had befallen him.
+
+“Spare me, my good friends,” said Amyas, “I have landed here that I
+might go quietly home, without passing through the town, and being made
+a gazing-stock. Think not of me, good folks, nor talk of me; but come
+behind me decently, as Christian men, and follow to the grave the body
+of a better man than I.”
+
+And, as he spoke, another boat came off, and in it, covered with the
+flag of England, the body of Salvation Yeo.
+
+The people took Amyas at his word; and a man was sent on to Burrough, to
+tell Mrs. Leigh that her son was coming. When the coffin was landed
+and lifted, Amyas and his friends took their places behind it as chief
+mourners, and the crew followed in order, while the crowd fell in behind
+them, and gathered every moment; till ere they were halfway to Northam
+town, the funeral train might number full five hundred souls.
+
+They had sent over by a fishing-skiff the day before to bid the sexton
+dig the grave; and when they came into the churchyard, the parson stood
+ready waiting at the gate.
+
+Mrs. Leigh stayed quietly at home; for she had no heart to face the
+crowd; and though her heart yearned for her son, yet she was well
+content (when was she not content?) that he should do honor to his
+ancient and faithful servant; so she sat down in the bay-window, with
+Ayacanora by her side; and when the tolling of the bell ceased, she
+opened her Prayer-book, and began to read the Burial-service.
+
+“Ayacanora,” she said, “they are burying old Master Yeo, who loved you,
+and sought you over the wide, wide world, and saved you from the teeth
+of the crocodile. Are you not sorry for him, child, that you look so gay
+to-day?”
+
+Ayacanora blushed, and hung down her head; she was thinking of nothing,
+poor child, but Amyas.
+
+The Burial-service was done; the blessing said; the parson drew back:
+but the people lingered and crowded round to look at the coffin, while
+Amyas stood still at the head of the grave. It had been dug by his
+command, at the west end of the church, near by the foot of the tall
+gray windswept tower, which watches for a beacon far and wide over land
+and sea. Perhaps the old man might like to look at the sea, and see
+the ships come out and in across the bar, and hear the wind, on winter
+nights, roar through the belfry far above his head. Why not? It was but
+a fancy: and yet Amyas felt that he too should like to be buried in such
+a place; so Yeo might like it also.
+
+Still the crowd lingered; and looked first at the grave and then at
+the blind giant who stood over it, as if they felt, by instinct, that
+something more ought to come. And something more did come. Amyas drew
+himself up to his full height, and waved his hand majestically, as one
+about to speak; while the eyes of all men were fastened on him.
+
+Twice he essayed to begin; and twice the words were choked upon his
+lips; and then,--
+
+“Good people all, and seamen, among whom I was bred, and to whom I come
+home blind this day, to dwell with you till death--Here lieth the flower
+and pattern of all bold mariners; the truest of friends, and the most
+terrible of foes; unchangeable of purpose, crafty of council, and swift
+of execution; in triumph most sober, in failure (as God knows I have
+found full many a day) of endurance beyond mortal man. Who first of all
+Britons helped to humble the pride of the Spaniard at Rio de la Hacha
+and Nombre, and first of all sailed upon those South Seas, which shall
+be hereafter, by God's grace, as free to English keels as is the bay
+outside. Who having afterwards been purged from his youthful sins by
+strange afflictions and torments unspeakable, suffered at the hands of
+the Popish enemy, learned therefrom, my masters, to fear God, and to
+fear naught else; and having acquitted himself worthily in his place and
+calling as a righteous scourge of the Spaniard, and a faithful soldier
+of the Lord Jesus Christ, is now exalted to his reward, as Elijah was of
+old, in a chariot of fire unto heaven: letting fall, I trust and pray,
+upon you who are left behind the mantle of his valor and his godliness,
+that so these shores may never be without brave and pious mariners, who
+will count their lives as worthless in the cause of their Country, their
+Bible, and their Queen. Amen.”
+
+And feeling for his companions' hands he walked slowly from the
+churchyard, and across the village street, and up the lane to Burrough
+gates; while the crowd made way for him in solemn silence, as for an
+awful being, shut up alone with all his strength, valor, and fame, in
+the dark prison-house of his mysterious doom.
+
+He seemed to know perfectly when they had reached the gates, opened the
+lock with his own hands, and went boldly forward along the gravel path,
+while Cary and Brimblecombe followed him trembling; for they expected
+some violent burst of emotion, either from him or his mother, and the
+two good fellows' tender hearts were fluttering like a girl's. Up to
+the door he went, as if he had seen it; felt for the entrance, stood
+therein, and called quietly, “Mother!”
+
+In a moment his mother was on his bosom.
+
+Neither spoke for awhile. She sobbing inwardly, with tearless eyes, he
+standing firm and cheerful, with his great arms clasped around her.
+
+“Mother!” he said at last, “I am come home, you see, because I needs
+must come. Will you take me in, and look after this useless carcase? I
+shall not be so very troublesome, mother,--shall I?” and he looked down,
+and smiled upon her, and kissed her brow.
+
+She answered not a word, but passed her arm gently round his waist, and
+led him in.
+
+“Take care of your head, dear child, the doors are low.” And they went
+in together.
+
+“Will! Jack!” called Amyas, turning round: but the two good fellows had
+walked briskly off.
+
+“I'm glad we are away,” said Cary; “I should have made a baby of myself
+in another minute, watching that angel of a woman. How her face worked
+and how she kept it in!”
+
+“Ah, well!” said Jack, “there goes a brave servant of the queen's cut
+off before his work was a quarter done. Heigho! I must home now, and see
+my old father, and then--”
+
+“And then home with me,” said Cary. “You and I never part again! We have
+pulled in the same boat too long, Jack; and you must not go spending
+your prize-money in riotous living. I must see after you, old Jack
+ashore, or we shall have you treating half the town in taverns for a
+week to come.”
+
+“Oh, Mr. Cary!” said Jack, scandalized.
+
+“Come home with me, and we'll poison the parson, and my father shall
+give you the rectory.”
+
+“Oh, Mr. Cary!” said Jack.
+
+So the two went off to Clovelly together that very day.
+
+And Amyas was sitting all alone. His mother had gone out for a few
+minutes to speak to the seamen who had brought up Amyas's luggage, and
+set them down to eat and drink; and Amyas sat in the old bay-window,
+where he had sat when he was a little tiny boy, and read “King Arthur,”
+ and “Fox's Martyrs,” and “The Cruelties of the Spaniards.” He put out
+his hand and felt for them; there they lay side by side, just as they
+had lain twenty years before. The window was open; and a cool air
+brought in as of old the scents of the four-season roses, and rosemary,
+and autumn gilliflowers. And there was a dish of apples on the table: he
+knew it by their smell; the very same old apples which he used to gather
+when he was a boy. He put out his hand, and took them, and felt them
+over, and played with them, just as if the twenty years had never been:
+and as he fingered them, the whole of his past life rose up before him,
+as in that strange dream which is said to flash across the imagination
+of a drowning man; and he saw all the places which he had ever seen, and
+heard all the words which had ever been spoken to him--till he came to
+that fairy island on the Meta; and he heard the roar of the cataract
+once more, and saw the green tops of the palm-trees sleeping in the
+sunlight far above the spray, and stept amid the smooth palm-trunks
+across the flower-fringed boulders, and leaped down to the gravel beach
+beside the pool: and then again rose from the fern-grown rocks the
+beautiful vision of Ayacanora--Where was she? He had not thought of her
+till now. How he had wronged her! Let be; he had been punished, and the
+account was squared. Perhaps she did not care for him any longer. Who
+would care for a great blind ox like him, who must be fed and tended
+like a baby for the rest of his lazy life? Tut! How long his mother
+was away! And he began playing again with his apples, and thought about
+nothing but them, and his climbs with Frank in the orchard years ago.
+
+At last one of them slipt through his fingers, and fell on the floor. He
+stooped and felt for it: but he could not find it. Vexatious! He turned
+hastily to search in another direction, and struck his head sharply
+against the table.
+
+Was it the pain, or the little disappointment? or was it the sense of
+his blindness brought home to him in that ludicrous commonplace way,
+and for that very reason all the more humiliating? or was it the sudden
+revulsion of overstrained nerves, produced by that slight shock? Or had
+he become indeed a child once more? I know not; but so it was, that he
+stamped on the floor with pettishness, and then checking himself, burst
+into a violent flood of tears.
+
+A quick rustle passed him; the apple was replaced in his hand, and
+Ayacanora's voice sobbed out:
+
+“There! there it is! Do not weep! Oh, do not weep! I cannot bear it!
+I will get you all you want! Only let me fetch and carry for you, tend
+you, feed you, lead you, like your slave, your dog! Say that I may be
+your slave!” and falling on her knees at his feet, she seized both his
+hands, and covered them with kisses.
+
+“Yes!” she cried, “I will be your slave! I must be! You cannot help it!
+You cannot escape from me now! You cannot go to sea! You cannot turn
+your back upon wretched me. I have you safe now! Safe!” and she clutched
+his hands triumphantly. “Ah! and what a wretch I am, to rejoice in that!
+to taunt him with his blindness! Oh, forgive me! I am but a poor wild
+girl--a wild Indian savage, you know: but--but--” and she burst into
+tears.
+
+A great spasm shook the body and soul of Amyas Leigh; he sat quite
+silent for a minute, and then said solemnly:
+
+“And is this still possible? Then God have mercy upon me a sinner!”
+
+Ayacanora looked up in his face inquiringly: but before she could speak
+again, he had bent down, and lifting her as the lion lifts the lamb,
+pressed her to his bosom, and covered her face with kisses.
+
+The door opened. There was the rustle of a gown; Ayacanora sprang from
+him with a little cry, and stood, half-trembling, half-defiant, as if to
+say, “He is mine now; no one dare part him from me!”
+
+“Who is it?” asked Amyas.
+
+“Your mother.”
+
+“You see that I am bringing forth fruits meet for repentance, mother,”
+ said he, with a smile.
+
+He heard her approach. Then a kiss and a sob passed between the women;
+and he felt Ayacanora sink once more upon his bosom.
+
+“Amyas, my son,” said the silver voice of Mrs. Leigh, low, dreamy, like
+the far-off chimes of angels' bells from out the highest heaven, “fear
+not to take her to your heart again; for it is your mother who has laid
+her there.”
+
+“It is true, after all,” said Amyas to himself. “What God has joined
+together, man cannot put asunder.”
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+From that hour Ayacanora's power of song returned to her; and day by
+day, year after year, her voice rose up within that happy home, and
+soared, as on a skylark's wings, into the highest heaven, bearing with
+it the peaceful thoughts of the blind giant back to the Paradises of the
+West, in the wake of the heroes who from that time forth sailed out to
+colonize another and a vaster England, to the heaven-prospered cry of
+Westward-Ho!
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Westward Ho!, by Charles Kingsley
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+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Westward Ho!, by Charles Kingsley
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
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+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Westward Ho!, by Charles Kingsley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Westward Ho!
+
+Author: Charles Kingsley
+
+Release Date: May 13, 2006 [EBook #1860]
+Last Updated: March 15, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WESTWARD HO! ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Donald Lainson and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      WESTWARD HO!
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      by Charles Kingsley
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      TO <br /><br /> THE RAJAH SIR JAMES BROOKE, K.C.B. <br /><br /> AND <br /><br />
+      GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, D.D. <br /><br /> BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND <br /><br />
+      THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By one who (unknown to them) has no other method of expressing his
+      admiration and reverence for their characters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That type of English virtue, at once manful and godly, practical and
+      enthusiastic, prudent and self-sacrificing, which he has tried to depict
+      in these pages, they have exhibited in a form even purer and more heroic
+      than that in which he has drest it, and than that in which it was
+      exhibited by the worthies whom Elizabeth, without distinction of rank or
+      age, gathered round her in the ever glorious wars of her great reign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      C. K. FEBRUARY, 1855. <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <big><b>WESTWARD HO!</b></big> </a><br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002">
+        CHAPTER II </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a><br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006">
+        CHAPTER VI </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII </a><br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII </a><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0010">
+        CHAPTER X </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI </a><br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII </a><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0014">
+        CHAPTER XIV </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV </a><br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI </a><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0018">
+        CHAPTER XVIII </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX </a><br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX </a><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0022">
+        CHAPTER XXII </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII </a><br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV </a><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0026">
+        CHAPTER XXVI </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XXVII </a><br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER XXVIII </a><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER XXIX </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0030">
+        CHAPTER XXX </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0031"> CHAPTER XXXI </a><br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0032"> CHAPTER XXXII </a><br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0033"> CHAPTER XXXIII </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      WESTWARD HO!
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      HOW MR. OXENHAM SAW THE WHITE BIRD
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The hollow oak our palace is,
+        Our heritage the sea.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      All who have travelled through the delicious scenery of North Devon must
+      needs know the little white town of Bideford, which slopes upwards from
+      its broad tide-river paved with yellow sands, and many-arched old bridge
+      where salmon wait for autumn floods, toward the pleasant upland on the
+      west. Above the town the hills close in, cushioned with deep oak woods,
+      through which juts here and there a crag of fern-fringed slate; below they
+      lower, and open more and more in softly rounded knolls, and fertile
+      squares of red and green, till they sink into the wide expanse of hazy
+      flats, rich salt-marshes, and rolling sand-hills, where Torridge joins her
+      sister Taw, and both together flow quietly toward the broad surges of the
+      bar, and the everlasting thunder of the long Atlantic swell. Pleasantly
+      the old town stands there, beneath its soft Italian sky, fanned day and
+      night by the fresh ocean breeze, which forbids alike the keen winter
+      frosts, and the fierce thunder heats of the midland; and pleasantly it has
+      stood there for now, perhaps, eight hundred years since the first
+      Grenville, cousin of the Conqueror, returning from the conquest of South
+      Wales, drew round him trusty Saxon serfs, and free Norse rovers with their
+      golden curls, and dark Silurian Britons from the Swansea shore, and all
+      the mingled blood which still gives to the seaward folk of the next county
+      their strength and intellect, and, even in these levelling days, their
+      peculiar beauty of face and form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But at the time whereof I write, Bideford was not merely a pleasant
+      country town, whose quay was haunted by a few coasting craft. It was one
+      of the chief ports of England; it furnished seven ships to fight the
+      Armada: even more than a century afterwards, say the chroniclers, &ldquo;it sent
+      more vessels to the northern trade than any port in England, saving
+      (strange juxtaposition!) London and Topsham,&rdquo; and was the centre of a
+      local civilization and enterprise, small perhaps compared with the vast
+      efforts of the present day: but who dare despise the day of small things,
+      if it has proved to be the dawn of mighty ones? And it is to the sea-life
+      and labor of Bideford, and Dartmouth, and Topsham, and Plymouth (then a
+      petty place), and many another little western town, that England owes the
+      foundation of her naval and commercial glory. It was the men of Devon, the
+      Drakes and Hawkins', Gilberts and Raleighs, Grenvilles and Oxenhams, and a
+      host more of &ldquo;forgotten worthies,&rdquo; whom we shall learn one day to honor as
+      they deserve, to whom she owes her commerce, her colonies, her very
+      existence. For had they not first crippled, by their West Indian raids,
+      the ill-gotten resources of the Spaniard, and then crushed his last huge
+      effort in Britain's Salamis, the glorious fight of 1588, what had we been
+      by now but a popish appanage of a world-tyranny as cruel as heathen Rome
+      itself, and far more devilish?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is in memory of these men, their voyages and their battles, their faith
+      and their valor, their heroic lives and no less heroic deaths, that I
+      write this book; and if now and then I shall seem to warm into a style
+      somewhat too stilted and pompous, let me be excused for my subject's sake,
+      fit rather to have been sung than said, and to have proclaimed to all true
+      English hearts, not as a novel but as an epic (which some man may yet gird
+      himself to write), the same great message which the songs of Troy, and the
+      Persian wars, and the trophies of Marathon and Salamis, spoke to the
+      hearts of all true Greeks of old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One bright summer's afternoon, in the year of grace 1575, a tall and fair
+      boy came lingering along Bideford quay, in his scholar's gown, with
+      satchel and slate in hand, watching wistfully the shipping and the
+      sailors, till, just after he had passed the bottom of the High Street, he
+      came opposite to one of the many taverns which looked out upon the river.
+      In the open bay window sat merchants and gentlemen, discoursing over their
+      afternoon's draught of sack; and outside the door was gathered a group of
+      sailors, listening earnestly to some one who stood in the midst. The boy,
+      all alive for any sea-news, must needs go up to them, and take his place
+      among the sailor-lads who were peeping and whispering under the elbows of
+      the men; and so came in for the following speech, delivered in a loud bold
+      voice, with a strong Devonshire accent, and a fair sprinkling of oaths.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you don't believe me, go and see, or stay here and grow all over blue
+      mould. I tell you, as I am a gentleman, I saw it with these eyes, and so
+      did Salvation Yeo there, through a window in the lower room; and we
+      measured the heap, as I am a christened man, seventy foot long, ten foot
+      broad, and twelve foot high, of silver bars, and each bar between a thirty
+      and forty pound weight. And says Captain Drake: 'There, my lads of Devon,
+      I've brought you to the mouth of the world's treasure-house, and it's your
+      own fault now if you don't sweep it out as empty as a stock-fish.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why didn't you bring some of they home, then, Mr. Oxenham?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why weren't you there to help to carry them? We would have brought 'em
+      away, safe enough, and young Drake and I had broke the door abroad
+      already, but Captain Drake goes off in a dead faint; and when we came to
+      look, he had a wound in his leg you might have laid three fingers in, and
+      his boots were full of blood, and had been for an hour or more; but the
+      heart of him was that, that he never knew it till he dropped, and then his
+      brother and I got him away to the boats, he kicking and struggling, and
+      bidding us let him go on with the fight, though every step he took in the
+      sand was in a pool of blood; and so we got off. And tell me, ye sons of
+      shotten herrings, wasn't it worth more to save him than the dirty silver?
+      for silver we can get again, brave boys: there's more fish in the sea than
+      ever came out of it, and more silver in Nombre de Dios than would pave all
+      the streets in the west country: but of such captains as Franky Drake,
+      Heaven never makes but one at a time; and if we lose him, good-bye to
+      England's luck, say I, and who don't agree, let him choose his weapons,
+      and I'm his man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He who delivered this harangue was a tall and sturdy personage, with a
+      florid black-bearded face, and bold restless dark eyes, who leaned, with
+      crossed legs and arms akimbo, against the wall of the house; and seemed in
+      the eyes of the schoolboy a very magnifico, some prince or duke at least.
+      He was dressed (contrary to all sumptuary laws of the time) in a suit of
+      crimson velvet, a little the worse, perhaps, for wear; by his side were a
+      long Spanish rapier and a brace of daggers, gaudy enough about the hilts;
+      his fingers sparkled with rings; he had two or three gold chains about his
+      neck, and large earrings in his ears, behind one of which a red rose was
+      stuck jauntily enough among the glossy black curls; on his head was a
+      broad velvet Spanish hat, in which instead of a feather was fastened with
+      a great gold clasp a whole Quezal bird, whose gorgeous plumage of fretted
+      golden green shone like one entire precious stone. As he finished his
+      speech, he took off the said hat, and looking at the bird in it&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look ye, my lads, did you ever see such a fowl as that before? That's the
+      bird which the old Indian kings of Mexico let no one wear but their own
+      selves; and therefore I wear it,&mdash;I, John Oxenham of South Tawton,
+      for a sign to all brave lads of Devon, that as the Spaniards are the
+      masters of the Indians, we're the masters of the Spaniards:&rdquo; and he
+      replaced his hat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A murmur of applause followed: but one hinted that he &ldquo;doubted the
+      Spaniards were too many for them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Too many? How many men did we take Nombre de Dios with? Seventy-three
+      were we, and no more when we sailed out of Plymouth Sound; and before we
+      saw the Spanish Main, half were gastados, used up, as the Dons say, with
+      the scurvy; and in Port Pheasant Captain Rawse of Cowes fell in with us,
+      and that gave us some thirty hands more; and with that handful, my lads,
+      only fifty-three in all, we picked the lock of the new world! And whom did
+      we lose but our trumpeter, who stood braying like an ass in the middle of
+      the square, instead of taking care of his neck like a Christian? I tell
+      you, those Spaniards are rank cowards, as all bullies are. They pray to a
+      woman, the idolatrous rascals! and no wonder they fight like women.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'm right, captain,&rdquo; sang out a tall gaunt fellow who stood close to
+      him; &ldquo;one westcountry-man can fight two easterlings, and an easterling can
+      beat three Dons any day. Eh! my lads of Devon?
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;For O! it's the herrings and the good brown beef,
+       And the cider and the cream so white;
+     O! they are the making of the jolly Devon lads,
+       For to play, and eke to fight.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; said Oxenham, &ldquo;come along! Who lists? who lists? who'll make his
+      fortune?
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Oh, who will join, jolly mariners all?
+        And who will join, says he, O!
+     To fill his pockets with the good red goold,
+        By sailing on the sea, O!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who'll list?&rdquo; cried the gaunt man again; &ldquo;now's your time! We've got
+      forty men to Plymouth now, ready to sail the minute we get back, and we
+      want a dozen out of you Bideford men, and just a boy or two, and then we'm
+      off and away, and make our fortunes, or go to heaven.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Our bodies in the sea so deep,
+        Our souls in heaven to rest!
+     Where valiant seamen, one and all,
+        Hereafter shall be blest!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said Oxenham, &ldquo;you won't let the Plymouth men say that the Bideford
+      men daren't follow them? North Devon against South, it is. Who'll join?
+      who'll join? It is but a step of a way, after all, and sailing as smooth
+      as a duck-pond as soon as you're past Cape Finisterre. I'll run a Clovelly
+      herring-boat there and back for a wager of twenty pound, and never ship a
+      bucketful all the way. Who'll join? Don't think you're buying a pig in a
+      poke. I know the road, and Salvation Yeo, here, too, who was the gunner's
+      mate, as well as I do the narrow seas, and better. You ask him to show you
+      the chart of it, now, and see if he don't tell you over the ruttier as
+      well as Drake himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On which the gaunt man pulled from under his arm a great white buffalo
+      horn covered with rough etchings of land and sea, and held it up to the
+      admiring ring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See here, boys all, and behold the pictur of the place, dra'ed out so
+      natural as ever was life. I got mun from a Portingal, down to the Azores;
+      and he'd pricked mun out, and pricked mun out, wheresoever he'd sailed,
+      and whatsoever he'd seen. Take mun in your hands now, Simon Evans, take
+      mun in your hands; look mun over, and I'll warrant you'll know the way in
+      five minutes so well as ever a shark in the seas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the horn was passed from hand to hand; while Oxenham, who saw that his
+      hearers were becoming moved, called through the open window for a great
+      tankard of sack, and passed that from hand to hand, after the horn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The school-boy, who had been devouring with eyes and ears all which
+      passed, and had contrived by this time to edge himself into the inner
+      ring, now stood face to face with the hero of the emerald crest, and got
+      as many peeps as he could at the wonder. But when he saw the sailors, one
+      after another, having turned it over a while, come forward and offer to
+      join Mr. Oxenham, his soul burned within him for a nearer view of that
+      wondrous horn, as magical in its effects as that of Tristrem, or the
+      enchanter's in Ariosto; and when the group had somewhat broken up, and
+      Oxenham was going into the tavern with his recruits, he asked boldly for a
+      nearer sight of the marvel, which was granted at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now to his astonished gaze displayed themselves cities and harbors,
+      dragons and elephants, whales which fought with sharks, plate ships of
+      Spain, islands with apes and palm-trees, each with its name over-written,
+      and here and there, &ldquo;Here is gold;&rdquo; and again, &ldquo;Much gold and silver;&rdquo;
+       inserted most probably, as the words were in English, by the hands of Mr.
+      Oxenham himself. Lingeringly and longingly the boy turned it round and
+      round, and thought the owner of it more fortunate than Khan or Kaiser. Oh,
+      if he could but possess that horn, what needed he on earth beside to make
+      him blest!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say, will you sell this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yea, marry, or my own soul, if I can get the worth of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want the horn,&mdash;I don't want your soul; it's somewhat of a stale
+      sole, for aught I know; and there are plenty of fresh ones in the bay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And therewith, after much fumbling, he pulled out a tester (the only one
+      he had), and asked if that would buy it?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That! no, nor twenty of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy thought over what a good knight-errant would do in such case, and
+      then answered, &ldquo;Tell you what: I'll fight you for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank 'ee, sir!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Break the jackanapes's head for him, Yeo,&rdquo; said Oxenham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call me jackanapes again, and I break yours, sir.&rdquo; And the boy lifted his
+      fist fiercely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oxenham looked at him a minute smilingly. &ldquo;Tut! tut! my man, hit one of
+      your own size, if you will, and spare little folk like me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I have a boy's age, sir, I have a man's fist. I shall be fifteen years
+      old this month, and know how to answer any one who insults me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fifteen, my young cockerel? you look liker twenty,&rdquo; said Oxenham, with an
+      admiring glance at the lad's broad limbs, keen blue eyes, curling golden
+      locks, and round honest face. &ldquo;Fifteen? If I had half-a-dozen such lads as
+      you, I would make knights of them before I died. Eh, Yeo?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He'll do,&rdquo; said Yeo; &ldquo;he will make a brave gamecock in a year or two, if
+      he dares ruffle up so early at a tough old hen-master like the captain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At which there was a general laugh, in which Oxenham joined as loudly as
+      any, and then bade the lad tell him why he was so keen after the horn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because,&rdquo; said he, looking up boldly, &ldquo;I want to go to sea. I want to see
+      the Indies. I want to fight the Spaniards. Though I am a gentleman's son,
+      I'd a deal liever be a cabin-boy on board your ship.&rdquo; And the lad, having
+      hurried out his say fiercely enough, dropped his head again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you shall,&rdquo; cried Oxenham, with a great oath; &ldquo;and take a galloon,
+      and dine off carbonadoed Dons. Whose son are you, my gallant fellow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Leigh's, of Burrough Court.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless his soul! I know him as well as I do the Eddystone, and his kitchen
+      too. Who sups with him to-night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Richard Grenville.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dick Grenville? I did not know he was in town. Go home and tell your
+      father John Oxenham will come and keep him company. There, off with you!
+      I'll make all straight with the good gentleman, and you shall have your
+      venture with me; and as for the horn, let him have the horn, Yeo, and I'll
+      give you a noble for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a penny, noble captain. If young master will take a poor mariner's
+      gift, there it is, for the sake of his love to the calling, and Heaven
+      send him luck therein.&rdquo; And the good fellow, with the impulsive generosity
+      of a true sailor, thrust the horn into the boy's hands, and walked away to
+      escape thanks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now,&rdquo; quoth Oxenham, &ldquo;my merry men all, make up your minds what
+      mannered men you be minded to be before you take your bounties. I want
+      none of your rascally lurching longshore vermin, who get five pounds out
+      of this captain, and ten out of that, and let him sail without them after
+      all, while they are stowed away under women's mufflers, and in tavern
+      cellars. If any man is of that humor, he had better to cut himself up, and
+      salt himself down in a barrel for pork, before he meets me again; for by
+      this light, let me catch him, be it seven years hence, and if I do not cut
+      his throat upon the streets, it's a pity! But if any man will be true
+      brother to me, true brother to him I'll be, come wreck or prize, storm or
+      calm, salt water or fresh, victuals or none, share and fare alike; and
+      here's my hand upon it, for every man and all! and so&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Westward ho! with a rumbelow,
+        And hurra for the Spanish Main, O!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      After which oration Mr. Oxenham swaggered into the tavern, followed by his
+      new men; and the boy took his way homewards, nursing his precious horn,
+      trembling between hope and fear, and blushing with maidenly shame, and a
+      half-sense of wrong-doing at having revealed suddenly to a stranger the
+      darling wish which he had hidden from his father and mother ever since he
+      was ten years old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now this young gentleman, Amyas Leigh, though come of as good blood as any
+      in Devon, and having lived all his life in what we should even now call
+      the very best society, and being (on account of the valor, courtesy, and
+      truly noble qualities which he showed forth in his most eventful life)
+      chosen by me as the hero and centre of this story, was not, saving for his
+      good looks, by any means what would be called now-a-days an &ldquo;interesting&rdquo;
+       youth, still less a &ldquo;highly educated&rdquo; one; for, with the exception of a
+      little Latin, which had been driven into him by repeated blows, as if it
+      had been a nail, he knew no books whatsoever, save his Bible, his
+      Prayer-book, the old &ldquo;Mort d'Arthur&rdquo; of Caxton's edition, which lay in the
+      great bay window in the hall, and the translation of &ldquo;Las Casas' History
+      of the West Indies,&rdquo; which lay beside it, lately done into English under
+      the title of &ldquo;The Cruelties of the Spaniards.&rdquo; He devoutly believed in
+      fairies, whom he called pixies; and held that they changed babies, and
+      made the mushroom rings on the downs to dance in. When he had warts or
+      burns, he went to the white witch at Northam to charm them away; he
+      thought that the sun moved round the earth, and that the moon had some
+      kindred with a Cheshire cheese. He held that the swallows slept all the
+      winter at the bottom of the horse-pond; talked, like Raleigh, Grenville,
+      and other low persons, with a broad Devonshire accent; and was in many
+      other respects so very ignorant a youth, that any pert monitor in a
+      national school might have had a hearty laugh at him. Nevertheless, this
+      ignorant young savage, vacant of the glorious gains of the nineteenth
+      century, children's literature and science made easy, and, worst of all,
+      of those improved views of English history now current among our railway
+      essayists, which consist in believing all persons, male and female, before
+      the year 1688, and nearly all after it, to have been either hypocrites or
+      fools, had learnt certain things which he would hardly have been taught
+      just now in any school in England; for his training had been that of the
+      old Persians, &ldquo;to speak the truth and to draw the bow,&rdquo; both of which
+      savage virtues he had acquired to perfection, as well as the equally
+      savage ones of enduring pain cheerfully, and of believing it to be the
+      finest thing in the world to be a gentleman; by which word he had been
+      taught to understand the careful habit of causing needless pain to no
+      human being, poor or rich, and of taking pride in giving up his own
+      pleasure for the sake of those who were weaker than himself. Moreover,
+      having been entrusted for the last year with the breaking of a colt, and
+      the care of a cast of young hawks which his father had received from Lundy
+      Isle, he had been profiting much, by the means of those coarse and
+      frivolous amusements, in perseverance, thoughtfulness, and the habit of
+      keeping his temper; and though he had never had a single &ldquo;object lesson,&rdquo;
+       or been taught to &ldquo;use his intellectual powers,&rdquo; he knew the names and
+      ways of every bird, and fish, and fly, and could read, as cunningly as the
+      oldest sailor, the meaning of every drift of cloud which crossed the
+      heavens. Lastly, he had been for some time past, on account of his
+      extraordinary size and strength, undisputed cock of the school, and the
+      most terrible fighter among all Bideford boys; in which brutal habit he
+      took much delight, and contrived, strange as it may seem, to extract from
+      it good, not only for himself but for others, doing justice among his
+      school-fellows with a heavy hand, and succoring the oppressed and
+      afflicted; so that he was the terror of all the sailor-lads, and the pride
+      and stay of all the town's boys and girls, and hardly considered that he
+      had done his duty in his calling if he went home without beating a big lad
+      for bullying a little one. For the rest, he never thought about thinking,
+      or felt about feeling; and had no ambition whatsoever beyond pleasing his
+      father and mother, getting by honest means the maximum of &ldquo;red
+      quarrenders&rdquo; and mazard cherries, and going to sea when he was big enough.
+      Neither was he what would be now-a-days called by many a pious child; for
+      though he said his Creed and Lord's Prayer night and morning, and went to
+      the service at the church every forenoon, and read the day's Psalms with
+      his mother every evening, and had learnt from her and from his father (as
+      he proved well in after life) that it was infinitely noble to do right and
+      infinitely base to do wrong, yet (the age of children's religious books
+      not having yet dawned on the world) he knew nothing more of theology, or
+      of his own soul, than is contained in the Church Catechism. It is a
+      question, however, on the whole, whether, though grossly ignorant
+      (according to our modern notions) in science and religion, he was
+      altogether untrained in manhood, virtue, and godliness; and whether the
+      barbaric narrowness of his information was not somewhat counterbalanced
+      both in him and in the rest of his generation by the depth, and breadth,
+      and healthiness of his education.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So let us watch him up the hill as he goes hugging his horn, to tell all
+      that has passed to his mother, from whom he had never hidden anything in
+      his life, save only that sea-fever; and that only because he foreknew that
+      it would give her pain; and because, moreover, being a prudent and
+      sensible lad, he knew that he was not yet old enough to go, and that, as
+      he expressed it to her that afternoon, &ldquo;there was no use hollaing till he
+      was out of the wood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So he goes up between the rich lane-banks, heavy with drooping ferns and
+      honeysuckle; out upon the windy down toward the old Court, nestled amid
+      its ring of wind-clipt oaks; through the gray gateway into the homeclose;
+      and then he pauses a moment to look around; first at the wide bay to the
+      westward, with its southern wall of purple cliffs; then at the dim Isle of
+      Lundy far away at sea; then at the cliffs and downs of Morte and Braunton,
+      right in front of him; then at the vast yellow sheet of rolling sand-hill,
+      and green alluvial plain dotted with red cattle, at his feet, through
+      which the silver estuary winds onward toward the sea. Beneath him, on his
+      right, the Torridge, like a land-locked lake, sleeps broad and bright
+      between the old park of Tapeley and the charmed rock of the Hubbastone,
+      where, seven hundred years ago, the Norse rovers landed to lay siege to
+      Kenwith Castle, a mile away on his left hand; and not three fields away,
+      are the old stones of &ldquo;The Bloody Corner,&rdquo; where the retreating Danes, cut
+      off from their ships, made their last fruitless stand against the Saxon
+      sheriff and the valiant men of Devon. Within that charmed rock, so
+      Torridge boatmen tell, sleeps now the old Norse Viking in his leaden
+      coffin, with all his fairy treasure and his crown of gold; and as the boy
+      looks at the spot, he fancies, and almost hopes, that the day may come
+      when he shall have to do his duty against the invader as boldly as the men
+      of Devon did then. And past him, far below, upon the soft southeastern
+      breeze, the stately ships go sliding out to sea. When shall he sail in
+      them, and see the wonders of the deep? And as he stands there with beating
+      heart and kindling eye, the cool breeze whistling through his long fair
+      curls, he is a symbol, though he knows it not, of brave young England
+      longing to wing its way out of its island prison, to discover and to
+      traffic, to colonize and to civilize, until no wind can sweep the earth
+      which does not bear the echoes of an English voice. Patience, young Amyas!
+      Thou too shalt forth, and westward ho, beyond thy wildest dreams; and see
+      brave sights, and do brave deeds, which no man has since the foundation of
+      the world. Thou too shalt face invaders stronger and more cruel far than
+      Dane or Norman, and bear thy part in that great Titan strife before the
+      renown of which the name of Salamis shall fade away!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Oxenham came that evening to supper as he had promised: but as people
+      supped in those days in much the same manner as they do now, we may drop
+      the thread of the story for a few hours, and take it up again after supper
+      is over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come now, Dick Grenville, do thou talk the good man round, and I'll
+      warrant myself to talk round the good wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The personage whom Oxenham addressed thus familiarly answered by a
+      somewhat sarcastic smile, and, &ldquo;Mr. Oxenham gives Dick Grenville&rdquo; (with
+      just enough emphasis on the &ldquo;Mr.&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Dick,&rdquo; to hint that a liberty
+      had been taken with him) &ldquo;overmuch credit with the men. Mr. Oxenham's
+      credit with fair ladies, none can doubt. Friend Leigh, is Heard's great
+      ship home yet from the Straits?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The speaker, known well in those days as Sir Richard Grenville, Granville,
+      Greenvil, Greenfield, with two or three other variations, was one of those
+      truly heroical personages whom Providence, fitting always the men to their
+      age and their work, had sent upon the earth whereof it takes right good
+      care, not in England only, but in Spain and Italy, in Germany and the
+      Netherlands, and wherever, in short, great men and great deeds were needed
+      to lift the mediaeval world into the modern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And, among all the heroic faces which the painters of that age have
+      preserved, none, perhaps, hardly excepting Shakespeare's or Spenser's,
+      Alva's or Farina's, is more heroic than that of Richard Grenville, as it
+      stands in Prince's &ldquo;Worthies of Devon;&rdquo; of a Spanish type, perhaps (or
+      more truly speaking, a Cornish), rather than an English, with just enough
+      of the British element in it to give delicacy to its massiveness. The
+      forehead and whole brain are of extraordinary loftiness, and perfectly
+      upright; the nose long, aquiline, and delicately pointed; the mouth
+      fringed with a short silky beard, small and ripe, yet firm as granite,
+      with just pout enough of the lower lip to give hint of that capacity of
+      noble indignation which lay hid under its usual courtly calm and
+      sweetness; if there be a defect in the face, it is that the eyes are
+      somewhat small, and close together, and the eyebrows, though delicately
+      arched, and, without a trace of peevishness, too closely pressed down upon
+      them, the complexion is dark, the figure tall and graceful; altogether the
+      likeness of a wise and gallant gentleman, lovely to all good men, awful to
+      all bad men; in whose presence none dare say or do a mean or a ribald
+      thing; whom brave men left, feeling themselves nerved to do their duty
+      better, while cowards slipped away, as bats and owls before the sun. So he
+      lived and moved, whether in the Court of Elizabeth, giving his counsel
+      among the wisest; or in the streets of Bideford, capped alike by squire
+      and merchant, shopkeeper and sailor; or riding along the moorland roads
+      between his houses of Stow and Bideford, while every woman ran out to her
+      door to look at the great Sir Richard, the pride of North Devon; or,
+      sitting there in the low mullioned window at Burrough, with his cup of
+      malmsey before him, and the lute to which he had just been singing laid
+      across his knees, while the red western sun streamed in upon his high,
+      bland forehead, and soft curling locks; ever the same steadfast,
+      God-fearing, chivalrous man, conscious (as far as a soul so healthy could
+      be conscious) of the pride of beauty, and strength, and valor, and wisdom,
+      and a race and name which claimed direct descent from the grandfather of
+      the Conqueror, and was tracked down the centuries by valiant deeds and
+      noble benefits to his native shire, himself the noblest of his race. Men
+      said that he was proud; but he could not look round him without having
+      something to be proud of; that he was stern and harsh to his sailors: but
+      it was only when he saw in them any taint of cowardice or falsehood; that
+      he was subject, at moments, to such fearful fits of rage, that he had been
+      seen to snatch the glasses from the table, grind them to pieces in his
+      teeth, and swallow them: but that was only when his indignation had been
+      aroused by some tale of cruelty or oppression, and, above all, by those
+      West Indian devilries of the Spaniards, whom he regarded (and in those
+      days rightly enough) as the enemies of God and man. Of this last fact
+      Oxenham was well aware, and therefore felt somewhat puzzled and nettled,
+      when, after having asked Mr. Leigh's leave to take young Amyas with him
+      and set forth in glowing colors the purpose of his voyage, he found Sir
+      Richard utterly unwilling to help him with his suit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heyday, Sir Richard! You are not surely gone over to the side of those
+      canting fellows (Spanish Jesuits in disguise, every one of them, they
+      are), who pretended to turn up their noses at Franky Drake, as a pirate,
+      and be hanged to them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My friend Oxenham,&rdquo; answered he, in the sententious and measured style of
+      the day, &ldquo;I have always held, as you should know by this, that Mr. Drake's
+      booty, as well as my good friend Captain Hawkins's, is lawful prize, as
+      being taken from the Spaniard, who is not only hostis humani generis, but
+      has no right to the same, having robbed it violently, by torture and
+      extreme iniquity, from the poor Indian, whom God avenge, as He surely
+      will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen,&rdquo; said Mrs. Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say Amen, too,&rdquo; quoth Oxenham, &ldquo;especially if it please Him to avenge
+      them by English hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I also,&rdquo; went on Sir Richard; &ldquo;for the rightful owners of the said
+      goods being either miserably dead, or incapable, by reason of their
+      servitude, of ever recovering any share thereof, the treasure, falsely
+      called Spanish, cannot be better bestowed than in building up the state of
+      England against them, our natural enemies; and thereby, in building up the
+      weal of the Reformed Churches throughout the world, and the liberties of
+      all nations, against a tyranny more foul and rapacious than that of Nero
+      or Caligula; which, if it be not the cause of God, I, for one, know not
+      what God's cause is!&rdquo; And, as he warmed in his speech, his eyes flashed
+      very fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark now!&rdquo; said Oxenham, &ldquo;who can speak more boldly than he? and yet he
+      will not help this lad to so noble an adventure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have asked his father and mother; what is their answer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mine is this,&rdquo; said Mr. Leigh; &ldquo;if it be God's will that my boy should
+      become, hereafter, such a mariner as Sir Richard Grenville, let him go,
+      and God be with him; but let him first bide here at home and be trained,
+      if God give me grace, to become such a gentleman as Sir Richard
+      Grenville.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard bowed low, and Mrs. Leigh catching up the last word&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, Mr. Oxenham, you cannot gainsay that, unless you will be
+      discourteous to his worship. And for me&mdash;though it be a weak woman's
+      reason, yet it is a mother's: he is my only child. His elder brother is
+      far away. God only knows whether I shall see him again; and what are all
+      reports of his virtues and his learning to me, compared to that sweet
+      presence which I daily miss? Ah! Mr. Oxenham, my beautiful Joseph is gone;
+      and though he be lord of Pharaoh's household, yet he is far away in Egypt;
+      and you will take Benjamm also! Ah! Mr. Oxenham, you have no child, or you
+      would not ask for mine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how do you know that, my sweet madam!&rdquo; said the adventurer, turning
+      first deadly pale, and then glowing red. Her last words had touched him to
+      the quick in some unexpected place; and rising, he courteously laid her
+      hand to his lips, and said&mdash;&ldquo;I say no more. Farewell, sweet madam,
+      and God send all men such wives as you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And all wives,&rdquo; said she, smiling, &ldquo;such husbands as mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, I will not say that,&rdquo; answered he, with a half sneer&mdash;and then,
+      &ldquo;Farewell, friend Leigh&mdash;farewell, gallant Dick Grenville. God send I
+      see thee Lord High Admiral when I come home. And yet, why should I come
+      home? Will you pray for poor Jack, gentles?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tut, tut, man! good words,&rdquo; said Leigh; &ldquo;let us drink to our merry
+      meeting before you go.&rdquo; And rising, and putting the tankard of malmsey to
+      his lips, he passed it to Sir Richard, who rose, and saying, &ldquo;To the
+      fortune of a bold mariner and a gallant gentleman,&rdquo; drank, and put the cup
+      into Oxenham's hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The adventurer's face was flushed, and his eye wild. Whether from the
+      liquor he had drunk during the day, or whether from Mrs. Leigh's last
+      speech, he had not been himself for a few minutes. He lifted the cup, and
+      was in act to pledge them, when he suddenly dropped it on the table, and
+      pointed, staring and trembling, up and down, and round the room, as if
+      following some fluttering object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There! Do you see it? The bird!&mdash;the bird with the white breast!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Each looked at the other; but Leigh, who was a quick-witted man and an old
+      courtier, forced a laugh instantly, and cried&mdash;&ldquo;Nonsense, brave Jack
+      Oxenham! Leave white birds for men who will show the white feather. Mrs.
+      Leigh waits to pledge you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Oxenham recovered himself in a moment, pledged them all round, drinking
+      deep and fiercely; and after hearty farewells, departed, never hinting
+      again at his strange exclamation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After he was gone, and while Leigh was attending him to the door, Mrs.
+      Leigh and Grenville kept a few minutes' dead silence. At last&mdash;&ldquo;God
+      help him!&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; said Grenville, &ldquo;for he never needed it more. But, indeed, madam,
+      I put no faith in such omens.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, Sir Richard, that bird has been seen for generations before the
+      death of any of his family. I know those who were at South Tawton when his
+      mother died, and his brother also; and they both saw it. God help him!
+      for, after all, he is a proper man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So many a lady has thought before now, Mrs. Leigh, and well for him if
+      they had not. But, indeed, I make no account of omens. When God is ready
+      for each man, then he must go; and when can he go better?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said Mr. Leigh, who entered, &ldquo;I have seen, and especially when I
+      was in Italy, omens and prophecies before now beget their own fulfilment,
+      by driving men into recklessness, and making them run headlong upon that
+      very ruin which, as they fancied, was running upon them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And which,&rdquo; said Sir Richard, &ldquo;they might have avoided, if, instead of
+      trusting in I know not what dumb and dark destiny, they had trusted in the
+      living God, by faith in whom men may remove mountains, and quench the
+      fire, and put to flight the armies of the alien. I too know, and know not
+      how I know, that I shall never die in my bed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forfend!&rdquo; cried Mrs. Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why, fair madam, if I die doing my duty to my God and my queen? The
+      thought never moves me: nay, to tell the truth, I pray often enough that I
+      may be spared the miseries of imbecile old age, and that end which the old
+      Northmen rightly called 'a cow's death' rather than a man's. But enough of
+      this. Mr. Leigh, you have done wisely to-night. Poor Oxenham does not go
+      on his voyage with a single eye. I have talked about him with Drake and
+      Hawkins; and I guess why Mrs. Leigh touched him so home when she told him
+      that he had no child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has he one, then, in the West Indies?&rdquo; cried the good lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God knows; and God grant we may not hear of shame and sorrow fallen upon
+      an ancient and honorable house of Devon. My brother Stukely is woe enough
+      to North Devon for this generation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor braggadocio!&rdquo; said Mr. Leigh; &ldquo;and yet not altogether that too, for
+      he can fight at least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So can every mastiff and boar, much more an Englishman. And now come
+      hither to me, my adventurous godson, and don't look in such doleful dumps.
+      I hear you have broken all the sailor-boys' heads already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nearly all,&rdquo; said young Amyas, with due modesty.. &ldquo;But am I not to go to
+      sea?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All things in their time, my boy, and God forbid that either I or your
+      worthy parents should keep you from that noble calling which is the
+      safeguard of this England and her queen. But you do not wish to live and
+      die the master of a trawler?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should like to be a brave adventurer, like Mr. Oxenham.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God grant you become a braver man than he! for, as I think, to be bold
+      against the enemy is common to the brutes; but the prerogative of a man is
+      to be bold against himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To conquer our own fancies, Amyas, and our own lusts, and our ambition,
+      in the sacred name of duty; this it is to be truly brave, and truly
+      strong; for he who cannot rule himself, how can he rule his crew or his
+      fortunes? Come, now, I will make you a promise. If you will bide quietly
+      at home, and learn from your father and mother all which befits a
+      gentleman and a Christian, as well as a seaman, the day shall come when
+      you shall sail with Richard Grenville himself, or with better men than he,
+      on a nobler errand than gold-hunting on the Spanish Main.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O my boy, my boy!&rdquo; said Mrs. Leigh, &ldquo;hear what the good Sir Richard
+      promises you. Many an earl's son would be glad to be in your place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And many an earl's son will be glad to be in his place a score years
+      hence, if he will but learn what I know you two can teach him. And now,
+      Amyas, my lad, I will tell you for a warning the history of that Sir
+      Thomas Stukely of whom I spoke just now, and who was, as all men know, a
+      gallant and courtly knight, of an ancient and worshipful family in
+      Ilfracombe, well practised in the wars, and well beloved at first by our
+      incomparable queen, the friend of all true virtue, as I trust she will be
+      of yours some day; who wanted but one step to greatness, and that was
+      this, that in his hurry to rule all the world, he forgot to rule himself.
+      At first, he wasted his estate in show and luxury, always intending to be
+      famous, and destroying his own fame all the while by his vainglory and
+      haste. Then, to retrieve his losses, he hit upon the peopling of Florida,
+      which thou and I will see done some day, by God's blessing; for I and some
+      good friends of mine have an errand there as well as he. But he did not go
+      about it as a loyal man, to advance the honor of his queen, but his own
+      honor only, dreaming that he too should be a king; and was not ashamed to
+      tell her majesty that he had rather be sovereign of a molehill than the
+      highest subject of an emperor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say,&rdquo; said Mr. Leigh, &ldquo;that he told her plainly he should be a
+      prince before he died, and that she gave him one of her pretty quips in
+      return.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know that her majesty had the best of it. A fool is many times
+      too strong for a wise man, by virtue of his thick hide. For when she said
+      that she hoped she should hear from him in his new principality, 'Yes,
+      sooth,' says he, graciously enough. 'And in what style?' asks she. 'To our
+      dear sister,' says Stukely: to which her clemency had nothing to reply,
+      but turned away, as Mr. Burleigh told me, laughing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas for him!&rdquo; said gentle Mrs. Leigh. &ldquo;Such self-conceit&mdash;and
+      Heaven knows we have the root of it in ourselves also&mdash;is the very
+      daughter of self-will, and of that loud crying out about I, and me, and
+      mine, which is the very bird-call for all devils, and the broad road which
+      leads to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will lead him to his,&rdquo; said Sir Richard; &ldquo;God grant it be not upon
+      Tower-hill! for since that Florida plot, and after that his hopes of Irish
+      preferment came to naught, he who could not help himself by fair means has
+      taken to foul ones, and gone over to Italy to the Pope, whose
+      infallibility has not been proof against Stukely's wit; for he was soon
+      his Holiness's closet counsellor, and, they say, his bosom friend; and
+      made him give credit to his boasts that, with three thousand soldiers he
+      would beat the English out of Ireland, and make the Pope's son king of
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, but,&rdquo; said Mr. Leigh, &ldquo;I suppose the Italians have the same fetch now
+      as they had when I was there, to explain such ugly cases; namely, that the
+      Pope is infallible only in doctrine, and quoad Pope; while quoad hominem,
+      he is even as others, or indeed, in general, a deal worse, so that the
+      office, and not the man, may be glorified thereby. But where is Stukely
+      now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At Rome when last I heard of him, ruffling it up and down the Vatican as
+      Baron Ross, Viscount Murrough, Earl Wexford, Marquis Leinster, and a title
+      or two more, which have cost the Pope little, seeing that they never were
+      his to give; and plotting, they say, some hare-brained expedition against
+      Ireland by the help of the Spanish king, which must end in nothing but his
+      shame and ruin. And now, my sweet hosts, I must call for serving-boy and
+      lantern, and home to my bed in Bideford.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so Amyas Leigh went back to school, and Mr. Oxenham went his way to
+      Plymouth again, and sailed for the Spanish Main.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE FIRST TIME
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Si taceant homines, facient te sidera notum,
+         Sol nescit comitis immemor esse sui.&rdquo;
+
+                             Old Epigram on Drake.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Five years are past and gone. It is nine of the clock on a still, bright
+      November morning; but the bells of Bideford church are still ringing for
+      the daily service two hours after the usual time; and instead of going
+      soberly according to wont, cannot help breaking forth every five minutes
+      into a jocund peal, and tumbling head over heels in ecstasies of joy.
+      Bideford streets are a very flower-garden of all the colors, swarming with
+      seamen and burghers, and burghers' wives and daughters, all in their
+      holiday attire. Garlands are hung across the streets, and tapestries from
+      every window. The ships in the pool are dressed in all their flags, and
+      give tumultuous vent to their feelings by peals of ordnance of every size.
+      Every stable is crammed with horses; and Sir Richard Grenville's house is
+      like a very tavern, with eating and drinking, and unsaddling, and running
+      to and fro of grooms and serving-men. Along the little churchyard, packed
+      full with women, streams all the gentle blood of North Devon,&mdash;tall
+      and stately men, and fair ladies, worthy of the days when the gentry of
+      England were by due right the leaders of the people, by personal prowess
+      and beauty, as well as by intellect and education. And first, there is my
+      lady Countess of Bath, whom Sir Richard Grenville is escorting, cap in
+      hand (for her good Earl Bourchier is in London with the queen); and there
+      are Bassets from beautiful Umberleigh, and Carys from more beautiful
+      Clovelly, and Fortescues of Wear, and Fortescues of Buckland, and
+      Fortescues from all quarters, and Coles from Slade, and Stukelys from
+      Affton, and St. Legers from Annery, and Coffins from Portledge, and even
+      Coplestones from Eggesford, thirty miles away: and last, but not least
+      (for almost all stop to give them place), Sir John Chichester of Ralegh,
+      followed in single file, after the good old patriarchal fashion, by his
+      eight daughters, and three of his five famous sons (one, to avenge his
+      murdered brother, is fighting valiantly in Ireland, hereafter to rule
+      there wisely also, as Lord Deputy and Baron of Belfast); and he meets at
+      the gate his cousin of Arlington, and behind him a train of four daughters
+      and nineteen sons, the last of whom has not yet passed the town-hall,
+      while the first is at the Lychgate, who, laughing, make way for the elder
+      though shorter branch of that most fruitful tree; and so on into the
+      church, where all are placed according to their degrees, or at least as
+      near as may be, not without a few sour looks, and shovings, and
+      whisperings, from one high-born matron and another; till the churchwardens
+      and sidesmen, who never had before so goodly a company to arrange, have
+      bustled themselves hot, and red, and frantic, and end by imploring
+      abjectly the help of the great Sir Richard himself to tell them who
+      everybody is, and which is the elder branch, and which is the younger, and
+      who carries eight quarterings in their arms, and who only four, and so
+      prevent their setting at deadly feud half the fine ladies of North Devon;
+      for the old men are all safe packed away in the corporation pews, and the
+      young ones care only to get a place whence they may eye the ladies. And at
+      last there is a silence, and a looking toward the door, and then distant
+      music, flutes and hautboys, drums and trumpets, which come braying, and
+      screaming, and thundering merrily up to the very church doors, and then
+      cease; and the churchwardens and sidesmen bustle down to the entrance,
+      rods in hand, and there is a general whisper and rustle, not without glad
+      tears and blessings from many a woman, and from some men also, as the
+      wonder of the day enters, and the rector begins, not the morning service,
+      but the good old thanksgiving after a victory at sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And what is it which has thus sent old Bideford wild with that &ldquo;goodly joy
+      and pious mirth,&rdquo; of which we now only retain traditions in our
+      translation of the Psalms? Why are all eyes fixed, with greedy admiration,
+      on those four weather-beaten mariners, decked out with knots and ribbons
+      by loving hands; and yet more on that gigantic figure who walks before
+      them, a beardless boy, and yet with the frame and stature of a Hercules,
+      towering, like Saul of old, a head and shoulders above all the
+      congregation, with his golden locks flowing down over his shoulders? And
+      why, as the five go instinctively up to the altar, and there fall on their
+      knees before the rails, are all eyes turned to the pew where Mrs. Leigh of
+      Burrough has hid her face between her hands, and her hood rustles and
+      shakes to her joyful sobs? Because there was fellow-feeling of old in
+      merry England, in county and in town; and these are Devon men, and men of
+      Bideford, whose names are Amyas Leigh of Burrough, John Staveley, Michael
+      Heard, and Jonas Marshall of Bideford, and Thomas Braund of Clovelly: and
+      they, the first of all English mariners, have sailed round the world with
+      Francis Drake, and are come hither to give God thanks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a long story. To explain how it happened we must go back for a page
+      or two, almost to the point from whence we started in the last chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For somewhat more than a twelvemonth after Mr. Oxenham's departure, young
+      Amyas had gone on quietly enough, according to promise, with the exception
+      of certain occasional outbursts of fierceness common to all young male
+      animals, and especially to boys of any strength of character. His
+      scholarship, indeed, progressed no better than before; but his home
+      education went on healthily enough; and he was fast becoming, young as he
+      was, a right good archer, and rider, and swordsman (after the old school
+      of buckler practice), when his father, having gone down on business to the
+      Exeter Assizes, caught (as was too common in those days) the gaol-fever
+      from the prisoners; sickened in the very court; and died within a week.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now Mrs. Leigh was left to God and her own soul, with this young
+      lion-cub in leash, to tame and train for this life and the life to come.
+      She had loved her husband fervently and holily. He had been often peevish,
+      often melancholy; for he was a disappointed man, with an estate
+      impoverished by his father's folly, and his own youthful ambition, which
+      had led him up to Court, and made him waste his heart and his purse in
+      following a vain shadow. He was one of those men, moreover, who possess
+      almost every gift except the gift of the power to use them; and though a
+      scholar, a courtier, and a soldier, he had found himself, when he was past
+      forty, without settled employment or aim in life, by reason of a certain
+      shyness, pride, or delicate honor (call it which you will), which had
+      always kept him from playing a winning game in that very world after whose
+      prizes he hankered to the last, and on which he revenged himself by
+      continual grumbling. At last, by his good luck, he met with a fair young
+      Miss Foljambe, of Derbyshire, then about Queen Elizabeth's Court, who was
+      as tired as he of the sins of the world, though she had seen less of them;
+      and the two contrived to please each other so well, that though the queen
+      grumbled a little, as usual, at the lady for marrying, and at the
+      gentleman for adoring any one but her royal self, they got leave to vanish
+      from the little Babylon at Whitehall, and settle in peace at Burrough. In
+      her he found a treasure, and he knew what he had found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh was, and had been from her youth, one of those noble old
+      English churchwomen, without superstition, and without severity, who are
+      among the fairest features of that heroic time. There was a certain
+      melancholy about her, nevertheless; for the recollections of her childhood
+      carried her back to times when it was an awful thing to be a Protestant.
+      She could remember among them, five-and-twenty years ago, the burning of
+      poor blind Joan Waste at Derby, and of Mistress Joyce Lewis, too, like
+      herself, a lady born; and sometimes even now, in her nightly dreams, rang
+      in her ears her mother's bitter cries to God, either to spare her that
+      fiery torment, or to give her strength to bear it, as she whom she loved
+      had borne it before her. For her mother, who was of a good family in
+      Yorkshire, had been one of Queen Catherine's bedchamber women, and the
+      bosom friend and disciple of Anne Askew. And she had sat in Smithfield,
+      with blood curdled by horror, to see the hapless Court beauty, a month
+      before the paragon of Henry's Court, carried in a chair (so crippled was
+      she by the rack) to her fiery doom at the stake, beside her
+      fellow-courtier, Mr. Lascelles, while the very heavens seemed to the
+      shuddering mob around to speak their wrath and grief in solemn thunder
+      peals, and heavy drops which hissed upon the crackling pile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Therefore a sadness hung upon her all her life, and deepened in the days
+      of Queen Mary, when, as a notorious Protestant and heretic, she had had to
+      hide for her life among the hills and caverns of the Peak, and was only
+      saved, by the love which her husband's tenants bore her, and by his bold
+      declaration that, good Catholic as he was, he would run through the body
+      any constable, justice, or priest, yea, bishop or cardinal, who dared to
+      serve the queen's warrant upon his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So she escaped: but, as I said, a sadness hung upon her all her life; and
+      the skirt of that dark mantle fell upon the young girl who had been the
+      partner of her wanderings and hidings among the lonely hills; and who,
+      after she was married, gave herself utterly up to God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet in giving herself to God, Mrs. Leigh gave herself to her husband,
+      her children, and the poor of Northam Town, and was none the less welcome
+      to the Grenvilles, and Fortescues, and Chichesters, and all the gentle
+      families round, who honored her husband's talents, and enjoyed his wit.
+      She accustomed herself to austerities, which often called forth the kindly
+      rebukes of her husband; and yet she did so without one superstitious
+      thought of appeasing the fancied wrath of God, or of giving Him pleasure
+      (base thought) by any pain of hers; for her spirit had been trained in the
+      freest and loftiest doctrines of Luther's school; and that little mystic
+      &ldquo;Alt-Deutsch Theologie&rdquo; (to which the great Reformer said that he owed
+      more than to any book, save the Bible, and St. Augustine) was her
+      counsellor and comforter by day and night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, at little past forty, she was left a widow: lovely still in face
+      and figure; and still more lovely from the divine calm which brooded, like
+      the dove of peace and the Holy Spirit of God (which indeed it was), over
+      every look, and word, and gesture; a sweetness which had been ripened by
+      storm, as well as by sunshine; which this world had not given, and could
+      not take away. No wonder that Sir Richard and Lady Grenville loved her; no
+      wonder that her children worshipped her; no wonder that the young Amyas,
+      when the first burst of grief was over, and he knew again where he stood,
+      felt that a new life had begun for him; that his mother was no more to
+      think and act for him only, but that he must think and act for his mother.
+      And so it was, that on the very day after his father's funeral, when
+      school-hours were over, instead of coming straight home, he walked boldly
+      into Sir Richard Grenville's house, and asked to see his godfather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must be my father now, sir,&rdquo; said he, firmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Sir Richard looked at the boy's broad strong face, and swore a great
+      and holy oath, like Glasgerion's, &ldquo;by oak, and ash, and thorn,&rdquo; that he
+      would be a father to him, and a brother to his mother, for Christ's sake.
+      And Lady Grenville took the boy by the hand, and walked home with him to
+      Burrough; and there the two fair women fell on each other's necks, and
+      wept together; the one for the loss which had been, the other, as by a
+      prophetic instinct, for the like loss which was to come to her also. For
+      the sweet St. Leger knew well that her husband's fiery spirit would never
+      leave his body on a peaceful bed; but that death (as he prayed almost
+      nightly that it might) would find him sword in hand, upon the field of
+      duty and of fame. And there those two vowed everlasting sisterhood, and
+      kept their vow; and after that all things went on at Burrough as before;
+      and Amyas rode, and shot, and boxed, and wandered on the quay at Sir
+      Richard's side; for Mrs. Leigh was too wise a woman to alter one tittle of
+      the training which her husband had thought best for his younger boy. It
+      was enough that her elder son had of his own accord taken to that form of
+      life in which she in her secret heart would fain have moulded both her
+      children. For Frank, God's wedding gift to that pure love of hers, had won
+      himself honor at home and abroad; first at the school at Bideford; then at
+      Exeter College, where he had become a friend of Sir Philip Sidney's, and
+      many another young man of rank and promise; and next, in the summer of
+      1572, on his way to the University of Heidelberg, he had gone to Paris,
+      with (luckily for him) letters of recommendation to Walsingham, at the
+      English Embassy: by which letters he not only fell in a second time with
+      Philip Sidney, but saved his own life (as Sidney did his) in the Massacre
+      of St. Bartholomew's Day. At Heidelberg he had stayed two years, winning
+      fresh honor from all who knew him, and resisting all Sidney's entreaties
+      to follow him into Italy. For, scorning to be a burden to his parents, he
+      had become at Heidelberg tutor to two young German princes, whom, after
+      living with them at their father's house for a year or more, he at last,
+      to his own great delight, took with him down to Padua, &ldquo;to perfect them,&rdquo;
+       as he wrote home, &ldquo;according to his insufficiency, in all princely
+      studies.&rdquo; Sidney was now returned to England; but Frank found friends
+      enough without him, such letters of recommendation and diplomas did he
+      carry from I know not how many princes, magnificos, and learned doctors,
+      who had fallen in love with the learning, modesty, and virtue of the fair
+      young Englishman. And ere Frank returned to Germany he had satiated his
+      soul with all the wonders of that wondrous land. He had talked over the
+      art of sonneteering with Tasso, the art of history with Sarpi; he had
+      listened, between awe and incredulity, to the daring theories of Galileo;
+      he had taken his pupils to Venice, that their portraits might be painted
+      by Paul Veronese; he had seen the palaces of Palladio, and the merchant
+      princes on the Rialto, and the argosies of Ragusa, and all the wonders of
+      that meeting-point of east and west; he had watched Tintoretto's mighty
+      hand &ldquo;hurling tempestuous glories o'er the scene;&rdquo; and even, by dint of
+      private intercession in high places, had been admitted to that sacred room
+      where, with long silver beard and undimmed eye, amid a pantheon of his own
+      creations, the ancient Titian, patriarch of art, still lingered upon
+      earth, and told old tales of the Bellinis, and Raffaelle, and Michael
+      Angelo, and the building of St. Peter's, and the fire at Venice, and the
+      sack of Rome, and of kings and warriors, statesmen and poets, long since
+      gone to their account, and showed the sacred brush which Francis the First
+      had stooped to pick up for him. And (license forbidden to Sidney by his
+      friend Languet) he had been to Rome, and seen (much to the scandal of good
+      Protestants at home) that &ldquo;right good fellow,&rdquo; as Sidney calls him, who
+      had not yet eaten himself to death, the Pope for the time being. And he
+      had seen the frescos of the Vatican, and heard Palestrina preside as
+      chapel-master over the performance of his own music beneath the dome of
+      St. Peter's, and fallen half in love with those luscious strains, till he
+      was awakened from his dream by the recollection that beneath that same
+      dome had gone up thanksgivings to the God of heaven for those
+      blood-stained streets, and shrieking women, and heaps of insulted corpses,
+      which he had beheld in Paris on the night of St. Bartholomew. At last, a
+      few months before his father died, he had taken back his pupils to their
+      home in Germany, from whence he was dismissed, as he wrote, with rich
+      gifts; and then Mrs. Leigh's heart beat high, at the thought that the
+      wanderer would return: but, alas! within a month after his father's death,
+      came a long letter from Frank, describing the Alps, and the valleys of the
+      Waldenses (with whose Barbes he had had much talk about the late horrible
+      persecutions), and setting forth how at Padua he had made the acquaintance
+      of that illustrious scholar and light of the age, Stephanus Parmenius
+      (commonly called from his native place, Budaeus), who had visited Geneva
+      with him, and heard the disputations of their most learned doctors, which
+      both he and Budaeus disliked for their hard judgments both of God and man,
+      as much as they admired them for their subtlety, being themselves, as
+      became Italian students, Platonists of the school of Ficinus and Picus
+      Mirandolensis. So wrote Master Frank, in a long sententious letter, full
+      of Latin quotations: but the letter never reached the eyes of him for
+      whose delight it had been penned: and the widow had to weep over it alone,
+      and to weep more bitterly than ever at the conclusion, in which, with many
+      excuses, Frank said that he had, at the special entreaty of the said
+      Budaeus, set out with him down the Danube stream to Buda, that he might,
+      before finishing his travels, make experience of that learning for which
+      the Hungarians were famous throughout Europe. And after that, though he
+      wrote again and again to the father whom he fancied living, no letter in
+      return reached him from home for nearly two years; till, fearing some
+      mishap, he hurried back to England, to find his mother a widow, and his
+      brother Amyas gone to the South Seas with Captain Drake of Plymouth. And
+      yet, even then, after years of absence, he was not allowed to remain at
+      home. For Sir Richard, to whom idleness was a thing horrible and
+      unrighteous, would have him up and doing again before six months were
+      over, and sent him off to Court to Lord Hunsdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There, being as delicately beautiful as his brother was huge and strong,
+      he had speedily, by Carew's interest and that of Sidney and his Uncle
+      Leicester, found entrance into some office in the queen's household; and
+      he was now basking in the full sunshine of Court favor, and fair ladies'
+      eyes, and all the chivalries and euphuisms of Gloriana's fairyland, and
+      the fast friendship of that bright meteor Sidney, who had returned with
+      honor in 1577, from the delicate mission on behalf of the German and
+      Belgian Protestants, on which he had been sent to the Court of Vienna,
+      under color of condoling with the new Emperor Rodolph on his father's
+      death. Frank found him when he himself came to Court in 1579 as lovely and
+      loving as ever; and, at the early age of twenty-five, acknowledged as one
+      of the most remarkable men of Europe, the patron of all men of letters,
+      the counsellor of warriors and statesmen, and the confidant and advocate
+      of William of Orange, Languet, Plessis du Mornay, and all the Protestant
+      leaders on the Continent; and found, moreover, that the son of the poor
+      Devon squire was as welcome as ever to the friendship of nature's and
+      fortune's most favored, yet most unspoilt, minion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Mrs. Leigh, as one who had long since learned to have no self, and to
+      live not only for her children but in them, submitted without a murmur,
+      and only said, smiling, to her stern friend&mdash;&ldquo;You took away my
+      mastiff-pup, and now you must needs have my fair greyhound also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you have your fair greyhound, dear lady, grow up a tall and true
+      Cotswold dog, that can pull down a stag of ten, or one of those
+      smooth-skinned poppets which the Florence ladies lead about with a ring of
+      bells round its neck, and a flannel farthingale over its loins?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh submitted; and was rewarded after a few months by a letter,
+      sent through Sir Richard, from none other than Gloriana herself, in which
+      she thanked her for &ldquo;the loan of that most delicate and flawless crystal,
+      the soul of her excellent son,&rdquo; with more praises of him than I have room
+      to insert, and finished by exalting the poor mother above the famed
+      Cornelia; &ldquo;for those sons, whom she called her jewels, she only showed,
+      yet kept them to herself: but you, madam, having two as precious, I doubt
+      not, as were ever that Roman dame's, have, beyond her courage, lent them
+      both to your country and to your queen, who therein holds herself indebted
+      to you for that which, if God give her grace, she will repay as becomes
+      both her and you.&rdquo; Which epistle the sweet mother bedewed with holy tears,
+      and laid by in the cedar-box which held her household gods, by the side of
+      Frank's innumerable diplomas and letters of recommendation, the Latin
+      whereof she was always spelling over (although she understood not a word
+      of it), in hopes of finding, here and there, that precious
+      excellentissimus Noster Franciscus Leighius Anglus, which was all in all
+      to the mother's heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But why did Amyas go to the South Seas? Amyas went to the South Seas for
+      two causes, each of which has, before now, sent many a lad to far worse
+      places: first, because of an old schoolmaster; secondly, because of a
+      young beauty. I will take them in order and explain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Vindex Brimblecombe, whilom servitor of Exeter College, Oxford (commonly
+      called Sir Vindex, after the fashion of the times), was, in those days,
+      master of the grammar-school of Bideford. He was, at root, a godly and
+      kind-hearted pedant enough; but, like most schoolmasters in the old
+      flogging days, had his heart pretty well hardened by long, baneful license
+      to inflict pain at will on those weaker than himself; a power healthful
+      enough for the victim (for, doubtless, flogging is the best of all
+      punishments, being not only the shortest, but also a mere bodily and
+      animal, and not, like most of our new-fangled &ldquo;humane&rdquo; punishments, a
+      spiritual and fiendish torture), but for the executioner pretty certain to
+      eradicate, from all but the noblest spirits, every trace of chivalry and
+      tenderness for the weak, as well, often, as all self-control and command
+      of temper. Be that as it may, old Sir Vindex had heart enough to feel that
+      it was now his duty to take especial care of the fatherless boy to whom he
+      tried to teach his qui, quae, quod: but the only outcome of that new sense
+      of responsibility was a rapid increase in the number of floggings, which
+      rose from about two a week to one per diem, not without consequences to
+      the pedagogue himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For all this while, Amyas had never for a moment lost sight of his darling
+      desire for a sea-life; and when he could not wander on the quay and stare
+      at the shipping, or go down to the pebble-ridge at Northam, and there sit,
+      devouring, with hungry eyes, the great expanse of ocean, which seemed to
+      woo him outward into boundless space, he used to console himself, in
+      school-hours, by drawing ships and imaginary charts upon his slate,
+      instead of minding his &ldquo;humanities.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now it befell, upon an afternoon, that he was very busy at a map, or
+      bird's-eye view of an island, whereon was a great castle, and at the gate
+      thereof a dragon, terrible to see; while in the foreground came that which
+      was meant for a gallant ship, with a great flag aloft, but which, by
+      reason of the forest of lances with which it was crowded, looked much more
+      like a porcupine carrying a sign-post; and, at the roots of those lances,
+      many little round o's, whereby was signified the heads of Amyas and his
+      schoolfellows, who were about to slay that dragon, and rescue the
+      beautiful princess who dwelt in that enchanted tower. To behold which
+      marvel of art, all the other boys at the same desk must needs club their
+      heads together, and with the more security, because Sir Vindex, as was his
+      custom after dinner, was lying back in his chair, and slept the sleep of
+      the just.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when Amyas, by special instigation of the evil spirit who haunts
+      successful artists, proceeded further to introduce, heedless of
+      perspective, a rock, on which stood the lively portraiture of Sir Vindex&mdash;nose,
+      spectacles, gown, and all; and in his hand a brandished rod, while out of
+      his mouth a label shrieked after the runaways, &ldquo;You come back!&rdquo; while a
+      similar label replied from the gallant bark, &ldquo;Good-bye, master!&rdquo; the
+      shoving and tittering rose to such a pitch that Cerberus awoke, and
+      demanded sternly what the noise was about. To which, of course, there was
+      no answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You, of course, Leigh! Come up, sir, and show me your exercitation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now of Amyas's exercitation not a word was written; and, moreover, he was
+      in the very article of putting the last touches to Mr. Brimblecombe's
+      portrait. Whereon, to the astonishment of all hearers, he made answer&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All in good time, sir!&rdquo; and went on drawing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In good time, sir! Insolent, veni et vapula!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Amyas went on drawing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come hither, sirrah, or I'll flay you alive!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a bit!&rdquo; answered Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old gentleman jumped up, ferula in hand, and darted across the school,
+      and saw himself upon the fatal slate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Proh flagitium! what have we here, villain?&rdquo; and clutching at his victim,
+      he raised the cane. Whereupon, with a serene and cheerful countenance, up
+      rose the mighty form of Amyas Leigh, a head and shoulders above his
+      tormentor, and that slate descended on the bald coxcomb of Sir Vindex
+      Brimblecombe, with so shrewd a blow that slate and pate cracked at the
+      same instant, and the poor pedagogue dropped to the floor, and lay for
+      dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After which Amyas arose, and walked out of the school, and so quietly
+      home; and having taken counsel with himself, went to his mother, and said,
+      &ldquo;Please, mother, I've broken schoolmaster's head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Broken his head, thou wicked boy!&rdquo; shrieked the poor widow; &ldquo;what didst
+      do that for?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't tell,&rdquo; said Amyas, penitently; &ldquo;I couldn't help it. It looked so
+      smooth, and bald, and round, and&mdash;you know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know? Oh, wicked boy! thou hast given place to the devil; and now,
+      perhaps, thou hast killed him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Killed the devil?&rdquo; asked Amyas, hopefully but doubtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, killed the schoolmaster, sirrah! Is he dead?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't think he's dead; his coxcomb sounded too hard for that. But had
+      not I better go and tell Sir Richard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor mother could hardly help laughing, in spite of her terror, at
+      Amyas's perfect coolness (which was not in the least meant for insolence),
+      and being at her wits' end, sent him, as usual, to his godfather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas rehearsed his story again, with pretty nearly the same exclamations,
+      to which he gave pretty nearly the same answers; and then&mdash;&ldquo;What was
+      he going to do to you, then, sirrah?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Flog me, because I could not write my exercise, and so drew a picture of
+      him instead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! art afraid of being flogged?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bit; besides, I'm too much accustomed to it; but I was busy, and he
+      was in such a desperate hurry; and, oh, sir, if you had but seen his bald
+      head, you would have broken it yourself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Sir Richard had, twenty years ago, in like place, and very much in
+      like manner, broken the head of Vindex Brimblecombe's father, schoolmaster
+      in his day, and therefore had a precedent to direct him; and he answered&mdash;&ldquo;Amyas,
+      sirrah! those who cannot obey will never be fit to rule. If thou canst not
+      keep discipline now, thou wilt never make a company or a crew keep it when
+      thou art grown. Dost mind that, sirrah?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then go back to school this moment, sir, and be flogged.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said Amyas, considering that he had got off very cheaply;
+      while Sir Richard, as soon as he was out of the room, lay back in his
+      chair, and laughed till he cried again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Amyas went back, and said that he was come to be flogged; whereon the
+      old schoolmaster, whose pate had been plastered meanwhile, wept tears of
+      joy over the returning prodigal, and then gave him such a switching as he
+      did not forget for eight-and-forty hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But that evening Sir Richard sent for old Vindex, who entered, trembling,
+      cap in hand; and having primed him with a cup of sack, said&mdash;&ldquo;Well,
+      Mr. Schoolmaster! My godson has been somewhat too much for you to-day.
+      There are a couple of nobles to pay the doctor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O Sir Richard, gratias tibi et Domino! but the boy hits shrewdly hard.
+      Nevertheless I have repaid him in inverse kind, and set him an imposition,
+      to learn me one of Phaedrus his fables, Sir Richard, if you do not think
+      it too much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which, then? The one about the man who brought up a lion's cub, and was
+      eaten by him in play at last?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, Sir Richard! you have always a merry wit. But, indeed, the boy is a
+      brave boy, and a quick boy, Sir Richard, but more forgetful than Lethe;
+      and&mdash;sapienti loquor&mdash;it were well if he were away, for I shall
+      never see him again without my head aching. Moreover, he put my son Jack
+      upon the fire last Wednesday, as you would put a football, though he is a
+      year older, your worship, because, he said, he looked so like a roasting
+      pig, Sir Richard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas, poor Jack!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what's more, your worship, he is pugnax, bellicosus, gladiator, a
+      fire-eater and swash-buckler, beyond all Christian measure; a very sucking
+      Entellus, Sir Richard, and will do to death some of her majesty's lieges
+      erelong, if he be not wisely curbed. It was but a month agone that he
+      bemoaned himself, I hear, as Alexander did, because there were no more
+      worlds to conquer, saying that it was a pity he was so strong; for, now he
+      had thrashed all the Bideford lads, he had no sport left; and so, as my
+      Jack tells me, last Tuesday week he fell upon a young man of Barnstaple,
+      Sir Richard, a hosier's man, sir, and plebeius (which I consider unfit for
+      one of his blood), and, moreover, a man full grown, and as big as either
+      of us (Vindex stood five feet four in his high-heeled shoes), and smote
+      him clean over the quay into the mud, because he said that there was a
+      prettier maid in Barnstaple (your worship will forgive my speaking of such
+      toys, to which my fidelity compels me) than ever Bideford could show; and
+      then offered to do the same to any man who dare say that Mistress Rose
+      Salterne, his worship the mayor's daughter, was not the fairest lass in
+      all Devon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eh? Say that over again, my good sir,&rdquo; quoth Sir Richard, who had thus
+      arrived, as we have seen, at the second count of the indictment. &ldquo;I say,
+      good sir, whence dost thou hear all these pretty stories?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My son Jack, Sir Richard, my son Jack, ingenui vultus puer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not, it seems, ingenui pudoris. Tell thee what, Mr. Schoolmaster, no
+      wonder if thy son gets put on the fire, if thou employ him as a
+      tale-bearer. But that is the way of all pedagogues and their sons, by
+      which they train the lads up eavesdroppers and favor-curriers, and prepare
+      them&mdash;sirrah, do you hear?&mdash;for a much more lasting and hotter
+      fire than that which has scorched thy son Jack's nether-tackle. Do you
+      mark me, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor pedagogue, thus cunningly caught in his own trap, stood trembling
+      before his patron, who, as hereditary head of the Bridge Trust, which
+      endowed the school and the rest of the Bideford charities, could, by a
+      turn of his finger, sweep him forth with the besom of destruction; and he
+      gasped with terror as Sir Richard went on&mdash;&ldquo;Therefore, mind you, Sir
+      Schoolmaster, unless you shall promise me never to hint word of what has
+      passed between us two, and that neither you nor yours shall henceforth
+      carry tales of my godson, or speak his name within a day's march of
+      Mistress Salterne's, look to it, if I do not&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      What was to be done in default was not spoken; for down went poor old
+      Vindex on his knees:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Sir Richard! Excellentissime, immo praecelsissime Domine et Senator,
+      I promise! O sir, Miles et Eques of the Garter, Bath, and Golden Fleece,
+      consider your dignities, and my old age&mdash;and my great family&mdash;nine
+      children&mdash;oh, Sir Richard, and eight of them girls!&mdash;Do eagles
+      war with mice? says the ancient!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy large family, eh? How old is that fat-witted son of thine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sixteen, Sir Richard; but that is not his fault, indeed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, I suppose he would be still sucking his thumb if he dared&mdash;get
+      up, man&mdash;get up and seat yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heaven forbid!&rdquo; murmured poor Vindex, with deep humility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why is not the rogue at Oxford, with a murrain on him, instead of
+      lurching about here carrying tales and ogling the maidens?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had hoped, Sir Richard&mdash;and therefore I said it was not his fault&mdash;but
+      there was never a servitorship at Exeter open.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to, man&mdash;go to! I will speak to my brethren of the Trust, and to
+      Oxford he shall go this autumn, or else to Exeter gaol, for a strong
+      rogue, and a masterless man. Do you hear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hear?&mdash;oh, sir, yes! and return thanks. Jack shall go, Sir Richard,
+      doubt it not&mdash;I were mad else; and, Sir Richard, may I go too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And therewith Vindex vanished, and Sir Richard enjoyed a second mighty
+      laugh, which brought in Lady Grenville, who possibly had overheard the
+      whole; for the first words she said were&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think, my sweet life, we had better go up to Burrough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So to Burrough they went; and after much talk, and many tears, matters
+      were so concluded that Amyas Leigh found himself riding joyfully towards
+      Plymouth, by the side of Sir Richard, and being handed over to Captain
+      Drake, vanished for three years from the good town of Bideford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now he is returned in triumph, and the observed of all observers; and
+      looks round and round, and sees all faces whom he expects, except one; and
+      that the one which he had rather see than his mother's? He is not quite
+      sure. Shame on himself!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now the prayers being ended, the rector ascends the pulpit, and begins
+      his sermon on the text:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The heaven and the heaven of heavens are the Lord's; the whole earth hath
+      he given to the children of men;&rdquo; deducing therefrom craftily, to the
+      exceeding pleasure of his hearers, the iniquity of the Spaniards in
+      dispossessing the Indians, and in arrogating to themselves the sovereignty
+      of the tropic seas; the vanity of the Pope of Rome in pretending to bestow
+      on them the new countries of America; and the justice, valor, and glory of
+      Mr. Drake and his expedition, as testified by God's miraculous protection
+      of him and his, both in the Straits of Magellan, and in his battle with
+      the Galleon; and last, but not least, upon the rock by Celebes, when the
+      Pelican lay for hours firmly fixed, and was floated off unhurt, as it were
+      by miracle, by a sudden shift of wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ay, smile, reader, if you will; and, perhaps, there was matter for a smile
+      in that honest sermon, interlarded, as it was, with scraps of Greek and
+      Hebrew, which no one understood, but every one expected as their right
+      (for a preacher was nothing then who could not prove himself &ldquo;a good
+      Latiner&rdquo;); and graced, moreover, by a somewhat pedantic and lengthy
+      refutation from Scripture of Dan Horace's cockney horror of the sea&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Illi robur et aes triplex,&rdquo; etc.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      and his infidel and ungodly slander against the impias rates, and their
+      crews.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Smile, if you will: but those were days (and there were never less
+      superstitious ones) in which Englishmen believed in the living God, and
+      were not ashamed to acknowledge, as a matter of course, His help and
+      providence, and calling, in the matters of daily life, which we now in our
+      covert atheism term &ldquo;secular and carnal;&rdquo; and when, the sermon ended, the
+      communion service had begun, and the bread and the wine were given to
+      those five mariners, every gallant gentleman who stood near them (for the
+      press would not allow of more) knelt and received the elements with them
+      as a thing of course, and then rose to join with heart and voice not
+      merely in the Gloria in Excelsis, but in the Te Deum, which was the
+      closing act of all. And no sooner had the clerk given out the first verse
+      of that great hymn, than it was taken up by five hundred voices within the
+      church, in bass and tenor, treble and alto (for every one could sing in
+      those days, and the west-country folk, as now, were fuller than any of
+      music), the chant was caught up by the crowd outside, and rang away over
+      roof and river, up to the woods of Annery, and down to the marshes of the
+      Taw, in wave on wave of harmony. And as it died away, the shipping in the
+      river made answer with their thunder, and the crowd streamed out again
+      toward the Bridge Head, whither Sir Richard Grenville, and Sir John
+      Chichester, and Mr. Salterne, the Mayor, led the five heroes of the day to
+      await the pageant which had been prepared in honor of them. And as they
+      went by, there were few in the crowd who did not press forward to shake
+      them by the hand, and not only them, but their parents and kinsfolk who
+      walked behind, till Mrs. Leigh, her stately joy quite broken down at last,
+      could only answer between her sobs, &ldquo;Go along, good people&mdash;God a
+      mercy, go along&mdash;and God send you all such sons!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God give me back mine!&rdquo; cried an old red-cloaked dame in the crowd; and
+      then, struck by some hidden impulse, she sprang forward, and catching hold
+      of young Amyas's sleeve&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kind sir! dear sir! For Christ his sake answer a poor old widow woman!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, dame?&rdquo; quoth Amyas, gently enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you see my son to the Indies?&mdash;my son Salvation?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Salvation?&rdquo; replied he, with the air of one who recollected the name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sure, Salvation Yeo, of Clovelly. A tall man and black, and sweareth
+      awfully in his talk, the Lord forgive him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas recollected now. It was the name of the sailor who had given him the
+      wondrous horn five years ago.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My good dame,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;the Indies are a very large place, and your son
+      may be safe and sound enough there, without my having seen him. I knew one
+      Salvation Yeo. But he must have come with&mdash;By the by, godfather, has
+      Mr. Oxenham come home?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a dead silence for a moment among the gentlemen round; and then
+      Sir Richard said solemnly, and in a low voice, turning away from the old
+      dame,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas, Mr. Oxenham has not come home; and from the day he sailed, no word
+      has been heard of him and all his crew.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Sir Richard! and you kept me from sailing with him! Had I known this
+      before I went into church, I had had one mercy more to thank God for.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank Him all the more in thy life, my child!&rdquo; whispered his mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And no news of him whatsoever?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None; but that the year after he sailed, a ship belonging to Andrew
+      Barker, of Bristol, took out of a Spanish caravel, somewhere off the
+      Honduras, his two brass guns; but whence they came the Spaniard knew not,
+      having bought them at Nombre de Dios.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes!&rdquo; cried the old woman; &ldquo;they brought home the guns, and never brought
+      home my boy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They never saw your boy, mother,&rdquo; said Sir Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I've seen him! I saw him in a dream four years last Whitsuntide, as
+      plain as I see you now, gentles, a-lying upon a rock, calling for a drop
+      of water to cool his tongue, like Dives to the torment! Oh! dear me!&rdquo; and
+      the old dame wept bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a rose noble for you!&rdquo; said Mrs. Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And there another!&rdquo; said Sir Richard. And in a few minutes four or five
+      gold coins were in her hand. But the old dame did but look wonderingly at
+      the gold a moment, and then&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! dear gentles, God's blessing on you, and Mr. Cary's mighty good to me
+      already; but gold won't buy back childer! O! young gentleman! young
+      gentleman! make me a promise; if you want God's blessing on you this day,
+      bring me back my boy, if you find him sailing on the seas! Bring him back,
+      and an old widow's blessing be on you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas promised&mdash;what else could he do?&mdash;and the group hurried
+      on; but the lad's heart was heavy in the midst of joy, with the thought of
+      John Oxenham, as he walked through the churchyard, and down the short
+      street which led between the ancient school and still more ancient
+      town-house, to the head of the long bridge, across which the pageant,
+      having arranged &ldquo;east-the-water,&rdquo; was to defile, and then turn to the
+      right along the quay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, he was bound in all courtesy to turn his attention now to the
+      show which had been prepared in his honor, and which was really well
+      enough worth seeing and hearing. The English were, in those days, an
+      altogether dramatic people; ready and able, as in Bideford that day, to
+      extemporize a pageant, a masque, or any effort of the Thespian art short
+      of the regular drama. For they were, in the first place, even down to the
+      very poorest, a well-fed people, with fewer luxuries than we, but more
+      abundant necessaries; and while beef, ale, and good woollen clothes could
+      be obtained in plenty, without overworking either body or soul, men had
+      time to amuse themselves in something more intellectual than mere toping
+      in pot-houses. Moreover, the half century after the Reformation in England
+      was one not merely of new intellectual freedom, but of immense animal good
+      spirits. After years of dumb confusion and cruel persecution, a breathing
+      time had come: Mary and the fires of Smithfield had vanished together like
+      a hideous dream, and the mighty shout of joy which greeted Elizabeth's
+      entry into London, was the key-note of fifty glorious years; the
+      expression of a new-found strength and freedom, which vented itself at
+      home in drama and in song; abroad in mighty conquests, achieved with the
+      laughing recklessness of boys at play.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So first, preceded by the waits, came along the bridge toward the
+      town-hall a device prepared by the good rector, who, standing by, acted as
+      showman, and explained anxiously to the bystanders the import of a certain
+      &ldquo;allegory&rdquo; wherein on a great banner was depicted Queen Elizabeth herself,
+      who, in ample ruff and farthingale, a Bible in one hand and a sword in the
+      other, stood triumphant upon the necks of two sufficiently abject
+      personages, whose triple tiara and imperial crown proclaimed them the Pope
+      and the King of Spain; while a label, issuing from her royal mouth,
+      informed the world that&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;By land and sea a virgin queen I reign,
+     And spurn to dust both Antichrist and Spain.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Which, having been received with due applause, a well-bedizened lad,
+      having in his cap as a posy &ldquo;Loyalty,&rdquo; stepped forward, and delivered
+      himself of the following verses:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Oh, great Eliza! oh, world-famous crew!
+     Which shall I hail more blest, your queen or you?
+     While without other either falls to wrack,
+     And light must eyes, or eyes their light must lack.
+     She without you, a diamond sunk in mine,
+     Its worth unprized, to self alone must shine;
+     You without her, like hands bereft of head,
+     Like Ajax rage, by blindfold lust misled.
+     She light, you eyes; she head, and you the hands,
+     In fair proportion knit by heavenly hands;
+     Servants in queen, and queen in servants blest;
+     Your only glory, how to serve her best;
+     And hers how best the adventurous might to guide,
+     Which knows no check of foemen, wind, or tide,
+     So fair Eliza's spotless fame may fly
+     Triumphant round the globe, and shake th' astounded sky!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      With which sufficiently bad verses Loyalty passed on, while my Lady Bath
+      hinted to Sir Richard, not without reason, that the poet, in trying to
+      exalt both parties, had very sufficiently snubbed both, and intimated that
+      it was &ldquo;hardly safe for country wits to attempt that euphuistic,
+      antithetical, and delicately conceited vein, whose proper fountain was in
+      Whitehall.&rdquo; However, on went Loyalty, very well pleased with himself, and
+      next, amid much cheering, two great tinsel fish, a salmon and a trout,
+      symbolical of the wealth of Torridge, waddled along, by means of two human
+      legs and a staff apiece, which protruded from the fishes' stomachs. They
+      drew (or seemed to draw, for half the 'prentices in the town were shoving
+      it behind, and cheering on the panting monarchs of the flood) a car
+      wherein sate, amid reeds and river-flags, three or four pretty girls in
+      robes of gray-blue spangled with gold, their heads wreathed one with a
+      crown of the sweet bog-myrtle, another with hops and white convolvulus,
+      the third with pale heather and golden fern. They stopped opposite Amyas;
+      and she of the myrtle wreath, rising and bowing to him and the company,
+      began with a pretty blush to say her say:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Hither from my moorland home,
+     Nymph of Torridge, proud I come;
+     Leaving fen and furzy brake,
+     Haunt of eft and spotted snake,
+     Where to fill mine urns I use,
+     Daily with Atlantic dews;
+     While beside the reedy flood
+     Wild duck leads her paddling brood.
+     For this morn, as Phoebus gay
+     Chased through heaven the night mist gray,
+     Close beside me, prankt in pride,
+     Sister Tamar rose, and cried,
+     'Sluggard, up! 'Tis holiday,
+     In the lowlands far away.
+     Hark! how jocund Plymouth bells,
+     Wandering up through mazy dells,
+     Call me down, with smiles to hail,
+     My daring Drake's returning sail.'
+     'Thine alone?' I answer'd.  'Nay;
+     Mine as well the joy to-day.
+     Heroes train'd on Northern wave,
+     To that Argo new I gave;
+     Lent to thee, they roam'd the main;
+     Give me, nymph, my sons again.'
+     'Go, they wait Thee,' Tamar cried,
+     Southward bounding from my side.
+     Glad I rose, and at my call,
+     Came my Naiads, one and all.
+     Nursling of the mountain sky,
+     Leaving Dian's choir on high,
+     Down her cataracts laughing loud,
+     Ockment leapt from crag and cloud,
+     Leading many a nymph, who dwells
+     Where wild deer drink in ferny dells;
+     While the Oreads as they past
+     Peep'd from Druid Tors aghast.
+     By alder copses sliding slow,
+     Knee-deep in flowers came gentler Yeo
+     And paused awhile her locks to twine
+     With musky hops and white woodbine,
+     Then joined the silver-footed band,
+     Which circled down my golden sand,
+     By dappled park, and harbor shady,
+     Haunt of love-lorn knight and lady,
+     My thrice-renowned sons to greet,
+     With rustic song and pageant meet.
+     For joy! the girdled robe around
+     Eliza's name henceforth shall sound,
+     Whose venturous fleets to conquest start,
+     Where ended once the seaman's chart,
+     While circling Sol his steps shall count
+     Henceforth from Thule's western mount,
+     And lead new rulers round the seas
+     From furthest Cassiterides.
+     For found is now the golden tree,
+     Solv'd th' Atlantic mystery,
+     Pluck'd the dragon-guarded fruit;
+     While around the charmed root,
+     Wailing loud, the Hesperids
+     Watch their warder's drooping lids.
+     Low he lies with grisly wound,
+     While the sorceress triple-crown'd
+     In her scarlet robe doth shield him,
+     Till her cunning spells have heal'd him.
+     Ye, meanwhile, around the earth
+     Bear the prize of manful worth.
+     Yet a nobler meed than gold
+     Waits for Albion's children bold;
+     Great Eliza's virgin hand
+     Welcomes you to Fairy-land,
+     While your native Naiads bring
+     Native wreaths as offering.
+     Simple though their show may be,
+     Britain's worship in them see.
+     'Tis not price, nor outward fairness,
+     Gives the victor's palm its rareness;
+     Simplest tokens can impart
+     Noble throb to noble heart:
+     Graecia, prize thy parsley crown,
+     Boast thy laurel, Caesar's town;
+     Moorland myrtle still shall be
+     Badge of Devon's Chivalry!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      And so ending, she took the wreath of fragrant gale from her own head, and
+      stooping from the car, placed it on the head of Amyas Leigh, who made
+      answer&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no place like home, my fair mistress and no scent to my taste
+      like this old home-scent in all the spice-islands that I ever sailed by!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her song was not so bad,&rdquo; said Sir Richard to Lady Bath&mdash;&ldquo;but how
+      came she to hear Plymouth bells at Tamar-head, full fifty miles away?
+      That's too much of a poet's license, is it not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The river-nymphs, as daughters of Oceanus, and thus of immortal
+      parentage, are bound to possess organs of more than mortal keenness; but,
+      as you say, the song was not so bad&mdash;erudite, as well as prettily
+      conceived&mdash;and, saving for a certain rustical simplicity and
+      monosyllabic baldness, smacks rather of the forests of Castaly than those
+      of Torridge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So spake my Lady Bath; whom Sir Richard wisely answered not; for she was a
+      terribly learned member of the college of critics, and disputed even with
+      Sidney's sister the chieftaincy of the Euphuists; so Sir Richard answered
+      not, but answer was made for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Since the whole choir of Muses, madam, have migrated to the Court of
+      Whitehall, no wonder if some dews of Parnassus should fertilize at times
+      even our Devon moors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The speaker was a tall and slim young man, some five-and-twenty years old,
+      of so rare and delicate a beauty, that it seemed that some Greek statue,
+      or rather one of those pensive and pious knights whom the old German
+      artists took delight to paint, had condescended to tread awhile this
+      work-day earth in living flesh and blood. The forehead was very lofty and
+      smooth, the eyebrows thin and greatly arched (the envious gallants
+      whispered that something at least of their curve was due to art, as was
+      also the exceeding smoothness of those delicate cheeks). The face was
+      somewhat long and thin; the nose aquiline; and the languid mouth showed,
+      perhaps, too much of the ivory upper teeth; but the most striking point of
+      the speaker's appearance was the extraordinary brilliancy of his
+      complexion, which shamed with its whiteness that of all fair ladies round,
+      save where open on each cheek a bright red spot gave warning, as did the
+      long thin neck and the taper hands, of sad possibilities, perhaps not far
+      off; possibilities which all saw with an inward sigh, except she whose
+      doting glances, as well as her resemblance to the fair youth, proclaimed
+      her at once his mother, Mrs. Leigh herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Master Frank, for he it was, was dressed in the very extravagance of the
+      fashion,&mdash;not so much from vanity, as from that delicate instinct of
+      self-respect which would keep some men spruce and spotless from one year's
+      end to another upon a desert island; &ldquo;for,&rdquo; as Frank used to say in his
+      sententious way, &ldquo;Mr. Frank Leigh at least beholds me, though none else be
+      by; and why should I be more discourteous to him than I permit others to
+      be? Be sure that he who is a Grobian in his own company, will, sooner or
+      later, become a Grobian in that of his friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Mr. Frank was arrayed spotlessly; but after the latest fashion of
+      Milan, not in trunk hose and slashed sleeves, nor in &ldquo;French standing
+      collar, treble quadruple daedalian ruff, or stiff-necked rabato, that had
+      more arches for pride, propped up with wire and timber, than five London
+      Bridges;&rdquo; but in a close-fitting and perfectly plain suit of dove-color,
+      which set off cunningly the delicate proportions of his figure, and the
+      delicate hue of his complexion, which was shaded from the sun by a broad
+      dove-colored Spanish hat, with feather to match, looped up over the right
+      ear with a pearl brooch, and therein a crowned E, supposed by the damsels
+      of Bideford to stand for Elizabeth, which was whispered to be the gift of
+      some most illustrious hand. This same looping up was not without good
+      reason and purpose prepense; thereby all the world had full view of a
+      beautiful little ear, which looked as if it had been cut of cameo, and
+      made, as my Lady Rich once told him, &ldquo;to hearken only to the music of the
+      spheres, or to the chants of cherubim.&rdquo; Behind the said ear was stuck a
+      fresh rose; and the golden hair was all drawn smoothly back and round to
+      the left temple, whence, tied with a pink ribbon in a great true lover's
+      knot, a mighty love-lock, &ldquo;curled as it had been laid in press,&rdquo; rolled
+      down low upon his bosom. Oh, Frank! Frank! have you come out on purpose to
+      break the hearts of all Bideford burghers' daughters? And if so, did you
+      expect to further that triumph by dyeing that pretty little pointed beard
+      (with shame I report it) of a bright vermilion? But we know you better,
+      Frank, and so does your mother; and you are but a masquerading angel after
+      all, in spite of your knots and your perfumes, and the gold chain round
+      your neck which a German princess gave you; and the emerald ring on your
+      right fore-finger which Hatton gave you; and the pair of perfumed gloves
+      in your left which Sidney's sister gave you; and the silver-hilted Toledo
+      which an Italian marquis gave you on a certain occasion of which you never
+      choose to talk, like a prudent and modest gentleman as you are; but of
+      which the gossips talk, of course, all the more, and whisper that you
+      saved his life from bravoes&mdash;a dozen, at the least; and had that
+      sword for your reward, and might have had his beautiful sister's hand
+      beside, and I know not what else; but that you had so many lady-loves
+      already that you were loath to burden yourself with a fresh one. That, at
+      least, we know to be a lie, fair Frank; for your heart is as pure this day
+      as when you knelt in your little crib at Burrough, and said&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Four corners to my bed
+     Four angels round my head;
+     Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
+     Bless the bed that I lie on.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      And who could doubt it (if being pure themselves, they have instinctive
+      sympathy with what is pure), who ever looked into those great deep blue
+      eyes of yours, &ldquo;the black fringed curtains of whose azure lids,&rdquo; usually
+      down-dropt as if in deepest thought, you raise slowly, almost wonderingly
+      each time you speak, as if awakening from some fair dream whose home is
+      rather in your platonical &ldquo;eternal world of supra-sensible forms,&rdquo; than on
+      that work-day earth wherein you nevertheless acquit yourself so well?
+      There&mdash;I must stop describing you, or I shall catch the infection of
+      your own euphuism, and talk of you as you would have talked of Sidney or
+      of Spenser, or of that Swan of Avon, whose song had just begun when yours&mdash;but
+      I will not anticipate; my Lady Bath is waiting to give you her rejoinder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, my silver-tongued scholar! and are you, then, the poet? or have you
+      been drawing on the inexhaustible bank of your friend Raleigh, or my
+      cousin Sidney? or has our new Cygnet Immerito lent you a few unpublished
+      leaves from some fresh Shepherd's Calendar?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had either, madam, of that cynosural triad been within call of my most
+      humble importunities, your ears had been delectate with far nobler
+      melody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not our eyes with fairer faces, eh? Well, you have chosen your
+      nymphs, and had good store from whence to pick, I doubt not. Few young
+      Dulcineas round but must have been glad to take service under so renowned
+      a captain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The only difficulty, gracious countess, has been to know where to fix the
+      wandering choice of my bewildered eyes, where all alike are fair, and all
+      alike facund.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We understand,&rdquo; said she, smiling;&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Dan Cupid, choosing 'midst his mother's graces,
+     Himself more fair, made scorn of fairest faces.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      The young scholar capped her distich forthwith, and bowing to her with a
+      meaning look,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Then, Goddess, turn,' he cried, 'and veil thy light; Blinded by thine,
+      what eyes can choose aright?'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go, saucy sir,&rdquo; said my lady, in high glee: &ldquo;the pageant stays your
+      supreme pleasure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And away went Mr. Frank as master of the revels, to bring up the
+      'prentices' pageant; while, for his sake, the nymph of Torridge was
+      forgotten for awhile by all young dames, and most young gentlemen: and his
+      mother heaved a deep sigh, which Lady Bath overhearing&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What? in the dumps, good madam, while all are rejoicing in your joy? Are
+      you afraid that we court-dames shall turn your Adonis's brain for him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do, indeed, fear lest your condescension should make him forget that he
+      is only a poor squire's orphan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will warrant him never to forget aught that he should recollect,&rdquo; said
+      my Lady Bath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And she spoke truly. But soon Frank's silver voice was heard calling out&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Room there, good people, for the gallant 'prentice lads!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And on they came, headed by a giant of buckram and pasteboard armor, forth
+      of whose stomach looked, like a clock-face in a steeple, a human visage,
+      to be greeted, as was the fashion then, by a volley of quips and puns from
+      high and low.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Young Mr. William Cary, of Clovelly, who was the wit of those parts,
+      opened the fire by asking him whether he were Goliath, Gogmagog, or
+      Grantorto in the romance; for giants' names always began with a G. To
+      which the giant's stomach answered pretty surlily&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mine don't; I begin with an O.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then thou criest out before thou art hurt, O cowardly giant!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me out, lads,&rdquo; quoth the irascible visage, struggling in his buckram
+      prison, &ldquo;and I soon show him whether I be a coward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, if thou gettest out of thyself, thou wouldst be beside thyself, and
+      so wert but a mad giant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that were pity,&rdquo; said Lady Bath; &ldquo;for by the romances, giants have
+      never overmuch wit to spare.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mercy, dear lady!&rdquo; said Frank, &ldquo;and let the giant begin with an O.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A &mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A false start, giant! you were to begin with an O.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll make you end with an O, Mr. William Cary!&rdquo; roared the testy tower of
+      buckram.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so I do, for I end with 'Fico!'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be mollified, sweet giant,&rdquo; said Frank, &ldquo;and spare the rash youth of yon
+      foolish knight. Shall elephants catch flies, or Hurlo-Thrumbo stain his
+      club with brains of Dagonet the jester? Be mollified; leave thy caverned
+      grumblings, like Etna when its windy wrath is past, and discourse
+      eloquence from thy central omphalos, like Pythoness ventriloquizing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you do begin laughing at me too, Mr. Leigh &mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; said the
+      giant's clock-face, in a piteous tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I laugh not. Art thou not Ordulf the earl, and I thy humblest squire?
+      Speak up, my lord; your cousin, my Lady Bath, commands you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And at last the giant began:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;A giant I, Earl Ordulf men me call,&mdash;
+     'Gainst Paynim foes Devonia's champion tall;
+     In single fight six thousand Turks I slew;
+     Pull'd off a lion's head, and ate it too:
+     With one shrewd blow, to let St. Edward in,
+     I smote the gates of Exeter in twain;
+     Till aged grown, by angels warn'd in dream,
+     I built an abbey fair by Tavy stream.
+     But treacherous time hath tripped my glories up,
+     The stanch old hound must yield to stancher pup;
+     Here's one so tall as I, and twice so bold,
+     Where I took only cuffs, takes good red gold.
+     From pole to pole resound his wondrous works,
+     Who slew more Spaniards than I e'er slew Turks;
+     I strode across the Tavy stream: but he
+     Strode round the world and back; and here 'a be!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, bathos!&rdquo; said Lady Bath, while the 'prentices shouted applause. &ldquo;Is
+      this hedge-bantling to be fathered on you, Mr. Frank?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is necessary, by all laws of the drama, madam,&rdquo; said Frank, with a sly
+      smile, &ldquo;that the speech and the speaker shall fit each other. Pass on,
+      Earl Ordulf; a more learned worthy waits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon, up came a fresh member of the procession; namely, no less a
+      person than Vindex Brimblecombe, the ancient schoolmaster, with
+      five-and-forty boys at his heels, who halting, pulled out his spectacles,
+      and thus signified his forgiveness of his whilom broken head:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That the world should have been circumnavigated, ladies and gentles, were
+      matter enough of jubilation to the student of Herodotus and Plato, Plinius
+      and &mdash;&mdash; ahem! much more when the circumnavigators are Britons;
+      more, again, when Damnonians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't swear, master,&rdquo; said young Will Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gulielme Cary, Gulielme Cary, hast thou forgotten thy&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whippings? Never, old lad! Go on; but let not the license of the scholar
+      overtop the modesty of the Christian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More again, as I said, when, incolae, inhabitants of Devon; but, most of
+      all, men of Bideford school. Oh renowned school! Oh schoolboys ennobled by
+      fellowship with him! Oh most happy pedagogue, to whom it has befallen to
+      have chastised a circumnavigator, and, like another Chiron, trained
+      another Hercules: yet more than Hercules, for he placed his pillars on the
+      ocean shore, and then returned; but my scholar's voyage&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark how the old fox is praising himself all along on the sly,&rdquo; said
+      Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. William, Mr. William, peace;&mdash;silentium, my graceless pupil.
+      Urge the foaming steed, and strike terror into the rapid stag, but meddle
+      not with matters too high for thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has given you the dor now, sir,&rdquo; said Lady Bath; &ldquo;let the old man say
+      his say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I bring, therefore, as my small contribution to this day's feast; first a
+      Latin epigram, as thus&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Latin? Let us hear it forthwith,&rdquo; cried my lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And the old pedant mouthed out&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Torriguiam Tamaris ne spernat; Leighius addet
+     Mox terras terris, inclyte Drake, tuis.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neat, i' faith, la!&rdquo; Whereon all the rest, as in duty bound, approved
+      also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This for the erudite: for vulgar ears the vernacular is more consonant,
+      sympathetic, instructive; as thus:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Famed Argo ship, that noble chip, by doughty Jason's steering,
+     Brought back to Greece the golden fleece, from Colchis home
+          careering;
+     But now her fame is put to shame, while new Devonian Argo,
+     Round earth doth run in wake of sun, and brings wealthier cargo.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Runs with a right fa-lal-la,&rdquo; observed Cary; &ldquo;and would go nobly to a
+      fiddle and a big drum.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Ye Spaniards, quake! our doughty Drake a royal swan is tested,
+     On wing and oar, from shore to shore, the raging main who
+          breasted:&mdash;
+     But never needs to chant his deeds, like swan that lies a-dying,
+     So far his name, by trump of fame, around the sphere is flying.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hillo ho! schoolmaster!&rdquo; shouted a voice from behind; &ldquo;move on, and make
+      way for Father Neptune!&rdquo; Whereon a whole storm of raillery fell upon the
+      hapless pedagogue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We waited for the parson's alligator, but we wain't for yourn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Allegory! my children, allegory!&rdquo; shrieked the man of letters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do ye call he an alligator for? He is but a poor little starved
+      evat!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out of the road, old Custis! March on, Don Palmado!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These allusions to the usual instrument of torture in West-country schools
+      made the old gentleman wince; especially when they were followed home by&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who stole Admiral Grenville's brooms, because birch rods were dear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But proudly he shook his bald head, as a bull shakes off the flies, and
+      returned to the charge once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great Alexander, famed commander, wept and made a pother, At conquering
+      only half the world, but Drake had conquer'd t'other; And Hercules to
+      brink of seas!&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh&mdash;!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And clapping both hands to the back of his neck, the schoolmaster began
+      dancing frantically about, while his boys broke out tittering, &ldquo;O! the
+      ochidore! look to the blue ochidore! Who've put ochidore to maister's
+      poll!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was too true: neatly inserted, as he stooped forward, between his neck
+      and his collar, was a large live shore-crab, holding on tight with both
+      hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gentles! good Christians! save me! I am mare-rode! Incubo, vel ab incubo,
+      opprimor! Satanas has me by the poll! Help! he tears my jugular; he wrings
+      my neck, as he does to Dr. Faustus in the play. Confiteor!&mdash;I
+      confess! Satan, I defy thee! Good people, I confess! [Greek text]! The
+      truth will out. Mr. Francis Leigh wrote the epigram!&rdquo; And diving through
+      the crowd, the pedagogue vanished howling, while Father Neptune, crowned
+      with sea-weeds, a trident in one hand, and a live dog-fish in the other,
+      swaggered up the street surrounded by a tall bodyguard of mariners, and
+      followed by a great banner, on which was depicted a globe, with Drake's
+      ship sailing thereon upside down, and overwritten&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;See every man the Pelican,
+        Which round the world did go,
+     While her stern-post was uppermost,
+        And topmasts down below.
+     And by the way she lost a day,
+        Out of her log was stole:
+     But Neptune kind, with favoring wind,
+        Hath brought her safe and whole.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, lads!&rdquo; cried Neptune; &ldquo;hand me my parable that's writ for me, and
+      here goeth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And at the top of his bull-voice, he began roaring&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;I am King Neptune bold,
+       The ruler of the seas
+     I don't understand much singing upon land,
+       But I hope what I say will please.
+
+     &ldquo;Here be five Bideford men,
+       Which have sail'd the world around,
+     And I watch'd them well, as they all can tell,
+       And brought them home safe and sound.
+
+     &ldquo;For it is the men of Devon.
+       To see them I take delight,
+     Both to tack and to hull, and to heave and to pull,
+       And to prove themselves in fight.
+
+     &ldquo;Where be those Spaniards proud,
+       That make their valiant boasts;
+     And think for to keep the poor Indians for their sheep,
+       And to farm my golden coasts?
+
+     &ldquo;'Twas the devil and the Pope gave them
+       My kingdom for their own:
+     But my nephew Francis Drake, he caused them to quake,
+       And he pick'd them to the bone.
+
+     &ldquo;For the sea my realm it is,
+       As good Queen Bess's is the land;
+     So freely come again, all merry Devon men,
+       And there's old Neptune's hand.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Holla, boys! holla! Blow up, Triton, and bring forward the freedom of the
+      seas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Triton, roaring through a conch, brought forward a cockle-shell full of
+      salt-water, and delivered it solemnly to Amyas, who, of course, put a
+      noble into it, and returned it after Grenville had done the same.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Holla, Dick Admiral!&rdquo; cried neptune, who was pretty far gone in liquor;
+      &ldquo;we knew thou hadst a right English heart in thee, for all thou standest
+      there as taut as a Don who has swallowed his rapier.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grammercy, stop thy bellowing, fellow, and on; for thou smellest vilely
+      of fish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everything smells sweet in its right place. I'm going home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought thou wert there all along, being already half-seas over,&rdquo; said
+      Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, right Upsee-Dutch; and that's more than thou ever wilt be, thou
+      'long-shore stay-at-home. Why wast making sheep's eyes at Mistress
+      Salterne here, while my pretty little chuck of Burrough there was playing
+      at shove-groat with Spanish doubloons?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to the devil, sirrah!&rdquo; said Cary. Neptune had touched on a sore
+      subject; and more cheeks than Amyas Leigh's reddened at the hint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen, if Heaven so please!&rdquo; and on rolled the monarch of the seas; and so
+      the pageant ended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment Amyas had an opportunity, he asked his brother Frank, somewhat
+      peevishly, where Rose Salterne was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! the mayor's daughter? With her uncle by Kilkhampton, I believe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now cunning Master Frank, whose daily wish was to &ldquo;seek peace and ensue
+      it,&rdquo; told Amyas this, because he must needs speak the truth: but he was
+      purposed at the same time to speak as little truth as he could, for fear
+      of accidents; and, therefore, omitted to tell his brother how that he, two
+      days before, had entreated Rose Salterne herself to appear as the nymph of
+      Torridge; which honor she, who had no objection either to exhibit her
+      pretty face, to recite pretty poetry, or to be trained thereto by the
+      cynosure of North Devon, would have assented willingly, but that her
+      father stopped the pretty project by a peremptory countermove, and packed
+      her off, in spite of her tears, to the said uncle on the Atlantic cliffs;
+      after which he went up to Burrough, and laughed over the whole matter with
+      Mrs. Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am but a burgher, Mrs. Leigh, and you a lady of blood; but I am too
+      proud to let any man say that Simon Salterne threw his daughter at your
+      son's head;&mdash;no; not if you were an empress!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And to speak truth, Mr. Salterne, there are young gallants enough in the
+      country quarrelling about her pretty face every day, without making her a
+      tourney-queen to tilt about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Which was very true; for during the three years of Amyas's absence, Rose
+      Salterne had grown into so beautiful a girl of eighteen, that half North
+      Devon was mad about the &ldquo;Rose of Torridge,&rdquo; as she was called; and there
+      was not a young gallant for ten miles round (not to speak of her father's
+      clerks and 'prentices, who moped about after her like so many Malvolios,
+      and treasured up the very parings of her nails) who would not have gone to
+      Jerusalem to win her. So that all along the vales of Torridge and of Taw,
+      and even away to Clovelly (for young Mr. Cary was one of the sick), not a
+      gay bachelor but was frowning on his fellows, and vying with them in the
+      fashion of his clothes, the set of his ruffs, the harness of his horse,
+      the carriage of his hawks, the pattern of his sword-hilt; and those were
+      golden days for all tailors and armorers, from Exmoor to Okehampton town.
+      But of all those foolish young lads not one would speak to the other,
+      either out hunting, or at the archery butts, or in the tilt-yard; and my
+      Lady Bath (who confessed that there was no use in bringing out her
+      daughters where Rose Salterne was in the way) prophesied in her classical
+      fashion that Rose's wedding bid fair to be a very bridal of Atalanta, and
+      feast of the Lapithae; and poor Mr. Will Cary (who always blurted out the
+      truth), when old Salterne once asked him angrily in Bideford Market, &ldquo;What
+      a plague business had he making sheep's eyes at his daughter?&rdquo; broke out
+      before all bystanders, &ldquo;And what a plague business had you, old boy, to
+      throw such an apple of discord into our merry meetings hereabouts? If you
+      choose to have such a daughter, you must take the consequences, and be
+      hanged to you.&rdquo; To which Mr. Salterne answered with some truth, &ldquo;That she
+      was none of his choosing, nor of Mr. Cary's neither.&rdquo; And so the dor being
+      given, the belligerents parted laughing, but the war remained in statu
+      quo; and not a week passed but, by mysterious hands, some nosegay, or
+      languishing sonnet, was conveyed into The Rose's chamber, all which she
+      stowed away, with the simplicity of a country girl, finding it mighty
+      pleasant; and took all compliments quietly enough, probably because, on
+      the authority of her mirror, she considered them no more than her due.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, to add to the general confusion, home was come young Amyas Leigh,
+      more desperately in love with her than ever. For, as is the way with
+      sailors (who after all are the truest lovers, as they are the finest
+      fellows, God bless them, upon earth), his lonely ship-watches had been
+      spent in imprinting on his imagination, month after month, year after
+      year, every feature and gesture and tone of the fair lass whom he had left
+      behind him; and that all the more intensely, because, beside his mother,
+      he had no one else to think of, and was as pure as the day he was born,
+      having been trained as many a brave young man was then, to look upon
+      profligacy not as a proof of manhood, but as what the old Germans, and
+      those Gortyneans who crowned the offender with wool, knew it to be, a
+      cowardly and effeminate sin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      OF TWO GENTLEMEN OF WALES, AND HOW THEY HUNTED WITH THE HOUNDS, AND YET
+      RAN WITH THE DEER
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;I know that Deformed; he has been a vile thief this seven years;
+     he goes up and down like a gentleman: I remember his name.&rdquo;&mdash;Much
+     Ado About Nothing.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Amyas slept that night a tired and yet a troubled sleep; and his mother
+      and Frank, as they bent over his pillow, could see that his brain was busy
+      with many dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And no wonder; for over and above all the excitement of the day, the
+      recollection of John Oxenham had taken strange possession of his mind; and
+      all that evening, as he sat in the bay-windowed room where he had seen him
+      last, Amyas was recalling to himself every look and gesture of the lost
+      adventurer, and wondering at himself for so doing, till he retired to
+      sleep, only to renew the fancy in his dreams. At last he found himself, he
+      knew not how, sailing westward ever, up the wake of the setting sun, in
+      chase of a tiny sail which was John Oxenham's. Upon him was a painful
+      sense that, unless he came up with her in time, something fearful would
+      come to pass; but the ship would not sail. All around floated the sargasso
+      beds, clogging her bows with their long snaky coils of weed; and still he
+      tried to sail, and tried to fancy that he was sailing, till the sun went
+      down and all was utter dark. And then the moon arose, and in a moment John
+      Oxenham's ship was close aboard; her sails were torn and fluttering; the
+      pitch was streaming from her sides; her bulwarks were rotting to decay.
+      And what was that line of dark objects dangling along the mainyard?&mdash;A
+      line of hanged men! And, horror of horrors, from the yard-arm close above
+      him, John Oxenham's corpse looked down with grave-light eyes, and beckoned
+      and pointed, as if to show him his way, and strove to speak, and could
+      not, and pointed still, not forward, but back along their course. And when
+      Amyas looked back, behold, behind him was the snow range of the Andes
+      glittering in the moon, and he knew that he was in the South Seas once
+      more, and that all America was between him and home. And still the corpse
+      kept pointing back, and back, and looking at him with yearning eyes of
+      agony, and lips which longed to tell some awful secret; till he sprang up,
+      and woke with a shout of terror, and found himself lying in the little
+      coved chamber in dear old Burrough, with the gray autumn morning already
+      stealing in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Feverish and excited, he tried in vain to sleep again; and after an hour's
+      tossing, rose and dressed, and started for a bathe on his beloved old
+      pebble ridge. As he passed his mother's door, he could not help looking
+      in. The dim light of morning showed him the bed; but its pillow had not
+      been pressed that night. His mother, in her long white night-dress, was
+      kneeling at the other end of the chamber at her prie-dieu, absorbed in
+      devotion. Gently he slipped in without a word, and knelt down at her side.
+      She turned, smiled, passed her arm around him, and went on silently with
+      her prayers. Why not? They were for him, and he knew it, and prayed also;
+      and his prayers were for her, and for poor lost John Oxenham, and all his
+      vanished crew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last she rose, and standing above him, parted the yellow locks from off
+      his brow, and looked long and lovingly into his face. There was nothing to
+      be spoken, for there was nothing to be concealed between these two souls
+      as clear as glass. Each knew all which the other meant; each knew that its
+      own thoughts were known. At last the mutual gaze was over; she stooped and
+      kissed him on the brow, and was in the act to turn away, as a tear dropped
+      on his forehead. Her little bare feet were peeping out from under her
+      dress. He bent down and kissed them again and again; and then looking up,
+      as if to excuse himself,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have such pretty feet, mother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Instantly, with a woman's instinct, she had hidden them. She had been a
+      beauty once, as I said; and though her hair was gray, and her roses had
+      faded long ago, she was beautiful still, in all eyes which saw deeper than
+      the mere outward red and white.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your dear father used to say so thirty years ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I say so still: you always were beautiful; you are beautiful now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that to you, silly boy? Will you play the lover with an old
+      mother? Go and take your walk, and think of younger ladies, if you can
+      find any worthy of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so the son went forth, and the mother returned to her prayers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He walked down to the pebble ridge, where the surges of the bay have
+      defeated their own fury, by rolling up in the course of ages a rampart of
+      gray boulder-stones, some two miles long, as cunningly curved, and
+      smoothed, and fitted, as if the work had been done by human hands, which
+      protects from the high tides of spring and autumn a fertile sheet of
+      smooth, alluvial turf. Sniffing the keen salt air like a young sea-dog, he
+      stripped and plunged into the breakers, and dived, and rolled, and tossed
+      about the foam with stalwart arms, till he heard himself hailed from off
+      the shore, and looking up, saw standing on the top of the rampart the tall
+      figure of his cousin Eustace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was half-disappointed at his coming; for, love-lorn rascal, he had
+      been dreaming all the way thither of Rose Salterne, and had no wish for a
+      companion who would prevent his dreaming of her all the way back.
+      Nevertheless, not having seen Eustace for three years, it was but civil to
+      scramble out and dress, while his cousin walked up and down upon the turf
+      inside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace Leigh was the son of a younger brother of Leigh of Burrough, who
+      had more or less cut himself off from his family, and indeed from his
+      countrymen, by remaining a Papist. True, though born a Papist, he had not
+      always been one; for, like many of the gentry, he had become a Protestant
+      under Edward the Sixth, and then a Papist again under Mary. But, to his
+      honor be it said, at that point he had stopped, having too much honesty to
+      turn Protestant a second time, as hundreds did, at Elizabeth's accession.
+      So a Papist he remained, living out of the way of the world in a great,
+      rambling, dark house, still called &ldquo;Chapel,&rdquo; on the Atlantic cliffs, in
+      Moorwinstow parish, not far from Sir Richard Grenville's house of Stow.
+      The penal laws never troubled him; for, in the first place, they never
+      troubled any one who did not make conspiracy and rebellion an integral
+      doctrine of his religious creed; and next, they seldom troubled even them,
+      unless, fired with the glory of martyrdom, they bullied the long-suffering
+      of Elizabeth and her council into giving them their deserts, and, like
+      poor Father Southwell in after years, insisted on being hanged, whether
+      Burleigh liked or not. Moreover, in such a no-man's-land and
+      end-of-all-the-earth was that old house at Moorwinstow, that a dozen
+      conspiracies might have been hatched there without any one hearing of it;
+      and Jesuits and seminary priests skulked in and out all the year round,
+      unquestioned though unblest; and found a sort of piquant pleasure, like
+      naughty boys who have crept into the store-closet, in living in mysterious
+      little dens in a lonely turret, and going up through a trap-door to
+      celebrate mass in a secret chamber in the roof, where they were allowed by
+      the powers that were to play as much as they chose at persecuted saints,
+      and preach about hiding in dens and caves of the earth. For once, when the
+      zealous parson of Moorwinstow, having discovered (what everybody knew
+      already) the existence of &ldquo;mass priests and their idolatry&rdquo; at Chapel
+      House, made formal complaint thereof to Sir Richard, and called on him, as
+      the nearest justice of the peace, to put in force the act of the
+      fourteenth of Elizabeth, that worthy knight only rated him soundly for a
+      fantastical Puritan, and bade him mind his own business, if he wished not
+      to make the place too hot for him; whereon (for the temporal authorities,
+      happily for the peace of England, kept in those days a somewhat tight hand
+      upon the spiritual ones) the worthy parson subsided,&mdash;for, after all,
+      Mr. Thomas Leigh paid his tithes regularly enough,&mdash;and was content,
+      as he expressed it, to bow his head in the house of Rimmon like Naaman of
+      old, by eating Mr. Leigh's dinners as often as he was invited, and
+      ignoring the vocation of old Father Francis, who sat opposite to him,
+      dressed as a layman, and calling himself the young gentleman's pedagogue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the said birds of ill-omen had a very considerable lien on the
+      conscience of poor Mr. Thomas Leigh, the father of Eustace, in the form of
+      certain lands once belonging to the Abbey of Hartland. He more than half
+      believed that he should be lost for holding those lands; but he did not
+      believe it wholly, and, therefore, he did not give them up; which was the
+      case, as poor Mary Tudor found to her sorrow, with most of her &ldquo;Catholic&rdquo;
+       subjects, whose consciences, while they compelled them to return to the
+      only safe fold of Mother Church (extra quam nulla salus), by no means
+      compelled them to disgorge the wealth of which they had plundered that
+      only hope of their salvation. Most of them, however, like poor Tom Leigh,
+      felt the abbey rents burn in their purses; and, as John Bull generally
+      does in a difficulty, compromised the matter by a second folly (as if two
+      wrong things made one right one), and petted foreign priests, and
+      listened, or pretended not to listen, to their plottings and their
+      practisings; and gave up a son here, and a son there, as a sort of a
+      sin-offering and scapegoat, to be carried off to Douay, or Rheims, or
+      Rome, and trained as a seminary priest; in plain English, to be taught the
+      science of villainy, on the motive of superstition. One of such hapless
+      scapegoats, and children who had been cast into the fire to Moloch, was
+      Eustace Leigh, whom his father had sent, giving the fruit of his body for
+      the sin of his soul, to be made a liar of at Rheims.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And a very fair liar he had become. Not that the lad was a bad fellow at
+      heart; but he had been chosen by the harpies at home, on account of his
+      &ldquo;peculiar vocation;&rdquo; in plain English, because the wily priests had seen
+      in him certain capacities of vague hysterical fear of the unseen (the
+      religious sentiment, we call it now-a-days), and with them that tendency
+      to be a rogue, which superstitious men always have. He was now a tall,
+      handsome, light-complexioned man, with a huge upright forehead, a very
+      small mouth, and a dry and set expression of face, which was always trying
+      to get free, or rather to seem free, and indulge in smiles and dimples
+      which were proper; for one ought to have Christian love, and if one had
+      love one ought to be cheerful, and when people were cheerful they smiled;
+      and therefore he would smile, and tried to do so; but his charity prepense
+      looked no more alluring than malice prepense would have done; and, had he
+      not been really a handsome fellow, many a woman who raved about his
+      sweetness would have likened his frankness to that of a skeleton dancing
+      in fetters, and his smiles to the grins thereof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had returned to England about a month before, in obedience to the
+      proclamation which had been set forth for that purpose (and certainly not
+      before it was needed), that, &ldquo;whosoever had children, wards, etc., in the
+      parts beyond the seas, should send in their names to the ordinary, and
+      within four months call them home again.&rdquo; So Eustace was now staying with
+      his father at Chapel, having, nevertheless, his private matters to
+      transact on behalf of the virtuous society by whom he had been brought up;
+      one of which private matters had brought him to Bideford the night before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he sat down beside Amyas on the pebbles, and looked at him all over out
+      of the corners of his eyes very gently, as if he did not wish to hurt him,
+      or even the flies on his back; and Amyas faced right round, and looked him
+      full in the face with the heartiest of smiles, and held out a lion's paw,
+      which Eustace took rapturously, and a great shaking of hands ensued; Amyas
+      gripping with a great round fist, and a quiet quiver thereof, as much as
+      to say, &ldquo;I AM glad to see you;&rdquo; and Eustace pinching hard with white,
+      straight fingers, and sawing the air violently up and down, as much as to
+      say, &ldquo;DON'T YOU SEE how glad I am to see you?&rdquo; A very different greeting
+      from the former.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hold hard, old lad,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;before you break my elbow. And where do
+      you come from?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it,&rdquo;
+       said he, with a little smile and nod of mysterious self-importance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like the devil, eh? Well, every man has his pattern. How is my uncle?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, if there was one man on earth above another, of whom Eustace Leigh
+      stood in dread, it was his cousin Amyas. In the first place, he knew Amyas
+      could have killed him with a blow; and there are natures, who, instead of
+      rejoicing in the strength of men of greater prowess than themselves, look
+      at such with irritation, dread, at last, spite; expecting, perhaps, that
+      the stronger will do to them what they feel they might have done in his
+      place. Every one, perhaps, has the same envious, cowardly devil haunting
+      about his heart; but the brave men, though they be very sparrows, kick him
+      out; the cowards keep him, and foster him; and so did poor Eustace Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next, he could not help feeling that Amyas despised him. They had not met
+      for three years; but before Amyas went, Eustace never could argue with
+      him, simply because Amyas treated him as beneath argument. No doubt he was
+      often rude and unfair enough; but the whole mass of questions concerning
+      the unseen world, which the priests had stimulated in his cousin's mind
+      into an unhealthy fungus crop, were to Amyas simply, as he expressed it,
+      &ldquo;wind and moonshine;&rdquo; and he treated his cousin as a sort of harmless
+      lunatic, and, as they say in Devon, &ldquo;half-baked.&rdquo; And Eustace knew it; and
+      knew, too, that his cousin did him an injustice. &ldquo;He used to undervalue
+      me,&rdquo; said he to himself; &ldquo;let us see whether he does not find me a match
+      for him now.&rdquo; And then went off into an agony of secret contrition for his
+      self-seeking and his forgetting that &ldquo;the glory of God, and not his own
+      exaltation,&rdquo; was the object of his existence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There, dear readers, Ex pede Herculem; I cannot tire myself or you
+      (especially in this book) with any wire-drawn soul-dissections. I have
+      tried to hint to you two opposite sorts of men,&mdash;the one trying to be
+      good with all his might and main, according to certain approved methods
+      and rules, which he has got by heart, and like a weak oarsman, feeling and
+      fingering his spiritual muscles over all day, to see if they are growing;
+      the other not even knowing whether he is good or not, but just doing the
+      right thing without thinking about it, as simply as a little child,
+      because the Spirit of God is with him. If you cannot see the great gulf
+      fixed between the two, I trust that you will discover it some day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in justice be it said, all this came upon Eustace, not because he was
+      a Romanist, but because he was educated by the Jesuits. Had he been saved
+      from them, he might have lived and died as simple and honest a gentleman
+      as his brothers, who turned out like true Englishmen (as did all the
+      Romish laity) to face the great Armada, and one of whom was fighting at
+      that very minute under St. Leger in Ireland, and as brave and loyal a
+      soldier as those Roman Catholics whose noble blood has stained every
+      Crimean battlefield; but his fate was appointed otherwise; and the
+      Upas-shadow which has blighted the whole Romish Church, blighted him also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, my dearest cousin!&rdquo; said Eustace, &ldquo;how disappointed I was this
+      morning at finding I had arrived just a day too late to witness your
+      triumph! But I hastened to your home as soon as I could, and learning from
+      your mother that I should find you here, hurried down to bid you welcome
+      again to Devon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, old lad, it does look very natural to see you. I often used to
+      think of you walking the deck o' nights. Uncle and the girls are all
+      right, then? But is the old pony dead yet? And how's Dick the smith, and
+      Nancy? Grown a fine maid by now, I warrant. 'Slid, it seems half a life
+      that I've been away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you really thought of your poor cousin? Be sure that he, too, thought
+      of you, and offered up nightly his weak prayers for your safety
+      (doubtless, not without avail) to those saints, to whom would that you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Halt there, coz. If they are half as good fellows as you and I take them
+      for, they'll help me without asking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have helped you, Amyas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe; I'd have done as much, I'm sure, for them, if I 'd been in their
+      place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do you not feel, then, that you owe a debt of gratitude to them; and,
+      above all, to her, whose intercessions have, I doubt not, availed for your
+      preservation? Her, the star of the sea, the all-compassionate guide of the
+      mariner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;Here's Frank; let him answer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, as he spoke, up came Frank, and after due greetings, sat down beside
+      them on the ridge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say, brother, here's Eustace trying already to convert me; and telling
+      me that I owe all my luck to the Blessed Virgin's prayers for me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be so,&rdquo; said Frank; &ldquo;at least you owe it to the prayers of that
+      most pure and peerless virgin by whose commands you sailed; the sweet
+      incense of whose orisons has gone up for you daily, and for whose sake you
+      were preserved from flood and foe, that you might spread the fame and
+      advance the power of the spotless championess of truth, and right, and
+      freedom,&mdash;Elizabeth, your queen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas answered this rhapsody, which would have been then both fashionable
+      and sincere, by a loyal chuckle. Eustace smiled meekly, but answered
+      somewhat venomously nevertheless&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I, at least, am certain that I speak the truth, when I call my patroness
+      a virgin undefiled.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Both the brothers' brows clouded at once. Amyas, as he lay on his back on
+      the pebbles, said quietly to the gulls over his head&mdash;&ldquo;I wonder what
+      the Frenchman whose head I cut off at the Azores, thinks by now about all
+      that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cut off a Frenchman's head?&rdquo; said Frank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, faith; and so fleshed my maiden sword. I'll tell you. It was in some
+      tavern; I and George Drake had gone in, and there sat this Frenchman, with
+      his sword on the table, ready for a quarrel (I found afterwards he was a
+      noted bully), and begins with us loudly enough about this and that; but,
+      after awhile, by the instigation of the devil, what does he vent but a
+      dozen slanders against her majesty's honor, one atop of the other? I was
+      ashamed to hear them, and I should be more ashamed to repeat them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard enough of such,&rdquo; said Frank. &ldquo;They come mostly through lewd
+      rascals about the French ambassador, who have been bred (God help them)
+      among the filthy vices of that Medicean Court in which the Queen of Scots
+      had her schooling; and can only perceive in a virtuous freedom a cloak for
+      licentiousness like their own. Let the curs bark; Honi soit qui mal y
+      pense is our motto, and shall be forever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I didn't let the cur bark; for I took him by the ears, to show him
+      out into the street. Whereon he got to his sword, and I to mine; and a
+      very near chance I had of never bathing on the pebble ridge more; for the
+      fellow did not fight with edge and buckler, like a Christian, but had some
+      newfangled French devil's device of scryming and foining with his point,
+      ha'ing and stamping, and tracing at me, that I expected to be full of
+      eyelet holes ere I could close with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank God that you are safe, then!&rdquo; said Frank. &ldquo;I know that play well
+      enough, and dangerous enough it is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course you know it; but I didn't, more's the pity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I'll teach it thee, lad, as well as Rowland Yorke himself,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Thy fincture, carricade, and sly passata,
+     Thy stramazon, and resolute stoccata,
+     Wiping maudritta, closing embrocata,
+     And all the cant of the honorable fencing mystery.'&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rowland Yorke? Who's he, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A very roystering rascal, who is making good profit in London just now by
+      teaching this very art of fence; and is as likely to have his mortal
+      thread clipt in a tavern brawl, as thy Frenchman. But how did you escape
+      his pinking iron?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How? Had it through my left arm before I could look round; and at that I
+      got mad, and leapt upon him, and caught him by the wrist, and then had a
+      fair side-blow; and, as fortune would have it, off tumbled his head on to
+      the table, and there was an end of his slanders.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So perish all her enemies!&rdquo; said Frank; and Eustace, who had been trying
+      not to listen, rose and said&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I trust that you do not number me among them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you speak, I do, coz,&rdquo; said Frank. &ldquo;But for your own sake, let me
+      advise you to put faith in the true report of those who have daily
+      experience of their mistress's excellent virtue, as they have of the sun's
+      shining, and of the earth's bringing forth fruit, and not in the tattle of
+      a few cowardly back-stair rogues, who wish to curry favor with the Guises.
+      Come, we will say no more. Walk round with us by Appledore, and then home
+      to breakfast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Eustace declined, having immediate business, he said, in Northam town,
+      and then in Bideford; and so left them to lounge for another half-hour on
+      the beach, and then walk across the smooth sheet of turf to the little
+      white fishing village, which stands some two miles above the bar, at the
+      meeting of the Torridge and the Taw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now it came to pass, that Eustace Leigh, as we have seen, told his cousins
+      that he was going to Northam: but he did not tell them that his point was
+      really the same as their own, namely, Appledore; and, therefore, after
+      having satisfied his conscience by going as far as the very nearest house
+      in Northam village, he struck away sharp to the left across the fields,
+      repeating I know not what to the Blessed Virgin all the way; whereby he
+      went several miles out of his road; and also, as is the wont of crooked
+      spirits, Jesuits especially (as three centuries sufficiently testify),
+      only outwitted himself. For his cousins going merrily, like honest men,
+      along the straight road across the turf, arrived in Appledore, opposite
+      the little &ldquo;Mariner's Rest&rdquo; Inn, just in time to see what Eustace had
+      taken so much trouble to hide from them, namely, four of Mr. Thomas
+      Leigh's horses standing at the door, held by his groom, saddles and
+      mail-bags on back, and mounting three of them, Eustace Leigh and two
+      strange gentlemen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's one lie already this morning,&rdquo; growled Amyas; &ldquo;he told us he was
+      going to Northam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And we do not know that he has not been there,&rdquo; blandly suggested Frank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, you are as bad a Jesuit as he, to help him out with such a fetch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He may have changed his mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless your pure imagination, my sweet boy,&rdquo; said Amyas, laying his great
+      hand on Frank's head, and mimicking his mother's manner. &ldquo;I say, dear
+      Frank, let's step into this shop and buy a penny-worth of whipcord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want with whipcord, man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To spin my top, to be sure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Top? how long hast had a top?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll buy one, then, and save my conscience; but the upshot of this sport
+      I must see. Why may not I have an excuse ready made as well as Master
+      Eustace?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, he pulled Frank into the little shop, unobserved by the party
+      at the inn-door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What strange cattle has he been importing now? Look at that three-legged
+      fellow, trying to get aloft on the wrong side. How he claws at his horse's
+      ribs, like a cat scratching an elder stem!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The three-legged man was a tall, meek-looking person, who had bedizened
+      himself with gorgeous garments, a great feather, and a sword so long and
+      broad, that it differed little in size from the very thin and stiff shanks
+      between which it wandered uncomfortably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Young David in Saul's weapons,&rdquo; said Frank. &ldquo;He had better not go in
+      them, for he certainly has not proved them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look, if his third leg is not turned into a tail! Why does not some one
+      in charity haul in half-a-yard of his belt for him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was too true; the sword, after being kicked out three or four times
+      from its uncomfortable post between his legs, had returned unconquered;
+      and the hilt getting a little too far back by reason of the too great
+      length of the belt, the weapon took up its post triumphantly behind,
+      standing out point in air, a tail confest, amid the tittering of the
+      ostlers, and the cheers of the sailors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last the poor man, by dint of a chair, was mounted safely, while his
+      fellow-stranger, a burly, coarse-looking man, equally gay, and rather more
+      handy, made so fierce a rush at his saddle, that, like &ldquo;vaulting ambition
+      who o'erleaps his selle,&rdquo; he &ldquo;fell on t'other side:&rdquo; or would have fallen,
+      had he not been brought up short by the shoulders of the ostler at his
+      off-stirrup. In which shock off came hat and feather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardie, the bulldog-faced one is a fighting man. Dost see, Frank? he has
+      had his head broken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That scar came not, my son, but by a pair of most Catholic and apostolic
+      scissors. My gentle buzzard, that is a priest's tonsure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hang the dog! O, that the sailors may but see it, and put him over the
+      quay head. I've a half mind to go and do it myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Amyas,&rdquo; said Frank, laying two fingers on his arm, &ldquo;these men,
+      whosoever they are, are the guests of our uncle, and therefore the guests
+      of our family. Ham gained little by publishing Noah's shame; neither shall
+      we, by publishing our uncle's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Murrain on you, old Franky, you never let a man speak his mind, and shame
+      the devil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have lived long enough in courts, old Amyas, without a murrain on you,
+      to have found out, first, that it is not so easy to shame the devil; and
+      secondly, that it is better to outwit him; and the only way to do that,
+      sweet chuck, is very often not to speak your mind at all. We will go down
+      and visit them at Chapel in a day or two, and see if we cannot serve these
+      reynards as the badger did the fox, when he found him in his hole, and
+      could not get him out by evil savors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stuck a sweet nosegay in the door, which turned reynard's stomach at
+      once; and so overcame evil with good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, thou art too good for this world, that's certain; so we will go
+      home to breakfast. Those rogues are out of sight by now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, Amyas was not proof against the temptation of going over to
+      the inn-door, and asking who were the gentlemen who went with Mr. Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gentlemen of Wales,&rdquo; said the ostler, &ldquo;who came last night in a pinnace
+      from Milford-haven, and their names, Mr. Morgan Evans and Mr. Evan
+      Morgans.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Judas Iscariot and Mr. Iscariot Judas,&rdquo; said Amyas between his teeth,
+      and then observed aloud, that the Welsh gentlemen seemed rather poor
+      horsemen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I said to Mr. Leigh's groom, your worship. But he says that those
+      parts be so uncommon rough and mountainous, that the poor gentlemen, you
+      see, being enforced to hunt on foot, have no such opportunities as young
+      gentlemen hereabout, like your worship; whom God preserve, and send a
+      virtuous lady, and one worthy of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou hast a villainously glib tongue, fellow!&rdquo; said Amyas, who was
+      thoroughly out of humor; &ldquo;and a sneaking down visage too, when I come to
+      look at you. I doubt but you are a Papist too, I do!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir! and what if I am! I trust I don't break the queen's laws by
+      that. If I don't attend Northam church, I pay my month's shilling for the
+      use of the poor, as the act directs; and beyond that, neither you nor any
+      man dare demand of me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dare! act directs! You rascally lawyer, you! and whence does an ostler
+      like you get your shilling to pay withal? Answer me.&rdquo; The examinate found
+      it so difficult to answer the question, that he suddenly became afflicted
+      with deafness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you hear?&rdquo; roared Amyas, catching at him with his lion's paw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, missus; anon, anon, missus!&rdquo; quoth he to an imaginary landlady
+      inside, and twisting under Amyas's hand like an eel, vanished into the
+      house, while Frank got the hot-headed youth away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a plague is one to do, then? That fellow was a Papist spy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course he was!&rdquo; said Frank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, what is one to do, if the whole country is full of them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not to make fools of ourselves about them, and so leave them to make
+      fools of themselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's all very fine: but&mdash;well, I shall remember the villain's face
+      if I see him again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no harm in that,&rdquo; said Frank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad you think so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't quarrel with me, Amyas, the first day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quarrel with thee, my darling old fellow! I had sooner kiss the dust off
+      thy feet, if I were worthy of it. So now away home; my inside cries
+      cupboard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile Messrs. Evans and Morgans were riding away, as fast as
+      the rough by-lanes would let them, along the fresh coast of the bay,
+      steering carefully clear of Northam town on the one hand, and on the
+      other, of Portledge, where dwelt that most Protestant justice of the
+      peace, Mr. Coffin. And it was well for them that neither Amyas Leigh, nor
+      indeed any other loyal Englishman, was by when they entered, as they
+      shortly did, the lonely woods which stretch along the southern wall of the
+      bay. For there Eustace Leigh pulled up short; and both he and his groom,
+      leaping from their horses, knelt down humbly in the wet grass, and
+      implored the blessing of the two valiant gentlemen of Wales, who, having
+      graciously bestowed it with three fingers apiece, became thenceforth no
+      longer Morgan Evans and Evan Morgans, Welshmen and gentlemen; but Father
+      Parsons and Father Gampian, Jesuits, and gentlemen in no sense in which
+      that word is applied in this book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a few minutes, the party were again in motion, ambling steadily and
+      cautiously along the high table-land, towards Moorwinstow in the west;
+      while beneath them on the right, at the mouth of rich-wooded glens, opened
+      vistas of the bright blue bay, and beyond it the sandhills of Braunton,
+      and the ragged rocks of Morte; while far away to the north and west the
+      lonely isle of Lundy hung like a soft gray cloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But they were not destined to reach their point as peaceably as they could
+      have wished. For just as they got opposite Clovelly dike, the huge old
+      Roman encampment which stands about midway in their journey, they heard a
+      halloo from the valley below, answered by a fainter one far ahead. At
+      which, like a couple of rogues (as indeed they were), Father Campian and
+      Father Parsons looked at each other, and then both stared round at the
+      wild, desolate, open pasture (for the country was then all unenclosed),
+      and the great dark furze-grown banks above their heads; and Campian
+      remarked gently to Parsons, that this was a very dreary spot, and likely
+      enough for robbers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A likelier spot for us, Father,&rdquo; said Eustace, punning. &ldquo;The old Romans
+      knew what they were about when they put their legions up aloft here to
+      overlook land and sea for miles away; and we may thank them some day for
+      their leavings. The banks are all sound; there is plenty of good water
+      inside; and&rdquo; (added he in Latin), &ldquo;in case our Spanish friends&mdash;you
+      understand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pauca verba, my son!&rdquo; said Campian: but as he spoke, up from the ditch
+      close beside him, as if rising out of the earth, burst through the
+      furze-bushes an armed cavalier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon, gentlemen!&rdquo; shouted he, as the Jesuit and his horse recoiled
+      against the groom. &ldquo;Stand, for your lives!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mater caelorum!&rdquo; moaned Campian; while Parsons, who, as all the world
+      knows, was a blustering bully enough (at least with his tongue), asked:
+      What a murrain right had he to stop honest folks on the queen's highway?
+      confirming the same with a mighty oath, which he set down as peccatum
+      veniale, on account of the sudden necessity; nay, indeed fraus pia, as
+      proper to support the character of that valiant gentleman of Wales, Mr.
+      Evan Morgans. But the horseman, taking no notice of his hint, dashed
+      across the nose of Eustace Leigh's horse, with a &ldquo;Hillo, old lad! where
+      ridest so early?&rdquo; and peering down for a moment into the ruts of the
+      narrow track-way, struck spurs into his horse, shouting, &ldquo;A fresh slot!
+      right away for Hartland! Forward, gentlemen all! follow, follow, follow!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is this roysterer?&rdquo; asked Parsons, loftily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will Cary, of Clovelly; an awful heretic: and here come more behind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And as he spoke four or five more mounted gallants plunged in and out of
+      the great dikes, and thundered on behind the party; whose horses, quite
+      understanding what game was up, burst into full gallop, neighing and
+      squealing; and in another minute the hapless Jesuits were hurling along
+      over moor and moss after a &ldquo;hart of grease.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Parsons, who, though a vulgar bully, was no coward, supported the
+      character of Mr. Evan Morgans well enough; and he would have really
+      enjoyed himself, had he not been in agonies of fear lest those precious
+      saddle-bags in front of him should break from their lashings, and rolling
+      to the earth, expose to the hoofs of heretic horses, perhaps to the gaze
+      of heretic eyes, such a cargo of bulls, dispensations, secret
+      correspondences, seditious tracts, and so forth, that at the very thought
+      of their being seen, his head felt loose upon his shoulders. But the
+      future martyr behind him, Mr. Morgan Evans, gave himself up at once to
+      abject despair, and as he bumped and rolled along, sought vainly for
+      comfort in professional ejaculations in the Latin tongue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mater intemerata! Eripe me e&mdash;Ugh! I am down! Adhaesit pavimento
+      venter!&mdash;No! I am not! El dilectum tuum e potestate canis&mdash;Ah!
+      Audisti me inter cornua unicornium! Put this, too, down in&mdash;ugh!&mdash;thy
+      account in favor of my poor&mdash;oh, sharpness of this saddle! Oh,
+      whither, barbarous islanders!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now riding on his quarter, not in the rough track-way like a cockney, but
+      through the soft heather like a sportsman, was a very gallant knight whom
+      we all know well by this time, Richard Grenville by name; who had made Mr.
+      Cary and the rest his guests the night before, and then ridden out with
+      them at five o'clock that morning, after the wholesome early ways of the
+      time, to rouse a well-known stag in the glens at Buckish, by help of Mr.
+      Coffin's hounds from Portledge. Who being as good a Latiner as Campian's
+      self, and overhearing both the scraps of psalm and the &ldquo;barbarous
+      islanders,&rdquo; pushed his horse alongside of Mr. Eustace Leigh, and at the
+      first check said, with two low bows towards the two strangers&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope Mr. Leigh will do me the honor of introducing me to his guests. I
+      should be sorry, and Mr. Cary also, that any gentle strangers should
+      become neighbors of ours, even for a day, without our knowing who they are
+      who honor our western Thule with a visit; and showing them ourselves all
+      due requital for the compliment of their presence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After which, the only thing which poor Eustace could do (especially as it
+      was spoken loud enough for all bystanders), was to introduce in due form
+      Mr. Evan Morgans and Mr. Morgan Evans, who, hearing the name, and, what
+      was worse, seeing the terrible face with its quiet searching eye, felt
+      like a brace of partridge-poults cowering in the stubble, with a hawk
+      hanging ten feet over their heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gentlemen,&rdquo; said Sir Richard blandly, cap in hand, &ldquo;I fear that your
+      mails must have been somewhat in your way in this unexpected gallop. If
+      you will permit my groom, who is behind, to disencumber you of them and
+      carry them to Chapel, you will both confer an honor on me, and be enabled
+      yourselves to see the mort more pleasantly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A twinkle of fun, in spite of all his efforts, played about good Sir
+      Richard's eye as he gave this searching hint. The two Welsh gentlemen
+      stammered out clumsy thanks; and pleading great haste and fatigue from a
+      long journey, contrived to fall to the rear and vanish with their guides,
+      as soon as the slot had been recovered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will!&rdquo; said Sir Richard, pushing alongside of young Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your worship?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jesuits, Will!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May the father of lies fly away with them over the nearest cliff!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will not do that while this Irish trouble is about. Those fellows are
+      come to practise here for Saunders and Desmond.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps they have a consecrated banner in their bag, the scoundrels!
+      Shall I and young Coffin on and stop them? Hard if the honest men may not
+      rob the thieves once in a way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; give the devil rope, and he will hang himself. Keep thy tongue at
+      home, and thine eyes too, Will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let Clovelly beach be watched night and day like any mousehole. No one
+      can land round Harty Point with these south-westers. Stop every fellow who
+      has the ghost of an Irish brogue, come he in or go he out, and send him
+      over to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some one should guard Bude-haven, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave that to me. Now then, forward, gentlemen all, or the stag will take
+      the sea at the Abbey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And on they crashed down the Hartland glens, through the oak-scrub and the
+      great crown-ferns; and the baying of the slow-hound and the tantaras of
+      the horn died away farther and fainter toward the blue Atlantic, while the
+      conspirators, with lightened hearts, pricked fast across Bursdon upon
+      their evil errand. But Eustace Leigh had other thoughts and other cares
+      than the safety of his father's two mysterious guests, important as that
+      was in his eyes; for he was one of the many who had drunk in sweet poison
+      (though in his case it could hardly be called sweet) from the magic
+      glances of the Rose of Torridge. He had seen her in the town, and for the
+      first time in his life fallen utterly in love; and now that she had come
+      down close to his father's house, he looked on her as a lamb fallen
+      unawares into the jaws of the greedy wolf, which he felt himself to be.
+      For Eustace's love had little or nothing of chivalry, self-sacrifice, or
+      purity in it; those were virtues which were not taught at Rheims. Careful
+      as the Jesuits were over the practical morality of their pupils, this
+      severe restraint had little effect in producing real habits of
+      self-control. What little Eustace had learnt of women from them, was as
+      base and vulgar as the rest of their teaching. What could it be else, if
+      instilled by men educated in the schools of Italy and France, in the age
+      which produced the foul novels of Cinthio and Bandello, and compelled
+      Rabelais in order to escape the rack and stake, to hide the light of his
+      great wisdom, not beneath a bushel, but beneath a dunghill; the age in
+      which the Romish Church had made marriage a legalized tyranny, and the
+      laity, by a natural and pardonable revulsion, had exalted adultery into a
+      virtue and a science? That all love was lust; that all women had their
+      price; that profligacy, though an ecclesiastical sin, was so pardonable,
+      if not necessary, as to be hardly a moral sin, were notions which Eustace
+      must needs have gathered from the hints of his preceptors; for their
+      written works bear to this day fullest and foulest testimony that such was
+      their opinion; and that their conception of the relation of the sexes was
+      really not a whit higher than that of the profligate laity who confessed
+      to them. He longed to marry Rose Salterne, with a wild selfish fury; but
+      only that he might be able to claim her as his own property, and keep all
+      others from her. Of her as a co-equal and ennobling helpmate; as one in
+      whose honor, glory, growth of heart and soul, his own were inextricably
+      wrapt up, he had never dreamed. Marriage would prevent God from being
+      angry with that, with which otherwise He might be angry; and therefore the
+      sanction of the Church was the more &ldquo;probable and safe&rdquo; course. But as yet
+      his suit was in very embryo. He could not even tell whether Rose knew of
+      his love; and he wasted miserable hours in maddening thoughts, and tost
+      all night upon his sleepless bed, and rose next morning fierce and pale,
+      to invent fresh excuses for going over to her uncle's house, and lingering
+      about the fruit which he dared not snatch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE TWO WAYS OF BEING CROST IN LOVE
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;I could not love thee, dear, so much,
+     Loved I not honor more.&rdquo;&mdash;LOVELACE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And what all this while has become of the fair breaker of so many hearts,
+      to whom I have not yet even introduced my readers?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was sitting in the little farm-house beside the mill, buried in the
+      green depths of the valley of Combe, half-way between Stow and Chapel,
+      sulking as much as her sweet nature would let her, at being thus shut out
+      from all the grand doings at Bideford, and forced to keep a Martinmas Lent
+      in that far western glen. So lonely was she, in fact, that though she
+      regarded Eustace Leigh with somewhat of aversion, and (being a good
+      Protestant) with a great deal of suspicion, she could not find it in her
+      heart to avoid a chat with him whenever he came down to the farm and to
+      its mill, which he contrived to do, on I know not what would-be errand,
+      almost every day. Her uncle and aunt at first looked stiff enough at these
+      visits, and the latter took care always to make a third in every
+      conversation; but still Mr. Leigh was a gentleman's son, and it would not
+      do to be rude to a neighboring squire and a good customer; and Rose was
+      the rich man's daughter and they poor cousins, so it would not do either
+      to quarrel with her; and besides, the pretty maid, half by wilfulness, and
+      half by her sweet winning tricks, generally contrived to get her own way
+      wheresoever she went; and she herself had been wise enough to beg her aunt
+      never to leave them alone,&mdash;for she &ldquo;could not a-bear the sight of
+      Mr. Eustace, only she must have some one to talk with down here.&rdquo; On which
+      her aunt considered, that she herself was but a simple country-woman; and
+      that townsfolks' ways of course must be very different from hers; and that
+      people knew their own business best; and so forth, and let things go on
+      their own way. Eustace, in the meanwhile, who knew well that the
+      difference in creed between him and Rose was likely to be the very hardest
+      obstacle in the way of his love, took care to keep his private opinions
+      well in the background; and instead of trying to convert the folk at the
+      mill, daily bought milk or flour from them, and gave it away to the old
+      women in Moorwinstow (who agreed that after all, for a Papist, he was a
+      godly young man enough); and at last, having taken counsel with Campian
+      and Parsons on certain political plots then on foot, came with them to the
+      conclusion that they would all three go to church the next Sunday. Where
+      Messrs. Evan Morgans and Morgan Evans, having crammed up the rubrics
+      beforehand, behaved themselves in a most orthodox and unexceptionable
+      manner; as did also poor Eustace, to the great wonder of all good folks,
+      and then went home flattering himself that he had taken in parson, clerk,
+      and people; not knowing in his simple unsimplicity, and cunning
+      foolishness, that each good wife in the parish was saying to the other,
+      &ldquo;He turned Protestant? The devil turned monk! He's only after Mistress
+      Salterne, the young hypocrite.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But if the two Jesuits found it expedient, for the holy cause in which
+      they were embarked, to reconcile themselves outwardly to the powers that
+      were, they were none the less busy in private in plotting their overthrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ever since April last they had been playing at hide-and-seek through the
+      length and breadth of England, and now they were only lying quiet till
+      expected news from Ireland should give them their cue, and a great &ldquo;rising
+      of the West&rdquo; should sweep from her throne that stiff-necked, persecuting,
+      excommunicate, reprobate, illegitimate, and profligate usurper, who
+      falsely called herself the Queen of England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For they had as stoutly persuaded themselves in those days, as they have
+      in these (with a real Baconian contempt of the results of sensible
+      experience), that the heart of England was really with them, and that the
+      British nation was on the point of returning to the bosom of the Catholic
+      Church, and giving up Elizabeth to be led in chains to the feet of the
+      rightful Lord of Creation, the Old Man of the Seven Hills. And this fair
+      hope, which has been skipping just in front of them for centuries, always
+      a step farther off, like the place where the rainbow touches the ground,
+      they used to announce at times, in language which terrified old Mr. Leigh.
+      One day, indeed, as Eustace entered his father's private room, after his
+      usual visit to the mill, he could hear voices high in dispute; Parsons as
+      usual, blustering; Mr. Leigh peevishly deprecating, and Campian, who was
+      really the sweetest-natured of men, trying to pour oil on the troubled
+      waters. Whereat Eustace (for the good of the cause, of course) stopped
+      outside and listened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My excellent sir,&rdquo; said Mr. Leigh, &ldquo;does not your very presence here show
+      how I am affected toward the holy cause of the Catholic faith? But I
+      cannot in the meanwhile forget that I am an Englishman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is England?&rdquo; said Parsons: &ldquo;A heretic and schismatic Babylon,
+      whereof it is written, 'Come out of her, my people, lest you be partaker
+      of her plagues.' Yea, what is a country? An arbitrary division of
+      territory by the princes of this world, who are naught, and come to
+      naught. They are created by the people's will; their existence depends on
+      the sanction of him to whom all power is given in heaven and earth&mdash;our
+      Holy Father the Pope. Take away the latter, and what is a king?&mdash;the
+      people who have made him may unmake him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear sir, recollect that I have sworn allegiance to Queen Elizabeth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir, you have, sir; and, as I have shown at large in my writings,
+      you were absolved from that allegiance from the moment that the bull of
+      Pius the Fifth declared her a heretic and excommunicate, and thereby to
+      have forfeited all dominion whatsoever. I tell you, sir, what I thought
+      you should have known already, that since the year 1569, England has had
+      no queen, no magistrates, no laws, no lawful authority whatsoever; and
+      that to own allegiance to any English magistrate, sir, or to plead in an
+      English court of law, is to disobey the apostolic precept, 'How dare you
+      go to law before the unbelievers?' I tell you, sir, rebellion is now not
+      merely permitted, it is a duty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care, sir; for God's sake, take care!&rdquo; said Mr. Leigh. &ldquo;Right or
+      wrong, I cannot have such language used in my house. For the sake of my
+      wife and children, I cannot!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear brother Parsons, deal more gently with the flock,&rdquo; interposed
+      Campian. &ldquo;Your opinion, though probable, as I well know, in the eyes of
+      most of our order, is hardly safe enough here; the opposite is at least so
+      safe that Mr. Leigh may well excuse his conscience for accepting it. After
+      all, are we not sent hither to proclaim this very thing, and to relieve
+      the souls of good Catholics from a burden which has seemed to them too
+      heavy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Parsons, half-sulkily, &ldquo;to allow all Balaams who will to
+      sacrifice to Baal, while they call themselves by the name of the Lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear brother, have I not often reminded you that Naaman was allowed to
+      bow himself in the house of Rimmon? And can we therefore complain of the
+      office to which the Holy Father has appointed us, to declare to such as
+      Mr. Leigh his especial grace, by which the bull of Pius the Fifth (on
+      whose soul God have mercy!) shall henceforth bind the queen and the
+      heretics only; but in no ways the Catholics, at least as long as the
+      present tyranny prevents the pious purposes of the bull?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it so, sir; be it so. Only observe this, Mr. Leigh, that our brother
+      Campian confesses this to be a tyranny. Observe, sir, that the bull does
+      still bind the so-called queen, and that she and her magistrates are still
+      none the less usurpers, nonentities, and shadows of a shade. And observe
+      this, sir, that when that which is lawful is excused to the weak, it
+      remains no less lawful to the strong. The seven thousand who had not bowed
+      the knee to Baal did not slay his priests; but Elijah did, and won to
+      himself a good reward. And if the rest of the children of Israel sinned
+      not in not slaying Eglon, yet Ehud's deed was none the less justified by
+      all laws human and divine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For Heaven's sake, do not talk so, sir! or I must leave the room. What
+      have I to do with Ehud and Eglon, and slaughters, and tyrannies? Our queen
+      is a very good queen, if Heaven would but grant her repentance, and turn
+      her to the true faith. I have never been troubled about religion, nor any
+      one else that I know of in the West country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget Mr. Trudgeon of Launceston, father, and poor Father Mayne,&rdquo;
+       interposed Eustace, who had by this time slipped in; and Campian added
+      softly&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, your West of England also has been honored by its martyrs, as well
+      as my London by the precious blood of Story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, young malapert?&rdquo; cried poor Leigh, facing round upon his son, glad
+      to find any one on whom he might vent his ill-humor; &ldquo;are you too against
+      me, with a murrain on you? And pray, what the devil brought Cuthbert Mayne
+      to the gallows, and turned Mr. Trudgeon (he was always a foolish hot-head)
+      out of house and home, but just such treasonable talk as Mr. Parsons must
+      needs hold in my house, to make a beggar of me and my children, as he will
+      before he has done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Blessed Virgin forbid!&rdquo; said Campian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Blessed Virgin forbid? But you must help her to forbid it, Mr.
+      Campian. We should never have had the law of 1571, against bulls, and
+      Agnus Deis, and blessed grains, if the Pope's bull of 1569 had not made
+      them matter of treason, by preventing a poor creature's saving his soul in
+      the true Church without putting his neck into a halter by denying the
+      queen's authority.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, sir?&rdquo; almost roared Parsons, &ldquo;do you dare to speak evil of the
+      edicts of the Vicar of Christ?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I? No. I didn't. Who says I did? All I meant was, I am sure&mdash;Mr.
+      Campian, you are a reasonable man, speak for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Leigh only meant, I am sure, that the Holy Father's prudent
+      intentions have been so far defeated by the perverseness and invincible
+      misunderstanding of the heretics, that that which was in itself meant for
+      the good of the oppressed English Catholics has been perverted to their
+      harm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thus, reverend sir,&rdquo; said Eustace, glad to get into his father's good
+      graces again, &ldquo;my father attaches blame, not to the Pope&mdash;Heaven
+      forbid!&mdash;but to the pravity of his enemies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And it is for this very reason,&rdquo; said Campian, &ldquo;that we have brought with
+      us the present merciful explanation of the bull.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll tell you what, gentlemen,&rdquo; said Mr. Leigh, who, like other weak men,
+      grew in valor as his opponent seemed inclined to make peace, &ldquo;I don't
+      think the declaration was needed. After the new law of 1571 was made, it
+      was never put in force till Mayne and Trudgeon made fools of themselves,
+      and that was full six years. There were a few offenders, they say, who
+      were brought up and admonished, and let go; but even that did not happen
+      down here, and need not happen now, unless you put my son here (for you
+      shall never put me, I warrant you) upon some deed which had better be left
+      alone, and so bring us all to shame.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your son, sir, if not openly vowed to God, has, I hope, a due sense of
+      that inward vocation which we have seen in him, and reverences his
+      spiritual fathers too well to listen to the temptations of his earthly
+      father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, sir, will you teach my son to disobey me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your son is ours also, sir. This is strange language in one who owes a
+      debt to the Church, which it was charitably fancied he meant to pay in the
+      person of his child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These last words touched poor Mr. Leigh in a sore point, and breaking all
+      bounds, he swore roundly at Parsons, who stood foaming with rage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A plague upon you, sir, and a black assizes for you, for you will come to
+      the gallows yet! Do you mean to taunt me in my own house with that
+      Hartland land? You had better go back and ask those who sent you where the
+      dispensation to hold the land is, which they promised to get me years ago,
+      and have gone on putting me off, till they have got my money, and my son,
+      and my conscience, and I vow before all the saints, seem now to want my
+      head over and above. God help me!&rdquo;&mdash;and the poor man's eyes fairly
+      filled with tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now was Eustace's turn to be roused; for, after all, he was an Englishman
+      and a gentleman; and he said kindly enough, but firmly&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Courage, my dearest father. Remember that I am still your son, and not a
+      Jesuit yet; and whether I ever become one, I promise you, will depend
+      mainly on the treatment which you meet with at the hands of these reverend
+      gentlemen, for whom I, as having brought them hither, must consider myself
+      as surety to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If a powder-barrel had exploded in the Jesuits' faces, they could not have
+      been more amazed. Campian looked blank at Parsons, and Parsons at Campian;
+      till the stouter-hearted of the two, recovering his breath at last&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir! do you know, sir, the curse pronounced on those who, after putting
+      their hand to the plough, look back?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace was one of those impulsive men, with a lack of moral courage, who
+      dare raise the devil, but never dare fight him after he has been raised;
+      and he now tried to pass off his speech by winking and making signs in the
+      direction of his father, as much as to say that he was only trying to
+      quiet the old man's fears. But Campian was too frightened, Parsons too
+      angry, to take his hints: and he had to carry his part through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All I read is, Father Parsons, that such are not fit for the kingdom of
+      God; of which high honor I have for some time past felt myself unworthy. I
+      have much doubt just now as to my vocation; and in the meanwhile have not
+      forgotten that I am a citizen of a free country.&rdquo; And so saying, he took
+      his father's arm, and walked out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His last words had hit the Jesuits hard. They had put the poor
+      cobweb-spinners in mind of the humiliating fact, which they have had
+      thrust on them daily from that time till now, and yet have never learnt
+      the lesson, that all their scholastic cunning, plotting, intriguing,
+      bulls, pardons, indulgences, and the rest of it, are, on this side the
+      Channel, a mere enchanter's cloud-castle and Fata Morgana, which vanishes
+      into empty air by one touch of that magic wand, the constable's staff. &ldquo;A
+      citizen of a free country!&rdquo;&mdash;there was the rub; and they looked at
+      each other in more utter perplexity than ever. At last Parsons spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's a woman in the wind. I'll lay my life on it. I saw him blush up
+      crimson yesterday when his mother asked him whether some Rose Salterne or
+      other was still in the neighborhood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A woman! Well, the spirit may be willing, though the flesh be weak. We
+      will inquire into this. The youth may do us good service as a layman; and
+      if anything should happen to his elder brother (whom the saints protect!)
+      he is heir to some wealth. In the meanwhile, our dear brother Parsons will
+      perhaps see the expediency of altering our tactics somewhat while we are
+      here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And thereupon a long conversation began between the two, who had been sent
+      together, after the wise method of their order, in obedience to the
+      precept, &ldquo;Two are better than one,&rdquo; in order that Campian might restrain
+      Parsons' vehemence, and Parsons spur on Campian's gentleness, and so each
+      act as the supplement of the other, and each also, it must be confessed,
+      gave advice pretty nearly contradictory to his fellow's if occasion should
+      require, &ldquo;without the danger,&rdquo; as their writers have it, &ldquo;of seeming
+      changeable and inconsistent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The upshot of this conversation was, that in a day or two (during which
+      time Mr. Leigh and Eustace also had made the amende honorable, and matters
+      went smoothly enough) Father Campian asked Father Francis, the household
+      chaplain, to allow him, as an especial favor, to hear Eustace's usual
+      confession on the ensuing Friday.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Father Francis dared not refuse so great a man; and assented with an
+      inward groan, knowing well that the intent was to worm out some family
+      secrets, whereby his power would be diminished, and the Jesuits'
+      increased. For the regular priesthood and the Jesuits throughout England
+      were toward each other in a state of armed neutrality, which wanted but
+      little at any moment to become open war, as it did in James the First's
+      time, when those meek missionaries, by their gentle moral tortures,
+      literally hunted to death the poor Popish bishop of Hippopotamus (that is
+      to say, London) for the time being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, Campian heard Eustace's confession; and by putting to him such
+      questions as may be easily conceived by those who know anything about the
+      confessional, discovered satisfactorily enough, that he was what Campian
+      would have called &ldquo;in love:&rdquo; though I should question much the propriety
+      of the term as applied to any facts which poor prurient Campian
+      discovered, or indeed knew how to discover, seeing that a swine has no eye
+      for pearls. But he had found out enough: he smiled, and set to work next
+      vigorously to discover who the lady might be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If he had frankly said to Eustace, &ldquo;I feel for you; and if your desires
+      are reasonable, or lawful, or possible, I will help you with all my heart
+      and soul,&rdquo; he might have had the young man's secret heart, and saved
+      himself an hour's trouble; but, of course, he took instinctively the
+      crooked and suspicious method, expected to find the case the worst
+      possible,&mdash;as a man was bound to do who had been trained to take the
+      lowest possible view of human nature, and to consider the basest motives
+      as the mainspring of all human action,&mdash;and began his moral torture
+      accordingly by a series of delicate questions, which poor Eustace dodged
+      in every possible way, though he knew that the good father was too cunning
+      for him, and that he must give in at last. Nevertheless, like a rabbit who
+      runs squealing round and round before the weasel, into whose jaws it knows
+      that it must jump at last by force of fascination, he parried and parried,
+      and pretended to be stupid, and surprised, and honorably scrupulous, and
+      even angry; while every question as to her being married or single,
+      Catholic or heretic, English or foreign, brought his tormentor a step
+      nearer the goal. At last, when Campian, finding the business not such a
+      very bad one, had asked something about her worldly wealth, Eustace saw a
+      door of escape and sprang at it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even if she be a heretic, she is heiress to one of the wealthiest
+      merchants in Devon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Campian, thoughtfully. &ldquo;And she is but eighteen, you say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only eighteen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! well, my son, there is time. She may be reconciled to the Church: or
+      you may change.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall die first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, poor lad! Well; she may be reconciled, and her wealth may be of use
+      to the cause of Heaven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And it shall be of use. Only absolve me, and let me be at peace. Let me
+      have but her,&rdquo; he cried piteously. &ldquo;I do not want her wealth,&mdash;not I!
+      Let me have but her, and that but for one year, one month, one day!&mdash;and
+      all the rest&mdash;money, fame, talents, yea, my life itself, hers if it
+      be needed&mdash;are at the service of Holy Church. Ay, I shall glory in
+      showing my devotion by some special sacrifice,&mdash;some desperate deed.
+      Prove me now, and see what there is I will not do!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so Eustace was absolved; after which Campian added,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is indeed well, my son: for there is a thing to be done now, but it
+      may be at the risk of life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prove me!&rdquo; cried Eustace, impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is a letter which was brought me last night; no matter from whence;
+      you can understand it better than I, and I longed to have shown it you,
+      but that I feared my son had become&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You feared wrongly, then, my dear Father Campian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Campian translated to him the cipher of the letter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This to Evan Morgans, gentleman, at Mr. Leigh's house in Moorwinstow,
+      Devonshire. News may be had by one who will go to the shore of Clovelly,
+      any evening after the 25th of November, at dead low tide, and there watch
+      for a boat, rowed by one with a red beard, and a Portugal by his speech.
+      If he be asked, 'How many?' he will answer, 'Eight hundred and one.' Take
+      his letters and read them. If the shore be watched, let him who comes show
+      a light three times in a safe place under the cliff above the town; below
+      is dangerous landing. Farewell, and expect great things!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go,&rdquo; said Eustace; &ldquo;to-morrow is the 25th, and I know a sure and
+      easy place. Your friend seems to know these shores well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! what is it we do not know?&rdquo; said Campian, with a mysterious smile.
+      &ldquo;And now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, to prove to you how I trust to you, you shall come with me, and
+      see this&mdash;the lady of whom I spoke, and judge for yourself whether my
+      fault is not a venial one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, my son, have I not absolved you already? What have I to do with fair
+      faces? Nevertheless, I will come, both to show you that I trust you, and
+      it may be to help towards reclaiming a heretic, and saving a lost soul:
+      who knows?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the two set out together; and, as it was appointed, they had just got
+      to the top of the hill between Chapel and Stow mill, when up the lane came
+      none other than Mistress Rose Salterne herself, in all the glories of a
+      new scarlet hood, from under which her large dark languid eyes gleamed
+      soft lightnings through poor Eustace's heart and marrow. Up to them she
+      tripped on delicate ankles and tiny feet, tall, lithe, and graceful, a
+      true West-country lass; and as she passed them with a pretty blush and
+      courtesy, even Campian looked back at the fair innocent creature, whose
+      long dark curls, after the then country fashion, rolled down from beneath
+      the hood below her waist, entangling the soul of Eustace Leigh within
+      their glossy nets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There!&rdquo; whispered he, trembling from head to foot. &ldquo;Can you excuse me
+      now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had excused you long ago;&rdquo; said the kindhearted father. &ldquo;Alas, that so
+      much fair red and white should have been created only as a feast for
+      worms!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A feast for gods, you mean!&rdquo; cried Eustace, on whose common sense the
+      naive absurdity of the last speech struck keenly; and then, as if to
+      escape the scolding which he deserved for his heathenry&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you let me return for a moment? I will follow you: let me go!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Campian saw that it was of no use to say no, and nodded. Eustace darted
+      from his side, and running across a field, met Rose full at the next turn
+      of the road.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She started, and gave a pretty little shriek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Leigh! I thought you had gone forward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came back to speak to you, Rose&mdash;Mistress Salterne, I mean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To you I must speak, tell you all, or die!&rdquo; And he pressed up close to
+      her. She shrank back, somewhat frightened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not stir; do not go, I implore you! Rose, only hear me!&rdquo; And fiercely
+      and passionately seizing her by the hand, he poured out the whole story of
+      his love, heaping her with every fantastic epithet of admiration which he
+      could devise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was little, perhaps, of all his words which Rose had not heard many
+      a time before; but there was a quiver in his voice, and a fire in his eye,
+      from which she shrank by instinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me go!&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;you are too rough, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay!&rdquo; he said, seizing now both her hands, &ldquo;rougher, perhaps, than the gay
+      gallants of Bideford, who serenade you, and write sonnets to you, and send
+      you posies. Rougher, but more loving, Rose! Do not turn away! I shall die
+      if you take your eyes off me! Tell me,&mdash;tell me, now here&mdash;this
+      moment&mdash;before we part&mdash;if I may love you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go away!&rdquo; she answered, struggling, and bursting into tears. &ldquo;This is too
+      rude. If I am but a merchant's daughter. I am God's child. Remember that I
+      am alone. Leave me; go! or I will call for help!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace had heard or read somewhere that such expressions in a woman's
+      mouth were mere facons de parler, and on the whole signs that she had no
+      objection to be alone, and did not intend to call for help; and he only
+      grasped her hands the more fiercely, and looked into her face with keen
+      and hungry eyes; but she was in earnest, nevertheless, and a loud shriek
+      made him aware that, if he wished to save his own good name, he must go:
+      but there was one question, for an answer to which he would risk his very
+      life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, proud woman! I thought so! Some one of those gay gallants has been
+      beforehand with me. Tell me who&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But she broke from him, and passed him, and fled down the lane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mark it!&rdquo; cried he, after her. &ldquo;You shall rue the day when you despised
+      Eustace Leigh! Mark it, proud beauty!&rdquo; And he turned back to join Campian,
+      who stood in some trepidation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have not hurt the maiden, my son? I thought I heard a scream.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hurt her! No. Would God that she were dead, nevertheless, and I by her!
+      Say no more to me, father. We will home.&rdquo; Even Campian knew enough of the
+      world to guess what had happened, and they both hurried home in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so Eustace Leigh played his move, and lost it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor little Rose, having run nearly to Chapel, stopped for very shame, and
+      walked quietly by the cottages which stood opposite the gate, and then
+      turned up the lane towards Moorwinstow village, whither she was bound. But
+      on second thoughts, she felt herself so &ldquo;red and flustered,&rdquo; that she was
+      afraid of going into the village, for fear (as she said to herself) of
+      making people talk, and so, turning into a by-path, struck away toward the
+      cliffs, to cool her blushes in the sea-breeze. And there finding a quiet
+      grassy nook beneath the crest of the rocks, she sat down on the turf, and
+      fell into a great meditation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose Salterne was a thorough specimen of a West-coast maiden, full of
+      passionate impulsive affections, and wild dreamy imaginations, a fit
+      subject, as the North-Devon women are still, for all romantic and gentle
+      superstitions. Left early without mother's care, she had fed her fancy
+      upon the legends and ballads of her native land, till she believed&mdash;what
+      did she not believe?&mdash;of mermaids and pixies, charms and witches,
+      dreams and omens, and all that world of magic in which most of the
+      countrywomen, and countrymen too, believed firmly enough but twenty years
+      ago. Then her father's house was seldom without some merchant, or
+      sea-captain from foreign parts, who, like Othello, had his tales of&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        &ldquo;Antres vast, and deserts idle,
+     Of rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads reach heaven.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      And,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;And of the cannibals that each other eat,
+     The anthropophagi, and men whose heads
+     Do grow beneath their shoulders.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      All which tales, she, like Desdemona, devoured with greedy ears, whenever
+      she could &ldquo;the house affairs with haste despatch.&rdquo; And when these failed,
+      there was still boundless store of wonders open to her in old romances
+      which were then to be found in every English house of the better class.
+      The Legend of King Arthur, Florice and Blancheflour, Sir Ysumbras, Sir Guy
+      of Warwick, Palamon and Arcite, and the Romaunt of the Rose, were with her
+      text-books and canonical authorities. And lucky it was, perhaps, for her
+      that Sidney's Arcadia was still in petto, or Mr. Frank (who had already
+      seen the first book or two in manuscript, and extolled it above all books
+      past, present, or to come) would have surely brought a copy down for Rose,
+      and thereby have turned her poor little flighty brains upside down
+      forever. And with her head full of these, it was no wonder if she had
+      likened herself of late more than once to some of those peerless
+      princesses of old, for whose fair hand paladins and kaisers thundered
+      against each other in tilted field; and perhaps she would not have been
+      sorry (provided, of course, no one was killed) if duels, and passages of
+      arms in honor of her, as her father reasonably dreaded, had actually taken
+      place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For Rose was not only well aware that she was wooed, but found the said
+      wooing (and little shame to her) a very pleasant process. Not that she had
+      any wish to break hearts: she did not break her heart for any of her
+      admirers, and why should they break theirs for her? They were all very
+      charming, each in his way (the gentlemen, at least; for she had long since
+      learnt to turn up her nose at merchants and burghers); but one of them was
+      not so very much better than the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course, Mr. Frank Leigh was the most charming; but then, as a courtier
+      and squire of dames, he had never given her a sign of real love, nothing
+      but sonnets and compliments, and there was no trusting such things from a
+      gallant, who was said (though, by the by, most scandalously) to have a
+      lady love at Milan, and another at Vienna, and half-a-dozen in the Court,
+      and half-a-dozen more in the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And very charming was Mr. William Cary, with his quips and his jests, and
+      his galliards and lavoltas; over and above his rich inheritance; but then,
+      charming also Mr. Coffin of Portledge, though he were a little proud and
+      stately; but which of the two should she choose? It would be very pleasant
+      to be mistress of Clovelly Court; but just as pleasant to find herself
+      lady of Portledge, where the Coffins had lived ever since Noah's flood
+      (if, indeed, they had not merely returned thither after that temporary
+      displacement), and to bring her wealth into a family which was as proud of
+      its antiquity as any nobleman in Devon, and might have made a fourth to
+      that famous trio of Devonshire Cs, of which it is written,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Crocker, Cruwys, and Copplestone,
+     When the Conqueror came were all at home.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      And Mr. Hugh Fortescue, too&mdash;people said that he was certain to
+      become a great soldier&mdash;perhaps as great as his brother Arthur&mdash;and
+      that would be pleasant enough, too, though he was but the younger son of
+      an innumerable family: but then, so was Amyas Leigh. Ah, poor Amyas! Her
+      girl's fancy for him had vanished, or rather, perhaps, it was very much
+      what it always had been, only that four or five more girl's fancies beside
+      it had entered in, and kept it in due subjection. But still, she could not
+      help thinking a good deal about him, and his voyage, and the reports of
+      his great strength, and beauty, and valor, which had already reached her
+      in that out-of-the-way corner; and though she was not in the least in love
+      with him, she could not help hoping that he had at least (to put her
+      pretty little thought in the mildest shape) not altogether forgotten her;
+      and was hungering, too, with all her fancy, to give him no peace till he
+      had told her all the wonderful things which he had seen and done in this
+      ever-memorable voyage. So that, altogether, it was no wonder, if in her
+      last night's dream the figure of Amyas had been even more forward and
+      troublesome than that of Frank or the rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, moreover, another figure had been forward and troublesome enough in
+      last night's sleep-world; and forward and troublesome enough, too, now in
+      to-day's waking-world, namely, Eustace, the rejected. How strange that she
+      should have dreamt of him the night before! and dreamt, too, of his
+      fighting with Mr. Frank and Mr. Amyas! It must be a warning&mdash;see, she
+      had met him the very next day in this strange way; so the first half of
+      her dream had come true; and after what had past, she only had to breathe
+      a whisper, and the second part of the dream would come true also. If she
+      wished for a passage of arms in her own honor, she could easily enough
+      compass one: not that she would do it for worlds! And after all, though
+      Mr. Eustace had been very rude and naughty, yet still it was not his own
+      fault; he could not help being in love with her. And&mdash;and, in short,
+      the poor little maid felt herself one of the most important personages on
+      earth, with all the cares (or hearts) of the country in her keeping, and
+      as much perplexed with matters of weight as ever was any Cleophila, or
+      Dianeme, Fiordispina or Flourdeluce, in verse run tame, or prose run mad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor little Rose! Had she but had a mother! But she was to learn her
+      lesson, such as it was, in another school. She was too shy (too proud
+      perhaps) to tell her aunt her mighty troubles; but a counsellor she must
+      have; and after sitting with her head in her hands, for half-an-hour or
+      more, she arose suddenly, and started off along the cliffs towards
+      Marsland. She would go and see Lucy Passmore, the white witch; Lucy knew
+      everything; Lucy would tell her what to do; perhaps even whom to marry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucy was a fat, jolly woman of fifty, with little pig-eyes, which twinkled
+      like sparks of fire, and eyebrows which sloped upwards and outwards, like
+      those of a satyr, as if she had been (as indeed she had) all her life
+      looking out of the corners of her eyes. Her qualifications as white witch
+      were boundless cunning, equally boundless good nature, considerable
+      knowledge of human weaknesses, some mesmeric power, some skill in &ldquo;yarbs,&rdquo;
+       as she called her simples, a firm faith in the virtue of her own
+      incantations, and the faculty of holding her tongue. By dint of these she
+      contrived to gain a fair share of money, and also (which she liked even
+      better) of power, among the simple folk for many miles round. If a child
+      was scalded, a tooth ached, a piece of silver was stolen, a heifer
+      shrew-struck, a pig bewitched, a young damsel crost in love, Lucy was
+      called in, and Lucy found a remedy, especially for the latter complaint.
+      Now and then she found herself on ticklish ground, for the
+      kind-heartedness which compelled her to help all distressed damsels out of
+      a scrape, sometimes compelled her also to help them into one; whereon
+      enraged fathers called Lucy ugly names, and threatened to send her into
+      Exeter gaol for a witch, and she smiled quietly, and hinted that if she
+      were &ldquo;like some that were ready to return evil for evil, such talk as that
+      would bring no blessing on them that spoke it;&rdquo; which being translated
+      into plain English, meant, &ldquo;If you trouble me, I will overlook (i. e.
+      fascinate) you, and then your pigs will die, your horses stray, your cream
+      turn sour, your barns be fired, your son have St. Vitus's dance, your
+      daughter fits, and so on, woe on woe, till you are very probably starved
+      to death in a ditch, by virtue of this terrible little eye of mine, at
+      which, in spite of all your swearing and bullying, you know you are now
+      shaking in your shoes for fear. So you had much better hold your tongue,
+      give me a drink of cider, and leave ill alone, lest you make it worse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Not that Lucy ever proceeded to any such fearful extremities. On the
+      contrary, her boast, and her belief too, was, that she was sent into the
+      world to make poor souls as happy as she could, by lawful means, of
+      course, if possible, but if not&mdash;why, unlawful ones were better than
+      none; for she &ldquo;couldn't a-bear to see the poor creatures taking on; she
+      was too, too tender-hearted.&rdquo; And so she was, to every one but her
+      husband, a tall, simple-hearted rabbit-faced man, a good deal older than
+      herself. Fully agreeing with Sir Richard Grenville's great axiom, that he
+      who cannot obey cannot rule, Lucy had been for the last five-and-twenty
+      years training him pretty smartly to obey her, with the intention, it is
+      to be charitably hoped, of letting him rule her in turn when his lesson
+      was perfected. He bore his honors, however, meekly enough, having a
+      boundless respect for his wife's wisdom, and a firm belief in her
+      supernatural powers, and let her go her own way and earn her own money,
+      while he got a little more in a truly pastoral method (not extinct yet
+      along those lonely cliffs), by feeding a herd of some dozen donkeys and
+      twenty goats. The donkeys fetched, at each low-tide, white shell-sand
+      which was to be sold for manure to the neighboring farmers; the goats
+      furnished milk and &ldquo;kiddy-pies;&rdquo; and when there was neither milking nor
+      sand-carrying to be done, old Will Passmore just sat under a sunny rock
+      and watched the buck-goats rattle their horns together, thinking about
+      nothing at all, and taking very good care all the while neither to inquire
+      nor to see who came in and out of his little cottage in the glen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prophetess, when Rose approached her oracular cave, was seated on a
+      tripod in front of the fire, distilling strong waters out of penny-royal.
+      But no sooner did her distinguished visitor appear at the hatch, than the
+      still was left to take care of itself, and a clean apron and mutch having
+      been slipt on, Lucy welcomed Rose with endless courtesies, and&mdash;&ldquo;Bless
+      my dear soul alive, who ever would have thought to see the Rose of
+      Torridge to my poor little place!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose sat down: and then? How to begin was more than she knew, and she
+      stayed silent a full five minutes, looking earnestly at the point of her
+      shoe, till Lucy, who was an adept in such cases, thought it best to
+      proceed to business at once, and save Rose the delicate operation of
+      opening the ball herself; and so, in her own way, half fawning, half
+      familiar&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my dear young lady, and what is it I can do for ye? For I guess you
+      want a bit of old Lucy's help, eh? Though I'm most mazed to see ye here,
+      surely. I should have supposed that pretty face could manage they sort of
+      matters for itself. Eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose, thus bluntly charged, confessed at once, and with many blushes and
+      hesitations, made her soon understand that what she wanted was &ldquo;To have
+      her fortune told.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eh? Oh! I see. The pretty face has managed it a bit too well already, eh?
+      Tu many o' mun, pure fellows? Well, 'tain't every mayden has her pick and
+      choose, like some I know of, as be blest in love by stars above. So you
+      hain't made up your mind, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose shook her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah&mdash;well,&rdquo; she went on, in a half-bantering tone. &ldquo;Not so asy, is
+      it, then? One's gude for one thing, and one for another, eh? One has the
+      blood, and another the money.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so the &ldquo;cunning woman&rdquo; (as she truly was), talking half to herself,
+      ran over all the names which she thought likely, peering at Rose all the
+      while out of the corners of her foxy bright eyes, while Rose stirred the
+      peat ashes steadfastly with the point of her little shoe, half angry, half
+      ashamed, half frightened, to find that &ldquo;the cunning woman&rdquo; had guessed so
+      well both her suitors and her thoughts about them, and tried to look
+      unconcerned at each name as it came out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well,&rdquo; said Lucy, who took nothing by her move, simply because
+      there was nothing to take; &ldquo;think over it&mdash;think over it, my dear
+      life; and if you did set your mind on any one&mdash;why, then&mdash;then
+      maybe I might help you to a sight of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A sight of him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His sperrit, dear life, his sperrit only, I mane. I 'udn't have no
+      keeping company in my house, no, not for gowld untowld, I 'udn't; but the
+      sperrit of mun&mdash;to see whether mun would be true or not, you'd like
+      to know that, now, 'udn't you, my darling?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose sighed, and stirred the ashes about vehemently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must first know who it is to be. If you could show me that&mdash;now&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I can show ye that, tu, I can. Ben there's a way to 't, a sure way;
+      but 'tis mortal cold for the time o' year, you zee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what is it, then?&rdquo; said Rose, who had in her heart been longing for
+      something of that very kind, and had half made up her mind to ask for a
+      charm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, you'm not afraid to goo into the say by night for a minute, are you?
+      And to-morrow night would serve, too; 't will be just low tide to
+      midnight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you would come with me perhaps&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll come, I'll come, and stand within call, to be sure. Only do ye mind
+      this, dear soul alive, not to goo telling a crumb about mun, noo, not for
+      the world, or yu'll see naught at all, indeed, now. And beside, there's a
+      noxious business grow'd up against me up to Chapel there; and I hear tell
+      how Mr. Leigh saith I shall to Exeter gaol for a witch&mdash;did ye ever
+      hear the likes?&mdash;because his groom Jan saith I overlooked mun&mdash;the
+      Papist dog! And now never he nor th' owld Father Francis goo by me without
+      a spetting, and saying of their Ayes and Malificas&mdash;I do know what
+      their Rooman Latin do mane, zo well as ever they, I du!&mdash;and a making
+      o' their charms and incantations to their saints and idols! They be mortal
+      feared of witches, they Papists, and mortal hard on 'em, even on a pure
+      body like me, that doth a bit in the white way; 'case why you see, dear
+      life,&rdquo; said she, with one of her humorous twinkles, &ldquo;tu to a trade do
+      never agree. Do ye try my bit of a charm, now; do ye!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose could not resist the temptation; and between them both the charm was
+      agreed on, and the next night was fixed for its trial, on the payment of
+      certain current coins of the realm (for Lucy, of course, must live by her
+      trade); and slipping a tester into the dame's hand as earnest, Rose went
+      away home, and got there in safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in the meanwhile, at the very hour that Eustace had been prosecuting
+      his suit in the lane at Moorwinstow, a very different scene was being
+      enacted in Mrs. Leigh's room at Burrough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the night before, Amyas, as he was going to bed, heard his brother
+      Frank in the next room tune his lute, and then begin to sing. And both
+      their windows being open, and only a thin partition between the chambers,
+      Amyas's admiring ears came in for every word of the following canzonet,
+      sung in that delicate and mellow tenor voice for which Frank was famed
+      among all fair ladies:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+      &ldquo;Ah, tyrant Love, Megaera's serpents bearing,
+     Why thus requite my sighs with venom'd smart?
+       Ah, ruthless dove, the vulture's talons wearing,
+     Why flesh them, traitress, in this faithful heart?
+       Is this my meed?  Must dragons' teeth alone
+       In Venus' lawns by lovers' hands be sown?
+
+      &ldquo;Nay, gentlest Cupid; 'twas my pride undid me.
+     Nay, guiltless dove; by mine own wound I fell.
+       To worship, not to wed, Celestials bid me:
+     I dreamt to mate in heaven, and wake in hell;
+       Forever doom'd, Ixion-like, to reel
+       On mine own passions' ever-burning wheel.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      At which the simple sailor sighed, and longed that he could write such
+      neat verses, and sing them so sweetly. How he would besiege the ear of
+      Rose Salterne with amorous ditties! But still, he could not be everything;
+      and if he had the bone and muscle of the family, it was but fair that
+      Frank should have the brains and voice; and, after all, he was bone of his
+      bone and flesh of his flesh, and it was just the same as if he himself
+      could do all the fine things which Frank could do; for as long as one of
+      the family won honor, what matter which of them it was? Whereon he shouted
+      through the wall, &ldquo;Good night, old song-thrush; I suppose I need not pay
+      the musicians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, awake?&rdquo; answered Frank. &ldquo;Come in here, and lull me to sleep with a
+      sea-song.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Amyas went in, and found Frank laid on the outside of his bed not yet
+      undrest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a bad sleeper,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;I spend more time, I fear, in burning the
+      midnight oil than prudent men should. Come and be my jongleur, my
+      minnesinger, and tell me about Andes, and cannibals, and the ice-regions,
+      and the fire-regions, and the paradises of the West.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Amyas sat down, and told: but somehow, every story which he tried to
+      tell came round, by crooked paths, yet sure, to none other point than Rose
+      Salterne, and how he thought of her here and thought of her there, and how
+      he wondered what she would say if she had seen him in this adventure, and
+      how he longed to have had her with him to show her that glorious sight,
+      till Frank let him have his own way, and then out came the whole story of
+      the simple fellow's daily and hourly devotion to her, through those three
+      long years of world-wide wanderings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And oh, Frank, I could hardly think of anything but her in the church the
+      other day, God forgive me! and it did seem so hard for her to be the only
+      face which I did not see&mdash;and have not seen her yet, either.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I thought, dear lad,&rdquo; said Frank, with one of his sweetest smiles;
+      &ldquo;and tried to get her father to let her impersonate the nymph of
+      Torridge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you, you dear kind fellow? That would have been too delicious.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so, too delicious; wherefore, I suppose, it was ordained not to be,
+      that which was being delicious enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is she as pretty as ever?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ten times as pretty, dear lad, as half the young fellows round have
+      discovered. If you mean to win her and wear her (and God grant you may
+      fare no worse!) you will have rivals enough to get rid of.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;I hope I shall not have to make short work with some
+      of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope not,&rdquo; said Frank, laughing. &ldquo;Now go to bed, and to-morrow morning
+      give your sword to mother to keep, lest you should be tempted to draw it
+      on any of her majesty's lieges.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No fear of that, Frank; I am no swash-buckler, thank God; but if any one
+      gets in my way, I'll serve him as the mastiff did the terrier, and just
+      drop him over the quay into the river, to cool himself, or my name's not
+      Amyas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the giant swung himself laughing out of the room, and slept all night
+      like a seal, not without dreams, of course, of Rose Salterne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning, according to his wont, he went into his mother's room,
+      whom he was sure to find up and at her prayers; for he liked to say his
+      prayers, too, by her side, as he used to do when he was a little boy. It
+      seemed so homelike, he said, after three years' knocking up and down in
+      no-man's land. But coming gently to the door, for fear of disturbing her,
+      and entering unperceived, beheld a sight which stopped him short.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh was sitting in her chair, with her face bowed fondly down upon
+      the head of his brother Frank, who knelt before her, his face buried in
+      her lap. Amyas could see that his whole form was quivering with stifled
+      emotion. Their mother was just finishing the last words of a well-known
+      text,&mdash;&ldquo;for my sake, and the Gospel's, shall receive a hundred-fold
+      in this present life, fathers, and mothers, and brothers, and sisters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not a wife!&rdquo; interrupted Frank, with a voice stifled with sobs; &ldquo;that
+      was too precious a gift for even Him to promise to those who gave up a
+      first love for His sake!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet,&rdquo; said he, after a moment's silence, &ldquo;has He not heaped me with
+      blessings enough already, that I must repine and rage at His refusing me
+      one more, even though that one be&mdash;No, mother! I am your son, and
+      God's; and you shall know it, even though Amyas never does!&rdquo; And he looked
+      up with his clear blue eyes and white forehead; and his face was as the
+      face of an angel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both of them saw that Amyas was present, and started and blushed. His
+      mother motioned him away with her eyes, and he went quietly out, as one
+      stunned. Why had his name been mentioned?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Love, cunning love, told him all at once. This was the meaning of last
+      night's canzonet! This was why its words had seemed to fit his own heart
+      so well! His brother was his rival. And he had been telling him all his
+      love last night. What a stupid brute he was! How it must have made poor
+      Frank wince! And then Frank had listened so kindly; even bid him God speed
+      in his suit. What a gentleman old Frank was, to be sure! No wonder the
+      queen was so fond of him, and all the Court ladies!&mdash;Why, if it came
+      to that, what wonder if Rose Salterne should be fond of him too? Hey-day!
+      &ldquo;That would be a pretty fish to find in my net when I come to haul it!&rdquo;
+       quoth Amyas to himself, as he paced the garden; and clutching desperately
+      hold of his locks with both hands, as if to hold his poor confused head on
+      its shoulders, he strode and tramped up and down the shell-paved garden
+      walks for a full half hour, till Frank's voice (as cheerful as ever,
+      though he more than suspected all) called him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in to breakfast, lad; and stop grinding and creaking upon those
+      miserable limpets, before thou hast set every tooth in my head on edge!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas, whether by dint of holding his head straight, or by higher means,
+      had got the thoughts of the said head straight enough by this time; and in
+      he came, and fell to upon the broiled fish and strong ale, with a sort of
+      fury, as determined to do his duty to the utmost in all matters that day,
+      and therefore, of course, in that most important matter of bodily
+      sustenance; while his mother and Frank looked at him, not without anxiety
+      and even terror, doubting what turn his fancy might have taken in so new a
+      case; at last&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Amyas, you will really heat your blood with all that strong ale!
+      Remember, those who drink beer, think beer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then they think right good thoughts, mother. And in the meanwhile, those
+      who drink water, think water. Eh, old Frank? and here's your health.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And clouds are water,&rdquo; said his mother, somewhat reassured by his genuine
+      good humor; &ldquo;and so are rainbows; and clouds are angels' thrones, and
+      rainbows the sign of God's peace on earth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas understood the hint, and laughed. &ldquo;Then I'll pledge Frank out of the
+      next ditch, if it please you and him. But first&mdash;I say&mdash;he must
+      hearken to a parable; a manner mystery, miracle play, I have got in my
+      head, like what they have at Easter, to the town-hall. Now then, hearken,
+      madam, and I and Frank will act.&rdquo; And up rose Amyas, and shoved back his
+      chair, and put on a solemn face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh looked up, trembling; and Frank, he scarce knew why, rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; you pitch again. You are King David, and sit still upon your throne.
+      David was a great singer, you know, and a player on the viols; and ruddy,
+      too, and of a fair countenance; so that will fit. Now, then, mother, don't
+      look so frightened. I am not going to play Goliath, for all my cubits; I
+      am to present Nathan the prophet. Now, David, hearken, for I have a
+      message unto thee, O King!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There were two men in one city, one rich, and the other poor: and the
+      rich man had many flocks and herds, and all the fine ladies in Whitehall
+      to court if he liked; and the poor man had nothing but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And in spite of his broad honest smile, Amyas's deep voice began to
+      tremble and choke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank sprang up, and burst into tears: &ldquo;Oh! Amyas, my brother, my brother!
+      stop! I cannot endure this. Oh, God! was it not enough to have entangled
+      myself in this fatal fancy, but over and above, I must meet the shame of
+      my brother's discovering it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shame, then, I'd like to know?&rdquo; said Amyas, recovering himself.
+      &ldquo;Look here, brother Frank! I've thought it all over in the garden; and I
+      was an ass and a braggart for talking to you as I did last night. Of
+      course you love her! Everybody must; and I was a fool for not recollecting
+      that; and if you love her, your taste and mine agree, and what can be
+      better? I think you are a sensible fellow for loving her, and you think me
+      one. And as for who has her, why, you're the eldest; and first come first
+      served is the rule, and best to keep to it. Besides, brother Frank, though
+      I'm no scholar, yet I'm not so blind but that I tell the difference
+      between you and me; and of course your chance against mine, for a hundred
+      to one; and I am not going to be fool enough to row against wind and tide
+      too. I'm good enough for her, I hope; but if I am, you are better, and the
+      good dog may run, but it's the best that takes the hare; and so I have
+      nothing more to do with the matter at all; and if you marry her, why, it
+      will set the old house on its legs again, and that's the first thing to be
+      thought of, and you may just as well do it as I, and better too. Not but
+      that it's a plague, a horrible plague!&rdquo; went on Amyas, with a ludicrously
+      doleful visage; &ldquo;but so are other things too, by the dozen; it's all in
+      the day's work, as the huntsman said when the lion ate him. One would
+      never get through the furze-croft if one stopped to pull out the prickles.
+      The pig didn't scramble out of the ditch by squeaking; and the less said
+      the sooner mended; nobody was sent into the world only to suck honey-pots.
+      What must be must, man is but dust; if you can't get crumb, you must fain
+      eat crust. So I'll go and join the army in Ireland, and get it out of my
+      head, for cannon balls fright away love as well as poverty does; and
+      that's all I've got to say.&rdquo; Wherewith Amyas sat down, and returned to the
+      beer; while Mrs. Leigh wept tears of joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas! Amyas!&rdquo; said Frank; &ldquo;you must not throw away the hopes of years,
+      and for me, too! Oh, how just was your parable! Ah! mother mine! to what
+      use is all my scholarship and my philosophy, when this dear simple
+      sailor-lad outdoes me at the first trial of courtesy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My children, my children, which of you shall I love best? Which of you is
+      the more noble? I thanked God this morning for having given me one such
+      son; but to have found that I possess two!&rdquo; And Mrs. Leigh laid her head
+      on the table, and buried her face in her hands, while the generous battle
+      went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, dearest Amyas!&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, Frank! if you don't hold your tongue, I must go forth. It was quite
+      trouble enough to make up one's mind, without having you afterwards trying
+      to unmake it again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas! if you give her up to me, God do so to me, and more also, if I do
+      not hereby give her up to you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He had done it already&mdash;this morning!&rdquo; said Mrs. Leigh, looking up
+      through her tears. &ldquo;He renounced her forever on his knees before me! only
+      he is too noble to tell you so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The more reason I should copy him,&rdquo; said Amyas, setting his lips, and
+      trying to look desperately determined, and then suddenly jumping up, he
+      leaped upon Frank, and throwing his arms round his neck, sobbed out,
+      &ldquo;There, there, now! For God's sake, let us forget all, and think about our
+      mother, and the old house, and how we may win her honor before we die! and
+      that will be enough to keep our hands full, without fretting about this
+      woman and that.&mdash;What an ass I have been for years! instead of
+      learning my calling, dreaming about her, and don't know at this minute
+      whether she cares more for me than she does for her father's 'prentices!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Amyas! every word of yours puts me to fresh shame! Will you believe
+      that I know as little of her likings as you do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't tell me that, and play the devil's game by putting fresh hopes into
+      me, when I am trying to kick them out. I won't believe it. If she is not a
+      fool, she must love you; and if she don't, why, be hanged if she is worth
+      loving!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dearest Amyas! I must ask you too to make no more such speeches to me.
+      All those thoughts I have forsworn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only this morning; so there is time to catch them again before they are
+      gone too far.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only this morning,&rdquo; said Frank, with a quiet smile: &ldquo;but centuries have
+      passed since then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Centuries? I don't see many gray hairs yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should not have been surprised if you had, though,&rdquo; answered Frank, in
+      so sad and meaning a tone that Amyas could only answer&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you are an angel!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You, at least, are something even more to the purpose, for you are a
+      man!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And both spoke truth, and so the battle ended; and Frank went to his
+      books, while Amyas, who must needs be doing, if he was not to dream,
+      started off to the dockyard to potter about a new ship of Sir Richard's,
+      and forget his woes, in the capacity of Sir Oracle among the sailors. And
+      so he had played his move for Rose, even as Eustace had, and lost her: but
+      not as Eustace had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      CLOVELLY COURT IN THE OLDEN TIME
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+          &ldquo;It was among the ways of good Queen Bess,
+             Who ruled as well as ever mortal can, sir,
+           When she was stogg'd, and the country in a mess,
+             She was wont to send for a Devon man, sir.&rdquo;
+
+                                         West Country Song.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The next morning Amyas Leigh was not to be found. Not that he had gone out
+      to drown himself in despair, or even to bemoan himself &ldquo;down by the
+      Torridge side.&rdquo; He had simply ridden off, Frank found, to Sir Richard
+      Grenville at Stow: his mother at once divined the truth, that he was gone
+      to try for a post in the Irish army, and sent off Frank after him to bring
+      him home again, and make him at least reconsider himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Frank took horse and rode thereon ten miles or more: and then, as there
+      were no inns on the road in those days, or indeed in these, and he had
+      some ten miles more of hilly road before him, he turned down the hill
+      towards Clovelly Court, to obtain, after the hospitable humane fashion of
+      those days, good entertainment for man and horse from Mr. Cary the squire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when he walked self-invited, like the loud-shouting Menelaus, into the
+      long dark wainscoted hall of the court, the first object he beheld was the
+      mighty form of Amyas, who, seated at the long table, was alternately
+      burying his face in a pasty, and the pasty in his face, his sorrows
+      having, as it seemed, only sharpened his appetite, while young Will Cary,
+      kneeling on the opposite bench, with his elbows on the table, was in that
+      graceful attitude laying down the law fiercely to him in a low voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hillo! lad,&rdquo; cried Amyas; &ldquo;come hither and deliver me out of the hands of
+      this fire-eater, who I verily believe will kill me, if I do not let him
+      kill some one else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! Mr. Frank,&rdquo; said Will Cary, who, like all other young gentlemen of
+      these parts, held Frank in high honor, and considered him a very oracle
+      and cynosure of fashion and chivalry, &ldquo;welcome here: I was just longing
+      for you, too; I wanted your advice on half-a-dozen matters. Sit down, and
+      eat. There is the ale.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None so early, thank you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah no!&rdquo; said Amyas, burying his head in the tankard, and then mimicking
+      Frank, &ldquo;avoid strong ale o' mornings. It heats the blood, thickens the
+      animal spirits, and obfuscates the cerebrum with frenetical and lymphatic
+      idols, which cloud the quintessential light of the pure reason. Eh? young
+      Plato, young Daniel, come hither to judgment! And yet, though I cannot see
+      through the bottom of the tankard already, I can see plain enough still to
+      see this, that Will shall not fight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I not, eh? who says that? Mr. Frank, I appeal to you, now; only
+      hear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are in the judgment-seat,&rdquo; said Frank, settling to the pasty.
+      &ldquo;Proceed, appellant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I was telling Amyas, that Tom Coffin, of Portledge; I will stand
+      him no longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him be, then,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;he could stand very well by himself, when
+      I saw him last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Plague on you, hold your tongue. Has he any right to look at me as he
+      does, whenever I pass him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That depends on how he looks; a cat may look at a king, provided she
+      don't take him for a mouse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I know how he looks, and what he means too, and he shall stop, or I
+      will stop him. And the other day, when I spoke of Rose Salterne&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo;
+       groaned Frank, &ldquo;Ate's apple again!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;(never mind what I said) he
+      burst out laughing in my face; and is not that a fair quarrel? And what is
+      more, I know that he wrote a sonnet, and sent it to her to Stow by a
+      market woman. What right has he to write sonnets when I can't? It's not
+      fair play, Mr. Frank, or I am a Jew, and a Spaniard, and a Papist; it's
+      not!&rdquo; And Will smote the table till the plates danced again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear knight of the burning pestle, I have a plan, a device, a
+      disentanglement, according to most approved rules of chivalry. Let us fix
+      a day, and summon by tuck of drum all young gentlemen under the age of
+      thirty, dwelling within fifteen miles of the habitation of that peerless
+      Oriana.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And all 'prentice-boys too,&rdquo; cried Amyas, out of the pasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And all 'prentice-boys. The bold lads shall fight first, with good
+      quarterstaves, in Bideford Market, till all heads are broken; and the head
+      which is not broken, let the back belonging to it pay the penalty of the
+      noble member's cowardice. After which grand tournament, to which that of
+      Tottenham shall be but a flea-bite and a batrachomyomachy&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Confound you, and your long words, sir,&rdquo; said poor Will, &ldquo;I know you are
+      flouting me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pazienza, Signor Cavaliere; that which is to come is no flouting, but
+      bloody and warlike earnest. For afterwards all the young gentlemen shall
+      adjourn into a convenient field, sand, or bog&mdash;which last will be
+      better, as no man will be able to run away, if he be up to his knees in
+      soft peat: and there stripping to our shirts, with rapiers of equal length
+      and keenest temper, each shall slay his man, catch who catch can, and the
+      conquerors fight again, like a most valiant main of gamecocks as we are,
+      till all be dead, and out of their woes; after which the survivor,
+      bewailing before heaven and earth the cruelty of our Fair Oriana, and the
+      slaughter which her basiliscine eyes have caused, shall fall gracefully
+      upon his sword, and so end the woes of this our lovelorn generation.
+      Placetne Domini? as they used to ask in the Senate at Oxford.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really,&rdquo; said Cary, &ldquo;this is too bad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So is, pardon me, your fighting Mr. Coffin with anything longer than a
+      bodkin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bodkins are too short for such fierce Bobadils,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;they would
+      close in so near, that we should have them falling to fisticuffs after the
+      first bout.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let them fight with squirts across the market-place; for by heaven
+      and the queen's laws, they shall fight with nothing else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Mr. Cary,&rdquo; went on Frank, suddenly changing his bantering tone to
+      one of the most winning sweetness, &ldquo;do not fancy that I cannot feel for
+      you, or that I, as well as you, have not known the stings of love and the
+      bitterer stings of jealousy. But oh, Mr. Cary, does it not seem to you an
+      awful thing to waste selfishly upon your own quarrel that divine wrath
+      which, as Plato says, is the very root of all virtues, and which has been
+      given you, like all else which you have, that you may spend it in the
+      service of her whom all bad souls fear, and all virtuous souls adore,&mdash;our
+      peerless queen? Who dares, while she rules England, call his sword or his
+      courage his own, or any one's but hers? Are there no Spaniards to conquer,
+      no wild Irish to deliver from their oppressors, that two gentlemen of
+      Devon can find no better place to flesh their blades than in each other's
+      valiant and honorable hearts?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By heaven!&rdquo; cried Amyas, &ldquo;Frank speaks like a book; and for me, I do
+      think that Christian gentlemen may leave love quarrels to bulls and rams.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that the heir of Clovelly,&rdquo; said Frank, smiling, &ldquo;may find more noble
+      examples to copy than the stags in his own deer-park.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Will, penitently, &ldquo;you are a great scholar, Mr. Frank, and
+      you speak like one; but gentlemen must fight sometimes, or where would be
+      their honor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I speak,&rdquo; said Frank, a little proudly, &ldquo;not merely as a scholar, but as
+      a gentleman, and one who has fought ere now, and to whom it has happened,
+      Mr. Cary, to kill his man (on whose soul may God have mercy); but it is my
+      pride to remember that I have never yet fought in my own quarrel, and my
+      trust in God that I never shall. For as there is nothing more noble and
+      blessed than to fight in behalf of those whom we love, so to fight in our
+      own private behalf is a thing not to be allowed to a Christian man, unless
+      refusal imports utter loss of life or honor; and even then, it may be
+      (though I would not lay a burden on any man's conscience), it is better
+      not to resist evil, but to overcome it with good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I can tell you, Will,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;I am not troubled with fear of
+      ghosts; but when I cut off the Frenchman's head, I said to myself, 'If
+      that braggart had been slandering me instead of her gracious majesty, I
+      should expect to see that head lying on my pillow every time I went to bed
+      at night.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forbid!&rdquo; said Will, with a shudder. &ldquo;But what shall I do? for to the
+      market tomorrow I will go, if it were choke-full of Coffins, and a ghost
+      in each coffin of the lot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave the matter to me,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;I have my device, as well as
+      scholar Frank here; and if there be, as I suppose there must be, a quarrel
+      in the market to-morrow, see if I do not&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you are two good fellows,&rdquo; said Will. &ldquo;Let us have another tankard
+      in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And drink the health of Mr. Coffin, and all gallant lads of the North,&rdquo;
+       said Frank; &ldquo;and now to my business. I have to take this runaway youth
+      here home to his mother; and if he will not go quietly, I have orders to
+      carry him across my saddle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope your nag has a strong back, then,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;but I must go on
+      and see Sir Richard, Frank. It is all very well to jest as we have been
+      doing, but my mind is made up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop,&rdquo; said Cary. &ldquo;You must stay here tonight; first, for good
+      fellowship's sake; and next, because I want the advice of our Phoenix
+      here, our oracle, our paragon. There, Mr. Frank, can you construe that for
+      me? Speak low, though, gentlemen both; there comes my father; you had
+      better give me the letter again. Well, father, whence this morning?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eh, company here? Young men, you are always welcome, and such as you.
+      Would there were more of your sort in these dirty times! How is your good
+      mother, Frank, eh? Where have I been, Will? Round the house-farm, to look
+      at the beeves. That sheeted heifer of Prowse's is all wrong; her coat
+      stares like a hedgepig's. Tell Jewell to go up and bring her in before
+      night. And then up the forty acres; sprang two coveys, and picked a leash
+      out of them. The Irish hawk flies as wild as any haggard still, and will
+      never make a bird. I had to hand her to Tom, and take the little
+      peregrine. Give me a Clovelly hawk against the world, after all; and&mdash;heigh
+      ho, I am very hungry! Half-past twelve, and dinner not served? What,
+      Master Amyas, spoiling your appetite with strong ale? Better have tried
+      sack, lad; have some now with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the worthy old gentleman, having finished his oration, settled himself
+      on a great bench inside the chimney, and put his hawk on a perch over his
+      head, while his cockers coiled themselves up close to the warm peat-ashes,
+      and his son set to work to pull off his father's boots, amid sundry
+      warnings to take care of his corns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, Master Amyas, a pint of white wine and sugar, and a bit of a
+      shoeing-horn to it ere we dine. Some pickled prawns, now, or a rasher off
+      the coals, to whet you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; quoth Amyas; &ldquo;but I have drunk a mort of outlandish liquors,
+      better and worse, in the last three years, and yet never found aught to
+      come up to good ale, which needs neither shoeing-horn before nor after,
+      but takes care of itself, and of all honest stomachs too, I think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You speak like a book, boy,&rdquo; said old Cary; &ldquo;and after all, what a plague
+      comes of these newfangled hot wines, and aqua vitaes, which have come in
+      since the wars, but maddening of the brains, and fever of the blood?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear we have not seen the end of that yet,&rdquo; said Frank. &ldquo;My friends
+      write me from the Netherlands that our men are falling into a swinish
+      trick of swilling like the Hollanders. Heaven grant that they may not
+      bring home the fashion with them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A man must drink, they say, or die of the ague, in those vile swamps,&rdquo;
+       said Amyas. &ldquo;When they get home here, they will not need it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heaven grant it,&rdquo; said Frank; &ldquo;I should be sorry to see Devonshire a
+      drunken county; and there are many of our men out there with Mr.
+      Champernoun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said Cary, &ldquo;there, as in Ireland, we are proving her majesty's
+      saying true, that Devonshire is her right hand, and the young children
+      thereof like the arrows in the hand of the giant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They may well be,&rdquo; said his son, &ldquo;when some of them are giants
+      themselves, like my tall school-fellow opposite.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will be up and doing again presently, I'll warrant him,&rdquo; said old
+      Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that I shall,&rdquo; quoth Amyas. &ldquo;I have been devising brave deeds; and
+      see in the distance enchanters to be bound, dragons choked, empires
+      conquered, though not in Holland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do?&rdquo; asked Will, a little sharply; for he had had a half suspicion
+      that more was meant than met the ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Amyas, turning off his jest again, &ldquo;I go to what Raleigh calls
+      the Land of the Nymphs. Another month, I hope, will see me abroad in
+      Ireland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Abroad? Call it rather at home,&rdquo; said old Cary; &ldquo;for it is full of Devon
+      men from end to end, and you will be among friends all day long. George
+      Bourchier from Tawstock has the army now in Munster, and Warham St. Leger
+      is marshal; George Carew is with Lord Grey of Wilton (Poor Peter Carew was
+      killed at Glendalough); and after the defeat last year, when that villain
+      Desmond cut off Herbert and Price, the companies were made up with six
+      hundred Devon men, and Arthur Fortescue at their head; so that the old
+      county holds her head as proudly in the Land of Ire as she does in the Low
+      Countries and the Spanish Main.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where,&rdquo; asked Amyas, &ldquo;is Davils of Marsland, who used to teach me how
+      to catch trout, when I was staying down at Stow? He is in Ireland, too, is
+      he not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, my lad,&rdquo; said Mr. Cary, &ldquo;that is a sad story. I thought all England
+      had known it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget, sir, I am a stranger. Surely he is not dead?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Murdered foully, lad! Murdered like a dog, and by the man whom he had
+      treated as his son, and who pretended, the false knave! to call him
+      father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His blood is avenged?&rdquo; said Amyas, fiercely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, by heaven, not yet! Stay, don't cry out again. I am getting old&mdash;I
+      must tell my story my own way. It was last July,&mdash;was it not, Will?&mdash;Over
+      comes to Ireland Saunders, one of those Jesuit foxes, as the Pope's
+      legate, with money and bulls, and a banner hallowed by the Pope, and the
+      devil knows what beside; and with him James Fitzmaurice, the same fellow
+      who had sworn on his knees to Perrott, in the church at Kilmallock, to be
+      a true liegeman to Queen Elizabeth, and confirmed it by all his saints,
+      and such a world of his Irish howling, that Perrott told me he was fain to
+      stop his own ears. Well, he had been practising with the King of France,
+      but got nothing but laughter for his pains, and so went over to the Most
+      Catholic King, and promises him to join Ireland to Spain, and set up
+      Popery again, and what not. And he, I suppose, thinking it better that
+      Ireland should belong to him than to the Pope's bastard, fits him out, and
+      sends him off on such another errand as Stukely's,&mdash;though I will
+      say, for the honor of Devon, if Stukely lived like a fool, he died like an
+      honest man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Thomas Stukely dead too?&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a while, lad, and you shall have that tragedy afterwards. Well,
+      where was I? Oh, Fitzmaurice and the Jesuits land at Smerwick, with three
+      ships, choose a place for a fort, bless it with their holy water, and
+      their moppings and their scourings, and the rest of it, to purify it from
+      the stain of heretic dominion; but in the meanwhile one of the Courtenays,&mdash;a
+      Courtenay of Haccombe, was it?&mdash;or a Courtenay of Boconnock? Silence,
+      Will, I shall have it in a minute&mdash;yes, a Courtenay of Haccombe it
+      was, lying at anchor near by, in a ship of war of his, cuts out the three
+      ships, and cuts off the Dons from the sea. John and James Desmond, with
+      some small rabble, go over to the Spaniards. Earl Desmond will not join
+      them, but will not fight them, and stands by to take the winning side; and
+      then in comes poor Davils, sent down by the Lord Deputy to charge Desmond
+      and his brothers, in the queen's name, to assault the Spaniards. Folks say
+      it was rash of his lordship: but I say, what could be better done? Every
+      one knows that there never was a stouter or shrewder soldier than Davils;
+      and the young Desmonds, I have heard him say many a time, used to look on
+      him as their father. But he found out what it was to trust Englishmen
+      turned Irish. Well, the Desmonds found out on a sudden that the Dons were
+      such desperate Paladins, that it was madness to meddle, though they were
+      five to one; and poor Davils, seeing that there was no fight in them, goes
+      back for help, and sleeps that night at some place called Tralee. Arthur
+      Carter of Bideford, St. Leger's lieutenant, as stout an old soldier as
+      Davils himself, sleeps in the same bed with him; the lacquey-boy, who is
+      now with Sir Richard at Stow, on the floor at their feet. But in the dead
+      of night, who should come in but James Desmond, sword in hand, with a
+      dozen of his ruffians at his heels, each with his glib over his ugly face,
+      and his skene in his hand. Davils springs up in bed, and asks but this,
+      'What is the matter, my son?' whereon the treacherous villain, without
+      giving him time to say a prayer, strikes at him, naked as he was, crying,
+      'Thou shalt be my father no longer, nor I thy son! Thou shalt die!' and at
+      that all the rest fall on him. The poor little lad (so he says) leaps up
+      to cover his master with his naked body, gets three or four stabs of
+      skenes, and so falls for dead; with his master and Captain Carter, who
+      were dead indeed&mdash;God reward them! After that the ruffians ransacked
+      the house, till they had murdered every Englishman in it, the lacquey-boy
+      only excepted, who crawled out, wounded as he was, through a window; while
+      Desmond, if you will believe it, went back, up to his elbows in blood, and
+      vaunted his deeds to the Spaniards, and asked them&mdash;'There! Will you
+      take that as a pledge that I am faithful to you?' And that, my lad, was
+      the end of Henry Davils, and will be of all who trust to the faith of wild
+      savages.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would go a hundred miles to see that Desmond hanged!&rdquo; said Amyas, while
+      great tears ran down his face. &ldquo;Poor Mr. Davils! And now, what is the
+      story of Sir Thomas?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your brother must tell you that, lad; I am somewhat out of breath.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I have a right to tell it,&rdquo; said Frank, with a smile. &ldquo;Do you know
+      that I was very near being Earl of the bog of Allen, and one of the peers
+      of the realm to King Buoncompagna, son and heir to his holiness Pope
+      Gregory the Thirteenth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, surely!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I am a gentleman. When I was at Rome I saw poor Stukely often; and
+      this and more he offered me on the part (as he said) of the Pope, if I
+      would just oblige him in the two little matters of being reconciled to the
+      Catholic Church, and joining the invasion of Ireland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor deluded heretic,&rdquo; said Will Cary, &ldquo;to have lost an earldom for your
+      family by such silly scruples of loyalty!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not a matter for jesting, after all,&rdquo; said Frank; &ldquo;but I saw Sir
+      Thomas often, and I cannot believe he was in his senses, so frantic was
+      his vanity and his ambition; and all the while, in private matters as
+      honorable a gentleman as ever. However, he sailed at last for Ireland,
+      with his eight hundred Spaniards and Italians; and what is more, I know
+      that the King of Spain paid their charges. Marquis Vinola&mdash;James
+      Buoncompagna, that is&mdash;stayed quietly at Rome, preferring that
+      Stukely should conquer his paternal heritage of Ireland for him while he
+      took care of the bona robas at home. I went down to Civita Vecchia to see
+      him off; and though his younger by many years, I could not but take the
+      liberty of entreating him, as a gentleman and a man of Devon, to consider
+      his faith to his queen and the honor of his country. There were high words
+      between us; God forgive me if I spoke too fiercely, for I never saw him
+      again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Too fiercely to an open traitor, Frank? Why not have run him through?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, I had no clean life for Sundays, Amyas; so I could not throw away my
+      week-day one; and as for the weal of England, I knew that it was little he
+      would damage it, and told him so. And at that he waxed utterly mad, for it
+      touched his pride, and swore that if the wind had not been fair for
+      sailing, he would have fought me there and then; to which I could only
+      answer, that I was ready to meet him when he would; and he parted from me,
+      saying, 'It is a pity, sir, I cannot fight you now; when next we meet, it
+      will be beneath my dignity to measure swords with you.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose he expected to come back a prince at least&mdash;Heaven knows;
+      I owe him no ill-will, nor I hope does any man. He has paid all debts now
+      in full, and got his receipt for them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did he die, then, after all?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On his voyage he touched in Portugal. King Sebastian was just sailing for
+      Africa with his new ally, Mohammed the Prince of Fez, to help King
+      Abdallah, and conquer what he could. He persuaded Stukely to go with him.
+      There were those who thought that he, as well as the Spaniards, had no
+      stomach for seeing the Pope's son King of Ireland. Others used to say that
+      he thought an island too small for his ambition, and must needs conquer a
+      continent&mdash;I know not why it was, but he went. They had heavy weather
+      in the passage; and when they landed, many of their soldiers were
+      sea-sick. Stukely, reasonably enough, counselled that they should wait two
+      or three days and recruit; but Don Sebastian was so mad for the assault
+      that he must needs have his veni, vidi, vici; and so ended with a veni,
+      vidi, perii; for he Abdallah, and his son Mohammed, all perished in the
+      first battle at Alcasar; and Stukely, surrounded and overpowered, fought
+      till he could fight no more, and then died like a hero with all his wounds
+      in front; and may God have mercy on his soul!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;we heard of that battle off Lima, but nothing about
+      poor Stukely.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That last was a Popish prayer, Master Frank,&rdquo; said old Mr. Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most worshipful sir, you surely would not wish God not to have mercy on
+      his soul?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;eh? Of course not: but that's all settled by now, for he is
+      dead, poor fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly, my dear sir. And you cannot help being a little fond of him
+      still.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eh? why, I should be a brute if I were not. He and I were schoolfellows,
+      though he was somewhat the younger; and many a good thrashing have I given
+      him, and one cannot help having a tenderness for a man after that. Beside,
+      we used to hunt together in Exmoor, and have royal nights afterward into
+      Ilfracombe, when we were a couple of mad young blades. Fond of him? Why, I
+      would have sooner given my forefinger than that he should have gone to the
+      dogs thus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, my dear sir, if you feel for him still, in spite of all his faults,
+      how do you know that God may not feel for him still, in spite of all his
+      faults? For my part,&rdquo; quoth Frank, in his fanciful way, &ldquo;without believing
+      in that Popish Purgatory, I cannot help holding with Plato, that such
+      heroical souls, who have wanted but little of true greatness, are
+      hereafter by some strait discipline brought to a better mind; perhaps, as
+      many ancients have held with the Indian Gymnosophists, by transmigration
+      into the bodies of those animals whom they have resembled in their
+      passions; and indeed, if Sir Thomas Stukely's soul should now animate the
+      body of a lion, all I can say is that he would be a very valiant and royal
+      lion; and also doubtless become in due time heartily ashamed and penitent
+      for having been nothing better than a lion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What now, Master Frank? I don't trouble my head with such matters&mdash;I
+      say Stukely was a right good-hearted fellow at bottom; and if you plague
+      my head with any of your dialectics, and propositions, and college quips
+      and quiddities, you sha'n't have any more sack, sir. But here come the
+      knaves, and I hear the cook knock to dinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After a madrigal or two, and an Italian song of Master Frank's, all which
+      went sweetly enough, the ladies rose, and went. Whereon Will Cary, drawing
+      his chair close to Frank's, put quietly into his hand a dirty letter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This was the letter left for me,&rdquo; whispered he, &ldquo;by a country fellow this
+      morning. Look at it and tell me what I am to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon Frank opened, and read&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Mister Cary, be you wary
+        By deer park end to-night.
+     Yf Irish ffoxe com out of rocks
+        Grip and hold hym tight.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would have showed it my father,&rdquo; said Will, &ldquo;but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I verily believe it to be a blind. See now, this is the handwriting of a
+      man who has been trying to write vilely, and yet cannot. Look at that B,
+      and that G; their formae formativae never were begotten in a hedge-school.
+      And what is more, this is no Devon man's handiwork. We say 'to' and not
+      'by,' Will, eh? in the West country?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And 'man,' instead of 'him'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True, O Daniel! But am I to do nothing therefore?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On that matter I am no judge. Let us ask much-enduring Ulysses here;
+      perhaps he has not sailed round the world without bringing home a device
+      or two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon Amyas was called to counsel, as soon as Mr. Cary could be stopped
+      in a long cross-examination of him as to Mr. Doughty's famous trial and
+      execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas pondered awhile, thrusting his hands into his long curls; and then&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will, my lad, have you been watching at the Deer Park End of late?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At the town-beach.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where else?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At the town-head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where else?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, the fellow is turned lawyer! Above Freshwater.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is Freshwater?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, where the water-fall comes over the cliff, half-a-mile from the
+      town. There is a path there up into the forest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know. I'll watch there to-night. Do you keep all your old haunts safe,
+      of course, and send a couple of stout knaves to the mill, to watch the
+      beach at the Deer Park End, on the chance; for your poet may be a true
+      man, after all. But my heart's faith is, that this comes just to draw you
+      off from some old beat of yours, upon a wild-goose chase. If they shoot
+      the miller by mistake, I suppose it don't much matter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Marry, no.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;'When a miller's knock'd on the head,
+     The less of flour makes the more of bread.'&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or, again,&rdquo; chimed in old Mr. Cary, &ldquo;as they say in the North&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;'Find a miller that will not steal,
+     Or a webster that is leal,
+     Or a priest that is not greedy,
+     And lay them three a dead corpse by;
+     And by the virtue of them three,
+     The said dead corpse shall quicken'd be.'&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why are you so ready to watch Freshwater to-night, Master Amyas?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, sir, those who come, if they come, will never land at Mouthmill;
+      if they are strangers, they dare not; and if they are bay's-men, they are
+      too wise, as long as the westerly swell sets in. As for landing at the
+      town, that would be too great a risk; but Freshwater is as lonely as the
+      Bermudas; and they can beach a boat up under the cliff at all tides, and
+      in all weathers, except north and nor'west. I have done it many a time,
+      when I was a boy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And give us the fruit of your experience now in your old age, eh? Well,
+      you have a gray head on green shoulders, my lad; and I verily believe you
+      are right. Who will you take with you to watch?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said Frank, &ldquo;I will go with my brother; and that will be enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough? He is big enough, and you brave enough, for ten; but still, the
+      more the merrier.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the fewer, the better fare. If I might ask a first and last favor,
+      worshipful sir,&rdquo; said Frank, very earnestly, &ldquo;you would grant me two
+      things: that you would let none go to Freshwater but me and my brother;
+      and that whatsoever we shall bring you back shall be kept as secret as the
+      commonweal and your loyalty shall permit. I trust that we are not so
+      unknown to you, or to others, that you can doubt for a moment but that
+      whatsoever we may do will satisfy at once your honor and our own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear young gentleman, there is no need of so many courtier's words. I
+      am your father's friend, and yours. And God forbid that a Cary&mdash;for I
+      guess your drift&mdash;should ever wish to make a head or a heart ache;
+      that is, more than&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those of whom it is written, 'Though thou bray a fool in a mortar, yet
+      will not his folly depart from him,'&rdquo; interposed Frank, in so sad a tone
+      that no one at the table replied; and few more words were exchanged, till
+      the two brothers were safe outside the house; and then&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas,&rdquo; said Frank, &ldquo;that was a Devon man's handiwork, nevertheless; it
+      was Eustace's handwriting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, lad. I have been secretary to a prince, and learnt to interpret
+      cipher, and to watch every pen-stroke; and, young as I am, I think that I
+      am not easily deceived. Would God I were! Come on, lad; and strike no man
+      hastily, lest thou cut off thine own flesh.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So forth the two went, along the park to the eastward, and past the head
+      of the little wood-embosomed fishing-town, a steep stair of houses
+      clinging to the cliff far below them, the bright slate roofs and white
+      walls glittering in the moonlight; and on some half-mile farther, along
+      the steep hill-side, fenced with oak wood down to the water's edge, by a
+      narrow forest path, to a point where two glens meet and pour their
+      streamlets over a cascade some hundred feet in height into the sea below.
+      By the side of this waterfall a narrow path climbs upward from the beach;
+      and here it was that the two brothers expected to meet the messenger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank insisted on taking his station below Amyas. He said that he was
+      certain that Eustace himself would make his appearance, and that he was
+      more fit than Amyas to bring him to reason by parley; that if Amyas would
+      keep watch some twenty yards above, the escape of the messenger would be
+      impossible. Moreover, he was the elder brother, and the post of honor was
+      his right. So Amyas obeyed him, after making him promise that if more than
+      one man came up the path, he would let them pass him before he challenged,
+      so that both might bring them to bay at the same time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Amyas took his station under a high marl bank, and, bedded in luxuriant
+      crown-ferns, kept his eye steadily on Frank, who sat down on a little
+      knoll of rock (where is now a garden on the cliff-edge) which parts the
+      path and the dark chasm down which the stream rushes to its final leap
+      over the cliff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There Amyas sat a full half-hour, and glanced at whiles from Frank to look
+      upon the scene around. Outside the southwest wind blew fresh and strong,
+      and the moonlight danced upon a thousand crests of foam; but within the
+      black jagged point which sheltered the town, the sea did but heave, in
+      long oily swells of rolling silver, onward into the black shadow of the
+      hills, within which the town and pier lay invisible, save where a
+      twinkling light gave token of some lonely fisher's wife, watching the
+      weary night through for the boat which would return with dawn. Here and
+      there upon the sea, a black speck marked a herring-boat, drifting with its
+      line of nets; and right off the mouth of the glen, Amyas saw, with a
+      beating heart, a large two-masted vessel lying-to&mdash;that must be the
+      &ldquo;Portugal&rdquo;! Eagerly he looked up the glen, and listened; but he heard
+      nothing but the sweeping of the wind across the downs five hundred feet
+      above, and the sough of the waterfall upon the rocks below; he saw nothing
+      but the vast black sheets of oak-wood sloping up to the narrow blue sky
+      above, and the broad bright hunter's moon, and the woodcocks, which,
+      chuckling to each other, hawked to and fro, like swallows, between the
+      tree-tops and the sky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last he heard a rustle of the fallen leaves; he shrank closer and
+      closer into the darkness of the bank. Then swift light steps&mdash;not
+      down the path, from above, but upward, from below; his heart beat quick
+      and loud. And in another half-minute a man came in sight, within three
+      yards of Frank's hiding-place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank sprang out instantly. Amyas saw his bright blade glance in the clear
+      October moonlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand in the queen's name!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man drew a pistol from under his cloak, and fired full in his face.
+      Had it happened in these days of detonators, Frank's chance had been
+      small; but to get a ponderous wheel-lock under weigh was a longer
+      business, and before the fizzing of the flint had ceased, Frank had struck
+      up the pistol with his rapier, and it exploded harmlessly over his head.
+      The man instantly dashed the weapon in his face and closed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blow, luckily, did not take effect on that delicate forehead, but
+      struck him on the shoulder: nevertheless, Frank, who with all his grace
+      and agility was as fragile as a lily, and a very bubble of the earth,
+      staggered, and lost his guard, and before he could recover himself, Amyas
+      saw a dagger gleam, and one, two, three blows fiercely repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mad with fury, he was with them in an instant. They were scuffling
+      together so closely in the shade that he was afraid to use his sword
+      point; but with the hilt he dealt a single blow full on the ruffian's
+      cheek. It was enough; with a hideous shriek, the fellow rolled over at his
+      feet, and Amyas set his foot on him, in act to run him through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop! stay!&rdquo; almost screamed Frank; &ldquo;it is Eustace! our cousin Eustace!&rdquo;
+       and he leant against a tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas sprang towards him: but Frank waved him off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is nothing&mdash;a scratch. He has papers: I am sure of it. Take them;
+      and for God's sake let him go!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Villain! give me your papers!&rdquo; cried Amyas, setting his foot once more on
+      the writhing Eustace, whose jaw was broken across.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You struck me foully from behind,&rdquo; moaned he, his vanity and envy even
+      then coming out, in that faint and foolish attempt to prove Amyas not so
+      very much better a man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hound, do you think that I dare not strike you in front? Give me your
+      papers, letters, whatever Popish devilry you carry; or as I live, I will
+      cut off your head, and take them myself, even if it cost me the shame of
+      stripping your corpse. Give them up! Traitor, murderer! give them, I say!&rdquo;
+       And setting his foot on him afresh, he raised his sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace was usually no craven: but he was cowed. Between agony and shame,
+      he had no heart to resist. Martyrdom, which looked so splendid when
+      consummated selon les regles on Tower Hill or Tyburn, before pitying, or
+      (still better) scoffing multitudes, looked a confused, dirty, ugly
+      business there in the dark forest; and as he lay, a stream of moonlight
+      bathed his mighty cousin's broad clear forehead, and his long golden
+      locks, and his white terrible blade, till he seemed, to Eustace's
+      superstitious eye, like one of those fair young St. Michaels trampling on
+      the fiend, which he had seen abroad in old German pictures. He shuddered;
+      pulled a packet from his bosom, and threw it from him, murmuring, &ldquo;I have
+      not given it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Swear to me that these are all the papers which you have in cipher or out
+      of cipher. Swear on your soul, or you die!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace swore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me, who are your accomplices?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never!&rdquo; said Eustace. &ldquo;Cruel! have you not degraded me enough already?&rdquo;
+       and the wretched young man burst into tears, and hid his bleeding face in
+      his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One hint of honor made Amyas as gentle as a lamb. He lifted Eustace up,
+      and bade him run for his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am to owe my life, then, to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in the least; only to your being a Leigh. Go, or it will be worse for
+      you!&rdquo; And Eustace went; while Amyas, catching up the precious packet,
+      hurried to Frank. He had fainted already, and his brother had to carry him
+      as far as the park before he could find any of the other watchers. The
+      blind, as far as they were concerned, was complete. They had heard and
+      seen nothing. Whosoever had brought the packet had landed they knew not
+      where; and so all returned to the court, carrying Frank, who recovered
+      gradually, having rather bruises than wounds; for his foe had struck
+      wildly, and with a trembling hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half-an-hour after, Amyas, Mr. Cary, and his son Will were in deep
+      consultation over the following epistle, the only paper in the packet
+      which was not in cipher:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'DEAR BROTHER N. S. in Chto. et Ecclesia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is to inform you and the friends of the cause, that S. Josephus has
+      landed in Smerwick, with eight hundred valiant Crusaders, burning with
+      holy zeal to imitate last year's martyrs of Carrigfolium, and to expiate
+      their offences (which I fear may have been many) by the propagation of our
+      most holy faith. I have purified the fort (which they are strenuously
+      rebuilding) with prayer and holy water, from the stain of heretical
+      footsteps, and consecrated it afresh to the service of Heaven, as the
+      first-fruits of the isle of saints; and having displayed the consecrated
+      banner to the adoration of the faithful, have returned to Earl Desmond,
+      that I may establish his faith, weak as yet, by reason of the allurements
+      of this world: though since, by the valor of his brother James, he that
+      hindered was taken out of the way (I mean Davils the heretic, sacrifice
+      well-pleasing in the eyes of Heaven!), the young man has lent a more
+      obedient ear to my counsels. If you can do anything, do it quickly, for a
+      great door and effectual is opened, and there are many adversaries. But be
+      swift, for so do the poor lambs of the Church tremble at the fury of the
+      heretics, that a hundred will flee before one Englishman. And, indeed,
+      were it not for that divine charity toward the Church (which covers the
+      multitude of sins) with which they are resplendent, neither they nor their
+      country would be, by the carnal judgment, counted worthy of so great labor
+      in their behalf. For they themselves are given much to lying, theft, and
+      drunkenness, vain babbling, and profane dancing and singing; and are
+      still, as S. Gildas reports of them, 'more careful to shroud their
+      villainous faces in bushy hair, than decently to cover their bodies; while
+      their land (by reason of the tyranny of their chieftains, and the
+      continual wars and plunderings among their tribes, which leave them weak
+      and divided, an easy prey to the myrmidons of the excommunicate and
+      usurping Englishwoman) lies utterly waste with fire, and defaced with
+      corpses of the starved and slain. But what are these things, while the
+      holy virtue of Catholic obedience still flourishes in their hearts? The
+      Church cares not for the conservation of body and goods, but of immortal
+      souls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If any devout lady shall so will, you may obtain from her liberality a
+      shirt for this worthless tabernacle, and also a pair of hose; for I am
+      unsavory to myself and to others, and of such luxuries none here has
+      superfluity; for all live in holy poverty, except the fleas, who have that
+      consolation in this world for which this unhappy nation, and those who
+      labor among them, must wait till the world to come.*
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your loving brother,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;N. S.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * See note at end of chapter.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Richard must know of this before daybreak,&rdquo; cried old Cary. &ldquo;Eight
+      hundred men landed! We must call out the Posse Comitatus, and sail with
+      them bodily. I will go myself, old as I am. Spaniards in Ireland? not a
+      dog of them must go home again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a dog of them,&rdquo; answered Will; &ldquo;but where is Mr. Winter and his
+      squadron?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Safe in Milford Haven; a messenger must be sent to him too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll go,&rdquo; said Amyas: &ldquo;but Mr. Cary is right. Sir Richard must know all
+      first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And we must have those Jesuits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What? Mr. Evans and Mr. Morgans? God help us&mdash;they are at my
+      uncle's! Consider the honor of our family!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Judge for yourself, my dear boy,&rdquo; said old Mr. Cary, gently: &ldquo;would it
+      not be rank treason to let these foxes escape, while we have this damning
+      proof against them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go myself, then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not? You may keep all straight, and Will shall go with you. Call a
+      groom, Will, and get your horse saddled, and my Yorkshire gray; he will
+      make better play with this big fellow on his back, than the little pony
+      astride of which Mr. Leigh came walking in (as I hear) this morning. As
+      for Frank, the ladies will see to him well enough, and glad enough, too,
+      to have so fine a bird in their cage for a week or two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And my mother?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll send to her to-morrow by daybreak. Come, a stirrup cup to start
+      with, hot and hot. Now, boots, cloaks, swords, a deep pull and a warm one,
+      and away!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the jolly old man bustled them out of the house and into their
+      saddles, under the broad bright winter's moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must make your pace, lads, or the moon will be down before you are
+      over the moors.&rdquo; And so away they went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither of them spoke for many a mile. Amyas, because his mind was fixed
+      firmly on the one object of saving the honor of his house; and Will,
+      because he was hesitating between Ireland and the wars, and Rose Salterne
+      and love-making. At last he spoke suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll go, Amyas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whither?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Ireland with you, old man. I have dragged my anchor at last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What anchor, my lad of parables?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See, here am I, a tall and gallant ship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Modest even if not true.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Inclination, like an anchor, holds me tight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To the mud.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, to a bed of roses&mdash;not without their thorns.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hillo! I have seen oysters grow on fruit-trees before now, but never an
+      anchor in a rose-garden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence, or my allegory will go to noggin-staves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Against the rocks of my flinty discernment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pooh&mdash;well. Up comes duty like a jolly breeze, blowing dead from the
+      northeast, and as bitter and cross as a northeaster too, and tugs me away
+      toward Ireland. I hold on by the rosebed&mdash;any ground in a storm&mdash;till
+      every strand is parted, and off I go, westward ho! to get my throat cut in
+      a bog-hole with Amyas Leigh.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Earnest, Will?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I am a sinful man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well done, young hawk of the White Cliff!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had rather have called it Gallantry Bower still, though,&rdquo; said Will,
+      punning on the double name of the noble precipice which forms the highest
+      point of the deer park.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, as long as you are on land, you know it is Gallantry Bower still:
+      but we always call it White Cliff when you see it from the sea-board, as
+      you and I shall do, I hope, to-morrow evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, so soon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dare we lose a day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose not: heigh-ho!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And they rode on again in silence, Amyas in the meanwhile being not a
+      little content (in spite of his late self-renunciation) to find that one
+      of his rivals at least was going to raise the siege of the Rose garden for
+      a few months, and withdraw his forces to the coast of Kerry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they went over Bursdon, Amyas pulled up suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you not hear a horse's step on our left?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On our left&mdash;coming up from Welsford moor? Impossible at this time
+      of night. It must have been a stag, or a sownder of wild swine: or may be
+      only an old cow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was the ring of iron, friend. Let us stand and watch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bursdon and Welsford were then, as now, a rolling range of dreary moors,
+      unbroken by tor or tree, or anything save few and far between a world-old
+      furze-bank which marked the common rights of some distant cattle farm, and
+      crossed then, not as now, by a decent road, but by a rough confused
+      track-way, the remnant of an old Roman road from Clovelly dikes to
+      Launceston. To the left it trended down towards a lower range of moors,
+      which form the watershed of the heads of Torridge; and thither the two
+      young men peered down over the expanse of bog and furze, which glittered
+      for miles beneath the moon, one sheet of frosted silver, in the heavy
+      autumn dew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If any of Eustace's party are trying to get home from Freshwater, they
+      might save a couple of miles by coming across Welsford, instead of going
+      by the main track, as we have done.&rdquo; So said Amyas, who though (luckily
+      for him) no &ldquo;genius,&rdquo; was cunning as a fox in all matters of tactic and
+      practic, and would have in these days proved his right to be considered an
+      intellectual person by being a thorough man of business.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If any of his party are mad, they'll try it, and be stogged till the day
+      of judgment. There are bogs in the bottom twenty feet deep. Plague on the
+      fellow, whoever he is, he has dodged us! Look there!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was too true. The unknown horseman had evidently dismounted below, and
+      led his horse up on the other side of a long furze-dike; till coming to
+      the point where it turned away again from his intended course, he appeared
+      against the sky, in the act of leading his nag over a gap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ride like the wind!&rdquo; and both youths galloped across furze and heather at
+      him; but ere they were within a hundred yards of him, he had leapt again
+      on his horse, and was away far ahead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is the dor to us, with a vengeance,&rdquo; cried Cary, putting in the
+      spurs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is but a lad; we shall never catch him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll try, though; and do you lumber after as you can, old heavysides;&rdquo;
+       and Cary pushed forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas lost sight of him for ten minutes, and then came up with him
+      dismounted, and feeling disconsolately at his horse's knees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look for my head. It lies somewhere about among the furze there; and oh!
+      I am as full of needles as ever was a pin-cushion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are his knees broken?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I daren't look. No, I believe not. Come along, and make the best of a bad
+      matter. The fellow is a mile ahead, and to the right, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is going for Moorwinstow, then; but where is my cousin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behind us, I dare say. We shall nab him at least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cary, promise me that if we do, you will keep out of sight, and let me
+      manage him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My boy, I only want Evan Morgans and Morgan Evans. He is but the cat's
+      paw, and we are after the cats themselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so they went on another dreary six miles, till the land trended
+      downwards, showing dark glens and masses of woodland far below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, then, straight to Chapel, and stop the foxes' earth? Or through the
+      King's Park to Stow, and get out Sir Richard's hounds, hue and cry, and
+      queen's warrant in proper form?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us see Sir Richard first; and whatsoever he decides about my uncle, I
+      will endure as a loyal subject must.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they rode through the King's Park, while Sir Richard's colts came
+      whinnying and staring round the intruders, and down through a rich
+      woodland lane five hundred feet into the valley, till they could hear the
+      brawling of the little trout-stream, and beyond, the everlasting thunder
+      of the ocean surf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Down through warm woods, all fragrant with dying autumn flowers, leaving
+      far above the keen Atlantic breeze, into one of those delicious Western
+      combes, and so past the mill, and the little knot of flower-clad cottages.
+      In the window of one of them a light was still burning. The two young men
+      knew well whose window that was; and both hearts beat fast; for Rose
+      Salterne slept, or rather seemed to wake, in that chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Folks are late in Combe to-night,&rdquo; said Amyas, as carelessly as he could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary looked earnestly at the window, and then sharply enough at Amyas; but
+      Amyas was busy settling his stirrup; and Cary rode on, unconscious that
+      every fibre in his companion's huge frame was trembling like his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muggy and close down here,&rdquo; said Amyas, who, in reality, was quite faint
+      with his own inward struggles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall be at Stow gate in five minutes,&rdquo; said Cary, looking back and
+      down longingly as his horse climbed the opposite hill; but a turn of the
+      zigzag road hid the cottage, and the next thought was, how to effect an
+      entrance into Stow at three in the morning without being eaten by the
+      ban-dogs, who were already howling and growling at the sound of the
+      horse-hoofs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, they got safely in, after much knocking and calling, through the
+      postern gate in the high west wall, into a mansion, the description
+      whereof I must defer to the next chapter, seeing that the moon has already
+      sunk into the Atlantic, and there is darkness over land and sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard, in his long gown, was soon downstairs in the hall; the letter
+      read, and the story told; but ere it was half finished&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anthony, call up a groom, and let him bring me a horse round. Gentlemen,
+      if you will excuse me five minutes, I shall be at your service.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will not go alone, Richard?&rdquo; asked Lady Grenville, putting her
+      beautiful face in its nightcoif out of an adjoining door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely, sweet chuck, we three are enough to take two poor polecats of
+      Jesuits. Go in, and help me to boot and gird.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In half an hour they were down and up across the valley again, under the
+      few low ashes clipt flat by the sea-breeze which stood round the lonely
+      gate of Chapel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Cary, there is a back path across the downs to Marsland; go and guard
+      that.&rdquo; Cary rode off; and Sir Richard, as he knocked loudly at the gate&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Leigh, you see that I have consulted your honor, and that of your
+      poor uncle, by adventuring thus alone. What will you have me do now, which
+      may not be unfit for me and you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, sir!&rdquo; said Amyas, with tears in his honest eyes, &ldquo;you have shown
+      yourself once more what you always have been&mdash;my dear and beloved
+      master on earth, not second even to my admiral Sir Francis Drake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or the queen, I hope,&rdquo; said Grenville, smiling, &ldquo;but pocas palabras. What
+      will you do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My wretched cousin, sir, may not have returned&mdash;and if I might watch
+      for him on the main road&mdash;unless you want me with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Richard Grenville can walk alone, lad. But what will you do with your
+      cousin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Send him out of the country, never to return; or if he refuses, run him
+      through on the spot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go, lad.&rdquo; And as he spoke, a sleepy voice asked inside the gate, &ldquo;Who was
+      there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Richard Grenville. Open, in the queen's name?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Richard? He is in bed, and be hanged to you. No honest folk come at
+      this hour of night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas!&rdquo; shouted Sir Richard. Amyas rode back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Burst that gate for me, while I hold your horse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas leaped down, took up a rock from the roadside, such as Homer's
+      heroes used to send at each other's heads, and in an instant the door was
+      flat on the ground, and the serving-man on his back inside, while Sir
+      Richard quietly entering over it, like Una into the hut, told the fellow
+      to get up and hold his horse for him (which the clod, who knew well enough
+      that terrible voice, did without further murmurs), and then strode
+      straight to the front door. It was already opened. The household had been
+      up and about all along, or the noise at the entry had aroused them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard knocked, however, at the open door; and, to his astonishment,
+      his knock was answered by Mr. Leigh himself, fully dressed, and candle in
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Richard Grenville! What, sir! is this neighborly, not to say gentle,
+      to break into my house in the dead of night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I broke your outer door, sir, because I was refused entrance when I asked
+      in the queen's name. I knocked at your inner one, as I should have knocked
+      at the poorest cottager's in the parish, because I found it open. You have
+      two Jesuits here, sir! and here is the queen's warrant for apprehending
+      them. I have signed it with my own hand, and, moreover, serve it now, with
+      my own hand, in order to save you scandal&mdash;and it may be, worse. I
+      must have these men, Mr. Leigh.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Sir Richard&mdash;!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must have them, or I must search the house; and you would not put
+      either yourself or me to so shameful a necessity?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Sir Richard!&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must I, then, ask you to stand back from your own doorway, my dear sir?&rdquo;
+       said Grenville. And then changing his voice to that fearful lion's roar,
+      for which he was famous, and which it seemed impossible that lips so
+      delicate could utter, he thundered, &ldquo;Knaves, behind there! Back!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was spoken to half-a-dozen grooms and serving-men, who, well armed,
+      were clustered in the passage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What? swords out, you sons of cliff rabbits?&rdquo; And in a moment, Sir
+      Richard's long blade flashed out also, and putting Mr. Leigh gently aside,
+      as if he had been a child, he walked up to the party, who vanished right
+      and left; having expected a cur dog, in the shape of a parish constable,
+      and come upon a lion instead. They were stout fellows enough, no doubt, in
+      a fair fight: but they had no stomach to be hanged in a row at Launceston
+      Castle, after a preliminary running through the body by that redoubted
+      admiral and most unpeaceful justice of the peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, my dear Mr. Leigh,&rdquo; said Sir Richard, as blandly as ever, &ldquo;where
+      are my men? The night is cold; and you, as well as I, need to be in our
+      beds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The men, Sir Richard&mdash;the Jesuits&mdash;they are not here, indeed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not here, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the word of a gentleman, they left my house an hour ago. Believe me,
+      sir, they did. I will swear to you if you need.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe Mr. Leigh of Chapel's word without oaths. Whither are they
+      gone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, sir&mdash;how can I tell? They are&mdash;they are, as I may say,
+      fled, sir; escaped.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With your connivance; at least with your son's. Where are they gone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I live, I do not know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Leigh&mdash;is this possible? Can you add untruth to that treason
+      from the punishment of which I am trying to shield you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Mr. Leigh burst into tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! my God! my God! is it come to this? Over and above having the fear
+      and anxiety of keeping these black rascals in my house, and having to stop
+      their villainous mouths every minute, for fear they should hang me and
+      themselves, I am to be called a traitor and a liar in my old age, and
+      that, too, by Richard Grenville! Would God I had never been born! Would
+      God I had no soul to be saved, and I'd just go and drown care in drink,
+      and let the queen and the Pope fight it out their own way!&rdquo; And the poor
+      old man sank into a chair, and covered his face with his hands, and then
+      leaped up again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless my heart! Excuse me, Sir Richard&mdash;to sit down and leave you
+      standing. 'S life, sir, sorrow is making a hawbuck of me. Sit down, my
+      dear sir! my worshipful sir! or rather come with me into my room, and hear
+      a poor wretched man's story, for I swear before God the men are fled; and
+      my poor boy Eustace is not home either, and the groom tells me that his
+      devil of a cousin has broken his jaw for him; and his mother is all but
+      mad this hour past. Good lack! good lack!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He nearly murdered his angel of a cousin, sir!&rdquo; said Sir Richard,
+      severely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, sir? They never told me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He had stabbed his cousin Frank three times, sir, before Amyas, who is as
+      noble a lad as walks God's earth, struck him down. And in defence of what,
+      forsooth, did he play the ruffian and the swashbuckler, but to bring home
+      to your house this letter, sir, which you shall hear at your leisure, the
+      moment I have taken order about your priests.&rdquo; And walking out of the
+      house he went round and called to Cary to come to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The birds are flown, Will,&rdquo; whispered he. &ldquo;There is but one chance for
+      us, and that is Marsland Mouth. If they are trying to take boat there, you
+      may be yet in time. If they are gone inland we can do nothing till we
+      raise the hue and cry to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Will galloped off over the downs toward Marsland, while Sir Richard
+      ceremoniously walked in again, and professed himself ready and happy to
+      have the honor of an audience in Mr. Leigh's private chamber. And as we
+      know pretty well already what was to be discussed therein, we had better
+      go over to Marsland Mouth, and, if possible, arrive there before Will
+      Cary: seeing that he arrived hot and swearing, half an hour too late.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Note.&mdash;I have shrunk somewhat from giving these and other sketches
+      (true and accurate as I believe them to be) of Ireland during Elizabeth's
+      reign, when the tyranny and lawlessness of the feudal chiefs had reduced
+      the island to such a state of weakness and barbarism, that it was
+      absolutely necessary for England either to crush the Norman-Irish
+      nobility, and organize some sort of law and order, or to leave Ireland an
+      easy prey to the Spaniards, or any other nation which should go to war
+      with us. The work was done&mdash;clumsily rather than cruelly; but wrongs
+      were inflicted, and avenged by fresh wrongs, and those by fresh again. May
+      the memory of them perish forever! It has been reserved for this age, and
+      for the liberal policy of this age, to see the last ebullitions of Celtic
+      excitability die out harmless and ashamed of itself, and to find that the
+      Irishman, when he is brought as a soldier under the regenerative influence
+      of law, discipline, self-respect, and loyalty, can prove himself a worthy
+      rival of the more stern Norse-Saxon warrior. God grant that the military
+      brotherhood between Irish and English, which is the special glory of the
+      present war, may be the germ of a brotherhood industrial, political, and
+      hereafter, perhaps, religious also; and that not merely the corpses of
+      heroes, but the feuds and wrongs which have parted them for centuries, may
+      lie buried, once and forever, in the noble graves of Alma and Inkerman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE COMBES OF THE FAR WEST
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            &ldquo;Far, far from hence
+     The Adriatic breaks in a warm bay
+     Among the green Illyrian hills, and there
+     The sunshine in the happy glens is fair,
+     And by the sea and in the brakes
+     The grass is cool, the sea-side air
+     Buoyant and fresh, the mountain flowers
+     More virginal and sweet than ours.&rdquo;
+
+                                  MATTHEW ARNOLD.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And even such are those delightful glens, which cut the high table-land of
+      the confines of Devon and Cornwall, and opening each through its gorge of
+      down and rock, towards the boundless Western Ocean. Each is like the
+      other, and each is like no other English scenery. Each has its upright
+      walls, inland of rich oak-wood, nearer the sea of dark green furze, then
+      of smooth turf, then of weird black cliffs which range out right and left
+      far into the deep sea, in castles, spires, and wings of jagged iron-stone.
+      Each has its narrow strip of fertile meadow, its crystal trout stream
+      winding across and across from one hill-foot to the other; its gray stone
+      mill, with the water sparkling and humming round the dripping wheel; its
+      dark, rock pools above the tide mark, where the salmon-trout gather in
+      from their Atlantic wanderings, after each autumn flood: its ridge of
+      blown sand, bright with golden trefoil and crimson lady's finger; its gray
+      bank of polished pebbles, down which the stream rattles toward the sea
+      below. Each has its black field of jagged shark's-tooth rock which paves
+      the cove from side to side, streaked with here and there a pink line of
+      shell sand, and laced with white foam from the eternal surge, stretching
+      in parallel lines out to the westward, in strata set upright on edge, or
+      tilted towards each other at strange angles by primeval earthquakes;&mdash;such
+      is the &ldquo;mouth&rdquo;&mdash;as those coves are called; and such the jaw of teeth
+      which they display, one rasp of which would grind abroad the timbers of
+      the stoutest ship. To landward, all richness, softness, and peace; to
+      seaward, a waste and howling wilderness of rock and roller, barren to the
+      fisherman, and hopeless to the shipwrecked mariner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In only one of these &ldquo;mouths&rdquo; is a landing for boats, made possible by a
+      long sea-wall of rock, which protects it from the rollers of the Atlantic;
+      and that mouth is Marsland, the abode of the White Witch, Lucy Passmore;
+      whither, as Sir Richard Grenville rightly judged, the Jesuits were gone.
+      But before the Jesuits came, two other persons were standing on that
+      lonely beach, under the bright October moon, namely, Rose Salterne and the
+      White Witch herself; for Rose, fevered with curiosity and superstition,
+      and allured by the very wildness and possible danger of the spell, had
+      kept her appointment; and, a few minutes before midnight, stood on the
+      gray shingle beach with her counsellor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You be safe enough here to-night, miss. My old man is snoring sound abed,
+      and there's no other soul ever sets foot here o' nights, except it be the
+      mermaids now and then. Goodness, Father, where's our boat? It ought to be
+      up here on the pebbles.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose pointed to a strip of sand some forty yards nearer the sea, where the
+      boat lay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, the lazy old villain! he's been round the rocks after pollock this
+      evening, and never taken the trouble to hale the boat up. I'll trounce him
+      for it when I get home. I only hope he's made her fast where she is,
+      that's all! He's more plague to me than ever my money will be. O deary
+      me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the goodwife bustled down toward the boat, with Rose behind her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Iss, 'tis fast, sure enough: and the oars aboard too! Well, I never! Oh,
+      the lazy thief, to leave they here to be stole! I'll just sit in the boat,
+      dear, and watch mun, while you go down to the say; for you must be all
+      alone to yourself, you know, or you'll see nothing. There's the
+      looking-glass; now go, and dip your head three times, and mind you don't
+      look to land or sea before you've said the words, and looked upon the
+      glass. Now, be quick, it's just upon midnight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And she coiled herself up in the boat, while Rose went faltering down the
+      strip of sand, some twenty yards farther, and there slipping off her
+      clothes, stood shivering and trembling for a moment before she entered the
+      sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was between two walls of rock: that on her left hand, some twenty feet
+      high, hid her in deepest shade; that on her right, though much lower, took
+      the whole blaze of the midnight moon. Great festoons of live and purple
+      sea-weed hung from it, shading dark cracks and crevices, fit haunts for
+      all the goblins of the sea. On her left hand, the peaks of the rock
+      frowned down ghastly black; on her right hand, far aloft, the downs slept
+      bright and cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The breeze had died away; not even a roller broke the perfect stillness of
+      the cove. The gulls were all asleep upon the ledges. Over all was a true
+      autumn silence; a silence which may be heard. She stood awed, and listened
+      in hope of a sound which might tell her that any living thing beside
+      herself existed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a faint bleat, as of a new-born lamb, high above her head; she
+      started and looked up. Then a wail from the cliffs, as of a child in pain,
+      answered by another from the opposite rocks. They were but the passing
+      snipe, and the otter calling to her brood; but to her they were
+      mysterious, supernatural goblins, come to answer to her call.
+      Nevertheless, they only quickened her expectation; and the witch had told
+      her not to fear them. If she performed the rite duly, nothing would harm
+      her: but she could hear the beating of her own heart, as she stepped,
+      mirror in hand, into the cold water, waded hastily, as far as she dare,
+      and then stopped aghast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A ring of flame was round her waist; every limb was bathed in lambent
+      light; all the multitudinous life of the autumn sea, stirred by her
+      approach, had flashed suddenly into glory;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And around her the lamps of the sea nymphs, Myriad fiery globes, swam
+      heaving and panting, and rainbows, Crimson and azure and emerald, were
+      broken in star-showers, lighting Far through the wine-dark depths of the
+      crystal, the gardens of Nereus, Coral and sea-fan and tangle, the blooms
+      and the palms of the ocean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She could see every shell which crawled on the white sand at her feet,
+      every rock-fish which played in and out of the crannies, and stared at her
+      with its broad bright eyes; while the great palmate oarweeds which waved
+      along the chasm, half-seen in the glimmering water, seemed to beckon her
+      down with long brown hands to a grave amid their chilly bowers. She turned
+      to flee; but she had gone too far now to retreat; hastily dipping her head
+      three times, she hurried out to the sea-marge, and looking through her
+      dripping locks at the magic mirror, pronounced the incantation&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;A maiden pure, here I stand,
+     Neither on sea, nor yet on land;
+     Angels watch me on either hand.
+     If you be landsman, come down the strand;
+     If you be sailor, come up the sand;
+     If you be angel, come from the sky,
+     Look in my glass, and pass me by;
+     Look in my glass, and go from the shore;
+     Leave me, but love me for evermore.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      The incantation was hardly finished, her eyes were straining into the
+      mirror, where, as may be supposed, nothing appeared but the sparkle of the
+      drops from her own tresses, when she heard rattling down the pebbles the
+      hasty feet of men and horses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She darted into a cavern of the high rock, and hastily dressed herself:
+      the steps held on right to the boat. Peeping out, half-dead with terror,
+      she saw there four men, two of whom had just leaped from their horses, and
+      turning them adrift, began to help the other two in running the boat down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon, out of the stern sheets, arose, like an angry ghost, the portly
+      figure of Lucy Passmore, and shrieked in shrillest treble&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eh! ye villains, ye roogs, what do ye want staling poor folks' boats by
+      night like this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole party recoiled in terror, and one turned to run up the beach,
+      shouting at the top of his voice, &ldquo;'Tis a marmaiden&mdash;a marmaiden
+      asleep in Willy Passmore's boat!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish it were any sich good luck,&rdquo; she could hear Will say; &ldquo;'tis my
+      wife, oh dear!&rdquo; and he cowered down, expecting the hearty cuff which he
+      received duly, as the White Witch, leaping out of the boat, dared any man
+      to touch it, and thundered to her husband to go home to bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wily dame, as Rose well guessed, was keeping up this delay chiefly to
+      gain time for her pupil: but she had also more solid reasons for making
+      the fight as hard as possible; for she, as well as Rose, had already
+      discerned in the ungainly figure of one of the party the same suspicious
+      Welsh gentleman, on whose calling she had divined long ago; and she was so
+      loyal a subject as to hold in extreme horror her husband's meddling with
+      such &ldquo;Popish skulkers&rdquo; (as she called the whole party roundly to their
+      face)&mdash;unless on consideration of a very handsome sum of money. In
+      vain Parsons thundered, Campian entreated, Mr. Leigh's groom swore, and
+      her husband danced round in an agony of mingled fear and covetousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;as I am an honest woman and loyal! This is why you left
+      the boat down to the shoore, you old traitor, you, is it? To help off sich
+      noxious trade as this out of the hands of her majesty's quorum and
+      rotulorum? Eh? Stand back, cowards! Will you strike a woman?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This last speech (as usual) was merely indicative of her intention to
+      strike the men; for, getting out one of the oars, she swung it round and
+      round fiercely, and at last caught Father Parsons such a crack across the
+      shins, that he retreated with a howl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lucy, Lucy!&rdquo; shrieked her husband, in shrillest Devon falsetto, &ldquo;be you
+      mazed? Be you mazed, lass? They promised me two gold nobles before I'd
+      lend them the boot!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tu?&rdquo; shrieked the matron, with a tone of ineffable scorn. &ldquo;And do yu call
+      yourself a man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tu nobles! tu nobles!&rdquo; shrieked he again, hopping about at oar's length.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tu? And would you sell your soul under ten?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, if that is it,&rdquo; cried poor Campian, &ldquo;give her ten, give her ten,
+      brother Pars&mdash;Morgans, I mean; and take care of your shins, Offa
+      Cerbero, you know&mdash;Oh, virago! Furens quid faemina possit! Certainly
+      she is some Lamia, some Gorgon, some&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take that, for your Lamys and Gorgons to an honest woman!&rdquo; and in a
+      moment poor Campian's thin legs were cut from under him, while the virago,
+      &ldquo;mounting on his trunk astride,&rdquo; like that more famous one on Hudibras,
+      cried, &ldquo;Ten nobles, or I'll kep ye here till morning!&rdquo; And the ten nobles
+      were paid into her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now the boat, its dragon guardian being pacified, was run down to the
+      sea, and close past the nook where poor little Rose was squeezing herself
+      into the farthest and darkest corner, among wet sea-weed and rough
+      barnacles, holding her breath as they approached.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed her, and the boat's keel was already in the water; Lucy had
+      followed them close, for reasons of her own, and perceiving close to the
+      water's edge a dark cavern, cunningly surmised that it contained Rose, and
+      planted her ample person right across its mouth, while she grumbled at her
+      husband, the strangers, and above all at Mr. Leigh's groom, to whom she
+      prophesied pretty plainly Launceston gaol and the gallows; while the
+      wretched serving-man, who would as soon have dared to leap off Welcombe
+      Cliff as to return railing for railing to the White Witch, in vain
+      entreated her mercy, and tried, by all possible dodging, to keep one of
+      the party between himself and her, lest her redoubted eye should
+      &ldquo;overlook&rdquo; him once more to his ruin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the night's adventures were not ended yet; for just as the boat was
+      launched, a faint halloo was heard upon the beach, and a minute after, a
+      horseman plunged down the pebbles, and along the sand, and pulling his
+      horse up on its haunches close to the terrified group, dropped, rather
+      than leaped, from the saddle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The serving-man, though he dared not tackle a witch, knew well enough how
+      to deal with a swordsman; and drawing, sprang upon the newcomer, and then
+      recoiled&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forgive me, it's Mr. Eustace! Oh, dear sir, I took you for one of Sir
+      Richard's men! Oh, sir, you're hurt!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A scratch, a scratch!&rdquo; almost moaned Eustace. &ldquo;Help me into the boat,
+      Jack. Gentlemen, I must with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not with us, surely, my dear son, vagabonds upon the face of the earth?&rdquo;
+       said kind-hearted Campian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With you, forever. All is over here. Whither God and the cause lead&rdquo;&mdash;and
+      he staggered toward the boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he passed Rose, she saw his ghastly bleeding face, half bound up with a
+      handkerchief, which could not conceal the convulsions of rage, shame, and
+      despair, which twisted it from all its usual beauty. His eyes glared
+      wildly round&mdash;and once, right into the cavern. They met hers, so
+      full, and keen, and dreadful, that forgetting she was utterly invisible,
+      the terrified girl was on the point of shrieking aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has overlooked me!&rdquo; said she, shuddering to herself, as she
+      recollected his threat of yesterday.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who has wounded you?&rdquo; asked Campian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My cousin&mdash;Amyas&mdash;and taken the letter!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil take him, then!&rdquo; cried Parsons, stamping up and down upon the
+      sand in fury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, curse him&mdash;you may! I dare not! He saved me&mdash;sent me here!&rdquo;&mdash;and
+      with a groan, he made an effort to enter the boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, my dear young gentleman,&rdquo; cried Lucy Passmore, her woman's heart
+      bursting out at the sight of pain, &ldquo;you must not goo forth with a grane
+      wound like to that. Do ye let me just bind mun up&mdash;do ye now!&rdquo; and
+      she advanced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace thrust her back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No! better bear it, I deserve it&mdash;devils! I deserve it! On board, or
+      we shall all be lost&mdash;William Cary is close behind me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And at that news the boat was thrust into the sea, faster than ever it
+      went before, and only in time; for it was but just round the rocks, and
+      out of sight, when the rattle of Cary's horsehoofs was heard above.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That rascal of Mr. Leigh's will catch it now, the Popish villain!&rdquo; said
+      Lucy Passmore, aloud. &ldquo;You lie still there, dear life, and settle your
+      sperrits; you'm so safe as ever was rabbit to burrow. I'll see what
+      happens, if I die for it!&rdquo; And so saying, she squeezed herself up through
+      a cleft to a higher ledge, from whence she could see what passed in the
+      valley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There mun is! in the meadow, trying to catch the horses! There comes Mr.
+      Cary! Goodness, Father, how a rid'th! he's over wall already! Ron, Jack!
+      ron then! A'll get to the river! No, a wain't! Goodness, Father! There's
+      Mr. Cary cotched mun! A's down, a's down!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he dead?&rdquo; asked Rose, shuddering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Iss, fegs, dead as nits! and Mr. Cary off his horse, standing overthwart
+      mun! No, a bain't! A's up now. Suspose he was hit wi' the flat. Whatever
+      is Mr. Cary tu? Telling wi' mun, a bit. Oh dear, dear, dear!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has he killed him?&rdquo; cried poor Rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, fegs, no! kecking mun, kecking mun, so hard as ever was futeball!
+      Goodness, Father, who did ever? If a haven't kecked mun right into river,
+      and got on mun's horse and rod away!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so saying, down she came again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now then, my dear life, us be better to goo hoom and get you sommat
+      warm. You'm mortal cold, I rackon, by now. I was cruel fear'd for ye: but
+      I kept mun off clever, didn't I, now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish&mdash;I wish I had not seen Mr. Leigh's face!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Iss, dreadful, weren't it, poor young soul; a sad night for his poor
+      mother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lucy, I can't get his face out of my mind. I'm sure he overlooked me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh then! who ever heard the like o' that? When young gentlemen do
+      overlook young ladies, tain't thikketheor aways, I knoo. Never you think
+      on it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I can't help thinking of it,&rdquo; said Rose. &ldquo;Stop. Shall we go home yet?
+      Where's that servant?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind, he wain't see us, here under the hill. I'd much sooner to
+      know where my old man was. I've a sort of a forecasting in my inwards,
+      like, as I always has when aught's gwain to happen, as though I shuldn't
+      zee mun again, like, I have, miss. Well&mdash;he was a bedient old soul,
+      after all, he was. Goodness, Father! and all this while us have forgot the
+      very thing us come about! Who did you see?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only that face!&rdquo; said Rose, shuddering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in the glass, maid? Say then, not in the glass?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would to heaven it had been! Lucy, what if he were the man I was fated to&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He? Why, he's a praste, a Popish praste, that can't marry if he would,
+      poor wratch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is none; and I have cause enough to know it!&rdquo; And, for want of a
+      better confidant, Rose poured into the willing ears of her companion the
+      whole story of yesterday's meeting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a pretty wooer!&rdquo; said Lucy at last, contemptuously. &ldquo;Be a brave
+      maid, then, be a brave maid, and never terrify yourself with his unlucky
+      face. It's because there was none here worthy of ye, that ye seed none in
+      glass. Maybe he's to be a foreigner, from over seas, and that's why his
+      sperit was so long a coming. A duke, or a prince to the least, I'll
+      warrant, he'll be, that carries off the Rose of Bideford.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But in spite of all the good dame's flattery, Rose could not wipe that
+      fierce face away from her eyeballs. She reached home safely, and crept to
+      bed undiscovered: and when the next morning, as was to be expected, found
+      her laid up with something very like a fever, from excitement, terror, and
+      cold, the phantom grew stronger and stronger before her, and it required
+      all her woman's tact and self-restraint to avoid betraying by her
+      exclamations what had happened on that fantastic night. After a
+      fortnight's weakness, however, she recovered and went back to Bideford:
+      but ere she arrived there, Amyas was far across the seas on his way to
+      Milford Haven, as shall be told in the ensuing chapters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE TRUE AND TRAGICAL HISTORY OF MR. JOHN OXENHAM OF PLYMOUTH
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew;
+       The furrow follow'd free;
+     We were the first that ever burst
+       Into that silent sea.&rdquo;
+
+                          The Ancient Mariner.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was too late and too dark last night to see the old house at Stow. We
+      will look round us, then, this bright October day, while Sir Richard and
+      Amyas, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, are pacing up and down the
+      terraced garden to the south. Amyas has slept till luncheon, i. e. till an
+      hour ago: but Sir Richard, in spite of the bustle of last night, was up
+      and in the valley by six o'clock, recreating the valiant souls of himself
+      and two terrier dogs by the chase of sundry badgers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Stow House stands, or rather stood, some four miles beyond the Cornish
+      border, on the northern slope of the largest and loveliest of those combes
+      of which I spoke in the last chapter. Eighty years after Sir Richard's
+      time there arose there a huge Palladian pile, bedizened with every
+      monstrosity of bad taste, which was built, so the story runs, by Charles
+      the Second, for Sir Richard's great-grandson, the heir of that famous Sir
+      Bevil who defeated the Parliamentary troops at Stratton, and died soon
+      after, fighting valiantly at Lansdowne over Bath. But, like most other
+      things which owed their existence to the Stuarts, it rose only to fall
+      again. An old man who had seen, as a boy, the foundation of the new house
+      laid, lived to see it pulled down again, and the very bricks and timber
+      sold upon the spot; and since then the stables have become a farm-house,
+      the tennis-court a sheep-cote, the great quadrangle a rick-yard; and
+      civilization, spreading wave on wave so fast elsewhere, has surged back
+      from that lonely corner of the land&mdash;let us hope, only for a while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I am not writing of that great new Stow House, of the past glories
+      whereof quaint pictures still hang in the neighboring houses; nor of that
+      famed Sir Bevil, most beautiful and gallant of his generation, on whom,
+      with his grandfather Sir Richard, old Prince has his pompous epigram&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Where next shall famous Grenvil's ashes stand?
+     Thy grandsire fills the sea, and thou the land.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      I have to deal with a simpler age, and a sterner generation; and with the
+      old house, which had stood there, in part at least, from gray and mythic
+      ages, when the first Sir Richard, son of Hamon Dentatus, Lord of Carboyle,
+      the grandson of Duke Robert, son of Rou, settled at Bideford, after
+      slaying the Prince of South-Galis, and the Lord of Glamorgan, and gave to
+      the Cistercian monks of Neath all his conquests in South Wales. It was a
+      huge rambling building, half castle, half dwelling-house, such as may be
+      seen still (almost an unique specimen) in Compton Castle near Torquay, the
+      dwelling-place of Humphrey Gilbert, Walter Raleigh's half-brother, and
+      Richard Grenville's bosom friend, of whom more hereafter. On three sides,
+      to the north, west, and south, the lofty walls of the old ballium still
+      stood, with their machicolated turrets, loopholes, and dark downward
+      crannies for dropping stones and fire on the besiegers, the relics of a
+      more unsettled age: but the southern court of the ballium had become a
+      flower-garden, with quaint terraces, statues, knots of flowers, clipped
+      yews and hollies, and all the pedantries of the topiarian art. And toward
+      the east, where the vista of the valley opened, the old walls were gone,
+      and the frowning Norman keep, ruined in the Wars of the Roses, had been
+      replaced by the rich and stately architecture of the Tudors. Altogether,
+      the house, like the time, was in a transitionary state, and represented
+      faithfully enough the passage of the old middle age into the new life
+      which had just burst into blossom throughout Europe, never, let us pray,
+      to see its autumn or its winter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the house on three sides, the hill sloped steeply down, and the
+      garden where Sir Richard and Amyas were walking gave a truly English
+      prospect. At one turn they could catch, over the western walls, a glimpse
+      of the blue ocean flecked with passing sails; and at the next, spread far
+      below them, range on range of fertile park, stately avenue, yellow autumn
+      woodland, and purple heather moors, lapping over and over each other up
+      the valley to the old British earthwork, which stood black and furze-grown
+      on its conical peak; and standing out against the sky on the highest bank
+      of hill which closed the valley to the east, the lofty tower of
+      Kilkhampton church, rich with the monuments and offerings of five
+      centuries of Grenvilles. A yellow eastern haze hung soft over park, and
+      wood, and moor; the red cattle lowed to each other as they stood brushing
+      away the flies in the rivulet far below; the colts in the horse-park close
+      on their right whinnied as they played together, and their sires from the
+      Queen's Park, on the opposite hill, answered them in fuller though fainter
+      voices. A rutting stag made the still woodland rattle with his hoarse
+      thunder, and a rival far up the valley gave back a trumpet note of
+      defiance, and was himself defied from heathery brows which quivered far
+      away above, half seen through the veil of eastern mist. And close at home,
+      upon the terrace before the house, amid romping spaniels and golden-haired
+      children, sat Lady Grenville herself, the beautiful St. Leger of Annery,
+      the central jewel of all that glorious place, and looked down at her noble
+      children, and then up at her more noble husband, and round at that broad
+      paradise of the West, till life seemed too full of happiness, and heaven
+      of light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And all the while up and down paced Amyas and Sir Richard, talking long,
+      earnestly, and slow; for they both knew that the turning point of the
+      boy's life was come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Sir Richard, after Amyas, in his blunt simple way, had told
+      him the whole story about Rose Salterne and his brother,&mdash;&ldquo;yes, sweet
+      lad, thou hast chosen the better part, thou and thy brother also, and it
+      shall not be taken from you. Only be strong, lad, and trust in God that He
+      will make a man of you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do trust,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank God,&rdquo; said Sir Richard, &ldquo;that you have yourself taken from my heart
+      that which was my great anxiety for you, from the day that your good
+      father, who sleeps in peace, committed you to my hands. For all best
+      things, Amyas, become, when misused, the very worst; and the love of
+      woman, because it is able to lift man's soul to the heavens, is also able
+      to drag him down to hell. But you have learnt better, Amyas; and know,
+      with our old German forefathers, that, as Tacitus saith, Sera juvenum
+      Venus, ideoque inexhausta pubertas. And not only that, Amyas; but trust
+      me, that silly fashion of the French and Italians, to be hanging ever at
+      some woman's apron string, so that no boy shall count himself a man unless
+      he can vagghezziare le donne, whether maids or wives, alas! matters
+      little; that fashion, I say, is little less hurtful to the soul than open
+      sin; for by it are bred vanity and expense, envy and heart-burning, yea,
+      hatred and murder often; and even if that be escaped, yet the rich
+      treasure of a manly worship, which should be kept for one alone, is
+      squandered and parted upon many, and the bride at last comes in for
+      nothing but the very last leavings and caput mortuum of her bridegroom's
+      heart, and becomes a mere ornament for his table, and a means whereby he
+      may obtain a progeny. May God, who has saved me from that death in life,
+      save you also!&rdquo; And as he spoke, he looked down toward his wife upon the
+      terrace below; and she, as if guessing instinctively that he was talking
+      of her, looked up with so sweet a smile, that Sir Richard's stern face
+      melted into a very glory of spiritual sunshine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas looked at them both and sighed; and then turning the conversation
+      suddenly&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I may go to Ireland to-morrow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall sail in the 'Mary' for Milford Haven, with these letters to
+      Winter. If the wind serves, you may bid the master drop down the river
+      tonight, and be off; for we must lose no time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Winter?&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;He is no friend of mine, since he left Drake and us
+      so cowardly at the Straits of Magellan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Duty must not wait for private quarrels, even though they be just ones,
+      lad: but he will not be your general. When you come to the marshal, or the
+      Lord Deputy, give either of them this letter, and they will set you work,&mdash;and
+      hard work too, I warrant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want nothing better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right, lad; the best reward for having wrought well already, is to have
+      more to do; and he that has been faithful over a few things, must find his
+      account in being made ruler over many things. That is the true and
+      heroical rest, which only is worthy of gentlemen and sons of God. As for
+      those who, either in this world or the world to come, look for idleness,
+      and hope that God shall feed them with pleasant things, as it were with a
+      spoon, Amyas, I count them cowards and base, even though they call
+      themselves saints and elect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you could persuade my poor cousin of that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has yet to learn what losing his life to save it means, Amyas. Bad men
+      have taught him (and I fear these Anabaptists and Puritans at home teach
+      little else), that it is the one great business of every one to save his
+      own soul after he dies; every one for himself; and that that, and not
+      divine self-sacrifice, is the one thing needful, and the better part which
+      Mary chose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think men are inclined enough already to be selfish, without being
+      taught that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right, lad. For me, if I could hang up such a teacher on high as an enemy
+      of mankind, and a corrupter of youth, I would do it gladly. Is there not
+      cowardice and self-seeking enough about the hearts of us fallen sons of
+      Adam, that these false prophets, with their baits of heaven, and their
+      terrors of hell, must exalt our dirtiest vices into heavenly virtues and
+      the means of bliss? Farewell to chivalry and to desperate valor, farewell
+      to patriotism and loyalty, farewell to England and to the manhood of
+      England, if once it shall become the fashion of our preachers to bid every
+      man, as the Jesuits do, take care first of what they call the safety of
+      his soul. Every man will be afraid to die at his post, because he will be
+      afraid that he is not fit to die. Amyas, do thou do thy duty like a man,
+      to thy country, thy queen, and thy God; and count thy life a worthless
+      thing, as did the holy men of old. Do thy work, lad; and leave thy soul to
+      the care of Him who is just and merciful in this, that He rewards every
+      man according to his work. Is there respect of persons with God? Now come
+      in, and take the letters, and to horse. And if I hear of thee dead there
+      at Smerwick fort, with all thy wounds in front, I shall weep for thy
+      mother, lad; but I shall have never a sigh for thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If any one shall be startled at hearing a fine gentleman and a warrior
+      like Sir Richard quote Scripture, and think Scripture also, they must be
+      referred to the writings of the time; which they may read not without
+      profit to themselves, if they discover therefrom how it was possible then
+      for men of the world to be thoroughly ingrained with the Gospel, and yet
+      to be free from any taint of superstitious fear, or false devoutness. The
+      religion of those days was such as no soldier need have been ashamed of
+      confessing. At least, Sir Richard died as he lived, without a shudder, and
+      without a whine; and these were his last words, fifteen years after that,
+      as he lay shot through and through, a captive among Popish Spaniards,
+      priests, crucifixes, confession, extreme unction, and all other means and
+      appliances for delivering men out of the hands of a God of love:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind; for that I
+      have ended my life as a true soldier ought, fighting for his country,
+      queen, religion, and honor: my soul willingly departing from this body,
+      leaving behind the lasting fame of having behaved as every valiant soldier
+      is in his duty bound to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Those were the last words of Richard Grenville. The pulpits of those days
+      had taught them to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But to return. That day's events were not over yet. For, when they went
+      down into the house, the first person whom they met was the old steward,
+      in search of his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a manner of roog, Sir Richard, a masterless man, at the door; a
+      very forward fellow, and must needs speak with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A masterless man? He had better not to speak to me, unless he is in love
+      with gaol and gallows.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, your worship,&rdquo; said the steward, &ldquo;I expect that is what he does
+      want, for he swears he will not leave the gate till he has seen you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seen me? Halidame! he shall see me, here and at Launceston too, if he
+      likes. Bring him in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fegs, Sir Richard, we are half afeard. With your good leave&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hillo, Tony,&rdquo; cried Amyas, &ldquo;who was ever afeard yet with Sir Richard's
+      good leave?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, has the fellow a tail or horns?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Massy no: but I be afeard of treason for your honor; for the fellow is
+      pinked all over in heathen patterns, and as brown as a filbert; and a tall
+      roog, a very strong roog, sir, and a foreigner too, and a mighty staff
+      with him. I expect him to be a manner of Jesuit, or wild Irish, sir; and
+      indeed the grooms have no stomach to handle him, nor the dogs neither, or
+      he had been under the pump before now, for they that saw him coming up the
+      hill swear that he had fire coming out of his mouth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fire out of his mouth?&rdquo; said Sir Richard. &ldquo;The men are drunk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pinked all over? He must be a sailor,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;let me out and see
+      the fellow, and if he needs putting forth&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I dare say he is not so big but what he will go into thy pocket. So
+      go, lad, while I finish my writing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas went out, and at the back door, leaning on his staff, stood a tall,
+      raw-boned, ragged man, &ldquo;pinked all over,&rdquo; as the steward had said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hillo, lad!&rdquo; quoth Amyas. &ldquo;Before we come to talk, thou wilt please to
+      lay down that Plymouth cloak of thine.&rdquo; And he pointed to the cudgel,
+      which among West-country mariners usually bore that name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll warrant,&rdquo; said the old steward, &ldquo;that where he found his cloak he
+      found purse not far off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not hose or doublet; so the magical virtue of his staff has not
+      helped him much. But put down thy staff, man, and speak like a Christian,
+      if thou be one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a Christian, though I look like a heathen; and no rogue, though a
+      masterless man, alas! But I want nothing, deserving nothing, and only ask
+      to speak with Sir Richard, before I go on my way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something stately and yet humble about the man's tone and manner
+      which attracted Amyas, and he asked more gently where he was going and
+      whence he came.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From Padstow Port, sir, to Clovelly town, to see my old mother, if indeed
+      she be yet alive, which God knoweth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Clovally man! why didn't thee say thee was Clovally man?&rdquo; asked all the
+      grooms at once, to whom a West-countryman was of course a brother. The old
+      steward asked&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's thy mother's name, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Susan Yeo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, that lived under the archway?&rdquo; asked a groom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lived?&rdquo; said the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Iss, sure; her died three days since, so we heard, poor soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man stood quite silent and unmoved for a minute or two; and then said
+      quietly to himself, in Spanish, &ldquo;That which is, is best.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You speak Spanish?&rdquo; asked Amyas, more and more interested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had need to do so, young sir; I have been five years in the Spanish
+      Main, and only set foot on shore two days ago; and if you will let me have
+      speech of Sir Richard, I will tell him that at which both the ears of him
+      that heareth it shall tingle; and if not, I can but go on to Mr. Cary of
+      Clovelly, if he be yet alive, and there disburden my soul; but I would
+      sooner have spoken with one that is a mariner like to myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you shall,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;Steward, we will have this man in; for all
+      his rags, he is a man of wit.&rdquo; And he led him in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I only hope he ben't one of those Popish murderers,&rdquo; said the old
+      steward, keeping at a safe distance from him as they entered the hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Popish, old master? There's little fear of my being that. Look here!&rdquo; And
+      drawing back his rags, he showed a ghastly scar, which encircled his wrist
+      and wound round and up his fore-arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I got that on the rack,&rdquo; said he, quietly, &ldquo;in the Inquisition at Lima.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O Father! Father! why didn't you tell us that you were a poor Christian?&rdquo;
+       asked the penitent steward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I have had naught but my deserts; and but a taste of them either,
+      as the Lord knoweth who delivered me; and I wasn't going to make myself a
+      beggar and a show on their account.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By heaven, you are a brave fellow!&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;Come along straight to
+      Sir Richard's room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So in they went, where Sir Richard sat in his library among books,
+      despatches, state-papers, and warrants; for though he was not yet, as in
+      after times (after the fashion of those days) admiral, general, member of
+      parliament, privy councillor, justice of the peace, and so forth, all at
+      once, yet there were few great men with whom he did not correspond, or
+      great matters with which he was not cognizant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hillo, Amyas, have you bound the wild man already, and brought him in to
+      swear allegiance?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But before Amyas could answer, the man looked earnestly on him&mdash;&ldquo;Amyas?&rdquo;
+       said he; &ldquo;is that your name, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas Leigh is my name, at your service, good fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of Burrough by Bideford?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why then? What do you know of me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh sir, sir! young brains and happy ones have short memories; but old and
+      sad brains too long ones often! Do you mind one that was with Mr. Oxenham,
+      sir? A swearing reprobate he was, God forgive him, and hath forgiven him
+      too, for His dear Son's sake&mdash;one, sir, that gave you a horn, a toy
+      with a chart on it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Soul alive!&rdquo; cried Amyas, catching him by the hand; &ldquo;and are you he? The
+      horn? why, I have it still, and will keep it to my dying day, too. But
+      where is Mr. Oxenham?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my good fellow, where is Mr. Oxenham?&rdquo; asked Sir Richard, rising.
+      &ldquo;You are somewhat over-hasty in welcoming your old acquaintance, Amyas,
+      before we have heard from him whether he can give honest account of
+      himself and of his captain. For there is more than one way by which
+      sailors may come home without their captains, as poor Mr. Barker of
+      Bristol found to his cost. God grant that there may have been no such
+      traitorous dealing here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Richard Grenville, if I had been a guilty man to my noble captain, as
+      I have to God, I had not come here this day to you, from whom villainy has
+      never found favor, nor ever will; for I know your conditions well, sir;
+      and trust in the Lord, that if you will be pleased to hear me, you shall
+      know mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art a well-spoken knave. We shall see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear sir,&rdquo; said Amyas, in a whisper, &ldquo;I will warrant this man
+      guiltless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I verily believe him to be; but this is too serious a matter to be left
+      on guess. If he will be sworn&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon the man, humbly enough, said, that if it would please Sir Richard,
+      he would rather not be sworn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it does not please me, rascal! Did I not warn thee, Amyas?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said the man, proudly, &ldquo;God forbid that my word should not be as
+      good as my oath: but it is against my conscience to be sworn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have we here? some fantastical Anabaptist, who is wiser than his
+      teachers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My conscience, sir&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil take it and thee! I never heard a man yet begin to prate of his
+      conscience, but I knew that he was about to do something more than
+      ordinarily cruel or false.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said the man, coolly enough, &ldquo;do you sit here to judge me according
+      to law, and yet contrary to the law swear profane oaths, for which a fine
+      is provided?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas expected an explosion: but Sir Richard pulled a shilling out and put
+      it on the table. &ldquo;There&mdash;my fine is paid, sirrah, to the poor of
+      Kilkhampton: but hearken thou all the same. If thou wilt not speak an
+      oath, thou shalt speak on compulsion; for to Launceston gaol thou goest,
+      there to answer for Mr. Oxenham's death, on suspicion whereof, and of
+      mutiny causing it, I will attach thee and every soul of his crew that
+      comes home. We have lost too many gallant captains of late by treachery of
+      their crews, and he that will not clear himself on oath, must be held for
+      guilty, and self-condemned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My good fellow,&rdquo; said Amyas, who could not give up his belief in the
+      man's honesty, &ldquo;why, for such fantastical scruples, peril not only your
+      life, but your honor, and Mr. Oxenham's also? For if you be examined by
+      question, you may be forced by torment to say that which is not true.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Little fear of that, young sir!&rdquo; answered he, with a grim smile; &ldquo;I have
+      had too much of the rack already, and the strappado too, to care much what
+      man can do unto me. I would heartily that I thought it lawful to be sworn:
+      but not so thinking, I can but submit to the cruelty of man; though I did
+      expect more merciful things, as a most miserable and wrecked mariner, at
+      the hands of one who hath himself seen God's ways in the sea, and His
+      wonders in the great deep. Sir Richard Grenville, if you will hear my
+      story, may God avenge on my head all my sins from my youth up until now,
+      and cut me off from the blood of Christ, and, if it were possible, from
+      the number of His elect, if I tell you one whit more or less than truth;
+      and if not, I commend myself into the hands of God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard smiled. &ldquo;Well, thou art a brave ass, and valiant, though an
+      ass manifest. Dost thou not see, fellow, how thou hast sworn a ten-times
+      bigger oath than ever I should have asked of thee? But this is the way
+      with your Anabaptists, who by their very hatred of forms and ceremonies,
+      show of how much account they think them, and then bind themselves out of
+      their own fantastical self-will with far heavier burdens than ever the
+      lawful authorities have laid on them for the sake of the commonweal. But
+      what do they care for the commonweal, as long as they can save, as they
+      fancy, each man his own dirty soul for himself? However, thou art sworn
+      now with a vengeance; go on with thy tale: and first, who art thou, and
+      whence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir,&rdquo; said the man, quite unmoved by this last explosion; &ldquo;my name
+      is Salvation Yeo, born in Clovelly Street, in the year 1526, where my
+      father exercised the mystery of a barber surgeon, and a preacher of the
+      people since called Anabaptists, for which I return humble thanks to God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard.&mdash;Fie! thou naughty knave; return thanks that thy father
+      was an ass?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo.&mdash;Nay, but because he was a barber surgeon; for I myself learnt a
+      touch of that trade, and thereby saved my life, as I will tell presently.
+      And I do think that a good mariner ought to have all knowledge of carnal
+      and worldly cunning, even to tailoring and shoemaking, that he may be able
+      to turn his hand to whatsoever may hap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard.&mdash;Well spoken, fellow: but let us have thy text without
+      thy comments. Forwards!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo.&mdash;Well, sir. I was bred to the sea from my youth, and was with
+      Captain Hawkins in his three voyages, which he made to Guinea for negro
+      slaves, and thence to the West Indies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard.&mdash;Then thrice thou wentest to a bad end, though Captain
+      Hawkins be my good friend; and the last time to a bad end thou camest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo.&mdash;No denying that last, your worship: but as for the former, I
+      doubt&mdash;about the unlawfulness, I mean; being the negroes are of the
+      children of Ham, who are cursed and reprobate, as Scripture declares, and
+      their blackness testifies, being Satan's own livery; among whom therefore
+      there can be none of the elect, wherefore the elect are not required to
+      treat them as brethren.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard.&mdash;What a plague of a pragmatical sea-lawyer have we here?
+      And I doubt not, thou hypocrite, that though thou wilt call the negroes'
+      black skin Satan's livery, when it serves thy turn to steal them, thou
+      wilt find out sables to be Heaven's livery every Sunday, and up with a
+      godly howl unless a parson shall preach in a black gown, Geneva fashion.
+      Out upon thee! Go on with thy tale, lest thou finish thy sermon at
+      Launceston after all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo.&mdash;The Lord's people were always a reviled people and a persecuted
+      people: but I will go forward, sir; for Heaven forbid but that I should
+      declare what God has done for me. For till lately, from my youth up, I was
+      given over to all wretchlessness and unclean living, and was by nature a
+      child of the devil, and to every good work reprobate, even as others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard.&mdash;Hark to his &ldquo;even as others&rdquo;! Thou new-whelped
+      Pharisee, canst not confess thine own villainies without making out others
+      as bad as thyself, and so thyself no worse than others? I only hope that
+      thou hast shown none of thy devil's doings to Mr. Oxenham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo.&mdash;On the word of a Christian man, sir, as I said before, I kept
+      true faith with him, and would have been a better friend to him, sir, what
+      is more, than ever he was to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard.&mdash;Alas! that might easily be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo.&mdash;I think, sir, and will make good against any man, that Mr.
+      Oxenham was a noble and valiant gentleman; true of his word, stout of his
+      sword, skilful by sea and land, and worthy to have been Lord High Admiral
+      of England (saving your worship's presence), but that through two great
+      sins, wrath and avarice, he was cast away miserably or ever his soul was
+      brought to the knowledge of the truth. Ah, sir, he was a captain worth
+      sailing under!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Yeo heaved a deep sigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard.&mdash;Steady, steady, good fellow! If thou wouldst quit
+      preaching, thou art no fool after all. But tell us the story without more
+      bush-beating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So at last Yeo settled himself to his tale:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sirs, I went, as Mr. Leigh knows, to Nombre de Dios, with Mr. Drake
+      and Mr. Oxenham, in 1572, where what we saw and did, your worship, I
+      suppose, knows as well as I; and there was, as you've heard maybe, a
+      covenant between Mr. Oxenham and Mr. Drake to sail the South Seas
+      together, which they made, your worship, in my hearing, under the tree
+      over Panama. For when Mr. Drake came down from the tree, after seeing the
+      sea afar off, Mr. Oxenham and I went up and saw it too; and when we came
+      down, Drake says, 'John, I have made a vow to God that I will sail that
+      water, if I live and God gives me grace;' which he had done, sir, upon his
+      bended knees, like a godly man as he always was, and would I had taken
+      after him! and Mr. O. says, 'I am with you, Drake, to live or die, and I
+      think I know some one there already, so we shall not be quite among
+      strangers;' and laughed withal. Well, sirs, that voyage, as you know,
+      never came off, because Captain Drake was fighting in Ireland; so Mr.
+      Oxenham, who must be up and doing, sailed for himself, and I, who loved
+      him, God knows, like a brother (saving the difference in our ranks),
+      helped him to get the crew together, and went as his gunner. That was in
+      1575; as you know, he had a 140-ton ship, sir, and seventy men out of
+      Plymouth and Fowey and Dartmouth, and many of them old hands of Drake's,
+      beside a dozen or so from Bideford that I picked up when I saw young
+      Master here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank God that you did not pick me up too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen, amen!&rdquo; said Yeo, clasping his hands on his breast. &ldquo;Those seventy
+      men, sir,&mdash;seventy gallant men, sir, with every one of them an
+      immortal soul within him,&mdash;where are they now? Gone, like the spray!&rdquo;
+       And he swept his hands abroad with a wild and solemn gesture. &ldquo;And their
+      blood is upon my head!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Both Sir Richard and Amyas began to suspect that the man's brain was not
+      altogether sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forbid, my man,&rdquo; said the knight, kindly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thirteen men I persuaded to join in Bideford town, beside William
+      Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade. And what if it be said to me at
+      the day of judgment, 'Salvation Yeo, where are those fourteen whom thou
+      didst tempt to their deaths by covetousness and lust of gold?' Not that I
+      was alone in my sin, if the truth must be told. For all the way out Mr.
+      Oxenham was making loud speech, after his pleasant way, that he would make
+      all their fortunes, and take them to such a Paradise, that they should
+      have no lust to come home again. And I&mdash;God knows why&mdash;for every
+      one boast of his would make two, even to lying and empty fables, and
+      anything to keep up the men's hearts. For I had really persuaded myself
+      that we should all find treasures beyond Solomon his temple, and Mr.
+      Oxenham would surely show us how to conquer some golden city or discover
+      some island all made of precious stones. And one day, as the captain and I
+      were talking after our fashion, I said, 'And you shall be our king,
+      captain.' To which he, 'If I be, I shall not be long without a queen, and
+      that no Indian one either.' And after that he often jested about the
+      Spanish ladies, saying that none could show us the way to their hearts
+      better than he. Which speeches I took no count of then, sirs: but after I
+      minded them, whether I would or not. Well, sirs, we came to the shore of
+      New Spain, near to the old place&mdash;that's Nombre de Dios; and there
+      Mr. Oxenham went ashore into the woods with a boat's crew, to find the
+      negroes who helped us three years before. Those are the Cimaroons,
+      gentles, negro slaves who have fled from those devils incarnate, their
+      Spanish masters, and live wild, like the beasts that perish; men of great
+      stature, sirs, and fierce as wolves in the onslaught, but poor jabbering
+      mazed fellows if they be but a bit dismayed: and have many Indian women
+      with them, who take to these negroes a deal better than to their own kin,
+      which breeds war enough, as you may guess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sirs, after three days the captain comes back, looking heavy
+      enough, and says, 'We played our trick once too often, when we played it
+      once. There is no chance of stopping another reco (that is, a mule-train,
+      sirs) now. The Cimaroons say that since our last visit they never move
+      without plenty of soldiers, two hundred shot at least. Therefore,' he
+      said, 'my gallants, we must either return empty-handed from this, the very
+      market and treasury of the whole Indies, or do such a deed as men never
+      did before, which I shall like all the better for that very reason.' And
+      we, asking his meaning, 'Why,' he said, 'if Drake will not sail the South
+      Seas, we will;' adding profanely that Drake was like Moses, who beheld the
+      promised land afar; but he was Joshua, who would enter into it, and smite
+      the inhabitants thereof. And, for our confirmation, showed me and the rest
+      the superscription of a letter: and said, 'How I came by this is none of
+      your business: but I have had it in my bosom ever since I left Plymouth;
+      and I tell you now, what I forbore to tell you at first, that the South
+      Seas have been my mark all along! such news have I herein of plate-ships,
+      and gold-ships, and what not, which will come up from Quito and Lima this
+      very month, all which, with the pearls of the Gulf of Panama, and other
+      wealth unspeakable, will be ours, if we have but true English hearts
+      within us.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At which, gentles, we were like madmen for lust of that gold, and
+      cheerfully undertook a toil incredible; for first we run our ship aground
+      in a great wood which grew in the very sea itself, and then took out her
+      masts, and covered her in boughs, with her four cast pieces of great
+      ordnance (of which more hereafter), and leaving no man in her, started for
+      the South Seas across the neck of Panama, with two small pieces of
+      ordnance and our culverins, and good store of victuals, and with us six of
+      those negroes for a guide, and so twelve leagues to a river which runs
+      into the South Sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And there, having cut wood, we made a pinnace (and work enough we had at
+      it) of five-and-forty foot in the keel; and in her down the stream, and to
+      the Isle of Pearls in the Gulf of Panama.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Into the South Sea? Impossible!&rdquo; said Sir Richard. &ldquo;Have a care what you
+      say, my man; for there is that about you which would make me sorry to find
+      you out a liar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible or not, liar or none, we went there, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Question him, Amyas, lest he turn out to have been beforehand with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man looked inquiringly at Amyas, who said&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my man, of the Gulf of Panama I cannot ask you, for I never was
+      inside it, but what other parts of the coast do you know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every inch, sir, from Cabo San Francisco to Lima; more is my sorrow, for
+      I was a galley-slave there for two years and more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know Lima?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was there three times, worshipful gentlemen, and the last was February
+      come two years; and there I helped lade a great plate-ship, the
+      Cacafuogo,' they called her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas started. Sir Richard nodded to him gently to be silent, and then&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what became of her, my lad?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God knows, who knows all, and the devil who freighted her. I broke prison
+      six weeks afterwards, and never heard but that she got safe into Panama.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You never heard, then, that she was taken?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Taken, your worships? Who should take her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should not a good English ship take her as well as another?&rdquo; said
+      Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord love you, sir; yes, faith, if they had but been there. Many's the
+      time that I thought to myself, as we went alongside, 'Oh, if Captain Drake
+      was but here, well to windward, and our old crew of the &ldquo;Dragon&rdquo;!' Ask
+      your pardon, gentles: but how is Captain Drake, if I may make so bold?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither could hold out longer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fellow, fellow!&rdquo; cried Sir Richard, springing up, &ldquo;either thou art the
+      cunningest liar that ever earned a halter, or thou hast done a deed the
+      like of which never man adventured. Dost thou not know that Captain Drake
+      took that 'Cacafuogo' and all her freight, in February come two years?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Drake! God forgive me, sir; but&mdash;Captain Drake in the South
+      Seas? He saw them, sir, from the tree-top over Panama, when I was with
+      him, and I too; but sailed them, sir?&mdash;sailed them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and round the world too,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;and I with him; and took that
+      very 'Cacafuogo' off Cape San Francisco, as she came up to Panama.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One glance at the man's face was enough to prove his sincerity. The great
+      stern Anabaptist, who had not winced at the news of his mother's death,
+      dropt right on his knees on the floor, and burst into violent sobs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glory to God! Glory to God! O Lord, I thank thee! Captain Drake in the
+      South Seas! The blood of thy innocents avenged, O Lord! The spoiler
+      spoiled, and the proud robbed; and all they whose hands were mighty have
+      found nothing. Glory, glory! Oh, tell me, sir, did she fight?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We gave her three pieces of ordnance only, and struck down her
+      mizzenmast, and then boarded sword in hand, but never had need to strike a
+      blow; and before we left her, one of her own boys had changed her name,
+      and rechristened her the 'Cacaplata.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glory, glory! Cowards they are, as I told them. I told them they never
+      could stand the Devon mastiffs, and well they flogged me for saying it;
+      but they could not stop my mouth. O sir, tell me, did you get the ship
+      that came up after her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A long race-ship, sir, from Guayaquil, with an old gentleman on board,&mdash;Don
+      Francisco de Xararte was his name, and by token, he had a gold falcon
+      hanging to a chain round his neck, and a green stone in the breast of it.
+      I saw it as we rowed him aboard. O tell me, sir, tell me for the love of
+      God, did you take that ship?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We did take that ship, and the jewel too, and her majesty has it at this
+      very hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then tell me, sir,&rdquo; said he slowly, as if he dreaded an answer; &ldquo;tell me,
+      sir, and oh, try and mind&mdash;was there a little maid aboard with the
+      old gentleman?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A little maid? Let me think. No; I saw none.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man settled his features again sadly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought not. I never saw her come aboard. Still I hoped, like; I hoped.
+      Alackaday! God help me, Salvation Yeo!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have you to do with this little maid, then, good fellow!&rdquo; asked
+      Grenville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, sir, before I tell you that, I must go back and finish the story of
+      Mr. Oxenham, if you will believe me enough to hear it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do believe thee, good fellow, and honor thee too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, sir, I can speak with a free tongue. Where was I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where was he, Amyas?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At the Isle of Pearls.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet, O gentles, tell me first, how Captain Drake came into the South
+      Seas:&mdash;over the neck, as we did?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Through the Straits, good fellow, like any Spaniard: but go on with thy
+      story, and thou shalt have Mr. Leigh's after.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Through the Straits! O glory! But I'll tell my tale. Well, sirs both&mdash;To
+      the Island of Pearls we came, we and some of the negroes. We found many
+      huts, and Indians fishing for pearls, and also a fair house, with porches;
+      but no Spaniard therein, save one man; at which Mr. Oxenham was like a man
+      transported, and fell on that Spaniard, crying, 'Perro, where is your
+      mistress? Where is the bark from Lima?' To which he boldly enough, 'What
+      was his mistress to the Englishman?' But Mr. O. threatened to twine a cord
+      round his head till his eyes burst out; and the Spaniard, being terrified,
+      said that the ship from Lima was expected in a fortnight's time. So for
+      ten days we lay quiet, letting neither negro nor Spaniard leave the
+      island, and took good store of pearls, feeding sumptuously on wild cattle
+      and hogs until the tenth day, when there came by a small bark; her we
+      took, and found her from Quito, and on board 60,000 pezos of gold and
+      other store. With which if we had been content, gentlemen, all had gone
+      well. And some were willing to go back at once, having both treasure and
+      pearls in plenty; but Mr. O., he waxed right mad, and swore to slay any
+      one who made that motion again, assuring us that the Lima ship of which he
+      had news was far greater and richer, and would make princes of us all;
+      which bark came in sight on the sixteenth day, and was taken without shot
+      or slaughter. The taking of which bark, I verily believe, was the ruin of
+      every mother's son of us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And being asked why, he answered, &ldquo;First, because of the discontent which
+      was bred thereby; for on board was found no gold, but only 100,000 pezos
+      of silver.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard Grenville.&mdash;Thou greedy fellow; and was not that enough
+      to stay your stomachs?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo answered that he would to God it had been; and that, moreover, the
+      weight of that silver was afterwards a hindrance to them, and fresh cause
+      of discontent, as he would afterwards declare. &ldquo;So that it had been well
+      for us, sirs, if we had left it behind, as Mr. Drake left his three years
+      before, and carried away the gold only. In which I do see the evident hand
+      of God, and His just punishment for our greediness of gain; who caused Mr.
+      Oxenham, by whom we had hoped to attain great wealth, to be a snare to us,
+      and a cause of utter ruin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think, then,&rdquo; said Sir Richard, &ldquo;that Mr. Oxenham deceived you
+      wilfully?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will never believe that, sir: Mr. Oxenham had his private reasons for
+      waiting for that ship, for the sake of one on board, whose face would that
+      he had never seen, though he saw it then, as I fear, not for the first
+      time by many a one.&rdquo; And so was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; said both his hearers, &ldquo;you have brought us thus far, and you must
+      go on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gentlemen, I have concealed this matter from all men, both on my voyage
+      home and since; and I hope you will be secret in the matter, for the honor
+      of my noble captain, and the comfort of his friends who are alive. For I
+      think it shame to publish harm of a gallant gentleman, and of an ancient
+      and worshipful family, and to me a true and kind captain, when what is
+      done cannot be undone, and least said soonest mended. Neither now would I
+      have spoken of it, but that I was inwardly moved to it for the sake of
+      that young gentleman there&rdquo; (looking at Amyas), &ldquo;that he might be warned
+      in time of God's wrath against the crying sin of adultery, and flee
+      youthful lusts, which war against the soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou hast done wisely enough, then,&rdquo; said Sir Richard; &ldquo;and look to it if
+      I do not reward thee: but the young gentleman here, thank God, needs no
+      such warnings, having got them already both by precept and example, where
+      thou and poor Oxenham might have had them also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean Captain Drake, your worship?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do, sirrah. If all men were as clean livers as he, the world would be
+      spared one half the tears that are shed in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen, sir. At least there would have been many a tear spared to us and
+      ours. For&mdash;as all must out&mdash;in that bark of Lima he took a young
+      lady, as fair as the sunshine, sir, and seemingly about two or
+      three-and-twenty years of age, having with her a tall young lad of
+      sixteen, and a little girl, a marvellously pretty child, of about a six or
+      seven. And the lady herself was of an excellent beauty, like a whale's
+      tooth for whiteness, so that all the crew wondered at her, and could not
+      be satisfied with looking upon her. And, gentlemen, this was strange, that
+      the lady seemed in no wise afraid or mournful, and bid her little girl
+      fear naught, as did also Mr. Oxenham: but the lad kept a very sour
+      countenance, and the more when he saw the lady and Mr. Oxenham speaking
+      together apart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir, after this good luck we were minded to have gone straight back
+      to the river whence we came, and so home to England with all speed. But
+      Mr. Oxenham persuaded us to return to the island, and get a few more
+      pearls. To which foolishness (which after caused the mishap) I verily
+      believe he was moved by the instigation of the devil and of that lady. For
+      as we were about to go ashore, I, going down into the cabin of the prize,
+      saw Mr. Oxenham and that lady making great cheer of each other with, 'My
+      life,' and 'My king,' and 'Light of my eyes,' and such toys; and being
+      bidden by Mr. Oxenham to fetch out the lady's mails, and take them ashore,
+      heard how the two laughed together about the old ape of Panama (which ape,
+      or devil rather, I saw afterwards to my cost), and also how she said that
+      she had been dead for five years, and now that Mr. Oxenham was come, she
+      was alive again, and so forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Oxenham bade take the little maid ashore, kissing her and playing
+      with her, and saying to the lady, 'What is yours is mine, and what is mine
+      is yours.' And she asking whether the lad should come ashore, he answered,
+      'He is neither yours nor mine; let the spawn of Beelzebub stay on shore.'
+      After which I, coming on deck again, stumbled over that very lad, upon the
+      hatchway ladder, who bore so black and despiteful a face, that I verily
+      believe he had overheard their speech, and so thrust him upon deck; and
+      going below again, told Mr. Oxenham what I thought, and said that it were
+      better to put a dagger into him at once, professing to be ready so to do.
+      For which grievous sin, seeing that it was committed in my unregenerate
+      days, I hope I have obtained the grace of forgiveness, as I have that of
+      hearty repentance. But the lady cried out, 'Though he be none of mine, I
+      have sin enough already on my soul;' and so laid her hand on Mr. Oxenham's
+      mouth, entreating pitifully. And Mr. Oxenham answered laughing, when she
+      would let him, 'What care we? let the young monkey go and howl to the old
+      one;' and so went ashore with the lady to that house, whence for three
+      days he never came forth, and would have remained longer, but that the
+      men, finding but few pearls, and being wearied with the watching and
+      warding so many Spaniards, and negroes came clamoring to him, and swore
+      that they would return or leave him there with the lady. So all went on
+      board the pinnace again, every one in ill humor with the captain, and he
+      with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sirs, we came back to the mouth of the river, and there began our
+      troubles; for the negroes, as soon as we were on shore, called on Mr.
+      Oxenham to fulfil the bargain he had made with them. And now it came out
+      (what few of us knew till then) that he had agreed with the Cimaroons that
+      they should have all the prisoners which were taken, save the gold. And
+      he, though loath, was about to give up the Spaniards to them, near forty
+      in all, supposing that they intended to use them as slaves: but as we all
+      stood talking, one of the Spaniards, understanding what was forward, threw
+      himself on his knees before Mr. Oxenham, and shrieking like a madman,
+      entreated not to be given up into the hands of 'those devils,' said he,
+      'who never take a Spanish prisoner, but they roast him alive, and then eat
+      his heart among them.' We asked the negroes if this was possible? To which
+      some answered, What was that to us? But others said boldly, that it was
+      true enough, and that revenge made the best sauce, and nothing was so
+      sweet as Spanish blood; and one, pointing to the lady, said such foul and
+      devilish things as I should be ashamed either for me to speak, or you to
+      hear. At this we were like men amazed for very horror; and Mr. Oxenham
+      said, 'You incarnate fiends, if you had taken these fellows for slaves, it
+      had been fair enough; for you were once slaves to them, and I doubt not
+      cruelly used enough: but as for this abomination,' says he, 'God do so to
+      me, and more also, if I let one of them come into your murderous hands.'
+      So there was a great quarrel; but Mr. Oxenham stoutly bade put the
+      prisoners on board the ships again, and so let the prizes go, taking with
+      him only the treasure, and the lady and the little maid. And so the lad
+      went on to Panama, God's wrath having gone out against us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sirs, the Cimaroons after that went away from us, swearing revenge
+      (for which we cared little enough), and we rowed up the river to a place
+      where three streams met, and then up the least of the three, some four
+      days' journey, till it grew all shoal and swift; and there we hauled the
+      pinnace upon the sands, and Mr. Oxenham asked the men whether they were
+      willing to carry the gold and silver over the mountains to the North Sea.
+      Some of them at first were loath to do it, and I and others advised that
+      we should leave the plate behind, and take the gold only, for it would
+      have cost us three or four journeys at the least. But Mr. Oxenham promised
+      every man 100 pezos of silver over and above his wages, which made them
+      content enough, and we were all to start the morrow morning. But, sirs,
+      that night, as God had ordained, came a mishap by some rash speeches of
+      Mr. Oxenham's, which threw all abroad again; for when we had carried the
+      treasure about half a league inland, and hidden it away in a house which
+      we made of boughs, Mr. O. being always full of that his fair lady, spoke
+      to me and William Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade, and a few more,
+      saying, 'That we had no need to return to England, seeing that we were
+      already in the very garden of Eden, and wanted for nothing, but could live
+      without labor or toil; and that it was better, when we got over to the
+      North Sea, to go and seek out some fair island, and there dwell in joy and
+      pleasure till our lives' end. And we two,' he said, 'will be king and
+      queen, and you, whom I can trust, my officers; and for servants we will
+      have the Indians, who, I warrant, will be more fain to serve honest and
+      merry masters like us than those Spanish devils,' and much more of the
+      like; which words I liked well,&mdash;my mind, alas! being given
+      altogether to carnal pleasure and vanity,&mdash;as did William Penberthy,
+      my good comrade, on whom I trust God has had mercy. But the rest, sirs,
+      took the matter all across, and began murmuring against the captain,
+      saying that poor honest mariners like them had always the labor and the
+      pain, while he took his delight with his lady; and that they would have at
+      least one merry night before they were slain by the Cimaroons, or eaten by
+      panthers and lagartos; and so got out of the pinnace two great skins of
+      Canary wine, which were taken in the Lima prize, and sat themselves down
+      to drink. Moreover, there were in the pinnace a great sight of hens, which
+      came from the same prize, by which Mr. O. set great store, keeping them
+      for the lady and the little maid; and falling upon these, the men began to
+      blaspheme, saying, 'What a plague had the captain to fill the boat with
+      dirty live lumber for that giglet's sake? They had a better right to a
+      good supper than ever she had, and might fast awhile to cool her hot
+      blood;' and so cooked and ate those hens, plucking them on board the
+      pinnace, and letting the feathers fall into the stream. But when William
+      Penberthy, my good comrade, saw the feathers floating away down, he asked
+      them if they were mad, to lay a trail by which the Spaniards would surely
+      track them out, if they came after them, as without doubt they would. But
+      they laughed him to scorn, and said that no Spanish cur dared follow on
+      the heels of true English mastiffs as they were, and other boastful
+      speeches; and at last, being heated with wine, began afresh to murmur at
+      the captain. And one speaking of his counsel about the island, the rest
+      altogether took it amiss and out of the way; and some sprang up crying
+      treason, and others that he meant to defraud them of the plate which he
+      had promised, and others that he meant to desert them in a strange land,
+      and so forth, till Mr. O., hearing the hubbub, came out to them from the
+      house, when they reviled him foully, swearing that he meant to cheat them;
+      and one Edward Stiles, a Wapping man, mad with drink, dared to say that he
+      was a fool for not giving up the prisoners to the negroes, and what was it
+      to him if the lady roasted? the negroes should have her yet; and drawing
+      his sword, ran upon the captain: for which I was about to strike him
+      through the body; but the captain, not caring to waste steel on such a
+      ribald, with his fist caught him such a buffet behind the ear, that he
+      fell down stark dead, and all the rest stood amazed. Then Mr. Oxenham
+      called out, 'All honest men who know me, and can trust me, stand by your
+      lawful captain against these ruffians.' Whereon, sirs, I, and Penberthy my
+      good comrade, and four Plymouth men, who had sailed with Mr. O. in Mr.
+      Drake's ship, and knew his trusty and valiant conditions, came over to
+      him, and swore before God to stand by him and the lady. Then said Mr. O.
+      to the rest, 'Will you carry this treasure, knaves, or will you not? Give
+      me an answer here.' And they refused, unless he would, before they
+      started, give each man his share. So Mr. O. waxed very mad, and swore that
+      he would never be served by men who did not trust him, and so went in
+      again; and that night was spent in great disquiet, I and those five others
+      keeping watch about the house of boughs till the rest fell asleep, in
+      their drink. And next morning, when the wine was gone out of them, Mr. O.
+      asked them whether they would go to the hills with him, and find those
+      negroes, and persuade them after all to carry the treasure. To which they
+      agreed after awhile, thinking that so they should save themselves labor;
+      and went off with Mr. Oxenham, leaving us six who had stood by him to
+      watch the lady and the treasure, after he had taken an oath of us that we
+      would deal justly and obediently by him and by her, which God knows,
+      gentlemen, we did. So he parted with much weeping and wailing of the lady,
+      and was gone seven days; and all that time we kept that lady faithfully
+      and honestly, bringing her the best we could find, and serving her upon
+      our bended knees, both for her admirable beauty, and for her excellent
+      conditions, for she was certainly of some noble kin, and courteous, and
+      without fear, as if she had been a very princess. But she kept always
+      within the house, which the little maid (God bless her!) did not, but soon
+      learned to play with us and we with her, so that we made great cheer of
+      her, gentlemen, sailor fashion&mdash;for you know we must always have our
+      minions aboard to pet and amuse us&mdash;maybe a monkey, or a little dog,
+      or a singing bird, ay, or mice and spiders, if we have nothing better to
+      play withal. And she was wonderful sharp, sirs, was the little maid, and
+      picked up her English from us fast, calling us jolly mariners, which I
+      doubt but she has forgotten by now, but I hope in God it be not so;&rdquo; and
+      therewith the good fellow began wiping his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir, on the seventh day we six were down by the pinnace clearing
+      her out, and the little maid with us gathering of flowers, and William
+      Penberthy fishing on the bank, about a hundred yards below, when on a
+      sudden he leaps up and runs toward us, crying, 'Here come our hens'
+      feathers back again with a vengeance!' and so bade catch up the little
+      maid, and run for the house, for the Spaniards were upon us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which was too true; for before we could win the house, there were full
+      eighty shot at our heels, but could not overtake us; nevertheless, some of
+      them stopping, fixed their calivers and let fly, killing one of the
+      Plymouth men. The rest of us escaped to the house, and catching up the
+      lady, fled forth, not knowing whither we went, while the Spaniards,
+      finding the house and treasure, pursued us no farther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For all that day and the next we wandered in great misery, the lady
+      weeping continually, and calling for Mr. Oxenham most piteously, and the
+      little maid likewise, till with much ado we found the track of our
+      comrades, and went up that as best we might: but at nightfall, by good
+      hap, we met the whole crew coming back, and with them 200 negroes or more,
+      with bows and arrows. At which sight was great joy and embracing, and it
+      was a strange thing, sirs, to see the lady; for before that she was
+      altogether desperate: and yet she was now a very lioness, as soon as she
+      had got her love again; and prayed him earnestly not to care for that
+      gold, but to go forward to the North Sea, vowing to him in my hearing that
+      she cared no more for poverty than she had cared for her good name, and
+      then&mdash;they being a little apart from the rest&mdash;pointed round to
+      the green forest, and said in Spanish&mdash;which I suppose they knew not
+      that I understood,&mdash;'See, all round us is Paradise. Were it not
+      enough for you and me to stay here forever, and let them take the gold or
+      leave it as they will?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To which Mr. Oxenham&mdash;'Those who lived in Paradise had not sinned as
+      we have, and would never have grown old or sick, as we shall.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And she&mdash;'If we do that, there are poisons enough in these woods, by
+      which we may die in each other's arms, as would to Heaven we had died
+      seven years agone!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he&mdash;'No, no, my life. It stands upon my honor both to fulfil my
+      bond with these men, whom I have brought hither, and to take home to
+      England at least something of my prize as a proof of my own valor.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then she smiling&mdash;'Am I not prize enough, and proof enough?' But he
+      would not be so tempted, and turning to us offered us the half of that
+      treasure, if we would go back with him, and rescue it from the Spaniard.
+      At which the lady wept and wailed much; but I took upon myself to comfort
+      her, though I was but a simple mariner, telling her that it stood upon Mr.
+      Oxenham's honor; and that in England nothing was esteemed so foul as
+      cowardice, or breaking word and troth betwixt man and man; and that better
+      was it for him to die seven times by the Spaniards, than to face at home
+      the scorn of all who sailed the seas. So, after much ado, back they went
+      again; I and Penberthy, and the three Plymouth men which escaped from the
+      pinnace, keeping the lady as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sirs, we waited five days, having made houses of boughs as before,
+      without hearing aught; and on the sixth we saw coming afar off Mr.
+      Oxenham, and with him fifteen or twenty men, who seemed very weary and
+      wounded; and when we looked for the rest to be behind them, behold there
+      were no more; at which, sirs, as you may well think, our hearts sank
+      within us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Mr. O., coming nearer, cried out afar off, 'All is lost!' and so
+      walked into the camp without a word, and sat himself down at the foot of a
+      great tree with his head between his hands, speaking neither to the lady
+      or to any one, till she very pitifully kneeling before him, cursing
+      herself for the cause of all his mischief, and praying him to avenge
+      himself upon that her tender body, won him hardly to look once upon her,
+      after which (as is the way of vain and unstable man) all between them was
+      as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the men were full of curses against the negroes, for their cowardice
+      and treachery; yea, and against high Heaven itself, which had put the most
+      part of their ammunition into the Spaniards' hands; and told me, and I
+      believe truly, how they forced the enemy awaiting them in a little copse
+      of great trees, well fortified with barricades of boughs, and having with
+      them our two falcons, which they had taken out of the pinnace. And how Mr.
+      Oxenham divided both the English and the negroes into two bands, that one
+      might attack the enemy in front, and the other in the rear, and so set
+      upon them with great fury, and would have utterly driven them out, but
+      that the negroes, who had come on with much howling, like very wild
+      beasts, being suddenly scared with the shot and noise of the ordnance,
+      turned and fled, leaving the Englishmen alone; in which evil strait Mr. O.
+      fought like a very Guy of Warwick, and I verily believe every man of them
+      likewise; for there was none of them who had not his shrewd scratch to
+      show. And indeed, Mr. Oxenham's party had once gotten within the
+      barricades, but the Spaniards being sheltered by the tree trunks (and
+      especially by one mighty tree, which stood as I remembered it, and
+      remember it now, borne up two fathoms high upon its own roots, as it were
+      upon arches and pillars), shot at them with such advantage, that they had
+      several slain, and seven more taken alive, only among the roots of that
+      tree. So seeing that they could prevail nothing, having little but their
+      pikes and swords, they were fain to give back; though Mr. Oxenham swore he
+      would not stir a foot, and making at the Spanish captain was borne down
+      with pikes, and hardly pulled away by some, who at last reminding him of
+      his lady, persuaded him to come away with the rest. Whereon the other
+      party fled also; but what had become of them they knew not, for they took
+      another way. And so they miserably drew off, having lost in men eleven
+      killed and seven taken alive, besides five of the rascal negroes who were
+      killed before they had time to run; and there was an end of the matter.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * In the documents from which I have drawn this veracious
+     history, a note is appended to this point of Yeo's story,
+     which seems to me to smack sufficiently of the old
+     Elizabethan seaman, to be inserted at length.
+
+     &ldquo;All so far, and most after, agreeth with Lopez Vaz his
+     tale, taken from his pocket by my Lord Cumberland's mariners
+     at the river Plate, in the year 1586.  But note here his
+     vainglory and falsehood, or else fear of the Spaniard.
+
+     &ldquo;First, lest it should be seen how great an advantage the
+     Spaniards had, he maketh no mention of the English calivers,
+     nor those two pieces of ordnance which were in the pinnace.
+
+     &ldquo;Second, he saith nothing of the flight of the Cimaroons:
+     though it was evidently to be gathered from that which he
+     himself saith, that of less than seventy English were slain
+     eleven, and of the negroes but five.  And while of the
+     English seven were taken alive, yet of the negroes none.
+     And why, but because the rascals ran?
+
+     &ldquo;Thirdly, it is a thing incredible, and out of experience,
+     that eleven English should be slain and seven taken, with
+     loss only of two Spaniards killed.
+
+     &ldquo;Search now, and see (for I will not speak of mine own small
+     doings), in all those memorable voyages, which the worthy
+     and learned Mr. Hakluyt hath so painfully collected, and
+     which are to my old age next only to my Bible, whether in
+     all the fights which we have endured with the Spaniards,
+     their loss, even in victory, hath not far exceeded ours.
+     For we are both bigger of body and fiercer of spirit, being
+     even to the poorest of us (thanks so the care of our
+     illustrious princes), the best fed men of Europe, the most
+     trained to feats of strength and use of weapons, and put our
+     trust also not in any Virgin or saints, dead rags and bones,
+     painted idols which have no breath in their mouths, or St.
+     Bartholomew medals and such devil's remembrancers; but in
+     the only true God and our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom
+     whosoever trusteth, one of them shall chase a thousand.  So
+     I hold, having had good experience; and say, if they have
+     done it once, let them do it again, and kill their eleven to
+     our two, with any weapon they will, save paper bullets blown
+     out of Fame's lying trumpet.  Yet I have no quarrel with the
+     poor Portugal; for I doubt not but friend Lopez Vaz had
+     looking over his shoulder as he wrote some mighty black
+     velvet Don, with a name as long as that Don Bernaldino
+     Delgadillo de Avellaneda who set forth lately his
+     vainglorious libel of lies concerning the last and fatal
+     voyage of my dear friends Sir F. Drake and Sir John Hawkins,
+     who rest in peace, having finished their labors, as would
+     God I rested.  To whose shameless and unspeakable lying my
+     good friend Mr. Henry Savile of this county did most pithily
+     and wittily reply, stripping the ass out of his lion's skin;
+     and Sir Thomas Baskerville, general of the fleet, by my
+     advice, send him a cartel of defiance, offering to meet him
+     with choice of weapons, in any indifferent kingdom of equal
+     distance from this realm; which challenge he hath prudently
+     put in his pipe, or rather rolled it up for one of his
+     Spanish cigarros, and smoked it, and I doubt not, found it
+     foul in the mouth.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the next day, gentlemen, in came some five-and-twenty more, being the
+      wreck of the other party, and with them a few negroes; and these last
+      proved themselves no honester men than they were brave, for there being
+      great misery among us English, and every one of us straggling where he
+      could to get food, every day one or more who went out never came back, and
+      that caused a suspicion that the negroes had betrayed them to the
+      Spaniards, or, maybe, slain and eaten them. So these fellows being
+      upbraided, with that altogether left us, telling us boldly, that if they
+      had eaten our fellows, we owed them a debt instead of the Spanish
+      prisoners; and we, in great terror and hunger, went forward and over the
+      mountains till we came to a little river which ran northward, which seemed
+      to lead into the Northern Sea; and there Mr. O.&mdash;who, sirs, I will
+      say, after his first rage was over, behaved himself all through like a
+      valiant and skilful commander&mdash;bade us cut down trees and make
+      canoes, to go down to the sea; which we began to do, with great labor and
+      little profit, hewing down trees with our swords, and burning them out
+      with fire, which, after much labor, we kindled; but as we were a-burning
+      out of the first tree, and cutting down of another, a great party of
+      negroes came upon us, and with much friendly show bade us flee for our
+      lives, for the Spaniards were upon us in great force. And so we were up
+      and away again, hardly able to drag our legs after us for hunger and
+      weariness, and the broiling heat. And some were taken (God help them!) and
+      some fled with the negroes, of whom what became God alone knoweth; but
+      eight or ten held on with the captain, among whom was I, and fled downward
+      toward the sea for one day; but afterwards finding, by the noise in the
+      woods, that the Spaniards were on the track of us, we turned up again
+      toward the inland, and coming to a cliff, climbed up over it, drawing up
+      the lady and the little maid with cords of liana (which hang from those
+      trees as honeysuckle does here, but exceeding stout and long, even to
+      fifty fathoms); and so breaking the track, hoped to be out of the way of
+      the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By which, nevertheless, we only increased our misery. For two fell from
+      that cliff, as men asleep for very weariness, and miserably broke their
+      bones; and others, whether by the great toil, or sunstrokes, or eating of
+      strange berries, fell sick of fluxes and fevers; where was no drop of
+      water, but rock of pumice stone as bare as the back of my hand, and full,
+      moreover, of great cracks, black and without bottom, over which we had not
+      strength to lift the sick, but were fain to leave them there aloft, in the
+      sunshine, like Dives in his torments, crying aloud for a drop of water to
+      cool their tongues; and every man a great stinking vulture or two sitting
+      by him, like an ugly black fiend out of the pit, waiting till the poor
+      soul should depart out of the corpse: but nothing could avail, and for the
+      dear life we must down again and into the woods, or be burned up alive
+      upon those rocks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So getting down the slope on the farther side, we came into the woods
+      once more, and there wandered for many days, I know not how many; our
+      shoes being gone, and our clothes all rent off us with brakes and briars.
+      And yet how the lady endured all was a marvel to see; for she went
+      barefoot many days, and for clothes was fain to wrap herself in Mr.
+      Oxenham's cloak; while the little maid went all but naked: but ever she
+      looked still on Mr. Oxenham, and seemed to take no care as long as he was
+      by, comforting and cheering us all with pleasant words; yea, and once
+      sitting down under a great fig-tree, sang us all to sleep with very sweet
+      music; yet, waking about midnight, I saw her sitting still upright,
+      weeping very bitterly; on whom, sirs, God have mercy; for she was a fair
+      and a brave jewel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so, to make few words of a sad matter, at last there were none left
+      but Mr. Oxenham and the lady and the little maid, together with me and
+      William Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade. And Mr. Oxenham always led
+      the lady, and Penberthy and I carried the little maid. And for food we had
+      fruits, such as we could find, and water we got from the leaves of certain
+      lilies which grew on the bark of trees, which I found by seeing the
+      monkeys drink at them; and the little maid called them monkey-cups, and
+      asked for them continually, making me climb for them. And so we wandered
+      on, and upward into very high mountains, always fearing lest the Spaniards
+      should track us with dogs, which made the lady leap up often in her sleep,
+      crying that the bloodhounds were upon her. And it befell upon a day, that
+      we came into a great wood of ferns (which grew not on the ground like
+      ours, but on stems as big as a pinnace's mast, and the bark of them was
+      like a fine meshed net, very strange to see), where was very pleasant
+      shade, cool and green; and there, gentlemen, we sat down on a bank of
+      moss, like folk desperate and fordone, and every one looked the other in
+      the face for a long while. After which I took off the bark of those ferns,
+      for I must needs be doing something to drive away thought, and began to
+      plait slippers for the little maid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And as I was plaiting, Mr. Oxenham said, 'What hinders us from dying like
+      men, every man falling on his own sword?' To which I answered that I dare
+      not; for a wise woman had prophesied of me, sirs, that I should die at
+      sea, and yet neither by water or battle, wherefore I did not think right
+      to meddle with the Lord's purposes. And William Penberthy said, 'That he
+      would sell his life, and that dear, but never give it away.' But the lady
+      said, 'Ah, how gladly would I die! but then la paouvre garse,' which is in
+      French 'the poor maid,' meaning the little one. Then Mr. Oxenham fell into
+      a very great weeping, a weakness I never saw him in before or since; and
+      with many tears besought me never to desert that little maid, whatever
+      might befall; which I promised, swearing to it like a heathen, but would,
+      if I had been able, have kept it like a Christian. But on a sudden there
+      was a great cry in the wood, and coming through the trees on all sides
+      Spanish arquebusiers, a hundred strong at least, and negroes with them,
+      who bade us stand or they would shoot. William Penberthy leapt up, crying
+      'Treason!' and running upon the nearest negro ran him through, and then
+      another, and then falling on the Spaniards, fought manfully till he was
+      borne down with pikes, and so died. But I, seeing no thing better to do,
+      sate still and finished my plaiting. And so we were all taken, and I and
+      Mr. Oxenham bound with cords; but the soldiers made a litter for the lady
+      and child, by commandment of Senor Diego de Trees, their commander, a very
+      courteous gentleman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sirs, we were brought down to the place where the house of boughs
+      had been by the river-side; there we went over in boats, and found waiting
+      for us certain Spanish gentlemen, and among others one old and ill-favored
+      man, gray-bearded and bent, in a suit of black velvet, who seemed to be a
+      great man among them. And if you will believe me, Mr. Leigh, that was none
+      other than the old man with the gold falcon at his breast, Don Francisco
+      Xararte by name, whom you found aboard of the Lima ship. And had you known
+      as much of him as I do, or as Mr. Oxenham did either, you had cut him up
+      for shark's bait, or ever you let the cur ashore again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sirs, as soon as the lady came to shore, that old man ran upon her
+      sword in hand, and would have slain her, but some there held him back. On
+      which he turned to, and reviled with every foul and spiteful word which he
+      could think of, so that some there bade him be silent for shame; and Mr.
+      Oxenham said, 'It is worthy of you, Don Francisco, thus to trumpet abroad
+      your own disgrace. Did I not tell you years ago that you were a cur; and
+      are you not proving my words for me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He answered, 'English dog, would to Heaven I had never seen you!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Mr. Oxenham, 'Spanish ape, would to Heaven that I had sent my dagger
+      through your herring-ribs when you passed me behind St. Ildegonde's
+      church, eight years last Easter-eve.' At which the old man turned pale,
+      and then began again to upbraid the lady, vowing that he would have her
+      burnt alive, and other devilish words, to which she answered at last&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Would that you had burnt me alive on my wedding morning, and spared me
+      eight years of misery!' And he&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Misery? Hear the witch, senors! Oh, have I not pampered her, heaped with
+      jewels, clothes, coaches, what not? The saints alone know what 'I have
+      spent on her. What more would she have of me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To which she answered only but this one word, 'Fool!' but in so terrible
+      a voice, though low, that they who were about to laugh at the old
+      pantaloon, were more minded to weep for her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Fool!' she said again, after a while, 'I will waste no words upon you. I
+      would have driven a dagger to your heart months ago, but that I was loath
+      to set you free so soon from your gout and your rheumatism. Selfish and
+      stupid, know when you bought my body from my parents, you did not buy my
+      soul! Farewell, my love, my life! and farewell, senors! May you be more
+      merciful to your daughters than my parents were to me!' And so, catching a
+      dagger from the girdle of one of the soldiers, smote herself to the heart,
+      and fell dead before them all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At which Mr. Oxenham smiled, and said, 'That was worthy of us both. If
+      you will unbind my hands, senors, I shall be most happy to copy so fair a
+      schoolmistress.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Don Diego shook his head, and said&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'It were well for you, valiant senor, were I at liberty to do so; but on
+      questioning those of your sailors whom I have already taken, I cannot hear
+      that you have any letters of license, either from the queen of England, or
+      any other potentate. I am compelled, therefore, to ask you whether this is
+      so; for it is a matter of life and death.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To which Mr. Oxenham answered merrily, that so it was: but that he was
+      not aware that any potentate's license was required to permit a
+      gentleman's meeting his lady love; and that as for the gold which they had
+      taken, if they had never allowed that fresh and fair young May to be
+      forced into marrying that old January, he should never have meddled with
+      their gold; so that was rather their fault than his. And added, that if he
+      was to be hanged, as he supposed, the only favor which he asked for was a
+      long drop and no priests. And all the while, gentlemen, he still kept his
+      eyes fixed on the lady's corpse, till he was led away with me, while all
+      that stood by, God reward them for it, lamented openly the tragical end of
+      those two sinful lovers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, sirs, what befell me after that matters little; for I never saw
+      Captain Oxenham again, nor ever shall in this life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was hanged, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I heard for certain the next year, and with him the gunner and sundry
+      more: but some were given away for slaves to the Spaniards, and may be
+      alive now, unless, like me, they have fallen into the cruel clutches of
+      the Inquisition. For the Inquisition now, gentlemen, claims the bodies and
+      souls of all heretics all over the world (as the devils told me with their
+      own lips, when I pleaded that I was no Spanish subject); and none that it
+      catches, whether peaceable merchants or shipwrecked mariners, but must
+      turn or burn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how did you get into the Inquisition?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, sir, after we were taken, we set forth to go down the river again;
+      and the old Don took the little maid with him in one boat (and bitterly
+      she screeched at parting from us and from the poor dead corpse), and Mr.
+      Oxenham with Don Diego de Trees in another, and I in a third. And from the
+      Spaniards I learnt that we were to be taken down to Lima, to the Viceroy;
+      but that the old man lived hard by Panama, and was going straight back to
+      Panama forthwith with the little maid. But they said, 'It will be well for
+      her if she ever gets there, for the old man swears she is none of his, and
+      would have left her behind him in the woods, now, if Don Diego had not
+      shamed him out of it.' And when I heard that, seeing that there was
+      nothing but death before me, I made up my mind to escape; and the very
+      first night, sirs, by God's help, I did it, and went southward away into
+      the forest, avoiding the tracks of the Cimaroons, till I came to an Indian
+      town. And there, gentlemen, I got more mercy from heathens than ever I had
+      from Christians; for when they found that I was no Spaniard, they fed me
+      and gave me a house, and a wife (and a good wife she was to me), and
+      painted me all over in patterns, as you see; and because I had some
+      knowledge of surgery and blood-letting, and my fleams in my pocket, which
+      were worth to me a fortune, I rose to great honor among them, though they
+      taught me more of simples than ever I taught them of surgery. So I lived
+      with them merrily enough, being a very heathen like them, or indeed worse,
+      for they worshipped their Xemes, but I nothing. And in time my wife bare
+      me a child; in looking at whose sweet face, gentlemen, I forgot Mr.
+      Oxenham and his little maid, and my oath, ay, and my native land also.
+      Wherefore it was taken from me, else had I lived and died as the beasts
+      which perish; for one night, after we were all lain down, came a noise
+      outside the town, and I starting up saw armed men and calivers shining in
+      the moonlight, and heard one read in Spanish, with a loud voice, some
+      fool's sermon, after their custom when they hunt the poor Indians, how God
+      had given to St. Peter the dominion of the whole earth, and St. Peter
+      again the Indies to the Catholic king; wherefore, if they would all be
+      baptized and serve the Spaniard, they should have some monkey's allowance
+      or other of more kicks than pence; and if not, then have at them with fire
+      and sword; but I dare say your worships know that devilish trick of theirs
+      better than I.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it, man. Go on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well&mdash;no sooner were the words spoken than, without waiting to hear
+      what the poor innocents within would answer (though that mattered little,
+      for they understood not one word of it), what do the villains but let fly
+      right into the town with their calivers, and then rush in, sword in hand,
+      killing pell-mell all they met, one of which shots, gentlemen, passing
+      through the doorway, and close by me, struck my poor wife to the heart,
+      that she never spoke word more. I, catching up the babe from her breast,
+      tried to run: but when I saw the town full of them, and their dogs with
+      them in leashes, which was yet worse, I knew all was lost, and sat down
+      again by the corpse with the babe on my knees, waiting the end, like one
+      stunned and in a dream; for now I thought God from whom I had fled had
+      surely found me out, as He did Jonah, and the punishment of all my sins
+      was come. Well, gentlemen, they dragged me out, and all the young men and
+      women, and chained us together by the neck; and one, catching the pretty
+      babe out of my arms, calls for water and a priest (for they had their
+      shavelings with them), and no sooner was it christened than, catching the
+      babe by the heels, he dashed out its brains,&mdash;oh! gentlemen,
+      gentlemen!&mdash;against the ground, as if it had been a kitten; and so
+      did they to several more innocents that night, after they had christened
+      them; saying it was best for them to go to heaven while they were still
+      sure thereof; and so marched us all for slaves, leaving the old folk and
+      the wounded to die at leisure. But when morning came, and they knew by my
+      skin that I was no Indian, and by my speech that I was no Spaniard, they
+      began threatening me with torments, till I confessed that I was an
+      Englishman, and one of Oxenham's crew. At that says the leader, 'Then you
+      shall to Lima, to hang by the side of your captain the pirate;' by which I
+      first knew that my poor captain was certainly gone; but alas for me! the
+      priest steps in and claims me for his booty, calling me Lutheran, heretic,
+      and enemy of God; and so, to make short a sad story, to the Inquisition at
+      Cartagena I went, where what I suffered, gentlemen, were as disgustful for
+      you to hear, as unmanly for me to complain of; but so it was, that being
+      twice racked, and having endured the water-torment as best I could, I was
+      put to the scarpines, whereof I am, as you see, somewhat lame of one leg
+      to this day. At which I could abide no more, and so, wretch that I am!
+      denied my God, in hope to save my life; which indeed I did, but little it
+      profited me; for though I had turned to their superstition, I must have
+      two hundred stripes in the public place, and then go to the galleys for
+      seven years. And there, gentlemen, ofttimes I thought that it had been
+      better for me to have been burned at once and for all: but you know as
+      well as I what a floating hell of heat and cold, hunger and thirst,
+      stripes and toil, is every one of those accursed craft. In which hell,
+      nevertheless, gentlemen, I found the road to heaven,&mdash;I had almost
+      said heaven itself. For it fell out, by God's mercy, that my next comrade
+      was an Englishman like myself, a young man of Bristol, who, as he told me,
+      had been some manner of factor on board poor Captain Barker's ship, and
+      had been a preacher among the Anabaptists here in England. And, oh! Sir
+      Richard Grenville, if that man had done for you what he did for me, you
+      would never say a word against those who serve the same Lord, because they
+      don't altogether hold with you. For from time to time, sir, seeing me
+      altogether despairing and furious, like a wild beast in a pit, he set
+      before me in secret earnestly the sweet promises of God in Christ,&mdash;who
+      says, 'Come to me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will refresh you;
+      and though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow,&mdash;till
+      all that past sinful life of mine looked like a dream when one awaketh,
+      and I forgot all my bodily miseries in the misery of my soul, so did I
+      loathe and hate myself for my rebellion against that loving God who had
+      chosen me before the foundation of the world, and come to seek and save me
+      when I was lost; and falling into very despair at the burden of my heinous
+      sins, knew no peace until I gained sweet assurance that my Lord had hanged
+      my burden upon His cross, and washed my sinful soul in His most sinless
+      blood, Amen!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Sir Richard Grenville said Amen also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, gentlemen, if that sweet youth won a soul to Christ, he paid as
+      dearly for it as ever did saint of God. For after a three or four months,
+      when I had been all that while in sweet converse with him, and I may say
+      in heaven in the midst of hell, there came one night to the barranco at
+      Lima, where we were kept when on shore, three black devils of the Holy
+      Office, and carried him off without a word, only saying to me, 'Look that
+      your turn come not next, for we hear that you have had much talk with the
+      villain.' And at these words I was so struck cold with terror that I
+      swooned right away, and verily, if they had taken me there and then, I
+      should have denied my God again, for my faith was but young and weak: but
+      instead, they left me aboard the galley for a few months more (that was a
+      whole voyage to Panama and back), in daily dread lest I should find myself
+      in their cruel claws again&mdash;and then nothing for me, but to burn as a
+      relapsed heretic. But when we came back to Lima, the officers came on
+      board again, and said to me, 'That heretic has confessed naught against
+      you, so we will leave you for this time: but because you have been seen
+      talking with him so much, and the Holy Office suspects your conversion to
+      be but a rotten one, you are adjudged to the galleys for the rest of your
+      life in perpetual servitude.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what became of him?&rdquo; asked Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was burned, sir, a day or two before we got to Lima, and five others
+      with him at the same stake, of whom two were Englishmen; old comrades of
+      mine, as I guess.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;we heard of that when we were off Lima; and they said,
+      too, that there were six more lying still in prison, to be burnt in a few
+      days. If we had had our fleet with us (as we should have had if it had not
+      been for John Winter) we would have gone in and rescued them all, poor
+      wretches, and sacked the town to boot: but what could we do with one
+      ship?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would to God you had, sir; for the story was true enough; and among them,
+      I heard, were two young ladies of quality and their confessor, who came to
+      their ends for reproving out of Scripture the filthy and loathsome living
+      of those parts, which, as I saw well enough and too well, is liker to
+      Sodom than to a Christian town; but God will avenge His saints, and their
+      sins. Amen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen,&rdquo; said Sir Richard: &ldquo;but on with thy tale, for it is as strange as
+      ever man heard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, gentlemen, when I heard that I must end my days in that galley, I
+      was for awhile like a madman: but in a day or two there came over me, I
+      know not how, a full assurance of salvation, both for this life and the
+      life to come, such as I had never had before; and it was revealed to me (I
+      speak the truth, gentlemen, before Heaven) that now I had been tried to
+      the uttermost, and that my deliverance was at hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And all the way up to Panama (that was after we had laden the
+      'Cacafuogo') I cast in my mind how to escape, and found no way: but just
+      as I was beginning to lose heart again, a door was opened by the Lord's
+      own hand; for (I know not why) we were marched across from Panama to
+      Nombre, which had never happened before, and there put all together into a
+      great barranco close by the quay-side, shackled, as is the fashion, to one
+      long bar that ran the whole length of the house. And the very first night
+      that we were there, I, looking out of the window, spied, lying close
+      aboard of the quay, a good-sized caravel well armed and just loading for
+      sea; and the land breeze blew off very strong, so that the sailors were
+      laying out a fresh warp to hold her to the shore. And it came into my
+      mind, that if we were aboard of her, we should be at sea in five minutes;
+      and looking at the quay, I saw all the soldiers who had guarded us
+      scattered about drinking and gambling, and some going into taverns to
+      refresh themselves after their journey. That was just at sundown; and half
+      an hour after, in comes the gaoler to take a last look at us for the
+      night, and his keys at his girdle. Whereon, sirs (whether by madness, or
+      whether by the spirit which gave Samson strength to rend the lion), I rose
+      against him as he passed me, without forethought or treachery of any kind,
+      chained though I was, caught him by the head, and threw him there and then
+      against the wall, that he never spoke word after; and then with his keys
+      freed myself and every soul in that room, and bid them follow me, vowing
+      to kill any man who disobeyed my commands. They followed, as men astounded
+      and leaping out of night into day, and death into life, and so aboard that
+      caravel and out of the harbor (the Lord only knows how, who blinded the
+      eyes of the idolaters), 'with no more hurt than a few chance-shot from the
+      soldiers on the quay. But my tale has been over-long already, gentlemen&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on till midnight, my good fellow, if you will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sirs, they chose me for captain, and a certain Genoese for
+      lieutenant, and away to go. I would fain have gone ashore after all, and
+      back to Panama to hear news of the little maid: but that would have been
+      but a fool's errand. Some wanted to turn pirates: but I, and the Genoese
+      too, who was a prudent man, though an evil one, persuaded them to run for
+      England and get employment in the Netherland wars, assuring them that
+      there would be no safety in the Spanish Main, when once our escape got
+      wind. And the more part being of one mind, for England we sailed, watering
+      at the Barbadoes because it was desolate; and so eastward toward the
+      Canaries. In which voyage what we endured (being taken by long calms), by
+      scurvy, calentures, hunger, and thirst, no tongue can tell. Many a time
+      were we glad to lay out sheets at night to catch the dew, and suck them in
+      the morning; and he that had a noggin of rain-water out of the scuppers
+      was as much sought to as if he had been Adelantado of all the Indies; till
+      of a hundred and forty poor wretches a hundred and ten were dead,
+      blaspheming God and man, and above all me and the Genoese, for taking the
+      Europe voyage, as if I had not sins enough of my own already. And last of
+      all, when we thought ourselves safe, we were wrecked by southwesters on
+      the coast of Brittany, near to Cape Race, from which but nine souls of us
+      came ashore with their lives; and so to Brest, where I found a Flushinger
+      who carried me to Falmouth and so ends my tale, in which if I have said
+      one word more or less than truth, I can wish myself no worse, than to have
+      it all to undergo a second time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And his voice, as he finished, sank from very weariness of soul; while Sir
+      Richard sat opposite him in silence, his elbows on the table, his cheeks
+      on his doubled fists, looking him through and through with kindling eyes.
+      No one spoke for several minutes; and then&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas, you have heard this story. You believe it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every word, sir, or I should not have the heart of a Christian man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So do I. Anthony!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The butler entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take this man to the buttery; clothe him comfortably, and feed him with
+      the best; and bid the knaves treat him as if he were their own father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Yeo lingered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I might be so bold as to ask your worship a favor?&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anything in reason, my brave fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If your worship could put me in the way of another adventure to the
+      Indies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another! Hast not had enough of the Spaniards already?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never enough, sir, while one of the idolatrous tyrants is left unhanged,&rdquo;
+       said he, with a right bitter smile. &ldquo;But it's not for that only, sir: but
+      my little maid&mdash;Oh, sir! my little maid, that I swore to Mr. Oxenham
+      to look to, and never saw her from that day to this! I must find her, sir,
+      or I shall go mad, I believe. Not a night but she comes and calls to me in
+      my dreams, the poor darling; and not a morning but when I wake there is my
+      oath lying on my soul, like a great black cloud, and I no nearer the
+      keeping of it. I told that poor young minister of it when we were in the
+      galleys together; and he said oaths were oaths, and keep it I must; and
+      keep it I will, sir, if you'll but help me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have patience, man. God will take as good care of thy little maid as ever
+      thou wilt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it, sir. I know it: but faith's weak, sir! and oh! if she were
+      bred up a Papist and an idolater; wouldn't her blood be on my head then,
+      sir? Sooner than that, sooner than that, I'd be in the Inquisition again
+      to-morrow, I would!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My good fellow, there are no adventures to the Indies forward now: but if
+      you want to fight Spaniards, here is a gentleman will show you the way.
+      Amyas, take him with you to Ireland. If he has learnt half the lessons God
+      has set him to learn, he ought to stand you in good stead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo looked eagerly at the young giant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you have me, sir? There's few matters I can't turn my hand to: and
+      maybe you'll be going to the Indies again, some day, eh? and take me with
+      you? I'd serve your turn well, though I say it, either for gunner or for
+      pilot. I know every stone and tree from Nombre to Panama, and all the
+      ports of both the seas. You'll never be content, I'll warrant, till you've
+      had another turn along the gold coasts, will you now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas laughed, and nodded; and the bargain was concluded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So out went Yeo to eat, and Amyas having received his despatches, got
+      ready for his journey home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go the short way over the moors, lad; and send back Cary's gray when you
+      can. You must not lose an hour, but be ready to sail the moment the wind
+      goes about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they started: but as Amyas was getting into the saddle, he saw that
+      there was some stir among the servants, who seemed to keep carefully out
+      of Yeo's way, whispering and nodding mysteriously; and just as his foot
+      was in the stirrup, Anthony, the old butler, plucked him back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear father alive, Mr. Amyas!&rdquo; whispered he: &ldquo;and you ben't going by the
+      moor road all alone with that chap?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not, then? I'm too big for him to eat, I reckon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Amyas! he's not right, I tell you; not company for a Christian&mdash;to
+      go forth with creatures as has flames of fire in their inwards; 'tis
+      temptation of Providence, indeed, then, it is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tale of a tub.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tale of a Christian, sir. There was two boys pig-minding, seed him at it
+      down the hill, beside a maiden that was taken mazed (and no wonder, poor
+      soul!) and lying in screeching asterisks now down to the mill&mdash;you
+      ask as you go by&mdash;and saw the flames come out of the mouth of mun,
+      and the smoke out of mun's nose like a vire-drake, and the roaring of mun
+      like the roaring of ten thousand bulls. Oh, sir! and to go with he after
+      dark over moor! 'Tis the devil's devices, sir, against you, because you'm
+      going against his sarvants the Pope of Room and the Spaniard; and you'll
+      be Pixy-led, sure as life, and locked into a bog, you will, and see mun
+      vanish away to fire and brimstone, like a jack-o'-lantern. Oh, have a
+      care, then, have a care!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the old man wrung his hands, while Amyas, bursting with laughter, rode
+      off down the park, with the unconscious Yeo at his stirrup, chatting away
+      about the Indies, and delighting Amyas more and more by his shrewdness,
+      high spirit, and rough eloquence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had gone ten miles or more; the day began to draw in, and the western
+      wind to sweep more cold and cheerless every moment, when Amyas, knowing
+      that there was not an inn hard by around for many a mile ahead, took a
+      pull at a certain bottle which Lady Grenville had put into his holster,
+      and then offered Yeo a pull also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He declined; he had meat and drink too about him, Heaven be praised!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Meat and drink? Fall to, then, man, and don't stand on manners.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon Yeo, seeing an old decayed willow by a brook, went to it, and took
+      therefrom some touchwood, to which he set a light with his knife and a
+      stone, while Amyas watched, a little puzzled and startled, as Yeo's fiery
+      reputation came into his mind. Was he really a salamander-sprite, and
+      going to warm his inside by a meal of burning tinder? But now Yeo, in his
+      solemn methodical way, pulled out of his bosom a brown leaf, and began
+      rolling a piece of it up neatly to the size of his little finger; and
+      then, putting the one end into his mouth and the other on the tinder,
+      sucked at it till it was a-light; and drinking down the smoke, began
+      puffing it out again at his nostrils with a grunt of deepest satisfaction,
+      and resumed his dog-trot by Amyas's side, as if he had been a walking
+      chimney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On which Amyas burst into a loud laugh, and cried&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, no wonder they said you breathed fire? Is not that the Indians'
+      tobacco?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yea, verily, Heaven be praised! but did you never see it before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never, though we heard talk of it along the coast; but we took it for one
+      more Spanish lie. Humph&mdash;well, live and learn!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, sir, no lie, but a blessed truth, as I can tell, who have ere now
+      gone in the strength of this weed three days and nights without eating;
+      and therefore, sir, the Indians always carry it with them on their
+      war-parties: and no wonder; for when all things were made none was made
+      better than this; to be a lone man's companion, a bachelor's friend, a
+      hungry man's food, a sad man's cordial, a wakeful man's sleep, and a
+      chilly man's fire, sir; while for stanching of wounds, purging of rheum,
+      and settling of the stomach, there's no herb like unto it under the canopy
+      of heaven.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth of which eulogium Amyas tested in after years, as shall be fully
+      set forth in due place and time. But &ldquo;Mark in the meanwhile,&rdquo; says one of
+      the veracious chroniclers from whom I draw these facts, writing seemingly
+      in the palmy days of good Queen Anne, and &ldquo;not having&rdquo; (as he says)
+      &ldquo;before his eyes the fear of that misocapnic Solomon James I. or of any
+      other lying Stuart,&rdquo; &ldquo;that not to South Devon, but to North; not to Sir
+      Walter Raleigh, but to Sir Amyas Leigh; not to the banks of Dart, but to
+      the banks of Torridge, does Europe owe the day-spring of the latter age,
+      that age of smoke which shall endure and thrive, when the age of brass
+      shall have vanished like those of iron and of gold; for whereas Mr. Lane
+      is said to have brought home that divine weed (as Spenser well names it)
+      from Virginia, in the year 1584, it is hereby indisputable that full four
+      years earlier, by the bridge of Putford in the Torridge moors (which all
+      true smokers shall hereafter visit as a hallowed spot and point of
+      pilgrimage) first twinkled that fiery beacon and beneficent lodestar of
+      Bidefordian commerce, to spread hereafter from port to port and peak to
+      peak, like the watch-fires which proclaimed the coming of the Armada or
+      the fall of Troy, even to the shores of the Bosphorus, the peaks of the
+      Caucasus, and the farthest isles of the Malayan sea, while Bideford,
+      metropolis of tobacco, saw her Pool choked with Virginian traders, and the
+      pavement of her Bridgeland Street groaning beneath the savory bales of
+      roll Trinadado, leaf, and pudding; and her grave burghers, bolstered and
+      blocked out of their own houses by the scarce less savory stock-fish casks
+      which filled cellar, parlor, and attic, were fain to sit outside the door,
+      a silver pipe in every strong right hand, and each left hand chinking
+      cheerfully the doubloons deep lodged in the auriferous caverns of their
+      trunk-hose; while in those fairy-rings of fragrant mist, which circled
+      round their contemplative brows, flitted most pleasant visions of
+      Wiltshire farmers jogging into Sherborne fair, their heaviest shillings in
+      their pockets, to buy (unless old Aubrey lies) the lotus-leaf of Torridge
+      for its weight in silver, and draw from thence, after the example of the
+      Caciques of Dariena, supplies of inspiration much needed, then as now, in
+      those Gothamite regions. And yet did these improve, as Englishmen, upon
+      the method of those heathen savages; for the latter (so Salvation Yeo
+      reported as a truth, and Dampier's surgeon Mr. Wafer after him), when they
+      will deliberate of war or policy, sit round in the hut of the chief; where
+      being placed, enter to them a small boy with a cigarro of the bigness of a
+      rolling-pin and puffs the smoke thereof into the face of each warrior,
+      from the eldest to the youngest; while they, putting their hand
+      funnel-wise round their mouths, draw into the sinuosities of the brain
+      that more than Delphic vapor of prophecy; which boy presently falls down
+      in a swoon, and being dragged out by the heels and laid by to sober, enter
+      another to puff at the sacred cigarro, till he is dragged out likewise;
+      and so on till the tobacco is finished, and the seed of wisdom has
+      sprouted in every soul into the tree of meditation, bearing the flowers of
+      eloquence, and in due time the fruit of valiant action.&rdquo; With which quaint
+      fact (for fact it is, in spite of the bombast) I end the present chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW THE NOBLE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE WAS FOUNDED
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;It is virtue, yea virtue, gentlemen, that maketh gentlemen; that
+     maketh the poor rich, the base-born noble, the subject a sovereign,
+     the deformed beautiful, the sick whole, the weak strong, the most
+     miserable most happy.  There are two principal and peculiar gifts
+     in the nature of man, knowledge and reason; the one commandeth, and
+     the other obeyeth: these things neither the whirling wheel of
+     fortune can change, neither the deceitful cavillings of worldlings
+     separate, neither sickness abate, neither age abolish.&rdquo;&mdash;LILLY's
+     Euphues, 1586.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It now falls to my lot to write of the foundation of that most chivalrous
+      brotherhood of the Rose, which after a few years made itself not only
+      famous in its native country of Devon, but formidable, as will be related
+      hereafter, both in Ireland and in the Netherlands, in the Spanish Main and
+      the heart of South America. And if this chapter shall seem to any Quixotic
+      and fantastical, let them recollect that the generation who spoke and
+      acted thus in matters of love and honor were, nevertheless, practised and
+      valiant soldiers, and prudent and crafty politicians; that he who wrote
+      the &ldquo;Arcadia&rdquo; was at the same time, in spite of his youth, one of the
+      subtlest diplomatists of Europe; that the poet of the &ldquo;Faerie Queene&rdquo; was
+      also the author of &ldquo;The State of Ireland;&rdquo; and if they shall quote against
+      me with a sneer Lilly's &ldquo;Euphues&rdquo; itself, I shall only answer by asking&mdash;Have
+      they ever read it? For if they have done so, I pity them if they have not
+      found it, in spite of occasional tediousness and pedantry, as brave,
+      righteous, and pious a book as man need look into: and wish for no better
+      proof of the nobleness and virtue of the Elizabethan age, than the fact
+      that &ldquo;Euphues&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Arcadia&rdquo; were the two popular romances of the day.
+      It may have suited the purposes of Sir Walter Scott, in his cleverly drawn
+      Sir Piercie Shafton, to ridicule the Euphuists, and that affectatam
+      comitatem of the travelled English of which Languet complains; but over
+      and above the anachronism of the whole character (for, to give but one
+      instance, the Euphuist knight talks of Sidney's quarrel with Lord Oxford
+      at least ten years before it happened), we do deny that Lilly's book
+      could, if read by any man of common sense, produce such a coxcomb, whose
+      spiritual ancestors would rather have been Gabriel Harvey and Lord Oxford,&mdash;if
+      indeed the former has not maligned the latter, and ill-tempered Tom Nash
+      maligned the maligner in his turn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, indeed, there is a double anachronism in Sir Piercie; for he does not
+      even belong to the days of Sidney, but to those worse times which began in
+      the latter years of Elizabeth, and after breaking her mighty heart, had
+      full license to bear their crop of fools' heads in the profligate days of
+      James. Of them, perhaps, hereafter. And in the meanwhile, let those who
+      have not read &ldquo;Euphues&rdquo; believe that, if they could train a son after the
+      fashion of his Ephoebus, to the great saving of their own money and his
+      virtue, all fathers, even in these money-making days, would rise up and
+      call them blessed. Let us rather open our eyes, and see in these old
+      Elizabeth gallants our own ancestors, showing forth with the luxuriant
+      wildness of youth all the virtues which still go to the making of a true
+      Englishman. Let us not only see in their commercial and military daring,
+      in their political astuteness, in their deep reverence for law, and in
+      their solemn sense of the great calling of the English nation, the
+      antitypes or rather the examples of our own: but let us confess that their
+      chivalry is only another garb of that beautiful tenderness and mercy which
+      is now, as it was then, the twin sister of English valor; and even in
+      their extravagant fondness for Continental manners and literature, let us
+      recognize that old Anglo-Norman teachableness and wide-heartedness, which
+      has enabled us to profit by the wisdom and civilization of all ages and of
+      all lands, without prejudice to our own distinctive national character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so I go to my story, which, if any one dislikes, he has but to turn
+      the leaf till he finds pasturage which suits him better.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas could not sail the next day, or the day after; for the southwester
+      freshened, and blew three parts of a gale dead into the bay. So having got
+      the &ldquo;Mary Grenville&rdquo; down the river into Appledore pool, ready to start
+      with the first shift of wind, he went quietly home; and when his mother
+      started on a pillion behind the old serving-man to ride to Clovelly, where
+      Frank lay wounded, he went in with her as far as Bideford, and there met,
+      coming down the High Street, a procession of horsemen headed by Will Cary,
+      who, clad cap-a-pie in a shining armor, sword on thigh, and helmet at
+      saddle-bow, looked as gallant a young gentleman as ever Bideford dames
+      peeped at from door and window. Behind him, upon country ponies, came four
+      or five stout serving-men, carrying his lances and baggage, and their own
+      long-bows, swords, and bucklers; and behind all, in a horse-litter, to
+      Mrs. Leigh's great joy, Master Frank himself. He deposed that his wounds
+      were only flesh-wounds, the dagger having turned against his ribs; that he
+      must see the last of his brother; and that with her good leave he would
+      not come home to Burrough, but take up his abode with Cary in the Ship
+      Tavern, close to the Bridge-foot. This he did forthwith, and settling
+      himself on a couch, held his levee there in state, mobbed by all the
+      gossips of the town, not without white fibs as to who had brought him into
+      that sorry plight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in the meanwhile he and Amyas concocted a scheme, which was put into
+      effect the next day (being market-day); first by the innkeeper, who began
+      under Amyas's orders a bustle of roasting, boiling, and frying,
+      unparalleled in the annals of the Ship Tavern; and next by Amyas himself,
+      who, going out into the market, invited as many of his old schoolfellows,
+      one by one apart, as Frank had pointed out to him, to a merry supper and a
+      &ldquo;rowse&rdquo; thereon consequent; by which crafty scheme, in came each of Rose
+      Salterne's gentle admirers, and found himself, to his considerable
+      disgust, seated at the same table with six rivals, to none of whom had he
+      spoken for the last six months. However, all were too well bred to let the
+      Leighs discern as much; and they (though, of course, they knew all)
+      settled their guests, Frank on his couch lying at the head of the table,
+      and Amyas taking the bottom: and contrived, by filling all mouths with
+      good things, to save them the pain of speaking to each other till the wine
+      should have loosened their tongues and warmed their hearts. In the
+      meanwhile both Amyas and Frank, ignoring the silence of their guests with
+      the most provoking good-humor, chatted, and joked, and told stories, and
+      made themselves such good company, that Will Cary, who always found
+      merriment infectious, melted into a jest, and then into another, and
+      finding good-humor far more pleasant than bad, tried to make Mr. Coffin
+      laugh, and only made him bow, and to make Mr. Fortescue laugh, and only
+      made him frown; and unabashed nevertheless, began playing his light
+      artillery upon the waiters, till he drove them out of the room bursting
+      with laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So far so good. And when the cloth was drawn, and sack and sugar became
+      the order of the day, and &ldquo;Queen and Bible&rdquo; had been duly drunk with all
+      the honors, Frank tried a fresh move, and&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have a toast, gentlemen&mdash;here it is. 'The gentlemen of the Irish
+      wars; and may Ireland never be without a St. Leger to stand by a
+      Fortescue, a Fortescue to stand by a St. Leger, and a Chichester to stand
+      by both.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Which toast of course involved the drinking the healths of the three
+      representatives of those families, and their returning thanks, and paying
+      a compliment each to the other's house: and so the ice cracked a little
+      further; and young Fortescue proposed the health of &ldquo;Amyas Leigh and all
+      bold mariners;&rdquo; to which Amyas replied by a few blunt kindly words, &ldquo;that
+      he wished to know no better fortune than to sail round the world again
+      with the present company as fellow-adventurers, and so give the Spaniards
+      another taste of the men of Devon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And by this time, the wine going down sweetly, caused the lips of them
+      that were asleep to speak; till the ice broke up altogether, and every man
+      began talking like a rational Englishman to the man who sat next him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, gentlemen,&rdquo; said Frank, who saw that it was the fit moment for
+      the grand assault which he had planned all along; &ldquo;let me give you a
+      health which none of you, I dare say, will refuse to drink with heart and
+      soul as well as with lips;&mdash;the health of one whom beauty and virtue
+      have so ennobled, that in their light the shadow of lowly birth is unseen;&mdash;the
+      health of one whom I would proclaim as peerless in loveliness, were it not
+      that every gentleman here has sisters, who might well challenge from her
+      the girdle of Venus: and yet what else dare I say, while those same lovely
+      ladies who, if they but use their own mirrors, must needs be far better
+      judges of beauty than I can be, have in my own hearing again and again
+      assigned the palm to her? Surely, if the goddesses decide among themselves
+      the question of the golden apple, Paris himself must vacate the
+      judgment-seat. Gentlemen, your hearts, I doubt not, have already bid you,
+      as my unworthy lips do now, to drink 'The Rose of Torridge.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If the Rose of Torridge herself had walked into the room, she could hardly
+      have caused more blank astonishment than Frank's bold speech. Every guest
+      turned red, and pale, and red again, and looked at the other as much as to
+      say, &ldquo;What right has any one but I to drink her? Lift your glass, and I
+      will dash it out of your hand;&rdquo; but Frank, with sweet effrontery, drank
+      &ldquo;The health of the Rose of Torridge, and a double health to that worthy
+      gentleman, whosoever he may be, whom she is fated to honor with her love!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well done, cunning Frank Leigh!&rdquo; cried blunt Will Cary; &ldquo;none of us dare
+      quarrel with you now, however much we may sulk at each other. For there's
+      none of us, I'll warrant, but thinks that she likes him the best of all;
+      and so we are bound to believe that you have drunk our healths all round.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so I have: and what better thing can you do, gentlemen, than to drink
+      each other's healths all round likewise: and so show yourselves true
+      gentlemen, true Christians, ay, and true lovers? For what is love (let me
+      speak freely to you, gentlemen and guests), what is love, but the very
+      inspiration of that Deity whose name is Love? Be sure that not without
+      reason did the ancients feign Eros to be the eldest of the gods, by whom
+      the jarring elements of chaos were attuned into harmony and order. How,
+      then, shall lovers make him the father of strife? Shall Psyche wed with
+      Cupid, to bring forth a cockatrice's egg? or the soul be filled with love,
+      the likeness of the immortals, to burn with envy and jealousy, division
+      and distrust? True, the rose has its thorn: but it leaves poison and
+      stings to the nettle. Cupid has his arrow: but he hurls no scorpions.
+      Venus is awful when despised, as the daughters of Proetus found: but her
+      handmaids are the Graces, not the Furies. Surely he who loves aright will
+      not only find love lovely, but become himself lovely also. I speak not to
+      reprehend you, gentlemen; for to you (as your piercing wits have already
+      perceived, to judge by your honorable blushes) my discourse tends; but to
+      point you, if you will but permit me, to that rock which I myself have, I
+      know not by what Divine good hap, attained; if, indeed, I have attained
+      it, and am not about to be washed off again by the next tide.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank's rapid and fantastic oratory, utterly unexpected as it was, had as
+      yet left their wits no time to set their tempers on fire; but when, weak
+      from his wounds, he paused for breath, there was a haughty murmur from
+      more than one young gentleman, who took his speech as an impertinent
+      interference with each man's right to make a fool of himself; and Mr.
+      Coffin, who had sat quietly bolt upright, and looking at the opposite
+      wall, now rose as quietly, and with a face which tried to look utterly
+      unconcerned, was walking out of the room: another minute, and Lady Bath's
+      prophecy about the feast of the Lapithae might have come true.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Frank's heart and head never failed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Coffin!&rdquo; said he, in a tone which compelled that gentleman to turn
+      round, and so brought him under the power of a face which none could have
+      beheld for five minutes and borne malice, so imploring, tender, earnest
+      was it. &ldquo;My dear Mr. Coffin! If my earnestness has made me forget even for
+      a moment the bounds of courtesy, let me entreat you to forgive me. Do not
+      add to my heavy griefs, heavy enough already, the grief of losing a
+      friend. Only hear me patiently to the end (generously, I know, you will
+      hear me); and then, if you are still incensed, I can but again entreat
+      your forgiveness a second time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Coffin, to tell the truth, had at that time never been to Court; and
+      he was therefore somewhat jealous of Frank, and his Court talk, and his
+      Court clothes, and his Court company; and moreover, being the eldest of
+      the guests, and only two years younger than Frank himself, he was a little
+      nettled at being classed in the same category with some who were scarce
+      eighteen. And if Frank had given the least hint which seemed to assume his
+      own superiority, all had been lost: but when, instead thereof, he sued in
+      forma pauperis, and threw himself upon Coffin's mercy, the latter, who was
+      a true-hearted man enough, and after all had known Frank ever since either
+      of them could walk, had nothing to do but to sit down again and submit,
+      while Frank went on more earnestly than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Believe me; believe me, Mr. Coffin, and gentlemen all, I no more arrogate
+      to myself a superiority over you than does the sailor hurled on shore by
+      the surge fancy himself better than his comrade who is still battling with
+      the foam. For I too, gentlemen,&mdash;let me confess it, that by confiding
+      in you I may, perhaps, win you to confide in me,&mdash;have loved, ay and
+      do love, where you love also. Do not start. Is it a matter of wonder that
+      the sun which has dazzled you has dazzled me; that the lodestone which has
+      drawn you has drawn me? Do not frown, either, gentlemen. I have learnt to
+      love you for loving what I love, and to admire you for admiring that which
+      I admire. Will you not try the same lesson: so easy, and, when learnt, so
+      blissful? What breeds more close communion between subjects than
+      allegiance to the same queen? between brothers, than duty to the same
+      father? between the devout, than adoration for the same Deity? And shall
+      not worship for the same beauty be likewise a bond of love between the
+      worshippers? and each lover see in his rival not an enemy, but a
+      fellow-sufferer? You smile and say in your hearts, that though all may
+      worship, but one can enjoy; and that one man's meat must be the poison of
+      the rest. Be it so, though I deny it. Shall we anticipate our own doom,
+      and slay ourselves for fear of dying? Shall we make ourselves unworthy of
+      her from our very eagerness to win her, and show ourselves her faithful
+      knights, by cherishing envy,&mdash;most unknightly of all sins? Shall we
+      dream with the Italian or the Spaniard that we can become more amiable in
+      a lady's eyes, by becoming hateful in the eyes of God and of each other?
+      Will she love us the better, if we come to her with hands stained in the
+      blood of him whom she loves better than us? Let us recollect ourselves
+      rather, gentlemen; and be sure that our only chance of winning her, if she
+      be worth winning, is to will what she wills, honor whom she honors, love
+      whom she loves. If there is to be rivalry among us, let it be a rivalry in
+      nobleness, an emulation in virtue. Let each try to outstrip the other in
+      loyalty to his queen, in valor against her foes, in deeds of courtesy and
+      mercy to the afflicted and oppressed; and thus our love will indeed prove
+      its own divine origin, by raising us nearer to those gods whose gift it
+      is. But yet I show you a more excellent way, and that is charity. Why
+      should we not make this common love to her, whom I am unworthy to name,
+      the sacrament of a common love to each other? Why should we not follow the
+      heroical examples of those ancient knights, who having but one grief, one
+      desire, one goddess, held that one heart was enough to contain that grief,
+      to nourish that desire, to worship that divinity; and so uniting
+      themselves in friendship till they became but one soul in two bodies,
+      lived only for each other in living only for her, vowing as faithful
+      worshippers to abide by her decision, to find their own bliss in hers, and
+      whomsoever she esteemed most worthy of her love, to esteem most worthy
+      also, and count themselves, by that her choice, the bounden servants of
+      him whom their mistress had condescended to advance to the dignity of her
+      master?&mdash;as I (not without hope that I shall be outdone in generous
+      strife) do here promise to be the faithful friend, and, to my ability, the
+      hearty servant, of him who shall be honored with the love of the Rose of
+      Torridge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He ceased, and there was a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last young Fortescue spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I may be paying you a left-handed compliment, sir: but it seems to me
+      that you are so likely, in that case, to become your own faithful friend
+      and hearty servant (even if you have not borne off the bell already while
+      we have been asleep), that the bargain is hardly fair between such a gay
+      Italianist and us country swains.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You undervalue yourself and your country, my dear sir. But set your mind
+      at rest. I know no more of that lady's mind than you do: nor shall I know.
+      For the sake of my own peace, I have made a vow neither to see her, nor to
+      hear, if possible, tidings of her, till three full years are past. Dixi?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Coffin rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gentlemen, I may submit to be outdone by Mr. Leigh in eloquence, but not
+      in generosity; if he leaves these parts for three years, I do so also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And go in charity with all mankind,&rdquo; said Cary. &ldquo;Give us your hand, old
+      fellow. If you are a Coffin, you were sawn out of no wishy-washy
+      elm-board, but right heart-of-oak. I am going, too, as Amyas here can
+      tell, to Ireland away, to cool my hot liver in a bog, like a Jack-hare in
+      March. Come, give us thy neif, and let us part in peace. I was minded to
+      have fought thee this day&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should have been most happy, sir,&rdquo; said Coffin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;&ldquo;But now I am all love and charity to mankind. Can I have the
+      pleasure of begging pardon of the world in general, and thee in
+      particular? Does any one wish to pull my nose; send me an errand; make me
+      lend him five pounds; ay, make me buy a horse of him, which will be as
+      good as giving him ten? Come along! Join hands all round, and swear
+      eternal friendship, as brothers of the sacred order of the&mdash;of what.
+      Frank Leigh? Open thy mouth, Daniel, and christen us!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Rose!&rdquo; said Frank quietly, seeing that his new love-philtre was
+      working well, and determined to strike while the iron was hot, and carry
+      the matter too far to carry it back again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Rose!&rdquo; cried Cary, catching hold of Coffin's hand with his right, and
+      Fortescue's with his left. &ldquo;Come, Mr. Coffin! Bend, sturdy oak! 'Woe to
+      the stiffnecked and stout-hearted!' says Scripture.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And somehow or other, whether it was Frank's chivalrous speech, or Cary's
+      fun, or Amyas's good wine, or the nobleness which lies in every young
+      lad's heart, if their elders will take the trouble to call it out, the
+      whole party came in to terms one by one, shook hands all round, and vowed
+      on the hilt of Amyas's sword to make fools of themselves no more, at least
+      by jealousy: but to stand by each other and by their lady-love, and
+      neither grudge nor grumble, let her dance with, flirt with, or marry with
+      whom she would; and in order that the honor of their peerless dame, and
+      the brotherhood which was named after her, might be spread through all
+      lands, and equal that of Angelica or Isonde of Brittany, they would each
+      go home, and ask their fathers' leave (easy enough to obtain in those
+      brave times) to go abroad wheresoever there were &ldquo;good wars,&rdquo; to emulate
+      there the courage and the courtesy of Walter Manny and Gonzalo Fernandes,
+      Bayard and Gaston de Foix. Why not? Sidney was the hero of Europe at
+      five-and-twenty; and why not they?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Frank watched and listened with one of his quiet smiles (his eyes, as
+      some folks' do, smiled even when his lips were still), and only said:
+      &ldquo;Gentlemen, be sure that you will never repent this day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Repent?&rdquo; said Cary. &ldquo;I feel already as angelical as thou lookest, Saint
+      Silvertongue. What was it that sneezed?&mdash;the cat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The lion, rather, by the roar of it,&rdquo; said Amyas, making a dash at the
+      arras behind him. &ldquo;Why, here is a doorway here! and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And rushing under the arras, through an open door behind, he returned,
+      dragging out by the head Mr. John Brimblecombe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Who was Mr. John Brimblecombe?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If you have forgotten him, you have done pretty nearly what every one else
+      in the room had done. But you recollect a certain fat lad, son of the
+      schoolmaster, whom Sir Richard punished for tale-bearing three years
+      before, by sending him, not to Coventry, but to Oxford. That was the man.
+      He was now one-and-twenty, and a bachelor of Oxford, where he had learnt
+      such things as were taught in those days, with more or less success; and
+      he was now hanging about Bideford once more, intending to return after
+      Christmas and read divinity, that he might become a parson, and a shepherd
+      of souls in his native land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack was in person exceedingly like a pig: but not like every pig: not in
+      the least like the Devon pigs of those days, which, I am sorry to say,
+      were no more shapely than the true Irish greyhound who pays Pat's &ldquo;rint&rdquo;
+       for him; or than the lanky monsters who wallow in German rivulets, while
+      the village swineherd, beneath a shady lime, forgets his fleas in the
+      melody of a Jew's harp&mdash;strange mud-colored creatures, four feet high
+      and four inches thick, which look as if they had passed their lives, as a
+      collar of Oxford brawn is said to do, between two tight boards. Such were
+      then the pigs of Devon: not to be compared with the true wild descendant
+      of Noah's stock, high-withered, furry, grizzled, game-flavored little
+      rooklers, whereof many a sownder still grunted about Swinley down and
+      Braunton woods, Clovelly glens and Bursdon moor. Not like these, nor like
+      the tame abomination of those barbarous times, was Jack: but prophetic in
+      face, figure, and complexion, of Fisher Hobbs and the triumphs of science.
+      A Fisher Hobbs' pig of twelve stone, on his hind-legs&mdash;that was what
+      he was, and nothing else; and if you do not know, reader, what a Fisher
+      Hobbs is, you know nothing about pigs, and deserve no bacon for breakfast.
+      But such was Jack. The same plump mulberry complexion, garnished with a
+      few scattered black bristles; the same sleek skin, looking always as if it
+      was upon the point of bursting; the same little toddling legs; the same
+      dapper bend in the small of the back; the same cracked squeak; the same
+      low upright forehead, and tiny eyes; the same round self-satisfied jowl;
+      the same charming sensitive little cocked nose, always on the look-out for
+      a savory smell,&mdash;and yet while watching for the best, contented with
+      the worst; a pig of self-helpful and serene spirit, as Jack was, and
+      therefore, like him, fatting fast while other pigs' ribs are staring
+      through their skins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was Jack; and lucky it was for him that such he was; for it was
+      little that he got to fat him at Oxford, in days when a servitor meant
+      really a servant-student; and wistfully that day did his eyes, led by his
+      nose, survey at the end of the Ship Inn passage the preparations for
+      Amyas's supper. The innkeeper was a friend of his; for, in the first
+      place, they had lived within three doors of each other all their lives;
+      and next, Jack was quite pleasant company enough, beside being a learned
+      man and an Oxford scholar, to be asked in now and then to the innkeeper's
+      private parlor, when there were no gentlemen there, to crack his little
+      joke and tell his little story, sip the leavings of the guests' sack, and
+      sometimes help the host to eat the leavings of their supper. And it was,
+      perhaps, with some such hope that Jack trotted off round the corner to the
+      Ship that very afternoon; for that faithful little nose of his, as it
+      sniffed out of a back window of the school, had given him warning of
+      Sabean gales, and scents of Paradise, from the inn kitchen below; so he
+      went round, and asked for his pot of small ale (his only luxury), and
+      stood at the bar to drink it; and looked inward with his little twinkling
+      right eye, and sniffed inward with his little curling right nostril, and
+      beheld, in the kitchen beyond, salad in stacks and fagots: salad of
+      lettuce, salad of cress and endive, salad of boiled coleworts, salad of
+      pickled coleworts, salad of angelica, salad of scurvy-wort, and seven
+      salads more; for potatoes were not as yet, and salads were during eight
+      months of the year the only vegetable. And on the dresser, and before the
+      fire, whole hecatombs of fragrant victims, which needed neither
+      frankincense nor myrrh; Clovelly herrings and Torridge salmon, Exmoor
+      mutton and Stow venison, stubble geese and woodcocks, curlew and snipe,
+      hams of Hampshire, chitterlings of Taunton, and botargos of Cadiz, such as
+      Pantagruel himself might have devoured. And Jack eyed them, as a ragged
+      boy eyes the cakes in a pastrycook's window; and thought of the scraps
+      from the commoners' dinner, which were his wages for cleaning out the
+      hall; and meditated deeply on the unequal distribution of human bliss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, Mr. Brimblecombe!&rdquo; said the host, bustling out with knife and apron
+      to cool himself in the passage. &ldquo;Here are doings! Nine gentlemen to
+      supper!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nine! Are they going to eat all that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I can't say&mdash;that Mr. Amyas is as good as three to his
+      trencher: but still there's crumbs, Mr. Brimblecombe, crumbs; and waste
+      not want not is my doctrine; so you and I may have a somewhat to stay our
+      stomachs, about an eight o'clock.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eight?&rdquo; said Jack, looking wistfully at the clock. &ldquo;It's but four now.
+      Well, it's kind of you, and perhaps I'll look in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just you step in now, and look to this venison. There's a breast! you may
+      lay your two fingers into the say there, and not get to the bottom of the
+      fat. That's Sir Richard's sending. He's all for them Leighs, and no
+      wonder, they'm brave lads, surely; and there's a saddle-o'-mutton! I rode
+      twenty miles for mun yesterday, I did, over beyond Barnstaple; and five
+      year old, Mr. John, it is, if ever five years was; and not a tooth to
+      mun's head, for I looked to that; and smelt all the way home like any
+      apple; and if it don't ate so soft as ever was scald cream, never you call
+      me Thomas Burman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo; said Jack. &ldquo;And that's their dinner. Well, some are born with a
+      silver spoon in their mouth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some be born with roast beef in their mouths, and plum-pudding in their
+      pocket to take away the taste o' mun; and that's better than empty spunes,
+      eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For them that get it,&rdquo; said Jack. &ldquo;But for them that don't&mdash;&rdquo; And
+      with a sigh he returned to his small ale, and then lingered in and out of
+      the inn, watching the dinner as it went into the best room, where the
+      guests were assembled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And as he lounged there, Amyas went in, and saw him, and held out his
+      hand, and said&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hillo, Jack! how goes the world? How you've grown!&rdquo; and passed on;&mdash;what
+      had Jack Brimblecombe to do with Rose Salterne?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Jack lingered on, hovering around the fragrant smell like a fly round a
+      honey-pot, till he found himself invisibly attracted, and as it were led
+      by the nose out of the passage into the adjoining room, and to that side
+      of the room where there was a door; and once there he could not help
+      hearing what passed inside; till Rose Salterne's name fell on his ear. So,
+      as it was ordained, he was taken in the fact. And now behold him brought
+      in red-hand to judgment, not without a kick or two from the wrathful foot
+      of Amyas Leigh. Whereat there fell on him a storm of abuse, which, for the
+      honor of that gallant company, I shall not give in detail; but which
+      abuse, strange to say, seemed to have no effect on the impenitent and
+      unabashed Jack, who, as soon as he could get his breath, made answer
+      fiercely, amid much puffing and blowing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What business have I here? As much as any of you. If you had asked me in,
+      I would have come: but as you didn't, I came without asking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shameless rascal!&rdquo; said Cary. &ldquo;Come if you were asked, where there
+      was good wine? I'll warrant you for that!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;no lad ever had a cake at school but he would dog him
+      up one street and down another all day for the crumbs, the
+      trencher-scraping spaniel!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Patience, masters!&rdquo; said Frank. &ldquo;That Jack's is somewhat of a gnathonic
+      and parasitic soul, or stomach, all Bideford apple-women know; but I
+      suspect more than Deus Venter has brought him hither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Deus eavesdropping, then. We shall have the whole story over the town by
+      to-morrow,&rdquo; said another; beginning at that thought to feel somewhat
+      ashamed of his late enthusiasm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, Mr. Frank! You were always the only one that would stand up for me!
+      Deus Venter, quotha? 'Twas Deus Cupid, it was!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A roar of laughter followed this announcement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What?&rdquo; asked Frank; &ldquo;was it Cupid, then, who sneezed approval to our
+      love, Jack, as he did to that of Dido and Aeneas?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Jack went on desperately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was in the next room, drinking of my beer. I couldn't help that, could
+      I? And then I heard her name; and I couldn't help listening then. Flesh
+      and blood couldn't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor fat either!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, nor fat, Mr. Cary. Do you suppose fat men haven't souls to be saved
+      as well as thin ones, and hearts to burst, too, as well as stomachs? Fat!
+      Fat can feel, I reckon, as well as lean. Do you suppose there's naught
+      inside here but beer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he laid his hand, as Drayton might have said, on that stout bastion,
+      hornwork, ravelin, or demilune, which formed the outworks to the citadel
+      of his purple isle of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Naught but beer?&mdash;Cheese, I suppose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bread?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beef?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Love!&rdquo; cried Jack. &ldquo;Yes, Love!&mdash;Ay, you laugh; but my eyes are not
+      so grown up with fat but what I can see what's fair as well as you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Jack, naughty Jack, dost thou heap sin on sin, and luxury on
+      gluttony?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sin? If I sin, you sin: I tell you, and I don't care who knows it, I've
+      loved her these three years as well as e'er a one of you, I have. I've
+      thought o' nothing else, prayed for nothing else, God forgive me! And then
+      you laugh at me, because I'm a poor parson's son, and you fine gentlemen:
+      God made us both, I reckon. You?&mdash;you make a deal of giving her up
+      to-day. Why, it's what I've done for three miserable years as ever poor
+      sinner spent; ay, from the first day I said to myself, 'Jack, if you can't
+      have that pearl, you'll have none; and that you can't have, for it's meat
+      for your masters: so conquer or die.' And I couldn't conquer. I can't help
+      loving her, worshipping her, no more than you; and I will die: but you
+      needn't laugh meanwhile at me that have done as much as you, and will do
+      again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the old tale,&rdquo; said Frank to himself; &ldquo;whom will not love transform
+      into a hero?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so it was. Jack's squeaking voice was firm and manly, his pig's eyes
+      flashed very fire, his gestures were so free and earnest, that the
+      ungainliness of his figure was forgotten; and when he finished with a
+      violent burst of tears, Frank, forgetting his wounds, sprang up and caught
+      him by the hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;John Brimblecombe, forgive me! Gentlemen, if we are gentlemen, we ought
+      to ask his pardon. Has he not shown already more chivalry, more
+      self-denial, and therefore more true love, than any of us? My friends, let
+      the fierceness of affection, which we have used as an excuse for many a
+      sin of our own, excuse his listening to a conversation in which he well
+      deserved to bear a part.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said Jack, &ldquo;you make me one of your brotherhood; and see if I do not
+      dare to suffer as much as any of you! You laugh? Do you fancy none can use
+      a sword unless he has a baker's dozen of quarterings in his arms, or that
+      Oxford scholars know only how to handle a pen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us try his metal,&rdquo; said St. Leger. &ldquo;Here's my sword, Jack; draw,
+      Coffin! and have at him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense!&rdquo; said Coffin, looking somewhat disgusted at the notion of
+      fighting a man of Jack's rank; but Jack caught at the weapon offered to
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give me a buckler, and have at any of you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here's a chair bottom,&rdquo; cried Cary; and Jack, seizing it in his left,
+      flourished his sword so fiercely, and called so loudly to Coffin to come
+      on, that all present found it necessary, unless they wished blood to be
+      spilt, to turn the matter off with a laugh: but Jack would not hear of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay: if you will let me be of your brotherhood, well and good: but if
+      not, one or other I will fight: and that's flat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, gentlemen,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;we must admit him or die the death; so
+      we needs must go when Sir Urian drives. Come up, Jack, and take the oaths.
+      You admit him, gentlemen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me but be your chaplain,&rdquo; said Jack, &ldquo;and pray for your luck when
+      you're at the wars. If I do stay at home in a country curacy, 'tis not
+      much that you need be jealous of me with her, I reckon,&rdquo; said Jack, with a
+      pathetical glance at his own stomach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sia!&rdquo; said Cary: &ldquo;but if he be admitted, it must be done according to the
+      solemn forms and ceremonies in such cases provided. Take him into the next
+      room, Amyas, and prepare him for his initiation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that?&rdquo; asked Amyas, puzzled by the word. But judging from the
+      corner of Will's eye that initiation was Latin for a practical joke, he
+      led forth his victim behind the arras again, and waited five minutes while
+      the room was being darkened, till Frank's voice called to him to bring in
+      the neophyte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;John Brimblecombe,&rdquo; said Frank, in a sepulchral tone, &ldquo;you cannot be
+      ignorant, as a scholar and bachelor of Oxford, of that dread sacrament by
+      which Catiline bound the soul of his fellow-conspirators, in order that
+      both by the daring of the deed he might have proof of their sincerity, and
+      by the horror thereof astringe their souls by adamantine fetters, and
+      Novem-Stygian oaths, to that wherefrom hereafter the weakness of the flesh
+      might shrink. Wherefore, O Jack! we too have determined, following that
+      ancient and classical example, to fill, as he did, a bowl with the
+      lifeblood of our most heroic selves, and to pledge each other therein,
+      with vows whereat the stars shall tremble in their spheres, and Luna,
+      blushing, veil her silver cheeks. Your blood alone is wanted to fill up
+      the goblet. Sit down, John Brimblecombe, and bare your arm!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, Mr. Frank!&mdash;&rdquo; said Jack, who was as superstitious as any old
+      wife, and, what with the darkness and the discourse, already in a cold
+      perspiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But me no buts! or depart as recreant, not by the door like a man, but up
+      the chimney like a flittermouse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, Mr. Frank!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy vital juice, or the chimney! Choose!&rdquo; roared Cary in his ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, if I must,&rdquo; said Jack; &ldquo;but it's desperate hard that because you
+      can't keep faith without these barbarous oaths, I must take them too, that
+      have kept faith these three years without any.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this pathetic appeal Frank nearly melted: but Amyas and Cary had thrust
+      the victim into a chair and all was prepared for the sacrifice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bind his eyes, according to the classic fashion,&rdquo; said Will.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh no, dear Mr. Cary; I'll shut them tight enough, I warrant: but not
+      with your dagger, dear Mr. William&mdash;sure, not with your dagger? I
+      can't afford to lose blood, though I do look lusty&mdash;I can't indeed;
+      sure, a pin would do&mdash;I've got one here, to my sleeve, somewhere&mdash;Oh!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See the fount of generous juice! Flow on, fair stream. How he bleeds!&mdash;pints,
+      quarts! Ah, this proves him to be in earnest!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A true lover's blood is always at his fingers' ends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He does not grudge it; of course not. Eh, Jack? What matters an odd
+      gallon for her sake?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For her sake? Nothing, nothing! Take my life, if you will: but&mdash;oh,
+      gentlemen, a surgeon, if you love me! I'm going off&mdash;I 'm fainting!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Drink, then, quick; drink and swear! Pat his back, Cary. Courage, man! it
+      will be over in a minute. Now, Frank!&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Frank spoke&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If plighted troth I fail, or secret speech reveal, May Cocytean ghosts
+      around my pillow squeal; While Ate's brazen claws distringe my spleen in
+      sunder, And drag me deep to Pluto's keep, 'mid brimstone, smoke, and
+      thunder!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Placetne, domine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Placet!&rdquo; squeaked Jack, who thought himself at the last gasp, and gulped
+      down full three-quarters of the goblet which Cary held to his lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh&mdash;Ah&mdash;Puh! Mercy on us! It tastes mighty like wine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A proof, my virtuous brother,&rdquo; said Frank, &ldquo;first, of thy abstemiousness,
+      which has thus forgotten what wine tastes like; and next, of thy pure and
+      heroical affection, by which thy carnal senses being exalted to a higher
+      and supra-lunar sphere, like those Platonical daemonizomenoi and
+      enthusiazomenoi (of whom Jamblichus says that they were insensible to
+      wounds and flame, and much more, therefore, to evil savors), doth make
+      even the most nauseous draught redolent of that celestial fragrance, which
+      proceeding, O Jack! from thine own inward virtue, assimilates by sympathy
+      even outward accidents unto its own harmony and melody; for fragrance is,
+      as has been said well, the song of flowers, and sweetness, the music of
+      apples&mdash;Ahem! Go in peace, thou hast conquered!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put him out of the door, Will,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;or he will swoon on our
+      hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give him some sack,&rdquo; said Frank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a blessed drop of yours, sir,&rdquo; said Jack. &ldquo;I like good wine as well
+      as any man on earth, and see as little of it; but not a drop of yours,
+      sirs, after your frumps and flouts about hanging-on and trencher-scraping.
+      When I first began to love her, I bid good-bye to all dirty tricks; for I
+      had some one then for whom to keep myself clean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so Jack was sent home, with a pint of good red Alicant wine in him
+      (more, poor fellow, than he had tasted at once in his life before); while
+      the rest, in high glee with themselves and the rest of the world,
+      relighted the candles, had a right merry evening, and parted like good
+      friends and sensible gentlemen of devon, thinking (all except Frank) Jack
+      Brimblecombe and his vow the merriest jest they had heard for many a day.
+      After which they all departed: Amyas and Cary to Winter's squadron; Frank
+      (as soon as he could travel) to the Court again; and with him young
+      Basset, whose father Sir Arthur, being in London, procured for him a
+      page's place in Leicester's household. Fortescue and Chicester went to
+      their brothers in Dublin; St. Leger to his uncle the Marshal of Munster;
+      Coffin joined Champernoun and Norris in the Netherlands; and so the
+      Brotherhood of the Rose was scattered far and wide, and Mistress Salterne
+      was left alone with her looking-glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW AMYAS KEPT HIS CHRISTMAS DAY
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Take aim, you noble musqueteers,
+     And shoot you round about;
+     Stand to it, valiant pikemen,
+     And we shall keep them out.
+     There's not a man of all of us
+     A foot will backward flee;
+     I'll be the foremost man in fight,
+     Says brave Lord Willoughby!&rdquo;
+
+                   Elizabethan Ballad.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was the blessed Christmas afternoon. The light was fading down; the
+      even-song was done; and the good folks of Bideford were trooping home in
+      merry groups, the father with his children, the lover with his sweetheart,
+      to cakes and ale, and flapdragons and mummer's plays, and all the happy
+      sports of Christmas night. One lady only, wrapped close in her black
+      muffler and followed by her maid, walked swiftly, yet sadly, toward the
+      long causeway and bridge which led to Northam town. Sir Richard Grenville
+      and his wife caught her up and stopped her courteously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will come home with us, Mrs. Leigh,&rdquo; said Lady Grenville, &ldquo;and spend
+      a pleasant Christmas night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh smiled sweetly, and laying one hand on Lady Grenville's arm,
+      pointed with the other to the westward, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot well spend a merry Christmas night while that sound is in my
+      ears.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole party around looked in the direction in which she pointed. Above
+      their heads the soft blue sky was fading into gray, and here and there a
+      misty star peeped out: but to the westward, where the downs and woods of
+      Raleigh closed in with those of Abbotsham, the blue was webbed and turfed
+      with delicate white flakes; iridescent spots, marking the path by which
+      the sun had sunk, showed all the colors of the dying dolphin; and low on
+      the horizon lay a long band of grassy green. But what was the sound which
+      troubled Mrs. Leigh? None of them, with their merry hearts, and ears
+      dulled with the din and bustle of the town, had heard it till that moment:
+      and yet now&mdash;listen! It was dead calm. There was not a breath to stir
+      a blade of grass. And yet the air was full of sound, a low deep roar which
+      hovered over down and wood, salt-marsh and river, like the roll of a
+      thousand wheels, the tramp of endless armies, or&mdash;what it was&mdash;the
+      thunder of a mighty surge upon the boulders of the pebble ridge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The ridge is noisy to-night,&rdquo; said Sir Richard. &ldquo;There has been wind
+      somewhere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is wind now, where my boy is, God help him!&rdquo; said Mrs. Leigh: and
+      all knew that she spoke truly. The spirit of the Atlantic storm had sent
+      forward the token of his coming, in the smooth ground-swell which was
+      heard inland, two miles away. To-morrow the pebbles, which were now
+      rattling down with each retreating wave, might be leaping to the ridge
+      top, and hurled like round-shot far ashore upon the marsh by the force of
+      the advancing wave, fleeing before the wrath of the western hurricane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God help my boy!&rdquo; said Mrs. Leigh again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God is as near him by sea as by land,&rdquo; said good Sir Richard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True, but I am a lone mother; and one that has no heart just now but to
+      go home and pray.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so Mrs. Leigh went onward up the lane, and spent all that night in
+      listening between her prayers to the thunder of the surge, till it was
+      drowned, long ere the sun rose, in the thunder of the storm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And where is Amyas on this same Christmas afternoon?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas is sitting bareheaded in a boat's stern in Smerwick bay, with the
+      spray whistling through his curls, as he shouts cheerfully&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pull, and with a will, my merry men all, and never mind shipping a sea.
+      Cannon balls are a cargo that don't spoil by taking salt-water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His mother's presage has been true enough. Christmas eve has been the last
+      of the still, dark, steaming nights of the early winter; and the western
+      gale has been roaring for the last twelve hours upon the Irish coast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The short light of the winter day is fading fast. Behind him is a leaping
+      line of billows lashed into mist by the tempest. Beside him green
+      foam-fringed columns are rushing up the black rocks, and falling again in
+      a thousand cataracts of snow. Before him is the deep and sheltered bay:
+      but it is not far up the bay that he and his can see; for some four miles
+      out at sea begins a sloping roof of thick gray cloud, which stretches over
+      their heads, and up and far away inland, cutting the cliffs off at
+      mid-height, hiding all the Kerry mountains, and darkening the hollows of
+      the distant firths into the blackness of night. And underneath that awful
+      roof of whirling mist the storm is howling inland ever, sweeping before it
+      the great foam-sponges, and the gray salt spray, till all the land is
+      hazy, dim, and dun. Let it howl on! for there is more mist than ever salt
+      spray made, flying before that gale; more thunder than ever sea-surge
+      wakened echoing among the cliffs of Smerwick bay; along those sand-hills
+      flash in the evening gloom red sparks which never came from heaven; for
+      that fort, now christened by the invaders the Fort Del Oro, where flaunts
+      the hated golden flag of Spain, holds San Josepho and eight hundred of the
+      foe; and but three nights ago, Amyas and Yeo, and the rest of Winter's
+      shrewdest hands, slung four culverins out of the Admiral's main deck, and
+      floated them ashore, and dragged them up to the battery among the
+      sand-hills; and now it shall be seen whether Spanish and Italian
+      condottieri can hold their own on British ground against the men of Devon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Small blame to Amyas if he was thinking, not of his lonely mother at
+      Burrough Court, but of those quick bright flashes on sand-hill and on
+      fort, where Salvation Yeo was hurling the eighteen-pound shot with deadly
+      aim, and watching with a cool and bitter smile of triumph the flying of
+      the sand, and the crashing of the gabions. Amyas and his party had been on
+      board, at the risk of their lives, for a fresh supply of shot; for
+      Winter's battery was out of ball, and had been firing stones for the last
+      four hours, in default of better missiles. They ran the boat on shore
+      through the surf, where a cove in the shore made landing possible, and
+      almost careless whether she stove or not, scrambled over the sand-hills
+      with each man his brace of shot slung across his shoulder; and Amyas,
+      leaping into the trenches, shouted cheerfully to Salvation Yeo&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More food for the bull-dogs, Gunner, and plums for the Spaniards'
+      Christmas pudding!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't speak to a man at his business, Master Amyas. Five mortal times
+      have I missed; but I will have that accursed Popish rag down, as I'm a
+      sinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Down with it, then; nobody wants you to shoot crooked. Take good iron to
+      it, and not footy paving-stones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe, sir, that the foul fiend is there, a turning of my shot aside,
+      I do. I thought I saw him once: but, thank Heaven, here's ball again. Ah,
+      sir, if one could but cast a silver one! Now, stand by, men!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And once again Yeo's eighteen-pounder roared, and away. And, oh glory! the
+      great yellow flag of Spain, which streamed in the gale, lifted clean into
+      the air, flagstaff and all, and then pitched wildly down head-foremost,
+      far to leeward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A hurrah from the sailors, answered by the soldiers of the opposite camp,
+      shook the very cloud above them: but ere its echoes had died away, a tall
+      officer leapt upon the parapet of the fort, with the fallen flag in his
+      hand, and rearing it as well as he could upon his lance point, held it
+      firmly against the gale, while the fallen flagstaff was raised again
+      within.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a moment a dozen long bows were bent at the daring foeman: but Amyas
+      behind shouted&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shame, lads! Stop and let the gallant gentleman have due courtesy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they stopped, while Amyas, springing on the rampart of the battery,
+      took off his hat, and bowed to the flag-holder, who, as soon as relieved
+      of his charge, returned the bow courteously, and descended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was by this time all but dark, and the firing began to slacken on all
+      sides; Salvation and his brother gunners, having covered up their
+      slaughtering tackle with tarpaulings, retired for the night, leaving
+      Amyas, who had volunteered to take the watch till midnight; and the rest
+      of the force having got their scanty supper of biscuit (for provisions
+      were running very short) lay down under arms among the sand-hills, and
+      grumbled themselves to sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had paced up and down in the gusty darkness for some hour or more,
+      exchanging a passing word now and then with the sentinel, when two men
+      entered the battery, chatting busily together. One was in complete armor;
+      the other wrapped in the plain short cloak of a man of pens and peace: but
+      the talk of both was neither of sieges nor of sallies, catapult, bombard,
+      nor culverin, but simply of English hexameters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And fancy not, gentle reader, that the two were therein fiddling while
+      Rome was burning; for the commonweal of poetry and letters, in that same
+      critical year 1580, was in far greater danger from those same hexameters
+      than the common woe of Ireland (as Raleigh called it) was from the
+      Spaniards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Imitating the classic metres, &ldquo;versifying,&rdquo; as it was called in
+      contradistinction to rhyming, was becoming fast the fashion among the more
+      learned. Stonyhurst and others had tried their hands at hexameter
+      translations from the Latin and Greek epics, which seem to have been
+      doggerel enough; and ever and anon some youthful wit broke out in iambics,
+      sapphics, elegiacs, and what not, to the great detriment of the queen's
+      English and her subjects' ears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I know not whether Mr. William Webbe had yet given to the world any
+      fragments of his precious hints for the &ldquo;Reformation of English poetry,&rdquo;
+       to the tune of his own &ldquo;Tityrus, happily thou liest tumbling under a
+      beech-tree:&rdquo; but the Cambridge Malvolio, Gabriel Harvey, had succeeded in
+      arguing Spenser, Dyer, Sidney, and probably Sidney's sister, and the whole
+      clique of beaux-esprits round them, into following his model of
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;What might I call this tree?  A laurel?  O bonny laurel!
+     Needes to thy bowes will I bowe this knee, and vail my bonetto;&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      after snubbing the first book of &ldquo;that Elvish Queene,&rdquo; which was then in
+      manuscript, as a base declension from the classical to the romantic
+      school.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now Spenser (perhaps in mere melancholy wilfulness and want of
+      purpose, for he had just been jilted by a fair maid of Kent) was wasting
+      his mighty genius upon doggerel which he fancied antique; and some
+      piratical publisher (bitter Tom Nash swears, and with likelihood that
+      Harvey did it himself) had just given to the world,&mdash;&ldquo;Three proper
+      wittie and familiar Letters, lately past between two University men,
+      touching the Earthquake in April last, and our English reformed
+      Versifying,&rdquo; which had set all town wits a-buzzing like a swarm of flies,
+      being none other than a correspondence between Spenser and Harvey, which
+      was to prove to the world forever the correctness and melody of such lines
+      as,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;For like magnificoes, not a beck but glorious in show,
+     In deede most frivolous, not a looke but Tuscanish always.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Let them pass&mdash;Alma Mater has seen as bad hexameters since. But then
+      the matter was serious. There is a story (I know not how true) that
+      Spenser was half bullied into re-writing the &ldquo;Faerie Queene&rdquo; in
+      hexameters, had not Raleigh, a true romanticist, &ldquo;whose vein for ditty or
+      amorous ode was most lofty, insolent, and passionate,&rdquo; persuaded him to
+      follow his better genius. The great dramatists had not yet arisen, to form
+      completely that truly English school, of which Spenser, unconscious of his
+      own vast powers, was laying the foundation. And, indeed, it was not till
+      Daniel, twenty years after, in his admirable apology for rhyme, had
+      smashed Mr. Campian and his &ldquo;eight several kinds of classical numbers,&rdquo;
+       that the matter was finally settled, and the English tongue left to go the
+      road on which Heaven had started it. So that we may excuse Raleigh's
+      answering somewhat waspish to some quotation of Spenser's from the three
+      letters of &ldquo;Immerito and G. H.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tut, tut, Colin Clout, much learning has made thee mad. A good old
+      fishwives' ballad jingle is worth all your sapphics and trimeters, and
+      'riff-raff thurlery bouncing.' Hey? have I you there, old lad? Do you mind
+      that precious verse?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, dear Wat, Homer and Virgil&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, dear Ned, Petrarch and Ovid&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, Wat, what have we that we do not owe to the ancients?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ancients, quotha? Why, the legend of King Arthur, and Chevy Chase too, of
+      which even your fellow-sinner Sidney cannot deny that every time he hears
+      it even from a blind fiddler it stirs his heart like a trumpet-blast.
+      Speak well of the bridge that carries you over, man! Did you find your
+      Redcross Knight in Virgil, or such a dame as Una in old Ovid? No more than
+      you did your Pater and Credo, you renegado baptized heathen, you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet, surely, our younger and more barbarous taste must bow before divine
+      antiquity, and imitate afar&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As dottrels do fowlers. If Homer was blind, lad, why dost not poke out
+      thine eye? Ay, this hexameter is of an ancient house, truly, Ned Spenser,
+      and so is many a rogue: but he cannot make way on our rough English roads.
+      He goes hopping and twitching in our language like a three-legged terrier
+      over a pebble-bank, tumble and up again, rattle and crash.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, hear, now&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'See ye the blindfolded pretty god that feathered archer,
+        Of lovers' miseries which maketh his bloody game?' *
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      True, the accent gapes in places, as I have often confessed to Harvey, but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Strange as it may seem, this distich is Spenser's own; and
+     the other hexameters are all authentic.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Harvey be hanged for a pedant, and the whole crew of versifiers, from Lord
+      Dorset (but he, poor man, has been past hanging some time since) to
+      yourself! Why delude you into playing Procrustes as he does with the
+      queen's English, racking one word till its joints be pulled asunder, and
+      squeezing the next all a-heap as the Inquisitors do heretics in their
+      banca cava? Out upon him and you, and Sidney, and the whole kin. You have
+      not made a verse among you, and never will, which is not as lame a gosling
+      as Harvey's own&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Oh thou weathercocke, that stands on the top of Allhallows,
+     Come thy ways down, if thou dar'st for thy crown, and take the wall
+     on us.'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark, now! There is our young giant comforting his soul with a ballad.
+      You will hear rhyme and reason together here, now. He will not miscall
+      'blind-folded,' 'blind-fold-ed, I warrant; or make an 'of' and a 'which'
+      and a 'his' carry a whole verse on their wretched little backs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And as he spoke, Amyas, who had been grumbling to himself some Christmas
+      carol, broke out full-mouthed:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;As Joseph was a-walking
+     He heard an angel sing&mdash;
+     'This night shall be the birth night
+     Of Christ, our heavenly King.
+
+     His birthbed shall be neither
+     In housen nor in hall,
+     Nor in the place of paradise,
+     But in the oxen's stall.
+
+     He neither shall be rocked
+     In silver nor in gold,
+     But in the wooden manger
+     That lieth on the mould.
+
+     He neither shall be washen
+     With white wine nor with red,
+     But with the fair spring water
+     That on you shall be shed.
+
+     He neither shall be clothed
+     In purple nor in pall,
+     But in the fair white linen
+     That usen babies all.'
+
+     As Joseph was a-walking
+     Thus did the angel sing,
+     And Mary's Son at midnight
+     Was born to be our King.
+
+     Then be you glad, good people,
+     At this time of the year;
+     And light you up your candles,
+     For His star it shineth clear.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, Edmunde Classicaster,&rdquo; said Raleigh, &ldquo;does not that simple strain
+      go nearer to the heart of him who wrote 'The Shepherd's Calendar,' than
+      all artificial and outlandish
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Wote ye why his mother with a veil hath covered his face?'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Why dost not answer, man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Spenser was silent awhile, and then,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I was thinking rather of the rhymer than the rhyme. Good heaven!
+      how that brave lad shames me, singing here the hymns which his mother
+      taught him, before the very muzzles of Spanish guns; instead of bewailing
+      unmanly, as I have done, the love which he held, I doubt not, as dear as I
+      did even my Rosalind. This is his welcome to the winter's storm; while I,
+      who dream, forsooth, of heavenly inspiration, can but see therein an image
+      of mine own cowardly despair.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath has wasted,
+     Art made a mirror to behold my plight.'*
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Pah! away with frosts, icicles, and tears, and sighs&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * &ldquo;The Shepherd's Calendar.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And with hexameters and trimeters too, I hope,&rdquo; interrupted Raleigh: &ldquo;and
+      all the trickeries of self-pleasing sorrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&mdash;I will set my heart to higher work than barking at the hand which
+      chastens me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wilt put the lad into the 'Faerie Queene,' then, by my side? He deserves
+      as good a place there, believe me, as ever a Guyon, or even as Lord Grey
+      your Arthegall. Let us hail him. Hallo! young chanticleer of Devon! Art
+      not afraid of a chance shot, that thou crowest so lustily upon thine own
+      mixen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cocks crow all night long at Christmas, Captain Raleigh, and so do I,&rdquo;
+       said Amyas's cheerful voice; &ldquo;but who's there with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A penitent pupil of yours&mdash;Mr. Secretary Spenser.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pupil of mine?&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;I wish he'd teach me a little of his art; I
+      could fill up my time here with making verses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who would be your theme, fair sir?&rdquo; said Spenser.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No 'who' at all. I don't want to make sonnets to blue eyes, nor black
+      either: but if I could put down some of the things I saw in the Spice
+      Islands&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said Raleigh, &ldquo;he would beat you out of Parnassus, Mr. Secretary.
+      Remember, you may write about Fairyland, but he has seen it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so have others,&rdquo; said Spenser; &ldquo;it is not so far off from any one of
+      us. Wherever is love and loyalty, great purposes, and lofty souls, even
+      though in a hovel or a mine, there is Fairyland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then Fairyland should be here, friend; for you represent love, and Leigh
+      loyalty; while, as for great purposes and lofty souls, who so fit to stand
+      for them as I, being (unless my enemies and my conscience are liars both)
+      as ambitious and as proud as Lucifer's own self?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, Walter, Walter, why wilt always slander thyself thus?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Slander? Tut.&mdash;I do but give the world a fair challenge, and tell
+      it, 'There&mdash;you know the worst of me: come on and try a fall, for
+      either you or I must down.' Slander? Ask Leigh here, who has but known me
+      a fortnight, whether I am not as vain as a peacock, as selfish as a fox,
+      as imperious as a bona roba, and ready to make a cat's paw of him or any
+      man, if there be a chestnut in the fire: and yet the poor fool cannot help
+      loving me, and running of my errands, and taking all my schemes and my
+      dreams for gospel; and verily believes now, I think, that I shall be the
+      man in the moon some day, and he my big dog.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Amyas, half apologetically, &ldquo;if you are the cleverest man in
+      the world what harm in my thinking so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hearken to him, Edmund! He will know better when he has outgrown this
+      same callow trick of honesty, and learnt of the great goddess Detraction
+      how to show himself wiser than the wise, by pointing out to the world the
+      fool's motley which peeps through the rents in the philosopher's cloak. Go
+      to, lad! slander thy equals, envy thy betters, pray for an eye which sees
+      spots in every sun, and for a vulture's nose to scent carrion in every
+      rose-bed. If thy friend win a battle, show that he has needlessly thrown
+      away his men; if he lose one, hint that he sold it; if he rise to a place,
+      argue favor; if he fall from one, argue divine justice. Believe nothing,
+      hope nothing, but endure all things, even to kicking, if aught may be got
+      thereby; so shalt thou be clothed in purple and fine linen, and sit in
+      kings' palaces, and fare sumptuously every day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And wake with Dives in the torment,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;Thank you for nothing,
+      captain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to, Misanthropos,&rdquo; said Spenser. &ldquo;Thou hast not yet tasted the sweets
+      of this world's comfits, and thou railest at them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The grapes are sour, lad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And will be to the end,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;if they come off such a devil's
+      tree as that. I really think you are out of your mind, Captain Raleigh, at
+      times.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I were; for it is a troublesome, hungry, windy mind as man ever
+      was cursed withal. But come in, lad. We were sent from the lord deputy to
+      bid thee to supper. There is a dainty lump of dead horse waiting for
+      thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Send me some out, then,&rdquo; said matter-of-fact Amyas. &ldquo;And tell his
+      lordship that, with his good leave, I don't stir from here till morning,
+      if I can keep awake. There is a stir in the fort, and I expect them out on
+      us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tut, man! their hearts are broken. We know it by their deserters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seeing's believing. I never trust runaway rogues. If they are false to
+      their masters, they'll be false to us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, go thy ways, old honesty; and Mr. Secretary shall give you a book
+      to yourself in the 'Faerie Queene'&mdash;'Sir Monoculus or the Legend of
+      Common Sense,' eh, Edmund?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Monoculus?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, Single-eye, my prince of word-coiners&mdash;won't that fit?&mdash;And
+      give him the Cyclops head for a device. Heigh-ho! They may laugh that win.
+      I am sick of this Irish work; were it not for the chance of advancement
+      I'd sooner be driving a team of red Devons on Dartside; and now I am angry
+      with the dear lad because he is not sick of it too. What a plague business
+      has he to be paddling up and down, contentedly doing his duty, like any
+      city watchman? It is an insult to the mighty aspirations of our nobler
+      hearts,&mdash;eh, my would-be Ariosto?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, Raleigh! you can afford to confess yourself less than some, for you
+      are greater than all. Go on and conquer, noble heart! But as for me, I sow
+      the wind, and I suppose I shall reap the whirlwind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your harvest seems come already; what a blast that was! Hold on by me,
+      Colin Clout, and I'll hold on by thee. So! Don't tread on that pikeman's
+      stomach, lest he take thee for a marauding Don, and with sudden dagger
+      slit Cohn's pipe, and Colin's weasand too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the two stumbled away into the darkness, leaving Amyas to stride up
+      and down as before, puzzling his brains over Raleigh's wild words and
+      Spenser's melancholy, till he came to the conclusion that there was some
+      mysterious connection between cleverness and unhappiness, and thanking his
+      stars that he was neither scholar, courtier, nor poet, said grace over his
+      lump of horseflesh when it arrived, devoured it as if it had been venison,
+      and then returned to his pacing up and down; but this time in silence, for
+      the night was drawing on, and there was no need to tell the Spaniards that
+      any one was awake and watching.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he began to think about his mother, and how she might be spending her
+      Christmas; and then about Frank, and wondered at what grand Court festival
+      he was assisting, amid bright lights and sweet music and gay ladies, and
+      how he was dressed, and whether he thought of his brother there far away
+      on the dark Atlantic shore; and then he said his prayers and his creed;
+      and then he tried not to think of Rose Salterne, and of course thought
+      about her all the more. So on passed the dull hours, till it might be past
+      eleven o'clock, and all lights were out in the battery and the shipping,
+      and there was no sound of living thing but the monotonous tramp of the two
+      sentinels beside him, and now and then a grunt from the party who slept
+      under arms some twenty yards to the rear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he paced to and fro, looking carefully out now and then over the strip
+      of sand-hill which lay between him and the fort; but all was blank and
+      black, and moreover it began to rain furiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly he seemed to hear a rustle among the harsh sand-grass. True, the
+      wind was whistling through it loudly enough, but that sound was not
+      altogether like the wind. Then a soft sliding noise; something had slipped
+      down a bank, and brought the sand down after it. Amyas stopped, crouched
+      down beside a gun, and laid his ear to the rampart, whereby he heard
+      clearly, as he thought, the noise of approaching feet; whether rabbits or
+      Christians, he knew not, but he shrewdly guessed the latter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Amyas was of a sober and business-like turn, at least when he was not
+      in a passion; and thinking within himself that if he made any noise, the
+      enemy (whether four or two-legged) would retire, and all the sport be
+      lost, he did not call to the two sentries, who were at the opposite ends
+      of the battery; neither did he think it worth while to rouse the sleeping
+      company, lest his ears should have deceived him, and the whole camp turn
+      out to repulse the attack of a buck rabbit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he crouched lower and lower beside the culverin, and was rewarded in a
+      minute or two by hearing something gently deposited against the mouth of
+      the embrasure, which, by the noise, should be a piece of timber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So far, so good,&rdquo; said he to himself; &ldquo;when the scaling ladder is up, the
+      soldier follows, I suppose. I can only humbly thank them for giving my
+      embrasure the preference. There he comes! I hear his feet scuffling.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He could hear plainly enough some one working himself into the mouth of
+      the embrasure: but the plague was, that it was so dark that he could not
+      see his hand between him and the sky, much less his foe at two yards off.
+      However, he made a pretty fair guess as to the whereabouts, and, rising
+      softly, discharged such a blow downwards as would have split a yule log. A
+      volley of sparks flew up from the hapless Spaniard's armor, and a grunt
+      issued from within it, which proved that, whether he was killed or not,
+      the blow had not improved his respiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas felt for his head, seized it, dragged him in over the gun, sprang
+      into the embrasure on his knees, felt for the top of the ladder, found it,
+      hove it clean off and out, with four or five men on it, and then of course
+      tumbled after it ten feet into the sand, roaring like a town bull to her
+      majesty's liege subjects in general.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sailor-fashion, he had no armor on but a light morion and a cuirass, so he
+      was not too much encumbered to prevent his springing to his legs
+      instantly, and setting to work, cutting and foining right and left at
+      every sound, for sight there was none.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Battles (as soldiers know, and newspaper editors do not) are usually
+      fought, not as they ought to be fought, but as they can be fought; and
+      while the literary man is laying down the law at his desk as to how many
+      troops should be moved here, and what rivers should be crossed there, and
+      where the cavalry should have been brought up, and when the flank should
+      have been turned, the wretched man who has to do the work finds the matter
+      settled for him by pestilence, want of shoes, empty stomachs, bad roads,
+      heavy rains, hot suns, and a thousand other stern warriors who never show
+      on paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So with this skirmish; &ldquo;according to Cocker,&rdquo; it ought to have been a very
+      pretty one; for Hercules of Pisa, who planned the sortie, had arranged it
+      all (being a very sans-appel in all military science) upon the best
+      Italian precedents, and had brought against this very hapless battery a
+      column of a hundred to attack directly in front, a company of fifty to
+      turn the right flank, and a company of fifty to turn the left flank, with
+      regulations, orders, passwords, countersigns, and what not; so that if
+      every man had had his rights (as seldom happens), Don Guzman Maria
+      Magdalena de Soto, who commanded the sortie, ought to have taken the work
+      out of hand, and annihilated all therein. But alas! here stern fate
+      interfered. They had chosen a dark night, as was politic; they had waited
+      till the moon was up, lest it should be too dark, as was politic likewise:
+      but, just as they had started, on came a heavy squall of rain, through
+      which seven moons would have given no light, and which washed out the
+      plans of Hercules of Pisa as if they had been written on a schoolboy's
+      slate. The company who were to turn the left flank walked manfully down
+      into the sea, and never found out where they were going till they were
+      knee-deep in water. The company who were to turn the right flank,
+      bewildered by the utter darkness, turned their own flank so often, that
+      tired of falling into rabbit-burrows and filling their mouths with sand,
+      they halted and prayed to all the saints for a compass and lantern; while
+      the centre body, who held straight on by a trackway to within fifty yards
+      of the battery, so miscalculated that short distance, that while they
+      thought the ditch two pikes' length off, they fell into it one over the
+      other, and of six scaling ladders, the only one which could be found was
+      the very one which Amyas threw down again. After which the clouds broke,
+      the wind shifted, and the moon shone out merrily. And so was the deep
+      policy of Hercules of Pisa, on which hung the fate of Ireland and the
+      Papacy, decided by a ten minutes' squall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But where is Amyas?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the ditch, aware that the enemy is tumbling into it, but unable to find
+      them; while the company above, finding it much too dark to attempt a
+      counter sortie, have opened a smart fire of musketry and arrows on things
+      in general, whereat the Spaniards are swearing like Spaniards (I need say
+      no more), and the Italians spitting like venomous cats; while Amyas, not
+      wishing to be riddled by friendly balls, has got his back against the foot
+      of the rampart, and waits on Providence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly the moon clears; and with one more fierce volley, the English
+      sailors, seeing the confusion, leap down from the embrasures, and to it
+      pell-mell. Whether this also was &ldquo;according to Cocker,&rdquo; I know not: but
+      the sailor, then as now, is not susceptible of highly-finished drill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas is now in his element, and so are the brave fellows at his heels;
+      and there are ten breathless, furious minutes among the sand-hills; and
+      then the trumpets blow a recall, and the sailors drop back again by twos
+      and threes, and are helped up into the embrasures over many a dead and
+      dying foe; while the guns of Fort del Oro open on them, and blaze away for
+      half an hour without reply; and then all is still once more. And in the
+      meanwhile, the sortie against the deputy's camp has fared no better, and
+      the victory of the night remains with the English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Twenty minutes after, Winter and the captains who were on shore were
+      drying themselves round a peat-fire on the beach, and talking over the
+      skirmish, when Will Cary asked&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is Leigh? who has seen him? I am sadly afraid he has gone too far,
+      and been slain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Slain? Never less, gentlemen!&rdquo; replied the voice of the very person in
+      question, as he stalked out of the darkness into the glare of the fire,
+      and shot down from his shoulders into the midst of the ring, as he might a
+      sack of corn, a huge dark body, which was gradually seen to be a man in
+      rich armor; who being so shot down, lay quietly where he was dropped, with
+      his feet (luckily for him mailed) in the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say,&rdquo; quoth Amyas, &ldquo;some of you had better take him up, if he is to be
+      of any use. Unlace his helm, Will Cary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pull his feet out of the embers; I dare say he would have been glad
+      enough to put us to the scarpines; but that's no reason we should put him
+      to them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As has been hinted, there was no love lost between Admiral Winter and
+      Amyas; and Amyas might certainly have reported himself in a more
+      ceremonious manner. So Winter, whom Amyas either had not seen, or had not
+      chosen to see, asked him pretty sharply, &ldquo;What the plague he had to do
+      with bringing dead men into camp?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he's dead, it's not my fault. He was alive enough when I started with
+      him, and I kept him right end uppermost all the way; and what would you
+      have more, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Leigh!&rdquo; said Winter, &ldquo;it behoves you to speak with somewhat more
+      courtesy, if not respect, to captains who are your elders and commanders.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask your pardon, sir,&rdquo; said the giant, as he stood in front of the fire
+      with the rain steaming and smoking off his armor; &ldquo;but I was bred in a
+      school where getting good service done was more esteemed than making fine
+      speeches.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whatsoever school you were trained in, sir,&rdquo; said Winter, nettled at the
+      hint about Drake; &ldquo;it does not seem to have been one in which you learned
+      to obey orders. Why did you not come in when the recall was sounded?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because,&rdquo; said Amyas, very coolly, &ldquo;in the first place I did not hear it;
+      and in the next, in my school I was taught when I had once started not to
+      come home empty-handed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was too pointed; and Winter sprang up with an oath&mdash;&ldquo;Do you mean
+      to insult me, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry, sir, that you should take a compliment to Sir Francis Drake
+      as an insult to yourself. I brought in this gentleman because I thought he
+      might give you good information; if he dies meanwhile, the loss will be
+      yours, or rather the queen's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Help me, then,&rdquo; said Cary, glad to create a diversion in Amyas's favor,
+      &ldquo;and we will bring him round;&rdquo; while Raleigh rose, and catching Winter's
+      arm, drew him aside, and began talking earnestly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a murrain have you, Leigh, to quarrel with Winter?&rdquo; asked two or
+      three.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say, my reverend fathers and dear children, do get the Don's talking
+      tackle free again, and leave me and the admiral to settle it our own way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was more than one captain sitting in the ring, but discipline, and
+      the degrees of rank, were not so severely defined as now; and Amyas, as a
+      &ldquo;gentleman adventurer,&rdquo; was, on land, in a position very difficult to be
+      settled, though at sea he was as liable to be hanged as any other person
+      on board; and on the whole it was found expedient to patch the matter up.
+      So Captain Raleigh returning, said that though Admiral Winter had
+      doubtless taken umbrage at certain words of Mr. Leigh's, yet that he had
+      no doubt that Mr. Leigh meant nothing thereby but what was consistent with
+      the profession of a soldier and a gentleman, and worthy both of himself
+      and of the admiral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From which proposition Amyas found it impossible to dissent; whereon
+      Raleigh went back, and informed Winter that Leigh had freely retracted his
+      words, and fully wiped off any imputation which Mr. Winter might conceive
+      to have been put upon him, and so forth. So Winter returned, and Amyas
+      said frankly enough&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Admiral Winter, I hope, as a loyal soldier, that you will understand thus
+      far; that naught which has passed to-night shall in any way prevent you
+      finding me a forward and obedient servant to all your commands, be they
+      what they may, and a supporter of your authority among the men, and honor
+      against the foe, even with my life. For I should be ashamed if private
+      differences should ever prejudice by a grain the public weal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a great effort of oratory for Amyas; and he therefore, in order
+      to be safe by following precedent, tried to talk as much as he could like
+      Sir Richard Grenville. Of course Winter could answer nothing to it, in
+      spite of the plain hint of private differences, but that he should not
+      fail to show himself a captain worthy of so valiant and trusty a
+      gentleman; whereon the whole party turned their attention to the captive,
+      who, thanks to Will Cary, was by this time sitting up, standing much in
+      need of a handkerchief, and looking about him, having been unhelmed, in a
+      confused and doleful manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take the gentleman to my tent,&rdquo; said Winter, &ldquo;and let the surgeon see to
+      him. Mr. Leigh, who is he?&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An enemy, but whether Spaniard or Italian I know not; but he seemed
+      somebody among them, I thought the captain of a company. He and I cut at
+      each other twice or thrice at first, and then lost each other; and after
+      that I came on him among the sand-hills, trying to rally his men, and
+      swearing like the mouth of the pit, whereby I guess him a Spaniard. But
+      his men ran; so I brought him in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how?&rdquo; asked Raleigh. &ldquo;Thou art giving us all the play but the murders
+      and the marriages.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I bid him yield, and he would not. Then I bid him run, and he would
+      not. And it was too pitch-dark for fighting; so I took him by the ears,
+      and shook the wind out of him, and so brought him in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shook the wind out of him?&rdquo; cried Cary, amid the roar of laughter which
+      followed. &ldquo;Dost know thou hast nearly wrung his neck in two? His vizor was
+      full of blood.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He should have run or yielded, then,&rdquo; said Amyas; and getting up, slipped
+      off to find some ale, and then to sleep comfortably in a dry burrow which
+      he scratched out of a sandbank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning, as Amyas was discussing a scanty breakfast of biscuit
+      (for provisions were running very short in camp), Raleigh came up to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, eating? That's more than I have done to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sit down, and share, then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, lad, I did not come a-begging. I have set some of my rogues to dig
+      rabbits; but as I live, young Colbrand, you may thank your stars that you
+      are alive to-day to eat. Poor young Cheek&mdash;Sir John Cheek, the
+      grammarian's son&mdash;got his quittance last night by a Spanish pike,
+      rushing headlong on, just as you did. But have you seen your prisoner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; nor shall, while he is in Winter's tent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not, then? What quarrel have you against the admiral, friend Bobadil?
+      Cannot you let Francis Drake fight his own battles, without thrusting your
+      head in between them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that is good! As if the quarrel was not just as much mine, and
+      every man's in the ship. Why, when he left Drake, he left us all, did he
+      not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what if he did? Let bygones be bygones is the rule of a Christian,
+      and of a wise man too, Amyas. Here the man is, at least, safe home, in
+      favor and in power; and a prudent youth will just hold his tongue,
+      mumchance, and swim with the stream.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But that's just what makes me mad; to see this fellow, after deserting us
+      there in unknown seas, win credit and rank at home here for being the
+      first man who ever sailed back through the Straits. What had he to do with
+      sailing back at all! As well make the fox a knight for being the first
+      that ever jumped down a jakes to escape the hounds. The fiercer the flight
+      the fouler the fear, say I.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas! Amyas! thou art a hard hitter, but a soft politician.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am no politician, Captain Raleigh, nor ever wish to be. An honest man's
+      my friend, and a rogue's my foe; and I'll tell both as much, as long as I
+      breathe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And die a poor saint,&rdquo; said Raleigh, laughing. &ldquo;But if Winter invites you
+      to his tent himself, you won't refuse to come?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, no, considering his years and rank; but he knows too well to do
+      that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He knows too well not to do it,&rdquo; said Raleigh, laughing as he walked
+      away. And verily in half-an-hour came an invitation, extracted of course,
+      from the admiral by Raleigh's silver tongue, which Amyas could not but
+      obey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We all owe you thanks for last night's service, sir,&rdquo; said Winter, who
+      had for some good reasons changed his tone. &ldquo;Your prisoner is found to be
+      a gentleman of birth and experience, and the leader of the assault last
+      night. He has already told us more than we had hoped, for which also we
+      are beholden to you; and, indeed, my Lord Grey has been asking for you
+      already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have, young sir,&rdquo; said a quiet and lofty voice; and Amyas saw limping
+      from the inner tent the proud and stately figure of the stern deputy, Lord
+      Grey of Wilton, a brave and wise man, but with a naturally harsh temper,
+      which had been soured still more by the wound which had crippled him,
+      while yet a boy, at the battle of Leith. He owed that limp to Mary Queen
+      of Scots; and he did not forget the debt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been asking for you; having heard from many, both of your last
+      night's prowess, and of your conduct and courage beyond the promise of
+      your years, displayed in that ever-memorable voyage, which may well be
+      ranked with the deeds of the ancient Argonauts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas bowed low; and the lord deputy went on, &ldquo;You will needs wish to see
+      your prisoner. You will find him such a one as you need not be ashamed to
+      have taken, and as need not be ashamed to have been taken by you: but here
+      he is, and will, I doubt not, answer as much for himself. Know each other
+      better, gentlemen both: last night was an ill one for making
+      acquaintances. Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto, know the
+      hidalgo, Amyas Leigh!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, the Spaniard came forward, still in his armor, all save his
+      head, which was bound up in a handkerchief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was an exceedingly tall and graceful personage, of that sangre azul
+      which marked high Visigothic descent; golden-haired and fair-skinned, with
+      hands as small and white as a woman's; his lips were delicate but thin,
+      and compressed closely at the corners of the mouth; and his pale blue eye
+      had a glassy dulness. In spite of his beauty and his carriage, Amyas
+      shrank from him instinctively; and yet he could not help holding out his
+      hand in return, as the Spaniard, holding out his, said languidly, in most
+      sweet and sonorous Spanish&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I kiss his hands and feet. The senor speaks, I am told, my native
+      tongue?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have that honor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then accept in it (for I can better express myself therein than in
+      English, though I am not altogether ignorant of that witty and learned
+      language) the expression of my pleasure at having fallen into the hands of
+      one so renowned in war and travel; and of one also,&rdquo; he added, glancing at
+      Amyas's giant bulk, &ldquo;the vastness of whose strength, beyond that of common
+      mortality, makes it no more shame for me to have been overpowered and
+      carried away by him than if my captor had been a paladin of
+      Charlemagne's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Honest Amyas bowed and stammered, a little thrown off his balance by the
+      unexpected assurance and cool flattery of his prisoner; but he said&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are satisfied, illustrious senor, I am bound to be so. I only
+      trust that in my hurry and the darkness I have not hurt you
+      unnecessarily.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Don laughed a pretty little hollow laugh: &ldquo;No, kind senor, my head, I
+      trust, will after a few days have become united to my shoulders; and, for
+      the present, your company will make me forget any slight discomfort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me, senor; but by this daylight I should have seen that armor
+      before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I doubt it not, senor, as having been yourself also in the forefront of
+      the battle,&rdquo; said the Spaniard, with a proud smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I am right, senor, you are he who yesterday held up the standard after
+      it was shot down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not deny that undeserved honor; and I have to thank the courtesy of
+      you and your countrymen for having permitted me to do so with impunity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, I heard of that brave feat,&rdquo; said the lord deputy. &ldquo;You should
+      consider yourself, Mr. Leigh, honored by being enabled to show courtesy to
+      such a warrior.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      How long this interchange of solemn compliments, of which Amyas was
+      getting somewhat weary, would have gone on, I know not; but at that moment
+      Raleigh entered hastily&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord, they have hung out a white flag, and are calling for a parley!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spaniard turned pale, and felt for his sword, which was gone; and
+      then, with a bitter laugh, murmured to himself&mdash;&ldquo;As I expected.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am very sorry to hear it. Would to Heaven they had simply fought it
+      out!&rdquo; said Lord Grey, half to himself; and then, &ldquo;Go, Captain Raleigh, and
+      answer them that (saving this gentleman's presence) the laws of war forbid
+      a parley with any who are leagued with rebels against their lawful
+      sovereign.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what if they wish to treat for this gentleman's ransom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For their own, more likely,&rdquo; said the Spaniard; &ldquo;but tell them, on my
+      part, senor, that Don Guzman refuses to be ransomed; and will return to no
+      camp where the commanding officer, unable to infect his captains with his
+      own cowardice, dishonors them against their will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You speak sharply, senor,&rdquo; said Winter, after Raleigh had gone out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have reason, Senor Admiral, as you will find, I fear, erelong.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall have the honor of leaving you here, for the present, sir, as
+      Admiral Winter's guest,&rdquo; said the lord deputy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not my sword, it seems.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me, senor; but no one has deprived you of your sword,&rdquo; said
+      Winter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't wish to pain you, sir,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;but I fear that we were both
+      careless enough to leave it behind last night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A flash passed over the Spaniard's face, which disclosed terrible depths
+      of fury and hatred beneath that quiet mask, as the summer lightning
+      displays the black abysses of the thunder-storm; but like the summer
+      lightning it passed almost unseen; and blandly as ever, he answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can forgive you for such a neglect, most valiant sir, more easily than
+      I can forgive myself. Farewell, sir! One who has lost his sword is no fit
+      company for you.&rdquo; And as Amyas and the rest departed, he plunged into the
+      inner tent, stamping and writhing, gnawing his hands with rage and shame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Amyas came out on the battery, Yeo hailed him:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Master Amyas! Hillo, sir! For the love of Heaven, tell me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is his lordship stanch? Will he do the Lord's work faithfully, root and
+      branch: or will he spare the Amalekites?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The latter, I think, old hip-and-thigh,&rdquo; said Amyas, hurrying forward to
+      hear the news from Raleigh, who appeared in sight once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They ask to depart with bag and baggage,&rdquo; said he, when he came up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God do so to me, and more also, if they carry away a straw!&rdquo; said Lord
+      Grey. &ldquo;Make short work of it, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know how that will be, my lord; as I came up a captain shouted
+      to me off the walls that there were mutineers; and, denying that he
+      surrendered, would have pulled down the flag of truce, but the soldiers
+      beat him off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A house divided against itself will not stand long, gentlemen. Tell them
+      that I give no conditions. Let them lay down their arms, and trust in the
+      Bishop of Rome who sent them hither, and may come to save them if he wants
+      them. Gunners, if you see the white flag go down, open your fire
+      instantly. Captain Raleigh, we need your counsel here. Mr. Cary, will you
+      be my herald this time?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A better Protestant never went on a pleasanter errand, my lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Cary went, and then ensued an argument, as to what should be done with
+      the prisoners in case of a surrender.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I cannot tell whether my Lord Grey meant, by offering conditions which the
+      Spaniards would not accept, to force them into fighting the quarrel out,
+      and so save himself the responsibility of deciding on their fate; or
+      whether his mere natural stubbornness, as well as his just indignation,
+      drove him on too far to retract: but the council of war which followed was
+      both a sad and a stormy one, and one which he had reason to regret to his
+      dying day. What was to be done with the enemy? They already outnumbered
+      the English; and some fifteen hundred of Desmond's wild Irish hovered in
+      the forests round, ready to side with the winning party, or even to attack
+      the English at the least sign of vacillation or fear. They could not carry
+      the Spaniards away with them, for they had neither shipping nor food, not
+      even handcuffs enough for them; and as Mackworth told Winter when he
+      proposed it, the only plan was for him to make San Josepho a present of
+      his ships, and swim home himself as he could. To turn loose in Ireland, as
+      Captain Touch urged, on the other hand, seven hundred such monsters of
+      lawlessness, cruelty, and lust, as Spanish and Italian condottieri were in
+      those days, was as fatal to their own safety as cruel to the wretched
+      Irish. All the captains, without exception, followed on the same side.
+      &ldquo;What was to be done, then?&rdquo; asked Lord Grey, impatiently. &ldquo;Would they
+      have him murder them all in cold blood?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And for a while every man, knowing that it must come to that, and yet not
+      daring to say it; till Sir Warham St. Leger, the marshal of Munster, spoke
+      out stoutly: &ldquo;Foreigners had been scoffing them too long and too truly
+      with waging these Irish wars as if they meant to keep them alive, rather
+      than end them. Mercy and faith to every Irishman who would show mercy and
+      faith, was his motto; but to invaders, no mercy. Ireland was England's
+      vulnerable point; it might be some day her ruin; a terrible example must
+      be made of those who dare to touch the sore. Rather pardon the Spaniards
+      for landing in the Thames than in Ireland!&rdquo;&mdash;till Lord Grey became
+      much excited, and turning as a last hope to Raleigh, asked his opinion:
+      but Raleigh's silver tongue was that day not on the side of indulgence. He
+      skilfully recapitulated the arguments of his fellow-captains, improving
+      them as he went on, till each worthy soldier was surprised to find himself
+      so much wiser a man than he had thought; and finished by one of his rapid
+      and passionate perorations upon his favorite theme&mdash;the West Indian
+      cruelties of the Spaniards, &ldquo;. . . by which great tracts and fair
+      countries are now utterly stripped of inhabitants by heavy bondage and
+      torments unspeakable. Oh, witless Islanders!&rdquo; said he, apostrophizing the
+      Irish, &ldquo;would to Heaven that you were here to listen to me! What other
+      fate awaits you, if this viper, which you are so ready to take into your
+      bosom, should be warmed to life, but to groan like the Indians, slaves to
+      the Spaniard; but to perish like the Indians, by heavy burdens, cruel
+      chains, plunder and ravishment; scourged, racked, roasted, stabbed, sawn
+      in sunder, cast to feed the dogs, as simple and more righteous peoples
+      have perished ere now by millions? And what else, I say, had been the fate
+      of Ireland had this invasion prospered, which God has now, by our weak
+      hands, confounded and brought to naught? Shall we then answer it, my lord,
+      either to our conscience, our God, or our queen, if we shall set loose men
+      (not one of whom, I warrant, but is stained with murder on murder) to go
+      and fill up the cup of their iniquity among these silly sheep? Have not
+      their native wolves, their barbarous chieftains, shorn, peeled, and
+      slaughtered them enough already, but we must add this pack of foreign
+      wolves to the number of their tormentors, and fit the Desmond with a
+      body-guard of seven, yea, seven hundred devils worse than himself? Nay,
+      rather let us do violence to our own human nature, and show ourselves in
+      appearance rigorous, that we may be kind indeed; lest while we presume to
+      be over-merciful to the guilty, we prove ourselves to be over-cruel to the
+      innocent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Raleigh, Captain Raleigh,&rdquo; said Lord Grey, &ldquo;the blood of these
+      men be on your head!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It ill befits your lordship,&rdquo; answered Raleigh, &ldquo;to throw on your
+      subordinates the blame of that which your reason approves as necessary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should have thought, sir, that one so noted for ambition as Captain
+      Raleigh would have been more careful of the favor of that queen for whose
+      smiles he is said to be so longing a competitor. If you have not yet been
+      of her counsels, sir, I can tell you you are not likely to be. She will be
+      furious when she hears of this cruelty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Grey had lost his temper: but Raleigh kept his, and answered quietly&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her majesty shall at least not find me among the number of those who
+      prefer her favor to her safety, and abuse to their own profit that
+      over-tenderness and mercifulness of heart which is the only blemish (and
+      yet, rather like a mole on a fair cheek, but a new beauty) in her manifold
+      perfections.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this juncture Cary returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; said he, in some confusion, &ldquo;I have proposed your terms; but
+      the captains still entreat for some mitigation; and, to tell you truth,
+      one of them has insisted on accompanying me hither to plead his cause
+      himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not see him, sir. Who is he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His name is Sebastian of Modena, my lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sebastian of Modena? What think you, gentlemen? May we make an exception
+      in favor of so famous a soldier?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So villainous a cut-throat,&rdquo; said Zouch to Raleigh, under his breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All, however, were for speaking with so famous a man; and in came, in full
+      armor, a short, bull-necked Italian, evidently of immense strength, of the
+      true Caesar Borgia stamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you please to be seated, sir?&rdquo; said Lord Grey, coldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I kiss your hands, most illustrious: but I do not sit in an enemy's camp.
+      Ha, my friend Zouch! How has your signoria fared since we fought side by
+      side at Lepanto? So you too are here, sitting in council on the hanging of
+      me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your errand, sir? Time is short,&rdquo; said the lord deputy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Corpo di Bacco! It has been long enough all the morning, for my rascals
+      have kept me and my friend the Colonel Hercules (whom you know, doubtless)
+      prisoners in our tents at the pike's point. My lord deputy, I have but a
+      few words. I shall thank you to take every soldier in the fort&mdash;Italian,
+      Spaniard, and Irish&mdash;and hang them up as high as Haman, for a set of
+      mutinous cowards, with the arch-traitor San Josepho at their head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am obliged to you for your offer, sir, and shall deliberate presently
+      as to whether I shall not accept it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But as for us captains, really your excellency must consider that we are
+      gentlemen born, and give us either buena querra, as the Spaniards say, or
+      a fair chance for life; and so to my business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay, sir. Answer this first. Have you or yours any commission to show
+      either from the King of Spain or any other potentate?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never a one but the cause of Heaven and our own swords. And with them, my
+      lord, we are ready to meet any gentlemen of your camp, man to man, with
+      our swords only, half-way between your leaguer and ours; and I doubt not
+      that your lordship will see fair play. Will any gentleman accept so civil
+      an offer? There sits a tall youth in that corner who would suit me very
+      well. Will any fit my gallant comrades with half-an-hour's punto and
+      stoccado?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a silence, all looking at the lord deputy, whose eyes were
+      kindling in a very ugly way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No answer? Then I must proceed to exhortation. So! Will that be
+      sufficient?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And walking composedly across the tent, the fearless ruffian quietly
+      stooped down, and smote Amyas Leigh full in the face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Up sprang Amyas, heedless of all the august assembly, and with a single
+      buffet felled him to the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excellent!&rdquo; said he, rising unabashed. &ldquo;I can always trust my instinct. I
+      knew the moment I saw him that he was a cavalier worth letting blood. Now,
+      sir, your sword and harness, and I am at your service outside!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The solemn and sententious Englishmen were altogether taken aback by the
+      Italian's impudence; but Zouch settled the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most noble captain, will you be pleased to recollect a certain little
+      occurrence at Messina, in the year 1575? For if you do not, I do; and beg
+      to inform this gentleman that you are unworthy of his sword, and had you,
+      unluckily for you, been an Englishman, would have found the fashions of
+      our country so different from your own that you would have been then
+      hanged, sir, and probably may be so still.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Italian's sword flashed out in a moment: but Lord Grey interfered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No fighting here, gentlemen. That may wait; and, what is more, shall wait
+      till&mdash;Strike their swords down, Raleigh, Mackworth! Strike their
+      swords down! Colonel Sebastian, you will be pleased to return as you came,
+      in safety, having lost nothing, as (I frankly tell you) you have gained
+      nothing, by your wild bearing here. We shall proceed to deliberate on your
+      fate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I trust, my lord,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;that you will spare this braggart's life,
+      at least for a day or two. For in spite of Captain Zouch's warning, I must
+      have to do with him yet, or my cheek will rise up in judgment against me
+      at the last day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well spoken, lad,&rdquo; said the colonel, as he swung out. &ldquo;So! worth a
+      reprieve, by this sword, to have one more rapier-rattle before the
+      gallows! Then I take back no further answer, my lord deputy? Not even our
+      swords, our virgin blades, signor, the soldier's cherished bride? Shall we
+      go forth weeping widowers, and leave to strange embrace the lovely steel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None, sir, by heaven!&rdquo; said he, waxing wroth. &ldquo;Do you come hither,
+      pirates as you are, to dictate terms upon a foreign soil? Is it not enough
+      to have set up here the Spanish flag, and claimed the land of Ireland as
+      the Pope's gift to the Spaniard; violated the laws of nations, and the
+      solemn treaties of princes, under color of a mad superstition?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Superstition, my lord? Nothing less. Believe a philosopher who has not
+      said a pater or an ave for seven years past at least. Quod tango credo, is
+      my motto; and though I am bound to say, under pain of the Inquisition,
+      that the most holy Father the Pope has given this land of Ireland to his
+      most Catholic Majesty the King of Spain, Queen Elizabeth having forfeited
+      her title to it by heresy,&mdash;why, my lord, I believe it as little as
+      you do. I believe that Ireland would have been mine, if I had won it; I
+      believe religiously that it is not mine, now I have lost it. What is, is,
+      and a fig for priests; to-day to thee, to-morrow to me. Addio!&rdquo; And out he
+      swung.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There goes a most gallant rascal,&rdquo; said the lord deputy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And a most rascally gallant,&rdquo; said Zouch. &ldquo;The murder of his own page, of
+      which I gave him a remembrancer, is among the least of his sins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, Captain Raleigh,&rdquo; said Lord Grey, &ldquo;as you have been so earnest
+      in preaching this butchery, I have a right to ask none but you to practise
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Raleigh bit his lip, and replied by the &ldquo;quip courteous&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am at least a man, my lord, who thinks it shame to allow others to do
+      that which I dare not do myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Grey might probably have returned &ldquo;the countercheck quarrelsome,&rdquo; had
+      not Mackworth risen&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I, my lord, being in that matter at least one of Captain Raleigh's
+      kidney, will just go with him to see that he takes no harm by being bold
+      enough to carry out an ugly business, and serving these rascals as their
+      countrymen served Mr. Oxenham.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I bid you good morning, then, gentlemen, though I cannot bid you God
+      speed,&rdquo; said Lord Grey; and sitting down again, covered his face with his
+      hands, and, to the astonishment of all bystanders, burst, say the
+      chroniclers, into tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas followed Raleigh out. The latter was pale, but determined, and very
+      wroth against the deputy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does the man take me for a hangman,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;that he speaks to me thus?
+      But such is the way of the great. If you neglect your duty, they haul you
+      over the coals; if you do it, you must do it on your own responsibility.
+      Farewell, Amyas; you will not shrink from me as a butcher when I return?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forbid! But how will you do it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;March one company in, and drive them forth, and let the other cut them
+      down as they come out.&mdash;Pah!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      It was done. Right or wrong, it was done. The shrieks and curses had died
+      away, and the Fort del Oro was a red shambles, which the soldiers were
+      trying to cover from the sight of heaven and earth, by dragging the bodies
+      into the ditch, and covering them with the ruins of the rampart; while the
+      Irish, who had beheld from the woods that awful warning, fled trembling
+      into the deepest recesses of the forest. It was done; and it never needed
+      to be done again. The hint was severe, but it was sufficient. Many years
+      passed before a Spaniard set foot again in Ireland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spanish and Italian officers were spared, and Amyas had Don Guzman
+      Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto duly adjudged to him, as his prize by
+      right of war. He was, of course, ready enough to fight Sebastian of
+      Modena: but Lord Grey forbade the duel: blood enough had been shed
+      already. The next question was, where to bestow Don Guzman till his ransom
+      should arrive; and as Amyas could not well deliver the gallant Don into
+      the safe custody of Mrs. Leigh at Burrough, and still less into that of
+      Frank at Court, he was fain to write to Sir Richard Grenville, and ask his
+      advice, and in the meanwhile keep the Spaniard with him upon parole, which
+      he frankly gave,&mdash;saying that as for running away, he had nowhere to
+      run to; and as for joining the Irish he had no mind to turn pig; and Amyas
+      found him, as shall be hereafter told, pleasant company enough. But one
+      morning Raleigh entered&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have done you a good turn, Leigh, if you think it one. I have talked
+      St. Leger into making you my lieutenant, and giving you the custody of a
+      right pleasant hermitage&mdash;some castle Shackatory or other in the
+      midst of a big bog, where time will run swift and smooth with you, between
+      hunting wild Irish, snaring snipes, and drinking yourself drunk with
+      usquebaugh over a turf fire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll go,&rdquo; quoth Amyas; &ldquo;anything for work.&rdquo; So he went and took
+      possession of his lieutenancy and his black robber tower, and there passed
+      the rest of the winter, fighting or hunting all day, and chatting and
+      reading all the evening, with Senor Don Guzman, who, like a good soldier
+      of fortune, made himself thoroughly at home, and a general favorite with
+      the soldiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first, indeed, his Spanish pride and stateliness, and Amyas's English
+      taciturnity, kept the two apart somewhat; but they soon began, if not to
+      trust, at least to like each other; and Don Guzman told Amyas, bit by bit,
+      who he was, of what an ancient house, and of what a poor one; and laughed
+      over the very small chance of his ransom being raised, and the certainty
+      that, at least, it could not come for a couple of years, seeing that the
+      only De Soto who had a penny to spare was a fat old dean at St. Yago de
+      Leon, in the Caracas, at which place Don Guzman had been born. This of
+      course led to much talk about the West Indies, and the Don was as much
+      interested to find that Amyas had been one of Drake's world-famous crew,
+      as Amyas was to find that his captive was the grandson of none other than
+      that most terrible of man-hunters, Don Ferdinando de Soto, the conqueror
+      of Florida, of whom Amyas had read many a time in Las Casas, &ldquo;as the
+      captain of tyrants, the notoriousest and most experimented amongst them
+      that have done the most hurts, mischiefs, and destructions in many
+      realms.&rdquo; And often enough his blood boiled, and he had much ado to
+      recollect that the speaker was his guest, as Don Guzman chatted away about
+      his grandfather's hunts of innocent women and children, murders of
+      caciques and burnings alive of guides, &ldquo;pour encourager les autres,&rdquo;
+       without, seemingly, the least feeling that the victims were human beings
+      or subjects for human pity; anything, in short, but heathen dogs, enemies
+      of God, servants of the devil, to be used by the Christian when he needed,
+      and when not needed killed down as cumberers of the ground. But Don Guzman
+      was a most finished gentleman nevertheless; and told many a good story of
+      the Indies, and told it well; and over and above his stories, he had among
+      his baggage two books,&mdash;the one Antonio Galvano's &ldquo;Discoveries of the
+      World,&rdquo; a mine of winter evening amusement to Amyas; and the other, a
+      manuscript book, which, perhaps, it had been well for Amyas had he never
+      seen. For it was none other than a sort of rough journal which Don Guzman
+      had kept as a lad, when he went down with the Adelantado Gonzales Ximenes
+      de Casada, from Peru to the River of Amazons, to look for the golden
+      country of El Dorado, and the city of Manoa, which stands in the midst of
+      the White Lake, and equals or surpasses in glory even the palace of the
+      Inca Huaynacapac; &ldquo;all the vessels of whose house and kitchen are of gold
+      and silver, and in his wardrobe statues of gold which seemed giants, and
+      figures in proportion and bigness of all the beasts, birds, trees, and
+      herbs of the earth, and the fishes of the water; and ropes, budgets,
+      chests, and troughs of gold: yea, and a garden of pleasure in an Island
+      near Puna, where they went to recreate themselves when they would take the
+      air of the sea, which had all kind of garden herbs, flowers, and trees of
+      gold and silver of an invention and magnificence till then never seen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the greater part of this treasure (and be it remembered that these
+      wonders were hardly exaggerated, and that there were many men alive then
+      who had beheld them, as they had worse things, &ldquo;with their corporal and
+      mortal eyes&rdquo;) was hidden by the Indians when Pizarro conquered Peru and
+      slew Atahuallpa, son of Huaynacapac; at whose death, it was said, one of
+      the Inca's younger brothers fled out of Peru, and taking with him a great
+      army, vanquished all that tract which lieth between the great Rivers of
+      Amazons and Baraquan, otherwise called Maranon and Orenoque.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There he sits to this day, beside the golden lake, in the golden city,
+      which is in breadth a three days' journey, covered, he and his court, with
+      gold dust from head to foot, waiting for the fulfilment of the ancient
+      prophecy which was written in the temple of Caxamarca, where his ancestors
+      worshipped of old; that heroes shall come out of the West, and lead him
+      back across the forests to the kingdom of Peru, and restore him to the
+      glory of his forefathers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Golden phantom! so possible, so probable, to imaginations which were yet
+      reeling before the actual and veritable prodigies of Peru, Mexico, and the
+      East Indies. Golden phantom! which has cost already the lives of
+      thousands, and shall yet cost more; from Diego de Ordas, and Juan Corteso,
+      and many another, who went forth on the quest by the Andes, and by the
+      Orinoco, and by the Amazons; Antonio Sedenno, with his ghastly caravan of
+      manacled Indians, &ldquo;on whose dead carcasses the tigers being fleshed,
+      assaulted the Spaniards;&rdquo; Augustine Delgado, who &ldquo;came to a cacique, who
+      entertained him with all kindness, and gave him beside much gold and
+      slaves, three nymphs very beautiful, which bare the names of three
+      provinces, Guanba, Gotoguane, and Maiarare. To requite which manifold
+      courtesies, he carried off, not only all the gold, but all the Indians he
+      could seize, and took them in irons to Cubagua, and sold them for slaves;
+      after which, Delgado was shot in the eye by an Indian, of which hurt he
+      died;&rdquo; Pedro d'Orsua, who found the cinnamon forests of Loxas, &ldquo;whom his
+      men murdered, and afterwards beheaded Lady Anes his wife, who forsook not
+      her lord in all his travels unto death,&rdquo; and many another, who has
+      vanished with valiant comrades at his back into the green gulfs of the
+      primaeval forests, never to emerge again. Golden phantom! man-devouring,
+      whose maw is never satiate with souls of heroes; fatal to Spain, more
+      fatal still to England upon that shameful day, when the last of
+      Elizabeth's heroes shall lay down his head upon the block, nominally for
+      having believed what all around him believed likewise till they found it
+      expedient to deny it in order to curry favor with the crowned cur who
+      betrayed him, really because he alone dared to make one last protest in
+      behalf of liberty and Protestantism against the incoming night of tyranny
+      and superstition. Little thought Amyas, as he devoured the pages of that
+      manuscript, that he was laying a snare for the life of the man whom, next
+      to Drake and Grenville, he most admired on earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Don Guzman, on the other hand, seemed to have an instinct that that
+      book might be a fatal gift to his captor; for one day ere Amyas had looked
+      into it, he began questioning the Don about El Dorado. Whereon Don Guzman
+      replied with one of those smiles of his, which (as Amyas said afterwards)
+      was so abominably like a sneer, that he had often hard work to keep his
+      hands off the man&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! You have been eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, senor?
+      Well; if you have any ambition to follow many another brave captain to the
+      pit, I know no shorter or easier path than is contained in that little
+      book.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have never opened your book,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;your private manuscripts are
+      no concern of mine: but my man who recovered your baggage read part of it,
+      knowing no better; and now you are at liberty to tell me as little as you
+      like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The &ldquo;man,&rdquo; it should be said, was none other than Salvation Yeo, who had
+      attached himself by this time inseparably to Amyas, in quality of
+      body-guard: and, as was common enough in those days, had turned soldier
+      for the nonce, and taken under his patronage two or three rusty bases
+      (swivels) and falconets (four-pounders), which grinned harmlessly enough
+      from the tower top across the cheerful expanse of bog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas once asked him, how he reconciled this Irish sojourn with his vow to
+      find his little maid? Yeo shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't tell, sir, but there's something that makes me always to think of
+      you when I think of her; and that's often enough, the Lord knows. Whether
+      it is that I ben't to find the dear without your help; or whether it is
+      your pleasant face puts me in mind of hers; or what, I can't tell; but
+      don't you part me from you, sir, for I'm like Ruth, and where you lodge I
+      lodge; and where you go I go; and where you die&mdash;though I shall die
+      many a year first&mdash;there I'll die, I hope and trust; for I can't
+      abear you out of my sight; and that's the truth thereof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Yeo remained with Amyas, while Cary went elsewhere with Sir Warham St.
+      Leger, and the two friends met seldom for many months; so that Amyas's
+      only companion was Don Guzman, who, as he grew more familiar, and more
+      careless about what he said and did in his captor's presence, often
+      puzzled and scandalized him by his waywardness. Fits of deep melancholy
+      alternated with bursts of Spanish boastfulness, utterly astonishing to the
+      modest and sober-minded Englishman, who would often have fancied him
+      inspired by usquebaugh, had he not had ocular proof of his extreme
+      abstemiousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miserable?&rdquo; said he, one night in one of these fits. &ldquo;And have I not a
+      right to be miserable? Why should I not curse the virgin and all the
+      saints, and die? I have not a friend, not a ducat on earth; not even a
+      sword&mdash;hell and the furies! It was my all: the only bequest I ever
+      had from my father, and I lived by it and earned by it. Two years ago I
+      had as pretty a sum of gold as cavalier could wish&mdash;and now!&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is become of it, then? I cannot hear that our men plundered you of
+      any.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your men? No, senor! What fifty men dared not have done, one woman did! a
+      painted, patched, fucused, periwigged, bolstered, Charybdis, cannibal,
+      Megaera, Lamia! Why did I ever go near that cursed Naples, the common
+      sewer of Europe? whose women, I believe, would be swallowed up by Vesuvius
+      to-morrow, if it were not that Belphegor is afraid of their making the pit
+      itself too hot to hold him. Well, sir, she had all of mine and more; and
+      when all was gone in wine and dice, woodcocks' brains and ortolans'
+      tongues, I met the witch walking with another man. I had a sword and a
+      dagger; I gave him the first (though the dog fought well enough, to give
+      him his due), and her the second; left them lying across each other, and
+      fled for my life,&mdash;and here I am! after twenty years of fighting,
+      from the Levant to the Orellana&mdash;for I began ere I had a hair on my
+      chin&mdash;and this is the end!&mdash;No, it is not! I'll have that El
+      Dorado yet! the Adelantado made Berreo, when he gave him his daughter,
+      swear that he would hunt for it, through life and death.&mdash;We'll see
+      who finds it first, he or I. He's a bungler; Orsua was a bungler&mdash;Pooh!
+      Cortes and Pizarro? we'll see whether there are not as good Castilians as
+      they left still. I can do it, senor. I know a track, a plan; over the
+      Llanos is the road; and I'll be Emperor of Manoa yet&mdash;possess the
+      jewels of all the Incas; and gold, gold! Pizarro was a beggar to what I
+      will be!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Conceive, sir, he broke forth during another of these peacock fits, as
+      Amyas and he were riding along the hill-side; &ldquo;conceive! with forty chosen
+      cavaliers (what need of more?) I present myself before the golden king,
+      trembling amid his myriad guards at the new miracle of the mailed centaurs
+      of the West; and without dismounting, I approach his throne, lift the
+      crucifix which hangs around my neck, and pressing it to my lips, present
+      it for the adoration of the idolater, and give him his alternative; that
+      which Gayferos and the Cid, my ancestors, offered the Soldan and the Moor&mdash;baptism
+      or death! He hesitates; perhaps smiles scornfully upon my little band; I
+      answer him by deeds, as Don Ferdinando, my illustrious grandfather,
+      answered Atahuallpa at Peru, in sight of all his court and camp.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With your lance-point, as Gayferos did the Soldan?&rdquo; asked Amyas, amused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir; persuasion first, for the salvation of a soul is at stake. Not
+      with the lance-point, but the spur, sir, thus!&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And striking his heels into his horse's flanks, he darted off at full
+      speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Spanish traitor!&rdquo; shouted Yeo. &ldquo;He's going to escape! Shall we shoot,
+      sir? Shall we shoot?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For Heaven's sake, no!&rdquo; said Amyas, looking somewhat blank, nevertheless,
+      for he much doubted whether the whole was not a ruse on the part of the
+      Spaniard, and he knew how impossible it was for his fifteen stone of flesh
+      to give chase to the Spaniard's twelve. But he was soon reassured; the
+      Spaniard wheeled round towards him, and began to put the rough hackney
+      through all the paces of the manege with a grace and skill which won
+      applause from the beholders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thus!&rdquo; he shouted, waving his hand to Amyas, between his curvets and
+      caracoles, &ldquo;did my illustrious grandfather exhibit to the Paynim emperor
+      the prowess of a Castilian cavalier! Thus!&mdash;and thus!&mdash;and thus,
+      at last, he dashed up to his very feet, as I to yours, and bespattering
+      that unbaptized visage with his Christian bridle foam, pulled up his
+      charger on his haunches, thus!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And (as was to be expected from a blown Irish garron on a peaty Irish
+      hill-side) down went the hapless hackney on his tail, away went his heels
+      a yard in front of him, and ere Don Guzman could &ldquo;avoid his selle,&rdquo; horse
+      and man rolled over into neighboring bog-hole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After pride comes a fall,&rdquo; quoth Yeo with unmoved visage, as he lugged
+      him out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what would you do with the emperor at last?&rdquo; asked Amyas when the Don
+      had been scrubbed somewhat clean with a bunch of rushes. &ldquo;Kill him, as
+      your grandfather did Atahuallpa?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My grandfather,&rdquo; answered the Spaniard, indignantly, &ldquo;was one of those
+      who, to their eternal honor, protested to the last against that most cruel
+      and unknightly massacre. He could be terrible to the heathen; but he kept
+      his plighted word, sir, and taught me to keep mine, as you have seen
+      to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have, senor,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;You might have given us the slip easily
+      enough just now, and did not. Pardon me, if I have offended you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spaniard (who, after all, was cross principally with himself and the
+      &ldquo;unlucky mare's son,&rdquo; as the old romances have it, which had played him so
+      scurvy a trick) was all smiles again forthwith; and Amyas, as they chatted
+      on, could not help asking him next&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder why you are so frank about your own intentions to an enemy like
+      me, who will surely forestall you if he can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir, a Spaniard needs no concealment, and fears no rivalry. He is the
+      soldier of the Cross, and in it he conquers, like Constantine of old. Not
+      that you English are not very heroes; but you have not, sir, and you
+      cannot have, who have forsworn our Lady and the choir of saints, the same
+      divine protection, the same celestial mission, which enables the Catholic
+      cavalier single-handed to chase a thousand Paynims.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Don Guzman crossed himself devoutly, and muttered half-a-dozen Ave
+      Marias in succession, while Amyas rode silently by his side, utterly
+      puzzled at this strange compound of shrewdness with fanaticism, of perfect
+      high-breeding with a boastfulness which in an Englishman would have been
+      the sure mark of vulgarity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last came a letter from Sir Richard Grenville, complimenting Amyas on
+      his success and promotion, bearing a long and courtly message to Don
+      Guzman (whom Grenville had known when he was in the Mediterranean, at the
+      battle of Lepanto), and offering to receive him as his own guest at
+      Bideford, till his ransom should arrive; a proposition which the Spaniard
+      (who of course was getting sufficiently tired of the Irish bogs) could not
+      but gladly accept; and one of Winter's ships, returning to England in the
+      spring of 1581, delivered duly at the quay of Bideford the body of Don
+      Guzman Maria Magdalena. Raleigh, after forming for that summer one of the
+      triumvirate by which Munster was governed after Ormond's departure, at
+      last got his wish and departed for England and the Court; and Amyas was
+      left alone with the snipes and yellow mantles for two more weary years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW THE MAYOR OF BIDEFORD BAITED HIS HOOK WITH HIS OWN FLESH
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;And therewith he blent, and cried ha!
+     As though he had been stricken to the harte.&rdquo;
+
+                              Palamon and Arcite.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      So it befell to Chaucer's knight in prison; and so it befell also to Don
+      Guzman; and it befell on this wise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He settled down quietly enough at Bideford on his parole, in better
+      quarters than he had occupied for many a day, and took things as they
+      came, like a true soldier of fortune; till, after he had been with
+      Grenville hardly a month, old Salterne the Mayor came to supper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Don Guzman, however much he might be puzzled at first at our strange
+      English ways of asking burghers and such low-bred folk to eat and drink
+      above the salt, in the company of noble persons, was quite gentleman
+      enough to know that Richard Grenville was gentleman enough to do only what
+      was correct, and according to the customs and proprieties. So after
+      shrugging the shoulders of his spirit, he submitted to eat and drink at
+      the same board with a tradesman who sat at a desk, and made up ledgers,
+      and took apprentices; and hearing him talk with Grenville neither unwisely
+      nor in a vulgar fashion, actually before the evening was out condescended
+      to exchange words with him himself. Whereon he found him a very prudent
+      and courteous person, quite aware of the Spaniard's superior rank, and
+      making him feel in every sentence that he was aware thereof; and yet
+      holding his own opinion, and asserting his own rights as a wise elder in a
+      fashion which the Spaniard had only seen before among the merchant princes
+      of Genoa and Venice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of supper, Salterne asked Grenville to do his humble roof the
+      honor, etc. etc., of supping with him the next evening, and then turning
+      to the Don, said quite frankly, that he knew how great a condescension it
+      would be on the part of a nobleman of Spain to sit at the board of a
+      simple merchant: but that if the Spaniard deigned to do him such a favor,
+      he would find that the cheer was fit enough for any rank, whatsoever the
+      company might be; which invitation Don Guzman, being on the whole glad
+      enough of anything to amuse him, graciously condescended to accept, and
+      gained thereby an excellent supper, and, if he had chosen to drink it,
+      much good wine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now Mr. Salterne was, of course, as a wise merchant, as ready as any man
+      for an adventure to foreign parts, as was afterwards proved by his great
+      exertions in the settlement of Virginia; and he was, therefore, equally
+      ready to rack the brains of any guest whom he suspected of knowing
+      anything concerning strange lands; and so he thought no shame, first to
+      try to loose his guest's tongue by much good sack, and next, to ask him
+      prudent and well-concocted questions concerning the Spanish Main, Peru,
+      the Moluccas, China, the Indies, and all parts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first of which schemes failed; for the Spaniard was as abstemious as
+      any monk, and drank little but water; the second succeeded not over well,
+      for the Spaniard was as cunning as any fox, and answered little but wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the midst of which tongue-fence in came the Rose of Torridge, looking
+      as beautiful as usual; and hearing what they were upon, added, artlessly
+      enough, her questions to her father's: to her Don Guzman could not but
+      answer; and without revealing any very important commercial secrets, gave
+      his host and his host's daughter a very amusing evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now little Eros, though spirits like Frank Leigh's may choose to call him
+      (as, perhaps, he really is to them) the eldest of the gods, and the son of
+      Jove and Venus, yet is reported by other equally good authorities, as
+      Burton has set forth in his &ldquo;Anatomy of Melancholy,&rdquo; to be after all only
+      the child of idleness and fulness of bread. To which scandalous calumny
+      the thoughts of Don Guzman's heart gave at least a certain color; for he
+      being idle (as captives needs must be), and also full of bread (for Sir
+      Richard kept a very good table), had already looked round for mere
+      amusement's sake after some one with whom to fall in love. Lady Grenville,
+      as nearest, was, I blush to say, thought of first; but the Spaniard was a
+      man of honor, and Sir Richard his host; so he put away from his mind (with
+      a self-denial on which he plumed himself much) the pleasure of a chase
+      equally exciting to his pride and his love of danger. As for the
+      sinfulness of the said chase, he of course thought no more of that than
+      other Southern Europeans did then, or than (I blush again to have to say
+      it) the English did afterwards in the days of the Stuarts. Nevertheless,
+      he had put Lady Grenville out of his mind; and so left room to take Rose
+      Salterne into it, not with any distinct purpose of wronging her: but, as I
+      said before, half to amuse himself, and half, too, because he could not
+      help it. For there was an innocent freshness about the Rose of Torridge,
+      fond as she was of being admired, which was new to him and most
+      attractive. &ldquo;The train of the peacock,&rdquo; as he said to himself, &ldquo;and yet
+      the heart of the dove,&rdquo; made so charming a combination, that if he could
+      have persuaded her to love no one but him, perhaps he might become fool
+      enough to love no one but her. And at that thought he was seized with a
+      very panic of prudence, and resolved to keep out of her way; and yet the
+      days ran slowly, and Lady Grenville when at home was stupid enough to talk
+      and think about nothing but her husband; and when she went to Stow, and
+      left the Don alone in one corner of the great house at Bideford, what
+      could he do but lounge down to the butt-gardens to show off his fine black
+      cloak and fine black feather, see the shooting, have a game or two of
+      rackets with the youngsters, a game or two of bowls with the elders, and
+      get himself invited home to supper by Mr. Salterne?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And there, of course, he had it all his own way, and ruled the roast
+      (which he was fond enough of doing) right royally, not only on account of
+      his rank, but because he had something to say worth hearing, as a
+      travelled man. For those times were the day-dawn of English commerce; and
+      not a merchant in Bideford, or in all England, but had his imagination all
+      on fire with projects of discoveries, companies, privileges, patents, and
+      settlements; with gallant rivalry of the brave adventures of Sir Edward
+      Osborne and his new London Company of Turkey Merchants; with the
+      privileges just granted by the Sultan Murad Khan to the English; with the
+      worthy Levant voyages of Roger Bodenham in the great bark Aucher, and of
+      John Fox, and Lawrence Aldersey, and John Rule; and with hopes from the
+      vast door for Mediterranean trade, which the crushing of the Venetian
+      power at Famagusta in Cyprus, and the alliance made between Elizabeth and
+      the Grand Turk, had just thrown open. So not a word could fall from the
+      Spaniard about the Mediterranean but took root at once in right fertile
+      soil. Besides, Master Edmund Hogan had been on a successful embassy to the
+      Emperor of Morocco; John Hawkins and George Fenner had been to Guinea (and
+      with the latter Mr. Walter Wren, a Bideford man), and had traded there for
+      musk and civet, gold and grain; and African news was becoming almost as
+      valuable as West Indian. Moreover, but two months before had gone from
+      London Captain Hare in the bark Minion, for Brazil, and a company of
+      adventurers with him, with Sheffield hardware, and &ldquo;Devonshire and
+      Northern kersies,&rdquo; hollands and &ldquo;Manchester cottons,&rdquo; for there was a
+      great opening for English goods by the help of one John Whithall, who had
+      married a Spanish heiress, and had an ingenio and slaves in Santos. (Don't
+      smile, reader, or despise the day of small things, and those who sowed the
+      seed whereof you reap the mighty harvest.) In the meanwhile, Drake had
+      proved not merely the possibility of plundering the American coasts, but
+      of establishing an East Indian trade; Frobisher and Davis, worthy
+      forefathers of our Parrys and Franklins, had begun to bore their way
+      upward through the Northern ice, in search of a passage to China which
+      should avoid the dangers of the Spanish seas; and Anthony Jenkinson, not
+      the least of English travellers, had, in six-and-twenty years of travel in
+      behalf of the Muscovite Company, penetrated into not merely Russia and the
+      Levant, but Persia and Armenia, Bokhara, Tartary, Siberia, and those waste
+      Arctic shores where, thirty years before, the brave Sir Hugh Willoughby,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+          &ldquo;In Arzina caught,
+     Perished with all his crew.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Everywhere English commerce, under the genial sunshine of Elizabeth's wise
+      rule, was spreading and taking root; and as Don Guzman talked with his new
+      friends, he soon saw (for he was shrewd enough) that they belonged to a
+      race which must be exterminated if Spain intended to become (as she did
+      intend) the mistress of the world; and that it was not enough for Spain to
+      have seized in the Pope's name the whole new world, and claimed the
+      exclusive right to sail the seas of America; not enough to have crushed
+      the Hollanders; not enough to have degraded the Venetians into her
+      bankers, and the Genoese into her mercenaries; not enough to have
+      incorporated into herself, with the kingdom of Portugal, the whole East
+      Indian trade of Portugal, while these fierce islanders remained to assert,
+      with cunning policy and texts of Scripture, and, if they failed, with
+      sharp shot and cold steel, free seas and free trade for all the nations
+      upon earth. He saw it, and his countrymen saw it too: and therefore the
+      Spanish Armada came: but of that hereafter. And Don Guzman knew also, by
+      hard experience, that these same islanders, who sat in Salterne's parlor,
+      talking broad Devon through their noses, were no mere counters of money
+      and hucksters of goods: but men who, though they thoroughly hated
+      fighting, and loved making money instead, could fight, upon occasion,
+      after a very dogged and terrible fashion, as well as the bluest blood in
+      Spain; and who sent out their merchant ships armed up to the teeth, and
+      filled with men who had been trained from childhood to use those arms, and
+      had orders to use them without mercy if either Spaniard, Portugal, or
+      other created being dared to stop their money-making. And one evening he
+      waxed quite mad, when, after having civilly enough hinted that if
+      Englishmen came where they had no right to come, they might find
+      themselves sent back again, he was answered by a volley of&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll see that, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Depends on who says 'No right.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You found might right,&rdquo; said another, &ldquo;when you claimed the Indian seas;
+      we may find right might when we try them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Try them, then, gentlemen, by all means, if it shall so please your
+      worships; and find the sacred flag of Spain as invincible as ever was the
+      Roman eagle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have, sir. Did you ever hear of Francis Drake?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or of George Fenner and the Portugals at the Azores, one against seven?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or of John Hawkins, at St. Juan d'Ulloa?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are insolent burghers,&rdquo; said Don Guzman, and rose to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said old Salterne, &ldquo;as you say, we are burghers and plain men, and
+      some of us have forgotten ourselves a little, perhaps; we must beg you to
+      forgive our want of manners, and to put it down to the strength of my
+      wine; for insolent we never meant to be, especially to a noble gentleman
+      and a foreigner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Don would not be pacified; and walked out, calling himself an ass
+      and a blinkard for having demeaned himself to such a company, forgetting
+      that he had brought it on himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Salterne (prompted by the great devil Mammon) came up to him next day, and
+      begged pardon again; promising, moreover, that none of those who had been
+      so rude should be henceforth asked to meet him, if he would deign to honor
+      his house once more. And the Don actually was appeased, and went there the
+      very next evening, sneering at himself the whole time for going.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fool that I am! that girl has bewitched me, I believe. Go I must, and eat
+      my share of dirt, for her sake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So he went; and, cunningly enough, hinted to old Salterne that he had
+      taken such a fancy to him, and felt so bound by his courtesy and
+      hospitality, that he might not object to tell him things which he would
+      not mention to every one; for that the Spaniards were not jealous of
+      single traders, but of any general attempt to deprive them of their
+      hard-earned wealth: that, however, in the meanwhile, there were plenty of
+      opportunities for one man here and there to enrich himself, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Salterne, shrewd as he was, had his weak point, and the Spaniard had
+      touched it; and delighted at this opportunity of learning the mysteries of
+      the Spanish monopoly, he often actually set Rose on to draw out the Don,
+      without a fear (so blind does money make men) lest she might be herself
+      drawn in. For, first, he held it as impossible that she would think of
+      marrying a Popish Spaniard as of marrying the man in the moon; and, next,
+      as impossible that he would think of marrying a burgher's daughter as of
+      marrying a negress; and trusted that the religion of the one, and the
+      family pride of the other, would keep them as separate as beings of two
+      different species. And as for love without marriage, if such a possibility
+      ever crossed him, the thought was rendered absurd; on Rose's part by her
+      virtue, on which the old roan (and rightly) would have staked every
+      farthing he had on earth; and on the Don's part, by a certain human
+      fondness for the continuity of the carotid artery and the parts adjoining,
+      for which (and that not altogether justly, seeing that Don Guzman cared as
+      little for his own life as he did for his neighbor's) Mr. Salterne gave
+      him credit. And so it came to pass, that for weeks and months the
+      merchant's house was the Don's favorite haunt, and he saw the Rose of
+      Torridge daily, and the Rose of Torridge heard him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And as for her, poor child, she had never seen such a man. He had, or
+      seemed to have, all the high-bred grace of Frank, and yet he was cast in a
+      manlier mould; he had just enough of his nation's proud self-assertion to
+      make a woman bow before him as before a superior, and yet tact enough to
+      let it very seldom degenerate into that boastfulness of which the
+      Spaniards were then so often and so justly accused. He had marvels to tell
+      by flood and field as many and more than Amyas; and he told them with a
+      grace and an eloquence of which modest, simple, old Amyas possessed
+      nothing. Besides, he was on the spot, and the Leighs were not, nor indeed
+      were any of her old lovers; and what could she do but amuse herself with
+      the only person who came to hand?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So thought, in time, more ladies than she; for the country, the north of
+      it at least, was all but bare just then of young gallants, what with the
+      Netherland wars and the Irish wars; and the Spaniard became soon welcome
+      at every house for many a mile round, and made use of his welcome so
+      freely, and received so much unwonted attention from fair young dames,
+      that his head might have been a little turned, and Rose Salterne have
+      thereby escaped, had not Sir Richard delicately given him to understand
+      that in spite of the free and easy manners of English ladies, brothers
+      were just as jealous, and ladies' honors at least as inexpugnable, as in
+      the land of demureness and duennas. Don Guzman took the hint well enough,
+      and kept on good terms with the country gentlemen as with their daughters;
+      and to tell the truth, the cunning soldier of fortune found his account in
+      being intimate with all the ladies he could, in order to prevent old
+      Salterne from fancying that he had any peculiar predilection for Mistress
+      Rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, Mr. Salterne's parlor being nearest to him, still remained
+      his most common haunt; where, while he discoursed for hours about
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Antres vast and deserts idle,
+     And of the cannibals that each other eat,
+     Of Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
+     Do grow beneath their shoulders,&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      to the boundless satisfaction of poor Rose's fancy, he took care to season
+      his discourse with scraps of mercantile information, which kept the old
+      merchant always expectant and hankering for more, and made it worth his
+      while to ask the Spaniard in again and again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And his stories, certainly, were worth hearing. He seemed to have been
+      everywhere, and to have seen everything: born in Peru, and sent home to
+      Spain at ten years old; brought up in Italy; a soldier in the Levant; an
+      adventurer to the East Indies; again in America, first in the islands, and
+      then in Mexico. Then back again to Spain, and thence to Rome, and thence
+      to Ireland. Shipwrecked; captive among savages; looking down the craters
+      of volcanoes; hanging about all the courts of Europe; fighting Turks,
+      Indians, lions, elephants, alligators, and what not? At five-and-thirty he
+      had seen enough for three lives, and knew how to make the best of what he
+      had seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had shared, as a lad, in the horrors of the memorable siege of
+      Famagusta, and had escaped, he hardly knew himself how, from the hands of
+      the victorious Turks, and from the certainty (if he escaped being flayed
+      alive or impaled, as most of the captive officers were) of ending his life
+      as a Janissary at the Sultan's court. He had been at the Battle of the
+      Three Kings; had seen Stukely borne down by a hundred lances, unconquered
+      even in death; and had held upon his knee the head of the dying King of
+      Portugal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, as he said to Rose one evening, what had he left on earth, but a
+      heart trampled as hard as the pavement? Whom had he to love? Who loved
+      him? He had nothing for which to live but fame: and even that was denied
+      to him, a prisoner in a foreign land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had he no kindred, then? asked pitying Rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My two sisters are in a convent;&mdash;they had neither money nor beauty;
+      so they are dead to me. My brother is a Jesuit, so he is dead to me. My
+      father fell by the hands of Indians in Mexico; my mother, a penniless
+      widow, is companion, duenna&mdash;whatsoever they may choose to call it&mdash;carrying
+      fans and lapdogs for some princess or other there in Seville, of no better
+      blood than herself; and I&mdash;devil! I have lost even my sword&mdash;and
+      so fares the house of De Soto.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Don Guzman, of course, intended to be pitied, and pitied he was
+      accordingly. And then he would turn the conversation, and begin telling
+      Italian stories, after the Italian fashion, according to his auditory: the
+      pathetic ones when Rose was present, the racy ones when she was absent; so
+      that Rose had wept over the sorrows of Juliet and Desdemona, and over many
+      another moving tale, long before they were ever enacted on an English
+      stage, and the ribs of the Bideford worthies had shaken to many a jest
+      which Cinthio and Bandello's ghosts must come and make for themselves over
+      again if they wish them to be remembered, for I shall lend them no shove
+      toward immortality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so on, and so on. What need of more words? Before a year was out, Rose
+      Salterne was far more in love with Don Guzman than he with her; and both
+      suspected each other's mind, though neither hinted at the truth; she from
+      fear, and he, to tell the truth, from sheer Spanish pride of blood. For he
+      soon began to find out that he must compromise that blood by marrying the
+      heretic burgher's daughter, or all his labor would be thrown away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had seen with much astonishment, and then practised with much pleasure,
+      that graceful old English fashion of saluting every lady on the cheek at
+      meeting, which (like the old Dutch fashion of asking young ladies out to
+      feasts without their mothers) used to give such cause of brutal calumny
+      and scandal to the coarse minds of Romish visitors from the Continent; and
+      he had seen, too, fuming with jealous rage, more than one Bideford
+      burgher, redolent of onions, profane in that way the velvet cheek of Rose
+      Salterne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, one day, he offered his salute in like wise; but he did it when she
+      was alone; for something within (perhaps a guilty conscience) whispered
+      that it might be hardly politic to make the proffer in her father's
+      presence: however, to his astonishment, he received a prompt though quiet
+      rebuff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir; you should know that my cheek is not for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; said he, stifling his anger, &ldquo;it seems free enough to every
+      counter-jumper in the town!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Was it love, or simple innocence, which made her answer apologetically?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True, Don Guzman; but they are my equals.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a nobleman, sir; and should recollect that you are one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said he, forcing a sneer, &ldquo;it is a strange taste to prefer the
+      shopkeeper!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prefer?&rdquo; said she, forcing a laugh in her turn; &ldquo;it is a mere form among
+      us. They are nothing to me, I can tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I, then, less than nothing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose turned very red; but she had nerve to answer&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why should you be anything to me? You have condescended too much,
+      sir, already to us, in giving us many a&mdash;many a pleasant evening. You
+      must condescend no further. You wrong yourself, sir, and me too. No, sir;
+      not a step nearer!&mdash;I will not! A salute between equals means
+      nothing: but between you and me&mdash;I vow, sir, if you do not leave me
+      this moment, I will complain to my father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do so, madam! I care as little for your father's anger, as you for my
+      misery.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cruel!&rdquo; cried Rose, trembling from head to foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I love you, madam!&rdquo; cried he, throwing himself at her feet. &ldquo;I adore you!
+      Never mention differences of rank to me more; for I have forgotten them;
+      forgotten all but love, all but you, madam! My light, my lodestar, my
+      princess, my goddess! You see where my pride is gone; remember I plead as
+      a suppliant, a beggar&mdash;though one who may be one day a prince, a
+      king! ay, and a prince now, a very Lucifer of pride to all except to you;
+      to you a wretch who grovels at your feet, and cries, 'Have mercy on me, on
+      my loneliness, my homelessness, my friendlessness.' Ah, Rose (madam I
+      should have said, forgive the madness of my passion), you know not the
+      heart which you break. Cold Northerns, you little dream how a Spaniard can
+      love. Love? Worship, rather; as I worship you, madam; as I bless the
+      captivity which brought me the sight of you, and the ruin which first made
+      me rich. Is it possible, saints and Virgin! do my own tears deceive my
+      eyes, or are there tears, too, in those radiant orbs?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go, sir!&rdquo; cried poor Rose, recovering herself suddenly; &ldquo;and let me never
+      see you more.&rdquo; And, as a last chance for life, she darted out of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your slave obeys you, madam, and kisses your hands and feet forever and a
+      day,&rdquo; said the cunning Spaniard, and drawing himself up, walked serenely
+      out of the house; while she, poor fool, peeped after him out of her window
+      upstairs, and her heart sank within her as she watched his jaunty and
+      careless air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How much of that rhapsody of his was honest, how much premeditated, I
+      cannot tell: though she, poor child, began to fancy that it was all a set
+      speech, when she found that he had really taken her at her word, and set
+      foot no more within her father's house. So she reproached herself for the
+      cruelest of women; settled, that if he died, she should be his murderess;
+      watched for him to pass at the window, in hopes that he might look up, and
+      then hid herself in terror the moment he appeared round the corner; and so
+      forth, and so forth:&mdash;one love-making is very like another, and has
+      been so, I suppose, since that first blessed marriage in Paradise, when
+      Adam and Eve made no love at all, but found it ready-made for them from
+      heaven; and really it is fiddling while Rome is burning, to spend more
+      pages over the sorrows of poor little Rose Salterne, while the destinies
+      of Europe are hanging on the marriage between Elizabeth and Anjou: and Sir
+      Humphrey Gilbert is stirring heaven and earth, and Devonshire, of course,
+      as the most important portion of the said earth, to carry out his dormant
+      patent, which will give to England in due time (we are not jesting now)
+      Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Canada, and the Northern States; and to
+      Humphrey Gilbert himself something better than a new world, namely another
+      world, and a crown of glory therein which never fades away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW EUSTACE LEIGH MET THE POPE'S LEGATE
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Misguided, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
+     Thou see'st to be too busy is some danger.&rdquo;
+
+                                        Hamlet.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It is the spring of 1582-3. The gray March skies are curdling hard and
+      high above black mountain peaks. The keen March wind is sweeping harsh and
+      dry across a dreary sheet of bog, still red and yellow with the stains of
+      winter frost. One brown knoll alone breaks the waste, and on it a few
+      leafless wind-clipt oaks stretch their moss-grown arms, like giant hairy
+      spiders, above a desolate pool which crisps and shivers in the biting
+      breeze, while from beside its brink rises a mournful cry, and sweeps down,
+      faint and fitful, amid the howling of the wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Along the brink of the bog, picking their road among crumbling rocks and
+      green spongy springs, a company of English soldiers are pushing fast, clad
+      cap-a-pie in helmet and quilted jerkin, with arquebus on shoulder, and
+      pikes trailing behind them; stern steadfast men, who, two years since,
+      were working the guns at Smerwick fort, and have since then seen many a
+      bloody fray, and shall see more before they die. Two captains ride before
+      them on shaggy ponies, the taller in armor, stained and rusted with many a
+      storm and fray, the other in brilliant inlaid cuirass and helmet, gaudy
+      sash and plume, and sword hilt glittering with gold, a quaint contrast
+      enough to the meager garron which carries him and his finery. Beside them,
+      secured by a cord which a pikeman has fastened to his own wrist, trots a
+      bare-legged Irish kerne, whose only clothing is his ragged yellow mantle,
+      and the unkempt &ldquo;glib&rdquo; of hair, through which his eyes peer out, right and
+      left, in mingled fear and sullenness. He is the guide of the company, in
+      their hunt after the rebel Baltinglas; and woe to him if he play them
+      false.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A pleasant country, truly, Captain Raleigh,&rdquo; says the dingy officer to
+      the gay one. &ldquo;I wonder how, having once escaped from it to Whitehall, you
+      have the courage to come back and spoil that gay suit with bog-water and
+      mud.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A very pleasant country, my friend Amyas; what you say in jest, I say in
+      earnest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hillo! Our tastes have changed places. I am sick of it already, as you
+      foretold. Would Heaven that I could hear of some adventure Westward-ho!
+      and find these big bones swinging in a hammock once more. Pray what has
+      made you so suddenly in love with bog and rock, that you come back to
+      tramp them with us? I thought you had spied out the nakedness of the land
+      long ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bog and rock? Nakedness of the land? What is needed here but prudence and
+      skill, justice and law? This soil, see, is fat enough, if men were here to
+      till it. These rocks&mdash;who knows what minerals they may hold? I hear
+      of gold and jewels found already in divers parts; and Daniel, my brother
+      Humphrey's German assayer, assures me that these rocks are of the very
+      same kind as those which yield the silver in Peru. Tut, man! if her
+      gracious majesty would but bestow on me some few square miles of this same
+      wilderness, in seven years' time I would make it blossom like the rose, by
+      God's good help.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph! I should be more inclined to stay here, then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you shall, and be my agent, if you will, to get in my mine-rents and
+      my corn-rents, and my fishery-rents, eh? Could you keep accounts, old
+      knight of the bear's-paw?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well enough for such short reckonings as yours would be, on the profit
+      side at least. No, no&mdash;I'd sooner carry lime all my days from Cauldy
+      to Bideford, than pass another twelve-month in the land of Ire, among the
+      children of wrath. There is a curse upon the face of the earth, I
+      believe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no curse upon it, save the old one of man's sin&mdash;'Thorns
+      and thistles it shall bring forth to thee.' But if you root up the thorns
+      and thistles, Amyas, I know no fiend who can prevent your growing wheat
+      instead; and if you till the ground like a man, you plough and barrow away
+      nature's curse, and other fables of the schoolmen beside,&rdquo; added he, in
+      that daring fashion which afterwards obtained for him (and never did good
+      Christian less deserve it) the imputation of atheism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is sword and bullet, I think, that are needed here, before plough and
+      harrow, to clear away some of the curse. Until a few more of these Irish
+      lords are gone where the Desmonds are, there is no peace for Ireland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph! not so far wrong, I fear. And yet&mdash;Irish lords? These very
+      traitors are better English blood than we who hunt them down. When Yeo
+      here slew the Desmond the other day, he no more let out a drop of Irish
+      blood, than if he had slain the lord deputy himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His blood be on his own head,&rdquo; said Yeo, &ldquo;He looked as wild a savage as
+      the worst of them, more shame to him; and the ancient here had nigh cut
+      off his arm before he told us who he was: and then, your worship, having a
+      price upon his head, and like to bleed to death too&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enough, enough, good fellow,&rdquo; said Raleigh. &ldquo;Thou hast done what was
+      given thee to do. Strange, Amyas, is it not? Noble Normans sunk into
+      savages&mdash;Hibernis ipsis hiberniores! Is there some uncivilizing venom
+      in the air?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some venom, at least, which makes English men traitors. But the Irish
+      themselves are well enough, if their tyrants would let them be. See now,
+      what more faithful liegeman has her majesty than the Inchiquin, who, they
+      say, is Prince of Themond, and should be king of all Ireland, if every man
+      had his right?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't talk of rights in the land of wrongs, man. But the Inchiquin knows
+      well that the true Irish Esau has no worse enemy than his supplanter, the
+      Norman Jacob. And yet, Amyas are even these men worse than we might be, if
+      we had been bred up masters over the bodies and souls of men, in some
+      remote land where law and order had never come? Look at this Desmond,
+      brought up a savage among savages, a Papist among Papists, a despot among
+      slaves; a thousand easy maidens deeming it honor to serve his pleasure, a
+      thousand wild ruffians deeming it piety to fulfil his revenge: and let him
+      that is without sin among us cast the first stone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; went on Raleigh to himself, as the conversation dropped. &ldquo;What hadst
+      thou been, Raleigh, hadst thou been that Desmond whose lands thou now
+      desirest? What wilt thou be when thou hast them? Will thy children sink
+      downwards, as these noble barons sank? Will the genius of tyranny and
+      falsehood find soil within thy heart to grow and ripen fruit? What
+      guarantee hast thou for doing better here than those who went before thee?
+      And yet, cannot I do justice and love mercy? Can I not establish
+      plantations, build and sow, and make the desert valleys laugh with corn?
+      Shall I not have my Spenser with me, to fill me with all noble thoughts,
+      and raise my soul to his heroic pitch? Is not this true knight-errantry,
+      to redeem to peace and use, and to the glory of that glorious queen whom
+      God has given to me, a generous soil and a more generous race? Trustful
+      and tenderhearted they are&mdash;none more; and if they be fickle and
+      passionate, will not that very softness of temper, which makes them so
+      easily led to evil, make them as easy to be led towards good? Yes&mdash;here,
+      away from courts, among a people who should bless me as their benefactor
+      and deliverer&mdash;what golden days might be mine! And yet&mdash;is this
+      but another angel's mask from that same cunning fiend ambition's stage?
+      And will my house be indeed the house of God, the foundations of which are
+      loyalty, and its bulwarks righteousness, and not the house of fame, whose
+      walls are of the soap-bubble, and its floor a sea of glass mingled with
+      fire? I would be good and great&mdash;When will the day come when I shall
+      be content to be good, and yet not great, like this same simple Leigh,
+      toiling on by my side to do his duty, with no more thought for the morrow
+      than the birds of God? Greatness? I have tasted that cup within the last
+      twelve months; do I not know that it is sweet in the mouth, but bitter in
+      the belly? Greatness? And was not Essex great, and John of Austria great,
+      and Desmond great, whose race, but three short years ago, had stood for
+      ages higher than I shall ever hope to climb&mdash;castles, and lands, and
+      slaves by thousands, and five hundred gentlemen of his name, who had vowed
+      to forswear God before they forswore him and well have they kept their
+      vow! And now, dead in a turf-hovel, like a coney in a burrow! Leigh, what
+      noise was that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An Irish howl, I fancied: but it came from off the bog; it may be only a
+      plover's cry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something not quite right, sir captain, to my mind,&rdquo; said the ancient.
+      &ldquo;They have ugly stories here of pucks and banshees, and what not of
+      ghosts. There it was again, wailing just like a woman. They say the
+      banshee cried all night before Desmond was slain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps, then, this one may be crying for Baltinglas; for his turn is
+      likely to come next&mdash;not that I believe in such old wives' tales.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shamus, my man,&rdquo; said Amyas to the guide, &ldquo;do you hear that cry in the
+      bog?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The guide put on the most stolid of faces, and answered in broken English&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shamus hear naught. Perhaps&mdash;what you call him?&mdash;fishing in ta
+      pool.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An otter, he means, and I believe he is right. Stay, no! Did you not hear
+      it then, Shamus? It was a woman's voice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shamus is shick in his ears ever since Christmas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shamus will go after Desmond if he lies,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;Ancient, we had
+      better send a few men to see what it is; there may be a poor soul taken by
+      robbers, or perhaps starving to death, as I have seen many a one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I too, poor wretches; and by no fault of their own or ours either:
+      but if their lords will fall to quarrelling, and then drive each other's
+      cattle, and waste each other's lands, sir, you know&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know,&rdquo; said Amyas, impatiently; &ldquo;why dost not take the men, and go?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cry you mercy, noble captain, but&mdash;I fear nothing born of woman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what of that?&rdquo; said Amyas, with a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But these pucks, sir. The wild Irish do say that they haunt the pools;
+      and they do no manner of harm, sir, when you are coming up to them; but
+      when you are past, sir, they jump on your back like to apes, sir,&mdash;and
+      who can tackle that manner of fiend?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, then, by thine own showing, ancient,&rdquo; said Raleigh, &ldquo;thou may'st go
+      and see all safely enough, and then if the puck jumps on thee as thou
+      comest back, just run in with him here, and I'll buy him of thee for a
+      noble; or thou may'st keep him in a cage, and make money in London by
+      showing him for a monster.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good heavens forefend, Captain Raleigh! but you talk rashly! But if I
+      must, Captain Leigh&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+           'Where duty calls
+            To brazen walls,
+     How base the slave who flinches'
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Lads, who'll follow me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou askest for volunteers, as if thou wert to lead a forlorn hope. Pull
+      away at the usquebaugh, man, and swallow Dutch courage, since thine
+      English is oozed away. Stay, I'll go myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I with you,&rdquo; said Raleigh. &ldquo;As the queen's true knight-errant, I am
+      bound to be behindhand in no adventure. Who knows but we may find a wicked
+      magician, just going to cut off the head of some saffron-mantled
+      princess?&rdquo; and he dismounted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, sirs, sirs, to endanger your precious&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pooh,&rdquo; said Raleigh. &ldquo;I wear an amulet, and have a spell of art-magic at
+      my tongue's end, whereby, sir ancient, neither can a ghost see me, nor I
+      see them. Come with us, Yeo, the Desmond-slayer, and we will shame the
+      devil, or be shamed by him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He may shame me, sir, but he will never frighten me,&rdquo; quoth Yeo; &ldquo;but the
+      bog, captains?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tut! Devonshire men, and heath-trotters born, and not know our way over a
+      peat moor!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the three strode away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They splashed and scrambled for some quarter of a mile to the knoll, while
+      the cry became louder and louder as they neared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's neither ghost nor otter, sirs, but a true Irish howl, as Captain
+      Leigh said; and I'll warrant Master Shamus knew as much long ago,&rdquo; said
+      Yeo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And in fact, they could now hear plainly the &ldquo;Ochone, Ochonorie,&rdquo; of some
+      wild woman; and scrambling over the boulders of the knoll, in another
+      minute came full upon her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was a young girl, sluttish and unkempt, of course, but fair enough:
+      her only covering, as usual, was the ample yellow mantle. There she sat
+      upon a stone, tearing her black dishevelled hair, and every now and then
+      throwing up her head, and bursting into a long mournful cry, &ldquo;for all the
+      world,&rdquo; as Yeo said, &ldquo;like a dumb four-footed hound, and not a Christian
+      soul.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On her knees lay the head of a man of middle age, in the long soutane of a
+      Romish priest. One look at the attitude of his limbs told them that he was
+      dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two paused in awe; and Raleigh's spirit, susceptible of all poetical
+      images, felt keenly that strange scene,&mdash;the bleak and bitter sky,
+      the shapeless bog, the stunted trees, the savage girl alone with the
+      corpse in that utter desolation. And as she bent her head over the still
+      face, and called wildly to him who heard her not, and then, utterly
+      unmindful of the intruders, sent up again that dreary wail into the dreary
+      air, they felt a sacred horror, which almost made them turn away, and
+      leave her unquestioned: but Yeo, whose nerves were of tougher fibre, asked
+      quietly&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I go and search the fellow, captain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better, I think,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Raleigh went gently to the girl, and spoke to her in English. She looked
+      up at him, his armor and his plume, with wide and wondering eyes, and then
+      shook her head, and returned to her lamentation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Raleigh gently laid his hand on her arm, and lifted her up, while Yeo and
+      Amyas bent over the corpse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the body of a large and coarse-featured man, but wasted and shrunk
+      as if by famine to a very skeleton. The hands and legs were cramped up,
+      and the trunk bowed together, as if the man had died of cold or famine.
+      Yeo drew back the clothes from the thin bosom, while the girl screamed and
+      wept, but made no effort to stop him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask her who it is? Yeo, you know a little Irish,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He asked, but the girl made no answer. &ldquo;The stubborn jade won't tell, of
+      course, sir. If she were but a man, I'd make her soon enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask her who killed him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one, she says; and I believe she says true, for I can find no wound.
+      The man has been starved, sirs, as I am a sinful man. God help him, though
+      he is a priest; and yet he seems full enough down below. What's here? A
+      big pouch, sirs, stuffed full of somewhat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hand it hither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two opened the pouch; papers, papers, but no scrap of food. Then a
+      parchment. They unrolled it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Latin,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;you must construe, Don Scholar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it possible?&rdquo; said Raleigh, after reading a moment. &ldquo;This is indeed a
+      prize! This is Saunders himself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo sprang up from the body as if he had touched an adder. &ldquo;Nick Saunders,
+      the Legacy, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nicholas Saunders, the legate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The villain! why did not he wait for me to have the comfort of killing
+      him? Dog!&rdquo; and he kicked the corpse with his foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quiet! quiet! Remember the poor girl,&rdquo; said Amyas, as she shrieked at the
+      profanation, while Raleigh went on, half to himself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, this is Saunders. Misguided fool, and this is the end! To this thou
+      hast come with thy plotting and thy conspiring, thy lying and thy
+      boasting, consecrated banners and Pope's bulls, Agnus Deis and holy
+      waters, the blessing of all saints and angels, and thy Lady of the
+      Immaculate Conception! Thou hast called on the heavens to judge between
+      thee and us, and here is their answer! What is that in his hand, Amyas?
+      Give it me. A pastoral epistle to the Earl of Ormond, and all nobles of
+      the realm of Ireland; 'To all who groan beneath the loathsome tyranny of
+      an illegitimate adulteress, etc., Nicholas Saunders, by the grace of God,
+      Legate, etc.' Bah! and this forsooth was thy last meditation! Incorrigible
+      pedant! Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He ran his eye through various other documents, written in the usual
+      strain: full of huge promises from the Pope and the king of Spain; frantic
+      and filthy slanders against Elizabeth, Burghley, Leicester, Essex (the
+      elder), Sidney, and every great and good man (never mind of which party)
+      who then upheld the commonweal; bombastic attempts to terrify weak
+      consciences, by denouncing endless fire against those who opposed the true
+      faith; fulsome ascriptions of martyrdom and sanctity to every rebel and
+      traitor who had been hanged for the last twenty years; wearisome arguments
+      about the bull In Caena Domini, Elizabeth's excommunication, the nullity
+      of English law, the sacred duty of rebellion, the right to kill a prince
+      impenitently heretical, and the like insanities and villainies, which may
+      be read at large in Camden, the Phoenix Britannicus, Fox's Martyrs, or,
+      surest of all, in the writings of the worthies themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a gesture of disgust, Raleigh crammed the foul stuff back again into
+      the pouch. Taking it with them, they walked back to the company, and then
+      remounting, marched away once more towards the lands of the Desmonds; and
+      the girl was left alone with the dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour had passed, when another Englishman was standing by the wailing
+      girl, and round him a dozen shockheaded kernes, skene on thigh and javelin
+      in hand, were tossing about their tawny rags, and adding their
+      lamentations to those of the lonely watcher.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Englishman was Eustace Leigh; a layman still, but still at his old
+      work. By two years of intrigue and labor from one end of Ireland to the
+      other, he had been trying to satisfy his conscience for rejecting &ldquo;the
+      higher calling&rdquo; of the celibate; for mad hopes still lurked within that
+      fiery heart. His brow was wrinkled now; his features harshened; the scar
+      upon his face, and the slight distortion which accompanied it, was hidden
+      by a bushy beard from all but himself; and he never forgot it for a day,
+      nor forgot who had given it to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had been with Desmond, wandering in moor and moss for many a month in
+      danger of his life; and now he was on his way to James Fitz-Eustace, Lord
+      Baltinglas, to bring him the news of Desmond's death; and with him a
+      remnant of the clan, who were either too stout-hearted, or too desperately
+      stained with crime, to seek peace from the English, and, as their fellows
+      did, find it at once and freely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There Eustace stood, looking down on all that was left of the most sacred
+      personage of Ireland; the man who, as he once had hoped, was to regenerate
+      his native land, and bring the proud island of the West once more beneath
+      that gentle yoke, in which united Christendom labored for the commonweal
+      of the universal Church. There he was, and with him all Eustace's dreams,
+      in the very heart of that country which he had vowed, and believed as he
+      vowed, was ready to rise in arms as one man, even to the baby at the
+      breast (so he had said), in vengeance against the Saxon heretic, and sweep
+      the hated name of Englishman into the deepest abysses of the surge which
+      walled her coasts; with Spain and the Pope to back him, and the wealth of
+      the Jesuits at his command; in the midst of faithful Catholics, valiant
+      soldiers, noblemen who had pledged themselves to die for the cause, serfs
+      who worshipped him as a demigod&mdash;starved to death in a bog! It was a
+      pretty plain verdict on the reasonableness of his expectations; but not to
+      Eustace Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a failure, of course; but it was an accident; indeed, to have been
+      expected, in a wicked world whose prince and master, as all knew, was the
+      devil himself; indeed, proof of the righteousness of the cause&mdash;for
+      when had the true faith been other than persecuted and trampled under
+      foot? If one came to think of it with eyes purified from the tears of
+      carnal impatience, what was it but a glorious martyrdom?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blest Saunders!&rdquo; murmured Eustace Leigh; &ldquo;let me die the death of the
+      righteous, and let my last end he like this! Ora pro me, most excellent
+      martyr, while I dig thy grave upon this lonely moor, to wait there for thy
+      translation to one of those stately shrines, which, cemented by the blood
+      of such as thee, shall hereafter rise restored toward heaven, to make this
+      land once more 'The Isle of Saints.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The corpse was buried; a few prayers said hastily; and Eustace Leigh was
+      away again, not now to find Baltinglas; for it was more than his life was
+      worth. The girl had told him of the English soldiers who had passed, and
+      he knew that they would reach the earl probably before he did. The game
+      was up; all was lost. So he retraced his steps, as a desperate resource,
+      to the last place where he would be looked for, and after a month of
+      disguising, hiding, and other expedients, found himself again in his
+      native county of Devon, while Fitz-Eustace Viscount Baltinglas had taken
+      ship for Spain, having got little by his famous argument to Ormond in
+      behalf of his joining the Church of Rome, &ldquo;Had not thine ancestor, blessed
+      Thomas of Canterbury, died for the Church of Rome, thou hadst never been
+      Earl of Ormond.&rdquo; The premises were certainly sounder than those of his
+      party were wont to be; for it was to expiate the murder of that turbulent
+      hero that the Ormond lands had been granted by Henry II.: but as for the
+      conclusion therefrom, it was much on a par with the rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now let us return to Raleigh and Amyas, as they jog along their weary
+      road. They have many things to talk of; for it is but three days since
+      they met.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas, as you see, is coming fast into Raleigh's old opinion of Ireland.
+      Raleigh, under the inspiration of a possible grant of Desmond's lands,
+      looks on bogs and rocks transfigured by his own hopes and fancy, as if by
+      the glory of a rainbow. He looked at all things so, noble fellow, even
+      thirty years after, when old, worn out, and ruined; well for him had it
+      been otherwise, and his heart had grown old with his head! Amyas, who
+      knows nothing about Desmond's lands, is puzzled at the change.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, what is this, Raleigh? You are like children sitting in the
+      market-place, and nothing pleases you. You wanted to get to Court, and you
+      have got there; and are lord and master, I hear, or something very like
+      it, already&mdash;and as soon as fortune stuffs your mouth full of
+      sweet-meats, do you turn informer on her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Raleigh laughed insignificantly, but was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how is your friend Mr. Secretary Spenser, who was with us at
+      Smerwick?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spenser? He has thriven even as I have; and he has found, as I have, that
+      in making one friend at Court you make ten foes; but 'Oderint dum metuant'
+      is no more my motto than his, Leigh. I want to be great&mdash;great I am
+      already, they say, if princes' favor can swell the frog into an ox; but I
+      want to be liked, loved&mdash;I want to see people smile when I enter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So they do, I'll warrant,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So do hyenas,&rdquo; said Raleigh; &ldquo;grin because they are hungry, and I may
+      throw them a bone; I'll throw you one now, old lad, or rather a good
+      sirloin of beef, for the sake of your smile. That's honest, at least, I'll
+      warrant, whosoever's else is not. Have you heard of my brother Humphrey's
+      new project?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How should I hear anything in this waste howling wilderness?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kiss hands to the wilderness, then, and come with me to Newfoundland!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You to Newfoundland?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I to Newfoundland, unless my little matter here is settled at once.
+      Gloriana don't know it, and sha'n't till I'm off. She'd send me to the
+      Tower, I think, if she caught me playing truant. I could hardly get leave
+      to come hither; but I must out, and try my fortune. I am over ears in debt
+      already, and sick of courts and courtiers. Humphrey must go next spring
+      and take possession of his kingdom beyond seas, or his patent expires; and
+      with him I go, and you too, my circumnavigating giant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then Raleigh expounded to Amyas the details of the great Newfoundland
+      scheme, which whoso will may read in the pages of Hakluyt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Raleigh's half-brother, held a patent for &ldquo;planting&rdquo;
+       the lands of Newfoundland and &ldquo;Meta Incognita&rdquo; (Labrador). He had
+      attempted a voyage thither with Raleigh in 1578, whereof I never could
+      find any news, save that he came back again, after a heavy brush with some
+      Spanish ships (in which his best captain, Mr. Morgan, was killed), having
+      done nothing, and much impaired his own estate: but now he had collected a
+      large sum; Sir Gilbert Peckham of London, Mr. Hayes of South Devon, and
+      various other gentlemen, of whom more hereafter, had adventured their
+      money; and a considerable colony was to be sent out the next year, with
+      miners, assayers, and, what was more, Parmenius Budaeus, Frank's old
+      friend, who had come to England full of thirst to see the wonders of the
+      New World; and over and above this, as Raleigh told Amyas in strictest
+      secrecy, Adrian Gilbert, Humphrey's brother, was turning every stone at
+      Court for a patent of discovery in the North-West; and this Newfoundland
+      colony, though it was to produce gold, silver, merchandise, and what not,
+      was but a basis of operations, a halfway house from whence to work out the
+      North-West passage to the Indies&mdash;that golden dream, as fatal to
+      English valor as the Guiana one to Spanish&mdash;and yet hardly, hardly to
+      be regretted, when we remember the seamanship, the science, the chivalry,
+      the heroism, unequalled in the history of the English nation, which it has
+      called forth among those our later Arctic voyagers, who have combined the
+      knight-errantry of the middle age with the practical prudence of the
+      modern, and dared for duty more than Cortez or Pizarro dared for gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas, simple fellow, took all in greedily; he knew enough of the dangers
+      of the Magellan passage to appreciate the boundless value of a road to the
+      East Indies which would (as all supposed then) save half the distance, and
+      be as it were a private possession of the English, safe from Spanish
+      interference; and he listened reverently to Sir Humphrey's quaint proofs,
+      half true, half fantastic, of such a passage, which Raleigh detailed to
+      him&mdash;of the Primum Mobile, and its diurnal motion from east to west,
+      in obedience to which the sea-current flowed westward ever round the Cape
+      of Good Hope, and being unable to pass through the narrow strait between
+      South America and the Antarctic Continent, rushed up the American shore,
+      as the Gulf Stream, and poured northwestward between Greenland and
+      Labrador towards Cathay and India; of that most crafty argument of Sir
+      Humphrey's&mdash;how Aristotle in his book &ldquo;De Mundo,&rdquo; and Simon Gryneus
+      in his annotations thereon, declare that the world (the Old World) is an
+      island, compassed by that which Homer calls the river Oceanus; ergo, the
+      New World is an island also, and there is a North-West passage; of the
+      three brothers (names unknown) who had actually made the voyage, and named
+      what was afterwards called Davis's Strait after themselves; of the Indians
+      who were cast ashore in Germany in the reign of Frederic Barbarossa who,
+      as Sir Humphrey had learnedly proved per modum tollendi, could have come
+      only by the North-West; and above all, of Salvaterra, the Spaniard, who in
+      1568 had told Sir Henry Sidney (Philip's father), there in Ireland, how he
+      had spoken with a Mexican friar named Urdaneta, who had himself come from
+      Mar del Zur (the Pacific) into Germany by that very North-West passage; at
+      which last Amyas shook his head, and said that friars were liars, and
+      seeing believing; &ldquo;but if you must needs have an adventure, you insatiable
+      soul you, why not try for the golden city of Manoa?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Manoa?&rdquo; asked Raleigh, who had heard, as most had, dim rumors of the
+      place. &ldquo;What do you know of it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon Amyas told him all that he had gathered from the Spaniard; and
+      Raleigh, in his turn, believed every word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo; said he after a long silence. &ldquo;To find that golden emperor; offer
+      him help and friendship from the queen of England; defend him against the
+      Spaniards; if we became strong enough, conquer back all Peru from the
+      Popish tyrants, and reinstate him on the throne of the Incas, with
+      ourselves for his body-guard, as the Norman Varangians were to the
+      effeminate emperors of Byzant&mdash;Hey, Amyas? You would make a gallant
+      chieftain of Varangs. We'll do it, lad!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll try,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;but we must be quick, for there's one Berreo
+      sworn to carry out the quest to the death; and if the Spaniards once get
+      thither, their plan of works will be much more like Pizarro's than like
+      yours; and by the time we come, there will be neither gold nor city left.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor Indians either, I'll warrant the butchers; but, lad, I am promised to
+      Humphrey; I have a bark fitting out already, and all I have, and more,
+      adventured in her; so Manoa must wait.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will wait well enough, if the Spaniards prosper no better on the
+      Amazon than they have done; but must I come with you? To tell the truth, I
+      am quite shore-sick, and to sea I must go. What will my mother say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll manage thy mother,&rdquo; said Raleigh; and so he did; for, to cut a long
+      story short, he went back the month after, and he not only took home
+      letters from Amyas to his mother, but so impressed on that good lady the
+      enormous profits and honors to be derived from Meta Incognita, and (which
+      was most true) the advantage to any young man of sailing with such a
+      general as Humphrey Gilbert, most pious and most learned of seamen and of
+      cavaliers, beloved and honored above all his compeers by Queen Elizabeth,
+      that she consented to Amyas's adventuring in the voyage some two hundred
+      pounds which had come to him as his share of prize-money, after the ever
+      memorable circumnavigation. For Mrs. Leigh, be it understood, was no
+      longer at Burrough Court. By Frank's persuasion, she had let the old
+      place, moved up to London with her eldest son, and taken for herself a
+      lodging somewhere by Palace Stairs, which looked out upon the silver
+      Thames (for Thames was silver then), with its busy ferries and gliding
+      boats, across to the pleasant fields of Lambeth, and the Archbishop's
+      palace, and the wooded Surrey hills; and there she spent her peaceful
+      days, close to her Frank and to the Court. Elizabeth would have had her
+      re-enter it, offering her a small place in the household: but she
+      declined, saying that she was too old and heart-weary for aught but
+      prayer. So by prayer she lived, under the sheltering shadow of the tall
+      minster where she went morn and even to worship, and to entreat for the
+      two in whom her heart was bound up; and Frank slipped in every day if but
+      for five minutes, and brought with him Spenser, or Raleigh, or Dyer, or
+      Budaeus or sometimes Sidney's self: and there was talk of high and holy
+      things, of which none could speak better than could she; and each guest
+      went from that hallowed room a humbler and yet a loftier man. So slipped
+      on the peaceful months, and few and far between came Irish letters, for
+      Ireland was then farther from Westminster than is the Black Sea now; but
+      those were days in which wives and mothers had learned (as they have
+      learned once more, sweet souls!) to walk by faith and not by sight for
+      those they love: and Mrs. Leigh was content (though when was she not
+      content?) to hear that Amyas was winning a good report as a brave and
+      prudent officer, sober, just, and faithful, beloved and obeyed alike by
+      English soldiers and Irish kernes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those two years, and the one which followed, were the happiest which she
+      had known since her husband's death. But the cloud was fast coming up the
+      horizon, though she saw it not. A little longer, and the sun would be hid
+      for many a wintry day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas went to Plymouth (with Yeo, of course, at his heels), and there
+      beheld, for the first time, the majestic countenance of the philosopher of
+      Compton castle. He lodged with Drake, and found him not over-sanguine as
+      to the success of the voyage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For learning and manners, Amyas, there's not his equal; and the queen may
+      well love him, and Devon be proud of him: but book-learning is not
+      business: book-learning didn't get me round the world; book-learning
+      didn't make Captain Hawkins, nor his father neither, the best
+      ship-builders from Hull to Cadiz; and book-learning, I very much fear,
+      won't plant Newfoundland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      However, the die was cast, and the little fleet of five sail assembled in
+      Cawsand Bay. Amyas was to go as a gentleman adventurer on board of
+      Raleigh's bark; Raleigh himself, however, at the eleventh hour, had been
+      forbidden by the queen to leave England. Ere they left, Sir Humphrey
+      Gilbert's picture was painted by some Plymouth artist, to be sent up to
+      Elizabeth in answer to a letter and a gift sent by Raleigh, which, as a
+      specimen of the men and of the time, I here transcribe*&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;BROTHER&mdash;I have sent you a token from her Majesty, an anchor guided
+      by a lady, as you see. And further, her Highness willed me to send you
+      word, that she wisheth you as great good hap and safety to your ship as if
+      she were there in person, desiring you to have care of yourself as of that
+      which she tendereth and, therefore, for her sake, you must provide for it
+      accordingly. Furthermore, she commandeth that you leave your picture with
+      her. For the rest I leave till our meeting, or to the report of the
+      bearer, who would needs be the messenger of this good news. So I commit
+      you to the will and protection of God, who send us such life and death as
+      he shall please, or hath appointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Richmond, this Friday morning,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your true Brother,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;W. RALEIGH.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This letter was a few years since in the possession of Mr.
+     Pomeroy Gilbert, fort-major at Dartmouth, a descendant of
+     the admiral's.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who would not die, sir, for such a woman?&rdquo; said Sir Humphrey (and he said
+      truly), as he showed that letter to Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who would not? But she bids you rather live for her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall do both, young man; and for God too, I trust. We are going in
+      God's cause; we go for the honor of God's Gospel, for the deliverance of
+      poor infidels led captive by the devil; for the relief of my distressed
+      countrymen unemployed within this narrow isle; and to God we commit our
+      cause. We fight against the devil himself; and stronger is He that is
+      within us than he that is against us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Some say that Raleigh himself came down to Plymouth, accompanied the fleet
+      a day's sail to sea, and would have given her majesty the slip, and gone
+      with them Westward-ho, but for Sir Humphrey's advice. It is likely enough:
+      but I cannot find evidence for it. At all events, on the 11th June the
+      fleet sailed out, having, says Mr. Hayes, &ldquo;in number about 260 men, among
+      whom we had of every faculty good choice, as shipwrights, masons,
+      carpenters, smiths, and such like, requisite for such an action; also
+      mineral men and refiners. Beside, for solace of our people and allurement
+      of the savages, we were provided of musique in good variety; not omitting
+      the least toys, as morris-dancers, hobby-horses, and May-like conceits, to
+      delight the savage people, whom we intended to win by all fair means
+      possible.&rdquo; An armament complete enough, even to that tenderness towards
+      the Indians, which is so striking a feature of the Elizabethan seamen
+      (called out in them, perhaps, by horror at the Spanish cruelties, as well
+      as by their more liberal creed), and to the daily service of God on board
+      of every ship, according to the simple old instructions of Captain John
+      Hawkins to one of his little squadrons, &ldquo;Keep good company; beware of
+      fire; serve God daily; and love one another&rdquo;&mdash;an armament, in short,
+      complete in all but men. The sailors had been picked up hastily and
+      anywhere, and soon proved themselves a mutinous, and, in the case of the
+      bark Swallow, a piratical set. The mechanics were little better. The
+      gentlemen-adventurers, puffed up with vain hopes of finding a new Mexico,
+      became soon disappointed and surly at the hard practical reality; while
+      over all was the head of a sage and an enthusiast, a man too noble to
+      suspect others, and too pure to make allowances for poor dirty human
+      weaknesses. He had got his scheme perfect upon paper; well for him, and
+      for his company, if he had asked Francis Drake to translate it for him
+      into fact! As early as the second day, the seeds of failure began to
+      sprout above ground. The men of Raleigh's bark, the Vice-Admiral, suddenly
+      found themselves seized, or supposed themselves seized, with a contagious
+      sickness, and at midnight forsook the fleet, and went back to Plymouth;
+      whereto Mr. Hayes can only say, &ldquo;The reason I never could understand. Sure
+      I am that Mr. Raleigh spared no cost in setting them forth. And so I leave
+      it unto God!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Amyas said more. He told Butler the captain plainly that, if the bark
+      went back, he would not; that he had seen enough of ships deserting their
+      consorts; that it should never be said of him that he had followed
+      Winter's example, and that, too, on a fair easterly wind; and finally that
+      he had seen Doughty hanged for trying to play such a trick; and that he
+      might see others hanged too before he died. Whereon Captain Butler offered
+      to draw and fight, to which Amyas showed no repugnance; whereon the
+      captain, having taken a second look at Amyas's thews and sinews,
+      reconsidered the matter, and offered to put Amyas on board of Sir
+      Humphrey's Delight, if he could find a crew to row him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas looked around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there any of Sir Francis Drake's men on board?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three, sir,&rdquo; said Yeo. &ldquo;Robert Drew, and two others.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pelicans!&rdquo; roared Amyas, &ldquo;you have been round the world, and will you
+      turn back from Westward-ho?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a moment's silence, and then Drew came forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lower us a boat, captain, and lend us a caliver to make signals with,
+      while I get my kit on deck; I'll after Captain Leigh, if I row him aboard
+      all alone to my own hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I ever command a ship, I will not forget you,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor us either, sir, we hope; for we haven't forgotten you and your honest
+      conditions,&rdquo; said both the other Pelicans; and so away over the side went
+      all the five, and pulled away after the admiral's lantern, firing shots at
+      intervals as signals. Luckily for the five desperadoes, the night was all
+      but calm. They got on board before the morning, and so away into the
+      boundless West.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The Raleigh, the largest ship of the squadron, was of only
+     200 tons burden; The Golden Hind, Hayes' ship, which
+     returned safe, of 40; and The Squirrel (whereof more
+     hereafter), of 10 tons!  In such cockboats did these old
+     heroes brave the unknown seas.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW BIDEFORD BRIDGE DINED AT ANNERY HOUSE
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Three lords sat drinking late yestreen,
+     And ere they paid the lawing,
+     They set a combat them between,
+     To fight it in the dawing&rdquo;&mdash;Scotch Ballad.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Every one who knows Bideford cannot but know Bideford bridge; for it is
+      the very omphalos, cynosure, and soul, around which the town, as a body,
+      has organized itself; and as Edinburgh is Edinburgh by virtue of its
+      castle, Rome Rome by virtue of its capitol, and Egypt Egypt by virtue of
+      its pyramids, so is Bideford Bideford by virtue of its bridge. But all do
+      not know the occult powers which have advanced and animated the said
+      wondrous bridge for now five hundred years, and made it the chief wonder,
+      according to Prince and Fuller, of this fair land of Devon: being first an
+      inspired bridge, a soul-saving bridge, an alms-giving bridge, an
+      educational bridge, a sentient bridge, and last, but not least, a
+      dinner-giving bridge. All do not know how, when it began to be built some
+      half mile higher up, hands invisible carried the stones down-stream each
+      night to the present site; until Sir Richard Gurney, parson of the parish,
+      going to bed one night in sore perplexity and fear of the evil spirit who
+      seemed so busy in his sheepfold, beheld a vision of an angel, who bade
+      build the bridge where he himself had so kindly transported the materials;
+      for there alone was sure foundation amid the broad sheet of shifting sand.
+      All do not know how Bishop Grandison of Exeter proclaimed throughout his
+      diocese indulgences, benedictions, and &ldquo;participation in all spiritual
+      blessings for ever,&rdquo; to all who would promote the bridging of that
+      dangerous ford; and so, consulting alike the interests of their souls and
+      of their bodies, &ldquo;make the best of both worlds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All do not know, nor do I, that &ldquo;though the foundation of the bridge is
+      laid upon wool, yet it shakes at the slightest step of a horse;&rdquo; or that,
+      &ldquo;though it has twenty-three arches, yet one Wm. Alford (another Milo)
+      carried on his back for a wager four bushels salt-water measure, all the
+      length thereof;&rdquo; or that the bridge is a veritable esquire, bearing arms
+      of its own (a ship and bridge proper on a plain field), and owning lands
+      and tenements in many parishes, with which the said miraculous bridge has,
+      from time to time, founded charities, built schools, waged suits at law,
+      and finally (for this concerns us most) given yearly dinners, and kept for
+      that purpose (luxurious and liquorish bridge that it was) the best stocked
+      cellar of wines in all Devon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To one of these dinners, as it happened, were invited in the year 1583 all
+      the notabilities of Bideford, and beside them Mr. St. Leger of Annery
+      close by, brother of the marshal of Munster, and of Lady Grenville; a most
+      worthy and hospitable gentleman, who, finding riches a snare, parted with
+      them so freely to all his neighbors as long as he lived, that he
+      effectually prevented his children after him from falling into the
+      temptations thereunto incident.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Between him and one of the bridge trustees arose an argument, whether a
+      salmon caught below the bridge was better or worse than one caught above;
+      and as that weighty question could only be decided by practical
+      experiment, Mr. St. Leger vowed that as the bridge had given him a good
+      dinner, he would give the bridge one; offered a bet of five pounds that he
+      would find them, out of the pool below Annery, as firm and flaky a salmon
+      as the Appledore one which they had just eaten; and then, in the fulness
+      of his heart, invited the whole company present to dine with him at Annery
+      three days after, and bring with them each a wife or daughter; and Don
+      Guzman being at table, he was invited too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So there was a mighty feast in the great hall at Annery, such as had
+      seldom been since Judge Hankford feasted Edward the Fourth there; and
+      while every one was eating their best and drinking their worst, Rose
+      Salterne and Don Guzman were pretending not to see each other, and
+      watching each other all the more. But Rose, at least, had to be very
+      careful of her glances; for not only was her father at the table, but just
+      opposite her sat none other than Messrs. William Cary and Arthur St.
+      Leger, lieutenants in her majesty's Irish army, who had returned on
+      furlough a few days before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose Salterne and the Spaniard had not exchanged a word in the last six
+      months, though they had met many times. The Spaniard by no means avoided
+      her company, except in her father's house; he only took care to obey her
+      carefully, by seeming always unconscious of her presence, beyond the
+      stateliest of salutes at entering and departing. But he took care, at the
+      same time, to lay himself out to the very best advantage whenever he was
+      in her presence; to be more witty, more eloquent, more romantic, more full
+      of wonderful tales than he ever yet had been. The cunning Don had found
+      himself foiled in his first tactic; and he was now trying another, and a
+      far more formidable one. In the first place, Rose deserved a very severe
+      punishment, for having dared to refuse the love of a Spanish nobleman; and
+      what greater punishment could he inflict than withdrawing the honor of his
+      attentions, and the sunshine of his smiles? There was conceit enough in
+      that notion, but there was cunning too; for none knew better than the
+      Spaniard, that women, like the world, are pretty sure to value a man
+      (especially if there be any real worth in him) at his own price; and that
+      the more he demands for himself, the more they will give for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now he would put a high price on himself, and pique her pride, as she
+      was too much accustomed to worship, to be won by flattering it. He might
+      have done that by paying attention to some one else: but he was too wise
+      to employ so coarse a method, which might raise indignation, or disgust,
+      or despair in Rose's heart, but would have never brought her to his feet&mdash;as
+      it will never bring any woman worth bringing. So he quietly and
+      unobtrusively showed her that he could do without her; and she, poor fool,
+      as she was meant to do, began forthwith to ask herself&mdash;why? What was
+      the hidden treasure, what was the reserve force, which made him
+      independent of her, while she could not say that she was independent of
+      him? Had he a secret? how pleasant to know it! Some huge ambition? how
+      pleasant to share in it! Some mysterious knowledge? how pleasant to learn
+      it! Some capacity of love beyond the common? how delicious to have it all
+      for her own! He must be greater, wiser, richer-hearted than she was, as
+      well as better-born. Ah, if his wealth would but supply her poverty! And
+      so, step by step, she was being led to sue in forma pauperis to the very
+      man whom she had spurned when he sued in like form to her. That temptation
+      of having some mysterious private treasure, of being the priestess of some
+      hidden sanctuary, and being able to thank Heaven that she was not as other
+      women are, was becoming fast too much for Rose, as it is too much for
+      most. For none knew better than the Spaniard how much more fond women are,
+      by the very law of their sex, of worshipping than of being worshipped, and
+      of obeying than of being obeyed; how their coyness, often their scorn, is
+      but a mask to hide their consciousness of weakness; and a mask, too, of
+      which they themselves will often be the first to tire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Rose was utterly tired of that same mask as she sat at table at Annery
+      that day; and Don Guzman saw it in her uneasy and downcast looks, and
+      thinking (conceited coxcomb) that she must be by now sufficiently
+      punished, stole a glance at her now and then, and was not abashed when he
+      saw that she dropped her eyes when they met his, because he saw her
+      silence and abstraction increase, and something like a blush steal into
+      her cheeks. So he pretended to be as much downcast and abstracted as she
+      was, and went on with his glances, till he once found her, poor thing,
+      looking at him to see if he was looking at her; and then he knew his prey
+      was safe, and asked her, with his eyes, &ldquo;Do you forgive me?&rdquo; and saw her
+      stop dead in her talk to her next neighbor, and falter, and drop her eyes,
+      and raise them again after a minute in search of his, that he might repeat
+      the pleasant question. And then what could she do but answer with all her
+      face and every bend of her pretty neck, &ldquo;And do you forgive me in turn?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon Don Guzman broke out jubilant, like nightingale on bough, with
+      story, and jest, and repartee; and became forthwith the soul of the whole
+      company, and the most charming of all cavaliers. And poor Rose knew that
+      she was the cause of his sudden change of mood, and blamed herself for
+      what she had done, and shuddered and blushed at her own delight, and
+      longed that the feast was over, that she might hurry home and hide herself
+      alone with sweet fancies about a love the reality of which she felt she
+      dared not face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a beautiful sight, the great terrace at Annery that afternoon; with
+      the smart dames in their gaudy dresses parading up and down in twos and
+      threes before the stately house; or looking down upon the park, with the
+      old oaks, and the deer, and the broad land-locked river spread out like a
+      lake beneath, all bright in the glare of the midsummer sun; or listening
+      obsequiously to the two great ladies who did the honors, Mrs. St. Leger
+      the hostess, and her sister-in-law, fair Lady Grenville. All chatted, and
+      laughed, and eyed each other's dresses, and gossiped about each other's
+      husbands and servants: only Rose Salterne kept apart, and longed to get
+      into a corner and laugh or cry, she knew not which.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our pretty Rose seems sad,&rdquo; said Lady Grenville, coming up to her. &ldquo;Cheer
+      up, child! we want you to come and sing to us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose answered she knew not what, and obeyed mechanically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took the lute, and sat down on a bench beneath the house, while the
+      rest grouped themselves round her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall I sing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us have your old song, 'Earl Haldan's Daughter.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Rose shrank from it. It was a loud and dashing ballad, which chimed in but
+      little with her thoughts; and Frank had praised it too, in happier days
+      long since gone by. She thought of him, and of others, and of her pride
+      and carelessness; and the song seemed ominous to her: and yet for that
+      very reason she dared not refuse to sing it, for fear of suspicion where
+      no one suspected; and so she began per force&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was Earl Haldan's daughter, She look'd across the sea; She look'd
+      across the water, And long and loud laugh'd she; 'The locks of six
+      princesses Must be my marriage-fee, So hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat!
+      Who comes a wooing me?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was Earl Haldan's daughter, She walk'd along the sand; When she was
+      aware of a knight so fair, Come sailing to the land. His sails were all of
+      velvet, His mast of beaten gold, And 'hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat,
+      Who saileth here so bold?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      III.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'The locks of five princesses I won beyond the sea; I shore their golden
+      tresses, To fringe a cloak for thee. One handful yet is wanting, But one
+      of all the tale; So hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat! Furl up thy velvet
+      sail!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IV.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He leapt into the water, That rover young and bold; He gript Earl
+      Haldan's daughter, He shore her locks of gold; 'Go weep, go weep, proud
+      maiden, The tale is full to-day. Now hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat!
+      Sail Westward-ho, and away!'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As she ceased, a measured voice, with a foreign accent, thrilled through
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the East, they say the nightingale sings to the rose; Devon, more
+      happy, has nightingale and rose in one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have no nightingales in Devon, Don Guzman,&rdquo; said Lady Grenville; &ldquo;but
+      our little forest thrushes sing, as you hear, sweetly enough to content
+      any ear. But what brings you away from the gentlemen so early?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These letters,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;which have just been put into my hand; and as
+      they call me home to Spain, I was loath to lose a moment of that
+      delightful company from which I must part so soon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Spain?&rdquo; asked half-a-dozen voices: for the Don was a general favorite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and thence to the Indies. My ransom has arrived, and with it the
+      promise of an office. I am to be Governor of La Guayra in Caracas.
+      Congratulate me on my promotion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A mist was over Rose's eyes. The Spaniard's voice was hard and flippant.
+      Did he care for her, after all? And if he did, was it nevertheless
+      hopeless? How her cheeks glowed! Everybody must see it! Anything to turn
+      away their attention from her, and in that nervous haste which makes
+      people speak, and speak foolishly too, just because they ought to be
+      silent, she asked&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where is La Guayra?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Half round the world, on the coast of the Spanish Main. The loveliest
+      place on earth, and the loveliest governor's house, in a forest of palms
+      at the foot of a mountain eight thousand feet high: I shall only want a
+      wife there to be in paradise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't doubt that you may persuade some fair lady of Seville to
+      accompany you thither,&rdquo; said Lady Grenville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, gracious madam: but the truth is, that since I have had the bliss
+      of knowing English ladies, I have begun to think that they are the only
+      ones on earth worth wooing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A thousand thanks for the compliment; but I fear none of our free English
+      maidens would like to submit to the guardianship of a duenna. Eh, Rose?
+      how should you like to be kept under lock and key all day by an ugly old
+      woman with a horn on her forehead?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Rose turned so scarlet that Lady Grenville knew her secret on the
+      spot, and would have tried to turn the conversation: but before she could
+      speak, some burgher's wife blundered out a commonplace about the jealousy
+      of Spanish husbands; and another, to make matters better, giggled out
+      something more true than delicate about West Indian masters and fair
+      slaves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ladies,&rdquo; said Don Guzman, reddening, &ldquo;believe me that these are but the
+      calumnies of ignorance. If we be more jealous than other nations, it is
+      because we love more passionately. If some of us abroad are profligate, it
+      is because they, poor men, have no helpmate, which, like the amethyst,
+      keeps its wearer pure. I could tell you stories, ladies, of the constancy
+      and devotion of Spanish husbands, even in the Indies, as strange as ever
+      romancer invented.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you? Then we challenge you to give us one at least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear it would be too long, madam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The longer the more pleasant, senor. How can we spend an hour better this
+      afternoon, while the gentlemen within are finishing their wine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Story-telling, in those old times, when books (and authors also, lucky for
+      the public) were rarer than now, was a common amusement; and as the
+      Spaniard's accomplishments in that line were well known, all the ladies
+      crowded round him; the servants brought chairs and benches; and Don
+      Guzman, taking his seat in the midst, with a proud humility, at Lady
+      Grenville's feet, began&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your perfections, fair and illustrious ladies, must doubtless have heard,
+      ere now, how Sebastian Cabota, some forty-five years ago, sailed forth
+      with a commission from my late master, the Emperor Charles the Fifth, to
+      discover the golden lands of Tarshish, Ophir, and Cipango; but being in
+      want of provisions, stopped short at the mouth of that mighty South
+      American river to which he gave the name of Rio de la Plata, and sailing
+      up it, discovered the fair land of Paraguay. But you may not have heard
+      how, on the bank of that river, at the mouth of the Rio Terceiro, he built
+      a fort which men still call Cabot's Tower; nor have you, perhaps, heard of
+      the strange tale which will ever make the tower a sacred spot to all true
+      lovers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For when he returned to Spain the year after, he left in his tower a
+      garrison of a hundred and twenty men, under the command of Nuno de Lara,
+      Ruiz Moschera, and Sebastian da Hurtado, old friends and fellow-soldiers
+      of my invincible grandfather Don Ferdinando da Soto; and with them a
+      jewel, than which Spain never possessed one more precious, Lucia Miranda,
+      the wife of Hurtado, who, famed in the court of the emperor no less for
+      her wisdom and modesty than for her unrivalled beauty, had thrown up all
+      the pomp and ambition of a palace, to marry a poor adventurer, and to
+      encounter with him the hardships of a voyage round the world. Mangora, the
+      cacique of the neighboring Timbuez Indians (with whom Lara had contrived
+      to establish a friendship), cast his eyes on this fair creature, and no
+      sooner saw than he coveted; no sooner coveted than he plotted, with the
+      devilish subtilty of a savage, to seize by force what he knew he could
+      never gain by right. She soon found out his passion (she was wise enough&mdash;what
+      every woman is not&mdash;to know when she is loved), and telling her
+      husband, kept as much as she could out of her new lover's sight; while the
+      savage pressed Hurtado to come and visit him, and to bring his lady with
+      him. Hurtado, suspecting the snare, and yet fearing to offend the cacique,
+      excused himself courteously on the score of his soldier's duty; and the
+      savage, mad with desire and disappointment, began plotting against
+      Hurtado's life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So went on several weeks, till food grew scarce, and Don Hurtado and Don
+      Ruiz Moschera, with fifty soldiers, were sent up the river on a foraging
+      party. Mangora saw his opportunity, and leapt at it forthwith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The tower, ladies, as I have heard from those who have seen it, stands on
+      a knoll at the meeting of the two rivers, while on the land side stretches
+      a dreary marsh, covered with tall grass and bushes; a fit place for the
+      ambuscade of four thousand Indians, which Mangora, with devilish cunning,
+      placed around the tower, while he himself went boldly up to it, followed
+      by thirty men, laden with grain, fruit, game, and all the delicacies which
+      his forests could afford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, with a smiling face, he told the unsuspecting Lara his sorrow for
+      the Spaniards' want of food; besought him to accept the provision he had
+      brought, and was, as he had expected, invited by Lara to come in and taste
+      the wines of Spain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In went he and his thirty fellow-bandits, and the feast continued, with
+      songs and libations, far into the night, while Mangora often looked round,
+      and at last boldly asked for the fair Miranda: but she had shut herself
+      into her lodging, pleading illness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A plea, fair ladies, which little availed that hapless dame, for no
+      sooner had the Spaniards retired to rest, leaving (by I know not what
+      madness) Mangora and his Indians within, than they were awakened by the
+      cry of fire, the explosion of their magazine, and the inward rush of the
+      four thousand from the marsh outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why pain your gentle ears with details of slaughter? A few fearful
+      minutes sufficed to exterminate my bewildered and unarmed countrymen, to
+      bind the only survivors, Miranda (innocent cause of the whole tragedy) and
+      four other women with their infants, and to lead them away in triumph
+      across the forest towards the Indian town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stunned by the suddenness of the evils which had passed, and still more
+      by the thought of those worse which were to come (as she too well
+      foresaw), Miranda travelled all night through the forest, and was brought
+      in triumph at day-dawn before the Indian king to receive her doom. Judge
+      of her astonishment, when, on looking up, she saw that he was not Mangora.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A ray of hope flashed across her, and she asked where he was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'He was slain last night,' said the king; 'and I, his brother Siripa, am
+      now cacique of the Timbuez.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was true; Lara, maddened with drink, rage, and wounds, had caught up
+      his sword, rushed into the thick of the fight, singled out the traitor,
+      and slain him on the spot; and then, forgetting safety in revenge, had
+      continued to plunge his sword into the corpse, heedless of the blows of
+      the savages, till he fell pierced with a hundred wounds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A ray of hope, as I said, flashed across the wretched Miranda for a
+      moment; but the next she found that she had been freed from one bandit
+      only to be delivered to another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Yes,' said the new king, in broken Spanish; 'my brother played a bold
+      stake, and lost it; but it was well worth the risk, and he showed his
+      wisdom thereby. You cannot be his queen now: you must content yourself
+      with being mine.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miranda, desperate, answered him with every fierce taunt which she could
+      invent against his treachery and his crime; and asked him, how he came to
+      dream that the wife of a Christian Spaniard would condescend to become the
+      mistress of a heathen savage; hoping, unhappy lady, to exasperate him into
+      killing her on the spot. But in vain; she only prolonged thereby her own
+      misery. For, whether it was, ladies, that the novel sight of divine virtue
+      and beauty awed (as it may have awed me ere now), where it had just before
+      maddened; or whether some dream crossed the savage (as it may have crossed
+      me ere now), that he could make the wisdom of a mortal angel help his
+      ambition, as well as her beauty his happiness; or whether (which I will
+      never believe of one of those dark children of the devil, though I can
+      boldly assert it of myself) some spark of boldness within him made him too
+      proud to take by force what he could not win by persuasion, certain it is,
+      as the Indians themselves confessed afterwards, that the savage only
+      answered her by smiles; and bidding his men unbind her, told her that she
+      was no slave of his, and that it only lay with her to become the sovereign
+      of him and all his vassals; assigned her a hut to herself, loaded her with
+      savage ornaments, and for several weeks treated her with no less courtesy
+      (so miraculous is the power of love) than if he had been a cavalier of
+      Castile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three months and more, ladies, as I have heard, passed in this misery,
+      and every day Miranda grew more desperate of all deliverance, and saw
+      staring her in the face, nearer and nearer, some hideous and shameful end;
+      when one day going down with the wives of the cacique to draw water in the
+      river, she saw on the opposite bank a white man in a tattered Spanish
+      dress, with a drawn sword in his hand; who had no sooner espied her, than
+      shrieking her name, he plunged into the stream, swam across, landed at her
+      feet, and clasped her in his arms. It was no other, ladies, incredible as
+      it may seem, than Don Sebastian himself, who had returned with Ruiz
+      Moschera to the tower, and found it only a charred and bloodstained heap
+      of ruins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He guessed, as by inspiration, what had passed, and whither his lady was
+      gone; and without a thought of danger, like a true Spanish gentleman and a
+      true Spanish lover, darted off alone into the forest, and guided only by
+      the inspiration of his own loyal heart, found again his treasure, and
+      found it still unstained and his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who can describe the joy, and who again the terror, of their meeting? The
+      Indian women had fled in fear, and for the short ten minutes that the
+      lovers were left together, life, to be sure, was one long kiss. But what
+      to do they knew not. To go inland was to rush into the enemy's arms. He
+      would have swum with her across the river, and attempted it; but his
+      strength, worn out with hunger and travel, failed him; he drew her with
+      difficulty on shore again, and sat down by her to await their doom with
+      prayer, the first and last resource of virtuous ladies, as weapons are of
+      cavaliers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas for them! May no true lovers ever have to weep over joys so soon
+      lost, after having been so hardly found! For, ere a quarter of an hour was
+      passed, the Indian women, who had fled at his approach, returned with all
+      the warriors of the tribe. Don Sebastian, desperate, would fain have slain
+      his wife and himself on the spot; but his hand sank again&mdash;and whose
+      would not but an Indian's?&mdash;as he raised it against that fair and
+      faithful breast; in a few minutes he was surrounded, seized from behind,
+      disarmed, and carried in triumph into the village. And if you cannot feel
+      for him in that misery, fair ladies, who have known no sorrow, yet I, a
+      prisoner, can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Don Guzman paused a moment, as if overcome by emotion; and I will not say
+      that, as he paused, he did not look to see if Rose Salterne's eyes were on
+      him, as indeed they were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I can feel with him; I can estimate, better than you, ladies, the
+      greatness of that love which could submit to captivity; to the loss of his
+      sword; to the loss of that honor, which, next to god and his mother, is
+      the true Spaniard's deity. There are those who have suffered that shame at
+      the hands of valiant gentlemen&rdquo; (and again Don Guzman looked up at Rose),
+      &ldquo;and yet would have sooner died a thousand deaths; but he dared to endure
+      it from the hands of villains, savages, heathens; for he was a true
+      Spaniard, and therefore a true lover: but I will go on with my tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This wretched pair, then, as I have been told by Ruiz Moschera himself,
+      stood together before the cacique. He, like a true child of the devil,
+      comprehending in a moment who Don Sebastian was, laughed with delight at
+      seeing his rival in his power, and bade bind him at once to a tree, and
+      shoot him to death with arrows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the poor Miranda sprang forward, and threw herself at his feet, and
+      with piteous entreaties besought for mercy from him who knew no mercy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet love and the sight of her beauty, and the terrible eloquence of
+      her words, while she invoked on his head the just vengeance of Heaven,
+      wrought even on his heart: nevertheless the pleasure of seeing her, who
+      had so long scorned him, a suppliant at his feet, was too delicate to be
+      speedily foregone; and not till she was all but blind with tears, and dumb
+      with agony of pleading, did he make answer, that if she would consent to
+      become his wife, her husband's life should be spared. She, in her haste
+      and madness, sobbed out desperately I know not what consent. Don
+      Sebastian, who understood, if not the language, still the meaning (so had
+      love quickened his understanding), shrieked to her not to lose her
+      precious soul for the sake of his worthless body; that death was nothing
+      compared to the horror of that shame; and such other words as became a
+      noble and valiant gentleman. She, shuddering now at her own frailty, would
+      have recalled her promise; but Siripa kept her to it, vowing, if she
+      disappointed him again, such a death to her husband as made her blood run
+      cold to hear of; and the wretched woman could only escape for the present
+      by some story, that it was not the custom of her race to celebrate
+      nuptials till a month after the betrothment; that the anger of Heaven
+      would be on her, unless she first performed in solitude certain religious
+      rites; and lastly, that if he dared to lay hands on her husband, she would
+      die so resolutely, that every drop of water should be deep enough to drown
+      her, every thorn sharp enough to stab her to the heart: till fearing lest
+      by demanding too much he should lose all, and awed too, as he had been at
+      first by a voice and looks which seemed to be, in comparison with his own,
+      divine, Siripa bade her go back to her hut, promising her husband life;
+      but promising too, that if he ever found the two speaking together, even
+      for a moment, he would pour out on them both all the cruelty of those
+      tortures in which the devil, their father, has so perfectly instructed the
+      Indians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So Don Sebastian, being stripped of his garments, and painted after the
+      Indian fashion, was set to all mean and toilsome work, amid the buffetings
+      and insults of the whole village. And this, ladies, he endured without a
+      murmur, ay, took delight in enduring it, as he would have endured things
+      worse a thousand times, only for the sake, like a true lover as he was, of
+      being near the goddess whom he worshipped, and of seeing her now and then
+      afar off, happy enough to be repaid even by that for all indignities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet, you who have loved may well guess, as I can, that ere a week had
+      passed, Don Sebastian and the Lady Miranda had found means, in spite of
+      all spiteful eyes, to speak to each other once and again; and to assure
+      each other of their love; even to talk of escape, before the month's grace
+      should be expired. And Miranda, whose heart was full of courage as long as
+      she felt her husband near her, went so far as to plan a means of escape
+      which seemed possible and hopeful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For the youngest wife of the cacique, who, till Miranda's coming, had
+      been his favorite, often talked with the captive, insulting and tormenting
+      her in her spite and jealousy, and receiving in return only gentle and
+      conciliatory words. And one day when the woman had been threatening to
+      kill her, Miranda took courage to say, 'Do you fancy that I shall not be
+      as glad to be rid of your husband, as you to be rid of me? Why kill me
+      needlessly, when all that you require is to get me forth of the place? Out
+      of sight, out of mind. When I am gone, your husband will soon forget me,
+      and you will be his favorite as before.' Soon, seeing that the girl was
+      inclined to listen, she went on to tell her of her love to Don Sebastian,
+      entreating and adjuring her, by the love which she bore the cacique, to
+      pity and help her; and so won upon the girl, that she consented to be
+      privy to Miranda's escape, and even offered to give her an opportunity of
+      speaking to her husband about it; and at last was so won over by Miranda,
+      that she consented to keep all intruders out of the way, while Don
+      Sebastian that very night visited Miranda in her hut.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The hapless husband, thirsting for his love, was in that hut, be sure,
+      the moment that kind darkness covered his steps:&mdash;and what cheer
+      these two made of each other, when they once found themselves together,
+      lovers must fancy for themselves: but so it was, that after many a
+      leave-taking, there was no departure; and when the night was well-nigh
+      past, Sebastian and Miranda were still talking together as if they had
+      never met before, and would never meet again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it befell, ladies (would that I was not speaking truth, but
+      inventing, that I might have invented something merrier for your ears), it
+      befell that very night, that the young wife of the cacique, whose heart
+      was lifted up with the thought that her rival was now at last disposed of,
+      tried all her wiles to win back her faithless husband; but in vain. He
+      only answered her caresses by indifference, then by contempt, then
+      insults, then blows (for with the Indians, woman is always a slave, or
+      rather a beast of burden), and went on to draw such cruel comparisons
+      between her dark skin and the glorious fairness of the Spanish lady, that
+      the wretched girl, beside herself with rage, burst out at last with her
+      own secret. 'Fool that you are to madden yourself about a stranger who
+      prizes one hair of her Spanish husband's head more than your whole body!
+      Much does your new bride care for you! She is at this moment in her
+      husband's arms!'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The cacique screamed furiously to know what she meant; and she, her
+      jealousy and hate of the guiltless lady boiling over once for all, bade
+      him, if he doubted her, go see for himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What use of many words? They were taken. Love, or rather lust, repelled,
+      turned in a moment into devilish hate; and the cacique, summoning his
+      Indians, bade them bind the wretched Don Sebastian to a tree, and there
+      inflicted on him the lingering death to which he had at first been doomed.
+      For Miranda he had more exquisite cruelty in store. And shall I tell it?
+      Yes, ladies, for the honor of love and of Spain, and for a justification
+      of those cruelties against the Indians which are so falsely imputed to our
+      most Christian nation, it shall be told: he delivered the wretched lady
+      over to the tender mercies of his wives; and what they were is neither fit
+      for me to tell, nor you to hear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The two wretched lovers cast themselves upon each other's neck; drank
+      each other's salt tears with the last kisses; accused themselves as the
+      cause of each other's death; and then, rising above fear and grief, broke
+      out into triumph at thus dying for and with each other; and proclaiming
+      themselves the martyrs of love, commended their souls to God, and then
+      stepped joyfully and proudly to their doom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what was that?&rdquo; asked half-a-dozen trembling voices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don Sebastian, as I have said, was shot to death with arrows; but as for
+      the Lady Miranda, the wretches themselves confessed afterwards, when they
+      received due vengeance for their crimes (as they did receive it), that
+      after all shameful and horrible indignities, she was bound to a tree, and
+      there burned slowly in her husband's sight, stifling her shrieks lest they
+      should wring his heart by one additional pang, and never taking her eyes,
+      to the last, off that beloved face. And so died (but not unavenged)
+      Sebastian de Hurtado and Lucia Miranda,&mdash;a Spanish husband and a
+      Spanish wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Don paused, and the ladies were silent awhile, for, indeed, there was
+      many a gentle tear to be dried; but at last Mrs. St. Leger spoke, half, it
+      seemed, to turn off the too painful impression of the over-true tale, the
+      outlines whereof may be still read in old Charlevoix.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have told a sad and a noble tale, sir, and told it well; but, though
+      your story was to set forth a perfect husband, it has ended rather by
+      setting forth a perfect wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if I have forgotten, madam, in praising her to praise him also, have
+      I not done that which would have best pleased his heroical and chivalrous
+      spirit? He, be sure, would have forgotten his own virtue in the light of
+      hers; and he would have wished me, I doubt not, to do the same also. And
+      beside, madam, where ladies are the theme, who has time or heart to cast
+      one thought upon their slaves?&rdquo; And the Don made one of his deliberate and
+      highly-finished bows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don Guzman is courtier enough, as far as compliments go,&rdquo; said one of the
+      young ladies; &ldquo;but it was hardly courtier-like of him to find us so sad an
+      entertainment, upon a merry evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said another; &ldquo;we must ask him for no more stories.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or songs either,&rdquo; said a third. &ldquo;I fear he knows none but about forsaken
+      maidens and despairing lovers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know nothing at all about forsaken ladies, madam; because ladies are
+      never forsaken in Spain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor about lovers despairing there, I suppose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That good opinion of ourselves, madam, with which you English are pleased
+      to twit us now and then, always prevents so sad a state of mind. For
+      myself, I have had little to do with love; but I have had still less to do
+      with despair, and intend, by help of Heaven, to have less.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are valiant, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would not have me a coward, madam?&rdquo; and so forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now all this time Don Guzman had been talking at Rose Salterne, and giving
+      her the very slightest hint, every now and then, that he was talking at
+      her; till the poor girl's face was almost crimson with pleasure, and she
+      gave herself up to the spell. He loved her still; perhaps he knew that she
+      loved him: he must know some day. She felt now that there was no escape;
+      she was almost glad to think that there was none.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dark, handsome, stately face; the melodious voice, with its rich
+      Spanish accent; the quiet grace of the gestures; the wild pathos of the
+      story; even the measured and inflated style, as of one speaking of another
+      and a loftier world; the chivalrous respect and admiration for woman, and
+      for faithfulness to woman&mdash;what a man he was! If he had been pleasant
+      heretofore, he was now enchanting. All the ladies round felt that, she
+      could see, as much as she herself did; no, not quite as much, she hoped.
+      She surely understood him, and felt for his loneliness more than any of
+      them. Had she not been feeling for it through long and sad months? But it
+      was she whom he was thinking of, she whom he was speaking to, all along.
+      Oh, why had the tale ended so soon? She would gladly have sat and wept her
+      eyes out till midnight over one melodious misery after another; but she
+      was quite wise enough to keep her secret to herself; and sat behind the
+      rest, with greedy eyes and demure lips, full of strange and new happiness&mdash;or
+      misery; she knew not which to call it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, as it was ordained, Cary could see and hear through the
+      window of the hall a good deal of what was going on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How that Spanish crocodile ogles the Rose!&rdquo; whispered he to young St.
+      Leger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What wonder? He is not the first by many a one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay&mdash;but&mdash;By heaven, she is making side-shots at him with those
+      languishing eyes of hers, the little baggage!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What wonder? He is not the first, say I, and won't be the last. Pass the
+      wine, man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have had enough; between sack and singing, my head is as mazed as a
+      dizzy sheep. Let me slip out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not yet, man; remember you are bound for one song more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Cary, against his will, sat and sang another song; and in the meanwhile
+      the party had broken up, and wandered away by twos and threes, among trim
+      gardens and pleasaunces, and clipped yew-walks&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Where west-winds with musky wing
+     About the cedarn alleys fling
+     Nard and cassia's balmy smells&mdash;&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      admiring the beauty of that stately place, long since passed into other
+      hands, and fallen to decay, but then (if old Prince speaks true) one of
+      the noblest mansions of the West.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last Cary got away and out; sober, but just enough flushed with wine to
+      be ready for any quarrel; and luckily for him, had not gone twenty yards
+      along the great terrace before he met Lady Grenville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has your ladyship seen Don Guzman?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;why, where is he? He was with me not ten minutes ago. You know
+      he is going back to Spain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Going! Has his ransom come?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and with it a governorship in the Indies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Governorship! Much good may it do the governed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not, then? He is surely a most gallant gentleman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gallant enough&mdash;yes,&rdquo; said Cary, carelessly. &ldquo;I must find him, and
+      congratulate him on his honors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will help you to find him,&rdquo; said Lady Grenville, whose woman's eye and
+      ear had already suspected something. &ldquo;Escort me, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is but too great an honor to squire the Queen of Bideford,&rdquo; said Cary,
+      offering his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I am your queen, sir, I must be obeyed,&rdquo; answered she, in a meaning
+      tone. Cary took the hint, and went on chattering cheerfully enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Don Guzman was not to be found in garden or in pleasaunce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; at last said a burgher's wife, with a toss of her head, &ldquo;your
+      ladyship may meet with him at Hankford's oak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At Hankford's oak! what should take him there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pleasant company, I reckon&rdquo; (with another toss). &ldquo;I heard him and
+      Mistress Salterne talking about the oak just now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary turned pale and drew in his breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very likely,&rdquo; said Lady Grenville, quietly. &ldquo;Will you walk with me so
+      far, Mr. Cary?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To the world's end, if your ladyship condescends so far.&rdquo; And off they
+      went, Lady Grenville wishing that they were going anywhere else, but
+      afraid to let Cary go alone; and suspecting, too, that some one or other
+      ought to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they went down past the herds of deer, by a trim-kept path into the
+      lonely dell where stood the fatal oak; and, as they went, Lady Grenville,
+      to avoid more unpleasant talk, poured into Cary's unheeding ears the story
+      (which he probably had heard fifty times before) how old Chief-justice
+      Hankford (whom some contradictory myths make the man who committed Prince
+      Henry to prison for striking him on the bench), weary of life and sickened
+      at the horrors and desolations of the Wars of the Roses, went down to his
+      house at Annery there, and bade his keeper shoot any man who, passing
+      through the deer-park at night, should refuse to stand when challenged;
+      and then going down into that glen himself, and hiding himself beneath
+      that oak, met willingly by his keeper's hand the death which his own dared
+      not inflict: but ere the story was half done, Cary grasped Lady
+      Grenville's hand so tightly that she gave a little shriek of pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There they are!&rdquo; whispered he, heedless of her; and pointed to the oak,
+      where, half hidden by the tall fern, stood Rose and the Spaniard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her head was on his bosom. She seemed sobbing, trembling; he talking
+      earnestly and passionately; but Lady Grenville's little shriek made them
+      both look up. To turn and try to escape was to confess all; and the two,
+      collecting themselves instantly, walked towards her, Rose wishing herself
+      fathoms deep beneath the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mind, sir,&rdquo; whispered Lady Grenville as they came up; &ldquo;you have seen
+      nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madam?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are not on my ground, you are on my brother's. Obey me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary bit his lip, and bowed courteously to the Don.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have to congratulate you, I hear, senor, on your approaching
+      departure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I kiss your hands, senor, in return; but I question whether it be a
+      matter of congratulation, considering all that I leave behind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So do I,&rdquo; answered Cary, bluntly enough, and the four walked back to the
+      house, Lady Grenville taking everything for granted with the most charming
+      good humor, and chatting to her three silent companions till they gained
+      the terrace once more, and found four or five of the gentlemen, with Sir
+      Richard at their head, proceeding to the bowling-green.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Grenville, in an agony of fear about the quarrel which she knew must
+      come, would have gladly whispered five words to her husband: but she dared
+      not do it before the Spaniard, and dreaded, too, a faint or a scream from
+      the Rose, whose father was of the party. So she walked on with her fair
+      prisoner, commanding Cary to escort them in, and the Spaniard to go to the
+      bowling-green.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary obeyed: but he gave her the slip the moment she was inside the door,
+      and then darted off to the gentlemen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His heart was on fire: all his old passion for the Rose had flashed up
+      again at the sight of her with a lover;&mdash;and that lover a Spaniard!
+      He would cut his throat for him, if steel could do it! Only he recollected
+      that Salterne was there, and shrank from exposing Rose; and shrank, too,
+      as every gentleman should, from making a public quarrel in another man's
+      house. Never mind. Where there was a will there was a way. He could get
+      him into a corner, and quarrel with him privately about the cut of his
+      beard, or the color of his ribbon. So in he went; and, luckily or
+      unluckily, found standing together apart from the rest, Sir Richard, the
+      Don, and young St. Leger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Don Guzman, you have given us wine-bibbers the slip this afternoon.
+      I hope you have been well employed in the meanwhile?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Delightfully to myself, senor,&rdquo; said the Don, who, enraged at being
+      interrupted, if not discovered, was as ready to fight as Cary, but
+      disliked, of course, an explosion as much as he did; &ldquo;and to others, I
+      doubt not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So the ladies say,&rdquo; quoth St. Leger. &ldquo;He has been making them all cry
+      with one of his stories, and robbing us meanwhile of the pleasure we had
+      hoped for from some of his Spanish songs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil take Spanish songs!&rdquo; said Cary, in a low voice, but loud enough
+      for the Spaniard. Don Guzman clapt his hand on his sword-hilt instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lieutenant Cary,&rdquo; said Sir Richard, in a stern voice, &ldquo;the wine has
+      surely made you forget yourself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As sober as yourself, most worshipful knight; but if you want a Spanish
+      song, here's one; and a very scurvy one it is, like its subject&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+       &ldquo;Don Desperado
+        Walked on the Prado,
+     And there he met his enemy.
+        He pulled out a knife, a,
+        And let out his life, a,
+     And fled for his own across the sea.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      And he bowed low to the Spaniard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The insult was too gross to require any spluttering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Senor Cary, we meet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank your quick apprehension, Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de
+      Soto. When, where, and with what weapons?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For God's sake, gentlemen! Nephew Arthur, Cary is your guest; do you know
+      the meaning of this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      St. Leger was silent. Cary answered for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An old Irish quarrel, I assure you, sir. A matter of years' standing. In
+      unlacing the senor's helmet, the evening that he was taken prisoner, I was
+      unlucky enough to twitch his mustachios. You recollect the fact, of
+      course, senor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perfectly,&rdquo; said the Spaniard; and then, half-amused and half-pleased, in
+      spite of his bitter wrath, at Cary's quickness and delicacy in shielding
+      Rose, he bowed, and&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And it gives me much pleasure to find that he whom I trust to have the
+      pleasure of killing tomorrow morning is a gentleman whose nice sense of
+      honor renders him thoroughly worthy of the sword of a De Soto.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary bowed in return, while Sir Richard, who saw plainly enough that the
+      excuse was feigned, shrugged his shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What weapons, senor?&rdquo; asked Will again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should have preferred a horse and pistols,&rdquo; said Don Guzman after a
+      moment, half to himself, and in Spanish; &ldquo;they make surer work of it than
+      bodkins; but&rdquo; (with a sigh and one of his smiles) &ldquo;beggars must not be
+      choosers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The best horse in my stable is at your service, senor,&rdquo; said Sir Richard
+      Grenville, instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And in mine also, senor,&rdquo; said Cary; &ldquo;and I shall be happy to allow you a
+      week to train him, if he does not answer at first to a Spanish hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget in your courtesy, gentle sir, that the insult being with me,
+      the time lies with me also. We wipe it off to-morrow morning with simple
+      rapiers and daggers. Who is your second?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Arthur St. Leger here, senor: who is yours?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spaniard felt himself alone in the world for one moment; and then
+      answered with another of his smiles,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your nation possesses the soul of honor. He who fights an Englishman
+      needs no second.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he who fights among Englishmen will always find one,&rdquo; said Sir
+      Richard. &ldquo;I am the fittest second for my guest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You only add one more obligation, illustrious cavalier, to a two-years'
+      prodigality of favors, which I shall never be able to repay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, Nephew Arthur,&rdquo; said Grenville, &ldquo;you cannot surely be second against
+      your father's guest, and your own uncle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot help it, sir; I am bound by an oath, as Will can tell you. I
+      suppose you won't think it necessary to let me blood?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You half deserve it, sirrah!&rdquo; said Sir Richard, who was very angry: but
+      the Don interposed quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heaven forbid, senors! We are no French duellists, who are mad enough to
+      make four or six lives answer for the sins of two. This gentleman and I
+      have quarrel enough between us, I suspect, to make a right bloody
+      encounter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The dependence is good enough, sir,&rdquo; said Cary, licking his sinful lips
+      at the thought. &ldquo;Very well. Rapiers and shirts at three tomorrow morning&mdash;Is
+      that the bill of fare? Ask Sir Richard where, Atty? It is against
+      punctilio now for me to speak to him till after I am killed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the sands opposite. The tide will be out at three. And now, gallant
+      gentlemen, let us join the bowlers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so they went back and spent a merry evening, all except poor Rose,
+      who, ere she went back, had poured all her sorrows into Lady Grenville's
+      ear. For the kind woman, knowing that she was motherless and guileless,
+      carried her off into Mrs. St. Leger's chamber, and there entreated her to
+      tell the truth, and heaped her with pity but with no comfort. For indeed,
+      what comfort was there to give?
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Three o'clock, upon a still pure bright midsummer morning. A broad and
+      yellow sheet of ribbed tide-sands, through which the shallow river wanders
+      from one hill-foot to the other, whispering round dark knolls of rock, and
+      under low tree-fringed cliffs, and banks of golden broom. A mile below,
+      the long bridge and the white walled town, all sleeping pearly in the soft
+      haze, beneath a cloudless vault of blue. The white glare of dawn, which
+      last night hung high in the northwest, has travelled now to the northeast,
+      and above the wooded wall of the hills the sky is flushing with rose and
+      amber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long line of gulls goes wailing up inland; the rooks from Annery come
+      cawing and sporting round the corner at Landcross, while high above them
+      four or five herons flap solemnly along to find their breakfast on the
+      shallows. The pheasants and partridges are clucking merrily in the long
+      wet grass; every copse and hedgerow rings with the voice of birds, but the
+      lark, who has been singing since midnight in the &ldquo;blank height of the
+      dark,&rdquo; suddenly hushes his carol and drops headlong among the corn, as a
+      broad-winged buzzard swings from some wooded peak into the abyss of the
+      valley, and hangs high-poised above the heavenward songster. The air is
+      full of perfume; sweet clover, new-mown hay, the fragrant breath of kine,
+      the dainty scent of sea-weed wreaths and fresh wet sand. Glorious day,
+      glorious place, &ldquo;bridal of earth and sky,&rdquo; decked well with bridal
+      garlands, bridal perfumes, bridal songs,&mdash;What do those four cloaked
+      figures there by the river brink, a dark spot on the fair face of the
+      summer morn?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet one is as cheerful as if he too, like all nature round him, were going
+      to a wedding; and that is Will Cary. He has been bathing down below, to
+      cool his brain and steady his hand; and he intends to stop Don Guzman
+      Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto's wooing for ever and a day. The
+      Spaniard is in a very different mood; fierce and haggard, he is pacing up
+      and down the sand. He intends to kill Will Cary; but then? Will he be the
+      nearer to Rose by doing so? Can he stay in Bideford? Will she go with him?
+      Shall he stoop to stain his family by marrying a burgher's daughter? It is
+      a confused, all but desperate business; and Don Guzman is certain but of
+      one thing, that he is madly in love with this fair witch, and that if she
+      refuse him, then, rather than see her accept another man, he would kill
+      her with his own hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard Grenville too is in no very pleasant humor, as St. Leger soon
+      discovers, when the two seconds begin whispering over their arrangements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We cannot have either of them killed, Arthur.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Cary swears he will kill the Spaniard, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He sha'n't. The Spaniard is my guest. I am answerable for him to Leigh,
+      and for his ransom too. And how can Leigh accept the ransom if the man is
+      not given up safe and sound? They won't pay for a dead carcass, boy! The
+      man's life is worth two hundred pounds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A very bad bargain, sir, for those who pay the said two hundred for the
+      rascal; but what if he kills Cary?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Worse still. Cary must not be killed. I am very angry with him, but he is
+      too good a lad to be lost; and his father would never forgive us. We must
+      strike up their swords at the first scratch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will make them very mad, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hang them! let them fight us then, if they don't like our counsel. It
+      must be, Arthur.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be sure, sir,&rdquo; said Arthur, &ldquo;that whatsoever you shall command I shall
+      perform. It is only too great an honor to a young man as I am to find
+      myself in the same duel with your worship, and to have the advantage of
+      your wisdom and experience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard smiles, and says&mdash;&ldquo;Now, gentlemen! are you ready?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spaniard pulls out a little crucifix, and kisses it devoutly, smiting
+      on his breast; crosses himself two or three times, and says&mdash;&ldquo;Most
+      willingly, senor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary kisses no crucifix, but says a prayer nevertheless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cloaks and doublets are tossed off, the men placed, the rapiers measured
+      hilt and point; Sir Richard and St. Leger place themselves right and left
+      of the combatants, facing each other, the points of their drawn swords on
+      the sand. Cary and the Spaniard stand for a moment quite upright, their
+      sword-arms stretched straight before them, holding the long rapier
+      horizontally, the left hand clutching the dagger close to their breasts.
+      So they stand eye to eye, with clenched teeth and pale crushed lips, while
+      men might count a score; St. Leger can hear the beating of his own heart;
+      Sir Richard is praying inwardly that no life may be lost. Suddenly there
+      is a quick turn of Cary's wrist and a leap forward. The Spaniard's dagger
+      flashes, and the rapier is turned aside; Cary springs six feet back as the
+      Spaniard rushes on him in turn. Parry, thrust, parry&mdash;the steel
+      rattles, the sparks fly, the men breathe fierce and loud; the devil's game
+      is begun in earnest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five minutes have the two had instant death a short six inches off from
+      those wild sinful hearts of theirs, and not a scratch has been given. Yes!
+      the Spaniard's rapier passes under Cary's left arm; he bleeds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A hit! a hit! Strike up, Atty!&rdquo; and the swords are struck up instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary, nettled by the smart, tries to close with his foe, but the seconds
+      cross their swords before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is enough, gentlemen. Don Guzman's honor is satisfied!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not my revenge, senor,&rdquo; says the Spaniard, with a frown. &ldquo;This duel
+      is a l'outrance, on my part; and, I believe, on Mr. Cary's also.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By heaven, it is!&rdquo; says Will, trying to push past. &ldquo;Let me go, Arthur St.
+      Leger; one of us must down. Let me go, I say!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you stir, Mr. Cary, you have to do with Richard Grenville!&rdquo; thunders
+      the lion voice. &ldquo;I am angry enough with you for having brought on this
+      duel at all. Don't provoke me still further, young hot-head!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary stops sulkily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not know all, Sir Richard, or you would not speak in this way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do, sir, all; and I shall have the honor of talking it over with Don
+      Guzman myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hey!&rdquo; said the Spaniard. &ldquo;You came here as my second, Sir Richard, as I
+      understood, but not as my counsellor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arthur, take your man away! Cary! obey me as you would your father, sir!
+      Can you not trust Richard Grenville?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come away, for God's sake!&rdquo; says poor Arthur, dragging Cary's sword from
+      him; &ldquo;Sir Richard must know best!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Cary is led off sulking, and Sir Richard turns to the Spaniard,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, Don Guzman, allow me, though much against my will, to speak to
+      you as a friend to a friend. You will pardon me if I say that I cannot but
+      have seen last night's devotion to&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will be pleased, senor, not to mention the name of any lady to whom I
+      may have shown devotion. I am not accustomed to have my little affairs
+      talked over by any unbidden counsellors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, senor, if you take offence, you take that which is not given. Only
+      I warn you, with all apologies for any seeming forwardness, that the quest
+      on which you seem to be is one on which you will not be allowed to
+      proceed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And who will stop me?&rdquo; asked the Spaniard, with a fierce oath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not aware, illustrious senor,&rdquo; said Sir Richard, parrying the
+      question, &ldquo;that our English laity look upon mixed marriages with full as
+      much dislike as your own ecclesiastics.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Marriage, sir? Who gave you leave to mention that word to me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard's brow darkened; the Spaniard, in his insane pride, had forced
+      upon the good knight a suspicion which was not really just.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it possible, then, Senor Don Guzman, that I am to have the shame of
+      mentioning a baser word?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mention what you will, sir. All words are the same to me; for, just or
+      unjust, I shall answer them alike only by my sword.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will do no such thing, sir. You forget that I am your host.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do you suppose that you have therefore a right to insult me? Stand on
+      your guard, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Grenville answered by slapping his own rapier home into the sheath with a
+      quiet smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Senor Don Guzman must be well enough aware of who Richard Grenville is,
+      to know that he may claim the right of refusing duel to any man, if he
+      shall so think fit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir!&rdquo; cried the Spaniard, with an oath, &ldquo;this is too much! Do you dare to
+      hint that I am unworthy of your sword? Know, insolent Englishman, I am not
+      merely a De Soto, though that, by St. James, were enough for you or any
+      man. I am a Sotomayor, a Mendoza, a Bovadilla, a Losada, a&mdash;sir! I
+      have blood royal in my veins, and you dare to refuse my challenge?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Richard Grenville can show quarterings, probably, against even Don Guzman
+      Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto, or against (with no offence to the
+      unquestioned nobility of your pedigree) the bluest blood of Spain. But he
+      can show, moreover, thank God, a reputation which raises him as much above
+      the imputation of cowardice, as it does above that of discourtesy. If you
+      think fit, senor, to forget what you have just, in very excusable anger,
+      vented, and to return with me, you will find me still, as ever, your most
+      faithful servant and host. If otherwise, you have only to name whither you
+      wish your mails to be sent, and I shall, with unfeigned sorrow, obey your
+      commands concerning them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spaniard bowed stiffly, answered, &ldquo;To the nearest tavern, senor,&rdquo; and
+      then strode away. His baggage was sent thither. He took a boat down to
+      Appledore that very afternoon, and vanished, none knew whither. A very
+      courteous note to Lady Grenville, enclosing the jewel which he had been
+      used to wear round his neck, was the only memorial he left behind him:
+      except, indeed, the scar on Cary's arm, and poor Rose's broken heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now county towns are scandalous places at best; and though all parties
+      tried to keep the duel secret, yet, of course, before noon all Bideford
+      knew what had happened, and a great deal more; and what was even worse,
+      Rose, in an agony of terror, had seen Sir Richard Grenville enter her
+      father's private room, and sit there closeted with him for an hour and
+      more; and when he went, upstairs came old Salterne, with his stick in his
+      hand, and after rating her soundly for far worse than a flirt, gave her (I
+      am sorry to have to say it, but such was the mild fashion of paternal rule
+      in those times, even over such daughters as Lady Jane Grey, if Roger
+      Ascham is to be believed) such a beating that her poor sides were black
+      and blue for many a day; and then putting her on a pillion behind him,
+      carried her off twenty miles to her old prison at Stow mill, commanding
+      her aunt to tame down her saucy blood with bread of affliction and water
+      of affliction. Which commands were willingly enough fulfilled by the old
+      dame, who had always borne a grudge against Rose for being rich while she
+      was poor, and pretty while her daughter was plain; so that between flouts,
+      and sneers, and watchings, and pretty open hints that she was a disgrace
+      to her family, and no better than she should be, the poor innocent child
+      watered her couch with her tears for a fortnight or more, stretching out
+      her hands to the wide Atlantic, and calling wildly to Don Guzman to return
+      and take her where he would, and she would live for him and die for him;
+      and perhaps she did not call in vain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW THE GOLDEN HIND CAME HOME AGAIN
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The spirits of your fathers
+       Shall start from every wave;
+     For the deck it was their field of fame,
+       And ocean was their grave.&rdquo;
+
+                                CAMPBELL.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you see, my dear Mrs. Hawkins, having the silver, as your own eyes
+      show you, beside the ores of lead, manganese, and copper, and above all
+      this gossan (as the Cornish call it), which I suspect to be not merely the
+      matrix of the ore, but also the very crude form and materia prima of all
+      metals&mdash;you mark me?&mdash;If my recipes, which I had from Doctor
+      Dee, succeed only half so well as I expect, then I refine out the luna,
+      the silver, lay it by, and transmute the remaining ores into sol, gold.
+      Whereupon Peru and Mexico become superfluities, and England the mistress
+      of the globe. Strange, no doubt; distant, no doubt: but possible, my dear
+      madam, possible!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what good to you if it be, Mr. Gilbert? If you could find a
+      philosopher's stone to turn sinners into saints, now&mdash;but naught save
+      God's grace can do that; and that last seems ofttimes over long in
+      coming.&rdquo; And Mrs. Hawkins sighed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But indeed, my dear madam, conceive now.&mdash;The Comb Martin mine thus
+      becomes a gold mine, perhaps inexhaustible; yields me wherewithal to carry
+      out my North-West patent; meanwhile my brother Humphrey holds
+      Newfoundland, and builds me fresh ships year by year (for the forests of
+      pine are boundless) for my China voyage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Humphrey has better thoughts in his dear heart than gold, Mr. Adrian;
+      a very close and gracious walker he has been this seven year. I wish my
+      Captain John were so too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how do you know I have naught better in my mind's eye than gold? Or,
+      indeed, what better could I have? Is not gold the Spaniard's strength&mdash;the
+      very mainspring of Antichrist? By gold only, therefore, can we out-wrestle
+      him. You shake your head, but say, dear madam (for gold England must
+      have), which is better, to make gold bloodlessly at home, or take it
+      bloodily abroad?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Gilbert! is it not written, that those who make
+      haste to be rich, pierce themselves through with many sorrows? Oh, Mr.
+      Gilbert! God's blessing is not on it all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not on you, madam? Be sure that brave Captain John Hawkins's star told me
+      a different tale, when I cast his nativity for him.&mdash;Born under
+      stormy planets, truly, but under right royal and fortunate ones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, Mr. Adrian! I am a simple body, and you a great philosopher, but I
+      hold there is no star for the seaman like the Star of Bethlehem; and that
+      goes with 'peace on earth and good will to men,' and not with such arms as
+      that, Mr. Adrian. I can't abide to look upon them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And she pointed up to one of the bosses of the ribbed oak-roof, on which
+      was emblazoned the fatal crest which Clarencieux Hervey had granted years
+      before to her husband, the &ldquo;Demi-Moor proper, bound.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, Mr. Gilbert! since first he went to Guinea after those poor negroes,
+      little lightness has my heart known; and the very day that that crest was
+      put up in our grand new house, as the parson read the first lesson, there
+      was this text in it, Mr. Gilbert, 'Woe to him that buildeth his house by
+      iniquity, and his chambers by wrong. Shalt thou live because thou closest
+      thyself in cedar?' And it went into my ears like fire, Mr. Gilbert, and
+      into my heart like lead; and when the parson went on, 'Did not thy father
+      eat and drink, and do judgment and justice? Then it was well with him,' I
+      thought of good old Captain Will; and&mdash;I tell you, Mr. Gilbert, those
+      negroes are on my soul from morning until night! We are all mighty grand
+      now, and money comes in fast, but the Lord will require the blood of them
+      at our hands yet, He will!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dearest madam, who can prosper more than you? If your husband copied
+      the Dons too closely once or twice in the matter of those negroes (which I
+      do not deny,) was he not punished at once when he lost ships, men, all but
+      life, at St. Juan d'Ulloa?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, yes,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;and that did give me a bit of comfort, especially
+      when the queen&mdash;God save her tender heart!&mdash;was so sharp with
+      him for pity of the poor wretches, but it has not mended him. He is
+      growing fast like the rest now, Mr. Gilbert, greedy to win, and niggardly
+      to spend (God forgive him!) and always fretting and plotting for some new
+      gain, and envying and grudging at Drake, and all who are deeper in the
+      snare of prosperity than he is. Gold, gold, nothing but gold in every
+      mouth&mdash;there it is! Ah! I mind when Plymouth was a quiet little
+      God-fearing place as God could smile upon: but ever since my John, and Sir
+      Francis, and poor Mr. Oxenham found out the way to the Indies, it's been a
+      sad place. Not a sailor's wife but is crying 'Give, give,' like the
+      daughters of the horse-leech; and every woman must drive her husband out
+      across seas to bring her home money to squander on hoods and farthingales,
+      and go mincing with outstretched necks and wanton eyes; and they will soon
+      learn to do worse than that, for the sake of gain. But the Lord's hand
+      will be against their tires and crisping-pins, their mufflers and
+      farthingales, as it was against the Jews of old. Ah, dear me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two interlocutors in this dialogue were sitting in a low oak-panelled
+      room in Plymouth town, handsomely enough furnished, adorned with carving
+      and gilding and coats of arms, and noteworthy for many strange
+      knickknacks, Spanish gold and silver vessels on the sideboard; strange
+      birds and skins, and charts and rough drawings of coast which hung about
+      the room; while over the fireplace, above the portrait of old Captain Will
+      Hawkins, pet of Henry the Eighth, hung the Spanish ensign which Captain
+      John had taken in fair fight at Rio de la Hacha fifteen years before,
+      when, with two hundred men, he seized the town in despite of ten hundred
+      Spanish soldiers, and watered his ship triumphantly at the enemy's wells.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gentleman was a tall fair man, with a broad and lofty forehead,
+      wrinkled with study, and eyes weakened by long poring over the crucible
+      and the furnace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lady had once been comely enough, but she was aged and worn, as
+      sailors' wives are apt to be, by many sorrows. Many a sad day had she had
+      already; for although John Hawkins, port-admiral of Plymouth, and
+      patriarch of British shipbuilders, was a faithful husband enough, and as
+      ready to forgive as he was to quarrel, yet he was obstinate and ruthless,
+      and in spite of his religiosity (for all men were religious then) was by
+      no means a &ldquo;consistent walker.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And sadder days were in store for her, poor soul. Nine years hence she
+      would be asked to name her son's brave new ship, and would christen it The
+      Repentance, giving no reason in her quiet steadfast way (so says her son
+      Sir Richard) but that &ldquo;Repentance was the best ship in which we could sail
+      to the harbor of heaven;&rdquo; and she would hear that Queen Elizabeth,
+      complaining of the name for an unlucky one, had re-christened her The
+      Dainty, not without some by-quip, perhaps, at the character of her most
+      dainty captain, Richard Hawkins, the complete seaman and Euphuist afloat,
+      of whom, perhaps, more hereafter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With sad eyes Mrs. (then Lady) Hawkins would see that gallant bark sail
+      Westward-ho, to go the world around, as many another ship sailed; and then
+      wait, as many a mother beside had waited, for the sail which never
+      returned; till, dim and uncertain, came tidings of her boy fighting for
+      four days three great Armadas (for the coxcomb had his father's heart in
+      him after all), a prisoner, wounded, ruined, languishing for weary years
+      in Spanish prisons. And a sadder day than that was in store, when a
+      gallant fleet should round the Ram Head, not with drum and trumpet, but
+      with solemn minute-guns, and all flags half-mast high, to tell her that
+      her terrible husband's work was done, his terrible heart broken by failure
+      and fatigue, and his body laid by Drake's beneath the far-off tropic seas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And if, at the close of her eventful life, one gleam of sunshine opened
+      for a while, when her boy Richard returned to her bosom from his Spanish
+      prison, to be knighted for his valor, and made a privy councillor for his
+      wisdom; yet soon, how soon, was the old cloud to close in again above her,
+      until her weary eyes should open in the light of Paradise. For that son
+      dropped dead, some say at the very council-table, leaving behind him
+      naught but broken fortunes, and huge purposes which never were fulfilled;
+      and the stormy star of that bold race was set forever, and Lady Hawkins
+      bowed her weary head and died, the groan of those stolen negroes ringing
+      in her ears, having lived long enough to see her husband's youthful sin
+      become a national institution, and a national curse for generations yet
+      unborn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I know not why she opened her heart that night to Adrian Gilbert, with a
+      frankness which she would hardly have dared to use to her own family.
+      Perhaps it was that Adrian, like his great brothers, Humphrey and Raleigh,
+      was a man full of all lofty and delicate enthusiasms, tender and poetical,
+      such as women cling to when their hearts are lonely; but so it was; and
+      Adrian, half ashamed of his own ambitious dreams, sate looking at her a
+      while in silence; and then&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lord be with you, dearest lady. Strange, how you women sit at home to
+      love and suffer, while we men rush forth to break our hearts and yours
+      against rocks of our own seeking! Ah well! were it not for Scripture, I
+      should have thought that Adam, rather than Eve, had been the one who
+      plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We women, I fear; did the deed nevertheless; for we bear the doom of it
+      our lives long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You always remind me, madam, of my dear Mrs. Leigh of Burrough, and her
+      counsels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you see her often? I hear of her as one of the Lord's most precious
+      vessels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would have done more ere now than see her,&rdquo; said he with a blush, &ldquo;had
+      she allowed me: but she lives only for the memory of her husband and the
+      fame of her noble sons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke the door opened, and in walked, wrapped in his rough sea-gown,
+      none other than one of those said noble sons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Adrian turned pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas Leigh! What brings you hither? how fares my brother? Where is the
+      ship?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your brother is well, Mr. Gilbert. The Golden Hind is gone on to
+      Dartmouth, with Mr. Hayes. I came ashore here, meaning to go north to
+      Bideford, ere I went to London. I called at Drake's just now, but he was
+      away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Golden Hind? What brings her home so soon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet welcome ever, sir,&rdquo; said Mrs. Hawkins. &ldquo;This is a great surprise,
+      though. Captain John did not look for you till next year.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something is wrong!&rdquo; cried Adrian. &ldquo;Speak!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas tried, but could not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you drive a man mad, sir? Has the adventure failed? You said my
+      brother was well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what&mdash;Why do you look at me in that fashion, sir?&rdquo; and
+      springing up, Adrian rushed forward, and held the candle to Amyas's face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas's lip quivered, as he laid his hand on Adrian's shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your great and glorious brother, sir, is better bestowed than in settling
+      Newfoundland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dead?&rdquo; shrieked Adrian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is with the God whom he served!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was always with Him, like Enoch: parable me no parables, if you love
+      me, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, like Enoch, he was not; for God took him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Adrian clasped his hands over his forehead, and leaned against the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on, sir, go on. God will give me strength to hear all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And gradually Amyas opened to Adrian that tragic story, which Mr. Hayes
+      has long ago told far too well to allow a second edition of it from me: of
+      the unruliness of the men, ruffians, as I said before, caught up at
+      hap-hazard; of conspiracies to carry off the ships, plunder of fishing
+      vessels, desertions multiplying daily; licenses from the general to the
+      lazy and fearful to return home: till Adrian broke out with a groan&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From him? Conspired against him? Deserted from him? Dotards, buzzards!
+      Where would they have found such another leader?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your illustrious brother, sir,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;if you will pardon me, was a
+      very great philosopher, but not so much of a general.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;General, sir? Where was braver man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not on God's earth, but that does not make a general, sir. If Cortez had
+      been brave and no more, Mexico would have been Mexico still. The truth is,
+      sir, Cortez, like my Captain Drake, knew when to hang a man; and your
+      great brother did not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas, as I suppose, was right. Gilbert was a man who could be angry
+      enough at baseness or neglect, but who was too kindly to punish it; he was
+      one who could form the wisest and best-digested plans, but who could not
+      stoop to that hail-fellow-well-met drudgery among his subordinates which
+      has been the talisman of great captains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Amyas went on to tell the rest of his story; the setting sail from
+      St. John's to discover the southward coast; Sir Humphrey's chivalrous
+      determination to go in the little Squirrel of only ten tons, and
+      &ldquo;overcharged with nettings, fights, and small ordnance,&rdquo; not only because
+      she was more fit to examine the creeks, but because he had heard of some
+      taunt against him among the men, that he was afraid of the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that, woe on woe; how, seven days after they left Cape Raz, their
+      largest ship, the Delight, after she had &ldquo;most part of the night&rdquo; (I quote
+      Hayes), &ldquo;like the swan that singeth before her death, continued in
+      sounding of trumpets, drums, and fifes, also winding of the comets and
+      hautboys, and, in the end of their jollity, left off with the battle and
+      doleful knells,&rdquo; struck the next day (the Golden Hind and the Squirrel
+      sheering off just in time) upon unknown shoals; where were lost all but
+      fourteen, and among them Frank's philosopher friend, poor Budaeus; and
+      those who escaped, after all horrors of cold and famine, were cast on
+      shore in Newfoundland. How, worn out with hunger and want of clothes, the
+      crews of the two remaining ships persuaded Sir Humphrey to sail toward
+      England on the 31st of August; and on &ldquo;that very instant, even in winding
+      about,&rdquo; beheld close alongside &ldquo;a very lion in shape, hair, and color, not
+      swimming, but sliding on the water, with his whole body; who passed along,
+      turning his head to and fro, yawning and gaping wide, with ugly
+      demonstration of long teeth and glaring eyes; and to bid us farewell
+      (coming right against the Hind) he sent forth a horrible voice, roaring or
+      bellowing as doth a lion.&rdquo; &ldquo;What opinion others had thereof, and chiefly
+      the general himself, I forbear to deliver; but he took it for bonum omen,
+      rejoicing that he was to war against such an enemy, if it were the devil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the devil it was, doubtless,&rdquo; said Adrian, &ldquo;the roaring lion who goes
+      about seeking whom he may devour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has not got your brother, at least,&rdquo; quoth Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; rejoined Mrs. Hawkins (smile not, reader, for those were days in
+      which men believed in the devil); &ldquo;he roared for joy to think how many
+      poor souls would be left still in heathen darkness by Sir Humphrey's
+      death. God be with that good knight, and send all mariners where he is
+      now!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Amyas told the last scene; how, when they were off the Azores, the
+      storms came on heavier than ever, with &ldquo;terrible seas, breaking short and
+      pyramid-wise,&rdquo; till, on the 9th September, the tiny Squirrel nearly
+      foundered and yet recovered; &ldquo;and the general, sitting abaft with a book
+      in his hand, cried out to us in the Hind so oft as we did approach within
+      hearing, 'We are as near heaven by sea as by land,' reiterating the same
+      speech, well beseeming a soldier resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can
+      testify he was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The same Monday, about twelve of the clock, or not long after, the
+      frigate (the Squirrel) being ahead of us in the Golden Hind, suddenly her
+      lights were out; and withal our watch cried, the general was cast away,
+      which was true; for in that moment the frigate was devoured and swallowed
+      up of the sea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so ended (I have used Hayes' own words) Amyas Leigh's story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, my brother! my brother!&rdquo; moaned poor Adrian; &ldquo;the glory of his house,
+      the glory of Devon!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! what will the queen say?&rdquo; asked Mrs. Hawkins through her tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me,&rdquo; asked Adrian, &ldquo;had he the jewel on when he died?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The queen's jewel? He always wore that, and his own posy too, 'Mutare vel
+      timere sperno.' He wore it; and he lived it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; said Adrian, &ldquo;the same to the last!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not quite that,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;He was a meeker man latterly than he used
+      to be. As he said himself once, a better refiner than any whom he had on
+      board had followed him close all the seas over, and purified him in the
+      fire. And gold seven times tried he was, when God, having done His work in
+      him, took him home at last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so the talk ended. There was no doubt that the expedition had been an
+      utter failure; Adrian was a ruined man; and Amyas had lost his venture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Adrian rose, and begged leave to retire; he must collect himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor gentleman!&rdquo; said Mrs. Hawkins; &ldquo;it is little else he has left to
+      collect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or I either,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;I was going to ask you to lend me one of your
+      son's shirts, and five pounds to get myself and my men home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Five? Fifty, Mr. Leigh! God forbid that John Hawkins's wife should refuse
+      her last penny to a distressed mariner, and he a gentleman born. But you
+      must eat and drink.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's more than I have done for many a day worth speaking of.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Amyas sat down in his rags to a good supper, while Mrs. Hawkins told
+      him all the news which she could of his mother, whom Adrian Gilbert had
+      seen a few months before in London; and then went on, naturally enough, to
+      the Bideford news.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And by the by, Captain Leigh, I've sad news for you from your place; and
+      I had it from one who was there at the time. You must know a Spanish
+      captain, a prisoner&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, the one I sent home from Smerwick?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You sent? Mercy on us! Then, perhaps, you've heard&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can I have heard? What?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That he's gone off, the villain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Without paying his ransom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't say that; but there's a poor innocent young maid gone off with
+      him, one Salterne's daughter&mdash;the Popish serpent!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rose Salterne, the mayor's daughter, the Rose of Torridge!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's her. Bless your dear soul, what ails you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas had dropped back in his seat as if he had been shot; but he
+      recovered himself before kind Mrs. Hawkins could rush to the cupboard for
+      cordials.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll forgive me, madam; but I'm weak from the sea; and your good ale
+      has turned me a bit dizzy, I think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, yes, 'tis too, too heavy, till you've been on shore a while. Try the
+      aqua vitae; my Captain John has it right good; and a bit too fond of it
+      too, poor dear soul, between whiles, Heaven forgive him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So she poured some strong brandy and water down Amyas's throat, in spite
+      of his refusals, and sent him to bed, but not to sleep; and after a night
+      of tossing, he started for Bideford, having obtained the means for so
+      doing from Mrs. Hawkins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW SALVATION YEO SLEW THE KING OF THE GUBBINGS
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Ignorance and evil, even in full flight, deal terrible backhanded
+     strokes at their pursuers.&rdquo;&mdash;HELPS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Now I am sorry to say, for the honor of my country, that it was by no
+      means a safe thing in those days to travel from Plymouth to the north of
+      Devon; because, to get to your journey's end, unless you were minded to
+      make a circuit of many miles, you must needs pass through the territory of
+      a foreign and hostile potentate, who had many times ravaged the dominions,
+      and defeated the forces of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and was named
+      (behind his back at least) the King of the Gubbings. &ldquo;So now I dare call
+      them,&rdquo; says Fuller, &ldquo;secured by distance, which one of more valor durst
+      not do to their face, for fear their fury fall upon him. Yet hitherto have
+      I met with none who could render a reason of their name. We call the
+      shavings of fish (which are little worth) gubbings; and sure it is that
+      they are sensible that the word importeth shame and disgrace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As for the suggestion of my worthy and learned friend, Mr. Joseph
+      Maynard, that such as did inhabitare montes gibberosos, were called
+      Gubbings, such will smile at the ingenuity who dissent from the truth of
+      the etymology.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have read of an England beyond Wales, but the Gubbings land is a
+      Scythia within England, and they pure heathens therein. It lieth nigh
+      Brent. For in the edge of Dartmoor it is reported that, some two hundred
+      years since, two bad women, being with child, fled thither to hide
+      themselves; to whom certain lewd fellows resorted, and this was their
+      first original. They are a peculiar of their own making, exempt from
+      bishop, archdeacon, and all authority, either ecclesiastical or civil.
+      They live in cots (rather holes than houses) like swine, having all in
+      common, multiplied without marriage into many hundreds. Their language is
+      the dross of the dregs of the vulgar Devonian; and the more learned a man
+      is, the worse he can understand them. During our civil wars no soldiers
+      were quartered upon them, for fear of being quartered amongst them. Their
+      wealth consisteth in other men's goods; they live by stealing the sheep on
+      the moors; and vain is it for any to search their houses, being a work
+      beneath the pains of any sheriff, and above the power of any constable.
+      Such is their fleetness, they will outrun many horses; vivaciousness, they
+      outlive most men; living in an ignorance of luxury, the extinguisher of
+      life. They hold together like bees; offend one, and all will revenge his
+      quarrel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But now I am informed that they begin to be civilized, and tender their
+      children to baptism, and return to be men, yea, Christians again. I hope
+      no CIVIL people amongst us will turn barbarians, now these barbarians
+      begin to be civilized.&rdquo; *
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Fuller, p. 398.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      With which quip against the Anabaptists of his day, Fuller ends his story;
+      and I leave him to set forth how Amyas, in fear of these same Scythians
+      and heathens, rode out of Plymouth on a right good horse, in his full suit
+      of armor, carrying lance and sword, and over and above two great dags, or
+      horse-pistols; and behind him Salvation Yeo, and five or six north Devon
+      men (who had served with him in Ireland, and were returning on furlough),
+      clad in head-pieces and quilted jerkins, each man with his pike and sword,
+      and Yeo with arquebuse and match, while two sumpter ponies carried the
+      baggage of this formidable troop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They pushed on as fast as they could, through Tavistock, to reach before
+      nightfall Lydford, where they meant to sleep; but what with buying the
+      horses, and other delays, they had not been able to start before noon; and
+      night fell just as they reached the frontiers of the enemy's country. A
+      dreary place enough it was, by the wild glare of sunset. A high tableland
+      of heath, banked on the right by the crags and hills of Dartmoor, and
+      sloping away to the south and west toward the foot of the great cone of
+      Brent-Tor, which towered up like an extinct volcano (as some say that it
+      really is), crowned with the tiny church, the votive offering of some
+      Plymouth merchant of old times, who vowed in sore distress to build a
+      church to the Blessed Virgin on the first point of English land which he
+      should see. Far away, down those waste slopes, they could see the tiny
+      threads of blue smoke rising from the dens of the Gubbings; and more than
+      once they called a halt, to examine whether distant furze-bushes and
+      ponies might not be the patrols of an advancing army. It is all very well
+      to laugh at it now, in the nineteenth century, but it was no laughing
+      matter then; as they found before they had gone two miles farther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the middle of the down stood a wayside inn; a desolate and
+      villainous-looking lump of lichen-spotted granite, with windows
+      paper-patched, and rotting thatch kept down by stones and straw-banks; and
+      at the back a rambling court-ledge of barns and walls, around which pigs
+      and barefoot children grunted in loving communion of dirt. At the door,
+      rapt apparently in the contemplation of the mountain peaks which glowed
+      rich orange in the last lingering sun-rays, but really watching which way
+      the sheep on the moor were taking, stood the innkeeper, a brawny,
+      sodden-visaged, blear-eyed six feet of brutishness, holding up his hose
+      with one hand, for want of points, and clawing with the other his
+      elf-locks, on which a fair sprinkling of feathers might denote: first,
+      that he was just out of bed, having been out sheep-stealing all the night
+      before; and secondly, that by natural genius he had anticipated the
+      opinion of that great apostle of sluttishness, Fridericus Dedekind, and
+      his faithful disciple Dekker, which last speaks thus to all gulls and
+      grobians: &ldquo;Consider that as those trees of cobweb lawn, woven by spinners
+      in the fresh May mornings, do dress the curled heads of the mountains, and
+      adorn the swelling bosoms of the valleys; or as those snowy fleeces, which
+      the naked briar steals from the innocent sheep to make himself a warm
+      winter livery, are, to either of them both, an excellent ornament; so make
+      thou account, that to have feathers sticking here and there on thy head
+      will embellish thee, and set thy crown out rarely. None dare upbraid thee,
+      that like a beggar thou hast lain on straw, or like a travelling pedlar
+      upon musty flocks; for those feathers will rise up as witnesses to choke
+      him that says so, and to prove thy bed to have been of the softest down.&rdquo;
+       Even so did those feathers bear witness that the possessor of Rogues'
+      Harbor Inn, on Brent-Tor Down, whatever else he lacked, lacked not geese
+      enough to keep him in soft lying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently he spies Amyas and his party coming slowly over the hill, pricks
+      up his ears, and counts them; sees Amyas's armor; shakes his head and
+      grunts; and then, being a man of few words, utters a sleepy howl&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mirooi!&mdash;Fushing pooale!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A strapping lass&mdash;whose only covering (for country women at work in
+      those days dispensed with the ornament of a gown) is a green bodice and
+      red petticoat, neither of them over ample&mdash;brings out his fishing-rod
+      and basket, and the man, having tied up his hose with some ends of string,
+      examines the footlink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don vlies' gone!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May be,&rdquo; says Mary; &ldquo;shouldn't hay' left mun out to coort. May be old
+      hen's ate mun off. I see her chocking about a while agone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The host receives this intelligence with an oath, and replies by a violent
+      blow at Mary's head, which she, accustomed to such slight matters, dodges,
+      and then returns the blow with good effect on the shock head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon mine host, equally accustomed to such slight matters, quietly
+      shambles off, howling as he departs&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell Patrico!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mary runs in, combs her hair, slips a pair of stockings and her best gown
+      over her dirt, and awaits the coming guests, who make a few long faces at
+      the &ldquo;mucksy sort of a place,&rdquo; but prefer to spend the night there than to
+      bivouac close to the enemy's camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the old hen who has swallowed the dun fly is killed, plucked, and
+      roasted, and certain &ldquo;black Dartmoor mutton&rdquo; is put on the gridiron, and
+      being compelled to confess the truth by that fiery torment, proclaims
+      itself to all noses as red-deer venison. In the meanwhile Amyas has put
+      his horse and the ponies into a shed, to which he can find neither lock
+      nor key, and therefore returns grumbling, not without fear for his steed's
+      safety. The baggage is heaped in a corner of the room, and Amyas stretches
+      his legs before a turf fire; while Yeo, who has his notions about the
+      place, posts himself at the door, and the men are seized with a desire to
+      superintend the cooking, probably to be attributed to the fact that Mary
+      is cook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently Yeo comes in again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's a gentleman just coming up, sir, all alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask him to make one of our party, then, with my compliments.&rdquo; Yeo goes
+      out, and returns in five minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please, sir, he's gone in back ways, by the court.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, he has an odd taste, if he makes himself at home here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Out goes Yeo again, and comes back once more after five minutes, in high
+      excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come out, sir; for goodness' sake come out. I've got him. Safe as a rat
+      in a trap, I have!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Jesuit, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense, man!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you truth, sir. I went round the house, for I didn't like the
+      looks of him as he came up. I knew he was one of them villains the minute
+      he came up, by the way he turned in his toes, and put down his feet so
+      still and careful, like as if he was afraid of offending God at every
+      step. So I just put my eye between the wall and the dern of the gate, and
+      I saw him come up to the back door and knock, and call 'Mary!' quite
+      still, like any Jesuit; and the wench flies out to him ready to eat him;
+      and 'Go away,' I heard her say, 'there's a dear man;' and then something
+      about a 'queer cuffin' (that's a justice in these canters' thieves'
+      Latin); and with that he takes out a somewhat&mdash;I'll swear it was one
+      of those Popish Agnuses&mdash;and gives it her; and she kisses it, and
+      crosses herself, and asks him if that's the right way, and then puts it
+      into her bosom, and he says, 'Bless you, my daughter;' and then I was sure
+      of the dog: and he slips quite still to the stable, and peeps in, and when
+      he sees no one there, in he goes, and out I go, and shut to the door, and
+      back a cart that was there up against it, and call out one of the men to
+      watch the stable, and the girl's crying like mad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a fool's trick, man! How do you know that he is not some honest
+      gentleman, after all?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fool or none, sir; honest gentlemen don't give maidens Agnuses. I've put
+      him in; and if you want him let out again, you must come and do it
+      yourself, for my conscience is against it, sir. If the Lord's enemies are
+      delivered into my hand, I'm answerable, sir,&rdquo; went on Yeo as Amyas hurried
+      out with him. &ldquo;'Tis written, 'If any let one of them go, his life shall be
+      for the life of him.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Amyas ran out, pulled back the cart grumbling, opened the door, and
+      began a string of apologies to&mdash;his cousin Eustace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, here he was, with such a countenance, half foolish, half venomous, as
+      reynard wears when the last spadeful of earth is thrown back, and he is
+      revealed sitting disconsolately on his tail within a yard of the terriers'
+      noses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither cousin spoke for a minute or two. At last Amyas&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, cousin hide-and-seek, how long have you added horse-stealing to
+      your other trades?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear Amyas,&rdquo; said Eustace, very meekly, &ldquo;I may surely go into an inn
+      stable without intending to steal what is in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, old fellow,&rdquo; said Amyas, mollified, &ldquo;I was only in jest. But
+      what brings you here? Not prudence, certainly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am bound to know no prudence save for the Lord's work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's giving away Agnus Deis, and deceiving poor heathen wenches, I
+      suppose,&rdquo; said Yeo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace answered pretty roundly&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heathens? Yes, truly; you Protestants leave these poor wretches heathens,
+      and then insult and persecute those who, with a devotion unknown to you,
+      labor at the danger of their lives to make them Christians. Mr. Amyas
+      Leigh, you can give me up to be hanged at Exeter, if it shall so please
+      you to disgrace your own family; but from this spot neither you, no, nor
+      all the myrmidons of your queen, shall drive me, while there is a soul
+      here left unsaved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come out of the stable, at least,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;you don't want to make
+      the horses Papists, as well as the asses, do you? Come out, man, and go to
+      the devil your own way. I sha'n't inform against you; and Yeo here will
+      hold his tongue if I tell him, I know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It goes sorely against my conscience, sir; but being that he is your
+      cousin, of course&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course; and now come in and eat with me; supper's just ready, and
+      bygones shall be bygones, if you will have them so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      How much forgiveness Eustace felt in his heart, I know not: but he knew,
+      of course, that he ought to forgive; and to go in and eat with Amyas was
+      to perform an act of forgiveness, and for the best of motives, too, for by
+      it the cause of the Church might be furthered; and acts and motives being
+      correct, what more was needed? So in he went; and yet he never forgot that
+      scar upon his cheek; and Amyas could not look him in the face but Eustace
+      must fancy that his eyes were on the scar, and peep up from under his lids
+      to see if there was any smile of triumph on that honest visage. They
+      talked away over the venison, guardedly enough at first; but as they went
+      on, Amyas's straightforward kindliness warmed poor Eustace's frozen heart;
+      and ere they were aware, they found themselves talking over old haunts and
+      old passages of their boyhood&mdash;uncles, aunts, and cousins; and
+      Eustace, without any sinister intention, asked Amyas why he was going to
+      Bideford, while Frank and his mother were in London.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To tell you the truth, I cannot rest till I have heard the whole story
+      about poor Rose Salterne.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What about her?&rdquo; cried Eustace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you not know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How should I know anything here? For heaven's sake, what has happened?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas told him, wondering at his eagerness, for he had never had the least
+      suspicion of Eustace's love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace shrieked aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fool, fool that I have been! Caught in my own trap! Villain, villain that
+      he is! After all he promised me at Lundy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And springing up, Eustace stamped up and down the room, gnashing his
+      teeth, tossing his head from side to side, and clutching with outstretched
+      hands at the empty air, with the horrible gesture (Heaven grant that no
+      reader has ever witnessed it!) of that despair which still seeks blindly
+      for the object which it knows is lost forever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas sat thunderstruck. His first impulse was to ask, &ldquo;Lundy? What knew
+      you of him? What had he or you to do at Lundy?&rdquo; but pity conquered
+      curiosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Eustace! And you then loved her too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't speak to me! Loved her? Yes, sir, and had as good a right to love
+      her as any one of your precious Brotherhood of the Rose. Don't speak to
+      me, I say, or I shall do you a mischief!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Eustace knew of the brotherhood too! Amyas longed to ask him how; but
+      what use in that? If he knew it, he knew it; and what harm? So he only
+      answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My good cousin, why be wroth with me? If you really love her, now is the
+      time to take counsel with me how best we shall&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace did not let him finish his sentence. Conscious that he had
+      betrayed himself upon more points than one, he stopped short in his walk,
+      suddenly collected himself by one great effort, and eyed Amyas from
+      underneath his brows with the old down look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How best we shall do what, my valiant cousin?&rdquo; said he, in a meaning and
+      half-scornful voice. &ldquo;What does your most chivalrous Brotherhood of the
+      Rose purpose in such a case?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas, a little nettled, stood on his guard in return, and answered
+      bluntly&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What the Brotherhood of the Rose will do, I can't yet say. What it ought
+      to do, I have a pretty sure guess.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So have I. To hunt her down as you would an outlaw, because forsooth she
+      has dared to love a Catholic; to murder her lover in her arms, and drag
+      her home again stained with his blood, to be forced by threats and
+      persecution to renounce that Church into whose maternal bosom she has
+      doubtless long since found rest and holiness!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If she has found holiness, it matters little to me where she has found
+      it, Master Eustace, but that is the very point that I should be glad to
+      know for certain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you will go and discover for yourself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you no wish to discover it also?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if I had, what would that be to you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only,&rdquo; said Amyas, trying hard to keep his temper, &ldquo;that, if we had the
+      same purpose, we might sail in the same ship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You intend to sail, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean simply, that we might work together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our paths lie on very different roads, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid you never spoke a truer word, sir. In the meanwhile, ere we
+      part, be so kind as to tell me what you meant by saying that you had met
+      this Spaniard at Lundy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall refuse to answer that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will please to recollect, Eustace, that however good friends we have
+      been for the last half-hour, you are in my power. I have a right to know
+      the bottom of this matter; and, by heaven, I will know it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In your power? See that you are not in mine! Remember, sir, that you are
+      within a&mdash;within a few miles, at least, of those who will obey me,
+      their Catholic benefactor, but who owe no allegiance to those Protestant
+      authorities who have left them to the lot of the beasts which perish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was very angry. He wanted but little more to make him catch Eustace
+      by the shoulders, shake the life out of him, and deliver him into the
+      tender guardianship of Yeo; but he knew that to take him at all was to
+      bring certain death on him, and disgrace on the family; and remembering
+      Frank's conduct on that memorable night at Clovelly, he kept himself down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take me,&rdquo; said Eustace, &ldquo;if you will, sir. You, who complain of us that
+      we keep no faith with heretics, will perhaps recollect that you asked me
+      into this room as your guest, and that in your good faith I trusted when I
+      entered it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The argument was a worthless one in law; for Eustace had been a prisoner
+      before he was a guest, and Amyas was guilty of something very like
+      misprision of treason in not handing him over to the nearest justice.
+      However, all he did was, to go to the door, open it, and bowing to his
+      cousin, bid him walk out and go to the devil, since he seemed to have set
+      his mind on ending his days in the company of that personage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon Eustace vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pooh!&rdquo; said Amyas to himself, &ldquo;I can find out enough, and too much, I
+      fear, without the help of such crooked vermin. I must see Cary; I must see
+      Salterne; and I suppose, if I am ready to do my duty, I shall learn
+      somehow what it is. Now to sleep; to-morrow up and away to what God
+      sends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in hither, men,&rdquo; shouted he down the passage, &ldquo;and sleep here.
+      Haven't you had enough of this villainous sour cider?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The men came in yawning, and settled themselves to sleep on the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where's Yeo?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No one knew; he had gone out to say his prayers, and had not returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind,&rdquo; said Amyas, who suspected some plot on the old man's part.
+      &ldquo;He'll take care of himself, I'll warrant him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No fear of that, sir;&rdquo; and the four tars were soon snoring in concert
+      round the fire, while Amyas laid himself on the settle, with his saddle
+      for a pillow.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      It was about midnight, when Amyas leaped to his feet, or rather fell upon
+      his back, upsetting saddle, settle, and finally, table, under the notion
+      that ten thousand flying dragons were bursting in the window close to his
+      ear, with howls most fierce and fell. The flying dragons past, however,
+      being only a flock of terror-stricken geese, which flew flapping and
+      screaming round the corner of the house; but the noise which had startled
+      them did not pass; and another minute made it evident that a sharp fight
+      was going on in the courtyard, and that Yeo was hallooing lustily for
+      help.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Out turned the men, sword in hand, burst the back door open, stumbling
+      over pails and pitchers, and into the courtyard, where Yeo, his back
+      against the stable-door, was holding his own manfully with sword and
+      buckler against a dozen men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dire and manifold was the screaming; geese screamed, chickens screamed,
+      pigs screamed, donkeys screamed, Mary screamed from an upper window; and
+      to complete the chorus, a flock of plovers, attracted by the noise,
+      wheeled round and round overhead, and added their screams also to that
+      Dutch concert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The screaming went on, but the fight ceased; for, as Amyas rushed into the
+      yard, the whole party of ruffians took to their heels, and vanished over a
+      low hedge at the other end of the yard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you hurt, Yeo?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a scratch, thank Heaven! But I've got two of them, the ringleaders, I
+      have. One of them's against the wall. Your horse did for t'other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wounded man was lifted up; a huge ruffian, nearly as big as Amyas
+      himself. Yeo's sword had passed through his body. He groaned and choked
+      for breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Carry him indoors. Where is the other?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dead as a herring, in the straw. Have a care, men, have a care how you go
+      in! the horses are near mad!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      However, the man was brought out after a while. With him all was over.
+      They could feel neither pulse nor breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Carry him in too, poor wretch. And now, Yeo, what is the meaning of all
+      this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo's story was soon told. He could not get out of his Puritan head the
+      notion (quite unfounded, of course) that Eustace had meant to steal the
+      horses. He had seen the inn-keeper sneak off at their approach; and
+      expecting some night-attack, he had taken up his lodging for the night in
+      the stable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he expected, an attempt was made. The door was opened (how, he could
+      not guess, for he had fastened it inside), and two fellows came in, and
+      began to loose the beasts. Yeo's account was, that he seized the big
+      fellow, who drew a knife on him, and broke loose; the horses, terrified at
+      the scuffle, kicked right and left; one man fell, and the other ran out,
+      calling for help, with Yeo at his heels; &ldquo;Whereon,&rdquo; said Yeo, &ldquo;seeing a
+      dozen more on me with clubs and bows, I thought best to shorten the number
+      while I could, ran the rascal through, and stood on my ward; and only just
+      in time I was, what's more; there's two arrows in the house wall, and two
+      or three more in my buckler, which I caught up as I went out, for I had
+      hung it close by the door, you see, sir, to be all ready in case,&rdquo; said
+      the cunning old Philistine-slayer, as they went in after the wounded man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But hardly had they stumbled through the low doorway into the back-kitchen
+      when a fresh hubbub arose inside&mdash;more shouts for help. Amyas ran
+      forward breaking his head against the doorway, and beheld, as soon as he
+      could see for the flashes in his eyes, an old acquaintance, held on each
+      side by a sturdy sailor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With one arm in the sleeve of his doublet, and the other in a not over
+      spotless shirt; holding up his hose with one hand, and with the other a
+      candle, whereby he had lighted himself to his own confusion; foaming with
+      rage, stood Mr. Evan Morgans, alias Father Parsons, looking, between his
+      confused habiliments and his fiery visage (as Yeo told him to his face),
+      &ldquo;the very moral of a half-plucked turkey-cock.&rdquo; And behind him, dressed,
+      stood Eustace Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We found the maid letting these here two out by the front door,&rdquo; said one
+      of the captors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Mr. Parsons,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;and what are you about here? A pretty
+      nest of thieves and Jesuits we seem to have routed out this evening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About my calling, sir,&rdquo; said Parsons, stoutly. &ldquo;By your leave, I shall
+      prepare this my wounded lamb for that account to which your man's cruelty
+      has untimely sent him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wounded man, who lay upon the floor, heard Parsons' voice, and moaned
+      for the &ldquo;Patrico.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, sir,&rdquo; said he, pompously, &ldquo;the sheep know their shepherd's
+      voice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The wolves you mean, you hypocritical scoundrel!&rdquo; said Amyas, who could
+      not contain his disgust. &ldquo;Let the fellow truss up his points, lads, and do
+      his work. After all, the man is dying.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The requisite matters, sir, are not at hand,&rdquo; said Parsons, unabashed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eustace, go and fetch his matters for him; you seem to be in all his
+      plots.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace went silently and sullenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that fresh noise at the back, now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The maid, sir, a wailing over her uncle; the fellow that we saw sneak
+      away when we came up. It was him the horse killed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was true. The wretched host had slipped off on their approach, simply
+      to call the neighboring outlaws to the spoil; and he had been filled with
+      the fruit of his own devices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His blood be on his own head,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I question, sir,&rdquo; said Yeo, in a low voice, &ldquo;whether some of it will not
+      be on the heads of those proud prelates who go clothed in purple and fine
+      linen, instead of going forth to convert such as he, and then wonder how
+      these Jesuits get hold of them. If they give place to the devil in their
+      sheepfolds, sure he'll come in and lodge there. Look, sir, there's a sight
+      in a gospel land!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, indeed, the sight was curious enough. For Parsons was kneeling by the
+      side of the dying man, listening earnestly to the confession which the man
+      sobbed out in his gibberish, between the spasms of his wounded chest. Now
+      and then Parsons shook his head; and when Eustace returned with the holy
+      wafer, and the oil for extreme unction, he asked him, in a low voice,
+      &ldquo;Ballard, interpret for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Eustace knelt down on the other side of the sufferer, and interpreted
+      his thieves' dialect into Latin; and the dying man held a hand of each,
+      and turned first to one and then to the other stupid eyes,&mdash;not
+      without affection, though, and gratitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't stand this mummery any longer,&rdquo; said Yeo. &ldquo;Here's a soul
+      perishing before my eyes, and it's on my conscience to speak a word in
+      season.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence!&rdquo; whispered Amyas, holding him back by the arm; &ldquo;he knows them,
+      and he don't know you; they are the first who ever spoke to him as if he
+      had a soul to be saved, and first come, first served; you can do no good.
+      See, the man's face is brightening already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, sir, 'tis a false peace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At all events he is confessing his sins, Yeo; and if that's not good for
+      him, and you, and me, what is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yea, Amen! sir; but this is not to the right person.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know his words will not go to the right person, after all,
+      though he may not send them there? By heaven! the man is dead!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was so. The dark catalogue of brutal deeds had been gasped out; but ere
+      the words of absolution could follow, the head had fallen back, and all
+      was over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Confession in extremis is sufficient,&rdquo; said Parsons to Eustace
+      (&ldquo;Ballard,&rdquo; as Parsons called him, to Amyas's surprise), as he rose. &ldquo;As
+      for the rest, the intention will be accepted instead of the act.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lord have mercy on his soul!&rdquo; said Eustace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His soul is lost before our very eyes,&rdquo; said Yeo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mind your own business,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph; but I'll tell you, sir, what our business is, if you'll step aside
+      with me. I find that poor fellow that lies dead is none other than the
+      leader of the Gubbings; the king of them, as they dare to call him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, what of that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mark my words, sir, if we have not a hundred stout rogues upon us before
+      two hours are out; forgive us they never will; and if we get off with our
+      lives, which I don't much expect, we shall leave our horses behind; for we
+      can hold the house, sir, well enough till morning, but the courtyard we
+      can't, that's certain!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We had better march at once, then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think, sir; if they catch us up&mdash;as they are sure to do, knowing the
+      country better than we&mdash;how will our shot stand their arrows?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True, old wisdom; we must keep the road; and we must keep together; and
+      so be a mark for them, while they will be behind every rock and bank; and
+      two or three flights of arrows will do our business for us. Humph! stay, I
+      have a plan.&rdquo; And stepping forward he spoke&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eustace, you will be so kind as to go back to your lambs; and tell them,
+      that if they meddle with us cruel wolves again to-night, we are ready and
+      willing to fight to the death, and have plenty of shot and powder at their
+      service. Father Parsons, you will be so kind as to accompany us; it is but
+      fitting that the shepherd should be hostage for his sheep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you carry me off this spot, sir, you carry my corpse only,&rdquo; said
+      Parsons. &ldquo;I may as well die here as be hanged elsewhere, like my martyred
+      brother Campian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you take him, you must take me too,&rdquo; said Eustace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What if we won't?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How will you gain by that? you can only leave me here. You cannot make me
+      go to the Gubbings, if I do not choose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas uttered sotto voce an anathema on Jesuits, Gubbings, and things in
+      general. He was in a great hurry to get to Bideford, and he feared that
+      this business would delay him, as it was, a day or two. He wanted to hang
+      Parsons, he did not want to hang Eustace; and Eustace, he knew, was well
+      aware of that latter fact, and played his game accordingly; but time ran
+      on, and he had to answer sulkily enough:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well then; if you, Eustace, will go and give my message to your converts,
+      I will promise to set Mr. Parsons free again before we come to Lydford
+      town; and I advise you, if you have any regard for his life, to see that
+      your eloquence be persuasive enough; for as sure as I am an Englishman,
+      and he none, if the Gubbings attack us, the first bullet that I shall fire
+      at them will have gone through his scoundrelly brains.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Parsons still kicked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, then, my merry men all. Tie this gentleman's hands behind his
+      back, get the horses out, and we'll right away up into Dartmoor, find a
+      good high tor, stand our ground there till morning, and then carry him
+      into Okehampton to the nearest justice. If he chooses to delay me in my
+      journey, it is fair that I should make him pay for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon Parsons gave in, and being fast tied by his arm to Amyas's saddle,
+      trudged alongside his horse for several weary miles, while Yeo walked by
+      his side, like a friar by a condemned criminal; and in order to keep up
+      his spirits, told him the woful end of Nicholas Saunders the Legate, and
+      how he was found starved to death in a bog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if you wish, sir, to follow in his blessed steps, which I heartily
+      hope you will do, you have only to go over that big cow-backed hill there
+      on your right hand, and down again the other side to Crawmere pool, and
+      there you'll find as pretty a bog to die in as ever Jesuit needed; and
+      your ghost may sit there on a grass tummock, and tell your beads without
+      any one asking for you till the day of judgment; and much good may it do
+      you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At which imagination Yeo was actually heard, for the first and last time
+      in this history, to laugh most heartily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His ho-ho's had scarcely died away when they saw shining under the moon
+      the old tower of Lydford castle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cast the fellow off now,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir!&rdquo; and Yeo and Simon Evans stopped behind, and did not come up
+      for ten minutes after.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have you been about so long?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, sir,&rdquo; said Evans, &ldquo;you see the man had a very fair pair of hose on,
+      and a bran-new kersey doublet, very warm-lined; and so, thinking it a pity
+      good clothes should be wasted on such noxious trade, we've just brought
+      them along with us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spoiling the Egyptians,&rdquo; said Yeo as comment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what have you done with the man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hove him over the bank, sir; he pitched into a big furze-bush, and for
+      aught I know, there he'll bide.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You rascal, have you killed him?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never fear, sir,&rdquo; said Yeo, in his cool fashion. &ldquo;A Jesuit has as many
+      lives as a cat, and, I believe, rides broomsticks post, like a witch. He
+      would be at Lydford now before us, if his master Satan had any business
+      for him there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Leaving on their left Lydford and its ill-omened castle (which, a century
+      after, was one of the principal scenes of Judge Jeffreys's cruelty), Amyas
+      and his party trudged on through the mire toward Okehampton till sunrise;
+      and ere the vapors had lifted from the mountain tops, they were descending
+      the long slopes from Sourton down, while Yestor and Amicombe slept steep
+      and black beneath their misty pall; and roaring far below unseen,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Ockment leapt from crag and cloud
+     Down her cataracts, laughing loud.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      The voice of the stream recalled these words to Amyas's mind. The nymph of
+      Torridge had spoken them upon the day of his triumph. He recollected, too,
+      his vexation on that day at not seeing Rose Salterne. Why, he had never
+      seen her since. Never seen her now for six years and more! Of her ripened
+      beauty he knew only by hearsay; she was still to him the lovely fifteen
+      years' girl for whose sake he had smitten the Barnstaple draper over the
+      quay. What a chain of petty accidents had kept them from meeting, though
+      so often within a mile of each other! &ldquo;And what a lucky one!&rdquo; said
+      practical old Amyas to himself. &ldquo;If I had seen her as she is now, I might
+      have loved her as Frank does&mdash;poor Frank! what will he say? What does
+      he say, for he must know it already? And what ought I to say&mdash;to do
+      rather, for talking is no use on this side the grave, nor on the other
+      either, I expect!&rdquo; And then he asked himself whether his old oath meant
+      nothing or something; whether it was a mere tavern frolic, or a sacred
+      duty. And he held, the more that he looked at it, that it meant the
+      latter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what could he do? He had nothing on earth but his sword, so he could
+      not travel to find her. After all, she might not be gone far. Perhaps not
+      gone at all. It might be a mistake, an exaggerated scandal. He would hope
+      so. And yet it was evident that there had been some passages between her
+      and Don Guzman. Eustace's mysterious words about the promise at Lundy
+      proved that. The villain! He had felt all along that he was a villain; but
+      just the one to win a woman's heart, too. Frank had been away&mdash;all
+      the Brotherhood away. What a fool he had been, to turn the wolf loose into
+      the sheepfold! And yet who would have dreamed of it? . . .
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At all events,&rdquo; said Amyas, trying to comfort himself, &ldquo;I need not
+      complain. I have lost nothing. I stood no more chance of her against Frank
+      than I should have stood against the Don. So there is no use for me to cry
+      about the matter.&rdquo; And he tried to hum a tune concerning the general
+      frailty of women, but nevertheless, like Sir Hugh, felt that &ldquo;he had a
+      great disposition to cry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He never had expected to win her, and yet it seemed bitter to know that
+      she was lost to him forever. It was not so easy for a heart of his make to
+      toss away the image of a first love; and all the less easy because that
+      image was stained and ruined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Curses on the man who had done that deed! I will yet have his heart's
+      blood somehow, if I go round the world again to find him. If there's no
+      law for it on earth, there's law in heaven, or I'm much mistaken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With which determination he rode into the ugly, dirty, and stupid town of
+      Okehampton, with which fallen man (by some strange perversity) has chosen
+      to defile one of the loveliest sites in the pleasant land of Devon. And
+      heartily did Amyas abuse the old town that day; for he was detained there,
+      as he expected, full three hours, while the Justice Shallow of the place
+      was sent for from his farm (whither he had gone at sunrise, after the
+      early-rising fashion of those days) to take Yeo's deposition concerning
+      last night's affray. Moreover, when Shallow came, he refused to take the
+      depositions, because they ought to have been made before a brother Shallow
+      at Lydford; and in the wrangling which ensued, was very near finding out
+      what Amyas (fearing fresh loss of time and worse evils beside) had
+      commanded to be concealed, namely, the presence of Jesuits in that
+      Moorland Utopia. Then, in broadest Devon&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do you call this Christian conduct, sir, to set a quiet man like me
+      upon they Gubbings, as if I was going to risk my precious life&mdash;no,
+      nor ever a constable to Okehampton neither? Let Lydfor' men mind Lydfor'
+      roogs, and by Lydfor' law if they will, hang first and try after; but as
+      for me, I've rade my Bible, and 'He that meddleth with strife is like him
+      that taketh a dog by the ears.' So if you choose to sit down and ate your
+      breakfast with me, well and good: but depositions I'll have none. If your
+      man is enquired for, you'll be answerable for his appearing, in course;
+      but I expect mortally&rdquo; (with a wink), &ldquo;you wain't hear much more of the
+      matter from any hand. 'Leave well alone is a good rule, but leave ill
+      alone is a better.'&mdash;So we says round about here; and so you'll say,
+      captain, when you be so old as I.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Amyas sat down and ate his breakfast, and went on afterwards a long and
+      weary day's journey, till he saw at last beneath him the broad shining
+      river, and the long bridge, and the white houses piled up the hill-side;
+      and beyond, over Raleigh downs, the dear old tower of Northam Church.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Alas! Northam was altogether a desert to him then; and Bideford, as it
+      turned out, hardly less so. For when he rode up to Sir Richard's door, he
+      found that the good knight was still in Ireland, and Lady Grenville at
+      Stow. Whereupon he rode back again down the High Street to that same
+      bow-windowed Ship Tavern where the Brotherhood of the Rose made their vow,
+      and settled himself in the very room where they had supped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! Mr. Leigh&mdash;Captain Leigh now, I beg pardon,&rdquo; quoth mine host.
+      &ldquo;Bideford is an empty place now-a-days, and nothing stirring, sir. What
+      with Sir Richard to Ireland, and Sir John to London, and all the young
+      gentlemen to the wars, there's no one to buy good liquor, and no one to
+      court the young ladies, neither. Sack, sir? I hope so. I haven't brewed a
+      gallon of it this fortnight, if you'll believe me; ale, sir, and aqua
+      vitae, and such low-bred trade, is all I draw now-a-days. Try a pint of
+      sherry, sir, now, to give you an appetite. You mind my sherry of old?
+      Jane! Sherry and sugar, quick, while I pull off the captain's boots.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas sat weary and sad, while the innkeeper chattered on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, sir! two or three like you would set the young ladies all alive
+      again. By-the-by, there's been strange doings among them since you were
+      here last. You mind Mistress Salterne!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For God's sake, don't let us have that story, man! I heard enough of it
+      at Plymouth!&rdquo; said Amyas, in so disturbed a tone that mine host looked up,
+      and said to himself&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, poor young gentleman, he's one of the hard-hit ones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is the old man?&rdquo; asked Amyas, after a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bears it well enough, sir; but a changed man. Never speaks to a soul, if
+      he can help it. Some folk say he's not right in his head; or turned miser,
+      or somewhat, and takes naught but bread and water, and sits up all night
+      in the room as was hers, turning over her garments. Heaven knows what's on
+      his mind&mdash;they do say he was over hard on her, and that drove her to
+      it. All I know is, he has never been in here for a drop of liquor (and he
+      came as regular every evening as the town clock, sir) since she went,
+      except a ten days ago, and then he met young Mr. Cary at the door, and I
+      heard him ask Mr. Cary when you would be home, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put on my boots again. I'll go and see him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bless you, sir! What, without your sack?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Drink it yourself, man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you wouldn't go out again this time o' night on an empty stomach,
+      now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fill my men's stomachs for them, and never mind mine. It's market-day, is
+      it not? Send out, and see whether Mr. Cary is still in town;&rdquo; and Amyas
+      strode out, and along the quay to Bridgeland Street, and knocked at Mr.
+      Salterne's door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Salterne himself opened it, with his usual stern courtesy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw you coming up the street, sir. I have been expecting this honor
+      from you for some time past. I dreamt of you only last night, and many a
+      night before that too. Welcome, sir, into a lonely house. I trust the good
+      knight your general is well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The good knight my general is with God who made him, Mr. Salterne.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dead, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Foundered at sea on our way home; and the Delight lost too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo; growled Salterne, after a minute's silence. &ldquo;I had a venture in
+      her. I suppose it's gone. No matter&mdash;I can afford it, sir, and more,
+      I trust. And he was three years younger than I! And Draper Heard was
+      buried yesterday, five years younger.&mdash;How is it that every one can
+      die, except me? Come in, sir, come in; I have forgotten my manners.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he led Amyas into his parlor, and called to the apprentices to run one
+      way, and to the cook to run another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must not trouble yourself to get me supper, indeed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must though, sir, and the best of wine too; and old Salterne had a good
+      tap of Alicant in old time, old time, old time, sir! and you must drink it
+      now, whether he does or not!&rdquo; and out he bustled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas sat still, wondering what was coming next, and puzzled at the sudden
+      hilarity of the man, as well as his hospitality, so different from what
+      the innkeeper had led him to expect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a minute more one of the apprentices came in to lay the cloth, and
+      Amyas questioned him about his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank the Lord that you are come, sir,&rdquo; said the lad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because there'll be a chance of us poor fellows getting a little broken
+      meat. We'm half-starved this three months&mdash;bread and dripping, bread
+      and dripping, oh dear, sir! And now he's sent out to the inn for chickens,
+      and game, and salads, and all that money can buy, and down in the cellar
+      haling out the best of wine.&rdquo;&mdash;And the lad smacked his lips audibly
+      at the thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he out of his mind?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't tell; he saith as how he must save mun's money now-a-days; for
+      he've a got a great venture on hand: but what a be he tell'th no man. They
+      call'th mun 'bread and dripping' now, sir, all town over,&rdquo; said the
+      prentice, confidentially, to Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They do, do they, sirrah! Then they will call me bread and no dripping
+      to-morrow!&rdquo; and old Salterne, entering from behind, made a dash at the
+      poor fellow's ears: but luckily thought better of it, having a couple of
+      bottles in each hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear sir,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;you don't mean us to drink all that wine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not, sir?&rdquo; answered Salterne, in a grim, half-sneering tone,
+      thrusting out his square-grizzled beard and chin. &ldquo;Why not, sir? why
+      should I not make merry when I have the honor of a noble captain in my
+      house? one who has sailed the seas, sir, and cut Spaniards' throats; and
+      may cut them again too; eh, sir? Boy, where's the kettle and the sugar?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What on earth is the man at?&rdquo; quoth Amyas to himself&mdash;&ldquo;flattering
+      me, or laughing at me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he ran on, half to himself, in a deliberate tone, evidently
+      intending to hint more than he said, as he began brewing the sack&mdash;in
+      plain English, hot negus; &ldquo;Yes, bread and dripping for those who can't
+      fight Spaniards; but the best that money can buy for those who can. I
+      heard of you at Smerwick, sir&mdash;Yes, bread and dripping for me too&mdash;I
+      can't fight Spaniards: but for such as you. Look here, sir; I should like
+      to feed a crew of such up, as you'd feed a main of fighting-cocks, and
+      then start them with a pair of Sheffield spurs a-piece&mdash;you've a good
+      one there to your side, sir: but don't you think a man might carry two
+      now, and fight as they say those Chineses do, a sword to each hand? You
+      could kill more that way, Captain Leigh, I reckon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas half laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One will do, Mr. Salterne, if one is quick enough with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph!&mdash;Ah&mdash;No use being in a hurry. I haven't been in a hurry.
+      No&mdash;I waited for you; and here you are and welcome, sir! Here comes
+      supper, a light matter, sir, you see. A capon and a brace of partridges. I
+      had no time to feast you as you deserve.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so he ran on all supper-time, hardly allowing Amyas to get a word in
+      edge-ways; but heaping him with coarse flattery, and urging him to drink,
+      till after the cloth was drawn, and the two left alone, he grew so
+      outrageous that Amyas was forced to take him to task good-humoredly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, my dear sir, you have feasted me royally, and better far than I
+      deserve, but why will you go about to make me drunk twice over, first with
+      vainglory and then with wine?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Salterne looked at him a while fixedly, and then, sticking out his chin&mdash;&ldquo;Because,
+      Captain Leigh, I am a man who has all his life tried the crooked road
+      first, and found the straight one the safer after all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eh, sir? That is a strange speech for one who bears the character of the
+      most upright man in Bideford.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph. So I thought myself once, sir; and well I have proved it. But I'll
+      be plain with you, sir. You've heard how&mdash;how I've fared since you
+      saw me last?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas nodded his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought so. Shame rides post. Now then, Captain Leigh, listen to me. I,
+      being a plain man and a burgher, and one that never drew iron in my life
+      except to mend a pen, ask you, being a gentleman and a captain and a man
+      of honor, with a weapon to your side, and harness to your back&mdash;what
+      would you do in my place?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;that would very much depend on whether 'my place'
+      was my own fault or not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what if it were, sir? What if all that the charitable folks of
+      Bideford&mdash;(Heaven reward them for their tender mercies!)&mdash;have
+      been telling you in the last hour be true, sir,&mdash;true! and yet not
+      half the truth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas gave a start.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, you shrink from me! Of course a man is too righteous to forgive those
+      who repent, though God is not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God knows, sir&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir, God does know&mdash;all; and you shall know a little&mdash;as
+      much as I can tell&mdash;or you understand. Come upstairs with me, sir, as
+      you'll drink no more; I have a liking for you. I have watched you from
+      your boyhood, and I can trust you, and I'll show you what I never showed
+      to mortal man but one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, taking up a candle, he led the way upstairs, while Amyas followed
+      wondering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped at a door, and unlocked it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, come in. Those shutters have not been opened since she&mdash;&rdquo; and
+      the old man was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas looked round the room. It was a low wainscoted room, such as one
+      sees in old houses: everything was in the most perfect neatness. The
+      snow-white sheets on the bed were turned down as if ready for an occupant.
+      There were books arranged on the shelves, fresh flowers on the table; the
+      dressing-table had all its woman's mundus of pins, and rings, and brushes;
+      even the dressing-gown lay over the chair-back. Everything was evidently
+      just as it had been left.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This was her room, sir,&rdquo; whispered the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas nodded silently, and half drew back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need not be modest about entering it now, sir,&rdquo; whispered he, with a
+      sort of sneer. &ldquo;There has been no frail flesh and blood in it for many a
+      day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas sighed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I sweep it out myself every morning, and keep all tidy. See here!&rdquo; and he
+      pulled open a drawer. &ldquo;Here are all her gowns, and there are her hoods;
+      and there&mdash;I know 'em all by heart now, and the place of every one.
+      And there, sir&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he opened a cupboard, where lay in rows all Rose's dolls, and the
+      worn-out playthings of her childhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the pleasantest place of all in the room to me,&rdquo; said he,
+      whispering still, &ldquo;for it minds me of when&mdash;and maybe, she may become
+      a little child once more, sir; it's written in the Scripture, you know&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; said Amyas, who felt, to his own wonder, a big tear stealing down
+      each cheek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now,&rdquo; he whispered, &ldquo;one thing more. Look here!&rdquo;&mdash;and pulling
+      out a key, he unlocked a chest, and lifted up tray after tray of necklaces
+      and jewels, furs, lawns, cloth of gold. &ldquo;Look there! Two thousand pound
+      won't buy that chest. Twenty years have I been getting those things
+      together. That's the cream of many a Levant voyage, and East Indian
+      voyage, and West Indian voyage. My Lady Bath can't match those pearls in
+      her grand house at Tawstock; I got 'em from a Genoese, though, and paid
+      for 'em. Look at that embroidered lawn! There's not such a piece in
+      London; no, nor in Alexandria, I'll warrant; nor short of Calicut, where
+      it came from. . . . Look here again, there's a golden cup! I bought that
+      of one that was out with Pizarro in Peru. And look here, again!&rdquo;&mdash;and
+      the old man gloated over the treasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And whom do you think I kept all these for? These were for her
+      wedding-day&mdash;for her wedding-day. For your wedding-day, if you'd been
+      minded, sir! Yes, yours, sir! And yet, I believe, I was so ambitious that
+      I would not have let her marry under an earl, all the while I was
+      pretending to be too proud to throw her at the head of a squire's son. Ah,
+      well! There was my idol, sir. I made her mad, I pampered her up with
+      gewgaws and vanity; and then, because my idol was just what I had made
+      her, I turned again and rent her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now,&rdquo; said he, pointing to the open chest, &ldquo;that was what I meant;
+      and that&rdquo; (pointing to the empty bed) &ldquo;was what God meant. Never mind.
+      Come downstairs and finish your wine. I see you don't care about it all.
+      Why should you! you are not her father, and you may thank God you are not.
+      Go, and be merry while you can, young sir! . . . And yet, all this might
+      have been yours. And&mdash;but I don't suppose you are one to be won by
+      money&mdash;but all this may be yours still, and twenty thousand pounds to
+      boot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want no money, sir, but what I can earn with my own sword.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Earn my money, then!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What on earth do you want of me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To keep your oath,&rdquo; said Salterne, clutching his arm, and looking up into
+      his face with searching eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My oath! How did you know that I had one?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! you were well ashamed of it, I suppose, next day! A drunken frolic
+      all about a poor merchant's daughter! But there is nothing hidden that
+      shall not be revealed, nor done in the closet that is not proclaimed on
+      the house-tops.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ashamed of it, sir, I never was: but I have a right to ask how you came
+      to know it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What if a poor fat squinny rogue, a low-born fellow even as I am, whom
+      you had baffled and made a laughing-stock, had come to me in my loneliness
+      and sworn before God that if you honorable gentlemen would not keep your
+      words, he the clown would?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;John Brimblecombe?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what if I had brought him where I have brought you, and shown him
+      what I have shown you, and, instead of standing as stiff as any Spaniard,
+      as you do, he had thrown himself on his knees by that bedside, and wept
+      and prayed, sir, till he opened my hard heart for the first and last time,
+      and I fell down on my sinful knees and wept and prayed by him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not given to weeping, Mr. Salterne,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;and as for
+      praying, I don't know yet what I have to pray for, on her account: my
+      business is to work. Show me what I can do; and when you have done that,
+      it will be full time to upbraid me with not doing it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can cut that fellow's throat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will take a long arm to reach him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose it is as easy to sail to the Spanish Main as it was to sail
+      round the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My good sir,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;I have at this moment no more worldly goods
+      than my clothes and my sword, so how to sail to the Spanish Main, I don't
+      quite see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do you suppose, sir, that I should hint to you of such a voyage if I
+      meant you to be at the charge of it? No, sir; if you want two thousand
+      pounds, or five, to fit a ship, take it! Take it, sir! I hoarded money for
+      my child: and now I will spend it to avenge her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was silent for a while; the old man still held his arm, still looked
+      up steadfastly and fiercely in his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bring me home that man's head, and take ship, prizes&mdash;all! Keep the
+      gain, sir, and give me the revenge!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gain? Do you think I need bribing, sir? What kept me silent was the
+      thought of my mother. I dare not go without her leave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Salterne made a gesture of impatience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare not, sir; I must obey my parent, whatever else I do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;If others had obeyed theirs as well!&mdash;But you are
+      right, Captain Leigh, right. You will prosper, whoever else does not. Now,
+      sir, good-night, if you will let me be the first to say so. My old eyes
+      grow heavy early now-a-days. Perhaps it's old age, perhaps it's sorrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Amyas departed to the inn, and there, to his great joy, found Cary
+      waiting for him, from whom he learnt details, which must be kept for
+      another chapter, and which I shall tell, for convenience' sake, in my own
+      words and not in his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW MR. JOHN BRIMBLECOMBE UNDERSTOOD THE NATURE OF AN OATH
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The Kynge of Spayn is a foul paynim,
+     And lieveth on Mahound;
+     And pity it were that lady fayre
+     Should marry a heathen hound.&rdquo;
+
+                           Kyng Estmere.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      About six weeks after the duel, the miller at Stow had come up to the
+      great house in much tribulation, to borrow the bloodhounds. Rose Salterne
+      had vanished in the night, no man knew whither.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard was in Bideford: but the old steward took on himself to send
+      for the keepers, and down went the serving-men to the mill with all the
+      idle lads of the parish at their heels, thinking a maiden-hunt very good
+      sport; and of course taking a view of the case as favorable as possible to
+      Rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They reviled the miller and his wife roundly for hard-hearted old
+      heathens; and had no doubt that they had driven the poor maid to throw
+      herself over cliff, or drown herself in the sea; while all the women of
+      Stow, on the other hand, were of unanimous opinion that the hussy had
+      &ldquo;gone off&rdquo; with some bad fellow; and that pride was sure to have a fall,
+      and so forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The facts of the case were, that all Rose's trinkets were left behind, so
+      that she had at least gone off honestly; and nothing seemed to be missing,
+      but some of her linen, which old Anthony the steward broadly hinted was
+      likely to be found in other people's boxes. The only trace was a little
+      footmark under her bedroom window. On that the bloodhound was laid (of
+      course in leash), and after a premonitory whimper, lifted up his mighty
+      voice, and started bell-mouthed through the garden gate, and up the lane,
+      towing behind him the panting keeper, till they reached the downs above,
+      and went straight away for Marslandmouth, where the whole posse comitatus
+      pulled up breathless at the door of Lucy Passmore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucy, as perhaps I should have said before, was now a widow, and found her
+      widowhood not altogether contrary to her interest. Her augury about her
+      old man had been fulfilled; he had never returned since the night on which
+      he put to sea with Eustace and the Jesuits.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * &ldquo;Some natural tears she shed, but dried them soon&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      as many of them, at least, as were not required for purposes of business;
+      and then determined to prevent suspicion by a bold move; she started off
+      to Stow, and told Lady Grenville a most pathetic tale: how her husband had
+      gone out to pollock fishing, and never returned: but how she had heard
+      horsemen gallop past her window in the dead of night, and was sure they
+      must have been the Jesuits, and that they had carried off her old man by
+      main force, and probably, after making use of his services, had killed and
+      salted him down for provision on their voyage back to the Pope at Rome;
+      after which she ended by entreating protection against those &ldquo;Popish
+      skulkers up to Chapel,&rdquo; who were sworn to do her a mischief; and by an
+      appeal to Lady Grenville's sense of justice, as to whether the queen ought
+      not to allow her a pension, for having had her heart's love turned into a
+      sainted martyr by the hands of idolatrous traitors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Grenville (who had a great opinion of Lucy's medical skill, and
+      always sent for her if one of the children had a &ldquo;housty,&rdquo; i. e. sore
+      throat) went forth and pleaded the case before Sir Richard with such
+      effect, that Lucy was on the whole better off than ever for the next two
+      or three years. But now&mdash;what had she to do with Rose's
+      disappearance? and, indeed, where was she herself? Her door was fast; and
+      round it her flock of goats stood, crying in vain for her to come and milk
+      them; while from the down above, her donkeys, wandering at their own sweet
+      will, answered the bay of the bloodhound with a burst of harmony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They'm laughing at us, keper, they neddies; sure enough, we'm lost our
+      labor here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the bloodhound, after working about the door a while, turned down the
+      glen, and never stopped till he reached the margin of the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They'm taken water. Let's go back, and rout out the old witch's house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis just like that old Lucy, to lock a poor maid into shame.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And returning, they attacked the cottage, and by a general plebiscitum,
+      ransacked the little dwelling, partly in indignation, and partly, if the
+      truth be told, in the hope of plunder; but plunder there was none. Lucy
+      had decamped with all her movable wealth, saving the huge black cat among
+      the embers, who at the sight of the bloodhound vanished up the chimney
+      (some said with a strong smell of brimstone), and being viewed outside,
+      was chased into the woods, where she lived, I doubt not, many happy years,
+      a scourge to all the rabbits of the glen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The goats and donkeys were driven off up to Stow; and the mob returned, a
+      little ashamed of themselves when their brief wrath was past; and a little
+      afraid, too, of what Sir Richard might say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He, when he returned, sold the donkeys and goats, and gave the money to
+      the poor, promising to refund the same, if Lucy returned and gave herself
+      up to justice. But Lucy did not return; and her cottage, from which the
+      neighbors shrank as from a haunted place, remained as she had left it, and
+      crumbled slowly down to four fern-covered walls, past which the little
+      stream went murmuring on from pool to pool&mdash;the only voice, for many
+      a year to come, which broke the silence of that lonely glen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days afterwards, Sir Richard, on his way from Bideford to Stow,
+      looked in at Clovelly Court, and mentioned, with a &ldquo;by the by,&rdquo; news which
+      made Will Cary leap from his seat almost to the ceiling. What it was we
+      know already.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And there is no clue?&rdquo; asked old Cary; for his son was speechless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only this; I hear that some fellow prowling about the cliffs that night
+      saw a pinnace running for Lundy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Will rose, and went hastily out of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In half an hour he and three or four armed servants were on board a
+      trawling-skiff, and away to Lundy. He did not return for three days, and
+      then brought news: that an elderly man, seemingly a foreigner, had been
+      lodging for some months past in a part of the ruined Moresco Castle, which
+      was tenanted by one John Braund; that a few weeks since a younger man, a
+      foreigner also, had joined him from on board a ship: the ship a
+      Flushinger, or Easterling of some sort. The ship came and went more than
+      once; and the young man in her. A few days since, a lady and her maid, a
+      stout woman, came with him up to the castle, and talked with the elder man
+      a long while in secret; abode there all night; and then all three sailed
+      in the morning. The fishermen on the beach had heard the young man call
+      the other father. He was a very still man, much as a mass-priest might be.
+      More they did not know, or did not choose to know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon old Cary and Sir Richard sent Will on a second trip with the
+      parish constable of Hartland (in which huge parish, for its sins, is
+      situate the Isle of Lundy, ten miles out at sea); who returned with the
+      body of the hapless John Braund, farmer, fisherman, smuggler, etc.; which
+      worthy, after much fruitless examination (wherein examinate was afflicted
+      with extreme deafness and loss of memory), departed to Exeter gaol, on a
+      charge of &ldquo;harboring priests, Jesuits, gipsies, and other suspect and
+      traitorous persons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor John Braund, whose motive for entertaining the said ugly customers
+      had probably been not treason, but a wife, seven children, and arrears of
+      rent, did not thrive under the change from the pure air of Lundy to the
+      pestiferous one of Exeter gaol, made infamous, but two years after (if I
+      recollect right), by a &ldquo;black assizes,&rdquo; nearly as fatal as that more
+      notorious one at Oxford; for in it, &ldquo;whether by the stench of the
+      prisoners, or by a stream of foul air,&rdquo; judge, jury, counsel, and
+      bystanders, numbering among them many members of the best families in
+      Devon, sickened in court, and died miserably within a few days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Braund, then, took the gaol-fever in a week, and died raving in that
+      noisome den: his secret, if he had one, perished with him, and nothing but
+      vague suspicion was left as to Rose Salterne's fate. That she had gone off
+      with the Spaniard, few doubted; but whither, and in what character? On
+      that last subject, be sure, no mercy was shown to her by many a Bideford
+      dame, who had hated the poor girl simply for her beauty; and by many a
+      country lady, who had &ldquo;always expected that the girl would be brought to
+      ruin by the absurd notice, beyond what her station had a right to, which
+      was taken of her,&rdquo; while every young maiden aspired to fill the throne
+      which Rose had abdicated. So that, on the whole, Bideford considered
+      itself as going on as well without poor Rose as it had done with her, or
+      even better. And though she lingered in some hearts still as a fair dream,
+      the business and the bustle of each day soon swept that dream away, and
+      her place knew her no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Will Cary?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was for a while like a man distracted. He heaped himself with all
+      manner of superfluous reproaches, for having (as he said) first brought
+      the Rose into disgrace, and then driven her into the arms of the Spaniard;
+      while St. Leger, who was a sensible man enough, tried in vain to persuade
+      him that the fault was not his at all; that the two must have been
+      attached to each other long before the quarrel; that it must have ended
+      so, sooner or later; that old Salterne's harshness, rather than Cary's
+      wrath, had hastened the catastrophe; and finally, that the Rose and her
+      fortunes were, now that she had eloped with a Spaniard, not worth
+      troubling their heads about. Poor Will would not be so comforted. He wrote
+      off to Frank at Whitehall, telling him the whole truth, calling himself
+      all fools and villains, and entreating Frank's forgiveness; to which he
+      received an answer, in which Frank said that Will had no reason to accuse
+      himself; that these strange attachments were due to a synastria, or
+      sympathy of the stars, which ruled the destinies of each person, to fight
+      against which was to fight against the heavens themselves; that he, as a
+      brother of the Rose, was bound to believe, nay, to assert at the sword's
+      point if need were, that the incomparable Rose of Torridge could make none
+      but a worthy and virtuous choice; and that to the man whom she had honored
+      by her affection was due on their part, Spaniard and Papist though he
+      might be, all friendship, worship, and loyal faith for evermore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And honest Will took it all for gospel, little dreaming what agony of
+      despair, what fearful suspicions, what bitter prayers, this letter had
+      cost to the gentle heart of Francis Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He showed the letter triumphantly to St. Leger; and he was quite wise
+      enough to gainsay no word of it, at least aloud; but quite wise enough,
+      also, to believe in secret that Frank looked on the matter in quite a
+      different light; however, he contented himself with saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The man is an angel as his mother is!&rdquo; and there the matter dropped for a
+      few days, till one came forward who had no mind to let it drop, and that
+      was Jack Brimblecombe, now curate of Hartland town, and &ldquo;passing rich on
+      forty pounds a year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope no offence, Mr. William; but when are you and the rest going after&mdash;after
+      her?&rdquo; The name stuck in his throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary was taken aback.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's that to thee, Catiline the blood-drinker?&rdquo; asked he, trying to
+      laugh it off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What? Don't laugh at me, sir, for it's no laughing matter. I drank that
+      night naught worse, I expect, than red wine. Whatever it was, we swore our
+      oaths, Mr. Cary; and oaths are oaths, say I.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, Jack, of course; but to go to look for her&mdash;and when
+      we've found her, cut her lover's throat. Absurd, Jack, even if she were
+      worth looking for, or his throat worth cutting. Tut, tut, tut&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Jack looked steadfastly in his face, and after some silence:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How far is it to the Caracas, then, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that to thee, man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, he was made governor thereof, I hear; so that would be the place to
+      find her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't mean to go thither to seek her?&rdquo; shouted Cary, forcing a laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That depends on whether I can go, sir; but if I can scrape the money
+      together, or get a berth on board some ship, why, God's will must be
+      done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Will looked at him, to see if he had been drinking, or gone mad; but the
+      little pigs' eyes were both sane and sober.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Will knew no answer. To laugh at the poor fellow was easy enough; to deny
+      that he was right, that he was a hero and cavalier, outdoing romance
+      itself in faithfulness, not so easy; and Cary, in the first impulse,
+      wished him at the bottom of the bay for shaming him. Of course, his own
+      plan of letting ill alone was the rational, prudent, irreproachable plan,
+      and just what any gentleman in his senses would have done; but here was a
+      vulgar, fat curate, out of his senses, determined not to let ill alone,
+      but to do something, as Cary felt in his heart, of a far diviner stamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Jack, in his stupid steadfast way, &ldquo;it's a very bad look-out;
+      but mother's pretty well off, if father dies, and the maidens are stout
+      wenches enough, and will make tidy servants, please the Lord. And you'll
+      see that they come to no harm, Mr. William, for old acquaintance' sake, if
+      I never come back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary was silent with amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And, Mr. William, you know me for an honest man, I hope. Will you lend me
+      a five pound, and take my books in pawn for them, just to help me out?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you mad, or in a dream? You will never find her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's no reason why I shouldn't do my duty in looking for her, Mr.
+      William.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, my good fellow, even if you get to the Indies, you will be clapt
+      into the Inquisition, and burnt alive, as sure as your name is Jack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know that,&rdquo; said he, in a doleful tone; &ldquo;and a sore struggle of the
+      flesh I have had about it; for I am a great coward, Mr. William, a dirty
+      coward, and always was, as you know: but maybe the Lord will take care of
+      me, as He does of little children and drunken men; and if not, Mr. Will,
+      I'd sooner burn, and have it over, than go on this way any longer, I
+      would!&rdquo; and Jack burst out blubbering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What way, my dear old lad?&rdquo; said Will, softened as he well might be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, not&mdash;not to know whether&mdash;whether&mdash;whether she's
+      married to him or not&mdash;her that I looked up to as an angel of God, as
+      pure as the light of day; and knew she was too good for a poor pot-head
+      like me; and prayed for her every night, God knows, that she might marry a
+      king, if there was one fit for her&mdash;and I not to know whether she's
+      living in sin or not, Mr. William.&mdash;It's more than I can bear, and
+      there's an end of it. And if she is married to him they keep no faith with
+      heretics; they can dissolve the marriage, or make away with her into the
+      Inquisition; burn her, Mr. Cary, as soon as burn me, the devils
+      incarnate!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary shuddered; the fact, true and palpable as it was, had never struck
+      him before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes! or make her deny her God by torments, if she hasn't done it already
+      for love to that&mdash;I know how love will make a body sell his soul, for
+      I've been in love. Don't you laugh at me, Mr. Will, or I shall go mad!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God knows, I was never less inclined to laugh at you in my life, my brave
+      old Jack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it so, then? Bless you for that word!&rdquo; and Jack held out his hand.
+      &ldquo;But what will become of my soul, after my oath, if I don't seek her out,
+      just to speak to her, to warn her, for God's sake, even if it did no good;
+      just to set before her the Lord's curse on idolatry and Antichrist, and
+      those who deny Him for the sake of any creature, though I can't think he
+      would be hard on her,&mdash;for who could? But I must speak all the same.
+      The Lord has laid the burden on me, and done it must be. God help me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jack,&rdquo; said Cary, &ldquo;if this is your duty, it is others'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir, I don't say that; you're a layman, but I am a deacon, and the
+      chaplain of you all, and sworn to seek out Christ's sheep scattered up and
+      down this naughty world, and that innocent lamb first of all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have sheep at Hartland, Jack, already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's plenty better than I will tend them, when I am gone; but none
+      that will tend her, because none love her like me, and they won't venture.
+      Who will? It can't be expected, and no shame to them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder what Amyas Leigh would say to all this, if he were at home?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say? He'd do. He isn't one for talking. He'd go through fire and water
+      for her, you trust him, Will Cary; and call me an ass if he won't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you wait, then, till he comes back, and ask him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He may not be back for a year and more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hear reason, Jack. If you will wait like a rational and patient man,
+      instead of rushing blindfold on your ruin, something may be done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think so!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot promise; but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But promise me one thing. Do you tell Mr. Frank what I say&mdash;or
+      rather, I'll warrant, if I knew the truth, he has said the very same thing
+      himself already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are out there, old man; for here is his own handwriting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack read the letter and sighed bitterly. &ldquo;Well, I did take him for
+      another guess sort of fine gentleman. Still, if my duty isn't his, it's
+      mine all the same. I judge no man; but I go, Mr. Cary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But go you shall not till Amyas returns. As I live, I will tell your
+      father, Jack, unless you promise; and you dare not disobey him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know even that, for conscience' sake,&rdquo; said Jack, doubtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least, you stay and dine here, old fellow, and we will settle whether
+      you are to break the fifth commandment or not, over good brewed sack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now a good dinner was (as we know) what Jack loved, and loved too oft in
+      vain; so he submitted for the nonce, and Cary thought, ere he went, that
+      he had talked him pretty well round. At least he went home, and was seen
+      no more for a week.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But at the end of that time he returned, and said with a joyful voice&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have settled all, Mr. Will. The parson of Welcombe will serve my church
+      for two Sundays, and I am away for London town, to speak to Mr. Frank.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To London? How wilt get there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On Shanks his mare,&rdquo; said Jack, pointing to his bandy legs. &ldquo;But I expect
+      I can get a lift on board of a coaster so far as Bristol, and it's no way
+      on to signify, I hear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary tried in vain to dissuade him; and then forced on him a small loan,
+      with which away went Jack, and Cary heard no more of him for three weeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last he walked into Clovelly Court again just before supper-time, thin
+      and leg-weary, and sat himself down among the serving-men till Will
+      appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Will took him up above the salt, and made much of him (which indeed the
+      honest fellow much needed), and after supper asked him in private how he
+      had sped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have learnt a lesson, Mr. William. I've learnt that there is one on
+      earth loves her better than I, if she had but had the wit to have taken
+      him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what says he of going to seek her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He says what I say, Go! and he says what you say, Wait.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go? Impossible! How can that agree with his letter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's no concern of mine. Of course, being nearer heaven than I am, he
+      sees clearer what he should say and do than I can see for him. Oh, Mr.
+      Will, that's not a man, he's an angel of God; but he's dying, Mr. Will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dying?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, faith, of love for her. I can see it in his eyes, and hear it in his
+      voice; but I am of tougher hide and stiffer clay, and so you see I can't
+      die even if I tried. But I'll obey my betters, and wait.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so Jack went home to his parish that very evening, weary as he was, in
+      spite of all entreaties to pass the night at Clovelly. But he had left
+      behind him thoughts in Cary's mind, which gave their owner no rest by day
+      or night, till the touch of a seeming accident made them all start
+      suddenly into shape, as a touch of the freezing water covers it in an
+      instant with crystals of ice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was lounging (so he told Amyas) one murky day on Bideford quay, when up
+      came Mr. Salterne. Cary had shunned him of late, partly from delicacy,
+      partly from dislike of his supposed hard-heartedness. But this time they
+      happened to meet full; and Cary could not pass without speaking to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Mr. Salterne, and how goes on the shipping trade?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well enough, sir, if some of you young gentlemen would but follow Mr.
+      Leigh's example, and go forth to find us stay-at-homes new markets for our
+      ware.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What? you want to be rid of us, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know why I should, sir. We sha'n't cross each other now, sir,
+      whatever might have been once. But if I were you, I should be in the
+      Indies about now, if I were not fighting the queen's battles nearer home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the Indies? I should make but a poor hand of Drake's trade.&rdquo; And so
+      the conversation dropped; but Cary did not forget the hint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So, lad, to make an end of a long story,&rdquo; said he to Amyas; &ldquo;if you are
+      minded to take the old man's offer, so am I: and Westward-ho with you,
+      come foul come fair.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will be but a wild-goose chase, Will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If she is with him, we shall find her at La Guayra. If she is not, and
+      the villain has cast her off down the wind, that will be only an
+      additional reason for making an example of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if neither of them are there, Will, the Plate-fleets will be; so it
+      will be our own shame if we come home empty-handed. But will your father
+      let you run such a risk?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father!&rdquo; said Cary, laughing. &ldquo;He has just now so good hope of a long
+      string of little Carys to fill my place, that he will be in no lack of an
+      heir, come what will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Little Carys?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you truth. I think he must have had a sly sup of that fountain of
+      perpetual youth, which our friend Don Guzman's grandfather went to seek in
+      Florida; for some twelvemonth since, he must needs marry a tenant's buxom
+      daughter; and Mistress Abishag Jewell has brought him one fat baby
+      already. So I shall go, back to Ireland, or with you: but somewhere. I
+      can't abide the thing's squalling, any more than I can seeing Mistress
+      Abishag sitting in my poor dear mother's place, and informing me every
+      other day that she is come of an illustrious house, because she is (or is
+      not) third cousin seven times removed to my father's old friend, Bishop
+      Jewell of glorious memory. I had three-parts of a quarrel with the dear
+      old man the other day; for after one of her peacock-bouts, I couldn't for
+      the life of me help saying, that as the Bishop had written an Apology for
+      the people of England, my father had better conjure up his ghost to write
+      an apology for him, and head it, 'Why green heads should grow on gray
+      shoulders.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You impudent villain! And what did he say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Laughed till he cried again, and told me if I did not like it I might
+      leave it; which is just what I intend to do. Only mind, if we go, we must
+      needs take Jack Brimblecombe with us, or he will surely heave himself over
+      Harty Point, and his ghost will haunt us to our dying day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jack shall go. None deserves it better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After which there was a long consultation on practical matters, and it was
+      concluded that Amyas should go up to London and sound Frank and his mother
+      before any further steps were taken. The other brethren of the Rose were
+      scattered far and wide, each at his post, and St. Leger had returned to
+      his uncle, so that it would be unfair to them, as well as a considerable
+      delay, to demand of them any fulfilment of their vow. And, as Amyas sagely
+      remarked, &ldquo;Too many cooks spoil the broth, and half-a-dozen gentlemen
+      aboard one ship are as bad as two kings of Brentford.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With which maxim he departed next morning for London, leaving Yeo with
+      Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;He is brass within, and steel without,
+     With beams on his topcastle strong;
+     And eighteen pieces of ordinance
+     He carries on either side along.&rdquo;
+
+                         Sir Andrew Barton.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Let us take boat, as Amyas did, at Whitehall-stairs, and slip down ahead
+      of him under old London Bridge, and so to Deptford Creek, where remains,
+      as it were embalmed, the famous ship Pelican, in which Drake had sailed
+      round the world. There she stands, drawn up high and dry upon the sedgy
+      bank of Thames, like an old warrior resting after his toil. Nailed upon
+      her mainmast are epigrams and verses in honor of her and of her captain,
+      three of which, by the Winchester scholar, Camden gives in his History;
+      and Elizabeth's self consecrated her solemnly, and having banqueted on
+      board, there and then honored Drake with the dignity of knighthood. &ldquo;At
+      which time a bridge of planks, by which they came on board, broke under
+      the press of people, and fell down with a hundred men upon it, who,
+      notwithstanding, had none of them any harm. So as that ship may seem to
+      have been built under a lucky planet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There she has remained since as a show, and moreover as a sort of
+      dining-hall for jovial parties from the city; one of which would seem to
+      be on board this afternoon, to judge from the flags which bedizen the
+      masts, the sounds of revelry and savory steams which issue from those
+      windows which once were portholes, and the rushing to and fro along the
+      river brink, and across that lucky bridge, of white-aproned waiters from
+      the neighboring Pelican Inn. A great feast is evidently toward, for with
+      those white-aproned waiters are gay serving men, wearing on their
+      shoulders the city-badge. The lord mayor is giving a dinner to certain
+      gentlemen of the Leicester house party, who are interested in foreign
+      discoveries; and what place so fit for such a feast as the Pelican itself?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Look at the men all round; a nobler company you will seldom see.
+      Especially too, if you be Americans, look at their faces, and reverence
+      them; for to them and to their wisdom you owe the existence of your mighty
+      fatherland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the head of the table sits the lord mayor; whom all readers will
+      recognize at once, for he is none other than that famous Sir Edward
+      Osborne, clothworker, and ancestor of the dukes of Leeds, whose romance
+      now-a-days is in every one's hands. He is aged, but not changed, since he
+      leaped from the window upon London Bridge into the roaring tide below, to
+      rescue the infant who is now his wife. The chivalry and promptitude of the
+      'prentice boy have grown and hardened into the thoughtful daring of the
+      wealthy merchant adventurer. There he sits, a right kingly man, with my
+      lord Earl of Cumberland on his right hand, and Walter Raleigh on his left;
+      the three talk together in a low voice on the chance of there being vast
+      and rich countries still undiscovered between Florida and the River of
+      Canada. Raleigh's half-scientific declamation and his often quotations of
+      Doctor Dee the conjuror, have less effect on Osborne than on Cumberland
+      (who tried many an adventure to foreign parts, and failed in all of them;
+      apparently for the simple reason that, instead of going himself, he sent
+      other people), and Raleigh is fain to call to his help the quiet student
+      who sits on his left hand, Richard Hakluyt, of Oxford. But he is deep in
+      talk with a reverend elder, whose long white beard flows almost to his
+      waist, and whose face is furrowed by a thousand storms; Anthony Jenkinson
+      by name, the great Asiatic traveller, who is discoursing to the
+      Christ-church virtuoso of reindeer sledges and Siberian steppes, and of
+      the fossil ivory, plain proof of Noah's flood, which the Tungoos dig from
+      the ice-cliffs of the Arctic sea. Next to him is Christopher Carlile,
+      Walsingham's son-in-law (as Sidney also is now), a valiant captain,
+      afterwards general of the soldiery in Drake's triumphant West Indian raid
+      of 1585, with whom a certain Bishop of Carthagena will hereafter drink
+      good wine. He is now busy talking with Alderman Hart the grocer, Sheriff
+      Spencer the clothworker, and Charles Leigh (Amyas's merchant-cousin), and
+      with Aldworth the mayor of Bristol, and William Salterne, alderman
+      thereof, and cousin of our friend at Bideford. For Carlile, and Secretary
+      Walsingham also, have been helping them heart and soul for the last two
+      years to collect money for Humphrey and Adrian Gilbert's great adventures
+      to the North-West, on one of which Carlile was indeed to have sailed
+      himself, but did not go after all; I never could discover for what reason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the opposite side of the table is a group, scarcely less interesting.
+      Martin Frobisher and John Davis, the pioneers of the North-West passage,
+      are talking with Alderman Sanderson, the great geographer and &ldquo;setter
+      forth of globes;&rdquo; with Mr. Towerson, Sir Gilbert Peckham, our old
+      acquaintance Captain John Winter, and last, but not least, with Philip
+      Sidney himself, who, with his accustomed courtesy; has given up his
+      rightful place toward the head of the table that he may have a knot of
+      virtuosi all to himself; and has brought with him, of course, his two
+      especial intimates, Mr. Edward Dyer and Mr. Francis Leigh. They too are
+      talking of the North-West passage: and Sidney is lamenting that he is tied
+      to diplomacy and courts, and expressing his envy of old Martin Frobisher
+      in all sorts of pretty compliments; to which the other replies that,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's all very fine to talk of here, a sailing on dry land with a good
+      glass of wine before you; but you'd find it another guess sort of
+      business, knocking about among the icebergs with your beard frozen fast to
+      your ruff, Sir Philip, specially if you were a bit squeamish about the
+      stomach.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That were a slight matter to endure, my dear sir, if by it I could win
+      the honor which her majesty bestowed on you, when her own ivory hand waved
+      a farewell 'kerchief to your ship from the windows of Greenwich Palace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir, folks say you have no reason to complain of lack of favors, as
+      you have no reason to deserve lack; and if you can get them by staying
+      ashore, don't you go to sea to look for more, say I. Eh, Master Towerson?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Towerson's gray beard, which has stood many a foreign voyage, both fair
+      and foul, wags grim assent. But at this moment a Waiter enters, and&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Please my lord mayor's worship, there is a tall gentleman outside, would
+      speak with the Right Honorable Sir Walter Raleigh.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Show him in, man. Sir Walter's friends are ours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas enters, and stands hesitating in the doorway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Leigh!&rdquo; cry half a-dozen voices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why did you not walk in, sir?&rdquo; says Osborne. &ldquo;You should know your way
+      well enough between these decks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well enough, my lords and gentlemen. But, Sir Walter&mdash;you will
+      excuse me&rdquo;&mdash;and he gave Raleigh a look which was enough for his quick
+      wit. Turning pale as death, he rose, and followed Amyas into an adjoining
+      cabin. They were five minutes together; and then Amyas came out alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In few words he told the company the sad story which we already know. Ere
+      it was ended, noble tears were glistening on some of those stern faces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The old Egyptians,&rdquo; said Sir Edward Osborne, &ldquo;when they banqueted, set a
+      corpse among their guests, for a memorial of human vanity. Have we
+      forgotten God and our own weakness in this our feast, that He Himself has
+      sent us thus a message from the dead?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, my lord mayor,&rdquo; said Sidney, &ldquo;not from the dead, but from the realm
+      of everlasting life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; answered Osborne. &ldquo;But, gentlemen, our feast is at an end. There
+      are those here who would drink on merrily, as brave men should, in spite
+      of the private losses of which they have just had news; but none here who
+      can drink with the loss of so great a man still ringing in his ears.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was true. Though many of the guests had suffered severely by the
+      failure of the expedition, they had utterly forgotten that fact in the
+      awful news of Sir Humphrey's death; and the feast broke up sadly and
+      hurriedly, while each man asked his neighbor, &ldquo;What will the queen say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Raleigh re-entered in a few minutes, but was silent, and pressing many an
+      honest hand as he passed, went out to call a wherry, beckoning Amyas to
+      follow him. Sidney, Cumberland, and Frank went with them in another boat,
+      leaving the two to talk over the sad details.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They disembarked at Whitehall-stairs; Raleigh, Sidney, and Cumberland went
+      to the palace; and the two brothers to their mother's lodgings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas had prepared his speech to Frank about Rose Salterne, but now that
+      it was come to the point, he had not courage to begin, and longed that
+      Frank would open the matter. Frank, too, shrank from what he knew must
+      come, and all the more because he was ignorant that Amyas had been to
+      Bideford, or knew aught of the Rose's disappearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they went upstairs; and it was a relief to both of them to find that
+      their mother was at the Abbey; for it was for her sake that both dreaded
+      what was coming. So they went and stood in the bay-window which looked out
+      upon the river, and talked of things indifferent, and looked earnestly at
+      each other's faces by the fading light, for it was now three years since
+      they had met.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Years and events had deepened the contrast between the two brothers; and
+      Frank smiled with affectionate pride as he looked up in Amyas's face, and
+      saw that he was no longer merely the rollicking handy sailor-lad, but the
+      self-confident and stately warrior, showing in every look and gesture,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The reason firm, the temperate will,
+     Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill,&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      worthy of one whose education had been begun by such men as Drake and
+      Grenville, and finished by such as Raleigh and Gilbert. His long locks
+      were now cropped close to the head; but as a set-off, the lips and chin
+      were covered with rich golden beard; his face was browned by a thousand
+      suns and storms; a long scar, the trophy of some Irish fight, crossed his
+      right temple; his huge figure had gained breadth in proportion to its
+      height; and his hand, as it lay upon the window-sill, was hard and massive
+      as a smith's. Frank laid his own upon it, and sighed; and Amyas looked
+      down, and started at the contrast between the two&mdash;so slender,
+      bloodless, all but transparent, were the delicate fingers of the courtier.
+      Amyas looked anxiously into his brother's face. It was changed, indeed,
+      since they last met. The brilliant red was still on either cheek, but the
+      white had become dull and opaque; the lips were pale, the features
+      sharpened; the eyes glittered with unnatural fire: and when Frank told
+      Amyas that he looked aged, Amyas could not help thinking that the remark
+      was far more true of the speaker himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Trying to shut his eyes to the palpable truth, he went on with his chat,
+      asking the names of one building after another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so this is old Father Thames, with his bank of palaces?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. His banks are stately enough; yet, you see, he cannot stay to look
+      at them. He hurries down to the sea; and the sea into the ocean; and the
+      ocean Westward-ho, forever. All things move Westward-ho. Perhaps we may
+      move that way ourselves some day, Amyas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean by that strange talk?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only that the ocean follows the primum mobile of the heavens, and flows
+      forever from east to west. Is there anything so strange in my thinking of
+      that, when I am just come from a party where we have been drinking success
+      to Westward-ho?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And much good has come of it! I have lost the best friend and the noblest
+      captain upon earth, not to mention all my little earnings, in that same
+      confounded gulf of Westward-ho.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's star has set in the West&mdash;why not? Sun,
+      moon, and planets sink into the West: why not the meteors of this lower
+      world? why not a will-o'-the-wisp like me, Amyas?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forbid, Frank!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, then? Is not the West the land of peace, and the land of dreams? Do
+      not our hearts tell us so each time we look upon the setting sun, and long
+      to float away with him upon the golden-cushioned clouds? They bury men
+      with their faces to the East. I should rather have mine turned to the
+      West, Amyas, when I die; for I cannot but think it some divine instinct
+      which made the ancient poets guess that Elysium lay beneath the setting
+      sun. It is bound up in the heart of man, that longing for the West. I
+      complain of no one for fleeing away thither beyond the utmost sea, as
+      David wished to flee, and be at peace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Complain of no one for fleeing thither?&rdquo; asked Amyas. &ldquo;That is more than
+      I do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank looked inquiringly at him; and then&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. If I had complained of any one, it would have been of you just now,
+      for seeming to be tired of going Westward-ho.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you wish me to go, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God knows,&rdquo; said Frank, after a moment's pause. &ldquo;But I must tell you now,
+      I suppose, once and for all. That has happened at Bideford which&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spare us both, Frank; I know all. I came through Bideford on my way
+      hither; and came hither not merely to see you and my mother, but to ask
+      your advice and her permission.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True heart! noble heart!&rdquo; cried Frank. &ldquo;I knew you would be stanch!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Westward-ho it is, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can we escape?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas, does not that which binds you bind me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas started back, and held Frank by the shoulders at arm's length; as he
+      did so, he could feel through, that his brother's arms were but skin and
+      bone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You? Dearest man, a month of it would kill you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank smiled, and tossed his head on one side in his pretty way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I belong to the school of Thales, who held that the ocean is the mother
+      of all life; and feel no more repugnance at returning to her bosom again
+      than Humphrey Gilbert did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, Frank,&mdash;my mother?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My mother knows all; and would not have us unworthy of her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible! She will never give you up!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All things are possible to them that believe in God, my brother; and she
+      believes. But, indeed, Doctor Dee, the wise man, gave her but this summer
+      I know not what of prognostics and diagnostics concerning me. I am born,
+      it seems, under a cold and watery planet, and need, if I am to be
+      long-lived, to go nearer to the vivifying heat of the sun, and there bask
+      out my little life, like fly on wall. To tell truth, he has bidden me
+      spend no more winters here in the East; but return to our native
+      sea-breezes, there to warm my frozen lungs; and has so filled my mother's
+      fancy with stories of sick men, who were given up for lost in Germany and
+      France, and yet renewed their youth, like any serpent or eagle, by going
+      to Italy, Spain, and the Canaries, that she herself will be more ready to
+      let me go than I to leave her all alone. And yet I must go, Amyas. It is
+      not merely that my heart pants, as Sidney's does, as every gallant's
+      ought, to make one of your noble choir of Argonauts, who are now
+      replenishing the earth and subduing it for God and for the queen; it is
+      not merely, Amyas, that love calls me,&mdash;love tyrannous and
+      uncontrollable, strengthened by absence, and deepened by despair; but
+      honor, Amyas&mdash;my oath&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he paused for lack of breath, and bursting into a violent fit of
+      coughing, leaned on his brother's shoulder, while Amyas cried,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fools, fools that we were&mdash;that I was, I mean&mdash;to take that
+      fantastical vow!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so,&rdquo; answered a gentle voice from behind: &ldquo;you vowed for the sake of
+      peace on earth, and good-will toward men, and 'Blessed are the
+      peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.' No my sons, be
+      sure that such self-sacrifice as you have shown will meet its full reward
+      at the hand of Him who sacrificed Himself for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, mother! mother!&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;and do you not hate the very sight of
+      me&mdash;come here to take away your first-born?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My boy, God takes him, and not you. And if I dare believe in such
+      predictions, Doctor Dee assured me that some exceeding honor awaited you
+      both in the West, to each of you according to your deserts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;My blessing, I suppose, will be like Esau's, to live by
+      my sword; while Jacob here, the spiritual man, inherits the kingdom of
+      heaven, and an angel's crown.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be it what it may, it will surely be a blessing, as long as you are such,
+      my children, as you have been. At least my Frank will be safe from the
+      intrigues of court, and the temptations of the world. Would that I too
+      could go with you, and share in your glory! Come, now,&rdquo; said she, laying
+      her head upon Amyas's breast, and looking up into his face with one of her
+      most winning smiles, &ldquo;I have heard of heroic mothers ere now who went
+      forth with their sons to battle, and cheered them on to victory. Why
+      should I not go with you on a more peaceful errand? I could nurse the
+      sick, if there were any; I could perhaps have speech of that poor girl,
+      and win her back more easily than you. She might listen to words from a
+      woman&mdash;a woman, too, who has loved&mdash;which she could not hear
+      from men. At least I could mend and wash for you. I suppose it is as easy
+      to play the good housewife afloat as on shore? Come, now!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas looked from one to the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God only knows which of the two is less fit to go. Mother! mother! you
+      know not what you ask. Frank! Frank! I do not want you with me. This is a
+      sterner matter than either of you fancy it to be; one that must be worked
+      out, not with kind words, but with sharp shot and cold steel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How?&rdquo; cried both together, aghast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must pay my men, and pay my fellow-adventurers; and I must pay them
+      with Spanish gold. And what is more, I cannot, as a loyal subject of the
+      queen's, go to the Spanish Main with a clear conscience on my own private
+      quarrel, unless I do all the harm that my hand finds to do, by day and
+      night, to her enemies, and the enemies of God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What nobler knight-errantry?&rdquo; said Frank, cheerfully; but Mrs. Leigh
+      shuddered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! Frank too?&rdquo; she said, half to herself; but her sons knew what she
+      meant. Amyas's warlike life, honorable and righteous as she knew it to be,
+      she had borne as a sad necessity: but that Frank as well should become &ldquo;a
+      man of blood,&rdquo; was more than her gentle heart could face at first sight.
+      That one youthful duel of his he had carefully concealed from her, knowing
+      her feeling on such matters. And it seemed too dreadful to her to
+      associate that gentle spirit with all the ferocities and the carnage of a
+      battlefield. &ldquo;And yet,&rdquo; said she to herself, &ldquo;is this but another of the
+      self-willed idols which I must renounce one by one?&rdquo; And then, catching at
+      a last hope, she answered&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Frank must at least ask the queen's leave to go; and if she permits, how
+      can I gainsay her wisdom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so the conversation dropped, sadly enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But now began a fresh perplexity in Frank's soul, which amused Amyas at
+      first, when it seemed merely jest, but nettled him a good deal when he
+      found it earnest. For Frank looked forward to asking the queen's
+      permission for his voyage with the most abject despondency and terror. Two
+      or three days passed before he could make up his mind to ask for an
+      interview with her; and he spent the time in making as much interest with
+      Leicester, Hatton, and Sidney, as if he were about to sue for a reprieve
+      from the scaffold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So said Amyas, remarking, further, that the queen could not cut his head
+      off for wanting to go to sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what axe so sharp as her frown?&rdquo; said Frank in most lugubrious tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas began to whistle in a very rude way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, my brother, you cannot comprehend the pain of parting from her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I can't. I would die for the least hair of her royal head, God bless
+      it! but I could live very well from now till Doomsday without ever setting
+      eyes on the said head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Plato's Troglodytes regretted not that sunlight which they had never
+      beheld.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas, not understanding this recondite conceit, made no answer to it, and
+      there the matter ended for the time. But at last Frank obtained his
+      audience; and after a couple of hours' absence returned quite pale and
+      exhausted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank Heaven, it is over! She was very angry at first&mdash;what else
+      could she be?&mdash;and upbraided me with having set my love so low. I
+      could only answer, that my fatal fault was committed before the sight of
+      her had taught me what was supremely lovely, and only worthy of
+      admiration. Then she accused me of disloyalty in having taken an oath
+      which bound me to the service of another than her. I confessed my sin with
+      tears, and when she threatened punishment, pleaded that the offence had
+      avenged itself heavily already,&mdash;for what worse punishment than exile
+      from the sunlight of her presence, into the outer darkness which reigns
+      where she is not? Then she was pleased to ask me, how I could dare, as her
+      sworn servant, to desert her side in such dangerous times as these; and
+      asked me how I should reconcile it to my conscience, if on my return I
+      found her dead by the assassin's knife? At which most pathetic demand I
+      could only throw myself at once on my own knees and her mercy, and so
+      awaited my sentence. Whereon, with that angelic pity which alone makes her
+      awfulness endurable, she turned to Hatton and asked, 'What say you,
+      Mouton? Is he humbled sufficiently?' and so dismissed me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heigh-ho!&rdquo; yawned Amyas;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;If the bridge had been stronger,
+     My tale had been longer.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas! Amyas!&rdquo; quoth Frank, solemnly, &ldquo;you know not what power over the
+      soul has the native and God-given majesty of royalty (awful enough in
+      itself) when to it is superadded the wisdom of the sage, and therewithal
+      the tenderness of the woman. Had I my will, there should be in every realm
+      not a salique, but an anti-salique law: whereby no kings, but only queens
+      should rule mankind. Then would weakness and not power be to man the
+      symbol of divinity; love, and not cunning, would be the arbiter of every
+      cause; and chivalry, not fear, the spring of all obedience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph! There's some sense in that,&rdquo; quoth Amyas. &ldquo;I'd run a mile for a
+      woman when I would not walk a yard for a man; and&mdash;Who is this our
+      mother is bringing in? The handsomest fellow I ever saw in my life!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was not far wrong; for Mrs. Leigh's companion was none other than
+      Mr. Secretary, Amyas's Smerwick Fort acquaintance; alias Colin Clout,
+      alias Immerito, alias Edmund Spenser. Some half-jesting conversation had
+      seemingly been passing between the poet and the saint; for as they came in
+      she said with a smile (which was somewhat of a forced one)&mdash;&ldquo;Well, my
+      dear sons, you are sure of immortality, at least on earth; for Mr. Spenser
+      has been vowing to me to give your adventure a whole canto to itself in
+      his 'Faerie Queene'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you no less, madam,&rdquo; said Spenser. &ldquo;What were the story of the
+      Gracchi worth without the figure of Cornelia? If I honor the fruit, I must
+      not forget the stem which bears it. Frank, I congratulate you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you know the result of my interview, mother?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know everything, and am content,&rdquo; said Mrs. Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mrs. Leigh has reason to be content,&rdquo; said Spenser, &ldquo;with that which is
+      but her own likeness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spare your flattery to an old woman, Mr. Spenser. When, pray, did I&rdquo; (with
+      a most loving look at Frank) &ldquo;refuse knighthood for duty's sake?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Knighthood?&rdquo; cried Amyas. &ldquo;You never told me that, Frank!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That may well be, Captain Leigh,&rdquo; said Spenser; &ldquo;but believe me, her
+      majesty (so Hatton assures me) told him this day, no less than that by
+      going on this quest he deprived himself of that highest earthly honor,
+      which crowned heads are fain to seek from their own subjects.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Spenser did not exaggerate. Knighthood was then the prize of merit only;
+      and one so valuable, that Elizabeth herself said, when asked why she did
+      not bestow a peerage upon some favorite, that having already knighted him,
+      she had nothing better to bestow. It remained for young Essex to begin the
+      degradation of the order in his hapless Irish campaign, and for James to
+      complete that degradation by his novel method of raising money by the sale
+      of baronetcies; a new order of hereditary knighthood which was the
+      laughing-stock of the day, and which (however venerable it may have since
+      become) reflects anything but honor upon its first possessors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I owe you no thanks, Colin,&rdquo; said Frank, &ldquo;for having broached my secret:
+      but I have lost nothing after all. There is still an order of knighthood
+      in which I may win my spurs, even though her majesty refuse me the
+      accolade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, then? you will not take it from a foreign prince?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you never read of that knighthood which is eternal in the heavens,
+      and of those true cavaliers whom John saw in Patmos, riding on white
+      horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, knights-errant in the
+      everlasting war against the False Prophet and the Beast? Let me but become
+      worthy of their ranks hereafter, what matter whether I be called Sir Frank
+      on earth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My son,&rdquo; said Mrs. Leigh, &ldquo;remember that they follow One whose vesture is
+      dipped, not in the blood of His enemies, but in His own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have remembered it for many a day; and remembered, too, that the
+      garments of the knights may need the same tokens as their captain's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Frank! Frank! is not His precious blood enough to cleanse all sin,
+      without the sacrifice of our own?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We may need no more than His blood, mother, and yet He may need ours,&rdquo;
+       said Frank.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      How that conversation ended I know not, nor whether Spenser fulfilled his
+      purpose of introducing the two brothers and their mother into his &ldquo;Faerie
+      Queene.&rdquo; If so, the manuscripts must have been lost among those which
+      perished (along with Spenser's baby) in the sack of Kilcolman by the Irish
+      in 1598. But we need hardly regret the loss of them; for the temper of the
+      Leighs and their mother is the same which inspires every canto of that
+      noblest of poems; and which inspired, too, hundreds in those noble days,
+      when the chivalry of the Middle Ages was wedded to the free thought and
+      enterprise of the new.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      So mother and sons returned to Bideford, and set to work. Frank mortgaged
+      a farm; Will Cary did the same (having some land of his own from his
+      mother). Old Salterne grumbled at any man save himself spending a penny on
+      the voyage, and forced on the adventurers a good ship of two hundred tons
+      burden, and five hundred pounds toward fitting her out; Mrs. Leigh worked
+      day and night at clothes and comforts of every kind; Amyas had nothing to
+      give but his time and his brains: but, as Salterne said, the rest would
+      have been of little use without them; and day after day he and the old
+      merchant were on board the ship, superintending with their own eyes the
+      fitting of every rope and nail. Cary went about beating up recruits; and
+      made, with his jests and his frankness, the best of crimps: while John
+      Brimblecombe, beside himself with joy, toddled about after him from tavern
+      to tavern, and quay to quay, exalted for the time being (as Cary told him)
+      into a second Peter the Hermit; and so fiercely did he preach a crusade
+      against the Spaniards, through Bideford and Appledore, Clovelly and
+      Ilfracombe, that Amyas might have had a hundred and fifty loose fellows in
+      the first fortnight. But he knew better: still smarting from the effects
+      of a similar haste in the Newfoundland adventure, he had determined to
+      take none but picked men; and by dint of labor he obtained them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only one scapegrace did he take into his crew, named Parracombe; and by
+      that scapegrace hangs a tale. He was an old schoolfellow of his at
+      Bideford, and son of a merchant in that town&mdash;one of those unlucky
+      members who are &ldquo;nobody's enemy but their own&rdquo;&mdash;a handsome, idle,
+      clever fellow, who used his scholarship, of which he had picked up some
+      smattering, chiefly to justify his own escapades, and to string songs
+      together. Having drunk all that he was worth at home, he had in a penitent
+      fit forsworn liquor, and tormented Amyas into taking him to sea, where he
+      afterwards made as good a sailor as any one else, but sorely scandalized
+      John Brimblecombe by all manner of heretical arguments, half Anacreontic,
+      half smacking of the rather loose doctrines of that &ldquo;Family of Love&rdquo; which
+      tormented the orthodoxy and morality of more than one Bishop of Exeter.
+      Poor Will Parracombe! he was born a few centuries too early. Had he but
+      lived now, he might have published a volume or two of poetry, and then
+      settled down on the staff of a newspaper. Had he even lived thirty years
+      later than he did, he might have written frantic tragedies or filthy
+      comedies for the edification of James's profligate metropolis, and
+      roistered it in taverns with Marlowe, to die as Marlowe did, by a
+      footman's sword in a drunken brawl. But in those stern days such weak and
+      hysterical spirits had no fair vent for their &ldquo;humors,&rdquo; save in being
+      reconciled to the Church of Rome, and plotting with Jesuits to assassinate
+      the queen, as Parry and Somerville, and many other madmen, did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, at least, some Jesuit or other seems to have thought, shortly after
+      Amyas had agreed to give the spendthrift a berth on board. For one day
+      Amyas, going down to Appledore about his business, was called into the
+      little Mariners' Rest inn, to extract therefrom poor Will Parracombe, who
+      (in spite of his vow) was drunk and outrageous, and had vowed the death of
+      the landlady and all her kin. So Amyas fetched him out by the collar, and
+      walked him home thereby to Bideford; during which walk Will told him a
+      long and confused story; how an Egyptian rogue had met him that morning on
+      the sands by Boathythe, offered to tell his fortune, and prophesied to him
+      great wealth and honor, but not from the Queen of England; had coaxed him
+      to the Mariners' Rest, and gambled with him for liquor, at which it seemed
+      Will always won, and of course drank his winnings on the spot; whereon the
+      Egyptian began asking him all sorts of questions about the projected
+      voyage of the Rose&mdash;a good many of which, Will confessed, he had
+      answered before he saw the fellow's drift; after which the Egyptian had
+      offered him a vast sum of money to do some desperate villainy; but whether
+      it was to murder Amyas or the queen, whether to bore a hole in the bottom
+      of the good ship Rose or to set the Torridge on fire by art-magic, he was
+      too drunk to recollect exactly. Whereon Amyas treated three-quarters of
+      the story as a tipsy dream, and contented himself by getting a warrant
+      against the landlady for harboring &ldquo;Egyptians,&rdquo; which was then a heavy
+      offence&mdash;a gipsy disguise being a favorite one with Jesuits and their
+      emissaries. She of course denied that any gipsy had been there; and though
+      there were some who thought they had seen such a man come in, none had
+      seen him go out again. On which Amyas took occasion to ask, what had
+      become of the suspicious Popish ostler whom he had seen at the Mariners'
+      Rest three years before; and discovered, to his surprise, that the said
+      ostler had vanished from the very day of Don Guzman's departure from
+      Bideford. There was evidently a mystery somewhere: but nothing could be
+      proved; the landlady was dismissed with a reprimand, and Amyas soon forgot
+      the whole matter, after rating Parracombe soundly. After all, he could not
+      have told the gipsy (if one existed) anything important; for the special
+      destination of the voyage (as was the custom in those times, for fear of
+      Jesuits playing into the hands of Spain) had been carefully kept secret
+      among the adventurers themselves, and, except Yeo and Drew, none of the
+      men had any suspicion that La Guayra was to be their aim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Salvation Yeo?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Salvation was almost wild for a few days, at the sudden prospect of going
+      in search of his little maid, and of fighting Spaniards once more before
+      he died. I will not quote the texts out of Isaiah and the Psalms with
+      which his mouth was filled from morning to night, for fear of seeming
+      irreverent in the eyes of a generation which does not believe, as Yeo
+      believed, that fighting the Spaniards was as really fighting in God's
+      battle against evil as were the wars of Joshua or David. But the old man
+      had his practical hint too, and entreated to be sent back to Plymouth to
+      look for men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's many a man of the old Pelican, sir, and of Captain Hawkins's
+      Minion that knows the Indies as well as I, and longs to be back again.
+      There's Drew, sir, that we left behind (and no better sailing-master for
+      us in the West-country, and has accounts against the Spaniards, too; for
+      it was his brother, the Barnstaple man, that was factor aboard of poor Mr.
+      Andrew Barker, and got clapt into the Inquisition at the Canaries); you
+      promised him, sir, that night he stood by you on board the Raleigh: and if
+      you'll be as good as your word, he'll be as good as his; and bring a score
+      more brave fellows with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So off went Yeo to Plymouth, and returned with Drew and a score of old
+      never-strikes. One look at their visages, as Yeo proudly ushered them into
+      the Ship Tavern, showed Amyas that they were of the metal which he wanted,
+      and that, with the four North-Devon men who had gone round the world with
+      him in the Pelican (who all joined in the first week), he had a
+      reserve-force on which he could depend in utter need; and that utter need
+      might come he knew as well as any.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor was this all which Yeo had brought; for he had with him a letter from
+      Sir Francis Drake, full of regrets that he had not seen &ldquo;his dear lad&rdquo; as
+      he went through Plymouth. &ldquo;But indeed I was up to Dartmoor, surveying with
+      cross-staff and chain, over my knees in bog for a three weeks or more. For
+      I have a project to bring down a leat of fair water from the hill-tops
+      right into Plymouth town, cutting off the heads of Tavy, Meavy, Wallcomb,
+      and West Dart, and thereby purging Plymouth harbor from the silt of the
+      mines whereby it has been choked of late years, and giving pure drink not
+      only to the townsmen, but to the fleets of the queen's majesty; which if I
+      do, I shall both make some poor return to God for all His unspeakable
+      mercies, and erect unto myself a monument better than of brass or marble,
+      not merely honorable to me, but useful to my countrymen.&rdquo; * Whereon Frank
+      sent Drake a pretty epigram, comparing Drake's projected leat to that
+      river of eternal life whereof the just would drink throughout eternity,
+      and quoting (after the fashion of those days) John vii. 38; while Amyas
+      took more heed of a practical appendage to the same letter, which was a
+      list of hints scrawled for his use by Captain John Hawkins himself, on all
+      sea matters, from the mounting of ordnance to the use of vitriol against
+      the scurvy, in default of oranges and &ldquo;limmons;&rdquo; all which stood Amyas in
+      good stead during the ensuing month, while Frank grew more and more proud
+      of his brother, and more and more humble about himself.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This noble monument of Drake's piety and public spirit
+     still remains in full use.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      For he watched with astonishment how the simple sailor, without genius,
+      scholarship, or fancy, had gained, by plain honesty, patience, and common
+      sense, a power over the human heart, and a power over his work, whatsoever
+      it might be, which Frank could only admire afar off. The men looked up to
+      him as infallible, prided themselves on forestalling his wishes, carried
+      out his slightest hint, worked early and late to win a smile from him;
+      while as for him, no detail escaped him, no drudgery sickened him, no
+      disappointment angered him, till on the 15th of November, 1583, dropped
+      down from Bideford Quay to Appledore Pool the tall ship Rose, with a
+      hundred men on board (for sailors packed close in those days), beef, pork,
+      biscuit, and good ale (for ale went to sea always then) in abundance, four
+      culverins on her main deck, her poop and forecastle well fitted with
+      swivels of every size, and her racks so full of muskets, calivers, long
+      bows, pikes, and swords, that all agreed so well-appointed a ship had
+      never sailed &ldquo;out over Bar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day being Sunday, the whole crew received the Communion together
+      at Northam Church, amid a mighty crowd; and then going on board again,
+      hove anchor and sailed out over the Bar before a soft east wind, to the
+      music of sacbut, fife, and drum, with discharge of all ordnance, great and
+      small, with cheering of young and old from cliff and strand and quay, and
+      with many a tearful prayer and blessing upon that gallant bark, and all
+      brave hearts on board.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Mrs. Leigh who had kissed her sons for the last time after the
+      Communion at the altar-steps (and what more fit place for a mother's
+      kiss?) went to the rocky knoll outside the churchyard wall, and watched
+      the ship glide out between the yellow denes, and lessen slowly hour by
+      hour into the boundless West, till her hull sank below the dim horizon,
+      and her white sails faded away into the gray Atlantic mist, perhaps
+      forever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Mrs. Leigh gathered her cloak about her, and bowed her head and
+      worshipped; and then went home to loneliness and prayer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS, AND FOUND NO MEN THEREIN
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out;
+     At one stride comes the dark.&rdquo;
+
+                                   COLERIDGE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Land! land! land! Yes, there it was, far away to the south and west,
+      beside the setting sun, a long blue bar between the crimson sea and golden
+      sky. Land at last, with fresh streams, and cooling fruits, and free room
+      for cramped and scurvy-weakened limbs. And there, too, might be gold, and
+      gems, and all the wealth of Ind. Who knew? Why not? The old world of fact
+      and prose lay thousands of miles behind them, and before them and around
+      them was the realm of wonder and fable, of boundless hope and possibility.
+      Sick men crawled up out of their stifling hammocks; strong men fell on
+      their knees and gave God thanks; and all eyes and hands were stretched
+      eagerly toward the far blue cloud, fading as the sun sank down, yet rising
+      higher and broader as the ship rushed on before the rich trade-wind, which
+      whispered lovingly round brow and sail, &ldquo;I am the faithful friend of those
+      who dare!&rdquo; &ldquo;Blow freshly, freshlier yet, thou good trade-wind, of whom it
+      is written that He makes the winds His angels, ministering breaths to the
+      heirs of His salvation. Blow freshlier yet, and save, if not me from
+      death, yet her from worse than death. Blow on, and land me at her feet, to
+      call the lost lamb home, and die!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So murmured Frank to himself, as with straining eyes he gazed upon that
+      first outlier of the New World which held his all. His cheeks were thin
+      and wasted, and the hectic spot on each glowed crimson in the crimson
+      light of the setting sun. A few minutes more, and the rainbows of the West
+      were gone; emerald and topaz, amethyst and ruby, had faded into
+      silver-gray; and overhead, through the dark sapphire depths, the Moon and
+      Venus reigned above the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That should be Barbados, your worship,&rdquo; said Drew, the master; &ldquo;unless my
+      reckoning is far out, which, Heaven knows, it has no right to be, after
+      such a passage, and God be praised.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Barbados? I never heard of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very like, sir: but Yeo and I were here with Captain Drake, and I was
+      here after, too, with poor Captain Barlow; and there is good harborage to
+      the south and west of it, I remember.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And neither Spaniard, cannibal, or other evil beast,&rdquo; said Yeo. &ldquo;A very
+      garden of the Lord, sir, hid away in the seas, for an inheritance to those
+      who love Him. I heard Captain Drake talk of planting it, if ever he had a
+      chance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I recollect now,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;some talk between him and poor Sir
+      Humphrey about an island here. Would God he had gone thither instead of to
+      Newfoundland!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, then,&rdquo; said Yeo, &ldquo;he is in bliss now with the Lord; and you would
+      not have kept him from that, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He would have waited as willingly as he went, if he could have served his
+      queen thereby. But what say you, my masters? How can we do better than to
+      spend a few days here, to get our sick round, before we make the Main, and
+      set to our work?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All approved the counsel except Frank, who was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, fellow-adventurer,&rdquo; said Cary, &ldquo;we must have your voice too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To my impatience, Will,&rdquo; said he, aside in a low voice, &ldquo;there is but one
+      place on earth, and I am all day longing for wings to fly thither: but the
+      counsel is right. I approve it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the verdict was announced, and received with a hearty cheer by the
+      crew; and long before morning they had run along the southern shore of the
+      island, and were feeling their way into the bay where Bridgetown now
+      stands. All eyes were eagerly fixed on the low wooded hills which slept in
+      the moonlight, spangled by fireflies, with a million dancing stars; all
+      nostrils drank greedily the fragrant air, which swept from the land, laden
+      with the scent of a thousand flowers; all ears welcomed, as a grateful
+      change from the monotonous whisper and lap of the water, the hum of
+      insects, the snore of the tree-toads, the plaintive notes of the
+      shore-fowl, which fill a tropic night with noisy life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last she stopped; at last the cable rattled through the hawsehole; and
+      then, careless of the chance of lurking Spaniard or Carib, an instinctive
+      cheer burst from every throat. Poor fellows! Amyas had much ado to prevent
+      them going on shore at once, dark as it was, by reminding them that it
+      wanted but two hours of day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never were two such long hours,&rdquo; said one young lad, fidgeting up and
+      down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You never were in the Inquisition,&rdquo; said Yeo, &ldquo;or you'd know better how
+      slow time can run. Stand you still, and give God thanks you're where you
+      are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say, Gunner, be there goold to that island?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never heard of none; and so much the better for it,&rdquo; said Yeo, dryly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, I say, Gunner,&rdquo; said a poor scurvy-stricken cripple, licking his
+      lips, &ldquo;be there oranges and limmons there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not of my seeing; but plenty of good fruit down to the beach, thank the
+      Lord. There comes the dawn at last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Up flushed the rose, up rushed the sun, and the level rays glittered on
+      the smooth stems of the palm-trees, and threw rainbows across the foam
+      upon the coral-reefs, and gilded lonely uplands far away, where now stands
+      many a stately country-seat and busy engine-house. Long lines of pelicans
+      went clanging out to sea; the hum of the insects hushed, and a thousand
+      birds burst into jubilant song; a thin blue mist crept upward toward the
+      inner downs, and vanished, leaving them to quiver in the burning glare;
+      the land-breeze, which had blown fresh out to sea all night, died away
+      into glassy calm, and the tropic day was begun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sick were lifted over the side, and landed boat-load after boat-load
+      on the beach, to stretch themselves in the shade of the palms; and in
+      half-an-hour the whole crew were scattered on the shore, except some dozen
+      worthy men, who had volunteered to keep watch and ward on board till noon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now the first instinctive cry of nature was for fruit! fruit! fruit!
+      The poor lame wretches crawled from place to place plucking greedily the
+      violet grapes of the creeping shore vine, and staining their mouths and
+      blistering their lips with the prickly pears, in spite of Yeo's entreaties
+      and warnings against the thorns. Some of the healthy began hewing down
+      cocoa-nut trees to get at the nuts, doing little thereby but blunt their
+      hatchets; till Yeo and Drew, having mustered half-a-dozen reasonable men,
+      went off inland, and returned in an hour laden with the dainties of that
+      primeval orchard,&mdash;with acid junipa-apples, luscious guavas, and
+      crowned ananas, queen of all the fruits, which they had found by hundreds
+      on the broiling ledges of the low tufa-cliffs; and then all, sitting on
+      the sandy turf, defiant of galliwasps and jackspaniards, and all the
+      weapons of the insect host, partook of the equal banquet, while old blue
+      land-crabs sat in their house-doors and brandished their fists in defiance
+      at the invaders, and solemn cranes stood in the water on the shoals with
+      their heads on one side, and meditated how long it was since they had seen
+      bipeds without feathers breaking the solitude of their isle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Frank wandered up and down, silent, but rather in wonder than in
+      sadness, while great Amyas walked after him, his mouth full of
+      junipa-apples, and enacted the part of showman, with a sort of patronizing
+      air, as one who had seen the wonders already, and was above being
+      astonished at them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;New, new; everything new!&rdquo; said Frank, meditatively. &ldquo;Oh, awful feeling!
+      All things changed around us, even to the tiniest fly and flower; yet we
+      the same, the same forever!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas, to whom such utterances were altogether sibylline and
+      unintelligible, answered by:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look, Frank, that's a colibri. You 've heard of colibris?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank looked at the living gem, which hung, loud humming, over some
+      fantastic bloom, and then dashed away, seemingly to call its mate, and
+      whirred and danced with it round and round the flower-starred bushes,
+      flashing fresh rainbows at every shifting of the lights.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank watched solemnly awhile, and then:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Qualis Natura formatrix, si talis formata? Oh my God, how fair must be
+      Thy real world, if even Thy phantoms are so fair!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Phantoms?&rdquo; asked Amyas, uneasily. &ldquo;That's no ghost, Frank, but a jolly
+      little honey-sucker, with a wee wife, and children no bigger than peas,
+      but yet solid greedy little fellows enough, I'll warrant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not phantoms in thy sense, good fellow, but in the sense of those who
+      know the worthlessness of all below.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll tell you what, brother Frank, you are a great deal wiser than me, I
+      know; but I can't abide to see you turn up your nose as it were at God's
+      good earth. See now, God made all these things; and never a man, perhaps,
+      set eyes on them till fifty years agone; and yet they were as pretty as
+      they are now, ever since the making of the world. And why do you think God
+      could have put them here, then, but to please Himself&rdquo;&mdash;and Amyas
+      took off his hat&mdash;&ldquo;with the sight of them? Now, I say, brother Frank,
+      what's good enough to please God, is good enough to please you and me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your rebuke is just, dear old simple-hearted fellow; and God forgive me,
+      if with all my learning, which has brought me no profit, and my longings,
+      which have brought me no peace, I presume at moments, sinner that I am, to
+      be more dainty than the Lord Himself. He walked in Paradise among the
+      trees of the garden, Amyas; and so will we, and be content with what He
+      sends. Why should we long for the next world, before we are fit even for
+      this one?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And in the meanwhile,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;this earth's quite good enough, at
+      least here in Barbados.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you believe,&rdquo; asked Frank, trying to turn his own thoughts, &ldquo;in those
+      tales of the Spaniards, that the Sirens and Tritons are heard singing in
+      these seas?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't tell. There's more fish in the water than ever came out of it,
+      and more wonders in the world, I'll warrant, than we ever dreamt of; but I
+      was never in these parts before; and in the South Sea, I must say, I never
+      came across any, though Yeo says he has heard fair music at night up in
+      the Gulf, far away from land.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Spaniards report that at certain seasons choirs of these nymphs
+      assemble in the sea, and with ravishing music sing their watery loves. It
+      may be so. For Nature, which has peopled the land with rational souls, may
+      not have left the sea altogether barren of them; above all, when we
+      remember that the ocean is as it were the very fount of all fertility, and
+      its slime (as the most learned hold with Thales of Miletus) that prima
+      materia out of which all things were one by one concocted. Therefore, the
+      ancients feigned wisely that Venus, the mother of all living things,
+      whereby they designed the plastic force of nature, was born of the
+      sea-foam, and rising from the deep, floated ashore upon the isles of
+      Greece.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know what plastic force is; but I wish I had had the luck to be
+      by when the pretty poppet came up: however, the nearest thing I ever saw
+      to that was maidens swimming alongside of us when we were in the South
+      Seas, and would have come aboard, too; but Drake sent them all off again
+      for a lot of naughty packs, and I verily believe they were no better. Look
+      at the butterflies, now! Don't you wish you were a boy again, and not too
+      proud to go catching them in your cap?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so the two wandered on together through the glorious tropic woods, and
+      then returned to the beach to find the sick already grown cheerful, and
+      many who that morning could not stir from their hammocks, pacing up and
+      down, and gaining strength with every step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well done, lads!&rdquo; cried Amyas, &ldquo;keep a cheerful mind. We will have the
+      music ashore after dinner, for want of mermaids to sing to us, and those
+      that can dance may.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so those four days were spent; and the men, like schoolboys on a
+      holiday, gave themselves up to simple merriment, not forgetting, however,
+      to wash the clothes, take in fresh water, and store up a good supply of
+      such fruit as seemed likely to keep; until, tired with fruitless rambles
+      after gold, which they expected to find in every bush, in spite of Yeo's
+      warnings that none had been heard of on the island, they were fain to
+      lounge about, full-grown babies, picking up shells and sea-fans to take
+      home to their sweethearts, smoking agoutis out of the hollow trees, with
+      shout and laughter, and tormenting every living thing they could come
+      near, till not a land-crab dare look out of his hole, or an armadillo
+      unroll himself, till they were safe out of the bay, and off again to the
+      westward, unconscious pioneers of all the wealth, and commerce, and
+      beauty, and science which has in later centuries made that lovely isle the
+      richest gem of all the tropic seas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS AT MARGARITA
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     P. Henry.  Why, what a rascal art thou, then, to praise him so for
+     running!
+     Falstaff.  O' horseback, ye cuckoo! but a-foot, he will not budge a
+     foot.
+     P. Henry.  Yes, Jack, upon instinct.
+     Falstaff.  I grant ye, upon instinct.
+
+                                                  Henry IV.  Pt. I.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      They had slipped past the southern point of Grenada in the night, and were
+      at last within that fairy ring of islands, on which nature had
+      concentrated all her beauty, and man all his sin. If Barbados had been
+      invested in the eyes of the newcomers with some strange glory, how much
+      more the seas on which they now entered, which smile in almost perpetual
+      calm, untouched by the hurricane which roars past them far to northward!
+      Sky, sea, and islands were one vast rainbow; though little marked,
+      perhaps, by those sturdy practical sailors, whose main thought was of
+      Spanish gold and pearls; and as little by Amyas, who, accustomed to the
+      scenery of the tropics, was speculating inwardly on the possibility of
+      extirpating the Spaniards, and annexing the West Indies to the domains of
+      Queen Elizabeth. And yet even their unpoetic eyes could not behold without
+      awe and excitement lands so famous and yet so new, around which all the
+      wonder, all the pity, and all the greed of the age had concentrated
+      itself. It was an awful thought, and yet inspiriting, that they were
+      entering regions all but unknown to Englishmen, where the penalty of
+      failure would be worse than death&mdash;the torments of the Inquisition.
+      Not more than five times before, perhaps, had those mysterious seas been
+      visited by English keels; but there were those on board who knew them
+      well, and too well; who, first of all British mariners, had attempted
+      under Captain John Hawkins to trade along those very coasts, and,
+      interdicted from the necessaries of life by Spanish jealousy, had, in true
+      English fashion, won their markets at the sword's point, and then bought
+      and sold honestly and peaceably therein. The old mariners of the Pelican
+      and the Minion were questioned all day long for the names of every isle
+      and cape, every fish and bird; while Frank stood by, listening serious and
+      silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great awe seemed to have possessed his soul; yet not a sad one: for his
+      face seemed daily to drink in glory from the glory round him; and
+      murmuring to himself at whiles, &ldquo;This is the gate of heaven,&rdquo; he stood
+      watching all day long, careless of food and rest, as every forward plunge
+      of the ship displayed some fresh wonder. Islands and capes hung high in
+      air, with their inverted images below them; long sand-hills rolled and
+      weltered in the mirage; and the yellow flower-beds, and huge thorny cacti
+      like giant candelabra, which clothed the glaring slopes, twisted, tossed,
+      and flickered, till the whole scene seemed one blazing phantom-world, in
+      which everything was as unstable as it was fantastic, even to the sun
+      itself, distorted into strange oval and pear-shaped figures by the beds of
+      crimson mist through which he sank to rest. But while Frank wondered, Yeo
+      rejoiced; for to the southward of that setting sun a cluster of tall peaks
+      rose from the sea; and they, unless his reckonings were wrong, were the
+      mountains of Macanao, at the western end of Margarita, the Isle of Pearls,
+      then famous in all the cities of the Mediterranean, and at the great
+      German fairs, and second only in richness to that pearl island in the gulf
+      of Panama, which fifteen years before had cost John Oxenham his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day saw them running along the north side of the island, having
+      passed undiscovered (as far as they could see) the castle which the
+      Spaniards had built at the eastern end for the protection of the pearl
+      fisheries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last they opened a deep and still bight, wooded to the water's edge;
+      and lying in the roadstead a caravel, and three boats by her. And at that
+      sight there was not a man but was on deck at once, and not a mouth but was
+      giving its opinion of what should be done. Some were for sailing right
+      into the roadstead, the breeze blowing fresh toward the shore (as it
+      usually does throughout those islands in the afternoon). However, seeing
+      the billows break here and there off the bay's mouth, they thought it
+      better, for fear of rocks, to run by quietly, and then send in the pinnace
+      and the boat. Yeo would have had them show Spanish colors, for fear of
+      alarming the caravel; but Amyas stoutly refused, &ldquo;counting it,&rdquo; he said,
+      &ldquo;a mean thing to tell a lie in that way, unless in extreme danger, or for
+      great ends of state.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So holding on their course till they were shut out by the next point, they
+      started; Cary in the largest boat with twenty men, and Amyas in the
+      smaller one with fifteen more; among whom was John Brimblecombe, who must
+      needs come in his cassock and bands, with an old sword of his uncle's
+      which he prized mightily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they came to the bight's mouth, they found, as they had expected,
+      coral rocks, and too many of them; so that they had to run along the edge
+      of the reef a long way before they could find a passage for the boats.
+      While they were so doing, and those of them who were new to the Indies
+      were admiring through the clear element those living flower-beds, and
+      subaqueous gardens of Nereus and Amphitrite, there suddenly appeared below
+      what Yeo called &ldquo;a school of sharks,&rdquo; some of them nearly as long as the
+      boat, who looked up at them wistfully enough out of their wicked scowling
+      eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jack,&rdquo; said Amyas, who sat next to him, &ldquo;look how that big fellow eyes
+      thee: he has surely taken a fancy to that plump hide of thine, and thinks
+      thou wouldst eat as tender as any sucking porker.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack turned very pale, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, as it befell, just then that very big fellow, seeing a parrot-fish
+      come out of a cleft of the coral, made at him from below, as did two or
+      three more; the poor fish finding no other escape, leaped clean into the
+      air, and almost aboard the boat; while just where he had come out of the
+      water, three or four great brown shagreened noses clashed together within
+      two yards of Jack as he sat, each showing its horrible rows of saw teeth,
+      and then sank sulkily down again, to watch for a fresh bait. At which Jack
+      said very softly, &ldquo;In manus tuas, Domine!&rdquo; and turning his eyes in board,
+      had no lust to look at sharks any more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So having got through the reef, in they ran with a fair breeze, the
+      caravel not being now a musket-shot off. Cary laid her aboard before the
+      Spaniards had time to get to their ordnance; and standing up in the
+      stern-sheets, shouted to them to yield. The captain asked boldly enough,
+      in whose name? &ldquo;In the name of common sense, ye dogs,&rdquo; cries Will; &ldquo;do you
+      not see that you are but fifty strong to our twenty?&rdquo; Whereon up the side
+      he scrambled, and the captain fired a pistol at him. Cary knocked him
+      over, unwilling to shed needless blood; on which all the crew yielded,
+      some falling on their knees, some leaping overboard; and the prize was
+      taken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, Amyas had pulled round under her stern, and boarded the
+      boat which was second from her, for the nearest was fast alongside, and so
+      a sure prize. The Spaniards in her yielded without a blow, crying
+      &ldquo;Misericordia;&rdquo; and the negroes, leaping overboard, swam ashore like
+      sea-dogs. Meanwhile, the third boat, which was not an oar's length off,
+      turned to pull away. Whereby befell a notable adventure: for John
+      Brimblecombe, casting about in a valiant mind how he should distinguish
+      himself that day, must needs catch up a boat-hook, and claw on to her
+      stern, shouting, &ldquo;Stay, ye Papists! Stay, Spanish dogs!&rdquo;&mdash;by which,
+      as was to be expected, they being ten to his one, he was forthwith pulled
+      overboard, and fell all along on his nose in the sea, leaving the hook
+      fast in her stern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where, I know not how, being seized with some panic fear (his lively
+      imagination filling all the sea with those sharks which he had just seen),
+      he fell a-roaring like any town-bull, and in his confusion never thought
+      to turn and get aboard again, but struck out lustily after the Spanish
+      boat, whether in hope of catching hold of the boat-hook which trailed
+      behind her, or from a very madness of valor, no man could divine; but on
+      he swam, his cassock afloat behind him, looking for all the world like a
+      great black monk-fish, and howling and puffing, with his mouth full of
+      salt water, &ldquo;Stay, ye Spanish dogs! Help, all good fellows! See you not
+      that I am a dead man? They are nuzzling already at my toes! He hath hold
+      of my leg! My right thigh is bitten clean off! Oh that I were preaching in
+      Hartland pulpit! Stay, Spanish dogs! Yield, Papist cowards, least I make
+      mincemeat of you; and take me aboard! Yield, I say, or my blood be on your
+      heads! I am no Jonah; if he swallow me, he will never cast me up again! it
+      is better to fall into the hands of man, than into the hands of devils
+      with three rows of teeth apiece. In manus tuas. Orate pro anima&mdash;!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so forth, in more frantic case than ever was Panurge in that his
+      ever-memorable seasickness; till the English, expecting him every minute
+      to be snapped up by sharks, or brained by the Spaniard's oars, let fly a
+      volley into the fugitives, on which they all leaped overboard like their
+      fellows; whereon Jack scrambled into the boat, and drawing sword with one
+      hand, while he wiped the water out of his eyes with the other, began to
+      lay about him like a very lion, cutting the empty air, and crying, &ldquo;Yield,
+      idolaters! Yield, Spanish dogs!&rdquo; However, coming to himself after a while,
+      and seeing that there was no one on whom to flesh his maiden steel, he
+      sits down panting in the sternsheets, and begins stripping off his hose.
+      On which Amyas, thinking surely that the good fellow had gone mad with
+      some stroke of the sun, or by having fallen into the sea after being
+      overheated with his rowing, bade pull alongside, and asked him in heaven's
+      name what he was doing with his nether tackle. On which Jack, amid such
+      laughter as may be conceived, vowed and swore that his right thigh was
+      bitten clean through, and to the bone; yea, and that he felt his hose full
+      of blood; and so would have swooned away for imaginary loss of blood (so
+      strong was the delusion on him) had not his friends, after much arguing on
+      their part, and anger on his, persuaded him that he was whole and sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After which they set to work to overhaul their maiden prize, which they
+      found full of hides and salt-pork; and yet not of that alone; for in the
+      captain's cabin, and also in the sternsheets of the boat which
+      Brimblecombe had so valorously boarded, were certain frails of leaves
+      packed neatly enough, which being opened were full of goodly pearls,
+      though somewhat brown (for the Spaniards used to damage the color in their
+      haste and greediness, opening the shells by fire, instead of leaving them
+      to decay gradually after the Arabian fashion); with which prize, though
+      they could not guess its value very exactly, they went off content enough,
+      after some malicious fellow had set the ship on fire, which, being laden
+      with hides, was no nosegay as it burnt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was very angry at this wanton damage, in which his model, Drake, had
+      never indulged; but Cary had his jest ready. &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;'Lutheran
+      devils' we are, you know; so we are bound to vanish, like other fiends,
+      with an evil savor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon, however, as Amyas was on board again, he rounded his friend Mr.
+      Brimblecombe in the ear, and told him he had better play the man a little
+      more, roaring less before he was hurt, and keeping his breath to help his
+      strokes, if he wished the crew to listen much to his discourses. Frank,
+      hearing this, bade Amyas leave the offender to him, and so began upon him
+      with&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come hither, thou recreant Jack, thou lily-livered Jack, thou hysterical
+      Jack. Tell me now, thou hast read Plato's Dialogues, and Aristotle's
+      Logic?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To which Jack very meekly answered, &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I will deal with thee after the manner of those ancient sages, and
+      ask whether the greater must not contain the less?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack. Yes, sure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank. And that which is more than a part, contain that part, more than
+      which it is?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack. Yes, sure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank. Then tell me, is not a priest more than a layman?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack (who was always very loud about the dignity of the priesthood, as
+      many of his cloth are, who have no other dignity whereon to stand)
+      answered very boldly, &ldquo;Of course.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank. Then a priest containeth a man, and is a man, and something over&mdash;viz,
+      his priesthood?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack (who saw whither this would lead). I suppose so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank. Then, if a priest show himself no man, he shows himself all the
+      more no priest?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll tell you what, Master Frank,&rdquo; says Jack, &ldquo;you may be right by logic;
+      but sharks aren't logic, nor don't understand it neither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank. Nay but, my recalcitrant Jack, my stiff-necked Jack, is it the part
+      of a man to howl like a pig in a gate, because he thinks that is there
+      which is not there?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack had not a word to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank. And still more, when if that had been there, it had been the duty
+      of a brave man to have kept his mouth shut, if only to keep salt water
+      out, and not add the evil of choking to that of being eaten?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; says Jack, &ldquo;that's all very fine; but you know as well as I that it
+      was not the Spaniards I was afraid of. They were Heaven's handiwork, and I
+      knew how to deal with them; but as for those fiends' spawn of sharks, when
+      I saw that fellow take the fish alongside, it upset me clean, and there's
+      an end of it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank. Oh, Jack, Jack, behold how one sin begets another! Just now thou
+      wert but a coward, and now thou art a Manichee. For thou hast imputed to
+      an evil creator that which was formed only for a good end, namely, sharks,
+      which were made on purpose to devour useless carcasses like thine.
+      Moreover, as a brother of the Rose, thou wert bound by the vow of thy
+      brotherhood to have leaped joyfully down that shark's mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack. Ay, very likely, if Mistress Rose had been in his stomach; but I
+      wanted to fight Spaniards just then, not to be shark-bitten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank. Jack, thy answer savors of self-will. If it is ordained that thou
+      shouldst advance the ends of the Brotherhood by being shark-bitten, or
+      flea-bitten, or bitten by sharpers, to the detriment of thy carnal wealth,
+      or, shortly, to suffer any shame or torment whatsoever, even to strappado
+      and scarpines, thou art bound to obey thy destiny, and not, after that
+      vain Roman conceit, to choose the manner of thine own death, which is
+      indeed only another sort of self-murder. We therefore consider thee as a
+      cause of scandal, and a rotten and creaking branch, to be excised by the
+      spiritual arm, and do hereby excise thee, and cut thee off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack. Nay faith, that's a little too much, Master Frank. How long have you
+      been Bishop of Exeter?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank. Jack, thy wit being blinded, and full of gross vapors, by reason of
+      the perturbations of fear (which, like anger, is a short madness, and
+      raises in the phantasy vain spectres,&mdash;videlicet, of sharks and
+      Spaniards), mistakes our lucidity. For thy Manicheeism, let his lordship
+      of Exeter deal with it. For thy abominable howling and caterwauling,
+      offensive in a chained cur, but scandalous in a preacher and a brother of
+      the Rose, we do hereby deprive thee of thine office of chaplain to the
+      Brotherhood; and warn thee, that unless within seven days thou do some
+      deed equal to the Seven Champions, or Ruggiero and Orlando's self, thou
+      shalt be deprived of sword and dagger, and allowed henceforth to carry no
+      more iron about thee than will serve to mend thy pen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And now, Jack,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;I will give thee a piece of news. No wonder
+      that young men, as the parsons complain so loudly, will not listen to the
+      Gospel, while it is preached to them by men on whom they cannot but look
+      down; a set of softhanded fellows who cannot dig, and are ashamed to beg;
+      and, as my brother has it, must needs be parsons before they are men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Frank. Ay, and even though we may excuse that in Popish priests and
+      friars, who are vowed not to be men, and get their bread shamefully and
+      rascally by telling sinners who owe a hundred measures to sit down quickly
+      and take their bill and write fifty: yet for a priest of the Church of
+      England (whose business is not merely to smuggle sinful souls up the
+      backstairs into heaven, but to make men good Christians by making them
+      good men, good gentlemen, and good Englishmen) to show the white feather
+      in the hour of need, is to unpreach in one minute all that he had been
+      preaching his life long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell thee,&rdquo; says Amyas, &ldquo;if I had not taken thee for another guess sort
+      of man, I had never let thee have the care of a hundred brave lads'
+      immortal souls&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so on, both of them boarding him at once with their heavy shot,
+      larboard and starboard, till he fairly clapped his hands to his ears and
+      ran for it, leaving poor Frank laughing so heartily, that Amyas was after
+      all glad the thing had happened, for the sake of the smile which it put
+      into his sad and steadfast countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day was Sunday; on which, after divine service (which they could
+      hardly persuade Jack to read, so shamefaced was he; and as for preaching
+      after it, he would not hear of such a thing), Amyas read aloud, according
+      to custom, the articles of their agreement; and then seeing abreast of
+      them a sloping beach with a shoot of clear water running into the sea,
+      agreed that they should land there, wash the clothes, and again water the
+      ship; for they had found water somewhat scarce at Barbados. On this party
+      Jack Brimblecombe must needs go, taking with him his sword and a great
+      arquebuse; for he had dreamed last night (he said) that he was set upon by
+      Spaniards, and was sure that the dream would come true; and moreover, that
+      he did not very much care if they did, or if he ever got back alive; &ldquo;for
+      it was better to die than be made an ape, and a scarecrow, and laughed at
+      by the men, and badgered with Ramus his logic, and Plato his dialectical
+      devilries, to confess himself a Manichee, and, for aught he knew, a
+      turbaned Turk, or Hebrew Jew,&rdquo; and so flung into the boat like a man
+      desperate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they went ashore, after Amyas had given strict commands against letting
+      off firearms, for fear of alarming the Spaniards. There they washed their
+      clothes, and stretched their legs with great joy, admiring the beauty of
+      the place, and then began to shoot the seine which they had brought on
+      shore with them. &ldquo;In which,&rdquo; says the chronicler, &ldquo;we caught many strange
+      fishes, and beside them, a sea-cow full seven feet long, with limpets and
+      barnacles on her back, as if she had been a stick of drift-timber. This is
+      a fond and foolish beast: and yet pious withal; for finding a corpse, she
+      watches over it day and night until it decay or be buried. The Indians
+      call her manati; who carries her young under her arm, and gives it suck
+      like a woman; and being wounded, she lamenteth aloud with a human voice,
+      and is said at certain seasons to sing very melodiously; which melody,
+      perhaps, having been heard in those seas, is that which Mr. Frank reported
+      to be the choirs of the Sirens and Tritons. The which I do not avouch for
+      truth, neither rashly deny, having seen myself such fertility of Nature's
+      wonders that I hold him who denieth aught merely for its strangeness to be
+      a ribald and an ignoramus. Also one of our men brought in two great black
+      fowls which he had shot with a crossbow, bodied and headed like a capon,
+      but bigger than any eagle, which the Spaniards call curassos; which, with
+      that sea-cow, afterwards made us good cheer, both roast and sodden, for
+      the cow was very dainty meat, as good as a four-months' calf, and tender
+      and fat withal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After that they set to work filling the casks and barricos, having laid
+      the boat up to the outflow of the rivulet. And lucky for them it was, as
+      it fell out, that they were all close together at that work, and not
+      abroad skylarking as they had been half-an-hour before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now John Brimblecombe had gone apart as soon as they landed, with a
+      shamefaced and doleful countenance; and sitting down under a great tree,
+      plucked a Bible from his bosom, and read steadfastly, girded with his
+      great sword, and his arquebuse lying by him. This too was well for him,
+      and for the rest; for they had not yet finished their watering, when there
+      was a cry that the enemy was on them; and out of the wood, not twenty
+      yards from the good parson, came full fifty shot, with a multitude of
+      negroes behind them, and an officer in front on horseback, with a great
+      plume of feathers in his hat, and his sword drawn in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stand, for your lives!&rdquo; shouted Amyas: and only just in time; for there
+      was ten good minutes lost in running up and down before he could get his
+      men into some order of battle. But when Jack beheld the Spaniards, as if
+      he had expected their coming, he plucked a leaf and put it into the page
+      of his book for a mark, laid the book down soberly, caught up his
+      arquebuse, ran like a mad dog right at the Spanish captain, shot him
+      through the body stark dead, and then, flinging the arquebuse at the head
+      of him who stood next, fell on with his sword like a very Colbrand,
+      breaking in among the arquebuses, and striking right and left such ugly
+      strokes, that the Spaniards (who thought him a very fiend, or Luther's
+      self come to life to plague them) gave back pell-mell, and shot at him
+      five or six at once with their arquebuses: but whether from fear of him,
+      or of wounding each other, made so bad play with their pieces, that he
+      only got one shrewd gall in his thigh, which made him limp for many a day.
+      But as fast as they gave back he came on; and the rest by this time ran up
+      in good order, and altogether nearly forty men well armed. On which the
+      Spaniards turned, and went as fast as they had come, while Cary hinted
+      that, &ldquo;The dogs had had such a taste of the parson, that they had no mind
+      to wait for the clerk and people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come back, Jack! are you mad?&rdquo; shouted Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Jack (who had not all this time spoken one word) followed them as
+      fiercely as ever, till, reaching a great blow at one of the arquebusiers,
+      he caught his foot in a root; on which down he went, and striking his head
+      against the ground, knocked out of himself all the breath he had left
+      (which between fatness and fighting was not much), and so lay. Amyas,
+      seeing the Spaniards gone, did not care to pursue them: but picked up
+      Jack, who, staring about, cried, &ldquo;Glory be! glory be!&mdash;How many have
+      I killed? How many have I killed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nineteen, at the least,&rdquo; quoth Cary, &ldquo;and seven with one back stroke;&rdquo;
+       and then showed Brimblecombe the captain lying dead, and two arquebusiers,
+      one of which was the fugitive by whom he came to his fall, beside three or
+      four more who were limping away wounded, some of them by their fellows'
+      shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There!&rdquo; said Jack, pausing and blowing, &ldquo;will you laugh at me any more,
+      Mr. Cary; or say that I cannot fight, because I am a poor parson's son?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary took him by the hand, and asked pardon of him for his scoffing,
+      saying that he had that day played the best man of all of them; and Jack,
+      who never bore malice, began laughing in his turn, and&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Cary, we have all known your pleasant ways, ever since you used
+      to put drumble-drones into my desk to Bideford school.&rdquo; And so they went
+      to the boats, and pulled off, thanking God (as they had need to do) for
+      their great deliverance: while all the boats' crew rejoiced over Jack, who
+      after a while grew very faint (having bled a good deal without knowing
+      it), and made as little of his real wound as he made much the day before
+      of his imaginary one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank asked him that evening how he came to show so cool and approved a
+      valor in so sudden a mishap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, my masters,&rdquo; said Jack, &ldquo;I don't deny that I was very downcast on
+      account of what you said, and the scandal which I had given to the crew;
+      but as it happened, I was reading there under the tree, to fortify my
+      spirits, the history of the ancient worthies, in St. Paul his eleventh
+      chapter to the Hebrews; and just as I came to that, 'out of weakness were
+      made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the
+      aliens,' arose the cry of the Spaniards. At which, gentlemen, thinking in
+      myself that I fought in just so good a cause as they, and, as I hoped,
+      with like faith, there came upon me so strange an assurance of victory,
+      that I verily believed in myself that if there had been a ten thousand of
+      them, I should have taken no hurt. Wherefore,&rdquo; said Jack, modestly, &ldquo;there
+      is no credit due to me, for there was no valor in me whatsoever, but only
+      a certainty of safety; and any coward would fight if he knew that he were
+      to have all the killing and none of the scratches.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Which words he next day, being Sunday, repeated in his sermon which he
+      made on that chapter, with which all, even Salvation Yeo himself, were
+      well content and edified, and allowed him to be as godly a preacher as he
+      was (in spite of his simple ways) a valiant and true-hearted comrade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They brought away the Spanish officer's sword (a very good blade), and
+      also a great chain of gold which he wore about his neck; both of which
+      were allotted to Brimblecombe as his fair prize; but he, accepting the
+      sword, steadfastly refused the chain, entreating Amyas to put it into the
+      common stock; and when Amyas refused, he cut it into links and distributed
+      it among those of the boat's crew who had succored him, winning thereby
+      much good-will. &ldquo;And indeed&rdquo; (says the chronicler), &ldquo;I never saw in that
+      worthy man, from the first day of our school-fellowship till he was laid
+      in his parish church of Hartland (where he now sleeps in peace), any touch
+      of that sin of covetousness which has in all ages, and in ours no less
+      than others, beset especially (I know not why) them who minister about the
+      sanctuary. But this man, though he was ugly and lowly in person, and in
+      understanding simple, and of breeding but a poor parson's son, had yet in
+      him a spirit so loving and cheerful, so lifted from base and selfish
+      purposes to the worship of duty, and to a generosity rather knightly than
+      sacerdotal, that all through his life he seemed to think only that it was
+      more blessed to give than to receive. And all that wealth which he gained
+      in the wars he dispersed among his sisters and the poor of his parish,
+      living unmarried till his death like a true lover and constant mourner (as
+      shall be said in place), and leaving hardly wherewith to bring his body to
+      the grave. At whom if we often laughed once, we should now rather envy
+      him, desiring to be here what he was, that we may be hereafter where he
+      is. Amen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+       &ldquo;Great was the crying, the running and riding,
+     Which at that season was made in the place;
+        The beacons were fired, as need then required,
+     To save their great treasure they had little space.&rdquo;
+
+                                       Winning of Cales.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The men would gladly have hawked awhile round Margarita and Cubagua for
+      another pearl prize. But Amyas having, as he phrased it, &ldquo;fleshed his
+      dogs,&rdquo; was loth to hang about the islands after the alarm had been given.
+      They ran, therefore, south-west across the mouth of that great bay which
+      stretches from the Peninsula of Paria to Cape Codera, leaving on their
+      right hand Tortuga, and on their left the meadow-islands of the Piritoos,
+      two long green lines but a few inches above the tideless sea. Yeo and Drew
+      knew every foot of the way, and had good reason to know it; for they, the
+      first of all English mariners, had tried to trade along this coast with
+      Hawkins. And now, right ahead, sheer out of the sea from base to peak,
+      arose higher and higher the mighty range of the Caracas mountains; beside
+      which all hills which most of the crew had ever seen seemed petty mounds.
+      Frank, of course, knew the Alps; and Amyas the Andes; but Cary's notions
+      of height were bounded by M'Gillicuddy's Reeks, and Brimblecombe's by
+      Exmoor; and the latter, to Cary's infinite amusement, spent a whole day
+      holding on by the rigging, and staring upwards with his chin higher than
+      his nose, till he got a stiff neck. Soon the sea became rough and
+      chopping, though the breeze was fair and gentle; and ere they were abreast
+      of the Cape, they became aware of that strong eastward current which,
+      during the winter months, so often baffles the mariner who wishes to go to
+      the westward. All night long they struggled through the billows, with the
+      huge wall of Cape Codera a thousand feet above their heads to the left,
+      and beyond it again, bank upon bank of mountain, bathed in the yellow
+      moonlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Morning showed them a large ship, which had passed them during the night
+      upon the opposite course, and was now a good ten miles to the eastward.
+      Yeo was for going back and taking her. Of the latter he made a matter of
+      course; and the former was easy enough, for the breeze blowing dead off
+      the land, was a &ldquo;soldier's wind, there and back again,&rdquo; for either ship;
+      but Amyas and Frank were both unwilling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Yeo, you said that one day more would bring us to La Guayra.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All the more reason, sir, for doing the Lord's work thoroughly, when He
+      has brought us safely so far on our journey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She can pass well enough, and no loss.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, sirs, sirs, she is delivered into your hands, and you will have to
+      give an account of her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My good Yeo,&rdquo; said Frank, &ldquo;I trust we shall give good account enough of
+      many a tall Spaniard before we return: but you know surely that La Guayra,
+      and the salvation of one whom we believe dwells there, was our first
+      object in this adventure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo shook his head sadly. &ldquo;Ah, sirs, a lady brought Captain Oxenham to
+      ruin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not dare to compare her with this one?&rdquo; said Frank and Cary, both
+      in a breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forbid, gentlemen: but no adventure will prosper, unless there is a
+      single eye to the Lord's work; and that is, as I take it, to cripple the
+      Spaniard, and exalt her majesty the queen. And I had thought that nothing
+      was more dear than that to Captain Leigh's heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas stood somewhat irresolute. His duty to the queen bade him follow the
+      Spanish vessel: his duty to his vow, to go on to La Guayra. It may seem a
+      far-fetched dilemma. He found it a practical one enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, the counsel of Frank prevailed, and on to La Guayra he went. He
+      half hoped that the Spaniard would see and attack them. However, he went
+      on his way to the eastward; which if he had not done, my story had had a
+      very different ending.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About mid-day a canoe, the first which they had seen, came staggering
+      toward them under a huge three-cornered sail. As it came near, they could
+      see two Indians on board.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Metal floats in these seas, you see,&rdquo; quoth Cary. &ldquo;There's a fresh
+      marvel, for you, Frank.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Expound,&rdquo; quoth Frank, who was really ready to swallow any fresh marvel,
+      so many had he seen already.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, how else would those two bronze statues dare to go to sea in such a
+      cockleshell, eh? Have I given you the dor now, master courtier!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am long past dors, Will. But what noble creatures they are! and how
+      fearlessly they are coming alongside! Can they know that we are English,
+      and the avengers of the Indians?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suspect they just take us for Spaniards, and want to sell their
+      cocoa-nuts. See, the canoe is laden with vegetables.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hail them, Yeo!&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;You talk the best Spanish, and I want
+      speech of one of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo did so; the canoe, without more ado, ran alongside, and lowered her
+      felucca sail, while a splendid Indian scrambled on board like a cat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was full six feet high, and as bold and graceful of bearing as Frank or
+      Amyas's self. He looked round for the first moment smilingly, showing his
+      white teeth; but the next, his countenance changed; and springing to the
+      side, he shouted to his comrade in Spanish&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Treachery! No Spaniard,&rdquo; and would have leaped overboard, but a dozen
+      strong fellows caught him ere he could do so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It required some trouble to master him, so strong was he, and so slippery
+      his naked limbs; Amyas, meanwhile, alternately entreated the men not to
+      hurt the Indian, and the Indian to be quiet, and no harm should happen to
+      him; and so, after five minutes' confusion, the stranger gave in sulkily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't bind him. Let him loose, and make a ring round him. Now, my man,
+      there's a dollar for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian's eyes glistened, and he took the coin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All I want of you is, first, to tell me what ships are in La Guayra, and
+      next, to go thither on board of me, and show me which is the governor's
+      house, and which the custom-house.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian laid the coin down on the deck, and crossing himself, looked
+      Amyas in the face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, senor! I am a freeman and a cavalier, a Christian Guayqueria, whose
+      forefathers, first of all the Indians, swore fealty to the King of Spain,
+      and whom he calls to this day in all his proclamations his most faithful,
+      loyal, and noble Guayquerias. God forbid, therefore, that I should tell
+      aught to his enemies, who are my enemies likewise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A growl arose from those of the men who understood him; and more than one
+      hinted that a cord twined round the head, or a match put between the
+      fingers, would speedily extract the required information.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forbid!&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;a brave and loyal man he is, and as such will I
+      treat him. Tell me, my brave fellow, how do you know us to be his Catholic
+      majesty's enemies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian, with a shrewd smile, pointed to half-a-dozen different
+      objects, saying to each, &ldquo;Not Spanish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, and what of that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None but Spaniards and free Guayquerias have a right to sail these seas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art a right valiant bit of copper. Pick up thy dollar, and go thy
+      way in peace. Make room for him, men. We can learn what we want without
+      his help.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian paused, incredulous and astonished. &ldquo;Overboard with you!&rdquo; quoth
+      Amyas. &ldquo;Don't you know when you are well off?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most illustrious senor,&rdquo; began the Indian, in the drawling sententious
+      fashion of his race (when they take the trouble to talk at all), &ldquo;I have
+      been deceived. I heard that you heretics roasted and ate all true
+      Catholics (as we Guayquerias are), and that all your padres had tails.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Plague on you, sirrah!&rdquo; squeaked Jack Brimblecombe. &ldquo;Have I a tail? Look
+      here!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quien sabe? Who knows?&rdquo; quoth the Indian through his nose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know we are heretics?&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph! But in repayment for your kindness, I would warn you, illustrious
+      senor, not to go on to La Guayra. There are ships of war there waiting for
+      you; and moreover, the governor Don Guzman sailed to the eastward only
+      yesterday to look for you; and I wonder much that you did not meet him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To look for us! On the watch for us!&rdquo; said Cary. &ldquo;Impossible; lies!
+      Amyas, this is some trick of the rascal's to frighten us away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don Guzman came out but yesterday to look for us? Are you sure you spoke
+      truth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I live, senor, he and another ship, for which I took yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas stamped upon the deck: that then was the ship which they had passed!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fool that I was to have been close to my enemy, and let my opportunity
+      slip! If I had but done my duty, all would have gone right!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was too late to repine; and after all, the Indian's story was
+      likely enough to be false.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Off with you!&rdquo; said he; and the Indian bounded over the side into his
+      canoe, leaving the whole crew wondering at the stateliness and courtesy of
+      this bold sea-cavalier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Westward-ho they ran, beneath the mighty northern wall, the highest
+      cliff on earth, some seven thousand feet of rock parted from the sea by a
+      narrow strip of bright green lowland. Here and there a patch of
+      sugar-cane, or a knot of cocoa-nut trees, close to the water's edge,
+      reminded them that they were in the tropics; but above, all was savage,
+      rough, and bare as an Alpine precipice. Sometimes deep clefts allowed the
+      southern sun to pour a blaze of light down to the sea marge, and gave
+      glimpses far above of strange and stately trees lining the glens, and of a
+      veil of perpetual mist which shrouded the inner summits; while up and
+      down, between them and the mountain side, white fleecy clouds hung
+      motionless in the burning air, increasing the impression of vastness and
+      of solemn rest, which was already overpowering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Within those mountains, three thousand feet above our heads,&rdquo; said Drew,
+      the master, &ldquo;lies Saint Yago de Leon, the great city which the Spaniards
+      founded fifteen years agone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it a rich place?&rdquo; asked Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very, they say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it a strong place?&rdquo; asked Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No forts to it at all, they say. The Spaniards boast, that Heaven has
+      made such good walls to it already, that man need make none.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; quoth Amyas. &ldquo;Lads, could you climb those hills, do you
+      think?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rather higher than Harty Point, sir: but it depends pretty much on what's
+      behind them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And now the last point is rounded, and they are full in sight of the spot
+      in quest of which they have sailed four thousand miles of sea. A low black
+      cliff, crowned by a wall; a battery at either end. Within, a few narrow
+      streets of white houses, running parallel with the sea, upon a strip of
+      flat, which seemed not two hundred yards in breadth; and behind, the
+      mountain wall, covering the whole in deepest shade. How that wall was ever
+      ascended to the inland seemed the puzzle; but Drew, who had been off the
+      place before, pointed out to them a narrow path, which wound upwards
+      through a glen, seemingly sheer perpendicular. That was the road to the
+      capital, if any man dare try it. In spite of the shadow of the mountain,
+      the whole place wore a dusty and glaring look. The breaths of air which
+      came off the land were utterly stifling; and no wonder, for La Guayra,
+      owing to the radiation of that vast fire-brick of heated rock, is one of
+      the hottest spots upon the face of the whole earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where was the harbor? There was none. Only an open roadstead, wherein lay
+      tossing at anchor five vessels. The two outer ones were small merchant
+      caravels. Behind them lay two long, low, ugly-looking craft, at sight of
+      which Yeo gave a long whew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Galleys, as I'm a sinful saint! And what's that big one inside of them,
+      Robert Drew? She has more than hawseholes in her idolatrous black sides, I
+      think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall open her astern of the galleys in another minute,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+      &ldquo;Look out, Cary, your eyes are better than mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Six round portholes on the main deck,&rdquo; quoth Will.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I can see the brass patararoes glittering on her poop,&rdquo; quoth Amyas.
+      &ldquo;Will, we're in for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In for it we are, captain.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Farewell, farewell, my parents dear.
+     I never shall see you more, I fear.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let's go in, nevertheless, and pound the Don's ribs, my old lad of
+      Smerwick. Eh? Three to one is very fair odds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not underneath those fort guns, I beg leave to say,&rdquo; quoth Yeo. &ldquo;If the
+      Philistines will but come out unto us, we will make them like unto Zeba
+      and Zalmunna.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite true,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;Game cocks are game cocks, but reason's
+      reason.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If the Philistines are not coming out, they are going to send a messenger
+      instead,&rdquo; quoth Cary. &ldquo;Look out, all thin skulls!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And as he spoke, a puff of white smoke rolled from the eastern fort, and a
+      heavy ball plunged into the water between it and the ship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't altogether like this,&rdquo; quoth Amyas. &ldquo;What do they mean by firing
+      on us without warning? And what are these ships of war doing here? Drew,
+      you told me the armadas never lay here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No more, I believe, they do, sir, on account of the anchorage being so
+      bad, as you may see. I'm mortal afeared that rascal's story was true, and
+      that the Dons have got wind of our coming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Run up a white flag, at all events. If they do expect us, they must have
+      known some time since, or how could they have got their craft hither?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True, sir. They must have come from Santa Marta, at the least; perhaps
+      from Cartagena. And that would take a month at least going and coming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas suddenly recollected Eustace's threat in the wayside inn. Could he
+      have betrayed their purpose? Impossible!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us hold a council of war, at all events, Frank.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank was absorbed in a very different matter. A half-mile to the eastward
+      of the town, two or three hundred feet up the steep mountain side, stood a
+      large, low, white house embosomed in trees and gardens. There was no other
+      house of similar size near; no place for one. And was not that the royal
+      flag of Spain which flaunted before it? That must be the governor's house;
+      that must be the abode of the Rose of Torridge! And Frank stood devouring
+      it with wild eyes, till he had persuaded himself that he could see a
+      woman's figure walking upon the terrace in front, and that the figure was
+      none other than hers whom he sought. Amyas could hardly tear him away to a
+      council of war, which was a sad, and only not a peevish one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three adventurers, with Brimblecombe, Yeo, and Drew, went apart upon
+      the poop; and each looked the other in the face awhile. For what was to be
+      done? The plans and hopes of months were brought to naught in an hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is impossible, you see,&rdquo; said Amyas, at last, &ldquo;to surprise the town by
+      land, while these ships are here; for if we land our men, we leave our
+      ship without defence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As impossible as to challenge Don Guzman while he is not here,&rdquo; said
+      Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder why the ships have not opened on us already,&rdquo; said Drew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps they respect our flag of truce,&rdquo; said Cary. &ldquo;Why not send in a
+      boat to treat with them, and to inquire for&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For her?&rdquo; interrupted Frank. &ldquo;If we show that we are aware of her
+      existence, her name is blasted in the eyes of those jealous Spaniards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And as for respecting our flag of truce, gentlemen,&rdquo; said Yeo, &ldquo;if you
+      will take an old man's advice, trust them not. They will keep the same
+      faith with us as they kept with Captain Hawkins at San Juan d'Ulloa, in
+      that accursed business which was the beginning of all the wars; when we
+      might have taken the whole plate-fleet, with two hundred thousand pounds'
+      worth of gold on board, and did not, but only asked license to trade like
+      honest men. And yet, after they had granted us license, and deceived us by
+      fair speech into landing ourselves and our ordnance, the governor and all
+      the fleet set upon us, five to one, and gave no quarter to any soul whom
+      he took. No, sir; I expect the only reason why they don't attack us is,
+      because their crews are not on board.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They will be, soon enough, then,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;I can see soldiers coming
+      down the landing-stairs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, in fact, boats full of armed men began to push off to the ships.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We may thank Heaven,&rdquo; said Drew, &ldquo;that we were not here two hours agone.
+      The sun will be down before they are ready for sea, and the fellows will
+      have no stomach to go looking for us by night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much the worse for us. If they will but do that, we may give them the
+      slip, and back again to the town, and there try our luck; for I cannot
+      find it in my heart to leave the place without having one dash at it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo shook his head. &ldquo;There are plenty more towns along the coast more
+      worth trying than this, sir: but Heaven's will be done!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And as they spoke, the sun plunged into the sea, and all was dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last it was agreed to anchor, and wait till midnight. If the ships of
+      war came out, they were to try to run in past them, and, desperate as the
+      attempt might be, attempt their original plan of landing to the westward
+      of the town, taking it in flank, plundering the government storehouses,
+      which they saw close to the landing-place, and then fighting their way
+      back to their boats, and out of the roadstead. Two hours would suffice if
+      the armada and the galleys were but once out of the way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas went forward, called the men together, and told them the plan. It
+      was not very cheerfully received: but what else was there to be done!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They ran down about a mile and a half to the westward, and anchored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night wore on, and there was no sign of stir among the shipping; for
+      though they could not see the vessels themselves, yet their lights (easily
+      distinguished by their relative height from those in the town above)
+      remained motionless; and the men fretted and fumed for weary hours at thus
+      seeing a rich prize (for of course the town was paved with gold) within
+      arm's reach, and yet impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let Amyas and his men have patience. Some short five years more, and the
+      great Armada will have come and gone; and then that avenging storm, of
+      which they, like Oxenham, Hawkins, and Drake, are but the avant-couriers,
+      will burst upon every Spanish port from Corunna to Cadiz, from the
+      Canaries to Havana, and La Guayra and St. Yago de Leon will not escape
+      their share. Captain Amyas Preston and Captain Sommers, the colonist of
+      the Bermudas, or Sommers' Islands, will land, with a force tiny enough,
+      though larger far than Leigh's, where Leigh dare not land; and taking the
+      fort of Guayra, will find, as Leigh found, that their coming has been
+      expected, and that the Pass of the Venta, three thousand feet above, has
+      been fortified with huge barricadoes, abattis, and cannon, making the
+      capital, amid its ring of mountain-walls, impregnable&mdash;to all but
+      Englishmen or Zouaves. For up that seven thousand feet of precipice, which
+      rises stair on stair behind the town, those fierce adventurers will climb
+      hand over hand, through rain and fog, while men lie down, and beg their
+      officers to kill them, for no farther can they go. Yet farther they will
+      go, hewing a path with their swords through woods of wild plantain, and
+      rhododendron thickets, over (so it seems, however incredible) the very
+      saddle of the Silla,* down upon the astonished &ldquo;Mantuanos&rdquo; of St. Jago,
+      driving all before them; and having burnt the city in default of ransom,
+      will return triumphant by the right road, and pass along the coast, the
+      masters of the deep.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Humboldt says that there is a path from Caravellada to St.
+     Jago, between the peaks, used by smugglers.  This is
+     probably the &ldquo;unknowen way of the Indians,&rdquo; which Preston
+     used.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I know not whether any men still live who count their descent from those
+      two valiant captains; but if such there be, let them be sure that the
+      history of the English navy tells no more Titanic victory over nature and
+      man than that now forgotten raid of Amyas Preston and his comrade, in the
+      year of grace 1595.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But though a venture on the town was impossible, yet there was another
+      venture which Frank was unwilling to let slip. A light which now shone
+      brightly in one of the windows of the governor's house was the lodestar to
+      which all his thoughts were turned; and as he sat in the cabin with Amyas,
+      Cary, and Jack, he opened his heart to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And are we, then,&rdquo; asked he, mournfully, &ldquo;to go without doing the very
+      thing for which we came?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All were silent awhile. At last John Brimblecombe spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Show me the way to do it, Mr. Frank, and I will go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dearest man,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;what would you have? Any attempt to see
+      her, even if she be here, would be all but certain death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what if it were? What if it were, my brother Amyas? Listen to me. I
+      have long ceased to shrink from Death; but till I came into these magic
+      climes, I never knew the beauty of his face.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of death?&rdquo; said Cary. &ldquo;I should have said, of life. God forgive me! but
+      man might wish to live forever, if he had such a world as this wherein to
+      live.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do you forget, Cary, that the more fair this passing world of time,
+      by so much the more fair is that eternal world, whereof all here is but a
+      shadow and a dream; by so much the more fair is He before whose throne the
+      four mystic beasts, the substantial ideas of Nature and her powers, stand
+      day and night, crying, 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, Thou hast
+      made all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created!' My
+      friends, if He be so prodigal of His own glory as to have decked these
+      lonely shores, all but unknown since the foundation of the world, with
+      splendors beyond all our dreams, what must be the glory of His face
+      itself! I have done with vain shadows. It is better to depart and to be
+      with Him, where shall be neither desire nor anger, self-deception nor
+      pretence, but the eternal fulness of reality and truth. One thing I have
+      to do before I die, for God has laid it on me. Let that be done to-night,
+      and then, farewell!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Frank! Frank! remember our mother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do remember her. I have talked over these things with her many a time;
+      and where I would fain be, she would fain be also. She sent me out with my
+      virgin honor, as the Spartan mother did her boy with the shield, saying,
+      'Come back either with this, or upon this;' and one or the other I must
+      do, if I would meet her either in this life or in the next. But in the
+      meanwhile do not mistake me; my life is God's, and I promise not to cast
+      it away rashly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What would you do, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go up to that house, Amyas, and speak with her, if Heaven gives me an
+      opportunity, as Heaven, I feel assured, will give.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And do you call that no rashness?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is any duty rashness? Is it rash to stand amid the flying bullets, if
+      your queen has sent you? Is it more rash to go to seek Christ's lost lamb,
+      if God and your own oath hath sent you? John Brimblecombe answered that
+      question for us long ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you go, I go with you!&rdquo; said all three at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. Amyas, you owe a duty to our mother and to your ship. Cary, you are
+      heir to great estates, and are bound thereby to your country and to your
+      tenants. John Brimblecombe&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay!&rdquo; squeaked Jack. &ldquo;And what have you to say, Mr. Frank, against my
+      going?&mdash;I, who have neither ship nor estates&mdash;except, I suppose,
+      that I am not worthy to travel in such good company?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think of your old parents, John, and all your sisters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought of them before I started, sir, as Mr. Cary knows, and you know
+      too. I came here to keep my vow, and I am not going to turn renegade at
+      the very foot of the cross.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some one must go with you, Frank,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;if it were only to bring
+      back the boat's crew in case&mdash;&rdquo; and he faltered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In case I fall,&rdquo; replied Frank, with a smile. &ldquo;I will finish your
+      sentence for you, lad; I am not afraid of it, though you may be for me.
+      Yet some one, I fear, must go. Unhappy me! that I cannot risk my own
+      worthless life without risking your more precious lives!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so, Mr. Frank! Your oath is our oath, and your duty ours!&rdquo; said John.
+      &ldquo;I will tell you what we will do, gentlemen all. We three will draw cuts
+      for the honor of going with him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lots?&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;I don't like leaving such grave matters to chance,
+      friend John.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Chance, sir? When you have used all your own wit, and find it fail you,
+      then what is drawing lots but taking the matter out of your own weak
+      hands, and laying it in God's strong hands?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right, John!&rdquo; said Frank. &ldquo;So did the apostles choose their successor,
+      and so did holy men of old decide controversies too subtle for them; and
+      we will not be ashamed to follow their example. For my part, I have often
+      said to Sidney and to Spenser, when we have babbled together of Utopian
+      governments in days which are now dreams to me, that I would have all
+      officers of state chosen by lot out of the wisest and most fit; so making
+      sure that they should be called by God, and not by man alone. Gentlemen,
+      do you agree to Sir John's advice?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They agreed, seeing no better counsel, and John put three slips of paper
+      into Frank's hand, with the simple old apostolic prayer&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Show which of us three Thou hast chosen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lot fell upon Amyas Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank shuddered, and clasped his hands over his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Cary, &ldquo;I have ill-luck to-night: but Frank goes at least in
+      good company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, that it had been I!&rdquo; said Jack; &ldquo;though I suppose I was too poor a
+      body to have such an honor fall on me. And yet it is hard for flesh and
+      blood; hard indeed to have come all this way, and not to see her after
+      all!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jack,&rdquo; said Frank, &ldquo;you are kept to do better work than this, doubt not.
+      But if the lot had fallen on you&mdash;ay, if it had fallen on a three
+      years' child, I would have gone up as cheerfully with that child to lead
+      me, as I do now with this my brother! Amyas, can we have a boat, and a
+      crew? It is near midnight already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas went on deck, and asked for six volunteers. Whosoever would come,
+      Amyas would double out of his own purse any prize-money which might fall
+      to that man's share.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the old Pelican's crew, Simon Evans of Clovelly, stepped out at
+      once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why six only, captain? Give the word, and any and all of us will go up
+      with you, sack the house, and bring off the treasure and the lady, before
+      two hours are out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, my brave lads! As for treasure, if there be any, it is sure to
+      have been put all safe into the forts, or hidden in the mountains; and as
+      for the lady, God forbid that we should force her a step without her own
+      will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The honest sailor did not quite understand this punctilio: but&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, captain,&rdquo; quoth he, &ldquo;as you like; but no man shall say that you
+      asked for a volunteer, were it to jump down a shark's throat, but what you
+      had me first of all the crew.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After this sort of temper had been exhibited, three or four more came
+      forward&mdash;Yeo was very anxious to go, but Amyas forbade him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll volunteer, sir, without reward, for this or anything; though&rdquo; (added
+      he in a lower tone) &ldquo;I would to Heaven that the thought had never entered
+      your head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so would I have volunteered,&rdquo; said Simon Evans, &ldquo;if it were the
+      ship's quarrel, or the queen's; but being it's a private matter of the
+      captain's, and I've a wife and children at home, why, I take no shame to
+      myself for asking money for my life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the crew was made up; but ere they pushed off, Amyas called Cary aside&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I perish, Will&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't talk of such things, dear old lad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must. Then you are captain. Do nothing without Yeo and Drew. But if
+      they approve, go right north away for San Domingo and Cuba, and try the
+      ports; they can have no news of us there, and there is booty without end.
+      Tell my mother that I died like a gentleman; and mind&mdash;mind, dear
+      lad, to keep your temper with the men, let the poor fellows grumble as
+      they may. Mind but that, and fear God, and all will go well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The tears were glistening in Cary's eyes as he pressed Amyas's hand, and
+      watched the two brothers down over the side upon their desperate errand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They reached the pebble beach. There seemed no difficulty about finding
+      the path to the house&mdash;so bright was the moon, and so careful a
+      survey of the place had Frank taken. Leaving the men with the boat (Amyas
+      had taken care that they should be well armed), they started up the beach,
+      with their swords only. Frank assured Amyas that they would find a path
+      leading from the beach up to the house, and he was not mistaken. They
+      found it easily, for it was made of white shell sand; and following it,
+      struck into a &ldquo;tunal,&rdquo; or belt of tall thorny cactuses. Through this the
+      path wound in zigzags up a steep rocky slope, and ended at a wicket-gate.
+      They tried it, and found it open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She may expect us,&rdquo; whispered Frank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not? She must have seen our ship; and if, as seems, the townsfolk
+      know who we are, how much more must she! Yes, doubt it not, she still
+      longs to hear news of her own land, and some secret sympathy will draw her
+      down towards the sea to-night. See! the light is in the window still!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if not,&rdquo; said Amyas, who had no such expectation, &ldquo;what is your
+      plan?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have none.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have imagined twenty different ones in the last hour; but all are
+      equally uncertain, impossible. I have ceased to struggle&mdash;I go where
+      I am called, love's willing victim. If Heaven accept the sacrifice, it
+      will provide the altar and the knife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Aymas was at his wits' end. Judging of his brother by himself, he had
+      taken for granted that Frank had some well-concocted scheme for gaining
+      admittance to the Rose; and as the wiles of love were altogether out of
+      his province, he had followed in full faith such a sans-appel as he held
+      Frank to be. But now he almost doubted of his brother's sanity, though
+      Frank's manner was perfectly collected and his voice firm. Amyas, honest
+      fellow, had no understanding of that intense devotion, which so many in
+      those days (not content with looking on it as a lofty virtue, and yet one
+      to be duly kept in its place by other duties) prided themselves on
+      pampering into the most fantastic and self-willed excesses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beautiful folly! the death-song of which two great geniuses were composing
+      at that very moment, each according to his light. For, while Spenser was
+      embalming in immortal verse all that it contained of noble and Christian
+      elements, Cervantes sat, perhaps, in his dungeon, writing with his left
+      hand Don Quixote, saddest of books, in spite of all its wit; the story of
+      a pure and noble soul, who mistakes this actual life for that ideal one
+      which he fancies (and not so wrongly either) eternal in the heavens: and
+      finding instead of a battlefield for heroes in God's cause, nothing but
+      frivolity, heartlessness, and godlessness, becomes a laughing-stock,&mdash;and
+      dies. One of the saddest books, I say again, which man can read.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas hardly dare trust himself to speak, for fear of saying too much; but
+      he could not help saying&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are going to certain death, Frank.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I not entreat,&rdquo; answered he, very quietly, &ldquo;to go alone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas had half a mind to compel him to return: but he feared Frank's
+      obstinacy; and feared, too, the shame of returning on board without having
+      done anything; so they went up through the wicket-gate, along a smooth
+      turf walk, into what seemed a pleasure-garden, formed by the hand of man,
+      or rather of woman. For by the light, not only of the moon, but of the
+      innumerable fireflies, which flitted to and fro across the sward like
+      fiery imps sent to light the brothers on their way, they could see that
+      the bushes on either side, and the trees above their heads, were decked
+      with flowers of such strangeness and beauty, that, as Frank once said of
+      Barbados, &ldquo;even the gardens of Wilton were a desert in comparison.&rdquo; All
+      around were orange and lemon trees (probably the only addition which man
+      had made to Nature's prodigality), the fruit of which, in that strange
+      colored light of the fireflies, flashed in their eyes like balls of
+      burnished gold and emerald; while great white tassels swinging from every
+      tree in the breeze which swept down the glade, tossed in their faces a
+      fragrant snow of blossoms, and glittering drops of perfumed dew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a paradise!&rdquo; said Amyas to Frank, &ldquo;with the serpent in it, as of
+      old. Look!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And as he spoke, there dropped slowly down from a bough, right before
+      them, what seemed a living chain of gold, ruby, and sapphire. Both
+      stopped, and another glance showed the small head and bright eyes of a
+      snake, hissing and glaring full in their faces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See!&rdquo; said Frank. &ldquo;And he comes, as of old, in the likeness of an angel
+      of light. Do not strike it. There are worse devils to be fought with
+      to-night than that poor beast.&rdquo; And stepping aside, they passed the snake
+      safely, and arrived in front of the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was, as I have said, a long low house, with balconies along the upper
+      story, and the under part mostly open to the wind. The light was still
+      burning in the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whither now?&rdquo; said Amyas, in a tone of desperate resignation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thither! Where else on earth?&rdquo; and Frank pointed to the light, trembling
+      from head to foot, and pushed on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For Heaven's sake! Look at the negroes on the barbecue!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was indeed time to stop; for on the barbecue, or terrace of white
+      plaster, which ran all round the front, lay sleeping full twenty black
+      figures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What will you do now? You must step over them to gain an entrance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait here, and I will go up gently towards the window. She may see me.
+      She will see me as I step into the moonlight. At least I know an air by
+      which she will recognize me, if I do but hum a stave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, you do not even know that that light is hers!&mdash;Down, for your
+      life!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Amyas dragged him down into the bushes on his left hand; for one of
+      the negroes, wakening suddenly with a cry, had sat up, and began crossing
+      himself four or five times, in fear of &ldquo;Duppy,&rdquo; and mumbling various
+      charms, ayes, or what not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light above was extinguished instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you see her?&rdquo; whispered Frank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did&mdash;the shadow of the face, and the neck! Can I be mistaken?&rdquo; And
+      then, covering his face with his hands, he murmured to himself, &ldquo;Misery!
+      misery! So near and yet impossible?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would it be the less impossible were you face to face? Let us go back. We
+      cannot go up without detection, even if our going were of use. Come back,
+      for God's sake, ere all is lost! If you have seen her, as you say, you
+      know at least that she is alive, and safe in his house&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As his mistress? or as his wife? Do I know that yet, Amyas, and can I
+      depart until I know?&rdquo; There was a few minutes' silence, and then Amyas,
+      making one last attempt to awaken Frank to the absurdity of the whole
+      thing, and to laugh him, if possible, out of it, as argument had no effect&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear fellow, I am very hungry and sleepy; and this bush is very
+      prickly; and my boots are full of ants&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So are mine.&mdash;Look!&rdquo; and Frank caught Amyas's arm, and clenched it
+      tight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For round the farther corner of the house a dark cloaked figure stole
+      gently, turning a look now and then upon the sleeping negroes, and came on
+      right toward them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I not tell you she would come?&rdquo; whispered Frank, in a triumphant
+      tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was quite bewildered; and to his mind the apparition seemed magical,
+      and Frank prophetic; for as the figure came nearer, incredulous as he
+      tried to be, there was no denying that the shape and the walk were exactly
+      those of her, to find whom they had crossed the Atlantic. True, the figure
+      was somewhat taller; but then, &ldquo;she must be grown since I saw her,&rdquo;
+       thought Amyas; and his heart for the moment beat as fiercely as Frank's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what was that behind her? Her shadow against the white wall of the
+      house. Not so. Another figure, cloaked likewise, but taller far, was
+      following on her steps. It was a man's. They could see that he wore a
+      broad sombrero. It could not be Don Guzman, for he was at sea. Who then?
+      Here was a mystery; perhaps a tragedy. And both brothers held their
+      breaths, while Amyas felt whether his sword was loose in the sheath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rose (if indeed it was she) was within ten yards of them, when she
+      perceived that she was followed. She gave a little shriek. The cavalier
+      sprang forward, lifted his hat courteously, and joined her, bowing low.
+      The moonlight was full upon his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Eustace, our cousin! How came he here, in the name of all the
+      fiends?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eustace! Then that is she, after all!&rdquo; said Frank, forgetting everything
+      else in her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now flashed across Amyas all that had passed between him and Eustace
+      in the moorland inn, and Parracombe's story, too, of the suspicious gipsy.
+      Eustace had been beforehand with them, and warned Don Guzman! All was
+      explained now: but how had he got hither?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil, his master, sent him hither on a broomstick, I suppose: or
+      what matter how? Here he is; and here we are, worse luck!&rdquo; And, setting
+      his teeth, Amyas awaited the end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two came on, talking earnestly, and walking at a slow pace, so that
+      the brothers could hear every word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall we do now?&rdquo; said Frank. &ldquo;We have no right to be
+      eavesdroppers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But we must be, right or none.&rdquo; And Amyas held him down firmly by the
+      arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But whither are you going, then, my dear madam?&rdquo; they heard Eustace say
+      in a wheedling tone. &ldquo;Can you wonder if such strange conduct should cause
+      at least sorrow to your admirable and faithful husband?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Husband!&rdquo; whispered Frank faintly to Amyas. &ldquo;Thank God, thank God! I am
+      content. Let us go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But to go was impossible; for, as fate would have it, the two had stopped
+      just opposite them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The inestimable Senor Don Guzman&mdash;&rdquo; began Eustace again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean by praising him to me in this fulsome way, sir? Do you
+      suppose that I do not know his virtues better than you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you do, madam&rdquo; (this was spoken in a harder tone), &ldquo;it were wise for
+      you to try them less severely, than by wandering down towards the beach on
+      the very night that you know his most deadly enemies are lying in wait to
+      slay him, plunder his house, and most probably to carry you off from him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Carry me off? I will die first!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who can prove that to him? Appearances are at least against you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My love to him, and his trust for me, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His trust? Have you forgotten, madam, what passed last week, and why he
+      sailed yesterday?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The only answer was a burst of tears. Eustace stood watching her with a
+      terrible eye; but they could see his face writhing in the moonlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; sobbed she at last. &ldquo;And if I have been imprudent, was it not
+      natural to wish to look once more upon an English ship? Are you not
+      English as well as I? Have you no longing recollections of the dear old
+      land at home?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace was silent; but his face worked more fiercely than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can he ever know it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should he not know it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she burst out passionately, &ldquo;why not, indeed, while you are here?
+      You, sir, the tempter, you the eavesdropper, you the sunderer of loving
+      hearts! You, serpent, who found our home a paradise, and see it now a
+      hell!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you dare to accuse me thus, madam, without a shadow of evidence?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dare? I dare anything, for I know all! I have watched you, sir, and I
+      have borne with you too long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Me, madam, whose only sin towards you, as you should know by now, is to
+      have loved you too well? Rose! Rose! have you not blighted my life for me&mdash;broken
+      my heart? And how have I repaid you? How but by sacrificing myself to seek
+      you over land and sea, that I might complete your conversion to the bosom
+      of that Church where a Virgin Mother stands stretching forth soft arms to
+      embrace her wandering daughter, and cries to you all day long, 'Come unto
+      me, ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest!' And this
+      is my reward!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Depart with your Virgin Mother, sir, and tempt me no more! You have asked
+      me what I dare; and I dare this, upon my own ground, and in my own garden,
+      I, Donna Rosa de Soto, to bid you leave this place now and forever, after
+      having insulted me by talking of your love, and tempted me to give up that
+      faith which my husband promised me he would respect and protect. Go, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The brothers listened breathless with surprise as much as with rage. Love
+      and conscience, and perhaps, too, the pride of her lofty alliance, had
+      converted the once gentle and dreamy Rose into a very Roxana; but it was
+      only the impulse of a moment. The words had hardly passed her lips, when,
+      terrified at what she had said, she burst into a fresh flood of tears;
+      while Eustace answered calmly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I go, madam: but how know you that I may not have orders, and that, after
+      your last strange speech, my conscience may compel me to obey those
+      orders, to take you with me?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Me? with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My heart has bled for you, madam, for many a year. It longs now that it
+      had bled itself to death, and never known the last worst agony of telling
+      you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And drawing close to her he whispered in her ear&mdash;what, the brothers
+      heard not&mdash;but her answer was a shriek which rang through the woods,
+      and sent the night-birds fluttering up from every bough above their heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By Heaven!&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;I can stand this no longer. Cut that devil's
+      throat I must&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is lost if his dead body is found by her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are lost if we stay here, then,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;for those negroes will
+      hurry down at her cry, and then found we must be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you mad, madam, to betray yourself by your own cries? The negroes
+      will be here in a moment. I give you one last chance for life, then:&rdquo; and
+      Eustace shouted in Spanish at the top of his voice, &ldquo;Help, help, servants!
+      Your mistress is being carried off by bandits!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let your woman's wit supply the rest: and forget not him who thus saves
+      you from disgrace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether the brothers heard the last words or not, I know not; but taking
+      for granted that Eustace had discovered them, they sprang to their feet at
+      once, determined to make one last appeal, and then to sell their lives as
+      dearly as they could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace started back at the unexpected apparition; but a second glance
+      showed him Amyas's mighty bulk; and he spoke calmly&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, madam, I did not call without need. Welcome, good cousins. My
+      charity, as you perceive, has found means to outstrip your craft; while
+      the fair lady, as was but natural, has been true to her assignation!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Liar!&rdquo; cried Frank. &ldquo;She never knew of our being&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Credat Judaeus!&rdquo; answered Eustace; but, as he spoke, Amyas burst through
+      the bushes at him. There was no time to be lost; and ere the giant could
+      disentangle himself from the boughs and shrubs, Eustace had slipped off
+      his long cloak, thrown it over Amyas's head, and ran up the alley shouting
+      for help.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mad with rage, Amyas gave chase: but in two minutes more Eustace was safe
+      among the ranks of the negroes, who came shouting and jabbering down the
+      path.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rushed back. Frank was just ending some wild appeal to Rose&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your conscience! your religion!&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, never! I can face the chance of death, but not the loss of him. Go!
+      for God's sake, leave me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are lost, then,&mdash;and I have ruined you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come off, now or never,&rdquo; cried Amyas, clutching him by the arm, and
+      dragging him away like a child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forgive me?&rdquo; cried he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive you?&rdquo; and she burst into tears again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank burst into tears also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me go back, and die with her&mdash;Amyas!&mdash;my oath!&mdash;my
+      honor!&rdquo; and he struggled to turn back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas looked back too, and saw her standing calmly, with her hands folded
+      across her breast, awaiting Eustace and the servants; and he half turned
+      to go back also. Both saw how fearfully appearances had put her into
+      Eustace's power. Had he not a right to suspect that they were there by her
+      appointment; that she was going to escape with them? And would not Eustace
+      use his power? The thought of the Inquisition crossed their minds. &ldquo;Was
+      that the threat which Eustace had whispered?&rdquo; asked he of Frank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was,&rdquo; groaned Frank, in answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the first and last time in his life, Amyas Leigh stood irresolute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Back, and stab her to the heart first!&rdquo; said Frank, struggling to escape
+      from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh, if Amyas were but alone, and Frank safe home in England! To charge the
+      whole mob, kill her, kill Eustace, and then cut his way back again to the
+      ship, or die,&mdash;what matter? as he must die some day,&mdash;sword in
+      hand! But Frank!&mdash;and then flashed before his eyes his mother's
+      hopeless face; then rang in his ears his mother's last bequest to him of
+      that frail treasure. Let Rose, let honor, let the whole world perish, he
+      must save Frank. See! the negroes were up with her now&mdash;past her&mdash;away
+      for life! and once more he dragged his brother down the hill, and through
+      the wicket, only just in time; for the whole gang of negroes were within
+      ten yards of them in full pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Frank,&rdquo; said he, sharply, &ldquo;if you ever hope to see your mother again,
+      rouse yourself, man, and fight!&rdquo; And, without waiting for an answer, he
+      turned, and charged up-hill upon his pursuers, who saw the long bright
+      blade, and fled instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again he hurried Frank down the hill; the path wound in zigzags, and he
+      feared that the negroes would come straight over the cliff, and so cut off
+      his retreat: but the prickly cactuses were too much for them, and they
+      were forced to follow by the path, while the brothers (Frank having
+      somewhat regained his senses) turned every now and then to menace them:
+      but once on the rocky path, stones began to fly fast; small ones
+      fortunately, and wide and wild for want of light&mdash;but when they
+      reached the pebble-beach? Both were too proud to run; but, if ever Amyas
+      prayed in his life, he prayed for the last twenty yards before he reached
+      the water-mark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Frank! down to the boat as hard as you can run, while I keep the
+      curs back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas! what do you take me for? My madness brought you hither: your
+      devotion shall not bring me back without you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Together, then!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And putting Frank's arm through his, they hurried down, shouting to their
+      men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boat was not fifty yards off: but fast travelling over the pebbles was
+      impossible, and long ere half the distance was crossed, the negroes were
+      on the beach, and the storm burst. A volley of great quartz pebbles
+      whistled round their heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come on, Frank! for life's sake! Men, to the rescue! Ah! what was that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The dull crash of a pebble against Frank's fair head! Drooping like
+      Hyacinthus beneath the blow of the quoit, he sank on Amyas's arm. The
+      giant threw him over his shoulder, and plunged blindly on,&mdash;himself
+      struck again and again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fire, men! Give it the black villains!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The arquebuses crackled from the boat in front. What were those dull thuds
+      which answered from behind? Echoes? No. Over his head the caliver-balls
+      went screeching. The governors' guard have turned out, followed them to
+      the beach, fixed their calivers, and are firing over the negroes' heads,
+      as the savages rush down upon the hapless brothers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If, as all say, there are moments which are hours, how many hours was
+      Amyas Leigh in reaching that boat's bow? Alas! the negroes are there as
+      soon as he, and the guard, having left their calivers, are close behind
+      them, sword in hand. Amyas is up to his knees in water&mdash;battered with
+      stones&mdash;blinded with blood. The boat is swaying off and on against
+      the steep pebble-bank: he clutches at it&mdash;misses&mdash;falls headlong&mdash;rises
+      half-choked with water: but Frank is still in his arms. Another heavy blow&mdash;a
+      confused roar of shouts, shots, curses&mdash;a confused mass of negroes
+      and English, foam and pebbles&mdash;and he recollects no more.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      He is lying in the stern-sheets of the boat; stiff, weak, half blind with
+      blood. He looks up; the moon is still bright overhead: but they are away
+      from the shore now, for the wave-crests are dancing white before the
+      land-breeze, high above the boat's side. The boat seems strangely empty.
+      Two men are pulling instead of six! And what is this lying heavy across
+      his chest? He pushes, and is answered by a groan. He puts his hand down to
+      rise, and is answered by another groan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All that are left of us,&rdquo; says Simon Evans of Clovelly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All?&rdquo; The bottom of the boat seemed paved with human bodies. &ldquo;Oh God! oh
+      God!&rdquo; moans Amyas, trying to rise. &ldquo;And where&mdash;where is Frank?
+      Frank!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Frank!&rdquo; cries Evans. There is no answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dead?&rdquo; shrieks Amyas. &ldquo;Look for him, for God's sake, look!&rdquo; and
+      struggling from under his living load, he peers into each pale and
+      bleeding face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is he? Why don't you speak, forward there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because we have naught to say, sir,&rdquo; answers Evans, almost surlily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Frank was not there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put the boat about! To the shore!&rdquo; roars Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look over the gunwale, and judge for yourself, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The waves are leaping fierce and high before a furious land-breeze. Return
+      is impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cowards! villains! traitors! hounds! to have left him behind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen you to me, Captain Amyas Leigh,&rdquo; says Simon Evans, resting on his
+      oar; &ldquo;and hang me for mutiny, if you will, when we're aboard, if we ever
+      get there. Isn't it enough to bring us out to death (as you knew yourself,
+      sir, for you're prudent enough) to please that poor young gentleman's
+      fancy about a wench; but you must call coward an honest man that have
+      saved your life this night, and not a one of us but has his wound to
+      show?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was silent; the rebuke was just.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you, sir, if we've hove a stone out of this boat since we got off,
+      we've hove two hundredweight, and, if the Lord had not fought for us,
+      she'd have been beat to noggin-staves there on the beach.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did I come here, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tom Hart dragged you in out of five feet water, and then thrust the boat
+      off, and had his brains beat out for reward. All were knocked down but us
+      two. So help me God, we thought that you had hove Mr. Frank on board just
+      as you were knocked down, and saw William Frost drag him in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But William Frost was lying senseless in the bottom of the boat. There was
+      no explanation. After all, none was needed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I have three wounds from stones, and this man behind me as many more,
+      beside a shot through his shoulder. Now, sir, be we cowards?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have done your duty,&rdquo; said Amyas, and sank down in the boat, and
+      cried as if his heart would break; and then sprang up, and, wounded as he
+      was, took the oar from Evans's hands. With weary work they made the ship,
+      but so exhausted that another boat had to be lowered to get them
+      alongside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The alarm being now given, it was hardly safe to remain where they were;
+      and after a stormy and sad argument, it was agreed to weigh anchor and
+      stand off and on till morning; for Amyas refused to leave the spot till he
+      was compelled, though he had no hope (how could he have?) that Frank might
+      still be alive. And perhaps it was well for them, as will appear in the
+      next chapter, that morning did not find them at anchor close to the town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However that may be, so ended that fatal venture of mistaken chivalry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Full seven long hours in all men's sight
+       This fight endured sore,
+     Until our men so feeble grew,
+       That they could fight no more.
+     And then upon dead horses
+       Full savorly they fed,
+     And drank the puddle water,
+       They could no better get.
+
+     &ldquo;When they had fed so freely
+       They kneeled on the ground,
+     And gave God thanks devoutly for
+       The favor they had found;
+     Then beating up their colors,
+       The fight they did renew;
+     And turning to the Spaniards,
+       A thousand more they slew.&rdquo;
+
+       The Brave Lord Willoughby.  1586.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      When the sun leaped up the next morning, and the tropic light flashed
+      suddenly into the tropic day, Amyas was pacing the deck, with dishevelled
+      hair and torn clothes, his eyes red with rage and weeping, his heart full&mdash;how
+      can I describe it? Picture it to yourselves, picture it to yourselves, you
+      who have ever lost a brother; and you who have not, thank God that you
+      know nothing of his agony. Full of impossible projects, he strode and
+      staggered up and down, as the ship thrashed close-hauled through the
+      rolling seas. He would go back and burn the villa. He would take Guayra,
+      and have the life of every man in it in return for his brother's. &ldquo;We can
+      do it, lads!&rdquo; he shouted. &ldquo;If Drake took Nombre de Dios, we can take La
+      Guayra.&rdquo; And every voice shouted, &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will have it, Amyas, and have Frank too, yet,&rdquo; cried Cary; but Amyas
+      shook his head. He knew, and knew not why he knew, that all the ports in
+      New Spain would never restore to him that one beloved face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he shall be well avenged. And look there! There is the first crop of
+      our vengeance. And he pointed toward the shore, where between them and the
+      now distant peaks of the Silla, three sails appeared, not five miles to
+      windward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are the Spanish bloodhounds on our heels, the same ships which we
+      saw yesterday off Guayra. Back, lads, and welcome them, if they were a
+      dozen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a murmur of applause from all around; and if any young heart
+      sank for a moment at the prospect of fighting three ships at once, it was
+      awed into silence by the cheer which rose from all the older men, and by
+      Salvation Yeo's stentorian voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If there were a dozen, the Lord is with us, who has said, 'One of you
+      shall chase a thousand.' Clear away, lads, and see the glory of the Lord
+      this day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; cried Cary; and the ship was kept still closer to the wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas had revived at the sight of battle. He no longer felt his wounds, or
+      his great sorrow; even Frank's last angel's look grew dimmer every moment
+      as he bustled about the deck; and ere a quarter of an hour had passed, his
+      voice cried firmly and cheerfully as of old&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, my masters, let us serve God, and then to breakfast, and after that
+      clear for action.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack Brimblecombe read the daily prayers, and the prayers before a fight
+      at sea, and his honest voice trembled, as, in the Prayer for all
+      Conditions of Men (in spite of Amyas's despair), he added, &ldquo;and especially
+      for our dear brother Mr. Francis Leigh, perhaps captive among the
+      idolaters;&rdquo; and so they rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, then,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;to breakfast. A Frenchman fights best fasting, a
+      Dutchman drunk, an Englishman full, and a Spaniard when the devil is in
+      him, and that's always.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And good beef and the good cause are a match for the devil,&rdquo; said Cary.
+      &ldquo;Come down, captain; you must eat too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas shook his head, took the tiller from the steersman, and bade him go
+      below and fill himself. Will Cary went down, and returned in five minutes,
+      with a plate of bread and beef, and a great jack of ale, coaxed them down
+      Amyas's throat, as a nurse does with a child, and then scuttled below
+      again with tears hopping down his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas stood still steering. His face was grown seven years older in the
+      last night. A terrible set calm was on him. Woe to the man who came across
+      him that day!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are three of them, you see, my masters,&rdquo; said he, as the crew came
+      on deck again. &ldquo;A big ship forward, and two galleys astern of her. The big
+      ship may keep; she is a race ship, and if we can but recover the wind of
+      her, we will see whether our height is not a match for her length. We must
+      give her the slip, and take the galleys first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank the Lord,&rdquo; said Yeo, &ldquo;who has given so wise a heart to so young a
+      general; a very David and Daniel, saving his presence, lads; and if any
+      dare not follow him, let him be as the men of Meroz and of Succoth. Amen!
+      Silas Staveley, smite me that boy over the head, the young monkey; why is
+      he not down at the powder-room door?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Yeo went about his gunnery, as one who knew how to do it, and had the
+      most terrible mind to do it thoroughly, and the most terrible faith that
+      it was God's work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So all fell to; and though there was comparatively little to be done, the
+      ship having been kept as far as could be in fighting order all night, yet
+      there was &ldquo;clearing of decks, lacing of nettings, making of bulwarks,
+      fitting of waist-cloths, arming of tops, tallowing of pikes, slinging of
+      yards, doubling of sheets and tacks,&rdquo; enough to satisfy even the
+      pedantical soul of Richard Hawkins himself. Amyas took charge of the poop,
+      Cary of the forecastle, and Yeo, as gunner, of the main-deck, while Drew,
+      as master, settled himself in the waist; and all was ready, and more than
+      ready, before the great ship was within two miles of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now while the mastiffs of England and the bloodhounds of Spain are
+      nearing and nearing over the rolling surges, thirsting for each other's
+      blood, let us spend a few minutes at least in looking at them both, and
+      considering the causes which in those days enabled the English to face and
+      conquer armaments immensely superior in size and number of ships, and to
+      boast that in the whole Spanish war but one queen's ship, the Revenge, and
+      (if I recollect right) but one private man-of-war, Sir Richard Hawkins's
+      Dainty, had ever struck their colors to the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was it which enabled Sir Richard Grenville's Revenge, in his last
+      fearful fight off the Azores, to endure, for twelve hours before she
+      struck, the attack of eight Spanish armadas, of which two (three times her
+      own burden) sank at her side; and after all her masts were gone, and she
+      had been boarded three times without success, to defy to the last the
+      whole fleet of fifty-four sail, which lay around her, waiting for her to
+      sink, &ldquo;like dogs around the dying forest king&rdquo;?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What enabled young Richard Hawkins's Dainty, though half her guns were
+      useless through the carelessness or treachery of the gunner, to maintain
+      for three days a running fight with two Spaniards of equal size with her,
+      double the weight of metal, and ten times the number of men?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What enabled Sir George Cary's illustrious ship, the Content, to fight,
+      single-handed, from seven in the morning till eleven at night, with four
+      great armadas and two galleys, though her heaviest gun was but one
+      nine-pounder, and for many hours she had but thirteen men fit for service?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What enabled, in the very year of which I write, those two &ldquo;valiant Turkey
+      Merchantmen of London, the Merchant Royal and the Tobie,&rdquo; with their three
+      small consorts, to cripple, off Pantellaria in the Mediterranean, the
+      whole fleet of Spanish galleys sent to intercept them, and return
+      triumphant through the Straits of Gibraltar?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And lastly, what in the fight of 1588, whereof more hereafter, enabled the
+      English fleet to capture, destroy, and scatter that Great Armada, with the
+      loss (but not the capture) of one pinnace, and one gentleman of note?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were more causes than one: the first seems to have lain in the build
+      of the English ships; the second in their superior gunnery and weight of
+      metal; the third (without which the first would have been useless) in the
+      hearts of the English men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The English ship was much shorter than the Spanish; and this (with the rig
+      of those days) gave them an ease in manoeuvring, which utterly confounded
+      their Spanish foes. &ldquo;The English ships in the fight of 1588,&rdquo; says Camden,
+      &ldquo;charged the enemy with marvellous agility, and having discharged their
+      broadsides, flew forth presently into the deep, and levelled their shot
+      directly, without missing, at those great ships of the Spaniards, which
+      were altogether heavy and unwieldy.&rdquo; Moreover, the Spanish fashion, in the
+      West Indies at least, though not in the ships of the Great Armada, was,
+      for the sake of carrying merchandise, to build their men-of-war
+      flush-decked, or as it was called &ldquo;race&rdquo; (razes), which left those on deck
+      exposed and open; while the English fashion was to heighten the ship as
+      much as possible at stem and stern, both by the sweep of her lines, and
+      also by stockades (&ldquo;close fights and cage-works&rdquo;) on the poop and
+      forecastle, thus giving to the men a shelter, which was further increased
+      by strong bulkheads (&ldquo;cobridgeheads&rdquo;) across the main-deck below, dividing
+      the ship thus into a number of separate forts, fitted with swivels
+      (&ldquo;bases, fowlers, and murderers&rdquo;) and loopholed for musketry and arrows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the great source of superiority was, after all, in the men themselves.
+      The English sailor was then, as now, a quite amphibious and all-cunning
+      animal, capable of turning his hand to everything, from needlework and
+      carpentry to gunnery or hand-to-hand blows; and he was, moreover, one of a
+      nation, every citizen of which was not merely permitted to carry arms, but
+      compelled by law to practise from childhood the use of the bow, and
+      accustomed to consider sword-play and quarter-staff as a necessary part
+      and parcel of education, and the pastime of every leisure hour. The
+      &ldquo;fiercest nation upon earth,&rdquo; as they were then called, and the freest
+      also, each man of them fought for himself with the self-help and
+      self-respect of a Yankee ranger, and once bidden to do his work, was
+      trusted to carry it out by his own wit as best he could. In one word, he
+      was a free man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The English officers, too, as now, lived on terms of sympathy with their
+      men unknown to the Spaniards, who raised between the commander and the
+      commanded absurd barriers of rank and blood, which forbade to his pride
+      any labor but that of fighting. The English officers, on the other hand,
+      brought up to the same athletic sports, the same martial exercises, as
+      their men, were not ashamed to care for them, to win their friendship,
+      even on emergency to consult their judgment; and used their rank, not to
+      differ from their men, but to outvie them; not merely to command and be
+      obeyed, but, like Homer's heroes, or the old Norse Vikings, to lead and be
+      followed. Drake touched the true mainspring of English success when he
+      once (in his voyage round the world) indignantly rebuked some coxcomb
+      gentlemen-adventurers with&mdash;&ldquo;I should like to see the gentleman that
+      will refuse to set his hand to a rope. I must have the gentlemen to hale
+      and draw with the mariners.&rdquo; But those were days in which her majesty's
+      service was as little overridden by absurd rules of seniority, as by that
+      etiquette which is at once the counterfeit and the ruin of true
+      discipline. Under Elizabeth and her ministers, a brave and a shrewd man
+      was certain of promotion, let his rank or his age be what they might; the
+      true honor of knighthood covered once and for all any lowliness of birth;
+      and the merchant service (in which all the best sea-captains, even those
+      of noble blood, were more or less engaged) was then a nursery, not only
+      for seamen, but for warriors, in days when Spanish and Portuguese traders
+      (whenever they had a chance) got rid of English competition by salvos of
+      cannon-shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hence, as I have said, that strong fellow-feeling between officers and
+      men; and hence mutinies (as Sir Richard Hawkins tells us) were all but
+      unknown in the English ships, while in the Spanish they broke out on every
+      slight occasion. For the Spaniards, by some suicidal pedantry, had allowed
+      their navy to be crippled by the same despotism, etiquette, and official
+      routine, by which the whole nation was gradually frozen to death in the
+      course of the next century or two; forgetting that, fifty years before,
+      Cortez, Pizarro, and the early Conquistadores of America had achieved
+      their miraculous triumphs on the exactly opposite method by that very
+      fellow-feeling between commander and commanded by which the English were
+      now conquering them in their turn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their navy was organized on a plan complete enough; but on one which was,
+      as the event proved, utterly fatal to their prowess and unanimity, and
+      which made even their courage and honor useless against the assaults of
+      free men. &ldquo;They do, in their armadas at sea, divide themselves into three
+      bodies; to wit, soldiers, mariners, and gunners. The soldiers and officers
+      watch and ward as if on shore; and this is the only duty they undergo,
+      except cleaning their arms, wherein they are not over curious. The gunners
+      are exempted from all labor and care, except about the artillery; and
+      these are either Almaines, Flemings, or strangers; for the Spaniards are
+      but indifferently practised in this art. The mariners are but as slaves to
+      the rest, to moil and to toil day and night; and those but few and bad,
+      and not suffered to sleep or harbor under the decks. For in fair or foul
+      weather, in storms, sun, or rain, they must pass void of covert or
+      succor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This is the account of one who was long prisoner on board their ships; let
+      it explain itself, while I return to my tale. For the great ship is now
+      within two musket-shots of the Rose, with the golden flag of Spain
+      floating at her poop; and her trumpets are shouting defiance up the
+      breeze, from a dozen brazen throats, which two or three answer lustily
+      from the Rose, from whose poop flies the flag of England, and from her
+      fore the arms of Leigh and Cary side by side, and over them the ship and
+      bridge of the good town of Bideford. And then Amyas calls:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, silence trumpets, waits, play up! 'Fortune my foe!' and God and the
+      Queen be with us!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon (laugh not, reader, for it was the fashion of those musical as
+      well as valiant days) up rose that noble old favorite of good Queen Bess,
+      from cornet and sackbut, fife and drum; while Parson Jack, who had taken
+      his stand with the musicians on the poop, worked away lustily at his
+      violin, and like Volker of the Nibelungen Lied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well played, Jack; thy elbow flies like a lamb's tail,&rdquo; said Amyas,
+      forcing a jest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It shall fly to a better fiddle-bow presently, sir, an I have the luck&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Steady, helm!&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;What is he after now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spaniard, who had been coming upon them right down the wind under a
+      press of sail, took in his light canvas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He don't know what to make of our waiting for him so bold,&rdquo; said the
+      helmsman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He does though, and means to fight us,&rdquo; cried another. &ldquo;See, he is
+      hauling up the foot of his mainsail, but he wants to keep the wind of us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him try, then,&rdquo; quoth Amyas. &ldquo;Keep her closer still. Let no one fire
+      till we are about. Man the starboard guns; to starboard, and wait, all
+      small arm men. Pass the order down to the gunner, and bid all fire high,
+      and take the rigging.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bang went one of the Spaniard's bow guns, and the shot went wide. Then
+      another and another, while the men fidgeted about, looking at the priming
+      of their muskets, and loosened their arrows in the sheaf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lie down, men, and sing a psalm. When I want you, I'll call you. Closer
+      still, if you can, helmsman, and we will try a short ship against a long
+      one. We can sail two points nearer the wind than he.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Amyas had calculated, the Spaniard would gladly enough have stood
+      across the Rose's bows, but knowing the English readiness, dare not for
+      fear of being raked; so her only plan, if she did not intend to shoot past
+      her foe down to leeward, was to put her head close to the wind, and wait
+      for her on the same tack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas laughed to himself. &ldquo;Hold on yet awhile. More ways of killing a cat
+      than choking her with cream. Drew, there, are your men ready?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir!&rdquo; and on they went, closing fast with the Spaniard, till
+      within a pistol-shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ready about!&rdquo; and about she went like an eel, and ran upon the opposite
+      tack right under the Spaniard's stern. The Spaniard, astounded at the
+      quickness of the manoeuvre, hesitated a moment, and then tried to get
+      about also, as his only chance; but it was too late, and while his
+      lumbering length was still hanging in the wind's eye, Amyas's bowsprit had
+      all but scraped his quarter, and the Rose passed slowly across his stern
+      at ten yards' distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, then!&rdquo; roared Amyas. &ldquo;Fire, and with a will! Have at her, archers:
+      have at her, muskets all!&rdquo; and in an instant a storm of bar and
+      chain-shot, round and canister, swept the proud Don from stem to stern,
+      while through the white cloud of smoke the musket-balls, and the still
+      deadlier cloth-yard arrows, whistled and rushed upon their venomous
+      errand. Down went the steersman, and every soul who manned the poop. Down
+      went the mizzen topmast, in went the stern-windows and quarter-galleries;
+      and as the smoke cleared away, the gorgeous painting of the Madre
+      Dolorosa, with her heart full of seven swords, which, in a gilded frame,
+      bedizened the Spanish stern, was shivered in splinters; while, most
+      glorious of all, the golden flag of Spain, which the last moment flaunted
+      above their heads, hung trailing in the water. The ship, her tiller shot
+      away, and her helmsman killed, staggered helplessly a moment, and then
+      fell up into the wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well done, men of Devon!&rdquo; shouted Amyas, as cheers rent the welkin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has struck,&rdquo; cried some, as the deafening hurrahs died away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bit,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;Hold on, helmsman, and leave her to patch her
+      tackle while we settle the galleys.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On they shot merrily, and long ere the armada could get herself to rights
+      again, were two good miles to windward, with the galleys sweeping down
+      fast upon them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And two venomous-looking craft they were, as they shot through the short
+      chopping sea upon some forty oars apiece, stretching their long sword-fish
+      snouts over the water, as if snuffing for their prey. Behind this long
+      snout, a strong square forecastle was crammed with soldiers, and the
+      muzzles of cannon grinned out through portholes, not only in the sides of
+      the forecastle, but forward in the line of the galley's course, thus
+      enabling her to keep up a continual fire on a ship right ahead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The long low waist was packed full of the slaves, some five or six to each
+      oar, and down the centre, between the two banks, the English could see the
+      slave-drivers walking up and down a long gangway, whip in hand. A raised
+      quarter-deck at the stern held more soldiers, the sunlight flashing
+      merrily upon their armor and their gun-barrels; as they neared, the
+      English could hear plainly the cracks of the whips, and the yells as of
+      wild beasts which answered them; the roll and rattle of the oars, and the
+      loud &ldquo;Ha!&rdquo; of the slaves which accompanied every stroke, and the oaths and
+      curses of the drivers; while a sickening musky smell, as of a pack of
+      kennelled hounds, came down the wind from off those dens of misery. No
+      wonder if many a young heart shuddered as it faced, for the first time,
+      the horrible reality of those floating hells, the cruelties whereof had
+      rung so often in English ears, from the stories of their own countrymen,
+      who had passed them, fought them, and now and then passed years of misery
+      on board of them. Who knew but what there might be English among those
+      sun-browned half-naked masses of panting wretches?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must we fire upon the slaves?&rdquo; asked more than one, as the thought
+      crossed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas sighed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spare them all you can, in God's name; but if they try to run us down,
+      rake them we must, and God forgive us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two galleys came on abreast of each other, some forty yards apart. To
+      outmanoeuvre their oars as he had done the ship's sails, Amyas knew was
+      impossible. To run from them was to be caught between them and the ship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He made up his mind, as usual, to the desperate game.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lay her head up in the wind, helmsman, and we will wait for them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They were now within musket-shot, and opened fire from their bow-guns;
+      but, owing to the chopping sea, their aim was wild. Amyas, as usual,
+      withheld his fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The men stood at quarters with compressed lips, not knowing what was to
+      come next. Amyas, towering motionless on the quarter-deck, gave his orders
+      calmly and decisively. The men saw that he trusted himself, and trusted
+      him accordingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spaniards, seeing him wait for them, gave a shout of joy&mdash;was the
+      Englishman mad? And the two galleys converged rapidly, intending to strike
+      him full, one on each bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were within forty yards&mdash;another minute, and the shock would
+      come. The Englishman's helm went up, his yards creaked round, and
+      gathering way, he plunged upon the larboard galley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A dozen gold nobles to him who brings down the steersman!&rdquo; shouted Cary,
+      who had his cue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And a flight of arrows from the forecastle rattled upon the galley's
+      quarter-deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hit or not hit, the steersman lost his nerve, and shrank from the coming
+      shock. The galley's helm went up to port, and her beak slid all but
+      harmless along Amyas's bow; a long dull grind, and then loud crack on
+      crack, as the Rose sawed slowly through the bank of oars from stem to
+      stern, hurling the wretched slaves in heaps upon each other; and ere her
+      mate on the other side could swing round, to strike him in his new
+      position, Amyas's whole broadside, great and small, had been poured into
+      her at pistol-shot, answered by a yell which rent their ears and hearts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spare the slaves! Fire at the soldiers!&rdquo; cried Amyas; but the work was
+      too hot for much discrimination; for the larboard galley, crippled but not
+      undaunted, swung round across his stern, and hooked herself venomously on
+      to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a move more brave than wise; for it prevented the other galley from
+      returning to the attack without exposing herself a second time to the
+      English broadside; and a desperate attempt of the Spaniards to board at
+      once through the stern-ports and up the quarter was met with such a
+      demurrer of shot and steel, that they found themselves in three minutes
+      again upon the galley's poop, accompanied, to their intense disgust, by
+      Amyas Leigh and twenty English swords.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five minutes' hard cutting, hand to hand, and the poop was clear. The
+      soldiers in the forecastle had been able to give them no assistance, open
+      as they lay to the arrows and musketry from the Rose's lofty stern. Amyas
+      rushed along the central gangway, shouting in Spanish, &ldquo;Freedom to the
+      slaves! death to the masters!&rdquo; clambered into the forecastle, followed
+      close by his swarm of wasps, and set them so good an example how to use
+      their stings, that in three minutes more there was not a Spaniard on board
+      who was not dead or dying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let the slaves free!&rdquo; shouted he. &ldquo;Throw us a hammer down, men. Hark!
+      there's an English voice!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There is indeed. From amid the wreck of broken oars and writhing limbs, a
+      voice is shrieking in broadest Devon to the master, who is looking over
+      the side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Robert Drew! Robert Drew! Come down, and take me out of hell!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who be you, in the name of the Lord!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you mind William Prust, that Captain Hawkins left behind in the
+      Honduras, years and years agone? There's nine of us aboard, if your shot
+      hasn't put 'em out of their misery. Come down, if you've a Christian
+      heart, come down!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Utterly forgetful of all discipline, Drew leaps down hammer in hand, and
+      the two old comrades rush into each other's arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why make a long story of what took but five minutes to do? The nine men
+      (luckily none of them wounded) are freed, and helped on board, to be
+      hugged and kissed by old comrades and young kinsmen; while the remaining
+      slaves, furnished with a couple of hammers, are told to free themselves
+      and help the English. The wretches answer by a shout; and Amyas, once more
+      safe on board again, dashes after the other galley, which has been
+      hovering out of reach of his guns: but there is no need to trouble himself
+      about her; sickened with what she has got, she is struggling right up
+      wind, leaning over to one side, and seemingly ready to sink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there any English on board of her?&rdquo; asks Amyas, loath to lose the
+      chance of freeing a countryman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never a one, sir, thank God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they set to work to repair damages; while the liberated slaves, having
+      shifted some of the galley's oars, pull away after their comrade; and that
+      with such a will, that in ten minutes they have caught her up, and
+      careless of the Spaniard's fire, boarded her en masse, with yells as of a
+      thousand wolves. There will be fearful vengeance taken on those tyrants,
+      unless they play the man this day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And in the meanwhile half the crew are clothing, feeding, questioning,
+      caressing those nine poor fellows thus snatched from living death; and
+      Yeo, hearing the news, has rushed up on deck to welcome his old comrades,
+      and&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Michael Heard, my cousin, here among you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, Michael Heard is there, white-headed rather from misery than age; and
+      the embracings and questionings begin afresh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is my wife, Salvation Yeo?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the Lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; says the old man, with a short shudder. &ldquo;I thought so much; and my
+      two boys?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the Lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man catches Yeo by the arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How, then?&rdquo; It is Yeo's turn to shudder now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Killed in Panama, fighting the Spaniards; sailing with Mr. Oxenham; and
+      'twas I led 'em into it. May God and you forgive me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They couldn't die better, cousin Yeo. Where's my girl Grace?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Died in childbed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Any childer?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man covers his face with his hands for a while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I've been alone with the Lord these fifteen years, so I must not
+      whine at being alone a while longer&mdash;'t won't be long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put this coat on your back, uncle,&rdquo; says some one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; no coats for me. Naked came I into the world, and naked I go out of
+      it this day, if I have a chance. You'm better to go to your work, lads, or
+      the big one will have the wind of you yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So she will,&rdquo; said Amyas, who has overheard; but so great is the
+      curiosity on all hands, that he has some trouble in getting the men to
+      quarters again; indeed, they only go on condition of parting among
+      themselves with them the new-comers, each to tell his sad and strange
+      story. How after Captain Hawkins, constrained by famine, had put them
+      ashore, they wandered in misery till the Spaniards took them; how, instead
+      of hanging them (as they at first intended), the Dons fed and clothed
+      them, and allotted them as servants to various gentlemen about Mexico,
+      where they throve, turned their hands (like true sailors) to all manner of
+      trades, and made much money, and some of them were married, even to women
+      of wealth; so that all went well, until the fatal year 1574, when, &ldquo;much
+      against the minds of many of the Spaniards themselves, that cruel and
+      bloody Inquisition was established for the first time in the Indies;&rdquo; and
+      how from that moment their lives were one long tragedy; how they were all
+      imprisoned for a year and a half, not for proselytizing, but simply for
+      not believing in transubstantiation; racked again and again, and at last
+      adjudged to receive publicly, on Good Friday, 1575, some three hundred,
+      some one hundred stripes, and to serve in the galleys for six or ten years
+      each; while, as the crowning atrocity of the Moloch sacrifice, three of
+      them were burnt alive in the market-place of Mexico; a story no less
+      hideous than true, the details whereof whoso list may read in Hakluyt's
+      third volume, as told by Philip Miles, one of that hapless crew; as well
+      as the adventures of Job Hortop, a messmate of his, who, after being sent
+      to Spain, and seeing two more of his companions burnt alive at Seville,
+      was sentenced to row in the galleys ten years, and after that to go to the
+      &ldquo;everlasting prison remediless;&rdquo; from which doom, after twenty-three years
+      of slavery, he was delivered by the galleon Dudley, and came safely home
+      to Redriff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fate of Hortop and his comrades was, of course, still unknown to the
+      rescued men; but the history even of their party was not likely to improve
+      the good feeling of the crew toward the Spanish ship which was two miles
+      to leeward of them, and which must be fought with, or fled from, before a
+      quarter of an hour was past. So, kneeling down upon the deck, as many a
+      brave crew in those days did in like case, they &ldquo;gave God thanks devoutly
+      for the favor they had found;&rdquo; and then with one accord, at Jack's
+      leading, sang one and all the Ninety-fourth Psalm:*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Oh, Lord, thou dost revenge all wrong;
+       Vengeance belongs to thee,&rdquo; etc.
+
+     * The crew of the Tobie, cast away on the Barbary coast a
+     few years after, &ldquo;began with heavy hearts to sing the
+     twelfth Psalm, 'Help, Lord, for good and godly men,' etc.
+     Howbeit, ere we had finished four verses, the waves of the
+     sea had stopped the breaths of most.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      And then again to quarters; for half the day's work, or more than half,
+      still remained to be done; and hardly were the decks cleared afresh, and
+      the damage repaired as best it could be, when she came ranging up to
+      leeward, as closehauled as she could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was, as I said, a long flush-decked ship of full five hundred tons,
+      more than double the size, in fact, of the Rose, though not so lofty in
+      proportion; and many a bold heart beat loud, and no shame to them, as she
+      began firing away merrily, determined, as all well knew, to wipe out in
+      English blood the disgrace of her late foil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind, my merry masters,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;she has quantity and we
+      quality.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's true,&rdquo; said one, &ldquo;for one honest man is worth two rogues.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And one culverin three of their footy little ordnance,&rdquo; said another. &ldquo;So
+      when you will, captain, and have at her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let her come abreast of us, and don't burn powder. We have the wind, and
+      can do what we like with her. Serve the men out a horn of ale all round,
+      steward, and all take your time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they waited for five minutes more, and then set to work quietly, after
+      the fashion of English mastiffs, though, like those mastiffs, they waxed
+      right mad before three rounds were fired, and the white splinters (sight
+      beloved) began to crackle and fly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas, having, as he had said, the wind, and being able to go nearer it
+      than the Spaniard, kept his place at easy point-blank range for his two
+      eighteen-pounder culverins, which Yeo and his mate worked with terrible
+      effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are lacking her through and through every shot,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Leave the
+      small ordnance alone yet awhile, and we shall sink her without them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whing, whing,&rdquo; went the Spaniard's shot, like so many humming-tops,
+      through the rigging far above their heads; for the ill-constructed ports
+      of those days prevented the guns from hulling an enemy who was to
+      windward, unless close alongside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blow, jolly breeze,&rdquo; cried one, &ldquo;and lay the Don over all thou canst.&mdash;What
+      the murrain is gone, aloft there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alas! a crack, a flap, a rattle; and blank dismay! An unlucky shot had cut
+      the foremast (already wounded) in two, and all forward was a mass of
+      dangling wreck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forward, and cut away the wreck!&rdquo; said Amyas, unmoved. &ldquo;Small arm men, be
+      ready. He will be aboard of us in five minutes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was too true. The Rose, unmanageable from the loss of her head-sail,
+      lay at the mercy of the Spaniard; and the archers and musqueteers had
+      hardly time to range themselves to leeward, when the Madre Dolorosa's
+      chains were grinding against the Rose's, and grapples tossed on board from
+      stem to stern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't cut them loose!&rdquo; roared Amyas. &ldquo;Let them stay and see the fun! Now,
+      dogs of Devon, show your teeth, and hurrah for God and the queen!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then began a fight most fierce and fell: the Spaniards, according to
+      their fashion, attempting to board, the English, amid fierce shouts of
+      &ldquo;God and the queen!&rdquo; &ldquo;God and St. George for England!&rdquo; sweeping them back
+      by showers of arrows and musquet balls, thrusting them down with pikes,
+      hurling grenades and stink-pots from the tops; while the swivels on both
+      sides poured their grape, and bar, and chain, and the great main-deck
+      guns, thundering muzzle to muzzle, made both ships quiver and recoil, as
+      they smashed the round shot through and through each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they roared and flashed, fast clenched to each other in that devil's
+      wedlock, under a cloud of smoke beneath the cloudless tropic sky; while
+      all around, the dolphins gambolled, and the flying-fish shot on from swell
+      to swell, and the rainbow-hued jellies opened and shut their cups of
+      living crystal to the sun, as merrily as if man had never fallen, and hell
+      had never broken loose on earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So it raged for an hour or more, till all arms were weary, and all tongues
+      clove to the mouth. And sick men, rotting with scurvy, scrambled up on
+      deck, and fought with the strength of madness; and tiny powder-boys,
+      handing up cartridges from the hold, laughed and cheered as the shots ran
+      past their ears; and old Salvation Yeo, a text upon his lips, and a fury
+      in his heart as of Joshua or Elijah in old time, worked on, calm and grim,
+      but with the energy of a boy at play. And now and then an opening in the
+      smoke showed the Spanish captain, in his suit of black steel armor,
+      standing cool and proud, guiding and pointing, careless of the iron hail,
+      but too lofty a gentleman to soil his glove with aught but a knightly
+      sword-hilt: while Amyas and Will, after the fashion of the English
+      gentlemen, had stripped themselves nearly as bare as their own sailors,
+      and were cheering, thrusting, hewing, and hauling, here, there, and
+      everywhere, like any common mariner, and filling them with a spirit of
+      self-respect, fellow-feeling, and personal daring, which the discipline of
+      the Spaniards, more perfect mechanically, but cold and tyrannous, and
+      crushing spiritually, never could bestow. The black-plumed senor was
+      obeyed; but the golden-locked Amyas was followed, and would have been
+      followed through the jaws of hell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spaniards, ere five minutes had passed, poured en masse into the
+      Rose's waist, but only to their destruction. Between the poop and
+      forecastle (as was then the fashion) the upper-deck beams were left open
+      and unplanked, with the exception of a narrow gangway on either side; and
+      off that fatal ledge the boarders, thrust on by those behind, fell
+      headlong between the beams to the main-deck below, to be slaughtered
+      helpless in that pit of destruction, by the double fire from the bulkheads
+      fore and aft; while the few who kept their footing on the gangway, after
+      vain attempts to force the stockades on poop and forecastle, leaped
+      overboard again amid a shower of shot and arrows. The fire of the English
+      was as steady as it was quick; and though three-fourths of the crew had
+      never smelt powder before, they proved well the truth of the old
+      chronicler's saying (since proved again more gloriously than ever, at
+      Alma, Balaklava, and Inkerman), that &ldquo;the English never fight better than
+      in their first battle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thrice the Spaniards clambered on board, and thrice surged back before
+      that deadly hail. The decks on both sides were very shambles; and Jack
+      Brimblecombe, who had fought as long as his conscience would allow him,
+      found, when he turned to a more clerical occupation, enough to do in
+      carrying poor wretches to the surgeon, without giving that spiritual
+      consolation which he longed to give, and they to receive. At last there
+      was a lull in that wild storm. No shot was heard from the Spaniard's
+      upper-deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas leaped into the mizzen rigging, and looked through the smoke. Dead
+      men he could descry through the blinding veil, rolled in heaps, laid flat;
+      dead men and dying: but no man upon his feet. The last volley had swept
+      the deck clear; one by one had dropped below to escape that fiery shower:
+      and alone at the helm, grinding his teeth with rage, his mustachios
+      curling up to his very eyes, stood the Spanish captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now was the moment for a counter-stroke. Amyas shouted for the boarders,
+      and in two minutes more he was over the side, and clutching at the
+      Spaniard's mizzen rigging.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was this? The distance between him and the enemy's side was widening.
+      Was she sheering off? Yes&mdash;and rising too, growing bodily higher
+      every moment, as if by magic. Amyas looked up in astonishment and saw what
+      it was. The Spaniard was heeling fast over to leeward away from him. Her
+      masts were all sloping forward, swifter and swifter&mdash;the end was
+      come, then!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Back! in God's name back, men! She is sinking by the head!&rdquo; And with much
+      ado some were dragged back, some leaped back&mdash;all but old Michael
+      Heard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With hair and beard floating in the wind, the bronzed naked figure, like
+      some weird old Indian fakir, still climbed on steadfastly up the
+      mizzen-chains of the Spaniard, hatchet in hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come back, Michael! Leap while you may!&rdquo; shouted a dozen voices. Michael
+      turned&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what should I come back for, then, to go home where no one knoweth
+      me? I'll die like an Englishman this day, or I'll know the rason why!&rdquo; and
+      turning, he sprang in over the bulwarks, as the huge ship rolled up more
+      and more, like a dying whale, exposing all her long black hulk almost down
+      to the keel, and one of her lower-deck guns, as if in defiance, exploded
+      upright into the air, hurling the ball to the very heavens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In an instant it was answered from the Rose by a column of smoke, and the
+      eighteen-pound ball crashed through the bottom of the defenceless
+      Spaniard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who fired? Shame to fire on a sinking ship!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gunner Yeo, sir,&rdquo; shouted a voice up from the main-deck. &ldquo;He's like a
+      madman down here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell him if he fires again, I'll put him in irons, if he were my own
+      brother. Cut away the grapples aloft, men. Don't you see how she drags us
+      over? Cut away, or we shall sink with her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They cut away, and the Rose, released from the strain, shook her feathers
+      on the wave-crest like a freed sea-gull, while all men held their breaths.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly the glorious creature righted herself, and rose again, as if in
+      noble shame, for one last struggle with her doom. Her bows were deep in
+      the water, but her after-deck still dry. Righted: but only for a moment,
+      long enough to let her crew come pouring wildly up on deck, with cries and
+      prayers, and rush aft to the poop, where, under the flag of Spain, stood
+      the tall captain, his left hand on the standard-staff, his sword pointed
+      in his right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Back, men!&rdquo; they heard him cry, &ldquo;and die like valiant mariners.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of them ran to the bulwarks, and shouted &ldquo;Mercy! We surrender!&rdquo; and
+      the English broke into a cheer and called to them to run her alongside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence!&rdquo; shouted Amyas. &ldquo;I take no surrender from mutineers. Senor,&rdquo;
+       cried he to the captain, springing into the rigging and taking off his
+      hat, &ldquo;for the love of God and these men, strike! and surrender a buena
+      querra.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spaniard lifted his hat and bowed courteously, and answered,
+      &ldquo;Impossible, senor. No querra is good which stains my honor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God have mercy on you, then!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; said the Spaniard, crossing himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave one awful lounge forward, and dived under the coming swell,
+      hurling her crew into the eddies. Nothing but the point of her poop
+      remained, and there stood the stern and steadfast Don, cap-a-pie in his
+      glistening black armor, immovable as a man of iron, while over him the
+      flag, which claimed the empire of both worlds, flaunted its gold aloft and
+      upwards in the glare of the tropic noon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He shall not carry that flag to the devil with him; I will have it yet,
+      if I die for it!&rdquo; said Will Cary, and rushed to the side to leap
+      overboard, but Amyas stopped him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him die as he has lived, with honor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A wild figure sprang out of the mass of sailors who struggled and shrieked
+      amid the foam, and rushed upward at the Spaniard. It was Michael Heard.
+      The Don, who stood above him, plunged his sword into the old man's body:
+      but the hatchet gleamed, nevertheless: down went the blade through
+      headpiece and through head; and as Heard sprang onward, bleeding, but
+      alive, the steel-clad corpse rattled down the deck into the surge. Two
+      more strokes, struck with the fury of a dying man, and the standard-staff
+      was hewn through. Old Michael collected all his strength, hurled the flag
+      far from the sinking ship, and then stood erect one moment and shouted,
+      &ldquo;God save Queen Bess!&rdquo; and the English answered with a &ldquo;Hurrah!&rdquo; which
+      rent the welkin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another moment and the gulf had swallowed his victim, and the poop, and
+      him; and nothing remained of the Madre Dolorosa but a few floating spars
+      and struggling wretches, while a great awe fell upon all men, and a solemn
+      silence, broken only by the cry
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Of some strong swimmer in his agony.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      And then, suddenly collecting themselves, as men awakened from a dream,
+      half-a-dozen desperate gallants, reckless of sharks and eddies, leaped
+      overboard, swam towards the flag, and towed it alongside in triumph.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Salvation Yeo, as he helped the trophy up over the side; &ldquo;ah!
+      it was not for nothing that we found poor Michael! He was always a good
+      comrade&mdash;nigh as good a one as William Penberthy of Marazion, whom
+      the Lord grant I meet in bliss! And now, then, my masters, shall we
+      inshore again and burn La Guayra?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Art thou never glutted with Spanish blood, thou old wolf?&rdquo; asked Will
+      Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never, sir,&rdquo; answered Yeo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To St. Jago be it,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;if we can get there; but&mdash;God help
+      us!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he looked round sadly enough; while no one needed that he should
+      finish his sentence, or explain his &ldquo;but.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The foremast was gone, the main-yard sprung, the rigging hanging in
+      elf-locks, the hull shot through and through in twenty places, the deck
+      strewn with the bodies of nine good men, beside sixteen wounded down
+      below; while the pitiless sun, right above their heads, poured down a
+      flood of fire upon a sea of glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And it would have been well if faintness and weariness had been all that
+      was the matter; but now that the excitement was over, the collapse came;
+      and the men sat down listlessly and sulkily by twos and threes upon the
+      deck, starting and wincing when they heard some poor fellow below cry out
+      under the surgeon's knife; or murmuring to each other that all was lost.
+      Drew tried in vain to rouse them, telling them that all depended on
+      rigging a jury-mast forward as soon as possible. They answered only by
+      growls; and at last broke into open reproaches. Even Will Cary's volatile
+      nature, which had kept him up during the fight, gave way, when Yeo and the
+      carpenter came aft, and told Amyas in a low voice&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are hit somewhere forward, below the water-line, sir. She leaks a
+      terrible deal, and the Lord will not vouchsafe to us to lay our hands on
+      the place, for all our searching.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are we to do now, Amyas, in the devil's name?&rdquo; asked Cary,
+      peevishly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are we to do, in God's name, rather,&rdquo; answered Amyas, in a low
+      voice. &ldquo;Will, Will, what did God make you a gentleman for, but to know
+      better than those poor fickle fellows forward, who blow hot and cold at
+      every change of weather!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you'd come forward and speak to them, sir,&rdquo; said Yeo, who had
+      overheard the last words, &ldquo;or we shall get naught done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas went forward instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now then, my brave lads, what's the matter here, that you are all sitting
+      on your tails like monkeys?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh!&rdquo; grunts one. &ldquo;Don't you think our day's work has been long enough
+      yet, captain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't want us to go in to La Guayra again, sir? There are enough of
+      us thrown away already, I reckon, about that wench there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Best sit here, and sink quietly. There's no getting home again, that's
+      plain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why were we brought out here to be killed?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For shame, men!&rdquo; cries Yeo; &ldquo;you're no better than a set of stiff-necked
+      Hebrew Jews, murmuring against Moses the very minute after the Lord has
+      delivered you from the Egyptians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now I do not wish to set Amyas up as a perfect man; for he had his faults,
+      like every one else; nor as better, thank God, than many and many a brave
+      and virtuous captain in her majesty's service at this very day: but
+      certainly he behaved admirably under that trial. Drake had trained him, as
+      he trained many another excellent officer, to be as stout in discipline,
+      and as dogged of purpose, as he himself was: but he had trained him also
+      to feel with and for his men, to make allowances for them, and to keep his
+      temper with them, as he did this day. True, he had seen Drake in a rage;
+      he had seen him hang one man for a mutiny (and that man his dearest
+      friend), and threaten to hang thirty more; but Amyas remembered well that
+      that explosion took place when having, as Drake said publicly himself,
+      &ldquo;taken in hand that I know not in the world how to go through with; it
+      passeth my capacity; it hath even bereaved me of my wits to think of it,&rdquo;
+       . . . and having &ldquo;now set together by the ears three mighty princes, her
+      majesty and the kings of Spain and Portugal,&rdquo; he found his whole voyage
+      ready to come to naught, &ldquo;by mutinies and discords, controversy between
+      the sailors and gentlemen, and stomaching between the gentlemen and
+      sailors.&rdquo; &ldquo;But, my masters&rdquo; (quoth the self-trained hero, and Amyas never
+      forgot his words), &ldquo;I must have it left; for I must have the gentlemen to
+      haul and draw with the mariner, and the mariner with the gentlemen. I
+      would like to know him that would refuse to set his hand to a rope!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And now Amyas's conscience smote him (and his simple and pious soul took
+      the loss of his brother as God's verdict on his conduct), because he had
+      set his own private affection, even his own private revenge, before the
+      safety of his ship's company, and the good of his country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said he to himself, as he listened to his men's reproaches, &ldquo;if I
+      had been thinking, like a loyal soldier, of serving my queen, and
+      crippling the Spaniard, I should have taken that great bark three days
+      ago, and in it the very man I sought!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So &ldquo;choking down his old man,&rdquo; as Yeo used to say, he made answer
+      cheerfully&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pooh! pooh! brave lads! For shame, for shame! You were lions half-an-hour
+      ago; you are not surely turned sheep already! Why, but yesterday evening
+      you were grumbling because I would not run in and fight those three ships
+      under the batteries of La Guayra, and now you think it too much to have
+      fought them fairly out at sea? What has happened but the chances of war,
+      which might have happened anywhere? Nothing venture, nothing win; and
+      nobody goes bird-nesting without a fall at times. If any one wants to be
+      safe in this life, he'd best stay at home and keep his bed; though even
+      there, who knows but the roof might fall through on him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, it's all very well for you, captain,&rdquo; said some grumbling younker,
+      with a vague notion that Amyas must be better off than he, because he was
+      a gentleman. Amyas's blood rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sirrah! it is very well for me, as long as God is with me: but He is
+      with every man in this ship, I would have you to know, as much as He is
+      with me. Do you fancy that I have nothing to lose? I who have adventured
+      in this voyage all I am worth, and more; who, if I fail, must return to
+      beggary and scorn? And if I have ventured rashly, sinfully, if you will,
+      the lives of any of you in my own private quarrel, am I not punished? Have
+      I not lost&mdash;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His voice trembled and stopped there, but he recovered himself in a
+      moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pish! I can't stand here chattering. Carpenter! an axe! and help me to
+      cast these spars loose. Get out of my way, there! lumbering the scuppers
+      up like so many moulting fowls! Here, all old friends, lend a hand!
+      Pelican's men, stand by your captain! Did we sail round the world for
+      nothing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This last appeal struck home, and up leaped half-a-dozen of the old
+      Pelicans, and set to work at his side manfully to rig the jury-mast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come along!&rdquo; cried Cary to the malcontents; &ldquo;we're raw longshore fellows,
+      but we won't be outdone by any old sea-dog of them all.&rdquo; And setting to
+      work himself, he was soon followed by one and another, till order and work
+      went on well enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where are we going, when the mast's up?&rdquo; shouted some saucy hand from
+      behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where you daren't follow us alone by yourself, so you had better keep us
+      company,&rdquo; replied Yeo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll tell you where we are going, lads,&rdquo; said Amyas, rising from his
+      work. &ldquo;Like it or leave it as you will, I have no secrets from my crew. We
+      are going inshore there to find a harbor, and careen the ship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a start and a murmur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Inshore? Into the Spaniards' mouths?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All in the Inquisition in a week's time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better stay here, and be drowned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're right in that last,&rdquo; shouts Cary. &ldquo;That's the right death for
+      blind puppies. Look you! I don't know in the least where we are, and I
+      hardly know stem from stern aboard ship; and the captain may be right or
+      wrong&mdash;that's nothing to me; but this I know, that I am a soldier,
+      and will obey orders; and where he goes, I go; and whosoever hinders me
+      must walk up my sword to do it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas pressed Cary's hand, and then&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And here's my broadside next, men. I'll go nowhere, and do nothing
+      without the advice of Salvation Yeo and Robert Drew; and if any man in the
+      ship knows better than these two, let him up, and we'll give him a
+      hearing. Eh, Pelicans?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a grunt of approbation from the Pelicans; and Amyas returned to
+      the charge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have five shot between wind and water, and one somewhere below. Can we
+      face a gale of wind in that state, or can we not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can we get home with a leak in our bottom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what can we do but run inshore, and take our chance? Speak! It's a
+      coward's trick to do nothing because what we must do is not pleasant. Will
+      you be like children, that would sooner die than take nasty physic, or
+      will you not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Silence still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come along now! Here's the wind again round with the sun, and up to the
+      north-west. In with her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sulkily enough, but unable to deny the necessity, the men set to work, and
+      the vessel's head was put toward the land; but when she began to slip
+      through the water, the leak increased so fast, that they were kept hard at
+      work at the pumps for the rest of the afternoon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The current had by this time brought them abreast of the bay of Higuerote;
+      and, luckily for them, safe out of the short heavy swell which it causes
+      round Cape Codera. Looking inland, they had now to the south-west that
+      noble headland, backed by the Caracas Mountains, range on range, up to the
+      Silla and the Neguater; while, right ahead of them to the south, the shore
+      sank suddenly into a low line of mangrove-wood, backed by primaeval
+      forest. As they ran inward, all eyes were strained greedily to find some
+      opening in the mangrove belt; but none was to be seen for some time. The
+      lead was kept going; and every fresh heave announced shallower water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall have very shoal work off those mangroves, Yeo,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;I
+      doubt whether we shall do aught now, unless we find a river's mouth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If the Lord thinks a river good for us, sir, He'll show us one.&rdquo; So on
+      they went, keeping a south-east course, and at last an opening in the
+      mangrove belt was hailed with a cheer from the older hands, though the
+      majority shrugged their shoulders, as men going open-eyed to destruction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Off the mouth they sent in Drew and Cary with a boat, and watched
+      anxiously for an hour. The boat returned with a good report of two fathoms
+      of water over the bar, impenetrable forests for two miles up, the river
+      sixty yards broad, and no sign of man. The river's banks were soft and
+      sloping mud, fit for careening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Safe quarters, sir,&rdquo; said Yeo, privately, &ldquo;as far as Spaniards go. I hope
+      in God it may be as safe from calentures and fevers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beggars must not be choosers,&rdquo; said Amyas. So in they went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They towed the ship up about half-a-mile to a point where she could not be
+      seen from the seaward; and there moored her to the mangrove-stems. Amyas
+      ordered a boat out, and went up the river himself to reconnoitre. He rowed
+      some three miles, till the river narrowed suddenly, and was all but
+      covered in by the interlacing boughs of mighty trees. There was no sign
+      that man had been there since the making of the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He dropped down the stream again, thoughtfully and sadly. How many years
+      ago was it that he passed this river's mouth? Three days. And yet how much
+      had passed in them! Don Guzman found and lost&mdash;Rose found and lost&mdash;a
+      great victory gained, and yet lost&mdash;perhaps his ship lost&mdash;above
+      all, his brother lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lost! O God, how should he find his brother?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some strange bird out of the woods made mournful answer&mdash;&ldquo;Never,
+      never, never!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      How should he face his mother?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never, never, never!&rdquo; wailed the bird again; and Amyas smiled bitterly,
+      and said &ldquo;Never!&rdquo; likewise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night mist began to steam and wreathe upon the foul beer-colored
+      stream. The loathy floor of liquid mud lay bare beneath the mangrove
+      forest. Upon the endless web of interarching roots great purple crabs were
+      crawling up and down. They would have supped with pleasure upon Amyas's
+      corpse; perhaps they might sup on him after all; for a heavy sickening
+      graveyard smell made his heart sink within him, and his stomach heave; and
+      his weary body, and more weary soul, gave themselves up helplessly to the
+      depressing influence of that doleful place. The black bank of dingy
+      leathern leaves above his head, the endless labyrinth of stems and withes
+      (for every bough had lowered its own living cord, to take fresh hold of
+      the foul soil below); the web of roots, which stretched away inland till
+      it was lost in the shades of evening&mdash;all seemed one horrid
+      complicated trap for him and his; and even where, here and there, he
+      passed the mouth of a lagoon, there was no opening, no relief&mdash;nothing
+      but the dark ring of mangroves, and here and there an isolated group of
+      large and small, parents and children, breeding and spreading, as if in
+      hideous haste to choke out air and sky. Wailing sadly, sad-colored
+      mangrove-hens ran off across the mud into the dreary dark. The hoarse
+      night-raven, hid among the roots, startled the voyagers with a sudden
+      shout, and then all was again silent as a grave. The loathly alligators,
+      lounging in the slime, lifted their horny eyelids lazily, and leered upon
+      him as he passed with stupid savageness. Lines of tall herons stood dimly
+      in the growing gloom, like white fantastic ghosts, watching the passage of
+      the doomed boat. All was foul, sullen, weird as witches' dream. If Amyas
+      had seen a crew of skeletons glide down the stream behind him, with Satan
+      standing at the helm, he would have scarcely been surprised. What fitter
+      craft could haunt that Stygian flood?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night every man of the boat's crew, save Amyas, was down with raging
+      fever; before ten the next morning, five more men were taken, and others
+      sickening fast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION UNDER THE TREE AT HIGUEROTE
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Follow thee?  Follow thee?  Wha wad na follow thee?  Lang hast
+     thou looed and trusted us fairly.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Amyas would have certainly taken the yellow fever, but for one reason,
+      which he himself gave to Cary. He had no time to be sick while his men
+      were sick; a valid and sufficient reason (as many a noble soul in the
+      Crimea has known too well), as long as the excitement of work is present,
+      but too apt to fail the hero, and to let him sink into the pit which he
+      has so often over-leapt, the moment that his work is done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He called a council of war, or rather a sanitary commission, the next
+      morning; for he was fairly at his wits' end. The men were panic-stricken,
+      ready to mutiny: Amyas told them that he could not see any possible good
+      which could accrue to them by killing him, or&mdash;(for there were two
+      sides to every question)&mdash;being killed by him; and then went below to
+      consult. The doctor talked mere science, or nonscience, about humors,
+      complexions, and animal spirits. Jack Brimblecombe, mere pulpit, about its
+      being the visitation of God. Cary, mere despair, though he jested over it
+      with a smile. Yeo, mere stoic fatalism, though he quoted Scripture to back
+      the same. Drew, the master, had nothing to say. His &ldquo;business was to sail
+      the ship, and not to cure calentures.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon Amyas clutched his locks, according to custom; and at last broke
+      forth&mdash;&ldquo;Doctor! a fig for your humors and complexions! Can you cure a
+      man's humors, or change his complexion? Can an Ethiopian change his skin,
+      or a leopard his spots? Don't shove off your ignorance on God, sir. I ask
+      you what's the reason of this sickness, and you don't know. Jack
+      Brimblecombe, don't talk to me about God's visitation; this looks much
+      more like the devil's visitation, to my mind. We are doing God's work, Sir
+      John, and He is not likely to hinder us. So down with the devil, say I.
+      Cary, laughing killed the cat, but it won't cure a Christian. Yeo, when an
+      angel tells me that it's God's will that we should all die like dogs in a
+      ditch, I'll call this God's will; but not before. Drew, you say your
+      business is to sail the ship; then sail her out of this infernal
+      poison-trap this very morning, if you can, which you can't. The mischief's
+      in the air, and nowhere else. I felt it run through me coming down last
+      night, and smelt it like any sewer: and if it was not in the air, why was
+      my boat's crew taken first, tell me that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I'll tell you why they were taken first: because the mist, when we
+      came through it, only rose five or six feet above the stream, and we were
+      in it, while you on board were above it. And those that were taken on
+      board this morning, every one of them, slept on the main-deck, and every
+      one of them, too, was in fear of the fever, whereby I judge two things,&mdash;Keep
+      as high as you can, and fear nothing but God, and we're all safe yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the fog was up to our round-tops at sunrise this morning,&rdquo; said Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it: but we who were on the half-deck were not in it so long as
+      those below, and that may have made the difference, let alone our having
+      free air. Beside, I suspect the heat in the evening draws the poison out
+      more, and that when it gets cold toward morning, the venom of it goes off
+      somehow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      How it went off Amyas could not tell (right in his facts as he was), for
+      nobody on earth knew I suppose, at that day; and it was not till nearly
+      two centuries of fatal experience that the settlers in America discovered
+      the simple laws of these epidemics which now every child knows, or ought
+      to know. But common sense was on his side; and Yeo rose and spoke&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I have said before, many a time, the Lord has sent us a very young
+      Daniel for judge. I remember now to have heard the Spaniards say, how
+      these calentures lay always in the low ground, and never came more than a
+      few hundred feet above the sea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us go up those few hundred feet, then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Every man looked at Amyas, and then at his neighbor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gentlemen, 'Look the devil straight in the face, if you would hit him in
+      the right place.' We cannot get the ship to sea as she is; and if we
+      could, we cannot go home empty-handed; and we surely cannot stay here to
+      die of fever.&mdash;We must leave the ship and go inland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Inland?&rdquo; answered every voice but Yeo's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Up those hundred feet which Yeo talks of. Up to the mountains; stockade a
+      camp, and get our sick and provisions thither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what next?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And when we are recruited, march over the mountains, and surprise St.
+      Jago de Leon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary swore a great oath. &ldquo;Amyas! you are a daring fellow!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bit. It's the plain path of prudence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it is, sir,&rdquo; said old Yeo, &ldquo;and I follow you in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so do I,&rdquo; squeaked Jack Brimblecombe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, then, Jack, thou shalt not outrun me. So I say yes too,&rdquo; quoth Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Drew?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At your service, sir, to live or die. I know naught about stockading; but
+      Sir Francis would have given the same counsel, I verily believe, if he had
+      been in your place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then tell the men that we start in an hour's time. Win over the Pelicans,
+      Yeo and Drew; and the rest must follow, like sheep over a hedge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Pelicans, and the liberated galley-slaves, joined the project at once;
+      but the rest gave Amyas a stormy hour. The great question was, where were
+      the hills? In that dense mangrove thicket they could not see fifty yards
+      before them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The hills are not three miles to the south-west of you at this moment,&rdquo;
+       said Amyas. &ldquo;I marked every shoulder of them as we ran in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose you meant to take us there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The question set a light to a train&mdash;and angry suspicions were
+      blazing up one after another, but Amyas silenced them with a countermine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fools! if I had not wit enow to look ahead a little farther than you do,
+      where would you be? Are you mad as well as reckless, to rise against your
+      own captain because he has two strings to his bow? Go my way, I say, or,
+      as I live, I'll blow up the ship and every soul on board, and save you the
+      pain of rotting here by inches.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The men knew that Amyas never said what he did not intend to do; not that
+      Amyas intended to do this, because he knew that the threat would be
+      enough. So they, agreed to go; and were reassured by seeing that the old
+      Pelican's men turned to the work heartily and cheerfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no use keeping the reader for five or six weary hours, under a
+      broiling (or rather stewing) sun, stumbling over mangrove roots, hewing
+      his way through thorny thickets, dragging sick men and provisions up
+      mountain steeps, amid disappointment, fatigue, murmurs, curses, snakes,
+      mosquitoes, false alarms of Spaniards, and every misery, save cold, which
+      flesh is heir to. Suffice it that by sunset that evening they had gained a
+      level spot, a full thousand feet above the sea, backed by an inaccessible
+      cliff which formed the upper shoulder of a mighty mountain, defended below
+      by steep wooded slopes, and needing but the felling of a few trees to make
+      it impregnable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas settled the sick under the arched roots of an enormous cottonwood
+      tree, and made a second journey to the ship, to bring up hammocks and
+      blankets for them; while Yeo's wisdom and courage were of inestimable
+      value. He, as pioneer, had found the little brook up which they forced
+      their way; he had encouraged them to climb the cliffs over which it fell,
+      arguing rightly that on its course they were sure to find some ground fit
+      for encampment within the reach of water; he had supported Amyas, when
+      again and again the weary crew entreated to be dragged no farther, and had
+      gone back again a dozen times to cheer them upward; while Cary, who
+      brought up the rear, bullied and cheered on the stragglers who sat down
+      and refused to move, drove back at the sword's point more than one who was
+      beating a retreat, carried their burdens for them, sang them songs on the
+      halt; in all things approving himself the gallant and hopeful soul which
+      he had always been: till Amyas, beside himself with joy at finding that
+      the two men on whom he had counted most were utterly worthy of his trust,
+      went so far as to whisper to them both, in confidence, that very night&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cortez burnt his ships when he landed. Why should not we?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo leapt upright; and then sat down again, and whispered&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you say that, captain? 'Tis from above, then, that's certain; for it's
+      been hanging on my mind too all day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's no hurry,&rdquo; quoth Amyas; &ldquo;we must clear her out first, you know,&rdquo;
+       while Cary sat silent and musing. Amyas had evidently more schemes in his
+      head than he chose to tell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The men were too tired that evening to do much, but ere the sun rose next
+      morning Amyas had them hard at work fortifying their position. It was, as
+      I said, strong enough by nature; for though it was commanded by high
+      cliffs on three sides, yet there was no chance of an enemy coming over the
+      enormous mountain-range behind them, and still less chance that, if he
+      came, he would discover them through the dense mass of trees which crowned
+      the cliff, and clothed the hills for a thousand feet above. The attack, if
+      it took place, would come from below; and against that Amyas guarded by
+      felling the smaller trees, and laying them with their boughs outward over
+      the crest of the slope, thus forming an abatis (as every one who has shot
+      in thick cover knows to his cost) warranted to bring up in two steps,
+      horse, dog, or man. The trunks were sawn into logs, laid lengthwise, and
+      steadied by stakes and mould; and three or four hours' hard work finished
+      a stockade which would defy anything but artillery. The work done, Amyas
+      scrambled up into the boughs of the enormous ceiba-tree, and there sat
+      inspecting his own handiwork, looking out far and wide over the
+      forest-covered plains and the blue sea beyond, and thinking, in his simple
+      straightforward way, of what was to be done next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To stay there long was impossible; to avenge himself upon La Guayra was
+      impossible; to go until he had found out whether Frank was alive or dead
+      seemed at first equally impossible. But were Brimblecombe, Cary, and those
+      eighty men to be sacrificed a second time to his private interest? Amyas
+      wept with rage, and then wept again with earnest, honest prayer, before he
+      could make up his mind. But he made it up. There were a hundred chances to
+      one that Frank was dead; and if not, he was equally past their help; for
+      he was&mdash;Amyas knew that too well&mdash;by this time in the hands of
+      the Inquisition. Who could lift him from that pit? Not Amyas, at least!
+      And crying aloud in his agony, &ldquo;God help him! for I cannot!&rdquo; Amyas made up
+      his mind to move. But whither? Many an hour he thought and thought alone,
+      there in his airy nest; and at last he went down, calm and cheerful, and
+      drew Cary and Yeo aside. They could not, he said, refit the ship without
+      dying of fever during the process; an assertion which neither of his
+      hearers was bold enough to deny. Even if they refitted her, they would be
+      pretty certain to have to fight the Spaniards again; for it was impossible
+      to doubt the Indian's story, that they had been forewarned of the Rose's
+      coming, or to doubt, either, that Eustace had been the traitor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us try St. Jago, then; sack it, come down on La Guayra in the rear,
+      take a ship there, and so get home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, Will. If they have strengthened themselves against us at La Guayra,
+      where they had little to lose, surely they have done so at St. Jago, where
+      they have much. I hear the town is large, though new; and besides, how can
+      we get over these mountains without a guide?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or with one?&rdquo; said Cary, with a sigh, looking up at the vast walls of
+      wood and rock which rose range on range for miles. &ldquo;But it is strange to
+      find you, at least, throwing cold water on a daring plot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What if I had a still more daring one? Did you ever hear of the golden
+      city of Manoa?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo laughed a grim but joyful laugh. &ldquo;I have, sir; and so have the old
+      hands from the Pelican and the Jesus of Lubec, I doubt not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much the better;&rdquo; and Amyas began to tell Cary all which he had
+      learned from the Spaniard, while Yeo capped every word thereof with rumors
+      and traditions of his own gathering. Cary sat half aghast as the huge
+      phantasmagoria unfolded itself before his dazzled eyes; and at last&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So that was why you wanted to burn the ship! Well, after all, nobody
+      needs me at home, and one less at table won't be missed. So you want to
+      play Cortez, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall never need to play Cortez (who was not such a bad fellow after
+      all, Will), because we shall have no such cannibal fiends' tyranny to rid
+      the earth of, as he had. And I trust we shall fear God enough not to play
+      Pizarro.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the conversation dropped for the time, but none of them forgot it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In that mountain-nook the party spent some ten days and more. Several of
+      the sick men died, some from the fever superadded to their wounds; some,
+      probably, from having been bled by the surgeon; the others mended
+      steadily, by the help of certain herbs which Yeo administered, much to the
+      disgust of the doctor, who, of course, wanted to bleed the poor fellows
+      all round, and was all but mutinous when Amyas stayed his hand. In the
+      meanwhile, by dint of daily trips to the ship, provisions were plentiful
+      enough,&mdash;beside the raccoons, monkeys, and other small animals, which
+      Yeo and the veterans of Hawkins's crew knew how to catch, and the fruit
+      and vegetables; above all, the delicious mountain cabbage of the Areca
+      palm, and the fresh milk of the cow-tree, which they brought in daily,
+      paying well thereby for the hospitality they received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All day long a careful watch was kept among the branches of the mighty
+      ceiba-tree. And what a tree that was! The hugest English oak would have
+      seemed a stunted bush beside it. Borne up on roots, or rather walls, of
+      twisted board, some twelve feet high, between which the whole crew, their
+      ammunitions, and provisions, were housed roomily, rose the enormous trunk
+      full forty feet in girth, towering like some tall lighthouse, smooth for a
+      hundred feet, then crowned with boughs, each of which was a stately tree,
+      whose topmost twigs were full two hundred and fifty feet from the ground.
+      And yet it was easy for the sailors to ascend; so many natural ropes had
+      kind Nature lowered for their use, in the smooth lianes which hung to the
+      very earth, often without a knot or leaf. Once in the tree, you were
+      within a new world, suspended between heaven and earth, and as Cary said,
+      no wonder if, like Jack when he climbed the magic bean-stalk, you had
+      found a castle, a giant, and a few acres of well-stocked park, packed away
+      somewhere amid that labyrinth of timber. Flower-gardens at least were
+      there in plenty; for every limb was covered with pendent cactuses,
+      gorgeous orchises, and wild pines; and while one-half the tree was clothed
+      in rich foliage, the other half, utterly leafless, bore on every twig
+      brilliant yellow flowers, around which humming-birds whirred all day long.
+      Parrots peeped in and out of every cranny, while, within the airy
+      woodland, brilliant lizards basked like living gems upon the bark, gaudy
+      finches flitted and chirruped, butterflies of every size and color hovered
+      over the topmost twigs, innumerable insects hummed from morn till eve; and
+      when the sun went down, tree-toads came out to snore and croak till dawn.
+      There was more life round that one tree than in a whole square mile of
+      English soil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Amyas, as he lounged among the branches, felt at moments as if he
+      would be content to stay there forever, and feed his eyes and ears with
+      all its wonders&mdash;and then started sighing from his dream, as he
+      recollected that a few days must bring the foe upon them, and force him to
+      decide upon some scheme at which the bravest heart might falter without
+      shame. So there he sat (for he often took the scout's place himself),
+      looking out over the fantastic tropic forest at his feet, and the flat
+      mangrove-swamps below, and the white sheet of foam-flecked blue; and yet
+      no sail appeared; and the men, as their fear of fever subsided, began to
+      ask when they would go down and refit the ship, and Amyas put them off as
+      best he could, till one noon he saw slipping along the shore from the
+      westward, a large ship under easy sail, and recognized in her, or thought
+      he did so, the ship which they had passed upon their way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If it was she, she must have run past them to La Guayra in the night, and
+      have now returned, perhaps, to search for them along the coast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She crept along slowly. He was in hopes that she might pass the river's
+      mouth: but no. She lay-to close to the shore; and, after a while, Amyas
+      saw two boats pull in from her, and vanish behind the mangroves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sliding down a liane, he told what he had seen. The men, tired of
+      inactivity, received the news with a shout of joy, and set to work to make
+      all ready for their guests. Four brass swivels, which they had brought up,
+      were mounted, fixed in logs, so as to command the path; the musketeers and
+      archers clustered round them with their tackle ready, and half-a-dozen
+      good marksmen volunteered into the cotton-tree with their arquebuses, as a
+      post whence &ldquo;a man might have very pretty shooting.&rdquo; Prayers followed as a
+      matter of course, and dinner as a matter of course also; but two weary
+      hours passed before there was any sign of the Spaniards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently a wreath of white smoke curled up from the swamp, and then the
+      report of a caliver. Then, amid the growls of the English, the Spanish
+      flag ran up above the trees, and floated&mdash;horrible to behold&mdash;at
+      the mast-head of the Rose. They were signalling the ship for more hands;
+      and, in effect, a third boat soon pushed off and vanished into the forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another hour, during which the men had thoroughly lost their temper, but
+      not their hearts, by waiting; and talked so loud, and strode up and down
+      so wildly, that Amyas had to warn them that there was no need to betray
+      themselves; that the Spaniards might not find them after all; that they
+      might pass the stockade close without seeing it; that, unless they hit off
+      the track at once, they would probably return to their ship for the
+      present; and exacted a promise from them that they would be perfectly
+      silent till he gave the word to fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Which wise commands had scarcely passed his lips, when, in the path below,
+      glanced the headpiece of a Spanish soldier, and then another and another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fools!&rdquo; whispered Amyas to Cary; &ldquo;they are coming up in single file,
+      rushing on their own death. Lie close, men!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The path was so narrow that two could seldom come up abreast, and so steep
+      that the enemy had much ado to struggle and stumble upwards. The men
+      seemed half unwilling to proceed, and hung back more than once; but Amyas
+      could hear an authoritative voice behind, and presently there emerged to
+      the front, sword in hand, a figure at which Amyas and Cary both started.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely I know those legs among a thousand, though they are in armor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is my turn for him, now, Cary, remember! Silence, silence, men!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spaniards seemed to feel that they were leading a forlorn hope. Don
+      Guzman (for there was little doubt that it was he) had much ado to get
+      them on at all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fellows have heard how gently we handled the Guayra squadron,&rdquo;
+       whispers Cary, &ldquo;and have no wish to become fellow-martyrs with the captain
+      of the Madre Dolorosa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At last the Spaniards get up the steep slope to within forty yards of the
+      stockade, and pause, suspecting a trap, and puzzled by the complete
+      silence. Amyas leaps on the top of it, a white flag in his hand; but his
+      heart beats so fiercely at the sight of that hated figure, that he can
+      hardly get out the words&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don Guzman, the quarrel is between you and me, not between your men and
+      mine. I would have sent in a challenge to you at La Guayra, but you were
+      away; I challenge you now to single combat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lutheran dog, I have a halter for you, but no sword! As you served us at
+      Smerwick, we will serve you now. Pirate and ravisher, you and yours shall
+      share Oxenham's fate, as you have copied his crimes, and learn what it is
+      to set foot unbidden on the dominions of the king of Spain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil take you and the king of Spain together!&rdquo; shouts Amyas,
+      laughing loudly. &ldquo;This ground belongs to him no more than it does to me,
+      but to the Queen Elizabeth, in whose name I have taken as lawful
+      possession of it as you ever did of Caracas. Fire, men! and God defend the
+      right!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Both parties obeyed the order; Amyas dropped down behind the stockade in
+      time to let a caliver bullet whistle over his head; and the Spaniards
+      recoiled as the narrow face of the stockade burst into one blaze of
+      musketry and swivels, raking their long array from front to rear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The front ranks fell over each other in heaps; the rear ones turned and
+      ran; overtaken, nevertheless, by the English bullets and arrows, which
+      tumbled them headlong down the steep path.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out, men, and charge them. See! the Don is running like the rest!&rdquo; And
+      scrambling over the abattis, Amyas and about thirty followed them fast;
+      for he had hope of learning from some prisoner his brother's fate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was unjust in his last words. Don Guzman, as if by miracle, had been
+      only slightly wounded; and seeing his men run, had rushed back and tried
+      to rally them, but was borne away by the fugitives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, the Spaniards were out of sight among the thick bushes before the
+      English could overtake them; and Amyas, afraid lest they should rally and
+      surround his small party, withdrew sorely against his will, and found in
+      the pathway fourteen Spaniards, but all dead. For one of the wounded, with
+      more courage than wisdom, had fired on the English as he lay; and Amyas's
+      men, whose blood was maddened both by their desperate situation, and the
+      frightful stories of the rescued galley-slaves, had killed them all before
+      their captain could stop them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you mad?&rdquo; cries Amyas, as he strikes up one fellow's sword. &ldquo;Will you
+      kill an Indian?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he drags out of the bushes an Indian lad of sixteen, who, slightly
+      wounded, is crawling away like a copper snake along the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The black vermin has sent an arrow through my leg; and poisoned too, most
+      like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God grant not: but an Indian is worth his weight in gold to us now,&rdquo; said
+      Amyas, tucking his prize under his arm like a bundle. The lad, as soon as
+      he saw there was no escape, resigned himself to his fate with true Indian
+      stoicism, was brought in, and treated kindly enough, but refused to eat.
+      For which, after much questioning, he gave as a reason, that he would make
+      them kill him at once; for fat him they should not; and gradually gave
+      them to understand that the English always (so at least the Spaniards
+      said) fatted and ate their prisoners like the Caribs; and till he saw them
+      go out and bury the bodies of the Spaniards, nothing would persuade him
+      that the corpses were not to be cooked for supper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, kind words, kind looks, and the present of that inestimable
+      treasure&mdash;a knife, brought him to reason; and he told Amyas that he
+      belonged to a Spaniard who had an &ldquo;encomienda&rdquo; of Indians some fifteen
+      miles to the south-west; that he had fled from his master, and lived by
+      hunting for some months past; and having seen the ship where she lay
+      moored, and boarded her in hope of plunder, had been surprised therein by
+      the Spaniards, and forced by threats to go with them as a guide in their
+      search for the English. But now came a part of his story which filled the
+      soul of Amyas with delight. He was an Indian of the Llanos, or great
+      savannahs which lay to the southward beyond the mountains, and had
+      actually been upon the Orinoco. He had been stolen as a boy by some
+      Spaniards, who had gone down (as was the fashion of the Jesuits even as
+      late as 1790) for the pious purpose of converting the savages by the
+      simple process of catching, baptizing, and making servants of those whom
+      they could carry off, and murdering those who resisted their gentle method
+      of salvation. Did he know the way back again? Who could ask such a
+      question of an Indian? And the lad's black eyes flashed fire, as Amyas
+      offered him liberty and iron enough for a dozen Indians, if he would lead
+      them through the passes of the mountains, and southward to the mighty
+      river, where lay their golden hopes. Hernando de Serpa, Amyas knew, had
+      tried the same course, which was supposed to be about one hundred and
+      twenty leagues, and failed, being overthrown utterly by the Wikiri
+      Indians; but Amyas knew enough of the Spaniards' brutal method of treating
+      those Indians, to be pretty sure that they had brought that catastrophe
+      upon themselves, and that he might avoid it well enough by that common
+      justice and mercy toward the savages which he had learned from his
+      incomparable tutor, Francis Drake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now was the time to speak; and, assembling his men around him, Amyas
+      opened his whole heart, simply and manfully. This was their only hope of
+      safety. Some of them had murmured that they should perish like John
+      Oxenham's crew. This plan was rather the only way to avoid perishing like
+      them. Don Guzman would certainly return to seek them; and not only he, but
+      land-forces from St. Jago. Even if the stockade was not forced, they would
+      be soon starved out; why not move at once, ere the Spaniards could return,
+      and begin a blockade? As for taking St. Jago, it was impossible. The
+      treasure would all be safely hidden, and the town well prepared to meet
+      them. If they wanted gold and glory, they must seek it elsewhere. Neither
+      was there any use in marching along the coast, and trying the ports: ships
+      could outstrip them, and the country was already warned. There was but
+      this one chance; and on it Amyas, the first and last time in his life,
+      waxed eloquent, and set forth the glory of the enterprise, the service to
+      the queen, the salvation of heathens, and the certainty that, if
+      successful, they should win honor and wealth and everlasting fame, beyond
+      that of Cortez or Pizarro, till the men, sulky at first, warmed every
+      moment; and one old Pelican broke out with&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir! we didn't go round the world with you for naught; and watched
+      your works and ways, which was always those of a gentleman, as you are&mdash;who
+      spoke a word for a poor fellow when he was in a scrape, and saw all you
+      ought to see, and naught that you ought not. And we'll follow you, sir,
+      all alone to ourselves; and let those that know you worse follow after
+      when they're come to their right mind.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Man after man capped this brave speech; the minority, who, if they liked
+      little to go, liked still less to be left behind, gave in their consent
+      perforce; and, to make a long story short, Amyas conquered, and the plan
+      was accepted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;is indeed the proudest day of my life! I have lost
+      one brother, but I have gained fourscore. God do so to me and more also,
+      if I do not deal with you according to the trust which you have put in me
+      this day!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      We, I suppose, are to believe that we have a right to laugh at Amyas's
+      scheme as frantic and chimerical. It is easy to amuse ourselves with the
+      premises, after the conclusion has been found for us. We know, now, that
+      he was mistaken: but we have not discovered his mistake for ourselves, and
+      have no right to plume ourselves on other men's discoveries. Had we lived
+      in Amyas's days, we should have belonged either to the many wise men who
+      believed as he did, or to the many foolish men, who not only sneered at
+      the story of Manoa, but at a hundred other stories, which we now know to
+      be true. Columbus was laughed at: but he found a new world, nevertheless.
+      Cortez was laughed at: but he found Mexico. Pizarro: but he found Peru. I
+      ask any fair reader of those two charming books, Mr. Prescott's Conquest
+      of Mexico and his Conquest of Peru, whether the true wonders in them
+      described do not outdo all the false wonders of Manoa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what reason was there to think them false? One quarter, perhaps, of
+      America had been explored, and yet in that quarter two empires had been
+      already found, in a state of mechanical, military, and agricultural
+      civilization superior, in many things, to any nation of Europe. Was it not
+      most rational to suppose that in the remaining three-quarters similar
+      empires existed? If a second Mexico had been discovered in the mountains
+      of Parima, and a second Peru in those of Brazil, what right would any man
+      have had to wonder? As for the gold legends, nothing was told of Manoa
+      which had not been seen in Peru and Mexico by the bodily eyes of men then
+      living. Why should not the rocks of Guiana have been as full of the
+      precious metals (we do not know yet that they are not) as the rocks of
+      Peru and Mexico were known to be? Even the details of the story, its
+      standing on a lake, for instance, bore a probability with them. Mexico
+      actually stood in the centre of a lake&mdash;why should not Manoa? The
+      Peruvian worship centred round a sacred lake&mdash;why not that of Manoa?
+      Pizarro and Cortez, again, were led on to their desperate enterprises by
+      the sight of small quantities of gold among savages, who told them of a
+      civilized gold-country near at hand; and they found that those savages
+      spoke truth. Why was the unanimous report of the Carib tribes of the
+      Orinoco to be disbelieved, when they told a similar tale? Sir Richard
+      Schomburgk's admirable preface to Raleigh's Guiana proves, surely, that
+      the Indians themselves were deceived, as well as deceivers. It was known,
+      again, that vast quantities of the Peruvian treasure had been concealed by
+      the priests, and that members of the Inca family had fled across the
+      Andes, and held out against the Spaniards. Barely fifty years had elapsed
+      since then;&mdash;what more probable than that this remnant of the
+      Peruvian dynasty and treasure still existed? Even the story of the
+      Amazons, though it may serve Hume as a point for his ungenerous and
+      untruthful attempt to make Raleigh out either fool or villain, has come
+      from Spaniards, who had with their own eyes seen the Indian women fighting
+      by their husbands' sides, and from Indians, who asserted the existence of
+      an Amazonian tribe. What right had Amyas, or any man, to disbelieve the
+      story? The existence of the Amazons in ancient Asia, and of their
+      intercourse with Alexander the Great, was then an accredited part of
+      history, which it would have been gratuitous impertinence to deny. And
+      what if some stories connected these warlike women with the Emperor of
+      Manoa, and the capital itself? This generation ought surely to be the last
+      to laugh at such a story, at least as long as the Amazonian guards of the
+      King of Dahomey continue to outvie the men in that relentless ferocity,
+      with which they have subdued every neighboring tribe, save the Christians
+      of Abbeokuta. In this case, as in a hundred more, fact not only outdoes,
+      but justifies imagination; and Amyas spoke common sense when he said to
+      his men that day&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let fools laugh and stay at home. Wise men dare and win. Saul went to
+      look for his father's asses, and found a kingdom; and Columbus, my men,
+      was called a madman for only going to seek China, and never knew, they
+      say, until his dying day, that he had found a whole new world instead of
+      it. Find Manoa? God only, who made all things, knows what we may find
+      beside!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So underneath that giant ceiba-tree, those valiant men, reduced by battle
+      and sickness to some eighty, swore a great oath, and kept that oath like
+      men. To search for the golden city for two full years to come, whatever
+      might befall; to stand to each other for weal or woe; to obey their
+      officers to the death; to murmur privately against no man, but bring all
+      complaints to a council of war; to use no profane oaths, but serve God
+      daily with prayer; to take by violence from no man, save from their
+      natural enemies the Spaniards; to be civil and merciful to all savages,
+      and chaste and courteous to all women; to bring all booty and all food
+      into the common stock, and observe to the utmost their faith with the
+      adventurers who had fitted out the ship; and finally, to march at sunrise
+      the next morning toward the south, trusting in God to be their guide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a great oath, and a hard one,&rdquo; said Brimblecombe; &ldquo;but God will
+      give us strength to keep it.&rdquo; And they knelt all together and received the
+      Holy Communion, and then rose to pack provisions and ammunition, and lay
+      down again to sleep and to dream that they were sailing home up Torridge
+      stream&mdash;as Cavendish, returning from round the world, did actually
+      sail home up Thames but five years afterwards&mdash;&ldquo;with mariners and
+      soldiers clothed in silk, with sails of damask, and topsails of cloth of
+      gold, and the richest prize which ever was brought at one time unto
+      English shores.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      The Cross stands upright in the southern sky. It is the middle of the
+      night. Cary and Yeo glide silently up the hill and into the camp, and
+      whisper to Amyas that they have done the deed. The sleepers are awakened,
+      and the train sets forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upward and southward ever: but whither, who can tell? They hardly think of
+      the whither; but go like sleep-walkers, shaken out of one land of dreams,
+      only to find themselves in another and stranger one. All around is
+      fantastic and unearthly; now each man starts as he sees the figures of his
+      fellows, clothed from head to foot in golden filigree; looks up, and sees
+      the yellow moonlight through the fronds of the huge tree-ferns overhead,
+      as through a cloud of glittering lace. Now they are hewing their way
+      through a thicket of enormous flags; now through bamboos forty feet high;
+      now they are stumbling over boulders, waist-deep in cushions of club-moss;
+      now they are struggling through shrubberies of heaths and rhododendrons,
+      and woolly incense-trees, where every leaf, as they brush past, dashes
+      some fresh scent into their faces, and
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The winds, with musky wing,
+     About the cedarn alleys fling
+     Nard and cassia's balmy smells.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Now they open upon some craggy brow, from whence they can see far below an
+      ocean of soft cloud, whose silver billows, girdled by the mountain sides,
+      hide the lowland from their sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And from beneath the cloud strange voices rise; the screams of thousand
+      night-birds, and wild howls, which they used at first to fancy were the
+      cries of ravenous beasts, till they found them to proceed from nothing
+      fiercer than an ape. But what is that deeper note, like a series of
+      muffled explosions,&mdash;arquebuses fired within some subterranean
+      cavern,&mdash;the heavy pulse of which rolls up through the depths of the
+      unseen forest? They hear it now for the first time, but they will hear it
+      many a time again; and the Indian lad is hushed, and cowers close to them,
+      and then takes heart, as he looks upon their swords and arquebuses; for
+      that is the roar of the jaguar, &ldquo;seeking his meat from God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But what is that glare away to the northward? The yellow moon is ringed
+      with gay rainbows; but that light is far too red to be the reflection of
+      any beams of hers. Now through the cloud rises a column of black and lurid
+      smoke; the fog clears away right and left around it, and shows beneath, a
+      mighty fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The men look at each other with questioning eyes, each half suspecting,
+      and yet not daring to confess their own suspicions; and Amyas whispers to
+      Yeo&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You took care to flood the powder?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, ay, sir, and to unload the ordnance too. No use in making a noise to
+      tell the Spaniards our whereabouts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes; that glare rises from the good ship Rose. Amyas, like Cortez of old,
+      has burnt his ship, and retreat is now impossible. Forward into the
+      unknown abyss of the New World, and God be with them as they go!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian knows a cunning path: it winds along the highest ridges of the
+      mountains; but the travelling is far more open and easy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They have passed the head of a valley which leads down to St. Jago.
+      Beneath that long shining river of mist, which ends at the foot of the
+      great Silla, lies (so says the Indian lad) the rich capital of Venezuela;
+      and beyond, the gold-mines of Los Teques and Baruta, which first attracted
+      the founder Diego de Losada; and many a longing eye is turned towards it
+      as they pass the saddle at the valley head; but the attempt is hopeless,
+      they turn again to the left, and so down towards the rancho, taking care
+      (so the prudent Amyas had commanded) to break down, after crossing, the
+      frail rope bridge which spans each torrent and ravine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They are at the rancho long before daybreak, and have secured there, not
+      only fourteen mules, but eight or nine Indians stolen from off the Llanos,
+      like their guide, who are glad enough to escape from their tyrants by
+      taking service with them. And now southward and away, with lightened
+      shoulders and hearts; for they are all but safe from pursuit. The broken
+      bridges prevent the news of their raid reaching St. Jago until nightfall;
+      and in the meanwhile, Don Guzman returns to the river mouth the next day
+      to find the ship a blackened wreck, and the camp empty; follows their
+      trail over the hills till he is stopped by a broken bridge; surmounts that
+      difficulty, and meets a second; his men are worn out with heat, and a
+      little afraid of stumbling on the heretic desperadoes, and he returns by
+      land to St. Jago; and when he arrives there, has news from home which
+      gives him other things to think of than following those mad Englishmen,
+      who have vanished into the wilderness. &ldquo;What need, after all, to follow
+      them?&rdquo; asked the Spaniards of each other. &ldquo;Blinded by the devil, whom they
+      serve, they rush on in search of certain death, as many a larger company
+      has before them, and they will find it, and will trouble La Guayra no more
+      forever.&rdquo; &ldquo;Lutheran dogs and enemies of God,&rdquo; said Don Guzman to his
+      soldiers, &ldquo;they will leave their bones to whiten on the Llanos, as may
+      every heretic who sets foot on Spanish soil!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Will they do so, Don Guzman? Or wilt thou and Amyas meet again upon a
+      mightier battlefield, to learn a lesson which neither of you yet has
+      learned?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE INQUISITION IN THE INDIES
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      My next chapter is perhaps too sad; it shall be at least as short as I can
+      make it; but it was needful to be written, that readers may judge fairly
+      for themselves what sort of enemies the English nation had to face in
+      those stern days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three weeks have passed, and the scene is shifted to a long, low range of
+      cells in a dark corridor in the city of Cartagena. The door of one is
+      open; and within stand two cloaked figures, one of whom we know. It is
+      Eustace Leigh. The other is a familiar of the Holy Office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He holds in his hand a lamp, from which the light falls on a bed of straw,
+      and on the sleeping figure of a man. The high white brow, the pale and
+      delicate features&mdash;them too we know, for they are those of Frank.
+      Saved half-dead from the fury of the savage negroes, he has been reserved
+      for the more delicate cruelty of civilized and Christian men. He underwent
+      the question but this afternoon; and now Eustace, his betrayer, is come to
+      persuade him&mdash;or to entrap him? Eustace himself hardly knows whether
+      of the two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet he would give his life to save his cousin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His life? He has long since ceased to care for that. He has done what he
+      has done, because it is his duty; and now he is to do his duty once more,
+      and wake the sleeper, and argue, coax, threaten him into recantation while
+      &ldquo;his heart is still tender from the torture,&rdquo; so Eustace's employers
+      phrase it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet how calmly he is sleeping! Is it but a freak of the lamplight, or
+      is there a smile upon his lips? Eustace takes the lamp and bends over him
+      to see; and as he bends he hears Frank whispering in his dreams his
+      mother's name, and a name higher and holier still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace cannot find the heart to wake him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him rest,&rdquo; whispers he to his companion. &ldquo;After all, I fear my words
+      will be of little use.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fear so too, sir. Never did I behold a more obdurate heretic. He did
+      not scruple to scoff openly at their holinesses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Eustace; &ldquo;great is the pravity of the human heart, and the
+      power of Satan! Let us go for the present.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is she?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The elder sorceress, or the younger?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The younger&mdash;the&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Senora de Soto? Ah, poor thing! One could be sorry for her, were she
+      not a heretic.&rdquo; And the man eyed Eustace keenly, and then quietly added,
+      &ldquo;She is at present with the notary; to the benefit of her soul, I trust&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace half stopped, shuddering. He could hardly collect himself enough
+      to gasp out an &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Within there,&rdquo; said the man, pointing carelessly to a door as they went
+      down the corridor. &ldquo;We can listen a moment, if you like; but don't betray
+      me, senor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Eustace knows well enough that the fellow is probably on the watch to
+      betray him, if he shows any signs of compunction; at least to report
+      faithfully to his superiors the slightest expression of sympathy with a
+      heretic; but a horrible curiosity prevails over fear, and he pauses close
+      to the fatal door. His face is all of a flame, his knees knock together,
+      his ears are ringing, his heart bursting through his ribs, as he supports
+      himself against the wall, hiding his convulsed face as well as he can from
+      his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man's voice is plainly audible within; low, but distinct. The notary is
+      trying that old charge of witchcraft, which the Inquisitors, whether to
+      justify themselves to their own consciences, or to whiten their villainy
+      somewhat in the eyes of the mob, so often brought against their victims.
+      And then Eustace's heart sinks within him as he hears a woman's voice
+      reply, sharpened by indignation and agony&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Witchcraft against Don Guzman? What need of that, oh God! what need?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You deny it then, senora? we are sorry for you; but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A confused choking murmur from the victim, mingled with words which might
+      mean anything or nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has confessed!&rdquo; whispered Eustace; &ldquo;saints, I thank you!&mdash;she&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A wail which rings through Eustace's ears, and brain, and heart! He would
+      have torn at the door to open it; but his companion forces him away.
+      Another, and another wail, while the wretched man hurries off, stopping
+      his ears in vain against those piercing cries, which follow him, like
+      avenging angels, through the dreadful vaults.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He escaped into the fragrant open air, and the golden tropic moonlight,
+      and a garden which might have served as a model for Eden; but man's hell
+      followed into God's heaven, and still those wails seemed to ring through
+      his ears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, misery, misery, misery!&rdquo; murmured he to himself through grinding
+      teeth; &ldquo;and I have brought her to this! I have had to bring her to it!
+      What else could I? Who dare blame me? And yet what devilish sin can I have
+      committed, that requires to be punished thus? Was there no one to be found
+      but me? No one? And yet it may save her soul. It may bring her to
+      repentance!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may, indeed; for she is delicate, and cannot endure much. You ought to
+      know as well as I, senor, the merciful disposition of the Holy Office.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it, I know it,&rdquo; interrupted poor Eustace, trembling now for
+      himself. &ldquo;All in love&mdash;all in love.&mdash;A paternal chastisement&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the proofs of heresy are patent, beside the strong suspicion of
+      enchantment, and the known character of the elder sorceress. You yourself,
+      you must remember, senor, told us that she had been a notorious witch in
+      England, before the senora brought her hither as her attendant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course she was; of course. Yes; there was no other course open. And
+      though the flesh may be weak, sir, in my case, yet none can have proved
+      better to the Holy Office how willing is the spirit!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so Eustace departed; and ere another sun had set, he had gone to the
+      principal of the Jesuits; told him his whole heart, or as much of it, poor
+      wretch, as he dare tell to himself; and entreated to be allowed to finish
+      his novitiate, and enter the order, on the understanding that he was to be
+      sent at once back to Europe, or anywhere else; &ldquo;Otherwise,&rdquo; as he said
+      frankly, &ldquo;he should go mad, even if he were not mad already.&rdquo; The Jesuit,
+      who was a kindly man enough, went to the Holy Office, and settled all with
+      the Inquisitors, recounting to them, to set him above all suspicion,
+      Eustace's past valiant services to the Church. His testimony was no longer
+      needed; he left Cartagena for Nombre that very night, and sailed the next
+      week I know not whither.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I say, I know not whither. Eustace Leigh vanishes henceforth from these
+      pages. He may have ended as General of his Order. He may have worn out his
+      years in some tropic forest, &ldquo;conquering the souls&rdquo; (including, of course,
+      the bodies) of Indians; he may have gone back to his old work in England,
+      and been the very Ballard who was hanged and quartered three years
+      afterwards for his share in Babington's villainous conspiracy: I know not.
+      This book is a history of men,&mdash;of men's virtues and sins, victories
+      and defeats; and Eustace is a man no longer: he is become a thing, a tool,
+      a Jesuit; which goes only where it is sent, and does good or evil
+      indifferently as it is bid; which, by an act of moral suicide, has lost
+      its soul, in the hope of saving it; without a will, a conscience, a
+      responsibility (as it fancies), to God or man, but only to &ldquo;The Society.&rdquo;
+       In a word, Eustace, as he says himself, is &ldquo;dead.&rdquo; Twice dead, I fear. Let
+      the dead bury their dead. We have no more concern with Eustace Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE BANKS OF THE META
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                                        &ldquo;My mariners,
+     Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with
+          me&mdash;Death closes all: but something ere the end,
+     Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
+     Not unbecoming men that strove with gods!&rdquo;
+
+                                         TENNYSON'S Ulysses.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Nearly three years are past and gone since that little band had knelt at
+      evensong beneath the giant tree of Guayra&mdash;years of seeming blank,
+      through which they are to be tracked only by scattered notes and mis-spelt
+      names. Through untrodden hills and forests, over a space of some eight
+      hundred miles in length by four hundred in breadth, they had been seeking
+      for the Golden City, and they had sought in vain. They had sought it along
+      the wooded banks of the Orinoco, and beyond the roaring foam-world of
+      Maypures, and on the upper waters of the mighty Amazon. They had gone up
+      the streams even into Peru itself, and had trodden the cinchona groves of
+      Loxa, ignorant, as all the world was then, of their healing virtues. They
+      had seen the virgin snows of Chimborazo towering white above the
+      thundercloud, and the giant cone of Cotopaxi blackening in its sullen
+      wrath, before the fiery streams rolled down its sides. Foiled in their
+      search at the back of the Andes, they had turned eastward once more, and
+      plunged from the alpine cliffs into &ldquo;the green and misty ocean of the
+      Montana.&rdquo; Slowly and painfully they had worked their way northward again,
+      along the eastern foot of the inland Cordillera, and now they were
+      bivouacking, as it seems, upon one of the many feeders of the Meta, which
+      flow down from the Suma Paz into the forest-covered plains. There they
+      sat, their watch-fires glittering on the stream, beneath the shadow of
+      enormous trees, Amyas and Cary, Brimblecombe, Yeo, and the Indian lad, who
+      has followed them in all their wanderings, alive and well: but as far as
+      ever from Manoa, and its fairy lake, and golden palaces, and all the
+      wonders of the Indian's tale. Again and again in their wanderings they had
+      heard faint rumors of its existence, and started off in some fresh
+      direction, to meet only a fresh disappointment, and hope deferred, which
+      maketh sick the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There they sit at last&mdash;four-and-forty men out of the eighty-four who
+      left the tree of Guayra:&mdash;where are the rest?
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Their bones are scatter'd far and wide,
+     By mount, by stream, and sea.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Drew, the master, lies on the banks of the Rio Negro, and five brave
+      fellows by him, slain in fight by the poisoned arrows of the Indians, in a
+      vain attempt to penetrate the mountain-gorges of the Parima. Two more lie
+      amid the valleys of the Andes, frozen to death by the fierce slaty hail
+      which sweeps down from the condor's eyrie; four more were drowned at one
+      of the rapids of the Orinoco; five or six more wounded men are left behind
+      at another rapid among friendly Indians, to be recovered when they can be:
+      perhaps never. Fever, snakes, jaguars, alligators, cannibal fish, electric
+      eels, have thinned their ranks month by month, and of their march through
+      the primeval wilderness no track remains, except those lonely graves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And there the survivors sit, beside the silent stream, beneath the tropic
+      moon; sun-dried and lean, but strong and bold as ever, with the quiet fire
+      of English courage burning undimmed in every eye, and the genial smile of
+      English mirth fresh on every lip; making a jest of danger and a sport of
+      toil, as cheerily as when they sailed over the bar of Bideford, in days
+      which seem to belong to some antenatal life. Their beards have grown down
+      upon their breasts; their long hair is knotted on their heads, like
+      women's, to keep off the burning sunshine; their leggings are of the skin
+      of the delicate Guazu-puti deer; their shirts are patched with Indian
+      cotton web; the spoils of jaguar, puma, and ape hang from their shoulders.
+      Their ammunition is long since spent, their muskets, spoilt by the
+      perpetual vapor-bath of the steaming woods, are left behind as useless in
+      a cave by some cataract of the Orinoco: but their swords are bright and
+      terrible as ever; and they carry bows of a strength which no Indian arm
+      can bend, and arrows pointed with the remnants of their armor; many of
+      them, too, are armed with the pocuna or blowgun of the Indians&mdash;more
+      deadly, because more silent, than the firearms which they have left behind
+      them. So they have wandered, and so they will wander still, the lords of
+      the forest and its beasts; terrible to all hostile Indians, but kindly,
+      just, and generous to all who will deal faithfully with them; and many a
+      smooth-chinned Carib and Ature, Solimo and Guahiba, recounts with wonder
+      and admiration the righteousness of the bearded heroes, who proclaimed
+      themselves the deadly foes of the faithless and murderous Spaniard, and
+      spoke to them of the great and good queen beyond the seas, who would send
+      her warriors to deliver and avenge the oppressed Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The men are sleeping among the trees, some on the ground, and some in
+      grass-hammocks slung between the stems. All is silent, save the heavy
+      plunge of the tapir in the river, as he tears up the water-weeds for his
+      night's repast. Sometimes, indeed, the jaguar, as he climbs from one
+      tree-top to another after his prey, wakens the monkeys clustered on the
+      boughs, and they again arouse the birds, and ten minutes of unearthly
+      roars, howls, shrieks, and cacklings make the forest ring as if all
+      pandemonium had broke loose; but that soon dies away again; and, even
+      while it lasts, it is too common a matter to awaken the sleepers, much
+      less to interrupt the council of war which is going on beside the
+      watch-fire, between the three adventurers and the faithful Yeo. A hundred
+      times have they held such a council, and in vain; and, for aught they
+      know, this one will be as fruitless as those which have gone before it.
+      Nevertheless, it is a more solemn one than usual; for the two years during
+      which they had agreed to search for Manoa are long past, and some new
+      place must be determined on, unless they intend to spend the rest of their
+      lives in that green wilderness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; says Will Cary, taking his cigar out of his mouth, &ldquo;at least we
+      have got something out of those last Indians. It is a comfort to have a
+      puff at tobacco once more, after three weeks' fasting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For me,&rdquo; said Jack Brimblecombe, &ldquo;Heaven forgive me! but when I get the
+      magical leaf between my teeth again, I feel tempted to sit as still as a
+      chimney, and smoke till my dying day, without stirring hand or foot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I shall forbid you tobacco, Master Parson,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;for we must
+      be up and away again to-morrow. We have been idling here three mortal
+      days, and nothing done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we ever do anything? I think the gold of Manoa is like the gold
+      which lies where the rainbow touches the ground, always a field beyond
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was silent awhile, and so were the rest. There was no denying that
+      their hopes were all but gone. In the immense circuit which they had made,
+      they had met with nothing but disappointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is but one more chance,&rdquo; said he at length, &ldquo;and that is, the
+      mountains to the east of the Orinoco, where we failed the first time. The
+      Incas may have moved on to them when they escaped.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo; said Cary; &ldquo;they would so put all the forests, beside the
+      Llanos and half-a-dozen great rivers, between them and those dogs of
+      Spaniards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we try it once more?&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;This river ought to run into the
+      Orinoco; and once there, we are again at the very foot of the mountains.
+      What say you, Yeo?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot but mind, your worship, that when we came up the Orinoco, the
+      Indians told us terrible stories of those mountains, how far they
+      stretched, and how difficult they were to cross, by reason of the cliffs
+      aloft, and the thick forests in the valleys. And have we not lost five
+      good men there already?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What care we? No forests can be thicker than those we have bored through
+      already; why, if one had had but a tail, like a monkey, for an extra warp,
+      one might have gone a hundred miles on end along the tree-tops, and found
+      it far pleasanter walking than tripping in withes, and being eaten up with
+      creeping things, from morn till night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But remember, too,&rdquo; said Jack, &ldquo;how they told us to beware of the
+      Amazons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, Jack, afraid of a parcel of women?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo; said Jack, &ldquo;I wouldn't run from a man, as you know; but a woman&mdash;it's
+      not natural, like. They must be witches or devils. See how the Caribs
+      feared them. And there were men there without necks, and with their eyes
+      in their breasts, they said. Now how could a Christian tackle such
+      customers as them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He couldn't cut off their heads, that's certain; but, I suppose, a poke
+      in the ribs will do as much for them as for their neighbors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Jack, &ldquo;if I fight, let me fight honest flesh and blood,
+      that's all, and none of these outlandish monsters. How do you know but
+      that they are invulnerable by art-magic?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know that they are? And as for the Amazons,&rdquo; said Cary,
+      &ldquo;woman's woman, all the world over. I'll bet that you may wheedle them
+      round with a compliment or two, just as if they were so many burghers'
+      wives. Pity I have not a court-suit and a Spanish hat. I would have taken
+      an orange in one hand and a handkerchief in the other, gone all alone to
+      them as ambassador, and been in a week as great with Queen Blackfacealinda
+      as ever Raleigh is at Whitehall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gentlemen!&rdquo; said Yeo, &ldquo;where you go, I go; and not only I, but every man
+      of us, I doubt not; but we have lost now half our company, and spent our
+      ammunition, so we are no better men, were it not for our swords, than
+      these naked heathens round us. Now it was, as you all know, by the wonder
+      and noise of their ordnance (let alone their horses, which is a break-neck
+      beast I put no faith in) that both Cortez and Pizarro, those imps of
+      Satan, made their golden conquests, with which if we could have astounded
+      the people of Manoa&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Having first found the said people,&rdquo; laughed Amyas. &ldquo;It is like the old
+      fable. Every craftsman thinks his own trade the one pillar of the
+      commonweal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well! your worship,&rdquo; quoth Yeo, &ldquo;it may be that being a gunner I
+      overprize guns. But it don't need slate and pencil to do this sum&mdash;Are
+      forty men without shot as good as eighty with?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art right, old fellow, right enough, and I was only jesting for very
+      sorrow, and must needs laugh about it lest I weep about it. Our chance is
+      over, I believe, though I dare not confess as much to the men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir,&rdquo; said Yeo, &ldquo;I have a feeling on me that the Lord's hand is against
+      us in this matter. Whether He means to keep this wealth for worthier men
+      than us, or whether it is His will to hide this great city in the secret
+      place of His presence from the strife of tongues, and so to spare them
+      from sinful man's covetousness, and England from that sin and luxury which
+      I have seen gold beget among the Spaniards, I know not, sir; for who
+      knoweth the counsels of the Lord? But I have long had a voice within which
+      saith, 'Salvation Yeo, thou shalt never behold the Golden City which is on
+      earth, where heathens worship sun and moon and the hosts of heaven; be
+      content, therefore, to see that Golden City which is above, where is
+      neither sun nor moon, but the Lord God and the Lamb are the light
+      thereof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a simple majesty about old Yeo when he broke forth in utterances
+      like these, which made his comrades, and even Amyas and Cary, look on him
+      as Mussulmans look on madmen, as possessed of mysterious knowledge and
+      flashes of inspiration; and Brimblecombe, whose pious soul looked up to
+      the old hero with a reverence which had overcome all his Churchman's
+      prejudices against Anabaptists, answered gently,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen! amen! my masters all: and it has been on my mind, too, this long
+      time, that there is a providence against our going east; for see how this
+      two years past, whenever we have pushed eastward, we have fallen into
+      trouble, and lost good men; and whenever we went Westward-ho, we have
+      prospered; and do prosper to this day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is more, gentlemen,&rdquo; said Yeo, &ldquo;if, as Scripture says, dreams
+      are from the Lord, I verily believe mine last night came from Him; for as
+      I lay by the fire, sirs, I heard my little maid's voice calling of me, as
+      plain as ever I heard in my life; and the very same words, sirs, which she
+      learned from me and my good comrade William Penberthy to say,
+      'Westward-ho! jolly mariners all!' a bit of an ungodly song, my masters,
+      which we sang in our wild days; but she stood and called it as plain as
+      ever mortal ears heard, and called again till I answered, 'Coming! my
+      maid, coming!' and after that the dear chuck called no more&mdash;God
+      grant I find her yet!&mdash;and so I woke.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary had long since given up laughing at Yeo about the &ldquo;little maid;&rdquo; and
+      Amyas answered,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So let it be, Yeo, if the rest agree: but what shall we do to the
+      westward?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do?&rdquo; said Cary; &ldquo;there's plenty to do; for there's plenty of gold, and
+      plenty of Spaniards, too, they say, on the other side of these mountains:
+      so that our swords will not rust for lack of adventures, my gay
+      knights-errant all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they chatted on; and before night was half through a plan was matured,
+      desperate enough&mdash;but what cared those brave hearts for that? They
+      would cross the Cordillera to Santa Fe de Bogota, of the wealth whereof
+      both Yeo and Amyas had often heard in the Pacific: try to seize either the
+      town or some convoy of gold going from it; make for the nearest river
+      (there was said to be a large one which ran northward thence), build
+      canoes, and try to reach the Northern Sea once more; and then, if Heaven
+      prospered them, they might seize a Spanish ship, and make their way home
+      to England, not, indeed, with the wealth of Manoa, but with a fair booty
+      of Spanish gold. This was their new dream. It was a wild one: but hardly
+      more wild than the one which Drake had fulfilled, and not as wild as the
+      one which Oxenham might have fulfilled, but for his own fatal folly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas sat watching late that night, sad of heart. To give up the cherished
+      dream of years was hard; to face his mother, harder still: but it must be
+      done, for the men's sake. So the new plan was proposed next day, and
+      accepted joyfully. They would go up to the mountains and rest awhile; if
+      possible, bring up the wounded whom they had left behind; and then, try a
+      new venture, with new hopes, perhaps new dangers; they were inured to the
+      latter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They started next morning cheerfully enough, and for three hours or more
+      paddled easily up the glassy and windless reaches, between two green
+      flower-bespangled walls of forest, gay with innumerable birds and insects;
+      while down from the branches which overhung the stream long trailers hung
+      to the water's edge, and seemed admiring in the clear mirror the images of
+      their own gorgeous flowers. River, trees, flowers, birds, insects,&mdash;it
+      was all a fairy-land: but it was a colossal one; and yet the voyagers took
+      little note of it. It was now to them an everyday occurrence, to see trees
+      full two hundred feet high one mass of yellow or purple blossom to the
+      highest twigs, and every branch and stem one hanging garden of crimson and
+      orange orchids or vanillas. Common to them were all the fantastic and
+      enormous shapes with which Nature bedecks her robes beneath the fierce
+      suns and fattening rains of the tropic forest. Common were forms and
+      colors of bird, and fish, and butterfly, more strange and bright than ever
+      opium-eater dreamed. The long processions of monkeys, who kept pace with
+      them along the tree-tops, and proclaimed their wonder in every imaginable
+      whistle, and grunt, and howl, had ceased to move their laughter, as much
+      as the roar of the jaguar and the rustle of the boa had ceased to move
+      their fear; and when a brilliant green and rose-colored fish, flat-bodied
+      like a bream, flab-finned like a salmon, and saw-toothed like a shark,
+      leapt clean on board of the canoe to escape the rush of the huge alligator
+      (whose loathsome snout, ere he could stop, actually rattled against the
+      canoe within a foot of Jack Brimblecombe's hand), Jack, instead of turning
+      pale, as he had done at the sharks upon a certain memorable occasion,
+      coolly picked up the fish, and said, &ldquo;He's four pound weight! If you can
+      catch 'pirai' for us like that, old fellow, just keep in our wake, and
+      we'll give you the cleanings for wages.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes. The mind of man is not so &ldquo;infinite,&rdquo; in the vulgar sense of that
+      word, as people fancy; and however greedy the appetite for wonder may be,
+      while it remains unsatisfied in everyday European life, it is as easily
+      satiated as any other appetite, and then leaves the senses of its
+      possessor as dull as those of a city gourmand after a lord mayor's feast.
+      Only the highest minds&mdash;our Humboldts, and Bonplands, and Schomburgks
+      (and they only when quickened to an almost unhealthy activity by
+      civilization)&mdash;can go on long appreciating where Nature is
+      insatiable, imperious, maddening, in her demands on our admiration. The
+      very power of observing wears out under the rush of ever new objects; and
+      the dizzy spectator is fain at last to shut the eyes of his soul, and take
+      refuge (as West Indian Spaniards do) in tobacco and stupidity. The man,
+      too, who has not only eyes but utterance,&mdash;what shall he do where all
+      words fail him? Superlatives are but inarticulate, after all, and give no
+      pictures even of size any more than do numbers of feet and yards: and yet
+      what else can we do, but heap superlative on superlative, and cry,
+      &ldquo;Wonderful, wonderful!&rdquo; and after that, &ldquo;wonderful, past all whooping&rdquo;?
+      What Humboldt's self cannot paint, we will not try to daub. The voyagers
+      were in a South American forest, readers. Fill up the meaning of those
+      words, each as your knowledge enables you, for I cannot do it for you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Certainly those adventurers could not. The absence of any attempt at
+      word-painting, even of admiration at the glorious things which they saw,
+      is most remarkable in all early voyagers, both Spanish and English. The
+      only two exceptions which I recollect are Columbus&mdash;(but then all was
+      new, and he was bound to tell what he had seen)&mdash;and Raleigh; the two
+      most gifted men, perhaps, with the exception of Humboldt, who ever set
+      foot in tropical America; but even they dare nothing but a few feeble
+      hints in passing. Their souls had been dazzled and stunned by a great
+      glory. Coming out of our European Nature into that tropic one, they had
+      felt like Plato's men, bred in the twilight cavern, and then suddenly
+      turned round to the broad blaze of day; they had seen things awful and
+      unspeakable: why talk of them, except to say with the Turks, &ldquo;God is
+      great!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So it was with these men. Among the higher-hearted of them, the grandeur
+      and the glory around had attuned their spirits to itself, and kept up in
+      them a lofty, heroical, reverent frame of mind; but they knew as little
+      about the trees and animals in an &ldquo;artistic&rdquo; or &ldquo;critical&rdquo; point of view,
+      as in a scientific one. This tree the Indians called one unpronounceable
+      name, and it made good bows; that, some other name, and it made good
+      canoes; of that, you could eat the fruit; that produced the caoutchouc
+      gum, useful for a hundred matters; that was what the Indians (and they
+      likewise) used to poison their arrows with; from the ashes of those
+      palm-nuts you could make good salt; that tree, again, was full of good
+      milk if you bored the stem: they drank it, and gave God thanks, and were
+      not astonished. God was great: but that they had discovered long before
+      they came into the tropics. Noble old child-hearted heroes, with just
+      romance and superstition enough about them to keep them from that prurient
+      hysterical wonder and enthusiasm, which is simply, one often fears, a
+      product of our scepticism! We do not trust enough in God, we do not really
+      believe His power enough, to be ready, as they were, as every one ought to
+      be on a God-made earth, for anything and everything being possible; and
+      then, when a wonder is discovered, we go into ecstasies and shrieks over
+      it, and take to ourselves credit for being susceptible of so lofty a
+      feeling, true index, forsooth, of a refined and cultivated mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They paddled onward hour after hour, sheltering themselves as best they
+      could under the shadow of the southern bank, while on their right hand the
+      full sun-glare lay upon the enormous wall of mimosas, figs, and laurels,
+      which formed the northern forest, broken by the slender shafts of bamboo
+      tufts, and decked with a thousand gaudy parasites; bank upon bank of
+      gorgeous bloom piled upward to the sky, till where its outline cut the
+      blue, flowers and leaves, too lofty to be distinguished by the eye, formed
+      a broken rainbow of all hues quivering in the ascending streams of azure
+      mist, until they seemed to melt and mingle with the very heavens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And as the sun rose higher and higher, a great stillness fell upon the
+      forest. The jaguars and the monkeys had hidden themselves in the darkest
+      depths of the woods. The birds' notes died out one by one; the very
+      butterflies ceased their flitting over the tree-tops, and slept with
+      outspread wings upon the glossy leaves, undistinguishable from the flowers
+      around them. Now and then a colibri whirred downward toward the water,
+      hummed for a moment around some pendent flower, and then the living gem
+      was lost in the deep blackness of the inner wood, among tree-trunks as
+      huge and dark as the pillars of some Hindoo shrine; or a parrot swung and
+      screamed at them from an overhanging bough; or a thirsty monkey slid
+      lazily down a liana to the surface of the stream, dipped up the water in
+      his tiny hand, and started chattering back, as his eyes met those of some
+      foul alligator peering upward through the clear depths below. In shaded
+      nooks beneath the boughs, the capybaras, rabbits as large as sheep, went
+      paddling sleepily round and round, thrusting up their unwieldy heads among
+      the blooms of the blue water-lilies; while black and purple water-hens ran
+      up and down upon the rafts of floating leaves. The shining snout of a
+      freshwater dolphin rose slowly to the surface; a jet of spray whirred up;
+      a rainbow hung upon it for a moment; and the black snout sank lazily
+      again. Here and there, too, upon some shallow pebbly shore, scarlet
+      flamingoes stood dreaming knee-deep, on one leg; crested cranes pranced up
+      and down, admiring their own finery; and ibises and egrets dipped their
+      bills under water in search of prey: but before noon even those had
+      slipped away, and there reigned a stillness which might be heard&mdash;such
+      a stillness (to compare small things with great) as broods beneath the
+      rich shadows of Amyas's own Devon woods, or among the lonely sweeps of
+      Exmoor, when the heather is in flower&mdash;a stillness in which, as
+      Humboldt says, &ldquo;If beyond the silence we listen for the faintest
+      undertones, we detect a stifled, continuous hum of insects, which crowd
+      the air close to the earth; a confused swarming murmur which hangs round
+      every bush, in the cracked bark of trees, in the soil undermined by
+      lizards, millepedes, and bees; a voice proclaiming to us that all Nature
+      breathes, that under a thousand different forms life swarms in the gaping
+      and dusty earth, as much as in the bosom of the waters, and the air which
+      breathes around.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At last a soft and distant murmur, increasing gradually to a heavy roar,
+      announced that they were nearing some cataract; till turning a point,
+      where the deep alluvial soil rose into a low cliff fringed with delicate
+      ferns, they came full in sight of a scene at which all paused: not with
+      astonishment, but with something very like disgust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rapids again!&rdquo; grumbled one. &ldquo;I thought we had had enough of them on the
+      Orinoco.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall have to get out, and draw the canoes overland, I suppose. Three
+      hours will be lost, and in the very hottest of the day, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's worse behind; don't you see the spray behind the palms?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop grumbling, my masters, and don't cry out before you are hurt. Paddle
+      right up to the largest of those islands, and let us look about us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In front of them was a snow-white bar of raging foam, some ten feet high,
+      along which were ranged three or four islands of black rock. Each was
+      crested with a knot of lofty palms, whose green tops stood out clear
+      against the bright sky, while the lower half of their stems loomed hazy
+      through a luminous veil of rainbowed mist. The banks right and left of the
+      fall were so densely fringed with a low hedge of shrubs, that landing
+      seemed all but impossible; and their Indian guide, suddenly looking round
+      him and whispering, bade them beware of savages; and pointed to a canoe
+      which lay swinging in the eddies under the largest island, moored
+      apparently to the root of some tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence all!&rdquo; cried Amyas, &ldquo;and paddle up thither and seize the canoe. If
+      there be an Indian on the island, we will have speech of him: but mind and
+      treat him friendly; and on your lives, neither strike nor shoot, even if
+      he offers to fight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So, choosing a line of smooth backwater just in the wake of the island,
+      they drove their canoes up by main force, and fastened them safely by the
+      side of the Indian's, while Amyas, always the foremost, sprang boldly on
+      shore, whispering to the Indian boy to follow him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once on the island, Amyas felt sure enough, that if its wild tenant had
+      not seen them approach, he certainly had not heard them, so deafening was
+      the noise which filled his brain, and seemed to make the very leaves upon
+      the bushes quiver, and the solid stone beneath his feet to reel and ring.
+      For two hundred yards and more above the fall nothing met his eye but one
+      white waste of raging foam, with here and there a transverse dyke of rock,
+      which hurled columns of spray and surges of beaded water high into the
+      air,&mdash;strangely contrasting with the still and silent cliffs of green
+      leaves which walled the river right and left, and more strangely still
+      with the knots of enormous palms upon the islets, which reared their
+      polished shafts a hundred feet into the air, straight and upright as
+      masts, while their broad plumes and golden-clustered fruit slept in the
+      sunshine far aloft, the image of the stateliest repose amid the wildest
+      wrath of Nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked round anxiously for the expected Indian; but he was nowhere to
+      be seen; and, in the meanwhile, as he stept cautiously along the island,
+      which was some fifty yards in length and breadth, his senses, accustomed
+      as they were to such sights, could not help dwelling on the exquisite
+      beauty of the scene; on the garden of gay flowers, of every imaginable
+      form and hue, which fringed every boulder at his feet, peeping out amid
+      delicate fern-fans and luxuriant cushions of moss; on the chequered shade
+      of the palms, and the cool air, which wafted down from the cataracts above
+      the scents of a thousand flowers. Gradually his ear became accustomed to
+      the roar, and, above its mighty undertone, he could hear the whisper of
+      the wind among the shrubs, and the hum of myriad insects; while the rock
+      manakin, with its saffron plumage, flitted before him from stone to stone,
+      calling cheerily, and seeming to lead him on. Suddenly, scrambling over
+      the rocky flower-beds to the other side of the isle, he came upon a little
+      shady beach, which, beneath a bank of stone some six feet high, fringed
+      the edge of a perfectly still and glassy bay. Ten yards farther, the
+      cataract fell sheer in thunder: but a high fern-fringed rock turned its
+      force away from that quiet nook. In it the water swung slowly round and
+      round in glassy dark-green rings, among which dimpled a hundred gaudy
+      fish, waiting for every fly and worm which spun and quivered on the eddy.
+      Here, if anywhere, was the place to find the owner of the canoe. He leapt
+      down upon the pebbles; and as he did so, a figure rose from behind a
+      neighboring rock, and met him face to face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was an Indian girl; and yet, when he looked again,&mdash;was it an
+      Indian girl? Amyas had seen hundreds of those delicate dark-skinned
+      daughters of the forest, but never such a one as this. Her stature was
+      taller, her limbs were fuller and more rounded; her complexion, though
+      tanned by light, was fairer by far than his own sunburnt face; her hair,
+      crowned with a garland of white flowers, was not lank, and straight, and
+      black, like an Indian's, but of a rich, glossy brown, and curling richly
+      and crisply from her very temples to her knees. Her forehead, though low,
+      was upright and ample; her nose was straight and small; her lips, the lips
+      of a European; her whole face of the highest and richest type of Spanish
+      beauty; a collar of gold mingled with green beads hung round her neck, and
+      golden bracelets were on her wrists. All the strange and dim legends of
+      white Indians, and of nations of a higher race than Carib, or Arrowak, or
+      Solimo, which Amyas had ever heard, rose up in his memory. She must be the
+      daughter of some great cacique, perhaps of the lost Incas themselves&mdash;why
+      not? And full of simple wonder, he gazed upon that fairy vision, while
+      she, unabashed in her free innocence, gazed fearlessly in return, as Eve
+      might have done in Paradise, upon the mighty stature, and the strange
+      garments, and above all, on the bushy beard and flowing yellow locks of
+      the Englishman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke first, in some Indian tongue, gently and smilingly, and made a
+      half-step forward; but quick as light she caught up from the ground a bow,
+      and held it fiercely toward him, fitted with the long arrow, with which,
+      as he could see, she had been striking fish, for a line of twisted grass
+      hung from its barbed head. Amyas stopped, laid down his own bow and sword,
+      and made another step in advance, smiling still, and making all Indian
+      signs of amity: but the arrow was still pointed straight at his breast,
+      and he knew the mettle and strength of the forest nymphs well enough to
+      stand still and call for the Indian boy; too proud to retreat, but in the
+      uncomfortable expectation of feeling every moment the shaft quivering
+      between his ribs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy, who had been peering from above, leaped down to them in a moment;
+      and began, as the safest method, grovelling on his nose upon the pebbles,
+      while he tried two or three dialects; one of which at last she seemed to
+      understand, and answered in a tone of evident suspicion and anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does she say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That you are a Spaniard and a robber, because you have a beard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell her that we are no Spaniards, but that we hate them; and are come
+      across the great waters to help the Indians to kill them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy translated his speech. The nymph answered by a contemptuous shake
+      of the head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell her, that if she will send her tribe to us, we will do them no harm.
+      We are going over the mountains to fight the Spaniards, and we want them
+      to show us the way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy had no sooner spoken, than, nimble as a deer, the nymph had sprung
+      up the rocks, and darted between the palm-stems to her canoe. Suddenly she
+      caught sight of the English boat, and stopped with a cry of fear and rage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let her pass!&rdquo; shouted Amyas, who had followed her close. &ldquo;Push your boat
+      off, and let her pass. Boy, tell her to go on; they will not come near
+      her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But she hesitated still, and with arrow drawn to the head, faced first on
+      the boat's crew, and then on Amyas, till the Englishmen had shoved off
+      full twenty yards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, leaping into her tiny piragua, she darted into the wildest whirl of
+      the eddies, shooting along with vigorous strokes, while the English
+      trembled as they saw the frail bark spinning and leaping amid the muzzles
+      of the alligators, and the huge dog-toothed trout: but with the swiftness
+      of an arrow she reached the northern bank, drove her canoe among the
+      bushes, and leaping from it, darted through some narrow opening in the
+      bush, and vanished like a dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What fair virago have you unearthed?&rdquo; cried Cary, as they toiled up again
+      to the landing-place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beshrew me,&rdquo; quoth Jack, &ldquo;but we are in the very land of the nymphs, and
+      I shall expect to see Diana herself next, with the moon on her forehead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care, then, where you wander hereabouts, Sir John: lest you end as
+      Actaeon did, by turning into a stag, and being eaten by a jaguar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Actaeon was eaten by his own hounds, Mr. Cary, so the parallel don't
+      hold. But surely she was a very wonder of beauty!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Why was it that Amyas did not like this harmless talk? There had come over
+      him the strangest new feeling; as if that fair vision was his property,
+      and the men had no right to talk about her, no right to have even seen
+      her. And he spoke quite surlily as he said&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may leave the women to themselves, my masters; you'll have to deal
+      with the men ere long: so get your canoes up on the rock, and keep good
+      watch.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hillo!&rdquo; shouted one in a few minutes, &ldquo;here's fresh fish enough to feed
+      us all round. I suppose that young cat-a-mountain left it behind her in
+      her hurry. I wish she had left her golden chains and ouches into the
+      bargain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said another, &ldquo;we'll take it as fair payment, for having made us
+      drop down the current again to let her ladyship pass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave that fish alone,&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;it is none of yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, sir!&rdquo; quoth the finder in a tone of sulky deprecation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If we are to make good friends with the heathens, we had better not begin
+      by stealing their goods. There are plenty more fish in the river; go and
+      catch them, and let the Indians have their own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The men were accustomed enough to strict and stern justice in their
+      dealings with the savages: but they could not help looking slyly at each
+      other, and hinting, when out of sight, that the captain seemed in a mighty
+      fuss about his new acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, they were expert by this time in all the Indian's fishing
+      methods; and so abundant was the animal life which swarmed around every
+      rock, that in an hour fish enough lay on the beach to feed them all; whose
+      forms and colors, names and families, I must leave the reader to guess
+      from the wondrous pages of Sir Richard Schomburgk, for I know too little
+      of them to speak without the fear of making mistakes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A full hour passed before they saw anything more of their Indian
+      neighbors; and then from under the bushes shot out a canoe, on which all
+      eyes were fixed in expectation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas, who expected to find there some remnant of a higher race, was
+      disappointed enough at seeing on board only the usual half-dozen of
+      low-browed, dirty Orsons, painted red with arnotto: but a gray-headed
+      elder at the stern seemed, by his feathers and gold ornaments, to be some
+      man of note in the little woodland community.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The canoe came close up to the island; Amyas saw that they were unarmed,
+      and, laying down his weapons, advanced alone to the bank, making all signs
+      of amity. They were returned with interest by the old man, and Amyas's
+      next care was to bring forward the fish which the fair nymph had left
+      behind, and, through the medium of the Indian lad, to give the cacique
+      (for so he seemed to be) to understand that he wished to render every one
+      his own. This offer was received, as Amyas expected, with great applause,
+      and the canoe came alongside; but the crew still seemed afraid to land.
+      Amyas bade his men throw the fish one by one into the boat; and then
+      proclaimed by the boy's mouth, as was his custom with all Indians, that he
+      and his were enemies of the Spaniards, and on their way to make war
+      against them,&mdash;and that all which they desired was a peaceable and
+      safe passage through the dominions of the mighty potentate and renowned
+      warrior whom they beheld before them; for Amyas argued rightly enough,
+      that even if the old fellow aft was not the cacique, he would be none the
+      less pleased at being mistaken for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon the ancient worthy, rising in the canoe, pointed to heaven, earth,
+      and the things under, and commenced a long sermon, in tone, manner, and
+      articulation, very like one of those which the great black-bearded apes
+      were in the habit of preaching every evening when they could get together
+      a congregation of little monkeys to listen, to the great scandal of Jack,
+      who would have it that some evil spirit set them on to mimic him; which
+      sermon, being partly interpreted by the Indian lad, seemed to signify,
+      that the valor and justice of the white men had already reached the ears
+      of the speaker, and that he was sent to welcome them into those regions by
+      the Daughter of the Sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Daughter of the Sun!&rdquo; quoth Amyas; &ldquo;then we have found the lost Incas
+      after all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have found something,&rdquo; said Cary; &ldquo;I only hope it may not be a mare's
+      nest, like many another of our finding.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or an adder's,&rdquo; said Yeo. &ldquo;We must beware of treachery.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must beware of no such thing,&rdquo; said Amyas, pretty sharply. &ldquo;Have I not
+      told you fifty times, that if they see that we trust them, they will trust
+      us, and if they see that we suspect them, they will suspect us? And when
+      two parties are watching to see who strikes the first blow, they are sure
+      to come to fisticuffs from mere dirty fear of each other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas spoke truth; for almost every atrocity against savages which had
+      been committed by the Spaniards, and which was in later and worse times
+      committed by the English, was wont to be excused in that same base fear of
+      treachery. Amyas's plan, like that of Drake, and Cook, and all great
+      English voyagers, had been all along to inspire at once awe and
+      confidence, by a frank and fearless carriage; and he was not disappointed
+      here. He bade the men step boldly into their canoes, and follow the old
+      Indian whither he would. The simple children of the forest bowed
+      themselves reverently before the mighty strangers, and then led them
+      smilingly across the stream, and through a narrow passage in the covert,
+      to a hidden lagoon, on the banks of which stood, not Manoa, but a tiny
+      Indian village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW AMYAS WAS TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Let us alone.  What pleasure can we have
+        To war with evil?  Is there any peace
+     In always climbing up the climbing wave?
+        All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave
+     In silence; ripen, fall, and cease:
+        Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease.&rdquo;
+
+                                                       TENNYSON.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Humboldt has somewhere a curious passage; in which, looking on some
+      wretched group of Indians, squatting stupidly round their fires, besmeared
+      with grease and paint, and devouring ants and clay, he somewhat naively
+      remarks, that were it not for science, which teaches us that such is the
+      crude material of humanity, and this the state from which we all have
+      risen, he should have been tempted rather to look upon those hapless
+      beings as the last degraded remnants of some fallen and dying race. One
+      wishes that the great traveller had been bold enough to yield to that
+      temptation, which his own reason and common sense presented to him as the
+      real explanation of the sad sight, instead of following the dogmas of a
+      so-called science, which has not a fact whereon to base its wild notion,
+      and must ignore a thousand facts in asserting it. His own good sense, it
+      seems, coincided instinctively with the Bible doctrine, that man in a
+      state of nature is a fallen being, doomed to death&mdash;a view which may
+      be a sad one, but still one more honorable to poor humanity than the
+      theory, that we all began as some sort of two-handed apes. It is surely
+      more hopeful to believe that those poor Otomacs or Guahibas were not what
+      they ought to be, than to believe that they were. It is certainly more
+      complimentary to them to think that they had been somewhat nobler and more
+      prudent in centuries gone by, than that they were such blockheads as to
+      have dragged on, the son after the father, for all the thousands of years
+      which have elapsed since man was made, without having had wit enough to
+      discover any better food than ants and clay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our voyagers, however, like those of their time, troubled their heads with
+      no such questions. Taking the Bible story as they found it, they agreed
+      with Humboldt's reason, and not with his science; or, to speak correctly,
+      agreed with Humboldt's self, and not with the shallow anthropologic
+      theories which happened to be in vogue fifty years ago; and their new
+      hosts were in their eyes immortal souls like themselves, &ldquo;captivated by
+      the devil at his will,&rdquo; lost there in the pathless forests, likely to be
+      lost hereafter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And certainly facts seemed to bear out their old-fashioned theories;
+      although these Indians had sunk by no means so low as the Guahibas whom
+      they had met upon the lower waters of the same river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They beheld, on landing, a scattered village of palm-leaf sheds, under
+      which, as usual, the hammocks were slung from tree to tree. Here and
+      there, in openings in the forest, patches of cassava and indigo appeared;
+      and there was a look of neatness and comfort about the little settlement
+      superior to the average.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But now for the signs of the evil spirit. Certainly it was no good spirit
+      who had inspired them with the art of music; or else (as Cary said) Apollo
+      and Mercury (if they ever visited America) had played their forefathers a
+      shabby trick, and put them off with very poor instruments, and still
+      poorer taste. For on either side of the landing-place were arranged four
+      or five stout fellows, each with a tall drum, or long earthen trumpet,
+      swelling out in the course of its length into several hollow balls from
+      which arose, the moment the strangers set foot on shore, so deafening a
+      cacophony of howls, and groans, and thumps, as fully to justify Yeo's
+      remark, &ldquo;They are calling upon their devil, sir.&rdquo; To which Cary answered,
+      with some show of reason, that &ldquo;they were the less likely to be
+      disappointed, for none but Sir Urian would ever come to listen to such a
+      noise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you mark, sirs,&rdquo; said Yeo, &ldquo;there's some feast or sacrifice toward.
+      I'm not overconfident of them yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense!&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;we could kill every soul of them in half-an-hour,
+      and they know that as well as we.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But some great demonstration was plainly toward; for the children of the
+      forest were arrayed in two lines, right and left of the open space, the
+      men in front, and the women behind; and all bedizened, to the best of
+      their power, with arnotto, indigo, and feathers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next, with a hideous yell, leapt into the centre of the space a personage
+      who certainly could not have complained if any one had taken him for the
+      devil, for he had dressed himself up carefully for that very intent, in a
+      jaguar-skin with a long tail, grinning teeth, a pair of horns, a plume of
+      black and yellow feathers, and a huge rattle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here's the Piache, the rascal,&rdquo; says Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; says Yeo, &ldquo;in Satan's livery, and I've no doubt his works are
+      according, trust him for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't be frightened, Jack,&rdquo; says Cary, backing up Brimblecombe from
+      behind. &ldquo;It's your business to tackle him, you know. At him boldly, and
+      he'll run.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereat all the men laughed; and the Piache, who had intended to produce a
+      very solemn impression, hung fire a little. However, being accustomed to
+      get his bread by his impudence, he soon recovered himself, advanced, smote
+      one of the musicians over the head with his rattle to procure silence; and
+      then began a harangue, to which Amyas listened patiently, cigar in mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's it all about, boy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He wants to know whether you have seen Amalivaca on the other shore of
+      the great water?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was accustomed to this inquiry after the mythic civilizer of the
+      forest Indians, who, after carving the mysterious sculptures which appear
+      upon so many inland cliffs of that region, returned again whence he came,
+      beyond the ocean. He answered, as usual, by setting forth the praises of
+      Queen Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To which the Piache replied, that she must be one of Amalivaca's seven
+      daughters, some of whom he took back with him, while he broke the legs of
+      the rest to prevent their running away, and left them to people the
+      forests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To which Amyas replied, that his queen's legs were certainly not broken;
+      for she was a very model of grace and activity, and the best dancer in all
+      her dominions; but that it was more important to him to know whether the
+      tribe would give them cassava bread, and let them stay peaceably on that
+      island, to rest a while before they went on to fight the clothed men (the
+      Spaniards), on the other side of the mountains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On which the Piache, after capering and turning head over heels with much
+      howling, beckoned Amyas and his party to follow him; they did so, seeing
+      that the Indians were all unarmed, and evidently in the highest good
+      humor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Piache went toward the door of a carefully closed hut, and crawling up
+      to it on all-fours in most abject fashion, began whining to some one
+      within.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask what he is about, boy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lad asked the old cacique, who had accompanied them, and received for
+      answer, that he was consulting the Daughter of the Sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is our mare's nest at last,&rdquo; quoth Cary, as the Piache from whines
+      rose to screams and gesticulations, and then to violent convulsions,
+      foaming at the mouth, and rolling of the eyeballs, till he suddenly sank
+      exhausted, and lay for dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As good as a stage play.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil has played his part,&rdquo; says Jack; &ldquo;and now by the rules of all
+      plays Vice should come on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And a very fair Vice it will be, I suspect; a right sweet Iniquity, my
+      Jack! Listen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And from the interior of the hut rose a low sweet song, at which all the
+      simple Indians bowed their heads in reverence; and the English were hushed
+      in astonishment; for the voice was not shrill or guttural, like that of an
+      Indian, but round, clear, and rich, like a European's; and as it swelled
+      and rose louder and louder, showed a compass and power which would have
+      been extraordinary anywhere (and many a man of the party, as was usual in
+      musical old England, was a good judge enough of such a matter, and could
+      hold his part right well in glee, and catch, and roundelay, and psalm).
+      And as it leaped, and ran, and sank again, and rose once more to fall once
+      more, all but inarticulate, yet perfect in melody, like the voice of bird
+      on bough, the wild wanderers were rapt in new delight, and did not wonder
+      at the Indians as they bowed their heads, and welcomed the notes as
+      messengers from some higher world. At last one triumphant burst, so shrill
+      that all ears rang again, and then dead silence. The Piache, suddenly
+      restored to life, jumped upright, and recommenced preaching at Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell the howling villain to make short work of it, lad! His tune won't do
+      after that last one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The lad, grinning, informed Amyas that the Piache signified their
+      acceptance as friends by the Daughter of the Sun; that her friends were
+      theirs, and her foes theirs. Whereon the Indians set up a scream of
+      delight, and Amyas, rolling another tobacco leaf up in another strip of
+      plantain, answered,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let her give us some cassava,&rdquo; and lighted a fresh cigar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon the door of the hut opened, and the Indians prostrated themselves
+      to the earth, as there came forth the same fair apparition which they had
+      encountered upon the island, but decked now in feather-robes, and plumes
+      of every imaginable hue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Slowly and stately, as one accustomed to command, she walked up to Amyas,
+      glancing proudly round on her prostrate adorers, and pointing with
+      graceful arms to the trees, the gardens, and the huts, gave him to
+      understand by signs (so expressive were her looks, that no words were
+      needed) that all was at his service; after which, taking his hand, she
+      lifted it gently to her forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that sign of submission a shout of rapture rose from the crowd; and as
+      the mysterious maiden retired again to her hut, they pressed round the
+      English, caressing and admiring, pointing with equal surprise to their
+      swords, to their Indian bows and blow-guns, and to the trophies of wild
+      beasts with which they were clothed; while women hastened off to bring
+      fruit, and flowers, and cassava, and (to Amyas's great anxiety) calabashes
+      of intoxicating drink; and, to make a long story short, the English sat
+      down beneath the trees, and feasted merrily, while the drums and trumpets
+      made hideous music, and lithe young girls and lads danced uncouth dances,
+      which so scandalized both Brimblecombe and Yeo, that they persuaded Amyas
+      to beat an early retreat. He was willing enough to get back to the island
+      while the men were still sober; so there were many leave-takings and
+      promises of return on the morrow, and the party paddled back to their
+      island-fortress, racking their wits as to who or what the mysterious maid
+      could be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas, however, had settled in his mind that she was one of the lost Inca
+      race; perhaps a descendant of that very fair girl, wife of the Inca Manco,
+      whom Pizarro, forty years before, had, merely to torture the fugitive
+      king's heart, as his body was safe from the tyrant's reach, stripped,
+      scourged, and shot to death with arrows, uncomplaining to the last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They all assembled for the evening service (hardly a day had passed since
+      they left England on which they had not done the same); and after it was
+      over, they must needs sing a Psalm, and then a catch or two, ere they went
+      to sleep; and till the moon was high in heaven, twenty mellow voices rang
+      out above the roar of the cataract, in many a good old tune. Once or twice
+      they thought they heard an echo to their song: but they took no note of
+      it, till Cary, who had gone apart for a few minutes, returned, and
+      whispered Amyas away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sweet Iniquity is mimicking us, lad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They went to the brink of the river; and there (for their ears were by
+      this time dead to the noise of the torrent) they could hear plainly the
+      same voice which had so surprised them in the hut, repeating, clear and
+      true, snatches of the airs which they had sung. Strange and solemn enough
+      was the effect of the men's deep voices on the island, answered out of the
+      dark forest by those sweet treble notes; and the two young men stood a
+      long while listening and looking out across the eddies, which swirled down
+      golden in the moonlight: but they could see nothing beyond save the black
+      wall of trees. After a while the voice ceased, and the two returned to
+      dream of Incas and nightingales.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They visited the village again next day; and every day for a week or more:
+      but the maiden appeared but rarely, and when she did, kept her distance as
+      haughtily as a queen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas, of course, as soon as he could converse somewhat better with his
+      new friends, was not long before he questioned the cacique about her. But
+      the old man made an owl's face at her name, and intimated by mysterious
+      shakes of the head, that she was a very strange personage, and the less
+      said about her the better. She was &ldquo;a child of the Sun,&rdquo; and that was
+      enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell him, boy,&rdquo; quoth Cary, &ldquo;that we are the children of the Sun by his
+      first wife; and have orders from him to inquire how the Indians have
+      behaved to our step-sister, for he cannot see all their tricks down here,
+      the trees are so thick. So let him tell us, or all the cassava plants
+      shall be blighted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will, Will, don't play with lying!&rdquo; said Amyas: but the threat was enough
+      for the cacique, and taking them in his canoe a full mile down the stream,
+      as if in fear that the wonderful maiden should overhear him, he told them,
+      in a sort of rhythmic chant, how, many moons ago (he could not tell how
+      many), his tribe was a mighty nation, and dwelt in Papamene, till the
+      Spaniards drove them forth. And how, as they wandered northward, far away
+      upon the mountain spurs beneath the flaming cone of Cotopaxi, they had
+      found this fair creature wandering in the forest, about the bigness of a
+      seven years' child. Wondering at her white skin and her delicate beauty,
+      the simple Indians worshipped her as a god, and led her home with them.
+      And when they found that she was human like themselves, their wonder
+      scarcely lessened. How could so tender a being have sustained life in
+      those forests, and escaped the jaguar and the snake? She must be under
+      some Divine protection: she must be a daughter of the Sun, one of that
+      mighty Inca race, the news of whose fearful fall had reached even those
+      lonely wildernesses; who had, many of them, haunted for years as exiles
+      the eastern slopes of the Andes, about the Ucalayi and the Maranon; who
+      would, as all Indians knew, rise again some day to power, when bearded
+      white men should come across the seas to restore them to their ancient
+      throne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, as the girl grew up among them, she was tended with royal honors, by
+      command of the conjuror of the tribe, that so her forefather the Sun might
+      be propitious to them, and the Incas might show favor to the poor ruined
+      Omaguas, in the day of their coming glory. And as she grew, she had
+      become, it seemed, somewhat of a prophetess among them, as well as an
+      object of fetish-worship; for she was more prudent in council, valiant in
+      war, and cunning in the chase, than all the elders of the tribe; and those
+      strange and sweet songs of hers, which had so surprised the white men,
+      were full of mysterious wisdom about the birds, and the animals, and the
+      flowers, and the rivers, which the Sun and the Good Spirit taught her from
+      above. So she had lived among them, unmarried still, not only because she
+      despised the addresses of all Indian youths, but because the conjuror had
+      declared it to be profane in them to mingle with the race of the Sun, and
+      had assigned her a cabin near his own, where she was served in state, and
+      gave some sort of oracular responses, as they had seen, to the questions
+      which he put to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the cacique's tale; on which Cary remarked, probably not
+      unjustly, that he &ldquo;dared to say the conjuror made a very good thing of
+      it:&rdquo; but Amyas was silent, full of dreams, if not about Manoa, still about
+      the remnant of the Inca race. What if they were still to be found about
+      the southern sources of the Amazon? He must have been very near them
+      already, in that case. It was vexatious; but at least he might be sure
+      that they had formed no great kingdom in that direction, or he should have
+      heard of it long ago. Perhaps they had moved lately from thence eastward,
+      to escape some fresh encroachment of the Spaniards; and this girl had been
+      left behind in their flight. And then he recollected, with a sigh, how
+      hopeless was any further search with his diminished band. At least, he
+      might learn something of the truth from the maiden herself. It might be
+      useful to him in some future attempt; for he had not yet given up Manoa.
+      If he but got safe home, there was many a gallant gentleman (and Raleigh
+      came at once into his mind) who would join him in a fresh search for the
+      Golden City of Guiana; not by the upper waters, but by the mouth of the
+      Orinoco.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they paddled back, while the simple cacique entreated them to tell the
+      Sun, in their daily prayers, how well the wild people had treated his
+      descendant; and besought them not to take her away with them, lest the Sun
+      should forget the poor Omaguas, and ripen their manioc and their fruit no
+      more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas had no wish to stay where he was longer than was absolutely
+      necessary to bring up the sick men from the Orinoco; but this, he well
+      knew, would be a journey probably of some months, and attended with much
+      danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary volunteered at once, however, to undertake the adventure, if
+      half-a-dozen men would join him, and the Indians would send a few young
+      men to help in working the canoe: but this latter item was not an easy one
+      to obtain; for the tribe with whom they now were, stood in some fear of
+      the fierce and brutal Guahibas, through whose country they must pass; and
+      every Indian tribe, as Amyas knew well enough, looks on each tribe of
+      different language to itself as natural enemies, hateful, and made only to
+      be destroyed wherever met. This strange fact, too, Amyas and his party
+      attributed to delusion of the devil, the divider and accuser; and I am of
+      opinion that they were perfectly right: only let Amyas take care that
+      while he is discovering the devil in the Indians, he does not give place
+      to him in himself, and that in more ways than one. But of that more
+      hereafter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether, however, it was pride or shyness which kept the maiden aloof, she
+      conquered it after a while; perhaps through mere woman's curiosity; and
+      perhaps, too, from mere longing for amusement in a place so unspeakably
+      stupid as the forest. She gave the English to understand, however, that
+      though they all might be very important personages, none of them was to be
+      her companion but Amyas. And ere a month was past, she was often hunting
+      with him far and wide in the neighboring forest, with a train of chosen
+      nymphs, whom she had persuaded to follow her example and spurn the dusky
+      suitors around. This fashion, not uncommon, perhaps, among the Indian
+      tribes, where women are continually escaping to the forest from the
+      tyranny of the men, and often, perhaps, forming temporary communities, was
+      to the English a plain proof that they were near the land of the famous
+      Amazons, of whom they had heard so often from the Indians; while Amyas had
+      no doubt that, as a descendant of the Incas, the maiden preserved the
+      tradition of the Virgins of the Sun, and of the austere monastic rule of
+      the Peruvian superstition. Had not that valiant German, George of Spires,
+      and Jeronimo Ortal too, fifty years before, found convents of the Sun upon
+      these very upper waters?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So a harmless friendship sprang up between Amyas and the girl, which soon
+      turned to good account. For she no sooner heard that he needed a crew of
+      Indians, than she consulted the Piache, assembled the tribe, and having
+      retired to her hut, commenced a song, which (unless the Piache lied) was a
+      command to furnish young men for Cary's expedition, under penalty of the
+      sovereign displeasure of an evil spirit with an unpronounceable name&mdash;an
+      argument which succeeded on the spot, and the canoe departed on its
+      perilous errand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Brimblecombe had great doubts whether a venture thus started by
+      direct help and patronage of the fiend would succeed; and Amyas himself,
+      disliking the humbug, told Ayacanora that it would be better to have told
+      the tribe that it was a good deed, and pleasing to the Good Spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said she, naively enough, &ldquo;they know better than that. The Good
+      Spirit is big and lazy; and he smiles, and takes no trouble: but the
+      little bad spirit, he is so busy&mdash;here, and there, and everywhere,&rdquo;
+       and she waved her pretty hands up and down; &ldquo;he is the useful one to have
+      for a friend!&rdquo; Which sentiment the Piache much approved, as became his
+      occupation; and once told Brimblecombe pretty sharply, that he was a
+      meddlesome fellow for telling the Indians that the Good Spirit cared for
+      them; &ldquo;for,&rdquo; quoth he, &ldquo;if they begin to ask the Good Spirit for what they
+      want, who will bring me cassava and coca for keeping the bad spirit
+      quiet?&rdquo; This argument, however forcible the devil's priests in all ages
+      have felt it to be, did not stop Jack's preaching (and very good and
+      righteous preaching it was, moreover), and much less the morning and
+      evening service in the island camp. This last, the Indians, attracted by
+      the singing, attended in such numbers, that the Piache found his
+      occupation gone, and vowed to put an end to Jack's Gospel with a poisoned
+      arrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Which plan he (blinded by his master, Satan, so Jack phrased it) took into
+      his head to impart to Ayacanora, as the partner of his tithes and
+      offerings; and was exceedingly astonished to receive in answer a box on
+      the ear, and a storm of abuse. After which, Ayacanora went to Amyas, and
+      telling him all, proposed that the Piache should be thrown to the
+      alligators, and Jack installed in his place; declaring that whatsoever the
+      bearded men said must be true, and whosoever plotted against them should
+      die the death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack, however, magnanimously forgave his foe, and preached on, of course
+      with fresh zeal; but not, alas! with much success. For the conjuror,
+      though his main treasure was gone over to the camp of the enemy, had a
+      reserve in a certain holy trumpet, which was hidden mysteriously in a cave
+      on the neighboring hills, not to be looked on by woman under pain of
+      death; and it was well known, and had been known for generations, that
+      unless that trumpet, after fastings, flagellations, and other solemn
+      rites, was blown by night throughout the woods, the palm-trees would bear
+      no fruit; yea, so great was the fame of that trumpet, that neighboring
+      tribes sent at the proper season to hire it and the blower thereof, by
+      payment of much precious trumpery, that so they might be sharers in its
+      fertilizing powers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the Piache announced one day in public, that in consequence of the
+      impiety of the Omaguas, he should retire to a neighboring tribe, of more
+      religious turn of mind; and taking with him the precious instrument, leave
+      their palms to blight, and themselves to the evil spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dire was the wailing, and dire the wrath throughout the village. Jack's
+      words were allowed to be good words; but what was the Gospel in comparison
+      of the trumpet? The rascal saw his advantage, and began a fierce harangue
+      against the heretic strangers. As he maddened, his hearers maddened; the
+      savage nature, capricious as a child's, flashed out in wild suspicion.
+      Women yelled, men scowled, and ran hastily to their huts for bows and
+      blow-guns. The case was grown critical. There were not more than a dozen
+      men with Amyas at the time, and they had only their swords, while the
+      Indian men might muster nearly a hundred. Amyas forbade his men either to
+      draw or to retreat; but poisoned arrows were weapons before which the
+      boldest might well quail; and more than one cheek grew pale, which had
+      seldom been pale before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is God's quarrel, sirs all,&rdquo; said Jack Brimblecombe; &ldquo;let Him defend
+      the right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke, from Ayacanora's hut arose her magic song, and quivered aloft
+      among the green heights of the forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mob stood spell-bound, still growling fiercely, but not daring to
+      move. Another moment, and she had rushed out, like a very Diana, into the
+      centre of the ring, bow in hand, and arrow on the string.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fallen &ldquo;children of wrath&rdquo; had found their match in her; for her
+      beautiful face was convulsed with fury. Almost foaming in her passion, she
+      burst forth with bitter revilings; she pointed with admiration to the
+      English, and then with fiercest contempt to the Indians; and at last, with
+      fierce gestures, seemed to cast off the very dust of her feet against
+      them, and springing to Amyas's side, placed herself in the forefront of
+      the English battle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole scene was so sudden, that Amyas had hardly discovered whether
+      she came as friend or foe, before her bow was raised. He had just time to
+      strike up her hand, when the arrow flew past the ear of the offending
+      Piache, and stuck quivering in a tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me kill the wretch!&rdquo; said she, stamping with rage; but Amyas held her
+      arm firmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fools!&rdquo; cried she to the tribe, while tears of anger rolled down her
+      cheeks. &ldquo;Choose between me and your trumpet! I am a daughter of the Sun; I
+      am white; I am a companion for Englishmen! But you! your mothers were
+      Guahibas, and ate mud; and your fathers&mdash;they were howling apes! Let
+      them sing to you! I shall go to the white men, and never sing you to sleep
+      any more; and when the little evil spirit misses my voice, he will come
+      and tumble you out of your hammocks, and make you dream of ghosts every
+      night, till you grow as thin as blow-guns, and as stupid as aye-ayes!&rdquo;*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Two-toed sloths.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This terrible counter-threat, in spite of the slight bathos involved, had
+      its effect; for it appealed to that dread of the sleep world which is
+      common to all savages: but the conjuror was ready to outbid the
+      prophetess, and had begun a fresh oration, when Amyas turned the tide of
+      war. Bursting into a huge laugh at the whole matter, he took the conjuror
+      by his shoulders, sent him with one crafty kick half-a-dozen yards off
+      upon his nose; and then, walking out of the ranks, shook hands round with
+      all his Indian acquaintances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereon, like grown-up babies, they all burst out laughing too, shook
+      hands with all the English, and then with each other; being, after all, as
+      glad as any bishops to prorogue the convocation, and let unpleasant
+      questions stand over till the next session. The Piache relented, like a
+      prudent man; Ayacanora returned to her hut to sulk; and Amyas to his
+      island, to long for Cary's return, for he felt himself on dangerous
+      ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last Will returned, safe and sound, and as merry as ever, not having
+      lost a man (though he had had a smart brush with the Guahibas). He brought
+      back three of the wounded men, now pretty nigh cured; the other two, who
+      had lost a leg apiece, had refused to come. They had Indian wives; more
+      than they could eat; and tobacco without end: and if it were not for the
+      gnats (of which Cary said that there were more mosquitoes than there was
+      air), they should be the happiest men alive. Amyas could hardly blame the
+      poor fellows; for the chance of their getting home through the forest with
+      one leg each was very small, and, after all, they were making the best of
+      a bad matter. And a very bad matter it seemed to him, to be left in a
+      heathen land; and a still worse matter, when he overheard some of the men
+      talking about their comrades' lonely fate, as if, after all, they were not
+      so much to be pitied. He said nothing about it then, for he made a rule
+      never to take notice of any facts which he got at by eavesdropping,
+      however unintentional; but he longed that one of them would say as much to
+      him, and he would &ldquo;give them a piece of his mind.&rdquo; And a piece of his mind
+      he had to give within the week; for while he was on a hunting party, two
+      of his men were missing, and were not heard of for some days; at the end
+      of which time the old cacique come to tell him that he believed they had
+      taken to the forest, each with an Indian girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was very wroth at the news. First, because it had never happened
+      before: he could say with honest pride, as Raleigh did afterwards when he
+      returned from his Guiana voyage, that no Indian woman had ever been the
+      worse for any man of his. He had preached on this point month after month,
+      and practised what he preached; and now his pride was sorely hurt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moreover, he dreaded offence to the Indians themselves: but on this score
+      the cacique soon comforted him, telling him that the girls, as far as he
+      could find, had gone off of their own free will; intimating that he
+      thought it somewhat an honor to the tribe that they had found favor in the
+      eyes of the bearded men; and moreover, that late wars had so thinned the
+      ranks of their men, that they were glad enough to find husbands for their
+      maidens, and had been driven of late years to kill many of their female
+      infants. This sad story, common perhaps to every American tribe, and one
+      of the chief causes of their extermination, reassured Amyas somewhat: but
+      he could not stomach either the loss of his men, or their breach of
+      discipline; and look for them he would. Did any one know where they were?
+      If the tribe knew, they did not care to tell: but Ayacanora, the moment
+      she found out his wishes, vanished into the forest, and returned in two
+      days, saying that she had found the fugitives; but she would not show him
+      where they were, unless he promised not to kill them. He, of course, had
+      no mind for so rigorous a method: he both needed the men, and he had no
+      malice against them,&mdash;for the one, Ebsworthy, was a plain, honest,
+      happy-go-lucky sailor, and as good a hand as there was in the crew; and
+      the other was that same ne'er-do-weel Will Parracombe, his old
+      schoolfellow, who had been tempted by the gipsy-Jesuit at Appledore, and
+      resisting that bait, had made a very fair seaman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So forth Amyas went, with Ayacanora as a guide, some five miles upward
+      along the forest slopes, till the girl whispered, &ldquo;There they are;&rdquo; and
+      Amyas, pushing himself gently through a thicket of bamboo, beheld a scene
+      which, in spite of his wrath, kept him silent, and perhaps softened, for a
+      minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the farther side of a little lawn, the stream leapt through a chasm
+      beneath overarching vines, sprinkling eternal freshness upon all around,
+      and then sank foaming into a clear rock-basin, a bath for Dian's self. On
+      its farther side, the crag rose some twenty feet in height, bank upon bank
+      of feathered ferns and cushioned moss, over the rich green beds of which
+      drooped a thousand orchids, scarlet, white, and orange, and made the still
+      pool gorgeous with the reflection of their gorgeousness. At its more quiet
+      outfall, it was half-hidden in huge fantastic leaves and tall flowering
+      stems; but near the waterfall the grassy bank sloped down toward the
+      stream, and there, on palm-leaves strewed upon the turf, beneath the
+      shadow of the crags, lay the two men whom Amyas sought, and whom, now he
+      had found them, he had hardly heart to wake from their delicious dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For what a nest it was which they had found! the air was heavy with the
+      scent of flowers, and quivering with the murmur of the stream, the humming
+      of the colibris and insects, the cheerful song of birds, the gentle cooing
+      of a hundred doves; while now and then, from far away, the musical wail of
+      the sloth, or the deep toll of the bell-bird, came softly to the ear. What
+      was not there which eye or ear could need? And what which palate could
+      need either? For on the rock above, some strange tree, leaning forward,
+      dropped every now and then a luscious apple upon the grass below, and huge
+      wild plantains bent beneath their load of fruit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There, on the stream bank, lay the two renegades from civilized life. They
+      had cast away their clothes, and painted themselves, like the Indians,
+      with arnotto and indigo. One lay lazily picking up the fruit which fell
+      close to his side; the other sat, his back against a cushion of soft moss,
+      his hands folded languidly upon his lap, giving himself up to the soft
+      influence of the narcotic coca-juice, with half-shut dreamy eyes fixed on
+      the everlasting sparkle of the waterfall&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;While beauty, born of murmuring sound,
+     Did pass into his face.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Somewhat apart crouched their two dusky brides, crowned with fragrant
+      flowers, but working busily, like true women, for the lords whom they
+      delighted to honor. One sat plaiting palm fibres into a basket; the other
+      was boring the stem of a huge milk-tree, which rose like some mighty
+      column on the right hand of the lawn, its broad canopy of leaves unseen
+      through the dense underwood of laurel and bamboo, and betokened only by
+      the rustle far aloft, and by the mellow shade in which it bathed the whole
+      delicious scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas stood silent for awhile, partly from noble shame at seeing two
+      Christian men thus fallen of their own self-will; partly because&mdash;and
+      he could not but confess that&mdash;a solemn calm brooded above that
+      glorious place, to break through which seemed sacrilege even while he felt
+      it a duty. Such, he thought, was Paradise of old; such our first parents'
+      bridal bower! Ah! if man had not fallen, he too might have dwelt forever
+      in such a home&mdash;with whom? He started, and shaking off the spell,
+      advanced sword in hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The women saw him, and springing to their feet, caught up their long
+      pocunas, and leapt like deer each in front of her beloved. There they
+      stood, the deadly tubes pressed to their lips, eyeing him like tigresses
+      who protect their young, while every slender limb quivered, not with
+      terror, but with rage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas paused, half in admiration, half in prudence; for one rash step was
+      death. But rushing through the canes, Ayacanora sprang to the front, and
+      shrieked to them in Indian. At the sight of the prophetess the women
+      wavered, and Amyas, putting on as gentle a face as he could, stepped
+      forward, assuring them in his best Indian that he would harm no one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ebsworthy! Parracombe! Are you grown such savages already, that you have
+      forgotten your captain? Stand up, men, and salute!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ebsworthy sprang to his feet, obeyed mechanically, and then slipped behind
+      his bride again, as if in shame. The dreamer turned his head languidly,
+      raised his hand to his forehead, and then returned to his contemplation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas rested the point of his sword on the ground, and his hands upon the
+      hilt, and looked sadly and solemnly upon the pair. Ebsworthy broke the
+      silence, half reproachfully, half trying to bluster away the coming storm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, noble captain, so you've hunted out us poor fellows; and want to
+      drag us back again in a halter, I suppose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came to look for Christians, and I find heathens; for men, and I find
+      swine. I shall leave the heathens to their wilderness, and the swine to
+      their trough. Parracombe!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's too happy to answer you, sir. And why not? What do you want of us?
+      Our two years vow is out, and we are free men now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Free to become like the beasts that perish? You are the queen's servants
+      still, and in her name I charge you&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Free to be happy,&rdquo; interrupted the man. &ldquo;With the best of wives, the best
+      of food, a warmer bed than a duke's, and a finer garden than an emperor's.
+      As for clothes, why the plague should a man wear them where he don't need
+      them? As for gold, what's the use of it where Heaven sends everything
+      ready-made to your hands? Hearken, Captain Leigh. You've been a good
+      captain to me, and I'll repay you with a bit of sound advice. Give up your
+      gold-hunting, and toiling and moiling after honor and glory, and copy us.
+      Take that fair maid behind you there to wife; pitch here with us; and see
+      if you are not happier in one day than ever you were in all your life
+      before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are drunk, sirrah! William Parracombe! Will you speak to me, or shall
+      I heave you into the stream to sober you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who calls William Parracombe?&rdquo; answered a sleepy voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I, fool!&mdash;your captain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not William Parracombe. He is dead long ago of hunger, and labor,
+      and heavy sorrow, and will never see Bideford town any more. He is turned
+      into an Indian now; and he is to sleep, sleep, sleep for a hundred years,
+      till he gets his strength again, poor fellow&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Awake, then, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ
+      shall give thee light! A christened Englishman, and living thus the life
+      of a beast?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Christ shall give thee light?&rdquo; answered the same unnatural abstracted
+      voice. &ldquo;Yes; so the parsons say. And they say too, that He is Lord of
+      heaven and earth. I should have thought His light was as near us here as
+      anywhere, and nearer too, by the look of the place. Look round!&rdquo; said he,
+      waving a lazy hand, &ldquo;and see the works of God, and the place of Paradise,
+      whither poor weary souls go home and rest, after their masters in the
+      wicked world have used them up, with labor and sorrow, and made them wade
+      knee-deep in blood&mdash;I'm tired of blood, and tired of gold. I'll march
+      no more; I'll fight no more; I'll hunger no more after vanity and vexation
+      of spirit. What shall I get by it? Maybe I shall leave my bones in the
+      wilderness. I can but do that here. Maybe I shall get home with a few
+      pezos, to die an old cripple in some stinking hovel, that a monkey would
+      scorn to lodge in here. You may go on; it'll pay you. You may be a rich
+      man, and a knight, and live in a fine house, and drink good wine, and go
+      to Court, and torment your soul with trying to get more, when you've got
+      too much already; plotting and planning to scramble upon your neighbor's
+      shoulders, as they all did&mdash;Sir Richard, and Mr. Raleigh, and
+      Chichester, and poor dear old Sir Warham, and all of them that I used to
+      watch when I lived before. They were no happier than I was then; I'll
+      warrant they are no happier now. Go your ways, captain; climb to glory
+      upon some other backs than ours, and leave us here in peace, alone with
+      God and God's woods, and the good wives that God has given us, to play a
+      little like school children. It's long since I've had play-hours; and now
+      I'll be a little child once more, with the flowers, and the singing birds,
+      and the silver fishes in the stream, that are at peace, and think no harm,
+      and want neither clothes, nor money, nor knighthood, nor peerage, but just
+      take what comes; and their heavenly Father feedeth them, and Solomon in
+      all his glory was not arrayed like one of these&mdash;and will He not much
+      more feed us, that are of more value than many sparrows?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And will you live here, shut out from all Christian ordinances?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Christian ordinances? Adam and Eve had no parsons in Paradise. The Lord
+      was their priest, and the Lord was their shepherd, and He'll be ours too.
+      But go your ways, sir, and send up Sir John Brimblecombe, and let him
+      marry us here Church fashion (though we have sworn troth to each other
+      before God already), and let him give us the Holy Sacrament once and for
+      all, and then read the funeral service over us, and go his ways, and count
+      us for dead, sir&mdash;for dead we are to the wicked worthless world we
+      came out of three years ago. And when the Lord chooses to call us, the
+      little birds will cover us with leaves, as they did the babies in the
+      wood, and fresher flowers will grow out of our graves, sir, than out of
+      yours in that bare Northam churchyard there beyond the weary, weary, weary
+      sea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His voice died away to a murmur, and his head sank on his breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas stood spell-bound. The effect of the narcotic was all but miraculous
+      in his eyes. The sustained eloquence, the novel richness of diction in one
+      seemingly drowned in sensual sloth, were, in his eyes, the possession of
+      some evil spirit. And yet he could not answer the Evil One. His English
+      heart, full of the divine instinct of duty and public spirit, told him
+      that it must be a lie: but how to prove it a lie? And he stood for full
+      ten minutes searching for an answer, which seemed to fly farther and
+      farther off the more he sought for it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His eye glanced upon Ayacanora. The two girls were whispering to her
+      smilingly. He saw one of them glance a look toward him, and then say
+      something, which raised a beautiful blush in the maiden's face. With a
+      playful blow at the speaker, she turned away. Amyas knew instinctively
+      that they were giving her the same advice as Ebsworthy had given to him.
+      Oh, how beautiful she was! Might not the renegades have some reason on
+      their side after all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He shuddered at the thought: but he could not shake it off. It glided in
+      like some gaudy snake, and wreathed its coils round all his heart and
+      brain. He drew back to the other side of the lawn, and thought and thought&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Should he ever get home? If he did, might he not get home a beggar? Beggar
+      or rich, he would still have to face his mother, to go through that
+      meeting, to tell that tale, perhaps, to hear those reproaches, the
+      forecast of which had weighed on him like a dark thunder-cloud for two
+      weary years; to wipe out which by some desperate deed of glory he had
+      wandered the wilderness, and wandered in vain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Could he not settle here? He need not be a savage, he and his might
+      Christianize, civilize, teach equal law, mercy in war, chivalry to women;
+      found a community which might be hereafter as strong a barrier against the
+      encroachments of the Spaniard, as Manoa itself would have been. Who knew
+      the wealth of the surrounding forests? Even if there were no gold, there
+      were boundless vegetable treasures. What might he not export down the
+      rivers? This might be the nucleus of a great commercial settlement&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet, was even that worth while? To settle here only to torment his
+      soul with fresh schemes, fresh ambitions; not to rest, but only to change
+      one labor for another? Was not your dreamer right? Did they not all need
+      rest? What if they each sat down among the flowers, beside an Indian
+      bride? They might live like Christians, while they lived like the birds of
+      heaven.&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What a dead silence! He looked up and round; the birds had ceased to
+      chirp; the parroquets were hiding behind the leaves; the monkeys were
+      clustered motionless upon the highest twigs; only out of the far depths of
+      the forest, the campanero gave its solemn toll, once, twice, thrice, like
+      a great death-knell rolling down from far cathedral towers. Was it an
+      omen? He looked up hastily at Ayacanora. She was watching him earnestly.
+      Heavens! was she waiting for his decision? Both dropped their eyes. The
+      decision was not to come from them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A rustle! a roar! a shriek! and Amyas lifted his eyes in time to see a
+      huge dark bar shoot from the crag above the dreamer's head, among the
+      group of girls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A dull crash, as the group flew asunder; and in the midst, upon the
+      ground, the tawny limbs of one were writhing beneath the fangs of a black
+      jaguar, the rarest and most terrible of the forest kings. Of one? But of
+      which? Was it Ayacanora? And sword in hand, Amyas rushed madly forward;
+      before he reached the spot those tortured limbs were still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not Ayacanora, for with a shriek which rang through the woods, the
+      wretched dreamer, wakened thus at last, sprang up and felt for his sword.
+      Fool! he had left it in his hammock! Screaming the name of his dead bride,
+      he rushed on the jaguar, as it crouched above its prey, and seizing its
+      head with teeth and nails, worried it, in the ferocity of his madness,
+      like a mastiff-dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brute wrenched its head from his grasp, and raised its dreadful paw.
+      Another moment and the husband's corpse would have lain by the wife's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But high in air gleamed Amyas's blade; down with all the weight of his
+      huge body and strong arm, fell that most trusty steel; the head of the
+      jaguar dropped grinning on its victim's corpse;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;And all stood still, who saw him fall,
+     While men might count a score.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O Lord Jesus,&rdquo; said Amyas to himself, &ldquo;Thou hast answered the devil for
+      me! And this is the selfish rest for which I would have bartered the rest
+      which comes by working where Thou hast put me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They bore away the lithe corpse into the forest, and buried it under soft
+      moss and virgin mould; and so the fair clay was transfigured into fairer
+      flowers, and the poor, gentle, untaught spirit returned to God who gave
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then Amyas went sadly and silently back again, and Parracombe walked
+      after him, like one who walks in sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ebsworthy, sobered by the shock, entreated to come too: but Amyas forbade
+      him gently,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, lad, you are forgiven. God forbid that I should judge you or any man!
+      Sir John shall come up and marry you; and then, if it still be your will
+      to stay, the Lord forgive you, if you be wrong; in the meanwhile, we will
+      leave with you all that we can spare. Stay here and pray to God to make
+      you, and me too, wiser men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so Amyas departed. He had come out stern and proud; but he came back
+      again like a little child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three days after Parracombe was dead. Once in camp he seemed unable to eat
+      or move, and having received absolution and communion from good Sir John,
+      faded away without disease or pain, &ldquo;babbling of green fields,&rdquo; and
+      murmuring the name of his lost Indian bride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas, too, sought ghostly council of Sir John, and told him all which had
+      passed through his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was indeed a temptation of Diabolus,&rdquo; said that simple sage; &ldquo;for he
+      is by his very name the divider who sets man against man, and tempts one
+      to care only for oneself, and forget kin and country, and duty and queen.
+      But you have resisted him, Captain Leigh, like a true-born Englishman, as
+      you always are, and he has fled from you. But that is no reason why we
+      should not flee from him too; and so I think the sooner we are out of this
+      place, and at work again, the better for all our souls.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To which Amyas most devoutly said, &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; If Ayacanora were the daughter
+      of ten thousand Incas, he must get out of her way as soon as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day he announced his intention to march once more, and to his
+      delight found the men ready enough to move towards the Spanish
+      settlements. One thing they needed: gunpowder for their muskets. But that
+      they must make as they went along; that is, if they could get the
+      materials. Charcoal they could procure, enough to set the world on fire;
+      but nitre they had not yet seen; perhaps they should find it among the
+      hills: while as for sulphur, any brave man could get that where there were
+      volcanoes. Who had not heard how one of Cortez' Spaniards, in like need,
+      was lowered in a basket down the smoking crater of Popocatepetl, till he
+      had gathered sulphur enough to conquer an empire? And what a Spaniard
+      could do an Englishman could do, or they would know the reason why. And if
+      they found none&mdash;why clothyard arrows had done Englishmen's work many
+      a time already, and they could do it again, not to mention those same
+      blow-guns and their arrows of curare poison, which, though they might be
+      useless against Spaniards' armor, were far more valuable than muskets for
+      procuring food, from the simple fact of their silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One thing remained; to invite their Indian friends to join them. And that
+      was done in due form the next day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ayacanora was consulted, of course, and by the Piache, too, who was glad
+      enough to be rid of the rival preacher, and his unpleasantly good news
+      that men need not worship the devil, because there was a good God above
+      them. The maiden sang most melodious assent; the whole tribe echoed it;
+      and all went smoothly enough till the old cacique observed that before
+      starting a compact should be made between the allies as to their share of
+      the booty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing could be more reasonable; and Amyas asked him to name his terms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You take the gold, and we will take the prisoners.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what will you do with them?&rdquo; asked Amyas, who recollected poor John
+      Oxenham's hapless compact made in like case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eat them,&rdquo; quoth the cacique, innocently enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas whistled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo; said Cary. &ldquo;The old proverb comes true&mdash;'the more the
+      merrier: but the fewer the better fare.' I think we will do without our
+      red friends for this time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ayacanora, who had been preaching war like a very Boadicea, was much
+      vexed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you too want to dine off roast Spaniards?&rdquo; asked Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She shook her head, and denied the imputation with much disgust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was relieved; he had shrunk from joining the thought of so fair a
+      creature, however degraded, with the horrors of cannibalism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the cacique was a man of business, and held out stanchly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it fair?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;The white man loves gold, and he gets it. The
+      poor Indian, what use is gold to him? He only wants something to eat, and
+      he must eat his enemies. What else will pay him for going so far through
+      the forests hungry and thirsty? You will get all, and the Omaguas will get
+      nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The argument was unanswerable; and the next day they started without the
+      Indians, while John Brimblecombe heaved many an honest sigh at leaving
+      them to darkness, the devil, and the holy trumpet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Ayacanora?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When their departure was determined, she shut herself up in her hut, and
+      appeared no more. Great was the weeping, howling, and leave-taking on the
+      part of the simple Indians, and loud the entreaties to come again, bring
+      them a message from Amalivaca's daughter beyond the seas, and help them to
+      recover their lost land of Papamene; but Ayacanora took no part in them;
+      and Amyas left her, wondering at her absence, but joyful and light-hearted
+      at having escaped the rocks of the Sirens, and being at work once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXV
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW THEY TOOK THE GOLD-TRAIN
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;God will relent, and quit thee all thy debt,
+     Who ever more approves, and more accepts
+     Him who imploring mercy sues for life,
+     Than who self-rigorous chooses death as due,
+     Which argues over-just, and self-displeased
+     For self-offence, more than for God offended.&rdquo;
+
+                               Samson Agonistes.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A fortnight or more has passed in severe toil, but not more severe than
+      they have endured many a time before. Bidding farewell once and forever to
+      the green ocean of the eastern plains, they have crossed the Cordillera;
+      they have taken a longing glance at the city of Santa Fe, lying in the
+      midst of rich gardens on its lofty mountain plateau, and have seen, as was
+      to be expected, that it was far too large a place for any attempt of
+      theirs. But they have not altogether thrown away their time. Their Indian
+      lad has discovered that a gold-train is going down from Santa Fe toward
+      the Magdalena; and they are waiting for it beside the miserable rut which
+      serves for a road, encamped in a forest of oaks which would make them
+      almost fancy themselves back again in Europe, were it not for the
+      tree-ferns which form the undergrowth; and were it not, too, for the deep
+      gorges opening at their very feet; in which, while their brows are swept
+      by the cool breezes of a temperate zone, they can see far below, dim
+      through their everlasting vapor-bath of rank hot steam, the mighty forms
+      and gorgeous colors of the tropic forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They have pitched their camp among the tree-ferns, above a spot where the
+      path winds along a steep hill-side, with a sheer cliff below of many a
+      hundred feet. There was a road there once, perhaps, when Cundinamarca was
+      a civilized and cultivated kingdom; but all which Spanish misrule has left
+      of it are a few steps slipping from their places at the bottom of a narrow
+      ditch of mud. It has gone the way of the aqueducts, and bridges, and
+      post-houses, the gardens and the llama-flocks of that strange empire. In
+      the mad search for gold, every art of civilization has fallen to decay,
+      save architecture alone; and that survives only in the splendid cathedrals
+      which have risen upon the ruins of the temples of the Sun, in honor of a
+      milder Pantheon; if, indeed, that can be called a milder one which demands
+      (as we have seen already) human sacrifices, unknown to the gentle
+      nature-worship of the Incas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, the rapid tropic vegetation has reclaimed its old domains, and
+      Amyas and his crew are as utterly alone, within a few miles of an
+      important Spanish settlement, as they would be in the solitudes of the
+      Orinoco or the Amazon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, all their attempts to find sulphur and nitre have been
+      unavailing; and they have been forced to depend after all (much to Yeo's
+      disgust) upon their swords and arrows. Be it so: Drake took Nombre de Dios
+      and the gold-train there with no better weapons; and they may do as much.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, having blocked up the road above by felling a large tree across it,
+      they sit there among the flowers chewing coca, in default of food and
+      drink, and meditating among themselves the cause of a mysterious roar,
+      which has been heard nightly in their wake ever since they left the banks
+      of the Meta. Jaguar it is not, nor monkey: it is unlike any sound they
+      know; and why should it follow them? However, they are in the land of
+      wonders; and, moreover, the gold train is far more important than any
+      noise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last, up from beneath there was a sharp crack and a loud cry. The crack
+      was neither the snapping of a branch, nor the tapping of a woodpecker; the
+      cry was neither the scream of the parrot, nor the howl of the monkey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was a whip's crack,&rdquo; said Yeo, &ldquo;and a woman's wail. They are close
+      here, lads!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A woman's? Do they drive women in their gangs?&rdquo; asked Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not, the brutes? There they are, sir. Did you see their basnets
+      glitter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Men!&rdquo; said Amyas, in a low voice, &ldquo;I trust you all not to shoot till I
+      do. Then give them one arrow, out swords, and at them! Pass the word
+      along.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Up they came, slowly, and all hearts beat loud at their coming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First, about twenty soldiers, only one-half of whom were on foot; the
+      other half being borne, incredible as it may seem, each in a chair on the
+      back of a single Indian, while those who marched had consigned their
+      heaviest armor and their arquebuses into the hands of attendant slaves,
+      who were each pricked on at will by the pike of the soldier behind them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The men are mad to let their ordnance out of their hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, sir, an Indian will pray to an arquebus not to shoot him; he sure
+      their artillery is safe enough,&rdquo; said Yeo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look at the proud villains,&rdquo; whispered another, &ldquo;to make dumb beasts of
+      human creatures like that!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ten shot,&rdquo; counted the business-like Amyas, &ldquo;and ten pikes; Will can
+      tackle them up above.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Last of this troop came some inferior officer, also in his chair, who, as
+      he went slowly up the hill, with his face turned toward the gang which
+      followed, drew every other second the cigar from his lips, to inspirit
+      them with those pious ejaculations to the various objects of his worship,
+      divine, human, anatomic, wooden and textile, which earned for the pious
+      Spaniards of the sixteenth century the uncharitable imputation of being at
+      once the most fetish-ridden idolaters and the most abominable swearers of
+      all Europeans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The blasphemous dog!&rdquo; said Yeo, fumbling at his bow-string, as if he
+      longed to send an arrow through him. But Amyas had hardly laid his finger
+      on the impatient veteran's arm, when another procession followed, which
+      made them forget all else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A sad and hideous sight it was: yet one too common even then in those
+      remoter districts, where the humane edicts were disregarded which the
+      prayers of Dominican friars (to their everlasting honor be it spoken) had
+      wrung from the Spanish sovereigns, and which the legislation of that most
+      wise, virtuous, and heroic Inquisitor (paradoxical as the words may seem),
+      Pedro de la Gasca, had carried into effect in Peru,&mdash;futile and tardy
+      alleviations of cruelties and miseries unexampled in the history of
+      Christendom, or perhaps on earth, save in the conquests of Sennacherib and
+      Zingis Khan. But on the frontiers, where negroes were imported to endure
+      the toil which was found fatal to the Indian, and all Indian tribes
+      convicted (or suspected) of cannibalism were hunted down for the salvation
+      of their souls and the enslavement of their bodies, such scenes as these
+      were still too common; and, indeed, if we are to judge from Humboldt's
+      impartial account, were not very much amended even at the close of the
+      last century, in those much-boasted Jesuit missions in which (as many of
+      them as existed anywhere but on paper) military tyranny was superadded to
+      monastic, and the Gospel preached with fire and sword, almost as
+      shamelessly as by the first Conquistadores.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A line of Indians, Negroes, and Zambos, naked, emaciated, scarred with
+      whips and fetters, and chained together by their left wrists, toiled
+      upwards, panting and perspiring under the burden of a basket held up by a
+      strap which passed across their foreheads. Yeo's sneer was but too just;
+      there were not only old men and youths among them, but women; slender
+      young girls, mothers with children, running at their knee; and, at the
+      sight, a low murmur of indignation rose from the ambushed Englishmen,
+      worthy of the free and righteous hearts of those days, when Raleigh could
+      appeal to man and God, on the ground of a common humanity, in behalf of
+      the outraged heathens of the New World; when Englishmen still knew that
+      man was man, and that the instinct of freedom was the righteous voice of
+      God; ere the hapless seventeenth century had brutalized them also, by
+      bestowing on them, amid a hundred other bad legacies, the fatal gift of
+      negro-slaves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the first forty, so Amyas counted, bore on their backs a burden which
+      made all, perhaps, but him and Yeo, forget even the wretches who bore it.
+      Each basket contained a square package of carefully corded hide; the look
+      whereof friend Amyas knew full well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's in they, captain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gold!&rdquo; And at that magic word all eyes were strained greedily forward,
+      and such a rustle followed, that Amyas, in the very face of detection, had
+      to whisper&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be men, be men, or you will spoil all yet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The last twenty, or so, of the Indians bore larger baskets, but more
+      lightly freighted, seemingly with manioc, and maize-bread, and other food
+      for the party; and after them came, with their bearers and attendants,
+      just twenty soldiers more, followed by the officer in charge, who smiled
+      away in his chair, and twirled two huge mustachios, thinking of nothing
+      less than of the English arrows which were itching to be away and through
+      his ribs. The ambush was complete; the only question how and when to
+      begin?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas had a shrinking, which all will understand, from drawing bow in cool
+      blood on men so utterly unsuspicious and defenceless, even though in the
+      very act of devilish cruelty&mdash;for devilish cruelty it was, as three
+      or four drivers armed with whips lingered up and down the slowly
+      staggering file of Indians, and avenged every moment's lagging, even every
+      stumble, by a blow of the cruel manati-hide, which cracked like a
+      pistol-shot against the naked limbs of the silent and uncomplaining
+      victim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly the casus belli, as usually happens, arose of its own accord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last but one of the chained line was an old gray-headed man, followed
+      by a slender graceful girl of some eighteen years old, and Amyas's heart
+      yearned over them as they came up. Just as they passed, the foremost of
+      the file had rounded the corner above; there was a bustle, and a voice
+      shouted, &ldquo;Halt, senors! there is a tree across the path!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A tree across the path?&rdquo; bellowed the officer, with a variety of
+      passionate addresses to the Mother of Heaven, the fiends of hell, Saint
+      Jago of Compostella, and various other personages; while the line of
+      trembling Indians, told to halt above, and driven on by blows below,
+      surged up and down upon the ruinous steps of the Indian road, until the
+      poor old man fell grovelling on his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The officer leaped down, and hurried upward to see what had happened. Of
+      course, he came across the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sin peccado concebida! Grandfather of Beelzebub, is this a place to lie
+      worshipping your fiends?&rdquo; and he pricked the prostrate wretch with the
+      point of his sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man tried to rise: but the weight on his head was too much for
+      him; he fell again, and lay motionless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The driver applied the manati-hide across his loins, once, twice, with
+      fearful force; but even that specific was useless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gastado, Senor Capitan,&rdquo; said he, with a shrug. &ldquo;Used up. He has been
+      failing these three months!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does the intendant mean by sending me out with worn-out cattle like
+      these? Forward there!&rdquo; shouted he. &ldquo;Clear away the tree, senors, and I'll
+      soon clear the chain. Hold it up, Pedrillo!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The driver held up the chain, which was fastened to the old man's wrist.
+      The officer stepped back, and flourished round his head a Toledo blade,
+      whose beauty made Amyas break the Tenth Commandment on the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man was a tall, handsome, broad-shouldered, high-bred man; and Amyas
+      thought that he was going to display the strength of his arm, and the
+      temper of his blade, in severing the chain at one stroke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even he was not prepared for the recondite fancies of a Spanish
+      adventurer, worthy son or nephew of those first conquerors, who used to
+      try the keenness of their swords upon the living bodies of Indians, and
+      regale themselves at meals with the odor of roasting caciques.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blade gleamed in the air, once, twice, and fell: not on the chain, but
+      on the wrist which it fettered. There was a shriek&mdash;a crimson flash&mdash;and
+      the chain and its prisoner were parted indeed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One moment more, and Amyas's arrow would have been through the throat of
+      the murderer, who paused, regarding his workmanship with a satisfied
+      smile; but vengeance was not to come from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quick and fierce as a tiger-cat, the girl sprang on the ruffian, and with
+      the intense strength of passion, clasped him in her arms, and leaped with
+      him from the narrow ledge into the abyss below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a rush, a shout; all faces were bent over the precipice. The
+      girl hung by her chained wrist: the officer was gone. There was a moment's
+      awful silence; and then Amyas heard his body crashing through the
+      tree-tops far below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haul her up! Hew her in pieces! Burn the witch!&rdquo; and the driver, seizing
+      the chain, pulled at it with all his might, while all springing from their
+      chairs, stooped over the brink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now was the time for Amyas! Heaven had delivered them into his hands.
+      Swift and sure, at ten yards off, his arrow rushed through the body of the
+      driver, and then, with a roar as of the leaping lion, he sprang like an
+      avenging angel into the midst of the astonished ruffians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His first thought was for the girl. In a moment, by sheer strength, he had
+      jerked her safely up into the road; while the Spaniards recoiled right and
+      left, fancying him for the moment some mountain giant or supernatural foe.
+      His hurrah undeceived them in an instant, and a cry of &ldquo;English! Lutheran
+      dogs!&rdquo; arose, but arose too late. The men of Devon had followed their
+      captain's lead: a storm of arrows left five Spaniards dead, and a dozen
+      more wounded, and down leapt Salvation Yeo, his white hair streaming
+      behind him, with twenty good swords more, and the work of death began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spaniards fought like lions; but they had no time to fix their
+      arquebuses on the crutches; no room, in that narrow path, to use their
+      pikes. The English had the wall of them; and to have the wall there, was
+      to have the foe's life at their mercy. Five desperate minutes, and not a
+      living Spaniard stood upon those steps; and certainly no living one lay in
+      the green abyss below. Two only, who were behind the rest, happening to be
+      in full armor, escaped without mortal wound, and fled down the hill again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After them! Michael Evans and Simon Heard; and catch them, if they run a
+      league.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two long and lean Clovelly men, active as deer from forest training,
+      ran two feet for the Spaniard's one; and in ten minutes returned, having
+      done their work; while Amyas and his men hurried past the Indians, to help
+      Cary and the party forward, where shouts and musket shots announced a
+      sharp affray.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their arrival settled the matter. All the Spaniards fell but three or
+      four, who scrambled down the crannies of the cliff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let not one of them escape! Slay them as Israel slew Amalek!&rdquo; cried Yeo,
+      as he bent over; and ere the wretches could reach a place of shelter, an
+      arrow was quivering in each body, as it rolled lifeless down the rocks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now then! Loose the Indians!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They found armorers tools on one of the dead bodies, and it was done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are your friends,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;All we ask is, that you shall help us
+      to carry this gold down to the Magdalena, and then you are free.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Some few of the younger grovelled at his knees, and kissed his feet,
+      hailing him as the child of the Sun: but the most part kept a stolid
+      indifference, and when freed from their fetters, sat quietly down where
+      they stood, staring into vacancy. The iron had entered too deeply into
+      their soul. They seemed past hope, enjoyment, even understanding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the young girl, who was last of all in the line, as soon as she was
+      loosed, sprang to her father's body, speaking no word, lifted it in her
+      thin arms, laid it across her knees, kissed the fallen lips, stroked the
+      furrowed cheeks, murmured inarticulate sounds like the cooing of a
+      woodland dove, of which none knew the meaning but she, and he who heard
+      not, for his soul had long since fled. Suddenly the truth flashed on her;
+      silent as ever, she drew one long heaving breath, and rose erect, the body
+      in her arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another moment, and she had leaped into the abyss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They watched her dark and slender limbs, twined closely round the old
+      man's corpse, turn over, and over, and over, till a crash among the
+      leaves, and a scream among the birds, told that she had reached the trees;
+      and the green roof hid her from their view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brave lass!&rdquo; shouted a sailor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lord forgive her!&rdquo; said Yeo. &ldquo;But, your worship, we must have these
+      rascals' ordnance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And their clothes too, Yeo, if we wish to get down the Magdalena
+      unchallenged. Now listen, my masters all! We have won, by God's good
+      grace, gold enough to serve us the rest of our lives, and that without
+      losing a single man; and may yet win more, if we be wise, and He thinks
+      good. But oh, my friends, remember Mr. Oxenham and his crew; and do not
+      make God's gift our ruin, by faithlessness, or greediness, or any mutinous
+      haste.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall find none in us!&rdquo; cried several men. &ldquo;We know your worship. We
+      can trust our general.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank God!&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;Now then, it will be no shame or sin to make the
+      Indians carry it, saving the women, whom God forbid we should burden. But
+      we must pass through the very heart of the Spanish settlements, and by the
+      town of Saint Martha itself. So the clothes and weapons of these Spaniards
+      we must have, let it cost us what labor it may. How many lie in the road?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thirteen here, and about ten up above,&rdquo; said Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then there are near twenty missing. Who will volunteer to go down over
+      cliff, and bring up the spoil of them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I, and I, and I;&rdquo; and a dozen stepped out, as they did always when Amyas
+      wanted anything done; for the simple reason, that they knew that he meant
+      to help at the doing of it himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, then, follow me. Sir John, take the Indian lad for your
+      interpreter, and try and comfort the souls of these poor heathens. Tell
+      them that they shall all be free.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, who is that comes up the road?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All eyes were turned in the direction of which he spoke. And, wonder of
+      wonders! up came none other than Ayacanora herself, blow-gun in hand, bow
+      on back, and bedecked in all her feather garments, which last were rather
+      the worse for a fortnight's woodland travel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All stood mute with astonishment, as, seeing Amyas, she uttered a cry of
+      joy, quickened her pace into a run, and at last fell panting and exhausted
+      at his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have found you!&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;you ran away from me, but you could not
+      escape me!&rdquo; And she fawned round Amyas, like a dog who has found his
+      master, and then sat down on the bank, and burst into wild sobs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God help us!&rdquo; said Amyas, clutching his hair, as he looked down upon the
+      beautiful weeper. &ldquo;What am I to do with her, over and above all these poor
+      heathens?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But there was no time to be lost, and over the cliff he scrambled; while
+      the girl, seeing that the main body of the English remained, sat down on a
+      point of rock to watch him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After half-an-hour's hard work, the weapons, clothes, and armor of the
+      fallen Spaniards were hauled up the cliff, and distributed in bundles
+      among the men; the rest of the corpses were thrown over the precipice, and
+      they started again upon their road toward the Magdalena, while Yeo snorted
+      like a war-horse who smells the battle, at the delight of once more
+      handling powder and ball.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We can face the world now, sir! Why not go back and try Santa Fe, after
+      all?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Amyas thought that enough was as good as a feast, and they held on
+      downwards, while the slaves followed, without a sign of gratitude, but
+      meekly obedient to their new masters, and testifying now and then by a
+      sign or a grunt, their surprise at not being beaten, or made to carry
+      their captors. Some, however, caught sight of the little calabashes of
+      coca which the English carried. That woke them from their torpor, and they
+      began coaxing abjectly (and not in vain) for a taste of that miraculous
+      herb, which would not only make food unnecessary, and enable their panting
+      lungs to endure that keen mountain air, but would rid them, for awhile at
+      least, of the fallen Indian's most unpitying foe, the malady of thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the cavalcade turned the corner of the mountain, they paused for one
+      last look at the scene of that fearful triumph. Lines of vultures were
+      already streaming out of infinite space, as if created suddenly for the
+      occasion. A few hours and there would be no trace of that fierce fray, but
+      a few white bones amid untrodden beds of flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now Amyas had time to ask Ayacanora the meaning of this her strange
+      appearance. He wished her anywhere but where she was: but now that she was
+      here, what heart could be so hard as not to take pity on the poor wild
+      thing? And Amyas as he spoke to her had, perhaps, a tenderness in his
+      tone, from very fear of hurting her, which he had never used before.
+      Passionately she told him how she had followed on their track day and
+      night, and had every evening made sounds, as loud as she dared, in hopes
+      of their hearing her, and either waiting for her, or coming back to see
+      what caused the noise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas now recollected the strange roaring which had followed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Noises? What did you make them with?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ayacanora lifted her finger with an air of most self-satisfied mystery,
+      and then drew cautiously from under her feather cloak an object at which
+      Amyas had hard work to keep his countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look!&rdquo; whispered she, as if half afraid that the thing itself should hear
+      her. &ldquo;I have it&mdash;the holy trumpet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There it was verily, that mysterious bone of contention; a handsome
+      earthen tube some two feet long, neatly glazed, and painted with quaint
+      grecques and figures of animals; a relic evidently of some civilization
+      now extinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Brimblecombe rubbed his little fat hands. &ldquo;Brave maid! you have cheated
+      Satan this time,&rdquo; quoth he; while Yeo advised that the &ldquo;idolatrous relic&rdquo;
+       should be forthwith &ldquo;hove over cliff.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let be,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;What is the meaning of this, Ayacanora? And why
+      have you followed us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She told a long story, from which Amyas picked up, as far as he could
+      understand her, that that trumpet had been for years the torment of her
+      life; the one thing in the tribe superior to her; the one thing which she
+      was not allowed to see, because, forsooth, she was a woman. So she
+      determined to show them that a woman was as good as a man; and hence her
+      hatred of marriage, and her Amazonian exploits. But still the Piache would
+      not show her that trumpet, or tell her where it was; and as for going to
+      seek it, even she feared the superstitious wrath of the tribe at such a
+      profanation. But the day after the English went, the Piache chose to
+      express his joy at their departure; whereon, as was to be expected, a
+      fresh explosion between master and pupil, which ended, she confessed, in
+      her burning the old rogue's hut over his head, from which he escaped with
+      loss of all his conjuring-tackle, and fled raging into the woods, vowing
+      that he would carry off the trumpet to the neighboring tribe. Whereon, by
+      a sudden impulse, the young lady took plenty of coca, her weapons, and her
+      feathers, started on his trail, and ran him to earth just as he was
+      unveiling the precious mystery. At which sight (she confessed) she was
+      horribly afraid, and half inclined to run; but, gathering courage from the
+      thought that the white men used to laugh at the whole matter, she rushed
+      upon the hapless conjuror, and bore off her prize in triumph; and there it
+      was!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you have not killed him?&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did beat him a little; but I thought you would not let me kill him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was half amused with her confession of his authority over her; but
+      she went on&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then I dare not go back to the Indians; so I was forced to come after
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is that, then, your only reason for coming after us?&rdquo; asked stupid
+      Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had touched some secret chord&mdash;though what it was he was too busy
+      to inquire. The girl drew herself up proudly, blushing scarlet, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You never tell lies. Do you think that I would tell lies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On which she fell to the rear, and followed them steadfastly, speaking to
+      no one, but evidently determined to follow them to the world's end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They soon left the highroad; and for several days held on downwards,
+      hewing their path slowly and painfully through the thick underwood. On the
+      evening of the fourth day, they had reached the margin of a river, at a
+      point where it seemed broad and still enough for navigation. For those
+      three days they had not seen a trace of human beings, and the spot seemed
+      lonely enough for them to encamp without fear of discovery, and begin the
+      making of their canoes. They began to spread themselves along the stream,
+      in search of the soft-wooded trees proper for their purpose; but hardly
+      had their search begun, when, in the midst of a dense thicket, they came
+      upon a sight which filled them with astonishment. Beneath a honeycombed
+      cliff, which supported one enormous cotton-tree, was a spot of some thirty
+      yards square sloping down to the stream, planted in rows with magnificent
+      banana-plants, full twelve feet high, and bearing among their huge waxy
+      leaves clusters of ripening fruit; while, under their mellow shade, yams
+      and cassava plants were flourishing luxuriantly, the whole being
+      surrounded by a hedge of orange and scarlet flowers. There it lay,
+      streaked with long shadows from the setting sun, while a cool southern air
+      rustled in the cotton-tree, and flapped to and fro the great
+      banana-leaves; a tiny paradise of art and care. But where was its
+      inhabitant?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aroused by the noise of their approach, a figure issued from a cave in the
+      rocks, and, after gazing at them for a moment, came down the garden
+      towards them. He was a tall and stately old man, whose snow-white beard
+      and hair covered his chest and shoulders, while his lower limbs were wrapt
+      in Indian-web. Slowly and solemnly he approached, a staff in one hand, a
+      string of beads in the other, the living likeness of some old Hebrew
+      prophet, or anchorite of ancient legend. He bowed courteously to Amyas
+      (who of course returned his salute), and was in act to speak, when his eye
+      fell upon the Indians, who were laying down their burdens in a heap under
+      the trees. His mild countenance assumed instantly an expression of the
+      acutest sorrow and displeasure; and, striking his hands together, he spoke
+      in Spanish:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! miserable me! Alas! unhappy senors! Do my old eyes deceive me, and
+      is it one of those evil visions of the past which haunt my dreams by
+      night; or has the accursed thirst of gold, the ruin of my race, penetrated
+      even into this my solitude? Oh, senors, senors, know you not that you bear
+      with you your own poison, your own familiar fiend, the root of every evil?
+      And is it not enough for you, senors, to load yourselves with the wedge of
+      Achan, and partake his doom, but you must make these hapless heathens the
+      victims of your greed and cruelty, and forestall for them on earth those
+      torments which may await their unbaptized souls hereafter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have preserved, and not enslaved these Indians, ancient senor,&rdquo; said
+      Amyas, proudly; &ldquo;and to-morrow will see them as free as the birds over our
+      heads.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Free? Then you cannot be countrymen of mine! But pardon an old man, my
+      son, if he has spoken too hastily in the bitterness of his own experience.
+      But who and whence are you? And why are you bringing into this lonely
+      wilderness that gold&mdash;for I know too well the shape of those accursed
+      packets, which would God that I had never seen!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What we are, reverend sir, matters little, as long as we behave to you as
+      the young should to the old. As for our gold, it will be a curse or a
+      blessing to us, I conceive, just as we use it well or ill; and so is a
+      man's head, or his hand, or any other thing; but that is no reason for
+      cutting off his limbs for fear of doing harm with them; neither is it for
+      throwing away those packages, which, by your leave, we shall deposit in
+      one of these caves. We must be your neighbors, I fear, for a day or two;
+      but I can promise you, that your garden shall be respected, on condition
+      that you do not inform any human soul of our being here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forbid, senor, that I should try to increase the number of my
+      visitors, much less to bring hither strife and blood, of which I have seen
+      too much already. As you have come in peace, in peace depart. Leave me
+      alone with God and my penitence, and may the Lord have mercy on you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he was about to withdraw, when, recollecting himself, he turned
+      suddenly to Amyas again&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me, senor, if, after forty years of utter solitude, I shrink at
+      first from the conversation of human beings, and forget, in the habitual
+      shyness of a recluse, the duties of a hospitable gentleman of Spain. My
+      garden, and all which it produces, is at your service. Only let me entreat
+      that these poor Indians shall have their share; for heathens though they
+      be, Christ died for them; and I cannot but cherish in my soul some secret
+      hope that He did not die in vain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forbid!&rdquo; said Brimblecombe. &ldquo;They are no worse than we, for aught I
+      see, whatsoever their fathers may have been; and they have fared no worse
+      than we since they have been with us, nor will, I promise you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The good fellow did not tell that he had been starving himself for the
+      last three days to cram the children with his own rations; and that the
+      sailors, and even Amyas, had been going out of their way every five
+      minutes, to get fruit for their new pets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A camp was soon formed; and that evening the old hermit asked Amyas, Cary,
+      and Brimblecombe to come up into his cavern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went; and after the accustomed compliments had passed, sat down on
+      mats upon the ground, while the old man stood, leaning against a slab of
+      stone surmounted by a rude wooden cross, which evidently served him as a
+      place of prayer. He seemed restless and anxious, as if he waited for them
+      to begin the conversation; while they, in their turn, waited for him. At
+      last, when courtesy would not allow him to be silent any longer, he began
+      with a faltering voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may be equally surprised, senors, at my presence in such a spot, and
+      at my asking you to become my guests even for one evening, while I have no
+      better hospitality to offer you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is superfluous, senor, to offer us food in your own habitation when
+      you have already put all that you possess at our command.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True, senors: and my motive for inviting you was, perhaps, somewhat of a
+      selfish one. I am possessed by a longing to unburthen my heart of a tale
+      which I never yet told to man, and which I fear can give to you nothing
+      but pain; and yet I will entreat you, of your courtesy, to hear of that
+      which you cannot amend, simply in mercy to a man who feels that he must
+      confess to some one, or die as miserable as he has lived. And I believe my
+      confidence will not be misplaced, when it is bestowed upon you. I have
+      been a cavalier, even as you are; and, strange as it may seem, that which
+      I have to tell I would sooner impart to the ears of a soldier than of a
+      priest; because it will then sink into souls which can at least
+      sympathize, though they cannot absolve. And you, cavaliers, I perceive to
+      be noble, from your very looks; to be valiant, by your mere presence in
+      this hostile land; and to be gentle, courteous, and prudent, by your
+      conduct this day to me and to your captives. Will you, then, hear an old
+      man's tale? I am, as you see, full of words; for speech, from long disuse,
+      is difficult to me, and I fear at every sentence lest my stiffened tongue
+      should play the traitor to my worn-out brain: but if my request seems
+      impertinent, you have only to bid me talk as a host should, of matters
+      which concern his guests, and not himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The three young men, equally surprised and interested by this exordium,
+      could only entreat their host to &ldquo;use their ears as those of his slaves,&rdquo;
+       on which, after fresh apologies, he began:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Know, then, victorious cavaliers, that I, whom you now see here as a poor
+      hermit, was formerly one of the foremost of that terrible band who went
+      with Pizarro to the conquest of Peru. Eighty years old am I this day,
+      unless the calendar which I have carved upon yonder tree deceives me; and
+      twenty years old was I when I sailed with that fierce man from Panama, to
+      do that deed with which all earth, and heaven, and hell itself, I fear,
+      has rung. How we endured, suffered, and triumphed; how, mad with success,
+      and glutted with blood, we turned our swords against each other, I need
+      not tell to you. For what gentleman of Europe knows not our glory and our
+      shame?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His hearers bowed assent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; you have heard of our prowess: for glorious we were awhile, in the
+      sight of God and man. But I will not speak of our glory, for it is
+      tarnished; nor of our wealth, for it was our poison; nor of the sins of my
+      comrades, for they have expiated them; but of my own sins, senors, which
+      are more in number than the hairs of my head, and a burden too great to
+      bear. Miserere Domine!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And smiting on his breast, the old warrior went on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I said, we were mad with blood; and none more mad than I. Surely it is
+      no fable that men are possessed, even in this latter age, by devils. Why
+      else did I rejoice in slaying? Why else was I, the son of a noble and
+      truthful cavalier of Castile, among the foremost to urge upon my general
+      the murder of the Inca? Why did I rejoice over his dying agonies? Why,
+      when Don Ferdinando de Soto returned, and upbraided us with our villainy,
+      did I, instead of confessing the sin which that noble cavalier set before
+      us, withstand him to his face, ay, and would have drawn the sword on him,
+      but that he refused to fight a liar, as he said that I was?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then Don de Soto was against the murder? So his own grandson told me. But
+      I had heard of him only as a tyrant and a butcher.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Senor, he was compact of good and evil, as are other men: he has paid
+      dearly for his sin; let us hope that he has been paid in turn for his
+      righteousness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      John Brimblecombe shook his head at this doctrine, but did not speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you know his grandson? I trust he is a noble cavalier?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was silent; the old gentleman saw that he had touched some sore
+      point, and continued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why, again, senors, did I after that day give myself up to cruelty as
+      to a sport; yea, thought that I did God service by destroying the
+      creatures whom He had made; I who now dare not destroy a gnat, lest I harm
+      a being more righteous than myself? Was I mad? If I was, how then was I
+      all that while as prudent as I am this day? But I am not here to argue,
+      senors, but to confess. In a word, there was no deed of blood done for the
+      next few years in which I had not my share, if it were but within my
+      reach. When Challcuchima was burned, I was consenting; when that fair
+      girl, the wife of Inca Manco, was tortured to death, I smiled at the
+      agonies at which she too smiled, and taunted on the soldiers, to try if I
+      could wring one groan from her before she died. You know what followed,
+      the pillage, the violence, the indignities offered to the virgins of the
+      Sun. Senors, I will not pollute your chaste ears with what was done. But,
+      senors, I had a brother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the old man paused awhile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A brother&mdash;whether better or worse than me, God knows, before whom
+      he has appeared ere now. At least he did not, as I did, end as a rebel to
+      his king! There was a maiden in one of those convents, senors, more
+      beautiful than day: and (I blush to tell it) the two brothers of whom I
+      spoke quarrelled for the possession of her. They struck each other,
+      senors! Who struck first I know not; but swords were drawn, and&mdash;The
+      cavaliers round parted them, crying shame. And one of those two brothers&mdash;the
+      one who speaks to you now&mdash;crying, 'If I cannot have her, no man
+      shall!' turned the sword which was aimed at his brother, against that
+      hapless maiden&mdash;and&mdash;hear me out, senors, before you flee from
+      my presence as from that of a monster!&mdash;stabbed her to the heart. And
+      as she died&mdash;one moment more, senors, that I may confess all!&mdash;she
+      looked up in my face with a smile as of heaven, and thanked me for having
+      rid her once and for all from Christians and their villainy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man paused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forgive you, senor!&rdquo; said Jack Brimblecombe, softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not, then, turn from me, do not curse me? Then I will try you
+      farther still, senors. I will know from human lips, whether man can do
+      such deeds as I have done, and yet be pitied by his kind; that so I may
+      have some hope, that where man has mercy, God may have mercy also. Do you
+      think that I repented at those awful words? Nothing less, senors all. No
+      more than I did when De Soto (on whose soul God have mercy) called me&mdash;me,
+      a liar! I knew myself a sinner; and for that very reason I was determined
+      to sin. I would go on, that I might prove myself right to myself, by
+      showing that I could go on, and not be struck dead from heaven. Out of
+      mere pride, senors, and self-will, I would fill up the cup of my iniquity;
+      and I filled it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know, doubtless, senors, how, after the death of old Almagro, his
+      son's party conspired against Pizarro. Now my brother remained faithful to
+      his old commander; and for that very reason, if you will believe it, did I
+      join the opposite party, and gave myself up, body and soul, to do
+      Almagro's work. It was enough for me, that the brother who had struck me
+      thought a man right, for me to think that man a devil. What Almagro's work
+      was, you know. He slew Pizarro, murdered him, senors, like a dog, or
+      rather, like an old lion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He deserved his doom,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let God judge him, senor, not we; and least of all of us I, who drew the
+      first blood, and perhaps the last, that day. I, senors, it was who
+      treacherously stabbed Francisco de Chanes on the staircase, and so opened
+      the door which else had foiled us all; and I&mdash;But I am speaking to
+      men of honor, not to butchers. Suffice it that the old man died like a
+      lion, and that we pulled him down, young as we were, like curs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I followed Almagro's fortunes. I helped to slay Alvarado. Call that
+      my third murder, if you will, for if he was traitor to a traitor, I was
+      traitor to a true man. Then to the war; you know how Vaca de Castro was
+      sent from Spain to bring order and justice where was naught but chaos, and
+      the dance of all devils. We met him on the hills of Chupas. Peter of
+      Candia, the Venetian villain, pointed our guns false, and Almagro stabbed
+      him to the heart. We charged with our lances, man against man, horse
+      against horse. All fights I ever fought&rdquo; (and the old man's eyes flashed
+      out the ancient fire) &ldquo;were child's play to that day. Our lances shivered
+      like reeds, and we fell on with battle-axe and mace. None asked for
+      quarter, and none gave it; friend to friend, cousin to cousin&mdash;no,
+      nor brother, O God! to brother. We were the better armed: but numbers were
+      on their side. Fat Carbajal charged our cannon like an elephant, and took
+      them; but Holguin was shot down. I was with Almagro, and we swept all
+      before us, inch by inch, but surely, till the night fell. Then Vaca de
+      Castro, the licentiate, the clerk, the schoolman, the man of books, came
+      down on us with his reserve like a whirlwind. Oh! cavaliers, did not God
+      fight against us, when He let us, the men of iron, us, the heroes of Cuzco
+      and Vilcaconga, be foiled by a scholar in a black gown, with a pen behind
+      his ear? We were beaten. Some ran; some did not run, senors; and I did
+      not. Geronimo de Alvarado shouted to me, 'We slew Pizarro! We killed the
+      tyrant!' and we rushed upon the conqueror's lances, to die like cavaliers.
+      There was a gallant gentleman in front of me. His lance struck me in the
+      crest, and bore me over my horse's croup: but mine, senors, struck him
+      full in the vizor. We both went to the ground together, and the battle
+      galloped over us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know not how long I lay, for I was stunned: but after awhile I lifted
+      myself. My lance was still clenched in my hand, broken but not parted. The
+      point of it was in my foeman's brain. I crawled to him, weary and wounded,
+      and saw that he was a noble cavalier. He lay on his back, his arms spread
+      wide. I knew that he was dead: but there came over me the strangest
+      longing to see that dead man's face. Perhaps I knew him. At least I could
+      set my foot upon it, and say, 'Vanquished as I am, there lies a foe!' I
+      caught hold of the rivets, and tore his helmet off. The moon shone bright,
+      senors, as bright as she shines now&mdash;the glaring, ghastly, tell-tale
+      moon, which shows man all the sins which he tries to hide; and by that
+      moonlight, senors, I beheld the dead man's face. And it was the face of my
+      brother!
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you ever guess, most noble cavaliers, what Cain's curse might be
+      like? Look on me, and know!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tore off my armor and fled, as Cain fled&mdash;northward ever, till I
+      should reach a land where the name of Spaniard, yea, and the name of
+      Christian, which the Spaniard has caused to be blasphemed from east to
+      west, should never come. I sank fainting, and waked beneath this rock,
+      this tree, forty-four years ago, and I have never left them since, save
+      once, to obtain seeds from Indians, who knew not that I was a Spanish
+      Conquistador. And may God have mercy on my soul!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man ceased; and his young hearers, deeply affected by his tale,
+      sat silent for a few minutes. Then John Brimblecombe spoke:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are old, sir, and I am young; and perhaps it is not my place to
+      counsel you. Moreover, sir, in spite of this strange dress of mine, I am
+      neither more nor less than an English priest; and I suppose you will not
+      be willing to listen to a heretic.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have seen Catholics, senor, commit too many abominations even with the
+      name of God upon their lips, to shrink from a heretic if he speak wisely
+      and well. At least, you are a man; and after all, my heart yearns more and
+      more, the longer I sit among you, for the speech of beings of my own race.
+      Say what you will, in God's name!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hold, sir,&rdquo; said Jack, modestly, &ldquo;according to holy Scripture, that
+      whosoever repents from his heart, as God knows you seem to have done, is
+      forgiven there and then; and though his sins be as scarlet, they shall be
+      white as snow, for the sake of Him who died for all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen! Amen!&rdquo; said the old man, looking lovingly at his little crucifix.
+      &ldquo;I hope and pray&mdash;His name is Love. I know it now; who better? But,
+      sir, even if He have forgiven me, how can I forgive myself? In honor, sir,
+      I must be just, and sternly just, to myself, even if God be indulgent; as
+      He has been to me, who has left me here in peace for forty years, instead
+      of giving me a prey to the first puma or jaguar which howls round me every
+      night. He has given me time to work out my own salvation; but have I done
+      it? That doubt maddens me at whiles. When I look upon that crucifix, I
+      float on boundless hope: but if I take my eyes from it for a moment, faith
+      fails, and all is blank, and dark, and dreadful, till the devil whispers
+      me to plunge into yon stream, and once and for ever wake to certainty,
+      even though it be in hell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      What was Jack to answer? He himself knew not at first. More was wanted
+      than the mere repetition of free pardon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heretic as I am, sir, you will not believe me when I tell you, as a
+      priest, that God accepts your penitence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My heart tells me so already, at moments. But how know I that it does not
+      lie?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Senor,&rdquo; said Jack, &ldquo;the best way to punish oneself for doing ill, seems
+      to me to go and do good; and the best way to find out whether God means
+      you well, is to find out whether He will help you to do well. If you have
+      wronged Indians in time past, see whether you cannot right them now. If
+      you can, you are safe. For the Lord will not send the devil's servants to
+      do His work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man held down his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right the Indians? Alas! what is done, is done!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not altogether, senor,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;as long as an Indian remains alive
+      in New Granada.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Senor, shall I confess my weakness? A voice within me has bid me a
+      hundred times go forth and labor, for those oppressed wretches, but I dare
+      not obey. I dare not look them in the face. I should fancy that they knew
+      my story; that the very birds upon the trees would reveal my crime, and
+      bid them turn from me with horror.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Senor,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;these are but the sick fancies of a noble spirit,
+      feeding on itself in solitude. You have but to try to conquer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And look now,&rdquo; said Jack, &ldquo;if you dare not go forth to help the Indians,
+      see now how God has brought the Indians to your own door. Oh, excellent
+      sir&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call me not excellent,&rdquo; said the old man, smiting his breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do, and shall, sir, while I see in you an excellent repentance, an
+      excellent humility, and an excellent justice,&rdquo; said Jack. &ldquo;But oh, sir,
+      look upon these forty souls, whom we must leave behind, like sheep which
+      have no shepherd. Could you not teach them to fear God and to love each
+      other, to live like rational men, perhaps to die like Christians? They
+      would obey you as a dog obeys his master. You might be their king, their
+      father, yea, their pope, if you would.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not speak like a Lutheran.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not a Lutheran, but an Englishman: but, Protestant as I am, God
+      knows, I had sooner see these poor souls of your creed, than of none.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I am no priest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When they are ready,&rdquo; said Jack, &ldquo;the Lord will send a priest. If you
+      begin the good work, you may trust to Him to finish it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God help me!&rdquo; said the old warrior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The talk lasted long into the night, but Amyas was up long before
+      daybreak, felling the trees; and as he and Cary walked back to breakfast,
+      the first thing which they saw was the old man in his garden with four or
+      five Indian children round him, talking smilingly to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The old man's heart is sound still,&rdquo; said Will. &ldquo;No man is lost who still
+      is fond of little children.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, senors!&rdquo; said the hermit as they came up, &ldquo;you see that I have begun
+      already to act upon your advice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you have begun at the right end,&rdquo; quoth Amyas; &ldquo;if you win the
+      children, you win the mothers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if you win the mothers,&rdquo; quoth Will, &ldquo;the poor fathers must needs
+      obey their wives, and follow in the wake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man only sighed. &ldquo;The prattle of these little ones softens my hard
+      heart, senors, with a new pleasure; but it saddens me, when I recollect
+      that there may be children of mine now in the world&mdash;children who
+      have never known a father's love&mdash;never known aught but a master's
+      threats&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God has taken care of these little ones. Trust that He has taken care of
+      yours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That day Amyas assembled the Indians, and told them that they must obey
+      the hermit as their king, and settle there as best they could: for if they
+      broke up and wandered away, nothing was left for them but to fall one by
+      one into the hands of the Spaniards. They heard him with their usual
+      melancholy and stupid acquiescence, and went and came as they were bid,
+      like animated machines; but the negroes were of a different temper; and
+      four or five stout fellows gave Amyas to understand that they had been
+      warriors in their own country, and that warriors they would be still; and
+      nothing should keep them from Spaniard-hunting. Amyas saw that the
+      presence of these desperadoes in the new colony would both endanger the
+      authority of the hermit, and bring the Spaniards down upon it in a few
+      weeks; so, making a virtue of necessity, he asked them whether they would
+      go Spaniard-hunting with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was just what the bold Coromantees wished for; they grinned and
+      shouted their delight at serving under so great a warrior, and then set to
+      work most gallantly, getting through more in the day than any ten Indians,
+      and indeed than any two Englishmen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So went on several days, during which the trees were felled, and the
+      process of digging them out began; while Ayacanora, silent and moody,
+      wandered into the woods all day with her blow-gun, and brought home at
+      evening a load of parrots, monkeys, and curassows; two or three old hands
+      were sent out to hunt likewise; so that, what with the game and the fish
+      of the river, which seemed inexhaustible, and the fruit of the neighboring
+      palm-trees, there was no lack of food in the camp. But what to do with
+      Ayacanora weighed heavily on the mind of Amyas. He opened his heart on the
+      matter to the old hermit, and asked him whether he would take charge of
+      her. The latter smiled, and shook his head at the notion. &ldquo;If your report
+      of her be true, I may as well take in hand to tame a jaguar.&rdquo; However, he
+      promised to try; and one evening, as they were all standing together
+      before the mouth of the cave, Ayacanora came up smiling with the fruit of
+      her day's sport; and Amyas, thinking this a fit opportunity, began a
+      carefully prepared harangue to her, which he intended to be altogether
+      soothing, and even pathetic,&mdash;to the effect that the maiden, having
+      no parents, was to look upon this good old man as her father; that he
+      would instruct her in the white man's religion (at which promise Yeo, as a
+      good Protestant, winced a good deal), and teach her how to be happy and
+      good, and so forth; and that, in fine, she was to remain there with the
+      hermit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She heard him quietly, her great dark eyes opening wider and wider, her
+      bosom swelling, her stature seeming to grow taller every moment, as she
+      clenched her weapons firmly in both her hands. Beautiful as she always
+      was, she had never looked so beautiful before; and as Amyas spoke of
+      parting with her, it was like throwing away a lovely toy; but it must be
+      done, for her sake, for his, perhaps for that of all the crew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last words had hardly passed his lips, when, with a shriek of mingled
+      scorn, rage, and fear, she dashed through the astonished group.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop her!&rdquo; were Amyas's first words; but his next were, &ldquo;Let her go!&rdquo;
+       for, springing like a deer through the little garden and over the
+      flower-fence, she turned, menacing with her blow-gun the sailors, who had
+      already started in her pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let her alone, for Heaven's sake!&rdquo; shouted Amyas, who, he scarce knew
+      why, shrank from the thought of seeing those graceful limbs struggling in
+      the seamen's grasp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned again, and in another minute her gaudy plumes had vanished
+      among the dark forest stems, as swiftly as if she had been a passing bird.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All stood thunderstruck at this unexpected end to the conference. At last
+      Aymas spoke:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's no use in standing here idle, gentlemen. Staring after her won't
+      bring her back. After all, I'm glad she's gone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the tone of his voice belied his words. Now he had lost her, he wanted
+      her back; and perhaps every one present, except he, guessed why.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Ayacanora did not return; and ten days more went on in continual toil
+      at the canoes without any news of her from the hunters. Amyas, by the by,
+      had strictly bidden these last not to follow the girl, not even to speak
+      to her, if they came across her in their wanderings. He was shrewd enough
+      to guess that the only way to cure her sulkiness was to outsulk her; but
+      there was no sign of her presence in any direction; and the canoes being
+      finished at last, the gold, and such provisions as they could collect,
+      were placed on board, and one evening the party prepared for their fresh
+      voyage. They determined to travel as much as possible by night, for fear
+      of discovery, especially in the neighborhood of the few Spanish
+      settlements which were then scattered along the banks of the main stream.
+      These, however, the negroes knew, so that there was no fear of coming on
+      them unawares; and as for falling asleep in their night journeys,
+      &ldquo;Nobody,&rdquo; the negroes said, &ldquo;ever slept on the Magdalena; the mosquitoes
+      took too good care of that.&rdquo; Which fact Amyas and his crew verified
+      afterwards as thoroughly as wretched men could do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun had sunk; the night had all but fallen; the men were all on board;
+      Amyas in command of one canoe, Cary of the other. The Indians were grouped
+      on the bank, watching the party with their listless stare, and with them
+      the young guide, who preferred remaining among the Indians, and was made
+      supremely happy by the present of Spanish sword and an English axe; while,
+      in the midst, the old hermit, with tears in his eyes, prayed God's
+      blessing on them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I owe to you, noble cavaliers, new peace, new labor, I may say, new life.
+      May God be with you, and teach you to use your gold and your swords better
+      than I used mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The adventurers waved their hands to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give way, men,&rdquo; cried Amyas; and as he spoke the paddles dashed into the
+      water, to a right English hurrah! which sent the birds fluttering from
+      their roosts, and was answered by the yell of a hundred monkeys, and the
+      distant roar of the jaguar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About twenty yards below, a wooded rock, some ten feet high, hung over the
+      stream. The river was not there more than fifteen yards broad; deep near
+      the rock, shallow on the farther side; and Amyas's canoe led the way,
+      within ten feet of the stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he passed, a dark figure leapt from the bushes on the edge, and plunged
+      heavily into the water close to the boat. All started. A jaguar? No; he
+      would not have missed so short a spring. What, then? A human being?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A head rose panting to the surface, and with a few strong strokes the
+      swimmer had clutched the gunwale. It was Ayacanora!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go back!&rdquo; shouted Amyas. &ldquo;Go back, girl!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She uttered the same wild cry with which she had fled into the forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will die, then!&rdquo; and she threw up her arms. Another moment, and she had
+      sunk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To see her perish before his eyes! who could bear that? Her hands alone
+      were above the surface. Amyas caught convulsively at her in the darkness,
+      and seized her wrist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A yell rose from the negroes: a roar from the crew as from a cage of
+      lions. There was a rush and a swirl along the surface of the stream; and
+      &ldquo;Caiman! caiman!&rdquo; shouted twenty voices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, or never, for the strong arm! &ldquo;To larboard, men, or over we go!&rdquo;
+       cried Amyas, and with one huge heave he lifted the slender body upon the
+      gunwale. Her lower limbs were still in the water, when, within arm's
+      length, rose above the stream a huge muzzle. The lower jaw lay flat, the
+      upper reached as high as Amyas's head. He could see the long fangs gleam
+      white in the moonshine; he could see for one moment full down the
+      monstrous depths of that great gape, which would have crushed a buffalo.
+      Three inches, and no more, from that soft side, the snout surged up&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was the gleam of an axe from above, a sharp ringing blow, and the
+      jaws came together with a clash which rang from bank to bank. He had
+      missed her! Swerving beneath the blow, his snout had passed beneath her
+      body, and smashed up against the side of the canoe, as the striker,
+      overbalanced, fell headlong overboard upon the monster's back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yeo!&rdquo; shouted a dozen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Man and beast went down together, and where they sank, the moonlight shone
+      on a great swirling eddy, while all held their breaths, and Ayacanora
+      cowered down into the bottom of the canoe, her proud spirit utterly
+      broken, for the first time, by the terror of that great need, and by a
+      bitter loss. For in the struggle, the holy trumpet, companion of all her
+      wanderings, had fallen from her bosom; and her fond hope of bringing magic
+      prosperity to her English friends had sunk with it to the bottom of the
+      stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      None heeded her; not even Amyas, round whose knees she clung, fawning like
+      a spaniel dog: for where was Yeo?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another swirl; a shout from the canoe abreast of them, and Yeo rose,
+      having dived clean under his own boat, and risen between the two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Safe as yet, lads! Heave me a line, or he'll have me after all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But ere the brute reappeared, the old man was safe on board.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lord has stood by me,&rdquo; panted he, as he shot the water from his ears.
+      &ldquo;We went down together: I knew the Indian trick, and being uppermost, had
+      my thumbs in his eyes before he could turn: but he carried me down to the
+      very mud. My breath was nigh gone, so I left go, and struck up: but my
+      toes tingled as I rose again, I'll warrant. There the beggar is, looking
+      for me, I declare!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, true enough, there was the huge brute swimming slowly round and
+      round, in search of his lost victim. It was too dark to put an arrow into
+      his eye; so they paddled on, while Ayacanora crouched silently at Amyas's
+      feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yeo!&rdquo; asked he, in a low voice, &ldquo;what shall we do with her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why ask me, sir?&rdquo; said the old man, as he had a very good right to ask.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because, when one don't know oneself, one had best inquire of one's
+      elders. Besides, you saved her life at the risk of your own, and have a
+      right to a voice in the matter, if any one has, old friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, my dear young captain, if the Lord puts a precious soul under your
+      care, don't you refuse to bear the burden He lays on you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was silent awhile; while Ayacanora, who was evidently utterly
+      exhausted by the night's adventure, and probably by long wanderings,
+      watchings, and weepings which had gone before it, sank with her head
+      against his knee, fell fast asleep, and breathed as gently as a child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last he rose in the canoe, and called Cary alongside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen to me, gentlemen, and sailors all. You know that we have a maiden
+      on board here, by no choice of our own. Whether she will be a blessing to
+      us, God alone can tell: but she may turn to the greatest curse which has
+      befallen us ever since we came out over Bar three years ago. Promise me
+      one thing, or I put her ashore the next beach, and that is, that you will
+      treat her as if she were your own sister; and make an agreement here and
+      now, that if the maid comes to harm among us, the man that is guilty shall
+      hang for it by the neck till he's dead, even though he be I, Captain
+      Leigh, who speak to you. I'll hang you, as I am a Christian; and I give
+      you free leave to hang me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A very fair bargain,&rdquo; quoth Cary, &ldquo;and I for one will see it kept to.
+      Lads, we'll twine a double strong halter for the captain as we go down
+      along.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not jesting, Will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it, good old lad,&rdquo; said Cary, stretching out his own hand to him
+      across the water through the darkness, and giving him a hearty shake. &ldquo;I
+      know it; and listen, men! So help me God! but I'll be the first to back
+      the Captain in being as good as his word, as I trust he never will need to
+      be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; said Brimblecombe. &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; said Yeo; and many an honest voice
+      joined in that honest compact, and kept it too, like men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVI
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW THEY TOOK THE GREAT GALLEON
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;When captains courageous, whom death could not daunt,
+     Did march to the siege of the city of Gaunt,
+     They muster'd their soldiers by two and by three,
+     But the foremost in battle was Mary Ambree.
+     When brave Sir John Major was slain in her sight,
+     Who was her true lover, her joy and delight,
+     Because he was murther'd most treacherouslie,
+     Then vow'd to avenge him fair Mary Ambree.&rdquo;
+
+                                 Old Ballad, A. D. 1584.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      One more glance at the golden tropic sea, and the golden tropic evenings,
+      by the shore of New Granada, in the golden Spanish Main.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bay of Santa Marta is rippling before the land-breeze one sheet of
+      living flame. The mighty forests are sparkling with myriad fireflies. The
+      lazy mist which lounges round the inner hills shines golden in the sunset
+      rays; and, nineteen thousand feet aloft, the mighty peak of Horqueta
+      cleaves the abyss of air, rose-red against the dark-blue vault of heaven.
+      The rosy cone fades to a dull leaden hue; but only for awhile. The stars
+      flash out one by one, and Venus, like another moon, tinges the eastern
+      snows with gold, and sheds across the bay a long yellow line of rippling
+      light. Everywhere is glory and richness. What wonder if the earth in that
+      enchanted land be as rich to her inmost depths as she is upon the surface?
+      The heaven, the hills, the sea, are one sparkling garland of jewels&mdash;what
+      wonder if the soil be jewelled also? if every watercourse and bank of
+      earth be spangled with emeralds and rubies, with grains of gold and
+      feathered wreaths of native silver?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So thought, in a poetic mood, the Bishop of Cartagena, as he sat in the
+      state cabin of that great galleon, The City of the True Cross, and looked
+      pensively out of the window towards the shore. The good man was in a state
+      of holy calm. His stout figure rested on one easy-chair, his stout ankles
+      on another, beside a table spread with oranges and limes, guavas and
+      pine-apples, and all the fruits of Ind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An Indian girl, bedizened with scarfs and gold chains, kept off the flies
+      with a fan of feathers; and by him, in a pail of ice from the Horqueta
+      (the gift of some pious Spanish lady, who had &ldquo;spent&rdquo; an Indian or two in
+      bringing down the precious offering), stood more than one flask of
+      virtuous wine of Alicant. But he was not so selfish, good man, as to enjoy
+      either ice or wine alone; Don Pedro, colonel of the soldiers on board, Don
+      Alverez, intendant of his Catholic majesty's customs at Santa Marta, and
+      Don Paul, captain of mariners in The City of the True Cross, had, by his
+      especial request, come to his assistance that evening, and with two
+      friars, who sat at the lower end of the table, were doing their best to
+      prevent the good man from taking too bitterly to heart the present
+      unsatisfactory state of his cathedral town, which had just been sacked and
+      burnt by an old friend of ours, Sir Francis Drake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have been great sufferers, senors,&mdash;ah, great sufferers,&rdquo;
+       snuffled the bishop, quoting Scripture, after the fashion of the day,
+      glibly enough, but often much too irreverently for me to repeat, so boldly
+      were his texts travestied, and so freely interlarded by grumblings at Tita
+      and the mosquitoes. &ldquo;Great sufferers, truly; but there shall be a remnant,&mdash;ah,
+      a remnant like the shaking of the olive tree and the gleaning grapes when
+      the vintage is done.&mdash;Ah! Gold? Yes, I trust Our Lady's mercies are
+      not shut up, nor her arms shortened.&mdash;Look, senors!&rdquo;&mdash;and he
+      pointed majestically out of the window. &ldquo;It looks gold! it smells of gold,
+      as I may say, by a poetical license. Yea, the very waves, as they ripple
+      past us, sing of gold, gold, gold!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a great privilege,&rdquo; said the intendant, &ldquo;to have comfort so
+      gracefully administered at once by a churchman and a scholar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A poet, too,&rdquo; said Don Pedro. &ldquo;You have no notion what sweet sonnets&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, Don Pedro&mdash;hush! If I, a mateless bird, have spent an idle
+      hour in teaching lovers how to sing, why, what of that? I am a churchman,
+      senors; but I am a man and I can feel, senors; I can sympathize; I can
+      palliate; I can excuse. Who knows better than I how much human nature
+      lurks in us fallen sons of Adam? Tita!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Um?&rdquo; said the trembling girl, with a true Indian grunt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fill his excellency the intendant's glass. Does much more treasure come
+      down, illustrious senor? May the poor of Mary hope for a few more crumbs
+      from their Mistress's table?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a pezo, I fear. The big white cow up there&rdquo;&mdash;and he pointed to
+      the Horqueta&mdash;&ldquo;has been milked dry for this year.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; And he looked up at the magnificent snow peak. &ldquo;Only good to cool
+      wine with, eh? and as safe for the time being as Solomon's birds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Solomon's birds? Explain your recondite allusion, my lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enlighten us, your excellency, enlighten us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! thereby hangs a tale. You know the holy birds who run up and down on
+      the Prado at Seville among the ladies' pretty feet,&mdash;eh? with hooked
+      noses and cinnamon crests? Of course. Hoopoes&mdash;Upupa, as the classics
+      have it. Well, senors, once on a time, the story goes, these hoopoes all
+      had golden crowns on their heads; and, senors, they took the consequences&mdash;eh?
+      But it befell on a day that all the birds and beasts came to do homage at
+      the court of his most Catholic majesty King Solomon, and among them came
+      these same hoopoes; and they had a little request to make, the poor
+      rogues. And what do you think it was? Why, that King Solomon would pray
+      for them that they might wear any sort of crowns but these same golden
+      ones; for&mdash;listen, Tita, and see the snare of riches&mdash;mankind so
+      hunted, and shot, and trapped, and snared them, for the sake of these same
+      golden crowns, that life was a burden to bear. So Solomon prayed, and
+      instead of golden crowns, they all received crowns of feathers; and ever
+      since, senors, they live as merrily as crickets in an oven, and also have
+      the honor of bearing the name of his most Catholic majesty King Solomon.
+      Tita! fill the senor commandant's glass. Fray Gerundio, what are you
+      whispering about down there, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fray Gerundio had merely commented to his brother on the bishop's story of
+      Solomon's birds with an&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O si sic omnia!&mdash;would that all gold would turn to feathers in like
+      wise!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, friend,&rdquo; replied the other, a Dominican, like Gerundio, but of a
+      darker and sterner complexion, &ldquo;corrupt human nature would within a week
+      discover some fresh bauble, for which to kill and be killed in vain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that, Fray Gerundio?&rdquo; asked the bishop again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I merely remarked, that it were well for the world if all mankind were to
+      put up the same prayer as the hoopoes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;World, sir? What do you know about the world? Convert your Indians, sir,
+      if you please, and leave affairs of state to your superiors. You will
+      excuse him, senors&rdquo; (turning to the Dons, and speaking in a lower tone).
+      &ldquo;A very worthy and pious man, but a poor peasant's son; and beside&mdash;you
+      understand. A little wrong here; too much fasting and watching, I fear,
+      good man.&rdquo; And the bishop touched his forehead knowingly, to signify that
+      Fray Gerundio's wits were in an unsatisfactory state.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Fray heard and saw with a quiet smile. He was one of those excellent
+      men whom the cruelties of his countrymen had stirred up (as the darkness,
+      by mere contrast, makes the light more bright), as they did Las Casas,
+      Gasca, and many another noble name which is written in the book of life,
+      to deeds of love and pious daring worthy of any creed or age. True
+      Protestants, they protested, even before kings, against the evil which lay
+      nearest them, the sin which really beset them; true liberals, they did not
+      disdain to call the dark-skinned heathen their brothers; and asserted in
+      terms which astonish us, when we recollect the age in which they were
+      spoken, the inherent freedom of every being who wore the flesh and blood
+      which their Lord wore; true martyrs, they bore witness of Christ, and
+      received too often the rewards of such, in slander and contempt. Such an
+      one was Fray Gerundio; a poor, mean, clumsy-tongued peasant's son, who
+      never could put three sentences together, save when he waxed eloquent,
+      crucifix in hand, amid some group of Indians or negroes. He was accustomed
+      to such rebuffs as the bishop's; he took them for what they were worth,
+      and sipped his wine in silence; while the talk went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say,&rdquo; observed the commandant, &ldquo;that a very small Plate-fleet will
+      go to Spain this year.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What else?&rdquo; says the intendant. &ldquo;What have we to send, in the name of all
+      saints, since these accursed English Lutherans have swept us out clean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if we had anything to send,&rdquo; says the sea-captain, &ldquo;what have we to
+      send it in? That fiend incarnate, Drake&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said his holiness; &ldquo;spare my ears! Don Pedro, you will oblige my
+      weakness by not mentioning that man;&mdash;his name is Tartarean, unfit
+      for polite lips. Draco&mdash;a dragon&mdash;serpent&mdash;the emblem of
+      Diabolus himself&mdash;ah! And the guardian of the golden apples of the
+      West, who would fain devour our new Hercules, his most Catholic majesty.
+      Deceived Eve, too, with one of those same apples&mdash;a very evil name,
+      senors&mdash;a Tartarean name,&mdash;Tita!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Um!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fill my glass.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay,&rdquo; cried the colonel, with a great oath, &ldquo;this English fellow is of
+      another breed of serpent from that, I warrant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your reason, senor; your reason?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because this one would have seen Eve at the bottom of the sea, before he
+      let her, or any one but himself, taste aught which looked like gold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, ah!&mdash;very good! But&mdash;we laugh, valiant senors, while the
+      Church weeps. Alas for my sheep!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And alas for their sheepfold! It will be four years before we can get
+      Cartagena rebuilt again. And as for the blockhouse, when we shall get that
+      rebuilt, Heaven only knows, while his majesty goes on draining the Indies
+      for his English Armada. The town is as naked now as an Indian's back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Baptista Antonio, the surveyor, has sent home by me a relation to the
+      king, setting forth our defenceless state. But to read a relation and to
+      act on it are two cocks of very different hackles, bishop, as all
+      statesmen know. Heaven grant we may have orders by the next fleet to
+      fortify, or we shall be at the mercy of every English pirate!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, that blockhouse!&rdquo; sighed the bishop. &ldquo;That was indeed a villainous
+      trick. A hundred and ten thousand ducats for the ransom of the town! After
+      having burned and plundered the one-half&mdash;and having made me dine
+      with them too, ah! and sit between the&mdash;the serpent, and his
+      lieutenant-general&mdash;and drunk my health in my own private wine&mdash;wine
+      that I had from Xeres nine years ago, senors and offered, the shameless
+      heretics, to take me to England, if I would turn Lutheran, and find me a
+      wife, and make an honest man of me&mdash;ah! and then to demand fresh
+      ransom for the priory and the fort&mdash;perfidious!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the colonel, &ldquo;they had the law of us, the cunning rascals,
+      for we forgot to mention anything but the town, in the agreement. Who
+      would have dreamed of such a fetch as that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I told my good friend the prior, when he came to me to borrow the
+      thousand crowns. It was Heaven's will. Unexpected like the thunderbolt,
+      and to be borne as such. Every man must bear his own burden. How could I
+      lend him aught?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your holiness's money had been all carried off by them before,&rdquo; said the
+      intendant, who knew, and none better, the exact contrary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so&mdash;all my scanty savings! desolate in my lone old age. Ah,
+      senors, had we not had warning of the coming of these wretches from my
+      dear friend the Marquess of Santa Cruz, whom I remember daily in my
+      prayers, we had been like to them who go down quick into the pit. I too
+      might have saved a trifle, had I been minded: but in thinking too much of
+      others, I forgot myself, alas!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Warning or none, we had no right to be beaten by such a handful,&rdquo; said
+      the sea-captain; &ldquo;and a shame it is, and a shame it will be, for many a
+      day to come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean to cast any slur, sir, upon the courage and conduct of his
+      Catholic majesty's soldiers?&rdquo; asked the colonel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I?&mdash;No; but we were foully beaten, and that behind our barricades
+      too, and there's the plain truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beaten, sir! Do you apply such a term to the fortunes of war? What more
+      could our governor have done? Had we not the ways filled with poisoned
+      caltrops, guarded by Indian archers, barred with butts full of earth,
+      raked with culverins and arquebuses? What familiar spirit had we, sir, to
+      tell us that these villains would come along the sea-beach, and not by the
+      high-road, like Christian men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said the bishop, &ldquo;it was by intuition diabolic, I doubt not, that
+      they took that way. Satanas must need help those who serve him; and for my
+      part, I can only attribute (I would the captain here had piety enough to
+      do so) the misfortune which occurred to art-magic. I believe these men to
+      have been possessed by all fiends whatsoever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, your holiness,&rdquo; said the colonel, &ldquo;there may have been devilry in
+      it; how else would men have dared to run right into the mouths of our
+      cannon, fire their shot against our very noses, and tumble harmless over
+      those huge butts of earth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doubtless by force of the fiends which raged with them,&rdquo; interposed the
+      bishop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then, with their blasphemous cries, leap upon us with sword and pike?
+      I myself saw that Lieutenant-General Carlisle hew down with one stroke
+      that noble young gentleman the ensign-bearer, your excellency's sister's
+      son's nephew, though he was armed cap-a-pie. Was not art-magic here? And
+      that most furious and blaspheming Lutheran Captain Young, I saw how he
+      caught our general by the head, after the illustrious Don Alonzo had given
+      him a grievous wound, threw him to the earth, and so took him. Was not
+      art-magic here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I say,&rdquo; said the captain, &ldquo;if you are looking for art-magic, what
+      say you to their marching through the flank fire of our galleys, with
+      eleven pieces of ordnance, and two hundred shot playing on them, as if it
+      had been a mosquito swarm? Some said my men fired too high: but that was
+      the English rascals' doing, for they got down on the tide beach. But,
+      senor commandant, though Satan may have taught them that trick, was it he
+      that taught them to carry pikes a foot longer than yours?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, well,&rdquo; said the bishop, &ldquo;sacked are we; and San Domingo, as I hear,
+      in worse case than we are; and St. Augustine in Florida likewise; and all
+      that is left for a poor priest like me is to return to Spain, and see
+      whether the pious clemency of his majesty, and of the universal Father,
+      may not be willing to grant some small relief or bounty to the poor of
+      Mary&mdash;perhaps&mdash;(for who knows?) to translate to a sphere of more
+      peaceful labor one who is now old, senors, and weary with many toils&mdash;Tita!
+      fill our glasses. I have saved somewhat&mdash;as you may have done,
+      senors, from the general wreck; and for the flock, when I am no more,
+      illustrious senors, Heaven's mercies are infinite; new cities will rise
+      from the ashes of the old, new mines pour forth their treasures into the
+      sanctified laps of the faithful, and new Indians flock toward the
+      life-giving standard of the Cross, to put on the easy yoke and light
+      burden of the Church, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where shall I be then? Ah, where? Fain would I rest, and fain depart.
+      Tita! sling my hammock. Senors, you will excuse age and infirmities. Fray
+      Gerundio, go to bed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the Dons rose to depart, while the bishop went on maundering,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Farewell! Life is short. Ah! we shall meet in heaven at last. And there
+      are really no more pearls?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a frail; nor gold either,&rdquo; said the intendant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, well! Better a dinner of herbs where love is, than&mdash;Tita!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My breviary&mdash;ah! Man's gratitude is short-lived, I had hoped&mdash;You
+      have seen nothing of the Senora Bovadilla?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! she promised:&mdash;but no matter&mdash;a little trifle as a keepsake&mdash;a
+      gold cross, or an emerald ring, or what not&mdash;I forget. And what have
+      I to do with worldly wealth!&mdash;Ah! Tita! bring me the casket.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And when his guests were gone, the old man began mumbling prayers out of
+      his breviary, and fingering over jewels and gold, with the dull greedy
+      eyes of covetous old age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&mdash;it may buy the red hat yet!&mdash;Omnia Romae venalia! Put it
+      by, Tita, and do not look at it too much, child. Enter not into
+      temptation. The love of money is the root of all evil; and Heaven, in love
+      for the Indian, has made him poor in this world, that he may be rich in
+      faith. Ah!&mdash;Ugh!&mdash;So!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the old miser clambered into his hammock. Tita drew the mosquito net
+      over him, wrapt another round her own head, and slept, or seemed to sleep;
+      for she coiled herself up upon the floor, and master and slave soon snored
+      a merry bass to the treble of the mosquitoes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was long past midnight, and the moon was down. The sentinels, who had
+      tramped and challenged overhead till they thought their officers were
+      sound asleep, had slipped out of the unwholesome rays of the planet to
+      seek that health and peace which they considered their right, and slept as
+      soundly as the bishop's self.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two long lines glided out from behind the isolated rocks of the Morro
+      Grande, which bounded the bay some five hundred yards astern of the
+      galleon. They were almost invisible on the glittering surface of the
+      water, being perfectly white; and, had a sentinel been looking out, he
+      could only have descried them by the phosphorescent flashes along their
+      sides.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the bishop had awoke, and turned himself over uneasily; for the wine
+      was dying out within him, and his shoulders had slipped down, and his
+      heels up, and his head ached! so he sat upright in his hammock, looked out
+      upon the bay, and called Tita.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put another pillow under my head, child! What is that? a fish?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Tita looked. She did not think it was a fish: but she did not choose to
+      say so; for it might have produced an argument, and she had her reasons
+      for not keeping his holiness awake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bishop looked again; settled that it must be a white whale, or shark,
+      or other monster of the deep; crossed himself, prayed for a safe voyage,
+      and snored once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently the cabin-door opened gently, and the head of the senor
+      intendant appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tita sat up; and then began crawling like a snake along the floor, among
+      the chairs and tables, by the light of the cabin lamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is he asleep?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes: but the casket is under his head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Curse him! How shall we take it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I brought him a fresh pillow half-an-hour ago; I hung his hammock wrong
+      on purpose that he might want one. I thought to slip the box away as I did
+      it; but the old ox nursed it in both hands all the while.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall we do, in the name of all the fiends? She sails to-morrow
+      morning, and then all is lost.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Tita showed her white teeth, and touched the dagger which hung by the
+      intendant's side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare not!&rdquo; said the rascal, with a shudder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare!&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;He whipt my mother, because she would not give me up
+      to him to be taught in his schools, when she went to the mines. And she
+      went to the mines, and died there in three months. I saw her go, with a
+      chain round her neck; but she never came back again. Yes; I dare kill him!
+      I will kill him! I will!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The senor felt his mind much relieved. He had no wish, of course, to
+      commit the murder himself; for he was a good Catholic, and feared the
+      devil. But Tita was an Indian, and her being lost did not matter so much.
+      Indians' souls were cheap, like their bodies. So he answered, &ldquo;But we
+      shall be discovered!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will leap out of the window with the casket, and swim ashore. They will
+      never suspect you, and they will fancy I am drowned.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sharks may seize you, Tita. You had better give me the casket.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Tita smiled. &ldquo;You would not like to lose that, eh? though you care little
+      about losing me. And yet you told me that you loved me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I do love you, Tita! light of my eyes! life of my heart! I swear, by
+      all the saints, I love you. I will marry you, I swear I will&mdash;I will
+      swear on the crucifix, if you like!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Swear, then, or I do not give you the casket,&rdquo; said she, holding out the
+      little crucifix round her neck, and devouring him with the wild eyes of
+      passionate unreasoning tropic love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He swore, trembling, and deadly pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give me your dagger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, not mine. It may be found. I shall be suspected. What if my sheath
+      were seen to be empty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your knife will do. His throat is soft enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And she glided stealthily as a cat toward the hammock, while her cowardly
+      companion stood shivering at the other end of the cabin, and turned his
+      back to her, that he might not see the deed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood waiting, one minute&mdash;two&mdash;five? Was it an hour, rather?
+      A cold sweat bathed his limbs; the blood beat so fiercely within his
+      temples, that his head rang again. Was that a death-bell tolling? No; it
+      was the pulses of his brain. Impossible, surely, a death-bell. Whence
+      could it come?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a struggle&mdash;ah! she was about it now; a stifled cry&mdash;Ah!
+      he had dreaded that most of all, to hear the old man cry. Would there be
+      much blood? He hoped not. Another struggle, and Tita's voice, apparently
+      muffled, called for help.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot help you. Mother of Mercies! I dare not help you!&rdquo; hissed he.
+      &ldquo;She-devil! you have begun it, and you must finish it yourself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A heavy arm from behind clasped his throat. The bishop had broken loose
+      from her and seized him! Or was it his ghost? or a fiend come to drag him
+      down to the pit? And forgetting all but mere wild terror, he opened his
+      lips for a scream, which would have wakened every soul on board. But a
+      handkerchief was thrust into his mouth and in another minute he found
+      himself bound hand and foot, and laid upon the table by a gigantic enemy.
+      The cabin was full of armed men, two of whom were lashing up the bishop in
+      his hammock; two more had seized Tita; and more were clambering up into
+      the stern-gallery beyond, wild figures, with bright blades and armor
+      gleaming in the starlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Will,&rdquo; whispered the giant who had seized him, &ldquo;forward and clap the
+      fore-hatches on; and shout Fire! with all your might. Girl! murderess!
+      your life is in my hands. Tell me where the commander sleeps, and I pardon
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Tita looked up at the huge speaker, and obeyed in silence. The intendant
+      heard him enter the colonel's cabin, and then a short scuffle, and silence
+      for a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But only for a moment; for already the alarm had been given, and mad
+      confusion reigned through every deck. Amyas (for it was none other) had
+      already gained the poop; the sentinels were gagged and bound; and every
+      half-naked wretch who came trembling up on deck in his shirt by the main
+      hatchway, calling one, &ldquo;Fire!&rdquo; another, &ldquo;Wreck!&rdquo; and another, &ldquo;Treason!&rdquo;
+       was hurled into the scuppers, and there secured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lower away that boat!&rdquo; shouted Amyas in Spanish to his first batch of
+      prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The men, unarmed and naked, could but obey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now then, jump in. Here, hand them to the gangway as they come up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was done; and as each appeared he was kicked to the scuppers, and
+      bundled down over the side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She's full. Cast loose now and off with you. If you try to board again
+      we'll sink you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fire! fire!&rdquo; shouted Cary, forward. &ldquo;Up the main hatchway for your
+      lives!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ruse succeeded utterly; and before half-an-hour was over, all the
+      ship's boats which could be lowered were filled with Spaniards in their
+      shirts, getting ashore as best they could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is a new sort of camisado,&rdquo; quoth Cary. &ldquo;The last Spanish one I saw
+      was at the sortie from Smerwick: but this is somewhat more prosperous than
+      that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get the main and foresail up, Will!&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;cut the cable; and we
+      will plume the quarry as we fly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spoken like a good falconer. Heaven grant that this big woodcock may
+      carry a good trail inside!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll warrant her for that,&rdquo; said Jack Brimblecombe. &ldquo;She floats so low.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Much of your build, too, Jack. By the by, where is the commander?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alas! Don Pedro, forgotten in the bustle, had been lying on the deck in
+      his shirt, helplessly bound, exhausting that part of his vocabulary which
+      related to the unseen world. Which most discourteous act seemed at first
+      likely to be somewhat heavily avenged on Amyas; for as he spoke, a couple
+      of caliver-shots, fired from under the poop, passed &ldquo;ping&rdquo; &ldquo;ping&rdquo; by his
+      ears, and Cary clapped his hand to his side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hurt, Will?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A pinch, old lad&mdash;Look out, or we are 'allen verloren' after all, as
+      the Flemings say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And as he spoke, a rush forward on the poop drove two of their best men
+      down the ladder into the waist, where Amyas stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Killed?&rdquo; asked he, as he picked one up, who had fallen head over heels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sound as a bell, sir: but they Gentiles has got hold of the firearms, and
+      set the captain free.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And rubbing the back of his head for a minute, he jumped up the ladder
+      again, shouting&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have at ye, idolatrous pagans! Have at ye, Satan's spawn!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas jumped up after him, shouting to all hands to follow; for there was
+      no time to be lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Out of the windows of the poop, which looked on the main-deck, a galling
+      fire had been opened, and he could not afford to lose men; for, as far as
+      he knew, the Spaniards left on board might still far outnumber the
+      English; so up he sprang on the poop, followed by a dozen men, and there
+      began a very heavy fight between two parties of valiant warriors, who
+      easily knew each other apart by the peculiar fashion of their armor. For
+      the Spaniards fought in their shirts, and in no other garments: but the
+      English in all other manner of garments, tag, rag, and bobtail; and yet
+      had never a shirt between them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rest of the English made a rush, of course, to get upon the poop,
+      seeing that the Spaniards could not shoot them through the deck; but the
+      fire from the windows was so hot, that although they dodged behind masts,
+      spars, and every possible shelter, one or two dropped; and Jack
+      Brimblecombe and Yeo took on themselves to call a retreat, and with about
+      a dozen men, got back, and held a council of war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was to be done? Their arquebuses were of little use; for the
+      Spaniards were behind a strong bulkhead. There were cannon: but where was
+      powder or shot? The boats, encouraged by the clamor on deck, were paddling
+      alongside again. Yeo rushed round and round, probing every gun with his
+      sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here's a patararo loaded! Now for a match, lads.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Luckily one of the English had kept his match alight during the scuffle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks be! Help me to unship the gun&mdash;the mast's in the way here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The patararo, or brass swivel, was unshipped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Steady, lads, and keep it level, or you'll shake out the priming. Ship it
+      here; turn out that one, and heave it into that boat, if they come
+      alongside. Steady now&mdash;so! Rummage about, and find me a bolt or two,
+      a marlin-spike, anything. Quick, or the captain will be over-mastered
+      yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Missiles were found&mdash;odds and ends&mdash;and crammed into the swivel
+      up to the muzzle: and, in another minute, its &ldquo;cargo of notions&rdquo; was
+      crashing into the poop-windows, silencing the fire from thence effectually
+      enough for the time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, then, a rush forward, and right in along the deck!&rdquo; shouted Yeo; and
+      the whole party charged through the cabin-doors, which their shot had
+      burst open, and hewed their way from room to room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, the Spaniards above had fought fiercely: but, in spite
+      of superior numbers, they had gradually given back before the &ldquo;demoniacal
+      possession of those blasphemous heretics, who fought, not like men, but
+      like furies from the pit.&rdquo; And by the time that Brimblecombe and Yeo
+      shouted from the stern-gallery below that the quarter-deck was won, few on
+      either side but had their shrewd scratch to show.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yield, senor!&rdquo; shouted Amyas to the commander, who had been fighting like
+      a lion, back to back with the captain of mariners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never! You have bound me, and insulted me! Your blood or mine must wipe
+      out the stain!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he rushed on Amyas. There was a few moments' heavy fence between them;
+      and then Amyas cut right at his head. But as he raised his arm, the
+      Spaniard's blade slipped along his ribs, and snapped against the point of
+      his shoulder-blade. An inch more to the left, and it would have been
+      through his heart. The blow fell, nevertheless, and the commandant fell
+      with it, stunned by the flat of the sword, but not wounded; for Amyas's
+      hand had turned, as he winced from his wound. But the sea-captain, seeing
+      Amyas stagger, sprang at him, and, seizing him by the wrist, ere he could
+      raise his sword again, shortened his weapon to run him through. Amyas made
+      a grasp at his wrist in return, but, between his faintness and the
+      darkness, missed it.&mdash;Another moment, and all would have been over!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A bright blade flashed close past Amyas's ear; the sea-captain's grasp
+      loosened, and he dropped a corpse; while over him, like an angry lioness
+      above her prey, stood Ayacanora, her long hair floating in the wind, her
+      dagger raised aloft, as she looked round, challenging all and every one to
+      approach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you hurt?&rdquo; panted she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A scratch, child.&mdash;What do you do here? Go back, go back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ayacanora slipped back like a scolded child, and vanished in the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The battle was over. The Spaniards, seeing their commanders fall, laid
+      down their arms, and cried for quarter. It was given; the poor fellows
+      were tied together, two and two, and seated in a row on the deck; the
+      commandant, sorely bruised, yielded himself perforce; and the galleon was
+      taken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas hurried forward to get the sails set. As he went down the
+      poop-ladder, there was some one sitting on the lowest step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is here&mdash;wounded?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not wounded,&rdquo; said a woman's voice, low, and stifled with sobs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Ayacanora. She rose, and let him pass. He saw that her face was
+      bright with tears; but he hurried on, nevertheless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I did speak a little hastily to her, considering she saved my
+      life; but what a brimstone it is! Mary Ambree in a dark skin! Now then,
+      lads! Get the Santa Fe gold up out of the canoes, and then we will put her
+      head to the north-east, and away for Old England. Mr. Brimblecombe! don't
+      say that Eastward-ho don't bring luck this time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was impossible, till morning dawned, either to get matters into any
+      order, or to overhaul the prize they had taken; and many of the men were
+      so much exhausted that they fell fast asleep on the deck ere the surgeon
+      had time to dress their wounds. However, Amyas contrived, when once the
+      ship was leaping merrily, close-hauled against a fresh land-breeze, to
+      count his little flock, and found out of the forty-four but six seriously
+      wounded, and none killed. However, their working numbers were now reduced
+      to thirty-eight, beside the four negroes, a scanty crew enough to take
+      home such a ship to England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After awhile, up came Jack Brimblecombe on deck, a bottle in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lads, a prize!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, we know that already.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, but&mdash;look hither, and laid in ice, too, as I live, the
+      luxurious dogs! But I had to fight for it, I had. For when I went down
+      into the state cabin, after I had seen to the wounded; whom should I find
+      loose but that Indian lass, who had just unbound the fellow you caught&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! those two, I believe, were going to murder the old man in the
+      hammock, if we had not come in the nick of time. What have you done with
+      them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, the Spaniard ran when he saw me, and got into a cabin; but the
+      woman, instead of running, came at me with a knife, and chased me round
+      the table like a very cat-a-mountain. So I ducked under the old man's
+      hammock, and out into the gallery; and when I thought the coast was clear,
+      back again I came, and stumbled over this. So I just picked it up, and ran
+      on deck with my tail between my legs, for I expected verily to have the
+      black woman's knife between my ribs out of some dark corner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well done, Jack! Let's have the wine, nevertheless, and then down to set
+      a guard on the cabin doors for fear of plundering.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better go down, and see that nothing is thrown overboard by Spaniards. As
+      for plundering, I will settle that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Amyas walked forward among the men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muster the men, boatswain, and count them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All here, sir, but the six poor fellows who are laid forward.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, my men,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;for three years you and I have wandered on the
+      face of the earth, seeking our fortune, and we have found it at last,
+      thanks be to God! Now, what was our promise and vow which we made to God
+      beneath the tree of Guayra, if He should grant us good fortune, and bring
+      us home again with a prize? Was it not, that the dead should share with
+      the living; and that every man's portion, if he fell, should go to his
+      widow or his orphans, or if he had none, to his parents?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was, sir,&rdquo; said Yeo, &ldquo;and I trust that the Lord will give these men
+      grace to keep their vow. They have seen enough of His providences by this
+      time to fear Him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I doubt them not; but I remind them of it. The Lord has put into our
+      hands a rich prize; and what with the gold which we have already, we are
+      well paid for all our labors. Let us thank Him with fervent hearts as soon
+      as the sun rises; and in the meanwhile, remember all, that whosoever
+      plunders on his private account, robs not the adventurers merely, but the
+      orphan and the widow, which is to rob God; and makes himself partaker of
+      Achan's curse, who hid the wedge of gold, and brought down God's anger on
+      the whole army of Israel. For me, lest you should think me covetous, I
+      could claim my brother's share; but I hereby give it up freely into the
+      common stock, for the use of the whole ship's crew, who have stood by me
+      through weal and woe, as men never stood before, as I believe, by any
+      captain. So, now to prayers, lads, and then to eat our breakfast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So, to the Spaniards' surprise (who most of them believed that the English
+      were atheists), to prayers they went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After which Brimblecombe contrived to inspire the black cook and the
+      Portuguese steward with such energy that, by seven o'clock, the latter
+      worthy appeared on deck, and, with profound reverences, announced to &ldquo;The
+      most excellent and heroical Senor Adelantado Captain Englishman,&rdquo; that
+      breakfast was ready in the state-cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will do us the honor of accompanying us as our guest, sir, or our
+      host, if you prefer the title,&rdquo; said Amyas to the commandant, who stood
+      by.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon, senor: but honor forbids me to eat with one who has offered to me
+      the indelible insult of bonds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said Amyas, taking off his hat, &ldquo;then pray accept on the spot my
+      humble apologies for all which has passed, and my assurances that the
+      indignities which you have unfortunately endured, were owing altogether to
+      the necessities of war, and not to any wish to hurt the feelings of so
+      valiant a soldier and gentleman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is enough, senor,&rdquo; said the commandant, bowing and shrugging his
+      shoulders&mdash;for, indeed, he too was very hungry; while Cary whispered
+      to Amyas&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will make a courtier, yet, old lad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not in jesting humor, Will: my mind sadly misgives me that we shall
+      hear black news, and have, perhaps, to do a black deed yet, on board here.
+      Senor, I follow you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So they went down, and found the bishop, who was by this time unbound,
+      seated in a corner of the cabin, his hands fallen on his knees, his eyes
+      staring on vacancy, while the two priests stood as close against the wall
+      as they could squeeze themselves, keeping up a ceaseless mutter of
+      prayers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your holiness will breakfast with us, of course; and these two frocked
+      gentlemen likewise. I see no reason for refusing them all hospitality, as
+      yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a marked emphasis on the last two words, which made both monks
+      wince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our chaplain will attend to you, gentlemen. His lordship the bishop will
+      do me the honor of sitting next to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bishop seemed to revive slowly as he snuffed the savory steam; and at
+      last, rising mechanically, subsided into the chair which Amyas offered him
+      on his left, while the commandant sat on his right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A little of this kid, my lord? No&mdash;ah&mdash;Friday, I recollect.
+      Some of that turtle-fin, then. Will, serve his lordship; pass the
+      cassava-bread up, Jack! Senor commandant! a glass of wine? You need it
+      after your valiant toils. To the health of all brave soldiers&mdash;and a
+      toast from your own Spanish proverb, 'To-day to me, tomorrow to thee!'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I drink it, brave senor. Your courtesy shows you the worthy countryman of
+      General Drake, and his brave lieutenant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Drake! Did you know him, senor?&rdquo; asked all the Englishmen at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Too well, too well&mdash;&rdquo; and he would have continued; but the bishop
+      burst out&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, senor commandant! that name again! Have you no mercy? To sit between
+      another pair of&mdash;, and my own wine, too! Ugh, ugh!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old gentleman, whose mouth had been full of turtle the whole time,
+      burst into a violent fit of coughing, and was only saved from apoplexy by
+      Cary's patting him on the back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ugh, ugh! The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, and their precious
+      balms. Ah, senor lieutenant Englishman! May I ask you to pass those limes?&mdash;Ah!
+      what is turtle without lime?&mdash;Even as a fat old man without money!
+      Nudus intravi, nudus exeo&mdash;ah!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what of Drake?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you not know, sir, that he and his fleet, only last year, swept the
+      whole of this coast, and took, with shame I confess it, Cartagena, San
+      Domingo, St. Augustine, and&mdash;I see you are too courteous, senors, to
+      express before me what you have a right to feel. But whence come you, sir?
+      From the skies, or the depth of the sea?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Art-magic, art-magic!&rdquo; moaned the bishop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your holiness! It is scarcely prudent to speak thus here,&rdquo; said the
+      commandant, who was nevertheless much of the same opinion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, you said so yourself, last night, senor, about the taking of
+      Cartagena.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The commandant blushed, and stammered out somewhat&mdash;&ldquo;That it was
+      excusable in him, if he had said, in jest, that so prodigious and curious
+      a valor had not sprung from mortal source.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No more it did, senor,&rdquo; said Jack Brimblecombe, stoutly: &ldquo;but from Him
+      who taught our 'hands to war, and our fingers to fight.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The commandant bowed stiffly. &ldquo;You will excuse me, sir preacher: but I am
+      a Catholic, and hold the cause of my king to be alone the cause of Heaven.
+      But, senor captain, how came you thither, if I may ask? That you needed no
+      art-magic after you came on board, I, alas! can testify but too well: but
+      what spirit&mdash;whether good or evil, I ask not&mdash;brought you on
+      board, and whence? Where is your ship? I thought that all Drake's squadron
+      had left six months ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our ship, senor, has lain this three years rotting on the coast near Cape
+      Codera.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! we heard of that bold adventure&mdash;but we thought you all lost in
+      the interior.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You did? Can you tell me, then, where the senor governor of La Guayra may
+      be now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Senor Don Guzman de Soto,&rdquo; said the commandant, in a somewhat
+      constrained tone, &ldquo;is said to be at present in Spain, having thrown up his
+      office in consequence of domestic matters, of which I have not the honor
+      of knowing anything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas longed to ask more: but he knew that the well-bred Spaniard would
+      tell him nothing which concerned another man's wife; and went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What befell us after, I tell you frankly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Amyas told his story, from the landing at Guayra to the passage down
+      the Magdalena. The commandant lifted up his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Were it not forbidden to me, as a Catholic, most invincible senor, I
+      should say that the Divine protection has indeed&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said one of the friars, &ldquo;that you could be brought, senors, to
+      render thanks for your miraculous preservation to her to whom alone it is
+      due, Mary, the fount of mercies!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have done well enough without her as yet,&rdquo; said Amyas, bluntly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lord raised up Nebuchadnezzar of old to punish the sins of the Jewish
+      Church; and He has raised up these men to punish ours!&rdquo; said Fray
+      Gerundio.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Nebuchadnezzar fell, and so may they,&rdquo; growled the other to himself.
+      Jack overheard him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I say, my lord bishop,&rdquo; called he from the other end of the table. &ldquo;It is
+      our English custom to let our guests be as rude as they like; but perhaps
+      your lordship will hint to these two friars, that if they wish to keep
+      whole skins, they will keep civil tongues.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be silent, asses! mules!&rdquo; shouted the bishop, whose spirits were
+      improving over the wine, &ldquo;who are you, that you cannot eat dirt as well as
+      your betters?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well spoken, my lord. Here's the health of our saintly and venerable
+      guest,&rdquo; said Cary: while the commandant whispered to Amyas, &ldquo;Fat old
+      tyrant! I hope you have found his money&mdash;for I am sure he has some on
+      board, and I should be loath that you lost the advantage of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall have to say a few words to you about that money this morning,
+      commandant: by the by, they had better be said now. My lord bishop, do you
+      know that had we not taken this ship when we did, you had lost not merely
+      money, as you have now, but life itself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Money? I had none to lose! Life?&mdash;what do you mean?&rdquo; asked the
+      bishop, turning very pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This, sir. That it ill befits one to lie, whose throat has been saved
+      from the assassin's knife but four hours since. When we entered the
+      stern-gallery, we found two persons, now on board this ship, in the very
+      act, sir, and article, of cutting your sinful throat, that they might rob
+      you of the casket which lay beneath your pillow. A moment more, and you
+      were dead. We seized and bound them, and so saved your life. Is that
+      plain, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bishop looked steadfastly and stupidly into Amyas's face, heaved a
+      deep sigh, and gradually sank back in his chair, dropping the glass from
+      his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is in a fit! Call in the surgeon! Run!&rdquo; and up jumped kind-hearted
+      Jack, and brought in the surgeon of the galleon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this possible, senor?&rdquo; asked the commandant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is true. Door, there! Evans! go and bring in that rascal whom we left
+      bound in his cabin!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Evans went, and the commandant continued&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the stern-gallery? How, in the name of all witches and miracles, came
+      your valor thither?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Simply enough, and owing neither to witch nor miracle. The night before
+      last we passed the mouth of the bay in our two canoes, which we had lashed
+      together after the fashion I had seen in the Moluccas, to keep them afloat
+      in the surf. We had scraped the canoes bright the day before, and rubbed
+      them with white clay, that they might be invisible at night; and so we got
+      safely to the Morro Grande, passing within half a mile of your ship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! my scoundrels of sentinels!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We landed at the back of the Morro, and lay there all day, being purposed
+      to do that which, with your pardon, we have done. We took our sails of
+      Indian cloth, whitened them likewise with clay which we had brought with
+      us from the river (expecting to find a Spanish ship as we went along the
+      coast, and determined to attempt her, or die with honor), and laid them
+      over us on the canoes, paddling from underneath them. So that, had your
+      sentinels been awake, they would have hardly made us out, till we were
+      close on board. We had provided ourselves, instead of ladders, with
+      bamboos rigged with cross-pieces, and a hook of strong wood at the top of
+      each; they hang at your stern-gallery now. And the rest of the tale I need
+      not tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The commandant rose in his courtly Spanish way,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your admirable story, senor, proves to me how truly your nation, while it
+      has yet, and I trust will ever have, to dispute the palm of valor with our
+      own, is famed throughout the world for ingenuity, and for daring beyond
+      that of mortal man. You have succeeded, valiant captain, because you have
+      deserved to succeed; and it is no shame to me to succumb to enemies who
+      have united the cunning of the serpent with the valor of the lion. Senor,
+      I feel as proud of becoming your guest as I should have been proud, under
+      a happier star, of becoming your host.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are, like your nation, only too generous, senor. But what noise is
+      that outside? Cary, go and see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But ere Cary could reach the door, it was opened; and Evans presented
+      himself with a terrified face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here's villainy, sir! The Don's murdered, and cold; the Indian lass fled;
+      and as we searched the ship for her, we found an Englishwoman, as I'm a
+      sinful man!&mdash;and a shocking sight she is to see!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An Englishwoman?&rdquo; cried all three, springing forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bring her in!&rdquo; said Amyas, turning very pale; and as he spoke, Yeo and
+      another led into the cabin a figure scarcely human.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An elderly woman, dressed in the yellow &ldquo;San Benito&rdquo; of the Inquisition,
+      with ragged gray locks hanging about a countenance distorted by suffering
+      and shrunk by famine. Painfully, as one unaccustomed to the light, she
+      peered and blinked round her. Her fallen lip gave her a half-idiotic
+      expression; and yet there was an uneasy twinkle in the eye, as of
+      boundless terror and suspicion. She lifted up her fettered wrist to shade
+      her face; and as she did so, disclosed a line of fearful scars upon her
+      skinny arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look there, sirs!&rdquo; said Yeo, pointing to them with a stern smile. &ldquo;Here's
+      some of these Popish gentry's handiwork. I know well enough how those
+      marks came;&rdquo; and he pointed to the similar scars on his own wrist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The commandant, as well as the Englishmen, recoiled with horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Holy Virgin! what wretch is this on board my ship? Bishop, is this the
+      prisoner whom you sent on board?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bishop, who had been slowly recovering his senses, looked at her a
+      moment; and then thrusting his chair back, crossed himself, and almost
+      screamed, &ldquo;Malefica! Malefica! Who brought her here? Turn her away,
+      gentlemen; turn her eye away; she will bewitch, fascinate&rdquo;&mdash;and he
+      began muttering prayers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas seized him by the shoulder, and shook him on to his legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Swine! who is this? Wake up, coward, and tell me, or I will cut you
+      piecemeal!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But ere the bishop could answer, the woman uttered a wild shriek, and
+      pointing to the taller of the two monks, cowered behind Yeo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He here?&rdquo; cried she, in broken Spanish. &ldquo;Take me away! I will tell you no
+      more. I have told you all, and lies enough beside. Oh! why is he come
+      again? Did they not say that I should have no more torments?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The monk turned pale: but like a wild beast at bay, glared firmly round on
+      the whole company; and then, fixing his dark eyes full on the woman, he
+      bade her be silent so sternly, that she shrank down like a beaten hound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence, dog!&rdquo; said Will Cary, whose blood was up, and followed his words
+      with a blow on the monk's mouth, which silenced him effectually.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't be afraid, good woman, but speak English. We are all English here,
+      and Protestants too. Tell us what they have done for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another trap! another trap!&rdquo; cried she, in a strong Devonshire accent.
+      &ldquo;You be no English! You want to make me lie again, and then torment me.
+      Oh! wretched, wretched that I am!&rdquo; cried she, bursting into tears. &ldquo;Whom
+      should I trust? Not myself: no, nor God; for I have denied Him! O Lord! O
+      Lord!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas stood silent with fear and horror; some instinct told him that he
+      was on the point of hearing news for which he feared to ask. But Jack
+      spoke&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear soul! my dear soul! don't you be afraid; and the Lord will stand
+      by you, if you will but tell the truth. We are all Englishmen, and men of
+      Devon, as you seem to be by your speech; and this ship is ours; and the
+      pope himself sha'n't touch you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Devon?&rdquo; she said doubtingly; &ldquo;Devon! Whence, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bideford men. This is Mr. Will Cary, to Clovelly. If you are a Devon
+      woman, you've heard tell of the Carys, to be sure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman made a rush forward, and threw her fettered arms round Will's
+      neck,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Cary, my dear life! Mr. Cary! and so you be! Oh, dear soul alive!
+      but you're burnt so brown, and I be 'most blind with misery. Oh, who ever
+      sent you here, my dear Mr. Will, then, to save a poor wretch from the
+      pit?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who on earth are you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lucy Passmore, the white witch to Welcombe. Don't you mind Lucy Passmore,
+      as charmed your warts for you when you was a boy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lucy Passmore!&rdquo; almost shrieked all three friends. &ldquo;She that went off
+      with&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes! she that sold her own soul, and persuaded that dear saint to sell
+      hers; she that did the devil's work, and has taken the devil's wages;&mdash;after
+      this fashion!&rdquo; and she held up her scarred wrists wildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is Dona de&mdash;Rose Salterne?&rdquo; shouted Will and Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is my brother Frank?&rdquo; shouted Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dead, dead, dead!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I knew it,&rdquo; said Amyas, sitting down again calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did she die?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Inquisition&mdash;he!&rdquo; pointing to the monk. &ldquo;Ask him&mdash;he
+      betrayed her to her death. And ask him!&rdquo; pointing to the bishop; &ldquo;he sat
+      by her and saw her die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Woman, you rave!&rdquo; said the bishop, getting up with a terrified air, and
+      moving as far as possible from Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did my brother die, Lucy?&rdquo; asked Amyas, still calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who be you, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A gleam of hope flashed across Amyas&mdash;she had not answered his
+      question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Amyas Leigh of Burrough. Do you know aught of my brother Frank, who
+      was lost at La Guayra?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Amyas! Heaven forgive me that I did not know the bigness of you. Your
+      brother, sir, died like a gentleman as he was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how?&rdquo; gasped Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Burned with her, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this true, sir?&rdquo; said Amyas, turning to the bishop, with a very quiet
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I, sir?&rdquo; stammered he, in panting haste. &ldquo;I had nothing to do&mdash;I was
+      compelled in my office of bishop to be an unwilling spectator&mdash;the
+      secular arm, sir; I could not interfere with that&mdash;any more than I
+      can with the Holy Office. I do not belong to it&mdash;ask that gentleman&mdash;sir!
+      Saints and angels, sir! what are you going to do?&rdquo; shrieked he, as Amyas
+      laid a heavy hand upon his shoulder, and began to lead him towards the
+      door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hang you!&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;If I had been a Spaniard and a priest like
+      yourself, I should have burnt you alive.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hang me?&rdquo; shrieked the wretched old Balaam; and burst into abject howls
+      for mercy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take the dark monk, Yeo, and hang him too. Lucy Passmore, do you know
+      that fellow also?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir,&rdquo; said Lucy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lucky for you, Fray Gerundio,&rdquo; said Will Cary; while the good friar hid
+      his face in his hands, and burst into tears. Lucky it was for him, indeed;
+      for he had been a pitying spectator of the tragedy. &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; thought he, &ldquo;if
+      life in this mad and sinful world be a reward, perhaps this escape is
+      vouchsafed to me for having pleaded the cause of the poor Indian!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the bishop shrieked on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! not yet. An hour, only an hour! I am not fit to die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is no concern of mine,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;I only know that you are not
+      fit to live.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us at least make our peace with God,&rdquo; said the dark monk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hound! if your saints can really smuggle you up the back-stairs to
+      heaven, they will do it without five minutes' more coaxing and
+      flattering.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Fray Gerundio and the condemned man alike stopped their ears at the
+      blasphemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Fray Gerundio!&rdquo; screamed the bishop, &ldquo;pray for me. I have treated you
+      like a beast. Oh, Fray, Fray!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, my lord! my lord!&rdquo; said the good man, as with tears streaming down
+      his face he followed his shrieking and struggling diocesan up the stairs,
+      &ldquo;who am I? Ask no pardon of me. Ask pardon of God for all your sins
+      against the poor innocent savages, when you saw your harmless sheep
+      butchered year after year, and yet never lifted up your voice to save the
+      flock which God had committed to you. Oh, confess that, my lord! confess
+      it ere it be too late!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will confess all about the Indians, and the gold, and Tita too, Fray;
+      peccavi, peccavi&mdash;only five minutes, senors, five little minutes'
+      grace, while I confess to the good Fray!&rdquo;&mdash;and he grovelled on the
+      deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will have no such mummery where I command,&rdquo; said Amyas, sternly. &ldquo;I
+      will be no accomplice in cheating Satan of his due.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you will confess,&rdquo; said Brimblecombe, whose heart was melting fast,
+      &ldquo;confess to the Lord, and He will forgive you. Even at the last moment
+      mercy is open. Is it not, Fray Gerundio?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is, senor; it is, my lord,&rdquo; said Gerundio; but the bishop only clasped
+      his hands over his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I am undone! All my money is stolen! Not a farthing left to buy
+      masses for my poor soul! And no absolution, no viaticum, nor anything! I
+      die like a dog and am damned!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Clear away that running rigging!&rdquo; said Amyas, while the dark Dominican
+      stood perfectly collected, with something of a smile of pity at the
+      miserable bishop. A man accustomed to cruelty, and firm in his fanaticism,
+      he was as ready to endure suffering as to inflict it; repeating to himself
+      the necessary prayers, he called Fray Gerundio to witness that he died,
+      however unworthy, a martyr, in charity with all men, and in the communion
+      of the Holy Catholic Church; and then, as he fitted the cord to his own
+      neck, gave Fray Gerundio various petty commissions about his sister and
+      her children, and a little vineyard far away upon the sunny slopes of
+      Castile; and so died, with a &ldquo;Domine, in manus tuas,&rdquo; like a valiant man
+      of Spain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas stood long in solemn silence, watching the two corpses dangling
+      above his head. At last he drew a long breath, as if a load was taken off
+      his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly he looked round to his men, who were watching eagerly to know
+      what he would have done next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hearken to me, my masters all, and may God hearken too, and do so to me,
+      and more also, if, as long as I have eyes to see a Spaniard, and hands to
+      hew him down, I do any other thing than hunt down that accursed nation day
+      and night, and avenge all the innocent blood which has been shed by them
+      since the day in which King Ferdinand drove out the Moors!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; said Salvation Yeo. &ldquo;I need not to swear that oath, for I have
+      sworn it long ago, and kept it. Will your honor have us kill the rest of
+      the idolaters?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forbid!&rdquo; said Cary. &ldquo;You would not do that, Amyas?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; we will spare them. God has shown us a great mercy this day, and we
+      must be merciful in it. We will land them at Cabo Velo. But henceforth
+      till I die no quarter to a Spaniard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; said Yeo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas's whole countenance had changed in the last half-hour. He seemed to
+      have grown years older. His brow was wrinkled, his lip compressed, his
+      eyes full of a terrible stony calm, as of one who had formed a great and
+      dreadful purpose, and yet for that very reason could afford to be quiet
+      under the burden of it, even cheerful; and when he returned to the cabin
+      he bowed courteously to the commandant, begged pardon of him for having
+      played the host so ill, and entreated him to finish his breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, senor&mdash;is it possible? Is his holiness dead?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is hanged and dead, senor. I would have hanged, could I have caught
+      them, every living thing which was present at my brother's death, even to
+      the very flies upon the wall. No more words, senor; your conscience tells
+      you that I am just.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Senor,&rdquo; said the commandant&mdash;&ldquo;one word&mdash;I trust there are no
+      listeners&mdash;none of my crew, I mean; but I must exculpate myself in
+      your eyes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Walk out, then, into the gallery with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To tell you the truth, senor&mdash;I trust in Heaven no one overhears.&mdash;You
+      are just. This Inquisition is the curse of us, the weight which is
+      crushing out the very life of Spain. No man dares speak. No man dares
+      trust his neighbor, no, not his child, or the wife of his bosom. It avails
+      nothing to be a good Catholic, as I trust I am,&rdquo; and he crossed himself,
+      &ldquo;when any villain whom you may offend, any unnatural son or wife who
+      wishes to be rid of you, has but to hint heresy against you, and you
+      vanish into the Holy Office&mdash;and then God have mercy on you, for man
+      has none. Noble ladies of my family, sir, have vanished thither, carried
+      off by night, we know not why; we dare not ask why. To expostulate, even
+      to inquire, would have been to share their fate. There is one now, senor&mdash;Heaven
+      alone knows whether she is alive or dead!&mdash;It was nine years since,
+      and we have never heard; and we shall never hear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the commandant's face worked frightfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She was my sister, senor!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heavens! sir, and have you not avenged her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On churchmen, senor, and I a Catholic? To be burned at the stake in this
+      life, and after that to all eternity beside? Even a Spaniard dare not face
+      that. Beside, sir, the mob like this Inquisition, and an Auto-da-fe is
+      even better sport to them than a bull-fight. They would be the first to
+      tear a man in pieces who dare touch an Inquisitor. Sir, may all the saints
+      in heaven obtain me forgiveness for my blasphemy, but when I saw you just
+      now fearing those churchmen no more than you feared me, I longed, sinner
+      that I am, to be a heretic like you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will not take long to make a brave and wise gentleman who has suffered
+      such things as you have, a heretic, as you call it&mdash;a free Christian
+      man, as we call it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tempt me not, sir!&rdquo; said the poor man, crossing himself fervently. &ldquo;Let
+      us say no more. Obedience is my duty; and for the rest the Church must
+      decide, according to her infallible authority&mdash;for I am a good
+      Catholic, senor, the best of Catholics, though a great sinner.&mdash;I
+      trust no one has overheard us!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas left him with a smile of pity, and went to look for Lucy Passmore,
+      whom the sailors were nursing and feeding, while Ayacanora watched them
+      with a puzzled face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will talk to you when you are better, Lucy,&rdquo; said he, taking her hand.
+      &ldquo;Now you must eat and drink, and forget all among us lads of Devon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dear blessed sir, and you will send Sir John to pray with me? For I
+      turned, sir, I turned: but I could not help it&mdash;I could not abear the
+      torments: but she bore them, sweet angel&mdash;and more than I did. Oh,
+      dear me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lucy, I am not fit now to hear more. You shall tell me all to-morrow;&rdquo;
+       and he turned away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you take her hand?&rdquo; said Ayacanora, half-scornfully. &ldquo;She is old,
+      and ugly, and dirty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is an Englishwoman, child, and a martyr, poor thing; and I would
+      nurse her as I would my own mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don't you make me an Englishwoman, and a martyr? I could learn how to
+      do anything that that old hag could do!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Instead of calling her names, go and tend her; that would be much fitter
+      work for a woman than fighting among men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ayacanora darted from him, thrust the sailors aside, and took possession
+      of Lucy Passmore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where shall I put her?&rdquo; asked she of Amyas, without looking up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the best cabin; and let her be served like a queen, lads.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one shall touch her but me;&rdquo; and taking up the withered frame in her
+      arms, as if it were a doll, Ayacanora walked off with her in triumph,
+      telling the men to go and mind the ship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The girl is mad,&rdquo; said one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mad or not, she has an eye to our captain,&rdquo; said another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where's the man that would behave to the poor wild thing as he does?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Francis Drake would, from whom he got his lesson. Do you mind his
+      putting the negro lass ashore after he found out about&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush! Bygones be bygones, and those that did it are in their graves long
+      ago. But it was too hard of him on the poor thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he had not got rid of her, there would have been more throats than one
+      cut about the lass, that's all I know,&rdquo; said another; &ldquo;and so there would
+      have been about this one before now, if the captain wasn't a born angel
+      out of heaven, and the lieutenant no less.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I suppose we may get a whet by now. I wonder if these Dons have any
+      beer aboard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Naught but grape vinegar, which fools call wine, I'll warrant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was better than vinegar on the table in there just now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said one grumbler of true English breed, &ldquo;but that's not for poor
+      fellows like we.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't lie, Tom Evans; you never were given that way yet, and I don't
+      think the trade will suit a good fellow like you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole party stared; for the speaker of these words was none other than
+      Amyas himself, who had rejoined them, a bottle in each hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Tom Evans. It has been share and share alike for three years, and
+      bravely you have all held up, and share alike it shall be now, and here's
+      the handsel of it. We'll serve out the good wine fairly all round as long
+      as it lasts, and then take to the bad: but mind you don't get drunk, my
+      sons, for we are much too short of hands to have any stout fellows lying
+      about the scuppers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But what was the story of the intendant's being murdered? Brimblecombe had
+      seen him run into a neighboring cabin; and when the door of it was opened,
+      there was the culprit, but dead and cold, with a deep knife-wound in his
+      side. Who could have done the deed? It must have been Tita, whom
+      Brimblecombe had seen loose, and trying to free her lover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ship was searched from stem to stern: but no Tita. The mystery was
+      never explained. That she had leapt overboard, and tried to swim ashore,
+      none doubted: but whether she had reached it, who could tell? One thing
+      was strange; that not only had she carried off no treasure with her, but
+      that the gold ornaments which she had worn the night before, lay together
+      in a heap on the table, close by the murdered man. Had she wished to rid
+      herself of everything which had belonged to her tyrants?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The commandant heard the whole story thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wretched man!&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and he has a wife and children in Seville.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A wife and children?&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;and I heard him promise marriage to
+      the Indian girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That was the only hint which gave a reason for his death. What if, in the
+      terror of discovery and capture, the scoundrel had dropped any
+      self-condemning words about his marriage, any prayer for those whom he had
+      left behind, and the Indian had overheard them? It might be so; at least
+      sin had brought its own punishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so that wild night and day subsided. The prisoners were kindly used
+      enough; for the Englishman, free from any petty love of tormenting, knows
+      no mean between killing a foe outright, and treating him as a brother; and
+      when, two days afterwards, they were sent ashore in the canoes off Cabo
+      Velo, captives and captors shook hands all round; and Amyas, after
+      returning the commandant his sword, and presenting him with a case of the
+      bishop's wine, bowed him courteously over the side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I trust that you will pay us another visit, valiant senor capitan,&rdquo; said
+      the Spaniard, bowing and smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should most gladly accept your invitation, illustrious senor
+      commandant; but as I have vowed henceforth, whenever I shall meet a
+      Spaniard, neither to give nor take quarter, I trust that our paths to
+      glory may lie in different directions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The commandant shrugged his shoulders; the ship was put again before the
+      wind, and as the shores of the Main faded lower and dimmer behind her, a
+      mighty cheer broke from all on board; and for once the cry from every
+      mouth was Eastward-ho!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Scrap by scrap, as weakness and confusion of intellect permitted her, Lucy
+      Passmore told her story. It was a simple one after all, and Amyas might
+      almost have guessed it for himself. Rose had not yielded to the Spaniard
+      without a struggle. He had visited her two or three times at Lucy's house
+      (how he found out Lucy's existence she herself could never tell, unless
+      from the Jesuits) before she agreed to go with him. He had gained Lucy to
+      his side by huge promises of Indian gold; and, in fine, they had gone to
+      Lundy, where the lovers were married by a priest, who was none other, Lucy
+      would swear, than the shorter and stouter of the two who had carried off
+      her husband and his boat&mdash;in a word, Father Parsons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas gnashed his teeth at the thought that he had had Parsons in his
+      power at Brenttor down, and let him go. It was a fresh proof to him that
+      Heaven's vengeance was upon him for letting one of its enemies escape.
+      Though what good to Rose or Frank the hanging of Parsons would have been,
+      I, for my part, cannot see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when had Eustace been at Lundy? Lucy could throw no light on that
+      matter. It was evidently some by-thread in the huge spider's web of Jesuit
+      intrigue, which was, perhaps, not worth knowing after all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They sailed from Lundy in a Portugal ship, were at Lisbon a few days
+      (during which Rose and Lucy remained on board), and then away for the West
+      Indies; while all went merry as a marriage bell. &ldquo;Sir, he would have
+      kissed the dust off her dear feet, till that evil eye of Mr. Eustace's
+      came, no one knew how or whence.&rdquo; And, from that time, all went wrong.
+      Eustace got power over Don Guzman, whether by threatening that the
+      marriage should be dissolved, whether by working on his superstitious
+      scruples about leaving his wife still a heretic, or whether (and this last
+      Lucy much suspected) by insinuations that her heart was still at home in
+      England, and that she was longing for Amyas and his ship to come and take
+      her home again; the house soon became a den of misery, and Eustace the
+      presiding evil genius. Don Guzman had even commanded him to leave it&mdash;and
+      he went; but, somehow, within a week he was there again, in greater favor
+      than ever. Then came preparations to meet the English, and high words
+      about it between Don Guzman and Rose; till a few days before Amyas's
+      arrival, the Don had dashed out of the house in a fury, saying openly that
+      she preferred these Lutheran dogs to him, and that he would have their
+      hearts' blood first, and hers after.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rest was soon told. Amyas knew but too much of it already. The very
+      morning after he had gone up to the villa, Lucy and her mistress were
+      taken (they knew not by whom) down to the quay, in the name of the Holy
+      Office, and shipped off to Cartagena.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There they were examined, and confronted on a charge of witchcraft, which
+      the wretched Lucy could not well deny. She was tortured to make her
+      inculpate Rose; and what she said, or did not say, under the torture, the
+      poor wretch could never tell. She recanted, and became a Romanist; Rose
+      remained firm. Three weeks afterwards, they were brought out to an
+      Auto-da-fe; and there, for the first time, Lucy saw Frank walking, dressed
+      in a San Benito, in that ghastly procession. Lucy was adjudged to receive
+      publicly two hundred stripes, and to be sent to &ldquo;The Holy House&rdquo; at
+      Seville to perpetual prison. Frank and Rose, with a renegade Jew, and a
+      negro who had been convicted of practising &ldquo;Obi,&rdquo; were sentenced to death
+      as impenitent, and delivered over to the secular arm, with prayers that
+      there might be no shedding of blood. In compliance with which request, the
+      Jew and the negro were burnt at one stake, Frank and Rose at another. She
+      thought they did not feel it more than twenty minutes. They were both very
+      bold and steadfast, and held each other's hand (that she would swear to)
+      to the very last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so ended Lucy Passmore's story. And if Amyas Leigh, after he had heard
+      it, vowed afresh to give no quarter to Spaniards wherever he should find
+      them, who can wonder, even if they blame?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW SALVATION YEO FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;All precious things, discover'd late,
+        To them who seek them issue forth;
+     For love in sequel works with fate,
+        And draws the veil from hidden worth.&rdquo;
+
+                         The Sleeping Beauty.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And so Ayacanora took up her abode in Lucy's cabin, as a regularly
+      accredited member of the crew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But a most troublesome member; for now began in her that perilous crisis
+      which seems to endanger the bodies and souls of all savages and savage
+      tribes, when they first mingle with the white man; that crisis which, a
+      few years afterwards, began to hasten the extermination of the North
+      American tribes; and had it not been for the admirable good sense and
+      constancy of Amyas, Ayacanora might have ended even more miserably than
+      did the far-famed Pocahontas, daughter of the Virginian king; who, after
+      having been received at Court by the old pedant James the First, with the
+      honors of a sister sovereign, and having become the reputed ancestress of
+      more than one ancient Virginian family, ended her days in wretchedness in
+      some Wapping garret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the mind of the savage, crushed by the sight of the white man's
+      superior skill, and wealth, and wisdom, loses at first its self-respect;
+      while his body, pampered with easily obtained luxuries, instead of having
+      to win the necessaries of life by heavy toil, loses its self-helpfulness;
+      and with self-respect and self-help vanish all the savage virtues, few and
+      flimsy as they are, and the downward road toward begging and stealing,
+      sottishness and idleness, is easy, if not sure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And down that road, it really seemed at first, that poor Ayacanora was
+      walking fast. For the warrior-prophetess of the Omaguas soon became, to
+      all appearance, nothing but a very naughty child; and the Diana of the
+      Meta, after she had satisfied her simple wonder at the great floating
+      house by rambling from deck to deck, and peeping into every cupboard and
+      cranny, manifested a great propensity to steal and hide (she was too proud
+      or too shy to ask for) every trumpery which smit her fancy; and when Amyas
+      forbade her to take anything without leave, threatened to drown herself,
+      and went off and sulked all day in her cabin. Nevertheless, she obeyed
+      him, except in the matter of sweet things. Perhaps she craved naturally
+      for the vegetable food of her native forests; at all events the bishop's
+      stores of fruit and sweetmeats diminished rapidly; and what was worse, so
+      did the sweet Spanish wine which Amyas had set apart for poor Lucy's daily
+      cordial. Whereon another severe lecture, in which Amyas told her how mean
+      it was to rob poor sick Lucy; whereat she, as usual, threatened to drown
+      herself; and was running upon deck to do it, when Amyas caught her and
+      forgave her. On which a violent fit of crying, and great penitence and
+      promises; and a week after, Amyas found that she had cheated Satan and her
+      own conscience by tormenting the Portuguese steward into giving her some
+      other wine instead: but luckily for her, she found Amyas's warnings about
+      wine making her mad so far fulfilled, that she did several foolish things
+      one evening, and had a bad headache next morning; so the murder was out,
+      and Amyas ordered the steward up for a sound flogging; but Ayacanora,
+      honorably enough, not only begged him off, but offered to be whipped
+      instead of him, confessing that the poor fellow spoke truly when he swore
+      that she had threatened to kill him, and that he had given her the wine in
+      bodily fear for his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      However, her own headache and Amyas's cold looks were lesson enough, and
+      after another attempt to drown herself, the wilful beauty settled down for
+      awhile; and what was better, could hardly be persuaded, thenceforth to her
+      dying day, to touch fermented liquors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, in the meanwhile, poor Amyas had many a brains-beating as to how he
+      was to tame a lady who, on the least provocation, took refuge in suicide.
+      Punish her he dared not, even if he had the heart. And as for putting her
+      ashore, he had an instinct, and surely not a superstitious one, that her
+      strange affection for the English was not unsent by Heaven, and that God
+      had committed her into his charge, and that He would require an account at
+      his hands of the soul of that fair lost lamb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So, almost at his wits' end, he prayed to God, good simple fellow, and
+      that many a time, to show him what he should do with her before she killed
+      either herself, or what was just as likely, one of the crew; and it seemed
+      best to him to make Parson Jack teach her the rudiments of Christianity,
+      that she might be baptized in due time when they got home to England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But here arose a fresh trouble&mdash;for she roundly refused to learn of
+      Jack, or of any one but Amyas himself; while he had many a good reason for
+      refusing the office of schoolmaster; so, for a week or two more, Ayacanora
+      remained untaught, save in the English tongue, which she picked up with
+      marvellous rapidity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And next, as if troubles would never end, she took a violent dislike, not
+      only to John Brimblecombe, whose gait and voice she openly mimicked for
+      the edification of the men; but also to Will Cary, whom she never allowed
+      to speak to her or approach her. Perhaps she was jealous of his intimacy
+      with Amyas; or perhaps, with the subtle instinct of a woman, she knew that
+      he was the only other man on board who might dare to make love to her
+      (though Will, to do him justice, was as guiltless of any such intention as
+      Amyas himself). But when she was remonstrated with, her only answer was
+      that Cary was a cacique as well as Amyas, and that there ought not to be
+      two caciques; and one day she actually proposed to Amyas to kill his
+      supposed rival, and take the ship all to himself; and sulked for several
+      days at hearing Amyas, amid shouts of laughter, retail her precious advice
+      to its intended victim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moreover, the negroes came in for their share, being regarded all along by
+      her with an unspeakable repugnance, which showed itself at first in hiding
+      from them whenever she could, and, afterwards, in throwing at them
+      everything she could lay hands on, till the poor Quashies, in danger of
+      their lives, complained to Amyas, and got rest for awhile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Over the rest of the sailors she lorded it like a very princess, calling
+      them from their work to run on her errands and make toys for her,
+      enforcing her commands now and then by a shrewd box on the ears; while the
+      good fellows, especially old Yeo, like true sailors, petted her, obeyed
+      her, even jested with her, much as they might have done with a tame
+      leopard, whose claws might be unsheathed and about their ears at any
+      moment. But she amused them, and amused Amyas too. They must of course
+      have a pet; and what prettier one could they have? And as for Amyas, the
+      constant interest of her presence, even the constant anxiety of her
+      wilfulness, kept his mind busy, and drove out many a sad foreboding about
+      that meeting with his mother, and the tragedy which he had to tell her,
+      which would otherwise, so heavily did they weigh on him, have crushed his
+      spirit with melancholy, and made all his worldly success and marvellous
+      deliverance worthless in his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last the matter, as most things luckily do, came to a climax; and it
+      came in this way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ship had been slipping along now for many a day, slowly but steadily
+      before a favorable breeze. She had passed the ring of the West India
+      islands, and was now crawling, safe from all pursuit, through the vast
+      weed-beds of the Sargasso Sea. There, for the first time, it was thought
+      safe to relax the discipline which had been hitherto kept up, and to
+      &ldquo;rummage&rdquo; (as was the word in those days) their noble prize. What they
+      found, of gold and silver, jewels, and merchandise, will interest no
+      readers. Suffice it to say, that there was enough there, with the other
+      treasure, to make Amyas rich for life, after all claims of Cary's and the
+      crew, not forgetting Mr. Salterne's third, as owner of the ship, had been
+      paid off. But in the captain's cabin were found two chests, one full of
+      gorgeous Mexican feather dresses, and the other of Spanish and East Indian
+      finery, which, having come by way of Havana and Cartagena, was going on,
+      it seemed, to some senora or other at the Caracas. Which two chests were,
+      at Cary's proposal, voted amid the acclamations of the crew to Ayacanora,
+      as her due and fit share of the pillage, in consideration of her Amazonian
+      prowess and valuable services.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the poor child took greedy possession of the trumpery, had them carried
+      into Lucy's cabin, and there knelt gloating over them many an hour. The
+      Mexican work she chose to despise as savage; but the Spanish dresses were
+      a treasure; and for two or three days she appeared on the quarter-deck,
+      sunning herself like a peacock before the eyes of Amyas in Seville
+      mantillas, Madrid hats, Indian brocade farthingales, and I know not how
+      many other gewgaws, and dare not say how put on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The crew tittered: Amyas felt much more inclined to cry. There is nothing
+      so pathetic as a child's vanity, saving a grown person aping a child's
+      vanity; and saving, too, a child's agony of disappointment when it finds
+      that it has been laughed at instead of being admired. Amyas would have
+      spoken, but he was afraid: however, the evil brought its own cure. The
+      pageant went on, as its actor thought, most successfully for three days or
+      so; but at last the dupe, unable to contain herself longer, appealed to
+      Amyas,&mdash;&ldquo;Ayacanora quite English girl now; is she not?&rdquo;&mdash;heard a
+      titter behind her, looked round, saw a dozen honest faces in broad grin,
+      comprehended all in a moment, darted down the companion-ladder, and
+      vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas, fully expecting her to jump overboard, followed as fast as he
+      could. But she had locked herself in with Lucy, and he could hear her
+      violent sobs, and Lucy's faint voice entreating to know what was the
+      matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain he knocked. She refused to come out all day, and at even they were
+      forced to break the door open, to prevent Lucy being starved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There sat Ayacanora, her finery half torn off, and scattered about the
+      floor in spite, crying still as if her heart would break; while poor Lucy
+      cried too, half from fright and hunger, and half for company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas tried to comfort the poor child, assured her that the men should
+      never laugh at her again; &ldquo;But then,&rdquo; added he, &ldquo;you must not be so&mdash;so&mdash;&rdquo;
+       What to say he hardly knew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So what?&rdquo; asked she, crying more bitterly than ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So like a wild girl, Ayacanora.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her hands dropped on her knees: a strong spasm ran through her throat and
+      bosom, and she fell on her knees before him, and looked up imploringly in
+      his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; wild girl&mdash;poor, bad wild girl. . . . But I will be English
+      girl now!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fine clothes will never make you English, my child,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No! not English clothes&mdash;English heart! Good heart, like yours! Yes,
+      I will be good, and Sir John shall teach me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's my good maid,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;Sir John shall begin and teach you
+      to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No! Now! now! Ayacanora cannot wait. She will drown herself if she is bad
+      another day! Come, now!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And she made him fetch Brimblecombe, heard the honest fellow patiently for
+      an hour or more, and told Lucy that very night all that he had said. And
+      from that day, whenever Jack went in to read and pray with the poor
+      sufferer, Ayacanora, instead of escaping on deck as before, stood
+      patiently trying to make it all out, and knelt when he knelt, and tried to
+      pray too&mdash;that she might have an English heart; and doubtless her
+      prayers, dumb as they were, were not unheard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So went on a few days more, hopefully enough, without any outbreak, till
+      one morning, just after they had passed the Sargasso-beds. The ship was
+      taking care of herself; the men were all on deck under the awning,
+      tinkering, and cobbling, and chatting; Brimblecombe was catechising his
+      fair pupil in the cabin; Amyas and Cary, cigar in mouth, were chatting
+      about all heaven and earth, and, above all, of the best way of getting up
+      a fresh adventure against the Spaniards as soon as they returned; while
+      Amyas was pouring out to Will that dark hatred of the whole nation, that
+      dark purpose of revenge for his brother and for Rose, which had settled
+      down like a murky cloud into every cranny of his heart and mind. Suddenly
+      there was a noise below; a scuffle and a shout, which made them both leap
+      to their feet; and up on deck rushed Jack Brimblecombe, holding his head
+      on with both his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Save me! save me from that she-fiend! She is possessed with a legion! She
+      has broken my nose&mdash;torn out half my hair!&mdash;and I'm sure I have
+      none to spare! Here she comes! Stand by me, gentlemen both! Satanas, I
+      defy thee!&rdquo; And Jack ensconced himself behind the pair, as Ayacanora
+      whirled upon deck like a very Maenad, and, seeing Amyas, stopped short.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you had defied Satan down below there,&rdquo; said Cary, with a laugh, &ldquo;I
+      suspect he wouldn't have broken out on you so boldly, Master Jack.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am innocent&mdash;innocent as the babe unborn! Oh! Mr. Cary! this is
+      too bad of you, sir!&rdquo; quoth Jack indignantly, while Amyas asked what was
+      the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He looked at me,&rdquo; said she, sturdily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, a cat may look at a king.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he sha'n't look at Ayacanora. Nobody shall but you, or I'll kill
+      him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain Jack protested his innocence of having even looked at her. The
+      fancy (and I verily believe it was nothing more) had taken possession of
+      her. She refused to return below to her lesson. Jack went off grumbling,
+      minus his hair, and wore a black eye for a week after.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At all events,&rdquo; quoth Cary, re-lighting his cigar, &ldquo;it's a fault on the
+      right side.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God give me grace, or it may be one on the wrong side for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will, old heart-of-oak!&rdquo; said Cary, laying his arm around Amyas's
+      neck, to the evident disgust of Ayacanora, who went off to the side, got a
+      fishing-line, and began amusing herself therewith, while the ship slipped
+      on quietly and silently as ever, save when Ayacanora laughed and clapped
+      her hands at the flying-fish scudding from the bonitos. At last, tired of
+      doing nothing, she went forward to the poop-rail to listen to John Squire
+      the armorer, who sat tinkering a headpiece, and humming a song, mutato
+      nomine, concerning his native place&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Oh, Bideford is a pleasant place, it shines where it stands,
+     And the more I look upon it, the more my heart it warms;
+     For there are fair young lasses, in rows upon the quay,
+     To welcome gallant mariners, when they come home from say.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis Sunderland, John Squire, to the song, and not Bidevor,&rdquo; said his
+      mate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Bidevor's so good as Sunderland any day, for all there's no
+      say-coals there blacking a place about; and makes just so good harmonies,
+      Tommy Hamblyn&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Oh, if I was a herring, to swim the ocean o'er,
+     Or if I was a say-dove, to fly unto the shoor,
+     To fly unto my true love, a waiting at the door,
+     To wed her with a goold ring, and plough the main no moor.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Here Yeo broke in&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aren't you ashamed, John Squire, to your years, singing such carnal
+      vanities, after all the providences you have seen? Let the songs of Zion
+      be in your mouth, man, if you must needs keep a caterwauling all day like
+      that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You sing 'em yourself then, gunner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; says Yeo, &ldquo;and why not?&rdquo; And out he pulled his psalm-book, and
+      began a scrap of the grand old psalm&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Such as in ships and brittle barks
+        Into the seas descend,
+     Their merchandise through fearful floods
+        To compass and to end;
+     There men are forced to behold
+        The Lord's works what they be;
+     And in the dreadful deep the same,
+        Most marvellous they see.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo; said John Squire. &ldquo;Very good and godly: but still I du like a
+      merry catch now and then, I du. Wouldn't you let a body sing 'Rumbelow'&mdash;even
+      when he's heaving of the anchor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I don't know,&rdquo; said Yeo; &ldquo;but the Lord's people had better praise
+      the Lord then too, and pray for a good voyage, instead of howling about&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+       &ldquo;A randy, dandy, dandy O,
+        A whet of ale and brandy O,
+     With a rumbelow and a Westward-ho!
+        And heave, my mariners all, O!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that fit talk for immortal souls? How does that child's-trade sound
+      beside the Psalms, John Squire?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now it befell that Salvation Yeo, for the very purpose of holding up to
+      ridicule that time-honored melody, had put into it the true nasal twang,
+      and rung it out as merrily as he had done perhaps twelve years before,
+      when he got up John Oxenham's anchor in Plymouth Sound. And it befell also
+      that Ayacanora, as she stood by Amyas's side, watching the men, and trying
+      to make out their chat, heard it, and started; and then, half to herself,
+      took up the strain, and sang it over again, word for word, in the very
+      same tune and tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Salvation Yeo started in his turn, and turned deadly pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who sung that?&rdquo; he asked quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The little maid here. She's coming on nicely in her English,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The little maid?&rdquo; said Yeo, turning paler still. &ldquo;Why do you go about to
+      scare an old servant, by talking of little maids, Captain Amyas? Well,&rdquo; he
+      said aloud to himself, &ldquo;as I am a sinful saint, if I hadn't seen where the
+      voice came from, I could have sworn it was her; just as we taught her to
+      sing it by the river there, I and William Penberthy of Marazion, my good
+      comrade. The Lord have mercy on me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All were silent as the grave whenever Yeo made any allusion to that lost
+      child. Ayacanora only, pleased with Amyas's commendation, went humming on
+      to herself&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;And heave, my mariners all, O!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Yeo started up from the gun where he sat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't abear it! As I live, I can't! You, Indian maiden, where did you
+      learn to sing that there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ayacanora looked up at him, half frightened by his vehemence, then at
+      Amyas, to see if she had been doing anything wrong; and then turned
+      saucily away, looked over the side, and hummed on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask her, for mercy's sake&mdash;ask her, Captain Leigh!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My child,&rdquo; said Amyas, speaking in Indian, &ldquo;how is it you sing that so
+      much better than any other English? Did you ever hear it before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ayacanora looked up at him puzzled, and shook her head; and then&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you tell Indian to Ayacanora, she dumb. She must be English girl now,
+      like poor Lucy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well then,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;do you recollect, Ayacanora&mdash;do you
+      recollect&mdash;what shall I say? anything that happened when you were a
+      little girl?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She paused awhile; and then moving her hands overhead&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trees&mdash;great trees like the Magdalena&mdash;always nothing but trees&mdash;wild
+      and bad everything. Ayacanora won't talk about that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mind anything that grew on those trees?&rdquo; asked Yeo, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She laughed. &ldquo;Silly! Flowers and fruit, and nuts&mdash;grow on all trees,
+      and monkey-cups too. Ayacanora climbed up after them&mdash;when she was
+      wild. I won't tell any more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But who taught you to call them monkey-cups?&rdquo; asked Yeo, trembling with
+      excitement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Monkey's drink; mono drink.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mono?&rdquo; said Yeo, foiled on one cast, and now trying another. &ldquo;How did you
+      know the beasts were called monos?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She might have heard it coming down with us,&rdquo; said Cary, who had joined
+      the group.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, monos,&rdquo; said she, in a self-justifying tone. &ldquo;Faces like little men,
+      and tails. And one very dirty black one, with a beard, say Amen in a tree
+      to all the other monkeys, just like Sir John on Sunday.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This allusion to Brimblecombe and the preaching apes upset all but old
+      Yeo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But don't you recollect any Christians?&mdash;white people?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you mind a white lady?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Um?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A woman, a very pretty woman, with hair like his?&rdquo; pointing to Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mind, then, beside those Indians?&rdquo; added Yeo, in despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned her back on him peevishly, as if tired with the efforts of her
+      memory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do try to remember,&rdquo; said Amyas; and she set to work again at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ayacanora mind great monkeys&mdash;black, oh, so high,&rdquo; and she held up
+      her hand above her head, and made a violent gesture of disgust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Monkeys? what, with tails?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, like man. Ah! yes&mdash;just like Cooky there&mdash;dirty Cooky!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And that hapless son of Ham, who happened to be just crossing the
+      main-deck, heard a marlingspike, which by ill luck was lying at hand,
+      flying past his ears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ayacanora, if you heave any more things at Cooky, I must have you
+      whipped,&rdquo; said Amyas, without, of course, any such intention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll kill you, then,&rdquo; answered she, in the most matter-of-fact tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She must mean negurs,&rdquo; said Yeo; &ldquo;I wonder where she saw them, now. What
+      if it were they Cimaroons?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why should any one who had seen whites forget them, and yet remember
+      negroes?&rdquo; asked Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us try again. Do you mind no great monkeys but those black ones?&rdquo;
+       asked Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she said, after a while,&mdash;&ldquo;devil.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Devil?&rdquo; asked all three, who, of course, were by no means free from the
+      belief that the fiend did actually appear to the Indian conjurors, such as
+      had brought up the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, him Sir John tell about on Sundays.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Save and help us!&rdquo; said Yeo; &ldquo;and what was he like unto?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She made various signs to intimate that he had a monkey's face, and a gray
+      beard like Yeo's. So far so good: but now came a series of manipulations
+      about her pretty little neck, which set all their fancies at fault.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know,&rdquo; said Cary, at last, bursting into a great laugh. &ldquo;Sir Urian had
+      a ruff on, as I live! Trunk-hose too, my fair dame? Stop&mdash;I'll make
+      sure. Was his neck like the senor commandant's, the Spaniard?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ayacanora clapped her hands at finding herself understood, and the
+      questioning went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The 'devil' appeared like a monkey, with a gray beard, in a ruff;&mdash;humph!&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay!&rdquo; said she in good enough Spanish, &ldquo;Mono de Panama; viejo diablo de
+      Panama.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo threw up his hands with a shriek&mdash;&ldquo;Oh Lord of all mercies! Those
+      were the last words of Mr. John Oxenham! Ay&mdash;and the devil is surely
+      none other than the devil Don Francisco Xararte! Oh dear! oh dear! oh
+      dear! my sweet young lady! my pretty little maid! and don't you know me?
+      Don't you know Salvation Yeo, that carried you over the mountains, and
+      used to climb for the monkey-cups for you, my dear young lady? And William
+      Penberthy too, that used to get you flowers; and your poor dear father,
+      that was just like Mr. Cary there, only he had a black beard, and black
+      curls, and swore terribly in his speech, like a Spaniard, my dear young
+      lady?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the honest fellow, falling on his knees, covered Ayacanora's hands
+      with kisses; while all the crew, fancying him gone suddenly mad, crowded
+      aft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Steady, men, and don't vex him!&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;He thinks that he has found
+      his little maid at last.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so do I, Amyas, as I live,&rdquo; said Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Steady, steady, my masters all! If this turn out a wrong scent after all,
+      his wits will crack. Mr. Yeo, can't you think of any other token?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo stamped impatiently. &ldquo;What need then? it's her, I tell ye, and that's
+      enough! What a beauty she's grown! Oh dear! where were my eyes all this
+      time, to behold her, and not to see her! 'Tis her very mortal self, it is!
+      And don't you mind me, my dear, now? Don't you mind Salvation Yeo, that
+      taught you to sing 'Heave my mariners all, O!' a-sitting on a log by the
+      boat upon the sand, and there was a sight of red lilies grew on it in the
+      moss, dear, now, wasn't there? and we made posies of them to put in your
+      hair, now?&rdquo;&mdash;And the poor old man ran on in a supplicating,
+      suggestive tone, as if he could persuade the girl into becoming the person
+      whom he sought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ayacanora had watched him, first angry, then amused, then attentive, and
+      at last with the most intense earnestness. Suddenly she grew crimson, and
+      snatching her hands from the old man's, hid her face in them, and stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you remember anything of all this, my child?&rdquo; asked Amyas, gently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She lifted up her eyes suddenly to his, with a look of imploring agony, as
+      if beseeching him to spare her. The death of a whole old life, the birth
+      of a whole new life, was struggling in that beautiful face, choking in
+      that magnificent throat, as she threw back her small head, and drew in her
+      breath, and dashed her locks back from her temples, as if seeking for
+      fresh air. She shuddered, reeled, then fell weeping on the bosom, not of
+      Salvation Yeo, but of Amyas Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood still a minute or two, bearing that fair burden, ere he could
+      recollect himself. Then,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ayacanora, you are not yet mistress of yourself, my child. You were
+      better to go down, and see after poor Lucy, and we will talk about it all
+      to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She gathered herself up instantly, and with eyes fixed on the deck slid
+      through the group, and disappeared below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Yeo, with a tone of exquisite sadness; &ldquo;the young to the young!
+      Over land and sea, in the forests and in the galleys, in battle and
+      prison, I have sought her! And now!&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My good friend,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;neither are you master of yourself yet.
+      When she comes round again, whom will she love and thank but you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You, sir! She owes all to you; and so do I. Let me go below, sir. My old
+      wits are shaky. Bless you, sir, and thank you for ever and ever!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Yeo grasped Amyas's hand, and went down to his cabin, from which he
+      did not reappear for many hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From that day Ayacanora was a new creature. The thought that she was an
+      Englishwoman; that she, the wild Indian, was really one of the great white
+      people whom she had learned to worship, carried in it some regenerating
+      change: she regained all her former stateliness, and with it a
+      self-restraint, a temperance, a softness which she had never shown before.
+      Her dislike to Cary and Jack vanished. Modest and distant as ever, she now
+      took delight in learning from them about England and English people; and
+      her knowledge of our customs gained much from the somewhat fantastic
+      behaviour which Amyas thought good, for reasons of his own, to assume
+      toward her. He assigned her a handsome cabin to herself, always addressed
+      her as madam, and told Cary, Brimblecombe, and the whole crew that as she
+      was a lady and a Christian, he expected them to behave to her as such. So
+      there was as much bowing and scraping on the poop as if it had been a
+      prince's court: and Ayacanora, though sorely puzzled and chagrined at
+      Amyas's new solemnity, contrived to imitate it pretty well (taking for
+      granted that it was the right thing); and having tolerable masters in the
+      art of manners (for both Amyas and Cary were thoroughly well-bred men),
+      profited much in all things, except in intimacy with Amyas, who had,
+      cunning fellow, hit on this parade of good manners, as a fresh means of
+      increasing the distance between him and her. The crew, of course, though
+      they were a little vexed at losing their pet, consoled themselves with the
+      thought that she was a &ldquo;real born lady,&rdquo; and Mr. Oxenham's daughter, too;
+      and there was not a man on board who did not prick up his ears for a
+      message if she approached him, or one who would not have, I verily
+      believe, jumped overboard to do her a pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only Yeo kept sorrowfully apart. He never looked at her, spoke to her, met
+      her even, if he could. His dream had vanished. He had found her! and after
+      all, she did not care for him? Why should she?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was hard to have hunted a bubble for years, and have it break in
+      his hand at last. &ldquo;Set not your affections on things on the earth,&rdquo;
+       murmured Yeo to himself, as he pored over his Bible, in the vain hope of
+      forgetting his little maid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But why did Amyas wish to increase the distance between himself and
+      Ayacanora? Many reasons might be given: I deny none of them. But the main
+      one, fantastic as it may seem, was simply, that while she had discovered
+      herself to be an Englishwoman, he had discovered her to be a Spaniard. If
+      her father were seven times John Oxenham (and even that the perverse
+      fellow was inclined to doubt), her mother was a Spaniard&mdash;Pah! one of
+      the accursed race; kinswoman&mdash;perhaps, to his brother's murderers!
+      His jaundiced eyes could see nothing but the Spanish element in her; or,
+      indeed, in anything else. As Cary said to him once, using a cant phrase of
+      Sidney's, which he had picked up from Frank, all heaven and earth were
+      &ldquo;spaniolated,&rdquo; to him. He seemed to recollect nothing but that Heaven had
+      &ldquo;made Spaniards to be killed, and him to kill them.&rdquo; If he had not been
+      the most sensible of John Bulls, he would certainly have forestalled the
+      monomania of that young Frenchman of rank, who, some eighty years after
+      him, so maddened his brain by reading of the Spanish cruelties, that he
+      threw up all his prospects and turned captain of filibusters in the West
+      Indies, for the express purpose of ridding them of their tyrants; and when
+      a Spanish ship was taken, used to relinquish the whole booty to his crew,
+      and reserve for himself only the pleasure of witnessing his victims' dying
+      agonies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what had become of that bird-like song of Ayacanora's which had
+      astonished them on the banks of the Meta, and cheered them many a time in
+      their anxious voyage down the Magdalena? From the moment that she found
+      out her English parentage, it stopped. She refused utterly to sing
+      anything but the songs and psalms which she picked up from the English.
+      Whether it was that she despised it as a relic of her barbarism, or
+      whether it was too maddening for one whose heart grew heavier and humbler
+      day by day, the nightingale notes were heard no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So homeward they ran, before a favoring southwest breeze: but long ere
+      they were within sight of land, Lucy Passmore was gone to her rest beneath
+      the Atlantic waves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVIII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE THIRD TIME
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;It fell about the Martinmas,
+         When nights were lang and mirk,
+     That wife's twa sons cam hame again,
+         And their hats were o' the birk.
+
+     &ldquo;It did na graw by bush or brae,
+         Nor yet in ony shough;
+     But by the gates o' paradise
+         That birk grew fair eneugh.&rdquo;
+
+                The Wife of Usher's Well.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It is the evening of the 15th of February, 1587, and Mrs. Leigh (for we
+      must return now to old scenes and old faces) is pacing slowly up and down
+      the terrace-walk at Burrough, looking out over the winding river, and the
+      hazy sand-hills, and the wide western sea, as she has done every evening,
+      be it fair weather or foul, for three weary years. Three years and more
+      are past and gone, and yet no news of Frank and Amyas, and the gallant
+      ship and all the gallant souls therein; and loving eyes in Bideford and
+      Appledore, Clovelly and Ilfracombe, have grown hollow with watching and
+      with weeping for those who have sailed away into the West, as John Oxenham
+      sailed before them, and have vanished like a dream, as he did, into the
+      infinite unknown. Three weary years, and yet no word. Once there was a
+      flush of hope, and good Sir Richard (without Mrs. Leigh's knowledge), had
+      sent a horseman posting across to Plymouth, when the news arrived that
+      Drake, Frobisher, and Carlisle had returned with their squadron from the
+      Spanish Main. Alas! he brought back great news, glorious news; news of the
+      sacking of Cartagena, San Domingo, Saint Augustine; of the relief of
+      Raleigh's Virginian Colony: but no news of the Rose, and of those who had
+      sailed in her. And Mrs. Leigh bowed her head, and worshipped, and said,
+      &ldquo;The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the
+      Lord!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her hair was now grown gray; her cheeks were wan; her step was feeble. She
+      seldom went from home, save to the church, and to the neighboring
+      cottages. She never mentioned her sons' names; never allowed a word to
+      pass her lips, which might betoken that she thought of them; but every
+      day, when the tide was high, and red flag on the sandhills showed that
+      there was water over the bar, she paced the terrace-walk, and devoured
+      with greedy eyes the sea beyond in search of the sail which never came.
+      The stately ships went in and out as of yore; and white sails hung off the
+      bar for many an hour, day after day, month after month, year after year:
+      but an instinct within told her that none of them were the sails she
+      sought. She knew that ship, every line of her, the cut of every cloth; she
+      could have picked it out miles away, among a whole fleet, but it never
+      came, and Mrs. Leigh bowed her head and worshipped, and went to and fro
+      among the poor, who looked on her as an awful being, and one whom God had
+      brought very near to Himself, in that mysterious heaven of sorrow which
+      they too knew full well. And lone women and bed-ridden men looked in her
+      steadfast eyes, and loved them, and drank in strength from them; for they
+      knew (though she never spoke of her own grief) that she had gone down into
+      the fiercest depths of the fiery furnace, and was walking there unhurt by
+      the side of One whose form was as of the Son of God. And all the while she
+      was blaming herself for her &ldquo;earthly&rdquo; longings, and confessing nightly to
+      Heaven that weakness which she could not shake off, which drew her feet at
+      each high tide to the terrace-walk beneath the row of wind-clipt trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this evening Northam is in a stir. The pebble ridge is thundering far
+      below, as it thundered years ago: but Northam is noisy enough without the
+      rolling of the surge. The tower is rocking with the pealing bells: the
+      people are all in the streets shouting and singing round bonfires. They
+      are burning the pope in effigy, drinking to the queen's health, and &ldquo;So
+      perish all her enemies!&rdquo; The hills are red with bonfires in every village;
+      and far away, the bells of Bideford are answering the bells of Northam, as
+      they answered them seven years ago, when Amyas returned from sailing round
+      the world. For this day has come the news that Mary Queen of Scots is
+      beheaded in Fotheringay; and all England, like a dreamer who shakes off
+      some hideous nightmare, has leapt up in one tremendous shout of
+      jubilation, as the terror and the danger of seventeen anxious years is
+      lifted from its heart for ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, she is gone, to answer at a higher tribunal than that of the Estates
+      of England, for all the noble English blood which has been poured out for
+      her; for all the noble English hearts whom she has tempted into treachery,
+      rebellion, and murder. Elizabeth's own words have been fulfilled at last,
+      after years of long-suffering,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The daughter of debate,
+       That discord aye doth sow,
+     Hath reap'd no gain where former rule
+       Hath taught still peace to grow.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      And now she can do evil no more. Murder and adultery, the heart which knew
+      no forgiveness, the tongue which could not speak truth even for its own
+      interest, have past and are perhaps atoned for; and her fair face hangs a
+      pitiful dream in the memory even of those who knew that either she, or
+      England, must perish.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Nothing is left of her
+     Now, but pure womanly.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      And Mrs. Leigh, Protestant as she is, breathes a prayer, that the Lord may
+      have mercy on that soul, as &ldquo;clear as diamond, and as hard,&rdquo; as she said
+      of herself. That last scene, too, before the fatal block&mdash;it could
+      not be altogether acting. Mrs. Leigh had learned many a priceless lesson
+      in the last seven years; might not Mary Stuart have learned something in
+      seventeen? And Mrs. Leigh had been a courtier, and knew, as far as a
+      chaste Englishwoman could know (which even in those coarser days was not
+      very much), of that godless style of French court profligacy in which poor
+      Mary had had her youthful training, amid the Medicis, and the Guises, and
+      Cardinal Lorraine; and she shuddered, and sighed to herself&rdquo;&mdash;To whom
+      little is given, of them shall little be required!&rdquo; But still the bells
+      pealed on and would not cease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What was that which answered them from afar out of the fast darkening
+      twilight? A flash, and then the thunder of a gun at sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh stopped. The flash was right outside the bar. A ship in
+      distress it could not be. The wind was light and westerly. It was a high
+      spring-tide, as evening floods are always there. What could it be? Another
+      flash, another gun. The noisy folks of Northam were hushed at once, and
+      all hurried into the churchyard which looks down on the broad flats and
+      the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a gallant ship outside the bar. She was running in, too, with
+      all sails set. A large ship; nearly a thousand tons she might be; but not
+      of English rig. What was the meaning of it? A Spanish cruiser about to
+      make reprisals for Drake's raid along the Cadiz shore! Not that, surely.
+      The Don had no fancy for such unscientific and dare-devil warfare. If he
+      came, he would come with admiral, rear-admiral, and vice-admiral,
+      transports, and avisos, according to the best-approved methods, articles,
+      and science of war. What could she be?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Easily, on the flowing tide and fair western wind, she has slipped up the
+      channel between the two lines of sandhill. She is almost off Appledore
+      now. She is no enemy; and if she be a foreigner, she is a daring one, for
+      she has never veiled her topsails,&mdash;and that, all know, every foreign
+      ship must do within sight of an English port, or stand the chance of war;
+      as the Spanish admiral found, who many a year since was sent in time of
+      peace to fetch home from Flanders Anne of Austria, Philip the Second's
+      last wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For in his pride he sailed into Plymouth Sound without veiling topsails,
+      or lowering the flag of Spain. Whereon, like lion from his den, out rushed
+      John Hawkins the port admiral, in his famous Jesus of Lubec (afterwards
+      lost in the San Juan d'Ulloa fight), and without argument or parley, sent
+      a shot between the admiral's masts; which not producing the desired
+      effect, alongside ran bold Captain John, and with his next shot, so says
+      his son, an eye-witness, &ldquo;lackt the admiral through and through;&rdquo; whereon
+      down came the offending flag; and due apologies were made, but not
+      accepted for a long time by the stout guardian of her majesty's honor. And
+      if John Hawkins did as much for a Spanish fleet in time of peace, there is
+      more than one old sea-dog in Appledore who will do as much for a single
+      ship in time of war, if he can find even an iron pot to burn powder
+      withal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The strange sail passed out of sight behind the hill of Appledore; and
+      then there rose into the quiet evening air a cheer, as from a hundred
+      throats. Mrs. Leigh stood still, and listened. Another gun thundered among
+      the hills; and then another cheer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It might have been twenty minutes before the vessel hove in sight again
+      round the dark rocks of the Hubbastone, as she turned up the Bideford
+      river. Mrs. Leigh had stood that whole time perfectly motionless, a pale
+      and scarcely breathing statue, her eyes fixed upon the Viking's rock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Round the Hubbastone she came at last. There was music on board, drums and
+      fifes, shawms and trumpets, which wakened ringing echoes from every knoll
+      of wood and slab of slate. And as she opened full on Burrough House,
+      another cheer burst from her crew, and rolled up to the hills from off the
+      silver waters far below, full a mile away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh walked quickly toward the house, and called her maid,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grace, bring me my hood. Master Amyas is come home!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, surely? O joyful sound! Praised and blessed be the Lord, then;
+      praised and blessed be the Lord! But, madam, however did you know that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard his voice on the river; but I did not hear Mr. Frank's with him,
+      Grace!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, be sure, madam, where the one is the other is. They'd never part
+      company. Both come home or neither, I'll warrant. Here's your hood,
+      madam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Mrs. Leigh, with Grace behind her, started with rapid steps towards
+      Bideford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Was it true? Was it a dream? Had the divine instinct of the mother enabled
+      her to recognize her child's voice among all the rest, and at that
+      enormous distance; or was her brain turning with the long effort of her
+      supernatural calm?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Grace asked herself, in her own way, that same question many a time
+      between Burrough and Bideford. When they arrived on the quay the question
+      answered itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they came down Bridgeland Street (where afterwards the tobacco
+      warehouses for the Virginia trade used to stand, but which then was but a
+      row of rope-walks and sailmakers' shops), they could see the strange ship
+      already at anchor in the river. They had just reached the lower end of the
+      street, when round the corner swept a great mob, sailors, women,
+      'prentices, hurrahing, questioning, weeping, laughing: Mrs. Leigh stopped;
+      and behold, they stopped also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here she is!&rdquo; shouted some one; &ldquo;here's his mother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His mother? Not their mother!&rdquo; said Mrs. Leigh to herself, and turned
+      very pale; but that heart was long past breaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next moment the giant head and shoulders of Amyas, far above the
+      crowd, swept round the corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Make a way! Make room for Madam Leigh!&rdquo;&mdash;And Amyas fell on his knees
+      at her feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She threw her arms round his neck, and bent her fair head over his, while
+      sailors, 'prentices, and coarse harbor-women were hushed into holy
+      silence, and made a ring round the mother and the son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh asked no question. She saw that Amyas was alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last he whispered, &ldquo;I would have died to save him, mother, if I could.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need not tell me that, Amyas Leigh, my son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How did he die?&rdquo; whispered Mrs. Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is a martyr. He died in the&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas could say no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Inquisition?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A strong shudder passed through Mrs. Leigh's frame, and then she lifted up
+      her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come home, Amyas. I little expected such an honor&mdash;such an honor&mdash;ha!
+      ha! and such a fair young martyr, too; a very St. Stephen! God, have mercy
+      on me; and let me not go mad before these folk, when I ought to be
+      thanking Thee for Thy great mercies! Amyas, who is that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And she pointed to Ayacanora, who stood close behind Amyas, watching with
+      keen eyes the whole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is a poor wild Indian girl&mdash;my daughter, I call her. I will tell
+      you her story hereafter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your daughter? My grand-daughter, then. Come hither, maiden, and be my
+      grand-daughter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ayacanora came obedient, and knelt down, because she had seen Amyas kneel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forbid, child! kneel not to me. Come home, and let me know whether I
+      am sane or mazed, alive or dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And drawing her hood over her face, she turned to go back, holding Amyas
+      tight by one hand, and Ayacanora by the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The crowd let them depart some twenty yards in respectful silence, and
+      then burst into a cheer which made the old town ring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh stopped suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had forgotten, Amyas. You must not let me stand in the way of your
+      duty. Where are your men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kissed to death by this time; all of them, that is, who are left.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Left?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We went out a hundred, mother, and we came home forty-four&mdash;if we
+      are at home. Is it a dream, mother? Is this you? and this old Bridgeland
+      Street again? As I live, there stands Evans the smith, at his door,
+      tankard in hand, as he did when I was a boy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The brawny smith came across the street to them; but stopped when he saw
+      Amyas, but no Frank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better one than neither, madam!&rdquo; said he, trying a rough comfort. Amyas
+      shook his hand as he passed him; but Mrs. Leigh neither heard nor saw him
+      nor any one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mother,&rdquo; said Amyas, when they were now past the causeway, &ldquo;we are rich
+      for life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; a martyr's death was the fittest for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have brought home treasure untold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, my boy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Treasure untold. Cary has promised to see to it to-night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well. I would that he had slept at our house. He was a kindly lad,
+      and loved Frank. When did he?&rdquo;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three years ago, and more. Within two months of our sailing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! Yes, he told me so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Told you so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; the dear lad has often come to see me in my sleep; but you never
+      came. I guessed how it was&mdash;as it should be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I loved you none the less, mother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know that, too: but you were busy with the men, you know, sweet; so
+      your spirit could not come roving home like his, which was free. Yes&mdash;all
+      as it should be. My maid, and do you not find it cold here in England,
+      after those hot regions?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ayacanora's heart is warm; she does not think about cold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Warm? perhaps you will warm my heart for me, then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would God I could do it, mother!&rdquo; said Amyas, half reproachfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh looked up in his face, and burst into a violent flood of tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sinful! sinful that I am!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blessed creature!&rdquo; cried Amyas, &ldquo;if you speak so I shall go mad. Mother,
+      mother, I have been dreading this meeting for months. It has been a
+      nightmare hanging over me like a horrible black thunder-cloud; a great
+      cliff miles high, with its top hid in the clouds, which I had to climb,
+      and dare not. I have longed to leap overboard, and flee from it like a
+      coward into the depths of the sea.&mdash;The thought that you might ask me
+      whether I was not my brother's keeper&mdash;that you might require his
+      blood at my hands&mdash;and now, now! when it comes! to find you all love,
+      and trust, and patience&mdash;mother, mother, it's more than I can bear!&rdquo;
+       and he wept violently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh knew enough of Amyas to know that any burst of this kind, from
+      his quiet nature, betokened some very fearful struggle; and the loving
+      creature forgot everything instantly, in the one desire to soothe him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And soothe him she did; and home the two went, arm in arm together, while
+      Ayacanora held fast, like a child, by the skirt of Mrs. Leigh's cloak. The
+      self-help and daring of the forest nymph had given place to the trembling
+      modesty of the young girl, suddenly cast on shore in a new world, among
+      strange faces, strange hopes, and strange fears also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will your mother love me?&rdquo; whispered she to Amyas, as she went in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; but you must do what she tells you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ayacanora pouted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She will laugh at me, because I am wild.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She never laughs at any one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo; said Ayacanora. &ldquo;Well, I shall not be afraid of her. I thought
+      she would have been tall like you; but she is not even as big as me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This hardly sounded hopeful for the prospect of Ayacanora's obedience; but
+      ere twenty-four hours had passed, Mrs. Leigh had won her over utterly; and
+      she explained her own speech by saying that she thought so great a man
+      ought to have a great mother. She had expected, poor thing, in her
+      simplicity, some awful princess with a frown like Juno's own, and found
+      instead a healing angel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her story was soon told to Mrs. Leigh, who of course, woman-like, would
+      not allow a doubt as to her identity. And the sweet mother never imprinted
+      a prouder or fonder kiss upon her son's forehead, than that with which she
+      repaid his simple declaration, that he had kept unspotted, like a
+      gentleman and a Christian, the soul which God had put into his charge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you have forgiven me, mother?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Years ago I said in this same room, what should I render to the Lord for
+      having given me two such sons? And in this room I say it once again. Tell
+      me all about my other son, that I may honor him as I honor you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, with the iron nerve which good women have, she made him give her
+      every detail of Lucy Passmore's story and of all which had happened from
+      the day of their sailing to that luckless night at Guayra. And when it was
+      done, she led Ayacanora out, and began busying herself about the girl's
+      comforts, as calmly as if Frank and Amyas had been sleeping in their cribs
+      in the next room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But she had hardly gone upstairs, when a loud knock at the door was
+      followed by its opening hastily; and into the hall burst, regardless of
+      etiquette, the tall and stately figure of Sir Richard Grenville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas dropped on his knees instinctively. The stern warrior was quite
+      unmanned; and as he bent over his godson, a tear dropped from that iron
+      cheek, upon the iron cheek of Amyas Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lad! my glorious lad! and where have you been? Get up, and tell me
+      all. The sailors told me a little, but I must hear every word. I knew you
+      would do something grand. I told your mother you were too good a workman
+      for God to throw away. Now, let me have the whole story. Why, I am out of
+      breath! To tell truth, I ran three-parts of the way hither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And down the two sat, and Amyas talked long into the night; while Sir
+      Richard, his usual stateliness recovered, smiled stern approval at each
+      deed of daring; and when all was ended, answered with something like a
+      sigh:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would God that I had been with you every step! Would God, at least, that
+      I could show as good a three-years' log-book, Amyas, my lad!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can show a better one, I doubt not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph! With the exception of one paltry Spanish prize, I don't know that
+      the queen is the better, or her enemies the worse, for me, since we parted
+      last in Dublin city.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are too modest, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would that I were; but I got on in Ireland, I found, no better than my
+      neighbors; and so came home again, to find that while I had been wasting
+      my time in that land of misrule, Raleigh had done a deed to which I can
+      see no end. For, lad, he has found (or rather his two captains, Amadas and
+      Barlow, have found for him) between Florida and Newfoundland, a country,
+      the like of which, I believe, there is not on the earth for climate and
+      fertility. Whether there be gold there, I know not, and it matters little;
+      for there is all else on earth that man can want; furs, timber, rivers,
+      game, sugar-canes, corn, fruit, and every commodity which France, Spain,
+      or Italy can yield, wild in abundance; the savages civil enough for
+      savages, and, in a word, all which goes to the making of as noble a jewel
+      as her majesty's crown can wear. The people call it Wingandacoa; but we,
+      after her majesty, Virginia.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been there, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The year before last, lad; and left there Ralf Lane, Amadas, and some
+      twenty gentlemen, and ninety men, and, moreover, some money of my own, and
+      some of old Will Salterne's, which neither of us will ever see again. For
+      the colony, I know not how, quarrelled with the Indians (I fear I too was
+      over-sharp with some of them for stealing&mdash;if I was, God forgive
+      me!), and could not, forsooth, keep themselves alive for twelve months; so
+      that Drake, coming back from his last West Indian voyage, after giving
+      them all the help he could, had to bring the whole party home. And if you
+      will believe it, the faint-hearted fellows had not been gone a fortnight,
+      before I was back again with three ships and all that they could want. And
+      never was I more wroth in my life, when all I found was the ruins of their
+      huts, which (so rich is the growth there) were already full of great
+      melons, and wild deer feeding thereon&mdash;a pretty sight enough, but not
+      what I wanted just then. So back I came; and being in no overgood temper,
+      vented my humors on the Portugals at the Azores, and had hard fights and
+      small booty. So there the matter stands, but not for long; for shame it
+      were if such a paradise, once found by Britons, should fall into the hands
+      of any but her majesty; and we will try again this spring, if men and
+      money can be found. Eh, lad?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the prize?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! that was no small make-weight to our disasters, after all. I sighted
+      her for six days' sail from the American coast: but ere we could lay her
+      aboard it fell dead calm. Never a boat had I on board&mdash;they were all
+      lost in a gale of wind&mdash;and the other ships were becalmed two leagues
+      astern of me. There was no use lying there and pounding her till she sank;
+      so I called the carpenter, got up all the old chests, and with them and
+      some spars we floated ourselves alongside, and only just in time. For the
+      last of us had hardly scrambled up into the chains, when our crazy Noah's
+      ark went all aboard, and sank at the side, so that if we had been minded
+      to run away, Amyas, we could not; whereon, judging valor to be the better
+      part of discretion (as I usually do), we fell to with our swords and had
+      her in five minutes, and fifty thousand pounds' worth in her, which set up
+      my purse again, and Raleigh's too, though I fear it has run out again
+      since as fast as it ran in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so ended Sir Richard's story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas went the next day to Salterne, and told his tale. The old man had
+      heard the outlines of it already: but he calmly bade him sit down, and
+      listened to all, his chin upon his hand, his elbows on his knees. His
+      cheek never blanched, his lips never quivered throughout. Only when Amyas
+      came to Rose's marriage, he heaved a long breath, as if a weight was taken
+      off his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say that again, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas said it again, and then went on; faltering, he hinted at the manner
+      of her death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on, sir! Why are you afraid? There is nothing to be ashamed of there,
+      is there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas told the whole with downcast eyes, and then stole a look at his
+      hearer's face. There was no sign of emotion: only somewhat of a proud
+      smile curled the corners of that iron mouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And her husband?&rdquo; asked he, after a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am ashamed to have to tell you, sir, that the man still lives.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still lives, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Too true, as far as I know. That it was not my fault, my story bears me
+      witness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir, I never doubted your will to kill him. Still lives, you say? Well,
+      so do rats and adders. And now, I suppose, Captain Leigh, your worship is
+      minded to recruit yourself on shore a while with the fair lass whom you
+      have brought home (as I hear) before having another dash at the devil and
+      his kin!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not mention that young lady's name with mine, sir; she is no more to
+      me than she is to you; for she has Spanish blood in her veins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Salterne smiled grimly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I am minded at least to do one thing, Mr. Salterne, and that is, to
+      kill Spaniards, in fair fight, by land and sea, wheresoever I shall meet
+      them. And, therefore, I stay not long here, whithersoever I may be bound
+      next.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, sir, when you start, come to me for a ship, and the best I have is
+      at your service; and, if she do not suit, command her to be fitted as you
+      like best; and I, William Salterne, will pay for all which you shall
+      command to be done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My good sir, I have accounts to square with you after a very different
+      fashion. As part-adventurer in the Rose, I have to deliver to you your
+      share of the treasure which I have brought home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My share, sir? If I understood you, my ship was lost off the coast of the
+      Caracas three years agone, and this treasure was all won since?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True; but you, as an adventurer in the expedition, have a just claim for
+      your share, and will receive it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Leigh, you are, I see, as your father was before you, a just and
+      upright Christian man: but, sir, this money is none of mine, for it was
+      won in no ship of mine.&mdash;Hear me, sir! And if it had been, and that
+      ship&rdquo;&mdash;(he could not speak her name)&mdash;&ldquo;lay safe and sound now by
+      Bideford quay, do you think, sir, that William Salterne is the man to make
+      money out of his daughter's sin and sorrow, and to handle the price of
+      blood? No, sir! You went like a gentleman to seek her, and like a
+      gentleman, as all the world knows, you have done your best, and I thank
+      you: but our account ends there. The treasure is yours, sir; I have
+      enough, and more than enough, and none, God help me, to leave it to, but
+      greedy and needy kin, who will be rather the worse than the better for it.
+      And if I have a claim in law for aught&mdash;which I know not, neither
+      shall ever ask&mdash;why, if you are not too proud, accept that claim as a
+      plain burgher's thank-offering to you, sir, for a great and a noble love
+      which you and your brother have shown to one who, though I say it, to my
+      shame, was not worthy thereof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She was worthy of that and more, sir. For if she sinned like a woman, she
+      died like a saint.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir!&rdquo; answered the old man, with a proud smile; &ldquo;she had the right
+      English blood in her, I doubt not; and showed it at the last. But now,
+      sir, no more of this. When you need a ship, mine is at your service; till
+      then, sir, farewell, and God be with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And the old man rose, and with an unmoved countenance, bowed Amyas to the
+      door. Amyas went back and told Cary, bidding him take half of Salterne's
+      gift: but Cary swore a great oath that he would have none of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heir of Clovelly, Amyas, and want to rob you? I who have lost nothing,&mdash;you
+      who have lost a brother! God forbid that I should ever touch a farthing
+      beyond my original share!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That evening a messenger from Bideford came running breathless up to
+      Burrough Court. The authorities wanted Amyas's immediate attendance, for
+      he was one of the last, it seemed, who had seen Mr. Salterne alive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Salterne had gone over, as soon as Amyas departed, to an old acquaintance;
+      signed and sealed his will in their presence with a firm and cheerful
+      countenance, refusing all condolence; and then gone home, and locked
+      himself into Rose's room. Supper-time came, and he did not appear. The
+      apprentices could not make him answer, and at last called in the
+      neighbors, and forced the door. Salterne was kneeling by his daughter's
+      bed; his head was upon the coverlet; his Prayer-book was open before him
+      at the Burial Service; his hands were clasped in supplication; but he was
+      dead and cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His will lay by him. He had left all his property among his poor
+      relations, saving and excepting all money, etc., due to him as owner and
+      part-adventurer of the ship Rose, and his new bark of three hundred tons
+      burden, now lying East-the-water; all which was bequeathed to Captain
+      Amyas Leigh, on condition that he should re-christen that bark the
+      Vengeance,&mdash;fit her out with part of the treasure, and with her sail
+      once more against the Spaniard, before three years were past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And this was the end of William Salterne, merchant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIX
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS STOPPED BY THE QUEEN'S COMMAND
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;The daughter of debate,
+        That discord still doth sow,
+     Shall reap no gain where former rule
+        Hath taught still peace to grow.
+     No foreign banish'd wight
+        Shall anker in this port
+     Our realm it brooks no stranger's force;
+        Let them elsewhere resort.&rdquo;
+
+                        QU. ELIZABETH. 1569.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And now Amyas is settled quietly at home again; and for the next twelve
+      months little passes worthy of record in these pages. Yeo has installed
+      himself as major domo, with no very definite functions, save those of
+      walking about everywhere at Amyas's heels like a lank gray wolf-hound, and
+      spending his evenings at the fireside, as a true old sailor does, with his
+      Bible on his knee, and his hands busy in manufacturing numberless
+      nicknacks, useful and useless, for every member of the family, and above
+      all for Ayacanora, whom he insults every week by humbly offering some toy
+      only fit for a child; at which she pouts, and is reproved by Mrs. Leigh,
+      and then takes the gift, and puts it away never to look at it again. For
+      her whole soul is set upon being an English maid; and she runs about all
+      day long after Mrs. Leigh, insisting upon learning the mysteries of the
+      kitchen and the still-room, and, above all, the art of making clothes for
+      herself, and at last for everybody in Northam. For first, she will be a
+      good housewife, like Mrs. Leigh; and next a new idea has dawned on her:
+      that of helping others. To the boundless hospitality of the savage she has
+      been of course accustomed: but to give to those who can give nothing in
+      return, is a new thought. She sees Mrs. Leigh spending every spare hour in
+      working for the poor, and visiting them in their cottages. She sees Amyas,
+      after public thanks in church for his safe return, giving away money,
+      food, what not, in Northam, Appledore, and Bideford; buying cottages and
+      making them almshouses for worn-out mariners; and she is told that this is
+      his thank-offering to God. She is puzzled; her notion of a thank-offering
+      was rather that of the Indians, and indeed of the Spaniards,&mdash;sacrifices
+      of human victims, and the bedizenment of the Great Spirit's sanctuary with
+      their skulls and bones. Not that Amyas, as a plain old-fashioned
+      churchman, was unmindful of the good old instinctive rule, that something
+      should be given to the Church itself; for the vicar of Northam was soon
+      resplendent with a new surplice, and what was more, the altar with a
+      splendid flagon and salver of plate (lost, I suppose, in the civil wars)
+      which had been taken in the great galleon. Ayacanora could understand
+      that: but the almsgiving she could not, till Mrs. Leigh told her, in her
+      simple way, that whosoever gave to the poor, gave to the Great Spirit; for
+      the Great Spirit was in them, and in Ayacanora too, if she would be quiet
+      and listen to him, instead of pouting, and stamping, and doing nothing but
+      what she liked. And the poor child took in that new thought like a child,
+      and worked her fingers to the bone for all the old dames in Northam, and
+      went about with Mrs. Leigh, lovely and beloved, and looked now and then
+      out from under her long black eyelashes to see if she was winning a smile
+      from Amyas. And on the day on which she won one, she was good all day; and
+      on the day on which she did not, she was thoroughly naughty, and would
+      have worn out the patience of any soul less chastened than Mrs. Leigh's.
+      But as for the pomp and glory of her dress, there was no keeping it within
+      bounds; and she swept into church each Sunday bedizened in Spanish finery,
+      with such a blaze and rustle, that the good vicar had to remonstrate
+      humbly with Mrs. Leigh on the disturbance which she caused to the eyes and
+      thoughts of all his congregation. To which Ayacanora answered, that she
+      was not thinking about them, and they need not think about her; and that
+      if the Piache (in plain English, the conjuror), as she supposed, wanted a
+      present, he might have all her Mexican feather-dresses; she would not wear
+      them&mdash;they were wild Indian things, and she was an English maid&mdash;but
+      they would just do for a Piache; and so darted upstairs, brought them
+      down, and insisted so stoutly on arraying the vicar therein, that the good
+      man beat a swift retreat. But he carried off with him, nevertheless, one
+      of the handsomest mantles, which, instead of selling it, he converted
+      cleverly enough into an altar-cloth; and for several years afterwards, the
+      communion at Northam was celebrated upon a blaze of emerald, azure, and
+      crimson, which had once adorned the sinful body of some Aztec prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Ayacanora flaunted on; while Amyas watched her, half amused, half in
+      simple pride of her beauty; and looked around at all gazers, as much as to
+      say, &ldquo;See what a fine bird I have brought home!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another great trouble which she gave Mrs. Leigh was her conduct to the
+      ladies of the neighborhood. They came, of course, one and all, not only to
+      congratulate Mrs. Leigh, but to get a peep at the fair savage; but the
+      fair savage snubbed them all round, from the vicar's wife to Lady
+      Grenville herself, so effectually, that few attempted a second visit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh remonstrated, and was answered by floods of tears. &ldquo;They only
+      come to stare at a poor wild Indian girl, and she would not be made a show
+      of. She was like a queen once, and every one obeyed her; but here every
+      one looked down upon her.&rdquo; But when Mrs. Leigh asked her, whether she
+      would sooner go back to the forests, the poor girl clung to her like a
+      baby, and entreated not to be sent away, &ldquo;She would sooner be a slave in
+      the kitchen here, than go back to the bad people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so on, month after month of foolish storm and foolish sunshine; but
+      she was under the shadow of one in whom was neither storm nor sunshine,
+      but a perpetual genial calm of soft gray weather, which tempered down to
+      its own peacefulness all who entered its charmed influence; and the
+      outbursts grew more and more rare, and Ayacanora more and more rational,
+      though no more happy, day by day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And one by one small hints came out which made her identity certain, at
+      least in the eyes of Mrs. Leigh and Yeo. After she had become familiar
+      with the sight of houses, she gave them to understand that she had seen
+      such things before. The red cattle, too, seemed not unknown to her; the
+      sheep puzzled her for some time, and at last she gave Mrs. Leigh to
+      understand that they were too small.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, madam,&rdquo; quoth Yeo, who caught at every straw, &ldquo;it is because she has
+      been accustomed to those great camel sheep (llamas they call them) in
+      Peru.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Ayacanora's delight was a horse. The use of tame animals at all was a
+      daily wonder to her; but that a horse could be ridden was the crowning
+      miracle of all; and a horse she would ride, and after plaguing Amyas for
+      one in vain (for he did not want to break her pretty neck), she proposed
+      confidentially to Yeo to steal one, and foiled in that, went to the vicar
+      and offered to barter all her finery for his broken-kneed pony. But the
+      vicar was too honest to drive so good a bargain, and the matter ended, in
+      Amyas buying her a jennet, which she learned in a fortnight to ride like a
+      very Gaucho.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now awoke another curious slumbering reminiscence. For one day, at
+      Lady Grenville's invitation, the whole family went over to Stow; Mrs.
+      Leigh soberly on a pillion behind the groom, Ayacanora cantering round and
+      round upon the moors like a hound let loose, and trying to make Amyas ride
+      races with her. But that night, sleeping in the same room with Mrs. Leigh,
+      she awoke shrieking, and sobbed out a long story how the &ldquo;Old ape of
+      Panama,&rdquo; her especial abomination, had come to her bedside and dragged her
+      forth into the courtyard, and how she had mounted a horse and ridden with
+      an Indian over great moors and high mountains down into a dark wood, and
+      there the Indian and the horses vanished, and she found herself suddenly
+      changed once more into a little savage child. So strong was the
+      impression, that she could not be persuaded that the thing had not
+      happened, if not that night, at least some night or other. So Mrs. Leigh
+      at last believed the same, and told the company next morning in her pious
+      way how the Lord had revealed in a vision to the poor child who she was,
+      and how she had been exposed in the forests by her jealous step-father,
+      and neither Sir Richard nor his wife could doubt but that hers was the
+      true solution. It was probable that Don Xararte, though his home was
+      Panama, had been often at Quito, for Yeo had seen him come on board the
+      Lima ship at Guayaquil, one of the nearest ports. This would explain her
+      having been found by the Indians beyond Cotopaxi, the nearest peak of the
+      Eastern Andes, if, as was but too likely, the old man, believing her to be
+      Oxenham's child, had conceived the fearful vengeance of exposing her in
+      the forests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other little facts came to light one by one. They were all connected (as
+      was natural in a savage) with some animal or other natural object.
+      Whatever impressions her morals or affections had received, had been
+      erased by the long spiritual death of that forest sojourn; and Mrs. Leigh
+      could not elicit from her a trace of feeling about her mother, or
+      recollection of any early religious teaching. This link, however, was
+      supplied at last, and in this way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Richard had brought home an Indian with him from Virginia. Of his
+      original name I am not sure, but he was probably the &ldquo;Wanchese&rdquo; whose name
+      occurs with that of &ldquo;Manteo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This man was to be baptized in the church at Bideford by the name of
+      Raleigh, his sponsors being most probably Raleigh himself, who may have
+      been there on Virginian business, and Sir Richard Grenville. All the
+      notabilities of Bideford came, of course, to see the baptism of the first
+      &ldquo;Red man&rdquo; whose foot had ever trodden British soil, and the mayor and
+      corporation-men appeared in full robes, with maces and tipstaffs, to do
+      honor to that first-fruits of the Gospel in the West.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh went, as a matter of course, and Ayacanora would needs go too.
+      She was very anxious to know what they were going to do with the &ldquo;Carib.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To make him a Christian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why did they not make her one?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Because she was one already. They were sure that she had been christened
+      as soon as she was born. But she was not sure, and pouted a good deal at
+      the chance of an &ldquo;ugly red Carib&rdquo; being better off than she was. However,
+      all assembled duly; the stately son of the forest, now transformed into a
+      footman of Sir Richard's, was standing at the font; the service was half
+      performed when a heavy sigh, or rather groan, made all eyes turn, and
+      Ayacanora sank fainting upon Mrs. Leigh's bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was carried out, and to a neighboring house; and when she came to
+      herself, told a strange story. How, as she was standing there trying to
+      recollect whether she too had ever been baptized, the church seemed to
+      grow larger, the priest's dress richer; the walls were covered with
+      pictures, and above the altar, in jewelled robes, stood a lady, and in her
+      arms a babe. Soft music sounded in her ears; the air was full (on that she
+      insisted much) of fragrant odor which filled the church like mist; and
+      through it she saw not one, but many Indians, standing by the font; and a
+      lady held her by the hand, and she was a little girl again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And after, many questionings, so accurate was her recollection, not only
+      of the scene, but of the building, that Yeo pronounced:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A christened woman she is, madam, if Popish christening is worth calling
+      such, and has seen Indians christened too in the Cathedral Church at
+      Quito, the inside whereof I know well enough, and too well, for I sat
+      there three mortal hours in a San Benito, to hear a friar preach his false
+      doctrines, not knowing whether I was to be burnt or not next day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Ayacanora went home to Burrough, and Raleigh the Indian to Sir
+      Richard's house. The entry of his baptism still stands, crooked-lettered,
+      in the old parchment register of the Bideford baptisms for 1587-3:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Raleigh, a Winganditoian: March 26.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      His name occurs once more, a year and a month after:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Rawly, a Winganditoian, April 1589.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      But it is not this time among the baptisms. The free forest wanderer has
+      pined in vain for his old deer-hunts amid the fragrant cedar woods, and
+      lazy paddlings through the still lagoons, where water-lilies sleep beneath
+      the shade of great magnolias, wreathed with clustered vines; and now he is
+      away to &ldquo;happier hunting-grounds,&rdquo; and all that is left of him below
+      sleeps in the narrow town churchyard, blocked in with dingy houses, whose
+      tenants will never waste a sigh upon the Indian's grave. There the two
+      entries stand, unto this day; and most pathetic they have seemed to me; a
+      sort of emblem and first-fruits of the sad fate of that worn-out Red race,
+      to whom civilization came too late to save, but not too late to hasten
+      their decay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But though Amyas lay idle, England did not. That spring saw another and a
+      larger colony sent out by Raleigh to Virginia, under the charge of one
+      John White. Raleigh had written more than once, entreating Amyas to take
+      the command, which if he had done, perhaps the United States had begun to
+      exist twenty years sooner than they actually did. But his mother had bound
+      him by a solemn promise (and who can wonder at her for asking, or at him
+      for giving it?) to wait at home with her twelve months at least. So,
+      instead of himself, he sent five hundred pounds, which I suppose are in
+      Virginia (virtually at least) until this day; for they never came back
+      again to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But soon came a sharper trial of Amyas's promise to his mother; and one
+      which made him, for the first time in his life, moody, peevish, and
+      restless, at the thought that others were fighting Spaniards, while he was
+      sitting idle at home. For his whole soul was filling fast with sullen
+      malice against Don Guzman. He was losing the &ldquo;single eye,&rdquo; and his whole
+      body was no longer full of light. He had entered into the darkness in
+      which every man walks who hates his brother; and it lay upon him like a
+      black shadow day and night. No company, too, could be more fit to darken
+      that shadow than Salvation Yeo's. The old man grew more stern in his
+      fanaticism day by day, and found a too willing listener in his master; and
+      Mrs. Leigh was (perhaps for the first and last time in her life) seriously
+      angry, when she heard the two coolly debating whether they had not
+      committed a grievous sin in not killing the Spanish prisoners on board the
+      galleon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must be said, however (as the plain facts set down in this book
+      testify), that if such was the temper of Englishmen at that day, the
+      Spaniards had done a good deal to provoke it; and were just then
+      attempting to do still more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For now we are approaching the year 1588, &ldquo;which an astronomer of
+      Konigsberg, above a hundred years before, foretold would be an admirable
+      year, and the German chronologers presaged would be the climacterical year
+      of the world.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prophecies may stand for what they are worth; but they were at least
+      fulfilled. That year was, indeed, the climacterical year of the world; and
+      decided once and for all the fortunes of the European nations, and of the
+      whole continent of America.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No wonder, then, if (as has happened in each great crisis of the human
+      race) some awful instinct that The Day of the Lord was at hand, some dim
+      feeling that there was war in heaven, and that the fiends of darkness and
+      the angels of light were arrayed against each other in some mighty
+      struggle for the possession of the souls of men, should have tried to
+      express itself in astrologic dreams, and, as was the fashion then,
+      attributed to the &ldquo;rulers of the planetary houses&rdquo; some sympathy with the
+      coming world-tragedy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, for the wise, there needed no conjunction of planets to tell them
+      that the day was near at hand, when the long desultory duel between Spain
+      and England would end, once and for all, in some great death-grapple. The
+      war, as yet, had been confined to the Netherlands, to the West Indies, and
+      the coasts and isles of Africa; to the quarters, in fact, where Spain was
+      held either to have no rights, or to have forfeited them by tyranny. But
+      Spain itself had been respected by England, as England had by Spain; and
+      trade to Spanish ports went on as usual, till, in the year 1585, the
+      Spaniard, without warning, laid an embargo on all English ships coming to
+      his European shores. They were to be seized, it seemed, to form part of an
+      enormous armament, which was to attack and crush, once and for all&mdash;whom?
+      The rebellious Netherlanders, said the Spaniards: but the queen, the
+      ministry, and, when it was just not too late, the people of England,
+      thought otherwise. England was the destined victim; so, instead of
+      negotiating, in order to avoid fighting, they fought in order to produce
+      negotiation. Drake, Frobisher, and Carlisle, as we have seen, swept the
+      Spanish Main with fire and sword, stopping the Indian supplies; while
+      Walsingham (craftiest, and yet most honest of mortals) prevented, by some
+      mysterious financial operation, the Venetian merchants from repairing the
+      Spaniards' loss by a loan; and no Armada came that year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, the Jesuits, here and abroad, made no secret, among
+      their own dupes, of the real objects of the Spanish armament. The impious
+      heretics,&mdash;the Drakes and Raleighs, Grenvilles and Cavendishes,
+      Hawkinses and Frobishers, who had dared to violate that hidden sanctuary
+      of just half the globe, which the pope had bestowed on the defender of the
+      true faith,&mdash;a shameful ruin, a terrible death awaited them, when
+      their sacrilegious barks should sink beneath the thunder of Spanish
+      cannon, blessed by the pope, and sanctified with holy water and prayer to
+      the service of &ldquo;God and his Mother.&rdquo; Yes, they would fall, and England
+      with them. The proud islanders, who had dared to rebel against St. Peter,
+      and to cast off the worship of &ldquo;Mary,&rdquo; should bow their necks once more
+      under the yoke of the Gospel. Their so-called queen, illegitimate,
+      excommunicate, contumacious, the abettor of free-trade, the defender of
+      the Netherlands, the pillar of false doctrine throughout Europe, should be
+      sent in chains across the Alps, to sue for her life at the feet of the
+      injured and long-suffering father of mankind, while his nominee took her
+      place upon the throne which she had long since forfeited by her heresy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What nobler work? How could the Church of God be more gloriously
+      propagated? How could higher merit be obtained by faithful Catholics? It
+      must succeed. Spain was invincible in valor, inexhaustible in wealth.
+      Heaven itself offered them an opportunity. They had nothing now to fear
+      from the Turk, for they had concluded a truce with him; nothing from the
+      French, for they were embroiled in civil war. The heavens themselves had
+      called upon Spain to fulfil her heavenly mission, and restore to the
+      Church's crown this brightest and richest of her lost jewels. The heavens
+      themselves called to a new crusade. The saints, whose altars the English
+      had rifled and profaned, called them to a new crusade. The Virgin Queen of
+      Heaven, whose boundless stores of grace the English spurned, called them
+      to a new crusade. Justly incensed at her own wrongs and indignities, that
+      'ever-gracious Virgin, refuge of sinners, and mother of fair love, and
+      holy hope,' adjured by their knightly honor all valiant cavaliers to do
+      battle in her cause against the impious harlot who assumed her titles,
+      received from her idolatrous flatterers the homage due to Mary alone, and
+      even (for Father Parsons had asserted it, therefore it must be true) had
+      caused her name to be substituted for that of Mary in the Litanies of the
+      Church. Let all who wore within a manly heart, without a manly sword, look
+      on the woes of 'Mary,'&mdash;her shame, her tears, her blushes, her heart
+      pierced through with daily wounds, from heretic tongues, and choose
+      between her and Elizabeth!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So said Parsons, Allen, and dozens more; and said more than this, too, and
+      much which one had rather not repeat; and were somewhat surprised and
+      mortified to find that their hearers, though they granted the premises,
+      were too dull or carnal to arrive at the same conclusion. The English lay
+      Romanists, almost to a man, had hearts sounder than their heads, and,
+      howsoever illogically, could not help holding to the strange superstition
+      that, being Englishmen, they were bound to fight for England. So the
+      hapless Jesuits, who had been boasting for years past that the persecuted
+      faithful throughout the island would rise as one man to fight under the
+      blessed banner of the pope and Spain, found that the faithful, like Demas
+      of old, forsook them and &ldquo;went after this present world;&rdquo; having no
+      objection, of course, to the restoration of Popery: but preferring some
+      more comfortable method than an invasion which would inevitably rob them
+      of their ancestral lands and would seat needy and greedy Castilians in
+      their old country houses, to treat their tenants as they had treated the
+      Indians of Hispaniola, and them as they had treated the caciques.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But though the hearts of men in that ungodly age were too hard to melt at
+      the supposed woes of the Mary who reigned above, and too dull to turn
+      rebels and traitors for the sake of those thrones and principalities in
+      supra-lunar spheres which might be in her gift: yet there was a Mary who
+      reigned (or ought to reign) below, whose woes (like her gifts) were
+      somewhat more palpable to the carnal sense. A Mary who, having every
+      comfort and luxury (including hounds and horses) found for her by the
+      English Government, at an expense which would be now equal to some twenty
+      thousand a year, could afford to employ the whole of her jointure as Queen
+      Dowager of France (probably equal to fifty thousand a year more), in
+      plotting the destruction of the said government, and the murder of its
+      queen; a Mary who, if she prospered as she ought, might have dukedoms, and
+      earldoms, fair lands and castles to bestow on her faithful servants; a
+      Mary, finally, who contrived by means of an angel face, a serpent tongue,
+      and a heart (as she said herself) as hard as a diamond, to make every weak
+      man fall in love with her, and, what was worse, fancy more or less that
+      she was in love with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of her the Jesuits were not unmindful; and found it convenient, indeed, to
+      forget awhile the sorrows of the Queen of Heaven in those of the Queen of
+      Scots. Not that they cared much for those sorrows; but they were an
+      excellent stock-in-trade. She was a Romanist; she was &ldquo;beautiful and
+      unfortunate,&rdquo; a virtue which, like charity, hides the multitude of sins;
+      and therefore she was a convenient card to play in the great game of Rome
+      against the Queen and people of England; and played the poor card was,
+      till it got torn up by over-using. Into her merits or demerits I do not
+      enter deeply here. Let her rest in peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To all which the people of England made a most practical and terrible
+      answer. From the highest noble to the lowest peasant, arose one
+      simultaneous plebiscitum: &ldquo;We are tired of these seventeen years of
+      chicanery and terror. This woman must die: or the commonweal of England
+      perish!&rdquo; We all know which of the two alternatives was chosen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All Europe stood aghast: but rather with astonishment at English audacity,
+      than with horror at English wickedness. Mary's own French kinsfolk had
+      openly given her up as too bad to be excused, much less assisted. Her own
+      son blustered a little to the English ambassador; for the majesty of kings
+      was invaded: whereon Walsingham said in open council, that &ldquo;the queen
+      should send him a couple of hounds, and that would set all right.&rdquo; Which
+      sage advice (being acted on, and some deer sent over and above) was so
+      successful that the pious mourner, having run off (Randolph says, like a
+      baby to see the deer in their cart), returned for answer that he would
+      &ldquo;thereafter depend wholly upon her majesty, and serve her fortune against
+      all the world; and that he only wanted now two of her majesty's yeoman
+      prickers, and a couple of her grooms of the deer.&rdquo; The Spaniard was not
+      sorry on the whole for the catastrophe; for all that had kept him from
+      conquering England long ago was the fear lest, after it was done, he might
+      have had to put the crown thereof on Mary's head, instead of his own. But
+      Mary's death was as convenient a stalking-horse to him as to the pope; and
+      now the Armada was coming in earnest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elizabeth began negotiating; but fancy not that she does nothing more, as
+      the following letter testifies, written about midsummer, 1587.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;F. Drake to Captain Amyas Leigh. This with haste.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;DEAR LAD,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I said to her most glorious majesty, I say to you now. There are two
+      ways of facing an enemy. The one to stand off, and cry, 'Try that again,
+      and I'll strike thee'; the other to strike him first, and then, 'Try that
+      at all, and I'll strike thee again.' Of which latter counsel her majesty
+      so far approves, that I go forthwith (tell it not in Gath) down the coast,
+      to singe the king of Spain's beard (so I termed it to her majesty, she
+      laughing), in which if I leave so much as a fishing-boat afloat from the
+      Groyne unto Cadiz, it will not be with my good will, who intend that if he
+      come this year, he shall come by swimming and not by sailing. So if you
+      are still the man I have known you, bring a good ship round to Plymouth
+      within the month, and away with me for hard blows and hard money, the feel
+      of both of which you know pretty well by now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thine lovingly,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;F. Drake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas clutched his locks over this letter, and smoked more tobacco the day
+      he got it than had ever before been consumed at once in England. But he
+      kept true to his promise; and this was his reply:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas Leigh to the Worshipful Sir F. Drake, Admiral of her Majesty's
+      Fleet in Plymouth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;MOST HONORED SIR,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A magician keeps me here, in bilboes for which you have no picklock;
+      namely, a mother who forbids. The loss is mine: but Antichrist I can fight
+      any year (for he will not die this bout, nor the next), while my mother&mdash;but
+      I will not trouble your patience more than to ask from you to get me news,
+      if you can, from any prisoners of one Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor
+      de Soto; whether he is in Spain or in the Indies; and what the villain
+      does, and where he is to be found. This only I entreat of you, and so
+      remain behind with a heavy heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yours to command in all else, and I would to Heaven, in this also,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;AMYAS LEIGH.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I am sorry to have to say, that after having thus obeyed his mother,
+      Master Amyas, as men are too apt to do, revenged himself on her by being
+      more and more cross and disagreeable. But his temper amended much, when, a
+      few months after, Drake returned triumphant, having destroyed a hundred
+      sail in Cadiz alone, taken three great galleons with immense wealth on
+      board, burnt the small craft all along the shore, and offered battle to
+      Santa Cruz at the mouth of the Tagus. After which it is unnecessary to
+      say, that the Armada was put off for yet another year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This news, indeed, gave Amyas little comfort; for he merely observed,
+      grumbling, that Drake had gone and spoiled everybody else's sport: but
+      what cheered him was news from Drake that Don Guzman had been heard of
+      from the captain of one of the galleons; that he was high in favor in
+      Spain, and commandant of soldiers on board one of the largest of the
+      marquis's ships.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when Amyas heard that, a terrible joy took possession of him. When the
+      Armada came, as come it would, he should meet his enemy at last! He could
+      wait now patiently: if&mdash;and he shuddered at himself, as he found
+      himself in the very act of breathing a prayer that Don Guzman might not
+      die before that meeting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meanwhile, rumor flew thousand-tongued through the length and
+      breadth of the land; of vast preparations going on in Spain and Italy; of
+      timber felled long before for some such purpose, brought down to the sea,
+      and sawn out for shipbuilding; of casting of cannon, and drilling of
+      soldiers; of ships in hundreds collecting at Lisbon; of a crusade preached
+      by Pope Sixtus the Fifth, who had bestowed the kingdom of England on the
+      Spaniard, to be enjoyed by him as vassal tributary to Rome; of a million
+      of gold to be paid by the pope, one-half down at once, the other half when
+      London was taken; of Cardinal Allen writing and printing busily in the
+      Netherlands, calling on all good Englishmen to carry out, by rebelling
+      against Elizabeth, the bull of Sixtus the Fifth, said (I blush to repeat
+      it) to have been dictated by the Holy Ghost; of Inquisitors getting ready
+      fetters and devil's engines of all sorts; of princes and noblemen,
+      flocking from all quarters, gentlemen selling their private estates to fit
+      out ships; how the Prince of Melito, the Marquess of Burgrave, Vespasian
+      Gonzaga, John Medicis, Amadas of Savoy, in short, the illegitimate sons of
+      all the southern princes, having no lands of their own, were coming to
+      find that necessary of life in this pleasant little wheat-garden. Nay, the
+      Duke of Medina Sidonia had already engaged Mount-Edgecombe for himself, as
+      the fairest jewel of the south; which when good old Sir Richard Edgecombe
+      heard, he observed quietly, that in 1555 he had the pleasure of receiving
+      at his table at one time the admirals of England, Spain, and the
+      Netherlands, and therefore had experience in entertaining Dons; and made
+      preparations for the visit by filling his cellars with gunpowder, with a
+      view to a house-warming and feu-de-joie on the occasion. But as old Fuller
+      says, &ldquo;The bear was not yet killed, and Medina Sidonia might have catched
+      a great cold, had he no other clothes to wear than the skin thereof.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So flew rumor, false and true, till poor John Bull's wits were well-nigh
+      turned: but to the very last, after his lazy fashion, he persuaded himself
+      that it would all come right somehow; that it was too great news to be
+      true; that if it was true, the expedition was only meant for the
+      Netherlands; and, in short, sat quietly over his beef and beer for many a
+      day after the French king had sent him fair warning, and the queen, the
+      ministry, and the admirals had been assuring him again and again that he,
+      and not the Dutchman, was the destined prey of this great flight of
+      ravenous birds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last the Spaniard, in order that there should be no mistake about the
+      matter, kindly printed a complete bill of the play, to be seen still in
+      Van Meteran, for the comfort of all true Catholics, and confusion of all
+      pestilent heretics; which document, of course, the seminary priests used
+      to enforce the duty of helping the invaders, and the certainty of their
+      success; and from their hands it soon passed into those of the devout
+      ladies, who were not very likely to keep it to themselves; till John Bull
+      himself found his daughters buzzing over it with very pale faces (as young
+      ladies well might who had no wish to follow the fate of the damsels of
+      Antwerp), and condescending to run his eye through it, discovered, what
+      all the rest of Europe had known for months past, that he was in a very
+      great scrape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well it was for England, then, that her Tudor sovereigns had compelled
+      every man (though they kept up no standing army) to be a trained soldier.
+      Well it was that Elizabeth, even in those dangerous days of intrigue and
+      rebellion, had trusted her people enough, not only to leave them their
+      weapons, but (what we, forsooth, in these more &ldquo;free&rdquo; and &ldquo;liberal&rdquo; days
+      dare not do) to teach them how to use them. Well it was, that by careful
+      legislation for the comfort and employment of &ldquo;the masses&rdquo; (term then,
+      thank God, unknown), she had both won their hearts, and kept their bodies
+      in fighting order. Well it was that, acting as fully as Napoleon did on
+      &ldquo;la carriere ouverte aux talens,&rdquo; she had raised to the highest posts in
+      her councils, her army, and her navy, men of business, who had not been
+      ashamed to buy and sell as merchants and adventurers. Well for England, in
+      a word, that Elizabeth had pursued for thirty years a very different
+      course from that which we have been pursuing for the last thirty, with one
+      exception, namely, the leaving as much as possible to private enterprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There we have copied her: would to Heaven that we had in some other
+      matters! It is the fashion now to call her a despot: but unless every
+      monarch is to be branded with that epithet whose power is not as
+      circumscribed as Queen Victoria's is now, we ought rather to call her the
+      most popular sovereign, obeyed of their own free will by the freest
+      subjects which England has ever seen; confess the Armada fight to have
+      been as great a moral triumph as it was a political one; and (now that our
+      late boasting is a little silenced by Crimean disasters) inquire whether
+      we have not something to learn from those old Tudor times, as to how to
+      choose officials, how to train a people, and how to defend a country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To return to the thread of my story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January, 1587-8, had well-nigh run through, before Sir Richard Grenville
+      made his appearance on the streets of Bideford. He had been appointed in
+      November one of the council of war for providing for the safety of the
+      nation, and the West Country had seen nothing of him since. But one
+      morning, just before Christmas, his stately figure darkened the old
+      bay-window at Burrough, and Amyas rushed out to meet him, and bring him
+      in, and ask what news from Court.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All good news, dear lad, and dearer madam. The queen shows the spirit of
+      a very Boadicea or Semiramis; ay, a very Scythian Tomyris, and if she had
+      the Spaniard before her now, would verily, for aught I know, feast him as
+      the Scythian queen did Cyrus, with 'Satia te sanguine, quod sitisti.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I trust her most merciful spirit is not so changed already,&rdquo; said Mrs.
+      Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, if she would not do it, I would, and ask pardon afterwards, as
+      Raleigh did about the rascals at Smerwick, whom Amyas knows of. Mrs.
+      Leigh, these are times in which mercy is cruelty. Not England alone, but
+      the world, the Bible, the Gospel itself, is at stake; and we must do
+      terrible things, lest we suffer more terrible ones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God will take care of world and Bible better than any cruelty of ours,
+      dear Sir Richard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, but, Mrs. Leigh, we must help Him to take care of them! If those
+      Smerwick Spaniards had not been&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Spaniard would not have been exasperated into invading us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And we should not have had this chance of crushing him once and for all;
+      but the quarrel is of older standing, madam, eh, Amyas? Amyas, has Raleigh
+      written to you of late?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a word, and I wonder why.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well; no wonder at that, if you knew how he has been laboring. The wonder
+      is, whence he got the knowledge wherewith to labor; for he never saw
+      sea-work to my remembrance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never saw a shot fired by sea, except ours at Smerwick, and that brush
+      with the Spaniards in 1579, when he sailed for Virginia with Sir Humphrey;
+      and he was a mere crack then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you consider him as your pupil, eh? But he learnt enough in the
+      Netherland wars, and in Ireland too, if not of the strength of ships, yet
+      still of the weakness of land forces; and would you believe it, the man
+      has twisted the whole council round his finger, and made them give up the
+      land defences to the naval ones.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quite right he, and wooden walls against stone ones for ever! But as for
+      twisting, he would persuade Satan, if he got him alone for half an hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish he would sail for Spain then, just now, and try the powers of his
+      tongue,&rdquo; said Mrs. Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But are we to have the honor, really?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are, lad. There were many in the council who were for disputing the
+      landing on shore, and said&mdash;which I do not deny&mdash;that the
+      'prentice boys of London could face the bluest blood in Spain. But Raleigh
+      argued (following my Lord Burleigh in that) that we differed from the Low
+      Countries, and all other lands, in that we had not a castle or town
+      throughout, which would stand a ten days' siege, and that our ramparts, as
+      he well said, were, after all, only a body of men. So, he argued, as long
+      as the enemy has power to land where he will, prevention, rather than
+      cure, is our only hope; and that belongs to the office, not of an army,
+      but of a fleet. So the fleet was agreed on, and a fleet we shall have.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then here is his health, the health of a true friend to all bold
+      mariners, and myself in particular! But where is he now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Coming here to-morrow, as I hope&mdash;for he left London with me, and so
+      down by us into Cornwall, to drill the train-bands, as he is bound to do,
+      being Seneschal of the Duchies and Lieutenant-General of the county.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Besides Lord Warden of the Stanneries! How the man thrives!&rdquo; said Mrs.
+      Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How the man deserves to thrive!&rdquo; said Amyas; &ldquo;but what are we to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the rub. I would fain stay and fight the Spaniards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So would I; and will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he has other plans in his head for us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We can make our own plans without his help.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heyday, Amyas! How long? When did he ask you to do a thing yet and you
+      refuse him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not often, certainly; but Spaniards I must fight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, so must I, boy: but I have given a sort of promise to him,
+      nevertheless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not for me too, I hope?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No: he will extract that himself when he comes; you must come and sup
+      to-morrow, and talk it over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be talked over, rather. What chestnut does the cat want us monkeys to
+      pull out of the fire for him now, I wonder?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir Richard Grenville is hardly accustomed to be called a monkey,&rdquo; said
+      Mrs. Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I meant no harm; and his worship knows it, none better: but where is
+      Raleigh going to send us, with a murrain?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Virginia. The settlers must have help: and, as I trust in God, we
+      shall be back again long before this armament can bestir itself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Raleigh came, saw, and conquered. Mrs. Leigh consented to Amyas's going
+      (for his twelve-month would be over ere the fleet could start) upon so
+      peaceful and useful an errand; and the next five months were spent in
+      continual labor on the part of Amyas and Grenville, till seven ships were
+      all but ready in Bideford river, the admiral whereof was Amyas Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But that fleet was not destined ever to see the shores of the New World:
+      it had nobler work to do (if Americans will forgive the speech) than even
+      settling the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in the long June evenings, in the year 1588; Mrs. Leigh sat in the
+      open window, busy at her needle-work; Ayacanora sat opposite to her, on
+      the seat of the bay, trying diligently to read &ldquo;The History of the Nine
+      Worthies,&rdquo; and stealing a glance every now and then towards the garden,
+      where Amyas stalked up and down as he had used to do in happier days gone
+      by. But his brow was contracted now, his eyes fixed on the ground, as he
+      plodded backwards and forwards, his hands behind his back, and a huge
+      cigar in his mouth, the wonder of the little boys of Northam, who peeped
+      in stealthily as they passed the iron-work gates, to see the back of the
+      famous fire-breathing captain who had sailed round the world and been in
+      the country of headless men and flying dragons, and then popped back their
+      heads suddenly, as he turned toward them in his walk. And Ayacanora
+      looked, and looked, with no less admiration than the urchins at the gate:
+      but she got no more of an answering look from Amyas than they did; for his
+      head was full of calculations of tonnage and stowage, of salt pork and
+      ale-barrels, and the packing of tools and seeds; for he had promised
+      Raleigh to do his best for the new colony, and he was doing it with all
+      his might; so Ayacanora looked back again to her book, and heaved a deep
+      sigh. It was answered by one from Mrs. Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are a melancholy pair, sweet chuck,&rdquo; said the fair widow. &ldquo;What is my
+      maid sighing about, there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I cannot make out the long words,&rdquo; said Ayacanora, telling a very
+      white fib.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that all? Come to me, and I will tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ayacanora moved over to her, and sat down at her feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;H&mdash;e, he, r&mdash;o, ro, i&mdash;c&mdash;a&mdash;l, heroical,&rdquo; said
+      Mrs. Leigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what does that mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Grand, good, and brave, like&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh was about to have said the name of one who was lost to her on
+      earth. His fair angelic face hung opposite upon the wall. She paused
+      unable to pronounce his name; and lifted up her eyes, and gazed on the
+      portrait, and breathed a prayer between closed lips, and drooped her head
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her pupil caught at the pause, and filled it up for herself&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like him?&rdquo; and she turned her head quickly toward the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, like him, too,&rdquo; said Mrs. Leigh, with a half-smile at the gesture.
+      &ldquo;Now, mind your book. Maidens must not look out of the window in school
+      hours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I ever be an English girl?&rdquo; asked Ayacanora.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are one now, sweet; your father was an English gentleman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas looked in, and saw the two sitting together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You seem quite merry there,&rdquo; said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in, then, and be merry with us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He entered, and sat down; while Ayacanora fixed her eyes most steadfastly
+      on her book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, how goes on the reading?&rdquo; said he; and then, without waiting for an
+      answer&mdash;&ldquo;We shall be ready to clear out this day week, mother, I do
+      believe; that is, if the hatchets are made in time to pack them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope they will be better than the last,&rdquo; said Mrs. Leigh. &ldquo;It seems to
+      me a shameful sin to palm off on poor ignorant savages goods which we
+      should consider worthless for ourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, it's not over fair: but still, they are a sight better than they
+      ever had before. An old hoop is better than a deer's bone, as Ayacanora
+      knows,&mdash;eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know anything about it,&rdquo; said she, who was always nettled at the
+      least allusion to her past wild life. &ldquo;I am an English girl now, and all
+      that is gone&mdash;I forget it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forget it?&rdquo; said he, teasing her for want of something better to do.
+      &ldquo;Should not you like to sail with us, now, and see the Indians in the
+      forests once again?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sail with you?&rdquo; and she looked up eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There! I knew it! She would not be four-and-twenty hours ashore, but she
+      would be off into the woods again, bow in hand, like any runaway nymph,
+      and we should never see her more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is false, bad man!&rdquo; and she burst into violent tears, and hid her face
+      in Mrs. Leigh's lap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas, Amyas, why do you tease the poor fatherless thing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was only jesting, I'm sure,&rdquo; said Amyas, like a repentant schoolboy.
+      &ldquo;Don't cry now, don't cry, my child, see here,&rdquo; and he began fumbling in
+      his pockets; &ldquo;see what I bought of a chapman in town to-day, for you, my
+      maid, indeed, I did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And out he pulled some smart kerchief or other, which had taken his
+      sailor's fancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look at it now, blue, and crimson, and green, like any parrot!&rdquo; and he
+      held it out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked round sharply, snatched it out of his hand, and tore it to
+      shreds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hate it, and I hate you!&rdquo; and she sprang up and darted out of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, boy, boy!&rdquo; said Mrs. Leigh, &ldquo;will you kill that poor child? It
+      matters little for an old heart like mine, which has but one or two chords
+      left whole, how soon it be broken altogether; but a young heart is one of
+      God's precious treasures, Amyas, and suffers many a long pang in the
+      breaking; and woe to them who despise Christ's little ones!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Break your heart, mother?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind my heart, dear son; yet how can you break it more surely than
+      by tormenting one whom I love, because she loves you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tut! play, mother, and maids' tempers. But how can I break your heart?
+      What have I done? Have I not given up going again to the West Indies for
+      your sake? Have I not given up going to Virginia, and now again settled to
+      go after all, just because you commanded? Was it not your will? Have I not
+      obeyed you, mother, mother? I will stay at home now, if you will. I would
+      rather rust here on land, I vow I would, than grieve you&mdash;&rdquo; and he
+      threw himself at his mother's knees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have I asked you not to go to Virginia? No, dear boy, though every
+      thought of a fresh parting seems to crack some new fibre within me, you
+      must go! It is your calling. Yes; you were not sent into the world to
+      amuse me, but to work. I have had pleasure enough of you, my darling, for
+      many a year, and too much, perhaps; till I shrank from lending you to the
+      Lord. But He must have you. . . . It is enough for the poor old widow to
+      know that her boy is what he is, and to forget all her anguish day by day,
+      for joy that a man is born into the world. But, Amyas, Amyas, are you so
+      blind as not to see that Ayacanora&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't talk about her, poor child. Talk about yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long have I been worth talking about? No, Amyas, you must see it; and
+      if you will not see it now, you will see it one day in some sad and
+      fearful prodigy; for she is not one to die tamely. She loves you, Amyas,
+      as a woman only can love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Loves me? Well, of course. I found her, and brought her home; and I don't
+      deny she may think that she owes me somewhat&mdash;though it was no more
+      than a Christian man's duty. But as for her caring much for me, mother,
+      you measure every one else's tenderness by your own.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think that she owes you somewhat? Silly boy, this is not gratitude, but a
+      deeper affection, which may be more heavenly than gratitude, as it may,
+      too, become a horrible cause of ruin. It rests with you, Amyas, which of
+      the two it will be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are in earnest?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have I the heart or the time to jest?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, of course not; but, mother, I thought it was not comely for women
+      to fall in love with men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not comely, at least, to confess their love to men. But she has never
+      done that, Amyas; not even by a look or a tone of voice, though I have
+      watched her for months.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure, she is as demure as any cat when I am in the way. I only
+      wonder how you found it out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; said she, smiling sadly, &ldquo;even in the saddest woman's soul there
+      linger snatches of old music, odors of flowers long dead and turned to
+      dust&mdash;pleasant ghosts, which still keep her mind attuned to that
+      which may be in others, though in her never more; till she can hear her
+      own wedding-hymn re-echoed in the tones of every girl who loves, and sees
+      her own wedding-torch re-lighted in the eyes of every bride.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You would not have me marry her?&rdquo; asked blunt, practical Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God knows what I would have&mdash;I know not; I see neither your path nor
+      my own&mdash;no, not after weeks and months of prayer. All things beyond
+      are wrapped in mist; and what will be, I know not, save that whatever else
+      is wrong, mercy at least is right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'd sail to-morrow, if I could. As for marrying her, mother&mdash;her
+      birth, mind me&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, boy, boy! Are you God, to visit the sins of the parents upon the
+      children?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that. I don't mean that; but I mean this, that she is half a
+      Spaniard, mother; and I cannot!&mdash;Her blood may be as blue as King
+      Philip's own, but it is Spanish still! I cannot bear the thought that my
+      children should have in their veins one drop of that poison.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas! Amyas!&rdquo; interrupted she, &ldquo;is this not, too, visiting the parents'
+      sins on the children?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a whit; it is common sense,&mdash;she must have the taint of their
+      bloodthirsty humor. She has it&mdash;I have seen it in her again and
+      again. I have told you, have I not? Can I forget the look of her eyes as
+      she stood over that galleon's captain, with the smoking knife in her hand.&mdash;Ugh!
+      And she is not tamed yet, as you can see, and never will be:&mdash;not
+      that I care, except for her own sake, poor thing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cruel boy! to impute as a blame to the poor child, not only the errors of
+      her training, but the very madness of her love!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of her love?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of what else, blind buzzard? From the moment that you told me the story
+      of that captain's death, I knew what was in her heart&mdash;and thus it is
+      that you requite her for having saved your life!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Umph! that is one word too much, mother. If you don't want to send me
+      crazy, don't put the thing on the score of gratitude or duty. As it is, I
+      can hardly speak civilly to her (God forgive me!) when I recollect that
+      she belongs to the crew who murdered him&rdquo;&mdash;and he pointed to the
+      picture, and Mrs. Leigh shuddered as he did so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You feel it! You know you feel it, tender-hearted, forgiving angel as you
+      are; and what do you think I must feel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, my son, my son!&rdquo; cried she, wringing her hands, &ldquo;if I be wretch
+      enough to give place to the devil for a moment, does that give you a right
+      to entertain and cherish him thus day by day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should cherish him with a vengeance, if I brought up a crew of children
+      who could boast of a pedigree of idolaters and tyrants, hunters of
+      Indians, and torturers of women! How pleasant to hear her telling Master
+      Jack, 'Your illustrious grand-uncle the pope's legate, was the man who
+      burned Rose Salterne at Cartagena;' or Miss Grace, 'Your great-grandfather
+      of sixteen quarterings, the Marquis of this, son of the Grand-equerry
+      that, and husband of the Princess t'other, used to feed his bloodhounds,
+      when beef was scarce, with Indians' babies!' Eh, mother? These things are
+      true, and if you can forget them, I cannot. Is it not enough to have made
+      me forego for awhile my purpose, my business, the one thing I live for,
+      and that is, hunting down the Spaniards as I would adders or foxes, but
+      you must ask me over and above to take one to my bosom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, my son, my son! I have not asked you to do that; I have only
+      commanded you, in God's name, to be merciful, if you wish to obtain mercy.
+      Oh, if you will not pity this poor maiden, pity yourself; for God knows
+      you stand in more need of it than she does!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas was silent for a minute or two; and then,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it were not for you, mother, would God that the Armada would come!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, and ruin England?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No! Curse them! Not a foot will they ever set on English soil, such a
+      welcome would we give them. If I were but in the midst of that fleet,
+      fighting like a man&mdash;to forget it all, with a galleon on board of me
+      to larboard, and another to starboard&mdash;and then to put a linstock in
+      the magazine, and go aloft in good company&mdash;I don't care how soon it
+      comes, mother, if it were not for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I am in your way, Amyas, do not fear that I shall trouble you long.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, mother, mother, do not talk in that way! I am half-mad, I think,
+      already, and don't know what I say. Yes, I am mad; mad at heart, though
+      not at head. There's a fire burning me up, night and day, and nothing but
+      Spanish blood will put it out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or the grace of God, my poor wilful child! Who comes to the door?&mdash;so
+      quickly, too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a loud hurried knocking, and in another minute a serving-man
+      hurried in with a letter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This to Captain Amyas Leigh with haste, haste!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Sir Richard's hand. Amyas tore it open; and &ldquo;a loud laugh laughed
+      he.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Armada is coming! My wish has come true, mother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God help us, it has! Show me the letter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a hurried scrawl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;DR. GODSON,&mdash;Walsingham sends word that the Ada. sailed from Lisbon
+      to the Groyne the 18. of May. We know no more, but have commandment to
+      stay the ships. Come down, dear lad, and give us counsel; and may the Lord
+      help His Church in this great strait.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your loving godfather,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;R. G.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive me, mother, mother, once for all!&rdquo; cried Amyas, throwing his arms
+      round her neck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have nothing to forgive, my son, my son! And shall I lose thee, also?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I be killed, you will have two martyrs of your blood, mother!&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh bowed her head, and was silent. Amyas caught up his hat and
+      sword, and darted forth toward Bideford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas literally danced into Sir Richard's hall, where he stood talking
+      earnestly with various merchants and captains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gloria, gloria! gentles all! The devil is broke loose at last; and now we
+      know where to have him on the hip!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why so merry, Captain Leigh, when all else are sad?&rdquo; said a gentle voice
+      by his side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I have been sad a long time, while all else were merry, dear
+      lady. Is the hawk doleful when his hood is pulled off, and he sees the
+      heron flapping right ahead of him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You seem to forget the danger and the woe of us weak women, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't forget the danger and the woe of one weak woman, madam, and she
+      the daughter of a man who once stood in this room,&rdquo; said Amyas, suddenly
+      collecting himself, in a low stern voice. &ldquo;And I don't forget the danger
+      and the woe of one who was worth a thousand even of her. I don't forget
+      anything, madam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor forgive either, it seems.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will be time to talk of forgiveness after the offender has repented
+      and amended; and does the sailing of the Armada look like that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas, no! God help us!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will help us, madam,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Admiral Leigh,&rdquo; said Sir Richard, &ldquo;we need you now, if ever. Here are the
+      queen's orders to furnish as many ships as we can; though from these
+      gentlemen's spirit, I should say the orders were well-nigh needless.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a doubt, sir; for my part, I will fit my ship at my own charges, and
+      fight her too, as long as I have a leg or an arm left.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or a tongue to say, never surrender, I'll warrant!&rdquo; said an old merchant.
+      &ldquo;You put life into us old fellows, Admiral Leigh: but it will be a heavy
+      matter for those poor fellows in Virginia, and for my daughter too, Madam
+      Dare, with her young babe, as I hear, just born.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And a very heavy matter,&rdquo; said some one else, &ldquo;for those who have
+      ventured their money in these cargoes, which must lie idle, you see, now
+      for a year maybe&mdash;and then all the cost of unlading again&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My good sir,&rdquo; said Grenville, &ldquo;what have private interests to do with
+      this day? Let us thank God if He only please to leave us the bare
+      fee-simple of this English soil, the honor of our wives and daughters, and
+      bodies safe from rack and fagot, to wield the swords of freemen in defence
+      of a free land, even though every town and homestead in England were
+      wasted with fire, and we left to rebuild over again all which our
+      ancestors have wrought for us in now six hundred years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right, sir!&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;For my part, let my Virginian goods rot on the
+      quay, if the worst comes to the worst. I begin unloading the Vengeance
+      to-morrow; and to sea as soon as I can fill up my crew to a good fighting
+      number.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so the talk ran on; and ere two days were past, most of the
+      neighboring gentlemen, summoned by Sir Richard, had come in, and great was
+      the bidding against each other as to who should do most. Cary and
+      Brimblecombe, with thirty tall Clovelly men, came across the bay, and
+      without even asking leave of Amyas, took up their berths as a matter of
+      course on board the Vengeance. In the meanwhile, the matter was taken up
+      by families. The Fortescues (a numberless clan) offered to furnish a ship;
+      the Chichesters another, the Stukelys a third; while the merchantmen were
+      not backward. The Bucks, the Stranges, the Heards, joyfully unloaded their
+      Virginian goods, and replaced them with powder and shot; and in a week's
+      time the whole seven were ready once more for sea, and dropped down into
+      Appledore pool, with Amyas as their admiral for the time being (for Sir
+      Richard had gone by land to Plymouth to join the deliberations there), and
+      waited for the first favorable wind to start for the rendezvous in the
+      Sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last, upon the twenty-first of June, the clank of the capstans rang
+      merrily across the flats, and amid prayers and blessings, forth sailed
+      that gallant squadron over the bar, to play their part in Britain's
+      Salamis; while Mrs. Leigh stood watching as she stood once before, beside
+      the churchyard wall: but not alone this time; for Ayacanora stood by her
+      side, and gazed and gazed, till her eyes seemed ready to burst from their
+      sockets. At last she turned away with a sob,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And he never bade me good-bye, mother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God forgive him! Come home and pray, my child; there is no other rest on
+      earth than prayer for woman's heart!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They were calling each other mother and daughter then? Yes. The sacred
+      fire of sorrow was fast burning out all Ayacanora's fallen savageness;
+      and, like a Phoenix, the true woman was rising from those ashes, fair,
+      noble, and all-enduring, as God had made her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXX
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW THE ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Oh, where be these gay Spaniards,
+     Which make so great a boast O?
+     Oh, they shall eat the gray-goose feather,
+       And we shall eat the roast O!&rdquo;
+
+                                  Cornish Song.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      What if the spectators who last summer gazed with just pride upon the
+      noble port of Plymouth, its vast breakwater spanning the Sound, its
+      arsenals and docks, its two estuaries filled with gallant ships, and
+      watched the great screw-liners turning within their own length by force
+      invisible, or threading the crowded fleets with the ease of the tiniest
+      boat,&mdash;what if, by some magic turn, the nineteenth century, and all
+      the magnificence of its wealth and science, had vanished&mdash;as it may
+      vanish hereafter&mdash;and they had found themselves thrown back three
+      hundred years into the pleasant summer days of 1588?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mount Edgecombe is still there, beautiful as ever: but where are the
+      docks, and where is Devonport? No vast dry-dock roofs rise at the water's
+      edge. Drake's island carries but a paltry battery, just raised by the man
+      whose name it bears; Mount Wise is a lone gentleman's house among fields;
+      the citadel is a pop-gun fort, which a third-class steamer would shell
+      into rubble for an afternoon's amusement. And the shipping, where are
+      they? The floating castles of the Hamoaze have dwindled to a few crawling
+      lime-hoys; and the Catwater is packed, not as now, with merchant craft,
+      but with the ships who will to-morrow begin the greatest sea-fight which
+      the world has ever seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There they lie, a paltry squadron enough in modern eyes; the largest of
+      them not equal in size to a six-and-thirty-gun frigate, carrying less
+      weight of metal than one of our new gun-boats, and able to employ even
+      that at not more than a quarter of our modern range. Would our modern
+      spectators, just come down by rail for a few hours, to see the cavalry
+      embark, and return tomorrow in time for dinner, have looked down upon that
+      petty port, and petty fleet, with a contemptuous smile, and begun some
+      flippant speech about the progress of intellect, and the triumphs of
+      science, and our benighted ancestors? They would have done so, doubt it
+      not, if they belonged to the many who gaze on those very triumphs as on a
+      raree-show to feed their silly wonder, or use and enjoy them without
+      thankfulness or understanding, as the ox eats the clover thrust into his
+      rack, without knowing or caring how it grew. But if any of them were of
+      the class by whom those very triumphs have been achieved; the thinkers and
+      the workers, who, instead of entering lazily into other men's labors, as
+      the mob does, labor themselves; who know by hard experience the struggles,
+      the self-restraints, the disappointments, the slow and staggering steps,
+      by which the discoverer reaches to his prize; then the smile of those men
+      would not have been one of pity, but rather of filial love. For they would
+      have seen in those outwardly paltry armaments the potential germ of that
+      mightier one which now loads the Black Sea waves; they would have been
+      aware, that to produce it, with such materials and knowledge as then
+      existed, demanded an intellect, an energy, a spirit of progress and
+      invention, equal, if not superior, to those of which we now so loudly
+      boast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if, again, he had been a student of men rather than of machinery, he
+      would have found few nobler companies on whom to exercise his discernment,
+      than he might have seen in the little terrace bowling-green behind the
+      Pelican Inn, on the afternoon of the nineteenth of July. Chatting in
+      groups, or lounging over the low wall which commanded a view of the Sound
+      and the shipping far below, were gathered almost every notable man of the
+      Plymouth fleet, the whole posse comitatus of &ldquo;England's forgotten
+      worthies.&rdquo; The Armada has been scattered by a storm. Lord Howard has been
+      out to look for it, as far as the Spanish coast; but the wind has shifted
+      to the south, and fearing lest the Dons should pass him, he has returned
+      to Plymouth, uncertain whether the Armada will come after all or not. Slip
+      on for a while, like Prince Hal, the drawer's apron; come in through the
+      rose-clad door which opens from the tavern, with a tray of long-necked
+      Dutch glasses, and a silver tankard of wine, and look round you at the
+      gallant captains, who are waiting for the Spanish Armada, as lions in
+      their lair might wait for the passing herd of deer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      See those five talking earnestly, in the centre of a ring, which longs to
+      overhear, and yet is too respectful to approach close. Those soft long
+      eyes and pointed chin you recognize already; they are Walter Raleigh's.
+      The fair young man in the flame-colored doublet, whose arm is round
+      Raleigh's neck, is Lord Sheffield; opposite them stands, by the side of
+      Sir Richard Grenville, a man as stately even as he, Lord Sheffield's
+      uncle, the Lord Charles Howard of Effingham, lord high admiral of England;
+      next to him is his son-in-law, Sir Robert Southwell, captain of the
+      Elizabeth Jonas: but who is that short, sturdy, plainly dressed man, who
+      stands with legs a little apart, and hands behind his back, looking up,
+      with keen gray eyes, into the face of each speaker? His cap is in his
+      hands, so you can see the bullet head of crisp brown hair and the wrinkled
+      forehead, as well as the high cheek bones, the short square face, the
+      broad temples, the thick lips, which are yet firm as granite. A coarse
+      plebeian stamp of man: yet the whole figure and attitude are that of
+      boundless determination, self-possession, energy; and when at last he
+      speaks a few blunt words, all eyes are turned respectfully upon him;&mdash;for
+      his name is Francis Drake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A burly, grizzled elder, in greasy sea-stained garments, contrasting oddly
+      with the huge gold chain about his neck, waddles up, as if he had been
+      born, and had lived ever since, in a gale of wind at sea. The upper half
+      of his sharp dogged visage seems of brick-red leather, the lower of
+      badger's fur; and as he claps Drake on the back, and, with a broad Devon
+      twang, shouts, &ldquo;be you a coming to drink your wine, Francis Drake, or be
+      you not?&mdash;saving your presence, my lord;&rdquo; the lord high admiral only
+      laughs, and bids Drake go and drink his wine; for John Hawkins, admiral of
+      the port, is the patriarch of Plymouth seamen, if Drake be their hero, and
+      says and does pretty much what he likes in any company on earth; not to
+      mention that to-day's prospect of an Armageddon fight has shaken him
+      altogether out of his usual crabbed reserve, and made him overflow with
+      loquacious good-humor, even to his rival Drake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So they push through the crowd, wherein is many another man whom one would
+      gladly have spoken with face to face on earth. Martin Frobisher and John
+      Davis are sitting on that bench, smoking tobacco from long silver pipes;
+      and by them are Fenton and Withrington, who have both tried to follow
+      Drake's path round the world, and failed, though by no fault of their own.
+      The man who pledges them better luck next time, is George Fenner, known to
+      &ldquo;the seven Portugals,&rdquo; Leicester's pet, and captain of the galleon which
+      Elizabeth bought of him. That short prim man in the huge yellow ruff, with
+      sharp chin, minute imperial, and self-satisfied smile, is Richard Hawkins,
+      the Complete Seaman, Admiral John's hereafter famous and hapless son. The
+      elder who is talking with him is his good uncle William, whose monument
+      still stands, or should stand, in Deptford Church; for Admiral John set it
+      up there but one year after this time; and on it record how he was, &ldquo;A
+      worshipper of the true religion, an especial benefactor of poor sailors, a
+      most just arbiter in most difficult causes, and of a singular faith,
+      piety, and prudence.&rdquo; That, and the fact that he got creditably through
+      some sharp work at Porto Rico, is all I know of William Hawkins: but if
+      you or I, reader, can have as much or half as much said of us when we have
+      to follow him, we shall have no reason to complain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is John Drake, Sir Francis' brother, ancestor of the present stock
+      of Drakes; and there is George, his nephew, a man not overwise, who has
+      been round the world with Amyas; and there is Amyas himself, talking to
+      one who answers him with fierce curt sentences, Captain Barker of Bristol,
+      brother of the hapless Andrew Barker who found John Oxenham's guns, and,
+      owing to a mutiny among his men, perished by the Spaniards in Honduras,
+      twelve years ago. Barker is now captain of the Victory, one of the queen's
+      best ships; and he has his accounts to settle with the Dons, as Amyas has;
+      so they are both growling together in a corner, while all the rest are as
+      merry as the flies upon the vine above their heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But who is the aged man who sits upon a bench, against the sunny south
+      wall of the tavern, his long white beard flowing almost to his waist, his
+      hands upon his knees, his palsied head moving slowly from side to side, to
+      catch the scraps of discourse of the passing captains? His
+      great-grandchild, a little maid of six, has laid her curly head upon his
+      knees, and his grand-daughter, a buxom black-eyed dame of thirty, stands
+      by him and tends him, half as nurse, and half, too, as showman, for he
+      seems an object of curiosity to all the captains, and his fair nurse has
+      to entreat again and again, &ldquo;Bless you, sir, please now, don't give him no
+      liquor, poor old soul, the doctor says.&rdquo; It is old Martin Cockrem, father
+      of the ancient host, aged himself beyond the years of man, who can
+      recollect the bells of Plymouth ringing for the coronation of Henry the
+      Eighth, and who was the first Englishman, perhaps, who ever set foot on
+      the soil of the New World. There he sits, like an old Druid Tor of
+      primeval granite amid the tall wheat and rich clover crops of a modern
+      farm. He has seen the death of old Europe and the birth-throes of the new.
+      Go to him, and question him; for his senses are quick as ever; and just
+      now the old man seems uneasy. He is peering with rheumy eyes through the
+      groups, and seems listening for a well-known voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There 'a be again! Why don't 'a come, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quiet, gramfer, and don't trouble his worship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here an hour, and never speak to poor old Martin! I say, sir&rdquo;&mdash;and
+      the old man feebly plucks Amyas's cloak as he passes. &ldquo;I say, captain, do
+      'e tell young master old Martin's looking for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Marcy, gramfer, where's your manners? Don't be vexed, sir, he'm a'most a
+      babe, and tejous at times, mortal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Young master who?&rdquo; says Amyas, bending down to the old man, and smiling
+      to the dame to let him have his way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Master Hawkins; he'm never been a-near me all day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Off goes Amyas; and, of course, lays hold of the sleeve of young Richard
+      Hawkins; but as he is in act to speak, the dame lays hold of his, laughing
+      and blushing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir, not Mr. Richard, sir; Admiral John, sir, his father; he always
+      calls him young master, poor old soul!&rdquo; and she points to the grizzled
+      beard and the face scarred and tanned with fifty years of fight and storm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas goes to the Admiral, and gives his message.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mercy on me! Where be my wits? Iss, I'm a-coming,&rdquo; says the old hero in
+      his broadest Devon, waddles off to the old man, and begins lugging at a
+      pocket. &ldquo;Here, Martin, I've got mun, I've got mun, man alive; but his
+      Lordship keept me so. Lookee here, then! Why, I do get so lusty of late,
+      Martin, I can't get to my pockets!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And out struggle a piece of tarred string, a bundle of papers, a thimble,
+      a piece of pudding-tobacco, and last of all, a little paper of Muscovado
+      sugar&mdash;then as great a delicacy as any French bonbons would be now&mdash;which
+      he thrusts into the old man's eager and trembling hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Martin begins dipping his finger into it, and rubbing it on his
+      toothless gums, smiling and nodding thanks to his young master; while the
+      little maid at his knee, unrebuked, takes her share also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, Admiral Leigh; both ends meet&mdash;gramfers and babies! You and I
+      shall be like to that one day, young Samson!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall have slain a good many Philistines first, I hope.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen! so be it; but look to mun! so fine a sailor as ever drank liquor;
+      and now greedy after a hit of sweet trade! 'tis piteous like; but I bring
+      mun a hit whenever I come, and he looks for it. He's one of my own flesh
+      like, is old Martin. He sailed with my father Captain Will, when they was
+      both two little cracks aboard of a trawler; and my father went up, and
+      here I am&mdash;he didn't, and there he is. We'm up now, we Hawkinses. We
+      may be down again some day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never, I trust,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tain't no use trusting, young man: you go and do. I do hear too much of
+      that there from my lad. Let they ministers preach till they'm black in the
+      face, works is the trade!&rdquo; with a nudge in Amyas's ribs. &ldquo;Faith can't
+      save, nor charity nether. There, you tell with him, while I go play bowls
+      with Drake. He'll tell you a sight of stories. You ask him about good King
+      Hal, now, just&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And off waddled the Port Admiral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have seen good King Henry, then, father?&rdquo; said Amyas, interested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man's eyes lighted at once, and he stopped mumbling his sugar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seed mun? Iss, I reckon. I was with Captain Will when he went to meet the
+      Frenchman there to Calais&mdash;at the Field, the Field&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Field of the Cloth of Gold, gramfer,&rdquo; suggested the dame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's it. Seed mun? Iss, fegs. Oh, he was a king! The face o' mun like a
+      rising sun, and the back o' mun so broad as that there&rdquo; (and he held out
+      his palsied arms), &ldquo;and the voice of mun! Oh, to hear mun swear if he was
+      merry, oh, 'tas royal!&mdash;Seed mun? Iss, fegs! And I've seed mun do
+      what few has; I've seed mun christle like any child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&mdash;cry?&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;I shouldn't have thought there was much cry
+      in him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think what you like&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gramfer, gramfer, don't you be rude, now&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him go on,&rdquo; said Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I seed mun christle; and, oh dear, how he did put hands on mun's face;
+      and 'Oh, my gentlemen,' says he, 'my gentlemen! Oh, my gallant men!' Them
+      was his very words.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But when?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Captain Will had just come to the Hard&mdash;that's to Portsmouth&mdash;to
+      speak with mun, and the barge Royal lay again the Hard&mdash;so; and our
+      boot alongside&mdash;so; and the king he standth as it might be there,
+      above my head, on the quay edge, and she come in near abreast of us,
+      looking most royal to behold, poor dear! and went to cast about. And
+      Captain Will, saith he, 'Them lower ports is cruel near the water;' for
+      she had not more than a sixteen inches to spare in the nether overloop, as
+      I heard after. And saith he, 'That won't do for going to windward in a
+      say, Martin.' And as the words came out of mun's mouth, your worship,
+      there was a bit of a flaw from the westward, sharp like, and overboard
+      goeth my cap, and hitth against the wall, and as I stooped to pick it up,
+      I heard a cry, and it was all over!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is telling of the Mary Rose, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guessed so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All over: and the cry of mun, and the screech of mun! Oh, sir, up to the
+      very heavens! And the king he screeched right out like any maid, 'Oh my
+      gentlemen, oh my gallant men!' and as she lay on her beam-ends, sir, and
+      just a-settling, the very last souls I seen was that man's father, and
+      that man's. I knowed mun by their armor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he pointed to Sir George Carew and Sir Richard Grenville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Iss! Iss! Drowned like rattens. Drowned like rattens!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now; you mustn't trouble his worship any more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trouble? Let him tell till midnight, I shall be well pleased,&rdquo; said
+      Amyas, sitting down on the bench by him. &ldquo;Drawer! ale&mdash;and a parcel
+      of tobacco.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Amyas settled himself to listen, while the old man purred to himself&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Iss. They likes to hear old Martin. All the captains look upon old
+      Martin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hillo, Amyas!&rdquo; said Cary, &ldquo;who's your friend? Here's a man been telling
+      me wonders about the River Plate. We should go thither for luck there next
+      time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;River Plate?&rdquo; said old Martin. &ldquo;It's I knows about the River Plate; none
+      so well. Who'd ever been there, nor heard of it nether, before Captain
+      Will and me went, and I lived among the savages a whole year; and
+      audacious civil I found 'em if they 'd had but shirts to their backs; and
+      so was the prince o' mun, that Captain Will brought home to King Henry;
+      leastwise he died on the voyage; but the wild folk took it cruel well, for
+      you see, we was always as civil with them as Christians, and if we hadn't
+      been, I should not have been here now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What year was that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the fifteen thirty: but I was there afore, and learnt the speech o'
+      mun; and that's why Captain Will left me to a hostage, when he tuked their
+      prince.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Before that?&rdquo; said Cary; &ldquo;why, the country was hardly known before that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man's eyes flashed up in triumph.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Knowed? Iss, and you may well say that! Look ye here! Look to mun!&rdquo; and
+      he waved his hand round&mdash;&ldquo;There's captains! and I'm the father of 'em
+      all now, now poor Captain Will's in gloory; I, Martin Cockrem! . . . Iss,
+      I've seen a change. I mind when Tavistock Abbey was so full o' friars, and
+      goolden idols, and sich noxious trade, as ever was a wheat-rick of rats. I
+      mind the fight off Brest in the French wars&mdash;Oh, that was a fight,
+      surely!&mdash;when the Regent and the French Carack were burnt side by
+      side, being fast grappled, you see, because of Sir Thomas Knivet; and
+      Captain Will gave him warning as he ran a-past us, saying, says he&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said Amyas, seeing that the old man was wandering away, &ldquo;what do
+      you mind about America?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;America? I should think so! But I was a-going to tell you of the Regent&mdash;and
+      seven hundred Englishmen burnt and drowned in her, and nine hundred French
+      in the Brest ship, besides what we picked up. Oh dear! But about America.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, about America. How are you the father of all the captains?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How? you ask my young master! Why, before the fifteen thirty, I was up
+      the Plate with Cabot (and a cruel fractious ontrustful fellow he was, like
+      all they Portingals), and bid there a year and more, and up the Paraguaio
+      with him, diskivering no end; whereby, gentles, I was the first
+      Englishman, I hold, that ever sot a foot on the New World, I was!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then here's your health, and long life, sir!&rdquo; said Amyas and Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Long life? Iss, fegs, I reckon, long enough a'ready! Why, I mind the
+      beginning of it all, I do. I mind when there wasn't a master mariner to
+      Plymouth, that thought there was aught west of the Land's End except
+      herrings. Why, they held them, pure wratches, that if you sailed right
+      west away far enough, you'd surely come to the edge, and fall over cleve.
+      Iss&mdash;'Twas dark parts round here, till Captain Will arose; and the
+      first of it I mind was inside the bar of San Lucar, and he and I were boys
+      about a ten year old, aboord of a Dartmouth ship, and went for wine, and
+      there come in over the bar he that was the beginning of it all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Columbus?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Iss, fegs, he did, not a pistol-shot from us; and I saw mun stand on the
+      poop, so plain as I see you; no great shakes of a man to look to nether;
+      there's a sight better here, to plase me, and we was disappointed, we
+      lads, for we surely expected to see mun with a goolden crown on, and a
+      sceptre to a's hand, we did, and the ship o' mun all over like Solomon's
+      temple for gloory. And I mind that same year, too, seeing Vasco da Gama,
+      as was going out over the bar, when he found the Bona Speranza, and sailed
+      round it to the Indies. Ah, that was the making of they rascally
+      Portingals, it was! . . . And our crew told what they seen and heerd: but
+      nobody minded sich things. 'Twas dark parts, and Popish, then; and nobody
+      knowed nothing, nor got no schooling, nor cared for nothing, but
+      scrattling up and down alongshore like to prawns in a pule. Iss, sitting
+      in darkness, we was, and the shadow of death, till the day-spring from on
+      high arose, and shined upon us poor out-o'-the-way folk&mdash;The Lord be
+      praised! And now, look to mun!&rdquo; and he waved his hand all round&mdash;&ldquo;Look
+      to mun! Look to the works of the Lord! Look to the captains! Oh blessed
+      sight! And one's been to the Brazils, and one to the Indies, and the
+      Spanish Main, and the North-West, and the Rooshias, and the Chinas, and up
+      the Straits, and round the Cape, and round the world of God, too, bless
+      His holy name; and I seed the beginning of it; and I'll see the end of it
+      too, I will! I was born into the old times: but I'll see the wondrous
+      works of the new, yet, I will! I'll see they bloody Spaniards swept off
+      the seas before I die, if my old eyes can reach so far as outside the
+      Sound. I shall, I knows it. I says my prayers for it every night; don't I,
+      Mary? You'll bate mun, sure as Judgment, you'll bate mun! The Lord'll
+      fight for ye. Nothing'll stand against ye. I've seed it all along&mdash;ever
+      since I was with young master to the Honduras. They can't bide the push of
+      us! You'll bate mun off the face of the seas, and be masters of the round
+      world, and all that therein is. And then, I'll just turn my old face to
+      the wall, and depart in peace, according to his word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Deary me, now, while I've been telling with you, here've this little maid
+      been and ate up all my sugar!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll bring you some more,&rdquo; said Amyas; whom the childish bathos of the
+      last sentence moved rather to sighs than laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will ye, then? There's a good soul, and come and tell with old Martin. He
+      likes to see the brave young gentlemen, a-going to and fro in their ships,
+      like Leviathan, and taking of their pastime therein. We had no such ships
+      to our days. Ah, 'tis grand times, beautiful times surely&mdash;and you'll
+      bring me a bit sugar?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were up the Plate with Cabot?&rdquo; said Cary, after a pause. &ldquo;Do you mind
+      the fair lady Miranda, Sebastian de Hurtado's wife?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! her that was burnt by the Indians? Mind her? Do you mind the sun in
+      heaven? Oh, the beauty! Oh, the ways of her! Oh, the speech of her! Never
+      was, nor never will be! And she to die by they villains; and all for the
+      goodness of her! Mind her? I minded naught else when she was on deck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was she?&rdquo; asked Amyas of Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Spanish angel, Amyas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;So much the worse for her, to be born into a nation
+      of devils.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They'em not all so bad as that, yer honor. Her husband was a proper
+      gallant gentleman, and kind as a maid, too, and couldn't abide that De
+      Solis's murderous doings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His wife must have taught it him, then,&rdquo; said Amyas, rising. &ldquo;Where did
+      you hear of these black swans, Cary?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard of them, and that's enough,&rdquo; answered he, unwilling to stir
+      sad recollections.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And little enough,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;Will, don't talk to me. The devil is not
+      grown white because he has trod in a lime-heap.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or an angel black because she came down a chimney,&rdquo; said Cary; and so the
+      talk ended, or rather was cut short; for the talk of all the groups was
+      interrupted by an explosion from old John Hawkins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fail? Fail? What a murrain do you here, to talk of failing? Who made you
+      a prophet, you scurvy, hang-in-the-wind, croaking, white-livered son of a
+      corby-crow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heaven help us, Admiral Hawkins, who has put fire to your culverins in
+      this fashion?&rdquo; said Lord Howard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who? my lord! Croakers! my lord! Here's a fellow calls himself the
+      captain of a ship, and her majesty's servant, and talks about failing, as
+      if he were a Barbican loose-kirtle trying to keep her apple-squire ashore!
+      Blurt for him, sneak-up! say I.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Admiral John Hawkins,&rdquo; quoth the offender, &ldquo;you shall answer this
+      language with your sword.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll answer it with my foot; and buy me a pair of horn-tips to my shoes,
+      like a wraxling man. Fight a croaker? Fight a frog, an owl! I fight those
+      that dare fight, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir, sir, moderate yourself. I am sure this gentleman will show himself
+      as brave as any, when it comes to blows: but who can blame mortal man for
+      trembling before so fearful a chance as this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let mortal man keep his tremblings to himself, then, my lord, and not be
+      like Solomon's madmen, casting abroad fire and death, and saying, it is
+      only in sport. There is more than one of his kidney, your lordship, who
+      have not been ashamed to play Mother Shipton before their own sailors, and
+      damp the poor fellows' hearts with crying before they're hurt, and this is
+      one of them. I've heard him at it afore, and I'll present him, with a
+      vengeance, though I'm no church-warden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If this is really so, Admiral Hawkins&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is so, my lord! I heard only last night, down in a tavern below, such
+      unbelieving talk as made me mad, my lord; and if it had not been after
+      supper, and my hand was not oversteady, I would have let out a pottle of
+      Alicant from some of their hoopings, and sent them to Dick Surgeon, to
+      wrap them in swaddling-clouts, like whining babies as they are. Marry come
+      up, what says Scripture? 'He that is fearful and faint-hearted among you,
+      let him go and'&mdash;what? son Dick there? Thou'rt pious, and read'st thy
+      Bible. What's that text? A mortal fine one it is, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'He that is fearful and faint-hearted among you, let him go back,'&rdquo; quoth
+      the Complete Seaman. &ldquo;Captain Merryweather, as my father's command, as
+      well as his years, forbid his answering your challenge, I shall repute it
+      an honor to entertain his quarrel myself&mdash;place, time, and weapons
+      being at your choice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well spoken, son Dick!&mdash;and like a true courtier, too! Ah! thou hast
+      the palabras, and the knee, and the cap, and the quip, and the innuendo,
+      and the true town fashion of it all&mdash;no old tarry-breeks of a
+      sea-dog, like thy dad! My lord, you'll let them fight?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Spaniard, sir; but no one else. But, captains and gentlemen, consider
+      well my friend the Port Admiral's advice; and if any man's heart misgives
+      him, let him, for the sake of his country and his queen, have so much
+      government of his tongue to hide his fears in his own bosom, and leave
+      open complaining to ribalds and women. For if the sailor be not cheered by
+      his commander's cheerfulness, how will the ignorant man find comfort in
+      himself? And without faith and hope, how can he fight worthily?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no croaking aboard of us, we will warrant,&rdquo; said twenty voices,
+      &ldquo;and shall be none, as long as we command on board our own ships.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hawkins, having blown off his steam, went back to Drake and the bowls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fill my pipe, Drawer&mdash;that croaking fellow's made me let it out, of
+      course! Spoil-sports! The father of all manner of troubles on earth, be
+      they noxious trade of croakers! 'Better to meet a bear robbed of her
+      whelps,' Francis Drake, as Solomon saith, than a fule who can't keep his
+      mouth shut. What brought Mr. Andrew Barker to his death but croakers? What
+      stopped Fenton's China voyage in the '82, and lost your nephew John, and
+      my brother Will, glory and hard cash too, but croakers? What sent back my
+      Lord Cumberland's armada in the '86, and that after they'd proved their
+      strength, too, sixty o' mun against six hundred Portugals and Indians; and
+      yet wern't ashamed to turn round and come home empty-handed, after all my
+      lord's expenses that he had been at? What but these same beggarly
+      croakers, that be only fit to be turned into yellow-hammers up to
+      Dartymoor, and sit on a tor all day, and cry 'Very little bit of bread,
+      and no chee-e-ese!' Marry, sneak-up! say I again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what,&rdquo; said Drake, &ldquo;would have kept me, if I'd let 'em, from ever
+      sailing round the world, but these same croakers? I hanged my best friend
+      for croaking, John Hawkins, may God forgive me if I was wrong, and I
+      threatened a week after to hang thirty more; and I'd have done it, too, if
+      they hadn't clapped tompions into their muzzles pretty fast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'm right, Frank. My old father always told me&mdash;and old King Hal
+      (bless his memory!) would take his counsel among a thousand;&mdash;'And,
+      my son,' says he to me, 'whatever you do, never you stand no croaking; but
+      hang mun, son Jack, hang mun up for an ensign. There's Scripture for it,'
+      says he (he was a mighty man to his Bible, after bloody Mary's days,
+      leastwise), 'and 'tis written,' says he, 'It's expedient that one man die
+      for the crew, and that the whole crew perish not; so show you no mercy,
+      son Jack, or you'll find none, least-wise in they manner of cattle; for if
+      you fail, they stamps on you, and if you succeeds, they takes the credit
+      of it to themselves, and goes to heaven in your shoes.' Those were his
+      words, and I've found mun true.&mdash;Who com'th here now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Captain Fleming, as I'm a sinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fleming? Is he tired of life, that he com'th here to look for a halter?
+      I've a warrant out against mun, for robbing of two Flushingers on the high
+      seas, now this very last year. Is the fellow mazed or drunk, then? or has
+      he seen a ghost? Look to mun!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think so, truly,&rdquo; said Drake. &ldquo;His eyes are near out of his head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man was a rough-bearded old sea-dog, who had just burst in from the
+      tavern through the low hatch, upsetting a drawer with all his glasses, and
+      now came panting and blowing straight up to the high admiral,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lord, my lord! They'm coming! I saw them off the Lizard last night!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who? my good sir, who seem to have left your manners behind you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Armada, your worship&mdash;the Spaniard; but as for my manners, 'tis
+      no fault of mine, for I never had none to leave behind me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he has not left his manners behind,&rdquo; quoth Hawkins, &ldquo;look out for your
+      purses, gentlemen all! He's manners enough, and very bad ones they be,
+      when he com'th across a quiet Flushinger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I stole Flushingers' wines, I never stole negurs' souls, Jack Hawkins;
+      so there's your answer. My lord, hang me if you will; life's short and
+      death's easy 'specially to seamen; but if I didn't see the Spanish fleet
+      last sun-down, coming along half-moon wise, and full seven mile from wing
+      to wing, within a four mile of me, I'm a sinner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sirrah,&rdquo; said Lord Howard, &ldquo;is this no fetch, to cheat us out of your
+      pardon for these piracies of yours?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll find out for yourself before nightfall, my lord high admiral. All
+      Jack Fleming says is, that this is a poor sort of an answer to a man who
+      has put his own neck into the halter for the sake of his country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it is,&rdquo; said Lord Howard. &ldquo;And after all, gentlemen, what can this
+      man gain by a lie, which must be discovered ere a day is over, except a
+      more certain hanging?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true, your lordship,&rdquo; said Hawkins, mollified. &ldquo;Come here, Jack
+      Fleming&mdash;what wilt drain, man? Hippocras or Alicant, Sack or John
+      Barleycorn, and a pledge to thy repentance and amendment of life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Admiral Hawkins, Admiral Hawkins, this is no time for drinking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not, then, my lord? Good news should be welcomed with good wine.
+      Frank, send down to the sexton, and set the bells a-ringing to cheer up
+      all honest hearts. Why, my lord, if it were not for the gravity of my
+      office, I could dance a galliard for joy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you may dance, port admiral: but I must go and plan, but God give
+      to all captains such a heart as yours this day!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And God give all generals such a head as yours! Come, Frank Drake, we'll
+      play the game out before we move. It will be two good days before we shall
+      be fit to tackle them, so an odd half-hour don't matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must command the help of your counsel, vice-admiral,&rdquo; said Lord
+      Charles, turning to Drake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And it's this, my good lord,&rdquo; said Drake, looking up, as he aimed his
+      bowl. &ldquo;They'll come soon enough for us to show them sport, and yet slow
+      enough for us to be ready; so let no man hurry himself. And as example is
+      better than precept, here goes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Howard shrugged his shoulders, and departed, knowing two things:
+      first, that to move Drake was to move mountains; and next, that when the
+      self-taught hero did bestir himself, he would do more work in an hour than
+      any one else in a day. So he departed, followed hastily by most of the
+      captains; and Drake said in a low voice to Hawkins:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does he think we are going to knock about on a lee-shore all the
+      afternoon and run our noses at night&mdash;and dead up-wind, too&mdash;into
+      the Dons' mouths? No, Jack, my friend. Let Orlando-Furioso-punctilio-fire-
+      eaters go and get their knuckles rapped. The following game is the game,
+      and not the meeting one. The dog goes after the sheep, and not afore them,
+      lad. Let them go by, and go by, and stick to them well to windward, and
+      pick up stragglers, and pickings, too, Jack&mdash;the prizes, Jack!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trust my old eyes for not being over-quick at seeing signals, if I be
+      hanging in the skirts of a fat-looking Don. We'm the eagles, Drake; and
+      where the carcase is, is our place, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so the two old sea-dogs chatted on, while their companions dropped off
+      one by one, and only Amyas remained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eh, Captain Leigh, where's my boy Dick?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gone off with his lordship, Sir John.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On his punctilios too, I suppose, the young slashed-breeks. He's half a
+      Don, that fellow, with his fine scholarship, and his fine manners, and his
+      fine clothes. He'll get a taking down before he dies, unless he mends. Why
+      ain't you gone too, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I follow my leader,&rdquo; said Amyas, filling his pipe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well said, my big man,&rdquo; quoth Drake. &ldquo;If I could lead you round the
+      world, I can lead you up Channel, can't I?&mdash;Eh? my little bantam-cock
+      of the Orinoco? Drink, lad! You're over-sad to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a whit,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;Only I can't help wondering whether I shall
+      find him after all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whom? That Don? We'll find him for you, if he's in the fleet. We'll
+      squeeze it out of our prisoners somehow. Eh, Hawkins? I thought all the
+      captains had promised to send you news if they heard of him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, but it's ill looking for a needle in a haystack. But I shall find
+      him. I am a coward to doubt it,&rdquo; said Amyas, setting his teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, vice-admiral, you're beaten, and that's the rubber. Pay up three
+      dollars, old high-flyer, and go and earn more, like an honest adventurer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Drake, as he pulled out his purse, &ldquo;we'll walk down now, and
+      see about these young hot-heads. As I live, they are setting to tow the
+      ships out already! Breaking the men's backs over-night, to make them fight
+      the lustier in the morning! Well, well, they haven't sailed round the
+      world, Jack Hawkins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or had to run home from San Juan d'Ulloa with half a crew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, if we haven't to run out with half crews. I saw a sight of our lads
+      drunk about this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The more reason for waiting till they be sober. Besides, if everybody's
+      caranting about to once each after his own men, nobody'll find nothing in
+      such a scrimmage as that. Bye, bye, Uncle Martin. We'm going to blow the
+      Dons up now in earnest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0031" id="link2HCH0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXI
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE GREAT ARMADA
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Britannia needs no bulwarks,
+        No towers along the steep,
+     Her march is o'er the mountain wave,
+        Her home is on the deep.&rdquo;
+
+        CAMPBELL, Ye Mariners of England.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And now began that great sea-fight which was to determine whether Popery
+      and despotism, or Protestantism and freedom, were the law which God had
+      appointed for the half of Europe, and the whole of future America. It is a
+      twelve days' epic, worthy, as I said in the beginning of this book, not of
+      dull prose, but of the thunder-roll of Homer's verse: but having to tell
+      it, I must do my best, rather using, where I can, the words of
+      contemporary authors than my own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lord High Admirall of England, sending a pinnace before, called the
+      Defiance, denounced war by discharging her ordnance; and presently
+      approaching with in musquet-shot, with much thundering out of his own
+      ship, called the Arkroyall (alias the Triumph), first set upon the
+      admirall's, as he thought, of the Spaniards (but it was Alfonso de Leon's
+      ship). Soon after, Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher played stoutly with their
+      ordnance on the hindmost squadron, which was commanded by Recalde.&rdquo; The
+      Spaniards soon discover the superior &ldquo;nimbleness of the English ships;&rdquo;
+       and Recalde's squadron, finding that they are getting more than they give,
+      in spite of his endeavors, hurry forward to join the rest of the fleet.
+      Medina the Admiral, finding his ships scattering fast, gathers them into a
+      half-moon; and the Armada tries to keep solemn way forward, like a stately
+      herd of buffaloes, who march on across the prairie, disdaining to notice
+      the wolves which snarl around their track. But in vain. These are no
+      wolves, but cunning hunters, swiftly horsed, and keenly armed, and who
+      will &ldquo;shamefully shuffle&rdquo; (to use Drake's own expression) that vast herd
+      from the Lizard to Portland, from Portland to Calais Roads; and who, even
+      in this short two hours' fight, have made many a Spaniard question the
+      boasted invincibleness of this Armada.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the four great galliasses is already riddled with shot, to the
+      great disarrangement of her &ldquo;pulpits, chapels,&rdquo; and friars therein
+      assistant. The fleet has to close round her, or Drake and Hawkins will
+      sink her; in effecting which manoeuvre, the &ldquo;principal galleon of
+      Seville,&rdquo; in which are Pedro de Valdez and a host of blue-blooded Dons,
+      runs foul of her neighbor, carries away her foremast, and is, in spite of
+      Spanish chivalry, left to her fate. This does not look like victory,
+      certainly. But courage! though Valdez be left behind, &ldquo;our Lady,&rdquo; and the
+      saints, and the bull Caena Domini (dictated by one whom I dare not name
+      here), are with them still, and it were blasphemous to doubt. But in the
+      meanwhile, if they have fared no better than this against a third of the
+      Plymouth fleet, how will they fare when those forty belated ships, which
+      are already whitening the blue between them and the Mewstone, enter the
+      scene to play their part?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So ends the first day; not an English ship, hardly a man, is hurt. It has
+      destroyed for ever, in English minds, the prestige of boastful Spain. It
+      has justified utterly the policy which the good Lord Howard had adopted by
+      Raleigh's and Drake's advice, of keeping up a running fight, instead of
+      &ldquo;clapping ships together without consideration,&rdquo; in which case, says
+      Raleigh, &ldquo;he had been lost, if he had not been better advised than a great
+      many malignant fools were, who found fault with his demeanor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Be that as it may, so ends the first day, in which Amyas and the other
+      Bideford ships have been right busy for two hours, knocking holes in a
+      huge galleon, which carries on her poop a maiden with a wheel, and bears
+      the name of Sta. Catharina. She had a coat of arms on the flag at her
+      sprit, probably those of the commandant of soldiers; but they were shot
+      away early in the fight, so Amyas cannot tell whether they were De Soto's
+      or not. Nevertheless, there is plenty of time for private revenge; and
+      Amyas, called off at last by the admiral's signal, goes to bed and sleeps
+      soundly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But ere he has been in his hammock an hour, he is awakened by Cary's
+      coming down to ask for orders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were to follow Drake's lantern, Amyas; but where it is, I can't see,
+      unless he has been taken up aloft there among the stars for a new Drakium
+      Sidus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas turns out grumbling: but no lantern is to be seen; only a sudden
+      explosion and a great fire on board some Spaniard, which is gradually got
+      under, while they have to lie-to the whole night long, with nearly the
+      whole fleet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning finds them off Torbay; and Amyas is hailed by a pinnace,
+      bringing a letter from Drake, which (saving the spelling, which was
+      somewhat arbitrary, like most men's in those days) ran somewhat thus:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;DEAR LAD,&mdash;I have been wool-gathering all night after five great
+      hulks, which the Pixies transfigured overnight into galleons, and this
+      morning again into German merchantmen. I let them go with my blessing; and
+      coming back, fell in (God be thanked!) with Valdez' great galleon; and in
+      it good booty, which the Dons his fellows had left behind, like faithful
+      and valiant comrades, and the Lord Howard had let slip past him, thinking
+      her deserted by her crew. I have sent to Dartmouth a sight of noblemen and
+      gentlemen, maybe a half-hundred; and Valdez himself, who when I sent my
+      pinnace aboard must needs stand on his punctilios, and propound
+      conditions. I answered him, I had no time to tell with him; if he would
+      needs die, then I was the very man for him; if he would live, then, buena
+      querra. He sends again, boasting that he was Don Pedro Valdez, and that it
+      stood not with his honor, and that of the Dons in his company. I replied,
+      that for my part, I was Francis Drake, and my matches burning. Whereon he
+      finds in my name salve for the wounds of his own, and comes aboard,
+      kissing my fist, with Spanish lies of holding himself fortunate that he
+      had fallen into the hands of fortunate Drake, and much more, which he
+      might have kept to cool his porridge. But I have much news from him (for
+      he is a leaky tub); and among others, this, that your Don Guzman is aboard
+      of the Sta. Catharina, commandant of her soldiery, and has his arms flying
+      at her sprit, beside Sta. Catharina at the poop, which is a maiden with a
+      wheel, and is a lofty built ship of 3 tier of ordnance, from which God
+      preserve you, and send you like luck with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your deare Friend and Admirall,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;F. Drake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She sails in this squadron of Recalde. The Armada was minded to smoke us
+      out of Plymouth; and God's grace it was they tried not: but their orders
+      from home are too strait, and so the slaves fight like a bull in a tether,
+      no farther than their rope, finding thus the devil a hard master, as do
+      most in the end. They cannot compass our quick handling and tacking, and
+      take us for very witches. So far so good, and better to come. You and I
+      know the length of their foot of old. Time and light will kill any hare,
+      and they will find it a long way from Start to Dunkirk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The admiral is in a gracious humor, Leigh, to have vouchsafed you so long
+      a letter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;St. Catherine! why, that was the galleon we hammered all yesterday!&rdquo; said
+      Amyas, stamping on the deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course it was. Well, we shall find her again, doubt not. That cunning
+      old Drake! how he has contrived to line his own pockets, even though he
+      had to keep the whole fleet waiting for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has given the lord high admiral the dor, at all events.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lord Howard is too high-hearted to stop and plunder, Papist though he is,
+      Amyas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas answered by a growl, for he worshipped Drake, and was not too just
+      to Papists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fleet did not find Lord Howard till nightfall; he and Lord Sheffield
+      had been holding on steadfastly the whole night after the Spanish
+      lanterns, with two ships only. At least there was no doubt now of the
+      loyalty of English Roman Catholics, and indeed, throughout the fight, the
+      Howards showed (as if to wipe out the slurs which had been cast on their
+      loyalty by fanatics) a desperate courage, which might have thrust less
+      prudent men into destruction, but led them only to victory. Soon a large
+      Spaniard drifts by, deserted and partly burnt. Some of the men are for
+      leaving their place to board her; but Amyas stoutly refuses. He has &ldquo;come
+      out to fight, and not to plunder; so let the nearest ship to her have her
+      luck without grudging.&rdquo; They pass on, and the men pull long faces when
+      they see the galleon snapped up by their next neighbor, and towed off to
+      Weymouth, where she proves to be the ship of Miguel d'Oquenda, the
+      vice-admiral, which they saw last night, all but blown up by some
+      desperate Netherland gunner, who, being &ldquo;misused,&rdquo; was minded to pay off
+      old scores on his tyrants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so ends the second day; while the Portland rises higher and clearer
+      every hour. The next morning finds them off the island. Will they try
+      Portsmouth, though they have spared Plymouth? The wind has shifted to the
+      north, and blows clear and cool off the white-walled downs of Weymouth
+      Bay. The Spaniards turn and face the English. They must mean to stand off
+      and on until the wind shall change, and then to try for the Needles. At
+      least, they shall have some work to do before they round Purbeck Isle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The English go to the westward again: but it is only to return on the
+      opposite tack; and now begin a series of manoeuvres, each fleet trying to
+      get the wind of the other; but the struggle does not last long, and ere
+      noon the English fleet have slipped close-hauled between the Armada and
+      the land, and are coming down upon them right before the wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now begins a fight most fierce and fell. &ldquo;And fight they did
+      confusedly, and with variable fortunes; while, on the one hand, the
+      English manfully rescued the ships of London, which were hemmed in by the
+      Spaniards; and, on the other side, the Spaniards as stoutly delivered
+      Recalde being in danger.&rdquo; &ldquo;Never was heard such thundering of ordnance on
+      both sides, which notwithstanding from the Spaniards flew for the most
+      part over the English without harm. Only Cock, an Englishman&rdquo; (whom Prince
+      claims, I hope rightfully, as a worthy of Devon), &ldquo;died with honor in the
+      midst of the enemies in a small ship of his. For the English ships, being
+      far the lesser, charged the enemy with marvellous agility; and having
+      discharged their broadsides, flew forth presently into the deep, and
+      levelled their shot directly, without missing, at those great and unwieldy
+      Spanish ships.&rdquo; &ldquo;This was the most furious and bloody skirmish of all&rdquo;
+       (though ending only, it seems, in the capture of a great Venetian and some
+      small craft), &ldquo;in which the lord admiral fighting amidst his enemies'
+      fleet, and seeing one of his captains afar off (Fenner by name, he who
+      fought the seven Portugals at the Azores), cried, 'O George, what doest
+      thou? Wilt thou now frustrate my hope and opinion conceived of thee? Wilt
+      thou forsake me now?' With which words he being enflamed, approached, and
+      did the part of a most valiant captain;&rdquo; as, indeed, did all the rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Night falls upon the floating volcano; and morning finds them far past
+      Purbeck, with the white peak of Freshwater ahead; and pouring out past the
+      Needles, ship after ship, to join the gallant chase. For now from all
+      havens, in vessels fitted out at their own expense, flock the chivalry of
+      England; the Lords Oxford, Northumberland, and Cumberland, Pallavicin,
+      Brooke, Carew, Raleigh, and Blunt, and many another honorable name, &ldquo;as to
+      a set field, where immortal fame and honor was to be attained.&rdquo; Spain has
+      staked her chivalry in that mighty cast; not a noble house of Arragon or
+      Castile but has lent a brother or a son&mdash;and shall mourn the loss of
+      one: and England's gentlemen will measure their strength once for all
+      against the Cavaliers of Spain. Lord Howard has sent forward light craft
+      into Portsmouth for ammunition: but they will scarce return to-night, for
+      the wind falls dead, and all the evening the two fleets drift helpless
+      with the tide, and shout idle defiance at each other with trumpet, fife,
+      and drum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun goes down upon a glassy sea, and rises on a glassy sea again. But
+      what day is this? The twenty-fifth, St. James's-day, sacred to the patron
+      saint of Spain. Shall nothing be attempted in his honor by those whose
+      forefathers have so often seen him with their bodily eyes, charging in
+      their van upon his snow-white steed, and scattering Paynims with celestial
+      lance? He might have sent them, certainly, a favoring breeze; perhaps, he
+      only means to try their faith; at least the galleys shall attack; and in
+      their van three of the great galliasses (the fourth lies half-crippled
+      among the fleet) thrash the sea to foam with three hundred oars apiece;
+      and see, not St. James leading them to victory, but Lord Howard's Triumph,
+      his brother's Lion, Southwell's Elizabeth Jonas, Lord Sheffield's Bear,
+      Barker's Victory, and George Fenner's Leicester, towed stoutly out, to
+      meet them with such salvoes of chain-shot, smashing oars, and cutting
+      rigging, that had not the wind sprung up again toward noon, and the
+      Spanish fleet come up to rescue them, they had shared the fate of Valdez
+      and the Biscayan. And now the fight becomes general. Frobisher beats down
+      the Spanish admiral's mainmast; and, attacked himself by Mexia and
+      Recalde, is rescued by Lord Howard; who, himself endangered in his turn,
+      is rescued in his turn; &ldquo;while after that day&rdquo; (so sickened were they of
+      the English gunnery) &ldquo;no galliasse would adventure to fight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so, with variable fortune, the fight thunders on the livelong
+      afternoon, beneath the virgin cliffs of Freshwater; while myriad sea-fowl
+      rise screaming up from every ledge, and spot with their black wings the
+      snow-white wall of chalk; and the lone shepherd hurries down the slopes
+      above to peer over the dizzy edge, and forgets the wheatear fluttering in
+      his snare, while he gazes trembling upon glimpses of tall masts and
+      gorgeous flags, piercing at times the league-broad veil of sulphur-smoke
+      which welters far below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So fares St. James's-day, as Baal's did on Carmel in old time, &ldquo;Either he
+      is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey; or peradventure he
+      sleepeth, and must be awaked.&rdquo; At least, the only fire by which he has
+      answered his votaries, has been that of English cannon: and the Armada,
+      &ldquo;gathering itself into a roundel,&rdquo; will fight no more, but make the best
+      of its way to Calais, where perhaps the Guises' faction may have a French
+      force ready to assist them, and then to Dunkirk, to join with Parma and
+      the great flotilla of the Netherlands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So on, before &ldquo;a fair Etesian gale,&rdquo; which follows clear and bright out of
+      the south-southwest, glide forward the two great fleets, past Brighton
+      Cliffs and Beachy Head, Hastings and Dungeness. Is it a battle or a
+      triumph? For by sea Lord Howard, instead of fighting is rewarding; and
+      after Lord Thomas Howard, Lord Sheffield, Townsend, and Frobisher have
+      received at his hands that knighthood, which was then more honorable than
+      a peerage, old Admiral Hawkins kneels and rises up Sir John, and shaking
+      his shoulders after the accolade, observes to the representative of
+      majesty, that his &ldquo;old woman will hardly know herself again, when folks
+      call her My Lady.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And meanwhile the cliffs are lined with pike-men and musketeers, and by
+      every countryman and groom who can bear arms, led by their squires and
+      sheriffs, marching eastward as fast as their weapons let them, towards the
+      Dover shore. And not with them alone. From many a mile inland come down
+      women and children, and aged folk in wagons, to join their feeble shouts,
+      and prayers which are not feeble, to that great cry of mingled faith and
+      fear which ascends to the throne of God from the spectators of Britain's
+      Salamis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let them pray on. The danger is not over yet, though Lord Howard has had
+      news from Newhaven that the Guises will not stir against England, and
+      Seymour and Winter have left their post of observation on the Flemish
+      shores, to make up the number of the fleet to an hundred and forty sail&mdash;larger,
+      slightly, than that of the Spanish fleet, but of not more than half the
+      tonnage, or one third the number of men. The Spaniards are dispirited and
+      battered, but unbroken still; and as they slide to their anchorage in
+      Calais Roads on the Saturday evening of that most memorable week, all
+      prudent men know well that England's hour is come, and that the bells
+      which will call all Christendom to church upon the morrow morn, will be
+      either the death-knell or the triumphal peal of the Reformed faith
+      throughout the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A solemn day that Sabbath must have been in country and in town. And many
+      a light-hearted coward, doubtless, who had scoffed (as many did) at the
+      notion of the Armada's coming, because he dare not face the thought, gave
+      himself up to abject fear, &ldquo;as he now plainly saw and heard that of which
+      before he would not be persuaded.&rdquo; And many a brave man, too, as he knelt
+      beside his wife and daughters, felt his heart sink to the very pavement,
+      at the thought of what those beloved ones might be enduring a few short
+      days hence, from a profligate and fanatical soldiery, or from the more
+      deliberate fiendishness of the Inquisition. The massacre of St.
+      Bartholomew, the fires of Smithfield, the immolation of the Moors, the
+      extermination of the West Indians, the fantastic horrors of the
+      Piedmontese persecution, which make unreadable the too truthful pages of
+      Morland,&mdash;these were the spectres, which, not as now, dim and distant
+      through the mist of centuries, but recent, bleeding from still gaping
+      wounds, flitted before the eyes of every Englishman, and filled his brain
+      and heart with fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He knew full well the fate in store for him and his. One false step, and
+      the unspeakable doom which, not two generations afterwards, befell the
+      Lutherans of Magdeburg, would have befallen every town from London to
+      Carlisle. All knew the hazard, as they prayed that day, and many a day
+      before and after, throughout England and the Netherlands. And none knew it
+      better than she who was the guiding spirit of that devoted land, and the
+      especial mark of the invaders' fury; and who, by some Divine inspiration
+      (as men then not unwisely held), devised herself the daring stroke which
+      was to anticipate the coming blow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But where is Amyas Leigh all this while? Day after day he has been seeking
+      the Sta. Catharina in the thickest of the press, and cannot come at her,
+      cannot even hear of her: one moment he dreads that she has sunk by night,
+      and balked him of his prey; the next, that she has repaired her damages,
+      and will escape him after all. He is moody, discontented, restless, even
+      (for the first time in his life) peevish with his men. He can talk of
+      nothing but Don Guzman; he can find no better employment, at every spare
+      moment, than taking his sword out of the sheath, and handling it, fondling
+      it, talking to it even, bidding it not to fail him in the day of
+      vengeance. At last, he has sent to Squire, the armorer, for a whetstone,
+      and, half-ashamed of his own folly, whets and polishes it in bye-corners,
+      muttering to himself. That one fixed thought of selfish vengeance has
+      possessed his whole mind; he forgets England's present need, her past
+      triumph, his own safety, everything but his brother's blood. And yet this
+      is the day for which he has been longing ever since he brought home that
+      magic horn as a fifteen years boy; the day when he should find himself
+      face to face with an invader, and that invader Antichrist himself. He has
+      believed for years with Drake, Hawkins, Grenville, and Raleigh, that he
+      was called and sent into the world only to fight the Spaniard: and he is
+      fighting him now, in such a cause, for such a stake, within such
+      battle-lists, as he will never see again: and yet he is not content, and
+      while throughout that gallant fleet, whole crews are receiving the
+      Communion side by side, and rising with cheerful faces to shake hands, and
+      to rejoice that they are sharers in Britain's Salamis, Amyas turns away
+      from the holy elements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot communicate, Sir John. Charity with all men? I hate, if ever man
+      hated on earth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You hate the Lord's foes only, Captain Leigh.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Jack, I hate my own as well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But no one in the fleet, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't try to put me off with the same Jesuit's quibble which that false
+      knave Parson Fletcher invented for one of Doughty's men, to drug his
+      conscience withal when he was plotting against his own admiral. No, Jack,
+      I hate one of whom you know; and somehow that hatred of him keeps me from
+      loving any human being. I am in love and charity with no man, Sir John
+      Brimblecombe&mdash;not even with you! Go your ways in God's name, sir! and
+      leave me and the devil alone together, or you'll find my words are true.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack departed with a sigh, and while the crew were receiving the Communion
+      on deck, Amyas sate below in the cabin sharpening his sword, and after it,
+      called for a boat and went on board Drake's ship to ask news of the Sta.
+      Catharina, and listened scowling to the loud chants and tinkling bells,
+      which came across the water from the Spanish fleet. At last, Drake was
+      summoned by the lord admiral, and returned with a secret commission, which
+      ought to bear fruit that night; and Amyas, who had gone with him, helped
+      him till nightfall, and then returned to his own ship as Sir Amyas Leigh,
+      Knight, to the joy and glory of every soul on board, except his moody
+      self.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So there, the livelong summer Sabbath-day, before the little high-walled
+      town and the long range of yellow sandhills, lie those two mighty
+      armaments, scowling at each other, hardly out of gunshot. Messenger after
+      messenger is hurrying towards Bruges to the Duke of Parma, for light craft
+      which can follow these nimble English somewhat better than their own
+      floating castles; and, above all, entreating him to put to sea at once
+      with all his force. The duke is not with his forces at Dunkirk, but on the
+      future field of Waterloo, paying his devotions to St. Mary of Halle in
+      Hainault, in order to make all sure in his Pantheon, and already sees in
+      visions of the night that gentle-souled and pure-lipped saint, Cardinal
+      Allen, placing the crown of England on his head. He returns for answer,
+      first, that his victual is not ready; next, that his Dutch sailors, who
+      have been kept at their post for many a week at the sword's point, have
+      run away like water; and thirdly, that over and above all, he cannot come,
+      so &ldquo;strangely provided&rdquo; of great ordnance and musketeers are those
+      five-and-thirty Dutch ships, in which round-sterned and stubborn-hearted
+      heretics watch, like terriers at a rat's hole, the entrance of Nieuwport
+      and Dunkirk. Having ensured the private patronage of St. Mary of Halle, he
+      will return to-morrow to make experience of its effects: but only hear
+      across the flats of Dixmude the thunder of the fleets, and at Dunkirk the
+      open curses of his officers. For while he has been praying and nothing
+      more, the English have been praying, and something more; and all that is
+      left for the Prince of Parma is, to hang a few purveyors, as peace
+      offerings to his sulking army, and then &ldquo;chafe,&rdquo; as Drake says of him,
+      &ldquo;like a bear robbed of her whelps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For Lord Henry Seymour has brought Lord Howard a letter of command from
+      Elizabeth's self; and Drake has been carrying it out so busily all that
+      Sunday long, that by two o'clock on the Monday morning, eight fire-ships
+      &ldquo;besmeared with wild-fire, brimstone, pitch, and resin, and all their
+      ordnance charged with bullets and with stones,&rdquo; are stealing down the wind
+      straight for the Spanish fleet, guided by two valiant men of Devon, Young
+      and Prowse. (Let their names live long in the land!) The ships are fired,
+      the men of Devon steal back, and in a moment more, the heaven is red with
+      glare from Dover Cliffs to Gravelines Tower; and weary-hearted Belgian
+      boors far away inland, plundered and dragooned for many a hideous year,
+      leap from their beds, and fancy (and not so far wrongly either) that the
+      day of judgment is come at last, to end their woes, and hurl down
+      vengeance on their tyrants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then breaks forth one of those disgraceful panics, which so often
+      follow overweening presumption; and shrieks, oaths, prayers, and
+      reproaches, make night hideous. There are those too on board who recollect
+      well enough Jenebelli's fire-ships at Antwerp three years before, and the
+      wreck which they made of Parma's bridge across the Scheldt. If these
+      should be like them! And cutting all cables, hoisting any sails, the
+      Invincible Armada goes lumbering wildly out to sea, every ship foul of her
+      neighbor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The largest of the four galliasses loses her rudder, and drifts helpless
+      to and fro, hindering and confusing. The duke, having (so the Spaniards
+      say) weighed his anchor deliberately instead of leaving it behind him,
+      runs in again after awhile, and fires a signal for return: but his truant
+      sheep are deaf to the shepherd's pipe, and swearing and praying by turns,
+      he runs up Channel towards Gravelines picking up stragglers on his way,
+      who are struggling as they best can among the flats and shallows: but
+      Drake and Fenner have arrived as soon as he. When Monday's sun rises on
+      the quaint old castle and muddy dykes of Gravelines town, the thunder of
+      the cannon recommences, and is not hushed till night. Drake can hang
+      coolly enough in the rear to plunder when he thinks fit; but when the
+      battle needs it, none can fight more fiercely, among the foremost; and
+      there is need now, if ever. That Armada must never be allowed to re-form.
+      If it does, its left wing may yet keep the English at bay, while its right
+      drives off the blockading Hollanders from Dunkirk port, and sets Parma and
+      his flotilla free to join them, and to sail in doubled strength across to
+      the mouth of Thames.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So Drake has weighed anchor, and away up Channel with all his squadron,
+      the moment that he saw the Spanish fleet come up; and with him Fenner
+      burning to redeem the honor which, indeed, he had never lost; and ere
+      Fenton, Beeston, Crosse, Ryman, and Lord Southwell can join them, the
+      Devon ships have been worrying the Spaniards for two full hours into
+      confusion worse confounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what is that heavy firing behind them? Alas for the great galliasse!
+      She lies, like a huge stranded whale, upon the sands where now stands
+      Calais pier; and Amyas Preston, the future hero of La Guayra, is pounding
+      her into submission, while a fleet of hoys and drumblers look on and help,
+      as jackals might the lion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon, on the south-west horizon, loom up larger and larger two mighty
+      ships, and behind them sail on sail. As they near a shout greets the
+      Triumph and the Bear; and on and in the lord high admiral glides stately
+      into the thickest of the fight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      True, we have still but some three-and-twenty ships which can cope at all
+      with some ninety of the Spaniards: but we have dash, and daring, and the
+      inspiration of utter need. Now, or never, must the mighty struggle be
+      ended. We worried them off Portland; we must rend them in pieces now; and
+      in rushes ship after ship, to smash her broadsides through and through the
+      wooden castles, &ldquo;sometimes not a pike's length asunder,&rdquo; and then out
+      again to re-load, and give place meanwhile to another. The smaller are
+      fighting with all sails set; the few larger, who, once in, are careless
+      about coming out again, fight with top-sails loose, and their main and
+      foreyards close down on deck, to prevent being boarded. The duke, Oquenda,
+      and Recalde, having with much ado got clear of the shallows, bear the
+      brunt of the fight to seaward; but in vain. The day goes against them more
+      and more, as it runs on. Seymour and Winter have battered the great San
+      Philip into a wreck; her masts are gone by the board; Pimentelli in the
+      San Matthew comes up to take the mastiffs off the fainting bull, and finds
+      them fasten on him instead; but the Evangelist, though smaller, is stouter
+      than the Deacon, and of all the shot poured into him, not twenty &ldquo;lackt
+      him thorough.&rdquo; His masts are tottering; but sink or strike he will not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go ahead, and pound his tough hide, Leigh,&rdquo; roars Drake off the poop of
+      his ship, while he hammers away at one of the great galliasses. &ldquo;What
+      right has he to keep us all waiting?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas slips in as best he can between Drake and Winter; as he passes he
+      shouts to his ancient enemy,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are with you, sir; all friends to-day!&rdquo; and slipping round Winter's
+      bows, he pours his broadside into those of the San Matthew, and then
+      glides on to re-load; but not to return. For not a pistol shot to leeward,
+      worried by three or four small craft, lies an immense galleon; and on her
+      poop&mdash;can he believe his eyes for joy?&mdash;the maiden and the wheel
+      which he has sought so long!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There he is!&rdquo; shouts Amyas, springing to the starboard side of the ship.
+      The men, too, have already caught sight of that hated sign; a cheer of
+      fury bursts from every throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Steady, men!&rdquo; says Amyas, in a suppressed voice. &ldquo;Not a shot! Re-load,
+      and be ready; I must speak with him first;&rdquo; and silent as the grave, amid
+      the infernal din, the Vengeance glides up to the Spaniard's quarter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto!&rdquo; shouts Amyas from the
+      mizzen rigging, loud and clear amid the roar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He has not called in vain. Fearless and graceful as ever, the tall,
+      mail-clad figure of his foe leaps up upon the poop-railing, twenty feet
+      above Amyas's head, and shouts through his vizor,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At your service, sir whosoever you may be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A dozen muskets and arrows are levelled at him; but Amyas frowns them
+      down. &ldquo;No man strikes him but I. Spare him, if you kill every other soul
+      on board. Don Guzman! I am Captain Sir Amyas Leigh; I proclaim you a
+      traitor and a ravisher, and challenge you once more to single combat, when
+      and where you will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are welcome to come on board me, sir,&rdquo; answers the Spaniard, in a
+      clear, quiet tone; &ldquo;bringing with you this answer, that you lie in your
+      throat;&rdquo; and lingering a moment out of bravado, to arrange his scarf, he
+      steps slowly down again behind the bulwarks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Coward!&rdquo; shouts Amyas at the top of his voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Spaniard re-appears instantly. &ldquo;Why that name, senor, of all others?&rdquo;
+       asks he in a cool, stern voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because we call men cowards in England, who leave their wives to be burnt
+      alive by priests.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment the words had passed Amyas's lips, he felt that they were cruel
+      and unjust. But it was too late to recall them. The Spaniard started,
+      clutched his sword-hilt, and then hissed back through his closed vizor,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For that word, sirrah, you hang at my yardarm, if Saint Mary gives me
+      grace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See that your halter be a silken one, then,&rdquo; laughed Amyas, &ldquo;for I am
+      just dubbed knight.&rdquo; And he stepped down as a storm of bullets rang
+      through the rigging round his head; the Spaniards are not as punctilious
+      as he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fire!&rdquo; His ordnance crash through the stern-works of the Spaniard; and
+      then he sails onward, while her balls go humming harmlessly through his
+      rigging.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half-an-hour has passed of wild noise and fury; three times has the
+      Vengeance, as a dolphin might, sailed clean round and round the Sta.
+      Catharina, pouring in broadside after broadside, till the guns are leaping
+      to the deck-beams with their own heat, and the Spaniard's sides are slit
+      and spotted in a hundred places. And yet, so high has been his fire in
+      return, and so strong the deck defences of the Vengeance, that a few spars
+      broken, and two or three men wounded by musketry, are all her loss. But
+      still the Spaniard endures, magnificent as ever; it is the battle of the
+      thresher and the whale; the end is certain, but the work is long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can I help you, Captain Leigh?&rdquo; asked Lord Henry Seymour, as he passes
+      within oar's length of him, to attack a ship ahead. &ldquo;The San Matthew has
+      had his dinner, and is gone on to Medina to ask for a digestive to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank your lordship: but this is my private quarrel, of which I spoke.
+      But if your lordship could lend me powder&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would that I could! But so, I fear, says every other gentleman in the
+      fleet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A puff of wind clears away the sulphurous veil for a moment; the sea is
+      clear of ships towards the land; the Spanish fleet are moving again up
+      Channel, Medina bringing up the rear; only some two miles to their right
+      hand, the vast hull of the San Philip is drifting up the shore with the
+      tide, and somewhat nearer the San Matthew is hard at work at her pumps.
+      They can see the white stream of water pouring down her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go in, my lord, and have the pair,&rdquo; shouts Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, sir! Forward is a Seymour's cry. We will leave them to pay the
+      Flushingers' expenses.&rdquo; And on went Lord Henry, and on shore went the San
+      Philip at Ostend, to be plundered by the Flushingers; while the San
+      Matthew, whose captain, &ldquo;on a hault courage,&rdquo; had refused to save himself
+      and his gentlemen on board Medina's ship, went blundering miserably into
+      the hungry mouths of Captain Peter Vanderduess and four other valiant
+      Dutchmen, who, like prudent men of Holland, contrived to keep the galleon
+      afloat till they had emptied her, and then &ldquo;hung up her banner in the
+      great church of Leyden, being of such a length, that being fastened to the
+      roof, it reached unto the very ground.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But in the meanwhile, long ere the sun had set, comes down the darkness of
+      the thunderstorm, attracted, as to a volcano's mouth, to that vast mass of
+      sulphur-smoke which cloaks the sea for many a mile; and heaven's artillery
+      above makes answer to man's below. But still, through smoke and rain,
+      Amyas clings to his prey. She too has seen the northward movement of the
+      Spanish fleet, and sets her topsails; Amyas calls to the men to fire high,
+      and cripple her rigging: but in vain: for three or four belated galleys,
+      having forced their way at last over the shallows, come flashing and
+      sputtering up to the combatants, and take his fire off the galleon. Amyas
+      grinds his teeth, and would fain hustle into the thick of the press once
+      more, in spite of the galleys' beaks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most heroical captain,&rdquo; says cary, pulling a long face, &ldquo;if we do, we are
+      stove and sunk in five minutes; not to mention that Yeo says he has not
+      twenty rounds of great cartridge left.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So, surely and silent, the Vengeance sheers off, but keeps as near as she
+      can to the little squadron, all through the night of rain and thunder
+      which follows. Next morning the sun rises on a clear sky, with a strong
+      west-north-west breeze, and all hearts are asking what the day will bring
+      forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They are long past Dunkirk now; the German Ocean is opening before them.
+      The Spaniards, sorely battered, and lessened in numbers, have, during the
+      night, regained some sort of order. The English hang on their skirts a
+      mile or two behind. They have no ammunition, and must wait for more. To
+      Amyas's great disgust, the Sta. Catharina has rejoined her fellows during
+      the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind,&rdquo; says Cary; &ldquo;she can neither dive nor fly, and as long as she
+      is above water, we&mdash;What is the admiral about?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He is signalling Lord Henry Seymour and his squadron. Soon they tack, and
+      come down the wind for the coast of Flanders. Parma must be blockaded
+      still; and the Hollanders are likely to be too busy with their plunder to
+      do it effectually. Suddenly there is a stir in the Spanish fleet. Medina
+      and the rearmost ships turn upon the English. What can it mean? Will they
+      offer battle once more? If so, it were best to get out of their way, for
+      we have nothing wherewith to fight them. So the English lie close to the
+      wind. They will let them pass, and return to their old tactic of following
+      and harassing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-bye to Seymour,&rdquo; says Cary, &ldquo;if he is caught between them and
+      Parma's flotilla. They are going to Dunkirk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Impossible! They will not have water enough to reach his light craft.
+      Here comes a big ship right upon us! Give him all you have left, lads; and
+      if he will fight us, lay him alongside, and die boarding.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They gave him what they had, and hulled him with every shot; but his huge
+      side stood silent as the grave. He had not wherewithal to return the
+      compliment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I live, he is cutting loose the foot of his mainsail! the villain
+      means to run.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There go the rest of them! Victoria!&rdquo; shouted Cary, as one after another,
+      every Spaniard set all the sail he could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was silence for a few minutes throughout the English fleet; and then
+      cheer upon cheer of triumph rent the skies. It was over. The Spaniard had
+      refused battle, and thinking only of safety, was pressing downward toward
+      the Straits again. The Invincible Armada had cast away its name, and
+      England was saved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he will never get there, sir,&rdquo; said old Yeo, who had come upon deck
+      to murmur his Nunc Domine, and gaze upon that sight beyond all human faith
+      or hope: &ldquo;Never, never will he weather the Flanders shore, against such a
+      breeze as is coming up. Look to the eye of the wind, sir, and see how the
+      Lord is fighting for His people!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, down it came, fresher and stiffer every minute out of the gray
+      north-west, as it does so often after a thunder-storm; and the sea began
+      to rise high and white under the &ldquo;Claro Aquilone,&rdquo; till the Spaniards were
+      fain to take in all spare canvas, and lie-to as best they could; while the
+      English fleet, lying-to also, awaited an event which was in God's hands
+      and not in theirs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They will be all ashore on Zealand before the afternoon,&rdquo; murmured Amyas;
+      &ldquo;and I have lost my labor! Oh, for powder, powder, powder! to go in and
+      finish it at once!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, sir,&rdquo; said Yeo, &ldquo;don't murmur against the Lord in the very day of His
+      mercies. It is hard, to be sure; but His will be done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could we not borrow powder from Drake there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look at the sea, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, indeed, the sea was far too rough for any such attempt. The Spaniards
+      neared and neared the fatal dunes, which fringed the shore for many a
+      dreary mile; and Amyas had to wait weary hours, growling like a dog who
+      has had the bone snatched out of his mouth, till the day wore on; when,
+      behold, the wind began to fall as rapidly as it had risen. A savage joy
+      rose in Amyas's heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are safe! safe for us! Who will go and beg us powder? A cartridge
+      here and a cartridge there?&mdash;anything to set to work again!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary volunteered, and returned in a couple of hours with some quantity:
+      but he was on board again only just in time, for the south-wester had
+      recovered the mastery of the skies, and Spaniards and English were moving
+      away; but this time northward. Whither now? To Scotland? Amyas knew not,
+      and cared not, provided he was in the company of Don Guzman de Soto.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Armada was defeated, and England saved. But such great undertakings
+      seldom end in one grand melodramatic explosion of fireworks, through which
+      the devil arises in full roar to drag Dr. Faustus forever into the flaming
+      pit. On the contrary, the devil stands by his servants to the last, and
+      tries to bring off his shattered forces with drums beating and colors
+      flying; and, if possible, to lull his enemies into supposing that the
+      fight is ended, long before it really is half over. All which the good
+      Lord Howard of Effingham knew well, and knew, too, that Medina had one
+      last card to play, and that was the filial affection of that dutiful and
+      chivalrous son, James of Scotland. True, he had promised faith to
+      Elizabeth: but that was no reason why he should keep it. He had been
+      hankering and dabbling after Spain for years past, for its absolution was
+      dear to his inmost soul; and Queen Elizabeth had had to warn him, scold
+      him, call him a liar, for so doing; so the Armada might still find shelter
+      and provision in the Firth of Forth. But whether Lord Howard knew or not,
+      Medina did not know, that Elizabeth had played her card cunningly, in the
+      shape of one of those appeals to the purse, which, to James's dying day,
+      overweighed all others save appeals to his vanity. &ldquo;The title of a dukedom
+      in England, a yearly pension of 5000 pounds, a guard at the queen's
+      charge, and other matters&rdquo; (probably more hounds and deer), had steeled
+      the heart of the King of Scots, and sealed the Firth of Forth.
+      Nevertheless, as I say, Lord Howard, like the rest of Elizabeth's heroes,
+      trusted James just as much as James trusted others; and therefore thought
+      good to escort the Armada until it was safely past the domains of that
+      most chivalrous and truthful Solomon. But on the 4th of August, his fears,
+      such as they were, were laid to rest. The Spaniards left the Scottish
+      coast and sailed away for Norway; and the game was played out, and the end
+      was come, as the end of such matters generally comes, by gradual decay,
+      petty disaster, and mistake; till the snow-mountain, instead of being
+      blown tragically and heroically to atoms, melts helplessly and pitiably
+      away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0032" id="link2HCH0032">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Full fathom deep thy father lies;
+        Of his bones are corals made;
+     Those are pearls which were his eyes;
+        Nothing of him that doth fade,
+     But doth suffer a sea-change
+        Into something rich and strange;
+     Fairies hourly ring his knell,
+     Hark! I hear them.  Ding dong bell.&rdquo;
+
+                           The Tempest.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Yes, it is over; and the great Armada is vanquished. It is lulled for
+      awhile, the everlasting war which is in heaven, the battle of Iran and
+      Turan, of the children of light and of darkness, of Michael and his angels
+      against Satan and his fiends; the battle which slowly and seldom, once in
+      the course of many centuries, culminates and ripens into a day of
+      judgment, and becomes palpable and incarnate; no longer a mere spiritual
+      fight, but one of flesh and blood, wherein simple men may choose their
+      sides without mistake, and help God's cause not merely with prayer and
+      pen, but with sharp shot and cold steel. A day of judgment has come, which
+      has divided the light from the darkness, and the sheep from the goats, and
+      tried each man's work by the fire; and, behold, the devil's work, like its
+      maker, is proved to have been, as always, a lie and a sham, and a windy
+      boast, a bladder which collapses at the merest pinprick. Byzantine
+      empires, Spanish Armadas, triple-crowned papacies, Russian despotisms,
+      this is the way of them, and will be to the end of the world. One brave
+      blow at the big bullying phantom, and it vanishes in sulphur-stench; while
+      the children of Israel, as of old, see the Egyptians dead on the
+      sea-shore,&mdash;they scarce know how, save that God has done it, and sing
+      the song of Moses and of the Lamb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, from England and the Netherlands, from Germany and Geneva, and
+      those poor Vaudois shepherd-saints, whose bones for generations past
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      to be, indeed, the seed of the Church, and a germ of new life, liberty,
+      and civilization, even in these very days returning good for evil to that
+      Piedmont which has hunted them down like the partridges on the mountains;&mdash;from
+      all of Europe, from all of mankind, I had almost said, in which lay the
+      seed of future virtue and greatness, of the destinies of the
+      new-discovered world, and the triumphs of the coming age of science, arose
+      a shout of holy joy, such as the world had not heard for many a weary and
+      bloody century; a shout which was the prophetic birth-paean of North
+      America, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, of free commerce and
+      free colonization over the whole earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was in England, by the commandment of her majesty,&rdquo; says Van
+      Meteran, &ldquo;and likewise in the United Provinces, by the direction of the
+      States, a solemn festival day publicly appointed, wherein all persons were
+      solemnly enjoined to resort unto ye Church, and there to render thanks and
+      praises unto God, and ye preachers were commanded to exhort ye people
+      thereunto. The aforesaid solemnity was observed upon the 29th of November:
+      which day was wholly spent in fasting, prayer, and giving of thanks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Likewise the Queen's Majesty herself, imitating ye ancient Romans, rode
+      into London in triumph, in regard of her own and her subjects' glorious
+      deliverance. For being attended upon very solemnly by all ye principal
+      Estates and officers of her Realm, she was carried through her said City
+      of London in a triumphant Chariot, and in robes of triumph, from her
+      Palace unto ye said Cathedral Church of St. Paul, out of ye which ye
+      Ensigns and Colours of ye vanquished Spaniards hung displayed. And all ye
+      Citizens of London, in their liveries, stood on either side ye street, by
+      their several Companies, with their ensigns and banners, and the streets
+      were hanged on both sides with blue Cloth, which, together with ye
+      foresaid banners, yielded a very stately and gallant prospect. Her
+      Majestie being entered into ye Church together with her Clergy and Nobles,
+      gave thanks unto God, and caused a public Sermon to be preached before her
+      at Paul's Cross; wherein none other argument was handled, but that praise,
+      honour, and glory might be rendered unto God, and that God's Name might be
+      extolled by thanksgiving. And with her own princely voice she most
+      Christianly exhorted ye people to do ye same; whereunto ye people, with a
+      loud acclamation, wished her a most long and happy life to ye confusion of
+      her foes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, as the medals struck on the occasion said, &ldquo;It came, it saw, and it
+      fled!&rdquo; And whither? Away and northward, like a herd of frightened deer,
+      past the Orkneys and Shetlands, catching up a few hapless fishermen as
+      guides; past the coast of Norway, there, too, refused water and food by
+      the brave descendants of the Vikings; and on northward ever towards the
+      lonely Faroes, and the everlasting dawn which heralds round the Pole the
+      midnight sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their water is failing; the cattle must go overboard; and the wild
+      northern sea echoes to the shrieks of drowning horses. They must homeward
+      at least, somehow, each as best he can. Let them meet again at Cape
+      Finisterre, if indeed they ever meet. Medina Sidonia, with some five-and
+      twenty of the soundest and best victualled ships, will lead the way, and
+      leave the rest to their fate. He is soon out of sight; and forty more, the
+      only remnant of that mighty host, come wandering wearily behind, hoping to
+      make the south-west coast of Ireland, and have help, or, at least, fresh
+      water there, from their fellow Romanists. Alas for them!&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Make Thou their way dark and slippery,
+     And follow them up ever with Thy storm.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      For now comes up from the Atlantic, gale on gale; and few of that hapless
+      remnant reached the shores of Spain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And where are Amyas and the Vengeance all this while?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the fifty-seventh degree of latitude, the English fleet, finding
+      themselves growing short of provision, and having been long since out of
+      powder and ball, turn southward toward home, &ldquo;thinking it best to leave
+      the Spaniard to those uncouth and boisterous northern seas.&rdquo; A few
+      pinnaces are still sent onward to watch their course: and the English
+      fleet, caught in the same storms which scattered the Spaniards, &ldquo;with
+      great danger and industry reached Harwich port, and there provide
+      themselves of victuals and ammunition,&rdquo; in case the Spaniards should
+      return; but there is no need for that caution. Parma, indeed, who cannot
+      believe that the idol at Halle, after all his compliments to it, will play
+      him so scurvy a trick, will watch for weeks on Dunkirk dunes, hoping
+      against hope for the Armada's return, casting anchors, and spinning
+      rigging to repair their losses.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;But lang, lang may his ladies sit,
+     With their fans intill their hand,
+     Before they see Sir Patrick Spens
+     Come sailing to the land.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      The Armada is away on the other side of Scotland, and Amyas is following
+      in its wake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For when the lord high admiral determined to return, Amyas asked leave to
+      follow the Spaniard; and asked, too, of Sir John Hawkins, who happened to
+      be at hand, such ammunition and provision as could be afforded him,
+      promising to repay the same like an honest man, out of his plunder if he
+      lived, out of his estate if he died; lodging for that purpose bills in the
+      hands of Sir John, who, as a man of business, took them, and put them in
+      his pocket among the thimbles, string, and tobacco; after which Amyas,
+      calling his men together, reminded them once more of the story of the Rose
+      of Torridge and Don Guzman de Soto, and then asked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Men of Bideford, will you follow me? There will be plunder for those who
+      love plunder; revenge for those who love revenge; and for all of us (for
+      we all love honor) the honor of having never left the chase as long as
+      there was a Spanish flag in English seas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And every soul on board replied, that they would follow Sir Amyas Leigh
+      around the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no need for me to detail every incident of that long and weary
+      chase; how they found the Sta. Catharina, attacked her, and had to sheer
+      off, she being rescued by the rest; how when Medina's squadron left the
+      crippled ships behind, they were all but taken or sunk, by thrusting into
+      the midst of the Spanish fleet to prevent her escaping with Medina; how
+      they crippled her, so that she could not beat to windward out into the
+      ocean, but was fain to run south, past the Orkneys, and down through the
+      Minch, between Cape Wrath and Lewis; how the younger hands were ready to
+      mutiny, because Amyas, in his stubborn haste, ran past two or three noble
+      prizes which were all but disabled, among others one of the great
+      galliasses, and the two great Venetians, La Ratta and La Belanzara&mdash;which
+      were afterwards, with more than thirty other vessels, wrecked on the west
+      coast of Ireland; how he got fresh water, in spite of certain &ldquo;Hebridean
+      Scots&rdquo; of Skye, who, after reviling him in an unknown tongue, fought with
+      him awhile, and then embraced him and his men with howls of affection, and
+      were not much more decently clad, nor more civilized, than his old friends
+      of California; how he pacified his men by letting them pick the bones of a
+      great Venetian which was going on shore upon Islay (by which they got
+      booty enough to repay them for the whole voyage), and offended them again
+      by refusing to land and plunder two great Spanish wrecks on the Mull of
+      Cantire (whose crews, by the by, James tried to smuggle off secretly into
+      Spain in ships of his own, wishing to play, as usual, both sides of the
+      game at once; but the Spaniards were stopped at Yarmouth till the
+      council's pleasure was known&mdash;which was, of course, to let the poor
+      wretches go on their way, and be hanged elsewhere); how they passed a
+      strange island, half black, half white, which the wild people called
+      Raghary, but Cary christened it &ldquo;the drowned magpie;&rdquo; how the Sta.
+      Catharina was near lost on the Isle of Man, and then put into Castleton
+      (where the Manx-men slew a whole boat's-crew with their arrows), and then
+      put out again, when Amyas fought with her a whole day, and shot away her
+      mainyard; how the Spaniard blundered down the coast of Wales, not knowing
+      whither he went; how they were both nearly lost on Holyhead, and again on
+      Bardsey Island; how they got on a lee shore in Cardigan Bay, before a
+      heavy westerly gale, and the Sta. Catharina ran aground on Sarn David, one
+      of those strange subaqueous pebble-dykes which are said to be the remnants
+      of the lost land of Gwalior, destroyed by the carelessness of Prince
+      Seithenin the drunkard, at whose name each loyal Welshman spits; how she
+      got off again at the rising of the tide, and fought with Amyas a fourth
+      time; how the wind changed, and she got round St. David's Head;&mdash;these,
+      and many more moving incidents of this eventful voyage, I must pass over
+      without details, and go on to the end; for it is time that the end should
+      come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now the sixteenth day of the chase. They had seen, the evening
+      before, St. David's Head, and then the Welsh coast round Milford Haven,
+      looming out black and sharp before the blaze of the inland thunder-storm;
+      and it had lightened all round them during the fore part of the night,
+      upon a light south-western breeze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain they had strained their eyes through the darkness, to catch, by
+      the fitful glare of the flashes, the tall masts of the Spaniard. Of one
+      thing at least they were certain, that with the wind as it was, she could
+      not have gone far to the westward; and to attempt to pass them again, and
+      go northward, was more than she dare do. She was probably lying-to ahead
+      of them, perhaps between them and the land; and when, a little after
+      midnight, the wind chopped up to the west, and blew stiffly till day
+      break, they felt sure that, unless she had attempted the desperate
+      expedient of running past them, they had her safe in the mouth of the
+      Bristol Channel. Slowly and wearily broke the dawn, on such a day as often
+      follows heavy thunder; a sunless, drizzly day, roofed with low dingy
+      cloud, barred and netted, and festooned with black, a sign that the storm
+      is only taking breath awhile before it bursts again; while all the narrow
+      horizon is dim and spongy with vapor drifting before a chilly breeze. As
+      the day went on, the breeze died down, and the sea fell to a long glassy
+      foam-flecked roll, while overhead brooded the inky sky, and round them the
+      leaden mist shut out alike the shore and the chase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas paced the sloppy deck fretfully and fiercely. He knew that the
+      Spaniard could not escape; but he cursed every moment which lingered
+      between him and that one great revenge which blackened all his soul. The
+      men sate sulkily about the deck, and whistled for a wind; the sails
+      flapped idly against the masts; and the ship rolled in the long troughs of
+      the sea, till her yard-arms almost dipped right and left.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care of those guns. You will have something loose next,&rdquo; growled
+      Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We will take care of the guns, if the Lord will take care of the wind,&rdquo;
+       said Yeo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall have plenty before night,&rdquo; said Cary, &ldquo;and thunder too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much the better,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;It may roar till it splits the heavens,
+      if it does but let me get my work done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's not far off, I warrant,&rdquo; said Cary. &ldquo;One lift of the cloud, and we
+      should see him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To windward of us, as likely as not,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;The devil fights for
+      him, I believe. To have been on his heels sixteen days, and not sent this
+      through him yet!&rdquo; And he shook his sword impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the morning wore away, without a sign of living thing, not even a
+      passing gull; and the black melancholy of the heaven reflected itself in
+      the black melancholy of Amyas. Was he to lose his prey after all? The
+      thought made him shudder with rage and disappointment. It was intolerable.
+      Anything but that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, God!&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;let me but once feel this in his accursed heart, and
+      then&mdash;strike me dead, if Thou wilt!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Lord have mercy on us,&rdquo; cried John Brimblecombe. &ldquo;What have you
+      said?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that to you, sir? There, they are piping to dinner. Go down. I
+      shall not come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And Jack went down, and talked in a half-terrified whisper of Amyas's
+      ominous words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All thought that they portended some bad luck, except old Yeo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Sir John,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and why not? What better can the Lord do for a
+      man, than take him home when he has done his work? Our captain is wilful
+      and spiteful, and must needs kill his man himself; while for me, I don't
+      care how the Don goes, provided he does go. I owe him no grudge, nor any
+      man. May the Lord give him repentance, and forgive him all his sins: but
+      if I could but see him once safe ashore, as he may be ere nightfall, on
+      the Mortestone or the back of Lundy, I would say, 'Lord, now lettest Thou
+      Thy servant depart in peace,' even if it were the lightning which was sent
+      to fetch me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, master Yeo, a sudden death?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why not a sudden death, Sir John? Even fools long for a short life
+      and a merry one, and shall not the Lord's people pray for a short death
+      and a merry one? Let it come as it will to old Yeo. Hark! there's the
+      captain's voice!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here she is!&rdquo; thundered Amyas from the deck; and in an instant all were
+      scrambling up the hatchway as fast as the frantic rolling of the ship
+      would let them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes. There she was. The cloud had lifted suddenly, and to the south a
+      ragged bore of blue sky let a long stream of sunshine down on her tall
+      masts and stately hull, as she lay rolling some four or five miles to the
+      eastward: but as for land, none was to be seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There she is; and here we are,&rdquo; said Cary; &ldquo;but where is here? and where
+      is there? How is the tide, master?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Running up Channel by this time, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What matters the tide?&rdquo; said Amyas, devouring the ship with terrible and
+      cold blue eyes. &ldquo;Can't we get at her?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not unless some one jumps out and shoves behind,&rdquo; said Cary. &ldquo;I shall
+      down again and finish that mackerel, if this roll has not chucked it to
+      the cockroaches under the table.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't jest, Will! I can't stand it,&rdquo; said Amyas, in a voice which
+      quivered so much that Cary looked at him. His whole frame was trembling
+      like an aspen. Cary took his arm, and drew him aside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear old lad,&rdquo; said he, as they leaned over the bulwarks, &ldquo;what is this?
+      You are not yourself, and have not been these four days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I am not Amyas Leigh. I am my brother's avenger. Do not reason with
+      me, Will: when it is over I shall be merry old Amyas again,&rdquo; and he passed
+      his hand over his brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you believe,&rdquo; said he, after a moment, &ldquo;that men can be possessed by
+      devils?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Bible says so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If my cause were not a just one, I should fancy I had a devil in me. My
+      throat and heart are as hot as the pit. Would to God it were done, for
+      done it must be! Now go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary went away with a shudder. As he passed down the hatchway he looked
+      back. Amyas had got the hone out of his pocket, and was whetting away
+      again at his sword-edge, as if there was some dreadful doom on him, to
+      whet, and whet forever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The weary day wore on. The strip of blue sky was curtained over again, and
+      all was dismal as before, though it grew sultrier every moment; and now
+      and then a distant mutter shook the air to westward. Nothing could be done
+      to lessen the distance between the ships, for the Vengeance had had all
+      her boats carried away but one, and that was much too small to tow her:
+      and while the men went down again to finish dinner, Amyas worked on at his
+      sword, looking up every now and then suddenly at the Spaniard, as if to
+      satisfy himself that it was not a vision which had vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About two Yeo came up to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is ours safely now, sir. The tide has been running to the eastward for
+      this two hours.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Safe as a fox in a trap. Satan himself cannot take him from us!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But God may,&rdquo; said Brimblecombe, simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who spoke to you, sir? If I thought that He&mdash;There comes the thunder
+      at last!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And as he spoke an angry growl from the westward heavens seemed to answer
+      his wild words, and rolled and loudened nearer and nearer, till right over
+      their heads it crashed against some cloud-cliff far above, and all was
+      still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each man looked in the other's face: but Amyas was unmoved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The storm is coming,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and the wind in it. It will be
+      Eastward-ho now, for once, my merry men all!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eastward-ho never brought us luck,&rdquo; said Jack in an undertone to Cary.
+      But by this time all eyes were turned to the north-west, where a black
+      line along the horizon began to define the boundary of sea and air, till
+      now all dim in mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There comes the breeze.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And there the storm, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And with that strangely accelerating pace which some storms seem to
+      possess, the thunder, which had been growling slow and seldom far away,
+      now rang peal on peal along the cloudy floor above their heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here comes the breeze. Round with the yards, or we shall be taken aback.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The yards creaked round; the sea grew crisp around them; the hot air swept
+      their cheeks, tightened every rope, filled every sail, bent her over. A
+      cheer burst from the men as the helm went up, and they staggered away
+      before the wind, right down upon the Spaniard, who lay still becalmed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is more behind, Amyas,&rdquo; said Cary. &ldquo;Shall we not shorten sail a
+      little?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. Hold on every stitch,&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;Give me the helm, man. Boatswain,
+      pipe away to clear for fight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was done, and in ten minutes the men were all at quarters, while the
+      thunder rolled louder and louder overhead, and the breeze freshened fast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The dog has it now. There he goes!&rdquo; said Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right before the wind. He has no liking to face us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is running into the jaws of destruction,&rdquo; said Yeo. &ldquo;An hour more will
+      send him either right up the Channel, or smack on shore somewhere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There! he has put his helm down. I wonder if he sees land?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is like a March hare beat out of his country,&rdquo; said Cary, &ldquo;and don't
+      know whither to run next.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary was right. In ten minutes more the Spaniard fell off again, and went
+      away dead down wind, while the Vengeance gained on him fast. After two
+      hours more, the four miles had diminished to one, while the lightning
+      flashed nearer and nearer as the storm came up; and from the vast mouth of
+      a black cloud-arch poured so fierce a breeze that Amyas yielded
+      unwillingly to hints which were growing into open murmurs, and bade
+      shorten sail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On they rushed with scarcely lessened speed, the black arch following
+      fast, curtained by the flat gray sheet of pouring rain, before which the
+      water was boiling in a long white line; while every moment behind the
+      watery veil, a keen blue spark leapt down into the sea, or darted zigzag
+      through the rain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall have it now, and with a vengeance; this will try your tackle,
+      master,&rdquo; said Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The functionary answered with a shrug, and turned up the collar of his
+      rough frock, as the first drops flew stinging round his ears. Another
+      minute and the squall burst full upon them, in rain, which cut like hail&mdash;hail
+      which lashed the sea into froth, and wind which whirled off the heads of
+      the surges, and swept the waters into one white seething waste. And above
+      them, and behind them and before them, the lightning leapt and ran,
+      dazzling and blinding, while the deep roar of the thunder was changed to
+      sharp ear-piercing cracks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get the arms and ammunition under cover, and then below with you all,&rdquo;
+       shouted Amyas from the helm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And heat the pokers in the galley fire,&rdquo; said Yeo, &ldquo;to be ready if the
+      rain puts our linstocks out. I hope you'll let me stay on deck, sir, in
+      case&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must have some one, and who better than you? Can you see the chase?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No; she was wrapped in the gray whirlwind. She might be within half a mile
+      of them, for aught they could have seen of her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now Amyas and his old liegeman were alone. Neither spoke; each knew
+      the other's thoughts, and knew that they were his own. The squall blew
+      fiercer and fiercer, the rain poured heavier and heavier. Where was the
+      Spaniard?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he has laid-to, we may overshoot him, sir!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he has tried to lay-to, he will not have a sail left in the
+      bolt-ropes, or perhaps a mast on deck. I know the stiff-neckedness of
+      those Spanish tubs. Hurrah! there he is, right on our larboard bow!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There she was indeed, two musket-shots' off, staggering away with canvas
+      split and flying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has been trying to hull, sir, and caught a buffet,&rdquo; said Yeo, rubbing
+      his hands. &ldquo;What shall we do now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Range alongside, if it blow live imps and witches, and try our luck once
+      more. Pah! how this lightning dazzles!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On they swept, gaining fast on the Spaniard. &ldquo;Call the men up, and to
+      quarters; the rain will be over in ten minutes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yeo ran forward to the gangway; and sprang back again, with a face white
+      and wild&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Land right ahead! Port your helm, sir! For the love of God, port your
+      helm!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas, with the strength of a bull, jammed the helm down, while Yeo
+      shouted to the men below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She swung round. The masts bent like whips; crack went the fore-sail like
+      a cannon. What matter? Within two hundred yards of them was the Spaniard;
+      in front of her, and above her, a huge dark bank rose through the dense
+      hail, and mingled with the clouds; and at its foot, plainer every moment,
+      pillars and spouts of leaping foam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, Morte? Hartland?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It might be anything for thirty miles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lundy!&rdquo; said Yeo. &ldquo;The south end! I see the head of the Shutter in the
+      breakers! Hard a-port yet, and get her close-hauled as you can, and the
+      Lord may have mercy on us still! Look at the Spaniard!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, look at the Spaniard!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On their left hand, as they broached-to, the wall of granite sloped down
+      from the clouds toward an isolated peak of rock, some two hundred feet in
+      height. Then a hundred yards of roaring breaker upon a sunken shelf,
+      across which the race of the tide poured like a cataract; then, amid a
+      column of salt smoke, the Shutter, like a huge black fang, rose waiting
+      for its prey; and between the Shutter and the land, the great galleon
+      loomed dimly through the storm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He, too, had seen his danger, and tried to broach-to. But his clumsy mass
+      refused to obey the helm; he struggled a moment, half hid in foam; fell
+      away again, and rushed upon his doom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lost! lost! lost!&rdquo; cried Amyas madly, and throwing up his hands, let go
+      the tiller. Yeo caught it just in time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir! sir! What are you at? We shall clear the rock yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes!&rdquo; shouted Amyas, in his frenzy; &ldquo;but he will not!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another minute. The galleon gave a sudden jar, and stopped. Then one long
+      heave and bound, as if to free herself. And then her bows lighted clean
+      upon the Shutter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An awful silence fell on every English soul. They heard not the roaring of
+      wind and surge; they saw not the blinding flashes of the lightning; but
+      they heard one long ear-piercing wail to every saint in heaven rise from
+      five hundred human throats; they saw the mighty ship heel over from the
+      wind, and sweep headlong down the cataract of the race, plunging her yards
+      into the foam, and showing her whole black side even to her keel, till she
+      rolled clean over, and vanished for ever and ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shame!&rdquo; cried Amyas, hurling his sword far into the sea, &ldquo;to lose my
+      right, my right! when it was in my very grasp! Unmerciful!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A crack which rent the sky, and made the granite ring and quiver; a bright
+      world of flame, and then a blank of utter darkness, against which stood
+      out, glowing red-hot every mast, and sail, and rock, and Salvation Yeo as
+      he stood just in front of Amyas, the tiller in his hand. All red-hot,
+      transfigured into fire; and behind, the black, black night.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      A whisper, a rustling close beside him, and Brimblecombe's voice said
+      softly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give him more wine, Will; his eyes are opening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hey day?&rdquo; said Amyas, faintly, &ldquo;not past the Shutter yet! How long she
+      hangs in the wind!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are long past the Shutter, Sir Amyas,&rdquo; said Brimblecombe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you mad? Cannot I trust my own eyes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no answer for awhile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are past the Shutter, indeed,&rdquo; said Cary, very gently, &ldquo;and lying in
+      the cove at Lundy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you tell me that that is not the Shutter, and that the
+      Devil's-limekiln, and that the cliff&mdash;that villain Spaniard only gone&mdash;and
+      that Yeo is not standing here by me, and Cary there forward, and&mdash;why,
+      by the by, where are you, Jack Brimblecombe, who were talking to me this
+      minute?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Sir Amyas Leigh, dear Sir Amyas Leigh,&rdquo; blubbered poor Jack, &ldquo;put out
+      your hand, and feel where you are, and pray the Lord to forgive you for
+      your wilfulness!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A great trembling fell upon Amyas Leigh; half fearfully he put out his
+      hand; he felt that he was in his hammock, with the deck beams close above
+      his head. The vision which had been left upon his eye-balls vanished like
+      a dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is this? I must be asleep? What has happened? Where am I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In your cabin, Amyas,&rdquo; said Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What? And where is Yeo?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yeo is gone where he longed to go, and as he longed to go. The same flash
+      which struck you down, struck him dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dead? Lightning? Any more hurt? I must go and see. Why, what is this?&rdquo;
+       and Amyas passed his hand across his eyes. &ldquo;It is all dark&mdash;dark, as
+      I live!&rdquo; And he passed his hand over his eyes again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was another dead silence. Amyas broke it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, God!&rdquo; shrieked the great proud sea-captain, &ldquo;Oh, God, I am blind!
+      blind! blind!&rdquo; And writhing in his great horror, he called to Cary to kill
+      him and put him out of his misery, and then wailed for his mother to come
+      and help him, as if he had been a boy once more; while Brimblecombe and
+      Cary, and the sailors who crowded round the cabin-door, wept as if they
+      too had been boys once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon his fit of frenzy passed off, and he sank back exhausted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They lifted him into their remaining boat, rowed him ashore, carried him
+      painfully up the hill to the old castle, and made a bed for him on the
+      floor, in the very room in which Don Guzman and Rose Salterne had plighted
+      their troth to each other, five wild years before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three miserable days were passed within that lonely tower. Amyas, utterly
+      unnerved by the horror of his misfortune, and by the over-excitement of
+      the last few weeks, was incessantly delirious; while Cary, and
+      Brimblecombe, and the men nursed him by turns, as sailors and wives only
+      can nurse; and listened with awe to his piteous self-reproaches and
+      entreaties to Heaven to remove that woe, which, as he shrieked again and
+      again, was a just judgment on him for his wilfulness and ferocity. The
+      surgeon talked, of course, learnedly about melancholic humors, and his
+      liver's being &ldquo;adust by the over-pungency of the animal spirits,&rdquo; and then
+      fell back on the universal panacea of blood-letting, which he effected
+      with fear and trembling during a short interval of prostration; encouraged
+      by which he attempted to administer a large bolus of aloes, was knocked
+      down for his pains, and then thought it better to leave Nature to her own
+      work. In the meanwhile, Cary had sent off one of the island skiffs to
+      Clovelly, with letters to his father, and to Mrs. Leigh, entreating the
+      latter to come off to the island: but the heavy westerly winds made that
+      as impossible as it was to move Amyas on board, and the men had to do
+      their best, and did it well enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the fourth day his raving ceased: but he was still too weak to be
+      moved. Toward noon, however, he called for food, ate a little, and seemed
+      revived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will,&rdquo; he said, after awhile, &ldquo;this room is as stifling as it is dark. I
+      feel as if I should be a sound man once more if I could but get one snuff
+      of the sea-breeze.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The surgeon shook his head at the notion of moving him: but Amyas was
+      peremptory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am captain still, Tom Surgeon, and will sail for the Indies, if I
+      choose. Will Cary, Jack Brimblecombe, will you obey a blind general?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What you will in reason,&rdquo; said they both at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then lead me out, my masters, and over the down to the south end. To the
+      point at the south end I must go; there is no other place will suit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he rose firmly to his feet, and held out his hands for theirs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him have his humor,&rdquo; whispered Cary. &ldquo;It may be the working off of
+      his madness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This sudden strength is a note of fresh fever, Mr. Lieutenant,&rdquo; said the
+      surgeon, &ldquo;and the rules of the art prescribe rather a fresh
+      blood-letting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amyas overheard the last word, and broke out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou pig-sticking Philistine, wilt thou make sport with blind Samson?
+      Come near me to let blood from my arm, and see if I do not let blood from
+      thy coxcomb. Catch him, Will, and bring him me here!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The surgeon vanished as the blind giant made a step forward; and they set
+      forth, Amyas walking slowly, but firmly, between his two friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whither?&rdquo; asked Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To the south end. The crag above the Devil's-limekiln. No other place
+      will suit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack gave a murmur, and half-stopped, as a frightful suspicion crossed
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a dangerous place!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What of that?&rdquo; said Amyas, who caught his meaning in his tone. &ldquo;Dost
+      think I am going to leap over cliff? I have not heart enough for that. On,
+      lads, and set me safe among the rocks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So slowly, and painfully, they went on, while Amyas murmured to himself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no other place will suit; I can see all thence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So on they went to the point, where the cyclopean wall of granite cliff
+      which forms the western side of Lundy, ends sheer in a precipice of some
+      three hundred feet, topped by a pile of snow-white rock, bespangled with
+      golden lichens. As they approached, a raven, who sat upon the topmost
+      stone, black against the bright blue sky, flapped lazily away, and sank
+      down the abysses of the cliff, as if he scented the corpses underneath the
+      surge. Below them from the Gull-rock rose a thousand birds, and filled the
+      air with sound; the choughs cackled, the hacklets wailed, the great
+      blackbacks laughed querulous defiance at the intruders, and a single
+      falcon, with an angry bark, dashed out from beneath their feet, and hung
+      poised high aloft, watching the sea-fowl which swung slowly round and
+      round below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a glorious sight upon a glorious day. To the northward the glens
+      rushed down toward the cliff, crowned with gray crags, and carpeted with
+      purple heather and green fern; and from their feet stretched away to the
+      westward the sapphire rollers of the vast Atlantic, crowned with a
+      thousand crests of flying foam. On their left hand, some ten miles to the
+      south, stood out against the sky the purple wall of Hartland cliffs,
+      sinking lower and lower as they trended away to the southward along the
+      lonely ironbound shores of Cornwall, until they faded, dim and blue, into
+      the blue horizon forty miles away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sky was flecked with clouds, which rushed toward them fast upon the
+      roaring south-west wind; and the warm ocean-breeze swept up the cliffs,
+      and whistled through the heather-bells, and howled in cranny and in crag,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Till the pillars and clefts of the granite
+        Rang like a God-swept lyre;&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      while Amyas, a proud smile upon his lips, stood breasting that genial
+      stream of airy wine with swelling nostrils and fast-heaving chest, and
+      seemed to drink in life from every gust. All three were silent for awhile;
+      and Jack and Cary, gazing downward with delight upon the glory and the
+      grandeur of the sight, forgot for awhile that their companion saw it not.
+      Yet when they started sadly, and looked into his face, did he not see it?
+      So wide and eager were his eyes, so bright and calm his face, that they
+      fancied for an instant that he was once more even as they.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A deep sigh undeceived them. &ldquo;I know it is all here&mdash;the dear old
+      sea, where I would live and die. And my eyes feel for it; feel for it&mdash;and
+      cannot find it; never, never will find it again forever! God's will be
+      done!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you say that?&rdquo; asked Brimblecombe, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should I not? Why have I been raving in hell-fire for I know not how
+      many days, but to find out that, John Brimblecombe, thou better man than
+      I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that last: but Amen! Amen! and the Lord has indeed had mercy upon
+      thee!&rdquo; said Jack, through his honest tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen!&rdquo; said Amyas. &ldquo;Now set me where I can rest among the rocks without
+      fear of falling&mdash;for life is sweet still, even without eyes, friends&mdash;and
+      leave me to myself awhile.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was no easy matter to find a safe place; for from the foot of the crag
+      the heathery turf slopes down all but upright, on one side to a cliff
+      which overhangs a shoreless cove of deep dark sea, and on the other to an
+      abyss even more hideous, where the solid rock has sunk away, and opened
+      inland in the hillside a smooth-walled pit, some sixty feet square and
+      some hundred and fifty in depth, aptly known then as now, as the
+      Devil's-limekiln; the mouth of which, as old wives say, was once closed by
+      the Shutter-rock itself, till the fiend in malice hurled it into the sea,
+      to be a pest to mariners. A narrow and untrodden cavern at the bottom
+      connects it with the outer sea; they could even then hear the mysterious
+      thunder and gurgle of the surge in the subterranean adit, as it rolled
+      huge boulders to and fro in darkness, and forced before it gusts of
+      pent-up air. It was a spot to curdle weak blood, and to make weak heads
+      reel: but all the fitter on that account for Amyas and his fancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can sit here as in an arm-chair,&rdquo; said Cary, helping him down to one
+      of those square natural seats so common in the granite tors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good; now turn my face to the Shutter. Be sure and exact. So. Do I face
+      it full?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Full,&rdquo; said Cary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I need no eyes wherewith to see what is before me,&rdquo; said he, with a
+      sad smile. &ldquo;I know every stone and every headland, and every wave too, I
+      may say, far beyond aught that eye can reach. Now go, and leave me alone
+      with God and with the dead!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They retired a little space and watched him. He never stirred for many
+      minutes; then leaned his elbows on his knees, and his head upon his hands,
+      and so was still again. He remained so long thus, that the pair became
+      anxious, and went towards him. He was asleep, and breathing quick and
+      heavily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He will take a fever,&rdquo; said Brimblecombe, &ldquo;if he sleeps much longer with
+      his head down in the sunshine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must wake him gently if we wake him at all.&rdquo; And Cary moved forward to
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he did so, Amyas lifted his head, and turning it to right and left,
+      felt round him with his sightless eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been asleep, Amyas.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have I? I have not slept back my eyes, then. Take up this great useless
+      carcase of mine, and lead me home. I shall buy me a dog when I get to
+      Burrough, I think, and make him tow me in a string, eh? So! Give me your
+      hand. Now march!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His guides heard with surprise this new cheerfulness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank God, sir, that your heart is so light already,&rdquo; said good Jack; &ldquo;it
+      makes me feel quite upraised myself, like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have reason to be cheerful, Sir John; I have left a heavy load behind
+      me. I have been wilful, and proud, and a blasphemer, and swollen with
+      cruelty and pride; and God has brought me low for it, and cut me off from
+      my evil delight. No more Spaniard-hunting for me now, my masters. God will
+      send no such fools as I upon His errands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not repent of fighting the Spaniards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not I: but of hating even the worst of them. Listen to me, Will and Jack.
+      If that man wronged me, I wronged him likewise. I have been a fiend when I
+      thought myself the grandest of men, yea, a very avenging angel out of
+      heaven. But God has shown me my sin, and we have made up our quarrel
+      forever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Made it up?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Made it up, thank God. But I am weary. Set me down awhile, and I will
+      tell you how it befell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Wondering, they set him down upon the heather, while the bees hummed round
+      them in the sun; and Amyas felt for a hand of each, and clasped it in his
+      own hand, and began:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When you left me there upon the rock, lads, I looked away and out to sea,
+      to get one last snuff of the merry sea-breeze, which will never sail me
+      again. And as I looked, I tell you truth, I could see the water and the
+      sky; as plain as ever I saw them, till I thought my sight was come again.
+      But soon I knew it was not so; for I saw more than man could see; right
+      over the ocean, as I live, and away to the Spanish Main. And I saw
+      Barbados, and Grenada, and all the isles that we ever sailed by; and La
+      Guayra in Caracas, and the Silla, and the house beneath it where she
+      lived. And I saw him walking with her on the barbecue, and he loved her
+      then. I saw what I saw; and he loved her; and I say he loves her still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I saw the cliffs beneath me, and the Gull-rock, and the Shutter, and
+      the Ledge; I saw them, William Cary, and the weeds beneath the merry blue
+      sea. And I saw the grand old galleon, Will; she has righted with the
+      sweeping of the tide. She lies in fifteen fathoms, at the edge of the
+      rocks, upon the sand; and her men are all lying around her, asleep until
+      the judgment-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cary and Jack looked at him, and then at each other. His eyes were clear,
+      and bright, and full of meaning; and yet they knew that he was blind. His
+      voice was shaping itself into a song. Was he inspired? Insane? What was
+      it? And they listened with awe-struck faces, as the giant pointed down
+      into the blue depths far below, and went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I saw him sitting in his cabin, like a valiant gentleman of Spain;
+      and his officers were sitting round him, with their swords upon the table
+      at the wine. And the prawns and the crayfish and the rockling, they swam
+      in and out above their heads: but Don Guzman he never heeded, but sat
+      still, and drank his wine. Then he took a locket from his bosom; and I
+      heard him speak, Will, and he said: 'Here's the picture of my fair and
+      true lady; drink to her, senors all.' Then he spoke to me, Will, and
+      called me, right up through the oar-weed and the sea: 'We have had a fair
+      quarrel, senor; it is time to be friends once more. My wife and your
+      brother have forgiven me; so your honor takes no stain.' And I answered,
+      'We are friends, Don Guzman; God has judged our quarrel and not we.' Then
+      he said, 'I sinned, and I am punished.' And I said, 'And, senor, so am I.'
+      Then he held out his hand to me, Cary; and I stooped to take it, and
+      awoke.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He ceased: and they looked in his face again. It was exhausted, but clear
+      and gentle, like the face of a new-born babe. Gradually his head dropped
+      upon his breast again; he was either swooning or sleeping, and they had
+      much ado to get him home. There he lay for eight-and-forty hours, in a
+      quiet doze; then arose suddenly, called for food, ate heartily, and
+      seemed, saving his eyesight, as whole and sound as ever. The surgeon bade
+      them get him home to Northam as soon as possible, and he was willing
+      enough to go. So the next day the Vengeance sailed, leaving behind a dozen
+      men to seize and keep in the queen's name any goods which should be washed
+      up from the wreck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0033" id="link2HCH0033">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXXIII
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      HOW AMYAS LET THE APPLE FALL
+    </h3>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Would you hear a Spanish lady,
+       How she woo'd an Englishman?
+     Garments gay and rich as may be,
+        Deck'd with jewels had she on.&rdquo;
+
+                   Elizabethan Ballad.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was the first of October. The morning was bright and still; the skies
+      were dappled modestly from east to west with soft gray autumn cloud, as if
+      all heaven and earth were resting after those fearful summer months of
+      battle and of storm. Silently, as if ashamed and sad, the Vengeance slid
+      over the bar, and passed the sleeping sand-hills and dropped her anchor
+      off Appledore, with her flag floating half-mast high; for the corpse of
+      Salvation Yeo was on board.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A boat pulled off from the ship, and away to the western end of the
+      strand; and Cary and Brimblecombe helped out Amyas Leigh, and led him
+      slowly up the hill toward his home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The crowd clustered round him, with cheers and blessings, and sobs of pity
+      from kind-hearted women; for all in Appledore and Bideford knew well by
+      this time what had befallen him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spare me, my good friends,&rdquo; said Amyas, &ldquo;I have landed here that I might
+      go quietly home, without passing through the town, and being made a
+      gazing-stock. Think not of me, good folks, nor talk of me; but come behind
+      me decently, as Christian men, and follow to the grave the body of a
+      better man than I.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, as he spoke, another boat came off, and in it, covered with the flag
+      of England, the body of Salvation Yeo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The people took Amyas at his word; and a man was sent on to Burrough, to
+      tell Mrs. Leigh that her son was coming. When the coffin was landed and
+      lifted, Amyas and his friends took their places behind it as chief
+      mourners, and the crew followed in order, while the crowd fell in behind
+      them, and gathered every moment; till ere they were halfway to Northam
+      town, the funeral train might number full five hundred souls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had sent over by a fishing-skiff the day before to bid the sexton dig
+      the grave; and when they came into the churchyard, the parson stood ready
+      waiting at the gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Leigh stayed quietly at home; for she had no heart to face the crowd;
+      and though her heart yearned for her son, yet she was well content (when
+      was she not content?) that he should do honor to his ancient and faithful
+      servant; so she sat down in the bay-window, with Ayacanora by her side;
+      and when the tolling of the bell ceased, she opened her Prayer-book, and
+      began to read the Burial-service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ayacanora,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;they are burying old Master Yeo, who loved you,
+      and sought you over the wide, wide world, and saved you from the teeth of
+      the crocodile. Are you not sorry for him, child, that you look so gay
+      to-day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ayacanora blushed, and hung down her head; she was thinking of nothing,
+      poor child, but Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Burial-service was done; the blessing said; the parson drew back: but
+      the people lingered and crowded round to look at the coffin, while Amyas
+      stood still at the head of the grave. It had been dug by his command, at
+      the west end of the church, near by the foot of the tall gray windswept
+      tower, which watches for a beacon far and wide over land and sea. Perhaps
+      the old man might like to look at the sea, and see the ships come out and
+      in across the bar, and hear the wind, on winter nights, roar through the
+      belfry far above his head. Why not? It was but a fancy: and yet Amyas felt
+      that he too should like to be buried in such a place; so Yeo might like it
+      also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still the crowd lingered; and looked first at the grave and then at the
+      blind giant who stood over it, as if they felt, by instinct, that
+      something more ought to come. And something more did come. Amyas drew
+      himself up to his full height, and waved his hand majestically, as one
+      about to speak; while the eyes of all men were fastened on him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Twice he essayed to begin; and twice the words were choked upon his lips;
+      and then,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good people all, and seamen, among whom I was bred, and to whom I come
+      home blind this day, to dwell with you till death&mdash;Here lieth the
+      flower and pattern of all bold mariners; the truest of friends, and the
+      most terrible of foes; unchangeable of purpose, crafty of council, and
+      swift of execution; in triumph most sober, in failure (as God knows I have
+      found full many a day) of endurance beyond mortal man. Who first of all
+      Britons helped to humble the pride of the Spaniard at Rio de la Hacha and
+      Nombre, and first of all sailed upon those South Seas, which shall be
+      hereafter, by God's grace, as free to English keels as is the bay outside.
+      Who having afterwards been purged from his youthful sins by strange
+      afflictions and torments unspeakable, suffered at the hands of the Popish
+      enemy, learned therefrom, my masters, to fear God, and to fear naught
+      else; and having acquitted himself worthily in his place and calling as a
+      righteous scourge of the Spaniard, and a faithful soldier of the Lord
+      Jesus Christ, is now exalted to his reward, as Elijah was of old, in a
+      chariot of fire unto heaven: letting fall, I trust and pray, upon you who
+      are left behind the mantle of his valor and his godliness, that so these
+      shores may never be without brave and pious mariners, who will count their
+      lives as worthless in the cause of their Country, their Bible, and their
+      Queen. Amen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And feeling for his companions' hands he walked slowly from the
+      churchyard, and across the village street, and up the lane to Burrough
+      gates; while the crowd made way for him in solemn silence, as for an awful
+      being, shut up alone with all his strength, valor, and fame, in the dark
+      prison-house of his mysterious doom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He seemed to know perfectly when they had reached the gates, opened the
+      lock with his own hands, and went boldly forward along the gravel path,
+      while Cary and Brimblecombe followed him trembling; for they expected some
+      violent burst of emotion, either from him or his mother, and the two good
+      fellows' tender hearts were fluttering like a girl's. Up to the door he
+      went, as if he had seen it; felt for the entrance, stood therein, and
+      called quietly, &ldquo;Mother!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In a moment his mother was on his bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither spoke for awhile. She sobbing inwardly, with tearless eyes, he
+      standing firm and cheerful, with his great arms clasped around her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mother!&rdquo; he said at last, &ldquo;I am come home, you see, because I needs must
+      come. Will you take me in, and look after this useless carcase? I shall
+      not be so very troublesome, mother,&mdash;shall I?&rdquo; and he looked down,
+      and smiled upon her, and kissed her brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She answered not a word, but passed her arm gently round his waist, and
+      led him in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care of your head, dear child, the doors are low.&rdquo; And they went in
+      together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will! Jack!&rdquo; called Amyas, turning round: but the two good fellows had
+      walked briskly off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm glad we are away,&rdquo; said Cary; &ldquo;I should have made a baby of myself in
+      another minute, watching that angel of a woman. How her face worked and
+      how she kept it in!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, well!&rdquo; said Jack, &ldquo;there goes a brave servant of the queen's cut off
+      before his work was a quarter done. Heigho! I must home now, and see my
+      old father, and then&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then home with me,&rdquo; said Cary. &ldquo;You and I never part again! We have
+      pulled in the same boat too long, Jack; and you must not go spending your
+      prize-money in riotous living. I must see after you, old Jack ashore, or
+      we shall have you treating half the town in taverns for a week to come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Cary!&rdquo; said Jack, scandalized.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come home with me, and we'll poison the parson, and my father shall give
+      you the rectory.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Cary!&rdquo; said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the two went off to Clovelly together that very day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Amyas was sitting all alone. His mother had gone out for a few minutes
+      to speak to the seamen who had brought up Amyas's luggage, and set them
+      down to eat and drink; and Amyas sat in the old bay-window, where he had
+      sat when he was a little tiny boy, and read &ldquo;King Arthur,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Fox's
+      Martyrs,&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Cruelties of the Spaniards.&rdquo; He put out his hand and
+      felt for them; there they lay side by side, just as they had lain twenty
+      years before. The window was open; and a cool air brought in as of old the
+      scents of the four-season roses, and rosemary, and autumn gilliflowers.
+      And there was a dish of apples on the table: he knew it by their smell;
+      the very same old apples which he used to gather when he was a boy. He put
+      out his hand, and took them, and felt them over, and played with them,
+      just as if the twenty years had never been: and as he fingered them, the
+      whole of his past life rose up before him, as in that strange dream which
+      is said to flash across the imagination of a drowning man; and he saw all
+      the places which he had ever seen, and heard all the words which had ever
+      been spoken to him&mdash;till he came to that fairy island on the Meta;
+      and he heard the roar of the cataract once more, and saw the green tops of
+      the palm-trees sleeping in the sunlight far above the spray, and stept
+      amid the smooth palm-trunks across the flower-fringed boulders, and leaped
+      down to the gravel beach beside the pool: and then again rose from the
+      fern-grown rocks the beautiful vision of Ayacanora&mdash;Where was she? He
+      had not thought of her till now. How he had wronged her! Let be; he had
+      been punished, and the account was squared. Perhaps she did not care for
+      him any longer. Who would care for a great blind ox like him, who must be
+      fed and tended like a baby for the rest of his lazy life? Tut! How long
+      his mother was away! And he began playing again with his apples, and
+      thought about nothing but them, and his climbs with Frank in the orchard
+      years ago.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last one of them slipt through his fingers, and fell on the floor. He
+      stooped and felt for it: but he could not find it. Vexatious! He turned
+      hastily to search in another direction, and struck his head sharply
+      against the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Was it the pain, or the little disappointment? or was it the sense of his
+      blindness brought home to him in that ludicrous commonplace way, and for
+      that very reason all the more humiliating? or was it the sudden revulsion
+      of overstrained nerves, produced by that slight shock? Or had he become
+      indeed a child once more? I know not; but so it was, that he stamped on
+      the floor with pettishness, and then checking himself, burst into a
+      violent flood of tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A quick rustle passed him; the apple was replaced in his hand, and
+      Ayacanora's voice sobbed out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There! there it is! Do not weep! Oh, do not weep! I cannot bear it! I
+      will get you all you want! Only let me fetch and carry for you, tend you,
+      feed you, lead you, like your slave, your dog! Say that I may be your
+      slave!&rdquo; and falling on her knees at his feet, she seized both his hands,
+      and covered them with kisses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes!&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;I will be your slave! I must be! You cannot help it!
+      You cannot escape from me now! You cannot go to sea! You cannot turn your
+      back upon wretched me. I have you safe now! Safe!&rdquo; and she clutched his
+      hands triumphantly. &ldquo;Ah! and what a wretch I am, to rejoice in that! to
+      taunt him with his blindness! Oh, forgive me! I am but a poor wild girl&mdash;a
+      wild Indian savage, you know: but&mdash;but&mdash;&rdquo; and she burst into
+      tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great spasm shook the body and soul of Amyas Leigh; he sat quite silent
+      for a minute, and then said solemnly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And is this still possible? Then God have mercy upon me a sinner!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ayacanora looked up in his face inquiringly: but before she could speak
+      again, he had bent down, and lifting her as the lion lifts the lamb,
+      pressed her to his bosom, and covered her face with kisses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened. There was the rustle of a gown; Ayacanora sprang from him
+      with a little cry, and stood, half-trembling, half-defiant, as if to say,
+      &ldquo;He is mine now; no one dare part him from me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is it?&rdquo; asked Amyas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see that I am bringing forth fruits meet for repentance, mother,&rdquo;
+       said he, with a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He heard her approach. Then a kiss and a sob passed between the women; and
+      he felt Ayacanora sink once more upon his bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amyas, my son,&rdquo; said the silver voice of Mrs. Leigh, low, dreamy, like
+      the far-off chimes of angels' bells from out the highest heaven, &ldquo;fear not
+      to take her to your heart again; for it is your mother who has laid her
+      there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is true, after all,&rdquo; said Amyas to himself. &ldquo;What God has joined
+      together, man cannot put asunder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      From that hour Ayacanora's power of song returned to her; and day by day,
+      year after year, her voice rose up within that happy home, and soared, as
+      on a skylark's wings, into the highest heaven, bearing with it the
+      peaceful thoughts of the blind giant back to the Paradises of the West, in
+      the wake of the heroes who from that time forth sailed out to colonize
+      another and a vaster England, to the heaven-prospered cry of Westward-Ho!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Westward Ho!, by Charles Kingsley
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
+
diff --git a/1860.txt b/1860.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7b9596
--- /dev/null
+++ b/1860.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,27703 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Westward Ho!, by Charles Kingsley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Westward Ho!
+
+Author: Charles Kingsley
+
+Release Date: May 13, 2006 [EBook #1860]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WESTWARD HO! ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Donald Lainson
+
+
+
+
+
+WESTWARD HO!
+
+
+by Charles Kingsley
+
+
+
+TO
+
+THE RAJAH SIR JAMES BROOKE, K.C.B.
+
+AND
+
+GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, D.D.
+
+BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND
+
+
+THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
+
+
+By one who (unknown to them) has no other method of expressing his
+admiration and reverence for their characters.
+
+That type of English virtue, at once manful and godly, practical and
+enthusiastic, prudent and self-sacrificing, which he has tried to depict
+in these pages, they have exhibited in a form even purer and more
+heroic than that in which he has drest it, and than that in which it was
+exhibited by the worthies whom Elizabeth, without distinction of rank or
+age, gathered round her in the ever glorious wars of her great reign.
+
+C. K.
+
+FEBRUARY, 1855.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+I.     HOW MR. OXENHAM SAW THE WHITE BIRD
+
+II.    HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE FIRST TIME
+
+III.   OF TWO GENTLEMEN OF WALES, AND HOW THEY HUNTED WITH THE HOUNDS, AND
+           YET RAN WITH THE DEER
+
+IV.    THE TWO WAYS OF BEING CROST IN LOVE
+
+V.     CLOVELLY COURT IN THE OLDEN TIME
+
+VI.    THE COMBES OF THE FAR WEST
+
+VII.   THE TRUE AND TRAGICAL HISTORY OF MR. JOHN OXENHAM OF PLYMOUTH
+
+VIII.  HOW THE NOBLE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE WAS FOUNDED
+
+IX.    HOW AMYAS KEPT HIS CHRISTMAS DAY
+
+X.     HOW THE MAYOR OF BIDEFORD BAITED HIS HOOK WITH HIS OWN FLESH
+
+XI.    HOW EUSTACE LEIGH MET THE POPE'S LEGATE
+
+XII.   HOW BIDEFORD BRIDGE DINED AT ANNERY HOUSE
+
+XIII.  HOW THE GOLDEN HIND CAME HOME AGAIN
+
+XIV.   HOW SALVATION YEO SLEW THE KING OF THE GUBBINGS
+
+XV.    HOW MR. JOHN BRIMBLECOMBE UNDERSTOOD THE NATURE OF AN OATH
+
+XVI.   THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE
+
+XVII.  HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS, AND FOUND NO MEN THEREIN
+
+XVIII. HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS AT MARGARITA
+
+XIX.   WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA
+
+XX.    SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS
+
+XXI.   HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION UNDER THE TREE AT HIGUEROTE
+
+XXII.  THE INQUISITION IN THE INDIES
+
+XXIII. THE BANKS OF THE META
+
+XXIV.  HOW AMYAS WAS TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL
+
+XXV.   HOW THEY TOOK THE GOLD-TRAIN
+
+XXVI.  HOW THEY TOOK THE GREAT GALLEON
+
+XXVII. HOW SALVATION YEO FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN
+
+XXVIII.HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE THIRD TIME
+
+XXIX.  HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS STOPPED BY THE QUEEN'S COMMAND
+
+XXX.   HOW THE ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS
+
+XXXI.  THE GREAT ARMADA
+
+XXXII. HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA
+
+XXXIII. HOW AMYAS LET THE APPLE FALL
+
+
+
+
+WESTWARD HO!
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+HOW MR. OXENHAM SAW THE WHITE BIRD
+
+     "The hollow oak our palace is,
+        Our heritage the sea."
+
+All who have travelled through the delicious scenery of North Devon must
+needs know the little white town of Bideford, which slopes upwards from
+its broad tide-river paved with yellow sands, and many-arched old bridge
+where salmon wait for autumn floods, toward the pleasant upland on the
+west. Above the town the hills close in, cushioned with deep oak woods,
+through which juts here and there a crag of fern-fringed slate; below
+they lower, and open more and more in softly rounded knolls, and fertile
+squares of red and green, till they sink into the wide expanse of hazy
+flats, rich salt-marshes, and rolling sand-hills, where Torridge joins
+her sister Taw, and both together flow quietly toward the broad surges
+of the bar, and the everlasting thunder of the long Atlantic swell.
+Pleasantly the old town stands there, beneath its soft Italian sky,
+fanned day and night by the fresh ocean breeze, which forbids alike the
+keen winter frosts, and the fierce thunder heats of the midland; and
+pleasantly it has stood there for now, perhaps, eight hundred years
+since the first Grenville, cousin of the Conqueror, returning from the
+conquest of South Wales, drew round him trusty Saxon serfs, and free
+Norse rovers with their golden curls, and dark Silurian Britons from
+the Swansea shore, and all the mingled blood which still gives to the
+seaward folk of the next county their strength and intellect, and, even
+in these levelling days, their peculiar beauty of face and form.
+
+But at the time whereof I write, Bideford was not merely a pleasant
+country town, whose quay was haunted by a few coasting craft. It was
+one of the chief ports of England; it furnished seven ships to fight the
+Armada: even more than a century afterwards, say the chroniclers, "it
+sent more vessels to the northern trade than any port in England, saving
+(strange juxtaposition!) London and Topsham," and was the centre of a
+local civilization and enterprise, small perhaps compared with the
+vast efforts of the present day: but who dare despise the day of small
+things, if it has proved to be the dawn of mighty ones? And it is to the
+sea-life and labor of Bideford, and Dartmouth, and Topsham, and Plymouth
+(then a petty place), and many another little western town, that England
+owes the foundation of her naval and commercial glory. It was the men
+of Devon, the Drakes and Hawkins', Gilberts and Raleighs, Grenvilles and
+Oxenhams, and a host more of "forgotten worthies," whom we shall learn
+one day to honor as they deserve, to whom she owes her commerce, her
+colonies, her very existence. For had they not first crippled, by their
+West Indian raids, the ill-gotten resources of the Spaniard, and then
+crushed his last huge effort in Britain's Salamis, the glorious fight of
+1588, what had we been by now but a popish appanage of a world-tyranny
+as cruel as heathen Rome itself, and far more devilish?
+
+It is in memory of these men, their voyages and their battles, their
+faith and their valor, their heroic lives and no less heroic deaths,
+that I write this book; and if now and then I shall seem to warm into
+a style somewhat too stilted and pompous, let me be excused for my
+subject's sake, fit rather to have been sung than said, and to have
+proclaimed to all true English hearts, not as a novel but as an epic
+(which some man may yet gird himself to write), the same great message
+which the songs of Troy, and the Persian wars, and the trophies of
+Marathon and Salamis, spoke to the hearts of all true Greeks of old.
+
+
+One bright summer's afternoon, in the year of grace 1575, a tall and
+fair boy came lingering along Bideford quay, in his scholar's gown,
+with satchel and slate in hand, watching wistfully the shipping and the
+sailors, till, just after he had passed the bottom of the High Street,
+he came opposite to one of the many taverns which looked out upon the
+river. In the open bay window sat merchants and gentlemen, discoursing
+over their afternoon's draught of sack; and outside the door was
+gathered a group of sailors, listening earnestly to some one who stood
+in the midst. The boy, all alive for any sea-news, must needs go up
+to them, and take his place among the sailor-lads who were peeping and
+whispering under the elbows of the men; and so came in for the following
+speech, delivered in a loud bold voice, with a strong Devonshire accent,
+and a fair sprinkling of oaths.
+
+"If you don't believe me, go and see, or stay here and grow all over
+blue mould. I tell you, as I am a gentleman, I saw it with these eyes,
+and so did Salvation Yeo there, through a window in the lower room; and
+we measured the heap, as I am a christened man, seventy foot long, ten
+foot broad, and twelve foot high, of silver bars, and each bar between
+a thirty and forty pound weight. And says Captain Drake: 'There, my lads
+of Devon, I've brought you to the mouth of the world's treasure-house,
+and it's your own fault now if you don't sweep it out as empty as a
+stock-fish.'"
+
+"Why didn't you bring some of they home, then, Mr. Oxenham?"
+
+"Why weren't you there to help to carry them? We would have brought
+'em away, safe enough, and young Drake and I had broke the door abroad
+already, but Captain Drake goes off in a dead faint; and when we came
+to look, he had a wound in his leg you might have laid three fingers in,
+and his boots were full of blood, and had been for an hour or more; but
+the heart of him was that, that he never knew it till he dropped,
+and then his brother and I got him away to the boats, he kicking and
+struggling, and bidding us let him go on with the fight, though every
+step he took in the sand was in a pool of blood; and so we got off. And
+tell me, ye sons of shotten herrings, wasn't it worth more to save him
+than the dirty silver? for silver we can get again, brave boys: there's
+more fish in the sea than ever came out of it, and more silver in Nombre
+de Dios than would pave all the streets in the west country: but of such
+captains as Franky Drake, Heaven never makes but one at a time; and if
+we lose him, good-bye to England's luck, say I, and who don't agree, let
+him choose his weapons, and I'm his man."
+
+He who delivered this harangue was a tall and sturdy personage, with a
+florid black-bearded face, and bold restless dark eyes, who leaned, with
+crossed legs and arms akimbo, against the wall of the house; and seemed
+in the eyes of the schoolboy a very magnifico, some prince or duke at
+least. He was dressed (contrary to all sumptuary laws of the time) in
+a suit of crimson velvet, a little the worse, perhaps, for wear; by his
+side were a long Spanish rapier and a brace of daggers, gaudy enough
+about the hilts; his fingers sparkled with rings; he had two or three
+gold chains about his neck, and large earrings in his ears, behind one
+of which a red rose was stuck jauntily enough among the glossy black
+curls; on his head was a broad velvet Spanish hat, in which instead of a
+feather was fastened with a great gold clasp a whole Quezal bird, whose
+gorgeous plumage of fretted golden green shone like one entire precious
+stone. As he finished his speech, he took off the said hat, and looking
+at the bird in it--
+
+"Look ye, my lads, did you ever see such a fowl as that before? That's
+the bird which the old Indian kings of Mexico let no one wear but their
+own selves; and therefore I wear it,--I, John Oxenham of South Tawton,
+for a sign to all brave lads of Devon, that as the Spaniards are the
+masters of the Indians, we're the masters of the Spaniards:" and he
+replaced his hat.
+
+A murmur of applause followed: but one hinted that he "doubted the
+Spaniards were too many for them."
+
+"Too many? How many men did we take Nombre de Dios with? Seventy-three
+were we, and no more when we sailed out of Plymouth Sound; and before we
+saw the Spanish Main, half were gastados, used up, as the Dons say, with
+the scurvy; and in Port Pheasant Captain Rawse of Cowes fell in with us,
+and that gave us some thirty hands more; and with that handful, my lads,
+only fifty-three in all, we picked the lock of the new world! And whom
+did we lose but our trumpeter, who stood braying like an ass in
+the middle of the square, instead of taking care of his neck like a
+Christian? I tell you, those Spaniards are rank cowards, as all bullies
+are. They pray to a woman, the idolatrous rascals! and no wonder they
+fight like women."
+
+"You'm right, captain," sang out a tall gaunt fellow who stood close to
+him; "one westcountry-man can fight two easterlings, and an easterling
+can beat three Dons any day. Eh! my lads of Devon?
+
+     "For O! it's the herrings and the good brown beef,
+       And the cider and the cream so white;
+     O! they are the making of the jolly Devon lads,
+       For to play, and eke to fight."
+
+"Come," said Oxenham, "come along! Who lists? who lists? who'll make his
+fortune?
+
+     "Oh, who will join, jolly mariners all?
+        And who will join, says he, O!
+     To fill his pockets with the good red goold,
+        By sailing on the sea, O!"
+
+"Who'll list?" cried the gaunt man again; "now's your time! We've got
+forty men to Plymouth now, ready to sail the minute we get back, and we
+want a dozen out of you Bideford men, and just a boy or two, and then
+we'm off and away, and make our fortunes, or go to heaven.
+
+     "Our bodies in the sea so deep,
+        Our souls in heaven to rest!
+     Where valiant seamen, one and all,
+        Hereafter shall be blest!"
+
+"Now," said Oxenham, "you won't let the Plymouth men say that the
+Bideford men daren't follow them? North Devon against South, it is.
+Who'll join? who'll join? It is but a step of a way, after all, and
+sailing as smooth as a duck-pond as soon as you're past Cape Finisterre.
+I'll run a Clovelly herring-boat there and back for a wager of twenty
+pound, and never ship a bucketful all the way. Who'll join? Don't think
+you're buying a pig in a poke. I know the road, and Salvation Yeo, here,
+too, who was the gunner's mate, as well as I do the narrow seas, and
+better. You ask him to show you the chart of it, now, and see if he
+don't tell you over the ruttier as well as Drake himself."
+
+On which the gaunt man pulled from under his arm a great white buffalo
+horn covered with rough etchings of land and sea, and held it up to the
+admiring ring.
+
+"See here, boys all, and behold the pictur of the place, dra'ed out
+so natural as ever was life. I got mun from a Portingal, down to the
+Azores; and he'd pricked mun out, and pricked mun out, wheresoever he'd
+sailed, and whatsoever he'd seen. Take mun in your hands now, Simon
+Evans, take mun in your hands; look mun over, and I'll warrant you'll
+know the way in five minutes so well as ever a shark in the seas."
+
+And the horn was passed from hand to hand; while Oxenham, who saw that
+his hearers were becoming moved, called through the open window for
+a great tankard of sack, and passed that from hand to hand, after the
+horn.
+
+The school-boy, who had been devouring with eyes and ears all which
+passed, and had contrived by this time to edge himself into the inner
+ring, now stood face to face with the hero of the emerald crest, and got
+as many peeps as he could at the wonder. But when he saw the sailors,
+one after another, having turned it over a while, come forward and offer
+to join Mr. Oxenham, his soul burned within him for a nearer view of
+that wondrous horn, as magical in its effects as that of Tristrem, or
+the enchanter's in Ariosto; and when the group had somewhat broken up,
+and Oxenham was going into the tavern with his recruits, he asked boldly
+for a nearer sight of the marvel, which was granted at once.
+
+And now to his astonished gaze displayed themselves cities and harbors,
+dragons and elephants, whales which fought with sharks, plate ships
+of Spain, islands with apes and palm-trees, each with its name
+over-written, and here and there, "Here is gold;" and again, "Much gold
+and silver;" inserted most probably, as the words were in English, by
+the hands of Mr. Oxenham himself. Lingeringly and longingly the boy
+turned it round and round, and thought the owner of it more fortunate
+than Khan or Kaiser. Oh, if he could but possess that horn, what needed
+he on earth beside to make him blest!
+
+"I say, will you sell this?"
+
+"Yea, marry, or my own soul, if I can get the worth of it."
+
+"I want the horn,--I don't want your soul; it's somewhat of a stale
+sole, for aught I know; and there are plenty of fresh ones in the bay."
+
+And therewith, after much fumbling, he pulled out a tester (the only one
+he had), and asked if that would buy it?
+
+"That! no, nor twenty of them."
+
+The boy thought over what a good knight-errant would do in such case,
+and then answered, "Tell you what: I'll fight you for it."
+
+"Thank 'ee, sir!
+
+"Break the jackanapes's head for him, Yeo," said Oxenham.
+
+"Call me jackanapes again, and I break yours, sir." And the boy lifted
+his fist fiercely.
+
+Oxenham looked at him a minute smilingly. "Tut! tut! my man, hit one of
+your own size, if you will, and spare little folk like me!"
+
+"If I have a boy's age, sir, I have a man's fist. I shall be fifteen
+years old this month, and know how to answer any one who insults me."
+
+"Fifteen, my young cockerel? you look liker twenty," said Oxenham, with
+an admiring glance at the lad's broad limbs, keen blue eyes, curling
+golden locks, and round honest face. "Fifteen? If I had half-a-dozen
+such lads as you, I would make knights of them before I died. Eh, Yeo?"
+
+"He'll do," said Yeo; "he will make a brave gamecock in a year or
+two, if he dares ruffle up so early at a tough old hen-master like the
+captain."
+
+At which there was a general laugh, in which Oxenham joined as loudly as
+any, and then bade the lad tell him why he was so keen after the horn.
+
+"Because," said he, looking up boldly, "I want to go to sea. I want to
+see the Indies. I want to fight the Spaniards. Though I am a gentleman's
+son, I'd a deal liever be a cabin-boy on board your ship." And the lad,
+having hurried out his say fiercely enough, dropped his head again.
+
+"And you shall," cried Oxenham, with a great oath; "and take a galloon,
+and dine off carbonadoed Dons. Whose son are you, my gallant fellow?"
+
+"Mr. Leigh's, of Burrough Court."
+
+"Bless his soul! I know him as well as I do the Eddystone, and his
+kitchen too. Who sups with him to-night?"
+
+"Sir Richard Grenville."
+
+"Dick Grenville? I did not know he was in town. Go home and tell your
+father John Oxenham will come and keep him company. There, off with you!
+I'll make all straight with the good gentleman, and you shall have your
+venture with me; and as for the horn, let him have the horn, Yeo, and
+I'll give you a noble for it."
+
+"Not a penny, noble captain. If young master will take a poor mariner's
+gift, there it is, for the sake of his love to the calling, and
+Heaven send him luck therein." And the good fellow, with the impulsive
+generosity of a true sailor, thrust the horn into the boy's hands, and
+walked away to escape thanks.
+
+"And now," quoth Oxenham, "my merry men all, make up your minds what
+mannered men you be minded to be before you take your bounties. I want
+none of your rascally lurching longshore vermin, who get five pounds
+out of this captain, and ten out of that, and let him sail without them
+after all, while they are stowed away under women's mufflers, and
+in tavern cellars. If any man is of that humor, he had better to cut
+himself up, and salt himself down in a barrel for pork, before he meets
+me again; for by this light, let me catch him, be it seven years hence,
+and if I do not cut his throat upon the streets, it's a pity! But if any
+man will be true brother to me, true brother to him I'll be, come wreck
+or prize, storm or calm, salt water or fresh, victuals or none, share
+and fare alike; and here's my hand upon it, for every man and all! and
+so--
+
+     "Westward ho! with a rumbelow,
+        And hurra for the Spanish Main, O!"
+
+After which oration Mr. Oxenham swaggered into the tavern, followed by
+his new men; and the boy took his way homewards, nursing his precious
+horn, trembling between hope and fear, and blushing with maidenly
+shame, and a half-sense of wrong-doing at having revealed suddenly to a
+stranger the darling wish which he had hidden from his father and mother
+ever since he was ten years old.
+
+Now this young gentleman, Amyas Leigh, though come of as good blood as
+any in Devon, and having lived all his life in what we should even
+now call the very best society, and being (on account of the valor,
+courtesy, and truly noble qualities which he showed forth in his most
+eventful life) chosen by me as the hero and centre of this story,
+was not, saving for his good looks, by any means what would be called
+now-a-days an "interesting" youth, still less a "highly educated" one;
+for, with the exception of a little Latin, which had been driven into
+him by repeated blows, as if it had been a nail, he knew no books
+whatsoever, save his Bible, his Prayer-book, the old "Mort d'Arthur" of
+Caxton's edition, which lay in the great bay window in the hall, and the
+translation of "Las Casas' History of the West Indies," which lay beside
+it, lately done into English under the title of "The Cruelties of the
+Spaniards." He devoutly believed in fairies, whom he called pixies; and
+held that they changed babies, and made the mushroom rings on the downs
+to dance in. When he had warts or burns, he went to the white witch
+at Northam to charm them away; he thought that the sun moved round the
+earth, and that the moon had some kindred with a Cheshire cheese.
+He held that the swallows slept all the winter at the bottom of the
+horse-pond; talked, like Raleigh, Grenville, and other low persons,
+with a broad Devonshire accent; and was in many other respects so very
+ignorant a youth, that any pert monitor in a national school might have
+had a hearty laugh at him. Nevertheless, this ignorant young savage,
+vacant of the glorious gains of the nineteenth century, children's
+literature and science made easy, and, worst of all, of those improved
+views of English history now current among our railway essayists, which
+consist in believing all persons, male and female, before the year 1688,
+and nearly all after it, to have been either hypocrites or fools, had
+learnt certain things which he would hardly have been taught just now
+in any school in England; for his training had been that of the old
+Persians, "to speak the truth and to draw the bow," both of which savage
+virtues he had acquired to perfection, as well as the equally savage
+ones of enduring pain cheerfully, and of believing it to be the finest
+thing in the world to be a gentleman; by which word he had been taught
+to understand the careful habit of causing needless pain to no human
+being, poor or rich, and of taking pride in giving up his own pleasure
+for the sake of those who were weaker than himself. Moreover, having
+been entrusted for the last year with the breaking of a colt, and the
+care of a cast of young hawks which his father had received from Lundy
+Isle, he had been profiting much, by the means of those coarse and
+frivolous amusements, in perseverance, thoughtfulness, and the habit
+of keeping his temper; and though he had never had a single "object
+lesson," or been taught to "use his intellectual powers," he knew the
+names and ways of every bird, and fish, and fly, and could read, as
+cunningly as the oldest sailor, the meaning of every drift of cloud
+which crossed the heavens. Lastly, he had been for some time past, on
+account of his extraordinary size and strength, undisputed cock of the
+school, and the most terrible fighter among all Bideford boys; in which
+brutal habit he took much delight, and contrived, strange as it may
+seem, to extract from it good, not only for himself but for others,
+doing justice among his school-fellows with a heavy hand, and succoring
+the oppressed and afflicted; so that he was the terror of all the
+sailor-lads, and the pride and stay of all the town's boys and girls,
+and hardly considered that he had done his duty in his calling if he
+went home without beating a big lad for bullying a little one. For the
+rest, he never thought about thinking, or felt about feeling; and had
+no ambition whatsoever beyond pleasing his father and mother, getting by
+honest means the maximum of "red quarrenders" and mazard cherries,
+and going to sea when he was big enough. Neither was he what would be
+now-a-days called by many a pious child; for though he said his Creed
+and Lord's Prayer night and morning, and went to the service at the
+church every forenoon, and read the day's Psalms with his mother every
+evening, and had learnt from her and from his father (as he proved well
+in after life) that it was infinitely noble to do right and infinitely
+base to do wrong, yet (the age of children's religious books not having
+yet dawned on the world) he knew nothing more of theology, or of his
+own soul, than is contained in the Church Catechism. It is a question,
+however, on the whole, whether, though grossly ignorant (according to
+our modern notions) in science and religion, he was altogether untrained
+in manhood, virtue, and godliness; and whether the barbaric narrowness
+of his information was not somewhat counterbalanced both in him and in
+the rest of his generation by the depth, and breadth, and healthiness of
+his education.
+
+So let us watch him up the hill as he goes hugging his horn, to tell all
+that has passed to his mother, from whom he had never hidden anything
+in his life, save only that sea-fever; and that only because he foreknew
+that it would give her pain; and because, moreover, being a prudent and
+sensible lad, he knew that he was not yet old enough to go, and that, as
+he expressed it to her that afternoon, "there was no use hollaing till
+he was out of the wood."
+
+So he goes up between the rich lane-banks, heavy with drooping ferns and
+honeysuckle; out upon the windy down toward the old Court, nestled
+amid its ring of wind-clipt oaks; through the gray gateway into the
+homeclose; and then he pauses a moment to look around; first at the wide
+bay to the westward, with its southern wall of purple cliffs; then at
+the dim Isle of Lundy far away at sea; then at the cliffs and downs of
+Morte and Braunton, right in front of him; then at the vast yellow sheet
+of rolling sand-hill, and green alluvial plain dotted with red cattle,
+at his feet, through which the silver estuary winds onward toward the
+sea. Beneath him, on his right, the Torridge, like a land-locked lake,
+sleeps broad and bright between the old park of Tapeley and the charmed
+rock of the Hubbastone, where, seven hundred years ago, the Norse rovers
+landed to lay siege to Kenwith Castle, a mile away on his left hand; and
+not three fields away, are the old stones of "The Bloody Corner,"
+where the retreating Danes, cut off from their ships, made their last
+fruitless stand against the Saxon sheriff and the valiant men of Devon.
+Within that charmed rock, so Torridge boatmen tell, sleeps now the old
+Norse Viking in his leaden coffin, with all his fairy treasure and his
+crown of gold; and as the boy looks at the spot, he fancies, and almost
+hopes, that the day may come when he shall have to do his duty against
+the invader as boldly as the men of Devon did then. And past him, far
+below, upon the soft southeastern breeze, the stately ships go sliding
+out to sea. When shall he sail in them, and see the wonders of the deep?
+And as he stands there with beating heart and kindling eye, the cool
+breeze whistling through his long fair curls, he is a symbol, though he
+knows it not, of brave young England longing to wing its way out of its
+island prison, to discover and to traffic, to colonize and to civilize,
+until no wind can sweep the earth which does not bear the echoes of an
+English voice. Patience, young Amyas! Thou too shalt forth, and westward
+ho, beyond thy wildest dreams; and see brave sights, and do brave deeds,
+which no man has since the foundation of the world. Thou too shalt face
+invaders stronger and more cruel far than Dane or Norman, and bear thy
+part in that great Titan strife before the renown of which the name of
+Salamis shall fade away!
+
+Mr. Oxenham came that evening to supper as he had promised: but as
+people supped in those days in much the same manner as they do now, we
+may drop the thread of the story for a few hours, and take it up again
+after supper is over.
+
+"Come now, Dick Grenville, do thou talk the good man round, and I'll
+warrant myself to talk round the good wife."
+
+The personage whom Oxenham addressed thus familiarly answered by a
+somewhat sarcastic smile, and, "Mr. Oxenham gives Dick Grenville" (with
+just enough emphasis on the "Mr." and the "Dick," to hint that a liberty
+had been taken with him) "overmuch credit with the men. Mr. Oxenham's
+credit with fair ladies, none can doubt. Friend Leigh, is Heard's great
+ship home yet from the Straits?"
+
+The speaker, known well in those days as Sir Richard Grenville,
+Granville, Greenvil, Greenfield, with two or three other variations, was
+one of those truly heroical personages whom Providence, fitting always
+the men to their age and their work, had sent upon the earth whereof it
+takes right good care, not in England only, but in Spain and Italy, in
+Germany and the Netherlands, and wherever, in short, great men and great
+deeds were needed to lift the mediaeval world into the modern.
+
+And, among all the heroic faces which the painters of that age have
+preserved, none, perhaps, hardly excepting Shakespeare's or Spenser's,
+Alva's or Farina's, is more heroic than that of Richard Grenville, as it
+stands in Prince's "Worthies of Devon;" of a Spanish type, perhaps
+(or more truly speaking, a Cornish), rather than an English, with just
+enough of the British element in it to give delicacy to its massiveness.
+The forehead and whole brain are of extraordinary loftiness, and
+perfectly upright; the nose long, aquiline, and delicately pointed;
+the mouth fringed with a short silky beard, small and ripe, yet firm
+as granite, with just pout enough of the lower lip to give hint of that
+capacity of noble indignation which lay hid under its usual courtly calm
+and sweetness; if there be a defect in the face, it is that the eyes are
+somewhat small, and close together, and the eyebrows, though delicately
+arched, and, without a trace of peevishness, too closely pressed
+down upon them, the complexion is dark, the figure tall and graceful;
+altogether the likeness of a wise and gallant gentleman, lovely to all
+good men, awful to all bad men; in whose presence none dare say or do a
+mean or a ribald thing; whom brave men left, feeling themselves nerved
+to do their duty better, while cowards slipped away, as bats and
+owls before the sun. So he lived and moved, whether in the Court of
+Elizabeth, giving his counsel among the wisest; or in the streets of
+Bideford, capped alike by squire and merchant, shopkeeper and sailor; or
+riding along the moorland roads between his houses of Stow and Bideford,
+while every woman ran out to her door to look at the great Sir Richard,
+the pride of North Devon; or, sitting there in the low mullioned window
+at Burrough, with his cup of malmsey before him, and the lute to which
+he had just been singing laid across his knees, while the red western
+sun streamed in upon his high, bland forehead, and soft curling locks;
+ever the same steadfast, God-fearing, chivalrous man, conscious (as far
+as a soul so healthy could be conscious) of the pride of beauty, and
+strength, and valor, and wisdom, and a race and name which claimed
+direct descent from the grandfather of the Conqueror, and was tracked
+down the centuries by valiant deeds and noble benefits to his native
+shire, himself the noblest of his race. Men said that he was proud; but
+he could not look round him without having something to be proud of;
+that he was stern and harsh to his sailors: but it was only when he saw
+in them any taint of cowardice or falsehood; that he was subject, at
+moments, to such fearful fits of rage, that he had been seen to snatch
+the glasses from the table, grind them to pieces in his teeth, and
+swallow them: but that was only when his indignation had been aroused by
+some tale of cruelty or oppression, and, above all, by those West Indian
+devilries of the Spaniards, whom he regarded (and in those days rightly
+enough) as the enemies of God and man. Of this last fact Oxenham was
+well aware, and therefore felt somewhat puzzled and nettled, when, after
+having asked Mr. Leigh's leave to take young Amyas with him and set
+forth in glowing colors the purpose of his voyage, he found Sir Richard
+utterly unwilling to help him with his suit.
+
+"Heyday, Sir Richard! You are not surely gone over to the side of those
+canting fellows (Spanish Jesuits in disguise, every one of them, they
+are), who pretended to turn up their noses at Franky Drake, as a pirate,
+and be hanged to them?"
+
+"My friend Oxenham," answered he, in the sententious and measured style
+of the day, "I have always held, as you should know by this, that Mr.
+Drake's booty, as well as my good friend Captain Hawkins's, is lawful
+prize, as being taken from the Spaniard, who is not only hostis humani
+generis, but has no right to the same, having robbed it violently, by
+torture and extreme iniquity, from the poor Indian, whom God avenge, as
+He surely will."
+
+"Amen," said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"I say Amen, too," quoth Oxenham, "especially if it please Him to avenge
+them by English hands."
+
+"And I also," went on Sir Richard; "for the rightful owners of the said
+goods being either miserably dead, or incapable, by reason of their
+servitude, of ever recovering any share thereof, the treasure, falsely
+called Spanish, cannot be better bestowed than in building up the state
+of England against them, our natural enemies; and thereby, in building
+up the weal of the Reformed Churches throughout the world, and the
+liberties of all nations, against a tyranny more foul and rapacious than
+that of Nero or Caligula; which, if it be not the cause of God, I, for
+one, know not what God's cause is!" And, as he warmed in his speech, his
+eyes flashed very fire.
+
+"Hark now!" said Oxenham, "who can speak more boldly than he? and yet he
+will not help this lad to so noble an adventure."
+
+"You have asked his father and mother; what is their answer?"
+
+"Mine is this," said Mr. Leigh; "if it be God's will that my boy should
+become, hereafter, such a mariner as Sir Richard Grenville, let him go,
+and God be with him; but let him first bide here at home and be
+trained, if God give me grace, to become such a gentleman as Sir Richard
+Grenville."
+
+Sir Richard bowed low, and Mrs. Leigh catching up the last word--
+
+"There, Mr. Oxenham, you cannot gainsay that, unless you will be
+discourteous to his worship. And for me--though it be a weak woman's
+reason, yet it is a mother's: he is my only child. His elder brother is
+far away. God only knows whether I shall see him again; and what are all
+reports of his virtues and his learning to me, compared to that sweet
+presence which I daily miss? Ah! Mr. Oxenham, my beautiful Joseph is
+gone; and though he be lord of Pharaoh's household, yet he is far away
+in Egypt; and you will take Benjamm also! Ah! Mr. Oxenham, you have no
+child, or you would not ask for mine!"
+
+"And how do you know that, my sweet madam!" said the adventurer, turning
+first deadly pale, and then glowing red. Her last words had touched him
+to the quick in some unexpected place; and rising, he courteously laid
+her hand to his lips, and said--"I say no more. Farewell, sweet madam,
+and God send all men such wives as you."
+
+"And all wives," said she, smiling, "such husbands as mine."
+
+"Nay, I will not say that," answered he, with a half sneer--and then,
+"Farewell, friend Leigh--farewell, gallant Dick Grenville. God send I
+see thee Lord High Admiral when I come home. And yet, why should I come
+home? Will you pray for poor Jack, gentles?"
+
+"Tut, tut, man! good words," said Leigh; "let us drink to our merry
+meeting before you go." And rising, and putting the tankard of malmsey
+to his lips, he passed it to Sir Richard, who rose, and saying, "To the
+fortune of a bold mariner and a gallant gentleman," drank, and put the
+cup into Oxenham's hand.
+
+The adventurer's face was flushed, and his eye wild. Whether from the
+liquor he had drunk during the day, or whether from Mrs. Leigh's last
+speech, he had not been himself for a few minutes. He lifted the cup,
+and was in act to pledge them, when he suddenly dropped it on the table,
+and pointed, staring and trembling, up and down, and round the room, as
+if following some fluttering object.
+
+"There! Do you see it? The bird!--the bird with the white breast!"
+
+Each looked at the other; but Leigh, who was a quick-witted man and an
+old courtier, forced a laugh instantly, and cried--"Nonsense, brave Jack
+Oxenham! Leave white birds for men who will show the white feather. Mrs.
+Leigh waits to pledge you."
+
+Oxenham recovered himself in a moment, pledged them all round, drinking
+deep and fiercely; and after hearty farewells, departed, never hinting
+again at his strange exclamation.
+
+After he was gone, and while Leigh was attending him to the door, Mrs.
+Leigh and Grenville kept a few minutes' dead silence. At last--"God help
+him!" said she.
+
+"Amen!" said Grenville, "for he never needed it more. But, indeed,
+madam, I put no faith in such omens."
+
+"But, Sir Richard, that bird has been seen for generations before the
+death of any of his family. I know those who were at South Tawton when
+his mother died, and his brother also; and they both saw it. God help
+him! for, after all, he is a proper man."
+
+"So many a lady has thought before now, Mrs. Leigh, and well for him if
+they had not. But, indeed, I make no account of omens. When God is ready
+for each man, then he must go; and when can he go better?"
+
+"But," said Mr. Leigh, who entered, "I have seen, and especially when
+I was in Italy, omens and prophecies before now beget their own
+fulfilment, by driving men into recklessness, and making them run
+headlong upon that very ruin which, as they fancied, was running upon
+them."
+
+"And which," said Sir Richard, "they might have avoided, if, instead of
+trusting in I know not what dumb and dark destiny, they had trusted in
+the living God, by faith in whom men may remove mountains, and quench
+the fire, and put to flight the armies of the alien. I too know, and
+know not how I know, that I shall never die in my bed."
+
+"God forfend!" cried Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"And why, fair madam, if I die doing my duty to my God and my queen? The
+thought never moves me: nay, to tell the truth, I pray often enough that
+I may be spared the miseries of imbecile old age, and that end which
+the old Northmen rightly called 'a cow's death' rather than a man's. But
+enough of this. Mr. Leigh, you have done wisely to-night. Poor Oxenham
+does not go on his voyage with a single eye. I have talked about him
+with Drake and Hawkins; and I guess why Mrs. Leigh touched him so home
+when she told him that he had no child."
+
+"Has he one, then, in the West Indies?" cried the good lady.
+
+"God knows; and God grant we may not hear of shame and sorrow fallen
+upon an ancient and honorable house of Devon. My brother Stukely is woe
+enough to North Devon for this generation."
+
+"Poor braggadocio!" said Mr. Leigh; "and yet not altogether that too,
+for he can fight at least."
+
+"So can every mastiff and boar, much more an Englishman. And now come
+hither to me, my adventurous godson, and don't look in such doleful
+dumps. I hear you have broken all the sailor-boys' heads already."
+
+"Nearly all," said young Amyas, with due modesty.. "But am I not to go
+to sea?"
+
+"All things in their time, my boy, and God forbid that either I or your
+worthy parents should keep you from that noble calling which is the
+safeguard of this England and her queen. But you do not wish to live and
+die the master of a trawler?"
+
+"I should like to be a brave adventurer, like Mr. Oxenham."
+
+"God grant you become a braver man than he! for, as I think, to be bold
+against the enemy is common to the brutes; but the prerogative of a man
+is to be bold against himself."
+
+"How, sir?"
+
+"To conquer our own fancies, Amyas, and our own lusts, and our ambition,
+in the sacred name of duty; this it is to be truly brave, and truly
+strong; for he who cannot rule himself, how can he rule his crew or his
+fortunes? Come, now, I will make you a promise. If you will bide quietly
+at home, and learn from your father and mother all which befits a
+gentleman and a Christian, as well as a seaman, the day shall come when
+you shall sail with Richard Grenville himself, or with better men than
+he, on a nobler errand than gold-hunting on the Spanish Main."
+
+"O my boy, my boy!" said Mrs. Leigh, "hear what the good Sir Richard
+promises you. Many an earl's son would be glad to be in your place."
+
+"And many an earl's son will be glad to be in his place a score years
+hence, if he will but learn what I know you two can teach him. And now,
+Amyas, my lad, I will tell you for a warning the history of that Sir
+Thomas Stukely of whom I spoke just now, and who was, as all men know,
+a gallant and courtly knight, of an ancient and worshipful family in
+Ilfracombe, well practised in the wars, and well beloved at first by our
+incomparable queen, the friend of all true virtue, as I trust she will
+be of yours some day; who wanted but one step to greatness, and that
+was this, that in his hurry to rule all the world, he forgot to rule
+himself. At first, he wasted his estate in show and luxury, always
+intending to be famous, and destroying his own fame all the while by
+his vainglory and haste. Then, to retrieve his losses, he hit upon the
+peopling of Florida, which thou and I will see done some day, by God's
+blessing; for I and some good friends of mine have an errand there as
+well as he. But he did not go about it as a loyal man, to advance the
+honor of his queen, but his own honor only, dreaming that he too should
+be a king; and was not ashamed to tell her majesty that he had rather be
+sovereign of a molehill than the highest subject of an emperor."
+
+"They say," said Mr. Leigh, "that he told her plainly he should be a
+prince before he died, and that she gave him one of her pretty quips in
+return."
+
+"I don't know that her majesty had the best of it. A fool is many times
+too strong for a wise man, by virtue of his thick hide. For when she
+said that she hoped she should hear from him in his new principality,
+'Yes, sooth,' says he, graciously enough. 'And in what style?' asks she.
+'To our dear sister,' says Stukely: to which her clemency had nothing to
+reply, but turned away, as Mr. Burleigh told me, laughing."
+
+"Alas for him!" said gentle Mrs. Leigh. "Such self-conceit--and Heaven
+knows we have the root of it in ourselves also--is the very daughter of
+self-will, and of that loud crying out about I, and me, and mine, which
+is the very bird-call for all devils, and the broad road which leads to
+death."
+
+"It will lead him to his," said Sir Richard; "God grant it be not upon
+Tower-hill! for since that Florida plot, and after that his hopes of
+Irish preferment came to naught, he who could not help himself by fair
+means has taken to foul ones, and gone over to Italy to the Pope, whose
+infallibility has not been proof against Stukely's wit; for he was soon
+his Holiness's closet counsellor, and, they say, his bosom friend; and
+made him give credit to his boasts that, with three thousand soldiers he
+would beat the English out of Ireland, and make the Pope's son king of
+it."
+
+"Ay, but," said Mr. Leigh, "I suppose the Italians have the same fetch
+now as they had when I was there, to explain such ugly cases; namely,
+that the Pope is infallible only in doctrine, and quoad Pope; while
+quoad hominem, he is even as others, or indeed, in general, a deal
+worse, so that the office, and not the man, may be glorified thereby.
+But where is Stukely now?"
+
+"At Rome when last I heard of him, ruffling it up and down the Vatican
+as Baron Ross, Viscount Murrough, Earl Wexford, Marquis Leinster, and
+a title or two more, which have cost the Pope little, seeing that
+they never were his to give; and plotting, they say, some hare-brained
+expedition against Ireland by the help of the Spanish king, which must
+end in nothing but his shame and ruin. And now, my sweet hosts, I must
+call for serving-boy and lantern, and home to my bed in Bideford."
+
+And so Amyas Leigh went back to school, and Mr. Oxenham went his way to
+Plymouth again, and sailed for the Spanish Main.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE FIRST TIME
+
+     "Si taceant homines, facient te sidera notum,
+         Sol nescit comitis immemor esse sui."
+
+                             Old Epigram on Drake.
+
+Five years are past and gone. It is nine of the clock on a still, bright
+November morning; but the bells of Bideford church are still ringing for
+the daily service two hours after the usual time; and instead of going
+soberly according to wont, cannot help breaking forth every five minutes
+into a jocund peal, and tumbling head over heels in ecstasies of joy.
+Bideford streets are a very flower-garden of all the colors, swarming
+with seamen and burghers, and burghers' wives and daughters, all
+in their holiday attire. Garlands are hung across the streets, and
+tapestries from every window. The ships in the pool are dressed in all
+their flags, and give tumultuous vent to their feelings by peals of
+ordnance of every size. Every stable is crammed with horses; and
+Sir Richard Grenville's house is like a very tavern, with eating
+and drinking, and unsaddling, and running to and fro of grooms and
+serving-men. Along the little churchyard, packed full with women,
+streams all the gentle blood of North Devon,--tall and stately men, and
+fair ladies, worthy of the days when the gentry of England were by due
+right the leaders of the people, by personal prowess and beauty, as well
+as by intellect and education. And first, there is my lady Countess of
+Bath, whom Sir Richard Grenville is escorting, cap in hand (for her good
+Earl Bourchier is in London with the queen); and there are Bassets
+from beautiful Umberleigh, and Carys from more beautiful Clovelly, and
+Fortescues of Wear, and Fortescues of Buckland, and Fortescues from all
+quarters, and Coles from Slade, and Stukelys from Affton, and St. Legers
+from Annery, and Coffins from Portledge, and even Coplestones from
+Eggesford, thirty miles away: and last, but not least (for almost all
+stop to give them place), Sir John Chichester of Ralegh, followed
+in single file, after the good old patriarchal fashion, by his eight
+daughters, and three of his five famous sons (one, to avenge his
+murdered brother, is fighting valiantly in Ireland, hereafter to rule
+there wisely also, as Lord Deputy and Baron of Belfast); and he meets
+at the gate his cousin of Arlington, and behind him a train of four
+daughters and nineteen sons, the last of whom has not yet passed the
+town-hall, while the first is at the Lychgate, who, laughing, make way
+for the elder though shorter branch of that most fruitful tree; and so
+on into the church, where all are placed according to their degrees, or
+at least as near as may be, not without a few sour looks, and shovings,
+and whisperings, from one high-born matron and another; till the
+churchwardens and sidesmen, who never had before so goodly a company to
+arrange, have bustled themselves hot, and red, and frantic, and end by
+imploring abjectly the help of the great Sir Richard himself to tell
+them who everybody is, and which is the elder branch, and which is the
+younger, and who carries eight quarterings in their arms, and who only
+four, and so prevent their setting at deadly feud half the fine
+ladies of North Devon; for the old men are all safe packed away in the
+corporation pews, and the young ones care only to get a place whence
+they may eye the ladies. And at last there is a silence, and a looking
+toward the door, and then distant music, flutes and hautboys, drums and
+trumpets, which come braying, and screaming, and thundering merrily
+up to the very church doors, and then cease; and the churchwardens
+and sidesmen bustle down to the entrance, rods in hand, and there is a
+general whisper and rustle, not without glad tears and blessings from
+many a woman, and from some men also, as the wonder of the day enters,
+and the rector begins, not the morning service, but the good old
+thanksgiving after a victory at sea.
+
+And what is it which has thus sent old Bideford wild with that "goodly
+joy and pious mirth," of which we now only retain traditions in
+our translation of the Psalms? Why are all eyes fixed, with greedy
+admiration, on those four weather-beaten mariners, decked out with knots
+and ribbons by loving hands; and yet more on that gigantic figure who
+walks before them, a beardless boy, and yet with the frame and stature
+of a Hercules, towering, like Saul of old, a head and shoulders above
+all the congregation, with his golden locks flowing down over his
+shoulders? And why, as the five go instinctively up to the altar, and
+there fall on their knees before the rails, are all eyes turned to the
+pew where Mrs. Leigh of Burrough has hid her face between her hands,
+and her hood rustles and shakes to her joyful sobs? Because there was
+fellow-feeling of old in merry England, in county and in town; and
+these are Devon men, and men of Bideford, whose names are Amyas Leigh of
+Burrough, John Staveley, Michael Heard, and Jonas Marshall of Bideford,
+and Thomas Braund of Clovelly: and they, the first of all English
+mariners, have sailed round the world with Francis Drake, and are come
+hither to give God thanks.
+
+It is a long story. To explain how it happened we must go back for a
+page or two, almost to the point from whence we started in the last
+chapter.
+
+For somewhat more than a twelvemonth after Mr. Oxenham's departure,
+young Amyas had gone on quietly enough, according to promise, with the
+exception of certain occasional outbursts of fierceness common to all
+young male animals, and especially to boys of any strength of character.
+His scholarship, indeed, progressed no better than before; but his home
+education went on healthily enough; and he was fast becoming, young as
+he was, a right good archer, and rider, and swordsman (after the old
+school of buckler practice), when his father, having gone down on
+business to the Exeter Assizes, caught (as was too common in those days)
+the gaol-fever from the prisoners; sickened in the very court; and died
+within a week.
+
+And now Mrs. Leigh was left to God and her own soul, with this young
+lion-cub in leash, to tame and train for this life and the life to
+come. She had loved her husband fervently and holily. He had been often
+peevish, often melancholy; for he was a disappointed man, with an estate
+impoverished by his father's folly, and his own youthful ambition, which
+had led him up to Court, and made him waste his heart and his purse in
+following a vain shadow. He was one of those men, moreover, who possess
+almost every gift except the gift of the power to use them; and though
+a scholar, a courtier, and a soldier, he had found himself, when he was
+past forty, without settled employment or aim in life, by reason of
+a certain shyness, pride, or delicate honor (call it which you will),
+which had always kept him from playing a winning game in that very world
+after whose prizes he hankered to the last, and on which he revenged
+himself by continual grumbling. At last, by his good luck, he met with
+a fair young Miss Foljambe, of Derbyshire, then about Queen Elizabeth's
+Court, who was as tired as he of the sins of the world, though she had
+seen less of them; and the two contrived to please each other so well,
+that though the queen grumbled a little, as usual, at the lady for
+marrying, and at the gentleman for adoring any one but her royal self,
+they got leave to vanish from the little Babylon at Whitehall, and
+settle in peace at Burrough. In her he found a treasure, and he knew
+what he had found.
+
+Mrs. Leigh was, and had been from her youth, one of those noble old
+English churchwomen, without superstition, and without severity, who
+are among the fairest features of that heroic time. There was a certain
+melancholy about her, nevertheless; for the recollections of her
+childhood carried her back to times when it was an awful thing to be a
+Protestant. She could remember among them, five-and-twenty years ago,
+the burning of poor blind Joan Waste at Derby, and of Mistress Joyce
+Lewis, too, like herself, a lady born; and sometimes even now, in her
+nightly dreams, rang in her ears her mother's bitter cries to God,
+either to spare her that fiery torment, or to give her strength to bear
+it, as she whom she loved had borne it before her. For her mother, who
+was of a good family in Yorkshire, had been one of Queen Catherine's
+bedchamber women, and the bosom friend and disciple of Anne Askew. And
+she had sat in Smithfield, with blood curdled by horror, to see the
+hapless Court beauty, a month before the paragon of Henry's Court,
+carried in a chair (so crippled was she by the rack) to her fiery doom
+at the stake, beside her fellow-courtier, Mr. Lascelles, while the very
+heavens seemed to the shuddering mob around to speak their wrath and
+grief in solemn thunder peals, and heavy drops which hissed upon the
+crackling pile.
+
+Therefore a sadness hung upon her all her life, and deepened in the days
+of Queen Mary, when, as a notorious Protestant and heretic, she had had
+to hide for her life among the hills and caverns of the Peak, and was
+only saved, by the love which her husband's tenants bore her, and by his
+bold declaration that, good Catholic as he was, he would run through
+the body any constable, justice, or priest, yea, bishop or cardinal, who
+dared to serve the queen's warrant upon his wife.
+
+So she escaped: but, as I said, a sadness hung upon her all her life;
+and the skirt of that dark mantle fell upon the young girl who had been
+the partner of her wanderings and hidings among the lonely hills; and
+who, after she was married, gave herself utterly up to God.
+
+And yet in giving herself to God, Mrs. Leigh gave herself to her
+husband, her children, and the poor of Northam Town, and was none the
+less welcome to the Grenvilles, and Fortescues, and Chichesters, and
+all the gentle families round, who honored her husband's talents, and
+enjoyed his wit. She accustomed herself to austerities, which often
+called forth the kindly rebukes of her husband; and yet she did so
+without one superstitious thought of appeasing the fancied wrath of God,
+or of giving Him pleasure (base thought) by any pain of hers; for her
+spirit had been trained in the freest and loftiest doctrines of Luther's
+school; and that little mystic "Alt-Deutsch Theologie" (to which the
+great Reformer said that he owed more than to any book, save the Bible,
+and St. Augustine) was her counsellor and comforter by day and night.
+
+And now, at little past forty, she was left a widow: lovely still
+in face and figure; and still more lovely from the divine calm which
+brooded, like the dove of peace and the Holy Spirit of God (which indeed
+it was), over every look, and word, and gesture; a sweetness which had
+been ripened by storm, as well as by sunshine; which this world had
+not given, and could not take away. No wonder that Sir Richard and Lady
+Grenville loved her; no wonder that her children worshipped her; no
+wonder that the young Amyas, when the first burst of grief was over, and
+he knew again where he stood, felt that a new life had begun for him;
+that his mother was no more to think and act for him only, but that he
+must think and act for his mother. And so it was, that on the very day
+after his father's funeral, when school-hours were over, instead of
+coming straight home, he walked boldly into Sir Richard Grenville's
+house, and asked to see his godfather.
+
+"You must be my father now, sir," said he, firmly.
+
+And Sir Richard looked at the boy's broad strong face, and swore a great
+and holy oath, like Glasgerion's, "by oak, and ash, and thorn," that
+he would be a father to him, and a brother to his mother, for Christ's
+sake. And Lady Grenville took the boy by the hand, and walked home
+with him to Burrough; and there the two fair women fell on each other's
+necks, and wept together; the one for the loss which had been, the
+other, as by a prophetic instinct, for the like loss which was to come
+to her also. For the sweet St. Leger knew well that her husband's fiery
+spirit would never leave his body on a peaceful bed; but that death (as
+he prayed almost nightly that it might) would find him sword in
+hand, upon the field of duty and of fame. And there those two vowed
+everlasting sisterhood, and kept their vow; and after that all things
+went on at Burrough as before; and Amyas rode, and shot, and boxed, and
+wandered on the quay at Sir Richard's side; for Mrs. Leigh was too
+wise a woman to alter one tittle of the training which her husband had
+thought best for his younger boy. It was enough that her elder son had
+of his own accord taken to that form of life in which she in her secret
+heart would fain have moulded both her children. For Frank, God's
+wedding gift to that pure love of hers, had won himself honor at home
+and abroad; first at the school at Bideford; then at Exeter College,
+where he had become a friend of Sir Philip Sidney's, and many another
+young man of rank and promise; and next, in the summer of 1572, on his
+way to the University of Heidelberg, he had gone to Paris, with (luckily
+for him) letters of recommendation to Walsingham, at the English
+Embassy: by which letters he not only fell in a second time with Philip
+Sidney, but saved his own life (as Sidney did his) in the Massacre of
+St. Bartholomew's Day. At Heidelberg he had stayed two years, winning
+fresh honor from all who knew him, and resisting all Sidney's entreaties
+to follow him into Italy. For, scorning to be a burden to his parents,
+he had become at Heidelberg tutor to two young German princes, whom,
+after living with them at their father's house for a year or more, he at
+last, to his own great delight, took with him down to Padua, "to
+perfect them," as he wrote home, "according to his insufficiency, in all
+princely studies." Sidney was now returned to England; but Frank found
+friends enough without him, such letters of recommendation and diplomas
+did he carry from I know not how many princes, magnificos, and learned
+doctors, who had fallen in love with the learning, modesty, and virtue
+of the fair young Englishman. And ere Frank returned to Germany he had
+satiated his soul with all the wonders of that wondrous land. He had
+talked over the art of sonneteering with Tasso, the art of history
+with Sarpi; he had listened, between awe and incredulity, to the daring
+theories of Galileo; he had taken his pupils to Venice, that their
+portraits might be painted by Paul Veronese; he had seen the palaces of
+Palladio, and the merchant princes on the Rialto, and the argosies of
+Ragusa, and all the wonders of that meeting-point of east and west; he
+had watched Tintoretto's mighty hand "hurling tempestuous glories o'er
+the scene;" and even, by dint of private intercession in high places,
+had been admitted to that sacred room where, with long silver beard and
+undimmed eye, amid a pantheon of his own creations, the ancient Titian,
+patriarch of art, still lingered upon earth, and told old tales of the
+Bellinis, and Raffaelle, and Michael Angelo, and the building of St.
+Peter's, and the fire at Venice, and the sack of Rome, and of kings and
+warriors, statesmen and poets, long since gone to their account, and
+showed the sacred brush which Francis the First had stooped to pick up
+for him. And (license forbidden to Sidney by his friend Languet) he had
+been to Rome, and seen (much to the scandal of good Protestants at home)
+that "right good fellow," as Sidney calls him, who had not yet eaten
+himself to death, the Pope for the time being. And he had seen the
+frescos of the Vatican, and heard Palestrina preside as chapel-master
+over the performance of his own music beneath the dome of St. Peter's,
+and fallen half in love with those luscious strains, till he was
+awakened from his dream by the recollection that beneath that same dome
+had gone up thanksgivings to the God of heaven for those blood-stained
+streets, and shrieking women, and heaps of insulted corpses, which he
+had beheld in Paris on the night of St. Bartholomew. At last, a few
+months before his father died, he had taken back his pupils to their
+home in Germany, from whence he was dismissed, as he wrote, with rich
+gifts; and then Mrs. Leigh's heart beat high, at the thought that the
+wanderer would return: but, alas! within a month after his father's
+death, came a long letter from Frank, describing the Alps, and the
+valleys of the Waldenses (with whose Barbes he had had much talk about
+the late horrible persecutions), and setting forth how at Padua he had
+made the acquaintance of that illustrious scholar and light of the age,
+Stephanus Parmenius (commonly called from his native place, Budaeus),
+who had visited Geneva with him, and heard the disputations of their
+most learned doctors, which both he and Budaeus disliked for their hard
+judgments both of God and man, as much as they admired them for their
+subtlety, being themselves, as became Italian students, Platonists of
+the school of Ficinus and Picus Mirandolensis. So wrote Master Frank,
+in a long sententious letter, full of Latin quotations: but the letter
+never reached the eyes of him for whose delight it had been penned: and
+the widow had to weep over it alone, and to weep more bitterly than ever
+at the conclusion, in which, with many excuses, Frank said that he had,
+at the special entreaty of the said Budaeus, set out with him down the
+Danube stream to Buda, that he might, before finishing his travels,
+make experience of that learning for which the Hungarians were famous
+throughout Europe. And after that, though he wrote again and again to
+the father whom he fancied living, no letter in return reached him from
+home for nearly two years; till, fearing some mishap, he hurried back to
+England, to find his mother a widow, and his brother Amyas gone to the
+South Seas with Captain Drake of Plymouth. And yet, even then, after
+years of absence, he was not allowed to remain at home. For Sir Richard,
+to whom idleness was a thing horrible and unrighteous, would have him up
+and doing again before six months were over, and sent him off to Court
+to Lord Hunsdon.
+
+There, being as delicately beautiful as his brother was huge and strong,
+he had speedily, by Carew's interest and that of Sidney and his Uncle
+Leicester, found entrance into some office in the queen's household; and
+he was now basking in the full sunshine of Court favor, and fair ladies'
+eyes, and all the chivalries and euphuisms of Gloriana's fairyland, and
+the fast friendship of that bright meteor Sidney, who had returned with
+honor in 1577, from the delicate mission on behalf of the German and
+Belgian Protestants, on which he had been sent to the Court of Vienna,
+under color of condoling with the new Emperor Rodolph on his father's
+death. Frank found him when he himself came to Court in 1579 as lovely
+and loving as ever; and, at the early age of twenty-five, acknowledged
+as one of the most remarkable men of Europe, the patron of all men of
+letters, the counsellor of warriors and statesmen, and the confidant and
+advocate of William of Orange, Languet, Plessis du Mornay, and all the
+Protestant leaders on the Continent; and found, moreover, that the son
+of the poor Devon squire was as welcome as ever to the friendship of
+nature's and fortune's most favored, yet most unspoilt, minion.
+
+Poor Mrs. Leigh, as one who had long since learned to have no self,
+and to live not only for her children but in them, submitted without a
+murmur, and only said, smiling, to her stern friend--"You took away my
+mastiff-pup, and now you must needs have my fair greyhound also."
+
+"Would you have your fair greyhound, dear lady, grow up a tall and
+true Cotswold dog, that can pull down a stag of ten, or one of those
+smooth-skinned poppets which the Florence ladies lead about with a ring
+of bells round its neck, and a flannel farthingale over its loins?"
+
+Mrs. Leigh submitted; and was rewarded after a few months by a letter,
+sent through Sir Richard, from none other than Gloriana herself, in
+which she thanked her for "the loan of that most delicate and flawless
+crystal, the soul of her excellent son," with more praises of him than I
+have room to insert, and finished by exalting the poor mother above the
+famed Cornelia; "for those sons, whom she called her jewels, she
+only showed, yet kept them to herself: but you, madam, having two as
+precious, I doubt not, as were ever that Roman dame's, have, beyond her
+courage, lent them both to your country and to your queen, who therein
+holds herself indebted to you for that which, if God give her grace, she
+will repay as becomes both her and you." Which epistle the sweet mother
+bedewed with holy tears, and laid by in the cedar-box which held her
+household gods, by the side of Frank's innumerable diplomas and letters
+of recommendation, the Latin whereof she was always spelling over
+(although she understood not a word of it), in hopes of finding, here
+and there, that precious excellentissimus Noster Franciscus Leighius
+Anglus, which was all in all to the mother's heart.
+
+But why did Amyas go to the South Seas? Amyas went to the South Seas for
+two causes, each of which has, before now, sent many a lad to far worse
+places: first, because of an old schoolmaster; secondly, because of a
+young beauty. I will take them in order and explain.
+
+Vindex Brimblecombe, whilom servitor of Exeter College, Oxford (commonly
+called Sir Vindex, after the fashion of the times), was, in those days,
+master of the grammar-school of Bideford. He was, at root, a godly and
+kind-hearted pedant enough; but, like most schoolmasters in the old
+flogging days, had his heart pretty well hardened by long, baneful
+license to inflict pain at will on those weaker than himself; a power
+healthful enough for the victim (for, doubtless, flogging is the best of
+all punishments, being not only the shortest, but also a mere bodily and
+animal, and not, like most of our new-fangled "humane" punishments, a
+spiritual and fiendish torture), but for the executioner pretty certain
+to eradicate, from all but the noblest spirits, every trace of chivalry
+and tenderness for the weak, as well, often, as all self-control and
+command of temper. Be that as it may, old Sir Vindex had heart enough
+to feel that it was now his duty to take especial care of the fatherless
+boy to whom he tried to teach his qui, quae, quod: but the only outcome
+of that new sense of responsibility was a rapid increase in the number
+of floggings, which rose from about two a week to one per diem, not
+without consequences to the pedagogue himself.
+
+For all this while, Amyas had never for a moment lost sight of his
+darling desire for a sea-life; and when he could not wander on the quay
+and stare at the shipping, or go down to the pebble-ridge at Northam,
+and there sit, devouring, with hungry eyes, the great expanse of ocean,
+which seemed to woo him outward into boundless space, he used to console
+himself, in school-hours, by drawing ships and imaginary charts upon his
+slate, instead of minding his "humanities."
+
+Now it befell, upon an afternoon, that he was very busy at a map, or
+bird's-eye view of an island, whereon was a great castle, and at the
+gate thereof a dragon, terrible to see; while in the foreground came
+that which was meant for a gallant ship, with a great flag aloft, but
+which, by reason of the forest of lances with which it was crowded,
+looked much more like a porcupine carrying a sign-post; and, at the
+roots of those lances, many little round o's, whereby was signified
+the heads of Amyas and his schoolfellows, who were about to slay that
+dragon, and rescue the beautiful princess who dwelt in that enchanted
+tower. To behold which marvel of art, all the other boys at the same
+desk must needs club their heads together, and with the more security,
+because Sir Vindex, as was his custom after dinner, was lying back in
+his chair, and slept the sleep of the just.
+
+But when Amyas, by special instigation of the evil spirit who haunts
+successful artists, proceeded further to introduce, heedless of
+perspective, a rock, on which stood the lively portraiture of Sir
+Vindex--nose, spectacles, gown, and all; and in his hand a brandished
+rod, while out of his mouth a label shrieked after the runaways,
+"You come back!" while a similar label replied from the gallant bark,
+"Good-bye, master!" the shoving and tittering rose to such a pitch that
+Cerberus awoke, and demanded sternly what the noise was about. To which,
+of course, there was no answer.
+
+"You, of course, Leigh! Come up, sir, and show me your exercitation."
+
+Now of Amyas's exercitation not a word was written; and, moreover,
+he was in the very article of putting the last touches to Mr.
+Brimblecombe's portrait. Whereon, to the astonishment of all hearers, he
+made answer--
+
+"All in good time, sir!" and went on drawing.
+
+"In good time, sir! Insolent, veni et vapula!"
+
+But Amyas went on drawing.
+
+"Come hither, sirrah, or I'll flay you alive!"
+
+"Wait a bit!" answered Amyas.
+
+The old gentleman jumped up, ferula in hand, and darted across the
+school, and saw himself upon the fatal slate.
+
+"Proh flagitium! what have we here, villain?" and clutching at his
+victim, he raised the cane. Whereupon, with a serene and cheerful
+countenance, up rose the mighty form of Amyas Leigh, a head and
+shoulders above his tormentor, and that slate descended on the bald
+coxcomb of Sir Vindex Brimblecombe, with so shrewd a blow that slate and
+pate cracked at the same instant, and the poor pedagogue dropped to the
+floor, and lay for dead.
+
+After which Amyas arose, and walked out of the school, and so quietly
+home; and having taken counsel with himself, went to his mother, and
+said, "Please, mother, I've broken schoolmaster's head."
+
+"Broken his head, thou wicked boy!" shrieked the poor widow; "what didst
+do that for?"
+
+"I can't tell," said Amyas, penitently; "I couldn't help it. It looked
+so smooth, and bald, and round, and--you know?"
+
+"I know? Oh, wicked boy! thou hast given place to the devil; and now,
+perhaps, thou hast killed him."
+
+"Killed the devil?" asked Amyas, hopefully but doubtfully.
+
+"No, killed the schoolmaster, sirrah! Is he dead?"
+
+"I don't think he's dead; his coxcomb sounded too hard for that. But had
+not I better go and tell Sir Richard?"
+
+The poor mother could hardly help laughing, in spite of her terror,
+at Amyas's perfect coolness (which was not in the least meant for
+insolence), and being at her wits' end, sent him, as usual, to his
+godfather.
+
+Amyas rehearsed his story again, with pretty nearly the same
+exclamations, to which he gave pretty nearly the same answers; and
+then--"What was he going to do to you, then, sirrah?"
+
+"Flog me, because I could not write my exercise, and so drew a picture
+of him instead."
+
+"What! art afraid of being flogged?"
+
+"Not a bit; besides, I'm too much accustomed to it; but I was busy, and
+he was in such a desperate hurry; and, oh, sir, if you had but seen his
+bald head, you would have broken it yourself!"
+
+Now Sir Richard had, twenty years ago, in like place, and very much
+in like manner, broken the head of Vindex Brimblecombe's father,
+schoolmaster in his day, and therefore had a precedent to direct him;
+and he answered--"Amyas, sirrah! those who cannot obey will never be fit
+to rule. If thou canst not keep discipline now, thou wilt never make a
+company or a crew keep it when thou art grown. Dost mind that, sirrah?"
+
+"Yes," said Amyas.
+
+"Then go back to school this moment, sir, and be flogged."
+
+"Very well," said Amyas, considering that he had got off very cheaply;
+while Sir Richard, as soon as he was out of the room, lay back in his
+chair, and laughed till he cried again.
+
+So Amyas went back, and said that he was come to be flogged; whereon the
+old schoolmaster, whose pate had been plastered meanwhile, wept tears of
+joy over the returning prodigal, and then gave him such a switching as
+he did not forget for eight-and-forty hours.
+
+But that evening Sir Richard sent for old Vindex, who entered,
+trembling, cap in hand; and having primed him with a cup of sack,
+said--"Well, Mr. Schoolmaster! My godson has been somewhat too much for
+you to-day. There are a couple of nobles to pay the doctor."
+
+"O Sir Richard, gratias tibi et Domino! but the boy hits shrewdly
+hard. Nevertheless I have repaid him in inverse kind, and set him an
+imposition, to learn me one of Phaedrus his fables, Sir Richard, if you
+do not think it too much."
+
+"Which, then? The one about the man who brought up a lion's cub, and was
+eaten by him in play at last?"
+
+"Ah, Sir Richard! you have always a merry wit. But, indeed, the boy is a
+brave boy, and a quick boy, Sir Richard, but more forgetful than Lethe;
+and--sapienti loquor--it were well if he were away, for I shall never
+see him again without my head aching. Moreover, he put my son Jack upon
+the fire last Wednesday, as you would put a football, though he is a
+year older, your worship, because, he said, he looked so like a roasting
+pig, Sir Richard."
+
+"Alas, poor Jack!"
+
+"And what's more, your worship, he is pugnax, bellicosus, gladiator,
+a fire-eater and swash-buckler, beyond all Christian measure; a
+very sucking Entellus, Sir Richard, and will do to death some of her
+majesty's lieges erelong, if he be not wisely curbed. It was but a month
+agone that he bemoaned himself, I hear, as Alexander did, because there
+were no more worlds to conquer, saying that it was a pity he was so
+strong; for, now he had thrashed all the Bideford lads, he had no sport
+left; and so, as my Jack tells me, last Tuesday week he fell upon a
+young man of Barnstaple, Sir Richard, a hosier's man, sir, and plebeius
+(which I consider unfit for one of his blood), and, moreover, a man full
+grown, and as big as either of us (Vindex stood five feet four in his
+high-heeled shoes), and smote him clean over the quay into the mud,
+because he said that there was a prettier maid in Barnstaple (your
+worship will forgive my speaking of such toys, to which my fidelity
+compels me) than ever Bideford could show; and then offered to do the
+same to any man who dare say that Mistress Rose Salterne, his worship
+the mayor's daughter, was not the fairest lass in all Devon."
+
+"Eh? Say that over again, my good sir," quoth Sir Richard, who had thus
+arrived, as we have seen, at the second count of the indictment. "I say,
+good sir, whence dost thou hear all these pretty stories?"
+
+"My son Jack, Sir Richard, my son Jack, ingenui vultus puer."
+
+"But not, it seems, ingenui pudoris. Tell thee what, Mr. Schoolmaster,
+no wonder if thy son gets put on the fire, if thou employ him as a
+tale-bearer. But that is the way of all pedagogues and their sons,
+by which they train the lads up eavesdroppers and favor-curriers, and
+prepare them--sirrah, do you hear?--for a much more lasting and hotter
+fire than that which has scorched thy son Jack's nether-tackle. Do you
+mark me, sir?"
+
+The poor pedagogue, thus cunningly caught in his own trap, stood
+trembling before his patron, who, as hereditary head of the Bridge
+Trust, which endowed the school and the rest of the Bideford charities,
+could, by a turn of his finger, sweep him forth with the besom
+of destruction; and he gasped with terror as Sir Richard went
+on--"Therefore, mind you, Sir Schoolmaster, unless you shall promise me
+never to hint word of what has passed between us two, and that neither
+you nor yours shall henceforth carry tales of my godson, or speak his
+name within a day's march of Mistress Salterne's, look to it, if I do
+not--"
+
+What was to be done in default was not spoken; for down went poor old
+Vindex on his knees:--
+
+"Oh, Sir Richard! Excellentissime, immo praecelsissime Domine et
+Senator, I promise! O sir, Miles et Eques of the Garter, Bath, and
+Golden Fleece, consider your dignities, and my old age--and my great
+family--nine children--oh, Sir Richard, and eight of them girls!--Do
+eagles war with mice? says the ancient!"
+
+"Thy large family, eh? How old is that fat-witted son of thine?"
+
+"Sixteen, Sir Richard; but that is not his fault, indeed!"
+
+"Nay, I suppose he would be still sucking his thumb if he dared--get up,
+man--get up and seat yourself."
+
+"Heaven forbid!" murmured poor Vindex, with deep humility.
+
+"Why is not the rogue at Oxford, with a murrain on him, instead of
+lurching about here carrying tales and ogling the maidens?"
+
+"I had hoped, Sir Richard--and therefore I said it was not his
+fault--but there was never a servitorship at Exeter open."
+
+"Go to, man--go to! I will speak to my brethren of the Trust, and to
+Oxford he shall go this autumn, or else to Exeter gaol, for a strong
+rogue, and a masterless man. Do you hear?"
+
+"Hear?--oh, sir, yes! and return thanks. Jack shall go, Sir Richard,
+doubt it not--I were mad else; and, Sir Richard, may I go too?"
+
+And therewith Vindex vanished, and Sir Richard enjoyed a second mighty
+laugh, which brought in Lady Grenville, who possibly had overheard the
+whole; for the first words she said were--
+
+"I think, my sweet life, we had better go up to Burrough."
+
+So to Burrough they went; and after much talk, and many tears, matters
+were so concluded that Amyas Leigh found himself riding joyfully towards
+Plymouth, by the side of Sir Richard, and being handed over to Captain
+Drake, vanished for three years from the good town of Bideford.
+
+And now he is returned in triumph, and the observed of all observers;
+and looks round and round, and sees all faces whom he expects, except
+one; and that the one which he had rather see than his mother's? He is
+not quite sure. Shame on himself!
+
+And now the prayers being ended, the rector ascends the pulpit, and
+begins his sermon on the text:--
+
+"The heaven and the heaven of heavens are the Lord's; the whole earth
+hath he given to the children of men;" deducing therefrom craftily, to
+the exceeding pleasure of his hearers, the iniquity of the Spaniards
+in dispossessing the Indians, and in arrogating to themselves the
+sovereignty of the tropic seas; the vanity of the Pope of Rome in
+pretending to bestow on them the new countries of America; and the
+justice, valor, and glory of Mr. Drake and his expedition, as testified
+by God's miraculous protection of him and his, both in the Straits of
+Magellan, and in his battle with the Galleon; and last, but not least,
+upon the rock by Celebes, when the Pelican lay for hours firmly fixed,
+and was floated off unhurt, as it were by miracle, by a sudden shift of
+wind.
+
+Ay, smile, reader, if you will; and, perhaps, there was matter for a
+smile in that honest sermon, interlarded, as it was, with scraps of
+Greek and Hebrew, which no one understood, but every one expected as
+their right (for a preacher was nothing then who could not prove himself
+"a good Latiner"); and graced, moreover, by a somewhat pedantic and
+lengthy refutation from Scripture of Dan Horace's cockney horror of the
+sea--
+
+     "Illi robur et aes triplex," etc.
+
+and his infidel and ungodly slander against the impias rates, and their
+crews.
+
+Smile, if you will: but those were days (and there were never less
+superstitious ones) in which Englishmen believed in the living God, and
+were not ashamed to acknowledge, as a matter of course, His help and
+providence, and calling, in the matters of daily life, which we now
+in our covert atheism term "secular and carnal;" and when, the sermon
+ended, the communion service had begun, and the bread and the wine were
+given to those five mariners, every gallant gentleman who stood near
+them (for the press would not allow of more) knelt and received the
+elements with them as a thing of course, and then rose to join with
+heart and voice not merely in the Gloria in Excelsis, but in the Te
+Deum, which was the closing act of all. And no sooner had the clerk
+given out the first verse of that great hymn, than it was taken up by
+five hundred voices within the church, in bass and tenor, treble and
+alto (for every one could sing in those days, and the west-country folk,
+as now, were fuller than any of music), the chant was caught up by the
+crowd outside, and rang away over roof and river, up to the woods of
+Annery, and down to the marshes of the Taw, in wave on wave of harmony.
+And as it died away, the shipping in the river made answer with their
+thunder, and the crowd streamed out again toward the Bridge Head,
+whither Sir Richard Grenville, and Sir John Chichester, and Mr.
+Salterne, the Mayor, led the five heroes of the day to await the pageant
+which had been prepared in honor of them. And as they went by, there
+were few in the crowd who did not press forward to shake them by the
+hand, and not only them, but their parents and kinsfolk who walked
+behind, till Mrs. Leigh, her stately joy quite broken down at last,
+could only answer between her sobs, "Go along, good people--God a mercy,
+go along--and God send you all such sons!"
+
+"God give me back mine!" cried an old red-cloaked dame in the crowd; and
+then, struck by some hidden impulse, she sprang forward, and catching
+hold of young Amyas's sleeve--
+
+"Kind sir! dear sir! For Christ his sake answer a poor old widow woman!"
+
+"What is it, dame?" quoth Amyas, gently enough.
+
+"Did you see my son to the Indies?--my son Salvation?"
+
+"Salvation?" replied he, with the air of one who recollected the name.
+
+"Yes, sure, Salvation Yeo, of Clovelly. A tall man and black, and
+sweareth awfully in his talk, the Lord forgive him!"
+
+Amyas recollected now. It was the name of the sailor who had given him
+the wondrous horn five years ago.
+
+"My good dame," said he, "the Indies are a very large place, and your
+son may be safe and sound enough there, without my having seen him.
+I knew one Salvation Yeo. But he must have come with--By the by,
+godfather, has Mr. Oxenham come home?"
+
+There was a dead silence for a moment among the gentlemen round; and
+then Sir Richard said solemnly, and in a low voice, turning away from
+the old dame,--
+
+"Amyas, Mr. Oxenham has not come home; and from the day he sailed, no
+word has been heard of him and all his crew."
+
+"Oh, Sir Richard! and you kept me from sailing with him! Had I known
+this before I went into church, I had had one mercy more to thank God
+for."
+
+"Thank Him all the more in thy life, my child!" whispered his mother.
+
+"And no news of him whatsoever?"
+
+"None; but that the year after he sailed, a ship belonging to Andrew
+Barker, of Bristol, took out of a Spanish caravel, somewhere off the
+Honduras, his two brass guns; but whence they came the Spaniard knew
+not, having bought them at Nombre de Dios."
+
+"Yes!" cried the old woman; "they brought home the guns, and never
+brought home my boy!"
+
+"They never saw your boy, mother," said Sir Richard.
+
+"But I've seen him! I saw him in a dream four years last Whitsuntide, as
+plain as I see you now, gentles, a-lying upon a rock, calling for a drop
+of water to cool his tongue, like Dives to the torment! Oh! dear me!"
+and the old dame wept bitterly.
+
+"There is a rose noble for you!" said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"And there another!" said Sir Richard. And in a few minutes four or five
+gold coins were in her hand. But the old dame did but look wonderingly
+at the gold a moment, and then--
+
+"Ah! dear gentles, God's blessing on you, and Mr. Cary's mighty good to
+me already; but gold won't buy back childer! O! young gentleman! young
+gentleman! make me a promise; if you want God's blessing on you this
+day, bring me back my boy, if you find him sailing on the seas! Bring
+him back, and an old widow's blessing be on you!"
+
+Amyas promised--what else could he do?--and the group hurried on; but
+the lad's heart was heavy in the midst of joy, with the thought of John
+Oxenham, as he walked through the churchyard, and down the short street
+which led between the ancient school and still more ancient town-house,
+to the head of the long bridge, across which the pageant, having
+arranged "east-the-water," was to defile, and then turn to the right
+along the quay.
+
+However, he was bound in all courtesy to turn his attention now to the
+show which had been prepared in his honor, and which was really well
+enough worth seeing and hearing. The English were, in those days, an
+altogether dramatic people; ready and able, as in Bideford that day, to
+extemporize a pageant, a masque, or any effort of the Thespian art short
+of the regular drama. For they were, in the first place, even down to
+the very poorest, a well-fed people, with fewer luxuries than we, but
+more abundant necessaries; and while beef, ale, and good woollen clothes
+could be obtained in plenty, without overworking either body or soul,
+men had time to amuse themselves in something more intellectual
+than mere toping in pot-houses. Moreover, the half century after the
+Reformation in England was one not merely of new intellectual freedom,
+but of immense animal good spirits. After years of dumb confusion and
+cruel persecution, a breathing time had come: Mary and the fires of
+Smithfield had vanished together like a hideous dream, and the mighty
+shout of joy which greeted Elizabeth's entry into London, was the
+key-note of fifty glorious years; the expression of a new-found strength
+and freedom, which vented itself at home in drama and in song; abroad
+in mighty conquests, achieved with the laughing recklessness of boys at
+play.
+
+So first, preceded by the waits, came along the bridge toward the
+town-hall a device prepared by the good rector, who, standing by, acted
+as showman, and explained anxiously to the bystanders the import of
+a certain "allegory" wherein on a great banner was depicted Queen
+Elizabeth herself, who, in ample ruff and farthingale, a Bible in one
+hand and a sword in the other, stood triumphant upon the necks of two
+sufficiently abject personages, whose triple tiara and imperial crown
+proclaimed them the Pope and the King of Spain; while a label, issuing
+from her royal mouth, informed the world that--
+
+     "By land and sea a virgin queen I reign,
+     And spurn to dust both Antichrist and Spain."
+
+Which, having been received with due applause, a well-bedizened lad,
+having in his cap as a posy "Loyalty," stepped forward, and delivered
+himself of the following verses:--
+
+     "Oh, great Eliza! oh, world-famous crew!
+     Which shall I hail more blest, your queen or you?
+     While without other either falls to wrack,
+     And light must eyes, or eyes their light must lack.
+     She without you, a diamond sunk in mine,
+     Its worth unprized, to self alone must shine;
+     You without her, like hands bereft of head,
+     Like Ajax rage, by blindfold lust misled.
+     She light, you eyes; she head, and you the hands,
+     In fair proportion knit by heavenly hands;
+     Servants in queen, and queen in servants blest;
+     Your only glory, how to serve her best;
+     And hers how best the adventurous might to guide,
+     Which knows no check of foemen, wind, or tide,
+     So fair Eliza's spotless fame may fly
+     Triumphant round the globe, and shake th' astounded sky!"
+
+With which sufficiently bad verses Loyalty passed on, while my Lady Bath
+hinted to Sir Richard, not without reason, that the poet, in trying to
+exalt both parties, had very sufficiently snubbed both, and intimated
+that it was "hardly safe for country wits to attempt that euphuistic,
+antithetical, and delicately conceited vein, whose proper fountain was
+in Whitehall." However, on went Loyalty, very well pleased with himself,
+and next, amid much cheering, two great tinsel fish, a salmon and a
+trout, symbolical of the wealth of Torridge, waddled along, by means
+of two human legs and a staff apiece, which protruded from the fishes'
+stomachs. They drew (or seemed to draw, for half the 'prentices in the
+town were shoving it behind, and cheering on the panting monarchs of
+the flood) a car wherein sate, amid reeds and river-flags, three or
+four pretty girls in robes of gray-blue spangled with gold, their heads
+wreathed one with a crown of the sweet bog-myrtle, another with hops
+and white convolvulus, the third with pale heather and golden fern. They
+stopped opposite Amyas; and she of the myrtle wreath, rising and bowing
+to him and the company, began with a pretty blush to say her say:--
+
+     "Hither from my moorland home,
+     Nymph of Torridge, proud I come;
+     Leaving fen and furzy brake,
+     Haunt of eft and spotted snake,
+     Where to fill mine urns I use,
+     Daily with Atlantic dews;
+     While beside the reedy flood
+     Wild duck leads her paddling brood.
+     For this morn, as Phoebus gay
+     Chased through heaven the night mist gray,
+     Close beside me, prankt in pride,
+     Sister Tamar rose, and cried,
+     'Sluggard, up! 'Tis holiday,
+     In the lowlands far away.
+     Hark! how jocund Plymouth bells,
+     Wandering up through mazy dells,
+     Call me down, with smiles to hail,
+     My daring Drake's returning sail.'
+     'Thine alone?' I answer'd.  'Nay;
+     Mine as well the joy to-day.
+     Heroes train'd on Northern wave,
+     To that Argo new I gave;
+     Lent to thee, they roam'd the main;
+     Give me, nymph, my sons again.'
+     'Go, they wait Thee,' Tamar cried,
+     Southward bounding from my side.
+     Glad I rose, and at my call,
+     Came my Naiads, one and all.
+     Nursling of the mountain sky,
+     Leaving Dian's choir on high,
+     Down her cataracts laughing loud,
+     Ockment leapt from crag and cloud,
+     Leading many a nymph, who dwells
+     Where wild deer drink in ferny dells;
+     While the Oreads as they past
+     Peep'd from Druid Tors aghast.
+     By alder copses sliding slow,
+     Knee-deep in flowers came gentler Yeo
+     And paused awhile her locks to twine
+     With musky hops and white woodbine,
+     Then joined the silver-footed band,
+     Which circled down my golden sand,
+     By dappled park, and harbor shady,
+     Haunt of love-lorn knight and lady,
+     My thrice-renowned sons to greet,
+     With rustic song and pageant meet.
+     For joy! the girdled robe around
+     Eliza's name henceforth shall sound,
+     Whose venturous fleets to conquest start,
+     Where ended once the seaman's chart,
+     While circling Sol his steps shall count
+     Henceforth from Thule's western mount,
+     And lead new rulers round the seas
+     From furthest Cassiterides.
+     For found is now the golden tree,
+     Solv'd th' Atlantic mystery,
+     Pluck'd the dragon-guarded fruit;
+     While around the charmed root,
+     Wailing loud, the Hesperids
+     Watch their warder's drooping lids.
+     Low he lies with grisly wound,
+     While the sorceress triple-crown'd
+     In her scarlet robe doth shield him,
+     Till her cunning spells have heal'd him.
+     Ye, meanwhile, around the earth
+     Bear the prize of manful worth.
+     Yet a nobler meed than gold
+     Waits for Albion's children bold;
+     Great Eliza's virgin hand
+     Welcomes you to Fairy-land,
+     While your native Naiads bring
+     Native wreaths as offering.
+     Simple though their show may be,
+     Britain's worship in them see.
+     'Tis not price, nor outward fairness,
+     Gives the victor's palm its rareness;
+     Simplest tokens can impart
+     Noble throb to noble heart:
+     Graecia, prize thy parsley crown,
+     Boast thy laurel, Caesar's town;
+     Moorland myrtle still shall be
+     Badge of Devon's Chivalry!"
+
+And so ending, she took the wreath of fragrant gale from her own head,
+and stooping from the car, placed it on the head of Amyas Leigh, who
+made answer--
+
+"There is no place like home, my fair mistress and no scent to my taste
+like this old home-scent in all the spice-islands that I ever sailed
+by!"
+
+"Her song was not so bad," said Sir Richard to Lady Bath--"but how came
+she to hear Plymouth bells at Tamar-head, full fifty miles away? That's
+too much of a poet's license, is it not?"
+
+"The river-nymphs, as daughters of Oceanus, and thus of immortal
+parentage, are bound to possess organs of more than mortal keenness;
+but, as you say, the song was not so bad--erudite, as well as
+prettily conceived--and, saving for a certain rustical simplicity and
+monosyllabic baldness, smacks rather of the forests of Castaly than
+those of Torridge."
+
+So spake my Lady Bath; whom Sir Richard wisely answered not; for she was
+a terribly learned member of the college of critics, and disputed even
+with Sidney's sister the chieftaincy of the Euphuists; so Sir Richard
+answered not, but answer was made for him.
+
+"Since the whole choir of Muses, madam, have migrated to the Court of
+Whitehall, no wonder if some dews of Parnassus should fertilize at times
+even our Devon moors."
+
+The speaker was a tall and slim young man, some five-and-twenty years
+old, of so rare and delicate a beauty, that it seemed that some Greek
+statue, or rather one of those pensive and pious knights whom the old
+German artists took delight to paint, had condescended to tread awhile
+this work-day earth in living flesh and blood. The forehead was very
+lofty and smooth, the eyebrows thin and greatly arched (the envious
+gallants whispered that something at least of their curve was due to
+art, as was also the exceeding smoothness of those delicate cheeks).
+The face was somewhat long and thin; the nose aquiline; and the languid
+mouth showed, perhaps, too much of the ivory upper teeth; but the
+most striking point of the speaker's appearance was the extraordinary
+brilliancy of his complexion, which shamed with its whiteness that of
+all fair ladies round, save where open on each cheek a bright red spot
+gave warning, as did the long thin neck and the taper hands, of sad
+possibilities, perhaps not far off; possibilities which all saw with an
+inward sigh, except she whose doting glances, as well as her resemblance
+to the fair youth, proclaimed her at once his mother, Mrs. Leigh
+herself.
+
+Master Frank, for he it was, was dressed in the very extravagance of
+the fashion,--not so much from vanity, as from that delicate instinct
+of self-respect which would keep some men spruce and spotless from one
+year's end to another upon a desert island; "for," as Frank used to say
+in his sententious way, "Mr. Frank Leigh at least beholds me, though
+none else be by; and why should I be more discourteous to him than
+I permit others to be? Be sure that he who is a Grobian in his own
+company, will, sooner or later, become a Grobian in that of his
+friends."
+
+So Mr. Frank was arrayed spotlessly; but after the latest fashion of
+Milan, not in trunk hose and slashed sleeves, nor in "French standing
+collar, treble quadruple daedalian ruff, or stiff-necked rabato, that
+had more arches for pride, propped up with wire and timber, than five
+London Bridges;" but in a close-fitting and perfectly plain suit of
+dove-color, which set off cunningly the delicate proportions of his
+figure, and the delicate hue of his complexion, which was shaded from
+the sun by a broad dove-colored Spanish hat, with feather to match,
+looped up over the right ear with a pearl brooch, and therein a crowned
+E, supposed by the damsels of Bideford to stand for Elizabeth, which
+was whispered to be the gift of some most illustrious hand. This same
+looping up was not without good reason and purpose prepense; thereby all
+the world had full view of a beautiful little ear, which looked as if
+it had been cut of cameo, and made, as my Lady Rich once told him, "to
+hearken only to the music of the spheres, or to the chants of cherubim."
+Behind the said ear was stuck a fresh rose; and the golden hair was all
+drawn smoothly back and round to the left temple, whence, tied with a
+pink ribbon in a great true lover's knot, a mighty love-lock, "curled as
+it had been laid in press," rolled down low upon his bosom. Oh, Frank!
+Frank! have you come out on purpose to break the hearts of all Bideford
+burghers' daughters? And if so, did you expect to further that triumph
+by dyeing that pretty little pointed beard (with shame I report it) of
+a bright vermilion? But we know you better, Frank, and so does your
+mother; and you are but a masquerading angel after all, in spite of
+your knots and your perfumes, and the gold chain round your neck which a
+German princess gave you; and the emerald ring on your right fore-finger
+which Hatton gave you; and the pair of perfumed gloves in your left
+which Sidney's sister gave you; and the silver-hilted Toledo which an
+Italian marquis gave you on a certain occasion of which you never choose
+to talk, like a prudent and modest gentleman as you are; but of which
+the gossips talk, of course, all the more, and whisper that you saved
+his life from bravoes--a dozen, at the least; and had that sword for
+your reward, and might have had his beautiful sister's hand beside, and
+I know not what else; but that you had so many lady-loves already that
+you were loath to burden yourself with a fresh one. That, at least, we
+know to be a lie, fair Frank; for your heart is as pure this day as when
+you knelt in your little crib at Burrough, and said--
+
+     "Four corners to my bed
+     Four angels round my head;
+     Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
+     Bless the bed that I lie on."
+
+And who could doubt it (if being pure themselves, they have instinctive
+sympathy with what is pure), who ever looked into those great deep blue
+eyes of yours, "the black fringed curtains of whose azure lids,"
+usually down-dropt as if in deepest thought, you raise slowly, almost
+wonderingly each time you speak, as if awakening from some fair dream
+whose home is rather in your platonical "eternal world of supra-sensible
+forms," than on that work-day earth wherein you nevertheless acquit
+yourself so well? There--I must stop describing you, or I shall catch
+the infection of your own euphuism, and talk of you as you would have
+talked of Sidney or of Spenser, or of that Swan of Avon, whose song
+had just begun when yours--but I will not anticipate; my Lady Bath is
+waiting to give you her rejoinder.
+
+"Ah, my silver-tongued scholar! and are you, then, the poet? or have
+you been drawing on the inexhaustible bank of your friend Raleigh, or my
+cousin Sidney? or has our new Cygnet Immerito lent you a few unpublished
+leaves from some fresh Shepherd's Calendar?"
+
+"Had either, madam, of that cynosural triad been within call of my
+most humble importunities, your ears had been delectate with far nobler
+melody."
+
+"But not our eyes with fairer faces, eh? Well, you have chosen your
+nymphs, and had good store from whence to pick, I doubt not. Few
+young Dulcineas round but must have been glad to take service under so
+renowned a captain?"
+
+"The only difficulty, gracious countess, has been to know where to fix
+the wandering choice of my bewildered eyes, where all alike are fair,
+and all alike facund."
+
+"We understand," said she, smiling;--
+
+     "Dan Cupid, choosing 'midst his mother's graces,
+     Himself more fair, made scorn of fairest faces."
+
+The young scholar capped her distich forthwith, and bowing to her with a
+meaning look,
+
+
+"'Then, Goddess, turn,' he cried, 'and veil thy light; Blinded by thine,
+what eyes can choose aright?'"
+
+
+"Go, saucy sir," said my lady, in high glee: "the pageant stays your
+supreme pleasure."
+
+And away went Mr. Frank as master of the revels, to bring up the
+'prentices' pageant; while, for his sake, the nymph of Torridge was
+forgotten for awhile by all young dames, and most young gentlemen: and
+his mother heaved a deep sigh, which Lady Bath overhearing--
+
+"What? in the dumps, good madam, while all are rejoicing in your joy?
+Are you afraid that we court-dames shall turn your Adonis's brain for
+him?"
+
+"I do, indeed, fear lest your condescension should make him forget that
+he is only a poor squire's orphan."
+
+"I will warrant him never to forget aught that he should recollect,"
+said my Lady Bath.
+
+And she spoke truly. But soon Frank's silver voice was heard calling
+out--
+
+"Room there, good people, for the gallant 'prentice lads!"
+
+And on they came, headed by a giant of buckram and pasteboard armor,
+forth of whose stomach looked, like a clock-face in a steeple, a human
+visage, to be greeted, as was the fashion then, by a volley of quips and
+puns from high and low.
+
+Young Mr. William Cary, of Clovelly, who was the wit of those parts,
+opened the fire by asking him whether he were Goliath, Gogmagog, or
+Grantorto in the romance; for giants' names always began with a G. To
+which the giant's stomach answered pretty surlily--
+
+"Mine don't; I begin with an O."
+
+"Then thou criest out before thou art hurt, O cowardly giant!"
+
+"Let me out, lads," quoth the irascible visage, struggling in his
+buckram prison, "and I soon show him whether I be a coward."
+
+"Nay, if thou gettest out of thyself, thou wouldst be beside thyself,
+and so wert but a mad giant."
+
+"And that were pity," said Lady Bath; "for by the romances, giants have
+never overmuch wit to spare."
+
+"Mercy, dear lady!" said Frank, "and let the giant begin with an O."
+
+"A ----"
+
+"A false start, giant! you were to begin with an O."
+
+"I'll make you end with an O, Mr. William Cary!" roared the testy tower
+of buckram.
+
+"And so I do, for I end with 'Fico!'"
+
+"Be mollified, sweet giant," said Frank, "and spare the rash youth of
+yon foolish knight. Shall elephants catch flies, or Hurlo-Thrumbo stain
+his club with brains of Dagonet the jester? Be mollified; leave thy
+caverned grumblings, like Etna when its windy wrath is past, and
+discourse eloquence from thy central omphalos, like Pythoness
+ventriloquizing."
+
+"If you do begin laughing at me too, Mr. Leigh ----" said the giant's
+clock-face, in a piteous tone.
+
+"I laugh not. Art thou not Ordulf the earl, and I thy humblest squire?
+Speak up, my lord; your cousin, my Lady Bath, commands you."
+
+And at last the giant began:--
+
+     "A giant I, Earl Ordulf men me call,--
+     'Gainst Paynim foes Devonia's champion tall;
+     In single fight six thousand Turks I slew;
+     Pull'd off a lion's head, and ate it too:
+     With one shrewd blow, to let St. Edward in,
+     I smote the gates of Exeter in twain;
+     Till aged grown, by angels warn'd in dream,
+     I built an abbey fair by Tavy stream.
+     But treacherous time hath tripped my glories up,
+     The stanch old hound must yield to stancher pup;
+     Here's one so tall as I, and twice so bold,
+     Where I took only cuffs, takes good red gold.
+     From pole to pole resound his wondrous works,
+     Who slew more Spaniards than I e'er slew Turks;
+     I strode across the Tavy stream: but he
+     Strode round the world and back; and here 'a be!"
+
+"Oh, bathos!" said Lady Bath, while the 'prentices shouted applause. "Is
+this hedge-bantling to be fathered on you, Mr. Frank?"
+
+"It is necessary, by all laws of the drama, madam," said Frank, with a
+sly smile, "that the speech and the speaker shall fit each other. Pass
+on, Earl Ordulf; a more learned worthy waits."
+
+Whereon, up came a fresh member of the procession; namely, no less
+a person than Vindex Brimblecombe, the ancient schoolmaster, with
+five-and-forty boys at his heels, who halting, pulled out his
+spectacles, and thus signified his forgiveness of his whilom broken
+head:--
+
+"That the world should have been circumnavigated, ladies and gentles,
+were matter enough of jubilation to the student of Herodotus and Plato,
+Plinius and ---- ahem! much more when the circumnavigators are Britons;
+more, again, when Damnonians."
+
+"Don't swear, master," said young Will Cary.
+
+"Gulielme Cary, Gulielme Cary, hast thou forgotten thy--"
+
+"Whippings? Never, old lad! Go on; but let not the license of the
+scholar overtop the modesty of the Christian."
+
+"More again, as I said, when, incolae, inhabitants of Devon; but,
+most of all, men of Bideford school. Oh renowned school! Oh schoolboys
+ennobled by fellowship with him! Oh most happy pedagogue, to whom it has
+befallen to have chastised a circumnavigator, and, like another Chiron,
+trained another Hercules: yet more than Hercules, for he placed
+his pillars on the ocean shore, and then returned; but my scholar's
+voyage--"
+
+"Hark how the old fox is praising himself all along on the sly," said
+Cary.
+
+"Mr. William, Mr. William, peace;--silentium, my graceless pupil. Urge
+the foaming steed, and strike terror into the rapid stag, but meddle not
+with matters too high for thee."
+
+"He has given you the dor now, sir," said Lady Bath; "let the old man
+say his say."
+
+"I bring, therefore, as my small contribution to this day's feast; first
+a Latin epigram, as thus--"
+
+"Latin? Let us hear it forthwith," cried my lady.
+
+And the old pedant mouthed out--
+
+     "Torriguiam Tamaris ne spernat; Leighius addet
+     Mox terras terris, inclyte Drake, tuis."
+
+"Neat, i' faith, la!" Whereon all the rest, as in duty bound, approved
+also.
+
+"This for the erudite: for vulgar ears the vernacular is more consonant,
+sympathetic, instructive; as thus:--
+
+     "Famed Argo ship, that noble chip, by doughty Jason's steering,
+     Brought back to Greece the golden fleece, from Colchis home
+          careering;
+     But now her fame is put to shame, while new Devonian Argo,
+     Round earth doth run in wake of sun, and brings wealthier cargo."
+
+"Runs with a right fa-lal-la," observed Cary; "and would go nobly to a
+fiddle and a big drum."
+
+     "Ye Spaniards, quake! our doughty Drake a royal swan is tested,
+     On wing and oar, from shore to shore, the raging main who
+          breasted:--
+     But never needs to chant his deeds, like swan that lies a-dying,
+     So far his name, by trump of fame, around the sphere is flying."
+
+"Hillo ho! schoolmaster!" shouted a voice from behind; "move on, and
+make way for Father Neptune!" Whereon a whole storm of raillery fell
+upon the hapless pedagogue.
+
+"We waited for the parson's alligator, but we wain't for yourn."
+
+"Allegory! my children, allegory!" shrieked the man of letters.
+
+"What do ye call he an alligator for? He is but a poor little starved
+evat!"
+
+"Out of the road, old Custis! March on, Don Palmado!"
+
+These allusions to the usual instrument of torture in West-country
+schools made the old gentleman wince; especially when they were followed
+home by--
+
+"Who stole Admiral Grenville's brooms, because birch rods were dear?"
+
+But proudly he shook his bald head, as a bull shakes off the flies, and
+returned to the charge once more.
+
+
+"Great Alexander, famed commander, wept and made a pother, At conquering
+only half the world, but Drake had conquer'd t'other; And Hercules to
+brink of seas!--"
+
+
+"Oh--!"
+
+And clapping both hands to the back of his neck, the schoolmaster began
+dancing frantically about, while his boys broke out tittering, "O! the
+ochidore! look to the blue ochidore! Who've put ochidore to maister's
+poll!"
+
+It was too true: neatly inserted, as he stooped forward, between his
+neck and his collar, was a large live shore-crab, holding on tight with
+both hands.
+
+"Gentles! good Christians! save me! I am mare-rode! Incubo, vel ab
+incubo, opprimor! Satanas has me by the poll! Help! he tears my jugular;
+he wrings my neck, as he does to Dr. Faustus in the play. Confiteor!--I
+confess! Satan, I defy thee! Good people, I confess! [Greek text]! The
+truth will out. Mr. Francis Leigh wrote the epigram!" And diving through
+the crowd, the pedagogue vanished howling, while Father Neptune, crowned
+with sea-weeds, a trident in one hand, and a live dog-fish in the other,
+swaggered up the street surrounded by a tall bodyguard of mariners, and
+followed by a great banner, on which was depicted a globe, with Drake's
+ship sailing thereon upside down, and overwritten--
+
+     "See every man the Pelican,
+        Which round the world did go,
+     While her stern-post was uppermost,
+        And topmasts down below.
+     And by the way she lost a day,
+        Out of her log was stole:
+     But Neptune kind, with favoring wind,
+        Hath brought her safe and whole."
+
+"Now, lads!" cried Neptune; "hand me my parable that's writ for me, and
+here goeth!"
+
+And at the top of his bull-voice, he began roaring--
+
+     "I am King Neptune bold,
+       The ruler of the seas
+     I don't understand much singing upon land,
+       But I hope what I say will please.
+
+     "Here be five Bideford men,
+       Which have sail'd the world around,
+     And I watch'd them well, as they all can tell,
+       And brought them home safe and sound.
+
+     "For it is the men of Devon.
+       To see them I take delight,
+     Both to tack and to hull, and to heave and to pull,
+       And to prove themselves in fight.
+
+     "Where be those Spaniards proud,
+       That make their valiant boasts;
+     And think for to keep the poor Indians for their sheep,
+       And to farm my golden coasts?
+
+     "'Twas the devil and the Pope gave them
+       My kingdom for their own:
+     But my nephew Francis Drake, he caused them to quake,
+       And he pick'd them to the bone.
+
+     "For the sea my realm it is,
+       As good Queen Bess's is the land;
+     So freely come again, all merry Devon men,
+       And there's old Neptune's hand."
+
+"Holla, boys! holla! Blow up, Triton, and bring forward the freedom of
+the seas."
+
+Triton, roaring through a conch, brought forward a cockle-shell full of
+salt-water, and delivered it solemnly to Amyas, who, of course, put a
+noble into it, and returned it after Grenville had done the same.
+
+"Holla, Dick Admiral!" cried neptune, who was pretty far gone in liquor;
+"we knew thou hadst a right English heart in thee, for all thou standest
+there as taut as a Don who has swallowed his rapier."
+
+"Grammercy, stop thy bellowing, fellow, and on; for thou smellest vilely
+of fish."
+
+"Everything smells sweet in its right place. I'm going home."
+
+"I thought thou wert there all along, being already half-seas over,"
+said Cary.
+
+"Ay, right Upsee-Dutch; and that's more than thou ever wilt be, thou
+'long-shore stay-at-home. Why wast making sheep's eyes at Mistress
+Salterne here, while my pretty little chuck of Burrough there was
+playing at shove-groat with Spanish doubloons?"
+
+"Go to the devil, sirrah!" said Cary. Neptune had touched on a sore
+subject; and more cheeks than Amyas Leigh's reddened at the hint.
+
+"Amen, if Heaven so please!" and on rolled the monarch of the seas; and
+so the pageant ended.
+
+The moment Amyas had an opportunity, he asked his brother Frank,
+somewhat peevishly, where Rose Salterne was.
+
+"What! the mayor's daughter? With her uncle by Kilkhampton, I believe."
+
+Now cunning Master Frank, whose daily wish was to "seek peace and ensue
+it," told Amyas this, because he must needs speak the truth: but he was
+purposed at the same time to speak as little truth as he could, for fear
+of accidents; and, therefore, omitted to tell his brother how that he,
+two days before, had entreated Rose Salterne herself to appear as the
+nymph of Torridge; which honor she, who had no objection either to
+exhibit her pretty face, to recite pretty poetry, or to be trained
+thereto by the cynosure of North Devon, would have assented willingly,
+but that her father stopped the pretty project by a peremptory
+countermove, and packed her off, in spite of her tears, to the said
+uncle on the Atlantic cliffs; after which he went up to Burrough, and
+laughed over the whole matter with Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"I am but a burgher, Mrs. Leigh, and you a lady of blood; but I am too
+proud to let any man say that Simon Salterne threw his daughter at your
+son's head;--no; not if you were an empress!"
+
+"And to speak truth, Mr. Salterne, there are young gallants enough in
+the country quarrelling about her pretty face every day, without making
+her a tourney-queen to tilt about."
+
+Which was very true; for during the three years of Amyas's absence, Rose
+Salterne had grown into so beautiful a girl of eighteen, that half North
+Devon was mad about the "Rose of Torridge," as she was called; and
+there was not a young gallant for ten miles round (not to speak of her
+father's clerks and 'prentices, who moped about after her like so many
+Malvolios, and treasured up the very parings of her nails) who would
+not have gone to Jerusalem to win her. So that all along the vales of
+Torridge and of Taw, and even away to Clovelly (for young Mr. Cary was
+one of the sick), not a gay bachelor but was frowning on his fellows,
+and vying with them in the fashion of his clothes, the set of his ruffs,
+the harness of his horse, the carriage of his hawks, the pattern of his
+sword-hilt; and those were golden days for all tailors and armorers,
+from Exmoor to Okehampton town. But of all those foolish young lads
+not one would speak to the other, either out hunting, or at the archery
+butts, or in the tilt-yard; and my Lady Bath (who confessed that there
+was no use in bringing out her daughters where Rose Salterne was in the
+way) prophesied in her classical fashion that Rose's wedding bid fair
+to be a very bridal of Atalanta, and feast of the Lapithae; and poor
+Mr. Will Cary (who always blurted out the truth), when old Salterne once
+asked him angrily in Bideford Market, "What a plague business had he
+making sheep's eyes at his daughter?" broke out before all bystanders,
+"And what a plague business had you, old boy, to throw such an apple of
+discord into our merry meetings hereabouts? If you choose to have such
+a daughter, you must take the consequences, and be hanged to you." To
+which Mr. Salterne answered with some truth, "That she was none of his
+choosing, nor of Mr. Cary's neither." And so the dor being given, the
+belligerents parted laughing, but the war remained in statu quo; and
+not a week passed but, by mysterious hands, some nosegay, or languishing
+sonnet, was conveyed into The Rose's chamber, all which she stowed away,
+with the simplicity of a country girl, finding it mighty pleasant; and
+took all compliments quietly enough, probably because, on the authority
+of her mirror, she considered them no more than her due.
+
+And now, to add to the general confusion, home was come young Amyas
+Leigh, more desperately in love with her than ever. For, as is the
+way with sailors (who after all are the truest lovers, as they are the
+finest fellows, God bless them, upon earth), his lonely ship-watches
+had been spent in imprinting on his imagination, month after month, year
+after year, every feature and gesture and tone of the fair lass whom he
+had left behind him; and that all the more intensely, because, beside
+his mother, he had no one else to think of, and was as pure as the day
+he was born, having been trained as many a brave young man was then,
+to look upon profligacy not as a proof of manhood, but as what the old
+Germans, and those Gortyneans who crowned the offender with wool, knew
+it to be, a cowardly and effeminate sin.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+OF TWO GENTLEMEN OF WALES, AND HOW THEY HUNTED WITH THE HOUNDS, AND YET
+RAN WITH THE DEER
+
+     "I know that Deformed; he has been a vile thief this seven years;
+     he goes up and down like a gentleman: I remember his name."--Much
+     Ado About Nothing.
+
+Amyas slept that night a tired and yet a troubled sleep; and his mother
+and Frank, as they bent over his pillow, could see that his brain was
+busy with many dreams.
+
+And no wonder; for over and above all the excitement of the day, the
+recollection of John Oxenham had taken strange possession of his mind;
+and all that evening, as he sat in the bay-windowed room where he had
+seen him last, Amyas was recalling to himself every look and gesture
+of the lost adventurer, and wondering at himself for so doing, till
+he retired to sleep, only to renew the fancy in his dreams. At last he
+found himself, he knew not how, sailing westward ever, up the wake of
+the setting sun, in chase of a tiny sail which was John Oxenham's.
+Upon him was a painful sense that, unless he came up with her in time,
+something fearful would come to pass; but the ship would not sail. All
+around floated the sargasso beds, clogging her bows with their long
+snaky coils of weed; and still he tried to sail, and tried to fancy that
+he was sailing, till the sun went down and all was utter dark. And then
+the moon arose, and in a moment John Oxenham's ship was close aboard;
+her sails were torn and fluttering; the pitch was streaming from her
+sides; her bulwarks were rotting to decay. And what was that line of
+dark objects dangling along the mainyard?--A line of hanged men! And,
+horror of horrors, from the yard-arm close above him, John Oxenham's
+corpse looked down with grave-light eyes, and beckoned and pointed, as
+if to show him his way, and strove to speak, and could not, and pointed
+still, not forward, but back along their course. And when Amyas looked
+back, behold, behind him was the snow range of the Andes glittering in
+the moon, and he knew that he was in the South Seas once more, and that
+all America was between him and home. And still the corpse kept pointing
+back, and back, and looking at him with yearning eyes of agony, and lips
+which longed to tell some awful secret; till he sprang up, and woke with
+a shout of terror, and found himself lying in the little coved chamber
+in dear old Burrough, with the gray autumn morning already stealing in.
+
+Feverish and excited, he tried in vain to sleep again; and after an
+hour's tossing, rose and dressed, and started for a bathe on his beloved
+old pebble ridge. As he passed his mother's door, he could not help
+looking in. The dim light of morning showed him the bed; but its
+pillow had not been pressed that night. His mother, in her long white
+night-dress, was kneeling at the other end of the chamber at her
+prie-dieu, absorbed in devotion. Gently he slipped in without a word,
+and knelt down at her side. She turned, smiled, passed her arm around
+him, and went on silently with her prayers. Why not? They were for him,
+and he knew it, and prayed also; and his prayers were for her, and for
+poor lost John Oxenham, and all his vanished crew.
+
+At last she rose, and standing above him, parted the yellow locks from
+off his brow, and looked long and lovingly into his face. There was
+nothing to be spoken, for there was nothing to be concealed between
+these two souls as clear as glass. Each knew all which the other meant;
+each knew that its own thoughts were known. At last the mutual gaze was
+over; she stooped and kissed him on the brow, and was in the act to
+turn away, as a tear dropped on his forehead. Her little bare feet were
+peeping out from under her dress. He bent down and kissed them again and
+again; and then looking up, as if to excuse himself,--
+
+"You have such pretty feet, mother!"
+
+Instantly, with a woman's instinct, she had hidden them. She had been a
+beauty once, as I said; and though her hair was gray, and her roses had
+faded long ago, she was beautiful still, in all eyes which saw deeper
+than the mere outward red and white.
+
+"Your dear father used to say so thirty years ago."
+
+"And I say so still: you always were beautiful; you are beautiful now."
+
+"What is that to you, silly boy? Will you play the lover with an old
+mother? Go and take your walk, and think of younger ladies, if you can
+find any worthy of you."
+
+And so the son went forth, and the mother returned to her prayers.
+
+He walked down to the pebble ridge, where the surges of the bay have
+defeated their own fury, by rolling up in the course of ages a rampart
+of gray boulder-stones, some two miles long, as cunningly curved, and
+smoothed, and fitted, as if the work had been done by human hands, which
+protects from the high tides of spring and autumn a fertile sheet of
+smooth, alluvial turf. Sniffing the keen salt air like a young sea-dog,
+he stripped and plunged into the breakers, and dived, and rolled, and
+tossed about the foam with stalwart arms, till he heard himself hailed
+from off the shore, and looking up, saw standing on the top of the
+rampart the tall figure of his cousin Eustace.
+
+Amyas was half-disappointed at his coming; for, love-lorn rascal, he had
+been dreaming all the way thither of Rose Salterne, and had no wish
+for a companion who would prevent his dreaming of her all the way back.
+Nevertheless, not having seen Eustace for three years, it was but civil
+to scramble out and dress, while his cousin walked up and down upon the
+turf inside.
+
+Eustace Leigh was the son of a younger brother of Leigh of Burrough, who
+had more or less cut himself off from his family, and indeed from his
+countrymen, by remaining a Papist. True, though born a Papist, he had
+not always been one; for, like many of the gentry, he had become a
+Protestant under Edward the Sixth, and then a Papist again under Mary.
+But, to his honor be it said, at that point he had stopped, having
+too much honesty to turn Protestant a second time, as hundreds did, at
+Elizabeth's accession. So a Papist he remained, living out of the way
+of the world in a great, rambling, dark house, still called "Chapel,"
+on the Atlantic cliffs, in Moorwinstow parish, not far from Sir Richard
+Grenville's house of Stow. The penal laws never troubled him; for, in
+the first place, they never troubled any one who did not make conspiracy
+and rebellion an integral doctrine of his religious creed; and next,
+they seldom troubled even them, unless, fired with the glory of
+martyrdom, they bullied the long-suffering of Elizabeth and her council
+into giving them their deserts, and, like poor Father Southwell in
+after years, insisted on being hanged, whether Burleigh liked or not.
+Moreover, in such a no-man's-land and end-of-all-the-earth was that old
+house at Moorwinstow, that a dozen conspiracies might have been hatched
+there without any one hearing of it; and Jesuits and seminary priests
+skulked in and out all the year round, unquestioned though unblest; and
+found a sort of piquant pleasure, like naughty boys who have crept
+into the store-closet, in living in mysterious little dens in a lonely
+turret, and going up through a trap-door to celebrate mass in a secret
+chamber in the roof, where they were allowed by the powers that were to
+play as much as they chose at persecuted saints, and preach about hiding
+in dens and caves of the earth. For once, when the zealous parson
+of Moorwinstow, having discovered (what everybody knew already) the
+existence of "mass priests and their idolatry" at Chapel House, made
+formal complaint thereof to Sir Richard, and called on him, as the
+nearest justice of the peace, to put in force the act of the fourteenth
+of Elizabeth, that worthy knight only rated him soundly for a
+fantastical Puritan, and bade him mind his own business, if he wished
+not to make the place too hot for him; whereon (for the temporal
+authorities, happily for the peace of England, kept in those days
+a somewhat tight hand upon the spiritual ones) the worthy parson
+subsided,--for, after all, Mr. Thomas Leigh paid his tithes regularly
+enough,--and was content, as he expressed it, to bow his head in the
+house of Rimmon like Naaman of old, by eating Mr. Leigh's dinners
+as often as he was invited, and ignoring the vocation of old Father
+Francis, who sat opposite to him, dressed as a layman, and calling
+himself the young gentleman's pedagogue.
+
+But the said birds of ill-omen had a very considerable lien on the
+conscience of poor Mr. Thomas Leigh, the father of Eustace, in the form
+of certain lands once belonging to the Abbey of Hartland. He more than
+half believed that he should be lost for holding those lands; but he did
+not believe it wholly, and, therefore, he did not give them up; which
+was the case, as poor Mary Tudor found to her sorrow, with most of her
+"Catholic" subjects, whose consciences, while they compelled them to
+return to the only safe fold of Mother Church (extra quam nulla salus),
+by no means compelled them to disgorge the wealth of which they had
+plundered that only hope of their salvation. Most of them, however, like
+poor Tom Leigh, felt the abbey rents burn in their purses; and, as John
+Bull generally does in a difficulty, compromised the matter by a second
+folly (as if two wrong things made one right one), and petted foreign
+priests, and listened, or pretended not to listen, to their plottings
+and their practisings; and gave up a son here, and a son there, as a
+sort of a sin-offering and scapegoat, to be carried off to Douay, or
+Rheims, or Rome, and trained as a seminary priest; in plain English, to
+be taught the science of villainy, on the motive of superstition. One of
+such hapless scapegoats, and children who had been cast into the fire to
+Moloch, was Eustace Leigh, whom his father had sent, giving the fruit of
+his body for the sin of his soul, to be made a liar of at Rheims.
+
+And a very fair liar he had become. Not that the lad was a bad fellow at
+heart; but he had been chosen by the harpies at home, on account of his
+"peculiar vocation;" in plain English, because the wily priests had seen
+in him certain capacities of vague hysterical fear of the unseen (the
+religious sentiment, we call it now-a-days), and with them that tendency
+to be a rogue, which superstitious men always have. He was now a tall,
+handsome, light-complexioned man, with a huge upright forehead, a very
+small mouth, and a dry and set expression of face, which was always
+trying to get free, or rather to seem free, and indulge in smiles and
+dimples which were proper; for one ought to have Christian love, and
+if one had love one ought to be cheerful, and when people were cheerful
+they smiled; and therefore he would smile, and tried to do so; but his
+charity prepense looked no more alluring than malice prepense would have
+done; and, had he not been really a handsome fellow, many a woman who
+raved about his sweetness would have likened his frankness to that of a
+skeleton dancing in fetters, and his smiles to the grins thereof.
+
+He had returned to England about a month before, in obedience to the
+proclamation which had been set forth for that purpose (and certainly
+not before it was needed), that, "whosoever had children, wards,
+etc., in the parts beyond the seas, should send in their names to the
+ordinary, and within four months call them home again." So Eustace was
+now staying with his father at Chapel, having, nevertheless, his private
+matters to transact on behalf of the virtuous society by whom he
+had been brought up; one of which private matters had brought him to
+Bideford the night before.
+
+So he sat down beside Amyas on the pebbles, and looked at him all over
+out of the corners of his eyes very gently, as if he did not wish to
+hurt him, or even the flies on his back; and Amyas faced right round,
+and looked him full in the face with the heartiest of smiles, and held
+out a lion's paw, which Eustace took rapturously, and a great shaking of
+hands ensued; Amyas gripping with a great round fist, and a quiet quiver
+thereof, as much as to say, "I AM glad to see you;" and Eustace pinching
+hard with white, straight fingers, and sawing the air violently up and
+down, as much as to say, "DON'T YOU SEE how glad I am to see you?" A
+very different greeting from the former.
+
+"Hold hard, old lad," said Amyas, "before you break my elbow. And where
+do you come from?"
+
+"From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in
+it," said he, with a little smile and nod of mysterious self-importance.
+
+"Like the devil, eh? Well, every man has his pattern. How is my uncle?"
+
+Now, if there was one man on earth above another, of whom Eustace Leigh
+stood in dread, it was his cousin Amyas. In the first place, he knew
+Amyas could have killed him with a blow; and there are natures, who,
+instead of rejoicing in the strength of men of greater prowess than
+themselves, look at such with irritation, dread, at last, spite;
+expecting, perhaps, that the stronger will do to them what they feel
+they might have done in his place. Every one, perhaps, has the same
+envious, cowardly devil haunting about his heart; but the brave men,
+though they be very sparrows, kick him out; the cowards keep him, and
+foster him; and so did poor Eustace Leigh.
+
+Next, he could not help feeling that Amyas despised him. They had not
+met for three years; but before Amyas went, Eustace never could argue
+with him, simply because Amyas treated him as beneath argument. No doubt
+he was often rude and unfair enough; but the whole mass of questions
+concerning the unseen world, which the priests had stimulated in his
+cousin's mind into an unhealthy fungus crop, were to Amyas simply, as he
+expressed it, "wind and moonshine;" and he treated his cousin as a
+sort of harmless lunatic, and, as they say in Devon, "half-baked." And
+Eustace knew it; and knew, too, that his cousin did him an injustice.
+"He used to undervalue me," said he to himself; "let us see whether he
+does not find me a match for him now." And then went off into an agony
+of secret contrition for his self-seeking and his forgetting that
+"the glory of God, and not his own exaltation," was the object of his
+existence.
+
+There, dear readers, Ex pede Herculem; I cannot tire myself or you
+(especially in this book) with any wire-drawn soul-dissections. I have
+tried to hint to you two opposite sorts of men,--the one trying to be
+good with all his might and main, according to certain approved methods
+and rules, which he has got by heart, and like a weak oarsman, feeling
+and fingering his spiritual muscles over all day, to see if they are
+growing; the other not even knowing whether he is good or not, but just
+doing the right thing without thinking about it, as simply as a little
+child, because the Spirit of God is with him. If you cannot see the
+great gulf fixed between the two, I trust that you will discover it some
+day.
+
+But in justice be it said, all this came upon Eustace, not because he
+was a Romanist, but because he was educated by the Jesuits. Had he been
+saved from them, he might have lived and died as simple and honest a
+gentleman as his brothers, who turned out like true Englishmen (as did
+all the Romish laity) to face the great Armada, and one of whom was
+fighting at that very minute under St. Leger in Ireland, and as brave
+and loyal a soldier as those Roman Catholics whose noble blood has
+stained every Crimean battlefield; but his fate was appointed otherwise;
+and the Upas-shadow which has blighted the whole Romish Church, blighted
+him also.
+
+"Ah, my dearest cousin!" said Eustace, "how disappointed I was this
+morning at finding I had arrived just a day too late to witness your
+triumph! But I hastened to your home as soon as I could, and learning
+from your mother that I should find you here, hurried down to bid you
+welcome again to Devon."
+
+"Well, old lad, it does look very natural to see you. I often used to
+think of you walking the deck o' nights. Uncle and the girls are all
+right, then? But is the old pony dead yet? And how's Dick the smith, and
+Nancy? Grown a fine maid by now, I warrant. 'Slid, it seems half a life
+that I've been away.
+
+"And you really thought of your poor cousin? Be sure that he, too,
+thought of you, and offered up nightly his weak prayers for your safety
+(doubtless, not without avail) to those saints, to whom would that
+you--"
+
+"Halt there, coz. If they are half as good fellows as you and I take
+them for, they'll help me without asking."
+
+"They have helped you, Amyas."
+
+"Maybe; I'd have done as much, I'm sure, for them, if I 'd been in their
+place."
+
+"And do you not feel, then, that you owe a debt of gratitude to them;
+and, above all, to her, whose intercessions have, I doubt not, availed
+for your preservation? Her, the star of the sea, the all-compassionate
+guide of the mariner?"
+
+"Humph!" said Amyas. "Here's Frank; let him answer."
+
+And, as he spoke, up came Frank, and after due greetings, sat down
+beside them on the ridge.
+
+"I say, brother, here's Eustace trying already to convert me; and
+telling me that I owe all my luck to the Blessed Virgin's prayers for
+me.
+
+"It may be so," said Frank; "at least you owe it to the prayers of that
+most pure and peerless virgin by whose commands you sailed; the sweet
+incense of whose orisons has gone up for you daily, and for whose sake
+you were preserved from flood and foe, that you might spread the fame
+and advance the power of the spotless championess of truth, and right,
+and freedom,--Elizabeth, your queen."
+
+Amyas answered this rhapsody, which would have been then both
+fashionable and sincere, by a loyal chuckle. Eustace smiled meekly, but
+answered somewhat venomously nevertheless--
+
+"I, at least, am certain that I speak the truth, when I call my
+patroness a virgin undefiled."
+
+Both the brothers' brows clouded at once. Amyas, as he lay on his back
+on the pebbles, said quietly to the gulls over his head--"I wonder what
+the Frenchman whose head I cut off at the Azores, thinks by now about
+all that."
+
+"Cut off a Frenchman's head?" said Frank.
+
+"Yes, faith; and so fleshed my maiden sword. I'll tell you. It was
+in some tavern; I and George Drake had gone in, and there sat this
+Frenchman, with his sword on the table, ready for a quarrel (I found
+afterwards he was a noted bully), and begins with us loudly enough about
+this and that; but, after awhile, by the instigation of the devil, what
+does he vent but a dozen slanders against her majesty's honor, one atop
+of the other? I was ashamed to hear them, and I should be more ashamed
+to repeat them."
+
+"I have heard enough of such," said Frank. "They come mostly through
+lewd rascals about the French ambassador, who have been bred (God help
+them) among the filthy vices of that Medicean Court in which the Queen
+of Scots had her schooling; and can only perceive in a virtuous freedom
+a cloak for licentiousness like their own. Let the curs bark; Honi soit
+qui mal y pense is our motto, and shall be forever."
+
+"But I didn't let the cur bark; for I took him by the ears, to show him
+out into the street. Whereon he got to his sword, and I to mine; and a
+very near chance I had of never bathing on the pebble ridge more; for
+the fellow did not fight with edge and buckler, like a Christian, but
+had some newfangled French devil's device of scryming and foining with
+his point, ha'ing and stamping, and tracing at me, that I expected to be
+full of eyelet holes ere I could close with him."
+
+"Thank God that you are safe, then!" said Frank. "I know that play well
+enough, and dangerous enough it is."
+
+"Of course you know it; but I didn't, more's the pity."
+
+"Well, I'll teach it thee, lad, as well as Rowland Yorke himself,
+
+     'Thy fincture, carricade, and sly passata,
+     Thy stramazon, and resolute stoccata,
+     Wiping maudritta, closing embrocata,
+     And all the cant of the honorable fencing mystery.'"
+
+"Rowland Yorke? Who's he, then?"
+
+"A very roystering rascal, who is making good profit in London just now
+by teaching this very art of fence; and is as likely to have his mortal
+thread clipt in a tavern brawl, as thy Frenchman. But how did you escape
+his pinking iron?"
+
+"How? Had it through my left arm before I could look round; and at that
+I got mad, and leapt upon him, and caught him by the wrist, and then had
+a fair side-blow; and, as fortune would have it, off tumbled his head on
+to the table, and there was an end of his slanders."
+
+"So perish all her enemies!" said Frank; and Eustace, who had been
+trying not to listen, rose and said--
+
+"I trust that you do not number me among them?"
+
+"As you speak, I do, coz," said Frank. "But for your own sake, let
+me advise you to put faith in the true report of those who have daily
+experience of their mistress's excellent virtue, as they have of the
+sun's shining, and of the earth's bringing forth fruit, and not in the
+tattle of a few cowardly back-stair rogues, who wish to curry favor with
+the Guises. Come, we will say no more. Walk round with us by Appledore,
+and then home to breakfast."
+
+But Eustace declined, having immediate business, he said, in Northam
+town, and then in Bideford; and so left them to lounge for another
+half-hour on the beach, and then walk across the smooth sheet of turf to
+the little white fishing village, which stands some two miles above the
+bar, at the meeting of the Torridge and the Taw.
+
+Now it came to pass, that Eustace Leigh, as we have seen, told his
+cousins that he was going to Northam: but he did not tell them that
+his point was really the same as their own, namely, Appledore; and,
+therefore, after having satisfied his conscience by going as far as the
+very nearest house in Northam village, he struck away sharp to the left
+across the fields, repeating I know not what to the Blessed Virgin all
+the way; whereby he went several miles out of his road; and also, as
+is the wont of crooked spirits, Jesuits especially (as three centuries
+sufficiently testify), only outwitted himself. For his cousins going
+merrily, like honest men, along the straight road across the turf,
+arrived in Appledore, opposite the little "Mariner's Rest" Inn, just in
+time to see what Eustace had taken so much trouble to hide from them,
+namely, four of Mr. Thomas Leigh's horses standing at the door, held by
+his groom, saddles and mail-bags on back, and mounting three of them,
+Eustace Leigh and two strange gentlemen.
+
+"There's one lie already this morning," growled Amyas; "he told us he
+was going to Northam."
+
+"And we do not know that he has not been there," blandly suggested
+Frank.
+
+"Why, you are as bad a Jesuit as he, to help him out with such a fetch."
+
+"He may have changed his mind."
+
+"Bless your pure imagination, my sweet boy," said Amyas, laying his
+great hand on Frank's head, and mimicking his mother's manner. "I
+say, dear Frank, let's step into this shop and buy a penny-worth of
+whipcord."
+
+"What do you want with whipcord, man?"
+
+"To spin my top, to be sure."
+
+"Top? how long hast had a top?"
+
+"I'll buy one, then, and save my conscience; but the upshot of this
+sport I must see. Why may not I have an excuse ready made as well as
+Master Eustace?"
+
+So saying, he pulled Frank into the little shop, unobserved by the party
+at the inn-door.
+
+"What strange cattle has he been importing now? Look at that
+three-legged fellow, trying to get aloft on the wrong side. How he claws
+at his horse's ribs, like a cat scratching an elder stem!"
+
+The three-legged man was a tall, meek-looking person, who had bedizened
+himself with gorgeous garments, a great feather, and a sword so long
+and broad, that it differed little in size from the very thin and stiff
+shanks between which it wandered uncomfortably.
+
+"Young David in Saul's weapons," said Frank. "He had better not go in
+them, for he certainly has not proved them."
+
+"Look, if his third leg is not turned into a tail! Why does not some one
+in charity haul in half-a-yard of his belt for him?"
+
+It was too true; the sword, after being kicked out three or four times
+from its uncomfortable post between his legs, had returned unconquered;
+and the hilt getting a little too far back by reason of the too great
+length of the belt, the weapon took up its post triumphantly behind,
+standing out point in air, a tail confest, amid the tittering of the
+ostlers, and the cheers of the sailors.
+
+At last the poor man, by dint of a chair, was mounted safely, while his
+fellow-stranger, a burly, coarse-looking man, equally gay, and rather
+more handy, made so fierce a rush at his saddle, that, like "vaulting
+ambition who o'erleaps his selle," he "fell on t'other side:" or would
+have fallen, had he not been brought up short by the shoulders of the
+ostler at his off-stirrup. In which shock off came hat and feather.
+
+"Pardie, the bulldog-faced one is a fighting man. Dost see, Frank? he
+has had his head broken."
+
+"That scar came not, my son, but by a pair of most Catholic and
+apostolic scissors. My gentle buzzard, that is a priest's tonsure."
+
+"Hang the dog! O, that the sailors may but see it, and put him over the
+quay head. I've a half mind to go and do it myself."
+
+"My dear Amyas," said Frank, laying two fingers on his arm, "these
+men, whosoever they are, are the guests of our uncle, and therefore
+the guests of our family. Ham gained little by publishing Noah's shame;
+neither shall we, by publishing our uncle's."
+
+"Murrain on you, old Franky, you never let a man speak his mind, and
+shame the devil."
+
+"I have lived long enough in courts, old Amyas, without a murrain on
+you, to have found out, first, that it is not so easy to shame the
+devil; and secondly, that it is better to outwit him; and the only way
+to do that, sweet chuck, is very often not to speak your mind at all.
+We will go down and visit them at Chapel in a day or two, and see if we
+cannot serve these reynards as the badger did the fox, when he found him
+in his hole, and could not get him out by evil savors."
+
+"How then?"
+
+"Stuck a sweet nosegay in the door, which turned reynard's stomach at
+once; and so overcame evil with good."
+
+"Well, thou art too good for this world, that's certain; so we will go
+home to breakfast. Those rogues are out of sight by now."
+
+Nevertheless, Amyas was not proof against the temptation of going over
+to the inn-door, and asking who were the gentlemen who went with Mr.
+Leigh.
+
+"Gentlemen of Wales," said the ostler, "who came last night in a pinnace
+from Milford-haven, and their names, Mr. Morgan Evans and Mr. Evan
+Morgans."
+
+"Mr. Judas Iscariot and Mr. Iscariot Judas," said Amyas between his
+teeth, and then observed aloud, that the Welsh gentlemen seemed rather
+poor horsemen.
+
+"So I said to Mr. Leigh's groom, your worship. But he says that those
+parts be so uncommon rough and mountainous, that the poor gentlemen, you
+see, being enforced to hunt on foot, have no such opportunities as young
+gentlemen hereabout, like your worship; whom God preserve, and send a
+virtuous lady, and one worthy of you."
+
+"Thou hast a villainously glib tongue, fellow!" said Amyas, who was
+thoroughly out of humor; "and a sneaking down visage too, when I come to
+look at you. I doubt but you are a Papist too, I do!"
+
+"Well, sir! and what if I am! I trust I don't break the queen's laws by
+that. If I don't attend Northam church, I pay my month's shilling for
+the use of the poor, as the act directs; and beyond that, neither you
+nor any man dare demand of me."
+
+"Dare! act directs! You rascally lawyer, you! and whence does an ostler
+like you get your shilling to pay withal? Answer me." The examinate
+found it so difficult to answer the question, that he suddenly became
+afflicted with deafness.
+
+"Do you hear?" roared Amyas, catching at him with his lion's paw.
+
+"Yes, missus; anon, anon, missus!" quoth he to an imaginary landlady
+inside, and twisting under Amyas's hand like an eel, vanished into the
+house, while Frank got the hot-headed youth away.
+
+"What a plague is one to do, then? That fellow was a Papist spy!"
+
+"Of course he was!" said Frank.
+
+"Then, what is one to do, if the whole country is full of them?"
+
+"Not to make fools of ourselves about them, and so leave them to make
+fools of themselves."
+
+"That's all very fine: but--well, I shall remember the villain's face if
+I see him again."
+
+"There is no harm in that," said Frank.
+
+"Glad you think so."
+
+"Don't quarrel with me, Amyas, the first day."
+
+"Quarrel with thee, my darling old fellow! I had sooner kiss the dust
+off thy feet, if I were worthy of it. So now away home; my inside cries
+cupboard."
+
+In the meanwhile Messrs. Evans and Morgans were riding away, as fast
+as the rough by-lanes would let them, along the fresh coast of the bay,
+steering carefully clear of Northam town on the one hand, and on the
+other, of Portledge, where dwelt that most Protestant justice of the
+peace, Mr. Coffin. And it was well for them that neither Amyas Leigh,
+nor indeed any other loyal Englishman, was by when they entered, as they
+shortly did, the lonely woods which stretch along the southern wall of
+the bay. For there Eustace Leigh pulled up short; and both he and his
+groom, leaping from their horses, knelt down humbly in the wet grass,
+and implored the blessing of the two valiant gentlemen of Wales,
+who, having graciously bestowed it with three fingers apiece, became
+thenceforth no longer Morgan Evans and Evan Morgans, Welshmen and
+gentlemen; but Father Parsons and Father Gampian, Jesuits, and gentlemen
+in no sense in which that word is applied in this book.
+
+After a few minutes, the party were again in motion, ambling steadily
+and cautiously along the high table-land, towards Moorwinstow in the
+west; while beneath them on the right, at the mouth of rich-wooded
+glens, opened vistas of the bright blue bay, and beyond it the sandhills
+of Braunton, and the ragged rocks of Morte; while far away to the north
+and west the lonely isle of Lundy hung like a soft gray cloud.
+
+But they were not destined to reach their point as peaceably as they
+could have wished. For just as they got opposite Clovelly dike, the huge
+old Roman encampment which stands about midway in their journey, they
+heard a halloo from the valley below, answered by a fainter one far
+ahead. At which, like a couple of rogues (as indeed they were), Father
+Campian and Father Parsons looked at each other, and then both stared
+round at the wild, desolate, open pasture (for the country was then all
+unenclosed), and the great dark furze-grown banks above their heads; and
+Campian remarked gently to Parsons, that this was a very dreary spot,
+and likely enough for robbers.
+
+"A likelier spot for us, Father," said Eustace, punning. "The old Romans
+knew what they were about when they put their legions up aloft here to
+overlook land and sea for miles away; and we may thank them some day for
+their leavings. The banks are all sound; there is plenty of good water
+inside; and" (added he in Latin), "in case our Spanish friends--you
+understand?"
+
+"Pauca verba, my son!" said Campian: but as he spoke, up from the ditch
+close beside him, as if rising out of the earth, burst through the
+furze-bushes an armed cavalier.
+
+"Pardon, gentlemen!" shouted he, as the Jesuit and his horse recoiled
+against the groom. "Stand, for your lives!"
+
+"Mater caelorum!" moaned Campian; while Parsons, who, as all the world
+knows, was a blustering bully enough (at least with his tongue), asked:
+What a murrain right had he to stop honest folks on the queen's highway?
+confirming the same with a mighty oath, which he set down as peccatum
+veniale, on account of the sudden necessity; nay, indeed fraus pia, as
+proper to support the character of that valiant gentleman of Wales, Mr.
+Evan Morgans. But the horseman, taking no notice of his hint, dashed
+across the nose of Eustace Leigh's horse, with a "Hillo, old lad! where
+ridest so early?" and peering down for a moment into the ruts of the
+narrow track-way, struck spurs into his horse, shouting, "A fresh
+slot! right away for Hartland! Forward, gentlemen all! follow, follow,
+follow!"
+
+"Who is this roysterer?" asked Parsons, loftily.
+
+"Will Cary, of Clovelly; an awful heretic: and here come more behind."
+
+And as he spoke four or five more mounted gallants plunged in and out of
+the great dikes, and thundered on behind the party; whose horses, quite
+understanding what game was up, burst into full gallop, neighing and
+squealing; and in another minute the hapless Jesuits were hurling along
+over moor and moss after a "hart of grease."
+
+Parsons, who, though a vulgar bully, was no coward, supported the
+character of Mr. Evan Morgans well enough; and he would have really
+enjoyed himself, had he not been in agonies of fear lest those precious
+saddle-bags in front of him should break from their lashings, and
+rolling to the earth, expose to the hoofs of heretic horses, perhaps to
+the gaze of heretic eyes, such a cargo of bulls, dispensations, secret
+correspondences, seditious tracts, and so forth, that at the very
+thought of their being seen, his head felt loose upon his shoulders. But
+the future martyr behind him, Mr. Morgan Evans, gave himself up at once
+to abject despair, and as he bumped and rolled along, sought vainly for
+comfort in professional ejaculations in the Latin tongue.
+
+"Mater intemerata! Eripe me e--Ugh! I am down! Adhaesit pavimento
+venter!--No! I am not! El dilectum tuum e potestate canis--Ah! Audisti
+me inter cornua unicornium! Put this, too, down in--ugh!--thy account in
+favor of my poor--oh, sharpness of this saddle! Oh, whither, barbarous
+islanders!"
+
+Now riding on his quarter, not in the rough track-way like a cockney,
+but through the soft heather like a sportsman, was a very gallant knight
+whom we all know well by this time, Richard Grenville by name; who had
+made Mr. Cary and the rest his guests the night before, and then ridden
+out with them at five o'clock that morning, after the wholesome early
+ways of the time, to rouse a well-known stag in the glens at Buckish, by
+help of Mr. Coffin's hounds from Portledge. Who being as good a Latiner
+as Campian's self, and overhearing both the scraps of psalm and the
+"barbarous islanders," pushed his horse alongside of Mr. Eustace
+Leigh, and at the first check said, with two low bows towards the two
+strangers--
+
+"I hope Mr. Leigh will do me the honor of introducing me to his guests.
+I should be sorry, and Mr. Cary also, that any gentle strangers should
+become neighbors of ours, even for a day, without our knowing who they
+are who honor our western Thule with a visit; and showing them ourselves
+all due requital for the compliment of their presence."
+
+After which, the only thing which poor Eustace could do (especially as
+it was spoken loud enough for all bystanders), was to introduce in due
+form Mr. Evan Morgans and Mr. Morgan Evans, who, hearing the name, and,
+what was worse, seeing the terrible face with its quiet searching eye,
+felt like a brace of partridge-poults cowering in the stubble, with a
+hawk hanging ten feet over their heads.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Sir Richard blandly, cap in hand, "I fear that your
+mails must have been somewhat in your way in this unexpected gallop. If
+you will permit my groom, who is behind, to disencumber you of them
+and carry them to Chapel, you will both confer an honor on me, and be
+enabled yourselves to see the mort more pleasantly."
+
+A twinkle of fun, in spite of all his efforts, played about good Sir
+Richard's eye as he gave this searching hint. The two Welsh gentlemen
+stammered out clumsy thanks; and pleading great haste and fatigue from
+a long journey, contrived to fall to the rear and vanish with their
+guides, as soon as the slot had been recovered.
+
+"Will!" said Sir Richard, pushing alongside of young Cary.
+
+"Your worship?"
+
+"Jesuits, Will!"
+
+"May the father of lies fly away with them over the nearest cliff!"
+
+"He will not do that while this Irish trouble is about. Those fellows
+are come to practise here for Saunders and Desmond."
+
+"Perhaps they have a consecrated banner in their bag, the scoundrels!
+Shall I and young Coffin on and stop them? Hard if the honest men may
+not rob the thieves once in a way."
+
+"No; give the devil rope, and he will hang himself. Keep thy tongue at
+home, and thine eyes too, Will."
+
+"How then?"
+
+"Let Clovelly beach be watched night and day like any mousehole. No one
+can land round Harty Point with these south-westers. Stop every fellow
+who has the ghost of an Irish brogue, come he in or go he out, and send
+him over to me."
+
+"Some one should guard Bude-haven, sir."
+
+"Leave that to me. Now then, forward, gentlemen all, or the stag will
+take the sea at the Abbey."
+
+And on they crashed down the Hartland glens, through the oak-scrub and
+the great crown-ferns; and the baying of the slow-hound and the tantaras
+of the horn died away farther and fainter toward the blue Atlantic,
+while the conspirators, with lightened hearts, pricked fast across
+Bursdon upon their evil errand. But Eustace Leigh had other thoughts
+and other cares than the safety of his father's two mysterious guests,
+important as that was in his eyes; for he was one of the many who had
+drunk in sweet poison (though in his case it could hardly be called
+sweet) from the magic glances of the Rose of Torridge. He had seen her
+in the town, and for the first time in his life fallen utterly in love;
+and now that she had come down close to his father's house, he looked on
+her as a lamb fallen unawares into the jaws of the greedy wolf, which
+he felt himself to be. For Eustace's love had little or nothing of
+chivalry, self-sacrifice, or purity in it; those were virtues which were
+not taught at Rheims. Careful as the Jesuits were over the practical
+morality of their pupils, this severe restraint had little effect in
+producing real habits of self-control. What little Eustace had learnt of
+women from them, was as base and vulgar as the rest of their teaching.
+What could it be else, if instilled by men educated in the schools of
+Italy and France, in the age which produced the foul novels of Cinthio
+and Bandello, and compelled Rabelais in order to escape the rack and
+stake, to hide the light of his great wisdom, not beneath a bushel, but
+beneath a dunghill; the age in which the Romish Church had made
+marriage a legalized tyranny, and the laity, by a natural and pardonable
+revulsion, had exalted adultery into a virtue and a science? That all
+love was lust; that all women had their price; that profligacy, though
+an ecclesiastical sin, was so pardonable, if not necessary, as to be
+hardly a moral sin, were notions which Eustace must needs have gathered
+from the hints of his preceptors; for their written works bear to this
+day fullest and foulest testimony that such was their opinion; and that
+their conception of the relation of the sexes was really not a whit
+higher than that of the profligate laity who confessed to them. He
+longed to marry Rose Salterne, with a wild selfish fury; but only that
+he might be able to claim her as his own property, and keep all others
+from her. Of her as a co-equal and ennobling helpmate; as one in whose
+honor, glory, growth of heart and soul, his own were inextricably wrapt
+up, he had never dreamed. Marriage would prevent God from being angry
+with that, with which otherwise He might be angry; and therefore the
+sanction of the Church was the more "probable and safe" course. But as
+yet his suit was in very embryo. He could not even tell whether Rose
+knew of his love; and he wasted miserable hours in maddening thoughts,
+and tost all night upon his sleepless bed, and rose next morning fierce
+and pale, to invent fresh excuses for going over to her uncle's house,
+and lingering about the fruit which he dared not snatch.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE TWO WAYS OF BEING CROST IN LOVE
+
+     "I could not love thee, dear, so much,
+     Loved I not honor more."--LOVELACE.
+
+And what all this while has become of the fair breaker of so many
+hearts, to whom I have not yet even introduced my readers?
+
+She was sitting in the little farm-house beside the mill, buried in the
+green depths of the valley of Combe, half-way between Stow and Chapel,
+sulking as much as her sweet nature would let her, at being thus
+shut out from all the grand doings at Bideford, and forced to keep a
+Martinmas Lent in that far western glen. So lonely was she, in fact,
+that though she regarded Eustace Leigh with somewhat of aversion, and
+(being a good Protestant) with a great deal of suspicion, she could not
+find it in her heart to avoid a chat with him whenever he came down to
+the farm and to its mill, which he contrived to do, on I know not what
+would-be errand, almost every day. Her uncle and aunt at first looked
+stiff enough at these visits, and the latter took care always to make a
+third in every conversation; but still Mr. Leigh was a gentleman's
+son, and it would not do to be rude to a neighboring squire and a good
+customer; and Rose was the rich man's daughter and they poor cousins,
+so it would not do either to quarrel with her; and besides, the
+pretty maid, half by wilfulness, and half by her sweet winning tricks,
+generally contrived to get her own way wheresoever she went; and
+she herself had been wise enough to beg her aunt never to leave them
+alone,--for she "could not a-bear the sight of Mr. Eustace, only
+she must have some one to talk with down here." On which her aunt
+considered, that she herself was but a simple country-woman; and that
+townsfolks' ways of course must be very different from hers; and that
+people knew their own business best; and so forth, and let things go
+on their own way. Eustace, in the meanwhile, who knew well that the
+difference in creed between him and Rose was likely to be the very
+hardest obstacle in the way of his love, took care to keep his private
+opinions well in the background; and instead of trying to convert the
+folk at the mill, daily bought milk or flour from them, and gave it
+away to the old women in Moorwinstow (who agreed that after all, for
+a Papist, he was a godly young man enough); and at last, having taken
+counsel with Campian and Parsons on certain political plots then on
+foot, came with them to the conclusion that they would all three go to
+church the next Sunday. Where Messrs. Evan Morgans and Morgan Evans,
+having crammed up the rubrics beforehand, behaved themselves in a most
+orthodox and unexceptionable manner; as did also poor Eustace, to the
+great wonder of all good folks, and then went home flattering himself
+that he had taken in parson, clerk, and people; not knowing in his
+simple unsimplicity, and cunning foolishness, that each good wife in the
+parish was saying to the other, "He turned Protestant? The devil turned
+monk! He's only after Mistress Salterne, the young hypocrite."
+
+But if the two Jesuits found it expedient, for the holy cause in which
+they were embarked, to reconcile themselves outwardly to the powers
+that were, they were none the less busy in private in plotting their
+overthrow.
+
+Ever since April last they had been playing at hide-and-seek through the
+length and breadth of England, and now they were only lying quiet till
+expected news from Ireland should give them their cue, and a great
+"rising of the West" should sweep from her throne that stiff-necked,
+persecuting, excommunicate, reprobate, illegitimate, and profligate
+usurper, who falsely called herself the Queen of England.
+
+For they had as stoutly persuaded themselves in those days, as they
+have in these (with a real Baconian contempt of the results of sensible
+experience), that the heart of England was really with them, and that
+the British nation was on the point of returning to the bosom of the
+Catholic Church, and giving up Elizabeth to be led in chains to the feet
+of the rightful Lord of Creation, the Old Man of the Seven Hills.
+And this fair hope, which has been skipping just in front of them for
+centuries, always a step farther off, like the place where the rainbow
+touches the ground, they used to announce at times, in language which
+terrified old Mr. Leigh. One day, indeed, as Eustace entered his
+father's private room, after his usual visit to the mill, he could
+hear voices high in dispute; Parsons as usual, blustering; Mr. Leigh
+peevishly deprecating, and Campian, who was really the sweetest-natured
+of men, trying to pour oil on the troubled waters. Whereat Eustace (for
+the good of the cause, of course) stopped outside and listened.
+
+"My excellent sir," said Mr. Leigh, "does not your very presence here
+show how I am affected toward the holy cause of the Catholic faith? But
+I cannot in the meanwhile forget that I am an Englishman."
+
+"And what is England?" said Parsons: "A heretic and schismatic Babylon,
+whereof it is written, 'Come out of her, my people, lest you be partaker
+of her plagues.' Yea, what is a country? An arbitrary division of
+territory by the princes of this world, who are naught, and come to
+naught. They are created by the people's will; their existence depends
+on the sanction of him to whom all power is given in heaven and
+earth--our Holy Father the Pope. Take away the latter, and what is a
+king?--the people who have made him may unmake him."
+
+"My dear sir, recollect that I have sworn allegiance to Queen
+Elizabeth!"
+
+"Yes, sir, you have, sir; and, as I have shown at large in my writings,
+you were absolved from that allegiance from the moment that the bull of
+Pius the Fifth declared her a heretic and excommunicate, and thereby to
+have forfeited all dominion whatsoever. I tell you, sir, what I thought
+you should have known already, that since the year 1569, England has had
+no queen, no magistrates, no laws, no lawful authority whatsoever; and
+that to own allegiance to any English magistrate, sir, or to plead in an
+English court of law, is to disobey the apostolic precept, 'How dare you
+go to law before the unbelievers?' I tell you, sir, rebellion is now not
+merely permitted, it is a duty."
+
+"Take care, sir; for God's sake, take care!" said Mr. Leigh. "Right or
+wrong, I cannot have such language used in my house. For the sake of my
+wife and children, I cannot!"
+
+"My dear brother Parsons, deal more gently with the flock," interposed
+Campian. "Your opinion, though probable, as I well know, in the eyes of
+most of our order, is hardly safe enough here; the opposite is at least
+so safe that Mr. Leigh may well excuse his conscience for accepting it.
+After all, are we not sent hither to proclaim this very thing, and to
+relieve the souls of good Catholics from a burden which has seemed to
+them too heavy?"
+
+"Yes," said Parsons, half-sulkily, "to allow all Balaams who will to
+sacrifice to Baal, while they call themselves by the name of the Lord."
+
+"My dear brother, have I not often reminded you that Naaman was allowed
+to bow himself in the house of Rimmon? And can we therefore complain of
+the office to which the Holy Father has appointed us, to declare to such
+as Mr. Leigh his especial grace, by which the bull of Pius the Fifth
+(on whose soul God have mercy!) shall henceforth bind the queen and the
+heretics only; but in no ways the Catholics, at least as long as the
+present tyranny prevents the pious purposes of the bull?"
+
+"Be it so, sir; be it so. Only observe this, Mr. Leigh, that our brother
+Campian confesses this to be a tyranny. Observe, sir, that the bull does
+still bind the so-called queen, and that she and her magistrates are
+still none the less usurpers, nonentities, and shadows of a shade. And
+observe this, sir, that when that which is lawful is excused to the
+weak, it remains no less lawful to the strong. The seven thousand who
+had not bowed the knee to Baal did not slay his priests; but Elijah did,
+and won to himself a good reward. And if the rest of the children of
+Israel sinned not in not slaying Eglon, yet Ehud's deed was none the
+less justified by all laws human and divine."
+
+"For Heaven's sake, do not talk so, sir! or I must leave the room. What
+have I to do with Ehud and Eglon, and slaughters, and tyrannies? Our
+queen is a very good queen, if Heaven would but grant her repentance,
+and turn her to the true faith. I have never been troubled about
+religion, nor any one else that I know of in the West country."
+
+"You forget Mr. Trudgeon of Launceston, father, and poor Father Mayne,"
+interposed Eustace, who had by this time slipped in; and Campian added
+softly--
+
+"Yes, your West of England also has been honored by its martyrs, as well
+as my London by the precious blood of Story."
+
+"What, young malapert?" cried poor Leigh, facing round upon his son,
+glad to find any one on whom he might vent his ill-humor; "are you too
+against me, with a murrain on you? And pray, what the devil brought
+Cuthbert Mayne to the gallows, and turned Mr. Trudgeon (he was always a
+foolish hot-head) out of house and home, but just such treasonable talk
+as Mr. Parsons must needs hold in my house, to make a beggar of me and
+my children, as he will before he has done."
+
+"The Blessed Virgin forbid!" said Campian.
+
+"The Blessed Virgin forbid? But you must help her to forbid it, Mr.
+Campian. We should never have had the law of 1571, against bulls, and
+Agnus Deis, and blessed grains, if the Pope's bull of 1569 had not made
+them matter of treason, by preventing a poor creature's saving his soul
+in the true Church without putting his neck into a halter by denying the
+queen's authority."
+
+"What, sir?" almost roared Parsons, "do you dare to speak evil of the
+edicts of the Vicar of Christ?"
+
+"I? No. I didn't. Who says I did? All I meant was, I am sure--Mr.
+Campian, you are a reasonable man, speak for me."
+
+"Mr. Leigh only meant, I am sure, that the Holy Father's prudent
+intentions have been so far defeated by the perverseness and invincible
+misunderstanding of the heretics, that that which was in itself meant
+for the good of the oppressed English Catholics has been perverted to
+their harm."
+
+"And thus, reverend sir," said Eustace, glad to get into his father's
+good graces again, "my father attaches blame, not to the Pope--Heaven
+forbid!--but to the pravity of his enemies."
+
+"And it is for this very reason," said Campian, "that we have brought
+with us the present merciful explanation of the bull."
+
+"I'll tell you what, gentlemen," said Mr. Leigh, who, like other weak
+men, grew in valor as his opponent seemed inclined to make peace, "I
+don't think the declaration was needed. After the new law of 1571 was
+made, it was never put in force till Mayne and Trudgeon made fools of
+themselves, and that was full six years. There were a few offenders,
+they say, who were brought up and admonished, and let go; but even that
+did not happen down here, and need not happen now, unless you put my son
+here (for you shall never put me, I warrant you) upon some deed which
+had better be left alone, and so bring us all to shame."
+
+"Your son, sir, if not openly vowed to God, has, I hope, a due sense
+of that inward vocation which we have seen in him, and reverences his
+spiritual fathers too well to listen to the temptations of his earthly
+father."
+
+"What, sir, will you teach my son to disobey me?"
+
+"Your son is ours also, sir. This is strange language in one who owes a
+debt to the Church, which it was charitably fancied he meant to pay in
+the person of his child."
+
+These last words touched poor Mr. Leigh in a sore point, and breaking
+all bounds, he swore roundly at Parsons, who stood foaming with rage.
+
+"A plague upon you, sir, and a black assizes for you, for you will come
+to the gallows yet! Do you mean to taunt me in my own house with that
+Hartland land? You had better go back and ask those who sent you where
+the dispensation to hold the land is, which they promised to get me
+years ago, and have gone on putting me off, till they have got my money,
+and my son, and my conscience, and I vow before all the saints, seem now
+to want my head over and above. God help me!"--and the poor man's eyes
+fairly filled with tears.
+
+Now was Eustace's turn to be roused; for, after all, he was an
+Englishman and a gentleman; and he said kindly enough, but firmly--
+
+"Courage, my dearest father. Remember that I am still your son, and not
+a Jesuit yet; and whether I ever become one, I promise you, will depend
+mainly on the treatment which you meet with at the hands of these
+reverend gentlemen, for whom I, as having brought them hither, must
+consider myself as surety to you."
+
+If a powder-barrel had exploded in the Jesuits' faces, they could not
+have been more amazed. Campian looked blank at Parsons, and Parsons at
+Campian; till the stouter-hearted of the two, recovering his breath at
+last--
+
+"Sir! do you know, sir, the curse pronounced on those who, after putting
+their hand to the plough, look back?"
+
+Eustace was one of those impulsive men, with a lack of moral courage,
+who dare raise the devil, but never dare fight him after he has been
+raised; and he now tried to pass off his speech by winking and making
+signs in the direction of his father, as much as to say that he was only
+trying to quiet the old man's fears. But Campian was too frightened,
+Parsons too angry, to take his hints: and he had to carry his part
+through.
+
+"All I read is, Father Parsons, that such are not fit for the kingdom of
+God; of which high honor I have for some time past felt myself unworthy.
+I have much doubt just now as to my vocation; and in the meanwhile have
+not forgotten that I am a citizen of a free country." And so saying, he
+took his father's arm, and walked out.
+
+His last words had hit the Jesuits hard. They had put the poor
+cobweb-spinners in mind of the humiliating fact, which they have had
+thrust on them daily from that time till now, and yet have never learnt
+the lesson, that all their scholastic cunning, plotting, intriguing,
+bulls, pardons, indulgences, and the rest of it, are, on this side
+the Channel, a mere enchanter's cloud-castle and Fata Morgana, which
+vanishes into empty air by one touch of that magic wand, the constable's
+staff. "A citizen of a free country!"--there was the rub; and they
+looked at each other in more utter perplexity than ever. At last Parsons
+spoke.
+
+"There's a woman in the wind. I'll lay my life on it. I saw him blush up
+crimson yesterday when his mother asked him whether some Rose Salterne
+or other was still in the neighborhood."
+
+"A woman! Well, the spirit may be willing, though the flesh be weak. We
+will inquire into this. The youth may do us good service as a layman;
+and if anything should happen to his elder brother (whom the saints
+protect!) he is heir to some wealth. In the meanwhile, our dear brother
+Parsons will perhaps see the expediency of altering our tactics somewhat
+while we are here."
+
+And thereupon a long conversation began between the two, who had been
+sent together, after the wise method of their order, in obedience to the
+precept, "Two are better than one," in order that Campian might restrain
+Parsons' vehemence, and Parsons spur on Campian's gentleness, and so
+each act as the supplement of the other, and each also, it must be
+confessed, gave advice pretty nearly contradictory to his fellow's if
+occasion should require, "without the danger," as their writers have it,
+"of seeming changeable and inconsistent."
+
+The upshot of this conversation was, that in a day or two (during which
+time Mr. Leigh and Eustace also had made the amende honorable, and
+matters went smoothly enough) Father Campian asked Father Francis,
+the household chaplain, to allow him, as an especial favor, to hear
+Eustace's usual confession on the ensuing Friday.
+
+Poor Father Francis dared not refuse so great a man; and assented with
+an inward groan, knowing well that the intent was to worm out some
+family secrets, whereby his power would be diminished, and the Jesuits'
+increased. For the regular priesthood and the Jesuits throughout England
+were toward each other in a state of armed neutrality, which wanted but
+little at any moment to become open war, as it did in James the First's
+time, when those meek missionaries, by their gentle moral tortures,
+literally hunted to death the poor Popish bishop of Hippopotamus (that
+is to say, London) for the time being.
+
+However, Campian heard Eustace's confession; and by putting to him such
+questions as may be easily conceived by those who know anything about
+the confessional, discovered satisfactorily enough, that he was what
+Campian would have called "in love:" though I should question much
+the propriety of the term as applied to any facts which poor prurient
+Campian discovered, or indeed knew how to discover, seeing that a swine
+has no eye for pearls. But he had found out enough: he smiled, and set
+to work next vigorously to discover who the lady might be.
+
+If he had frankly said to Eustace, "I feel for you; and if your desires
+are reasonable, or lawful, or possible, I will help you with all my
+heart and soul," he might have had the young man's secret heart, and
+saved himself an hour's trouble; but, of course, he took instinctively
+the crooked and suspicious method, expected to find the case the worst
+possible,--as a man was bound to do who had been trained to take the
+lowest possible view of human nature, and to consider the basest motives
+as the mainspring of all human action,--and began his moral torture
+accordingly by a series of delicate questions, which poor Eustace dodged
+in every possible way, though he knew that the good father was too
+cunning for him, and that he must give in at last. Nevertheless, like a
+rabbit who runs squealing round and round before the weasel, into whose
+jaws it knows that it must jump at last by force of fascination, he
+parried and parried, and pretended to be stupid, and surprised, and
+honorably scrupulous, and even angry; while every question as to her
+being married or single, Catholic or heretic, English or foreign,
+brought his tormentor a step nearer the goal. At last, when Campian,
+finding the business not such a very bad one, had asked something about
+her worldly wealth, Eustace saw a door of escape and sprang at it.
+
+"Even if she be a heretic, she is heiress to one of the wealthiest
+merchants in Devon."
+
+"Ah!" said Campian, thoughtfully. "And she is but eighteen, you say?"
+
+"Only eighteen."
+
+"Ah! well, my son, there is time. She may be reconciled to the Church:
+or you may change."
+
+"I shall die first."
+
+"Ah, poor lad! Well; she may be reconciled, and her wealth may be of use
+to the cause of Heaven."
+
+"And it shall be of use. Only absolve me, and let me be at peace. Let
+me have but her," he cried piteously. "I do not want her wealth,--not I!
+Let me have but her, and that but for one year, one month, one day!--and
+all the rest--money, fame, talents, yea, my life itself, hers if it be
+needed--are at the service of Holy Church. Ay, I shall glory in showing
+my devotion by some special sacrifice,--some desperate deed. Prove me
+now, and see what there is I will not do!"
+
+And so Eustace was absolved; after which Campian added,--
+
+"This is indeed well, my son: for there is a thing to be done now, but
+it may be at the risk of life."
+
+"Prove me!" cried Eustace, impatiently.
+
+"Here is a letter which was brought me last night; no matter from
+whence; you can understand it better than I, and I longed to have shown
+it you, but that I feared my son had become--"
+
+"You feared wrongly, then, my dear Father Campian."
+
+So Campian translated to him the cipher of the letter.
+
+"This to Evan Morgans, gentleman, at Mr. Leigh's house in Moorwinstow,
+Devonshire. News may be had by one who will go to the shore of Clovelly,
+any evening after the 25th of November, at dead low tide, and there
+watch for a boat, rowed by one with a red beard, and a Portugal by his
+speech. If he be asked, 'How many?' he will answer, 'Eight hundred and
+one.' Take his letters and read them. If the shore be watched, let him
+who comes show a light three times in a safe place under the cliff
+above the town; below is dangerous landing. Farewell, and expect great
+things!"
+
+"I will go," said Eustace; "to-morrow is the 25th, and I know a sure and
+easy place. Your friend seems to know these shores well."
+
+"Ah! what is it we do not know?" said Campian, with a mysterious smile.
+"And now?"
+
+"And now, to prove to you how I trust to you, you shall come with me,
+and see this--the lady of whom I spoke, and judge for yourself whether
+my fault is not a venial one."
+
+"Ah, my son, have I not absolved you already? What have I to do with
+fair faces? Nevertheless, I will come, both to show you that I trust
+you, and it may be to help towards reclaiming a heretic, and saving a
+lost soul: who knows?"
+
+So the two set out together; and, as it was appointed, they had just got
+to the top of the hill between Chapel and Stow mill, when up the lane
+came none other than Mistress Rose Salterne herself, in all the glories
+of a new scarlet hood, from under which her large dark languid eyes
+gleamed soft lightnings through poor Eustace's heart and marrow. Up
+to them she tripped on delicate ankles and tiny feet, tall, lithe, and
+graceful, a true West-country lass; and as she passed them with a
+pretty blush and courtesy, even Campian looked back at the fair innocent
+creature, whose long dark curls, after the then country fashion, rolled
+down from beneath the hood below her waist, entangling the soul of
+Eustace Leigh within their glossy nets.
+
+"There!" whispered he, trembling from head to foot. "Can you excuse me
+now?"
+
+"I had excused you long ago;" said the kindhearted father. "Alas, that
+so much fair red and white should have been created only as a feast for
+worms!"
+
+"A feast for gods, you mean!" cried Eustace, on whose common sense the
+naive absurdity of the last speech struck keenly; and then, as if to
+escape the scolding which he deserved for his heathenry--
+
+"Will you let me return for a moment? I will follow you: let me go!"
+
+Campian saw that it was of no use to say no, and nodded. Eustace darted
+from his side, and running across a field, met Rose full at the next
+turn of the road.
+
+She started, and gave a pretty little shriek.
+
+"Mr. Leigh! I thought you had gone forward."
+
+"I came back to speak to you, Rose--Mistress Salterne, I mean."
+
+"To me?"
+
+"To you I must speak, tell you all, or die!" And he pressed up close to
+her. She shrank back, somewhat frightened.
+
+"Do not stir; do not go, I implore you! Rose, only hear me!" And
+fiercely and passionately seizing her by the hand, he poured out the
+whole story of his love, heaping her with every fantastic epithet of
+admiration which he could devise.
+
+There was little, perhaps, of all his words which Rose had not heard
+many a time before; but there was a quiver in his voice, and a fire in
+his eye, from which she shrank by instinct.
+
+"Let me go!" she said; "you are too rough, sir!"
+
+"Ay!" he said, seizing now both her hands, "rougher, perhaps, than the
+gay gallants of Bideford, who serenade you, and write sonnets to you,
+and send you posies. Rougher, but more loving, Rose! Do not turn away!
+I shall die if you take your eyes off me! Tell me,--tell me, now
+here--this moment--before we part--if I may love you!"
+
+"Go away!" she answered, struggling, and bursting into tears. "This is
+too rude. If I am but a merchant's daughter. I am God's child. Remember
+that I am alone. Leave me; go! or I will call for help!"
+
+Eustace had heard or read somewhere that such expressions in a woman's
+mouth were mere facons de parler, and on the whole signs that she had no
+objection to be alone, and did not intend to call for help; and he only
+grasped her hands the more fiercely, and looked into her face with keen
+and hungry eyes; but she was in earnest, nevertheless, and a loud shriek
+made him aware that, if he wished to save his own good name, he must
+go: but there was one question, for an answer to which he would risk his
+very life.
+
+"Yes, proud woman! I thought so! Some one of those gay gallants has been
+beforehand with me. Tell me who--"
+
+But she broke from him, and passed him, and fled down the lane.
+
+"Mark it!" cried he, after her. "You shall rue the day when you despised
+Eustace Leigh! Mark it, proud beauty!" And he turned back to join
+Campian, who stood in some trepidation.
+
+"You have not hurt the maiden, my son? I thought I heard a scream."
+
+"Hurt her! No. Would God that she were dead, nevertheless, and I by her!
+Say no more to me, father. We will home." Even Campian knew enough of
+the world to guess what had happened, and they both hurried home in
+silence.
+
+And so Eustace Leigh played his move, and lost it.
+
+Poor little Rose, having run nearly to Chapel, stopped for very shame,
+and walked quietly by the cottages which stood opposite the gate, and
+then turned up the lane towards Moorwinstow village, whither she was
+bound. But on second thoughts, she felt herself so "red and flustered,"
+that she was afraid of going into the village, for fear (as she said to
+herself) of making people talk, and so, turning into a by-path, struck
+away toward the cliffs, to cool her blushes in the sea-breeze. And there
+finding a quiet grassy nook beneath the crest of the rocks, she sat down
+on the turf, and fell into a great meditation.
+
+Rose Salterne was a thorough specimen of a West-coast maiden, full of
+passionate impulsive affections, and wild dreamy imaginations, a fit
+subject, as the North-Devon women are still, for all romantic and gentle
+superstitions. Left early without mother's care, she had fed her fancy
+upon the legends and ballads of her native land, till she believed--what
+did she not believe?--of mermaids and pixies, charms and witches,
+dreams and omens, and all that world of magic in which most of the
+countrywomen, and countrymen too, believed firmly enough but twenty
+years ago. Then her father's house was seldom without some merchant, or
+sea-captain from foreign parts, who, like Othello, had his tales of--
+
+        "Antres vast, and deserts idle,
+     Of rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads reach heaven."
+
+And,--
+
+     "And of the cannibals that each other eat,
+     The anthropophagi, and men whose heads
+     Do grow beneath their shoulders."
+
+All which tales, she, like Desdemona, devoured with greedy ears,
+whenever she could "the house affairs with haste despatch." And when
+these failed, there was still boundless store of wonders open to her in
+old romances which were then to be found in every English house of the
+better class. The Legend of King Arthur, Florice and Blancheflour, Sir
+Ysumbras, Sir Guy of Warwick, Palamon and Arcite, and the Romaunt of the
+Rose, were with her text-books and canonical authorities. And lucky it
+was, perhaps, for her that Sidney's Arcadia was still in petto, or Mr.
+Frank (who had already seen the first book or two in manuscript, and
+extolled it above all books past, present, or to come) would have surely
+brought a copy down for Rose, and thereby have turned her poor little
+flighty brains upside down forever. And with her head full of these, it
+was no wonder if she had likened herself of late more than once to some
+of those peerless princesses of old, for whose fair hand paladins and
+kaisers thundered against each other in tilted field; and perhaps she
+would not have been sorry (provided, of course, no one was killed) if
+duels, and passages of arms in honor of her, as her father reasonably
+dreaded, had actually taken place.
+
+For Rose was not only well aware that she was wooed, but found the said
+wooing (and little shame to her) a very pleasant process. Not that she
+had any wish to break hearts: she did not break her heart for any of her
+admirers, and why should they break theirs for her? They were all very
+charming, each in his way (the gentlemen, at least; for she had long
+since learnt to turn up her nose at merchants and burghers); but one of
+them was not so very much better than the other.
+
+Of course, Mr. Frank Leigh was the most charming; but then, as a
+courtier and squire of dames, he had never given her a sign of real
+love, nothing but sonnets and compliments, and there was no trusting
+such things from a gallant, who was said (though, by the by, most
+scandalously) to have a lady love at Milan, and another at Vienna, and
+half-a-dozen in the Court, and half-a-dozen more in the city.
+
+And very charming was Mr. William Cary, with his quips and his jests,
+and his galliards and lavoltas; over and above his rich inheritance;
+but then, charming also Mr. Coffin of Portledge, though he were a little
+proud and stately; but which of the two should she choose? It would be
+very pleasant to be mistress of Clovelly Court; but just as pleasant to
+find herself lady of Portledge, where the Coffins had lived ever since
+Noah's flood (if, indeed, they had not merely returned thither after
+that temporary displacement), and to bring her wealth into a family
+which was as proud of its antiquity as any nobleman in Devon, and might
+have made a fourth to that famous trio of Devonshire Cs, of which it is
+written,--
+
+     "Crocker, Cruwys, and Copplestone,
+     When the Conqueror came were all at home."
+
+And Mr. Hugh Fortescue, too--people said that he was certain to become a
+great soldier--perhaps as great as his brother Arthur--and that would
+be pleasant enough, too, though he was but the younger son of an
+innumerable family: but then, so was Amyas Leigh. Ah, poor Amyas! Her
+girl's fancy for him had vanished, or rather, perhaps, it was very much
+what it always had been, only that four or five more girl's fancies
+beside it had entered in, and kept it in due subjection. But still, she
+could not help thinking a good deal about him, and his voyage, and the
+reports of his great strength, and beauty, and valor, which had already
+reached her in that out-of-the-way corner; and though she was not in the
+least in love with him, she could not help hoping that he had at least
+(to put her pretty little thought in the mildest shape) not altogether
+forgotten her; and was hungering, too, with all her fancy, to give him
+no peace till he had told her all the wonderful things which he had seen
+and done in this ever-memorable voyage. So that, altogether, it was no
+wonder, if in her last night's dream the figure of Amyas had been even
+more forward and troublesome than that of Frank or the rest.
+
+But, moreover, another figure had been forward and troublesome enough in
+last night's sleep-world; and forward and troublesome enough, too, now
+in to-day's waking-world, namely, Eustace, the rejected. How strange
+that she should have dreamt of him the night before! and dreamt, too,
+of his fighting with Mr. Frank and Mr. Amyas! It must be a warning--see,
+she had met him the very next day in this strange way; so the first half
+of her dream had come true; and after what had past, she only had to
+breathe a whisper, and the second part of the dream would come true
+also. If she wished for a passage of arms in her own honor, she could
+easily enough compass one: not that she would do it for worlds! And
+after all, though Mr. Eustace had been very rude and naughty, yet still
+it was not his own fault; he could not help being in love with her.
+And--and, in short, the poor little maid felt herself one of the most
+important personages on earth, with all the cares (or hearts) of the
+country in her keeping, and as much perplexed with matters of weight as
+ever was any Cleophila, or Dianeme, Fiordispina or Flourdeluce, in verse
+run tame, or prose run mad.
+
+Poor little Rose! Had she but had a mother! But she was to learn her
+lesson, such as it was, in another school. She was too shy (too proud
+perhaps) to tell her aunt her mighty troubles; but a counsellor she must
+have; and after sitting with her head in her hands, for half-an-hour
+or more, she arose suddenly, and started off along the cliffs towards
+Marsland. She would go and see Lucy Passmore, the white witch; Lucy knew
+everything; Lucy would tell her what to do; perhaps even whom to marry.
+
+Lucy was a fat, jolly woman of fifty, with little pig-eyes, which
+twinkled like sparks of fire, and eyebrows which sloped upwards and
+outwards, like those of a satyr, as if she had been (as indeed she had)
+all her life looking out of the corners of her eyes. Her qualifications
+as white witch were boundless cunning, equally boundless good nature,
+considerable knowledge of human weaknesses, some mesmeric power, some
+skill in "yarbs," as she called her simples, a firm faith in the virtue
+of her own incantations, and the faculty of holding her tongue. By dint
+of these she contrived to gain a fair share of money, and also (which
+she liked even better) of power, among the simple folk for many miles
+round. If a child was scalded, a tooth ached, a piece of silver was
+stolen, a heifer shrew-struck, a pig bewitched, a young damsel crost in
+love, Lucy was called in, and Lucy found a remedy, especially for the
+latter complaint. Now and then she found herself on ticklish ground, for
+the kind-heartedness which compelled her to help all distressed damsels
+out of a scrape, sometimes compelled her also to help them into one;
+whereon enraged fathers called Lucy ugly names, and threatened to send
+her into Exeter gaol for a witch, and she smiled quietly, and hinted
+that if she were "like some that were ready to return evil for evil,
+such talk as that would bring no blessing on them that spoke it;" which
+being translated into plain English, meant, "If you trouble me, I will
+overlook (i. e. fascinate) you, and then your pigs will die, your horses
+stray, your cream turn sour, your barns be fired, your son have St.
+Vitus's dance, your daughter fits, and so on, woe on woe, till you are
+very probably starved to death in a ditch, by virtue of this terrible
+little eye of mine, at which, in spite of all your swearing and
+bullying, you know you are now shaking in your shoes for fear. So you
+had much better hold your tongue, give me a drink of cider, and leave
+ill alone, lest you make it worse."
+
+Not that Lucy ever proceeded to any such fearful extremities. On the
+contrary, her boast, and her belief too, was, that she was sent into
+the world to make poor souls as happy as she could, by lawful means,
+of course, if possible, but if not--why, unlawful ones were better than
+none; for she "couldn't a-bear to see the poor creatures taking on;
+she was too, too tender-hearted." And so she was, to every one but her
+husband, a tall, simple-hearted rabbit-faced man, a good deal older than
+herself. Fully agreeing with Sir Richard Grenville's great axiom,
+that he who cannot obey cannot rule, Lucy had been for the last
+five-and-twenty years training him pretty smartly to obey her, with the
+intention, it is to be charitably hoped, of letting him rule her in
+turn when his lesson was perfected. He bore his honors, however, meekly
+enough, having a boundless respect for his wife's wisdom, and a firm
+belief in her supernatural powers, and let her go her own way and earn
+her own money, while he got a little more in a truly pastoral method
+(not extinct yet along those lonely cliffs), by feeding a herd of some
+dozen donkeys and twenty goats. The donkeys fetched, at each low-tide,
+white shell-sand which was to be sold for manure to the neighboring
+farmers; the goats furnished milk and "kiddy-pies;" and when there was
+neither milking nor sand-carrying to be done, old Will Passmore just
+sat under a sunny rock and watched the buck-goats rattle their horns
+together, thinking about nothing at all, and taking very good care
+all the while neither to inquire nor to see who came in and out of his
+little cottage in the glen.
+
+The prophetess, when Rose approached her oracular cave, was seated on
+a tripod in front of the fire, distilling strong waters out of
+penny-royal. But no sooner did her distinguished visitor appear at the
+hatch, than the still was left to take care of itself, and a clean
+apron and mutch having been slipt on, Lucy welcomed Rose with endless
+courtesies, and--"Bless my dear soul alive, who ever would have thought
+to see the Rose of Torridge to my poor little place!"
+
+Rose sat down: and then? How to begin was more than she knew, and she
+stayed silent a full five minutes, looking earnestly at the point of
+her shoe, till Lucy, who was an adept in such cases, thought it best
+to proceed to business at once, and save Rose the delicate operation
+of opening the ball herself; and so, in her own way, half fawning, half
+familiar--
+
+"Well, my dear young lady, and what is it I can do for ye? For I guess
+you want a bit of old Lucy's help, eh? Though I'm most mazed to see ye
+here, surely. I should have supposed that pretty face could manage they
+sort of matters for itself. Eh?"
+
+Rose, thus bluntly charged, confessed at once, and with many blushes and
+hesitations, made her soon understand that what she wanted was "To have
+her fortune told."
+
+"Eh? Oh! I see. The pretty face has managed it a bit too well already,
+eh? Tu many o' mun, pure fellows? Well, 'tain't every mayden has her
+pick and choose, like some I know of, as be blest in love by stars
+above. So you hain't made up your mind, then?"
+
+Rose shook her head.
+
+"Ah--well," she went on, in a half-bantering tone. "Not so asy, is it,
+then? One's gude for one thing, and one for another, eh? One has the
+blood, and another the money."
+
+And so the "cunning woman" (as she truly was), talking half to herself,
+ran over all the names which she thought likely, peering at Rose all the
+while out of the corners of her foxy bright eyes, while Rose stirred the
+peat ashes steadfastly with the point of her little shoe, half angry,
+half ashamed, half frightened, to find that "the cunning woman" had
+guessed so well both her suitors and her thoughts about them, and tried
+to look unconcerned at each name as it came out.
+
+"Well, well," said Lucy, who took nothing by her move, simply because
+there was nothing to take; "think over it--think over it, my dear life;
+and if you did set your mind on any one--why, then--then maybe I might
+help you to a sight of him."
+
+"A sight of him?"
+
+"His sperrit, dear life, his sperrit only, I mane. I 'udn't have no
+keeping company in my house, no, not for gowld untowld, I 'udn't; but
+the sperrit of mun--to see whether mun would be true or not, you'd like
+to know that, now, 'udn't you, my darling?"
+
+Rose sighed, and stirred the ashes about vehemently.
+
+"I must first know who it is to be. If you could show me that--now--"
+
+"Oh, I can show ye that, tu, I can. Ben there's a way to 't, a sure way;
+but 'tis mortal cold for the time o' year, you zee."
+
+"But what is it, then?" said Rose, who had in her heart been longing for
+something of that very kind, and had half made up her mind to ask for a
+charm.
+
+"Why, you'm not afraid to goo into the say by night for a minute, are
+you? And to-morrow night would serve, too; 't will be just low tide to
+midnight."
+
+"If you would come with me perhaps--"
+
+"I'll come, I'll come, and stand within call, to be sure. Only do ye
+mind this, dear soul alive, not to goo telling a crumb about mun, noo,
+not for the world, or yu'll see naught at all, indeed, now. And beside,
+there's a noxious business grow'd up against me up to Chapel there; and
+I hear tell how Mr. Leigh saith I shall to Exeter gaol for a witch--did
+ye ever hear the likes?--because his groom Jan saith I overlooked
+mun--the Papist dog! And now never he nor th' owld Father Francis goo by
+me without a spetting, and saying of their Ayes and Malificas--I do
+know what their Rooman Latin do mane, zo well as ever they, I du!--and a
+making o' their charms and incantations to their saints and idols! They
+be mortal feared of witches, they Papists, and mortal hard on 'em, even
+on a pure body like me, that doth a bit in the white way; 'case why you
+see, dear life," said she, with one of her humorous twinkles, "tu to a
+trade do never agree. Do ye try my bit of a charm, now; do ye!"
+
+Rose could not resist the temptation; and between them both the charm
+was agreed on, and the next night was fixed for its trial, on the
+payment of certain current coins of the realm (for Lucy, of course,
+must live by her trade); and slipping a tester into the dame's hand as
+earnest, Rose went away home, and got there in safety.
+
+But in the meanwhile, at the very hour that Eustace had been prosecuting
+his suit in the lane at Moorwinstow, a very different scene was being
+enacted in Mrs. Leigh's room at Burrough.
+
+For the night before, Amyas, as he was going to bed, heard his brother
+Frank in the next room tune his lute, and then begin to sing. And
+both their windows being open, and only a thin partition between the
+chambers, Amyas's admiring ears came in for every word of the following
+canzonet, sung in that delicate and mellow tenor voice for which Frank
+was famed among all fair ladies:--
+
+      "Ah, tyrant Love, Megaera's serpents bearing,
+     Why thus requite my sighs with venom'd smart?
+       Ah, ruthless dove, the vulture's talons wearing,
+     Why flesh them, traitress, in this faithful heart?
+       Is this my meed?  Must dragons' teeth alone
+       In Venus' lawns by lovers' hands be sown?
+
+      "Nay, gentlest Cupid; 'twas my pride undid me.
+     Nay, guiltless dove; by mine own wound I fell.
+       To worship, not to wed, Celestials bid me:
+     I dreamt to mate in heaven, and wake in hell;
+       Forever doom'd, Ixion-like, to reel
+       On mine own passions' ever-burning wheel."
+
+At which the simple sailor sighed, and longed that he could write such
+neat verses, and sing them so sweetly. How he would besiege the ear
+of Rose Salterne with amorous ditties! But still, he could not be
+everything; and if he had the bone and muscle of the family, it was but
+fair that Frank should have the brains and voice; and, after all, he was
+bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, and it was just the same as
+if he himself could do all the fine things which Frank could do; for as
+long as one of the family won honor, what matter which of them it was?
+Whereon he shouted through the wall, "Good night, old song-thrush; I
+suppose I need not pay the musicians."
+
+"What, awake?" answered Frank. "Come in here, and lull me to sleep with
+a sea-song."
+
+So Amyas went in, and found Frank laid on the outside of his bed not yet
+undrest.
+
+"I am a bad sleeper," said he; "I spend more time, I fear, in burning
+the midnight oil than prudent men should. Come and be my jongleur,
+my minnesinger, and tell me about Andes, and cannibals, and the
+ice-regions, and the fire-regions, and the paradises of the West."
+
+So Amyas sat down, and told: but somehow, every story which he tried to
+tell came round, by crooked paths, yet sure, to none other point than
+Rose Salterne, and how he thought of her here and thought of her there,
+and how he wondered what she would say if she had seen him in this
+adventure, and how he longed to have had her with him to show her that
+glorious sight, till Frank let him have his own way, and then out came
+the whole story of the simple fellow's daily and hourly devotion to her,
+through those three long years of world-wide wanderings.
+
+"And oh, Frank, I could hardly think of anything but her in the church
+the other day, God forgive me! and it did seem so hard for her to be the
+only face which I did not see--and have not seen her yet, either."
+
+"So I thought, dear lad," said Frank, with one of his sweetest smiles;
+"and tried to get her father to let her impersonate the nymph of
+Torridge."
+
+"Did you, you dear kind fellow? That would have been too delicious."
+
+"Just so, too delicious; wherefore, I suppose, it was ordained not to
+be, that which was being delicious enough."
+
+"And is she as pretty as ever?"
+
+"Ten times as pretty, dear lad, as half the young fellows round have
+discovered. If you mean to win her and wear her (and God grant you may
+fare no worse!) you will have rivals enough to get rid of."
+
+"Humph!" said Amyas, "I hope I shall not have to make short work with
+some of them."
+
+"I hope not," said Frank, laughing. "Now go to bed, and to-morrow
+morning give your sword to mother to keep, lest you should be tempted to
+draw it on any of her majesty's lieges."
+
+"No fear of that, Frank; I am no swash-buckler, thank God; but if any
+one gets in my way, I'll serve him as the mastiff did the terrier,
+and just drop him over the quay into the river, to cool himself, or my
+name's not Amyas."
+
+And the giant swung himself laughing out of the room, and slept all
+night like a seal, not without dreams, of course, of Rose Salterne.
+
+The next morning, according to his wont, he went into his mother's room,
+whom he was sure to find up and at her prayers; for he liked to say his
+prayers, too, by her side, as he used to do when he was a little boy. It
+seemed so homelike, he said, after three years' knocking up and down
+in no-man's land. But coming gently to the door, for fear of disturbing
+her, and entering unperceived, beheld a sight which stopped him short.
+
+Mrs. Leigh was sitting in her chair, with her face bowed fondly down
+upon the head of his brother Frank, who knelt before her, his face
+buried in her lap. Amyas could see that his whole form was quivering
+with stifled emotion. Their mother was just finishing the last words
+of a well-known text,--"for my sake, and the Gospel's, shall receive a
+hundred-fold in this present life, fathers, and mothers, and brothers,
+and sisters."
+
+"But not a wife!" interrupted Frank, with a voice stifled with sobs;
+"that was too precious a gift for even Him to promise to those who gave
+up a first love for His sake!"
+
+"And yet," said he, after a moment's silence, "has He not heaped me with
+blessings enough already, that I must repine and rage at His refusing me
+one more, even though that one be--No, mother! I am your son, and God's;
+and you shall know it, even though Amyas never does!" And he looked up
+with his clear blue eyes and white forehead; and his face was as the
+face of an angel.
+
+Both of them saw that Amyas was present, and started and blushed. His
+mother motioned him away with her eyes, and he went quietly out, as one
+stunned. Why had his name been mentioned?
+
+Love, cunning love, told him all at once. This was the meaning of last
+night's canzonet! This was why its words had seemed to fit his own heart
+so well! His brother was his rival. And he had been telling him all his
+love last night. What a stupid brute he was! How it must have made poor
+Frank wince! And then Frank had listened so kindly; even bid him God
+speed in his suit. What a gentleman old Frank was, to be sure! No wonder
+the queen was so fond of him, and all the Court ladies!--Why, if it
+came to that, what wonder if Rose Salterne should be fond of him too?
+Hey-day! "That would be a pretty fish to find in my net when I come to
+haul it!" quoth Amyas to himself, as he paced the garden; and clutching
+desperately hold of his locks with both hands, as if to hold his poor
+confused head on its shoulders, he strode and tramped up and down the
+shell-paved garden walks for a full half hour, till Frank's voice (as
+cheerful as ever, though he more than suspected all) called him.
+
+"Come in to breakfast, lad; and stop grinding and creaking upon those
+miserable limpets, before thou hast set every tooth in my head on edge!"
+
+Amyas, whether by dint of holding his head straight, or by higher means,
+had got the thoughts of the said head straight enough by this time; and
+in he came, and fell to upon the broiled fish and strong ale, with a
+sort of fury, as determined to do his duty to the utmost in all matters
+that day, and therefore, of course, in that most important matter of
+bodily sustenance; while his mother and Frank looked at him, not without
+anxiety and even terror, doubting what turn his fancy might have taken
+in so new a case; at last--
+
+"My dear Amyas, you will really heat your blood with all that strong
+ale! Remember, those who drink beer, think beer."
+
+"Then they think right good thoughts, mother. And in the meanwhile,
+those who drink water, think water. Eh, old Frank? and here's your
+health."
+
+"And clouds are water," said his mother, somewhat reassured by his
+genuine good humor; "and so are rainbows; and clouds are angels'
+thrones, and rainbows the sign of God's peace on earth."
+
+Amyas understood the hint, and laughed. "Then I'll pledge Frank out
+of the next ditch, if it please you and him. But first--I say--he must
+hearken to a parable; a manner mystery, miracle play, I have got in
+my head, like what they have at Easter, to the town-hall. Now then,
+hearken, madam, and I and Frank will act." And up rose Amyas, and shoved
+back his chair, and put on a solemn face.
+
+Mrs. Leigh looked up, trembling; and Frank, he scarce knew why, rose.
+
+"No; you pitch again. You are King David, and sit still upon your
+throne. David was a great singer, you know, and a player on the viols;
+and ruddy, too, and of a fair countenance; so that will fit. Now, then,
+mother, don't look so frightened. I am not going to play Goliath, for
+all my cubits; I am to present Nathan the prophet. Now, David, hearken,
+for I have a message unto thee, O King!
+
+"There were two men in one city, one rich, and the other poor: and the
+rich man had many flocks and herds, and all the fine ladies in Whitehall
+to court if he liked; and the poor man had nothing but--"
+
+And in spite of his broad honest smile, Amyas's deep voice began to
+tremble and choke.
+
+Frank sprang up, and burst into tears: "Oh! Amyas, my brother, my
+brother! stop! I cannot endure this. Oh, God! was it not enough to have
+entangled myself in this fatal fancy, but over and above, I must meet
+the shame of my brother's discovering it?"
+
+"What shame, then, I'd like to know?" said Amyas, recovering himself.
+"Look here, brother Frank! I've thought it all over in the garden; and
+I was an ass and a braggart for talking to you as I did last night.
+Of course you love her! Everybody must; and I was a fool for not
+recollecting that; and if you love her, your taste and mine agree, and
+what can be better? I think you are a sensible fellow for loving her,
+and you think me one. And as for who has her, why, you're the eldest;
+and first come first served is the rule, and best to keep to it.
+Besides, brother Frank, though I'm no scholar, yet I'm not so blind but
+that I tell the difference between you and me; and of course your chance
+against mine, for a hundred to one; and I am not going to be fool enough
+to row against wind and tide too. I'm good enough for her, I hope; but
+if I am, you are better, and the good dog may run, but it's the best
+that takes the hare; and so I have nothing more to do with the matter
+at all; and if you marry her, why, it will set the old house on its legs
+again, and that's the first thing to be thought of, and you may just as
+well do it as I, and better too. Not but that it's a plague, a horrible
+plague!" went on Amyas, with a ludicrously doleful visage; "but so
+are other things too, by the dozen; it's all in the day's work, as the
+huntsman said when the lion ate him. One would never get through the
+furze-croft if one stopped to pull out the prickles. The pig didn't
+scramble out of the ditch by squeaking; and the less said the sooner
+mended; nobody was sent into the world only to suck honey-pots. What
+must be must, man is but dust; if you can't get crumb, you must fain
+eat crust. So I'll go and join the army in Ireland, and get it out of
+my head, for cannon balls fright away love as well as poverty does; and
+that's all I've got to say." Wherewith Amyas sat down, and returned to
+the beer; while Mrs. Leigh wept tears of joy.
+
+"Amyas! Amyas!" said Frank; "you must not throw away the hopes of years,
+and for me, too! Oh, how just was your parable! Ah! mother mine! to
+what use is all my scholarship and my philosophy, when this dear simple
+sailor-lad outdoes me at the first trial of courtesy!"
+
+"My children, my children, which of you shall I love best? Which of you
+is the more noble? I thanked God this morning for having given me one
+such son; but to have found that I possess two!" And Mrs. Leigh laid her
+head on the table, and buried her face in her hands, while the generous
+battle went on.
+
+"But, dearest Amyas!--"
+
+"But, Frank! if you don't hold your tongue, I must go forth. It
+was quite trouble enough to make up one's mind, without having you
+afterwards trying to unmake it again."
+
+"Amyas! if you give her up to me, God do so to me, and more also, if I
+do not hereby give her up to you!"
+
+"He had done it already--this morning!" said Mrs. Leigh, looking up
+through her tears. "He renounced her forever on his knees before me!
+only he is too noble to tell you so."
+
+"The more reason I should copy him," said Amyas, setting his lips, and
+trying to look desperately determined, and then suddenly jumping up,
+he leaped upon Frank, and throwing his arms round his neck, sobbed out,
+"There, there, now! For God's sake, let us forget all, and think about
+our mother, and the old house, and how we may win her honor before we
+die! and that will be enough to keep our hands full, without fretting
+about this woman and that.--What an ass I have been for years! instead
+of learning my calling, dreaming about her, and don't know at this
+minute whether she cares more for me than she does for her father's
+'prentices!"
+
+"Oh, Amyas! every word of yours puts me to fresh shame! Will you believe
+that I know as little of her likings as you do?"
+
+"Don't tell me that, and play the devil's game by putting fresh hopes
+into me, when I am trying to kick them out. I won't believe it. If she
+is not a fool, she must love you; and if she don't, why, be hanged if
+she is worth loving!"
+
+"My dearest Amyas! I must ask you too to make no more such speeches to
+me. All those thoughts I have forsworn."
+
+"Only this morning; so there is time to catch them again before they are
+gone too far."
+
+"Only this morning," said Frank, with a quiet smile: "but centuries have
+passed since then."
+
+"Centuries? I don't see many gray hairs yet."
+
+"I should not have been surprised if you had, though," answered Frank,
+in so sad and meaning a tone that Amyas could only answer--
+
+"Well, you are an angel!"
+
+"You, at least, are something even more to the purpose, for you are a
+man!"
+
+And both spoke truth, and so the battle ended; and Frank went to his
+books, while Amyas, who must needs be doing, if he was not to dream,
+started off to the dockyard to potter about a new ship of Sir Richard's,
+and forget his woes, in the capacity of Sir Oracle among the sailors.
+And so he had played his move for Rose, even as Eustace had, and lost
+her: but not as Eustace had.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CLOVELLY COURT IN THE OLDEN TIME
+
+          "It was among the ways of good Queen Bess,
+             Who ruled as well as ever mortal can, sir,
+           When she was stogg'd, and the country in a mess,
+             She was wont to send for a Devon man, sir."
+
+                                         West Country Song.
+
+The next morning Amyas Leigh was not to be found. Not that he had gone
+out to drown himself in despair, or even to bemoan himself "down by the
+Torridge side." He had simply ridden off, Frank found, to Sir Richard
+Grenville at Stow: his mother at once divined the truth, that he was
+gone to try for a post in the Irish army, and sent off Frank after him
+to bring him home again, and make him at least reconsider himself.
+
+So Frank took horse and rode thereon ten miles or more: and then, as
+there were no inns on the road in those days, or indeed in these, and
+he had some ten miles more of hilly road before him, he turned down
+the hill towards Clovelly Court, to obtain, after the hospitable humane
+fashion of those days, good entertainment for man and horse from Mr.
+Cary the squire.
+
+And when he walked self-invited, like the loud-shouting Menelaus, into
+the long dark wainscoted hall of the court, the first object he beheld
+was the mighty form of Amyas, who, seated at the long table, was
+alternately burying his face in a pasty, and the pasty in his face, his
+sorrows having, as it seemed, only sharpened his appetite, while young
+Will Cary, kneeling on the opposite bench, with his elbows on the table,
+was in that graceful attitude laying down the law fiercely to him in a
+low voice.
+
+"Hillo! lad," cried Amyas; "come hither and deliver me out of the hands
+of this fire-eater, who I verily believe will kill me, if I do not let
+him kill some one else."
+
+"Ah! Mr. Frank," said Will Cary, who, like all other young gentlemen of
+these parts, held Frank in high honor, and considered him a very oracle
+and cynosure of fashion and chivalry, "welcome here: I was just longing
+for you, too; I wanted your advice on half-a-dozen matters. Sit down,
+and eat. There is the ale."
+
+"None so early, thank you."
+
+"Ah no!" said Amyas, burying his head in the tankard, and then mimicking
+Frank, "avoid strong ale o' mornings. It heats the blood, thickens
+the animal spirits, and obfuscates the cerebrum with frenetical and
+lymphatic idols, which cloud the quintessential light of the pure
+reason. Eh? young Plato, young Daniel, come hither to judgment! And yet,
+though I cannot see through the bottom of the tankard already, I can see
+plain enough still to see this, that Will shall not fight."
+
+"Shall I not, eh? who says that? Mr. Frank, I appeal to you, now; only
+hear."
+
+"We are in the judgment-seat," said Frank, settling to the pasty.
+"Proceed, appellant."
+
+"Well, I was telling Amyas, that Tom Coffin, of Portledge; I will stand
+him no longer."
+
+"Let him be, then," said Amyas; "he could stand very well by himself,
+when I saw him last."
+
+"Plague on you, hold your tongue. Has he any right to look at me as he
+does, whenever I pass him?"
+
+"That depends on how he looks; a cat may look at a king, provided she
+don't take him for a mouse."
+
+"Oh, I know how he looks, and what he means too, and he shall stop, or I
+will stop him. And the other day, when I spoke of Rose Salterne"--"Ah!"
+groaned Frank, "Ate's apple again!"--"(never mind what I said) he burst
+out laughing in my face; and is not that a fair quarrel? And what is
+more, I know that he wrote a sonnet, and sent it to her to Stow by a
+market woman. What right has he to write sonnets when I can't? It's not
+fair play, Mr. Frank, or I am a Jew, and a Spaniard, and a Papist; it's
+not!" And Will smote the table till the plates danced again.
+
+"My dear knight of the burning pestle, I have a plan, a device, a
+disentanglement, according to most approved rules of chivalry. Let us
+fix a day, and summon by tuck of drum all young gentlemen under the
+age of thirty, dwelling within fifteen miles of the habitation of that
+peerless Oriana."
+
+"And all 'prentice-boys too," cried Amyas, out of the pasty.
+
+"And all 'prentice-boys. The bold lads shall fight first, with good
+quarterstaves, in Bideford Market, till all heads are broken; and the
+head which is not broken, let the back belonging to it pay the penalty
+of the noble member's cowardice. After which grand tournament, to which
+that of Tottenham shall be but a flea-bite and a batrachomyomachy--"
+
+"Confound you, and your long words, sir," said poor Will, "I know you
+are flouting me."
+
+"Pazienza, Signor Cavaliere; that which is to come is no flouting, but
+bloody and warlike earnest. For afterwards all the young gentlemen
+shall adjourn into a convenient field, sand, or bog--which last will be
+better, as no man will be able to run away, if he be up to his knees
+in soft peat: and there stripping to our shirts, with rapiers of equal
+length and keenest temper, each shall slay his man, catch who catch can,
+and the conquerors fight again, like a most valiant main of gamecocks
+as we are, till all be dead, and out of their woes; after which the
+survivor, bewailing before heaven and earth the cruelty of our Fair
+Oriana, and the slaughter which her basiliscine eyes have caused, shall
+fall gracefully upon his sword, and so end the woes of this our lovelorn
+generation. Placetne Domini? as they used to ask in the Senate at
+Oxford."
+
+"Really," said Cary, "this is too bad."
+
+"So is, pardon me, your fighting Mr. Coffin with anything longer than a
+bodkin."
+
+"Bodkins are too short for such fierce Bobadils," said Amyas; "they
+would close in so near, that we should have them falling to fisticuffs
+after the first bout."
+
+"Then let them fight with squirts across the market-place; for by heaven
+and the queen's laws, they shall fight with nothing else."
+
+"My dear Mr. Cary," went on Frank, suddenly changing his bantering tone
+to one of the most winning sweetness, "do not fancy that I cannot feel
+for you, or that I, as well as you, have not known the stings of love
+and the bitterer stings of jealousy. But oh, Mr. Cary, does it not seem
+to you an awful thing to waste selfishly upon your own quarrel that
+divine wrath which, as Plato says, is the very root of all virtues, and
+which has been given you, like all else which you have, that you may
+spend it in the service of her whom all bad souls fear, and all virtuous
+souls adore,--our peerless queen? Who dares, while she rules England,
+call his sword or his courage his own, or any one's but hers? Are there
+no Spaniards to conquer, no wild Irish to deliver from their oppressors,
+that two gentlemen of Devon can find no better place to flesh their
+blades than in each other's valiant and honorable hearts?"
+
+"By heaven!" cried Amyas, "Frank speaks like a book; and for me, I do
+think that Christian gentlemen may leave love quarrels to bulls and
+rams."
+
+"And that the heir of Clovelly," said Frank, smiling, "may find more
+noble examples to copy than the stags in his own deer-park."
+
+"Well," said Will, penitently, "you are a great scholar, Mr. Frank, and
+you speak like one; but gentlemen must fight sometimes, or where would
+be their honor?"
+
+"I speak," said Frank, a little proudly, "not merely as a scholar,
+but as a gentleman, and one who has fought ere now, and to whom it has
+happened, Mr. Cary, to kill his man (on whose soul may God have mercy);
+but it is my pride to remember that I have never yet fought in my own
+quarrel, and my trust in God that I never shall. For as there is nothing
+more noble and blessed than to fight in behalf of those whom we love,
+so to fight in our own private behalf is a thing not to be allowed to a
+Christian man, unless refusal imports utter loss of life or honor;
+and even then, it may be (though I would not lay a burden on any man's
+conscience), it is better not to resist evil, but to overcome it with
+good."
+
+"And I can tell you, Will," said Amyas, "I am not troubled with fear of
+ghosts; but when I cut off the Frenchman's head, I said to myself, 'If
+that braggart had been slandering me instead of her gracious majesty, I
+should expect to see that head lying on my pillow every time I went to
+bed at night.'"
+
+"God forbid!" said Will, with a shudder. "But what shall I do? for to
+the market tomorrow I will go, if it were choke-full of Coffins, and a
+ghost in each coffin of the lot."
+
+"Leave the matter to me," said Amyas. "I have my device, as well as
+scholar Frank here; and if there be, as I suppose there must be, a
+quarrel in the market to-morrow, see if I do not--"
+
+"Well, you are two good fellows," said Will. "Let us have another
+tankard in."
+
+"And drink the health of Mr. Coffin, and all gallant lads of the North,"
+said Frank; "and now to my business. I have to take this runaway youth
+here home to his mother; and if he will not go quietly, I have orders to
+carry him across my saddle."
+
+"I hope your nag has a strong back, then," said Amyas; "but I must go on
+and see Sir Richard, Frank. It is all very well to jest as we have been
+doing, but my mind is made up."
+
+"Stop," said Cary. "You must stay here tonight; first, for good
+fellowship's sake; and next, because I want the advice of our Phoenix
+here, our oracle, our paragon. There, Mr. Frank, can you construe that
+for me? Speak low, though, gentlemen both; there comes my father; you
+had better give me the letter again. Well, father, whence this morning?"
+
+"Eh, company here? Young men, you are always welcome, and such as you.
+Would there were more of your sort in these dirty times! How is your
+good mother, Frank, eh? Where have I been, Will? Round the house-farm,
+to look at the beeves. That sheeted heifer of Prowse's is all wrong;
+her coat stares like a hedgepig's. Tell Jewell to go up and bring her in
+before night. And then up the forty acres; sprang two coveys, and picked
+a leash out of them. The Irish hawk flies as wild as any haggard still,
+and will never make a bird. I had to hand her to Tom, and take the
+little peregrine. Give me a Clovelly hawk against the world, after
+all; and--heigh ho, I am very hungry! Half-past twelve, and dinner not
+served? What, Master Amyas, spoiling your appetite with strong ale?
+Better have tried sack, lad; have some now with me."
+
+And the worthy old gentleman, having finished his oration, settled
+himself on a great bench inside the chimney, and put his hawk on a perch
+over his head, while his cockers coiled themselves up close to the warm
+peat-ashes, and his son set to work to pull off his father's boots, amid
+sundry warnings to take care of his corns.
+
+"Come, Master Amyas, a pint of white wine and sugar, and a bit of a
+shoeing-horn to it ere we dine. Some pickled prawns, now, or a rasher
+off the coals, to whet you?"
+
+"Thank you," quoth Amyas; "but I have drunk a mort of outlandish
+liquors, better and worse, in the last three years, and yet never found
+aught to come up to good ale, which needs neither shoeing-horn before
+nor after, but takes care of itself, and of all honest stomachs too, I
+think."
+
+"You speak like a book, boy," said old Cary; "and after all, what a
+plague comes of these newfangled hot wines, and aqua vitaes, which have
+come in since the wars, but maddening of the brains, and fever of the
+blood?"
+
+"I fear we have not seen the end of that yet," said Frank. "My friends
+write me from the Netherlands that our men are falling into a swinish
+trick of swilling like the Hollanders. Heaven grant that they may not
+bring home the fashion with them."
+
+"A man must drink, they say, or die of the ague, in those vile swamps,"
+said Amyas. "When they get home here, they will not need it."
+
+"Heaven grant it," said Frank; "I should be sorry to see Devonshire
+a drunken county; and there are many of our men out there with Mr.
+Champernoun."
+
+"Ah," said Cary, "there, as in Ireland, we are proving her majesty's
+saying true, that Devonshire is her right hand, and the young children
+thereof like the arrows in the hand of the giant."
+
+"They may well be," said his son, "when some of them are giants
+themselves, like my tall school-fellow opposite."
+
+"He will be up and doing again presently, I'll warrant him," said old
+Cary.
+
+"And that I shall," quoth Amyas. "I have been devising brave deeds;
+and see in the distance enchanters to be bound, dragons choked, empires
+conquered, though not in Holland."
+
+"You do?" asked Will, a little sharply; for he had had a half suspicion
+that more was meant than met the ear.
+
+"Yes," said Amyas, turning off his jest again, "I go to what Raleigh
+calls the Land of the Nymphs. Another month, I hope, will see me abroad
+in Ireland."
+
+"Abroad? Call it rather at home," said old Cary; "for it is full of
+Devon men from end to end, and you will be among friends all day long.
+George Bourchier from Tawstock has the army now in Munster, and Warham
+St. Leger is marshal; George Carew is with Lord Grey of Wilton (Poor
+Peter Carew was killed at Glendalough); and after the defeat last year,
+when that villain Desmond cut off Herbert and Price, the companies were
+made up with six hundred Devon men, and Arthur Fortescue at their head;
+so that the old county holds her head as proudly in the Land of Ire as
+she does in the Low Countries and the Spanish Main."
+
+"And where," asked Amyas, "is Davils of Marsland, who used to teach me
+how to catch trout, when I was staying down at Stow? He is in Ireland,
+too, is he not?"
+
+"Ah, my lad," said Mr. Cary, "that is a sad story. I thought all England
+had known it."
+
+"You forget, sir, I am a stranger. Surely he is not dead?"
+
+"Murdered foully, lad! Murdered like a dog, and by the man whom he had
+treated as his son, and who pretended, the false knave! to call him
+father."
+
+"His blood is avenged?" said Amyas, fiercely.
+
+"No, by heaven, not yet! Stay, don't cry out again. I am getting
+old--I must tell my story my own way. It was last July,--was it not,
+Will?--Over comes to Ireland Saunders, one of those Jesuit foxes, as the
+Pope's legate, with money and bulls, and a banner hallowed by the Pope,
+and the devil knows what beside; and with him James Fitzmaurice, the
+same fellow who had sworn on his knees to Perrott, in the church at
+Kilmallock, to be a true liegeman to Queen Elizabeth, and confirmed it
+by all his saints, and such a world of his Irish howling, that Perrott
+told me he was fain to stop his own ears. Well, he had been practising
+with the King of France, but got nothing but laughter for his pains, and
+so went over to the Most Catholic King, and promises him to join Ireland
+to Spain, and set up Popery again, and what not. And he, I suppose,
+thinking it better that Ireland should belong to him than to the Pope's
+bastard, fits him out, and sends him off on such another errand as
+Stukely's,--though I will say, for the honor of Devon, if Stukely lived
+like a fool, he died like an honest man."
+
+"Sir Thomas Stukely dead too?" said Amyas.
+
+"Wait a while, lad, and you shall have that tragedy afterwards. Well,
+where was I? Oh, Fitzmaurice and the Jesuits land at Smerwick, with
+three ships, choose a place for a fort, bless it with their holy water,
+and their moppings and their scourings, and the rest of it, to purify
+it from the stain of heretic dominion; but in the meanwhile one of
+the Courtenays,--a Courtenay of Haccombe, was it?--or a Courtenay of
+Boconnock? Silence, Will, I shall have it in a minute--yes, a Courtenay
+of Haccombe it was, lying at anchor near by, in a ship of war of his,
+cuts out the three ships, and cuts off the Dons from the sea. John and
+James Desmond, with some small rabble, go over to the Spaniards. Earl
+Desmond will not join them, but will not fight them, and stands by to
+take the winning side; and then in comes poor Davils, sent down by the
+Lord Deputy to charge Desmond and his brothers, in the queen's name, to
+assault the Spaniards. Folks say it was rash of his lordship: but I
+say, what could be better done? Every one knows that there never was a
+stouter or shrewder soldier than Davils; and the young Desmonds, I have
+heard him say many a time, used to look on him as their father. But
+he found out what it was to trust Englishmen turned Irish. Well,
+the Desmonds found out on a sudden that the Dons were such desperate
+Paladins, that it was madness to meddle, though they were five to one;
+and poor Davils, seeing that there was no fight in them, goes back for
+help, and sleeps that night at some place called Tralee. Arthur Carter
+of Bideford, St. Leger's lieutenant, as stout an old soldier as Davils
+himself, sleeps in the same bed with him; the lacquey-boy, who is now
+with Sir Richard at Stow, on the floor at their feet. But in the dead of
+night, who should come in but James Desmond, sword in hand, with a dozen
+of his ruffians at his heels, each with his glib over his ugly face,
+and his skene in his hand. Davils springs up in bed, and asks but this,
+'What is the matter, my son?' whereon the treacherous villain, without
+giving him time to say a prayer, strikes at him, naked as he was,
+crying, 'Thou shalt be my father no longer, nor I thy son! Thou shalt
+die!' and at that all the rest fall on him. The poor little lad (so he
+says) leaps up to cover his master with his naked body, gets three or
+four stabs of skenes, and so falls for dead; with his master and Captain
+Carter, who were dead indeed--God reward them! After that the ruffians
+ransacked the house, till they had murdered every Englishman in it, the
+lacquey-boy only excepted, who crawled out, wounded as he was, through
+a window; while Desmond, if you will believe it, went back, up to his
+elbows in blood, and vaunted his deeds to the Spaniards, and asked
+them--'There! Will you take that as a pledge that I am faithful to you?'
+And that, my lad, was the end of Henry Davils, and will be of all who
+trust to the faith of wild savages."
+
+"I would go a hundred miles to see that Desmond hanged!" said Amyas,
+while great tears ran down his face. "Poor Mr. Davils! And now, what is
+the story of Sir Thomas?"
+
+"Your brother must tell you that, lad; I am somewhat out of breath."
+
+"And I have a right to tell it," said Frank, with a smile. "Do you know
+that I was very near being Earl of the bog of Allen, and one of the
+peers of the realm to King Buoncompagna, son and heir to his holiness
+Pope Gregory the Thirteenth?"
+
+"No, surely!"
+
+"As I am a gentleman. When I was at Rome I saw poor Stukely often; and
+this and more he offered me on the part (as he said) of the Pope, if I
+would just oblige him in the two little matters of being reconciled to
+the Catholic Church, and joining the invasion of Ireland."
+
+"Poor deluded heretic," said Will Cary, "to have lost an earldom for
+your family by such silly scruples of loyalty!"
+
+"It is not a matter for jesting, after all," said Frank; "but I saw Sir
+Thomas often, and I cannot believe he was in his senses, so frantic was
+his vanity and his ambition; and all the while, in private matters as
+honorable a gentleman as ever. However, he sailed at last for Ireland,
+with his eight hundred Spaniards and Italians; and what is more, I
+know that the King of Spain paid their charges. Marquis Vinola--James
+Buoncompagna, that is--stayed quietly at Rome, preferring that Stukely
+should conquer his paternal heritage of Ireland for him while he took
+care of the bona robas at home. I went down to Civita Vecchia to see
+him off; and though his younger by many years, I could not but take
+the liberty of entreating him, as a gentleman and a man of Devon, to
+consider his faith to his queen and the honor of his country. There were
+high words between us; God forgive me if I spoke too fiercely, for I
+never saw him again."
+
+"Too fiercely to an open traitor, Frank? Why not have run him through?"
+
+"Nay, I had no clean life for Sundays, Amyas; so I could not throw away
+my week-day one; and as for the weal of England, I knew that it was
+little he would damage it, and told him so. And at that he waxed utterly
+mad, for it touched his pride, and swore that if the wind had not been
+fair for sailing, he would have fought me there and then; to which I
+could only answer, that I was ready to meet him when he would; and he
+parted from me, saying, 'It is a pity, sir, I cannot fight you now; when
+next we meet, it will be beneath my dignity to measure swords with you.'
+
+"I suppose he expected to come back a prince at least--Heaven knows; I
+owe him no ill-will, nor I hope does any man. He has paid all debts now
+in full, and got his receipt for them."
+
+"How did he die, then, after all?"
+
+"On his voyage he touched in Portugal. King Sebastian was just sailing
+for Africa with his new ally, Mohammed the Prince of Fez, to help King
+Abdallah, and conquer what he could. He persuaded Stukely to go with
+him. There were those who thought that he, as well as the Spaniards, had
+no stomach for seeing the Pope's son King of Ireland. Others used to
+say that he thought an island too small for his ambition, and must needs
+conquer a continent--I know not why it was, but he went. They had heavy
+weather in the passage; and when they landed, many of their soldiers
+were sea-sick. Stukely, reasonably enough, counselled that they should
+wait two or three days and recruit; but Don Sebastian was so mad for the
+assault that he must needs have his veni, vidi, vici; and so ended with
+a veni, vidi, perii; for he Abdallah, and his son Mohammed, all perished
+in the first battle at Alcasar; and Stukely, surrounded and overpowered,
+fought till he could fight no more, and then died like a hero with all
+his wounds in front; and may God have mercy on his soul!"
+
+"Ah!" said Amyas, "we heard of that battle off Lima, but nothing about
+poor Stukely."
+
+"That last was a Popish prayer, Master Frank," said old Mr. Cary.
+
+"Most worshipful sir, you surely would not wish God not to have mercy on
+his soul?"
+
+"No--eh? Of course not: but that's all settled by now, for he is dead,
+poor fellow."
+
+"Certainly, my dear sir. And you cannot help being a little fond of him
+still."
+
+"Eh? why, I should be a brute if I were not. He and I were
+schoolfellows, though he was somewhat the younger; and many a good
+thrashing have I given him, and one cannot help having a tenderness for
+a man after that. Beside, we used to hunt together in Exmoor, and have
+royal nights afterward into Ilfracombe, when we were a couple of mad
+young blades. Fond of him? Why, I would have sooner given my forefinger
+than that he should have gone to the dogs thus."
+
+"Then, my dear sir, if you feel for him still, in spite of all his
+faults, how do you know that God may not feel for him still, in spite of
+all his faults? For my part," quoth Frank, in his fanciful way, "without
+believing in that Popish Purgatory, I cannot help holding with Plato,
+that such heroical souls, who have wanted but little of true greatness,
+are hereafter by some strait discipline brought to a better mind;
+perhaps, as many ancients have held with the Indian Gymnosophists, by
+transmigration into the bodies of those animals whom they have resembled
+in their passions; and indeed, if Sir Thomas Stukely's soul should now
+animate the body of a lion, all I can say is that he would be a very
+valiant and royal lion; and also doubtless become in due time heartily
+ashamed and penitent for having been nothing better than a lion."
+
+"What now, Master Frank? I don't trouble my head with such matters--I
+say Stukely was a right good-hearted fellow at bottom; and if you plague
+my head with any of your dialectics, and propositions, and college quips
+and quiddities, you sha'n't have any more sack, sir. But here come the
+knaves, and I hear the cook knock to dinner."
+
+After a madrigal or two, and an Italian song of Master Frank's, all
+which went sweetly enough, the ladies rose, and went. Whereon Will Cary,
+drawing his chair close to Frank's, put quietly into his hand a dirty
+letter.
+
+"This was the letter left for me," whispered he, "by a country fellow
+this morning. Look at it and tell me what I am to do."
+
+Whereon Frank opened, and read--
+
+     "Mister Cary, be you wary
+        By deer park end to-night.
+     Yf Irish ffoxe com out of rocks
+        Grip and hold hym tight."
+
+"I would have showed it my father," said Will, "but--"
+
+"I verily believe it to be a blind. See now, this is the handwriting of
+a man who has been trying to write vilely, and yet cannot. Look at
+that B, and that G; their formae formativae never were begotten in a
+hedge-school. And what is more, this is no Devon man's handiwork. We say
+'to' and not 'by,' Will, eh? in the West country?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"And 'man,' instead of 'him'?"
+
+"True, O Daniel! But am I to do nothing therefore?"
+
+"On that matter I am no judge. Let us ask much-enduring Ulysses here;
+perhaps he has not sailed round the world without bringing home a device
+or two."
+
+Whereon Amyas was called to counsel, as soon as Mr. Cary could be
+stopped in a long cross-examination of him as to Mr. Doughty's famous
+trial and execution.
+
+Amyas pondered awhile, thrusting his hands into his long curls; and
+then--
+
+"Will, my lad, have you been watching at the Deer Park End of late?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Where, then?"
+
+"At the town-beach."
+
+"Where else?
+
+"At the town-head."
+
+"Where else?"
+
+"Why, the fellow is turned lawyer! Above Freshwater."
+
+"Where is Freshwater?"
+
+"Why, where the water-fall comes over the cliff, half-a-mile from the
+town. There is a path there up into the forest."
+
+"I know. I'll watch there to-night. Do you keep all your old haunts
+safe, of course, and send a couple of stout knaves to the mill, to watch
+the beach at the Deer Park End, on the chance; for your poet may be a
+true man, after all. But my heart's faith is, that this comes just to
+draw you off from some old beat of yours, upon a wild-goose chase. If
+they shoot the miller by mistake, I suppose it don't much matter?"
+
+"Marry, no."
+
+     "'When a miller's knock'd on the head,
+     The less of flour makes the more of bread.'"
+
+"Or, again," chimed in old Mr. Cary, "as they say in the North--
+
+     "'Find a miller that will not steal,
+     Or a webster that is leal,
+     Or a priest that is not greedy,
+     And lay them three a dead corpse by;
+     And by the virtue of them three,
+     The said dead corpse shall quicken'd be.'"
+
+"But why are you so ready to watch Freshwater to-night, Master Amyas?"
+
+"Because, sir, those who come, if they come, will never land at
+Mouthmill; if they are strangers, they dare not; and if they are
+bay's-men, they are too wise, as long as the westerly swell sets in. As
+for landing at the town, that would be too great a risk; but Freshwater
+is as lonely as the Bermudas; and they can beach a boat up under the
+cliff at all tides, and in all weathers, except north and nor'west. I
+have done it many a time, when I was a boy."
+
+"And give us the fruit of your experience now in your old age, eh? Well,
+you have a gray head on green shoulders, my lad; and I verily believe
+you are right. Who will you take with you to watch?"
+
+"Sir," said Frank, "I will go with my brother; and that will be enough."
+
+"Enough? He is big enough, and you brave enough, for ten; but still, the
+more the merrier."
+
+"But the fewer, the better fare. If I might ask a first and last favor,
+worshipful sir," said Frank, very earnestly, "you would grant me two
+things: that you would let none go to Freshwater but me and my brother;
+and that whatsoever we shall bring you back shall be kept as secret as
+the commonweal and your loyalty shall permit. I trust that we are not so
+unknown to you, or to others, that you can doubt for a moment but that
+whatsoever we may do will satisfy at once your honor and our own."
+
+"My dear young gentleman, there is no need of so many courtier's words.
+I am your father's friend, and yours. And God forbid that a Cary--for I
+guess your drift--should ever wish to make a head or a heart ache; that
+is, more than--"
+
+"Those of whom it is written, 'Though thou bray a fool in a mortar, yet
+will not his folly depart from him,'" interposed Frank, in so sad a tone
+that no one at the table replied; and few more words were exchanged,
+till the two brothers were safe outside the house; and then--
+
+"Amyas," said Frank, "that was a Devon man's handiwork, nevertheless; it
+was Eustace's handwriting."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"No, lad. I have been secretary to a prince, and learnt to interpret
+cipher, and to watch every pen-stroke; and, young as I am, I think that
+I am not easily deceived. Would God I were! Come on, lad; and strike no
+man hastily, lest thou cut off thine own flesh."
+
+So forth the two went, along the park to the eastward, and past the
+head of the little wood-embosomed fishing-town, a steep stair of houses
+clinging to the cliff far below them, the bright slate roofs and white
+walls glittering in the moonlight; and on some half-mile farther, along
+the steep hill-side, fenced with oak wood down to the water's edge, by
+a narrow forest path, to a point where two glens meet and pour their
+streamlets over a cascade some hundred feet in height into the sea
+below. By the side of this waterfall a narrow path climbs upward from
+the beach; and here it was that the two brothers expected to meet the
+messenger.
+
+Frank insisted on taking his station below Amyas. He said that he was
+certain that Eustace himself would make his appearance, and that he
+was more fit than Amyas to bring him to reason by parley; that if Amyas
+would keep watch some twenty yards above, the escape of the messenger
+would be impossible. Moreover, he was the elder brother, and the post of
+honor was his right. So Amyas obeyed him, after making him promise that
+if more than one man came up the path, he would let them pass him before
+he challenged, so that both might bring them to bay at the same time.
+
+So Amyas took his station under a high marl bank, and, bedded in
+luxuriant crown-ferns, kept his eye steadily on Frank, who sat down on
+a little knoll of rock (where is now a garden on the cliff-edge) which
+parts the path and the dark chasm down which the stream rushes to its
+final leap over the cliff.
+
+There Amyas sat a full half-hour, and glanced at whiles from Frank to
+look upon the scene around. Outside the southwest wind blew fresh and
+strong, and the moonlight danced upon a thousand crests of foam; but
+within the black jagged point which sheltered the town, the sea did
+but heave, in long oily swells of rolling silver, onward into the black
+shadow of the hills, within which the town and pier lay invisible,
+save where a twinkling light gave token of some lonely fisher's wife,
+watching the weary night through for the boat which would return with
+dawn. Here and there upon the sea, a black speck marked a herring-boat,
+drifting with its line of nets; and right off the mouth of the
+glen, Amyas saw, with a beating heart, a large two-masted vessel
+lying-to--that must be the "Portugal"! Eagerly he looked up the glen,
+and listened; but he heard nothing but the sweeping of the wind across
+the downs five hundred feet above, and the sough of the waterfall upon
+the rocks below; he saw nothing but the vast black sheets of oak-wood
+sloping up to the narrow blue sky above, and the broad bright hunter's
+moon, and the woodcocks, which, chuckling to each other, hawked to and
+fro, like swallows, between the tree-tops and the sky.
+
+At last he heard a rustle of the fallen leaves; he shrank closer and
+closer into the darkness of the bank. Then swift light steps--not down
+the path, from above, but upward, from below; his heart beat quick and
+loud. And in another half-minute a man came in sight, within three yards
+of Frank's hiding-place.
+
+Frank sprang out instantly. Amyas saw his bright blade glance in the
+clear October moonlight.
+
+"Stand in the queen's name!"
+
+The man drew a pistol from under his cloak, and fired full in his face.
+Had it happened in these days of detonators, Frank's chance had been
+small; but to get a ponderous wheel-lock under weigh was a longer
+business, and before the fizzing of the flint had ceased, Frank had
+struck up the pistol with his rapier, and it exploded harmlessly over
+his head. The man instantly dashed the weapon in his face and closed.
+
+The blow, luckily, did not take effect on that delicate forehead, but
+struck him on the shoulder: nevertheless, Frank, who with all his grace
+and agility was as fragile as a lily, and a very bubble of the earth,
+staggered, and lost his guard, and before he could recover himself,
+Amyas saw a dagger gleam, and one, two, three blows fiercely repeated.
+
+Mad with fury, he was with them in an instant. They were scuffling
+together so closely in the shade that he was afraid to use his sword
+point; but with the hilt he dealt a single blow full on the ruffian's
+cheek. It was enough; with a hideous shriek, the fellow rolled over at
+his feet, and Amyas set his foot on him, in act to run him through.
+
+"Stop! stay!" almost screamed Frank; "it is Eustace! our cousin
+Eustace!" and he leant against a tree.
+
+Amyas sprang towards him: but Frank waved him off.
+
+"It is nothing--a scratch. He has papers: I am sure of it. Take them;
+and for God's sake let him go!"
+
+"Villain! give me your papers!" cried Amyas, setting his foot once more
+on the writhing Eustace, whose jaw was broken across.
+
+"You struck me foully from behind," moaned he, his vanity and envy even
+then coming out, in that faint and foolish attempt to prove Amyas not so
+very much better a man.
+
+"Hound, do you think that I dare not strike you in front? Give me your
+papers, letters, whatever Popish devilry you carry; or as I live, I will
+cut off your head, and take them myself, even if it cost me the shame
+of stripping your corpse. Give them up! Traitor, murderer! give them, I
+say!" And setting his foot on him afresh, he raised his sword.
+
+Eustace was usually no craven: but he was cowed. Between agony and
+shame, he had no heart to resist. Martyrdom, which looked so splendid
+when consummated selon les regles on Tower Hill or Tyburn, before
+pitying, or (still better) scoffing multitudes, looked a confused,
+dirty, ugly business there in the dark forest; and as he lay, a stream
+of moonlight bathed his mighty cousin's broad clear forehead, and his
+long golden locks, and his white terrible blade, till he seemed, to
+Eustace's superstitious eye, like one of those fair young St. Michaels
+trampling on the fiend, which he had seen abroad in old German pictures.
+He shuddered; pulled a packet from his bosom, and threw it from him,
+murmuring, "I have not given it."
+
+"Swear to me that these are all the papers which you have in cipher or
+out of cipher. Swear on your soul, or you die!"
+
+Eustace swore.
+
+"Tell me, who are your accomplices?"
+
+"Never!" said Eustace. "Cruel! have you not degraded me enough already?"
+and the wretched young man burst into tears, and hid his bleeding face
+in his hands.
+
+One hint of honor made Amyas as gentle as a lamb. He lifted Eustace up,
+and bade him run for his life.
+
+"I am to owe my life, then, to you?"
+
+"Not in the least; only to your being a Leigh. Go, or it will be worse
+for you!" And Eustace went; while Amyas, catching up the precious
+packet, hurried to Frank. He had fainted already, and his brother had
+to carry him as far as the park before he could find any of the other
+watchers. The blind, as far as they were concerned, was complete. They
+had heard and seen nothing. Whosoever had brought the packet had landed
+they knew not where; and so all returned to the court, carrying Frank,
+who recovered gradually, having rather bruises than wounds; for his foe
+had struck wildly, and with a trembling hand.
+
+Half-an-hour after, Amyas, Mr. Cary, and his son Will were in deep
+consultation over the following epistle, the only paper in the packet
+which was not in cipher:--
+
+
+"'DEAR BROTHER N. S. in Chto. et Ecclesia.
+
+"This is to inform you and the friends of the cause, that S. Josephus
+has landed in Smerwick, with eight hundred valiant Crusaders, burning
+with holy zeal to imitate last year's martyrs of Carrigfolium, and
+to expiate their offences (which I fear may have been many) by the
+propagation of our most holy faith. I have purified the fort (which they
+are strenuously rebuilding) with prayer and holy water, from the stain
+of heretical footsteps, and consecrated it afresh to the service of
+Heaven, as the first-fruits of the isle of saints; and having displayed
+the consecrated banner to the adoration of the faithful, have returned
+to Earl Desmond, that I may establish his faith, weak as yet, by reason
+of the allurements of this world: though since, by the valor of his
+brother James, he that hindered was taken out of the way (I mean Davils
+the heretic, sacrifice well-pleasing in the eyes of Heaven!), the young
+man has lent a more obedient ear to my counsels. If you can do anything,
+do it quickly, for a great door and effectual is opened, and there are
+many adversaries. But be swift, for so do the poor lambs of the Church
+tremble at the fury of the heretics, that a hundred will flee before one
+Englishman. And, indeed, were it not for that divine charity toward
+the Church (which covers the multitude of sins) with which they are
+resplendent, neither they nor their country would be, by the carnal
+judgment, counted worthy of so great labor in their behalf. For they
+themselves are given much to lying, theft, and drunkenness, vain
+babbling, and profane dancing and singing; and are still, as S. Gildas
+reports of them, 'more careful to shroud their villainous faces in bushy
+hair, than decently to cover their bodies; while their land (by
+reason of the tyranny of their chieftains, and the continual wars and
+plunderings among their tribes, which leave them weak and divided,
+an easy prey to the myrmidons of the excommunicate and usurping
+Englishwoman) lies utterly waste with fire, and defaced with corpses of
+the starved and slain. But what are these things, while the holy virtue
+of Catholic obedience still flourishes in their hearts? The Church cares
+not for the conservation of body and goods, but of immortal souls.
+
+"If any devout lady shall so will, you may obtain from her liberality a
+shirt for this worthless tabernacle, and also a pair of hose; for I am
+unsavory to myself and to others, and of such luxuries none here has
+superfluity; for all live in holy poverty, except the fleas, who have
+that consolation in this world for which this unhappy nation, and those
+who labor among them, must wait till the world to come.*
+
+"Your loving brother,
+
+"N. S."
+
+     * See note at end of chapter.
+
+"Sir Richard must know of this before daybreak," cried old Cary. "Eight
+hundred men landed! We must call out the Posse Comitatus, and sail with
+them bodily. I will go myself, old as I am. Spaniards in Ireland? not a
+dog of them must go home again."
+
+"Not a dog of them," answered Will; "but where is Mr. Winter and his
+squadron?"
+
+"Safe in Milford Haven; a messenger must be sent to him too."
+
+"I'll go," said Amyas: "but Mr. Cary is right. Sir Richard must know all
+first."
+
+"And we must have those Jesuits."
+
+"What? Mr. Evans and Mr. Morgans? God help us--they are at my uncle's!
+Consider the honor of our family!"
+
+"Judge for yourself, my dear boy," said old Mr. Cary, gently: "would
+it not be rank treason to let these foxes escape, while we have this
+damning proof against them?"
+
+"I will go myself, then."
+
+"Why not? You may keep all straight, and Will shall go with you. Call a
+groom, Will, and get your horse saddled, and my Yorkshire gray; he will
+make better play with this big fellow on his back, than the little pony
+astride of which Mr. Leigh came walking in (as I hear) this morning. As
+for Frank, the ladies will see to him well enough, and glad enough, too,
+to have so fine a bird in their cage for a week or two."
+
+"And my mother?"
+
+"We'll send to her to-morrow by daybreak. Come, a stirrup cup to start
+with, hot and hot. Now, boots, cloaks, swords, a deep pull and a warm
+one, and away!"
+
+And the jolly old man bustled them out of the house and into their
+saddles, under the broad bright winter's moon.
+
+"You must make your pace, lads, or the moon will be down before you are
+over the moors." And so away they went.
+
+Neither of them spoke for many a mile. Amyas, because his mind was fixed
+firmly on the one object of saving the honor of his house; and Will,
+because he was hesitating between Ireland and the wars, and Rose
+Salterne and love-making. At last he spoke suddenly.
+
+"I'll go, Amyas."
+
+"Whither?"
+
+"To Ireland with you, old man. I have dragged my anchor at last."
+
+"What anchor, my lad of parables?"
+
+"See, here am I, a tall and gallant ship."
+
+"Modest even if not true."
+
+"Inclination, like an anchor, holds me tight."
+
+"To the mud."
+
+"Nay, to a bed of roses--not without their thorns."
+
+"Hillo! I have seen oysters grow on fruit-trees before now, but never an
+anchor in a rose-garden."
+
+"Silence, or my allegory will go to noggin-staves."
+
+"Against the rocks of my flinty discernment."
+
+"Pooh--well. Up comes duty like a jolly breeze, blowing dead from the
+northeast, and as bitter and cross as a northeaster too, and tugs
+me away toward Ireland. I hold on by the rosebed--any ground in a
+storm--till every strand is parted, and off I go, westward ho! to get my
+throat cut in a bog-hole with Amyas Leigh."
+
+"Earnest, Will?"
+
+"As I am a sinful man."
+
+"Well done, young hawk of the White Cliff!"
+
+"I had rather have called it Gallantry Bower still, though," said
+Will, punning on the double name of the noble precipice which forms the
+highest point of the deer park.
+
+"Well, as long as you are on land, you know it is Gallantry Bower still:
+but we always call it White Cliff when you see it from the sea-board, as
+you and I shall do, I hope, to-morrow evening."
+
+"What, so soon?"
+
+"Dare we lose a day?"
+
+"I suppose not: heigh-ho!"
+
+And they rode on again in silence, Amyas in the meanwhile being not a
+little content (in spite of his late self-renunciation) to find that one
+of his rivals at least was going to raise the siege of the Rose garden
+for a few months, and withdraw his forces to the coast of Kerry.
+
+As they went over Bursdon, Amyas pulled up suddenly.
+
+"Did you not hear a horse's step on our left?"
+
+"On our left--coming up from Welsford moor? Impossible at this time of
+night. It must have been a stag, or a sownder of wild swine: or may be
+only an old cow."
+
+"It was the ring of iron, friend. Let us stand and watch."
+
+Bursdon and Welsford were then, as now, a rolling range of dreary
+moors, unbroken by tor or tree, or anything save few and far between
+a world-old furze-bank which marked the common rights of some distant
+cattle farm, and crossed then, not as now, by a decent road, but by a
+rough confused track-way, the remnant of an old Roman road from Clovelly
+dikes to Launceston. To the left it trended down towards a lower range
+of moors, which form the watershed of the heads of Torridge; and thither
+the two young men peered down over the expanse of bog and furze, which
+glittered for miles beneath the moon, one sheet of frosted silver, in
+the heavy autumn dew.
+
+"If any of Eustace's party are trying to get home from Freshwater, they
+might save a couple of miles by coming across Welsford, instead of going
+by the main track, as we have done." So said Amyas, who though (luckily
+for him) no "genius," was cunning as a fox in all matters of tactic and
+practic, and would have in these days proved his right to be considered
+an intellectual person by being a thorough man of business.
+
+"If any of his party are mad, they'll try it, and be stogged till the
+day of judgment. There are bogs in the bottom twenty feet deep. Plague
+on the fellow, whoever he is, he has dodged us! Look there!"
+
+It was too true. The unknown horseman had evidently dismounted below,
+and led his horse up on the other side of a long furze-dike; till coming
+to the point where it turned away again from his intended course, he
+appeared against the sky, in the act of leading his nag over a gap.
+
+"Ride like the wind!" and both youths galloped across furze and heather
+at him; but ere they were within a hundred yards of him, he had leapt
+again on his horse, and was away far ahead.
+
+"There is the dor to us, with a vengeance," cried Cary, putting in the
+spurs.
+
+"It is but a lad; we shall never catch him."
+
+"I'll try, though; and do you lumber after as you can, old heavysides;"
+and Cary pushed forward.
+
+Amyas lost sight of him for ten minutes, and then came up with him
+dismounted, and feeling disconsolately at his horse's knees.
+
+"Look for my head. It lies somewhere about among the furze there; and
+oh! I am as full of needles as ever was a pin-cushion."
+
+"Are his knees broken?"
+
+"I daren't look. No, I believe not. Come along, and make the best of a
+bad matter. The fellow is a mile ahead, and to the right, too."
+
+"He is going for Moorwinstow, then; but where is my cousin?"
+
+"Behind us, I dare say. We shall nab him at least."
+
+"Cary, promise me that if we do, you will keep out of sight, and let me
+manage him."
+
+"My boy, I only want Evan Morgans and Morgan Evans. He is but the cat's
+paw, and we are after the cats themselves."
+
+And so they went on another dreary six miles, till the land trended
+downwards, showing dark glens and masses of woodland far below.
+
+"Now, then, straight to Chapel, and stop the foxes' earth? Or through
+the King's Park to Stow, and get out Sir Richard's hounds, hue and cry,
+and queen's warrant in proper form?"
+
+"Let us see Sir Richard first; and whatsoever he decides about my uncle,
+I will endure as a loyal subject must."
+
+So they rode through the King's Park, while Sir Richard's colts came
+whinnying and staring round the intruders, and down through a rich
+woodland lane five hundred feet into the valley, till they could hear
+the brawling of the little trout-stream, and beyond, the everlasting
+thunder of the ocean surf.
+
+Down through warm woods, all fragrant with dying autumn flowers, leaving
+far above the keen Atlantic breeze, into one of those delicious Western
+combes, and so past the mill, and the little knot of flower-clad
+cottages. In the window of one of them a light was still burning. The
+two young men knew well whose window that was; and both hearts beat
+fast; for Rose Salterne slept, or rather seemed to wake, in that
+chamber.
+
+"Folks are late in Combe to-night," said Amyas, as carelessly as he
+could.
+
+Cary looked earnestly at the window, and then sharply enough at Amyas;
+but Amyas was busy settling his stirrup; and Cary rode on, unconscious
+that every fibre in his companion's huge frame was trembling like his
+own.
+
+"Muggy and close down here," said Amyas, who, in reality, was quite
+faint with his own inward struggles.
+
+"We shall be at Stow gate in five minutes," said Cary, looking back and
+down longingly as his horse climbed the opposite hill; but a turn of the
+zigzag road hid the cottage, and the next thought was, how to effect an
+entrance into Stow at three in the morning without being eaten by the
+ban-dogs, who were already howling and growling at the sound of the
+horse-hoofs.
+
+However, they got safely in, after much knocking and calling, through
+the postern gate in the high west wall, into a mansion, the description
+whereof I must defer to the next chapter, seeing that the moon has
+already sunk into the Atlantic, and there is darkness over land and sea.
+
+Sir Richard, in his long gown, was soon downstairs in the hall; the
+letter read, and the story told; but ere it was half finished--
+
+"Anthony, call up a groom, and let him bring me a horse round.
+Gentlemen, if you will excuse me five minutes, I shall be at your
+service."
+
+"You will not go alone, Richard?" asked Lady Grenville, putting her
+beautiful face in its nightcoif out of an adjoining door.
+
+"Surely, sweet chuck, we three are enough to take two poor polecats of
+Jesuits. Go in, and help me to boot and gird."
+
+In half an hour they were down and up across the valley again, under the
+few low ashes clipt flat by the sea-breeze which stood round the lonely
+gate of Chapel.
+
+"Mr. Cary, there is a back path across the downs to Marsland; go and
+guard that." Cary rode off; and Sir Richard, as he knocked loudly at the
+gate--
+
+"Mr. Leigh, you see that I have consulted your honor, and that of your
+poor uncle, by adventuring thus alone. What will you have me do now,
+which may not be unfit for me and you?"
+
+"Oh, sir!" said Amyas, with tears in his honest eyes, "you have shown
+yourself once more what you always have been--my dear and beloved master
+on earth, not second even to my admiral Sir Francis Drake."
+
+"Or the queen, I hope," said Grenville, smiling, "but pocas palabras.
+What will you do?"
+
+"My wretched cousin, sir, may not have returned--and if I might watch
+for him on the main road--unless you want me with you."
+
+"Richard Grenville can walk alone, lad. But what will you do with your
+cousin?"
+
+"Send him out of the country, never to return; or if he refuses, run him
+through on the spot."
+
+"Go, lad." And as he spoke, a sleepy voice asked inside the gate, "Who
+was there?"
+
+"Sir Richard Grenville. Open, in the queen's name?"
+
+"Sir Richard? He is in bed, and be hanged to you. No honest folk come at
+this hour of night."
+
+"Amyas!" shouted Sir Richard. Amyas rode back.
+
+"Burst that gate for me, while I hold your horse."
+
+Amyas leaped down, took up a rock from the roadside, such as Homer's
+heroes used to send at each other's heads, and in an instant the door
+was flat on the ground, and the serving-man on his back inside, while
+Sir Richard quietly entering over it, like Una into the hut, told the
+fellow to get up and hold his horse for him (which the clod, who knew
+well enough that terrible voice, did without further murmurs), and then
+strode straight to the front door. It was already opened. The household
+had been up and about all along, or the noise at the entry had aroused
+them.
+
+Sir Richard knocked, however, at the open door; and, to his
+astonishment, his knock was answered by Mr. Leigh himself, fully
+dressed, and candle in hand.
+
+"Sir Richard Grenville! What, sir! is this neighborly, not to say
+gentle, to break into my house in the dead of night?"
+
+"I broke your outer door, sir, because I was refused entrance when I
+asked in the queen's name. I knocked at your inner one, as I should
+have knocked at the poorest cottager's in the parish, because I found
+it open. You have two Jesuits here, sir! and here is the queen's warrant
+for apprehending them. I have signed it with my own hand, and, moreover,
+serve it now, with my own hand, in order to save you scandal--and it may
+be, worse. I must have these men, Mr. Leigh."
+
+"My dear Sir Richard--!"
+
+"I must have them, or I must search the house; and you would not put
+either yourself or me to so shameful a necessity?"
+
+"My dear Sir Richard!--"
+
+"Must I, then, ask you to stand back from your own doorway, my dear
+sir?" said Grenville. And then changing his voice to that fearful lion's
+roar, for which he was famous, and which it seemed impossible that lips
+so delicate could utter, he thundered, "Knaves, behind there! Back!"
+
+This was spoken to half-a-dozen grooms and serving-men, who, well armed,
+were clustered in the passage.
+
+"What? swords out, you sons of cliff rabbits?" And in a moment, Sir
+Richard's long blade flashed out also, and putting Mr. Leigh gently
+aside, as if he had been a child, he walked up to the party, who
+vanished right and left; having expected a cur dog, in the shape of a
+parish constable, and come upon a lion instead. They were stout fellows
+enough, no doubt, in a fair fight: but they had no stomach to be hanged
+in a row at Launceston Castle, after a preliminary running through the
+body by that redoubted admiral and most unpeaceful justice of the peace.
+
+"And now, my dear Mr. Leigh," said Sir Richard, as blandly as ever,
+"where are my men? The night is cold; and you, as well as I, need to be
+in our beds."
+
+"The men, Sir Richard--the Jesuits--they are not here, indeed."
+
+"Not here, sir?"
+
+"On the word of a gentleman, they left my house an hour ago. Believe me,
+sir, they did. I will swear to you if you need."
+
+"I believe Mr. Leigh of Chapel's word without oaths. Whither are they
+gone?"
+
+"Nay, sir--how can I tell? They are--they are, as I may say, fled, sir;
+escaped."
+
+"With your connivance; at least with your son's. Where are they gone?"
+
+"As I live, I do not know."
+
+"Mr. Leigh--is this possible? Can you add untruth to that treason from
+the punishment of which I am trying to shield you?"
+
+Poor Mr. Leigh burst into tears.
+
+"Oh! my God! my God! is it come to this? Over and above having the fear
+and anxiety of keeping these black rascals in my house, and having to
+stop their villainous mouths every minute, for fear they should hang me
+and themselves, I am to be called a traitor and a liar in my old age,
+and that, too, by Richard Grenville! Would God I had never been born!
+Would God I had no soul to be saved, and I'd just go and drown care in
+drink, and let the queen and the Pope fight it out their own way!" And
+the poor old man sank into a chair, and covered his face with his hands,
+and then leaped up again.
+
+"Bless my heart! Excuse me, Sir Richard--to sit down and leave you
+standing. 'S life, sir, sorrow is making a hawbuck of me. Sit down, my
+dear sir! my worshipful sir! or rather come with me into my room, and
+hear a poor wretched man's story, for I swear before God the men are
+fled; and my poor boy Eustace is not home either, and the groom tells me
+that his devil of a cousin has broken his jaw for him; and his mother is
+all but mad this hour past. Good lack! good lack!"
+
+"He nearly murdered his angel of a cousin, sir!" said Sir Richard,
+severely.
+
+"What, sir? They never told me."
+
+"He had stabbed his cousin Frank three times, sir, before Amyas, who is
+as noble a lad as walks God's earth, struck him down. And in defence
+of what, forsooth, did he play the ruffian and the swashbuckler, but to
+bring home to your house this letter, sir, which you shall hear at your
+leisure, the moment I have taken order about your priests." And walking
+out of the house he went round and called to Cary to come to him.
+
+"The birds are flown, Will," whispered he. "There is but one chance for
+us, and that is Marsland Mouth. If they are trying to take boat there,
+you may be yet in time. If they are gone inland we can do nothing till
+we raise the hue and cry to-morrow."
+
+And Will galloped off over the downs toward Marsland, while Sir Richard
+ceremoniously walked in again, and professed himself ready and happy to
+have the honor of an audience in Mr. Leigh's private chamber. And as we
+know pretty well already what was to be discussed therein, we had better
+go over to Marsland Mouth, and, if possible, arrive there before Will
+Cary: seeing that he arrived hot and swearing, half an hour too late.
+
+
+Note.--I have shrunk somewhat from giving these and other sketches (true
+and accurate as I believe them to be) of Ireland during Elizabeth's
+reign, when the tyranny and lawlessness of the feudal chiefs had reduced
+the island to such a state of weakness and barbarism, that it was
+absolutely necessary for England either to crush the Norman-Irish
+nobility, and organize some sort of law and order, or to leave Ireland
+an easy prey to the Spaniards, or any other nation which should go to
+war with us. The work was done--clumsily rather than cruelly; but wrongs
+were inflicted, and avenged by fresh wrongs, and those by fresh again.
+May the memory of them perish forever! It has been reserved for this
+age, and for the liberal policy of this age, to see the last ebullitions
+of Celtic excitability die out harmless and ashamed of itself, and
+to find that the Irishman, when he is brought as a soldier under the
+regenerative influence of law, discipline, self-respect, and loyalty,
+can prove himself a worthy rival of the more stern Norse-Saxon warrior.
+God grant that the military brotherhood between Irish and English,
+which is the special glory of the present war, may be the germ of a
+brotherhood industrial, political, and hereafter, perhaps, religious
+also; and that not merely the corpses of heroes, but the feuds and
+wrongs which have parted them for centuries, may lie buried, once and
+forever, in the noble graves of Alma and Inkerman.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE COMBES OF THE FAR WEST
+
+            "Far, far from hence
+     The Adriatic breaks in a warm bay
+     Among the green Illyrian hills, and there
+     The sunshine in the happy glens is fair,
+     And by the sea and in the brakes
+     The grass is cool, the sea-side air
+     Buoyant and fresh, the mountain flowers
+     More virginal and sweet than ours."
+
+                                  MATTHEW ARNOLD.
+
+And even such are those delightful glens, which cut the high table-land
+of the confines of Devon and Cornwall, and opening each through its
+gorge of down and rock, towards the boundless Western Ocean. Each is
+like the other, and each is like no other English scenery. Each has its
+upright walls, inland of rich oak-wood, nearer the sea of dark green
+furze, then of smooth turf, then of weird black cliffs which range out
+right and left far into the deep sea, in castles, spires, and wings
+of jagged iron-stone. Each has its narrow strip of fertile meadow, its
+crystal trout stream winding across and across from one hill-foot to the
+other; its gray stone mill, with the water sparkling and humming round
+the dripping wheel; its dark, rock pools above the tide mark, where the
+salmon-trout gather in from their Atlantic wanderings, after each autumn
+flood: its ridge of blown sand, bright with golden trefoil and crimson
+lady's finger; its gray bank of polished pebbles, down which the
+stream rattles toward the sea below. Each has its black field of jagged
+shark's-tooth rock which paves the cove from side to side, streaked with
+here and there a pink line of shell sand, and laced with white foam from
+the eternal surge, stretching in parallel lines out to the westward,
+in strata set upright on edge, or tilted towards each other at strange
+angles by primeval earthquakes;--such is the "mouth"--as those coves are
+called; and such the jaw of teeth which they display, one rasp of which
+would grind abroad the timbers of the stoutest ship. To landward,
+all richness, softness, and peace; to seaward, a waste and howling
+wilderness of rock and roller, barren to the fisherman, and hopeless to
+the shipwrecked mariner.
+
+In only one of these "mouths" is a landing for boats, made possible by
+a long sea-wall of rock, which protects it from the rollers of the
+Atlantic; and that mouth is Marsland, the abode of the White Witch, Lucy
+Passmore; whither, as Sir Richard Grenville rightly judged, the Jesuits
+were gone. But before the Jesuits came, two other persons were standing
+on that lonely beach, under the bright October moon, namely, Rose
+Salterne and the White Witch herself; for Rose, fevered with curiosity
+and superstition, and allured by the very wildness and possible danger
+of the spell, had kept her appointment; and, a few minutes before
+midnight, stood on the gray shingle beach with her counsellor.
+
+"You be safe enough here to-night, miss. My old man is snoring sound
+abed, and there's no other soul ever sets foot here o' nights, except
+it be the mermaids now and then. Goodness, Father, where's our boat? It
+ought to be up here on the pebbles."
+
+Rose pointed to a strip of sand some forty yards nearer the sea, where
+the boat lay.
+
+"Oh, the lazy old villain! he's been round the rocks after pollock this
+evening, and never taken the trouble to hale the boat up. I'll trounce
+him for it when I get home. I only hope he's made her fast where she is,
+that's all! He's more plague to me than ever my money will be. O deary
+me!"
+
+And the goodwife bustled down toward the boat, with Rose behind her.
+
+"Iss, 'tis fast, sure enough: and the oars aboard too! Well, I never!
+Oh, the lazy thief, to leave they here to be stole! I'll just sit in the
+boat, dear, and watch mun, while you go down to the say; for you must
+be all alone to yourself, you know, or you'll see nothing. There's the
+looking-glass; now go, and dip your head three times, and mind you don't
+look to land or sea before you've said the words, and looked upon the
+glass. Now, be quick, it's just upon midnight."
+
+And she coiled herself up in the boat, while Rose went faltering down
+the strip of sand, some twenty yards farther, and there slipping off her
+clothes, stood shivering and trembling for a moment before she entered
+the sea.
+
+She was between two walls of rock: that on her left hand, some twenty
+feet high, hid her in deepest shade; that on her right, though much
+lower, took the whole blaze of the midnight moon. Great festoons of live
+and purple sea-weed hung from it, shading dark cracks and crevices, fit
+haunts for all the goblins of the sea. On her left hand, the peaks of
+the rock frowned down ghastly black; on her right hand, far aloft, the
+downs slept bright and cold.
+
+The breeze had died away; not even a roller broke the perfect stillness
+of the cove. The gulls were all asleep upon the ledges. Over all was a
+true autumn silence; a silence which may be heard. She stood awed, and
+listened in hope of a sound which might tell her that any living thing
+beside herself existed.
+
+There was a faint bleat, as of a new-born lamb, high above her head;
+she started and looked up. Then a wail from the cliffs, as of a child
+in pain, answered by another from the opposite rocks. They were but the
+passing snipe, and the otter calling to her brood; but to her they
+were mysterious, supernatural goblins, come to answer to her call.
+Nevertheless, they only quickened her expectation; and the witch had
+told her not to fear them. If she performed the rite duly, nothing
+would harm her: but she could hear the beating of her own heart, as she
+stepped, mirror in hand, into the cold water, waded hastily, as far as
+she dare, and then stopped aghast.
+
+A ring of flame was round her waist; every limb was bathed in lambent
+light; all the multitudinous life of the autumn sea, stirred by her
+approach, had flashed suddenly into glory;--
+
+
+"And around her the lamps of the sea nymphs, Myriad fiery globes, swam
+heaving and panting, and rainbows, Crimson and azure and emerald, were
+broken in star-showers, lighting Far through the wine-dark depths of the
+crystal, the gardens of Nereus, Coral and sea-fan and tangle, the blooms
+and the palms of the ocean."
+
+
+She could see every shell which crawled on the white sand at her feet,
+every rock-fish which played in and out of the crannies, and stared at
+her with its broad bright eyes; while the great palmate oarweeds which
+waved along the chasm, half-seen in the glimmering water, seemed to
+beckon her down with long brown hands to a grave amid their chilly
+bowers. She turned to flee; but she had gone too far now to retreat;
+hastily dipping her head three times, she hurried out to the sea-marge,
+and looking through her dripping locks at the magic mirror, pronounced
+the incantation--
+
+     "A maiden pure, here I stand,
+     Neither on sea, nor yet on land;
+     Angels watch me on either hand.
+     If you be landsman, come down the strand;
+     If you be sailor, come up the sand;
+     If you be angel, come from the sky,
+     Look in my glass, and pass me by;
+     Look in my glass, and go from the shore;
+     Leave me, but love me for evermore."
+
+The incantation was hardly finished, her eyes were straining into the
+mirror, where, as may be supposed, nothing appeared but the sparkle of
+the drops from her own tresses, when she heard rattling down the pebbles
+the hasty feet of men and horses.
+
+She darted into a cavern of the high rock, and hastily dressed herself:
+the steps held on right to the boat. Peeping out, half-dead with terror,
+she saw there four men, two of whom had just leaped from their horses,
+and turning them adrift, began to help the other two in running the boat
+down.
+
+Whereon, out of the stern sheets, arose, like an angry ghost, the portly
+figure of Lucy Passmore, and shrieked in shrillest treble--
+
+"Eh! ye villains, ye roogs, what do ye want staling poor folks' boats by
+night like this?"
+
+The whole party recoiled in terror, and one turned to run up the beach,
+shouting at the top of his voice, "'Tis a marmaiden--a marmaiden asleep
+in Willy Passmore's boat!"
+
+"I wish it were any sich good luck," she could hear Will say; "'tis my
+wife, oh dear!" and he cowered down, expecting the hearty cuff which he
+received duly, as the White Witch, leaping out of the boat, dared any
+man to touch it, and thundered to her husband to go home to bed.
+
+The wily dame, as Rose well guessed, was keeping up this delay chiefly
+to gain time for her pupil: but she had also more solid reasons for
+making the fight as hard as possible; for she, as well as Rose, had
+already discerned in the ungainly figure of one of the party the same
+suspicious Welsh gentleman, on whose calling she had divined long
+ago; and she was so loyal a subject as to hold in extreme horror her
+husband's meddling with such "Popish skulkers" (as she called the whole
+party roundly to their face)--unless on consideration of a very handsome
+sum of money. In vain Parsons thundered, Campian entreated, Mr. Leigh's
+groom swore, and her husband danced round in an agony of mingled fear
+and covetousness.
+
+"No," she cried, "as I am an honest woman and loyal! This is why you
+left the boat down to the shoore, you old traitor, you, is it? To help
+off sich noxious trade as this out of the hands of her majesty's quorum
+and rotulorum? Eh? Stand back, cowards! Will you strike a woman?"
+
+This last speech (as usual) was merely indicative of her intention to
+strike the men; for, getting out one of the oars, she swung it round and
+round fiercely, and at last caught Father Parsons such a crack across
+the shins, that he retreated with a howl.
+
+"Lucy, Lucy!" shrieked her husband, in shrillest Devon falsetto, "be you
+mazed? Be you mazed, lass? They promised me two gold nobles before I'd
+lend them the boot!"
+
+"Tu?" shrieked the matron, with a tone of ineffable scorn. "And do yu
+call yourself a man?"
+
+"Tu nobles! tu nobles!" shrieked he again, hopping about at oar's
+length.
+
+"Tu? And would you sell your soul under ten?"
+
+"Oh, if that is it," cried poor Campian, "give her ten, give her
+ten, brother Pars--Morgans, I mean; and take care of your shins, Offa
+Cerbero, you know--Oh, virago! Furens quid faemina possit! Certainly she
+is some Lamia, some Gorgon, some--"
+
+"Take that, for your Lamys and Gorgons to an honest woman!" and in
+a moment poor Campian's thin legs were cut from under him, while the
+virago, "mounting on his trunk astride," like that more famous one on
+Hudibras, cried, "Ten nobles, or I'll kep ye here till morning!" And the
+ten nobles were paid into her hand.
+
+And now the boat, its dragon guardian being pacified, was run down to
+the sea, and close past the nook where poor little Rose was squeezing
+herself into the farthest and darkest corner, among wet sea-weed and
+rough barnacles, holding her breath as they approached.
+
+They passed her, and the boat's keel was already in the water; Lucy had
+followed them close, for reasons of her own, and perceiving close to the
+water's edge a dark cavern, cunningly surmised that it contained Rose,
+and planted her ample person right across its mouth, while she grumbled
+at her husband, the strangers, and above all at Mr. Leigh's groom, to
+whom she prophesied pretty plainly Launceston gaol and the gallows;
+while the wretched serving-man, who would as soon have dared to leap off
+Welcombe Cliff as to return railing for railing to the White Witch, in
+vain entreated her mercy, and tried, by all possible dodging, to keep
+one of the party between himself and her, lest her redoubted eye should
+"overlook" him once more to his ruin.
+
+But the night's adventures were not ended yet; for just as the boat was
+launched, a faint halloo was heard upon the beach, and a minute after,
+a horseman plunged down the pebbles, and along the sand, and pulling his
+horse up on its haunches close to the terrified group, dropped, rather
+than leaped, from the saddle.
+
+The serving-man, though he dared not tackle a witch, knew well enough
+how to deal with a swordsman; and drawing, sprang upon the newcomer, and
+then recoiled--
+
+"God forgive me, it's Mr. Eustace! Oh, dear sir, I took you for one of
+Sir Richard's men! Oh, sir, you're hurt!"
+
+"A scratch, a scratch!" almost moaned Eustace. "Help me into the boat,
+Jack. Gentlemen, I must with you."
+
+"Not with us, surely, my dear son, vagabonds upon the face of the
+earth?" said kind-hearted Campian.
+
+"With you, forever. All is over here. Whither God and the cause
+lead"--and he staggered toward the boat.
+
+As he passed Rose, she saw his ghastly bleeding face, half bound up with
+a handkerchief, which could not conceal the convulsions of rage, shame,
+and despair, which twisted it from all its usual beauty. His eyes glared
+wildly round--and once, right into the cavern. They met hers, so full,
+and keen, and dreadful, that forgetting she was utterly invisible, the
+terrified girl was on the point of shrieking aloud.
+
+"He has overlooked me!" said she, shuddering to herself, as she
+recollected his threat of yesterday.
+
+"Who has wounded you?" asked Campian.
+
+"My cousin--Amyas--and taken the letter!"
+
+"The devil take him, then!" cried Parsons, stamping up and down upon the
+sand in fury.
+
+"Ay, curse him--you may! I dare not! He saved me--sent me here!"--and
+with a groan, he made an effort to enter the boat.
+
+"Oh, my dear young gentleman," cried Lucy Passmore, her woman's heart
+bursting out at the sight of pain, "you must not goo forth with a grane
+wound like to that. Do ye let me just bind mun up--do ye now!" and she
+advanced.
+
+Eustace thrust her back.
+
+"No! better bear it, I deserve it--devils! I deserve it! On board, or we
+shall all be lost--William Cary is close behind me!"
+
+And at that news the boat was thrust into the sea, faster than ever it
+went before, and only in time; for it was but just round the rocks, and
+out of sight, when the rattle of Cary's horsehoofs was heard above.
+
+"That rascal of Mr. Leigh's will catch it now, the Popish villain!" said
+Lucy Passmore, aloud. "You lie still there, dear life, and settle your
+sperrits; you'm so safe as ever was rabbit to burrow. I'll see what
+happens, if I die for it!" And so saying, she squeezed herself up
+through a cleft to a higher ledge, from whence she could see what passed
+in the valley.
+
+"There mun is! in the meadow, trying to catch the horses! There comes
+Mr. Cary! Goodness, Father, how a rid'th! he's over wall already! Ron,
+Jack! ron then! A'll get to the river! No, a wain't! Goodness, Father!
+There's Mr. Cary cotched mun! A's down, a's down!"
+
+"Is he dead?" asked Rose, shuddering.
+
+"Iss, fegs, dead as nits! and Mr. Cary off his horse, standing
+overthwart mun! No, a bain't! A's up now. Suspose he was hit wi' the
+flat. Whatever is Mr. Cary tu? Telling wi' mun, a bit. Oh dear, dear,
+dear!"
+
+"Has he killed him?" cried poor Rose.
+
+"No, fegs, no! kecking mun, kecking mun, so hard as ever was futeball!
+Goodness, Father, who did ever? If a haven't kecked mun right into
+river, and got on mun's horse and rod away!"
+
+And so saying, down she came again.
+
+"And now then, my dear life, us be better to goo hoom and get you sommat
+warm. You'm mortal cold, I rackon, by now. I was cruel fear'd for ye:
+but I kept mun off clever, didn't I, now?"
+
+"I wish--I wish I had not seen Mr. Leigh's face!"
+
+"Iss, dreadful, weren't it, poor young soul; a sad night for his poor
+mother!"
+
+"Lucy, I can't get his face out of my mind. I'm sure he overlooked me."
+
+"Oh then! who ever heard the like o' that? When young gentlemen do
+overlook young ladies, tain't thikketheor aways, I knoo. Never you think
+on it."
+
+"But I can't help thinking of it," said Rose. "Stop. Shall we go home
+yet? Where's that servant?"
+
+"Never mind, he wain't see us, here under the hill. I'd much sooner to
+know where my old man was. I've a sort of a forecasting in my inwards,
+like, as I always has when aught's gwain to happen, as though I shuldn't
+zee mun again, like, I have, miss. Well--he was a bedient old soul,
+after all, he was. Goodness, Father! and all this while us have forgot
+the very thing us come about! Who did you see?"
+
+"Only that face!" said Rose, shuddering.
+
+"Not in the glass, maid? Say then, not in the glass?"
+
+"Would to heaven it had been! Lucy, what if he were the man I was fated
+to--"
+
+"He? Why, he's a praste, a Popish praste, that can't marry if he would,
+poor wratch."
+
+"He is none; and I have cause enough to know it!" And, for want of a
+better confidant, Rose poured into the willing ears of her companion the
+whole story of yesterday's meeting.
+
+"He's a pretty wooer!" said Lucy at last, contemptuously. "Be a brave
+maid, then, be a brave maid, and never terrify yourself with his unlucky
+face. It's because there was none here worthy of ye, that ye seed none
+in glass. Maybe he's to be a foreigner, from over seas, and that's why
+his sperit was so long a coming. A duke, or a prince to the least, I'll
+warrant, he'll be, that carries off the Rose of Bideford."
+
+But in spite of all the good dame's flattery, Rose could not wipe that
+fierce face away from her eyeballs. She reached home safely, and crept
+to bed undiscovered: and when the next morning, as was to be expected,
+found her laid up with something very like a fever, from excitement,
+terror, and cold, the phantom grew stronger and stronger before her, and
+it required all her woman's tact and self-restraint to avoid betraying
+by her exclamations what had happened on that fantastic night. After a
+fortnight's weakness, however, she recovered and went back to Bideford:
+but ere she arrived there, Amyas was far across the seas on his way to
+Milford Haven, as shall be told in the ensuing chapters.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE TRUE AND TRAGICAL HISTORY OF MR. JOHN OXENHAM OF PLYMOUTH
+
+     "The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew;
+       The furrow follow'd free;
+     We were the first that ever burst
+       Into that silent sea."
+
+                          The Ancient Mariner.
+
+It was too late and too dark last night to see the old house at Stow. We
+will look round us, then, this bright October day, while Sir Richard and
+Amyas, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, are pacing up and down the
+terraced garden to the south. Amyas has slept till luncheon, i. e. till
+an hour ago: but Sir Richard, in spite of the bustle of last night, was
+up and in the valley by six o'clock, recreating the valiant souls of
+himself and two terrier dogs by the chase of sundry badgers.
+
+Old Stow House stands, or rather stood, some four miles beyond the
+Cornish border, on the northern slope of the largest and loveliest of
+those combes of which I spoke in the last chapter. Eighty years after
+Sir Richard's time there arose there a huge Palladian pile, bedizened
+with every monstrosity of bad taste, which was built, so the story runs,
+by Charles the Second, for Sir Richard's great-grandson, the heir of
+that famous Sir Bevil who defeated the Parliamentary troops at Stratton,
+and died soon after, fighting valiantly at Lansdowne over Bath. But,
+like most other things which owed their existence to the Stuarts,
+it rose only to fall again. An old man who had seen, as a boy, the
+foundation of the new house laid, lived to see it pulled down again,
+and the very bricks and timber sold upon the spot; and since then the
+stables have become a farm-house, the tennis-court a sheep-cote, the
+great quadrangle a rick-yard; and civilization, spreading wave on
+wave so fast elsewhere, has surged back from that lonely corner of the
+land--let us hope, only for a while.
+
+But I am not writing of that great new Stow House, of the past glories
+whereof quaint pictures still hang in the neighboring houses; nor of
+that famed Sir Bevil, most beautiful and gallant of his generation,
+on whom, with his grandfather Sir Richard, old Prince has his pompous
+epigram--
+
+     "Where next shall famous Grenvil's ashes stand?
+     Thy grandsire fills the sea, and thou the land."
+
+I have to deal with a simpler age, and a sterner generation; and with
+the old house, which had stood there, in part at least, from gray and
+mythic ages, when the first Sir Richard, son of Hamon Dentatus, Lord of
+Carboyle, the grandson of Duke Robert, son of Rou, settled at Bideford,
+after slaying the Prince of South-Galis, and the Lord of Glamorgan, and
+gave to the Cistercian monks of Neath all his conquests in South Wales.
+It was a huge rambling building, half castle, half dwelling-house, such
+as may be seen still (almost an unique specimen) in Compton Castle
+near Torquay, the dwelling-place of Humphrey Gilbert, Walter Raleigh's
+half-brother, and Richard Grenville's bosom friend, of whom more
+hereafter. On three sides, to the north, west, and south, the lofty
+walls of the old ballium still stood, with their machicolated turrets,
+loopholes, and dark downward crannies for dropping stones and fire on
+the besiegers, the relics of a more unsettled age: but the southern
+court of the ballium had become a flower-garden, with quaint terraces,
+statues, knots of flowers, clipped yews and hollies, and all the
+pedantries of the topiarian art. And toward the east, where the vista
+of the valley opened, the old walls were gone, and the frowning Norman
+keep, ruined in the Wars of the Roses, had been replaced by the rich
+and stately architecture of the Tudors. Altogether, the house, like the
+time, was in a transitionary state, and represented faithfully enough
+the passage of the old middle age into the new life which had just burst
+into blossom throughout Europe, never, let us pray, to see its autumn or
+its winter.
+
+From the house on three sides, the hill sloped steeply down, and the
+garden where Sir Richard and Amyas were walking gave a truly English
+prospect. At one turn they could catch, over the western walls, a
+glimpse of the blue ocean flecked with passing sails; and at the next,
+spread far below them, range on range of fertile park, stately avenue,
+yellow autumn woodland, and purple heather moors, lapping over and over
+each other up the valley to the old British earthwork, which stood black
+and furze-grown on its conical peak; and standing out against the sky on
+the highest bank of hill which closed the valley to the east, the lofty
+tower of Kilkhampton church, rich with the monuments and offerings of
+five centuries of Grenvilles. A yellow eastern haze hung soft over park,
+and wood, and moor; the red cattle lowed to each other as they stood
+brushing away the flies in the rivulet far below; the colts in the
+horse-park close on their right whinnied as they played together, and
+their sires from the Queen's Park, on the opposite hill, answered them
+in fuller though fainter voices. A rutting stag made the still woodland
+rattle with his hoarse thunder, and a rival far up the valley gave back
+a trumpet note of defiance, and was himself defied from heathery brows
+which quivered far away above, half seen through the veil of eastern
+mist. And close at home, upon the terrace before the house, amid romping
+spaniels and golden-haired children, sat Lady Grenville herself, the
+beautiful St. Leger of Annery, the central jewel of all that glorious
+place, and looked down at her noble children, and then up at her more
+noble husband, and round at that broad paradise of the West, till life
+seemed too full of happiness, and heaven of light.
+
+And all the while up and down paced Amyas and Sir Richard, talking long,
+earnestly, and slow; for they both knew that the turning point of the
+boy's life was come.
+
+"Yes," said Sir Richard, after Amyas, in his blunt simple way, had told
+him the whole story about Rose Salterne and his brother,--"yes, sweet
+lad, thou hast chosen the better part, thou and thy brother also, and it
+shall not be taken from you. Only be strong, lad, and trust in God that
+He will make a man of you."
+
+"I do trust," said Amyas.
+
+"Thank God," said Sir Richard, "that you have yourself taken from my
+heart that which was my great anxiety for you, from the day that your
+good father, who sleeps in peace, committed you to my hands. For all
+best things, Amyas, become, when misused, the very worst; and the love
+of woman, because it is able to lift man's soul to the heavens, is also
+able to drag him down to hell. But you have learnt better, Amyas; and
+know, with our old German forefathers, that, as Tacitus saith, Sera
+juvenum Venus, ideoque inexhausta pubertas. And not only that, Amyas;
+but trust me, that silly fashion of the French and Italians, to be
+hanging ever at some woman's apron string, so that no boy shall count
+himself a man unless he can vagghezziare le donne, whether maids or
+wives, alas! matters little; that fashion, I say, is little less hurtful
+to the soul than open sin; for by it are bred vanity and expense, envy
+and heart-burning, yea, hatred and murder often; and even if that be
+escaped, yet the rich treasure of a manly worship, which should be kept
+for one alone, is squandered and parted upon many, and the bride at last
+comes in for nothing but the very last leavings and caput mortuum of
+her bridegroom's heart, and becomes a mere ornament for his table, and
+a means whereby he may obtain a progeny. May God, who has saved me from
+that death in life, save you also!" And as he spoke, he looked down
+toward his wife upon the terrace below; and she, as if guessing
+instinctively that he was talking of her, looked up with so sweet
+a smile, that Sir Richard's stern face melted into a very glory of
+spiritual sunshine.
+
+Amyas looked at them both and sighed; and then turning the conversation
+suddenly--
+
+"And I may go to Ireland to-morrow?"
+
+"You shall sail in the 'Mary' for Milford Haven, with these letters to
+Winter. If the wind serves, you may bid the master drop down the river
+tonight, and be off; for we must lose no time."
+
+"Winter?" said Amyas. "He is no friend of mine, since he left Drake and
+us so cowardly at the Straits of Magellan."
+
+"Duty must not wait for private quarrels, even though they be just ones,
+lad: but he will not be your general. When you come to the marshal, or
+the Lord Deputy, give either of them this letter, and they will set you
+work,--and hard work too, I warrant.
+
+"I want nothing better."
+
+"Right, lad; the best reward for having wrought well already, is to have
+more to do; and he that has been faithful over a few things, must find
+his account in being made ruler over many things. That is the true and
+heroical rest, which only is worthy of gentlemen and sons of God. As for
+those who, either in this world or the world to come, look for idleness,
+and hope that God shall feed them with pleasant things, as it were with
+a spoon, Amyas, I count them cowards and base, even though they call
+themselves saints and elect."
+
+"I wish you could persuade my poor cousin of that."
+
+"He has yet to learn what losing his life to save it means, Amyas. Bad
+men have taught him (and I fear these Anabaptists and Puritans at home
+teach little else), that it is the one great business of every one to
+save his own soul after he dies; every one for himself; and that that,
+and not divine self-sacrifice, is the one thing needful, and the better
+part which Mary chose."
+
+"I think men are inclined enough already to be selfish, without being
+taught that."
+
+"Right, lad. For me, if I could hang up such a teacher on high as an
+enemy of mankind, and a corrupter of youth, I would do it gladly. Is
+there not cowardice and self-seeking enough about the hearts of us
+fallen sons of Adam, that these false prophets, with their baits of
+heaven, and their terrors of hell, must exalt our dirtiest vices into
+heavenly virtues and the means of bliss? Farewell to chivalry and to
+desperate valor, farewell to patriotism and loyalty, farewell to England
+and to the manhood of England, if once it shall become the fashion of
+our preachers to bid every man, as the Jesuits do, take care first of
+what they call the safety of his soul. Every man will be afraid to die
+at his post, because he will be afraid that he is not fit to die. Amyas,
+do thou do thy duty like a man, to thy country, thy queen, and thy God;
+and count thy life a worthless thing, as did the holy men of old. Do
+thy work, lad; and leave thy soul to the care of Him who is just and
+merciful in this, that He rewards every man according to his work. Is
+there respect of persons with God? Now come in, and take the letters,
+and to horse. And if I hear of thee dead there at Smerwick fort, with
+all thy wounds in front, I shall weep for thy mother, lad; but I shall
+have never a sigh for thee."
+
+If any one shall be startled at hearing a fine gentleman and a warrior
+like Sir Richard quote Scripture, and think Scripture also, they must
+be referred to the writings of the time; which they may read not without
+profit to themselves, if they discover therefrom how it was possible
+then for men of the world to be thoroughly ingrained with the Gospel,
+and yet to be free from any taint of superstitious fear, or false
+devoutness. The religion of those days was such as no soldier need have
+been ashamed of confessing. At least, Sir Richard died as he lived,
+without a shudder, and without a whine; and these were his last words,
+fifteen years after that, as he lay shot through and through, a captive
+among Popish Spaniards, priests, crucifixes, confession, extreme
+unction, and all other means and appliances for delivering men out of
+the hands of a God of love:--
+
+"Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind; for that
+I have ended my life as a true soldier ought, fighting for his country,
+queen, religion, and honor: my soul willingly departing from this body,
+leaving behind the lasting fame of having behaved as every valiant
+soldier is in his duty bound to do."
+
+Those were the last words of Richard Grenville. The pulpits of those
+days had taught them to him.
+
+But to return. That day's events were not over yet. For, when they went
+down into the house, the first person whom they met was the old steward,
+in search of his master.
+
+"There is a manner of roog, Sir Richard, a masterless man, at the door;
+a very forward fellow, and must needs speak with you."
+
+"A masterless man? He had better not to speak to me, unless he is in
+love with gaol and gallows."
+
+"Well, your worship," said the steward, "I expect that is what he does
+want, for he swears he will not leave the gate till he has seen you."
+
+"Seen me? Halidame! he shall see me, here and at Launceston too, if he
+likes. Bring him in."
+
+"Fegs, Sir Richard, we are half afeard. With your good leave--"
+
+"Hillo, Tony," cried Amyas, "who was ever afeard yet with Sir Richard's
+good leave?"
+
+"What, has the fellow a tail or horns?"
+
+"Massy no: but I be afeard of treason for your honor; for the fellow is
+pinked all over in heathen patterns, and as brown as a filbert; and a
+tall roog, a very strong roog, sir, and a foreigner too, and a mighty
+staff with him. I expect him to be a manner of Jesuit, or wild Irish,
+sir; and indeed the grooms have no stomach to handle him, nor the dogs
+neither, or he had been under the pump before now, for they that saw him
+coming up the hill swear that he had fire coming out of his mouth."
+
+"Fire out of his mouth?" said Sir Richard. "The men are drunk."
+
+"Pinked all over? He must be a sailor," said Amyas; "let me out and see
+the fellow, and if he needs putting forth--"
+
+"Why, I dare say he is not so big but what he will go into thy pocket.
+So go, lad, while I finish my writing."
+
+Amyas went out, and at the back door, leaning on his staff, stood a
+tall, raw-boned, ragged man, "pinked all over," as the steward had said.
+
+"Hillo, lad!" quoth Amyas. "Before we come to talk, thou wilt please to
+lay down that Plymouth cloak of thine." And he pointed to the cudgel,
+which among West-country mariners usually bore that name.
+
+"I'll warrant," said the old steward, "that where he found his cloak he
+found purse not far off."
+
+"But not hose or doublet; so the magical virtue of his staff has
+not helped him much. But put down thy staff, man, and speak like a
+Christian, if thou be one."
+
+"I am a Christian, though I look like a heathen; and no rogue, though
+a masterless man, alas! But I want nothing, deserving nothing, and only
+ask to speak with Sir Richard, before I go on my way."
+
+There was something stately and yet humble about the man's tone and
+manner which attracted Amyas, and he asked more gently where he was
+going and whence he came.
+
+"From Padstow Port, sir, to Clovelly town, to see my old mother, if
+indeed she be yet alive, which God knoweth."
+
+"Clovally man! why didn't thee say thee was Clovally man?" asked all the
+grooms at once, to whom a West-countryman was of course a brother. The
+old steward asked--
+
+"What's thy mother's name, then?"
+
+"Susan Yeo."
+
+"What, that lived under the archway?" asked a groom.
+
+"Lived?" said the man.
+
+"Iss, sure; her died three days since, so we heard, poor soul."
+
+The man stood quite silent and unmoved for a minute or two; and then
+said quietly to himself, in Spanish, "That which is, is best."
+
+"You speak Spanish?" asked Amyas, more and more interested.
+
+"I had need to do so, young sir; I have been five years in the Spanish
+Main, and only set foot on shore two days ago; and if you will let me
+have speech of Sir Richard, I will tell him that at which both the ears
+of him that heareth it shall tingle; and if not, I can but go on to Mr.
+Cary of Clovelly, if he be yet alive, and there disburden my soul; but I
+would sooner have spoken with one that is a mariner like to myself."
+
+"And you shall," said Amyas. "Steward, we will have this man in; for all
+his rags, he is a man of wit." And he led him in.
+
+"I only hope he ben't one of those Popish murderers," said the old
+steward, keeping at a safe distance from him as they entered the hall.
+
+"Popish, old master? There's little fear of my being that. Look here!"
+And drawing back his rags, he showed a ghastly scar, which encircled his
+wrist and wound round and up his fore-arm.
+
+"I got that on the rack," said he, quietly, "in the Inquisition at
+Lima."
+
+"O Father! Father! why didn't you tell us that you were a poor
+Christian?" asked the penitent steward.
+
+"Because I have had naught but my deserts; and but a taste of them
+either, as the Lord knoweth who delivered me; and I wasn't going to make
+myself a beggar and a show on their account."
+
+"By heaven, you are a brave fellow!" said Amyas. "Come along straight to
+Sir Richard's room."
+
+So in they went, where Sir Richard sat in his library among books,
+despatches, state-papers, and warrants; for though he was not yet, as in
+after times (after the fashion of those days) admiral, general, member
+of parliament, privy councillor, justice of the peace, and so forth, all
+at once, yet there were few great men with whom he did not correspond,
+or great matters with which he was not cognizant.
+
+"Hillo, Amyas, have you bound the wild man already, and brought him in
+to swear allegiance?"
+
+But before Amyas could answer, the man looked earnestly on him--"Amyas?"
+said he; "is that your name, sir?"
+
+"Amyas Leigh is my name, at your service, good fellow."
+
+"Of Burrough by Bideford?"
+
+"Why then? What do you know of me?"
+
+"Oh sir, sir! young brains and happy ones have short memories; but old
+and sad brains too long ones often! Do you mind one that was with Mr.
+Oxenham, sir? A swearing reprobate he was, God forgive him, and hath
+forgiven him too, for His dear Son's sake--one, sir, that gave you a
+horn, a toy with a chart on it?"
+
+"Soul alive!" cried Amyas, catching him by the hand; "and are you he?
+The horn? why, I have it still, and will keep it to my dying day, too.
+But where is Mr. Oxenham?"
+
+"Yes, my good fellow, where is Mr. Oxenham?" asked Sir Richard, rising.
+"You are somewhat over-hasty in welcoming your old acquaintance, Amyas,
+before we have heard from him whether he can give honest account of
+himself and of his captain. For there is more than one way by which
+sailors may come home without their captains, as poor Mr. Barker of
+Bristol found to his cost. God grant that there may have been no such
+traitorous dealing here."
+
+"Sir Richard Grenville, if I had been a guilty man to my noble captain,
+as I have to God, I had not come here this day to you, from whom
+villainy has never found favor, nor ever will; for I know your
+conditions well, sir; and trust in the Lord, that if you will be pleased
+to hear me, you shall know mine."
+
+"Thou art a well-spoken knave. We shall see."
+
+"My dear sir," said Amyas, in a whisper, "I will warrant this man
+guiltless."
+
+"I verily believe him to be; but this is too serious a matter to be left
+on guess. If he will be sworn--"
+
+Whereon the man, humbly enough, said, that if it would please Sir
+Richard, he would rather not be sworn.
+
+"But it does not please me, rascal! Did I not warn thee, Amyas?"
+
+"Sir," said the man, proudly, "God forbid that my word should not be as
+good as my oath: but it is against my conscience to be sworn."
+
+"What have we here? some fantastical Anabaptist, who is wiser than his
+teachers."
+
+"My conscience, sir--"
+
+"The devil take it and thee! I never heard a man yet begin to prate of
+his conscience, but I knew that he was about to do something more than
+ordinarily cruel or false."
+
+"Sir," said the man, coolly enough, "do you sit here to judge me
+according to law, and yet contrary to the law swear profane oaths, for
+which a fine is provided?"
+
+Amyas expected an explosion: but Sir Richard pulled a shilling out and
+put it on the table. "There--my fine is paid, sirrah, to the poor of
+Kilkhampton: but hearken thou all the same. If thou wilt not speak an
+oath, thou shalt speak on compulsion; for to Launceston gaol thou goest,
+there to answer for Mr. Oxenham's death, on suspicion whereof, and of
+mutiny causing it, I will attach thee and every soul of his crew that
+comes home. We have lost too many gallant captains of late by treachery
+of their crews, and he that will not clear himself on oath, must be held
+for guilty, and self-condemned."
+
+"My good fellow," said Amyas, who could not give up his belief in the
+man's honesty, "why, for such fantastical scruples, peril not only your
+life, but your honor, and Mr. Oxenham's also? For if you be examined by
+question, you may be forced by torment to say that which is not true."
+
+"Little fear of that, young sir!" answered he, with a grim smile; "I
+have had too much of the rack already, and the strappado too, to care
+much what man can do unto me. I would heartily that I thought it lawful
+to be sworn: but not so thinking, I can but submit to the cruelty of
+man; though I did expect more merciful things, as a most miserable and
+wrecked mariner, at the hands of one who hath himself seen God's ways
+in the sea, and His wonders in the great deep. Sir Richard Grenville,
+if you will hear my story, may God avenge on my head all my sins from my
+youth up until now, and cut me off from the blood of Christ, and, if it
+were possible, from the number of His elect, if I tell you one whit more
+or less than truth; and if not, I commend myself into the hands of God."
+
+Sir Richard smiled. "Well, thou art a brave ass, and valiant, though an
+ass manifest. Dost thou not see, fellow, how thou hast sworn a ten-times
+bigger oath than ever I should have asked of thee? But this is the way
+with your Anabaptists, who by their very hatred of forms and ceremonies,
+show of how much account they think them, and then bind themselves out
+of their own fantastical self-will with far heavier burdens than ever
+the lawful authorities have laid on them for the sake of the commonweal.
+But what do they care for the commonweal, as long as they can save, as
+they fancy, each man his own dirty soul for himself? However, thou art
+sworn now with a vengeance; go on with thy tale: and first, who art
+thou, and whence?"
+
+"Well, sir," said the man, quite unmoved by this last explosion; "my
+name is Salvation Yeo, born in Clovelly Street, in the year 1526, where
+my father exercised the mystery of a barber surgeon, and a preacher of
+the people since called Anabaptists, for which I return humble thanks to
+God."
+
+Sir Richard.--Fie! thou naughty knave; return thanks that thy father was
+an ass?
+
+Yeo.--Nay, but because he was a barber surgeon; for I myself learnt
+a touch of that trade, and thereby saved my life, as I will tell
+presently. And I do think that a good mariner ought to have all
+knowledge of carnal and worldly cunning, even to tailoring and
+shoemaking, that he may be able to turn his hand to whatsoever may hap.
+
+Sir Richard.--Well spoken, fellow: but let us have thy text without thy
+comments. Forwards!
+
+Yeo.--Well, sir. I was bred to the sea from my youth, and was with
+Captain Hawkins in his three voyages, which he made to Guinea for negro
+slaves, and thence to the West Indies.
+
+Sir Richard.--Then thrice thou wentest to a bad end, though Captain
+Hawkins be my good friend; and the last time to a bad end thou camest.
+
+Yeo.--No denying that last, your worship: but as for the former, I
+doubt--about the unlawfulness, I mean; being the negroes are of the
+children of Ham, who are cursed and reprobate, as Scripture declares,
+and their blackness testifies, being Satan's own livery; among whom
+therefore there can be none of the elect, wherefore the elect are not
+required to treat them as brethren.
+
+Sir Richard.--What a plague of a pragmatical sea-lawyer have we here?
+And I doubt not, thou hypocrite, that though thou wilt call the negroes'
+black skin Satan's livery, when it serves thy turn to steal them, thou
+wilt find out sables to be Heaven's livery every Sunday, and up with a
+godly howl unless a parson shall preach in a black gown, Geneva fashion.
+Out upon thee! Go on with thy tale, lest thou finish thy sermon at
+Launceston after all.
+
+Yeo.--The Lord's people were always a reviled people and a persecuted
+people: but I will go forward, sir; for Heaven forbid but that I should
+declare what God has done for me. For till lately, from my youth up,
+I was given over to all wretchlessness and unclean living, and was by
+nature a child of the devil, and to every good work reprobate, even as
+others.
+
+Sir Richard.--Hark to his "even as others"! Thou new-whelped Pharisee,
+canst not confess thine own villainies without making out others as bad
+as thyself, and so thyself no worse than others? I only hope that thou
+hast shown none of thy devil's doings to Mr. Oxenham.
+
+Yeo.--On the word of a Christian man, sir, as I said before, I kept true
+faith with him, and would have been a better friend to him, sir, what is
+more, than ever he was to himself.
+
+Sir Richard.--Alas! that might easily be.
+
+Yeo.--I think, sir, and will make good against any man, that Mr. Oxenham
+was a noble and valiant gentleman; true of his word, stout of his sword,
+skilful by sea and land, and worthy to have been Lord High Admiral of
+England (saving your worship's presence), but that through two great
+sins, wrath and avarice, he was cast away miserably or ever his soul was
+brought to the knowledge of the truth. Ah, sir, he was a captain worth
+sailing under!
+
+And Yeo heaved a deep sigh.
+
+Sir Richard.--Steady, steady, good fellow! If thou wouldst quit
+preaching, thou art no fool after all. But tell us the story without
+more bush-beating.
+
+So at last Yeo settled himself to his tale:--
+
+"Well, sirs, I went, as Mr. Leigh knows, to Nombre de Dios, with Mr.
+Drake and Mr. Oxenham, in 1572, where what we saw and did, your worship,
+I suppose, knows as well as I; and there was, as you've heard maybe,
+a covenant between Mr. Oxenham and Mr. Drake to sail the South Seas
+together, which they made, your worship, in my hearing, under the tree
+over Panama. For when Mr. Drake came down from the tree, after seeing
+the sea afar off, Mr. Oxenham and I went up and saw it too; and when we
+came down, Drake says, 'John, I have made a vow to God that I will sail
+that water, if I live and God gives me grace;' which he had done, sir,
+upon his bended knees, like a godly man as he always was, and would I
+had taken after him! and Mr. O. says, 'I am with you, Drake, to live or
+die, and I think I know some one there already, so we shall not be quite
+among strangers;' and laughed withal. Well, sirs, that voyage, as you
+know, never came off, because Captain Drake was fighting in Ireland; so
+Mr. Oxenham, who must be up and doing, sailed for himself, and I, who
+loved him, God knows, like a brother (saving the difference in our
+ranks), helped him to get the crew together, and went as his gunner.
+That was in 1575; as you know, he had a 140-ton ship, sir, and seventy
+men out of Plymouth and Fowey and Dartmouth, and many of them old hands
+of Drake's, beside a dozen or so from Bideford that I picked up when I
+saw young Master here."
+
+"Thank God that you did not pick me up too."
+
+"Amen, amen!" said Yeo, clasping his hands on his breast. "Those seventy
+men, sir,--seventy gallant men, sir, with every one of them an immortal
+soul within him,--where are they now? Gone, like the spray!" And he
+swept his hands abroad with a wild and solemn gesture. "And their blood
+is upon my head!"
+
+Both Sir Richard and Amyas began to suspect that the man's brain was not
+altogether sound.
+
+"God forbid, my man," said the knight, kindly.
+
+"Thirteen men I persuaded to join in Bideford town, beside William
+Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade. And what if it be said to me at
+the day of judgment, 'Salvation Yeo, where are those fourteen whom thou
+didst tempt to their deaths by covetousness and lust of gold?' Not that
+I was alone in my sin, if the truth must be told. For all the way out
+Mr. Oxenham was making loud speech, after his pleasant way, that he
+would make all their fortunes, and take them to such a Paradise, that
+they should have no lust to come home again. And I--God knows why--for
+every one boast of his would make two, even to lying and empty fables,
+and anything to keep up the men's hearts. For I had really persuaded
+myself that we should all find treasures beyond Solomon his temple,
+and Mr. Oxenham would surely show us how to conquer some golden city or
+discover some island all made of precious stones. And one day, as the
+captain and I were talking after our fashion, I said, 'And you shall be
+our king, captain.' To which he, 'If I be, I shall not be long without
+a queen, and that no Indian one either.' And after that he often jested
+about the Spanish ladies, saying that none could show us the way to
+their hearts better than he. Which speeches I took no count of then,
+sirs: but after I minded them, whether I would or not. Well, sirs, we
+came to the shore of New Spain, near to the old place--that's Nombre
+de Dios; and there Mr. Oxenham went ashore into the woods with a boat's
+crew, to find the negroes who helped us three years before. Those are
+the Cimaroons, gentles, negro slaves who have fled from those devils
+incarnate, their Spanish masters, and live wild, like the beasts
+that perish; men of great stature, sirs, and fierce as wolves in
+the onslaught, but poor jabbering mazed fellows if they be but a bit
+dismayed: and have many Indian women with them, who take to these
+negroes a deal better than to their own kin, which breeds war enough, as
+you may guess.
+
+"Well, sirs, after three days the captain comes back, looking heavy
+enough, and says, 'We played our trick once too often, when we played
+it once. There is no chance of stopping another reco (that is, a
+mule-train, sirs) now. The Cimaroons say that since our last visit
+they never move without plenty of soldiers, two hundred shot at least.
+Therefore,' he said, 'my gallants, we must either return empty-handed
+from this, the very market and treasury of the whole Indies, or do such
+a deed as men never did before, which I shall like all the better for
+that very reason.' And we, asking his meaning, 'Why,' he said, 'if Drake
+will not sail the South Seas, we will;' adding profanely that Drake was
+like Moses, who beheld the promised land afar; but he was Joshua, who
+would enter into it, and smite the inhabitants thereof. And, for our
+confirmation, showed me and the rest the superscription of a letter: and
+said, 'How I came by this is none of your business: but I have had it in
+my bosom ever since I left Plymouth; and I tell you now, what I forbore
+to tell you at first, that the South Seas have been my mark all along!
+such news have I herein of plate-ships, and gold-ships, and what not,
+which will come up from Quito and Lima this very month, all which, with
+the pearls of the Gulf of Panama, and other wealth unspeakable, will be
+ours, if we have but true English hearts within us.'
+
+"At which, gentles, we were like madmen for lust of that gold, and
+cheerfully undertook a toil incredible; for first we run our ship
+aground in a great wood which grew in the very sea itself, and then took
+out her masts, and covered her in boughs, with her four cast pieces of
+great ordnance (of which more hereafter), and leaving no man in her,
+started for the South Seas across the neck of Panama, with two small
+pieces of ordnance and our culverins, and good store of victuals, and
+with us six of those negroes for a guide, and so twelve leagues to a
+river which runs into the South Sea.
+
+"And there, having cut wood, we made a pinnace (and work enough we had
+at it) of five-and-forty foot in the keel; and in her down the stream,
+and to the Isle of Pearls in the Gulf of Panama."
+
+"Into the South Sea? Impossible!" said Sir Richard. "Have a care what
+you say, my man; for there is that about you which would make me sorry
+to find you out a liar."
+
+"Impossible or not, liar or none, we went there, sir."
+
+"Question him, Amyas, lest he turn out to have been beforehand with
+you."
+
+The man looked inquiringly at Amyas, who said--
+
+"Well, my man, of the Gulf of Panama I cannot ask you, for I never was
+inside it, but what other parts of the coast do you know?"
+
+"Every inch, sir, from Cabo San Francisco to Lima; more is my sorrow,
+for I was a galley-slave there for two years and more."
+
+"You know Lima?"
+
+"I was there three times, worshipful gentlemen, and the last was
+February come two years; and there I helped lade a great plate-ship, the
+Cacafuogo,' they called her."
+
+Amyas started. Sir Richard nodded to him gently to be silent, and then--
+
+"And what became of her, my lad?"
+
+"God knows, who knows all, and the devil who freighted her. I broke
+prison six weeks afterwards, and never heard but that she got safe into
+Panama."
+
+"You never heard, then, that she was taken?"
+
+"Taken, your worships? Who should take her?"
+
+"Why should not a good English ship take her as well as another?" said
+Amyas.
+
+"Lord love you, sir; yes, faith, if they had but been there. Many's the
+time that I thought to myself, as we went alongside, 'Oh, if Captain
+Drake was but here, well to windward, and our old crew of the "Dragon"!'
+Ask your pardon, gentles: but how is Captain Drake, if I may make so
+bold?"
+
+Neither could hold out longer.
+
+"Fellow, fellow!" cried Sir Richard, springing up, "either thou art the
+cunningest liar that ever earned a halter, or thou hast done a deed
+the like of which never man adventured. Dost thou not know that Captain
+Drake took that 'Cacafuogo' and all her freight, in February come two
+years?"
+
+"Captain Drake! God forgive me, sir; but--Captain Drake in the South
+Seas? He saw them, sir, from the tree-top over Panama, when I was with
+him, and I too; but sailed them, sir?--sailed them?"
+
+"Yes, and round the world too," said Amyas, "and I with him; and took
+that very 'Cacafuogo' off Cape San Francisco, as she came up to Panama."
+
+One glance at the man's face was enough to prove his sincerity. The
+great stern Anabaptist, who had not winced at the news of his mother's
+death, dropt right on his knees on the floor, and burst into violent
+sobs.
+
+"Glory to God! Glory to God! O Lord, I thank thee! Captain Drake in
+the South Seas! The blood of thy innocents avenged, O Lord! The spoiler
+spoiled, and the proud robbed; and all they whose hands were mighty have
+found nothing. Glory, glory! Oh, tell me, sir, did she fight?"
+
+"We gave her three pieces of ordnance only, and struck down her
+mizzenmast, and then boarded sword in hand, but never had need to strike
+a blow; and before we left her, one of her own boys had changed her
+name, and rechristened her the 'Cacaplata.'"
+
+"Glory, glory! Cowards they are, as I told them. I told them they never
+could stand the Devon mastiffs, and well they flogged me for saying it;
+but they could not stop my mouth. O sir, tell me, did you get the ship
+that came up after her?"
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"A long race-ship, sir, from Guayaquil, with an old gentleman on
+board,--Don Francisco de Xararte was his name, and by token, he had a
+gold falcon hanging to a chain round his neck, and a green stone in the
+breast of it. I saw it as we rowed him aboard. O tell me, sir, tell me
+for the love of God, did you take that ship?"
+
+"We did take that ship, and the jewel too, and her majesty has it at
+this very hour."
+
+"Then tell me, sir," said he slowly, as if he dreaded an answer; "tell
+me, sir, and oh, try and mind--was there a little maid aboard with the
+old gentleman?"
+
+"A little maid? Let me think. No; I saw none."
+
+The man settled his features again sadly.
+
+"I thought not. I never saw her come aboard. Still I hoped, like; I
+hoped. Alackaday! God help me, Salvation Yeo!"
+
+"What have you to do with this little maid, then, good fellow!" asked
+Grenville.
+
+"Ah, sir, before I tell you that, I must go back and finish the story of
+Mr. Oxenham, if you will believe me enough to hear it."
+
+"I do believe thee, good fellow, and honor thee too."
+
+"Then, sir, I can speak with a free tongue. Where was I?"
+
+"Where was he, Amyas?"
+
+"At the Isle of Pearls."
+
+"And yet, O gentles, tell me first, how Captain Drake came into the
+South Seas:--over the neck, as we did?"
+
+"Through the Straits, good fellow, like any Spaniard: but go on with thy
+story, and thou shalt have Mr. Leigh's after."
+
+"Through the Straits! O glory! But I'll tell my tale. Well, sirs
+both--To the Island of Pearls we came, we and some of the negroes. We
+found many huts, and Indians fishing for pearls, and also a fair house,
+with porches; but no Spaniard therein, save one man; at which Mr.
+Oxenham was like a man transported, and fell on that Spaniard, crying,
+'Perro, where is your mistress? Where is the bark from Lima?' To which
+he boldly enough, 'What was his mistress to the Englishman?' But Mr. O.
+threatened to twine a cord round his head till his eyes burst out; and
+the Spaniard, being terrified, said that the ship from Lima was expected
+in a fortnight's time. So for ten days we lay quiet, letting neither
+negro nor Spaniard leave the island, and took good store of pearls,
+feeding sumptuously on wild cattle and hogs until the tenth day, when
+there came by a small bark; her we took, and found her from Quito, and
+on board 60,000 pezos of gold and other store. With which if we had been
+content, gentlemen, all had gone well. And some were willing to go back
+at once, having both treasure and pearls in plenty; but Mr. O., he
+waxed right mad, and swore to slay any one who made that motion again,
+assuring us that the Lima ship of which he had news was far greater and
+richer, and would make princes of us all; which bark came in sight on
+the sixteenth day, and was taken without shot or slaughter. The taking
+of which bark, I verily believe, was the ruin of every mother's son of
+us."
+
+And being asked why, he answered, "First, because of the discontent
+which was bred thereby; for on board was found no gold, but only 100,000
+pezos of silver."
+
+Sir Richard Grenville.--Thou greedy fellow; and was not that enough to
+stay your stomachs?
+
+Yeo answered that he would to God it had been; and that, moreover, the
+weight of that silver was afterwards a hindrance to them, and fresh
+cause of discontent, as he would afterwards declare. "So that it had
+been well for us, sirs, if we had left it behind, as Mr. Drake left his
+three years before, and carried away the gold only. In which I do see
+the evident hand of God, and His just punishment for our greediness
+of gain; who caused Mr. Oxenham, by whom we had hoped to attain great
+wealth, to be a snare to us, and a cause of utter ruin."
+
+"Do you think, then," said Sir Richard, "that Mr. Oxenham deceived you
+wilfully?"
+
+"I will never believe that, sir: Mr. Oxenham had his private reasons for
+waiting for that ship, for the sake of one on board, whose face would
+that he had never seen, though he saw it then, as I fear, not for the
+first time by many a one." And so was silent.
+
+"Come," said both his hearers, "you have brought us thus far, and you
+must go on."
+
+"Gentlemen, I have concealed this matter from all men, both on my voyage
+home and since; and I hope you will be secret in the matter, for the
+honor of my noble captain, and the comfort of his friends who are alive.
+For I think it shame to publish harm of a gallant gentleman, and of an
+ancient and worshipful family, and to me a true and kind captain, when
+what is done cannot be undone, and least said soonest mended. Neither
+now would I have spoken of it, but that I was inwardly moved to it for
+the sake of that young gentleman there" (looking at Amyas), "that
+he might be warned in time of God's wrath against the crying sin of
+adultery, and flee youthful lusts, which war against the soul."
+
+"Thou hast done wisely enough, then," said Sir Richard; "and look to it
+if I do not reward thee: but the young gentleman here, thank God, needs
+no such warnings, having got them already both by precept and example,
+where thou and poor Oxenham might have had them also."
+
+"You mean Captain Drake, your worship?"
+
+"I do, sirrah. If all men were as clean livers as he, the world would be
+spared one half the tears that are shed in it."
+
+"Amen, sir. At least there would have been many a tear spared to us and
+ours. For--as all must out--in that bark of Lima he took a young
+lady, as fair as the sunshine, sir, and seemingly about two or
+three-and-twenty years of age, having with her a tall young lad of
+sixteen, and a little girl, a marvellously pretty child, of about a
+six or seven. And the lady herself was of an excellent beauty, like a
+whale's tooth for whiteness, so that all the crew wondered at her, and
+could not be satisfied with looking upon her. And, gentlemen, this was
+strange, that the lady seemed in no wise afraid or mournful, and bid
+her little girl fear naught, as did also Mr. Oxenham: but the lad kept a
+very sour countenance, and the more when he saw the lady and Mr. Oxenham
+speaking together apart.
+
+"Well, sir, after this good luck we were minded to have gone straight
+back to the river whence we came, and so home to England with all speed.
+But Mr. Oxenham persuaded us to return to the island, and get a few more
+pearls. To which foolishness (which after caused the mishap) I verily
+believe he was moved by the instigation of the devil and of that lady.
+For as we were about to go ashore, I, going down into the cabin of the
+prize, saw Mr. Oxenham and that lady making great cheer of each other
+with, 'My life,' and 'My king,' and 'Light of my eyes,' and such toys;
+and being bidden by Mr. Oxenham to fetch out the lady's mails, and take
+them ashore, heard how the two laughed together about the old ape of
+Panama (which ape, or devil rather, I saw afterwards to my cost), and
+also how she said that she had been dead for five years, and now that
+Mr. Oxenham was come, she was alive again, and so forth.
+
+"Mr. Oxenham bade take the little maid ashore, kissing her and playing
+with her, and saying to the lady, 'What is yours is mine, and what is
+mine is yours.' And she asking whether the lad should come ashore, he
+answered, 'He is neither yours nor mine; let the spawn of Beelzebub stay
+on shore.' After which I, coming on deck again, stumbled over that very
+lad, upon the hatchway ladder, who bore so black and despiteful a face,
+that I verily believe he had overheard their speech, and so thrust him
+upon deck; and going below again, told Mr. Oxenham what I thought, and
+said that it were better to put a dagger into him at once, professing to
+be ready so to do. For which grievous sin, seeing that it was
+committed in my unregenerate days, I hope I have obtained the grace of
+forgiveness, as I have that of hearty repentance. But the lady cried
+out, 'Though he be none of mine, I have sin enough already on my soul;'
+and so laid her hand on Mr. Oxenham's mouth, entreating pitifully. And
+Mr. Oxenham answered laughing, when she would let him, 'What care we?
+let the young monkey go and howl to the old one;' and so went ashore
+with the lady to that house, whence for three days he never came forth,
+and would have remained longer, but that the men, finding but few
+pearls, and being wearied with the watching and warding so many
+Spaniards, and negroes came clamoring to him, and swore that they
+would return or leave him there with the lady. So all went on board
+the pinnace again, every one in ill humor with the captain, and he with
+them.
+
+"Well, sirs, we came back to the mouth of the river, and there began our
+troubles; for the negroes, as soon as we were on shore, called on Mr.
+Oxenham to fulfil the bargain he had made with them. And now it came out
+(what few of us knew till then) that he had agreed with the Cimaroons
+that they should have all the prisoners which were taken, save the gold.
+And he, though loath, was about to give up the Spaniards to them, near
+forty in all, supposing that they intended to use them as slaves: but
+as we all stood talking, one of the Spaniards, understanding what was
+forward, threw himself on his knees before Mr. Oxenham, and shrieking
+like a madman, entreated not to be given up into the hands of 'those
+devils,' said he, 'who never take a Spanish prisoner, but they roast him
+alive, and then eat his heart among them.' We asked the negroes if this
+was possible? To which some answered, What was that to us? But others
+said boldly, that it was true enough, and that revenge made the best
+sauce, and nothing was so sweet as Spanish blood; and one, pointing
+to the lady, said such foul and devilish things as I should be ashamed
+either for me to speak, or you to hear. At this we were like men amazed
+for very horror; and Mr. Oxenham said, 'You incarnate fiends, if you had
+taken these fellows for slaves, it had been fair enough; for you were
+once slaves to them, and I doubt not cruelly used enough: but as for
+this abomination,' says he, 'God do so to me, and more also, if I
+let one of them come into your murderous hands.' So there was a great
+quarrel; but Mr. Oxenham stoutly bade put the prisoners on board
+the ships again, and so let the prizes go, taking with him only the
+treasure, and the lady and the little maid. And so the lad went on to
+Panama, God's wrath having gone out against us.
+
+"Well, sirs, the Cimaroons after that went away from us, swearing
+revenge (for which we cared little enough), and we rowed up the river
+to a place where three streams met, and then up the least of the three,
+some four days' journey, till it grew all shoal and swift; and there we
+hauled the pinnace upon the sands, and Mr. Oxenham asked the men whether
+they were willing to carry the gold and silver over the mountains to the
+North Sea. Some of them at first were loath to do it, and I and others
+advised that we should leave the plate behind, and take the gold only,
+for it would have cost us three or four journeys at the least. But Mr.
+Oxenham promised every man 100 pezos of silver over and above his wages,
+which made them content enough, and we were all to start the morrow
+morning. But, sirs, that night, as God had ordained, came a mishap by
+some rash speeches of Mr. Oxenham's, which threw all abroad again; for
+when we had carried the treasure about half a league inland, and hidden
+it away in a house which we made of boughs, Mr. O. being always full of
+that his fair lady, spoke to me and William Penberthy of Marazion, my
+good comrade, and a few more, saying, 'That we had no need to return
+to England, seeing that we were already in the very garden of Eden, and
+wanted for nothing, but could live without labor or toil; and that it
+was better, when we got over to the North Sea, to go and seek out some
+fair island, and there dwell in joy and pleasure till our lives' end.
+And we two,' he said, 'will be king and queen, and you, whom I can
+trust, my officers; and for servants we will have the Indians, who, I
+warrant, will be more fain to serve honest and merry masters like us
+than those Spanish devils,' and much more of the like; which words I
+liked well,--my mind, alas! being given altogether to carnal pleasure
+and vanity,--as did William Penberthy, my good comrade, on whom I trust
+God has had mercy. But the rest, sirs, took the matter all across, and
+began murmuring against the captain, saying that poor honest mariners
+like them had always the labor and the pain, while he took his delight
+with his lady; and that they would have at least one merry night before
+they were slain by the Cimaroons, or eaten by panthers and lagartos;
+and so got out of the pinnace two great skins of Canary wine, which were
+taken in the Lima prize, and sat themselves down to drink. Moreover,
+there were in the pinnace a great sight of hens, which came from the
+same prize, by which Mr. O. set great store, keeping them for the lady
+and the little maid; and falling upon these, the men began to blaspheme,
+saying, 'What a plague had the captain to fill the boat with dirty live
+lumber for that giglet's sake? They had a better right to a good supper
+than ever she had, and might fast awhile to cool her hot blood;' and
+so cooked and ate those hens, plucking them on board the pinnace, and
+letting the feathers fall into the stream. But when William Penberthy,
+my good comrade, saw the feathers floating away down, he asked them if
+they were mad, to lay a trail by which the Spaniards would surely track
+them out, if they came after them, as without doubt they would. But they
+laughed him to scorn, and said that no Spanish cur dared follow on
+the heels of true English mastiffs as they were, and other boastful
+speeches; and at last, being heated with wine, began afresh to murmur at
+the captain. And one speaking of his counsel about the island, the rest
+altogether took it amiss and out of the way; and some sprang up crying
+treason, and others that he meant to defraud them of the plate which he
+had promised, and others that he meant to desert them in a strange land,
+and so forth, till Mr. O., hearing the hubbub, came out to them from
+the house, when they reviled him foully, swearing that he meant to cheat
+them; and one Edward Stiles, a Wapping man, mad with drink, dared to say
+that he was a fool for not giving up the prisoners to the negroes, and
+what was it to him if the lady roasted? the negroes should have her yet;
+and drawing his sword, ran upon the captain: for which I was about to
+strike him through the body; but the captain, not caring to waste steel
+on such a ribald, with his fist caught him such a buffet behind the ear,
+that he fell down stark dead, and all the rest stood amazed. Then Mr.
+Oxenham called out, 'All honest men who know me, and can trust me, stand
+by your lawful captain against these ruffians.' Whereon, sirs, I, and
+Penberthy my good comrade, and four Plymouth men, who had sailed with
+Mr. O. in Mr. Drake's ship, and knew his trusty and valiant conditions,
+came over to him, and swore before God to stand by him and the lady.
+Then said Mr. O. to the rest, 'Will you carry this treasure, knaves,
+or will you not? Give me an answer here.' And they refused, unless he
+would, before they started, give each man his share. So Mr. O. waxed
+very mad, and swore that he would never be served by men who did not
+trust him, and so went in again; and that night was spent in great
+disquiet, I and those five others keeping watch about the house of
+boughs till the rest fell asleep, in their drink. And next morning, when
+the wine was gone out of them, Mr. O. asked them whether they would go
+to the hills with him, and find those negroes, and persuade them after
+all to carry the treasure. To which they agreed after awhile, thinking
+that so they should save themselves labor; and went off with Mr.
+Oxenham, leaving us six who had stood by him to watch the lady and the
+treasure, after he had taken an oath of us that we would deal justly and
+obediently by him and by her, which God knows, gentlemen, we did. So
+he parted with much weeping and wailing of the lady, and was gone seven
+days; and all that time we kept that lady faithfully and honestly,
+bringing her the best we could find, and serving her upon our bended
+knees, both for her admirable beauty, and for her excellent conditions,
+for she was certainly of some noble kin, and courteous, and without
+fear, as if she had been a very princess. But she kept always within the
+house, which the little maid (God bless her!) did not, but soon learned
+to play with us and we with her, so that we made great cheer of her,
+gentlemen, sailor fashion--for you know we must always have our minions
+aboard to pet and amuse us--maybe a monkey, or a little dog, or a
+singing bird, ay, or mice and spiders, if we have nothing better to
+play withal. And she was wonderful sharp, sirs, was the little maid, and
+picked up her English from us fast, calling us jolly mariners, which I
+doubt but she has forgotten by now, but I hope in God it be not so;" and
+therewith the good fellow began wiping his eyes.
+
+"Well, sir, on the seventh day we six were down by the pinnace clearing
+her out, and the little maid with us gathering of flowers, and William
+Penberthy fishing on the bank, about a hundred yards below, when on
+a sudden he leaps up and runs toward us, crying, 'Here come our hens'
+feathers back again with a vengeance!' and so bade catch up the little
+maid, and run for the house, for the Spaniards were upon us.
+
+"Which was too true; for before we could win the house, there were full
+eighty shot at our heels, but could not overtake us; nevertheless, some
+of them stopping, fixed their calivers and let fly, killing one of the
+Plymouth men. The rest of us escaped to the house, and catching up the
+lady, fled forth, not knowing whither we went, while the Spaniards,
+finding the house and treasure, pursued us no farther.
+
+"For all that day and the next we wandered in great misery, the lady
+weeping continually, and calling for Mr. Oxenham most piteously, and
+the little maid likewise, till with much ado we found the track of our
+comrades, and went up that as best we might: but at nightfall, by good
+hap, we met the whole crew coming back, and with them 200 negroes or
+more, with bows and arrows. At which sight was great joy and embracing,
+and it was a strange thing, sirs, to see the lady; for before that she
+was altogether desperate: and yet she was now a very lioness, as soon
+as she had got her love again; and prayed him earnestly not to care
+for that gold, but to go forward to the North Sea, vowing to him in my
+hearing that she cared no more for poverty than she had cared for her
+good name, and then--they being a little apart from the rest--pointed
+round to the green forest, and said in Spanish--which I suppose they
+knew not that I understood,--'See, all round us is Paradise. Were it not
+enough for you and me to stay here forever, and let them take the gold
+or leave it as they will?'
+
+"To which Mr. Oxenham--'Those who lived in Paradise had not sinned as we
+have, and would never have grown old or sick, as we shall.'
+
+"And she--'If we do that, there are poisons enough in these woods, by
+which we may die in each other's arms, as would to Heaven we had died
+seven years agone!'
+
+"But he--'No, no, my life. It stands upon my honor both to fulfil my
+bond with these men, whom I have brought hither, and to take home to
+England at least something of my prize as a proof of my own valor.'
+
+"Then she smiling--'Am I not prize enough, and proof enough?' But he
+would not be so tempted, and turning to us offered us the half of that
+treasure, if we would go back with him, and rescue it from the Spaniard.
+At which the lady wept and wailed much; but I took upon myself to
+comfort her, though I was but a simple mariner, telling her that it
+stood upon Mr. Oxenham's honor; and that in England nothing was esteemed
+so foul as cowardice, or breaking word and troth betwixt man and man;
+and that better was it for him to die seven times by the Spaniards, than
+to face at home the scorn of all who sailed the seas. So, after much
+ado, back they went again; I and Penberthy, and the three Plymouth men
+which escaped from the pinnace, keeping the lady as before.
+
+"Well, sirs, we waited five days, having made houses of boughs as
+before, without hearing aught; and on the sixth we saw coming afar off
+Mr. Oxenham, and with him fifteen or twenty men, who seemed very weary
+and wounded; and when we looked for the rest to be behind them, behold
+there were no more; at which, sirs, as you may well think, our hearts
+sank within us.
+
+"And Mr. O., coming nearer, cried out afar off, 'All is lost!' and so
+walked into the camp without a word, and sat himself down at the foot
+of a great tree with his head between his hands, speaking neither to the
+lady or to any one, till she very pitifully kneeling before him, cursing
+herself for the cause of all his mischief, and praying him to avenge
+himself upon that her tender body, won him hardly to look once upon her,
+after which (as is the way of vain and unstable man) all between them
+was as before.
+
+"But the men were full of curses against the negroes, for their
+cowardice and treachery; yea, and against high Heaven itself, which had
+put the most part of their ammunition into the Spaniards' hands; and
+told me, and I believe truly, how they forced the enemy awaiting them in
+a little copse of great trees, well fortified with barricades of boughs,
+and having with them our two falcons, which they had taken out of the
+pinnace. And how Mr. Oxenham divided both the English and the negroes
+into two bands, that one might attack the enemy in front, and the
+other in the rear, and so set upon them with great fury, and would have
+utterly driven them out, but that the negroes, who had come on with much
+howling, like very wild beasts, being suddenly scared with the shot and
+noise of the ordnance, turned and fled, leaving the Englishmen alone; in
+which evil strait Mr. O. fought like a very Guy of Warwick, and I verily
+believe every man of them likewise; for there was none of them who had
+not his shrewd scratch to show. And indeed, Mr. Oxenham's party had once
+gotten within the barricades, but the Spaniards being sheltered by
+the tree trunks (and especially by one mighty tree, which stood as I
+remembered it, and remember it now, borne up two fathoms high upon its
+own roots, as it were upon arches and pillars), shot at them with such
+advantage, that they had several slain, and seven more taken alive, only
+among the roots of that tree. So seeing that they could prevail nothing,
+having little but their pikes and swords, they were fain to give back;
+though Mr. Oxenham swore he would not stir a foot, and making at the
+Spanish captain was borne down with pikes, and hardly pulled away by
+some, who at last reminding him of his lady, persuaded him to come away
+with the rest. Whereon the other party fled also; but what had become
+of them they knew not, for they took another way. And so they miserably
+drew off, having lost in men eleven killed and seven taken alive,
+besides five of the rascal negroes who were killed before they had time
+to run; and there was an end of the matter.*
+
+     * In the documents from which I have drawn this veracious
+     history, a note is appended to this point of Yeo's story,
+     which seems to me to smack sufficiently of the old
+     Elizabethan seaman, to be inserted at length.
+
+     "All so far, and most after, agreeth with Lopez Vaz his
+     tale, taken from his pocket by my Lord Cumberland's mariners
+     at the river Plate, in the year 1586.  But note here his
+     vainglory and falsehood, or else fear of the Spaniard.
+
+     "First, lest it should be seen how great an advantage the
+     Spaniards had, he maketh no mention of the English calivers,
+     nor those two pieces of ordnance which were in the pinnace.
+
+     "Second, he saith nothing of the flight of the Cimaroons:
+     though it was evidently to be gathered from that which he
+     himself saith, that of less than seventy English were slain
+     eleven, and of the negroes but five.  And while of the
+     English seven were taken alive, yet of the negroes none.
+     And why, but because the rascals ran?
+
+     "Thirdly, it is a thing incredible, and out of experience,
+     that eleven English should be slain and seven taken, with
+     loss only of two Spaniards killed.
+
+     "Search now, and see (for I will not speak of mine own small
+     doings), in all those memorable voyages, which the worthy
+     and learned Mr. Hakluyt hath so painfully collected, and
+     which are to my old age next only to my Bible, whether in
+     all the fights which we have endured with the Spaniards,
+     their loss, even in victory, hath not far exceeded ours.
+     For we are both bigger of body and fiercer of spirit, being
+     even to the poorest of us (thanks so the care of our
+     illustrious princes), the best fed men of Europe, the most
+     trained to feats of strength and use of weapons, and put our
+     trust also not in any Virgin or saints, dead rags and bones,
+     painted idols which have no breath in their mouths, or St.
+     Bartholomew medals and such devil's remembrancers; but in
+     the only true God and our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom
+     whosoever trusteth, one of them shall chase a thousand.  So
+     I hold, having had good experience; and say, if they have
+     done it once, let them do it again, and kill their eleven to
+     our two, with any weapon they will, save paper bullets blown
+     out of Fame's lying trumpet.  Yet I have no quarrel with the
+     poor Portugal; for I doubt not but friend Lopez Vaz had
+     looking over his shoulder as he wrote some mighty black
+     velvet Don, with a name as long as that Don Bernaldino
+     Delgadillo de Avellaneda who set forth lately his
+     vainglorious libel of lies concerning the last and fatal
+     voyage of my dear friends Sir F. Drake and Sir John Hawkins,
+     who rest in peace, having finished their labors, as would
+     God I rested.  To whose shameless and unspeakable lying my
+     good friend Mr. Henry Savile of this county did most pithily
+     and wittily reply, stripping the ass out of his lion's skin;
+     and Sir Thomas Baskerville, general of the fleet, by my
+     advice, send him a cartel of defiance, offering to meet him
+     with choice of weapons, in any indifferent kingdom of equal
+     distance from this realm; which challenge he hath prudently
+     put in his pipe, or rather rolled it up for one of his
+     Spanish cigarros, and smoked it, and I doubt not, found it
+     foul in the mouth."
+
+"But the next day, gentlemen, in came some five-and-twenty more, being
+the wreck of the other party, and with them a few negroes; and these
+last proved themselves no honester men than they were brave, for there
+being great misery among us English, and every one of us straggling
+where he could to get food, every day one or more who went out never
+came back, and that caused a suspicion that the negroes had betrayed
+them to the Spaniards, or, maybe, slain and eaten them. So these fellows
+being upbraided, with that altogether left us, telling us boldly,
+that if they had eaten our fellows, we owed them a debt instead of the
+Spanish prisoners; and we, in great terror and hunger, went forward and
+over the mountains till we came to a little river which ran northward,
+which seemed to lead into the Northern Sea; and there Mr. O.--who, sirs,
+I will say, after his first rage was over, behaved himself all through
+like a valiant and skilful commander--bade us cut down trees and make
+canoes, to go down to the sea; which we began to do, with great labor
+and little profit, hewing down trees with our swords, and burning them
+out with fire, which, after much labor, we kindled; but as we were
+a-burning out of the first tree, and cutting down of another, a great
+party of negroes came upon us, and with much friendly show bade us flee
+for our lives, for the Spaniards were upon us in great force. And so we
+were up and away again, hardly able to drag our legs after us for hunger
+and weariness, and the broiling heat. And some were taken (God help
+them!) and some fled with the negroes, of whom what became God alone
+knoweth; but eight or ten held on with the captain, among whom was I,
+and fled downward toward the sea for one day; but afterwards finding, by
+the noise in the woods, that the Spaniards were on the track of us, we
+turned up again toward the inland, and coming to a cliff, climbed up
+over it, drawing up the lady and the little maid with cords of liana
+(which hang from those trees as honeysuckle does here, but exceeding
+stout and long, even to fifty fathoms); and so breaking the track, hoped
+to be out of the way of the enemy.
+
+"By which, nevertheless, we only increased our misery. For two fell from
+that cliff, as men asleep for very weariness, and miserably broke their
+bones; and others, whether by the great toil, or sunstrokes, or eating
+of strange berries, fell sick of fluxes and fevers; where was no drop
+of water, but rock of pumice stone as bare as the back of my hand, and
+full, moreover, of great cracks, black and without bottom, over which
+we had not strength to lift the sick, but were fain to leave them there
+aloft, in the sunshine, like Dives in his torments, crying aloud for
+a drop of water to cool their tongues; and every man a great stinking
+vulture or two sitting by him, like an ugly black fiend out of the pit,
+waiting till the poor soul should depart out of the corpse: but nothing
+could avail, and for the dear life we must down again and into the
+woods, or be burned up alive upon those rocks.
+
+"So getting down the slope on the farther side, we came into the woods
+once more, and there wandered for many days, I know not how many;
+our shoes being gone, and our clothes all rent off us with brakes and
+briars. And yet how the lady endured all was a marvel to see; for she
+went barefoot many days, and for clothes was fain to wrap herself in Mr.
+Oxenham's cloak; while the little maid went all but naked: but ever she
+looked still on Mr. Oxenham, and seemed to take no care as long as he
+was by, comforting and cheering us all with pleasant words; yea, and
+once sitting down under a great fig-tree, sang us all to sleep with
+very sweet music; yet, waking about midnight, I saw her sitting still
+upright, weeping very bitterly; on whom, sirs, God have mercy; for she
+was a fair and a brave jewel.
+
+"And so, to make few words of a sad matter, at last there were none left
+but Mr. Oxenham and the lady and the little maid, together with me and
+William Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade. And Mr. Oxenham always
+led the lady, and Penberthy and I carried the little maid. And for food
+we had fruits, such as we could find, and water we got from the leaves
+of certain lilies which grew on the bark of trees, which I found by
+seeing the monkeys drink at them; and the little maid called them
+monkey-cups, and asked for them continually, making me climb for them.
+And so we wandered on, and upward into very high mountains, always
+fearing lest the Spaniards should track us with dogs, which made the
+lady leap up often in her sleep, crying that the bloodhounds were upon
+her. And it befell upon a day, that we came into a great wood of ferns
+(which grew not on the ground like ours, but on stems as big as a
+pinnace's mast, and the bark of them was like a fine meshed net, very
+strange to see), where was very pleasant shade, cool and green; and
+there, gentlemen, we sat down on a bank of moss, like folk desperate and
+fordone, and every one looked the other in the face for a long while.
+After which I took off the bark of those ferns, for I must needs be
+doing something to drive away thought, and began to plait slippers for
+the little maid.
+
+"And as I was plaiting, Mr. Oxenham said, 'What hinders us from dying
+like men, every man falling on his own sword?' To which I answered that
+I dare not; for a wise woman had prophesied of me, sirs, that I should
+die at sea, and yet neither by water or battle, wherefore I did not
+think right to meddle with the Lord's purposes. And William Penberthy
+said, 'That he would sell his life, and that dear, but never give it
+away.' But the lady said, 'Ah, how gladly would I die! but then la
+paouvre garse,' which is in French 'the poor maid,' meaning the little
+one. Then Mr. Oxenham fell into a very great weeping, a weakness I never
+saw him in before or since; and with many tears besought me never
+to desert that little maid, whatever might befall; which I promised,
+swearing to it like a heathen, but would, if I had been able, have kept
+it like a Christian. But on a sudden there was a great cry in the
+wood, and coming through the trees on all sides Spanish arquebusiers,
+a hundred strong at least, and negroes with them, who bade us stand
+or they would shoot. William Penberthy leapt up, crying 'Treason!' and
+running upon the nearest negro ran him through, and then another, and
+then falling on the Spaniards, fought manfully till he was borne down
+with pikes, and so died. But I, seeing no thing better to do, sate
+still and finished my plaiting. And so we were all taken, and I and Mr.
+Oxenham bound with cords; but the soldiers made a litter for the lady
+and child, by commandment of Senor Diego de Trees, their commander, a
+very courteous gentleman.
+
+"Well, sirs, we were brought down to the place where the house of boughs
+had been by the river-side; there we went over in boats, and found
+waiting for us certain Spanish gentlemen, and among others one old and
+ill-favored man, gray-bearded and bent, in a suit of black velvet, who
+seemed to be a great man among them. And if you will believe me, Mr.
+Leigh, that was none other than the old man with the gold falcon at his
+breast, Don Francisco Xararte by name, whom you found aboard of the Lima
+ship. And had you known as much of him as I do, or as Mr. Oxenham did
+either, you had cut him up for shark's bait, or ever you let the cur
+ashore again.
+
+"Well, sirs, as soon as the lady came to shore, that old man ran upon
+her sword in hand, and would have slain her, but some there held him
+back. On which he turned to, and reviled with every foul and spiteful
+word which he could think of, so that some there bade him be silent for
+shame; and Mr. Oxenham said, 'It is worthy of you, Don Francisco, thus
+to trumpet abroad your own disgrace. Did I not tell you years ago that
+you were a cur; and are you not proving my words for me?'
+
+"He answered, 'English dog, would to Heaven I had never seen you!'
+
+"And Mr. Oxenham, 'Spanish ape, would to Heaven that I had sent
+my dagger through your herring-ribs when you passed me behind St.
+Ildegonde's church, eight years last Easter-eve.' At which the old man
+turned pale, and then began again to upbraid the lady, vowing that
+he would have her burnt alive, and other devilish words, to which she
+answered at last--
+
+"'Would that you had burnt me alive on my wedding morning, and spared me
+eight years of misery!' And he--
+
+"'Misery? Hear the witch, senors! Oh, have I not pampered her, heaped
+with jewels, clothes, coaches, what not? The saints alone know what 'I
+have spent on her. What more would she have of me?'
+
+"To which she answered only but this one word, 'Fool!' but in so
+terrible a voice, though low, that they who were about to laugh at the
+old pantaloon, were more minded to weep for her.
+
+"'Fool!' she said again, after a while, 'I will waste no words upon you.
+I would have driven a dagger to your heart months ago, but that I
+was loath to set you free so soon from your gout and your rheumatism.
+Selfish and stupid, know when you bought my body from my parents, you
+did not buy my soul! Farewell, my love, my life! and farewell, senors!
+May you be more merciful to your daughters than my parents were to me!'
+And so, catching a dagger from the girdle of one of the soldiers, smote
+herself to the heart, and fell dead before them all.
+
+"At which Mr. Oxenham smiled, and said, 'That was worthy of us both. If
+you will unbind my hands, senors, I shall be most happy to copy so fair
+a schoolmistress.'
+
+"But Don Diego shook his head, and said--
+
+"'It were well for you, valiant senor, were I at liberty to do so; but
+on questioning those of your sailors whom I have already taken, I cannot
+hear that you have any letters of license, either from the queen of
+England, or any other potentate. I am compelled, therefore, to ask you
+whether this is so; for it is a matter of life and death.'
+
+"To which Mr. Oxenham answered merrily, that so it was: but that he
+was not aware that any potentate's license was required to permit a
+gentleman's meeting his lady love; and that as for the gold which they
+had taken, if they had never allowed that fresh and fair young May to be
+forced into marrying that old January, he should never have meddled with
+their gold; so that was rather their fault than his. And added, that if
+he was to be hanged, as he supposed, the only favor which he asked for
+was a long drop and no priests. And all the while, gentlemen, he still
+kept his eyes fixed on the lady's corpse, till he was led away with me,
+while all that stood by, God reward them for it, lamented openly the
+tragical end of those two sinful lovers.
+
+"And now, sirs, what befell me after that matters little; for I never
+saw Captain Oxenham again, nor ever shall in this life."
+
+"He was hanged, then?"
+
+"So I heard for certain the next year, and with him the gunner and
+sundry more: but some were given away for slaves to the Spaniards,
+and may be alive now, unless, like me, they have fallen into the cruel
+clutches of the Inquisition. For the Inquisition now, gentlemen, claims
+the bodies and souls of all heretics all over the world (as the devils
+told me with their own lips, when I pleaded that I was no Spanish
+subject); and none that it catches, whether peaceable merchants or
+shipwrecked mariners, but must turn or burn."
+
+"But how did you get into the Inquisition?"
+
+"Why, sir, after we were taken, we set forth to go down the river again;
+and the old Don took the little maid with him in one boat (and bitterly
+she screeched at parting from us and from the poor dead corpse), and Mr.
+Oxenham with Don Diego de Trees in another, and I in a third. And from
+the Spaniards I learnt that we were to be taken down to Lima, to the
+Viceroy; but that the old man lived hard by Panama, and was going
+straight back to Panama forthwith with the little maid. But they said,
+'It will be well for her if she ever gets there, for the old man swears
+she is none of his, and would have left her behind him in the woods,
+now, if Don Diego had not shamed him out of it.' And when I heard that,
+seeing that there was nothing but death before me, I made up my mind
+to escape; and the very first night, sirs, by God's help, I did it,
+and went southward away into the forest, avoiding the tracks of the
+Cimaroons, till I came to an Indian town. And there, gentlemen, I got
+more mercy from heathens than ever I had from Christians; for when they
+found that I was no Spaniard, they fed me and gave me a house, and
+a wife (and a good wife she was to me), and painted me all over in
+patterns, as you see; and because I had some knowledge of surgery and
+blood-letting, and my fleams in my pocket, which were worth to me a
+fortune, I rose to great honor among them, though they taught me more of
+simples than ever I taught them of surgery. So I lived with them merrily
+enough, being a very heathen like them, or indeed worse, for they
+worshipped their Xemes, but I nothing. And in time my wife bare me a
+child; in looking at whose sweet face, gentlemen, I forgot Mr. Oxenham
+and his little maid, and my oath, ay, and my native land also. Wherefore
+it was taken from me, else had I lived and died as the beasts which
+perish; for one night, after we were all lain down, came a noise outside
+the town, and I starting up saw armed men and calivers shining in the
+moonlight, and heard one read in Spanish, with a loud voice, some fool's
+sermon, after their custom when they hunt the poor Indians, how God had
+given to St. Peter the dominion of the whole earth, and St. Peter
+again the Indies to the Catholic king; wherefore, if they would all
+be baptized and serve the Spaniard, they should have some monkey's
+allowance or other of more kicks than pence; and if not, then have
+at them with fire and sword; but I dare say your worships know that
+devilish trick of theirs better than I."
+
+"I know it, man. Go on."
+
+"Well--no sooner were the words spoken than, without waiting to hear
+what the poor innocents within would answer (though that mattered
+little, for they understood not one word of it), what do the villains
+but let fly right into the town with their calivers, and then rush
+in, sword in hand, killing pell-mell all they met, one of which shots,
+gentlemen, passing through the doorway, and close by me, struck my poor
+wife to the heart, that she never spoke word more. I, catching up the
+babe from her breast, tried to run: but when I saw the town full of
+them, and their dogs with them in leashes, which was yet worse, I knew
+all was lost, and sat down again by the corpse with the babe on my
+knees, waiting the end, like one stunned and in a dream; for now I
+thought God from whom I had fled had surely found me out, as He did
+Jonah, and the punishment of all my sins was come. Well, gentlemen, they
+dragged me out, and all the young men and women, and chained us together
+by the neck; and one, catching the pretty babe out of my arms, calls
+for water and a priest (for they had their shavelings with them), and no
+sooner was it christened than, catching the babe by the heels, he dashed
+out its brains,--oh! gentlemen, gentlemen!--against the ground, as if it
+had been a kitten; and so did they to several more innocents that night,
+after they had christened them; saying it was best for them to go to
+heaven while they were still sure thereof; and so marched us all for
+slaves, leaving the old folk and the wounded to die at leisure. But when
+morning came, and they knew by my skin that I was no Indian, and by my
+speech that I was no Spaniard, they began threatening me with torments,
+till I confessed that I was an Englishman, and one of Oxenham's crew.
+At that says the leader, 'Then you shall to Lima, to hang by the side of
+your captain the pirate;' by which I first knew that my poor captain was
+certainly gone; but alas for me! the priest steps in and claims me for
+his booty, calling me Lutheran, heretic, and enemy of God; and so, to
+make short a sad story, to the Inquisition at Cartagena I went, where
+what I suffered, gentlemen, were as disgustful for you to hear, as
+unmanly for me to complain of; but so it was, that being twice racked,
+and having endured the water-torment as best I could, I was put to the
+scarpines, whereof I am, as you see, somewhat lame of one leg to this
+day. At which I could abide no more, and so, wretch that I am! denied my
+God, in hope to save my life; which indeed I did, but little it profited
+me; for though I had turned to their superstition, I must have two
+hundred stripes in the public place, and then go to the galleys for
+seven years. And there, gentlemen, ofttimes I thought that it had been
+better for me to have been burned at once and for all: but you know
+as well as I what a floating hell of heat and cold, hunger and thirst,
+stripes and toil, is every one of those accursed craft. In which hell,
+nevertheless, gentlemen, I found the road to heaven,--I had almost said
+heaven itself. For it fell out, by God's mercy, that my next comrade was
+an Englishman like myself, a young man of Bristol, who, as he told me,
+had been some manner of factor on board poor Captain Barker's ship, and
+had been a preacher among the Anabaptists here in England. And, oh! Sir
+Richard Grenville, if that man had done for you what he did for me, you
+would never say a word against those who serve the same Lord, because
+they don't altogether hold with you. For from time to time, sir, seeing
+me altogether despairing and furious, like a wild beast in a pit, he set
+before me in secret earnestly the sweet promises of God in Christ,--who
+says, 'Come to me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will refresh
+you; and though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as
+snow,--till all that past sinful life of mine looked like a dream when
+one awaketh, and I forgot all my bodily miseries in the misery of my
+soul, so did I loathe and hate myself for my rebellion against that
+loving God who had chosen me before the foundation of the world, and
+come to seek and save me when I was lost; and falling into very despair
+at the burden of my heinous sins, knew no peace until I gained sweet
+assurance that my Lord had hanged my burden upon His cross, and washed
+my sinful soul in His most sinless blood, Amen!"
+
+And Sir Richard Grenville said Amen also.
+
+"But, gentlemen, if that sweet youth won a soul to Christ, he paid
+as dearly for it as ever did saint of God. For after a three or four
+months, when I had been all that while in sweet converse with him, and
+I may say in heaven in the midst of hell, there came one night to the
+barranco at Lima, where we were kept when on shore, three black devils
+of the Holy Office, and carried him off without a word, only saying to
+me, 'Look that your turn come not next, for we hear that you have had
+much talk with the villain.' And at these words I was so struck cold
+with terror that I swooned right away, and verily, if they had taken me
+there and then, I should have denied my God again, for my faith was but
+young and weak: but instead, they left me aboard the galley for a few
+months more (that was a whole voyage to Panama and back), in daily dread
+lest I should find myself in their cruel claws again--and then nothing
+for me, but to burn as a relapsed heretic. But when we came back to
+Lima, the officers came on board again, and said to me, 'That heretic
+has confessed naught against you, so we will leave you for this time:
+but because you have been seen talking with him so much, and the Holy
+Office suspects your conversion to be but a rotten one, you are adjudged
+to the galleys for the rest of your life in perpetual servitude.'"
+
+"But what became of him?" asked Amyas.
+
+"He was burned, sir, a day or two before we got to Lima, and five others
+with him at the same stake, of whom two were Englishmen; old comrades of
+mine, as I guess."
+
+"Ah!" said Amyas, "we heard of that when we were off Lima; and they
+said, too, that there were six more lying still in prison, to be burnt
+in a few days. If we had had our fleet with us (as we should have had if
+it had not been for John Winter) we would have gone in and rescued them
+all, poor wretches, and sacked the town to boot: but what could we do
+with one ship?"
+
+"Would to God you had, sir; for the story was true enough; and among
+them, I heard, were two young ladies of quality and their confessor,
+who came to their ends for reproving out of Scripture the filthy and
+loathsome living of those parts, which, as I saw well enough and too
+well, is liker to Sodom than to a Christian town; but God will avenge
+His saints, and their sins. Amen."
+
+"Amen," said Sir Richard: "but on with thy tale, for it is as strange as
+ever man heard."
+
+"Well, gentlemen, when I heard that I must end my days in that galley, I
+was for awhile like a madman: but in a day or two there came over me, I
+know not how, a full assurance of salvation, both for this life and the
+life to come, such as I had never had before; and it was revealed to me
+(I speak the truth, gentlemen, before Heaven) that now I had been tried
+to the uttermost, and that my deliverance was at hand.
+
+"And all the way up to Panama (that was after we had laden the
+'Cacafuogo') I cast in my mind how to escape, and found no way: but just
+as I was beginning to lose heart again, a door was opened by the Lord's
+own hand; for (I know not why) we were marched across from Panama to
+Nombre, which had never happened before, and there put all together into
+a great barranco close by the quay-side, shackled, as is the fashion, to
+one long bar that ran the whole length of the house. And the very first
+night that we were there, I, looking out of the window, spied, lying
+close aboard of the quay, a good-sized caravel well armed and just
+loading for sea; and the land breeze blew off very strong, so that the
+sailors were laying out a fresh warp to hold her to the shore. And it
+came into my mind, that if we were aboard of her, we should be at sea
+in five minutes; and looking at the quay, I saw all the soldiers who had
+guarded us scattered about drinking and gambling, and some going into
+taverns to refresh themselves after their journey. That was just at
+sundown; and half an hour after, in comes the gaoler to take a last look
+at us for the night, and his keys at his girdle. Whereon, sirs (whether
+by madness, or whether by the spirit which gave Samson strength to rend
+the lion), I rose against him as he passed me, without forethought or
+treachery of any kind, chained though I was, caught him by the head,
+and threw him there and then against the wall, that he never spoke word
+after; and then with his keys freed myself and every soul in that
+room, and bid them follow me, vowing to kill any man who disobeyed my
+commands. They followed, as men astounded and leaping out of night into
+day, and death into life, and so aboard that caravel and out of the
+harbor (the Lord only knows how, who blinded the eyes of the idolaters),
+'with no more hurt than a few chance-shot from the soldiers on the quay.
+But my tale has been over-long already, gentlemen--"
+
+"Go on till midnight, my good fellow, if you will."
+
+"Well, sirs, they chose me for captain, and a certain Genoese for
+lieutenant, and away to go. I would fain have gone ashore after all, and
+back to Panama to hear news of the little maid: but that would have been
+but a fool's errand. Some wanted to turn pirates: but I, and the Genoese
+too, who was a prudent man, though an evil one, persuaded them to run
+for England and get employment in the Netherland wars, assuring them
+that there would be no safety in the Spanish Main, when once our escape
+got wind. And the more part being of one mind, for England we sailed,
+watering at the Barbadoes because it was desolate; and so eastward
+toward the Canaries. In which voyage what we endured (being taken by
+long calms), by scurvy, calentures, hunger, and thirst, no tongue can
+tell. Many a time were we glad to lay out sheets at night to catch
+the dew, and suck them in the morning; and he that had a noggin of
+rain-water out of the scuppers was as much sought to as if he had been
+Adelantado of all the Indies; till of a hundred and forty poor wretches
+a hundred and ten were dead, blaspheming God and man, and above all
+me and the Genoese, for taking the Europe voyage, as if I had not sins
+enough of my own already. And last of all, when we thought ourselves
+safe, we were wrecked by southwesters on the coast of Brittany, near to
+Cape Race, from which but nine souls of us came ashore with their lives;
+and so to Brest, where I found a Flushinger who carried me to Falmouth
+and so ends my tale, in which if I have said one word more or less than
+truth, I can wish myself no worse, than to have it all to undergo a
+second time."
+
+And his voice, as he finished, sank from very weariness of soul; while
+Sir Richard sat opposite him in silence, his elbows on the table,
+his cheeks on his doubled fists, looking him through and through with
+kindling eyes. No one spoke for several minutes; and then--
+
+"Amyas, you have heard this story. You believe it?"
+
+"Every word, sir, or I should not have the heart of a Christian man."
+
+"So do I. Anthony!"
+
+The butler entered.
+
+"Take this man to the buttery; clothe him comfortably, and feed him with
+the best; and bid the knaves treat him as if he were their own father."
+
+But Yeo lingered.
+
+"If I might be so bold as to ask your worship a favor?--"
+
+"Anything in reason, my brave fellow."
+
+"If your worship could put me in the way of another adventure to the
+Indies?"
+
+"Another! Hast not had enough of the Spaniards already?"
+
+"Never enough, sir, while one of the idolatrous tyrants is left
+unhanged," said he, with a right bitter smile. "But it's not for that
+only, sir: but my little maid--Oh, sir! my little maid, that I swore to
+Mr. Oxenham to look to, and never saw her from that day to this! I must
+find her, sir, or I shall go mad, I believe. Not a night but she comes
+and calls to me in my dreams, the poor darling; and not a morning but
+when I wake there is my oath lying on my soul, like a great black cloud,
+and I no nearer the keeping of it. I told that poor young minister of it
+when we were in the galleys together; and he said oaths were oaths, and
+keep it I must; and keep it I will, sir, if you'll but help me."
+
+"Have patience, man. God will take as good care of thy little maid as
+ever thou wilt."
+
+"I know it, sir. I know it: but faith's weak, sir! and oh! if she were
+bred up a Papist and an idolater; wouldn't her blood be on my head then,
+sir? Sooner than that, sooner than that, I'd be in the Inquisition again
+to-morrow, I would!"
+
+"My good fellow, there are no adventures to the Indies forward now: but
+if you want to fight Spaniards, here is a gentleman will show you the
+way. Amyas, take him with you to Ireland. If he has learnt half the
+lessons God has set him to learn, he ought to stand you in good stead."
+
+Yeo looked eagerly at the young giant.
+
+"Will you have me, sir? There's few matters I can't turn my hand to:
+and maybe you'll be going to the Indies again, some day, eh? and take me
+with you? I'd serve your turn well, though I say it, either for gunner
+or for pilot. I know every stone and tree from Nombre to Panama, and all
+the ports of both the seas. You'll never be content, I'll warrant, till
+you've had another turn along the gold coasts, will you now?"
+
+Amyas laughed, and nodded; and the bargain was concluded.
+
+So out went Yeo to eat, and Amyas having received his despatches, got
+ready for his journey home.
+
+"Go the short way over the moors, lad; and send back Cary's gray when
+you can. You must not lose an hour, but be ready to sail the moment the
+wind goes about."
+
+So they started: but as Amyas was getting into the saddle, he saw that
+there was some stir among the servants, who seemed to keep carefully out
+of Yeo's way, whispering and nodding mysteriously; and just as his foot
+was in the stirrup, Anthony, the old butler, plucked him back.
+
+"Dear father alive, Mr. Amyas!" whispered he: "and you ben't going by
+the moor road all alone with that chap?"
+
+"Why not, then? I'm too big for him to eat, I reckon."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Amyas! he's not right, I tell you; not company for a
+Christian--to go forth with creatures as has flames of fire in their
+inwards; 'tis temptation of Providence, indeed, then, it is."
+
+"Tale of a tub."
+
+"Tale of a Christian, sir. There was two boys pig-minding, seed him at
+it down the hill, beside a maiden that was taken mazed (and no wonder,
+poor soul!) and lying in screeching asterisks now down to the mill--you
+ask as you go by--and saw the flames come out of the mouth of mun, and
+the smoke out of mun's nose like a vire-drake, and the roaring of mun
+like the roaring of ten thousand bulls. Oh, sir! and to go with he after
+dark over moor! 'Tis the devil's devices, sir, against you, because
+you'm going against his sarvants the Pope of Room and the Spaniard; and
+you'll be Pixy-led, sure as life, and locked into a bog, you will, and
+see mun vanish away to fire and brimstone, like a jack-o'-lantern. Oh,
+have a care, then, have a care!"
+
+And the old man wrung his hands, while Amyas, bursting with laughter,
+rode off down the park, with the unconscious Yeo at his stirrup,
+chatting away about the Indies, and delighting Amyas more and more by
+his shrewdness, high spirit, and rough eloquence.
+
+They had gone ten miles or more; the day began to draw in, and the
+western wind to sweep more cold and cheerless every moment, when Amyas,
+knowing that there was not an inn hard by around for many a mile ahead,
+took a pull at a certain bottle which Lady Grenville had put into his
+holster, and then offered Yeo a pull also.
+
+He declined; he had meat and drink too about him, Heaven be praised!
+
+"Meat and drink? Fall to, then, man, and don't stand on manners."
+
+Whereon Yeo, seeing an old decayed willow by a brook, went to it, and
+took therefrom some touchwood, to which he set a light with his knife
+and a stone, while Amyas watched, a little puzzled and startled,
+as Yeo's fiery reputation came into his mind. Was he really a
+salamander-sprite, and going to warm his inside by a meal of burning
+tinder? But now Yeo, in his solemn methodical way, pulled out of his
+bosom a brown leaf, and began rolling a piece of it up neatly to the
+size of his little finger; and then, putting the one end into his mouth
+and the other on the tinder, sucked at it till it was a-light; and
+drinking down the smoke, began puffing it out again at his nostrils with
+a grunt of deepest satisfaction, and resumed his dog-trot by Amyas's
+side, as if he had been a walking chimney.
+
+On which Amyas burst into a loud laugh, and cried--
+
+"Why, no wonder they said you breathed fire? Is not that the Indians'
+tobacco?"
+
+"Yea, verily, Heaven be praised! but did you never see it before?"
+
+"Never, though we heard talk of it along the coast; but we took it for
+one more Spanish lie. Humph--well, live and learn!"
+
+"Ah, sir, no lie, but a blessed truth, as I can tell, who have ere now
+gone in the strength of this weed three days and nights without eating;
+and therefore, sir, the Indians always carry it with them on their
+war-parties: and no wonder; for when all things were made none was made
+better than this; to be a lone man's companion, a bachelor's friend,
+a hungry man's food, a sad man's cordial, a wakeful man's sleep, and a
+chilly man's fire, sir; while for stanching of wounds, purging of rheum,
+and settling of the stomach, there's no herb like unto it under the
+canopy of heaven."
+
+The truth of which eulogium Amyas tested in after years, as shall be
+fully set forth in due place and time. But "Mark in the meanwhile," says
+one of the veracious chroniclers from whom I draw these facts, writing
+seemingly in the palmy days of good Queen Anne, and "not having" (as he
+says) "before his eyes the fear of that misocapnic Solomon James I. or
+of any other lying Stuart," "that not to South Devon, but to North; not
+to Sir Walter Raleigh, but to Sir Amyas Leigh; not to the banks of Dart,
+but to the banks of Torridge, does Europe owe the day-spring of the
+latter age, that age of smoke which shall endure and thrive, when the
+age of brass shall have vanished like those of iron and of gold; for
+whereas Mr. Lane is said to have brought home that divine weed (as
+Spenser well names it) from Virginia, in the year 1584, it is hereby
+indisputable that full four years earlier, by the bridge of Putford in
+the Torridge moors (which all true smokers shall hereafter visit as a
+hallowed spot and point of pilgrimage) first twinkled that fiery beacon
+and beneficent lodestar of Bidefordian commerce, to spread hereafter
+from port to port and peak to peak, like the watch-fires which
+proclaimed the coming of the Armada or the fall of Troy, even to the
+shores of the Bosphorus, the peaks of the Caucasus, and the farthest
+isles of the Malayan sea, while Bideford, metropolis of tobacco, saw her
+Pool choked with Virginian traders, and the pavement of her Bridgeland
+Street groaning beneath the savory bales of roll Trinadado, leaf, and
+pudding; and her grave burghers, bolstered and blocked out of their own
+houses by the scarce less savory stock-fish casks which filled cellar,
+parlor, and attic, were fain to sit outside the door, a silver pipe
+in every strong right hand, and each left hand chinking cheerfully the
+doubloons deep lodged in the auriferous caverns of their trunk-hose;
+while in those fairy-rings of fragrant mist, which circled round their
+contemplative brows, flitted most pleasant visions of Wiltshire farmers
+jogging into Sherborne fair, their heaviest shillings in their pockets,
+to buy (unless old Aubrey lies) the lotus-leaf of Torridge for its
+weight in silver, and draw from thence, after the example of the
+Caciques of Dariena, supplies of inspiration much needed, then as now,
+in those Gothamite regions. And yet did these improve, as Englishmen,
+upon the method of those heathen savages; for the latter (so Salvation
+Yeo reported as a truth, and Dampier's surgeon Mr. Wafer after him),
+when they will deliberate of war or policy, sit round in the hut of the
+chief; where being placed, enter to them a small boy with a cigarro of
+the bigness of a rolling-pin and puffs the smoke thereof into the face
+of each warrior, from the eldest to the youngest; while they, putting
+their hand funnel-wise round their mouths, draw into the sinuosities of
+the brain that more than Delphic vapor of prophecy; which boy presently
+falls down in a swoon, and being dragged out by the heels and laid by to
+sober, enter another to puff at the sacred cigarro, till he is dragged
+out likewise; and so on till the tobacco is finished, and the seed of
+wisdom has sprouted in every soul into the tree of meditation, bearing
+the flowers of eloquence, and in due time the fruit of valiant action."
+With which quaint fact (for fact it is, in spite of the bombast) I end
+the present chapter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+HOW THE NOBLE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE WAS FOUNDED
+
+     "It is virtue, yea virtue, gentlemen, that maketh gentlemen; that
+     maketh the poor rich, the base-born noble, the subject a sovereign,
+     the deformed beautiful, the sick whole, the weak strong, the most
+     miserable most happy.  There are two principal and peculiar gifts
+     in the nature of man, knowledge and reason; the one commandeth, and
+     the other obeyeth: these things neither the whirling wheel of
+     fortune can change, neither the deceitful cavillings of worldlings
+     separate, neither sickness abate, neither age abolish."--LILLY's
+     Euphues, 1586.
+
+It now falls to my lot to write of the foundation of that most
+chivalrous brotherhood of the Rose, which after a few years made itself
+not only famous in its native country of Devon, but formidable, as will
+be related hereafter, both in Ireland and in the Netherlands, in the
+Spanish Main and the heart of South America. And if this chapter shall
+seem to any Quixotic and fantastical, let them recollect that the
+generation who spoke and acted thus in matters of love and honor were,
+nevertheless, practised and valiant soldiers, and prudent and crafty
+politicians; that he who wrote the "Arcadia" was at the same time, in
+spite of his youth, one of the subtlest diplomatists of Europe; that
+the poet of the "Faerie Queene" was also the author of "The State
+of Ireland;" and if they shall quote against me with a sneer Lilly's
+"Euphues" itself, I shall only answer by asking--Have they ever read
+it? For if they have done so, I pity them if they have not found it, in
+spite of occasional tediousness and pedantry, as brave, righteous, and
+pious a book as man need look into: and wish for no better proof of
+the nobleness and virtue of the Elizabethan age, than the fact that
+"Euphues" and the "Arcadia" were the two popular romances of the day. It
+may have suited the purposes of Sir Walter Scott, in his cleverly drawn
+Sir Piercie Shafton, to ridicule the Euphuists, and that affectatam
+comitatem of the travelled English of which Languet complains; but over
+and above the anachronism of the whole character (for, to give but one
+instance, the Euphuist knight talks of Sidney's quarrel with Lord Oxford
+at least ten years before it happened), we do deny that Lilly's book
+could, if read by any man of common sense, produce such a coxcomb,
+whose spiritual ancestors would rather have been Gabriel Harvey and
+Lord Oxford,--if indeed the former has not maligned the latter, and
+ill-tempered Tom Nash maligned the maligner in his turn.
+
+But, indeed, there is a double anachronism in Sir Piercie; for he does
+not even belong to the days of Sidney, but to those worse times which
+began in the latter years of Elizabeth, and after breaking her mighty
+heart, had full license to bear their crop of fools' heads in the
+profligate days of James. Of them, perhaps, hereafter. And in the
+meanwhile, let those who have not read "Euphues" believe that, if they
+could train a son after the fashion of his Ephoebus, to the great
+saving of their own money and his virtue, all fathers, even in these
+money-making days, would rise up and call them blessed. Let us
+rather open our eyes, and see in these old Elizabeth gallants our own
+ancestors, showing forth with the luxuriant wildness of youth all the
+virtues which still go to the making of a true Englishman. Let us not
+only see in their commercial and military daring, in their political
+astuteness, in their deep reverence for law, and in their solemn sense
+of the great calling of the English nation, the antitypes or rather
+the examples of our own: but let us confess that their chivalry is only
+another garb of that beautiful tenderness and mercy which is now, as
+it was then, the twin sister of English valor; and even in their
+extravagant fondness for Continental manners and literature, let us
+recognize that old Anglo-Norman teachableness and wide-heartedness,
+which has enabled us to profit by the wisdom and civilization of all
+ages and of all lands, without prejudice to our own distinctive national
+character.
+
+And so I go to my story, which, if any one dislikes, he has but to turn
+the leaf till he finds pasturage which suits him better.
+
+Amyas could not sail the next day, or the day after; for the southwester
+freshened, and blew three parts of a gale dead into the bay. So having
+got the "Mary Grenville" down the river into Appledore pool, ready to
+start with the first shift of wind, he went quietly home; and when
+his mother started on a pillion behind the old serving-man to ride
+to Clovelly, where Frank lay wounded, he went in with her as far as
+Bideford, and there met, coming down the High Street, a procession of
+horsemen headed by Will Cary, who, clad cap-a-pie in a shining armor,
+sword on thigh, and helmet at saddle-bow, looked as gallant a young
+gentleman as ever Bideford dames peeped at from door and window. Behind
+him, upon country ponies, came four or five stout serving-men, carrying
+his lances and baggage, and their own long-bows, swords, and bucklers;
+and behind all, in a horse-litter, to Mrs. Leigh's great joy, Master
+Frank himself. He deposed that his wounds were only flesh-wounds, the
+dagger having turned against his ribs; that he must see the last of
+his brother; and that with her good leave he would not come home to
+Burrough, but take up his abode with Cary in the Ship Tavern, close to
+the Bridge-foot. This he did forthwith, and settling himself on a couch,
+held his levee there in state, mobbed by all the gossips of the town,
+not without white fibs as to who had brought him into that sorry plight.
+
+But in the meanwhile he and Amyas concocted a scheme, which was put
+into effect the next day (being market-day); first by the innkeeper, who
+began under Amyas's orders a bustle of roasting, boiling, and frying,
+unparalleled in the annals of the Ship Tavern; and next by Amyas
+himself, who, going out into the market, invited as many of his old
+schoolfellows, one by one apart, as Frank had pointed out to him, to a
+merry supper and a "rowse" thereon consequent; by which crafty scheme,
+in came each of Rose Salterne's gentle admirers, and found himself, to
+his considerable disgust, seated at the same table with six rivals, to
+none of whom had he spoken for the last six months. However, all were
+too well bred to let the Leighs discern as much; and they (though, of
+course, they knew all) settled their guests, Frank on his couch lying
+at the head of the table, and Amyas taking the bottom: and contrived, by
+filling all mouths with good things, to save them the pain of speaking
+to each other till the wine should have loosened their tongues and
+warmed their hearts. In the meanwhile both Amyas and Frank, ignoring the
+silence of their guests with the most provoking good-humor, chatted,
+and joked, and told stories, and made themselves such good company, that
+Will Cary, who always found merriment infectious, melted into a jest,
+and then into another, and finding good-humor far more pleasant than
+bad, tried to make Mr. Coffin laugh, and only made him bow, and to
+make Mr. Fortescue laugh, and only made him frown; and unabashed
+nevertheless, began playing his light artillery upon the waiters, till
+he drove them out of the room bursting with laughter.
+
+So far so good. And when the cloth was drawn, and sack and sugar became
+the order of the day, and "Queen and Bible" had been duly drunk with all
+the honors, Frank tried a fresh move, and--
+
+"I have a toast, gentlemen--here it is. 'The gentlemen of the Irish
+wars; and may Ireland never be without a St. Leger to stand by a
+Fortescue, a Fortescue to stand by a St. Leger, and a Chichester to
+stand by both.'"
+
+Which toast of course involved the drinking the healths of the three
+representatives of those families, and their returning thanks, and
+paying a compliment each to the other's house: and so the ice cracked a
+little further; and young Fortescue proposed the health of "Amyas Leigh
+and all bold mariners;" to which Amyas replied by a few blunt kindly
+words, "that he wished to know no better fortune than to sail round the
+world again with the present company as fellow-adventurers, and so give
+the Spaniards another taste of the men of Devon."
+
+And by this time, the wine going down sweetly, caused the lips of them
+that were asleep to speak; till the ice broke up altogether, and every
+man began talking like a rational Englishman to the man who sat next
+him.
+
+"And now, gentlemen," said Frank, who saw that it was the fit moment
+for the grand assault which he had planned all along; "let me give you
+a health which none of you, I dare say, will refuse to drink with heart
+and soul as well as with lips;--the health of one whom beauty and virtue
+have so ennobled, that in their light the shadow of lowly birth
+is unseen;--the health of one whom I would proclaim as peerless in
+loveliness, were it not that every gentleman here has sisters, who might
+well challenge from her the girdle of Venus: and yet what else dare
+I say, while those same lovely ladies who, if they but use their own
+mirrors, must needs be far better judges of beauty than I can be, have
+in my own hearing again and again assigned the palm to her? Surely, if
+the goddesses decide among themselves the question of the golden apple,
+Paris himself must vacate the judgment-seat. Gentlemen, your hearts, I
+doubt not, have already bid you, as my unworthy lips do now, to drink
+'The Rose of Torridge.'"
+
+If the Rose of Torridge herself had walked into the room, she could
+hardly have caused more blank astonishment than Frank's bold speech.
+Every guest turned red, and pale, and red again, and looked at the other
+as much as to say, "What right has any one but I to drink her? Lift
+your glass, and I will dash it out of your hand;" but Frank, with sweet
+effrontery, drank "The health of the Rose of Torridge, and a double
+health to that worthy gentleman, whosoever he may be, whom she is fated
+to honor with her love!"
+
+"Well done, cunning Frank Leigh!" cried blunt Will Cary; "none of us
+dare quarrel with you now, however much we may sulk at each other. For
+there's none of us, I'll warrant, but thinks that she likes him the best
+of all; and so we are bound to believe that you have drunk our healths
+all round."
+
+"And so I have: and what better thing can you do, gentlemen, than to
+drink each other's healths all round likewise: and so show yourselves
+true gentlemen, true Christians, ay, and true lovers? For what is love
+(let me speak freely to you, gentlemen and guests), what is love, but
+the very inspiration of that Deity whose name is Love? Be sure that not
+without reason did the ancients feign Eros to be the eldest of the gods,
+by whom the jarring elements of chaos were attuned into harmony and
+order. How, then, shall lovers make him the father of strife? Shall
+Psyche wed with Cupid, to bring forth a cockatrice's egg? or the soul be
+filled with love, the likeness of the immortals, to burn with envy and
+jealousy, division and distrust? True, the rose has its thorn: but it
+leaves poison and stings to the nettle. Cupid has his arrow: but he
+hurls no scorpions. Venus is awful when despised, as the daughters of
+Proetus found: but her handmaids are the Graces, not the Furies. Surely
+he who loves aright will not only find love lovely, but become himself
+lovely also. I speak not to reprehend you, gentlemen; for to you (as
+your piercing wits have already perceived, to judge by your honorable
+blushes) my discourse tends; but to point you, if you will but permit
+me, to that rock which I myself have, I know not by what Divine good
+hap, attained; if, indeed, I have attained it, and am not about to be
+washed off again by the next tide."
+
+Frank's rapid and fantastic oratory, utterly unexpected as it was, had
+as yet left their wits no time to set their tempers on fire; but when,
+weak from his wounds, he paused for breath, there was a haughty
+murmur from more than one young gentleman, who took his speech as
+an impertinent interference with each man's right to make a fool of
+himself; and Mr. Coffin, who had sat quietly bolt upright, and looking
+at the opposite wall, now rose as quietly, and with a face which tried
+to look utterly unconcerned, was walking out of the room: another
+minute, and Lady Bath's prophecy about the feast of the Lapithae might
+have come true.
+
+But Frank's heart and head never failed him.
+
+"Mr. Coffin!" said he, in a tone which compelled that gentleman to turn
+round, and so brought him under the power of a face which none could
+have beheld for five minutes and borne malice, so imploring, tender,
+earnest was it. "My dear Mr. Coffin! If my earnestness has made me
+forget even for a moment the bounds of courtesy, let me entreat you to
+forgive me. Do not add to my heavy griefs, heavy enough already, the
+grief of losing a friend. Only hear me patiently to the end (generously,
+I know, you will hear me); and then, if you are still incensed, I can
+but again entreat your forgiveness a second time."
+
+Mr. Coffin, to tell the truth, had at that time never been to Court; and
+he was therefore somewhat jealous of Frank, and his Court talk, and his
+Court clothes, and his Court company; and moreover, being the eldest
+of the guests, and only two years younger than Frank himself, he was a
+little nettled at being classed in the same category with some who were
+scarce eighteen. And if Frank had given the least hint which seemed
+to assume his own superiority, all had been lost: but when, instead
+thereof, he sued in forma pauperis, and threw himself upon Coffin's
+mercy, the latter, who was a true-hearted man enough, and after all had
+known Frank ever since either of them could walk, had nothing to do but
+to sit down again and submit, while Frank went on more earnestly than
+ever.
+
+"Believe me; believe me, Mr. Coffin, and gentlemen all, I no more
+arrogate to myself a superiority over you than does the sailor hurled
+on shore by the surge fancy himself better than his comrade who is still
+battling with the foam. For I too, gentlemen,--let me confess it, that
+by confiding in you I may, perhaps, win you to confide in me,--have
+loved, ay and do love, where you love also. Do not start. Is it a matter
+of wonder that the sun which has dazzled you has dazzled me; that
+the lodestone which has drawn you has drawn me? Do not frown, either,
+gentlemen. I have learnt to love you for loving what I love, and to
+admire you for admiring that which I admire. Will you not try the same
+lesson: so easy, and, when learnt, so blissful? What breeds more close
+communion between subjects than allegiance to the same queen? between
+brothers, than duty to the same father? between the devout, than
+adoration for the same Deity? And shall not worship for the same beauty
+be likewise a bond of love between the worshippers? and each lover see
+in his rival not an enemy, but a fellow-sufferer? You smile and say in
+your hearts, that though all may worship, but one can enjoy; and that
+one man's meat must be the poison of the rest. Be it so, though I deny
+it. Shall we anticipate our own doom, and slay ourselves for fear of
+dying? Shall we make ourselves unworthy of her from our very eagerness
+to win her, and show ourselves her faithful knights, by cherishing
+envy,--most unknightly of all sins? Shall we dream with the Italian
+or the Spaniard that we can become more amiable in a lady's eyes, by
+becoming hateful in the eyes of God and of each other? Will she love
+us the better, if we come to her with hands stained in the blood of
+him whom she loves better than us? Let us recollect ourselves rather,
+gentlemen; and be sure that our only chance of winning her, if she be
+worth winning, is to will what she wills, honor whom she honors, love
+whom she loves. If there is to be rivalry among us, let it be a rivalry
+in nobleness, an emulation in virtue. Let each try to outstrip the other
+in loyalty to his queen, in valor against her foes, in deeds of courtesy
+and mercy to the afflicted and oppressed; and thus our love will indeed
+prove its own divine origin, by raising us nearer to those gods whose
+gift it is. But yet I show you a more excellent way, and that is
+charity. Why should we not make this common love to her, whom I am
+unworthy to name, the sacrament of a common love to each other? Why
+should we not follow the heroical examples of those ancient knights, who
+having but one grief, one desire, one goddess, held that one heart was
+enough to contain that grief, to nourish that desire, to worship that
+divinity; and so uniting themselves in friendship till they became but
+one soul in two bodies, lived only for each other in living only for
+her, vowing as faithful worshippers to abide by her decision, to find
+their own bliss in hers, and whomsoever she esteemed most worthy of
+her love, to esteem most worthy also, and count themselves, by that her
+choice, the bounden servants of him whom their mistress had condescended
+to advance to the dignity of her master?--as I (not without hope that I
+shall be outdone in generous strife) do here promise to be the faithful
+friend, and, to my ability, the hearty servant, of him who shall be
+honored with the love of the Rose of Torridge."
+
+He ceased, and there was a pause.
+
+At last young Fortescue spoke.
+
+"I may be paying you a left-handed compliment, sir: but it seems to me
+that you are so likely, in that case, to become your own faithful friend
+and hearty servant (even if you have not borne off the bell already
+while we have been asleep), that the bargain is hardly fair between such
+a gay Italianist and us country swains."
+
+"You undervalue yourself and your country, my dear sir. But set your
+mind at rest. I know no more of that lady's mind than you do: nor shall
+I know. For the sake of my own peace, I have made a vow neither to see
+her, nor to hear, if possible, tidings of her, till three full years are
+past. Dixi?"
+
+Mr. Coffin rose.
+
+"Gentlemen, I may submit to be outdone by Mr. Leigh in eloquence, but
+not in generosity; if he leaves these parts for three years, I do so
+also."
+
+"And go in charity with all mankind," said Cary. "Give us your hand,
+old fellow. If you are a Coffin, you were sawn out of no wishy-washy
+elm-board, but right heart-of-oak. I am going, too, as Amyas here can
+tell, to Ireland away, to cool my hot liver in a bog, like a Jack-hare
+in March. Come, give us thy neif, and let us part in peace. I was minded
+to have fought thee this day--"
+
+"I should have been most happy, sir," said Coffin.
+
+--"But now I am all love and charity to mankind. Can I have the pleasure
+of begging pardon of the world in general, and thee in particular? Does
+any one wish to pull my nose; send me an errand; make me lend him five
+pounds; ay, make me buy a horse of him, which will be as good as giving
+him ten? Come along! Join hands all round, and swear eternal friendship,
+as brothers of the sacred order of the--of what. Frank Leigh? Open thy
+mouth, Daniel, and christen us!"
+
+"The Rose!" said Frank quietly, seeing that his new love-philtre was
+working well, and determined to strike while the iron was hot, and carry
+the matter too far to carry it back again.
+
+"The Rose!" cried Cary, catching hold of Coffin's hand with his right,
+and Fortescue's with his left. "Come, Mr. Coffin! Bend, sturdy oak! 'Woe
+to the stiffnecked and stout-hearted!' says Scripture."
+
+And somehow or other, whether it was Frank's chivalrous speech, or
+Cary's fun, or Amyas's good wine, or the nobleness which lies in every
+young lad's heart, if their elders will take the trouble to call it out,
+the whole party came in to terms one by one, shook hands all round, and
+vowed on the hilt of Amyas's sword to make fools of themselves no more,
+at least by jealousy: but to stand by each other and by their lady-love,
+and neither grudge nor grumble, let her dance with, flirt with, or marry
+with whom she would; and in order that the honor of their peerless dame,
+and the brotherhood which was named after her, might be spread through
+all lands, and equal that of Angelica or Isonde of Brittany, they would
+each go home, and ask their fathers' leave (easy enough to obtain in
+those brave times) to go abroad wheresoever there were "good wars," to
+emulate there the courage and the courtesy of Walter Manny and Gonzalo
+Fernandes, Bayard and Gaston de Foix. Why not? Sidney was the hero of
+Europe at five-and-twenty; and why not they?
+
+And Frank watched and listened with one of his quiet smiles (his eyes,
+as some folks' do, smiled even when his lips were still), and only said:
+"Gentlemen, be sure that you will never repent this day."
+
+"Repent?" said Cary. "I feel already as angelical as thou lookest, Saint
+Silvertongue. What was it that sneezed?--the cat?"
+
+"The lion, rather, by the roar of it," said Amyas, making a dash at the
+arras behind him. "Why, here is a doorway here! and--"
+
+And rushing under the arras, through an open door behind, he returned,
+dragging out by the head Mr. John Brimblecombe.
+
+Who was Mr. John Brimblecombe?
+
+If you have forgotten him, you have done pretty nearly what every one
+else in the room had done. But you recollect a certain fat lad, son of
+the schoolmaster, whom Sir Richard punished for tale-bearing three years
+before, by sending him, not to Coventry, but to Oxford. That was the
+man. He was now one-and-twenty, and a bachelor of Oxford, where he
+had learnt such things as were taught in those days, with more or less
+success; and he was now hanging about Bideford once more, intending to
+return after Christmas and read divinity, that he might become a parson,
+and a shepherd of souls in his native land.
+
+Jack was in person exceedingly like a pig: but not like every pig: not
+in the least like the Devon pigs of those days, which, I am sorry to
+say, were no more shapely than the true Irish greyhound who pays
+Pat's "rint" for him; or than the lanky monsters who wallow in German
+rivulets, while the village swineherd, beneath a shady lime, forgets his
+fleas in the melody of a Jew's harp--strange mud-colored creatures, four
+feet high and four inches thick, which look as if they had passed their
+lives, as a collar of Oxford brawn is said to do, between two tight
+boards. Such were then the pigs of Devon: not to be compared with the
+true wild descendant of Noah's stock, high-withered, furry, grizzled,
+game-flavored little rooklers, whereof many a sownder still grunted
+about Swinley down and Braunton woods, Clovelly glens and Bursdon moor.
+Not like these, nor like the tame abomination of those barbarous times,
+was Jack: but prophetic in face, figure, and complexion, of Fisher Hobbs
+and the triumphs of science. A Fisher Hobbs' pig of twelve stone, on
+his hind-legs--that was what he was, and nothing else; and if you do not
+know, reader, what a Fisher Hobbs is, you know nothing about pigs,
+and deserve no bacon for breakfast. But such was Jack. The same plump
+mulberry complexion, garnished with a few scattered black bristles; the
+same sleek skin, looking always as if it was upon the point of bursting;
+the same little toddling legs; the same dapper bend in the small of the
+back; the same cracked squeak; the same low upright forehead, and tiny
+eyes; the same round self-satisfied jowl; the same charming sensitive
+little cocked nose, always on the look-out for a savory smell,--and
+yet while watching for the best, contented with the worst; a pig of
+self-helpful and serene spirit, as Jack was, and therefore, like him,
+fatting fast while other pigs' ribs are staring through their skins.
+
+Such was Jack; and lucky it was for him that such he was; for it was
+little that he got to fat him at Oxford, in days when a servitor meant
+really a servant-student; and wistfully that day did his eyes, led by
+his nose, survey at the end of the Ship Inn passage the preparations
+for Amyas's supper. The innkeeper was a friend of his; for, in the first
+place, they had lived within three doors of each other all their lives;
+and next, Jack was quite pleasant company enough, beside being a
+learned man and an Oxford scholar, to be asked in now and then to the
+innkeeper's private parlor, when there were no gentlemen there, to
+crack his little joke and tell his little story, sip the leavings of the
+guests' sack, and sometimes help the host to eat the leavings of their
+supper. And it was, perhaps, with some such hope that Jack trotted off
+round the corner to the Ship that very afternoon; for that faithful
+little nose of his, as it sniffed out of a back window of the school,
+had given him warning of Sabean gales, and scents of Paradise, from the
+inn kitchen below; so he went round, and asked for his pot of small ale
+(his only luxury), and stood at the bar to drink it; and looked inward
+with his little twinkling right eye, and sniffed inward with his little
+curling right nostril, and beheld, in the kitchen beyond, salad in
+stacks and fagots: salad of lettuce, salad of cress and endive, salad of
+boiled coleworts, salad of pickled coleworts, salad of angelica, salad
+of scurvy-wort, and seven salads more; for potatoes were not as yet, and
+salads were during eight months of the year the only vegetable. And on
+the dresser, and before the fire, whole hecatombs of fragrant victims,
+which needed neither frankincense nor myrrh; Clovelly herrings and
+Torridge salmon, Exmoor mutton and Stow venison, stubble geese and
+woodcocks, curlew and snipe, hams of Hampshire, chitterlings of Taunton,
+and botargos of Cadiz, such as Pantagruel himself might have devoured.
+And Jack eyed them, as a ragged boy eyes the cakes in a pastrycook's
+window; and thought of the scraps from the commoners' dinner, which were
+his wages for cleaning out the hall; and meditated deeply on the unequal
+distribution of human bliss.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Brimblecombe!" said the host, bustling out with knife and apron
+to cool himself in the passage. "Here are doings! Nine gentlemen to
+supper!"
+
+"Nine! Are they going to eat all that?"
+
+"Well, I can't say--that Mr. Amyas is as good as three to his trencher:
+but still there's crumbs, Mr. Brimblecombe, crumbs; and waste not
+want not is my doctrine; so you and I may have a somewhat to stay our
+stomachs, about an eight o'clock."
+
+"Eight?" said Jack, looking wistfully at the clock. "It's but four now.
+Well, it's kind of you, and perhaps I'll look in."
+
+"Just you step in now, and look to this venison. There's a breast! you
+may lay your two fingers into the say there, and not get to the bottom
+of the fat. That's Sir Richard's sending. He's all for them Leighs, and
+no wonder, they'm brave lads, surely; and there's a saddle-o'-mutton! I
+rode twenty miles for mun yesterday, I did, over beyond Barnstaple; and
+five year old, Mr. John, it is, if ever five years was; and not a tooth
+to mun's head, for I looked to that; and smelt all the way home like any
+apple; and if it don't ate so soft as ever was scald cream, never you
+call me Thomas Burman."
+
+"Humph!" said Jack. "And that's their dinner. Well, some are born with a
+silver spoon in their mouth."
+
+"Some be born with roast beef in their mouths, and plum-pudding in
+their pocket to take away the taste o' mun; and that's better than empty
+spunes, eh?"
+
+"For them that get it," said Jack. "But for them that don't--" And with
+a sigh he returned to his small ale, and then lingered in and out of the
+inn, watching the dinner as it went into the best room, where the guests
+were assembled.
+
+And as he lounged there, Amyas went in, and saw him, and held out his
+hand, and said--
+
+"Hillo, Jack! how goes the world? How you've grown!" and passed
+on;--what had Jack Brimblecombe to do with Rose Salterne?
+
+So Jack lingered on, hovering around the fragrant smell like a fly round
+a honey-pot, till he found himself invisibly attracted, and as it were
+led by the nose out of the passage into the adjoining room, and to that
+side of the room where there was a door; and once there he could not
+help hearing what passed inside; till Rose Salterne's name fell on his
+ear. So, as it was ordained, he was taken in the fact. And now behold
+him brought in red-hand to judgment, not without a kick or two from
+the wrathful foot of Amyas Leigh. Whereat there fell on him a storm of
+abuse, which, for the honor of that gallant company, I shall not give in
+detail; but which abuse, strange to say, seemed to have no effect on the
+impenitent and unabashed Jack, who, as soon as he could get his breath,
+made answer fiercely, amid much puffing and blowing.
+
+"What business have I here? As much as any of you. If you had asked me
+in, I would have come: but as you didn't, I came without asking."
+
+"You shameless rascal!" said Cary. "Come if you were asked, where there
+was good wine? I'll warrant you for that!"
+
+"Why," said Amyas, "no lad ever had a cake at school but he would
+dog him up one street and down another all day for the crumbs, the
+trencher-scraping spaniel!"
+
+"Patience, masters!" said Frank. "That Jack's is somewhat of a gnathonic
+and parasitic soul, or stomach, all Bideford apple-women know; but I
+suspect more than Deus Venter has brought him hither."
+
+"Deus eavesdropping, then. We shall have the whole story over the town
+by to-morrow," said another; beginning at that thought to feel somewhat
+ashamed of his late enthusiasm.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Frank! You were always the only one that would stand up for me!
+Deus Venter, quotha? 'Twas Deus Cupid, it was!"
+
+A roar of laughter followed this announcement.
+
+"What?" asked Frank; "was it Cupid, then, who sneezed approval to our
+love, Jack, as he did to that of Dido and Aeneas?"
+
+But Jack went on desperately.
+
+"I was in the next room, drinking of my beer. I couldn't help that,
+could I? And then I heard her name; and I couldn't help listening then.
+Flesh and blood couldn't."
+
+"Nor fat either!"
+
+"No, nor fat, Mr. Cary. Do you suppose fat men haven't souls to be saved
+as well as thin ones, and hearts to burst, too, as well as stomachs?
+Fat! Fat can feel, I reckon, as well as lean. Do you suppose there's
+naught inside here but beer?"
+
+And he laid his hand, as Drayton might have said, on that stout bastion,
+hornwork, ravelin, or demilune, which formed the outworks to the citadel
+of his purple isle of man.
+
+"Naught but beer?--Cheese, I suppose?"
+
+"Bread?"
+
+"Beef?"
+
+"Love!" cried Jack. "Yes, Love!--Ay, you laugh; but my eyes are not so
+grown up with fat but what I can see what's fair as well as you."
+
+"Oh, Jack, naughty Jack, dost thou heap sin on sin, and luxury on
+gluttony?"
+
+"Sin? If I sin, you sin: I tell you, and I don't care who knows it, I've
+loved her these three years as well as e'er a one of you, I have. I've
+thought o' nothing else, prayed for nothing else, God forgive me! And
+then you laugh at me, because I'm a poor parson's son, and you fine
+gentlemen: God made us both, I reckon. You?--you make a deal of giving
+her up to-day. Why, it's what I've done for three miserable years as
+ever poor sinner spent; ay, from the first day I said to myself, 'Jack,
+if you can't have that pearl, you'll have none; and that you can't
+have, for it's meat for your masters: so conquer or die.' And I couldn't
+conquer. I can't help loving her, worshipping her, no more than you; and
+I will die: but you needn't laugh meanwhile at me that have done as much
+as you, and will do again."
+
+"It is the old tale," said Frank to himself; "whom will not love
+transform into a hero?"
+
+And so it was. Jack's squeaking voice was firm and manly, his pig's
+eyes flashed very fire, his gestures were so free and earnest, that the
+ungainliness of his figure was forgotten; and when he finished with
+a violent burst of tears, Frank, forgetting his wounds, sprang up and
+caught him by the hand.
+
+"John Brimblecombe, forgive me! Gentlemen, if we are gentlemen, we
+ought to ask his pardon. Has he not shown already more chivalry, more
+self-denial, and therefore more true love, than any of us? My friends,
+let the fierceness of affection, which we have used as an excuse for
+many a sin of our own, excuse his listening to a conversation in which
+he well deserved to bear a part."
+
+"Ah," said Jack, "you make me one of your brotherhood; and see if I do
+not dare to suffer as much as any of you! You laugh? Do you fancy none
+can use a sword unless he has a baker's dozen of quarterings in his
+arms, or that Oxford scholars know only how to handle a pen?"
+
+"Let us try his metal," said St. Leger. "Here's my sword, Jack; draw,
+Coffin! and have at him."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Coffin, looking somewhat disgusted at the notion of
+fighting a man of Jack's rank; but Jack caught at the weapon offered to
+him.
+
+"Give me a buckler, and have at any of you!"
+
+"Here's a chair bottom," cried Cary; and Jack, seizing it in his left,
+flourished his sword so fiercely, and called so loudly to Coffin to come
+on, that all present found it necessary, unless they wished blood to be
+spilt, to turn the matter off with a laugh: but Jack would not hear of
+it.
+
+"Nay: if you will let me be of your brotherhood, well and good: but if
+not, one or other I will fight: and that's flat."
+
+"You see, gentlemen," said Amyas, "we must admit him or die the death;
+so we needs must go when Sir Urian drives. Come up, Jack, and take the
+oaths. You admit him, gentlemen?"
+
+"Let me but be your chaplain," said Jack, "and pray for your luck when
+you're at the wars. If I do stay at home in a country curacy, 'tis not
+much that you need be jealous of me with her, I reckon," said Jack, with
+a pathetical glance at his own stomach.
+
+"Sia!" said Cary: "but if he be admitted, it must be done according to
+the solemn forms and ceremonies in such cases provided. Take him into
+the next room, Amyas, and prepare him for his initiation."
+
+"What's that?" asked Amyas, puzzled by the word. But judging from the
+corner of Will's eye that initiation was Latin for a practical joke,
+he led forth his victim behind the arras again, and waited five minutes
+while the room was being darkened, till Frank's voice called to him to
+bring in the neophyte.
+
+"John Brimblecombe," said Frank, in a sepulchral tone, "you cannot be
+ignorant, as a scholar and bachelor of Oxford, of that dread sacrament
+by which Catiline bound the soul of his fellow-conspirators, in order
+that both by the daring of the deed he might have proof of their
+sincerity, and by the horror thereof astringe their souls by adamantine
+fetters, and Novem-Stygian oaths, to that wherefrom hereafter the
+weakness of the flesh might shrink. Wherefore, O Jack! we too have
+determined, following that ancient and classical example, to fill, as he
+did, a bowl with the lifeblood of our most heroic selves, and to pledge
+each other therein, with vows whereat the stars shall tremble in their
+spheres, and Luna, blushing, veil her silver cheeks. Your blood alone is
+wanted to fill up the goblet. Sit down, John Brimblecombe, and bare your
+arm!"
+
+"But, Mr. Frank!--" said Jack, who was as superstitious as any old
+wife, and, what with the darkness and the discourse, already in a cold
+perspiration.
+
+"But me no buts! or depart as recreant, not by the door like a man, but
+up the chimney like a flittermouse."
+
+"But, Mr. Frank!"
+
+"Thy vital juice, or the chimney! Choose!" roared Cary in his ear.
+
+"Well, if I must," said Jack; "but it's desperate hard that because you
+can't keep faith without these barbarous oaths, I must take them too,
+that have kept faith these three years without any."
+
+At this pathetic appeal Frank nearly melted: but Amyas and Cary had
+thrust the victim into a chair and all was prepared for the sacrifice.
+
+"Bind his eyes, according to the classic fashion," said Will.
+
+"Oh no, dear Mr. Cary; I'll shut them tight enough, I warrant: but not
+with your dagger, dear Mr. William--sure, not with your dagger? I can't
+afford to lose blood, though I do look lusty--I can't indeed; sure, a
+pin would do--I've got one here, to my sleeve, somewhere--Oh!"
+
+"See the fount of generous juice! Flow on, fair stream. How he
+bleeds!--pints, quarts! Ah, this proves him to be in earnest!"
+
+"A true lover's blood is always at his fingers' ends."
+
+"He does not grudge it; of course not. Eh, Jack? What matters an odd
+gallon for her sake?"
+
+"For her sake? Nothing, nothing! Take my life, if you will: but--oh,
+gentlemen, a surgeon, if you love me! I'm going off--I 'm fainting!"
+
+"Drink, then, quick; drink and swear! Pat his back, Cary. Courage, man!
+it will be over in a minute. Now, Frank!--"
+
+And Frank spoke--
+
+
+"If plighted troth I fail, or secret speech reveal, May Cocytean ghosts
+around my pillow squeal; While Ate's brazen claws distringe my spleen
+in sunder, And drag me deep to Pluto's keep, 'mid brimstone, smoke, and
+thunder!"
+
+
+"Placetne, domine?"
+
+"Placet!" squeaked Jack, who thought himself at the last gasp, and
+gulped down full three-quarters of the goblet which Cary held to his
+lips.
+
+"Ugh--Ah--Puh! Mercy on us! It tastes mighty like wine!"
+
+"A proof, my virtuous brother," said Frank, "first, of thy
+abstemiousness, which has thus forgotten what wine tastes like; and
+next, of thy pure and heroical affection, by which thy carnal senses
+being exalted to a higher and supra-lunar sphere, like those Platonical
+daemonizomenoi and enthusiazomenoi (of whom Jamblichus says that they
+were insensible to wounds and flame, and much more, therefore, to evil
+savors), doth make even the most nauseous draught redolent of that
+celestial fragrance, which proceeding, O Jack! from thine own inward
+virtue, assimilates by sympathy even outward accidents unto its own
+harmony and melody; for fragrance is, as has been said well, the song
+of flowers, and sweetness, the music of apples--Ahem! Go in peace, thou
+hast conquered!"
+
+"Put him out of the door, Will," said Amyas, "or he will swoon on our
+hands."
+
+"Give him some sack," said Frank.
+
+"Not a blessed drop of yours, sir," said Jack. "I like good wine as well
+as any man on earth, and see as little of it; but not a drop of
+yours, sirs, after your frumps and flouts about hanging-on and
+trencher-scraping. When I first began to love her, I bid good-bye to all
+dirty tricks; for I had some one then for whom to keep myself clean."
+
+And so Jack was sent home, with a pint of good red Alicant wine in him
+(more, poor fellow, than he had tasted at once in his life before);
+while the rest, in high glee with themselves and the rest of the world,
+relighted the candles, had a right merry evening, and parted like good
+friends and sensible gentlemen of devon, thinking (all except Frank)
+Jack Brimblecombe and his vow the merriest jest they had heard for
+many a day. After which they all departed: Amyas and Cary to Winter's
+squadron; Frank (as soon as he could travel) to the Court again;
+and with him young Basset, whose father Sir Arthur, being in London,
+procured for him a page's place in Leicester's household. Fortescue and
+Chicester went to their brothers in Dublin; St. Leger to his uncle
+the Marshal of Munster; Coffin joined Champernoun and Norris in the
+Netherlands; and so the Brotherhood of the Rose was scattered far and
+wide, and Mistress Salterne was left alone with her looking-glass.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+HOW AMYAS KEPT HIS CHRISTMAS DAY
+
+     "Take aim, you noble musqueteers,
+     And shoot you round about;
+     Stand to it, valiant pikemen,
+     And we shall keep them out.
+     There's not a man of all of us
+     A foot will backward flee;
+     I'll be the foremost man in fight,
+     Says brave Lord Willoughby!"
+
+                   Elizabethan Ballad.
+
+It was the blessed Christmas afternoon. The light was fading down; the
+even-song was done; and the good folks of Bideford were trooping home
+in merry groups, the father with his children, the lover with his
+sweetheart, to cakes and ale, and flapdragons and mummer's plays, and
+all the happy sports of Christmas night. One lady only, wrapped close in
+her black muffler and followed by her maid, walked swiftly, yet sadly,
+toward the long causeway and bridge which led to Northam town.
+Sir Richard Grenville and his wife caught her up and stopped her
+courteously.
+
+"You will come home with us, Mrs. Leigh," said Lady Grenville, "and
+spend a pleasant Christmas night?"
+
+Mrs. Leigh smiled sweetly, and laying one hand on Lady Grenville's arm,
+pointed with the other to the westward, and said:
+
+"I cannot well spend a merry Christmas night while that sound is in my
+ears."
+
+The whole party around looked in the direction in which she pointed.
+Above their heads the soft blue sky was fading into gray, and here and
+there a misty star peeped out: but to the westward, where the downs and
+woods of Raleigh closed in with those of Abbotsham, the blue was webbed
+and turfed with delicate white flakes; iridescent spots, marking the
+path by which the sun had sunk, showed all the colors of the dying
+dolphin; and low on the horizon lay a long band of grassy green. But
+what was the sound which troubled Mrs. Leigh? None of them, with their
+merry hearts, and ears dulled with the din and bustle of the town, had
+heard it till that moment: and yet now--listen! It was dead calm. There
+was not a breath to stir a blade of grass. And yet the air was full of
+sound, a low deep roar which hovered over down and wood, salt-marsh and
+river, like the roll of a thousand wheels, the tramp of endless armies,
+or--what it was--the thunder of a mighty surge upon the boulders of the
+pebble ridge.
+
+"The ridge is noisy to-night," said Sir Richard. "There has been wind
+somewhere."
+
+"There is wind now, where my boy is, God help him!" said Mrs. Leigh: and
+all knew that she spoke truly. The spirit of the Atlantic storm had sent
+forward the token of his coming, in the smooth ground-swell which was
+heard inland, two miles away. To-morrow the pebbles, which were now
+rattling down with each retreating wave, might be leaping to the ridge
+top, and hurled like round-shot far ashore upon the marsh by the
+force of the advancing wave, fleeing before the wrath of the western
+hurricane.
+
+"God help my boy!" said Mrs. Leigh again.
+
+"God is as near him by sea as by land," said good Sir Richard.
+
+"True, but I am a lone mother; and one that has no heart just now but to
+go home and pray."
+
+And so Mrs. Leigh went onward up the lane, and spent all that night in
+listening between her prayers to the thunder of the surge, till it was
+drowned, long ere the sun rose, in the thunder of the storm.
+
+And where is Amyas on this same Christmas afternoon?
+
+Amyas is sitting bareheaded in a boat's stern in Smerwick bay, with the
+spray whistling through his curls, as he shouts cheerfully--
+
+"Pull, and with a will, my merry men all, and never mind shipping a sea.
+Cannon balls are a cargo that don't spoil by taking salt-water."
+
+His mother's presage has been true enough. Christmas eve has been the
+last of the still, dark, steaming nights of the early winter; and the
+western gale has been roaring for the last twelve hours upon the Irish
+coast.
+
+The short light of the winter day is fading fast. Behind him is a
+leaping line of billows lashed into mist by the tempest. Beside him
+green foam-fringed columns are rushing up the black rocks, and falling
+again in a thousand cataracts of snow. Before him is the deep and
+sheltered bay: but it is not far up the bay that he and his can see; for
+some four miles out at sea begins a sloping roof of thick gray cloud,
+which stretches over their heads, and up and far away inland, cutting
+the cliffs off at mid-height, hiding all the Kerry mountains, and
+darkening the hollows of the distant firths into the blackness of night.
+And underneath that awful roof of whirling mist the storm is howling
+inland ever, sweeping before it the great foam-sponges, and the gray
+salt spray, till all the land is hazy, dim, and dun. Let it howl on! for
+there is more mist than ever salt spray made, flying before that gale;
+more thunder than ever sea-surge wakened echoing among the cliffs of
+Smerwick bay; along those sand-hills flash in the evening gloom red
+sparks which never came from heaven; for that fort, now christened by
+the invaders the Fort Del Oro, where flaunts the hated golden flag of
+Spain, holds San Josepho and eight hundred of the foe; and but three
+nights ago, Amyas and Yeo, and the rest of Winter's shrewdest hands,
+slung four culverins out of the Admiral's main deck, and floated them
+ashore, and dragged them up to the battery among the sand-hills; and now
+it shall be seen whether Spanish and Italian condottieri can hold their
+own on British ground against the men of Devon.
+
+Small blame to Amyas if he was thinking, not of his lonely mother at
+Burrough Court, but of those quick bright flashes on sand-hill and
+on fort, where Salvation Yeo was hurling the eighteen-pound shot with
+deadly aim, and watching with a cool and bitter smile of triumph the
+flying of the sand, and the crashing of the gabions. Amyas and his party
+had been on board, at the risk of their lives, for a fresh supply of
+shot; for Winter's battery was out of ball, and had been firing stones
+for the last four hours, in default of better missiles. They ran the
+boat on shore through the surf, where a cove in the shore made landing
+possible, and almost careless whether she stove or not, scrambled
+over the sand-hills with each man his brace of shot slung across his
+shoulder; and Amyas, leaping into the trenches, shouted cheerfully to
+Salvation Yeo--
+
+"More food for the bull-dogs, Gunner, and plums for the Spaniards'
+Christmas pudding!"
+
+"Don't speak to a man at his business, Master Amyas. Five mortal times
+have I missed; but I will have that accursed Popish rag down, as I'm a
+sinner."
+
+"Down with it, then; nobody wants you to shoot crooked. Take good iron
+to it, and not footy paving-stones."
+
+"I believe, sir, that the foul fiend is there, a turning of my shot
+aside, I do. I thought I saw him once: but, thank Heaven, here's ball
+again. Ah, sir, if one could but cast a silver one! Now, stand by, men!"
+
+And once again Yeo's eighteen-pounder roared, and away. And, oh glory!
+the great yellow flag of Spain, which streamed in the gale, lifted
+clean into the air, flagstaff and all, and then pitched wildly down
+head-foremost, far to leeward.
+
+A hurrah from the sailors, answered by the soldiers of the opposite
+camp, shook the very cloud above them: but ere its echoes had died away,
+a tall officer leapt upon the parapet of the fort, with the fallen flag
+in his hand, and rearing it as well as he could upon his lance point,
+held it firmly against the gale, while the fallen flagstaff was raised
+again within.
+
+In a moment a dozen long bows were bent at the daring foeman: but Amyas
+behind shouted--
+
+"Shame, lads! Stop and let the gallant gentleman have due courtesy!"
+
+So they stopped, while Amyas, springing on the rampart of the battery,
+took off his hat, and bowed to the flag-holder, who, as soon as relieved
+of his charge, returned the bow courteously, and descended.
+
+It was by this time all but dark, and the firing began to slacken on
+all sides; Salvation and his brother gunners, having covered up their
+slaughtering tackle with tarpaulings, retired for the night, leaving
+Amyas, who had volunteered to take the watch till midnight; and the rest
+of the force having got their scanty supper of biscuit (for provisions
+were running very short) lay down under arms among the sand-hills, and
+grumbled themselves to sleep.
+
+He had paced up and down in the gusty darkness for some hour or more,
+exchanging a passing word now and then with the sentinel, when two
+men entered the battery, chatting busily together. One was in complete
+armor; the other wrapped in the plain short cloak of a man of pens
+and peace: but the talk of both was neither of sieges nor of sallies,
+catapult, bombard, nor culverin, but simply of English hexameters.
+
+And fancy not, gentle reader, that the two were therein fiddling while
+Rome was burning; for the commonweal of poetry and letters, in that same
+critical year 1580, was in far greater danger from those same hexameters
+than the common woe of Ireland (as Raleigh called it) was from the
+Spaniards.
+
+Imitating the classic metres, "versifying," as it was called in
+contradistinction to rhyming, was becoming fast the fashion among the
+more learned. Stonyhurst and others had tried their hands at hexameter
+translations from the Latin and Greek epics, which seem to have been
+doggerel enough; and ever and anon some youthful wit broke out in
+iambics, sapphics, elegiacs, and what not, to the great detriment of the
+queen's English and her subjects' ears.
+
+I know not whether Mr. William Webbe had yet given to the world any
+fragments of his precious hints for the "Reformation of English poetry,"
+to the tune of his own "Tityrus, happily thou liest tumbling under a
+beech-tree:" but the Cambridge Malvolio, Gabriel Harvey, had succeeded
+in arguing Spenser, Dyer, Sidney, and probably Sidney's sister, and the
+whole clique of beaux-esprits round them, into following his model of
+
+     "What might I call this tree?  A laurel?  O bonny laurel!
+     Needes to thy bowes will I bowe this knee, and vail my bonetto;"
+
+after snubbing the first book of "that Elvish Queene," which was then
+in manuscript, as a base declension from the classical to the romantic
+school.
+
+And now Spenser (perhaps in mere melancholy wilfulness and want of
+purpose, for he had just been jilted by a fair maid of Kent) was wasting
+his mighty genius upon doggerel which he fancied antique; and some
+piratical publisher (bitter Tom Nash swears, and with likelihood that
+Harvey did it himself) had just given to the world,--"Three proper
+wittie and familiar Letters, lately past between two University
+men, touching the Earthquake in April last, and our English reformed
+Versifying," which had set all town wits a-buzzing like a swarm of
+flies, being none other than a correspondence between Spenser and
+Harvey, which was to prove to the world forever the correctness and
+melody of such lines as,
+
+     "For like magnificoes, not a beck but glorious in show,
+     In deede most frivolous, not a looke but Tuscanish always."
+
+Let them pass--Alma Mater has seen as bad hexameters since. But then the
+matter was serious. There is a story (I know not how true) that Spenser
+was half bullied into re-writing the "Faerie Queene" in hexameters, had
+not Raleigh, a true romanticist, "whose vein for ditty or amorous ode
+was most lofty, insolent, and passionate," persuaded him to follow
+his better genius. The great dramatists had not yet arisen, to form
+completely that truly English school, of which Spenser, unconscious of
+his own vast powers, was laying the foundation. And, indeed, it was not
+till Daniel, twenty years after, in his admirable apology for rhyme, had
+smashed Mr. Campian and his "eight several kinds of classical numbers,"
+that the matter was finally settled, and the English tongue left to go
+the road on which Heaven had started it. So that we may excuse Raleigh's
+answering somewhat waspish to some quotation of Spenser's from the three
+letters of "Immerito and G. H."
+
+"Tut, tut, Colin Clout, much learning has made thee mad. A good old
+fishwives' ballad jingle is worth all your sapphics and trimeters, and
+'riff-raff thurlery bouncing.' Hey? have I you there, old lad? Do you
+mind that precious verse?"
+
+"But, dear Wat, Homer and Virgil--"
+
+"But, dear Ned, Petrarch and Ovid--"
+
+"But, Wat, what have we that we do not owe to the ancients?"
+
+"Ancients, quotha? Why, the legend of King Arthur, and Chevy Chase too,
+of which even your fellow-sinner Sidney cannot deny that every time
+he hears it even from a blind fiddler it stirs his heart like a
+trumpet-blast. Speak well of the bridge that carries you over, man! Did
+you find your Redcross Knight in Virgil, or such a dame as Una in old
+Ovid? No more than you did your Pater and Credo, you renegado baptized
+heathen, you!"
+
+"Yet, surely, our younger and more barbarous taste must bow before
+divine antiquity, and imitate afar--"
+
+"As dottrels do fowlers. If Homer was blind, lad, why dost not poke
+out thine eye? Ay, this hexameter is of an ancient house, truly, Ned
+Spenser, and so is many a rogue: but he cannot make way on our rough
+English roads. He goes hopping and twitching in our language like a
+three-legged terrier over a pebble-bank, tumble and up again, rattle and
+crash."
+
+"Nay, hear, now--
+
+     'See ye the blindfolded pretty god that feathered archer,
+        Of lovers' miseries which maketh his bloody game?'*
+
+True, the accent gapes in places, as I have often confessed to Harvey,
+but--"
+
+     * Strange as it may seem, this distich is Spenser's own; and
+     the other hexameters are all authentic.
+
+Harvey be hanged for a pedant, and the whole crew of versifiers, from
+Lord Dorset (but he, poor man, has been past hanging some time since)
+to yourself! Why delude you into playing Procrustes as he does with the
+queen's English, racking one word till its joints be pulled asunder, and
+squeezing the next all a-heap as the Inquisitors do heretics in their
+banca cava? Out upon him and you, and Sidney, and the whole kin. You
+have not made a verse among you, and never will, which is not as lame a
+gosling as Harvey's own--
+
+     'Oh thou weathercocke, that stands on the top of Allhallows,
+     Come thy ways down, if thou dar'st for thy crown, and take the wall
+     on us.'
+
+"Hark, now! There is our young giant comforting his soul with a ballad.
+You will hear rhyme and reason together here, now. He will not miscall
+'blind-folded,' 'blind-fold-ed, I warrant; or make an 'of' and a 'which'
+and a 'his' carry a whole verse on their wretched little backs."
+
+And as he spoke, Amyas, who had been grumbling to himself some Christmas
+carol, broke out full-mouthed:--
+
+     "As Joseph was a-walking
+     He heard an angel sing--
+     'This night shall be the birth night
+     Of Christ, our heavenly King.
+
+     His birthbed shall be neither
+     In housen nor in hall,
+     Nor in the place of paradise,
+     But in the oxen's stall.
+
+     He neither shall be rocked
+     In silver nor in gold,
+     But in the wooden manger
+     That lieth on the mould.
+
+     He neither shall be washen
+     With white wine nor with red,
+     But with the fair spring water
+     That on you shall be shed.
+
+     He neither shall be clothed
+     In purple nor in pall,
+     But in the fair white linen
+     That usen babies all.'
+
+     As Joseph was a-walking
+     Thus did the angel sing,
+     And Mary's Son at midnight
+     Was born to be our King.
+
+     Then be you glad, good people,
+     At this time of the year;
+     And light you up your candles,
+     For His star it shineth clear."
+
+"There, Edmunde Classicaster," said Raleigh, "does not that simple
+strain go nearer to the heart of him who wrote 'The Shepherd's
+Calendar,' than all artificial and outlandish
+
+     'Wote ye why his mother with a veil hath covered his face?'
+
+Why dost not answer, man?"
+
+But Spenser was silent awhile, and then,--
+
+"Because I was thinking rather of the rhymer than the rhyme. Good
+heaven! how that brave lad shames me, singing here the hymns which his
+mother taught him, before the very muzzles of Spanish guns; instead of
+bewailing unmanly, as I have done, the love which he held, I doubt not,
+as dear as I did even my Rosalind. This is his welcome to the winter's
+storm; while I, who dream, forsooth, of heavenly inspiration, can but
+see therein an image of mine own cowardly despair.
+
+     'Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath has wasted,
+     Art made a mirror to behold my plight.'*
+
+Pah! away with frosts, icicles, and tears, and sighs--"
+
+     * "The Shepherd's Calendar."
+
+"And with hexameters and trimeters too, I hope," interrupted Raleigh:
+"and all the trickeries of self-pleasing sorrow."
+
+"--I will set my heart to higher work than barking at the hand which
+chastens me."
+
+"Wilt put the lad into the 'Faerie Queene,' then, by my side? He
+deserves as good a place there, believe me, as ever a Guyon, or even as
+Lord Grey your Arthegall. Let us hail him. Hallo! young chanticleer of
+Devon! Art not afraid of a chance shot, that thou crowest so lustily
+upon thine own mixen?"
+
+"Cocks crow all night long at Christmas, Captain Raleigh, and so do I,"
+said Amyas's cheerful voice; "but who's there with you?"
+
+"A penitent pupil of yours--Mr. Secretary Spenser."
+
+"Pupil of mine?" said Amyas. "I wish he'd teach me a little of his art;
+I could fill up my time here with making verses."
+
+"And who would be your theme, fair sir?" said Spenser.
+
+"No 'who' at all. I don't want to make sonnets to blue eyes, nor black
+either: but if I could put down some of the things I saw in the Spice
+Islands--"
+
+"Ah," said Raleigh, "he would beat you out of Parnassus, Mr. Secretary.
+Remember, you may write about Fairyland, but he has seen it."
+
+"And so have others," said Spenser; "it is not so far off from any one
+of us. Wherever is love and loyalty, great purposes, and lofty souls,
+even though in a hovel or a mine, there is Fairyland."
+
+"Then Fairyland should be here, friend; for you represent love, and
+Leigh loyalty; while, as for great purposes and lofty souls, who so fit
+to stand for them as I, being (unless my enemies and my conscience are
+liars both) as ambitious and as proud as Lucifer's own self?"
+
+"Ah, Walter, Walter, why wilt always slander thyself thus?"
+
+"Slander? Tut.--I do but give the world a fair challenge, and tell it,
+'There--you know the worst of me: come on and try a fall, for either
+you or I must down.' Slander? Ask Leigh here, who has but known me a
+fortnight, whether I am not as vain as a peacock, as selfish as a fox,
+as imperious as a bona roba, and ready to make a cat's paw of him or any
+man, if there be a chestnut in the fire: and yet the poor fool cannot
+help loving me, and running of my errands, and taking all my schemes and
+my dreams for gospel; and verily believes now, I think, that I shall be
+the man in the moon some day, and he my big dog."
+
+"Well," said Amyas, half apologetically, "if you are the cleverest man
+in the world what harm in my thinking so?"
+
+"Hearken to him, Edmund! He will know better when he has outgrown this
+same callow trick of honesty, and learnt of the great goddess Detraction
+how to show himself wiser than the wise, by pointing out to the world
+the fool's motley which peeps through the rents in the philosopher's
+cloak. Go to, lad! slander thy equals, envy thy betters, pray for an eye
+which sees spots in every sun, and for a vulture's nose to scent
+carrion in every rose-bed. If thy friend win a battle, show that he has
+needlessly thrown away his men; if he lose one, hint that he sold it;
+if he rise to a place, argue favor; if he fall from one, argue divine
+justice. Believe nothing, hope nothing, but endure all things, even to
+kicking, if aught may be got thereby; so shalt thou be clothed in purple
+and fine linen, and sit in kings' palaces, and fare sumptuously every
+day."
+
+"And wake with Dives in the torment," said Amyas. "Thank you for
+nothing, captain."
+
+"Go to, Misanthropos," said Spenser. "Thou hast not yet tasted the
+sweets of this world's comfits, and thou railest at them?"
+
+"The grapes are sour, lad."
+
+"And will be to the end," said Amyas, "if they come off such a devil's
+tree as that. I really think you are out of your mind, Captain Raleigh,
+at times."
+
+"I wish I were; for it is a troublesome, hungry, windy mind as man ever
+was cursed withal. But come in, lad. We were sent from the lord deputy
+to bid thee to supper. There is a dainty lump of dead horse waiting for
+thee."
+
+"Send me some out, then," said matter-of-fact Amyas. "And tell his
+lordship that, with his good leave, I don't stir from here till morning,
+if I can keep awake. There is a stir in the fort, and I expect them out
+on us."
+
+"Tut, man! their hearts are broken. We know it by their deserters."
+
+"Seeing's believing. I never trust runaway rogues. If they are false to
+their masters, they'll be false to us."
+
+"Well, go thy ways, old honesty; and Mr. Secretary shall give you a
+book to yourself in the 'Faerie Queene'--'Sir Monoculus or the Legend of
+Common Sense,' eh, Edmund?"
+
+"Monoculus?"
+
+"Ay, Single-eye, my prince of word-coiners--won't that fit?--And give
+him the Cyclops head for a device. Heigh-ho! They may laugh that win.
+I am sick of this Irish work; were it not for the chance of advancement
+I'd sooner be driving a team of red Devons on Dartside; and now I am
+angry with the dear lad because he is not sick of it too. What a plague
+business has he to be paddling up and down, contentedly doing his duty,
+like any city watchman? It is an insult to the mighty aspirations of our
+nobler hearts,--eh, my would-be Ariosto?"
+
+"Ah, Raleigh! you can afford to confess yourself less than some, for you
+are greater than all. Go on and conquer, noble heart! But as for me, I
+sow the wind, and I suppose I shall reap the whirlwind."
+
+"Your harvest seems come already; what a blast that was! Hold on by me,
+Colin Clout, and I'll hold on by thee. So! Don't tread on that pikeman's
+stomach, lest he take thee for a marauding Don, and with sudden dagger
+slit Cohn's pipe, and Colin's weasand too."
+
+And the two stumbled away into the darkness, leaving Amyas to stride up
+and down as before, puzzling his brains over Raleigh's wild words and
+Spenser's melancholy, till he came to the conclusion that there was some
+mysterious connection between cleverness and unhappiness, and thanking
+his stars that he was neither scholar, courtier, nor poet, said grace
+over his lump of horseflesh when it arrived, devoured it as if it had
+been venison, and then returned to his pacing up and down; but this time
+in silence, for the night was drawing on, and there was no need to tell
+the Spaniards that any one was awake and watching.
+
+So he began to think about his mother, and how she might be spending
+her Christmas; and then about Frank, and wondered at what grand Court
+festival he was assisting, amid bright lights and sweet music and gay
+ladies, and how he was dressed, and whether he thought of his brother
+there far away on the dark Atlantic shore; and then he said his prayers
+and his creed; and then he tried not to think of Rose Salterne, and of
+course thought about her all the more. So on passed the dull hours, till
+it might be past eleven o'clock, and all lights were out in the battery
+and the shipping, and there was no sound of living thing but the
+monotonous tramp of the two sentinels beside him, and now and then a
+grunt from the party who slept under arms some twenty yards to the rear.
+
+So he paced to and fro, looking carefully out now and then over the
+strip of sand-hill which lay between him and the fort; but all was blank
+and black, and moreover it began to rain furiously.
+
+Suddenly he seemed to hear a rustle among the harsh sand-grass. True,
+the wind was whistling through it loudly enough, but that sound was
+not altogether like the wind. Then a soft sliding noise; something had
+slipped down a bank, and brought the sand down after it. Amyas stopped,
+crouched down beside a gun, and laid his ear to the rampart, whereby
+he heard clearly, as he thought, the noise of approaching feet; whether
+rabbits or Christians, he knew not, but he shrewdly guessed the latter.
+
+Now Amyas was of a sober and business-like turn, at least when he was
+not in a passion; and thinking within himself that if he made any noise,
+the enemy (whether four or two-legged) would retire, and all the sport
+be lost, he did not call to the two sentries, who were at the opposite
+ends of the battery; neither did he think it worth while to rouse the
+sleeping company, lest his ears should have deceived him, and the whole
+camp turn out to repulse the attack of a buck rabbit.
+
+So he crouched lower and lower beside the culverin, and was rewarded in
+a minute or two by hearing something gently deposited against the mouth
+of the embrasure, which, by the noise, should be a piece of timber.
+
+"So far, so good," said he to himself; "when the scaling ladder is up,
+the soldier follows, I suppose. I can only humbly thank them for giving
+my embrasure the preference. There he comes! I hear his feet scuffling."
+
+He could hear plainly enough some one working himself into the mouth of
+the embrasure: but the plague was, that it was so dark that he could
+not see his hand between him and the sky, much less his foe at two yards
+off. However, he made a pretty fair guess as to the whereabouts, and,
+rising softly, discharged such a blow downwards as would have split a
+yule log. A volley of sparks flew up from the hapless Spaniard's armor,
+and a grunt issued from within it, which proved that, whether he was
+killed or not, the blow had not improved his respiration.
+
+Amyas felt for his head, seized it, dragged him in over the gun, sprang
+into the embrasure on his knees, felt for the top of the ladder, found
+it, hove it clean off and out, with four or five men on it, and then of
+course tumbled after it ten feet into the sand, roaring like a town bull
+to her majesty's liege subjects in general.
+
+Sailor-fashion, he had no armor on but a light morion and a cuirass,
+so he was not too much encumbered to prevent his springing to his legs
+instantly, and setting to work, cutting and foining right and left at
+every sound, for sight there was none.
+
+Battles (as soldiers know, and newspaper editors do not) are usually
+fought, not as they ought to be fought, but as they can be fought; and
+while the literary man is laying down the law at his desk as to how many
+troops should be moved here, and what rivers should be crossed there,
+and where the cavalry should have been brought up, and when the flank
+should have been turned, the wretched man who has to do the work finds
+the matter settled for him by pestilence, want of shoes, empty stomachs,
+bad roads, heavy rains, hot suns, and a thousand other stern warriors
+who never show on paper.
+
+So with this skirmish; "according to Cocker," it ought to have been
+a very pretty one; for Hercules of Pisa, who planned the sortie, had
+arranged it all (being a very sans-appel in all military science) upon
+the best Italian precedents, and had brought against this very hapless
+battery a column of a hundred to attack directly in front, a company of
+fifty to turn the right flank, and a company of fifty to turn the left
+flank, with regulations, orders, passwords, countersigns, and what not;
+so that if every man had had his rights (as seldom happens), Don Guzman
+Maria Magdalena de Soto, who commanded the sortie, ought to have taken
+the work out of hand, and annihilated all therein. But alas! here stern
+fate interfered. They had chosen a dark night, as was politic; they had
+waited till the moon was up, lest it should be too dark, as was politic
+likewise: but, just as they had started, on came a heavy squall of rain,
+through which seven moons would have given no light, and which washed
+out the plans of Hercules of Pisa as if they had been written on a
+schoolboy's slate. The company who were to turn the left flank walked
+manfully down into the sea, and never found out where they were going
+till they were knee-deep in water. The company who were to turn the
+right flank, bewildered by the utter darkness, turned their own flank
+so often, that tired of falling into rabbit-burrows and filling their
+mouths with sand, they halted and prayed to all the saints for a compass
+and lantern; while the centre body, who held straight on by a trackway
+to within fifty yards of the battery, so miscalculated that short
+distance, that while they thought the ditch two pikes' length off, they
+fell into it one over the other, and of six scaling ladders, the only
+one which could be found was the very one which Amyas threw down again.
+After which the clouds broke, the wind shifted, and the moon shone out
+merrily. And so was the deep policy of Hercules of Pisa, on which hung
+the fate of Ireland and the Papacy, decided by a ten minutes' squall.
+
+But where is Amyas?
+
+In the ditch, aware that the enemy is tumbling into it, but unable to
+find them; while the company above, finding it much too dark to attempt
+a counter sortie, have opened a smart fire of musketry and arrows on
+things in general, whereat the Spaniards are swearing like Spaniards (I
+need say no more), and the Italians spitting like venomous cats; while
+Amyas, not wishing to be riddled by friendly balls, has got his back
+against the foot of the rampart, and waits on Providence.
+
+Suddenly the moon clears; and with one more fierce volley, the English
+sailors, seeing the confusion, leap down from the embrasures, and to it
+pell-mell. Whether this also was "according to Cocker," I know not: but
+the sailor, then as now, is not susceptible of highly-finished drill.
+
+Amyas is now in his element, and so are the brave fellows at his heels;
+and there are ten breathless, furious minutes among the sand-hills; and
+then the trumpets blow a recall, and the sailors drop back again by twos
+and threes, and are helped up into the embrasures over many a dead and
+dying foe; while the guns of Fort del Oro open on them, and blaze away
+for half an hour without reply; and then all is still once more. And in
+the meanwhile, the sortie against the deputy's camp has fared no better,
+and the victory of the night remains with the English.
+
+Twenty minutes after, Winter and the captains who were on shore were
+drying themselves round a peat-fire on the beach, and talking over the
+skirmish, when Will Cary asked--
+
+"Where is Leigh? who has seen him? I am sadly afraid he has gone too
+far, and been slain."
+
+"Slain? Never less, gentlemen!" replied the voice of the very person in
+question, as he stalked out of the darkness into the glare of the fire,
+and shot down from his shoulders into the midst of the ring, as he might
+a sack of corn, a huge dark body, which was gradually seen to be a man
+in rich armor; who being so shot down, lay quietly where he was dropped,
+with his feet (luckily for him mailed) in the fire.
+
+"I say," quoth Amyas, "some of you had better take him up, if he is to
+be of any use. Unlace his helm, Will Cary."
+
+"Pull his feet out of the embers; I dare say he would have been glad
+enough to put us to the scarpines; but that's no reason we should put
+him to them."
+
+As has been hinted, there was no love lost between Admiral Winter
+and Amyas; and Amyas might certainly have reported himself in a more
+ceremonious manner. So Winter, whom Amyas either had not seen, or had
+not chosen to see, asked him pretty sharply, "What the plague he had to
+do with bringing dead men into camp?"
+
+"If he's dead, it's not my fault. He was alive enough when I started
+with him, and I kept him right end uppermost all the way; and what would
+you have more, sir?"
+
+"Mr. Leigh!" said Winter, "it behoves you to speak with somewhat
+more courtesy, if not respect, to captains who are your elders and
+commanders."
+
+"Ask your pardon, sir," said the giant, as he stood in front of the fire
+with the rain steaming and smoking off his armor; "but I was bred in
+a school where getting good service done was more esteemed than making
+fine speeches."
+
+"Whatsoever school you were trained in, sir," said Winter, nettled at
+the hint about Drake; "it does not seem to have been one in which you
+learned to obey orders. Why did you not come in when the recall was
+sounded?"
+
+"Because," said Amyas, very coolly, "in the first place I did not hear
+it; and in the next, in my school I was taught when I had once started
+not to come home empty-handed."
+
+This was too pointed; and Winter sprang up with an oath--"Do you mean to
+insult me, sir?"
+
+"I am sorry, sir, that you should take a compliment to Sir Francis Drake
+as an insult to yourself. I brought in this gentleman because I thought
+he might give you good information; if he dies meanwhile, the loss will
+be yours, or rather the queen's."
+
+"Help me, then," said Cary, glad to create a diversion in Amyas's favor,
+"and we will bring him round;" while Raleigh rose, and catching Winter's
+arm, drew him aside, and began talking earnestly.
+
+"What a murrain have you, Leigh, to quarrel with Winter?" asked two or
+three.
+
+"I say, my reverend fathers and dear children, do get the Don's talking
+tackle free again, and leave me and the admiral to settle it our own
+way."
+
+There was more than one captain sitting in the ring, but discipline, and
+the degrees of rank, were not so severely defined as now; and Amyas, as
+a "gentleman adventurer," was, on land, in a position very difficult
+to be settled, though at sea he was as liable to be hanged as any other
+person on board; and on the whole it was found expedient to patch the
+matter up. So Captain Raleigh returning, said that though Admiral Winter
+had doubtless taken umbrage at certain words of Mr. Leigh's, yet that
+he had no doubt that Mr. Leigh meant nothing thereby but what was
+consistent with the profession of a soldier and a gentleman, and worthy
+both of himself and of the admiral.
+
+From which proposition Amyas found it impossible to dissent; whereon
+Raleigh went back, and informed Winter that Leigh had freely retracted
+his words, and fully wiped off any imputation which Mr. Winter might
+conceive to have been put upon him, and so forth. So Winter returned,
+and Amyas said frankly enough--
+
+"Admiral Winter, I hope, as a loyal soldier, that you will understand
+thus far; that naught which has passed to-night shall in any way prevent
+you finding me a forward and obedient servant to all your commands, be
+they what they may, and a supporter of your authority among the men,
+and honor against the foe, even with my life. For I should be ashamed if
+private differences should ever prejudice by a grain the public weal."
+
+This was a great effort of oratory for Amyas; and he therefore, in order
+to be safe by following precedent, tried to talk as much as he could
+like Sir Richard Grenville. Of course Winter could answer nothing to it,
+in spite of the plain hint of private differences, but that he should
+not fail to show himself a captain worthy of so valiant and trusty
+a gentleman; whereon the whole party turned their attention to the
+captive, who, thanks to Will Cary, was by this time sitting up, standing
+much in need of a handkerchief, and looking about him, having been
+unhelmed, in a confused and doleful manner.
+
+"Take the gentleman to my tent," said Winter, "and let the surgeon see
+to him. Mr. Leigh, who is he?--"
+
+"An enemy, but whether Spaniard or Italian I know not; but he seemed
+somebody among them, I thought the captain of a company. He and I cut at
+each other twice or thrice at first, and then lost each other; and after
+that I came on him among the sand-hills, trying to rally his men, and
+swearing like the mouth of the pit, whereby I guess him a Spaniard. But
+his men ran; so I brought him in."
+
+"And how?" asked Raleigh. "Thou art giving us all the play but the
+murders and the marriages."
+
+"Why, I bid him yield, and he would not. Then I bid him run, and he
+would not. And it was too pitch-dark for fighting; so I took him by the
+ears, and shook the wind out of him, and so brought him in."
+
+"Shook the wind out of him?" cried Cary, amid the roar of laughter which
+followed. "Dost know thou hast nearly wrung his neck in two? His vizor
+was full of blood."
+
+"He should have run or yielded, then," said Amyas; and getting up,
+slipped off to find some ale, and then to sleep comfortably in a dry
+burrow which he scratched out of a sandbank.
+
+The next morning, as Amyas was discussing a scanty breakfast of biscuit
+(for provisions were running very short in camp), Raleigh came up to
+him.
+
+"What, eating? That's more than I have done to-day."
+
+"Sit down, and share, then."
+
+"Nay, lad, I did not come a-begging. I have set some of my rogues to dig
+rabbits; but as I live, young Colbrand, you may thank your stars that
+you are alive to-day to eat. Poor young Cheek--Sir John Cheek, the
+grammarian's son--got his quittance last night by a Spanish pike,
+rushing headlong on, just as you did. But have you seen your prisoner?"
+
+"No; nor shall, while he is in Winter's tent."
+
+"Why not, then? What quarrel have you against the admiral, friend
+Bobadil? Cannot you let Francis Drake fight his own battles, without
+thrusting your head in between them?"
+
+"Well, that is good! As if the quarrel was not just as much mine, and
+every man's in the ship. Why, when he left Drake, he left us all, did he
+not?"
+
+"And what if he did? Let bygones be bygones is the rule of a Christian,
+and of a wise man too, Amyas. Here the man is, at least, safe home,
+in favor and in power; and a prudent youth will just hold his tongue,
+mumchance, and swim with the stream."
+
+"But that's just what makes me mad; to see this fellow, after deserting
+us there in unknown seas, win credit and rank at home here for being the
+first man who ever sailed back through the Straits. What had he to do
+with sailing back at all! As well make the fox a knight for being the
+first that ever jumped down a jakes to escape the hounds. The fiercer
+the flight the fouler the fear, say I."
+
+"Amyas! Amyas! thou art a hard hitter, but a soft politician."
+
+"I am no politician, Captain Raleigh, nor ever wish to be. An honest
+man's my friend, and a rogue's my foe; and I'll tell both as much, as
+long as I breathe."
+
+"And die a poor saint," said Raleigh, laughing. "But if Winter invites
+you to his tent himself, you won't refuse to come?"
+
+"Why, no, considering his years and rank; but he knows too well to do
+that."
+
+"He knows too well not to do it," said Raleigh, laughing as he walked
+away. And verily in half-an-hour came an invitation, extracted of
+course, from the admiral by Raleigh's silver tongue, which Amyas could
+not but obey.
+
+"We all owe you thanks for last night's service, sir," said Winter, who
+had for some good reasons changed his tone. "Your prisoner is found to
+be a gentleman of birth and experience, and the leader of the assault
+last night. He has already told us more than we had hoped, for which
+also we are beholden to you; and, indeed, my Lord Grey has been asking
+for you already."
+
+"I have, young sir," said a quiet and lofty voice; and Amyas saw limping
+from the inner tent the proud and stately figure of the stern deputy,
+Lord Grey of Wilton, a brave and wise man, but with a naturally harsh
+temper, which had been soured still more by the wound which had crippled
+him, while yet a boy, at the battle of Leith. He owed that limp to Mary
+Queen of Scots; and he did not forget the debt.
+
+"I have been asking for you; having heard from many, both of your last
+night's prowess, and of your conduct and courage beyond the promise of
+your years, displayed in that ever-memorable voyage, which may well be
+ranked with the deeds of the ancient Argonauts."
+
+Amyas bowed low; and the lord deputy went on, "You will needs wish
+to see your prisoner. You will find him such a one as you need not be
+ashamed to have taken, and as need not be ashamed to have been taken by
+you: but here he is, and will, I doubt not, answer as much for himself.
+Know each other better, gentlemen both: last night was an ill one for
+making acquaintances. Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto, know
+the hidalgo, Amyas Leigh!"
+
+As he spoke, the Spaniard came forward, still in his armor, all save his
+head, which was bound up in a handkerchief.
+
+He was an exceedingly tall and graceful personage, of that sangre azul
+which marked high Visigothic descent; golden-haired and fair-skinned,
+with hands as small and white as a woman's; his lips were delicate but
+thin, and compressed closely at the corners of the mouth; and his pale
+blue eye had a glassy dulness. In spite of his beauty and his carriage,
+Amyas shrank from him instinctively; and yet he could not help
+holding out his hand in return, as the Spaniard, holding out his, said
+languidly, in most sweet and sonorous Spanish--
+
+"I kiss his hands and feet. The senor speaks, I am told, my native
+tongue?"
+
+"I have that honor."
+
+"Then accept in it (for I can better express myself therein than in
+English, though I am not altogether ignorant of that witty and learned
+language) the expression of my pleasure at having fallen into the
+hands of one so renowned in war and travel; and of one also," he added,
+glancing at Amyas's giant bulk, "the vastness of whose strength, beyond
+that of common mortality, makes it no more shame for me to have been
+overpowered and carried away by him than if my captor had been a paladin
+of Charlemagne's."
+
+Honest Amyas bowed and stammered, a little thrown off his balance by the
+unexpected assurance and cool flattery of his prisoner; but he said--
+
+"If you are satisfied, illustrious senor, I am bound to be so. I
+only trust that in my hurry and the darkness I have not hurt you
+unnecessarily."
+
+The Don laughed a pretty little hollow laugh: "No, kind senor, my head,
+I trust, will after a few days have become united to my shoulders;
+and, for the present, your company will make me forget any slight
+discomfort."
+
+"Pardon me, senor; but by this daylight I should have seen that armor
+before."
+
+"I doubt it not, senor, as having been yourself also in the forefront of
+the battle," said the Spaniard, with a proud smile.
+
+"If I am right, senor, you are he who yesterday held up the standard
+after it was shot down."
+
+"I do not deny that undeserved honor; and I have to thank the courtesy
+of you and your countrymen for having permitted me to do so with
+impunity."
+
+"Ah, I heard of that brave feat," said the lord deputy. "You should
+consider yourself, Mr. Leigh, honored by being enabled to show courtesy
+to such a warrior."
+
+How long this interchange of solemn compliments, of which Amyas was
+getting somewhat weary, would have gone on, I know not; but at that
+moment Raleigh entered hastily--
+
+"My lord, they have hung out a white flag, and are calling for a
+parley!"
+
+The Spaniard turned pale, and felt for his sword, which was gone; and
+then, with a bitter laugh, murmured to himself--"As I expected."
+
+"I am very sorry to hear it. Would to Heaven they had simply fought it
+out!" said Lord Grey, half to himself; and then, "Go, Captain Raleigh,
+and answer them that (saving this gentleman's presence) the laws of
+war forbid a parley with any who are leagued with rebels against their
+lawful sovereign."
+
+"But what if they wish to treat for this gentleman's ransom?"
+
+"For their own, more likely," said the Spaniard; "but tell them, on my
+part, senor, that Don Guzman refuses to be ransomed; and will return to
+no camp where the commanding officer, unable to infect his captains with
+his own cowardice, dishonors them against their will."
+
+"You speak sharply, senor," said Winter, after Raleigh had gone out.
+
+"I have reason, Senor Admiral, as you will find, I fear, erelong."
+
+"We shall have the honor of leaving you here, for the present, sir, as
+Admiral Winter's guest," said the lord deputy.
+
+"But not my sword, it seems."
+
+"Pardon me, senor; but no one has deprived you of your sword," said
+Winter.
+
+"I don't wish to pain you, sir," said Amyas, "but I fear that we were
+both careless enough to leave it behind last night."
+
+A flash passed over the Spaniard's face, which disclosed terrible depths
+of fury and hatred beneath that quiet mask, as the summer lightning
+displays the black abysses of the thunder-storm; but like the summer
+lightning it passed almost unseen; and blandly as ever, he answered:
+
+"I can forgive you for such a neglect, most valiant sir, more easily
+than I can forgive myself. Farewell, sir! One who has lost his sword is
+no fit company for you." And as Amyas and the rest departed, he plunged
+into the inner tent, stamping and writhing, gnawing his hands with rage
+and shame.
+
+As Amyas came out on the battery, Yeo hailed him:
+
+"Master Amyas! Hillo, sir! For the love of Heaven, tell me!"
+
+"What, then?"
+
+"Is his lordship stanch? Will he do the Lord's work faithfully, root and
+branch: or will he spare the Amalekites?"
+
+"The latter, I think, old hip-and-thigh," said Amyas, hurrying forward
+to hear the news from Raleigh, who appeared in sight once more.
+
+"They ask to depart with bag and baggage," said he, when he came up.
+
+"God do so to me, and more also, if they carry away a straw!" said Lord
+Grey. "Make short work of it, sir!"
+
+"I do not know how that will be, my lord; as I came up a captain shouted
+to me off the walls that there were mutineers; and, denying that he
+surrendered, would have pulled down the flag of truce, but the soldiers
+beat him off."
+
+"A house divided against itself will not stand long, gentlemen. Tell
+them that I give no conditions. Let them lay down their arms, and trust
+in the Bishop of Rome who sent them hither, and may come to save them
+if he wants them. Gunners, if you see the white flag go down, open your
+fire instantly. Captain Raleigh, we need your counsel here. Mr. Cary,
+will you be my herald this time?"
+
+"A better Protestant never went on a pleasanter errand, my lord."
+
+So Cary went, and then ensued an argument, as to what should be done
+with the prisoners in case of a surrender.
+
+I cannot tell whether my Lord Grey meant, by offering conditions which
+the Spaniards would not accept, to force them into fighting the quarrel
+out, and so save himself the responsibility of deciding on their
+fate; or whether his mere natural stubbornness, as well as his just
+indignation, drove him on too far to retract: but the council of war
+which followed was both a sad and a stormy one, and one which he had
+reason to regret to his dying day. What was to be done with the enemy?
+They already outnumbered the English; and some fifteen hundred of
+Desmond's wild Irish hovered in the forests round, ready to side with
+the winning party, or even to attack the English at the least sign of
+vacillation or fear. They could not carry the Spaniards away with them,
+for they had neither shipping nor food, not even handcuffs enough for
+them; and as Mackworth told Winter when he proposed it, the only plan
+was for him to make San Josepho a present of his ships, and swim home
+himself as he could. To turn loose in Ireland, as Captain Touch urged,
+on the other hand, seven hundred such monsters of lawlessness, cruelty,
+and lust, as Spanish and Italian condottieri were in those days, was
+as fatal to their own safety as cruel to the wretched Irish. All the
+captains, without exception, followed on the same side. "What was to be
+done, then?" asked Lord Grey, impatiently. "Would they have him murder
+them all in cold blood?"
+
+And for a while every man, knowing that it must come to that, and yet
+not daring to say it; till Sir Warham St. Leger, the marshal of Munster,
+spoke out stoutly: "Foreigners had been scoffing them too long and too
+truly with waging these Irish wars as if they meant to keep them alive,
+rather than end them. Mercy and faith to every Irishman who would show
+mercy and faith, was his motto; but to invaders, no mercy. Ireland was
+England's vulnerable point; it might be some day her ruin; a terrible
+example must be made of those who dare to touch the sore. Rather pardon
+the Spaniards for landing in the Thames than in Ireland!"--till Lord
+Grey became much excited, and turning as a last hope to Raleigh, asked
+his opinion: but Raleigh's silver tongue was that day not on the side
+of indulgence. He skilfully recapitulated the arguments of his
+fellow-captains, improving them as he went on, till each worthy soldier
+was surprised to find himself so much wiser a man than he had thought;
+and finished by one of his rapid and passionate perorations upon his
+favorite theme--the West Indian cruelties of the Spaniards, ". . .
+by which great tracts and fair countries are now utterly stripped of
+inhabitants by heavy bondage and torments unspeakable. Oh, witless
+Islanders!" said he, apostrophizing the Irish, "would to Heaven that you
+were here to listen to me! What other fate awaits you, if this viper,
+which you are so ready to take into your bosom, should be warmed to
+life, but to groan like the Indians, slaves to the Spaniard; but to
+perish like the Indians, by heavy burdens, cruel chains, plunder and
+ravishment; scourged, racked, roasted, stabbed, sawn in sunder, cast to
+feed the dogs, as simple and more righteous peoples have perished ere
+now by millions? And what else, I say, had been the fate of Ireland
+had this invasion prospered, which God has now, by our weak hands,
+confounded and brought to naught? Shall we then answer it, my lord,
+either to our conscience, our God, or our queen, if we shall set loose
+men (not one of whom, I warrant, but is stained with murder on murder)
+to go and fill up the cup of their iniquity among these silly sheep?
+Have not their native wolves, their barbarous chieftains, shorn, peeled,
+and slaughtered them enough already, but we must add this pack of
+foreign wolves to the number of their tormentors, and fit the Desmond
+with a body-guard of seven, yea, seven hundred devils worse than
+himself? Nay, rather let us do violence to our own human nature, and
+show ourselves in appearance rigorous, that we may be kind indeed; lest
+while we presume to be over-merciful to the guilty, we prove ourselves
+to be over-cruel to the innocent."
+
+"Captain Raleigh, Captain Raleigh," said Lord Grey, "the blood of these
+men be on your head!"
+
+"It ill befits your lordship," answered Raleigh, "to throw on your
+subordinates the blame of that which your reason approves as necessary."
+
+"I should have thought, sir, that one so noted for ambition as Captain
+Raleigh would have been more careful of the favor of that queen for
+whose smiles he is said to be so longing a competitor. If you have not
+yet been of her counsels, sir, I can tell you you are not likely to be.
+She will be furious when she hears of this cruelty."
+
+Lord Grey had lost his temper: but Raleigh kept his, and answered
+quietly--
+
+"Her majesty shall at least not find me among the number of those who
+prefer her favor to her safety, and abuse to their own profit that
+over-tenderness and mercifulness of heart which is the only blemish
+(and yet, rather like a mole on a fair cheek, but a new beauty) in her
+manifold perfections."
+
+At this juncture Cary returned.
+
+"My lord," said he, in some confusion, "I have proposed your terms; but
+the captains still entreat for some mitigation; and, to tell you truth,
+one of them has insisted on accompanying me hither to plead his cause
+himself."
+
+"I will not see him, sir. Who is he?"
+
+"His name is Sebastian of Modena, my lord."
+
+"Sebastian of Modena? What think you, gentlemen? May we make an
+exception in favor of so famous a soldier?"
+
+"So villainous a cut-throat," said Zouch to Raleigh, under his breath.
+
+All, however, were for speaking with so famous a man; and in came, in
+full armor, a short, bull-necked Italian, evidently of immense strength,
+of the true Caesar Borgia stamp.
+
+"Will you please to be seated, sir?" said Lord Grey, coldly.
+
+"I kiss your hands, most illustrious: but I do not sit in an enemy's
+camp. Ha, my friend Zouch! How has your signoria fared since we fought
+side by side at Lepanto? So you too are here, sitting in council on the
+hanging of me."
+
+"What is your errand, sir? Time is short," said the lord deputy.
+
+"Corpo di Bacco! It has been long enough all the morning, for my
+rascals have kept me and my friend the Colonel Hercules (whom you know,
+doubtless) prisoners in our tents at the pike's point. My lord deputy,
+I have but a few words. I shall thank you to take every soldier in the
+fort--Italian, Spaniard, and Irish--and hang them up as high as Haman,
+for a set of mutinous cowards, with the arch-traitor San Josepho at
+their head."
+
+"I am obliged to you for your offer, sir, and shall deliberate presently
+as to whether I shall not accept it."
+
+"But as for us captains, really your excellency must consider that we
+are gentlemen born, and give us either buena querra, as the Spaniards
+say, or a fair chance for life; and so to my business."
+
+"Stay, sir. Answer this first. Have you or yours any commission to show
+either from the King of Spain or any other potentate?"
+
+"Never a one but the cause of Heaven and our own swords. And with them,
+my lord, we are ready to meet any gentlemen of your camp, man to man,
+with our swords only, half-way between your leaguer and ours; and I
+doubt not that your lordship will see fair play. Will any gentleman
+accept so civil an offer? There sits a tall youth in that corner
+who would suit me very well. Will any fit my gallant comrades with
+half-an-hour's punto and stoccado?"
+
+There was a silence, all looking at the lord deputy, whose eyes were
+kindling in a very ugly way.
+
+"No answer? Then I must proceed to exhortation. So! Will that be
+sufficient?"
+
+And walking composedly across the tent, the fearless ruffian quietly
+stooped down, and smote Amyas Leigh full in the face.
+
+Up sprang Amyas, heedless of all the august assembly, and with a single
+buffet felled him to the earth.
+
+"Excellent!" said he, rising unabashed. "I can always trust my instinct.
+I knew the moment I saw him that he was a cavalier worth letting blood.
+Now, sir, your sword and harness, and I am at your service outside!"
+
+The solemn and sententious Englishmen were altogether taken aback by the
+Italian's impudence; but Zouch settled the matter.
+
+"Most noble captain, will you be pleased to recollect a certain little
+occurrence at Messina, in the year 1575? For if you do not, I do; and
+beg to inform this gentleman that you are unworthy of his sword, and
+had you, unluckily for you, been an Englishman, would have found the
+fashions of our country so different from your own that you would have
+been then hanged, sir, and probably may be so still."
+
+The Italian's sword flashed out in a moment: but Lord Grey interfered.
+
+"No fighting here, gentlemen. That may wait; and, what is more, shall
+wait till--Strike their swords down, Raleigh, Mackworth! Strike their
+swords down! Colonel Sebastian, you will be pleased to return as you
+came, in safety, having lost nothing, as (I frankly tell you) you
+have gained nothing, by your wild bearing here. We shall proceed to
+deliberate on your fate."
+
+"I trust, my lord," said Amyas, "that you will spare this braggart's
+life, at least for a day or two. For in spite of Captain Zouch's
+warning, I must have to do with him yet, or my cheek will rise up in
+judgment against me at the last day."
+
+"Well spoken, lad," said the colonel, as he swung out. "So! worth a
+reprieve, by this sword, to have one more rapier-rattle before the
+gallows! Then I take back no further answer, my lord deputy? Not even
+our swords, our virgin blades, signor, the soldier's cherished bride?
+Shall we go forth weeping widowers, and leave to strange embrace the
+lovely steel?"
+
+"None, sir, by heaven!" said he, waxing wroth. "Do you come hither,
+pirates as you are, to dictate terms upon a foreign soil? Is it not
+enough to have set up here the Spanish flag, and claimed the land
+of Ireland as the Pope's gift to the Spaniard; violated the laws of
+nations, and the solemn treaties of princes, under color of a mad
+superstition?"
+
+"Superstition, my lord? Nothing less. Believe a philosopher who has not
+said a pater or an ave for seven years past at least. Quod tango
+credo, is my motto; and though I am bound to say, under pain of the
+Inquisition, that the most holy Father the Pope has given this land of
+Ireland to his most Catholic Majesty the King of Spain, Queen Elizabeth
+having forfeited her title to it by heresy,--why, my lord, I believe it
+as little as you do. I believe that Ireland would have been mine, if I
+had won it; I believe religiously that it is not mine, now I have lost
+it. What is, is, and a fig for priests; to-day to thee, to-morrow to me.
+Addio!" And out he swung.
+
+"There goes a most gallant rascal," said the lord deputy.
+
+"And a most rascally gallant," said Zouch. "The murder of his own page,
+of which I gave him a remembrancer, is among the least of his sins."
+
+"And now, Captain Raleigh," said Lord Grey, "as you have been so earnest
+in preaching this butchery, I have a right to ask none but you to
+practise it."
+
+Raleigh bit his lip, and replied by the "quip courteous--"
+
+"I am at least a man, my lord, who thinks it shame to allow others to do
+that which I dare not do myself."
+
+Lord Grey might probably have returned "the countercheck quarrelsome,"
+had not Mackworth risen--
+
+"And I, my lord, being in that matter at least one of Captain Raleigh's
+kidney, will just go with him to see that he takes no harm by being bold
+enough to carry out an ugly business, and serving these rascals as their
+countrymen served Mr. Oxenham."
+
+"I bid you good morning, then, gentlemen, though I cannot bid you God
+speed," said Lord Grey; and sitting down again, covered his face with
+his hands, and, to the astonishment of all bystanders, burst, say the
+chroniclers, into tears.
+
+Amyas followed Raleigh out. The latter was pale, but determined, and
+very wroth against the deputy.
+
+"Does the man take me for a hangman," said he, "that he speaks to me
+thus? But such is the way of the great. If you neglect your duty,
+they haul you over the coals; if you do it, you must do it on your
+own responsibility. Farewell, Amyas; you will not shrink from me as a
+butcher when I return?"
+
+"God forbid! But how will you do it?"
+
+"March one company in, and drive them forth, and let the other cut them
+down as they come out.--Pah!"
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+It was done. Right or wrong, it was done. The shrieks and curses had
+died away, and the Fort del Oro was a red shambles, which the soldiers
+were trying to cover from the sight of heaven and earth, by dragging the
+bodies into the ditch, and covering them with the ruins of the rampart;
+while the Irish, who had beheld from the woods that awful warning, fled
+trembling into the deepest recesses of the forest. It was done; and
+it never needed to be done again. The hint was severe, but it was
+sufficient. Many years passed before a Spaniard set foot again in
+Ireland.
+
+The Spanish and Italian officers were spared, and Amyas had Don Guzman
+Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto duly adjudged to him, as his prize
+by right of war. He was, of course, ready enough to fight Sebastian
+of Modena: but Lord Grey forbade the duel: blood enough had been shed
+already. The next question was, where to bestow Don Guzman till his
+ransom should arrive; and as Amyas could not well deliver the gallant
+Don into the safe custody of Mrs. Leigh at Burrough, and still less into
+that of Frank at Court, he was fain to write to Sir Richard Grenville,
+and ask his advice, and in the meanwhile keep the Spaniard with him upon
+parole, which he frankly gave,--saying that as for running away, he had
+nowhere to run to; and as for joining the Irish he had no mind to turn
+pig; and Amyas found him, as shall be hereafter told, pleasant company
+enough. But one morning Raleigh entered--
+
+"I have done you a good turn, Leigh, if you think it one. I have talked
+St. Leger into making you my lieutenant, and giving you the custody of
+a right pleasant hermitage--some castle Shackatory or other in the midst
+of a big bog, where time will run swift and smooth with you, between
+hunting wild Irish, snaring snipes, and drinking yourself drunk with
+usquebaugh over a turf fire."
+
+"I'll go," quoth Amyas; "anything for work." So he went and took
+possession of his lieutenancy and his black robber tower, and there
+passed the rest of the winter, fighting or hunting all day, and chatting
+and reading all the evening, with Senor Don Guzman, who, like a good
+soldier of fortune, made himself thoroughly at home, and a general
+favorite with the soldiers.
+
+At first, indeed, his Spanish pride and stateliness, and Amyas's English
+taciturnity, kept the two apart somewhat; but they soon began, if not
+to trust, at least to like each other; and Don Guzman told Amyas, bit by
+bit, who he was, of what an ancient house, and of what a poor one; and
+laughed over the very small chance of his ransom being raised, and
+the certainty that, at least, it could not come for a couple of years,
+seeing that the only De Soto who had a penny to spare was a fat old dean
+at St. Yago de Leon, in the Caracas, at which place Don Guzman had been
+born. This of course led to much talk about the West Indies, and the
+Don was as much interested to find that Amyas had been one of Drake's
+world-famous crew, as Amyas was to find that his captive was the
+grandson of none other than that most terrible of man-hunters, Don
+Ferdinando de Soto, the conqueror of Florida, of whom Amyas had read
+many a time in Las Casas, "as the captain of tyrants, the notoriousest
+and most experimented amongst them that have done the most hurts,
+mischiefs, and destructions in many realms." And often enough his blood
+boiled, and he had much ado to recollect that the speaker was his guest,
+as Don Guzman chatted away about his grandfather's hunts of innocent
+women and children, murders of caciques and burnings alive of guides,
+"pour encourager les autres," without, seemingly, the least feeling that
+the victims were human beings or subjects for human pity; anything, in
+short, but heathen dogs, enemies of God, servants of the devil, to be
+used by the Christian when he needed, and when not needed killed down
+as cumberers of the ground. But Don Guzman was a most finished gentleman
+nevertheless; and told many a good story of the Indies, and told it
+well; and over and above his stories, he had among his baggage two
+books,--the one Antonio Galvano's "Discoveries of the World," a mine
+of winter evening amusement to Amyas; and the other, a manuscript book,
+which, perhaps, it had been well for Amyas had he never seen. For it was
+none other than a sort of rough journal which Don Guzman had kept as a
+lad, when he went down with the Adelantado Gonzales Ximenes de Casada,
+from Peru to the River of Amazons, to look for the golden country of El
+Dorado, and the city of Manoa, which stands in the midst of the White
+Lake, and equals or surpasses in glory even the palace of the Inca
+Huaynacapac; "all the vessels of whose house and kitchen are of gold
+and silver, and in his wardrobe statues of gold which seemed giants, and
+figures in proportion and bigness of all the beasts, birds, trees, and
+herbs of the earth, and the fishes of the water; and ropes, budgets,
+chests, and troughs of gold: yea, and a garden of pleasure in an Island
+near Puna, where they went to recreate themselves when they would take
+the air of the sea, which had all kind of garden herbs, flowers, and
+trees of gold and silver of an invention and magnificence till then
+never seen."
+
+Now the greater part of this treasure (and be it remembered that these
+wonders were hardly exaggerated, and that there were many men alive then
+who had beheld them, as they had worse things, "with their corporal and
+mortal eyes") was hidden by the Indians when Pizarro conquered Peru and
+slew Atahuallpa, son of Huaynacapac; at whose death, it was said, one
+of the Inca's younger brothers fled out of Peru, and taking with him
+a great army, vanquished all that tract which lieth between the great
+Rivers of Amazons and Baraquan, otherwise called Maranon and Orenoque.
+
+There he sits to this day, beside the golden lake, in the golden city,
+which is in breadth a three days' journey, covered, he and his court,
+with gold dust from head to foot, waiting for the fulfilment of the
+ancient prophecy which was written in the temple of Caxamarca, where his
+ancestors worshipped of old; that heroes shall come out of the West, and
+lead him back across the forests to the kingdom of Peru, and restore him
+to the glory of his forefathers.
+
+Golden phantom! so possible, so probable, to imaginations which were yet
+reeling before the actual and veritable prodigies of Peru, Mexico, and
+the East Indies. Golden phantom! which has cost already the lives
+of thousands, and shall yet cost more; from Diego de Ordas, and Juan
+Corteso, and many another, who went forth on the quest by the Andes, and
+by the Orinoco, and by the Amazons; Antonio Sedenno, with his ghastly
+caravan of manacled Indians, "on whose dead carcasses the tigers being
+fleshed, assaulted the Spaniards;" Augustine Delgado, who "came to a
+cacique, who entertained him with all kindness, and gave him beside much
+gold and slaves, three nymphs very beautiful, which bare the names
+of three provinces, Guanba, Gotoguane, and Maiarare. To requite which
+manifold courtesies, he carried off, not only all the gold, but all the
+Indians he could seize, and took them in irons to Cubagua, and sold them
+for slaves; after which, Delgado was shot in the eye by an Indian, of
+which hurt he died;" Pedro d'Orsua, who found the cinnamon forests of
+Loxas, "whom his men murdered, and afterwards beheaded Lady Anes his
+wife, who forsook not her lord in all his travels unto death," and many
+another, who has vanished with valiant comrades at his back into the
+green gulfs of the primaeval forests, never to emerge again. Golden
+phantom! man-devouring, whose maw is never satiate with souls of heroes;
+fatal to Spain, more fatal still to England upon that shameful day, when
+the last of Elizabeth's heroes shall lay down his head upon the block,
+nominally for having believed what all around him believed likewise
+till they found it expedient to deny it in order to curry favor with the
+crowned cur who betrayed him, really because he alone dared to make one
+last protest in behalf of liberty and Protestantism against the incoming
+night of tyranny and superstition. Little thought Amyas, as he devoured
+the pages of that manuscript, that he was laying a snare for the life of
+the man whom, next to Drake and Grenville, he most admired on earth.
+
+But Don Guzman, on the other hand, seemed to have an instinct that that
+book might be a fatal gift to his captor; for one day ere Amyas had
+looked into it, he began questioning the Don about El Dorado. Whereon
+Don Guzman replied with one of those smiles of his, which (as Amyas said
+afterwards) was so abominably like a sneer, that he had often hard work
+to keep his hands off the man--
+
+"Ah! You have been eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, senor?
+Well; if you have any ambition to follow many another brave captain
+to the pit, I know no shorter or easier path than is contained in that
+little book."
+
+"I have never opened your book," said Amyas; "your private manuscripts
+are no concern of mine: but my man who recovered your baggage read
+part of it, knowing no better; and now you are at liberty to tell me as
+little as you like."
+
+The "man," it should be said, was none other than Salvation Yeo, who
+had attached himself by this time inseparably to Amyas, in quality of
+body-guard: and, as was common enough in those days, had turned soldier
+for the nonce, and taken under his patronage two or three rusty bases
+(swivels) and falconets (four-pounders), which grinned harmlessly enough
+from the tower top across the cheerful expanse of bog.
+
+Amyas once asked him, how he reconciled this Irish sojourn with his vow
+to find his little maid? Yeo shook his head.
+
+"I can't tell, sir, but there's something that makes me always to think
+of you when I think of her; and that's often enough, the Lord knows.
+Whether it is that I ben't to find the dear without your help; or
+whether it is your pleasant face puts me in mind of hers; or what, I
+can't tell; but don't you part me from you, sir, for I'm like Ruth,
+and where you lodge I lodge; and where you go I go; and where you
+die--though I shall die many a year first--there I'll die, I hope and
+trust; for I can't abear you out of my sight; and that's the truth
+thereof."
+
+So Yeo remained with Amyas, while Cary went elsewhere with Sir Warham
+St. Leger, and the two friends met seldom for many months; so that
+Amyas's only companion was Don Guzman, who, as he grew more familiar,
+and more careless about what he said and did in his captor's presence,
+often puzzled and scandalized him by his waywardness. Fits of deep
+melancholy alternated with bursts of Spanish boastfulness, utterly
+astonishing to the modest and sober-minded Englishman, who would often
+have fancied him inspired by usquebaugh, had he not had ocular proof of
+his extreme abstemiousness.
+
+"Miserable?" said he, one night in one of these fits. "And have I not
+a right to be miserable? Why should I not curse the virgin and all the
+saints, and die? I have not a friend, not a ducat on earth; not even a
+sword--hell and the furies! It was my all: the only bequest I ever had
+from my father, and I lived by it and earned by it. Two years ago I had
+as pretty a sum of gold as cavalier could wish--and now!"--
+
+"What is become of it, then? I cannot hear that our men plundered you of
+any."
+
+"Your men? No, senor! What fifty men dared not have done, one woman did!
+a painted, patched, fucused, periwigged, bolstered, Charybdis, cannibal,
+Megaera, Lamia! Why did I ever go near that cursed Naples, the common
+sewer of Europe? whose women, I believe, would be swallowed up by
+Vesuvius to-morrow, if it were not that Belphegor is afraid of their
+making the pit itself too hot to hold him. Well, sir, she had all of
+mine and more; and when all was gone in wine and dice, woodcocks' brains
+and ortolans' tongues, I met the witch walking with another man. I had
+a sword and a dagger; I gave him the first (though the dog fought well
+enough, to give him his due), and her the second; left them lying across
+each other, and fled for my life,--and here I am! after twenty years of
+fighting, from the Levant to the Orellana--for I began ere I had a
+hair on my chin--and this is the end!--No, it is not! I'll have that El
+Dorado yet! the Adelantado made Berreo, when he gave him his daughter,
+swear that he would hunt for it, through life and death.--We'll see
+who finds it first, he or I. He's a bungler; Orsua was a bungler--Pooh!
+Cortes and Pizarro? we'll see whether there are not as good Castilians
+as they left still. I can do it, senor. I know a track, a plan; over the
+Llanos is the road; and I'll be Emperor of Manoa yet--possess the jewels
+of all the Incas; and gold, gold! Pizarro was a beggar to what I will
+be!"
+
+Conceive, sir, he broke forth during another of these peacock fits,
+as Amyas and he were riding along the hill-side; "conceive! with forty
+chosen cavaliers (what need of more?) I present myself before the golden
+king, trembling amid his myriad guards at the new miracle of the mailed
+centaurs of the West; and without dismounting, I approach his throne,
+lift the crucifix which hangs around my neck, and pressing it to my
+lips, present it for the adoration of the idolater, and give him his
+alternative; that which Gayferos and the Cid, my ancestors, offered
+the Soldan and the Moor--baptism or death! He hesitates; perhaps
+smiles scornfully upon my little band; I answer him by deeds, as Don
+Ferdinando, my illustrious grandfather, answered Atahuallpa at Peru, in
+sight of all his court and camp."
+
+"With your lance-point, as Gayferos did the Soldan?" asked Amyas,
+amused.
+
+"No, sir; persuasion first, for the salvation of a soul is at stake. Not
+with the lance-point, but the spur, sir, thus!"--
+
+And striking his heels into his horse's flanks, he darted off at full
+speed.
+
+"The Spanish traitor!" shouted Yeo. "He's going to escape! Shall we
+shoot, sir? Shall we shoot?"
+
+"For Heaven's sake, no!" said Amyas, looking somewhat blank,
+nevertheless, for he much doubted whether the whole was not a ruse on
+the part of the Spaniard, and he knew how impossible it was for his
+fifteen stone of flesh to give chase to the Spaniard's twelve. But he
+was soon reassured; the Spaniard wheeled round towards him, and began to
+put the rough hackney through all the paces of the manege with a grace
+and skill which won applause from the beholders.
+
+"Thus!" he shouted, waving his hand to Amyas, between his curvets and
+caracoles, "did my illustrious grandfather exhibit to the Paynim emperor
+the prowess of a Castilian cavalier! Thus!--and thus!--and thus, at
+last, he dashed up to his very feet, as I to yours, and bespattering
+that unbaptized visage with his Christian bridle foam, pulled up his
+charger on his haunches, thus!"
+
+And (as was to be expected from a blown Irish garron on a peaty Irish
+hill-side) down went the hapless hackney on his tail, away went his
+heels a yard in front of him, and ere Don Guzman could "avoid his
+selle," horse and man rolled over into neighboring bog-hole.
+
+"After pride comes a fall," quoth Yeo with unmoved visage, as he lugged
+him out.
+
+"And what would you do with the emperor at last?" asked Amyas when the
+Don had been scrubbed somewhat clean with a bunch of rushes. "Kill him,
+as your grandfather did Atahuallpa?"
+
+"My grandfather," answered the Spaniard, indignantly, "was one of those
+who, to their eternal honor, protested to the last against that most
+cruel and unknightly massacre. He could be terrible to the heathen; but
+he kept his plighted word, sir, and taught me to keep mine, as you have
+seen to-day."
+
+"I have, senor," said Amyas. "You might have given us the slip easily
+enough just now, and did not. Pardon me, if I have offended you."
+
+The Spaniard (who, after all, was cross principally with himself and the
+"unlucky mare's son," as the old romances have it, which had played him
+so scurvy a trick) was all smiles again forthwith; and Amyas, as they
+chatted on, could not help asking him next--
+
+"I wonder why you are so frank about your own intentions to an enemy
+like me, who will surely forestall you if he can."
+
+"Sir, a Spaniard needs no concealment, and fears no rivalry. He is the
+soldier of the Cross, and in it he conquers, like Constantine of old.
+Not that you English are not very heroes; but you have not, sir, and
+you cannot have, who have forsworn our Lady and the choir of saints, the
+same divine protection, the same celestial mission, which enables the
+Catholic cavalier single-handed to chase a thousand Paynims."
+
+And Don Guzman crossed himself devoutly, and muttered half-a-dozen Ave
+Marias in succession, while Amyas rode silently by his side, utterly
+puzzled at this strange compound of shrewdness with fanaticism, of
+perfect high-breeding with a boastfulness which in an Englishman would
+have been the sure mark of vulgarity.
+
+At last came a letter from Sir Richard Grenville, complimenting Amyas
+on his success and promotion, bearing a long and courtly message to Don
+Guzman (whom Grenville had known when he was in the Mediterranean, at
+the battle of Lepanto), and offering to receive him as his own guest
+at Bideford, till his ransom should arrive; a proposition which the
+Spaniard (who of course was getting sufficiently tired of the Irish
+bogs) could not but gladly accept; and one of Winter's ships, returning
+to England in the spring of 1581, delivered duly at the quay of Bideford
+the body of Don Guzman Maria Magdalena. Raleigh, after forming for
+that summer one of the triumvirate by which Munster was governed after
+Ormond's departure, at last got his wish and departed for England and
+the Court; and Amyas was left alone with the snipes and yellow mantles
+for two more weary years.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+HOW THE MAYOR OF BIDEFORD BAITED HIS HOOK WITH HIS OWN FLESH
+
+     "And therewith he blent, and cried ha!
+     As though he had been stricken to the harte."
+
+                              Palamon and Arcite.
+
+So it befell to Chaucer's knight in prison; and so it befell also to Don
+Guzman; and it befell on this wise.
+
+He settled down quietly enough at Bideford on his parole, in better
+quarters than he had occupied for many a day, and took things as they
+came, like a true soldier of fortune; till, after he had been with
+Grenville hardly a month, old Salterne the Mayor came to supper.
+
+Now Don Guzman, however much he might be puzzled at first at our strange
+English ways of asking burghers and such low-bred folk to eat and drink
+above the salt, in the company of noble persons, was quite gentleman
+enough to know that Richard Grenville was gentleman enough to do only
+what was correct, and according to the customs and proprieties. So after
+shrugging the shoulders of his spirit, he submitted to eat and drink at
+the same board with a tradesman who sat at a desk, and made up ledgers,
+and took apprentices; and hearing him talk with Grenville neither
+unwisely nor in a vulgar fashion, actually before the evening was out
+condescended to exchange words with him himself. Whereon he found him
+a very prudent and courteous person, quite aware of the Spaniard's
+superior rank, and making him feel in every sentence that he was aware
+thereof; and yet holding his own opinion, and asserting his own rights
+as a wise elder in a fashion which the Spaniard had only seen before
+among the merchant princes of Genoa and Venice.
+
+At the end of supper, Salterne asked Grenville to do his humble roof the
+honor, etc. etc., of supping with him the next evening, and then turning
+to the Don, said quite frankly, that he knew how great a condescension
+it would be on the part of a nobleman of Spain to sit at the board of
+a simple merchant: but that if the Spaniard deigned to do him such
+a favor, he would find that the cheer was fit enough for any rank,
+whatsoever the company might be; which invitation Don Guzman, being on
+the whole glad enough of anything to amuse him, graciously condescended
+to accept, and gained thereby an excellent supper, and, if he had chosen
+to drink it, much good wine.
+
+Now Mr. Salterne was, of course, as a wise merchant, as ready as any man
+for an adventure to foreign parts, as was afterwards proved by his great
+exertions in the settlement of Virginia; and he was, therefore, equally
+ready to rack the brains of any guest whom he suspected of knowing
+anything concerning strange lands; and so he thought no shame, first to
+try to loose his guest's tongue by much good sack, and next, to ask him
+prudent and well-concocted questions concerning the Spanish Main, Peru,
+the Moluccas, China, the Indies, and all parts.
+
+The first of which schemes failed; for the Spaniard was as abstemious
+as any monk, and drank little but water; the second succeeded not over
+well, for the Spaniard was as cunning as any fox, and answered little
+but wind.
+
+In the midst of which tongue-fence in came the Rose of Torridge, looking
+as beautiful as usual; and hearing what they were upon, added, artlessly
+enough, her questions to her father's: to her Don Guzman could not but
+answer; and without revealing any very important commercial secrets,
+gave his host and his host's daughter a very amusing evening.
+
+Now little Eros, though spirits like Frank Leigh's may choose to call
+him (as, perhaps, he really is to them) the eldest of the gods, and
+the son of Jove and Venus, yet is reported by other equally good
+authorities, as Burton has set forth in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," to
+be after all only the child of idleness and fulness of bread. To which
+scandalous calumny the thoughts of Don Guzman's heart gave at least a
+certain color; for he being idle (as captives needs must be), and also
+full of bread (for Sir Richard kept a very good table), had already
+looked round for mere amusement's sake after some one with whom to fall
+in love. Lady Grenville, as nearest, was, I blush to say, thought of
+first; but the Spaniard was a man of honor, and Sir Richard his host; so
+he put away from his mind (with a self-denial on which he plumed himself
+much) the pleasure of a chase equally exciting to his pride and his love
+of danger. As for the sinfulness of the said chase, he of course thought
+no more of that than other Southern Europeans did then, or than (I blush
+again to have to say it) the English did afterwards in the days of the
+Stuarts. Nevertheless, he had put Lady Grenville out of his mind; and so
+left room to take Rose Salterne into it, not with any distinct purpose
+of wronging her: but, as I said before, half to amuse himself, and half,
+too, because he could not help it. For there was an innocent freshness
+about the Rose of Torridge, fond as she was of being admired, which was
+new to him and most attractive. "The train of the peacock," as he
+said to himself, "and yet the heart of the dove," made so charming a
+combination, that if he could have persuaded her to love no one but him,
+perhaps he might become fool enough to love no one but her. And at that
+thought he was seized with a very panic of prudence, and resolved to
+keep out of her way; and yet the days ran slowly, and Lady Grenville
+when at home was stupid enough to talk and think about nothing but her
+husband; and when she went to Stow, and left the Don alone in one corner
+of the great house at Bideford, what could he do but lounge down to the
+butt-gardens to show off his fine black cloak and fine black feather,
+see the shooting, have a game or two of rackets with the youngsters, a
+game or two of bowls with the elders, and get himself invited home to
+supper by Mr. Salterne?
+
+And there, of course, he had it all his own way, and ruled the roast
+(which he was fond enough of doing) right royally, not only on account
+of his rank, but because he had something to say worth hearing, as a
+travelled man. For those times were the day-dawn of English commerce;
+and not a merchant in Bideford, or in all England, but had his
+imagination all on fire with projects of discoveries, companies,
+privileges, patents, and settlements; with gallant rivalry of the brave
+adventures of Sir Edward Osborne and his new London Company of Turkey
+Merchants; with the privileges just granted by the Sultan Murad Khan
+to the English; with the worthy Levant voyages of Roger Bodenham in
+the great bark Aucher, and of John Fox, and Lawrence Aldersey, and John
+Rule; and with hopes from the vast door for Mediterranean trade, which
+the crushing of the Venetian power at Famagusta in Cyprus, and the
+alliance made between Elizabeth and the Grand Turk, had just thrown
+open. So not a word could fall from the Spaniard about the Mediterranean
+but took root at once in right fertile soil. Besides, Master Edmund
+Hogan had been on a successful embassy to the Emperor of Morocco; John
+Hawkins and George Fenner had been to Guinea (and with the latter Mr.
+Walter Wren, a Bideford man), and had traded there for musk and civet,
+gold and grain; and African news was becoming almost as valuable as West
+Indian. Moreover, but two months before had gone from London Captain
+Hare in the bark Minion, for Brazil, and a company of adventurers with
+him, with Sheffield hardware, and "Devonshire and Northern kersies,"
+hollands and "Manchester cottons," for there was a great opening for
+English goods by the help of one John Whithall, who had married a
+Spanish heiress, and had an ingenio and slaves in Santos. (Don't smile,
+reader, or despise the day of small things, and those who sowed the seed
+whereof you reap the mighty harvest.) In the meanwhile, Drake had proved
+not merely the possibility of plundering the American coasts, but
+of establishing an East Indian trade; Frobisher and Davis, worthy
+forefathers of our Parrys and Franklins, had begun to bore their way
+upward through the Northern ice, in search of a passage to China which
+should avoid the dangers of the Spanish seas; and Anthony Jenkinson, not
+the least of English travellers, had, in six-and-twenty years of travel
+in behalf of the Muscovite Company, penetrated into not merely Russia
+and the Levant, but Persia and Armenia, Bokhara, Tartary, Siberia, and
+those waste Arctic shores where, thirty years before, the brave Sir Hugh
+Willoughby,
+
+          "In Arzina caught,
+     Perished with all his crew."
+
+Everywhere English commerce, under the genial sunshine of Elizabeth's
+wise rule, was spreading and taking root; and as Don Guzman talked
+with his new friends, he soon saw (for he was shrewd enough) that they
+belonged to a race which must be exterminated if Spain intended to
+become (as she did intend) the mistress of the world; and that it was
+not enough for Spain to have seized in the Pope's name the whole new
+world, and claimed the exclusive right to sail the seas of America; not
+enough to have crushed the Hollanders; not enough to have degraded the
+Venetians into her bankers, and the Genoese into her mercenaries; not
+enough to have incorporated into herself, with the kingdom of Portugal,
+the whole East Indian trade of Portugal, while these fierce islanders
+remained to assert, with cunning policy and texts of Scripture, and, if
+they failed, with sharp shot and cold steel, free seas and free trade
+for all the nations upon earth. He saw it, and his countrymen saw it
+too: and therefore the Spanish Armada came: but of that hereafter. And
+Don Guzman knew also, by hard experience, that these same islanders, who
+sat in Salterne's parlor, talking broad Devon through their noses, were
+no mere counters of money and hucksters of goods: but men who, though
+they thoroughly hated fighting, and loved making money instead, could
+fight, upon occasion, after a very dogged and terrible fashion, as well
+as the bluest blood in Spain; and who sent out their merchant ships
+armed up to the teeth, and filled with men who had been trained from
+childhood to use those arms, and had orders to use them without mercy
+if either Spaniard, Portugal, or other created being dared to stop their
+money-making. And one evening he waxed quite mad, when, after having
+civilly enough hinted that if Englishmen came where they had no right to
+come, they might find themselves sent back again, he was answered by a
+volley of--
+
+"We'll see that, sir."
+
+"Depends on who says 'No right.'"
+
+"You found might right," said another, "when you claimed the Indian
+seas; we may find right might when we try them."
+
+"Try them, then, gentlemen, by all means, if it shall so please your
+worships; and find the sacred flag of Spain as invincible as ever was
+the Roman eagle."
+
+"We have, sir. Did you ever hear of Francis Drake?"
+
+"Or of George Fenner and the Portugals at the Azores, one against
+seven?"
+
+"Or of John Hawkins, at St. Juan d'Ulloa?"
+
+"You are insolent burghers," said Don Guzman, and rose to go.
+
+"Sir," said old Salterne, "as you say, we are burghers and plain men,
+and some of us have forgotten ourselves a little, perhaps; we must beg
+you to forgive our want of manners, and to put it down to the strength
+of my wine; for insolent we never meant to be, especially to a noble
+gentleman and a foreigner."
+
+But the Don would not be pacified; and walked out, calling himself
+an ass and a blinkard for having demeaned himself to such a company,
+forgetting that he had brought it on himself.
+
+Salterne (prompted by the great devil Mammon) came up to him next day,
+and begged pardon again; promising, moreover, that none of those who had
+been so rude should be henceforth asked to meet him, if he would deign
+to honor his house once more. And the Don actually was appeased, and
+went there the very next evening, sneering at himself the whole time for
+going.
+
+"Fool that I am! that girl has bewitched me, I believe. Go I must, and
+eat my share of dirt, for her sake."
+
+So he went; and, cunningly enough, hinted to old Salterne that he
+had taken such a fancy to him, and felt so bound by his courtesy and
+hospitality, that he might not object to tell him things which he would
+not mention to every one; for that the Spaniards were not jealous of
+single traders, but of any general attempt to deprive them of their
+hard-earned wealth: that, however, in the meanwhile, there were plenty
+of opportunities for one man here and there to enrich himself, etc.
+
+Old Salterne, shrewd as he was, had his weak point, and the Spaniard had
+touched it; and delighted at this opportunity of learning the mysteries
+of the Spanish monopoly, he often actually set Rose on to draw out the
+Don, without a fear (so blind does money make men) lest she might be
+herself drawn in. For, first, he held it as impossible that she would
+think of marrying a Popish Spaniard as of marrying the man in the moon;
+and, next, as impossible that he would think of marrying a burgher's
+daughter as of marrying a negress; and trusted that the religion of the
+one, and the family pride of the other, would keep them as separate as
+beings of two different species. And as for love without marriage, if
+such a possibility ever crossed him, the thought was rendered absurd;
+on Rose's part by her virtue, on which the old roan (and rightly) would
+have staked every farthing he had on earth; and on the Don's part, by a
+certain human fondness for the continuity of the carotid artery and the
+parts adjoining, for which (and that not altogether justly, seeing
+that Don Guzman cared as little for his own life as he did for his
+neighbor's) Mr. Salterne gave him credit. And so it came to pass, that
+for weeks and months the merchant's house was the Don's favorite haunt,
+and he saw the Rose of Torridge daily, and the Rose of Torridge heard
+him.
+
+And as for her, poor child, she had never seen such a man. He had, or
+seemed to have, all the high-bred grace of Frank, and yet he was cast in
+a manlier mould; he had just enough of his nation's proud self-assertion
+to make a woman bow before him as before a superior, and yet tact enough
+to let it very seldom degenerate into that boastfulness of which the
+Spaniards were then so often and so justly accused. He had marvels to
+tell by flood and field as many and more than Amyas; and he told
+them with a grace and an eloquence of which modest, simple, old Amyas
+possessed nothing. Besides, he was on the spot, and the Leighs were not,
+nor indeed were any of her old lovers; and what could she do but amuse
+herself with the only person who came to hand?
+
+So thought, in time, more ladies than she; for the country, the north of
+it at least, was all but bare just then of young gallants, what with the
+Netherland wars and the Irish wars; and the Spaniard became soon welcome
+at every house for many a mile round, and made use of his welcome so
+freely, and received so much unwonted attention from fair young dames,
+that his head might have been a little turned, and Rose Salterne have
+thereby escaped, had not Sir Richard delicately given him to understand
+that in spite of the free and easy manners of English ladies, brothers
+were just as jealous, and ladies' honors at least as inexpugnable, as
+in the land of demureness and duennas. Don Guzman took the hint well
+enough, and kept on good terms with the country gentlemen as with their
+daughters; and to tell the truth, the cunning soldier of fortune found
+his account in being intimate with all the ladies he could, in order to
+prevent old Salterne from fancying that he had any peculiar predilection
+for Mistress Rose.
+
+Nevertheless, Mr. Salterne's parlor being nearest to him, still remained
+his most common haunt; where, while he discoursed for hours about
+
+     "Antres vast and deserts idle,
+     And of the cannibals that each other eat,
+     Of Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
+     Do grow beneath their shoulders,"
+
+to the boundless satisfaction of poor Rose's fancy, he took care to
+season his discourse with scraps of mercantile information, which kept
+the old merchant always expectant and hankering for more, and made it
+worth his while to ask the Spaniard in again and again.
+
+And his stories, certainly, were worth hearing. He seemed to have been
+everywhere, and to have seen everything: born in Peru, and sent home to
+Spain at ten years old; brought up in Italy; a soldier in the Levant; an
+adventurer to the East Indies; again in America, first in the islands,
+and then in Mexico. Then back again to Spain, and thence to Rome, and
+thence to Ireland. Shipwrecked; captive among savages; looking down the
+craters of volcanoes; hanging about all the courts of Europe; fighting
+Turks, Indians, lions, elephants, alligators, and what not? At
+five-and-thirty he had seen enough for three lives, and knew how to make
+the best of what he had seen.
+
+He had shared, as a lad, in the horrors of the memorable siege of
+Famagusta, and had escaped, he hardly knew himself how, from the hands
+of the victorious Turks, and from the certainty (if he escaped being
+flayed alive or impaled, as most of the captive officers were) of ending
+his life as a Janissary at the Sultan's court. He had been at the Battle
+of the Three Kings; had seen Stukely borne down by a hundred lances,
+unconquered even in death; and had held upon his knee the head of the
+dying King of Portugal.
+
+And now, as he said to Rose one evening, what had he left on earth, but
+a heart trampled as hard as the pavement? Whom had he to love? Who loved
+him? He had nothing for which to live but fame: and even that was denied
+to him, a prisoner in a foreign land.
+
+Had he no kindred, then? asked pitying Rose.
+
+"My two sisters are in a convent;--they had neither money nor beauty;
+so they are dead to me. My brother is a Jesuit, so he is dead to me. My
+father fell by the hands of Indians in Mexico; my mother, a penniless
+widow, is companion, duenna--whatsoever they may choose to call
+it--carrying fans and lapdogs for some princess or other there in
+Seville, of no better blood than herself; and I--devil! I have lost even
+my sword--and so fares the house of De Soto."
+
+Don Guzman, of course, intended to be pitied, and pitied he was
+accordingly. And then he would turn the conversation, and begin telling
+Italian stories, after the Italian fashion, according to his auditory:
+the pathetic ones when Rose was present, the racy ones when she was
+absent; so that Rose had wept over the sorrows of Juliet and Desdemona,
+and over many another moving tale, long before they were ever enacted
+on an English stage, and the ribs of the Bideford worthies had shaken to
+many a jest which Cinthio and Bandello's ghosts must come and make for
+themselves over again if they wish them to be remembered, for I shall
+lend them no shove toward immortality.
+
+And so on, and so on. What need of more words? Before a year was out,
+Rose Salterne was far more in love with Don Guzman than he with her; and
+both suspected each other's mind, though neither hinted at the truth;
+she from fear, and he, to tell the truth, from sheer Spanish pride of
+blood. For he soon began to find out that he must compromise that blood
+by marrying the heretic burgher's daughter, or all his labor would be
+thrown away.
+
+He had seen with much astonishment, and then practised with much
+pleasure, that graceful old English fashion of saluting every lady on
+the cheek at meeting, which (like the old Dutch fashion of asking young
+ladies out to feasts without their mothers) used to give such cause of
+brutal calumny and scandal to the coarse minds of Romish visitors from
+the Continent; and he had seen, too, fuming with jealous rage, more than
+one Bideford burgher, redolent of onions, profane in that way the velvet
+cheek of Rose Salterne.
+
+So, one day, he offered his salute in like wise; but he did it when she
+was alone; for something within (perhaps a guilty conscience) whispered
+that it might be hardly politic to make the proffer in her father's
+presence: however, to his astonishment, he received a prompt though
+quiet rebuff.
+
+"No, sir; you should know that my cheek is not for you."
+
+"Why," said he, stifling his anger, "it seems free enough to every
+counter-jumper in the town!"
+
+Was it love, or simple innocence, which made her answer apologetically?
+
+"True, Don Guzman; but they are my equals."
+
+"And I?"
+
+"You are a nobleman, sir; and should recollect that you are one."
+
+"Well," said he, forcing a sneer, "it is a strange taste to prefer the
+shopkeeper!"
+
+"Prefer?" said she, forcing a laugh in her turn; "it is a mere form
+among us. They are nothing to me, I can tell you."
+
+"And I, then, less than nothing?"
+
+Rose turned very red; but she had nerve to answer--
+
+"And why should you be anything to me? You have condescended too much,
+sir, already to us, in giving us many a--many a pleasant evening. You
+must condescend no further. You wrong yourself, sir, and me too. No,
+sir; not a step nearer!--I will not! A salute between equals means
+nothing: but between you and me--I vow, sir, if you do not leave me this
+moment, I will complain to my father."
+
+"Do so, madam! I care as little for your father's anger, as you for my
+misery."
+
+"Cruel!" cried Rose, trembling from head to foot.
+
+"I love you, madam!" cried he, throwing himself at her feet. "I adore
+you! Never mention differences of rank to me more; for I have forgotten
+them; forgotten all but love, all but you, madam! My light, my lodestar,
+my princess, my goddess! You see where my pride is gone; remember I
+plead as a suppliant, a beggar--though one who may be one day a prince,
+a king! ay, and a prince now, a very Lucifer of pride to all except to
+you; to you a wretch who grovels at your feet, and cries, 'Have mercy
+on me, on my loneliness, my homelessness, my friendlessness.' Ah, Rose
+(madam I should have said, forgive the madness of my passion), you know
+not the heart which you break. Cold Northerns, you little dream how a
+Spaniard can love. Love? Worship, rather; as I worship you, madam; as
+I bless the captivity which brought me the sight of you, and the ruin
+which first made me rich. Is it possible, saints and Virgin! do my own
+tears deceive my eyes, or are there tears, too, in those radiant orbs?"
+
+"Go, sir!" cried poor Rose, recovering herself suddenly; "and let me
+never see you more." And, as a last chance for life, she darted out of
+the room.
+
+"Your slave obeys you, madam, and kisses your hands and feet forever
+and a day," said the cunning Spaniard, and drawing himself up, walked
+serenely out of the house; while she, poor fool, peeped after him out
+of her window upstairs, and her heart sank within her as she watched his
+jaunty and careless air.
+
+How much of that rhapsody of his was honest, how much premeditated, I
+cannot tell: though she, poor child, began to fancy that it was all a
+set speech, when she found that he had really taken her at her word, and
+set foot no more within her father's house. So she reproached herself
+for the cruelest of women; settled, that if he died, she should be his
+murderess; watched for him to pass at the window, in hopes that he might
+look up, and then hid herself in terror the moment he appeared round
+the corner; and so forth, and so forth:--one love-making is very like
+another, and has been so, I suppose, since that first blessed marriage
+in Paradise, when Adam and Eve made no love at all, but found it
+ready-made for them from heaven; and really it is fiddling while Rome
+is burning, to spend more pages over the sorrows of poor little Rose
+Salterne, while the destinies of Europe are hanging on the marriage
+between Elizabeth and Anjou: and Sir Humphrey Gilbert is stirring heaven
+and earth, and Devonshire, of course, as the most important portion
+of the said earth, to carry out his dormant patent, which will give to
+England in due time (we are not jesting now) Newfoundland, Nova Scotia,
+and Canada, and the Northern States; and to Humphrey Gilbert himself
+something better than a new world, namely another world, and a crown of
+glory therein which never fades away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+HOW EUSTACE LEIGH MET THE POPE'S LEGATE
+
+     "Misguided, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
+     Thou see'st to be too busy is some danger."
+
+                                        Hamlet.
+
+It is the spring of 1582-3. The gray March skies are curdling hard and
+high above black mountain peaks. The keen March wind is sweeping harsh
+and dry across a dreary sheet of bog, still red and yellow with the
+stains of winter frost. One brown knoll alone breaks the waste, and on
+it a few leafless wind-clipt oaks stretch their moss-grown arms, like
+giant hairy spiders, above a desolate pool which crisps and shivers in
+the biting breeze, while from beside its brink rises a mournful cry, and
+sweeps down, faint and fitful, amid the howling of the wind.
+
+Along the brink of the bog, picking their road among crumbling rocks and
+green spongy springs, a company of English soldiers are pushing fast,
+clad cap-a-pie in helmet and quilted jerkin, with arquebus on shoulder,
+and pikes trailing behind them; stern steadfast men, who, two years
+since, were working the guns at Smerwick fort, and have since then seen
+many a bloody fray, and shall see more before they die. Two captains
+ride before them on shaggy ponies, the taller in armor, stained and
+rusted with many a storm and fray, the other in brilliant inlaid cuirass
+and helmet, gaudy sash and plume, and sword hilt glittering with gold,
+a quaint contrast enough to the meager garron which carries him and his
+finery. Beside them, secured by a cord which a pikeman has fastened to
+his own wrist, trots a bare-legged Irish kerne, whose only clothing is
+his ragged yellow mantle, and the unkempt "glib" of hair, through which
+his eyes peer out, right and left, in mingled fear and sullenness. He is
+the guide of the company, in their hunt after the rebel Baltinglas; and
+woe to him if he play them false.
+
+"A pleasant country, truly, Captain Raleigh," says the dingy officer to
+the gay one. "I wonder how, having once escaped from it to Whitehall,
+you have the courage to come back and spoil that gay suit with bog-water
+and mud."
+
+"A very pleasant country, my friend Amyas; what you say in jest, I say
+in earnest."
+
+"Hillo! Our tastes have changed places. I am sick of it already, as you
+foretold. Would Heaven that I could hear of some adventure Westward-ho!
+and find these big bones swinging in a hammock once more. Pray what has
+made you so suddenly in love with bog and rock, that you come back to
+tramp them with us? I thought you had spied out the nakedness of the
+land long ago."
+
+"Bog and rock? Nakedness of the land? What is needed here but prudence
+and skill, justice and law? This soil, see, is fat enough, if men were
+here to till it. These rocks--who knows what minerals they may hold? I
+hear of gold and jewels found already in divers parts; and Daniel, my
+brother Humphrey's German assayer, assures me that these rocks are of
+the very same kind as those which yield the silver in Peru. Tut, man!
+if her gracious majesty would but bestow on me some few square miles of
+this same wilderness, in seven years' time I would make it blossom like
+the rose, by God's good help."
+
+"Humph! I should be more inclined to stay here, then."
+
+"So you shall, and be my agent, if you will, to get in my mine-rents and
+my corn-rents, and my fishery-rents, eh? Could you keep accounts, old
+knight of the bear's-paw?"
+
+"Well enough for such short reckonings as yours would be, on the profit
+side at least. No, no--I'd sooner carry lime all my days from Cauldy to
+Bideford, than pass another twelve-month in the land of Ire, among
+the children of wrath. There is a curse upon the face of the earth, I
+believe."
+
+"There is no curse upon it, save the old one of man's sin--'Thorns and
+thistles it shall bring forth to thee.' But if you root up the thorns
+and thistles, Amyas, I know no fiend who can prevent your growing wheat
+instead; and if you till the ground like a man, you plough and barrow
+away nature's curse, and other fables of the schoolmen beside," added
+he, in that daring fashion which afterwards obtained for him (and never
+did good Christian less deserve it) the imputation of atheism.
+
+"It is sword and bullet, I think, that are needed here, before plough
+and harrow, to clear away some of the curse. Until a few more of these
+Irish lords are gone where the Desmonds are, there is no peace for
+Ireland."
+
+"Humph! not so far wrong, I fear. And yet--Irish lords? These very
+traitors are better English blood than we who hunt them down. When Yeo
+here slew the Desmond the other day, he no more let out a drop of Irish
+blood, than if he had slain the lord deputy himself."
+
+"His blood be on his own head," said Yeo, "He looked as wild a savage as
+the worst of them, more shame to him; and the ancient here had nigh cut
+off his arm before he told us who he was: and then, your worship, having
+a price upon his head, and like to bleed to death too--"
+
+"Enough, enough, good fellow," said Raleigh. "Thou hast done what was
+given thee to do. Strange, Amyas, is it not? Noble Normans sunk into
+savages--Hibernis ipsis hiberniores! Is there some uncivilizing venom in
+the air?"
+
+"Some venom, at least, which makes English men traitors. But the Irish
+themselves are well enough, if their tyrants would let them be. See now,
+what more faithful liegeman has her majesty than the Inchiquin, who,
+they say, is Prince of Themond, and should be king of all Ireland, if
+every man had his right?"
+
+"Don't talk of rights in the land of wrongs, man. But the Inchiquin
+knows well that the true Irish Esau has no worse enemy than his
+supplanter, the Norman Jacob. And yet, Amyas are even these men worse
+than we might be, if we had been bred up masters over the bodies and
+souls of men, in some remote land where law and order had never come?
+Look at this Desmond, brought up a savage among savages, a Papist among
+Papists, a despot among slaves; a thousand easy maidens deeming it honor
+to serve his pleasure, a thousand wild ruffians deeming it piety to
+fulfil his revenge: and let him that is without sin among us cast the
+first stone."
+
+"Ay," went on Raleigh to himself, as the conversation dropped. "What
+hadst thou been, Raleigh, hadst thou been that Desmond whose lands thou
+now desirest? What wilt thou be when thou hast them? Will thy children
+sink downwards, as these noble barons sank? Will the genius of tyranny
+and falsehood find soil within thy heart to grow and ripen fruit? What
+guarantee hast thou for doing better here than those who went before
+thee? And yet, cannot I do justice and love mercy? Can I not establish
+plantations, build and sow, and make the desert valleys laugh with corn?
+Shall I not have my Spenser with me, to fill me with all noble thoughts,
+and raise my soul to his heroic pitch? Is not this true knight-errantry,
+to redeem to peace and use, and to the glory of that glorious queen whom
+God has given to me, a generous soil and a more generous race? Trustful
+and tenderhearted they are--none more; and if they be fickle and
+passionate, will not that very softness of temper, which makes them so
+easily led to evil, make them as easy to be led towards good? Yes--here,
+away from courts, among a people who should bless me as their benefactor
+and deliverer--what golden days might be mine! And yet--is this but
+another angel's mask from that same cunning fiend ambition's stage? And
+will my house be indeed the house of God, the foundations of which are
+loyalty, and its bulwarks righteousness, and not the house of fame,
+whose walls are of the soap-bubble, and its floor a sea of glass mingled
+with fire? I would be good and great--When will the day come when I
+shall be content to be good, and yet not great, like this same simple
+Leigh, toiling on by my side to do his duty, with no more thought for
+the morrow than the birds of God? Greatness? I have tasted that cup
+within the last twelve months; do I not know that it is sweet in the
+mouth, but bitter in the belly? Greatness? And was not Essex great, and
+John of Austria great, and Desmond great, whose race, but three
+short years ago, had stood for ages higher than I shall ever hope to
+climb--castles, and lands, and slaves by thousands, and five hundred
+gentlemen of his name, who had vowed to forswear God before they
+forswore him and well have they kept their vow! And now, dead in a
+turf-hovel, like a coney in a burrow! Leigh, what noise was that?"
+
+"An Irish howl, I fancied: but it came from off the bog; it may be only
+a plover's cry."
+
+"Something not quite right, sir captain, to my mind," said the ancient.
+"They have ugly stories here of pucks and banshees, and what not of
+ghosts. There it was again, wailing just like a woman. They say the
+banshee cried all night before Desmond was slain."
+
+"Perhaps, then, this one may be crying for Baltinglas; for his turn is
+likely to come next--not that I believe in such old wives' tales."
+
+"Shamus, my man," said Amyas to the guide, "do you hear that cry in the
+bog?"
+
+The guide put on the most stolid of faces, and answered in broken
+English--
+
+"Shamus hear naught. Perhaps--what you call him?--fishing in ta pool."
+
+"An otter, he means, and I believe he is right. Stay, no! Did you not
+hear it then, Shamus? It was a woman's voice."
+
+"Shamus is shick in his ears ever since Christmas."
+
+"Shamus will go after Desmond if he lies," said Amyas. "Ancient, we had
+better send a few men to see what it is; there may be a poor soul taken
+by robbers, or perhaps starving to death, as I have seen many a one."
+
+"And I too, poor wretches; and by no fault of their own or ours either:
+but if their lords will fall to quarrelling, and then drive each other's
+cattle, and waste each other's lands, sir, you know--"
+
+"I know," said Amyas, impatiently; "why dost not take the men, and go?"
+
+"Cry you mercy, noble captain, but--I fear nothing born of woman."
+
+"Well, what of that?" said Amyas, with a smile.
+
+"But these pucks, sir. The wild Irish do say that they haunt the pools;
+and they do no manner of harm, sir, when you are coming up to them; but
+when you are past, sir, they jump on your back like to apes, sir,--and
+who can tackle that manner of fiend?"
+
+"Why, then, by thine own showing, ancient," said Raleigh, "thou may'st
+go and see all safely enough, and then if the puck jumps on thee as thou
+comest back, just run in with him here, and I'll buy him of thee for a
+noble; or thou may'st keep him in a cage, and make money in London by
+showing him for a monster."
+
+"Good heavens forefend, Captain Raleigh! but you talk rashly! But if I
+must, Captain Leigh--
+
+           'Where duty calls
+            To brazen walls,
+     How base the slave who flinches'
+
+Lads, who'll follow me?"
+
+"Thou askest for volunteers, as if thou wert to lead a forlorn hope.
+Pull away at the usquebaugh, man, and swallow Dutch courage, since thine
+English is oozed away. Stay, I'll go myself."
+
+"And I with you," said Raleigh. "As the queen's true knight-errant, I
+am bound to be behindhand in no adventure. Who knows but we may find a
+wicked magician, just going to cut off the head of some saffron-mantled
+princess?" and he dismounted.
+
+"Oh, sirs, sirs, to endanger your precious--"
+
+"Pooh," said Raleigh. "I wear an amulet, and have a spell of art-magic
+at my tongue's end, whereby, sir ancient, neither can a ghost see me,
+nor I see them. Come with us, Yeo, the Desmond-slayer, and we will shame
+the devil, or be shamed by him."
+
+"He may shame me, sir, but he will never frighten me," quoth Yeo; "but
+the bog, captains?"
+
+"Tut! Devonshire men, and heath-trotters born, and not know our way over
+a peat moor!"
+
+And the three strode away.
+
+They splashed and scrambled for some quarter of a mile to the knoll,
+while the cry became louder and louder as they neared.
+
+"That's neither ghost nor otter, sirs, but a true Irish howl, as Captain
+Leigh said; and I'll warrant Master Shamus knew as much long ago," said
+Yeo.
+
+And in fact, they could now hear plainly the "Ochone, Ochonorie," of
+some wild woman; and scrambling over the boulders of the knoll, in
+another minute came full upon her.
+
+She was a young girl, sluttish and unkempt, of course, but fair enough:
+her only covering, as usual, was the ample yellow mantle. There she sat
+upon a stone, tearing her black dishevelled hair, and every now and then
+throwing up her head, and bursting into a long mournful cry, "for all
+the world," as Yeo said, "like a dumb four-footed hound, and not a
+Christian soul."
+
+On her knees lay the head of a man of middle age, in the long soutane of
+a Romish priest. One look at the attitude of his limbs told them that he
+was dead.
+
+The two paused in awe; and Raleigh's spirit, susceptible of all poetical
+images, felt keenly that strange scene,--the bleak and bitter sky, the
+shapeless bog, the stunted trees, the savage girl alone with the corpse
+in that utter desolation. And as she bent her head over the still face,
+and called wildly to him who heard her not, and then, utterly unmindful
+of the intruders, sent up again that dreary wail into the dreary air,
+they felt a sacred horror, which almost made them turn away, and leave
+her unquestioned: but Yeo, whose nerves were of tougher fibre, asked
+quietly--
+
+"Shall I go and search the fellow, captain?"
+
+"Better, I think," said Amyas.
+
+Raleigh went gently to the girl, and spoke to her in English. She looked
+up at him, his armor and his plume, with wide and wondering eyes, and
+then shook her head, and returned to her lamentation.
+
+Raleigh gently laid his hand on her arm, and lifted her up, while Yeo
+and Amyas bent over the corpse.
+
+It was the body of a large and coarse-featured man, but wasted and
+shrunk as if by famine to a very skeleton. The hands and legs were
+cramped up, and the trunk bowed together, as if the man had died of cold
+or famine. Yeo drew back the clothes from the thin bosom, while the girl
+screamed and wept, but made no effort to stop him.
+
+"Ask her who it is? Yeo, you know a little Irish," said Amyas.
+
+He asked, but the girl made no answer. "The stubborn jade won't tell, of
+course, sir. If she were but a man, I'd make her soon enough."
+
+"Ask her who killed him?"
+
+"No one, she says; and I believe she says true, for I can find no wound.
+The man has been starved, sirs, as I am a sinful man. God help him,
+though he is a priest; and yet he seems full enough down below. What's
+here? A big pouch, sirs, stuffed full of somewhat."
+
+"Hand it hither."
+
+The two opened the pouch; papers, papers, but no scrap of food. Then a
+parchment. They unrolled it.
+
+"Latin," said Amyas; "you must construe, Don Scholar."
+
+"Is it possible?" said Raleigh, after reading a moment. "This is indeed
+a prize! This is Saunders himself!"
+
+Yeo sprang up from the body as if he had touched an adder. "Nick
+Saunders, the Legacy, sir?"
+
+"Nicholas Saunders, the legate."
+
+"The villain! why did not he wait for me to have the comfort of killing
+him? Dog!" and he kicked the corpse with his foot.
+
+"Quiet! quiet! Remember the poor girl," said Amyas, as she shrieked at
+the profanation, while Raleigh went on, half to himself:
+
+"Yes, this is Saunders. Misguided fool, and this is the end! To this
+thou hast come with thy plotting and thy conspiring, thy lying and thy
+boasting, consecrated banners and Pope's bulls, Agnus Deis and holy
+waters, the blessing of all saints and angels, and thy Lady of the
+Immaculate Conception! Thou hast called on the heavens to judge between
+thee and us, and here is their answer! What is that in his hand, Amyas?
+Give it me. A pastoral epistle to the Earl of Ormond, and all nobles of
+the realm of Ireland; 'To all who groan beneath the loathsome tyranny
+of an illegitimate adulteress, etc., Nicholas Saunders, by the grace
+of God, Legate, etc.' Bah! and this forsooth was thy last meditation!
+Incorrigible pedant! Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni!"
+
+He ran his eye through various other documents, written in the usual
+strain: full of huge promises from the Pope and the king of Spain;
+frantic and filthy slanders against Elizabeth, Burghley, Leicester,
+Essex (the elder), Sidney, and every great and good man (never mind
+of which party) who then upheld the commonweal; bombastic attempts to
+terrify weak consciences, by denouncing endless fire against those who
+opposed the true faith; fulsome ascriptions of martyrdom and sanctity to
+every rebel and traitor who had been hanged for the last twenty
+years; wearisome arguments about the bull In Caena Domini, Elizabeth's
+excommunication, the nullity of English law, the sacred duty of
+rebellion, the right to kill a prince impenitently heretical, and the
+like insanities and villainies, which may be read at large in Camden,
+the Phoenix Britannicus, Fox's Martyrs, or, surest of all, in the
+writings of the worthies themselves.
+
+With a gesture of disgust, Raleigh crammed the foul stuff back again
+into the pouch. Taking it with them, they walked back to the company,
+and then remounting, marched away once more towards the lands of the
+Desmonds; and the girl was left alone with the dead.
+
+An hour had passed, when another Englishman was standing by the wailing
+girl, and round him a dozen shockheaded kernes, skene on thigh and
+javelin in hand, were tossing about their tawny rags, and adding their
+lamentations to those of the lonely watcher.
+
+The Englishman was Eustace Leigh; a layman still, but still at his old
+work. By two years of intrigue and labor from one end of Ireland to the
+other, he had been trying to satisfy his conscience for rejecting "the
+higher calling" of the celibate; for mad hopes still lurked within that
+fiery heart. His brow was wrinkled now; his features harshened; the
+scar upon his face, and the slight distortion which accompanied it, was
+hidden by a bushy beard from all but himself; and he never forgot it for
+a day, nor forgot who had given it to him.
+
+He had been with Desmond, wandering in moor and moss for many a month
+in danger of his life; and now he was on his way to James Fitz-Eustace,
+Lord Baltinglas, to bring him the news of Desmond's death; and with
+him a remnant of the clan, who were either too stout-hearted, or too
+desperately stained with crime, to seek peace from the English, and, as
+their fellows did, find it at once and freely.
+
+There Eustace stood, looking down on all that was left of the most
+sacred personage of Ireland; the man who, as he once had hoped, was to
+regenerate his native land, and bring the proud island of the West once
+more beneath that gentle yoke, in which united Christendom labored for
+the commonweal of the universal Church. There he was, and with him all
+Eustace's dreams, in the very heart of that country which he had vowed,
+and believed as he vowed, was ready to rise in arms as one man, even to
+the baby at the breast (so he had said), in vengeance against the Saxon
+heretic, and sweep the hated name of Englishman into the deepest abysses
+of the surge which walled her coasts; with Spain and the Pope to back
+him, and the wealth of the Jesuits at his command; in the midst
+of faithful Catholics, valiant soldiers, noblemen who had pledged
+themselves to die for the cause, serfs who worshipped him as a
+demigod--starved to death in a bog! It was a pretty plain verdict on the
+reasonableness of his expectations; but not to Eustace Leigh.
+
+It was a failure, of course; but it was an accident; indeed, to have
+been expected, in a wicked world whose prince and master, as all
+knew, was the devil himself; indeed, proof of the righteousness of
+the cause--for when had the true faith been other than persecuted and
+trampled under foot? If one came to think of it with eyes purified from
+the tears of carnal impatience, what was it but a glorious martyrdom?
+
+"Blest Saunders!" murmured Eustace Leigh; "let me die the death of the
+righteous, and let my last end he like this! Ora pro me, most excellent
+martyr, while I dig thy grave upon this lonely moor, to wait there for
+thy translation to one of those stately shrines, which, cemented by the
+blood of such as thee, shall hereafter rise restored toward heaven, to
+make this land once more 'The Isle of Saints.'"
+
+The corpse was buried; a few prayers said hastily; and Eustace Leigh was
+away again, not now to find Baltinglas; for it was more than his life
+was worth. The girl had told him of the English soldiers who had passed,
+and he knew that they would reach the earl probably before he did. The
+game was up; all was lost. So he retraced his steps, as a desperate
+resource, to the last place where he would be looked for, and after a
+month of disguising, hiding, and other expedients, found himself again
+in his native county of Devon, while Fitz-Eustace Viscount Baltinglas
+had taken ship for Spain, having got little by his famous argument
+to Ormond in behalf of his joining the Church of Rome, "Had not thine
+ancestor, blessed Thomas of Canterbury, died for the Church of Rome,
+thou hadst never been Earl of Ormond." The premises were certainly
+sounder than those of his party were wont to be; for it was to expiate
+the murder of that turbulent hero that the Ormond lands had been granted
+by Henry II.: but as for the conclusion therefrom, it was much on a par
+with the rest.
+
+And now let us return to Raleigh and Amyas, as they jog along their
+weary road. They have many things to talk of; for it is but three days
+since they met.
+
+Amyas, as you see, is coming fast into Raleigh's old opinion of Ireland.
+Raleigh, under the inspiration of a possible grant of Desmond's lands,
+looks on bogs and rocks transfigured by his own hopes and fancy, as if
+by the glory of a rainbow. He looked at all things so, noble fellow,
+even thirty years after, when old, worn out, and ruined; well for him
+had it been otherwise, and his heart had grown old with his head! Amyas,
+who knows nothing about Desmond's lands, is puzzled at the change.
+
+"Why, what is this, Raleigh? You are like children sitting in the
+market-place, and nothing pleases you. You wanted to get to Court, and
+you have got there; and are lord and master, I hear, or something very
+like it, already--and as soon as fortune stuffs your mouth full of
+sweet-meats, do you turn informer on her?"
+
+Raleigh laughed insignificantly, but was silent.
+
+"And how is your friend Mr. Secretary Spenser, who was with us at
+Smerwick?"
+
+"Spenser? He has thriven even as I have; and he has found, as I have,
+that in making one friend at Court you make ten foes; but 'Oderint dum
+metuant' is no more my motto than his, Leigh. I want to be great--great
+I am already, they say, if princes' favor can swell the frog into an ox;
+but I want to be liked, loved--I want to see people smile when I enter."
+
+"So they do, I'll warrant," said Amyas.
+
+"So do hyenas," said Raleigh; "grin because they are hungry, and I may
+throw them a bone; I'll throw you one now, old lad, or rather a good
+sirloin of beef, for the sake of your smile. That's honest, at least,
+I'll warrant, whosoever's else is not. Have you heard of my brother
+Humphrey's new project?"
+
+"How should I hear anything in this waste howling wilderness?"
+
+"Kiss hands to the wilderness, then, and come with me to Newfoundland!"
+
+"You to Newfoundland?"
+
+"Yes. I to Newfoundland, unless my little matter here is settled at
+once. Gloriana don't know it, and sha'n't till I'm off. She'd send me to
+the Tower, I think, if she caught me playing truant. I could hardly get
+leave to come hither; but I must out, and try my fortune. I am over ears
+in debt already, and sick of courts and courtiers. Humphrey must go next
+spring and take possession of his kingdom beyond seas, or his patent
+expires; and with him I go, and you too, my circumnavigating giant."
+
+And then Raleigh expounded to Amyas the details of the great
+Newfoundland scheme, which whoso will may read in the pages of Hakluyt.
+
+Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Raleigh's half-brother, held a patent for
+"planting" the lands of Newfoundland and "Meta Incognita" (Labrador).
+He had attempted a voyage thither with Raleigh in 1578, whereof I never
+could find any news, save that he came back again, after a heavy brush
+with some Spanish ships (in which his best captain, Mr. Morgan, was
+killed), having done nothing, and much impaired his own estate: but now
+he had collected a large sum; Sir Gilbert Peckham of London, Mr. Hayes
+of South Devon, and various other gentlemen, of whom more hereafter, had
+adventured their money; and a considerable colony was to be sent out the
+next year, with miners, assayers, and, what was more, Parmenius Budaeus,
+Frank's old friend, who had come to England full of thirst to see the
+wonders of the New World; and over and above this, as Raleigh told Amyas
+in strictest secrecy, Adrian Gilbert, Humphrey's brother, was turning
+every stone at Court for a patent of discovery in the North-West;
+and this Newfoundland colony, though it was to produce gold, silver,
+merchandise, and what not, was but a basis of operations, a halfway
+house from whence to work out the North-West passage to the Indies--that
+golden dream, as fatal to English valor as the Guiana one to
+Spanish--and yet hardly, hardly to be regretted, when we remember the
+seamanship, the science, the chivalry, the heroism, unequalled in the
+history of the English nation, which it has called forth among those
+our later Arctic voyagers, who have combined the knight-errantry of the
+middle age with the practical prudence of the modern, and dared for duty
+more than Cortez or Pizarro dared for gold.
+
+Amyas, simple fellow, took all in greedily; he knew enough of the
+dangers of the Magellan passage to appreciate the boundless value of a
+road to the East Indies which would (as all supposed then) save half the
+distance, and be as it were a private possession of the English, safe
+from Spanish interference; and he listened reverently to Sir Humphrey's
+quaint proofs, half true, half fantastic, of such a passage, which
+Raleigh detailed to him--of the Primum Mobile, and its diurnal motion
+from east to west, in obedience to which the sea-current flowed westward
+ever round the Cape of Good Hope, and being unable to pass through the
+narrow strait between South America and the Antarctic Continent, rushed
+up the American shore, as the Gulf Stream, and poured northwestward
+between Greenland and Labrador towards Cathay and India; of that most
+crafty argument of Sir Humphrey's--how Aristotle in his book "De Mundo,"
+and Simon Gryneus in his annotations thereon, declare that the world
+(the Old World) is an island, compassed by that which Homer calls the
+river Oceanus; ergo, the New World is an island also, and there is
+a North-West passage; of the three brothers (names unknown) who had
+actually made the voyage, and named what was afterwards called Davis's
+Strait after themselves; of the Indians who were cast ashore in Germany
+in the reign of Frederic Barbarossa who, as Sir Humphrey had learnedly
+proved per modum tollendi, could have come only by the North-West; and
+above all, of Salvaterra, the Spaniard, who in 1568 had told Sir Henry
+Sidney (Philip's father), there in Ireland, how he had spoken with a
+Mexican friar named Urdaneta, who had himself come from Mar del Zur (the
+Pacific) into Germany by that very North-West passage; at which last
+Amyas shook his head, and said that friars were liars, and seeing
+believing; "but if you must needs have an adventure, you insatiable soul
+you, why not try for the golden city of Manoa?"
+
+"Manoa?" asked Raleigh, who had heard, as most had, dim rumors of the
+place. "What do you know of it?"
+
+Whereon Amyas told him all that he had gathered from the Spaniard; and
+Raleigh, in his turn, believed every word.
+
+"Humph!" said he after a long silence. "To find that golden emperor;
+offer him help and friendship from the queen of England; defend him
+against the Spaniards; if we became strong enough, conquer back all Peru
+from the Popish tyrants, and reinstate him on the throne of the Incas,
+with ourselves for his body-guard, as the Norman Varangians were to
+the effeminate emperors of Byzant--Hey, Amyas? You would make a gallant
+chieftain of Varangs. We'll do it, lad!"
+
+"We'll try," said Amyas; "but we must be quick, for there's one Berreo
+sworn to carry out the quest to the death; and if the Spaniards once get
+thither, their plan of works will be much more like Pizarro's than like
+yours; and by the time we come, there will be neither gold nor city
+left."
+
+"Nor Indians either, I'll warrant the butchers; but, lad, I am promised
+to Humphrey; I have a bark fitting out already, and all I have, and
+more, adventured in her; so Manoa must wait."
+
+"It will wait well enough, if the Spaniards prosper no better on the
+Amazon than they have done; but must I come with you? To tell the truth,
+I am quite shore-sick, and to sea I must go. What will my mother say?"
+
+"I'll manage thy mother," said Raleigh; and so he did; for, to cut a
+long story short, he went back the month after, and he not only took
+home letters from Amyas to his mother, but so impressed on that good
+lady the enormous profits and honors to be derived from Meta Incognita,
+and (which was most true) the advantage to any young man of sailing
+with such a general as Humphrey Gilbert, most pious and most learned of
+seamen and of cavaliers, beloved and honored above all his compeers by
+Queen Elizabeth, that she consented to Amyas's adventuring in the
+voyage some two hundred pounds which had come to him as his share of
+prize-money, after the ever memorable circumnavigation. For Mrs.
+Leigh, be it understood, was no longer at Burrough Court. By Frank's
+persuasion, she had let the old place, moved up to London with her
+eldest son, and taken for herself a lodging somewhere by Palace Stairs,
+which looked out upon the silver Thames (for Thames was silver then),
+with its busy ferries and gliding boats, across to the pleasant fields
+of Lambeth, and the Archbishop's palace, and the wooded Surrey hills;
+and there she spent her peaceful days, close to her Frank and to the
+Court. Elizabeth would have had her re-enter it, offering her a small
+place in the household: but she declined, saying that she was too old
+and heart-weary for aught but prayer. So by prayer she lived, under the
+sheltering shadow of the tall minster where she went morn and even to
+worship, and to entreat for the two in whom her heart was bound up; and
+Frank slipped in every day if but for five minutes, and brought with him
+Spenser, or Raleigh, or Dyer, or Budaeus or sometimes Sidney's self: and
+there was talk of high and holy things, of which none could speak better
+than could she; and each guest went from that hallowed room a humbler
+and yet a loftier man. So slipped on the peaceful months, and few
+and far between came Irish letters, for Ireland was then farther from
+Westminster than is the Black Sea now; but those were days in which
+wives and mothers had learned (as they have learned once more, sweet
+souls!) to walk by faith and not by sight for those they love: and Mrs.
+Leigh was content (though when was she not content?) to hear that Amyas
+was winning a good report as a brave and prudent officer, sober, just,
+and faithful, beloved and obeyed alike by English soldiers and Irish
+kernes.
+
+Those two years, and the one which followed, were the happiest which she
+had known since her husband's death. But the cloud was fast coming up
+the horizon, though she saw it not. A little longer, and the sun would
+be hid for many a wintry day.
+
+Amyas went to Plymouth (with Yeo, of course, at his heels), and there
+beheld, for the first time, the majestic countenance of the philosopher
+of Compton castle. He lodged with Drake, and found him not over-sanguine
+as to the success of the voyage.
+
+"For learning and manners, Amyas, there's not his equal; and the queen
+may well love him, and Devon be proud of him: but book-learning is not
+business: book-learning didn't get me round the world; book-learning
+didn't make Captain Hawkins, nor his father neither, the best
+ship-builders from Hull to Cadiz; and book-learning, I very much fear,
+won't plant Newfoundland."
+
+However, the die was cast, and the little fleet of five sail assembled
+in Cawsand Bay. Amyas was to go as a gentleman adventurer on board of
+Raleigh's bark; Raleigh himself, however, at the eleventh hour, had been
+forbidden by the queen to leave England. Ere they left, Sir Humphrey
+Gilbert's picture was painted by some Plymouth artist, to be sent up to
+Elizabeth in answer to a letter and a gift sent by Raleigh, which, as a
+specimen of the men and of the time, I here transcribe*--
+
+
+"BROTHER--I have sent you a token from her Majesty, an anchor guided
+by a lady, as you see. And further, her Highness willed me to send you
+word, that she wisheth you as great good hap and safety to your ship as
+if she were there in person, desiring you to have care of yourself as of
+that which she tendereth and, therefore, for her sake, you must provide
+for it accordingly. Furthermore, she commandeth that you leave your
+picture with her. For the rest I leave till our meeting, or to the
+report of the bearer, who would needs be the messenger of this good
+news. So I commit you to the will and protection of God, who send us
+such life and death as he shall please, or hath appointed.
+
+"Richmond, this Friday morning,
+
+"Your true Brother,
+
+"W. RALEIGH."
+
+     * This letter was a few years since in the possession of Mr.
+     Pomeroy Gilbert, fort-major at Dartmouth, a descendant of
+     the admiral's.
+
+"Who would not die, sir, for such a woman?" said Sir Humphrey (and he
+said truly), as he showed that letter to Amyas.
+
+"Who would not? But she bids you rather live for her."
+
+"I shall do both, young man; and for God too, I trust. We are going in
+God's cause; we go for the honor of God's Gospel, for the deliverance of
+poor infidels led captive by the devil; for the relief of my distressed
+countrymen unemployed within this narrow isle; and to God we commit our
+cause. We fight against the devil himself; and stronger is He that is
+within us than he that is against us."
+
+Some say that Raleigh himself came down to Plymouth, accompanied the
+fleet a day's sail to sea, and would have given her majesty the slip,
+and gone with them Westward-ho, but for Sir Humphrey's advice. It is
+likely enough: but I cannot find evidence for it. At all events, on the
+11th June the fleet sailed out, having, says Mr. Hayes, "in number about
+260 men, among whom we had of every faculty good choice, as shipwrights,
+masons, carpenters, smiths, and such like, requisite for such an action;
+also mineral men and refiners. Beside, for solace of our people and
+allurement of the savages, we were provided of musique in good variety;
+not omitting the least toys, as morris-dancers, hobby-horses, and
+May-like conceits, to delight the savage people, whom we intended to win
+by all fair means possible." An armament complete enough, even to that
+tenderness towards the Indians, which is so striking a feature of
+the Elizabethan seamen (called out in them, perhaps, by horror at the
+Spanish cruelties, as well as by their more liberal creed), and to the
+daily service of God on board of every ship, according to the simple
+old instructions of Captain John Hawkins to one of his little squadrons,
+"Keep good company; beware of fire; serve God daily; and love one
+another"--an armament, in short, complete in all but men. The sailors
+had been picked up hastily and anywhere, and soon proved themselves a
+mutinous, and, in the case of the bark Swallow, a piratical set. The
+mechanics were little better. The gentlemen-adventurers, puffed up with
+vain hopes of finding a new Mexico, became soon disappointed and surly
+at the hard practical reality; while over all was the head of a sage and
+an enthusiast, a man too noble to suspect others, and too pure to
+make allowances for poor dirty human weaknesses. He had got his scheme
+perfect upon paper; well for him, and for his company, if he had asked
+Francis Drake to translate it for him into fact! As early as the second
+day, the seeds of failure began to sprout above ground. The men of
+Raleigh's bark, the Vice-Admiral, suddenly found themselves seized, or
+supposed themselves seized, with a contagious sickness, and at midnight
+forsook the fleet, and went back to Plymouth; whereto Mr. Hayes can only
+say, "The reason I never could understand. Sure I am that Mr. Raleigh
+spared no cost in setting them forth. And so I leave it unto God!"
+
+But Amyas said more. He told Butler the captain plainly that, if the
+bark went back, he would not; that he had seen enough of ships deserting
+their consorts; that it should never be said of him that he had followed
+Winter's example, and that, too, on a fair easterly wind; and finally
+that he had seen Doughty hanged for trying to play such a trick; and
+that he might see others hanged too before he died. Whereon Captain
+Butler offered to draw and fight, to which Amyas showed no repugnance;
+whereon the captain, having taken a second look at Amyas's thews and
+sinews, reconsidered the matter, and offered to put Amyas on board of
+Sir Humphrey's Delight, if he could find a crew to row him.
+
+Amyas looked around.
+
+"Are there any of Sir Francis Drake's men on board?"
+
+"Three, sir," said Yeo. "Robert Drew, and two others."
+
+"Pelicans!" roared Amyas, "you have been round the world, and will you
+turn back from Westward-ho?"
+
+There was a moment's silence, and then Drew came forward.
+
+"Lower us a boat, captain, and lend us a caliver to make signals with,
+while I get my kit on deck; I'll after Captain Leigh, if I row him
+aboard all alone to my own hands."
+
+"If I ever command a ship, I will not forget you," said Amyas.
+
+"Nor us either, sir, we hope; for we haven't forgotten you and your
+honest conditions," said both the other Pelicans; and so away over the
+side went all the five, and pulled away after the admiral's lantern,
+firing shots at intervals as signals. Luckily for the five desperadoes,
+the night was all but calm. They got on board before the morning, and so
+away into the boundless West.*
+
+     * The Raleigh, the largest ship of the squadron, was of only
+     200 tons burden; The Golden Hind, Hayes' ship, which
+     returned safe, of 40; and The Squirrel (whereof more
+     hereafter), of 10 tons!  In such cockboats did these old
+     heroes brave the unknown seas.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+HOW BIDEFORD BRIDGE DINED AT ANNERY HOUSE
+
+     "Three lords sat drinking late yestreen,
+     And ere they paid the lawing,
+     They set a combat them between,
+     To fight it in the dawing"--Scotch Ballad.
+
+Every one who knows Bideford cannot but know Bideford bridge; for it is
+the very omphalos, cynosure, and soul, around which the town, as a body,
+has organized itself; and as Edinburgh is Edinburgh by virtue of its
+castle, Rome Rome by virtue of its capitol, and Egypt Egypt by virtue of
+its pyramids, so is Bideford Bideford by virtue of its bridge. But all
+do not know the occult powers which have advanced and animated the
+said wondrous bridge for now five hundred years, and made it the chief
+wonder, according to Prince and Fuller, of this fair land of Devon:
+being first an inspired bridge, a soul-saving bridge, an alms-giving
+bridge, an educational bridge, a sentient bridge, and last, but not
+least, a dinner-giving bridge. All do not know how, when it began to
+be built some half mile higher up, hands invisible carried the stones
+down-stream each night to the present site; until Sir Richard Gurney,
+parson of the parish, going to bed one night in sore perplexity and fear
+of the evil spirit who seemed so busy in his sheepfold, beheld a vision
+of an angel, who bade build the bridge where he himself had so kindly
+transported the materials; for there alone was sure foundation amid the
+broad sheet of shifting sand. All do not know how Bishop Grandison of
+Exeter proclaimed throughout his diocese indulgences, benedictions, and
+"participation in all spiritual blessings for ever," to all who would
+promote the bridging of that dangerous ford; and so, consulting alike
+the interests of their souls and of their bodies, "make the best of both
+worlds."
+
+All do not know, nor do I, that "though the foundation of the bridge
+is laid upon wool, yet it shakes at the slightest step of a horse;" or
+that, "though it has twenty-three arches, yet one Wm. Alford (another
+Milo) carried on his back for a wager four bushels salt-water measure,
+all the length thereof;" or that the bridge is a veritable esquire,
+bearing arms of its own (a ship and bridge proper on a plain field),
+and owning lands and tenements in many parishes, with which the said
+miraculous bridge has, from time to time, founded charities, built
+schools, waged suits at law, and finally (for this concerns us most)
+given yearly dinners, and kept for that purpose (luxurious and liquorish
+bridge that it was) the best stocked cellar of wines in all Devon.
+
+To one of these dinners, as it happened, were invited in the year 1583
+all the notabilities of Bideford, and beside them Mr. St. Leger
+of Annery close by, brother of the marshal of Munster, and of Lady
+Grenville; a most worthy and hospitable gentleman, who, finding riches
+a snare, parted with them so freely to all his neighbors as long as he
+lived, that he effectually prevented his children after him from falling
+into the temptations thereunto incident.
+
+Between him and one of the bridge trustees arose an argument, whether
+a salmon caught below the bridge was better or worse than one caught
+above; and as that weighty question could only be decided by practical
+experiment, Mr. St. Leger vowed that as the bridge had given him a good
+dinner, he would give the bridge one; offered a bet of five pounds that
+he would find them, out of the pool below Annery, as firm and flaky a
+salmon as the Appledore one which they had just eaten; and then, in the
+fulness of his heart, invited the whole company present to dine with him
+at Annery three days after, and bring with them each a wife or daughter;
+and Don Guzman being at table, he was invited too.
+
+So there was a mighty feast in the great hall at Annery, such as had
+seldom been since Judge Hankford feasted Edward the Fourth there; and
+while every one was eating their best and drinking their worst, Rose
+Salterne and Don Guzman were pretending not to see each other, and
+watching each other all the more. But Rose, at least, had to be very
+careful of her glances; for not only was her father at the table, but
+just opposite her sat none other than Messrs. William Cary and Arthur
+St. Leger, lieutenants in her majesty's Irish army, who had returned on
+furlough a few days before.
+
+Rose Salterne and the Spaniard had not exchanged a word in the last six
+months, though they had met many times. The Spaniard by no means avoided
+her company, except in her father's house; he only took care to obey
+her carefully, by seeming always unconscious of her presence, beyond the
+stateliest of salutes at entering and departing. But he took care, at
+the same time, to lay himself out to the very best advantage whenever
+he was in her presence; to be more witty, more eloquent, more romantic,
+more full of wonderful tales than he ever yet had been. The cunning
+Don had found himself foiled in his first tactic; and he was now
+trying another, and a far more formidable one. In the first place, Rose
+deserved a very severe punishment, for having dared to refuse the love
+of a Spanish nobleman; and what greater punishment could he inflict than
+withdrawing the honor of his attentions, and the sunshine of his smiles?
+There was conceit enough in that notion, but there was cunning too;
+for none knew better than the Spaniard, that women, like the world, are
+pretty sure to value a man (especially if there be any real worth in
+him) at his own price; and that the more he demands for himself, the
+more they will give for him.
+
+And now he would put a high price on himself, and pique her pride, as
+she was too much accustomed to worship, to be won by flattering it. He
+might have done that by paying attention to some one else: but he was
+too wise to employ so coarse a method, which might raise indignation, or
+disgust, or despair in Rose's heart, but would have never brought her to
+his feet--as it will never bring any woman worth bringing. So he quietly
+and unobtrusively showed her that he could do without her; and she, poor
+fool, as she was meant to do, began forthwith to ask herself--why? What
+was the hidden treasure, what was the reserve force, which made him
+independent of her, while she could not say that she was independent of
+him? Had he a secret? how pleasant to know it! Some huge ambition? how
+pleasant to share in it! Some mysterious knowledge? how pleasant to
+learn it! Some capacity of love beyond the common? how delicious to have
+it all for her own! He must be greater, wiser, richer-hearted than she
+was, as well as better-born. Ah, if his wealth would but supply her
+poverty! And so, step by step, she was being led to sue in forma
+pauperis to the very man whom she had spurned when he sued in like form
+to her. That temptation of having some mysterious private treasure, of
+being the priestess of some hidden sanctuary, and being able to thank
+Heaven that she was not as other women are, was becoming fast too much
+for Rose, as it is too much for most. For none knew better than the
+Spaniard how much more fond women are, by the very law of their sex,
+of worshipping than of being worshipped, and of obeying than of being
+obeyed; how their coyness, often their scorn, is but a mask to hide
+their consciousness of weakness; and a mask, too, of which they
+themselves will often be the first to tire.
+
+And Rose was utterly tired of that same mask as she sat at table at
+Annery that day; and Don Guzman saw it in her uneasy and downcast looks,
+and thinking (conceited coxcomb) that she must be by now sufficiently
+punished, stole a glance at her now and then, and was not abashed when
+he saw that she dropped her eyes when they met his, because he saw her
+silence and abstraction increase, and something like a blush steal into
+her cheeks. So he pretended to be as much downcast and abstracted as she
+was, and went on with his glances, till he once found her, poor thing,
+looking at him to see if he was looking at her; and then he knew his
+prey was safe, and asked her, with his eyes, "Do you forgive me?" and
+saw her stop dead in her talk to her next neighbor, and falter, and drop
+her eyes, and raise them again after a minute in search of his, that
+he might repeat the pleasant question. And then what could she do but
+answer with all her face and every bend of her pretty neck, "And do you
+forgive me in turn?"
+
+Whereon Don Guzman broke out jubilant, like nightingale on bough, with
+story, and jest, and repartee; and became forthwith the soul of the
+whole company, and the most charming of all cavaliers. And poor Rose
+knew that she was the cause of his sudden change of mood, and blamed
+herself for what she had done, and shuddered and blushed at her own
+delight, and longed that the feast was over, that she might hurry home
+and hide herself alone with sweet fancies about a love the reality of
+which she felt she dared not face.
+
+It was a beautiful sight, the great terrace at Annery that afternoon;
+with the smart dames in their gaudy dresses parading up and down in twos
+and threes before the stately house; or looking down upon the park, with
+the old oaks, and the deer, and the broad land-locked river spread out
+like a lake beneath, all bright in the glare of the midsummer sun; or
+listening obsequiously to the two great ladies who did the honors, Mrs.
+St. Leger the hostess, and her sister-in-law, fair Lady Grenville. All
+chatted, and laughed, and eyed each other's dresses, and gossiped about
+each other's husbands and servants: only Rose Salterne kept apart, and
+longed to get into a corner and laugh or cry, she knew not which.
+
+"Our pretty Rose seems sad," said Lady Grenville, coming up to her.
+"Cheer up, child! we want you to come and sing to us."
+
+Rose answered she knew not what, and obeyed mechanically.
+
+She took the lute, and sat down on a bench beneath the house, while the
+rest grouped themselves round her.
+
+"What shall I sing?"
+
+"Let us have your old song, 'Earl Haldan's Daughter.'"
+
+Rose shrank from it. It was a loud and dashing ballad, which chimed in
+but little with her thoughts; and Frank had praised it too, in happier
+days long since gone by. She thought of him, and of others, and of her
+pride and carelessness; and the song seemed ominous to her: and yet for
+that very reason she dared not refuse to sing it, for fear of suspicion
+where no one suspected; and so she began per force--
+
+
+I.
+
+"It was Earl Haldan's daughter, She look'd across the sea; She look'd
+across the water, And long and loud laugh'd she; 'The locks of six
+princesses Must be my marriage-fee, So hey bonny boat, and ho bonny
+boat! Who comes a wooing me?'
+
+II.
+
+"It was Earl Haldan's daughter, She walk'd along the sand; When she was
+aware of a knight so fair, Come sailing to the land. His sails were all
+of velvet, His mast of beaten gold, And 'hey bonny boat, and ho bonny
+boat, Who saileth here so bold?'
+
+III.
+
+"'The locks of five princesses I won beyond the sea; I shore their
+golden tresses, To fringe a cloak for thee. One handful yet is wanting,
+But one of all the tale; So hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat! Furl up
+thy velvet sail!'
+
+IV.
+
+"He leapt into the water, That rover young and bold; He gript Earl
+Haldan's daughter, He shore her locks of gold; 'Go weep, go weep, proud
+maiden, The tale is full to-day. Now hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat!
+Sail Westward-ho, and away!'"
+
+
+As she ceased, a measured voice, with a foreign accent, thrilled through
+her.
+
+"In the East, they say the nightingale sings to the rose; Devon, more
+happy, has nightingale and rose in one."
+
+"We have no nightingales in Devon, Don Guzman," said Lady Grenville;
+"but our little forest thrushes sing, as you hear, sweetly enough to
+content any ear. But what brings you away from the gentlemen so early?"
+
+"These letters," said he, "which have just been put into my hand; and
+as they call me home to Spain, I was loath to lose a moment of that
+delightful company from which I must part so soon."
+
+"To Spain?" asked half-a-dozen voices: for the Don was a general
+favorite.
+
+"Yes, and thence to the Indies. My ransom has arrived, and with it
+the promise of an office. I am to be Governor of La Guayra in Caracas.
+Congratulate me on my promotion."
+
+A mist was over Rose's eyes. The Spaniard's voice was hard and flippant.
+Did he care for her, after all? And if he did, was it nevertheless
+hopeless? How her cheeks glowed! Everybody must see it! Anything to turn
+away their attention from her, and in that nervous haste which makes
+people speak, and speak foolishly too, just because they ought to be
+silent, she asked--
+
+"And where is La Guayra?"
+
+"Half round the world, on the coast of the Spanish Main. The loveliest
+place on earth, and the loveliest governor's house, in a forest of palms
+at the foot of a mountain eight thousand feet high: I shall only want a
+wife there to be in paradise."
+
+"I don't doubt that you may persuade some fair lady of Seville to
+accompany you thither," said Lady Grenville.
+
+"Thanks, gracious madam: but the truth is, that since I have had the
+bliss of knowing English ladies, I have begun to think that they are the
+only ones on earth worth wooing."
+
+"A thousand thanks for the compliment; but I fear none of our free
+English maidens would like to submit to the guardianship of a duenna.
+Eh, Rose? how should you like to be kept under lock and key all day by
+an ugly old woman with a horn on her forehead?"
+
+Poor Rose turned so scarlet that Lady Grenville knew her secret on the
+spot, and would have tried to turn the conversation: but before she
+could speak, some burgher's wife blundered out a commonplace about
+the jealousy of Spanish husbands; and another, to make matters better,
+giggled out something more true than delicate about West Indian masters
+and fair slaves.
+
+"Ladies," said Don Guzman, reddening, "believe me that these are but the
+calumnies of ignorance. If we be more jealous than other nations, it is
+because we love more passionately. If some of us abroad are profligate,
+it is because they, poor men, have no helpmate, which, like the
+amethyst, keeps its wearer pure. I could tell you stories, ladies, of
+the constancy and devotion of Spanish husbands, even in the Indies, as
+strange as ever romancer invented."
+
+"Can you? Then we challenge you to give us one at least."
+
+"I fear it would be too long, madam."
+
+"The longer the more pleasant, senor. How can we spend an hour better
+this afternoon, while the gentlemen within are finishing their wine?"
+
+Story-telling, in those old times, when books (and authors also, lucky
+for the public) were rarer than now, was a common amusement; and as the
+Spaniard's accomplishments in that line were well known, all the ladies
+crowded round him; the servants brought chairs and benches; and Don
+Guzman, taking his seat in the midst, with a proud humility, at Lady
+Grenville's feet, began--
+
+"Your perfections, fair and illustrious ladies, must doubtless have
+heard, ere now, how Sebastian Cabota, some forty-five years ago, sailed
+forth with a commission from my late master, the Emperor Charles the
+Fifth, to discover the golden lands of Tarshish, Ophir, and Cipango; but
+being in want of provisions, stopped short at the mouth of that mighty
+South American river to which he gave the name of Rio de la Plata, and
+sailing up it, discovered the fair land of Paraguay. But you may not
+have heard how, on the bank of that river, at the mouth of the Rio
+Terceiro, he built a fort which men still call Cabot's Tower; nor have
+you, perhaps, heard of the strange tale which will ever make the tower a
+sacred spot to all true lovers.
+
+"For when he returned to Spain the year after, he left in his tower a
+garrison of a hundred and twenty men, under the command of Nuno de Lara,
+Ruiz Moschera, and Sebastian da Hurtado, old friends and fellow-soldiers
+of my invincible grandfather Don Ferdinando da Soto; and with them
+a jewel, than which Spain never possessed one more precious, Lucia
+Miranda, the wife of Hurtado, who, famed in the court of the emperor
+no less for her wisdom and modesty than for her unrivalled beauty,
+had thrown up all the pomp and ambition of a palace, to marry a poor
+adventurer, and to encounter with him the hardships of a voyage round
+the world. Mangora, the cacique of the neighboring Timbuez Indians (with
+whom Lara had contrived to establish a friendship), cast his eyes on
+this fair creature, and no sooner saw than he coveted; no sooner coveted
+than he plotted, with the devilish subtilty of a savage, to seize by
+force what he knew he could never gain by right. She soon found out his
+passion (she was wise enough--what every woman is not--to know when she
+is loved), and telling her husband, kept as much as she could out of her
+new lover's sight; while the savage pressed Hurtado to come and visit
+him, and to bring his lady with him. Hurtado, suspecting the snare, and
+yet fearing to offend the cacique, excused himself courteously on
+the score of his soldier's duty; and the savage, mad with desire and
+disappointment, began plotting against Hurtado's life.
+
+"So went on several weeks, till food grew scarce, and Don Hurtado and
+Don Ruiz Moschera, with fifty soldiers, were sent up the river on a
+foraging party. Mangora saw his opportunity, and leapt at it forthwith.
+
+"The tower, ladies, as I have heard from those who have seen it, stands
+on a knoll at the meeting of the two rivers, while on the land side
+stretches a dreary marsh, covered with tall grass and bushes; a fit
+place for the ambuscade of four thousand Indians, which Mangora, with
+devilish cunning, placed around the tower, while he himself went boldly
+up to it, followed by thirty men, laden with grain, fruit, game, and all
+the delicacies which his forests could afford.
+
+"There, with a smiling face, he told the unsuspecting Lara his sorrow
+for the Spaniards' want of food; besought him to accept the provision he
+had brought, and was, as he had expected, invited by Lara to come in and
+taste the wines of Spain.
+
+"In went he and his thirty fellow-bandits, and the feast continued,
+with songs and libations, far into the night, while Mangora often looked
+round, and at last boldly asked for the fair Miranda: but she had shut
+herself into her lodging, pleading illness.
+
+"A plea, fair ladies, which little availed that hapless dame, for no
+sooner had the Spaniards retired to rest, leaving (by I know not what
+madness) Mangora and his Indians within, than they were awakened by the
+cry of fire, the explosion of their magazine, and the inward rush of the
+four thousand from the marsh outside.
+
+"Why pain your gentle ears with details of slaughter? A few fearful
+minutes sufficed to exterminate my bewildered and unarmed countrymen, to
+bind the only survivors, Miranda (innocent cause of the whole tragedy)
+and four other women with their infants, and to lead them away in
+triumph across the forest towards the Indian town.
+
+"Stunned by the suddenness of the evils which had passed, and still
+more by the thought of those worse which were to come (as she too
+well foresaw), Miranda travelled all night through the forest, and was
+brought in triumph at day-dawn before the Indian king to receive her
+doom. Judge of her astonishment, when, on looking up, she saw that he
+was not Mangora.
+
+"A ray of hope flashed across her, and she asked where he was.
+
+"'He was slain last night,' said the king; 'and I, his brother Siripa,
+am now cacique of the Timbuez.'
+
+"It was true; Lara, maddened with drink, rage, and wounds, had caught up
+his sword, rushed into the thick of the fight, singled out the traitor,
+and slain him on the spot; and then, forgetting safety in revenge, had
+continued to plunge his sword into the corpse, heedless of the blows of
+the savages, till he fell pierced with a hundred wounds.
+
+"A ray of hope, as I said, flashed across the wretched Miranda for a
+moment; but the next she found that she had been freed from one bandit
+only to be delivered to another.
+
+"'Yes,' said the new king, in broken Spanish; 'my brother played a bold
+stake, and lost it; but it was well worth the risk, and he showed his
+wisdom thereby. You cannot be his queen now: you must content yourself
+with being mine.'
+
+"Miranda, desperate, answered him with every fierce taunt which she
+could invent against his treachery and his crime; and asked him, how he
+came to dream that the wife of a Christian Spaniard would condescend
+to become the mistress of a heathen savage; hoping, unhappy lady, to
+exasperate him into killing her on the spot. But in vain; she only
+prolonged thereby her own misery. For, whether it was, ladies, that the
+novel sight of divine virtue and beauty awed (as it may have awed me ere
+now), where it had just before maddened; or whether some dream crossed
+the savage (as it may have crossed me ere now), that he could make the
+wisdom of a mortal angel help his ambition, as well as her beauty his
+happiness; or whether (which I will never believe of one of those dark
+children of the devil, though I can boldly assert it of myself) some
+spark of boldness within him made him too proud to take by force what
+he could not win by persuasion, certain it is, as the Indians themselves
+confessed afterwards, that the savage only answered her by smiles; and
+bidding his men unbind her, told her that she was no slave of his, and
+that it only lay with her to become the sovereign of him and all
+his vassals; assigned her a hut to herself, loaded her with savage
+ornaments, and for several weeks treated her with no less courtesy
+(so miraculous is the power of love) than if he had been a cavalier of
+Castile.
+
+"Three months and more, ladies, as I have heard, passed in this misery,
+and every day Miranda grew more desperate of all deliverance, and saw
+staring her in the face, nearer and nearer, some hideous and shameful
+end; when one day going down with the wives of the cacique to draw water
+in the river, she saw on the opposite bank a white man in a tattered
+Spanish dress, with a drawn sword in his hand; who had no sooner espied
+her, than shrieking her name, he plunged into the stream, swam across,
+landed at her feet, and clasped her in his arms. It was no other,
+ladies, incredible as it may seem, than Don Sebastian himself, who had
+returned with Ruiz Moschera to the tower, and found it only a charred
+and bloodstained heap of ruins.
+
+"He guessed, as by inspiration, what had passed, and whither his lady
+was gone; and without a thought of danger, like a true Spanish gentleman
+and a true Spanish lover, darted off alone into the forest, and
+guided only by the inspiration of his own loyal heart, found again his
+treasure, and found it still unstained and his own.
+
+"Who can describe the joy, and who again the terror, of their meeting?
+The Indian women had fled in fear, and for the short ten minutes that
+the lovers were left together, life, to be sure, was one long kiss.
+But what to do they knew not. To go inland was to rush into the enemy's
+arms. He would have swum with her across the river, and attempted it;
+but his strength, worn out with hunger and travel, failed him; he drew
+her with difficulty on shore again, and sat down by her to await their
+doom with prayer, the first and last resource of virtuous ladies, as
+weapons are of cavaliers.
+
+"Alas for them! May no true lovers ever have to weep over joys so soon
+lost, after having been so hardly found! For, ere a quarter of an hour
+was passed, the Indian women, who had fled at his approach, returned
+with all the warriors of the tribe. Don Sebastian, desperate, would
+fain have slain his wife and himself on the spot; but his hand sank
+again--and whose would not but an Indian's?--as he raised it against
+that fair and faithful breast; in a few minutes he was surrounded,
+seized from behind, disarmed, and carried in triumph into the village.
+And if you cannot feel for him in that misery, fair ladies, who have
+known no sorrow, yet I, a prisoner, can."
+
+Don Guzman paused a moment, as if overcome by emotion; and I will not
+say that, as he paused, he did not look to see if Rose Salterne's eyes
+were on him, as indeed they were.
+
+"Yes, I can feel with him; I can estimate, better than you, ladies, the
+greatness of that love which could submit to captivity; to the loss of
+his sword; to the loss of that honor, which, next to god and his mother,
+is the true Spaniard's deity. There are those who have suffered that
+shame at the hands of valiant gentlemen" (and again Don Guzman looked
+up at Rose), "and yet would have sooner died a thousand deaths; but he
+dared to endure it from the hands of villains, savages, heathens; for he
+was a true Spaniard, and therefore a true lover: but I will go on with
+my tale.
+
+"This wretched pair, then, as I have been told by Ruiz Moschera himself,
+stood together before the cacique. He, like a true child of the devil,
+comprehending in a moment who Don Sebastian was, laughed with delight at
+seeing his rival in his power, and bade bind him at once to a tree, and
+shoot him to death with arrows.
+
+"But the poor Miranda sprang forward, and threw herself at his feet, and
+with piteous entreaties besought for mercy from him who knew no mercy.
+
+"And yet love and the sight of her beauty, and the terrible eloquence of
+her words, while she invoked on his head the just vengeance of Heaven,
+wrought even on his heart: nevertheless the pleasure of seeing her, who
+had so long scorned him, a suppliant at his feet, was too delicate to
+be speedily foregone; and not till she was all but blind with tears,
+and dumb with agony of pleading, did he make answer, that if she would
+consent to become his wife, her husband's life should be spared. She, in
+her haste and madness, sobbed out desperately I know not what consent.
+Don Sebastian, who understood, if not the language, still the meaning
+(so had love quickened his understanding), shrieked to her not to lose
+her precious soul for the sake of his worthless body; that death was
+nothing compared to the horror of that shame; and such other words as
+became a noble and valiant gentleman. She, shuddering now at her own
+frailty, would have recalled her promise; but Siripa kept her to it,
+vowing, if she disappointed him again, such a death to her husband as
+made her blood run cold to hear of; and the wretched woman could only
+escape for the present by some story, that it was not the custom of her
+race to celebrate nuptials till a month after the betrothment; that the
+anger of Heaven would be on her, unless she first performed in solitude
+certain religious rites; and lastly, that if he dared to lay hands
+on her husband, she would die so resolutely, that every drop of water
+should be deep enough to drown her, every thorn sharp enough to stab
+her to the heart: till fearing lest by demanding too much he should lose
+all, and awed too, as he had been at first by a voice and looks which
+seemed to be, in comparison with his own, divine, Siripa bade her go
+back to her hut, promising her husband life; but promising too, that
+if he ever found the two speaking together, even for a moment, he would
+pour out on them both all the cruelty of those tortures in which the
+devil, their father, has so perfectly instructed the Indians.
+
+"So Don Sebastian, being stripped of his garments, and painted after
+the Indian fashion, was set to all mean and toilsome work, amid the
+buffetings and insults of the whole village. And this, ladies, he
+endured without a murmur, ay, took delight in enduring it, as he would
+have endured things worse a thousand times, only for the sake, like a
+true lover as he was, of being near the goddess whom he worshipped, and
+of seeing her now and then afar off, happy enough to be repaid even by
+that for all indignities.
+
+"And yet, you who have loved may well guess, as I can, that ere a week
+had passed, Don Sebastian and the Lady Miranda had found means, in spite
+of all spiteful eyes, to speak to each other once and again; and to
+assure each other of their love; even to talk of escape, before the
+month's grace should be expired. And Miranda, whose heart was full of
+courage as long as she felt her husband near her, went so far as to plan
+a means of escape which seemed possible and hopeful.
+
+"For the youngest wife of the cacique, who, till Miranda's coming,
+had been his favorite, often talked with the captive, insulting and
+tormenting her in her spite and jealousy, and receiving in return only
+gentle and conciliatory words. And one day when the woman had been
+threatening to kill her, Miranda took courage to say, 'Do you fancy that
+I shall not be as glad to be rid of your husband, as you to be rid of
+me? Why kill me needlessly, when all that you require is to get me forth
+of the place? Out of sight, out of mind. When I am gone, your husband
+will soon forget me, and you will be his favorite as before.' Soon,
+seeing that the girl was inclined to listen, she went on to tell her
+of her love to Don Sebastian, entreating and adjuring her, by the love
+which she bore the cacique, to pity and help her; and so won upon the
+girl, that she consented to be privy to Miranda's escape, and even
+offered to give her an opportunity of speaking to her husband about it;
+and at last was so won over by Miranda, that she consented to keep all
+intruders out of the way, while Don Sebastian that very night visited
+Miranda in her hut.
+
+"The hapless husband, thirsting for his love, was in that hut, be sure,
+the moment that kind darkness covered his steps:--and what cheer these
+two made of each other, when they once found themselves together,
+lovers must fancy for themselves: but so it was, that after many a
+leave-taking, there was no departure; and when the night was well-nigh
+past, Sebastian and Miranda were still talking together as if they had
+never met before, and would never meet again.
+
+"But it befell, ladies (would that I was not speaking truth, but
+inventing, that I might have invented something merrier for your ears),
+it befell that very night, that the young wife of the cacique, whose
+heart was lifted up with the thought that her rival was now at last
+disposed of, tried all her wiles to win back her faithless husband;
+but in vain. He only answered her caresses by indifference, then by
+contempt, then insults, then blows (for with the Indians, woman is
+always a slave, or rather a beast of burden), and went on to draw such
+cruel comparisons between her dark skin and the glorious fairness of the
+Spanish lady, that the wretched girl, beside herself with rage, burst
+out at last with her own secret. 'Fool that you are to madden yourself
+about a stranger who prizes one hair of her Spanish husband's head more
+than your whole body! Much does your new bride care for you! She is at
+this moment in her husband's arms!'
+
+"The cacique screamed furiously to know what she meant; and she, her
+jealousy and hate of the guiltless lady boiling over once for all, bade
+him, if he doubted her, go see for himself.
+
+"What use of many words? They were taken. Love, or rather lust,
+repelled, turned in a moment into devilish hate; and the cacique,
+summoning his Indians, bade them bind the wretched Don Sebastian to a
+tree, and there inflicted on him the lingering death to which he had at
+first been doomed. For Miranda he had more exquisite cruelty in store.
+And shall I tell it? Yes, ladies, for the honor of love and of Spain,
+and for a justification of those cruelties against the Indians which are
+so falsely imputed to our most Christian nation, it shall be told: he
+delivered the wretched lady over to the tender mercies of his wives; and
+what they were is neither fit for me to tell, nor you to hear.
+
+"The two wretched lovers cast themselves upon each other's neck; drank
+each other's salt tears with the last kisses; accused themselves as
+the cause of each other's death; and then, rising above fear and grief,
+broke out into triumph at thus dying for and with each other; and
+proclaiming themselves the martyrs of love, commended their souls to
+God, and then stepped joyfully and proudly to their doom."
+
+"And what was that?" asked half-a-dozen trembling voices.
+
+"Don Sebastian, as I have said, was shot to death with arrows; but as
+for the Lady Miranda, the wretches themselves confessed afterwards, when
+they received due vengeance for their crimes (as they did receive it),
+that after all shameful and horrible indignities, she was bound to
+a tree, and there burned slowly in her husband's sight, stifling her
+shrieks lest they should wring his heart by one additional pang, and
+never taking her eyes, to the last, off that beloved face. And so died
+(but not unavenged) Sebastian de Hurtado and Lucia Miranda,--a Spanish
+husband and a Spanish wife."
+
+The Don paused, and the ladies were silent awhile, for, indeed, there
+was many a gentle tear to be dried; but at last Mrs. St. Leger spoke,
+half, it seemed, to turn off the too painful impression of the over-true
+tale, the outlines whereof may be still read in old Charlevoix.
+
+"You have told a sad and a noble tale, sir, and told it well; but,
+though your story was to set forth a perfect husband, it has ended
+rather by setting forth a perfect wife."
+
+"And if I have forgotten, madam, in praising her to praise him also,
+have I not done that which would have best pleased his heroical and
+chivalrous spirit? He, be sure, would have forgotten his own virtue in
+the light of hers; and he would have wished me, I doubt not, to do the
+same also. And beside, madam, where ladies are the theme, who has time
+or heart to cast one thought upon their slaves?" And the Don made one of
+his deliberate and highly-finished bows.
+
+"Don Guzman is courtier enough, as far as compliments go," said one of
+the young ladies; "but it was hardly courtier-like of him to find us so
+sad an entertainment, upon a merry evening."
+
+"Yes," said another; "we must ask him for no more stories."
+
+"Or songs either," said a third. "I fear he knows none but about
+forsaken maidens and despairing lovers."
+
+"I know nothing at all about forsaken ladies, madam; because ladies are
+never forsaken in Spain."
+
+"Nor about lovers despairing there, I suppose?"
+
+"That good opinion of ourselves, madam, with which you English are
+pleased to twit us now and then, always prevents so sad a state of mind.
+For myself, I have had little to do with love; but I have had still less
+to do with despair, and intend, by help of Heaven, to have less."
+
+"You are valiant, sir."
+
+"You would not have me a coward, madam?" and so forth.
+
+Now all this time Don Guzman had been talking at Rose Salterne, and
+giving her the very slightest hint, every now and then, that he was
+talking at her; till the poor girl's face was almost crimson with
+pleasure, and she gave herself up to the spell. He loved her still;
+perhaps he knew that she loved him: he must know some day. She felt now
+that there was no escape; she was almost glad to think that there was
+none.
+
+The dark, handsome, stately face; the melodious voice, with its rich
+Spanish accent; the quiet grace of the gestures; the wild pathos of
+the story; even the measured and inflated style, as of one speaking of
+another and a loftier world; the chivalrous respect and admiration for
+woman, and for faithfulness to woman--what a man he was! If he had been
+pleasant heretofore, he was now enchanting. All the ladies round felt
+that, she could see, as much as she herself did; no, not quite as much,
+she hoped. She surely understood him, and felt for his loneliness more
+than any of them. Had she not been feeling for it through long and sad
+months? But it was she whom he was thinking of, she whom he was speaking
+to, all along. Oh, why had the tale ended so soon? She would gladly have
+sat and wept her eyes out till midnight over one melodious misery after
+another; but she was quite wise enough to keep her secret to herself;
+and sat behind the rest, with greedy eyes and demure lips, full of
+strange and new happiness--or misery; she knew not which to call it.
+
+In the meanwhile, as it was ordained, Cary could see and hear through
+the window of the hall a good deal of what was going on.
+
+"How that Spanish crocodile ogles the Rose!" whispered he to young St.
+Leger.
+
+"What wonder? He is not the first by many a one."
+
+"Ay--but--By heaven, she is making side-shots at him with those
+languishing eyes of hers, the little baggage!"
+
+"What wonder? He is not the first, say I, and won't be the last. Pass
+the wine, man."
+
+"I have had enough; between sack and singing, my head is as mazed as a
+dizzy sheep. Let me slip out."
+
+"Not yet, man; remember you are bound for one song more."
+
+So Cary, against his will, sat and sang another song; and in the
+meanwhile the party had broken up, and wandered away by twos and threes,
+among trim gardens and pleasaunces, and clipped yew-walks--
+
+     Where west-winds with musky wing
+     About the cedarn alleys fling
+     Nard and cassia's balmy smells--"
+
+admiring the beauty of that stately place, long since passed into other
+hands, and fallen to decay, but then (if old Prince speaks true) one of
+the noblest mansions of the West.
+
+At last Cary got away and out; sober, but just enough flushed with wine
+to be ready for any quarrel; and luckily for him, had not gone twenty
+yards along the great terrace before he met Lady Grenville.
+
+"Has your ladyship seen Don Guzman?"
+
+"Yes--why, where is he? He was with me not ten minutes ago. You know he
+is going back to Spain."
+
+"Going! Has his ransom come?"
+
+"Yes, and with it a governorship in the Indies."
+
+"Governorship! Much good may it do the governed."
+
+"Why not, then? He is surely a most gallant gentleman."
+
+"Gallant enough--yes," said Cary, carelessly. "I must find him, and
+congratulate him on his honors."
+
+"I will help you to find him," said Lady Grenville, whose woman's eye
+and ear had already suspected something. "Escort me, sir."
+
+"It is but too great an honor to squire the Queen of Bideford," said
+Cary, offering his hand.
+
+"If I am your queen, sir, I must be obeyed," answered she, in a meaning
+tone. Cary took the hint, and went on chattering cheerfully enough.
+
+But Don Guzman was not to be found in garden or in pleasaunce.
+
+"Perhaps," at last said a burgher's wife, with a toss of her head, "your
+ladyship may meet with him at Hankford's oak."
+
+"At Hankford's oak! what should take him there?"
+
+"Pleasant company, I reckon" (with another toss). "I heard him and
+Mistress Salterne talking about the oak just now."
+
+Cary turned pale and drew in his breath.
+
+"Very likely," said Lady Grenville, quietly. "Will you walk with me so
+far, Mr. Cary?"
+
+"To the world's end, if your ladyship condescends so far." And off they
+went, Lady Grenville wishing that they were going anywhere else, but
+afraid to let Cary go alone; and suspecting, too, that some one or other
+ought to go.
+
+So they went down past the herds of deer, by a trim-kept path into
+the lonely dell where stood the fatal oak; and, as they went, Lady
+Grenville, to avoid more unpleasant talk, poured into Cary's unheeding
+ears the story (which he probably had heard fifty times before) how old
+Chief-justice Hankford (whom some contradictory myths make the man who
+committed Prince Henry to prison for striking him on the bench), weary
+of life and sickened at the horrors and desolations of the Wars of the
+Roses, went down to his house at Annery there, and bade his keeper shoot
+any man who, passing through the deer-park at night, should refuse to
+stand when challenged; and then going down into that glen himself, and
+hiding himself beneath that oak, met willingly by his keeper's hand the
+death which his own dared not inflict: but ere the story was half done,
+Cary grasped Lady Grenville's hand so tightly that she gave a little
+shriek of pain.
+
+"There they are!" whispered he, heedless of her; and pointed to the oak,
+where, half hidden by the tall fern, stood Rose and the Spaniard.
+
+Her head was on his bosom. She seemed sobbing, trembling; he talking
+earnestly and passionately; but Lady Grenville's little shriek made them
+both look up. To turn and try to escape was to confess all; and the
+two, collecting themselves instantly, walked towards her, Rose wishing
+herself fathoms deep beneath the earth.
+
+"Mind, sir," whispered Lady Grenville as they came up; "you have seen
+nothing."
+
+"Madam?"
+
+"If you are not on my ground, you are on my brother's. Obey me!"
+
+Cary bit his lip, and bowed courteously to the Don.
+
+"I have to congratulate you, I hear, senor, on your approaching
+departure."
+
+"I kiss your hands, senor, in return; but I question whether it be a
+matter of congratulation, considering all that I leave behind."
+
+"So do I," answered Cary, bluntly enough, and the four walked back to
+the house, Lady Grenville taking everything for granted with the most
+charming good humor, and chatting to her three silent companions
+till they gained the terrace once more, and found four or five of
+the gentlemen, with Sir Richard at their head, proceeding to the
+bowling-green.
+
+Lady Grenville, in an agony of fear about the quarrel which she knew
+must come, would have gladly whispered five words to her husband: but
+she dared not do it before the Spaniard, and dreaded, too, a faint or
+a scream from the Rose, whose father was of the party. So she walked
+on with her fair prisoner, commanding Cary to escort them in, and the
+Spaniard to go to the bowling-green.
+
+Cary obeyed: but he gave her the slip the moment she was inside the
+door, and then darted off to the gentlemen.
+
+His heart was on fire: all his old passion for the Rose had flashed up
+again at the sight of her with a lover;--and that lover a Spaniard! He
+would cut his throat for him, if steel could do it! Only he recollected
+that Salterne was there, and shrank from exposing Rose; and shrank, too,
+as every gentleman should, from making a public quarrel in another man's
+house. Never mind. Where there was a will there was a way. He could get
+him into a corner, and quarrel with him privately about the cut of
+his beard, or the color of his ribbon. So in he went; and, luckily or
+unluckily, found standing together apart from the rest, Sir Richard, the
+Don, and young St. Leger.
+
+"Well, Don Guzman, you have given us wine-bibbers the slip this
+afternoon. I hope you have been well employed in the meanwhile?"
+
+"Delightfully to myself, senor," said the Don, who, enraged at being
+interrupted, if not discovered, was as ready to fight as Cary, but
+disliked, of course, an explosion as much as he did; "and to others, I
+doubt not."
+
+"So the ladies say," quoth St. Leger. "He has been making them all cry
+with one of his stories, and robbing us meanwhile of the pleasure we had
+hoped for from some of his Spanish songs."
+
+"The devil take Spanish songs!" said Cary, in a low voice, but loud
+enough for the Spaniard. Don Guzman clapt his hand on his sword-hilt
+instantly.
+
+"Lieutenant Cary," said Sir Richard, in a stern voice, "the wine has
+surely made you forget yourself!"
+
+"As sober as yourself, most worshipful knight; but if you want a Spanish
+song, here's one; and a very scurvy one it is, like its subject--
+
+       "Don Desperado
+        Walked on the Prado,
+     And there he met his enemy.
+        He pulled out a knife, a,
+        And let out his life, a,
+     And fled for his own across the sea."
+
+And he bowed low to the Spaniard.
+
+The insult was too gross to require any spluttering.
+
+"Senor Cary, we meet?"
+
+"I thank your quick apprehension, Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor
+de Soto. When, where, and with what weapons?"
+
+"For God's sake, gentlemen! Nephew Arthur, Cary is your guest; do you
+know the meaning of this?"
+
+St. Leger was silent. Cary answered for him.
+
+"An old Irish quarrel, I assure you, sir. A matter of years' standing.
+In unlacing the senor's helmet, the evening that he was taken prisoner,
+I was unlucky enough to twitch his mustachios. You recollect the fact,
+of course, senor?"
+
+"Perfectly," said the Spaniard; and then, half-amused and half-pleased,
+in spite of his bitter wrath, at Cary's quickness and delicacy in
+shielding Rose, he bowed, and--
+
+"And it gives me much pleasure to find that he whom I trust to have the
+pleasure of killing tomorrow morning is a gentleman whose nice sense of
+honor renders him thoroughly worthy of the sword of a De Soto."
+
+Cary bowed in return, while Sir Richard, who saw plainly enough that the
+excuse was feigned, shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"What weapons, senor?" asked Will again.
+
+"I should have preferred a horse and pistols," said Don Guzman after
+a moment, half to himself, and in Spanish; "they make surer work of it
+than bodkins; but" (with a sigh and one of his smiles) "beggars must not
+be choosers."
+
+"The best horse in my stable is at your service, senor," said Sir
+Richard Grenville, instantly.
+
+"And in mine also, senor," said Cary; "and I shall be happy to allow you
+a week to train him, if he does not answer at first to a Spanish hand."
+
+"You forget in your courtesy, gentle sir, that the insult being with me,
+the time lies with me also. We wipe it off to-morrow morning with simple
+rapiers and daggers. Who is your second?"
+
+"Mr. Arthur St. Leger here, senor: who is yours?"
+
+The Spaniard felt himself alone in the world for one moment; and then
+answered with another of his smiles,--
+
+"Your nation possesses the soul of honor. He who fights an Englishman
+needs no second."
+
+"And he who fights among Englishmen will always find one," said Sir
+Richard. "I am the fittest second for my guest."
+
+"You only add one more obligation, illustrious cavalier, to a two-years'
+prodigality of favors, which I shall never be able to repay."
+
+"But, Nephew Arthur," said Grenville, "you cannot surely be second
+against your father's guest, and your own uncle."
+
+"I cannot help it, sir; I am bound by an oath, as Will can tell you. I
+suppose you won't think it necessary to let me blood?"
+
+"You half deserve it, sirrah!" said Sir Richard, who was very angry: but
+the Don interposed quickly.
+
+"Heaven forbid, senors! We are no French duellists, who are mad enough
+to make four or six lives answer for the sins of two. This gentleman
+and I have quarrel enough between us, I suspect, to make a right bloody
+encounter."
+
+"The dependence is good enough, sir," said Cary, licking his sinful
+lips at the thought. "Very well. Rapiers and shirts at three tomorrow
+morning--Is that the bill of fare? Ask Sir Richard where, Atty? It is
+against punctilio now for me to speak to him till after I am killed."
+
+"On the sands opposite. The tide will be out at three. And now, gallant
+gentlemen, let us join the bowlers."
+
+And so they went back and spent a merry evening, all except poor Rose,
+who, ere she went back, had poured all her sorrows into Lady Grenville's
+ear. For the kind woman, knowing that she was motherless and guileless,
+carried her off into Mrs. St. Leger's chamber, and there entreated her
+to tell the truth, and heaped her with pity but with no comfort. For
+indeed, what comfort was there to give?
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+Three o'clock, upon a still pure bright midsummer morning. A broad
+and yellow sheet of ribbed tide-sands, through which the shallow river
+wanders from one hill-foot to the other, whispering round dark knolls
+of rock, and under low tree-fringed cliffs, and banks of golden broom.
+A mile below, the long bridge and the white walled town, all sleeping
+pearly in the soft haze, beneath a cloudless vault of blue. The
+white glare of dawn, which last night hung high in the northwest, has
+travelled now to the northeast, and above the wooded wall of the hills
+the sky is flushing with rose and amber.
+
+A long line of gulls goes wailing up inland; the rooks from Annery come
+cawing and sporting round the corner at Landcross, while high above them
+four or five herons flap solemnly along to find their breakfast on the
+shallows. The pheasants and partridges are clucking merrily in the long
+wet grass; every copse and hedgerow rings with the voice of birds, but
+the lark, who has been singing since midnight in the "blank height of
+the dark," suddenly hushes his carol and drops headlong among the corn,
+as a broad-winged buzzard swings from some wooded peak into the abyss of
+the valley, and hangs high-poised above the heavenward songster. The air
+is full of perfume; sweet clover, new-mown hay, the fragrant breath of
+kine, the dainty scent of sea-weed wreaths and fresh wet sand. Glorious
+day, glorious place, "bridal of earth and sky," decked well with bridal
+garlands, bridal perfumes, bridal songs,--What do those four cloaked
+figures there by the river brink, a dark spot on the fair face of the
+summer morn?
+
+Yet one is as cheerful as if he too, like all nature round him, were
+going to a wedding; and that is Will Cary. He has been bathing down
+below, to cool his brain and steady his hand; and he intends to stop Don
+Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto's wooing for ever and a day.
+The Spaniard is in a very different mood; fierce and haggard, he is
+pacing up and down the sand. He intends to kill Will Cary; but then?
+Will he be the nearer to Rose by doing so? Can he stay in Bideford?
+Will she go with him? Shall he stoop to stain his family by marrying a
+burgher's daughter? It is a confused, all but desperate business; and
+Don Guzman is certain but of one thing, that he is madly in love with
+this fair witch, and that if she refuse him, then, rather than see her
+accept another man, he would kill her with his own hands.
+
+Sir Richard Grenville too is in no very pleasant humor, as St. Leger
+soon discovers, when the two seconds begin whispering over their
+arrangements.
+
+"We cannot have either of them killed, Arthur."
+
+"Mr. Cary swears he will kill the Spaniard, sir."
+
+"He sha'n't. The Spaniard is my guest. I am answerable for him to Leigh,
+and for his ransom too. And how can Leigh accept the ransom if the man
+is not given up safe and sound? They won't pay for a dead carcass, boy!
+The man's life is worth two hundred pounds."
+
+"A very bad bargain, sir, for those who pay the said two hundred for
+the rascal; but what if he kills Cary?"
+
+"Worse still. Cary must not be killed. I am very angry with him, but he
+is too good a lad to be lost; and his father would never forgive us. We
+must strike up their swords at the first scratch."
+
+"It will make them very mad, sir."
+
+"Hang them! let them fight us then, if they don't like our counsel. It
+must be, Arthur."
+
+"Be sure, sir," said Arthur, "that whatsoever you shall command I shall
+perform. It is only too great an honor to a young man as I am to find
+myself in the same duel with your worship, and to have the advantage of
+your wisdom and experience."
+
+Sir Richard smiles, and says--"Now, gentlemen! are you ready?"
+
+The Spaniard pulls out a little crucifix, and kisses it devoutly,
+smiting on his breast; crosses himself two or three times, and
+says--"Most willingly, senor."
+
+Cary kisses no crucifix, but says a prayer nevertheless.
+
+Cloaks and doublets are tossed off, the men placed, the rapiers measured
+hilt and point; Sir Richard and St. Leger place themselves right and
+left of the combatants, facing each other, the points of their drawn
+swords on the sand. Cary and the Spaniard stand for a moment quite
+upright, their sword-arms stretched straight before them, holding the
+long rapier horizontally, the left hand clutching the dagger close to
+their breasts. So they stand eye to eye, with clenched teeth and pale
+crushed lips, while men might count a score; St. Leger can hear the
+beating of his own heart; Sir Richard is praying inwardly that no life
+may be lost. Suddenly there is a quick turn of Cary's wrist and a leap
+forward. The Spaniard's dagger flashes, and the rapier is turned aside;
+Cary springs six feet back as the Spaniard rushes on him in turn. Parry,
+thrust, parry--the steel rattles, the sparks fly, the men breathe fierce
+and loud; the devil's game is begun in earnest.
+
+Five minutes have the two had instant death a short six inches off from
+those wild sinful hearts of theirs, and not a scratch has been given.
+Yes! the Spaniard's rapier passes under Cary's left arm; he bleeds.
+
+"A hit! a hit! Strike up, Atty!" and the swords are struck up instantly.
+
+Cary, nettled by the smart, tries to close with his foe, but the seconds
+cross their swords before him.
+
+"It is enough, gentlemen. Don Guzman's honor is satisfied!"
+
+"But not my revenge, senor," says the Spaniard, with a frown. "This duel
+is a l'outrance, on my part; and, I believe, on Mr. Cary's also."
+
+"By heaven, it is!" says Will, trying to push past. "Let me go, Arthur
+St. Leger; one of us must down. Let me go, I say!"
+
+"If you stir, Mr. Cary, you have to do with Richard Grenville!" thunders
+the lion voice. "I am angry enough with you for having brought on this
+duel at all. Don't provoke me still further, young hot-head!"
+
+Cary stops sulkily.
+
+"You do not know all, Sir Richard, or you would not speak in this way."
+
+"I do, sir, all; and I shall have the honor of talking it over with Don
+Guzman myself."
+
+"Hey!" said the Spaniard. "You came here as my second, Sir Richard, as I
+understood, but not as my counsellor."
+
+"Arthur, take your man away! Cary! obey me as you would your father,
+sir! Can you not trust Richard Grenville?"
+
+"Come away, for God's sake!" says poor Arthur, dragging Cary's sword
+from him; "Sir Richard must know best!"
+
+So Cary is led off sulking, and Sir Richard turns to the Spaniard,
+
+"And now, Don Guzman, allow me, though much against my will, to speak to
+you as a friend to a friend. You will pardon me if I say that I cannot
+but have seen last night's devotion to--"
+
+"You will be pleased, senor, not to mention the name of any lady to whom
+I may have shown devotion. I am not accustomed to have my little affairs
+talked over by any unbidden counsellors."
+
+"Well, senor, if you take offence, you take that which is not given.
+Only I warn you, with all apologies for any seeming forwardness, that
+the quest on which you seem to be is one on which you will not be
+allowed to proceed."
+
+"And who will stop me?" asked the Spaniard, with a fierce oath.
+
+"You are not aware, illustrious senor," said Sir Richard, parrying the
+question, "that our English laity look upon mixed marriages with full as
+much dislike as your own ecclesiastics."
+
+"Marriage, sir? Who gave you leave to mention that word to me?"
+
+Sir Richard's brow darkened; the Spaniard, in his insane pride, had
+forced upon the good knight a suspicion which was not really just.
+
+"Is it possible, then, Senor Don Guzman, that I am to have the shame of
+mentioning a baser word?"
+
+"Mention what you will, sir. All words are the same to me; for, just or
+unjust, I shall answer them alike only by my sword."
+
+"You will do no such thing, sir. You forget that I am your host."
+
+"And do you suppose that you have therefore a right to insult me? Stand
+on your guard, sir!"
+
+Grenville answered by slapping his own rapier home into the sheath with
+a quiet smile.
+
+"Senor Don Guzman must be well enough aware of who Richard Grenville is,
+to know that he may claim the right of refusing duel to any man, if he
+shall so think fit."
+
+"Sir!" cried the Spaniard, with an oath, "this is too much! Do you dare
+to hint that I am unworthy of your sword? Know, insolent Englishman, I
+am not merely a De Soto, though that, by St. James, were enough for you
+or any man. I am a Sotomayor, a Mendoza, a Bovadilla, a Losada, a--sir!
+I have blood royal in my veins, and you dare to refuse my challenge?"
+
+"Richard Grenville can show quarterings, probably, against even Don
+Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto, or against (with no offence to
+the unquestioned nobility of your pedigree) the bluest blood of Spain.
+But he can show, moreover, thank God, a reputation which raises him
+as much above the imputation of cowardice, as it does above that of
+discourtesy. If you think fit, senor, to forget what you have just, in
+very excusable anger, vented, and to return with me, you will find me
+still, as ever, your most faithful servant and host. If otherwise, you
+have only to name whither you wish your mails to be sent, and I shall,
+with unfeigned sorrow, obey your commands concerning them."
+
+The Spaniard bowed stiffly, answered, "To the nearest tavern, senor,"
+and then strode away. His baggage was sent thither. He took a boat down
+to Appledore that very afternoon, and vanished, none knew whither. A
+very courteous note to Lady Grenville, enclosing the jewel which he had
+been used to wear round his neck, was the only memorial he left behind
+him: except, indeed, the scar on Cary's arm, and poor Rose's broken
+heart.
+
+Now county towns are scandalous places at best; and though all parties
+tried to keep the duel secret, yet, of course, before noon all Bideford
+knew what had happened, and a great deal more; and what was even worse,
+Rose, in an agony of terror, had seen Sir Richard Grenville enter her
+father's private room, and sit there closeted with him for an hour and
+more; and when he went, upstairs came old Salterne, with his stick in
+his hand, and after rating her soundly for far worse than a flirt, gave
+her (I am sorry to have to say it, but such was the mild fashion of
+paternal rule in those times, even over such daughters as Lady Jane
+Grey, if Roger Ascham is to be believed) such a beating that her poor
+sides were black and blue for many a day; and then putting her on a
+pillion behind him, carried her off twenty miles to her old prison at
+Stow mill, commanding her aunt to tame down her saucy blood with bread
+of affliction and water of affliction. Which commands were willingly
+enough fulfilled by the old dame, who had always borne a grudge against
+Rose for being rich while she was poor, and pretty while her daughter
+was plain; so that between flouts, and sneers, and watchings, and pretty
+open hints that she was a disgrace to her family, and no better than she
+should be, the poor innocent child watered her couch with her tears for
+a fortnight or more, stretching out her hands to the wide Atlantic, and
+calling wildly to Don Guzman to return and take her where he would, and
+she would live for him and die for him; and perhaps she did not call in
+vain.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+HOW THE GOLDEN HIND CAME HOME AGAIN
+
+     "The spirits of your fathers
+       Shall start from every wave;
+     For the deck it was their field of fame,
+       And ocean was their grave."
+
+                                CAMPBELL.
+
+"So you see, my dear Mrs. Hawkins, having the silver, as your own eyes
+show you, beside the ores of lead, manganese, and copper, and above all
+this gossan (as the Cornish call it), which I suspect to be not merely
+the matrix of the ore, but also the very crude form and materia prima
+of all metals--you mark me?--If my recipes, which I had from Doctor Dee,
+succeed only half so well as I expect, then I refine out the luna, the
+silver, lay it by, and transmute the remaining ores into sol, gold.
+Whereupon Peru and Mexico become superfluities, and England the mistress
+of the globe. Strange, no doubt; distant, no doubt: but possible, my
+dear madam, possible!"
+
+"And what good to you if it be, Mr. Gilbert? If you could find a
+philosopher's stone to turn sinners into saints, now--but naught save
+God's grace can do that; and that last seems ofttimes over long in
+coming." And Mrs. Hawkins sighed.
+
+"But indeed, my dear madam, conceive now.--The Comb Martin mine thus
+becomes a gold mine, perhaps inexhaustible; yields me wherewithal to
+carry out my North-West patent; meanwhile my brother Humphrey holds
+Newfoundland, and builds me fresh ships year by year (for the forests of
+pine are boundless) for my China voyage."
+
+"Sir Humphrey has better thoughts in his dear heart than gold, Mr.
+Adrian; a very close and gracious walker he has been this seven year. I
+wish my Captain John were so too."
+
+"And how do you know I have naught better in my mind's eye than gold?
+Or, indeed, what better could I have? Is not gold the Spaniard's
+strength--the very mainspring of Antichrist? By gold only, therefore,
+can we out-wrestle him. You shake your head, but say, dear madam (for
+gold England must have), which is better, to make gold bloodlessly at
+home, or take it bloodily abroad?"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Gilbert! is it not written, that those who make
+haste to be rich, pierce themselves through with many sorrows? Oh, Mr.
+Gilbert! God's blessing is not on it all."
+
+"Not on you, madam? Be sure that brave Captain John Hawkins's star
+told me a different tale, when I cast his nativity for him.--Born under
+stormy planets, truly, but under right royal and fortunate ones."
+
+"Ah, Mr. Adrian! I am a simple body, and you a great philosopher, but
+I hold there is no star for the seaman like the Star of Bethlehem; and
+that goes with 'peace on earth and good will to men,' and not with such
+arms as that, Mr. Adrian. I can't abide to look upon them."
+
+And she pointed up to one of the bosses of the ribbed oak-roof, on which
+was emblazoned the fatal crest which Clarencieux Hervey had granted
+years before to her husband, the "Demi-Moor proper, bound."
+
+"Ah, Mr. Gilbert! since first he went to Guinea after those poor
+negroes, little lightness has my heart known; and the very day that that
+crest was put up in our grand new house, as the parson read the first
+lesson, there was this text in it, Mr. Gilbert, 'Woe to him that
+buildeth his house by iniquity, and his chambers by wrong. Shalt thou
+live because thou closest thyself in cedar?' And it went into my ears
+like fire, Mr. Gilbert, and into my heart like lead; and when the parson
+went on, 'Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice?
+Then it was well with him,' I thought of good old Captain Will; and--I
+tell you, Mr. Gilbert, those negroes are on my soul from morning until
+night! We are all mighty grand now, and money comes in fast, but the
+Lord will require the blood of them at our hands yet, He will!"
+
+"My dearest madam, who can prosper more than you? If your husband copied
+the Dons too closely once or twice in the matter of those negroes (which
+I do not deny,) was he not punished at once when he lost ships, men, all
+but life, at St. Juan d'Ulloa?"
+
+"Ay, yes," she said; "and that did give me a bit of comfort, especially
+when the queen--God save her tender heart!--was so sharp with him for
+pity of the poor wretches, but it has not mended him. He is growing fast
+like the rest now, Mr. Gilbert, greedy to win, and niggardly to spend
+(God forgive him!) and always fretting and plotting for some new gain,
+and envying and grudging at Drake, and all who are deeper in the
+snare of prosperity than he is. Gold, gold, nothing but gold in
+every mouth--there it is! Ah! I mind when Plymouth was a quiet little
+God-fearing place as God could smile upon: but ever since my John, and
+Sir Francis, and poor Mr. Oxenham found out the way to the Indies, it's
+been a sad place. Not a sailor's wife but is crying 'Give, give,' like
+the daughters of the horse-leech; and every woman must drive her
+husband out across seas to bring her home money to squander on hoods and
+farthingales, and go mincing with outstretched necks and wanton eyes;
+and they will soon learn to do worse than that, for the sake of gain.
+But the Lord's hand will be against their tires and crisping-pins, their
+mufflers and farthingales, as it was against the Jews of old. Ah, dear
+me!"
+
+The two interlocutors in this dialogue were sitting in a low
+oak-panelled room in Plymouth town, handsomely enough furnished, adorned
+with carving and gilding and coats of arms, and noteworthy for many
+strange knickknacks, Spanish gold and silver vessels on the sideboard;
+strange birds and skins, and charts and rough drawings of coast which
+hung about the room; while over the fireplace, above the portrait of old
+Captain Will Hawkins, pet of Henry the Eighth, hung the Spanish ensign
+which Captain John had taken in fair fight at Rio de la Hacha fifteen
+years before, when, with two hundred men, he seized the town in despite
+of ten hundred Spanish soldiers, and watered his ship triumphantly at
+the enemy's wells.
+
+The gentleman was a tall fair man, with a broad and lofty forehead,
+wrinkled with study, and eyes weakened by long poring over the crucible
+and the furnace.
+
+The lady had once been comely enough, but she was aged and worn, as
+sailors' wives are apt to be, by many sorrows. Many a sad day had she
+had already; for although John Hawkins, port-admiral of Plymouth, and
+patriarch of British shipbuilders, was a faithful husband enough, and
+as ready to forgive as he was to quarrel, yet he was obstinate and
+ruthless, and in spite of his religiosity (for all men were religious
+then) was by no means a "consistent walker."
+
+And sadder days were in store for her, poor soul. Nine years hence she
+would be asked to name her son's brave new ship, and would christen it
+The Repentance, giving no reason in her quiet steadfast way (so says
+her son Sir Richard) but that "Repentance was the best ship in which
+we could sail to the harbor of heaven;" and she would hear that Queen
+Elizabeth, complaining of the name for an unlucky one, had re-christened
+her The Dainty, not without some by-quip, perhaps, at the character
+of her most dainty captain, Richard Hawkins, the complete seaman and
+Euphuist afloat, of whom, perhaps, more hereafter.
+
+With sad eyes Mrs. (then Lady) Hawkins would see that gallant bark sail
+Westward-ho, to go the world around, as many another ship sailed; and
+then wait, as many a mother beside had waited, for the sail which never
+returned; till, dim and uncertain, came tidings of her boy fighting for
+four days three great Armadas (for the coxcomb had his father's heart in
+him after all), a prisoner, wounded, ruined, languishing for weary years
+in Spanish prisons. And a sadder day than that was in store, when a
+gallant fleet should round the Ram Head, not with drum and trumpet, but
+with solemn minute-guns, and all flags half-mast high, to tell her
+that her terrible husband's work was done, his terrible heart broken by
+failure and fatigue, and his body laid by Drake's beneath the far-off
+tropic seas.
+
+And if, at the close of her eventful life, one gleam of sunshine opened
+for a while, when her boy Richard returned to her bosom from his Spanish
+prison, to be knighted for his valor, and made a privy councillor for
+his wisdom; yet soon, how soon, was the old cloud to close in again
+above her, until her weary eyes should open in the light of Paradise.
+For that son dropped dead, some say at the very council-table, leaving
+behind him naught but broken fortunes, and huge purposes which never
+were fulfilled; and the stormy star of that bold race was set forever,
+and Lady Hawkins bowed her weary head and died, the groan of those
+stolen negroes ringing in her ears, having lived long enough to see her
+husband's youthful sin become a national institution, and a national
+curse for generations yet unborn.
+
+I know not why she opened her heart that night to Adrian Gilbert, with
+a frankness which she would hardly have dared to use to her own family.
+Perhaps it was that Adrian, like his great brothers, Humphrey and
+Raleigh, was a man full of all lofty and delicate enthusiasms, tender
+and poetical, such as women cling to when their hearts are lonely; but
+so it was; and Adrian, half ashamed of his own ambitious dreams, sate
+looking at her a while in silence; and then--
+
+"The Lord be with you, dearest lady. Strange, how you women sit at home
+to love and suffer, while we men rush forth to break our hearts and
+yours against rocks of our own seeking! Ah well! were it not for
+Scripture, I should have thought that Adam, rather than Eve, had been
+the one who plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree."
+
+"We women, I fear; did the deed nevertheless; for we bear the doom of it
+our lives long."
+
+"You always remind me, madam, of my dear Mrs. Leigh of Burrough, and her
+counsels."
+
+"Do you see her often? I hear of her as one of the Lord's most precious
+vessels."
+
+"I would have done more ere now than see her," said he with a blush,
+"had she allowed me: but she lives only for the memory of her husband
+and the fame of her noble sons."
+
+As he spoke the door opened, and in walked, wrapped in his rough
+sea-gown, none other than one of those said noble sons.
+
+Adrian turned pale.
+
+"Amyas Leigh! What brings you hither? how fares my brother? Where is the
+ship?"
+
+"Your brother is well, Mr. Gilbert. The Golden Hind is gone on to
+Dartmouth, with Mr. Hayes. I came ashore here, meaning to go north to
+Bideford, ere I went to London. I called at Drake's just now, but he was
+away."
+
+"The Golden Hind? What brings her home so soon?"
+
+"Yet welcome ever, sir," said Mrs. Hawkins. "This is a great surprise,
+though. Captain John did not look for you till next year."
+
+Amyas was silent.
+
+"Something is wrong!" cried Adrian. "Speak!"
+
+Amyas tried, but could not.
+
+"Will you drive a man mad, sir? Has the adventure failed? You said my
+brother was well."
+
+"He is well."
+
+"Then what--Why do you look at me in that fashion, sir?" and springing
+up, Adrian rushed forward, and held the candle to Amyas's face.
+
+Amyas's lip quivered, as he laid his hand on Adrian's shoulder.
+
+"Your great and glorious brother, sir, is better bestowed than in
+settling Newfoundland."
+
+"Dead?" shrieked Adrian.
+
+"He is with the God whom he served!"
+
+"He was always with Him, like Enoch: parable me no parables, if you love
+me, sir!"
+
+"And, like Enoch, he was not; for God took him."
+
+Adrian clasped his hands over his forehead, and leaned against the
+table.
+
+"Go on, sir, go on. God will give me strength to hear all."
+
+And gradually Amyas opened to Adrian that tragic story, which Mr. Hayes
+has long ago told far too well to allow a second edition of it from me:
+of the unruliness of the men, ruffians, as I said before, caught up at
+hap-hazard; of conspiracies to carry off the ships, plunder of fishing
+vessels, desertions multiplying daily; licenses from the general to the
+lazy and fearful to return home: till Adrian broke out with a groan--
+
+"From him? Conspired against him? Deserted from him? Dotards, buzzards!
+Where would they have found such another leader?"
+
+"Your illustrious brother, sir," said Amyas, "if you will pardon me, was
+a very great philosopher, but not so much of a general."
+
+"General, sir? Where was braver man?"
+
+"Not on God's earth, but that does not make a general, sir. If Cortez
+had been brave and no more, Mexico would have been Mexico still. The
+truth is, sir, Cortez, like my Captain Drake, knew when to hang a man;
+and your great brother did not."
+
+Amyas, as I suppose, was right. Gilbert was a man who could be angry
+enough at baseness or neglect, but who was too kindly to punish it; he
+was one who could form the wisest and best-digested plans, but who could
+not stoop to that hail-fellow-well-met drudgery among his subordinates
+which has been the talisman of great captains.
+
+Then Amyas went on to tell the rest of his story; the setting sail from
+St. John's to discover the southward coast; Sir Humphrey's chivalrous
+determination to go in the little Squirrel of only ten tons, and
+"overcharged with nettings, fights, and small ordnance," not only
+because she was more fit to examine the creeks, but because he had heard
+of some taunt against him among the men, that he was afraid of the sea.
+
+After that, woe on woe; how, seven days after they left Cape Raz, their
+largest ship, the Delight, after she had "most part of the night" (I
+quote Hayes), "like the swan that singeth before her death, continued in
+sounding of trumpets, drums, and fifes, also winding of the comets and
+hautboys, and, in the end of their jollity, left off with the battle and
+doleful knells," struck the next day (the Golden Hind and the Squirrel
+sheering off just in time) upon unknown shoals; where were lost all but
+fourteen, and among them Frank's philosopher friend, poor Budaeus; and
+those who escaped, after all horrors of cold and famine, were cast on
+shore in Newfoundland. How, worn out with hunger and want of clothes,
+the crews of the two remaining ships persuaded Sir Humphrey to sail
+toward England on the 31st of August; and on "that very instant, even in
+winding about," beheld close alongside "a very lion in shape, hair, and
+color, not swimming, but sliding on the water, with his whole body; who
+passed along, turning his head to and fro, yawning and gaping wide,
+with ugly demonstration of long teeth and glaring eyes; and to bid us
+farewell (coming right against the Hind) he sent forth a horrible voice,
+roaring or bellowing as doth a lion." "What opinion others had thereof,
+and chiefly the general himself, I forbear to deliver; but he took it
+for bonum omen, rejoicing that he was to war against such an enemy, if
+it were the devil."
+
+"And the devil it was, doubtless," said Adrian, "the roaring lion who
+goes about seeking whom he may devour."
+
+"He has not got your brother, at least," quoth Amyas.
+
+"No," rejoined Mrs. Hawkins (smile not, reader, for those were days in
+which men believed in the devil); "he roared for joy to think how many
+poor souls would be left still in heathen darkness by Sir Humphrey's
+death. God be with that good knight, and send all mariners where he is
+now!"
+
+Then Amyas told the last scene; how, when they were off the Azores, the
+storms came on heavier than ever, with "terrible seas, breaking short
+and pyramid-wise," till, on the 9th September, the tiny Squirrel nearly
+foundered and yet recovered; "and the general, sitting abaft with a
+book in his hand, cried out to us in the Hind so oft as we did approach
+within hearing, 'We are as near heaven by sea as by land,' reiterating
+the same speech, well beseeming a soldier resolute in Jesus Christ, as I
+can testify he was.
+
+"The same Monday, about twelve of the clock, or not long after, the
+frigate (the Squirrel) being ahead of us in the Golden Hind, suddenly
+her lights were out; and withal our watch cried, the general was cast
+away, which was true; for in that moment the frigate was devoured and
+swallowed up of the sea."
+
+And so ended (I have used Hayes' own words) Amyas Leigh's story.
+
+"Oh, my brother! my brother!" moaned poor Adrian; "the glory of his
+house, the glory of Devon!"
+
+"Ah! what will the queen say?" asked Mrs. Hawkins through her tears.
+
+"Tell me," asked Adrian, "had he the jewel on when he died?"
+
+"The queen's jewel? He always wore that, and his own posy too, 'Mutare
+vel timere sperno.' He wore it; and he lived it."
+
+"Ay," said Adrian, "the same to the last!"
+
+"Not quite that," said Amyas. "He was a meeker man latterly than he used
+to be. As he said himself once, a better refiner than any whom he had on
+board had followed him close all the seas over, and purified him in the
+fire. And gold seven times tried he was, when God, having done His work
+in him, took him home at last."
+
+And so the talk ended. There was no doubt that the expedition had
+been an utter failure; Adrian was a ruined man; and Amyas had lost his
+venture.
+
+Adrian rose, and begged leave to retire; he must collect himself.
+
+"Poor gentleman!" said Mrs. Hawkins; "it is little else he has left to
+collect."
+
+"Or I either," said Amyas. "I was going to ask you to lend me one of
+your son's shirts, and five pounds to get myself and my men home."
+
+"Five? Fifty, Mr. Leigh! God forbid that John Hawkins's wife should
+refuse her last penny to a distressed mariner, and he a gentleman born.
+But you must eat and drink."
+
+"It's more than I have done for many a day worth speaking of."
+
+And Amyas sat down in his rags to a good supper, while Mrs. Hawkins told
+him all the news which she could of his mother, whom Adrian Gilbert had
+seen a few months before in London; and then went on, naturally enough,
+to the Bideford news.
+
+"And by the by, Captain Leigh, I've sad news for you from your place;
+and I had it from one who was there at the time. You must know a Spanish
+captain, a prisoner--"
+
+"What, the one I sent home from Smerwick?"
+
+"You sent? Mercy on us! Then, perhaps, you've heard--"
+
+"How can I have heard? What?"
+
+"That he's gone off, the villain?"
+
+"Without paying his ransom?"
+
+"I can't say that; but there's a poor innocent young maid gone off with
+him, one Salterne's daughter--the Popish serpent!"
+
+"Rose Salterne, the mayor's daughter, the Rose of Torridge!"
+
+"That's her. Bless your dear soul, what ails you?"
+
+Amyas had dropped back in his seat as if he had been shot; but he
+recovered himself before kind Mrs. Hawkins could rush to the cupboard
+for cordials.
+
+"You'll forgive me, madam; but I'm weak from the sea; and your good ale
+has turned me a bit dizzy, I think."
+
+"Ay, yes, 'tis too, too heavy, till you've been on shore a while. Try
+the aqua vitae; my Captain John has it right good; and a bit too fond of
+it too, poor dear soul, between whiles, Heaven forgive him!"
+
+So she poured some strong brandy and water down Amyas's throat, in spite
+of his refusals, and sent him to bed, but not to sleep; and after a
+night of tossing, he started for Bideford, having obtained the means for
+so doing from Mrs. Hawkins.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+HOW SALVATION YEO SLEW THE KING OF THE GUBBINGS
+
+     "Ignorance and evil, even in full flight, deal terrible backhanded
+     strokes at their pursuers."--HELPS.
+
+Now I am sorry to say, for the honor of my country, that it was by no
+means a safe thing in those days to travel from Plymouth to the north of
+Devon; because, to get to your journey's end, unless you were minded to
+make a circuit of many miles, you must needs pass through the territory
+of a foreign and hostile potentate, who had many times ravaged the
+dominions, and defeated the forces of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and
+was named (behind his back at least) the King of the Gubbings. "So now
+I dare call them," says Fuller, "secured by distance, which one of more
+valor durst not do to their face, for fear their fury fall upon him. Yet
+hitherto have I met with none who could render a reason of their name.
+We call the shavings of fish (which are little worth) gubbings; and sure
+it is that they are sensible that the word importeth shame and disgrace.
+
+"As for the suggestion of my worthy and learned friend, Mr. Joseph
+Maynard, that such as did inhabitare montes gibberosos, were called
+Gubbings, such will smile at the ingenuity who dissent from the truth of
+the etymology.
+
+"I have read of an England beyond Wales, but the Gubbings land is a
+Scythia within England, and they pure heathens therein. It lieth nigh
+Brent. For in the edge of Dartmoor it is reported that, some two hundred
+years since, two bad women, being with child, fled thither to hide
+themselves; to whom certain lewd fellows resorted, and this was their
+first original. They are a peculiar of their own making, exempt from
+bishop, archdeacon, and all authority, either ecclesiastical or civil.
+They live in cots (rather holes than houses) like swine, having all in
+common, multiplied without marriage into many hundreds. Their language
+is the dross of the dregs of the vulgar Devonian; and the more learned
+a man is, the worse he can understand them. During our civil wars no
+soldiers were quartered upon them, for fear of being quartered amongst
+them. Their wealth consisteth in other men's goods; they live by
+stealing the sheep on the moors; and vain is it for any to search their
+houses, being a work beneath the pains of any sheriff, and above the
+power of any constable. Such is their fleetness, they will outrun many
+horses; vivaciousness, they outlive most men; living in an ignorance of
+luxury, the extinguisher of life. They hold together like bees; offend
+one, and all will revenge his quarrel.
+
+"But now I am informed that they begin to be civilized, and tender their
+children to baptism, and return to be men, yea, Christians again. I hope
+no CIVIL people amongst us will turn barbarians, now these barbarians
+begin to be civilized."*
+
+     * Fuller, p. 398.
+
+With which quip against the Anabaptists of his day, Fuller ends his
+story; and I leave him to set forth how Amyas, in fear of these same
+Scythians and heathens, rode out of Plymouth on a right good horse, in
+his full suit of armor, carrying lance and sword, and over and above two
+great dags, or horse-pistols; and behind him Salvation Yeo, and five
+or six north Devon men (who had served with him in Ireland, and were
+returning on furlough), clad in head-pieces and quilted jerkins, each
+man with his pike and sword, and Yeo with arquebuse and match, while two
+sumpter ponies carried the baggage of this formidable troop.
+
+They pushed on as fast as they could, through Tavistock, to reach before
+nightfall Lydford, where they meant to sleep; but what with buying the
+horses, and other delays, they had not been able to start before
+noon; and night fell just as they reached the frontiers of the enemy's
+country. A dreary place enough it was, by the wild glare of sunset. A
+high tableland of heath, banked on the right by the crags and hills of
+Dartmoor, and sloping away to the south and west toward the foot of the
+great cone of Brent-Tor, which towered up like an extinct volcano (as
+some say that it really is), crowned with the tiny church, the votive
+offering of some Plymouth merchant of old times, who vowed in sore
+distress to build a church to the Blessed Virgin on the first point of
+English land which he should see. Far away, down those waste slopes,
+they could see the tiny threads of blue smoke rising from the dens of
+the Gubbings; and more than once they called a halt, to examine whether
+distant furze-bushes and ponies might not be the patrols of an advancing
+army. It is all very well to laugh at it now, in the nineteenth century,
+but it was no laughing matter then; as they found before they had gone
+two miles farther.
+
+On the middle of the down stood a wayside inn; a desolate and
+villainous-looking lump of lichen-spotted granite, with windows
+paper-patched, and rotting thatch kept down by stones and straw-banks;
+and at the back a rambling court-ledge of barns and walls, around which
+pigs and barefoot children grunted in loving communion of dirt. At the
+door, rapt apparently in the contemplation of the mountain peaks which
+glowed rich orange in the last lingering sun-rays, but really watching
+which way the sheep on the moor were taking, stood the innkeeper, a
+brawny, sodden-visaged, blear-eyed six feet of brutishness, holding up
+his hose with one hand, for want of points, and clawing with the other
+his elf-locks, on which a fair sprinkling of feathers might denote:
+first, that he was just out of bed, having been out sheep-stealing
+all the night before; and secondly, that by natural genius he had
+anticipated the opinion of that great apostle of sluttishness,
+Fridericus Dedekind, and his faithful disciple Dekker, which last speaks
+thus to all gulls and grobians: "Consider that as those trees of cobweb
+lawn, woven by spinners in the fresh May mornings, do dress the curled
+heads of the mountains, and adorn the swelling bosoms of the valleys; or
+as those snowy fleeces, which the naked briar steals from the innocent
+sheep to make himself a warm winter livery, are, to either of them
+both, an excellent ornament; so make thou account, that to have feathers
+sticking here and there on thy head will embellish thee, and set thy
+crown out rarely. None dare upbraid thee, that like a beggar thou hast
+lain on straw, or like a travelling pedlar upon musty flocks; for those
+feathers will rise up as witnesses to choke him that says so, and to
+prove thy bed to have been of the softest down." Even so did those
+feathers bear witness that the possessor of Rogues' Harbor Inn, on
+Brent-Tor Down, whatever else he lacked, lacked not geese enough to keep
+him in soft lying.
+
+Presently he spies Amyas and his party coming slowly over the hill,
+pricks up his ears, and counts them; sees Amyas's armor; shakes his head
+and grunts; and then, being a man of few words, utters a sleepy howl--
+
+"Mirooi!--Fushing pooale!"
+
+A strapping lass--whose only covering (for country women at work in
+those days dispensed with the ornament of a gown) is a green bodice and
+red petticoat, neither of them over ample--brings out his fishing-rod
+and basket, and the man, having tied up his hose with some ends of
+string, examines the footlink.
+
+"Don vlies' gone!"
+
+"May be," says Mary; "shouldn't hay' left mun out to coort. May be old
+hen's ate mun off. I see her chocking about a while agone."
+
+The host receives this intelligence with an oath, and replies by a
+violent blow at Mary's head, which she, accustomed to such slight
+matters, dodges, and then returns the blow with good effect on the shock
+head.
+
+Whereon mine host, equally accustomed to such slight matters, quietly
+shambles off, howling as he departs--
+
+"Tell Patrico!"
+
+Mary runs in, combs her hair, slips a pair of stockings and her best
+gown over her dirt, and awaits the coming guests, who make a few long
+faces at the "mucksy sort of a place," but prefer to spend the night
+there than to bivouac close to the enemy's camp.
+
+So the old hen who has swallowed the dun fly is killed, plucked, and
+roasted, and certain "black Dartmoor mutton" is put on the gridiron, and
+being compelled to confess the truth by that fiery torment, proclaims
+itself to all noses as red-deer venison. In the meanwhile Amyas has put
+his horse and the ponies into a shed, to which he can find neither
+lock nor key, and therefore returns grumbling, not without fear for his
+steed's safety. The baggage is heaped in a corner of the room, and Amyas
+stretches his legs before a turf fire; while Yeo, who has his notions
+about the place, posts himself at the door, and the men are seized with
+a desire to superintend the cooking, probably to be attributed to the
+fact that Mary is cook.
+
+Presently Yeo comes in again.
+
+"There's a gentleman just coming up, sir, all alone."
+
+"Ask him to make one of our party, then, with my compliments." Yeo goes
+out, and returns in five minutes.
+
+"Please, sir, he's gone in back ways, by the court."
+
+"Well, he has an odd taste, if he makes himself at home here."
+
+Out goes Yeo again, and comes back once more after five minutes, in high
+excitement.
+
+"Come out, sir; for goodness' sake come out. I've got him. Safe as a rat
+in a trap, I have!"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"A Jesuit, sir."
+
+"Nonsense, man!"
+
+"I tell you truth, sir. I went round the house, for I didn't like the
+looks of him as he came up. I knew he was one of them villains the
+minute he came up, by the way he turned in his toes, and put down his
+feet so still and careful, like as if he was afraid of offending God at
+every step. So I just put my eye between the wall and the dern of the
+gate, and I saw him come up to the back door and knock, and call 'Mary!'
+quite still, like any Jesuit; and the wench flies out to him ready to
+eat him; and 'Go away,' I heard her say, 'there's a dear man;' and then
+something about a 'queer cuffin' (that's a justice in these canters'
+thieves' Latin); and with that he takes out a somewhat--I'll swear it
+was one of those Popish Agnuses--and gives it her; and she kisses it,
+and crosses herself, and asks him if that's the right way, and then puts
+it into her bosom, and he says, 'Bless you, my daughter;' and then I was
+sure of the dog: and he slips quite still to the stable, and peeps in,
+and when he sees no one there, in he goes, and out I go, and shut to the
+door, and back a cart that was there up against it, and call out one of
+the men to watch the stable, and the girl's crying like mad."
+
+"What a fool's trick, man! How do you know that he is not some honest
+gentleman, after all?"
+
+"Fool or none, sir; honest gentlemen don't give maidens Agnuses. I've
+put him in; and if you want him let out again, you must come and do it
+yourself, for my conscience is against it, sir. If the Lord's enemies
+are delivered into my hand, I'm answerable, sir," went on Yeo as Amyas
+hurried out with him. "'Tis written, 'If any let one of them go, his
+life shall be for the life of him.'"
+
+So Amyas ran out, pulled back the cart grumbling, opened the door, and
+began a string of apologies to--his cousin Eustace.
+
+Yes, here he was, with such a countenance, half foolish, half venomous,
+as reynard wears when the last spadeful of earth is thrown back, and
+he is revealed sitting disconsolately on his tail within a yard of the
+terriers' noses.
+
+Neither cousin spoke for a minute or two. At last Amyas--
+
+"Well, cousin hide-and-seek, how long have you added horse-stealing to
+your other trades?"
+
+"My dear Amyas," said Eustace, very meekly, "I may surely go into an inn
+stable without intending to steal what is in it."
+
+"Of course, old fellow," said Amyas, mollified, "I was only in jest. But
+what brings you here? Not prudence, certainly."
+
+"I am bound to know no prudence save for the Lord's work."
+
+"That's giving away Agnus Deis, and deceiving poor heathen wenches, I
+suppose," said Yeo.
+
+Eustace answered pretty roundly--
+
+"Heathens? Yes, truly; you Protestants leave these poor wretches
+heathens, and then insult and persecute those who, with a devotion
+unknown to you, labor at the danger of their lives to make them
+Christians. Mr. Amyas Leigh, you can give me up to be hanged at Exeter,
+if it shall so please you to disgrace your own family; but from this
+spot neither you, no, nor all the myrmidons of your queen, shall drive
+me, while there is a soul here left unsaved."
+
+"Come out of the stable, at least," said Amyas; "you don't want to make
+the horses Papists, as well as the asses, do you? Come out, man, and go
+to the devil your own way. I sha'n't inform against you; and Yeo here
+will hold his tongue if I tell him, I know."
+
+"It goes sorely against my conscience, sir; but being that he is your
+cousin, of course--"
+
+"Of course; and now come in and eat with me; supper's just ready, and
+bygones shall be bygones, if you will have them so."
+
+How much forgiveness Eustace felt in his heart, I know not: but he knew,
+of course, that he ought to forgive; and to go in and eat with Amyas was
+to perform an act of forgiveness, and for the best of motives, too, for
+by it the cause of the Church might be furthered; and acts and motives
+being correct, what more was needed? So in he went; and yet he never
+forgot that scar upon his cheek; and Amyas could not look him in the
+face but Eustace must fancy that his eyes were on the scar, and peep
+up from under his lids to see if there was any smile of triumph on that
+honest visage. They talked away over the venison, guardedly enough at
+first; but as they went on, Amyas's straightforward kindliness warmed
+poor Eustace's frozen heart; and ere they were aware, they found
+themselves talking over old haunts and old passages of their
+boyhood--uncles, aunts, and cousins; and Eustace, without any sinister
+intention, asked Amyas why he was going to Bideford, while Frank and his
+mother were in London.
+
+"To tell you the truth, I cannot rest till I have heard the whole story
+about poor Rose Salterne."
+
+"What about her?" cried Eustace.
+
+"Do you not know?"
+
+"How should I know anything here? For heaven's sake, what has happened?"
+
+Amyas told him, wondering at his eagerness, for he had never had the
+least suspicion of Eustace's love.
+
+Eustace shrieked aloud.
+
+"Fool, fool that I have been! Caught in my own trap! Villain, villain
+that he is! After all he promised me at Lundy!"
+
+And springing up, Eustace stamped up and down the room, gnashing
+his teeth, tossing his head from side to side, and clutching with
+outstretched hands at the empty air, with the horrible gesture (Heaven
+grant that no reader has ever witnessed it!) of that despair which still
+seeks blindly for the object which it knows is lost forever.
+
+Amyas sat thunderstruck. His first impulse was to ask, "Lundy? What
+knew you of him? What had he or you to do at Lundy?" but pity conquered
+curiosity.
+
+"Oh, Eustace! And you then loved her too?"
+
+"Don't speak to me! Loved her? Yes, sir, and had as good a right to love
+her as any one of your precious Brotherhood of the Rose. Don't speak to
+me, I say, or I shall do you a mischief!"
+
+So Eustace knew of the brotherhood too! Amyas longed to ask him how; but
+what use in that? If he knew it, he knew it; and what harm? So he only
+answered:
+
+"My good cousin, why be wroth with me? If you really love her, now is
+the time to take counsel with me how best we shall--"
+
+Eustace did not let him finish his sentence. Conscious that he had
+betrayed himself upon more points than one, he stopped short in his
+walk, suddenly collected himself by one great effort, and eyed Amyas
+from underneath his brows with the old down look.
+
+"How best we shall do what, my valiant cousin?" said he, in a meaning
+and half-scornful voice. "What does your most chivalrous Brotherhood of
+the Rose purpose in such a case?"
+
+Amyas, a little nettled, stood on his guard in return, and answered
+bluntly--
+
+"What the Brotherhood of the Rose will do, I can't yet say. What it
+ought to do, I have a pretty sure guess."
+
+"So have I. To hunt her down as you would an outlaw, because forsooth
+she has dared to love a Catholic; to murder her lover in her arms, and
+drag her home again stained with his blood, to be forced by threats and
+persecution to renounce that Church into whose maternal bosom she has
+doubtless long since found rest and holiness!"
+
+"If she has found holiness, it matters little to me where she has found
+it, Master Eustace, but that is the very point that I should be glad to
+know for certain."
+
+"And you will go and discover for yourself?"
+
+"Have you no wish to discover it also?"
+
+"And if I had, what would that be to you?"
+
+"Only," said Amyas, trying hard to keep his temper, "that, if we had the
+same purpose, we might sail in the same ship."
+
+"You intend to sail, then?"
+
+"I mean simply, that we might work together."
+
+"Our paths lie on very different roads, sir!"
+
+"I am afraid you never spoke a truer word, sir. In the meanwhile, ere we
+part, be so kind as to tell me what you meant by saying that you had met
+this Spaniard at Lundy?"
+
+"I shall refuse to answer that."
+
+"You will please to recollect, Eustace, that however good friends we
+have been for the last half-hour, you are in my power. I have a right to
+know the bottom of this matter; and, by heaven, I will know it."
+
+"In your power? See that you are not in mine! Remember, sir, that you
+are within a--within a few miles, at least, of those who will obey me,
+their Catholic benefactor, but who owe no allegiance to those Protestant
+authorities who have left them to the lot of the beasts which perish."
+
+Amyas was very angry. He wanted but little more to make him catch
+Eustace by the shoulders, shake the life out of him, and deliver him
+into the tender guardianship of Yeo; but he knew that to take him at
+all was to bring certain death on him, and disgrace on the family; and
+remembering Frank's conduct on that memorable night at Clovelly, he kept
+himself down.
+
+"Take me," said Eustace, "if you will, sir. You, who complain of us that
+we keep no faith with heretics, will perhaps recollect that you asked me
+into this room as your guest, and that in your good faith I trusted when
+I entered it."
+
+The argument was a worthless one in law; for Eustace had been a prisoner
+before he was a guest, and Amyas was guilty of something very like
+misprision of treason in not handing him over to the nearest justice.
+However, all he did was, to go to the door, open it, and bowing to his
+cousin, bid him walk out and go to the devil, since he seemed to have
+set his mind on ending his days in the company of that personage.
+
+Whereon Eustace vanished.
+
+"Pooh!" said Amyas to himself, "I can find out enough, and too much, I
+fear, without the help of such crooked vermin. I must see Cary; I must
+see Salterne; and I suppose, if I am ready to do my duty, I shall learn
+somehow what it is. Now to sleep; to-morrow up and away to what God
+sends."
+
+"Come in hither, men," shouted he down the passage, "and sleep here.
+Haven't you had enough of this villainous sour cider?"
+
+The men came in yawning, and settled themselves to sleep on the floor.
+
+"Where's Yeo?"
+
+No one knew; he had gone out to say his prayers, and had not returned.
+
+"Never mind," said Amyas, who suspected some plot on the old man's part.
+"He'll take care of himself, I'll warrant him."
+
+"No fear of that, sir;" and the four tars were soon snoring in concert
+round the fire, while Amyas laid himself on the settle, with his saddle
+for a pillow.
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+
+It was about midnight, when Amyas leaped to his feet, or rather fell
+upon his back, upsetting saddle, settle, and finally, table, under the
+notion that ten thousand flying dragons were bursting in the window
+close to his ear, with howls most fierce and fell. The flying dragons
+past, however, being only a flock of terror-stricken geese, which flew
+flapping and screaming round the corner of the house; but the noise
+which had startled them did not pass; and another minute made it evident
+that a sharp fight was going on in the courtyard, and that Yeo was
+hallooing lustily for help.
+
+Out turned the men, sword in hand, burst the back door open, stumbling
+over pails and pitchers, and into the courtyard, where Yeo, his back
+against the stable-door, was holding his own manfully with sword and
+buckler against a dozen men.
+
+Dire and manifold was the screaming; geese screamed, chickens screamed,
+pigs screamed, donkeys screamed, Mary screamed from an upper window;
+and to complete the chorus, a flock of plovers, attracted by the noise,
+wheeled round and round overhead, and added their screams also to that
+Dutch concert.
+
+The screaming went on, but the fight ceased; for, as Amyas rushed into
+the yard, the whole party of ruffians took to their heels, and vanished
+over a low hedge at the other end of the yard.
+
+"Are you hurt, Yeo?"
+
+"Not a scratch, thank Heaven! But I've got two of them, the ringleaders,
+I have. One of them's against the wall. Your horse did for t'other."
+
+The wounded man was lifted up; a huge ruffian, nearly as big as Amyas
+himself. Yeo's sword had passed through his body. He groaned and choked
+for breath.
+
+"Carry him indoors. Where is the other?"
+
+"Dead as a herring, in the straw. Have a care, men, have a care how you
+go in! the horses are near mad!"
+
+However, the man was brought out after a while. With him all was over.
+They could feel neither pulse nor breath.
+
+"Carry him in too, poor wretch. And now, Yeo, what is the meaning of all
+this?"
+
+Yeo's story was soon told. He could not get out of his Puritan head the
+notion (quite unfounded, of course) that Eustace had meant to steal
+the horses. He had seen the inn-keeper sneak off at their approach; and
+expecting some night-attack, he had taken up his lodging for the night
+in the stable.
+
+As he expected, an attempt was made. The door was opened (how, he could
+not guess, for he had fastened it inside), and two fellows came in, and
+began to loose the beasts. Yeo's account was, that he seized the big
+fellow, who drew a knife on him, and broke loose; the horses, terrified
+at the scuffle, kicked right and left; one man fell, and the other
+ran out, calling for help, with Yeo at his heels; "Whereon," said
+Yeo, "seeing a dozen more on me with clubs and bows, I thought best to
+shorten the number while I could, ran the rascal through, and stood on
+my ward; and only just in time I was, what's more; there's two arrows in
+the house wall, and two or three more in my buckler, which I caught up
+as I went out, for I had hung it close by the door, you see, sir, to be
+all ready in case," said the cunning old Philistine-slayer, as they went
+in after the wounded man.
+
+But hardly had they stumbled through the low doorway into the
+back-kitchen when a fresh hubbub arose inside--more shouts for help.
+Amyas ran forward breaking his head against the doorway, and beheld, as
+soon as he could see for the flashes in his eyes, an old acquaintance,
+held on each side by a sturdy sailor.
+
+With one arm in the sleeve of his doublet, and the other in a not over
+spotless shirt; holding up his hose with one hand, and with the other
+a candle, whereby he had lighted himself to his own confusion; foaming
+with rage, stood Mr. Evan Morgans, alias Father Parsons, looking,
+between his confused habiliments and his fiery visage (as Yeo told him
+to his face), "the very moral of a half-plucked turkey-cock." And behind
+him, dressed, stood Eustace Leigh.
+
+"We found the maid letting these here two out by the front door," said
+one of the captors.
+
+"Well, Mr. Parsons," said Amyas; "and what are you about here? A pretty
+nest of thieves and Jesuits we seem to have routed out this evening."
+
+"About my calling, sir," said Parsons, stoutly. "By your leave, I
+shall prepare this my wounded lamb for that account to which your man's
+cruelty has untimely sent him."
+
+The wounded man, who lay upon the floor, heard Parsons' voice, and
+moaned for the "Patrico."
+
+"You see, sir," said he, pompously, "the sheep know their shepherd's
+voice."
+
+"The wolves you mean, you hypocritical scoundrel!" said Amyas, who could
+not contain his disgust. "Let the fellow truss up his points, lads, and
+do his work. After all, the man is dying."
+
+"The requisite matters, sir, are not at hand," said Parsons, unabashed.
+
+"Eustace, go and fetch his matters for him; you seem to be in all his
+plots."
+
+Eustace went silently and sullenly.
+
+"What's that fresh noise at the back, now?"
+
+"The maid, sir, a wailing over her uncle; the fellow that we saw sneak
+away when we came up. It was him the horse killed."
+
+It was true. The wretched host had slipped off on their approach, simply
+to call the neighboring outlaws to the spoil; and he had been filled
+with the fruit of his own devices.
+
+"His blood be on his own head," said Amyas.
+
+"I question, sir," said Yeo, in a low voice, "whether some of it will
+not be on the heads of those proud prelates who go clothed in purple
+and fine linen, instead of going forth to convert such as he, and then
+wonder how these Jesuits get hold of them. If they give place to the
+devil in their sheepfolds, sure he'll come in and lodge there. Look,
+sir, there's a sight in a gospel land!"
+
+And, indeed, the sight was curious enough. For Parsons was kneeling by
+the side of the dying man, listening earnestly to the confession which
+the man sobbed out in his gibberish, between the spasms of his wounded
+chest. Now and then Parsons shook his head; and when Eustace returned
+with the holy wafer, and the oil for extreme unction, he asked him, in a
+low voice, "Ballard, interpret for me."
+
+And Eustace knelt down on the other side of the sufferer, and
+interpreted his thieves' dialect into Latin; and the dying man held
+a hand of each, and turned first to one and then to the other stupid
+eyes,--not without affection, though, and gratitude.
+
+"I can't stand this mummery any longer," said Yeo. "Here's a soul
+perishing before my eyes, and it's on my conscience to speak a word in
+season."
+
+"Silence!" whispered Amyas, holding him back by the arm; "he knows them,
+and he don't know you; they are the first who ever spoke to him as if
+he had a soul to be saved, and first come, first served; you can do no
+good. See, the man's face is brightening already."
+
+"But, sir, 'tis a false peace."
+
+"At all events he is confessing his sins, Yeo; and if that's not good
+for him, and you, and me, what is?"
+
+"Yea, Amen! sir; but this is not to the right person."
+
+"How do you know his words will not go to the right person, after all,
+though he may not send them there? By heaven! the man is dead!"
+
+It was so. The dark catalogue of brutal deeds had been gasped out; but
+ere the words of absolution could follow, the head had fallen back, and
+all was over.
+
+"Confession in extremis is sufficient," said Parsons to Eustace
+("Ballard," as Parsons called him, to Amyas's surprise), as he rose. "As
+for the rest, the intention will be accepted instead of the act."
+
+"The Lord have mercy on his soul!" said Eustace.
+
+"His soul is lost before our very eyes," said Yeo.
+
+"Mind your own business," said Amyas.
+
+"Humph; but I'll tell you, sir, what our business is, if you'll step
+aside with me. I find that poor fellow that lies dead is none other than
+the leader of the Gubbings; the king of them, as they dare to call him."
+
+"Well, what of that?"
+
+"Mark my words, sir, if we have not a hundred stout rogues upon us
+before two hours are out; forgive us they never will; and if we get off
+with our lives, which I don't much expect, we shall leave our horses
+behind; for we can hold the house, sir, well enough till morning, but
+the courtyard we can't, that's certain!"
+
+"We had better march at once, then."
+
+"Think, sir; if they catch us up--as they are sure to do, knowing the
+country better than we--how will our shot stand their arrows?"
+
+"True, old wisdom; we must keep the road; and we must keep together; and
+so be a mark for them, while they will be behind every rock and bank;
+and two or three flights of arrows will do our business for us. Humph!
+stay, I have a plan." And stepping forward he spoke--
+
+"Eustace, you will be so kind as to go back to your lambs; and tell
+them, that if they meddle with us cruel wolves again to-night, we are
+ready and willing to fight to the death, and have plenty of shot and
+powder at their service. Father Parsons, you will be so kind as to
+accompany us; it is but fitting that the shepherd should be hostage for
+his sheep."
+
+"If you carry me off this spot, sir, you carry my corpse only," said
+Parsons. "I may as well die here as be hanged elsewhere, like my
+martyred brother Campian."
+
+"If you take him, you must take me too," said Eustace.
+
+"What if we won't?"
+
+"How will you gain by that? you can only leave me here. You cannot make
+me go to the Gubbings, if I do not choose."
+
+Amyas uttered sotto voce an anathema on Jesuits, Gubbings, and things in
+general. He was in a great hurry to get to Bideford, and he feared that
+this business would delay him, as it was, a day or two. He wanted to
+hang Parsons, he did not want to hang Eustace; and Eustace, he knew,
+was well aware of that latter fact, and played his game accordingly; but
+time ran on, and he had to answer sulkily enough:
+
+"Well then; if you, Eustace, will go and give my message to your
+converts, I will promise to set Mr. Parsons free again before we come to
+Lydford town; and I advise you, if you have any regard for his life,
+to see that your eloquence be persuasive enough; for as sure as I am
+an Englishman, and he none, if the Gubbings attack us, the first
+bullet that I shall fire at them will have gone through his scoundrelly
+brains."
+
+Parsons still kicked.
+
+"Very well, then, my merry men all. Tie this gentleman's hands behind
+his back, get the horses out, and we'll right away up into Dartmoor,
+find a good high tor, stand our ground there till morning, and then
+carry him into Okehampton to the nearest justice. If he chooses to delay
+me in my journey, it is fair that I should make him pay for it."
+
+Whereon Parsons gave in, and being fast tied by his arm to Amyas's
+saddle, trudged alongside his horse for several weary miles, while Yeo
+walked by his side, like a friar by a condemned criminal; and in order
+to keep up his spirits, told him the woful end of Nicholas Saunders the
+Legate, and how he was found starved to death in a bog.
+
+"And if you wish, sir, to follow in his blessed steps, which I heartily
+hope you will do, you have only to go over that big cow-backed hill
+there on your right hand, and down again the other side to Crawmere
+pool, and there you'll find as pretty a bog to die in as ever Jesuit
+needed; and your ghost may sit there on a grass tummock, and tell your
+beads without any one asking for you till the day of judgment; and much
+good may it do you!"
+
+At which imagination Yeo was actually heard, for the first and last time
+in this history, to laugh most heartily.
+
+His ho-ho's had scarcely died away when they saw shining under the moon
+the old tower of Lydford castle.
+
+"Cast the fellow off now," said Amyas.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" and Yeo and Simon Evans stopped behind, and did not come
+up for ten minutes after.
+
+"What have you been about so long?"
+
+"Why, sir," said Evans, "you see the man had a very fair pair of hose
+on, and a bran-new kersey doublet, very warm-lined; and so, thinking it
+a pity good clothes should be wasted on such noxious trade, we've just
+brought them along with us."
+
+"Spoiling the Egyptians," said Yeo as comment.
+
+"And what have you done with the man?"
+
+"Hove him over the bank, sir; he pitched into a big furze-bush, and for
+aught I know, there he'll bide."
+
+"You rascal, have you killed him?
+
+"Never fear, sir," said Yeo, in his cool fashion. "A Jesuit has as many
+lives as a cat, and, I believe, rides broomsticks post, like a witch. He
+would be at Lydford now before us, if his master Satan had any business
+for him there."
+
+Leaving on their left Lydford and its ill-omened castle (which, a
+century after, was one of the principal scenes of Judge Jeffreys's
+cruelty), Amyas and his party trudged on through the mire toward
+Okehampton till sunrise; and ere the vapors had lifted from the mountain
+tops, they were descending the long slopes from Sourton down, while
+Yestor and Amicombe slept steep and black beneath their misty pall; and
+roaring far below unseen,
+
+     "Ockment leapt from crag and cloud
+     Down her cataracts, laughing loud."
+
+The voice of the stream recalled these words to Amyas's mind. The nymph
+of Torridge had spoken them upon the day of his triumph. He recollected,
+too, his vexation on that day at not seeing Rose Salterne. Why, he had
+never seen her since. Never seen her now for six years and more! Of her
+ripened beauty he knew only by hearsay; she was still to him the lovely
+fifteen years' girl for whose sake he had smitten the Barnstaple draper
+over the quay. What a chain of petty accidents had kept them from
+meeting, though so often within a mile of each other! "And what a lucky
+one!" said practical old Amyas to himself. "If I had seen her as she is
+now, I might have loved her as Frank does--poor Frank! what will he
+say? What does he say, for he must know it already? And what ought I to
+say--to do rather, for talking is no use on this side the grave, nor on
+the other either, I expect!" And then he asked himself whether his old
+oath meant nothing or something; whether it was a mere tavern frolic, or
+a sacred duty. And he held, the more that he looked at it, that it meant
+the latter.
+
+But what could he do? He had nothing on earth but his sword, so he could
+not travel to find her. After all, she might not be gone far. Perhaps
+not gone at all. It might be a mistake, an exaggerated scandal. He
+would hope so. And yet it was evident that there had been some passages
+between her and Don Guzman. Eustace's mysterious words about the promise
+at Lundy proved that. The villain! He had felt all along that he was a
+villain; but just the one to win a woman's heart, too. Frank had been
+away--all the Brotherhood away. What a fool he had been, to turn the
+wolf loose into the sheepfold! And yet who would have dreamed of
+it? . . .
+
+"At all events," said Amyas, trying to comfort himself, "I need not
+complain. I have lost nothing. I stood no more chance of her against
+Frank than I should have stood against the Don. So there is no use for
+me to cry about the matter." And he tried to hum a tune concerning the
+general frailty of women, but nevertheless, like Sir Hugh, felt that "he
+had a great disposition to cry."
+
+He never had expected to win her, and yet it seemed bitter to know that
+she was lost to him forever. It was not so easy for a heart of his make
+to toss away the image of a first love; and all the less easy because
+that image was stained and ruined.
+
+"Curses on the man who had done that deed! I will yet have his heart's
+blood somehow, if I go round the world again to find him. If there's no
+law for it on earth, there's law in heaven, or I'm much mistaken."
+
+With which determination he rode into the ugly, dirty, and stupid town
+of Okehampton, with which fallen man (by some strange perversity) has
+chosen to defile one of the loveliest sites in the pleasant land of
+Devon. And heartily did Amyas abuse the old town that day; for he was
+detained there, as he expected, full three hours, while the Justice
+Shallow of the place was sent for from his farm (whither he had gone
+at sunrise, after the early-rising fashion of those days) to take Yeo's
+deposition concerning last night's affray. Moreover, when Shallow came,
+he refused to take the depositions, because they ought to have been made
+before a brother Shallow at Lydford; and in the wrangling which ensued,
+was very near finding out what Amyas (fearing fresh loss of time and
+worse evils beside) had commanded to be concealed, namely, the presence
+of Jesuits in that Moorland Utopia. Then, in broadest Devon--
+
+"And do you call this Christian conduct, sir, to set a quiet man like me
+upon they Gubbings, as if I was going to risk my precious life--no, nor
+ever a constable to Okehampton neither? Let Lydfor' men mind Lydfor'
+roogs, and by Lydfor' law if they will, hang first and try after; but
+as for me, I've rade my Bible, and 'He that meddleth with strife is like
+him that taketh a dog by the ears.' So if you choose to sit down and ate
+your breakfast with me, well and good: but depositions I'll have none.
+If your man is enquired for, you'll be answerable for his appearing, in
+course; but I expect mortally" (with a wink), "you wain't hear much more
+of the matter from any hand. 'Leave well alone is a good rule, but leave
+ill alone is a better.'--So we says round about here; and so you'll say,
+captain, when you be so old as I."
+
+So Amyas sat down and ate his breakfast, and went on afterwards a long
+and weary day's journey, till he saw at last beneath him the broad
+shining river, and the long bridge, and the white houses piled up the
+hill-side; and beyond, over Raleigh downs, the dear old tower of Northam
+Church.
+
+Alas! Northam was altogether a desert to him then; and Bideford, as it
+turned out, hardly less so. For when he rode up to Sir Richard's door,
+he found that the good knight was still in Ireland, and Lady Grenville
+at Stow. Whereupon he rode back again down the High Street to that same
+bow-windowed Ship Tavern where the Brotherhood of the Rose made their
+vow, and settled himself in the very room where they had supped.
+
+"Ah! Mr. Leigh--Captain Leigh now, I beg pardon," quoth mine host.
+"Bideford is an empty place now-a-days, and nothing stirring, sir. What
+with Sir Richard to Ireland, and Sir John to London, and all the young
+gentlemen to the wars, there's no one to buy good liquor, and no one to
+court the young ladies, neither. Sack, sir? I hope so. I haven't brewed
+a gallon of it this fortnight, if you'll believe me; ale, sir, and aqua
+vitae, and such low-bred trade, is all I draw now-a-days. Try a pint of
+sherry, sir, now, to give you an appetite. You mind my sherry of old?
+Jane! Sherry and sugar, quick, while I pull off the captain's boots."
+
+Amyas sat weary and sad, while the innkeeper chattered on.
+
+"Ah, sir! two or three like you would set the young ladies all alive
+again. By-the-by, there's been strange doings among them since you were
+here last. You mind Mistress Salterne!"
+
+"For God's sake, don't let us have that story, man! I heard enough of it
+at Plymouth!" said Amyas, in so disturbed a tone that mine host looked
+up, and said to himself--
+
+"Ah, poor young gentleman, he's one of the hard-hit ones."
+
+"How is the old man?" asked Amyas, after a pause.
+
+"Bears it well enough, sir; but a changed man. Never speaks to a soul,
+if he can help it. Some folk say he's not right in his head; or turned
+miser, or somewhat, and takes naught but bread and water, and sits up
+all night in the room as was hers, turning over her garments. Heaven
+knows what's on his mind--they do say he was over hard on her, and that
+drove her to it. All I know is, he has never been in here for a drop
+of liquor (and he came as regular every evening as the town clock, sir)
+since she went, except a ten days ago, and then he met young Mr. Cary at
+the door, and I heard him ask Mr. Cary when you would be home, sir."
+
+"Put on my boots again. I'll go and see him."
+
+"Bless you, sir! What, without your sack?"
+
+"Drink it yourself, man."
+
+"But you wouldn't go out again this time o' night on an empty stomach,
+now?"
+
+"Fill my men's stomachs for them, and never mind mine. It's market-day,
+is it not? Send out, and see whether Mr. Cary is still in town;" and
+Amyas strode out, and along the quay to Bridgeland Street, and knocked
+at Mr. Salterne's door.
+
+Salterne himself opened it, with his usual stern courtesy.
+
+"I saw you coming up the street, sir. I have been expecting this honor
+from you for some time past. I dreamt of you only last night, and many
+a night before that too. Welcome, sir, into a lonely house. I trust the
+good knight your general is well."
+
+"The good knight my general is with God who made him, Mr. Salterne."
+
+"Dead, sir?"
+
+"Foundered at sea on our way home; and the Delight lost too."
+
+"Humph!" growled Salterne, after a minute's silence. "I had a venture in
+her. I suppose it's gone. No matter--I can afford it, sir, and more,
+I trust. And he was three years younger than I! And Draper Heard was
+buried yesterday, five years younger.--How is it that every one can die,
+except me? Come in, sir, come in; I have forgotten my manners."
+
+And he led Amyas into his parlor, and called to the apprentices to run
+one way, and to the cook to run another.
+
+"You must not trouble yourself to get me supper, indeed."
+
+"I must though, sir, and the best of wine too; and old Salterne had a
+good tap of Alicant in old time, old time, old time, sir! and you must
+drink it now, whether he does or not!" and out he bustled.
+
+Amyas sat still, wondering what was coming next, and puzzled at the
+sudden hilarity of the man, as well as his hospitality, so different
+from what the innkeeper had led him to expect.
+
+In a minute more one of the apprentices came in to lay the cloth, and
+Amyas questioned him about his master.
+
+"Thank the Lord that you are come, sir," said the lad.
+
+"Why, then?"
+
+"Because there'll be a chance of us poor fellows getting a little broken
+meat. We'm half-starved this three months--bread and dripping, bread and
+dripping, oh dear, sir! And now he's sent out to the inn for chickens,
+and game, and salads, and all that money can buy, and down in the cellar
+haling out the best of wine."--And the lad smacked his lips audibly at
+the thought.
+
+"Is he out of his mind?"
+
+"I can't tell; he saith as how he must save mun's money now-a-days; for
+he've a got a great venture on hand: but what a be he tell'th no man.
+They call'th mun 'bread and dripping' now, sir, all town over," said the
+prentice, confidentially, to Amyas.
+
+"They do, do they, sirrah! Then they will call me bread and no dripping
+to-morrow!" and old Salterne, entering from behind, made a dash at the
+poor fellow's ears: but luckily thought better of it, having a couple of
+bottles in each hand.
+
+"My dear sir," said Amyas, "you don't mean us to drink all that wine?"
+
+"Why not, sir?" answered Salterne, in a grim, half-sneering tone,
+thrusting out his square-grizzled beard and chin. "Why not, sir? why
+should I not make merry when I have the honor of a noble captain in my
+house? one who has sailed the seas, sir, and cut Spaniards' throats; and
+may cut them again too; eh, sir? Boy, where's the kettle and the sugar?"
+
+"What on earth is the man at?" quoth Amyas to himself--"flattering me,
+or laughing at me?"
+
+"Yes," he ran on, half to himself, in a deliberate tone, evidently
+intending to hint more than he said, as he began brewing the sack--in
+plain English, hot negus; "Yes, bread and dripping for those who can't
+fight Spaniards; but the best that money can buy for those who can. I
+heard of you at Smerwick, sir--Yes, bread and dripping for me too--I
+can't fight Spaniards: but for such as you. Look here, sir; I should
+like to feed a crew of such up, as you'd feed a main of fighting-cocks,
+and then start them with a pair of Sheffield spurs a-piece--you've a
+good one there to your side, sir: but don't you think a man might carry
+two now, and fight as they say those Chineses do, a sword to each hand?
+You could kill more that way, Captain Leigh, I reckon?"
+
+Amyas half laughed.
+
+"One will do, Mr. Salterne, if one is quick enough with it."
+
+"Humph!--Ah--No use being in a hurry. I haven't been in a hurry. No--I
+waited for you; and here you are and welcome, sir! Here comes supper, a
+light matter, sir, you see. A capon and a brace of partridges. I had no
+time to feast you as you deserve."
+
+And so he ran on all supper-time, hardly allowing Amyas to get a word
+in edge-ways; but heaping him with coarse flattery, and urging him to
+drink, till after the cloth was drawn, and the two left alone, he grew
+so outrageous that Amyas was forced to take him to task good-humoredly.
+
+"Now, my dear sir, you have feasted me royally, and better far than I
+deserve, but why will you go about to make me drunk twice over, first
+with vainglory and then with wine?"
+
+Salterne looked at him a while fixedly, and then, sticking out his
+chin--"Because, Captain Leigh, I am a man who has all his life tried the
+crooked road first, and found the straight one the safer after all."
+
+"Eh, sir? That is a strange speech for one who bears the character of
+the most upright man in Bideford."
+
+"Humph. So I thought myself once, sir; and well I have proved it. But
+I'll be plain with you, sir. You've heard how--how I've fared since you
+saw me last?"
+
+Amyas nodded his head.
+
+"I thought so. Shame rides post. Now then, Captain Leigh, listen to me.
+I, being a plain man and a burgher, and one that never drew iron in my
+life except to mend a pen, ask you, being a gentleman and a captain
+and a man of honor, with a weapon to your side, and harness to your
+back--what would you do in my place?"
+
+"Humph!" said Amyas, "that would very much depend on whether 'my place'
+was my own fault or not."
+
+"And what if it were, sir? What if all that the charitable folks of
+Bideford--(Heaven reward them for their tender mercies!)--have been
+telling you in the last hour be true, sir,--true! and yet not half the
+truth?"
+
+Amyas gave a start.
+
+"Ah, you shrink from me! Of course a man is too righteous to forgive
+those who repent, though God is not."
+
+"God knows, sir--"
+
+"Yes, sir, God does know--all; and you shall know a little--as much as I
+can tell--or you understand. Come upstairs with me, sir, as you'll drink
+no more; I have a liking for you. I have watched you from your boyhood,
+and I can trust you, and I'll show you what I never showed to mortal man
+but one."
+
+And, taking up a candle, he led the way upstairs, while Amyas followed
+wondering.
+
+He stopped at a door, and unlocked it.
+
+"There, come in. Those shutters have not been opened since she--" and
+the old man was silent.
+
+Amyas looked round the room. It was a low wainscoted room, such as one
+sees in old houses: everything was in the most perfect neatness.
+The snow-white sheets on the bed were turned down as if ready for an
+occupant. There were books arranged on the shelves, fresh flowers on the
+table; the dressing-table had all its woman's mundus of pins, and rings,
+and brushes; even the dressing-gown lay over the chair-back. Everything
+was evidently just as it had been left.
+
+"This was her room, sir," whispered the old man.
+
+Amyas nodded silently, and half drew back.
+
+"You need not be modest about entering it now, sir," whispered he, with
+a sort of sneer. "There has been no frail flesh and blood in it for many
+a day."
+
+Amyas sighed.
+
+"I sweep it out myself every morning, and keep all tidy. See here!"
+and he pulled open a drawer. "Here are all her gowns, and there are her
+hoods; and there--I know 'em all by heart now, and the place of every
+one. And there, sir--"
+
+And he opened a cupboard, where lay in rows all Rose's dolls, and the
+worn-out playthings of her childhood.
+
+"That's the pleasantest place of all in the room to me," said he,
+whispering still, "for it minds me of when--and maybe, she may become a
+little child once more, sir; it's written in the Scripture, you know--"
+
+"Amen!" said Amyas, who felt, to his own wonder, a big tear stealing
+down each cheek.
+
+"And now," he whispered, "one thing more. Look here!"--and pulling out a
+key, he unlocked a chest, and lifted up tray after tray of necklaces
+and jewels, furs, lawns, cloth of gold. "Look there! Two thousand pound
+won't buy that chest. Twenty years have I been getting those things
+together. That's the cream of many a Levant voyage, and East Indian
+voyage, and West Indian voyage. My Lady Bath can't match those pearls in
+her grand house at Tawstock; I got 'em from a Genoese, though, and paid
+for 'em. Look at that embroidered lawn! There's not such a piece in
+London; no, nor in Alexandria, I'll warrant; nor short of Calicut, where
+it came from. . . . Look here again, there's a golden cup! I bought that
+of one that was out with Pizarro in Peru. And look here, again!"--and
+the old man gloated over the treasure.
+
+"And whom do you think I kept all these for? These were for her
+wedding-day--for her wedding-day. For your wedding-day, if you'd been
+minded, sir! Yes, yours, sir! And yet, I believe, I was so ambitious
+that I would not have let her marry under an earl, all the while I was
+pretending to be too proud to throw her at the head of a squire's son.
+Ah, well! There was my idol, sir. I made her mad, I pampered her up with
+gewgaws and vanity; and then, because my idol was just what I had made
+her, I turned again and rent her.
+
+"And now," said he, pointing to the open chest, "that was what I meant;
+and that" (pointing to the empty bed) "was what God meant. Never mind.
+Come downstairs and finish your wine. I see you don't care about it all.
+Why should you! you are not her father, and you may thank God you are
+not. Go, and be merry while you can, young sir! . . . And yet, all this
+might have been yours. And--but I don't suppose you are one to be won
+by money--but all this may be yours still, and twenty thousand pounds to
+boot."
+
+"I want no money, sir, but what I can earn with my own sword."
+
+"Earn my money, then!"
+
+"What on earth do you want of me!"
+
+"To keep your oath," said Salterne, clutching his arm, and looking up
+into his face with searching eyes.
+
+"My oath! How did you know that I had one?"
+
+"Ah! you were well ashamed of it, I suppose, next day! A drunken frolic
+all about a poor merchant's daughter! But there is nothing hidden that
+shall not be revealed, nor done in the closet that is not proclaimed on
+the house-tops."
+
+"Ashamed of it, sir, I never was: but I have a right to ask how you came
+to know it?"
+
+"What if a poor fat squinny rogue, a low-born fellow even as I am,
+whom you had baffled and made a laughing-stock, had come to me in my
+loneliness and sworn before God that if you honorable gentlemen would
+not keep your words, he the clown would?"
+
+"John Brimblecombe?"
+
+"And what if I had brought him where I have brought you, and shown
+him what I have shown you, and, instead of standing as stiff as any
+Spaniard, as you do, he had thrown himself on his knees by that bedside,
+and wept and prayed, sir, till he opened my hard heart for the first
+and last time, and I fell down on my sinful knees and wept and prayed by
+him?"
+
+"I am not given to weeping, Mr. Salterne," said Amyas; "and as for
+praying, I don't know yet what I have to pray for, on her account: my
+business is to work. Show me what I can do; and when you have done that,
+it will be full time to upbraid me with not doing it."
+
+"You can cut that fellow's throat."
+
+"It will take a long arm to reach him."
+
+"I suppose it is as easy to sail to the Spanish Main as it was to sail
+round the world."
+
+"My good sir," said Amyas, "I have at this moment no more worldly goods
+than my clothes and my sword, so how to sail to the Spanish Main, I
+don't quite see."
+
+"And do you suppose, sir, that I should hint to you of such a voyage if
+I meant you to be at the charge of it? No, sir; if you want two thousand
+pounds, or five, to fit a ship, take it! Take it, sir! I hoarded money
+for my child: and now I will spend it to avenge her."
+
+Amyas was silent for a while; the old man still held his arm, still
+looked up steadfastly and fiercely in his face.
+
+"Bring me home that man's head, and take ship, prizes--all! Keep the
+gain, sir, and give me the revenge!"
+
+"Gain? Do you think I need bribing, sir? What kept me silent was the
+thought of my mother. I dare not go without her leave."
+
+Salterne made a gesture of impatience.
+
+"I dare not, sir; I must obey my parent, whatever else I do."
+
+"Humph!" said he. "If others had obeyed theirs as well!--But you are
+right, Captain Leigh, right. You will prosper, whoever else does not.
+Now, sir, good-night, if you will let me be the first to say so. My old
+eyes grow heavy early now-a-days. Perhaps it's old age, perhaps it's
+sorrow."
+
+So Amyas departed to the inn, and there, to his great joy, found Cary
+waiting for him, from whom he learnt details, which must be kept for
+another chapter, and which I shall tell, for convenience' sake, in my
+own words and not in his.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+HOW MR. JOHN BRIMBLECOMBE UNDERSTOOD THE NATURE OF AN OATH
+
+     "The Kynge of Spayn is a foul paynim,
+     And lieveth on Mahound;
+     And pity it were that lady fayre
+     Should marry a heathen hound."
+
+                           Kyng Estmere.
+
+About six weeks after the duel, the miller at Stow had come up to
+the great house in much tribulation, to borrow the bloodhounds. Rose
+Salterne had vanished in the night, no man knew whither.
+
+Sir Richard was in Bideford: but the old steward took on himself to send
+for the keepers, and down went the serving-men to the mill with all the
+idle lads of the parish at their heels, thinking a maiden-hunt very good
+sport; and of course taking a view of the case as favorable as possible
+to Rose.
+
+They reviled the miller and his wife roundly for hard-hearted old
+heathens; and had no doubt that they had driven the poor maid to throw
+herself over cliff, or drown herself in the sea; while all the women of
+Stow, on the other hand, were of unanimous opinion that the hussy had
+"gone off" with some bad fellow; and that pride was sure to have a fall,
+and so forth.
+
+The facts of the case were, that all Rose's trinkets were left behind,
+so that she had at least gone off honestly; and nothing seemed to be
+missing, but some of her linen, which old Anthony the steward broadly
+hinted was likely to be found in other people's boxes. The only trace
+was a little footmark under her bedroom window. On that the bloodhound
+was laid (of course in leash), and after a premonitory whimper, lifted
+up his mighty voice, and started bell-mouthed through the garden gate,
+and up the lane, towing behind him the panting keeper, till they reached
+the downs above, and went straight away for Marslandmouth, where the
+whole posse comitatus pulled up breathless at the door of Lucy Passmore.
+
+Lucy, as perhaps I should have said before, was now a widow, and found
+her widowhood not altogether contrary to her interest. Her augury about
+her old man had been fulfilled; he had never returned since the night on
+which he put to sea with Eustace and the Jesuits.
+
+     *"Some natural tears she shed, but dried them soon"
+
+as many of them, at least, as were not required for purposes of
+business; and then determined to prevent suspicion by a bold move; she
+started off to Stow, and told Lady Grenville a most pathetic tale: how
+her husband had gone out to pollock fishing, and never returned: but how
+she had heard horsemen gallop past her window in the dead of night, and
+was sure they must have been the Jesuits, and that they had carried off
+her old man by main force, and probably, after making use of his
+services, had killed and salted him down for provision on their voyage
+back to the Pope at Rome; after which she ended by entreating protection
+against those "Popish skulkers up to Chapel," who were sworn to do her a
+mischief; and by an appeal to Lady Grenville's sense of justice, as to
+whether the queen ought not to allow her a pension, for having had her
+heart's love turned into a sainted martyr by the hands of idolatrous
+traitors.
+
+Lady Grenville (who had a great opinion of Lucy's medical skill, and
+always sent for her if one of the children had a "housty," i. e. sore
+throat) went forth and pleaded the case before Sir Richard with such
+effect, that Lucy was on the whole better off than ever for the next two
+or three years.  But now--what had she to do with Rose's disappearance?
+and, indeed, where was she herself?  Her door was fast; and round it her
+flock of goats stood, crying in vain for her to come and milk them;
+while from the down above, her donkeys, wandering at their own sweet
+will, answered the bay of the bloodhound with a burst of harmony.
+
+"They'm laughing at us, keper, they neddies; sure enough, we'm lost our
+labor here."
+
+But the bloodhound, after working about the door a while, turned down
+the glen, and never stopped till he reached the margin of the sea.
+
+"They'm taken water.  Let's go back, and rout out the old witch's
+house."
+
+"'Tis just like that old Lucy, to lock a poor maid into shame."
+
+And returning, they attacked the cottage, and by a general plebiscitum,
+ransacked the little dwelling, partly in indignation, and partly, if the
+truth be told, in the hope of plunder; but plunder there was none.  Lucy
+had decamped with all her movable wealth, saving the huge black cat
+among the embers, who at the sight of the bloodhound vanished up the
+chimney (some said with a strong smell of brimstone), and being viewed
+outside, was chased into the woods, where she lived, I doubt not, many
+happy years, a scourge to all the rabbits of the glen.
+
+The goats and donkeys were driven off up to Stow; and the mob returned,
+a little ashamed of themselves when their brief wrath was past; and a
+little afraid, too, of what Sir Richard might say.
+
+He, when he returned, sold the donkeys and goats, and gave the money to
+the poor, promising to refund the same, if Lucy returned and gave
+herself up to justice.  But Lucy did not return; and her cottage, from
+which the neighbors shrank as from a haunted place, remained as she had
+left it, and crumbled slowly down to four fern-covered walls, past which
+the little stream went murmuring on from pool to pool--the only voice,
+for many a year to come, which broke the silence of that lonely glen.
+
+A few days afterwards, Sir Richard, on his way from Bideford to Stow,
+looked in at Clovelly Court, and mentioned, with a "by the by," news
+which made Will Cary leap from his seat almost to the ceiling.  What it
+was we know already.
+
+"And there is no clue?" asked old Cary; for his son was speechless.
+
+"Only this; I hear that some fellow prowling about the cliffs that night
+saw a pinnace running for Lundy."
+
+Will rose, and went hastily out of the room.
+
+In half an hour he and three or four armed servants were on board a
+trawling-skiff, and away to Lundy.  He did not return for three days,
+and then brought news: that an elderly man, seemingly a foreigner, had
+been lodging for some months past in a part of the ruined Moresco
+Castle, which was tenanted by one John Braund; that a few weeks since a
+younger man, a foreigner also, had joined him from on board a ship: the
+ship a Flushinger, or Easterling of some sort.  The ship came and went
+more than once; and the young man in her.  A few days since, a lady and
+her maid, a stout woman, came with him up to the castle, and talked with
+the elder man a long while in secret; abode there all night; and then
+all three sailed in the morning.  The fishermen on the beach had heard
+the young man call the other father.  He was a very still man, much as a
+mass-priest might be.  More they did not know, or did not choose to
+know.
+
+Whereon old Cary and Sir Richard sent Will on a second trip with the
+parish constable of Hartland (in which huge parish, for its sins, is
+situate the Isle of Lundy, ten miles out at sea); who returned with the
+body of the hapless John Braund, farmer, fisherman, smuggler, etc.;
+which worthy, after much fruitless examination (wherein examinate was
+afflicted with extreme deafness and loss of memory), departed to Exeter
+gaol, on a charge of "harboring priests, Jesuits, gipsies, and other
+suspect and traitorous persons."
+
+Poor John Braund, whose motive for entertaining the said ugly customers
+had probably been not treason, but a wife, seven children, and arrears
+of rent, did not thrive under the change from the pure air of Lundy to
+the pestiferous one of Exeter gaol, made infamous, but two years after
+(if I recollect right), by a "black assizes," nearly as fatal as that
+more notorious one at Oxford; for in it, "whether by the stench of the
+prisoners, or by a stream of foul air," judge, jury, counsel, and
+bystanders, numbering among them many members of the best families in
+Devon, sickened in court, and died miserably within a few days.
+
+John Braund, then, took the gaol-fever in a week, and died raving in
+that noisome den: his secret, if he had one, perished with him, and
+nothing but vague suspicion was left as to Rose Salterne's fate.  That
+she had gone off with the Spaniard, few doubted; but whither, and in
+what character?  On that last subject, be sure, no mercy was shown to
+her by many a Bideford dame, who had hated the poor girl simply for her
+beauty; and by many a country lady, who had "always expected that the
+girl would be brought to ruin by the absurd notice, beyond what her
+station had a right to, which was taken of her," while every young
+maiden aspired to fill the throne which Rose had abdicated.  So that, on
+the whole, Bideford considered itself as going on as well without poor
+Rose as it had done with her, or even better.  And though she lingered
+in some hearts still as a fair dream, the business and the bustle of
+each day soon swept that dream away, and her place knew her no more.
+
+And Will Cary?
+
+He was for a while like a man distracted.  He heaped himself with all
+manner of superfluous reproaches, for having (as he said) first brought
+the Rose into disgrace, and then driven her into the arms of the
+Spaniard; while St. Leger, who was a sensible man enough, tried in vain
+to persuade him that the fault was not his at all; that the two must
+have been attached to each other long before the quarrel; that it must
+have ended so, sooner or later; that old Salterne's harshness, rather
+than Cary's wrath, had hastened the catastrophe; and finally, that the
+Rose and her fortunes were, now that she had eloped with a Spaniard, not
+worth troubling their heads about.  Poor Will would not be so comforted.
+He wrote off to Frank at Whitehall, telling him the whole truth, calling
+himself all fools and villains, and entreating Frank's forgiveness; to
+which he received an answer, in which Frank said that Will had no reason
+to accuse himself; that these strange attachments were due to a
+synastria, or sympathy of the stars, which ruled the destinies of each
+person, to fight against which was to fight against the heavens
+themselves; that he, as a brother of the Rose, was bound to believe,
+nay, to assert at the sword's point if need were, that the incomparable
+Rose of Torridge could make none but a worthy and virtuous choice; and
+that to the man whom she had honored by her affection was due on their
+part, Spaniard and Papist though he might be, all friendship, worship,
+and loyal faith for evermore.
+
+And honest Will took it all for gospel, little dreaming what agony of
+despair, what fearful suspicions, what bitter prayers, this letter had
+cost to the gentle heart of Francis Leigh.
+
+He showed the letter triumphantly to St. Leger; and he was quite wise
+enough to gainsay no word of it, at least aloud; but quite wise enough,
+also, to believe in secret that Frank looked on the matter in quite a
+different light; however, he contented himself with saying:
+
+"The man is an angel as his mother is!" and there the matter dropped for
+a few days, till one came forward who had no mind to let it drop, and
+that was Jack Brimblecombe, now curate of Hartland town, and "passing
+rich on forty pounds a year.
+
+"I hope no offence, Mr. William; but when are you and the rest going
+after--after her?"  The name stuck in his throat.
+
+Cary was taken aback.
+
+"What's that to thee, Catiline the blood-drinker?" asked he, trying to
+laugh it off.
+
+"What?  Don't laugh at me, sir, for it's no laughing matter.  I drank
+that night naught worse, I expect, than red wine.  Whatever it was, we
+swore our oaths, Mr. Cary; and oaths are oaths, say I."
+
+"Of course, Jack, of course; but to go to look for her--and when we've
+found her, cut her lover's throat.  Absurd, Jack, even if she were worth
+looking for, or his throat worth cutting.  Tut, tut, tut--"
+
+But Jack looked steadfastly in his face, and after some silence:
+
+How far is it to the Caracas, then, sir?"
+
+"What is that to thee, man?"
+
+"Why, he was made governor thereof, I hear; so that would be the place
+to find her?"
+
+"You don't mean to go thither to seek her?" shouted Cary, forcing a
+laugh.
+
+"That depends on whether I can go, sir; but if I can scrape the money
+together, or get a berth on board some ship, why, God's will must be
+done."
+
+Will looked at him, to see if he had been drinking, or gone mad; but the
+little pigs' eyes were both sane and sober.
+
+Will knew no answer.  To laugh at the poor fellow was easy enough; to
+deny that he was right, that he was a hero and cavalier, outdoing
+romance itself in faithfulness, not so easy; and Cary, in the first
+impulse, wished him at the bottom of the bay for shaming him.  Of
+course, his own plan of letting ill alone was the rational, prudent,
+irreproachable plan, and just what any gentleman in his senses would
+have done; but here was a vulgar, fat curate, out of his senses,
+determined not to let ill alone, but to do something, as Cary felt in
+his heart, of a far diviner stamp.
+
+"Well," said Jack, in his stupid steadfast way, "it's a very bad
+look-out; but mother's pretty well off, if father dies, and the maidens
+are stout wenches enough, and will make tidy servants, please the Lord.
+And you'll see that they come to no harm, Mr. William, for old
+acquaintance' sake, if I never come back."
+
+Cary was silent with amazement.
+
+"And, Mr. William, you know me for an honest man, I hope.  Will you lend
+me a five pound, and take my books in pawn for them, just to help me
+out?"
+
+"Are you mad, or in a dream?  You will never find her!"
+
+"That's no reason why I shouldn't do my duty in looking for her, Mr.
+William."
+
+"But, my good fellow, even if you get to the Indies, you will be clapt
+into the Inquisition, and burnt alive, as sure as your name is Jack."
+
+"I know that," said he, in a doleful tone; "and a sore struggle of the
+flesh I have had about it; for I am a great coward, Mr. William, a dirty
+coward, and always was, as you know: but maybe the Lord will take care
+of me, as He does of little children and drunken men; and if not, Mr.
+Will, I'd sooner burn, and have it over, than go on this way any longer,
+I would!" and Jack burst out blubbering.
+
+"What way, my dear old lad?" said Will, softened as he well might be.
+
+"Why, not--not to know whether--whether--whether she's married to him or
+not--her that I looked up to as an angel of God, as pure as the light of
+day; and knew she was too good for a poor pot-head like me; and prayed
+for her every night, God knows, that she might marry a king, if there
+was one fit for her--and I not to know whether she's living in sin or
+not, Mr. William.--It's more than I can bear, and there's an end of it.
+And if she is married to him they keep no faith with heretics; they can
+dissolve the marriage, or make away with her into the Inquisition; burn
+her, Mr. Cary, as soon as burn me, the devils incarnate!"
+
+Cary shuddered; the fact, true and palpable as it was, had never struck
+him before.
+
+"Yes! or make her deny her God by torments, if she hasn't done it
+already for love to that--I know how love will make a body sell his
+soul, for I've been in love.  Don't you laugh at me, Mr. Will, or I
+shall go mad!"
+
+"God knows, I was never less inclined to laugh at you in my life, my
+brave old Jack."
+
+"Is it so, then?  Bless you for that word!" and Jack held out his hand.
+"But what will become of my soul, after my oath, if I don't seek her
+out, just to speak to her, to warn her, for God's sake, even if it did
+no good; just to set before her the Lord's curse on idolatry and
+Antichrist, and those who deny Him for the sake of any creature, though
+I can't think he would be hard on her,--for who could?  But I must speak
+all the same.  The Lord has laid the burden on me, and done it must be.
+God help me!"
+
+"Jack," said Cary, "if this is your duty, it is others'."
+
+"No, sir, I don't say that; you're a layman, but I am a deacon, and the
+chaplain of you all, and sworn to seek out Christ's sheep scattered up
+and down this naughty world, and that innocent lamb first of all."
+
+"You have sheep at Hartland, Jack, already."
+
+"There's plenty better than I will tend them, when I am gone; but none
+that will tend her, because none love her like me, and they won't
+venture.  Who will?  It can't be expected, and no shame to them?"
+
+"I wonder what Amyas Leigh would say to all this, if he were at home?"
+
+"Say?  He'd do.  He isn't one for talking.  He'd go through fire and
+water for her, you trust him, Will Cary; and call me an ass if he
+won't."
+
+"Will you wait, then, till he comes back, and ask him?"
+
+"He may not be back for a year and more."
+
+"Hear reason, Jack.  If you will wait like a rational and patient man,
+instead of rushing blindfold on your ruin, something may be done."
+
+"You think so!"
+
+"I cannot promise; but--"
+
+"But promise me one thing.  Do you tell Mr. Frank what I say--or rather,
+I'll warrant, if I knew the truth, he has said the very same thing
+himself already."
+
+"You are out there, old man; for here is his own handwriting."
+
+Jack read the letter and sighed bitterly.  "Well, I did take him for
+another guess sort of fine gentleman.  Still, if my duty isn't his, it's
+mine all the same.  I judge no man; but I go, Mr. Cary."
+
+"But go you shall not till Amyas returns.  As I live, I will tell your
+father, Jack, unless you promise; and you dare not disobey him."
+
+"I don't know even that, for conscience' sake," said Jack, doubtfully.
+
+"At least, you stay and dine here, old fellow, and we will settle
+whether you are to break the fifth commandment or not, over good brewed
+sack."
+
+Now a good dinner was (as we know) what Jack loved, and loved too oft in
+vain; so he submitted for the nonce, and Cary thought, ere he went, that
+he had talked him pretty well round.  At least he went home, and was
+seen no more for a week.
+
+But at the end of that time he returned, and said with a joyful voice--
+
+"I have settled all, Mr. Will.  The parson of Welcombe will serve my
+church for two Sundays, and I am away for London town, to speak to Mr.
+Frank."
+
+"To London?  How wilt get there?"
+
+"On Shanks his mare," said Jack, pointing to his bandy legs.  "But I
+expect I can get a lift on board of a coaster so far as Bristol, and
+it's no way on to signify, I hear."
+
+Cary tried in vain to dissuade him; and then forced on him a small loan,
+with which away went Jack, and Cary heard no more of him for three
+weeks.
+
+At last he walked into Clovelly Court again just before supper-time,
+thin and leg-weary, and sat himself down among the serving-men till Will
+appeared.
+
+Will took him up above the salt, and made much of him (which indeed the
+honest fellow much needed), and after supper asked him in private how he
+had sped.
+
+"I have learnt a lesson, Mr. William.  I've learnt that there is one on
+earth loves her better than I, if she had but had the wit to have taken
+him."
+
+"But what says he of going to seek her?"
+
+"He says what I say, Go! and he says what you say, Wait."
+
+"Go?  Impossible!  How can that agree with his letter?"
+
+"That's no concern of mine.  Of course, being nearer heaven than I am,
+he sees clearer what he should say and do than I can see for him.  Oh,
+Mr. Will, that's not a man, he's an angel of God; but he's dying, Mr.
+Will."
+
+"Dying?"
+
+"Yes, faith, of love for her.  I can see it in his eyes, and hear it in
+his voice; but I am of tougher hide and stiffer clay, and so you see I
+can't die even if I tried.  But I'll obey my betters, and wait."
+
+And so Jack went home to his parish that very evening, weary as he was,
+in spite of all entreaties to pass the night at Clovelly.  But he had
+left behind him thoughts in Cary's mind, which gave their owner no rest
+by day or night, till the touch of a seeming accident made them all
+start suddenly into shape, as a touch of the freezing water covers it in
+an instant with crystals of ice.
+
+He was lounging (so he told Amyas) one murky day on Bideford quay, when
+up came Mr. Salterne.  Cary had shunned him of late, partly from
+delicacy, partly from dislike of his supposed hard-heartedness.  But
+this time they happened to meet full; and Cary could not pass without
+speaking to him.
+
+"Well, Mr. Salterne, and how goes on the shipping trade?"
+
+"Well enough, sir, if some of you young gentlemen would but follow Mr.
+Leigh's example, and go forth to find us stay-at-homes new markets for
+our ware."
+
+"What? you want to be rid of us, eh?"
+
+"I don't know why I should, sir.  We sha'n't cross each other now, sir,
+whatever might have been once.  But if I were you, I should be in the
+Indies about now, if I were not fighting the queen's battles nearer
+home."
+
+"In the Indies?  I should make but a poor hand of Drake's trade." And so
+the conversation dropped; but Cary did not forget the hint.
+
+"So, lad, to make an end of a long story," said he to Amyas; "if you are
+minded to take the old man's offer, so am I: and Westward-ho with you,
+come foul come fair."
+
+"It will be but a wild-goose chase, Will."
+
+"If she is with him, we shall find her at La Guayra.  If she is not, and
+the villain has cast her off down the wind, that will be only an
+additional reason for making an example of him."
+
+"And if neither of them are there, Will, the Plate-fleets will be; so it
+will be our own shame if we come home empty-handed.  But will your
+father let you run such a risk?"
+
+"My father!" said Cary, laughing.  "He has just now so good hope of a
+long string of little Carys to fill my place, that he will be in no lack
+of an heir, come what will."
+
+"Little Carys?"
+
+"I tell you truth.  I think he must have had a sly sup of that fountain
+of perpetual youth, which our friend Don Guzman's grandfather went to
+seek in Florida; for some twelvemonth since, he must needs marry a
+tenant's buxom daughter; and Mistress Abishag Jewell has brought him one
+fat baby already.  So I shall go, back to Ireland, or with you: but
+somewhere.  I can't abide the thing's squalling, any more than I can
+seeing Mistress Abishag sitting in my poor dear mother's place, and
+informing me every other day that she is come of an illustrious house,
+because she is (or is not) third cousin seven times removed to my
+father's old friend, Bishop Jewell of glorious memory.  I had
+three-parts of a quarrel with the dear old man the other day; for after
+one of her peacock-bouts, I couldn't for the life of me help saying,
+that as the Bishop had written an Apology for the people of England, my
+father had better conjure up his ghost to write an apology for him, and
+head it, 'Why green heads should grow on gray shoulders.'"
+
+"You impudent villain!  And what did he say?"
+
+Laughed till he cried again, and told me if I did not like it I might
+leave it; which is just what I intend to do.  Only mind, if we go, we
+must needs take Jack Brimblecombe with us, or he will surely heave
+himself over Harty Point, and his ghost will haunt us to our dying day."
+
+"Jack shall go.  None deserves it better."
+
+After which there was a long consultation on practical matters, and it
+was concluded that Amyas should go up to London and sound Frank and his
+mother before any further steps were taken.  The other brethren of the
+Rose were scattered far and wide, each at his post, and St. Leger had
+returned to his uncle, so that it would be unfair to them, as well as a
+considerable delay, to demand of them any fulfilment of their vow.
+And, as Amyas sagely remarked, "Too many cooks spoil the broth, and
+half-a-dozen gentlemen aboard one ship are as bad as two kings of
+Brentford."
+
+With which maxim he departed next morning for London, leaving Yeo with
+Cary.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE
+
+     "He is brass within, and steel without,
+     With beams on his topcastle strong;
+     And eighteen pieces of ordinance
+     He carries on either side along."
+
+                         Sir Andrew Barton.
+
+Let us take boat, as Amyas did, at Whitehall-stairs, and slip down ahead
+of him under old London Bridge, and so to Deptford Creek, where remains,
+as it were embalmed, the famous ship Pelican, in which Drake had sailed
+round the world. There she stands, drawn up high and dry upon the sedgy
+bank of Thames, like an old warrior resting after his toil. Nailed upon
+her mainmast are epigrams and verses in honor of her and of her captain,
+three of which, by the Winchester scholar, Camden gives in his History;
+and Elizabeth's self consecrated her solemnly, and having banqueted on
+board, there and then honored Drake with the dignity of knighthood. "At
+which time a bridge of planks, by which they came on board, broke under
+the press of people, and fell down with a hundred men upon it, who,
+notwithstanding, had none of them any harm. So as that ship may seem to
+have been built under a lucky planet."
+
+There she has remained since as a show, and moreover as a sort of
+dining-hall for jovial parties from the city; one of which would seem
+to be on board this afternoon, to judge from the flags which bedizen the
+masts, the sounds of revelry and savory steams which issue from those
+windows which once were portholes, and the rushing to and fro along the
+river brink, and across that lucky bridge, of white-aproned waiters from
+the neighboring Pelican Inn. A great feast is evidently toward, for
+with those white-aproned waiters are gay serving men, wearing on their
+shoulders the city-badge. The lord mayor is giving a dinner to certain
+gentlemen of the Leicester house party, who are interested in foreign
+discoveries; and what place so fit for such a feast as the Pelican
+itself?
+
+Look at the men all round; a nobler company you will seldom see.
+Especially too, if you be Americans, look at their faces, and reverence
+them; for to them and to their wisdom you owe the existence of your
+mighty fatherland.
+
+At the head of the table sits the lord mayor; whom all readers will
+recognize at once, for he is none other than that famous Sir Edward
+Osborne, clothworker, and ancestor of the dukes of Leeds, whose romance
+now-a-days is in every one's hands. He is aged, but not changed, since
+he leaped from the window upon London Bridge into the roaring tide
+below, to rescue the infant who is now his wife. The chivalry and
+promptitude of the 'prentice boy have grown and hardened into the
+thoughtful daring of the wealthy merchant adventurer. There he sits, a
+right kingly man, with my lord Earl of Cumberland on his right hand, and
+Walter Raleigh on his left; the three talk together in a low voice on
+the chance of there being vast and rich countries still undiscovered
+between Florida and the River of Canada. Raleigh's half-scientific
+declamation and his often quotations of Doctor Dee the conjuror, have
+less effect on Osborne than on Cumberland (who tried many an adventure
+to foreign parts, and failed in all of them; apparently for the simple
+reason that, instead of going himself, he sent other people), and
+Raleigh is fain to call to his help the quiet student who sits on his
+left hand, Richard Hakluyt, of Oxford. But he is deep in talk with a
+reverend elder, whose long white beard flows almost to his waist, and
+whose face is furrowed by a thousand storms; Anthony Jenkinson by name,
+the great Asiatic traveller, who is discoursing to the Christ-church
+virtuoso of reindeer sledges and Siberian steppes, and of the fossil
+ivory, plain proof of Noah's flood, which the Tungoos dig from the
+ice-cliffs of the Arctic sea. Next to him is Christopher Carlile,
+Walsingham's son-in-law (as Sidney also is now), a valiant captain,
+afterwards general of the soldiery in Drake's triumphant West Indian
+raid of 1585, with whom a certain Bishop of Carthagena will hereafter
+drink good wine. He is now busy talking with Alderman Hart the
+grocer, Sheriff Spencer the clothworker, and Charles Leigh (Amyas's
+merchant-cousin), and with Aldworth the mayor of Bristol, and William
+Salterne, alderman thereof, and cousin of our friend at Bideford. For
+Carlile, and Secretary Walsingham also, have been helping them heart
+and soul for the last two years to collect money for Humphrey and Adrian
+Gilbert's great adventures to the North-West, on one of which Carlile
+was indeed to have sailed himself, but did not go after all; I never
+could discover for what reason.
+
+On the opposite side of the table is a group, scarcely less interesting.
+Martin Frobisher and John Davis, the pioneers of the North-West passage,
+are talking with Alderman Sanderson, the great geographer and "setter
+forth of globes;" with Mr. Towerson, Sir Gilbert Peckham, our old
+acquaintance Captain John Winter, and last, but not least, with Philip
+Sidney himself, who, with his accustomed courtesy; has given up his
+rightful place toward the head of the table that he may have a knot of
+virtuosi all to himself; and has brought with him, of course, his two
+especial intimates, Mr. Edward Dyer and Mr. Francis Leigh. They too are
+talking of the North-West passage: and Sidney is lamenting that he is
+tied to diplomacy and courts, and expressing his envy of old Martin
+Frobisher in all sorts of pretty compliments; to which the other replies
+that,
+
+"It's all very fine to talk of here, a sailing on dry land with a
+good glass of wine before you; but you'd find it another guess sort of
+business, knocking about among the icebergs with your beard frozen fast
+to your ruff, Sir Philip, specially if you were a bit squeamish about
+the stomach."
+
+"That were a slight matter to endure, my dear sir, if by it I could win
+the honor which her majesty bestowed on you, when her own ivory hand
+waved a farewell 'kerchief to your ship from the windows of Greenwich
+Palace."
+
+"Well, sir, folks say you have no reason to complain of lack of favors,
+as you have no reason to deserve lack; and if you can get them by
+staying ashore, don't you go to sea to look for more, say I. Eh, Master
+Towerson?"
+
+Towerson's gray beard, which has stood many a foreign voyage, both fair
+and foul, wags grim assent. But at this moment a Waiter enters, and--
+
+"Please my lord mayor's worship, there is a tall gentleman outside,
+would speak with the Right Honorable Sir Walter Raleigh."
+
+"Show him in, man. Sir Walter's friends are ours."
+
+Amyas enters, and stands hesitating in the doorway.
+
+"Captain Leigh!" cry half a-dozen voices.
+
+"Why did you not walk in, sir?" says Osborne. "You should know your way
+well enough between these decks."
+
+"Well enough, my lords and gentlemen. But, Sir Walter--you will excuse
+me"--and he gave Raleigh a look which was enough for his quick wit.
+Turning pale as death, he rose, and followed Amyas into an adjoining
+cabin. They were five minutes together; and then Amyas came out alone.
+
+In few words he told the company the sad story which we already know.
+Ere it was ended, noble tears were glistening on some of those stern
+faces.
+
+"The old Egyptians," said Sir Edward Osborne, "when they banqueted, set
+a corpse among their guests, for a memorial of human vanity. Have we
+forgotten God and our own weakness in this our feast, that He Himself
+has sent us thus a message from the dead?"
+
+"Nay, my lord mayor," said Sidney, "not from the dead, but from the
+realm of everlasting life."
+
+"Amen!" answered Osborne. "But, gentlemen, our feast is at an end. There
+are those here who would drink on merrily, as brave men should, in spite
+of the private losses of which they have just had news; but none here
+who can drink with the loss of so great a man still ringing in his
+ears."
+
+It was true. Though many of the guests had suffered severely by the
+failure of the expedition, they had utterly forgotten that fact in the
+awful news of Sir Humphrey's death; and the feast broke up sadly and
+hurriedly, while each man asked his neighbor, "What will the queen say?"
+
+Raleigh re-entered in a few minutes, but was silent, and pressing many
+an honest hand as he passed, went out to call a wherry, beckoning Amyas
+to follow him. Sidney, Cumberland, and Frank went with them in another
+boat, leaving the two to talk over the sad details.
+
+They disembarked at Whitehall-stairs; Raleigh, Sidney, and Cumberland
+went to the palace; and the two brothers to their mother's lodgings.
+
+Amyas had prepared his speech to Frank about Rose Salterne, but now that
+it was come to the point, he had not courage to begin, and longed that
+Frank would open the matter. Frank, too, shrank from what he knew must
+come, and all the more because he was ignorant that Amyas had been to
+Bideford, or knew aught of the Rose's disappearance.
+
+So they went upstairs; and it was a relief to both of them to find that
+their mother was at the Abbey; for it was for her sake that both dreaded
+what was coming. So they went and stood in the bay-window which looked
+out upon the river, and talked of things indifferent, and looked
+earnestly at each other's faces by the fading light, for it was now
+three years since they had met.
+
+Years and events had deepened the contrast between the two brothers; and
+Frank smiled with affectionate pride as he looked up in Amyas's face,
+and saw that he was no longer merely the rollicking handy sailor-lad,
+but the self-confident and stately warrior, showing in every look and
+gesture,
+
+     "The reason firm, the temperate will,
+     Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill,"
+
+worthy of one whose education had been begun by such men as Drake and
+Grenville, and finished by such as Raleigh and Gilbert. His long locks
+were now cropped close to the head; but as a set-off, the lips and chin
+were covered with rich golden beard; his face was browned by a thousand
+suns and storms; a long scar, the trophy of some Irish fight, crossed
+his right temple; his huge figure had gained breadth in proportion to
+its height; and his hand, as it lay upon the window-sill, was hard and
+massive as a smith's. Frank laid his own upon it, and sighed; and Amyas
+looked down, and started at the contrast between the two--so slender,
+bloodless, all but transparent, were the delicate fingers of the
+courtier. Amyas looked anxiously into his brother's face. It was
+changed, indeed, since they last met. The brilliant red was still on
+either cheek, but the white had become dull and opaque; the lips were
+pale, the features sharpened; the eyes glittered with unnatural fire:
+and when Frank told Amyas that he looked aged, Amyas could not help
+thinking that the remark was far more true of the speaker himself.
+
+Trying to shut his eyes to the palpable truth, he went on with his chat,
+asking the names of one building after another.
+
+"And so this is old Father Thames, with his bank of palaces?"
+
+"Yes. His banks are stately enough; yet, you see, he cannot stay to look
+at them. He hurries down to the sea; and the sea into the ocean; and the
+ocean Westward-ho, forever. All things move Westward-ho. Perhaps we may
+move that way ourselves some day, Amyas."
+
+"What do you mean by that strange talk?"
+
+"Only that the ocean follows the primum mobile of the heavens, and flows
+forever from east to west. Is there anything so strange in my thinking
+of that, when I am just come from a party where we have been drinking
+success to Westward-ho?"
+
+"And much good has come of it! I have lost the best friend and the
+noblest captain upon earth, not to mention all my little earnings, in
+that same confounded gulf of Westward-ho."
+
+"Yes, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's star has set in the West--why not? Sun,
+moon, and planets sink into the West: why not the meteors of this lower
+world? why not a will-o'-the-wisp like me, Amyas?"
+
+"God forbid, Frank!"
+
+"Why, then? Is not the West the land of peace, and the land of dreams?
+Do not our hearts tell us so each time we look upon the setting sun, and
+long to float away with him upon the golden-cushioned clouds? They bury
+men with their faces to the East. I should rather have mine turned
+to the West, Amyas, when I die; for I cannot but think it some divine
+instinct which made the ancient poets guess that Elysium lay beneath the
+setting sun. It is bound up in the heart of man, that longing for the
+West. I complain of no one for fleeing away thither beyond the utmost
+sea, as David wished to flee, and be at peace."
+
+"Complain of no one for fleeing thither?" asked Amyas. "That is more
+than I do."
+
+Frank looked inquiringly at him; and then--
+
+"No. If I had complained of any one, it would have been of you just now,
+for seeming to be tired of going Westward-ho."
+
+"Do you wish me to go, then?"
+
+"God knows," said Frank, after a moment's pause. "But I must tell you
+now, I suppose, once and for all. That has happened at Bideford which--"
+
+"Spare us both, Frank; I know all. I came through Bideford on my way
+hither; and came hither not merely to see you and my mother, but to ask
+your advice and her permission."
+
+"True heart! noble heart!" cried Frank. "I knew you would be stanch!"
+
+"Westward-ho it is, then?"
+
+"Can we escape?"
+
+"We?"
+
+"Amyas, does not that which binds you bind me?"
+
+Amyas started back, and held Frank by the shoulders at arm's length; as
+he did so, he could feel through, that his brother's arms were but skin
+and bone.
+
+"You? Dearest man, a month of it would kill you!"
+
+Frank smiled, and tossed his head on one side in his pretty way.
+
+"I belong to the school of Thales, who held that the ocean is the mother
+of all life; and feel no more repugnance at returning to her bosom again
+than Humphrey Gilbert did."
+
+"But, Frank,--my mother?"
+
+"My mother knows all; and would not have us unworthy of her."
+
+"Impossible! She will never give you up!"
+
+"All things are possible to them that believe in God, my brother; and
+she believes. But, indeed, Doctor Dee, the wise man, gave her but this
+summer I know not what of prognostics and diagnostics concerning me. I
+am born, it seems, under a cold and watery planet, and need, if I am to
+be long-lived, to go nearer to the vivifying heat of the sun, and there
+bask out my little life, like fly on wall. To tell truth, he has bidden
+me spend no more winters here in the East; but return to our native
+sea-breezes, there to warm my frozen lungs; and has so filled my
+mother's fancy with stories of sick men, who were given up for lost in
+Germany and France, and yet renewed their youth, like any serpent or
+eagle, by going to Italy, Spain, and the Canaries, that she herself will
+be more ready to let me go than I to leave her all alone. And yet I must
+go, Amyas. It is not merely that my heart pants, as Sidney's does, as
+every gallant's ought, to make one of your noble choir of Argonauts,
+who are now replenishing the earth and subduing it for God and for the
+queen; it is not merely, Amyas, that love calls me,--love tyrannous and
+uncontrollable, strengthened by absence, and deepened by despair; but
+honor, Amyas--my oath--"
+
+And he paused for lack of breath, and bursting into a violent fit of
+coughing, leaned on his brother's shoulder, while Amyas cried,
+
+"Fools, fools that we were--that I was, I mean--to take that fantastical
+vow!"
+
+"Not so," answered a gentle voice from behind: "you vowed for the
+sake of peace on earth, and good-will toward men, and 'Blessed are the
+peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.' No my sons,
+be sure that such self-sacrifice as you have shown will meet its full
+reward at the hand of Him who sacrificed Himself for you."
+
+"Oh, mother! mother!" said Amyas, "and do you not hate the very sight of
+me--come here to take away your first-born?"
+
+"My boy, God takes him, and not you. And if I dare believe in such
+predictions, Doctor Dee assured me that some exceeding honor awaited you
+both in the West, to each of you according to your deserts."
+
+"Ah!" said Amyas. "My blessing, I suppose, will be like Esau's, to live
+by my sword; while Jacob here, the spiritual man, inherits the kingdom
+of heaven, and an angel's crown."
+
+"Be it what it may, it will surely be a blessing, as long as you are
+such, my children, as you have been. At least my Frank will be safe from
+the intrigues of court, and the temptations of the world. Would that I
+too could go with you, and share in your glory! Come, now," said she,
+laying her head upon Amyas's breast, and looking up into his face with
+one of her most winning smiles, "I have heard of heroic mothers ere
+now who went forth with their sons to battle, and cheered them on to
+victory. Why should I not go with you on a more peaceful errand? I could
+nurse the sick, if there were any; I could perhaps have speech of that
+poor girl, and win her back more easily than you. She might listen to
+words from a woman--a woman, too, who has loved--which she could not
+hear from men. At least I could mend and wash for you. I suppose it is
+as easy to play the good housewife afloat as on shore? Come, now!"
+
+Amyas looked from one to the other.
+
+"God only knows which of the two is less fit to go. Mother! mother! you
+know not what you ask. Frank! Frank! I do not want you with me. This
+is a sterner matter than either of you fancy it to be; one that must be
+worked out, not with kind words, but with sharp shot and cold steel."
+
+"How?" cried both together, aghast.
+
+"I must pay my men, and pay my fellow-adventurers; and I must pay them
+with Spanish gold. And what is more, I cannot, as a loyal subject of
+the queen's, go to the Spanish Main with a clear conscience on my own
+private quarrel, unless I do all the harm that my hand finds to do, by
+day and night, to her enemies, and the enemies of God."
+
+"What nobler knight-errantry?" said Frank, cheerfully; but Mrs. Leigh
+shuddered.
+
+"What! Frank too?" she said, half to herself; but her sons knew what she
+meant. Amyas's warlike life, honorable and righteous as she knew it
+to be, she had borne as a sad necessity: but that Frank as well should
+become "a man of blood," was more than her gentle heart could face at
+first sight. That one youthful duel of his he had carefully concealed
+from her, knowing her feeling on such matters. And it seemed too
+dreadful to her to associate that gentle spirit with all the ferocities
+and the carnage of a battlefield. "And yet," said she to herself, "is
+this but another of the self-willed idols which I must renounce one by
+one?" And then, catching at a last hope, she answered--
+
+"Frank must at least ask the queen's leave to go; and if she permits,
+how can I gainsay her wisdom?"
+
+And so the conversation dropped, sadly enough.
+
+But now began a fresh perplexity in Frank's soul, which amused Amyas at
+first, when it seemed merely jest, but nettled him a good deal when
+he found it earnest. For Frank looked forward to asking the queen's
+permission for his voyage with the most abject despondency and terror.
+Two or three days passed before he could make up his mind to ask for
+an interview with her; and he spent the time in making as much interest
+with Leicester, Hatton, and Sidney, as if he were about to sue for a
+reprieve from the scaffold.
+
+So said Amyas, remarking, further, that the queen could not cut his head
+off for wanting to go to sea.
+
+"But what axe so sharp as her frown?" said Frank in most lugubrious
+tone.
+
+Amyas began to whistle in a very rude way.
+
+"Ah, my brother, you cannot comprehend the pain of parting from her."
+
+"No, I can't. I would die for the least hair of her royal head, God
+bless it! but I could live very well from now till Doomsday without ever
+setting eyes on the said head."
+
+"Plato's Troglodytes regretted not that sunlight which they had never
+beheld."
+
+Amyas, not understanding this recondite conceit, made no answer to it,
+and there the matter ended for the time. But at last Frank obtained his
+audience; and after a couple of hours' absence returned quite pale and
+exhausted.
+
+"Thank Heaven, it is over! She was very angry at first--what else could
+she be?--and upbraided me with having set my love so low. I could only
+answer, that my fatal fault was committed before the sight of her had
+taught me what was supremely lovely, and only worthy of admiration. Then
+she accused me of disloyalty in having taken an oath which bound me to
+the service of another than her. I confessed my sin with tears, and when
+she threatened punishment, pleaded that the offence had avenged itself
+heavily already,--for what worse punishment than exile from the sunlight
+of her presence, into the outer darkness which reigns where she is not?
+Then she was pleased to ask me, how I could dare, as her sworn servant,
+to desert her side in such dangerous times as these; and asked me how I
+should reconcile it to my conscience, if on my return I found her dead
+by the assassin's knife? At which most pathetic demand I could only
+throw myself at once on my own knees and her mercy, and so awaited
+my sentence. Whereon, with that angelic pity which alone makes her
+awfulness endurable, she turned to Hatton and asked, 'What say you,
+Mouton? Is he humbled sufficiently?' and so dismissed me."
+
+"Heigh-ho!" yawned Amyas;
+
+     "If the bridge had been stronger,
+     My tale had been longer."
+
+"Amyas! Amyas!" quoth Frank, solemnly, "you know not what power over the
+soul has the native and God-given majesty of royalty (awful enough in
+itself) when to it is superadded the wisdom of the sage, and therewithal
+the tenderness of the woman. Had I my will, there should be in every
+realm not a salique, but an anti-salique law: whereby no kings, but only
+queens should rule mankind. Then would weakness and not power be to man
+the symbol of divinity; love, and not cunning, would be the arbiter of
+every cause; and chivalry, not fear, the spring of all obedience."
+
+"Humph! There's some sense in that," quoth Amyas. "I'd run a mile for
+a woman when I would not walk a yard for a man; and--Who is this our
+mother is bringing in? The handsomest fellow I ever saw in my life!"
+
+Amyas was not far wrong; for Mrs. Leigh's companion was none other than
+Mr. Secretary, Amyas's Smerwick Fort acquaintance; alias Colin Clout,
+alias Immerito, alias Edmund Spenser. Some half-jesting conversation had
+seemingly been passing between the poet and the saint; for as they came
+in she said with a smile (which was somewhat of a forced one)--"Well,
+my dear sons, you are sure of immortality, at least on earth; for Mr.
+Spenser has been vowing to me to give your adventure a whole canto to
+itself in his 'Faerie Queene'."
+
+"And you no less, madam," said Spenser. "What were the story of the
+Gracchi worth without the figure of Cornelia? If I honor the fruit, I
+must not forget the stem which bears it. Frank, I congratulate you."
+
+"Then you know the result of my interview, mother?"
+
+"I know everything, and am content," said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"Mrs. Leigh has reason to be content," said Spenser, "with that which is
+but her own likeness."
+
+Spare your flattery to an old woman, Mr. Spenser. When, pray, did I"
+(with a most loving look at Frank) "refuse knighthood for duty's sake?"
+
+"Knighthood?" cried Amyas. "You never told me that, Frank!"
+
+"That may well be, Captain Leigh," said Spenser; "but believe me, her
+majesty (so Hatton assures me) told him this day, no less than that by
+going on this quest he deprived himself of that highest earthly honor,
+which crowned heads are fain to seek from their own subjects."
+
+Spenser did not exaggerate. Knighthood was then the prize of merit only;
+and one so valuable, that Elizabeth herself said, when asked why she did
+not bestow a peerage upon some favorite, that having already knighted
+him, she had nothing better to bestow. It remained for young Essex to
+begin the degradation of the order in his hapless Irish campaign, and
+for James to complete that degradation by his novel method of raising
+money by the sale of baronetcies; a new order of hereditary knighthood
+which was the laughing-stock of the day, and which (however venerable
+it may have since become) reflects anything but honor upon its first
+possessors.
+
+"I owe you no thanks, Colin," said Frank, "for having broached my
+secret: but I have lost nothing after all. There is still an order of
+knighthood in which I may win my spurs, even though her majesty refuse
+me the accolade."
+
+"What, then? you will not take it from a foreign prince?"
+
+Frank smiled.
+
+"Have you never read of that knighthood which is eternal in the heavens,
+and of those true cavaliers whom John saw in Patmos, riding on white
+horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, knights-errant in the
+everlasting war against the False Prophet and the Beast? Let me but
+become worthy of their ranks hereafter, what matter whether I be called
+Sir Frank on earth?"
+
+"My son," said Mrs. Leigh, "remember that they follow One whose vesture
+is dipped, not in the blood of His enemies, but in His own."
+
+"I have remembered it for many a day; and remembered, too, that the
+garments of the knights may need the same tokens as their captain's."
+
+"Oh, Frank! Frank! is not His precious blood enough to cleanse all sin,
+without the sacrifice of our own?"
+
+"We may need no more than His blood, mother, and yet He may need ours,"
+said Frank.
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+How that conversation ended I know not, nor whether Spenser fulfilled
+his purpose of introducing the two brothers and their mother into his
+"Faerie Queene." If so, the manuscripts must have been lost among those
+which perished (along with Spenser's baby) in the sack of Kilcolman by
+the Irish in 1598. But we need hardly regret the loss of them; for the
+temper of the Leighs and their mother is the same which inspires every
+canto of that noblest of poems; and which inspired, too, hundreds in
+those noble days, when the chivalry of the Middle Ages was wedded to the
+free thought and enterprise of the new.
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+So mother and sons returned to Bideford, and set to work. Frank
+mortgaged a farm; Will Cary did the same (having some land of his own
+from his mother). Old Salterne grumbled at any man save himself spending
+a penny on the voyage, and forced on the adventurers a good ship of two
+hundred tons burden, and five hundred pounds toward fitting her out;
+Mrs. Leigh worked day and night at clothes and comforts of every kind;
+Amyas had nothing to give but his time and his brains: but, as Salterne
+said, the rest would have been of little use without them; and day after
+day he and the old merchant were on board the ship, superintending
+with their own eyes the fitting of every rope and nail. Cary went about
+beating up recruits; and made, with his jests and his frankness, the
+best of crimps: while John Brimblecombe, beside himself with joy,
+toddled about after him from tavern to tavern, and quay to quay, exalted
+for the time being (as Cary told him) into a second Peter the Hermit;
+and so fiercely did he preach a crusade against the Spaniards, through
+Bideford and Appledore, Clovelly and Ilfracombe, that Amyas might have
+had a hundred and fifty loose fellows in the first fortnight. But he
+knew better: still smarting from the effects of a similar haste in the
+Newfoundland adventure, he had determined to take none but picked men;
+and by dint of labor he obtained them.
+
+Only one scapegrace did he take into his crew, named Parracombe; and
+by that scapegrace hangs a tale. He was an old schoolfellow of his
+at Bideford, and son of a merchant in that town--one of those unlucky
+members who are "nobody's enemy but their own"--a handsome, idle,
+clever fellow, who used his scholarship, of which he had picked up some
+smattering, chiefly to justify his own escapades, and to string songs
+together. Having drunk all that he was worth at home, he had in a
+penitent fit forsworn liquor, and tormented Amyas into taking him to
+sea, where he afterwards made as good a sailor as any one else,
+but sorely scandalized John Brimblecombe by all manner of heretical
+arguments, half Anacreontic, half smacking of the rather loose doctrines
+of that "Family of Love" which tormented the orthodoxy and morality of
+more than one Bishop of Exeter. Poor Will Parracombe! he was born a few
+centuries too early. Had he but lived now, he might have published
+a volume or two of poetry, and then settled down on the staff of a
+newspaper. Had he even lived thirty years later than he did, he might
+have written frantic tragedies or filthy comedies for the edification of
+James's profligate metropolis, and roistered it in taverns with Marlowe,
+to die as Marlowe did, by a footman's sword in a drunken brawl. But in
+those stern days such weak and hysterical spirits had no fair vent for
+their "humors," save in being reconciled to the Church of Rome, and
+plotting with Jesuits to assassinate the queen, as Parry and Somerville,
+and many other madmen, did.
+
+So, at least, some Jesuit or other seems to have thought, shortly after
+Amyas had agreed to give the spendthrift a berth on board. For one day
+Amyas, going down to Appledore about his business, was called into the
+little Mariners' Rest inn, to extract therefrom poor Will Parracombe,
+who (in spite of his vow) was drunk and outrageous, and had vowed the
+death of the landlady and all her kin. So Amyas fetched him out by the
+collar, and walked him home thereby to Bideford; during which walk Will
+told him a long and confused story; how an Egyptian rogue had met him
+that morning on the sands by Boathythe, offered to tell his fortune,
+and prophesied to him great wealth and honor, but not from the Queen of
+England; had coaxed him to the Mariners' Rest, and gambled with him
+for liquor, at which it seemed Will always won, and of course drank his
+winnings on the spot; whereon the Egyptian began asking him all sorts of
+questions about the projected voyage of the Rose--a good many of which,
+Will confessed, he had answered before he saw the fellow's drift;
+after which the Egyptian had offered him a vast sum of money to do some
+desperate villainy; but whether it was to murder Amyas or the queen,
+whether to bore a hole in the bottom of the good ship Rose or to set the
+Torridge on fire by art-magic, he was too drunk to recollect exactly.
+Whereon Amyas treated three-quarters of the story as a tipsy dream,
+and contented himself by getting a warrant against the landlady for
+harboring "Egyptians," which was then a heavy offence--a gipsy disguise
+being a favorite one with Jesuits and their emissaries. She of course
+denied that any gipsy had been there; and though there were some who
+thought they had seen such a man come in, none had seen him go out
+again. On which Amyas took occasion to ask, what had become of the
+suspicious Popish ostler whom he had seen at the Mariners' Rest three
+years before; and discovered, to his surprise, that the said ostler
+had vanished from the very day of Don Guzman's departure from Bideford.
+There was evidently a mystery somewhere: but nothing could be proved;
+the landlady was dismissed with a reprimand, and Amyas soon forgot the
+whole matter, after rating Parracombe soundly. After all, he could not
+have told the gipsy (if one existed) anything important; for the special
+destination of the voyage (as was the custom in those times, for fear of
+Jesuits playing into the hands of Spain) had been carefully kept secret
+among the adventurers themselves, and, except Yeo and Drew, none of the
+men had any suspicion that La Guayra was to be their aim.
+
+And Salvation Yeo?
+
+Salvation was almost wild for a few days, at the sudden prospect of
+going in search of his little maid, and of fighting Spaniards once more
+before he died. I will not quote the texts out of Isaiah and the Psalms
+with which his mouth was filled from morning to night, for fear of
+seeming irreverent in the eyes of a generation which does not believe,
+as Yeo believed, that fighting the Spaniards was as really fighting in
+God's battle against evil as were the wars of Joshua or David. But the
+old man had his practical hint too, and entreated to be sent back to
+Plymouth to look for men.
+
+"There's many a man of the old Pelican, sir, and of Captain Hawkins's
+Minion that knows the Indies as well as I, and longs to be back again.
+There's Drew, sir, that we left behind (and no better sailing-master for
+us in the West-country, and has accounts against the Spaniards, too; for
+it was his brother, the Barnstaple man, that was factor aboard of poor
+Mr. Andrew Barker, and got clapt into the Inquisition at the Canaries);
+you promised him, sir, that night he stood by you on board the Raleigh:
+and if you'll be as good as your word, he'll be as good as his; and
+bring a score more brave fellows with him."
+
+So off went Yeo to Plymouth, and returned with Drew and a score of old
+never-strikes. One look at their visages, as Yeo proudly ushered them
+into the Ship Tavern, showed Amyas that they were of the metal which he
+wanted, and that, with the four North-Devon men who had gone round the
+world with him in the Pelican (who all joined in the first week), he had
+a reserve-force on which he could depend in utter need; and that utter
+need might come he knew as well as any.
+
+Nor was this all which Yeo had brought; for he had with him a letter
+from Sir Francis Drake, full of regrets that he had not seen "his dear
+lad" as he went through Plymouth. "But indeed I was up to Dartmoor,
+surveying with cross-staff and chain, over my knees in bog for a three
+weeks or more. For I have a project to bring down a leat of fair water
+from the hill-tops right into Plymouth town, cutting off the heads
+of Tavy, Meavy, Wallcomb, and West Dart, and thereby purging Plymouth
+harbor from the silt of the mines whereby it has been choked of late
+years, and giving pure drink not only to the townsmen, but to the fleets
+of the queen's majesty; which if I do, I shall both make some poor
+return to God for all His unspeakable mercies, and erect unto myself a
+monument better than of brass or marble, not merely honorable to me, but
+useful to my countrymen."* Whereon Frank sent Drake a pretty epigram,
+comparing Drake's projected leat to that river of eternal life whereof
+the just would drink throughout eternity, and quoting (after the fashion
+of those days) John vii. 38; while Amyas took more heed of a practical
+appendage to the same letter, which was a list of hints scrawled for
+his use by Captain John Hawkins himself, on all sea matters, from
+the mounting of ordnance to the use of vitriol against the scurvy, in
+default of oranges and "limmons;" all which stood Amyas in good stead
+during the ensuing month, while Frank grew more and more proud of his
+brother, and more and more humble about himself.
+
+     * This noble monument of Drake's piety and public spirit
+     still remains in full use.
+
+For he watched with astonishment how the simple sailor, without genius,
+scholarship, or fancy, had gained, by plain honesty, patience, and
+common sense, a power over the human heart, and a power over his work,
+whatsoever it might be, which Frank could only admire afar off. The men
+looked up to him as infallible, prided themselves on forestalling his
+wishes, carried out his slightest hint, worked early and late to win
+a smile from him; while as for him, no detail escaped him, no drudgery
+sickened him, no disappointment angered him, till on the 15th of
+November, 1583, dropped down from Bideford Quay to Appledore Pool the
+tall ship Rose, with a hundred men on board (for sailors packed close
+in those days), beef, pork, biscuit, and good ale (for ale went to sea
+always then) in abundance, four culverins on her main deck, her poop and
+forecastle well fitted with swivels of every size, and her racks so full
+of muskets, calivers, long bows, pikes, and swords, that all agreed so
+well-appointed a ship had never sailed "out over Bar."
+
+The next day being Sunday, the whole crew received the Communion
+together at Northam Church, amid a mighty crowd; and then going on board
+again, hove anchor and sailed out over the Bar before a soft east wind,
+to the music of sacbut, fife, and drum, with discharge of all ordnance,
+great and small, with cheering of young and old from cliff and strand
+and quay, and with many a tearful prayer and blessing upon that gallant
+bark, and all brave hearts on board.
+
+And Mrs. Leigh who had kissed her sons for the last time after the
+Communion at the altar-steps (and what more fit place for a mother's
+kiss?) went to the rocky knoll outside the churchyard wall, and watched
+the ship glide out between the yellow denes, and lessen slowly hour by
+hour into the boundless West, till her hull sank below the dim horizon,
+and her white sails faded away into the gray Atlantic mist, perhaps
+forever.
+
+And Mrs. Leigh gathered her cloak about her, and bowed her head and
+worshipped; and then went home to loneliness and prayer.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS, AND FOUND NO MEN THEREIN
+
+     "The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out;
+     At one stride comes the dark."
+
+                                   COLERIDGE.
+
+Land! land! land! Yes, there it was, far away to the south and west,
+beside the setting sun, a long blue bar between the crimson sea and
+golden sky. Land at last, with fresh streams, and cooling fruits, and
+free room for cramped and scurvy-weakened limbs. And there, too, might
+be gold, and gems, and all the wealth of Ind. Who knew? Why not? The old
+world of fact and prose lay thousands of miles behind them, and before
+them and around them was the realm of wonder and fable, of boundless
+hope and possibility. Sick men crawled up out of their stifling
+hammocks; strong men fell on their knees and gave God thanks; and all
+eyes and hands were stretched eagerly toward the far blue cloud, fading
+as the sun sank down, yet rising higher and broader as the ship rushed
+on before the rich trade-wind, which whispered lovingly round brow
+and sail, "I am the faithful friend of those who dare!" "Blow freshly,
+freshlier yet, thou good trade-wind, of whom it is written that He makes
+the winds His angels, ministering breaths to the heirs of His salvation.
+Blow freshlier yet, and save, if not me from death, yet her from worse
+than death. Blow on, and land me at her feet, to call the lost lamb
+home, and die!"
+
+So murmured Frank to himself, as with straining eyes he gazed upon that
+first outlier of the New World which held his all. His cheeks were thin
+and wasted, and the hectic spot on each glowed crimson in the crimson
+light of the setting sun. A few minutes more, and the rainbows of the
+West were gone; emerald and topaz, amethyst and ruby, had faded into
+silver-gray; and overhead, through the dark sapphire depths, the Moon
+and Venus reigned above the sea.
+
+"That should be Barbados, your worship," said Drew, the master; "unless
+my reckoning is far out, which, Heaven knows, it has no right to be,
+after such a passage, and God be praised."
+
+"Barbados? I never heard of it."
+
+"Very like, sir: but Yeo and I were here with Captain Drake, and I was
+here after, too, with poor Captain Barlow; and there is good harborage
+to the south and west of it, I remember."
+
+"And neither Spaniard, cannibal, or other evil beast," said Yeo. "A very
+garden of the Lord, sir, hid away in the seas, for an inheritance to
+those who love Him. I heard Captain Drake talk of planting it, if ever
+he had a chance."
+
+"I recollect now," said Amyas, "some talk between him and poor Sir
+Humphrey about an island here. Would God he had gone thither instead of
+to Newfoundland!"
+
+"Nay, then," said Yeo, "he is in bliss now with the Lord; and you would
+not have kept him from that, sir?"
+
+"He would have waited as willingly as he went, if he could have served
+his queen thereby. But what say you, my masters? How can we do better
+than to spend a few days here, to get our sick round, before we make the
+Main, and set to our work?"
+
+All approved the counsel except Frank, who was silent.
+
+"Come, fellow-adventurer," said Cary, "we must have your voice too."
+
+"To my impatience, Will," said he, aside in a low voice, "there is but
+one place on earth, and I am all day longing for wings to fly thither:
+but the counsel is right. I approve it."
+
+So the verdict was announced, and received with a hearty cheer by the
+crew; and long before morning they had run along the southern shore of
+the island, and were feeling their way into the bay where Bridgetown now
+stands. All eyes were eagerly fixed on the low wooded hills which slept
+in the moonlight, spangled by fireflies, with a million dancing stars;
+all nostrils drank greedily the fragrant air, which swept from the land,
+laden with the scent of a thousand flowers; all ears welcomed, as a
+grateful change from the monotonous whisper and lap of the water, the
+hum of insects, the snore of the tree-toads, the plaintive notes of the
+shore-fowl, which fill a tropic night with noisy life.
+
+At last she stopped; at last the cable rattled through the hawsehole;
+and then, careless of the chance of lurking Spaniard or Carib, an
+instinctive cheer burst from every throat. Poor fellows! Amyas had much
+ado to prevent them going on shore at once, dark as it was, by reminding
+them that it wanted but two hours of day.
+
+"Never were two such long hours," said one young lad, fidgeting up and
+down.
+
+"You never were in the Inquisition," said Yeo, "or you'd know better how
+slow time can run. Stand you still, and give God thanks you're where you
+are."
+
+"I say, Gunner, be there goold to that island?"
+
+"Never heard of none; and so much the better for it," said Yeo, dryly.
+
+"But, I say, Gunner," said a poor scurvy-stricken cripple, licking his
+lips, "be there oranges and limmons there?"
+
+"Not of my seeing; but plenty of good fruit down to the beach, thank the
+Lord. There comes the dawn at last."
+
+Up flushed the rose, up rushed the sun, and the level rays glittered on
+the smooth stems of the palm-trees, and threw rainbows across the foam
+upon the coral-reefs, and gilded lonely uplands far away, where now
+stands many a stately country-seat and busy engine-house. Long lines of
+pelicans went clanging out to sea; the hum of the insects hushed, and a
+thousand birds burst into jubilant song; a thin blue mist crept upward
+toward the inner downs, and vanished, leaving them to quiver in the
+burning glare; the land-breeze, which had blown fresh out to sea all
+night, died away into glassy calm, and the tropic day was begun.
+
+The sick were lifted over the side, and landed boat-load after boat-load
+on the beach, to stretch themselves in the shade of the palms; and in
+half-an-hour the whole crew were scattered on the shore, except some
+dozen worthy men, who had volunteered to keep watch and ward on board
+till noon.
+
+And now the first instinctive cry of nature was for fruit! fruit! fruit!
+The poor lame wretches crawled from place to place plucking greedily the
+violet grapes of the creeping shore vine, and staining their mouths
+and blistering their lips with the prickly pears, in spite of Yeo's
+entreaties and warnings against the thorns. Some of the healthy began
+hewing down cocoa-nut trees to get at the nuts, doing little thereby but
+blunt their hatchets; till Yeo and Drew, having mustered half-a-dozen
+reasonable men, went off inland, and returned in an hour laden with the
+dainties of that primeval orchard,--with acid junipa-apples, luscious
+guavas, and crowned ananas, queen of all the fruits, which they had
+found by hundreds on the broiling ledges of the low tufa-cliffs;
+and then all, sitting on the sandy turf, defiant of galliwasps and
+jackspaniards, and all the weapons of the insect host, partook of the
+equal banquet, while old blue land-crabs sat in their house-doors and
+brandished their fists in defiance at the invaders, and solemn cranes
+stood in the water on the shoals with their heads on one side, and
+meditated how long it was since they had seen bipeds without feathers
+breaking the solitude of their isle.
+
+And Frank wandered up and down, silent, but rather in wonder than
+in sadness, while great Amyas walked after him, his mouth full
+of junipa-apples, and enacted the part of showman, with a sort of
+patronizing air, as one who had seen the wonders already, and was above
+being astonished at them.
+
+"New, new; everything new!" said Frank, meditatively. "Oh, awful
+feeling! All things changed around us, even to the tiniest fly and
+flower; yet we the same, the same forever!"
+
+Amyas, to whom such utterances were altogether sibylline and
+unintelligible, answered by:
+
+"Look, Frank, that's a colibri. You 've heard of colibris?"
+
+Frank looked at the living gem, which hung, loud humming, over some
+fantastic bloom, and then dashed away, seemingly to call its mate, and
+whirred and danced with it round and round the flower-starred bushes,
+flashing fresh rainbows at every shifting of the lights.
+
+Frank watched solemnly awhile, and then:
+
+"Qualis Natura formatrix, si talis formata? Oh my God, how fair must be
+Thy real world, if even Thy phantoms are so fair!"
+
+"Phantoms?" asked Amyas, uneasily. "That's no ghost, Frank, but a jolly
+little honey-sucker, with a wee wife, and children no bigger than peas,
+but yet solid greedy little fellows enough, I'll warrant."
+
+"Not phantoms in thy sense, good fellow, but in the sense of those who
+know the worthlessness of all below."
+
+"I'll tell you what, brother Frank, you are a great deal wiser than me,
+I know; but I can't abide to see you turn up your nose as it were at
+God's good earth. See now, God made all these things; and never a man,
+perhaps, set eyes on them till fifty years agone; and yet they were as
+pretty as they are now, ever since the making of the world. And why
+do you think God could have put them here, then, but to please
+Himself"--and Amyas took off his hat--"with the sight of them? Now, I
+say, brother Frank, what's good enough to please God, is good enough to
+please you and me."
+
+"Your rebuke is just, dear old simple-hearted fellow; and God forgive
+me, if with all my learning, which has brought me no profit, and my
+longings, which have brought me no peace, I presume at moments, sinner
+that I am, to be more dainty than the Lord Himself. He walked in
+Paradise among the trees of the garden, Amyas; and so will we, and
+be content with what He sends. Why should we long for the next world,
+before we are fit even for this one?"
+
+"And in the meanwhile," said Amyas, "this earth's quite good enough, at
+least here in Barbados."
+
+"Do you believe," asked Frank, trying to turn his own thoughts, "in
+those tales of the Spaniards, that the Sirens and Tritons are heard
+singing in these seas?"
+
+"I can't tell. There's more fish in the water than ever came out of it,
+and more wonders in the world, I'll warrant, than we ever dreamt of; but
+I was never in these parts before; and in the South Sea, I must say, I
+never came across any, though Yeo says he has heard fair music at night
+up in the Gulf, far away from land."
+
+"The Spaniards report that at certain seasons choirs of these nymphs
+assemble in the sea, and with ravishing music sing their watery loves.
+It may be so. For Nature, which has peopled the land with rational
+souls, may not have left the sea altogether barren of them; above all,
+when we remember that the ocean is as it were the very fount of all
+fertility, and its slime (as the most learned hold with Thales of
+Miletus) that prima materia out of which all things were one by one
+concocted. Therefore, the ancients feigned wisely that Venus, the mother
+of all living things, whereby they designed the plastic force of nature,
+was born of the sea-foam, and rising from the deep, floated ashore upon
+the isles of Greece."
+
+"I don't know what plastic force is; but I wish I had had the luck to be
+by when the pretty poppet came up: however, the nearest thing I ever saw
+to that was maidens swimming alongside of us when we were in the South
+Seas, and would have come aboard, too; but Drake sent them all off again
+for a lot of naughty packs, and I verily believe they were no better.
+Look at the butterflies, now! Don't you wish you were a boy again, and
+not too proud to go catching them in your cap?"
+
+And so the two wandered on together through the glorious tropic woods,
+and then returned to the beach to find the sick already grown cheerful,
+and many who that morning could not stir from their hammocks, pacing up
+and down, and gaining strength with every step.
+
+"Well done, lads!" cried Amyas, "keep a cheerful mind. We will have the
+music ashore after dinner, for want of mermaids to sing to us, and those
+that can dance may."
+
+And so those four days were spent; and the men, like schoolboys on
+a holiday, gave themselves up to simple merriment, not forgetting,
+however, to wash the clothes, take in fresh water, and store up a
+good supply of such fruit as seemed likely to keep; until, tired with
+fruitless rambles after gold, which they expected to find in every bush,
+in spite of Yeo's warnings that none had been heard of on the island,
+they were fain to lounge about, full-grown babies, picking up shells and
+sea-fans to take home to their sweethearts, smoking agoutis out of the
+hollow trees, with shout and laughter, and tormenting every living thing
+they could come near, till not a land-crab dare look out of his hole, or
+an armadillo unroll himself, till they were safe out of the bay, and
+off again to the westward, unconscious pioneers of all the wealth, and
+commerce, and beauty, and science which has in later centuries made that
+lovely isle the richest gem of all the tropic seas.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS AT MARGARITA
+
+     P. Henry.  Why, what a rascal art thou, then, to praise him so for
+     running!
+     Falstaff.  O' horseback, ye cuckoo! but a-foot, he will not budge a
+     foot.
+     P. Henry.  Yes, Jack, upon instinct.
+     Falstaff.  I grant ye, upon instinct.
+
+                                                  Henry IV.  Pt. I.
+
+They had slipped past the southern point of Grenada in the night, and
+were at last within that fairy ring of islands, on which nature had
+concentrated all her beauty, and man all his sin. If Barbados had been
+invested in the eyes of the newcomers with some strange glory, how much
+more the seas on which they now entered, which smile in almost perpetual
+calm, untouched by the hurricane which roars past them far to northward!
+Sky, sea, and islands were one vast rainbow; though little marked,
+perhaps, by those sturdy practical sailors, whose main thought was of
+Spanish gold and pearls; and as little by Amyas, who, accustomed to the
+scenery of the tropics, was speculating inwardly on the possibility of
+extirpating the Spaniards, and annexing the West Indies to the domains
+of Queen Elizabeth. And yet even their unpoetic eyes could not behold
+without awe and excitement lands so famous and yet so new, around
+which all the wonder, all the pity, and all the greed of the age had
+concentrated itself. It was an awful thought, and yet inspiriting, that
+they were entering regions all but unknown to Englishmen, where the
+penalty of failure would be worse than death--the torments of the
+Inquisition. Not more than five times before, perhaps, had those
+mysterious seas been visited by English keels; but there were those
+on board who knew them well, and too well; who, first of all British
+mariners, had attempted under Captain John Hawkins to trade along those
+very coasts, and, interdicted from the necessaries of life by Spanish
+jealousy, had, in true English fashion, won their markets at the sword's
+point, and then bought and sold honestly and peaceably therein. The old
+mariners of the Pelican and the Minion were questioned all day long for
+the names of every isle and cape, every fish and bird; while Frank stood
+by, listening serious and silent.
+
+A great awe seemed to have possessed his soul; yet not a sad one: for
+his face seemed daily to drink in glory from the glory round him; and
+murmuring to himself at whiles, "This is the gate of heaven," he stood
+watching all day long, careless of food and rest, as every forward
+plunge of the ship displayed some fresh wonder. Islands and capes hung
+high in air, with their inverted images below them; long sand-hills
+rolled and weltered in the mirage; and the yellow flower-beds, and huge
+thorny cacti like giant candelabra, which clothed the glaring slopes,
+twisted, tossed, and flickered, till the whole scene seemed one blazing
+phantom-world, in which everything was as unstable as it was fantastic,
+even to the sun itself, distorted into strange oval and pear-shaped
+figures by the beds of crimson mist through which he sank to rest. But
+while Frank wondered, Yeo rejoiced; for to the southward of that setting
+sun a cluster of tall peaks rose from the sea; and they, unless his
+reckonings were wrong, were the mountains of Macanao, at the western end
+of Margarita, the Isle of Pearls, then famous in all the cities of
+the Mediterranean, and at the great German fairs, and second only in
+richness to that pearl island in the gulf of Panama, which fifteen years
+before had cost John Oxenham his life.
+
+The next day saw them running along the north side of the island, having
+passed undiscovered (as far as they could see) the castle which the
+Spaniards had built at the eastern end for the protection of the pearl
+fisheries.
+
+At last they opened a deep and still bight, wooded to the water's edge;
+and lying in the roadstead a caravel, and three boats by her. And at
+that sight there was not a man but was on deck at once, and not a mouth
+but was giving its opinion of what should be done. Some were for sailing
+right into the roadstead, the breeze blowing fresh toward the shore (as
+it usually does throughout those islands in the afternoon). However,
+seeing the billows break here and there off the bay's mouth, they
+thought it better, for fear of rocks, to run by quietly, and then
+send in the pinnace and the boat. Yeo would have had them show Spanish
+colors, for fear of alarming the caravel; but Amyas stoutly refused,
+"counting it," he said, "a mean thing to tell a lie in that way, unless
+in extreme danger, or for great ends of state."
+
+So holding on their course till they were shut out by the next point,
+they started; Cary in the largest boat with twenty men, and Amyas in
+the smaller one with fifteen more; among whom was John Brimblecombe,
+who must needs come in his cassock and bands, with an old sword of his
+uncle's which he prized mightily.
+
+When they came to the bight's mouth, they found, as they had expected,
+coral rocks, and too many of them; so that they had to run along the
+edge of the reef a long way before they could find a passage for the
+boats. While they were so doing, and those of them who were new to the
+Indies were admiring through the clear element those living flower-beds,
+and subaqueous gardens of Nereus and Amphitrite, there suddenly appeared
+below what Yeo called "a school of sharks," some of them nearly as long
+as the boat, who looked up at them wistfully enough out of their wicked
+scowling eyes.
+
+"Jack," said Amyas, who sat next to him, "look how that big fellow
+eyes thee: he has surely taken a fancy to that plump hide of thine, and
+thinks thou wouldst eat as tender as any sucking porker."
+
+Jack turned very pale, but said nothing.
+
+Now, as it befell, just then that very big fellow, seeing a parrot-fish
+come out of a cleft of the coral, made at him from below, as did two or
+three more; the poor fish finding no other escape, leaped clean into the
+air, and almost aboard the boat; while just where he had come out of
+the water, three or four great brown shagreened noses clashed together
+within two yards of Jack as he sat, each showing its horrible rows of
+saw teeth, and then sank sulkily down again, to watch for a fresh bait.
+At which Jack said very softly, "In manus tuas, Domine!" and turning his
+eyes in board, had no lust to look at sharks any more.
+
+So having got through the reef, in they ran with a fair breeze, the
+caravel not being now a musket-shot off. Cary laid her aboard before
+the Spaniards had time to get to their ordnance; and standing up in the
+stern-sheets, shouted to them to yield. The captain asked boldly enough,
+in whose name? "In the name of common sense, ye dogs," cries Will; "do
+you not see that you are but fifty strong to our twenty?" Whereon up the
+side he scrambled, and the captain fired a pistol at him. Cary knocked
+him over, unwilling to shed needless blood; on which all the crew
+yielded, some falling on their knees, some leaping overboard; and the
+prize was taken.
+
+In the meanwhile, Amyas had pulled round under her stern, and boarded
+the boat which was second from her, for the nearest was fast alongside,
+and so a sure prize. The Spaniards in her yielded without a blow, crying
+"Misericordia;" and the negroes, leaping overboard, swam ashore like
+sea-dogs. Meanwhile, the third boat, which was not an oar's length
+off, turned to pull away. Whereby befell a notable adventure: for John
+Brimblecombe, casting about in a valiant mind how he should distinguish
+himself that day, must needs catch up a boat-hook, and claw on to her
+stern, shouting, "Stay, ye Papists! Stay, Spanish dogs!"--by which, as
+was to be expected, they being ten to his one, he was forthwith pulled
+overboard, and fell all along on his nose in the sea, leaving the hook
+fast in her stern.
+
+Where, I know not how, being seized with some panic fear (his lively
+imagination filling all the sea with those sharks which he had just
+seen), he fell a-roaring like any town-bull, and in his confusion never
+thought to turn and get aboard again, but struck out lustily after the
+Spanish boat, whether in hope of catching hold of the boat-hook which
+trailed behind her, or from a very madness of valor, no man could
+divine; but on he swam, his cassock afloat behind him, looking for all
+the world like a great black monk-fish, and howling and puffing, with
+his mouth full of salt water, "Stay, ye Spanish dogs! Help, all good
+fellows! See you not that I am a dead man? They are nuzzling already at
+my toes! He hath hold of my leg! My right thigh is bitten clean off!
+Oh that I were preaching in Hartland pulpit! Stay, Spanish dogs! Yield,
+Papist cowards, least I make mincemeat of you; and take me aboard!
+Yield, I say, or my blood be on your heads! I am no Jonah; if he swallow
+me, he will never cast me up again! it is better to fall into the hands
+of man, than into the hands of devils with three rows of teeth apiece.
+In manus tuas. Orate pro anima--!"
+
+And so forth, in more frantic case than ever was Panurge in that his
+ever-memorable seasickness; till the English, expecting him every minute
+to be snapped up by sharks, or brained by the Spaniard's oars, let fly a
+volley into the fugitives, on which they all leaped overboard like their
+fellows; whereon Jack scrambled into the boat, and drawing sword with
+one hand, while he wiped the water out of his eyes with the other, began
+to lay about him like a very lion, cutting the empty air, and crying,
+"Yield, idolaters! Yield, Spanish dogs!" However, coming to himself
+after a while, and seeing that there was no one on whom to flesh his
+maiden steel, he sits down panting in the sternsheets, and begins
+stripping off his hose. On which Amyas, thinking surely that the good
+fellow had gone mad with some stroke of the sun, or by having fallen
+into the sea after being overheated with his rowing, bade pull
+alongside, and asked him in heaven's name what he was doing with his
+nether tackle. On which Jack, amid such laughter as may be conceived,
+vowed and swore that his right thigh was bitten clean through, and to
+the bone; yea, and that he felt his hose full of blood; and so would
+have swooned away for imaginary loss of blood (so strong was the
+delusion on him) had not his friends, after much arguing on their part,
+and anger on his, persuaded him that he was whole and sound.
+
+After which they set to work to overhaul their maiden prize, which they
+found full of hides and salt-pork; and yet not of that alone; for in
+the captain's cabin, and also in the sternsheets of the boat which
+Brimblecombe had so valorously boarded, were certain frails of leaves
+packed neatly enough, which being opened were full of goodly pearls,
+though somewhat brown (for the Spaniards used to damage the color in
+their haste and greediness, opening the shells by fire, instead of
+leaving them to decay gradually after the Arabian fashion); with which
+prize, though they could not guess its value very exactly, they went off
+content enough, after some malicious fellow had set the ship on fire,
+which, being laden with hides, was no nosegay as it burnt.
+
+Amyas was very angry at this wanton damage, in which his model,
+Drake, had never indulged; but Cary had his jest ready. "Ah!" said he,
+"'Lutheran devils' we are, you know; so we are bound to vanish, like
+other fiends, with an evil savor."
+
+As soon, however, as Amyas was on board again, he rounded his friend
+Mr. Brimblecombe in the ear, and told him he had better play the man a
+little more, roaring less before he was hurt, and keeping his breath
+to help his strokes, if he wished the crew to listen much to his
+discourses. Frank, hearing this, bade Amyas leave the offender to him,
+and so began upon him with--
+
+"Come hither, thou recreant Jack, thou lily-livered Jack, thou
+hysterical Jack. Tell me now, thou hast read Plato's Dialogues, and
+Aristotle's Logic?"
+
+To which Jack very meekly answered, "Yes."
+
+"Then I will deal with thee after the manner of those ancient sages, and
+ask whether the greater must not contain the less?"
+
+Jack. Yes, sure.
+
+Frank. And that which is more than a part, contain that part, more than
+which it is?
+
+Jack. Yes, sure.
+
+Frank. Then tell me, is not a priest more than a layman?
+
+Jack (who was always very loud about the dignity of the priesthood,
+as many of his cloth are, who have no other dignity whereon to stand)
+answered very boldly, "Of course."
+
+Frank. Then a priest containeth a man, and is a man, and something
+over--viz, his priesthood?
+
+Jack (who saw whither this would lead). I suppose so.
+
+Frank. Then, if a priest show himself no man, he shows himself all the
+more no priest?
+
+"I'll tell you what, Master Frank," says Jack, "you may be right by
+logic; but sharks aren't logic, nor don't understand it neither."
+
+Frank. Nay but, my recalcitrant Jack, my stiff-necked Jack, is it the
+part of a man to howl like a pig in a gate, because he thinks that is
+there which is not there?
+
+Jack had not a word to say.
+
+Frank. And still more, when if that had been there, it had been the duty
+of a brave man to have kept his mouth shut, if only to keep salt water
+out, and not add the evil of choking to that of being eaten?
+
+"Ah!" says Jack, "that's all very fine; but you know as well as I that
+it was not the Spaniards I was afraid of. They were Heaven's handiwork,
+and I knew how to deal with them; but as for those fiends' spawn of
+sharks, when I saw that fellow take the fish alongside, it upset me
+clean, and there's an end of it!"
+
+Frank. Oh, Jack, Jack, behold how one sin begets another! Just now thou
+wert but a coward, and now thou art a Manichee. For thou hast imputed
+to an evil creator that which was formed only for a good end, namely,
+sharks, which were made on purpose to devour useless carcasses like
+thine. Moreover, as a brother of the Rose, thou wert bound by the vow of
+thy brotherhood to have leaped joyfully down that shark's mouth.
+
+Jack. Ay, very likely, if Mistress Rose had been in his stomach; but I
+wanted to fight Spaniards just then, not to be shark-bitten.
+
+Frank. Jack, thy answer savors of self-will. If it is ordained that thou
+shouldst advance the ends of the Brotherhood by being shark-bitten,
+or flea-bitten, or bitten by sharpers, to the detriment of thy carnal
+wealth, or, shortly, to suffer any shame or torment whatsoever, even to
+strappado and scarpines, thou art bound to obey thy destiny, and not,
+after that vain Roman conceit, to choose the manner of thine own death,
+which is indeed only another sort of self-murder. We therefore consider
+thee as a cause of scandal, and a rotten and creaking branch, to be
+excised by the spiritual arm, and do hereby excise thee, and cut thee
+off.
+
+Jack. Nay faith, that's a little too much, Master Frank. How long have
+you been Bishop of Exeter?
+
+Frank. Jack, thy wit being blinded, and full of gross vapors, by reason
+of the perturbations of fear (which, like anger, is a short madness,
+and raises in the phantasy vain spectres,--videlicet, of sharks and
+Spaniards), mistakes our lucidity. For thy Manicheeism, let his lordship
+of Exeter deal with it. For thy abominable howling and caterwauling,
+offensive in a chained cur, but scandalous in a preacher and a brother
+of the Rose, we do hereby deprive thee of thine office of chaplain to
+the Brotherhood; and warn thee, that unless within seven days thou do
+some deed equal to the Seven Champions, or Ruggiero and Orlando's self,
+thou shalt be deprived of sword and dagger, and allowed henceforth to
+carry no more iron about thee than will serve to mend thy pen.
+
+"And now, Jack," said Amyas, "I will give thee a piece of news. No
+wonder that young men, as the parsons complain so loudly, will not
+listen to the Gospel, while it is preached to them by men on whom they
+cannot but look down; a set of softhanded fellows who cannot dig, and
+are ashamed to beg; and, as my brother has it, must needs be parsons
+before they are men.
+
+"Frank. Ay, and even though we may excuse that in Popish priests and
+friars, who are vowed not to be men, and get their bread shamefully
+and rascally by telling sinners who owe a hundred measures to sit down
+quickly and take their bill and write fifty: yet for a priest of the
+Church of England (whose business is not merely to smuggle sinful souls
+up the backstairs into heaven, but to make men good Christians by making
+them good men, good gentlemen, and good Englishmen) to show the white
+feather in the hour of need, is to unpreach in one minute all that he
+had been preaching his life long.
+
+"I tell thee," says Amyas, "if I had not taken thee for another guess
+sort of man, I had never let thee have the care of a hundred brave lads'
+immortal souls--"
+
+And so on, both of them boarding him at once with their heavy shot,
+larboard and starboard, till he fairly clapped his hands to his ears
+and ran for it, leaving poor Frank laughing so heartily, that Amyas was
+after all glad the thing had happened, for the sake of the smile which
+it put into his sad and steadfast countenance.
+
+The next day was Sunday; on which, after divine service (which they
+could hardly persuade Jack to read, so shamefaced was he; and as for
+preaching after it, he would not hear of such a thing), Amyas read
+aloud, according to custom, the articles of their agreement; and then
+seeing abreast of them a sloping beach with a shoot of clear water
+running into the sea, agreed that they should land there, wash the
+clothes, and again water the ship; for they had found water somewhat
+scarce at Barbados. On this party Jack Brimblecombe must needs go,
+taking with him his sword and a great arquebuse; for he had dreamed last
+night (he said) that he was set upon by Spaniards, and was sure that the
+dream would come true; and moreover, that he did not very much care if
+they did, or if he ever got back alive; "for it was better to die than
+be made an ape, and a scarecrow, and laughed at by the men, and badgered
+with Ramus his logic, and Plato his dialectical devilries, to confess
+himself a Manichee, and, for aught he knew, a turbaned Turk, or Hebrew
+Jew," and so flung into the boat like a man desperate.
+
+So they went ashore, after Amyas had given strict commands against
+letting off firearms, for fear of alarming the Spaniards. There they
+washed their clothes, and stretched their legs with great joy, admiring
+the beauty of the place, and then began to shoot the seine which they
+had brought on shore with them. "In which," says the chronicler, "we
+caught many strange fishes, and beside them, a sea-cow full seven feet
+long, with limpets and barnacles on her back, as if she had been a stick
+of drift-timber. This is a fond and foolish beast: and yet pious withal;
+for finding a corpse, she watches over it day and night until it decay
+or be buried. The Indians call her manati; who carries her young
+under her arm, and gives it suck like a woman; and being wounded, she
+lamenteth aloud with a human voice, and is said at certain seasons to
+sing very melodiously; which melody, perhaps, having been heard in those
+seas, is that which Mr. Frank reported to be the choirs of the Sirens
+and Tritons. The which I do not avouch for truth, neither rashly deny,
+having seen myself such fertility of Nature's wonders that I hold him
+who denieth aught merely for its strangeness to be a ribald and an
+ignoramus. Also one of our men brought in two great black fowls which
+he had shot with a crossbow, bodied and headed like a capon, but bigger
+than any eagle, which the Spaniards call curassos; which, with that
+sea-cow, afterwards made us good cheer, both roast and sodden, for the
+cow was very dainty meat, as good as a four-months' calf, and tender and
+fat withal."
+
+After that they set to work filling the casks and barricos, having laid
+the boat up to the outflow of the rivulet. And lucky for them it was,
+as it fell out, that they were all close together at that work, and not
+abroad skylarking as they had been half-an-hour before.
+
+Now John Brimblecombe had gone apart as soon as they landed, with a
+shamefaced and doleful countenance; and sitting down under a great tree,
+plucked a Bible from his bosom, and read steadfastly, girded with his
+great sword, and his arquebuse lying by him. This too was well for him,
+and for the rest; for they had not yet finished their watering, when
+there was a cry that the enemy was on them; and out of the wood,
+not twenty yards from the good parson, came full fifty shot, with a
+multitude of negroes behind them, and an officer in front on horseback,
+with a great plume of feathers in his hat, and his sword drawn in his
+hand.
+
+"Stand, for your lives!" shouted Amyas: and only just in time; for there
+was ten good minutes lost in running up and down before he could get his
+men into some order of battle. But when Jack beheld the Spaniards, as if
+he had expected their coming, he plucked a leaf and put it into the
+page of his book for a mark, laid the book down soberly, caught up his
+arquebuse, ran like a mad dog right at the Spanish captain, shot him
+through the body stark dead, and then, flinging the arquebuse at the
+head of him who stood next, fell on with his sword like a very Colbrand,
+breaking in among the arquebuses, and striking right and left such ugly
+strokes, that the Spaniards (who thought him a very fiend, or Luther's
+self come to life to plague them) gave back pell-mell, and shot at him
+five or six at once with their arquebuses: but whether from fear of him,
+or of wounding each other, made so bad play with their pieces, that he
+only got one shrewd gall in his thigh, which made him limp for many a
+day. But as fast as they gave back he came on; and the rest by this time
+ran up in good order, and altogether nearly forty men well armed. On
+which the Spaniards turned, and went as fast as they had come, while
+Cary hinted that, "The dogs had had such a taste of the parson, that
+they had no mind to wait for the clerk and people."
+
+"Come back, Jack! are you mad?" shouted Amyas.
+
+But Jack (who had not all this time spoken one word) followed them
+as fiercely as ever, till, reaching a great blow at one of the
+arquebusiers, he caught his foot in a root; on which down he went, and
+striking his head against the ground, knocked out of himself all the
+breath he had left (which between fatness and fighting was not much),
+and so lay. Amyas, seeing the Spaniards gone, did not care to pursue
+them: but picked up Jack, who, staring about, cried, "Glory be! glory
+be!--How many have I killed? How many have I killed?"
+
+"Nineteen, at the least," quoth Cary, "and seven with one back
+stroke;" and then showed Brimblecombe the captain lying dead, and two
+arquebusiers, one of which was the fugitive by whom he came to his fall,
+beside three or four more who were limping away wounded, some of them by
+their fellows' shot.
+
+"There!" said Jack, pausing and blowing, "will you laugh at me any more,
+Mr. Cary; or say that I cannot fight, because I am a poor parson's son?"
+
+Cary took him by the hand, and asked pardon of him for his scoffing,
+saying that he had that day played the best man of all of them; and
+Jack, who never bore malice, began laughing in his turn, and--
+
+"Oh, Mr. Cary, we have all known your pleasant ways, ever since you used
+to put drumble-drones into my desk to Bideford school." And so they went
+to the boats, and pulled off, thanking God (as they had need to do) for
+their great deliverance: while all the boats' crew rejoiced over Jack,
+who after a while grew very faint (having bled a good deal without
+knowing it), and made as little of his real wound as he made much the
+day before of his imaginary one.
+
+Frank asked him that evening how he came to show so cool and approved a
+valor in so sudden a mishap.
+
+"Well, my masters," said Jack, "I don't deny that I was very downcast on
+account of what you said, and the scandal which I had given to the crew;
+but as it happened, I was reading there under the tree, to fortify my
+spirits, the history of the ancient worthies, in St. Paul his eleventh
+chapter to the Hebrews; and just as I came to that, 'out of weakness
+were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies
+of the aliens,' arose the cry of the Spaniards. At which, gentlemen,
+thinking in myself that I fought in just so good a cause as they, and,
+as I hoped, with like faith, there came upon me so strange an assurance
+of victory, that I verily believed in myself that if there had been
+a ten thousand of them, I should have taken no hurt. Wherefore," said
+Jack, modestly, "there is no credit due to me, for there was no valor
+in me whatsoever, but only a certainty of safety; and any coward would
+fight if he knew that he were to have all the killing and none of the
+scratches."
+
+Which words he next day, being Sunday, repeated in his sermon which he
+made on that chapter, with which all, even Salvation Yeo himself, were
+well content and edified, and allowed him to be as godly a preacher as
+he was (in spite of his simple ways) a valiant and true-hearted comrade.
+
+They brought away the Spanish officer's sword (a very good blade), and
+also a great chain of gold which he wore about his neck; both of which
+were allotted to Brimblecombe as his fair prize; but he, accepting the
+sword, steadfastly refused the chain, entreating Amyas to put it into
+the common stock; and when Amyas refused, he cut it into links and
+distributed it among those of the boat's crew who had succored him,
+winning thereby much good-will. "And indeed" (says the chronicler),
+"I never saw in that worthy man, from the first day of our
+school-fellowship till he was laid in his parish church of Hartland
+(where he now sleeps in peace), any touch of that sin of covetousness
+which has in all ages, and in ours no less than others, beset especially
+(I know not why) them who minister about the sanctuary. But this man,
+though he was ugly and lowly in person, and in understanding simple, and
+of breeding but a poor parson's son, had yet in him a spirit so loving
+and cheerful, so lifted from base and selfish purposes to the worship
+of duty, and to a generosity rather knightly than sacerdotal, that all
+through his life he seemed to think only that it was more blessed to
+give than to receive. And all that wealth which he gained in the wars he
+dispersed among his sisters and the poor of his parish, living unmarried
+till his death like a true lover and constant mourner (as shall be said
+in place), and leaving hardly wherewith to bring his body to the
+grave. At whom if we often laughed once, we should now rather envy him,
+desiring to be here what he was, that we may be hereafter where he is.
+Amen."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA
+
+       "Great was the crying, the running and riding,
+     Which at that season was made in the place;
+        The beacons were fired, as need then required,
+     To save their great treasure they had little space."
+
+                                       Winning of Cales.
+
+The men would gladly have hawked awhile round Margarita and Cubagua for
+another pearl prize. But Amyas having, as he phrased it, "fleshed his
+dogs," was loth to hang about the islands after the alarm had been
+given. They ran, therefore, south-west across the mouth of that great
+bay which stretches from the Peninsula of Paria to Cape Codera, leaving
+on their right hand Tortuga, and on their left the meadow-islands of the
+Piritoos, two long green lines but a few inches above the tideless sea.
+Yeo and Drew knew every foot of the way, and had good reason to know it;
+for they, the first of all English mariners, had tried to trade along
+this coast with Hawkins. And now, right ahead, sheer out of the sea from
+base to peak, arose higher and higher the mighty range of the Caracas
+mountains; beside which all hills which most of the crew had ever seen
+seemed petty mounds. Frank, of course, knew the Alps; and Amyas the
+Andes; but Cary's notions of height were bounded by M'Gillicuddy's
+Reeks, and Brimblecombe's by Exmoor; and the latter, to Cary's infinite
+amusement, spent a whole day holding on by the rigging, and staring
+upwards with his chin higher than his nose, till he got a stiff neck.
+Soon the sea became rough and chopping, though the breeze was fair and
+gentle; and ere they were abreast of the Cape, they became aware of
+that strong eastward current which, during the winter months, so often
+baffles the mariner who wishes to go to the westward. All night long
+they struggled through the billows, with the huge wall of Cape Codera a
+thousand feet above their heads to the left, and beyond it again, bank
+upon bank of mountain, bathed in the yellow moonlight.
+
+Morning showed them a large ship, which had passed them during the night
+upon the opposite course, and was now a good ten miles to the eastward.
+Yeo was for going back and taking her. Of the latter he made a matter of
+course; and the former was easy enough, for the breeze blowing dead off
+the land, was a "soldier's wind, there and back again," for either ship;
+but Amyas and Frank were both unwilling.
+
+"Why, Yeo, you said that one day more would bring us to La Guayra."
+
+"All the more reason, sir, for doing the Lord's work thoroughly, when He
+has brought us safely so far on our journey."
+
+"She can pass well enough, and no loss."
+
+"Ah, sirs, sirs, she is delivered into your hands, and you will have to
+give an account of her."
+
+"My good Yeo," said Frank, "I trust we shall give good account enough
+of many a tall Spaniard before we return: but you know surely that La
+Guayra, and the salvation of one whom we believe dwells there, was our
+first object in this adventure."
+
+Yeo shook his head sadly. "Ah, sirs, a lady brought Captain Oxenham to
+ruin."
+
+"You do not dare to compare her with this one?" said Frank and Cary,
+both in a breath.
+
+"God forbid, gentlemen: but no adventure will prosper, unless there is a
+single eye to the Lord's work; and that is, as I take it, to cripple
+the Spaniard, and exalt her majesty the queen. And I had thought that
+nothing was more dear than that to Captain Leigh's heart."
+
+Amyas stood somewhat irresolute. His duty to the queen bade him follow
+the Spanish vessel: his duty to his vow, to go on to La Guayra. It may
+seem a far-fetched dilemma. He found it a practical one enough.
+
+However, the counsel of Frank prevailed, and on to La Guayra he went. He
+half hoped that the Spaniard would see and attack them. However, he went
+on his way to the eastward; which if he had not done, my story had had a
+very different ending.
+
+About mid-day a canoe, the first which they had seen, came staggering
+toward them under a huge three-cornered sail. As it came near, they
+could see two Indians on board.
+
+"Metal floats in these seas, you see," quoth Cary. "There's a fresh
+marvel, for you, Frank."
+
+"Expound," quoth Frank, who was really ready to swallow any fresh
+marvel, so many had he seen already.
+
+"Why, how else would those two bronze statues dare to go to sea in such
+a cockleshell, eh? Have I given you the dor now, master courtier!"
+
+"I am long past dors, Will. But what noble creatures they are! and how
+fearlessly they are coming alongside! Can they know that we are English,
+and the avengers of the Indians?"
+
+"I suspect they just take us for Spaniards, and want to sell their
+cocoa-nuts. See, the canoe is laden with vegetables."
+
+"Hail them, Yeo!" said Amyas. "You talk the best Spanish, and I want
+speech of one of them."
+
+Yeo did so; the canoe, without more ado, ran alongside, and lowered her
+felucca sail, while a splendid Indian scrambled on board like a cat.
+
+He was full six feet high, and as bold and graceful of bearing as Frank
+or Amyas's self. He looked round for the first moment smilingly, showing
+his white teeth; but the next, his countenance changed; and springing to
+the side, he shouted to his comrade in Spanish--
+
+"Treachery! No Spaniard," and would have leaped overboard, but a dozen
+strong fellows caught him ere he could do so.
+
+It required some trouble to master him, so strong was he, and so
+slippery his naked limbs; Amyas, meanwhile, alternately entreated the
+men not to hurt the Indian, and the Indian to be quiet, and no harm
+should happen to him; and so, after five minutes' confusion, the
+stranger gave in sulkily.
+
+"Don't bind him. Let him loose, and make a ring round him. Now, my man,
+there's a dollar for you."
+
+The Indian's eyes glistened, and he took the coin.
+
+"All I want of you is, first, to tell me what ships are in La Guayra,
+and next, to go thither on board of me, and show me which is the
+governor's house, and which the custom-house."
+
+The Indian laid the coin down on the deck, and crossing himself, looked
+Amyas in the face.
+
+"No, senor! I am a freeman and a cavalier, a Christian Guayqueria,
+whose forefathers, first of all the Indians, swore fealty to the King of
+Spain, and whom he calls to this day in all his proclamations his most
+faithful, loyal, and noble Guayquerias. God forbid, therefore, that I
+should tell aught to his enemies, who are my enemies likewise."
+
+A growl arose from those of the men who understood him; and more than
+one hinted that a cord twined round the head, or a match put between the
+fingers, would speedily extract the required information.
+
+"God forbid!" said Amyas; "a brave and loyal man he is, and as such
+will I treat him. Tell me, my brave fellow, how do you know us to be his
+Catholic majesty's enemies?"
+
+The Indian, with a shrewd smile, pointed to half-a-dozen different
+objects, saying to each, "Not Spanish."
+
+"Well, and what of that?"
+
+"None but Spaniards and free Guayquerias have a right to sail these
+seas."
+
+Amyas laughed.
+
+"Thou art a right valiant bit of copper. Pick up thy dollar, and go thy
+way in peace. Make room for him, men. We can learn what we want without
+his help."
+
+The Indian paused, incredulous and astonished. "Overboard with you!"
+quoth Amyas. "Don't you know when you are well off?"
+
+"Most illustrious senor," began the Indian, in the drawling sententious
+fashion of his race (when they take the trouble to talk at all), "I
+have been deceived. I heard that you heretics roasted and ate all true
+Catholics (as we Guayquerias are), and that all your padres had tails."
+
+"Plague on you, sirrah!" squeaked Jack Brimblecombe. "Have I a tail?
+Look here!"
+
+"Quien sabe? Who knows?" quoth the Indian through his nose.
+
+"How do you know we are heretics?" said Amyas.
+
+"Humph! But in repayment for your kindness, I would warn you,
+illustrious senor, not to go on to La Guayra. There are ships of war
+there waiting for you; and moreover, the governor Don Guzman sailed to
+the eastward only yesterday to look for you; and I wonder much that you
+did not meet him."
+
+"To look for us! On the watch for us!" said Cary. "Impossible; lies!
+Amyas, this is some trick of the rascal's to frighten us away."
+
+"Don Guzman came out but yesterday to look for us? Are you sure you
+spoke truth?"
+
+"As I live, senor, he and another ship, for which I took yours."
+
+Amyas stamped upon the deck: that then was the ship which they had
+passed!
+
+"Fool that I was to have been close to my enemy, and let my opportunity
+slip! If I had but done my duty, all would have gone right!"
+
+But it was too late to repine; and after all, the Indian's story was
+likely enough to be false.
+
+"Off with you!" said he; and the Indian bounded over the side into his
+canoe, leaving the whole crew wondering at the stateliness and courtesy
+of this bold sea-cavalier.
+
+So Westward-ho they ran, beneath the mighty northern wall, the highest
+cliff on earth, some seven thousand feet of rock parted from the sea
+by a narrow strip of bright green lowland. Here and there a patch of
+sugar-cane, or a knot of cocoa-nut trees, close to the water's edge,
+reminded them that they were in the tropics; but above, all was savage,
+rough, and bare as an Alpine precipice. Sometimes deep clefts allowed
+the southern sun to pour a blaze of light down to the sea marge, and
+gave glimpses far above of strange and stately trees lining the glens,
+and of a veil of perpetual mist which shrouded the inner summits; while
+up and down, between them and the mountain side, white fleecy clouds
+hung motionless in the burning air, increasing the impression of
+vastness and of solemn rest, which was already overpowering.
+
+"Within those mountains, three thousand feet above our heads," said
+Drew, the master, "lies Saint Yago de Leon, the great city which the
+Spaniards founded fifteen years agone."
+
+"Is it a rich place?" asked Cary.
+
+"Very, they say."
+
+"Is it a strong place?" asked Amyas.
+
+"No forts to it at all, they say. The Spaniards boast, that Heaven has
+made such good walls to it already, that man need make none."
+
+"I don't know," quoth Amyas. "Lads, could you climb those hills, do you
+think?"
+
+"Rather higher than Harty Point, sir: but it depends pretty much on
+what's behind them."
+
+And now the last point is rounded, and they are full in sight of the
+spot in quest of which they have sailed four thousand miles of sea. A
+low black cliff, crowned by a wall; a battery at either end. Within, a
+few narrow streets of white houses, running parallel with the sea, upon
+a strip of flat, which seemed not two hundred yards in breadth; and
+behind, the mountain wall, covering the whole in deepest shade. How that
+wall was ever ascended to the inland seemed the puzzle; but Drew, who
+had been off the place before, pointed out to them a narrow path, which
+wound upwards through a glen, seemingly sheer perpendicular. That was
+the road to the capital, if any man dare try it. In spite of the shadow
+of the mountain, the whole place wore a dusty and glaring look. The
+breaths of air which came off the land were utterly stifling; and no
+wonder, for La Guayra, owing to the radiation of that vast fire-brick
+of heated rock, is one of the hottest spots upon the face of the whole
+earth.
+
+Where was the harbor? There was none. Only an open roadstead, wherein
+lay tossing at anchor five vessels. The two outer ones were small
+merchant caravels. Behind them lay two long, low, ugly-looking craft, at
+sight of which Yeo gave a long whew.
+
+"Galleys, as I'm a sinful saint! And what's that big one inside of them,
+Robert Drew? She has more than hawseholes in her idolatrous black sides,
+I think."
+
+"We shall open her astern of the galleys in another minute," said Amyas.
+"Look out, Cary, your eyes are better than mine."
+
+"Six round portholes on the main deck," quoth Will.
+
+"And I can see the brass patararoes glittering on her poop," quoth
+Amyas. "Will, we're in for it."
+
+"In for it we are, captain.
+
+     "Farewell, farewell, my parents dear.
+     I never shall see you more, I fear.
+
+"Let's go in, nevertheless, and pound the Don's ribs, my old lad of
+Smerwick. Eh? Three to one is very fair odds."
+
+"Not underneath those fort guns, I beg leave to say," quoth Yeo. "If the
+Philistines will but come out unto us, we will make them like unto Zeba
+and Zalmunna."
+
+"Quite true," said Amyas. "Game cocks are game cocks, but reason's
+reason."
+
+"If the Philistines are not coming out, they are going to send a
+messenger instead," quoth Cary. "Look out, all thin skulls!"
+
+And as he spoke, a puff of white smoke rolled from the eastern fort, and
+a heavy ball plunged into the water between it and the ship.
+
+"I don't altogether like this," quoth Amyas. "What do they mean by
+firing on us without warning? And what are these ships of war doing
+here? Drew, you told me the armadas never lay here."
+
+"No more, I believe, they do, sir, on account of the anchorage being so
+bad, as you may see. I'm mortal afeared that rascal's story was true,
+and that the Dons have got wind of our coming."
+
+"Run up a white flag, at all events. If they do expect us, they must
+have known some time since, or how could they have got their craft
+hither?"
+
+"True, sir. They must have come from Santa Marta, at the least; perhaps
+from Cartagena. And that would take a month at least going and coming."
+
+Amyas suddenly recollected Eustace's threat in the wayside inn. Could he
+have betrayed their purpose? Impossible!
+
+"Let us hold a council of war, at all events, Frank."
+
+Frank was absorbed in a very different matter. A half-mile to the
+eastward of the town, two or three hundred feet up the steep mountain
+side, stood a large, low, white house embosomed in trees and gardens.
+There was no other house of similar size near; no place for one. And was
+not that the royal flag of Spain which flaunted before it? That must be
+the governor's house; that must be the abode of the Rose of Torridge!
+And Frank stood devouring it with wild eyes, till he had persuaded
+himself that he could see a woman's figure walking upon the terrace
+in front, and that the figure was none other than hers whom he sought.
+Amyas could hardly tear him away to a council of war, which was a sad,
+and only not a peevish one.
+
+The three adventurers, with Brimblecombe, Yeo, and Drew, went apart upon
+the poop; and each looked the other in the face awhile. For what was
+to be done? The plans and hopes of months were brought to naught in an
+hour.
+
+"It is impossible, you see," said Amyas, at last, "to surprise the town
+by land, while these ships are here; for if we land our men, we leave
+our ship without defence."
+
+"As impossible as to challenge Don Guzman while he is not here," said
+Cary.
+
+"I wonder why the ships have not opened on us already," said Drew.
+
+"Perhaps they respect our flag of truce," said Cary. "Why not send in a
+boat to treat with them, and to inquire for--
+
+"For her?" interrupted Frank. "If we show that we are aware of her
+existence, her name is blasted in the eyes of those jealous Spaniards."
+
+"And as for respecting our flag of truce, gentlemen," said Yeo, "if you
+will take an old man's advice, trust them not. They will keep the same
+faith with us as they kept with Captain Hawkins at San Juan d'Ulloa, in
+that accursed business which was the beginning of all the wars; when
+we might have taken the whole plate-fleet, with two hundred thousand
+pounds' worth of gold on board, and did not, but only asked license to
+trade like honest men. And yet, after they had granted us license, and
+deceived us by fair speech into landing ourselves and our ordnance, the
+governor and all the fleet set upon us, five to one, and gave no quarter
+to any soul whom he took. No, sir; I expect the only reason why they
+don't attack us is, because their crews are not on board."
+
+"They will be, soon enough, then," said Amyas. "I can see soldiers
+coming down the landing-stairs."
+
+And, in fact, boats full of armed men began to push off to the ships.
+
+"We may thank Heaven," said Drew, "that we were not here two hours
+agone. The sun will be down before they are ready for sea, and the
+fellows will have no stomach to go looking for us by night."
+
+"So much the worse for us. If they will but do that, we may give them
+the slip, and back again to the town, and there try our luck; for I
+cannot find it in my heart to leave the place without having one dash at
+it."
+
+Yeo shook his head. "There are plenty more towns along the coast more
+worth trying than this, sir: but Heaven's will be done!"
+
+And as they spoke, the sun plunged into the sea, and all was dark.
+
+At last it was agreed to anchor, and wait till midnight. If the ships
+of war came out, they were to try to run in past them, and, desperate
+as the attempt might be, attempt their original plan of landing to the
+westward of the town, taking it in flank, plundering the government
+storehouses, which they saw close to the landing-place, and then
+fighting their way back to their boats, and out of the roadstead. Two
+hours would suffice if the armada and the galleys were but once out of
+the way.
+
+Amyas went forward, called the men together, and told them the plan. It
+was not very cheerfully received: but what else was there to be done!
+
+They ran down about a mile and a half to the westward, and anchored.
+
+The night wore on, and there was no sign of stir among the shipping;
+for though they could not see the vessels themselves, yet their lights
+(easily distinguished by their relative height from those in the town
+above) remained motionless; and the men fretted and fumed for weary
+hours at thus seeing a rich prize (for of course the town was paved with
+gold) within arm's reach, and yet impossible.
+
+Let Amyas and his men have patience. Some short five years more, and the
+great Armada will have come and gone; and then that avenging storm,
+of which they, like Oxenham, Hawkins, and Drake, are but the
+avant-couriers, will burst upon every Spanish port from Corunna to
+Cadiz, from the Canaries to Havana, and La Guayra and St. Yago de Leon
+will not escape their share. Captain Amyas Preston and Captain Sommers,
+the colonist of the Bermudas, or Sommers' Islands, will land, with a
+force tiny enough, though larger far than Leigh's, where Leigh dare not
+land; and taking the fort of Guayra, will find, as Leigh found, that
+their coming has been expected, and that the Pass of the Venta, three
+thousand feet above, has been fortified with huge barricadoes, abattis,
+and cannon, making the capital, amid its ring of mountain-walls,
+impregnable--to all but Englishmen or Zouaves. For up that seven
+thousand feet of precipice, which rises stair on stair behind the town,
+those fierce adventurers will climb hand over hand, through rain and
+fog, while men lie down, and beg their officers to kill them, for no
+farther can they go. Yet farther they will go, hewing a path with their
+swords through woods of wild plantain, and rhododendron thickets, over
+(so it seems, however incredible) the very saddle of the Silla,* down
+upon the astonished "Mantuanos" of St. Jago, driving all before them;
+and having burnt the city in default of ransom, will return triumphant
+by the right road, and pass along the coast, the masters of the deep.
+
+     * Humboldt says that there is a path from Caravellada to St.
+     Jago, between the peaks, used by smugglers.  This is
+     probably the "unknowen way of the Indians," which Preston
+     used.
+
+I know not whether any men still live who count their descent from those
+two valiant captains; but if such there be, let them be sure that the
+history of the English navy tells no more Titanic victory over nature
+and man than that now forgotten raid of Amyas Preston and his comrade,
+in the year of grace 1595.
+
+But though a venture on the town was impossible, yet there was another
+venture which Frank was unwilling to let slip. A light which now shone
+brightly in one of the windows of the governor's house was the lodestar
+to which all his thoughts were turned; and as he sat in the cabin with
+Amyas, Cary, and Jack, he opened his heart to them.
+
+"And are we, then," asked he, mournfully, "to go without doing the very
+thing for which we came?"
+
+All were silent awhile. At last John Brimblecombe spoke.
+
+"Show me the way to do it, Mr. Frank, and I will go."
+
+"My dearest man," said Amyas, "what would you have? Any attempt to see
+her, even if she be here, would be all but certain death."
+
+"And what if it were? What if it were, my brother Amyas? Listen to me. I
+have long ceased to shrink from Death; but till I came into these magic
+climes, I never knew the beauty of his face."
+
+"Of death?" said Cary. "I should have said, of life. God forgive me! but
+man might wish to live forever, if he had such a world as this wherein
+to live."
+
+"And do you forget, Cary, that the more fair this passing world of time,
+by so much the more fair is that eternal world, whereof all here is but
+a shadow and a dream; by so much the more fair is He before whose throne
+the four mystic beasts, the substantial ideas of Nature and her powers,
+stand day and night, crying, 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, Thou
+hast made all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created!'
+My friends, if He be so prodigal of His own glory as to have decked
+these lonely shores, all but unknown since the foundation of the world,
+with splendors beyond all our dreams, what must be the glory of His face
+itself! I have done with vain shadows. It is better to depart and to be
+with Him, where shall be neither desire nor anger, self-deception nor
+pretence, but the eternal fulness of reality and truth. One thing I
+have to do before I die, for God has laid it on me. Let that be done
+to-night, and then, farewell!"
+
+"Frank! Frank! remember our mother!"
+
+"I do remember her. I have talked over these things with her many a
+time; and where I would fain be, she would fain be also. She sent me out
+with my virgin honor, as the Spartan mother did her boy with the shield,
+saying, 'Come back either with this, or upon this;' and one or the other
+I must do, if I would meet her either in this life or in the next. But
+in the meanwhile do not mistake me; my life is God's, and I promise not
+to cast it away rashly."
+
+"What would you do, then?"
+
+"Go up to that house, Amyas, and speak with her, if Heaven gives me an
+opportunity, as Heaven, I feel assured, will give."
+
+"And do you call that no rashness?"
+
+"Is any duty rashness? Is it rash to stand amid the flying bullets, if
+your queen has sent you? Is it more rash to go to seek Christ's lost
+lamb, if God and your own oath hath sent you? John Brimblecombe answered
+that question for us long ago."
+
+"If you go, I go with you!" said all three at once.
+
+"No. Amyas, you owe a duty to our mother and to your ship. Cary, you are
+heir to great estates, and are bound thereby to your country and to your
+tenants. John Brimblecombe--"
+
+"Ay!" squeaked Jack. "And what have you to say, Mr. Frank, against my
+going?--I, who have neither ship nor estates--except, I suppose, that I
+am not worthy to travel in such good company?"
+
+"Think of your old parents, John, and all your sisters."
+
+"I thought of them before I started, sir, as Mr. Cary knows, and
+you know too. I came here to keep my vow, and I am not going to turn
+renegade at the very foot of the cross."
+
+"Some one must go with you, Frank," said Amyas; "if it were only to
+bring back the boat's crew in case--" and he faltered.
+
+"In case I fall," replied Frank, with a smile. "I will finish your
+sentence for you, lad; I am not afraid of it, though you may be for me.
+Yet some one, I fear, must go. Unhappy me! that I cannot risk my own
+worthless life without risking your more precious lives!"
+
+"Not so, Mr. Frank! Your oath is our oath, and your duty ours!" said
+John. "I will tell you what we will do, gentlemen all. We three will
+draw cuts for the honor of going with him."
+
+"Lots?" said Amyas. "I don't like leaving such grave matters to chance,
+friend John."
+
+"Chance, sir? When you have used all your own wit, and find it fail you,
+then what is drawing lots but taking the matter out of your own weak
+hands, and laying it in God's strong hands?"
+
+"Right, John!" said Frank. "So did the apostles choose their successor,
+and so did holy men of old decide controversies too subtle for them;
+and we will not be ashamed to follow their example. For my part, I have
+often said to Sidney and to Spenser, when we have babbled together of
+Utopian governments in days which are now dreams to me, that I would
+have all officers of state chosen by lot out of the wisest and most fit;
+so making sure that they should be called by God, and not by man alone.
+Gentlemen, do you agree to Sir John's advice?"
+
+They agreed, seeing no better counsel, and John put three slips of paper
+into Frank's hand, with the simple old apostolic prayer--
+
+"Show which of us three Thou hast chosen."
+
+The lot fell upon Amyas Leigh.
+
+Frank shuddered, and clasped his hands over his face.
+
+"Well," said Cary, "I have ill-luck to-night: but Frank goes at least in
+good company."
+
+"Ah, that it had been I!" said Jack; "though I suppose I was too poor a
+body to have such an honor fall on me. And yet it is hard for flesh and
+blood; hard indeed to have come all this way, and not to see her after
+all!"
+
+"Jack," said Frank, "you are kept to do better work than this, doubt
+not. But if the lot had fallen on you--ay, if it had fallen on a three
+years' child, I would have gone up as cheerfully with that child to lead
+me, as I do now with this my brother! Amyas, can we have a boat, and a
+crew? It is near midnight already."
+
+Amyas went on deck, and asked for six volunteers. Whosoever would come,
+Amyas would double out of his own purse any prize-money which might fall
+to that man's share.
+
+One of the old Pelican's crew, Simon Evans of Clovelly, stepped out at
+once.
+
+"Why six only, captain? Give the word, and any and all of us will go
+up with you, sack the house, and bring off the treasure and the lady,
+before two hours are out."
+
+"No, no, my brave lads! As for treasure, if there be any, it is sure to
+have been put all safe into the forts, or hidden in the mountains; and
+as for the lady, God forbid that we should force her a step without her
+own will."
+
+The honest sailor did not quite understand this punctilio: but--
+
+"Well, captain," quoth he, "as you like; but no man shall say that you
+asked for a volunteer, were it to jump down a shark's throat, but what
+you had me first of all the crew."
+
+After this sort of temper had been exhibited, three or four more came
+forward--Yeo was very anxious to go, but Amyas forbade him.
+
+"I'll volunteer, sir, without reward, for this or anything; though"
+(added he in a lower tone) "I would to Heaven that the thought had never
+entered your head."
+
+"And so would I have volunteered," said Simon Evans, "if it were the
+ship's quarrel, or the queen's; but being it's a private matter of the
+captain's, and I've a wife and children at home, why, I take no shame to
+myself for asking money for my life."
+
+So the crew was made up; but ere they pushed off, Amyas called Cary
+aside--
+
+"If I perish, Will--"
+
+"Don't talk of such things, dear old lad."
+
+"I must. Then you are captain. Do nothing without Yeo and Drew. But if
+they approve, go right north away for San Domingo and Cuba, and try the
+ports; they can have no news of us there, and there is booty without
+end. Tell my mother that I died like a gentleman; and mind--mind, dear
+lad, to keep your temper with the men, let the poor fellows grumble as
+they may. Mind but that, and fear God, and all will go well."
+
+The tears were glistening in Cary's eyes as he pressed Amyas's hand, and
+watched the two brothers down over the side upon their desperate errand.
+
+They reached the pebble beach. There seemed no difficulty about finding
+the path to the house--so bright was the moon, and so careful a survey
+of the place had Frank taken. Leaving the men with the boat (Amyas had
+taken care that they should be well armed), they started up the beach,
+with their swords only. Frank assured Amyas that they would find a path
+leading from the beach up to the house, and he was not mistaken. They
+found it easily, for it was made of white shell sand; and following it,
+struck into a "tunal," or belt of tall thorny cactuses. Through this
+the path wound in zigzags up a steep rocky slope, and ended at a
+wicket-gate. They tried it, and found it open.
+
+"She may expect us," whispered Frank.
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"Why not? She must have seen our ship; and if, as seems, the townsfolk
+know who we are, how much more must she! Yes, doubt it not, she still
+longs to hear news of her own land, and some secret sympathy will draw
+her down towards the sea to-night. See! the light is in the window
+still!"
+
+"But if not," said Amyas, who had no such expectation, "what is your
+plan?"
+
+"I have none."
+
+"None?"
+
+"I have imagined twenty different ones in the last hour; but all are
+equally uncertain, impossible. I have ceased to struggle--I go where
+I am called, love's willing victim. If Heaven accept the sacrifice, it
+will provide the altar and the knife."
+
+Aymas was at his wits' end. Judging of his brother by himself, he had
+taken for granted that Frank had some well-concocted scheme for gaining
+admittance to the Rose; and as the wiles of love were altogether out of
+his province, he had followed in full faith such a sans-appel as he held
+Frank to be. But now he almost doubted of his brother's sanity, though
+Frank's manner was perfectly collected and his voice firm. Amyas, honest
+fellow, had no understanding of that intense devotion, which so many in
+those days (not content with looking on it as a lofty virtue, and yet
+one to be duly kept in its place by other duties) prided themselves on
+pampering into the most fantastic and self-willed excesses.
+
+Beautiful folly! the death-song of which two great geniuses were
+composing at that very moment, each according to his light. For, while
+Spenser was embalming in immortal verse all that it contained of noble
+and Christian elements, Cervantes sat, perhaps, in his dungeon, writing
+with his left hand Don Quixote, saddest of books, in spite of all its
+wit; the story of a pure and noble soul, who mistakes this actual life
+for that ideal one which he fancies (and not so wrongly either) eternal
+in the heavens: and finding instead of a battlefield for heroes in God's
+cause, nothing but frivolity, heartlessness, and godlessness, becomes a
+laughing-stock,--and dies. One of the saddest books, I say again, which
+man can read.
+
+Amyas hardly dare trust himself to speak, for fear of saying too much;
+but he could not help saying--
+
+"You are going to certain death, Frank."
+
+"Did I not entreat," answered he, very quietly, "to go alone?"
+
+Amyas had half a mind to compel him to return: but he feared Frank's
+obstinacy; and feared, too, the shame of returning on board without
+having done anything; so they went up through the wicket-gate, along a
+smooth turf walk, into what seemed a pleasure-garden, formed by the hand
+of man, or rather of woman. For by the light, not only of the moon, but
+of the innumerable fireflies, which flitted to and fro across the sward
+like fiery imps sent to light the brothers on their way, they could see
+that the bushes on either side, and the trees above their heads, were
+decked with flowers of such strangeness and beauty, that, as Frank
+once said of Barbados, "even the gardens of Wilton were a desert in
+comparison." All around were orange and lemon trees (probably the only
+addition which man had made to Nature's prodigality), the fruit of
+which, in that strange colored light of the fireflies, flashed in their
+eyes like balls of burnished gold and emerald; while great white tassels
+swinging from every tree in the breeze which swept down the glade,
+tossed in their faces a fragrant snow of blossoms, and glittering drops
+of perfumed dew.
+
+"What a paradise!" said Amyas to Frank, "with the serpent in it, as of
+old. Look!"
+
+And as he spoke, there dropped slowly down from a bough, right before
+them, what seemed a living chain of gold, ruby, and sapphire. Both
+stopped, and another glance showed the small head and bright eyes of a
+snake, hissing and glaring full in their faces.
+
+"See!" said Frank. "And he comes, as of old, in the likeness of an angel
+of light. Do not strike it. There are worse devils to be fought with
+to-night than that poor beast." And stepping aside, they passed the
+snake safely, and arrived in front of the house.
+
+It was, as I have said, a long low house, with balconies along the upper
+story, and the under part mostly open to the wind. The light was still
+burning in the window.
+
+"Whither now?" said Amyas, in a tone of desperate resignation.
+
+"Thither! Where else on earth?" and Frank pointed to the light,
+trembling from head to foot, and pushed on.
+
+"For Heaven's sake! Look at the negroes on the barbecue!"
+
+It was indeed time to stop; for on the barbecue, or terrace of white
+plaster, which ran all round the front, lay sleeping full twenty black
+figures.
+
+"What will you do now? You must step over them to gain an entrance."
+
+"Wait here, and I will go up gently towards the window. She may see me.
+She will see me as I step into the moonlight. At least I know an air by
+which she will recognize me, if I do but hum a stave."
+
+"Why, you do not even know that that light is hers!--Down, for your
+life!"
+
+And Amyas dragged him down into the bushes on his left hand; for one
+of the negroes, wakening suddenly with a cry, had sat up, and began
+crossing himself four or five times, in fear of "Duppy," and mumbling
+various charms, ayes, or what not.
+
+The light above was extinguished instantly.
+
+"Did you see her?" whispered Frank.
+
+"No."
+
+"I did--the shadow of the face, and the neck! Can I be mistaken?" And
+then, covering his face with his hands, he murmured to himself, "Misery!
+misery! So near and yet impossible?"
+
+"Would it be the less impossible were you face to face? Let us go back.
+We cannot go up without detection, even if our going were of use. Come
+back, for God's sake, ere all is lost! If you have seen her, as you say,
+you know at least that she is alive, and safe in his house--"
+
+"As his mistress? or as his wife? Do I know that yet, Amyas, and can I
+depart until I know?" There was a few minutes' silence, and then Amyas,
+making one last attempt to awaken Frank to the absurdity of the whole
+thing, and to laugh him, if possible, out of it, as argument had no
+effect--
+
+"My dear fellow, I am very hungry and sleepy; and this bush is very
+prickly; and my boots are full of ants--"
+
+"So are mine.--Look!" and Frank caught Amyas's arm, and clenched it
+tight.
+
+For round the farther corner of the house a dark cloaked figure stole
+gently, turning a look now and then upon the sleeping negroes, and came
+on right toward them.
+
+"Did I not tell you she would come?" whispered Frank, in a triumphant
+tone.
+
+Amyas was quite bewildered; and to his mind the apparition seemed
+magical, and Frank prophetic; for as the figure came nearer, incredulous
+as he tried to be, there was no denying that the shape and the walk were
+exactly those of her, to find whom they had crossed the Atlantic. True,
+the figure was somewhat taller; but then, "she must be grown since I saw
+her," thought Amyas; and his heart for the moment beat as fiercely as
+Frank's.
+
+But what was that behind her? Her shadow against the white wall of the
+house. Not so. Another figure, cloaked likewise, but taller far, was
+following on her steps. It was a man's. They could see that he wore a
+broad sombrero. It could not be Don Guzman, for he was at sea. Who then?
+Here was a mystery; perhaps a tragedy. And both brothers held their
+breaths, while Amyas felt whether his sword was loose in the sheath.
+
+The Rose (if indeed it was she) was within ten yards of them, when she
+perceived that she was followed. She gave a little shriek. The cavalier
+sprang forward, lifted his hat courteously, and joined her, bowing low.
+The moonlight was full upon his face.
+
+"It is Eustace, our cousin! How came he here, in the name of all the
+fiends?"
+
+"Eustace! Then that is she, after all!" said Frank, forgetting
+everything else in her.
+
+And now flashed across Amyas all that had passed between him and Eustace
+in the moorland inn, and Parracombe's story, too, of the suspicious
+gipsy. Eustace had been beforehand with them, and warned Don Guzman! All
+was explained now: but how had he got hither?
+
+"The devil, his master, sent him hither on a broomstick, I suppose: or
+what matter how? Here he is; and here we are, worse luck!" And, setting
+his teeth, Amyas awaited the end.
+
+The two came on, talking earnestly, and walking at a slow pace, so that
+the brothers could hear every word.
+
+"What shall we do now?" said Frank. "We have no right to be
+eavesdroppers."
+
+"But we must be, right or none." And Amyas held him down firmly by the
+arm.
+
+"But whither are you going, then, my dear madam?" they heard Eustace
+say in a wheedling tone. "Can you wonder if such strange conduct should
+cause at least sorrow to your admirable and faithful husband?"
+
+"Husband!" whispered Frank faintly to Amyas. "Thank God, thank God! I am
+content. Let us go."
+
+But to go was impossible; for, as fate would have it, the two had
+stopped just opposite them.
+
+"The inestimable Senor Don Guzman--" began Eustace again.
+
+"What do you mean by praising him to me in this fulsome way, sir? Do you
+suppose that I do not know his virtues better than you?"
+
+"If you do, madam" (this was spoken in a harder tone), "it were wise for
+you to try them less severely, than by wandering down towards the beach
+on the very night that you know his most deadly enemies are lying in
+wait to slay him, plunder his house, and most probably to carry you off
+from him."
+
+"Carry me off? I will die first!"
+
+"Who can prove that to him? Appearances are at least against you."
+
+"My love to him, and his trust for me, sir!"
+
+"His trust? Have you forgotten, madam, what passed last week, and why he
+sailed yesterday?"
+
+The only answer was a burst of tears. Eustace stood watching her with a
+terrible eye; but they could see his face writhing in the moonlight.
+
+"Oh!" sobbed she at last. "And if I have been imprudent, was it not
+natural to wish to look once more upon an English ship? Are you not
+English as well as I? Have you no longing recollections of the dear old
+land at home?"
+
+Eustace was silent; but his face worked more fiercely than ever.
+
+"How can he ever know it?"
+
+"Why should he not know it?"
+
+"Ah!" she burst out passionately, "why not, indeed, while you are here?
+You, sir, the tempter, you the eavesdropper, you the sunderer of loving
+hearts! You, serpent, who found our home a paradise, and see it now a
+hell!"
+
+"Do you dare to accuse me thus, madam, without a shadow of evidence?"
+
+"Dare? I dare anything, for I know all! I have watched you, sir, and I
+have borne with you too long."
+
+"Me, madam, whose only sin towards you, as you should know by now, is to
+have loved you too well? Rose! Rose! have you not blighted my life for
+me--broken my heart? And how have I repaid you? How but by sacrificing
+myself to seek you over land and sea, that I might complete your
+conversion to the bosom of that Church where a Virgin Mother stands
+stretching forth soft arms to embrace her wandering daughter, and cries
+to you all day long, 'Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden,
+and I will give you rest!' And this is my reward!"
+
+"Depart with your Virgin Mother, sir, and tempt me no more! You have
+asked me what I dare; and I dare this, upon my own ground, and in my
+own garden, I, Donna Rosa de Soto, to bid you leave this place now and
+forever, after having insulted me by talking of your love, and tempted
+me to give up that faith which my husband promised me he would respect
+and protect. Go, sir!"
+
+The brothers listened breathless with surprise as much as with rage.
+Love and conscience, and perhaps, too, the pride of her lofty alliance,
+had converted the once gentle and dreamy Rose into a very Roxana; but it
+was only the impulse of a moment. The words had hardly passed her lips,
+when, terrified at what she had said, she burst into a fresh flood of
+tears; while Eustace answered calmly:
+
+"I go, madam: but how know you that I may not have orders, and that,
+after your last strange speech, my conscience may compel me to obey
+those orders, to take you with me?"
+
+"Me? with you?"
+
+"My heart has bled for you, madam, for many a year. It longs now that
+it had bled itself to death, and never known the last worst agony of
+telling you--"
+
+And drawing close to her he whispered in her ear--what, the brothers
+heard not--but her answer was a shriek which rang through the woods, and
+sent the night-birds fluttering up from every bough above their heads.
+
+"By Heaven!" said Amyas, "I can stand this no longer. Cut that devil's
+throat I must--"
+
+"She is lost if his dead body is found by her."
+
+"We are lost if we stay here, then," said Amyas; "for those negroes will
+hurry down at her cry, and then found we must be."
+
+"Are you mad, madam, to betray yourself by your own cries? The negroes
+will be here in a moment. I give you one last chance for life, then:"
+and Eustace shouted in Spanish at the top of his voice, "Help, help,
+servants! Your mistress is being carried off by bandits!"
+
+"What do you mean, sir?"
+
+"Let your woman's wit supply the rest: and forget not him who thus saves
+you from disgrace."
+
+Whether the brothers heard the last words or not, I know not; but taking
+for granted that Eustace had discovered them, they sprang to their feet
+at once, determined to make one last appeal, and then to sell their
+lives as dearly as they could.
+
+Eustace started back at the unexpected apparition; but a second glance
+showed him Amyas's mighty bulk; and he spoke calmly--
+
+"You see, madam, I did not call without need. Welcome, good cousins. My
+charity, as you perceive, has found means to outstrip your craft; while
+the fair lady, as was but natural, has been true to her assignation!"
+
+"Liar!" cried Frank. "She never knew of our being--"
+
+"Credat Judaeus!" answered Eustace; but, as he spoke, Amyas burst
+through the bushes at him. There was no time to be lost; and ere the
+giant could disentangle himself from the boughs and shrubs, Eustace had
+slipped off his long cloak, thrown it over Amyas's head, and ran up the
+alley shouting for help.
+
+Mad with rage, Amyas gave chase: but in two minutes more Eustace was
+safe among the ranks of the negroes, who came shouting and jabbering
+down the path.
+
+He rushed back. Frank was just ending some wild appeal to Rose--
+
+"Your conscience! your religion!--"
+
+"No, never! I can face the chance of death, but not the loss of him. Go!
+for God's sake, leave me!"
+
+"You are lost, then,--and I have ruined you!"
+
+"Come off, now or never," cried Amyas, clutching him by the arm, and
+dragging him away like a child.
+
+"You forgive me?" cried he.
+
+"Forgive you?" and she burst into tears again.
+
+Frank burst into tears also.
+
+"Let me go back, and die with her--Amyas!--my oath!--my honor!" and he
+struggled to turn back.
+
+Amyas looked back too, and saw her standing calmly, with her hands
+folded across her breast, awaiting Eustace and the servants; and he half
+turned to go back also. Both saw how fearfully appearances had put her
+into Eustace's power. Had he not a right to suspect that they were there
+by her appointment; that she was going to escape with them? And would
+not Eustace use his power? The thought of the Inquisition crossed their
+minds. "Was that the threat which Eustace had whispered?" asked he of
+Frank.
+
+"It was," groaned Frank, in answer.
+
+For the first and last time in his life, Amyas Leigh stood irresolute.
+
+"Back, and stab her to the heart first!" said Frank, struggling to
+escape from him.
+
+Oh, if Amyas were but alone, and Frank safe home in England! To charge
+the whole mob, kill her, kill Eustace, and then cut his way back again
+to the ship, or die,--what matter? as he must die some day,--sword in
+hand! But Frank!--and then flashed before his eyes his mother's hopeless
+face; then rang in his ears his mother's last bequest to him of that
+frail treasure. Let Rose, let honor, let the whole world perish, he must
+save Frank. See! the negroes were up with her now--past her--away for
+life! and once more he dragged his brother down the hill, and through
+the wicket, only just in time; for the whole gang of negroes were within
+ten yards of them in full pursuit.
+
+"Frank," said he, sharply, "if you ever hope to see your mother again,
+rouse yourself, man, and fight!" And, without waiting for an answer, he
+turned, and charged up-hill upon his pursuers, who saw the long bright
+blade, and fled instantly.
+
+Again he hurried Frank down the hill; the path wound in zigzags, and he
+feared that the negroes would come straight over the cliff, and so cut
+off his retreat: but the prickly cactuses were too much for them, and
+they were forced to follow by the path, while the brothers (Frank having
+somewhat regained his senses) turned every now and then to menace
+them: but once on the rocky path, stones began to fly fast; small ones
+fortunately, and wide and wild for want of light--but when they reached
+the pebble-beach? Both were too proud to run; but, if ever Amyas prayed
+in his life, he prayed for the last twenty yards before he reached the
+water-mark.
+
+"Now, Frank! down to the boat as hard as you can run, while I keep the
+curs back."
+
+"Amyas! what do you take me for? My madness brought you hither: your
+devotion shall not bring me back without you."
+
+"Together, then!"
+
+And putting Frank's arm through his, they hurried down, shouting to
+their men.
+
+The boat was not fifty yards off: but fast travelling over the pebbles
+was impossible, and long ere half the distance was crossed, the negroes
+were on the beach, and the storm burst. A volley of great quartz pebbles
+whistled round their heads.
+
+"Come on, Frank! for life's sake! Men, to the rescue! Ah! what was
+that?"
+
+The dull crash of a pebble against Frank's fair head! Drooping like
+Hyacinthus beneath the blow of the quoit, he sank on Amyas's arm. The
+giant threw him over his shoulder, and plunged blindly on,--himself
+struck again and again.
+
+"Fire, men! Give it the black villains!"
+
+The arquebuses crackled from the boat in front. What were those
+dull thuds which answered from behind? Echoes? No. Over his head the
+caliver-balls went screeching. The governors' guard have turned out,
+followed them to the beach, fixed their calivers, and are firing over
+the negroes' heads, as the savages rush down upon the hapless brothers.
+
+If, as all say, there are moments which are hours, how many hours was
+Amyas Leigh in reaching that boat's bow? Alas! the negroes are there as
+soon as he, and the guard, having left their calivers, are close behind
+them, sword in hand. Amyas is up to his knees in water--battered with
+stones--blinded with blood. The boat is swaying off and on against the
+steep pebble-bank: he clutches at it--misses--falls headlong--rises
+half-choked with water: but Frank is still in his arms. Another heavy
+blow--a confused roar of shouts, shots, curses--a confused mass of
+negroes and English, foam and pebbles--and he recollects no more.
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+He is lying in the stern-sheets of the boat; stiff, weak, half blind
+with blood. He looks up; the moon is still bright overhead: but they are
+away from the shore now, for the wave-crests are dancing white before
+the land-breeze, high above the boat's side. The boat seems strangely
+empty. Two men are pulling instead of six! And what is this lying heavy
+across his chest? He pushes, and is answered by a groan. He puts his
+hand down to rise, and is answered by another groan.
+
+"What's this?"
+
+"All that are left of us," says Simon Evans of Clovelly.
+
+"All?" The bottom of the boat seemed paved with human bodies. "Oh
+God! oh God!" moans Amyas, trying to rise. "And where--where is Frank?
+Frank!"
+
+"Mr. Frank!" cries Evans. There is no answer.
+
+"Dead?" shrieks Amyas. "Look for him, for God's sake, look!" and
+struggling from under his living load, he peers into each pale and
+bleeding face.
+
+"Where is he? Why don't you speak, forward there?"
+
+"Because we have naught to say, sir," answers Evans, almost surlily.
+
+Frank was not there.
+
+"Put the boat about! To the shore!" roars Amyas.
+
+"Look over the gunwale, and judge for yourself, sir!"
+
+The waves are leaping fierce and high before a furious land-breeze.
+Return is impossible.
+
+"Cowards! villains! traitors! hounds! to have left him behind."
+
+"Listen you to me, Captain Amyas Leigh," says Simon Evans, resting on
+his oar; "and hang me for mutiny, if you will, when we're aboard, if we
+ever get there. Isn't it enough to bring us out to death (as you knew
+yourself, sir, for you're prudent enough) to please that poor young
+gentleman's fancy about a wench; but you must call coward an honest man
+that have saved your life this night, and not a one of us but has his
+wound to show?"
+
+Amyas was silent; the rebuke was just.
+
+"I tell you, sir, if we've hove a stone out of this boat since we got
+off, we've hove two hundredweight, and, if the Lord had not fought for
+us, she'd have been beat to noggin-staves there on the beach."
+
+"How did I come here, then?"
+
+"Tom Hart dragged you in out of five feet water, and then thrust the
+boat off, and had his brains beat out for reward. All were knocked down
+but us two. So help me God, we thought that you had hove Mr. Frank on
+board just as you were knocked down, and saw William Frost drag him in."
+
+But William Frost was lying senseless in the bottom of the boat. There
+was no explanation. After all, none was needed.
+
+"And I have three wounds from stones, and this man behind me as many
+more, beside a shot through his shoulder. Now, sir, be we cowards?"
+
+"You have done your duty," said Amyas, and sank down in the boat, and
+cried as if his heart would break; and then sprang up, and, wounded as
+he was, took the oar from Evans's hands. With weary work they made the
+ship, but so exhausted that another boat had to be lowered to get them
+alongside.
+
+The alarm being now given, it was hardly safe to remain where they were;
+and after a stormy and sad argument, it was agreed to weigh anchor and
+stand off and on till morning; for Amyas refused to leave the spot till
+he was compelled, though he had no hope (how could he have?) that Frank
+might still be alive. And perhaps it was well for them, as will appear
+in the next chapter, that morning did not find them at anchor close to
+the town.
+
+However that may be, so ended that fatal venture of mistaken chivalry.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS
+
+     "Full seven long hours in all men's sight
+       This fight endured sore,
+     Until our men so feeble grew,
+       That they could fight no more.
+     And then upon dead horses
+       Full savorly they fed,
+     And drank the puddle water,
+       They could no better get.
+
+     "When they had fed so freely
+       They kneeled on the ground,
+     And gave God thanks devoutly for
+       The favor they had found;
+     Then beating up their colors,
+       The fight they did renew;
+     And turning to the Spaniards,
+       A thousand more they slew."
+
+       The Brave Lord Willoughby.  1586.
+
+When the sun leaped up the next morning, and the tropic light
+flashed suddenly into the tropic day, Amyas was pacing the deck, with
+dishevelled hair and torn clothes, his eyes red with rage and weeping,
+his heart full--how can I describe it? Picture it to yourselves, picture
+it to yourselves, you who have ever lost a brother; and you who have
+not, thank God that you know nothing of his agony. Full of impossible
+projects, he strode and staggered up and down, as the ship thrashed
+close-hauled through the rolling seas. He would go back and burn the
+villa. He would take Guayra, and have the life of every man in it in
+return for his brother's. "We can do it, lads!" he shouted. "If Drake
+took Nombre de Dios, we can take La Guayra." And every voice shouted,
+"Yes."
+
+"We will have it, Amyas, and have Frank too, yet," cried Cary; but Amyas
+shook his head. He knew, and knew not why he knew, that all the ports in
+New Spain would never restore to him that one beloved face.
+
+"Yes, he shall be well avenged. And look there! There is the first crop
+of our vengeance. And he pointed toward the shore, where between them
+and the now distant peaks of the Silla, three sails appeared, not five
+miles to windward.
+
+"There are the Spanish bloodhounds on our heels, the same ships which we
+saw yesterday off Guayra. Back, lads, and welcome them, if they were a
+dozen."
+
+There was a murmur of applause from all around; and if any young heart
+sank for a moment at the prospect of fighting three ships at once, it
+was awed into silence by the cheer which rose from all the older men,
+and by Salvation Yeo's stentorian voice.
+
+"If there were a dozen, the Lord is with us, who has said, 'One of you
+shall chase a thousand.' Clear away, lads, and see the glory of the Lord
+this day."
+
+"Amen!" cried Cary; and the ship was kept still closer to the wind.
+
+Amyas had revived at the sight of battle. He no longer felt his wounds,
+or his great sorrow; even Frank's last angel's look grew dimmer every
+moment as he bustled about the deck; and ere a quarter of an hour had
+passed, his voice cried firmly and cheerfully as of old--
+
+"Now, my masters, let us serve God, and then to breakfast, and after
+that clear for action."
+
+Jack Brimblecombe read the daily prayers, and the prayers before a
+fight at sea, and his honest voice trembled, as, in the Prayer for
+all Conditions of Men (in spite of Amyas's despair), he added, "and
+especially for our dear brother Mr. Francis Leigh, perhaps captive among
+the idolaters;" and so they rose.
+
+"Now, then," said Amyas, "to breakfast. A Frenchman fights best fasting,
+a Dutchman drunk, an Englishman full, and a Spaniard when the devil is
+in him, and that's always."
+
+"And good beef and the good cause are a match for the devil," said Cary.
+"Come down, captain; you must eat too."
+
+Amyas shook his head, took the tiller from the steersman, and bade him
+go below and fill himself. Will Cary went down, and returned in five
+minutes, with a plate of bread and beef, and a great jack of ale,
+coaxed them down Amyas's throat, as a nurse does with a child, and then
+scuttled below again with tears hopping down his face.
+
+Amyas stood still steering. His face was grown seven years older in
+the last night. A terrible set calm was on him. Woe to the man who came
+across him that day!
+
+"There are three of them, you see, my masters," said he, as the crew
+came on deck again. "A big ship forward, and two galleys astern of her.
+The big ship may keep; she is a race ship, and if we can but recover
+the wind of her, we will see whether our height is not a match for her
+length. We must give her the slip, and take the galleys first."
+
+"I thank the Lord," said Yeo, "who has given so wise a heart to so young
+a general; a very David and Daniel, saving his presence, lads; and if
+any dare not follow him, let him be as the men of Meroz and of Succoth.
+Amen! Silas Staveley, smite me that boy over the head, the young monkey;
+why is he not down at the powder-room door?"
+
+And Yeo went about his gunnery, as one who knew how to do it, and had
+the most terrible mind to do it thoroughly, and the most terrible faith
+that it was God's work.
+
+So all fell to; and though there was comparatively little to be done,
+the ship having been kept as far as could be in fighting order all
+night, yet there was "clearing of decks, lacing of nettings, making of
+bulwarks, fitting of waist-cloths, arming of tops, tallowing of pikes,
+slinging of yards, doubling of sheets and tacks," enough to satisfy even
+the pedantical soul of Richard Hawkins himself. Amyas took charge of
+the poop, Cary of the forecastle, and Yeo, as gunner, of the main-deck,
+while Drew, as master, settled himself in the waist; and all was ready,
+and more than ready, before the great ship was within two miles of them.
+
+And now while the mastiffs of England and the bloodhounds of Spain are
+nearing and nearing over the rolling surges, thirsting for each other's
+blood, let us spend a few minutes at least in looking at them both, and
+considering the causes which in those days enabled the English to face
+and conquer armaments immensely superior in size and number of ships,
+and to boast that in the whole Spanish war but one queen's ship, the
+Revenge, and (if I recollect right) but one private man-of-war, Sir
+Richard Hawkins's Dainty, had ever struck their colors to the enemy.
+
+What was it which enabled Sir Richard Grenville's Revenge, in his last
+fearful fight off the Azores, to endure, for twelve hours before she
+struck, the attack of eight Spanish armadas, of which two (three times
+her own burden) sank at her side; and after all her masts were gone, and
+she had been boarded three times without success, to defy to the last
+the whole fleet of fifty-four sail, which lay around her, waiting for
+her to sink, "like dogs around the dying forest king"?
+
+What enabled young Richard Hawkins's Dainty, though half her guns were
+useless through the carelessness or treachery of the gunner, to maintain
+for three days a running fight with two Spaniards of equal size with
+her, double the weight of metal, and ten times the number of men?
+
+What enabled Sir George Cary's illustrious ship, the Content, to fight,
+single-handed, from seven in the morning till eleven at night, with
+four great armadas and two galleys, though her heaviest gun was but
+one nine-pounder, and for many hours she had but thirteen men fit for
+service?
+
+What enabled, in the very year of which I write, those two "valiant
+Turkey Merchantmen of London, the Merchant Royal and the Tobie,"
+with their three small consorts, to cripple, off Pantellaria in the
+Mediterranean, the whole fleet of Spanish galleys sent to intercept
+them, and return triumphant through the Straits of Gibraltar?
+
+And lastly, what in the fight of 1588, whereof more hereafter, enabled
+the English fleet to capture, destroy, and scatter that Great Armada,
+with the loss (but not the capture) of one pinnace, and one gentleman of
+note?
+
+There were more causes than one: the first seems to have lain in the
+build of the English ships; the second in their superior gunnery and
+weight of metal; the third (without which the first would have been
+useless) in the hearts of the English men.
+
+The English ship was much shorter than the Spanish; and this (with
+the rig of those days) gave them an ease in manoeuvring, which utterly
+confounded their Spanish foes. "The English ships in the fight of 1588,"
+says Camden, "charged the enemy with marvellous agility, and having
+discharged their broadsides, flew forth presently into the deep, and
+levelled their shot directly, without missing, at those great ships of
+the Spaniards, which were altogether heavy and unwieldy." Moreover, the
+Spanish fashion, in the West Indies at least, though not in the ships
+of the Great Armada, was, for the sake of carrying merchandise, to build
+their men-of-war flush-decked, or as it was called "race" (razes), which
+left those on deck exposed and open; while the English fashion was to
+heighten the ship as much as possible at stem and stern, both by
+the sweep of her lines, and also by stockades ("close fights and
+cage-works") on the poop and forecastle, thus giving to the men
+a shelter, which was further increased by strong bulkheads
+("cobridgeheads") across the main-deck below, dividing the ship thus
+into a number of separate forts, fitted with swivels ("bases, fowlers,
+and murderers") and loopholed for musketry and arrows.
+
+But the great source of superiority was, after all, in the men
+themselves. The English sailor was then, as now, a quite amphibious
+and all-cunning animal, capable of turning his hand to everything, from
+needlework and carpentry to gunnery or hand-to-hand blows; and he
+was, moreover, one of a nation, every citizen of which was not merely
+permitted to carry arms, but compelled by law to practise from
+childhood the use of the bow, and accustomed to consider sword-play
+and quarter-staff as a necessary part and parcel of education, and the
+pastime of every leisure hour. The "fiercest nation upon earth," as
+they were then called, and the freest also, each man of them fought for
+himself with the self-help and self-respect of a Yankee ranger, and once
+bidden to do his work, was trusted to carry it out by his own wit as
+best he could. In one word, he was a free man.
+
+The English officers, too, as now, lived on terms of sympathy with their
+men unknown to the Spaniards, who raised between the commander and the
+commanded absurd barriers of rank and blood, which forbade to his pride
+any labor but that of fighting. The English officers, on the other hand,
+brought up to the same athletic sports, the same martial exercises, as
+their men, were not ashamed to care for them, to win their friendship,
+even on emergency to consult their judgment; and used their rank, not to
+differ from their men, but to outvie them; not merely to command and be
+obeyed, but, like Homer's heroes, or the old Norse Vikings, to lead and
+be followed. Drake touched the true mainspring of English success when
+he once (in his voyage round the world) indignantly rebuked some coxcomb
+gentlemen-adventurers with--"I should like to see the gentleman that
+will refuse to set his hand to a rope. I must have the gentlemen to hale
+and draw with the mariners." But those were days in which her majesty's
+service was as little overridden by absurd rules of seniority, as by
+that etiquette which is at once the counterfeit and the ruin of true
+discipline. Under Elizabeth and her ministers, a brave and a shrewd man
+was certain of promotion, let his rank or his age be what they might;
+the true honor of knighthood covered once and for all any lowliness of
+birth; and the merchant service (in which all the best sea-captains,
+even those of noble blood, were more or less engaged) was then a
+nursery, not only for seamen, but for warriors, in days when Spanish
+and Portuguese traders (whenever they had a chance) got rid of English
+competition by salvos of cannon-shot.
+
+Hence, as I have said, that strong fellow-feeling between officers and
+men; and hence mutinies (as Sir Richard Hawkins tells us) were all but
+unknown in the English ships, while in the Spanish they broke out on
+every slight occasion. For the Spaniards, by some suicidal pedantry, had
+allowed their navy to be crippled by the same despotism, etiquette,
+and official routine, by which the whole nation was gradually frozen to
+death in the course of the next century or two; forgetting that, fifty
+years before, Cortez, Pizarro, and the early Conquistadores of America
+had achieved their miraculous triumphs on the exactly opposite method
+by that very fellow-feeling between commander and commanded by which the
+English were now conquering them in their turn.
+
+Their navy was organized on a plan complete enough; but on one which
+was, as the event proved, utterly fatal to their prowess and unanimity,
+and which made even their courage and honor useless against the assaults
+of free men. "They do, in their armadas at sea, divide themselves into
+three bodies; to wit, soldiers, mariners, and gunners. The soldiers and
+officers watch and ward as if on shore; and this is the only duty they
+undergo, except cleaning their arms, wherein they are not over curious.
+The gunners are exempted from all labor and care, except about the
+artillery; and these are either Almaines, Flemings, or strangers; for
+the Spaniards are but indifferently practised in this art. The mariners
+are but as slaves to the rest, to moil and to toil day and night; and
+those but few and bad, and not suffered to sleep or harbor under the
+decks. For in fair or foul weather, in storms, sun, or rain, they must
+pass void of covert or succor."
+
+This is the account of one who was long prisoner on board their ships;
+let it explain itself, while I return to my tale. For the great ship is
+now within two musket-shots of the Rose, with the golden flag of Spain
+floating at her poop; and her trumpets are shouting defiance up the
+breeze, from a dozen brazen throats, which two or three answer lustily
+from the Rose, from whose poop flies the flag of England, and from her
+fore the arms of Leigh and Cary side by side, and over them the ship and
+bridge of the good town of Bideford. And then Amyas calls:
+
+"Now, silence trumpets, waits, play up! 'Fortune my foe!' and God and
+the Queen be with us!"
+
+Whereon (laugh not, reader, for it was the fashion of those musical
+as well as valiant days) up rose that noble old favorite of good Queen
+Bess, from cornet and sackbut, fife and drum; while Parson Jack, who had
+taken his stand with the musicians on the poop, worked away lustily at
+his violin, and like Volker of the Nibelungen Lied.
+
+"Well played, Jack; thy elbow flies like a lamb's tail," said Amyas,
+forcing a jest.
+
+"It shall fly to a better fiddle-bow presently, sir, an I have the
+luck--"
+
+"Steady, helm!" said Amyas. "What is he after now?"
+
+The Spaniard, who had been coming upon them right down the wind under a
+press of sail, took in his light canvas.
+
+"He don't know what to make of our waiting for him so bold," said the
+helmsman.
+
+"He does though, and means to fight us," cried another. "See, he is
+hauling up the foot of his mainsail, but he wants to keep the wind of
+us."
+
+"Let him try, then," quoth Amyas. "Keep her closer still. Let no one
+fire till we are about. Man the starboard guns; to starboard, and wait,
+all small arm men. Pass the order down to the gunner, and bid all fire
+high, and take the rigging."
+
+Bang went one of the Spaniard's bow guns, and the shot went wide.
+Then another and another, while the men fidgeted about, looking at the
+priming of their muskets, and loosened their arrows in the sheaf.
+
+"Lie down, men, and sing a psalm. When I want you, I'll call you. Closer
+still, if you can, helmsman, and we will try a short ship against a long
+one. We can sail two points nearer the wind than he."
+
+As Amyas had calculated, the Spaniard would gladly enough have stood
+across the Rose's bows, but knowing the English readiness, dare not for
+fear of being raked; so her only plan, if she did not intend to shoot
+past her foe down to leeward, was to put her head close to the wind, and
+wait for her on the same tack.
+
+Amyas laughed to himself. "Hold on yet awhile. More ways of killing a
+cat than choking her with cream. Drew, there, are your men ready?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" and on they went, closing fast with the Spaniard, till
+within a pistol-shot.
+
+"Ready about!" and about she went like an eel, and ran upon the opposite
+tack right under the Spaniard's stern. The Spaniard, astounded at the
+quickness of the manoeuvre, hesitated a moment, and then tried to get
+about also, as his only chance; but it was too late, and while his
+lumbering length was still hanging in the wind's eye, Amyas's bowsprit
+had all but scraped his quarter, and the Rose passed slowly across his
+stern at ten yards' distance.
+
+"Now, then!" roared Amyas. "Fire, and with a will! Have at her,
+archers: have at her, muskets all!" and in an instant a storm of bar and
+chain-shot, round and canister, swept the proud Don from stem to stern,
+while through the white cloud of smoke the musket-balls, and the still
+deadlier cloth-yard arrows, whistled and rushed upon their venomous
+errand. Down went the steersman, and every soul who manned the
+poop. Down went the mizzen topmast, in went the stern-windows and
+quarter-galleries; and as the smoke cleared away, the gorgeous painting
+of the Madre Dolorosa, with her heart full of seven swords, which, in
+a gilded frame, bedizened the Spanish stern, was shivered in splinters;
+while, most glorious of all, the golden flag of Spain, which the last
+moment flaunted above their heads, hung trailing in the water. The ship,
+her tiller shot away, and her helmsman killed, staggered helplessly a
+moment, and then fell up into the wind.
+
+"Well done, men of Devon!" shouted Amyas, as cheers rent the welkin.
+
+"She has struck," cried some, as the deafening hurrahs died away.
+
+"Not a bit," said Amyas. "Hold on, helmsman, and leave her to patch her
+tackle while we settle the galleys."
+
+On they shot merrily, and long ere the armada could get herself to
+rights again, were two good miles to windward, with the galleys sweeping
+down fast upon them.
+
+And two venomous-looking craft they were, as they shot through the
+short chopping sea upon some forty oars apiece, stretching their long
+sword-fish snouts over the water, as if snuffing for their prey. Behind
+this long snout, a strong square forecastle was crammed with soldiers,
+and the muzzles of cannon grinned out through portholes, not only in the
+sides of the forecastle, but forward in the line of the galley's course,
+thus enabling her to keep up a continual fire on a ship right ahead.
+
+The long low waist was packed full of the slaves, some five or six to
+each oar, and down the centre, between the two banks, the English could
+see the slave-drivers walking up and down a long gangway, whip in hand.
+A raised quarter-deck at the stern held more soldiers, the sunlight
+flashing merrily upon their armor and their gun-barrels; as they neared,
+the English could hear plainly the cracks of the whips, and the yells as
+of wild beasts which answered them; the roll and rattle of the oars,
+and the loud "Ha!" of the slaves which accompanied every stroke, and the
+oaths and curses of the drivers; while a sickening musky smell, as of
+a pack of kennelled hounds, came down the wind from off those dens of
+misery. No wonder if many a young heart shuddered as it faced, for the
+first time, the horrible reality of those floating hells, the cruelties
+whereof had rung so often in English ears, from the stories of their own
+countrymen, who had passed them, fought them, and now and then passed
+years of misery on board of them. Who knew but what there might be
+English among those sun-browned half-naked masses of panting wretches?
+
+"Must we fire upon the slaves?" asked more than one, as the thought
+crossed him.
+
+Amyas sighed.
+
+"Spare them all you can, in God's name; but if they try to run us down,
+rake them we must, and God forgive us."
+
+The two galleys came on abreast of each other, some forty yards apart.
+To outmanoeuvre their oars as he had done the ship's sails, Amyas knew
+was impossible. To run from them was to be caught between them and the
+ship.
+
+He made up his mind, as usual, to the desperate game.
+
+"Lay her head up in the wind, helmsman, and we will wait for them."
+
+They were now within musket-shot, and opened fire from their bow-guns;
+but, owing to the chopping sea, their aim was wild. Amyas, as usual,
+withheld his fire.
+
+The men stood at quarters with compressed lips, not knowing what was
+to come next. Amyas, towering motionless on the quarter-deck, gave his
+orders calmly and decisively. The men saw that he trusted himself, and
+trusted him accordingly.
+
+The Spaniards, seeing him wait for them, gave a shout of joy--was the
+Englishman mad? And the two galleys converged rapidly, intending to
+strike him full, one on each bow.
+
+They were within forty yards--another minute, and the shock would come.
+The Englishman's helm went up, his yards creaked round, and gathering
+way, he plunged upon the larboard galley.
+
+"A dozen gold nobles to him who brings down the steersman!" shouted
+Cary, who had his cue.
+
+And a flight of arrows from the forecastle rattled upon the galley's
+quarter-deck.
+
+Hit or not hit, the steersman lost his nerve, and shrank from the coming
+shock. The galley's helm went up to port, and her beak slid all but
+harmless along Amyas's bow; a long dull grind, and then loud crack on
+crack, as the Rose sawed slowly through the bank of oars from stem to
+stern, hurling the wretched slaves in heaps upon each other; and ere
+her mate on the other side could swing round, to strike him in his new
+position, Amyas's whole broadside, great and small, had been poured into
+her at pistol-shot, answered by a yell which rent their ears and hearts.
+
+"Spare the slaves! Fire at the soldiers!" cried Amyas; but the work was
+too hot for much discrimination; for the larboard galley, crippled
+but not undaunted, swung round across his stern, and hooked herself
+venomously on to him.
+
+It was a move more brave than wise; for it prevented the other galley
+from returning to the attack without exposing herself a second time to
+the English broadside; and a desperate attempt of the Spaniards to board
+at once through the stern-ports and up the quarter was met with such a
+demurrer of shot and steel, that they found themselves in three minutes
+again upon the galley's poop, accompanied, to their intense disgust, by
+Amyas Leigh and twenty English swords.
+
+Five minutes' hard cutting, hand to hand, and the poop was clear. The
+soldiers in the forecastle had been able to give them no assistance,
+open as they lay to the arrows and musketry from the Rose's lofty stern.
+Amyas rushed along the central gangway, shouting in Spanish, "Freedom
+to the slaves! death to the masters!" clambered into the forecastle,
+followed close by his swarm of wasps, and set them so good an example
+how to use their stings, that in three minutes more there was not a
+Spaniard on board who was not dead or dying.
+
+"Let the slaves free!" shouted he. "Throw us a hammer down, men. Hark!
+there's an English voice!"
+
+There is indeed. From amid the wreck of broken oars and writhing limbs,
+a voice is shrieking in broadest Devon to the master, who is looking
+over the side.
+
+"Oh, Robert Drew! Robert Drew! Come down, and take me out of hell!"
+
+"Who be you, in the name of the Lord!"
+
+"Don't you mind William Prust, that Captain Hawkins left behind in the
+Honduras, years and years agone? There's nine of us aboard, if your shot
+hasn't put 'em out of their misery. Come down, if you've a Christian
+heart, come down!"
+
+Utterly forgetful of all discipline, Drew leaps down hammer in hand, and
+the two old comrades rush into each other's arms.
+
+Why make a long story of what took but five minutes to do? The nine men
+(luckily none of them wounded) are freed, and helped on board, to be
+hugged and kissed by old comrades and young kinsmen; while the remaining
+slaves, furnished with a couple of hammers, are told to free themselves
+and help the English. The wretches answer by a shout; and Amyas, once
+more safe on board again, dashes after the other galley, which has
+been hovering out of reach of his guns: but there is no need to trouble
+himself about her; sickened with what she has got, she is struggling
+right up wind, leaning over to one side, and seemingly ready to sink.
+
+"Are there any English on board of her?" asks Amyas, loath to lose the
+chance of freeing a countryman.
+
+"Never a one, sir, thank God."
+
+So they set to work to repair damages; while the liberated slaves,
+having shifted some of the galley's oars, pull away after their comrade;
+and that with such a will, that in ten minutes they have caught her up,
+and careless of the Spaniard's fire, boarded her en masse, with yells
+as of a thousand wolves. There will be fearful vengeance taken on those
+tyrants, unless they play the man this day.
+
+And in the meanwhile half the crew are clothing, feeding, questioning,
+caressing those nine poor fellows thus snatched from living death;
+and Yeo, hearing the news, has rushed up on deck to welcome his old
+comrades, and--
+
+"Is Michael Heard, my cousin, here among you?"
+
+Yes, Michael Heard is there, white-headed rather from misery than age;
+and the embracings and questionings begin afresh.
+
+"Where is my wife, Salvation Yeo?"
+
+"With the Lord."
+
+"Amen!" says the old man, with a short shudder. "I thought so much; and
+my two boys?"
+
+"With the Lord."
+
+The old man catches Yeo by the arm.
+
+"How, then?" It is Yeo's turn to shudder now.
+
+"Killed in Panama, fighting the Spaniards; sailing with Mr. Oxenham; and
+'twas I led 'em into it. May God and you forgive me!"
+
+"They couldn't die better, cousin Yeo. Where's my girl Grace?"
+
+"Died in childbed."
+
+"Any childer?"
+
+"No."
+
+The old man covers his face with his hands for a while.
+
+"Well, I've been alone with the Lord these fifteen years, so I must not
+whine at being alone a while longer--'t won't be long."
+
+"Put this coat on your back, uncle," says some one.
+
+"No; no coats for me. Naked came I into the world, and naked I go out of
+it this day, if I have a chance. You'm better to go to your work, lads,
+or the big one will have the wind of you yet."
+
+"So she will," said Amyas, who has overheard; but so great is the
+curiosity on all hands, that he has some trouble in getting the men
+to quarters again; indeed, they only go on condition of parting among
+themselves with them the new-comers, each to tell his sad and strange
+story. How after Captain Hawkins, constrained by famine, had put them
+ashore, they wandered in misery till the Spaniards took them; how,
+instead of hanging them (as they at first intended), the Dons fed and
+clothed them, and allotted them as servants to various gentlemen about
+Mexico, where they throve, turned their hands (like true sailors) to all
+manner of trades, and made much money, and some of them were married,
+even to women of wealth; so that all went well, until the fatal year
+1574, when, "much against the minds of many of the Spaniards themselves,
+that cruel and bloody Inquisition was established for the first time in
+the Indies;" and how from that moment their lives were one long
+tragedy; how they were all imprisoned for a year and a half, not for
+proselytizing, but simply for not believing in transubstantiation;
+racked again and again, and at last adjudged to receive publicly, on
+Good Friday, 1575, some three hundred, some one hundred stripes, and to
+serve in the galleys for six or ten years each; while, as the crowning
+atrocity of the Moloch sacrifice, three of them were burnt alive in the
+market-place of Mexico; a story no less hideous than true, the details
+whereof whoso list may read in Hakluyt's third volume, as told by
+Philip Miles, one of that hapless crew; as well as the adventures of Job
+Hortop, a messmate of his, who, after being sent to Spain, and seeing
+two more of his companions burnt alive at Seville, was sentenced to
+row in the galleys ten years, and after that to go to the "everlasting
+prison remediless;" from which doom, after twenty-three years of
+slavery, he was delivered by the galleon Dudley, and came safely home to
+Redriff.
+
+The fate of Hortop and his comrades was, of course, still unknown to
+the rescued men; but the history even of their party was not likely to
+improve the good feeling of the crew toward the Spanish ship which was
+two miles to leeward of them, and which must be fought with, or fled
+from, before a quarter of an hour was past. So, kneeling down upon the
+deck, as many a brave crew in those days did in like case, they "gave
+God thanks devoutly for the favor they had found;" and then with one
+accord, at Jack's leading, sang one and all the Ninety-fourth Psalm:*
+
+     "Oh, Lord, thou dost revenge all wrong;
+       Vengeance belongs to thee," etc.
+
+     * The crew of the Tobie, cast away on the Barbary coast a
+     few years after, "began with heavy hearts to sing the
+     twelfth Psalm, 'Help, Lord, for good and godly men,' etc.
+     Howbeit, ere we had finished four verses, the waves of the
+     sea had stopped the breaths of most."
+
+And then again to quarters; for half the day's work, or more than half,
+still remained to be done; and hardly were the decks cleared afresh,
+and the damage repaired as best it could be, when she came ranging up to
+leeward, as closehauled as she could.
+
+She was, as I said, a long flush-decked ship of full five hundred tons,
+more than double the size, in fact, of the Rose, though not so lofty in
+proportion; and many a bold heart beat loud, and no shame to them, as
+she began firing away merrily, determined, as all well knew, to wipe out
+in English blood the disgrace of her late foil.
+
+"Never mind, my merry masters," said Amyas, "she has quantity and we
+quality."
+
+"That's true," said one, "for one honest man is worth two rogues."
+
+"And one culverin three of their footy little ordnance," said another.
+"So when you will, captain, and have at her."
+
+"Let her come abreast of us, and don't burn powder. We have the wind,
+and can do what we like with her. Serve the men out a horn of ale all
+round, steward, and all take your time."
+
+So they waited for five minutes more, and then set to work quietly,
+after the fashion of English mastiffs, though, like those mastiffs, they
+waxed right mad before three rounds were fired, and the white splinters
+(sight beloved) began to crackle and fly.
+
+Amyas, having, as he had said, the wind, and being able to go nearer it
+than the Spaniard, kept his place at easy point-blank range for his two
+eighteen-pounder culverins, which Yeo and his mate worked with terrible
+effect.
+
+"We are lacking her through and through every shot," said he. "Leave the
+small ordnance alone yet awhile, and we shall sink her without them."
+
+"Whing, whing," went the Spaniard's shot, like so many humming-tops,
+through the rigging far above their heads; for the ill-constructed
+ports of those days prevented the guns from hulling an enemy who was to
+windward, unless close alongside.
+
+"Blow, jolly breeze," cried one, "and lay the Don over all thou
+canst.--What the murrain is gone, aloft there?"
+
+Alas! a crack, a flap, a rattle; and blank dismay! An unlucky shot had
+cut the foremast (already wounded) in two, and all forward was a mass of
+dangling wreck.
+
+"Forward, and cut away the wreck!" said Amyas, unmoved. "Small arm men,
+be ready. He will be aboard of us in five minutes!"
+
+It was too true. The Rose, unmanageable from the loss of her head-sail,
+lay at the mercy of the Spaniard; and the archers and musqueteers had
+hardly time to range themselves to leeward, when the Madre Dolorosa's
+chains were grinding against the Rose's, and grapples tossed on board
+from stem to stern.
+
+"Don't cut them loose!" roared Amyas. "Let them stay and see the fun!
+Now, dogs of Devon, show your teeth, and hurrah for God and the queen!"
+
+And then began a fight most fierce and fell: the Spaniards, according to
+their fashion, attempting to board, the English, amid fierce shouts of
+"God and the queen!" "God and St. George for England!" sweeping them
+back by showers of arrows and musquet balls, thrusting them down with
+pikes, hurling grenades and stink-pots from the tops; while the swivels
+on both sides poured their grape, and bar, and chain, and the great
+main-deck guns, thundering muzzle to muzzle, made both ships quiver and
+recoil, as they smashed the round shot through and through each other.
+
+So they roared and flashed, fast clenched to each other in that devil's
+wedlock, under a cloud of smoke beneath the cloudless tropic sky; while
+all around, the dolphins gambolled, and the flying-fish shot on from
+swell to swell, and the rainbow-hued jellies opened and shut their cups
+of living crystal to the sun, as merrily as if man had never fallen, and
+hell had never broken loose on earth.
+
+So it raged for an hour or more, till all arms were weary, and all
+tongues clove to the mouth. And sick men, rotting with scurvy,
+scrambled up on deck, and fought with the strength of madness; and tiny
+powder-boys, handing up cartridges from the hold, laughed and cheered
+as the shots ran past their ears; and old Salvation Yeo, a text upon his
+lips, and a fury in his heart as of Joshua or Elijah in old time, worked
+on, calm and grim, but with the energy of a boy at play. And now and
+then an opening in the smoke showed the Spanish captain, in his suit
+of black steel armor, standing cool and proud, guiding and pointing,
+careless of the iron hail, but too lofty a gentleman to soil his glove
+with aught but a knightly sword-hilt: while Amyas and Will, after the
+fashion of the English gentlemen, had stripped themselves nearly as bare
+as their own sailors, and were cheering, thrusting, hewing, and hauling,
+here, there, and everywhere, like any common mariner, and filling them
+with a spirit of self-respect, fellow-feeling, and personal daring,
+which the discipline of the Spaniards, more perfect mechanically, but
+cold and tyrannous, and crushing spiritually, never could bestow. The
+black-plumed senor was obeyed; but the golden-locked Amyas was followed,
+and would have been followed through the jaws of hell.
+
+The Spaniards, ere five minutes had passed, poured en masse into the
+Rose's waist, but only to their destruction. Between the poop and
+forecastle (as was then the fashion) the upper-deck beams were left open
+and unplanked, with the exception of a narrow gangway on either side;
+and off that fatal ledge the boarders, thrust on by those behind, fell
+headlong between the beams to the main-deck below, to be slaughtered
+helpless in that pit of destruction, by the double fire from the
+bulkheads fore and aft; while the few who kept their footing on
+the gangway, after vain attempts to force the stockades on poop and
+forecastle, leaped overboard again amid a shower of shot and arrows.
+The fire of the English was as steady as it was quick; and though
+three-fourths of the crew had never smelt powder before, they proved
+well the truth of the old chronicler's saying (since proved again more
+gloriously than ever, at Alma, Balaklava, and Inkerman), that "the
+English never fight better than in their first battle."
+
+Thrice the Spaniards clambered on board, and thrice surged back before
+that deadly hail. The decks on both sides were very shambles; and Jack
+Brimblecombe, who had fought as long as his conscience would allow him,
+found, when he turned to a more clerical occupation, enough to do in
+carrying poor wretches to the surgeon, without giving that spiritual
+consolation which he longed to give, and they to receive. At last there
+was a lull in that wild storm. No shot was heard from the Spaniard's
+upper-deck.
+
+Amyas leaped into the mizzen rigging, and looked through the smoke. Dead
+men he could descry through the blinding veil, rolled in heaps, laid
+flat; dead men and dying: but no man upon his feet. The last volley had
+swept the deck clear; one by one had dropped below to escape that
+fiery shower: and alone at the helm, grinding his teeth with rage, his
+mustachios curling up to his very eyes, stood the Spanish captain.
+
+Now was the moment for a counter-stroke. Amyas shouted for the boarders,
+and in two minutes more he was over the side, and clutching at the
+Spaniard's mizzen rigging.
+
+What was this? The distance between him and the enemy's side was
+widening. Was she sheering off? Yes--and rising too, growing bodily
+higher every moment, as if by magic. Amyas looked up in astonishment and
+saw what it was. The Spaniard was heeling fast over to leeward away from
+him. Her masts were all sloping forward, swifter and swifter--the end
+was come, then!
+
+"Back! in God's name back, men! She is sinking by the head!" And with
+much ado some were dragged back, some leaped back--all but old Michael
+Heard.
+
+With hair and beard floating in the wind, the bronzed naked figure,
+like some weird old Indian fakir, still climbed on steadfastly up the
+mizzen-chains of the Spaniard, hatchet in hand.
+
+"Come back, Michael! Leap while you may!" shouted a dozen voices.
+Michael turned--
+
+"And what should I come back for, then, to go home where no one knoweth
+me? I'll die like an Englishman this day, or I'll know the rason why!"
+and turning, he sprang in over the bulwarks, as the huge ship rolled
+up more and more, like a dying whale, exposing all her long black
+hulk almost down to the keel, and one of her lower-deck guns, as if in
+defiance, exploded upright into the air, hurling the ball to the very
+heavens.
+
+In an instant it was answered from the Rose by a column of smoke, and
+the eighteen-pound ball crashed through the bottom of the defenceless
+Spaniard.
+
+"Who fired? Shame to fire on a sinking ship!"
+
+"Gunner Yeo, sir," shouted a voice up from the main-deck. "He's like a
+madman down here."
+
+"Tell him if he fires again, I'll put him in irons, if he were my own
+brother. Cut away the grapples aloft, men. Don't you see how she drags
+us over? Cut away, or we shall sink with her."
+
+They cut away, and the Rose, released from the strain, shook her
+feathers on the wave-crest like a freed sea-gull, while all men held
+their breaths.
+
+Suddenly the glorious creature righted herself, and rose again, as if in
+noble shame, for one last struggle with her doom. Her bows were deep in
+the water, but her after-deck still dry. Righted: but only for a moment,
+long enough to let her crew come pouring wildly up on deck, with cries
+and prayers, and rush aft to the poop, where, under the flag of Spain,
+stood the tall captain, his left hand on the standard-staff, his sword
+pointed in his right.
+
+"Back, men!" they heard him cry, "and die like valiant mariners."
+
+Some of them ran to the bulwarks, and shouted "Mercy! We surrender!" and
+the English broke into a cheer and called to them to run her alongside.
+
+"Silence!" shouted Amyas. "I take no surrender from mutineers. Senor,"
+cried he to the captain, springing into the rigging and taking off his
+hat, "for the love of God and these men, strike! and surrender a buena
+querra."
+
+The Spaniard lifted his hat and bowed courteously, and answered,
+"Impossible, senor. No querra is good which stains my honor."
+
+"God have mercy on you, then!"
+
+"Amen!" said the Spaniard, crossing himself.
+
+She gave one awful lounge forward, and dived under the coming swell,
+hurling her crew into the eddies. Nothing but the point of her poop
+remained, and there stood the stern and steadfast Don, cap-a-pie in his
+glistening black armor, immovable as a man of iron, while over him the
+flag, which claimed the empire of both worlds, flaunted its gold aloft
+and upwards in the glare of the tropic noon.
+
+"He shall not carry that flag to the devil with him; I will have it
+yet, if I die for it!" said Will Cary, and rushed to the side to leap
+overboard, but Amyas stopped him.
+
+"Let him die as he has lived, with honor."
+
+A wild figure sprang out of the mass of sailors who struggled and
+shrieked amid the foam, and rushed upward at the Spaniard. It was
+Michael Heard. The Don, who stood above him, plunged his sword into the
+old man's body: but the hatchet gleamed, nevertheless: down went the
+blade through headpiece and through head; and as Heard sprang onward,
+bleeding, but alive, the steel-clad corpse rattled down the deck into
+the surge. Two more strokes, struck with the fury of a dying man, and
+the standard-staff was hewn through. Old Michael collected all his
+strength, hurled the flag far from the sinking ship, and then stood
+erect one moment and shouted, "God save Queen Bess!" and the English
+answered with a "Hurrah!" which rent the welkin.
+
+Another moment and the gulf had swallowed his victim, and the poop, and
+him; and nothing remained of the Madre Dolorosa but a few floating spars
+and struggling wretches, while a great awe fell upon all men, and a
+solemn silence, broken only by the cry
+
+     "Of some strong swimmer in his agony."
+
+And then, suddenly collecting themselves, as men awakened from a dream,
+half-a-dozen desperate gallants, reckless of sharks and eddies, leaped
+overboard, swam towards the flag, and towed it alongside in triumph.
+
+"Ah!" said Salvation Yeo, as he helped the trophy up over the side; "ah!
+it was not for nothing that we found poor Michael! He was always a good
+comrade--nigh as good a one as William Penberthy of Marazion, whom the
+Lord grant I meet in bliss! And now, then, my masters, shall we inshore
+again and burn La Guayra?"
+
+"Art thou never glutted with Spanish blood, thou old wolf?" asked Will
+Cary.
+
+"Never, sir," answered Yeo.
+
+"To St. Jago be it," said Amyas, "if we can get there; but--God help
+us!"
+
+And he looked round sadly enough; while no one needed that he should
+finish his sentence, or explain his "but."
+
+The foremast was gone, the main-yard sprung, the rigging hanging in
+elf-locks, the hull shot through and through in twenty places, the deck
+strewn with the bodies of nine good men, beside sixteen wounded down
+below; while the pitiless sun, right above their heads, poured down a
+flood of fire upon a sea of glass.
+
+And it would have been well if faintness and weariness had been all that
+was the matter; but now that the excitement was over, the collapse came;
+and the men sat down listlessly and sulkily by twos and threes upon the
+deck, starting and wincing when they heard some poor fellow below cry
+out under the surgeon's knife; or murmuring to each other that all was
+lost. Drew tried in vain to rouse them, telling them that all depended
+on rigging a jury-mast forward as soon as possible. They answered only
+by growls; and at last broke into open reproaches. Even Will Cary's
+volatile nature, which had kept him up during the fight, gave way, when
+Yeo and the carpenter came aft, and told Amyas in a low voice--
+
+"We are hit somewhere forward, below the water-line, sir. She leaks a
+terrible deal, and the Lord will not vouchsafe to us to lay our hands on
+the place, for all our searching."
+
+"What are we to do now, Amyas, in the devil's name?" asked Cary,
+peevishly.
+
+"What are we to do, in God's name, rather," answered Amyas, in a low
+voice. "Will, Will, what did God make you a gentleman for, but to know
+better than those poor fickle fellows forward, who blow hot and cold at
+every change of weather!"
+
+"I wish you'd come forward and speak to them, sir," said Yeo, who had
+overheard the last words, "or we shall get naught done."
+
+Amyas went forward instantly.
+
+"Now then, my brave lads, what's the matter here, that you are all
+sitting on your tails like monkeys?"
+
+"Ugh!" grunts one. "Don't you think our day's work has been long enough
+yet, captain?"
+
+"You don't want us to go in to La Guayra again, sir? There are enough of
+us thrown away already, I reckon, about that wench there."
+
+"Best sit here, and sink quietly. There's no getting home again, that's
+plain."
+
+"Why were we brought out here to be killed?"
+
+"For shame, men!" cries Yeo; "you're no better than a set of
+stiff-necked Hebrew Jews, murmuring against Moses the very minute after
+the Lord has delivered you from the Egyptians."
+
+Now I do not wish to set Amyas up as a perfect man; for he had his
+faults, like every one else; nor as better, thank God, than many and
+many a brave and virtuous captain in her majesty's service at this very
+day: but certainly he behaved admirably under that trial. Drake had
+trained him, as he trained many another excellent officer, to be as
+stout in discipline, and as dogged of purpose, as he himself was: but
+he had trained him also to feel with and for his men, to make allowances
+for them, and to keep his temper with them, as he did this day. True, he
+had seen Drake in a rage; he had seen him hang one man for a mutiny
+(and that man his dearest friend), and threaten to hang thirty more;
+but Amyas remembered well that that explosion took place when having, as
+Drake said publicly himself, "taken in hand that I know not in the world
+how to go through with; it passeth my capacity; it hath even bereaved
+me of my wits to think of it," . . . and having "now set together by
+the ears three mighty princes, her majesty and the kings of Spain
+and Portugal," he found his whole voyage ready to come to naught, "by
+mutinies and discords, controversy between the sailors and gentlemen,
+and stomaching between the gentlemen and sailors." "But, my masters"
+(quoth the self-trained hero, and Amyas never forgot his words), "I must
+have it left; for I must have the gentlemen to haul and draw with the
+mariner, and the mariner with the gentlemen. I would like to know him
+that would refuse to set his hand to a rope!"
+
+And now Amyas's conscience smote him (and his simple and pious soul took
+the loss of his brother as God's verdict on his conduct), because he had
+set his own private affection, even his own private revenge, before the
+safety of his ship's company, and the good of his country.
+
+"Ah," said he to himself, as he listened to his men's reproaches, "if
+I had been thinking, like a loyal soldier, of serving my queen, and
+crippling the Spaniard, I should have taken that great bark three days
+ago, and in it the very man I sought!"
+
+So "choking down his old man," as Yeo used to say, he made answer
+cheerfully--
+
+"Pooh! pooh! brave lads! For shame, for shame! You were lions
+half-an-hour ago; you are not surely turned sheep already! Why, but
+yesterday evening you were grumbling because I would not run in and
+fight those three ships under the batteries of La Guayra, and now
+you think it too much to have fought them fairly out at sea? What has
+happened but the chances of war, which might have happened anywhere?
+Nothing venture, nothing win; and nobody goes bird-nesting without a
+fall at times. If any one wants to be safe in this life, he'd best stay
+at home and keep his bed; though even there, who knows but the roof
+might fall through on him?"
+
+"Ah, it's all very well for you, captain," said some grumbling younker,
+with a vague notion that Amyas must be better off than he, because he
+was a gentleman. Amyas's blood rose.
+
+"Yes, sirrah! it is very well for me, as long as God is with me: but He
+is with every man in this ship, I would have you to know, as much as
+He is with me. Do you fancy that I have nothing to lose? I who have
+adventured in this voyage all I am worth, and more; who, if I fail, must
+return to beggary and scorn? And if I have ventured rashly, sinfully,
+if you will, the lives of any of you in my own private quarrel, am I not
+punished? Have I not lost--?"
+
+His voice trembled and stopped there, but he recovered himself in a
+moment.
+
+"Pish! I can't stand here chattering. Carpenter! an axe! and help me to
+cast these spars loose. Get out of my way, there! lumbering the scuppers
+up like so many moulting fowls! Here, all old friends, lend a hand!
+Pelican's men, stand by your captain! Did we sail round the world for
+nothing?"
+
+This last appeal struck home, and up leaped half-a-dozen of the old
+Pelicans, and set to work at his side manfully to rig the jury-mast.
+
+"Come along!" cried Cary to the malcontents; "we're raw longshore
+fellows, but we won't be outdone by any old sea-dog of them all." And
+setting to work himself, he was soon followed by one and another, till
+order and work went on well enough.
+
+"And where are we going, when the mast's up?" shouted some saucy hand
+from behind.
+
+"Where you daren't follow us alone by yourself, so you had better keep
+us company," replied Yeo.
+
+"I'll tell you where we are going, lads," said Amyas, rising from his
+work. "Like it or leave it as you will, I have no secrets from my crew.
+We are going inshore there to find a harbor, and careen the ship."
+
+There was a start and a murmur.
+
+"Inshore? Into the Spaniards' mouths?"
+
+"All in the Inquisition in a week's time."
+
+"Better stay here, and be drowned."
+
+"You're right in that last," shouts Cary. "That's the right death for
+blind puppies. Look you! I don't know in the least where we are, and I
+hardly know stem from stern aboard ship; and the captain may be right or
+wrong--that's nothing to me; but this I know, that I am a soldier, and
+will obey orders; and where he goes, I go; and whosoever hinders me must
+walk up my sword to do it."
+
+Amyas pressed Cary's hand, and then--
+
+"And here's my broadside next, men. I'll go nowhere, and do nothing
+without the advice of Salvation Yeo and Robert Drew; and if any man in
+the ship knows better than these two, let him up, and we'll give him a
+hearing. Eh, Pelicans?"
+
+There was a grunt of approbation from the Pelicans; and Amyas returned
+to the charge.
+
+"We have five shot between wind and water, and one somewhere below. Can
+we face a gale of wind in that state, or can we not?"
+
+Silence.
+
+"Can we get home with a leak in our bottom?"
+
+Silence.
+
+"Then what can we do but run inshore, and take our chance? Speak! It's
+a coward's trick to do nothing because what we must do is not pleasant.
+Will you be like children, that would sooner die than take nasty physic,
+or will you not?"
+
+Silence still.
+
+"Come along now! Here's the wind again round with the sun, and up to the
+north-west. In with her!"
+
+Sulkily enough, but unable to deny the necessity, the men set to work,
+and the vessel's head was put toward the land; but when she began to
+slip through the water, the leak increased so fast, that they were kept
+hard at work at the pumps for the rest of the afternoon.
+
+The current had by this time brought them abreast of the bay of
+Higuerote; and, luckily for them, safe out of the short heavy swell
+which it causes round Cape Codera. Looking inland, they had now to the
+south-west that noble headland, backed by the Caracas Mountains, range
+on range, up to the Silla and the Neguater; while, right ahead of them
+to the south, the shore sank suddenly into a low line of mangrove-wood,
+backed by primaeval forest. As they ran inward, all eyes were strained
+greedily to find some opening in the mangrove belt; but none was to
+be seen for some time. The lead was kept going; and every fresh heave
+announced shallower water.
+
+"We shall have very shoal work off those mangroves, Yeo," said Amyas; "I
+doubt whether we shall do aught now, unless we find a river's mouth."
+
+"If the Lord thinks a river good for us, sir, He'll show us one." So on
+they went, keeping a south-east course, and at last an opening in the
+mangrove belt was hailed with a cheer from the older hands, though
+the majority shrugged their shoulders, as men going open-eyed to
+destruction.
+
+Off the mouth they sent in Drew and Cary with a boat, and watched
+anxiously for an hour. The boat returned with a good report of two
+fathoms of water over the bar, impenetrable forests for two miles up,
+the river sixty yards broad, and no sign of man. The river's banks were
+soft and sloping mud, fit for careening.
+
+"Safe quarters, sir," said Yeo, privately, "as far as Spaniards go. I
+hope in God it may be as safe from calentures and fevers."
+
+"Beggars must not be choosers," said Amyas. So in they went.
+
+They towed the ship up about half-a-mile to a point where she could not
+be seen from the seaward; and there moored her to the mangrove-stems.
+Amyas ordered a boat out, and went up the river himself to reconnoitre.
+He rowed some three miles, till the river narrowed suddenly, and was all
+but covered in by the interlacing boughs of mighty trees. There was no
+sign that man had been there since the making of the world.
+
+He dropped down the stream again, thoughtfully and sadly. How many years
+ago was it that he passed this river's mouth? Three days. And yet how
+much had passed in them! Don Guzman found and lost--Rose found and
+lost--a great victory gained, and yet lost--perhaps his ship lost--above
+all, his brother lost.
+
+Lost! O God, how should he find his brother?
+
+Some strange bird out of the woods made mournful answer--"Never, never,
+never!"
+
+How should he face his mother?
+
+"Never, never, never!" wailed the bird again; and Amyas smiled bitterly,
+and said "Never!" likewise.
+
+The night mist began to steam and wreathe upon the foul beer-colored
+stream. The loathy floor of liquid mud lay bare beneath the mangrove
+forest. Upon the endless web of interarching roots great purple crabs
+were crawling up and down. They would have supped with pleasure upon
+Amyas's corpse; perhaps they might sup on him after all; for a heavy
+sickening graveyard smell made his heart sink within him, and his
+stomach heave; and his weary body, and more weary soul, gave themselves
+up helplessly to the depressing influence of that doleful place.
+The black bank of dingy leathern leaves above his head, the endless
+labyrinth of stems and withes (for every bough had lowered its own
+living cord, to take fresh hold of the foul soil below); the web of
+roots, which stretched away inland till it was lost in the shades of
+evening--all seemed one horrid complicated trap for him and his; and
+even where, here and there, he passed the mouth of a lagoon, there was
+no opening, no relief--nothing but the dark ring of mangroves, and here
+and there an isolated group of large and small, parents and children,
+breeding and spreading, as if in hideous haste to choke out air and sky.
+Wailing sadly, sad-colored mangrove-hens ran off across the mud into the
+dreary dark. The hoarse night-raven, hid among the roots, startled the
+voyagers with a sudden shout, and then all was again silent as a grave.
+The loathly alligators, lounging in the slime, lifted their horny
+eyelids lazily, and leered upon him as he passed with stupid savageness.
+Lines of tall herons stood dimly in the growing gloom, like white
+fantastic ghosts, watching the passage of the doomed boat. All was foul,
+sullen, weird as witches' dream. If Amyas had seen a crew of skeletons
+glide down the stream behind him, with Satan standing at the helm, he
+would have scarcely been surprised. What fitter craft could haunt that
+Stygian flood?
+
+That night every man of the boat's crew, save Amyas, was down with
+raging fever; before ten the next morning, five more men were taken, and
+others sickening fast.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION UNDER THE TREE AT HIGUEROTE
+
+     "Follow thee?  Follow thee?  Wha wad na follow thee?  Lang hast
+     thou looed and trusted us fairly."
+
+Amyas would have certainly taken the yellow fever, but for one reason,
+which he himself gave to Cary. He had no time to be sick while his men
+were sick; a valid and sufficient reason (as many a noble soul in
+the Crimea has known too well), as long as the excitement of work is
+present, but too apt to fail the hero, and to let him sink into the pit
+which he has so often over-leapt, the moment that his work is done.
+
+He called a council of war, or rather a sanitary commission, the
+next morning; for he was fairly at his wits' end. The men were
+panic-stricken, ready to mutiny: Amyas told them that he could not see
+any possible good which could accrue to them by killing him, or--(for
+there were two sides to every question)--being killed by him; and then
+went below to consult. The doctor talked mere science, or nonscience,
+about humors, complexions, and animal spirits. Jack Brimblecombe, mere
+pulpit, about its being the visitation of God. Cary, mere despair,
+though he jested over it with a smile. Yeo, mere stoic fatalism, though
+he quoted Scripture to back the same. Drew, the master, had nothing to
+say. His "business was to sail the ship, and not to cure calentures."
+
+Whereon Amyas clutched his locks, according to custom; and at last broke
+forth--"Doctor! a fig for your humors and complexions! Can you cure
+a man's humors, or change his complexion? Can an Ethiopian change his
+skin, or a leopard his spots? Don't shove off your ignorance on God,
+sir. I ask you what's the reason of this sickness, and you don't know.
+Jack Brimblecombe, don't talk to me about God's visitation; this looks
+much more like the devil's visitation, to my mind. We are doing God's
+work, Sir John, and He is not likely to hinder us. So down with the
+devil, say I. Cary, laughing killed the cat, but it won't cure a
+Christian. Yeo, when an angel tells me that it's God's will that we
+should all die like dogs in a ditch, I'll call this God's will; but not
+before. Drew, you say your business is to sail the ship; then sail her
+out of this infernal poison-trap this very morning, if you can, which
+you can't. The mischief's in the air, and nowhere else. I felt it run
+through me coming down last night, and smelt it like any sewer: and
+if it was not in the air, why was my boat's crew taken first, tell me
+that?"
+
+There was no answer.
+
+"Then I'll tell you why they were taken first: because the mist, when
+we came through it, only rose five or six feet above the stream, and we
+were in it, while you on board were above it. And those that were taken
+on board this morning, every one of them, slept on the main-deck, and
+every one of them, too, was in fear of the fever, whereby I judge two
+things,--Keep as high as you can, and fear nothing but God, and we're
+all safe yet."
+
+"But the fog was up to our round-tops at sunrise this morning," said
+Cary.
+
+"I know it: but we who were on the half-deck were not in it so long as
+those below, and that may have made the difference, let alone our having
+free air. Beside, I suspect the heat in the evening draws the poison out
+more, and that when it gets cold toward morning, the venom of it goes
+off somehow."
+
+How it went off Amyas could not tell (right in his facts as he was), for
+nobody on earth knew I suppose, at that day; and it was not till
+nearly two centuries of fatal experience that the settlers in America
+discovered the simple laws of these epidemics which now every child
+knows, or ought to know. But common sense was on his side; and Yeo rose
+and spoke--
+
+"As I have said before, many a time, the Lord has sent us a very young
+Daniel for judge. I remember now to have heard the Spaniards say, how
+these calentures lay always in the low ground, and never came more than
+a few hundred feet above the sea."
+
+"Let us go up those few hundred feet, then."
+
+Every man looked at Amyas, and then at his neighbor.
+
+"Gentlemen, 'Look the devil straight in the face, if you would hit him
+in the right place.' We cannot get the ship to sea as she is; and if we
+could, we cannot go home empty-handed; and we surely cannot stay here to
+die of fever.--We must leave the ship and go inland."
+
+"Inland?" answered every voice but Yeo's.
+
+"Up those hundred feet which Yeo talks of. Up to the mountains; stockade
+a camp, and get our sick and provisions thither."
+
+"And what next?"
+
+"And when we are recruited, march over the mountains, and surprise St.
+Jago de Leon."
+
+Cary swore a great oath. "Amyas! you are a daring fellow!"
+
+"Not a bit. It's the plain path of prudence."
+
+"So it is, sir," said old Yeo, "and I follow you in it."
+
+"And so do I," squeaked Jack Brimblecombe.
+
+"Nay, then, Jack, thou shalt not outrun me. So I say yes too," quoth
+Cary.
+
+"Mr. Drew?"
+
+"At your service, sir, to live or die. I know naught about stockading;
+but Sir Francis would have given the same counsel, I verily believe, if
+he had been in your place."
+
+"Then tell the men that we start in an hour's time. Win over the
+Pelicans, Yeo and Drew; and the rest must follow, like sheep over a
+hedge."
+
+The Pelicans, and the liberated galley-slaves, joined the project at
+once; but the rest gave Amyas a stormy hour. The great question was,
+where were the hills? In that dense mangrove thicket they could not see
+fifty yards before them.
+
+"The hills are not three miles to the south-west of you at this moment,"
+said Amyas. "I marked every shoulder of them as we ran in."
+
+"I suppose you meant to take us there?"
+
+The question set a light to a train--and angry suspicions were blazing
+up one after another, but Amyas silenced them with a countermine.
+
+"Fools! if I had not wit enow to look ahead a little farther than you
+do, where would you be? Are you mad as well as reckless, to rise against
+your own captain because he has two strings to his bow? Go my way, I
+say, or, as I live, I'll blow up the ship and every soul on board, and
+save you the pain of rotting here by inches."
+
+The men knew that Amyas never said what he did not intend to do; not
+that Amyas intended to do this, because he knew that the threat would be
+enough. So they, agreed to go; and were reassured by seeing that the old
+Pelican's men turned to the work heartily and cheerfully.
+
+There is no use keeping the reader for five or six weary hours, under a
+broiling (or rather stewing) sun, stumbling over mangrove roots, hewing
+his way through thorny thickets, dragging sick men and provisions up
+mountain steeps, amid disappointment, fatigue, murmurs, curses, snakes,
+mosquitoes, false alarms of Spaniards, and every misery, save cold,
+which flesh is heir to. Suffice it that by sunset that evening they had
+gained a level spot, a full thousand feet above the sea, backed by an
+inaccessible cliff which formed the upper shoulder of a mighty mountain,
+defended below by steep wooded slopes, and needing but the felling of a
+few trees to make it impregnable.
+
+Amyas settled the sick under the arched roots of an enormous cottonwood
+tree, and made a second journey to the ship, to bring up hammocks and
+blankets for them; while Yeo's wisdom and courage were of inestimable
+value. He, as pioneer, had found the little brook up which they forced
+their way; he had encouraged them to climb the cliffs over which it
+fell, arguing rightly that on its course they were sure to find some
+ground fit for encampment within the reach of water; he had supported
+Amyas, when again and again the weary crew entreated to be dragged no
+farther, and had gone back again a dozen times to cheer them upward;
+while Cary, who brought up the rear, bullied and cheered on the
+stragglers who sat down and refused to move, drove back at the sword's
+point more than one who was beating a retreat, carried their burdens for
+them, sang them songs on the halt; in all things approving himself the
+gallant and hopeful soul which he had always been: till Amyas, beside
+himself with joy at finding that the two men on whom he had counted
+most were utterly worthy of his trust, went so far as to whisper to them
+both, in confidence, that very night--
+
+"Cortez burnt his ships when he landed. Why should not we?"
+
+Yeo leapt upright; and then sat down again, and whispered--
+
+"Do you say that, captain? 'Tis from above, then, that's certain; for
+it's been hanging on my mind too all day."
+
+"There's no hurry," quoth Amyas; "we must clear her out first, you
+know," while Cary sat silent and musing. Amyas had evidently more
+schemes in his head than he chose to tell.
+
+The men were too tired that evening to do much, but ere the sun rose
+next morning Amyas had them hard at work fortifying their position. It
+was, as I said, strong enough by nature; for though it was commanded by
+high cliffs on three sides, yet there was no chance of an enemy coming
+over the enormous mountain-range behind them, and still less chance
+that, if he came, he would discover them through the dense mass of
+trees which crowned the cliff, and clothed the hills for a thousand feet
+above. The attack, if it took place, would come from below; and against
+that Amyas guarded by felling the smaller trees, and laying them with
+their boughs outward over the crest of the slope, thus forming an abatis
+(as every one who has shot in thick cover knows to his cost) warranted
+to bring up in two steps, horse, dog, or man. The trunks were sawn into
+logs, laid lengthwise, and steadied by stakes and mould; and three or
+four hours' hard work finished a stockade which would defy anything
+but artillery. The work done, Amyas scrambled up into the boughs of the
+enormous ceiba-tree, and there sat inspecting his own handiwork, looking
+out far and wide over the forest-covered plains and the blue sea beyond,
+and thinking, in his simple straightforward way, of what was to be done
+next.
+
+To stay there long was impossible; to avenge himself upon La Guayra was
+impossible; to go until he had found out whether Frank was alive or dead
+seemed at first equally impossible. But were Brimblecombe, Cary, and
+those eighty men to be sacrificed a second time to his private interest?
+Amyas wept with rage, and then wept again with earnest, honest prayer,
+before he could make up his mind. But he made it up. There were a
+hundred chances to one that Frank was dead; and if not, he was equally
+past their help; for he was--Amyas knew that too well--by this time
+in the hands of the Inquisition. Who could lift him from that pit? Not
+Amyas, at least! And crying aloud in his agony, "God help him! for I
+cannot!" Amyas made up his mind to move. But whither? Many an hour he
+thought and thought alone, there in his airy nest; and at last he went
+down, calm and cheerful, and drew Cary and Yeo aside. They could not,
+he said, refit the ship without dying of fever during the process; an
+assertion which neither of his hearers was bold enough to deny. Even
+if they refitted her, they would be pretty certain to have to fight the
+Spaniards again; for it was impossible to doubt the Indian's story, that
+they had been forewarned of the Rose's coming, or to doubt, either, that
+Eustace had been the traitor.
+
+"Let us try St. Jago, then; sack it, come down on La Guayra in the rear,
+take a ship there, and so get home."
+
+"Nay, Will. If they have strengthened themselves against us at La
+Guayra, where they had little to lose, surely they have done so at St.
+Jago, where they have much. I hear the town is large, though new; and
+besides, how can we get over these mountains without a guide?"
+
+"Or with one?" said Cary, with a sigh, looking up at the vast walls of
+wood and rock which rose range on range for miles. "But it is strange to
+find you, at least, throwing cold water on a daring plot."
+
+"What if I had a still more daring one? Did you ever hear of the golden
+city of Manoa?"
+
+Yeo laughed a grim but joyful laugh. "I have, sir; and so have the old
+hands from the Pelican and the Jesus of Lubec, I doubt not."
+
+"So much the better;" and Amyas began to tell Cary all which he had
+learned from the Spaniard, while Yeo capped every word thereof with
+rumors and traditions of his own gathering. Cary sat half aghast as
+the huge phantasmagoria unfolded itself before his dazzled eyes; and at
+last--
+
+"So that was why you wanted to burn the ship! Well, after all, nobody
+needs me at home, and one less at table won't be missed. So you want to
+play Cortez, eh?"
+
+"We shall never need to play Cortez (who was not such a bad fellow after
+all, Will), because we shall have no such cannibal fiends' tyranny to
+rid the earth of, as he had. And I trust we shall fear God enough not to
+play Pizarro."
+
+So the conversation dropped for the time, but none of them forgot it.
+
+In that mountain-nook the party spent some ten days and more. Several of
+the sick men died, some from the fever superadded to their wounds;
+some, probably, from having been bled by the surgeon; the others mended
+steadily, by the help of certain herbs which Yeo administered, much
+to the disgust of the doctor, who, of course, wanted to bleed the poor
+fellows all round, and was all but mutinous when Amyas stayed his hand.
+In the meanwhile, by dint of daily trips to the ship, provisions
+were plentiful enough,--beside the raccoons, monkeys, and other small
+animals, which Yeo and the veterans of Hawkins's crew knew how to catch,
+and the fruit and vegetables; above all, the delicious mountain cabbage
+of the Areca palm, and the fresh milk of the cow-tree, which they
+brought in daily, paying well thereby for the hospitality they received.
+
+All day long a careful watch was kept among the branches of the mighty
+ceiba-tree. And what a tree that was! The hugest English oak would have
+seemed a stunted bush beside it. Borne up on roots, or rather walls,
+of twisted board, some twelve feet high, between which the whole
+crew, their ammunitions, and provisions, were housed roomily, rose
+the enormous trunk full forty feet in girth, towering like some tall
+lighthouse, smooth for a hundred feet, then crowned with boughs, each of
+which was a stately tree, whose topmost twigs were full two hundred
+and fifty feet from the ground. And yet it was easy for the sailors to
+ascend; so many natural ropes had kind Nature lowered for their use, in
+the smooth lianes which hung to the very earth, often without a knot or
+leaf. Once in the tree, you were within a new world, suspended between
+heaven and earth, and as Cary said, no wonder if, like Jack when he
+climbed the magic bean-stalk, you had found a castle, a giant, and a few
+acres of well-stocked park, packed away somewhere amid that labyrinth of
+timber. Flower-gardens at least were there in plenty; for every limb was
+covered with pendent cactuses, gorgeous orchises, and wild pines; and
+while one-half the tree was clothed in rich foliage, the other half,
+utterly leafless, bore on every twig brilliant yellow flowers, around
+which humming-birds whirred all day long. Parrots peeped in and out of
+every cranny, while, within the airy woodland, brilliant lizards basked
+like living gems upon the bark, gaudy finches flitted and chirruped,
+butterflies of every size and color hovered over the topmost twigs,
+innumerable insects hummed from morn till eve; and when the sun went
+down, tree-toads came out to snore and croak till dawn. There was more
+life round that one tree than in a whole square mile of English soil.
+
+And Amyas, as he lounged among the branches, felt at moments as if he
+would be content to stay there forever, and feed his eyes and ears
+with all its wonders--and then started sighing from his dream, as he
+recollected that a few days must bring the foe upon them, and force
+him to decide upon some scheme at which the bravest heart might falter
+without shame. So there he sat (for he often took the scout's place
+himself), looking out over the fantastic tropic forest at his feet,
+and the flat mangrove-swamps below, and the white sheet of foam-flecked
+blue; and yet no sail appeared; and the men, as their fear of fever
+subsided, began to ask when they would go down and refit the ship, and
+Amyas put them off as best he could, till one noon he saw slipping
+along the shore from the westward, a large ship under easy sail, and
+recognized in her, or thought he did so, the ship which they had passed
+upon their way.
+
+If it was she, she must have run past them to La Guayra in the night,
+and have now returned, perhaps, to search for them along the coast.
+
+She crept along slowly. He was in hopes that she might pass the river's
+mouth: but no. She lay-to close to the shore; and, after a while, Amyas
+saw two boats pull in from her, and vanish behind the mangroves.
+
+Sliding down a liane, he told what he had seen. The men, tired of
+inactivity, received the news with a shout of joy, and set to work to
+make all ready for their guests. Four brass swivels, which they had
+brought up, were mounted, fixed in logs, so as to command the path; the
+musketeers and archers clustered round them with their tackle ready, and
+half-a-dozen good marksmen volunteered into the cotton-tree with their
+arquebuses, as a post whence "a man might have very pretty shooting."
+Prayers followed as a matter of course, and dinner as a matter of
+course also; but two weary hours passed before there was any sign of the
+Spaniards.
+
+Presently a wreath of white smoke curled up from the swamp, and then the
+report of a caliver. Then, amid the growls of the English, the Spanish
+flag ran up above the trees, and floated--horrible to behold--at the
+mast-head of the Rose. They were signalling the ship for more hands;
+and, in effect, a third boat soon pushed off and vanished into the
+forest.
+
+Another hour, during which the men had thoroughly lost their temper, but
+not their hearts, by waiting; and talked so loud, and strode up and down
+so wildly, that Amyas had to warn them that there was no need to betray
+themselves; that the Spaniards might not find them after all; that they
+might pass the stockade close without seeing it; that, unless they hit
+off the track at once, they would probably return to their ship for the
+present; and exacted a promise from them that they would be perfectly
+silent till he gave the word to fire.
+
+Which wise commands had scarcely passed his lips, when, in the path
+below, glanced the headpiece of a Spanish soldier, and then another and
+another.
+
+"Fools!" whispered Amyas to Cary; "they are coming up in single file,
+rushing on their own death. Lie close, men!"
+
+The path was so narrow that two could seldom come up abreast, and so
+steep that the enemy had much ado to struggle and stumble upwards. The
+men seemed half unwilling to proceed, and hung back more than once;
+but Amyas could hear an authoritative voice behind, and presently there
+emerged to the front, sword in hand, a figure at which Amyas and Cary
+both started.
+
+"Is it he?"
+
+"Surely I know those legs among a thousand, though they are in armor."
+
+"It is my turn for him, now, Cary, remember! Silence, silence, men!"
+
+The Spaniards seemed to feel that they were leading a forlorn hope. Don
+Guzman (for there was little doubt that it was he) had much ado to get
+them on at all.
+
+"The fellows have heard how gently we handled the Guayra squadron,"
+whispers Cary, "and have no wish to become fellow-martyrs with the
+captain of the Madre Dolorosa."
+
+At last the Spaniards get up the steep slope to within forty yards of
+the stockade, and pause, suspecting a trap, and puzzled by the complete
+silence. Amyas leaps on the top of it, a white flag in his hand; but his
+heart beats so fiercely at the sight of that hated figure, that he can
+hardly get out the words--
+
+"Don Guzman, the quarrel is between you and me, not between your men and
+mine. I would have sent in a challenge to you at La Guayra, but you were
+away; I challenge you now to single combat."
+
+"Lutheran dog, I have a halter for you, but no sword! As you served us
+at Smerwick, we will serve you now. Pirate and ravisher, you and yours
+shall share Oxenham's fate, as you have copied his crimes, and learn
+what it is to set foot unbidden on the dominions of the king of Spain."
+
+"The devil take you and the king of Spain together!" shouts Amyas,
+laughing loudly. "This ground belongs to him no more than it does to
+me, but to the Queen Elizabeth, in whose name I have taken as lawful
+possession of it as you ever did of Caracas. Fire, men! and God defend
+the right!"
+
+Both parties obeyed the order; Amyas dropped down behind the stockade
+in time to let a caliver bullet whistle over his head; and the Spaniards
+recoiled as the narrow face of the stockade burst into one blaze of
+musketry and swivels, raking their long array from front to rear.
+
+The front ranks fell over each other in heaps; the rear ones turned and
+ran; overtaken, nevertheless, by the English bullets and arrows, which
+tumbled them headlong down the steep path.
+
+"Out, men, and charge them. See! the Don is running like the rest!" And
+scrambling over the abattis, Amyas and about thirty followed them fast;
+for he had hope of learning from some prisoner his brother's fate.
+
+Amyas was unjust in his last words. Don Guzman, as if by miracle, had
+been only slightly wounded; and seeing his men run, had rushed back and
+tried to rally them, but was borne away by the fugitives.
+
+However, the Spaniards were out of sight among the thick bushes before
+the English could overtake them; and Amyas, afraid lest they should
+rally and surround his small party, withdrew sorely against his will,
+and found in the pathway fourteen Spaniards, but all dead. For one of
+the wounded, with more courage than wisdom, had fired on the English
+as he lay; and Amyas's men, whose blood was maddened both by their
+desperate situation, and the frightful stories of the rescued
+galley-slaves, had killed them all before their captain could stop them.
+
+"Are you mad?" cries Amyas, as he strikes up one fellow's sword. "Will
+you kill an Indian?"
+
+And he drags out of the bushes an Indian lad of sixteen, who, slightly
+wounded, is crawling away like a copper snake along the ground.
+
+"The black vermin has sent an arrow through my leg; and poisoned too,
+most like."
+
+"God grant not: but an Indian is worth his weight in gold to us now,"
+said Amyas, tucking his prize under his arm like a bundle. The lad, as
+soon as he saw there was no escape, resigned himself to his fate with
+true Indian stoicism, was brought in, and treated kindly enough, but
+refused to eat. For which, after much questioning, he gave as a reason,
+that he would make them kill him at once; for fat him they should not;
+and gradually gave them to understand that the English always (so
+at least the Spaniards said) fatted and ate their prisoners like
+the Caribs; and till he saw them go out and bury the bodies of the
+Spaniards, nothing would persuade him that the corpses were not to be
+cooked for supper.
+
+However, kind words, kind looks, and the present of that inestimable
+treasure--a knife, brought him to reason; and he told Amyas that he
+belonged to a Spaniard who had an "encomienda" of Indians some fifteen
+miles to the south-west; that he had fled from his master, and lived
+by hunting for some months past; and having seen the ship where she lay
+moored, and boarded her in hope of plunder, had been surprised therein
+by the Spaniards, and forced by threats to go with them as a guide in
+their search for the English. But now came a part of his story which
+filled the soul of Amyas with delight. He was an Indian of the Llanos,
+or great savannahs which lay to the southward beyond the mountains, and
+had actually been upon the Orinoco. He had been stolen as a boy by some
+Spaniards, who had gone down (as was the fashion of the Jesuits even
+as late as 1790) for the pious purpose of converting the savages by the
+simple process of catching, baptizing, and making servants of those
+whom they could carry off, and murdering those who resisted their gentle
+method of salvation. Did he know the way back again? Who could ask such
+a question of an Indian? And the lad's black eyes flashed fire, as Amyas
+offered him liberty and iron enough for a dozen Indians, if he would
+lead them through the passes of the mountains, and southward to the
+mighty river, where lay their golden hopes. Hernando de Serpa, Amyas
+knew, had tried the same course, which was supposed to be about one
+hundred and twenty leagues, and failed, being overthrown utterly by the
+Wikiri Indians; but Amyas knew enough of the Spaniards' brutal method
+of treating those Indians, to be pretty sure that they had brought that
+catastrophe upon themselves, and that he might avoid it well enough by
+that common justice and mercy toward the savages which he had learned
+from his incomparable tutor, Francis Drake.
+
+Now was the time to speak; and, assembling his men around him, Amyas
+opened his whole heart, simply and manfully. This was their only hope
+of safety. Some of them had murmured that they should perish like John
+Oxenham's crew. This plan was rather the only way to avoid perishing
+like them. Don Guzman would certainly return to seek them; and not only
+he, but land-forces from St. Jago. Even if the stockade was not forced,
+they would be soon starved out; why not move at once, ere the Spaniards
+could return, and begin a blockade? As for taking St. Jago, it was
+impossible. The treasure would all be safely hidden, and the town well
+prepared to meet them. If they wanted gold and glory, they must seek it
+elsewhere. Neither was there any use in marching along the coast, and
+trying the ports: ships could outstrip them, and the country was already
+warned. There was but this one chance; and on it Amyas, the first and
+last time in his life, waxed eloquent, and set forth the glory of the
+enterprise, the service to the queen, the salvation of heathens, and
+the certainty that, if successful, they should win honor and wealth and
+everlasting fame, beyond that of Cortez or Pizarro, till the men, sulky
+at first, warmed every moment; and one old Pelican broke out with--
+
+"Yes, sir! we didn't go round the world with you for naught; and watched
+your works and ways, which was always those of a gentleman, as you
+are--who spoke a word for a poor fellow when he was in a scrape, and saw
+all you ought to see, and naught that you ought not. And we'll follow
+you, sir, all alone to ourselves; and let those that know you worse
+follow after when they're come to their right mind."
+
+Man after man capped this brave speech; the minority, who, if they liked
+little to go, liked still less to be left behind, gave in their consent
+perforce; and, to make a long story short, Amyas conquered, and the plan
+was accepted.
+
+"This," said Amyas, "is indeed the proudest day of my life! I have lost
+one brother, but I have gained fourscore. God do so to me and more also,
+if I do not deal with you according to the trust which you have put in
+me this day!"
+
+We, I suppose, are to believe that we have a right to laugh at Amyas's
+scheme as frantic and chimerical. It is easy to amuse ourselves with the
+premises, after the conclusion has been found for us. We know, now, that
+he was mistaken: but we have not discovered his mistake for ourselves,
+and have no right to plume ourselves on other men's discoveries. Had we
+lived in Amyas's days, we should have belonged either to the many wise
+men who believed as he did, or to the many foolish men, who not only
+sneered at the story of Manoa, but at a hundred other stories, which we
+now know to be true. Columbus was laughed at: but he found a new world,
+nevertheless. Cortez was laughed at: but he found Mexico. Pizarro: but
+he found Peru. I ask any fair reader of those two charming books, Mr.
+Prescott's Conquest of Mexico and his Conquest of Peru, whether the true
+wonders in them described do not outdo all the false wonders of Manoa.
+
+But what reason was there to think them false? One quarter, perhaps, of
+America had been explored, and yet in that quarter two empires had been
+already found, in a state of mechanical, military, and agricultural
+civilization superior, in many things, to any nation of Europe. Was
+it not most rational to suppose that in the remaining three-quarters
+similar empires existed? If a second Mexico had been discovered in the
+mountains of Parima, and a second Peru in those of Brazil, what right
+would any man have had to wonder? As for the gold legends, nothing was
+told of Manoa which had not been seen in Peru and Mexico by the bodily
+eyes of men then living. Why should not the rocks of Guiana have been
+as full of the precious metals (we do not know yet that they are not) as
+the rocks of Peru and Mexico were known to be? Even the details of the
+story, its standing on a lake, for instance, bore a probability with
+them. Mexico actually stood in the centre of a lake--why should not
+Manoa? The Peruvian worship centred round a sacred lake--why not that
+of Manoa? Pizarro and Cortez, again, were led on to their desperate
+enterprises by the sight of small quantities of gold among savages, who
+told them of a civilized gold-country near at hand; and they found that
+those savages spoke truth. Why was the unanimous report of the Carib
+tribes of the Orinoco to be disbelieved, when they told a similar tale?
+Sir Richard Schomburgk's admirable preface to Raleigh's Guiana proves,
+surely, that the Indians themselves were deceived, as well as deceivers.
+It was known, again, that vast quantities of the Peruvian treasure had
+been concealed by the priests, and that members of the Inca family had
+fled across the Andes, and held out against the Spaniards. Barely fifty
+years had elapsed since then;--what more probable than that this remnant
+of the Peruvian dynasty and treasure still existed? Even the story of
+the Amazons, though it may serve Hume as a point for his ungenerous and
+untruthful attempt to make Raleigh out either fool or villain, has
+come from Spaniards, who had with their own eyes seen the Indian women
+fighting by their husbands' sides, and from Indians, who asserted the
+existence of an Amazonian tribe. What right had Amyas, or any man, to
+disbelieve the story? The existence of the Amazons in ancient Asia, and
+of their intercourse with Alexander the Great, was then an accredited
+part of history, which it would have been gratuitous impertinence to
+deny. And what if some stories connected these warlike women with the
+Emperor of Manoa, and the capital itself? This generation ought surely
+to be the last to laugh at such a story, at least as long as the
+Amazonian guards of the King of Dahomey continue to outvie the men in
+that relentless ferocity, with which they have subdued every neighboring
+tribe, save the Christians of Abbeokuta. In this case, as in a hundred
+more, fact not only outdoes, but justifies imagination; and Amyas spoke
+common sense when he said to his men that day--
+
+"Let fools laugh and stay at home. Wise men dare and win. Saul went to
+look for his father's asses, and found a kingdom; and Columbus, my men,
+was called a madman for only going to seek China, and never knew, they
+say, until his dying day, that he had found a whole new world instead
+of it. Find Manoa? God only, who made all things, knows what we may find
+beside!"
+
+So underneath that giant ceiba-tree, those valiant men, reduced by
+battle and sickness to some eighty, swore a great oath, and kept that
+oath like men. To search for the golden city for two full years to come,
+whatever might befall; to stand to each other for weal or woe; to obey
+their officers to the death; to murmur privately against no man, but
+bring all complaints to a council of war; to use no profane oaths, but
+serve God daily with prayer; to take by violence from no man, save from
+their natural enemies the Spaniards; to be civil and merciful to all
+savages, and chaste and courteous to all women; to bring all booty and
+all food into the common stock, and observe to the utmost their faith
+with the adventurers who had fitted out the ship; and finally, to march
+at sunrise the next morning toward the south, trusting in God to be
+their guide.
+
+"It is a great oath, and a hard one," said Brimblecombe; "but God will
+give us strength to keep it." And they knelt all together and received
+the Holy Communion, and then rose to pack provisions and ammunition,
+and lay down again to sleep and to dream that they were sailing home
+up Torridge stream--as Cavendish, returning from round the world, did
+actually sail home up Thames but five years afterwards--"with mariners
+and soldiers clothed in silk, with sails of damask, and topsails of
+cloth of gold, and the richest prize which ever was brought at one time
+unto English shores."
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+The Cross stands upright in the southern sky. It is the middle of the
+night. Cary and Yeo glide silently up the hill and into the camp,
+and whisper to Amyas that they have done the deed. The sleepers are
+awakened, and the train sets forth.
+
+Upward and southward ever: but whither, who can tell? They hardly think
+of the whither; but go like sleep-walkers, shaken out of one land of
+dreams, only to find themselves in another and stranger one. All around
+is fantastic and unearthly; now each man starts as he sees the figures
+of his fellows, clothed from head to foot in golden filigree; looks up,
+and sees the yellow moonlight through the fronds of the huge tree-ferns
+overhead, as through a cloud of glittering lace. Now they are hewing
+their way through a thicket of enormous flags; now through bamboos forty
+feet high; now they are stumbling over boulders, waist-deep in cushions
+of club-moss; now they are struggling through shrubberies of heaths and
+rhododendrons, and woolly incense-trees, where every leaf, as they brush
+past, dashes some fresh scent into their faces, and
+
+     "The winds, with musky wing,
+     About the cedarn alleys fling
+     Nard and cassia's balmy smells."
+
+Now they open upon some craggy brow, from whence they can see far below
+an ocean of soft cloud, whose silver billows, girdled by the mountain
+sides, hide the lowland from their sight.
+
+And from beneath the cloud strange voices rise; the screams of thousand
+night-birds, and wild howls, which they used at first to fancy were the
+cries of ravenous beasts, till they found them to proceed from nothing
+fiercer than an ape. But what is that deeper note, like a series
+of muffled explosions,--arquebuses fired within some subterranean
+cavern,--the heavy pulse of which rolls up through the depths of the
+unseen forest? They hear it now for the first time, but they will hear
+it many a time again; and the Indian lad is hushed, and cowers close
+to them, and then takes heart, as he looks upon their swords and
+arquebuses; for that is the roar of the jaguar, "seeking his meat from
+God."
+
+But what is that glare away to the northward? The yellow moon is ringed
+with gay rainbows; but that light is far too red to be the reflection
+of any beams of hers. Now through the cloud rises a column of black and
+lurid smoke; the fog clears away right and left around it, and shows
+beneath, a mighty fire.
+
+The men look at each other with questioning eyes, each half suspecting,
+and yet not daring to confess their own suspicions; and Amyas whispers
+to Yeo--
+
+"You took care to flood the powder?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir, and to unload the ordnance too. No use in making a noise
+to tell the Spaniards our whereabouts."
+
+Yes; that glare rises from the good ship Rose. Amyas, like Cortez of
+old, has burnt his ship, and retreat is now impossible. Forward into the
+unknown abyss of the New World, and God be with them as they go!
+
+The Indian knows a cunning path: it winds along the highest ridges of
+the mountains; but the travelling is far more open and easy.
+
+They have passed the head of a valley which leads down to St. Jago.
+Beneath that long shining river of mist, which ends at the foot of
+the great Silla, lies (so says the Indian lad) the rich capital of
+Venezuela; and beyond, the gold-mines of Los Teques and Baruta, which
+first attracted the founder Diego de Losada; and many a longing eye is
+turned towards it as they pass the saddle at the valley head; but the
+attempt is hopeless, they turn again to the left, and so down towards
+the rancho, taking care (so the prudent Amyas had commanded) to break
+down, after crossing, the frail rope bridge which spans each torrent and
+ravine.
+
+They are at the rancho long before daybreak, and have secured there,
+not only fourteen mules, but eight or nine Indians stolen from off
+the Llanos, like their guide, who are glad enough to escape from their
+tyrants by taking service with them. And now southward and away, with
+lightened shoulders and hearts; for they are all but safe from pursuit.
+The broken bridges prevent the news of their raid reaching St. Jago
+until nightfall; and in the meanwhile, Don Guzman returns to the river
+mouth the next day to find the ship a blackened wreck, and the camp
+empty; follows their trail over the hills till he is stopped by a broken
+bridge; surmounts that difficulty, and meets a second; his men are
+worn out with heat, and a little afraid of stumbling on the heretic
+desperadoes, and he returns by land to St. Jago; and when he arrives
+there, has news from home which gives him other things to think of than
+following those mad Englishmen, who have vanished into the wilderness.
+"What need, after all, to follow them?" asked the Spaniards of each
+other. "Blinded by the devil, whom they serve, they rush on in search of
+certain death, as many a larger company has before them, and they will
+find it, and will trouble La Guayra no more forever." "Lutheran dogs and
+enemies of God," said Don Guzman to his soldiers, "they will leave their
+bones to whiten on the Llanos, as may every heretic who sets foot on
+Spanish soil!"
+
+Will they do so, Don Guzman? Or wilt thou and Amyas meet again upon a
+mightier battlefield, to learn a lesson which neither of you yet has
+learned?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE INQUISITION IN THE INDIES
+
+
+My next chapter is perhaps too sad; it shall be at least as short as I
+can make it; but it was needful to be written, that readers may judge
+fairly for themselves what sort of enemies the English nation had to
+face in those stern days.
+
+Three weeks have passed, and the scene is shifted to a long, low range
+of cells in a dark corridor in the city of Cartagena. The door of one is
+open; and within stand two cloaked figures, one of whom we know. It is
+Eustace Leigh. The other is a familiar of the Holy Office.
+
+He holds in his hand a lamp, from which the light falls on a bed of
+straw, and on the sleeping figure of a man. The high white brow, the
+pale and delicate features--them too we know, for they are those of
+Frank. Saved half-dead from the fury of the savage negroes, he has been
+reserved for the more delicate cruelty of civilized and Christian men.
+He underwent the question but this afternoon; and now Eustace, his
+betrayer, is come to persuade him--or to entrap him? Eustace himself
+hardly knows whether of the two.
+
+And yet he would give his life to save his cousin.
+
+His life? He has long since ceased to care for that. He has done what
+he has done, because it is his duty; and now he is to do his duty
+once more, and wake the sleeper, and argue, coax, threaten him into
+recantation while "his heart is still tender from the torture," so
+Eustace's employers phrase it.
+
+And yet how calmly he is sleeping! Is it but a freak of the lamplight,
+or is there a smile upon his lips? Eustace takes the lamp and bends over
+him to see; and as he bends he hears Frank whispering in his dreams his
+mother's name, and a name higher and holier still.
+
+Eustace cannot find the heart to wake him.
+
+"Let him rest," whispers he to his companion. "After all, I fear my
+words will be of little use."
+
+"I fear so too, sir. Never did I behold a more obdurate heretic. He did
+not scruple to scoff openly at their holinesses."
+
+"Ah!" said Eustace; "great is the pravity of the human heart, and the
+power of Satan! Let us go for the present."
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"The elder sorceress, or the younger?"
+
+"The younger--the--"
+
+"The Senora de Soto? Ah, poor thing! One could be sorry for her, were
+she not a heretic." And the man eyed Eustace keenly, and then quietly
+added, "She is at present with the notary; to the benefit of her soul, I
+trust--"
+
+Eustace half stopped, shuddering. He could hardly collect himself enough
+to gasp out an "Amen!"
+
+"Within there," said the man, pointing carelessly to a door as they
+went down the corridor. "We can listen a moment, if you like; but don't
+betray me, senor."
+
+Eustace knows well enough that the fellow is probably on the watch to
+betray him, if he shows any signs of compunction; at least to report
+faithfully to his superiors the slightest expression of sympathy with
+a heretic; but a horrible curiosity prevails over fear, and he pauses
+close to the fatal door. His face is all of a flame, his knees knock
+together, his ears are ringing, his heart bursting through his ribs, as
+he supports himself against the wall, hiding his convulsed face as well
+as he can from his companion.
+
+A man's voice is plainly audible within; low, but distinct. The notary
+is trying that old charge of witchcraft, which the Inquisitors, whether
+to justify themselves to their own consciences, or to whiten their
+villainy somewhat in the eyes of the mob, so often brought against their
+victims. And then Eustace's heart sinks within him as he hears a woman's
+voice reply, sharpened by indignation and agony--
+
+"Witchcraft against Don Guzman? What need of that, oh God! what need?"
+
+"You deny it then, senora? we are sorry for you; but--"
+
+A confused choking murmur from the victim, mingled with words which
+might mean anything or nothing.
+
+"She has confessed!" whispered Eustace; "saints, I thank you!--she--"
+
+A wail which rings through Eustace's ears, and brain, and heart! He
+would have torn at the door to open it; but his companion forces him
+away. Another, and another wail, while the wretched man hurries off,
+stopping his ears in vain against those piercing cries, which follow
+him, like avenging angels, through the dreadful vaults.
+
+He escaped into the fragrant open air, and the golden tropic moonlight,
+and a garden which might have served as a model for Eden; but man's hell
+followed into God's heaven, and still those wails seemed to ring through
+his ears.
+
+"Oh, misery, misery, misery!" murmured he to himself through grinding
+teeth; "and I have brought her to this! I have had to bring her to it!
+What else could I? Who dare blame me? And yet what devilish sin can I
+have committed, that requires to be punished thus? Was there no one to
+be found but me? No one? And yet it may save her soul. It may bring her
+to repentance!"
+
+"It may, indeed; for she is delicate, and cannot endure much. You
+ought to know as well as I, senor, the merciful disposition of the Holy
+Office."
+
+"I know it, I know it," interrupted poor Eustace, trembling now for
+himself. "All in love--all in love.--A paternal chastisement--"
+
+"And the proofs of heresy are patent, beside the strong suspicion
+of enchantment, and the known character of the elder sorceress.
+You yourself, you must remember, senor, told us that she had been a
+notorious witch in England, before the senora brought her hither as her
+attendant."
+
+"Of course she was; of course. Yes; there was no other course open. And
+though the flesh may be weak, sir, in my case, yet none can have proved
+better to the Holy Office how willing is the spirit!"
+
+And so Eustace departed; and ere another sun had set, he had gone to the
+principal of the Jesuits; told him his whole heart, or as much of it,
+poor wretch, as he dare tell to himself; and entreated to be allowed to
+finish his novitiate, and enter the order, on the understanding that he
+was to be sent at once back to Europe, or anywhere else; "Otherwise,"
+as he said frankly, "he should go mad, even if he were not mad already."
+The Jesuit, who was a kindly man enough, went to the Holy Office, and
+settled all with the Inquisitors, recounting to them, to set him above
+all suspicion, Eustace's past valiant services to the Church. His
+testimony was no longer needed; he left Cartagena for Nombre that very
+night, and sailed the next week I know not whither.
+
+I say, I know not whither. Eustace Leigh vanishes henceforth from these
+pages. He may have ended as General of his Order. He may have worn out
+his years in some tropic forest, "conquering the souls" (including, of
+course, the bodies) of Indians; he may have gone back to his old work
+in England, and been the very Ballard who was hanged and quartered three
+years afterwards for his share in Babington's villainous conspiracy:
+I know not. This book is a history of men,--of men's virtues and sins,
+victories and defeats; and Eustace is a man no longer: he is become a
+thing, a tool, a Jesuit; which goes only where it is sent, and does good
+or evil indifferently as it is bid; which, by an act of moral suicide,
+has lost its soul, in the hope of saving it; without a will, a
+conscience, a responsibility (as it fancies), to God or man, but only to
+"The Society." In a word, Eustace, as he says himself, is "dead." Twice
+dead, I fear. Let the dead bury their dead. We have no more concern with
+Eustace Leigh.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE BANKS OF THE META
+
+                                        "My mariners,
+     Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with
+          me--Death closes all: but something ere the end,
+     Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
+     Not unbecoming men that strove with gods!"
+
+                                         TENNYSON'S Ulysses.
+
+Nearly three years are past and gone since that little band had knelt
+at evensong beneath the giant tree of Guayra--years of seeming blank,
+through which they are to be tracked only by scattered notes and
+mis-spelt names. Through untrodden hills and forests, over a space of
+some eight hundred miles in length by four hundred in breadth, they had
+been seeking for the Golden City, and they had sought in vain. They had
+sought it along the wooded banks of the Orinoco, and beyond the roaring
+foam-world of Maypures, and on the upper waters of the mighty Amazon.
+They had gone up the streams even into Peru itself, and had trodden the
+cinchona groves of Loxa, ignorant, as all the world was then, of their
+healing virtues. They had seen the virgin snows of Chimborazo towering
+white above the thundercloud, and the giant cone of Cotopaxi blackening
+in its sullen wrath, before the fiery streams rolled down its sides.
+Foiled in their search at the back of the Andes, they had turned
+eastward once more, and plunged from the alpine cliffs into "the green
+and misty ocean of the Montana." Slowly and painfully they had worked
+their way northward again, along the eastern foot of the inland
+Cordillera, and now they were bivouacking, as it seems, upon one of the
+many feeders of the Meta, which flow down from the Suma Paz into the
+forest-covered plains. There they sat, their watch-fires glittering
+on the stream, beneath the shadow of enormous trees, Amyas and Cary,
+Brimblecombe, Yeo, and the Indian lad, who has followed them in all
+their wanderings, alive and well: but as far as ever from Manoa, and
+its fairy lake, and golden palaces, and all the wonders of the Indian's
+tale. Again and again in their wanderings they had heard faint rumors of
+its existence, and started off in some fresh direction, to meet only a
+fresh disappointment, and hope deferred, which maketh sick the heart.
+
+There they sit at last--four-and-forty men out of the eighty-four who
+left the tree of Guayra:--where are the rest?
+
+     "Their bones are scatter'd far and wide,
+     By mount, by stream, and sea."
+
+Drew, the master, lies on the banks of the Rio Negro, and five brave
+fellows by him, slain in fight by the poisoned arrows of the Indians, in
+a vain attempt to penetrate the mountain-gorges of the Parima. Two more
+lie amid the valleys of the Andes, frozen to death by the fierce slaty
+hail which sweeps down from the condor's eyrie; four more were drowned
+at one of the rapids of the Orinoco; five or six more wounded men are
+left behind at another rapid among friendly Indians, to be recovered
+when they can be: perhaps never. Fever, snakes, jaguars, alligators,
+cannibal fish, electric eels, have thinned their ranks month by month,
+and of their march through the primeval wilderness no track remains,
+except those lonely graves.
+
+And there the survivors sit, beside the silent stream, beneath the
+tropic moon; sun-dried and lean, but strong and bold as ever, with the
+quiet fire of English courage burning undimmed in every eye, and the
+genial smile of English mirth fresh on every lip; making a jest of
+danger and a sport of toil, as cheerily as when they sailed over the bar
+of Bideford, in days which seem to belong to some antenatal life. Their
+beards have grown down upon their breasts; their long hair is knotted
+on their heads, like women's, to keep off the burning sunshine; their
+leggings are of the skin of the delicate Guazu-puti deer; their shirts
+are patched with Indian cotton web; the spoils of jaguar, puma, and ape
+hang from their shoulders. Their ammunition is long since spent, their
+muskets, spoilt by the perpetual vapor-bath of the steaming woods, are
+left behind as useless in a cave by some cataract of the Orinoco: but
+their swords are bright and terrible as ever; and they carry bows of
+a strength which no Indian arm can bend, and arrows pointed with the
+remnants of their armor; many of them, too, are armed with the pocuna
+or blowgun of the Indians--more deadly, because more silent, than the
+firearms which they have left behind them. So they have wandered, and so
+they will wander still, the lords of the forest and its beasts; terrible
+to all hostile Indians, but kindly, just, and generous to all who will
+deal faithfully with them; and many a smooth-chinned Carib and
+Ature, Solimo and Guahiba, recounts with wonder and admiration the
+righteousness of the bearded heroes, who proclaimed themselves the
+deadly foes of the faithless and murderous Spaniard, and spoke to them
+of the great and good queen beyond the seas, who would send her warriors
+to deliver and avenge the oppressed Indian.
+
+The men are sleeping among the trees, some on the ground, and some in
+grass-hammocks slung between the stems. All is silent, save the heavy
+plunge of the tapir in the river, as he tears up the water-weeds for
+his night's repast. Sometimes, indeed, the jaguar, as he climbs from one
+tree-top to another after his prey, wakens the monkeys clustered on the
+boughs, and they again arouse the birds, and ten minutes of unearthly
+roars, howls, shrieks, and cacklings make the forest ring as if all
+pandemonium had broke loose; but that soon dies away again; and, even
+while it lasts, it is too common a matter to awaken the sleepers,
+much less to interrupt the council of war which is going on beside
+the watch-fire, between the three adventurers and the faithful Yeo. A
+hundred times have they held such a council, and in vain; and, for aught
+they know, this one will be as fruitless as those which have gone before
+it. Nevertheless, it is a more solemn one than usual; for the two years
+during which they had agreed to search for Manoa are long past, and some
+new place must be determined on, unless they intend to spend the rest of
+their lives in that green wilderness.
+
+"Well," says Will Cary, taking his cigar out of his mouth, "at least we
+have got something out of those last Indians. It is a comfort to have a
+puff at tobacco once more, after three weeks' fasting."
+
+"For me," said Jack Brimblecombe, "Heaven forgive me! but when I get the
+magical leaf between my teeth again, I feel tempted to sit as still as a
+chimney, and smoke till my dying day, without stirring hand or foot."
+
+"Then I shall forbid you tobacco, Master Parson," said Amyas; "for we
+must be up and away again to-morrow. We have been idling here three
+mortal days, and nothing done."
+
+"Shall we ever do anything? I think the gold of Manoa is like the gold
+which lies where the rainbow touches the ground, always a field beyond
+you."
+
+Amyas was silent awhile, and so were the rest. There was no denying that
+their hopes were all but gone. In the immense circuit which they had
+made, they had met with nothing but disappointment.
+
+"There is but one more chance," said he at length, "and that is, the
+mountains to the east of the Orinoco, where we failed the first time.
+The Incas may have moved on to them when they escaped."
+
+"Why not?" said Cary; "they would so put all the forests, beside the
+Llanos and half-a-dozen great rivers, between them and those dogs of
+Spaniards."
+
+"Shall we try it once more?" said Amyas. "This river ought to run
+into the Orinoco; and once there, we are again at the very foot of the
+mountains. What say you, Yeo?"
+
+"I cannot but mind, your worship, that when we came up the Orinoco,
+the Indians told us terrible stories of those mountains, how far they
+stretched, and how difficult they were to cross, by reason of the cliffs
+aloft, and the thick forests in the valleys. And have we not lost five
+good men there already?"
+
+"What care we? No forests can be thicker than those we have bored
+through already; why, if one had had but a tail, like a monkey, for
+an extra warp, one might have gone a hundred miles on end along the
+tree-tops, and found it far pleasanter walking than tripping in withes,
+and being eaten up with creeping things, from morn till night."
+
+"But remember, too," said Jack, "how they told us to beware of the
+Amazons."
+
+"What, Jack, afraid of a parcel of women?"
+
+"Why not?" said Jack, "I wouldn't run from a man, as you know; but a
+woman--it's not natural, like. They must be witches or devils. See how
+the Caribs feared them. And there were men there without necks, and with
+their eyes in their breasts, they said. Now how could a Christian tackle
+such customers as them?"
+
+"He couldn't cut off their heads, that's certain; but, I suppose, a poke
+in the ribs will do as much for them as for their neighbors."
+
+"Well," said Jack, "if I fight, let me fight honest flesh and blood,
+that's all, and none of these outlandish monsters. How do you know but
+that they are invulnerable by art-magic?"
+
+"How do you know that they are? And as for the Amazons," said Cary,
+"woman's woman, all the world over. I'll bet that you may wheedle them
+round with a compliment or two, just as if they were so many burghers'
+wives. Pity I have not a court-suit and a Spanish hat. I would have
+taken an orange in one hand and a handkerchief in the other, gone all
+alone to them as ambassador, and been in a week as great with Queen
+Blackfacealinda as ever Raleigh is at Whitehall."
+
+"Gentlemen!" said Yeo, "where you go, I go; and not only I, but every
+man of us, I doubt not; but we have lost now half our company, and spent
+our ammunition, so we are no better men, were it not for our swords,
+than these naked heathens round us. Now it was, as you all know, by the
+wonder and noise of their ordnance (let alone their horses, which is a
+break-neck beast I put no faith in) that both Cortez and Pizarro, those
+imps of Satan, made their golden conquests, with which if we could have
+astounded the people of Manoa--"
+
+"Having first found the said people," laughed Amyas. "It is like the
+old fable. Every craftsman thinks his own trade the one pillar of the
+commonweal."
+
+"Well! your worship," quoth Yeo, "it may be that being a gunner I
+overprize guns. But it don't need slate and pencil to do this sum--Are
+forty men without shot as good as eighty with?"
+
+"Thou art right, old fellow, right enough, and I was only jesting for
+very sorrow, and must needs laugh about it lest I weep about it. Our
+chance is over, I believe, though I dare not confess as much to the
+men."
+
+"Sir," said Yeo, "I have a feeling on me that the Lord's hand is against
+us in this matter. Whether He means to keep this wealth for worthier men
+than us, or whether it is His will to hide this great city in the secret
+place of His presence from the strife of tongues, and so to spare them
+from sinful man's covetousness, and England from that sin and luxury
+which I have seen gold beget among the Spaniards, I know not, sir; for
+who knoweth the counsels of the Lord? But I have long had a voice within
+which saith, 'Salvation Yeo, thou shalt never behold the Golden City
+which is on earth, where heathens worship sun and moon and the hosts of
+heaven; be content, therefore, to see that Golden City which is above,
+where is neither sun nor moon, but the Lord God and the Lamb are the
+light thereof."
+
+There was a simple majesty about old Yeo when he broke forth in
+utterances like these, which made his comrades, and even Amyas and Cary,
+look on him as Mussulmans look on madmen, as possessed of mysterious
+knowledge and flashes of inspiration; and Brimblecombe, whose pious soul
+looked up to the old hero with a reverence which had overcome all his
+Churchman's prejudices against Anabaptists, answered gently,--
+
+"Amen! amen! my masters all: and it has been on my mind, too, this long
+time, that there is a providence against our going east; for see how
+this two years past, whenever we have pushed eastward, we have fallen
+into trouble, and lost good men; and whenever we went Westward-ho, we
+have prospered; and do prosper to this day."
+
+"And what is more, gentlemen," said Yeo, "if, as Scripture says, dreams
+are from the Lord, I verily believe mine last night came from Him; for
+as I lay by the fire, sirs, I heard my little maid's voice calling of
+me, as plain as ever I heard in my life; and the very same words, sirs,
+which she learned from me and my good comrade William Penberthy to say,
+'Westward-ho! jolly mariners all!' a bit of an ungodly song, my masters,
+which we sang in our wild days; but she stood and called it as plain as
+ever mortal ears heard, and called again till I answered, 'Coming! my
+maid, coming!' and after that the dear chuck called no more--God grant I
+find her yet!--and so I woke."
+
+Cary had long since given up laughing at Yeo about the "little maid;"
+and Amyas answered,--
+
+"So let it be, Yeo, if the rest agree: but what shall we do to the
+westward?"
+
+"Do?" said Cary; "there's plenty to do; for there's plenty of gold,
+and plenty of Spaniards, too, they say, on the other side of these
+mountains: so that our swords will not rust for lack of adventures, my
+gay knights-errant all."
+
+So they chatted on; and before night was half through a plan was
+matured, desperate enough--but what cared those brave hearts for that?
+They would cross the Cordillera to Santa Fe de Bogota, of the wealth
+whereof both Yeo and Amyas had often heard in the Pacific: try to seize
+either the town or some convoy of gold going from it; make for the
+nearest river (there was said to be a large one which ran northward
+thence), build canoes, and try to reach the Northern Sea once more; and
+then, if Heaven prospered them, they might seize a Spanish ship, and
+make their way home to England, not, indeed, with the wealth of Manoa,
+but with a fair booty of Spanish gold. This was their new dream. It was
+a wild one: but hardly more wild than the one which Drake had fulfilled,
+and not as wild as the one which Oxenham might have fulfilled, but for
+his own fatal folly.
+
+Amyas sat watching late that night, sad of heart. To give up the
+cherished dream of years was hard; to face his mother, harder still: but
+it must be done, for the men's sake. So the new plan was proposed next
+day, and accepted joyfully. They would go up to the mountains and rest
+awhile; if possible, bring up the wounded whom they had left behind; and
+then, try a new venture, with new hopes, perhaps new dangers; they were
+inured to the latter.
+
+They started next morning cheerfully enough, and for three hours or more
+paddled easily up the glassy and windless reaches, between two green
+flower-bespangled walls of forest, gay with innumerable birds and
+insects; while down from the branches which overhung the stream long
+trailers hung to the water's edge, and seemed admiring in the clear
+mirror the images of their own gorgeous flowers. River, trees, flowers,
+birds, insects,--it was all a fairy-land: but it was a colossal one; and
+yet the voyagers took little note of it. It was now to them an everyday
+occurrence, to see trees full two hundred feet high one mass of yellow
+or purple blossom to the highest twigs, and every branch and stem one
+hanging garden of crimson and orange orchids or vanillas. Common to them
+were all the fantastic and enormous shapes with which Nature bedecks her
+robes beneath the fierce suns and fattening rains of the tropic forest.
+Common were forms and colors of bird, and fish, and butterfly, more
+strange and bright than ever opium-eater dreamed. The long processions
+of monkeys, who kept pace with them along the tree-tops, and proclaimed
+their wonder in every imaginable whistle, and grunt, and howl, had
+ceased to move their laughter, as much as the roar of the jaguar and the
+rustle of the boa had ceased to move their fear; and when a brilliant
+green and rose-colored fish, flat-bodied like a bream, flab-finned like
+a salmon, and saw-toothed like a shark, leapt clean on board of the
+canoe to escape the rush of the huge alligator (whose loathsome snout,
+ere he could stop, actually rattled against the canoe within a foot of
+Jack Brimblecombe's hand), Jack, instead of turning pale, as he had done
+at the sharks upon a certain memorable occasion, coolly picked up the
+fish, and said, "He's four pound weight! If you can catch 'pirai' for
+us like that, old fellow, just keep in our wake, and we'll give you the
+cleanings for wages."
+
+Yes. The mind of man is not so "infinite," in the vulgar sense of that
+word, as people fancy; and however greedy the appetite for wonder may
+be, while it remains unsatisfied in everyday European life, it is as
+easily satiated as any other appetite, and then leaves the senses of
+its possessor as dull as those of a city gourmand after a lord mayor's
+feast. Only the highest minds--our Humboldts, and Bonplands, and
+Schomburgks (and they only when quickened to an almost unhealthy
+activity by civilization)--can go on long appreciating where Nature is
+insatiable, imperious, maddening, in her demands on our admiration. The
+very power of observing wears out under the rush of ever new objects;
+and the dizzy spectator is fain at last to shut the eyes of his soul,
+and take refuge (as West Indian Spaniards do) in tobacco and stupidity.
+The man, too, who has not only eyes but utterance,--what shall he do
+where all words fail him? Superlatives are but inarticulate, after all,
+and give no pictures even of size any more than do numbers of feet and
+yards: and yet what else can we do, but heap superlative on superlative,
+and cry, "Wonderful, wonderful!" and after that, "wonderful, past all
+whooping"? What Humboldt's self cannot paint, we will not try to daub.
+The voyagers were in a South American forest, readers. Fill up the
+meaning of those words, each as your knowledge enables you, for I cannot
+do it for you.
+
+Certainly those adventurers could not. The absence of any attempt at
+word-painting, even of admiration at the glorious things which they saw,
+is most remarkable in all early voyagers, both Spanish and English. The
+only two exceptions which I recollect are Columbus--(but then all was
+new, and he was bound to tell what he had seen)--and Raleigh; the two
+most gifted men, perhaps, with the exception of Humboldt, who ever set
+foot in tropical America; but even they dare nothing but a few feeble
+hints in passing. Their souls had been dazzled and stunned by a great
+glory. Coming out of our European Nature into that tropic one, they had
+felt like Plato's men, bred in the twilight cavern, and then suddenly
+turned round to the broad blaze of day; they had seen things awful and
+unspeakable: why talk of them, except to say with the Turks, "God is
+great!"
+
+So it was with these men. Among the higher-hearted of them, the grandeur
+and the glory around had attuned their spirits to itself, and kept up in
+them a lofty, heroical, reverent frame of mind; but they knew as little
+about the trees and animals in an "artistic" or "critical" point
+of view, as in a scientific one. This tree the Indians called one
+unpronounceable name, and it made good bows; that, some other name, and
+it made good canoes; of that, you could eat the fruit; that produced the
+caoutchouc gum, useful for a hundred matters; that was what the Indians
+(and they likewise) used to poison their arrows with; from the ashes of
+those palm-nuts you could make good salt; that tree, again, was full of
+good milk if you bored the stem: they drank it, and gave God thanks, and
+were not astonished. God was great: but that they had discovered long
+before they came into the tropics. Noble old child-hearted heroes, with
+just romance and superstition enough about them to keep them from that
+prurient hysterical wonder and enthusiasm, which is simply, one often
+fears, a product of our scepticism! We do not trust enough in God, we do
+not really believe His power enough, to be ready, as they were, as every
+one ought to be on a God-made earth, for anything and everything being
+possible; and then, when a wonder is discovered, we go into ecstasies
+and shrieks over it, and take to ourselves credit for being susceptible
+of so lofty a feeling, true index, forsooth, of a refined and cultivated
+mind.
+
+They paddled onward hour after hour, sheltering themselves as best they
+could under the shadow of the southern bank, while on their right hand
+the full sun-glare lay upon the enormous wall of mimosas, figs, and
+laurels, which formed the northern forest, broken by the slender shafts
+of bamboo tufts, and decked with a thousand gaudy parasites; bank upon
+bank of gorgeous bloom piled upward to the sky, till where its outline
+cut the blue, flowers and leaves, too lofty to be distinguished by the
+eye, formed a broken rainbow of all hues quivering in the ascending
+streams of azure mist, until they seemed to melt and mingle with the
+very heavens.
+
+And as the sun rose higher and higher, a great stillness fell upon the
+forest. The jaguars and the monkeys had hidden themselves in the darkest
+depths of the woods. The birds' notes died out one by one; the very
+butterflies ceased their flitting over the tree-tops, and slept with
+outspread wings upon the glossy leaves, undistinguishable from the
+flowers around them. Now and then a colibri whirred downward toward
+the water, hummed for a moment around some pendent flower, and then
+the living gem was lost in the deep blackness of the inner wood, among
+tree-trunks as huge and dark as the pillars of some Hindoo shrine; or
+a parrot swung and screamed at them from an overhanging bough; or a
+thirsty monkey slid lazily down a liana to the surface of the stream,
+dipped up the water in his tiny hand, and started chattering back, as
+his eyes met those of some foul alligator peering upward through the
+clear depths below. In shaded nooks beneath the boughs, the capybaras,
+rabbits as large as sheep, went paddling sleepily round and round,
+thrusting up their unwieldy heads among the blooms of the blue
+water-lilies; while black and purple water-hens ran up and down upon the
+rafts of floating leaves. The shining snout of a freshwater dolphin rose
+slowly to the surface; a jet of spray whirred up; a rainbow hung upon
+it for a moment; and the black snout sank lazily again. Here and there,
+too, upon some shallow pebbly shore, scarlet flamingoes stood dreaming
+knee-deep, on one leg; crested cranes pranced up and down, admiring
+their own finery; and ibises and egrets dipped their bills under water
+in search of prey: but before noon even those had slipped away, and
+there reigned a stillness which might be heard--such a stillness (to
+compare small things with great) as broods beneath the rich shadows of
+Amyas's own Devon woods, or among the lonely sweeps of Exmoor, when the
+heather is in flower--a stillness in which, as Humboldt says, "If beyond
+the silence we listen for the faintest undertones, we detect a stifled,
+continuous hum of insects, which crowd the air close to the earth; a
+confused swarming murmur which hangs round every bush, in the cracked
+bark of trees, in the soil undermined by lizards, millepedes, and
+bees; a voice proclaiming to us that all Nature breathes, that under a
+thousand different forms life swarms in the gaping and dusty earth, as
+much as in the bosom of the waters, and the air which breathes around."
+
+At last a soft and distant murmur, increasing gradually to a heavy roar,
+announced that they were nearing some cataract; till turning a point,
+where the deep alluvial soil rose into a low cliff fringed with delicate
+ferns, they came full in sight of a scene at which all paused: not with
+astonishment, but with something very like disgust.
+
+"Rapids again!" grumbled one. "I thought we had had enough of them on
+the Orinoco."
+
+"We shall have to get out, and draw the canoes overland, I suppose.
+Three hours will be lost, and in the very hottest of the day, too."
+
+"There's worse behind; don't you see the spray behind the palms?"
+
+"Stop grumbling, my masters, and don't cry out before you are hurt.
+Paddle right up to the largest of those islands, and let us look about
+us."
+
+In front of them was a snow-white bar of raging foam, some ten feet
+high, along which were ranged three or four islands of black rock. Each
+was crested with a knot of lofty palms, whose green tops stood out clear
+against the bright sky, while the lower half of their stems loomed hazy
+through a luminous veil of rainbowed mist. The banks right and left
+of the fall were so densely fringed with a low hedge of shrubs, that
+landing seemed all but impossible; and their Indian guide, suddenly
+looking round him and whispering, bade them beware of savages; and
+pointed to a canoe which lay swinging in the eddies under the largest
+island, moored apparently to the root of some tree.
+
+"Silence all!" cried Amyas, "and paddle up thither and seize the canoe.
+If there be an Indian on the island, we will have speech of him: but
+mind and treat him friendly; and on your lives, neither strike nor
+shoot, even if he offers to fight."
+
+So, choosing a line of smooth backwater just in the wake of the island,
+they drove their canoes up by main force, and fastened them safely
+by the side of the Indian's, while Amyas, always the foremost, sprang
+boldly on shore, whispering to the Indian boy to follow him.
+
+Once on the island, Amyas felt sure enough, that if its wild tenant had
+not seen them approach, he certainly had not heard them, so deafening
+was the noise which filled his brain, and seemed to make the very leaves
+upon the bushes quiver, and the solid stone beneath his feet to reel and
+ring. For two hundred yards and more above the fall nothing met his eye
+but one white waste of raging foam, with here and there a transverse
+dyke of rock, which hurled columns of spray and surges of beaded water
+high into the air,--strangely contrasting with the still and silent
+cliffs of green leaves which walled the river right and left, and more
+strangely still with the knots of enormous palms upon the islets, which
+reared their polished shafts a hundred feet into the air, straight and
+upright as masts, while their broad plumes and golden-clustered fruit
+slept in the sunshine far aloft, the image of the stateliest repose amid
+the wildest wrath of Nature.
+
+He looked round anxiously for the expected Indian; but he was nowhere to
+be seen; and, in the meanwhile, as he stept cautiously along the island,
+which was some fifty yards in length and breadth, his senses, accustomed
+as they were to such sights, could not help dwelling on the exquisite
+beauty of the scene; on the garden of gay flowers, of every imaginable
+form and hue, which fringed every boulder at his feet, peeping out amid
+delicate fern-fans and luxuriant cushions of moss; on the chequered
+shade of the palms, and the cool air, which wafted down from the
+cataracts above the scents of a thousand flowers. Gradually his ear
+became accustomed to the roar, and, above its mighty undertone, he could
+hear the whisper of the wind among the shrubs, and the hum of myriad
+insects; while the rock manakin, with its saffron plumage, flitted
+before him from stone to stone, calling cheerily, and seeming to lead
+him on. Suddenly, scrambling over the rocky flower-beds to the other
+side of the isle, he came upon a little shady beach, which, beneath a
+bank of stone some six feet high, fringed the edge of a perfectly still
+and glassy bay. Ten yards farther, the cataract fell sheer in thunder:
+but a high fern-fringed rock turned its force away from that quiet nook.
+In it the water swung slowly round and round in glassy dark-green rings,
+among which dimpled a hundred gaudy fish, waiting for every fly and worm
+which spun and quivered on the eddy. Here, if anywhere, was the place to
+find the owner of the canoe. He leapt down upon the pebbles; and as he
+did so, a figure rose from behind a neighboring rock, and met him face
+to face.
+
+It was an Indian girl; and yet, when he looked again,--was it an Indian
+girl? Amyas had seen hundreds of those delicate dark-skinned daughters
+of the forest, but never such a one as this. Her stature was taller,
+her limbs were fuller and more rounded; her complexion, though tanned by
+light, was fairer by far than his own sunburnt face; her hair, crowned
+with a garland of white flowers, was not lank, and straight, and black,
+like an Indian's, but of a rich, glossy brown, and curling richly and
+crisply from her very temples to her knees. Her forehead, though low,
+was upright and ample; her nose was straight and small; her lips, the
+lips of a European; her whole face of the highest and richest type of
+Spanish beauty; a collar of gold mingled with green beads hung round her
+neck, and golden bracelets were on her wrists. All the strange and dim
+legends of white Indians, and of nations of a higher race than Carib, or
+Arrowak, or Solimo, which Amyas had ever heard, rose up in his memory.
+She must be the daughter of some great cacique, perhaps of the lost
+Incas themselves--why not? And full of simple wonder, he gazed upon
+that fairy vision, while she, unabashed in her free innocence, gazed
+fearlessly in return, as Eve might have done in Paradise, upon the
+mighty stature, and the strange garments, and above all, on the bushy
+beard and flowing yellow locks of the Englishman.
+
+He spoke first, in some Indian tongue, gently and smilingly, and made
+a half-step forward; but quick as light she caught up from the ground a
+bow, and held it fiercely toward him, fitted with the long arrow,
+with which, as he could see, she had been striking fish, for a line of
+twisted grass hung from its barbed head. Amyas stopped, laid down his
+own bow and sword, and made another step in advance, smiling still,
+and making all Indian signs of amity: but the arrow was still pointed
+straight at his breast, and he knew the mettle and strength of the
+forest nymphs well enough to stand still and call for the Indian boy;
+too proud to retreat, but in the uncomfortable expectation of feeling
+every moment the shaft quivering between his ribs.
+
+The boy, who had been peering from above, leaped down to them in a
+moment; and began, as the safest method, grovelling on his nose upon the
+pebbles, while he tried two or three dialects; one of which at last she
+seemed to understand, and answered in a tone of evident suspicion and
+anger.
+
+"What does she say?"
+
+"That you are a Spaniard and a robber, because you have a beard."
+
+"Tell her that we are no Spaniards, but that we hate them; and are come
+across the great waters to help the Indians to kill them."
+
+The boy translated his speech. The nymph answered by a contemptuous
+shake of the head.
+
+"Tell her, that if she will send her tribe to us, we will do them no
+harm. We are going over the mountains to fight the Spaniards, and we
+want them to show us the way."
+
+The boy had no sooner spoken, than, nimble as a deer, the nymph had
+sprung up the rocks, and darted between the palm-stems to her canoe.
+Suddenly she caught sight of the English boat, and stopped with a cry of
+fear and rage.
+
+"Let her pass!" shouted Amyas, who had followed her close. "Push your
+boat off, and let her pass. Boy, tell her to go on; they will not come
+near her."
+
+But she hesitated still, and with arrow drawn to the head, faced first
+on the boat's crew, and then on Amyas, till the Englishmen had shoved
+off full twenty yards.
+
+Then, leaping into her tiny piragua, she darted into the wildest whirl
+of the eddies, shooting along with vigorous strokes, while the English
+trembled as they saw the frail bark spinning and leaping amid the
+muzzles of the alligators, and the huge dog-toothed trout: but with the
+swiftness of an arrow she reached the northern bank, drove her canoe
+among the bushes, and leaping from it, darted through some narrow
+opening in the bush, and vanished like a dream.
+
+"What fair virago have you unearthed?" cried Cary, as they toiled up
+again to the landing-place.
+
+"Beshrew me," quoth Jack, "but we are in the very land of the nymphs,
+and I shall expect to see Diana herself next, with the moon on her
+forehead."
+
+"Take care, then, where you wander hereabouts, Sir John: lest you end as
+Actaeon did, by turning into a stag, and being eaten by a jaguar."
+
+"Actaeon was eaten by his own hounds, Mr. Cary, so the parallel don't
+hold. But surely she was a very wonder of beauty!"
+
+Why was it that Amyas did not like this harmless talk? There had come
+over him the strangest new feeling; as if that fair vision was his
+property, and the men had no right to talk about her, no right to have
+even seen her. And he spoke quite surlily as he said--
+
+"You may leave the women to themselves, my masters; you'll have to deal
+with the men ere long: so get your canoes up on the rock, and keep good
+watch."
+
+"Hillo!" shouted one in a few minutes, "here's fresh fish enough to feed
+us all round. I suppose that young cat-a-mountain left it behind her
+in her hurry. I wish she had left her golden chains and ouches into the
+bargain."
+
+"Well," said another, "we'll take it as fair payment, for having made
+us drop down the current again to let her ladyship pass."
+
+"Leave that fish alone," said Amyas; "it is none of yours."
+
+"Why, sir!" quoth the finder in a tone of sulky deprecation.
+
+"If we are to make good friends with the heathens, we had better not
+begin by stealing their goods. There are plenty more fish in the river;
+go and catch them, and let the Indians have their own."
+
+The men were accustomed enough to strict and stern justice in their
+dealings with the savages: but they could not help looking slyly at
+each other, and hinting, when out of sight, that the captain seemed in a
+mighty fuss about his new acquaintance.
+
+However, they were expert by this time in all the Indian's fishing
+methods; and so abundant was the animal life which swarmed around every
+rock, that in an hour fish enough lay on the beach to feed them all;
+whose forms and colors, names and families, I must leave the reader to
+guess from the wondrous pages of Sir Richard Schomburgk, for I know too
+little of them to speak without the fear of making mistakes.
+
+A full hour passed before they saw anything more of their Indian
+neighbors; and then from under the bushes shot out a canoe, on which all
+eyes were fixed in expectation.
+
+Amyas, who expected to find there some remnant of a higher race, was
+disappointed enough at seeing on board only the usual half-dozen of
+low-browed, dirty Orsons, painted red with arnotto: but a gray-headed
+elder at the stern seemed, by his feathers and gold ornaments, to be
+some man of note in the little woodland community.
+
+The canoe came close up to the island; Amyas saw that they were unarmed,
+and, laying down his weapons, advanced alone to the bank, making all
+signs of amity. They were returned with interest by the old man, and
+Amyas's next care was to bring forward the fish which the fair nymph
+had left behind, and, through the medium of the Indian lad, to give the
+cacique (for so he seemed to be) to understand that he wished to render
+every one his own. This offer was received, as Amyas expected, with
+great applause, and the canoe came alongside; but the crew still seemed
+afraid to land. Amyas bade his men throw the fish one by one into the
+boat; and then proclaimed by the boy's mouth, as was his custom with all
+Indians, that he and his were enemies of the Spaniards, and on their
+way to make war against them,--and that all which they desired was a
+peaceable and safe passage through the dominions of the mighty potentate
+and renowned warrior whom they beheld before them; for Amyas argued
+rightly enough, that even if the old fellow aft was not the cacique, he
+would be none the less pleased at being mistaken for him.
+
+Whereon the ancient worthy, rising in the canoe, pointed to heaven,
+earth, and the things under, and commenced a long sermon, in tone,
+manner, and articulation, very like one of those which the great
+black-bearded apes were in the habit of preaching every evening when
+they could get together a congregation of little monkeys to listen, to
+the great scandal of Jack, who would have it that some evil spirit set
+them on to mimic him; which sermon, being partly interpreted by the
+Indian lad, seemed to signify, that the valor and justice of the white
+men had already reached the ears of the speaker, and that he was sent to
+welcome them into those regions by the Daughter of the Sun.
+
+"The Daughter of the Sun!" quoth Amyas; "then we have found the lost
+Incas after all."
+
+"We have found something," said Cary; "I only hope it may not be a
+mare's nest, like many another of our finding."
+
+"Or an adder's," said Yeo. "We must beware of treachery."
+
+"We must beware of no such thing," said Amyas, pretty sharply. "Have I
+not told you fifty times, that if they see that we trust them, they will
+trust us, and if they see that we suspect them, they will suspect us?
+And when two parties are watching to see who strikes the first blow,
+they are sure to come to fisticuffs from mere dirty fear of each other."
+
+Amyas spoke truth; for almost every atrocity against savages which had
+been committed by the Spaniards, and which was in later and worse times
+committed by the English, was wont to be excused in that same base fear
+of treachery. Amyas's plan, like that of Drake, and Cook, and all
+great English voyagers, had been all along to inspire at once awe
+and confidence, by a frank and fearless carriage; and he was not
+disappointed here. He bade the men step boldly into their canoes, and
+follow the old Indian whither he would. The simple children of the
+forest bowed themselves reverently before the mighty strangers, and then
+led them smilingly across the stream, and through a narrow passage in
+the covert, to a hidden lagoon, on the banks of which stood, not Manoa,
+but a tiny Indian village.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+HOW AMYAS WAS TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL
+
+     "Let us alone.  What pleasure can we have
+        To war with evil?  Is there any peace
+     In always climbing up the climbing wave?
+        All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave
+     In silence; ripen, fall, and cease:
+        Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease."
+
+                                                       TENNYSON.
+
+Humboldt has somewhere a curious passage; in which, looking on some
+wretched group of Indians, squatting stupidly round their fires,
+besmeared with grease and paint, and devouring ants and clay, he
+somewhat naively remarks, that were it not for science, which teaches
+us that such is the crude material of humanity, and this the state from
+which we all have risen, he should have been tempted rather to look upon
+those hapless beings as the last degraded remnants of some fallen and
+dying race. One wishes that the great traveller had been bold enough
+to yield to that temptation, which his own reason and common sense
+presented to him as the real explanation of the sad sight, instead
+of following the dogmas of a so-called science, which has not a fact
+whereon to base its wild notion, and must ignore a thousand facts in
+asserting it. His own good sense, it seems, coincided instinctively with
+the Bible doctrine, that man in a state of nature is a fallen being,
+doomed to death--a view which may be a sad one, but still one more
+honorable to poor humanity than the theory, that we all began as some
+sort of two-handed apes. It is surely more hopeful to believe that those
+poor Otomacs or Guahibas were not what they ought to be, than to believe
+that they were. It is certainly more complimentary to them to think that
+they had been somewhat nobler and more prudent in centuries gone by,
+than that they were such blockheads as to have dragged on, the son after
+the father, for all the thousands of years which have elapsed since man
+was made, without having had wit enough to discover any better food than
+ants and clay.
+
+Our voyagers, however, like those of their time, troubled their heads
+with no such questions. Taking the Bible story as they found it, they
+agreed with Humboldt's reason, and not with his science; or, to speak
+correctly, agreed with Humboldt's self, and not with the shallow
+anthropologic theories which happened to be in vogue fifty years ago;
+and their new hosts were in their eyes immortal souls like themselves,
+"captivated by the devil at his will," lost there in the pathless
+forests, likely to be lost hereafter.
+
+And certainly facts seemed to bear out their old-fashioned theories;
+although these Indians had sunk by no means so low as the Guahibas whom
+they had met upon the lower waters of the same river.
+
+They beheld, on landing, a scattered village of palm-leaf sheds, under
+which, as usual, the hammocks were slung from tree to tree. Here
+and there, in openings in the forest, patches of cassava and indigo
+appeared; and there was a look of neatness and comfort about the little
+settlement superior to the average.
+
+But now for the signs of the evil spirit. Certainly it was no good
+spirit who had inspired them with the art of music; or else (as Cary
+said) Apollo and Mercury (if they ever visited America) had played their
+forefathers a shabby trick, and put them off with very poor instruments,
+and still poorer taste. For on either side of the landing-place were
+arranged four or five stout fellows, each with a tall drum, or long
+earthen trumpet, swelling out in the course of its length into several
+hollow balls from which arose, the moment the strangers set foot on
+shore, so deafening a cacophony of howls, and groans, and thumps, as
+fully to justify Yeo's remark, "They are calling upon their devil, sir."
+To which Cary answered, with some show of reason, that "they were the
+less likely to be disappointed, for none but Sir Urian would ever come
+to listen to such a noise."
+
+"And you mark, sirs," said Yeo, "there's some feast or sacrifice toward.
+I'm not overconfident of them yet."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Amyas, "we could kill every soul of them in
+half-an-hour, and they know that as well as we."
+
+But some great demonstration was plainly toward; for the children of the
+forest were arrayed in two lines, right and left of the open space, the
+men in front, and the women behind; and all bedizened, to the best of
+their power, with arnotto, indigo, and feathers.
+
+Next, with a hideous yell, leapt into the centre of the space a
+personage who certainly could not have complained if any one had taken
+him for the devil, for he had dressed himself up carefully for that very
+intent, in a jaguar-skin with a long tail, grinning teeth, a pair of
+horns, a plume of black and yellow feathers, and a huge rattle.
+
+"Here's the Piache, the rascal," says Amyas.
+
+"Ay," says Yeo, "in Satan's livery, and I've no doubt his works are
+according, trust him for it."
+
+"Don't be frightened, Jack," says Cary, backing up Brimblecombe from
+behind. "It's your business to tackle him, you know. At him boldly, and
+he'll run."
+
+Whereat all the men laughed; and the Piache, who had intended to produce
+a very solemn impression, hung fire a little. However, being accustomed
+to get his bread by his impudence, he soon recovered himself, advanced,
+smote one of the musicians over the head with his rattle to procure
+silence; and then began a harangue, to which Amyas listened patiently,
+cigar in mouth.
+
+"What's it all about, boy?"
+
+"He wants to know whether you have seen Amalivaca on the other shore of
+the great water?"
+
+Amyas was accustomed to this inquiry after the mythic civilizer of
+the forest Indians, who, after carving the mysterious sculptures which
+appear upon so many inland cliffs of that region, returned again whence
+he came, beyond the ocean. He answered, as usual, by setting forth the
+praises of Queen Elizabeth.
+
+To which the Piache replied, that she must be one of Amalivaca's seven
+daughters, some of whom he took back with him, while he broke the legs
+of the rest to prevent their running away, and left them to people the
+forests.
+
+To which Amyas replied, that his queen's legs were certainly not broken;
+for she was a very model of grace and activity, and the best dancer in
+all her dominions; but that it was more important to him to know whether
+the tribe would give them cassava bread, and let them stay peaceably on
+that island, to rest a while before they went on to fight the clothed
+men (the Spaniards), on the other side of the mountains.
+
+On which the Piache, after capering and turning head over heels with
+much howling, beckoned Amyas and his party to follow him; they did so,
+seeing that the Indians were all unarmed, and evidently in the highest
+good humor.
+
+The Piache went toward the door of a carefully closed hut, and crawling
+up to it on all-fours in most abject fashion, began whining to some one
+within.
+
+"Ask what he is about, boy."
+
+The lad asked the old cacique, who had accompanied them, and received
+for answer, that he was consulting the Daughter of the Sun.
+
+"Here is our mare's nest at last," quoth Cary, as the Piache from whines
+rose to screams and gesticulations, and then to violent convulsions,
+foaming at the mouth, and rolling of the eyeballs, till he suddenly sank
+exhausted, and lay for dead.
+
+"As good as a stage play."
+
+"The devil has played his part," says Jack; "and now by the rules of all
+plays Vice should come on."
+
+"And a very fair Vice it will be, I suspect; a right sweet Iniquity, my
+Jack! Listen."
+
+And from the interior of the hut rose a low sweet song, at which all
+the simple Indians bowed their heads in reverence; and the English were
+hushed in astonishment; for the voice was not shrill or guttural, like
+that of an Indian, but round, clear, and rich, like a European's; and as
+it swelled and rose louder and louder, showed a compass and power which
+would have been extraordinary anywhere (and many a man of the party,
+as was usual in musical old England, was a good judge enough of such
+a matter, and could hold his part right well in glee, and catch, and
+roundelay, and psalm). And as it leaped, and ran, and sank again, and
+rose once more to fall once more, all but inarticulate, yet perfect in
+melody, like the voice of bird on bough, the wild wanderers were rapt
+in new delight, and did not wonder at the Indians as they bowed their
+heads, and welcomed the notes as messengers from some higher world. At
+last one triumphant burst, so shrill that all ears rang again, and then
+dead silence. The Piache, suddenly restored to life, jumped upright, and
+recommenced preaching at Amyas.
+
+"Tell the howling villain to make short work of it, lad! His tune won't
+do after that last one."
+
+The lad, grinning, informed Amyas that the Piache signified their
+acceptance as friends by the Daughter of the Sun; that her friends were
+theirs, and her foes theirs. Whereon the Indians set up a scream of
+delight, and Amyas, rolling another tobacco leaf up in another strip of
+plantain, answered,--
+
+"Then let her give us some cassava," and lighted a fresh cigar.
+
+Whereon the door of the hut opened, and the Indians prostrated
+themselves to the earth, as there came forth the same fair apparition
+which they had encountered upon the island, but decked now in
+feather-robes, and plumes of every imaginable hue.
+
+Slowly and stately, as one accustomed to command, she walked up to
+Amyas, glancing proudly round on her prostrate adorers, and pointing
+with graceful arms to the trees, the gardens, and the huts, gave him to
+understand by signs (so expressive were her looks, that no words were
+needed) that all was at his service; after which, taking his hand, she
+lifted it gently to her forehead.
+
+At that sign of submission a shout of rapture rose from the crowd; and
+as the mysterious maiden retired again to her hut, they pressed round
+the English, caressing and admiring, pointing with equal surprise to
+their swords, to their Indian bows and blow-guns, and to the trophies
+of wild beasts with which they were clothed; while women hastened off
+to bring fruit, and flowers, and cassava, and (to Amyas's great anxiety)
+calabashes of intoxicating drink; and, to make a long story short, the
+English sat down beneath the trees, and feasted merrily, while the drums
+and trumpets made hideous music, and lithe young girls and lads danced
+uncouth dances, which so scandalized both Brimblecombe and Yeo, that
+they persuaded Amyas to beat an early retreat. He was willing enough
+to get back to the island while the men were still sober; so there were
+many leave-takings and promises of return on the morrow, and the party
+paddled back to their island-fortress, racking their wits as to who or
+what the mysterious maid could be.
+
+Amyas, however, had settled in his mind that she was one of the lost
+Inca race; perhaps a descendant of that very fair girl, wife of the
+Inca Manco, whom Pizarro, forty years before, had, merely to torture
+the fugitive king's heart, as his body was safe from the tyrant's reach,
+stripped, scourged, and shot to death with arrows, uncomplaining to the
+last.
+
+They all assembled for the evening service (hardly a day had passed
+since they left England on which they had not done the same); and after
+it was over, they must needs sing a Psalm, and then a catch or two, ere
+they went to sleep; and till the moon was high in heaven, twenty mellow
+voices rang out above the roar of the cataract, in many a good old tune.
+Once or twice they thought they heard an echo to their song: but they
+took no note of it, till Cary, who had gone apart for a few minutes,
+returned, and whispered Amyas away.
+
+"The sweet Iniquity is mimicking us, lad."
+
+They went to the brink of the river; and there (for their ears were by
+this time dead to the noise of the torrent) they could hear plainly the
+same voice which had so surprised them in the hut, repeating, clear
+and true, snatches of the airs which they had sung. Strange and solemn
+enough was the effect of the men's deep voices on the island, answered
+out of the dark forest by those sweet treble notes; and the two young
+men stood a long while listening and looking out across the eddies,
+which swirled down golden in the moonlight: but they could see nothing
+beyond save the black wall of trees. After a while the voice ceased, and
+the two returned to dream of Incas and nightingales.
+
+They visited the village again next day; and every day for a week or
+more: but the maiden appeared but rarely, and when she did, kept her
+distance as haughtily as a queen.
+
+Amyas, of course, as soon as he could converse somewhat better with his
+new friends, was not long before he questioned the cacique about
+her. But the old man made an owl's face at her name, and intimated by
+mysterious shakes of the head, that she was a very strange personage,
+and the less said about her the better. She was "a child of the Sun,"
+and that was enough.
+
+"Tell him, boy," quoth Cary, "that we are the children of the Sun by
+his first wife; and have orders from him to inquire how the Indians
+have behaved to our step-sister, for he cannot see all their tricks down
+here, the trees are so thick. So let him tell us, or all the cassava
+plants shall be blighted."
+
+"Will, Will, don't play with lying!" said Amyas: but the threat was
+enough for the cacique, and taking them in his canoe a full mile down
+the stream, as if in fear that the wonderful maiden should overhear him,
+he told them, in a sort of rhythmic chant, how, many moons ago (he
+could not tell how many), his tribe was a mighty nation, and dwelt in
+Papamene, till the Spaniards drove them forth. And how, as they wandered
+northward, far away upon the mountain spurs beneath the flaming cone
+of Cotopaxi, they had found this fair creature wandering in the forest,
+about the bigness of a seven years' child. Wondering at her white skin
+and her delicate beauty, the simple Indians worshipped her as a god,
+and led her home with them. And when they found that she was human like
+themselves, their wonder scarcely lessened. How could so tender a being
+have sustained life in those forests, and escaped the jaguar and the
+snake? She must be under some Divine protection: she must be a daughter
+of the Sun, one of that mighty Inca race, the news of whose fearful
+fall had reached even those lonely wildernesses; who had, many of them,
+haunted for years as exiles the eastern slopes of the Andes, about the
+Ucalayi and the Maranon; who would, as all Indians knew, rise again
+some day to power, when bearded white men should come across the seas to
+restore them to their ancient throne.
+
+So, as the girl grew up among them, she was tended with royal honors,
+by command of the conjuror of the tribe, that so her forefather the Sun
+might be propitious to them, and the Incas might show favor to the poor
+ruined Omaguas, in the day of their coming glory. And as she grew, she
+had become, it seemed, somewhat of a prophetess among them, as well
+as an object of fetish-worship; for she was more prudent in council,
+valiant in war, and cunning in the chase, than all the elders of the
+tribe; and those strange and sweet songs of hers, which had so surprised
+the white men, were full of mysterious wisdom about the birds, and the
+animals, and the flowers, and the rivers, which the Sun and the Good
+Spirit taught her from above. So she had lived among them, unmarried
+still, not only because she despised the addresses of all Indian youths,
+but because the conjuror had declared it to be profane in them to mingle
+with the race of the Sun, and had assigned her a cabin near his own,
+where she was served in state, and gave some sort of oracular responses,
+as they had seen, to the questions which he put to her.
+
+Such was the cacique's tale; on which Cary remarked, probably not
+unjustly, that he "dared to say the conjuror made a very good thing of
+it:" but Amyas was silent, full of dreams, if not about Manoa, still
+about the remnant of the Inca race. What if they were still to be found
+about the southern sources of the Amazon? He must have been very near
+them already, in that case. It was vexatious; but at least he might
+be sure that they had formed no great kingdom in that direction, or he
+should have heard of it long ago. Perhaps they had moved lately from
+thence eastward, to escape some fresh encroachment of the Spaniards; and
+this girl had been left behind in their flight. And then he recollected,
+with a sigh, how hopeless was any further search with his diminished
+band. At least, he might learn something of the truth from the maiden
+herself. It might be useful to him in some future attempt; for he
+had not yet given up Manoa. If he but got safe home, there was many a
+gallant gentleman (and Raleigh came at once into his mind) who would
+join him in a fresh search for the Golden City of Guiana; not by the
+upper waters, but by the mouth of the Orinoco.
+
+So they paddled back, while the simple cacique entreated them to tell
+the Sun, in their daily prayers, how well the wild people had treated
+his descendant; and besought them not to take her away with them, lest
+the Sun should forget the poor Omaguas, and ripen their manioc and their
+fruit no more.
+
+Amyas had no wish to stay where he was longer than was absolutely
+necessary to bring up the sick men from the Orinoco; but this, he well
+knew, would be a journey probably of some months, and attended with much
+danger.
+
+Cary volunteered at once, however, to undertake the adventure, if
+half-a-dozen men would join him, and the Indians would send a few young
+men to help in working the canoe: but this latter item was not an easy
+one to obtain; for the tribe with whom they now were, stood in some fear
+of the fierce and brutal Guahibas, through whose country they must pass;
+and every Indian tribe, as Amyas knew well enough, looks on each tribe
+of different language to itself as natural enemies, hateful, and made
+only to be destroyed wherever met. This strange fact, too, Amyas and his
+party attributed to delusion of the devil, the divider and accuser; and
+I am of opinion that they were perfectly right: only let Amyas take care
+that while he is discovering the devil in the Indians, he does not give
+place to him in himself, and that in more ways than one. But of that
+more hereafter.
+
+Whether, however, it was pride or shyness which kept the maiden aloof,
+she conquered it after a while; perhaps through mere woman's curiosity;
+and perhaps, too, from mere longing for amusement in a place so
+unspeakably stupid as the forest. She gave the English to understand,
+however, that though they all might be very important personages, none
+of them was to be her companion but Amyas. And ere a month was past, she
+was often hunting with him far and wide in the neighboring forest, with
+a train of chosen nymphs, whom she had persuaded to follow her example
+and spurn the dusky suitors around. This fashion, not uncommon, perhaps,
+among the Indian tribes, where women are continually escaping to
+the forest from the tyranny of the men, and often, perhaps, forming
+temporary communities, was to the English a plain proof that they were
+near the land of the famous Amazons, of whom they had heard so often
+from the Indians; while Amyas had no doubt that, as a descendant of the
+Incas, the maiden preserved the tradition of the Virgins of the Sun, and
+of the austere monastic rule of the Peruvian superstition. Had not that
+valiant German, George of Spires, and Jeronimo Ortal too, fifty years
+before, found convents of the Sun upon these very upper waters?
+
+So a harmless friendship sprang up between Amyas and the girl, which
+soon turned to good account. For she no sooner heard that he needed a
+crew of Indians, than she consulted the Piache, assembled the tribe, and
+having retired to her hut, commenced a song, which (unless the Piache
+lied) was a command to furnish young men for Cary's expedition,
+under penalty of the sovereign displeasure of an evil spirit with an
+unpronounceable name--an argument which succeeded on the spot, and the
+canoe departed on its perilous errand.
+
+John Brimblecombe had great doubts whether a venture thus started by
+direct help and patronage of the fiend would succeed; and Amyas himself,
+disliking the humbug, told Ayacanora that it would be better to have
+told the tribe that it was a good deed, and pleasing to the Good Spirit.
+
+"Ah!" said she, naively enough, "they know better than that. The Good
+Spirit is big and lazy; and he smiles, and takes no trouble: but the
+little bad spirit, he is so busy--here, and there, and everywhere," and
+she waved her pretty hands up and down; "he is the useful one to have
+for a friend!" Which sentiment the Piache much approved, as became his
+occupation; and once told Brimblecombe pretty sharply, that he was a
+meddlesome fellow for telling the Indians that the Good Spirit cared for
+them; "for," quoth he, "if they begin to ask the Good Spirit for what
+they want, who will bring me cassava and coca for keeping the bad spirit
+quiet?" This argument, however forcible the devil's priests in all ages
+have felt it to be, did not stop Jack's preaching (and very good and
+righteous preaching it was, moreover), and much less the morning and
+evening service in the island camp. This last, the Indians, attracted
+by the singing, attended in such numbers, that the Piache found his
+occupation gone, and vowed to put an end to Jack's Gospel with a
+poisoned arrow.
+
+Which plan he (blinded by his master, Satan, so Jack phrased it) took
+into his head to impart to Ayacanora, as the partner of his tithes and
+offerings; and was exceedingly astonished to receive in answer a box on
+the ear, and a storm of abuse. After which, Ayacanora went to Amyas,
+and telling him all, proposed that the Piache should be thrown to the
+alligators, and Jack installed in his place; declaring that whatsoever
+the bearded men said must be true, and whosoever plotted against them
+should die the death.
+
+Jack, however, magnanimously forgave his foe, and preached on, of course
+with fresh zeal; but not, alas! with much success. For the conjuror,
+though his main treasure was gone over to the camp of the enemy, had a
+reserve in a certain holy trumpet, which was hidden mysteriously in a
+cave on the neighboring hills, not to be looked on by woman under pain
+of death; and it was well known, and had been known for generations,
+that unless that trumpet, after fastings, flagellations, and other
+solemn rites, was blown by night throughout the woods, the palm-trees
+would bear no fruit; yea, so great was the fame of that trumpet, that
+neighboring tribes sent at the proper season to hire it and the blower
+thereof, by payment of much precious trumpery, that so they might be
+sharers in its fertilizing powers.
+
+So the Piache announced one day in public, that in consequence of the
+impiety of the Omaguas, he should retire to a neighboring tribe, of more
+religious turn of mind; and taking with him the precious instrument,
+leave their palms to blight, and themselves to the evil spirit.
+
+Dire was the wailing, and dire the wrath throughout the village.
+Jack's words were allowed to be good words; but what was the Gospel in
+comparison of the trumpet? The rascal saw his advantage, and began
+a fierce harangue against the heretic strangers. As he maddened, his
+hearers maddened; the savage nature, capricious as a child's, flashed
+out in wild suspicion. Women yelled, men scowled, and ran hastily to
+their huts for bows and blow-guns. The case was grown critical. There
+were not more than a dozen men with Amyas at the time, and they had only
+their swords, while the Indian men might muster nearly a hundred. Amyas
+forbade his men either to draw or to retreat; but poisoned arrows were
+weapons before which the boldest might well quail; and more than one
+cheek grew pale, which had seldom been pale before.
+
+"It is God's quarrel, sirs all," said Jack Brimblecombe; "let Him defend
+the right."
+
+As he spoke, from Ayacanora's hut arose her magic song, and quivered
+aloft among the green heights of the forest.
+
+The mob stood spell-bound, still growling fiercely, but not daring to
+move. Another moment, and she had rushed out, like a very Diana, into
+the centre of the ring, bow in hand, and arrow on the string.
+
+The fallen "children of wrath" had found their match in her; for her
+beautiful face was convulsed with fury. Almost foaming in her passion,
+she burst forth with bitter revilings; she pointed with admiration to
+the English, and then with fiercest contempt to the Indians; and at
+last, with fierce gestures, seemed to cast off the very dust of her
+feet against them, and springing to Amyas's side, placed herself in the
+forefront of the English battle.
+
+The whole scene was so sudden, that Amyas had hardly discovered whether
+she came as friend or foe, before her bow was raised. He had just time
+to strike up her hand, when the arrow flew past the ear of the offending
+Piache, and stuck quivering in a tree.
+
+"Let me kill the wretch!" said she, stamping with rage; but Amyas held
+her arm firmly.
+
+"Fools!" cried she to the tribe, while tears of anger rolled down her
+cheeks. "Choose between me and your trumpet! I am a daughter of the Sun;
+I am white; I am a companion for Englishmen! But you! your mothers were
+Guahibas, and ate mud; and your fathers--they were howling apes! Let
+them sing to you! I shall go to the white men, and never sing you to
+sleep any more; and when the little evil spirit misses my voice, he will
+come and tumble you out of your hammocks, and make you dream of ghosts
+every night, till you grow as thin as blow-guns, and as stupid as
+aye-ayes!"*
+
+     * Two-toed sloths.
+
+This terrible counter-threat, in spite of the slight bathos involved,
+had its effect; for it appealed to that dread of the sleep world which
+is common to all savages: but the conjuror was ready to outbid the
+prophetess, and had begun a fresh oration, when Amyas turned the tide
+of war. Bursting into a huge laugh at the whole matter, he took the
+conjuror by his shoulders, sent him with one crafty kick half-a-dozen
+yards off upon his nose; and then, walking out of the ranks, shook hands
+round with all his Indian acquaintances.
+
+Whereon, like grown-up babies, they all burst out laughing too, shook
+hands with all the English, and then with each other; being, after all,
+as glad as any bishops to prorogue the convocation, and let unpleasant
+questions stand over till the next session. The Piache relented, like
+a prudent man; Ayacanora returned to her hut to sulk; and Amyas to his
+island, to long for Cary's return, for he felt himself on dangerous
+ground.
+
+At last Will returned, safe and sound, and as merry as ever, not having
+lost a man (though he had had a smart brush with the Guahibas). He
+brought back three of the wounded men, now pretty nigh cured; the other
+two, who had lost a leg apiece, had refused to come. They had Indian
+wives; more than they could eat; and tobacco without end: and if it were
+not for the gnats (of which Cary said that there were more mosquitoes
+than there was air), they should be the happiest men alive. Amyas could
+hardly blame the poor fellows; for the chance of their getting home
+through the forest with one leg each was very small, and, after all,
+they were making the best of a bad matter. And a very bad matter it
+seemed to him, to be left in a heathen land; and a still worse matter,
+when he overheard some of the men talking about their comrades' lonely
+fate, as if, after all, they were not so much to be pitied. He said
+nothing about it then, for he made a rule never to take notice of any
+facts which he got at by eavesdropping, however unintentional; but he
+longed that one of them would say as much to him, and he would "give
+them a piece of his mind." And a piece of his mind he had to give within
+the week; for while he was on a hunting party, two of his men were
+missing, and were not heard of for some days; at the end of which time
+the old cacique come to tell him that he believed they had taken to the
+forest, each with an Indian girl.
+
+Amyas was very wroth at the news. First, because it had never happened
+before: he could say with honest pride, as Raleigh did afterwards when
+he returned from his Guiana voyage, that no Indian woman had ever been
+the worse for any man of his. He had preached on this point month after
+month, and practised what he preached; and now his pride was sorely
+hurt.
+
+Moreover, he dreaded offence to the Indians themselves: but on this
+score the cacique soon comforted him, telling him that the girls, as far
+as he could find, had gone off of their own free will; intimating that
+he thought it somewhat an honor to the tribe that they had found favor
+in the eyes of the bearded men; and moreover, that late wars had so
+thinned the ranks of their men, that they were glad enough to find
+husbands for their maidens, and had been driven of late years to kill
+many of their female infants. This sad story, common perhaps to every
+American tribe, and one of the chief causes of their extermination,
+reassured Amyas somewhat: but he could not stomach either the loss of
+his men, or their breach of discipline; and look for them he would. Did
+any one know where they were? If the tribe knew, they did not care to
+tell: but Ayacanora, the moment she found out his wishes, vanished into
+the forest, and returned in two days, saying that she had found the
+fugitives; but she would not show him where they were, unless he
+promised not to kill them. He, of course, had no mind for so rigorous a
+method: he both needed the men, and he had no malice against them,--for
+the one, Ebsworthy, was a plain, honest, happy-go-lucky sailor, and
+as good a hand as there was in the crew; and the other was that same
+ne'er-do-weel Will Parracombe, his old schoolfellow, who had been
+tempted by the gipsy-Jesuit at Appledore, and resisting that bait, had
+made a very fair seaman.
+
+So forth Amyas went, with Ayacanora as a guide, some five miles upward
+along the forest slopes, till the girl whispered, "There they are;"
+and Amyas, pushing himself gently through a thicket of bamboo, beheld
+a scene which, in spite of his wrath, kept him silent, and perhaps
+softened, for a minute.
+
+On the farther side of a little lawn, the stream leapt through a chasm
+beneath overarching vines, sprinkling eternal freshness upon all around,
+and then sank foaming into a clear rock-basin, a bath for Dian's self.
+On its farther side, the crag rose some twenty feet in height, bank upon
+bank of feathered ferns and cushioned moss, over the rich green beds of
+which drooped a thousand orchids, scarlet, white, and orange, and made
+the still pool gorgeous with the reflection of their gorgeousness. At
+its more quiet outfall, it was half-hidden in huge fantastic leaves and
+tall flowering stems; but near the waterfall the grassy bank sloped
+down toward the stream, and there, on palm-leaves strewed upon the turf,
+beneath the shadow of the crags, lay the two men whom Amyas sought,
+and whom, now he had found them, he had hardly heart to wake from their
+delicious dream.
+
+For what a nest it was which they had found! the air was heavy with
+the scent of flowers, and quivering with the murmur of the stream, the
+humming of the colibris and insects, the cheerful song of birds, the
+gentle cooing of a hundred doves; while now and then, from far away,
+the musical wail of the sloth, or the deep toll of the bell-bird, came
+softly to the ear. What was not there which eye or ear could need? And
+what which palate could need either? For on the rock above, some strange
+tree, leaning forward, dropped every now and then a luscious apple upon
+the grass below, and huge wild plantains bent beneath their load of
+fruit.
+
+There, on the stream bank, lay the two renegades from civilized life.
+They had cast away their clothes, and painted themselves, like the
+Indians, with arnotto and indigo. One lay lazily picking up the fruit
+which fell close to his side; the other sat, his back against a cushion
+of soft moss, his hands folded languidly upon his lap, giving himself up
+to the soft influence of the narcotic coca-juice, with half-shut dreamy
+eyes fixed on the everlasting sparkle of the waterfall--
+
+     "While beauty, born of murmuring sound,
+     Did pass into his face."
+
+Somewhat apart crouched their two dusky brides, crowned with fragrant
+flowers, but working busily, like true women, for the lords whom they
+delighted to honor. One sat plaiting palm fibres into a basket; the
+other was boring the stem of a huge milk-tree, which rose like some
+mighty column on the right hand of the lawn, its broad canopy of leaves
+unseen through the dense underwood of laurel and bamboo, and betokened
+only by the rustle far aloft, and by the mellow shade in which it bathed
+the whole delicious scene.
+
+Amyas stood silent for awhile, partly from noble shame at seeing two
+Christian men thus fallen of their own self-will; partly because--and
+he could not but confess that--a solemn calm brooded above that glorious
+place, to break through which seemed sacrilege even while he felt it
+a duty. Such, he thought, was Paradise of old; such our first parents'
+bridal bower! Ah! if man had not fallen, he too might have dwelt forever
+in such a home--with whom? He started, and shaking off the spell,
+advanced sword in hand.
+
+The women saw him, and springing to their feet, caught up their long
+pocunas, and leapt like deer each in front of her beloved. There they
+stood, the deadly tubes pressed to their lips, eyeing him like tigresses
+who protect their young, while every slender limb quivered, not with
+terror, but with rage.
+
+Amyas paused, half in admiration, half in prudence; for one rash step
+was death. But rushing through the canes, Ayacanora sprang to the front,
+and shrieked to them in Indian. At the sight of the prophetess the women
+wavered, and Amyas, putting on as gentle a face as he could, stepped
+forward, assuring them in his best Indian that he would harm no one.
+
+"Ebsworthy! Parracombe! Are you grown such savages already, that you
+have forgotten your captain? Stand up, men, and salute!"
+
+Ebsworthy sprang to his feet, obeyed mechanically, and then slipped
+behind his bride again, as if in shame. The dreamer turned his head
+languidly, raised his hand to his forehead, and then returned to his
+contemplation.
+
+Amyas rested the point of his sword on the ground, and his hands upon
+the hilt, and looked sadly and solemnly upon the pair. Ebsworthy broke
+the silence, half reproachfully, half trying to bluster away the coming
+storm.
+
+"Well, noble captain, so you've hunted out us poor fellows; and want to
+drag us back again in a halter, I suppose?"
+
+"I came to look for Christians, and I find heathens; for men, and I find
+swine. I shall leave the heathens to their wilderness, and the swine to
+their trough. Parracombe!"
+
+"He's too happy to answer you, sir. And why not? What do you want of us?
+Our two years vow is out, and we are free men now."
+
+"Free to become like the beasts that perish? You are the queen's
+servants still, and in her name I charge you--
+
+"Free to be happy," interrupted the man. "With the best of wives, the
+best of food, a warmer bed than a duke's, and a finer garden than an
+emperor's. As for clothes, why the plague should a man wear them where
+he don't need them? As for gold, what's the use of it where Heaven sends
+everything ready-made to your hands? Hearken, Captain Leigh. You've been
+a good captain to me, and I'll repay you with a bit of sound advice.
+Give up your gold-hunting, and toiling and moiling after honor and
+glory, and copy us. Take that fair maid behind you there to wife; pitch
+here with us; and see if you are not happier in one day than ever you
+were in all your life before."
+
+"You are drunk, sirrah! William Parracombe! Will you speak to me, or
+shall I heave you into the stream to sober you?"
+
+"Who calls William Parracombe?" answered a sleepy voice.
+
+"I, fool!--your captain."
+
+"I am not William Parracombe. He is dead long ago of hunger, and labor,
+and heavy sorrow, and will never see Bideford town any more. He is
+turned into an Indian now; and he is to sleep, sleep, sleep for a
+hundred years, till he gets his strength again, poor fellow--"
+
+"Awake, then, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ
+shall give thee light! A christened Englishman, and living thus the life
+of a beast?"
+
+"Christ shall give thee light?" answered the same unnatural abstracted
+voice. "Yes; so the parsons say. And they say too, that He is Lord of
+heaven and earth. I should have thought His light was as near us here
+as anywhere, and nearer too, by the look of the place. Look round!"
+said he, waving a lazy hand, "and see the works of God, and the place of
+Paradise, whither poor weary souls go home and rest, after their masters
+in the wicked world have used them up, with labor and sorrow, and made
+them wade knee-deep in blood--I'm tired of blood, and tired of gold.
+I'll march no more; I'll fight no more; I'll hunger no more after vanity
+and vexation of spirit. What shall I get by it? Maybe I shall leave my
+bones in the wilderness. I can but do that here. Maybe I shall get home
+with a few pezos, to die an old cripple in some stinking hovel, that a
+monkey would scorn to lodge in here. You may go on; it'll pay you. You
+may be a rich man, and a knight, and live in a fine house, and drink
+good wine, and go to Court, and torment your soul with trying to
+get more, when you've got too much already; plotting and planning to
+scramble upon your neighbor's shoulders, as they all did--Sir Richard,
+and Mr. Raleigh, and Chichester, and poor dear old Sir Warham, and all
+of them that I used to watch when I lived before. They were no happier
+than I was then; I'll warrant they are no happier now. Go your ways,
+captain; climb to glory upon some other backs than ours, and leave us
+here in peace, alone with God and God's woods, and the good wives that
+God has given us, to play a little like school children. It's long since
+I've had play-hours; and now I'll be a little child once more, with the
+flowers, and the singing birds, and the silver fishes in the stream,
+that are at peace, and think no harm, and want neither clothes, nor
+money, nor knighthood, nor peerage, but just take what comes; and their
+heavenly Father feedeth them, and Solomon in all his glory was not
+arrayed like one of these--and will He not much more feed us, that are
+of more value than many sparrows?"
+
+"And will you live here, shut out from all Christian ordinances?"
+
+"Christian ordinances? Adam and Eve had no parsons in Paradise. The Lord
+was their priest, and the Lord was their shepherd, and He'll be ours
+too. But go your ways, sir, and send up Sir John Brimblecombe, and let
+him marry us here Church fashion (though we have sworn troth to each
+other before God already), and let him give us the Holy Sacrament once
+and for all, and then read the funeral service over us, and go his ways,
+and count us for dead, sir--for dead we are to the wicked worthless
+world we came out of three years ago. And when the Lord chooses to call
+us, the little birds will cover us with leaves, as they did the babies
+in the wood, and fresher flowers will grow out of our graves, sir, than
+out of yours in that bare Northam churchyard there beyond the weary,
+weary, weary sea."
+
+His voice died away to a murmur, and his head sank on his breast.
+
+Amyas stood spell-bound. The effect of the narcotic was all but
+miraculous in his eyes. The sustained eloquence, the novel richness of
+diction in one seemingly drowned in sensual sloth, were, in his eyes,
+the possession of some evil spirit. And yet he could not answer the Evil
+One. His English heart, full of the divine instinct of duty and public
+spirit, told him that it must be a lie: but how to prove it a lie? And
+he stood for full ten minutes searching for an answer, which seemed to
+fly farther and farther off the more he sought for it.
+
+His eye glanced upon Ayacanora. The two girls were whispering to her
+smilingly. He saw one of them glance a look toward him, and then say
+something, which raised a beautiful blush in the maiden's face. With a
+playful blow at the speaker, she turned away. Amyas knew instinctively
+that they were giving her the same advice as Ebsworthy had given to him.
+Oh, how beautiful she was! Might not the renegades have some reason on
+their side after all.
+
+He shuddered at the thought: but he could not shake it off. It glided
+in like some gaudy snake, and wreathed its coils round all his heart
+and brain. He drew back to the other side of the lawn, and thought and
+thought--
+
+Should he ever get home? If he did, might he not get home a beggar?
+Beggar or rich, he would still have to face his mother, to go through
+that meeting, to tell that tale, perhaps, to hear those reproaches, the
+forecast of which had weighed on him like a dark thunder-cloud for two
+weary years; to wipe out which by some desperate deed of glory he had
+wandered the wilderness, and wandered in vain.
+
+Could he not settle here? He need not be a savage, he and his might
+Christianize, civilize, teach equal law, mercy in war, chivalry to
+women; found a community which might be hereafter as strong a barrier
+against the encroachments of the Spaniard, as Manoa itself would have
+been. Who knew the wealth of the surrounding forests? Even if there were
+no gold, there were boundless vegetable treasures. What might he not
+export down the rivers? This might be the nucleus of a great commercial
+settlement--
+
+And yet, was even that worth while? To settle here only to torment
+his soul with fresh schemes, fresh ambitions; not to rest, but only to
+change one labor for another? Was not your dreamer right? Did they not
+all need rest? What if they each sat down among the flowers, beside an
+Indian bride? They might live like Christians, while they lived like the
+birds of heaven.--
+
+What a dead silence! He looked up and round; the birds had ceased to
+chirp; the parroquets were hiding behind the leaves; the monkeys were
+clustered motionless upon the highest twigs; only out of the far depths
+of the forest, the campanero gave its solemn toll, once, twice, thrice,
+like a great death-knell rolling down from far cathedral towers. Was
+it an omen? He looked up hastily at Ayacanora. She was watching him
+earnestly. Heavens! was she waiting for his decision? Both dropped their
+eyes. The decision was not to come from them.
+
+A rustle! a roar! a shriek! and Amyas lifted his eyes in time to see a
+huge dark bar shoot from the crag above the dreamer's head, among the
+group of girls.
+
+A dull crash, as the group flew asunder; and in the midst, upon the
+ground, the tawny limbs of one were writhing beneath the fangs of a
+black jaguar, the rarest and most terrible of the forest kings. Of one?
+But of which? Was it Ayacanora? And sword in hand, Amyas rushed madly
+forward; before he reached the spot those tortured limbs were still.
+
+It was not Ayacanora, for with a shriek which rang through the woods,
+the wretched dreamer, wakened thus at last, sprang up and felt for his
+sword. Fool! he had left it in his hammock! Screaming the name of his
+dead bride, he rushed on the jaguar, as it crouched above its prey, and
+seizing its head with teeth and nails, worried it, in the ferocity of
+his madness, like a mastiff-dog.
+
+The brute wrenched its head from his grasp, and raised its dreadful paw.
+Another moment and the husband's corpse would have lain by the wife's.
+
+But high in air gleamed Amyas's blade; down with all the weight of his
+huge body and strong arm, fell that most trusty steel; the head of the
+jaguar dropped grinning on its victim's corpse;
+
+     "And all stood still, who saw him fall,
+     While men might count a score."
+
+"O Lord Jesus," said Amyas to himself, "Thou hast answered the devil
+for me! And this is the selfish rest for which I would have bartered the
+rest which comes by working where Thou hast put me!"
+
+They bore away the lithe corpse into the forest, and buried it under
+soft moss and virgin mould; and so the fair clay was transfigured into
+fairer flowers, and the poor, gentle, untaught spirit returned to God
+who gave it.
+
+And then Amyas went sadly and silently back again, and Parracombe walked
+after him, like one who walks in sleep.
+
+Ebsworthy, sobered by the shock, entreated to come too: but Amyas
+forbade him gently,--
+
+"No, lad, you are forgiven. God forbid that I should judge you or any
+man! Sir John shall come up and marry you; and then, if it still be your
+will to stay, the Lord forgive you, if you be wrong; in the meanwhile,
+we will leave with you all that we can spare. Stay here and pray to God
+to make you, and me too, wiser men."
+
+And so Amyas departed. He had come out stern and proud; but he came back
+again like a little child.
+
+Three days after Parracombe was dead. Once in camp he seemed unable to
+eat or move, and having received absolution and communion from good Sir
+John, faded away without disease or pain, "babbling of green fields,"
+and murmuring the name of his lost Indian bride.
+
+Amyas, too, sought ghostly council of Sir John, and told him all which
+had passed through his mind.
+
+"It was indeed a temptation of Diabolus," said that simple sage; "for he
+is by his very name the divider who sets man against man, and tempts
+one to care only for oneself, and forget kin and country, and duty
+and queen. But you have resisted him, Captain Leigh, like a true-born
+Englishman, as you always are, and he has fled from you. But that is no
+reason why we should not flee from him too; and so I think the sooner we
+are out of this place, and at work again, the better for all our souls."
+
+To which Amyas most devoutly said, "Amen!" If Ayacanora were the
+daughter of ten thousand Incas, he must get out of her way as soon as
+possible.
+
+The next day he announced his intention to march once more, and to
+his delight found the men ready enough to move towards the Spanish
+settlements. One thing they needed: gunpowder for their muskets. But
+that they must make as they went along; that is, if they could get the
+materials. Charcoal they could procure, enough to set the world on fire;
+but nitre they had not yet seen; perhaps they should find it among the
+hills: while as for sulphur, any brave man could get that where there
+were volcanoes. Who had not heard how one of Cortez' Spaniards, in like
+need, was lowered in a basket down the smoking crater of Popocatepetl,
+till he had gathered sulphur enough to conquer an empire? And what a
+Spaniard could do an Englishman could do, or they would know the reason
+why. And if they found none--why clothyard arrows had done Englishmen's
+work many a time already, and they could do it again, not to mention
+those same blow-guns and their arrows of curare poison, which, though
+they might be useless against Spaniards' armor, were far more valuable
+than muskets for procuring food, from the simple fact of their silence.
+
+One thing remained; to invite their Indian friends to join them. And
+that was done in due form the next day.
+
+Ayacanora was consulted, of course, and by the Piache, too, who was glad
+enough to be rid of the rival preacher, and his unpleasantly good news
+that men need not worship the devil, because there was a good God above
+them. The maiden sang most melodious assent; the whole tribe echoed it;
+and all went smoothly enough till the old cacique observed that before
+starting a compact should be made between the allies as to their share
+of the booty.
+
+Nothing could be more reasonable; and Amyas asked him to name his terms.
+
+"You take the gold, and we will take the prisoners."
+
+"And what will you do with them?" asked Amyas, who recollected poor John
+Oxenham's hapless compact made in like case.
+
+"Eat them," quoth the cacique, innocently enough.
+
+Amyas whistled.
+
+"Humph!" said Cary. "The old proverb comes true--'the more the merrier:
+but the fewer the better fare.' I think we will do without our red
+friends for this time."
+
+Ayacanora, who had been preaching war like a very Boadicea, was much
+vexed.
+
+"Do you too want to dine off roast Spaniards?" asked Amyas.
+
+She shook her head, and denied the imputation with much disgust.
+
+Amyas was relieved; he had shrunk from joining the thought of so fair a
+creature, however degraded, with the horrors of cannibalism.
+
+But the cacique was a man of business, and held out stanchly.
+
+"Is it fair?" he asked. "The white man loves gold, and he gets it. The
+poor Indian, what use is gold to him? He only wants something to eat,
+and he must eat his enemies. What else will pay him for going so far
+through the forests hungry and thirsty? You will get all, and the
+Omaguas will get nothing."
+
+The argument was unanswerable; and the next day they started without the
+Indians, while John Brimblecombe heaved many an honest sigh at leaving
+them to darkness, the devil, and the holy trumpet.
+
+And Ayacanora?
+
+When their departure was determined, she shut herself up in her hut, and
+appeared no more. Great was the weeping, howling, and leave-taking on
+the part of the simple Indians, and loud the entreaties to come again,
+bring them a message from Amalivaca's daughter beyond the seas, and help
+them to recover their lost land of Papamene; but Ayacanora took no part
+in them; and Amyas left her, wondering at her absence, but joyful and
+light-hearted at having escaped the rocks of the Sirens, and being at
+work once more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+HOW THEY TOOK THE GOLD-TRAIN
+
+     "God will relent, and quit thee all thy debt,
+     Who ever more approves, and more accepts
+     Him who imploring mercy sues for life,
+     Than who self-rigorous chooses death as due,
+     Which argues over-just, and self-displeased
+     For self-offence, more than for God offended."
+
+                               Samson Agonistes.
+
+A fortnight or more has passed in severe toil, but not more severe than
+they have endured many a time before. Bidding farewell once and
+forever to the green ocean of the eastern plains, they have crossed the
+Cordillera; they have taken a longing glance at the city of Santa Fe,
+lying in the midst of rich gardens on its lofty mountain plateau, and
+have seen, as was to be expected, that it was far too large a place for
+any attempt of theirs. But they have not altogether thrown away their
+time. Their Indian lad has discovered that a gold-train is going down
+from Santa Fe toward the Magdalena; and they are waiting for it beside
+the miserable rut which serves for a road, encamped in a forest of oaks
+which would make them almost fancy themselves back again in Europe, were
+it not for the tree-ferns which form the undergrowth; and were it not,
+too, for the deep gorges opening at their very feet; in which, while
+their brows are swept by the cool breezes of a temperate zone, they
+can see far below, dim through their everlasting vapor-bath of rank hot
+steam, the mighty forms and gorgeous colors of the tropic forest.
+
+They have pitched their camp among the tree-ferns, above a spot where
+the path winds along a steep hill-side, with a sheer cliff below of many
+a hundred feet. There was a road there once, perhaps, when Cundinamarca
+was a civilized and cultivated kingdom; but all which Spanish misrule
+has left of it are a few steps slipping from their places at the bottom
+of a narrow ditch of mud. It has gone the way of the aqueducts, and
+bridges, and post-houses, the gardens and the llama-flocks of that
+strange empire. In the mad search for gold, every art of civilization
+has fallen to decay, save architecture alone; and that survives only in
+the splendid cathedrals which have risen upon the ruins of the temples
+of the Sun, in honor of a milder Pantheon; if, indeed, that can be
+called a milder one which demands (as we have seen already) human
+sacrifices, unknown to the gentle nature-worship of the Incas.
+
+And now, the rapid tropic vegetation has reclaimed its old domains,
+and Amyas and his crew are as utterly alone, within a few miles of an
+important Spanish settlement, as they would be in the solitudes of the
+Orinoco or the Amazon.
+
+In the meanwhile, all their attempts to find sulphur and nitre have been
+unavailing; and they have been forced to depend after all (much to Yeo's
+disgust) upon their swords and arrows. Be it so: Drake took Nombre de
+Dios and the gold-train there with no better weapons; and they may do as
+much.
+
+So, having blocked up the road above by felling a large tree across it,
+they sit there among the flowers chewing coca, in default of food and
+drink, and meditating among themselves the cause of a mysterious roar,
+which has been heard nightly in their wake ever since they left the
+banks of the Meta. Jaguar it is not, nor monkey: it is unlike any sound
+they know; and why should it follow them? However, they are in the land
+of wonders; and, moreover, the gold train is far more important than any
+noise.
+
+At last, up from beneath there was a sharp crack and a loud cry.
+The crack was neither the snapping of a branch, nor the tapping of a
+woodpecker; the cry was neither the scream of the parrot, nor the howl
+of the monkey.
+
+"That was a whip's crack," said Yeo, "and a woman's wail. They are close
+here, lads!"
+
+"A woman's? Do they drive women in their gangs?" asked Amyas.
+
+"Why not, the brutes? There they are, sir. Did you see their basnets
+glitter?"
+
+"Men!" said Amyas, in a low voice, "I trust you all not to shoot till
+I do. Then give them one arrow, out swords, and at them! Pass the word
+along."
+
+Up they came, slowly, and all hearts beat loud at their coming.
+
+First, about twenty soldiers, only one-half of whom were on foot; the
+other half being borne, incredible as it may seem, each in a chair on
+the back of a single Indian, while those who marched had consigned their
+heaviest armor and their arquebuses into the hands of attendant slaves,
+who were each pricked on at will by the pike of the soldier behind them.
+
+"The men are mad to let their ordnance out of their hands."
+
+"Oh, sir, an Indian will pray to an arquebus not to shoot him; he sure
+their artillery is safe enough," said Yeo.
+
+"Look at the proud villains," whispered another, "to make dumb beasts of
+human creatures like that!"
+
+"Ten shot," counted the business-like Amyas, "and ten pikes; Will can
+tackle them up above."
+
+Last of this troop came some inferior officer, also in his chair, who,
+as he went slowly up the hill, with his face turned toward the gang
+which followed, drew every other second the cigar from his lips, to
+inspirit them with those pious ejaculations to the various objects of
+his worship, divine, human, anatomic, wooden and textile, which earned
+for the pious Spaniards of the sixteenth century the uncharitable
+imputation of being at once the most fetish-ridden idolaters and the
+most abominable swearers of all Europeans.
+
+"The blasphemous dog!" said Yeo, fumbling at his bow-string, as if
+he longed to send an arrow through him. But Amyas had hardly laid his
+finger on the impatient veteran's arm, when another procession followed,
+which made them forget all else.
+
+A sad and hideous sight it was: yet one too common even then in those
+remoter districts, where the humane edicts were disregarded which the
+prayers of Dominican friars (to their everlasting honor be it spoken)
+had wrung from the Spanish sovereigns, and which the legislation of that
+most wise, virtuous, and heroic Inquisitor (paradoxical as the words may
+seem), Pedro de la Gasca, had carried into effect in Peru,--futile and
+tardy alleviations of cruelties and miseries unexampled in the
+history of Christendom, or perhaps on earth, save in the conquests of
+Sennacherib and Zingis Khan. But on the frontiers, where negroes were
+imported to endure the toil which was found fatal to the Indian, and all
+Indian tribes convicted (or suspected) of cannibalism were hunted down
+for the salvation of their souls and the enslavement of their bodies,
+such scenes as these were still too common; and, indeed, if we are to
+judge from Humboldt's impartial account, were not very much amended even
+at the close of the last century, in those much-boasted Jesuit missions
+in which (as many of them as existed anywhere but on paper) military
+tyranny was superadded to monastic, and the Gospel preached with fire
+and sword, almost as shamelessly as by the first Conquistadores.
+
+A line of Indians, Negroes, and Zambos, naked, emaciated, scarred with
+whips and fetters, and chained together by their left wrists, toiled
+upwards, panting and perspiring under the burden of a basket held up
+by a strap which passed across their foreheads. Yeo's sneer was but
+too just; there were not only old men and youths among them, but women;
+slender young girls, mothers with children, running at their knee;
+and, at the sight, a low murmur of indignation rose from the ambushed
+Englishmen, worthy of the free and righteous hearts of those days, when
+Raleigh could appeal to man and God, on the ground of a common humanity,
+in behalf of the outraged heathens of the New World; when Englishmen
+still knew that man was man, and that the instinct of freedom was
+the righteous voice of God; ere the hapless seventeenth century had
+brutalized them also, by bestowing on them, amid a hundred other bad
+legacies, the fatal gift of negro-slaves.
+
+But the first forty, so Amyas counted, bore on their backs a burden
+which made all, perhaps, but him and Yeo, forget even the wretches who
+bore it. Each basket contained a square package of carefully corded
+hide; the look whereof friend Amyas knew full well.
+
+"What's in they, captain?"
+
+"Gold!" And at that magic word all eyes were strained greedily forward,
+and such a rustle followed, that Amyas, in the very face of detection,
+had to whisper--
+
+"Be men, be men, or you will spoil all yet!"
+
+The last twenty, or so, of the Indians bore larger baskets, but more
+lightly freighted, seemingly with manioc, and maize-bread, and other
+food for the party; and after them came, with their bearers and
+attendants, just twenty soldiers more, followed by the officer in
+charge, who smiled away in his chair, and twirled two huge mustachios,
+thinking of nothing less than of the English arrows which were itching
+to be away and through his ribs. The ambush was complete; the only
+question how and when to begin?
+
+Amyas had a shrinking, which all will understand, from drawing bow in
+cool blood on men so utterly unsuspicious and defenceless, even though
+in the very act of devilish cruelty--for devilish cruelty it was, as
+three or four drivers armed with whips lingered up and down the slowly
+staggering file of Indians, and avenged every moment's lagging, even
+every stumble, by a blow of the cruel manati-hide, which cracked like
+a pistol-shot against the naked limbs of the silent and uncomplaining
+victim.
+
+Suddenly the casus belli, as usually happens, arose of its own accord.
+
+The last but one of the chained line was an old gray-headed man,
+followed by a slender graceful girl of some eighteen years old, and
+Amyas's heart yearned over them as they came up. Just as they passed,
+the foremost of the file had rounded the corner above; there was a
+bustle, and a voice shouted, "Halt, senors! there is a tree across the
+path!"
+
+"A tree across the path?" bellowed the officer, with a variety of
+passionate addresses to the Mother of Heaven, the fiends of hell, Saint
+Jago of Compostella, and various other personages; while the line of
+trembling Indians, told to halt above, and driven on by blows below,
+surged up and down upon the ruinous steps of the Indian road, until the
+poor old man fell grovelling on his face.
+
+The officer leaped down, and hurried upward to see what had happened. Of
+course, he came across the old man.
+
+"Sin peccado concebida! Grandfather of Beelzebub, is this a place to lie
+worshipping your fiends?" and he pricked the prostrate wretch with the
+point of his sword.
+
+The old man tried to rise: but the weight on his head was too much for
+him; he fell again, and lay motionless.
+
+The driver applied the manati-hide across his loins, once, twice, with
+fearful force; but even that specific was useless.
+
+"Gastado, Senor Capitan," said he, with a shrug. "Used up. He has been
+failing these three months!"
+
+"What does the intendant mean by sending me out with worn-out cattle
+like these? Forward there!" shouted he. "Clear away the tree, senors,
+and I'll soon clear the chain. Hold it up, Pedrillo!"
+
+The driver held up the chain, which was fastened to the old man's wrist.
+The officer stepped back, and flourished round his head a Toledo blade,
+whose beauty made Amyas break the Tenth Commandment on the spot.
+
+The man was a tall, handsome, broad-shouldered, high-bred man; and Amyas
+thought that he was going to display the strength of his arm, and the
+temper of his blade, in severing the chain at one stroke.
+
+Even he was not prepared for the recondite fancies of a Spanish
+adventurer, worthy son or nephew of those first conquerors, who used to
+try the keenness of their swords upon the living bodies of Indians, and
+regale themselves at meals with the odor of roasting caciques.
+
+The blade gleamed in the air, once, twice, and fell: not on the chain,
+but on the wrist which it fettered. There was a shriek--a crimson
+flash--and the chain and its prisoner were parted indeed.
+
+One moment more, and Amyas's arrow would have been through the throat
+of the murderer, who paused, regarding his workmanship with a satisfied
+smile; but vengeance was not to come from him.
+
+Quick and fierce as a tiger-cat, the girl sprang on the ruffian, and
+with the intense strength of passion, clasped him in her arms, and
+leaped with him from the narrow ledge into the abyss below.
+
+There was a rush, a shout; all faces were bent over the precipice.
+The girl hung by her chained wrist: the officer was gone. There was a
+moment's awful silence; and then Amyas heard his body crashing through
+the tree-tops far below.
+
+"Haul her up! Hew her in pieces! Burn the witch!" and the driver,
+seizing the chain, pulled at it with all his might, while all springing
+from their chairs, stooped over the brink.
+
+Now was the time for Amyas! Heaven had delivered them into his hands.
+Swift and sure, at ten yards off, his arrow rushed through the body of
+the driver, and then, with a roar as of the leaping lion, he sprang like
+an avenging angel into the midst of the astonished ruffians.
+
+His first thought was for the girl. In a moment, by sheer strength, he
+had jerked her safely up into the road; while the Spaniards recoiled
+right and left, fancying him for the moment some mountain giant or
+supernatural foe. His hurrah undeceived them in an instant, and a cry
+of "English! Lutheran dogs!" arose, but arose too late. The men of Devon
+had followed their captain's lead: a storm of arrows left five Spaniards
+dead, and a dozen more wounded, and down leapt Salvation Yeo, his white
+hair streaming behind him, with twenty good swords more, and the work of
+death began.
+
+The Spaniards fought like lions; but they had no time to fix their
+arquebuses on the crutches; no room, in that narrow path, to use their
+pikes. The English had the wall of them; and to have the wall there, was
+to have the foe's life at their mercy. Five desperate minutes, and not a
+living Spaniard stood upon those steps; and certainly no living one lay
+in the green abyss below. Two only, who were behind the rest, happening
+to be in full armor, escaped without mortal wound, and fled down the
+hill again.
+
+"After them! Michael Evans and Simon Heard; and catch them, if they run
+a league."
+
+The two long and lean Clovelly men, active as deer from forest training,
+ran two feet for the Spaniard's one; and in ten minutes returned, having
+done their work; while Amyas and his men hurried past the Indians, to
+help Cary and the party forward, where shouts and musket shots announced
+a sharp affray.
+
+Their arrival settled the matter. All the Spaniards fell but three or
+four, who scrambled down the crannies of the cliff.
+
+"Let not one of them escape! Slay them as Israel slew Amalek!" cried
+Yeo, as he bent over; and ere the wretches could reach a place of
+shelter, an arrow was quivering in each body, as it rolled lifeless down
+the rocks.
+
+"Now then! Loose the Indians!"
+
+They found armorers tools on one of the dead bodies, and it was done.
+
+"We are your friends," said Amyas. "All we ask is, that you shall help
+us to carry this gold down to the Magdalena, and then you are free."
+
+Some few of the younger grovelled at his knees, and kissed his feet,
+hailing him as the child of the Sun: but the most part kept a stolid
+indifference, and when freed from their fetters, sat quietly down where
+they stood, staring into vacancy. The iron had entered too deeply into
+their soul. They seemed past hope, enjoyment, even understanding.
+
+But the young girl, who was last of all in the line, as soon as she was
+loosed, sprang to her father's body, speaking no word, lifted it in her
+thin arms, laid it across her knees, kissed the fallen lips, stroked
+the furrowed cheeks, murmured inarticulate sounds like the cooing of a
+woodland dove, of which none knew the meaning but she, and he who heard
+not, for his soul had long since fled. Suddenly the truth flashed on
+her; silent as ever, she drew one long heaving breath, and rose erect,
+the body in her arms.
+
+Another moment, and she had leaped into the abyss.
+
+They watched her dark and slender limbs, twined closely round the old
+man's corpse, turn over, and over, and over, till a crash among the
+leaves, and a scream among the birds, told that she had reached the
+trees; and the green roof hid her from their view.
+
+"Brave lass!" shouted a sailor.
+
+"The Lord forgive her!" said Yeo. "But, your worship, we must have these
+rascals' ordnance."
+
+"And their clothes too, Yeo, if we wish to get down the Magdalena
+unchallenged. Now listen, my masters all! We have won, by God's good
+grace, gold enough to serve us the rest of our lives, and that without
+losing a single man; and may yet win more, if we be wise, and He thinks
+good. But oh, my friends, remember Mr. Oxenham and his crew; and do
+not make God's gift our ruin, by faithlessness, or greediness, or any
+mutinous haste."
+
+"You shall find none in us!" cried several men. "We know your worship.
+We can trust our general."
+
+"Thank God!" said Amyas. "Now then, it will be no shame or sin to
+make the Indians carry it, saving the women, whom God forbid we
+should burden. But we must pass through the very heart of the Spanish
+settlements, and by the town of Saint Martha itself. So the clothes and
+weapons of these Spaniards we must have, let it cost us what labor it
+may. How many lie in the road?"
+
+"Thirteen here, and about ten up above," said Cary.
+
+"Then there are near twenty missing. Who will volunteer to go down over
+cliff, and bring up the spoil of them?"
+
+"I, and I, and I;" and a dozen stepped out, as they did always when
+Amyas wanted anything done; for the simple reason, that they knew that
+he meant to help at the doing of it himself.
+
+"Very well, then, follow me. Sir John, take the Indian lad for your
+interpreter, and try and comfort the souls of these poor heathens. Tell
+them that they shall all be free."
+
+"Why, who is that comes up the road?"
+
+All eyes were turned in the direction of which he spoke. And, wonder of
+wonders! up came none other than Ayacanora herself, blow-gun in hand,
+bow on back, and bedecked in all her feather garments, which last were
+rather the worse for a fortnight's woodland travel.
+
+All stood mute with astonishment, as, seeing Amyas, she uttered a cry
+of joy, quickened her pace into a run, and at last fell panting and
+exhausted at his feet.
+
+"I have found you!" she said; "you ran away from me, but you could not
+escape me!" And she fawned round Amyas, like a dog who has found his
+master, and then sat down on the bank, and burst into wild sobs.
+
+"God help us!" said Amyas, clutching his hair, as he looked down upon
+the beautiful weeper. "What am I to do with her, over and above all
+these poor heathens?"
+
+But there was no time to be lost, and over the cliff he scrambled; while
+the girl, seeing that the main body of the English remained, sat down on
+a point of rock to watch him.
+
+After half-an-hour's hard work, the weapons, clothes, and armor of the
+fallen Spaniards were hauled up the cliff, and distributed in bundles
+among the men; the rest of the corpses were thrown over the precipice,
+and they started again upon their road toward the Magdalena, while Yeo
+snorted like a war-horse who smells the battle, at the delight of once
+more handling powder and ball.
+
+"We can face the world now, sir! Why not go back and try Santa Fe, after
+all?"
+
+But Amyas thought that enough was as good as a feast, and they held on
+downwards, while the slaves followed, without a sign of gratitude, but
+meekly obedient to their new masters, and testifying now and then by a
+sign or a grunt, their surprise at not being beaten, or made to carry
+their captors. Some, however, caught sight of the little calabashes of
+coca which the English carried. That woke them from their torpor,
+and they began coaxing abjectly (and not in vain) for a taste of that
+miraculous herb, which would not only make food unnecessary, and enable
+their panting lungs to endure that keen mountain air, but would rid
+them, for awhile at least, of the fallen Indian's most unpitying foe,
+the malady of thought.
+
+As the cavalcade turned the corner of the mountain, they paused for one
+last look at the scene of that fearful triumph. Lines of vultures were
+already streaming out of infinite space, as if created suddenly for the
+occasion. A few hours and there would be no trace of that fierce fray,
+but a few white bones amid untrodden beds of flowers.
+
+And now Amyas had time to ask Ayacanora the meaning of this her strange
+appearance. He wished her anywhere but where she was: but now that she
+was here, what heart could be so hard as not to take pity on the poor
+wild thing? And Amyas as he spoke to her had, perhaps, a tenderness in
+his tone, from very fear of hurting her, which he had never used before.
+Passionately she told him how she had followed on their track day and
+night, and had every evening made sounds, as loud as she dared, in hopes
+of their hearing her, and either waiting for her, or coming back to see
+what caused the noise.
+
+Amyas now recollected the strange roaring which had followed them.
+
+"Noises? What did you make them with?"
+
+Ayacanora lifted her finger with an air of most self-satisfied mystery,
+and then drew cautiously from under her feather cloak an object at which
+Amyas had hard work to keep his countenance.
+
+"Look!" whispered she, as if half afraid that the thing itself should
+hear her. "I have it--the holy trumpet!"
+
+There it was verily, that mysterious bone of contention; a handsome
+earthen tube some two feet long, neatly glazed, and painted with quaint
+grecques and figures of animals; a relic evidently of some civilization
+now extinct.
+
+Brimblecombe rubbed his little fat hands. "Brave maid! you have cheated
+Satan this time," quoth he; while Yeo advised that the "idolatrous
+relic" should be forthwith "hove over cliff."
+
+"Let be," said Amyas. "What is the meaning of this, Ayacanora? And why
+have you followed us?"
+
+She told a long story, from which Amyas picked up, as far as he could
+understand her, that that trumpet had been for years the torment of her
+life; the one thing in the tribe superior to her; the one thing which
+she was not allowed to see, because, forsooth, she was a woman. So she
+determined to show them that a woman was as good as a man; and hence
+her hatred of marriage, and her Amazonian exploits. But still the Piache
+would not show her that trumpet, or tell her where it was; and as for
+going to seek it, even she feared the superstitious wrath of the tribe
+at such a profanation. But the day after the English went, the Piache
+chose to express his joy at their departure; whereon, as was to be
+expected, a fresh explosion between master and pupil, which ended, she
+confessed, in her burning the old rogue's hut over his head, from which
+he escaped with loss of all his conjuring-tackle, and fled raging into
+the woods, vowing that he would carry off the trumpet to the neighboring
+tribe. Whereon, by a sudden impulse, the young lady took plenty of coca,
+her weapons, and her feathers, started on his trail, and ran him to
+earth just as he was unveiling the precious mystery. At which sight
+(she confessed) she was horribly afraid, and half inclined to run; but,
+gathering courage from the thought that the white men used to laugh at
+the whole matter, she rushed upon the hapless conjuror, and bore off her
+prize in triumph; and there it was!
+
+"I hope you have not killed him?" said Amyas.
+
+"I did beat him a little; but I thought you would not let me kill him."
+
+Amyas was half amused with her confession of his authority over her; but
+she went on--
+
+"And then I dare not go back to the Indians; so I was forced to come
+after you."
+
+"And is that, then, your only reason for coming after us?" asked stupid
+Amyas.
+
+He had touched some secret chord--though what it was he was too busy to
+inquire. The girl drew herself up proudly, blushing scarlet, and said:
+
+"You never tell lies. Do you think that I would tell lies?"
+
+On which she fell to the rear, and followed them steadfastly, speaking
+to no one, but evidently determined to follow them to the world's end.
+
+They soon left the highroad; and for several days held on downwards,
+hewing their path slowly and painfully through the thick underwood. On
+the evening of the fourth day, they had reached the margin of a river,
+at a point where it seemed broad and still enough for navigation. For
+those three days they had not seen a trace of human beings, and the spot
+seemed lonely enough for them to encamp without fear of discovery, and
+begin the making of their canoes. They began to spread themselves along
+the stream, in search of the soft-wooded trees proper for their purpose;
+but hardly had their search begun, when, in the midst of a dense
+thicket, they came upon a sight which filled them with astonishment.
+Beneath a honeycombed cliff, which supported one enormous cotton-tree,
+was a spot of some thirty yards square sloping down to the stream,
+planted in rows with magnificent banana-plants, full twelve feet high,
+and bearing among their huge waxy leaves clusters of ripening
+fruit; while, under their mellow shade, yams and cassava plants were
+flourishing luxuriantly, the whole being surrounded by a hedge of orange
+and scarlet flowers. There it lay, streaked with long shadows from the
+setting sun, while a cool southern air rustled in the cotton-tree, and
+flapped to and fro the great banana-leaves; a tiny paradise of art and
+care. But where was its inhabitant?
+
+Aroused by the noise of their approach, a figure issued from a cave in
+the rocks, and, after gazing at them for a moment, came down the garden
+towards them. He was a tall and stately old man, whose snow-white beard
+and hair covered his chest and shoulders, while his lower limbs were
+wrapt in Indian-web. Slowly and solemnly he approached, a staff in one
+hand, a string of beads in the other, the living likeness of some old
+Hebrew prophet, or anchorite of ancient legend. He bowed courteously to
+Amyas (who of course returned his salute), and was in act to speak, when
+his eye fell upon the Indians, who were laying down their burdens in
+a heap under the trees. His mild countenance assumed instantly an
+expression of the acutest sorrow and displeasure; and, striking his
+hands together, he spoke in Spanish:
+
+"Alas! miserable me! Alas! unhappy senors! Do my old eyes deceive me,
+and is it one of those evil visions of the past which haunt my dreams
+by night; or has the accursed thirst of gold, the ruin of my race,
+penetrated even into this my solitude? Oh, senors, senors, know you not
+that you bear with you your own poison, your own familiar fiend, the
+root of every evil? And is it not enough for you, senors, to load
+yourselves with the wedge of Achan, and partake his doom, but you must
+make these hapless heathens the victims of your greed and cruelty,
+and forestall for them on earth those torments which may await their
+unbaptized souls hereafter?"
+
+"We have preserved, and not enslaved these Indians, ancient senor," said
+Amyas, proudly; "and to-morrow will see them as free as the birds over
+our heads."
+
+"Free? Then you cannot be countrymen of mine! But pardon an old man,
+my son, if he has spoken too hastily in the bitterness of his own
+experience. But who and whence are you? And why are you bringing into
+this lonely wilderness that gold--for I know too well the shape of those
+accursed packets, which would God that I had never seen!"
+
+"What we are, reverend sir, matters little, as long as we behave to you
+as the young should to the old. As for our gold, it will be a curse or
+a blessing to us, I conceive, just as we use it well or ill; and so is
+a man's head, or his hand, or any other thing; but that is no reason for
+cutting off his limbs for fear of doing harm with them; neither is it
+for throwing away those packages, which, by your leave, we shall deposit
+in one of these caves. We must be your neighbors, I fear, for a day
+or two; but I can promise you, that your garden shall be respected, on
+condition that you do not inform any human soul of our being here."
+
+"God forbid, senor, that I should try to increase the number of my
+visitors, much less to bring hither strife and blood, of which I have
+seen too much already. As you have come in peace, in peace depart. Leave
+me alone with God and my penitence, and may the Lord have mercy on you!"
+
+And he was about to withdraw, when, recollecting himself, he turned
+suddenly to Amyas again--
+
+"Pardon me, senor, if, after forty years of utter solitude, I shrink at
+first from the conversation of human beings, and forget, in the habitual
+shyness of a recluse, the duties of a hospitable gentleman of Spain.
+My garden, and all which it produces, is at your service. Only let me
+entreat that these poor Indians shall have their share; for heathens
+though they be, Christ died for them; and I cannot but cherish in my
+soul some secret hope that He did not die in vain."
+
+"God forbid!" said Brimblecombe. "They are no worse than we, for aught
+I see, whatsoever their fathers may have been; and they have fared no
+worse than we since they have been with us, nor will, I promise you."
+
+The good fellow did not tell that he had been starving himself for the
+last three days to cram the children with his own rations; and that
+the sailors, and even Amyas, had been going out of their way every five
+minutes, to get fruit for their new pets.
+
+A camp was soon formed; and that evening the old hermit asked Amyas,
+Cary, and Brimblecombe to come up into his cavern.
+
+They went; and after the accustomed compliments had passed, sat down on
+mats upon the ground, while the old man stood, leaning against a slab of
+stone surmounted by a rude wooden cross, which evidently served him as
+a place of prayer. He seemed restless and anxious, as if he waited for
+them to begin the conversation; while they, in their turn, waited for
+him. At last, when courtesy would not allow him to be silent any longer,
+he began with a faltering voice:
+
+"You may be equally surprised, senors, at my presence in such a spot,
+and at my asking you to become my guests even for one evening, while I
+have no better hospitality to offer you."
+
+"It is superfluous, senor, to offer us food in your own habitation when
+you have already put all that you possess at our command."
+
+"True, senors: and my motive for inviting you was, perhaps, somewhat of
+a selfish one. I am possessed by a longing to unburthen my heart of a
+tale which I never yet told to man, and which I fear can give to you
+nothing but pain; and yet I will entreat you, of your courtesy, to hear
+of that which you cannot amend, simply in mercy to a man who feels that
+he must confess to some one, or die as miserable as he has lived. And
+I believe my confidence will not be misplaced, when it is bestowed upon
+you. I have been a cavalier, even as you are; and, strange as it may
+seem, that which I have to tell I would sooner impart to the ears of a
+soldier than of a priest; because it will then sink into souls which can
+at least sympathize, though they cannot absolve. And you, cavaliers, I
+perceive to be noble, from your very looks; to be valiant, by your mere
+presence in this hostile land; and to be gentle, courteous, and prudent,
+by your conduct this day to me and to your captives. Will you, then,
+hear an old man's tale? I am, as you see, full of words; for speech,
+from long disuse, is difficult to me, and I fear at every sentence lest
+my stiffened tongue should play the traitor to my worn-out brain: but
+if my request seems impertinent, you have only to bid me talk as a host
+should, of matters which concern his guests, and not himself."
+
+The three young men, equally surprised and interested by this exordium,
+could only entreat their host to "use their ears as those of his
+slaves," on which, after fresh apologies, he began:
+
+"Know, then, victorious cavaliers, that I, whom you now see here as a
+poor hermit, was formerly one of the foremost of that terrible band who
+went with Pizarro to the conquest of Peru. Eighty years old am I this
+day, unless the calendar which I have carved upon yonder tree deceives
+me; and twenty years old was I when I sailed with that fierce man from
+Panama, to do that deed with which all earth, and heaven, and hell
+itself, I fear, has rung. How we endured, suffered, and triumphed; how,
+mad with success, and glutted with blood, we turned our swords against
+each other, I need not tell to you. For what gentleman of Europe knows
+not our glory and our shame?"
+
+His hearers bowed assent.
+
+"Yes; you have heard of our prowess: for glorious we were awhile, in
+the sight of God and man. But I will not speak of our glory, for it is
+tarnished; nor of our wealth, for it was our poison; nor of the sins of
+my comrades, for they have expiated them; but of my own sins, senors,
+which are more in number than the hairs of my head, and a burden too
+great to bear. Miserere Domine!"
+
+And smiting on his breast, the old warrior went on:
+
+"As I said, we were mad with blood; and none more mad than I. Surely it
+is no fable that men are possessed, even in this latter age, by devils.
+Why else did I rejoice in slaying? Why else was I, the son of a noble
+and truthful cavalier of Castile, among the foremost to urge upon
+my general the murder of the Inca? Why did I rejoice over his dying
+agonies? Why, when Don Ferdinando de Soto returned, and upbraided us
+with our villainy, did I, instead of confessing the sin which that noble
+cavalier set before us, withstand him to his face, ay, and would have
+drawn the sword on him, but that he refused to fight a liar, as he said
+that I was?"
+
+"Then Don de Soto was against the murder? So his own grandson told me.
+But I had heard of him only as a tyrant and a butcher."
+
+"Senor, he was compact of good and evil, as are other men: he has paid
+dearly for his sin; let us hope that he has been paid in turn for his
+righteousness."
+
+John Brimblecombe shook his head at this doctrine, but did not speak.
+
+"So you know his grandson? I trust he is a noble cavalier?"
+
+Amyas was silent; the old gentleman saw that he had touched some sore
+point, and continued:
+
+"And why, again, senors, did I after that day give myself up to cruelty
+as to a sport; yea, thought that I did God service by destroying the
+creatures whom He had made; I who now dare not destroy a gnat, lest I
+harm a being more righteous than myself? Was I mad? If I was, how then
+was I all that while as prudent as I am this day? But I am not here to
+argue, senors, but to confess. In a word, there was no deed of blood
+done for the next few years in which I had not my share, if it were but
+within my reach. When Challcuchima was burned, I was consenting; when
+that fair girl, the wife of Inca Manco, was tortured to death, I smiled
+at the agonies at which she too smiled, and taunted on the soldiers, to
+try if I could wring one groan from her before she died. You know what
+followed, the pillage, the violence, the indignities offered to the
+virgins of the Sun. Senors, I will not pollute your chaste ears with
+what was done. But, senors, I had a brother."
+
+And the old man paused awhile.
+
+"A brother--whether better or worse than me, God knows, before whom he
+has appeared ere now. At least he did not, as I did, end as a rebel
+to his king! There was a maiden in one of those convents, senors, more
+beautiful than day: and (I blush to tell it) the two brothers of whom
+I spoke quarrelled for the possession of her. They struck each other,
+senors! Who struck first I know not; but swords were drawn, and--The
+cavaliers round parted them, crying shame. And one of those two
+brothers--the one who speaks to you now--crying, 'If I cannot have her,
+no man shall!' turned the sword which was aimed at his brother, against
+that hapless maiden--and--hear me out, senors, before you flee from my
+presence as from that of a monster!--stabbed her to the heart. And as
+she died--one moment more, senors, that I may confess all!--she looked
+up in my face with a smile as of heaven, and thanked me for having rid
+her once and for all from Christians and their villainy."
+
+The old man paused.
+
+"God forgive you, senor!" said Jack Brimblecombe, softly.
+
+"You do not, then, turn from me, do not curse me? Then I will try you
+farther still, senors. I will know from human lips, whether man can do
+such deeds as I have done, and yet be pitied by his kind; that so I may
+have some hope, that where man has mercy, God may have mercy also. Do
+you think that I repented at those awful words? Nothing less, senors
+all. No more than I did when De Soto (on whose soul God have mercy)
+called me--me, a liar! I knew myself a sinner; and for that very reason
+I was determined to sin. I would go on, that I might prove myself right
+to myself, by showing that I could go on, and not be struck dead from
+heaven. Out of mere pride, senors, and self-will, I would fill up the
+cup of my iniquity; and I filled it.
+
+"You know, doubtless, senors, how, after the death of old Almagro, his
+son's party conspired against Pizarro. Now my brother remained faithful
+to his old commander; and for that very reason, if you will believe it,
+did I join the opposite party, and gave myself up, body and soul, to do
+Almagro's work. It was enough for me, that the brother who had struck
+me thought a man right, for me to think that man a devil. What Almagro's
+work was, you know. He slew Pizarro, murdered him, senors, like a dog,
+or rather, like an old lion."
+
+"He deserved his doom," said Amyas.
+
+"Let God judge him, senor, not we; and least of all of us I, who drew
+the first blood, and perhaps the last, that day. I, senors, it was
+who treacherously stabbed Francisco de Chanes on the staircase, and so
+opened the door which else had foiled us all; and I--But I am speaking
+to men of honor, not to butchers. Suffice it that the old man died like
+a lion, and that we pulled him down, young as we were, like curs.
+
+"Well, I followed Almagro's fortunes. I helped to slay Alvarado. Call
+that my third murder, if you will, for if he was traitor to a traitor, I
+was traitor to a true man. Then to the war; you know how Vaca de Castro
+was sent from Spain to bring order and justice where was naught but
+chaos, and the dance of all devils. We met him on the hills of Chupas.
+Peter of Candia, the Venetian villain, pointed our guns false, and
+Almagro stabbed him to the heart. We charged with our lances, man
+against man, horse against horse. All fights I ever fought" (and the old
+man's eyes flashed out the ancient fire) "were child's play to that day.
+Our lances shivered like reeds, and we fell on with battle-axe and mace.
+None asked for quarter, and none gave it; friend to friend, cousin to
+cousin--no, nor brother, O God! to brother. We were the better armed:
+but numbers were on their side. Fat Carbajal charged our cannon like an
+elephant, and took them; but Holguin was shot down. I was with Almagro,
+and we swept all before us, inch by inch, but surely, till the night
+fell. Then Vaca de Castro, the licentiate, the clerk, the schoolman,
+the man of books, came down on us with his reserve like a whirlwind.
+Oh! cavaliers, did not God fight against us, when He let us, the men of
+iron, us, the heroes of Cuzco and Vilcaconga, be foiled by a scholar in
+a black gown, with a pen behind his ear? We were beaten. Some ran; some
+did not run, senors; and I did not. Geronimo de Alvarado shouted to
+me, 'We slew Pizarro! We killed the tyrant!' and we rushed upon the
+conqueror's lances, to die like cavaliers. There was a gallant gentleman
+in front of me. His lance struck me in the crest, and bore me over my
+horse's croup: but mine, senors, struck him full in the vizor. We both
+went to the ground together, and the battle galloped over us.
+
+"I know not how long I lay, for I was stunned: but after awhile I lifted
+myself. My lance was still clenched in my hand, broken but not parted.
+The point of it was in my foeman's brain. I crawled to him, weary and
+wounded, and saw that he was a noble cavalier. He lay on his back, his
+arms spread wide. I knew that he was dead: but there came over me the
+strangest longing to see that dead man's face. Perhaps I knew him. At
+least I could set my foot upon it, and say, 'Vanquished as I am, there
+lies a foe!' I caught hold of the rivets, and tore his helmet off. The
+moon shone bright, senors, as bright as she shines now--the glaring,
+ghastly, tell-tale moon, which shows man all the sins which he tries to
+hide; and by that moonlight, senors, I beheld the dead man's face. And
+it was the face of my brother!
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+"Did you ever guess, most noble cavaliers, what Cain's curse might be
+like? Look on me, and know!
+
+"I tore off my armor and fled, as Cain fled--northward ever, till I
+should reach a land where the name of Spaniard, yea, and the name of
+Christian, which the Spaniard has caused to be blasphemed from east to
+west, should never come. I sank fainting, and waked beneath this rock,
+this tree, forty-four years ago, and I have never left them since, save
+once, to obtain seeds from Indians, who knew not that I was a Spanish
+Conquistador. And may God have mercy on my soul!"
+
+The old man ceased; and his young hearers, deeply affected by his tale,
+sat silent for a few minutes. Then John Brimblecombe spoke:
+
+"You are old, sir, and I am young; and perhaps it is not my place to
+counsel you. Moreover, sir, in spite of this strange dress of mine, I am
+neither more nor less than an English priest; and I suppose you will not
+be willing to listen to a heretic."
+
+"I have seen Catholics, senor, commit too many abominations even with
+the name of God upon their lips, to shrink from a heretic if he speak
+wisely and well. At least, you are a man; and after all, my heart yearns
+more and more, the longer I sit among you, for the speech of beings of
+my own race. Say what you will, in God's name!"
+
+"I hold, sir," said Jack, modestly, "according to holy Scripture, that
+whosoever repents from his heart, as God knows you seem to have done, is
+forgiven there and then; and though his sins be as scarlet, they shall
+be white as snow, for the sake of Him who died for all."
+
+"Amen! Amen!" said the old man, looking lovingly at his little crucifix.
+"I hope and pray--His name is Love. I know it now; who better? But, sir,
+even if He have forgiven me, how can I forgive myself? In honor, sir, I
+must be just, and sternly just, to myself, even if God be indulgent;
+as He has been to me, who has left me here in peace for forty years,
+instead of giving me a prey to the first puma or jaguar which howls
+round me every night. He has given me time to work out my own salvation;
+but have I done it? That doubt maddens me at whiles. When I look upon
+that crucifix, I float on boundless hope: but if I take my eyes from
+it for a moment, faith fails, and all is blank, and dark, and dreadful,
+till the devil whispers me to plunge into yon stream, and once and for
+ever wake to certainty, even though it be in hell."
+
+What was Jack to answer? He himself knew not at first. More was wanted
+than the mere repetition of free pardon.
+
+"Heretic as I am, sir, you will not believe me when I tell you, as a
+priest, that God accepts your penitence."
+
+"My heart tells me so already, at moments. But how know I that it does
+not lie?"
+
+"Senor," said Jack, "the best way to punish oneself for doing ill, seems
+to me to go and do good; and the best way to find out whether God means
+you well, is to find out whether He will help you to do well. If you
+have wronged Indians in time past, see whether you cannot right them
+now. If you can, you are safe. For the Lord will not send the devil's
+servants to do His work."
+
+The old man held down his head.
+
+"Right the Indians? Alas! what is done, is done!"
+
+"Not altogether, senor," said Amyas, "as long as an Indian remains alive
+in New Granada."
+
+"Senor, shall I confess my weakness? A voice within me has bid me a
+hundred times go forth and labor, for those oppressed wretches, but I
+dare not obey. I dare not look them in the face. I should fancy that
+they knew my story; that the very birds upon the trees would reveal my
+crime, and bid them turn from me with horror."
+
+"Senor," said Amyas, "these are but the sick fancies of a noble spirit,
+feeding on itself in solitude. You have but to try to conquer."
+
+"And look now," said Jack, "if you dare not go forth to help the
+Indians, see now how God has brought the Indians to your own door. Oh,
+excellent sir--"
+
+"Call me not excellent," said the old man, smiting his breast.
+
+"I do, and shall, sir, while I see in you an excellent repentance, an
+excellent humility, and an excellent justice," said Jack. "But oh, sir,
+look upon these forty souls, whom we must leave behind, like sheep which
+have no shepherd. Could you not teach them to fear God and to love each
+other, to live like rational men, perhaps to die like Christians? They
+would obey you as a dog obeys his master. You might be their king, their
+father, yea, their pope, if you would."
+
+"You do not speak like a Lutheran."
+
+"I am not a Lutheran, but an Englishman: but, Protestant as I am, God
+knows, I had sooner see these poor souls of your creed, than of none."
+
+"But I am no priest."
+
+"When they are ready," said Jack, "the Lord will send a priest. If you
+begin the good work, you may trust to Him to finish it."
+
+"God help me!" said the old warrior.
+
+The talk lasted long into the night, but Amyas was up long before
+daybreak, felling the trees; and as he and Cary walked back to
+breakfast, the first thing which they saw was the old man in his garden
+with four or five Indian children round him, talking smilingly to them.
+
+"The old man's heart is sound still," said Will. "No man is lost who
+still is fond of little children."
+
+"Ah, senors!" said the hermit as they came up, "you see that I have
+begun already to act upon your advice."
+
+"And you have begun at the right end," quoth Amyas; "if you win the
+children, you win the mothers."
+
+"And if you win the mothers," quoth Will, "the poor fathers must needs
+obey their wives, and follow in the wake."
+
+The old man only sighed. "The prattle of these little ones softens
+my hard heart, senors, with a new pleasure; but it saddens me, when I
+recollect that there may be children of mine now in the world--children
+who have never known a father's love--never known aught but a master's
+threats--"
+
+"God has taken care of these little ones. Trust that He has taken care
+of yours."
+
+That day Amyas assembled the Indians, and told them that they must obey
+the hermit as their king, and settle there as best they could: for if
+they broke up and wandered away, nothing was left for them but to fall
+one by one into the hands of the Spaniards. They heard him with their
+usual melancholy and stupid acquiescence, and went and came as they were
+bid, like animated machines; but the negroes were of a different temper;
+and four or five stout fellows gave Amyas to understand that they had
+been warriors in their own country, and that warriors they would be
+still; and nothing should keep them from Spaniard-hunting. Amyas saw
+that the presence of these desperadoes in the new colony would both
+endanger the authority of the hermit, and bring the Spaniards down
+upon it in a few weeks; so, making a virtue of necessity, he asked them
+whether they would go Spaniard-hunting with him.
+
+This was just what the bold Coromantees wished for; they grinned and
+shouted their delight at serving under so great a warrior, and then set
+to work most gallantly, getting through more in the day than any ten
+Indians, and indeed than any two Englishmen.
+
+So went on several days, during which the trees were felled, and the
+process of digging them out began; while Ayacanora, silent and moody,
+wandered into the woods all day with her blow-gun, and brought home
+at evening a load of parrots, monkeys, and curassows; two or three old
+hands were sent out to hunt likewise; so that, what with the game and
+the fish of the river, which seemed inexhaustible, and the fruit of the
+neighboring palm-trees, there was no lack of food in the camp. But what
+to do with Ayacanora weighed heavily on the mind of Amyas. He opened his
+heart on the matter to the old hermit, and asked him whether he would
+take charge of her. The latter smiled, and shook his head at the notion.
+"If your report of her be true, I may as well take in hand to tame a
+jaguar." However, he promised to try; and one evening, as they were
+all standing together before the mouth of the cave, Ayacanora came up
+smiling with the fruit of her day's sport; and Amyas, thinking this a
+fit opportunity, began a carefully prepared harangue to her, which he
+intended to be altogether soothing, and even pathetic,--to the effect
+that the maiden, having no parents, was to look upon this good old man
+as her father; that he would instruct her in the white man's religion
+(at which promise Yeo, as a good Protestant, winced a good deal), and
+teach her how to be happy and good, and so forth; and that, in fine, she
+was to remain there with the hermit.
+
+She heard him quietly, her great dark eyes opening wider and wider, her
+bosom swelling, her stature seeming to grow taller every moment, as she
+clenched her weapons firmly in both her hands. Beautiful as she always
+was, she had never looked so beautiful before; and as Amyas spoke of
+parting with her, it was like throwing away a lovely toy; but it must be
+done, for her sake, for his, perhaps for that of all the crew.
+
+The last words had hardly passed his lips, when, with a shriek of
+mingled scorn, rage, and fear, she dashed through the astonished group.
+
+"Stop her!" were Amyas's first words; but his next were, "Let her
+go!" for, springing like a deer through the little garden and over the
+flower-fence, she turned, menacing with her blow-gun the sailors, who
+had already started in her pursuit.
+
+"Let her alone, for Heaven's sake!" shouted Amyas, who, he scarce knew
+why, shrank from the thought of seeing those graceful limbs struggling
+in the seamen's grasp.
+
+She turned again, and in another minute her gaudy plumes had vanished
+among the dark forest stems, as swiftly as if she had been a passing
+bird.
+
+All stood thunderstruck at this unexpected end to the conference. At
+last Aymas spoke:
+
+"There's no use in standing here idle, gentlemen. Staring after her
+won't bring her back. After all, I'm glad she's gone."
+
+But the tone of his voice belied his words. Now he had lost her, he
+wanted her back; and perhaps every one present, except he, guessed why.
+
+But Ayacanora did not return; and ten days more went on in continual
+toil at the canoes without any news of her from the hunters. Amyas, by
+the by, had strictly bidden these last not to follow the girl, not even
+to speak to her, if they came across her in their wanderings. He was
+shrewd enough to guess that the only way to cure her sulkiness was to
+outsulk her; but there was no sign of her presence in any direction; and
+the canoes being finished at last, the gold, and such provisions as they
+could collect, were placed on board, and one evening the party prepared
+for their fresh voyage. They determined to travel as much as possible by
+night, for fear of discovery, especially in the neighborhood of the few
+Spanish settlements which were then scattered along the banks of the
+main stream. These, however, the negroes knew, so that there was no fear
+of coming on them unawares; and as for falling asleep in their night
+journeys, "Nobody," the negroes said, "ever slept on the Magdalena; the
+mosquitoes took too good care of that." Which fact Amyas and his crew
+verified afterwards as thoroughly as wretched men could do.
+
+The sun had sunk; the night had all but fallen; the men were all on
+board; Amyas in command of one canoe, Cary of the other. The Indians
+were grouped on the bank, watching the party with their listless
+stare, and with them the young guide, who preferred remaining among the
+Indians, and was made supremely happy by the present of Spanish sword
+and an English axe; while, in the midst, the old hermit, with tears in
+his eyes, prayed God's blessing on them.
+
+"I owe to you, noble cavaliers, new peace, new labor, I may say, new
+life. May God be with you, and teach you to use your gold and your
+swords better than I used mine."
+
+The adventurers waved their hands to him.
+
+"Give way, men," cried Amyas; and as he spoke the paddles dashed into
+the water, to a right English hurrah! which sent the birds fluttering
+from their roosts, and was answered by the yell of a hundred monkeys,
+and the distant roar of the jaguar.
+
+About twenty yards below, a wooded rock, some ten feet high, hung over
+the stream. The river was not there more than fifteen yards broad; deep
+near the rock, shallow on the farther side; and Amyas's canoe led the
+way, within ten feet of the stone.
+
+As he passed, a dark figure leapt from the bushes on the edge, and
+plunged heavily into the water close to the boat. All started. A jaguar?
+No; he would not have missed so short a spring. What, then? A human
+being?
+
+A head rose panting to the surface, and with a few strong strokes the
+swimmer had clutched the gunwale. It was Ayacanora!
+
+"Go back!" shouted Amyas. "Go back, girl!"
+
+She uttered the same wild cry with which she had fled into the forest.
+
+"I will die, then!" and she threw up her arms. Another moment, and she
+had sunk.
+
+To see her perish before his eyes! who could bear that? Her hands
+alone were above the surface. Amyas caught convulsively at her in the
+darkness, and seized her wrist.
+
+A yell rose from the negroes: a roar from the crew as from a cage of
+lions. There was a rush and a swirl along the surface of the stream; and
+"Caiman! caiman!" shouted twenty voices.
+
+Now, or never, for the strong arm! "To larboard, men, or over we go!"
+cried Amyas, and with one huge heave he lifted the slender body upon
+the gunwale. Her lower limbs were still in the water, when, within arm's
+length, rose above the stream a huge muzzle. The lower jaw lay flat, the
+upper reached as high as Amyas's head. He could see the long fangs
+gleam white in the moonshine; he could see for one moment full down the
+monstrous depths of that great gape, which would have crushed a buffalo.
+Three inches, and no more, from that soft side, the snout surged up--
+
+There was the gleam of an axe from above, a sharp ringing blow, and the
+jaws came together with a clash which rang from bank to bank. He had
+missed her! Swerving beneath the blow, his snout had passed beneath
+her body, and smashed up against the side of the canoe, as the striker,
+overbalanced, fell headlong overboard upon the monster's back.
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"Yeo!" shouted a dozen.
+
+Man and beast went down together, and where they sank, the moonlight
+shone on a great swirling eddy, while all held their breaths, and
+Ayacanora cowered down into the bottom of the canoe, her proud spirit
+utterly broken, for the first time, by the terror of that great need,
+and by a bitter loss. For in the struggle, the holy trumpet, companion
+of all her wanderings, had fallen from her bosom; and her fond hope of
+bringing magic prosperity to her English friends had sunk with it to the
+bottom of the stream.
+
+None heeded her; not even Amyas, round whose knees she clung, fawning
+like a spaniel dog: for where was Yeo?
+
+Another swirl; a shout from the canoe abreast of them, and Yeo rose,
+having dived clean under his own boat, and risen between the two.
+
+"Safe as yet, lads! Heave me a line, or he'll have me after all."
+
+But ere the brute reappeared, the old man was safe on board.
+
+"The Lord has stood by me," panted he, as he shot the water from
+his ears. "We went down together: I knew the Indian trick, and being
+uppermost, had my thumbs in his eyes before he could turn: but he
+carried me down to the very mud. My breath was nigh gone, so I left go,
+and struck up: but my toes tingled as I rose again, I'll warrant. There
+the beggar is, looking for me, I declare!"
+
+And, true enough, there was the huge brute swimming slowly round and
+round, in search of his lost victim. It was too dark to put an arrow
+into his eye; so they paddled on, while Ayacanora crouched silently at
+Amyas's feet.
+
+"Yeo!" asked he, in a low voice, "what shall we do with her?"
+
+"Why ask me, sir?" said the old man, as he had a very good right to ask.
+
+"Because, when one don't know oneself, one had best inquire of one's
+elders. Besides, you saved her life at the risk of your own, and have a
+right to a voice in the matter, if any one has, old friend."
+
+"Then, my dear young captain, if the Lord puts a precious soul under
+your care, don't you refuse to bear the burden He lays on you."
+
+Amyas was silent awhile; while Ayacanora, who was evidently utterly
+exhausted by the night's adventure, and probably by long wanderings,
+watchings, and weepings which had gone before it, sank with her head
+against his knee, fell fast asleep, and breathed as gently as a child.
+
+At last he rose in the canoe, and called Cary alongside.
+
+"Listen to me, gentlemen, and sailors all. You know that we have a
+maiden on board here, by no choice of our own. Whether she will be a
+blessing to us, God alone can tell: but she may turn to the greatest
+curse which has befallen us ever since we came out over Bar three years
+ago. Promise me one thing, or I put her ashore the next beach, and that
+is, that you will treat her as if she were your own sister; and make an
+agreement here and now, that if the maid comes to harm among us, the man
+that is guilty shall hang for it by the neck till he's dead, even though
+he be I, Captain Leigh, who speak to you. I'll hang you, as I am a
+Christian; and I give you free leave to hang me."
+
+"A very fair bargain," quoth Cary, "and I for one will see it kept to.
+Lads, we'll twine a double strong halter for the captain as we go down
+along."
+
+"I am not jesting, Will."
+
+"I know it, good old lad," said Cary, stretching out his own hand to him
+across the water through the darkness, and giving him a hearty shake. "I
+know it; and listen, men! So help me God! but I'll be the first to back
+the Captain in being as good as his word, as I trust he never will need
+to be."
+
+"Amen!" said Brimblecombe. "Amen!" said Yeo; and many an honest voice
+joined in that honest compact, and kept it too, like men.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+HOW THEY TOOK THE GREAT GALLEON
+
+     "When captains courageous, whom death could not daunt,
+     Did march to the siege of the city of Gaunt,
+     They muster'd their soldiers by two and by three,
+     But the foremost in battle was Mary Ambree.
+     When brave Sir John Major was slain in her sight,
+     Who was her true lover, her joy and delight,
+     Because he was murther'd most treacherouslie,
+     Then vow'd to avenge him fair Mary Ambree."
+
+                                 Old Ballad, A. D. 1584.
+
+One more glance at the golden tropic sea, and the golden tropic
+evenings, by the shore of New Granada, in the golden Spanish Main.
+
+The bay of Santa Marta is rippling before the land-breeze one sheet of
+living flame. The mighty forests are sparkling with myriad fireflies.
+The lazy mist which lounges round the inner hills shines golden in
+the sunset rays; and, nineteen thousand feet aloft, the mighty peak of
+Horqueta cleaves the abyss of air, rose-red against the dark-blue
+vault of heaven. The rosy cone fades to a dull leaden hue; but only for
+awhile. The stars flash out one by one, and Venus, like another moon,
+tinges the eastern snows with gold, and sheds across the bay a long
+yellow line of rippling light. Everywhere is glory and richness. What
+wonder if the earth in that enchanted land be as rich to her inmost
+depths as she is upon the surface? The heaven, the hills, the sea, are
+one sparkling garland of jewels--what wonder if the soil be jewelled
+also? if every watercourse and bank of earth be spangled with emeralds
+and rubies, with grains of gold and feathered wreaths of native silver?
+
+So thought, in a poetic mood, the Bishop of Cartagena, as he sat in
+the state cabin of that great galleon, The City of the True Cross, and
+looked pensively out of the window towards the shore. The good man was
+in a state of holy calm. His stout figure rested on one easy-chair, his
+stout ankles on another, beside a table spread with oranges and limes,
+guavas and pine-apples, and all the fruits of Ind.
+
+An Indian girl, bedizened with scarfs and gold chains, kept off the
+flies with a fan of feathers; and by him, in a pail of ice from the
+Horqueta (the gift of some pious Spanish lady, who had "spent" an Indian
+or two in bringing down the precious offering), stood more than one
+flask of virtuous wine of Alicant. But he was not so selfish, good man,
+as to enjoy either ice or wine alone; Don Pedro, colonel of the soldiers
+on board, Don Alverez, intendant of his Catholic majesty's customs at
+Santa Marta, and Don Paul, captain of mariners in The City of the
+True Cross, had, by his especial request, come to his assistance that
+evening, and with two friars, who sat at the lower end of the table,
+were doing their best to prevent the good man from taking too bitterly
+to heart the present unsatisfactory state of his cathedral town, which
+had just been sacked and burnt by an old friend of ours, Sir Francis
+Drake.
+
+"We have been great sufferers, senors,--ah, great sufferers," snuffled
+the bishop, quoting Scripture, after the fashion of the day, glibly
+enough, but often much too irreverently for me to repeat, so boldly were
+his texts travestied, and so freely interlarded by grumblings at Tita
+and the mosquitoes. "Great sufferers, truly; but there shall be a
+remnant,--ah, a remnant like the shaking of the olive tree and the
+gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.--Ah! Gold? Yes, I trust
+Our Lady's mercies are not shut up, nor her arms shortened.--Look,
+senors!"--and he pointed majestically out of the window. "It looks gold!
+it smells of gold, as I may say, by a poetical license. Yea, the very
+waves, as they ripple past us, sing of gold, gold, gold!"
+
+"It is a great privilege," said the intendant, "to have comfort so
+gracefully administered at once by a churchman and a scholar."
+
+"A poet, too," said Don Pedro. "You have no notion what sweet sonnets--"
+
+"Hush, Don Pedro--hush! If I, a mateless bird, have spent an idle hour
+in teaching lovers how to sing, why, what of that? I am a churchman,
+senors; but I am a man and I can feel, senors; I can sympathize; I can
+palliate; I can excuse. Who knows better than I how much human nature
+lurks in us fallen sons of Adam? Tita!"
+
+"Um?" said the trembling girl, with a true Indian grunt.
+
+"Fill his excellency the intendant's glass. Does much more treasure come
+down, illustrious senor? May the poor of Mary hope for a few more crumbs
+from their Mistress's table?"
+
+"Not a pezo, I fear. The big white cow up there"--and he pointed to the
+Horqueta--"has been milked dry for this year."
+
+"Ah!" And he looked up at the magnificent snow peak. "Only good to cool
+wine with, eh? and as safe for the time being as Solomon's birds."
+
+"Solomon's birds? Explain your recondite allusion, my lord."
+
+"Enlighten us, your excellency, enlighten us."
+
+"Ah! thereby hangs a tale. You know the holy birds who run up and down
+on the Prado at Seville among the ladies' pretty feet,--eh? with hooked
+noses and cinnamon crests? Of course. Hoopoes--Upupa, as the classics
+have it. Well, senors, once on a time, the story goes, these hoopoes
+all had golden crowns on their heads; and, senors, they took the
+consequences--eh? But it befell on a day that all the birds and beasts
+came to do homage at the court of his most Catholic majesty King
+Solomon, and among them came these same hoopoes; and they had a little
+request to make, the poor rogues. And what do you think it was? Why,
+that King Solomon would pray for them that they might wear any sort of
+crowns but these same golden ones; for--listen, Tita, and see the snare
+of riches--mankind so hunted, and shot, and trapped, and snared them,
+for the sake of these same golden crowns, that life was a burden to
+bear. So Solomon prayed, and instead of golden crowns, they all received
+crowns of feathers; and ever since, senors, they live as merrily as
+crickets in an oven, and also have the honor of bearing the name of his
+most Catholic majesty King Solomon. Tita! fill the senor commandant's
+glass. Fray Gerundio, what are you whispering about down there, sir?"
+
+Fray Gerundio had merely commented to his brother on the bishop's story
+of Solomon's birds with an--
+
+"O si sic omnia!--would that all gold would turn to feathers in like
+wise!"
+
+"Then, friend," replied the other, a Dominican, like Gerundio, but of a
+darker and sterner complexion, "corrupt human nature would within a week
+discover some fresh bauble, for which to kill and be killed in vain."
+
+"What is that, Fray Gerundio?" asked the bishop again.
+
+"I merely remarked, that it were well for the world if all mankind were
+to put up the same prayer as the hoopoes."
+
+"World, sir? What do you know about the world? Convert your Indians,
+sir, if you please, and leave affairs of state to your superiors. You
+will excuse him, senors" (turning to the Dons, and speaking in a lower
+tone). "A very worthy and pious man, but a poor peasant's son; and
+beside--you understand. A little wrong here; too much fasting and
+watching, I fear, good man." And the bishop touched his forehead
+knowingly, to signify that Fray Gerundio's wits were in an
+unsatisfactory state.
+
+The Fray heard and saw with a quiet smile. He was one of those excellent
+men whom the cruelties of his countrymen had stirred up (as the
+darkness, by mere contrast, makes the light more bright), as they did
+Las Casas, Gasca, and many another noble name which is written in the
+book of life, to deeds of love and pious daring worthy of any creed or
+age. True Protestants, they protested, even before kings, against the
+evil which lay nearest them, the sin which really beset them; true
+liberals, they did not disdain to call the dark-skinned heathen their
+brothers; and asserted in terms which astonish us, when we recollect the
+age in which they were spoken, the inherent freedom of every being who
+wore the flesh and blood which their Lord wore; true martyrs, they
+bore witness of Christ, and received too often the rewards of such,
+in slander and contempt. Such an one was Fray Gerundio; a poor, mean,
+clumsy-tongued peasant's son, who never could put three sentences
+together, save when he waxed eloquent, crucifix in hand, amid some
+group of Indians or negroes. He was accustomed to such rebuffs as the
+bishop's; he took them for what they were worth, and sipped his wine in
+silence; while the talk went on.
+
+"They say," observed the commandant, "that a very small Plate-fleet will
+go to Spain this year."
+
+"What else?" says the intendant. "What have we to send, in the name of
+all saints, since these accursed English Lutherans have swept us out
+clean?"
+
+"And if we had anything to send," says the sea-captain, "what have we to
+send it in? That fiend incarnate, Drake--"
+
+"Ah!" said his holiness; "spare my ears! Don Pedro, you will oblige my
+weakness by not mentioning that man;--his name is Tartarean, unfit
+for polite lips. Draco--a dragon--serpent--the emblem of Diabolus
+himself--ah! And the guardian of the golden apples of the West, who
+would fain devour our new Hercules, his most Catholic majesty. Deceived
+Eve, too, with one of those same apples--a very evil name, senors--a
+Tartarean name,--Tita!"
+
+"Um!"
+
+"Fill my glass."
+
+"Nay," cried the colonel, with a great oath, "this English fellow is of
+another breed of serpent from that, I warrant."
+
+"Your reason, senor; your reason?"
+
+"Because this one would have seen Eve at the bottom of the sea, before
+he let her, or any one but himself, taste aught which looked like gold."
+
+"Ah, ah!--very good! But--we laugh, valiant senors, while the Church
+weeps. Alas for my sheep!"
+
+"And alas for their sheepfold! It will be four years before we can get
+Cartagena rebuilt again. And as for the blockhouse, when we shall get
+that rebuilt, Heaven only knows, while his majesty goes on draining the
+Indies for his English Armada. The town is as naked now as an Indian's
+back."
+
+"Baptista Antonio, the surveyor, has sent home by me a relation to the
+king, setting forth our defenceless state. But to read a relation and
+to act on it are two cocks of very different hackles, bishop, as all
+statesmen know. Heaven grant we may have orders by the next fleet to
+fortify, or we shall be at the mercy of every English pirate!"
+
+"Ah, that blockhouse!" sighed the bishop. "That was indeed a villainous
+trick. A hundred and ten thousand ducats for the ransom of the town!
+After having burned and plundered the one-half--and having made me
+dine with them too, ah! and sit between the--the serpent, and his
+lieutenant-general--and drunk my health in my own private wine--wine
+that I had from Xeres nine years ago, senors and offered, the shameless
+heretics, to take me to England, if I would turn Lutheran, and find me a
+wife, and make an honest man of me--ah! and then to demand fresh ransom
+for the priory and the fort--perfidious!"
+
+"Well," said the colonel, "they had the law of us, the cunning rascals,
+for we forgot to mention anything but the town, in the agreement. Who
+would have dreamed of such a fetch as that?"
+
+"So I told my good friend the prior, when he came to me to borrow the
+thousand crowns. It was Heaven's will. Unexpected like the thunderbolt,
+and to be borne as such. Every man must bear his own burden. How could I
+lend him aught?"
+
+"Your holiness's money had been all carried off by them before," said
+the intendant, who knew, and none better, the exact contrary.
+
+"Just so--all my scanty savings! desolate in my lone old age. Ah,
+senors, had we not had warning of the coming of these wretches from
+my dear friend the Marquess of Santa Cruz, whom I remember daily in my
+prayers, we had been like to them who go down quick into the pit. I too
+might have saved a trifle, had I been minded: but in thinking too much
+of others, I forgot myself, alas!"
+
+"Warning or none, we had no right to be beaten by such a handful," said
+the sea-captain; "and a shame it is, and a shame it will be, for many a
+day to come."
+
+"Do you mean to cast any slur, sir, upon the courage and conduct of his
+Catholic majesty's soldiers?" asked the colonel.
+
+"I?--No; but we were foully beaten, and that behind our barricades too,
+and there's the plain truth."
+
+"Beaten, sir! Do you apply such a term to the fortunes of war? What more
+could our governor have done? Had we not the ways filled with poisoned
+caltrops, guarded by Indian archers, barred with butts full of earth,
+raked with culverins and arquebuses? What familiar spirit had we, sir,
+to tell us that these villains would come along the sea-beach, and not
+by the high-road, like Christian men?"
+
+"Ah!" said the bishop, "it was by intuition diabolic, I doubt not, that
+they took that way. Satanas must need help those who serve him; and for
+my part, I can only attribute (I would the captain here had piety enough
+to do so) the misfortune which occurred to art-magic. I believe these
+men to have been possessed by all fiends whatsoever."
+
+"Well, your holiness," said the colonel, "there may have been devilry
+in it; how else would men have dared to run right into the mouths of our
+cannon, fire their shot against our very noses, and tumble harmless over
+those huge butts of earth?"
+
+"Doubtless by force of the fiends which raged with them," interposed the
+bishop.
+
+"And then, with their blasphemous cries, leap upon us with sword and
+pike? I myself saw that Lieutenant-General Carlisle hew down with one
+stroke that noble young gentleman the ensign-bearer, your excellency's
+sister's son's nephew, though he was armed cap-a-pie. Was not art-magic
+here? And that most furious and blaspheming Lutheran Captain Young, I
+saw how he caught our general by the head, after the illustrious Don
+Alonzo had given him a grievous wound, threw him to the earth, and so
+took him. Was not art-magic here?"
+
+"Well, I say," said the captain, "if you are looking for art-magic, what
+say you to their marching through the flank fire of our galleys, with
+eleven pieces of ordnance, and two hundred shot playing on them, as if
+it had been a mosquito swarm? Some said my men fired too high: but that
+was the English rascals' doing, for they got down on the tide beach.
+But, senor commandant, though Satan may have taught them that trick, was
+it he that taught them to carry pikes a foot longer than yours?"
+
+"Ah, well," said the bishop, "sacked are we; and San Domingo, as I hear,
+in worse case than we are; and St. Augustine in Florida likewise; and
+all that is left for a poor priest like me is to return to Spain, and
+see whether the pious clemency of his majesty, and of the universal
+Father, may not be willing to grant some small relief or bounty to the
+poor of Mary--perhaps--(for who knows?) to translate to a sphere of
+more peaceful labor one who is now old, senors, and weary with many
+toils--Tita! fill our glasses. I have saved somewhat--as you may have
+done, senors, from the general wreck; and for the flock, when I am no
+more, illustrious senors, Heaven's mercies are infinite; new cities will
+rise from the ashes of the old, new mines pour forth their treasures
+into the sanctified laps of the faithful, and new Indians flock toward
+the life-giving standard of the Cross, to put on the easy yoke and light
+burden of the Church, and--"
+
+"And where shall I be then? Ah, where? Fain would I rest, and fain
+depart. Tita! sling my hammock. Senors, you will excuse age and
+infirmities. Fray Gerundio, go to bed!"
+
+And the Dons rose to depart, while the bishop went on maundering,--
+
+"Farewell! Life is short. Ah! we shall meet in heaven at last. And there
+are really no more pearls?"
+
+"Not a frail; nor gold either," said the intendant.
+
+"Ah, well! Better a dinner of herbs where love is, than--Tita!"
+
+"My breviary--ah! Man's gratitude is short-lived, I had hoped--You have
+seen nothing of the Senora Bovadilla?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Ah! she promised:--but no matter--a little trifle as a keepsake--a gold
+cross, or an emerald ring, or what not--I forget. And what have I to do
+with worldly wealth!--Ah! Tita! bring me the casket."
+
+And when his guests were gone, the old man began mumbling prayers out of
+his breviary, and fingering over jewels and gold, with the dull greedy
+eyes of covetous old age.
+
+"Ah!--it may buy the red hat yet!--Omnia Romae venalia! Put it by, Tita,
+and do not look at it too much, child. Enter not into temptation. The
+love of money is the root of all evil; and Heaven, in love for the
+Indian, has made him poor in this world, that he may be rich in faith.
+Ah!--Ugh!--So!"
+
+And the old miser clambered into his hammock. Tita drew the mosquito
+net over him, wrapt another round her own head, and slept, or seemed to
+sleep; for she coiled herself up upon the floor, and master and slave
+soon snored a merry bass to the treble of the mosquitoes.
+
+It was long past midnight, and the moon was down. The sentinels, who had
+tramped and challenged overhead till they thought their officers were
+sound asleep, had slipped out of the unwholesome rays of the planet to
+seek that health and peace which they considered their right, and slept
+as soundly as the bishop's self.
+
+Two long lines glided out from behind the isolated rocks of the Morro
+Grande, which bounded the bay some five hundred yards astern of the
+galleon. They were almost invisible on the glittering surface of the
+water, being perfectly white; and, had a sentinel been looking out, he
+could only have descried them by the phosphorescent flashes along their
+sides.
+
+Now the bishop had awoke, and turned himself over uneasily; for the wine
+was dying out within him, and his shoulders had slipped down, and his
+heels up, and his head ached! so he sat upright in his hammock, looked
+out upon the bay, and called Tita.
+
+"Put another pillow under my head, child! What is that? a fish?"
+
+Tita looked. She did not think it was a fish: but she did not choose to
+say so; for it might have produced an argument, and she had her reasons
+for not keeping his holiness awake.
+
+The bishop looked again; settled that it must be a white whale, or
+shark, or other monster of the deep; crossed himself, prayed for a safe
+voyage, and snored once more.
+
+Presently the cabin-door opened gently, and the head of the senor
+intendant appeared.
+
+Tita sat up; and then began crawling like a snake along the floor, among
+the chairs and tables, by the light of the cabin lamp.
+
+"Is he asleep?"
+
+"Yes: but the casket is under his head."
+
+"Curse him! How shall we take it?"
+
+"I brought him a fresh pillow half-an-hour ago; I hung his hammock wrong
+on purpose that he might want one. I thought to slip the box away as I
+did it; but the old ox nursed it in both hands all the while."
+
+"What shall we do, in the name of all the fiends? She sails to-morrow
+morning, and then all is lost."
+
+Tita showed her white teeth, and touched the dagger which hung by the
+intendant's side.
+
+"I dare not!" said the rascal, with a shudder.
+
+"I dare!" said she. "He whipt my mother, because she would not give me
+up to him to be taught in his schools, when she went to the mines. And
+she went to the mines, and died there in three months. I saw her go,
+with a chain round her neck; but she never came back again. Yes; I dare
+kill him! I will kill him! I will!"
+
+The senor felt his mind much relieved. He had no wish, of course, to
+commit the murder himself; for he was a good Catholic, and feared the
+devil. But Tita was an Indian, and her being lost did not matter so
+much. Indians' souls were cheap, like their bodies. So he answered, "But
+we shall be discovered!"
+
+"I will leap out of the window with the casket, and swim ashore. They
+will never suspect you, and they will fancy I am drowned."
+
+"The sharks may seize you, Tita. You had better give me the casket."
+
+Tita smiled. "You would not like to lose that, eh? though you care
+little about losing me. And yet you told me that you loved me!"
+
+"And I do love you, Tita! light of my eyes! life of my heart! I swear,
+by all the saints, I love you. I will marry you, I swear I will--I will
+swear on the crucifix, if you like!"
+
+"Swear, then, or I do not give you the casket," said she, holding out
+the little crucifix round her neck, and devouring him with the wild eyes
+of passionate unreasoning tropic love.
+
+He swore, trembling, and deadly pale.
+
+"Give me your dagger."
+
+"No, not mine. It may be found. I shall be suspected. What if my sheath
+were seen to be empty?"
+
+"Your knife will do. His throat is soft enough."
+
+And she glided stealthily as a cat toward the hammock, while her
+cowardly companion stood shivering at the other end of the cabin, and
+turned his back to her, that he might not see the deed.
+
+He stood waiting, one minute--two--five? Was it an hour, rather? A cold
+sweat bathed his limbs; the blood beat so fiercely within his temples,
+that his head rang again. Was that a death-bell tolling? No; it was the
+pulses of his brain. Impossible, surely, a death-bell. Whence could it
+come?
+
+There was a struggle--ah! she was about it now; a stifled cry--Ah! he
+had dreaded that most of all, to hear the old man cry. Would there be
+much blood? He hoped not. Another struggle, and Tita's voice, apparently
+muffled, called for help.
+
+"I cannot help you. Mother of Mercies! I dare not help you!" hissed he.
+"She-devil! you have begun it, and you must finish it yourself!"
+
+A heavy arm from behind clasped his throat. The bishop had broken loose
+from her and seized him! Or was it his ghost? or a fiend come to drag
+him down to the pit? And forgetting all but mere wild terror, he opened
+his lips for a scream, which would have wakened every soul on board. But
+a handkerchief was thrust into his mouth and in another minute he found
+himself bound hand and foot, and laid upon the table by a gigantic
+enemy. The cabin was full of armed men, two of whom were lashing up
+the bishop in his hammock; two more had seized Tita; and more were
+clambering up into the stern-gallery beyond, wild figures, with bright
+blades and armor gleaming in the starlight.
+
+"Now, Will," whispered the giant who had seized him, "forward and
+clap the fore-hatches on; and shout Fire! with all your might. Girl!
+murderess! your life is in my hands. Tell me where the commander sleeps,
+and I pardon you."
+
+Tita looked up at the huge speaker, and obeyed in silence. The intendant
+heard him enter the colonel's cabin, and then a short scuffle, and
+silence for a moment.
+
+But only for a moment; for already the alarm had been given, and mad
+confusion reigned through every deck. Amyas (for it was none other) had
+already gained the poop; the sentinels were gagged and bound; and every
+half-naked wretch who came trembling up on deck in his shirt by the main
+hatchway, calling one, "Fire!" another, "Wreck!" and another, "Treason!"
+was hurled into the scuppers, and there secured.
+
+"Lower away that boat!" shouted Amyas in Spanish to his first batch of
+prisoners.
+
+The men, unarmed and naked, could but obey.
+
+"Now then, jump in. Here, hand them to the gangway as they come up."
+
+It was done; and as each appeared he was kicked to the scuppers, and
+bundled down over the side.
+
+"She's full. Cast loose now and off with you. If you try to board again
+we'll sink you."
+
+"Fire! fire!" shouted Cary, forward. "Up the main hatchway for your
+lives!"
+
+The ruse succeeded utterly; and before half-an-hour was over, all the
+ship's boats which could be lowered were filled with Spaniards in their
+shirts, getting ashore as best they could.
+
+"Here is a new sort of camisado," quoth Cary. "The last Spanish one
+I saw was at the sortie from Smerwick: but this is somewhat more
+prosperous than that."
+
+"Get the main and foresail up, Will!" said Amyas, "cut the cable; and we
+will plume the quarry as we fly."
+
+"Spoken like a good falconer. Heaven grant that this big woodcock may
+carry a good trail inside!"
+
+"I'll warrant her for that," said Jack Brimblecombe. "She floats so
+low."
+
+"Much of your build, too, Jack. By the by, where is the commander?"
+
+Alas! Don Pedro, forgotten in the bustle, had been lying on the deck
+in his shirt, helplessly bound, exhausting that part of his vocabulary
+which related to the unseen world. Which most discourteous act seemed at
+first likely to be somewhat heavily avenged on Amyas; for as he spoke, a
+couple of caliver-shots, fired from under the poop, passed "ping" "ping"
+by his ears, and Cary clapped his hand to his side.
+
+"Hurt, Will?"
+
+"A pinch, old lad--Look out, or we are 'allen verloren' after all, as
+the Flemings say."
+
+And as he spoke, a rush forward on the poop drove two of their best men
+down the ladder into the waist, where Amyas stood.
+
+"Killed?" asked he, as he picked one up, who had fallen head over heels.
+
+"Sound as a bell, sir: but they Gentiles has got hold of the firearms,
+and set the captain free."
+
+And rubbing the back of his head for a minute, he jumped up the ladder
+again, shouting--
+
+"Have at ye, idolatrous pagans! Have at ye, Satan's spawn!"
+
+Amyas jumped up after him, shouting to all hands to follow; for there
+was no time to be lost.
+
+Out of the windows of the poop, which looked on the main-deck, a galling
+fire had been opened, and he could not afford to lose men; for, as far
+as he knew, the Spaniards left on board might still far outnumber the
+English; so up he sprang on the poop, followed by a dozen men, and there
+began a very heavy fight between two parties of valiant warriors, who
+easily knew each other apart by the peculiar fashion of their armor. For
+the Spaniards fought in their shirts, and in no other garments: but the
+English in all other manner of garments, tag, rag, and bobtail; and yet
+had never a shirt between them.
+
+The rest of the English made a rush, of course, to get upon the poop,
+seeing that the Spaniards could not shoot them through the deck; but
+the fire from the windows was so hot, that although they dodged behind
+masts, spars, and every possible shelter, one or two dropped; and Jack
+Brimblecombe and Yeo took on themselves to call a retreat, and with
+about a dozen men, got back, and held a council of war.
+
+What was to be done? Their arquebuses were of little use; for the
+Spaniards were behind a strong bulkhead. There were cannon: but where
+was powder or shot? The boats, encouraged by the clamor on deck, were
+paddling alongside again. Yeo rushed round and round, probing every gun
+with his sword.
+
+"Here's a patararo loaded! Now for a match, lads."
+
+Luckily one of the English had kept his match alight during the scuffle.
+
+"Thanks be! Help me to unship the gun--the mast's in the way here."
+
+The patararo, or brass swivel, was unshipped.
+
+"Steady, lads, and keep it level, or you'll shake out the priming. Ship
+it here; turn out that one, and heave it into that boat, if they come
+alongside. Steady now--so! Rummage about, and find me a bolt or two,
+a marlin-spike, anything. Quick, or the captain will be over-mastered
+yet."
+
+Missiles were found--odds and ends--and crammed into the swivel up to
+the muzzle: and, in another minute, its "cargo of notions" was crashing
+into the poop-windows, silencing the fire from thence effectually enough
+for the time.
+
+"Now, then, a rush forward, and right in along the deck!" shouted Yeo;
+and the whole party charged through the cabin-doors, which their shot
+had burst open, and hewed their way from room to room.
+
+In the meanwhile, the Spaniards above had fought fiercely: but, in
+spite of superior numbers, they had gradually given back before the
+"demoniacal possession of those blasphemous heretics, who fought,
+not like men, but like furies from the pit." And by the time that
+Brimblecombe and Yeo shouted from the stern-gallery below that the
+quarter-deck was won, few on either side but had their shrewd scratch to
+show.
+
+"Yield, senor!" shouted Amyas to the commander, who had been fighting
+like a lion, back to back with the captain of mariners.
+
+"Never! You have bound me, and insulted me! Your blood or mine must wipe
+out the stain!"
+
+And he rushed on Amyas. There was a few moments' heavy fence between
+them; and then Amyas cut right at his head. But as he raised his arm,
+the Spaniard's blade slipped along his ribs, and snapped against the
+point of his shoulder-blade. An inch more to the left, and it would have
+been through his heart. The blow fell, nevertheless, and the commandant
+fell with it, stunned by the flat of the sword, but not wounded;
+for Amyas's hand had turned, as he winced from his wound. But the
+sea-captain, seeing Amyas stagger, sprang at him, and, seizing him by
+the wrist, ere he could raise his sword again, shortened his weapon to
+run him through. Amyas made a grasp at his wrist in return, but, between
+his faintness and the darkness, missed it.--Another moment, and all
+would have been over!
+
+A bright blade flashed close past Amyas's ear; the sea-captain's grasp
+loosened, and he dropped a corpse; while over him, like an angry lioness
+above her prey, stood Ayacanora, her long hair floating in the wind, her
+dagger raised aloft, as she looked round, challenging all and every one
+to approach.
+
+"Are you hurt?" panted she.
+
+"A scratch, child.--What do you do here? Go back, go back."
+
+Ayacanora slipped back like a scolded child, and vanished in the
+darkness.
+
+The battle was over. The Spaniards, seeing their commanders fall, laid
+down their arms, and cried for quarter. It was given; the poor fellows
+were tied together, two and two, and seated in a row on the deck; the
+commandant, sorely bruised, yielded himself perforce; and the galleon
+was taken.
+
+Amyas hurried forward to get the sails set. As he went down the
+poop-ladder, there was some one sitting on the lowest step.
+
+"Who is here--wounded?"
+
+"I am not wounded," said a woman's voice, low, and stifled with sobs.
+
+It was Ayacanora. She rose, and let him pass. He saw that her face was
+bright with tears; but he hurried on, nevertheless.
+
+"Perhaps I did speak a little hastily to her, considering she saved my
+life; but what a brimstone it is! Mary Ambree in a dark skin! Now then,
+lads! Get the Santa Fe gold up out of the canoes, and then we will put
+her head to the north-east, and away for Old England. Mr. Brimblecombe!
+don't say that Eastward-ho don't bring luck this time."
+
+It was impossible, till morning dawned, either to get matters into any
+order, or to overhaul the prize they had taken; and many of the men were
+so much exhausted that they fell fast asleep on the deck ere the surgeon
+had time to dress their wounds. However, Amyas contrived, when once the
+ship was leaping merrily, close-hauled against a fresh land-breeze,
+to count his little flock, and found out of the forty-four but six
+seriously wounded, and none killed. However, their working numbers were
+now reduced to thirty-eight, beside the four negroes, a scanty crew
+enough to take home such a ship to England.
+
+After awhile, up came Jack Brimblecombe on deck, a bottle in his hand.
+
+"Lads, a prize!"
+
+"Well, we know that already."
+
+"Nay, but--look hither, and laid in ice, too, as I live, the luxurious
+dogs! But I had to fight for it, I had. For when I went down into the
+state cabin, after I had seen to the wounded; whom should I find loose
+but that Indian lass, who had just unbound the fellow you caught--"
+
+"Ah! those two, I believe, were going to murder the old man in the
+hammock, if we had not come in the nick of time. What have you done with
+them?"
+
+"Why, the Spaniard ran when he saw me, and got into a cabin; but the
+woman, instead of running, came at me with a knife, and chased me round
+the table like a very cat-a-mountain. So I ducked under the old man's
+hammock, and out into the gallery; and when I thought the coast was
+clear, back again I came, and stumbled over this. So I just picked it
+up, and ran on deck with my tail between my legs, for I expected
+verily to have the black woman's knife between my ribs out of some dark
+corner."
+
+"Well done, Jack! Let's have the wine, nevertheless, and then down to
+set a guard on the cabin doors for fear of plundering."
+
+"Better go down, and see that nothing is thrown overboard by Spaniards.
+As for plundering, I will settle that."
+
+And Amyas walked forward among the men.
+
+"Muster the men, boatswain, and count them."
+
+"All here, sir, but the six poor fellows who are laid forward."
+
+"Now, my men," said Amyas, "for three years you and I have wandered
+on the face of the earth, seeking our fortune, and we have found it at
+last, thanks be to God! Now, what was our promise and vow which we made
+to God beneath the tree of Guayra, if He should grant us good fortune,
+and bring us home again with a prize? Was it not, that the dead should
+share with the living; and that every man's portion, if he fell, should
+go to his widow or his orphans, or if he had none, to his parents?"
+
+"It was, sir," said Yeo, "and I trust that the Lord will give these men
+grace to keep their vow. They have seen enough of His providences by
+this time to fear Him."
+
+"I doubt them not; but I remind them of it. The Lord has put into our
+hands a rich prize; and what with the gold which we have already, we are
+well paid for all our labors. Let us thank Him with fervent hearts
+as soon as the sun rises; and in the meanwhile, remember all, that
+whosoever plunders on his private account, robs not the adventurers
+merely, but the orphan and the widow, which is to rob God; and makes
+himself partaker of Achan's curse, who hid the wedge of gold, and
+brought down God's anger on the whole army of Israel. For me, lest you
+should think me covetous, I could claim my brother's share; but I hereby
+give it up freely into the common stock, for the use of the whole ship's
+crew, who have stood by me through weal and woe, as men never stood
+before, as I believe, by any captain. So, now to prayers, lads, and then
+to eat our breakfast."
+
+So, to the Spaniards' surprise (who most of them believed that the
+English were atheists), to prayers they went.
+
+After which Brimblecombe contrived to inspire the black cook and the
+Portuguese steward with such energy that, by seven o'clock, the latter
+worthy appeared on deck, and, with profound reverences, announced to
+"The most excellent and heroical Senor Adelantado Captain Englishman,"
+that breakfast was ready in the state-cabin.
+
+"You will do us the honor of accompanying us as our guest, sir, or our
+host, if you prefer the title," said Amyas to the commandant, who stood
+by.
+
+"Pardon, senor: but honor forbids me to eat with one who has offered to
+me the indelible insult of bonds."
+
+"Oh!" said Amyas, taking off his hat, "then pray accept on the spot my
+humble apologies for all which has passed, and my assurances that the
+indignities which you have unfortunately endured, were owing altogether
+to the necessities of war, and not to any wish to hurt the feelings of
+so valiant a soldier and gentleman."
+
+"It is enough, senor," said the commandant, bowing and shrugging his
+shoulders--for, indeed, he too was very hungry; while Cary whispered to
+Amyas--
+
+"You will make a courtier, yet, old lad."
+
+"I am not in jesting humor, Will: my mind sadly misgives me that we
+shall hear black news, and have, perhaps, to do a black deed yet, on
+board here. Senor, I follow you."
+
+So they went down, and found the bishop, who was by this time unbound,
+seated in a corner of the cabin, his hands fallen on his knees, his eyes
+staring on vacancy, while the two priests stood as close against the
+wall as they could squeeze themselves, keeping up a ceaseless mutter of
+prayers.
+
+"Your holiness will breakfast with us, of course; and these two frocked
+gentlemen likewise. I see no reason for refusing them all hospitality,
+as yet."
+
+There was a marked emphasis on the last two words, which made both monks
+wince.
+
+"Our chaplain will attend to you, gentlemen. His lordship the bishop
+will do me the honor of sitting next to me."
+
+The bishop seemed to revive slowly as he snuffed the savory steam;
+and at last, rising mechanically, subsided into the chair which Amyas
+offered him on his left, while the commandant sat on his right.
+
+"A little of this kid, my lord? No--ah--Friday, I recollect. Some of
+that turtle-fin, then. Will, serve his lordship; pass the cassava-bread
+up, Jack! Senor commandant! a glass of wine? You need it after your
+valiant toils. To the health of all brave soldiers--and a toast from
+your own Spanish proverb, 'To-day to me, tomorrow to thee!'"
+
+"I drink it, brave senor. Your courtesy shows you the worthy countryman
+of General Drake, and his brave lieutenant."
+
+"Drake! Did you know him, senor?" asked all the Englishmen at once.
+
+"Too well, too well--" and he would have continued; but the bishop burst
+out--
+
+"Ah, senor commandant! that name again! Have you no mercy? To sit
+between another pair of--, and my own wine, too! Ugh, ugh!"
+
+The old gentleman, whose mouth had been full of turtle the whole time,
+burst into a violent fit of coughing, and was only saved from apoplexy
+by Cary's patting him on the back.
+
+"Ugh, ugh! The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, and their
+precious balms. Ah, senor lieutenant Englishman! May I ask you to pass
+those limes?--Ah! what is turtle without lime?--Even as a fat old man
+without money! Nudus intravi, nudus exeo--ah!"
+
+"But what of Drake?"
+
+"Do you not know, sir, that he and his fleet, only last year, swept the
+whole of this coast, and took, with shame I confess it, Cartagena, San
+Domingo, St. Augustine, and--I see you are too courteous, senors, to
+express before me what you have a right to feel. But whence come you,
+sir? From the skies, or the depth of the sea?"
+
+"Art-magic, art-magic!" moaned the bishop.
+
+"Your holiness! It is scarcely prudent to speak thus here," said the
+commandant, who was nevertheless much of the same opinion.
+
+"Why, you said so yourself, last night, senor, about the taking of
+Cartagena."
+
+The commandant blushed, and stammered out somewhat--"That it was
+excusable in him, if he had said, in jest, that so prodigious and
+curious a valor had not sprung from mortal source."
+
+"No more it did, senor," said Jack Brimblecombe, stoutly: "but from Him
+who taught our 'hands to war, and our fingers to fight.'"
+
+The commandant bowed stiffly. "You will excuse me, sir preacher: but I
+am a Catholic, and hold the cause of my king to be alone the cause of
+Heaven. But, senor captain, how came you thither, if I may ask? That you
+needed no art-magic after you came on board, I, alas! can testify but
+too well: but what spirit--whether good or evil, I ask not--brought you
+on board, and whence? Where is your ship? I thought that all Drake's
+squadron had left six months ago."
+
+"Our ship, senor, has lain this three years rotting on the coast near
+Cape Codera."
+
+"Ah! we heard of that bold adventure--but we thought you all lost in the
+interior."
+
+"You did? Can you tell me, then, where the senor governor of La Guayra
+may be now?"
+
+"The Senor Don Guzman de Soto," said the commandant, in a somewhat
+constrained tone, "is said to be at present in Spain, having thrown up
+his office in consequence of domestic matters, of which I have not the
+honor of knowing anything."
+
+Amyas longed to ask more: but he knew that the well-bred Spaniard would
+tell him nothing which concerned another man's wife; and went on.
+
+"What befell us after, I tell you frankly."
+
+And Amyas told his story, from the landing at Guayra to the passage down
+the Magdalena. The commandant lifted up his hands.
+
+"Were it not forbidden to me, as a Catholic, most invincible senor, I
+should say that the Divine protection has indeed--"
+
+"Ah," said one of the friars, "that you could be brought, senors, to
+render thanks for your miraculous preservation to her to whom alone it
+is due, Mary, the fount of mercies!"
+
+"We have done well enough without her as yet," said Amyas, bluntly.
+
+"The Lord raised up Nebuchadnezzar of old to punish the sins of the
+Jewish Church; and He has raised up these men to punish ours!" said Fray
+Gerundio.
+
+"But Nebuchadnezzar fell, and so may they," growled the other to
+himself. Jack overheard him.
+
+"I say, my lord bishop," called he from the other end of the table. "It
+is our English custom to let our guests be as rude as they like; but
+perhaps your lordship will hint to these two friars, that if they wish
+to keep whole skins, they will keep civil tongues."
+
+"Be silent, asses! mules!" shouted the bishop, whose spirits were
+improving over the wine, "who are you, that you cannot eat dirt as well
+as your betters?"
+
+"Well spoken, my lord. Here's the health of our saintly and venerable
+guest," said Cary: while the commandant whispered to Amyas, "Fat old
+tyrant! I hope you have found his money--for I am sure he has some on
+board, and I should be loath that you lost the advantage of it."
+
+"I shall have to say a few words to you about that money this morning,
+commandant: by the by, they had better be said now. My lord bishop, do
+you know that had we not taken this ship when we did, you had lost not
+merely money, as you have now, but life itself?"
+
+"Money? I had none to lose! Life?--what do you mean?" asked the bishop,
+turning very pale.
+
+"This, sir. That it ill befits one to lie, whose throat has been saved
+from the assassin's knife but four hours since. When we entered the
+stern-gallery, we found two persons, now on board this ship, in the very
+act, sir, and article, of cutting your sinful throat, that they might
+rob you of the casket which lay beneath your pillow. A moment more, and
+you were dead. We seized and bound them, and so saved your life. Is that
+plain, sir?"
+
+The bishop looked steadfastly and stupidly into Amyas's face, heaved a
+deep sigh, and gradually sank back in his chair, dropping the glass from
+his hand.
+
+"He is in a fit! Call in the surgeon! Run!" and up jumped kind-hearted
+Jack, and brought in the surgeon of the galleon.
+
+"Is this possible, senor?" asked the commandant.
+
+"It is true. Door, there! Evans! go and bring in that rascal whom we
+left bound in his cabin!"
+
+Evans went, and the commandant continued--
+
+"But the stern-gallery? How, in the name of all witches and miracles,
+came your valor thither?"
+
+"Simply enough, and owing neither to witch nor miracle. The night before
+last we passed the mouth of the bay in our two canoes, which we had
+lashed together after the fashion I had seen in the Moluccas, to keep
+them afloat in the surf. We had scraped the canoes bright the day
+before, and rubbed them with white clay, that they might be invisible at
+night; and so we got safely to the Morro Grande, passing within half a
+mile of your ship."
+
+"Oh! my scoundrels of sentinels!"
+
+"We landed at the back of the Morro, and lay there all day, being
+purposed to do that which, with your pardon, we have done. We took our
+sails of Indian cloth, whitened them likewise with clay which we had
+brought with us from the river (expecting to find a Spanish ship as we
+went along the coast, and determined to attempt her, or die with honor),
+and laid them over us on the canoes, paddling from underneath them. So
+that, had your sentinels been awake, they would have hardly made us
+out, till we were close on board. We had provided ourselves, instead
+of ladders, with bamboos rigged with cross-pieces, and a hook of strong
+wood at the top of each; they hang at your stern-gallery now. And the
+rest of the tale I need not tell you."
+
+The commandant rose in his courtly Spanish way,--
+
+"Your admirable story, senor, proves to me how truly your nation, while
+it has yet, and I trust will ever have, to dispute the palm of valor
+with our own, is famed throughout the world for ingenuity, and for
+daring beyond that of mortal man. You have succeeded, valiant captain,
+because you have deserved to succeed; and it is no shame to me to
+succumb to enemies who have united the cunning of the serpent with the
+valor of the lion. Senor, I feel as proud of becoming your guest as I
+should have been proud, under a happier star, of becoming your host."
+
+"You are, like your nation, only too generous, senor. But what noise is
+that outside? Cary, go and see."
+
+But ere Cary could reach the door, it was opened; and Evans presented
+himself with a terrified face.
+
+"Here's villainy, sir! The Don's murdered, and cold; the Indian lass
+fled; and as we searched the ship for her, we found an Englishwoman, as
+I'm a sinful man!--and a shocking sight she is to see!"
+
+"An Englishwoman?" cried all three, springing forward.
+
+"Bring her in!" said Amyas, turning very pale; and as he spoke, Yeo and
+another led into the cabin a figure scarcely human.
+
+An elderly woman, dressed in the yellow "San Benito" of the Inquisition,
+with ragged gray locks hanging about a countenance distorted by
+suffering and shrunk by famine. Painfully, as one unaccustomed to the
+light, she peered and blinked round her. Her fallen lip gave her a
+half-idiotic expression; and yet there was an uneasy twinkle in the eye,
+as of boundless terror and suspicion. She lifted up her fettered wrist
+to shade her face; and as she did so, disclosed a line of fearful scars
+upon her skinny arm.
+
+"Look there, sirs!" said Yeo, pointing to them with a stern smile.
+"Here's some of these Popish gentry's handiwork. I know well enough how
+those marks came;" and he pointed to the similar scars on his own wrist.
+
+The commandant, as well as the Englishmen, recoiled with horror.
+
+"Holy Virgin! what wretch is this on board my ship? Bishop, is this the
+prisoner whom you sent on board?"
+
+The bishop, who had been slowly recovering his senses, looked at her a
+moment; and then thrusting his chair back, crossed himself, and almost
+screamed, "Malefica! Malefica! Who brought her here? Turn her away,
+gentlemen; turn her eye away; she will bewitch, fascinate"--and he began
+muttering prayers.
+
+Amyas seized him by the shoulder, and shook him on to his legs.
+
+"Swine! who is this? Wake up, coward, and tell me, or I will cut you
+piecemeal!"
+
+But ere the bishop could answer, the woman uttered a wild shriek, and
+pointing to the taller of the two monks, cowered behind Yeo.
+
+"He here?" cried she, in broken Spanish. "Take me away! I will tell you
+no more. I have told you all, and lies enough beside. Oh! why is he come
+again? Did they not say that I should have no more torments?"
+
+The monk turned pale: but like a wild beast at bay, glared firmly round
+on the whole company; and then, fixing his dark eyes full on the woman,
+he bade her be silent so sternly, that she shrank down like a beaten
+hound.
+
+"Silence, dog!" said Will Cary, whose blood was up, and followed his
+words with a blow on the monk's mouth, which silenced him effectually.
+
+"Don't be afraid, good woman, but speak English. We are all English
+here, and Protestants too. Tell us what they have done for you."
+
+"Another trap! another trap!" cried she, in a strong Devonshire accent.
+"You be no English! You want to make me lie again, and then torment me.
+Oh! wretched, wretched that I am!" cried she, bursting into tears. "Whom
+should I trust? Not myself: no, nor God; for I have denied Him! O Lord!
+O Lord!"
+
+Amyas stood silent with fear and horror; some instinct told him that he
+was on the point of hearing news for which he feared to ask. But Jack
+spoke--
+
+"My dear soul! my dear soul! don't you be afraid; and the Lord will
+stand by you, if you will but tell the truth. We are all Englishmen, and
+men of Devon, as you seem to be by your speech; and this ship is ours;
+and the pope himself sha'n't touch you."
+
+"Devon?" she said doubtingly; "Devon! Whence, then?"
+
+"Bideford men. This is Mr. Will Cary, to Clovelly. If you are a Devon
+woman, you've heard tell of the Carys, to be sure."
+
+The woman made a rush forward, and threw her fettered arms round Will's
+neck,--
+
+"Oh, Mr. Cary, my dear life! Mr. Cary! and so you be! Oh, dear soul
+alive! but you're burnt so brown, and I be 'most blind with misery. Oh,
+who ever sent you here, my dear Mr. Will, then, to save a poor wretch
+from the pit?"
+
+"Who on earth are you?"
+
+"Lucy Passmore, the white witch to Welcombe. Don't you mind Lucy
+Passmore, as charmed your warts for you when you was a boy?"
+
+"Lucy Passmore!" almost shrieked all three friends. "She that went off
+with--"
+
+"Yes! she that sold her own soul, and persuaded that dear saint to
+sell hers; she that did the devil's work, and has taken the devil's
+wages;--after this fashion!" and she held up her scarred wrists wildly.
+
+"Where is Dona de--Rose Salterne?" shouted Will and Jack.
+
+"Where is my brother Frank?" shouted Amyas.
+
+"Dead, dead, dead!"
+
+"I knew it," said Amyas, sitting down again calmly.
+
+"How did she die?"
+
+"The Inquisition--he!" pointing to the monk. "Ask him--he betrayed her
+to her death. And ask him!" pointing to the bishop; "he sat by her and
+saw her die."
+
+"Woman, you rave!" said the bishop, getting up with a terrified air, and
+moving as far as possible from Amyas.
+
+"How did my brother die, Lucy?" asked Amyas, still calmly.
+
+"Who be you, sir?"
+
+A gleam of hope flashed across Amyas--she had not answered his question.
+
+"I am Amyas Leigh of Burrough. Do you know aught of my brother Frank,
+who was lost at La Guayra?"
+
+"Mr. Amyas! Heaven forgive me that I did not know the bigness of you.
+Your brother, sir, died like a gentleman as he was."
+
+"But how?" gasped Amyas.
+
+"Burned with her, sir!"
+
+"Is this true, sir?" said Amyas, turning to the bishop, with a very
+quiet voice.
+
+"I, sir?" stammered he, in panting haste. "I had nothing to do--I was
+compelled in my office of bishop to be an unwilling spectator--the
+secular arm, sir; I could not interfere with that--any more than I can
+with the Holy Office. I do not belong to it--ask that gentleman--sir!
+Saints and angels, sir! what are you going to do?" shrieked he, as Amyas
+laid a heavy hand upon his shoulder, and began to lead him towards the
+door.
+
+"Hang you!" said Amyas. "If I had been a Spaniard and a priest like
+yourself, I should have burnt you alive."
+
+"Hang me?" shrieked the wretched old Balaam; and burst into abject howls
+for mercy.
+
+"Take the dark monk, Yeo, and hang him too. Lucy Passmore, do you know
+that fellow also?"
+
+"No, sir," said Lucy.
+
+"Lucky for you, Fray Gerundio," said Will Cary; while the good friar
+hid his face in his hands, and burst into tears. Lucky it was for
+him, indeed; for he had been a pitying spectator of the tragedy. "Ah!"
+thought he, "if life in this mad and sinful world be a reward, perhaps
+this escape is vouchsafed to me for having pleaded the cause of the poor
+Indian!"
+
+But the bishop shrieked on.
+
+"Oh! not yet. An hour, only an hour! I am not fit to die."
+
+"That is no concern of mine," said Amyas. "I only know that you are not
+fit to live."
+
+"Let us at least make our peace with God," said the dark monk.
+
+"Hound! if your saints can really smuggle you up the back-stairs
+to heaven, they will do it without five minutes' more coaxing and
+flattering."
+
+Fray Gerundio and the condemned man alike stopped their ears at the
+blasphemy.
+
+"Oh, Fray Gerundio!" screamed the bishop, "pray for me. I have treated
+you like a beast. Oh, Fray, Fray!"
+
+"Oh, my lord! my lord!" said the good man, as with tears streaming
+down his face he followed his shrieking and struggling diocesan up the
+stairs, "who am I? Ask no pardon of me. Ask pardon of God for all your
+sins against the poor innocent savages, when you saw your harmless sheep
+butchered year after year, and yet never lifted up your voice to save
+the flock which God had committed to you. Oh, confess that, my lord!
+confess it ere it be too late!"
+
+"I will confess all about the Indians, and the gold, and Tita too, Fray;
+peccavi, peccavi--only five minutes, senors, five little minutes' grace,
+while I confess to the good Fray!"--and he grovelled on the deck.
+
+"I will have no such mummery where I command," said Amyas, sternly. "I
+will be no accomplice in cheating Satan of his due."
+
+"If you will confess," said Brimblecombe, whose heart was melting fast,
+"confess to the Lord, and He will forgive you. Even at the last moment
+mercy is open. Is it not, Fray Gerundio?"
+
+"It is, senor; it is, my lord," said Gerundio; but the bishop only
+clasped his hands over his head.
+
+"Then I am undone! All my money is stolen! Not a farthing left to buy
+masses for my poor soul! And no absolution, no viaticum, nor anything! I
+die like a dog and am damned!"
+
+"Clear away that running rigging!" said Amyas, while the dark Dominican
+stood perfectly collected, with something of a smile of pity at
+the miserable bishop. A man accustomed to cruelty, and firm in his
+fanaticism, he was as ready to endure suffering as to inflict it;
+repeating to himself the necessary prayers, he called Fray Gerundio to
+witness that he died, however unworthy, a martyr, in charity with all
+men, and in the communion of the Holy Catholic Church; and then, as
+he fitted the cord to his own neck, gave Fray Gerundio various petty
+commissions about his sister and her children, and a little vineyard far
+away upon the sunny slopes of Castile; and so died, with a "Domine, in
+manus tuas," like a valiant man of Spain.
+
+Amyas stood long in solemn silence, watching the two corpses dangling
+above his head. At last he drew a long breath, as if a load was taken
+off his heart.
+
+Suddenly he looked round to his men, who were watching eagerly to know
+what he would have done next.
+
+"Hearken to me, my masters all, and may God hearken too, and do so to
+me, and more also, if, as long as I have eyes to see a Spaniard, and
+hands to hew him down, I do any other thing than hunt down that accursed
+nation day and night, and avenge all the innocent blood which has been
+shed by them since the day in which King Ferdinand drove out the Moors!"
+
+"Amen!" said Salvation Yeo. "I need not to swear that oath, for I have
+sworn it long ago, and kept it. Will your honor have us kill the rest of
+the idolaters?"
+
+"God forbid!" said Cary. "You would not do that, Amyas?"
+
+"No; we will spare them. God has shown us a great mercy this day, and we
+must be merciful in it. We will land them at Cabo Velo. But henceforth
+till I die no quarter to a Spaniard."
+
+"Amen!" said Yeo.
+
+Amyas's whole countenance had changed in the last half-hour. He seemed
+to have grown years older. His brow was wrinkled, his lip compressed,
+his eyes full of a terrible stony calm, as of one who had formed a great
+and dreadful purpose, and yet for that very reason could afford to be
+quiet under the burden of it, even cheerful; and when he returned to the
+cabin he bowed courteously to the commandant, begged pardon of him
+for having played the host so ill, and entreated him to finish his
+breakfast.
+
+"But, senor--is it possible? Is his holiness dead?"
+
+"He is hanged and dead, senor. I would have hanged, could I have caught
+them, every living thing which was present at my brother's death, even
+to the very flies upon the wall. No more words, senor; your conscience
+tells you that I am just."
+
+"Senor," said the commandant--"one word--I trust there are no
+listeners--none of my crew, I mean; but I must exculpate myself in your
+eyes."
+
+"Walk out, then, into the gallery with me."
+
+"To tell you the truth, senor--I trust in Heaven no one overhears.--You
+are just. This Inquisition is the curse of us, the weight which is
+crushing out the very life of Spain. No man dares speak. No man dares
+trust his neighbor, no, not his child, or the wife of his bosom. It
+avails nothing to be a good Catholic, as I trust I am," and he crossed
+himself, "when any villain whom you may offend, any unnatural son or
+wife who wishes to be rid of you, has but to hint heresy against you,
+and you vanish into the Holy Office--and then God have mercy on you,
+for man has none. Noble ladies of my family, sir, have vanished
+thither, carried off by night, we know not why; we dare not ask why. To
+expostulate, even to inquire, would have been to share their fate. There
+is one now, senor--Heaven alone knows whether she is alive or dead!--It
+was nine years since, and we have never heard; and we shall never hear."
+
+And the commandant's face worked frightfully.
+
+"She was my sister, senor!"
+
+"Heavens! sir, and have you not avenged her?"
+
+"On churchmen, senor, and I a Catholic? To be burned at the stake in
+this life, and after that to all eternity beside? Even a Spaniard
+dare not face that. Beside, sir, the mob like this Inquisition, and an
+Auto-da-fe is even better sport to them than a bull-fight. They would be
+the first to tear a man in pieces who dare touch an Inquisitor. Sir,
+may all the saints in heaven obtain me forgiveness for my blasphemy, but
+when I saw you just now fearing those churchmen no more than you feared
+me, I longed, sinner that I am, to be a heretic like you."
+
+"It will not take long to make a brave and wise gentleman who has
+suffered such things as you have, a heretic, as you call it--a free
+Christian man, as we call it."
+
+"Tempt me not, sir!" said the poor man, crossing himself fervently. "Let
+us say no more. Obedience is my duty; and for the rest the Church must
+decide, according to her infallible authority--for I am a good Catholic,
+senor, the best of Catholics, though a great sinner.--I trust no one has
+overheard us!"
+
+Amyas left him with a smile of pity, and went to look for Lucy Passmore,
+whom the sailors were nursing and feeding, while Ayacanora watched them
+with a puzzled face.
+
+"I will talk to you when you are better, Lucy," said he, taking her
+hand. "Now you must eat and drink, and forget all among us lads of
+Devon."
+
+"Oh, dear blessed sir, and you will send Sir John to pray with me? For
+I turned, sir, I turned: but I could not help it--I could not abear the
+torments: but she bore them, sweet angel--and more than I did. Oh, dear
+me!"
+
+"Lucy, I am not fit now to hear more. You shall tell me all to-morrow;"
+and he turned away.
+
+"Why do you take her hand?" said Ayacanora, half-scornfully. "She is
+old, and ugly, and dirty."
+
+"She is an Englishwoman, child, and a martyr, poor thing; and I would
+nurse her as I would my own mother."
+
+"Why don't you make me an Englishwoman, and a martyr? I could learn how
+to do anything that that old hag could do!"
+
+"Instead of calling her names, go and tend her; that would be much
+fitter work for a woman than fighting among men."
+
+Ayacanora darted from him, thrust the sailors aside, and took possession
+of Lucy Passmore.
+
+"Where shall I put her?" asked she of Amyas, without looking up.
+
+"In the best cabin; and let her be served like a queen, lads."
+
+"No one shall touch her but me;" and taking up the withered frame in her
+arms, as if it were a doll, Ayacanora walked off with her in triumph,
+telling the men to go and mind the ship.
+
+"The girl is mad," said one.
+
+"Mad or not, she has an eye to our captain," said another.
+
+"And where's the man that would behave to the poor wild thing as he
+does?"
+
+"Sir Francis Drake would, from whom he got his lesson. Do you mind his
+putting the negro lass ashore after he found out about--"
+
+"Hush! Bygones be bygones, and those that did it are in their graves
+long ago. But it was too hard of him on the poor thing."
+
+"If he had not got rid of her, there would have been more throats than
+one cut about the lass, that's all I know," said another; "and so there
+would have been about this one before now, if the captain wasn't a born
+angel out of heaven, and the lieutenant no less."
+
+"Well, I suppose we may get a whet by now. I wonder if these Dons have
+any beer aboard."
+
+"Naught but grape vinegar, which fools call wine, I'll warrant."
+
+"There was better than vinegar on the table in there just now."
+
+"Ah," said one grumbler of true English breed, "but that's not for poor
+fellows like we."
+
+"Don't lie, Tom Evans; you never were given that way yet, and I don't
+think the trade will suit a good fellow like you."
+
+The whole party stared; for the speaker of these words was none other
+than Amyas himself, who had rejoined them, a bottle in each hand.
+
+"No, Tom Evans. It has been share and share alike for three years,
+and bravely you have all held up, and share alike it shall be now, and
+here's the handsel of it. We'll serve out the good wine fairly all round
+as long as it lasts, and then take to the bad: but mind you don't get
+drunk, my sons, for we are much too short of hands to have any stout
+fellows lying about the scuppers."
+
+But what was the story of the intendant's being murdered? Brimblecombe
+had seen him run into a neighboring cabin; and when the door of it
+was opened, there was the culprit, but dead and cold, with a deep
+knife-wound in his side. Who could have done the deed? It must have been
+Tita, whom Brimblecombe had seen loose, and trying to free her lover.
+
+The ship was searched from stem to stern: but no Tita. The mystery was
+never explained. That she had leapt overboard, and tried to swim ashore,
+none doubted: but whether she had reached it, who could tell? One thing
+was strange; that not only had she carried off no treasure with her,
+but that the gold ornaments which she had worn the night before, lay
+together in a heap on the table, close by the murdered man. Had she
+wished to rid herself of everything which had belonged to her tyrants?
+
+The commandant heard the whole story thoughtfully.
+
+"Wretched man!" said he, "and he has a wife and children in Seville."
+
+"A wife and children?" said Amyas; "and I heard him promise marriage to
+the Indian girl."
+
+That was the only hint which gave a reason for his death. What if,
+in the terror of discovery and capture, the scoundrel had dropped any
+self-condemning words about his marriage, any prayer for those whom he
+had left behind, and the Indian had overheard them? It might be so; at
+least sin had brought its own punishment.
+
+And so that wild night and day subsided. The prisoners were kindly used
+enough; for the Englishman, free from any petty love of tormenting,
+knows no mean between killing a foe outright, and treating him as a
+brother; and when, two days afterwards, they were sent ashore in the
+canoes off Cabo Velo, captives and captors shook hands all round; and
+Amyas, after returning the commandant his sword, and presenting him with
+a case of the bishop's wine, bowed him courteously over the side.
+
+"I trust that you will pay us another visit, valiant senor capitan,"
+said the Spaniard, bowing and smiling.
+
+"I should most gladly accept your invitation, illustrious senor
+commandant; but as I have vowed henceforth, whenever I shall meet a
+Spaniard, neither to give nor take quarter, I trust that our paths to
+glory may lie in different directions."
+
+The commandant shrugged his shoulders; the ship was put again before the
+wind, and as the shores of the Main faded lower and dimmer behind her,
+a mighty cheer broke from all on board; and for once the cry from every
+mouth was Eastward-ho!
+
+Scrap by scrap, as weakness and confusion of intellect permitted her,
+Lucy Passmore told her story. It was a simple one after all, and Amyas
+might almost have guessed it for himself. Rose had not yielded to the
+Spaniard without a struggle. He had visited her two or three times at
+Lucy's house (how he found out Lucy's existence she herself could never
+tell, unless from the Jesuits) before she agreed to go with him. He had
+gained Lucy to his side by huge promises of Indian gold; and, in fine,
+they had gone to Lundy, where the lovers were married by a priest, who
+was none other, Lucy would swear, than the shorter and stouter of the
+two who had carried off her husband and his boat--in a word, Father
+Parsons.
+
+Amyas gnashed his teeth at the thought that he had had Parsons in his
+power at Brenttor down, and let him go. It was a fresh proof to him that
+Heaven's vengeance was upon him for letting one of its enemies escape.
+Though what good to Rose or Frank the hanging of Parsons would have
+been, I, for my part, cannot see.
+
+But when had Eustace been at Lundy? Lucy could throw no light on that
+matter. It was evidently some by-thread in the huge spider's web of
+Jesuit intrigue, which was, perhaps, not worth knowing after all.
+
+They sailed from Lundy in a Portugal ship, were at Lisbon a few days
+(during which Rose and Lucy remained on board), and then away for the
+West Indies; while all went merry as a marriage bell. "Sir, he would
+have kissed the dust off her dear feet, till that evil eye of Mr.
+Eustace's came, no one knew how or whence." And, from that time, all
+went wrong. Eustace got power over Don Guzman, whether by threatening
+that the marriage should be dissolved, whether by working on his
+superstitious scruples about leaving his wife still a heretic, or
+whether (and this last Lucy much suspected) by insinuations that her
+heart was still at home in England, and that she was longing for Amyas
+and his ship to come and take her home again; the house soon became a
+den of misery, and Eustace the presiding evil genius. Don Guzman had
+even commanded him to leave it--and he went; but, somehow, within a week
+he was there again, in greater favor than ever. Then came preparations
+to meet the English, and high words about it between Don Guzman and
+Rose; till a few days before Amyas's arrival, the Don had dashed out
+of the house in a fury, saying openly that she preferred these Lutheran
+dogs to him, and that he would have their hearts' blood first, and hers
+after.
+
+The rest was soon told. Amyas knew but too much of it already. The very
+morning after he had gone up to the villa, Lucy and her mistress were
+taken (they knew not by whom) down to the quay, in the name of the Holy
+Office, and shipped off to Cartagena.
+
+There they were examined, and confronted on a charge of witchcraft,
+which the wretched Lucy could not well deny. She was tortured to
+make her inculpate Rose; and what she said, or did not say, under the
+torture, the poor wretch could never tell. She recanted, and became a
+Romanist; Rose remained firm. Three weeks afterwards, they were brought
+out to an Auto-da-fe; and there, for the first time, Lucy saw Frank
+walking, dressed in a San Benito, in that ghastly procession. Lucy was
+adjudged to receive publicly two hundred stripes, and to be sent to
+"The Holy House" at Seville to perpetual prison. Frank and Rose, with
+a renegade Jew, and a negro who had been convicted of practising "Obi,"
+were sentenced to death as impenitent, and delivered over to the
+secular arm, with prayers that there might be no shedding of blood. In
+compliance with which request, the Jew and the negro were burnt at one
+stake, Frank and Rose at another. She thought they did not feel it more
+than twenty minutes. They were both very bold and steadfast, and held
+each other's hand (that she would swear to) to the very last.
+
+And so ended Lucy Passmore's story. And if Amyas Leigh, after he had
+heard it, vowed afresh to give no quarter to Spaniards wherever he
+should find them, who can wonder, even if they blame?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+HOW SALVATION YEO FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN
+
+     "All precious things, discover'd late,
+        To them who seek them issue forth;
+     For love in sequel works with fate,
+        And draws the veil from hidden worth."
+
+                         The Sleeping Beauty.
+
+And so Ayacanora took up her abode in Lucy's cabin, as a regularly
+accredited member of the crew.
+
+But a most troublesome member; for now began in her that perilous crisis
+which seems to endanger the bodies and souls of all savages and savage
+tribes, when they first mingle with the white man; that crisis which,
+a few years afterwards, began to hasten the extermination of the North
+American tribes; and had it not been for the admirable good sense and
+constancy of Amyas, Ayacanora might have ended even more miserably than
+did the far-famed Pocahontas, daughter of the Virginian king; who, after
+having been received at Court by the old pedant James the First,
+with the honors of a sister sovereign, and having become the reputed
+ancestress of more than one ancient Virginian family, ended her days in
+wretchedness in some Wapping garret.
+
+For the mind of the savage, crushed by the sight of the white man's
+superior skill, and wealth, and wisdom, loses at first its self-respect;
+while his body, pampered with easily obtained luxuries, instead
+of having to win the necessaries of life by heavy toil, loses its
+self-helpfulness; and with self-respect and self-help vanish all the
+savage virtues, few and flimsy as they are, and the downward road toward
+begging and stealing, sottishness and idleness, is easy, if not sure.
+
+And down that road, it really seemed at first, that poor Ayacanora was
+walking fast. For the warrior-prophetess of the Omaguas soon became, to
+all appearance, nothing but a very naughty child; and the Diana of the
+Meta, after she had satisfied her simple wonder at the great floating
+house by rambling from deck to deck, and peeping into every cupboard
+and cranny, manifested a great propensity to steal and hide (she was too
+proud or too shy to ask for) every trumpery which smit her fancy; and
+when Amyas forbade her to take anything without leave, threatened
+to drown herself, and went off and sulked all day in her cabin.
+Nevertheless, she obeyed him, except in the matter of sweet things.
+Perhaps she craved naturally for the vegetable food of her native
+forests; at all events the bishop's stores of fruit and sweetmeats
+diminished rapidly; and what was worse, so did the sweet Spanish wine
+which Amyas had set apart for poor Lucy's daily cordial. Whereon another
+severe lecture, in which Amyas told her how mean it was to rob poor
+sick Lucy; whereat she, as usual, threatened to drown herself; and was
+running upon deck to do it, when Amyas caught her and forgave her. On
+which a violent fit of crying, and great penitence and promises; and
+a week after, Amyas found that she had cheated Satan and her own
+conscience by tormenting the Portuguese steward into giving her some
+other wine instead: but luckily for her, she found Amyas's warnings
+about wine making her mad so far fulfilled, that she did several foolish
+things one evening, and had a bad headache next morning; so the murder
+was out, and Amyas ordered the steward up for a sound flogging; but
+Ayacanora, honorably enough, not only begged him off, but offered to be
+whipped instead of him, confessing that the poor fellow spoke truly when
+he swore that she had threatened to kill him, and that he had given her
+the wine in bodily fear for his life.
+
+However, her own headache and Amyas's cold looks were lesson enough, and
+after another attempt to drown herself, the wilful beauty settled down
+for awhile; and what was better, could hardly be persuaded, thenceforth
+to her dying day, to touch fermented liquors.
+
+But, in the meanwhile, poor Amyas had many a brains-beating as to how
+he was to tame a lady who, on the least provocation, took refuge in
+suicide. Punish her he dared not, even if he had the heart. And as for
+putting her ashore, he had an instinct, and surely not a superstitious
+one, that her strange affection for the English was not unsent by
+Heaven, and that God had committed her into his charge, and that He
+would require an account at his hands of the soul of that fair lost
+lamb.
+
+So, almost at his wits' end, he prayed to God, good simple fellow, and
+that many a time, to show him what he should do with her before she
+killed either herself, or what was just as likely, one of the crew; and
+it seemed best to him to make Parson Jack teach her the rudiments of
+Christianity, that she might be baptized in due time when they got home
+to England.
+
+But here arose a fresh trouble--for she roundly refused to learn of
+Jack, or of any one but Amyas himself; while he had many a good reason
+for refusing the office of schoolmaster; so, for a week or two more,
+Ayacanora remained untaught, save in the English tongue, which she
+picked up with marvellous rapidity.
+
+And next, as if troubles would never end, she took a violent dislike,
+not only to John Brimblecombe, whose gait and voice she openly mimicked
+for the edification of the men; but also to Will Cary, whom she never
+allowed to speak to her or approach her. Perhaps she was jealous of his
+intimacy with Amyas; or perhaps, with the subtle instinct of a woman,
+she knew that he was the only other man on board who might dare to make
+love to her (though Will, to do him justice, was as guiltless of any
+such intention as Amyas himself). But when she was remonstrated with,
+her only answer was that Cary was a cacique as well as Amyas, and that
+there ought not to be two caciques; and one day she actually proposed to
+Amyas to kill his supposed rival, and take the ship all to himself;
+and sulked for several days at hearing Amyas, amid shouts of laughter,
+retail her precious advice to its intended victim.
+
+Moreover, the negroes came in for their share, being regarded all along
+by her with an unspeakable repugnance, which showed itself at first in
+hiding from them whenever she could, and, afterwards, in throwing at
+them everything she could lay hands on, till the poor Quashies, in
+danger of their lives, complained to Amyas, and got rest for awhile.
+
+Over the rest of the sailors she lorded it like a very princess, calling
+them from their work to run on her errands and make toys for her,
+enforcing her commands now and then by a shrewd box on the ears; while
+the good fellows, especially old Yeo, like true sailors, petted her,
+obeyed her, even jested with her, much as they might have done with a
+tame leopard, whose claws might be unsheathed and about their ears at
+any moment. But she amused them, and amused Amyas too. They must of
+course have a pet; and what prettier one could they have? And as for
+Amyas, the constant interest of her presence, even the constant
+anxiety of her wilfulness, kept his mind busy, and drove out many a sad
+foreboding about that meeting with his mother, and the tragedy which
+he had to tell her, which would otherwise, so heavily did they weigh on
+him, have crushed his spirit with melancholy, and made all his worldly
+success and marvellous deliverance worthless in his eyes.
+
+At last the matter, as most things luckily do, came to a climax; and it
+came in this way.
+
+The ship had been slipping along now for many a day, slowly but steadily
+before a favorable breeze. She had passed the ring of the West India
+islands, and was now crawling, safe from all pursuit, through the vast
+weed-beds of the Sargasso Sea. There, for the first time, it was thought
+safe to relax the discipline which had been hitherto kept up, and to
+"rummage" (as was the word in those days) their noble prize. What they
+found, of gold and silver, jewels, and merchandise, will interest no
+readers. Suffice it to say, that there was enough there, with the other
+treasure, to make Amyas rich for life, after all claims of Cary's and
+the crew, not forgetting Mr. Salterne's third, as owner of the ship,
+had been paid off. But in the captain's cabin were found two chests, one
+full of gorgeous Mexican feather dresses, and the other of Spanish and
+East Indian finery, which, having come by way of Havana and Cartagena,
+was going on, it seemed, to some senora or other at the Caracas. Which
+two chests were, at Cary's proposal, voted amid the acclamations of
+the crew to Ayacanora, as her due and fit share of the pillage, in
+consideration of her Amazonian prowess and valuable services.
+
+So the poor child took greedy possession of the trumpery, had them
+carried into Lucy's cabin, and there knelt gloating over them many an
+hour. The Mexican work she chose to despise as savage; but the Spanish
+dresses were a treasure; and for two or three days she appeared on the
+quarter-deck, sunning herself like a peacock before the eyes of Amyas in
+Seville mantillas, Madrid hats, Indian brocade farthingales, and I know
+not how many other gewgaws, and dare not say how put on.
+
+The crew tittered: Amyas felt much more inclined to cry. There is
+nothing so pathetic as a child's vanity, saving a grown person aping a
+child's vanity; and saving, too, a child's agony of disappointment when
+it finds that it has been laughed at instead of being admired. Amyas
+would have spoken, but he was afraid: however, the evil brought its own
+cure. The pageant went on, as its actor thought, most successfully
+for three days or so; but at last the dupe, unable to contain herself
+longer, appealed to Amyas,--"Ayacanora quite English girl now; is she
+not?"--heard a titter behind her, looked round, saw a dozen honest
+faces in broad grin, comprehended all in a moment, darted down the
+companion-ladder, and vanished.
+
+Amyas, fully expecting her to jump overboard, followed as fast as he
+could. But she had locked herself in with Lucy, and he could hear her
+violent sobs, and Lucy's faint voice entreating to know what was the
+matter.
+
+In vain he knocked. She refused to come out all day, and at even they
+were forced to break the door open, to prevent Lucy being starved.
+
+There sat Ayacanora, her finery half torn off, and scattered about the
+floor in spite, crying still as if her heart would break; while poor
+Lucy cried too, half from fright and hunger, and half for company.
+
+Amyas tried to comfort the poor child, assured her that the men should
+never laugh at her again; "But then," added he, "you must not be
+so--so--" What to say he hardly knew.
+
+"So what?" asked she, crying more bitterly than ever.
+
+"So like a wild girl, Ayacanora."
+
+Her hands dropped on her knees: a strong spasm ran through her
+throat and bosom, and she fell on her knees before him, and looked up
+imploringly in his face.
+
+"Yes; wild girl--poor, bad wild girl. . . . But I will be English girl
+now!"
+
+"Fine clothes will never make you English, my child," said Amyas.
+
+"No! not English clothes--English heart! Good heart, like yours! Yes, I
+will be good, and Sir John shall teach me!"
+
+"There's my good maid," said Amyas. "Sir John shall begin and teach you
+to-morrow."
+
+"No! Now! now! Ayacanora cannot wait. She will drown herself if she is
+bad another day! Come, now!"
+
+And she made him fetch Brimblecombe, heard the honest fellow patiently
+for an hour or more, and told Lucy that very night all that he had said.
+And from that day, whenever Jack went in to read and pray with the
+poor sufferer, Ayacanora, instead of escaping on deck as before, stood
+patiently trying to make it all out, and knelt when he knelt, and tried
+to pray too--that she might have an English heart; and doubtless her
+prayers, dumb as they were, were not unheard.
+
+So went on a few days more, hopefully enough, without any outbreak, till
+one morning, just after they had passed the Sargasso-beds. The ship
+was taking care of herself; the men were all on deck under the awning,
+tinkering, and cobbling, and chatting; Brimblecombe was catechising his
+fair pupil in the cabin; Amyas and Cary, cigar in mouth, were chatting
+about all heaven and earth, and, above all, of the best way of getting
+up a fresh adventure against the Spaniards as soon as they returned;
+while Amyas was pouring out to Will that dark hatred of the whole
+nation, that dark purpose of revenge for his brother and for Rose, which
+had settled down like a murky cloud into every cranny of his heart and
+mind. Suddenly there was a noise below; a scuffle and a shout,
+which made them both leap to their feet; and up on deck rushed Jack
+Brimblecombe, holding his head on with both his hands.
+
+"Save me! save me from that she-fiend! She is possessed with a legion!
+She has broken my nose--torn out half my hair!--and I'm sure I have none
+to spare! Here she comes! Stand by me, gentlemen both! Satanas, I defy
+thee!" And Jack ensconced himself behind the pair, as Ayacanora whirled
+upon deck like a very Maenad, and, seeing Amyas, stopped short.
+
+"If you had defied Satan down below there," said Cary, with a laugh, "I
+suspect he wouldn't have broken out on you so boldly, Master Jack."
+
+"I am innocent--innocent as the babe unborn! Oh! Mr. Cary! this is too
+bad of you, sir!" quoth Jack indignantly, while Amyas asked what was the
+matter.
+
+"He looked at me," said she, sturdily.
+
+"Well, a cat may look at a king."
+
+"But he sha'n't look at Ayacanora. Nobody shall but you, or I'll kill
+him!"
+
+In vain Jack protested his innocence of having even looked at her. The
+fancy (and I verily believe it was nothing more) had taken possession of
+her. She refused to return below to her lesson. Jack went off grumbling,
+minus his hair, and wore a black eye for a week after.
+
+"At all events," quoth Cary, re-lighting his cigar, "it's a fault on the
+right side."
+
+"God give me grace, or it may be one on the wrong side for me."
+
+"He will, old heart-of-oak!" said Cary, laying his arm around Amyas's
+neck, to the evident disgust of Ayacanora, who went off to the side,
+got a fishing-line, and began amusing herself therewith, while the ship
+slipped on quietly and silently as ever, save when Ayacanora laughed and
+clapped her hands at the flying-fish scudding from the bonitos. At last,
+tired of doing nothing, she went forward to the poop-rail to listen to
+John Squire the armorer, who sat tinkering a headpiece, and humming a
+song, mutato nomine, concerning his native place--
+
+     "Oh, Bideford is a pleasant place, it shines where it stands,
+     And the more I look upon it, the more my heart it warms;
+     For there are fair young lasses, in rows upon the quay,
+     To welcome gallant mariners, when they come home from say."
+
+"'Tis Sunderland, John Squire, to the song, and not Bidevor," said his
+mate.
+
+"Well, Bidevor's so good as Sunderland any day, for all there's
+no say-coals there blacking a place about; and makes just so good
+harmonies, Tommy Hamblyn--
+
+     "Oh, if I was a herring, to swim the ocean o'er,
+     Or if I was a say-dove, to fly unto the shoor,
+     To fly unto my true love, a waiting at the door,
+     To wed her with a goold ring, and plough the main no moor."
+
+Here Yeo broke in--
+
+"Aren't you ashamed, John Squire, to your years, singing such carnal
+vanities, after all the providences you have seen? Let the songs of Zion
+be in your mouth, man, if you must needs keep a caterwauling all day
+like that."
+
+"You sing 'em yourself then, gunner."
+
+"Well," says Yeo, "and why not?" And out he pulled his psalm-book, and
+began a scrap of the grand old psalm--
+
+     "Such as in ships and brittle barks
+        Into the seas descend,
+     Their merchandise through fearful floods
+        To compass and to end;
+     There men are forced to behold
+        The Lord's works what they be;
+     And in the dreadful deep the same,
+        Most marvellous they see."
+
+"Humph!" said John Squire. "Very good and godly: but still I du like
+a merry catch now and then, I du. Wouldn't you let a body sing
+'Rumbelow'--even when he's heaving of the anchor?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Yeo; "but the Lord's people had better
+praise the Lord then too, and pray for a good voyage, instead of howling
+about--
+
+       "A randy, dandy, dandy O,
+        A whet of ale and brandy O,
+     With a rumbelow and a Westward-ho!
+        And heave, my mariners all, O!"
+
+"Is that fit talk for immortal souls? How does that child's-trade sound
+beside the Psalms, John Squire?"
+
+Now it befell that Salvation Yeo, for the very purpose of holding up to
+ridicule that time-honored melody, had put into it the true nasal twang,
+and rung it out as merrily as he had done perhaps twelve years before,
+when he got up John Oxenham's anchor in Plymouth Sound. And it befell
+also that Ayacanora, as she stood by Amyas's side, watching the men, and
+trying to make out their chat, heard it, and started; and then, half to
+herself, took up the strain, and sang it over again, word for word, in
+the very same tune and tone.
+
+Salvation Yeo started in his turn, and turned deadly pale.
+
+"Who sung that?" he asked quickly.
+
+"The little maid here. She's coming on nicely in her English," said
+Amyas.
+
+"The little maid?" said Yeo, turning paler still. "Why do you go about
+to scare an old servant, by talking of little maids, Captain Amyas?
+Well," he said aloud to himself, "as I am a sinful saint, if I hadn't
+seen where the voice came from, I could have sworn it was her; just as
+we taught her to sing it by the river there, I and William Penberthy of
+Marazion, my good comrade. The Lord have mercy on me!"
+
+All were silent as the grave whenever Yeo made any allusion to that lost
+child. Ayacanora only, pleased with Amyas's commendation, went humming
+on to herself--
+
+     "And heave, my mariners all, O!"
+
+Yeo started up from the gun where he sat.
+
+"I can't abear it! As I live, I can't! You, Indian maiden, where did you
+learn to sing that there?"
+
+Ayacanora looked up at him, half frightened by his vehemence, then at
+Amyas, to see if she had been doing anything wrong; and then turned
+saucily away, looked over the side, and hummed on.
+
+"Ask her, for mercy's sake--ask her, Captain Leigh!"
+
+"My child," said Amyas, speaking in Indian, "how is it you sing that so
+much better than any other English? Did you ever hear it before?"
+
+Ayacanora looked up at him puzzled, and shook her head; and then--
+
+"If you tell Indian to Ayacanora, she dumb. She must be English girl
+now, like poor Lucy."
+
+"Well then," said Amyas, "do you recollect, Ayacanora--do you
+recollect--what shall I say? anything that happened when you were a
+little girl?"
+
+She paused awhile; and then moving her hands overhead--
+
+"Trees--great trees like the Magdalena--always nothing but trees--wild
+and bad everything. Ayacanora won't talk about that."
+
+"Do you mind anything that grew on those trees?" asked Yeo, eagerly.
+
+She laughed. "Silly! Flowers and fruit, and nuts--grow on all trees, and
+monkey-cups too. Ayacanora climbed up after them--when she was wild. I
+won't tell any more."
+
+"But who taught you to call them monkey-cups?" asked Yeo, trembling with
+excitement.
+
+"Monkey's drink; mono drink."
+
+"Mono?" said Yeo, foiled on one cast, and now trying another. "How did
+you know the beasts were called monos?"
+
+"She might have heard it coming down with us," said Cary, who had joined
+the group.
+
+"Ay, monos," said she, in a self-justifying tone. "Faces like little
+men, and tails. And one very dirty black one, with a beard, say Amen in
+a tree to all the other monkeys, just like Sir John on Sunday."
+
+This allusion to Brimblecombe and the preaching apes upset all but old
+Yeo.
+
+"But don't you recollect any Christians?--white people?"
+
+She was silent.
+
+"Don't you mind a white lady?"
+
+"Um?"
+
+"A woman, a very pretty woman, with hair like his?" pointing to Amyas.
+
+"No."
+
+"What do you mind, then, beside those Indians?" added Yeo, in despair.
+
+She turned her back on him peevishly, as if tired with the efforts of
+her memory.
+
+"Do try to remember," said Amyas; and she set to work again at once.
+
+"Ayacanora mind great monkeys--black, oh, so high," and she held up her
+hand above her head, and made a violent gesture of disgust.
+
+"Monkeys? what, with tails?"
+
+"No, like man. Ah! yes--just like Cooky there--dirty Cooky!"
+
+And that hapless son of Ham, who happened to be just crossing the
+main-deck, heard a marlingspike, which by ill luck was lying at hand,
+flying past his ears.
+
+"Ayacanora, if you heave any more things at Cooky, I must have you
+whipped," said Amyas, without, of course, any such intention.
+
+"I'll kill you, then," answered she, in the most matter-of-fact tone.
+
+"She must mean negurs," said Yeo; "I wonder where she saw them, now.
+What if it were they Cimaroons?"
+
+"But why should any one who had seen whites forget them, and yet
+remember negroes?" asked Cary.
+
+"Let us try again. Do you mind no great monkeys but those black ones?"
+asked Amyas.
+
+"Yes," she said, after a while,--"devil."
+
+"Devil?" asked all three, who, of course, were by no means free from the
+belief that the fiend did actually appear to the Indian conjurors, such
+as had brought up the girl.
+
+"Ay, him Sir John tell about on Sundays."
+
+"Save and help us!" said Yeo; "and what was he like unto?"
+
+She made various signs to intimate that he had a monkey's face, and
+a gray beard like Yeo's. So far so good: but now came a series of
+manipulations about her pretty little neck, which set all their fancies
+at fault.
+
+"I know," said Cary, at last, bursting into a great laugh. "Sir Urian
+had a ruff on, as I live! Trunk-hose too, my fair dame? Stop--I'll make
+sure. Was his neck like the senor commandant's, the Spaniard?"
+
+Ayacanora clapped her hands at finding herself understood, and the
+questioning went on.
+
+"The 'devil' appeared like a monkey, with a gray beard, in a
+ruff;--humph!--"
+
+"Ay!" said she in good enough Spanish, "Mono de Panama; viejo diablo de
+Panama."
+
+Yeo threw up his hands with a shriek--"Oh Lord of all mercies! Those
+were the last words of Mr. John Oxenham! Ay--and the devil is surely
+none other than the devil Don Francisco Xararte! Oh dear! oh dear! oh
+dear! my sweet young lady! my pretty little maid! and don't you know me?
+Don't you know Salvation Yeo, that carried you over the mountains,
+and used to climb for the monkey-cups for you, my dear young lady? And
+William Penberthy too, that used to get you flowers; and your poor dear
+father, that was just like Mr. Cary there, only he had a black beard,
+and black curls, and swore terribly in his speech, like a Spaniard, my
+dear young lady?"
+
+And the honest fellow, falling on his knees, covered Ayacanora's hands
+with kisses; while all the crew, fancying him gone suddenly mad, crowded
+aft.
+
+"Steady, men, and don't vex him!" said Amyas. "He thinks that he has
+found his little maid at last."
+
+"And so do I, Amyas, as I live," said Cary.
+
+"Steady, steady, my masters all! If this turn out a wrong scent after
+all, his wits will crack. Mr. Yeo, can't you think of any other token?"
+
+Yeo stamped impatiently. "What need then? it's her, I tell ye, and
+that's enough! What a beauty she's grown! Oh dear! where were my eyes
+all this time, to behold her, and not to see her! 'Tis her very mortal
+self, it is! And don't you mind me, my dear, now? Don't you mind
+Salvation Yeo, that taught you to sing 'Heave my mariners all, O!'
+a-sitting on a log by the boat upon the sand, and there was a sight of
+red lilies grew on it in the moss, dear, now, wasn't there? and we made
+posies of them to put in your hair, now?"--And the poor old man ran on
+in a supplicating, suggestive tone, as if he could persuade the girl
+into becoming the person whom he sought.
+
+Ayacanora had watched him, first angry, then amused, then attentive, and
+at last with the most intense earnestness. Suddenly she grew crimson,
+and snatching her hands from the old man's, hid her face in them, and
+stood.
+
+"Do you remember anything of all this, my child?" asked Amyas, gently.
+
+She lifted up her eyes suddenly to his, with a look of imploring agony,
+as if beseeching him to spare her. The death of a whole old life,
+the birth of a whole new life, was struggling in that beautiful face,
+choking in that magnificent throat, as she threw back her small head,
+and drew in her breath, and dashed her locks back from her temples, as
+if seeking for fresh air. She shuddered, reeled, then fell weeping on
+the bosom, not of Salvation Yeo, but of Amyas Leigh.
+
+He stood still a minute or two, bearing that fair burden, ere he could
+recollect himself. Then,--
+
+"Ayacanora, you are not yet mistress of yourself, my child. You were
+better to go down, and see after poor Lucy, and we will talk about it
+all to-morrow."
+
+She gathered herself up instantly, and with eyes fixed on the deck slid
+through the group, and disappeared below.
+
+"Ah!" said Yeo, with a tone of exquisite sadness; "the young to the
+young! Over land and sea, in the forests and in the galleys, in battle
+and prison, I have sought her! And now!--"
+
+"My good friend," said Amyas, "neither are you master of yourself yet.
+When she comes round again, whom will she love and thank but you?"
+
+"You, sir! She owes all to you; and so do I. Let me go below, sir. My
+old wits are shaky. Bless you, sir, and thank you for ever and ever!"
+
+And Yeo grasped Amyas's hand, and went down to his cabin, from which he
+did not reappear for many hours.
+
+From that day Ayacanora was a new creature. The thought that she was
+an Englishwoman; that she, the wild Indian, was really one of the
+great white people whom she had learned to worship, carried in it some
+regenerating change: she regained all her former stateliness, and with
+it a self-restraint, a temperance, a softness which she had never shown
+before. Her dislike to Cary and Jack vanished. Modest and distant as
+ever, she now took delight in learning from them about England and
+English people; and her knowledge of our customs gained much from the
+somewhat fantastic behaviour which Amyas thought good, for reasons
+of his own, to assume toward her. He assigned her a handsome cabin to
+herself, always addressed her as madam, and told Cary, Brimblecombe, and
+the whole crew that as she was a lady and a Christian, he expected them
+to behave to her as such. So there was as much bowing and scraping
+on the poop as if it had been a prince's court: and Ayacanora, though
+sorely puzzled and chagrined at Amyas's new solemnity, contrived to
+imitate it pretty well (taking for granted that it was the right thing);
+and having tolerable masters in the art of manners (for both Amyas and
+Cary were thoroughly well-bred men), profited much in all things, except
+in intimacy with Amyas, who had, cunning fellow, hit on this parade of
+good manners, as a fresh means of increasing the distance between him
+and her. The crew, of course, though they were a little vexed at losing
+their pet, consoled themselves with the thought that she was a "real
+born lady," and Mr. Oxenham's daughter, too; and there was not a man on
+board who did not prick up his ears for a message if she approached him,
+or one who would not have, I verily believe, jumped overboard to do her
+a pleasure.
+
+Only Yeo kept sorrowfully apart. He never looked at her, spoke to her,
+met her even, if he could. His dream had vanished. He had found her! and
+after all, she did not care for him? Why should she?
+
+But it was hard to have hunted a bubble for years, and have it break
+in his hand at last. "Set not your affections on things on the earth,"
+murmured Yeo to himself, as he pored over his Bible, in the vain hope of
+forgetting his little maid.
+
+But why did Amyas wish to increase the distance between himself and
+Ayacanora? Many reasons might be given: I deny none of them. But the
+main one, fantastic as it may seem, was simply, that while she had
+discovered herself to be an Englishwoman, he had discovered her to be a
+Spaniard. If her father were seven times John Oxenham (and even that the
+perverse fellow was inclined to doubt), her mother was a Spaniard--Pah!
+one of the accursed race; kinswoman--perhaps, to his brother's
+murderers! His jaundiced eyes could see nothing but the Spanish element
+in her; or, indeed, in anything else. As Cary said to him once, using a
+cant phrase of Sidney's, which he had picked up from Frank, all heaven
+and earth were "spaniolated," to him. He seemed to recollect nothing but
+that Heaven had "made Spaniards to be killed, and him to kill them." If
+he had not been the most sensible of John Bulls, he would certainly have
+forestalled the monomania of that young Frenchman of rank, who, some
+eighty years after him, so maddened his brain by reading of the Spanish
+cruelties, that he threw up all his prospects and turned captain of
+filibusters in the West Indies, for the express purpose of ridding them
+of their tyrants; and when a Spanish ship was taken, used to relinquish
+the whole booty to his crew, and reserve for himself only the pleasure
+of witnessing his victims' dying agonies.
+
+But what had become of that bird-like song of Ayacanora's which had
+astonished them on the banks of the Meta, and cheered them many a time
+in their anxious voyage down the Magdalena? From the moment that she
+found out her English parentage, it stopped. She refused utterly to sing
+anything but the songs and psalms which she picked up from the English.
+Whether it was that she despised it as a relic of her barbarism, or
+whether it was too maddening for one whose heart grew heavier and
+humbler day by day, the nightingale notes were heard no more.
+
+So homeward they ran, before a favoring southwest breeze: but long
+ere they were within sight of land, Lucy Passmore was gone to her rest
+beneath the Atlantic waves.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE THIRD TIME
+
+     "It fell about the Martinmas,
+         When nights were lang and mirk,
+     That wife's twa sons cam hame again,
+         And their hats were o' the birk.
+
+     "It did na graw by bush or brae,
+         Nor yet in ony shough;
+     But by the gates o' paradise
+         That birk grew fair eneugh."
+
+                The Wife of Usher's Well.
+
+It is the evening of the 15th of February, 1587, and Mrs. Leigh (for
+we must return now to old scenes and old faces) is pacing slowly up and
+down the terrace-walk at Burrough, looking out over the winding river,
+and the hazy sand-hills, and the wide western sea, as she has done every
+evening, be it fair weather or foul, for three weary years. Three years
+and more are past and gone, and yet no news of Frank and Amyas, and
+the gallant ship and all the gallant souls therein; and loving eyes in
+Bideford and Appledore, Clovelly and Ilfracombe, have grown hollow with
+watching and with weeping for those who have sailed away into the West,
+as John Oxenham sailed before them, and have vanished like a dream, as
+he did, into the infinite unknown. Three weary years, and yet no word.
+Once there was a flush of hope, and good Sir Richard (without Mrs.
+Leigh's knowledge), had sent a horseman posting across to Plymouth, when
+the news arrived that Drake, Frobisher, and Carlisle had returned with
+their squadron from the Spanish Main. Alas! he brought back great news,
+glorious news; news of the sacking of Cartagena, San Domingo, Saint
+Augustine; of the relief of Raleigh's Virginian Colony: but no news of
+the Rose, and of those who had sailed in her. And Mrs. Leigh bowed her
+head, and worshipped, and said, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
+away; blessed be the name of the Lord!"
+
+Her hair was now grown gray; her cheeks were wan; her step was feeble.
+She seldom went from home, save to the church, and to the neighboring
+cottages. She never mentioned her sons' names; never allowed a word to
+pass her lips, which might betoken that she thought of them; but every
+day, when the tide was high, and red flag on the sandhills showed that
+there was water over the bar, she paced the terrace-walk, and devoured
+with greedy eyes the sea beyond in search of the sail which never came.
+The stately ships went in and out as of yore; and white sails hung off
+the bar for many an hour, day after day, month after month, year after
+year: but an instinct within told her that none of them were the sails
+she sought. She knew that ship, every line of her, the cut of every
+cloth; she could have picked it out miles away, among a whole fleet, but
+it never came, and Mrs. Leigh bowed her head and worshipped, and went
+to and fro among the poor, who looked on her as an awful being, and one
+whom God had brought very near to Himself, in that mysterious heaven of
+sorrow which they too knew full well. And lone women and bed-ridden men
+looked in her steadfast eyes, and loved them, and drank in strength from
+them; for they knew (though she never spoke of her own grief) that she
+had gone down into the fiercest depths of the fiery furnace, and was
+walking there unhurt by the side of One whose form was as of the Son
+of God. And all the while she was blaming herself for her "earthly"
+longings, and confessing nightly to Heaven that weakness which she could
+not shake off, which drew her feet at each high tide to the terrace-walk
+beneath the row of wind-clipt trees.
+
+But this evening Northam is in a stir. The pebble ridge is thundering
+far below, as it thundered years ago: but Northam is noisy enough
+without the rolling of the surge. The tower is rocking with the pealing
+bells: the people are all in the streets shouting and singing round
+bonfires. They are burning the pope in effigy, drinking to the queen's
+health, and "So perish all her enemies!" The hills are red with bonfires
+in every village; and far away, the bells of Bideford are answering
+the bells of Northam, as they answered them seven years ago, when Amyas
+returned from sailing round the world. For this day has come the news
+that Mary Queen of Scots is beheaded in Fotheringay; and all England,
+like a dreamer who shakes off some hideous nightmare, has leapt up in
+one tremendous shout of jubilation, as the terror and the danger of
+seventeen anxious years is lifted from its heart for ever.
+
+Yes, she is gone, to answer at a higher tribunal than that of the
+Estates of England, for all the noble English blood which has been
+poured out for her; for all the noble English hearts whom she has
+tempted into treachery, rebellion, and murder. Elizabeth's own words
+have been fulfilled at last, after years of long-suffering,--
+
+     "The daughter of debate,
+       That discord aye doth sow,
+     Hath reap'd no gain where former rule
+       Hath taught still peace to grow."
+
+And now she can do evil no more. Murder and adultery, the heart which
+knew no forgiveness, the tongue which could not speak truth even for its
+own interest, have past and are perhaps atoned for; and her fair face
+hangs a pitiful dream in the memory even of those who knew that either
+she, or England, must perish.
+
+     "Nothing is left of her
+     Now, but pure womanly."
+
+And Mrs. Leigh, Protestant as she is, breathes a prayer, that the Lord
+may have mercy on that soul, as "clear as diamond, and as hard," as she
+said of herself. That last scene, too, before the fatal block--it could
+not be altogether acting. Mrs. Leigh had learned many a priceless lesson
+in the last seven years; might not Mary Stuart have learned something
+in seventeen? And Mrs. Leigh had been a courtier, and knew, as far as a
+chaste Englishwoman could know (which even in those coarser days was not
+very much), of that godless style of French court profligacy in which
+poor Mary had had her youthful training, amid the Medicis, and the
+Guises, and Cardinal Lorraine; and she shuddered, and sighed to
+herself"--To whom little is given, of them shall little be required!"
+But still the bells pealed on and would not cease.
+
+What was that which answered them from afar out of the fast darkening
+twilight? A flash, and then the thunder of a gun at sea.
+
+Mrs. Leigh stopped. The flash was right outside the bar. A ship in
+distress it could not be. The wind was light and westerly. It was a
+high spring-tide, as evening floods are always there. What could it be?
+Another flash, another gun. The noisy folks of Northam were hushed at
+once, and all hurried into the churchyard which looks down on the broad
+flats and the river.
+
+There was a gallant ship outside the bar. She was running in, too, with
+all sails set. A large ship; nearly a thousand tons she might be; but
+not of English rig. What was the meaning of it? A Spanish cruiser about
+to make reprisals for Drake's raid along the Cadiz shore! Not that,
+surely. The Don had no fancy for such unscientific and dare-devil
+warfare. If he came, he would come with admiral, rear-admiral, and
+vice-admiral, transports, and avisos, according to the best-approved
+methods, articles, and science of war. What could she be?
+
+Easily, on the flowing tide and fair western wind, she has slipped
+up the channel between the two lines of sandhill. She is almost off
+Appledore now. She is no enemy; and if she be a foreigner, she is a
+daring one, for she has never veiled her topsails,--and that, all know,
+every foreign ship must do within sight of an English port, or stand the
+chance of war; as the Spanish admiral found, who many a year since
+was sent in time of peace to fetch home from Flanders Anne of Austria,
+Philip the Second's last wife.
+
+For in his pride he sailed into Plymouth Sound without veiling topsails,
+or lowering the flag of Spain. Whereon, like lion from his den, out
+rushed John Hawkins the port admiral, in his famous Jesus of Lubec
+(afterwards lost in the San Juan d'Ulloa fight), and without argument or
+parley, sent a shot between the admiral's masts; which not producing the
+desired effect, alongside ran bold Captain John, and with his next
+shot, so says his son, an eye-witness, "lackt the admiral through and
+through;" whereon down came the offending flag; and due apologies were
+made, but not accepted for a long time by the stout guardian of her
+majesty's honor. And if John Hawkins did as much for a Spanish fleet in
+time of peace, there is more than one old sea-dog in Appledore who will
+do as much for a single ship in time of war, if he can find even an iron
+pot to burn powder withal.
+
+The strange sail passed out of sight behind the hill of Appledore; and
+then there rose into the quiet evening air a cheer, as from a hundred
+throats. Mrs. Leigh stood still, and listened. Another gun thundered
+among the hills; and then another cheer.
+
+It might have been twenty minutes before the vessel hove in sight again
+round the dark rocks of the Hubbastone, as she turned up the Bideford
+river. Mrs. Leigh had stood that whole time perfectly motionless, a pale
+and scarcely breathing statue, her eyes fixed upon the Viking's rock.
+
+Round the Hubbastone she came at last. There was music on board, drums
+and fifes, shawms and trumpets, which wakened ringing echoes from every
+knoll of wood and slab of slate. And as she opened full on Burrough
+House, another cheer burst from her crew, and rolled up to the hills
+from off the silver waters far below, full a mile away.
+
+Mrs. Leigh walked quickly toward the house, and called her maid,--
+
+"Grace, bring me my hood. Master Amyas is come home!"
+
+"No, surely? O joyful sound! Praised and blessed be the Lord, then;
+praised and blessed be the Lord! But, madam, however did you know that?"
+
+"I heard his voice on the river; but I did not hear Mr. Frank's with
+him, Grace!"
+
+"Oh, be sure, madam, where the one is the other is. They'd never part
+company. Both come home or neither, I'll warrant. Here's your hood,
+madam."
+
+And Mrs. Leigh, with Grace behind her, started with rapid steps towards
+Bideford.
+
+Was it true? Was it a dream? Had the divine instinct of the mother
+enabled her to recognize her child's voice among all the rest, and at
+that enormous distance; or was her brain turning with the long effort of
+her supernatural calm?
+
+Grace asked herself, in her own way, that same question many a time
+between Burrough and Bideford. When they arrived on the quay the
+question answered itself.
+
+As they came down Bridgeland Street (where afterwards the tobacco
+warehouses for the Virginia trade used to stand, but which then was but
+a row of rope-walks and sailmakers' shops), they could see the strange
+ship already at anchor in the river. They had just reached the lower end
+of the street, when round the corner swept a great mob, sailors, women,
+'prentices, hurrahing, questioning, weeping, laughing: Mrs. Leigh
+stopped; and behold, they stopped also.
+
+"Here she is!" shouted some one; "here's his mother!"
+
+"His mother? Not their mother!" said Mrs. Leigh to herself, and turned
+very pale; but that heart was long past breaking.
+
+The next moment the giant head and shoulders of Amyas, far above the
+crowd, swept round the corner.
+
+"Make a way! Make room for Madam Leigh!"--And Amyas fell on his knees at
+her feet.
+
+She threw her arms round his neck, and bent her fair head over his,
+while sailors, 'prentices, and coarse harbor-women were hushed into holy
+silence, and made a ring round the mother and the son.
+
+Mrs. Leigh asked no question. She saw that Amyas was alone.
+
+At last he whispered, "I would have died to save him, mother, if I
+could."
+
+"You need not tell me that, Amyas Leigh, my son."
+
+Another silence.
+
+"How did he die?" whispered Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"He is a martyr. He died in the----"
+
+Amyas could say no more.
+
+"The Inquisition?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+A strong shudder passed through Mrs. Leigh's frame, and then she lifted
+up her head.
+
+"Come home, Amyas. I little expected such an honor--such an honor--ha!
+ha! and such a fair young martyr, too; a very St. Stephen! God, have
+mercy on me; and let me not go mad before these folk, when I ought to be
+thanking Thee for Thy great mercies! Amyas, who is that?"
+
+And she pointed to Ayacanora, who stood close behind Amyas, watching
+with keen eyes the whole.
+
+"She is a poor wild Indian girl--my daughter, I call her. I will tell
+you her story hereafter."
+
+"Your daughter? My grand-daughter, then. Come hither, maiden, and be my
+grand-daughter."
+
+Ayacanora came obedient, and knelt down, because she had seen Amyas
+kneel.
+
+"God forbid, child! kneel not to me. Come home, and let me know whether
+I am sane or mazed, alive or dead."
+
+And drawing her hood over her face, she turned to go back, holding Amyas
+tight by one hand, and Ayacanora by the other.
+
+The crowd let them depart some twenty yards in respectful silence, and
+then burst into a cheer which made the old town ring.
+
+Mrs. Leigh stopped suddenly.
+
+"I had forgotten, Amyas. You must not let me stand in the way of your
+duty. Where are your men?"
+
+"Kissed to death by this time; all of them, that is, who are left."
+
+"Left?"
+
+"We went out a hundred, mother, and we came home forty-four--if we are
+at home. Is it a dream, mother? Is this you? and this old Bridgeland
+Street again? As I live, there stands Evans the smith, at his door,
+tankard in hand, as he did when I was a boy!"
+
+The brawny smith came across the street to them; but stopped when he saw
+Amyas, but no Frank.
+
+"Better one than neither, madam!" said he, trying a rough comfort. Amyas
+shook his hand as he passed him; but Mrs. Leigh neither heard nor saw
+him nor any one.
+
+"Mother," said Amyas, when they were now past the causeway, "we are rich
+for life."
+
+"Yes; a martyr's death was the fittest for him."
+
+"I have brought home treasure untold."
+
+"What, my boy?"
+
+"Treasure untold. Cary has promised to see to it to-night."
+
+"Very well. I would that he had slept at our house. He was a kindly lad,
+and loved Frank. When did he?"--
+
+"Three years ago, and more. Within two months of our sailing."
+
+"Ah! Yes, he told me so."
+
+"Told you so?"
+
+"Yes; the dear lad has often come to see me in my sleep; but you never
+came. I guessed how it was--as it should be."
+
+"But I loved you none the less, mother!"
+
+"I know that, too: but you were busy with the men, you know, sweet;
+so your spirit could not come roving home like his, which was free.
+Yes--all as it should be. My maid, and do you not find it cold here in
+England, after those hot regions?"
+
+"Ayacanora's heart is warm; she does not think about cold."
+
+"Warm? perhaps you will warm my heart for me, then."
+
+"Would God I could do it, mother!" said Amyas, half reproachfully.
+
+Mrs. Leigh looked up in his face, and burst into a violent flood of
+tears.
+
+"Sinful! sinful that I am!"
+
+"Blessed creature!" cried Amyas, "if you speak so I shall go mad.
+Mother, mother, I have been dreading this meeting for months. It has
+been a nightmare hanging over me like a horrible black thunder-cloud; a
+great cliff miles high, with its top hid in the clouds, which I had to
+climb, and dare not. I have longed to leap overboard, and flee from it
+like a coward into the depths of the sea.--The thought that you might
+ask me whether I was not my brother's keeper--that you might require his
+blood at my hands--and now, now! when it comes! to find you all love,
+and trust, and patience--mother, mother, it's more than I can bear!" and
+he wept violently.
+
+Mrs. Leigh knew enough of Amyas to know that any burst of this kind,
+from his quiet nature, betokened some very fearful struggle; and the
+loving creature forgot everything instantly, in the one desire to soothe
+him.
+
+And soothe him she did; and home the two went, arm in arm together,
+while Ayacanora held fast, like a child, by the skirt of Mrs. Leigh's
+cloak. The self-help and daring of the forest nymph had given place to
+the trembling modesty of the young girl, suddenly cast on shore in a new
+world, among strange faces, strange hopes, and strange fears also.
+
+"Will your mother love me?" whispered she to Amyas, as she went in.
+
+"Yes; but you must do what she tells you."
+
+Ayacanora pouted.
+
+"She will laugh at me, because I am wild."
+
+"She never laughs at any one."
+
+"Humph!" said Ayacanora. "Well, I shall not be afraid of her. I thought
+she would have been tall like you; but she is not even as big as me."
+
+This hardly sounded hopeful for the prospect of Ayacanora's obedience;
+but ere twenty-four hours had passed, Mrs. Leigh had won her over
+utterly; and she explained her own speech by saying that she thought so
+great a man ought to have a great mother. She had expected, poor thing,
+in her simplicity, some awful princess with a frown like Juno's own, and
+found instead a healing angel.
+
+Her story was soon told to Mrs. Leigh, who of course, woman-like,
+would not allow a doubt as to her identity. And the sweet mother never
+imprinted a prouder or fonder kiss upon her son's forehead, than
+that with which she repaid his simple declaration, that he had kept
+unspotted, like a gentleman and a Christian, the soul which God had put
+into his charge.
+
+"Then you have forgiven me, mother?"
+
+"Years ago I said in this same room, what should I render to the Lord
+for having given me two such sons? And in this room I say it once again.
+Tell me all about my other son, that I may honor him as I honor you."
+
+And then, with the iron nerve which good women have, she made him give
+her every detail of Lucy Passmore's story and of all which had happened
+from the day of their sailing to that luckless night at Guayra. And when
+it was done, she led Ayacanora out, and began busying herself about the
+girl's comforts, as calmly as if Frank and Amyas had been sleeping in
+their cribs in the next room.
+
+But she had hardly gone upstairs, when a loud knock at the door was
+followed by its opening hastily; and into the hall burst, regardless of
+etiquette, the tall and stately figure of Sir Richard Grenville.
+
+Amyas dropped on his knees instinctively. The stern warrior was quite
+unmanned; and as he bent over his godson, a tear dropped from that iron
+cheek, upon the iron cheek of Amyas Leigh.
+
+"My lad! my glorious lad! and where have you been? Get up, and tell me
+all. The sailors told me a little, but I must hear every word. I knew
+you would do something grand. I told your mother you were too good a
+workman for God to throw away. Now, let me have the whole story. Why, I
+am out of breath! To tell truth, I ran three-parts of the way hither."
+
+And down the two sat, and Amyas talked long into the night; while Sir
+Richard, his usual stateliness recovered, smiled stern approval at each
+deed of daring; and when all was ended, answered with something like a
+sigh:
+
+"Would God that I had been with you every step! Would God, at least,
+that I could show as good a three-years' log-book, Amyas, my lad!"
+
+"You can show a better one, I doubt not."
+
+"Humph! With the exception of one paltry Spanish prize, I don't know
+that the queen is the better, or her enemies the worse, for me, since we
+parted last in Dublin city."
+
+"You are too modest, sir."
+
+"Would that I were; but I got on in Ireland, I found, no better than my
+neighbors; and so came home again, to find that while I had been wasting
+my time in that land of misrule, Raleigh had done a deed to which I can
+see no end. For, lad, he has found (or rather his two captains, Amadas
+and Barlow, have found for him) between Florida and Newfoundland, a
+country, the like of which, I believe, there is not on the earth for
+climate and fertility. Whether there be gold there, I know not, and it
+matters little; for there is all else on earth that man can want; furs,
+timber, rivers, game, sugar-canes, corn, fruit, and every commodity
+which France, Spain, or Italy can yield, wild in abundance; the savages
+civil enough for savages, and, in a word, all which goes to the making
+of as noble a jewel as her majesty's crown can wear. The people call it
+Wingandacoa; but we, after her majesty, Virginia."
+
+"You have been there, then?"
+
+"The year before last, lad; and left there Ralf Lane, Amadas, and some
+twenty gentlemen, and ninety men, and, moreover, some money of my own,
+and some of old Will Salterne's, which neither of us will ever see
+again. For the colony, I know not how, quarrelled with the Indians (I
+fear I too was over-sharp with some of them for stealing--if I was, God
+forgive me!), and could not, forsooth, keep themselves alive for twelve
+months; so that Drake, coming back from his last West Indian voyage,
+after giving them all the help he could, had to bring the whole party
+home. And if you will believe it, the faint-hearted fellows had not been
+gone a fortnight, before I was back again with three ships and all that
+they could want. And never was I more wroth in my life, when all I found
+was the ruins of their huts, which (so rich is the growth there) were
+already full of great melons, and wild deer feeding thereon--a pretty
+sight enough, but not what I wanted just then. So back I came; and being
+in no overgood temper, vented my humors on the Portugals at the Azores,
+and had hard fights and small booty. So there the matter stands, but not
+for long; for shame it were if such a paradise, once found by Britons,
+should fall into the hands of any but her majesty; and we will try again
+this spring, if men and money can be found. Eh, lad?"
+
+"But the prize?"
+
+"Ah! that was no small make-weight to our disasters, after all. I
+sighted her for six days' sail from the American coast: but ere we could
+lay her aboard it fell dead calm. Never a boat had I on board--they
+were all lost in a gale of wind--and the other ships were becalmed two
+leagues astern of me. There was no use lying there and pounding her till
+she sank; so I called the carpenter, got up all the old chests, and with
+them and some spars we floated ourselves alongside, and only just in
+time. For the last of us had hardly scrambled up into the chains, when
+our crazy Noah's ark went all aboard, and sank at the side, so that if
+we had been minded to run away, Amyas, we could not; whereon, judging
+valor to be the better part of discretion (as I usually do), we fell to
+with our swords and had her in five minutes, and fifty thousand pounds'
+worth in her, which set up my purse again, and Raleigh's too, though I
+fear it has run out again since as fast as it ran in."
+
+And so ended Sir Richard's story.
+
+Amyas went the next day to Salterne, and told his tale. The old man had
+heard the outlines of it already: but he calmly bade him sit down, and
+listened to all, his chin upon his hand, his elbows on his knees. His
+cheek never blanched, his lips never quivered throughout. Only when
+Amyas came to Rose's marriage, he heaved a long breath, as if a weight
+was taken off his heart.
+
+"Say that again, sir!"
+
+Amyas said it again, and then went on; faltering, he hinted at the
+manner of her death.
+
+"Go on, sir! Why are you afraid? There is nothing to be ashamed of
+there, is there?"
+
+Amyas told the whole with downcast eyes, and then stole a look at his
+hearer's face. There was no sign of emotion: only somewhat of a proud
+smile curled the corners of that iron mouth.
+
+"And her husband?" asked he, after a pause.
+
+"I am ashamed to have to tell you, sir, that the man still lives."
+
+"Still lives, sir?"
+
+"Too true, as far as I know. That it was not my fault, my story bears me
+witness."
+
+"Sir, I never doubted your will to kill him. Still lives, you say? Well,
+so do rats and adders. And now, I suppose, Captain Leigh, your worship
+is minded to recruit yourself on shore a while with the fair lass whom
+you have brought home (as I hear) before having another dash at the
+devil and his kin!"
+
+"Do not mention that young lady's name with mine, sir; she is no more to
+me than she is to you; for she has Spanish blood in her veins."
+
+Salterne smiled grimly.
+
+"But I am minded at least to do one thing, Mr. Salterne, and that is, to
+kill Spaniards, in fair fight, by land and sea, wheresoever I shall meet
+them. And, therefore, I stay not long here, whithersoever I may be bound
+next."
+
+"Well, sir, when you start, come to me for a ship, and the best I have
+is at your service; and, if she do not suit, command her to be fitted as
+you like best; and I, William Salterne, will pay for all which you shall
+command to be done."
+
+"My good sir, I have accounts to square with you after a very different
+fashion. As part-adventurer in the Rose, I have to deliver to you your
+share of the treasure which I have brought home."
+
+"My share, sir? If I understood you, my ship was lost off the coast of
+the Caracas three years agone, and this treasure was all won since?"
+
+"True; but you, as an adventurer in the expedition, have a just claim
+for your share, and will receive it."
+
+"Captain Leigh, you are, I see, as your father was before you, a just
+and upright Christian man: but, sir, this money is none of mine, for it
+was won in no ship of mine.--Hear me, sir! And if it had been, and
+that ship"--(he could not speak her name)--"lay safe and sound now by
+Bideford quay, do you think, sir, that William Salterne is the man to
+make money out of his daughter's sin and sorrow, and to handle the price
+of blood? No, sir! You went like a gentleman to seek her, and like a
+gentleman, as all the world knows, you have done your best, and I thank
+you: but our account ends there. The treasure is yours, sir; I have
+enough, and more than enough, and none, God help me, to leave it to, but
+greedy and needy kin, who will be rather the worse than the better for
+it. And if I have a claim in law for aught--which I know not, neither
+shall ever ask--why, if you are not too proud, accept that claim as a
+plain burgher's thank-offering to you, sir, for a great and a noble love
+which you and your brother have shown to one who, though I say it, to my
+shame, was not worthy thereof."
+
+"She was worthy of that and more, sir. For if she sinned like a woman,
+she died like a saint."
+
+"Yes, sir!" answered the old man, with a proud smile; "she had the right
+English blood in her, I doubt not; and showed it at the last. But now,
+sir, no more of this. When you need a ship, mine is at your service;
+till then, sir, farewell, and God be with you."
+
+And the old man rose, and with an unmoved countenance, bowed Amyas
+to the door. Amyas went back and told Cary, bidding him take half of
+Salterne's gift: but Cary swore a great oath that he would have none of
+it.
+
+"Heir of Clovelly, Amyas, and want to rob you? I who have lost
+nothing,--you who have lost a brother! God forbid that I should ever
+touch a farthing beyond my original share!"
+
+That evening a messenger from Bideford came running breathless up to
+Burrough Court. The authorities wanted Amyas's immediate attendance, for
+he was one of the last, it seemed, who had seen Mr. Salterne alive.
+
+Salterne had gone over, as soon as Amyas departed, to an old
+acquaintance; signed and sealed his will in their presence with a firm
+and cheerful countenance, refusing all condolence; and then gone home,
+and locked himself into Rose's room. Supper-time came, and he did not
+appear. The apprentices could not make him answer, and at last called
+in the neighbors, and forced the door. Salterne was kneeling by his
+daughter's bed; his head was upon the coverlet; his Prayer-book was
+open before him at the Burial Service; his hands were clasped in
+supplication; but he was dead and cold.
+
+His will lay by him. He had left all his property among his poor
+relations, saving and excepting all money, etc., due to him as owner and
+part-adventurer of the ship Rose, and his new bark of three hundred tons
+burden, now lying East-the-water; all which was bequeathed to Captain
+Amyas Leigh, on condition that he should re-christen that bark the
+Vengeance,--fit her out with part of the treasure, and with her sail
+once more against the Spaniard, before three years were past.
+
+And this was the end of William Salterne, merchant.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS STOPPED BY THE QUEEN'S COMMAND
+
+     "The daughter of debate,
+        That discord still doth sow,
+     Shall reap no gain where former rule
+        Hath taught still peace to grow.
+     No foreign banish'd wight
+        Shall anker in this port
+     Our realm it brooks no stranger's force;
+        Let them elsewhere resort."
+
+                        QU. ELIZABETH. 1569.
+
+And now Amyas is settled quietly at home again; and for the next twelve
+months little passes worthy of record in these pages. Yeo has installed
+himself as major domo, with no very definite functions, save those of
+walking about everywhere at Amyas's heels like a lank gray wolf-hound,
+and spending his evenings at the fireside, as a true old sailor
+does, with his Bible on his knee, and his hands busy in manufacturing
+numberless nicknacks, useful and useless, for every member of the
+family, and above all for Ayacanora, whom he insults every week by
+humbly offering some toy only fit for a child; at which she pouts, and
+is reproved by Mrs. Leigh, and then takes the gift, and puts it away
+never to look at it again. For her whole soul is set upon being
+an English maid; and she runs about all day long after Mrs. Leigh,
+insisting upon learning the mysteries of the kitchen and the still-room,
+and, above all, the art of making clothes for herself, and at last for
+everybody in Northam. For first, she will be a good housewife, like Mrs.
+Leigh; and next a new idea has dawned on her: that of helping others.
+To the boundless hospitality of the savage she has been of course
+accustomed: but to give to those who can give nothing in return, is a
+new thought. She sees Mrs. Leigh spending every spare hour in working
+for the poor, and visiting them in their cottages. She sees Amyas, after
+public thanks in church for his safe return, giving away money, food,
+what not, in Northam, Appledore, and Bideford; buying cottages and
+making them almshouses for worn-out mariners; and she is told that
+this is his thank-offering to God. She is puzzled; her notion of
+a thank-offering was rather that of the Indians, and indeed of the
+Spaniards,--sacrifices of human victims, and the bedizenment of the
+Great Spirit's sanctuary with their skulls and bones. Not that Amyas,
+as a plain old-fashioned churchman, was unmindful of the good old
+instinctive rule, that something should be given to the Church itself;
+for the vicar of Northam was soon resplendent with a new surplice, and
+what was more, the altar with a splendid flagon and salver of plate
+(lost, I suppose, in the civil wars) which had been taken in the great
+galleon. Ayacanora could understand that: but the almsgiving she could
+not, till Mrs. Leigh told her, in her simple way, that whosoever gave
+to the poor, gave to the Great Spirit; for the Great Spirit was in them,
+and in Ayacanora too, if she would be quiet and listen to him, instead
+of pouting, and stamping, and doing nothing but what she liked. And the
+poor child took in that new thought like a child, and worked her fingers
+to the bone for all the old dames in Northam, and went about with Mrs.
+Leigh, lovely and beloved, and looked now and then out from under her
+long black eyelashes to see if she was winning a smile from Amyas. And
+on the day on which she won one, she was good all day; and on the day on
+which she did not, she was thoroughly naughty, and would have worn out
+the patience of any soul less chastened than Mrs. Leigh's. But as for
+the pomp and glory of her dress, there was no keeping it within bounds;
+and she swept into church each Sunday bedizened in Spanish finery, with
+such a blaze and rustle, that the good vicar had to remonstrate humbly
+with Mrs. Leigh on the disturbance which she caused to the eyes and
+thoughts of all his congregation. To which Ayacanora answered, that she
+was not thinking about them, and they need not think about her; and that
+if the Piache (in plain English, the conjuror), as she supposed, wanted
+a present, he might have all her Mexican feather-dresses; she would
+not wear them--they were wild Indian things, and she was an English
+maid--but they would just do for a Piache; and so darted upstairs,
+brought them down, and insisted so stoutly on arraying the vicar
+therein, that the good man beat a swift retreat. But he carried off
+with him, nevertheless, one of the handsomest mantles, which, instead
+of selling it, he converted cleverly enough into an altar-cloth; and for
+several years afterwards, the communion at Northam was celebrated upon a
+blaze of emerald, azure, and crimson, which had once adorned the sinful
+body of some Aztec prince.
+
+So Ayacanora flaunted on; while Amyas watched her, half amused, half in
+simple pride of her beauty; and looked around at all gazers, as much as
+to say, "See what a fine bird I have brought home!"
+
+Another great trouble which she gave Mrs. Leigh was her conduct to the
+ladies of the neighborhood. They came, of course, one and all, not only
+to congratulate Mrs. Leigh, but to get a peep at the fair savage; but
+the fair savage snubbed them all round, from the vicar's wife to Lady
+Grenville herself, so effectually, that few attempted a second visit.
+
+Mrs. Leigh remonstrated, and was answered by floods of tears. "They only
+come to stare at a poor wild Indian girl, and she would not be made a
+show of. She was like a queen once, and every one obeyed her; but here
+every one looked down upon her." But when Mrs. Leigh asked her, whether
+she would sooner go back to the forests, the poor girl clung to her like
+a baby, and entreated not to be sent away, "She would sooner be a slave
+in the kitchen here, than go back to the bad people."
+
+And so on, month after month of foolish storm and foolish sunshine; but
+she was under the shadow of one in whom was neither storm nor sunshine,
+but a perpetual genial calm of soft gray weather, which tempered down
+to its own peacefulness all who entered its charmed influence; and the
+outbursts grew more and more rare, and Ayacanora more and more rational,
+though no more happy, day by day.
+
+And one by one small hints came out which made her identity certain, at
+least in the eyes of Mrs. Leigh and Yeo. After she had become familiar
+with the sight of houses, she gave them to understand that she had seen
+such things before. The red cattle, too, seemed not unknown to her;
+the sheep puzzled her for some time, and at last she gave Mrs. Leigh to
+understand that they were too small.
+
+"Ah, madam," quoth Yeo, who caught at every straw, "it is because she
+has been accustomed to those great camel sheep (llamas they call them)
+in Peru."
+
+But Ayacanora's delight was a horse. The use of tame animals at all was
+a daily wonder to her; but that a horse could be ridden was the crowning
+miracle of all; and a horse she would ride, and after plaguing Amyas for
+one in vain (for he did not want to break her pretty neck), she proposed
+confidentially to Yeo to steal one, and foiled in that, went to the
+vicar and offered to barter all her finery for his broken-kneed pony.
+But the vicar was too honest to drive so good a bargain, and the matter
+ended, in Amyas buying her a jennet, which she learned in a fortnight to
+ride like a very Gaucho.
+
+And now awoke another curious slumbering reminiscence. For one day, at
+Lady Grenville's invitation, the whole family went over to Stow; Mrs.
+Leigh soberly on a pillion behind the groom, Ayacanora cantering round
+and round upon the moors like a hound let loose, and trying to make
+Amyas ride races with her. But that night, sleeping in the same room
+with Mrs. Leigh, she awoke shrieking, and sobbed out a long story how
+the "Old ape of Panama," her especial abomination, had come to her
+bedside and dragged her forth into the courtyard, and how she had
+mounted a horse and ridden with an Indian over great moors and high
+mountains down into a dark wood, and there the Indian and the horses
+vanished, and she found herself suddenly changed once more into a
+little savage child. So strong was the impression, that she could not be
+persuaded that the thing had not happened, if not that night, at least
+some night or other. So Mrs. Leigh at last believed the same, and told
+the company next morning in her pious way how the Lord had revealed in
+a vision to the poor child who she was, and how she had been exposed in
+the forests by her jealous step-father, and neither Sir Richard nor his
+wife could doubt but that hers was the true solution. It was probable
+that Don Xararte, though his home was Panama, had been often at Quito,
+for Yeo had seen him come on board the Lima ship at Guayaquil, one
+of the nearest ports. This would explain her having been found by the
+Indians beyond Cotopaxi, the nearest peak of the Eastern Andes, if, as
+was but too likely, the old man, believing her to be Oxenham's child,
+had conceived the fearful vengeance of exposing her in the forests.
+
+Other little facts came to light one by one. They were all connected
+(as was natural in a savage) with some animal or other natural object.
+Whatever impressions her morals or affections had received, had been
+erased by the long spiritual death of that forest sojourn; and Mrs.
+Leigh could not elicit from her a trace of feeling about her mother, or
+recollection of any early religious teaching. This link, however, was
+supplied at last, and in this way.
+
+Sir Richard had brought home an Indian with him from Virginia. Of his
+original name I am not sure, but he was probably the "Wanchese" whose
+name occurs with that of "Manteo."
+
+This man was to be baptized in the church at Bideford by the name of
+Raleigh, his sponsors being most probably Raleigh himself, who may have
+been there on Virginian business, and Sir Richard Grenville. All the
+notabilities of Bideford came, of course, to see the baptism of the
+first "Red man" whose foot had ever trodden British soil, and the mayor
+and corporation-men appeared in full robes, with maces and tipstaffs, to
+do honor to that first-fruits of the Gospel in the West.
+
+Mrs. Leigh went, as a matter of course, and Ayacanora would needs go
+too. She was very anxious to know what they were going to do with the
+"Carib."
+
+"To make him a Christian."
+
+"Why did they not make her one?"
+
+Because she was one already. They were sure that she had been christened
+as soon as she was born. But she was not sure, and pouted a good deal
+at the chance of an "ugly red Carib" being better off than she was.
+However, all assembled duly; the stately son of the forest, now
+transformed into a footman of Sir Richard's, was standing at the font;
+the service was half performed when a heavy sigh, or rather groan, made
+all eyes turn, and Ayacanora sank fainting upon Mrs. Leigh's bosom.
+
+She was carried out, and to a neighboring house; and when she came to
+herself, told a strange story. How, as she was standing there trying to
+recollect whether she too had ever been baptized, the church seemed
+to grow larger, the priest's dress richer; the walls were covered with
+pictures, and above the altar, in jewelled robes, stood a lady, and in
+her arms a babe. Soft music sounded in her ears; the air was full (on
+that she insisted much) of fragrant odor which filled the church like
+mist; and through it she saw not one, but many Indians, standing by the
+font; and a lady held her by the hand, and she was a little girl again.
+
+And after, many questionings, so accurate was her recollection, not only
+of the scene, but of the building, that Yeo pronounced:
+
+"A christened woman she is, madam, if Popish christening is worth
+calling such, and has seen Indians christened too in the Cathedral
+Church at Quito, the inside whereof I know well enough, and too well,
+for I sat there three mortal hours in a San Benito, to hear a friar
+preach his false doctrines, not knowing whether I was to be burnt or not
+next day."
+
+So Ayacanora went home to Burrough, and Raleigh the Indian to
+Sir Richard's house. The entry of his baptism still stands,
+crooked-lettered, in the old parchment register of the Bideford baptisms
+for 1587-3:
+
+     "Raleigh, a Winganditoian: March 26."
+
+His name occurs once more, a year and a month after:
+
+     "Rawly, a Winganditoian, April 1589."
+
+But it is not this time among the baptisms. The free forest wanderer has
+pined in vain for his old deer-hunts amid the fragrant cedar woods,
+and lazy paddlings through the still lagoons, where water-lilies sleep
+beneath the shade of great magnolias, wreathed with clustered vines; and
+now he is away to "happier hunting-grounds," and all that is left of
+him below sleeps in the narrow town churchyard, blocked in with dingy
+houses, whose tenants will never waste a sigh upon the Indian's grave.
+There the two entries stand, unto this day; and most pathetic they have
+seemed to me; a sort of emblem and first-fruits of the sad fate of that
+worn-out Red race, to whom civilization came too late to save, but not
+too late to hasten their decay.
+
+But though Amyas lay idle, England did not. That spring saw another and
+a larger colony sent out by Raleigh to Virginia, under the charge of one
+John White. Raleigh had written more than once, entreating Amyas to take
+the command, which if he had done, perhaps the United States had begun
+to exist twenty years sooner than they actually did. But his mother had
+bound him by a solemn promise (and who can wonder at her for asking, or
+at him for giving it?) to wait at home with her twelve months at least.
+So, instead of himself, he sent five hundred pounds, which I suppose
+are in Virginia (virtually at least) until this day; for they never came
+back again to him.
+
+But soon came a sharper trial of Amyas's promise to his mother; and
+one which made him, for the first time in his life, moody, peevish, and
+restless, at the thought that others were fighting Spaniards, while
+he was sitting idle at home. For his whole soul was filling fast with
+sullen malice against Don Guzman. He was losing the "single eye," and
+his whole body was no longer full of light. He had entered into the
+darkness in which every man walks who hates his brother; and it lay upon
+him like a black shadow day and night. No company, too, could be more
+fit to darken that shadow than Salvation Yeo's. The old man grew more
+stern in his fanaticism day by day, and found a too willing listener in
+his master; and Mrs. Leigh was (perhaps for the first and last time
+in her life) seriously angry, when she heard the two coolly debating
+whether they had not committed a grievous sin in not killing the Spanish
+prisoners on board the galleon.
+
+It must be said, however (as the plain facts set down in this book
+testify), that if such was the temper of Englishmen at that day,
+the Spaniards had done a good deal to provoke it; and were just then
+attempting to do still more.
+
+For now we are approaching the year 1588, "which an astronomer of
+Konigsberg, above a hundred years before, foretold would be an admirable
+year, and the German chronologers presaged would be the climacterical
+year of the world."
+
+The prophecies may stand for what they are worth; but they were at least
+fulfilled. That year was, indeed, the climacterical year of the world;
+and decided once and for all the fortunes of the European nations, and
+of the whole continent of America.
+
+No wonder, then, if (as has happened in each great crisis of the human
+race) some awful instinct that The Day of the Lord was at hand, some dim
+feeling that there was war in heaven, and that the fiends of darkness
+and the angels of light were arrayed against each other in some mighty
+struggle for the possession of the souls of men, should have tried
+to express itself in astrologic dreams, and, as was the fashion then,
+attributed to the "rulers of the planetary houses" some sympathy with
+the coming world-tragedy.
+
+But, for the wise, there needed no conjunction of planets to tell them
+that the day was near at hand, when the long desultory duel between
+Spain and England would end, once and for all, in some great
+death-grapple. The war, as yet, had been confined to the Netherlands, to
+the West Indies, and the coasts and isles of Africa; to the quarters,
+in fact, where Spain was held either to have no rights, or to have
+forfeited them by tyranny. But Spain itself had been respected by
+England, as England had by Spain; and trade to Spanish ports went on as
+usual, till, in the year 1585, the Spaniard, without warning, laid an
+embargo on all English ships coming to his European shores. They were to
+be seized, it seemed, to form part of an enormous armament, which was to
+attack and crush, once and for all--whom? The rebellious Netherlanders,
+said the Spaniards: but the queen, the ministry, and, when it was just
+not too late, the people of England, thought otherwise. England was the
+destined victim; so, instead of negotiating, in order to avoid fighting,
+they fought in order to produce negotiation. Drake, Frobisher, and
+Carlisle, as we have seen, swept the Spanish Main with fire and sword,
+stopping the Indian supplies; while Walsingham (craftiest, and yet most
+honest of mortals) prevented, by some mysterious financial operation,
+the Venetian merchants from repairing the Spaniards' loss by a loan; and
+no Armada came that year.
+
+In the meanwhile, the Jesuits, here and abroad, made no secret, among
+their own dupes, of the real objects of the Spanish armament. The
+impious heretics,--the Drakes and Raleighs, Grenvilles and Cavendishes,
+Hawkinses and Frobishers, who had dared to violate that hidden sanctuary
+of just half the globe, which the pope had bestowed on the defender of
+the true faith,--a shameful ruin, a terrible death awaited them, when
+their sacrilegious barks should sink beneath the thunder of Spanish
+cannon, blessed by the pope, and sanctified with holy water and prayer
+to the service of "God and his Mother." Yes, they would fall, and
+England with them. The proud islanders, who had dared to rebel against
+St. Peter, and to cast off the worship of "Mary," should bow their
+necks once more under the yoke of the Gospel. Their so-called queen,
+illegitimate, excommunicate, contumacious, the abettor of free-trade,
+the defender of the Netherlands, the pillar of false doctrine throughout
+Europe, should be sent in chains across the Alps, to sue for her life at
+the feet of the injured and long-suffering father of mankind, while
+his nominee took her place upon the throne which she had long since
+forfeited by her heresy.
+
+"What nobler work? How could the Church of God be more gloriously
+propagated? How could higher merit be obtained by faithful Catholics?
+It must succeed. Spain was invincible in valor, inexhaustible in wealth.
+Heaven itself offered them an opportunity. They had nothing now to fear
+from the Turk, for they had concluded a truce with him; nothing from the
+French, for they were embroiled in civil war. The heavens themselves
+had called upon Spain to fulfil her heavenly mission, and restore to
+the Church's crown this brightest and richest of her lost jewels. The
+heavens themselves called to a new crusade. The saints, whose altars
+the English had rifled and profaned, called them to a new crusade. The
+Virgin Queen of Heaven, whose boundless stores of grace the English
+spurned, called them to a new crusade. Justly incensed at her own wrongs
+and indignities, that 'ever-gracious Virgin, refuge of sinners, and
+mother of fair love, and holy hope,' adjured by their knightly honor all
+valiant cavaliers to do battle in her cause against the impious harlot
+who assumed her titles, received from her idolatrous flatterers the
+homage due to Mary alone, and even (for Father Parsons had asserted it,
+therefore it must be true) had caused her name to be substituted for
+that of Mary in the Litanies of the Church. Let all who wore within a
+manly heart, without a manly sword, look on the woes of 'Mary,'--her
+shame, her tears, her blushes, her heart pierced through with daily
+wounds, from heretic tongues, and choose between her and Elizabeth!"
+
+So said Parsons, Allen, and dozens more; and said more than this, too,
+and much which one had rather not repeat; and were somewhat surprised
+and mortified to find that their hearers, though they granted the
+premises, were too dull or carnal to arrive at the same conclusion. The
+English lay Romanists, almost to a man, had hearts sounder than their
+heads, and, howsoever illogically, could not help holding to the strange
+superstition that, being Englishmen, they were bound to fight for
+England. So the hapless Jesuits, who had been boasting for years past
+that the persecuted faithful throughout the island would rise as one man
+to fight under the blessed banner of the pope and Spain, found that the
+faithful, like Demas of old, forsook them and "went after this present
+world;" having no objection, of course, to the restoration of Popery:
+but preferring some more comfortable method than an invasion which would
+inevitably rob them of their ancestral lands and would seat needy and
+greedy Castilians in their old country houses, to treat their tenants as
+they had treated the Indians of Hispaniola, and them as they had treated
+the caciques.
+
+But though the hearts of men in that ungodly age were too hard to melt
+at the supposed woes of the Mary who reigned above, and too dull to turn
+rebels and traitors for the sake of those thrones and principalities in
+supra-lunar spheres which might be in her gift: yet there was a Mary
+who reigned (or ought to reign) below, whose woes (like her gifts) were
+somewhat more palpable to the carnal sense. A Mary who, having every
+comfort and luxury (including hounds and horses) found for her by the
+English Government, at an expense which would be now equal to some
+twenty thousand a year, could afford to employ the whole of her jointure
+as Queen Dowager of France (probably equal to fifty thousand a year
+more), in plotting the destruction of the said government, and the
+murder of its queen; a Mary who, if she prospered as she ought, might
+have dukedoms, and earldoms, fair lands and castles to bestow on her
+faithful servants; a Mary, finally, who contrived by means of an angel
+face, a serpent tongue, and a heart (as she said herself) as hard as
+a diamond, to make every weak man fall in love with her, and, what was
+worse, fancy more or less that she was in love with him.
+
+Of her the Jesuits were not unmindful; and found it convenient, indeed,
+to forget awhile the sorrows of the Queen of Heaven in those of the
+Queen of Scots. Not that they cared much for those sorrows; but they
+were an excellent stock-in-trade. She was a Romanist; she was "beautiful
+and unfortunate," a virtue which, like charity, hides the multitude of
+sins; and therefore she was a convenient card to play in the great game
+of Rome against the Queen and people of England; and played the poor
+card was, till it got torn up by over-using. Into her merits or demerits
+I do not enter deeply here. Let her rest in peace.
+
+To all which the people of England made a most practical and terrible
+answer. From the highest noble to the lowest peasant, arose one
+simultaneous plebiscitum: "We are tired of these seventeen years of
+chicanery and terror. This woman must die: or the commonweal of England
+perish!" We all know which of the two alternatives was chosen.
+
+All Europe stood aghast: but rather with astonishment at English
+audacity, than with horror at English wickedness. Mary's own French
+kinsfolk had openly given her up as too bad to be excused, much less
+assisted. Her own son blustered a little to the English ambassador;
+for the majesty of kings was invaded: whereon Walsingham said in open
+council, that "the queen should send him a couple of hounds, and that
+would set all right." Which sage advice (being acted on, and some deer
+sent over and above) was so successful that the pious mourner, having
+run off (Randolph says, like a baby to see the deer in their cart),
+returned for answer that he would "thereafter depend wholly upon her
+majesty, and serve her fortune against all the world; and that he only
+wanted now two of her majesty's yeoman prickers, and a couple of her
+grooms of the deer." The Spaniard was not sorry on the whole for the
+catastrophe; for all that had kept him from conquering England long ago
+was the fear lest, after it was done, he might have had to put the crown
+thereof on Mary's head, instead of his own. But Mary's death was as
+convenient a stalking-horse to him as to the pope; and now the Armada
+was coming in earnest.
+
+Elizabeth began negotiating; but fancy not that she does nothing more,
+as the following letter testifies, written about midsummer, 1587.
+
+
+"F. Drake to Captain Amyas Leigh. This with haste.
+
+"DEAR LAD,
+
+"As I said to her most glorious majesty, I say to you now. There are two
+ways of facing an enemy. The one to stand off, and cry, 'Try that again,
+and I'll strike thee'; the other to strike him first, and then, 'Try
+that at all, and I'll strike thee again.' Of which latter counsel her
+majesty so far approves, that I go forthwith (tell it not in Gath) down
+the coast, to singe the king of Spain's beard (so I termed it to her
+majesty, she laughing), in which if I leave so much as a fishing-boat
+afloat from the Groyne unto Cadiz, it will not be with my good will, who
+intend that if he come this year, he shall come by swimming and not by
+sailing. So if you are still the man I have known you, bring a good ship
+round to Plymouth within the month, and away with me for hard blows and
+hard money, the feel of both of which you know pretty well by now.
+
+"Thine lovingly,
+
+"F. Drake."
+
+
+Amyas clutched his locks over this letter, and smoked more tobacco the
+day he got it than had ever before been consumed at once in England. But
+he kept true to his promise; and this was his reply:--
+
+
+
+"Amyas Leigh to the Worshipful Sir F. Drake, Admiral of her Majesty's
+Fleet in Plymouth.
+
+"MOST HONORED SIR,
+
+"A magician keeps me here, in bilboes for which you have no picklock;
+namely, a mother who forbids. The loss is mine: but Antichrist I can
+fight any year (for he will not die this bout, nor the next), while my
+mother--but I will not trouble your patience more than to ask from you
+to get me news, if you can, from any prisoners of one Don Guzman Maria
+Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto; whether he is in Spain or in the Indies;
+and what the villain does, and where he is to be found. This only I
+entreat of you, and so remain behind with a heavy heart.
+
+"Yours to command in all else, and I would to Heaven, in this also,
+
+"AMYAS LEIGH."
+
+
+I am sorry to have to say, that after having thus obeyed his mother,
+Master Amyas, as men are too apt to do, revenged himself on her by being
+more and more cross and disagreeable. But his temper amended much,
+when, a few months after, Drake returned triumphant, having destroyed
+a hundred sail in Cadiz alone, taken three great galleons with immense
+wealth on board, burnt the small craft all along the shore, and offered
+battle to Santa Cruz at the mouth of the Tagus. After which it is
+unnecessary to say, that the Armada was put off for yet another year.
+
+This news, indeed, gave Amyas little comfort; for he merely observed,
+grumbling, that Drake had gone and spoiled everybody else's sport: but
+what cheered him was news from Drake that Don Guzman had been heard of
+from the captain of one of the galleons; that he was high in favor in
+Spain, and commandant of soldiers on board one of the largest of the
+marquis's ships.
+
+And when Amyas heard that, a terrible joy took possession of him. When
+the Armada came, as come it would, he should meet his enemy at last! He
+could wait now patiently: if--and he shuddered at himself, as he found
+himself in the very act of breathing a prayer that Don Guzman might not
+die before that meeting.
+
+In the meanwhile, rumor flew thousand-tongued through the length and
+breadth of the land; of vast preparations going on in Spain and Italy;
+of timber felled long before for some such purpose, brought down to the
+sea, and sawn out for shipbuilding; of casting of cannon, and drilling
+of soldiers; of ships in hundreds collecting at Lisbon; of a crusade
+preached by Pope Sixtus the Fifth, who had bestowed the kingdom of
+England on the Spaniard, to be enjoyed by him as vassal tributary to
+Rome; of a million of gold to be paid by the pope, one-half down at
+once, the other half when London was taken; of Cardinal Allen writing
+and printing busily in the Netherlands, calling on all good Englishmen
+to carry out, by rebelling against Elizabeth, the bull of Sixtus the
+Fifth, said (I blush to repeat it) to have been dictated by the Holy
+Ghost; of Inquisitors getting ready fetters and devil's engines of all
+sorts; of princes and noblemen, flocking from all quarters, gentlemen
+selling their private estates to fit out ships; how the Prince of
+Melito, the Marquess of Burgrave, Vespasian Gonzaga, John Medicis,
+Amadas of Savoy, in short, the illegitimate sons of all the southern
+princes, having no lands of their own, were coming to find that
+necessary of life in this pleasant little wheat-garden. Nay, the Duke of
+Medina Sidonia had already engaged Mount-Edgecombe for himself, as the
+fairest jewel of the south; which when good old Sir Richard Edgecombe
+heard, he observed quietly, that in 1555 he had the pleasure of
+receiving at his table at one time the admirals of England, Spain, and
+the Netherlands, and therefore had experience in entertaining Dons; and
+made preparations for the visit by filling his cellars with gunpowder,
+with a view to a house-warming and feu-de-joie on the occasion. But as
+old Fuller says, "The bear was not yet killed, and Medina Sidonia might
+have catched a great cold, had he no other clothes to wear than the skin
+thereof."
+
+So flew rumor, false and true, till poor John Bull's wits were well-nigh
+turned: but to the very last, after his lazy fashion, he persuaded
+himself that it would all come right somehow; that it was too great news
+to be true; that if it was true, the expedition was only meant for the
+Netherlands; and, in short, sat quietly over his beef and beer for many
+a day after the French king had sent him fair warning, and the queen,
+the ministry, and the admirals had been assuring him again and again
+that he, and not the Dutchman, was the destined prey of this great
+flight of ravenous birds.
+
+At last the Spaniard, in order that there should be no mistake about the
+matter, kindly printed a complete bill of the play, to be seen still in
+Van Meteran, for the comfort of all true Catholics, and confusion of all
+pestilent heretics; which document, of course, the seminary priests used
+to enforce the duty of helping the invaders, and the certainty of their
+success; and from their hands it soon passed into those of the devout
+ladies, who were not very likely to keep it to themselves; till John
+Bull himself found his daughters buzzing over it with very pale faces
+(as young ladies well might who had no wish to follow the fate of
+the damsels of Antwerp), and condescending to run his eye through it,
+discovered, what all the rest of Europe had known for months past, that
+he was in a very great scrape.
+
+Well it was for England, then, that her Tudor sovereigns had compelled
+every man (though they kept up no standing army) to be a trained
+soldier. Well it was that Elizabeth, even in those dangerous days of
+intrigue and rebellion, had trusted her people enough, not only to leave
+them their weapons, but (what we, forsooth, in these more "free" and
+"liberal" days dare not do) to teach them how to use them. Well it
+was, that by careful legislation for the comfort and employment of "the
+masses" (term then, thank God, unknown), she had both won their hearts,
+and kept their bodies in fighting order. Well it was that, acting as
+fully as Napoleon did on "la carriere ouverte aux talens," she had
+raised to the highest posts in her councils, her army, and her navy, men
+of business, who had not been ashamed to buy and sell as merchants and
+adventurers. Well for England, in a word, that Elizabeth had pursued
+for thirty years a very different course from that which we have been
+pursuing for the last thirty, with one exception, namely, the leaving as
+much as possible to private enterprise.
+
+There we have copied her: would to Heaven that we had in some other
+matters! It is the fashion now to call her a despot: but unless every
+monarch is to be branded with that epithet whose power is not as
+circumscribed as Queen Victoria's is now, we ought rather to call her
+the most popular sovereign, obeyed of their own free will by the freest
+subjects which England has ever seen; confess the Armada fight to have
+been as great a moral triumph as it was a political one; and (now that
+our late boasting is a little silenced by Crimean disasters) inquire
+whether we have not something to learn from those old Tudor times, as
+to how to choose officials, how to train a people, and how to defend a
+country.
+
+To return to the thread of my story.
+
+January, 1587-8, had well-nigh run through, before Sir Richard Grenville
+made his appearance on the streets of Bideford. He had been appointed in
+November one of the council of war for providing for the safety of the
+nation, and the West Country had seen nothing of him since. But one
+morning, just before Christmas, his stately figure darkened the old
+bay-window at Burrough, and Amyas rushed out to meet him, and bring him
+in, and ask what news from Court.
+
+"All good news, dear lad, and dearer madam. The queen shows the spirit
+of a very Boadicea or Semiramis; ay, a very Scythian Tomyris, and if she
+had the Spaniard before her now, would verily, for aught I know, feast
+him as the Scythian queen did Cyrus, with 'Satia te sanguine, quod
+sitisti.'"
+
+"I trust her most merciful spirit is not so changed already," said Mrs.
+Leigh.
+
+"Well, if she would not do it, I would, and ask pardon afterwards, as
+Raleigh did about the rascals at Smerwick, whom Amyas knows of. Mrs.
+Leigh, these are times in which mercy is cruelty. Not England alone,
+but the world, the Bible, the Gospel itself, is at stake; and we must do
+terrible things, lest we suffer more terrible ones."
+
+"God will take care of world and Bible better than any cruelty of ours,
+dear Sir Richard."
+
+"Nay, but, Mrs. Leigh, we must help Him to take care of them! If those
+Smerwick Spaniards had not been--"
+
+"The Spaniard would not have been exasperated into invading us."
+
+"And we should not have had this chance of crushing him once and for
+all; but the quarrel is of older standing, madam, eh, Amyas? Amyas, has
+Raleigh written to you of late?"
+
+"Not a word, and I wonder why."
+
+"Well; no wonder at that, if you knew how he has been laboring. The
+wonder is, whence he got the knowledge wherewith to labor; for he never
+saw sea-work to my remembrance."
+
+"Never saw a shot fired by sea, except ours at Smerwick, and that
+brush with the Spaniards in 1579, when he sailed for Virginia with Sir
+Humphrey; and he was a mere crack then."
+
+"So you consider him as your pupil, eh? But he learnt enough in the
+Netherland wars, and in Ireland too, if not of the strength of ships,
+yet still of the weakness of land forces; and would you believe it, the
+man has twisted the whole council round his finger, and made them give
+up the land defences to the naval ones."
+
+"Quite right he, and wooden walls against stone ones for ever! But as
+for twisting, he would persuade Satan, if he got him alone for half an
+hour."
+
+"I wish he would sail for Spain then, just now, and try the powers of
+his tongue," said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"But are we to have the honor, really?"
+
+"We are, lad. There were many in the council who were for disputing the
+landing on shore, and said--which I do not deny--that the 'prentice
+boys of London could face the bluest blood in Spain. But Raleigh argued
+(following my Lord Burleigh in that) that we differed from the Low
+Countries, and all other lands, in that we had not a castle or town
+throughout, which would stand a ten days' siege, and that our ramparts,
+as he well said, were, after all, only a body of men. So, he argued, as
+long as the enemy has power to land where he will, prevention, rather
+than cure, is our only hope; and that belongs to the office, not of an
+army, but of a fleet. So the fleet was agreed on, and a fleet we shall
+have."
+
+"Then here is his health, the health of a true friend to all bold
+mariners, and myself in particular! But where is he now?"
+
+"Coming here to-morrow, as I hope--for he left London with me, and so
+down by us into Cornwall, to drill the train-bands, as he is bound
+to do, being Seneschal of the Duchies and Lieutenant-General of the
+county."
+
+"Besides Lord Warden of the Stanneries! How the man thrives!" said Mrs.
+Leigh.
+
+"How the man deserves to thrive!" said Amyas; "but what are we to do?"
+
+"That is the rub. I would fain stay and fight the Spaniards."
+
+"So would I; and will."
+
+"But he has other plans in his head for us."
+
+"We can make our own plans without his help."
+
+"Heyday, Amyas! How long? When did he ask you to do a thing yet and you
+refuse him?"
+
+"Not often, certainly; but Spaniards I must fight."
+
+"Well, so must I, boy: but I have given a sort of promise to him,
+nevertheless."
+
+"Not for me too, I hope?"
+
+"No: he will extract that himself when he comes; you must come and sup
+to-morrow, and talk it over."
+
+"Be talked over, rather. What chestnut does the cat want us monkeys to
+pull out of the fire for him now, I wonder?"
+
+"Sir Richard Grenville is hardly accustomed to be called a monkey," said
+Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"I meant no harm; and his worship knows it, none better: but where is
+Raleigh going to send us, with a murrain?"
+
+"To Virginia. The settlers must have help: and, as I trust in God, we
+shall be back again long before this armament can bestir itself."
+
+So Raleigh came, saw, and conquered. Mrs. Leigh consented to Amyas's
+going (for his twelve-month would be over ere the fleet could start)
+upon so peaceful and useful an errand; and the next five months were
+spent in continual labor on the part of Amyas and Grenville, till seven
+ships were all but ready in Bideford river, the admiral whereof was
+Amyas Leigh.
+
+But that fleet was not destined ever to see the shores of the New World:
+it had nobler work to do (if Americans will forgive the speech) than
+even settling the United States.
+
+It was in the long June evenings, in the year 1588; Mrs. Leigh sat in
+the open window, busy at her needle-work; Ayacanora sat opposite to her,
+on the seat of the bay, trying diligently to read "The History of the
+Nine Worthies," and stealing a glance every now and then towards the
+garden, where Amyas stalked up and down as he had used to do in happier
+days gone by. But his brow was contracted now, his eyes fixed on the
+ground, as he plodded backwards and forwards, his hands behind his back,
+and a huge cigar in his mouth, the wonder of the little boys of Northam,
+who peeped in stealthily as they passed the iron-work gates, to see the
+back of the famous fire-breathing captain who had sailed round the world
+and been in the country of headless men and flying dragons, and then
+popped back their heads suddenly, as he turned toward them in his walk.
+And Ayacanora looked, and looked, with no less admiration than the
+urchins at the gate: but she got no more of an answering look from Amyas
+than they did; for his head was full of calculations of tonnage and
+stowage, of salt pork and ale-barrels, and the packing of tools and
+seeds; for he had promised Raleigh to do his best for the new colony,
+and he was doing it with all his might; so Ayacanora looked back again
+to her book, and heaved a deep sigh. It was answered by one from Mrs.
+Leigh.
+
+"We are a melancholy pair, sweet chuck," said the fair widow. "What is
+my maid sighing about, there?"
+
+"Because I cannot make out the long words," said Ayacanora, telling a
+very white fib.
+
+"Is that all? Come to me, and I will tell you."
+
+Ayacanora moved over to her, and sat down at her feet.
+
+"H--e, he, r--o, ro, i--c--a--l, heroical," said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"But what does that mean?"
+
+"Grand, good, and brave, like--"
+
+Mrs. Leigh was about to have said the name of one who was lost to her
+on earth. His fair angelic face hung opposite upon the wall. She paused
+unable to pronounce his name; and lifted up her eyes, and gazed on the
+portrait, and breathed a prayer between closed lips, and drooped her
+head again.
+
+Her pupil caught at the pause, and filled it up for herself--
+
+"Like him?" and she turned her head quickly toward the window.
+
+"Yes, like him, too," said Mrs. Leigh, with a half-smile at the gesture.
+"Now, mind your book. Maidens must not look out of the window in school
+hours."
+
+"Shall I ever be an English girl?" asked Ayacanora.
+
+"You are one now, sweet; your father was an English gentleman."
+
+Amyas looked in, and saw the two sitting together.
+
+"You seem quite merry there," said he.
+
+"Come in, then, and be merry with us."
+
+He entered, and sat down; while Ayacanora fixed her eyes most
+steadfastly on her book.
+
+"Well, how goes on the reading?" said he; and then, without waiting for
+an answer--"We shall be ready to clear out this day week, mother, I do
+believe; that is, if the hatchets are made in time to pack them."
+
+"I hope they will be better than the last," said Mrs. Leigh. "It seems
+to me a shameful sin to palm off on poor ignorant savages goods which we
+should consider worthless for ourselves."
+
+"Well, it's not over fair: but still, they are a sight better than they
+ever had before. An old hoop is better than a deer's bone, as Ayacanora
+knows,--eh?"
+
+"I don't know anything about it," said she, who was always nettled at
+the least allusion to her past wild life. "I am an English girl now, and
+all that is gone--I forget it."
+
+"Forget it?" said he, teasing her for want of something better to do.
+"Should not you like to sail with us, now, and see the Indians in the
+forests once again?"
+
+"Sail with you?" and she looked up eagerly.
+
+"There! I knew it! She would not be four-and-twenty hours ashore, but
+she would be off into the woods again, bow in hand, like any runaway
+nymph, and we should never see her more."
+
+"It is false, bad man!" and she burst into violent tears, and hid her
+face in Mrs. Leigh's lap.
+
+"Amyas, Amyas, why do you tease the poor fatherless thing?"
+
+"I was only jesting, I'm sure," said Amyas, like a repentant schoolboy.
+"Don't cry now, don't cry, my child, see here," and he began fumbling in
+his pockets; "see what I bought of a chapman in town to-day, for you, my
+maid, indeed, I did."
+
+And out he pulled some smart kerchief or other, which had taken his
+sailor's fancy.
+
+"Look at it now, blue, and crimson, and green, like any parrot!" and he
+held it out.
+
+She looked round sharply, snatched it out of his hand, and tore it to
+shreds.
+
+"I hate it, and I hate you!" and she sprang up and darted out of the
+room.
+
+"Oh, boy, boy!" said Mrs. Leigh, "will you kill that poor child? It
+matters little for an old heart like mine, which has but one or two
+chords left whole, how soon it be broken altogether; but a young heart
+is one of God's precious treasures, Amyas, and suffers many a long pang
+in the breaking; and woe to them who despise Christ's little ones!"
+
+"Break your heart, mother?"
+
+"Never mind my heart, dear son; yet how can you break it more surely
+than by tormenting one whom I love, because she loves you?"
+
+"Tut! play, mother, and maids' tempers. But how can I break your heart?
+What have I done? Have I not given up going again to the West Indies for
+your sake? Have I not given up going to Virginia, and now again settled
+to go after all, just because you commanded? Was it not your will? Have
+I not obeyed you, mother, mother? I will stay at home now, if you will.
+I would rather rust here on land, I vow I would, than grieve you--" and
+he threw himself at his mother's knees.
+
+"Have I asked you not to go to Virginia? No, dear boy, though every
+thought of a fresh parting seems to crack some new fibre within me, you
+must go! It is your calling. Yes; you were not sent into the world to
+amuse me, but to work. I have had pleasure enough of you, my darling,
+for many a year, and too much, perhaps; till I shrank from lending you
+to the Lord. But He must have you. . . . It is enough for the poor old
+widow to know that her boy is what he is, and to forget all her anguish
+day by day, for joy that a man is born into the world. But, Amyas,
+Amyas, are you so blind as not to see that Ayacanora--"
+
+"Don't talk about her, poor child. Talk about yourself."
+
+"How long have I been worth talking about? No, Amyas, you must see it;
+and if you will not see it now, you will see it one day in some sad and
+fearful prodigy; for she is not one to die tamely. She loves you, Amyas,
+as a woman only can love."
+
+"Loves me? Well, of course. I found her, and brought her home; and I
+don't deny she may think that she owes me somewhat--though it was no
+more than a Christian man's duty. But as for her caring much for me,
+mother, you measure every one else's tenderness by your own."
+
+"Think that she owes you somewhat? Silly boy, this is not gratitude,
+but a deeper affection, which may be more heavenly than gratitude, as
+it may, too, become a horrible cause of ruin. It rests with you, Amyas,
+which of the two it will be."
+
+"You are in earnest?"
+
+"Have I the heart or the time to jest?"
+
+"No, no, of course not; but, mother, I thought it was not comely for
+women to fall in love with men?"
+
+"Not comely, at least, to confess their love to men. But she has never
+done that, Amyas; not even by a look or a tone of voice, though I have
+watched her for months."
+
+"To be sure, she is as demure as any cat when I am in the way. I only
+wonder how you found it out."
+
+"Ah," said she, smiling sadly, "even in the saddest woman's soul there
+linger snatches of old music, odors of flowers long dead and turned to
+dust--pleasant ghosts, which still keep her mind attuned to that which
+may be in others, though in her never more; till she can hear her own
+wedding-hymn re-echoed in the tones of every girl who loves, and sees
+her own wedding-torch re-lighted in the eyes of every bride."
+
+"You would not have me marry her?" asked blunt, practical Amyas.
+
+"God knows what I would have--I know not; I see neither your path nor
+my own--no, not after weeks and months of prayer. All things beyond are
+wrapped in mist; and what will be, I know not, save that whatever else
+is wrong, mercy at least is right."
+
+"I'd sail to-morrow, if I could. As for marrying her, mother--her birth,
+mind me--"
+
+"Ah, boy, boy! Are you God, to visit the sins of the parents upon the
+children?"
+
+"Not that. I don't mean that; but I mean this, that she is half a
+Spaniard, mother; and I cannot!--Her blood may be as blue as King
+Philip's own, but it is Spanish still! I cannot bear the thought that my
+children should have in their veins one drop of that poison."
+
+"Amyas! Amyas!" interrupted she, "is this not, too, visiting the
+parents' sins on the children?"
+
+"Not a whit; it is common sense,--she must have the taint of their
+bloodthirsty humor. She has it--I have seen it in her again and again.
+I have told you, have I not? Can I forget the look of her eyes as
+she stood over that galleon's captain, with the smoking knife in her
+hand.--Ugh! And she is not tamed yet, as you can see, and never will
+be:--not that I care, except for her own sake, poor thing!"
+
+"Cruel boy! to impute as a blame to the poor child, not only the errors
+of her training, but the very madness of her love!"
+
+"Of her love?"
+
+"Of what else, blind buzzard? From the moment that you told me the story
+of that captain's death, I knew what was in her heart--and thus it is
+that you requite her for having saved your life!"
+
+"Umph! that is one word too much, mother. If you don't want to send me
+crazy, don't put the thing on the score of gratitude or duty. As it is,
+I can hardly speak civilly to her (God forgive me!) when I recollect
+that she belongs to the crew who murdered him"--and he pointed to the
+picture, and Mrs. Leigh shuddered as he did so.
+
+"You feel it! You know you feel it, tender-hearted, forgiving angel as
+you are; and what do you think I must feel?"
+
+"Oh, my son, my son!" cried she, wringing her hands, "if I be wretch
+enough to give place to the devil for a moment, does that give you a
+right to entertain and cherish him thus day by day?"
+
+"I should cherish him with a vengeance, if I brought up a crew of
+children who could boast of a pedigree of idolaters and tyrants, hunters
+of Indians, and torturers of women! How pleasant to hear her telling
+Master Jack, 'Your illustrious grand-uncle the pope's legate, was
+the man who burned Rose Salterne at Cartagena;' or Miss Grace, 'Your
+great-grandfather of sixteen quarterings, the Marquis of this, son of
+the Grand-equerry that, and husband of the Princess t'other, used to
+feed his bloodhounds, when beef was scarce, with Indians' babies!' Eh,
+mother? These things are true, and if you can forget them, I cannot. Is
+it not enough to have made me forego for awhile my purpose, my business,
+the one thing I live for, and that is, hunting down the Spaniards as I
+would adders or foxes, but you must ask me over and above to take one to
+my bosom?"
+
+"Oh, my son, my son! I have not asked you to do that; I have only
+commanded you, in God's name, to be merciful, if you wish to obtain
+mercy. Oh, if you will not pity this poor maiden, pity yourself; for God
+knows you stand in more need of it than she does!"
+
+Amyas was silent for a minute or two; and then,--
+
+"If it were not for you, mother, would God that the Armada would come!"
+
+"What, and ruin England?"
+
+"No! Curse them! Not a foot will they ever set on English soil, such a
+welcome would we give them. If I were but in the midst of that fleet,
+fighting like a man--to forget it all, with a galleon on board of me to
+larboard, and another to starboard--and then to put a linstock in the
+magazine, and go aloft in good company--I don't care how soon it comes,
+mother, if it were not for you."
+
+"If I am in your way, Amyas, do not fear that I shall trouble you long."
+
+"Oh, mother, mother, do not talk in that way! I am half-mad, I think,
+already, and don't know what I say. Yes, I am mad; mad at heart, though
+not at head. There's a fire burning me up, night and day, and nothing
+but Spanish blood will put it out."
+
+"Or the grace of God, my poor wilful child! Who comes to the door?--so
+quickly, too?"
+
+There was a loud hurried knocking, and in another minute a serving-man
+hurried in with a letter.
+
+"This to Captain Amyas Leigh with haste, haste!"
+
+It was Sir Richard's hand. Amyas tore it open; and "a loud laugh laughed
+he."
+
+"The Armada is coming! My wish has come true, mother!"
+
+"God help us, it has! Show me the letter."
+
+It was a hurried scrawl.
+
+
+"DR. GODSON,--Walsingham sends word that the Ada. sailed from Lisbon to
+the Groyne the 18. of May. We know no more, but have commandment to stay
+the ships. Come down, dear lad, and give us counsel; and may the Lord
+help His Church in this great strait.
+
+"Your loving godfather,
+
+"R. G."
+
+
+"Forgive me, mother, mother, once for all!" cried Amyas, throwing his
+arms round her neck.
+
+"I have nothing to forgive, my son, my son! And shall I lose thee,
+also?"
+
+"If I be killed, you will have two martyrs of your blood, mother!--"
+
+Mrs. Leigh bowed her head, and was silent. Amyas caught up his hat and
+sword, and darted forth toward Bideford.
+
+Amyas literally danced into Sir Richard's hall, where he stood talking
+earnestly with various merchants and captains.
+
+"Gloria, gloria! gentles all! The devil is broke loose at last; and now
+we know where to have him on the hip!"
+
+"Why so merry, Captain Leigh, when all else are sad?" said a gentle
+voice by his side.
+
+"Because I have been sad a long time, while all else were merry, dear
+lady. Is the hawk doleful when his hood is pulled off, and he sees the
+heron flapping right ahead of him?"
+
+"You seem to forget the danger and the woe of us weak women, sir?"
+
+"I don't forget the danger and the woe of one weak woman, madam, and she
+the daughter of a man who once stood in this room," said Amyas, suddenly
+collecting himself, in a low stern voice. "And I don't forget the danger
+and the woe of one who was worth a thousand even of her. I don't forget
+anything, madam."
+
+"Nor forgive either, it seems."
+
+"It will be time to talk of forgiveness after the offender has repented
+and amended; and does the sailing of the Armada look like that?"
+
+"Alas, no! God help us!"
+
+"He will help us, madam," said Amyas.
+
+"Admiral Leigh," said Sir Richard, "we need you now, if ever. Here are
+the queen's orders to furnish as many ships as we can; though from these
+gentlemen's spirit, I should say the orders were well-nigh needless."
+
+"Not a doubt, sir; for my part, I will fit my ship at my own charges,
+and fight her too, as long as I have a leg or an arm left."
+
+"Or a tongue to say, never surrender, I'll warrant!" said an old
+merchant. "You put life into us old fellows, Admiral Leigh: but it
+will be a heavy matter for those poor fellows in Virginia, and for my
+daughter too, Madam Dare, with her young babe, as I hear, just born."
+
+"And a very heavy matter," said some one else, "for those who have
+ventured their money in these cargoes, which must lie idle, you see, now
+for a year maybe--and then all the cost of unlading again--"
+
+"My good sir," said Grenville, "what have private interests to do
+with this day? Let us thank God if He only please to leave us the bare
+fee-simple of this English soil, the honor of our wives and daughters,
+and bodies safe from rack and fagot, to wield the swords of freemen in
+defence of a free land, even though every town and homestead in England
+were wasted with fire, and we left to rebuild over again all which our
+ancestors have wrought for us in now six hundred years."
+
+"Right, sir!" said Amyas. "For my part, let my Virginian goods rot
+on the quay, if the worst comes to the worst. I begin unloading the
+Vengeance to-morrow; and to sea as soon as I can fill up my crew to a
+good fighting number."
+
+And so the talk ran on; and ere two days were past, most of the
+neighboring gentlemen, summoned by Sir Richard, had come in, and great
+was the bidding against each other as to who should do most. Cary and
+Brimblecombe, with thirty tall Clovelly men, came across the bay, and
+without even asking leave of Amyas, took up their berths as a matter of
+course on board the Vengeance. In the meanwhile, the matter was taken
+up by families. The Fortescues (a numberless clan) offered to furnish
+a ship; the Chichesters another, the Stukelys a third; while the
+merchantmen were not backward. The Bucks, the Stranges, the Heards,
+joyfully unloaded their Virginian goods, and replaced them with powder
+and shot; and in a week's time the whole seven were ready once more for
+sea, and dropped down into Appledore pool, with Amyas as their admiral
+for the time being (for Sir Richard had gone by land to Plymouth to join
+the deliberations there), and waited for the first favorable wind to
+start for the rendezvous in the Sound.
+
+At last, upon the twenty-first of June, the clank of the capstans rang
+merrily across the flats, and amid prayers and blessings, forth sailed
+that gallant squadron over the bar, to play their part in Britain's
+Salamis; while Mrs. Leigh stood watching as she stood once before,
+beside the churchyard wall: but not alone this time; for Ayacanora stood
+by her side, and gazed and gazed, till her eyes seemed ready to burst
+from their sockets. At last she turned away with a sob,--
+
+"And he never bade me good-bye, mother!"
+
+"God forgive him! Come home and pray, my child; there is no other rest
+on earth than prayer for woman's heart!"
+
+They were calling each other mother and daughter then? Yes. The sacred
+fire of sorrow was fast burning out all Ayacanora's fallen savageness;
+and, like a Phoenix, the true woman was rising from those ashes, fair,
+noble, and all-enduring, as God had made her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+HOW THE ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS
+
+     "Oh, where be these gay Spaniards,
+     Which make so great a boast O?
+     Oh, they shall eat the gray-goose feather,
+       And we shall eat the roast O!"
+
+                                  Cornish Song.
+
+What if the spectators who last summer gazed with just pride upon the
+noble port of Plymouth, its vast breakwater spanning the Sound, its
+arsenals and docks, its two estuaries filled with gallant ships, and
+watched the great screw-liners turning within their own length by force
+invisible, or threading the crowded fleets with the ease of the tiniest
+boat,--what if, by some magic turn, the nineteenth century, and all the
+magnificence of its wealth and science, had vanished--as it may vanish
+hereafter--and they had found themselves thrown back three hundred years
+into the pleasant summer days of 1588?
+
+Mount Edgecombe is still there, beautiful as ever: but where are the
+docks, and where is Devonport? No vast dry-dock roofs rise at the
+water's edge. Drake's island carries but a paltry battery, just raised
+by the man whose name it bears; Mount Wise is a lone gentleman's house
+among fields; the citadel is a pop-gun fort, which a third-class steamer
+would shell into rubble for an afternoon's amusement. And the shipping,
+where are they? The floating castles of the Hamoaze have dwindled to
+a few crawling lime-hoys; and the Catwater is packed, not as now, with
+merchant craft, but with the ships who will to-morrow begin the greatest
+sea-fight which the world has ever seen.
+
+There they lie, a paltry squadron enough in modern eyes; the largest of
+them not equal in size to a six-and-thirty-gun frigate, carrying less
+weight of metal than one of our new gun-boats, and able to employ even
+that at not more than a quarter of our modern range. Would our modern
+spectators, just come down by rail for a few hours, to see the cavalry
+embark, and return tomorrow in time for dinner, have looked down upon
+that petty port, and petty fleet, with a contemptuous smile, and begun
+some flippant speech about the progress of intellect, and the triumphs
+of science, and our benighted ancestors? They would have done so, doubt
+it not, if they belonged to the many who gaze on those very triumphs
+as on a raree-show to feed their silly wonder, or use and enjoy them
+without thankfulness or understanding, as the ox eats the clover thrust
+into his rack, without knowing or caring how it grew. But if any of them
+were of the class by whom those very triumphs have been achieved; the
+thinkers and the workers, who, instead of entering lazily into other
+men's labors, as the mob does, labor themselves; who know by hard
+experience the struggles, the self-restraints, the disappointments, the
+slow and staggering steps, by which the discoverer reaches to his prize;
+then the smile of those men would not have been one of pity, but rather
+of filial love. For they would have seen in those outwardly paltry
+armaments the potential germ of that mightier one which now loads the
+Black Sea waves; they would have been aware, that to produce it, with
+such materials and knowledge as then existed, demanded an intellect, an
+energy, a spirit of progress and invention, equal, if not superior, to
+those of which we now so loudly boast.
+
+But if, again, he had been a student of men rather than of machinery,
+he would have found few nobler companies on whom to exercise his
+discernment, than he might have seen in the little terrace bowling-green
+behind the Pelican Inn, on the afternoon of the nineteenth of July.
+Chatting in groups, or lounging over the low wall which commanded a
+view of the Sound and the shipping far below, were gathered almost
+every notable man of the Plymouth fleet, the whole posse comitatus
+of "England's forgotten worthies." The Armada has been scattered by a
+storm. Lord Howard has been out to look for it, as far as the Spanish
+coast; but the wind has shifted to the south, and fearing lest the Dons
+should pass him, he has returned to Plymouth, uncertain whether the
+Armada will come after all or not. Slip on for a while, like Prince Hal,
+the drawer's apron; come in through the rose-clad door which opens
+from the tavern, with a tray of long-necked Dutch glasses, and a silver
+tankard of wine, and look round you at the gallant captains, who are
+waiting for the Spanish Armada, as lions in their lair might wait for
+the passing herd of deer.
+
+See those five talking earnestly, in the centre of a ring, which longs
+to overhear, and yet is too respectful to approach close. Those soft
+long eyes and pointed chin you recognize already; they are Walter
+Raleigh's. The fair young man in the flame-colored doublet, whose arm
+is round Raleigh's neck, is Lord Sheffield; opposite them stands, by
+the side of Sir Richard Grenville, a man as stately even as he, Lord
+Sheffield's uncle, the Lord Charles Howard of Effingham, lord high
+admiral of England; next to him is his son-in-law, Sir Robert Southwell,
+captain of the Elizabeth Jonas: but who is that short, sturdy, plainly
+dressed man, who stands with legs a little apart, and hands behind his
+back, looking up, with keen gray eyes, into the face of each speaker?
+His cap is in his hands, so you can see the bullet head of crisp brown
+hair and the wrinkled forehead, as well as the high cheek bones, the
+short square face, the broad temples, the thick lips, which are yet firm
+as granite. A coarse plebeian stamp of man: yet the whole figure and
+attitude are that of boundless determination, self-possession, energy;
+and when at last he speaks a few blunt words, all eyes are turned
+respectfully upon him;--for his name is Francis Drake.
+
+A burly, grizzled elder, in greasy sea-stained garments, contrasting
+oddly with the huge gold chain about his neck, waddles up, as if he had
+been born, and had lived ever since, in a gale of wind at sea. The upper
+half of his sharp dogged visage seems of brick-red leather, the lower of
+badger's fur; and as he claps Drake on the back, and, with a broad Devon
+twang, shouts, "be you a coming to drink your wine, Francis Drake, or
+be you not?--saving your presence, my lord;" the lord high admiral only
+laughs, and bids Drake go and drink his wine; for John Hawkins, admiral
+of the port, is the patriarch of Plymouth seamen, if Drake be their
+hero, and says and does pretty much what he likes in any company on
+earth; not to mention that to-day's prospect of an Armageddon fight has
+shaken him altogether out of his usual crabbed reserve, and made him
+overflow with loquacious good-humor, even to his rival Drake.
+
+So they push through the crowd, wherein is many another man whom one
+would gladly have spoken with face to face on earth. Martin Frobisher
+and John Davis are sitting on that bench, smoking tobacco from long
+silver pipes; and by them are Fenton and Withrington, who have both
+tried to follow Drake's path round the world, and failed, though by no
+fault of their own. The man who pledges them better luck next time,
+is George Fenner, known to "the seven Portugals," Leicester's pet, and
+captain of the galleon which Elizabeth bought of him. That short prim
+man in the huge yellow ruff, with sharp chin, minute imperial, and
+self-satisfied smile, is Richard Hawkins, the Complete Seaman, Admiral
+John's hereafter famous and hapless son. The elder who is talking with
+him is his good uncle William, whose monument still stands, or should
+stand, in Deptford Church; for Admiral John set it up there but one year
+after this time; and on it record how he was, "A worshipper of the true
+religion, an especial benefactor of poor sailors, a most just arbiter
+in most difficult causes, and of a singular faith, piety, and prudence."
+That, and the fact that he got creditably through some sharp work at
+Porto Rico, is all I know of William Hawkins: but if you or I, reader,
+can have as much or half as much said of us when we have to follow him,
+we shall have no reason to complain.
+
+There is John Drake, Sir Francis' brother, ancestor of the present stock
+of Drakes; and there is George, his nephew, a man not overwise, who has
+been round the world with Amyas; and there is Amyas himself, talking
+to one who answers him with fierce curt sentences, Captain Barker of
+Bristol, brother of the hapless Andrew Barker who found John Oxenham's
+guns, and, owing to a mutiny among his men, perished by the Spaniards in
+Honduras, twelve years ago. Barker is now captain of the Victory, one of
+the queen's best ships; and he has his accounts to settle with the Dons,
+as Amyas has; so they are both growling together in a corner, while all
+the rest are as merry as the flies upon the vine above their heads.
+
+But who is the aged man who sits upon a bench, against the sunny south
+wall of the tavern, his long white beard flowing almost to his waist,
+his hands upon his knees, his palsied head moving slowly from side to
+side, to catch the scraps of discourse of the passing captains? His
+great-grandchild, a little maid of six, has laid her curly head upon his
+knees, and his grand-daughter, a buxom black-eyed dame of thirty, stands
+by him and tends him, half as nurse, and half, too, as showman, for he
+seems an object of curiosity to all the captains, and his fair nurse has
+to entreat again and again, "Bless you, sir, please now, don't give him
+no liquor, poor old soul, the doctor says." It is old Martin Cockrem,
+father of the ancient host, aged himself beyond the years of man, who
+can recollect the bells of Plymouth ringing for the coronation of Henry
+the Eighth, and who was the first Englishman, perhaps, who ever set foot
+on the soil of the New World. There he sits, like an old Druid Tor of
+primeval granite amid the tall wheat and rich clover crops of a modern
+farm. He has seen the death of old Europe and the birth-throes of the
+new. Go to him, and question him; for his senses are quick as ever;
+and just now the old man seems uneasy. He is peering with rheumy eyes
+through the groups, and seems listening for a well-known voice.
+
+"There 'a be again! Why don't 'a come, then?"
+
+"Quiet, gramfer, and don't trouble his worship."
+
+"Here an hour, and never speak to poor old Martin! I say, sir"--and the
+old man feebly plucks Amyas's cloak as he passes. "I say, captain, do 'e
+tell young master old Martin's looking for him."
+
+"Marcy, gramfer, where's your manners? Don't be vexed, sir, he'm a'most
+a babe, and tejous at times, mortal."
+
+"Young master who?" says Amyas, bending down to the old man, and smiling
+to the dame to let him have his way.
+
+"Master Hawkins; he'm never been a-near me all day."
+
+Off goes Amyas; and, of course, lays hold of the sleeve of young Richard
+Hawkins; but as he is in act to speak, the dame lays hold of his,
+laughing and blushing.
+
+"No, sir, not Mr. Richard, sir; Admiral John, sir, his father; he always
+calls him young master, poor old soul!" and she points to the grizzled
+beard and the face scarred and tanned with fifty years of fight and
+storm.
+
+Amyas goes to the Admiral, and gives his message.
+
+"Mercy on me! Where be my wits? Iss, I'm a-coming," says the old hero in
+his broadest Devon, waddles off to the old man, and begins lugging at
+a pocket. "Here, Martin, I've got mun, I've got mun, man alive; but his
+Lordship keept me so. Lookee here, then! Why, I do get so lusty of late,
+Martin, I can't get to my pockets!"
+
+And out struggle a piece of tarred string, a bundle of papers, a
+thimble, a piece of pudding-tobacco, and last of all, a little paper of
+Muscovado sugar--then as great a delicacy as any French bonbons would be
+now--which he thrusts into the old man's eager and trembling hand.
+
+Old Martin begins dipping his finger into it, and rubbing it on his
+toothless gums, smiling and nodding thanks to his young master; while
+the little maid at his knee, unrebuked, takes her share also.
+
+"There, Admiral Leigh; both ends meet--gramfers and babies! You and I
+shall be like to that one day, young Samson!"
+
+"We shall have slain a good many Philistines first, I hope."
+
+"Amen! so be it; but look to mun! so fine a sailor as ever drank liquor;
+and now greedy after a hit of sweet trade! 'tis piteous like; but I
+bring mun a hit whenever I come, and he looks for it. He's one of my own
+flesh like, is old Martin. He sailed with my father Captain Will, when
+they was both two little cracks aboard of a trawler; and my father
+went up, and here I am--he didn't, and there he is. We'm up now, we
+Hawkinses. We may be down again some day."
+
+"Never, I trust," said Amyas.
+
+"'Tain't no use trusting, young man: you go and do. I do hear too much
+of that there from my lad. Let they ministers preach till they'm black
+in the face, works is the trade!" with a nudge in Amyas's ribs. "Faith
+can't save, nor charity nether. There, you tell with him, while I go
+play bowls with Drake. He'll tell you a sight of stories. You ask him
+about good King Hal, now, just--"
+
+And off waddled the Port Admiral.
+
+"You have seen good King Henry, then, father?" said Amyas, interested.
+
+The old man's eyes lighted at once, and he stopped mumbling his sugar.
+
+"Seed mun? Iss, I reckon. I was with Captain Will when he went to meet
+the Frenchman there to Calais--at the Field, the Field--"
+
+"The Field of the Cloth of Gold, gramfer," suggested the dame.
+
+"That's it. Seed mun? Iss, fegs. Oh, he was a king! The face o' mun like
+a rising sun, and the back o' mun so broad as that there" (and he held
+out his palsied arms), "and the voice of mun! Oh, to hear mun swear if
+he was merry, oh, 'tas royal!--Seed mun? Iss, fegs! And I've seed mun do
+what few has; I've seed mun christle like any child."
+
+"What--cry?" said Amyas. "I shouldn't have thought there was much cry in
+him."
+
+"You think what you like--"
+
+"Gramfer, gramfer, don't you be rude, now--
+
+"Let him go on," said Amyas.
+
+"I seed mun christle; and, oh dear, how he did put hands on mun's face;
+and 'Oh, my gentlemen,' says he, 'my gentlemen! Oh, my gallant men!'
+Them was his very words."
+
+"But when?"
+
+"Why, Captain Will had just come to the Hard--that's to Portsmouth--to
+speak with mun, and the barge Royal lay again the Hard--so; and our boot
+alongside--so; and the king he standth as it might be there, above my
+head, on the quay edge, and she come in near abreast of us, looking most
+royal to behold, poor dear! and went to cast about. And Captain Will,
+saith he, 'Them lower ports is cruel near the water;' for she had not
+more than a sixteen inches to spare in the nether overloop, as I heard
+after. And saith he, 'That won't do for going to windward in a say,
+Martin.' And as the words came out of mun's mouth, your worship, there
+was a bit of a flaw from the westward, sharp like, and overboard goeth
+my cap, and hitth against the wall, and as I stooped to pick it up, I
+heard a cry, and it was all over!"
+
+"He is telling of the Mary Rose, sir."
+
+"I guessed so."
+
+"All over: and the cry of mun, and the screech of mun! Oh, sir, up to
+the very heavens! And the king he screeched right out like any maid, 'Oh
+my gentlemen, oh my gallant men!' and as she lay on her beam-ends, sir,
+and just a-settling, the very last souls I seen was that man's father,
+and that man's. I knowed mun by their armor."
+
+And he pointed to Sir George Carew and Sir Richard Grenville.
+
+"Iss! Iss! Drowned like rattens. Drowned like rattens!"
+
+"Now; you mustn't trouble his worship any more."
+
+"Trouble? Let him tell till midnight, I shall be well pleased," said
+Amyas, sitting down on the bench by him. "Drawer! ale--and a parcel of
+tobacco."
+
+And Amyas settled himself to listen, while the old man purred to
+himself--
+
+"Iss. They likes to hear old Martin. All the captains look upon old
+Martin."
+
+"Hillo, Amyas!" said Cary, "who's your friend? Here's a man been telling
+me wonders about the River Plate. We should go thither for luck there
+next time."
+
+"River Plate?" said old Martin. "It's I knows about the River Plate;
+none so well. Who'd ever been there, nor heard of it nether, before
+Captain Will and me went, and I lived among the savages a whole year;
+and audacious civil I found 'em if they 'd had but shirts to their
+backs; and so was the prince o' mun, that Captain Will brought home to
+King Henry; leastwise he died on the voyage; but the wild folk took it
+cruel well, for you see, we was always as civil with them as Christians,
+and if we hadn't been, I should not have been here now."
+
+"What year was that?"
+
+"In the fifteen thirty: but I was there afore, and learnt the speech
+o' mun; and that's why Captain Will left me to a hostage, when he tuked
+their prince."
+
+"Before that?" said Cary; "why, the country was hardly known before
+that."
+
+The old man's eyes flashed up in triumph.
+
+"Knowed? Iss, and you may well say that! Look ye here! Look to mun!" and
+he waved his hand round--"There's captains! and I'm the father of 'em
+all now, now poor Captain Will's in gloory; I, Martin Cockrem! . . .
+Iss, I've seen a change. I mind when Tavistock Abbey was so full
+o' friars, and goolden idols, and sich noxious trade, as ever was a
+wheat-rick of rats. I mind the fight off Brest in the French wars--Oh,
+that was a fight, surely!--when the Regent and the French Carack were
+burnt side by side, being fast grappled, you see, because of Sir Thomas
+Knivet; and Captain Will gave him warning as he ran a-past us, saying,
+says he--"
+
+"But," said Amyas, seeing that the old man was wandering away, "what do
+you mind about America?"
+
+"America? I should think so! But I was a-going to tell you of the
+Regent--and seven hundred Englishmen burnt and drowned in her, and nine
+hundred French in the Brest ship, besides what we picked up. Oh dear!
+But about America."
+
+"Yes, about America. How are you the father of all the captains?"
+
+"How? you ask my young master! Why, before the fifteen thirty, I was up
+the Plate with Cabot (and a cruel fractious ontrustful fellow he was,
+like all they Portingals), and bid there a year and more, and up the
+Paraguaio with him, diskivering no end; whereby, gentles, I was the
+first Englishman, I hold, that ever sot a foot on the New World, I was!"
+
+"Then here's your health, and long life, sir!" said Amyas and Cary.
+
+"Long life? Iss, fegs, I reckon, long enough a'ready! Why, I mind the
+beginning of it all, I do. I mind when there wasn't a master mariner
+to Plymouth, that thought there was aught west of the Land's End except
+herrings. Why, they held them, pure wratches, that if you sailed right
+west away far enough, you'd surely come to the edge, and fall over
+cleve. Iss--'Twas dark parts round here, till Captain Will arose; and
+the first of it I mind was inside the bar of San Lucar, and he and I
+were boys about a ten year old, aboord of a Dartmouth ship, and went
+for wine, and there come in over the bar he that was the beginning of it
+all."
+
+"Columbus?"
+
+"Iss, fegs, he did, not a pistol-shot from us; and I saw mun stand on
+the poop, so plain as I see you; no great shakes of a man to look
+to nether; there's a sight better here, to plase me, and we was
+disappointed, we lads, for we surely expected to see mun with a goolden
+crown on, and a sceptre to a's hand, we did, and the ship o' mun all
+over like Solomon's temple for gloory. And I mind that same year, too,
+seeing Vasco da Gama, as was going out over the bar, when he found
+the Bona Speranza, and sailed round it to the Indies. Ah, that was the
+making of they rascally Portingals, it was! . . . And our crew told what
+they seen and heerd: but nobody minded sich things. 'Twas dark parts,
+and Popish, then; and nobody knowed nothing, nor got no schooling, nor
+cared for nothing, but scrattling up and down alongshore like to prawns
+in a pule. Iss, sitting in darkness, we was, and the shadow of death,
+till the day-spring from on high arose, and shined upon us poor
+out-o'-the-way folk--The Lord be praised! And now, look to mun!" and he
+waved his hand all round--"Look to mun! Look to the works of the Lord!
+Look to the captains! Oh blessed sight! And one's been to the Brazils,
+and one to the Indies, and the Spanish Main, and the North-West, and the
+Rooshias, and the Chinas, and up the Straits, and round the Cape,
+and round the world of God, too, bless His holy name; and I seed the
+beginning of it; and I'll see the end of it too, I will! I was born into
+the old times: but I'll see the wondrous works of the new, yet, I will!
+I'll see they bloody Spaniards swept off the seas before I die, if my
+old eyes can reach so far as outside the Sound. I shall, I knows it. I
+says my prayers for it every night; don't I, Mary? You'll bate mun, sure
+as Judgment, you'll bate mun! The Lord'll fight for ye. Nothing'll stand
+against ye. I've seed it all along--ever since I was with young master
+to the Honduras. They can't bide the push of us! You'll bate mun off
+the face of the seas, and be masters of the round world, and all that
+therein is. And then, I'll just turn my old face to the wall, and depart
+in peace, according to his word.
+
+"Deary me, now, while I've been telling with you, here've this little
+maid been and ate up all my sugar!"
+
+"I'll bring you some more," said Amyas; whom the childish bathos of the
+last sentence moved rather to sighs than laughter.
+
+"Will ye, then? There's a good soul, and come and tell with old Martin.
+He likes to see the brave young gentlemen, a-going to and fro in their
+ships, like Leviathan, and taking of their pastime therein. We had
+no such ships to our days. Ah, 'tis grand times, beautiful times
+surely--and you'll bring me a bit sugar?"
+
+"You were up the Plate with Cabot?" said Cary, after a pause. "Do you
+mind the fair lady Miranda, Sebastian de Hurtado's wife?"
+
+"What! her that was burnt by the Indians? Mind her? Do you mind the sun
+in heaven? Oh, the beauty! Oh, the ways of her! Oh, the speech of her!
+Never was, nor never will be! And she to die by they villains; and all
+for the goodness of her! Mind her? I minded naught else when she was on
+deck."
+
+"Who was she?" asked Amyas of Cary.
+
+"A Spanish angel, Amyas."
+
+"Humph!" said Amyas. "So much the worse for her, to be born into a
+nation of devils."
+
+"They'em not all so bad as that, yer honor. Her husband was a proper
+gallant gentleman, and kind as a maid, too, and couldn't abide that De
+Solis's murderous doings."
+
+"His wife must have taught it him, then," said Amyas, rising. "Where did
+you hear of these black swans, Cary?"
+
+"I have heard of them, and that's enough," answered he, unwilling to
+stir sad recollections.
+
+"And little enough," said Amyas. "Will, don't talk to me. The devil is
+not grown white because he has trod in a lime-heap."
+
+"Or an angel black because she came down a chimney," said Cary; and so
+the talk ended, or rather was cut short; for the talk of all the groups
+was interrupted by an explosion from old John Hawkins.
+
+"Fail? Fail? What a murrain do you here, to talk of failing? Who made
+you a prophet, you scurvy, hang-in-the-wind, croaking, white-livered son
+of a corby-crow?"
+
+"Heaven help us, Admiral Hawkins, who has put fire to your culverins in
+this fashion?" said Lord Howard.
+
+"Who? my lord! Croakers! my lord! Here's a fellow calls himself the
+captain of a ship, and her majesty's servant, and talks about failing,
+as if he were a Barbican loose-kirtle trying to keep her apple-squire
+ashore! Blurt for him, sneak-up! say I."
+
+"Admiral John Hawkins," quoth the offender, "you shall answer this
+language with your sword."
+
+"I'll answer it with my foot; and buy me a pair of horn-tips to my
+shoes, like a wraxling man. Fight a croaker? Fight a frog, an owl! I
+fight those that dare fight, sir!"
+
+"Sir, sir, moderate yourself. I am sure this gentleman will show himself
+as brave as any, when it comes to blows: but who can blame mortal man
+for trembling before so fearful a chance as this?"
+
+"Let mortal man keep his tremblings to himself, then, my lord, and not
+be like Solomon's madmen, casting abroad fire and death, and saying, it
+is only in sport. There is more than one of his kidney, your lordship,
+who have not been ashamed to play Mother Shipton before their own
+sailors, and damp the poor fellows' hearts with crying before they're
+hurt, and this is one of them. I've heard him at it afore, and I'll
+present him, with a vengeance, though I'm no church-warden."
+
+"If this is really so, Admiral Hawkins--"
+
+"It is so, my lord! I heard only last night, down in a tavern below,
+such unbelieving talk as made me mad, my lord; and if it had not been
+after supper, and my hand was not oversteady, I would have let out a
+pottle of Alicant from some of their hoopings, and sent them to Dick
+Surgeon, to wrap them in swaddling-clouts, like whining babies as
+they are. Marry come up, what says Scripture? 'He that is fearful and
+faint-hearted among you, let him go and'--what? son Dick there? Thou'rt
+pious, and read'st thy Bible. What's that text? A mortal fine one it is,
+too."
+
+"'He that is fearful and faint-hearted among you, let him go back,'"
+quoth the Complete Seaman. "Captain Merryweather, as my father's
+command, as well as his years, forbid his answering your challenge, I
+shall repute it an honor to entertain his quarrel myself--place, time,
+and weapons being at your choice."
+
+"Well spoken, son Dick!--and like a true courtier, too! Ah! thou hast
+the palabras, and the knee, and the cap, and the quip, and the innuendo,
+and the true town fashion of it all--no old tarry-breeks of a sea-dog,
+like thy dad! My lord, you'll let them fight?"
+
+"The Spaniard, sir; but no one else. But, captains and gentlemen,
+consider well my friend the Port Admiral's advice; and if any man's
+heart misgives him, let him, for the sake of his country and his queen,
+have so much government of his tongue to hide his fears in his own
+bosom, and leave open complaining to ribalds and women. For if the
+sailor be not cheered by his commander's cheerfulness, how will the
+ignorant man find comfort in himself? And without faith and hope, how
+can he fight worthily?"
+
+"There is no croaking aboard of us, we will warrant," said twenty
+voices, "and shall be none, as long as we command on board our own
+ships."
+
+Hawkins, having blown off his steam, went back to Drake and the bowls.
+
+"Fill my pipe, Drawer--that croaking fellow's made me let it out, of
+course! Spoil-sports! The father of all manner of troubles on earth,
+be they noxious trade of croakers! 'Better to meet a bear robbed of her
+whelps,' Francis Drake, as Solomon saith, than a fule who can't keep his
+mouth shut. What brought Mr. Andrew Barker to his death but croakers?
+What stopped Fenton's China voyage in the '82, and lost your nephew
+John, and my brother Will, glory and hard cash too, but croakers? What
+sent back my Lord Cumberland's armada in the '86, and that after they'd
+proved their strength, too, sixty o' mun against six hundred Portugals
+and Indians; and yet wern't ashamed to turn round and come home
+empty-handed, after all my lord's expenses that he had been at? What
+but these same beggarly croakers, that be only fit to be turned into
+yellow-hammers up to Dartymoor, and sit on a tor all day, and cry 'Very
+little bit of bread, and no chee-e-ese!' Marry, sneak-up! say I again."
+
+"And what," said Drake, "would have kept me, if I'd let 'em, from ever
+sailing round the world, but these same croakers? I hanged my best
+friend for croaking, John Hawkins, may God forgive me if I was wrong,
+and I threatened a week after to hang thirty more; and I'd have done it,
+too, if they hadn't clapped tompions into their muzzles pretty fast."
+
+"You'm right, Frank. My old father always told me--and old King Hal
+(bless his memory!) would take his counsel among a thousand;--'And, my
+son,' says he to me, 'whatever you do, never you stand no croaking; but
+hang mun, son Jack, hang mun up for an ensign. There's Scripture for
+it,' says he (he was a mighty man to his Bible, after bloody Mary's
+days, leastwise), 'and 'tis written,' says he, 'It's expedient that one
+man die for the crew, and that the whole crew perish not; so show you
+no mercy, son Jack, or you'll find none, least-wise in they manner of
+cattle; for if you fail, they stamps on you, and if you succeeds, they
+takes the credit of it to themselves, and goes to heaven in your shoes.'
+Those were his words, and I've found mun true.--Who com'th here now?"
+
+"Captain Fleming, as I'm a sinner."
+
+"Fleming? Is he tired of life, that he com'th here to look for a halter?
+I've a warrant out against mun, for robbing of two Flushingers on the
+high seas, now this very last year. Is the fellow mazed or drunk, then?
+or has he seen a ghost? Look to mun!"
+
+"I think so, truly," said Drake. "His eyes are near out of his head."
+
+The man was a rough-bearded old sea-dog, who had just burst in from the
+tavern through the low hatch, upsetting a drawer with all his glasses,
+and now came panting and blowing straight up to the high admiral,--
+
+"My lord, my lord! They'm coming! I saw them off the Lizard last night!"
+
+"Who? my good sir, who seem to have left your manners behind you."
+
+"The Armada, your worship--the Spaniard; but as for my manners, 'tis no
+fault of mine, for I never had none to leave behind me."
+
+"If he has not left his manners behind," quoth Hawkins, "look out for
+your purses, gentlemen all! He's manners enough, and very bad ones they
+be, when he com'th across a quiet Flushinger."
+
+"If I stole Flushingers' wines, I never stole negurs' souls, Jack
+Hawkins; so there's your answer. My lord, hang me if you will; life's
+short and death's easy 'specially to seamen; but if I didn't see the
+Spanish fleet last sun-down, coming along half-moon wise, and full seven
+mile from wing to wing, within a four mile of me, I'm a sinner."
+
+"Sirrah," said Lord Howard, "is this no fetch, to cheat us out of your
+pardon for these piracies of yours?"
+
+"You'll find out for yourself before nightfall, my lord high admiral.
+All Jack Fleming says is, that this is a poor sort of an answer to a man
+who has put his own neck into the halter for the sake of his country."
+
+"Perhaps it is," said Lord Howard. "And after all, gentlemen, what can
+this man gain by a lie, which must be discovered ere a day is over,
+except a more certain hanging?"
+
+"Very true, your lordship," said Hawkins, mollified. "Come here, Jack
+Fleming--what wilt drain, man? Hippocras or Alicant, Sack or John
+Barleycorn, and a pledge to thy repentance and amendment of life."
+
+"Admiral Hawkins, Admiral Hawkins, this is no time for drinking."
+
+"Why not, then, my lord? Good news should be welcomed with good wine.
+Frank, send down to the sexton, and set the bells a-ringing to cheer up
+all honest hearts. Why, my lord, if it were not for the gravity of my
+office, I could dance a galliard for joy!"
+
+"Well, you may dance, port admiral: but I must go and plan, but God give
+to all captains such a heart as yours this day!"
+
+"And God give all generals such a head as yours! Come, Frank Drake,
+we'll play the game out before we move. It will be two good days before
+we shall be fit to tackle them, so an odd half-hour don't matter."
+
+"I must command the help of your counsel, vice-admiral," said Lord
+Charles, turning to Drake.
+
+"And it's this, my good lord," said Drake, looking up, as he aimed his
+bowl. "They'll come soon enough for us to show them sport, and yet slow
+enough for us to be ready; so let no man hurry himself. And as example
+is better than precept, here goes."
+
+Lord Howard shrugged his shoulders, and departed, knowing two things:
+first, that to move Drake was to move mountains; and next, that when the
+self-taught hero did bestir himself, he would do more work in an hour
+than any one else in a day. So he departed, followed hastily by most of
+the captains; and Drake said in a low voice to Hawkins:
+
+"Does he think we are going to knock about on a lee-shore all the
+afternoon and run our noses at night--and dead up-wind, too--into the
+Dons' mouths? No, Jack, my friend. Let Orlando-Furioso-punctilio-fire-
+eaters go and get their knuckles rapped. The following game is the game,
+and not the meeting one. The dog goes after the sheep, and not afore
+them, lad. Let them go by, and go by, and stick to them well to
+windward, and pick up stragglers, and pickings, too, Jack--the prizes,
+Jack!"
+
+"Trust my old eyes for not being over-quick at seeing signals, if I be
+hanging in the skirts of a fat-looking Don. We'm the eagles, Drake; and
+where the carcase is, is our place, eh?"
+
+And so the two old sea-dogs chatted on, while their companions dropped
+off one by one, and only Amyas remained.
+
+"Eh, Captain Leigh, where's my boy Dick?"
+
+"Gone off with his lordship, Sir John."
+
+"On his punctilios too, I suppose, the young slashed-breeks. He's half
+a Don, that fellow, with his fine scholarship, and his fine manners,
+and his fine clothes. He'll get a taking down before he dies, unless he
+mends. Why ain't you gone too, sir?"
+
+"I follow my leader," said Amyas, filling his pipe.
+
+"Well said, my big man," quoth Drake. "If I could lead you round the
+world, I can lead you up Channel, can't I?--Eh? my little bantam-cock of
+the Orinoco? Drink, lad! You're over-sad to-day."
+
+"Not a whit," said Amyas. "Only I can't help wondering whether I shall
+find him after all."
+
+"Whom? That Don? We'll find him for you, if he's in the fleet. We'll
+squeeze it out of our prisoners somehow. Eh, Hawkins? I thought all the
+captains had promised to send you news if they heard of him."
+
+"Ay, but it's ill looking for a needle in a haystack. But I shall find
+him. I am a coward to doubt it," said Amyas, setting his teeth.
+
+"There, vice-admiral, you're beaten, and that's the rubber. Pay up
+three dollars, old high-flyer, and go and earn more, like an honest
+adventurer."
+
+"Well," said Drake, as he pulled out his purse, "we'll walk down now,
+and see about these young hot-heads. As I live, they are setting to tow
+the ships out already! Breaking the men's backs over-night, to make them
+fight the lustier in the morning! Well, well, they haven't sailed round
+the world, Jack Hawkins."
+
+"Or had to run home from San Juan d'Ulloa with half a crew.
+
+"Well, if we haven't to run out with half crews. I saw a sight of our
+lads drunk about this morning."
+
+"The more reason for waiting till they be sober. Besides, if everybody's
+caranting about to once each after his own men, nobody'll find nothing
+in such a scrimmage as that. Bye, bye, Uncle Martin. We'm going to blow
+the Dons up now in earnest."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+THE GREAT ARMADA
+
+     "Britannia needs no bulwarks,
+        No towers along the steep,
+     Her march is o'er the mountain wave,
+        Her home is on the deep."
+
+        CAMPBELL, Ye Mariners of England.
+
+And now began that great sea-fight which was to determine whether Popery
+and despotism, or Protestantism and freedom, were the law which God had
+appointed for the half of Europe, and the whole of future America. It
+is a twelve days' epic, worthy, as I said in the beginning of this book,
+not of dull prose, but of the thunder-roll of Homer's verse: but having
+to tell it, I must do my best, rather using, where I can, the words of
+contemporary authors than my own.
+
+"The Lord High Admirall of England, sending a pinnace before, called
+the Defiance, denounced war by discharging her ordnance; and presently
+approaching with in musquet-shot, with much thundering out of his own
+ship, called the Arkroyall (alias the Triumph), first set upon the
+admirall's, as he thought, of the Spaniards (but it was Alfonso de
+Leon's ship). Soon after, Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher played stoutly
+with their ordnance on the hindmost squadron, which was commanded by
+Recalde." The Spaniards soon discover the superior "nimbleness of the
+English ships;" and Recalde's squadron, finding that they are getting
+more than they give, in spite of his endeavors, hurry forward to join
+the rest of the fleet. Medina the Admiral, finding his ships scattering
+fast, gathers them into a half-moon; and the Armada tries to keep solemn
+way forward, like a stately herd of buffaloes, who march on across the
+prairie, disdaining to notice the wolves which snarl around their track.
+But in vain. These are no wolves, but cunning hunters, swiftly horsed,
+and keenly armed, and who will "shamefully shuffle" (to use Drake's own
+expression) that vast herd from the Lizard to Portland, from Portland
+to Calais Roads; and who, even in this short two hours' fight, have made
+many a Spaniard question the boasted invincibleness of this Armada.
+
+One of the four great galliasses is already riddled with shot, to the
+great disarrangement of her "pulpits, chapels," and friars therein
+assistant. The fleet has to close round her, or Drake and Hawkins
+will sink her; in effecting which manoeuvre, the "principal galleon of
+Seville," in which are Pedro de Valdez and a host of blue-blooded Dons,
+runs foul of her neighbor, carries away her foremast, and is, in spite
+of Spanish chivalry, left to her fate. This does not look like victory,
+certainly. But courage! though Valdez be left behind, "our Lady," and
+the saints, and the bull Caena Domini (dictated by one whom I dare not
+name here), are with them still, and it were blasphemous to doubt. But
+in the meanwhile, if they have fared no better than this against a
+third of the Plymouth fleet, how will they fare when those forty
+belated ships, which are already whitening the blue between them and the
+Mewstone, enter the scene to play their part?
+
+So ends the first day; not an English ship, hardly a man, is hurt.
+It has destroyed for ever, in English minds, the prestige of boastful
+Spain. It has justified utterly the policy which the good Lord Howard
+had adopted by Raleigh's and Drake's advice, of keeping up a running
+fight, instead of "clapping ships together without consideration," in
+which case, says Raleigh, "he had been lost, if he had not been better
+advised than a great many malignant fools were, who found fault with his
+demeanor."
+
+Be that as it may, so ends the first day, in which Amyas and the other
+Bideford ships have been right busy for two hours, knocking holes in a
+huge galleon, which carries on her poop a maiden with a wheel, and bears
+the name of Sta. Catharina. She had a coat of arms on the flag at her
+sprit, probably those of the commandant of soldiers; but they were shot
+away early in the fight, so Amyas cannot tell whether they were De
+Soto's or not. Nevertheless, there is plenty of time for private
+revenge; and Amyas, called off at last by the admiral's signal, goes
+to bed and sleeps soundly.
+
+But ere he has been in his hammock an hour, he is awakened by Cary's
+coming down to ask for orders.
+
+"We were to follow Drake's lantern, Amyas; but where it is, I can't
+see, unless he has been taken up aloft there among the stars for a new
+Drakium Sidus."
+
+Amyas turns out grumbling: but no lantern is to be seen; only a sudden
+explosion and a great fire on board some Spaniard, which is gradually
+got under, while they have to lie-to the whole night long, with nearly
+the whole fleet.
+
+The next morning finds them off Torbay; and Amyas is hailed by a
+pinnace, bringing a letter from Drake, which (saving the spelling, which
+was somewhat arbitrary, like most men's in those days) ran somewhat
+thus:--
+
+
+"DEAR LAD,--I have been wool-gathering all night after five great hulks,
+which the Pixies transfigured overnight into galleons, and this morning
+again into German merchantmen. I let them go with my blessing; and
+coming back, fell in (God be thanked!) with Valdez' great galleon;
+and in it good booty, which the Dons his fellows had left behind, like
+faithful and valiant comrades, and the Lord Howard had let slip past
+him, thinking her deserted by her crew. I have sent to Dartmouth a sight
+of noblemen and gentlemen, maybe a half-hundred; and Valdez himself, who
+when I sent my pinnace aboard must needs stand on his punctilios, and
+propound conditions. I answered him, I had no time to tell with him; if
+he would needs die, then I was the very man for him; if he would live,
+then, buena querra. He sends again, boasting that he was Don Pedro
+Valdez, and that it stood not with his honor, and that of the Dons in
+his company. I replied, that for my part, I was Francis Drake, and my
+matches burning. Whereon he finds in my name salve for the wounds of
+his own, and comes aboard, kissing my fist, with Spanish lies of holding
+himself fortunate that he had fallen into the hands of fortunate Drake,
+and much more, which he might have kept to cool his porridge. But I have
+much news from him (for he is a leaky tub); and among others, this,
+that your Don Guzman is aboard of the Sta. Catharina, commandant of her
+soldiery, and has his arms flying at her sprit, beside Sta. Catharina at
+the poop, which is a maiden with a wheel, and is a lofty built ship of
+3 tier of ordnance, from which God preserve you, and send you like luck
+with.
+
+"Your deare Friend and Admirall,
+
+"F. Drake.
+
+"She sails in this squadron of Recalde. The Armada was minded to smoke
+us out of Plymouth; and God's grace it was they tried not: but their
+orders from home are too strait, and so the slaves fight like a bull
+in a tether, no farther than their rope, finding thus the devil a hard
+master, as do most in the end. They cannot compass our quick handling
+and tacking, and take us for very witches. So far so good, and better
+to come. You and I know the length of their foot of old. Time and light
+will kill any hare, and they will find it a long way from Start to
+Dunkirk."
+
+
+"The admiral is in a gracious humor, Leigh, to have vouchsafed you so
+long a letter."
+
+"St. Catherine! why, that was the galleon we hammered all yesterday!"
+said Amyas, stamping on the deck.
+
+"Of course it was. Well, we shall find her again, doubt not. That
+cunning old Drake! how he has contrived to line his own pockets, even
+though he had to keep the whole fleet waiting for him."
+
+"He has given the lord high admiral the dor, at all events."
+
+"Lord Howard is too high-hearted to stop and plunder, Papist though he
+is, Amyas."
+
+Amyas answered by a growl, for he worshipped Drake, and was not too just
+to Papists.
+
+The fleet did not find Lord Howard till nightfall; he and Lord Sheffield
+had been holding on steadfastly the whole night after the Spanish
+lanterns, with two ships only. At least there was no doubt now of the
+loyalty of English Roman Catholics, and indeed, throughout the fight,
+the Howards showed (as if to wipe out the slurs which had been cast on
+their loyalty by fanatics) a desperate courage, which might have thrust
+less prudent men into destruction, but led them only to victory. Soon a
+large Spaniard drifts by, deserted and partly burnt. Some of the men are
+for leaving their place to board her; but Amyas stoutly refuses. He has
+"come out to fight, and not to plunder; so let the nearest ship to her
+have her luck without grudging." They pass on, and the men pull long
+faces when they see the galleon snapped up by their next neighbor,
+and towed off to Weymouth, where she proves to be the ship of Miguel
+d'Oquenda, the vice-admiral, which they saw last night, all but blown up
+by some desperate Netherland gunner, who, being "misused," was minded to
+pay off old scores on his tyrants.
+
+And so ends the second day; while the Portland rises higher and clearer
+every hour. The next morning finds them off the island. Will they try
+Portsmouth, though they have spared Plymouth? The wind has shifted
+to the north, and blows clear and cool off the white-walled downs of
+Weymouth Bay. The Spaniards turn and face the English. They must mean
+to stand off and on until the wind shall change, and then to try for
+the Needles. At least, they shall have some work to do before they round
+Purbeck Isle.
+
+The English go to the westward again: but it is only to return on the
+opposite tack; and now begin a series of manoeuvres, each fleet trying
+to get the wind of the other; but the struggle does not last long, and
+ere noon the English fleet have slipped close-hauled between the Armada
+and the land, and are coming down upon them right before the wind.
+
+And now begins a fight most fierce and fell. "And fight they did
+confusedly, and with variable fortunes; while, on the one hand, the
+English manfully rescued the ships of London, which were hemmed in
+by the Spaniards; and, on the other side, the Spaniards as stoutly
+delivered Recalde being in danger." "Never was heard such thundering of
+ordnance on both sides, which notwithstanding from the Spaniards
+flew for the most part over the English without harm. Only Cock, an
+Englishman" (whom Prince claims, I hope rightfully, as a worthy of
+Devon), "died with honor in the midst of the enemies in a small ship of
+his. For the English ships, being far the lesser, charged the enemy with
+marvellous agility; and having discharged their broadsides, flew forth
+presently into the deep, and levelled their shot directly, without
+missing, at those great and unwieldy Spanish ships." "This was the most
+furious and bloody skirmish of all" (though ending only, it seems, in
+the capture of a great Venetian and some small craft), "in which the
+lord admiral fighting amidst his enemies' fleet, and seeing one of his
+captains afar off (Fenner by name, he who fought the seven Portugals at
+the Azores), cried, 'O George, what doest thou? Wilt thou now frustrate
+my hope and opinion conceived of thee? Wilt thou forsake me now?' With
+which words he being enflamed, approached, and did the part of a most
+valiant captain;" as, indeed, did all the rest.
+
+Night falls upon the floating volcano; and morning finds them far past
+Purbeck, with the white peak of Freshwater ahead; and pouring out past
+the Needles, ship after ship, to join the gallant chase. For now from
+all havens, in vessels fitted out at their own expense, flock the
+chivalry of England; the Lords Oxford, Northumberland, and Cumberland,
+Pallavicin, Brooke, Carew, Raleigh, and Blunt, and many another
+honorable name, "as to a set field, where immortal fame and honor was to
+be attained." Spain has staked her chivalry in that mighty cast; not a
+noble house of Arragon or Castile but has lent a brother or a son--and
+shall mourn the loss of one: and England's gentlemen will measure their
+strength once for all against the Cavaliers of Spain. Lord Howard has
+sent forward light craft into Portsmouth for ammunition: but they will
+scarce return to-night, for the wind falls dead, and all the evening the
+two fleets drift helpless with the tide, and shout idle defiance at each
+other with trumpet, fife, and drum.
+
+The sun goes down upon a glassy sea, and rises on a glassy sea again.
+But what day is this? The twenty-fifth, St. James's-day, sacred to the
+patron saint of Spain. Shall nothing be attempted in his honor by
+those whose forefathers have so often seen him with their bodily eyes,
+charging in their van upon his snow-white steed, and scattering Paynims
+with celestial lance? He might have sent them, certainly, a favoring
+breeze; perhaps, he only means to try their faith; at least the galleys
+shall attack; and in their van three of the great galliasses (the fourth
+lies half-crippled among the fleet) thrash the sea to foam with three
+hundred oars apiece; and see, not St. James leading them to victory, but
+Lord Howard's Triumph, his brother's Lion, Southwell's Elizabeth Jonas,
+Lord Sheffield's Bear, Barker's Victory, and George Fenner's Leicester,
+towed stoutly out, to meet them with such salvoes of chain-shot,
+smashing oars, and cutting rigging, that had not the wind sprung up
+again toward noon, and the Spanish fleet come up to rescue them, they
+had shared the fate of Valdez and the Biscayan. And now the fight
+becomes general. Frobisher beats down the Spanish admiral's mainmast;
+and, attacked himself by Mexia and Recalde, is rescued by Lord Howard;
+who, himself endangered in his turn, is rescued in his turn; "while
+after that day" (so sickened were they of the English gunnery) "no
+galliasse would adventure to fight."
+
+And so, with variable fortune, the fight thunders on the livelong
+afternoon, beneath the virgin cliffs of Freshwater; while myriad
+sea-fowl rise screaming up from every ledge, and spot with their black
+wings the snow-white wall of chalk; and the lone shepherd hurries down
+the slopes above to peer over the dizzy edge, and forgets the wheatear
+fluttering in his snare, while he gazes trembling upon glimpses of tall
+masts and gorgeous flags, piercing at times the league-broad veil of
+sulphur-smoke which welters far below.
+
+So fares St. James's-day, as Baal's did on Carmel in old time, "Either
+he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey; or peradventure
+he sleepeth, and must be awaked." At least, the only fire by which he
+has answered his votaries, has been that of English cannon: and the
+Armada, "gathering itself into a roundel," will fight no more, but make
+the best of its way to Calais, where perhaps the Guises' faction may
+have a French force ready to assist them, and then to Dunkirk, to join
+with Parma and the great flotilla of the Netherlands.
+
+So on, before "a fair Etesian gale," which follows clear and bright
+out of the south-southwest, glide forward the two great fleets, past
+Brighton Cliffs and Beachy Head, Hastings and Dungeness. Is it a battle
+or a triumph? For by sea Lord Howard, instead of fighting is rewarding;
+and after Lord Thomas Howard, Lord Sheffield, Townsend, and Frobisher
+have received at his hands that knighthood, which was then more
+honorable than a peerage, old Admiral Hawkins kneels and rises up Sir
+John, and shaking his shoulders after the accolade, observes to the
+representative of majesty, that his "old woman will hardly know herself
+again, when folks call her My Lady."
+
+And meanwhile the cliffs are lined with pike-men and musketeers, and by
+every countryman and groom who can bear arms, led by their squires and
+sheriffs, marching eastward as fast as their weapons let them, towards
+the Dover shore. And not with them alone. From many a mile inland come
+down women and children, and aged folk in wagons, to join their feeble
+shouts, and prayers which are not feeble, to that great cry of mingled
+faith and fear which ascends to the throne of God from the spectators of
+Britain's Salamis.
+
+Let them pray on. The danger is not over yet, though Lord Howard has had
+news from Newhaven that the Guises will not stir against England, and
+Seymour and Winter have left their post of observation on the Flemish
+shores, to make up the number of the fleet to an hundred and forty
+sail--larger, slightly, than that of the Spanish fleet, but of not more
+than half the tonnage, or one third the number of men. The Spaniards are
+dispirited and battered, but unbroken still; and as they slide to their
+anchorage in Calais Roads on the Saturday evening of that most memorable
+week, all prudent men know well that England's hour is come, and that
+the bells which will call all Christendom to church upon the morrow
+morn, will be either the death-knell or the triumphal peal of the
+Reformed faith throughout the world.
+
+A solemn day that Sabbath must have been in country and in town. And
+many a light-hearted coward, doubtless, who had scoffed (as many did) at
+the notion of the Armada's coming, because he dare not face the thought,
+gave himself up to abject fear, "as he now plainly saw and heard that of
+which before he would not be persuaded." And many a brave man, too, as
+he knelt beside his wife and daughters, felt his heart sink to the very
+pavement, at the thought of what those beloved ones might be enduring a
+few short days hence, from a profligate and fanatical soldiery, or from
+the more deliberate fiendishness of the Inquisition. The massacre of St.
+Bartholomew, the fires of Smithfield, the immolation of the Moors,
+the extermination of the West Indians, the fantastic horrors of the
+Piedmontese persecution, which make unreadable the too truthful pages
+of Morland,--these were the spectres, which, not as now, dim and distant
+through the mist of centuries, but recent, bleeding from still gaping
+wounds, flitted before the eyes of every Englishman, and filled his
+brain and heart with fire.
+
+He knew full well the fate in store for him and his. One false step, and
+the unspeakable doom which, not two generations afterwards, befell the
+Lutherans of Magdeburg, would have befallen every town from London to
+Carlisle. All knew the hazard, as they prayed that day, and many a day
+before and after, throughout England and the Netherlands. And none knew
+it better than she who was the guiding spirit of that devoted land,
+and the especial mark of the invaders' fury; and who, by some Divine
+inspiration (as men then not unwisely held), devised herself the daring
+stroke which was to anticipate the coming blow.
+
+But where is Amyas Leigh all this while? Day after day he has been
+seeking the Sta. Catharina in the thickest of the press, and cannot come
+at her, cannot even hear of her: one moment he dreads that she has sunk
+by night, and balked him of his prey; the next, that she has repaired
+her damages, and will escape him after all. He is moody, discontented,
+restless, even (for the first time in his life) peevish with his men. He
+can talk of nothing but Don Guzman; he can find no better employment,
+at every spare moment, than taking his sword out of the sheath, and
+handling it, fondling it, talking to it even, bidding it not to fail him
+in the day of vengeance. At last, he has sent to Squire, the armorer,
+for a whetstone, and, half-ashamed of his own folly, whets and polishes
+it in bye-corners, muttering to himself. That one fixed thought of
+selfish vengeance has possessed his whole mind; he forgets England's
+present need, her past triumph, his own safety, everything but his
+brother's blood. And yet this is the day for which he has been longing
+ever since he brought home that magic horn as a fifteen years boy; the
+day when he should find himself face to face with an invader, and
+that invader Antichrist himself. He has believed for years with Drake,
+Hawkins, Grenville, and Raleigh, that he was called and sent into the
+world only to fight the Spaniard: and he is fighting him now, in such a
+cause, for such a stake, within such battle-lists, as he will never
+see again: and yet he is not content, and while throughout that gallant
+fleet, whole crews are receiving the Communion side by side, and rising
+with cheerful faces to shake hands, and to rejoice that they are sharers
+in Britain's Salamis, Amyas turns away from the holy elements.
+
+"I cannot communicate, Sir John. Charity with all men? I hate, if ever
+man hated on earth."
+
+"You hate the Lord's foes only, Captain Leigh."
+
+"No, Jack, I hate my own as well."
+
+"But no one in the fleet, sir?"
+
+"Don't try to put me off with the same Jesuit's quibble which that false
+knave Parson Fletcher invented for one of Doughty's men, to drug his
+conscience withal when he was plotting against his own admiral. No,
+Jack, I hate one of whom you know; and somehow that hatred of him keeps
+me from loving any human being. I am in love and charity with no man,
+Sir John Brimblecombe--not even with you! Go your ways in God's name,
+sir! and leave me and the devil alone together, or you'll find my words
+are true."
+
+Jack departed with a sigh, and while the crew were receiving the
+Communion on deck, Amyas sate below in the cabin sharpening his sword,
+and after it, called for a boat and went on board Drake's ship to ask
+news of the Sta. Catharina, and listened scowling to the loud chants and
+tinkling bells, which came across the water from the Spanish fleet. At
+last, Drake was summoned by the lord admiral, and returned with a secret
+commission, which ought to bear fruit that night; and Amyas, who had
+gone with him, helped him till nightfall, and then returned to his own
+ship as Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, to the joy and glory of every soul on
+board, except his moody self.
+
+So there, the livelong summer Sabbath-day, before the little high-walled
+town and the long range of yellow sandhills, lie those two mighty
+armaments, scowling at each other, hardly out of gunshot. Messenger
+after messenger is hurrying towards Bruges to the Duke of Parma, for
+light craft which can follow these nimble English somewhat better than
+their own floating castles; and, above all, entreating him to put to sea
+at once with all his force. The duke is not with his forces at Dunkirk,
+but on the future field of Waterloo, paying his devotions to St. Mary
+of Halle in Hainault, in order to make all sure in his Pantheon, and
+already sees in visions of the night that gentle-souled and pure-lipped
+saint, Cardinal Allen, placing the crown of England on his head. He
+returns for answer, first, that his victual is not ready; next, that his
+Dutch sailors, who have been kept at their post for many a week at the
+sword's point, have run away like water; and thirdly, that over and
+above all, he cannot come, so "strangely provided" of great ordnance and
+musketeers are those five-and-thirty Dutch ships, in which round-sterned
+and stubborn-hearted heretics watch, like terriers at a rat's hole, the
+entrance of Nieuwport and Dunkirk. Having ensured the private patronage
+of St. Mary of Halle, he will return to-morrow to make experience of its
+effects: but only hear across the flats of Dixmude the thunder of the
+fleets, and at Dunkirk the open curses of his officers. For while he
+has been praying and nothing more, the English have been praying, and
+something more; and all that is left for the Prince of Parma is, to
+hang a few purveyors, as peace offerings to his sulking army, and then
+"chafe," as Drake says of him, "like a bear robbed of her whelps."
+
+For Lord Henry Seymour has brought Lord Howard a letter of command from
+Elizabeth's self; and Drake has been carrying it out so busily all that
+Sunday long, that by two o'clock on the Monday morning, eight fire-ships
+"besmeared with wild-fire, brimstone, pitch, and resin, and all their
+ordnance charged with bullets and with stones," are stealing down the
+wind straight for the Spanish fleet, guided by two valiant men of Devon,
+Young and Prowse. (Let their names live long in the land!) The ships are
+fired, the men of Devon steal back, and in a moment more, the heaven is
+red with glare from Dover Cliffs to Gravelines Tower; and weary-hearted
+Belgian boors far away inland, plundered and dragooned for many a
+hideous year, leap from their beds, and fancy (and not so far wrongly
+either) that the day of judgment is come at last, to end their woes, and
+hurl down vengeance on their tyrants.
+
+And then breaks forth one of those disgraceful panics, which so often
+follow overweening presumption; and shrieks, oaths, prayers, and
+reproaches, make night hideous. There are those too on board who
+recollect well enough Jenebelli's fire-ships at Antwerp three years
+before, and the wreck which they made of Parma's bridge across the
+Scheldt. If these should be like them! And cutting all cables, hoisting
+any sails, the Invincible Armada goes lumbering wildly out to sea, every
+ship foul of her neighbor.
+
+The largest of the four galliasses loses her rudder, and drifts helpless
+to and fro, hindering and confusing. The duke, having (so the Spaniards
+say) weighed his anchor deliberately instead of leaving it behind him,
+runs in again after awhile, and fires a signal for return: but his
+truant sheep are deaf to the shepherd's pipe, and swearing and praying
+by turns, he runs up Channel towards Gravelines picking up stragglers
+on his way, who are struggling as they best can among the flats and
+shallows: but Drake and Fenner have arrived as soon as he. When Monday's
+sun rises on the quaint old castle and muddy dykes of Gravelines town,
+the thunder of the cannon recommences, and is not hushed till night.
+Drake can hang coolly enough in the rear to plunder when he thinks fit;
+but when the battle needs it, none can fight more fiercely, among the
+foremost; and there is need now, if ever. That Armada must never be
+allowed to re-form. If it does, its left wing may yet keep the English
+at bay, while its right drives off the blockading Hollanders from
+Dunkirk port, and sets Parma and his flotilla free to join them, and to
+sail in doubled strength across to the mouth of Thames.
+
+So Drake has weighed anchor, and away up Channel with all his squadron,
+the moment that he saw the Spanish fleet come up; and with him Fenner
+burning to redeem the honor which, indeed, he had never lost; and ere
+Fenton, Beeston, Crosse, Ryman, and Lord Southwell can join them, the
+Devon ships have been worrying the Spaniards for two full hours into
+confusion worse confounded.
+
+But what is that heavy firing behind them? Alas for the great galliasse!
+She lies, like a huge stranded whale, upon the sands where now stands
+Calais pier; and Amyas Preston, the future hero of La Guayra, is
+pounding her into submission, while a fleet of hoys and drumblers look
+on and help, as jackals might the lion.
+
+Soon, on the south-west horizon, loom up larger and larger two mighty
+ships, and behind them sail on sail. As they near a shout greets the
+Triumph and the Bear; and on and in the lord high admiral glides stately
+into the thickest of the fight.
+
+True, we have still but some three-and-twenty ships which can cope at
+all with some ninety of the Spaniards: but we have dash, and daring, and
+the inspiration of utter need. Now, or never, must the mighty struggle
+be ended. We worried them off Portland; we must rend them in pieces
+now; and in rushes ship after ship, to smash her broadsides through and
+through the wooden castles, "sometimes not a pike's length asunder,"
+and then out again to re-load, and give place meanwhile to another. The
+smaller are fighting with all sails set; the few larger, who, once in,
+are careless about coming out again, fight with top-sails loose, and
+their main and foreyards close down on deck, to prevent being boarded.
+The duke, Oquenda, and Recalde, having with much ado got clear of the
+shallows, bear the brunt of the fight to seaward; but in vain. The day
+goes against them more and more, as it runs on. Seymour and Winter have
+battered the great San Philip into a wreck; her masts are gone by the
+board; Pimentelli in the San Matthew comes up to take the mastiffs
+off the fainting bull, and finds them fasten on him instead; but the
+Evangelist, though smaller, is stouter than the Deacon, and of all the
+shot poured into him, not twenty "lackt him thorough." His masts are
+tottering; but sink or strike he will not.
+
+"Go ahead, and pound his tough hide, Leigh," roars Drake off the poop
+of his ship, while he hammers away at one of the great galliasses. "What
+right has he to keep us all waiting?"
+
+Amyas slips in as best he can between Drake and Winter; as he passes he
+shouts to his ancient enemy,--
+
+"We are with you, sir; all friends to-day!" and slipping round Winter's
+bows, he pours his broadside into those of the San Matthew, and then
+glides on to re-load; but not to return. For not a pistol shot to
+leeward, worried by three or four small craft, lies an immense galleon;
+and on her poop--can he believe his eyes for joy?--the maiden and the
+wheel which he has sought so long!
+
+"There he is!" shouts Amyas, springing to the starboard side of the
+ship. The men, too, have already caught sight of that hated sign; a
+cheer of fury bursts from every throat.
+
+"Steady, men!" says Amyas, in a suppressed voice. "Not a shot! Re-load,
+and be ready; I must speak with him first;" and silent as the grave,
+amid the infernal din, the Vengeance glides up to the Spaniard's
+quarter.
+
+"Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto!" shouts Amyas from the
+mizzen rigging, loud and clear amid the roar.
+
+He has not called in vain. Fearless and graceful as ever, the tall,
+mail-clad figure of his foe leaps up upon the poop-railing, twenty feet
+above Amyas's head, and shouts through his vizor,--
+
+"At your service, sir whosoever you may be."
+
+A dozen muskets and arrows are levelled at him; but Amyas frowns them
+down. "No man strikes him but I. Spare him, if you kill every other soul
+on board. Don Guzman! I am Captain Sir Amyas Leigh; I proclaim you a
+traitor and a ravisher, and challenge you once more to single combat,
+when and where you will."
+
+"You are welcome to come on board me, sir," answers the Spaniard, in a
+clear, quiet tone; "bringing with you this answer, that you lie in your
+throat;" and lingering a moment out of bravado, to arrange his scarf, he
+steps slowly down again behind the bulwarks.
+
+"Coward!" shouts Amyas at the top of his voice.
+
+The Spaniard re-appears instantly. "Why that name, senor, of all
+others?" asks he in a cool, stern voice.
+
+"Because we call men cowards in England, who leave their wives to be
+burnt alive by priests."
+
+The moment the words had passed Amyas's lips, he felt that they were
+cruel and unjust. But it was too late to recall them. The Spaniard
+started, clutched his sword-hilt, and then hissed back through his
+closed vizor,--
+
+"For that word, sirrah, you hang at my yardarm, if Saint Mary gives me
+grace."
+
+"See that your halter be a silken one, then," laughed Amyas, "for I
+am just dubbed knight." And he stepped down as a storm of bullets rang
+through the rigging round his head; the Spaniards are not as punctilious
+as he.
+
+"Fire!" His ordnance crash through the stern-works of the Spaniard; and
+then he sails onward, while her balls go humming harmlessly through his
+rigging.
+
+Half-an-hour has passed of wild noise and fury; three times has the
+Vengeance, as a dolphin might, sailed clean round and round the Sta.
+Catharina, pouring in broadside after broadside, till the guns are
+leaping to the deck-beams with their own heat, and the Spaniard's sides
+are slit and spotted in a hundred places. And yet, so high has been his
+fire in return, and so strong the deck defences of the Vengeance, that a
+few spars broken, and two or three men wounded by musketry, are all her
+loss. But still the Spaniard endures, magnificent as ever; it is the
+battle of the thresher and the whale; the end is certain, but the work
+is long.
+
+"Can I help you, Captain Leigh?" asked Lord Henry Seymour, as he passes
+within oar's length of him, to attack a ship ahead. "The San Matthew has
+had his dinner, and is gone on to Medina to ask for a digestive to it."
+
+"I thank your lordship: but this is my private quarrel, of which I
+spoke. But if your lordship could lend me powder--"
+
+"Would that I could! But so, I fear, says every other gentleman in the
+fleet."
+
+A puff of wind clears away the sulphurous veil for a moment; the sea is
+clear of ships towards the land; the Spanish fleet are moving again up
+Channel, Medina bringing up the rear; only some two miles to their right
+hand, the vast hull of the San Philip is drifting up the shore with the
+tide, and somewhat nearer the San Matthew is hard at work at her pumps.
+They can see the white stream of water pouring down her side.
+
+"Go in, my lord, and have the pair," shouts Amyas.
+
+"No, sir! Forward is a Seymour's cry. We will leave them to pay the
+Flushingers' expenses." And on went Lord Henry, and on shore went the
+San Philip at Ostend, to be plundered by the Flushingers; while the
+San Matthew, whose captain, "on a hault courage," had refused to save
+himself and his gentlemen on board Medina's ship, went blundering
+miserably into the hungry mouths of Captain Peter Vanderduess and four
+other valiant Dutchmen, who, like prudent men of Holland, contrived to
+keep the galleon afloat till they had emptied her, and then "hung up her
+banner in the great church of Leyden, being of such a length, that being
+fastened to the roof, it reached unto the very ground."
+
+But in the meanwhile, long ere the sun had set, comes down the darkness
+of the thunderstorm, attracted, as to a volcano's mouth, to that vast
+mass of sulphur-smoke which cloaks the sea for many a mile; and heaven's
+artillery above makes answer to man's below. But still, through smoke
+and rain, Amyas clings to his prey. She too has seen the northward
+movement of the Spanish fleet, and sets her topsails; Amyas calls to
+the men to fire high, and cripple her rigging: but in vain: for three or
+four belated galleys, having forced their way at last over the shallows,
+come flashing and sputtering up to the combatants, and take his fire
+off the galleon. Amyas grinds his teeth, and would fain hustle into the
+thick of the press once more, in spite of the galleys' beaks.
+
+"Most heroical captain," says cary, pulling a long face, "if we do, we
+are stove and sunk in five minutes; not to mention that Yeo says he has
+not twenty rounds of great cartridge left."
+
+So, surely and silent, the Vengeance sheers off, but keeps as near
+as she can to the little squadron, all through the night of rain and
+thunder which follows. Next morning the sun rises on a clear sky, with
+a strong west-north-west breeze, and all hearts are asking what the day
+will bring forth.
+
+They are long past Dunkirk now; the German Ocean is opening before them.
+The Spaniards, sorely battered, and lessened in numbers, have, during
+the night, regained some sort of order. The English hang on their skirts
+a mile or two behind. They have no ammunition, and must wait for more.
+To Amyas's great disgust, the Sta. Catharina has rejoined her fellows
+during the night.
+
+"Never mind," says Cary; "she can neither dive nor fly, and as long as
+she is above water, we--What is the admiral about?"
+
+He is signalling Lord Henry Seymour and his squadron. Soon they
+tack, and come down the wind for the coast of Flanders. Parma must be
+blockaded still; and the Hollanders are likely to be too busy with their
+plunder to do it effectually. Suddenly there is a stir in the Spanish
+fleet. Medina and the rearmost ships turn upon the English. What can it
+mean? Will they offer battle once more? If so, it were best to get
+out of their way, for we have nothing wherewith to fight them. So the
+English lie close to the wind. They will let them pass, and return to
+their old tactic of following and harassing.
+
+"Good-bye to Seymour," says Cary, "if he is caught between them and
+Parma's flotilla. They are going to Dunkirk."
+
+"Impossible! They will not have water enough to reach his light craft.
+Here comes a big ship right upon us! Give him all you have left, lads;
+and if he will fight us, lay him alongside, and die boarding."
+
+They gave him what they had, and hulled him with every shot; but his
+huge side stood silent as the grave. He had not wherewithal to return
+the compliment.
+
+"As I live, he is cutting loose the foot of his mainsail! the villain
+means to run."
+
+"There go the rest of them! Victoria!" shouted Cary, as one after
+another, every Spaniard set all the sail he could.
+
+There was silence for a few minutes throughout the English fleet;
+and then cheer upon cheer of triumph rent the skies. It was over. The
+Spaniard had refused battle, and thinking only of safety, was pressing
+downward toward the Straits again. The Invincible Armada had cast away
+its name, and England was saved.
+
+"But he will never get there, sir," said old Yeo, who had come upon deck
+to murmur his Nunc Domine, and gaze upon that sight beyond all human
+faith or hope: "Never, never will he weather the Flanders shore, against
+such a breeze as is coming up. Look to the eye of the wind, sir, and see
+how the Lord is fighting for His people!"
+
+Yes, down it came, fresher and stiffer every minute out of the gray
+north-west, as it does so often after a thunder-storm; and the sea began
+to rise high and white under the "Claro Aquilone," till the Spaniards
+were fain to take in all spare canvas, and lie-to as best they could;
+while the English fleet, lying-to also, awaited an event which was in
+God's hands and not in theirs.
+
+"They will be all ashore on Zealand before the afternoon," murmured
+Amyas; "and I have lost my labor! Oh, for powder, powder, powder! to go
+in and finish it at once!"
+
+"Oh, sir," said Yeo, "don't murmur against the Lord in the very day of
+His mercies. It is hard, to be sure; but His will be done."
+
+"Could we not borrow powder from Drake there?"
+
+"Look at the sea, sir!"
+
+And, indeed, the sea was far too rough for any such attempt. The
+Spaniards neared and neared the fatal dunes, which fringed the shore for
+many a dreary mile; and Amyas had to wait weary hours, growling like a
+dog who has had the bone snatched out of his mouth, till the day wore
+on; when, behold, the wind began to fall as rapidly as it had risen. A
+savage joy rose in Amyas's heart.
+
+"They are safe! safe for us! Who will go and beg us powder? A cartridge
+here and a cartridge there?--anything to set to work again!"
+
+Cary volunteered, and returned in a couple of hours with some quantity:
+but he was on board again only just in time, for the south-wester had
+recovered the mastery of the skies, and Spaniards and English were
+moving away; but this time northward. Whither now? To Scotland? Amyas
+knew not, and cared not, provided he was in the company of Don Guzman de
+Soto.
+
+The Armada was defeated, and England saved. But such great undertakings
+seldom end in one grand melodramatic explosion of fireworks, through
+which the devil arises in full roar to drag Dr. Faustus forever into the
+flaming pit. On the contrary, the devil stands by his servants to the
+last, and tries to bring off his shattered forces with drums beating and
+colors flying; and, if possible, to lull his enemies into supposing that
+the fight is ended, long before it really is half over. All which the
+good Lord Howard of Effingham knew well, and knew, too, that Medina had
+one last card to play, and that was the filial affection of that dutiful
+and chivalrous son, James of Scotland. True, he had promised faith to
+Elizabeth: but that was no reason why he should keep it. He had been
+hankering and dabbling after Spain for years past, for its absolution
+was dear to his inmost soul; and Queen Elizabeth had had to warn him,
+scold him, call him a liar, for so doing; so the Armada might still find
+shelter and provision in the Firth of Forth. But whether Lord Howard
+knew or not, Medina did not know, that Elizabeth had played her card
+cunningly, in the shape of one of those appeals to the purse, which, to
+James's dying day, overweighed all others save appeals to his vanity.
+"The title of a dukedom in England, a yearly pension of 5000 pounds, a
+guard at the queen's charge, and other matters" (probably more hounds
+and deer), had steeled the heart of the King of Scots, and sealed the
+Firth of Forth. Nevertheless, as I say, Lord Howard, like the rest of
+Elizabeth's heroes, trusted James just as much as James trusted others;
+and therefore thought good to escort the Armada until it was safely past
+the domains of that most chivalrous and truthful Solomon. But on the
+4th of August, his fears, such as they were, were laid to rest. The
+Spaniards left the Scottish coast and sailed away for Norway; and the
+game was played out, and the end was come, as the end of such matters
+generally comes, by gradual decay, petty disaster, and mistake; till
+the snow-mountain, instead of being blown tragically and heroically to
+atoms, melts helplessly and pitiably away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA
+
+     "Full fathom deep thy father lies;
+        Of his bones are corals made;
+     Those are pearls which were his eyes;
+        Nothing of him that doth fade,
+     But doth suffer a sea-change
+        Into something rich and strange;
+     Fairies hourly ring his knell,
+     Hark! I hear them.  Ding dong bell."
+
+                           The Tempest.
+
+Yes, it is over; and the great Armada is vanquished. It is lulled for
+awhile, the everlasting war which is in heaven, the battle of Iran and
+Turan, of the children of light and of darkness, of Michael and his
+angels against Satan and his fiends; the battle which slowly and seldom,
+once in the course of many centuries, culminates and ripens into a
+day of judgment, and becomes palpable and incarnate; no longer a mere
+spiritual fight, but one of flesh and blood, wherein simple men may
+choose their sides without mistake, and help God's cause not merely with
+prayer and pen, but with sharp shot and cold steel. A day of judgment
+has come, which has divided the light from the darkness, and the sheep
+from the goats, and tried each man's work by the fire; and, behold, the
+devil's work, like its maker, is proved to have been, as always, a lie
+and a sham, and a windy boast, a bladder which collapses at the merest
+pinprick. Byzantine empires, Spanish Armadas, triple-crowned papacies,
+Russian despotisms, this is the way of them, and will be to the end of
+the world. One brave blow at the big bullying phantom, and it vanishes
+in sulphur-stench; while the children of Israel, as of old, see the
+Egyptians dead on the sea-shore,--they scarce know how, save that God
+has done it, and sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb.
+
+And now, from England and the Netherlands, from Germany and Geneva, and
+those poor Vaudois shepherd-saints, whose bones for generations past
+
+     "Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;"
+
+to be, indeed, the seed of the Church, and a germ of new life, liberty,
+and civilization, even in these very days returning good for evil to
+that Piedmont which has hunted them down like the partridges on the
+mountains;--from all of Europe, from all of mankind, I had almost said,
+in which lay the seed of future virtue and greatness, of the destinies
+of the new-discovered world, and the triumphs of the coming age of
+science, arose a shout of holy joy, such as the world had not heard
+for many a weary and bloody century; a shout which was the prophetic
+birth-paean of North America, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific
+Islands, of free commerce and free colonization over the whole earth.
+
+"There was in England, by the commandment of her majesty," says Van
+Meteran, "and likewise in the United Provinces, by the direction of the
+States, a solemn festival day publicly appointed, wherein all persons
+were solemnly enjoined to resort unto ye Church, and there to render
+thanks and praises unto God, and ye preachers were commanded to exhort
+ye people thereunto. The aforesaid solemnity was observed upon the 29th
+of November: which day was wholly spent in fasting, prayer, and giving
+of thanks.
+
+"Likewise the Queen's Majesty herself, imitating ye ancient Romans, rode
+into London in triumph, in regard of her own and her subjects' glorious
+deliverance. For being attended upon very solemnly by all ye principal
+Estates and officers of her Realm, she was carried through her said City
+of London in a triumphant Chariot, and in robes of triumph, from her
+Palace unto ye said Cathedral Church of St. Paul, out of ye which ye
+Ensigns and Colours of ye vanquished Spaniards hung displayed. And
+all ye Citizens of London, in their liveries, stood on either side ye
+street, by their several Companies, with their ensigns and banners, and
+the streets were hanged on both sides with blue Cloth, which, together
+with ye foresaid banners, yielded a very stately and gallant prospect.
+Her Majestie being entered into ye Church together with her Clergy and
+Nobles, gave thanks unto God, and caused a public Sermon to be preached
+before her at Paul's Cross; wherein none other argument was handled,
+but that praise, honour, and glory might be rendered unto God, and that
+God's Name might be extolled by thanksgiving. And with her own princely
+voice she most Christianly exhorted ye people to do ye same; whereunto
+ye people, with a loud acclamation, wished her a most long and happy
+life to ye confusion of her foes."
+
+Yes, as the medals struck on the occasion said, "It came, it saw, and it
+fled!" And whither? Away and northward, like a herd of frightened deer,
+past the Orkneys and Shetlands, catching up a few hapless fishermen as
+guides; past the coast of Norway, there, too, refused water and food by
+the brave descendants of the Vikings; and on northward ever towards the
+lonely Faroes, and the everlasting dawn which heralds round the Pole the
+midnight sun.
+
+Their water is failing; the cattle must go overboard; and the wild
+northern sea echoes to the shrieks of drowning horses. They must
+homeward at least, somehow, each as best he can. Let them meet again
+at Cape Finisterre, if indeed they ever meet. Medina Sidonia, with some
+five-and twenty of the soundest and best victualled ships, will lead
+the way, and leave the rest to their fate. He is soon out of sight; and
+forty more, the only remnant of that mighty host, come wandering wearily
+behind, hoping to make the south-west coast of Ireland, and have help,
+or, at least, fresh water there, from their fellow Romanists. Alas for
+them!--
+
+     "Make Thou their way dark and slippery,
+     And follow them up ever with Thy storm."
+
+For now comes up from the Atlantic, gale on gale; and few of that
+hapless remnant reached the shores of Spain.
+
+And where are Amyas and the Vengeance all this while?
+
+At the fifty-seventh degree of latitude, the English fleet, finding
+themselves growing short of provision, and having been long since out of
+powder and ball, turn southward toward home, "thinking it best to leave
+the Spaniard to those uncouth and boisterous northern seas." A few
+pinnaces are still sent onward to watch their course: and the English
+fleet, caught in the same storms which scattered the Spaniards, "with
+great danger and industry reached Harwich port, and there provide
+themselves of victuals and ammunition," in case the Spaniards should
+return; but there is no need for that caution. Parma, indeed, who cannot
+believe that the idol at Halle, after all his compliments to it, will
+play him so scurvy a trick, will watch for weeks on Dunkirk dunes,
+hoping against hope for the Armada's return, casting anchors, and
+spinning rigging to repair their losses.
+
+     "But lang, lang may his ladies sit,
+     With their fans intill their hand,
+     Before they see Sir Patrick Spens
+     Come sailing to the land."
+
+The Armada is away on the other side of Scotland, and Amyas is following
+in its wake.
+
+For when the lord high admiral determined to return, Amyas asked
+leave to follow the Spaniard; and asked, too, of Sir John Hawkins,
+who happened to be at hand, such ammunition and provision as could be
+afforded him, promising to repay the same like an honest man, out of
+his plunder if he lived, out of his estate if he died; lodging for that
+purpose bills in the hands of Sir John, who, as a man of business,
+took them, and put them in his pocket among the thimbles, string, and
+tobacco; after which Amyas, calling his men together, reminded them once
+more of the story of the Rose of Torridge and Don Guzman de Soto, and
+then asked:
+
+"Men of Bideford, will you follow me? There will be plunder for those
+who love plunder; revenge for those who love revenge; and for all of us
+(for we all love honor) the honor of having never left the chase as long
+as there was a Spanish flag in English seas."
+
+And every soul on board replied, that they would follow Sir Amyas Leigh
+around the world.
+
+There is no need for me to detail every incident of that long and weary
+chase; how they found the Sta. Catharina, attacked her, and had to sheer
+off, she being rescued by the rest; how when Medina's squadron left the
+crippled ships behind, they were all but taken or sunk, by thrusting
+into the midst of the Spanish fleet to prevent her escaping with Medina;
+how they crippled her, so that she could not beat to windward out into
+the ocean, but was fain to run south, past the Orkneys, and down through
+the Minch, between Cape Wrath and Lewis; how the younger hands were
+ready to mutiny, because Amyas, in his stubborn haste, ran past two or
+three noble prizes which were all but disabled, among others one of
+the great galliasses, and the two great Venetians, La Ratta and La
+Belanzara--which were afterwards, with more than thirty other vessels,
+wrecked on the west coast of Ireland; how he got fresh water, in spite
+of certain "Hebridean Scots" of Skye, who, after reviling him in an
+unknown tongue, fought with him awhile, and then embraced him and his
+men with howls of affection, and were not much more decently clad, nor
+more civilized, than his old friends of California; how he pacified his
+men by letting them pick the bones of a great Venetian which was going
+on shore upon Islay (by which they got booty enough to repay them for
+the whole voyage), and offended them again by refusing to land and
+plunder two great Spanish wrecks on the Mull of Cantire (whose crews, by
+the by, James tried to smuggle off secretly into Spain in ships of his
+own, wishing to play, as usual, both sides of the game at once; but
+the Spaniards were stopped at Yarmouth till the council's pleasure was
+known--which was, of course, to let the poor wretches go on their way,
+and be hanged elsewhere); how they passed a strange island, half black,
+half white, which the wild people called Raghary, but Cary christened it
+"the drowned magpie;" how the Sta. Catharina was near lost on the Isle
+of Man, and then put into Castleton (where the Manx-men slew a whole
+boat's-crew with their arrows), and then put out again, when Amyas
+fought with her a whole day, and shot away her mainyard; how the
+Spaniard blundered down the coast of Wales, not knowing whither he went;
+how they were both nearly lost on Holyhead, and again on Bardsey Island;
+how they got on a lee shore in Cardigan Bay, before a heavy westerly
+gale, and the Sta. Catharina ran aground on Sarn David, one of those
+strange subaqueous pebble-dykes which are said to be the remnants of the
+lost land of Gwalior, destroyed by the carelessness of Prince Seithenin
+the drunkard, at whose name each loyal Welshman spits; how she got off
+again at the rising of the tide, and fought with Amyas a fourth time;
+how the wind changed, and she got round St. David's Head;--these, and
+many more moving incidents of this eventful voyage, I must pass over
+without details, and go on to the end; for it is time that the end
+should come.
+
+It was now the sixteenth day of the chase. They had seen, the evening
+before, St. David's Head, and then the Welsh coast round Milford
+Haven, looming out black and sharp before the blaze of the inland
+thunder-storm; and it had lightened all round them during the fore part
+of the night, upon a light south-western breeze.
+
+In vain they had strained their eyes through the darkness, to catch, by
+the fitful glare of the flashes, the tall masts of the Spaniard. Of
+one thing at least they were certain, that with the wind as it was, she
+could not have gone far to the westward; and to attempt to pass them
+again, and go northward, was more than she dare do. She was probably
+lying-to ahead of them, perhaps between them and the land; and when, a
+little after midnight, the wind chopped up to the west, and blew stiffly
+till day break, they felt sure that, unless she had attempted the
+desperate expedient of running past them, they had her safe in the mouth
+of the Bristol Channel. Slowly and wearily broke the dawn, on such a day
+as often follows heavy thunder; a sunless, drizzly day, roofed with low
+dingy cloud, barred and netted, and festooned with black, a sign that
+the storm is only taking breath awhile before it bursts again; while all
+the narrow horizon is dim and spongy with vapor drifting before a chilly
+breeze. As the day went on, the breeze died down, and the sea fell to a
+long glassy foam-flecked roll, while overhead brooded the inky sky, and
+round them the leaden mist shut out alike the shore and the chase.
+
+Amyas paced the sloppy deck fretfully and fiercely. He knew that the
+Spaniard could not escape; but he cursed every moment which lingered
+between him and that one great revenge which blackened all his soul.
+The men sate sulkily about the deck, and whistled for a wind; the sails
+flapped idly against the masts; and the ship rolled in the long troughs
+of the sea, till her yard-arms almost dipped right and left.
+
+"Take care of those guns. You will have something loose next," growled
+Amyas.
+
+"We will take care of the guns, if the Lord will take care of the wind,"
+said Yeo.
+
+"We shall have plenty before night," said Cary, "and thunder too."
+
+"So much the better," said Amyas. "It may roar till it splits the
+heavens, if it does but let me get my work done."
+
+"He's not far off, I warrant," said Cary. "One lift of the cloud, and we
+should see him."
+
+"To windward of us, as likely as not," said Amyas. "The devil fights
+for him, I believe. To have been on his heels sixteen days, and not sent
+this through him yet!" And he shook his sword impatiently.
+
+So the morning wore away, without a sign of living thing, not even a
+passing gull; and the black melancholy of the heaven reflected itself
+in the black melancholy of Amyas. Was he to lose his prey after all?
+The thought made him shudder with rage and disappointment. It was
+intolerable. Anything but that.
+
+"No, God!" he cried, "let me but once feel this in his accursed heart,
+and then--strike me dead, if Thou wilt!"
+
+"The Lord have mercy on us," cried John Brimblecombe. "What have you
+said?"
+
+"What is that to you, sir? There, they are piping to dinner. Go down. I
+shall not come."
+
+And Jack went down, and talked in a half-terrified whisper of Amyas's
+ominous words.
+
+All thought that they portended some bad luck, except old Yeo.
+
+"Well, Sir John," said he, "and why not? What better can the Lord do
+for a man, than take him home when he has done his work? Our captain is
+wilful and spiteful, and must needs kill his man himself; while for me,
+I don't care how the Don goes, provided he does go. I owe him no grudge,
+nor any man. May the Lord give him repentance, and forgive him all his
+sins: but if I could but see him once safe ashore, as he may be ere
+nightfall, on the Mortestone or the back of Lundy, I would say, 'Lord,
+now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,' even if it were the
+lightning which was sent to fetch me."
+
+"But, master Yeo, a sudden death?"
+
+"And why not a sudden death, Sir John? Even fools long for a short life
+and a merry one, and shall not the Lord's people pray for a short death
+and a merry one? Let it come as it will to old Yeo. Hark! there's the
+captain's voice!"
+
+"Here she is!" thundered Amyas from the deck; and in an instant all were
+scrambling up the hatchway as fast as the frantic rolling of the ship
+would let them.
+
+Yes. There she was. The cloud had lifted suddenly, and to the south a
+ragged bore of blue sky let a long stream of sunshine down on her tall
+masts and stately hull, as she lay rolling some four or five miles to
+the eastward: but as for land, none was to be seen.
+
+"There she is; and here we are," said Cary; "but where is here? and
+where is there? How is the tide, master?"
+
+"Running up Channel by this time, sir."
+
+"What matters the tide?" said Amyas, devouring the ship with terrible
+and cold blue eyes. "Can't we get at her?"
+
+"Not unless some one jumps out and shoves behind," said Cary. "I shall
+down again and finish that mackerel, if this roll has not chucked it to
+the cockroaches under the table."
+
+"Don't jest, Will! I can't stand it," said Amyas, in a voice which
+quivered so much that Cary looked at him. His whole frame was trembling
+like an aspen. Cary took his arm, and drew him aside.
+
+"Dear old lad," said he, as they leaned over the bulwarks, "what is
+this? You are not yourself, and have not been these four days."
+
+"No. I am not Amyas Leigh. I am my brother's avenger. Do not reason
+with me, Will: when it is over I shall be merry old Amyas again," and he
+passed his hand over his brow.
+
+"Do you believe," said he, after a moment, "that men can be possessed by
+devils?"
+
+"The Bible says so."
+
+"If my cause were not a just one, I should fancy I had a devil in me. My
+throat and heart are as hot as the pit. Would to God it were done, for
+done it must be! Now go."
+
+Cary went away with a shudder. As he passed down the hatchway he looked
+back. Amyas had got the hone out of his pocket, and was whetting away
+again at his sword-edge, as if there was some dreadful doom on him, to
+whet, and whet forever.
+
+The weary day wore on. The strip of blue sky was curtained over again,
+and all was dismal as before, though it grew sultrier every moment; and
+now and then a distant mutter shook the air to westward. Nothing could
+be done to lessen the distance between the ships, for the Vengeance had
+had all her boats carried away but one, and that was much too small
+to tow her: and while the men went down again to finish dinner, Amyas
+worked on at his sword, looking up every now and then suddenly at the
+Spaniard, as if to satisfy himself that it was not a vision which had
+vanished.
+
+About two Yeo came up to him.
+
+"He is ours safely now, sir. The tide has been running to the eastward
+for this two hours."
+
+"Safe as a fox in a trap. Satan himself cannot take him from us!"
+
+"But God may," said Brimblecombe, simply.
+
+"Who spoke to you, sir? If I thought that He--There comes the thunder at
+last!"
+
+And as he spoke an angry growl from the westward heavens seemed to
+answer his wild words, and rolled and loudened nearer and nearer, till
+right over their heads it crashed against some cloud-cliff far above,
+and all was still.
+
+Each man looked in the other's face: but Amyas was unmoved.
+
+"The storm is coming," said he, "and the wind in it. It will be
+Eastward-ho now, for once, my merry men all!"
+
+"Eastward-ho never brought us luck," said Jack in an undertone to Cary.
+But by this time all eyes were turned to the north-west, where a black
+line along the horizon began to define the boundary of sea and air, till
+now all dim in mist.
+
+"There comes the breeze."
+
+"And there the storm, too."
+
+And with that strangely accelerating pace which some storms seem to
+possess, the thunder, which had been growling slow and seldom far away,
+now rang peal on peal along the cloudy floor above their heads.
+
+"Here comes the breeze. Round with the yards, or we shall be taken
+aback."
+
+The yards creaked round; the sea grew crisp around them; the hot air
+swept their cheeks, tightened every rope, filled every sail, bent her
+over. A cheer burst from the men as the helm went up, and they staggered
+away before the wind, right down upon the Spaniard, who lay still
+becalmed.
+
+"There is more behind, Amyas," said Cary. "Shall we not shorten sail a
+little?"
+
+"No. Hold on every stitch," said Amyas. "Give me the helm, man.
+Boatswain, pipe away to clear for fight."
+
+It was done, and in ten minutes the men were all at quarters, while
+the thunder rolled louder and louder overhead, and the breeze freshened
+fast.
+
+"The dog has it now. There he goes!" said Cary.
+
+"Right before the wind. He has no liking to face us."
+
+"He is running into the jaws of destruction," said Yeo. "An hour more
+will send him either right up the Channel, or smack on shore somewhere."
+
+"There! he has put his helm down. I wonder if he sees land?"
+
+"He is like a March hare beat out of his country," said Cary, "and don't
+know whither to run next."
+
+Cary was right. In ten minutes more the Spaniard fell off again, and
+went away dead down wind, while the Vengeance gained on him fast.
+After two hours more, the four miles had diminished to one, while the
+lightning flashed nearer and nearer as the storm came up; and from the
+vast mouth of a black cloud-arch poured so fierce a breeze that Amyas
+yielded unwillingly to hints which were growing into open murmurs, and
+bade shorten sail.
+
+On they rushed with scarcely lessened speed, the black arch following
+fast, curtained by the flat gray sheet of pouring rain, before which the
+water was boiling in a long white line; while every moment behind the
+watery veil, a keen blue spark leapt down into the sea, or darted zigzag
+through the rain.
+
+"We shall have it now, and with a vengeance; this will try your tackle,
+master," said Cary.
+
+The functionary answered with a shrug, and turned up the collar of his
+rough frock, as the first drops flew stinging round his ears. Another
+minute and the squall burst full upon them, in rain, which cut like
+hail--hail which lashed the sea into froth, and wind which whirled off
+the heads of the surges, and swept the waters into one white seething
+waste. And above them, and behind them and before them, the lightning
+leapt and ran, dazzling and blinding, while the deep roar of the thunder
+was changed to sharp ear-piercing cracks.
+
+"Get the arms and ammunition under cover, and then below with you all,"
+shouted Amyas from the helm.
+
+"And heat the pokers in the galley fire," said Yeo, "to be ready if the
+rain puts our linstocks out. I hope you'll let me stay on deck, sir, in
+case--"
+
+"I must have some one, and who better than you? Can you see the chase?"
+
+No; she was wrapped in the gray whirlwind. She might be within half a
+mile of them, for aught they could have seen of her.
+
+And now Amyas and his old liegeman were alone. Neither spoke; each knew
+the other's thoughts, and knew that they were his own. The squall blew
+fiercer and fiercer, the rain poured heavier and heavier. Where was the
+Spaniard?
+
+"If he has laid-to, we may overshoot him, sir!"
+
+"If he has tried to lay-to, he will not have a sail left in the
+bolt-ropes, or perhaps a mast on deck. I know the stiff-neckedness of
+those Spanish tubs. Hurrah! there he is, right on our larboard bow!"
+
+There she was indeed, two musket-shots' off, staggering away with canvas
+split and flying.
+
+"He has been trying to hull, sir, and caught a buffet," said Yeo,
+rubbing his hands. "What shall we do now?"
+
+"Range alongside, if it blow live imps and witches, and try our luck
+once more. Pah! how this lightning dazzles!"
+
+On they swept, gaining fast on the Spaniard. "Call the men up, and to
+quarters; the rain will be over in ten minutes."
+
+Yeo ran forward to the gangway; and sprang back again, with a face white
+and wild--
+
+"Land right ahead! Port your helm, sir! For the love of God, port your
+helm!"
+
+Amyas, with the strength of a bull, jammed the helm down, while Yeo
+shouted to the men below.
+
+She swung round. The masts bent like whips; crack went the fore-sail
+like a cannon. What matter? Within two hundred yards of them was the
+Spaniard; in front of her, and above her, a huge dark bank rose through
+the dense hail, and mingled with the clouds; and at its foot, plainer
+every moment, pillars and spouts of leaping foam.
+
+"What is it, Morte? Hartland?"
+
+It might be anything for thirty miles.
+
+"Lundy!" said Yeo. "The south end! I see the head of the Shutter in the
+breakers! Hard a-port yet, and get her close-hauled as you can, and the
+Lord may have mercy on us still! Look at the Spaniard!"
+
+Yes, look at the Spaniard!
+
+On their left hand, as they broached-to, the wall of granite sloped down
+from the clouds toward an isolated peak of rock, some two hundred feet
+in height. Then a hundred yards of roaring breaker upon a sunken shelf,
+across which the race of the tide poured like a cataract; then, amid a
+column of salt smoke, the Shutter, like a huge black fang, rose waiting
+for its prey; and between the Shutter and the land, the great galleon
+loomed dimly through the storm.
+
+He, too, had seen his danger, and tried to broach-to. But his clumsy
+mass refused to obey the helm; he struggled a moment, half hid in foam;
+fell away again, and rushed upon his doom.
+
+"Lost! lost! lost!" cried Amyas madly, and throwing up his hands, let go
+the tiller. Yeo caught it just in time.
+
+"Sir! sir! What are you at? We shall clear the rock yet."
+
+"Yes!" shouted Amyas, in his frenzy; "but he will not!"
+
+Another minute. The galleon gave a sudden jar, and stopped. Then one
+long heave and bound, as if to free herself. And then her bows lighted
+clean upon the Shutter.
+
+An awful silence fell on every English soul. They heard not the roaring
+of wind and surge; they saw not the blinding flashes of the lightning;
+but they heard one long ear-piercing wail to every saint in heaven rise
+from five hundred human throats; they saw the mighty ship heel over from
+the wind, and sweep headlong down the cataract of the race, plunging her
+yards into the foam, and showing her whole black side even to her keel,
+till she rolled clean over, and vanished for ever and ever.
+
+"Shame!" cried Amyas, hurling his sword far into the sea, "to lose my
+right, my right! when it was in my very grasp! Unmerciful!"
+
+A crack which rent the sky, and made the granite ring and quiver; a
+bright world of flame, and then a blank of utter darkness, against which
+stood out, glowing red-hot every mast, and sail, and rock, and Salvation
+Yeo as he stood just in front of Amyas, the tiller in his hand. All
+red-hot, transfigured into fire; and behind, the black, black night.
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+A whisper, a rustling close beside him, and Brimblecombe's voice said
+softly:
+
+"Give him more wine, Will; his eyes are opening."
+
+"Hey day?" said Amyas, faintly, "not past the Shutter yet! How long she
+hangs in the wind!"
+
+"We are long past the Shutter, Sir Amyas," said Brimblecombe.
+
+"Are you mad? Cannot I trust my own eyes?"
+
+There was no answer for awhile.
+
+"We are past the Shutter, indeed," said Cary, very gently, "and lying in
+the cove at Lundy."
+
+"Will you tell me that that is not the Shutter, and that the
+Devil's-limekiln, and that the cliff--that villain Spaniard only
+gone--and that Yeo is not standing here by me, and Cary there forward,
+and--why, by the by, where are you, Jack Brimblecombe, who were talking
+to me this minute?"
+
+"Oh, Sir Amyas Leigh, dear Sir Amyas Leigh," blubbered poor Jack, "put
+out your hand, and feel where you are, and pray the Lord to forgive you
+for your wilfulness!"
+
+A great trembling fell upon Amyas Leigh; half fearfully he put out his
+hand; he felt that he was in his hammock, with the deck beams close
+above his head. The vision which had been left upon his eye-balls
+vanished like a dream.
+
+"What is this? I must be asleep? What has happened? Where am I?"
+
+"In your cabin, Amyas," said Cary.
+
+"What? And where is Yeo?"
+
+"Yeo is gone where he longed to go, and as he longed to go. The same
+flash which struck you down, struck him dead."
+
+"Dead? Lightning? Any more hurt? I must go and see. Why, what is this?"
+and Amyas passed his hand across his eyes. "It is all dark--dark, as I
+live!" And he passed his hand over his eyes again.
+
+There was another dead silence. Amyas broke it.
+
+"Oh, God!" shrieked the great proud sea-captain, "Oh, God, I am blind!
+blind! blind!" And writhing in his great horror, he called to Cary to
+kill him and put him out of his misery, and then wailed for his
+mother to come and help him, as if he had been a boy once more; while
+Brimblecombe and Cary, and the sailors who crowded round the cabin-door,
+wept as if they too had been boys once more.
+
+Soon his fit of frenzy passed off, and he sank back exhausted.
+
+They lifted him into their remaining boat, rowed him ashore, carried him
+painfully up the hill to the old castle, and made a bed for him on
+the floor, in the very room in which Don Guzman and Rose Salterne had
+plighted their troth to each other, five wild years before.
+
+Three miserable days were passed within that lonely tower. Amyas,
+utterly unnerved by the horror of his misfortune, and by the
+over-excitement of the last few weeks, was incessantly delirious; while
+Cary, and Brimblecombe, and the men nursed him by turns, as sailors
+and wives only can nurse; and listened with awe to his piteous
+self-reproaches and entreaties to Heaven to remove that woe, which,
+as he shrieked again and again, was a just judgment on him for his
+wilfulness and ferocity. The surgeon talked, of course, learnedly about
+melancholic humors, and his liver's being "adust by the over-pungency
+of the animal spirits," and then fell back on the universal panacea of
+blood-letting, which he effected with fear and trembling during a short
+interval of prostration; encouraged by which he attempted to administer
+a large bolus of aloes, was knocked down for his pains, and then thought
+it better to leave Nature to her own work. In the meanwhile, Cary had
+sent off one of the island skiffs to Clovelly, with letters to his
+father, and to Mrs. Leigh, entreating the latter to come off to the
+island: but the heavy westerly winds made that as impossible as it was
+to move Amyas on board, and the men had to do their best, and did it
+well enough.
+
+On the fourth day his raving ceased: but he was still too weak to be
+moved. Toward noon, however, he called for food, ate a little, and
+seemed revived.
+
+"Will," he said, after awhile, "this room is as stifling as it is dark.
+I feel as if I should be a sound man once more if I could but get one
+snuff of the sea-breeze."
+
+The surgeon shook his head at the notion of moving him: but Amyas was
+peremptory.
+
+"I am captain still, Tom Surgeon, and will sail for the Indies, if I
+choose. Will Cary, Jack Brimblecombe, will you obey a blind general?"
+
+"What you will in reason," said they both at once.
+
+"Then lead me out, my masters, and over the down to the south end.
+To the point at the south end I must go; there is no other place will
+suit."
+
+And he rose firmly to his feet, and held out his hands for theirs.
+
+"Let him have his humor," whispered Cary. "It may be the working off of
+his madness."
+
+"This sudden strength is a note of fresh fever, Mr. Lieutenant,"
+said the surgeon, "and the rules of the art prescribe rather a fresh
+blood-letting."
+
+Amyas overheard the last word, and broke out:
+
+"Thou pig-sticking Philistine, wilt thou make sport with blind Samson?
+Come near me to let blood from my arm, and see if I do not let blood
+from thy coxcomb. Catch him, Will, and bring him me here!"
+
+The surgeon vanished as the blind giant made a step forward; and they
+set forth, Amyas walking slowly, but firmly, between his two friends.
+
+"Whither?" asked Cary.
+
+"To the south end. The crag above the Devil's-limekiln. No other place
+will suit."
+
+Jack gave a murmur, and half-stopped, as a frightful suspicion crossed
+him.
+
+"That is a dangerous place!"
+
+"What of that?" said Amyas, who caught his meaning in his tone. "Dost
+think I am going to leap over cliff? I have not heart enough for that.
+On, lads, and set me safe among the rocks."
+
+So slowly, and painfully, they went on, while Amyas murmured to himself:
+
+"No, no other place will suit; I can see all thence."
+
+So on they went to the point, where the cyclopean wall of granite cliff
+which forms the western side of Lundy, ends sheer in a precipice of some
+three hundred feet, topped by a pile of snow-white rock, bespangled with
+golden lichens. As they approached, a raven, who sat upon the topmost
+stone, black against the bright blue sky, flapped lazily away, and sank
+down the abysses of the cliff, as if he scented the corpses underneath
+the surge. Below them from the Gull-rock rose a thousand birds, and
+filled the air with sound; the choughs cackled, the hacklets wailed,
+the great blackbacks laughed querulous defiance at the intruders, and a
+single falcon, with an angry bark, dashed out from beneath their feet,
+and hung poised high aloft, watching the sea-fowl which swung slowly
+round and round below.
+
+It was a glorious sight upon a glorious day. To the northward the glens
+rushed down toward the cliff, crowned with gray crags, and carpeted with
+purple heather and green fern; and from their feet stretched away to
+the westward the sapphire rollers of the vast Atlantic, crowned with a
+thousand crests of flying foam. On their left hand, some ten miles to
+the south, stood out against the sky the purple wall of Hartland cliffs,
+sinking lower and lower as they trended away to the southward along the
+lonely ironbound shores of Cornwall, until they faded, dim and blue,
+into the blue horizon forty miles away.
+
+The sky was flecked with clouds, which rushed toward them fast upon the
+roaring south-west wind; and the warm ocean-breeze swept up the cliffs,
+and whistled through the heather-bells, and howled in cranny and in
+crag,
+
+     "Till the pillars and clefts of the granite
+        Rang like a God-swept lyre;"
+
+while Amyas, a proud smile upon his lips, stood breasting that genial
+stream of airy wine with swelling nostrils and fast-heaving chest,
+and seemed to drink in life from every gust. All three were silent for
+awhile; and Jack and Cary, gazing downward with delight upon the glory
+and the grandeur of the sight, forgot for awhile that their companion
+saw it not. Yet when they started sadly, and looked into his face, did
+he not see it? So wide and eager were his eyes, so bright and calm his
+face, that they fancied for an instant that he was once more even as
+they.
+
+A deep sigh undeceived them. "I know it is all here--the dear old sea,
+where I would live and die. And my eyes feel for it; feel for it--and
+cannot find it; never, never will find it again forever! God's will be
+done!"
+
+"Do you say that?" asked Brimblecombe, eagerly.
+
+"Why should I not? Why have I been raving in hell-fire for I know not
+how many days, but to find out that, John Brimblecombe, thou better man
+than I?"
+
+"Not that last: but Amen! Amen! and the Lord has indeed had mercy upon
+thee!" said Jack, through his honest tears.
+
+"Amen!" said Amyas. "Now set me where I can rest among the rocks
+without fear of falling--for life is sweet still, even without eyes,
+friends--and leave me to myself awhile."
+
+It was no easy matter to find a safe place; for from the foot of the
+crag the heathery turf slopes down all but upright, on one side to a
+cliff which overhangs a shoreless cove of deep dark sea, and on the
+other to an abyss even more hideous, where the solid rock has sunk away,
+and opened inland in the hillside a smooth-walled pit, some sixty feet
+square and some hundred and fifty in depth, aptly known then as now,
+as the Devil's-limekiln; the mouth of which, as old wives say, was once
+closed by the Shutter-rock itself, till the fiend in malice hurled it
+into the sea, to be a pest to mariners. A narrow and untrodden cavern at
+the bottom connects it with the outer sea; they could even then hear the
+mysterious thunder and gurgle of the surge in the subterranean adit,
+as it rolled huge boulders to and fro in darkness, and forced before it
+gusts of pent-up air. It was a spot to curdle weak blood, and to make
+weak heads reel: but all the fitter on that account for Amyas and his
+fancy.
+
+"You can sit here as in an arm-chair," said Cary, helping him down to
+one of those square natural seats so common in the granite tors.
+
+"Good; now turn my face to the Shutter. Be sure and exact. So. Do I face
+it full?"
+
+"Full," said Cary.
+
+"Then I need no eyes wherewith to see what is before me," said he, with
+a sad smile. "I know every stone and every headland, and every wave too,
+I may say, far beyond aught that eye can reach. Now go, and leave me
+alone with God and with the dead!"
+
+They retired a little space and watched him. He never stirred for many
+minutes; then leaned his elbows on his knees, and his head upon his
+hands, and so was still again. He remained so long thus, that the pair
+became anxious, and went towards him. He was asleep, and breathing quick
+and heavily.
+
+"He will take a fever," said Brimblecombe, "if he sleeps much longer
+with his head down in the sunshine."
+
+"We must wake him gently if we wake him at all." And Cary moved forward
+to him.
+
+As he did so, Amyas lifted his head, and turning it to right and left,
+felt round him with his sightless eyes.
+
+"You have been asleep, Amyas."
+
+"Have I? I have not slept back my eyes, then. Take up this great useless
+carcase of mine, and lead me home. I shall buy me a dog when I get to
+Burrough, I think, and make him tow me in a string, eh? So! Give me your
+hand. Now march!"
+
+His guides heard with surprise this new cheerfulness.
+
+"Thank God, sir, that your heart is so light already," said good Jack;
+"it makes me feel quite upraised myself, like."
+
+"I have reason to be cheerful, Sir John; I have left a heavy load behind
+me. I have been wilful, and proud, and a blasphemer, and swollen with
+cruelty and pride; and God has brought me low for it, and cut me off
+from my evil delight. No more Spaniard-hunting for me now, my masters.
+God will send no such fools as I upon His errands."
+
+"You do not repent of fighting the Spaniards."
+
+"Not I: but of hating even the worst of them. Listen to me, Will and
+Jack. If that man wronged me, I wronged him likewise. I have been a
+fiend when I thought myself the grandest of men, yea, a very avenging
+angel out of heaven. But God has shown me my sin, and we have made up
+our quarrel forever."
+
+"Made it up?"
+
+"Made it up, thank God. But I am weary. Set me down awhile, and I will
+tell you how it befell."
+
+Wondering, they set him down upon the heather, while the bees hummed
+round them in the sun; and Amyas felt for a hand of each, and clasped it
+in his own hand, and began:
+
+"When you left me there upon the rock, lads, I looked away and out to
+sea, to get one last snuff of the merry sea-breeze, which will never
+sail me again. And as I looked, I tell you truth, I could see the water
+and the sky; as plain as ever I saw them, till I thought my sight was
+come again. But soon I knew it was not so; for I saw more than man could
+see; right over the ocean, as I live, and away to the Spanish Main. And
+I saw Barbados, and Grenada, and all the isles that we ever sailed by;
+and La Guayra in Caracas, and the Silla, and the house beneath it where
+she lived. And I saw him walking with her on the barbecue, and he loved
+her then. I saw what I saw; and he loved her; and I say he loves her
+still.
+
+"Then I saw the cliffs beneath me, and the Gull-rock, and the Shutter,
+and the Ledge; I saw them, William Cary, and the weeds beneath the merry
+blue sea. And I saw the grand old galleon, Will; she has righted with
+the sweeping of the tide. She lies in fifteen fathoms, at the edge of
+the rocks, upon the sand; and her men are all lying around her, asleep
+until the judgment-day."
+
+Cary and Jack looked at him, and then at each other. His eyes were
+clear, and bright, and full of meaning; and yet they knew that he
+was blind. His voice was shaping itself into a song. Was he inspired?
+Insane? What was it? And they listened with awe-struck faces, as the
+giant pointed down into the blue depths far below, and went on.
+
+"And I saw him sitting in his cabin, like a valiant gentleman of Spain;
+and his officers were sitting round him, with their swords upon the
+table at the wine. And the prawns and the crayfish and the rockling,
+they swam in and out above their heads: but Don Guzman he never heeded,
+but sat still, and drank his wine. Then he took a locket from his bosom;
+and I heard him speak, Will, and he said: 'Here's the picture of my fair
+and true lady; drink to her, senors all.' Then he spoke to me, Will,
+and called me, right up through the oar-weed and the sea: 'We have had
+a fair quarrel, senor; it is time to be friends once more. My wife and
+your brother have forgiven me; so your honor takes no stain.' And I
+answered, 'We are friends, Don Guzman; God has judged our quarrel and
+not we.' Then he said, 'I sinned, and I am punished.' And I said, 'And,
+senor, so am I.' Then he held out his hand to me, Cary; and I stooped to
+take it, and awoke."
+
+He ceased: and they looked in his face again. It was exhausted, but
+clear and gentle, like the face of a new-born babe. Gradually his head
+dropped upon his breast again; he was either swooning or sleeping, and
+they had much ado to get him home. There he lay for eight-and-forty
+hours, in a quiet doze; then arose suddenly, called for food, ate
+heartily, and seemed, saving his eyesight, as whole and sound as ever.
+The surgeon bade them get him home to Northam as soon as possible,
+and he was willing enough to go. So the next day the Vengeance sailed,
+leaving behind a dozen men to seize and keep in the queen's name any
+goods which should be washed up from the wreck.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+HOW AMYAS LET THE APPLE FALL
+
+     "Would you hear a Spanish lady,
+       How she woo'd an Englishman?
+     Garments gay and rich as may be,
+        Deck'd with jewels had she on."
+
+                   Elizabethan Ballad.
+
+It was the first of October. The morning was bright and still; the skies
+were dappled modestly from east to west with soft gray autumn cloud, as
+if all heaven and earth were resting after those fearful summer months
+of battle and of storm. Silently, as if ashamed and sad, the Vengeance
+slid over the bar, and passed the sleeping sand-hills and dropped her
+anchor off Appledore, with her flag floating half-mast high; for the
+corpse of Salvation Yeo was on board.
+
+A boat pulled off from the ship, and away to the western end of the
+strand; and Cary and Brimblecombe helped out Amyas Leigh, and led him
+slowly up the hill toward his home.
+
+The crowd clustered round him, with cheers and blessings, and sobs of
+pity from kind-hearted women; for all in Appledore and Bideford knew
+well by this time what had befallen him.
+
+"Spare me, my good friends," said Amyas, "I have landed here that I
+might go quietly home, without passing through the town, and being made
+a gazing-stock. Think not of me, good folks, nor talk of me; but come
+behind me decently, as Christian men, and follow to the grave the body
+of a better man than I."
+
+And, as he spoke, another boat came off, and in it, covered with the
+flag of England, the body of Salvation Yeo.
+
+The people took Amyas at his word; and a man was sent on to Burrough, to
+tell Mrs. Leigh that her son was coming. When the coffin was landed
+and lifted, Amyas and his friends took their places behind it as chief
+mourners, and the crew followed in order, while the crowd fell in behind
+them, and gathered every moment; till ere they were halfway to Northam
+town, the funeral train might number full five hundred souls.
+
+They had sent over by a fishing-skiff the day before to bid the sexton
+dig the grave; and when they came into the churchyard, the parson stood
+ready waiting at the gate.
+
+Mrs. Leigh stayed quietly at home; for she had no heart to face the
+crowd; and though her heart yearned for her son, yet she was well
+content (when was she not content?) that he should do honor to his
+ancient and faithful servant; so she sat down in the bay-window, with
+Ayacanora by her side; and when the tolling of the bell ceased, she
+opened her Prayer-book, and began to read the Burial-service.
+
+"Ayacanora," she said, "they are burying old Master Yeo, who loved you,
+and sought you over the wide, wide world, and saved you from the teeth
+of the crocodile. Are you not sorry for him, child, that you look so gay
+to-day?"
+
+Ayacanora blushed, and hung down her head; she was thinking of nothing,
+poor child, but Amyas.
+
+The Burial-service was done; the blessing said; the parson drew back:
+but the people lingered and crowded round to look at the coffin, while
+Amyas stood still at the head of the grave. It had been dug by his
+command, at the west end of the church, near by the foot of the tall
+gray windswept tower, which watches for a beacon far and wide over land
+and sea. Perhaps the old man might like to look at the sea, and see
+the ships come out and in across the bar, and hear the wind, on winter
+nights, roar through the belfry far above his head. Why not? It was but
+a fancy: and yet Amyas felt that he too should like to be buried in such
+a place; so Yeo might like it also.
+
+Still the crowd lingered; and looked first at the grave and then at
+the blind giant who stood over it, as if they felt, by instinct, that
+something more ought to come. And something more did come. Amyas drew
+himself up to his full height, and waved his hand majestically, as one
+about to speak; while the eyes of all men were fastened on him.
+
+Twice he essayed to begin; and twice the words were choked upon his
+lips; and then,--
+
+"Good people all, and seamen, among whom I was bred, and to whom I come
+home blind this day, to dwell with you till death--Here lieth the flower
+and pattern of all bold mariners; the truest of friends, and the most
+terrible of foes; unchangeable of purpose, crafty of council, and swift
+of execution; in triumph most sober, in failure (as God knows I have
+found full many a day) of endurance beyond mortal man. Who first of all
+Britons helped to humble the pride of the Spaniard at Rio de la Hacha
+and Nombre, and first of all sailed upon those South Seas, which shall
+be hereafter, by God's grace, as free to English keels as is the bay
+outside. Who having afterwards been purged from his youthful sins by
+strange afflictions and torments unspeakable, suffered at the hands of
+the Popish enemy, learned therefrom, my masters, to fear God, and to
+fear naught else; and having acquitted himself worthily in his place and
+calling as a righteous scourge of the Spaniard, and a faithful soldier
+of the Lord Jesus Christ, is now exalted to his reward, as Elijah was of
+old, in a chariot of fire unto heaven: letting fall, I trust and pray,
+upon you who are left behind the mantle of his valor and his godliness,
+that so these shores may never be without brave and pious mariners, who
+will count their lives as worthless in the cause of their Country, their
+Bible, and their Queen. Amen."
+
+And feeling for his companions' hands he walked slowly from the
+churchyard, and across the village street, and up the lane to Burrough
+gates; while the crowd made way for him in solemn silence, as for an
+awful being, shut up alone with all his strength, valor, and fame, in
+the dark prison-house of his mysterious doom.
+
+He seemed to know perfectly when they had reached the gates, opened the
+lock with his own hands, and went boldly forward along the gravel path,
+while Cary and Brimblecombe followed him trembling; for they expected
+some violent burst of emotion, either from him or his mother, and the
+two good fellows' tender hearts were fluttering like a girl's. Up to
+the door he went, as if he had seen it; felt for the entrance, stood
+therein, and called quietly, "Mother!"
+
+In a moment his mother was on his bosom.
+
+Neither spoke for awhile. She sobbing inwardly, with tearless eyes, he
+standing firm and cheerful, with his great arms clasped around her.
+
+"Mother!" he said at last, "I am come home, you see, because I needs
+must come. Will you take me in, and look after this useless carcase? I
+shall not be so very troublesome, mother,--shall I?" and he looked down,
+and smiled upon her, and kissed her brow.
+
+She answered not a word, but passed her arm gently round his waist, and
+led him in.
+
+"Take care of your head, dear child, the doors are low." And they went
+in together.
+
+"Will! Jack!" called Amyas, turning round: but the two good fellows had
+walked briskly off.
+
+"I'm glad we are away," said Cary; "I should have made a baby of myself
+in another minute, watching that angel of a woman. How her face worked
+and how she kept it in!"
+
+"Ah, well!" said Jack, "there goes a brave servant of the queen's cut
+off before his work was a quarter done. Heigho! I must home now, and see
+my old father, and then--"
+
+"And then home with me," said Cary. "You and I never part again! We have
+pulled in the same boat too long, Jack; and you must not go spending
+your prize-money in riotous living. I must see after you, old Jack
+ashore, or we shall have you treating half the town in taverns for a
+week to come."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Cary!" said Jack, scandalized.
+
+"Come home with me, and we'll poison the parson, and my father shall
+give you the rectory."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Cary!" said Jack.
+
+So the two went off to Clovelly together that very day.
+
+And Amyas was sitting all alone. His mother had gone out for a few
+minutes to speak to the seamen who had brought up Amyas's luggage, and
+set them down to eat and drink; and Amyas sat in the old bay-window,
+where he had sat when he was a little tiny boy, and read "King Arthur,"
+and "Fox's Martyrs," and "The Cruelties of the Spaniards." He put out
+his hand and felt for them; there they lay side by side, just as they
+had lain twenty years before. The window was open; and a cool air
+brought in as of old the scents of the four-season roses, and rosemary,
+and autumn gilliflowers. And there was a dish of apples on the table: he
+knew it by their smell; the very same old apples which he used to gather
+when he was a boy. He put out his hand, and took them, and felt them
+over, and played with them, just as if the twenty years had never been:
+and as he fingered them, the whole of his past life rose up before him,
+as in that strange dream which is said to flash across the imagination
+of a drowning man; and he saw all the places which he had ever seen, and
+heard all the words which had ever been spoken to him--till he came to
+that fairy island on the Meta; and he heard the roar of the cataract
+once more, and saw the green tops of the palm-trees sleeping in the
+sunlight far above the spray, and stept amid the smooth palm-trunks
+across the flower-fringed boulders, and leaped down to the gravel beach
+beside the pool: and then again rose from the fern-grown rocks the
+beautiful vision of Ayacanora--Where was she? He had not thought of her
+till now. How he had wronged her! Let be; he had been punished, and the
+account was squared. Perhaps she did not care for him any longer. Who
+would care for a great blind ox like him, who must be fed and tended
+like a baby for the rest of his lazy life? Tut! How long his mother
+was away! And he began playing again with his apples, and thought about
+nothing but them, and his climbs with Frank in the orchard years ago.
+
+At last one of them slipt through his fingers, and fell on the floor. He
+stooped and felt for it: but he could not find it. Vexatious! He turned
+hastily to search in another direction, and struck his head sharply
+against the table.
+
+Was it the pain, or the little disappointment? or was it the sense of
+his blindness brought home to him in that ludicrous commonplace way,
+and for that very reason all the more humiliating? or was it the sudden
+revulsion of overstrained nerves, produced by that slight shock? Or had
+he become indeed a child once more? I know not; but so it was, that he
+stamped on the floor with pettishness, and then checking himself, burst
+into a violent flood of tears.
+
+A quick rustle passed him; the apple was replaced in his hand, and
+Ayacanora's voice sobbed out:
+
+"There! there it is! Do not weep! Oh, do not weep! I cannot bear it!
+I will get you all you want! Only let me fetch and carry for you, tend
+you, feed you, lead you, like your slave, your dog! Say that I may be
+your slave!" and falling on her knees at his feet, she seized both his
+hands, and covered them with kisses.
+
+"Yes!" she cried, "I will be your slave! I must be! You cannot help it!
+You cannot escape from me now! You cannot go to sea! You cannot turn
+your back upon wretched me. I have you safe now! Safe!" and she clutched
+his hands triumphantly. "Ah! and what a wretch I am, to rejoice in that!
+to taunt him with his blindness! Oh, forgive me! I am but a poor wild
+girl--a wild Indian savage, you know: but--but--" and she burst into
+tears.
+
+A great spasm shook the body and soul of Amyas Leigh; he sat quite
+silent for a minute, and then said solemnly:
+
+"And is this still possible? Then God have mercy upon me a sinner!"
+
+Ayacanora looked up in his face inquiringly: but before she could speak
+again, he had bent down, and lifting her as the lion lifts the lamb,
+pressed her to his bosom, and covered her face with kisses.
+
+The door opened. There was the rustle of a gown; Ayacanora sprang from
+him with a little cry, and stood, half-trembling, half-defiant, as if to
+say, "He is mine now; no one dare part him from me!"
+
+"Who is it?" asked Amyas.
+
+"Your mother."
+
+"You see that I am bringing forth fruits meet for repentance, mother,"
+said he, with a smile.
+
+He heard her approach. Then a kiss and a sob passed between the women;
+and he felt Ayacanora sink once more upon his bosom.
+
+"Amyas, my son," said the silver voice of Mrs. Leigh, low, dreamy, like
+the far-off chimes of angels' bells from out the highest heaven, "fear
+not to take her to your heart again; for it is your mother who has laid
+her there."
+
+"It is true, after all," said Amyas to himself. "What God has joined
+together, man cannot put asunder."
+
+      *    *    *    *    *
+
+From that hour Ayacanora's power of song returned to her; and day by
+day, year after year, her voice rose up within that happy home, and
+soared, as on a skylark's wings, into the highest heaven, bearing with
+it the peaceful thoughts of the blind giant back to the Paradises of the
+West, in the wake of the heroes who from that time forth sailed out to
+colonize another and a vaster England, to the heaven-prospered cry of
+Westward-Ho!
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Westward Ho!, by Charles Kingsley
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley
+#8 in our series by Charles Kingsley
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+
+
+
+WESTWARD HO!
+
+by Charles Kingsley
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+THE RAJAH SIR JAMES BROOKE, K.C.B.
+
+AND
+
+GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, D.D.
+
+BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND
+
+
+THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
+
+
+By one who (unknown to them) has no other method of expressing his
+admiration and reverence for their characters.
+
+That type of English virtue, at once manful and godly, practical
+and enthusiastic, prudent and self-sacrificing, which he has tried
+to depict in these pages, they have exhibited in a form even purer
+and more heroic than that in which he has drest it, and than that
+in which it was exhibited by the worthies whom Elizabeth, without
+distinction of rank or age, gathered round her in the ever glorious
+wars of her great reign.
+
+C. K.
+
+FEBRUARY, 1855.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+I. HOW MR. OXENHAM SAW THE WHITE BIRD
+
+II. HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE FIRST TIME
+
+III. OF TWO GENTLEMEN OF WALES, AND HOW THEY HUNTED WITH THE
+HOUNDS, AND YET RAN WITH THE DEER
+
+IV. THE TWO WAYS OF BEING CROST IN LOVE
+
+V. CLOVELLY COURT IN THE OLDEN TIME
+
+VI. THE COMBES OF THE FAR WEST
+
+VII. THE TRUE AND TRAGICAL HISTORY OF MR. JOHN OXENHAM OF PLYMOUTH
+
+VIII. HOW THE NOBLE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE WAS FOUNDED
+
+IX. HOW AMYAS KEPT HIS CHRISTMAS DAY
+
+X. HOW THE MAYOR OF BIDEFORD BAITED HIS HOOK WITH HIS OWN FLESH
+
+XI.  HOW EUSTACE LEIGH MET THE POPE'S LEGATE
+
+XII. HOW BIDEFORD BRIDGE DINED AT ANNERY HOUSE
+
+XIII. HOW THE GOLDEN HIND CAME HOME AGAIN
+
+XIV. HOW SALVATION YEO SLEW THE KING OF THE GUBBINGS
+
+XV. HOW MR. JOHN BRIMBLECOMBE UNDERSTOOD THE NATURE OF AN OATH
+
+XVI. THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE
+
+XVII. HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS, AND FOUND NO MEN THEREIN
+
+XVIII. HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS AT MARGARITA
+
+XIX. WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA
+
+XX. SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS
+
+XXI. HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION UNDER THE TREE AT HIGUEROTE
+
+XXII. THE INQUISITION IN THE INDIES
+
+XXIII. THE BANKS OF THE META
+
+XXIV. HOW AMYAS WAS TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL
+
+XXV. HOW THEY TOOK THE GOLD-TRAIN
+
+XXVI. HOW THEY TOOK THE GREAT GALLEON
+
+XXVII. HOW SALVATION YEO FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN
+
+XXVIII. HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE THIRD TIME
+
+XXIX. HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS STOPPED BY THE QUEEN'S COMMAND
+
+XXX. HOW THE ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS
+
+XXXI. THE GREAT ARMADA
+
+XXXII. HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA
+
+XXXIII. HOW AMYAS LET THE APPLE FALL
+
+
+
+WESTWARD HO!
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+HOW MR. OXENHAM SAW THE WHITE BIRD
+
+
+     "The hollow oak our palace is,
+        Our heritage the sea."
+
+
+All who have travelled through the delicious scenery of North Devon
+must needs know the little white town of Bideford, which slopes
+upwards from its broad tide-river paved with yellow sands, and
+many-arched old bridge where salmon wait for autumn floods, toward
+the pleasant upland on the west.  Above the town the hills close
+in, cushioned with deep oak woods, through which juts here and
+there a crag of fern-fringed slate; below they lower, and open more
+and more in softly rounded knolls, and fertile squares of red and
+green, till they sink into the wide expanse of hazy flats, rich
+salt-marshes, and rolling sand-hills, where Torridge joins her
+sister Taw, and both together flow quietly toward the broad surges
+of the bar, and the everlasting thunder of the long Atlantic swell.
+Pleasantly the old town stands there, beneath its soft Italian sky,
+fanned day and night by the fresh ocean breeze, which forbids alike
+the keen winter frosts, and the fierce thunder heats of the
+midland; and pleasantly it has stood there for now, perhaps, eight
+hundred years since the first Grenville, cousin of the Conqueror,
+returning from the conquest of South Wales, drew round him trusty
+Saxon serfs, and free Norse rovers with their golden curls, and
+dark Silurian Britons from the Swansea shore, and all the mingled
+blood which still gives to the seaward folk of the next county
+their strength and intellect, and, even in these levelling days,
+their peculiar beauty of face and form.
+
+But at the time whereof I write, Bideford was not merely a pleasant
+country town, whose quay was haunted by a few coasting craft.  It
+was one of the chief ports of England; it furnished seven ships to
+fight the Armada: even more than a century afterwards, say the
+chroniclers, "it sent more vessels to the northern trade than any
+port in England, saving (strange juxtaposition!) London and
+Topsham," and was the centre of a local civilization and
+enterprise, small perhaps compared with the vast efforts of the
+present day: but who dare despise the day of small things, if it
+has proved to be the dawn of mighty ones?  And it is to the sea-
+life and labor of Bideford, and Dartmouth, and Topsham, and
+Plymouth (then a petty place), and many another little western
+town, that England owes the foundation of her naval and commercial
+glory.  It was the men of Devon, the Drakes and Hawkins', Gilberts
+and Raleighs, Grenvilles and Oxenhams, and a host more of
+"forgotten worthies," whom we shall learn one day to honor as they
+deserve, to whom she owes her commerce, her colonies, her very
+existence.  For had they not first crippled, by their West Indian
+raids, the ill-gotten resources of the Spaniard, and then crushed
+his last huge effort in Britain's Salamis, the glorious fight of
+1588, what had we been by now but a popish appanage of a world-
+tyranny as cruel as heathen Rome itself, and far more devilish?
+
+It is in memory of these men, their voyages and their battles,
+their faith and their valor, their heroic lives and no less heroic
+deaths, that I write this book; and if now and then I shall seem to
+warm into a style somewhat too stilted and pompous, let me be
+excused for my subject's sake, fit rather to have been sung than
+said, and to have proclaimed to all true English hearts, not as a
+novel but as an epic (which some man may yet gird himself to
+write), the same great message which the songs of Troy, and the
+Persian wars, and the trophies of Marathon and Salamis, spoke to
+the hearts of all true Greeks of old.
+
+
+One bright summer's afternoon, in the year of grace 1575, a tall
+and fair boy came lingering along Bideford quay, in his scholar's
+gown, with satchel and slate in hand, watching wistfully the
+shipping and the sailors, till, just after he had passed the bottom
+of the High Street, he came opposite to one of the many taverns
+which looked out upon the river.  In the open bay window sat
+merchants and gentlemen, discoursing over their afternoon's draught
+of sack; and outside the door was gathered a group of sailors,
+listening earnestly to some one who stood in the midst.  The boy,
+all alive for any sea-news, must needs go up to them, and take his
+place among the sailor-lads who were peeping and whispering under
+the elbows of the men; and so came in for the following speech,
+delivered in a loud bold voice, with a strong Devonshire accent,
+and a fair sprinkling of oaths.
+
+"If you don't believe me, go and see, or stay here and grow all
+over blue mould.  I tell you, as I am a gentleman, I saw it with
+these eyes, and so did Salvation Yeo there, through a window in the
+lower room; and we measured the heap, as I am a christened man,
+seventy foot long, ten foot broad, and twelve foot high, of silver
+bars, and each bar between a thirty and forty pound weight.  And
+says Captain Drake: 'There, my lads of Devon, I've brought you to
+the mouth of the world's treasure-house, and it's your own fault
+now if you don't sweep it out as empty as a stock-fish.'"
+
+"Why didn't you bring some of they home, then, Mr. Oxenham?"
+
+"Why weren't you there to help to carry them?  We would have
+brought 'em away, safe enough, and young Drake and I had broke the
+door abroad already, but Captain Drake goes off in a dead faint;
+and when we came to look, he had a wound in his leg you might have
+laid three fingers in, and his boots were full of blood, and had
+been for an hour or more; but the heart of him was that, that he
+never knew it till he dropped, and then his brother and I got him
+away to the boats, he kicking and struggling, and bidding us let
+him go on with the fight, though every step he took in the sand was
+in a pool of blood; and so we got off.  And tell me, ye sons of
+shotten herrings, wasn't it worth more to save him than the dirty
+silver? for silver we can get again, brave boys: there's more fish
+in the sea than ever came out of it, and more silver in Nombre de
+Dios than would pave all the streets in the west country: but of
+such captains as Franky Drake, Heaven never makes but one at a
+time; and if we lose him, good-bye to England's luck, say I, and
+who don't agree, let him choose his weapons, and I'm his man."
+
+He who delivered this harangue was a tall and sturdy personage,
+with a florid black-bearded face, and bold restless dark eyes, who
+leaned, with crossed legs and arms akimbo, against the wall of the
+house; and seemed in the eyes of the schoolboy a very magnifico,
+some prince or duke at least.  He was dressed (contrary to all
+sumptuary laws of the time) in a suit of crimson velvet, a little
+the worse, perhaps, for wear; by his side were a long Spanish
+rapier and a brace of daggers, gaudy enough about the hilts; his
+fingers sparkled with rings; he had two or three gold chains about
+his neck, and large earrings in his ears, behind one of which a red
+rose was stuck jauntily enough among the glossy black curls; on his
+head was a broad velvet Spanish hat, in which instead of a feather
+was fastened with a great gold clasp a whole Quezal bird, whose
+gorgeous plumage of fretted golden green shone like one entire
+precious stone.  As he finished his speech, he took off the said
+hat, and looking at the bird in it--
+
+"Look ye, my lads, did you ever see such a fowl as that before?
+That's the bird which the old Indian kings of Mexico let no one
+wear but their own selves; and therefore I wear it,--I, John
+Oxenham of South Tawton, for a sign to all brave lads of Devon,
+that as the Spaniards are the masters of the Indians, we're the
+masters of the Spaniards:" and he replaced his hat.
+
+A murmur of applause followed: but one hinted that he "doubted the
+Spaniards were too many for them."
+
+"Too many?  How many men did we take Nombre de Dios with?  Seventy-
+three were we, and no more when we sailed out of Plymouth Sound;
+and before we saw the Spanish Main, half were gastados, used up, as
+the Dons say, with the scurvy; and in Port Pheasant Captain Rawse
+of Cowes fell in with us, and that gave us some thirty hands more;
+and with that handful, my lads, only fifty-three in all, we picked
+the lock of the new world!  And whom did we lose but our trumpeter,
+who stood braying like an ass in the middle of the square, instead
+of taking care of his neck like a Christian?  I tell you, those
+Spaniards are rank cowards, as all bullies are.  They pray to a
+woman, the idolatrous rascals! and no wonder they fight like
+women."
+
+"You'm right, captain," sang out a tall gaunt fellow who stood
+close to him; "one westcountry-man can fight two easterlings, and
+an easterling can beat three Dons any day.  Eh! my lads of Devon?
+
+
+     "For O! it's the herrings and the good brown beef,
+        And the cider and the cream so white;
+      O! they are the making of the jolly Devon lads,
+        For to play, and eke to fight."
+
+
+"Come," said Oxenham, "come along!  Who lists? who lists? who'll
+make his fortune?
+
+
+     "Oh, who will join, jolly mariners all?
+        And who will join, says he, O!
+      To fill his pockets with the good red goold,
+        By sailing on the sea, O!"
+
+
+"Who'll list?" cried the gaunt man again; "now's your time!  We've
+got forty men to Plymouth now, ready to sail the minute we get
+back, and we want a dozen out of you Bideford men, and just a boy
+or two, and then we'm off and away, and make our fortunes, or go to
+heaven.
+
+
+     "Our bodies in the sea so deep,
+        Our souls in heaven to rest!
+      Where valiant seamen, one and all,
+        Hereafter shall be blest!"
+
+
+"Now," said Oxenham, "you won't let the Plymouth men say that the
+Bideford men daren't follow them?  North Devon against South, it
+is.  Who'll join? who'll join?  It is but a step of a way, after
+all, and sailing as smooth as a duck-pond as soon as you're past
+Cape Finisterre.  I'll run a Clovelly herring-boat there and back
+for a wager of twenty pound, and never ship a bucketful all the
+way.  Who'll join?  Don't think you're buying a pig in a poke.  I
+know the road, and Salvation Yeo, here, too, who was the gunner's
+mate, as well as I do the narrow seas, and better.  You ask him to
+show you the chart of it, now, and see if he don't tell you over
+the ruttier as well as Drake himself."
+
+On which the gaunt man pulled from under his arm a great white
+buffalo horn covered with rough etchings of land and sea, and held
+it up to the admiring ring.
+
+"See here, boys all, and behold the pictur of the place, dra'ed out
+so natural as ever was life.  I got mun from a Portingal, down to
+the Azores; and he'd pricked mun out, and pricked mun out,
+wheresoever he'd sailed, and whatsoever he'd seen.  Take mun in
+your hands now, Simon Evans, take mun in your hands; look mun over,
+and I'll warrant you'll know the way in five minutes so well as
+ever a shark in the seas."
+
+And the horn was passed from hand to hand; while Oxenham, who saw
+that his hearers were becoming moved, called through the open
+window for a great tankard of sack, and passed that from hand to
+hand, after the horn.
+
+The school-boy, who had been devouring with eyes and ears all which
+passed, and had contrived by this time to edge himself into the
+inner ring, now stood face to face with the hero of the emerald
+crest, and got as many peeps as he could at the wonder.  But when
+he saw the sailors, one after another, having turned it over a
+while, come forward and offer to join Mr. Oxenham, his soul burned
+within him for a nearer view of that wondrous horn, as magical in
+its effects as that of Tristrem, or the enchanter's in Ariosto; and
+when the group had somewhat broken up, and Oxenham was going into
+the tavern with his recruits, he asked boldly for a nearer sight of
+the marvel, which was granted at once.
+
+And now to his astonished gaze displayed themselves cities and
+harbors, dragons and elephants, whales which fought with sharks,
+plate ships of Spain, islands with apes and palm-trees, each with
+its name over-written, and here and there, "Here is gold;" and
+again, "Much gold and silver;" inserted most probably, as the words
+were in English, by the hands of Mr. Oxenham himself.  Lingeringly
+and longingly the boy turned it round and round, and thought the
+owner of it more fortunate than Khan or Kaiser.  Oh, if he could
+but possess that horn, what needed he on earth beside to make him
+blest!
+
+"I say, will you sell this?"
+
+"Yea, marry, or my own soul, if I can get the worth of it."
+
+"I want the horn,--I don't want your soul; it's somewhat of a stale
+sole, for aught I know; and there are plenty of fresh ones in the
+bay."
+
+And therewith, after much fumbling, he pulled out a tester (the
+only one he had), and asked if that would buy it?
+
+"That! no, nor twenty of them."
+
+The boy thought over what a good knight-errant would do in such
+case, and then answered, "Tell you what: I'll fight you for it."
+
+"Thank 'ee, sir!
+
+"Break the jackanapes's head for him, Yeo," said Oxenham.
+
+"Call me jackanapes again, and I break yours, sir."  And the boy
+lifted his fist fiercely.
+
+Oxenham looked at him a minute smilingly.  "Tut! tut! my man, hit
+one of your own size, if you will, and spare little folk like me!"
+
+"If I have a boy's age, sir, I have a man's fist.  I shall be
+fifteen years old this month, and know how to answer any one who
+insults me."
+
+"Fifteen, my young cockerel? you look liker twenty," said Oxenham,
+with an admiring glance at the lad's broad limbs, keen blue eyes,
+curling golden locks, and round honest face.  "Fifteen?  If I had
+half-a-dozen such lads as you, I would make knights of them before
+I died.  Eh, Yeo?"
+
+"He'll do," said Yeo; "he will make a brave gamecock in a year or
+two, if he dares ruffle up so early at a tough old hen-master like
+the captain."
+
+At which there was a general laugh, in which Oxenham joined as
+loudly as any, and then bade the lad tell him why he was so keen
+after the horn.
+
+"Because," said he, looking up boldly, "I want to go to sea.  I
+want to see the Indies.  I want to fight the Spaniards.  Though I
+am a gentleman's son, I'd a deal liever be a cabin-boy on board
+your ship."  And the lad, having hurried out his say fiercely
+enough, dropped his head again.
+
+"And you shall," cried Oxenham, with a great oath; "and take a
+galloon, and dine off carbonadoed Dons.  Whose son are you, my
+gallant fellow?"
+
+"Mr. Leigh's, of Burrough Court."
+
+"Bless his soul!  I know him as well as I do the Eddystone, and his
+kitchen too.  Who sups with him to-night?"
+
+"Sir Richard Grenville."
+
+"Dick Grenville?  I did not know he was in town.  Go home and tell
+your father John Oxenham will come and keep him company.  There,
+off with you!  I'll make all straight with the good gentleman, and
+you shall have your venture with me; and as for the horn, let him
+have the horn, Yeo, and I'll give you a noble for it."
+
+"Not a penny, noble captain.  If young master will take a poor
+mariner's gift, there it is, for the sake of his love to the
+calling, and Heaven send him luck therein."  And the good fellow,
+with the impulsive generosity of a true sailor, thrust the horn
+into the boy's hands, and walked away to escape thanks.
+
+"And now," quoth Oxenham, "my merry men all, make up your minds
+what mannered men you be minded to be before you take your
+bounties.  I want none of your rascally lurching longshore vermin,
+who get five pounds out of this captain, and ten out of that, and
+let him sail without them after all, while they are stowed away
+under women's mufflers, and in tavern cellars.  If any man is of
+that humor, he had better to cut himself up, and salt himself down
+in a barrel for pork, before he meets me again; for by this light,
+let me catch him, be it seven years hence, and if I do not cut his
+throat upon the streets, it's a pity!  But if any man will be true
+brother to me, true brother to him I'll be, come wreck or prize,
+storm or calm, salt water or fresh, victuals or none, share and
+fare alike; and here's my hand upon it, for every man and all! and
+so--
+
+
+     "Westward ho! with a rumbelow,
+        And hurra for the Spanish Main, O!"
+
+
+After which oration Mr. Oxenham swaggered into the tavern, followed
+by his new men; and the boy took his way homewards, nursing his
+precious horn, trembling between hope and fear, and blushing with
+maidenly shame, and a half-sense of wrong-doing at having revealed
+suddenly to a stranger the darling wish which he had hidden from
+his father and mother ever since he was ten years old.
+
+Now this young gentleman, Amyas Leigh, though come of as good blood
+as any in Devon, and having lived all his life in what we should
+even now call the very best society, and being (on account of the
+valor, courtesy, and truly noble qualities which he showed forth in
+his most eventful life) chosen by me as the hero and centre of this
+story, was not, saving for his good looks, by any means what would
+be called now-a-days an "interesting" youth, still less a "highly
+educated" one; for, with the exception of a little Latin, which had
+been driven into him by repeated blows, as if it had been a nail,
+he knew no books whatsoever, save his Bible, his Prayer-book, the
+old "Mort d'Arthur" of Caxton's edition, which lay in the great bay
+window in the hall, and the translation of "Las Casas' History of
+the West Indies," which lay beside it, lately done into English
+under the title of "The Cruelties of the Spaniards."  He devoutly
+believed in fairies, whom he called pixies; and held that they
+changed babies, and made the mushroom rings on the downs to dance
+in.  When he had warts or burns, he went to the white witch at
+Northam to charm them away; he thought that the sun moved round the
+earth, and that the moon had some kindred with a Cheshire cheese.
+He held that the swallows slept all the winter at the bottom of the
+horse-pond; talked, like Raleigh, Grenville, and other low persons,
+with a broad Devonshire accent; and was in many other respects so
+very ignorant a youth, that any pert monitor in a national school
+might have had a hearty laugh at him.  Nevertheless, this ignorant
+young savage, vacant of the glorious gains of the nineteenth
+century, children's literature and science made easy, and, worst of
+all, of those improved views of English history now current among
+our railway essayists, which consist in believing all persons, male
+and female, before the year 1688, and nearly all after it, to have
+been either hypocrites or fools, had learnt certain things which he
+would hardly have been taught just now in any school in England;
+for his training had been that of the old Persians, "to speak the
+truth and to draw the bow," both of which savage virtues he had
+acquired to perfection, as well as the equally savage ones of
+enduring pain cheerfully, and of believing it to be the finest
+thing in the world to be a gentleman; by which word he had been
+taught to understand the careful habit of causing needless pain to
+no human being, poor or rich, and of taking pride in giving up his
+own pleasure for the sake of those who were weaker than himself.
+Moreover, having been entrusted for the last year with the breaking
+of a colt, and the care of a cast of young hawks which his father
+had received from Lundy Isle, he had been profiting much, by the
+means of those coarse and frivolous amusements, in perseverance,
+thoughtfulness, and the habit of keeping his temper; and though he
+had never had a single "object lesson," or been taught to "use his
+intellectual powers," he knew the names and ways of every bird, and
+fish, and fly, and could read, as cunningly as the oldest sailor,
+the meaning of every drift of cloud which crossed the heavens.
+Lastly, he had been for some time past, on account of his
+extraordinary size and strength, undisputed cock of the school, and
+the most terrible fighter among all Bideford boys; in which brutal
+habit he took much delight, and contrived, strange as it may seem,
+to extract from it good, not only for himself but for others, doing
+justice among his school-fellows with a heavy hand, and succoring
+the oppressed and afflicted; so that he was the terror of all the
+sailor-lads, and the pride and stay of all the town's boys and
+girls, and hardly considered that he had done his duty in his
+calling if he went home without beating a big lad for bullying a
+little one.  For the rest, he never thought about thinking, or felt
+about feeling; and had no ambition whatsoever beyond pleasing his
+father and mother, getting by honest means the maximum of "red
+quarrenders" and mazard cherries, and going to sea when he was big
+enough.  Neither was he what would be now-a-days called by many a
+pious child; for though he said his Creed and Lord's Prayer night
+and morning, and went to the service at the church every forenoon,
+and read the day's Psalms with his mother every evening, and had
+learnt from her and from his father (as he proved well in after
+life) that it was infinitely noble to do right and infinitely base
+to do wrong, yet (the age of children's religious books not having
+yet dawned on the world) he knew nothing more of theology, or of
+his own soul, than is contained in the Church Catechism.  It is a
+question, however, on the whole, whether, though grossly ignorant
+(according to our modern notions) in science and religion, he was
+altogether untrained in manhood, virtue, and godliness; and whether
+the barbaric narrowness of his information was not somewhat
+counterbalanced both in him and in the rest of his generation by
+the depth, and breadth, and healthiness of his education.
+
+So let us watch him up the hill as he goes hugging his horn, to
+tell all that has passed to his mother, from whom he had never
+hidden anything in his life, save only that sea-fever; and that
+only because he foreknew that it would give her pain; and because,
+moreover, being a prudent and sensible lad, he knew that he was not
+yet old enough to go, and that, as he expressed it to her that
+afternoon, "there was no use hollaing till he was out of the wood."
+
+So he goes up between the rich lane-banks, heavy with drooping
+ferns and honeysuckle; out upon the windy down toward the old
+Court, nestled amid its ring of wind-clipt oaks; through the gray
+gateway into the homeclose; and then he pauses a moment to look
+around; first at the wide bay to the westward, with its southern
+wall of purple cliffs; then at the dim Isle of Lundy far away at
+sea; then at the cliffs and downs of Morte and Braunton, right in
+front of him; then at the vast yellow sheet of rolling sand-hill,
+and green alluvial plain dotted with red cattle, at his feet,
+through which the silver estuary winds onward toward the sea.
+Beneath him, on his right, the Torridge, like a land-locked lake,
+sleeps broad and bright between the old park of Tapeley and the
+charmed rock of the Hubbastone, where, seven hundred years ago, the
+Norse rovers landed to lay siege to Kenwith Castle, a mile away on
+his left hand; and not three fields away, are the old stones of
+"The Bloody Corner," where the retreating Danes, cut off from their
+ships, made their last fruitless stand against the Saxon sheriff
+and the valiant men of Devon.  Within that charmed rock, so
+Torridge boatmen tell, sleeps now the old Norse Viking in his
+leaden coffin, with all his fairy treasure and his crown of gold;
+and as the boy looks at the spot, he fancies, and almost hopes,
+that the day may come when he shall have to do his duty against the
+invader as boldly as the men of Devon did then.  And past him, far
+below, upon the soft southeastern breeze, the stately ships go
+sliding out to sea.  When shall he sail in them, and see the
+wonders of the deep?  And as he stands there with beating heart and
+kindling eye, the cool breeze whistling through his long fair
+curls, he is a symbol, though he knows it not, of brave young
+England longing to wing its way out of its island prison, to
+discover and to traffic, to colonize and to civilize, until no wind
+can sweep the earth which does not bear the echoes of an English
+voice.  Patience, young Amyas!  Thou too shalt forth, and westward
+ho, beyond thy wildest dreams; and see brave sights, and do brave
+deeds, which no man has since the foundation of the world.  Thou
+too shalt face invaders stronger and more cruel far than Dane or
+Norman, and bear thy part in that great Titan strife before the
+renown of which the name of Salamis shall fade away!
+
+Mr. Oxenham came that evening to supper as he had promised: but as
+people supped in those days in much the same manner as they do now,
+we may drop the thread of the story for a few hours, and take it up
+again after supper is over.
+
+"Come now, Dick Grenville, do thou talk the good man round, and
+I'll warrant myself to talk round the good wife."
+
+The personage whom Oxenham addressed thus familiarly answered by a
+somewhat sarcastic smile, and, "Mr. Oxenham gives Dick Grenville"
+(with just enough emphasis on the "Mr." and the "Dick," to hint
+that a liberty had been taken with him) "overmuch credit with the
+men.  Mr. Oxenham's credit with fair ladies, none can doubt.
+Friend Leigh, is Heard's great ship home yet from the Straits?"
+
+The speaker, known well in those days as Sir Richard Grenville,
+Granville, Greenvil, Greenfield, with two or three other
+variations, was one of those truly heroical personages whom
+Providence, fitting always the men to their age and their work, had
+sent upon the earth whereof it takes right good care, not in
+England only, but in Spain and Italy, in Germany and the
+Netherlands, and wherever, in short, great men and great deeds were
+needed to lift the mediaeval world into the modern.
+
+And, among all the heroic faces which the painters of that age have
+preserved, none, perhaps, hardly excepting Shakespeare's or
+Spenser's, Alva's or Farina's, is more heroic than that of Richard
+Grenville, as it stands in Prince's "Worthies of Devon;" of a
+Spanish type, perhaps (or more truly speaking, a Cornish), rather
+than an English, with just enough of the British element in it to
+give delicacy to its massiveness.  The forehead and whole brain are
+of extraordinary loftiness, and perfectly upright; the nose long,
+aquiline, and delicately pointed; the mouth fringed with a short
+silky beard, small and ripe, yet firm as granite, with just pout
+enough of the lower lip to give hint of that capacity of noble
+indignation which lay hid under its usual courtly calm and
+sweetness; if there be a defect in the face, it is that the eyes
+are somewhat small, and close together, and the eyebrows, though
+delicately arched, and, without a trace of peevishness, too closely
+pressed down upon them, the complexion is dark, the figure tall and
+graceful; altogether the likeness of a wise and gallant gentleman,
+lovely to all good men, awful to all bad men; in whose presence
+none dare say or do a mean or a ribald thing; whom brave men left,
+feeling themselves nerved to do their duty better, while cowards
+slipped away, as bats and owls before the sun.  So he lived and
+moved, whether in the Court of Elizabeth, giving his counsel among
+the wisest; or in the streets of Bideford, capped alike by squire
+and merchant, shopkeeper and sailor; or riding along the moorland
+roads between his houses of Stow and Bideford, while every woman
+ran out to her door to look at the great Sir Richard, the pride of
+North Devon; or, sitting there in the low mullioned window at
+Burrough, with his cup of malmsey before him, and the lute to which
+he had just been singing laid across his knees, while the red
+western sun streamed in upon his high, bland forehead, and soft
+curling locks; ever the same steadfast, God-fearing, chivalrous
+man, conscious (as far as a soul so healthy could be conscious) of
+the pride of beauty, and strength, and valor, and wisdom, and a
+race and name which claimed direct descent from the grandfather of
+the Conqueror, and was tracked down the centuries by valiant deeds
+and noble benefits to his native shire, himself the noblest of his
+race.  Men said that he was proud; but he could not look round him
+without having something to be proud of; that he was stern and
+harsh to his sailors: but it was only when he saw in them any taint
+of cowardice or falsehood; that he was subject, at moments, to such
+fearful fits of rage, that he had been seen to snatch the glasses
+from the table, grind them to pieces in his teeth, and swallow
+them: but that was only when his indignation had been aroused by
+some tale of cruelty or oppression, and, above all, by those West
+Indian devilries of the Spaniards, whom he regarded (and in those
+days rightly enough) as the enemies of God and man.  Of this last
+fact Oxenham was well aware, and therefore felt somewhat puzzled
+and nettled, when, after having asked Mr. Leigh's leave to take
+young Amyas with him and set forth in glowing colors the purpose of
+his voyage, he found Sir Richard utterly unwilling to help him with
+his suit.
+
+"Heyday, Sir Richard!  You are not surely gone over to the side of
+those canting fellows (Spanish Jesuits in disguise, every one of
+them, they are), who pretended to turn up their noses at Franky
+Drake, as a pirate, and be hanged to them?"
+
+"My friend Oxenham," answered he, in the sententious and measured
+style of the day, "I have always held, as you should know by this,
+that Mr. Drake's booty, as well as my good friend Captain
+Hawkins's, is lawful prize, as being taken from the Spaniard, who
+is not only hostis humani generis, but has no right to the same,
+having robbed it violently, by torture and extreme iniquity, from
+the poor Indian, whom God avenge, as He surely will."
+
+"Amen," said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"I say Amen, too," quoth Oxenham, "especially if it please Him to
+avenge them by English hands."
+
+"And I also," went on Sir Richard; "for the rightful owners of the
+said goods being either miserably dead, or incapable, by reason of
+their servitude, of ever recovering any share thereof, the
+treasure, falsely called Spanish, cannot be better bestowed than in
+building up the state of England against them, our natural enemies;
+and thereby, in building up the weal of the Reformed Churches
+throughout the world, and the liberties of all nations, against a
+tyranny more foul and rapacious than that of Nero or Caligula;
+which, if it be not the cause of God, I, for one, know not what
+God's cause is!"  And, as he warmed in his speech, his eyes flashed
+very fire.
+
+"Hark now!" said Oxenham, "who can speak more boldly than he? and
+yet he will not help this lad to so noble an adventure."
+
+"You have asked his father and mother; what is their answer?"
+
+"Mine is this," said Mr. Leigh; "if it be God's will that my boy
+should become, hereafter, such a mariner as Sir Richard Grenville,
+let him go, and God be with him; but let him first bide here at
+home and be trained, if God give me grace, to become such a
+gentleman as Sir Richard Grenville."
+
+Sir Richard bowed low, and Mrs. Leigh catching up the last word--
+
+"There, Mr. Oxenham, you cannot gainsay that, unless you will be
+discourteous to his worship.  And for me--though it be a weak
+woman's reason, yet it is a mother's: he is my only child.  His
+elder brother is far away.  God only knows whether I shall see him
+again; and what are all reports of his virtues and his learning to
+me, compared to that sweet presence which I daily miss?  Ah! Mr.
+Oxenham, my beautiful Joseph is gone; and though he be lord of
+Pharaoh's household, yet he is far away in Egypt; and you will take
+Benjamm also!  Ah! Mr. Oxenham, you have no child, or you would not
+ask for mine!"
+
+"And how do you know that, my sweet madam!" said the adventurer,
+turning first deadly pale, and then glowing red.  Her last words
+had touched him to the quick in some unexpected place; and rising,
+he courteously laid her hand to his lips, and said--"I say no more.
+Farewell, sweet madam, and God send all men such wives as you."
+
+"And all wives," said she, smiling, "such husbands as mine."
+
+"Nay, I will not say that," answered he, with a half sneer--and
+then, "Farewell, friend Leigh--farewell, gallant Dick Grenville.
+God send I see thee Lord High Admiral when I come home.  And yet,
+why should I come home?  Will you pray for poor Jack, gentles?"
+
+"Tut, tut, man! good words," said Leigh; "let us drink to our merry
+meeting before you go."  And rising, and putting the tankard of
+malmsey to his lips, he passed it to Sir Richard, who rose, and
+saying, "To the fortune of a bold mariner and a gallant gentleman,"
+drank, and put the cup into Oxenham's hand.
+
+The adventurer's face was flushed, and his eye wild.  Whether from
+the liquor he had drunk during the day, or whether from Mrs.
+Leigh's last speech, he had not been himself for a few minutes.  He
+lifted the cup, and was in act to pledge them, when he suddenly
+dropped it on the table, and pointed, staring and trembling, up and
+down, and round the room, as if following some fluttering object.
+
+"There!  Do you see it?  The bird!--the bird with the white
+breast!"
+
+Each looked at the other; but Leigh, who was a quick-witted man and
+an old courtier, forced a laugh instantly, and cried--"Nonsense,
+brave Jack Oxenham!  Leave white birds for men who will show the
+white feather.  Mrs. Leigh waits to pledge you."
+
+Oxenham recovered himself in a moment, pledged them all round,
+drinking deep and fiercely; and after hearty farewells, departed,
+never hinting again at his strange exclamation.
+
+After he was gone, and while Leigh was attending him to the door,
+Mrs. Leigh and Grenville kept a few minutes' dead silence.  At
+last--"God help him!" said she.
+
+"Amen!" said Grenville, "for he never needed it more.  But, indeed,
+madam, I put no faith in such omens."
+
+"But, Sir Richard, that bird has been seen for generations before
+the death of any of his family.  I know those who were at South
+Tawton when his mother died, and his brother also; and they both
+saw it.  God help him! for, after all, he is a proper man."
+
+"So many a lady has thought before now, Mrs. Leigh, and well for
+him if they had not.  But, indeed, I make no account of omens.
+When God is ready for each man, then he must go; and when can he go
+better?"
+
+"But," said Mr. Leigh, who entered, "I have seen, and especially
+when I was in Italy, omens and prophecies before now beget their
+own fulfilment, by driving men into recklessness, and making them
+run headlong upon that very ruin which, as they fancied, was
+running upon them."
+
+"And which," said Sir Richard, "they might have avoided, if,
+instead of trusting in I know not what dumb and dark destiny, they
+had trusted in the living God, by faith in whom men may remove
+mountains, and quench the fire, and put to flight the armies of the
+alien.  I too know, and know not how I know, that I shall never die
+in my bed."
+
+"God forfend! " cried Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"And why, fair madam, if I die doing my duty to my God and my
+queen?  The thought never moves me: nay, to tell the truth, I pray
+often enough that I may be spared the miseries of imbecile old age,
+and that end which the old Northmen rightly called 'a cow's death'
+rather than a man's.  But enough of this.  Mr. Leigh, you have done
+wisely to-night.  Poor Oxenham does not go on his voyage with a
+single eye.  I have talked about him with Drake and Hawkins; and I
+guess why Mrs. Leigh touched him so home when she told him that he
+had no child."
+
+"Has he one, then, in the West Indies?" cried the good lady.
+
+"God knows; and God grant we may not hear of shame and sorrow
+fallen upon an ancient and honorable house of Devon.  My brother
+Stukely is woe enough to North Devon for this generation."
+
+"Poor braggadocio!" said Mr. Leigh; "and yet not altogether that
+too, for he can fight at least."
+
+"So can every mastiff and boar, much more an Englishman.  And now
+come hither to me, my adventurous godson, and don't look in such
+doleful dumps.  I hear you have broken all the sailor-boys' heads
+already."
+
+"Nearly all," said young Amyas, with due modesty..  "But am I not
+to go to sea?"
+
+"All things in their time, my boy, and God forbid that either I or
+your worthy parents should keep you from that noble calling which
+is the safeguard of this England and her queen.  But you do not
+wish to live and die the master of a trawler?"
+
+"I should like to be a brave adventurer, like Mr. Oxenham."
+
+"God grant you become a braver man than he! for, as I think, to be
+bold against the enemy is common to the brutes; but the prerogative
+of a man is to be bold against himself."
+
+"How, sir?"
+
+"To conquer our own fancies, Amyas, and our own lusts, and our
+ambition, in the sacred name of duty; this it is to be truly brave,
+and truly strong; for he who cannot rule himself, how can he rule
+his crew or his fortunes?  Come, now, I will make you a promise.
+If you will bide quietly at home, and learn from your father and
+mother all which befits a gentleman and a Christian, as well as a
+seaman, the day shall come when you shall sail with Richard
+Grenville himself, or with better men than he, on a nobler errand
+than gold-hunting on the Spanish Main."
+
+"O my boy, my boy!" said Mrs. Leigh, "hear what the good Sir
+Richard promises you.  Many an earl's son would be glad to be in
+your place."
+
+"And many an earl's son will be glad to be in his place a score
+years hence, if he will but learn what I know you two can teach
+him.  And now, Amyas, my lad, I will tell you for a warning the
+history of that Sir Thomas Stukely of whom I spoke just now, and
+who was, as all men know, a gallant and courtly knight, of an
+ancient and worshipful family in Ilfracombe, well practised in the
+wars, and well beloved at first by our incomparable queen, the
+friend of all true virtue, as I trust she will be of yours some
+day; who wanted but one step to greatness, and that was this, that
+in his hurry to rule all the world, he forgot to rule himself.  At
+first, he wasted his estate in show and luxury, always intending to
+be famous, and destroying his own fame all the while by his
+vainglory and haste.  Then, to retrieve his losses, he hit upon the
+peopling of Florida, which thou and I will see done some day, by
+God's blessing; for I and some good friends of mine have an errand
+there as well as he.  But he did not go about it as a loyal man, to
+advance the honor of his queen, but his own honor only, dreaming
+that he too should be a king; and was not ashamed to tell her
+majesty that he had rather be sovereign of a molehill than the
+highest subject of an emperor."
+
+"They say," said Mr. Leigh, "that he told her plainly he should be
+a prince before he died, and that she gave him one of her pretty
+quips in return."
+
+"I don't know that her majesty had the best of it.  A fool is many
+times too strong for a wise man, by virtue of his thick hide.  For
+when she said that she hoped she should hear from him in his new
+principality, 'Yes, sooth,' says he, graciously enough.  'And in
+what style?' asks she.  'To our dear sister,' says Stukely: to
+which her clemency had nothing to reply, but turned away, as Mr.
+Burleigh told me, laughing."
+
+"Alas for him!" said gentle Mrs. Leigh.  "Such self-conceit--and
+Heaven knows we have the root of it in ourselves also--is the very
+daughter of self-will, and of that loud crying out about I, and me,
+and mine, which is the very bird-call for all devils, and the broad
+road which leads to death."
+
+"It will lead him to his," said Sir Richard; "God grant it be not
+upon Tower-hill! for since that Florida plot, and after that his
+hopes of Irish preferment came to naught, he who could not help
+himself by fair means has taken to foul ones, and gone over to
+Italy to the Pope, whose infallibility has not been proof against
+Stukely's wit; for he was soon his Holiness's closet counsellor,
+and, they say, his bosom friend; and made him give credit to his
+boasts that, with three thousand soldiers he would beat the English
+out of Ireland, and make the Pope's son king of it."
+
+"Ay, but," said Mr. Leigh, "I suppose the Italians have the same
+fetch now as they had when I was there, to explain such ugly cases;
+namely, that the Pope is infallible only in doctrine, and quoad
+Pope; while quoad hominem, he is even as others, or indeed, in
+general, a deal worse, so that the office, and not the man, may be
+glorified thereby.  But where is Stukely now?"
+
+"At Rome when last I heard of him, ruffling it up and down the
+Vatican as Baron Ross, Viscount Murrough, Earl Wexford, Marquis
+Leinster, and a title or two more, which have cost the Pope little,
+seeing that they never were his to give; and plotting, they say,
+some hare-brained expedition against Ireland by the help of the
+Spanish king, which must end in nothing but his shame and ruin.
+And now, my sweet hosts, I must call for serving-boy and lantern,
+and home to my bed in Bideford."
+
+And so Amyas Leigh went back to school, and Mr. Oxenham went his
+way to Plymouth again, and sailed for the Spanish Main.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE FIRST TIME
+
+
+"Si taceant homines, facient te sidera notum,
+    Sol nescit comitis immemor esse sui."
+
+                        Old Epigram on Drake.
+
+
+Five years are past and gone.  It is nine of the clock on a still,
+bright November morning; but the bells of Bideford church are still
+ringing for the daily service two hours after the usual time; and
+instead of going soberly according to wont, cannot help breaking
+forth every five minutes into a jocund peal, and tumbling head over
+heels in ecstasies of joy.  Bideford streets are a very flower-
+garden of all the colors, swarming with seamen and burghers, and
+burghers' wives and daughters, all in their holiday attire.
+Garlands are hung across the streets, and tapestries from every
+window.  The ships in the pool are dressed in all their flags, and
+give tumultuous vent to their feelings by peals of ordnance of
+every size.  Every stable is crammed with horses; and Sir Richard
+Grenville's house is like a very tavern, with eating and drinking,
+and unsaddling, and running to and fro of grooms and serving-men.
+Along the little churchyard, packed full with women, streams all
+the gentle blood of North Devon,--tall and stately men, and fair
+ladies, worthy of the days when the gentry of England were by due
+right the leaders of the people, by personal prowess and beauty, as
+well as by intellect and education.  And first, there is my lady
+Countess of Bath, whom Sir Richard Grenville is escorting, cap in
+hand (for her good Earl Bourchier is in London with the queen); and
+there are Bassets from beautiful Umberleigh, and Carys from more
+beautiful Clovelly, and Fortescues of Wear, and Fortescues of
+Buckland, and Fortescues from all quarters, and Coles from Slade,
+and Stukelys from Affton, and St. Legers from Annery, and Coffins
+from Portledge, and even Coplestones from Eggesford, thirty miles
+away: and last, but not least (for almost all stop to give them
+place), Sir John Chichester of Ralegh, followed in single file,
+after the good old patriarchal fashion, by his eight daughters, and
+three of his five famous sons (one, to avenge his murdered brother,
+is fighting valiantly in Ireland, hereafter to rule there wisely
+also, as Lord Deputy and Baron of Belfast); and he meets at the
+gate his cousin of Arlington, and behind him a train of four
+daughters and nineteen sons, the last of whom has not yet passed
+the town-hall, while the first is at the Lychgate, who, laughing,
+make way for the elder though shorter branch of that most fruitful
+tree; and so on into the church, where all are placed according to
+their degrees, or at least as near as may be, not without a few
+sour looks, and shovings, and whisperings, from one high-born
+matron and another; till the churchwardens and sidesmen, who never
+had before so goodly a company to arrange, have bustled themselves
+hot, and red, and frantic, and end by imploring abjectly the help
+of the great Sir Richard himself to tell them who everybody is, and
+which is the elder branch, and which is the younger, and who
+carries eight quarterings in their arms, and who only four, and so
+prevent their setting at deadly feud half the fine ladies of North
+Devon; for the old men are all safe packed away in the corporation
+pews, and the young ones care only to get a place whence they may
+eye the ladies.  And at last there is a silence, and a looking
+toward the door, and then distant music, flutes and hautboys, drums
+and trumpets, which come braying, and screaming, and thundering
+merrily up to the very church doors, and then cease; and the
+churchwardens and sidesmen bustle down to the entrance, rods in
+hand, and there is a general whisper and rustle, not without glad
+tears and blessings from many a woman, and from some men also, as
+the wonder of the day enters, and the rector begins, not the
+morning service, but the good old thanksgiving after a victory at
+sea.
+
+And what is it which has thus sent old Bideford wild with that
+"goodly joy and pious mirth," of which we now only retain
+traditions in our translation of the Psalms?  Why are all eyes
+fixed, with greedy admiration, on those four weather-beaten
+mariners, decked out with knots and ribbons by loving hands; and
+yet more on that gigantic figure who walks before them, a beardless
+boy, and yet with the frame and stature of a Hercules, towering,
+like Saul of old, a head and shoulders above all the congregation,
+with his golden locks flowing down over his shoulders?  And why, as
+the five go instinctively up to the altar, and there fall on their
+knees before the rails, are all eyes turned to the pew where Mrs.
+Leigh of Burrough has hid her face between her hands, and her hood
+rustles and shakes to her joyful sobs?  Because there was fellow-
+feeling of old in merry England, in county and in town; and these
+are Devon men, and men of Bideford, whose names are Amyas Leigh of
+Burrough, John Staveley, Michael Heard, and Jonas Marshall of
+Bideford, and Thomas Braund of Clovelly: and they, the first of all
+English mariners, have sailed round the world with Francis Drake,
+and are come hither to give God thanks.
+
+It is a long story.  To explain how it happened we must go back for
+a page or two, almost to the point from whence we started in the
+last chapter.
+
+For somewhat more than a twelvemonth after Mr. Oxenham's departure,
+young Amyas had gone on quietly enough, according to promise, with
+the exception of certain occasional outbursts of fierceness common
+to all young male animals, and especially to boys of any strength
+of character.  His scholarship, indeed, progressed no better than
+before; but his home education went on healthily enough; and he was
+fast becoming, young as he was, a right good archer, and rider, and
+swordsman (after the old school of buckler practice), when his
+father, having gone down on business to the Exeter Assizes, caught
+(as was too common in those days) the gaol-fever from the
+prisoners; sickened in the very court; and died within a week.
+
+And now Mrs. Leigh was left to God and her own soul, with this
+young lion-cub in leash, to tame and train for this life and the
+life to come.  She had loved her husband fervently and holily.  He
+had been often peevish, often melancholy; for he was a disappointed
+man, with an estate impoverished by his father's folly, and his own
+youthful ambition, which had led him up to Court, and made him
+waste his heart and his purse in following a vain shadow.  He was
+one of those men, moreover, who possess almost every gift except
+the gift of the power to use them; and though a scholar, a
+courtier, and a soldier, he had found himself, when he was past
+forty, without settled employment or aim in life, by reason of a
+certain shyness, pride, or delicate honor (call it which you will),
+which had always kept him from playing a winning game in that very
+world after whose prizes he hankered to the last, and on which he
+revenged himself by continual grumbling.  At last, by his good
+luck, he met with a fair young Miss Foljambe, of Derbyshire, then
+about Queen Elizabeth's Court, who was as tired as he of the sins
+of the world, though she had seen less of them; and the two
+contrived to please each other so well, that though the queen
+grumbled a little, as usual, at the lady for marrying, and at the
+gentleman for adoring any one but her royal self, they got leave to
+vanish from the little Babylon at Whitehall, and settle in peace at
+Burrough.  In her he found a treasure, and he knew what he had
+found.
+
+Mrs. Leigh was, and had been from her youth, one of those noble old
+English churchwomen, without superstition, and without severity,
+who are among the fairest features of that heroic time.  There was
+a certain melancholy about her, nevertheless; for the recollections
+of her childhood carried her back to times when it was an awful
+thing to be a Protestant.  She could remember among them, five-and-
+twenty years ago, the burning of poor blind Joan Waste at Derby,
+and of Mistress Joyce Lewis, too, like herself, a lady born; and
+sometimes even now, in her nightly dreams, rang in her ears her
+mother's bitter cries to God, either to spare her that fiery
+torment, or to give her strength to bear it, as she whom she loved
+had borne it before her.  For her mother, who was of a good family
+in Yorkshire, had been one of Queen Catherine's bedchamber women,
+and the bosom friend and disciple of Anne Askew.  And she had sat
+in Smithfield, with blood curdled by horror, to see the hapless
+Court beauty, a month before the paragon of Henry's Court, carried
+in a chair (so crippled was she by the rack) to her fiery doom at
+the stake, beside her fellow-courtier, Mr. Lascelles, while the
+very heavens seemed to the shuddering mob around to speak their
+wrath and grief in solemn thunder peals, and heavy drops which
+hissed upon the crackling pile.
+
+Therefore a sadness hung upon her all her life, and deepened in the
+days of Queen Mary, when, as a notorious Protestant and heretic,
+she had had to hide for her life among the hills and caverns of the
+Peak, and was only saved, by the love which her husband's tenants
+bore her, and by his bold declaration that, good Catholic as he
+was, he would run through the body any constable, justice, or
+priest, yea, bishop or cardinal, who dared to serve the queen's
+warrant upon his wife.
+
+So she escaped: but, as I said, a sadness hung upon her all her
+life; and the skirt of that dark mantle fell upon the young girl
+who had been the partner of her wanderings and hidings among the
+lonely hills; and who, after she was married, gave herself utterly
+up to God.
+
+And yet in giving herself to God, Mrs. Leigh gave herself to her
+husband, her children, and the poor of Northam Town, and was none
+the less welcome to the Grenvilles, and Fortescues, and
+Chichesters, and all the gentle families round, who honored her
+husband's talents, and enjoyed his wit.  She accustomed herself to
+austerities, which often called forth the kindly rebukes of her
+husband; and yet she did so without one superstitious thought of
+appeasing the fancied wrath of God, or of giving Him pleasure (base
+thought) by any pain of hers; for her spirit had been trained in
+the freest and loftiest doctrines of Luther's school; and that
+little mystic "Alt-Deutsch Theologie" (to which the great Reformer
+said that he owed more than to any book, save the Bible, and St.
+Augustine) was her counsellor and comforter by day and night.
+
+And now, at little past forty, she was left a widow: lovely still
+in face and figure; and still more lovely from the divine calm
+which brooded, like the dove of peace and the Holy Spirit of God
+(which indeed it was), over every look, and word, and gesture; a
+sweetness which had been ripened by storm, as well as by sunshine;
+which this world had not given, and could not take away.  No wonder
+that Sir Richard and Lady Grenville loved her; no wonder that her
+children worshipped her; no wonder that the young Amyas, when the
+first burst of grief was over, and he knew again where he stood,
+felt that a new life had begun for him; that his mother was no more
+to think and act for him only, but that he must think and act for
+his mother.  And so it was, that on the very day after his father's
+funeral, when school-hours were over, instead of coming straight
+home, he walked boldly into Sir Richard Grenville's house, and
+asked to see his godfather.
+
+"You must be my father now, sir," said he, firmly.
+
+And Sir Richard looked at the boy's broad strong face, and swore a
+great and holy oath, like Glasgerion's, "by oak, and ash, and
+thorn," that he would be a father to him, and a brother to his
+mother, for Christ's sake.  And Lady Grenville took the boy by the
+hand, and walked home with him to Burrough; and there the two fair
+women fell on each other's necks, and wept together; the one for
+the loss which had been, the other, as by a prophetic instinct, for
+the like loss which was to come to her also.  For the sweet St.
+Leger knew well that her husband's fiery spirit would never leave
+his body on a peaceful bed; but that death (as he prayed almost
+nightly that it might) would find him sword in hand, upon the field
+of duty and of fame.  And there those two vowed everlasting
+sisterhood, and kept their vow; and after that all things went on
+at Burrough as before; and Amyas rode, and shot, and boxed, and
+wandered on the quay at Sir Richard's side; for Mrs. Leigh was too
+wise a woman to alter one tittle of the training which her husband
+had thought best for his younger boy.  It was enough that her elder
+son had of his own accord taken to that form of life in which she
+in her secret heart would fain have moulded both her children.  For
+Frank, God's wedding gift to that pure love of hers, had won
+himself honor at home and abroad; first at the school at Bideford;
+then at Exeter College, where he had become a friend of Sir Philip
+Sidney's, and many another young man of rank and promise; and next,
+in the summer of 1572, on his way to the University of Heidelberg,
+he had gone to Paris, with (luckily for him) letters of
+recommendation to Walsingham, at the English Embassy: by which
+letters he not only fell in a second time with Philip Sidney, but
+saved his own life (as Sidney did his) in the Massacre of St.
+Bartholomew's Day.  At Heidelberg he had stayed two years, winning
+fresh honor from all who knew him, and resisting all Sidney's
+entreaties to follow him into Italy.  For, scorning to be a burden
+to his parents, he had become at Heidelberg tutor to two young
+German princes, whom, after living with them at their father's
+house for a year or more, he at last, to his own great delight,
+took with him down to Padua, "to perfect them," as he wrote home,
+"according to his insufficiency, in all princely studies."  Sidney
+was now returned to England; but Frank found friends enough without
+him, such letters of recommendation and diplomas did he carry from
+I know not how many princes, magnificos, and learned doctors, who
+had fallen in love with the learning, modesty, and virtue of the
+fair young Englishman.  And ere Frank returned to Germany he had
+satiated his soul with all the wonders of that wondrous land.  He
+had talked over the art of sonneteering with Tasso, the art of
+history with Sarpi; he had listened, between awe and incredulity,
+to the daring theories of Galileo; he had taken his pupils to
+Venice, that their portraits might be painted by Paul Veronese; he
+had seen the palaces of Palladio, and the merchant princes on the
+Rialto, and the argosies of Ragusa, and all the wonders of that
+meeting-point of east and west; he had watched Tintoretto's mighty
+hand "hurling tempestuous glories o'er the scene;" and even, by
+dint of private intercession in high places, had been admitted to
+that sacred room where, with long silver beard and undimmed eye,
+amid a pantheon of his own creations, the ancient Titian, patriarch
+of art, still lingered upon earth, and told old tales of the
+Bellinis, and Raffaelle, and Michael Angelo, and the building of
+St. Peter's, and the fire at Venice, and the sack of Rome, and of
+kings and warriors, statesmen and poets, long since gone to their
+account, and showed the sacred brush which Francis the First had
+stooped to pick up for him.  And (license forbidden to Sidney by
+his friend Languet) he had been to Rome, and seen (much to the
+scandal of good Protestants at home) that "right good fellow," as
+Sidney calls him, who had not yet eaten himself to death, the Pope
+for the time being.  And he had seen the frescos of the Vatican,
+and heard Palestrina preside as chapel-master over the performance
+of his own music beneath the dome of St. Peter's, and fallen half
+in love with those luscious strains, till he was awakened from his
+dream by the recollection that beneath that same dome had gone up
+thanksgivings to the God of heaven for those blood-stained streets,
+and shrieking women, and heaps of insulted corpses, which he had
+beheld in Paris on the night of St. Bartholomew.  At last, a few
+months before his father died, he had taken back his pupils to
+their home in Germany, from whence he was dismissed, as he wrote,
+with rich gifts; and then Mrs. Leigh's heart beat high, at the
+thought that the wanderer would return: but, alas! within a month
+after his father's death, came a long letter from Frank, describing
+the Alps, and the valleys of the Waldenses (with whose Barbes he
+had had much talk about the late horrible persecutions), and
+setting forth how at Padua he had made the acquaintance of that
+illustrious scholar and light of the age, Stephanus Parmenius
+(commonly called from his native place, Budaeus), who had visited
+Geneva with him, and heard the disputations of their most learned
+doctors, which both he and Budaeus disliked for their hard
+judgments both of God and man, as much as they admired them for
+their subtlety, being themselves, as became Italian students,
+Platonists of the school of Ficinus and Picus Mirandolensis.  So
+wrote Master Frank, in a long sententious letter, full of Latin
+quotations: but the letter never reached the eyes of him for whose
+delight it had been penned: and the widow had to weep over it
+alone, and to weep more bitterly than ever at the conclusion, in
+which, with many excuses, Frank said that he had, at the special
+entreaty of the said Budaeus, set out with him down the Danube
+stream to Buda, that he might, before finishing his travels, make
+experience of that learning for which the Hungarians were famous
+throughout Europe.  And after that, though he wrote again and again
+to the father whom he fancied living, no letter in return reached
+him from home for nearly two years; till, fearing some mishap, he
+hurried back to England, to find his mother a widow, and his
+brother Amyas gone to the South Seas with Captain Drake of
+Plymouth.  And yet, even then, after years of absence, he was not
+allowed to remain at home.  For Sir Richard, to whom idleness was a
+thing horrible and unrighteous, would have him up and doing again
+before six months were over, and sent him off to Court to Lord
+Hunsdon.
+
+There, being as delicately beautiful as his brother was huge and
+strong, he had speedily, by Carew's interest and that of Sidney and
+his Uncle Leicester, found entrance into some office in the queen's
+household; and he was now basking in the full sunshine of Court
+favor, and fair ladies' eyes, and all the chivalries and euphuisms
+of Gloriana's fairyland, and the fast friendship of that bright
+meteor Sidney, who had returned with honor in 1577, from the
+delicate mission on behalf of the German and Belgian Protestants,
+on which he had been sent to the Court of Vienna, under color of
+condoling with the new Emperor Rodolph on his father's death.
+Frank found him when he himself came to Court in 1579 as lovely and
+loving as ever; and, at the early age of twenty-five, acknowledged
+as one of the most remarkable men of Europe, the patron of all men
+of letters, the counsellor of warriors and statesmen, and the
+confidant and advocate of William of Orange, Languet, Plessis du
+Mornay, and all the Protestant leaders on the Continent; and found,
+moreover, that the son of the poor Devon squire was as welcome as
+ever to the friendship of nature's and fortune's most favored, yet
+most unspoilt, minion.
+
+Poor Mrs. Leigh, as one who had long since learned to have no self,
+and to live not only for her children but in them, submitted
+without a murmur, and only said, smiling, to her stern friend--"You
+took away my mastiff-pup, and now you must needs have my fair
+greyhound also."
+
+"Would you have your fair greyhound, dear lady, grow up a tall and
+true Cotswold dog, that can pull down a stag of ten, or one of
+those smooth-skinned poppets which the Florence ladies lead about
+with a ring of bells round its neck, and a flannel farthingale over
+its loins?"
+
+Mrs. Leigh submitted; and was rewarded after a few months by a
+letter, sent through Sir Richard, from none other than Gloriana
+herself, in which she thanked her for "the loan of that most
+delicate and flawless crystal, the soul of her excellent son," with
+more praises of him than I have room to insert, and finished by
+exalting the poor mother above the famed Cornelia; "for those sons,
+whom she called her jewels, she only showed, yet kept them to
+herself: but you, madam, having two as precious, I doubt not, as
+were ever that Roman dame's, have, beyond her courage, lent them
+both to your country and to your queen, who therein holds herself
+indebted to you for that which, if God give her grace, she will
+repay as becomes both her and you."  Which epistle the sweet mother
+bedewed with holy tears, and laid by in the cedar-box which held
+her household gods, by the side of Frank's innumerable diplomas and
+letters of recommendation, the Latin whereof she was always
+spelling over (although she understood not a word of it), in hopes
+of finding, here and there, that precious excellentissimus Noster
+Franciscus Leighius Anglus, which was all in all to the mother's
+heart.
+
+But why did Amyas go to the South Seas?  Amyas went to the South
+Seas for two causes, each of which has, before now, sent many a lad
+to far worse places: first, because of an old schoolmaster;
+secondly, because of a young beauty.  I will take them in order and
+explain.
+
+Vindex Brimblecombe, whilom servitor of Exeter College, Oxford
+(commonly called Sir Vindex, after the fashion of the times), was,
+in those days, master of the grammar-school of Bideford.  He was,
+at root, a godly and kind-hearted pedant enough; but, like most
+schoolmasters in the old flogging days, had his heart pretty well
+hardened by long, baneful license to inflict pain at will on those
+weaker than himself; a power healthful enough for the victim (for,
+doubtless, flogging is the best of all punishments, being not only
+the shortest, but also a mere bodily and animal, and not, like most
+of our new-fangled "humane" punishments, a spiritual and fiendish
+torture), but for the executioner pretty certain to eradicate, from
+all but the noblest spirits, every trace of chivalry and tenderness
+for the weak, as well, often, as all self-control and command of
+temper.  Be that as it may, old Sir Vindex had heart enough to feel
+that it was now his duty to take especial care of the fatherless
+boy to whom he tried to teach his qui, quae, quod: but the only
+outcome of that new sense of responsibility was a rapid increase in
+the number of floggings, which rose from about two a week to one
+per diem, not without consequences to the pedagogue himself.
+
+For all this while, Amyas had never for a moment lost sight of his
+darling desire for a sea-life; and when he could not wander on the
+quay and stare at the shipping, or go down to the pebble-ridge at
+Northam, and there sit, devouring, with hungry eyes, the great
+expanse of ocean, which seemed to woo him outward into boundless
+space, he used to console himself, in school-hours, by drawing
+ships and imaginary charts upon his slate, instead of minding his
+"humanities."
+
+Now it befell, upon an afternoon, that he was very busy at a map,
+or bird's-eye view of an island, whereon was a great castle, and at
+the gate thereof a dragon, terrible to see; while in the foreground
+came that which was meant for a gallant ship, with a great flag
+aloft, but which, by reason of the forest of lances with which it
+was crowded, looked much more like a porcupine carrying a sign-
+post; and, at the roots of those lances, many little round o's,
+whereby was signified the heads of Amyas and his schoolfellows, who
+were about to slay that dragon, and rescue the beautiful princess
+who dwelt in that enchanted tower.  To behold which marvel of art,
+all the other boys at the same desk must needs club their heads
+together, and with the more security, because Sir Vindex, as was
+his custom after dinner, was lying back in his chair, and slept the
+sleep of the just.
+
+But when Amyas, by special instigation of the evil spirit who
+haunts successful artists, proceeded further to introduce, heedless
+of perspective, a rock, on which stood the lively portraiture of
+Sir Vindex--nose, spectacles, gown, and all; and in his hand a
+brandished rod, while out of his mouth a label shrieked after the
+runaways, "You come back!" while a similar label replied from the
+gallant bark, "Good-bye, master!" the shoving and tittering rose to
+such a pitch that Cerberus awoke, and demanded sternly what the
+noise was about.  To which, of course, there was no answer.
+
+"You, of course, Leigh!  Come up, sir, and show me your
+exercitation."
+
+Now of Amyas's exercitation not a word was written; and, moreover,
+he was in the very article of putting the last touches to Mr.
+Brimblecombe's portrait.  Whereon, to the astonishment of all
+hearers, he made answer--
+
+"All in good time, sir!" and went on drawing.
+
+In good time, sir!  Insolent, veni et vapula!"
+
+But Amyas went on drawing.
+
+"Come hither, sirrah, or I'll flay you alive!"
+
+"Wait a bit!" answered Amyas.
+
+The old gentleman jumped up, ferula in hand, and darted across the
+school, and saw himself upon the fatal slate.
+
+"Proh flagitium! what have we here, villain?" and clutching at his
+victim, he raised the cane.  Whereupon, with a serene and cheerful
+countenance, up rose the mighty form of Amyas Leigh, a head and
+shoulders above his tormentor, and that slate descended on the bald
+coxcomb of Sir Vindex Brimblecombe, with so shrewd a blow that
+slate and pate cracked at the same instant, and the poor pedagogue
+dropped to the floor, and lay for dead.
+
+After which Amyas arose, and walked out of the school, and so
+quietly home; and having taken counsel with himself, went to his
+mother, and said, "Please, mother, I've broken schoolmaster's
+head."
+
+"Broken his head, thou wicked boy!" shrieked the poor widow; "what
+didst do that for?"
+
+"I can't tell," said Amyas, penitently; "I couldn't help it.  It
+looked so smooth, and bald, and round, and--you know?"
+
+"I know?  Oh, wicked boy! thou hast given place to the devil; and
+now, perhaps, thou hast killed him."
+
+"Killed the devil?" asked Amyas, hopefully but doubtfully.
+
+"No, killed the schoolmaster, sirrah!  Is he dead?"
+
+"I don't think he's dead; his coxcomb sounded too hard for that.
+But had not I better go and tell Sir Richard?"
+
+The poor mother could hardly help laughing, in spite of her terror,
+at Amyas's perfect coolness (which was not in the least meant for
+insolence), and being at her wits' end, sent him, as usual, to his
+godfather.
+
+Amyas rehearsed his story again, with pretty nearly the same
+exclamations, to which he gave pretty nearly the same answers; and
+then--"What was he going to do to you, then, sirrah?"
+
+"Flog me, because I could not write my exercise, and so drew a
+picture of him instead."
+
+"What! art afraid of being flogged?"
+
+"Not a bit; besides, I'm too much accustomed to it; but I was busy,
+and he was in such a desperate hurry; and, oh, sir, if you had but
+seen his bald head, you would have broken it yourself!"
+
+Now Sir Richard had, twenty years ago, in like place, and very much
+in like manner, broken the head of Vindex Brimblecombe's father,
+schoolmaster in his day, and therefore had a precedent to direct
+him; and he answered--"Amyas, sirrah! those who cannot obey will
+never be fit to rule.  If thou canst not keep discipline now, thou
+wilt never make a company or a crew keep it when thou art grown.
+Dost mind that, sirrah?"
+
+"Yes," said Amyas.
+
+"Then go back to school this moment, sir, and be flogged."
+
+"Very well," said Amyas, considering that he had got off very
+cheaply; while Sir Richard, as soon as he was out of the room, lay
+back in his chair, and laughed till he cried again.
+
+So Amyas went back, and said that he was come to be flogged;
+whereon the old schoolmaster, whose pate had been plastered
+meanwhile, wept tears of joy over the returning prodigal, and then
+gave him such a switching as he did not forget for eight-and-forty
+hours.
+
+But that evening Sir Richard sent for old Vindex, who entered,
+trembling, cap in hand; and having primed him with a cup of sack,
+said--"Well, Mr. Schoolmaster!  My godson has been somewhat too
+much for you to-day.  There are a couple of nobles to pay the
+doctor."
+
+"O Sir Richard, gratias tibi et Domino! but the boy hits shrewdly
+hard.  Nevertheless I have repaid him in inverse kind, and set him
+an imposition, to learn me one of Phaedrus his fables, Sir Richard,
+if you do not think it too much."
+
+"Which, then?  The one about the man who brought up a lion's cub,
+and was eaten by him in play at last?"
+
+"Ah, Sir Richard! you have always a merry wit.  But, indeed, the
+boy is a brave boy, and a quick boy, Sir Richard, but more
+forgetful than Lethe; and--sapienti loquor--it were well if he were
+away, for I shall never see him again without my head aching.
+Moreover, he put my son Jack upon the fire last Wednesday, as you
+would put a football, though he is a year older, your worship,
+because, he said, he looked so like a roasting pig, Sir Richard."
+
+"Alas, poor Jack!"
+
+"And what's more, your worship, he is pugnax, bellicosus,
+gladiator, a fire-eater and swash-buckler, beyond all Christian
+measure; a very sucking Entellus, Sir Richard, and will do to death
+some of her majesty's lieges erelong, if he be not wisely curbed.
+It was but a month agone that he bemoaned himself, I hear, as
+Alexander did, because there were no more worlds to conquer, saying
+that it was a pity he was so strong; for, now he had thrashed all
+the Bideford lads, he had no sport left; and so, as my Jack tells
+me, last Tuesday week he fell upon a young man of Barnstaple, Sir
+Richard, a hosier's man, sir, and plebeius (which I consider unfit
+for one of his blood), and, moreover, a man full grown, and as big
+as either of us (Vindex stood five feet four in his high-heeled
+shoes), and smote him clean over the quay into the mud, because he
+said that there was a prettier maid in Barnstaple (your worship
+will forgive my speaking of such toys, to which my fidelity compels
+me) than ever Bideford could show; and then offered to do the same
+to any man who dare say that Mistress Rose Salterne, his worship
+the mayor's daughter, was not the fairest lass in all Devon."
+
+"Eh?  Say that over again, my good sir," quoth Sir Richard, who had
+thus arrived, as we have seen, at the second count of the
+indictment.  "I say, good sir, whence dost thou hear all these
+pretty stories?"
+
+"My son Jack, Sir Richard, my son Jack, ingenui vultus puer."
+
+"But not, it seems, ingenui pudoris.  Tell thee what, Mr.
+Schoolmaster, no wonder if thy son gets put on the fire, if thou
+employ him as a tale-bearer.  But that is the way of all pedagogues
+and their sons, by which they train the lads up eavesdroppers and
+favor-curriers, and prepare them--sirrah, do you hear?--for a much
+more lasting and hotter fire than that which has scorched thy son
+Jack's nether-tackle.  Do you mark me, sir?"
+
+The poor pedagogue, thus cunningly caught in his own trap, stood
+trembling before his patron, who, as hereditary head of the Bridge
+Trust, which endowed the school and the rest of the Bideford
+charities, could, by a turn of his finger, sweep him forth with the
+besom of destruction; and he gasped with terror as Sir Richard went
+on--"Therefore, mind you, Sir Schoolmaster, unless you shall
+promise me never to hint word of what has passed between us two,
+and that neither you nor yours shall henceforth carry tales of my
+godson, or speak his name within a day's march of Mistress
+Salterne's, look to it, if I do not--"
+
+What was to be done in default was not spoken; for down went poor
+old Vindex on his knees:--
+
+"Oh, Sir Richard!  Excellentissime, immo praecelsissime Domine et
+Senator, I promise!  O sir, Miles et Eques of the Garter, Bath, and
+Golden Fleece, consider your dignities, and my old age--and my
+great family--nine children--oh, Sir Richard, and eight of them
+girls!--Do eagles war with mice? says the ancient!"
+
+"Thy large family, eh?  How old is that fat-witted son of thine?"
+
+"Sixteen, Sir Richard; but that is not his fault, indeed!"
+
+"Nay, I suppose he would be still sucking his thumb if he dared--
+get up, man--get up and seat yourself."
+
+"Heaven forbid!" murmured poor Vindex, with deep humility.
+
+"Why is not the rogue at Oxford, with a murrain on him, instead of
+lurching about here carrying tales and ogling the maidens?"
+
+"I had hoped, Sir Richard--and therefore I said it was not his
+fault--but there was never a servitorship at Exeter open."
+
+"Go to, man--go to!  I will speak to my brethren of the Trust, and
+to Oxford he shall go this autumn, or else to Exeter gaol, for a
+strong rogue, and a masterless man.  Do you hear?"
+
+"Hear?--oh, sir, yes! and return thanks.  Jack shall go, Sir
+Richard, doubt it not--I were mad else; and, Sir Richard, may I go
+too?"
+
+And therewith Vindex vanished, and Sir Richard enjoyed a second
+mighty laugh, which brought in Lady Grenville, who possibly had
+overheard the whole; for the first words she said were--
+
+"I think, my sweet life, we had better go up to Burrough."
+
+So to Burrough they went; and after much talk, and many tears,
+matters were so concluded that Amyas Leigh found himself riding
+joyfully towards Plymouth, by the side of Sir Richard, and being
+handed over to Captain Drake, vanished for three years from the
+good town of Bideford.
+
+And now he is returned in triumph, and the observed of all
+observers; and looks round and round, and sees all faces whom he
+expects, except one; and that the one which he had rather see than
+his mother's?  He is not quite sure.  Shame on himself!
+
+And now the prayers being ended, the rector ascends the pulpit, and
+begins his sermon on the text:--
+
+"The heaven and the heaven of heavens are the Lord's; the whole
+earth hath he given to the children of men;" deducing therefrom
+craftily, to the exceeding pleasure of his hearers, the iniquity of
+the Spaniards in dispossessing the Indians, and in arrogating to
+themselves the sovereignty of the tropic seas; the vanity of the
+Pope of Rome in pretending to bestow on them the new countries of
+America; and the justice, valor, and glory of Mr. Drake and his
+expedition, as testified by God's miraculous protection of him and
+his, both in the Straits of Magellan, and in his battle with the
+Galleon; and last, but not least, upon the rock by Celebes, when
+the Pelican lay for hours firmly fixed, and was floated off unhurt,
+as it were by miracle, by a sudden shift of wind.
+
+Ay, smile, reader, if you will; and, perhaps, there was matter for
+a smile in that honest sermon, interlarded, as it was, with scraps
+of Greek and Hebrew, which no one understood, but every one
+expected as their right (for a preacher was nothing then who could
+not prove himself "a good Latiner"); and graced, moreover, by a
+somewhat pedantic and lengthy refutation from Scripture of Dan
+Horace's cockney horror of the sea--
+
+
+     "Illi robur et aes triplex," etc.
+
+
+and his infidel and ungodly slander against the impias rates, and
+their crews.
+
+Smile, if you will: but those were days (and there were never less
+superstitious ones) in which Englishmen believed in the living God,
+and were not ashamed to acknowledge, as a matter of course, His
+help and providence, and calling, in the matters of daily life,
+which we now in our covert atheism term "secular and carnal;" and
+when, the sermon ended, the communion service had begun, and the
+bread and the wine were given to those five mariners, every gallant
+gentleman who stood near them (for the press would not allow of
+more) knelt and received the elements with them as a thing of
+course, and then rose to join with heart and voice not merely in
+the Gloria in Excelsis, but in the Te Deum, which was the closing
+act of all.  And no sooner had the clerk given out the first verse
+of that great hymn, than it was taken up by five hundred voices
+within the church, in bass and tenor, treble and alto (for every
+one could sing in those days, and the west-country folk, as now,
+were fuller than any of music), the chant was caught up by the
+crowd outside, and rang away over roof and river, up to the woods
+of Annery, and down to the marshes of the Taw, in wave on wave of
+harmony.  And as it died away, the shipping in the river made
+answer with their thunder, and the crowd streamed out again toward
+the Bridge Head, whither Sir Richard Grenville, and Sir John
+Chichester, and Mr. Salterne, the Mayor, led the five heroes of the
+day to await the pageant which had been prepared in honor of them.
+And as they went by, there were few in the crowd who did not press
+forward to shake them by the hand, and not only them, but their
+parents and kinsfolk who walked behind, till Mrs. Leigh, her
+stately joy quite broken down at last, could only answer between
+her sobs, "Go along, good people--God a mercy, go along--and God
+send you all such sons!"
+
+"God give me back mine!" cried an old red-cloaked dame in the
+crowd; and then, struck by some hidden impulse, she sprang forward,
+and catching hold of young Amyas's sleeve--
+
+"Kind sir! dear sir!  For Christ his sake answer a poor old widow
+woman!"
+
+"What is it, dame?" quoth Amyas, gently enough.
+
+"Did you see my son to the Indies?--my son Salvation?"
+
+"Salvation?" replied he, with the air of one who recollected the
+name.
+
+"Yes, sure, Salvation Yeo, of Clovelly.  A tall man and black, and
+sweareth awfully in his talk, the Lord forgive him!"
+
+Amyas recollected now.  It was the name of the sailor who had given
+him the wondrous horn five years ago.
+
+"My good dame," said he, "the Indies are a very large place, and
+your son may be safe and sound enough there, without my having seen
+him.  I knew one Salvation Yeo.  But he must have come with--  By
+the by, godfather, has Mr. Oxenham come home?"
+
+There was a dead silence for a moment among the gentlemen round;
+and then Sir Richard said solemnly, and in a low voice, turning
+away from the old dame,--
+
+"Amyas, Mr. Oxenham has not come home; and from the day he sailed,
+no word has been heard of him and all his crew."
+
+"Oh, Sir Richard! and you kept me from sailing with him!  Had I
+known this before I went into church, I had had one mercy more to
+thank God for."
+
+"Thank Him all the more in thy life, my child!" whispered his
+mother.
+
+"And no news of him whatsoever?"
+
+"None; but that the year after he sailed, a ship belonging to
+Andrew Barker, of Bristol, took out of a Spanish caravel, somewhere
+off the Honduras, his two brass guns; but whence they came the
+Spaniard knew not, having bought them at Nombre de Dios."
+
+"Yes!" cried the old woman; "they brought home the guns, and never
+brought home my boy!"
+
+"They never saw your boy, mother," said Sir Richard.
+
+"But I've seen him!  I saw him in a dream four years last
+Whitsuntide, as plain as I see you now, gentles, a-lying upon a
+rock, calling for a drop of water to cool his tongue, like Dives to
+the torment!  Oh! dear me!" and the old dame wept bitterly.
+
+"There is a rose noble for you!" said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"And there another!" said Sir Richard.  And in a few minutes four
+or five gold coins were in her hand.  But the old dame did but look
+wonderingly at the gold a moment, and then--
+
+"Ah! dear gentles, God's blessing on you, and Mr. Cary's mighty
+good to me already; but gold won't buy back childer!  O! young
+gentleman! young gentleman! make me a promise; if you want God's
+blessing on you this day, bring me back my boy, if you find him
+sailing on the seas!  Bring him back, and an old widow's blessing
+be on you!"
+
+Amyas promised--what else could he do?--and the group hurried on;
+but the lad's heart was heavy in the midst of joy, with the thought
+of John Oxenham, as he walked through the churchyard, and down the
+short street which led between the ancient school and still more
+ancient town-house, to the head of the long bridge, across which
+the pageant, having arranged "east-the-water," was to defile, and
+then turn to the right along the quay.
+
+However, he was bound in all courtesy to turn his attention now to
+the show which had been prepared in his honor, and which was really
+well enough worth seeing and hearing.  The English were, in those
+days, an altogether dramatic people; ready and able, as in Bideford
+that day, to extemporize a pageant, a masque, or any effort of the
+Thespian art short of the regular drama.  For they were, in the
+first place, even down to the very poorest, a well-fed people, with
+fewer luxuries than we, but more abundant necessaries; and while
+beef, ale, and good woollen clothes could be obtained in plenty,
+without overworking either body or soul, men had time to amuse
+themselves in something more intellectual than mere toping in pot-
+houses.  Moreover, the half century after the Reformation in
+England was one not merely of new intellectual freedom, but of
+immense animal good spirits.  After years of dumb confusion and
+cruel persecution, a breathing time had come: Mary and the fires of
+Smithfield had vanished together like a hideous dream, and the
+mighty shout of joy which greeted Elizabeth's entry into London,
+was the key-note of fifty glorious years; the expression of a new-
+found strength and freedom, which vented itself at home in drama
+and in song; abroad in mighty conquests, achieved with the laughing
+recklessness of boys at play.
+
+So first, preceded by the waits, came along the bridge toward the
+town-hall a device prepared by the good rector, who, standing by,
+acted as showman, and explained anxiously to the bystanders the
+import of a certain "allegory" wherein on a great banner was
+depicted Queen Elizabeth herself, who, in ample ruff and
+farthingale, a Bible in one hand and a sword in the other, stood
+triumphant upon the necks of two sufficiently abject personages,
+whose triple tiara and imperial crown proclaimed them the Pope and
+the King of Spain; while a label, issuing from her royal mouth,
+informed the world that--
+
+
+     "By land and sea a virgin queen I reign,
+      And spurn to dust both Antichrist and Spain."
+
+
+Which, having been received with due applause, a well-bedizened
+lad, having in his cap as a posy "Loyalty," stepped forward, and
+delivered himself of the following verses:--
+
+
+     "Oh, great Eliza! oh, world-famous crew!
+      Which shall I hail more blest, your queen or you?
+      While without other either falls to wrack,
+      And light must eyes, or eyes their light must lack.
+      She without you, a diamond sunk in mine,
+      Its worth unprized, to self alone must shine;
+      You without her, like hands bereft of head,
+      Like Ajax rage, by blindfold lust misled.
+      She light, you eyes; she head, and you the hands,
+      In fair proportion knit by heavenly hands;
+      Servants in queen, and queen in servants blest;
+      Your only glory, how to serve her best;
+      And hers how best the adventurous might to guide,
+      Which knows no check of foemen, wind, or tide,
+      So fair Eliza's spotless fame may fly
+      Triumphant round the globe, and shake th' astounded sky!"
+
+
+With which sufficiently bad verses Loyalty passed on, while my Lady
+Bath hinted to Sir Richard, not without reason, that the poet, in
+trying to exalt both parties, had very sufficiently snubbed both,
+and intimated that it was "hardly safe for country wits to attempt
+that euphuistic, antithetical, and delicately conceited vein, whose
+proper fountain was in Whitehall."  However, on went Loyalty, very
+well pleased with himself, and next, amid much cheering, two great
+tinsel fish, a salmon and a trout, symbolical of the wealth of
+Torridge, waddled along, by means of two human legs and a staff
+apiece, which protruded from the fishes' stomachs.  They drew (or
+seemed to draw, for half the 'prentices in the town were shoving it
+behind, and cheering on the panting monarchs of the flood) a car
+wherein sate, amid reeds and river-flags, three or four pretty
+girls in robes of gray-blue spangled with gold, their heads
+wreathed one with a crown of the sweet bog-myrtle, another with
+hops and white convolvulus, the third with pale heather and golden
+fern.  They stopped opposite Amyas; and she of the myrtle wreath,
+rising and bowing to him and the company, began with a pretty blush
+to say her say:--
+
+
+     "Hither from my moorland home,
+      Nymph of Torridge, proud I come;
+      Leaving fen and furzy brake,
+      Haunt of eft and spotted snake,
+      Where to fill mine urns I use,
+      Daily with Atlantic dews;
+      While beside the reedy flood
+      Wild duck leads her paddling brood.
+      For this morn, as Phoebus gay
+      Chased through heaven the night mist gray,
+      Close beside me, prankt in pride,
+      Sister Tamar rose, and cried,
+      'Sluggard, up! 'Tis holiday,
+      In the lowlands far away.
+      Hark! how jocund Plymouth bells,
+      Wandering up through mazy dells,
+      Call me down, with smiles to hail,
+      My daring Drake's returning sail.'
+      'Thine alone?' I answer'd.  'Nay;
+      Mine as well the joy to-day.
+      Heroes train'd on Northern wave,
+      To that Argo new I gave;
+      Lent to thee, they roam'd the main;
+      Give me, nymph, my sons again.'
+      'Go, they wait Thee,' Tamar cried,
+      Southward bounding from my side.
+      Glad I rose, and at my call,
+      Came my Naiads, one and all.
+      Nursling of the mountain sky,
+      Leaving Dian's choir on high,
+      Down her cataracts laughing loud,
+      Ockment leapt from crag and cloud,
+      Leading many a nymph, who dwells
+      Where wild deer drink in ferny dells;
+      While the Oreads as they past
+      Peep'd from Druid Tors aghast.
+      By alder copses sliding slow,
+      Knee-deep in flowers came gentler Yeo
+      And paused awhile her locks to twine
+      With musky hops and white woodbine,
+      Then joined the silver-footed band,
+      Which circled down my golden sand,
+      By dappled park, and harbor shady,
+      Haunt of love-lorn knight and lady,
+      My thrice-renowned sons to greet,
+      With rustic song and pageant meet.
+      For joy! the girdled robe around
+      Eliza's name henceforth shall sound,
+      Whose venturous fleets to conquest start,
+      Where ended once the seaman's chart,
+      While circling Sol his steps shall count
+      Henceforth from Thule's western mount,
+      And lead new rulers round the seas
+      From furthest Cassiterides.
+      For found is now the golden tree,
+      Solv'd th' Atlantic mystery,
+      Pluck'd the dragon-guarded fruit;
+      While around the charmed root,
+      Wailing loud, the Hesperids
+      Watch their warder's drooping lids.
+      Low he lies with grisly wound,
+      While the sorceress triple-crown'd
+      In her scarlet robe doth shield him,
+      Till her cunning spells have heal'd him.
+      Ye, meanwhile, around the earth
+      Bear the prize of manful worth.
+      Yet a nobler meed than gold
+      Waits for Albion's children bold;
+      Great Eliza's virgin hand
+      Welcomes you to Fairy-land,
+      While your native Naiads bring
+      Native wreaths as offering.
+      Simple though their show may be,
+      Britain's worship in them see.
+      'Tis not price, nor outward fairness,
+      Gives the victor's palm its rareness;
+      Simplest tokens can impart
+      Noble throb to noble heart:
+      Graecia, prize thy parsley crown,
+      Boast thy laurel, Caesar's town;
+      Moorland myrtle still shall be
+      Badge of Devon's Chivalry!"
+
+
+And so ending, she took the wreath of fragrant gale from her own
+head, and stooping from the car, placed it on the head of Amyas
+Leigh, who made answer--
+
+"There is no place like home, my fair mistress and no scent to my
+taste like this old home-scent in all the spice-islands that I ever
+sailed by!"
+
+"Her song was not so bad," said Sir Richard to Lady Bath--"but how
+came she to hear Plymouth bells at Tamar-head, full fifty miles
+away?  That's too much of a poet's license, is it not?"
+
+"The river-nymphs, as daughters of Oceanus, and thus of immortal
+parentage, are bound to possess organs of more than mortal
+keenness; but, as you say, the song was not so bad--erudite, as
+well as prettily conceived--and, saving for a certain rustical
+simplicity and monosyllabic baldness, smacks rather of the forests
+of Castaly than those of Torridge."
+
+So spake my Lady Bath; whom Sir Richard wisely answered not; for
+she was a terribly learned member of the college of critics, and
+disputed even with Sidney's sister the chieftaincy of the
+Euphuists; so Sir Richard answered not, but answer was made for
+him.
+
+"Since the whole choir of Muses, madam, have migrated to the Court
+of Whitehall, no wonder if some dews of Parnassus should fertilize
+at times even our Devon moors."
+
+The speaker was a tall and slim young man, some five-and-twenty
+years old, of so rare and delicate a beauty, that it seemed that
+some Greek statue, or rather one of those pensive and pious knights
+whom the old German artists took delight to paint, had condescended
+to tread awhile this work-day earth in living flesh and blood.  The
+forehead was very lofty and smooth, the eyebrows thin and greatly
+arched (the envious gallants whispered that something at least of
+their curve was due to art, as was also the exceeding smoothness of
+those delicate cheeks).  The face was somewhat long and thin; the
+nose aquiline; and the languid mouth showed, perhaps, too much of
+the ivory upper teeth; but the most striking point of the speaker's
+appearance was the extraordinary brilliancy of his complexion,
+which shamed with its whiteness that of all fair ladies round, save
+where open on each cheek a bright red spot gave warning, as did the
+long thin neck and the taper hands, of sad possibilities, perhaps
+not far off; possibilities which all saw with an inward sigh,
+except she whose doting glances, as well as her resemblance to the
+fair youth, proclaimed her at once his mother, Mrs. Leigh herself.
+
+Master Frank, for he it was, was dressed in the very extravagance
+of the fashion,--not so much from vanity, as from that delicate
+instinct of self-respect which would keep some men spruce and
+spotless from one year's end to another upon a desert island;
+"for," as Frank used to say in his sententious way, "Mr. Frank
+Leigh at least beholds me, though none else be by; and why should I
+be more discourteous to him than I permit others to be?  Be sure
+that he who is a Grobian in his own company, will, sooner or later,
+become a Grobian in that of his friends."
+
+So Mr. Frank was arrayed spotlessly; but after the latest fashion
+of Milan, not in trunk hose and slashed sleeves, nor in "French
+standing collar, treble quadruple daedalian ruff, or stiff-necked
+rabato, that had more arches for pride, propped up with wire and
+timber, than five London Bridges;" but in a close-fitting and
+perfectly plain suit of dove-color, which set off cunningly the
+delicate proportions of his figure, and the delicate hue of his
+complexion, which was shaded from the sun by a broad dove-colored
+Spanish hat, with feather to match, looped up over the right ear
+with a pearl brooch, and therein a crowned E, supposed by the
+damsels of Bideford to stand for Elizabeth, which was whispered to
+be the gift of some most illustrious hand.  This same looping up
+was not without good reason and purpose prepense; thereby all the
+world had full view of a beautiful little ear, which looked as if
+it had been cut of cameo, and made, as my Lady Rich once told him,
+"to hearken only to the music of the spheres, or to the chants of
+cherubim."  Behind the said ear was stuck a fresh rose; and the
+golden hair was all drawn smoothly back and round to the left
+temple, whence, tied with a pink ribbon in a great true lover's
+knot, a mighty love-lock, "curled as it had been laid in press,"
+rolled down low upon his bosom.  Oh, Frank! Frank! have you come
+out on purpose to break the hearts of all Bideford burghers'
+daughters?  And if so, did you expect to further that triumph by
+dyeing that pretty little pointed beard (with shame I report it) of
+a bright vermilion?  But we know you better, Frank, and so does
+your mother; and you are but a masquerading angel after all, in
+spite of your knots and your perfumes, and the gold chain round
+your neck which a German princess gave you; and the emerald ring on
+your right fore-finger which Hatton gave you; and the pair of
+perfumed gloves in your left which Sidney's sister gave you; and
+the silver-hilted Toledo which an Italian marquis gave you on a
+certain occasion of which you never choose to talk, like a prudent
+and modest gentleman as you are; but of which the gossips talk, of
+course, all the more, and whisper that you saved his life from
+bravoes--a dozen, at the least; and had that sword for your reward,
+and might have had his beautiful sister's hand beside, and I know
+not what else; but that you had so many lady-loves already that you
+were loath to burden yourself with a fresh one.  That, at least, we
+know to be a lie, fair Frank; for your heart is as pure this day as
+when you knelt in your little crib at Burrough, and said--
+
+
+     "Four corners to my bed
+      Four angels round my head;
+      Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
+      Bless the bed that I lie on."
+
+
+And who could doubt it (if being pure themselves, they have
+instinctive sympathy with what is pure), who ever looked into those
+great deep blue eyes of yours, "the black fringed curtains of whose
+azure lids," usually down-dropt as if in deepest thought, you raise
+slowly, almost wonderingly each time you speak, as if awakening
+from some fair dream whose home is rather in your platonical
+"eternal world of supra-sensible forms," than on that work-day
+earth wherein you nevertheless acquit yourself so well?  There--I
+must stop describing you, or I shall catch the infection of your
+own euphuism, and talk of you as you would have talked of Sidney or
+of Spenser, or of that Swan of Avon, whose song had just begun when
+yours--but I will not anticipate; my Lady Bath is waiting to give
+you her rejoinder.
+
+"Ah, my silver-tongued scholar! and are you, then, the poet? or
+have you been drawing on the inexhaustible bank of your friend
+Raleigh, or my cousin Sidney? or has our new Cygnet Immerito lent
+you a few unpublished leaves from some fresh Shepherd's Calendar?"
+
+"Had either, madam, of that cynosural triad been within call of my
+most humble importunities, your ears had been delectate with far
+nobler melody."
+
+"But not our eyes with fairer faces, eh?  Well, you have chosen
+your nymphs, and had good store from whence to pick, I doubt not.
+Few young Dulcineas round but must have been glad to take service
+under so renowned a captain?"
+
+"The only difficulty, gracious countess, has been to know where to
+fix the wandering choice of my bewildered eyes, where all alike are
+fair, and all alike facund."
+
+"We understand," said she, smiling;--
+
+
+     "Dan Cupid, choosing 'midst his mother's graces,
+      Himself more fair, made scorn of fairest faces."
+
+
+The young scholar capped her distich forthwith, and bowing to her
+with a meaning look,
+
+
+    "'Then, Goddess, turn,' he cried, 'and veil thy light;
+      Blinded by thine, what eyes can choose aright?'"
+
+
+"Go, saucy sir," said my lady, in high glee: "the pageant stays
+your supreme pleasure."
+
+And away went Mr. Frank as master of the revels, to bring up the
+'prentices' pageant; while, for his sake, the nymph of Torridge was
+forgotten for awhile by all young dames, and most young gentlemen:
+and his mother heaved a deep sigh, which Lady Bath overhearing--
+
+"What? in the dumps, good madam, while all are rejoicing in your
+joy?  Are you afraid that we court-dames shall turn your Adonis's
+brain for him?"
+
+"I do, indeed, fear lest your condescension should make him forget
+that he is only a poor squire's orphan."
+
+"I will warrant him never to forget aught that he should
+recollect," said my Lady Bath.
+
+And she spoke truly.  But soon Frank's silver voice was heard
+calling out--
+
+"Room there, good people, for the gallant 'prentice lads!"
+
+And on they came, headed by a giant of buckram and pasteboard
+armor, forth of whose stomach looked, like a clock-face in a
+steeple, a human visage, to be greeted, as was the fashion then, by
+a volley of quips and puns from high and low.
+
+Young Mr. William Cary, of Clovelly, who was the wit of those
+parts, opened the fire by asking him whether he were Goliath,
+Gogmagog, or Grantorto in the romance; for giants' names always
+began with a G.  To which the giant's stomach answered pretty
+surlily--
+
+"Mine don't; I begin with an O."
+
+"Then thou criest out before thou art hurt, O cowardly giant!"
+
+"Let me out, lads," quoth the irascible visage, struggling in his
+buckram prison, "and I soon show him whether I be a coward."
+
+"Nay, if thou gettest out of thyself, thou wouldst be beside
+thyself, and so wert but a mad giant."
+
+"And that were pity," said Lady Bath; "for by the romances, giants
+have never overmuch wit to spare."
+
+"Mercy, dear lady!" said Frank, "and let the giant begin with an O."
+
+"A ----"
+
+"A false start, giant! you were to begin with an O."
+
+"I'll make you end with an O, Mr. William Cary!" roared the testy
+tower of buckram.
+
+"And so I do, for I end with 'Fico!'"
+
+"Be mollified, sweet giant," said Frank, "and spare the rash youth
+of yon foolish knight.  Shall elephants catch flies, or Hurlo-
+Thrumbo stain his club with brains of Dagonet the jester?  Be
+mollified; leave thy caverned grumblings, like Etna when its windy
+wrath is past, and discourse eloquence from thy central omphalos,
+like Pythoness ventriloquizing."
+
+"If you do begin laughing at me too, Mr. Leigh ----" said the
+giant's clock-face, in a piteous tone.
+
+"I laugh not.  Art thou not Ordulf the earl, and I thy humblest
+squire?  Speak up, my lord; your cousin, my Lady Bath, commands
+you."
+
+And at last the giant began:--
+
+
+     "A giant I, Earl Ordulf men me call,--
+      'Gainst Paynim foes Devonia's champion tall;
+      In single fight six thousand Turks I slew;
+      Pull'd off a lion's head, and ate it too:
+      With one shrewd blow, to let St. Edward in,
+      I smote the gates of Exeter in twain;
+      Till aged grown, by angels warn'd in dream,
+      I built an abbey fair by Tavy stream.
+      But treacherous time hath tripped my glories up,
+      The stanch old hound must yield to stancher pup;
+      Here's one so tall as I, and twice so bold,
+      Where I took only cuffs, takes good red gold.
+      From pole to pole resound his wondrous works,
+      Who slew more Spaniards than I e'er slew Turks;
+      I strode across the Tavy stream: but he
+      Strode round the world and back; and here 'a be!"
+
+
+"Oh, bathos!" said Lady Bath, while the 'prentices shouted
+applause.  "Is this hedge-bantling to be fathered on you, Mr.
+Frank?"
+
+"It is necessary, by all laws of the drama, madam," said Frank,
+with a sly smile, "that the speech and the speaker shall fit each
+other.  Pass on, Earl Ordulf; a more learned worthy waits."
+
+Whereon, up came a fresh member of the procession; namely, no less
+a person than Vindex Brimblecombe, the ancient schoolmaster, with
+five-and-forty boys at his heels, who halting, pulled out his
+spectacles, and thus signified his forgiveness of his whilom broken
+head:--
+
+"That the world should have been circumnavigated, ladies and
+gentles, were matter enough of jubilation to the student of
+Herodotus and Plato, Plinius and ---- ahem! much more when the
+circumnavigators are Britons; more, again, when Damnonians."
+
+"Don't swear, master," said young Will Cary.
+
+"Gulielme Cary, Gulielme Cary, hast thou forgotten thy--"
+
+"Whippings?  Never, old lad!  Go on; but let not the license of the
+scholar overtop the modesty of the Christian."
+
+"More again, as I said, when, incolae, inhabitants of Devon; but,
+most of all, men of Bideford school.  Oh renowned school!  Oh
+schoolboys ennobled by fellowship with him!  Oh most happy
+pedagogue, to whom it has befallen to have chastised a
+circumnavigator, and, like another Chiron, trained another
+Hercules: yet more than Hercules, for he placed his pillars on the
+ocean shore, and then returned; but my scholar's voyage--"
+
+"Hark how the old fox is praising himself all along on the sly,"
+said Cary.
+
+"Mr. William, Mr. william, peace;--silentium, my graceless pupil.
+Urge the foaming steed, and strike terror into the rapid stag, but
+meddle not with matters too high for thee."
+
+"He has given you the dor now, sir," said Lady Bath; "let the old
+man say his say."
+
+"I bring, therefore, as my small contribution to this day's feast;
+first a Latin epigram, as thus--"
+
+"Latin?  Let us hear it forthwith," cried my lady.
+
+And the old pedant mouthed out--
+
+
+     "Torriguiam Tamaris ne spernat; Leighius addet
+      Mox terras terris, inclyte Drake, tuis."
+
+
+"Neat, i' faith, la!"  Whereon all the rest, as in duty bound,
+approved also.
+
+"This for the erudite: for vulgar ears the vernacular is more
+consonant, sympathetic, instructive; as thus:--
+
+
+ "Famed Argo ship, that noble chip, by doughty Jason's steering,
+  Brought back to Greece the golden fleece, from Colchis home careering;
+  But now her fame is put to shame, while new Devonian Argo,
+  Round earth doth run in wake of sun, and brings wealthier cargo."
+
+
+"Runs with a right fa-lal-la," observed Cary; "and would go nobly
+to a fiddle and a big drum."
+
+
+ "Ye Spaniards, quake! our doughty Drake a royal swan is tested,
+  On wing and oar, from shore to shore, the raging main who breasted:--
+  But never needs to chant his deeds, like swan that lies a-dying,
+  So far his name, by trump of fame, around the sphere is flying."
+
+
+"Hillo ho! schoolmaster!" shouted a voice from behind; "move on,
+and make way for Father Neptune!"  Whereon a whole storm of
+raillery fell upon the hapless pedagogue.
+
+"We waited for the parson's alligator, but we wain't for yourn."
+
+"Allegory! my children, allegory!" shrieked the man of letters.
+
+"What do ye call he an alligator for?  He is but a poor little
+starved evat!"
+
+"Out of the road, old Custis!  March on, Don Palmado!"
+
+These allusions to the usual instrument of torture in West-country
+schools made the old gentleman wince; especially when they were
+followed home by--
+
+"Who stole Admiral Grenville's brooms, because birch rods were
+dear?"
+
+But proudly he shook his bald head, as a bull shakes off the flies,
+and returned to the charge once more.
+
+
+ "Great Alexander, famed commander, wept and made a pother,
+  At conquering only half the world, but Drake had conquer'd t'other;
+  And Hercules to brink of seas!--"
+
+
+"Oh--!"
+
+And clapping both hands to the back of his neck, the schoolmaster
+began dancing frantically about, while his boys broke out
+tittering, "O! the ochidore! look to the blue ochidore!  Who've put
+ochidore to maister's poll!"
+
+It was too true: neatly inserted, as he stooped forward, between
+his neck and his collar, was a large live shore-crab, holding on
+tight with both hands.
+
+"Gentles! good Christians! save me!  I am mare-rode!  Incubo, vel
+ab incubo, opprimor!  Satanas has me by the poll!  Help! he tears
+my jugular; he wrings my neck, as he does to Dr. Faustus in the
+play.  Confiteor!--I confess!  Satan, I defy thee!  Good people, I
+confess!  [Greek text]!  The truth will out.  Mr. Francis Leigh
+wrote the epigram!"  And diving through the crowd, the pedagogue
+vanished howling, while Father Neptune, crowned with sea-weeds, a
+trident in one hand, and a live dog-fish in the other, swaggered up
+the street surrounded by a tall bodyguard of mariners, and followed
+by a great banner, on which was depicted a globe, with Drake's ship
+sailing thereon upside down, and overwritten--
+
+
+     "See every man the Pelican,
+        Which round the world did go,
+      While her stern-post was uppermost,
+        And topmasts down below.
+      And by the way she lost a day,
+        Out of her log was stole:
+      But Neptune kind, with favoring wind,
+        Hath brought her safe and whole."
+
+
+"Now, lads!" cried Neptune; "hand me my parable that's writ for me,
+and here goeth!"
+
+And at the top of his bull-voice, he began roaring--
+
+
+     "I am King Neptune bold,
+        The ruler of the seas
+      I don't understand much singing upon land,
+        But I hope what I say will please.
+
+     "Here be five Bideford men,
+        Which have sail'd the world around,
+      And I watch'd them well, as they all can tell,
+        And brought them home safe and sound.
+
+     "For it is the men of Devon.
+        To see them I take delight,
+      Both to tack and to hull, and to heave and to pull,
+        And to prove themselves in fight.
+
+     "Where be those Spaniards proud,
+        That make their valiant boasts;
+      And think for to keep the poor Indians for their sheep,
+        And to farm my golden coasts?
+
+     "'Twas the devil and the Pope gave them
+        My kingdom for their own:
+      But my nephew Francis Drake, he caused them to quake,
+        And he pick'd them to the bone.
+
+     "For the sea my realm it is,
+        As good Queen Bess's is the land;
+      So freely come again, all merry Devon men,
+        And there's old Neptune's hand."
+
+
+"Holla, boys! holla!  Blow up, Triton, and bring forward the
+freedom of the seas."
+
+Triton, roaring through a conch, brought forward a cockle-shell
+full of salt-water, and delivered it solemnly to Amyas, who, of
+course, put a noble into it, and returned it after Grenville had
+done the same.
+
+"Holla, Dick Admiral!" cried neptune, who was pretty far gone in
+liquor; "we knew thou hadst a right English heart in thee, for all
+thou standest there as taut as a Don who has swallowed his rapier."
+
+"Grammercy, stop thy bellowing, fellow, and on; for thou smellest
+vilely of fish."
+
+"Everything smells sweet in its right place.  I'm going home."
+
+"I thought thou wert there all along, being already half-seas
+over," said Cary.
+
+"Ay, right Upsee-Dutch; and that's more than thou ever wilt be,
+thou 'long-shore stay-at-home.  Why wast making sheep's eyes at
+Mistress Salterne here, while my pretty little chuck of Burrough
+there was playing at shove-groat with Spanish doubloons?"
+
+"Go to the devil, sirrah!" said Cary.  Neptune had touched on a
+sore subject; and more cheeks than Amyas Leigh's reddened at the
+hint.
+
+"Amen, if Heaven so please!" and on rolled the monarch of the seas;
+and so the pageant ended.
+
+The moment Amyas had an opportunity, he asked his brother Frank,
+somewhat peevishly, where Rose Salterne was.
+
+"What! the mayor's daughter?  With her uncle by Kilkhampton, I
+believe."
+
+Now cunning Master Frank, whose daily wish was to "seek peace and
+ensue it," told Amyas this, because he must needs speak the truth:
+but he was purposed at the same time to speak as little truth as he
+could, for fear of accidents; and, therefore, omitted to tell his
+brother how that he, two days before, had entreated Rose Salterne
+herself to appear as the nymph of Torridge; which honor she, who
+had no objection either to exhibit her pretty face, to recite
+pretty poetry, or to be trained thereto by the cynosure of North
+Devon, would have assented willingly, but that her father stopped
+the pretty project by a peremptory countermove, and packed her off,
+in spite of her tears, to the said uncle on the Atlantic cliffs;
+after which he went up to Burrough, and laughed over the whole
+matter with Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"I am but a burgher, Mrs. Leigh, and you a lady of blood; but I am
+too proud to let any man say that Simon Salterne threw his daughter
+at your son's head;--no; not if you were an empress!"
+
+"And to speak truth, Mr. Salterne, there are young gallants enough
+in the country quarrelling about her pretty face every day, without
+making her a tourney-queen to tilt about."
+
+Which was very true; for during the three years of Amyas's absence,
+Rose Salterne had grown into so beautiful a girl of eighteen, that
+half North Devon was mad about the "Rose of Torridge," as she was
+called; and there was not a young gallant for ten miles round (not
+to speak of her father's clerks and 'prentices, who moped about
+after her like so many Malvolios, and treasured up the very parings
+of her nails) who would not have gone to Jerusalem to win her.  So
+that all along the vales of Torridge and of Taw, and even away to
+Clovelly (for young Mr. Cary was one of the sick), not a gay
+bachelor but was frowning on his fellows, and vying with them in
+the fashion of his clothes, the set of his ruffs, the harness of
+his horse, the carriage of his hawks, the pattern of his sword-
+hilt; and those were golden days for all tailors and armorers, from
+Exmoor to Okehampton town.  But of all those foolish young lads not
+one would speak to the other, either out hunting, or at the archery
+butts, or in the tilt-yard; and my Lady Bath (who confessed that
+there was no use in bringing out her daughters where Rose Salterne
+was in the way) prophesied in her classical fashion that Rose's
+wedding bid fair to be a very bridal of Atalanta, and feast of the
+Lapithae; and poor Mr. Will Cary (who always blurted out the
+truth), when old Salterne once asked him angrily in Bideford
+Market, "What a plague business had he making sheep's eyes at his
+daughter?" broke out before all bystanders, "And what a plague
+business had you, old boy, to throw such an apple of discord into
+our merry meetings hereabouts?  If you choose to have such a
+daughter, you must take the consequences, and be hanged to you."
+To which Mr. Salterne answered with some truth, "That she was none
+of his choosing, nor of Mr. Cary's neither."  And so the dor being
+given, the belligerents parted laughing, but the war remained in
+statu quo; and not a week passed but, by mysterious hands, some
+nosegay, or languishing sonnet, was conveyed into The Rose's
+chamber, all which she stowed away, with the simplicity of a
+country girl, finding it mighty pleasant; and took all compliments
+quietly enough, probably because, on the authority of her mirror,
+she considered them no more than her due.
+
+And now, to add to the general confusion, home was come young Amyas
+Leigh, more desperately in love with her than ever.  For, as is the
+way with sailors (who after all are the truest lovers, as they are
+the finest fellows, God bless them, upon earth), his lonely ship-
+watches had been spent in imprinting on his imagination, month
+after month, year after year, every feature and gesture and tone of
+the fair lass whom he had left behind him; and that all the more
+intensely, because, beside his mother, he had no one else to think
+of, and was as pure as the day he was born, having been trained as
+many a brave young man was then, to look upon profligacy not as a
+proof of manhood, but as what the old Germans, and those Gortyneans
+who crowned the offender with wool, knew it to be, a cowardly and
+effeminate sin.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+OF TWO GENTLEMEN OF WALES, AND HOW THEY HUNTED WITH THE HOUNDS, AND
+YET RAN WITH THE DEER
+
+
+"I know that Deformed; he has been a vile thief this seven years;
+he goes up and down like a gentleman: I remember his name."--Much
+Ado About Nothing.
+
+
+Amyas slept that night a tired and yet a troubled sleep; and his
+mother and Frank, as they bent over his pillow, could see that his
+brain was busy with many dreams.
+
+And no wonder; for over and above all the excitement of the day,
+the recollection of John Oxenham had taken strange possession of
+his mind; and all that evening, as he sat in the bay-windowed room
+where he had seen him last, Amyas was recalling to himself every
+look and gesture of the lost adventurer, and wondering at himself
+for so doing, till he retired to sleep, only to renew the fancy in
+his dreams.  At last he found himself, he knew not how, sailing
+westward ever, up the wake of the setting sun, in chase of a tiny
+sail which was John Oxenham's.  Upon him was a painful sense that,
+unless he came up with her in time, something fearful would come to
+pass; but the ship would not sail.  All around floated the sargasso
+beds, clogging her bows with their long snaky coils of weed; and
+still he tried to sail, and tried to fancy that he was sailing,
+till the sun went down and all was utter dark.  And then the moon
+arose, and in a moment John Oxenham's ship was close aboard; her
+sails were torn and fluttering; the pitch was streaming from her
+sides; her bulwarks were rotting to decay.  And what was that line
+of dark objects dangling along the mainyard?--A line of hanged men!
+And, horror of horrors, from the yard-arm close above him, John
+Oxenham's corpse looked down with grave-light eyes, and beckoned
+and pointed, as if to show him his way, and strove to speak, and
+could not, and pointed still, not forward, but back along their
+course.  And when Amyas looked back, behold, behind him was the
+snow range of the Andes glittering in the moon, and he knew that he
+was in the South Seas once more, and that all America was between
+him and home.  And still the corpse kept pointing back, and back,
+and looking at him with yearning eyes of agony, and lips which
+longed to tell some awful secret; till he sprang up, and woke with
+a shout of terror, and found himself lying in the little coved
+chamber in dear old Burrough, with the gray autumn morning already
+stealing in.
+
+Feverish and excited, he tried in vain to sleep again; and after an
+hour's tossing, rose and dressed, and started for a bathe on his
+beloved old pebble ridge.  As he passed his mother's door, he could
+not help looking in.  The dim light of morning showed him the bed;
+but its pillow had not been pressed that night.  His mother, in her
+long white night-dress, was kneeling at the other end of the
+chamber at her prie-dieu, absorbed in devotion.  Gently he slipped
+in without a word, and knelt down at her side.  She turned, smiled,
+passed her arm around him, and went on silently with her prayers.
+Why not?  They were for him, and he knew it, and prayed also; and
+his prayers were for her, and for poor lost John Oxenham, and all
+his vanished crew.
+
+At last she rose, and standing above him, parted the yellow locks
+from off his brow, and looked long and lovingly into his face.
+There was nothing to be spoken, for there was nothing to be
+concealed between these two souls as clear as glass.  Each knew all
+which the other meant; each knew that its own thoughts were known.
+At last the mutual gaze was over; she stooped and kissed him on the
+brow, and was in the act to turn away, as a tear dropped on his
+forehead.  Her little bare feet were peeping out from under her
+dress.  He bent down and kissed them again and again; and then
+looking up, as if to excuse himself,--
+
+"You have such pretty feet, mother!"
+
+Instantly, with a woman's instinct, she had hidden them.  She had
+been a beauty once, as I said; and though her hair was gray, and
+her roses had faded long ago, she was beautiful still, in all eyes
+which saw deeper than the mere outward red and white.
+
+"Your dear father used to say so thirty years ago."
+
+"And I say so still: you always were beautiful; you are beautiful
+now."
+
+"What is that to you, silly boy?  Will you play the lover with an
+old mother?  Go and take your walk, and think of younger ladies, if
+you can find any worthy of you."
+
+And so the son went forth, and the mother returned to her prayers.
+
+He walked down to the pebble ridge, where the surges of the bay
+have defeated their own fury, by rolling up in the course of ages a
+rampart of gray boulder-stones, some two miles long, as cunningly
+curved, and smoothed, and fitted, as if the work had been done by
+human hands, which protects from the high tides of spring and
+autumn a fertile sheet of smooth, alluvial turf.  Sniffing the keen
+salt air like a young sea-dog, he stripped and plunged into the
+breakers, and dived, and rolled, and tossed about the foam with
+stalwart arms, till he heard himself hailed from off the shore, and
+looking up, saw standing on the top of the rampart the tall figure
+of his cousin Eustace.
+
+Amyas was half-disappointed at his coming; for, love-lorn rascal,
+he had been dreaming all the way thither of Rose Salterne, and had
+no wish for a companion who would prevent his dreaming of her all
+the way back.  Nevertheless, not having seen Eustace for three
+years, it was but civil to scramble out and dress, while his cousin
+walked up and down upon the turf inside.
+
+Eustace Leigh was the son of a younger brother of Leigh of
+Burrough, who had more or less cut himself off from his family, and
+indeed from his countrymen, by remaining a Papist.  True, though
+born a Papist, he had not always been one; for, like many of the
+gentry, he had become a Protestant under Edward the Sixth, and then
+a Papist again under Mary.  But, to his honor be it said, at that
+point he had stopped, having too much honesty to turn Protestant a
+second time, as hundreds did, at Elizabeth's accession.  So a
+Papist he remained, living out of the way of the world in a great,
+rambling, dark house, still called "Chapel," on the Atlantic
+cliffs, in Moorwinstow parish, not far from Sir Richard Grenville's
+house of Stow.  The penal laws never troubled him; for, in the
+first place, they never troubled any one who did not make
+conspiracy and rebellion an integral doctrine of his religious
+creed; and next, they seldom troubled even them, unless, fired with
+the glory of martyrdom, they bullied the long-suffering of
+Elizabeth and her council into giving them their deserts, and, like
+poor Father Southwell in after years, insisted on being hanged,
+whether Burleigh liked or not.  Moreover, in such a no-man's-land
+and end-of-all-the-earth was that old house at Moorwinstow, that a
+dozen conspiracies might have been hatched there without any one
+hearing of it; and Jesuits and seminary priests skulked in and out
+all the year round, unquestioned though unblest; and found a sort
+of piquant pleasure, like naughty boys who have crept into the
+store-closet, in living in mysterious little dens in a lonely
+turret, and going up through a trap-door to celebrate mass in a
+secret chamber in the roof, where they were allowed by the powers
+that were to play as much as they chose at persecuted saints, and
+preach about hiding in dens and caves of the earth.  For once, when
+the zealous parson of Moorwinstow, having discovered (what
+everybody knew already) the existence of "mass priests and their
+idolatry" at Chapel House, made formal complaint thereof to Sir
+Richard, and called on him, as the nearest justice of the peace, to
+put in force the act of the fourteenth of Elizabeth, that worthy
+knight only rated him soundly for a fantastical Puritan, and bade
+him mind his own business, if he wished not to make the place too
+hot for him; whereon (for the temporal authorities, happily for the
+peace of England, kept in those days a somewhat tight hand upon the
+spiritual ones) the worthy parson subsided,--for, after all, Mr.
+Thomas Leigh paid his tithes regularly enough,--and was content, as
+he expressed it, to bow his head in the house of Rimmon like Naaman
+of old, by eating Mr. Leigh's dinners as often as he was invited,
+and ignoring the vocation of old Father Francis, who sat opposite
+to him, dressed as a layman, and calling himself the young
+gentleman's pedagogue.
+
+But the said birds of ill-omen had a very considerable lien on the
+conscience of poor Mr. Thomas Leigh, the father of Eustace, in the
+form of certain lands once belonging to the Abbey of Hartland.  He
+more than half believed that he should be lost for holding those
+lands; but he did not believe it wholly, and, therefore, he did not
+give them up; which was the case, as poor Mary Tudor found to her
+sorrow, with most of her "Catholic" subjects, whose consciences,
+while they compelled them to return to the only safe fold of Mother
+Church (extra quam nulla salus), by no means compelled them to
+disgorge the wealth of which they had plundered that only hope of
+their salvation.  Most of them, however, like poor Tom Leigh, felt
+the abbey rents burn in their purses; and, as John Bull generally
+does in a difficulty, compromised the matter by a second folly (as
+if two wrong things made one right one), and petted foreign
+priests, and listened, or pretended not to listen, to their
+plottings and their practisings; and gave up a son here, and a son
+there, as a sort of a sin-offering and scapegoat, to be carried off
+to Douay, or Rheims, or Rome, and trained as a seminary priest; in
+plain English, to be taught the science of villainy, on the motive
+of superstition.  One of such hapless scapegoats, and children who
+had been cast into the fire to Moloch, was Eustace Leigh, whom his
+father had sent, giving the fruit of his body for the sin of his
+soul, to be made a liar of at Rheims.
+
+And a very fair liar he had become.  Not that the lad was a bad
+fellow at heart; but he had been chosen by the harpies at home, on
+account of his "peculiar vocation;" in plain English, because the
+wily priests had seen in him certain capacities of vague hysterical
+fear of the unseen (the religious sentiment, we call it now-a-
+days), and with them that tendency to be a rogue, which
+superstitious men always have.  He was now a tall, handsome, light-
+complexioned man, with a huge upright forehead, a very small mouth,
+and a dry and set expression of face, which was always trying to
+get free, or rather to seem free, and indulge in smiles and dimples
+which were proper; for one ought to have Christian love, and if one
+had love one ought to be cheerful, and when people were cheerful
+they smiled; and therefore he would smile, and tried to do so; but
+his charity prepense looked no more alluring than malice prepense
+would have done; and, had he not been really a handsome fellow,
+many a woman who raved about his sweetness would have likened his
+frankness to that of a skeleton dancing in fetters, and his smiles
+to the grins thereof.
+
+He had returned to England about a month before, in obedience to
+the proclamation which had been set forth for that purpose (and
+certainly not before it was needed), that, "whosoever had children,
+wards, etc., in the parts beyond the seas, should send in their
+names to the ordinary, and within four months call them home
+again."  So Eustace was now staying with his father at Chapel,
+having, nevertheless, his private matters to transact on behalf of
+the virtuous society by whom he had been brought up; one of which
+private matters had brought him to Bideford the night before.
+
+So he sat down beside Amyas on the pebbles, and looked at him all
+over out of the corners of his eyes very gently, as if he did not
+wish to hurt him, or even the flies on his back; and Amyas faced
+right round, and looked him full in the face.  with the heartiest
+of smiles, and held out a lion's paw, which Eustace took
+rapturously, and a great shaking of hands ensued; Amyas gripping
+with a great round fist, and a quiet quiver thereof, as much as to
+say, "I AM glad to see you;" and Eustace pinching hard with white,
+straight fingers, and sawing the air violently up and down, as much
+as to say, "DON'T YOU SEE how glad I am to see you?"  A very
+different greeting from the former.
+
+"Hold hard, old lad," said Amyas, "before you break my elbow.  And
+where do you come from?"
+
+"From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down
+in it," said he, with a little smile and nod of mysterious self-
+importance.
+
+"Like the devil, eh?  Well, every man has his pattern.  How is my
+uncle?"
+
+Now, if there was one man on earth above another, of whom Eustace
+Leigh stood in dread, it was his cousin Amyas.  In the first place,
+he knew Amyas could have killed him with a blow; and there are
+natures, who, instead of rejoicing in the strength of men of
+greater prowess than themselves, look at such with irritation,
+dread, at last, spite; expecting, perhaps, that the stronger will
+do to them what they feel they might have done in his place.  Every
+one, perhaps, has the same envious, cowardly devil haunting about
+his heart; but the brave men, though they be very sparrows, kick
+him out; the cowards keep him, and foster him; and so did poor
+Eustace Leigh.
+
+Next, he could not help feeling that Amyas despised him.  They had
+not met for three years; but before Amyas went, Eustace never could
+argue with him, simply because Amyas treated him as beneath
+argument.  No doubt he was often rude and unfair enough; but the
+whole mass of questions concerning the unseen world, which the
+priests had stimulated in his cousin's mind into an unhealthy
+fungus crop, were to Amyas simply, as he expressed it, "wind and
+moonshine;" and he treated his cousin as a sort of harmless
+lunatic, and, as they say in Devon, "half-baked."  And Eustace knew
+it; and knew, too, that his cousin did him an injustice.  "He used
+to undervalue me," said he to himself; "let us see whether he does
+not find me a match for him now."  And then went off into an agony
+of secret contrition for his self-seeking and his forgetting that
+"the glory of God, and not his own exaltation," was the object of
+his existence.
+
+There, dear readers, Ex pede Herculem; I cannot tire myself or you
+(especially in this book) with any wire-drawn soul-dissections.  I
+have tried to hint to you two opposite sorts of men,--the one
+trying to be good with all his might and main, according to certain
+approved methods and rules, which he has got by heart, and like a
+weak oarsman, feeling and fingering his spiritual muscles over all
+day, to see if they are growing; the other not even knowing whether
+he is good or not, but just doing the right thing without thinking
+about it, as simply as a little child, because the Spirit of God is
+with him.  If you cannot see the great gulf fixed between the two,
+I trust that you will discover it some day.
+
+But in justice be it said, all this came upon Eustace, not because
+he was a Romanist, but because he was educated by the Jesuits.  Had
+he been saved from them, he might have lived and died as simple and
+honest a gentleman as his brothers, who turned out like true
+Englishmen (as did all the Romish laity) to face the great Armada,
+and one of whom was fighting at that very minute under St. Leger in
+Ireland, and as brave and loyal a soldier as those Roman Catholics
+whose noble blood has stained every Crimean battlefield; but his
+fate was appointed otherwise; and the Upas-shadow which has
+blighted the whole Romish Church, blighted him also.
+
+"Ah, my dearest cousin!" said Eustace, "how disappointed I was this
+morning at finding I had arrived just a day too late to witness
+your triumph!  But I hastened to your home as soon as I could, and
+learning from your mother that I should find you here, hurried down
+to bid you welcome again to Devon."
+
+"Well, old lad, it does look very natural to see you.  I often used
+to think of you walking the deck o' nights.  Uncle and the girls
+are all right, then?  But is the old pony dead yet?  And how's Dick
+the smith, and Nancy?  Grown a fine maid by now, I warrant.  'Slid,
+it seems half a life that I've been away.
+
+"And you really thought of your poor cousin?  Be sure that he, too,
+thought of you, and offered up nightly his weak prayers for your
+safety (doubtless, not without avail) to those saints, to whom
+would that you--"
+
+"Halt there, coz.  If they are half as good fellows as you and I
+take them for, they'll help me without asking."
+
+"They have helped you, Amyas."
+
+"Maybe; I'd have done as much, I'm sure, for them, if I 'd been in
+their place."
+
+"And do you not feel, then, that you owe a debt of gratitude to
+them; and, above all, to her, whose intercessions have, I doubt
+not, availed for your preservation?  Her, the star of the sea, the
+all-compassionate guide of the mariner?"
+
+"Humph!" said Amyas.  "Here's Frank; let him answer."
+
+And, as he spoke, up came Frank, and after due greetings, sat down
+beside them on the ridge.
+
+"I say, brother, here's Eustace trying already to convert me; and
+telling me that I owe all my luck to the Blessed Virgin's prayers
+for me.
+
+"It may be so," said Frank; "at least you owe it to the prayers of
+that most pure and peerless virgin by whose commands you sailed;
+the sweet incense of whose orisons has gone up for you daily, and
+for whose sake you were preserved from flood and foe, that you
+might spread the fame and advance the power of the spotless
+championess of truth, and right, and freedom,--Elizabeth, your
+queen."
+
+Amyas answered this rhapsody, which would have been then both
+fashionable and sincere, by a loyal chuckle.  Eustace smiled
+meekly, but answered somewhat venomously nevertheless--
+
+"I, at least, am certain that I speak the truth, when I call my
+patroness a virgin undefiled."
+
+Both the brothers' brows clouded at once.  Amyas, as he lay on his
+back on the pebbles, said quietly to the gulls over his head--"I
+wonder what the Frenchman whose head I cut off at the Azores,
+thinks by now about all that."
+
+"Cut off a Frenchman's head?" said Frank.
+
+"Yes, faith; and so fleshed my maiden sword.  I'll tell you.  It
+was in some tavern; I and George Drake had gone in, and there sat
+this Frenchman, with his sword on the table, ready for a quarrel (I
+found afterwards he was a noted bully), and begins with us loudly
+enough about this and that; but, after awhile, by the instigation
+of the devil, what does he vent but a dozen slanders against her
+majesty's honor, one atop of the other?  I was ashamed to hear
+them, and I should be more ashamed to repeat them."
+
+"I have heard enough of such," said Frank.  "They come mostly
+through lewd rascals about the French ambassador, who have been
+bred (God help them) among the filthy vices of that Medicean Court
+in which the Queen of Scots had her schooling; and can only
+perceive in a virtuous freedom a cloak for licentiousness like
+their own.  Let the curs bark; Honi soit qui mal y pense is our
+motto, and shall be forever."
+
+"But I didn't let the cur bark; for I took him by the ears, to show
+him out into the street.  Whereon he got to his sword, and I to
+mine; and a very near chance I had of never bathing on the pebble
+ridge more; for the fellow did not fight with edge and buckler,
+like a Christian, but had some newfangled French devil's device of
+scryming and foining with his point, ha'ing and stamping, and
+tracing at me, that I expected to be full of eyelet holes ere I
+could close with him."
+
+"Thank God that you are safe, then!" said Frank.  "I know that play
+well enough, and dangerous enough it is."
+
+"Of course you know it; but I didn't, more's the pity."
+
+"Well, I'll teach it thee, lad, as well as Rowland Yorke himself,
+
+
+     'Thy fincture, carricade, and sly passata,
+      Thy stramazon, and resolute stoccata,
+      Wiping maudritta, closing embrocata,
+      And all the cant of the honorable fencing mystery.'"
+
+
+"Rowland Yorke?  Who's he, then?"
+
+"A very roystering rascal, who is making good profit in London just
+now by teaching this very art of fence; and is as likely to have
+his mortal thread clipt in a tavern brawl, as thy Frenchman.  But
+how did you escape his pinking iron?"
+
+"How?  Had it through my left arm before I could look round; and at
+that I got mad, and leapt upon him, and caught him by the wrist,
+and then had a fair side-blow; and, as fortune would have it, off
+tumbled his head on to the table, and there was an end of his
+slanders."
+
+"So perish all her enemies!" said Frank; and Eustace, who had been
+trying not to listen, rose and said--
+
+"I trust that you do not number me among them?"
+
+"As you speak, I do, coz," said Frank.  "But for your own sake, let
+me advise you to put faith in the true report of those who have
+daily experience of their mistress's excellent virtue, as they have
+of the sun's shining, and of the earth's bringing forth fruit, and
+not in the tattle of a few cowardly back-stair rogues, who wish to
+curry favor with the Guises.  Come, we will say no more.  Walk
+round with us by Appledore, and then home to breakfast."
+
+But Eustace declined, having immediate business, he said, in
+Northam town, and then in Bideford; and so left them to lounge for
+another half-hour on the beach, and then walk across the smooth
+sheet of turf to the little white fishing village, which stands
+some two miles above the bar, at the meeting of the Torridge and
+the Taw.
+
+Now it came to pass, that Eustace Leigh, as we have seen, told his
+cousins that he was going to Northam: but he did not tell them that
+his point was really the same as their own, namely, Appledore; and,
+therefore, after having satisfied his conscience by going as far as
+the very nearest house in Northam village, he struck away sharp to
+the left across the fields, repeating I know not what to the
+Blessed Virgin all the way; whereby he went several miles out of
+his road; and also, as is the wont of crooked spirits, Jesuits
+especially (as three centuries sufficiently testify), only
+outwitted himself.  For his cousins going merrily, like honest men,
+along the straight road across the turf, arrived in Appledore,
+opposite the little "Mariner's Rest" Inn, just in time to see what
+Eustace had taken so much trouble to hide from them, namely, four
+of Mr. Thomas Leigh's horses standing at the door, held by his
+groom, saddles and mail-bags on back, and mounting three of them,
+Eustace Leigh and two strange gentlemen.
+
+"There's one lie already this morning," growled Amyas; "he told us
+he was going to Northam."
+
+"And we do not know that he has not been there," blandly suggested
+Frank.
+
+"Why, you are as bad a Jesuit as he, to help him out with such a
+fetch."
+
+"He may have changed his mind."
+
+"Bless your pure imagination, my sweet boy," said Amyas, laying his
+great hand on Frank's head, and mimicking his mother's manner.  "I
+say, dear Frank, let's step into this shop and buy a penny-worth of
+whipcord."
+
+"What do you want with whipcord, man?"
+
+"To spin my top, to be sure."
+
+"Top? how long hast had a top?"
+
+"I'll buy one, then, and save my conscience; but the upshot of this
+sport I must see.  Why may not I have an excuse ready made as well
+as Master Eustace?"
+
+So saying, he pulled Frank into the little shop, unobserved by the
+party at the inn-door.
+
+"What strange cattle has he been importing now?  Look at that
+three-legged fellow, trying to get aloft on the wrong side.  How he
+claws at his horse's ribs, like a cat scratching an elder stem!"
+
+The three-legged man was a tall, meek-looking person, who had
+bedizened himself with gorgeous garments, a great feather, and a
+sword so long and broad, that it differed little in size from the
+very thin and stiff shanks between which it wandered uncomfortably.
+
+"Young David in Saul's weapons," said Frank.  "He had better not go
+in them, for he certainly has not proved them."
+
+"Look, if his third leg is not turned into a tail!  Why does not
+some one in charity haul in half-a-yard of his belt for him?"
+
+It was too true; the sword, after being kicked out three or four
+times from its uncomfortable post between his legs, had returned
+unconquered; and the hilt getting a little too far back by reason
+of the too great length of the belt, the weapon took up its post
+triumphantly behind, standing out point in air, a tail confest,
+amid the tittering of the ostlers, and the cheers of the sailors.
+
+At last the poor man, by dint of a chair, was mounted safely, while
+his fellow-stranger, a burly, coarse-looking man, equally gay, and
+rather more handy, made so fierce a rush at his saddle, that, like
+"vaulting ambition who o'erleaps his selle," he "fell on t'other
+side:" or would have fallen, had he not been brought up short by
+the shoulders of the ostler at his off-stirrup.  In which shock off
+came hat and feather.
+
+"Pardie, the bulldog-faced one is a fighting man.  Dost see, Frank?
+he has had his head broken."
+
+"That scar came not, my son, but by a pair of most Catholic and
+apostolic scissors.  My gentle buzzard, that is a priest's
+tonsure."
+
+"Hang the dog!  O, that the sailors may but see it, and put him
+over the quay head.  I've a half mind to go and do it myself."
+
+"My dear Amyas," said Frank, laying two fingers on his arm, "these
+men, whosoever they are, are the guests of our uncle, and therefore
+the guests of our family.  Ham gained little by publishing Noah's
+shame; neither shall we, by publishing our uncle's."
+
+"Murrain on you, old Franky, you never let a man speak his mind,
+and shame the devil."
+
+"I have lived long enough in courts, old Amyas, without a murrain
+on you, to have found out, first, that it is not so easy to shame
+the devil; and secondly, that it is better to outwit him; and the
+only way to do that, sweet chuck, is very often not to speak your
+mind at all.  We will go down and visit them at Chapel in a day or
+two, and see if we cannot serve these reynards as the badger did
+the fox, when he found him in his hole, and could not get him out
+by evil savors."
+
+"How then?"
+
+"Stuck a sweet nosegay in the door, which turned reynard's stomach
+at once; and so overcame evil with good."
+
+"Well, thou art too good for this world, that's certain; so we will
+go home to breakfast.  Those rogues are out of sight by now."
+
+Nevertheless, Amyas was not proof against the temptation of going
+over to the inn-door, and asking who were the gentlemen who went
+with Mr. Leigh
+
+"Gentlemen of Wales," said the ostler, "who came last night in a
+pinnace from Milford-haven, and their names, Mr. Morgan Evans and
+Mr. Evan Morgans."
+
+Mr. Judas Iscariot and Mr. Iscariot Judas," said Amyas between his
+teeth, and then observed aloud, that the Welsh gentlemen seemed
+rather poor horsemen.
+
+"So I said to Mr. Leigh's groom, your worship.  But he says that
+those parts be so uncommon rough and mountainous, that the poor
+gentlemen, you see, being enforced to hunt on foot, have no such
+opportunities as young gentlemen hereabout, like your worship; whom
+God preserve, and send a virtuous lady, and one worthy of you."
+
+"Thou hast a villainously glib tongue, fellow!" said Amyas, who was
+thoroughly out of humor; "and a sneaking down visage too, when I
+come to look at you.  I doubt but you are a Papist too, I do!"
+
+"Well, sir! and what if I am!  I trust I don't break the queen's
+laws by that.  If I don't attend Northam church, I pay my month's
+shilling for the use of the poor, as the act directs; and beyond
+that, neither you nor any man dare demand of me."
+
+"Dare! act directs!  You rascally lawyer, you! and whence does an
+ostler like you get your shilling to pay withal?  Answer me."  The
+examinate found it so difficult to answer the question, that he
+suddenly became afflicted with deafness.
+
+"Do you hear?" roared Amyas, catching at him with his lion's paw.
+
+"Yes, missus; anon, anon, missus!" quoth he to an imaginary
+landlady inside, and twisting under Amyas's hand like an eel,
+vanished into the house, while Frank got the hot-headed youth away.
+
+"What a plague is one to do, then?  That fellow was a Papist spy!"
+
+"Of course he was!" said Frank.
+
+"Then, what is one to do, if the whole country is full of them?"
+
+"Not to make fools of ourselves about them, and so leave them to
+make fools of themselves."
+
+"That's all very fine: but--well, I shall remember the villain's
+face if I see him again."
+
+"There is no harm in that," said Frank.
+
+"Glad you think so."
+
+"Don't quarrel with me, Amyas, the first day."
+
+"Quarrel with thee, my darling old fellow!  I had sooner kiss the
+dust off thy feet, if I were worthy of it.  So now away home; my
+inside cries cupboard."
+
+In the meanwhile Messrs. Evans and Morgans were riding away, as
+fast as the rough by-lanes would let them, along the fresh coast of
+the bay, steering carefully clear of Northam town on the one hand,
+and on the other, of Portledge, where dwelt that most Protestant
+justice of the peace, Mr. Coffin.  And it was well for them that
+neither Amyas Leigh, nor indeed any other loyal Englishman, was by
+when they entered, as they shortly did, the lonely woods which
+stretch along the southern wall of the bay.  For there Eustace
+Leigh pulled up short; and both he and his groom, leaping from
+their horses, knelt down humbly in the wet grass, and implored the
+blessing of the two valiant gentlemen of Wales, who, having
+graciously bestowed it with three fingers apiece, became
+thenceforth no longer Morgan Evans and Evan Morgans, Welshmen and
+gentlemen; but Father Parsons and Father Gampian, Jesuits, and
+gentlemen in no sense in which that word is applied in this book.
+
+After a few minutes, the party were again in motion, ambling
+steadily and cautiously along the high table-land, towards
+Moorwinstow in the west; while beneath them on the right, at the
+mouth of rich-wooded glens, opened vistas of the bright blue bay,
+and beyond it the sandhills of Braunton, and the ragged rocks of
+Morte; while far away to the north and west the lonely isle of
+Lundy hung like a soft gray cloud.
+
+But they were not destined to reach their point as peaceably as
+they could have wished.  For just as they got opposite Clovelly
+dike, the huge old Roman encampment which stands about midway in
+their journey, they heard a halloo from the valley below, answered
+by a fainter one far ahead.  At which, like a couple of rogues (as
+indeed they were), Father Campian and Father Parsons looked at each
+other, and then both stared round at the wild, desolate, open
+pasture (for the country was then all unenclosed), and the great
+dark furze-grown banks above their heads; and Campian remarked
+gently to Parsons, that this was a very dreary spot, and likely
+enough for robbers.
+
+"A likelier spot for us, Father," said Eustace, punning.  "The old
+Romans knew what they were about when they put their legions up
+aloft here to overlook land and sea for miles away; and we may
+thank them some day for their leavings.  The banks are all sound;
+there is plenty of good water inside; and" (added he in Latin), "in
+case our Spanish friends--you understand?"
+
+"Pauca verba, my son!" said Campian: but as he spoke, up from the
+ditch close beside him, as if rising out of the earth, burst
+through the furze-bushes an armed cavalier.
+
+"Pardon, gentlemen!" shouted he, as the Jesuit and his horse
+recoiled against the groom.  "Stand, for your lives!"
+
+"Mater caelorum!" moaned Campian; while Parsons, who, as all the
+world knows, was a blustering bully enough (at least with his
+tongue), asked: What a murrain right had he to stop honest folks on
+the queen's highway? confirming the same with a mighty oath, which
+he set down as peccatum veniale, on account of the sudden
+necessity; nay, indeed fraus pia, as proper to support the
+character of that valiant gentleman of Wales, Mr. Evan Morgans.
+But the horseman, taking no notice of his hint, dashed across the
+nose of Eustace Leigh's horse, with a "Hillo, old lad! where ridest
+so early?" and peering down for a moment into the ruts of the
+narrow track-way, struck spurs into his horse, shouting, "A fresh
+slot! right away for Hartland!  Forward, gentlemen all! follow,
+follow, follow!"
+
+"Who is this roysterer?" asked Parsons, loftily.
+
+"Will Cary, of Clovelly; an awful heretic: and here come more
+behind."
+
+And as he spoke four or five more mounted gallants plunged in and
+out of the great dikes, and thundered on behind the party; whose
+horses, quite understanding what game was up, burst into full
+gallop, neighing and squealing; and in another minute the hapless
+Jesuits were hurling along over moor and moss after a "hart of
+grease."
+
+Parsons, who, though a vulgar bully, was no coward, supported the
+character of Mr. Evan Morgans well enough; and he would have really
+enjoyed himself, had he not been in agonies of fear lest those
+precious saddle-bags in front of him should break from their
+lashings, and rolling to the earth, expose to the hoofs of heretic
+horses, perhaps to the gaze of heretic eyes, such a cargo of bulls,
+dispensations, secret correspondences, seditious tracts, and so
+forth, that at the very thought of their being seen, his head felt
+loose upon his shoulders.  But the future martyr behind him, Mr.
+Morgan Evans, gave himself up at once to abject despair, and as he
+bumped and rolled along, sought vainly for comfort in professional
+ejaculations in the Latin tongue.
+
+"Mater intemerata!  Eripe me e--Ugh!  I am down!  Adhaesit
+pavimento venter!--No! I am not!  El dilectum tuum e potestate
+canis--Ah! Audisti me inter cornua unicornium!  Put this, too, down
+in--ugh!--thy account in favor of my poor--oh, sharpness of this
+saddle!  Oh, whither, barbarous islanders!"
+
+Now riding on his quarter, not in the rough track-way like a
+cockney, but through the soft heather like a sportsman, was a very
+gallant knight whom we all know well by this time, Richard
+Grenville by name; who had made Mr. Cary and the rest his guests
+the night before, and then ridden out with them at five o'clock
+that morning, after the wholesome early ways of the time, to rouse
+a well-known stag in the glens at Buckish, by help of Mr. Coffin's
+hounds from Portledge.  Who being as good a Latiner as Campian's
+self, and overhearing both the scraps of psalm and the "barbarous
+islanders," pushed his horse alongside of Mr. Eustace Leigh, and at
+the first check said, with two low bows towards the two strangers--
+
+"I hope Mr. Leigh will do me the honor of introducing me to his
+guests.  I should be sorry, and Mr. Cary also, that any gentle
+strangers should become neighbors of ours, even for a day, without
+our knowing who they are who honor our western Thule with a visit;
+and showing them ourselves all due requital for the compliment of
+their presence."
+
+After which, the only thing which poor Eustace could do (especially
+as it was spoken loud enough for all bystanders), was to introduce
+in due form Mr. Evan Morgans and Mr. Morgan Evans, who, hearing the
+name, and, what was worse, seeing the terrible face with its quiet
+searching eye, felt like a brace of partridge-poults cowering in
+the stubble, with a hawk hanging ten feet over their heads.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Sir Richard blandly, cap in hand, "I fear that
+your mails must have been somewhat in your way in this unexpected
+gallop.  If you will permit my groom, who is behind, to disencumber
+you of them and carry them to Chapel, you will both confer an honor
+on me, and be enabled yourselves to see the mort more pleasantly."
+
+A twinkle of fun, in spite of all his efforts, played about good
+Sir Richard's eye as he gave this searching hint.  The two Welsh
+gentlemen stammered out clumsy thanks; and pleading great haste and
+fatigue from a long journey, contrived to fall to the rear and
+vanish with their guides, as soon as the slot had been recovered.
+
+"Will!" said Sir Richard, pushing alongside of young Cary.
+
+"Your worship?"
+
+"Jesuits, Will!"
+
+"May the father of lies fly away with them over the nearest cliff!"
+
+"He will not do that while this Irish trouble is about.  Those
+fellows are come to practise here for Saunders and Desmond."
+
+"Perhaps they have a consecrated banner in their bag, the
+scoundrels!  Shall I and young Coffin on and stop them?  Hard if
+the honest men may not rob the thieves once in a way."
+
+"No; give the devil rope, and he will hang himself.  Keep thy
+tongue at home, and thine eyes too, Will."
+
+"How then?"
+
+"Let Clovelly beach be watched night and day like any mousehole.
+No one can land round Harty Point with these south-westers.  Stop
+every fellow who has the ghost of an Irish brogue, come he in or go
+he out, and send him over to me."
+
+"Some one should guard Bude-haven, sir."
+
+"Leave that to me.  Now then, forward, gentlemen all, or the stag
+will take the sea at the Abbey."
+
+And on they crashed down the Hartland glens, through the oak-scrub
+and the great crown-ferns; and the baying of the slow-hound and the
+tantaras of the horn died away farther and fainter toward the blue
+Atlantic, while the conspirators, with lightened hearts, pricked
+fast across Bursdon upon their evil errand.  But Eustace Leigh had
+other thoughts and other cares than the safety of his father's two
+mysterious guests, important as that was in his eyes; for he was
+one of the many who had drunk in sweet poison (though in his case
+it could hardly be called sweet) from the magic glances of the Rose
+of Torridge.  He had seen her in the town, and for the first time
+in his life fallen utterly in love; and now that she had come down
+close to his father's house, he looked on her as a lamb fallen
+unawares into the jaws of the greedy wolf, which he felt himself to
+be.  For Eustace's love had little or nothing of chivalry, self-
+sacrifice, or purity in it; those were virtues which were not
+taught at Rheims.  Careful as the Jesuits were over the practical
+morality of their pupils, this severe restraint had little effect
+in producing real habits of self-control.  What little Eustace had
+learnt of women from them, was as base and vulgar as the rest of
+their teaching.  What could it be else, if instilled by men
+educated in the schools of Italy and France, in the age which
+produced the foul novels of Cinthio and Bandello, and compelled
+Rabelais in order to escape the rack and stake, to hide the light
+of his great wisdom, not beneath a bushel, but beneath a dunghill;
+the age in which the Romish Church had made marriage a legalized
+tyranny, and the laity, by a natural and pardonable revulsion, had
+exalted adultery into a virtue and a science?  That all love was
+lust; that all women had their price; that profligacy, though an
+ecclesiastical sin, was so pardonable, if not necessary, as to be
+hardly a moral sin, were notions which Eustace must needs have
+gathered from the hints of his preceptors; for their written works
+bear to this day fullest and foulest testimony that such was their
+opinion; and that their conception of the relation of the sexes was
+really not a whit higher than that of the profligate laity who
+confessed to them.  He longed to marry Rose Salterne, with a wild
+selfish fury; but only that he might be able to claim her as his
+own property, and keep all others from her.  Of her as a co-equal
+and ennobling helpmate; as one in whose honor, glory, growth of
+heart and soul, his own were inextricably wrapt up, he had never
+dreamed.  Marriage would prevent God from being angry with that,
+with which otherwise He might be angry; and therefore the sanction
+of the Church was the more "probable and safe" course.  But as yet
+his suit was in very embryo.  He could not even tell whether Rose
+knew of his love; and he wasted miserable hours in maddening
+thoughts, and tost all night upon his sleepless bed, and rose next
+morning fierce and pale, to invent fresh excuses for going over to
+her uncle's house, and lingering about the fruit which he dared not
+snatch.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE TWO WAYS OF BEING CROST IN LOVE
+
+
+     "I could not love thee, dear, so much,
+      Loved I not honor more."--LOVELACE.
+
+
+And what all this while has become of the fair breaker of so many
+hearts, to whom I have not yet even introduced my readers?
+
+She was sitting in the little farm-house beside the mill, buried in
+the green depths of the valley of Combe, half-way between Stow and
+Chapel, sulking as much as her sweet nature would let her, at being
+thus shut out from all the grand doings at Bideford, and forced to
+keep a Martinmas Lent in that far western glen.  So lonely was she,
+in fact, that though she regarded Eustace Leigh with somewhat of
+aversion, and (being a good Protestant) with a great deal of
+suspicion, she could not find it in her heart to avoid a chat with
+him whenever he came down to the farm and to its mill, which he
+contrived to do, on I know not what would-be errand, almost every
+day.  Her uncle and aunt at first looked stiff enough at these
+visits, and the latter took care always to make a third in every
+conversation; but still Mr. Leigh was a gentleman's son, and it
+would not do to be rude to a neighboring squire and a good
+customer; and Rose was the rich man's daughter and they poor
+cousins, so it would not do either to quarrel with her; and
+besides, the pretty maid, half by wilfulness, and half by her sweet
+winning tricks, generally contrived to get her own way wheresoever
+she went; and she herself had been wise enough to beg her aunt
+never to leave them alone,--for she "could not a-bear the sight of
+Mr. Eustace, only she must have some one to talk with down here."
+On which her aunt considered, that she herself was but a simple
+country-woman; and that townsfolks' ways of course must be very
+different from hers; and that people knew their own business best;
+and so forth, and let things go on their own way.  Eustace, in the
+meanwhile, who knew well that the difference in creed between him
+and Rose was likely to be the very hardest obstacle in the way of
+his love, took care to keep his private opinions well in the
+background; and instead of trying to convert the folk at the mill,
+daily bought milk or flour from them, and gave it away to the old
+women in Moorwinstow (who agreed that after all, for a Papist, he
+was a godly young man enough); and at last, having taken counsel
+with Campian and Parsons on certain political plots then on foot,
+came with them to the conclusion that they would all three go to
+church the next Sunday.  Where Messrs. Evan Morgans and Morgan
+Evans, having crammed up the rubrics beforehand, behaved themselves
+in a most orthodox and unexceptionable manner; as did also poor
+Eustace, to the great wonder of all good folks, and then went home
+flattering himself that he had taken in parson, clerk, and people;
+not knowing in his simple unsimplicity, and cunning foolishness,
+that each good wife in the parish was saying to the other, "He
+turned Protestant?  The devil turned monk!  He's only after
+Mistress Salterne, the young hypocrite."
+
+But if the two Jesuits found it expedient, for the holy cause in
+which they were embarked, to reconcile themselves outwardly to the
+powers that were, they were none the less busy in private in
+plotting their overthrow.
+
+Ever since April last they had been playing at hide-and-seek
+through the length and breadth of England, and now they were only
+lying quiet till expected news from Ireland should give them their
+cue, and a great "rising of the West" should sweep from her throne
+that stiff-necked, persecuting, excommunicate, reprobate,
+illegitimate, and profligate usurper, who falsely called herself
+the Queen of England.
+
+For they had as stoutly persuaded themselves in those days, as they
+have in these (with a real Baconian contempt of the results of
+sensible experience), that the heart of England was really with
+them, and that the British nation was on the point of returning to
+the bosom of the Catholic Church, and giving up Elizabeth to be led
+in chains to the feet of the rightful Lord of Creation, the Old Man
+of the Seven Hills.  And this fair hope, which has been skipping
+just in front of them for centuries, always a step farther off,
+like the place where the rainbow touches the ground, they used to
+announce at times, in language which terrified old Mr. Leigh.  One
+day, indeed, as Eustace entered his father's private room, after
+his usual visit to the mill, he could hear voices high in dispute;
+Parsons as usual, blustering; Mr. Leigh peevishly deprecating, and
+Campian, who was really the sweetest-natured of men, trying to pour
+oil on the troubled waters.  Whereat Eustace (for the good of the
+cause, of course) stopped outside and listened.
+
+"My excellent sir," said Mr. Leigh, "does not your very presence
+here show how I am affected toward the holy cause of the Catholic
+faith?  But I cannot in the meanwhile forget that I am an
+Englishman."
+
+"And what is England?" said Parsons: "A heretic and schismatic
+Babylon, whereof it is written, 'Come out of her, my people, lest
+you be partaker of her plagues.'  Yea, what is a country?  An
+arbitrary division of territory by the princes of this world, who
+are naught, and come to naught.  They are created by the people's
+will; their existence depends on the sanction of him to whom all
+power is given in heaven and earth--our Holy Father the Pope.  Take
+away the latter, and what is a king?--the people who have made him
+may unmake him."
+
+"My dear sir, recollect that I have sworn allegiance to Queen
+Elizabeth!"
+
+"Yes, sir, you have, sir; and, as I have shown at large in my
+writings, you were absolved from that allegiance from the moment
+that the bull of Pius the Fifth declared her a heretic and
+excommunicate, and thereby to have forfeited all dominion
+whatsoever.  I tell you, sir, what I thought you should have known
+already, that since the year 1569, England has had no queen, no
+magistrates, no laws, no lawful authority whatsoever; and that to
+own allegiance to any English magistrate, sir, or to plead in an
+English court of law, is to disobey the apostolic precept, 'How
+dare you go to law before the unbelievers?'  I tell you, sir,
+rebellion is now not merely permitted, it is a duty."
+
+"Take care, sir; for God's sake, take care!" said Mr. Leigh.
+"Right or wrong, I cannot have such language used in my house.  For
+the sake of my wife and children, I cannot!"
+
+"My dear brother Parsons, deal more gently with the flock,"
+interposed Campian.  "Your opinion, though probable, as I well
+know, in the eyes of most of our order, is hardly safe enough here;
+the opposite is at least so safe that Mr. Leigh may well excuse his
+conscience for accepting it.  After all, are we not sent hither to
+proclaim this very thing, and to relieve the souls of good
+Catholics from a burden which has seemed to them too heavy?"
+
+"Yes," said Parsons, half-sulkily, "to allow all Balaams who will
+to sacrifice to Baal, while they call themselves by the name of the
+Lord."
+
+"My dear brother, have I not often reminded you that Naaman was
+allowed to bow himself in the house of Rimmon?  And can we
+therefore complain of the office to which the Holy Father has
+appointed us, to declare to such as Mr. Leigh his especial grace,
+by which the bull of Pius the Fifth (on whose soul God have mercy!)
+shall henceforth bind the queen and the heretics only; but in no
+ways the Catholics, at least as long as the present tyranny
+prevents the pious purposes of the bull?"
+
+"Be it so, sir; be it so.  Only observe this, Mr. Leigh, that our
+brother Campian confesses this to be a tyranny.  Observe, sir, that
+the bull does still bind the so-called queen, and that she and her
+magistrates are still none the less usurpers, nonentities, and
+shadows of a shade.  And observe this, sir, that when that which is
+lawful is excused to the weak, it remains no less lawful to the
+strong.  The seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal did
+not slay his priests; but Elijah did, and won to himself a good
+reward.  And if the rest of the children of Israel sinned not in
+not slaying Eglon, yet Ehud's deed was none the less justified by
+all laws human and divine."
+
+"For Heaven's sake, do not talk so, sir! or I must leave the room.
+What have I to do with Ehud and Eglon, and slaughters, and
+tyrannies?  Our queen is a very good queen, if Heaven would but
+grant her repentance, and turn her to the true faith.  I have never
+been troubled about religion, nor any one else that I know of in
+the West country."
+
+"You forget Mr. Trudgeon of Launceston, father, and poor Father
+Mayne," interposed Eustace, who had by this time slipped in; and
+Campian added softly--
+
+"Yes, your West of England also has been honored by its martyrs, as
+well as my London by the precious blood of Story."
+
+"What, young malapert?" cried poor Leigh, facing round upon his
+son, glad to find any one on whom he might vent his ill-humor; "are
+you too against me, with a murrain on you?  And pray, what the
+devil brought Cuthbert Mayne to the gallows, and turned Mr.
+Trudgeon (he was always a foolish hot-head) out of house and home,
+but just such treasonable talk as Mr. Parsons must needs hold in my
+house, to make a beggar of me and my children, as he will before he
+has done."
+
+"The Blessed Virgin forbid!" said Campian.
+
+"The Blessed Virgin forbid?  But you must help her to forbid it,
+Mr. Campian.  We should never have had the law of 1571, against
+bulls, and Agnus Deis, and blessed grains, if the Pope's bull of
+1569 had not made them matter of treason, by preventing a poor
+creature's saving his soul in the true Church without putting his
+neck into a halter by denying the queen's authority."
+
+"What, sir?" almost roared Parsons, "do you dare to speak evil of
+the edicts of the Vicar of Christ?"
+
+"I?  No.  I didn't.  Who says I did?  All I meant was, I am sure--
+Mr. Campian, you are a reasonable man, speak for me."
+
+"Mr. Leigh only meant, I am sure, that the Holy Father's prudent
+intentions have been so far defeated by the perverseness and
+invincible misunderstanding of the heretics, that that which was in
+itself meant for the good of the oppressed English Catholics has
+been perverted to their harm."
+
+"And thus, reverend sir," said Eustace, glad to get into his
+father's good graces again, "my father attaches blame, not to the
+Pope--Heaven forbid!--but to the pravity of his enemies."
+
+"And it is for this very reason," said Campian, "that we have
+brought with us the present merciful explanation of the bull."
+
+"I'll tell you what, gentlemen," said Mr. Leigh, who, like other
+weak men, grew in valor as his opponent seemed inclined to make
+peace, "I don't think the declaration was needed.  After the new
+law of 1571 was made, it was never put in force till Mayne and
+Trudgeon made fools of themselves, and that was full six years.
+There were a few offenders, they say, who were brought up and
+admonished, and let go; but even that did not happen down here, and
+need not happen now, unless you put my son here (for you shall
+never put me, I warrant you) upon some deed which had better be
+left alone, and so bring us all to shame."
+
+"Your son, sir, if not openly vowed to God, has, I hope, a due
+sense of that inward vocation which we have seen in him, and
+reverences his spiritual fathers too well to listen to the
+temptations of his earthly father."
+
+"What, sir, will you teach my son to disobey me?"
+
+"Your son is ours also, sir.  This is strange language in one who
+owes a debt to the Church, which it was charitably fancied he meant
+to pay in the person of his child."
+
+These last words touched poor Mr. Leigh in a sore point, and
+breaking all bounds, he swore roundly at Parsons, who stood foaming
+with rage.
+
+"A plague upon you, sir, and a black assizes for you, for you will
+come to the gallows yet!  Do you mean to taunt me in my own house
+with that Hartland land?  You had better go back and ask those who
+sent you where the dispensation to hold the land is, which they
+promised to get me years ago, and have gone on putting me off, till
+they have got my money, and my son, and my conscience, and I vow
+before all the saints, seem now to want my head over and above.
+God help me!"--and the poor man's eyes fairly filled with tears.
+
+Now was Eustace's turn to be roused; for, after all, he was an
+Englishman and a gentleman; and he said kindly enough, but firmly--
+
+"Courage, my dearest father.  Remember that I am still your son,
+and not a Jesuit yet; and whether I ever become one, I promise you,
+will depend mainly on the treatment which you meet with at the
+hands of these reverend gentlemen, for whom I, as having brought
+them hither, must consider myself as surety to you."
+
+If a powder-barrel had exploded in the Jesuits' faces, they could
+not have been more amazed.  Campian looked blank at Parsons, and
+Parsons at Campian; till the stouter-hearted of the two, recovering
+his breath at last--
+
+"Sir! do you know, sir, the curse pronounced on those who, after
+putting their hand to the plough, look back?"
+
+Eustace was one of those impulsive men, with a lack of moral
+courage, who dare raise the devil, but never dare fight him after
+he has been raised; and he now tried to pass off his speech by
+winking and making signs in the direction of his father, as much as
+to say that he was only trying to quiet the old man's fears.  But
+Campian was too frightened, Parsons too angry, to take his hints:
+and he had to carry his part through.
+
+"All I read is, Father Parsons, that such are not fit for the
+kingdom of God; of which high honor I have for some time past felt
+myself unworthy.  I have much doubt just now as to my vocation; and
+in the meanwhile have not forgotten that I am a citizen of a free
+country."  And so saying, he took his father's arm, and walked out.
+
+His last words had hit the Jesuits hard.  They had put the poor
+cobweb-spinners in mind of the humiliating fact, which they have
+had thrust on them daily from that time till now, and yet have
+never learnt the lesson, that all their scholastic cunning,
+plotting, intriguing, bulls, pardons, indulgences, and the rest of
+it, are, on this side the Channel, a mere enchanter's cloud-castle
+and Fata Morgana, which vanishes into empty air by one touch of
+that magic wand, the constable's staff.  "A citizen of a free
+country!"--there was the rub; and they looked at each other in more
+utter perplexity than ever.  At last Parsons spoke.
+
+"There's a woman in the wind.  I'll lay my life on it.  I saw him
+blush up crimson yesterday when his mother asked him whether some
+Rose Salterne or other was still in the neighborhood."
+
+"A woman!  Well, the spirit may be willing, though the flesh be
+weak.  We will inquire into this.  The youth may do us good service
+as a layman; and if anything should happen to his elder brother
+(whom the saints protect!) he is heir to some wealth.  In the
+meanwhile, our dear brother Parsons will perhaps see the expediency
+of altering our tactics somewhat while we are here."
+
+And thereupon a long conversation began between the two, who had
+been sent together, after the wise method of their order, in
+obedience to the precept, "Two are better than one," in order that
+Campian might restrain Parsons' vehemence, and Parsons spur on
+Campian's gentleness, and so each act as the supplement of the
+other, and each also, it must be confessed, gave advice pretty
+nearly contradictory to his fellow's if occasion should require,
+"without the danger," as their writers have it, "of seeming
+changeable and inconsistent."
+
+The upshot of this conversation was, that in a day or two (during
+which time Mr. Leigh and Eustace also had made the amende
+honorable, and matters went smoothly enough) Father Campian asked
+Father Francis, the household chaplain, to allow him, as an
+especial favor, to hear Eustace's usual confession on the ensuing
+Friday.
+
+Poor Father Francis dared not refuse so great a man; and assented
+with an inward groan, knowing well that the intent was to worm out
+some family secrets, whereby his power would be diminished, and the
+Jesuits' increased.  For the regular priesthood and the Jesuits
+throughout England were toward each other in a state of armed
+neutrality, which wanted but little at any moment to become open
+war, as it did in James the First's time, when those meek
+missionaries, by their gentle moral tortures, literally hunted to
+death the poor Popish bishop of Hippopotamus (that is to say,
+London) for the time being.
+
+However, Campian heard Eustace's confession; and by putting to him
+such questions as may be easily conceived by those who know
+anything about the confessional, discovered satisfactorily enough,
+that he was what Campian would have called "in love:" though I
+should question much the propriety of the term as applied to any
+facts which poor prurient Campian discovered, or indeed knew how to
+discover, seeing that a swine has no eye for pearls.  But he had
+found out enough: he smiled, and set to work next vigorously to
+discover who the lady might be.
+
+If he had frankly said to Eustace, "I feel for you; and if your
+desires are reasonable, or lawful, or possible, I will help you
+with all my heart and soul," he might have had the young man's
+secret heart, and saved himself an hour's trouble; but, of course,
+he took instinctively the crooked and suspicious method, expected
+to find the case the worst possible,--as a man was bound to do who
+had been trained to take the lowest possible view of human nature,
+and to consider the basest motives as the mainspring of all human
+action,--and began his moral torture accordingly by a series of
+delicate questions, which poor Eustace dodged in every possible
+way, though he knew that the good father was too cunning for him,
+and that he must give in at last.  Nevertheless, like a rabbit who
+runs squealing round and round before the weasel, into whose jaws
+it knows that it must jump at last by force of fascination, he
+parried and parried, and pretended to be stupid, and surprised, and
+honorably scrupulous, and even angry; while every question as to
+her being married or single, Catholic or heretic, English or
+foreign, brought his tormentor a step nearer the goal.  At last,
+when Campian, finding the business not such a very bad one, had
+asked something about her worldly wealth, Eustace saw a door of
+escape and sprang at it.
+
+"Even if she be a heretic, she is heiress to one of the wealthiest
+merchants in Devon."
+
+"Ah!" said Campian, thoughtfully.  "And she is but eighteen, you
+say?"
+
+"Only eighteen."
+
+"Ah! well, my son, there is time.  She may be reconciled to the
+Church: or you may change."
+
+"I shall die first."
+
+"Ah, poor lad!  Well; she may be reconciled, and her wealth may be
+of use to the cause of Heaven."
+
+"And it shall be of use.  Only absolve me, and let me be at peace.
+Let me have but her," he cried piteously.  "I do not want her
+wealth,--not I!  Let me have but her, and that but for one year,
+one month, one day!--and all the rest--money, fame, talents, yea,
+my life itself, hers if it be needed--are at the service of Holy
+Church.  Ay, I shall glory in showing my devotion by some special
+sacrifice,--some desperate deed.  Prove me now, and see what there
+is I will not do!"
+
+And so Eustace was absolved; after which Campian added,--
+
+"This is indeed well, my son: for there is a thing to be done now,
+but it may be at the risk of life."
+
+"Prove me!" cried Eustace, impatiently.
+
+"Here is a letter which was brought me last night; no matter from
+whence; you can understand it better than I, and I longed to have
+shown it you, but that I feared my son had become--"
+
+"You feared wrongly, then, my dear Father Campian."
+
+So Campian translated to him the cipher of the letter.
+
+"This to Evan Morgans, gentleman, at Mr. Leigh's house in
+Moorwinstow, Devonshire.  News may be had by one who will go to the
+shore of Clovelly, any evening after the 25th of November, at dead
+low tide, and there watch for a boat, rowed by one with a red
+beard, and a Portugal by his speech.  If he be asked, 'How many?'
+he will answer, 'Eight hundred and one.'  Take his letters and read
+them.  If the shore be watched, let him who comes show a light
+three times in a safe place under the cliff above the town; below
+is dangerous landing.  Farewell, and expect great things!"
+
+"I will go," said Eustace; "to-morrow is the 25th, and I know a
+sure and easy place.  Your friend seems to know these shores well."
+
+"Ah! what is it we do not know?" said Campian, with a mysterious
+smile.  "And now?"
+
+"And now, to prove to you how I trust to you, you shall come with
+me, and see this--the lady of whom I spoke, and judge for yourself
+whether my fault is not a venial one."
+
+"Ah, my son, have I not absolved you already?  What have I to do
+with fair faces?  Nevertheless, I will come, both to show you that
+I trust you, and it may be to help towards reclaiming a heretic,
+and saving a lost soul: who knows?"
+
+So the two set out together; and, as it was appointed, they had
+just got to the top of the hill between Chapel and Stow mill, when
+up the lane came none other than Mistress Rose Salterne herself, in
+all the glories of a new scarlet hood, from under which her large
+dark languid eyes gleamed soft lightnings through poor Eustace's
+heart and marrow.  Up to them she tripped on delicate ankles and
+tiny feet, tall, lithe, and graceful, a true West-country lass; and
+as she passed them with a pretty blush and courtesy, even Campian
+looked back at the fair innocent creature, whose long dark curls,
+after the then country fashion, rolled down from beneath the hood
+below her waist, entangling the soul of Eustace Leigh within their
+glossy nets.
+
+"There!" whispered he, trembling from head to foot.  "Can you
+excuse me now?"
+
+"I had excused you long ago;" said the kindhearted father.  "Alas,
+that so much fair red and white should have been created only as a
+feast for worms!"
+
+"A feast for gods, you mean!" cried Eustace, on whose common sense
+the naive absurdity of the last speech struck keenly; and then, as
+if to escape the scolding which he deserved for his heathenry--
+
+"Will you let me return for a moment?  I will follow you: let me
+go!"
+
+Campian saw that it was of no use to say no, and nodded.  Eustace
+darted from his side, and running across a field, met Rose full at
+the next turn of the road.
+
+She started, and gave a pretty little shriek.
+
+"Mr. Leigh!  I thought you had gone forward."
+
+"I came back to speak to you, Rose--Mistress Salterne, I mean."
+
+"To me?"
+
+"To you I must speak, tell you all, or die!"  And he pressed up
+close to her.  She shrank back, somewhat frightened.
+
+"Do not stir; do not go, I implore you!  Rose, only hear me!"  And
+fiercely and passionately seizing her by the hand, he poured out
+the whole story of his love, heaping her with every fantastic
+epithet of admiration which he could devise.
+
+There was little, perhaps, of all his words which Rose had not
+heard many a time before; but there was a quiver in his voice, and
+a fire in his eye, from which she shrank by instinct.
+
+"Let me go!" she said; "you are too rough, sir!"
+
+"Ay!" he said, seizing now both her hands, "rougher, perhaps, than
+the gay gallants of Bideford, who serenade you, and write sonnets
+to you, and send you posies.  Rougher, but more loving, Rose!  Do
+not turn away!  I shall die if you take your eyes off me!  Tell
+me,--tell me, now here--this moment--before we part--if I may love
+you!"
+
+"Go away!" she answered, struggling, and bursting into tears.
+"This is too rude.  If I am but a merchant's daughter.  I am God's
+child.  Remember that I am alone.  Leave me; go! or I will call for
+help!"
+
+Eustace had heard or read somewhere that such expressions in a
+woman's mouth were mere facons de parler, and on the whole signs
+that she had no objection to be alone, and did not intend to call
+for help; and he only grasped her hands the more fiercely, and
+looked into her face with keen and hungry eyes; but she was in
+earnest, nevertheless, and a loud shriek made him aware that, if he
+wished to save his own good name, he must go: but there was one
+question, for an answer to which he would risk his very life.
+
+"Yes, proud woman!  I thought so!  Some one of those gay gallants
+has been beforehand with me.  Tell me who--"
+
+But she broke from him, and passed him, and fled down the lane.
+
+"Mark it!" cried he, after her.  "You shall rue the day when you
+despised Eustace Leigh!  Mark it, proud beauty!"  And he turned
+back to join Campian, who stood in some trepidation.
+
+"You have not hurt the maiden, my son?  I thought I heard a
+scream."
+
+"Hurt her!  No.  Would God that she were dead, nevertheless, and I
+by her!  Say no more to me, father.  We will home."  Even Campian
+knew enough of the world to guess what had happened, and they both
+hurried home in silence.
+
+And so Eustace Leigh played his move, and lost it.
+
+Poor little Rose, having run nearly to Chapel, stopped for very
+shame, and walked quietly by the cottages which stood opposite the
+gate, and then turned up the lane towards Moorwinstow village,
+whither she was bound.  But on second thoughts, she felt herself so
+"red and flustered," that she was afraid of going into the village,
+for fear (as she said to herself) of making people talk, and so,
+turning into a by-path, struck away toward the cliffs, to cool her
+blushes in the sea-breeze.  And there finding a quiet grassy nook
+beneath the crest of the rocks, she sat down on the turf, and fell
+into a great meditation.
+
+Rose Salterne was a thorough specimen of a West-coast maiden, full
+of passionate impulsive affections, and wild dreamy imaginations, a
+fit subject, as the North-Devon women are still, for all romantic
+and gentle superstitions.  Left early without mother's care, she
+had fed her fancy upon the legends and ballads of her native land,
+till she believed--what did she not believe?--of mermaids and
+pixies, charms and witches, dreams and omens, and all that world of
+magic in which most of the countrywomen, and countrymen too,
+believed firmly enough but twenty years ago.  Then her father's
+house was seldom without some merchant, or sea-captain from foreign
+parts, who, like Othello, had his tales of--
+
+
+     "Antres vast, and deserts idle,
+   Of rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads reach heaven."
+
+
+And,--
+
+
+     "And of the cannibals that each other eat,
+      The anthropophagi, and men whose heads
+      Do grow beneath their shoulders."
+
+
+All which tales, she, like Desdemona, devoured with greedy ears,
+whenever she could "the house affairs with haste despatch."  And
+when these failed, there was still boundless store of wonders open
+to her in old romances which were then to be found in every English
+house of the better class.  The Legend of King Arthur, Florice and
+Blancheflour, Sir Ysumbras, Sir Guy of Warwick, Palamon and Arcite,
+and the Romaunt of the Rose, were with her text-books and canonical
+authorities.  And lucky it was, perhaps, for her that Sidney's
+Arcadia was still in petto, or Mr. Frank (who had already seen the
+first book or two in manuscript, and extolled it above all books
+past, present, or to come) would have surely brought a copy down
+for Rose, and thereby have turned her poor little flighty brains
+upside down forever.  And with her head full of these, it was no
+wonder if she had likened herself of late more than once to some of
+those peerless princesses of old, for whose fair hand paladins and
+kaisers thundered against each other in tilted field; and perhaps
+she would not have been sorry(provided, of course, no one was
+killed) if duels, and passages of arms in honor of her, as her
+father reasonably dreaded, had actually taken place.
+
+For Rose was not only well aware that she was wooed, but found the
+said wooing (and little shame to her) a very pleasant process.  Not
+that she had any wish to break hearts: she did not break her heart
+for any of her admirers, and why should they break theirs for her?
+They were all very charming, each in his way (the gentlemen, at
+least; for she had long since learnt to turn up her nose at
+merchants and burghers); but one of them was not so very much
+better than the other.
+
+Of course, Mr. Frank Leigh was the most charming; but then, as a
+courtier and squire of dames, he had never given her a sign of real
+love, nothing but sonnets and compliments, and there was no
+trusting such things from a gallant, who was said (though, by the
+by, most scandalously) to have a lady love at Milan, and another at
+Vienna, and half-a-dozen in the Court, and half-a-dozen more in the
+city.
+
+And very charming was Mr. William Cary, with his quips and his
+jests, and his galliards and lavoltas; over and above his rich
+inheritance; but then, charming also Mr. Coffin of Portledge,
+though he were a little proud and stately; but which of the two
+should she choose?  It would be very pleasant to be mistress of
+Clovelly Court; but just as pleasant to find herself lady of
+Portledge, where the Coffins had lived ever since Noah's flood (if,
+indeed, they had not merely returned thither after that temporary
+displacement), and to bring her wealth into a family which was as
+proud of its antiquity as any nobleman in Devon, and might have
+made a fourth to that famous trio of Devonshire Cs, of which it is
+written,--
+
+
+     "Crocker, Cruwys, and Copplestone,
+      When the Conqueror came were all at home."
+
+
+And Mr. Hugh Fortescue, too--people said that he was certain to
+become a great soldier--perhaps as great as his brother Arthur--and
+that would be pleasant enough, too, though he was but the younger
+son of an innumerable family: but then, so was Amyas Leigh.  Ah,
+poor Amyas!  Her girl's fancy for him had vanished, or rather,
+perhaps, it was very much what it always had been, only that four
+or five more girl's fancies beside it had entered in, and kept it
+in due subjection.  But still, she could not help thinking a good
+deal about him, and his voyage, and the reports of his great
+strength, and beauty, and valor, which had already reached her in
+that out-of-the-way corner; and though she was not in the least in
+love with him, she could not help hoping that he had at least (to
+put her pretty little thought in the mildest shape) not altogether
+forgotten her; and was hungering, too, with all her fancy, to give
+him no peace till he had told her all the wonderful things which he
+had seen and done in this ever-memorable voyage.  So that,
+altogether, it was no wonder, if in her last night's dream the
+figure of Amyas had been even more forward and troublesome than
+that of Frank or the rest.
+
+But, moreover, another figure had been forward and troublesome
+enough in last night's sleep-world; and forward and troublesome
+enough, too, now in to-day's waking-world, namely, Eustace, the
+rejected.  How strange that she should have dreamt of him the night
+before! and dreamt, too, of his fighting with Mr. Frank and Mr.
+Amyas!  It must be a warning--see, she had met him the very next
+day in this strange way; so the first half of her dream had come
+true; and after what had past, she only had to breathe a whisper,
+and the second part of the dream would come true also.  If she
+wished for a passage of arms in her own honor, she could easily
+enough compass one: not that she would do it for worlds!  And after
+all, though Mr. Eustace had been very rude and naughty, yet still
+it was not his own fault; he could not help being in love with her.
+And--and, in short, the poor little maid felt herself one of the
+most important personages on earth, with all the cares (or hearts)
+of the country in her keeping, and as much perplexed with matters
+of weight as ever was any Cleophila, or Dianeme, Fiordispina or
+Flourdeluce, in verse run tame, or prose run mad.
+
+Poor little Rose!  Had she but had a mother!  But she was to learn
+her lesson, such as it was, in another school.  She was too shy
+(too proud perhaps) to tell her aunt her mighty troubles; but a
+counsellor she must have; and after sitting with her head in her
+hands, for half-an-hour or more, she arose suddenly, and started
+off along the cliffs towards Marsland.  She would go and see Lucy
+Passmore, the white witch; Lucy knew everything; Lucy would tell
+her what to do; perhaps even whom to marry.
+
+Lucy was a fat, jolly woman of fifty, with little pig-eyes, which
+twinkled like sparks of fire, and eyebrows which sloped upwards and
+outwards, like those of a satyr, as if she had been (as indeed she
+had) all her life looking out of the corners of her eyes.  Her
+qualifications as white witch were boundless cunning, equally
+boundless good nature, considerable knowledge of human weaknesses,
+some mesmeric power, some skill in "yarbs," as she called her
+simples, a firm faith in the virtue of her own incantations, and
+the faculty of holding her tongue.  By dint of these she contrived
+to gain a fair share of money, and also (which she liked even
+better) of power, among the simple folk for many miles round.  If a
+child was scalded, a tooth ached, a piece of silver was stolen, a
+heifer shrew-struck, a pig bewitched, a young damsel crost in love,
+Lucy was called in, and Lucy found a remedy, especially for the
+latter complaint.  Now and then she found herself on ticklish
+ground, for the kind-heartedness which compelled her to help all
+distressed damsels out of a scrape, sometimes compelled her also to
+help them into one; whereon enraged fathers called Lucy ugly names,
+and threatened to send her into Exeter gaol for a witch, and she
+smiled quietly, and hinted that if she were "like some that were
+ready to return evil for evil, such talk as that would bring no
+blessing on them that spoke it;" which being translated into plain
+English, meant, "If you trouble me, I will overlook (i.  e.
+fascinate) you, and then your pigs will die, your horses stray,
+your cream turn sour, your barns be fired, your son have St.
+Vitus's dance, your daughter fits, and so on, woe on woe, till you
+are very probably starved to death in a ditch, by virtue of this
+terrible little eye of mine, at which, in spite of all your
+swearing and bullying, you know you are now shaking in your shoes
+for fear.  So you had much better hold your tongue, give me a drink
+of cider, and leave ill alone, lest you make it worse."
+
+Not that Lucy ever proceeded to any such fearful extremities.  On
+the contrary, her boast, and her belief too, was, that she was sent
+into the world to make poor souls as happy as she could, by lawful
+means, of course, if possible, but if not--why, unlawful ones were
+better than none; for she "couldn't a-bear to see the poor
+creatures taking on; she was too, too tender-hearted."  And so she
+was, to every one but her husband, a tall, simple-hearted rabbit-
+faced man, a good deal older than herself.  Fully agreeing with Sir
+Richard Grenville's great axiom, that he who cannot obey cannot
+rule, Lucy had been for the last five-and-twenty years training him
+pretty smartly to obey her, with the intention, it is to be
+charitably hoped, of letting him rule her in turn when his lesson
+was perfected.  He bore his honors, however, meekly enough, having
+a boundless respect for his wife's wisdom, and a firm belief in her
+supernatural powers, and let her go her own way and earn her own
+money, while he got a little more in a truly pastoral method (not
+extinct yet along those lonely cliffs), by feeding a herd of some
+dozen donkeys and twenty goats.  The donkeys fetched, at each low-
+tide, white shell-sand which was to be sold for manure to the
+neighboring farmers; the goats furnished milk and "kiddy-pies;" and
+when there was neither milking nor sand-carrying to be done, old
+Will Passmore just sat under a sunny rock and watched the buck-
+goats rattle their horns together, thinking about nothing at all,
+and taking very good care all the while neither to inquire nor to
+see who came in and out of his little cottage in the glen.
+
+The prophetess, when Rose approached her oracular cave, was seated
+on a tripod in front of the fire, distilling strong waters out of
+penny-royal.  But no sooner did her distinguished visitor appear at
+the hatch, than the still was left to take care of itself, and a
+clean apron and mutch having been slipt on, Lucy welcomed Rose with
+endless courtesies, and--"Bless my dear soul alive, who ever would
+have thought to see the Rose of Torridge to my poor little place!"
+
+Rose sat down: and then?  How to begin was more than she knew, and
+she stayed silent a full five minutes, looking earnestly at the
+point of her shoe, till Lucy, who was an adept in such cases,
+thought it best to proceed to business at once, and save Rose the
+delicate operation of opening the ball herself; and so, in her own
+way, half fawning, half familiar--
+
+"Well, my dear young lady, and what is it I can do for ye?  For I
+guess you want a bit of old Lucy's help, eh?  Though I'm most mazed
+to see ye here, surely.  I should have supposed that pretty face
+could manage they sort of matters for itself.  Eh?"
+
+Rose, thus bluntly charged, confessed at once, and with many
+blushes and hesitations, made her soon understand that what she
+wanted was "To have her fortune told."
+
+"Eh?  Oh! I see.  The pretty face has managed it a bit too well
+already, eh?  Tu many o' mun, pure fellows?  Well, 'tain't every
+mayden has her pick and choose, like some I know of, as be blest in
+love by stars above.  So you hain't made up your mind, then?"
+
+Rose shook her head.
+
+"Ah--well," she went on, in a half-bantering tone.  "Not so asy, is
+it, then?  One's gude for one thing, and one for another, eh?  One
+has the blood, and another the money."
+
+And so the "cunning woman" (as she truly was), talking half to
+herself, ran over all the names which she thought likely, peering
+at Rose all the while out of the corners of her foxy bright eyes,
+while Rose stirred the peat ashes steadfastly with the point of her
+little shoe, half angry, half ashamed, half frightened, to find
+that "the cunning woman" had guessed so well both her suitors and
+her thoughts about them, and tried to look unconcerned at each name
+as it came out.
+
+"Well, well," said Lucy, who took nothing by her move, simply
+because there was nothing to take; "think over it--think over it,
+my dear life; and if you did set your mind on any one--why, then--
+then maybe I might help you to a sight of him."
+
+"A sight of him?"
+
+"His sperrit, dear life, his sperrit only, I mane.  I 'udn't have
+no keeping company in my house, no, not for gowld untowld, I
+'udn't; but the sperrit of mun--to see whether mun would be true or
+not, you'd like to know that, now, 'udn't you, my darling?"
+
+Rose sighed, and stirred the ashes about vehemently.
+
+"I must first know who it is to be.  If you could show me that--
+now--"
+
+"Oh, I can show ye that, tu, I can.  Ben there's a way to 't, a
+sure way; but 'tis mortal cold for the time o' year, you zee."
+
+"But what is it, then?" said Rose, who had in her heart been
+longing for something of that very kind, and had half made up her
+mind to ask for a charm.
+
+"Why, you'm not afraid to goo into the say by night for a minute,
+are you?  And to-morrow night would serve, too; 't will be just low
+tide to midnight."
+
+"If you would come with me perhaps--"
+
+"I'll come, I'll come, and stand within call, to be sure.  Only do
+ye mind this, dear soul alive, not to goo telling a crumb about
+mun, noo, not for the world, or yu'll see naught at all, indeed,
+now.  And beside, there's a noxious business grow'd up against me
+up to Chapel there; and I hear tell how Mr. Leigh saith I shall to
+Exeter gaol for a witch--did ye ever hear the likes?--because his
+groom Jan saith I overlooked mun--the Papist dog!  And now never he
+nor th' owld Father Francis goo by me without a spetting, and
+saying of their Ayes and Malificas--I do know what their Rooman
+Latin do mane, zo well as ever they, I du!--and a making o' their
+charms and incantations to their saints and idols!  They be mortal
+feared of witches, they Papists, and mortal hard on 'em, even on a
+pure body like me, that doth a bit in the white way; 'case why you
+see, dear life," said she, with one of her humorous twinkles, "tu
+to a trade do never agree.  Do ye try my bit of a charm, now; do
+ye!"
+
+Rose could not resist the temptation; and between them both the
+charm was agreed on, and the next night was fixed for its trial, on
+the payment of certain current coins of the realm (for Lucy, of
+course, must live by her trade); and slipping a tester into the
+dame's hand as earnest, Rose went away home, and got there in
+safety.
+
+But in the meanwhile, at the very hour that Eustace had been
+prosecuting his suit in the lane at Moorwinstow, a very different
+scene was being enacted in Mrs. Leigh's room at Burrough.
+
+For the night before, Amyas, as he was going to bed, heard his
+brother Frank in the next room tune his lute, and then begin to
+sing.  And both their windows being open, and only a thin partition
+between the chambers, Amyas's admiring ears came in for every word
+of the following canzonet, sung in that delicate and mellow tenor
+voice for which Frank was famed among all fair ladies:--
+
+
+      "Ah, tyrant Love, Megaera's serpents bearing,
+     Why thus requite my sighs with venom'd smart?
+       Ah, ruthless dove, the vulture's talons wearing,
+     Why flesh them, traitress, in this faithful heart?
+       Is this my meed?  Must dragons' teeth alone
+       In Venus' lawns by lovers' hands be sown?
+
+      "Nay, gentlest Cupid; 'twas my pride undid me.
+     Nay, guiltless dove; by mine own wound I fell.
+       To worship, not to wed, Celestials bid me:
+     I dreamt to mate in heaven, and wake in hell;
+       Forever doom'd, Ixion-like, to reel
+       On mine own passions' ever-burning wheel."
+
+
+At which the simple sailor sighed, and longed that he could write
+such neat verses, and sing them so sweetly.  How he would besiege
+the ear of Rose Salterne with amorous ditties!  But still, he could
+not be everything; and if he had the bone and muscle of the family,
+it was but fair that Frank should have the brains and voice; and,
+after all, he was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, and it
+was just the same as if he himself could do all the fine things
+which Frank could do; for as long as one of the family won honor,
+what matter which of them it was?  Whereon he shouted through the
+wall, "Good night, old song-thrush; I suppose I need not pay the
+musicians."
+
+"What, awake?" answered Frank.  "Come in here, and lull me to sleep
+with a sea-song."
+
+So Amyas went in, and found Frank laid on the outside of his bed
+not yet undrest.
+
+"I am a bad sleeper," said he; "I spend more time, I fear, in
+burning the midnight oil than prudent men should.  Come and be my
+jongleur, my minnesinger, and tell me about Andes, and cannibals,
+and the ice-regions, and the fire-regions, and the paradises of the
+West."
+
+So Amyas sat down, and told: but somehow, every story which he
+tried to tell came round, by crooked paths, yet sure, to none other
+point than Rose Salterne, and how he thought of her here and
+thought of her there, and how he wondered what she would say if she
+had seen him in this adventure, and how he longed to have had her
+with him to show her that glorious sight, till Frank let him have
+his own way, and then out came the whole story of the simple
+fellow's daily and hourly devotion to her, through those three long
+years of world-wide wanderings.
+
+"And oh, Frank, I could hardly think of anything but her in the
+church the other day, God forgive me! and it did seem so hard for
+her to be the only face which I did not see--and have not seen her
+yet, either."
+
+"So I thought, dear lad," said Frank, with one of his sweetest
+smiles; "and tried to get her father to let her impersonate the
+nymph of Torridge."
+
+"Did you, you dear kind fellow?  That would have been too
+delicious."
+
+"Just so, too delicious; wherefore, I suppose, it was ordained not
+to be, that which was being delicious enough."
+
+"And is she as pretty as ever?"
+
+"Ten times as pretty, dear lad, as half the young fellows round
+have discovered.  If you mean to win her and wear her (and God
+grant you may fare no worse!) you will have rivals enough to get
+rid of."
+
+"Humph!" said Amyas, "I hope I shall not have to make short work
+with some of them."
+
+"I hope not," said Frank, laughing.  "Now go to bed, and to-morrow
+morning give your sword to mother to keep, lest you should be
+tempted to draw it on any of her majesty's lieges."
+
+"No fear of that, Frank; I am no swash-buckler, thank God; but if
+any one gets in my way, I'll serve him as the mastiff did the
+terrier, and just drop him over the quay into the river, to cool
+himself, or my name's not Amyas."
+
+And the giant swung himself laughing out of the room, and slept all
+night like a seal, not without dreams, of course, of Rose Salterne.
+
+The next morning, according to his wont, he went into his mother's
+room, whom he was sure to find up and at her prayers; for he liked
+to say his prayers, too, by her side, as he used to do when he was
+a little boy.  It seemed so homelike, he said, after three years'
+knocking up and down in no-man's land.  But coming gently to the
+door, for fear of disturbing her, and entering unperceived, beheld
+a sight which stopped him short.
+
+Mrs. Leigh was sitting in her chair, with her face bowed fondly
+down upon the head of his brother Frank, who knelt before her, his
+face buried in her lap.  Amyas could see that his whole form was
+quivering with stifled emotion.  Their mother was just finishing
+the last words of a well-known text,--"for my sake, and the
+Gospel's, shall receive a hundred-fold in this present life,
+fathers, and mothers, and brothers, and sisters."
+
+"But not a wife!" interrupted Frank, with a voice stifled with
+sobs; "that was too precious a gift for even Him to promise to
+those who gave up a first love for His sake!"
+
+"And yet," said he, after a moment's silence, "has He not heaped me
+with blessings enough already, that I must repine and rage at His
+refusing me one more, even though that one be--No, mother! I am
+your son, and God's; and you shall know it, even though Amyas never
+does!"  And he looked up with his clear blue eyes and white
+forehead; and his face was as the face of an angel.
+
+Both of them saw that Amyas was present, and started and blushed.
+His mother motioned him away with her eyes, and he went quietly
+out, as one stunned.  Why had his name been mentioned?
+
+Love, cunning love, told him all at once.  This was the meaning of
+last night's canzonet!  This was why its words had seemed to fit
+his own heart so well!  His brother was his rival.  And he had been
+telling him all his love last night.  What a stupid brute he was!
+How it must have made poor Frank wince!  And then Frank had
+listened so kindly; even bid him God speed in his suit.  What a
+gentleman old Frank was, to be sure!  No wonder the queen was so
+fond of him, and all the Court ladies!--Why, if it came to that,
+what wonder if Rose Salterne should be fond of him too?  Hey-day!
+"That would be a pretty fish to find in my net when I come to haul
+it!" quoth Amyas to himself, as he paced the garden; and clutching
+desperately hold of his locks with both hands, as if to hold his
+poor confused head on its shoulders, he strode and tramped up and
+down the shell-paved garden walks for a full half hour, till
+Frank's voice (as cheerful as ever, though he more than suspected
+all) called him.
+
+"Come in to breakfast, lad; and stop grinding and creaking upon
+those miserable limpets, before thou hast set every tooth in my
+head on edge!"
+
+Amyas, whether by dint of holding his head straight, or by higher
+means, had got the thoughts of the said head straight enough by
+this time; and in he came, and fell to upon the broiled fish and
+strong ale, with a sort of fury, as determined to do his duty to
+the utmost in all matters that day, and therefore, of course, in
+that most important matter of bodily sustenance; while his mother
+and Frank looked at him, not without anxiety and even terror,
+doubting what turn his fancy might have taken in so new a case; at
+last--
+
+"My dear Amyas, you will really heat your blood with all that
+strong ale!  Remember, those who drink beer, think beer."
+
+"Then they think right good thoughts, mother.  And in the
+meanwhile, those who drink water, think water.  Eh, old Frank?  and
+here's your health."
+
+"And clouds are water," said his mother, somewhat reassured by his
+genuine good humor; "and so are rainbows; and clouds are angels'
+thrones, and rainbows the sign of God's peace on earth."
+
+Amyas understood the hint, and laughed.  "Then I'll pledge Frank
+out of the next ditch, if it please you and him.  But first--I say--
+he must hearken to a parable; a manner mystery, miracle play, I
+have got in my head, like what they have at Easter, to the town-
+hall.  Now then, hearken, madam, and I and Frank will act."  And up
+rose Amyas, and shoved back his chair, and put on a solemn face.
+
+Mrs. Leigh looked up, trembling; and Frank, he scarce knew why,
+rose.
+
+"No; you pitch again.  You are King David, and sit still upon your
+throne.  David was a great singer, you know, and a player on the
+viols; and ruddy, too, and of a fair countenance; so that will fit.
+Now, then, mother, don't look so frightened.  I am not going to
+play Goliath, for all my cubits; I am to present Nathan the
+prophet.  Now, David, hearken, for I have a message unto thee, O
+King!
+
+"There were two men in one city, one rich, and the other poor: and
+the rich man had many flocks and herds, and all the fine ladies in
+Whitehall to court if he liked; and the poor man had nothing but--"
+
+And in spite of his broad honest smile, Amyas's deep voice began to
+tremble and choke.
+
+Frank sprang up, and burst into tears: "Oh! Amyas, my brother, my
+brother! stop! I cannot endure this.  Oh, God! was it not enough to
+have entangled myself in this fatal fancy, but over and above, I
+must meet the shame of my brother's discovering it?"
+
+"What shame, then, I'd like to know?" said Amyas, recovering
+himself.  "Look here, brother Frank!  I've thought it all over in
+the garden; and I was an ass and a braggart for talking to you as I
+did last night.  Of course you love her!  Everybody must; and I was
+a fool for not recollecting that; and if you love her, your taste
+and mine agree, and what can be better?  I think you are a sensible
+fellow for loving her, and you think me one.  And as for who has
+her, why, you're the eldest; and first come first served is the
+rule, and best to keep to it.  Besides, brother Frank, though I'm
+no scholar, yet I'm not so blind but that I tell the difference
+between you and me; and of course your chance against mine, for a
+hundred to one; and I am not going to be fool enough to row against
+wind and tide too.  I'm good enough for her, I hope; but if I am,
+you are better, and the good dog may run, but it's the best that
+takes the hare; and so I have nothing more to do with the matter at
+all; and if you marry her, why, it will set the old house on its
+legs again, and that's the first thing to be thought of, and you
+may just as well do it as I, and better too.  Not but that it's a
+plague, a horrible plague!" went on Amyas, with a ludicrously
+doleful visage; "but so are other things too, by the dozen; it's
+all in the day's work, as the huntsman said when the lion ate him.
+One would never get through the furze-croft if one stopped to pull
+out the prickles.  The pig didn't scramble out of the ditch by
+squeaking; and the less said the sooner mended; nobody was sent
+into the world only to suck honey-pots.  What must be must, man is
+but dust; if you can't get crumb, you must fain eat crust.  So I'll
+go and join the army in Ireland, and get it out of my head, for
+cannon balls fright away love as well as poverty does; and that's
+all I've got to say."  Wherewith Amyas sat down, and returned to
+the beer; while Mrs. Leigh wept tears of joy.
+
+"Amyas! Amyas!" said Frank; "you must not throw away the hopes of
+years, and for me, too!  Oh, how just was your parable!  Ah! mother
+mine! to what use is all my scholarship and my philosophy, when
+this dear simple sailor-lad outdoes me at the first trial of
+courtesy!"
+
+"My children, my children, which of you shall I love best?  Which
+of you is the more noble?  I thanked God this morning for having
+given me one such son; but to have found that I possess two!"  And
+Mrs. Leigh laid her head on the table, and buried her face in her
+hands, while the generous battle went on.
+
+"But, dearest Amyas!--"
+
+"But, Frank! if you don't hold your tongue, I must go forth.  It
+was quite trouble enough to make up one's mind, without having you
+afterwards trying to unmake it again."
+
+"Amyas! if you give her up to me, God do so to me, and more also,
+if I do not hereby give her up to you!"
+
+"He had done it already--this morning!" said Mrs. Leigh, looking up
+through her tears.  "He renounced her forever on his knees before
+me! only he is too noble to tell you so."
+
+"The more reason I should copy him," said Amyas, setting his lips,
+and trying to look desperately determined, and then suddenly
+jumping up, he leaped upon Frank, and throwing his arms round his
+neck, sobbed out, "There, there, now!  For God's sake, let us
+forget all, and think about our mother, and the old house, and how
+we may win her honor before we die! and that will be enough to keep
+our hands full, without fretting about this woman and that.--What
+an ass I have been for years! instead of learning my calling,
+dreaming about her, and don't know at this minute whether she cares
+more for me than she does for her father's 'prentices!"
+
+"Oh, Amyas! every word of yours puts me to fresh shame!  Will you
+believe that I know as little of her likings as you do?"
+
+"Don't tell me that, and play the devil's game by putting fresh
+hopes into me, when I am trying to kick them out.  I won't believe
+it.  If she is not a fool, she must love you; and if she don't,
+why, be hanged if she is worth loving!"
+
+"My dearest Amyas!  I must ask you too to make no more such
+speeches to me.  All those thoughts I have forsworn."
+
+"Only this morning; so there is time to catch them again before
+they are gone too far."
+
+"Only this morning," said Frank, with a quiet smile: "but centuries
+have passed since then."
+
+"Centuries?  I don't see many gray hairs yet."
+
+"I should not have been surprised if you had, though," answered
+Frank, in so sad and meaning a tone that Amyas could only answer--
+
+"Well, you are an angel!"
+
+"You, at least, are something even more to the purpose, for you are
+a man!"
+
+And both spoke truth, and so the battle ended; and Frank went to
+his books, while Amyas, who must needs be doing, if he was not to
+dream, started off to the dockyard to potter about a new ship of
+Sir Richard's, and forget his woes, in the capacity of Sir Oracle
+among the sailors.  And so he had played his move for Rose, even as
+Eustace had, and lost her: but not as Eustace had.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CLOVELLY COURT IN THE OLDEN TIME
+
+
+     "It was among the ways of good Queen Bess,
+        Who ruled as well as ever mortal can, sir,
+      When she was stogg'd, and the country in a mess,
+        She was wont to send for a Devon man, sir."
+
+                                    West Country Song.
+
+
+The next morning Amyas Leigh was not to be found.  Not that he had
+gone out to drown himself in despair, or even to bemoan himself
+"down by the Torridge side."  He had simply ridden off, Frank
+found, to Sir Richard Grenville at Stow: his mother at once divined
+the truth, that he was gone to try for a post in the Irish army,
+and sent off Frank after him to bring him home again, and make him
+at least reconsider himself.
+
+So Frank took horse and rode thereon ten miles or more: and then,
+as there were no inns on the road in those days, or indeed in
+these, and he had some ten miles more of hilly road before him, he
+turned down the hill towards Clovelly Court, to obtain, after the
+hospitable humane fashion of those days, good entertainment for man
+and horse from Mr. Cary the squire.
+
+And when he walked self-invited, like the loud-shouting Menelaus,
+into the long dark wainscoted hall of the court, the first object
+he beheld was the mighty form of Amyas, who, seated at the long
+table, was alternately burying his face in a pasty, and the pasty
+in his face, his sorrows having, as it seemed, only sharpened his
+appetite, while young Will Cary, kneeling on the opposite bench,
+with his elbows on the table, was in that graceful attitude laying
+down the law fiercely to him in a low voice.
+
+"Hillo! lad," cried Amyas; "come hither and deliver me out of the
+hands of this fire-eater, who I verily believe will kill me, if I
+do not let him kill some one else."
+
+"Ah! Mr. Frank," said Will Cary, who, like all other young
+gentlemen of these parts, held Frank in high honor, and considered
+him a very oracle and cynosure of fashion and chivalry, "welcome
+here: I was just longing for you, too; I wanted your advice on
+half-a-dozen matters.  Sit down, and eat.  There is the ale."
+
+"None so early, thank you."
+
+"Ah no!" said Amyas, burying his head in the tankard, and then
+mimicking Frank, "avoid strong ale o' mornings.  It heats the
+blood, thickens the animal spirits, and obfuscates the cerebrum
+with frenetical and lymphatic idols, which cloud the quintessential
+light of the pure reason.  Eh? young Plato, young Daniel, come
+hither to judgment!  And yet, though I cannot see through the
+bottom of the tankard already, I can see plain enough still to see
+this, that Will shall not fight."
+
+"Shall I not, eh? who says that?  Mr. Frank, I appeal to you, now;
+only hear."
+
+"We are in the judgment-seat," said Frank, settling to the pasty.
+"Proceed, appellant."
+
+"Well, I was telling Amyas, that Tom Coffin, of Portledge; I will
+stand him no longer."
+
+"Let him be, then," said Amyas; "he could stand very well by
+himself, when I saw him last."
+
+"Plague on you, hold your tongue.  Has he any right to look at me
+as he does, whenever I pass him?"
+
+"That depends on how he looks; a cat may look at a king, provided
+she don't take him for a mouse."
+
+"Oh, I know how he looks, and what he means too, and he shall stop,
+or I will stop him.  And the other day, when I spoke of Rose
+Salterne"--"Ah!" groaned Frank, "Ate's apple again!"--"(never mind
+what I said) he burst out laughing in my face; and is not that a
+fair quarrel?  And what is more, I know that he wrote a sonnet, and
+sent it to her to Stow by a market woman.  What right has he to
+write sonnets when I can't?  It's not fair play, Mr. Frank, or I am
+a Jew, and a Spaniard, and a Papist; it's not!"  And Will smote the
+table till the plates danced again.
+
+"My dear knight of the burning pestle, I have a plan, a device, a
+disentanglement, according to most approved rules of chivalry.  Let
+us fix a day, and summon by tuck of drum all young gentlemen under
+the age of thirty, dwelling within fifteen miles of the habitation
+of that peerless Oriana."
+
+"And all 'prentice-boys too," cried Amyas, out of the pasty.
+
+"And all 'prentice-boys.  The bold lads shall fight first, with
+good quarterstaves, in Bideford Market, till all heads are broken;
+and the head which is not broken, let the back belonging to it pay
+the penalty of the noble member's cowardice.  After which grand
+tournament, to which that of Tottenham shall be but a flea-bite and
+a batrachomyomachy--"
+
+"Confound you, and your long words, sir," said poor Will, "I know
+you are flouting me."
+
+"Pazienza, Signor Cavaliere; that which is to come is no flouting,
+but bloody and warlike earnest.  For afterwards all the young
+gentlemen shall adjourn into a convenient field, sand, or bog--
+which last will be better, as no man will be able to run away, if
+he be up to his knees in soft peat: and there stripping to our
+shirts, with rapiers of equal length and keenest temper, each shall
+slay his man, catch who catch can, and the conquerors fight again,
+like a most valiant main of gamecocks as we are, till all be dead,
+and out of their woes; after which the survivor, bewailing before
+heaven and earth the cruelty of our Fair Oriana, and the slaughter
+which her basiliscine eyes have caused, shall fall gracefully upon
+his sword, and so end the woes of this our lovelorn generation.
+Placetne Domini? as they used to ask in the Senate at Oxford."
+
+"Really," said Cary, "this is too bad."
+
+"So is, pardon me, your fighting Mr. Coffin with anything longer
+than a bodkin."
+
+"Bodkins are too short for such fierce Bobadils," said Amyas; "they
+would close in so near, that we should have them falling to
+fisticuffs after the first bout."
+
+"Then let them fight with squirts across the market-place; for by
+heaven and the queen's laws, they shall fight with nothing else."
+
+"My dear Mr. Cary," went on Frank, suddenly changing his bantering
+tone to one of the most winning sweetness, "do not fancy that I
+cannot feel for you, or that I, as well as you, have not known the
+stings of love and the bitterer stings of jealousy.  But oh, Mr.
+Cary, does it not seem to you an awful thing to waste selfishly
+upon your own quarrel that divine wrath which, as Plato says, is
+the very root of all virtues, and which has been given you, like
+all else which you have, that you may spend it in the service of
+her whom all bad souls fear, and all virtuous souls adore,--our
+peerless queen?  Who dares, while she rules England, call his sword
+or his courage his own, or any one's but hers?  Are there no
+Spaniards to conquer, no wild Irish to deliver from their
+oppressors, that two gentlemen of Devon can find no better place to
+flesh their blades than in each other's valiant and honorable
+hearts?"
+
+"By heaven!" cried Amyas, "Frank speaks like a book; and for me, I
+do think that Christian gentlemen may leave love quarrels to bulls
+and rams."
+
+"And that the heir of Clovelly," said Frank, smiling, "may find
+more noble examples to copy than the stags in his own deer-park."
+
+"Well," said Will, penitently, "you are a great scholar, Mr. Frank,
+and you speak like one; but gentlemen must fight sometimes, or
+where would be their honor?"
+
+"I speak," said Frank, a little proudly, "not merely as a scholar,
+but as a gentleman, and one who has fought ere now, and to whom it
+has happened, Mr. Cary, to kill his man (on whose soul may God have
+mercy); but it is my pride to remember that I have never yet fought
+in my own quarrel, and my trust in God that I never shall.  For as
+there is nothing more noble and blessed than to fight in behalf of
+those whom we love, so to fight in our own private behalf is a
+thing not to be allowed to a Christian man, unless refusal imports
+utter loss of life or honor; and even then, it may be (though I
+would not lay a burden on any man's conscience), it is better not
+to resist evil, but to overcome it with good."
+
+"And I can tell you, Will," said Amyas, "I am not troubled with
+fear of ghosts; but when I cut off the Frenchman's head, I said to
+myself, 'If that braggart had been slandering me instead of her
+gracious majesty, I should expect to see that head lying on my
+pillow every time I went to bed at night.'"
+
+"God forbid!" said Will, with a shudder.  "But what shall I do? for
+to the market tomorrow I will go, if it were choke-full of Coffins,
+and a ghost in each coffin of the lot."
+
+"Leave the matter to me," said Amyas.  "I have my device, as well
+as scholar Frank here; and if there be, as I suppose there must be,
+a quarrel in the market to-morrow, see if I do not--"
+
+"Well, you are two good fellows," said Will.  "Let us have another
+tankard in."
+
+"And drink the health of Mr. Coffin, and all gallant lads of the
+North," said Frank; "and now to my business.  I have to take this
+runaway youth here home to his mother; and if he will not go
+quietly, I have orders to carry him across my saddle."
+
+"I hope your nag has a strong back, then," said Amyas; "but I must
+go on and see Sir Richard, Frank.  It is all very well to jest as
+we have been doing, but my mind is made up."
+
+"Stop," said Cary.  "You must stay here tonight; first, for good
+fellowship's sake; and next, because I want the advice of our
+Phoenix here, our oracle, our paragon.  There, Mr. Frank, can you
+construe that for me?  Speak low, though, gentlemen both; there
+comes my father; you had better give me the letter again.  Well,
+father, whence this morning?"
+
+"Eh, company here?  Young men, you are always welcome, and such as
+you.  Would there were more of your sort in these dirty times!  How
+is your good mother, Frank, eh?  Where have I been, Will?  Round
+the house-farm, to look at the beeves.  That sheeted heifer of
+Prowse's is all wrong; her coat stares like a hedgepig's.  Tell
+Jewell to go up and bring her in before night.  And then up the
+forty acres; sprang two coveys, and picked a leash out of them.
+The Irish hawk flies as wild as any haggard still, and will never
+make a bird.  I had to hand her to Tom, and take the little
+peregrine.  Give me a Clovelly hawk against the world, after all;
+and--heigh ho, I am very hungry!  Half-past twelve, and dinner not
+served?  What, Master Amyas, spoiling your appetite with strong
+ale?  Better have tried sack, lad; have some now with me."
+
+And the worthy old gentleman, having finished his oration, settled
+himself on a great bench inside the chimney, and put his hawk on a
+perch over his head, while his cockers coiled themselves up close
+to the warm peat-ashes, and his son set to work to pull off his
+father's boots, amid sundry warnings to take care of his corns.
+
+"Come, Master Amyas, a pint of white wine and sugar, and a bit of a
+shoeing-horn to it ere we dine.  Some pickled prawns, now, or a
+rasher off the coals, to whet you?"
+
+"Thank you," quoth Amyas; "but I have drunk a mort of outlandish
+liquors, better and worse, in the last three years, and yet never
+found aught to come up to good ale, which needs neither shoeing-
+horn before nor after, but takes care of itself, and of all honest
+stomachs too, I think."
+
+"You speak like a book, boy," said old Cary; "and after all, what a
+plague comes of these newfangled hot wines, and aqua vitaes, which
+have come in since the wars, but maddening of the brains, and fever
+of the blood?"
+
+"I fear we have not seen the end of that yet," said Frank.  "My
+friends write me from the Netherlands that our men are falling into
+a swinish trick of swilling like the Hollanders.  Heaven grant that
+they may not bring home the fashion with them."
+
+"A man must drink, they say, or die of the ague, in those vile
+swamps," said Amyas.  "When they get home here, they will not need
+it."
+
+"Heaven grant it," said Frank; "I should be sorry to see Devonshire
+a drunken county; and there are many of our men out there with Mr.
+Champernoun."
+
+"Ah," said Cary, "there, as in Ireland, we are proving her
+majesty's saying true, that Devonshire is her right hand, and the
+young children thereof like the arrows in the hand of the giant."
+
+"They may well be," said his son, "when some of them are giants
+themselves, like my tall school-fellow opposite."
+
+"He will be up and doing again presently, I'll warrant him," said
+old Cary.
+
+"And that I shall," quoth Amyas.  "I have been devising brave
+deeds; and see in the distance enchanters to be bound, dragons
+choked, empires conquered, though not in Holland."
+
+"You do?" asked Will, a little sharply; for he had had a half
+suspicion that more was meant than met the ear.
+
+"Yes," said Amyas, turning off his jest again, "I go to what
+Raleigh calls the Land of the Nymphs.  Another month, I hope, will
+see me abroad in Ireland."
+
+"Abroad?  Call it rather at home," said old Cary; "for it is full
+of Devon men from end to end, and you will be among friends all day
+long.  George Bourchier from Tawstock has the army now in Munster,
+and Warham St. Leger is marshal; George Carew is with Lord Grey of
+Wilton (Poor Peter Carew was killed at Glendalough); and after the
+defeat last year, when that villain Desmond cut off Herbert and
+Price, the companies were made up with six hundred Devon men, and
+Arthur Fortescue at their head; so that the old county holds her
+head as proudly in the Land of Ire as she does in the Low Countries
+and the Spanish Main."
+
+"And where," asked Amyas, "is Davils of Marsland, who used to teach
+me how to catch trout, when I was staying down at Stow?  He is in
+Ireland, too, is he not?"
+
+"Ah, my lad," said Mr. Cary, "that is a sad story.  I thought all
+England had known it."
+
+"You forget, sir, I am a stranger.  Surely he is not dead?"
+
+"Murdered foully, lad!  Murdered like a dog, and by the man whom he
+had treated as his son, and who pretended, the false knave! to call
+him father."
+
+"His blood is avenged?" said Amyas, fiercely.
+
+"No, by heaven, not yet!  Stay, don't cry out again.  I am getting
+old--I must tell my story my own way.  It was last July,--was it
+not, Will?--Over comes to Ireland Saunders, one of those Jesuit
+foxes, as the Pope's legate, with money and bulls, and a banner
+hallowed by the Pope, and the devil knows what beside; and with him
+James Fitzmaurice, the same fellow who had sworn on his knees to
+Perrott, in the church at Kilmallock, to be a true liegeman to
+Queen Elizabeth, and confirmed it by all his saints, and such a
+world of his Irish howling, that Perrott told me he was fain to
+stop his own ears.  Well, he had been practising with the King of
+France, but got nothing but laughter for his pains, and so went
+over to the Most Catholic King, and promises him to join Ireland to
+Spain, and set up Popery again, and what not.  And he, I suppose,
+thinking it better that Ireland should belong to him than to the
+Pope's bastard, fits him out, and sends him off on such another
+errand as Stukely's,--though I will say, for the honor of Devon, if
+Stukely lived like a fool, he died like an honest man."
+
+"Sir Thomas Stukely dead too?" said Amyas.
+
+"Wait a while, lad, and you shall have that tragedy afterwards.
+Well, where was I?  Oh, Fitzmaurice and the Jesuits land at
+Smerwick, with three ships, choose a place for a fort, bless it
+with their holy water, and their moppings and their scourings, and
+the rest of it, to purify it from the stain of heretic dominion;
+but in the meanwhile one of the Courtenays,--a Courtenay of
+Haccombe, was it?--or a Courtenay of Boconnock?  Silence, Will, I
+shall have it in a minute--yes, a Courtenay of Haccombe it was,
+lying at anchor near by, in a ship of war of his, cuts out the
+three ships, and cuts off the Dons from the sea.  John and James
+Desmond, with some small rabble, go over to the Spaniards.  Earl
+Desmond will not join them, but will not fight them, and stands by
+to take the winning side; and then in comes poor Davils, sent down
+by the Lord Deputy to charge Desmond and his brothers, in the
+queen's name, to assault the Spaniards.  Folks say it was rash of
+his lordship: but I say, what could be better done?  Every one
+knows that there never was a stouter or shrewder soldier than
+Davils; and the young Desmonds, I have heard him say many a time,
+used to look on him as their father.  But he found out what it was
+to trust Englishmen turned Irish.  Well, the Desmonds found out on
+a sudden that the Dons were such desperate Paladins, that it was
+madness to meddle, though they were five to one; and poor Davils,
+seeing that there was no fight in them, goes back for help, and
+sleeps that night at some place called Tralee.  Arthur Carter of
+Bideford, St. Leger's lieutenant, as stout an old soldier as Davils
+himself, sleeps in the same bed with him; the lacquey-boy, who is
+now with Sir Richard at Stow, on the floor at their feet.  But in
+the dead of night, who should come in but James Desmond, sword in
+hand, with a dozen of his ruffians at his heels, each with his glib
+over his ugly face, and his skene in his hand.  Davils springs up
+in bed, and asks but this, 'What is the matter, my son?' whereon
+the treacherous villain, without giving him time to say a prayer,
+strikes at him, naked as he was, crying, 'Thou shalt be my father
+no longer, nor I thy son!  Thou shalt die!' and at that all the
+rest fall on him.  The poor little lad (so he says) leaps up to
+cover his master with his naked body, gets three or four stabs of
+skenes, and so falls for dead; with his master and Captain Carter,
+who were dead indeed--God reward them!  After that the ruffians
+ransacked the house, till they had murdered every Englishman in it,
+the lacquey-boy only excepted, who crawled out, wounded as he was,
+through a window; while Desmond, if you will believe it, went back,
+up to his elbows in blood, and vaunted his deeds to the Spaniards,
+and asked them--'There!  Will you take that as a pledge that I am
+faithful to you?'  And that, my lad, was the end of Henry Davils,
+and will be of all who trust to the faith of wild savages."
+
+"I would go a hundred miles to see that Desmond hanged!" said
+Amyas, while great tears ran down his face.  "Poor Mr. Davils!  And
+now, what is the story of Sir Thomas?"
+
+"Your brother must tell you that, lad; I am somewhat out of
+breath."
+
+"And I have a right to tell it," said Frank, with a smile.  "Do you
+know that I was very near being Earl of the bog of Allen, and one
+of the peers of the realm to King Buoncompagna, son and heir to his
+holiness Pope Gregory the Thirteenth?"
+
+"No, surely!"
+
+"As I am a gentleman.  When I was at Rome I saw poor Stukely often;
+and this and more he offered me on the part (as he said) of the
+Pope, if I would just oblige him in the two little matters of being
+reconciled to the Catholic Church, and joining the invasion of
+Ireland."
+
+"Poor deluded heretic," said Will Cary, "to have lost an earldom
+for your family by such silly scruples of loyalty!"
+
+"It is not a matter for jesting, after all," said Frank; "but I saw
+Sir Thomas often, and I cannot believe he was in his senses, so
+frantic was his vanity and his ambition; and all the while, in
+private matters as honorable a gentleman as ever.  However, he
+sailed at last for Ireland, with his eight hundred Spaniards and
+Italians; and what is more, I know that the King of Spain paid
+their charges.  Marquis Vinola--James Buoncompagna, that is--stayed
+quietly at Rome, preferring that Stukely should conquer his
+paternal heritage of Ireland for him while he took care of the bona
+robas at home.  I went down to Civita Vecchia to see him off; and
+though his younger by many years, I could not but take the liberty
+of entreating him, as a gentleman and a man of Devon, to consider
+his faith to his queen and the honor of his country.  There were
+high words between us; God forgive me if I spoke too fiercely, for
+I never saw him again."
+
+"Too fiercely to an open traitor, Frank?  Why not have run him
+through?"
+
+"Nay, I had no clean life for Sundays, Amyas; so I could not throw
+away my week-day one; and as for the weal of England, I knew that
+it was little he would damage it, and told him so.  And at that he
+waxed utterly mad, for it touched his pride, and swore that if the
+wind had not been fair for sailing, he would have fought me there
+and then; to which I could only answer, that I was ready to meet
+him when he would; and he parted from me, saying, 'It is a pity,
+sir, I cannot fight you now; when next we meet, it will be beneath
+my dignity to measure swords with you.'
+
+"I suppose he expected to come back a prince at least--Heaven
+knows; I owe him no ill-will, nor I hope does any man.  He has paid
+all debts now in full, and got his receipt for them."
+
+"How did he die, then, after all?"
+
+"On his voyage he touched in Portugal.  King Sebastian was just
+sailing for Africa with his new ally, Mohammed the Prince of Fez,
+to help King Abdallah, and conquer what he could.  He persuaded
+Stukely to go with him.  There were those who thought that he, as
+well as the Spaniards, had no stomach for seeing the Pope's son
+King of Ireland.  Others used to say that he thought an island too
+small for his ambition, and must needs conquer a continent--I know
+not why it was, but he went.  They had heavy weather in the
+passage; and when they landed, many of their soldiers were sea-
+sick.  Stukely, reasonably enough, counselled that they should wait
+two or three days and recruit; but Don Sebastian was so mad for the
+assault that he must needs have his veni, vidi, vici; and so ended
+with a veni, vidi, perii; for he Abdallah, and his son Mohammed,
+all perished in the first battle at Alcasar; and Stukely,
+surrounded and overpowered, fought till he could fight no more, and
+then died like a hero with all his wounds in front; and may God
+have mercy on his soul!"
+
+"Ah!" said Amyas, "we heard of that battle off Lima, but nothing
+about poor Stukely."
+
+"That last was a Popish prayer, Master Frank," said old Mr. Cary.
+
+"Most worshipful sir, you surely would not wish God not to have
+mercy on his soul?"
+
+"No--eh?  Of course not: but that's all settled by now, for he is
+dead, poor fellow."
+
+"Certainly, my dear sir.  And you cannot help being a little fond
+of him still."
+
+"Eh? why, I should be a brute if I were not.  He and I were
+schoolfellows, though he was somewhat the younger; and many a good
+thrashing have I given him, and one cannot help having a tenderness
+for a man after that.  Beside, we used to hunt together in Exmoor,
+and have royal nights afterward into Ilfracombe, when we were a
+couple of mad young blades.  Fond of him?  Why, I would have sooner
+given my forefinger than that he should have gone to the dogs
+thus."
+
+"Then, my dear sir, if you feel for him still, in spite of all his
+faults, how do you know that God may not feel for him still, in
+spite of all his faults?  For my part," quoth Frank, in his
+fanciful way, "without believing in that Popish Purgatory, I cannot
+help holding with Plato, that such heroical souls, who have wanted
+but little of true greatness, are hereafter by some strait
+discipline brought to a better mind; perhaps, as many ancients have
+held with the Indian Gymnosophists, by transmigration into the
+bodies of those animals whom they have resembled in their passions;
+and indeed, if Sir Thomas Stukely's soul should now animate the
+body of a lion, all I can say is that he would be a very valiant
+and royal lion; and also doubtless become in due time heartily
+ashamed and penitent for having been nothing better than a lion."
+
+"What now, Master Frank?  I don't trouble my head with such
+matters--I say Stukely was a right good-hearted fellow at bottom;
+and if you plague my head with any of your dialectics, and
+propositions, and college quips and quiddities, you sha'n't have
+any more sack, sir.  But here come the knaves, and I hear the cook
+knock to dinner."
+
+After a madrigal or two, and an Italian song of Master Frank's, all
+which went sweetly enough, the ladies rose, and went.  Whereon Will
+Cary, drawing his chair close to Frank's, put quietly into his hand
+a dirty letter.
+
+"This was the letter left for me," whispered he, "by a country
+fellow this morning.  Look at it and tell me what I am to do."
+
+Whereon Frank opened, and read--
+
+
+     "Mister Cary, be you wary
+        By deer park end to-night.
+      Yf Irish ffoxe com out of rocks
+        Grip and hold hym tight."
+
+
+"I would have showed it my father," said Will, "but--"
+
+"I verily believe it to be a blind.  See now, this is the
+handwriting of a man who has been trying to write vilely, and yet
+cannot.  Look at that B, and that G; their formae formativae never
+were begotten in a hedge-school.  And what is more, this is no
+Devon man's handiwork.  We say 'to' and not 'by,' Will, eh? in the
+West country?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"And 'man,' instead of 'him'?"
+
+"True, O Daniel!  But am I to do nothing therefore?"
+
+"On that matter I am no judge.  Let us ask much-enduring Ulysses
+here; perhaps he has not sailed round the world without bringing
+home a device or two."
+
+Whereon Amyas was called to counsel, as soon as Mr. Cary could be
+stopped in a long cross-examination of him as to Mr. Doughty's
+famous trial and execution.
+
+Amyas pondered awhile, thrusting his hands into his long curls; and
+then--
+
+"Will, my lad, have you been watching at the Deer Park End of
+late?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Where, then?"
+
+"At the town-beach."
+
+"Where else?
+
+"At the town-head."
+
+"Where else?"
+
+"Why, the fellow is turned lawyer!  Above Freshwater."
+
+"Where is Freshwater?"
+
+"Why, where the water-fall comes over the cliff, half-a-mile from
+the town.  There is a path there up into the forest."
+
+"I know.  I'll watch there to-night.  Do you keep all your old
+haunts safe, of course, and send a couple of stout knaves to the
+mill, to watch the beach at the Deer Park End, on the chance; for
+your poet may be a true man, after all.  But my heart's faith is,
+that this comes just to draw you off from some old beat of yours,
+upon a wild-goose chase.  If they shoot the miller by mistake, I
+suppose it don't much matter?"
+
+"Marry, no."
+
+
+     "'When a miller's knock'd on the head,
+       The less of flour makes the more of bread.'"
+
+
+"Or, again," chimed in old Mr. Cary, "as they say in the North--
+
+
+     "'Find a miller that will not steal,
+       Or a webster that is leal,
+       Or a priest that is not greedy,
+       And lay them three a dead corpse by;
+       And by the virtue of them three,
+       The said dead corpse shall quicken'd be.'"
+
+
+"But why are you so ready to watch Freshwater to-night, Master
+Amyas?"
+
+"Because, sir, those who come, if they come, will never land at
+Mouthmill; if they are strangers, they dare not; and if they are
+bay's-men, they are too wise, as long as the westerly swell sets
+in.  As for landing at the town, that would be too great a risk;
+but Freshwater is as lonely as the Bermudas; and they can beach a
+boat up under the cliff at all tides, and in all weathers, except
+north and nor'west.  I have done it many a time, when I was a boy."
+
+"And give us the fruit of your experience now in your old age, eh?
+Well, you have a gray head on green shoulders, my lad; and I verily
+believe you are right.  Who will you take with you to watch?"
+
+"Sir," said Frank, "I will go with my brother; and that will be
+enough."
+
+"Enough?  He is big enough, and you brave enough, for ten; but
+still, the more the merrier."
+
+"But the fewer, the better fare.  If I might ask a first and last
+favor, worshipful sir," said Frank, very earnestly, "you would
+grant me two things: that you would let none go to Freshwater but
+me and my brother; and that whatsoever we shall bring you back
+shall be kept as secret as the commonweal and your loyalty shall
+permit.  I trust that we are not so unknown to you, or to others,
+that you can doubt for a moment but that whatsoever we may do will
+satisfy at once your honor and our own."
+
+"My dear young gentleman, there is no need of so many courtier's
+words.  I am your father's friend, and yours.  And God forbid that
+a Cary--for I guess your drift--should ever wish to make a head or
+a heart ache; that is, more than--"
+
+"Those of whom it is written, 'Though thou bray a fool in a mortar,
+yet will not his folly depart from him,'" interposed Frank, in so
+sad a tone that no one at the table replied; and few more words
+were exchanged, till the two brothers were safe outside the house;
+and then--
+
+"Amyas," said Frank, "that was a Devon man's handiwork,
+nevertheless; it was Eustace's handwriting."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"No, lad.  I have been secretary to a prince, and learnt to
+interpret cipher, and to watch every pen-stroke; and, young as I
+am, I think that I am not easily deceived.  Would God I were!  Come
+on, lad; and strike no man hastily, lest thou cut off thine own
+flesh."
+
+So forth the two went, along the park to the eastward, and past the
+head of the little wood-embosomed fishing-town, a steep stair of
+houses clinging to the cliff far below them, the bright slate roofs
+and white walls glittering in the moonlight; and on some half-mile
+farther, along the steep hill-side, fenced with oak wood down to
+the water's edge, by a narrow forest path, to a point where two
+glens meet and pour their streamlets over a cascade some hundred
+feet in height into the sea below.  By the side of this waterfall a
+narrow path climbs upward from the beach; and here it was that the
+two brothers expected to meet the messenger.
+
+Frank insisted on taking his station below Amyas.  He said that he
+was certain that Eustace himself would make his appearance, and
+that he was more fit than Amyas to bring him to reason by parley;
+that if Amyas would keep watch some twenty yards above, the escape
+of the messenger would be impossible.  Moreover, he was the elder
+brother, and the post of honor was his right.  So Amyas obeyed him,
+after making him promise that if more than one man came up the
+path, he would let them pass him before he challenged, so that both
+might bring them to bay at the same time.
+
+So Amyas took his station under a high marl bank, and, bedded in
+luxuriant crown-ferns, kept his eye steadily on Frank, who sat down
+on a little knoll of rock (where is now a garden on the cliff-edge)
+which parts the path and the dark chasm down which the stream
+rushes to its final leap over the cliff.
+
+There Amyas sat a full half-hour, and glanced at whiles from Frank
+to look upon the scene around.  Outside the southwest wind blew
+fresh and strong, and the moonlight danced upon a thousand crests
+of foam; but within the black jagged point which sheltered the
+town, the sea did but heave, in long oily swells of rolling silver,
+onward into the black shadow of the hills, within which the town
+and pier lay invisible, save where a twinkling light gave token of
+some lonely fisher's wife, watching the weary night through for the
+boat which would return with dawn.  Here and there upon the sea, a
+black speck marked a herring-boat, drifting with its line of nets;
+and right off the mouth of the glen, Amyas saw, with a beating
+heart, a large two-masted vessel lying-to--that must be the
+"Portugal"!  Eagerly he looked up the glen, and listened; but he
+heard nothing but the sweeping of the wind across the downs five
+hundred feet above, and the sough of the waterfall upon the rocks
+below; he saw nothing but the vast black sheets of oak-wood sloping
+up to the narrow blue sky above, and the broad bright hunter's
+moon, and the woodcocks, which, chuckling to each other, hawked to
+and fro, like swallows, between the tree-tops and the sky.
+
+At last he heard a rustle of the fallen leaves; he shrank closer
+and closer into the darkness of the bank.  Then swift light steps--
+not down the path, from above, but upward, from below; his heart
+beat quick and loud.  And in another half-minute a man came in
+sight, within three yards of Frank's hiding-place.
+
+Frank sprang out instantly.  Amyas saw his bright blade glance in
+the clear October moonlight.
+
+"Stand in the queen's name!"
+
+The man drew a pistol from under his cloak, and fired full in his
+face.  Had it happened in these days of detonators, Frank's chance
+had been small; but to get a ponderous wheel-lock under weigh was a
+longer business, and before the fizzing of the flint had ceased,
+Frank had struck up the pistol with his rapier, and it exploded
+harmlessly over his head.  The man instantly dashed the weapon in
+his face and closed.
+
+The blow, luckily, did not take effect on that delicate forehead,
+but struck him on the shoulder: nevertheless, Frank, who with all
+his grace and agility was as fragile as a lily, and a very bubble
+of the earth, staggered, and lost his guard, and before he could
+recover himself, Amyas saw a dagger gleam, and one, two, three
+blows fiercely repeated.
+
+Mad with fury, he was with them in an instant.  They were scuffling
+together so closely in the shade that he was afraid to use his
+sword point; but with the hilt he dealt a single blow full on the
+ruffian's cheek.  It was enough; with a hideous shriek, the fellow
+rolled over at his feet, and Amyas set his foot on him, in act to
+run him through.
+
+"Stop! stay!" almost screamed Frank; "it is Eustace! our cousin
+Eustace!" and he leant against a tree.
+
+Amyas sprang towards him: but Frank waved him off.
+
+"It is nothing--a scratch.  He has papers: I am sure of it.  Take
+them; and for God's sake let him go!"
+
+"Villain! give me your papers!" cried Amyas, setting his foot once
+more on the writhing Eustace, whose jaw was broken across.
+
+"You struck me foully from behind," moaned he, his vanity and envy
+even then coming out, in that faint and foolish attempt to prove
+Amyas not so very much better a man.
+
+"Hound, do you think that I dare not strike you in front?  Give me
+your papers, letters, whatever Popish devilry you carry; or as I
+live, I will cut off your head, and take them myself, even if it
+cost me the shame of stripping your corpse.  Give them up!
+Traitor, murderer! give them, I say!"  And setting his foot on him
+afresh, he raised his sword.
+
+Eustace was usually no craven: but he was cowed.  Between agony and
+shame, he had no heart to resist.  Martyrdom, which looked so
+splendid when consummated selon les regles on Tower Hill or Tyburn,
+before pitying, or (still better) scoffing multitudes, looked a
+confused, dirty, ugly business there in the dark forest; and as he
+lay, a stream of moonlight bathed his mighty cousin's broad clear
+forehead, and his long golden locks, and his white terrible blade,
+till he seemed, to Eustace's superstitious eye, like one of those
+fair young St. Michaels trampling on the fiend, which he had seen
+abroad in old German pictures.  He shuddered; pulled a packet from
+his bosom, and threw it from him, murmuring, "I have not given it."
+
+"Swear to me that these are all the papers which you have in cipher
+or out of cipher.  Swear on your soul, or you die!"
+
+Eustace swore.
+
+"Tell me, who are your accomplices?"
+
+"Never!" said Eustace.  "Cruel! have you not degraded me enough
+already?" and the wretched young man burst into tears, and hid his
+bleeding face in his hands.
+
+One hint of honor made Amyas as gentle as a lamb.  He lifted
+Eustace up, and bade him run for his life.
+
+"I am to owe my life, then, to you?"
+
+"Not in the least; only to your being a Leigh.  Go, or it will be
+worse for you!"  And Eustace went; while Amyas, catching up the
+precious packet, hurried to Frank.  He had fainted already, and his
+brother had to carry him as far as the park before he could find
+any of the other watchers.  The blind, as far as they were
+concerned, was complete.  They had heard and seen nothing.
+Whosoever had brought the packet had landed they knew not where;
+and so all returned to the court, carrying Frank, who recovered
+gradually, having rather bruises than wounds; for his foe had
+struck wildly, and with a trembling hand.
+
+Half-an-hour after, Amyas, Mr. Cary, and his son Will were in deep
+consultation over the following epistle, the only paper in the
+packet which was not in cipher:--
+
+
+"'DEAR BROTHER N. S. in Chto. et Ecclesia.
+
+"This is to inform you and the friends of the cause, that S.
+Josephus has landed in Smerwick, with eight hundred valiant
+Crusaders, burning with holy zeal to imitate last year's martyrs of
+Carrigfolium, and to expiate their offences (which I fear may have
+been many) by the propagation of our most holy faith.  I have
+purified the fort (which they are strenuously rebuilding) with
+prayer and holy water, from the stain of heretical footsteps, and
+consecrated it afresh to the service of Heaven, as the first-fruits
+of the isle of saints; and having displayed the consecrated banner
+to the adoration of the faithful, have returned to Earl Desmond,
+that I may establish his faith, weak as yet, by reason of the
+allurements of this world: though since, by the valor of his
+brother James, he that hindered was taken out of the way (I mean
+Davils the heretic, sacrifice well-pleasing in the eyes of
+Heaven!), the young man has lent a more obedient ear to my
+counsels.  If you can do anything, do it quickly, for a great door
+and effectual is opened, and there are many adversaries.  But be
+swift, for so do the poor lambs of the Church tremble at the fury
+of the heretics, that a hundred will flee before one Englishman.
+And, indeed, were it not for that divine charity toward the Church
+(which covers the multitude of sins) with which they are
+resplendent, neither they nor their country would be, by the carnal
+judgment, counted worthy of so great labor in their behalf.  For
+they themselves are given much to lying, theft, and drunkenness,
+vain babbling, and profane dancing and singing; and are still, as
+S. Gildas reports of them, 'more careful to shroud their villainous
+faces in bushy hair, than decently to cover their bodies; while
+their land (by reason of the tyranny of their chieftains, and the
+continual wars and plunderings among their tribes, which leave them
+weak and divided, an easy prey to the myrmidons of the
+excommunicate and usurping Englishwoman) lies utterly waste with
+fire, and defaced with corpses of the starved and slain.  But what
+are these things, while the holy virtue of Catholic obedience still
+flourishes in their hearts?  The Church cares not for the
+conservation of body and goods, but of immortal souls.
+
+"If any devout lady shall so will, you may obtain from her
+liberality a shirt for this worthless tabernacle, and also a pair
+of hose; for I am unsavory to myself and to others, and of such
+luxuries none here has superfluity; for all live in holy poverty,
+except the fleas, who have that consolation in this world for which
+this unhappy nation, and those who labor among them, must wait till
+the world to come.*
+
+"Your loving brother,
+
+"N. S."
+
+
+* See note at end of chapter.
+
+
+"Sir Richard must know of this before daybreak," cried old Cary.
+"Eight hundred men landed!  We must call out the Posse Comitatus,
+and sail with them bodily.  I will go myself, old as I am.
+Spaniards in Ireland? not a dog of them must go home again."
+
+"Not a dog of them," answered Will; "but where is Mr. Winter and
+his squadron?"
+
+"Safe in Milford Haven; a messenger must be sent to him too."
+
+"I'll go," said Amyas: "but Mr. Cary is right.  Sir Richard must
+know all first."
+
+"And we must have those Jesuits."
+
+"What?  Mr. Evans and Mr. Morgans?  God help us--they are at my
+uncle's!  Consider the honor of our family!"
+
+"Judge for yourself, my dear boy," said old Mr. Cary, gently:
+"would it not be rank treason to let these foxes escape, while we
+have this damning proof against them?"
+
+"I will go myself, then."
+
+"Why not?  You may keep all straight, and Will shall go with you.
+Call a groom, Will, and get your horse saddled, and my Yorkshire
+gray; he will make better play with this big fellow on his back,
+than the little pony astride of which Mr. Leigh came walking in (as
+I hear) this morning.  As for Frank, the ladies will see to him
+well enough, and glad enough, too, to have so fine a bird in their
+cage for a week or two."
+
+"And my mother?"
+
+"We'll send to her to-morrow by daybreak.  Come, a stirrup cup to
+start with, hot and hot.  Now, boots, cloaks, swords, a deep pull
+and a warm one, and away!"
+
+And the jolly old man bustled them out of the house and into their
+saddles, under the broad bright winter's moon.
+
+"You must make your pace, lads, or the moon will be down before you
+are over the moors."  And so away they went.
+
+Neither of them spoke for many a mile.  Amyas, because his mind was
+fixed firmly on the one object of saving the honor of his house;
+and Will, because he was hesitating between Ireland and the wars,
+and Rose Salterne and love-making.  At last he spoke suddenly.
+
+"I'll go, Amyas."
+
+"Whither?"
+
+"To Ireland with you, old man.  I have dragged my anchor at last."
+
+"What anchor, my lad of parables?"
+
+"See, here am I, a tall and gallant ship."
+
+"Modest even if not true."
+
+"Inclination, like an anchor, holds me tight."
+
+"To the mud."
+
+"Nay, to a bed of roses--not without their thorns."
+
+"Hillo! I have seen oysters grow on fruit-trees before now, but
+never an anchor in a rose-garden."
+
+"Silence, or my allegory will go to noggin-staves."
+
+"Against the rocks of my flinty discernment."
+
+"Pooh--well.  Up comes duty like a jolly breeze, blowing dead from
+the northeast, and as bitter and cross as a northeaster too, and
+tugs me away toward Ireland.  I hold on by the rosebed--any ground
+in a storm--till every strand is parted, and off I go, westward ho!
+to get my throat cut in a bog-hole with Amyas Leigh."
+
+"Earnest, Will?"
+
+"As I am a sinful man."
+
+"Well done, young hawk of the White Cliff!"
+
+"I had rather have called it Gallantry Bower still, though," said
+Will, punning on the double name of the noble precipice which forms
+the highest point of the deer park.
+
+"Well, as long as you are on land, you know it is Gallantry Bower
+still: but we always call it White Cliff when you see it from the
+sea-board, as you and I shall do, I hope, to-morrow evening."
+
+"What, so soon?"
+
+"Dare we lose a day?"
+
+"I suppose not: heigh-ho!"
+
+And they rode on again in silence, Amyas in the meanwhile being not
+a little content (in spite of his late self-renunciation) to find
+that one of his rivals at least was going to raise the siege of the
+Rose garden for a few months, and withdraw his forces to the coast
+of Kerry.
+
+As they went over Bursdon, Amyas pulled up suddenly.
+
+"Did you not hear a horse's step on our left?"
+
+"On our left--coming up from Welsford moor?  Impossible at this
+time of night.  It must have been a stag, or a sownder of wild
+swine: or may be only an old cow."
+
+"It was the ring of iron, friend.  Let us stand and watch."
+
+Bursdon and Welsford were then, as now, a rolling range of dreary
+moors, unbroken by tor or tree, or anything save few and far
+between a world-old furze-bank which marked the common rights of
+some distant cattle farm, and crossed.  then, not as now, by a
+decent road, but by a rough confused track-way, the remnant of an
+old Roman road from Clovelly dikes to Launceston.  To the left it
+trended down towards a lower range of moors, which form the
+watershed of the heads of Torridge; and thither the two young men
+peered down over the expanse of bog and furze, which glittered for
+miles beneath the moon, one sheet of frosted silver, in the heavy
+autumn dew.
+
+"If any of Eustace's party are trying to get home from Freshwater,
+they might save a couple of miles by coming across Welsford,
+instead of going by the main track, as we have done."  So said
+Amyas, who though (luckily for him) no "genius," was cunning as a
+fox in all matters of tactic and practic, and would have in these
+days proved his right to be considered an intellectual person by
+being a thorough man of business.
+
+"If any of his party are mad, they'll try it, and be stogged till
+the day of judgment.  There are bogs in the bottom twenty feet
+deep.  Plague on the fellow, whoever he is, he has dodged us!  Look
+there!"
+
+It was too true.  The unknown horseman had evidently dismounted
+below, and led his horse up on the other side of a long furze-dike;
+till coming to the point where it turned away again from his
+intended course, he appeared against the sky, in the act of leading
+his nag over a gap.
+
+"Ride like the wind!" and both youths galloped across furze and
+heather at him; but ere they were within a hundred yards of him, he
+had leapt again on his horse, and was away far ahead.
+
+"There is the dor to us, with a vengeance," cried Cary, putting in
+the spurs.
+
+"It is but a lad; we shall never catch him."
+
+"I'll try, though; and do you lumber after as you can, old
+heavysides;" and Cary pushed forward.
+
+Amyas lost sight of him for ten minutes, and then came up with him
+dismounted, and feeling disconsolately at his horse's knees.
+
+"Look for my head.  It lies somewhere about among the furze there;
+and oh! I am as full of needles as ever was a pin-cushion."
+
+"Are his knees broken?"
+
+"I daren't look.  No, I believe not.  Come along, and make the best
+of a bad matter.  The fellow is a mile ahead, and to the right,
+too."
+
+"He is going for Moorwinstow, then; but where is my cousin?"
+
+"Behind us, I dare say.  We shall nab him at least."
+
+"Cary, promise me that if we do, you will keep out of sight, and
+let me manage him."
+
+"My boy, I only want Evan Morgans and Morgan Evans.  He is but the
+cat's paw, and we are after the cats themselves."
+
+And so they went on another dreary six miles, till the land trended
+downwards, showing dark glens and masses of woodland far below.
+
+"Now, then, straight to Chapel, and stop the foxes' earth?  Or
+through the King's Park to Stow, and get out Sir Richard's hounds,
+hue and cry, and queen's warrant in proper form?"
+
+"Let us see Sir Richard first; and whatsoever he decides about my
+uncle, I will endure as a loyal subject must."
+
+So they rode through the King's Park, while Sir Richard's colts
+came whinnying and staring round the intruders, and down through a
+rich woodland lane five hundred feet into the valley, till they
+could hear the brawling of the little trout-stream, and beyond, the
+everlasting thunder of the ocean surf.
+
+Down through warm woods, all fragrant with dying autumn flowers,
+leaving far above the keen Atlantic breeze, into one of those
+delicious Western combes, and so past the mill, and the little knot
+of flower-clad cottages.  In the window of one of them a light was
+still burning.  The two young men knew well whose window that was;
+and both hearts beat fast; for Rose Salterne slept, or rather
+seemed to wake, in that chamber.
+
+"Folks are late in Combe to-night," said Amyas, as carelessly as he
+could.
+
+Cary looked earnestly at the window, and then sharply enough at
+Amyas; but Amyas was busy settling his stirrup; and Cary rode on,
+unconscious that every fibre in his companion's huge frame was
+trembling like his own.
+
+"Muggy and close down here," said Amyas, who, in reality, was quite
+faint with his own inward struggles.
+
+"We shall be at Stow gate in five minutes," said Cary, looking back
+and down longingly as his horse climbed the opposite hill; but a
+turn of the zigzag road hid the cottage, and the next thought was,
+how to effect an entrance into Stow at three in the morning without
+being eaten by the ban-dogs, who were already howling and growling
+at the sound of the horse-hoofs.
+
+However, they got safely in, after much knocking and calling,
+through the postern gate in the high west wall, into a mansion, the
+description whereof I must defer to the next chapter, seeing that
+the moon has already sunk into the Atlantic, and there is darkness
+over land and sea.
+
+Sir Richard, in his long gown, was soon downstairs in the hall; the
+letter read, and the story told; but ere it was half finished--
+
+"Anthony, call up a groom, and let him bring me a horse round.
+Gentlemen, if you will excuse me five minutes, I shall be at your
+service."
+
+"You will not go alone, Richard?" asked Lady Grenville, putting her
+beautiful face in its nightcoif out of an adjoining door.
+
+"Surely, sweet chuck, we three are enough to take two poor polecats
+of Jesuits.  Go in, and help me to boot and gird."
+
+In half an hour they were down and up across the valley again,
+under the few low ashes clipt flat by the sea-breeze which stood
+round the lonely gate of Chapel.
+
+"Mr. Cary, there is a back path across the downs to Marsland; go
+and guard that."  Cary rode off; and Sir Richard, as he knocked
+loudly at the gate--
+
+"Mr. Leigh, you see that I have consulted your honor, and that of
+your poor uncle, by adventuring thus alone.  What will you have me
+do now, which may not be unfit for me and you?"
+
+"Oh, sir!" said Amyas, with tears in his honest eyes, "you have
+shown yourself once more what you always have been--my dear and
+beloved master on earth, not second even to my admiral Sir Francis
+Drake."
+
+"Or the queen, I hope," said Grenville, smiling, "but pocas
+palabras.  What will you do?"
+
+"My wretched cousin, sir, may not have returned--and if I might
+watch for him on the main road--unless you want me with you."
+
+"Richard Grenville can walk alone, lad.  But what will you do with
+your cousin?"
+
+"Send him out of the country, never to return; or if he refuses,
+run him through on the spot."
+
+"Go, lad."  And as he spoke, a sleepy voice asked inside the gate,
+"Who was there?"
+
+"Sir Richard Grenville.  Open, in the queen's name?"
+
+"Sir Richard?  He is in bed, and be hanged to you.  No honest folk
+come at this hour of night."
+
+"Amyas!" shouted Sir Richard.  Amyas rode back.
+
+"Burst that gate for me, while I hold your horse."
+
+Amyas leaped down, took up a rock from the roadside, such as
+Homer's heroes used to send at each other's heads, and in an
+instant the door was flat on the ground, and the serving-man on his
+back inside, while Sir Richard quietly entering over it, like Una
+into the hut, told the fellow to get up and hold his horse for him
+(which the clod, who knew well enough that terrible voice, did
+without further murmurs), and then strode straight to the front
+door.  It was already opened.  The household had been up and about
+all along, or the noise at the entry had aroused them.
+
+Sir Richard knocked, however, at the open door; and, to his
+astonishment, his knock was answered by Mr. Leigh himself, fully
+dressed, and candle in hand.
+
+"Sir Richard Grenville!  What, sir! is this neighborly, not to say
+gentle, to break into my house in the dead of night?"
+
+"I broke your outer door, sir, because I was refused entrance when
+I asked in the queen's name.  I knocked at your inner one, as I
+should have knocked at the poorest cottager's in the parish,
+because I found it open.  You have two Jesuits here, sir! and here
+is the queen's warrant for apprehending them.  I have signed it
+with my own hand, and, moreover, serve it now, with my own hand, in
+order to save you scandal--and it may be, worse.  I must have these
+men, Mr. Leigh."
+
+"My dear Sir Richard--!"
+
+"I must have them, or I must search the house; and you would not
+put either yourself or me to so shameful a necessity?"
+
+"My dear Sir Richard!--"
+
+"Must I, then, ask you to stand back from your own doorway, my dear
+sir?" said Grenville.  And then changing his voice to that fearful
+lion's roar, for which he was famous, and which it seemed
+impossible that lips so delicate could utter, he thundered,
+"Knaves, behind there!  Back!"
+
+This was spoken to half-a-dozen grooms and serving-men, who, well
+armed, were clustered in the passage.
+
+"What? swords out, you sons of cliff rabbits?"  And in a moment,
+Sir Richard's long blade flashed out also, and putting Mr. Leigh
+gently aside, as if he had been a child, he walked up to the party,
+who vanished right and left; having expected a cur dog, in the
+shape of a parish constable, and come upon a lion instead.  They
+were stout fellows enough, no doubt, in a fair fight: but they had
+no stomach to be hanged in a row at Launceston Castle, after a
+preliminary running through the body by that redoubted admiral and
+most unpeaceful justice of the peace.
+
+"And now, my dear Mr. Leigh," said Sir Richard, as blandly as ever,
+"where are my men?  The night is cold; and you, as well as I, need
+to be in our beds."
+
+"The men, Sir Richard--the Jesuits--they are not here, indeed."
+
+"Not here, sir?"
+
+"On the word of a gentleman, they left my house an hour ago.
+Believe me, sir, they did.  I will swear to you if you need."
+
+"I believe Mr. Leigh of Chapel's word without oaths.  Whither are
+they gone?"
+
+"Nay, sir--how can I tell?  They are--they are, as I may say, fled,
+sir; escaped."
+
+"With your connivance; at least with your son's.  Where are they
+gone?"
+
+"As I live, I do not know."
+
+Mr. Leigh--is this possible?  Can you add untruth to that treason
+from the punishment of which I am trying to shield you?"
+
+Poor Mr. Leigh burst into tears.
+
+"Oh! my God! my God! is it come to this?  Over and above having the
+fear and anxiety of keeping these black rascals in my house, and
+having to stop their villainous mouths every minute, for fear they
+should hang me and themselves, I am to be called a traitor and a
+liar in my old age, and that, too, by Richard Grenville!  Would God
+I had never been born!  Would God I had no soul to be saved, and
+I'd just go and drown care in drink, and let the queen and the Pope
+fight it out their own way!"  And the poor old man sank into a
+chair, and covered his face with his hands, and then leaped up
+again.
+
+"Bless my heart!  Excuse me, Sir Richard--to sit down and leave you
+standing.  'S life, sir, sorrow is making a hawbuck of me.  Sit
+down, my dear sir! my worshipful sir! or rather come with me into
+my room, and hear a poor wretched man's story, for I swear before
+God the men are fled; and my poor boy Eustace is not home either,
+and the groom tells me that his devil of a cousin has broken his
+jaw for him; and his mother is all but mad this hour past.  Good
+lack! good lack!"
+
+"He nearly murdered his angel of a cousin, sir! " said Sir Richard,
+severely.
+
+"What, sir?  They never told me."
+
+"He had stabbed his cousin Frank three times, sir, before Amyas,
+who is as noble a lad as walks God's earth, struck him down.  And
+in defence of what, forsooth, did he play the ruffian and the
+swashbuckler, but to bring home to your house this letter, sir,
+which you shall hear at your leisure, the moment I have taken order
+about your priests."  And walking out of the house he went round
+and called to Cary to come to him.
+
+"The birds are flown, Will," whispered he.  "There is but one
+chance for us, and that is Marsland Mouth.  If they are trying to
+take boat there, you may be yet in time.  If they are gone inland
+we can do nothing till we raise the hue and cry to-morrow."
+
+And Will galloped off over the downs toward Marsland, while Sir
+Richard ceremoniously walked in again, and professed himself ready
+and happy to have the honor of an audience in Mr. Leigh's private
+chamber.  And as we know pretty well already what was to be
+discussed therein, we had better go over to Marsland Mouth, and, if
+possible, arrive there before Will Cary: seeing that he arrived hot
+and swearing, half an hour too late.
+
+
+Note.--I have shrunk somewhat from giving these and other sketches
+(true and accurate as I believe them to be) of Ireland during
+Elizabeth's reign, when the tyranny and lawlessness of the feudal
+chiefs had reduced the island to such a state of weakness and
+barbarism, that it was absolutely necessary for England either to
+crush the Norman-Irish nobility, and organize some sort of law and
+order, or to leave Ireland an easy prey to the Spaniards, or any
+other nation which should go to war with us.  The work was done--
+clumsily rather than cruelly; but wrongs were inflicted, and
+avenged by fresh wrongs, and those by fresh again.  May the memory
+of them perish forever!  It has been reserved for this age, and for
+the liberal policy of this age, to see the last ebullitions of
+Celtic excitability die out harmless and ashamed of itself, and to
+find that the Irishman, when he is brought as a soldier under the
+regenerative influence of law, discipline, self-respect, and
+loyalty, can prove himself a worthy rival of the more stern Norse-
+Saxon warrior.  God grant that the military brotherhood between
+Irish and English, which is the special glory of the present war,
+may be the germ of a brotherhood industrial, political, and
+hereafter, perhaps, religious also; and that not merely the corpses
+of heroes, but the feuds and wrongs which have parted them for
+centuries, may lie buried, once and forever, in the noble graves of
+Alma and Inkerman.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE COMBES OF THE FAR WEST
+
+
+            "Far, far from hence
+     The Adriatic breaks in a warm bay
+     Among the green Illyrian hills, and there
+     The sunshine in the happy glens is fair,
+     And by the sea and in the brakes
+     The grass is cool, the sea-side air
+     Buoyant and fresh, the mountain flowers
+     More virginal and sweet than ours."
+
+                             MATTHEW ARNOLD.
+
+
+And even such are those delightful glens, which cut the high table-
+land of the confines of Devon and Cornwall, and opening each
+through its gorge of down and rock, towards the boundless Western
+Ocean.  Each is like the other, and each is like no other English
+scenery.  Each has its upright walls, inland of rich oak-wood,
+nearer the sea of dark green furze, then of smooth turf, then of
+weird black cliffs which range out right and left far into the deep
+sea, in castles, spires, and wings of jagged iron-stone.  Each has
+its narrow strip of fertile meadow, its crystal trout stream
+winding across and across from one hill-foot to the other; its gray
+stone mill, with the water sparkling and humming round the dripping
+wheel; its dark, rock pools above the tide mark, where the salmon-
+trout gather in from their Atlantic wanderings, after each autumn
+flood: its ridge of blown sand, bright with golden trefoil and
+crimson lady's finger; its gray bank of polished pebbles, down
+which the stream rattles toward the sea below.  Each has its black
+field of jagged shark's-tooth rock which paves the cove from side
+to side, streaked with here and there a pink line of shell sand,
+and laced with white foam from the eternal surge, stretching in
+parallel lines out to the westward, in strata set upright on edge,
+or tilted towards each other at strange angles by primeval
+earthquakes;--such is the "mouth"--as those coves are called; and
+such the jaw of teeth which they display, one rasp of which would
+grind abroad the timbers of the stoutest ship.  To landward, all
+richness, softness, and peace; to seaward, a waste and howling
+wilderness of rock and roller, barren to the fisherman, and
+hopeless to the shipwrecked mariner.
+
+In only one of these "mouths" is a landing for boats, made possible
+by a long sea-wall of rock, which protects it from the rollers of
+the Atlantic; and that mouth is Marsland, the abode of the White
+Witch, Lucy Passmore; whither, as Sir Richard Grenville rightly
+judged, the Jesuits were gone.  But before the Jesuits came, two
+other persons were standing on that lonely beach, under the bright
+October moon, namely, Rose Salterne and the White Witch herself;
+for Rose, fevered with curiosity and superstition, and allured by
+the very wildness and possible danger of the spell, had kept her
+appointment; and, a few minutes before midnight, stood on the gray
+shingle beach with her counsellor.
+
+"You be safe enough here to-night, miss.  My old man is snoring
+sound abed, and there's no other soul ever sets foot here o'
+nights, except it be the mermaids now and then.  Goodness, Father,
+where's our boat?  It ought to be up here on the pebbles."
+
+Rose pointed to a strip of sand some forty yards nearer the sea,
+where the boat lay.
+
+"Oh, the lazy old villain! he's been round the rocks after pollock
+this evening, and never taken the trouble to hale the boat up.
+I'll trounce him for it when I get home.  I only hope he's made her
+fast where she is, that's all!  He's more plague to me than ever my
+money will be.  O deary me!"
+
+And the goodwife bustled down toward the boat, with Rose behind
+her.
+
+"Iss, 'tis fast, sure enough: and the oars aboard too!  Well, I
+never!  Oh, the lazy thief, to leave they here to be stole!  I'll
+just sit in the boat, dear, and watch mun, while you go down to the
+say; for you must be all alone to yourself, you know, or you'll see
+nothing.  There's the looking-glass; now go, and dip your head
+three times, and mind you don't look to land or sea before you've
+said the words, and looked upon the glass.  Now, be quick, it's
+just upon midnight."
+
+And she coiled herself up in the boat, while Rose went faltering
+down the strip of sand, some twenty yards farther, and there
+slipping off her clothes, stood shivering and trembling for a
+moment before she entered the sea.
+
+She was between two walls of rock: that on her left hand, some
+twenty feet high, hid her in deepest shade; that on her right,
+though much lower, took the whole blaze of the midnight moon.
+Great festoons of live and purple sea-weed hung from it, shading
+dark cracks and crevices, fit haunts for all the goblins of the
+sea.  On her left hand, the peaks of the rock frowned down ghastly
+black; on her right hand, far aloft, the downs slept bright and
+cold.
+
+The breeze had died away; not even a roller broke the perfect
+stillness of the cove.  The gulls were all asleep upon the ledges.
+Over all was a true autumn silence; a silence which may be heard.
+She stood awed, and listened in hope of a sound which might tell
+her that any living thing beside herself existed.
+
+There was a faint bleat, as of a new-born lamb, high above her
+head; she started and looked up.  Then a wail from the cliffs, as
+of a child in pain, answered by another from the opposite rocks.
+They were but the passing snipe, and the otter calling to her
+brood; but to her they were mysterious, supernatural goblins, come
+to answer to her call.  Nevertheless, they only quickened her
+expectation; and the witch had told her not to fear them.  If she
+performed the rite duly, nothing would harm her: but she could hear
+the beating of her own heart, as she stepped, mirror in hand, into
+the cold water, waded hastily, as far as she dare, and then stopped
+aghast.
+
+A ring of flame was round her waist; every limb was bathed in
+lambent light; all the multitudinous life of the autumn sea,
+stirred by her approach, had flashed suddenly into glory;--
+
+
+"And around her the lamps of the sea nymphs,
+ Myriad fiery globes, swam heaving and panting, and rainbows,
+ Crimson and azure and emerald, were broken in star-showers, lighting
+ Far through the wine-dark depths of the crystal, the gardens of Nereus,
+ Coral and sea-fan and tangle, the blooms and the palms of the ocean."
+
+
+She could see every shell which crawled on the white sand at her
+feet, every rock-fish which played in and out of the crannies, and
+stared at her with its broad bright eyes; while the great palmate
+oarweeds which waved along the chasm, half-seen in the glimmering
+water, seemed to beckon her down with long brown hands to a grave
+amid their chilly bowers.  She turned to flee; but she had gone too
+far now to retreat; hastily dipping her head three times, she
+hurried out to the sea-marge, and looking through her dripping
+locks at the magic mirror, pronounced the incantation--
+
+
+     "A maiden pure, here I stand,
+      Neither on sea, nor yet on land;
+      Angels watch me on either hand.
+      If you be landsman, come down the strand;
+      If you be sailor, come up the sand;
+      If you be angel, come from the sky,
+      Look in my glass, and pass me by;
+      Look in my glass, and go from the shore;
+      Leave me, but love me for evermore."
+
+
+The incantation was hardly finished, her eyes were straining into
+the mirror, where, as may be supposed, nothing appeared but the
+sparkle of the drops from her own tresses, when she heard rattling
+down the pebbles the hasty feet of men and horses.
+
+She darted into a cavern of the high rock, and hastily dressed
+herself: the steps held on right to the boat.  Peeping out, half-
+dead with terror, she saw there four men, two of whom had just
+leaped from their horses, and turning them adrift, began to help
+the other two in running the boat down.
+
+Whereon, out of the stern sheets, arose, like an angry ghost, the
+portly figure of Lucy Passmore, and shrieked in shrillest treble--
+
+"Eh! ye villains, ye roogs, what do ye want staling poor folks'
+boats by night like this?"
+
+The whole party recoiled in terror, and one turned to run up the
+beach, shouting at the top of his voice, "'Tis a marmaiden--a
+marmaiden asleep in Willy Passmore's boat!"
+
+"I wish it were any sich good luck," she could hear Will say; "'tis
+my wife, oh dear!" and he cowered down, expecting the hearty cuff
+which he received duly, as the White Witch, leaping out of the
+boat, dared any man to touch it, and thundered to her husband to go
+home to bed.
+
+The wily dame, as Rose well guessed, was keeping up this delay
+chiefly to gain time for her pupil: but she had also more solid
+reasons for making the fight as hard as possible; for she, as well
+as Rose, had already discerned in the ungainly figure of one of the
+party the same suspicious Welsh gentleman, on whose calling she had
+divined long ago; and she was so loyal a subject as to hold in
+extreme horror her husband's meddling with such "Popish skulkers"
+(as she called the whole party roundly to their face)--unless on
+consideration of a very handsome sum of money.  In vain Parsons
+thundered, Campian entreated, Mr. Leigh's groom swore, and her
+husband danced round in an agony of mingled fear and covetousness.
+
+"No," she cried, "as I am an honest woman and loyal!  This is why
+you left the boat down to the shoore, you old traitor, you, is it?
+To help off sich noxious trade as this out of the hands of her
+majesty's quorum and rotulorum?  Eh?  Stand back, cowards!  Will
+you strike a woman?"
+
+This last speech (as usual) was merely indicative of her intention
+to strike the men; for, getting out one of the oars, she swung it
+round and round fiercely, and at last caught Father Parsons such a
+crack across the shins, that he retreated with a howl.
+
+"Lucy, Lucy!" shrieked her husband, in shrillest Devon falsetto,
+"be you mazed?  Be you mazed, lass?  They promised me two gold
+nobles before I'd lend them the boot!"
+
+"Tu?" shrieked the matron, with a tone of ineffable scorn.  "And do
+yu call yourself a man?"
+
+"Tu nobles! tu nobles!" shrieked he again, hopping about at oar's
+length.
+
+"Tu?  And would you sell your soul under ten?"
+
+"Oh, if that is it," cried poor Campian, "give her ten, give her
+ten, brother Pars--Morgans, I mean; and take care of your shins,
+Offa Cerbero, you know--Oh, virago!  Furens quid faemina possit!
+Certainly she is some Lamia, some Gorgon, some--"
+
+"Take that, for your Lamys and Gorgons to an honest woman!" and in
+a moment poor Campian's thin legs were cut from under him, while
+the virago, "mounting on his trunk astride," like that more famous
+one on Hudibras, cried, "Ten nobles, or I'll kep ye here till
+morning!"  And the ten nobles were paid into her hand.
+
+And now the boat, its dragon guardian being pacified, was run down
+to the sea, and close past the nook where poor little Rose was
+squeezing herself into the farthest and darkest corner, among wet
+sea-weed and rough barnacles, holding her breath as they
+approached.
+
+They passed her, and the boat's keel was already in the water; Lucy
+had followed them close, for reasons of her own, and perceiving
+close to the water's edge a dark cavern, cunningly surmised that it
+contained Rose, and planted her ample person right across its
+mouth, while she grumbled at her husband, the strangers, and above
+all at Mr. Leigh's groom, to whom she prophesied pretty plainly
+Launceston gaol and the gallows; while the wretched serving-man,
+who would as soon have dared to leap off Welcombe Cliff as to
+return railing for railing to the White Witch, in vain entreated
+her mercy, and tried, by all possible dodging, to keep one of the
+party between himself and her, lest her redoubted eye should
+"overlook" him once more to his ruin.
+
+But the night's adventures were not ended yet; for just as the boat
+was launched, a faint halloo was heard upon the beach, and a minute
+after, a horseman plunged down the pebbles, and along the sand, and
+pulling his horse up on its haunches close to the terrified group,
+dropped, rather than leaped, from the saddle.
+
+The serving-man, though he dared not tackle a witch, knew well
+enough how to deal with a swordsman; and drawing, sprang upon the
+newcomer, and then recoiled--
+
+"God forgive me, it's Mr. Eustace!  Oh, dear sir, I took you for
+one of Sir Richard's men!  Oh, sir, you're hurt!"
+
+"A scratch, a scratch!" almost moaned Eustace.  "Help me into the
+boat, Jack.  Gentlemen, I must with you."
+
+"Not with us, surely, my dear son, vagabonds upon the face of the
+earth?" said kind-hearted Campian.
+
+"With you, forever.  All is over here.  Whither God and the cause
+lead"--and he staggered toward the boat.
+
+As he passed Rose, she saw his ghastly bleeding face, half bound up
+with a handkerchief, which could not conceal the convulsions of
+rage, shame, and despair, which twisted it from all its usual
+beauty.  His eyes glared wildly round--and once, right into the
+cavern.  They met hers, so full, and keen, and dreadful, that
+forgetting she was utterly invisible, the terrified girl was on the
+point of shrieking aloud.
+
+"He has overlooked me!" said she, shuddering to herself, as she
+recollected his threat of yesterday.
+
+"Who has wounded you?" asked Campian.
+
+"My cousin--Amyas--and taken the letter!"
+
+"The devil take him, then!" cried Parsons, stamping up and down
+upon the sand in fury.
+
+"Ay, curse him--you may!  I dare not!  He saved me--sent me here!"--
+and with a groan, he made an effort to enter the boat.
+
+"Oh, my dear young gentleman," cried Lucy Passmore, her woman's
+heart bursting out at the sight of pain, "you must not goo forth
+with a grane wound like to that.  Do ye let me just bind mun up--do
+ye now!" and she advanced.
+
+Eustace thrust her back.
+
+"No! better bear it, I deserve it--devils!  I deserve it!  On
+board, or we shall all be lost--William Cary is close behind me!"
+
+And at that news the boat was thrust into the sea, faster than ever
+it went before, and only in time; for it was but just round the
+rocks, and out of sight, when the rattle of Cary's horsehoofs was
+heard above.
+
+"That rascal of Mr. Leigh's will catch it now, the Popish villain!"
+said Lucy Passmore, aloud.  "You lie still there, dear life, and
+settle your sperrits; you'm so safe as ever was rabbit to burrow.
+I'll see what happens, if I die for it!"  And so saying, she
+squeezed herself up through a cleft to a higher ledge, from whence
+she could see what passed in the valley.
+
+"There mun is! in the meadow, trying to catch the horses!  There
+comes Mr. Cary!  Goodness, Father, how a rid'th! he's over wall
+already!  Ron, Jack! ron then!  A'll get to the river!  No, a
+wain't!  Goodness, Father!  There's Mr. Cary cotched mun!  A's
+down, a's down!"
+
+"Is he dead?" asked Rose, shuddering.
+
+"Iss, fegs, dead as nits! and Mr. Cary off his horse, standing
+overthwart mun!  No, a bain't!  A's up now.  Suspose he was hit wi'
+the flat.  Whatever is Mr. Cary tu?  Telling wi' mun, a bit.  Oh
+dear, dear, dear!"
+
+"Has he killed him?" cried poor Rose.
+
+"No, fegs, no! kecking mun, kecking mun, so hard as ever was
+futeball!  Goodness, Father, who did ever?  If a haven't kecked mun
+right into river, and got on mun's horse and rod away!"
+
+And so saying, down she came again.
+
+"And now then, my dear life, us be better to goo hoom and get you
+sommat warm.  You'm mortal cold, I rackon, by now.  I was cruel
+fear'd for ye: but I kept mun off clever, didn't I, now?"
+
+"I wish--I wish I had not seen Mr. Leigh's face!"
+
+"Iss, dreadful, weren't it, poor young soul; a sad night for his
+poor mother!"
+
+"Lucy, I can't get his face out of my mind.  I'm sure he overlooked
+me."
+
+"Oh then! who ever heard the like o' that?  When young gentlemen do
+overlook young ladies, tain't thikketheor aways, I knoo.  Never you
+think on it."
+
+"But I can't help thinking of it," said Rose.  "Stop.  Shall we go
+home yet?  Where's that servant?"
+
+"Never mind, he wain't see us, here under the hill.  I'd much
+sooner to know where my old man was.  I've a sort of a forecasting
+in my inwards, like, as I always has when aught's gwain to happen,
+as though I shuldn't zee mun again, like, I have, miss.  Well--he
+was a bedient old soul, after all, he was.  Goodness, Father! and
+all this while us have forgot the very thing us come about!  Who
+did you see?"
+
+"Only that face!" said Rose, shuddering.
+
+"Not in the glass, maid?  Say then, not in the glass?"
+
+"Would to heaven it had been!  Lucy, what if he were the man I was
+fated to--"
+
+"He?  Why, he's a praste, a Popish praste, that can't marry if he
+would, poor wratch."
+
+"He is none; and I have cause enough to know it!"  And, for want of
+a better confidant, Rose poured into the willing ears of her
+companion the whole story of yesterday's meeting.
+
+"He's a pretty wooer!" said Lucy at last, contemptuously.  "Be a
+brave maid, then, be a brave maid, and never terrify yourself with
+his unlucky face.  It's because there was none here worthy of ye,
+that ye seed none in glass.  Maybe he's to be a foreigner, from
+over seas, and that's why his sperit was so long a coming.  A duke,
+or a prince to the least, I'll warrant, he'll be, that carries off
+the Rose of Bideford."
+
+But in spite of all the good dame's flattery, Rose could not wipe
+that fierce face away from her eyeballs.  She reached home safely,
+and crept to bed undiscovered: and when the next morning, as was to
+be expected, found her laid up with something very like a fever,
+from excitement, terror, and cold, the phantom grew stronger and
+stronger before her, and it required all her woman's tact and self-
+restraint to avoid betraying by her exclamations what had happened
+on that fantastic night.  After a fortnight's weakness, however,
+she recovered and went back to Bideford: but ere she arrived there,
+Amyas was far across the seas on his way to Milford Haven, as shall
+be told in the ensuing chapters.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE TRUE AND TRAGICAL HISTORY OF MR. JOHN OXENHAM OF PLYMOUTH
+
+
+     "The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew;
+        The furrow follow'd free;
+      We were the first that ever burst
+        Into that silent sea."
+
+                            The Ancient Mariner.
+
+
+It was too late and too dark last night to see the old house at
+Stow.  We will look round us, then, this bright October day, while
+Sir Richard and Amyas, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, are
+pacing up and down the terraced garden to the south.  Amyas has
+slept till luncheon, i. e. till an hour ago: but Sir Richard, in
+spite of the bustle of last night, was up and in the valley by six
+o'clock, recreating the valiant souls of himself and two terrier
+dogs by the chase of sundry badgers.
+
+Old Stow House stands, or rather stood, some four miles beyond the
+Cornish border, on the northern slope of the largest and loveliest
+of those combes of which I spoke in the last chapter.  Eighty years
+after Sir Richard's time there arose there a huge Palladian pile,
+bedizened with every monstrosity of bad taste, which was built, so
+the story runs, by Charles the Second, for Sir Richard's great-
+grandson, the heir of that famous Sir Bevil who defeated the
+Parliamentary troops at Stratton, and died soon after, fighting
+valiantly at Lansdowne over Bath.  But, like most other things
+which owed their existence to the Stuarts, it rose only to fall
+again.  An old man who had seen, as a boy, the foundation of the
+new house laid, lived to see it pulled down again, and the very
+bricks and timber sold upon the spot; and since then the stables
+have become a farm-house, the tennis-court a sheep-cote, the great
+quadrangle a rick-yard; and civilization, spreading wave on wave so
+fast elsewhere, has surged back from that lonely corner of the
+land--let us hope, only for a while.
+
+But I am not writing of that great new Stow House, of the past
+glories whereof quaint pictures still hang in the neighboring
+houses; nor of that famed Sir Bevil, most beautiful and gallant of
+his generation, on whom, with his grandfather Sir Richard, old
+Prince has his pompous epigram--
+
+
+     "Where next shall famous Grenvil's ashes stand?
+      Thy grandsire fills the sea, and thou the land."
+
+
+I have to deal with a simpler age, and a sterner generation; and
+with the old house, which had stood there, in part at least, from
+gray and mythic ages, when the first Sir Richard, son of Hamon
+Dentatus, Lord of Carboyle, the grandson of Duke Robert, son of
+Rou, settled at Bideford, after slaying the Prince of South-Galis,
+and the Lord of Glamorgan, and gave to the Cistercian monks of
+Neath all his conquests in South Wales.  It was a huge rambling
+building, half castle, half dwelling-house, such as may be seen
+still (almost an unique specimen) in Compton Castle near Torquay,
+the dwelling-place of Humphrey Gilbert, Walter Raleigh's half-
+brother, and Richard Grenville's bosom friend, of whom more
+hereafter.  On three sides, to the north, west, and south, the
+lofty walls of the old ballium still stood, with their machicolated
+turrets, loopholes, and dark downward crannies for dropping stones
+and fire on the besiegers, the relics of a more unsettled age: but
+the southern court of the ballium had become a flower-garden, with
+quaint terraces, statues, knots of flowers, clipped yews and
+hollies, and all the pedantries of the topiarian art.  And toward
+the east, where the vista of the valley opened, the old walls were
+gone, and the frowning Norman keep, ruined in the Wars of the
+Roses, had been replaced by the rich and stately architecture of
+the Tudors.  Altogether, the, house, like the time, was in a
+transitionary state, and represented faithfully enough the passage
+of the old middle age into the new life which had just burst into
+blossom throughout Europe, never, let us pray, to see its autumn or
+its winter.
+
+From the house on three sides, the hill sloped steeply down, and
+the garden where Sir Richard and Amyas were walking gave a truly
+English prospect.  At one turn they could catch, over the western
+walls, a glimpse of the blue ocean flecked with passing sails; and
+at the next, spread far below them, range on range of fertile park,
+stately avenue, yellow autumn woodland, and purple heather moors,
+lapping over and over each other up the valley to the old British
+earthwork, which stood black and furze-grown on its conical peak;
+and standing out against the sky on the highest bank of hill which
+closed the valley to the east, the lofty tower of Kilkhampton
+church, rich with the monuments and offerings of five centuries of
+Grenvilles.  A yellow eastern haze hung soft over park, and wood,
+and moor; the red cattle lowed to each other as they stood brushing
+away the flies in the rivulet far below; the colts in the horse-
+park close on their right whinnied as they played together, and
+their sires from the Queen's Park, on the opposite hill, answered
+them in fuller though fainter voices.  A rutting stag made the
+still woodland rattle with his hoarse thunder, and a rival far up
+the valley gave back a trumpet note of defiance, and was himself
+defied from heathery brows which quivered far away above, half seen
+through the veil of eastern mist.  And close at home, upon the
+terrace before the house, amid romping spaniels and golden-haired
+children, sat Lady Grenville herself, the beautiful St. Leger of
+Annery, the central jewel of all that glorious place, and looked
+down at her noble children, and then up at her more noble husband,
+and round at that broad paradise of the West, till life seemed too
+full of happiness, and heaven of light.
+
+And all the while up and down paced Amyas and Sir Richard, talking
+long, earnestly, and slow; for they both knew that the turning
+point of the boy's life was come.
+
+"Yes," said Sir Richard, after Amyas, in his blunt simple way, had
+told him the whole story about Rose Salterne and his brother,--
+"yes, sweet lad, thou hast chosen the better part, thou and thy
+brother also, and it shall not be taken from you.  Only be strong,
+lad, and trust in God that He will make a man of you."
+
+"I do trust," said Amyas.
+
+"Thank God," said Sir Richard, "that you have yourself taken from
+my heart that which was my great anxiety for you, from the day that
+your good father, who sleeps in peace, committed you to my hands.
+For all best things, Amyas, become, when misused, the very worst;
+and the love of woman, because it is able to lift man's soul to the
+heavens, is also able to drag him down to hell.  But you have
+learnt better, Amyas; and know, with our old German forefathers,
+that, as Tacitus saith, Sera juvenum Venus, ideoque inexhausta
+pubertas.  And not only that, Amyas; but trust me, that silly
+fashion of the French and Italians, to be hanging ever at some
+woman's apron string, so that no boy shall count himself a man
+unless he can vagghezziare le donne, whether maids or wives, alas!
+matters little; that fashion, I say, is little less hurtful to the
+soul than open sin; for by it are bred vanity and expense, envy and
+heart-burning, yea, hatred and murder often; and even if that be
+escaped, yet the rich treasure of a manly worship, which should be
+kept for one alone, is squandered and parted upon many, and the
+bride at last comes in for nothing but the very last leavings and
+caput mortuum of her bridegroom's heart, and becomes a mere
+ornament for his table, and a means whereby he may obtain a
+progeny.  May God, who has saved me from that death in life, save
+you also!"  And as he spoke, he looked down toward his wife upon
+the terrace below; and she, as if guessing instinctively that he
+was talking of her, looked up with so sweet a smile, that Sir
+Richard's stern face melted into a very glory of spiritual
+sunshine.
+
+Amyas looked at them both and sighed; and then turning the
+conversation suddenly--
+
+"And I may go to Ireland to-morrow?"
+
+"You shall sail in the 'Mary' for Milford Haven, with these letters
+to Winter.  If the wind serves, you may bid the master drop down
+the river tonight, and be off; for we must lose no time."
+
+"Winter?" said Amyas.  "He is no friend of mine, since he left
+Drake and us so cowardly at the Straits of Magellan."
+
+"Duty must not wait for private quarrels, even though they be just
+ones, lad: but he will not be your general.  When you come to the
+marshal, or the Lord Deputy, give either of them this letter, and
+they will set you work,--and hard work too, I warrant.
+
+"I want nothing better."
+
+"Right, lad; the best reward for having wrought well already, is to
+have more to do; and he that has been faithful over a few things,
+must find his account in being made ruler over many things.  That
+is the true and heroical rest, which only is worthy of gentlemen
+and sons of God.  As for those who, either in this world or the
+world to come, look for idleness, and hope that God shall feed them
+with pleasant things, as it were with a spoon, Amyas, I count them
+cowards and base, even though they call themselves saints and
+elect."
+
+"I wish you could persuade my poor cousin of that."
+
+"He has yet to learn what losing his life to save it means, Amyas.
+Bad men have taught him (and I fear these Anabaptists and Puritans
+at home teach little else), that it is the one great business of
+every one to save his own soul after he dies; every one for
+himself; and that that, and not divine self-sacrifice, is the one
+thing needful, and the better part which Mary chose."
+
+"I think men are inclined enough already to be selfish, without
+being taught that."
+
+"Right, lad.  For me, if I could hang up such a teacher on high as
+an enemy of mankind, and a corrupter of youth, I would do it
+gladly.  Is there not cowardice and self-seeking enough about the
+hearts of us fallen sons of Adam, that these false prophets, with
+their baits of heaven, and their terrors of hell, must exalt our
+dirtiest vices into heavenly virtues and the means of bliss?
+Farewell to chivalry and to desperate valor, farewell to patriotism
+and loyalty, farewell to England and to the manhood of England, if
+once it shall become the fashion of our preachers to bid every man,
+as the Jesuits do, take care first of what they call the safety of
+his soul.  Every man will be afraid to die at his post, because he
+will be afraid that he is not fit to die.  Amyas, do thou do thy
+duty like a man, to thy country, thy queen, and thy God; and count
+thy life a worthless thing, as did the holy men of old.  Do thy
+work, lad; and leave thy soul to the care of Him who is just and
+merciful in this, that He rewards every man according to his work.
+Is there respect of persons with God?  Now come in, and take the
+letters, and to horse.  And if I hear of thee dead there at
+Smerwick fort, with all thy wounds in front, I shall weep for thy
+mother, lad; but I shall have never a sigh for thee."
+
+If any one shall be startled at hearing a fine gentleman and a
+warrior like Sir Richard quote Scripture, and think Scripture also,
+they must be referred to the writings of the time; which they may
+read not without profit to themselves, if they discover therefrom
+how it was possible then for men of the world to be thoroughly
+ingrained with the Gospel, and yet to be free from any taint of
+superstitious fear, or false devoutness.  The religion of those
+days was such as no soldier need have been ashamed of confessing.
+At least, Sir Richard died as he lived, without a shudder, and
+without a whine; and these were his last words, fifteen years after
+that, as he lay shot through and through, a captive among Popish
+Spaniards, priests, crucifixes, confession, extreme unction, and
+all other means and appliances for delivering men out of the hands
+of a God of love:--
+
+"Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind; for
+that I have ended my life as a true soldier ought, fighting for his
+country, queen, religion, and honor: my soul willingly departing
+from this body, leaving behind the lasting fame of having behaved
+as every valiant soldier is in his duty bound to do."
+
+Those were the last words of Richard Grenville.  The pulpits of
+those days had taught them to him.
+
+But to return.  That day's events were not over yet.  For, when
+they went down into the house, the first person whom they met was
+the old steward, in search of his master.
+
+"There is a manner of roog, Sir Richard, a masterless man, at the
+door; a very forward fellow, and must needs speak with you."
+
+"A masterless man?  He had better not to speak to me, unless he is
+in love with gaol and gallows."
+
+"Well, your worship," said the steward, "I expect that is what he
+does want, for he swears he will not leave the gate till he has
+seen you."
+
+"Seen me?  Halidame! he shall see me, here and at Launceston too,
+if he likes.  Bring him in."
+
+"Fegs, Sir Richard, we are half afeard.  With your good leave--"
+
+"Hillo, Tony," cried Amyas, "who was ever afeard yet with Sir
+Richard's good leave?"
+
+"What, has the fellow a tail or horns?"
+
+"Massy no: but I be afeard of treason for your honor; for the
+fellow is pinked all over in heathen patterns, and as brown as a
+filbert; and a tall roog, a very strong roog, sir, and a foreigner
+too, and a mighty staff with him.  I expect him to be a manner of
+Jesuit, or wild Irish, sir; and indeed the grooms have no stomach
+to handle him, nor the dogs neither, or he had been under the pump
+before now, for they that saw him coming up the hill swear that he
+had fire coming out of his mouth."
+
+"Fire out of his mouth?" said Sir Richard.  "The men are drunk."
+
+"Pinked all over?  He must be a sailor," said Amyas; "let me out
+and see the fellow, and if he needs putting forth--"
+
+"Why, I dare say he is not so big but what he will go into thy
+pocket.  So go, lad, while I finish my writing."
+
+Amyas went out, and at the back door, leaning on his staff, stood a
+tall, raw-boned, ragged man, "pinked all over," as the steward had
+said.
+
+"Hillo, lad!" quoth Amyas.  "Before we come to talk, thou wilt
+please to lay down that Plymouth cloak of thine."  And he pointed
+to the cudgel, which among West-country mariners usually bore that
+name.
+
+"I'll warrant," said the old steward, "that where he found his
+cloak he found purse not far off."
+
+"But not hose or doublet; so the magical virtue of his staff has
+not helped him much.  But put down thy staff, man, and speak like a
+Christian, if thou be one."
+
+"I am a Christian, though I look like a heathen; and no rogue,
+though a masterless man, alas!  But I want nothing, deserving
+nothing, and only ask to speak with Sir Richard, before I go on my
+way."
+
+There was something stately and yet humble about the man's tone and
+manner which attracted Amyas, and he asked more gently where he was
+going and whence he came.
+
+"From Padstow Port, sir, to Clovelly town, to see my old mother, if
+indeed she be yet alive, which God knoweth."
+
+Clovally man! why didn't thee say thee was Clovally man?" asked all
+the grooms at once, to whom a West-countryman was of course a
+brother.  The old steward asked--
+
+"What's thy mother's name, then?"
+
+"Susan Yeo."
+
+"What, that lived under the archway?" asked a groom.
+
+"Lived?" said the man.
+
+"Iss, sure; her died three days since, so we heard, poor soul."
+
+The man stood quite silent and unmoved for a minute or two; and
+then said quietly to himself, in Spanish, "That which is, is best."
+
+"You speak Spanish?" asked Amyas, more and more interested.
+
+"I had need to do so, young sir; I have been five years in the
+Spanish Main, and only set foot on shore two days ago; and if you
+will let me have speech of Sir Richard, I will tell him that at
+which both the ears of him that heareth it shall tingle; and if
+not, I can but go on to Mr. Cary of Clovelly, if he be yet alive,
+and there disburden my soul; but I would sooner have spoken with
+one that is a mariner like to myself."
+
+"And you shall," said Amyas.  "Steward, we will have this man in;
+for all his rags, he is a man of wit."  And he led him in.
+
+"I only hope he ben't one of those Popish murderers," said the old
+steward, keeping at a safe distance from him as they entered the
+hall.
+
+"Popish, old master?  There's little fear of my being that.  Look
+here!"  And drawing back his rags, he showed a ghastly scar, which
+encircled his wrist and wound round and up his fore-arm.
+
+"I got that on the rack," said he, quietly, "in the Inquisition at
+Lima."
+
+"O Father!  Father! why didn't you tell us that you were a poor
+Christian?" asked the penitent steward.
+
+"Because I have had naught but my deserts; and but a taste of them
+either, as the Lord knoweth who delivered me; and I wasn't going to
+make myself a beggar and a show on their account."
+
+"By heaven, you are a brave fellow!" said Amyas.  "Come along
+straight to Sir Richard's room."
+
+So in they went, where Sir Richard sat in his library among books,
+despatches, state-papers, and warrants; for though he was not yet,
+as in after times (after the fashion of those days) admiral,
+general, member of parliament, privy councillor, justice of the
+peace, and so forth, all at once, yet there were few great men with
+whom he did not correspond, or great matters with which he was not
+cognizant.
+
+"Hillo, Amyas, have you bound the wild man already, and brought him
+in to swear allegiance?"
+
+But before Amyas could answer, the man looked earnestly on him--
+"Amyas?" said he; "is that your name, sir?"
+
+"Amyas Leigh is my name, at your service, good fellow."
+
+"Of Burrough by Bideford?"
+
+"Why then?  What do you know of me?"
+
+"Oh sir, sir! young brains and happy ones have short memories; but
+old and sad brains too long ones often!  Do you mind one that was
+with Mr. Oxenham, sir?  A swearing reprobate he was, God forgive
+him, and hath forgiven him too, for His dear Son's sake--one, sir,
+that gave you a horn, a toy with a chart on it?"
+
+"Soul alive!" cried Amyas, catching him by the hand; "and are you
+he?  The horn? why, I have it still, and will keep it to my dying
+day, too.  But where is Mr. Oxenham?"
+
+"Yes, my good fellow, where is Mr. Oxenham?" asked Sir Richard,
+rising.  "You are somewhat over-hasty in welcoming your old
+acquaintance, Amyas, before we have heard from him whether he can
+give honest account of himself and of his captain.  For there is
+more than one way by which sailors may come home without their
+captains, as poor Mr. Barker of Bristol found to his cost.  God
+grant that there may have been no such traitorous dealing here."
+
+"Sir Richard Grenville, if I had been a guilty man to my noble
+captain, as I have to God, I had not come here this day to you,
+from whom villainy has never found favor, nor ever will; for I know
+your conditions well, sir; and trust in the Lord, that if you will
+be pleased to hear me, you shall know mine."
+
+"Thou art a well-spoken knave.  We shall see."
+
+"My dear sir," said Amyas, in a whisper, "I will warrant this man
+guiltless."
+
+"I verily believe him to be; but this is too serious a matter to be
+left on guess.  If he will be sworn--"
+
+Whereon the man, humbly enough, said, that if it would please Sir
+Richard, he would rather not be sworn.
+
+"But it does not please me, rascal!  Did I not warn thee, Amyas?"
+
+"Sir," said the man, proudly, "God forbid that my word should not
+be as good as my oath: but it is against my conscience to be
+sworn."
+
+"What have we here? some fantastical Anabaptist, who is wiser than
+his teachers."
+
+"My conscience, sir--"
+
+"The devil take it and thee!  I never heard a man yet begin to
+prate of his conscience, but I knew that he was about to do
+something more than ordinarily cruel or false."
+
+"Sir," said the man, coolly enough, "do you sit here to judge me
+according to law, and yet contrary to the law swear profane oaths,
+for which a fine is provided?"
+
+Amyas expected an explosion: but Sir Richard pulled a shilling out
+and put it on the table.  "There--my fine is paid, sirrah, to the
+poor of Kilkhampton: but hearken thou all the same.  If thou wilt
+not speak an oath, thou shalt speak on compulsion; for to
+Launceston gaol thou goest, there to answer for Mr. Oxenham's
+death, on suspicion whereof, and of mutiny causing it, I will
+attach thee and every soul of his crew that comes home.  We have
+lost too many gallant captains of late by treachery of their crews,
+and he that will not clear himself on oath, must be held for
+guilty, and self-condemned."
+
+"My good fellow," said Amyas, who could not give up his belief in
+the man's honesty, "why, for such fantastical scruples, peril not
+only your life, but your honor, and Mr. Oxenham's also?  For if you
+be examined by question, you may be forced by torment to say that
+which is not true."
+
+"Little fear of that, young sir!" answered he, with a grim smile;
+"I have had too much of the rack already, and the strappado too, to
+care much what man can do unto me.  I would heartily that I thought
+it lawful to be sworn: but not so thinking, I can but submit to the
+cruelty of man; though I did expect more merciful things, as a most
+miserable and wrecked mariner, at the hands of one who hath himself
+seen God's ways in the sea, and His wonders in the great deep.  Sir
+Richard Grenville, if you will hear my story, may God avenge on my
+head all my sins from my youth up until now, and cut me off from
+the blood of Christ, and, if it were possible, from the number of
+His elect, if I tell you one whit more or less than truth; and if
+not, I commend myself into the hands of God."
+
+Sir Richard smiled.  "Well, thou art a brave ass, and valiant,
+though an ass manifest.  Dost thou not see, fellow, how thou hast
+sworn a ten-times bigger oath than ever I should have asked of
+thee?  But this is the way with your Anabaptists, who by their very
+hatred of forms and ceremonies, show of how much account they think
+them, and then bind themselves out of their own fantastical self-
+will with far heavier burdens than ever the lawful authorities have
+laid on them for the sake of the commonweal.  But what do they care
+for the commonweal, as long as they can save, as they fancy, each
+man his own dirty soul for himself?  However, thou art sworn now
+with a vengeance; go on with thy tale: and first, who art thou, and
+whence?"
+
+"Well, sir," said the man, quite unmoved by this last explosion;
+"my name is Salvation Yeo, born in Clovelly Street, in the year
+1526, where my father exercised the mystery of a barber surgeon,
+and a preacher of the people since called Anabaptists, for which I
+return humble thanks to God."
+
+Sir Richard.--Fie! thou naughty knave; return thanks that thy
+father was an ass?
+
+Yeo.--Nay, but because he was a barber surgeon; for I myself learnt
+a touch of that trade, and thereby saved my life, as I will tell
+presently.  And I do think that a good mariner ought to have all
+knowledge of carnal and worldly cunning, even to tailoring and
+shoemaking, that he may be able to turn his hand to whatsoever may
+hap.
+
+Sir Richard.--Well spoken, fellow: but let us have thy text without
+thy comments.  Forwards!
+
+Yeo.--Well, sir.  I was bred to the sea from my youth, and was with
+Captain Hawkins in his three voyages, which he made to Guinea for
+negro slaves, and thence to the West Indies.
+
+Sir Richard.--Then thrice thou wentest to a bad end, though Captain
+Hawkins be my good friend; and the last time to a bad end thou
+camest.
+
+Yeo.--No denying that last, your worship: but as for the former, I
+doubt--about the unlawfulness, I mean; being the negroes are of the
+children of Ham, who are cursed and reprobate, as Scripture
+declares, and their blackness testifies, being Satan's own livery;
+among whom therefore there can be none of the elect, wherefore the
+elect are not required to treat them as brethren.
+
+Sir Richard.--What a plague of a pragmatical sea-lawyer have we
+here?  And I doubt not, thou hypocrite, that though thou wilt call
+the negroes' black skin Satan's livery, when it serves thy turn to
+steal them, thou wilt find out sables to be Heaven's livery every
+Sunday, and up with a godly howl unless a parson shall preach in a
+black gown, Geneva fashion.  Out upon thee!  Go on with thy tale,
+lest thou finish thy sermon at Launceston after all.
+
+Yeo.--The Lord's people were always a reviled people and a
+persecuted people: but I will go forward, sir; for Heaven forbid
+but that I should declare what God has done for me.  For till
+lately, from my youth up, I was given over to all wretchlessness
+and unclean living, and was by nature a child of the devil, and to
+every good work reprobate, even as others.
+
+Sir Richard.--Hark to his "even as others"!  Thou new-whelped
+Pharisee, canst not confess thine own villainies without making out
+others as bad as thyself, and so thyself no worse than others?  I
+only hope that thou hast shown none of thy devil's doings to Mr.
+Oxenham.
+
+Yeo.--On the word of a Christian man, sir, as I said before, I kept
+true faith with him, and would have been a better friend to him,
+sir, what is more, than ever he was to himself.
+
+Sir Richard.--Alas! that might easily be.
+
+Yeo.--I think, sir, and will make good against any man, that Mr.
+Oxenham was a noble and valiant gentleman; true of his word, stout
+of his sword, skilful by sea and land, and worthy to have been Lord
+High Admiral of England (saving your worship's presence), but that
+through two great sins, wrath and avarice, he was cast away
+miserably or ever his soul was brought to the knowledge of the
+truth.  Ah, sir, he was a captain worth sailing under!
+
+And Yeo heaved a deep sigh.
+
+Sir Richard.--Steady, steady, good fellow!  If thou wouldst quit
+preaching, thou art no fool after all.  But tell us the story
+without more bush-beating.
+
+So at last Yeo settled himself to his tale:--
+
+"Well, sirs, I went, as Mr. Leigh knows, to Nombre de Dios, with
+Mr. Drake and Mr. Oxenham, in 1572, where what we saw and did, your
+worship, I suppose, knows as well as I; and there was, as you've
+heard maybe, a covenant between Mr. Oxenham and Mr. Drake to sail
+the South Seas together, which they made, your worship, in my
+hearing, under the tree over Panama.  For when Mr. Drake came down
+from the tree, after seeing the sea afar off, Mr. Oxenham and I
+went up and saw it too; and when we came down, Drake says, 'John, I
+have made a vow to God that I will sail that water, if I live and
+God gives me grace;' which he had done, sir, upon his bended knees,
+like a godly man as he always was, and would I had taken after him!
+and Mr. O. says, 'I am with you, Drake, to live or die, and I think
+I know some one there already, so we shall not be quite among
+strangers;' and laughed withal.  Well, sirs, that voyage, as you
+know, never came off, because Captain Drake was fighting in
+Ireland; so Mr. Oxenham, who must be up and doing, sailed for
+himself, and I, who loved him, God knows, like a brother (saving
+the difference in our ranks), helped him to get the crew together,
+and went as his gunner.  That was in 1575; as you know, he had a
+140-ton ship, sir, and seventy men out of Plymouth and Fowey and
+Dartmouth, and many of them old hands of Drake's, beside a dozen or
+so from Bideford that I picked up when I saw young Master here."
+
+"Thank God that you did not pick me up too."
+
+"Amen, amen!" said Yeo, clasping his hands on his breast.  "Those
+seventy men, sir,--seventy gallant men, sir, with every one of them
+an immortal soul within him,--where are they now?  Gone, like the
+spray!"  And he swept his hands abroad with a wild and solemn
+gesture.  "And their blood is upon my head!"
+
+Both Sir Richard and Amyas began to suspect that the man's brain
+was not altogether sound.
+
+"God forbid, my man," said the knight, kindly.
+
+"Thirteen men I persuaded to join in Bideford town, beside William
+Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade.  And what if it be said to
+me at the day of judgment, 'Salvation Yeo, where are those fourteen
+whom thou didst tempt to their deaths by covetousness and lust of
+gold?'  Not that I was alone in my sin, if the truth must be told.
+For all the way out Mr. Oxenham was making loud speech, after his
+pleasant way, that he would make all their fortunes, and take them
+to such a Paradise, that they should have no lust to come home
+again.  And I--God knows why--for every one boast of his would make
+two, even to lying and empty fables, and anything to keep up the
+men's hearts.  For I had really persuaded myself that we should all
+find treasures beyond Solomon his temple, and Mr. Oxenham would
+surely show us how to conquer some golden city or discover some
+island all made of precious stones.  And one day, as the captain
+and I were talking after our fashion, I said, 'And you shall be our
+king, captain.'  To which he, 'If I be, I shall not be long without
+a queen, and that no Indian one either.'  And after that he often
+jested about the Spanish ladies, saying that none could show us the
+way to their hearts better than he.  Which speeches I took no count
+of then, sirs: but after I minded them, whether I would or not.
+Well, sirs, we came to the shore of New Spain, near to the old
+place--that's Nombre de Dios; and there Mr. Oxenham went ashore
+into the woods with a boat's crew, to find the negroes who helped
+us three years before.  Those are the Cimaroons, gentles, negro
+slaves who have fled from those devils incarnate, their Spanish
+masters, and live wild, like the beasts that perish; men of great
+stature, sirs, and fierce as wolves in the onslaught, but poor
+jabbering mazed fellows if they be but a bit dismayed: and have
+many Indian women with them, who take to these negroes a deal
+better than to their own kin, which breeds war enough, as you may
+guess.
+
+"Well, sirs, after three days the captain comes back, looking heavy
+enough, and says, 'We played our trick once too often, when we
+played it once.  There is no chance of stopping another reco (that
+is, a mule-train, sirs) now.  The Cimaroons say that since our last
+visit they never move without plenty of soldiers, two hundred shot
+at least.  Therefore,' he said, 'my gallants, we must either return
+empty-handed from this, the very market and treasury of the whole
+Indies, or do such a deed as men never did before, which I shall
+like all the better for that very reason.'  And we, asking his
+meaning, 'Why,' he said, 'if Drake will not sail the South Seas, we
+will;' adding profanely that Drake was like Moses, who beheld the
+promised land afar; but he was Joshua, who would enter into it, and
+smite the inhabitants thereof.  And, for our confirmation, showed
+me and the rest the superscription of a letter: and said, 'How I
+came by this is none of your business: but I have had it in my
+bosom ever since I left Plymouth; and I tell you now, what I
+forbore to tell you at first, that the South Seas have been my mark
+all along! such news have I herein of plate-ships, and gold-ships,
+and what not, which will come up from Quito and Lima this very
+month, all which, with the pearls of the Gulf of Panama, and other
+wealth unspeakable, will be ours, if we have but true English
+hearts within us.'
+
+"At which, gentles, we were like madmen for lust of that gold, and
+cheerfully undertook a toil incredible; for first we run our ship
+aground in a great wood which grew in the very sea itself, and then
+took out her masts, and covered her in boughs, with her four cast
+pieces of great ordnance (of which more hereafter), and leaving no
+man in her, started for the South Seas across the neck of Panama,
+with two small pieces of ordnance and our culverins, and good store
+of victuals, and with us six of those negroes for a guide, and so
+twelve leagues to a river which runs into the South Sea.
+
+"And there, having cut wood, we made a pinnace (and work enough we
+had at it) of five-and-forty foot in the keel; and in her down the
+stream, and to the Isle of Pearls in the Gulf of Panama."
+
+"Into the South Sea?  Impossible!" said Sir Richard.  "Have a care
+what you say, my man; for there is that about you which would make
+me sorry to find you out a liar."
+
+"Impossible or not, liar or none, we went there, sir."
+
+"Question him, Amyas, lest he turn out to have been beforehand with
+you."
+
+The man looked inquiringly at Amyas, who said--
+
+"Well, my man, of the Gulf of Panama I cannot ask you, for I never
+was inside it, but what other parts of the coast do you know?"
+
+"Every inch, sir, from Cabo San Francisco to Lima; more is my
+sorrow, for I was a galley-slave there for two years and more."
+
+"You know Lima?"
+
+"I was there three times, worshipful gentlemen, and the last was
+February come two years; and there I helped lade a great plate-
+ship, the Cacafuogo,' they called her."
+
+Amyas started.  Sir Richard nodded to him gently to be silent, and
+then--
+
+"And what became of her, my lad?"
+
+"God knows, who knows all, and the devil who freighted her.  I
+broke prison six weeks afterwards, and never heard but that she got
+safe into Panama."
+
+"You never heard, then, that she was taken?"
+
+"Taken, your worships?  Who should take her?"
+
+"Why should not a good English ship take her as well as another?"
+said Amyas.
+
+"Lord love you, sir; yes, faith, if they had but been there.
+Many's the time that I thought to myself, as we went alongside,
+'Oh, if Captain Drake was but here, well to windward, and our old
+crew of the "Dragon"!'  Ask your pardon, gentles: but how is
+Captain Drake, if I may make so bold?"
+
+Neither could hold out longer.
+
+"Fellow, fellow!" cried Sir Richard, springing up, "either thou art
+the cunningest liar that ever earned a halter, or thou hast done a
+deed the like of which never man adventured.  Dost thou not know
+that Captain Drake took that 'Cacafuogo' and all her freight, in
+February come two years?"
+
+"Captain Drake!  God forgive me, sir; but--Captain Drake in the
+South Seas?  He saw them, sir, from the tree-top over Panama, when
+I was with him, and I too; but sailed them, sir?--sailed them?"
+
+"Yes, and round the world too," said Amyas, "and I with him; and
+took that very 'Cacafuogo' off Cape San Francisco, as she came up
+to Panama."
+
+One glance at the man's face was enough to prove his sincerity.
+The great stern Anabaptist, who had not winced at the news of his
+mother's death, dropt right on his knees on the floor, and burst
+into violent sobs.
+
+"Glory to God!  Glory to God!  O Lord, I thank thee!  Captain Drake
+in the South Seas!  The blood of thy innocents avenged, O Lord!
+The spoiler spoiled, and the proud robbed; and all they whose hands
+were mighty have found nothing.  Glory, glory!  Oh, tell me, sir,
+did she fight?"
+
+"We gave her three pieces of ordnance only, and struck down her
+mizzenmast, and then boarded sword in hand, but never had need to
+strike a blow; and before we left her, one of her own boys had
+changed her name, and rechristened her the 'Cacaplata.'"
+
+"Glory, glory!  Cowards they are, as I told them.  I told them they
+never could stand the Devon mastiffs, and well they flogged me for
+saying it; but they could not stop my mouth.  O sir, tell me, did
+you get the ship that came up after her?"
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"A long race-ship, sir, from Guayaquil, with an old gentleman on
+board,--Don Francisco de Xararte was his name, and by token, he had
+a gold falcon hanging to a chain round his neck, and a green stone
+in the breast of it.  I saw it as we rowed him aboard.  O tell me,
+sir, tell me for the love of God, did you take that ship?"
+
+"We did take that ship, and the jewel too, and her majesty has it
+at this very hour."
+
+"Then tell me, sir," said he slowly, as if he dreaded an answer;
+"tell me, sir, and oh, try and mind--was there a little maid aboard
+with the old gentleman?"
+
+"A little maid?  Let me think.  No; I saw none."
+
+The man settled his features again sadly.
+
+"I thought not.  I never saw her come aboard.  Still I hoped, like;
+I hoped.  Alackaday!  God help me, Salvation Yeo!"
+
+"What have you to do with this little maid, then, good fellow!"
+asked Grenville.
+
+"Ah, sir, before I tell you that, I must go back and finish the
+story of Mr. Oxenham, if you will believe me enough to hear it."
+
+"I do believe thee, good fellow, and honor thee too."
+
+"Then, sir, I can speak with a free tongue.  Where was I?"
+
+"Where was he, Amyas?"
+
+"At the Isle of Pearls."
+
+"And yet, O gentles, tell me first, how Captain Drake came into the
+South Seas:--over the neck, as we did?"
+
+"Through the Straits, good fellow, like any Spaniard: but go on
+with thy story, and thou shalt have Mr. Leigh's after."
+
+"Through the Straits!  O glory!  But I'll tell my tale.  Well, sirs
+both--To the Island of Pearls we came, we and some of the negroes.
+We found many huts, and Indians fishing for pearls, and also a fair
+house, with porches; but no Spaniard therein, save one man; at
+which Mr. Oxenham was like a man transported, and fell on that
+Spaniard, crying, 'Perro, where is your mistress?  Where is the
+bark from Lima?'  To which he boldly enough, 'What was his mistress
+to the Englishman?'  But Mr. O. threatened to twine a cord round
+his head till his eyes burst out; and the Spaniard, being
+terrified, said that the ship from Lima was expected in a
+fortnight's time.  So for ten days we lay quiet, letting neither
+negro nor Spaniard leave the island, and took good store of pearls,
+feeding sumptuously on wild cattle and hogs until the tenth day,
+when there came by a small bark; her we took, and found her from
+Quito, and on board 60,000 pezos of gold and other store.  With
+which if we had been content, gentlemen, all had gone well.  And
+some were willing to go back at once, having both treasure and
+pearls in plenty; but Mr. O., he waxed right mad, and swore to slay
+any one who made that motion again, assuring us that the Lima ship
+of which he had news was far greater and richer, and would make
+princes of us all; which bark came in sight on the sixteenth day,
+and was taken without shot or slaughter.  The taking of which bark,
+I verily believe, was the ruin of every mother's son of us."
+
+And being asked why, he answered, "First, because of the discontent
+which was bred thereby; for on board was found no gold, but only
+100,000 pezos of silver."
+
+Sir Richard Grenville.--Thou greedy fellow; and was not that enough
+to stay your stomachs?
+
+Yeo answered that he would to God it had been; and that, moreover,
+the weight of that silver was afterwards a hindrance to them, and
+fresh cause of discontent, as he would afterwards declare.  "So
+that it had been well for us, sirs, if we had left it behind, as
+Mr. Drake left his three years before, and carried away the gold
+only.  In which I do see the evident hand of God, and His just
+punishment for our greediness of gain; who caused Mr. Oxenham, by
+whom we had hoped to attain great wealth, to be a snare to us, and
+a cause of utter ruin."
+
+"Do you think, then," said Sir Richard, "that Mr. Oxenham deceived
+you wilfully?"
+
+"I will never believe that, sir: Mr. Oxenham had his private
+reasons for waiting for that ship, for the sake of one on board,
+whose face would that he had never seen, though he saw it then, as
+I fear, not for the first time by many a one."  And so was silent.
+
+"Come," said both his hearers, "you have brought us thus far, and
+you must go on."
+
+"Gentlemen, I have concealed this matter from all men, both on my
+voyage home and since; and I hope you will be secret in the matter,
+for the honor of my noble captain, and the comfort of his friends
+who are alive.  For I think it shame to publish harm of a gallant
+gentleman, and of an ancient and worshipful family, and to me a
+true and kind captain, when what is done cannot be undone, and
+least said soonest mended.  Neither now would I have spoken of it,
+but that I was inwardly moved to it for the sake of that young
+gentleman there" (looking at Amyas), "that he might be warned in
+time of God's wrath against the crying sin of adultery, and flee
+youthful lusts, which war against the soul."
+
+"Thou hast done wisely enough, then," said Sir Richard; "and look
+to it if I do not reward thee: but the young gentleman here, thank
+God, needs no such warnings, having got them already both by
+precept and example, where thou and poor Oxenham might have had
+them also."
+
+"You mean Captain Drake, your worship?"
+
+"I do, sirrah.  If all men were as clean livers as he, the world
+would be spared one half the tears that are shed in it."
+
+"Amen, sir.  At least there would have been many a tear spared to
+us and ours.  For--as all must out--in that bark of Lima he took a
+young lady, as fair as the sunshine, sir, and seemingly about two
+or three-and-twenty years of age, having with her a tall young lad
+of sixteen, and a little girl, a marvellously pretty child, of
+about a six or seven.  And the lady herself was of an excellent
+beauty, like a whale's tooth for whiteness, so that all the crew
+wondered at her, and could not be satisfied with looking upon her.
+And, gentlemen, this was strange, that the lady seemed in no wise
+afraid or mournful, and bid her little girl fear naught, as did
+also Mr. Oxenham: but the lad kept a very sour countenance, and the
+more when he saw the lady and Mr. Oxenham speaking together apart.
+
+"Well, sir, after this good luck we were minded to have gone
+straight back to the river whence we came, and so home to England
+with all speed.  But Mr. Oxenham persuaded us to return to the
+island, and get a few more pearls.  To which foolishness (which
+after caused the mishap) I verily believe he was moved by the
+instigation of the devil and of that lady.  For as we were about to
+go ashore, I, going down into the cabin of the prize, saw Mr.
+Oxenham and that lady making great cheer of each other with, 'My
+life,' and 'My king,' and 'Light of my eyes,' and such toys; and
+being bidden by Mr. Oxenham to fetch out the lady's mails, and take
+them ashore, heard how the two laughed together about the old ape
+of Panama (which ape, or devil rather, I saw afterwards to my
+cost), and also how she said that she had been dead for five years,
+and now that Mr. Oxenham was come, she was alive again, and so
+forth.
+
+"Mr. Oxenham bade take the little maid ashore, kissing her and
+playing with her, and saying to the lady, 'What is yours is mine,
+and what is mine is yours.'  And she asking whether the lad should
+come ashore, he answered, 'He is neither yours nor mine; let the
+spawn of Beelzebub stay on shore.'  After which I, coming on deck
+again, stumbled over that very lad, upon the hatchway ladder, who
+bore so black and despiteful a face, that I verily believe he had
+overheard their speech, and so thrust him upon deck; and going
+below again, told Mr. Oxenham what I thought, and said that it were
+better to put a dagger into him at once, professing to be ready so
+to do.  For which grievous sin, seeing that it was committed in my
+unregenerate days, I hope I have obtained the grace of forgiveness,
+as I have that of hearty repentance.  But the lady cried out,
+'Though he be none of mine, I have sin enough already on my soul;'
+and so laid her hand on Mr. Oxenham's mouth, entreating pitifully.
+And Mr. Oxenham answered laughing, when she would let him, 'What
+care we? let the young monkey go and howl to the old one;' and so
+went ashore with the lady to that house, whence for three days he
+never came forth, and would have remained longer, but that the men,
+finding but few pearls, and being wearied with the watching and
+warding so many Spaniards, and negroes came clamoring to him, and
+swore that they would return or leave him there with the lady.  So
+all went on board the pinnace again, every one in ill humor with
+the captain, and he with them.
+
+"Well, sirs, we came back to the mouth of the river, and there
+began our troubles; for the negroes, as soon as we were on shore,
+called on Mr. Oxenham to fulfil the bargain he had made with them.
+And now it came out (what few of us knew till then) that he had
+agreed with the Cimaroons that they should have all the prisoners
+which were taken, save the gold.  And he, though loath, was about
+to give up the Spaniards to them, near forty in all, supposing that
+they intended to use them as slaves: but as we all stood talking,
+one of the Spaniards, understanding what was forward, threw himself
+on his knees before Mr. Oxenham, and shrieking like a madman,
+entreated not to be given up into the hands of 'those devils,' said
+he, 'who never take a Spanish prisoner, but they roast him alive,
+and then eat his heart among them.'  We asked the negroes if this
+was possible?  To which some answered, What was that to us?  But
+others said boldly, that it was true enough, and that revenge made
+the best sauce, and nothing was so sweet as Spanish blood; and one,
+pointing to the lady, said such foul and devilish things as I
+should be ashamed either for me to speak, or you to hear.  At this
+we were like men amazed for very horror; and Mr. Oxenham said, 'You
+incarnate fiends, if you had taken these fellows for slaves, it had
+been fair enough; for you were once slaves to them, and I doubt not
+cruelly used enough: but as for this abomination,' says he, 'God do
+so to me, and more also, if I let one of them come into your
+murderous hands.'  So there was a great quarrel; but Mr. Oxenham
+stoutly bade put the prisoners on board the ships again, and so let
+the prizes go, taking with him only the treasure, and the lady and
+the little maid.  And so the lad went on to Panama, God's wrath
+having gone out against us.
+
+"Well, sirs, the Cimaroons after that went away from us, swearing
+revenge (for which we cared little enough), and we rowed up the
+river to a place where three streams met, and then up the least of
+the three, some four days' journey, till it grew all shoal and
+swift; and there we hauled the pinnace upon the sands, and Mr.
+Oxenham asked the men whether they were willing to carry the gold
+and silver over the mountains to the North Sea.  Some of them at
+first were loath to do it, and I and others advised that we should
+leave the plate behind, and take the gold only, for it would have
+cost us three or four journeys at the least.  But Mr. Oxenham
+promised every man 100 pezos of silver over and above his wages,
+which made them content enough, and we were all to start the morrow
+morning.  But, sirs, that night, as God had ordained, came a mishap
+by some rash speeches of Mr. Oxenham's, which threw all abroad
+again; for when we had carried the treasure about half a league
+inland, and hidden it away in a house which we made of boughs, Mr.
+O. being always full of that his fair lady, spoke to me and William
+Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade, and a few more, saying,
+'That we had no need to return to England, seeing that we were
+already in the very garden of Eden, and wanted for nothing, but
+could live without labor or toil; and that it was better, when we
+got over to the North Sea, to go and seek out some fair island, and
+there dwell in joy and pleasure till our lives' end.  And we two,'
+he said, 'will be king and queen, and you, whom I can trust, my
+officers; and for servants we will have the Indians, who, I
+warrant, will be more fain to serve honest and merry masters like
+us than those Spanish devils,' and much more of the like; which
+words I liked well,--my mind, alas! being given altogether to
+carnal pleasure and vanity,--as did William Penberthy, my good
+comrade, on whom I trust God has had mercy.  But the rest, sirs,
+took the matter all across, and began murmuring against the
+captain, saying that poor honest mariners like them had always the
+labor and the pain, while he took his delight with his lady; and
+that they would have at least one merry night before they were
+slain by the Cimaroons, or eaten by panthers and lagartos; and so
+got out of the pinnace two great skins of Canary wine, which were
+taken in the Lima prize, and sat themselves down to drink.
+Moreover, there were in the pinnace a great sight of hens, which
+came from the same prize, by which Mr. O. set great store, keeping
+them for the lady and the little maid; and falling upon these, the
+men began to blaspheme, saying, 'What a plague had the captain to
+fill the boat with dirty live lumber for that giglet's sake?  They
+had a better right to a good supper than ever she had, and might
+fast awhile to cool her hot blood;' and so cooked and ate those
+hens, plucking them on board the pinnace, and letting the feathers
+fall into the stream.  But when William Penberthy, my good comrade,
+saw the feathers floating away down, he asked them if they were
+mad, to lay a trail by which the Spaniards would surely track them
+out, if they came after them, as without doubt they would.  But
+they laughed him to scorn, and said that no Spanish cur dared
+follow on the heels of true English mastiffs as they were, and
+other boastful speeches; and at last, being heated with wine, began
+afresh to murmur at the captain.  And one speaking of his counsel
+about the island, the rest altogether took it amiss and out of the
+way; and some sprang up crying treason, and others that he meant to
+defraud them of the plate which he had promised, and others that he
+meant to desert them in a strange land, and so forth, till Mr. O.,
+hearing the hubbub, came out to them from the house, when they
+reviled him foully, swearing that he meant to cheat them; and one
+Edward Stiles, a Wapping man, mad with drink, dared to say that he
+was a fool for not giving up the prisoners to the negroes, and what
+was it to him if the lady roasted? the negroes should have her yet;
+and drawing his sword, ran upon the captain: for which I was about
+to strike him through the body; but the captain, not caring to
+waste steel on such a ribald, with his fist caught him such a
+buffet behind the ear, that he fell down stark dead, and all the
+rest stood amazed.  Then Mr. Oxenham called out, 'All honest men
+who know me, and can trust me, stand by your lawful captain against
+these ruffians.'  Whereon, sirs, I, and Penberthy my good comrade,
+and four Plymouth men, who had sailed with Mr. O. in Mr. Drake's
+ship, and knew his trusty and valiant conditions, came over to him,
+and swore before God to stand by him and the lady.  Then said Mr.
+O. to the rest, 'Will you carry this treasure, knaves, or will you
+not?  Give me an answer here.'  And they refused, unless he would,
+before they started, give each man his share.  So Mr. O. waxed very
+mad, and swore that he would never be served by men who did not
+trust him, and so went in again; and that night was spent in great
+disquiet, I and those five others keeping watch about the house of
+boughs till the rest fell asleep, in their drink.  And next
+morning, when the wine was gone out of them, Mr. O. asked them
+whether they would go to the hills with him, and find those
+negroes, and persuade them after all to carry the treasure.  To
+which they agreed after awhile, thinking that so they should save
+themselves labor; and went off with Mr. Oxenham, leaving us six who
+had stood by him to watch the lady and the treasure, after he had
+taken an oath of us that we would deal justly and obediently by him
+and by her, which God knows, gentlemen, we did.  So he parted with
+much weeping and wailing of the lady, and was gone seven days; and
+all that time we kept that lady faithfully and honestly, bringing
+her the best we could find, and serving her upon our bended knees,
+both for her admirable beauty, and for her excellent conditions,
+for she was certainly of some noble kin, and courteous, and without
+fear, as if she had been a very princess.  But she kept always
+within the house, which the little maid (God bless her!) did not,
+but soon learned to play with us and we with her, so that we made
+great cheer of her, gentlemen, sailor fashion--for you know we must
+always have our minions aboard to pet and amuse us--maybe a monkey,
+or a little dog, or a singing bird, ay, or mice and spiders, if we
+have nothing better to play withal.  And she was wonderful sharp,
+sirs, was the little maid, and picked up her English from us fast,
+calling us jolly mariners, which I doubt but she has forgotten by
+now, but I hope in God it be not so;" and therewith the good fellow
+began wiping his eyes.
+
+"Well, sir, on the seventh day we six were down by the pinnace
+clearing her out, and the little maid with us gathering of flowers,
+and William Penberthy fishing on the bank, about a hundred yards
+below, when on a sudden he leaps up and runs toward us, crying,
+'Here come our hens' feathers back again with a vengeance!' and so
+bade catch up the little maid, and run for the house, for the
+Spaniards were upon us.
+
+"Which was too true; for before we could win the house, there were
+full eighty shot at our heels, but could not overtake us;
+nevertheless, some of them stopping, fixed their calivers and let
+fly, killing one of the Plymouth men.  The rest of us escaped to
+the house, and catching up the lady, fled forth, not knowing
+whither we went, while the Spaniards, finding the house and
+treasure, pursued us no farther.
+
+"For all that day and the next we wandered in great misery, the
+lady weeping continually, and calling for Mr. Oxenham most
+piteously, and the little maid likewise, till with much ado we
+found the track of our comrades, and went up that as best we might:
+but at nightfall, by good hap, we met the whole crew coming back,
+and with them 200 negroes or more, with bows and arrows.  At which
+sight was great joy and embracing, and it was a strange thing,
+sirs, to see the lady; for before that she was altogether
+desperate: and yet she was now a very lioness, as soon as she had
+got her love again; and prayed him earnestly not to care for that
+gold, but to go forward to the North Sea, vowing to him in my
+hearing that she cared no more for poverty than she had cared for
+her good name, and then--they being a little apart from the rest--
+pointed round to the green forest, and said in Spanish--which I
+suppose they knew not that I understood,--'See, all round us is
+Paradise.  Were it not enough for you and me to stay here forever,
+and let them take the gold or leave it as they will?'
+
+"To which Mr. Oxenham--'Those who lived in Paradise had not sinned
+as we have, and would never have grown old or sick, as we shall.'
+
+"And she--'If we do that, there are poisons enough in these woods,
+by which we may die in each other's arms, as would to Heaven we had
+died seven years agone!'
+
+"But he--'No, no, my life.  It stands upon my honor both to fulfil
+my bond with these men, whom I have brought hither, and to take
+home to England at least something of my prize as a proof of my own
+valor.'
+
+"Then she smiling--'Am I not prize enough, and proof enough?'  But
+he would not be so tempted, and turning to us offered us the half
+of that treasure, if we would go back with him, and rescue it from
+the Spaniard.  At which the lady wept and wailed much; but I took
+upon myself to comfort her, though I was but a simple mariner,
+telling her that it stood upon Mr. Oxenham's honor; and that in
+England nothing was esteemed so foul as cowardice, or breaking word
+and troth betwixt man and man; and that better was it for him to
+die seven times by the Spaniards, than to face at home the scorn of
+all who sailed the seas.  So, after much ado, back they went again;
+I and Penberthy, and the three Plymouth men which escaped from the
+pinnace, keeping the lady as before.
+
+"Well, sirs, we waited five days, having made houses of boughs as
+before, without hearing aught; and on the sixth we saw coming afar
+off Mr. Oxenham, and with him fifteen or twenty men, who seemed
+very weary and wounded; and when we looked for the rest to be
+behind them, behold there were no more; at which, sirs, as you may
+well think, our hearts sank within us.
+
+"And Mr. O., coming nearer, cried out afar off, 'All is lost!' and
+so walked into the camp without a word, and sat himself down at the
+foot of a great tree with his head between his hands, speaking
+neither to the lady or to any one, till she very pitifully kneeling
+before him, cursing herself for the cause of all his mischief, and
+praying him to avenge himself upon that her tender body, won him
+hardly to look once upon her, after which (as is the way of vain
+and unstable man) all between them was as before.
+
+"But the men were full of curses against the negroes, for their
+cowardice and treachery; yea, and against high Heaven itself, which
+had put the most part of their ammunition into the Spaniards'
+hands; and told me, and I believe truly, how they forced the enemy
+awaiting them in a little copse of great trees, well fortified with
+barricades of boughs, and having with them our two falcons, which
+they had taken out of the pinnace.  And how Mr. Oxenham divided
+both the English and the negroes into two bands, that one might
+attack the enemy in front, and the other in the rear, and so set
+upon them with great fury, and would have utterly driven them out,
+but that the negroes, who had come on with much howling, like very
+wild beasts, being suddenly scared with the shot and noise of the
+ordnance, turned and fled, leaving the Englishmen alone; in which
+evil strait Mr. O. fought like a very Guy of Warwick, and I verily
+believe every man of them likewise; for there was none of them who
+had not his shrewd scratch to show.  And indeed, Mr. Oxenham's
+party had once gotten within the barricades, but the Spaniards
+being sheltered by the tree trunks (and especially by one mighty
+tree, which stood as I remembered it, and remember it now, borne up
+two fathoms high upon its own roots, as it were upon arches and
+pillars), shot at them with such advantage, that they had several
+slain, and seven more taken alive, only among the roots of that
+tree.  So seeing that they could prevail nothing, having little but
+their pikes and swords, they were fain to give back; though Mr.
+Oxenham swore he would not stir a foot, and making at the Spanish
+captain was borne down with pikes, and hardly pulled away by some,
+who at last reminding him of his lady, persuaded him to come away
+with the rest.  Whereon the other party fled also; but what had
+become of them they knew not, for they took another way.  And so
+they miserably drew off, having lost in men eleven killed and seven
+taken alive, besides five of the rascal negroes who were killed
+before they had time to run; and there was an end of the matter.*
+
+
+* In the documents from which I have drawn this veracious history,
+a note is appended to this point of Yeo's story, which seems to me
+to smack sufficiently of the old Elizabethan seaman, to be inserted
+at length.
+
+"All so far, and most after, agreeth with Lopez Vaz his tale, taken
+from his pocket by my Lord Cumberland's mariners at the river
+Plate, in the year 1586.  But note here his vainglory and
+falsehood, or else fear of the Spaniard.
+
+"First, lest it should be seen how great an advantage the Spaniards
+had, he maketh no mention of the English calivers, nor those two
+pieces of ordnance which were in the pinnace.
+
+"Second, he saith nothing of the flight of the Cimaroons: though it
+was evidently to be gathered from that which he himself saith, that
+of less than seventy English were slain eleven, and of the negroes
+but five.  And while of the English seven were taken alive, yet of
+the negroes none.  And why, but because the rascals ran?
+
+"Thirdly, it is a thing incredible, and out of experience, that
+eleven English should be slain and seven taken, with loss only of
+two Spaniards killed.
+
+"Search now, and see (for I will not speak of mine own small
+doings), in all those memorable voyages, which the worthy and
+learned Mr. Hakluyt hath so painfully collected, and which are to
+my old age next only to my Bible, whether in all the fights which
+we have endured with the Spaniards, their loss, even in victory,
+hath not far exceeded ours.  For we are both bigger of body and
+fiercer of spirit, being even to the poorest of us (thanks so the
+care of our illustrious princes), the best fed men of Europe, the
+most trained to feats of strength and use of weapons, and put our
+trust also not in any Virgin or saints, dead rags and bones,
+painted idols which have no breath in their mouths, or St.
+Bartholomew medals and such devil's remembrancers; but in the only
+true God and our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom whosoever trusteth, one
+of them shall chase a thousand.  So I hold, having had good
+experience; and say, if they have done it once, let them do it
+again, and kill their eleven to our two, with any weapon they will,
+save paper bullets blown out of Fame's lying trumpet.  Yet I have
+no quarrel with the poor Portugal; for I doubt not but friend Lopez
+Vaz had looking over his shoulder as he wrote some mighty black
+velvet Don, with a name as long as that Don Bernaldino Delgadillo
+de Avellaneda who set forth lately his vainglorious libel of lies
+concerning the last and fatal voyage of my dear friends Sir F.
+Drake and Sir John Hawkins, who rest in peace, having finished
+their labors, as would God I rested.  To whose shameless and
+unspeakable lying my good friend Mr. Henry Savile of this county
+did most pithily and wittily reply, stripping the ass out of his
+lion's skin; and Sir Thomas Baskerville, general of the fleet, by
+my advice, send him a cartel of defiance, offering to meet him with
+choice of weapons, in any indifferent kingdom of equal distance
+from this realm; which challenge he hath prudently put in his pipe,
+or rather rolled it up for one of his Spanish cigarros, and smoked
+it, and I doubt not, found it foul in the mouth."
+
+
+"But the next day, gentlemen, in came some five-and-twenty more,
+being the wreck of the other party, and with them a few negroes;
+and these last proved themselves no honester men than they were
+brave, for there being great misery among us English, and every one
+of us straggling where he could to get food, every day one or more
+who went out never came back, and that caused a suspicion that the
+negroes had betrayed them to the Spaniards, or, maybe, slain and
+eaten them.  So these fellows being upbraided, with that altogether
+left us, telling us boldly, that if they had eaten our fellows, we
+owed them a debt instead of the Spanish prisoners; and we, in great
+terror and hunger, went forward and over the mountains till we came
+to a little river which ran northward, which seemed to lead into
+the Northern Sea; and there Mr. O.--who, sirs, I will say, after
+his first rage was over, behaved himself all through like a valiant
+and skilful commander--bade us cut down trees and make canoes, to
+go down to the sea; which we began to do, with great labor and
+little profit, hewing down trees with our swords, and burning them
+out with fire, which, after much labor, we kindled; but as we were
+a-burning out of the first tree, and cutting down of another, a
+great party of negroes came upon us, and with much friendly show
+bade us flee for our lives, for the Spaniards were upon us in great
+force.  And so we were up and away again, hardly able to drag our
+legs after us for hunger and weariness, and the broiling heat.  And
+some were taken (God help them!) and some fled with the negroes, of
+whom what became God alone knoweth; but eight or ten held on with
+the captain, among whom was I, and fled downward toward the sea for
+one day; but afterwards finding, by the noise in the woods, that
+the Spaniards were on the track of us, we turned up again toward
+the inland, and coming to a cliff, climbed up over it, drawing up
+the lady and the little maid with cords of liana (which hang from
+those trees as honeysuckle does here, but exceeding stout and long,
+even to fifty fathoms); and so breaking the track, hoped to be out
+of the way of the enemy.
+
+"By which, nevertheless, we only increased our misery.  For two
+fell from that cliff, as men asleep for very weariness, and
+miserably broke their bones; and others, whether by the great toil,
+or sunstrokes, or eating of strange berries, fell sick of fluxes
+and fevers; where was no drop of water, but rock of pumice stone as
+bare as the back of my hand, and full, moreover, of great cracks,
+black and without bottom, over which we had not strength to lift
+the sick, but were fain to leave them there aloft, in the sunshine,
+like Dives in his torments, crying aloud for a drop of water to
+cool their tongues; and every man a great stinking vulture or two
+sitting by him, like an ugly black fiend out of the pit, waiting
+till the poor soul should depart out of the corpse: but nothing
+could avail, and for the dear life we must down again and into the
+woods, or be burned up alive upon those rocks.
+
+"So getting down the slope on the farther side, we came into the
+woods once more, and there wandered for many days, I know not how
+many; our shoes being gone, and our clothes all rent off us with
+brakes and briars.  And yet how the lady endured all was a marvel
+to see; for she went barefoot many days, and for clothes was fain
+to wrap herself in Mr. Oxenham's cloak; while the little maid went
+all but naked: but ever she looked still on Mr. Oxenham, and seemed
+to take no care as long as he was by, comforting and cheering us
+all with pleasant words; yea, and once sitting down under a great
+fig-tree, sang us all to sleep with very sweet music; yet, waking
+about midnight, I saw her sitting still upright, weeping very
+bitterly; on whom, sirs, God have mercy; for she was a fair and a
+brave jewel.
+
+"And so, to make few words of a sad matter, at last there were none
+left but Mr. Oxenham and the lady and the little maid, together
+with me and William Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade.  And
+Mr. Oxenham always led the lady, and Penberthy and I carried the
+little maid.  And for food we had fruits, such as we could find,
+and water we got from the leaves of certain lilies which grew on
+the bark of trees, which I found by seeing the monkeys drink at
+them; and the little maid called them monkey-cups, and asked for
+them continually, making me climb for them.  And so we wandered on,
+and upward into very high mountains, always fearing lest the
+Spaniards should track us with dogs, which made the lady leap up
+often in her sleep, crying that the bloodhounds were upon her.  And
+it befell upon a day, that we came into a great wood of ferns
+(which grew not on the ground like ours, but on stems as big as a
+pinnace's mast, and the bark of them was like a fine meshed net,
+very strange to see), where was very pleasant shade, cool and
+green; and there, gentlemen, we sat down on a bank of moss, like
+folk desperate and fordone, and every one looked the other in the
+face for a long while.  After which I took off the bark of those
+ferns, for I must needs be doing something to drive away thought,
+and began to plait slippers for the little maid.
+
+"And as I was plaiting, Mr. Oxenham said, 'What hinders us from
+dying like men, every man falling on his own sword?'  To which I
+answered that I dare not; for a wise woman had prophesied of me,
+sirs, that I should die at sea, and yet neither by water or battle,
+wherefore I did not think right to meddle with the Lord's purposes.
+And William Penberthy said, 'That he would sell his life, and that
+dear, but never give it away.'  But the lady said, 'Ah, how gladly
+would I die! but then la paouvre garse,' which is in French 'the
+poor maid,' meaning the little one.  Then Mr. Oxenham fell into a
+very great weeping, a weakness I never saw him in before or since;
+and with many tears besought me never to desert that little maid,
+whatever might befall; which I promised, swearing to it like a
+heathen, but would, if I had been able, have kept it like a
+Christian.  But on a sudden there was a great cry in the wood, and
+coming through the trees on all sides Spanish arquebusiers, a
+hundred strong at least, and negroes with them, who bade us stand
+or they would shoot.  William Penberthy leapt up, crying 'Treason!'
+and running upon the nearest negro ran him through, and then
+another, and then falling on the Spaniards, fought manfully till he
+was borne down with pikes, and so died.  But I, seeing no thing
+better to do, sate still and finished my plaiting.  And so we were
+all taken, and I and Mr. Oxenham bound with cords; but the soldiers
+made a litter for the lady and child, by commandment of Senor Diego
+de Trees, their commander, a very courteous gentleman.
+
+"Well, sirs, we were brought down to the place where the house of
+boughs had been by the river-side; there we went over in boats, and
+found waiting for us certain Spanish gentlemen, and among others
+one old and ill-favored man, gray-bearded and bent, in a suit of
+black velvet, who seemed to be a great man among them.  And if you
+will believe me, Mr. Leigh, that was none other than the old man
+with the gold falcon at his breast, Don Francisco Xararte by name,
+whom you found aboard of the Lima ship.  And had you known as much
+of him as I do, or as Mr. Oxenham did either, you had cut him up
+for shark's bait, or ever you let the cur ashore again.
+
+"Well, sirs, as soon as the lady came to shore, that old man ran
+upon her sword in hand, and would have slain her, but some there
+held him back.  On which he turned to, and reviled with every foul
+and spiteful word which he could think of, so that some there bade
+him be silent for shame; and Mr. Oxenham said, 'It is worthy of
+you, Don Francisco, thus to trumpet abroad your own disgrace.  Did
+I not tell you years ago that you were a cur; and are you not
+proving my words for me?'
+
+"He answered, 'English dog, would to Heaven I had never seen you!'
+
+"And Mr. Oxenham, 'Spanish ape, would to Heaven that I had sent my
+dagger through your herring-ribs when you passed me behind St.
+Ildegonde's church, eight years last Easter-eve.'  At which the old
+man turned pale, and then began again to upbraid the lady, vowing
+that he would have her burnt alive, and other devilish words, to
+which she answered at last--
+
+"'Would that you had burnt me alive on my wedding morning, and
+spared me eight years of misery!'  And he--
+
+"'Misery?  Hear the witch, senors!  Oh, have I not pampered her,
+heaped with jewels, clothes, coaches, what not?  The saints alone
+know what 'I have spent on her.  What more would she have of me?'
+
+"To which she answered only but this one word, 'Fool!' but in so
+terrible a voice, though low, that they who were about to laugh at
+the old pantaloon, were more minded to weep for her.
+
+"'Fool!' she said again, after a while, 'I will waste no words upon
+you.  I would have driven a dagger to your heart months ago, but
+that I was loath to set you free so soon from your gout and your
+rheumatism.  Selfish and stupid, know when you bought my body from
+my parents, you did not buy my soul!  Farewell, my love, my life!
+and farewell, senors!  May you be more merciful to your daughters
+than my parents were to me!'  And so, catching a dagger from the
+girdle of one of the soldiers, smote herself to the heart, and fell
+dead before them all.
+
+"At which Mr. Oxenham smiled, and said, 'That was worthy of us
+both.  If you will unbind my hands, senors, I shall be most happy
+to copy so fair a schoolmistress.'
+
+"But Don Diego shook his head, and said--
+
+"'It were well for you, valiant senor, were I at liberty to do so;
+but on questioning those of your sailors whom I have already taken,
+I cannot hear that you have any letters of license, either from the
+queen of England, or any other potentate.  I am compelled,
+therefore, to ask you whether this is so; for it is a matter of
+life and death.'
+
+"To which Mr. Oxenham answered merrily, that so it was: but that he
+was not aware that any potentate's license was required to permit a
+gentleman's meeting his lady love; and that as for the gold which
+they had taken, if they had never allowed that fresh and fair young
+May to be forced into marrying that old January, he should never
+have meddled with their gold; so that was rather their fault than
+his.  And added, that if he was to be hanged, as he supposed, the
+only favor which he asked for was a long drop and no priests.  And
+all the while, gentlemen, he still kept his eyes fixed on the
+lady's corpse, till he was led away with me, while all that stood
+by, God reward them for it, lamented openly the tragical end of
+those two sinful lovers.
+
+"And now, sirs, what befell me after that matters little; for I
+never saw Captain Oxenham again, nor ever shall in this life."
+
+"He was hanged, then?"
+
+"So I heard for certain the next year, and with him the gunner and
+sundry more: but some were given away for slaves to the Spaniards,
+and may be alive now, unless, like me, they have fallen into the
+cruel clutches of the Inquisition.  For the Inquisition now,
+gentlemen, claims the bodies and souls of all heretics all over the
+world (as the devils told me with their own lips, when I pleaded
+that I was no Spanish subject); and none that it catches, whether
+peaceable merchants or shipwrecked mariners, but must turn or
+burn."
+
+"But how did you get into the Inquisition?"
+
+"Why, sir, after we were taken, we set forth to go down the river
+again; and the old Don took the little maid with him in one boat
+(and bitterly she screeched at parting from us and from the poor
+dead corpse), and Mr. Oxenham with Don Diego de Trees in another,
+and I in a third.  And from the Spaniards I learnt that we were to
+be taken down to Lima, to the Viceroy; but that the old man lived
+hard by Panama, and was going straight back to Panama forthwith
+with the little maid.  But they said, 'It will be well for her if
+she ever gets there, for the old man swears she is none of his, and
+would have left her behind him in the woods, now, if Don Diego had
+not shamed him out of it.'  And when I heard that, seeing that
+there was nothing but death before me, I made up my mind to escape;
+and the very first night, sirs, by God's help, I did it, and went
+southward away into the forest, avoiding the tracks of the
+Cimaroons, till I came to an Indian town.  And there, gentlemen, I
+got more mercy from heathens than ever I had from Christians; for
+when they found that I was no Spaniard, they fed me and gave me a
+house, and a wife (and a good wife she was to me), and painted me
+all over in patterns, as you see; and because I had some knowledge
+of surgery and blood-letting, and my fleams in my pocket, which
+were worth to me a fortune, I rose to great honor among them,
+though they taught me more of simples than ever I taught them of
+surgery.  So I lived with them merrily enough, being a very heathen
+like them, or indeed worse, for they worshipped their Xemes, but I
+nothing.  And in time my wife bare me a child; in looking at whose
+sweet face, gentlemen, I forgot Mr. Oxenham and his little maid,
+and my oath, ay, and my native land also.  Wherefore it was taken
+from me, else had I lived and died as the beasts which perish; for
+one night, after we were all lain down, came a noise outside the
+town, and I starting up saw armed men and calivers shining in the
+moonlight, and heard one read in Spanish, with a loud voice, some
+fool's sermon, after their custom when they hunt the poor Indians,
+how God had given to St. Peter the dominion of the whole earth, and
+St. Peter again the Indies to the Catholic king; wherefore, if they
+would all be baptized and serve the Spaniard, they should have some
+monkey's allowance or other of more kicks than pence; and if not,
+then have at them with fire and sword; but I dare say your worships
+know that devilish trick of theirs better than I."
+
+"I know it, man.  Go on."
+
+"Well--no sooner were the words spoken than, without waiting to
+hear what the poor innocents within would answer (though that
+mattered little, for they understood not one word of it), what do
+the villains but let fly right into the town with their calivers,
+and then rush in, sword in hand, killing pell-mell all they met,
+one of which shots, gentlemen, passing through the doorway, and
+close by me, struck my poor wife to the heart, that she never spoke
+word more.  I, catching up the babe from her breast, tried to run:
+but when I saw the town full of them, and their dogs with them in
+leashes, which was yet worse, I knew all was lost, and sat down
+again by the corpse with the babe on my knees, waiting the end,
+like one stunned and in a dream; for now I thought God from whom I
+had fled had surely found me out, as He did Jonah, and the
+punishment of all my sins was come.  Well, gentlemen, they dragged
+me out, and all the young men and women, and chained us together by
+the neck; and one, catching the pretty babe out of my arms, calls
+for water and a priest (for they had their shavelings with them),
+and no sooner was it christened than, catching the babe by the
+heels, he dashed out its brains,--oh! gentlemen, gentlemen!--
+against the ground, as if it had been a kitten; and so did they to
+several more innocents that night, after they had christened them;
+saying it was best for them to go to heaven while they were still
+sure thereof; and so marched us all for slaves, leaving the old
+folk and the wounded to die at leisure.  But when morning came, and
+they knew by my skin that I was no Indian, and by my speech that I
+was no Spaniard, they began threatening me with torments, till I
+confessed that I was an Englishman, and one of Oxenham's crew.  At
+that says the leader, 'Then you shall to Lima, to hang by the side
+of your captain the pirate;' by which I first knew that my poor
+captain was certainly gone; but alas for me! the priest steps in
+and claims me for his booty, calling me Lutheran, heretic, and
+enemy of God; and so, to make short a sad story, to the Inquisition
+at Cartagena I went, where what I suffered, gentlemen, were as
+disgustful for you to hear, as unmanly for me to complain of; but
+so it was, that being twice racked, and having endured the water-
+torment as best I could, I was put to the scarpines, whereof I am,
+as you see, somewhat lame of one leg to this day.  At which I could
+abide no more, and so, wretch that I am! denied my God, in hope to
+save my life; which indeed I did, but little it profited me; for
+though I had turned to their superstition, I must have two hundred
+stripes in the public place, and then go to the galleys for seven
+years.  And there, gentlemen, ofttimes I thought that it had been
+better for me to have been burned at once and for all: but you know
+as well as I what a floating hell of heat and cold, hunger and
+thirst, stripes and toil, is every one of those accursed craft.  In
+which hell, nevertheless, gentlemen, I found the road to heaven,--I
+had almost said heaven itself.  For it fell out, by God's mercy,
+that my next comrade was an Englishman like myself, a young man of
+Bristol, who, as he told me, had been some manner of factor on
+board poor Captain Barker's ship, and had been a preacher among the
+Anabaptists here in England.  And, oh! Sir Richard Grenville, if
+that man had done for you what he did for me, you would never say a
+word against those who serve the same Lord, because they don't
+altogether hold with you.  For from time to time, sir, seeing me
+altogether despairing and furious, like a wild beast in a pit, he
+set before me in secret earnestly the sweet promises of God in
+Christ,--who says, 'Come to me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I
+will refresh you; and though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
+as white as snow,--till all that past sinful life of mine looked
+like a dream when one awaketh, and I forgot all my bodily miseries
+in the misery of my soul, so did I loathe and hate myself for my
+rebellion against that loving God who had chosen me before the
+foundation of the world, and come to seek and save me when I was
+lost; and falling into very despair at the burden of my heinous
+sins, knew no peace until I gained sweet assurance that my Lord had
+hanged my burden upon His cross, and washed my sinful soul in His
+most sinless blood, Amen!"
+
+And Sir Richard Grenville said Amen also.
+
+"But, gentlemen, if that sweet youth won a soul to Christ, he paid
+as dearly for it as ever did saint of God.  For after a three or
+four months, when I had been all that while in sweet converse with
+him, and I may say in heaven in the midst of hell, there came one
+night to the barranco at Lima, where we were kept when on shore,
+three black devils of the Holy Office, and carried him off without
+a word, only saying to me, 'Look that your turn come not next, for
+we hear that you have had much talk with the villain.'  And at
+these words I was so struck cold with terror that I swooned right
+away, and verily, if they had taken me there and then, I should
+have denied my God again, for my faith was but young and weak: but
+instead, they left me aboard the galley for a few months more (that
+was a whole voyage to Panama and back), in daily dread lest I
+should find myself in their cruel claws again--and then nothing for
+me, but to burn as a relapsed heretic.  But when we came back to
+Lima, the officers came on board again, and said to me, 'That
+heretic has confessed naught against you, so we will leave you for
+this time: but because you have been seen talking with him so much,
+and the Holy Office suspects your conversion to be but a rotten
+one, you are adjudged to the galleys for the rest of your life in
+perpetual servitude.'"
+
+"But what became of him?" asked Amyas.
+
+"He was burned, sir, a day or two before we got to Lima, and five
+others with him at the same stake, of whom two were Englishmen; old
+comrades of mine, as I guess."
+
+"Ah!" said Amyas, "we heard of that when we were off Lima; and they
+said, too, that there were six more lying still in prison, to be
+burnt in a few days.  If we had had our fleet with us (as we should
+have had if it had not been for John Winter) we would have gone in
+and rescued them all, poor wretches, and sacked the town to boot:
+but what could we do with one ship?"
+
+"Would to God you had, sir; for the story was true enough; and
+among them, I heard, were two young ladies of quality and their
+confessor, who came to their ends for reproving out of Scripture
+the filthy and loathsome living of those parts, which, as I saw
+well enough and too well, is liker to Sodom than to a Christian
+town; but God will avenge His saints, and their sins.  Amen."
+
+"Amen," said Sir Richard: "but on with thy tale, for it is as
+strange as ever man heard."
+
+"Well, gentlemen, when I heard that I must end my days in that
+galley, I was for awhile like a madman: but in a day or two there
+came over me, I know not how, a full assurance of salvation, both
+for this life and the life to come, such as I had never had before;
+and it was revealed to me (I speak the truth, gentlemen, before
+Heaven) that now I had been tried to the uttermost, and that my
+deliverance was at hand.
+
+"And all the way up to Panama (that was after we had laden the
+'Cacafuogo') I cast in my mind how to escape, and found no way: but
+just as I was beginning to lose heart again, a door was opened by
+the Lord's own hand; for (I know not why) we were marched across
+from Panama to Nombre, which had never happened before, and there
+put all together into a great barranco close by the quay-side,
+shackled, as is the fashion, to one long bar that ran the whole
+length of the house.  And the very first night that we were there,
+I, looking out of the window, spied, lying close aboard of the
+quay, a good-sized caravel well armed and just loading for sea; and
+the land breeze blew off very strong, so that the sailors were
+laying out a fresh warp to hold her to the shore.  And it came into
+my mind, that if we were aboard of her, we should be at sea in five
+minutes; and looking at the quay, I saw all the soldiers who had 
+guarded us scattered about drinking and gambling, and some going
+into taverns to refresh themselves after their journey.  That was
+just at sundown; and half an hour after, in comes the gaoler to
+take a last look at us for the night, and his keys at his girdle.
+Whereon, sirs (whether by madness, or whether by the spirit which
+gave Samson strength to rend the lion), I rose against him as he
+passed me, without forethought or treachery of any kind, chained
+though I was, caught him by the head, and threw him there and then
+against the wall, that he never spoke word after; and then with his
+keys freed myself and every soul in that room, and bid them follow
+me, vowing to kill any man who disobeyed my commands.  They
+followed, as men astounded and leaping out of night into day, and
+death into life, and so aboard that caravel and out of the harbor
+(the Lord only knows how, who blinded the eyes of the idolaters),
+'with no more hurt than a few chance-shot from the soldiers on the
+quay.  But my tale has been over-long already, gentlemen--"
+
+"Go on till midnight, my good fellow, if you will."
+
+"Well, sirs, they chose me for captain, and a certain Genoese for
+lieutenant, and away to go.  I would fain have gone ashore after
+all, and back to Panama to hear news of the little maid: but that
+would have been but a fool's errand.  Some wanted to turn pirates:
+but I, and the Genoese too, who was a prudent man, though an evil
+one, persuaded them to run for England and get employment in the
+Netherland wars, assuring them that there would be no safety in the
+Spanish Main, when once our escape got wind.  And the more part
+being of one mind, for England we sailed, watering at the Barbadoes
+because it was desolate; and so eastward toward the Canaries.  In
+which voyage what we endured (being taken by long calms), by
+scurvy, calentures, hunger, and thirst, no tongue can tell.  Many a
+time were we glad to lay out sheets at night to catch the dew, and
+suck them in the morning; and he that had a noggin of rain-water
+out of the scuppers was as much sought to as if he had been
+Adelantado of all the Indies; till of a hundred and forty poor
+wretches a hundred and ten were dead, blaspheming God and man, and
+above all me and the Genoese, for taking the Europe voyage, as if I
+had not sins enough of my own already.  And last of all, when we
+thought ourselves safe, we were wrecked by southwesters on the
+coast of Brittany, near to Cape Race, from which but nine souls of
+us came ashore with their lives; and so to Brest, where I found a
+Flushinger who carried me to Falmouth and so ends my tale, in which
+if I have said one word more or less than truth, I can wish myself
+no worse, than to have it all to undergo a second time."
+
+And his voice, as he finished, sank from very weariness of soul;
+while Sir Richard sat opposite him in silence, his elbows on the
+table, his cheeks on his doubled fists, looking him through and
+through with kindling eyes.  No one spoke for several minutes; and
+then--
+
+"Amyas, you have heard this story.  You believe it?"
+
+"Every word, sir, or I should not have the heart of a Christian
+man."
+
+"So do I.  Anthony!"
+
+The butler entered.
+
+"Take this man to the buttery; clothe him comfortably, and feed him
+with the best; and bid the knaves treat him as if he were their own
+father."
+
+But Yeo lingered.
+
+"If I might be so bold as to ask your worship a favor?--"
+
+"Anything in reason, my brave fellow."
+
+"If your worship could put me in the way of another adventure to
+the Indies?"
+
+"Another!  Hast not had enough of the Spaniards already?"
+
+"Never enough, sir, while one of the idolatrous tyrants is left
+unhanged," said he, with a right bitter smile.  "But it's not for
+that only, sir: but my little maid--Oh, sir! my little maid, that I
+swore to Mr. Oxenham to look to, and never saw her from that day to
+this!  I must find her, sir, or I shall go mad, I believe.  Not a
+night but she comes and calls to me in my dreams, the poor darling;
+and not a morning but when I wake there is my oath lying on my
+soul, like a great black cloud, and I no nearer the keeping of it.
+I told that poor young minister of it when we were in the galleys
+together; and he said oaths were oaths, and keep it I must; and
+keep it I will, sir, if you'll but help me."
+
+"Have patience, man.  God will take as good care of thy little maid
+as ever thou wilt."
+
+"I know it, sir.  I know it: but faith's weak, sir! and oh! if she
+were bred up a Papist and an idolater; wouldn't her blood be on my
+head then, sir?  Sooner than that, sooner than that, I'd be in the
+Inquisition again to-morrow, I would!"
+
+"My good fellow, there are no adventures to the Indies forward now:
+but if you want to fight Spaniards, here is a gentleman will show
+you the way.  Amyas, take him with you to Ireland.  If he has
+learnt half the lessons God has set him to learn, he ought to stand
+you in good stead."
+
+Yeo looked eagerly at the young giant.
+
+"Will you have me, sir?  There's few matters I can't turn my hand
+to: and maybe you'll be going to the Indies again, some day, eh?
+and take me with you?  I'd serve your turn well, though I say it,
+either for gunner or for pilot.  I know every stone and tree from
+Nombre to Panama, and all the ports of both the seas.  You'll never
+be content, I'll warrant, till you've had another turn along the
+gold coasts, will you now?"
+
+Amyas laughed, and nodded; and the bargain was concluded.
+
+So out went Yeo to eat, and Amyas having received his despatches,
+got ready for his journey home.
+
+"Go the short way over the moors, lad; and send back Cary's gray
+when you can.  You must not lose an hour, but be ready to sail the
+moment the wind goes about."
+
+So they started: but as Amyas was getting into the saddle, he saw
+that there was some stir among the servants, who seemed to keep
+carefully out of Yeo's way, whispering and nodding mysteriously;
+and just as his foot was in the stirrup, Anthony, the old butler,
+plucked him back.
+
+"Dear father alive, Mr. Amyas!" whispered he: "and you ben't going
+by the moor road all alone with that chap?"
+
+"Why not, then?  I'm too big for him to eat, I reckon."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Amyas! he's not right, I tell you; not company for a
+Christian--to go forth with creatures as has flames of fire in
+their inwards; 'tis temptation of Providence, indeed, then, it is."
+
+"Tale of a tub."
+
+"Tale of a Christian, sir.  There was two boys pig-minding, seed
+him at it down the hill, beside a maiden that was taken mazed (and
+no wonder, poor soul!) and lying in screeching asterisks now down
+to the mill--you ask as you go by--and saw the flames come out of
+the mouth of mun, and the smoke out of mun's nose like a vire-
+drake, and the roaring of mun like the roaring of ten thousand
+bulls.  Oh, sir! and to go with he after dark over moor!  'Tis the
+devil's devices, sir, against you, because you'm going against his
+sarvants the Pope of Room and the Spaniard; and you'll be Pixy-led,
+sure as life, and locked into a bog, you will, and see mun vanish
+away to fire and brimstone, like a jack-o'-lantern.  Oh, have a
+care, then, have a care!"
+
+And the old man wrung his hands, while Amyas, bursting with
+laughter, rode off down the park, with the unconscious Yeo at his
+stirrup, chatting away about the Indies, and delighting Amyas more
+and more by his shrewdness, high spirit, and rough eloquence.
+
+They had gone ten miles or more; the day began to draw in, and the
+western wind to sweep more cold and cheerless every moment, when
+Amyas, knowing that there was not an inn hard by around for many a
+mile ahead, took a pull at a certain bottle which Lady Grenville
+had put into his holster, and then offered Yeo a pull also.
+
+He declined; he had meat and drink too about him, Heaven be
+praised!
+
+"Meat and drink?  Fall to, then, man, and don't stand on manners."
+
+Whereon Yeo, seeing an old decayed willow by a brook, went to it,
+and took therefrom some touchwood, to which he set a light with his
+knife and a stone, while Amyas watched, a little puzzled and
+startled, as Yeo's fiery reputation came into his mind.  Was he
+really a salamander-sprite, and going to warm his inside by a meal
+of burning tinder?  But now Yeo, in his solemn methodical way,
+pulled out of his bosom a brown leaf, and began rolling a piece of
+it up neatly to the size of his little finger; and then, putting
+the one end into his mouth and the other on the tinder, sucked at
+it till it was a-light; and drinking down the smoke, began puffing
+it out again at his nostrils with a grunt of deepest satisfaction,
+and resumed his dog-trot by Amyas's side, as if he had been a
+walking chimney.
+
+On which Amyas burst into a loud laugh, and cried--
+
+"Why, no wonder they said you breathed fire?  Is not that the
+Indians' tobacco?"
+
+"Yea, verily, Heaven be praised! but did you never see it before?"
+
+"Never, though we heard talk of it along the coast; but we took it
+for one more Spanish lie.  Humph--well, live and learn!"
+
+"Ah, sir, no lie, but a blessed truth, as I can tell, who have ere
+now gone in the strength of this weed three days and nights without
+eating; and therefore, sir, the Indians always carry it with them
+on their war-parties: and no wonder; for when all things were made
+none was made better than this; to be a lone man's companion, a
+bachelor's friend, a hungry man's food, a sad man's cordial, a
+wakeful man's sleep, and a chilly man's fire, sir; while for
+stanching of wounds, purging of rheum, and settling of the stomach,
+there's no herb like unto it under the canopy of heaven."
+
+The truth of which eulogium Amyas tested in after years, as shall
+be fully set forth in due place and time.  But "Mark in the
+meanwhile," says one of the veracious chroniclers from whom I draw
+these facts, writing seemingly in the palmy days of good Queen
+Anne, and "not having" (as he says) "before his eyes the fear of
+that misocapnic Solomon James I. or of any other lying Stuart,"
+"that not to South Devon, but to North; not to Sir Walter Raleigh,
+but to Sir Amyas Leigh; not to the banks of Dart, but to the banks
+of Torridge, does Europe owe the day-spring of the latter age, that
+age of smoke which shall endure and thrive, when the age of brass
+shall have vanished like those of iron and of gold; for whereas Mr.
+Lane is said to have brought home that divine weed (as Spenser well
+names it) from Virginia, in the year 1584, it is hereby
+indisputable that full four years earlier, by the bridge of Putford
+in the Torridge moors (which all true smokers shall hereafter visit
+as a hallowed spot and point of pilgrimage) first twinkled that
+fiery beacon and beneficent lodestar of Bidefordian commerce, to
+spread hereafter from port to port and peak to peak, like the
+watch-fires which proclaimed the coming of the Armada or the fall
+of Troy, even to the shores of the Bosphorus, the peaks of the
+Caucasus, and the farthest isles of the Malayan sea, while
+Bideford, metropolis of tobacco, saw her Pool choked with Virginian
+traders, and the pavement of her Bridgeland Street groaning beneath
+the savory bales of roll Trinadado, leaf, and pudding; and her
+grave burghers, bolstered and blocked out of their own houses by
+the scarce less savory stock-fish casks which filled cellar,
+parlor, and attic, were fain to sit outside the door, a silver pipe
+in every strong right hand, and each left hand chinking cheerfully
+the doubloons deep lodged in the auriferous caverns of their trunk-
+hose; while in those fairy-rings of fragrant mist, which circled
+round their contemplative brows, flitted most pleasant visions of
+Wiltshire farmers jogging into Sherborne fair, their heaviest
+shillings in their pockets, to buy (unless old Aubrey lies) the
+lotus-leaf of Torridge for its weight in silver, and draw from
+thence, after the example of the Caciques of Dariena, supplies of
+inspiration much needed, then as now, in those Gothamite regions.
+And yet did these improve, as Englishmen, upon the method of those
+heathen savages; for the latter (so Salvation Yeo reported as a
+truth, and Dampier's surgeon Mr. Wafer after him), when they will
+deliberate of war or policy, sit round in the hut of the chief;
+where being placed, enter to them a small boy with a cigarro of the
+bigness of a rolling-pin and puffs the smoke thereof into the face
+of each warrior, from the eldest to the youngest; while they,
+putting their hand funnel-wise round their mouths, draw into the
+sinuosities of the brain that more than Delphic vapor of prophecy;
+which boy presently falls down in a swoon, and being dragged out by
+the heels and laid by to sober, enter another to puff at the sacred
+cigarro, till he is dragged out likewise; and so on till the
+tobacco is finished, and the seed of wisdom has sprouted in every
+soul into the tree of meditation, bearing the flowers of eloquence,
+and in due time the fruit of valiant action."  With which quaint
+fact (for fact it is, in spite of the bombast) I end the present
+chapter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+HOW THE NOBLE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE WAS FOUNDED
+
+
+"It is virtue, yea virtue, gentlemen, that maketh gentlemen; that
+maketh the poor rich, the base-born noble, the subject a sovereign,
+the deformed beautiful, the sick whole, the weak strong, the most
+miserable most happy.  There are two principal and peculiar gifts
+in the nature of man, knowledge and reason; the one commandeth, and
+the other obeyeth: these things neither the whirling wheel of
+fortune can change, neither the deceitful cavillings of worldlings
+separate, neither sickness abate, neither age abolish."--LILLY's
+Euphues, 1586.
+
+
+It now falls to my lot to write of the foundation of that most
+chivalrous brotherhood of the Rose, which after a few years made
+itself not only famous in its native country of Devon, but
+formidable, as will be related hereafter, both in Ireland and in
+the Netherlands, in the Spanish Main and the heart of South
+America.  And if this chapter shall seem to any Quixotic and
+fantastical, let them recollect that the generation who spoke and
+acted thus in matters of love and honor were, nevertheless,
+practised and valiant soldiers, and prudent and crafty politicians;
+that he who wrote the "Arcadia" was at the same time, in spite of
+his youth, one of the subtlest diplomatists of Europe; that the
+poet of the "Faerie Queene" was also the author of "The State of
+Ireland;" and if they shall quote against me with a sneer Lilly's
+"Euphues" itself, I shall only answer by asking--Have they ever
+read it?  For if they have done so, I pity them if they have not
+found it, in spite of occasional tediousness and pedantry, as
+brave, righteous, and pious a book as man need look into: and wish
+for no better proof of the nobleness and virtue of the Elizabethan
+age, than the fact that "Euphues" and the "Arcadia" were the two
+popular romances of the day.  It may have suited the purposes of
+Sir Walter Scott, in his cleverly drawn Sir Piercie Shafton, to
+ridicule the Euphuists, and that affectatam comitatem of the
+travelled English of which Languet complains; but over and above
+the anachronism of the whole character (for, to give but one
+instance, the Euphuist knight talks of Sidney's quarrel with Lord
+Oxford at least ten years before it happened), we do deny that
+Lilly's book could, if read by any man of common sense, produce
+such a coxcomb, whose spiritual ancestors would rather have been
+Gabriel Harvey and Lord Oxford,--if indeed the former has not
+maligned the latter, and ill-tempered Tom Nash maligned the
+maligner in his turn.
+
+But, indeed, there is a double anachronism in Sir Piercie; for he
+does not even belong to the days of Sidney, but to those worse
+times which began in the latter years of Elizabeth, and after
+breaking her mighty heart, had full license to bear their crop of
+fools' heads in the profligate days of James.  Of them, perhaps,
+hereafter.  And in the meanwhile, let those who have not read
+"Euphues" believe that, if they could train a son after the fashion
+of his Ephoebus, to the great saving of their own money and his
+virtue, all fathers, even in these money-making days, would rise up
+and call them blessed.  Let us rather open our eyes, and see in
+these old Elizabeth gallants our own ancestors, showing forth with
+the luxuriant wildness of youth all the virtues which still go to
+the making of a true Englishman.  Let us not only see in their
+commercial and military daring, in their political astuteness, in
+their deep reverence for law, and in their solemn sense of the
+great calling of the English nation, the antitypes or rather the
+examples of our own: but let us confess that their chivalry is only
+another garb of that beautiful tenderness and mercy which is now,
+as it was then, the twin sister of English valor; and even in their
+extravagant fondness for Continental manners and literature, let us
+recognize that old Anglo-Norman teachableness and wide-heartedness,
+which has enabled us to profit by the wisdom and civilization of
+all ages and of all lands, without prejudice to our own distinctive
+national character.
+
+And so I go to my story, which, if any one dislikes, he has but to
+turn the leaf till he finds pasturage which suits him better.
+
+Amyas could not sail the next day, or the day after; for the
+southwester freshened, and blew three parts of a gale dead into the
+bay.  So having got the "Mary Grenville" down the river into
+Appledore pool, ready to start with the first shift of wind, he
+went quietly home; and when his mother started on a pillion behind
+the old serving-man to ride to Clovelly, where Frank lay wounded,
+he went in with her as far as Bideford, and there met, coming down
+the High Street, a procession of horsemen headed by Will Cary, who,
+clad cap-a-pie in a shining armor, sword on thigh, and helmet at
+saddle-bow, looked as gallant a young gentleman as ever Bideford
+dames peeped at from door and window.  Behind him, upon country
+ponies, came four or five stout serving-men, carrying his lances
+and baggage, and their own long-bows, swords, and bucklers; and
+behind all, in a horse-litter, to Mrs. Leigh's great joy, Master
+Frank himself.  He deposed that his wounds were only flesh-wounds,
+the dagger having turned against his ribs; that he must see the
+last of his brother; and that with her good leave he would not come
+home to Burrough, but take up his abode with Cary in the Ship
+Tavern, close to the Bridge-foot.  This he did forthwith, and
+settling himself on a couch, held his levee there in state, mobbed
+by all the gossips of the town, not without white fibs as to who
+had brought him into that sorry plight.
+
+But in the meanwhile he and Amyas concocted a scheme, which was put
+into effect the next day (being market-day); first by the
+innkeeper, who began under Amyas's orders a bustle of roasting,
+boiling, and frying, unparalleled in the annals of the Ship Tavern;
+and next by Amyas himself, who, going out into the market, invited
+as many of his old schoolfellows, one by one apart, as Frank had
+pointed out to him, to a merry supper and a "rowse" thereon
+consequent; by which crafty scheme, in came each of Rose Salterne's
+gentle admirers, and found himself, to his considerable disgust,
+seated at the same table with six rivals, to none of whom had he
+spoken for the last six months.  However, all were too well bred to
+let the Leighs discern as much; and they (though, of course, they
+knew all) settled their guests, Frank on his couch lying at the
+head of the table, and Amyas taking the bottom: and contrived, by
+filling all mouths with good things, to save them the pain of
+speaking to each other till the wine should have loosened their
+tongues and warmed their hearts.  In the meanwhile both Amyas and
+Frank, ignoring the silence of their guests with the most provoking
+good-humor, chatted, and joked, and told stories, and made
+themselves such good company, that Will Cary, who always found
+merriment infectious, melted into a jest, and then into another,
+and finding good-humor far more pleasant than bad, tried to make
+Mr. Coffin laugh, and only made him bow, and to make Mr. Fortescue
+laugh, and only made him frown; and unabashed nevertheless, began
+playing his light artillery upon the waiters, till he drove them
+out of the room bursting with laughter.
+
+So far so good.  And when the cloth was drawn, and sack and sugar
+became the order of the day, and "Queen and Bible" had been duly
+drunk with all the honors, Frank tried a fresh move, and--
+
+"I have a toast, gentlemen--here it is.  'The gentlemen of the
+Irish wars; and may Ireland never be without a St. Leger to stand
+by a Fortescue, a Fortescue to stand by a St. Leger, and a
+Chichester to stand by both.'"
+
+Which toast of course involved the drinking the healths of the
+three representatives of those families, and their returning
+thanks, and paying a compliment each to the other's house: and so
+the ice cracked a little further; and young Fortescue proposed the
+health of "Amyas Leigh and all bold mariners;" to which Amyas
+replied by a few blunt kindly words, "that he wished to know no
+better fortune than to sail round the world again with the present
+company as fellow-adventurers, and so give the Spaniards another
+taste of the men of Devon."
+
+And by this time, the wine going down sweetly, caused the lips of
+them that were asleep to speak; till the ice broke up altogether,
+and every man began talking like a rational Englishman to the man
+who sat next him.
+
+"And now, gentlemen," said Frank, who saw that it was the fit
+moment for the grand assault which he had planned all along; "let
+me give you a health which none of you, I dare say, will refuse to
+drink with heart and soul as well as with lips;--the health of one
+whom beauty and virtue have so ennobled, that in their light the
+shadow of lowly birth is unseen;--the health of one whom I would
+proclaim as peerless in loveliness, were it not that every
+gentleman here has sisters, who might well challenge from her the
+girdle of Venus: and yet what else dare I say, while those same
+lovely ladies who, if they but use their own mirrors, must needs be
+far better judges of beauty than I can be, have in my own hearing
+again and again assigned the palm to her?  Surely, if the goddesses
+decide among themselves the question of the golden apple, Paris
+himself must vacate the judgment-seat.  Gentlemen, your hearts, I
+doubt not, have already bid you, as my unworthy lips do now, to
+drink 'The Rose of Torridge.'"
+
+If the Rose of Torridge herself had walked into the room, she could
+hardly have caused more blank astonishment than Frank's bold
+speech.  Every guest turned red, and pale, and red again, and
+looked at the other as much as to say, "What right has any one but
+I to drink her?  Lift your glass, and I will dash it out of your
+hand;" but Frank, with sweet effrontery, drank "The health of the
+Rose of Torridge, and a double health to that worthy gentleman,
+whosoever he may be, whom she is fated to honor with her love!"
+
+"Well done, cunning Frank Leigh!" cried blunt Will Cary; "none of
+us dare quarrel with you now, however much we may sulk at each
+other.  For there's none of us, I'll warrant, but thinks that she
+likes him the best of all; and so we are bound to believe that you
+have drunk our healths all round."
+
+"And so I have: and what better thing can you do, gentlemen, than
+to drink each other's healths all round likewise: and so show
+yourselves true gentlemen, true Christians, ay, and true lovers?
+For what is love (let me speak freely to you, gentlemen and
+guests), what is love, but the very inspiration of that Deity whose
+name is Love?  Be sure that not without reason did the ancients
+feign Eros to be the eldest of the gods, by whom the jarring
+elements of chaos were attuned into harmony and order.  How, then,
+shall lovers make him the father of strife?  Shall Psyche wed with
+Cupid, to bring forth a cockatrice's egg? or the soul be filled
+with love, the likeness of the immortals, to burn with envy and
+jealousy, division and distrust?  True, the rose has its thorn: but
+it leaves poison and stings to the nettle.  Cupid has his arrow:
+but he hurls no scorpions.  Venus is awful when despised, as the
+daughters of Proetus found: but her handmaids are the Graces, not
+the Furies.  Surely he who loves aright will not only find love
+lovely, but become himself lovely also.  I speak not to reprehend
+you, gentlemen; for to you (as your piercing wits have already
+perceived, to judge by your honorable blushes) my discourse tends;
+but to point you, if you will but permit me, to that rock which I
+myself have, I know not by what Divine good hap, attained; if,
+indeed, I have attained it, and am not about to be washed off again
+by the next tide."
+
+Frank's rapid and fantastic oratory, utterly unexpected as it was,
+had as yet left their wits no time to set their tempers on fire;
+but when, weak from his wounds, he paused for breath, there was a
+haughty murmur from more than one young gentleman, who took his
+speech as an impertinent interference with each man's right to make
+a fool of himself; and Mr. Coffin, who had sat quietly bolt
+upright, and looking at the opposite wall, now rose as quietly, and
+with a face which tried to look utterly unconcerned, was walking
+out of the room: another minute, and Lady Bath's prophecy about the
+feast of the Lapithae might have come true.
+
+But Frank's heart and head never failed him.
+
+"Mr. Coffin!" said he, in a tone which compelled that gentleman to
+turn round, and so brought him under the power of a face which none
+could have beheld for five minutes and borne malice, so imploring,
+tender, earnest was it.  "My dear Mr. Coffin!  If my earnestness
+has made me forget even for a moment the bounds of courtesy, let me
+entreat you to forgive me.  Do not add to my heavy griefs, heavy
+enough already, the grief of losing a friend.  Only hear me
+patiently to the end (generously, I know, you will hear me); and
+then, if you are still incensed, I can but again entreat your
+forgiveness a second time."
+
+Mr. Coffin, to tell the truth, had at that time never been to
+Court; and he was therefore somewhat jealous of Frank, and his
+Court talk, and his Court clothes, and his Court company; and
+moreover, being the eldest of the guests, and only two years
+younger than Frank himself, he was a little nettled at being
+classed in the same category with some who were scarce eighteen.
+And if Frank had given the least hint which seemed to assume his
+own superiority, all had been lost: but when, instead thereof, he
+sued in forma pauperis, and threw himself upon Coffin's mercy, the
+latter, who was a true-hearted man enough, and after all had known
+Frank ever since either of them could walk, had nothing to do but
+to sit down again and submit, while Frank went on more earnestly
+than ever.
+
+"Believe me; believe me, Mr. Coffin, and gentlemen all, I no more
+arrogate to myself a superiority over you than does the sailor
+hurled on shore by the surge fancy himself better than his comrade
+who is still battling with the foam.  For I too, gentlemen,--let me
+confess it, that by confiding in you I may, perhaps, win you to
+confide in me,--have loved, ay and do love, where you love also.
+Do not start.  Is it a matter of wonder that the sun which has
+dazzled you has dazzled me; that the lodestone which has drawn you
+has drawn me?  Do not frown, either, gentlemen.  I have learnt to
+love you for loving what I love, and to admire you for admiring
+that which I admire.  Will you not try the same lesson: so easy,
+and, when learnt, so blissful?  What breeds more close communion
+between subjects than allegiance to the same queen? between
+brothers, than duty to the same father? between the devout, than
+adoration for the same Deity?  And shall not worship for the same
+beauty be likewise a bond of love between the worshippers? and each
+lover see in his rival not an enemy, but a fellow-sufferer?  You
+smile and say in your hearts, that though all may worship, but one
+can enjoy; and that one man's meat must be the poison of the rest.
+Be it so, though I deny it.  Shall we anticipate our own doom, and
+slay ourselves for fear of dying?  Shall we make ourselves unworthy
+of her from our very eagerness to win her, and show ourselves her
+faithful knights, by cherishing envy,--most unknightly of all sins?
+Shall we dream with the Italian or the Spaniard that we can become
+more amiable in a lady's eyes, by becoming hateful in the eyes of
+God and of each other?  Will she love us the better, if we come to
+her with hands stained in the blood of him whom she loves better
+than us?  Let us recollect ourselves rather, gentlemen; and be sure
+that our only chance of winning her, if she be worth winning, is to
+will what she wills, honor whom she honors, love whom she loves.
+If there is to be rivalry among us, let it be a rivalry in
+nobleness, an emulation in virtue.  Let each try to outstrip the
+other in loyalty to his queen, in valor against her foes, in deeds
+of courtesy and mercy to the afflicted and oppressed; and thus our
+love will indeed prove its own divine origin, by raising us nearer
+to those gods whose gift it is.  But yet I show you a more
+excellent way, and that is charity.  Why should we not make this
+common love to her, whom I am unworthy to name, the sacrament of a
+common love to each other?  Why should we not follow the heroical
+examples of those ancient knights, who having but one grief, one
+desire, one goddess, held that one heart was enough to contain that
+grief, to nourish that desire, to worship that divinity; and so
+uniting themselves in friendship till they became but one soul in
+two bodies, lived only for each other in living only for her,
+vowing as faithful worshippers to abide by her decision, to find
+their own bliss in hers, and whomsoever she esteemed most worthy of
+her love, to esteem most worthy also, and count themselves, by that
+her choice, the bounden servants of him whom their mistress had
+condescended to advance to the dignity of her master?--as I (not
+without hope that I shall be outdone in generous strife) do here
+promise to be the faithful friend, and, to my ability, the hearty
+servant, of him who shall be honored with the love of the Rose of
+Torridge."
+
+He ceased, and there was a pause.
+
+At last young Fortescue spoke.
+
+"I may be paying you a left-handed compliment, sir: but it seems to
+me that you are so likely, in that case, to become your own
+faithful friend and hearty servant (even if you have not borne off
+the bell already while we have been asleep), that the bargain is
+hardly fair between such a gay Italianist and us country swains."
+
+"You undervalue yourself and your country, my dear sir.  But set
+your mind at rest.  I know no more of that lady's mind than you do:
+nor shall I know.  For the sake of my own peace, I have made a vow
+neither to see her, nor to hear, if possible, tidings of her, till
+three full years are past.  Dixi?"
+
+Mr. Coffin rose.
+
+"Gentlemen, I may submit to be outdone by Mr. Leigh in eloquence,
+but not in generosity; if he leaves these parts for three years, I
+do so also."
+
+"And go in charity with all mankind," said Cary.  "Give us your
+hand, old fellow.  If you are a Coffin, you were sawn out of no
+wishy-washy elm-board, but right heart-of-oak.  I am going, too, as
+Amyas here can tell, to Ireland away, to cool my hot liver in a
+bog, like a Jack-hare in March.  Come, give us thy neif, and let us
+part in peace.  I was minded to have fought thee this day--"
+
+"I should have been most happy, sir," said Coffin.
+
+--"But now I am all love and charity to mankind.  Can I have the
+pleasure of begging pardon of the world in general, and thee in
+particular?  Does any one wish to pull my nose; send me an errand;
+make me lend him five pounds; ay, make me buy a horse of him, which
+will be as good as giving him ten?  Come along!  Join hands all
+round, and swear eternal friendship, as brothers of the sacred
+order of the--of what.  Frank Leigh?  Open thy mouth, Daniel, and
+christen us!"
+
+"The Rose!" said Frank quietly, seeing that his new love-philtre
+was working well, and determined to strike while the iron was hot,
+and carry the matter too far to carry it back again.
+
+"The Rose!" cried Cary, catching hold of Coffin's hand with his
+right, and Fortescue's with his left.  "Come, Mr. Coffin!  Bend,
+sturdy oak!  'Woe to the stiffnecked and stout-hearted!' says
+Scripture."
+
+And somehow or other, whether it was Frank's chivalrous speech, or
+Cary's fun, or Amyas's good wine, or the nobleness which lies in
+every young lad's heart, if their elders will take the trouble to
+call it out, the whole party came in to terms one by one, shook
+hands all round, and vowed on the hilt of Amyas's sword to make
+fools of themselves no more, at least by jealousy: but to stand by
+each other and by their lady-love, and neither grudge nor grumble,
+let her dance with, flirt with, or marry with whom she would; and
+in order that the honor of their peerless dame, and the brotherhood
+which was named after her, might be spread through all lands, and
+equal that of Angelica or Isonde of Brittany, they would each go
+home, and ask their fathers' leave (easy enough to obtain in those
+brave times) to go abroad wheresoever there were "good wars," to
+emulate there the courage and the courtesy of Walter Manny and
+Gonzalo Fernandes, Bayard and Gaston de Foix.  Why not?  Sidney was
+the hero of Europe at five-and-twenty; and why not they?
+
+And Frank watched and listened with one of his quiet smiles (his
+eyes, as some folks' do, smiled even when his lips were still), and
+only said: "Gentlemen, be sure that you will never repent this
+day."
+
+"Repent?" said Cary.  "I feel already as angelical as thou lookest,
+Saint Silvertongue.  What was it that sneezed?--the cat?"
+
+"The lion, rather, by the roar of it," said Amyas, making a dash at
+the arras behind him.  "Why, here is a doorway here! and--"
+
+And rushing under the arras, through an open door behind, he
+returned, dragging out by the head Mr. John Brimblecombe.
+
+Who was Mr. John Brimblecombe?
+
+If you have forgotten him, you have done pretty nearly what every
+one else in the room had done.  But you recollect a certain fat
+lad, son of the schoolmaster, whom Sir Richard punished for tale-
+bearing three years before, by sending him, not to Coventry, but to
+Oxford.  That was the man.  He was now one-and-twenty, and a
+bachelor of Oxford, where he had learnt such things as were taught
+in those days, with more or less success; and he was now hanging
+about Bideford once more, intending to return after Christmas and
+read divinity, that he might become a parson, and a shepherd of
+souls in his native land.
+
+Jack was in person exceedingly like a pig: but not like every pig:
+not in the least like the Devon pigs of those days, which, I am
+sorry to say, were no more shapely than the true Irish greyhound
+who pays Pat's "rint" for him; or than the lanky monsters who
+wallow in German rivulets, while the village swineherd, beneath a
+shady lime, forgets his fleas in the melody of a Jew's harp--
+strange mud-colored creatures, four feet high and four inches
+thick, which look as if they had passed their lives, as a collar of
+Oxford brawn is said to do, between two tight boards.  Such were
+then the pigs of Devon: not to be compared with the true wild
+descendant of Noah's stock, high-withered, furry, grizzled, game-
+flavored little rooklers, whereof many a sownder still grunted
+about Swinley down and Braunton woods, Clovelly glens and Bursdon
+moor.  Not like these, nor like the tame abomination of those
+barbarous times, was Jack: but prophetic in face, figure, and
+complexion, of Fisher Hobbs and the triumphs of science.  A Fisher
+Hobbs' pig of twelve stone, on his hind-legs--that was what he was,
+and nothing else; and if you do not know, reader, what a Fisher
+Hobbs is, you know nothing about pigs, and deserve no bacon for
+breakfast.  But such was Jack.  The same plump mulberry complexion,
+garnished with a few scattered black bristles; the same sleek skin,
+looking always as if it was upon the point of bursting; the same
+little toddling legs; the same dapper bend in the small of the
+back; the same cracked squeak; the same low upright forehead, and
+tiny eyes; the same round self-satisfied jowl; the same charming
+sensitive little cocked nose, always on the look-out for a savory
+smell,--and yet while watching for the best, contented with the
+worst; a pig of self-helpful and serene spirit, as Jack was, and
+therefore, like him, fatting fast while other pigs' ribs are
+staring through their skins.
+
+Such was Jack; and lucky it was for him that such he was; for it
+was little that he got to fat him at Oxford, in days when a
+servitor meant really a servant-student; and wistfully that day did
+his eyes, led by his nose, survey at the end of the Ship Inn
+passage the preparations for Amyas's supper.  The innkeeper was a
+friend of his; for, in the first place, they had lived within three
+doors of each other all their lives; and next, Jack was quite
+pleasant company enough, beside being a learned man and an Oxford
+scholar, to be asked in now and then to the innkeeper's private
+parlor, when there were no gentlemen there, to crack his little
+joke and tell his little story, sip the leavings of the guests'
+sack, and sometimes help the host to eat the leavings of their
+supper.  And it was, perhaps, with some such hope that Jack trotted
+off round the corner to the Ship that very afternoon; for that
+faithful little nose of his, as it sniffed out of a back window of
+the school, had given him warning of Sabean gales, and scents of
+Paradise, from the inn kitchen below; so he went round, and asked
+for his pot of small ale (his only luxury), and stood at the bar to
+drink it; and looked inward with his little twinkling right eye,
+and sniffed inward with his little curling right nostril, and
+beheld, in the kitchen beyond, salad in stacks and fagots: salad of
+lettuce, salad of cress and endive, salad of boiled coleworts,
+salad of pickled coleworts, salad of angelica, salad of scurvy-
+wort, and seven salads more; for potatoes were not as yet, and
+salads were during eight months of the year the only vegetable.
+And on the dresser, and before the fire, whole hecatombs of
+fragrant victims, which needed neither frankincense nor myrrh;
+Clovelly herrings and Torridge salmon, Exmoor mutton and Stow
+venison, stubble geese and woodcocks, curlew and snipe, hams of
+Hampshire, chitterlings of Taunton, and botargos of Cadiz, such as
+Pantagruel himself might have devoured.  And Jack eyed them, as a
+ragged boy eyes the cakes in a pastrycook's window; and thought of
+the scraps from the commoners' dinner, which were his wages for
+cleaning out the hall; and meditated deeply on the unequal
+distribution of human bliss.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Brimblecombe!" said the host, bustling out with knife and
+apron to cool himself in the passage.  "Here are doings!  Nine
+gentlemen to supper!"
+
+"Nine!  Are they going to eat all that?"
+
+"Well, I can't say--that Mr. Amyas is as good as three to his
+trencher: but still there's crumbs, Mr. Brimblecombe, crumbs; and
+waste not want not is my doctrine; so you and I may have a somewhat
+to stay our stomachs, about an eight o'clock."
+
+"Eight?" said Jack, looking wistfully at the clock.  "It's but four
+now.  Well, it's kind of you, and perhaps I'll look in."
+
+"Just you step in now, and look to this venison.  There's a breast!
+you may lay your two fingers into the say there, and not get to the
+bottom of the fat.  That's Sir Richard's sending.  He's all for
+them Leighs, and no wonder, they'm brave lads, surely; and there's
+a saddle-o'-mutton!  I rode twenty miles for mun yesterday, I did,
+over beyond Barnstaple; and five year old, Mr. John, it is, if ever
+five years was; and not a tooth to mun's head, for I looked to
+that; and smelt all the way home like any apple; and if it don't
+ate so soft as ever was scald cream, never you call me Thomas
+Burman."
+
+"Humph!" said Jack.  "And that's their dinner.  Well, some are born
+with a silver spoon in their mouth."
+
+"Some be born with roast beef in their mouths, and plum-pudding in
+their pocket to take away the taste o' mun; and that's better than
+empty spunes, eh?"
+
+"For them that get it," said Jack.  "But for them that don't--"
+And with a sigh he returned to his small ale, and then lingered in
+and out of the inn, watching the dinner as it went into the best
+room, where the guests were assembled.
+
+And as he lounged there, Amyas went in, and saw him, and held out
+his hand, and said--
+
+"Hillo, Jack! how goes the world?  How you've grown!" and passed
+on;--what had Jack Brimblecombe to do with Rose Salterne?
+
+So Jack lingered on, hovering around the fragrant smell like a fly
+round a honey-pot, till he found himself invisibly attracted, and
+as it were led by the nose out of the passage into the adjoining
+room, and to that side of the room where there was a door; and once
+there he could not help hearing what passed inside; till Rose
+Salterne's name fell on his ear.  So, as it was ordained, he was
+taken in the fact.  And now behold him brought in red-hand to
+judgment, not without a kick or two from the wrathful foot of Amyas
+Leigh.  Whereat there fell on him a storm of abuse, which, for the
+honor of that gallant company, I shall not give in detail; but
+which abuse, strange to say, seemed to have no effect on the
+impenitent and unabashed Jack, who, as soon as he could get his
+breath, made answer fiercely, amid much puffing and blowing.
+
+"What business have I here?  As much as any of you.  If you had
+asked me in, I would have come: but as you didn't, I came without
+asking."
+
+"You shameless rascal!" said Cary.  "Come if you were asked, where
+there was good wine?  I'll warrant you for that!"
+
+"Why," said Amyas, "no lad ever had a cake at school but he would
+dog him up one street and down another all day for the crumbs, the
+trencher-scraping spaniel!"
+
+"Patience, masters! "said Frank.  "That Jack's is somewhat of a
+gnathonic and parasitic soul, or stomach, all Bideford apple-women
+know; but I suspect more than Deus Venter has brought him hither."
+
+"Deus eavesdropping, then.  We shall have the whole story over the
+town by to-morrow," said another; beginning at that thought to feel
+somewhat ashamed of his late enthusiasm.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Frank!  You were always the only one that would stand up
+for me!  Deus Venter, quotha?  'Twas Deus Cupid, it was!"
+
+A roar of laughter followed this announcement.
+
+"What?" asked Frank; "was it Cupid, then, who sneezed approval to
+our love, Jack, as he did to that of Dido and Aeneas?"
+
+But Jack went on desperately.
+
+"I was in the next room, drinking of my beer.  I couldn't help
+that, could I?  And then I heard her name; and I couldn't help
+listening then.  Flesh and blood couldn't."
+
+"Nor fat either!"
+
+"No, nor fat, Mr. Cary.  Do you suppose fat men haven't souls to be
+saved as well as thin ones, and hearts to burst, too, as well as
+stomachs?  Fat!  Fat can feel, I reckon, as well as lean.  Do you
+suppose there's naught inside here but beer?"
+
+And he laid his hand, as Drayton might have said, on that stout
+bastion, hornwork, ravelin, or demilune, which formed the outworks
+to the citadel of his purple isle of man.
+
+"Naught but beer?--Cheese, I suppose?"
+
+"Bread?"
+
+"Beef?"
+
+"Love!" cried Jack.  "Yes, Love!--Ay, you laugh; but my eyes are
+not so grown up with fat but what I can see what's fair as well as
+you."
+
+"Oh, Jack, naughty Jack, dost thou heap sin on sin, and luxury on
+gluttony?"
+
+"Sin?  If I sin, you sin: I tell you, and I don't care who knows
+it, I've loved her these three years as well as e'er a one of you,
+I have.  I've thought o' nothing else, prayed for nothing else, God
+forgive me!  And then you laugh at me, because I'm a poor parson's
+son, and you fine gentlemen: God made us both, I reckon.  You?--you
+make a deal of giving her up to-day.  Why, it's what I've done for
+three miserable years as ever poor sinner spent; ay, from the first
+day I said to myself, 'Jack, if you can't have that pearl, you'll
+have none; and that you can't have, for it's meat for your masters:
+so conquer or die.'  And I couldn't conquer.  I can't help loving
+her, worshipping her, no more than you; and I will die: but you
+needn't laugh meanwhile at me that have done as much as you, and
+will do again."
+
+"It is the old tale," said Frank to himself; "whom will not love
+transform into a hero?"
+
+And so it was.  Jack's squeaking voice was firm and manly, his
+pig's eyes flashed very fire, his gestures were so free and
+earnest, that the ungainliness of his figure was forgotten; and
+when he finished with a violent burst of tears, Frank, forgetting
+his wounds, sprang up and caught him by the hand.
+
+"John Brimblecombe, forgive me!  Gentlemen, if we are gentlemen, we
+ought to ask his pardon.  Has he not shown already more chivalry,
+more self-denial, and therefore more true love, than any of us?  My
+friends, let the fierceness of affection, which we have used as an
+excuse for many a sin of our own, excuse his listening to a
+conversation in which he well deserved to bear a part."
+
+"Ah," said Jack, "you make me one of your brotherhood; and see if I
+do not dare to suffer as much as any of you!  You laugh?  Do you
+fancy none can use a sword unless he has a baker's dozen of
+quarterings in his arms, or that Oxford scholars know only how to
+handle a pen?"
+
+"Let us try his metal," said St. Leger.  "Here's my sword, Jack;
+draw, Coffin! and have at him."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Coffin, looking somewhat disgusted at the notion
+of fighting a man of Jack's rank; but Jack caught at the weapon
+offered to him.
+
+"Give me a buckler, and have at any of you!"
+
+"Here's a chair bottom," cried Cary; and Jack, seizing it in his
+left, flourished his sword so fiercely, and called so loudly to
+Coffin to come on, that all present found it necessary, unless they
+wished blood to be spilt, to turn the matter off with a laugh: but
+Jack would not hear of it.
+
+"Nay: if you will let me be of your brotherhood, well and good: but
+if not, one or other I will fight: and that's flat."
+
+"You see, gentlemen," said Amyas, "we must admit him or die the
+death; so we needs must go when Sir Urian drives.  Come up, Jack,
+and take the oaths.  You admit him, gentlemen?"
+
+"Let me but be your chaplain," said Jack, "and pray for your luck
+when you're at the wars.  If I do stay at home in a country curacy,
+'tis not much that you need be jealous of me with her, I reckon,"
+said Jack, with a pathetical glance at his own stomach.
+
+"Sia!" said Cary: "but if he be admitted, it must be done according
+to the solemn forms and ceremonies in such cases provided.  Take
+him into the next room, Amyas, and prepare him for his initiation."
+
+"What's that?" asked Amyas, puzzled by the word.  But judging from
+the corner of Will's eye that initiation was Latin for a practical
+joke, he led forth his victim behind the arras again, and waited
+five minutes while the room was being darkened, till Frank's voice
+called to him to bring in the neophyte.
+
+"John Brimblecombe," said Frank, in a sepulchral tone, "you cannot
+be ignorant, as a scholar and bachelor of Oxford, of that dread
+sacrament by which Catiline bound the soul of his fellow-
+conspirators, in order that both by the daring of the deed he might
+have proof of their sincerity, and by the horror thereof astringe
+their souls by adamantine fetters, and Novem-Stygian oaths, to that
+wherefrom hereafter the weakness of the flesh might shrink.
+Wherefore, O Jack! we too have determined, following that ancient
+and classical example, to fill, as he did, a bowl with the
+lifeblood of our most heroic selves, and to pledge each other
+therein, with vows whereat the stars shall tremble in their
+spheres, and Luna, blushing, veil her silver cheeks.  Your blood
+alone is wanted to fill up the goblet.  Sit down, John
+Brimblecombe, and bare your arm!"
+
+"But, Mr. Frank!--"said Jack, who was as superstitious as any old
+wife, and, what with the darkness and the discourse, already in a
+cold perspiration.
+
+"But me no buts! or depart as recreant, not by the door like a man,
+but up the chimney like a flittermouse."
+
+"But, Mr. Frank!"
+
+"Thy vital juice, or the chimney!  Choose!" roared Cary in his ear.
+
+"Well, if I must," said Jack; "but it's desperate hard that because
+you can't keep faith without these barbarous oaths, I must take
+them too, that have kept faith these three years without any."
+
+At this pathetic appeal Frank nearly melted: but Amyas and Cary had
+thrust the victim into a chair and all was prepared for the
+sacrifice.
+
+"Bind his eyes, according to the classic fashion," said Will.
+
+"Oh no, dear Mr. Cary; I'll shut them tight enough, I warrant: but
+not with your dagger, dear Mr. William--sure, not with your dagger?
+I can't afford to lose blood, though I do look lusty--I can't
+indeed; sure, a pin would do--I've got one here, to my sleeve,
+somewhere--Oh!"
+
+"See the fount of generous juice!  Flow on, fair stream.  How he
+bleeds!--pints, quarts!  Ah, this proves him to be in earnest!"
+
+"A true lover's blood is always at his fingers' ends."
+
+"He does not grudge it; of course not.  Eh, Jack?  What matters an
+odd gallon for her sake?"
+
+"For her sake?  Nothing, nothing!  Take my life, if you will: but--
+oh, gentlemen, a surgeon, if you love me!  I'm going off--I 'm
+fainting!"
+
+"Drink, then, quick; drink and swear!  Pat his back, Cary.
+Courage, man! it will be over in a minute.  Now, Frank!--"
+
+And Frank spoke--
+
+
+"If plighted troth I fail, or secret speech reveal,
+May Cocytean ghosts around my pillow squeal;
+While Ate's brazen claws distringe my spleen in sunder,
+And drag me deep to Pluto's keep, 'mid brimstone, smoke, and thunder!"
+
+
+"Placetne, domine?"
+
+"Placet!" squeaked Jack, who thought himself at the last gasp, and
+gulped down full three-quarters of the goblet which Cary held to
+his lips.
+
+"Ugh--Ah--Puh!  Mercy on us!  It tastes mighty like wine!"
+
+"A proof, my virtuous brother," said Frank, "first, of thy
+abstemiousness, which has thus forgotten what wine tastes like; and
+next, of thy pure and heroical affection, by which thy carnal
+senses being exalted to a higher and supra-lunar sphere, like those
+Platonical daemonizomenoi and enthusiazomenoi (of whom Jamblichus
+says that they were insensible to wounds and flame, and much more,
+therefore, to evil savors), doth make even the most nauseous
+draught redolent of that celestial fragrance, which proceeding, O
+Jack! from thine own inward virtue, assimilates by sympathy even
+outward accidents unto its own harmony and melody; for fragrance
+is, as has been said well, the song of flowers, and sweetness, the
+music of apples--Ahem!  Go in peace, thou hast conquered!"
+
+"Put him out of the door, Will," said Amyas, "or he will swoon on
+our hands."
+
+"Give him some sack," said Frank.
+
+"Not a blessed drop of yours, sir," said Jack.  "I like good wine
+as well as any man on earth, and see as little of it; but not a
+drop of yours, sirs, after your frumps and flouts about hanging-on
+and trencher-scraping.  When I first began to love her, I bid good-
+bye to all dirty tricks; for I had some one then for whom to keep
+myself clean."
+
+And so Jack was sent home, with a pint of good red Alicant wine in
+him (more, poor fellow, than he had tasted at once in his life
+before); while the rest, in high glee with themselves and the rest
+of the world, relighted the candles, had a right merry evening, and
+parted like good friends and sensible gentlemen of devon, thinking
+(all except Frank) Jack Brimblecombe and his vow the merriest jest
+they had heard for many a day.  After which they all departed:
+Amyas and Cary to Winter's squadron; Frank (as soon as he could
+travel) to the Court again; and with him young Basset, whose father
+Sir Arthur, being in London, procured for him a page's place in
+Leicester's household.  Fortescue and Chicester went to their
+brothers in Dublin; St. Leger to his uncle the Marshal of Munster;
+Coffin joined Champernoun and Norris in the Netherlands; and so the
+Brotherhood of the Rose was scattered far and wide, and Mistress
+Salterne was left alone with her looking-glass.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+HOW AMYAS KEPT HIS CHRISTMAS DAY
+
+
+     "Take aim, you noble musqueteers,
+      And shoot you round about;
+      Stand to it, valiant pikemen,
+      And we shall keep them out.
+      There's not a man of all of us
+      A foot will backward flee;
+      I'll be the foremost man in fight,
+      Says brave Lord Willoughby!"
+
+                     Elizabethan Ballad.
+
+
+It was the blessed Christmas afternoon.  The light was fading down;
+the even-song was done; and the good folks of Bideford were
+trooping home in merry groups, the father with his children, the
+lover with his sweetheart, to cakes and ale, and flapdragons and
+mummer's plays, and all the happy sports of Christmas night.  One
+lady only, wrapped close in her black muffler and followed by her
+maid, walked swiftly, yet sadly, toward the long causeway and
+bridge which led to Northam town.  Sir Richard Grenville and his
+wife caught her up and stopped her courteously.
+
+"You will come home with us, Mrs. Leigh," said Lady Grenville, "and
+spend a pleasant Christmas night?"
+
+Mrs. Leigh smiled sweetly, and laying one hand on Lady Grenville's
+arm, pointed with the other to the westward, and said:
+
+"I cannot well spend a merry Christmas night while that sound is in
+my ears."
+
+The whole party around looked in the direction in which she
+pointed.  Above their heads the soft blue sky was fading into gray,
+and here and there a misty star peeped out: but to the westward,
+where the downs and woods of Raleigh closed in with those of
+Abbotsham, the blue was webbed and turfed with delicate white
+flakes; iridescent spots, marking the path by which the sun had
+sunk, showed all the colors of the dying dolphin; and low on the
+horizon lay a long band of grassy green.  But what was the sound
+which troubled Mrs. Leigh?  None of them, with their merry hearts,
+and ears dulled with the din and bustle of the town, had heard it
+till that moment: and yet now--listen!  It was dead calm.  There
+was not a breath to stir a blade of grass.  And yet the air was
+full of sound, a low deep roar which hovered over down and wood,
+salt-marsh and river, like the roll of a thousand wheels, the tramp
+of endless armies, or--what it was--the thunder of a mighty surge
+upon the boulders of the pebble ridge.
+
+"The ridge is noisy to-night," said Sir Richard.  "There has been
+wind somewhere."
+
+"There is wind now, where my boy is, God help him!" said Mrs.
+Leigh: and all knew that she spoke truly.  The spirit of the
+Atlantic storm had sent forward the token of his coming, in the
+smooth ground-swell which was heard inland, two miles away.  To-
+morrow the pebbles, which were now rattling down with each
+retreating wave, might be leaping to the ridge top, and hurled like
+round-shot far ashore upon the marsh by the force of the advancing
+wave, fleeing before the wrath of the western hurricane.
+
+"God help my boy!" said Mrs. Leigh again.
+
+"God is as near him by sea as by land," said good Sir Richard.
+
+"True, but I am a lone mother; and one that has no heart just now
+but to go home and pray."
+
+And so Mrs. Leigh went onward up the lane, and spent all that night
+in listening between her prayers to the thunder of the surge, till
+it was drowned, long ere the sun rose, in the thunder of the storm.
+
+And where is Amyas on this same Christmas afternoon?
+
+Amyas is sitting bareheaded in a boat's stern in Smerwick bay, with
+the spray whistling through his curls, as he shouts cheerfully--
+
+"Pull, and with a will, my merry men all, and never mind shipping a
+sea.  Cannon balls are a cargo that don't spoil by taking salt-
+water."
+
+His mother's presage has been true enough.  Christmas eve has been
+the last of the still, dark, steaming nights of the early winter;
+and the western gale has been roaring for the last twelve hours
+upon the Irish coast.
+
+The short light of the winter day is fading fast.  Behind him is a
+leaping line of billows lashed into mist by the tempest.  Beside
+him green foam-fringed columns are rushing up the black rocks, and
+falling again in a thousand cataracts of snow.  Before him is the
+deep and sheltered bay: but it is not far up the bay that he and
+his can see; for some four miles out at sea begins a sloping roof
+of thick gray cloud, which stretches over their heads, and up and
+far away inland, cutting the cliffs off at mid-height, hiding all
+the Kerry mountains, and darkening the hollows of the distant
+firths into the blackness of night.  And underneath that awful roof
+of whirling mist the storm is howling inland ever, sweeping before
+it the great foam-sponges, and the gray salt spray, till all the
+land is hazy, dim, and dun.  Let it howl on! for there is more mist
+than ever salt spray made, flying before that gale; more thunder
+than ever sea-surge wakened echoing among the cliffs of Smerwick
+bay; along those sand-hills flash in the evening gloom red sparks
+which never came from heaven; for that fort, now christened by the
+invaders the Fort Del Oro, where flaunts the hated golden flag of
+Spain, holds San Josepho and eight hundred of the foe; and but
+three nights ago, Amyas and Yeo, and the rest of Winter's shrewdest
+hands, slung four culverins out of the Admiral's main deck, and
+floated them ashore, and dragged them up to the battery among the
+sand-hills; and now it shall be seen whether Spanish and Italian
+condottieri can hold their own on British ground against the men of
+Devon.
+
+Small blame to Amyas if he was thinking, not of his lonely mother
+at Burrough Court, but of those quick bright flashes on sand-hill
+and on fort, where Salvation Yeo was hurling the eighteen-pound
+shot with deadly aim, and watching with a cool and bitter smile of
+triumph the flying of the sand, and the crashing of the gabions.
+Amyas and his party had been on board, at the risk of their lives,
+for a fresh supply of shot; for Winter's battery was out of ball,
+and had been firing stones for the last four hours, in default of
+better missiles.  They ran the boat on shore through the surf,
+where a cove in the shore made landing possible, and almost
+careless whether she stove or not, scrambled over the sand-hills
+with each man his brace of shot slung across his shoulder; and
+Amyas, leaping into the trenches, shouted cheerfully to Salvation
+Yeo--
+
+"More food for the bull-dogs, Gunner, and plums for the Spaniards'
+Christmas pudding!"
+
+"Don't speak to a man at his business, Master Amyas.  Five mortal
+times have I missed; but I will have that accursed Popish rag down,
+as I'm a sinner."
+
+"Down with it, then; nobody wants you to shoot crooked.  Take good
+iron to it, and not footy paving-stones."
+
+"I believe, sir, that the foul fiend is there, a turning of my shot
+aside, I do.  I thought I saw him once: but, thank Heaven, here's
+ball again.  Ah, sir, if one could but cast a silver one!  Now,
+stand by, men!"
+
+And once again Yeo's eighteen-pounder roared, and away.  And, oh
+glory! the great yellow flag of Spain, which streamed in the gale,
+lifted clean into the air, flagstaff and all, and then pitched
+wildly down head-foremost, far to leeward.
+
+A hurrah from the sailors, answered by the soldiers of the opposite
+camp, shook the very cloud above them: but ere its echoes had died
+away, a tall officer leapt upon the parapet of the fort, with the
+fallen flag in his hand, and rearing it as well as he could upon
+his lance point, held it firmly against the gale, while the fallen
+flagstaff was raised again within.
+
+In a moment a dozen long bows were bent at the daring foeman: but
+Amyas behind shouted--
+
+"Shame, lads!  Stop and let the gallant gentleman have due
+courtesy!"
+
+So they stopped, while Amyas, springing on the rampart of the
+battery, took off his hat, and bowed to the flag-holder, who, as
+soon as relieved of his charge, returned the bow courteously, and
+descended.
+
+It was by this time all but dark, and the firing began to slacken
+on all sides; Salvation and his brother gunners, having covered up
+their slaughtering tackle with tarpaulings, retired for the night,
+leaving Amyas, who had volunteered to take the watch till midnight;
+and the rest of the force having got their scanty supper of biscuit
+(for provisions were running very short) lay down under arms among
+the sand-hills, and grumbled themselves to sleep.
+
+He had paced up and down in the gusty darkness for some hour or
+more, exchanging a passing word now and then with the sentinel,
+when two men entered the battery, chatting busily together.  One
+was in complete armor; the other wrapped in the plain short cloak
+of a man of pens and peace: but the talk of both was neither of
+sieges nor of sallies, catapult, bombard, nor culverin, but simply
+of English hexameters.
+
+And fancy not, gentle reader, that the two were therein fiddling
+while Rome was burning; for the commonweal of poetry and letters,
+in that same critical year 1580, was in far greater danger from
+those same hexameters than the common woe of Ireland (as Raleigh
+called it) was from the Spaniards.
+
+Imitating the classic metres, "versifying," as it was called in
+contradistinction to rhyming, was becoming fast the fashion among
+the more learned.  Stonyhurst and others had tried their hands at
+hexameter translations from the Latin and Greek epics, which seem
+to have been doggerel enough; and ever and anon some youthful wit
+broke out in iambics, sapphics, elegiacs, and what not, to the
+great detriment of the queen's English and her subjects' ears.
+
+I know not whether Mr. William Webbe had yet given to the world any
+fragments of his precious hints for the "Reformation of English
+poetry," to the tune of his own "Tityrus, happily thou liest
+tumbling under a beech-tree:" but the Cambridge Malvolio, Gabriel
+Harvey, had succeeded in arguing Spenser, Dyer, Sidney, and
+probably Sidney's sister, and the whole clique of beaux-esprits
+round them, into following his model of
+
+
+    "What might I call this tree?  A laurel?  O bonny laurel!
+     Needes to thy bowes will I bowe this knee, and vail my bonetto;"
+
+
+after snubbing the first book of "that Elvish Queene," which was
+then in manuscript, as a base declension from the classical to the
+romantic school.
+
+And now Spenser (perhaps in mere melancholy wilfulness and want of
+purpose, for he had just been jilted by a fair maid of Kent) was
+wasting his mighty genius upon doggerel which he fancied antique;
+and some piratical publisher (bitter Tom Nash swears, and with
+likelihood that Harvey did it himself) had just given to the
+world,--"Three proper wittie and familiar Letters, lately past
+between two University men, touching the Earthquake in April last,
+and our English reformed Versifying," which had set all town wits
+a-buzzing like a swarm of flies, being none other than a
+correspondence between Spenser and Harvey, which was to prove to
+the world forever the correctness and melody of such lines as,
+
+
+    "For like magnificoes, not a beck but glorious in show,
+     In deede most frivolous, not a looke but Tuscanish always."
+
+
+Let them pass--Alma Mater has seen as bad hexameters since.  But
+then the matter was serious.  There is a story (I know not how
+true) that Spenser was half bullied into re-writing the "Faerie
+Queene" in hexameters, had not Raleigh, a true romanticist, "whose
+vein for ditty or amorous ode was most lofty, insolent, and
+passionate," persuaded him to follow his better genius.  The great
+dramatists had not yet arisen, to form completely that truly
+English school, of which Spenser, unconscious of his own vast
+powers, was laying the foundation.  And, indeed, it was not till
+Daniel, twenty years after, in his admirable apology for rhyme, had
+smashed Mr. Campian and his "eight several kinds of classical
+numbers," that the matter was finally settled, and the English
+tongue left to go the road on which Heaven had started it.  So that
+we may excuse Raleigh's answering somewhat waspish to some
+quotation of Spenser's from the three letters of "Immerito and G. H."
+
+"Tut, tut, Colin Clout, much learning has made thee mad.  A good
+old fishwives' ballad jingle is worth all your sapphics and
+trimeters, and 'riff-raff thurlery bouncing.'  Hey? have I you
+there, old lad?  Do you mind that precious verse?"
+
+"But, dear Wat, Homer and Virgil--"
+
+"But, dear Ned, Petrarch and Ovid--"
+
+"But, Wat, what have we that we do not owe to the ancients?"
+
+"Ancients, quotha?  Why, the legend of King Arthur, and Chevy Chase
+too, of which even your fellow-sinner Sidney cannot deny that every
+time he hears it even from a blind fiddler it stirs his heart like
+a trumpet-blast.  Speak well of the bridge that carries you over,
+man!  Did you find your Redcross Knight in Virgil, or such a dame
+as Una in old Ovid?  No more than you did your Pater and Credo, you
+renegado baptized heathen, you!"
+
+"Yet, surely, our younger and more barbarous taste must bow before
+divine antiquity, and imitate afar--"
+
+"As dottrels do fowlers.  If Homer was blind, lad, why dost not
+poke out thine eye?  Ay, this hexameter is of an ancient house,
+truly, Ned Spenser, and so is many a rogue: but he cannot make way
+on our rough English roads.  He goes hopping and twitching in our
+language like a three-legged terrier over a pebble-bank, tumble and
+up again, rattle and crash."
+
+"Nay, hear, now--
+
+
+    'See ye the blindfolded pretty god that feathered archer,
+       Of lovers' miseries which maketh his bloody game?'*
+
+
+True, the accent gapes in places, as I have often confessed to
+Harvey, but--"
+
+
+* Strange as it may seem, this distich is Spenser's own; and the
+other hexameters are all authentic.
+
+
+Harvey be hanged for a pedant, and the whole crew of versifiers,
+from Lord Dorset (but he, poor man, has been past hanging some time
+since) to yourself!  Why delude you into playing Procrustes as he
+does with the queen's English, racking one word till its joints be
+pulled asunder, and squeezing the next all a-heap as the
+Inquisitors do heretics in their banca cava?  Out upon him and you,
+and Sidney, and the whole kin.  You have not made a verse among
+you, and never will, which is not as lame a gosling as Harvey's
+own--
+
+
+'Oh thou weathercocke, that stands on the top of Allhallows,
+ Come thy ways down, if thou dar'st for thy crown, and take the wall
+   on us.'
+
+
+Hark, now!  There is our young giant comforting his soul with a
+ballad.  You will hear rhyme and reason together here, now.  He
+will not miscall 'blind-folded,' 'blind-fold-ed, I warrant; or make
+an 'of' and a 'which' and a 'his' carry a whole verse on their
+wretched little backs."
+
+And as he spoke, Amyas, who had been grumbling to himself some
+Christmas carol, broke out full-mouthed:--
+
+
+     "As Joseph was a-walking
+      He heard an angel sing--
+      'This night shall be the birth night
+      Of Christ, our heavenly King.
+
+      His birthbed shall be neither
+      In housen nor in hall,
+      Nor in the place of paradise,
+      But in the oxen's stall.
+
+      He neither shall be rocked
+      In silver nor in gold,
+      But in the wooden manger
+      That lieth on the mould.
+
+      He neither shall be washen
+      With white wine nor with red,
+      But with the fair spring water
+      That on you shall be shed.
+
+      He neither shall be clothed
+      In purple nor in pall,
+      But in the fair white linen
+      That usen babies all.'
+
+      As Joseph was a-walking
+      Thus did the angel sing,
+      And Mary's Son at midnight
+      Was born to be our King.
+
+      Then be you glad, good people,
+      At this time of the year;
+      And light you up your candles,
+      For His star it shineth clear."
+
+
+"There, Edmunde Classicaster," said Raleigh, "does not that simple
+strain go nearer to the heart of him who wrote 'The Shepherd's
+Calendar,' than all artificial and outlandish
+
+
+     'Wote ye why his mother with a veil hath covered his face?'
+
+
+Why dost not answer, man?"
+
+But Spenser was silent awhile, and then,--
+
+"Because I was thinking rather of the rhymer than the rhyme.  Good
+heaven! how that brave lad shames me, singing here the hymns which
+his mother taught him, before the very muzzles of Spanish guns;
+instead of bewailing unmanly, as I have done, the love which he
+held, I doubt not, as dear as I did even my Rosalind.  This is his
+welcome to the winter's storm; while I, who dream, forsooth, of
+heavenly inspiration, can but see therein an image of mine own
+cowardly despair.
+
+
+     'Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath has wasted,
+      Art made a mirror to behold my plight.'*
+
+
+Pah! away with frosts, icicles, and tears, and sighs--"
+
+
+* "The Shepherd's Calendar."
+
+
+"And with hexameters and trimeters too, I hope," interrupted
+Raleigh: "and all the trickeries of self-pleasing sorrow."
+
+"--I will set my heart to higher work than barking at the hand
+which chastens me."
+
+"Wilt put the lad into the 'Faerie Queene,' then, by my side?  He
+deserves as good a place there, believe me, as ever a Guyon, or
+even as Lord Grey your Arthegall.  Let us hail him.  Hallo! young
+chanticleer of Devon!  Art not afraid of a chance shot, that thou
+crowest so lustily upon thine own mixen?"
+
+"Cocks crow all night long at Christmas, Captain Raleigh, and so do
+I," said Amyas's cheerful voice; "but who's there with you?"
+
+"A penitent pupil of yours--Mr. Secretary Spenser."
+
+"Pupil of mine?" said Amyas.  "I wish he'd teach me a little of his
+art; I could fill up my time here with making verses."
+
+"And who would be your theme, fair sir?" said Spenser.
+
+"No 'who' at all.  I don't want to make sonnets to blue eyes, nor
+black either: but if I could put down some of the things I saw in
+the Spice Islands--"
+
+"Ah," said Raleigh, "he would beat you out of Parnassus, Mr.
+Secretary.  Remember, you may write about Fairyland, but he has
+seen it."
+
+"And so have others," said Spenser; "it is not so far off from any
+one of us.  Wherever is love and loyalty, great purposes, and lofty
+souls, even though in a hovel or a mine, there is Fairyland."
+
+"Then Fairyland should be here, friend; for you represent love, and
+Leigh loyalty; while, as for great purposes and lofty souls, who so
+fit to stand for them as I, being (unless my enemies and my
+conscience are liars both) as ambitious and as proud as Lucifer's
+own self?"
+
+"Ah, Walter, Walter, why wilt always slander thyself thus?"
+
+"Slander?  Tut.--I do but give the world a fair challenge, and tell
+it, 'There--you know the worst of me: come on and try a fall, for
+either you or I must down.'  Slander?  Ask Leigh here, who has but
+known me a fortnight, whether I am not as vain as a peacock, as
+selfish as a fox, as imperious as a bona roba, and ready to make a
+cat's paw of him or any man, if there be a chestnut in the fire:
+and yet the poor fool cannot help loving me, and running of my
+errands, and taking all my schemes and my dreams for gospel; and
+verily believes now, I think, that I shall be the man in the moon
+some day, and he my big dog."
+
+"Well," said Amyas, half apologetically, "if you are the cleverest
+man in the world what harm in my thinking so?"
+
+"Hearken to him, Edmund!  He will know better when he has outgrown
+this same callow trick of honesty, and learnt of the great goddess
+Detraction how to show himself wiser than the wise, by pointing out
+to the world the fool's motley which peeps through the rents in the
+philosopher's cloak.  Go to, lad! slander thy equals, envy thy
+betters, pray for an eye which sees spots in every sun, and for a
+vulture's nose to scent carrion in every rose-bed.  If thy friend
+win a battle, show that he has needlessly thrown away his men; if
+he lose one, hint that he sold it; if he rise to a place, argue
+favor; if he fall from one, argue divine justice.  Believe nothing,
+hope nothing, but endure all things, even to kicking, if aught may
+be got thereby; so shalt thou be clothed in purple and fine linen,
+and sit in kings' palaces, and fare sumptuously every day."
+
+"And wake with Dives in the torment," said Amyas.  "Thank you for
+nothing, captain."
+
+"Go to, Misanthropos," said Spenser.  "Thou hast not yet tasted the
+sweets of this world's comfits, and thou railest at them?"
+
+"The grapes are sour, lad."
+
+"And will be to the end," said Amyas, "if they come off such a
+devil's tree as that.  I really think you are out of your mind,
+Captain Raleigh, at times."
+
+"I wish I were; for it is a troublesome, hungry, windy mind as man
+ever was cursed withal.  But come in, lad.  We were sent from the
+lord deputy to bid thee to supper.  There is a dainty lump of dead
+horse waiting for thee."
+
+"Send me some out, then," said matter-of-fact Amyas.  "And tell his
+lordship that, with his good leave, I don't stir from here till
+morning, if I can keep awake.  There is a stir in the fort, and I
+expect them out on us."
+
+"Tut, man! their hearts are broken.  We know it by their
+deserters."
+
+"Seeing's believing.  I never trust runaway rogues.  If they are
+false to their masters, they'll be false to us."
+
+"Well, go thy ways, old honesty; and Mr. Secretary shall give you a
+book to yourself in the 'Faerie Queene'--'Sir Monoculus or the
+Legend of Common Sense,' eh, Edmund?"
+
+"Monoculus?"
+
+"Ay, Single-eye, my prince of word-coiners--won't that fit?--And
+give him the Cyclops head for a device.  Heigh-ho!  They may laugh
+that win.  I am sick of this Irish work; were it not for the chance
+of advancement I'd sooner be driving a team of red Devons on
+Dartside; and now I am angry with the dear lad because he is not
+sick of it too.  What a plague business has he to be paddling up
+and down, contentedly doing his duty, like any city watchman?  It
+is an insult to the mighty aspirations of our nobler hearts,--eh,
+my would-be Ariosto?"
+
+"Ah, Raleigh! you can afford to confess yourself less than some,
+for you are greater than all.  Go on and conquer, noble heart!  But
+as for me, I sow the wind, and I suppose I shall reap the
+whirlwind."
+
+"Your harvest seems come already; what a blast that was!  Hold on
+by me, Colin Clout, and I'll hold on by thee.  So!  Don't tread on
+that pikeman's stomach, lest he take thee for a marauding Don, and
+with sudden dagger slit Cohn's pipe, and Colin's weasand too."
+
+And the two stumbled away into the darkness, leaving Amyas to
+stride up and down as before, puzzling his brains over Raleigh's
+wild words and Spenser's melancholy, till he came to the conclusion
+that there was some mysterious connection between cleverness and
+unhappiness, and thanking his stars that he was neither scholar,
+courtier, nor poet, said grace over his lump of horseflesh when it
+arrived, devoured it as if it had been venison, and then returned
+to his pacing up and down; but this time in silence, for the night
+was drawing on, and there was no need to tell the Spaniards that
+any one was awake and watching.
+
+So he began to think about his mother, and how she might be
+spending her Christmas; and then about Frank, and wondered at what
+grand Court festival he was assisting, amid bright lights and sweet
+music and gay ladies, and how he was dressed, and whether he
+thought of his brother there far away on the dark Atlantic shore;
+and then he said his prayers and his creed; and then he tried not
+to think of Rose Salterne, and of course thought about her all the
+more.  So on passed the dull hours, till it might be past eleven
+o'clock, and all lights were out in the battery and the shipping,
+and there was no sound of living thing but the monotonous tramp of
+the two sentinels beside him, and now and then a grunt from the
+party who slept under arms some twenty yards to the rear.
+
+So he paced to and fro, looking carefully out now and then over the
+strip of sand-hill which lay between him and the fort; but all was
+blank and black, and moreover it began to rain furiously.
+
+Suddenly he seemed to hear a rustle among the harsh sand-grass.
+True, the wind was whistling through it loudly enough, but that
+sound was not altogether like the wind.  Then a soft sliding noise;
+something had slipped down a bank, and brought the sand down after
+it.  Amyas stopped, crouched down beside a gun, and laid his ear to
+the rampart, whereby he heard clearly, as he thought, the noise of
+approaching feet; whether rabbits or Christians, he knew not, but
+he shrewdly guessed the latter.
+
+Now Amyas was of a sober and business-like turn, at least when he
+was not in a passion; and thinking within himself that if he made
+any noise, the enemy (whether four or two-legged) would retire, and
+all the sport be lost, he did not call to the two sentries, who
+were at the opposite ends of the battery; neither did he think it
+worth while to rouse the sleeping company, lest his ears should
+have deceived him, and the whole camp turn out to repulse the
+attack of a buck rabbit.
+
+So he crouched lower and lower beside the culverin, and was
+rewarded in a minute or two by hearing something gently deposited
+against the mouth of the embrasure, which, by the noise, should be
+a piece of timber.
+
+"So far, so good," said he to himself; "when the scaling ladder is
+up, the soldier follows, I suppose.  I can only humbly thank them
+for giving my embrasure the preference.  There he comes!  I hear
+his feet scuffling."
+
+He could hear plainly enough some one working himself into the
+mouth of the embrasure: but the plague was, that it was so dark
+that he could not see his hand between him and the sky, much less
+his foe at two yards off.  However, he made a pretty fair guess as
+to the whereabouts, and, rising softly, discharged such a blow
+downwards as would have split a yule log.  A volley of sparks flew
+up from the hapless Spaniard's armor, and a grunt issued from
+within it, which proved that, whether he was killed or not, the
+blow had not improved his respiration.
+
+Amyas felt for his head, seized it, dragged him in over the gun,
+sprang into the embrasure on his knees, felt for the top of the
+ladder, found it, hove it clean off and out, with four or five men
+on it, and then of course tumbled after it ten feet into the sand,
+roaring like a town bull to her majesty's liege subjects in
+general.
+
+Sailor-fashion, he had no armor on but a light morion and a
+cuirass, so he was not too much encumbered to prevent his springing
+to his legs instantly, and setting to work, cutting and foining
+right and left at every sound, for sight there was none.
+
+Battles (as soldiers know, and newspaper editors do not) are
+usually fought, not as they ought to be fought, but as they can be
+fought; and while the literary man is laying down the law at his
+desk as to how many troops should be moved here, and what rivers
+should be crossed there, and where the cavalry should have been
+brought up, and when the flank should have been turned, the
+wretched man who has to do the work finds the matter settled for
+him by pestilence, want of shoes, empty stomachs, bad roads, heavy
+rains, hot suns, and a thousand other stern warriors who never show
+on paper.
+
+So with this skirmish; "according to Cocker," it ought to have been
+a very pretty one; for Hercules of Pisa, who planned the sortie,
+had arranged it all (being a very sans-appel in all military
+science) upon the best Italian precedents, and had brought against
+this very hapless battery a column of a hundred to attack directly
+in front, a company of fifty to turn the right flank, and a company
+of fifty to turn the left flank, with regulations, orders,
+passwords, countersigns, and what not; so that if every man had had
+his rights (as seldom happens), Don Guzman Maria Magdalena de Soto,
+who commanded the sortie, ought to have taken the work out of hand,
+and annihilated all therein.  But alas! here stern fate interfered.
+They had chosen a dark night, as was politic; they had waited till
+the moon was up, lest it should be too dark, as was politic
+likewise: but, just as they had started, on came a heavy squall of
+rain, through which seven moons would have given no light, and
+which washed out the plans of Hercules of Pisa as if they had been
+written on a schoolboy's slate.  The company who were to turn the
+left flank walked manfully down into the sea, and never found out
+where they were going till they were knee-deep in water.  The
+company who were to turn the right flank, bewildered by the utter
+darkness, turned their own flank so often, that tired of falling
+into rabbit-burrows and filling their mouths with sand, they halted
+and prayed to all the saints for a compass and lantern; while the
+centre body, who held straight on by a trackway to within fifty
+yards of the battery, so miscalculated that short distance, that
+while they thought the ditch two pikes' length off, they fell into
+it one over the other, and of six scaling ladders, the only one
+which could be found was the very one which Amyas threw down again.
+After which the clouds broke, the wind shifted, and the moon shone
+out merrily.  And so was the deep policy of Hercules of Pisa, on
+which hung the fate of Ireland and the Papacy, decided by a ten
+minutes' squall.
+
+But where is Amyas?
+
+In the ditch, aware that the enemy is tumbling into it, but unable
+to find them; while the company above, finding it much too dark to
+attempt a counter sortie, have opened a smart fire of musketry and
+arrows on things in general, whereat the Spaniards are swearing
+like Spaniards (I need say no more), and the Italians spitting like
+venomous cats; while Amyas, not wishing to be riddled by friendly
+balls, has got his back against the foot of the rampart, and waits
+on Providence.
+
+Suddenly the moon clears; and with one more fierce volley, the
+English sailors, seeing the confusion, leap down from the
+embrasures, and to it pell-mell.  Whether this also was "according
+to Cocker," I know not: but the sailor, then as now, is not
+susceptible of highly-finished drill.
+
+Amyas is now in his element, and so are the brave fellows at his
+heels; and there are ten breathless, furious minutes among the
+sand-hills; and then the trumpets blow a recall, and the sailors
+drop back again by twos and threes, and are helped up into the
+embrasures over many a dead and dying foe; while the guns of Fort
+del Oro open on them, and blaze away for half an hour without
+reply; and then all is still once more.  And in the meanwhile, the
+sortie against the deputy's camp has fared no better, and the
+victory of the night remains with the English.
+
+Twenty minutes after, Winter and the captains who were on shore
+were drying themselves round a peat-fire on the beach, and talking
+over the skirmish, when Will Cary asked--
+
+"Where is Leigh? who has seen him?  I am sadly afraid he has gone
+too far, and been slain."
+
+"Slain?  Never less, gentlemen!" replied the voice of the very
+person in question, as he stalked out of the darkness into the
+glare of the fire, and shot down from his shoulders into the midst
+of the ring, as he might a sack of corn, a huge dark body, which
+was gradually seen to be a man in rich armor; who being so shot
+down, lay quietly where he was dropped, with his feet (luckily for
+him mailed) in the fire.
+
+"I say," quoth Amyas, "some of you had better take him up, if he is
+to be of any use.  Unlace his helm, Will Cary."
+
+"Pull his feet out of the embers; I dare say he would have been
+glad enough to put us to the scarpines; but that's no reason we
+should put him to them."
+
+As has been hinted, there was no love lost between Admiral Winter
+and Amyas; and Amyas might certainly have reported himself in a
+more ceremonious manner.  So Winter, whom Amyas either had not
+seen, or had not chosen to see, asked him pretty sharply, "What the
+plague he had to do with bringing dead men into camp?"
+
+"If he's dead, it's not my fault.  He was alive enough when I
+started with him, and I kept him right end uppermost all the way;
+and what would you have more, sir?"
+
+"Mr. Leigh!" said Winter, "it behoves you to speak with somewhat
+more courtesy, if not respect, to captains who are your elders and
+commanders."
+
+"Ask your pardon, sir," said the giant, as he stood in front of the
+fire with the rain steaming and smoking off his armor; "but I was
+bred in a school where getting good service done was more esteemed
+than making fine speeches."
+
+"Whatsoever school you were trained in, sir," said Winter, nettled
+at the hint about Drake; "it does not seem to have been one in
+which you learned to obey orders.  Why did you not come in when the
+recall was sounded?"
+
+"Because," said Amyas, very coolly, "in the first place I did not
+hear it; and in the next, in my school I was taught when I had once
+started not to come home empty-handed."
+
+This was too pointed; and Winter sprang up with an oath--"Do you
+mean to insult me, sir?"
+
+"I am sorry, sir, that you should take a compliment to Sir Francis
+Drake as an insult to yourself.  I brought in this gentleman
+because I thought he might give you good information; if he dies
+meanwhile, the loss will be yours, or rather the queen's."
+
+"Help me, then," said Cary, glad to create a diversion in Amyas's
+favor, "and we will bring him round;" while Raleigh rose, and
+catching Winter's arm, drew him aside, and began talking earnestly.
+
+"What a murrain have you, Leigh, to quarrel with Winter?" asked two
+or three.
+
+"I say, my reverend fathers and dear children, do get the Don's
+talking tackle free again, and leave me and the admiral to settle
+it our own way."
+
+There was more than one captain sitting in the ring, but
+discipline, and the degrees of rank, were not so severely defined
+as now; and Amyas, as a "gentleman adventurer," was, on land, in a
+position very difficult to be settled, though at sea he was as
+liable to be hanged as any other person on board; and on the whole
+it was found expedient to patch the matter up.  So Captain Raleigh
+returning, said that though Admiral Winter had doubtless taken
+umbrage at certain words of Mr. Leigh's, yet that he had no doubt
+that Mr. Leigh meant nothing thereby but what was consistent with
+the profession of a soldier and a gentleman, and worthy both of
+himself and of the admiral.
+
+From which proposition Amyas found it impossible to dissent;
+whereon Raleigh went back, and informed Winter that Leigh had
+freely retracted his words, and fully wiped off any imputation
+which Mr. Winter might conceive to have been put upon him, and so
+forth.  So Winter returned, and Amyas said frankly enough--
+
+"Admiral Winter, I hope, as a loyal soldier, that you will
+understand thus far; that naught which has passed to-night shall in
+any way prevent you finding me a forward and obedient servant to
+all your commands, be they what they may, and a supporter of your
+authority among the men, and honor against the foe, even with my
+life.  For I should he ashamed if private differences should ever
+prejudice by a grain the public weal."
+
+This was a great effort of oratory for Amyas; and he therefore, in
+order to be safe by following precedent, tried to talk as much as
+he could like Sir Richard Grenville.  Of course Winter could answer
+nothing to it, in spite of the plain hint of private differences,
+but that he should not fail to show himself a captain worthy of so
+valiant and trusty a gentleman; whereon the whole party turned
+their attention to the captive, who, thanks to Will Cary, was by
+this time sitting up, standing much in need of a handkerchief, and
+looking about him, having been unhelmed, in a confused and doleful
+manner.
+
+"Take the gentleman to my tent," said Winter, "and let the surgeon
+see to him.  Mr. Leigh, who is he?--"
+
+"An enemy, but whether Spaniard or Italian I know not; but he
+seemed somebody among them, I thought the captain of a company.  He
+and I cut at each other twice or thrice at first, and then lost
+each other; and after that I came on him among the sand-hills,
+trying to rally his men, and swearing like the mouth of the pit,
+whereby I guess him a Spaniard.  But his men ran; so I brought him
+in."
+
+"And how?" asked Raleigh.  "Thou art giving us all the play but the
+murders and the marriages."
+
+"Why, I bid him yield, and he would not.  Then I bid him run, and
+he would not.  And it was too pitch-dark for fighting; so I took
+him by the ears, and shook the wind out of him, and so brought him
+in."
+
+"Shook the wind out of him?" cried Cary, amid the roar of laughter
+which followed.  "Dost know thou hast nearly wrung his neck in two?
+His vizor was full of blood."
+
+"He should have run or yielded, then," said Amyas; and getting up,
+slipped off to find some ale, and then to sleep comfortably in a
+dry burrow which he scratched out of a sandbank.
+
+The next morning, as Amyas was discussing a scanty breakfast of
+biscuit (for provisions were running very short in camp), Raleigh
+came up to him.
+
+"What, eating?  That's more than I have done to-day."
+
+"Sit down, and share, then."
+
+"Nay, lad, I did not come a-begging.  I have set some of my rogues
+to dig rabbits; but as I live, young Colbrand, you may thank your
+stars that you are alive to-day to eat.  Poor young Cheek--Sir John
+Cheek, the grammarian's son--got his quittance last night by a
+Spanish pike, rushing headlong on, just as you did.  But have you
+seen your prisoner?"
+
+"No; nor shall, while he is in Winter's tent."
+
+"Why not, then?  What quarrel have you against the admiral, friend
+Bobadil?  Cannot you let Francis Drake fight his own battles,
+without thrusting your head in between them?"
+
+"Well, that is good!  As if the quarrel was not just as much mine,
+and every man's in the ship.  Why, when he left Drake, he left us
+all, did he not?"
+
+"And what if he did?  Let bygones be bygones is the rule of a
+Christian, and of a wise man too, Amyas.  Here the man is, at
+least, safe home, in favor and in power; and a prudent youth will
+just hold his tongue, mumchance, and swim with the stream."
+
+"But that's just what makes me mad; to see this fellow, after
+deserting us there in unknown seas, win credit and rank at home
+here for being the first man who ever sailed back through the
+Straits.  What had he to do with sailing back at all!  As well make
+the fox a knight for being the first that ever jumped down a jakes
+to escape the hounds.  The fiercer the flight the fouler the fear,
+say I."
+
+"Amyas! Amyas! thou art a hard hitter, but a soft politician."
+
+"I am no politician, Captain Raleigh, nor ever wish to be.  An
+honest man's my friend, and a rogue's my foe; and I'll tell both as
+much, as long as I breathe."
+
+"And die a poor saint," said Raleigh, laughing.  "But if Winter
+invites you to his tent himself, you won't refuse to come?"
+
+"Why, no, considering his years and rank; but he knows too well to
+do that."
+
+"He knows too well not to do it," said Raleigh, laughing as he
+walked away.  And verily in half-an-hour came an invitation,
+extracted of course, from the admiral by Raleigh's silver tongue,
+which Amyas could not but obey.
+
+"We all owe you thanks for last night's service, sir," said Winter,
+who had for some good reasons changed his tone.  "Your prisoner is
+found to be a gentleman of birth and experience, and the leader of
+the assault last night.  He has already told us more than we had
+hoped, for which also we are beholden to you; and, indeed, my Lord
+Grey has been asking for you already."
+
+"I have, young sir," said a quiet and lofty voice; and Amyas saw
+limping from the inner tent the proud and stately figure of the
+stern deputy, Lord Grey of Wilton, a brave and wise man, but with a
+naturally harsh temper, which had been soured still more by the
+wound which had crippled him, while yet a boy, at the battle of
+Leith.  He owed that limp to Mary Queen of Scots; and he did not
+forget the debt.
+
+"I have been asking for you; having heard from many, both of your
+last night's prowess, and of your conduct and courage beyond the
+promise of your years, displayed in that ever-memorable voyage,
+which may well be ranked with the deeds of the ancient Argonauts."
+
+Amyas bowed low; and the lord deputy went on, "You will needs wish
+to see your prisoner.  You will find him such a one as you need not
+be ashamed to have taken, and as need not be ashamed to have been
+taken by you: but here he is, and will, I doubt not, answer as much
+for himself.  Know each other better, gentlemen both: last night
+was an ill one for making acquaintances.  Don Guzman Maria
+Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto, know the hidalgo, Amyas Leigh!"
+
+As he spoke, the Spaniard came forward, still in his armor, all
+save his head, which was bound up in a handkerchief.
+
+He was an exceedingly tall and graceful personage, of that sangre
+azul which marked high Visigothic descent; golden-haired and fair-
+skinned, with hands as small and white as a woman's; his lips were
+delicate but thin, and compressed closely at the corners of the
+mouth; and his pale blue eye had a glassy dulness.  In spite of his
+beauty and his carriage, Amyas shrank from him instinctively; and
+yet he could not help holding out his hand in return, as the
+Spaniard, holding out his, said languidly, in most sweet and
+sonorous Spanish--
+
+"I kiss his hands and feet.  The senor speaks, I am told, my native
+tongue?"
+
+"I have that honor."
+
+"Then accept in it (for I can better express myself therein than in
+English, though I am not altogether ignorant of that witty and
+learned language) the expression of my pleasure at having fallen
+into the hands of one so renowned in war and travel; and of one
+also," he added, glancing at Amyas's giant bulk, "the vastness of
+whose strength, beyond that of common mortality, makes it no more
+shame for me to have been overpowered and carried away by him than
+if my captor had been a paladin of Charlemagne's."
+
+Honest Amyas bowed and stammered, a little thrown off his balance
+by the unexpected assurance and cool flattery of his prisoner; but
+he said--
+
+"If you are satisfied, illustrious senor, I am bound to be so.  I
+only trust that in my hurry and the darkness I have not hurt you
+unnecessarily."
+
+The Don laughed a pretty little hollow laugh: "No, kind senor, my
+head, I trust, will after a few days have become united to my
+shoulders; and, for the present, your company will make me forget
+any slight discomfort."
+
+"Pardon me, senor; but by this daylight I should have seen that
+armor before."
+
+"I doubt it not, senor, as having been yourself also in the
+forefront of the battle," said the Spaniard, with a proud smile.
+
+"If I am right, senor, you are he who yesterday held up the
+standard after it was shot down."
+
+"I do not deny that undeserved honor; and I have to thank the
+courtesy of you and your countrymen for having permitted me to do
+so with impunity."
+
+"Ah, I heard of that brave feat," said the lord deputy.  "You
+should consider yourself, Mr. Leigh, honored by being enabled to
+show courtesy to such a warrior."
+
+How long this interchange of solemn compliments, of which Amyas was
+getting somewhat weary, would have gone on, I know not; but at that
+moment Raleigh entered hastily--
+
+"My lord, they have hung out a white flag, and are calling for a
+parley!"
+
+The Spaniard turned pale, and felt for his sword, which was gone;
+and then, with a bitter laugh, murmured to himself--"As I
+expected."
+
+"I am very sorry to hear it.  Would to Heaven they had simply
+fought it out!" said Lord Grey, half to himself; and then, "Go,
+Captain Raleigh, and answer them that (saving this gentleman's
+presence) the laws of war forbid a parley with any who are leagued
+with rebels against their lawful sovereign."
+
+"But what if they wish to treat for this gentleman's ransom?"
+
+"For their own, more likely," said the Spaniard; "but tell them, on
+my part, senor, that Don Guzman refuses to be ransomed; and will
+return to no camp where the commanding officer, unable to infect
+his captains with his own cowardice, dishonors them against their
+will."
+
+"You speak sharply, senor," said Winter, after Raleigh had gone
+out.
+
+"I have reason, Senor Admiral, as you will find, I fear, erelong."
+
+"We shall have the honor of leaving you here, for the present, sir,
+as Admiral Winter's guest," said the lord deputy.
+
+"But not my sword, it seems."
+
+"Pardon me, senor; but no one has deprived you of your sword," said
+Winter.
+
+"I don't wish to pain you, sir," said Amyas, "but I fear that we
+were both careless enough to leave it behind last night."
+
+A flash passed over the Spaniard's face, which disclosed terrible
+depths of fury and hatred beneath that quiet mask, as the summer
+lightning displays the black abysses of the thunder-storm; but like
+the summer lightning it passed almost unseen; and blandly as ever,
+he answered:
+
+"I can forgive you for such a neglect, most valiant sir, more
+easily than I can forgive myself.  Farewell, sir!  One who has lost
+his sword is no fit company for you."  And as Amyas and the rest
+departed, he plunged into the inner tent, stamping and writhing,
+gnawing his hands with rage and shame.
+
+As Amyas came out on the battery, Yeo hailed him:
+
+"Master Amyas!  Hillo, sir!  For the love of Heaven, tell me!"
+
+"What, then?"
+
+"Is his lordship stanch?  Will he do the Lord's work faithfully,
+root and branch: or will he spare the Amalekites?"
+
+"The latter, I think, old hip-and-thigh," said Amyas, hurrying
+forward to hear the news from Raleigh, who appeared in sight once
+more.
+
+"They ask to depart with bag and baggage," said he, when he came
+up.
+
+"God do so to me, and more also, if they carry away a straw!" said
+Lord Grey.  "Make short work of it, sir!"
+
+"I do not know how that will be, my lord; as I came up a captain
+shouted to me off the walls that there were mutineers; and, denying
+that he surrendered, would have pulled down the flag of truce, but
+the soldiers beat him off."
+
+"A house divided against itself will not stand long, gentlemen.
+Tell them that I give no conditions.  Let them lay down their arms,
+and trust in the Bishop of Rome who sent them hither, and may come
+to save them if he wants them.  Gunners, if you see the white flag
+go down, open your fire instantly.  Captain Raleigh, we need your
+counsel here.  Mr. Cary, will you be my herald this time?"
+
+"A better Protestant never went on a pleasanter errand, my lord."
+
+So Cary went, and then ensued an argument, as to what should be
+done with the prisoners in case of a surrender.
+
+I cannot tell whether my Lord Grey meant, by offering conditions
+which the Spaniards would not accept, to force them into fighting
+the quarrel out, and so save himself the responsibility of deciding
+on their fate; or whether his mere natural stubbornness, as well as
+his just indignation, drove him on too far to retract: but the
+council of war which followed was both a sad and a stormy one, and
+one which he had reason to regret to his dying day.  What was to be
+done with the enemy?  They already outnumbered the English; and
+some fifteen hundred of Desmond's wild Irish hovered in the forests
+round, ready to side with the winning party, or even to attack the
+English at the least sign of vacillation or fear.  They could not
+carry the Spaniards away with them, for they had neither shipping
+nor food, not even handcuffs enough for them; and as Mackworth told
+Winter when he proposed it, the only plan was for him to make San
+Josepho a present of his ships, and swim home himself as he could.
+To turn loose in Ireland, as Captain Touch urged, on the other
+hand, seven hundred such monsters of lawlessness, cruelty, and
+lust, as Spanish and Italian condottieri were in those days, was as
+fatal to their own safety as cruel to the wretched Irish.  All the
+captains, without exception, followed on the same side.  "What was
+to be done, then?" asked Lord Grey, impatiently.  "Would they have
+him murder them all in cold blood?"
+
+And for a while every man, knowing that it must come to that, and
+yet not daring to say it; till Sir Warham St. Leger, the marshal of
+Munster, spoke out stoutly: "Foreigners had been scoffing them too
+long and too truly with waging these Irish wars as if they meant to
+keep them alive, rather than end them.  Mercy and faith to every
+Irishman who would show mercy and faith, was his motto; but to
+invaders, no mercy.  Ireland was England's vulnerable point; it
+might be some day her ruin; a terrible example must be made of
+those who dare to touch the sore.  Rather pardon the Spaniards for
+landing in the Thames than in Ireland!"--till Lord Grey became much
+excited, and turning as a last hope to Raleigh, asked his opinion:
+but Raleigh's silver tongue was that day not on the side of
+indulgence.  He skilfully recapitulated the arguments of his
+fellow-captains, improving them as he went on, till each worthy
+soldier was surprised to find himself so much wiser a man than he
+had thought; and finished by one of his rapid and passionate
+perorations upon his favorite theme--the West Indian cruelties of
+the Spaniards, ". . . by which great tracts and fair countries are
+now utterly stripped of inhabitants by heavy bondage and torments
+unspeakable.  Oh, witless Islanders!" said he, apostrophizing the
+Irish, "would to Heaven that you were here to listen to me!  What
+other fate awaits you, if this viper, which you are so ready to
+take into your bosom, should be warmed to life, but to groan like
+the Indians, slaves to the Spaniard; but to perish like the
+Indians, by heavy burdens, cruel chains, plunder and ravishment;
+scourged, racked, roasted, stabbed, sawn in sunder, cast to feed
+the dogs, as simple and more righteous peoples have perished ere
+now by millions?  And what else, I say, had been the fate of
+Ireland had this invasion prospered, which God has now, by our weak
+hands, confounded and brought to naught?  Shall we then answer it,
+my lord, either to our conscience, our God, or our queen, if we
+shall set loose men (not one of whom, I warrant, but is stained
+with murder on murder) to go and fill up the cup of their iniquity
+among these silly sheep?  Have not their native wolves, their
+barbarous chieftains, shorn, peeled, and slaughtered them enough
+already, but we must add this pack of foreign wolves to the number
+of their tormentors, and fit the Desmond with a body-guard of
+seven, yea, seven hundred devils worse than himself?  Nay, rather
+let us do violence to our own human nature, and show ourselves in
+appearance rigorous, that we may be kind indeed; lest while we
+presume to be over-merciful to the guilty, we prove ourselves to be
+over-cruel to the innocent."
+
+"Captain Raleigh, Captain Raleigh," said Lord Grey, "the blood of
+these men be on your head!"
+
+"It ill befits your lordship," answered Raleigh, "to throw on your
+subordinates the blame of that which your reason approves as
+necessary."
+
+"I should have thought, sir, that one so noted for ambition as
+Captain Raleigh would have been more careful of the favor of that
+queen for whose smiles he is said to be so longing a competitor.
+If you have not yet been of her counsels, sir, I can tell you you
+are not likely to be.  She will be furious when she hears of this
+cruelty."
+
+Lord Grey had lost his temper: but Raleigh kept his, and answered
+quietly--
+
+"Her majesty shall at least not find me among the number of those
+who prefer her favor to her safety, and abuse to their own profit
+that over-tenderness and mercifulness of heart which is the only
+blemish (and yet, rather like a mole on a fair cheek, but a new
+beauty) in her manifold perfections."
+
+At this juncture Cary returned.
+
+"My lord," said he, in some confusion, "I have proposed your terms;
+but the captains still entreat for some mitigation; and, to tell
+you truth, one of them has insisted on accompanying me hither to
+plead his cause himself."
+
+"I will not see him, sir.  Who is he?"
+
+"His name is Sebastian of Modena, my lord."
+
+"Sebastian of Modena?  What think you, gentlemen?  May we make an
+exception in favor of so famous a soldier?"
+
+"So villainous a cut-throat," said Zouch to Raleigh, under his
+breath.
+
+All, however, were for speaking with so famous a man; and in came,
+in full armor, a short, bull-necked Italian, evidently of immense
+strength, of the true Caesar Borgia stamp.
+
+"Will you please to be seated, sir?" said Lord Grey, coldly.
+
+"I kiss your hands, most illustrious: but I do not sit in an
+enemy's camp.  Ha, my friend Zouch!  How has your signoria fared
+since we fought side by side at Lepanto?  So you too are here,
+sitting in council on the hanging of me."
+
+"What is your errand, sir?  Time is short," said the lord deputy.
+
+"Corpo di Bacco!  It has been long enough all the morning, for my
+rascals have kept me and my friend the Colonel Hercules (whom you
+know, doubtless) prisoners in our tents at the pike's point.  My
+lord deputy, I have but a few words.  I shall thank you to take
+every soldier in the fort--Italian, Spaniard, and Irish--and hang
+them up as high as Haman, for a set of mutinous cowards, with the
+arch-traitor San Josepho at their head."
+
+"I am obliged to you for your offer, sir, and shall deliberate
+presently as to whether I shall not accept it."
+
+"But as for us captains, really your excellency must consider that
+we are gentlemen born, and give us either buena querra, as the
+Spaniards say, or a fair chance for life; and so to my business."
+
+"Stay, sir.  Answer this first.  Have you or yours any commission
+to show either from the King of Spain or any other potentate?"
+
+"Never a one but the cause of Heaven and our own swords.  And with
+them, my lord, we are ready to meet any gentlemen of your camp, man
+to man, with our swords only, half-way between your leaguer and
+ours; and I doubt not that your lordship will see fair play.  Will
+any gentleman accept so civil an offer?  There sits a tall youth in
+that corner who would suit me very well.  Will any fit my gallant
+comrades with half-an-hour's punto and stoccado?"
+
+There was a silence, all looking at the lord deputy, whose eyes
+were kindling in a very ugly way.
+
+"No answer?  Then I must proceed to exhortation.  So!  Will that be
+sufficient?"
+
+And walking composedly across the tent, the fearless ruffian
+quietly stooped down, and smote Amyas Leigh full in the face.
+
+Up sprang Amyas, heedless of all the august assembly, and with a
+single buffet felled him to the earth.
+
+"Excellent!" said he, rising unabashed.  "I can always trust my
+instinct.  I knew the moment I saw him that he was a cavalier worth
+letting blood.  Now, sir, your sword and harness, and I am at your
+service outside!"
+
+The solemn and sententious Englishmen were altogether taken aback
+by the Italian's impudence; but Zouch settled the matter.
+
+"Most noble captain, will you be pleased to recollect a certain
+little occurrence at Messina, in the year 1575?  For if you do not,
+I do; and beg to inform this gentleman that you are unworthy of his
+sword, and had you, unluckily for you, been an Englishman, would
+have found the fashions of our country so different from your own
+that you would have been then hanged, sir, and probably may be so
+still."
+
+The Italian's sword flashed out in a moment: but Lord Grey
+interfered.
+
+"No fighting here, gentlemen.  That may wait; and, what is more,
+shall wait till--Strike their swords down, Raleigh, Mackworth!
+Strike their swords down!  Colonel Sebastian, you will be pleased
+to return as you came, in safety, having lost nothing, as (I
+frankly tell you) you have gained nothing, by your wild bearing
+here.  We shall proceed to deliberate on your fate."
+
+"I trust, my lord," said Amyas, "that you will spare this
+braggart's life, at least for a day or two.  For in spite of
+Captain Zouch's warning, I must have to do with him yet, or my
+cheek will rise up in judgment against me at the last day."
+
+"Well spoken, lad," said the colonel, as he swung out.  "So! worth
+a reprieve, by this sword, to have one more rapier-rattle before
+the gallows!  Then I take back no further answer, my lord deputy?
+Not even our swords, our virgin blades, signor, the soldier's
+cherished bride?  Shall we go forth weeping widowers, and leave to
+strange embrace the lovely steel?"
+
+"None, sir, by heaven!" said he, waxing wroth.  "Do you come
+hither, pirates as you are, to dictate terms upon a foreign soil?
+Is it not enough to have set up here the Spanish flag, and claimed
+the land of Ireland as the Pope's gift to the Spaniard; violated
+the laws of nations, and the solemn treaties of princes, under
+color of a mad superstition?"
+
+"Superstition, my lord?  Nothing less.  Believe a philosopher who
+has not said a pater or an ave for seven years past at least.  Quod
+tango credo, is my motto; and though I am bound to say, under pain
+of the Inquisition, that the most holy Father the Pope has given
+this land of Ireland to his most Catholic Majesty the King of
+Spain, Queen Elizabeth having forfeited her title to it by heresy,--
+why, my lord, I believe it as little as you do.  I believe that
+Ireland would have been mine, if I had won it; I believe
+religiously that it is not mine, now I have lost it.  What is, is,
+and a fig for priests; to-day to thee, to-morrow to me.  Addio!"
+And out he swung
+
+"There goes a most gallant rascal," said the lord deputy.
+
+"And a most rascally gallant," said Zouch.  "The murder of his own
+page, of which I gave him a remembrancer, is among the least of his
+sins."
+
+"And now, Captain Raleigh," said Lord Grey, as you have been so
+earnest in preaching this butchery, I have a right to ask none but
+you to practise it."
+
+Raleigh bit his lip, and replied by the "quip courteous--"
+
+"I am at least a man, my lord, who thinks it shame to allow others
+to do that which I dare not do myself."
+
+Lord Grey might probably have returned "the countercheck
+quarrelsome," had not Mackworth risen--
+
+"And I, my lord, being in that matter at least one of Captain
+Raleigh's kidney, will just go with him to see that he takes no
+harm by being bold enough to carry out an ugly business, and
+serving these rascals as their countrymen served Mr. Oxenham."
+
+"I bid you good morning, then, gentlemen, though I cannot bid you
+God speed," said Lord Grey; and sitting down again, covered his
+face with his hands, and, to the astonishment of all bystanders,
+burst, say the chroniclers, into tears.
+
+Amyas followed Raleigh out.  The latter was pale, but determined,
+and very wroth against the deputy.
+
+"Does the man take me for a hangman," said he, "that he speaks to
+me thus?  But such is the way of the great.  If you neglect your
+duty, they haul you over the coals; if you do it, you must do it on
+your own responsibility.  Farewell, Amyas; you will not shrink from
+me as a butcher when I return?"
+
+"God forbid! But how will you do it?"
+
+"March one company in, and drive them forth, and let the other cut
+them down as they come out.--Pah!"
+
+              .     .     .     .     .     .     .
+
+It was done.  Right or wrong, it was done.  The shrieks and curses
+had died away, and the Fort del Oro was a red shambles, which the
+soldiers were trying to cover from the sight of heaven and earth,
+by dragging the bodies into the ditch, and covering them with the
+ruins of the rampart; while the Irish, who had beheld from the
+woods that awful warning, fled trembling into the deepest recesses
+of the forest.  It was done; and it never needed to be done again.
+The hint was severe, but it was sufficient.  Many years passed
+before a Spaniard set foot again in Ireland.
+
+The Spanish and Italian officers were spared, and Amyas had Don
+Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto duly adjudged to him, as
+his prize by right of war.  He was, of course, ready enough to
+fight Sebastian of Modena: but Lord Grey forbade the duel: blood
+enough had been shed already.  The next question was, where to
+bestow Don Guzman till his ransom should arrive; and as Amyas could
+not well deliver the gallant Don into the safe custody of Mrs.
+Leigh at Burrough, and still less into that of Frank at Court, he
+was fain to write to Sir Richard Grenville, and ask his advice, and
+in the meanwhile keep the Spaniard with him upon parole, which he
+frankly gave,--saying that as for running away, he had nowhere to
+run to; and as for joining the Irish he had no mind to turn pig;
+and Amyas found him, as shall be hereafter told, pleasant company
+enough.  But one morning Raleigh entered--
+
+"I have done you a good turn, Leigh, if you think it one.  I have
+talked St. Leger into making you my lieutenant, and giving you the
+custody of a right pleasant hermitage--some castle Shackatory or
+other in the midst of a big bog, where time will run swift and
+smooth with you, between hunting wild Irish, snaring snipes, and
+drinking yourself drunk with usquebaugh over a turf fire."
+
+"I'll go," quoth Amyas; "anything for work."  So he went and took
+possession of his lieutenancy and his black robber tower, and there
+passed the rest of the winter, fighting or hunting all day, and
+chatting and reading all the evening, with Senor Don Guzman, who,
+like a good soldier of fortune, made himself thoroughly at home,
+and a general favorite with the soldiers.
+
+At first, indeed, his Spanish pride and stateliness, and Amyas's
+English taciturnity, kept the two apart somewhat; but they soon
+began, if not to trust, at least to like each other; and Don Guzman
+told Amyas, bit by bit, who he was, of what an ancient house, and
+of what a poor one; and laughed over the very small chance of his
+ransom being raised, and the certainty that, at least, it could not
+come for a couple of years, seeing that the only De Soto who had a
+penny to spare was a fat old dean at St. Yago de Leon, in the
+Caracas, at which place Don Guzman had been born.  This of course
+led to much talk about the West Indies, and the Don was as much
+interested to find that Amyas had been one of Drake's world-famous
+crew, as Amyas was to find that his captive was the grandson of
+none other than that most terrible of man-hunters, Don Ferdinando
+de Soto, the conqueror of Florida, of whom Amyas had read many a
+time in Las Casas, "as the captain of tyrants, the notoriousest and
+most experimented amongst them that have done the most hurts,
+mischiefs, and destructions in many realms."  And often enough his
+blood boiled, and he had much ado to recollect that the speaker was
+his guest, as Don Guzman chatted away about his grandfather's hunts
+of innocent women and children, murders of caciques and burnings
+alive of guides, "pour encourager les autres," without, seemingly,
+the least feeling that the victims were human beings or subjects
+for human pity; anything, in short, but heathen dogs, enemies of
+God, servants of the devil, to be used by the Christian when he
+needed, and when not needed killed down as cumberers of the ground.
+But Don Guzman was a most finished gentleman nevertheless; and told
+many a good story of the Indies, and told it well; and over and
+above his stories, he had among his baggage two books,--the one
+Antonio Galvano's "Discoveries of the World," a mine of winter
+evening amusement to Amyas; and the other, a manuscript book,
+which, perhaps, it had been well for Amyas had he never seen.  For
+it was none other than a sort of rough journal which Don Guzman had
+kept as a lad, when he went down with the Adelantado Gonzales
+Ximenes de Casada, from Peru to the River of Amazons, to look for
+the golden country of El Dorado, and the city of Manoa, which
+stands in the midst of the White Lake, and equals or surpasses in
+glory even the palace of the Inca Huaynacapac; "all the vessels of
+whose house and kitchen are of gold and silver, and in his wardrobe
+statues of gold which seemed giants, and figures in proportion and
+bigness of all the beasts, birds, trees, and herbs of the earth,
+and the fishes of the water; and ropes, budgets, chests, and
+troughs of gold: yea, and a garden of pleasure in an Island near
+Puna, where they went to recreate themselves when they would take
+the air of the sea, which had all kind of garden herbs, flowers,
+and trees of gold and silver of an invention and magnificence till
+then never seen."
+
+Now the greater part of this treasure (and be it remembered that
+these wonders were hardly exaggerated, and that there were many men
+alive then who had beheld them, as they had worse things, "with
+their corporal and mortal eyes") was hidden by the Indians when
+Pizarro conquered Peru and slew Atahuallpa, son of Huaynacapac; at
+whose death, it was said, one of the Inca's younger brothers fled
+out of Peru, and taking with him a great army, vanquished all that
+tract which lieth between the great Rivers of Amazons and Baraquan,
+otherwise called Maranon and Orenoque.
+
+There he sits to this day, beside the golden lake, in the golden
+city, which is in breadth a three days' journey, covered, he and
+his court, with gold dust from head to foot, waiting for the
+fulfilment of the ancient prophecy which was written in the temple
+of Caxamarca, where his ancestors worshipped of old; that heroes
+shall come out of the West, and lead him back across the forests to
+the kingdom of Peru, and restore him to the glory of his
+forefathers.
+
+Golden phantom! so possible, so probable, to imaginations which
+were yet reeling before the actual and veritable prodigies of Peru,
+Mexico, and the East Indies.  Golden phantom! which has cost
+already the lives of thousands, and shall yet cost more; from Diego
+de Ordas, and Juan Corteso, and many another, who went forth on the
+quest by the Andes, and by the Orinoco, and by the Amazons; Antonio
+Sedenno, with his ghastly caravan of manacled Indians, "on whose
+dead carcasses the tigers being fleshed, assaulted the Spaniards;"
+Augustine Delgado, who "came to a cacique, who entertained him with
+all kindness, and gave him beside much gold and slaves, three
+nymphs very beautiful, which bare the names of three provinces,
+Guanba, Gotoguane, and Maiarare.  To requite which manifold
+courtesies, he carried off, not only all the gold, but all the
+Indians he could seize, and took them in irons to Cubagua, and sold
+them for slaves; after which, Delgado was shot in the eye by an
+Indian, of which hurt he died;" Pedro d'Orsua, who found the
+cinnamon forests of Loxas, "whom his men murdered, and afterwards
+beheaded Lady Anes his wife, who forsook not her lord in all his
+travels unto death," and many another, who has vanished with
+valiant comrades at his back into the green gulfs of the primaeval
+forests, never to emerge again.  Golden phantom! man-devouring,
+whose maw is never satiate with souls of heroes; fatal to Spain,
+more fatal still to England upon that shameful day, when the last
+of Elizabeth's heroes shall lay down his head upon the block,
+nominally for having believed what all around him believed likewise
+till they found it expedient to deny it in order to curry favor
+with the crowned cur who betrayed him, really because he alone
+dared to make one last protest in behalf of liberty and
+Protestantism against the incoming night of tyranny and
+superstition.  Little thought Amyas, as he devoured the pages of
+that manuscript, that he was laying a snare for the life of the man
+whom, next to Drake and Grenville, he most admired on earth.
+
+But Don Guzman, on the other hand, seemed to have an instinct that
+that book might be a fatal gift to his captor; for one day ere
+Amyas had looked into it, he began questioning the Don about El
+Dorado.  Whereon Don Guzman replied with one of those smiles of
+his, which (as Amyas said afterwards) was so abominably like a
+sneer, that he had often hard work to keep his hands off the man--
+
+"Ah!  You have been eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge,
+senor?  Well; if you have any ambition to follow many another brave
+captain to the pit, I know no shorter or easier path than is
+contained in that little book."
+
+"I have never opened your book," said Amyas; "your private
+manuscripts are no concern of mine: but my man who recovered your
+baggage read part of it, knowing no better; and now you are at
+liberty to tell me as little as you like."
+
+The "man," it should be said, was none other than Salvation Yeo,
+who had attached himself by this time inseparably to Amyas, in
+quality of body-guard: and, as was common enough in those days, had
+turned soldier for the nonce, and taken under his patronage two or
+three rusty bases (swivels) and falconets (four-pounders), which
+grinned harmlessly enough from the tower top across the cheerful
+expanse of bog.
+
+Amyas once asked him, how he reconciled this Irish sojourn with his
+vow to find his little maid?  Yeo shook his head.
+
+"I can't tell, sir, but there's something that makes me always to
+think of you when I think of her; and that's often enough, the Lord
+knows.  Whether it is that I ben't to find the dear without your
+help; or whether it is your pleasant face puts me in mind of hers;
+or what, I can't tell; but don't you part me from you, sir, for I'm
+like Ruth, and where you lodge I lodge; and where you go I go; and
+where you die--though I shall die many a year first--there I'll
+die, I hope and trust; for I can't abear you out of my sight; and
+that's the truth thereof."
+
+So Yeo remained with Amyas, while Cary went elsewhere with Sir
+Warham St. Leger, and the two friends met seldom for many months;
+so that Amyas's only companion was Don Guzman, who, as he grew more
+familiar, and more careless about what he said and did in his
+captor's presence, often puzzled and scandalized him by his
+waywardness.  Fits of deep melancholy alternated with bursts of
+Spanish boastfulness, utterly astonishing to the modest and sober-
+minded Englishman, who would often have fancied him inspired by
+usquebaugh, had he not had ocular proof of his extreme
+abstemiousness.
+
+"Miserable?" said he, one night in one of these fits.  "And have I
+not a right to be miserable?  Why should I not curse the virgin and
+all the saints, and die?  I have not a friend, not a ducat on
+earth; not even a sword--hell and the furies!  It was my all: the
+only bequest I ever had from my father, and I lived by it and
+earned by it.  Two years ago I had as pretty a sum of gold as
+cavalier could wish--and now!"--
+
+"What is become of it, then?  I cannot hear that our men plundered
+you of any."
+
+"Your men?  No, senor!  What fifty men dared not have done, one
+woman did! a painted, patched, fucused, periwigged, bolstered,
+Charybdis, cannibal, Megaera, Lamia!  Why did I ever go near that
+cursed Naples, the common sewer of Europe?  whose women, I believe,
+would be swallowed up by Vesuvius to-morrow, if it were not that
+Belphegor is afraid of their making the pit itself too hot to hold
+him.  Well, sir, she had all of mine and more; and when all was
+gone in wine and dice, woodcocks' brains and ortolans' tongues, I
+met the witch walking with another man.  I had a sword and a
+dagger; I gave him the first (though the dog fought well enough, to
+give him his due), and her the second; left them lying across each
+other, and fled for my life,--and here I am! after twenty years of
+fighting, from the Levant to the Orellana--for I began ere I had a
+hair on my chin--and this is the end!--No, it is not!  I'll have
+that El Dorado yet! the Adelantado made Berreo, when he gave him
+his daughter, swear that he would hunt for it, through life and
+death.--We'll see who finds it first, he or I.  He's a bungler;
+Orsua was a bungler--Pooh! Cortes and Pizarro? we'll see whether
+there are not as good Castilians as they left still.  I can do it,
+senor.  I know a track, a plan; over the Llanos is the road; and
+I'll be Emperor of Manoa yet--possess the jewels of all the Incas;
+and gold, gold!  Pizarro was a beggar to what I will be!"
+
+Conceive, sir, he broke forth during another of these peacock fits,
+as Amyas and he were riding along the hill-side; "conceive! with
+forty chosen cavaliers (what need of more?) I present myself before
+the golden king, trembling amid his myriad guards at the new
+miracle of the mailed centaurs of the West; and without
+dismounting, I approach his throne, lift the crucifix which hangs
+around my neck, and pressing it to my lips, present it for the
+adoration of the idolater, and give him his alternative; that which
+Gayferos and the Cid, my ancestors, offered the Soldan and the
+Moor--baptism or death!  He hesitates; perhaps smiles scornfully
+upon my little band; I answer him by deeds, as Don Ferdinando, my
+illustrious grandfather, answered Atahuallpa at Peru, in sight of
+all his court and camp."
+
+"With your lance-point, as Gayferos did the Soldan?" asked Amyas,
+amused.
+
+"No, sir; persuasion first, for the salvation of a soul is at
+stake.  Not with the lance-point, but the spur, sir, thus!"--
+
+And striking his heels into his horse's flanks, he darted off at
+full speed.
+
+"The Spanish traitor!" shouted Yeo.  "He's going to escape!  Shall
+we shoot, sir?  Shall we shoot?"
+
+"For Heaven's sake, no!" said Amyas, looking somewhat blank,
+nevertheless, for he much doubted whether the whole was not a ruse
+on the part of the Spaniard, and he knew how impossible it was for
+his fifteen stone of flesh to give chase to the Spaniard's twelve.
+But he was soon reassured; the Spaniard wheeled round towards him,
+and began to put the rough hackney through all the paces of the
+manege with a grace and skill which won applause from the
+beholders.
+
+"Thus!" he shouted, waving his hand to Amyas, between his curvets
+and caracoles, "did my illustrious grandfather exhibit to the
+Paynim emperor the prowess of a Castilian cavalier!  Thus!--and
+thus!--and thus, at last, he dashed up to his very feet, as I to
+yours, and bespattering that unbaptized visage with his Christian
+bridle foam, pulled up his charger on his haunches, thus!"
+
+And (as was to be expected from a blown Irish garron on a peaty
+Irish hill-side) down went the hapless hackney on his tail, away
+went his heels a yard in front of him, and ere Don Guzman could
+"avoid his selle," horse and man rolled over into neighboring bog-
+hole.
+
+"After pride comes a fall," quoth Yeo with unmoved visage, as he
+lugged him out.
+
+"And what would you do with the emperor at last?" asked Amyas when
+the Don had been scrubbed somewhat clean with a bunch of rushes.
+"Kill him, as your grandfather did Atahuallpa?"
+
+"My grandfather," answered the Spaniard, indignantly, "was one of
+those who, to their eternal honor, protested to the last against
+that most cruel and unknightly massacre.  He could be terrible to
+the heathen; but he kept his plighted word, sir, and taught me to
+keep mine, as you have seen to-day."
+
+"I have, senor," said Amyas.  "You might have given us the slip
+easily enough just now, and did not.  Pardon me, if I have offended
+you."
+
+The Spaniard (who, after all, was cross principally with himself
+and the "unlucky mare's son," as the old romances have it, which
+had played him so scurvy a trick) was all smiles again forthwith;
+and Amyas, as they chatted on, could not help asking him next--
+
+"I wonder why you are so frank about your own intentions to an
+enemy like me, who will surely forestall you if he can."
+
+"Sir, a Spaniard needs no concealment, and fears no rivalry.  He is
+the soldier of the Cross, and in it he conquers, like Constantine
+of old.  Not that you English are not very heroes; but you have
+not, sir, and you cannot have, who have forsworn our Lady and the
+choir of saints, the same divine protection, the same celestial
+mission, which enables the Catholic cavalier single-handed to chase
+a thousand Paynims."
+
+And Don Guzman crossed himself devoutly, and muttered half-a-dozen
+Ave Marias in succession, while Amyas rode silently by his side,
+utterly puzzled at this strange compound of shrewdness with
+fanaticism, of perfect high-breeding with a boastfulness which in
+an Englishman would have been the sure mark of vulgarity.
+
+At last came a letter from Sir Richard Grenville, complimenting
+Amyas on his success and promotion, bearing a long and courtly
+message to Don Guzman (whom Grenville had known when he was in the
+Mediterranean, at the battle of Lepanto), and offering to receive
+him as his own guest at Bideford, till his ransom should arrive; a
+proposition which the Spaniard (who of course was getting
+sufficiently tired of the Irish bogs) could not but gladly accept;
+and one of Winter's ships, returning to England in the spring of
+1581, delivered duly at the quay of Bideford the body of Don Guzman
+Maria Magdalena.  Raleigh, after forming for that summer one of the
+triumvirate by which Munster was governed after Ormond's departure,
+at last got his wish and departed for England and the Court; and
+Amyas was left alone with the snipes and yellow mantles for two
+more weary years.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+HOW THE MAYOR OF BIDEFORD BAITED HIS HOOK WITH HIS OWN FLESH
+
+
+     "And therewith he blent, and cried ha!
+      As though he had been stricken to the harte."
+
+                               Palamon and Arcite.
+
+
+So it befell to Chaucer's knight in prison; and so it befell also
+to Don Guzman; and it befell on this wise.
+
+He settled down quietly enough at Bideford on his parole, in better
+quarters than he had occupied for many a day, and took things as
+they came, like a true soldier of fortune; till, after he had been
+with Grenville hardly a month, old Salterne the Mayor came to
+supper.
+
+Now Don Guzman, however much he might be puzzled at first at our
+strange English ways of asking burghers and such low-bred folk to
+eat and drink above the salt, in the company of noble persons, was
+quite gentleman enough to know that Richard Grenville was gentleman
+enough to do only what was correct, and according to the customs
+and proprieties.  So after shrugging the shoulders of his spirit,
+he submitted to eat and drink at the same board with a tradesman
+who sat at a desk, and made up ledgers, and took apprentices; and
+hearing him talk with Grenville neither unwisely nor in a vulgar
+fashion, actually before the evening was out condescended to
+exchange words with him himself.  Whereon he found him a very
+prudent and courteous person, quite aware of the Spaniard's
+superior rank, and making him feel in every sentence that he was
+aware thereof; and yet holding his own opinion, and asserting his
+own rights as a wise elder in a fashion which the Spaniard had only
+seen before among the merchant princes of Genoa and Venice.
+
+At the end of supper, Salterne asked Grenville to do his humble
+roof the honor, etc. etc., of supping with him the next evening,
+and then turning to the Don, said quite frankly, that he knew how
+great a condescension it would be on the part of a nobleman of
+Spain to sit at the board of a simple merchant: but that if the
+Spaniard deigned to do him such a favor, he would find that the
+cheer was fit enough for any rank, whatsoever the company might be;
+which invitation Don Guzman, being on the whole glad enough of
+anything to amuse him, graciously condescended to accept, and
+gained thereby an excellent supper, and, if he had chosen to drink
+it, much good wine.
+
+Now Mr. Salterne was, of course, as a wise merchant, as ready as
+any man for an adventure to foreign parts, as was afterwards proved
+by his great exertions in the settlement of Virginia; and he was,
+therefore, equally ready to rack the brains of any guest whom he
+suspected of knowing anything concerning strange lands; and so he
+thought no shame, first to try to loose his guest's tongue by much
+good sack, and next, to ask him prudent and well-concocted
+questions concerning the Spanish Main, Peru, the Moluccas, China,
+the Indies, and all parts.
+
+The first of which schemes failed; for the Spaniard was as
+abstemious as any monk, and drank little but water; the second
+succeeded not over well, for the Spaniard was as cunning as any
+fox, and answered little but wind.
+
+In the midst of which tongue-fence in came the Rose of Torridge,
+looking as beautiful as usual; and hearing what they were upon,
+added, artlessly enough, her questions to her father's: to her Don
+Guzman could not but answer; and without revealing any very
+important commercial secrets, gave his host and his host's daughter
+a very amusing evening.
+
+Now little Eros, though spirits like Frank Leigh's may choose to
+call him (as, perhaps, he really is to them) the eldest of the
+gods, and the son of Jove and Venus, yet is reported by other
+equally good authorities, as Burton has set forth in his "Anatomy
+of Melancholy," to be after all only the child of idleness and
+fulness of bread.  To which scandalous calumny the thoughts of Don
+Guzman's heart gave at least a certain color; for he being idle (as
+captives needs must be), and also full of bread (for Sir Richard
+kept a very good table), had already looked round for mere
+amusement's sake after some one with whom to fall in love.  Lady
+Grenville, as nearest, was, I blush to say, thought of first; but
+the Spaniard was a man of honor, and Sir Richard his host; so he
+put away from his mind (with a self-denial on which he plumed
+himself much) the pleasure of a chase equally exciting to his pride
+and his love of danger.  As for the sinfulness of the said chase,
+he of course thought no more of that than other Southern Europeans
+did then, or than (I blush again to have to say it) the English did
+afterwards in the days of the Stuarts.  Nevertheless, he had put
+Lady Grenville out of his mind; and so left room to take Rose
+Salterne into it, not with any distinct purpose of wronging her:
+but, as I said before, half to amuse himself, and half, too,
+because he could not help it.  For there was an innocent freshness
+about the Rose of Torridge, fond as she was of being admired, which
+was new to him and most attractive.  "The train of the peacock," as
+he said to himself, "and yet the heart of the dove," made so
+charming a combination, that if he could have persuaded her to love
+no one but him, perhaps he might become fool enough to love no one
+but her.  And at that thought he was seized with a very panic of
+prudence, and resolved to keep out of her way; and yet the days ran
+slowly, and Lady Grenville when at home was stupid enough to talk
+and think about nothing but her husband; and when she went to Stow,
+and left the Don alone in one corner of the great house at
+Bideford, what could he do but lounge down to the butt-gardens to
+show off his fine black cloak and fine black feather, see the
+shooting, have a game or two of rackets with the youngsters, a game
+or two of bowls with the elders, and get himself invited home to
+supper by Mr. Salterne?
+
+And there, of course, he had it all his own way, and ruled the
+roast (which he was fond enough of doing) right royally, not only
+on account of his rank, but because he had something to say worth
+hearing, as a travelled man.  For those times were the day-dawn of
+English commerce; and not a merchant in Bideford, or in all
+England, but had his imagination all on fire with projects of
+discoveries, companies, privileges, patents, and settlements; with
+gallant rivalry of the brave adventures of Sir Edward Osborne and
+his new London Company of Turkey Merchants; with the privileges
+just granted by the Sultan Murad Khan to the English; with the
+worthy Levant voyages of Roger Bodenham in the great bark Aucher,
+and of John Fox, and Lawrence Aldersey, and John Rule; and with
+hopes from the vast door for Mediterranean trade, which the
+crushing of the Venetian power at Famagusta in Cyprus, and the
+alliance made between Elizabeth and the Grand Turk, had just thrown
+open.  So not a word could fall from the Spaniard about the
+Mediterranean but took root at once in right fertile soil.
+Besides, Master Edmund Hogan had been on a successful embassy to
+the Emperor of Morocco; John Hawkins and George Fenner had been to
+Guinea (and with the latter Mr. Walter Wren, a Bideford man), and
+had traded there for musk and civet, gold and grain; and African
+news was becoming almost as valuable as West Indian.  Moreover, but
+two months before had gone from London Captain Hare in the bark
+Minion, for Brazil, and a company of adventurers with him, with
+Sheffield hardware, and "Devonshire and Northern kersies," hollands
+and "Manchester cottons," for there was a great opening for English
+goods by the help of one John Whithall, who had married a Spanish
+heiress, and had an ingenio and slaves in Santos.  (Don't smile,
+reader, or despise the day of small things, and those who sowed the
+seed whereof you reap the mighty harvest.)  In the meanwhile, Drake
+had proved not merely the possibility of plundering the American
+coasts, but of establishing an East Indian trade; Frobisher and
+Davis, worthy forefathers of our Parrys and Franklins, had begun to
+bore their way upward through the Northern ice, in search of a
+passage to China which should avoid the dangers of the Spanish
+seas; and Anthony Jenkinson, not the least of English travellers,
+had, in six-and-twenty years of travel in behalf of the Muscovite
+Company, penetrated into not merely Russia and the Levant, but
+Persia and Armenia, Bokhara, Tartary, Siberia, and those waste
+Arctic shores where, thirty years before, the brave Sir Hugh
+Willoughby,
+
+
+          "In Arzina caught,
+     Perished with all his crew."
+
+
+Everywhere English commerce, under the genial sunshine of
+Elizabeth's wise rule, was spreading and taking root; and as Don
+Guzman talked with his new friends, he soon saw (for he was shrewd
+enough) that they belonged to a race which must be exterminated if
+Spain intended to become (as she did intend) the mistress of the
+world; and that it was not enough for Spain to have seized in the
+Pope's name the whole new world, and claimed the exclusive right to
+sail the seas of America; not enough to have crushed the
+Hollanders; not enough to have degraded the Venetians into her
+bankers, and the Genoese into her mercenaries; not enough to have
+incorporated into herself, with the kingdom of Portugal, the whole
+East Indian trade of Portugal, while these fierce islanders
+remained to assert, with cunning policy and texts of Scripture,
+and, if they failed, with sharp shot and cold steel, free seas and
+free trade for all the nations upon earth.  He saw it, and his
+countrymen saw it too: and therefore the Spanish Armada came: but
+of that hereafter.  And Don Guzman knew also, by hard experience,
+that these same islanders, who sat in Salterne's parlor, talking
+broad Devon through their noses, were no mere counters of money and
+hucksters of goods: but men who, though they thoroughly hated
+fighting, and loved making money instead, could fight, upon
+occasion, after a very dogged and terrible fashion, as well as the
+bluest blood in Spain; and who sent out their merchant ships armed
+up to the teeth, and filled with men who had been trained from
+childhood to use those arms, and had orders to use them without
+mercy if either Spaniard, Portugal, or other created being dared to
+stop their money-making.  And one evening he waxed quite mad, when,
+after having civilly enough hinted that if Englishmen came where
+they had no right to come, they might find themselves sent back
+again, he was answered by a volley of--
+
+"We'll see that, sir."
+
+"Depends on who says 'No right.'"
+
+"You found might right," said another, "when you claimed the Indian
+seas; we may find right might when we try them."
+
+"Try them, then, gentlemen, by all means, if it shall so please
+your worships; and find the sacred flag of Spain as invincible as
+ever was the Roman eagle."
+
+"We have, sir.  Did you ever hear of Francis Drake?"
+
+"Or of George Fenner and the Portugals at the Azores, one against
+seven?"
+
+"Or of John Hawkins, at St. Juan d'Ulloa?"
+
+"You are insolent burghers," said Don Guzman, and rose to go.
+
+"Sir," said old Salterne, "as you say, we are burghers and plain
+men, and some of us have forgotten ourselves a little, perhaps; we
+must beg you to forgive our want of manners, and to put it down to
+the strength of my wine; for insolent we never meant to be,
+especially to a noble gentleman and a foreigner."
+
+But the Don would not be pacified; and walked out, calling himself
+an ass and a blinkard for having demeaned himself to such a
+company, forgetting that he had brought it on himself.
+
+Salterne (prompted by the great devil Mammon) came up to him next
+day, and begged pardon again; promising, moreover, that none of
+those who had been so rude should be henceforth asked to meet him,
+if he would deign to honor his house once more.  And the Don
+actually was appeased, and went there the very next evening,
+sneering at himself the whole time for going.
+
+"Fool that I am! that girl has bewitched me, I believe.  Go I must,
+and eat my share of dirt, for her sake."
+
+So he went; and, cunningly enough, hinted to old Salterne that he
+had taken such a fancy to him, and felt so bound by his courtesy
+and hospitality, that he might not object to tell him things which
+he would not mention to every one; for that the Spaniards were not
+jealous of single traders, but of any general attempt to deprive
+them of their hard-earned wealth: that, however, in the meanwhile,
+there were plenty of opportunities for one man here and there to
+enrich himself, etc.
+
+Old Salterne, shrewd as he was, had his weak point, and the
+Spaniard had touched it; and delighted at this opportunity of
+learning the mysteries of the Spanish monopoly, he often actually
+set Rose on to draw out the Don, without a fear (so blind does
+money make men) lest she might be herself drawn in.  For, first, he
+held it as impossible that she would think of marrying a Popish
+Spaniard as of marrying the man in the moon; and, next, as
+impossible that he would think of marrying a burgher's daughter as
+of marrying a negress; and trusted that the religion of the one,
+and the family pride of the other, would keep them as separate as
+beings of two different species.  And as for love without marriage,
+if such a possibility ever crossed him, the thought was rendered
+absurd; on Rose's part by her virtue, on which the old roan (and
+rightly) would have staked every farthing he had on earth; and on
+the Don's part, by a certain human fondness for the continuity of
+the carotid artery and the parts adjoining, for which (and that not
+altogether justly, seeing that Don Guzman cared as little for his
+own life as he did for his neighbor's) Mr. Salterne gave him
+credit.  And so it came to pass, that for weeks and months the
+merchant's house was the Don's favorite haunt, and he saw the Rose
+of Torridge daily, and the Rose of Torridge heard him.
+
+And as for her, poor child, she had never seen such a man.  He had,
+or seemed to have, all the high-bred grace of Frank, and yet he was
+cast in a manlier mould; he had just enough of his nation's proud
+self-assertion to make a woman bow before him as before a superior,
+and yet tact enough to let it very seldom degenerate into that
+boastfulness of which the Spaniards were then so often and so
+justly accused.  He had marvels to tell by flood and field as many
+and more than Amyas; and he told them with a grace and an eloquence
+of which modest, simple, old Amyas possessed nothing.  Besides, he
+was on the spot, and the Leighs were not, nor indeed were any of
+her old lovers; and what could she do but amuse herself with the
+only person who came to hand?
+
+So thought, in time, more ladies than she; for the country, the
+north of it at least, was all but bare just then of young gallants,
+what with the Netherland wars and the Irish wars; and the Spaniard
+became soon welcome at every house for many a mile round, and made
+use of his welcome so freely, and received so much unwonted
+attention from fair young dames, that his head might have been a
+little turned, and Rose Salterne have thereby escaped, had not Sir
+Richard delicately given him to understand that in spite of the
+free and easy manners of English ladies, brothers were just as
+jealous, and ladies' honors at least as inexpugnable, as in the
+land of demureness and duennas.  Don Guzman took the hint well
+enough, and kept on good terms with the country gentlemen as with
+their daughters; and to tell the truth, the cunning soldier of
+fortune found his account in being intimate with all the ladies he
+could, in order to prevent old Salterne from fancying that he had
+any peculiar predilection for Mistress Rose.
+
+Nevertheless, Mr. Salterne's parlor being nearest to him, still
+remained his most common haunt; where, while he discoursed for
+hours about
+
+
+     "Antres vast and deserts idle,
+      And of the cannibals that each other eat,
+      Of Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
+      Do grow beneath their shoulders,"
+
+
+to the boundless satisfaction of poor Rose's fancy, he took care to
+season his discourse with scraps of mercantile information, which
+kept the old merchant always expectant and hankering for more, and
+made it worth his while to ask the Spaniard in again and again.
+
+And his stories, certainly, were worth hearing.  He seemed to have
+been everywhere, and to have seen everything: born in Peru, and
+sent home to Spain at ten years old; brought up in Italy; a soldier
+in the Levant; an adventurer to the East Indies; again in America,
+first in the islands, and then in Mexico.  Then back again to
+Spain, and thence to Rome, and thence to Ireland.  Shipwrecked;
+captive among savages; looking down the craters of volcanoes;
+hanging about all the courts of Europe; fighting Turks, Indians,
+lions, elephants, alligators, and what not?  At five-and-thirty he
+had seen enough for three lives, and knew how to make the best of
+what he had seen.
+
+He had shared, as a lad, in the horrors of the memorable siege of
+Famagusta, and had escaped, he hardly knew himself how, from the
+hands of the victorious Turks, and from the certainty (if he
+escaped being flayed alive or impaled, as most of the captive
+officers were) of ending his life as a Janissary at the Sultan's
+court.  He had been at the Battle of the Three Kings; had seen
+Stukely borne down by a hundred lances, unconquered even in death;
+and had held upon his knee the head of the dying King of Portugal.
+
+And now, as he said to Rose one evening, what had he left on earth,
+but a heart trampled as hard as the pavement?  Whom had he to love?
+Who loved him?  He had nothing for which to live but fame: and even
+that was denied to him, a prisoner in a foreign land.
+
+Had he no kindred, then? asked pitying Rose.
+
+"My two sisters are in a convent;--they had neither money nor
+beauty; so they are dead to me.  My brother is a Jesuit, so he is
+dead to me.  My father fell by the hands of Indians in Mexico; my
+mother, a penniless widow, is companion, duenna--whatsoever they
+may choose to call it--carrying fans and lapdogs for some princess
+or other there in Seville, of no better blood than herself; and I--
+devil!  I have lost even my sword--and so fares the house of De
+Soto."
+
+Don Guzman, of course, intended to be pitied, and pitied he was
+accordingly.  And then he would turn the conversation, and begin
+telling Italian stories, after the Italian fashion, according to
+his auditory: the pathetic ones when Rose was present, the racy
+ones when she was absent; so that Rose had wept over the sorrows of
+Juliet and Desdemona, and over many another moving tale, long
+before they were ever enacted on an English stage, and the ribs of
+the Bideford worthies had shaken to many a jest which Cinthio and
+Bandello's ghosts must come and make for themselves over again if
+they wish them to be remembered, for I shall lend them no shove
+toward immortality.
+
+And so on, and so on.  What need of more words?  Before a year was
+out, Rose Salterne was far more in love with Don Guzman than he
+with her; and both suspected each other's mind, though neither
+hinted at the truth; she from fear, and he, to tell the truth, from
+sheer Spanish pride of blood.  For he soon began to find out that
+he must compromise that blood by marrying the heretic burgher's
+daughter, or all his labor would be thrown away.
+
+He had seen with much astonishment, and then practised with much
+pleasure, that graceful old English fashion of saluting every lady
+on the cheek at meeting, which (like the old Dutch fashion of
+asking young ladies out to feasts without their mothers) used to
+give such cause of brutal calumny and scandal to the coarse minds
+of Romish visitors from the Continent; and he had seen, too, fuming
+with jealous rage, more than one Bideford burgher, redolent of
+onions, profane in that way the velvet cheek of Rose Salterne.
+
+So, one day, he offered his salute in like wise; but be did it when
+she was alone; for something within (perhaps a guilty conscience)
+whispered that it might be hardly politic to make the proffer in
+her father's presence: however, to his astonishment, he received a
+prompt though quiet rebuff.
+
+"No, sir; you should know that my cheek is not for you."
+
+"Why," said he, stifling his anger, "it seems free enough to every
+counter-jumper in the town!"
+
+Was it love, or simple innocence, which made her answer
+apologetically?
+
+"True, Don Guzman; but they are my equals."
+
+"And I?"
+
+"You are a nobleman, sir; and should recollect that you are one."
+
+"Well," said he, forcing a sneer, "it is a strange taste to prefer
+the shopkeeper!"
+
+"Prefer?" said she, forcing a laugh in her turn; "it is a mere form
+among us.  They are nothing to me, I can tell you."
+
+"And I, then, less than nothing?"
+
+Rose turned very red; but she had nerve to answer--
+
+"And why should you be anything to me?  You have condescended too
+much, sir, already to us, in giving us many a--many a pleasant
+evening.  You must condescend no further.  You wrong yourself, sir,
+and me too.  No, sir; not a step nearer!--I will not!  A salute
+between equals means nothing: but between you and me--I vow, sir,
+if you do not leave me this moment, I will complain to my father."
+
+"Do so, madam!  I care as little for your father's anger, as you
+for my misery."
+
+"Cruel!" cried Rose, trembling from head to foot.
+
+"I love you, madam!" cried he, throwing himself at her feet.  "I
+adore you!  Never mention differences of rank to me more; for I
+have forgotten them; forgotten all but love, all but you, madam!
+My light, my lodestar, my princess, my goddess!  You see where my
+pride is gone; remember I plead as a suppliant, a beggar--though
+one who may be one day a prince, a king! ay, and a prince now, a
+very Lucifer of pride to all except to you; to you a wretch who
+grovels at your feet, and cries, 'Have mercy on me, on my
+loneliness, my homelessness, my friendlessness.'  Ah, Rose (madam I
+should have said, forgive the madness of my passion), you know not
+the heart which you break.  Cold Northerns, you little dream how a
+Spaniard can love.  Love?  Worship, rather; as I worship you,
+madam; as I bless the captivity which brought me the sight of you,
+and the ruin which first made me rich.  Is it possible, saints and
+Virgin! do my own tears deceive my eyes, or are there tears, too,
+in those radiant orbs?"
+
+"Go, sir! " cried poor Rose, recovering herself suddenly; "and let
+me never see you more."  And, as a last chance for life, she darted
+out of the room.
+
+"Your slave obeys you, madam, and kisses your hands and feet
+forever and a day," said the cunning Spaniard, and drawing himself
+up, walked serenely out of the house; while she, poor fool, peeped
+after him out of her window upstairs, and her heart sank within her
+as she watched his jaunty and careless air.
+
+How much of that rhapsody of his was honest, how much premeditated,
+I cannot tell: though she, poor child, began to fancy that it was
+all a set speech, when she found that he had really taken her at
+her word, and set foot no more within her father's house.  So she
+reproached herself for the cruelest of women; settled, that if he
+died, she should be his murderess; watched for him to pass at the
+window, in hopes that he might look up, and then hid herself in
+terror the moment he appeared round the corner; and so forth, and
+so forth:--one love-making is very like another, and has been so, I
+suppose, since that first blessed marriage in Paradise, when Adam
+and Eve made no love at all, but found it ready-made for them from
+heaven; and really it is fiddling while Rome is burning, to spend
+more pages over the sorrows of poor little Rose Salterne, while the
+destinies of Europe are hanging on the marriage between Elizabeth
+and Anjou: and Sir Humphrey Gilbert is stirring heaven and earth,
+and Devonshire, of course, as the most important portion of the
+said earth, to carry out his dormant patent, which will give to
+England in due time (we are not jesting now) Newfoundland, Nova
+Scotia, and Canada, and the Northern States; and to Humphrey
+Gilbert himself something better than a new world, namely another
+world, and a crown of glory therein which never fades away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+HOW EUSTACE LEIGH MET THE POPE'S LEGATE
+
+
+     "Misguided, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
+      Thou see'st to be too busy is some danger."
+
+                                         Hamlet.
+
+
+It is the spring of 1582-3.  The gray March skies are curdling hard
+and high above black mountain peaks.  The keen March wind is
+sweeping harsh and dry across a dreary sheet of bog, still red and
+yellow with the stains of winter frost.  One brown knoll alone
+breaks the waste, and on it a few leafless wind-clipt oaks stretch
+their moss-grown arms, like giant hairy spiders, above a desolate
+pool which crisps and shivers in the biting breeze, while from
+beside its brink rises a mournful cry, and sweeps down, faint and
+fitful, amid the howling of the wind.
+
+Along the brink of the bog, picking their road among crumbling
+rocks and green spongy springs, a company of English soldiers are
+pushing fast, clad cap-a-pie in helmet and quilted jerkin, with
+arquebus on shoulder, and pikes trailing behind them; stern
+steadfast men, who, two years since, were working the guns at
+Smerwick fort, and have since then seen many a bloody fray, and
+shall see more before they die.  Two captains ride before them on
+shaggy ponies, the taller in armor, stained and rusted with many a
+storm and fray, the other in brilliant inlaid cuirass and helmet,
+gaudy sash and plume, and sword hilt glittering with gold, a quaint
+contrast enough to the meager garron which carries him and his
+finery.  Beside them, secured by a cord which a pikeman has
+fastened to his own wrist, trots a bare-legged Irish kerne, whose
+only clothing is his ragged yellow mantle, and the unkempt "glib"
+of hair, through which his eyes peer out, right and left, in
+mingled fear and sullenness.  He is the guide of the company, in
+their hunt after the rebel Baltinglas; and woe to him if he play
+them false.
+
+"A pleasant country, truly, Captain Raleigh," says the dingy
+officer to the gay one.  "I wonder how, having once escaped from it
+to Whitehall, you have the courage to come back and spoil that gay
+suit with bog-water and mud."
+
+"A very pleasant country, my friend Amyas; what you say in jest, I
+say in earnest."
+
+"Hillo!  Our tastes have changed places.  I am sick of it already,
+as you foretold.  Would Heaven that I could hear of some adventure
+Westward-ho! and find these big bones swinging in a hammock once
+more.  Pray what has made you so suddenly in love with bog and
+rock, that you come back to tramp them with us?  I thought you had
+spied out the nakedness of the land long ago."
+
+"Bog and rock?  Nakedness of the land?  What is needed here but
+prudence and skill, justice and law?  This soil, see, is fat
+enough, if men were here to till it.  These rocks--who knows what
+minerals they may hold?  I hear of gold and jewels found already in
+divers parts; and Daniel, my brother Humphrey's German assayer,
+assures me that these rocks are of the very same kind as those
+which yield the silver in Peru.  Tut, man! if her gracious majesty
+would but bestow on me some few square miles of this same
+wilderness, in seven years' time I would make it blossom like the
+rose, by God's good help."
+
+"Humph! I should be more inclined to stay here, then."
+
+"So you shall, and be my agent, if you will, to get in my mine-
+rents and my corn-rents, and my fishery-rents, eh?  Could you keep
+accounts, old knight of the bear's-paw?"
+
+"Well enough for such short reckonings as yours would be, on the
+profit side at least.  No, no--I'd sooner carry lime all my days
+from Cauldy to Bideford, than pass another twelve-month in the land
+of Ire, among the children of wrath.  There is a curse upon the
+face of the earth, I believe."
+
+"There is no curse upon it, save the old one of man's sin--'Thorns
+and thistles it shall bring forth to thee.'  But if you root up the
+thorns and thistles, Amyas, I know no fiend who can prevent your
+growing wheat instead; and if you till the ground like a man, you
+plough and barrow away nature's curse, and other fables of the
+schoolmen beside," added he, in that daring fashion which
+afterwards obtained for him (and never did good Christian less
+deserve it) the imputation of atheism.
+
+"It is sword and bullet, I think, that are needed here, before
+plough and harrow, to clear away some of the curse.  Until a few
+more of these Irish lords are gone where the Desmonds are, there is
+no peace for Ireland."
+
+"Humph! not so far wrong, I fear.  And yet--Irish lords?  These
+very traitors are better English blood than we who hunt them down.
+When Yeo here slew the Desmond the other day, he no more let out a
+drop of Irish blood, than if he had slain the lord deputy himself."
+
+"His blood be on his own head," said Yeo, "He looked as wild a
+savage as the worst of them, more shame to him; and the ancient
+here had nigh cut off his arm before he told us who he was: and
+then, your worship, having a price upon his head, and like to bleed
+to death too--"
+
+"Enough, enough, good fellow," said Raleigh.  "Thou hast done what
+was given thee to do.  Strange, Amyas, is it not?  Noble Normans
+sunk into savages--Hibernis ipsis hiberniores!  Is there some
+uncivilizing venom in the air?"
+
+"Some venom, at least, which makes English men traitors.  But the
+Irish themselves are well enough, if their tyrants would let them
+be.  See now, what more faithful liegeman has her majesty than the
+Inchiquin, who, they say, is Prince of Themond, and should be king
+of all Ireland, if every man had his right?"
+
+"Don't talk of rights in the land of wrongs, man.  But the
+Inchiquin knows well that the true Irish Esau has no worse enemy
+than his supplanter, the Norman Jacob.  And yet, Amyas are even
+these men worse than we might be, if we had been bred up masters
+over the bodies and souls of men, in some remote land where law and
+order had never come?  Look at this Desmond, brought up a savage
+among savages, a Papist among Papists, a despot among slaves; a
+thousand easy maidens deeming it honor to serve his pleasure, a
+thousand wild ruffians deeming it piety to fulfil his revenge: and
+let him that is without sin among us cast the first stone."
+
+"Ay," went on Raleigh to himself, as the conversation dropped.
+"What hadst thou been, Raleigh, hadst thou been that Desmond whose
+lands thou now desirest?  What wilt thou be when thou hast them?
+Will thy children sink downwards, as these noble barons sank?  Will
+the genius of tyranny and falsehood find soil within thy heart to
+grow and ripen fruit?  What guarantee hast thou for doing better
+here than those who went before thee?  And yet, cannot I do justice
+and love mercy?  Can I not establish plantations, build and sow,
+and make the desert valleys laugh with corn?  Shall I not have my
+Spenser with me, to fill me with all noble thoughts, and raise my
+soul to his heroic pitch?  Is not this true knight-errantry, to
+redeem to peace and use, and to the glory of that glorious queen
+whom God has given to me, a generous soil and a more generous race?
+Trustful and tenderhearted they are--none more; and if they be
+fickle and passionate, will not that very softness of temper, which
+makes them so easily led to evil, make them as easy to be led
+towards good?  Yes--here, away from courts, among a people who
+should bless me as their benefactor and deliverer--what golden days
+might be mine!  And yet--is this but another angel's mask from that
+same cunning fiend ambition's stage?  And will my house be indeed
+the house of God, the foundations of which are loyalty, and its
+bulwarks righteousness, and not the house of fame, whose walls are
+of the soap-bubble, and its floor a sea of glass mingled with fire?
+I would be good and great--When will the day come when I shall be
+content to be good, and yet not great, like this same simple Leigh,
+toiling on by my side to do his duty, with no more thought for the
+morrow than the birds of God?  Greatness?  I have tasted that cup
+within the last twelve months; do I not know that it is sweet in
+the mouth, but bitter in the belly?  Greatness?  And was not Essex
+great, and John of Austria great, and Desmond great, whose race,
+but three short years ago, had stood for ages higher than I shall
+ever hope to climb--castles, and lands, and slaves by thousands,
+and five hundred gentlemen of his name, who had vowed to forswear
+God before they forswore him and well have they kept their vow!
+And now, dead in a turf-hovel, like a coney in a burrow!  Leigh,
+what noise was that?"
+
+"An Irish howl, I fancied: but it came from off the bog; it may be
+only a plover's cry."
+
+"Something not quite right, sir captain, to my mind," said the
+ancient.  "They have ugly stories here of pucks and banshees, and
+what not of ghosts.  There it was again, wailing just like a woman.
+They say the banshee cried all night before Desmond was slain."
+
+"Perhaps, then, this one may be crying for Baltinglas; for his turn
+is likely to come next--not that I believe in such old wives'
+tales."
+
+"Shamus, my man," said Amyas to the guide, "do you hear that cry in
+the bog?"
+
+The guide put on the most stolid of faces, and answered in broken
+English--
+
+"Shamus hear naught.  Perhaps--what you call him?--fishing in ta
+pool."
+
+"An otter, he means, and I believe he is right.  Stay, no!  Did you
+not hear it then, Shamus?  It was a woman's voice."
+
+"Shamus is shick in his ears ever since Christmas."
+
+"Shamus will go after Desmond if he lies," said Amyas.  "Ancient,
+we had better send a few men to see what it is; there may be a poor
+soul taken by robbers, or perhaps starving to death, as I have seen
+many a one."
+
+"And I too, poor wretches; and by no fault of their own or ours
+either: but if their lords will fall to quarrelling, and then drive
+each other's cattle, and waste each other's lands, sir, you know--"
+
+"I know," said Amyas, impatiently; "why dost not take the men, and
+go?"
+
+"Cry you mercy, noble captain, but--I fear nothing born of woman."
+
+"Well, what of that?" said Amyas, with a smile.
+
+"But these pucks, sir.  The wild Irish do say that they haunt the
+pools; and they do no manner of harm, sir, when you are coming up
+to them; but when you are past, sir, they jump on your back like to
+apes, sir,--and who can tackle that manner of fiend?"
+
+"Why, then, by thine own showing, ancient," said Raleigh, "thou
+may'st go and see all safely enough, and then if the puck jumps on
+thee as thou comest back, just run in with him here, and I'll buy
+him of thee for a noble; or thou may'st keep him in a cage, and
+make money in London by showing him for a monster."
+
+"Good heavens forefend, Captain Raleigh! but you talk rashly!  But
+if I must, Captain Leigh--
+
+
+           'Where duty calls
+            To brazen walls,
+     How base the slave who flinches'
+
+
+Lads, who'll follow me?"
+
+"Thou askest for volunteers, as if thou wert to lead a forlorn
+hope.  Pull away at the usquebaugh, man, and swallow Dutch courage,
+since thine English is oozed away.  Stay, I'll go myself."
+
+"And I with you," said Raleigh.  "As the queen's true knight-
+errant, I am bound to be behindhand in no adventure.  Who knows but
+we may find a wicked magician, just going to cut off the head of
+some saffron-mantled princess?" and he dismounted.
+
+"Oh, sirs, sirs, to endanger your precious--"
+
+"Pooh," said Raleigh.  "I wear an amulet, and have a spell of art-
+magic at my tongue's end, whereby, sir ancient, neither can a ghost
+see me, nor I see them.  Come with us, Yeo, the Desmond-slayer, and
+we will shame the devil, or be shamed by him."
+
+"He may shame me, sir, but he will never frighten me," quoth Yeo;
+"but the bog, captains?"
+
+"Tut!  Devonshire men, and heath-trotters born, and not know our
+way over a peat moor!"
+
+And the three strode away.
+
+They splashed and scrambled for some quarter of a mile to the
+knoll, while the cry became louder and louder as they neared.
+
+"That's neither ghost nor otter, sirs, but a true Irish howl, as
+Captain Leigh said; and I'll warrant Master Shamus knew as much
+long ago," said Yeo.
+
+And in fact, they could now hear plainly the "Ochone, Ochonorie,"
+of some wild woman; and scrambling over the boulders of the knoll,
+in another minute came full upon her.
+
+She was a young girl, sluttish and unkempt, of course, but fair
+enough: her only covering, as usual, was the ample yellow mantle.
+There she sat upon a stone, tearing her black dishevelled hair, and
+every now and then throwing up her head, and bursting into a long
+mournful cry, "for all the world," as Yeo said, "like a dumb four-
+footed hound, and not a Christian soul."
+
+On her knees lay the head of a man of middle age, in the long
+soutane of a Romish priest.  One look at the attitude of his limbs
+told them that he was dead.
+
+The two paused in awe; and Raleigh's spirit, susceptible of all
+poetical images, felt keenly that strange scene,--the bleak and
+bitter sky, the shapeless bog, the stunted trees, the savage girl
+alone with the corpse in that utter desolation.  And as she bent
+her head over the still face, and called wildly to him who heard
+her not, and then, utterly unmindful of the intruders, sent up
+again that dreary wail into the dreary air, they felt a sacred
+horror, which almost made them turn away, and leave her
+unquestioned: but Yeo, whose nerves were of tougher fibre, asked
+quietly--
+
+"Shall I go and search the fellow, captain?"
+
+"Better, I think," said Amyas.
+
+Raleigh went gently to the girl, and spoke to her in English.  She
+looked up at him, his armor and his plume, with wide and wondering
+eyes, and then shook her head, and returned to her lamentation.
+
+Raleigh gently laid his hand on her arm, and lifted her up, while
+Yeo and Amyas bent over the corpse.
+
+It was the body of a large and coarse-featured man, but wasted and
+shrunk as if by famine to a very skeleton.  The hands and legs were
+cramped up, and the trunk bowed together, as if the man had died of
+cold or famine.  Yeo drew back the clothes from the thin bosom,
+while the girl screamed and wept, but made no effort to stop him.
+
+"Ask her who it is?  Yeo, you know a little Irish," said Amyas.
+
+He asked, but the girl made no answer.  "The stubborn jade won't
+tell, of course, sir.  If she were but a man, I'd make her soon
+enough."
+
+"Ask her who killed him?"
+
+"No one, she says; and I believe she says true, for I can find no
+wound.  The man has been starved, sirs, as I am a sinful man.  God
+help him, though he is a priest; and yet he seems full enough down
+below.  What's here?  A big pouch, sirs, stuffed full of somewhat."
+
+"Hand it hither."
+
+The two opened the pouch; papers, papers, but no scrap of food.
+Then a parchment.  They unrolled it.
+
+"Latin," said Amyas; "you must construe, Don Scholar."
+
+"Is it possible?" said Raleigh, after reading a moment.  "This is
+indeed a prize!  This is Saunders himself!"
+
+Yeo sprang up from the body as if he had touched an adder.  "Nick
+Saunders, the Legacy, sir?"
+
+"Nicholas Saunders, the legate."
+
+"The villain! why did not he wait for me to have the comfort of
+killing him?  Dog!" and he kicked the corpse with his foot.
+
+"Quiet! quiet!  Remember the poor girl," said Amyas, as she
+shrieked at the profanation, while Raleigh went on, half to
+himself:
+
+"Yes, this is Saunders.  Misguided fool, and this is the end!  To
+this thou hast come with thy plotting and thy conspiring, thy lying
+and thy boasting, consecrated banners and Pope's bulls, Agnus Deis
+and holy waters, the blessing of all saints and angels, and thy
+Lady of the Immaculate Conception!  Thou hast called on the heavens
+to judge between thee and us, and here is their answer!  What is
+that in his hand, Amyas?  Give it me.  A pastoral epistle to the
+Earl of Ormond, and all nobles of the realm of Ireland; 'To all who
+groan beneath the loathsome tyranny of an illegitimate adulteress,
+etc., Nicholas Saunders, by the grace of God, Legate, etc.'  Bah!
+and this forsooth was thy last meditation!  Incorrigible pedant!
+Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni!"
+
+He ran his eye through various other documents, written in the
+usual strain: full of huge promises from the Pope and the king of
+Spain; frantic and filthy slanders against Elizabeth, Burghley,
+Leicester, Essex (the elder), Sidney, and every great and good man
+(never mind of which party) who then upheld the commonweal;
+bombastic attempts to terrify weak consciences, by denouncing
+endless fire against those who opposed the true faith; fulsome
+ascriptions of martyrdom and sanctity to every rebel and traitor
+who had been hanged for the last twenty years; wearisome arguments
+about the bull In Caena Domini, Elizabeth's excommunication, the
+nullity of English law, the sacred duty of rebellion, the right to
+kill a prince impenitently heretical, and the like insanities and
+villainies, which may be read at large in Camden, the Phoenix
+Britannicus, Fox's Martyrs, or, surest of all, in the writings of
+the worthies themselves.
+
+With a gesture of disgust, Raleigh crammed the foul stuff back
+again into the pouch.  Taking it with them, they walked back to the
+company, and then remounting, marched away once more towards the
+lands of the Desmonds; and the girl was left alone with the dead.
+
+An hour had passed, when another Englishman was standing by the
+wailing girl, and round him a dozen shockheaded kernes, skene on
+thigh and javelin in hand, were tossing about their tawny rags, and
+adding their lamentations to those of the lonely watcher.
+
+The Englishman was Eustace Leigh; a layman still, but still at his
+old work.  By two years of intrigue and labor from one end of
+Ireland to the other, he had been trying to satisfy his conscience
+for rejecting "the higher calling" of the celibate; for mad hopes
+still lurked within that fiery heart.  His brow was wrinkled now;
+his features harshened; the scar upon his face, and the slight
+distortion which accompanied it, was hidden by a bushy beard from
+all but himself; and he never forgot it for a day, nor forgot who
+had given it to him.
+
+He had been with Desmond, wandering in moor and moss for many a
+month in danger of his life; and now he was on his way to James
+Fitz-Eustace, Lord Baltinglas, to bring him the news of Desmond's
+death; and with him a remnant of the clan, who were either too
+stout-hearted, or too desperately stained with crime, to seek peace
+from the English, and, as their fellows did, find it at once and
+freely.
+
+There Eustace stood, looking down on all that was left of the most
+sacred personage of Ireland; the man who, as he once had hoped, was
+to regenerate his native land, and bring the proud island of the
+West once more beneath that gentle yoke, in which united
+Christendom labored for the commonweal of the universal Church.
+There he was, and with him all Eustace's dreams, in the very heart
+of that country which he had vowed, and believed as he vowed, was
+ready to rise in arms as one man, even to the baby at the breast
+(so he had said), in vengeance against the Saxon heretic, and sweep
+the hated name of Englishman into the deepest abysses of the surge
+which walled her coasts; with Spain and the Pope to back him, and
+the wealth of the Jesuits at his command; in the midst of faithful
+Catholics, valiant soldiers, noblemen who had pledged themselves to
+die for the cause, serfs who worshipped him as a demigod--starved
+to death in a bog!  It was a pretty plain verdict on the
+reasonableness of his expectations; but not to Eustace Leigh.
+
+It was a failure, of course; but it was an accident; indeed, to
+have been expected, in a wicked world whose prince and master, as
+all knew, was the devil himself; indeed, proof of the righteousness
+of the cause--for when had the true faith been other than
+persecuted and trampled under foot?  If one came to think of it
+with eyes purified from the tears of carnal impatience, what was it
+but a glorious martyrdom?
+
+"Blest Saunders!" murmured Eustace Leigh; "let me die the death of
+the righteous, and let my last end he like this!  Ora pro me, most
+excellent martyr, while I dig thy grave upon this lonely moor, to
+wait there for thy translation to one of those stately shrines,
+which, cemented by the blood of such as thee, shall hereafter rise
+restored toward heaven, to make this land once more 'The Isle of
+Saints.'"
+
+The corpse was buried; a few prayers said hastily; and Eustace
+Leigh was away again, not now to find Baltinglas; for it was more
+than his life was worth.  The girl had told him of the English
+soldiers who had passed, and he knew that they would reach the earl
+probably before he did.  The game was up; all was lost.  So he
+retraced his steps, as a desperate resource, to the last place
+where he would be looked for, and after a month of disguising,
+hiding, and other expedients, found himself again in his native
+county of Devon, while Fitz-Eustace Viscount Baltinglas had taken
+ship for Spain, having got little by his famous argument to Ormond
+in behalf of his joining the Church of Rome, "Had not thine
+ancestor, blessed Thomas of Canterbury, died for the Church of
+Rome, thou hadst never been Earl of Ormond."  The premises were
+certainly sounder than those of his party were wont to be; for it
+was to expiate the murder of that turbulent hero that the Ormond
+lands had been granted by Henry II.: but as for the conclusion
+therefrom, it was much on a par with the rest.
+
+And now let us return to Raleigh and Amyas, as they jog along their
+weary road.  They have many things to talk of; for it is but three
+days since they met.
+
+Amyas, as you see, is coming fast into Raleigh's old opinion of
+Ireland.  Raleigh, under the inspiration of a possible grant of
+Desmond's lands, looks on bogs and rocks transfigured by his own
+hopes and fancy, as if by the glory of a rainbow.  He looked at all
+things so, noble fellow, even thirty years after, when old, worn
+out, and ruined; well for him had it been otherwise, and his heart
+had grown old with his head!  Amyas, who knows nothing about
+Desmond's lands, is puzzled at the change.
+
+"Why, what is this, Raleigh?  You are like children sitting in the
+market-place, and nothing pleases you.  You wanted to get to Court,
+and you have got there; and are lord and master, I hear, or
+something very like it, already--and as soon as fortune stuffs your
+mouth full of sweet-meats, do you turn informer on her?"
+
+Raleigh laughed insignificantly, but was silent.
+
+"And how is your friend Mr. Secretary Spenser, who was with us at
+Smerwick?"
+
+"Spenser?  He has thriven even as I have; and he has found, as I
+have, that in making one friend at Court you make ten foes; but
+'Oderint dum metuant' is no more my motto than his, Leigh.  I want
+to be great--great I am already, they say, if princes' favor can
+swell the frog into an ox; but I want to be liked, loved--I want to
+see people smile when I enter."
+
+"So they do, I'll warrant," said Amyas.
+
+"So do hyenas," said Raleigh; "grin because they are hungry, and I
+may throw them a bone; I'll throw you one now, old lad, or rather a
+good sirloin of beef, for the sake of your smile.  That's honest,
+at least, I'll warrant, whosoever's else is not.  Have you heard of
+my brother Humphrey's new project?"
+
+"How should I hear anything in this waste howling wilderness?"
+
+"Kiss hands to the wilderness, then, and come with me to
+Newfoundland!"
+
+"You to Newfoundland?"
+
+"Yes.  I to Newfoundland, unless my little matter here is settled
+at once.  Gloriana don't know it, and sha'n't till I'm off.  She'd
+send me to the Tower, I think, if she caught me playing truant.  I
+could hardly get leave to come hither; but I must out, and try my
+fortune.  I am over ears in debt already, and sick of courts and
+courtiers.  Humphrey must go next spring and take possession of his
+kingdom beyond seas, or his patent expires; and with him I go, and
+you too, my circumnavigating giant."
+
+And then Raleigh expounded to Amyas the details of the great
+Newfoundland scheme, which whoso will may read in the pages of
+Hakluyt.
+
+Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Raleigh's half-brother, held a patent for
+"planting" the lands of Newfoundland and "Meta Incognita"
+(Labrador).  He had attempted a voyage thither with Raleigh in
+1578, whereof I never could find any news, save that he came back
+again, after a heavy brush with some Spanish ships (in which his
+best captain, Mr. Morgan, was killed), having done nothing, and
+much impaired his own estate: but now he had collected a large sum;
+Sir Gilbert Peckham of London, Mr. Hayes of South Devon, and
+various other gentlemen, of whom more hereafter, had adventured
+their money; and a considerable colony was to be sent out the next
+year, with miners, assayers, and, what was more, Parmenius Budaeus,
+Frank's old friend, who had come to England full of thirst to see
+the wonders of the New World; and over and above this, as Raleigh
+told Amyas in strictest secrecy, Adrian Gilbert, Humphrey's
+brother, was turning every stone at Court for a patent of discovery
+in the North-West; and this Newfoundland colony, though it was to
+produce gold, silver, merchandise, and what not, was but a basis of
+operations, a halfway house from whence to work out the North-West
+passage to the Indies--that golden dream, as fatal to English valor
+as the Guiana one to Spanish--and yet hardly, hardly to be
+regretted, when we remember the seamanship, the science, the
+chivalry, the heroism, unequalled in the history of the English
+nation, which it has called forth among those our later Arctic
+voyagers, who have combined the knight-errantry of the middle age
+with the practical prudence of the modern, and dared for duty more
+than Cortez or Pizarro dared for gold.
+
+Amyas, simple fellow, took all in greedily; he knew enough of the
+dangers of the Magellan passage to appreciate the boundless value
+of a road to the East Indies which would (as all supposed then)
+save half the distance, and be as it were a private possession of
+the English, safe from Spanish interference; and he listened
+reverently to Sir Humphrey's quaint proofs, half true, half
+fantastic, of such a passage, which Raleigh detailed to him--of the
+Primum Mobile, and its diurnal motion from east to west, in
+obedience to which the sea-current flowed westward ever round the
+Cape of Good Hope, and being unable to pass through the narrow
+strait between South America and the Antarctic Continent, rushed up
+the American shore, as the Gulf Stream, and poured northwestward
+between Greenland and Labrador towards Cathay and India; of that
+most crafty argument of Sir Humphrey's--how Aristotle in his book
+"De Mundo," and Simon Gryneus in his annotations thereon, declare
+that the world (the Old World) is an island, compassed by that
+which Homer calls the river Oceanus; ergo, the New World is an
+island also, and there is a North-West passage; of the three
+brothers (names unknown) who had actually made the voyage, and
+named what was afterwards called Davis's Strait after themselves;
+of the Indians who were cast ashore in Germany in the reign of
+Frederic Barbarossa who, as Sir Humphrey had learnedly proved per
+modum tollendi, could have come only by the North-West; and above
+all, of Salvaterra, the Spaniard, who in 1568 had told Sir Henry
+Sidney (Philip's father), there in Ireland, how he had spoken with
+a Mexican friar named Urdaneta, who had himself come from Mar del
+Zur (the Pacific) into Germany by that very North-West passage; at
+which last Amyas shook his head, and said that friars were liars,
+and seeing believing; "but if you must needs have an adventure, you
+insatiable soul you, why not try for the golden city of Manoa?"
+
+"Manoa?" asked Raleigh, who had heard, as most had, dim rumors of
+the place.  "What do you know of it?"
+
+Whereon Amyas told him all that he had gathered from the Spaniard;
+and Raleigh, in his turn, believed every word.
+
+"Humph!" said he after a long silence.  "To find that golden
+emperor; offer him help and friendship from the queen of England;
+defend him against the Spaniards; if we became strong enough,
+conquer back all Peru from the Popish tyrants, and reinstate him on
+the throne of the Incas, with ourselves for his body-guard, as the
+Norman Varangians were to the effeminate emperors of Byzant--Hey,
+Amyas?  You would make a gallant chieftain of Varangs.  We'll do
+it, lad!"
+
+"We'll try," said Amyas; "but we must be quick, for there's one
+Berreo sworn to carry out the quest to the death; and if the
+Spaniards once get thither, their plan of works will be much more
+like Pizarro's than like yours; and by the time we come, there will
+be neither gold nor city left."
+
+"Nor Indians either, I'll warrant the butchers; but, lad, I am
+promised to Humphrey; I have a bark fitting out already, and all I
+have, and more, adventured in her; so Manoa must wait."
+
+"It will wait well enough, if the Spaniards prosper no better on
+the Amazon than they have done; but must I come with you?  To tell
+the truth, I am quite shore-sick, and to sea I must go.  What will
+my mother say?"
+
+"I'll manage thy mother," said Raleigh; and so he did; for, to cut
+a long story short, he went back the month after, and he not only
+took home letters from Amyas to his mother, but so impressed on
+that good lady the enormous profits and honors to be derived from
+Meta Incognita, and (which was most true) the advantage to any
+young man of sailing with such a general as Humphrey Gilbert, most
+pious and most learned of seamen and of cavaliers, beloved and
+honored above all his compeers by Queen Elizabeth, that she
+consented to Amyas's adventuring in the voyage some two hundred
+pounds which had come to him as his share of prize-money, after the
+ever memorable circumnavigation.  For Mrs. Leigh, be it understood,
+was no longer at Burrough Court.  By Frank's persuasion, she had
+let the old place, moved up to London with her eldest son, and
+taken for herself a lodging somewhere by Palace Stairs, which
+looked out upon the silver Thames (for Thames was silver then),
+with its busy ferries and gliding boats, across to the pleasant
+fields of Lambeth, and the Archbishop's palace, and the wooded
+Surrey hills; and there she spent her peaceful days, close to her
+Frank and to the Court.  Elizabeth would have had her re-enter it,
+offering her a small place in the household: but she declined,
+saying that she was too old and heart-weary for aught but prayer.
+So by prayer she lived, under the sheltering shadow of the tall
+minster where she went morn and even to worship, and to entreat for
+the two in whom her heart was bound up; and Frank slipped in every
+day if but for five minutes, and brought with him Spenser, or
+Raleigh, or Dyer, or Budaeus or sometimes Sidney's self: and there
+was talk of high and holy things, of which none could speak better
+than could she; and each guest went from that hallowed room a
+humbler and yet a loftier man.  So slipped on the peaceful months,
+and few and far between came Irish letters, for Ireland was then
+farther from Westminster than is the Black Sea now; but those were
+days in which wives and mothers had learned (as they have learned
+once more, sweet souls!) to walk by faith and not by sight for
+those they love: and Mrs. Leigh was content (though when was she
+not content?) to hear that Amyas was winning a good report as a
+brave and prudent officer, sober, just, and faithful, beloved and
+obeyed alike by English soldiers and Irish kernes.
+
+Those two years, and the one which followed, were the happiest
+which she had known since her husband's death.  But the cloud was
+fast coming up the horizon, though she saw it not.  A little
+longer, and the sun would be hid for many a wintry day.
+
+Amyas went to Plymouth (with Yeo, of course, at his heels), and
+there beheld, for the first time, the majestic countenance of the
+philosopher of Compton castle.  He lodged with Drake, and found him
+not over-sanguine as to the success of the voyage.
+
+"For learning and manners, Amyas, there's not his equal; and the
+queen may well love him, and Devon be proud of him: but book-
+learning is not business: book-learning didn't get me round the
+world; book-learning didn't make Captain Hawkins, nor his father
+neither, the best ship-builders from Hull to Cadiz; and book-
+learning, I very much fear, won't plant Newfoundland."
+
+However, the die was cast, and the little fleet of five sail
+assembled in Cawsand Bay.  Amyas was to go as a gentleman
+adventurer on board of Raleigh's bark; Raleigh himself, however, at
+the eleventh hour, had been forbidden by the queen to leave
+England.  Ere they left, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's picture was painted
+by some Plymouth artist, to be sent up to Elizabeth in answer to a
+letter and a gift sent by Raleigh, which, as a specimen of the men
+and of the time, I here transcribe*--
+
+
+"BROTHER--I have sent you a token from her Majesty, an anchor
+guided by a lady, as you see.  And further, her Highness willed me
+to send you word, that she wisheth you as great good hap and safety
+to your ship as if she were there in person, desiring you to have
+care of yourself as of that which she tendereth and, therefore, for
+her sake, you must provide for it accordingly.  Furthermore, she
+commandeth that you leave your picture with her.  For the rest I
+leave till our meeting, or to the report of the bearer, who would
+needs be the messenger of this good news.  So I commit you to the
+will and protection of God, who send us such life and death as he
+shall please, or hath appointed.
+
+"Richmond, this Friday morning,
+
+"Your true Brother,
+
+"W. RALEIGH."
+
+
+* This letter was a few years since in the possession of Mr.
+Pomeroy Gilbert, fort-major at Dartmouth, a descendant of the
+admiral's.
+
+
+"Who would not die, sir, for such a woman?" said Sir Humphrey (and
+he said truly), as he showed that letter to Amyas.
+
+"Who would not?  But she bids you rather live for her."
+
+"I shall do both, young man; and for God too, I trust.  We are
+going in God's cause; we go for the honor of God's Gospel, for the
+deliverance of poor infidels led captive by the devil; for the
+relief of my distressed countrymen unemployed within this narrow
+isle; and to God we commit our cause.  We fight against the devil
+himself; and stronger is He that is within us than he that is
+against us."
+
+Some say that Raleigh himself came down to Plymouth, accompanied
+the fleet a day's sail to sea, and would have given her majesty the
+slip, and gone with them Westward-ho, but for Sir Humphrey's
+advice.  It is likely enough: but I cannot find evidence for it.
+At all events, on the 11th June the fleet sailed out, having, says
+Mr. Hayes, "in number about 260 men, among whom we had of every
+faculty good choice, as shipwrights, masons, carpenters, smiths,
+and such like, requisite for such an action; also mineral men and
+refiners.  Beside, for solace of our people and allurement of the
+savages, we were provided of musique in good variety; not omitting
+the least toys, as morris-dancers, hobby-horses, and May-like
+conceits, to delight the savage people, whom we intended to win by
+all fair means possible."  An armament complete enough, even to
+that tenderness towards the Indians, which is so striking a feature
+of the Elizabethan seamen (called out in them, perhaps, by horror
+at the Spanish cruelties, as well as by their more liberal creed),
+and to the daily service of God on board of every ship, according
+to the simple old instructions of Captain John Hawkins to one of
+his little squadrons, "Keep good company; beware of fire; serve God
+daily; and love one another"--an armament, in short, complete in
+all but men.  The sailors had been picked up hastily and anywhere,
+and soon proved themselves a mutinous, and, in the case of the bark
+Swallow, a piratical set.  The mechanics were little better.  The
+gentlemen-adventurers, puffed up with vain hopes of finding a new
+Mexico, became soon disappointed and surly at the hard practical
+reality; while over all was the head of a sage and an enthusiast, a
+man too noble to suspect others, and too pure to make allowances
+for poor dirty human weaknesses.  He had got his scheme perfect
+upon paper; well for him, and for his company, if he had asked
+Francis Drake to translate it for him into fact!  As early as the
+second day, the seeds of failure began to sprout above ground.  The
+men of Raleigh's bark, the Vice-Admiral, suddenly found themselves
+seized, or supposed themselves seized, with a contagious sickness,
+and at midnight forsook the fleet, and went back to Plymouth;
+whereto Mr. Hayes can only say, "The reason I never could
+understand.  Sure I am that Mr. Raleigh spared no cost in setting
+them forth.  And so I leave it unto God!"
+
+But Amyas said more.  He told Butler the captain plainly that, if
+the bark went back, he would not; that he had seen enough of ships
+deserting their consorts; that it should never be said of him that
+he had followed Winter's example, and that, too, on a fair easterly
+wind; and finally that he had seen Doughty hanged for trying to
+play such a trick; and that he might see others hanged too before
+he died.  Whereon Captain Butler offered to draw and fight, to
+which Amyas showed no repugnance; whereon the captain, having taken
+a second look at Amyas's thews and sinews, reconsidered the matter,
+and offered to put Amyas on board of Sir Humphrey's Delight, if he
+could find a crew to row him.
+
+Amyas looked around.
+
+"Are there any of Sir Francis Drake's men on board?"
+
+"Three, sir," said Yeo.  "Robert Drew, and two others."
+
+"Pelicans!" roared Amyas, "you have been round the world, and will
+you turn back from Westward-ho?"
+
+There was a moment's silence, and then Drew came forward.
+
+"Lower us a boat, captain, and lend us a caliver to make signals
+with, while I get my kit on deck; I'll after Captain Leigh, if I
+row him aboard all alone to my own hands."
+
+"If I ever command a ship, I will not forget you," said Amyas.
+
+"Nor us either, sir, we hope; for we haven't forgotten you and your
+honest conditions," said both the other Pelicans; and so away over
+the side went all the five, and pulled away after the admiral's
+lantern, firing shots at intervals as signals.  Luckily for the
+five desperadoes, the night was all but calm.  They got on board
+before the morning, and so away into the boundless West.*
+
+
+* The Raleigh, the largest ship of the squadron, was of only 200
+tons burden; The Golden Hind, Hayes' ship, which returned safe, of
+40; and The Squirrel (whereof more hereafter), of 10 tons!  In such
+cockboats did these old heroes brave the unknown seas.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+HOW BIDEFORD BRIDGE DINED AT ANNERY HOUSE
+
+
+     "Three lords sat drinking late yestreen,
+      And ere they paid the lawing,
+      They set a combat them between,
+      To fight it in the dawing"--Scotch Ballad.
+
+
+Every one who knows Bideford cannot but know Bideford bridge; for
+it is the very omphalos, cynosure, and soul, around which the town,
+as a body, has organized itself; and as Edinburgh is Edinburgh by
+virtue of its castle, Rome Rome by virtue of its capitol, and Egypt
+Egypt by virtue of its pyramids, so is Bideford Bideford by virtue
+of its bridge.  But all do not know the occult powers which have
+advanced and animated the said wondrous bridge for now five hundred
+years, and made it the chief wonder, according to Prince and
+Fuller, of this fair land of Devon: being first an inspired bridge,
+a soul-saving bridge, an alms-giving bridge, an educational bridge,
+a sentient bridge, and last, but not least, a dinner-giving bridge.
+All do not know how, when it began to be built some half mile
+higher up, hands invisible carried the stones down-stream each
+night to the present site; until Sir Richard Gurney, parson of the
+parish, going to bed one night in sore perplexity and fear of the
+evil spirit who seemed so busy in his sheepfold, beheld a vision of
+an angel, who bade build the bridge where he himself had so kindly
+transported the materials; for there alone was sure foundation amid
+the broad sheet of shifting sand.  All do not know how Bishop
+Grandison of Exeter proclaimed throughout his diocese indulgences,
+benedictions, and "participation in all spiritual blessings for
+ever," to all who would promote the bridging of that dangerous
+ford; and so, consulting alike the interests of their souls and of
+their bodies, "make the best of both worlds."
+
+All do not know, nor do I, that "though the foundation of the
+bridge is laid upon wool, yet it shakes at the slightest step of a
+horse;" or that, "though it has twenty-three arches, yet one Wm.
+Alford (another Milo) carried on his back for a wager four bushels
+salt-water measure, all the length thereof;" or that the bridge is
+a veritable esquire, bearing arms of its own (a ship and bridge
+proper on a plain field), and owning lands and tenements in many
+parishes, with which the said miraculous bridge has, from time to
+time, founded charities, built schools, waged suits at law, and
+finally (for this concerns us most) given yearly dinners, and kept
+for that purpose (luxurious and liquorish bridge that it was) the
+best stocked cellar of wines in all Devon.
+
+To one of these dinners, as it happened, were invited in the year
+1583 all the notabilities of Bideford, and beside them Mr. St.
+Leger of Annery close by, brother of the marshal of Munster, and of
+Lady Grenville; a most worthy and hospitable gentleman, who,
+finding riches a snare, parted with them so freely to all his
+neighbors as long as he lived, that he effectually prevented his
+children after him from falling into the temptations thereunto
+incident.
+
+Between him and one of the bridge trustees arose an argument,
+whether a salmon caught below the bridge was better or worse than
+one caught above; and as that weighty question could only be
+decided by practical experiment, Mr. St. Leger vowed that as the
+bridge had given him a good dinner, he would give the bridge one;
+offered a bet of five pounds that he would find them, out of the
+pool below Annery, as firm and flaky a salmon as the Appledore one
+which they had just eaten; and then, in the fulness of his heart,
+invited the whole company present to dine with him at Annery three
+days after, and bring with them each a wife or daughter; and Don
+Guzman being at table, he was invited too.
+
+So there was a mighty feast in the great hall at Annery, such as
+had seldom been since Judge Hankford feasted Edward the Fourth
+there; and while every one was eating their best and drinking their
+worst, Rose Salterne and Don Guzman were pretending not to see each
+other, and watching each other all the more.  But Rose, at least,
+had to be very careful of her glances; for not only was her father
+at the table, but just opposite her sat none other than Messrs.
+William Cary and Arthur St. Leger, lieutenants in her majesty's
+Irish army, who had returned on furlough a few days before.
+
+Rose Salterne and the Spaniard had not exchanged a word in the last
+six months, though they had met many times.  The Spaniard by no
+means avoided her company, except in her father's house; he only
+took care to obey her carefully, by seeming always unconscious of
+her presence, beyond the stateliest of salutes at entering and
+departing.  But he took care, at the same time, to lay himself out
+to the very best advantage whenever he was in her presence; to be
+more witty, more eloquent, more romantic, more full of wonderful
+tales than he ever yet had been.  The cunning Don had found himself
+foiled in his first tactic; and he was now trying another, and a
+far more formidable one.  In the first place, Rose deserved a very
+severe punishment, for having dared to refuse the love of a Spanish
+nobleman; and what greater punishment could he inflict than
+withdrawing the honor of his attentions, and the sunshine of his
+smiles?  There was conceit enough in that notion, but there was
+cunning too; for none knew better than the Spaniard, that women,
+like the world, are pretty sure to value a man (especially if there
+be any real worth in him) at his own price; and that the more he
+demands for himself, the more they will give for him.
+
+And now he would put a high price on himself, and pique her pride,
+as she was too much accustomed to worship, to be won by flattering
+it.  He might have done that by paying attention to some one else:
+but he was too wise to employ so coarse a method, which might raise
+indignation, or disgust, or despair in Rose's heart, but would have
+never brought her to his feet--as it will never bring any woman
+worth bringing.  So he quietly and unobtrusively showed her that he
+could do without her; and she, poor fool, as she was meant to do,
+began forthwith to ask herself--why?  What was the hidden treasure,
+what was the reserve force, which made him independent of her,
+while she could not say that she was independent of him?  Had he a
+secret? how pleasant to know it!  Some huge ambition? how pleasant
+to share in it!  Some mysterious knowledge? how pleasant to learn
+it!  Some capacity of love beyond the common? how delicious to have
+it all for her own!  He must be greater, wiser, richer-hearted than
+she was, as well as better-born.  Ah, if his wealth would but
+supply her poverty!  And so, step by step, she was being led to sue
+in forma pauperis to the very man whom she had spurned when he sued
+in like form to her.  That temptation of having some mysterious
+private treasure, of being the priestess of some hidden sanctuary,
+and being able to thank Heaven that she was not as other women are,
+was becoming fast too much for Rose, as it is too much for most.
+For none knew better than the Spaniard how much more fond women
+are, by the very law of their sex, of worshipping than of being
+worshipped, and of obeying than of being obeyed; how their coyness,
+often their scorn, is but a mask to hide their consciousness of
+weakness; and a mask, too, of which they themselves will often be
+the first to tire.
+
+And Rose was utterly tired of that same mask as she sat at table at
+Annery that day; and Don Guzman saw it in her uneasy and downcast
+looks, and thinking (conceited coxcomb) that she must be by now
+sufficiently punished, stole a glance at her now and then, and was
+not abashed when he saw that she dropped her eyes when they met
+his, because he saw her silence and abstraction increase, and
+something like a blush steal into her cheeks.  So he pretended to
+be as much downcast and abstracted as she was, and went on with his
+glances, till he once found her, poor thing, looking at him to see
+if he was looking at her; and then he knew his prey was safe, and
+asked her, with his eyes, "Do you forgive me?" and saw her stop
+dead in her talk to her next neighbor, and falter, and drop her
+eyes, and raise them again after a minute in search of his, that he
+might repeat the pleasant question.  And then what could she do but
+answer with all her face and every bend of her pretty neck, "And do
+you forgive me in turn?"
+
+Whereon Don Guzman broke out jubilant, like nightingale on bough,
+with story, and jest, and repartee; and became forthwith the soul
+of the whole company, and the most charming of all cavaliers.  And
+poor Rose knew that she was the cause of his sudden change of mood,
+and blamed herself for what she had done, and shuddered and blushed
+at her own delight, and longed that the feast was over, that she
+might hurry home and hide herself alone with sweet fancies about a
+love the reality of which she felt she dared not face.
+
+It was a beautiful sight, the great terrace at Annery that
+afternoon; with the smart dames in their gaudy dresses parading up
+and down in twos and threes before the stately house; or looking
+down upon the park, with the old oaks, and the deer, and the broad
+land-locked river spread out like a lake beneath, all bright in the
+glare of the midsummer sun; or listening obsequiously to the two
+great ladies who did the honors, Mrs. St. Leger the hostess, and
+her sister-in-law, fair Lady Grenville.  All chatted, and laughed,
+and eyed each other's dresses, and gossiped about each other's
+husbands and servants: only Rose Salterne kept apart, and longed to
+get into a corner and laugh or cry, she knew not which.
+
+"Our pretty Rose seems sad," said Lady Grenville, coming up to her.
+"Cheer up, child! we want you to come and sing to us."
+
+Rose answered she knew not what, and obeyed mechanically.
+
+She took the lute, and sat down on a bench beneath the house, while
+the rest grouped themselves round her.
+
+"What shall I sing?"
+
+"Let us have your old song, 'Earl Haldan's Daughter.'"
+
+Rose shrank from it.  It was a loud and dashing ballad, which
+chimed in but little with her thoughts; and Frank had praised it
+too, in happier days long since gone by.  She thought of him, and
+of others, and of her pride and carelessness; and the song seemed
+ominous to her: and yet for that very reason she dared not refuse
+to sing it, for fear of suspicion where no one suspected; and so
+she began per force--
+
+
+I.
+
+"It was Earl Haldan's daughter,
+She look'd across the sea;
+She look'd across the water,
+And long and loud laugh'd she;
+'The locks of six princesses
+Must be my marriage-fee,
+So hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat!
+Who comes a wooing me?'
+
+II.
+
+"It was Earl Haldan's daughter,
+She walk'd along the sand;
+When she was aware of a knight so fair,
+Come sailing to the land.
+His sails were all of velvet,
+His mast of beaten gold,
+And 'hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat,
+Who saileth here so bold?'
+
+III.
+
+"'The locks of five princesses
+I won beyond the sea;
+I shore their golden tresses,
+To fringe a cloak for thee.
+One handful yet is wanting,
+But one of all the tale;
+So hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat!
+Furl up thy velvet sail!'
+
+IV.
+
+"He leapt into the water,
+That rover young and bold;
+He gript Earl Haldan's daughter,
+He shore her locks of gold;
+'Go weep, go weep, proud maiden,
+The tale is full to-day.
+Now hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat!
+Sail Westward-ho, and away!'"
+
+
+As she ceased, a measured voice, with a foreign accent, thrilled
+through her.
+
+"In the East, they say the nightingale sings to the rose; Devon,
+more happy, has nightingale and rose in one."
+
+"We have no nightingales in Devon, Don Guzman," said Lady
+Grenville; "but our little forest thrushes sing, as you hear,
+sweetly enough to content any ear.  But what brings you away from
+the gentlemen so early?"
+
+"These letters," said he, "which have just been put into my hand;
+and as they call me home to Spain, I was loath to lose a moment of
+that delightful company from which I must part so soon."
+
+"To Spain?" asked half-a-dozen voices: for the Don was a general
+favorite.
+
+"Yes, and thence to the Indies.  My ransom has arrived, and with it
+the promise of an office.  I am to be Governor of La Guayra in
+Caracas.  Congratulate me on my promotion."
+
+A mist was over Rose's eyes.  The Spaniard's voice was hard and
+flippant.  Did he care for her, after all?  And if he did, was it
+nevertheless hopeless?  How her cheeks glowed!  Everybody must see
+it!  Anything to turn away their attention from her, and in that
+nervous haste which makes people speak, and speak foolishly too,
+just because they ought to be silent, she asked--
+
+"And where is La Guayra?"
+
+"Half round the world, on the coast of the Spanish Main.  The
+loveliest place on earth, and the loveliest governor's house, in a
+forest of palms at the foot of a mountain eight thousand feet high:
+I shall only want a wife there to be in paradise."
+
+"I don't doubt that you may persuade some fair lady of Seville to
+accompany you thither," said Lady Grenville.
+
+"Thanks, gracious madam: but the truth is, that since I have had
+the bliss of knowing English ladies, I have begun to think that
+they are the only ones on earth worth wooing."
+
+"A thousand thanks for the compliment; but I fear none of our free
+English maidens would like to submit to the guardianship of a
+duenna.  Eh, Rose? how should you like to be kept under lock and
+key all day by an ugly old woman with a horn on her forehead?"
+
+Poor Rose turned so scarlet that Lady Grenville knew her secret on
+the spot, and would have tried to turn the conversation: but before
+she could speak, some burgher's wife blundered out a commonplace
+about the jealousy of Spanish husbands; and another, to make
+matters better, giggled out something more true than delicate about
+West Indian masters and fair slaves.
+
+"Ladies," said Don Guzman, reddening, "believe me that these are
+but the calumnies of ignorance.  If we be more jealous than other
+nations, it is because we love more passionately.  If some of us
+abroad are profligate, it is because they, poor men, have no
+helpmate, which, like the amethyst, keeps its wearer pure.  I could
+tell you stories, ladies, of the constancy and devotion of Spanish
+husbands, even in the Indies, as strange as ever romancer
+invented."
+
+"Can you?  Then we challenge you to give us one at least."
+
+"I fear it would be too long, madam."
+
+"The longer the more pleasant, senor.  How can we spend an hour
+better this afternoon, while the gentlemen within are finishing
+their wine?"
+
+Story-telling, in those old times, when books (and authors also,
+lucky for the public) were rarer than now, was a common amusement;
+and as the Spaniard's accomplishments in that line were well known,
+all the ladies crowded round him; the servants brought chairs and
+benches; and Don Guzman, taking his seat in the midst, with a proud
+humility, at Lady Grenville's feet, began--
+
+"Your perfections, fair and illustrious ladies, must doubtless have
+heard, ere now, how Sebastian Cabota, some forty-five years ago,
+sailed forth with a commission from my late master, the Emperor
+Charles the Fifth, to discover the golden lands of Tarshish, Ophir,
+and Cipango; but being in want of provisions, stopped short at the
+mouth of that mighty South American river to which he gave the name
+of Rio de la Plata, and sailing up it, discovered the fair land of
+Paraguay.  But you may not have heard how, on the bank of that
+river, at the mouth of the Rio Terceiro, he built a fort which men
+still call Cabot's Tower; nor have you, perhaps, heard of the
+strange tale which will ever make the tower a sacred spot to all
+true lovers.
+
+"For when he returned to Spain the year after, he left in his tower
+a garrison of a hundred and twenty men, under the command of Nuno
+de Lara, Ruiz Moschera, and Sebastian da Hurtado, old friends and
+fellow-soldiers of my invincible grandfather Don Ferdinando da
+Soto; and with them a jewel, than which Spain never possessed one
+more precious, Lucia Miranda, the wife of Hurtado, who, famed in
+the court of the emperor no less for her wisdom and modesty than
+for her unrivalled beauty, had thrown up all the pomp and ambition
+of a palace, to marry a poor adventurer, and to encounter with him
+the hardships of a voyage round the world.  Mangora, the cacique of
+the neighboring Timbuez Indians (with whom Lara had contrived to
+establish a friendship), cast his eyes on this fair creature, and
+no sooner saw than he coveted; no sooner coveted than he plotted,
+with the devilish subtilty of a savage, to seize by force what he
+knew he could never gain by right.  She soon found out his passion
+(she was wise enough--what every woman is not--to know when she is
+loved), and telling her husband, kept as much as she could out of
+her new lover's sight; while the savage pressed Hurtado to come and
+visit him, and to bring his lady with him.  Hurtado, suspecting the
+snare, and yet fearing to offend the cacique, excused himself
+courteously on the score of his soldier's duty; and the savage, mad
+with desire and disappointment, began plotting against Hurtado's
+life.
+
+"So went on several weeks, till food grew scarce, and Don Hurtado
+and Don Ruiz Moschera, with fifty soldiers, were sent up the river
+on a foraging party.  Mangora saw his opportunity, and leapt at it
+forthwith.
+
+"The tower, ladies, as I have heard from those who have seen it,
+stands on a knoll at the meeting of the two rivers, while on the
+land side stretches a dreary marsh, covered with tall grass and
+bushes; a fit place for the ambuscade of four thousand Indians,
+which Mangora, with devilish cunning, placed around the tower,
+while he himself went boldly up to it, followed by thirty men,
+laden with grain, fruit, game, and all the delicacies which his
+forests could afford.
+
+"There, with a smiling face, he told the unsuspecting Lara his
+sorrow for the Spaniards' want of food; besought him to accept the
+provision he had brought, and was, as he had expected, invited by
+Lara to come in and taste the wines of Spain.
+
+"In went he and his thirty fellow-bandits, and the feast continued,
+with songs and libations, far into the night, while Mangora often
+looked round, and at last boldly asked for the fair Miranda: but
+she had shut herself into her lodging, pleading illness.
+
+"A plea, fair ladies, which little availed that hapless dame, for
+no sooner had the Spaniards retired to rest, leaving (by I know not
+what madness) Mangora and his Indians within, than they were
+awakened by the cry of fire, the explosion of their magazine, and
+the inward rush of the four thousand from the marsh outside.
+
+"Why pain your gentle ears with details of slaughter?  A few
+fearful minutes sufficed to exterminate my bewildered and unarmed
+countrymen, to bind the only survivors, Miranda (innocent cause of
+the whole tragedy) and four other women with their infants, and to
+lead them away in triumph across the forest towards the Indian
+town.
+
+"Stunned by the suddenness of the evils which had passed, and still
+more by the thought of those worse which were to come (as she too
+well foresaw), Miranda travelled all night through the forest, and
+was brought in triumph at day-dawn before the Indian king to
+receive her doom.  Judge of her astonishment, when, on looking up,
+she saw that he was not Mangora.
+
+"A ray of hope flashed across her, and she asked where he was.
+
+"'He was slain last night,' said the king; 'and I, his brother
+Siripa, am now cacique of the Timbuez.'
+
+"It was true; Lara, maddened with drink, rage, and wounds, had
+caught up his sword, rushed into the thick of the fight, singled
+out the traitor, and slain him on the spot; and then, forgetting
+safety in revenge, had continued to plunge his sword into the
+corpse, heedless of the blows of the savages, till he fell pierced
+with a hundred wounds.
+
+"A ray of hope, as I said, flashed across the wretched Miranda for
+a moment; but the next she found that she had been freed from one
+bandit only to be delivered to another.
+
+"'Yes,' said the new king, in broken Spanish; 'my brother played a
+bold stake, and lost it; but it was well worth the risk, and he
+showed his wisdom thereby.  You cannot be his queen now: you must
+content yourself with being mine.'
+
+"Miranda, desperate, answered him with every fierce taunt which she
+could invent against his treachery and his crime; and asked him,
+how he came to dream that the wife of a Christian Spaniard would
+condescend to become the mistress of a heathen savage; hoping,
+unhappy lady, to exasperate him into killing her on the spot.  But
+in vain; she only prolonged thereby her own misery.  For, whether
+it was, ladies, that the novel sight of divine virtue and beauty
+awed (as it may have awed me ere now), where it had just before
+maddened; or whether some dream crossed the savage (as it may have
+crossed me ere now), that he could make the wisdom of a mortal
+angel help his ambition, as well as her beauty his happiness; or
+whether (which I will never believe of one of those dark children
+of the devil, though I can boldly assert it of myself) some spark
+of boldness within him made him too proud to take by force what he
+could not win by persuasion, certain it is, as the Indians
+themselves confessed afterwards, that the savage only answered her
+by smiles; and bidding his men unbind her, told her that she was no
+slave of his, and that it only lay with her to become the sovereign
+of him and all his vassals; assigned her a hut to herself, loaded
+her with savage ornaments, and for several weeks treated her with
+no less courtesy (so miraculous is the power of love) than if he
+had been a cavalier of Castile.
+
+"Three months and more, ladies, as I have heard, passed in this
+misery, and every day Miranda grew more desperate of all
+deliverance, and saw staring her in the face, nearer and nearer,
+some hideous and shameful end; when one day going down with the
+wives of the cacique to draw water in the river, she saw on the
+opposite bank a white man in a tattered Spanish dress, with a drawn
+sword in his hand; who had no sooner espied her, than shrieking her
+name, he plunged into the stream, swam across, landed at her feet,
+and clasped her in his arms.  It was no other, ladies, incredible
+as it may seem, than Don Sebastian himself, who had returned with
+Ruiz Moschera to the tower, and found it only a charred and
+bloodstained heap of ruins.
+
+"He guessed, as by inspiration, what had passed, and whither his
+lady was gone; and without a thought of danger, like a true Spanish
+gentleman and a true Spanish lover, darted off alone into the
+forest, and guided only by the inspiration of his own loyal heart,
+found again his treasure, and found it still unstained and his own.
+
+"Who can describe the joy, and who again the terror, of their
+meeting?  The Indian women had fled in fear, and for the short ten
+minutes that the lovers were left together, life, to be sure, was
+one long kiss.  But what to do they knew not.  To go inland was to
+rush into the enemy's arms.  He would have swum with her across the
+river, and attempted it; but his strength, worn out with hunger and
+travel, failed him; he drew her with difficulty on shore again, and
+sat down by her to await their doom with prayer, the first and last
+resource of virtuous ladies, as weapons are of cavaliers.
+
+"Alas for them!  May no true lovers ever have to weep over joys so
+soon lost, after having been so hardly found!  For, ere a quarter
+of an hour was passed, the Indian women, who had fled at his
+approach, returned with all the warriors of the tribe.  Don
+Sebastian, desperate, would fain have slain his wife and himself on
+the spot; but his hand sank again--and whose would not but an
+Indian's?--as he raised it against that fair and faithful breast;
+in a few minutes he was surrounded, seized from behind, disarmed,
+and carried in triumph into the village.  And if you cannot feel
+for him in that misery, fair ladies, who have known no sorrow, yet
+I, a prisoner, can."
+
+Don Guzman paused a moment, as if overcome by emotion; and I will
+not say that, as he paused, he did not look to see if Rose
+Salterne's eyes were on him, as indeed they were.
+
+"Yes, I can feel with him; I can estimate, better than you, ladies,
+the greatness of that love which could submit to captivity; to the
+loss of his sword; to the loss of that honor, which, next to god
+and his mother, is the true Spaniard's deity.  There are those who
+have suffered that shame at the hands of valiant gentlemen" (and
+again Don Guzman looked up at Rose), "and yet would have sooner
+died a thousand deaths; but he dared to endure it from the hands of
+villains, savages, heathens; for he was a true Spaniard, and
+therefore a true lover: but I will go on with my tale.
+
+"This wretched pair, then, as I have been told by Ruiz Moschera
+himself, stood together before the cacique.  He, like a true child
+of the devil, comprehending in a moment who Don Sebastian was,
+laughed with delight at seeing his rival in his power, and bade
+bind him at once to a tree, and shoot him to death with arrows.
+
+"But the poor Miranda sprang forward, and threw herself at his
+feet, and with piteous entreaties besought for mercy from him who
+knew no mercy.
+
+"And yet love and the sight of her beauty, and the terrible
+eloquence of her words, while she invoked on his head the just
+vengeance of Heaven, wrought even on his heart: nevertheless the
+pleasure of seeing her, who had so long scorned him, a suppliant at
+his feet, was too delicate to be speedily foregone; and not till
+she was all but blind with tears, and dumb with agony of pleading,
+did he make answer, that if she would consent to become his wife,
+her husband's life should be spared.  She, in her haste and
+madness, sobbed out desperately I know not what consent.  Don
+Sebastian, who understood, if not the language, still the meaning
+(so had love quickened his understanding), shrieked to her not to
+lose her precious soul for the sake of his worthless body; that
+death was nothing compared to the horror of that shame; and such
+other words as became a noble and valiant gentleman.  She,
+shuddering now at her own frailty, would have recalled her promise;
+but Siripa kept her to it, vowing, if she disappointed him again,
+such a death to her husband as made her blood run cold to hear of;
+and the wretched woman could only escape for the present by some
+story, that it was not the custom of her race to celebrate nuptials
+till a month after the betrothment; that the anger of Heaven would
+be on her, unless she first performed in solitude certain religious
+rites; and lastly, that if he dared to lay hands on her husband,
+she would die so resolutely, that every drop of water should be
+deep enough to drown her, every thorn sharp enough to stab her to
+the heart: till fearing lest by demanding too much he should lose
+all, and awed too, as he had been at first by a voice and looks
+which seemed to be, in comparison with his own, divine, Siripa bade
+her go back to her hut, promising her husband life; but promising
+too, that if he ever found the two speaking together, even for a
+moment, he would pour out on them both all the cruelty of those
+tortures in which the devil, their father, has so perfectly
+instructed the Indians.
+
+"So Don Sebastian, being stripped of his garments, and painted
+after the Indian fashion, was set to all mean and toilsome work,
+amid the buffetings and insults of the whole village.  And this,
+ladies, he endured without a murmur, ay, took delight in enduring
+it, as he would have endured things worse a thousand times, only
+for the sake, like a true lover as he was, of being near the
+goddess whom he worshipped, and of seeing her now and then afar
+off, happy enough to be repaid even by that for all indignities.
+
+"And yet, you who have loved may well guess, as I can, that ere a
+week had passed, Don Sebastian and the Lady Miranda had found
+means, in spite of all spiteful eyes, to speak to each other once
+and again; and to assure each other of their love; even to talk of
+escape, before the month's grace should be expired.  And Miranda,
+whose heart was full of courage as long as she felt her husband
+near her, went so far as to plan a means of escape which seemed
+possible and hopeful.
+
+For the youngest wife of the cacique, who, till Miranda's coming,
+had been his favorite, often talked with the captive, insulting and
+tormenting her in her spite and jealousy, and receiving in return
+only gentle and conciliatory words.  And one day when the woman had
+been threatening to kill her, Miranda took courage to say, 'Do you
+fancy that I shall not be as glad to be rid of your husband, as you
+to be rid of me?  Why kill me needlessly, when all that you require
+is to get me forth of the place?  Out of sight, out of mind.  When
+I am gone, your husband will soon forget me, and you will be his
+favorite as before.'  Soon, seeing that the girl was inclined to
+listen, she went on to tell her of her love to Don Sebastian,
+entreating and adjuring her, by the love which she bore the
+cacique, to pity and help her; and so won upon the girl, that she
+consented to be privy to Miranda's escape, and even offered to give
+her an opportunity of speaking to her husband about it; and at last
+was so won over by Miranda, that she consented to keep all
+intruders out of the way, while Don Sebastian that very night
+visited Miranda in her hut.
+
+"The hapless husband, thirsting for his love, was in that hut, be
+sure, the moment that kind darkness covered his steps:--and what
+cheer these two made of each other, when they once found themselves
+together, lovers must fancy for themselves: but so it was, that
+after many a leave-taking, there was no departure; and when the
+night was well-nigh past, Sebastian and Miranda were still talking
+together as if they had never met before, and would never meet
+again.
+
+"But it befell, ladies (would that I was not speaking truth, but
+inventing, that I might have invented something merrier for your
+ears), it befell that very night, that the young wife of the
+cacique, whose heart was lifted up with the thought that her rival
+was now at last disposed of, tried all her wiles to win back her
+faithless husband; but in vain.  He only answered her caresses by
+indifference, then by contempt, then insults, then blows (for with
+the Indians, woman is always a slave, or rather a beast of burden),
+and went on to draw such cruel comparisons between her dark skin
+and the glorious fairness of the Spanish lady, that the wretched
+girl, beside herself with rage, burst out at last with her own
+secret.  'Fool that you are to madden yourself about a stranger who
+prizes one hair of her Spanish husband's head more than your whole
+body!  Much does your new bride care for you!  She is at this
+moment in her husband's arms!'
+
+"The cacique screamed furiously to know what she meant; and she,
+her jealousy and hate of the guiltless lady boiling over once for
+all, bade him, if he doubted her, go see for himself.
+
+"What use of many words?  They were taken.  Love, or rather lust,
+repelled, turned in a moment into devilish hate; and the cacique,
+summoning his Indians, bade them bind the wretched Don Sebastian to
+a tree, and there inflicted on him the lingering death to which he
+had at first been doomed.  For Miranda he had more exquisite
+cruelty in store.  And shall I tell it?  Yes, ladies, for the honor
+of love and of Spain, and for a justification of those cruelties
+against the Indians which are so falsely imputed to our most
+Christian nation, it shall be told: he delivered the wretched lady
+over to the tender mercies of his wives; and what they were is
+neither fit for me to tell, nor you to hear.
+
+"The two wretched lovers cast themselves upon each other's neck;
+drank each other's salt tears with the last kisses; accused
+themselves as the cause of each other's death; and then, rising
+above fear and grief, broke out into triumph at thus dying for and
+with each other; and proclaiming themselves the martyrs of love,
+commended their souls to God, and then stepped joyfully and proudly
+to their doom."
+
+"And what was that?" asked half-a-dozen trembling voices.
+
+"Don Sebastian, as I have said, was shot to death with arrows; but
+as for the Lady Miranda, the wretches themselves confessed
+afterwards, when they received due vengeance for their crimes (as
+they did receive it), that after all shameful and horrible
+indignities, she was bound to a tree, and there burned slowly in
+her husband's sight, stifling her shrieks lest they should wring
+his heart by one additional pang, and never taking her eyes, to the
+last, off that beloved face.  And so died (but not unavenged)
+Sebastian de Hurtado and Lucia Miranda,--a Spanish husband and a
+Spanish wife."
+
+The Don paused, and the ladies were silent awhile, for, indeed,
+there was many a gentle tear to be dried; but at last Mrs. St.
+Leger spoke, half, it seemed, to turn off the too painful
+impression of the over-true tale, the outlines whereof may be still
+read in old Charlevoix.
+
+"You have told a sad and a noble tale, sir, and told it well; but,
+though your story was to set forth a perfect husband, it has ended
+rather by setting forth a perfect wife."
+
+"And if I have forgotten, madam, in praising her to praise him
+also, have I not done that which would have best pleased his
+heroical and chivalrous spirit?  He, be sure, would have forgotten
+his own virtue in the light of hers; and he would have wished me, I
+doubt not, to do the same also.  And beside, madam, where ladies
+are the theme, who has time or heart to cast one thought upon their
+slaves?"  And the Don made one of his deliberate and highly-
+finished bows.
+
+"Don Guzman is courtier enough, as far as compliments go," said one
+of the young ladies; "but it was hardly courtier-like of him to
+find us so sad an entertainment, upon a merry evening."
+
+"Yes," said another; "we must ask him for no more stories."
+
+"Or songs either," said a third.  "I fear he knows none but about
+forsaken maidens and despairing lovers."
+
+"I know nothing at all about forsaken ladies, madam; because ladies
+are never forsaken in Spain."
+
+"Nor about lovers despairing there, I suppose?"
+
+"That good opinion of ourselves, madam, with which you English are
+pleased to twit us now and then, always prevents so sad a state of
+mind.  For myself, I have had little to do with love; but I have
+had still less to do with despair, and intend, by help of Heaven,
+to have less."
+
+"You are valiant, sir."
+
+"You would not have me a coward, madam?" and so forth.
+
+Now all this time Don Guzman had been talking at Rose Salterne, and
+giving her the very slightest hint, every now and then, that he was
+talking at her; till the poor girl's face was almost crimson with
+pleasure, and she gave herself up to the spell.  He loved her
+still; perhaps he knew that she loved him: he must know some day.
+She felt now that there was no escape; she was almost glad to think
+that there was none.
+
+The dark, handsome, stately face; the melodious voice, with its
+rich Spanish accent; the quiet grace of the gestures; the wild
+pathos of the story; even the measured and inflated style, as of
+one speaking of another and a loftier world; the chivalrous respect
+and admiration for woman, and for faithfulness to woman--what a man
+he was!  If he had been pleasant heretofore, he was now enchanting.
+All the ladies round felt that, she could see, as much as she
+herself did; no, not quite as much, she hoped.  She surely
+understood him, and felt for his loneliness more than any of them.
+Had she not been feeling for it through long and sad months?  But
+it was she whom he was thinking of, she whom he was speaking to,
+all along.  Oh, why had the tale ended so soon?  She would gladly
+have sat and wept her eyes out till midnight over one melodious
+misery after another; but she was quite wise enough to keep her
+secret to herself; and sat behind the rest, with greedy eyes and
+demure lips, full of strange and new happiness--or misery; she knew
+not which to call it.
+
+In the meanwhile, as it was ordained, Cary could see and hear
+through the window of the hall a good deal of what was going on.
+
+"How that Spanish crocodile ogles the Rose!" whispered he to young
+St. Leger.
+
+"What wonder?  He is not the first by many a one."
+
+"Ay--but--  By heaven, she is making side-shots at him with those
+languishing eyes of hers, the little baggage!"
+
+"What wonder?  He is not the first, say I, and won't be the last.
+Pass the wine, man."
+
+"I have had enough; between sack and singing, my head is as mazed
+as a dizzy sheep.  Let me slip out."
+
+"Not yet, man; remember you are bound for one song more."
+
+So Cary, against his will, sat and sang another song; and in the
+meanwhile the party had broken up, and wandered away by twos and
+threes, among trim gardens and pleasaunces, and clipped yew-walks--
+
+
+     Where west-winds with musky wing
+     About the cedarn alleys fling
+     Nard and cassia's balmy smells--"
+
+
+admiring the beauty of that stately place, long since passed into
+other hands, and fallen to decay, but then (if old Prince speaks
+true) one of the noblest mansions of the West.
+
+At last Cary got away and out; sober, but just enough flushed with
+wine to be ready for any quarrel; and luckily for him, had not gone
+twenty yards along the great terrace before he met Lady Grenville.
+
+"Has your ladyship seen Don Guzman?"
+
+"Yes--why, where is he?  He was with me not ten minutes ago.  You
+know he is going back to Spain."
+
+"Going!  Has his ransom come?"
+
+"Yes, and with it a governorship in the Indies."
+
+"Governorship!  Much good may it do the governed."
+
+"Why not, then?  He is surely a most gallant gentleman."
+
+"Gallant enough--yes," said Cary, carelessly.  "I must find him,
+and congratulate him on his honors."
+
+"I will help you to find him," said Lady Grenville, whose woman's
+eye and ear had already suspected something.  "Escort me, sir."
+
+"It is but too great an honor to squire the Queen of Bideford,"
+said Cary, offering his hand.
+
+"If I am your queen, sir, I must be obeyed," answered she, in a
+meaning tone.  Cary took the hint, and went on chattering
+cheerfully enough.
+
+But Don Guzman was not to be found in garden or in pleasaunce.
+
+"Perhaps," at last said a burgher's wife, with a toss of her head,
+"your ladyship may meet with him at Hankford's oak."
+
+"At Hankford's oak! what should take him there?"
+
+"Pleasant company, I reckon" (with another toss).  "I heard him and
+Mistress Salterne talking about the oak just now."
+
+Cary turned pale and drew in his breath.
+
+"Very likely," said Lady Grenville, quietly.  "Will you walk with
+me so far, Mr. Cary?"
+
+"To the world's end, if your ladyship condescends so far."  And off
+they went, Lady Grenville wishing that they were going anywhere
+else, but afraid to let Cary go alone; and suspecting, too, that
+some one or other ought to go.
+
+So they went down past the herds of deer, by a trim-kept path into
+the lonely dell where stood the fatal oak; and, as they went, Lady
+Grenville, to avoid more unpleasant talk, poured into Cary's
+unheeding ears the story (which he probably had heard fifty times
+before) how old Chief-justice Hankford (whom some contradictory
+myths make the man who committed Prince Henry to prison for
+striking him on the bench), weary of life and sickened at the
+horrors and desolations of the Wars of the Roses, went down to his
+house at Annery there, and bade his keeper shoot any man who,
+passing through the deer-park at night, should refuse to stand when
+challenged; and then going down into that glen himself, and hiding
+himself beneath that oak, met willingly by his keeper's hand the
+death which his own dared not inflict: but ere the story was half
+done, Cary grasped Lady Grenville's hand so tightly that she gave a
+little shriek of pain.
+
+"There they are!" whispered he, heedless of her; and pointed to the
+oak, where, half hidden by the tall fern, stood Rose and the
+Spaniard.
+
+Her head was on his bosom.  She seemed sobbing, trembling; he
+talking earnestly and passionately; but Lady Grenville's little
+shriek made them both look up.  To turn and try to escape was to
+confess all; and the two, collecting themselves instantly, walked
+towards her, Rose wishing herself fathoms deep beneath the earth.
+
+"Mind, sir," whispered Lady Grenville as they came up; "you have
+seen nothing."
+
+"Madam?"
+
+"If you are not on my ground, you are on my brother's.  Obey me!"
+
+Cary bit his lip, and bowed courteously to the Don.
+
+"I have to congratulate you, I hear, senor, on your approaching
+departure."
+
+"I kiss your hands, senor, in return; but I question whether it be
+a matter of congratulation, considering all that I leave behind."
+
+"So do I," answered Cary, bluntly enough, and the four walked back
+to the house, Lady Grenville taking everything for granted with the
+most charming good humor, and chatting to her three silent
+companions till they gained the terrace once more, and found four
+or five of the gentlemen, with Sir Richard at their head,
+proceeding to the bowling-green.
+
+Lady Grenville, in an agony of fear about the quarrel which she
+knew must come, would have gladly whispered five words to her
+husband: but she dared not do it before the Spaniard, and dreaded,
+too, a faint or a scream from the Rose, whose father was of the
+party.  So she walked on with her fair prisoner, commanding Cary to
+escort them in, and the Spaniard to go to the bowling-green.
+
+Cary obeyed: but he gave her the slip the moment she was inside the
+door, and then darted off to the gentlemen.
+
+His heart was on fire: all his old passion for the Rose had flashed
+up again at the sight of her with a lover;--and that lover a
+Spaniard!  He would cut his throat for him, if steel could do it!
+Only he recollected that Salterne was there, and shrank from
+exposing Rose; and shrank, too, as every gentleman should, from
+making a public quarrel in another man's house.  Never mind.  Where
+there was a will there was a way.  He could get him into a corner,
+and quarrel with him privately about the cut of his beard, or the
+color of his ribbon.  So in he went; and, luckily or unluckily,
+found standing together apart from the rest, Sir Richard, the Don,
+and young St. Leger.
+
+"Well, Don Guzman, you have given us wine-bibbers the slip this
+afternoon.  I hope you have been well employed in the meanwhile?"
+
+"Delightfully to myself, senor," said the Don, who, enraged at
+being interrupted, if not discovered, was as ready to fight as
+Cary, but disliked, of course, an explosion as much as he did; "and
+to others, I doubt not."
+
+"So the ladies say," quoth St. Leger.  "He has been making them all
+cry with one of his stories, and robbing us meanwhile of the
+pleasure we had hoped for from some of his Spanish songs."
+
+"The devil take Spanish songs!" said Cary, in a low voice, but loud
+enough for the Spaniard.  Don Guzman clapt his hand on his sword-
+hilt instantly.
+
+"Lieutenant Cary," said Sir Richard, in a stern voice, "the wine
+has surely made you forget yourself!"
+
+"As sober as yourself, most worshipful knight; but if you want a
+Spanish song, here's one; and a very scurvy one it is, like its
+subject--
+
+
+       "Don Desperado
+        Walked on the Prado,
+     And there he met his enemy.
+        He pulled out a knife, a,
+        And let out his life, a,
+     And fled for his own across the sea."
+
+
+And he bowed low to the Spaniard.
+
+The insult was too gross to require any spluttering.
+
+"Senor Cary, we meet?"
+
+"I thank your quick apprehension, Don Guzman Maria Magdalena
+Sotomayor de Soto.  When, where, and with what weapons?"
+
+"For God's sake, gentlemen!  Nephew Arthur, Cary is your guest; do
+you know the meaning of this?"
+
+St. Leger was silent.  Cary answered for him.
+
+"An old Irish quarrel, I assure you, sir.  A matter of years'
+standing.  In unlacing the senor's helmet, the evening that he was
+taken prisoner, I was unlucky enough to twitch his mustachios.  You
+recollect the fact, of course, senor?"
+
+"Perfectly," said the Spaniard; and then, half-amused and half-
+pleased, in spite of his bitter wrath, at Cary's quickness and
+delicacy in shielding Rose, he bowed, and--
+
+"And it gives me much pleasure to find that he whom I trust to have
+the pleasure of killing tomorrow morning is a gentleman whose nice
+sense of honor renders him thoroughly worthy of the sword of a De
+Soto."
+
+Cary bowed in return, while Sir Richard, who saw plainly enough
+that the excuse was feigned, shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"What weapons, senor?" asked Will again.
+
+"I should have preferred a horse and pistols," said Don Guzman
+after a moment, half to himself, and in Spanish; "they make surer
+work of it than bodkins; but" (with a sigh and one of his smiles)
+"beggars must not be choosers."
+
+"The best horse in my stable is at your service, senor," said Sir
+Richard Grenville, instantly.
+
+"And in mine also, senor," said Cary; "and I shall be happy to
+allow you a week to train him, if he does not answer at first to a
+Spanish hand."
+
+"You forget in your courtesy, gentle sir, that the insult being
+with me, the time lies with me also.  We wipe it off to-morrow
+morning with simple rapiers and daggers.  Who is your second?"
+
+"Mr. Arthur St. Leger here, senor: who is yours?"
+
+The Spaniard felt himself alone in the world for one moment; and
+then answered with another of his smiles,--
+
+"Your nation possesses the soul of honor.  He who fights an
+Englishman needs no second."
+
+"And he who fights among Englishmen will always find one," said Sir
+Richard.  "I am the fittest second for my guest."
+
+"You only add one more obligation, illustrious cavalier, to a two-
+years' prodigality of favors, which I shall never be able to
+repay."
+
+"But, Nephew Arthur," said Grenville, "you cannot surely be second
+against your father's guest, and your own uncle."
+
+"I cannot help it, sir; I am bound by an oath, as Will can tell
+you.  I suppose you won't think it necessary to let me blood?"
+
+"You half deserve it, sirrah!" said Sir Richard, who was very
+angry: but the Don interposed quickly.
+
+"Heaven forbid, senors!  We are no French duellists, who are mad
+enough to make four or six lives answer for the sins of two.  This
+gentleman and I have quarrel enough between us, I suspect, to make
+a right bloody encounter."
+
+"The dependence is good enough, sir," said Cary, licking his sinful
+lips at the thought.  "Very well.  Rapiers and shirts at three
+tomorrow morning--Is that the bill of fare?  Ask Sir Richard where,
+Atty?  It is against punctilio now for me to speak to him till
+after I am killed."
+
+"On the sands opposite.  The tide will be out at three.  And now,
+gallant gentlemen, let us join the bowlers."
+
+And so they went back and spent a merry evening, all except poor
+Rose, who, ere she went back, had poured all her sorrows into Lady
+Grenville's ear.  For the kind woman, knowing that she was
+motherless and guileless, carried her off into Mrs. St. Leger's
+chamber, and there entreated her to tell the truth, and heaped her
+with pity but with no comfort.  For indeed, what comfort was there
+to give?
+
+               .     .     .     .     .     .     .
+
+Three o'clock, upon a still pure bright midsummer morning.  A broad
+and yellow sheet of ribbed tide-sands, through which the shallow
+river wanders from one hill-foot to the other, whispering round
+dark knolls of rock, and under low tree-fringed cliffs, and banks
+of golden broom.  A mile below, the long bridge and the white
+walled town, all sleeping pearly in the soft haze, beneath a
+cloudless vault of blue.  The white glare of dawn, which last night
+hung high in the northwest, has travelled now to the northeast, and
+above the wooded wall of the hills the sky is flushing with rose
+and amber.
+
+A long line of gulls goes wailing up inland; the rooks from Annery
+come cawing and sporting round the corner at Landcross, while high
+above them four or five herons flap solemnly along to find their
+breakfast on the shallows.  The pheasants and partridges are
+clucking merrily in the long wet grass; every copse and hedgerow
+rings with the voice of birds, but the lark, who has been singing
+since midnight in the "blank height of the dark," suddenly hushes
+his carol and drops headlong among the corn, as a broad-winged
+buzzard swings from some wooded peak into the abyss of the valley,
+and hangs high-poised above the heavenward songster.  The air is
+full of perfume; sweet clover, new-mown hay, the fragrant breath of
+kine, the dainty scent of sea-weed wreaths and fresh wet sand.
+Glorious day, glorious place, "bridal of earth and sky," decked
+well with bridal garlands, bridal perfumes, bridal songs,--What do
+those four cloaked figures there by the river brink, a dark spot on
+the fair face of the summer morn?
+
+Yet one is as cheerful as if he too, like all nature round him,
+were going to a wedding; and that is Will Cary.  He has been
+bathing down below, to cool his brain and steady his hand; and he
+intends to stop Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto's
+wooing for ever and a day.  The Spaniard is in a very different
+mood; fierce and haggard, he is pacing up and down the sand.  He
+intends to kill Will Cary; but then?  Will he be the nearer to Rose
+by doing so?  Can he stay in Bideford?  Will she go with him?
+Shall he stoop to stain his family by marrying a burgher's
+daughter?  It is a confused, all but desperate business; and Don
+Guzman is certain but of one thing, that he is madly in love with
+this fair witch, and that if she refuse him, then, rather than see
+her accept another man, he would kill her with his own hands.
+
+Sir Richard Grenville too is in no very pleasant humor, as St.
+Leger soon discovers, when the two seconds begin whispering over
+their arrangements.
+
+"We cannot have either of them killed, Arthur."
+
+"Mr. Cary swears he will kill the Spaniard, sir."
+
+"He sha'n't.  The Spaniard is my guest.  I am answerable for him to
+Leigh, and for his ransom too.  And how can Leigh accept the ransom
+if the man is not given up safe and sound?  They won't pay for a
+dead carcass, boy!  The man's life is worth two hundred pounds."
+
+"A very bad bargain,, sir, for those who pay the said two hundred
+for the rascal; but what if he kills Cary?"
+
+"Worse still.  Cary must not be killed.  I am very angry with him,
+but he is too good a lad to be lost; and his father would never
+forgive us.  We must strike up their swords at the first scratch."
+
+"It will make them very mad, sir."
+
+"Hang them! let them fight us then, if they don't like our counsel.
+It must be, Arthur."
+
+"Be sure, sir," said Arthur, "that whatsoever you shall command I
+shall perform.  It is only too great an honor to a young man as I
+am to find myself in the same duel with your worship, and to have
+the advantage of your wisdom and experience."
+
+Sir Richard smiles, and says--"Now, gentlemen! are you ready?"
+
+The Spaniard pulls out a little crucifix, and kisses it devoutly,
+smiting on his breast; crosses himself two or three times, and
+says--"Most willingly, senor."
+
+Cary kisses no crucifix, but says a prayer nevertheless.
+
+Cloaks and doublets are tossed off, the men placed, the rapiers
+measured hilt and point; Sir Richard and St. Leger place themselves
+right and left of the combatants, facing each other, the points of
+their drawn swords on the sand.  Cary and the Spaniard stand for a
+moment quite upright, their sword-arms stretched straight before
+them, holding the long rapier horizontally, the left hand clutching
+the dagger close to their breasts.  So they stand eye to eye, with
+clenched teeth and pale crushed lips, while men might count a
+score; St. Leger can hear the beating of his own heart; Sir Richard
+is praying inwardly that no life may be lost.  Suddenly there is a
+quick turn of Cary's wrist and a leap forward.  The Spaniard's
+dagger flashes, and the rapier is turned aside; Cary springs six
+feet back as the Spaniard rushes on him in turn.  Parry, thrust,
+parry--the steel rattles, the sparks fly, the men breathe fierce
+and loud; the devil's game is begun in earnest.
+
+Five minutes have the two had instant death a short six inches off
+from those wild sinful hearts of theirs, and not a scratch has been
+given.  Yes! the Spaniard's rapier passes under Cary's left arm; he
+bleeds.
+
+"A hit! a hit!  Strike up, Atty!" and the swords are struck up
+instantly.
+
+Cary, nettled by the smart, tries to close with his foe, but the
+seconds cross their swords before him.
+
+"It is enough, gentlemen.  Don Guzman's honor is satisfied!"
+
+"But not my revenge, senor," says the Spaniard, with a frown.
+"This duel is a l'outrance, on my part; and, I believe, on Mr.
+Cary's also."
+
+"By heaven, it is!" says Will, trying to push past.  "Let me go,
+Arthur St. Leger; one of us must down.  Let me go, I say!"
+
+"If you stir, Mr. Cary, you have to do with Richard Grenville!"
+thunders the lion voice.  "I am angry enough with you for having
+brought on this duel at all.  Don't provoke me still further, young
+hot-head!"
+
+Cary stops sulkily.
+
+"You do not know all, Sir Richard, or you would not speak in this
+way."
+
+"I do, sir, all; and I shall have the honor of talking it over with
+Don Guzman myself."
+
+"Hey!" said the Spaniard.  "You came here as my second, Sir
+Richard, as I understood, but not as my counsellor."
+
+"Arthur, take your man away!  Cary! obey me as you would your
+father, sir!  Can you not trust Richard Grenville?"
+
+"Come away, for God's sake!" says poor Arthur, dragging Cary's
+sword from him; "Sir Richard must know best!"
+
+So Cary is led off sulking, and Sir Richard turns to the Spaniard,
+
+"And now, Don Guzman, allow me, though much against my will, to
+speak to you as a friend to a friend.  You will pardon me if I say
+that I cannot but have seen last night's devotion to--"
+
+"You will be pleased, senor, not to mention the name of any lady to
+whom I may have shown devotion.  I am not accustomed to have my
+little affairs talked over by any unbidden counsellors."
+
+"Well, senor, if you take offence, you take that which is not
+given.  Only I warn you, with all apologies for any seeming
+forwardness, that the quest on which you seem to be is one on which
+you will not be allowed to proceed."
+
+"And who will stop me?" asked the Spaniard, with a fierce oath.
+
+"You are not aware, illustrious senor," said Sir Richard, parrying
+the question, "that our English laity look upon mixed marriages
+with full as much dislike as your own ecclesiastics."
+
+"Marriage, sir?  Who gave you leave to mention that word to me?"
+
+Sir Richard's brow darkened; the Spaniard, in his insane pride, had
+forced upon the good knight a suspicion which was not really just.
+
+"Is it possible, then, Senor Don Guzman, that I am to have the
+shame of mentioning a baser word?"
+
+"Mention what you will, sir.  All words are the same to me; for,
+just or unjust, I shall answer them alike only by my sword."
+
+"You will do no such thing, sir.  You forget that I am your host."
+
+"And do you suppose that you have therefore a right to insult me?
+Stand on your guard, sir!"
+
+Grenville answered by slapping his own rapier home into the sheath
+with a quiet smile.
+
+"Senor Don Guzman must be well enough aware of who Richard
+Grenville is, to know that he may claim the right of refusing duel
+to any man, if he shall so think fit."
+
+"Sir!" cried the Spaniard, with an oath, "this is too much!  Do you
+dare to hint that I am unworthy of your sword?  Know, insolent
+Englishman, I am not merely a De Soto, though that, by St. James,
+were enough for you or any man.  I am a Sotomayor, a Mendoza, a
+Bovadilla, a Losada, a--sir! I have blood royal in my veins, and
+you dare to refuse my challenge?"
+
+"Richard Grenville can show quarterings, probably, against even Don
+Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto, or against (with no
+offence to the unquestioned nobility of your pedigree) the bluest
+blood of Spain.  But he can show, moreover, thank God, a reputation
+which raises him as much above the imputation of cowardice, as it
+does above that of discourtesy.  If you think fit, senor, to forget
+what you have just, in very excusable anger, vented, and to return
+with me, you will find me still, as ever, your most faithful
+servant and host.  If otherwise, you have only to name whither you
+wish your mails to be sent, and I shall, with unfeigned sorrow,
+obey your commands concerning them."
+
+The Spaniard bowed stiffly, answered, "To the nearest tavern,
+senor," and then strode away.  His baggage was sent thither.  He
+took a boat down to Appledore that very afternoon, and vanished,
+none knew whither.  A very courteous note to Lady Grenville,
+enclosing the jewel which he had been used to wear round his neck,
+was the only memorial he left behind him: except, indeed, the scar
+on Cary's arm, and poor Rose's broken heart.
+
+Now county towns are scandalous places at best; and though all
+parties tried to keep the duel secret, yet, of course, before noon
+all Bideford knew what had happened, and a great deal more; and
+what was even worse, Rose, in an agony of terror, had seen Sir
+Richard Grenville enter her father's private room, and sit there
+closeted with him for an hour and more; and when he went, upstairs
+came old Salterne, with his stick in his hand, and after rating her
+soundly for far worse than a flirt, gave her (I am sorry to have to
+say it, but such was the mild fashion of paternal rule in those
+times, even over such daughters as Lady Jane Grey, if Roger Ascham
+is to be believed) such a beating that her poor sides were black
+and blue for many a day; and then putting her on a pillion behind
+him, carried her off twenty miles to her old prison at Stow mill,
+commanding her aunt to tame down her saucy blood with bread of
+affliction and water of affliction.  Which commands were willingly
+enough fulfilled by the old dame, who had always borne a grudge
+against Rose for being rich while she was poor, and pretty while
+her daughter was plain; so that between flouts, and sneers, and
+watchings, and pretty open hints that she was a disgrace to her
+family, and no better than she should be, the poor innocent child
+watered her couch with her tears for a fortnight or more,
+stretching out her hands to the wide Atlantic, and calling wildly
+to Don Guzman to return and take her where he would, and she would
+live for him and die for him; and perhaps she did not call in vain.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+HOW THE GOLDEN HIND CAME HOME AGAIN
+
+
+     "The spirits of your fathers
+        Shall start from every wave;
+      For the deck it was their field of fame,
+        And ocean was their grave."
+
+                                  CAMPBELL.
+
+
+So you see, my dear Mrs. Hawkins, having the silver, as your own
+eyes show you, beside the ores of lead, manganese, and copper, and
+above all this gossan (as the Cornish call it), which I suspect to
+be not merely the matrix of the ore, but also the very crude form
+and materia prima of all metals--you mark me?--If my recipes, which
+I had from Doctor Dee, succeed only half so well as I expect, then
+I refine out the luna, the silver, lay it by, and transmute the
+remaining ores into sol, gold.  Whereupon Peru and Mexico become
+superfluities, and England the mistress of the globe.  Strange, no
+doubt; distant, no doubt: but possible, my dear madam, possible!"
+
+"And what good to you if it be, Mr. Gilbert?  If you could find a
+philosopher's stone to turn sinners into saints, now--but naught
+save God's grace can do that; and that last seems ofttimes over
+long in coming."  And Mrs. Hawkins sighed.
+
+"But indeed, my dear madam, conceive now.--The Comb Martin mine
+thus becomes a gold mine, perhaps inexhaustible; yields me
+wherewithal to carry out my North-West patent; meanwhile my brother
+Humphrey holds Newfoundland, and builds me fresh ships year by year
+(for the forests of pine are boundless) for my China voyage."
+
+"Sir Humphrey has better thoughts in his dear heart than gold, Mr.
+Adrian; a very close and gracious walker he has been this seven
+year.  I wish my Captain John were so too."
+
+"And how do you know I have naught better in my mind's eye than
+gold?  Or, indeed, what better could I have?  Is not gold the
+Spaniard's strength--the very mainspring of Antichrist?  By gold
+only, therefore, can we out-wrestle him.  You shake your head, but
+say, dear madam (for gold England must have), which is better, to
+make gold bloodlessly at home, or take it bloodily abroad?"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Gilbert! is it not written, that those who
+make haste to be rich, pierce themselves through with many sorrows?
+Oh, Mr. Gilbert! God's blessing is not on it all."
+
+"Not on you, madam?  Be sure that brave Captain John Hawkins's star
+told me a different tale, when I cast his nativity for him.--Born
+under stormy planets, truly, but under right royal and fortunate
+ones."
+
+"Ah, Mr. Adrian! I am a simple body, and you a great philosopher,
+but I hold there is no star for the seaman like the Star of
+Bethlehem; and that goes with 'peace on earth and good will to
+men,' and not with such arms as that, Mr. Adrian.  I can't abide to
+look upon them."
+
+And she pointed up to one of the bosses of the ribbed oak-roof, on
+which was emblazoned the fatal crest which Clarencieux Hervey had
+granted years before to her husband, the "Demi-Moor proper, bound."
+
+"Ah, Mr. Gilbert! since first he went to Guinea after those poor
+negroes, little lightness has my heart known; and the very day that
+that crest was put up in our grand new house, as the parson read
+the first lesson, there was this text in it, Mr. Gilbert, 'Woe to
+him that buildeth his house by iniquity, and his chambers by wrong.
+Shalt thou live because thou closest thyself in cedar?'  And it
+went into my ears like fire, Mr. Gilbert, and into my heart like
+lead; and when the parson went on, 'Did not thy father eat and
+drink, and do judgment and justice?  Then it was well with him,' I
+thought of good old Captain Will; and--I tell you, Mr. Gilbert,
+those negroes are on my soul from morning until night!  We are all
+mighty grand now, and money comes in fast, but the Lord will
+require the blood of them at our hands yet, He will!"
+
+"My dearest madam, who can prosper more than you?  If your husband
+copied the Dons too closely once or twice in the matter of those
+negroes (which I do not deny,) was he not punished at once when he
+lost ships, men, all but life, at St. Juan d'Ulloa?"
+
+"Ay, yes," she said; "and that did give me a bit of comfort,
+especially when the queen--God save her tender heart!--was so sharp
+with him for pity of the poor wretches, but it has not mended him.
+He is growing fast like the rest now, Mr. Gilbert, greedy to win,
+and niggardly to spend (God forgive him!) and always fretting and
+plotting for some new gain, and envying and grudging at Drake, and
+all who are deeper in the snare of prosperity than he is.  Gold,
+gold, nothing but gold in every mouth--there it is!  Ah! I mind
+when Plymouth was a quiet little God-fearing place as God could
+smile upon: but ever since my John, and Sir Francis, and poor Mr.
+Oxenham found out the way to the Indies, it's been a sad place.
+Not a sailor's wife but is crying 'Give, give,' like the daughters
+of the horse-leech; and every woman must drive her husband out
+across seas to bring her home money to squander on hoods and
+farthingales, and go mincing with outstretched necks and wanton
+eyes; and they will soon learn to do worse than that, for the sake
+of gain.  But the Lord's hand will be against their tires and
+crisping-pins, their mufflers and farthingales, as it was against
+the Jews of old.  Ah, dear me!"
+
+The two interlocutors in this dialogue were sitting in a low oak-
+panelled room in Plymouth town, handsomely enough furnished,
+adorned with carving and gilding and coats of arms, and noteworthy
+for many strange knickknacks, Spanish gold and silver vessels on
+the sideboard; strange birds and skins, and charts and rough
+drawings of coast which hung about the room; while over the
+fireplace, above the portrait of old Captain Will Hawkins, pet of
+Henry the Eighth, hung the Spanish ensign which Captain John had
+taken in fair fight at Rio de la Hacha fifteen years before, when,
+with two hundred men, he seized the town in despite of ten hundred
+Spanish soldiers, and watered his ship triumphantly at the enemy's
+wells.
+
+The gentleman was a tall fair man, with a broad and lofty forehead,
+wrinkled with study, and eyes weakened by long poring over the
+crucible and the furnace.
+
+The lady had once been comely enough, but she was aged and worn, as
+sailors' wives are apt to be, by many sorrows.  Many a sad day had
+she had already; for although John Hawkins, port-admiral of
+Plymouth, and patriarch of British shipbuilders, was a faithful
+husband enough, and as ready to forgive as he was to quarrel, yet
+he was obstinate and ruthless, and in spite of his religiosity (for
+all men were religious then) was by no means a "consistent walker."
+
+And sadder days were in store for her, poor soul.  Nine years hence
+she would be asked to name her son's brave new ship, and would
+christen it The Repentance, giving no reason in her quiet steadfast
+way (so says her son Sir Richard) but that "Repentance was the best
+ship in which we could sail to the harbor of heaven;" and she would
+hear that Queen Elizabeth, complaining of the name for an unlucky
+one, had re-christened her The Dainty, not without some by-quip,
+perhaps, at the character of her most dainty captain, Richard
+Hawkins, the complete seaman and Euphuist afloat, of whom, perhaps,
+more hereafter.
+
+With sad eyes Mrs. (then Lady) Hawkins would see that gallant bark
+sail Westward-ho, to go the world around, as many another ship
+sailed; and then wait, as many a mother beside had waited, for the
+sail which never returned; till, dim and uncertain, came tidings of
+her boy fighting for four days three great Armadas (for the coxcomb
+had his father's heart in him after all), a prisoner, wounded,
+ruined, languishing for weary years in Spanish prisons.  And a
+sadder day than that was in store, when a gallant fleet should
+round the Ram Head, not with drum and trumpet, but with solemn
+minute-guns, and all flags half-mast high, to tell her that her
+terrible husband's work was done, his terrible heart broken by
+failure and fatigue, and his body laid by Drake's beneath the far-
+off tropic seas.
+
+And if, at the close of her eventful life, one gleam of sunshine
+opened for a while, when her boy Richard returned to her bosom from
+his Spanish prison, to be knighted for his valor, and made a privy
+councillor for his wisdom; yet soon, how soon, was the old cloud to
+close in again above her, until her weary eyes should open in the
+light of Paradise.  For that son dropped dead, some say at the very
+council-table, leaving behind him naught but broken fortunes, and
+huge purposes which never were fulfilled; and the stormy star of
+that bold race was set forever, and Lady Hawkins bowed her weary
+head and died, the groan of those stolen negroes ringing in her
+ears, having lived long enough to see her husband's youthful sin
+become a national institution, and a national curse for generations
+yet unborn.
+
+I know not why she opened her heart that night to Adrian Gilbert,
+with a frankness which she would hardly have dared to use to her
+own family.  Perhaps it was that Adrian, like his great brothers,
+Humphrey and Raleigh, was a man full of all lofty and delicate
+enthusiasms, tender and poetical, such as women cling to when their
+hearts are lonely; but so it was; and Adrian, half ashamed of his
+own ambitious dreams, sate looking at her a while in silence; and
+then--
+
+"The Lord be with you, dearest lady.  Strange, how you women sit at
+home to love and suffer, while we men rush forth to break our
+hearts and yours against rocks of our own seeking!  Ah well! were
+it not for Scripture, I should have thought that Adam, rather than
+Eve, had been the one who plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree."
+
+"We women, I fear; did the deed nevertheless; for we bear the doom
+of it our lives long."
+
+"You always remind me, madam, of my dear Mrs. Leigh of Burrough,
+and her counsels."
+
+"Do you see her often?  I hear of her as one of the Lord's most
+precious vessels."
+
+"I would have done more ere now than see her," said he with a
+blush, "had she allowed me: but she lives only for the memory of
+her husband and the fame of her noble sons."
+
+As he spoke the door opened, and in walked, wrapped in his rough
+sea-gown, none other than one of those said noble sons.
+
+Adrian turned pale.
+
+"Amyas Leigh!  What brings you hither? how fares my brother?  Where
+is the ship?"
+
+"Your brother is well, Mr. Gilbert.  The Golden Hind is gone on to
+Dartmouth, with Mr. Hayes.  I came ashore here, meaning to go north
+to Bideford, ere I went to London.  I called at Drake's just now,
+but he was away."
+
+"The Golden Hind?  What brings her home so soon?"
+
+"Yet welcome ever, sir," said Mrs. Hawkins.  "This is a great
+surprise, though.  Captain John did not look for you till next
+year."
+
+Amyas was silent.
+
+"Something is wrong!" cried Adrian.  "Speak!"
+
+Amyas tried, but could not.
+
+"Will you drive a man mad, sir?  Has the adventure failed?  You
+said my brother was well."
+
+"He is well."
+
+"Then what--  Why do you look at me in that fashion, sir?" and
+springing up, Adrian rushed forward, and held the candle to Amyas's
+face.
+
+Amyas's lip quivered, as he laid his hand on Adrian's shoulder.
+
+"Your great and glorious brother, sir, is better bestowed than in
+settling Newfoundland."
+
+"Dead?" shrieked Adrian.
+
+"He is with the God whom he served!"
+
+"He was always with Him, like Enoch: parable me no parables, if you
+love me, sir!"
+
+"And, like Enoch, he was not; for God took him."
+
+Adrian clasped his hands over his forehead, and leaned against the
+table.
+
+"Go on, sir, go on.  God will give me strength to hear all."
+
+And gradually Amyas opened to Adrian that tragic story, which Mr.
+Hayes has long ago told far too well to allow a second edition of
+it from me: of the unruliness of the men, ruffians, as I said
+before, caught up at hap-hazard; of conspiracies to carry off the
+ships, plunder of fishing vessels, desertions multiplying daily;
+licenses from the general to the lazy and fearful to return home:
+till Adrian broke out with a groan--
+
+"From him?  Conspired against him?  Deserted from him?  Dotards,
+buzzards!  Where would they have found such another leader?"
+
+"Your illustrious brother, sir," said Amyas, "if you will pardon
+me, was a very great philosopher, but not so much of a general."
+
+"General, sir?  Where was braver man?"
+
+"Not on God's earth, but that does not make a general, sir.  If
+Cortez had been brave and no more, Mexico would have been Mexico
+still.  The truth is, sir, Cortez, like my Captain Drake, knew when
+to hang a man; and your great brother did not."
+
+Amyas, as I suppose, was right.  Gilbert was a man who could be
+angry enough at baseness or neglect, but who was too kindly to
+punish it; he was one who could form the wisest and best-digested
+plans, but who could not stoop to that hail-fellow-well-met
+drudgery among his subordinates which has been the talisman of
+great captains.
+
+Then Amyas went on to tell the rest of his story; the setting sail
+from St. John's to discover the southward coast; Sir Humphrey's
+chivalrous determination to go in the little Squirrel of only ten
+tons, and "overcharged with nettings, fights, and small ordnance,"
+not only because she was more fit to examine the creeks, but
+because he had heard of some taunt against him among the men, that
+he was afraid of the sea.
+
+After that, woe on woe; how, seven days after they left Cape Raz,
+their largest ship, the Delight, after she had "most part of the
+night" (I quote Hayes), "like the swan that singeth before her
+death, continued in sounding of trumpets, drums, and fifes, also
+winding of the comets and hautboys, and, in the end of their
+jollity, left off with the battle and doleful knells," struck the
+next day (the Golden Hind and the Squirrel sheering off just in
+time) upon unknown shoals; where were lost all but fourteen, and
+among them Frank's philosopher friend, poor Budaeus; and those who
+escaped, after all horrors of cold and famine, were cast on shore
+in Newfoundland.  How, worn out with hunger and want of clothes,
+the crews of the two remaining ships persuaded Sir Humphrey to sail
+toward England on the 31st of August; and on "that very instant,
+even in winding about," beheld close alongside "a very lion in
+shape, hair, and color, not swimming, but sliding on the water,
+with his whole body; who passed along, turning his head to and fro,
+yawning and gaping wide, with ugly demonstration of long teeth and
+glaring eyes; and to bid us farewell (coming right against the
+Hind) he sent forth a horrible voice, roaring or bellowing as doth
+a lion."  "What opinion others had thereof, and chiefly the general
+himself, I forbear to deliver; but he took it for bonum omen,
+rejoicing that he was to war against such an enemy, if it were the
+devil."
+
+"And the devil it was, doubtless," said Adrian, "the roaring lion
+who goes about seeking whom he may devour."
+
+"He has not got your brother, at least," quoth Amyas.
+
+"No," rejoined Mrs. Hawkins (smile not, reader, for those were days
+in which men believed in the devil); "he roared for joy to think
+how many poor souls would be left still in heathen darkness by Sir
+Humphrey's death.  God be with that good knight, and send all
+mariners where he is now!"
+
+Then Amyas told the last scene; how, when they were off the Azores,
+the storms came on heavier than ever, with "terrible seas, breaking
+short and pyramid-wise," till, on the 9th September, the tiny
+Squirrel nearly foundered and yet recovered; "and the general,
+sitting abaft with a book in his hand, cried out to us in the Hind
+so oft as we did approach within hearing, 'We are as near heaven by
+sea as by land,' reiterating the same speech, well beseeming a
+soldier resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testify he was.
+
+"The same Monday, about twelve of the clock, or not long after, the
+frigate (the Squirrel) being ahead of us in the Golden Hind,
+suddenly her lights were out; and withal our watch cried, the
+general was cast away, which was true; for in that moment the
+frigate was devoured and swallowed up of the sea."
+
+And so ended (I have used Hayes' own words) Amyas Leigh's story.
+
+"Oh, my brother! my brother!" moaned poor Adrian; "the glory of his
+house, the glory of Devon!"
+
+"Ah! what will the queen say?" asked Mrs. Hawkins through her
+tears.
+
+"Tell me," asked Adrian, "had he the jewel on when he died?"
+
+"The queen's jewel?  He always wore that, and his own posy too,
+'Mutare vel timere sperno.'  He wore it; and he lived it."
+
+"Ay," said Adrian, "the same to the last!"
+
+"Not quite that," said Amyas.  "He was a meeker man latterly than
+he used to be.  As he said himself once, a better refiner than any
+whom he had on board had followed him close all the seas over, and
+purified him in the fire.  And gold seven times tried he was, when
+God, having done His work in him, took him home at last."
+
+And so the talk ended.  There was no doubt that the expedition had
+been an utter failure; Adrian was a ruined man; and Amyas had lost
+his venture.
+
+Adrian rose, and begged leave to retire; he must collect himself.
+
+"Poor gentleman!" said Mrs. Hawkins; "it is little else he has left
+to collect."
+
+"Or I either," said Amyas.  "I was going to ask you to lend me one
+of your son's shirts, and five pounds to get myself and my men
+home."
+
+"Five?  Fifty, Mr. Leigh!  God forbid that John Hawkins's wife
+should refuse her last penny to a distressed mariner, and he a
+gentleman born.  But you must eat and drink."
+
+"It's more than I have done for many a day worth speaking of."
+
+And Amyas sat down in his rags to a good supper, while Mrs. Hawkins
+told him all the news which she could of his mother, whom Adrian
+Gilbert had seen a few months before in London; and then went on,
+naturally enough, to the Bideford news.
+
+"And by the by, Captain Leigh, I've sad news for you from your
+place; and I had it from one who was there at the time.  You must
+know a Spanish captain, a prisoner--"
+
+"What, the one I sent home from Smerwick?"
+
+"You sent?  Mercy on us!  Then, perhaps, you've heard--"
+
+"How can I have heard?  What?"
+
+"That he's gone off, the villain?"
+
+"Without paying his ransom?"
+
+"I can't say that; but there's a poor innocent young maid gone off
+with him, one Salterne's daughter--the Popish serpent!"
+
+"Rose Salterne, the mayor's daughter, the Rose of Torridge!"
+
+"That's her.  Bless your dear soul, what ails you?"
+
+Amyas had dropped back in his seat as if he had been shot; but he
+recovered himself before kind Mrs. Hawkins could rush to the
+cupboard for cordials.
+
+"You'll forgive me, madam; but I'm weak from the sea; and your good
+ale has turned me a bit dizzy, I think."
+
+"Ay, yes, 'tis too, too heavy, till you've been on shore a while.
+Try the aqua vitae; my Captain John has it right good; and a bit
+too fond of it too, poor dear soul, between whiles, Heaven forgive
+him!"
+
+So she poured some strong brandy and water down Amyas's throat, in
+spite of his refusals, and sent him to bed, but not to sleep; and
+after a night of tossing, he started for Bideford, having obtained
+the means for so doing from Mrs. Hawkins.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+HOW SALVATION YEO SLEW THE KING OF THE GUBBINGS
+
+
+"Ignorance and evil, even in full flight, deal terrible backhanded
+strokes at their pursuers."--HELPS.
+
+
+Now I am sorry to say, for the honor of my country, that it was by
+no means a safe thing in those days to travel from Plymouth to the
+north of Devon; because, to get to your journey's end, unless you
+were minded to make a circuit of many miles, you must needs pass
+through the territory of a foreign and hostile potentate, who had
+many times ravaged the dominions, and defeated the forces of her
+Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and was named (behind his back at least)
+the King of the Gubbings.  "So now I dare call them," says Fuller,
+"secured by distance, which one of more valor durst not do to their
+face, for fear their fury fall upon him.  Yet hitherto have I met
+with none who could render a reason of their name.  We call the
+shavings of fish (which are little worth) gubbings; and sure it is
+that they are sensible that the word importeth shame and disgrace.
+
+"As for the suggestion of my worthy and learned friend, Mr. Joseph
+Maynard, that such as did inhabitare montes gibberosos, were called
+Gubbings, such will smile at the ingenuity who dissent from the
+truth of the etymology.
+
+"I have read of an England beyond Wales, but the Gubbings land is a
+Scythia within England, and they pure heathens therein.  It lieth
+nigh Brent.  For in the edge of Dartmoor it is reported that, some
+two hundred years since, two bad women, being with child, fled
+thither to hide themselves; to whom certain lewd fellows resorted,
+and this was their first original.  They are a peculiar of their
+own making, exempt from bishop, archdeacon, and all authority,
+either ecclesiastical or civil.  They live in cots (rather holes
+than houses) like swine, having all in common, multiplied without
+marriage into many hundreds.  Their language is the dross of the
+dregs of the vulgar Devonian; and the more learned a man is, the
+worse he can understand them.  During our civil wars no soldiers
+were quartered upon them, for fear of being quartered amongst them.
+Their wealth consisteth in other men's goods; they live by stealing
+the sheep on the moors; and vain is it for any to search their
+houses, being a work beneath the pains of any sheriff, and above
+the power of any constable.  Such is their fleetness, they will
+outrun many horses; vivaciousness, they outlive most men; living in
+an ignorance of luxury, the extinguisher of life.  They hold
+together like bees; offend one, and all will revenge his quarrel.
+
+"But now I am informed that they begin to be civilized, and tender
+their children to baptism, and return to be men, yea, Christians
+again.  I hope no CIVIL people amongst us will turn barbarians, now
+these barbarians begin to be civilized."*
+
+
+* Fuller, p. 398.
+
+
+With which quip against the Anabaptists of his day, Fuller ends his
+story; and I leave him to set forth how Amyas, in fear of these
+same Scythians and heathens, rode out of Plymouth on a right good
+horse, in his full suit of armor, carrying lance and sword, and
+over and above two great dags, or horse-pistols; and behind him
+Salvation Yeo, and five or six north Devon men (who had served with
+him in Ireland, and were returning on furlough), clad in head-
+pieces and quilted jerkins, each man with his pike and sword, and
+Yeo with arquebuse and match, while two sumpter ponies carried the
+baggage of this formidable troop.
+
+They pushed on as fast as they could, through Tavistock, to reach
+before nightfall Lydford, where they meant to sleep; but what with
+buying the horses, and other delays, they had not been able to
+start before noon; and night fell just as they reached the
+frontiers of the enemy's country.  A dreary place enough it was, by
+the wild glare of sunset.  A high tableland of heath, banked on the
+right by the crags and hills of Dartmoor, and sloping away to the
+south and west toward the foot of the great cone of Brent-Tor,
+which towered up like an extinct volcano (as some say that it
+really is), crowned with the tiny church, the votive offering of
+some Plymouth merchant of old times, who vowed in sore distress to
+build a church to the Blessed Virgin on the first point of English
+land which he should see.  Far away, down those waste slopes, they
+could see the tiny threads of blue smoke rising from the dens of
+the Gubbings; and more than once they called a halt, to examine
+whether distant furze-bushes and ponies might not be the patrols of
+an advancing army.  It is all very well to laugh at it now, in the
+nineteenth century, but it was no laughing matter then; as they
+found before they had gone two miles farther.
+
+On the middle of the down stood a wayside inn; a desolate and
+villainous-looking lump of lichen-spotted granite, with windows
+paper-patched, and rotting thatch kept down by stones and straw-
+banks; and at the back a rambling court-ledge of barns and walls,
+around which pigs and barefoot children grunted in loving communion
+of dirt.  At the door, rapt apparently in the contemplation of the
+mountain peaks which glowed rich orange in the last lingering sun-
+rays, but really watching which way the sheep on the moor were
+taking, stood the innkeeper, a brawny, sodden-visaged, blear-eyed
+six feet of brutishness, holding up his hose with one hand, for
+want of points, and clawing with the other his elf-locks, on which
+a fair sprinkling of feathers might denote: first, that he was just
+out of bed, having been out sheep-stealing all the night before;
+and secondly, that by natural genius he had anticipated the opinion
+of that great apostle of sluttishness, Fridericus Dedekind, and his
+faithful disciple Dekker, which last speaks thus to all gulls and
+grobians: "Consider that as those trees of cobweb lawn, woven by
+spinners in the fresh May mornings, do dress the curled heads of
+the mountains, and adorn the swelling bosoms of the valleys; or as
+those snowy fleeces, which the naked briar steals from the innocent
+sheep to make himself a warm winter livery, are, to either of them
+both, an excellent ornament; so make thou account, that to have
+feathers sticking here and there on thy head will embellish thee,
+and set thy crown out rarely.  None dare upbraid thee, that like a
+beggar thou hast lain on straw, or like a travelling pedlar upon
+musty flocks; for those feathers will rise up as witnesses to choke
+him that says so, and to prove thy bed to have been of the softest
+down."  Even so did those feathers bear witness that the possessor
+of Rogues' Harbor Inn, on Brent-Tor Down, whatever else he lacked,
+lacked not geese enough to keep him in soft lying.
+
+Presently he spies Amyas and his party coming slowly over the hill,
+pricks up his ears, and counts them; sees Amyas's armor; shakes his
+head and grunts; and then, being a man of few words, utters a
+sleepy howl--
+
+"Mirooi!--Fushing pooale!"
+
+A strapping lass--whose only covering (for country women at work in
+those days dispensed with the ornament of a gown) is a green bodice
+and red petticoat, neither of them over ample--brings out his
+fishing-rod and basket, and the man, having tied up his hose with
+some ends of string, examines the footlink.
+
+"Don vlies' gone!"
+
+"May be," says Mary; "shouldn't hay' left mun out to coort.  May be
+old hen's ate mun off.  I see her chocking about a while agone."
+
+The host receives this intelligence with an oath, and replies by a
+violent blow at Mary's head, which she, accustomed to such slight
+matters, dodges, and then returns the blow with good effect on the
+shock head.
+
+Whereon mine host, equally accustomed to such slight matters,
+quietly shambles off, howling as he departs--
+
+"Tell Patrico!"
+
+Mary runs in, combs her hair, slips a pair of stockings and her
+best gown over her dirt, and awaits the coming guests, who make a
+few long faces at the "mucksy sort of a place," but prefer to spend
+the night there than to bivouac close to the enemy's camp.
+
+So the old hen who has swallowed the dun fly is killed, plucked,
+and roasted, and certain "black Dartmoor mutton" is put on the
+gridiron, and being compelled to confess the truth by that fiery
+torment, proclaims itself to all noses as red-deer venison.  In the
+meanwhile Amyas has put his horse and the ponies into a shed, to
+which he can find neither lock nor key, and therefore returns
+grumbling, not without fear for his steed's safety.  The baggage is
+heaped in a corner of the room, and Amyas stretches his legs before
+a turf fire; while Yeo, who has his notions about the place, posts
+himself at the door, and the men are seized with a desire to
+superintend the cooking, probably to be attributed to the fact that
+Mary is cook.
+
+Presently Yeo comes in again.
+
+"There's a gentleman just coming up, sir, all alone."
+
+"Ask him to make one of our party, then, with my compliments." Yeo
+goes out, and returns in five minutes.
+
+"Please, sir, he's gone in back ways, by the court."
+
+"Well, he has an odd taste, if he makes himself at home here."
+
+Out goes Yeo again, and comes back once more after five minutes, in
+high excitement.
+
+"Come out, sir; for goodness' sake come out.  I've got him.  Safe
+as a rat in a trap, I have!"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"A Jesuit, sir."
+
+"Nonsense, man!"
+
+"I tell you truth, sir.  I went round the house, for I didn't like
+the looks of him as he came up.  I knew he was one of them villains
+the minute he came up, by the way he turned in his toes, and put
+down his feet so still and careful, like as if he was afraid of
+offending God at every step.  So I just put my eye between the wall
+and the dern of the gate, and I saw him come up to the back door
+and knock, and call 'Mary!' quite still, like any Jesuit; and the
+wench flies out to him ready to eat him; and 'Go away,' I heard her
+say, 'there's a dear man;' and then something about a 'queer
+cuffin' (that's a justice in these canters' thieves' Latin); and
+with that he takes out a somewhat--I'll swear it was one of those
+Popish Agnuses--and gives it her; and she kisses it, and crosses
+herself, and asks him if that's the right way, and then puts it
+into her bosom, and he says, 'Bless you, my daughter;' and then I
+was sure of the dog: and he slips quite still to the stable, and
+peeps in, and when he sees no one there, in he goes, and out I go,
+and shut to the door, and back a cart that was there up against it,
+and call out one of the men to watch the stable, and the girl's
+crying like mad."
+
+"What a fool's trick, man!  How do you know that he is not some
+honest gentleman, after all?"
+
+"Fool or none, sir; honest gentlemen don't give maidens Agnuses.
+I've put him in; and if you want him let out again, you must come
+and do it yourself, for my conscience is against it, sir.  If the
+Lord's enemies are delivered into my hand, I'm answerable, sir,"
+went on Yeo as Amyas hurried out with him.  "'Tis written, 'If any
+let one of them go, his life shall be for the life of him.'"
+
+So Amyas ran out, pulled back the cart grumbling, opened the door,
+and began a string of apologies to--his cousin Eustace.
+
+Yes, here he was, with such a countenance, half foolish, half
+venomous, as reynard wears when the last spadeful of earth is
+thrown back, and he is revealed sitting disconsolately on his tail
+within a yard of the terriers' noses.
+
+Neither cousin spoke for a minute or two.  At last Amyas--
+
+"Well, cousin hide-and-seek, how long have you added horse-stealing
+to your other trades?"
+
+"My dear Amyas," said Eustace, very meekly, "I may surely go into
+an inn stable without intending to steal what is in it."
+
+"Of course, old fellow," said Amyas, mollified, I was only in jest.
+But what brings you here?  Not prudence, certainly."
+
+"I am bound to know no prudence save for the Lord's work."
+
+"That's giving away Agnus Deis, and deceiving poor heathen wenches,
+I suppose," said Yeo.
+
+Eustace answered pretty roundly--
+
+"Heathens?  Yes, truly; you Protestants leave these poor wretches
+heathens, and then insult and persecute those who, with a devotion
+unknown to you, labor at the danger of their lives to make them
+Christians.  Mr. Amyas Leigh, you can give me up to be hanged at
+Exeter, if it shall so please you to disgrace your own family; but
+from this spot neither you, no, nor all the myrmidons of your
+queen, shall drive me, while there is a soul here left unsaved."
+
+"Come out of the stable, at least," said Amyas; "you don't want to
+make the horses Papists, as well as the asses, do you?  Come out,
+man, and go to the devil your own way.  I sha'n't inform against
+you; and Yeo here will hold his tongue if I tell him, I know."
+
+"It goes sorely against my conscience, sir; but being that he is
+your cousin, of course--"
+
+"Of course; and now come in and eat with me; supper's just ready,
+and bygones shall be bygones, if you will have them so."
+
+How much forgiveness Eustace felt in his heart, I know not: but he
+knew, of course, that he ought to forgive; and to go in and eat
+with Amyas was to perform an act of forgiveness, and for the best
+of motives, too, for by it the cause of the Church might be
+furthered; and acts and motives being correct, what more was
+needed?  So in he went; and yet he never forgot that scar upon his
+cheek; and Amyas could not look him in the face but Eustace must
+fancy that his eyes were on the scar, and peep up from under his
+lids to see if there was any smile of triumph on that honest
+visage.  They talked away over the venison, guardedly enough at
+first; but as they went on, Amyas's straightforward kindliness
+warmed poor Eustace's frozen heart; and ere they were aware, they
+found themselves talking over old haunts and old passages of their
+boyhood--uncles, aunts, and cousins; and Eustace, without any
+sinister intention, asked Amyas why he was going to Bideford, while
+Frank and his mother were in London.
+
+"To tell you the truth, I cannot rest till I have heard the whole
+story about poor Rose Salterne."
+
+"What about her?" cried Eustace.
+
+"Do you not know?"
+
+"How should I know anything here?  For heaven's sake, what has
+happened?"
+
+Amyas told him, wondering at his eagerness, for he had never had
+the least suspicion of Eustace's love.
+
+Eustace shrieked aloud.
+
+"Fool, fool that I have been!  Caught in my own trap!  Villain,
+villain that he is!  After all he promised me at Lundy!"
+
+And springing up, Eustace stamped up and down the room, gnashing
+his teeth, tossing his head from side to side, and clutching with
+outstretched hands at the empty air, with the horrible gesture
+(Heaven grant that no reader has ever witnessed it!) of that
+despair which still seeks blindly for the object which it knows is
+lost forever.
+
+Amyas sat thunderstruck.  His first impulse was to ask, "Lundy?
+What knew you of him?  What had he or you to do at Lundy?" but pity
+conquered curiosity.
+
+"Oh, Eustace!  And you then loved her too?"
+
+"Don't speak to me!  Loved her?  Yes, sir, and had as good a right
+to love her as any one of your precious Brotherhood of the Rose.
+Don't speak to me, I say, or I shall do you a mischief!"
+
+So Eustace knew of the brotherhood too!  Amyas longed to ask him
+how; but what use in that?  If he knew it, he knew it; and what
+harm?  So he only answered:
+
+"My good cousin, why be wroth with me?  If you really love her, now
+is the time to take counsel with me how best we shall--"
+
+Eustace did not let him finish his sentence.  Conscious that he had
+betrayed himself upon more points than one, he stopped short in his
+walk, suddenly collected himself by one great effort, and eyed
+Amyas from underneath his brows with the old down look.
+
+"How best we shall do what, my valiant cousin?" said he, in a
+meaning and half-scornful voice.  "What does your most chivalrous
+Brotherhood of the Rose purpose in such a case?"
+
+Amyas, a little nettled, stood on his guard in return, and answered
+bluntly--
+
+"What the Brotherhood of the Rose will do, I can't yet say.  What
+it ought to do, I have a pretty sure guess."
+
+"So have I.  To hunt her down as you would an outlaw, because
+forsooth she has dared to love a Catholic; to murder her lover in
+her arms, and drag her home again stained with his blood, to be
+forced by threats and persecution to renounce that Church into
+whose maternal bosom she has doubtless long since found rest and
+holiness!"
+
+"If she has found holiness, it matters little to me where she has
+found it, Master Eustace, but that is the very point that I should
+be glad to know for certain."
+
+"And you will go and discover for yourself?"
+
+"Have you no wish to discover it also?"
+
+"And if I had, what would that be to you?"
+
+"Only," said Amyas, trying hard to keep his temper, "that, if we
+had the same purpose, we might sail in the same ship."
+
+"You intend to sail, then?"
+
+"I mean simply, that we might work together."
+
+"Our paths lie on very different roads, sir!"
+
+"I am afraid you never spoke a truer word, sir.  In the meanwhile,
+ere we part, be so kind as to tell me what you meant by saying that
+you had met this Spaniard at Lundy?"
+
+"I shall refuse to answer that."
+
+"You will please to recollect, Eustace, that however good friends
+we have been for the last half-hour, you are in my power.  I have a
+right to know the bottom of this matter; and, by heaven, I will
+know it."
+
+"In your power?  See that you are not in mine!  Remember, sir, that
+you are within a--within a few miles, at least, of those who will
+obey me, their Catholic benefactor, but who owe no allegiance to
+those Protestant authorities who have left them to the lot of the
+beasts which perish."
+
+Amyas was very angry.  He wanted but little more to make him catch
+Eustace by the shoulders, shake the life out of him, and deliver
+him into the tender guardianship of Yeo; but he knew that to take
+him at all was to bring certain death on him, and disgrace on the
+family; and remembering Frank's conduct on that memorable night at
+Clovelly, he kept himself down.
+
+"Take me," said Eustace, "if you will, sir.  You, who complain of
+us that we keep no faith with heretics, will perhaps recollect that
+you asked me into this room as your guest, and that in your good
+faith I trusted when I entered it."
+
+The argument was a worthless one in law; for Eustace had been a
+prisoner before he was a guest, and Amyas was guilty of something
+very like misprision of treason in not handing him over to the
+nearest justice.  However, all he did was, to go to the door, open
+it, and bowing to his cousin, bid him walk out and go to the devil,
+since he seemed to have set his mind on ending his days in the
+company of that personage.
+
+Whereon Eustace vanished.
+
+"Pooh!" said Amyas to himself, "I can find out enough, and too
+much, I fear, without the help of such crooked vermin.  I must see
+Cary; I must see Salterne; and I suppose, if I am ready to do my
+duty, I shall learn somehow what it is.  Now to sleep; to-morrow up
+and away to what God sends."
+
+"Come in hither, men," shouted he down the passage, "and sleep
+here.  Haven't you had enough of this villainous sour cider?"
+
+The men came in yawning, and settled themselves to sleep on the
+floor.
+
+"Where's Yeo?"
+
+No one knew; he had gone out to say his prayers, and had not
+returned.
+
+"Never mind," said Amyas, who suspected some plot on the old man's
+part.  "He'll take care of himself, I'll warrant him."
+
+"No fear of that, sir;" and the four tars were soon snoring in
+concert round the fire, while Amyas laid himself on the settle,
+with his saddle for a pillow.
+
+             .     .     .     .     .     .     .
+
+
+It was about midnight, when Amyas leaped to his feet, or rather
+fell upon his back, upsetting saddle, settle, and finally, table,
+under the notion that ten thousand flying dragons were bursting in
+the window close to his ear, with howls most fierce and fell.  The
+flying dragons past, however, being only a flock of terror-stricken
+geese, which flew flapping and screaming round the corner of the
+house; but the noise which had startled them did not pass; and
+another minute made it evident that a sharp fight was going on in
+the courtyard, and that Yeo was hallooing lustily for help.
+
+Out turned the men, sword in hand, burst the back door open,
+stumbling over pails and pitchers, and into the courtyard, where
+Yeo, his back against the stable-door, was holding his own manfully
+with sword and buckler against a dozen men.
+
+Dire and manifold was the screaming; geese screamed, chickens
+screamed, pigs screamed, donkeys screamed, Mary screamed from an
+upper window; and to complete the chorus, a flock of plovers,
+attracted by the noise, wheeled round and round overhead, and added
+their screams also to that Dutch concert.
+
+The screaming went on, but the fight ceased; for, as Amyas rushed
+into the yard, the whole party of ruffians took to their heels, and
+vanished over a low hedge at the other end of the yard.
+
+"Are you hurt, Yeo?"
+
+"Not a scratch, thank Heaven!  But I've got two of them, the
+ringleaders, I have.  One of them's against the wall.  Your horse
+did for t'other."
+
+The wounded man was lifted up; a huge ruffian, nearly as big as
+Amyas himself.  Yeo's sword had passed through his body.  He
+groaned and choked for breath.
+
+"Carry him indoors.  Where is the other?"
+
+"Dead as a herring, in the straw.  Have a care, men, have a care
+how you go in! the horses are near mad!"
+
+However, the man was brought out after a while.  With him all was
+over.  They could feel neither pulse nor breath.
+
+"Carry him in too, poor wretch.  And now, Yeo, what is the meaning
+of all this?"
+
+Yeo's story was soon told.  He could not get out of his Puritan
+head the notion (quite unfounded, of course) that Eustace had meant
+to steal the horses.  He had seen the inn-keeper sneak off at their
+approach; and expecting some night-attack, he had taken up his
+lodging for the night in the stable.
+
+As he expected, an attempt was made.  The door was opened (how, he
+could not guess, for he had fastened it inside), and two fellows
+came in, and began to loose the beasts.  Yeo's account was, that he
+seized the big fellow, who drew a knife on him, and broke loose;
+the horses, terrified at the scuffle, kicked right and left; one
+man fell, and the other ran out, calling for help, with Yeo at his
+heels; "Whereon," said Yeo, "seeing a dozen more on me with clubs
+and bows, I thought best to shorten the number while I could, ran
+the rascal through, and stood on my ward; and only just in time I
+was, what's more; there's two arrows in the house wall, and two or
+three more in my buckler, which I caught up as I went out, for I
+had hung it close by the door, you see, sir, to be all ready in
+case," said the cunning old Philistine-slayer, as they went in
+after the wounded man.
+
+But hardly had they stumbled through the low doorway into the back-
+kitchen when a fresh hubbub arose inside--more shouts for help.
+Amyas ran forward breaking his head against the doorway, and
+beheld, as soon as he could see for the flashes in his eyes, an old
+acquaintance, held on each side by a sturdy sailor.
+
+With one arm in the sleeve of his doublet, and the other in a not
+over spotless shirt; holding up his hose with one hand, and with
+the other a candle, whereby he had lighted himself to his own
+confusion; foaming with rage, stood Mr. Evan Morgans, alias Father
+Parsons, looking, between his confused habiliments and his fiery
+visage (as Yeo told him to his face), "the very moral of a half-
+plucked turkey-cock."  And behind him, dressed, stood Eustace
+Leigh.
+
+"We found the maid letting these here two out by the front door,"
+said one of the captors.
+
+"Well, Mr. Parsons," said Amyas; "and what are you about here?  A
+pretty nest of thieves and Jesuits we seem to have routed out this
+evening."
+
+"About my calling, sir," said Parsons, stoutly.  "By your leave, I
+shall prepare this my wounded lamb for that account to which your
+man's cruelty has untimely sent him."
+
+The wounded man, who lay upon the floor, heard Parsons' voice, and
+moaned for the "Patrico."
+
+"You see, sir," said he, pompously, "the sheep know their
+shepherd's voice."
+
+"The wolves you mean, you hypocritical scoundrel!" said Amyas, who
+could not contain his disgust.  "Let the fellow truss up his
+points, lads, and do his work.  After all, the man is dying."
+
+"The requisite matters, sir, are not at hand," said Parsons,
+unabashed.
+
+"Eustace, go and fetch his matters for him; you seem to be in all
+his plots."
+
+Eustace went silently and sullenly.
+
+"What's that fresh noise at the back, now?"
+
+"The maid, sir, a wailing over her uncle; the fellow that we saw
+sneak away when we came up.  It was him the horse killed."
+
+It was true.  The wretched host had slipped off on their approach,
+simply to call the neighboring outlaws to the spoil; and he had
+been filled with the fruit of his own devices.
+
+"His blood be on his own head," said Amyas.
+
+"I question, sir," said Yeo, in a low voice, "whether some of it
+will not be on the heads of those proud prelates who go clothed in
+purple and fine linen, instead of going forth to convert such as
+he, and then wonder how these Jesuits get hold of them.  If they
+give place to the devil in their sheepfolds, sure he'll come in and
+lodge there.  Look, sir, there's a sight in a gospel land!"
+
+And, indeed, the sight was curious enough.  For Parsons was
+kneeling by the side of the dying man, listening earnestly to the
+confession which the man sobbed out in his gibberish, between the
+spasms of his wounded chest.  Now and then Parsons shook his head;
+and when Eustace returned with the holy wafer, and the oil for
+extreme unction, he asked him, in a low voice, "Ballard, interpret
+for me."
+
+And Eustace knelt down on the other side of the sufferer, and
+interpreted his thieves' dialect into Latin; and the dying man held
+a hand of each, and turned first to one and then to the other
+stupid eyes,--not without affection, though, and gratitude.
+
+"I can't stand this mummery any longer," said Yeo.  "Here's a soul
+perishing before my eyes, and it's on my conscience to speak a word
+in season."
+
+"Silence!" whispered Amyas, holding him back by the arm; "he knows
+them, and he don't know you; they are the first who ever spoke to
+him as if he had a soul to be saved, and first come, first served;
+you can do no good.  See, the man's face is brightening already."
+
+"But, sir, 'tis a false peace."
+
+"At all events he is confessing his sins, Yeo; and if that's not
+good for him, and you, and me, what is?"
+
+"Yea, Amen! sir; but this is not to the right person."
+
+"How do you know his words will not go to the right person, after
+all, though he may not send them there?  By heaven! the man is
+dead!"
+
+It was so.  The dark catalogue of brutal deeds had been gasped out;
+but ere the words of absolution could follow, the head had fallen
+back, and all was over.
+
+"Confession in extremis is sufficient," said Parsons to Eustace
+("Ballard," as Parsons called him, to Amyas's surprise), as he
+rose.  "As for the rest, the intention will be accepted instead of
+the act."
+
+"The Lord have mercy on his soul!" said Eustace.
+
+"His soul is lost before our very eyes," said Yeo.
+
+"Mind your own business," said Amyas.
+
+"Humph; but I'll tell you, sir, what our business is, if you'll
+step aside with me.  I find that poor fellow that lies dead is none
+other than the leader of the Gubbings; the king of them, as they
+dare to call him."
+
+"Well, what of that?"
+
+"Mark my words, sir, if we have not a hundred stout rogues upon us
+before two hours are out; forgive us they never will; and if we get
+off with our lives, which I don't much expect, we shall leave our
+horses behind; for we can hold the house, sir, well enough till
+morning, but the courtyard we can't, that's certain!"
+
+"We had better march at once, then."
+
+"Think, sir; if they catch us up--as they are sure to do, knowing
+the country better than we--how will our shot stand their arrows?"
+
+"True, old wisdom; we must keep the road; and we must keep
+together; and so be a mark for them, while they will be behind
+every rock and bank; and two or three flights of arrows will do our
+business for us.  Humph! stay, I have a plan."  And stepping
+forward he spoke--
+
+"Eustace, you will be so kind as to go back to your lambs; and tell
+them, that if they meddle with us cruel wolves again to-night, we
+are ready and willing to fight to the death, and have plenty of
+shot and powder at their service.  Father Parsons, you will be so
+kind as to accompany us; it is but fitting that the shepherd should
+be hostage for his sheep."
+
+"If you carry me off this spot, sir, you carry my corpse only,"
+said Parsons.  "I may as well die here as be hanged elsewhere, like
+my martyred brother Campian."
+
+"If you take him, you must take me too," said Eustace.
+
+"What if we won't?"
+
+"How will you gain by that? you can only leave me here.  You cannot
+make me go to the Gubbings, if I do not choose."
+
+Amyas uttered sotto voce an anathema on Jesuits, Gubbings, and
+things in general.  He was in a great hurry to get to Bideford, and
+he feared that this business would delay him, as it was, a day or
+two.  He wanted to hang Parsons, he did not want to hang Eustace;
+and Eustace, he knew, was well aware of that latter fact, and
+played his game accordingly; but time ran on, and he had to answer
+sulkily enough:
+
+"Well then; if you, Eustace, will go and give my message to your
+converts, I will promise to set Mr. Parsons free again before we
+come to Lydford town; and I advise you, if you have any regard for
+his life, to see that your eloquence be persuasive enough; for as
+sure as I am an Englishman, and he none, if the Gubbings attack us,
+the first bullet that I shall fire at them will have gone through
+his scoundrelly brains."
+
+Parsons still kicked.
+
+"Very well, then, my merry men all.  Tie this gentleman's hands
+behind his back, get the horses out, and we'll right away up into
+Dartmoor, find a good high tor, stand our ground there till
+morning, and then carry him into Okehampton to the nearest justice.
+If he chooses to delay me in my journey, it is fair that I should
+make him pay for it."
+
+Whereon Parsons gave in, and being fast tied by his arm to Amyas's
+saddle, trudged alongside his horse for several weary miles, while
+Yeo walked by his side, like a friar by a condemned criminal; and
+in order to keep up his spirits, told him the woful end of Nicholas
+Saunders the Legate, and how he was found starved to death in a
+bog.
+
+"And if you wish, sir, to follow in his blessed steps, which I
+heartily hope you will do, you have only to go over that big cow-
+backed hill there on your right hand, and down again the other side
+to Crawmere pool, and there you'll find as pretty a bog to die in
+as ever Jesuit needed; and your ghost may sit there on a grass
+tummock, and tell your beads without any one asking for you till
+the day of judgment; and much good may it do you!"
+
+At which imagination Yeo was actually heard, for the first and last
+time in this history, to laugh most heartily.
+
+His ho-ho's had scarcely died away when they saw shining under the
+moon the old tower of Lydford castle.
+
+"Cast the fellow off now," said Amyas.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" and Yeo and Simon Evans stopped behind, and did not
+come up for ten minutes after.
+
+"What have you been about so long?"
+
+"Why, sir," said Evans, "you see the man had a very fair pair of
+hose on, and a bran-new kersey doublet, very warm-lined; and so,
+thinking it a pity good clothes should be wasted on such noxious
+trade, we've just brought them along with us."
+
+"Spoiling the Egyptians," said Yeo as comment.
+
+"And what have you done with the man?"
+
+"Hove him over the bank, sir; he pitched into a big furze-bush, and
+for aught I know, there he'll bide."
+
+"You rascal, have you killed him?
+
+"Never fear, sir," said Yeo, in his cool fashion.  "A Jesuit has as
+many lives as a cat, and, I believe, rides broomsticks post, like a
+witch.  He would be at Lydford now before us, if his master Satan
+had any business for him there."
+
+Leaving on their left Lydford and its ill-omened castle (which, a
+century after, was one of the principal scenes of Judge Jeffreys's
+cruelty), Amyas and his party trudged on through the mire toward
+Okehampton till sunrise; and ere the vapors had lifted from the
+mountain tops, they were descending the long slopes from Sourton
+down, while Yestor and Amicombe slept steep and black beneath their
+misty pall; and roaring far below unseen,
+
+
+     "Ockment leapt from crag and cloud
+      Down her cataracts, laughing loud."
+
+
+The voice of the stream recalled these words to Amyas's mind.  The
+nymph of Torridge had spoken them upon the day of his triumph.  He
+recollected, too, his vexation on that day at not seeing Rose
+Salterne.  Why, he had never seen her since.  Never seen her now
+for six years and more!  Of her ripened beauty he knew only by
+hearsay; she was still to him the lovely fifteen years' girl for
+whose sake he had smitten the Barnstaple draper over the quay.
+What a chain of petty accidents had kept them from meeting, though
+so often within a mile of each other!  "And what a lucky one!" said
+practical old Amyas to himself.  "If I had seen her as she is now,
+I might have loved her as Frank does--poor Frank! what will he say?
+What does he say, for he must know it already?  And what ought I to
+say--to do rather, for talking is no use on this side the grave,
+nor on the other either, I expect!"  And then he asked himself
+whether his old oath meant nothing or something; whether it was a
+mere tavern frolic, or a sacred duty.  And he held, the more that
+he looked at it, that it meant the latter.
+
+But what could he do?  He had nothing on earth but his sword, so he
+could not travel to find her.  After all, she might not be gone
+far.  Perhaps not gone at all.  It might be a mistake, an
+exaggerated scandal.  He would hope so.  And yet it was evident
+that there had been some passages between her and Don Guzman.
+Eustace's mysterious words about the promise at Lundy proved that.
+The villain!  He had felt all along that he was a villain; but just
+the one to win a woman's heart, too.  Frank had been away--all the
+Brotherhood away.  What a fool he had been, to turn the wolf loose
+into the sheepfold!  And yet who would have dreamed of it? . . .
+
+"At all events," said Amyas, trying to comfort himself, "I need not
+complain.  I have lost nothing.  I stood no more chance of her
+against Frank than I should have stood against the Don.  So there
+is no use for me to cry about the matter."  And he tried to hum a
+tune concerning the general frailty of women, but nevertheless,
+like Sir Hugh, felt that "he had a great disposition to cry."
+
+He never had expected to win her, and yet it seemed bitter to know
+that she was lost to him forever.  It was not so easy for a heart
+of his make to toss away the image of a first love; and all the
+less easy because that image was stained and ruined.
+
+"Curses on the man who had done that deed!  I will yet have his
+heart's blood somehow, if I go round the world again to find him.
+If there's no law for it on earth, there's law in heaven, or I'm
+much mistaken."
+
+With which determination he rode into the ugly, dirty, and stupid
+town of Okehampton, with which fallen man (by some strange
+perversity) has chosen to defile one of the loveliest sites in the
+pleasant land of Devon.  And heartily did Amyas abuse the old town
+that day; for he was detained there, as he expected, full three
+hours, while the Justice Shallow of the place was sent for from his
+farm (whither he had gone at sunrise, after the early-rising
+fashion of those days) to take Yeo's deposition concerning last
+night's affray.  Moreover, when Shallow came, he refused to take
+the depositions, because they ought to have been made before a
+brother Shallow at Lydford; and in the wrangling which ensued, was
+very near finding out what Amyas (fearing fresh loss of time and
+worse evils beside) had commanded to be concealed, namely, the
+presence of Jesuits in that Moorland Utopia.  Then, in broadest
+Devon--
+
+"And do you call this Christian conduct, sir, to set a quiet man
+like me upon they Gubbings, as if I was going to risk my precious
+life--no, nor ever a constable to Okehampton neither?  Let Lydfor'
+men mind Lydfor' roogs, and by Lydfor' law if they will, hang first
+and try after; but as for me, I've rade my Bible, and 'He that
+meddleth with strife is like him that taketh a dog by the ears.'
+So if you choose to sit down and ate your breakfast with me, well
+and good: but depositions I'll have none.  If your man is enquired
+for, you'll be answerable for his appearing, in course; but I
+expect mortally" (with a wink), "you wain't hear much more of the
+matter from any hand.  'Leave well alone is a good rule, but leave
+ill alone is a better.'--So we says round about here; and so you'll
+say, captain, when you be so old as I."
+
+So Amyas sat down and ate his breakfast, and went on afterwards a
+long and weary day's journey, till he saw at last beneath him the
+broad shining river, and the long bridge, and the white houses
+piled up the hill-side; and beyond, over Raleigh downs, the dear
+old tower of Northam Church.
+
+Alas! Northam was altogether a desert to him then; and Bideford, as
+it turned out, hardly less so.  For when he rode up to Sir
+Richard's door, he found that the good knight was still in Ireland,
+and Lady Grenville at Stow.  Whereupon he rode back again down the
+High Street to that same bow-windowed Ship Tavern where the
+Brotherhood of the Rose made their vow, and settled himself in the
+very room where they had supped.
+
+"Ah! Mr. Leigh--Captain Leigh now, I beg pardon," quoth mine host.
+"Bideford is an empty place now-a-days, and nothing stirring, sir.
+What with Sir Richard to Ireland, and Sir John to London, and all
+the young gentlemen to the wars, there's no one to buy good liquor,
+and no one to court the young ladies, neither.  Sack, sir?  I hope
+so.  I haven't brewed a gallon of it this fortnight, if you'll
+believe me; ale, sir, and aqua vitae, and such low-bred trade, is
+all I draw now-a-days.  Try a pint of sherry, sir, now, to give you
+an appetite.  You mind my sherry of old?  Jane!  Sherry and sugar,
+quick, while I pull off the captain's boots."
+
+Amyas sat weary and sad, while the innkeeper chattered on.
+
+"Ah, sir! two or three like you would set the young ladies all
+alive again.  By-the-by, there's been strange doings among them
+since you were here last.  You mind Mistress Salterne!"
+
+"For God's sake, don't let us have that story, man!  I heard enough
+of it at Plymouth!" said Amyas, in so disturbed a tone that mine
+host looked up, and said to himself--
+
+"Ah, poor young gentleman, he's one of the hard-hit ones."
+
+"How is the old man?" asked Amyas, after a pause.
+
+"Bears it well enough, sir; but a changed man.  Never speaks to a
+soul, if he can help it.  Some folk say he's not right in his head;
+or turned miser, or somewhat, and takes naught but bread and water,
+and sits up all night in the room as was hers, turning over her
+garments.  Heaven knows what's on his mind--they do say he was over
+hard on her, and that drove her to it.  All I know is, he has never
+been in here for a drop of liquor (and he came as regular every
+evening as the town clock, sir) since she went, except a ten days
+ago, and then he met young Mr. Cary at the door, and I heard him
+ask Mr. Cary when you would be home, sir."
+
+"Put on my boots again.  I'll go and see him."
+
+"Bless you, sir!  What, without your sack?"
+
+"Drink it yourself, man."
+
+"But you wouldn't go out again this time o' night on an empty
+stomach, now?"
+
+"Fill my men's stomachs for them, and never mind mine.  It's
+market-day, is it not?  Send out, and see whether Mr. Cary is still
+in town;" and Amyas strode out, and along the quay to Bridgeland
+Street, and knocked at Mr. Salterne's door.
+
+Salterne himself opened it, with his usual stern courtesy.
+
+"I saw you coming up the street, sir.  I have been expecting this
+honor from you for some time past.  I dreamt of you only last
+night, and many a night before that too.  Welcome, sir, into a
+lonely house.  I trust the good knight your general is well."
+
+"The good knight my general is with God who made him, Mr.
+Salterne."
+
+"Dead, sir?"
+
+"Foundered at sea on our way home; and the Delight lost too."
+
+"Humph!" growled Salterne, after a minute's silence.  "I had a
+venture in her.  I suppose it's gone.  No matter--I can afford it,
+sir, and more, I trust.  And he was three years younger than I!
+And Draper Heard was buried yesterday, five years younger.--How is
+it that every one can die, except me?  Come in, sir, come in; I
+have forgotten my manners.
+
+And he led Amyas into his parlor, and called to the apprentices to
+run one way, and to the cook to run another.
+
+"You must not trouble yourself to get me supper, indeed."
+
+"I must though, sir, and the best of wine too; and old Salterne had
+a good tap of Alicant in old time, old time, old time, sir! and you
+must drink it now, whether he does or not!" and out he bustled.
+
+Amyas sat still, wondering what was coming next, and puzzled at the
+sudden hilarity of the man, as well as his hospitality, so
+different from what the innkeeper had led him to expect.
+
+In a minute more one of the apprentices came in to lay the cloth,
+and Amyas questioned him about his master.
+
+"Thank the Lord that you are come, sir," said the lad.
+
+"Why, then?"
+
+"Because there'll be a chance of us poor fellows getting a little
+broken meat.  We'm half-starved this three months--bread and
+dripping, bread and dripping, oh dear, sir!  And now he's sent out
+to the inn for chickens, and game, and salads, and all that money
+can buy, and down in the cellar haling out the best of wine."--And
+the lad smacked his lips audibly at the thought.
+
+"Is he out of his mind?"
+
+"I can't tell; he saith as how he must save mun's money now-a-days;
+for he've a got a great venture on hand: but what a be he tell'th
+no man.  They call'th mun 'bread and dripping' now, sir, all town
+over," said the prentice, confidentially, to Amyas.
+
+"They do, do they, sirrah!  Then they will call me bread and no
+dripping to-morrow!" and old Salterne, entering from behind, made a
+dash at the poor fellow's ears: but luckily thought better of it,
+having a couple of bottles in each hand.
+
+"My dear sir," said Amyas, "you don't mean us to drink all that
+wine?"
+
+"Why not, sir?" answered Salterne, in a grim, half-sneering tone,
+thrusting out his square-grizzled beard and chin.  "Why not, sir?
+why should I not make merry when I have the honor of a noble
+captain in my house? one who has sailed the seas, sir, and cut
+Spaniards' throats; and may cut them again too; eh, sir?  Boy,
+where's the kettle and the sugar?"
+
+"What on earth is the man at?" quoth Amyas to himself--'flattering
+me, or laughing at me?"
+
+"Yes," he ran on, half to himself, in a deliberate tone, evidently
+intending to hint more than he said, as he began brewing the sack--
+in plain English, hot negus; "Yes, bread and dripping for those who
+can't fight Spaniards; but the best that money can buy for those
+who can.  I heard of you at Smerwick, sir--Yes, bread and dripping
+for me too--I can't fight Spaniards: but for such as you.  Look
+here, sir; I should like to feed a crew of such up, as you'd feed a
+main of fighting-cocks, and then start them with a pair of
+Sheffield spurs a-piece--you've a good one there to your side, sir:
+but don't you think a man might carry two now, and fight as they
+say those Chineses do, a sword to each hand?  You could kill more
+that way, Captain Leigh, I reckon?"
+
+Amyas half laughed.
+
+"One will do, Mr. Salterne, if one is quick enough with it."
+
+"Humph!--Ah--No use being in a hurry.  I haven't been in a hurry.
+No--I waited for you; and here you are and welcome, sir!  Here
+comes supper, a light matter, sir, you see.  A capon and a brace of
+partridges.  I had no time to feast you as you deserve."
+
+And so he ran on all supper-time, hardly allowing Amyas to get a
+word in edge-ways; but heaping him with coarse flattery, and urging
+him to drink, till after the cloth was drawn, and the two left
+alone, he grew so outrageous that Amyas was forced to take him to
+task good-humoredly.
+
+"Now, my dear sir, you have feasted me royally, and better far than
+I deserve, but why will you go about to make me drunk twice over,
+first with vainglory and then with wine?"
+
+Salterne looked at him a while fixedly, and then, sticking out his
+chin--"Because, Captain Leigh, I am a man who has all his life
+tried the crooked road first, and found the straight one the safer
+after all."
+
+"Eh, sir?  That is a strange speech for one who bears the character
+of the most upright man in Bideford."
+
+"Humph.  So I thought myself once, sir; and well I have proved it.
+But I'll be plain with you, sir.  You've heard how--how I've fared
+since you saw me last?"
+
+Amyas nodded his head.
+
+"I thought so.  Shame rides post.  Now then, Captain Leigh, listen
+to me.  I, being a plain man and a burgher, and one that never drew
+iron in my life except to mend a pen, ask you, being a gentleman
+and a captain and a man of honor, with a weapon to your side, and
+harness to your back--what would you do in my place?"
+
+"Humph!" said Amyas, "that would very much depend on whether 'my
+place' was my own fault or not."
+
+"And what if it were, sir?  What if all that the charitable folks
+of Bideford--(Heaven reward them for their tender mercies!)--have
+been telling you in the last hour be true, sir,--true! and yet not
+half the truth?"
+
+Amyas gave a start.
+
+"Ah, you shrink from me!  Of course a man is too righteous to
+forgive those who repent, though God is not."
+
+"God knows, sir--"
+
+"Yes, sir, God does know--all; and you shall know a little--as much
+as I can tell--or you understand.  Come upstairs with me, sir, as
+you'll drink no more; I have a liking for you.  I have watched you
+from your boyhood, and I can trust you, and I'll show you what I
+never showed to mortal man but one."
+
+And, taking up a candle, he led the way upstairs, while Amyas
+followed wondering.
+
+He stopped at a door, and unlocked it.
+
+"There, come in.  Those shutters have not been opened since she--"
+and the old man was silent.
+
+Amyas looked round the room.  It was a low wainscoted room, such as
+one sees in old houses: everything was in the most perfect
+neatness.  The snow-white sheets on the bed were turned down as if
+ready for an occupant.  There were books arranged on the shelves,
+fresh flowers on the table; the dressing-table had all its woman's
+mundus of pins, and rings, and brushes; even the dressing-gown lay
+over the chair-back.  Everything was evidently just as it had been
+left.
+
+"This was her room, sir," whispered the old man.
+
+Amyas nodded silently, and half drew back.
+
+"You need not be modest about entering it now, sir," whispered he,
+with a sort of sneer.  "There has been no frail flesh and blood in
+it for many a day."
+
+Amyas sighed.
+
+"I sweep it out myself every morning, and keep all tidy.  See
+here!" and he pulled open a drawer.  "Here are all her gowns, and
+there are her hoods; and there--I know 'em all by heart now, and
+the place of every one.  And there, sir--"
+
+And he opened a cupboard, where lay in rows all Rose's dolls, and
+the worn-out playthings of her childhood.
+
+"That's the pleasantest place of all in the room to me," said he,
+whispering still, "for it minds me of when--and maybe, she may
+become a little child once more, sir; it's written in the
+Scripture, you know--"
+
+"Amen!" said Amyas, who felt, to his own wonder, a big tear
+stealing down each cheek.
+
+"And now," he whispered, "one thing more.  Look here!"--and pulling
+out a key, he unlocked a chest, and lifted up tray after tray of
+necklaces and jewels, furs, lawns, cloth of gold.  "Look there!
+Two thousand pound won't buy that chest.  Twenty years have I been
+getting those things together.  That's the cream of many a Levant
+voyage, and East Indian voyage, and West Indian voyage.  My Lady
+Bath can't match those pearls in her grand house at Tawstock; I got
+'em from a Genoese, though, and paid for 'em.  Look at that
+embroidered lawn!  There's not such a piece in London; no, nor in
+Alexandria, I'll warrant; nor short of Calicut, where it came
+from. . . .  Look here again, there's a golden cup!  I bought that
+of one that was out with Pizarro in Peru.  And look here, again!"--
+and the old man gloated over the treasure.
+
+"And whom do you think I kept all these for?  These were for her
+wedding-day--for her wedding-day.  For your wedding-day, if you'd
+been minded, sir!  Yes, yours, sir!  And yet, I believe, I was so
+ambitious that I would not have let her marry under an earl, all
+the while I was pretending to be too proud to throw her at the head
+of a squire's son.  Ah, well!  There was my idol, sir.  I made her
+mad, I pampered her up with gewgaws and vanity; and then, because
+my idol was just what I had made her, I turned again and rent her.
+
+"And now," said he, pointing to the open chest, "that was what I
+meant; and that" (pointing to the empty bed) "was what God meant.
+Never mind.  Come downstairs and finish your wine.  I see you don't
+care about it all.  Why should you! you are not her father, and you
+may thank God you are not.  Go, and be merry while you can, young
+sir! . . .  And yet, all this might have been yours.  And--but I
+don't suppose you are one to be won by money--but all this may be
+yours still, and twenty thousand pounds to boot."
+
+"I want no money, sir, but what I can earn with my own sword."
+
+"Earn my money, then!"
+
+"What on earth do you want of me!"
+
+"To keep your oath," said Salterne, clutching his arm, and looking
+up into his face with searching eyes.
+
+"My oath!  How did you know that I had one?"
+
+"Ah! you were well ashamed of it, I suppose, next day!  A drunken
+frolic all about a poor merchant's daughter!  But there is nothing
+hidden that shall not be revealed, nor done in the closet that is
+not proclaimed on the house-tops."
+
+"Ashamed of it, sir, I never was: but I have a right to ask how you
+came to know it?"
+
+"What if a poor fat squinny rogue, a low-born fellow even as I am,
+whom you had baffled and made a laughing-stock, had come to me in
+my loneliness and sworn before God that if you honorable gentlemen
+would not keep your words, he the clown would?"
+
+"John Brimblecombe?"
+
+"And what if I had brought him where I have brought you, and shown
+him what I have shown you, and, instead of standing as stiff as any
+Spaniard, as you do, he had thrown himself on his knees by that
+bedside, and wept and prayed, sir, till he opened my hard heart for
+the first and last time, and I fell down on my sinful knees and
+wept and prayed by him?"
+
+"I am not given to weeping, Mr. Salterne," said Amyas; "and as for
+praying, I don't know yet what I have to pray for, on her account:
+my business is to work.  Show me what I can do; and when you have
+done that, it will be full time to upbraid me with not doing it."
+
+"You can cut that fellow's throat."
+
+"It will take a long arm to reach him."
+
+"I suppose it is as easy to sail to the Spanish Main as it was to
+sail round the world."
+
+"My good sir," said Amyas, "I have at this moment no more worldly
+goods than my clothes and my sword, so how to sail to the Spanish
+Main, I don't quite see."
+
+"And do you suppose, sir, that I should hint to you of such a
+voyage if I meant you to be at the charge of it?  No, sir; if you
+want two thousand pounds, or five, to fit a ship, take it!  Take
+it, sir!  I hoarded money for my child: and now I will spend it to
+avenge her."
+
+Amyas was silent for a while; the old man still held his arm, still
+looked up steadfastly and fiercely in his face.
+
+"Bring me home that man's head, and take ship, prizes--all!  Keep
+the gain, sir, and give me the revenge!"
+
+"Gain?  Do you think I need bribing, sir?  What kept me silent was
+the thought of my mother.  I dare not go without her leave."
+
+Salterne made a gesture of impatience.
+
+"I dare not, sir; I must obey my parent, whatever else I do."
+
+"Humph!" said he.  "If others had obeyed theirs as well!--But you
+are right, Captain Leigh, right.  You will prosper, whoever else
+does not.  Now, sir, good-night, if you will let me be the first to
+say so.  My old eyes grow heavy early now-a-days.  Perhaps it's old
+age, perhaps it's sorrow."
+
+So Amyas departed to the inn, and there, to his great joy, found
+Cary waiting for him, from whom he learnt details, which must be
+kept for another chapter, and which I shall tell, for convenience'
+sake, in my own words and not in his.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+HOW MR. JOHN BRIMBLECOMBE UNDERSTOOD THE NATURE OF AN OATH
+
+
+     "The Kynge of Spayn is a foul paynim,
+      And lieveth on Mahound;
+      And pity it were that lady fayre
+      Should marry a heathen hound."
+
+                            Kyng Estmere.
+
+
+About six weeks after the duel, the miller at Stow had come up to
+the great house in much tribulation, to borrow the bloodhounds.
+Rose Salterne had vanished in the night, no man knew whither.
+
+Sir Richard was in Bideford: but the old steward took on himself to
+send for the keepers, and down went the serving-men to the mill
+with all the idle lads of the parish at their heels, thinking a
+maiden-hunt very good sport; and of course taking a view of the
+case as favorable as possible to Rose.
+
+They reviled the miller and his wife roundly for hard-hearted old
+heathens; and had no doubt that they had driven the poor maid to
+throw herself over cliff, or drown herself in the sea; while all
+the women of Stow, on the other hand, were of unanimous opinion
+that the hussy had "gone off" with some bad fellow; and that pride
+was sure to have a fall, and so forth.
+
+The facts of the case were, that all Rose's trinkets were left
+behind, so that she had at least gone off honestly; and nothing
+seemed to be missing, but some of her linen, which old Anthony the
+steward broadly hinted was likely to be found in other people's
+boxes.  The only trace was a little footmark under her bedroom
+window.  On that the bloodhound was laid (of course in leash), and
+after a premonitory whimper, lifted up his mighty voice, and
+started bell-mouthed through the garden gate, and up the lane,
+towing behind him the panting keeper, till they reached the downs
+above, and went straight away for Marslandmouth, where the whole
+posse comitatus pulled up breathless at the door of Lucy Passmore.
+
+Lucy, as perhaps I should have said before, was now a widow, and
+found her widowhood not altogether contrary to her interest.  Her
+augury about her old man had been fulfilled; he had never returned
+since the night on which he put to sea with Eustace and the
+Jesuits.
+
+
+     "Some natural tears she shed, but dried them soon"--
+
+
+as many of them, at least, as were not required for purposes of
+business; and then determined to prevent suspicion by a bold move;
+she started off to Stow, and told Lady Grenville a most pathetic
+tale: how her husband had gone out to pollock fishing, and never
+returned: but how she had heard horsemen gallop past her window in
+the dead of night, and was sure they must have been the Jesuits,
+and that they had carried off her old man by main force, and
+probably, after making use of his services, had killed and salted
+him down for provision on their voyage back to the Pope at Rome;
+after which she ended by entreating protection against those
+"Popish skulkers up to Chapel," who were sworn to do her a
+mischief; and by an appeal to Lady Grenville's sense of justice, as
+to whether the queen ought not to allow her a pension, for having
+had her heart's love turned into a sainted martyr by the hands of
+idolatrous traitors.
+
+Lady Grenville (who had a great opinion of Lucy's medical skill,
+and always sent for her if one of the children had a "housty," i.
+e. sore throat) went forth and pleaded the case before Sir Richard
+with such effect, that Lucy was on the whole better off than ever
+for the next two or three years.  But now--what had she to do with
+Rose's disappearance? and, indeed, where was she herself?  Her door
+was fast; and round it her flock of goats stood, crying in vain for
+her to come and milk them; while from the down above, her donkeys,
+wandering at their own sweet will, answered the bay of the
+bloodhound with a burst of harmony.
+
+"They'm laughing at us, keper, they neddies; sure enough, we'm lost
+our labor here."
+
+But the bloodhound, after working about the door a while, turned
+down the glen, and never stopped till he reached the margin of the
+sea.
+
+"They'm taken water.  Let's go back, and rout out the old witch's
+house."
+
+"'Tis just like that old Lucy, to lock a poor maid into shame."
+
+And returning, they attacked the cottage, and by a general
+plebiscitum, ransacked the little dwelling, partly in indignation,
+and partly, if the truth be told, in the hope of plunder; but
+plunder there was none.  Lucy had decamped with all her movable
+wealth, saving the huge black cat among the embers, who at the
+sight of the bloodhound vanished up the chimney (some said with a
+strong smell of brimstone), and being viewed outside, was chased
+into the woods, where she lived, I doubt not, many happy years, a
+scourge to all the rabbits of the glen.
+
+The goats and donkeys were driven off up to Stow; and the mob
+returned, a little ashamed of themselves when their brief wrath was
+past; and a little afraid, too, of what Sir Richard might say.
+
+He, when he returned, sold the donkeys and goats, and gave the
+money to the poor, promising to refund the same, if Lucy returned
+and gave herself up to justice.  But Lucy did not return; and her
+cottage, from which the neighbors shrank as from a haunted place,
+remained as she had left it, and crumbled slowly down to four fern-
+covered walls, past which the little stream went murmuring on from
+pool to pool--the only voice, for many a year to come, which broke
+the silence of that lonely glen.
+
+A few days afterwards, Sir Richard, on his way from Bideford to
+Stow, looked in at Clovelly Court, and mentioned, with a "by the
+by," news which made Will Cary leap from his seat almost to the
+ceiling.  What it was we know already.
+
+"And there is no clue?" asked old Cary; for his son was speechless.
+
+"Only this; I hear that some fellow prowling about the cliffs that
+night saw a pinnace running for Lundy."
+
+Will rose, and went hastily out of the room.
+
+In half an hour he and three or four armed servants were on board a
+trawling-skiff, and away to Lundy.  He did not return for three
+days, and then brought news: that an elderly man, seemingly a
+foreigner, had been lodging for some months past in a part of the
+ruined Moresco Castle, which was tenanted by one John Braund; that
+a few weeks since a younger man, a foreigner also, had joined him
+from on board a ship: the ship a Flushinger, or Easterling of some
+sort.  The ship came and went more than once; and the young man in
+her.  A few days since, a lady and her maid, a stout woman, came
+with him up to the castle, and talked with the elder man a long
+while in secret; abode there all night; and then all three sailed
+in the morning.  The fishermen on the beach had heard the young man
+call the other father.  He was a very still man, much as a mass-
+priest might be.  More they did not know, or did not choose to
+know.
+
+Whereon old Cary and Sir Richard sent Will on a second trip with
+the parish constable of Hartland (in which huge parish, for its
+sins, is situate the Isle of Lundy, ten miles out at sea); who
+returned with the body of the hapless John Braund, farmer,
+fisherman, smuggler, etc.; which worthy, after much fruitless
+examination (wherein examinate was afflicted with extreme deafness
+and loss of memory), departed to Exeter gaol, on a charge of
+"harboring priests, Jesuits, gipsies, and other suspect and
+traitorous persons."
+
+Poor John Braund, whose motive for entertaining the said ugly
+customers had probably been not treason, but a wife, seven
+children, and arrears of rent, did not thrive under the change from
+the pure air of Lundy to the pestiferous one of Exeter gaol, made
+infamous, but two years after (if I recollect right), by a "black
+assizes," nearly as fatal as that more notorious one at Oxford; for
+in it, "whether by the stench of the prisoners, or by a stream of
+foul air," judge, jury, counsel, and bystanders, numbering among
+them many members of the best families in Devon, sickened in court,
+and died miserably within a few days.
+
+John Braund, then, took the gaol-fever in a week, and died raving
+in that noisome den: his secret, if he had one, perished with him,
+and nothing but vague suspicion was left as to Rose Salterne's
+fate.  That she had gone off with the Spaniard, few doubted; but
+whither, and in what character?  On that last subject, be sure, no
+mercy was shown to her by many a Bideford dame, who had hated the
+poor girl simply for her beauty; and by many a country lady, who
+had "always expected that the girl would be brought to ruin by the
+absurd notice, beyond what her station had a right to, which was
+taken of her," while every young maiden aspired to fill the throne
+which Rose had abdicated.  So that, on the whole, Bideford
+considered itself as going on as well without poor Rose as it had
+done with her, or even better.  And though she lingered in some
+hearts still as a fair dream, the business and the bustle of each
+day soon swept that dream away, and her place knew her no more.
+
+And Will Cary?
+
+He was for a while like a man distracted.  He heaped himself with
+all manner of superfluous reproaches, for having (as he said) first
+brought the Rose into disgrace, and then driven her into the arms
+of the Spaniard; while St. Leger, who was a sensible man enough,
+tried in vain to persuade him that the fault was not his at all;
+that the two must have been attached to each other long before the
+quarrel; that it must have ended so, sooner or later; that old
+Salterne's harshness, rather than Cary's wrath, had hastened the
+catastrophe; and finally, that the Rose and her fortunes were, now
+that she had eloped with a Spaniard, not worth troubling their
+heads about.  Poor Will would not be so comforted.  He wrote off to
+Frank at Whitehall, telling him the whole truth, calling himself
+all fools and villains, and entreating Frank's forgiveness; to
+which he received an answer, in which Frank said that Will had no
+reason to accuse himself; that these strange attachments were due
+to a synastria, or sympathy of the stars, which ruled the destinies
+of each person, to fight against which was to fight against the
+heavens themselves; that he, as a brother of the Rose, was bound to
+believe, nay, to assert at the sword's point if need were, that the
+incomparable Rose of Torridge could make none but a worthy and
+virtuous choice; and that to the man whom she had honored by her
+affection was due on their part, Spaniard and Papist though he
+might be, all friendship, worship, and loyal faith for evermore.
+
+And honest Will took it all for gospel, little dreaming what agony
+of despair, what fearful suspicions, what bitter prayers, this
+letter had cost to the gentle heart of Francis Leigh.
+
+He showed the letter triumphantly to St. Leger; and he was quite
+wise enough to gainsay no word of it, at least aloud; but quite
+wise enough, also, to believe in secret that Frank looked on the
+matter in quite a different light; however, he contented himself
+with saying:
+
+"The man is an angel as his mother is!" and there the matter
+dropped for a few days, till one came forward who had no mind to
+let it drop, and that was Jack Brimblecombe, now curate of Hartland
+town, and "passing rich on forty pounds a year.
+
+"I hope no offence, Mr. William; but when are you and the rest
+going after--after her?"  The name stuck in his throat.
+
+Cary was taken aback.
+
+"What's that to thee, Catiline the blood-drinker?" asked he, trying
+to laugh it off.
+
+"What?  Don't laugh at me, sir, for it's no laughing matter.  I
+drank that night naught worse, I expect, than red wine.  Whatever
+it was, we swore our oaths, Mr. Cary; and oaths are oaths, say I."
+
+"Of course, Jack, of course; but to go to look for her--and when
+we've found her, cut her lover's throat.  Absurd, Jack, even if she
+were worth looking for, or his throat worth cutting.  Tut, tut,
+tut--"
+
+But Jack looked steadfastly in his face, and after some silence:
+
+How far is it to the Caracas, then, sir?"
+
+"What is that to thee, man?"
+
+"Why, he was made governor thereof, I hear; so that would be the
+place to find her?"
+
+"You don't mean to go thither to seek her?" shouted Cary, forcing a
+laugh.
+
+"That depends on whether I can go, sir; but if I can scrape the
+money together, or get a berth on board some ship, why, God's will
+must be done."
+
+Will looked at him, to see if he had been drinking, or gone mad;
+but the little pigs' eyes were both sane and sober.
+
+Will knew no answer.  To laugh at the poor fellow was easy enough;
+to deny that he was right, that he was a hero and cavalier,
+outdoing romance itself in faithfulness, not so easy; and Cary, in
+the first impulse, wished him at the bottom of the bay for shaming
+him.  Of course, his own plan of letting ill alone was the
+rational, prudent, irreproachable plan, and just what any gentleman
+in his senses would have done; but here was a vulgar, fat curate,
+out of his senses, determined not to let ill alone, but to do
+something, as Cary felt in his heart, of a far diviner stamp.
+
+"Well," said Jack, in his stupid steadfast way, "it's a very bad
+look-out; but mother's pretty well off, if father dies, and the
+maidens are stout wenches enough, and will make tidy servants,
+please the Lord.  And you'll see that they come to no harm, Mr.
+William, for old acquaintance' sake, if I never come back."
+
+Cary was silent with amazement.
+
+"And, Mr. William, you know me for an honest man, I hope.  Will you
+lend me a five pound, and take my books in pawn for them, just to
+help me out?"
+
+"Are you mad, or in a dream?  You will never find her!"
+
+"That's no reason why I shouldn't do my duty in looking for her,
+Mr. William."
+
+"But, my good fellow, even if you get to the Indies, you will be
+clapt into the Inquisition, and burnt alive, as sure as your name
+is Jack."
+
+"I know that," said he, in a doleful tone; "and a sore struggle of
+the flesh I have had about it; for I am a great coward, Mr.
+William, a dirty coward, and always was, as you know: but maybe the
+Lord will take care of me, as He does of little children and
+drunken men; and if not, Mr. Will, I'd sooner burn, and have it
+over, than go on this way any longer, I would!" and Jack burst out
+blubbering.
+
+"What way, my dear old lad?" said Will, softened as he well might
+be.
+
+"Why, not--not to know whether--whether--whether she's married to
+him or not--her that I looked up to as an angel of God, as pure as
+the light of day; and knew she was too good for a poor pot-head
+like me; and prayed for her every night, God knows, that she might
+marry a king, if there was one fit for her--and I not to know
+whether she's living in sin or not, Mr. William.--It's more than I
+can bear, and there's an end of it.  And if she is married to him
+they keep no faith with heretics; they can dissolve the marriage,
+or make away with her into the Inquisition; burn her, Mr. Cary, as
+soon as burn me, the devils incarnate!"
+
+Cary shuddered; the fact, true and palpable as it was, had never
+struck him before.
+
+"Yes! or make her deny her God by torments, if she hasn't done it
+already for love to that--  I know how love will make a body sell
+his soul, for I've been in love.  Don't you laugh at me, Mr. Will,
+or I shall go mad!"
+
+"God knows, I was never less inclined to laugh at you in my life,
+my brave old Jack."
+
+"Is it so, then?  Bless you for that word!" and Jack held out his
+hand.  "But what will become of my soul, after my oath, if I don't
+seek her out, just to speak to her, to warn her, for God's sake,
+even if it did no good; just to set before her the Lord's curse on
+idolatry and Antichrist, and those who deny Him for the sake of any
+creature, though I can't think he would be hard on her,--for who
+could?  But I must speak all the same.  The Lord has laid the
+burden on me, and done it must be.  God help me!"
+
+"Jack," said Cary, "if this is your duty, it is others'."
+
+"No, sir, I don't say that; you're a layman, but I am a deacon, and
+the chaplain of you all, and sworn to seek out Christ's sheep
+scattered up and down this naughty world, and that innocent lamb
+first of all."
+
+"You have sheep at Hartland, Jack, already."
+
+"There's plenty better than I will tend them, when I am gone; but
+none that will tend her, because none love her like me, and they
+won't venture.  Who will?  It can't be expected, and no shame to
+them?"
+
+"I wonder what Amyas Leigh would say to all this, if he were at
+home?"
+
+"Say?  He'd do.  He isn't one for talking.  He'd go through fire
+and water for her, you trust him, Will Cary; and call me an ass if
+he won't."
+
+"Will you wait, then, till he comes back, and ask him?"
+
+"He may not be back for a year and more."
+
+"Hear reason, Jack.  If you will wait like a rational and patient
+man, instead of rushing blindfold on your ruin, something may be
+done."
+
+"You think so!"
+
+"I cannot promise; but--"
+
+"But promise me one thing.  Do you tell Mr. Frank what I say--or
+rather, I'll warrant, if I knew the truth, he has said the very
+same thing himself already."
+
+"You are out there, old man; for here is his own handwriting."
+
+Jack read the letter and sighed bitterly.  "Well, I did take him
+for another guess sort of fine gentleman.  Still, if my duty isn't
+his, it's mine all the same.  I judge no man; but I go, Mr. Cary."
+
+"But go you shall not till Amyas returns.  As I live, I will tell
+your father, Jack, unless you promise; and you dare not disobey
+him."
+
+"I don't know even that, for conscience' sake," said Jack,
+doubtfully.
+
+"At least, you stay and dine here, old fellow, and we will settle
+whether you are to break the fifth commandment or not, over good
+brewed sack."
+
+Now a good dinner was (as we know) what Jack loved, and loved too
+oft in vain; so he submitted for the nonce, and Cary thought, ere
+he went, that he had talked him pretty well round.  At least he
+went home, and was seen no more for a week.
+
+But at the end of that time he returned, and said with a joyful
+voice--
+
+"I have settled all, Mr. Will.  The parson of Welcombe will serve
+my church for two Sundays, and I am away for London town, to speak
+to Mr. Frank."
+
+"To London?  How wilt get there?"
+
+"On Shanks his mare," said Jack, pointing to his bandy legs.  "But
+I expect I can get a lift on board of a coaster so far as Bristol,
+and it's no way on to signify, I hear."
+
+Cary tried in vain to dissuade him; and then forced on him a small
+loan, with which away went Jack, and Cary heard no more of him for
+three weeks.
+
+At last he walked into Clovelly Court again just before supper-
+time, thin and leg-weary, and sat himself down among the serving-
+men till Will appeared.
+
+Will took him up above the salt, and made much of him (which indeed
+the honest fellow much needed), and after supper asked him in
+private how he had sped.
+
+"I have learnt a lesson, Mr. William.  I've learnt that there is
+one on earth loves her better than I, if she had but had the wit to
+have taken him."
+
+"But what says he of going to seek her?"
+
+"He says what I say, Go! and he says what you say, Wait."
+
+"Go?  Impossible!  How can that agree with his letter?"
+
+"That's no concern of mine.  Of course, being nearer heaven than I
+am, he sees clearer what he should say and do than I can see for
+him.  Oh, Mr. Will, that's not a man, he's an angel of God; but
+he's dying, Mr. Will."
+
+"Dying?"
+
+"Yes, faith, of love for her.  I can see it in his eyes, and hear
+it in his voice; but I am of tougher hide and stiffer clay, and so
+you see I can't die even if I tried.  But I'll obey my betters, and
+wait."
+
+And so Jack went home to his parish that very evening, weary as he
+was, in spite of all entreaties to pass the night at Clovelly.  But
+he had left behind him thoughts in Cary's mind, which gave their
+owner no rest by day or night, till the touch of a seeming accident
+made them all start suddenly into shape, as a touch of the freezing
+water covers it in an instant with crystals of ice.
+
+He was lounging (so he told Amyas) one murky day on Bideford quay,
+when up came Mr. Salterne.  Cary had shunned him of late, partly
+from delicacy, partly from dislike of his supposed hard-
+heartedness.  But this time they happened to meet full; and Cary
+could not pass without speaking to him.
+
+"Well, Mr. Salterne, and how goes on the shipping trade?"
+
+"Well enough, sir, if some of you young gentlemen would but follow
+Mr. Leigh's example, and go forth to find us stay-at-homes new
+markets for our ware."
+
+"What? you want to be rid of us, eh?"
+
+"I don't know why I should, sir.  We sha'n't cross each other now,
+sir, whatever might have been once.  But if I were you, I should be
+in the Indies about now, if I were not fighting the queen's battles
+nearer home."
+
+"In the Indies?  I should make but a poor hand of Drake's trade."
+And so the conversation dropped; but Cary did not forget the hint.
+
+"So, lad, to make an end of a long story," said he to Amyas; "if
+you are minded to take the old man's offer, so am I: and Westward-
+ho with you, come foul come fair."
+
+"It will be but a wild-goose chase, Will."
+
+"If she is with him, we shall find her at La Guayra.  If she is
+not, and the villain has cast her off down the wind, that will be
+only an additional reason for making an example of him."
+
+"And if neither of them are there, Will, the Plate-fleets will be;
+so it will be our own shame if we come home empty-handed.  But will
+your father let you run such a risk?"
+
+"My father!" said Cary, laughing.  "He has just now so good hope of
+a long string of little Carys to fill my place, that he will be in
+no lack of an heir, come what will."
+
+"Little Carys?"
+
+"I tell you truth.  I think he must have had a sly sup of that
+fountain of perpetual youth, which our friend Don Guzman's
+grandfather went to seek in Florida; for some twelvemonth since, he
+must needs marry a tenant's buxom daughter; and Mistress Abishag
+Jewell has brought him one fat baby already.  So I shall go, back
+to Ireland, or with you: but somewhere.  I can't abide the thing's
+squalling, any more than I can seeing Mistress Abishag sitting in
+my poor dear mother's place, and informing me every other day that
+she is come of an illustrious house, because she is (or is not)
+third cousin seven times removed to my father's old friend, Bishop
+Jewell of glorious memory.  I had three-parts of a quarrel with the
+dear old man the other day; for after one of her peacock-bouts, I
+couldn't for the life of me help saying, that as the Bishop had
+written an Apology for the people of England, my father had better
+conjure up his ghost to write an apology for him, and head it, 'Why
+green heads should grow on gray shoulders.'"
+
+"You impudent villain!  And what did he say?"
+
+Laughed till he cried again, and told me if I did not like it I
+might leave it; which is just what I intend to do.  Only mind, if
+we go, we must needs take Jack Brimblecombe with us, or he will
+surely heave himself over Harty Point, and his ghost will haunt us
+to our dying day."
+
+"Jack shall go.  None deserves it better."
+
+After which there was a long consultation on practical matters, and
+it was concluded that Amyas should go up to London and sound Frank
+and his mother before any further steps were taken.  The other
+brethren of the Rose were scattered far and wide, each at his post,
+and St. Leger had returned to his uncle, so that it would be unfair
+to them, as well as a considerable delay, to demand of them any
+fulfilment of their vow.  And, as Amyas sagely remarked, "Too many
+cooks spoil the broth, and half-a-dozen gentlemen aboard one ship
+are as bad as two kings of Brentford."
+
+With which maxim he departed next morning for London, leaving Yeo
+with Cary.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE
+
+
+"He is brass within, and steel without,
+With beams on his topcastle strong;
+And eighteen pieces of ordinance
+He carries on either side along."
+
+                    Sir Andrew Barton.
+
+
+Let us take boat, as Amyas did, at Whitehall-stairs, and slip down
+ahead of him under old London Bridge, and so to Deptford Creek,
+where remains, as it were embalmed, the famous ship Pelican, in
+which Drake had sailed round the world.  There she stands, drawn up
+high and dry upon the sedgy bank of Thames, like an old warrior
+resting after his toil.  Nailed upon her mainmast are epigrams and
+verses in honor of her and of her captain, three of which, by the
+Winchester scholar, Camden gives in his History; and Elizabeth's
+self consecrated her solemnly, and having banqueted on board, there
+and then honored Drake with the dignity of knighthood.  "At which
+time a bridge of planks, by which they came on board, broke under
+the press of people, and fell down with a hundred men upon it, who,
+notwithstanding, had none of them any harm.  So as that ship may
+seem to have been built under a lucky planet."
+
+There she has remained since as a show, and moreover as a sort of
+dining-hall for jovial parties from the city; one of which would
+seem to be on board this afternoon, to judge from the flags which
+bedizen the masts, the sounds of revelry and savory steams which
+issue from those windows which once were portholes, and the rushing
+to and fro along the river brink, and across that lucky bridge, of
+white-aproned waiters from the neighboring Pelican Inn.  A great
+feast is evidently toward, for with those white-aproned waiters are
+gay serving men, wearing on their shoulders the city-badge.  The
+lord mayor is giving a dinner to certain gentlemen of the Leicester
+house party, who are interested in foreign discoveries; and what
+place so fit for such a feast as the Pelican itself?
+
+Look at the men all round; a nobler company you will seldom see.
+Especially too, if you be Americans, look at their faces, and
+reverence them; for to them and to their wisdom you owe the
+existence of your mighty fatherland.
+
+At the head of the table sits the lord mayor; whom all readers will
+recognize at once, for he is none other than that famous Sir Edward
+Osborne, clothworker, and ancestor of the dukes of Leeds, whose
+romance now-a-days is in every one's hands.  He is aged, but not
+changed, since he leaped from the window upon London Bridge into
+the roaring tide below, to rescue the infant who is now his wife.
+The chivalry and promptitude of the 'prentice boy have grown and
+hardened into the thoughtful daring of the wealthy merchant
+adventurer.  There he sits, a right kingly man, with my lord Earl
+of Cumberland on his right hand, and Walter Raleigh on his left;
+the three talk together in a low voice on the chance of there being
+vast and rich countries still undiscovered between Florida and the
+River of Canada.  Raleigh's half-scientific declamation and his
+often quotations of Doctor Dee the conjuror, have less effect on
+Osborne than on Cumberland (who tried many an adventure to foreign
+parts, and failed in all of them; apparently for the simple reason
+that, instead of going himself, he sent other people), and Raleigh
+is fain to call to his help the quiet student who sits on his left
+hand, Richard Hakluyt, of Oxford.  But he is deep in talk with a
+reverend elder, whose long white beard flows almost to his waist,
+and whose face is furrowed by a thousand storms; Anthony Jenkinson
+by name, the great Asiatic traveller, who is discoursing to the
+Christ-church virtuoso of reindeer sledges and Siberian steppes,
+and of the fossil ivory, plain proof of Noah's flood, which the
+Tungoos dig from the ice-cliffs of the Arctic sea.  Next to him is
+Christopher Carlile, Walsingham's son-in-law (as Sidney also is
+now), a valiant captain, afterwards general of the soldiery in
+Drake's triumphant West Indian raid of 1585, with whom a certain
+Bishop of Carthagena will hereafter drink good wine.  He is now
+busy talking with Alderman Hart the grocer, Sheriff Spencer the
+clothworker, and Charles Leigh (Amyas's merchant-cousin), and with
+Aldworth the mayor of Bristol, and William Salterne, alderman
+thereof, and cousin of our friend at Bideford.  For Carlile, and
+Secretary Walsingham also, have been helping them heart and soul
+for the last two years to collect money for Humphrey and Adrian
+Gilbert's great adventures to the North-West, on one of which
+Carlile was indeed to have sailed himself, but did not go after
+all; I never could discover for what reason.
+
+On the opposite side of the table is a group, scarcely less
+interesting.  Martin Frobisher and John Davis, the pioneers of the
+North-West passage, are talking with Alderman Sanderson, the great
+geographer and "setter forth of globes;" with Mr. Towerson, Sir
+Gilbert Peckham, our old acquaintance Captain John Winter, and
+last, but not least, with Philip Sidney himself, who, with his
+accustomed courtesy; has given up his rightful place toward the
+head of the table that he may have a knot of virtuosi all to
+himself; and has brought with him, of course, his two especial
+intimates, Mr. Edward Dyer and Mr. Francis Leigh.  They too are
+talking of the North-West passage: and Sidney is lamenting that he
+is tied to diplomacy and courts, and expressing his envy of old
+Martin Frobisher in all sorts of pretty compliments; to which the
+other replies that,
+
+"It's all very fine to talk of here, a sailing on dry land with a
+good glass of wine before you; but you'd find it another guess sort
+of business, knocking about among the icebergs with your beard
+frozen fast to your ruff, Sir Philip, specially if you were a bit
+squeamish about the stomach."
+
+"That were a slight matter to endure, my dear sir, if by it I could
+win the honor which her majesty bestowed on you, when her own ivory
+hand waved a farewell 'kerchief to your ship from the windows of
+Greenwich Palace."
+
+"Well, sir, folks say you have no reason to complain of lack of
+favors, as you have no reason to deserve lack; and if you can get
+them by staying ashore, don't you go to sea to look for more, say
+I.  Eh, Master Towerson?"
+
+Towerson's gray beard, which has stood many a foreign voyage, both
+fair and foul, wags grim assent.  But at this moment a Waiter
+enters, and--
+
+"Please my lord mayor's worship, there is a tall gentleman outside,
+would speak with the Right Honorable Sir Walter Raleigh."
+
+"Show him in, man.  Sir Walter's friends are ours."
+
+Amyas enters, and stands hesitating in the doorway.
+
+"Captain Leigh!" cry half a-dozen voices.
+
+"Why did you not walk in, sir?" says Osborne.  "You should know
+your way well enough between these decks."
+
+"Well enough, my lords and gentlemen.  But, Sir Walter--you will
+excuse me"--and he gave Raleigh a look which was enough for his
+quick wit.  Turning pale as death, he rose, and followed Amyas into
+an adjoining cabin.  They were five minutes together; and then
+Amyas came out alone.
+
+In few words he told the company the sad story which we already
+know.  Ere it was ended, noble tears were glistening on some of
+those stern faces.
+
+"The old Egyptians," said Sir Edward Osborne, "when they banqueted,
+set a corpse among their guests, for a memorial of human vanity.
+Have we forgotten God and our own weakness in this our feast, that
+He Himself has sent us thus a message from the dead?"
+
+"Nay, my lord mayor," said Sidney, "not from the dead, but from the
+realm of everlasting life."
+
+"Amen!" answered Osborne.  "But, gentlemen, our feast is at an end.
+There are those here who would drink on merrily, as brave men
+should, in spite of the private losses of which they have just had
+news; but none here who can drink with the loss of so great a man
+still ringing in his ears."
+
+It was true.  Though many of the guests had suffered severely by
+the failure of the expedition, they had utterly forgotten that fact
+in the awful news of Sir Humphrey's death; and the feast broke up
+sadly and hurriedly, while each man asked his neighbor, "What will
+the queen say?"
+
+Raleigh re-entered in a few minutes, but was silent, and pressing
+many an honest hand as he passed, went out to call a wherry,
+beckoning Amyas to follow him.  Sidney, Cumberland, and Frank went
+with them in another boat, leaving the two to talk over the sad
+details.
+
+They disembarked at Whitehall-stairs; Raleigh, Sidney, and
+Cumberland went to the palace; and the two brothers to their
+mother's lodgings.
+
+Amyas had prepared his speech to Frank about Rose Salterne, but now
+that it was come to the point, he had not courage to begin, and
+longed that Frank would open the matter.  Frank, too, shrank from
+what he knew must come, and all the more because he was ignorant
+that Amyas had been to Bideford, or knew aught of the Rose's
+disappearance.
+
+So they went upstairs; and it was a relief to both of them to find
+that their mother was at the Abbey; for it was for her sake that
+both dreaded what was coming.  So they went and stood in the bay-
+window which looked out upon the river, and talked of things
+indifferent, and looked earnestly at each other's faces by the
+fading light, for it was now three years since they had met.
+
+Years and events had deepened the contrast between the two
+brothers; and Frank smiled with affectionate pride as he looked up
+in Amyas's face, and saw that he was no longer merely the
+rollicking handy sailor-lad, but the self-confident and stately
+warrior, showing in every look and gesture
+
+
+     "The reason firm, the temperate will,
+      Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill,"
+
+
+worthy of one whose education had been begun by such men as Drake
+and Grenville, and finished by such as Raleigh and Gilbert.  His
+long locks were now cropped close to the head; but as a set-off,
+the lips and chin were covered with rich golden beard; his face was
+browned by a thousand suns and storms; a long scar, the trophy of
+some Irish fight, crossed his right temple; his huge figure had
+gained breadth in proportion to its height; and his hand, as it lay
+upon the window-sill, was hard and massive as a smith's.  Frank
+laid his own upon it, and sighed; and Amyas looked down, and
+started at the contrast between the two--so slender, bloodless, all
+but transparent, were the delicate fingers of the courtier.  Amyas
+looked anxiously into his brother's face.  It was changed, indeed,
+since they last met.  The brilliant red was still on either cheek,
+but the white had become dull and opaque; the lips were pale, the
+features sharpened; the eyes glittered with unnatural fire: and
+when Frank told Amyas that he looked aged, Amyas could not help
+thinking that the remark was far more true of the speaker himself.
+
+Trying to shut his eyes to the palpable truth, he went on with his
+chat, asking the names of one building after another.
+
+"And so this is old Father Thames, with his bank of palaces?"
+
+"Yes.  His banks are stately enough; yet, you see, he cannot stay
+to look at them.  He hurries down to the sea; and the sea into the
+ocean; and the ocean Westward-ho, forever.  All things move
+Westward-ho.  Perhaps we may move that way ourselves some day,
+Amyas."
+
+"What do you mean by that strange talk?"
+
+"Only that the ocean follows the primum mobile of the heavens, and
+flows forever from east to west.  Is there anything so strange in
+my thinking of that, when I am just come from a party where we have
+been drinking success to Westward-ho?"
+
+"And much good has come of it!  I have lost the best friend and the
+noblest captain upon earth, not to mention all my little earnings,
+in that same confounded gulf of Westward-ho."
+
+"Yes, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's star has set in the West--why not?
+Sun, moon, and planets sink into the West: why not the meteors of
+this lower world? why not a will-o'-the-wisp like me, Amyas?"
+
+"God forbid, Frank!"
+
+"Why, then?  Is not the West the land of peace, and the land of
+dreams?  Do not our hearts tell us so each time we look upon the
+setting sun, and long to float away with him upon the golden-
+cushioned clouds?  They bury men with their faces to the East.  I
+should rather have mine turned to the West, Amyas, when I die; for
+I cannot but think it some divine instinct which made the ancient
+poets guess that Elysium lay beneath the setting sun.  It is bound
+up in the heart of man, that longing for the West.  I complain of
+no one for fleeing away thither beyond the utmost sea, as David
+wished to flee, and be at peace."
+
+"Complain of no one for fleeing thither?" asked Amyas.  "That is
+more than I do."
+
+Frank looked inquiringly at him; and then--
+
+"No.  If I had complained of any one, it would have been of you
+just now, for seeming to be tired of going Westward-ho."
+
+"Do you wish me to go, then?"
+
+"God knows," said Frank, after a moment's pause.  "But I must tell
+you now, I suppose, once and for all.  That has happened at
+Bideford which--"
+
+"Spare us both, Frank; I know all.  I came through Bideford on my
+way hither; and came hither not merely to see you and my mother,
+but to ask your advice and her permission."
+
+"True heart! noble heart!" cried Frank.  "I knew you would be
+stanch!"
+
+"Westward-ho it is, then?"
+
+"Can we escape?"
+
+"We?"
+
+"Amyas, does not that which binds you bind me?"
+
+Amyas started back, and held Frank by the shoulders at arm's
+length; as he did so, he could feel through, that his brother's
+arms were but skin and bone.
+
+"You?  Dearest man, a month of it would kill you!"
+
+Frank smiled, and tossed his head on one side in his pretty way.
+
+"I belong to the school of Thales, who held that the ocean is the
+mother of all life; and feel no more repugnance at returning to her
+bosom again than Humphrey Gilbert did."
+
+"But, Frank,--my mother?"
+
+"My mother knows all; and would not have us unworthy of her."
+
+"Impossible!  She will never give you up!"
+
+"All things are possible to them that believe in God, my brother;
+and she believes.  But, indeed, Doctor Dee, the wise man, gave her
+but this summer I know not what of prognostics and diagnostics
+concerning me.  I am born, it seems, under a cold and watery
+planet, and need, if I am to be long-lived, to go nearer to the
+vivifying heat of the sun, and there bask out my little life, like
+fly on wall.  To tell truth, he has bidden me spend no more winters
+here in the East; but return to our native sea-breezes, there to
+warm my frozen lungs; and has so filled my mother's fancy with
+stories of sick men, who were given up for lost in Germany and
+France, and yet renewed their youth, like any serpent or eagle, by
+going to Italy, Spain, and the Canaries, that she herself will be
+more ready to let me go than I to leave her all alone.  And yet I
+must go, Amyas.  It is not merely that my heart pants, as Sidney's
+does, as every gallant's ought, to make one of your noble choir of
+Argonauts, who are now replenishing the earth and subduing it for
+God and for the queen; it is not merely, Amyas, that love calls
+me,--love tyrannous and uncontrollable, strengthened by absence,
+and deepened by despair; but honor, Amyas--my oath--"
+
+And he paused for lack of breath, and bursting into a violent fit
+of coughing, leaned on his brother's shoulder, while Amyas cried,
+
+"Fools, fools that we were--that I was, I mean--to take that
+fantastical vow!"
+
+"Not so," answered a gentle voice from behind: "you vowed for the
+sake of peace on earth, and good-will toward men, and 'Blessed are
+the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.'  No
+my sons, be sure that such self-sacrifice as you have shown will
+meet its full reward at the hand of Him who sacrificed Himself for
+you."
+
+"Oh, mother! mother!" said Amyas, "and do you not hate the very
+sight of me--come here to take away your first-born?"
+
+"My boy, God takes him, and not you.  And if I dare believe in such
+predictions, Doctor Dee assured me that some exceeding honor
+awaited you both in the West, to each of you according to your
+deserts."
+
+"Ah!" said Amyas.  "My blessing, I suppose, will be like Esau's, to
+live by my sword; while Jacob here, the spiritual man, inherits the
+kingdom of heaven, and an angel's crown."
+
+"Be it what it may, it will surely be a blessing, as long as you
+are such, my children, as you have been.  At least my Frank will be
+safe from the intrigues of court, and the temptations of the world.
+Would that I too could go with you, and share in your glory!  Come,
+now," said she, laying her head upon Amyas's breast, and looking up
+into his face with one of her most winning smiles, "I have heard of
+heroic mothers ere now who went forth with their sons to battle,
+and cheered them on to victory.  Why should I not go with you on a
+more peaceful errand?  I could nurse the sick, if there were any; I
+could perhaps have speech of that poor girl, and win her back more
+easily than you.  She might listen to words from a woman--a woman,
+too, who has loved--which she could not hear from men.  At least I
+could mend and wash for you.  I suppose it is as easy to play the
+good housewife afloat as on shore?  Come, now!"
+
+Amyas looked from one to the other.
+
+"God only knows which of the two is less fit to go.  Mother!
+mother! you know not what you ask.  Frank! Frank! I do not want you
+with me.  This is a sterner matter than either of you fancy it to
+be; one that must be worked out, not with kind words, but with
+sharp shot and cold steel."
+
+"How?" cried both together, aghast.
+
+"I must pay my men, and pay my fellow-adventurers; and I must pay
+them with Spanish gold.  And what is more, I cannot, as a loyal
+subject of the queen's, go to the Spanish Main with a clear
+conscience on my own private quarrel, unless I do all the harm that
+my hand finds to do, by day and night, to her enemies, and the
+enemies of God."
+
+"What nobler knight-errantry?" said Frank, cheerfully; but Mrs.
+Leigh shuddered.
+
+"What!  Frank too?" she said, half to herself; but her sons knew
+what she meant.  Amyas's warlike life, honorable and righteous as
+she knew it to be, she had borne as a sad necessity: but that Frank
+as well should become "a man of blood," was more than her gentle
+heart could face at first sight.  That one youthful duel of his he
+had carefully concealed from her, knowing her feeling on such
+matters.  And it seemed too dreadful to her to associate that
+gentle spirit with all the ferocities and the carnage of a
+battlefield.  "And yet," said she to herself, "is this but another
+of the self-willed idols which I must renounce one by one?"  And
+then, catching at a last hope, she answered--
+
+"Frank must at least ask the queen's leave to go; and if she
+permits, how can I gainsay her wisdom?"
+
+And so the conversation dropped, sadly enough.
+
+But now began a fresh perplexity in Frank's soul, which amused
+Amyas at first, when it seemed merely jest, but nettled him a good
+deal when he found it earnest.  For Frank looked forward to asking
+the queen's permission for his voyage with the most abject
+despondency and terror.  Two or three days passed before he could
+make up his mind to ask for an interview with her; and he spent the
+time in making as much interest with Leicester, Hatton, and Sidney,
+as if he were about to sue for a reprieve from the scaffold.
+
+So said Amyas, remarking, further, that the queen could not cut his
+head off for wanting to go to sea.
+
+"But what axe so sharp as her frown?" said Frank in most lugubrious
+tone.
+
+Amyas began to whistle in a very rude way.
+
+"Ah, my brother, you cannot comprehend the pain of parting from
+her."
+
+"No, I can't.  I would die for the least hair of her royal head,
+God bless it! but I could live very well from now till Doomsday
+without ever setting eyes on the said head."
+
+"Plato's Troglodytes regretted not that sunlight which they had
+never beheld."
+
+Amyas, not understanding this recondite conceit, made no answer to
+it, and there the matter ended for the time.  But at last Frank
+obtained his audience; and after a couple of hours' absence
+returned quite pale and exhausted.
+
+"Thank Heaven, it is over!  She was very angry at first--what else
+could she be?--and upbraided me with having set my love so low.  I
+could only answer, that my fatal fault was committed before the
+sight of her had taught me what was supremely lovely, and only
+worthy of admiration.  Then she accused me of disloyalty in having
+taken an oath which bound me to the service of another than her.  I
+confessed my sin with tears, and when she threatened punishment,
+pleaded that the offence had avenged itself heavily already,--for
+what worse punishment than exile from the sunlight of her presence,
+into the outer darkness which reigns where she is not?  Then she
+was pleased to ask me, how I could dare, as her sworn servant, to
+desert her side in such dangerous times as these; and asked me how
+I should reconcile it to my conscience, if on my return I found her
+dead by the assassin's knife?  At which most pathetic demand I
+could only throw myself at once on my own knees and her mercy, and
+so awaited my sentence.  Whereon, with that angelic pity which
+alone makes her awfulness endurable, she turned to Hatton and
+asked, 'What say you, Mouton?  Is he humbled sufficiently?' and so
+dismissed me."
+
+"Heigh-ho!" yawned Amyas;
+
+
+     "If the bridge had been stronger,
+      My tale had been longer."
+
+
+"Amyas! Amyas!" quoth Frank, solemnly, "you know not what power
+over the soul has the native and God-given majesty of royalty
+(awful enough in itself) when to it is superadded the wisdom of the
+sage, and therewithal the tenderness of the woman.  Had I my will,
+there should be in every realm not a salique, but an anti-salique
+law: whereby no kings, but only queens should rule mankind.  Then
+would weakness and not power be to man the symbol of divinity;
+love, and not cunning, would be the arbiter of every cause; and
+chivalry, not fear, the spring of all obedience."
+
+"Humph!  There's some sense in that," quoth Amyas.  "I'd run a mile
+for a woman when I would not walk a yard for a man; and--  Who is
+this our mother is bringing in?  The handsomest fellow I ever saw
+in my life!"
+
+Amyas was not far wrong; for Mrs. Leigh's companion was none other
+than Mr. Secretary, Amyas's Smerwick Fort acquaintance; alias Colin
+Clout, alias Immerito, alias Edmund Spenser.  Some half-jesting
+conversation had seemingly been passing between the poet and the
+saint; for as they came in she said with a smile (which was
+somewhat of a forced one)--"Well, my dear sons, you are sure of
+immortality, at least on earth; for Mr. Spenser has been vowing to
+me to give your adventure a whole canto to itself in his 'Faerie
+Queene'"
+
+"And you no less, madam," said Spenser.  "What were the story of
+the Gracchi worth without the figure of Cornelia?  If I honor the
+fruit, I must not forget the stem which bears it.  Frank, I
+congratulate you."
+
+"Then you know the result of my interview, mother?"
+
+"I know everything, and am content," said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"Mrs. Leigh has reason to be content," said Spenser," with that
+which is but her own likeness."
+
+Spare your flattery to an old woman, Mr. Spenser.  When, pray, did
+I" (with a most loving look at Frank) "refuse knighthood for duty's
+sake?"
+
+"Knighthood?" cried Amyas.  "You never told me that, Frank!"
+
+"That may well be, Captain Leigh," said Spenser; "but believe me,
+her majesty (so Hatton assures me) told him this day, no less than
+that by going on this quest he deprived himself of that highest
+earthly honor, which crowned heads are fain to seek from their own
+subjects."
+
+Spenser did not exaggerate.  Knighthood was then the prize of merit
+only; and one so valuable, that Elizabeth herself said, when asked
+why she did not bestow a peerage upon some favorite, that having
+already knighted him, she had nothing better to bestow.  It
+remained for young Essex to begin the degradation of the order in
+his hapless Irish campaign, and for James to complete that
+degradation by his novel method of raising money by the sale of
+baronetcies; a new order of hereditary knighthood which was the
+laughing-stock of the day, and which (however venerable it may have
+since become) reflects anything but honor upon its first
+possessors.
+
+"I owe you no thanks, Colin," said Frank, "for having broached my
+secret: but I have lost nothing after all.  There is still an order
+of knighthood in which I may win my spurs, even though her majesty
+refuse me the accolade."
+
+"What, then? you will not take it from a foreign prince?"
+
+Frank smiled.
+
+"Have you never read of that knighthood which is eternal in the
+heavens, and of those true cavaliers whom John saw in Patmos,
+riding on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean,
+knights-errant in the everlasting war against the False Prophet and
+the Beast?  Let me but become worthy of their ranks hereafter, what
+matter whether I be called Sir Frank on earth?"
+
+"My son," said Mrs. Leigh, "remember that they follow One whose
+vesture is dipped, not in the blood of His enemies, but in His
+own."
+
+"I have remembered it for many a day; and remembered, too, that the
+garments of the knights may need the same tokens as their
+captain's."
+
+"Oh, Frank! Frank! is not His precious blood enough to cleanse all
+sin, without the sacrifice of our own?"
+
+"We may need no more than His blood, mother, and yet He may need
+ours," said Frank.
+
+            .     .     .     .     .     .     .
+
+How that conversation ended I know not, nor whether Spenser
+fulfilled his purpose of introducing the two brothers and their
+mother into his "Faerie Queene."  If so, the manuscripts must have
+been lost among those which perished (along with Spenser's baby) in
+the sack of Kilcolman by the Irish in 1598.  But we need hardly
+regret the loss of them; for the temper of the Leighs and their
+mother is the same which inspires every canto of that noblest of
+poems; and which inspired, too, hundreds in those noble days, when
+the chivalry of the Middle Ages was wedded to the free thought and
+enterprise of the new.
+
+            .     .     .     .     .     .     .
+
+So mother and sons returned to Bideford, and set to work.  Frank
+mortgaged a farm; Will Cary did the same (having some land of his
+own from his mother).  Old Salterne grumbled at any man save
+himself spending a penny on the voyage, and forced on the
+adventurers a good ship of two hundred tons burden, and five
+hundred pounds toward fitting her out; Mrs. Leigh worked day and
+night at clothes and comforts of every kind; Amyas had nothing to
+give but his time and his brains: but, as Salterne said, the rest
+would have been of little use without them; and day after day he
+and the old merchant were on board the ship, superintending with
+their own eyes the fitting of every rope and nail.  Cary went about
+beating up recruits; and made, with his jests and his frankness,
+the best of crimps: while John Brimblecombe, beside himself with
+joy, toddled about after him from tavern to tavern, and quay to
+quay, exalted for the time being (as Cary told him) into a second
+Peter the Hermit; and so fiercely did he preach a crusade against
+the Spaniards, through Bideford and Appledore, Clovelly and
+Ilfracombe, that Amyas might have had a hundred and fifty loose
+fellows in the first fortnight.  But he knew better: still smarting
+from the effects of a similar haste in the Newfoundland adventure,
+he had determined to take none but picked men; and by dint of labor
+he obtained them.
+
+Only one scapegrace did he take into his crew, named Parracombe;
+and by that scapegrace hangs a tale.  He was an old schoolfellow of
+his at Bideford, and son of a merchant in that town--one of those
+unlucky members who are "nobody's enemy but their own"--a handsome,
+idle, clever fellow, who used his scholarship, of which he had
+picked up some smattering, chiefly to justify his own escapades,
+and to string songs together.  Having drunk all that he was worth
+at home, he had in a penitent fit forsworn liquor, and tormented
+Amyas into taking him to sea, where he afterwards made as good a
+sailor as any one else, but sorely scandalized John Brimblecombe by
+all manner of heretical arguments, half Anacreontic, half smacking
+of the rather loose doctrines of that "Family of Love" which
+tormented the orthodoxy and morality of more than one Bishop of
+Exeter.  Poor Will Parracombe! he was born a few centuries too
+early.  Had he but lived now, he might have published a volume or
+two of poetry, and then settled down on the staff of a newspaper.
+Had he even lived thirty years later than he did, he might have
+written frantic tragedies or filthy comedies for the edification of
+James's profligate metropolis, and roistered it in taverns with
+Marlowe, to die as Marlowe did, by a footman's sword in a drunken
+brawl.  But in those stern days such weak and hysterical spirits
+had no fair vent for their "humors," save in being reconciled to
+the Church of Rome, and plotting with Jesuits to assassinate the
+queen, as Parry and Somerville, and many other madmen, did.
+
+So, at least, some Jesuit or other seems to have thought, shortly
+after Amyas had agreed to give the spendthrift a berth on board.
+For one day Amyas, going down to Appledore about his business, was
+called into the little Mariners' Rest inn, to extract therefrom
+poor Will Parracombe, who (in spite of his vow) was drunk and
+outrageous, and had vowed the death of the landlady and all her
+kin.  So Amyas fetched him out by the collar, and walked him home
+thereby to Bideford; during which walk Will told him a long and
+confused story; how an Egyptian rogue had met him that morning on
+the sands by Boathythe, offered to tell his fortune, and prophesied
+to him great wealth and honor, but not from the Queen of England;
+had coaxed him to the Mariners' Rest, and gambled with him for
+liquor, at which it seemed Will always won, and of course drank his
+winnings on the spot; whereon the Egyptian began asking him all
+sorts of questions about the projected voyage of the Rose--a good
+many of which, Will confessed, he had answered before he saw the
+fellow's drift; after which the Egyptian had offered him a vast sum
+of money to do some desperate villainy; but whether it was to
+murder Amyas or the queen, whether to bore a hole in the bottom of
+the good ship Rose or to set the Torridge on fire by art-magic, he
+was too drunk to recollect exactly.  Whereon Amyas treated three-
+quarters of the story as a tipsy dream, and contented himself by
+getting a warrant against the landlady for harboring "Egyptians,"
+which was then a heavy offence--a gipsy disguise being a favorite
+one with Jesuits and their emissaries.  She of course denied that
+any gipsy had been there; and though there were some who thought
+they had seen such a man come in, none had seen him go out again.
+On which Amyas took occasion to ask, what had become of the
+suspicious Popish ostler whom he had seen at the Mariners' Rest
+three years before; and discovered, to his surprise, that the said
+ostler had vanished from the very day of Don Guzman's departure
+from Bideford.  There was evidently a mystery somewhere: but
+nothing could be proved; the landlady was dismissed with a
+reprimand, and Amyas soon forgot the whole matter, after rating
+Parracombe soundly.  After all, he could not have told the gipsy
+(if one existed) anything important; for the special destination of
+the voyage (as was the custom in those times, for fear of Jesuits
+playing into the hands of Spain) had been carefully kept secret
+among the adventurers themselves, and, except Yeo and Drew, none of
+the men had any suspicion that La Guayra was to be their aim.
+
+And Salvation Yeo?
+
+Salvation was almost wild for a few days, at the sudden prospect of
+going in search of his little maid, and of fighting Spaniards once
+more before he died.  I will not quote the texts out of Isaiah and
+the Psalms with which his mouth was filled from morning to night,
+for fear of seeming irreverent in the eyes of a generation which
+does not believe, as Yeo believed, that fighting the Spaniards was
+as really fighting in God's battle against evil as were the wars of
+Joshua or David.  But the old man had his practical hint too, and
+entreated to be sent back to Plymouth to look for men.
+
+"There's many a man of the old Pelican, sir, and of Captain
+Hawkins's Minion that knows the Indies as well as I, and longs to
+be back again.  There's Drew, sir, that we left behind (and no
+better sailing-master for us in the West-country, and has accounts
+against the Spaniards, too; for it was his brother, the Barnstaple
+man, that was factor aboard of poor Mr. Andrew Barker, and got
+clapt into the Inquisition at the Canaries); you promised him, sir,
+that night he stood by you on board the Raleigh: and if you'll be
+as good as your word, he'll be as good as his; and bring a score
+more brave fellows with him."
+
+So off went Yeo to Plymouth, and returned with Drew and a score of
+old never-strikes.  One look at their visages, as Yeo proudly
+ushered them into the Ship Tavern, showed Amyas that they were of
+the metal which he wanted, and that, with the four North-Devon men
+who had gone round the world with him in the Pelican (who all
+joined in the first week), he had a reserve-force on which he could
+depend in utter need; and that utter need might come he knew as
+well as any.
+
+Nor was this all which Yeo had brought; for he had with him a
+letter from Sir Francis Drake, full of regrets that he had not seen
+"his dear lad" as he went through Plymouth.  "But indeed I was up
+to Dartmoor, surveying with cross-staff and chain, over my knees in
+bog for a three weeks or more.  For I have a project to bring down
+a leat of fair water from the hill-tops right into Plymouth town,
+cutting off the heads of Tavy, Meavy, Wallcomb, and West Dart, and
+thereby purging Plymouth harbor from the silt of the mines whereby
+it has been choked of late years, and giving pure drink not only to
+the townsmen, but to the fleets of the queen's majesty; which if I
+do, I shall both make some poor return to God for all His
+unspeakable mercies, and erect unto myself a monument better than
+of brass or marble, not merely honorable to me, but useful to my
+countrymen."*  Whereon Frank sent Drake a pretty epigram, comparing
+Drake's projected leat to that river of eternal life whereof the
+just would drink throughout eternity, and quoting (after the
+fashion of those days) John vii. 38; while Amyas took more heed of
+a practical appendage to the same letter, which was a list of hints
+scrawled for his use by Captain John Hawkins himself, on all sea
+matters, from the mounting of ordnance to the use of vitriol
+against the scurvy, in default of oranges and "limmons;" all which
+stood Amyas in good stead during the ensuing month, while Frank
+grew more and more proud of his brother, and more and more humble
+about himself.
+
+
+* This noble monument of Drake's piety and public spirit still
+remains in full use.
+
+
+For he watched with astonishment how the simple sailor, without
+genius, scholarship, or fancy, had gained, by plain honesty,
+patience, and common sense, a power over the human heart, and a
+power over his work, whatsoever it might be, which Frank could only
+admire afar off.  The men looked up to him as infallible, prided
+themselves on forestalling his wishes, carried out his slightest
+hint, worked early and late to win a smile from him; while as for
+him, no detail escaped him, no drudgery sickened him, no
+disappointment angered him, till on the 15th of November, 1583,
+dropped down from Bideford Quay to Appledore Pool the tall ship
+Rose, with a hundred men on board (for sailors packed close in
+those days), beef, pork, biscuit, and good ale (for ale went to sea
+always then) in abundance, four culverins on her main deck, her
+poop and forecastle well fitted with swivels of every size, and her
+racks so full of muskets, calivers, long bows, pikes, and swords,
+that all agreed so well-appointed a ship had never sailed "out over
+Bar."
+
+The next day being Sunday, the whole crew received the Communion
+together at Northam Church, amid a mighty crowd; and then going on
+board again, hove anchor and sailed out over the Bar before a soft
+east wind, to the music of sacbut, fife, and drum, with discharge
+of all ordnance, great and small, with cheering of young and old
+from cliff and strand and quay, and with many a tearful prayer and
+blessing upon that gallant bark, and all brave hearts on board.
+
+And Mrs. Leigh who had kissed her sons for the last time after the
+Communion at the altar-steps (and what more fit place for a
+mother's kiss?) went to the rocky knoll outside the churchyard
+wall, and watched the ship glide out between the yellow denes, and
+lessen slowly hour by hour into the boundless West, till her hull
+sank below the dim horizon, and her white sails faded away into the
+gray Atlantic mist, perhaps forever.
+
+And Mrs. Leigh gathered her cloak about her, and bowed her head and
+worshipped; and then went home to loneliness and prayer.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS, AND FOUND NO MEN THEREIN
+
+
+"The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out;
+At one stride comes the dark."
+
+                              COLERIDGE.
+
+
+Land! land! land!  Yes, there it was, far away to the south and
+west, beside the setting sun, a long blue bar between the crimson
+sea and golden sky.  Land at last, with fresh streams, and cooling
+fruits, and free room for cramped and scurvy-weakened limbs.  And
+there, too, might be gold, and gems, and all the wealth of Ind.
+Who knew?  Why not?  The old world of fact and prose lay thousands
+of miles behind them, and before them and around them was the realm
+of wonder and fable, of boundless hope and possibility.  Sick men
+crawled up out of their stifling hammocks; strong men fell on their
+knees and gave God thanks; and all eyes and hands were stretched
+eagerly toward the far blue cloud, fading as the sun sank down, yet
+rising higher and broader as the ship rushed on before the rich
+trade-wind, which whispered lovingly round brow and sail, "I am the
+faithful friend of those who dare!"  "Blow freshly, freshlier yet,
+thou good trade-wind, of whom it is written that He makes the winds
+His angels, ministering breaths to the heirs of His salvation.
+Blow freshlier yet, and save, if not me from death, yet her from
+worse than death.  Blow on, and land me at her feet, to call the
+lost lamb home, and die!"
+
+So murmured Frank to himself, as with straining eyes he gazed upon
+that first outlier of the New World which held his all.  His cheeks
+were thin and wasted, and the hectic spot on each glowed crimson in
+the crimson light of the setting sun.  A few minutes more, and the
+rainbows of the West were gone; emerald and topaz, amethyst and
+ruby, had faded into silver-gray; and overhead, through the dark
+sapphire depths, the Moon and Venus reigned above the sea.
+
+"That should be Barbados, your worship," said Drew, the master;
+"unless my reckoning is far out, which, Heaven knows, it has no
+right to be, after such a passage, and God be praised."
+
+"Barbados?  I never heard of it."
+
+"Very like, sir: but Yeo and I were here with Captain Drake, and I
+was here after, too, with poor Captain Barlow; and there is good
+harborage to the south and west of it, I remember."
+
+"And neither Spaniard, cannibal, or other evil beast," said Yeo.
+"A very garden of the Lord, sir, hid away in the seas, for an
+inheritance to those who love Him.  I heard Captain Drake talk of
+planting it, if ever he had a chance."
+
+"I recollect now," said Amyas, "some talk between him and poor Sir
+Humphrey about an island here.  Would God he had gone thither
+instead of to Newfoundland!"
+
+"Nay, then," said Yeo, "he is in bliss now with the Lord; and you
+would not have kept him from that, sir?"
+
+"He would have waited as willingly as he went, if he could have
+served his queen thereby.  But what say you, my masters?  How can
+we do better than to spend a few days here, to get our sick round,
+before we make the Main, and set to our work?"
+
+All approved the counsel except Frank, who was silent.
+
+"Come, fellow-adventurer," said Cary, "we must have your voice
+too."
+
+"To my impatience, Will," said he, aside in a low voice, "there is
+but one place on earth, and I am all day longing for wings to fly
+thither: but the counsel is right.  I approve it."
+
+So the verdict was announced, and received with a hearty cheer by
+the crew; and long before morning they had run along the southern
+shore of the island, and were feeling their way into the bay where
+Bridgetown now stands.  All eyes were eagerly fixed on the low
+wooded hills which slept in the moonlight, spangled by fireflies,
+with a million dancing stars; all nostrils drank greedily the
+fragrant air, which swept from the land, laden with the scent of a
+thousand flowers; all ears welcomed, as a grateful change from the
+monotonous whisper and lap of the water, the hum of insects, the
+snore of the tree-toads, the plaintive notes of the shore-fowl,
+which fill a tropic night with noisy life.
+
+At last she stopped; at last the cable rattled through the
+hawsehole; and then, careless of the chance of lurking Spaniard or
+Carib, an instinctive cheer burst from every throat.  Poor fellows!
+Amyas had much ado to prevent them going on shore at once, dark as
+it was, by reminding them that it wanted but two hours of day.
+
+"Never were two such long hours," said one young lad, fidgeting up
+and down.
+
+"You never were in the Inquisition," said Yeo, "or you'd know
+better how slow time can run.  Stand you still, and give God thanks
+you're where you are."
+
+"I say, Gunner, be there goold to that island?"
+
+"Never heard of none; and so much the better for it," said Yeo,
+dryly.
+
+"But, I say, Gunner," said a poor scurvy-stricken cripple, licking
+his lips, "be there oranges and limmons there?"
+
+"Not of my seeing; but plenty of good fruit down to the beach,
+thank the Lord.  There comes the dawn at last."
+
+Up flushed the rose, up rushed the sun, and the level rays
+glittered on the smooth stems of the palm-trees, and threw rainbows
+across the foam upon the coral-reefs, and gilded lonely uplands far
+away, where now stands many a stately country-seat and busy engine-
+house.  Long lines of pelicans went clanging out to sea; the hum of
+the insects hushed, and a thousand birds burst into jubilant song;
+a thin blue mist crept upward toward the inner downs, and vanished,
+leaving them to quiver in the burning glare; the land-breeze, which
+had blown fresh out to sea all night, died away into glassy calm,
+and the tropic day was begun.
+
+The sick were lifted over the side, and landed boat-load after
+boat-load on the beach, to stretch themselves in the shade of the
+palms; and in half-an-hour the whole crew were scattered on the
+shore, except some dozen worthy men, who had volunteered to keep
+watch and ward on board till noon.
+
+And now the first instinctive cry of nature was for fruit! fruit!
+fruit!  The poor lame wretches crawled from place to place plucking
+greedily the violet grapes of the creeping shore vine, and staining
+their mouths and blistering their lips with the prickly pears, in
+spite of Yeo's entreaties and warnings against the thorns.  Some of
+the healthy began hewing down cocoa-nut trees to get at the nuts,
+doing little thereby but blunt their hatchets; till Yeo and Drew,
+having mustered half-a-dozen reasonable men, went off inland, and
+returned in an hour laden with the dainties of that primeval
+orchard,--with acid junipa-apples, luscious guavas, and crowned
+ananas, queen of all the fruits, which they had found by hundreds
+on the broiling ledges of the low tufa-cliffs; and then all,
+sitting on the sandy turf, defiant of galliwasps and jackspaniards,
+and all the weapons of the insect host, partook of the equal
+banquet, while old blue land-crabs sat in their house-doors and
+brandished their fists in defiance at the invaders, and solemn
+cranes stood in the water on the shoals with their heads on one
+side, and meditated how long it was since they had seen bipeds
+without feathers breaking the solitude of their isle.
+
+And Frank wandered up and down, silent, but rather in wonder than
+in sadness, while great Amyas walked after him, his mouth full of
+junipa-apples, and enacted the part of showman, with a sort of
+patronizing air, as one who had seen the wonders already, and was
+above being astonished at them.
+
+"New, new; everything new!" said Frank, meditatively.  "Oh, awful
+feeling!  All things changed around us, even to the tiniest fly and
+flower; yet we the same, the same forever!"
+
+Amyas, to whom such utterances were altogether sibylline and
+unintelligible, answered by:
+
+"Look, Frank, that's a colibri.  You 've heard of colibris?"
+
+Frank looked at the living gem, which hung, loud humming, over some
+fantastic bloom, and then dashed away, seemingly to call its mate,
+and whirred and danced with it round and round the flower-starred
+bushes, flashing fresh rainbows at every shifting of the lights.
+
+Frank watched solemnly awhile, and then:
+
+"Qualis Natura formatrix, si talis formata?  Oh my God, how fair
+must be Thy real world, if even Thy phantoms are so fair!"
+
+"Phantoms?" asked Amyas, uneasily.  "That's no ghost, Frank, but a
+jolly little honey-sucker, with a wee wife, and children no bigger
+than peas, but yet solid greedy little fellows enough, I'll
+warrant."
+
+"Not phantoms in thy sense, good fellow, but in the sense of those
+who know the worthlessness of all below."
+
+"I'll tell you what, brother Frank, you are a great deal wiser than
+me, I know; but I can't abide to see you turn up your nose as it
+were at God's good earth.  See now, God made all these things; and
+never a man, perhaps, set eyes on them till fifty years agone; and
+yet they were as pretty as they are now, ever since the making of
+the world.  And why do you think God could have put them here,
+then, but to please Himself"--and Amyas took off his hat--"with the
+sight of them?  Now, I say, brother Frank, what's good enough to
+please God, is good enough to please you and me."
+
+"Your rebuke is just, dear old simple-hearted fellow; and God
+forgive me, if with all my learning, which has brought me no
+profit, and my longings, which have brought me no peace, I presume
+at moments, sinner that I am, to be more dainty than the Lord
+Himself.  He walked in Paradise among the trees of the garden,
+Amyas; and so will we, and be content with what He sends.  Why
+should we long for the next world, before we are fit even for this
+one?"
+
+"And in the meanwhile," said Amyas, "this earth's quite good
+enough, at least here in Barbados."
+
+"Do you believe," asked Frank, trying to turn his own thoughts, "in
+those tales of the Spaniards, that the Sirens and Tritons are heard
+singing in these seas?"
+
+"I can't tell.  There's more fish in the water than ever came out
+of it, and more wonders in the world, I'll warrant, than we ever
+dreamt of; but I was never in these parts before; and in the South
+Sea, I must say, I never came across any, though Yeo says he has
+heard fair music at night up in the Gulf, far away from land."
+
+"The Spaniards report that at certain seasons choirs of these
+nymphs assemble in the sea, and with ravishing music sing their
+watery loves.  It may be so.  For Nature, which has peopled the
+land with rational souls, may not have left the sea altogether
+barren of them; above all, when we remember that the ocean is as it
+were the very fount of all fertility, and its slime (as the most
+learned hold with Thales of Miletus) that prima materia out of
+which all things were one by one concocted.  Therefore, the
+ancients feigned wisely that Venus, the mother of all living
+things, whereby they designed the plastic force of nature, was born
+of the sea-foam, and rising from the deep, floated ashore upon the
+isles of Greece."
+
+"I don't know what plastic force is; but I wish I had had the luck
+to be by when the pretty poppet came up: however, the nearest thing
+I ever saw to that was maidens swimming alongside of us when we
+were in the South Seas, and would have come aboard, too; but Drake
+sent them all off again for a lot of naughty packs, and I verily
+believe they were no better.  Look at the butterflies, now!  Don't
+you wish you were a boy again, and not too proud to go catching
+them in your cap?"
+
+And so the two wandered on together through the glorious tropic
+woods, and then returned to the beach to find the sick already
+grown cheerful, and many who that morning could not stir from their
+hammocks, pacing up and down, and gaining strength with every step.
+
+"Well done, lads!" cried Amyas, "keep a cheerful mind.  We will
+have the music ashore after dinner, for want of mermaids to sing to
+us, and those that can dance may."
+
+And so those four days were spent; and the men, like schoolboys on
+a holiday, gave themselves up to simple merriment, not forgetting,
+however, to wash the clothes, take in fresh water, and store up a
+good supply of such fruit as seemed likely to keep; until, tired
+with fruitless rambles after gold, which they expected to find in
+every bush, in spite of Yeo's warnings that none had been heard of
+on the island, they were fain to lounge about, full-grown babies,
+picking up shells and sea-fans to take home to their sweethearts,
+smoking agoutis out of the hollow trees, with shout and laughter,
+and tormenting every living thing they could come near, till not a
+land-crab dare look out of his hole, or an armadillo unroll
+himself, till they were safe out of the bay, and off again to the
+westward, unconscious pioneers of all the wealth, and commerce, and
+beauty, and science which has in later centuries made that lovely
+isle the richest gem of all the tropic seas.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS AT MARGARITA
+
+
+P. Henry.  Why, what a rascal art thou, then, to praise him so for
+              running!
+Falstaff.  O' horseback, ye cuckoo! but a-foot, he will not budge a
+              foot.
+P. Henry.  Yes, Jack, upon instinct.
+Falstaff.  I grant ye, upon instinct.
+
+                                             Henry IV.  Pt. I.
+
+
+They had slipped past the southern point of Grenada in the night,
+and were at last within that fairy ring of islands, on which nature
+had concentrated all her beauty, and man all his sin.  If Barbados
+had been invested in the eyes of the newcomers with some strange
+glory, how much more the seas on which they now entered, which
+smile in almost perpetual calm, untouched by the hurricane which
+roars past them far to northward!  Sky, sea, and islands were one
+vast rainbow; though little marked, perhaps, by those sturdy
+practical sailors, whose main thought was of Spanish gold and
+pearls; and as little by Amyas, who, accustomed to the scenery of
+the tropics, was speculating inwardly on the possibility of
+extirpating the Spaniards, and annexing the West Indies to the
+domains of Queen Elizabeth.  And yet even their unpoetic eyes could
+not behold without awe and excitement lands so famous and yet so
+new, around which all the wonder, all the pity, and all the greed
+of the age had concentrated itself.  It was an awful thought, and
+yet inspiriting, that they were entering regions all but unknown to
+Englishmen, where the penalty of failure would be worse than death--
+the torments of the Inquisition.  Not more than five times before,
+perhaps, had those mysterious seas been visited by English keels;
+but there were those on board who knew them well, and too well;
+who, first of all British mariners, had attempted under Captain
+John Hawkins to trade along those very coasts, and, interdicted
+from the necessaries of life by Spanish jealousy, had, in true
+English fashion, won their markets at the sword's point, and then
+bought and sold honestly and peaceably therein.  The old mariners
+of the Pelican and the Minion were questioned all day long for the
+names of every isle and cape, every fish and bird; while Frank
+stood by, listening serious and silent.
+
+A great awe seemed to have possessed his soul; yet not a sad one:
+for his face seemed daily to drink in glory from the glory round
+him; and murmuring to himself at whiles, "This is the gate of
+heaven," he stood watching all day long, careless of food and rest,
+as every forward plunge of the ship displayed some fresh wonder.
+Islands and capes hung high in air, with their inverted images
+below them; long sand-hills rolled and weltered in the mirage; and
+the yellow flower-beds, and huge thorny cacti like giant
+candelabra, which clothed the glaring slopes, twisted, tossed, and
+flickered, till the whole scene seemed one blazing phantom-world,
+in which everything was as unstable as it was fantastic, even to
+the sun itself, distorted into strange oval and pear-shaped figures
+by the beds of crimson mist through which he sank to rest.  But
+while Frank wondered, Yeo rejoiced; for to the southward of that
+setting sun a cluster of tall peaks rose from the sea; and they,
+unless his reckonings were wrong, were the mountains of Macanao, at
+the western end of Margarita, the Isle of Pearls, then famous in
+all the cities of the Mediterranean, and at the great German fairs,
+and second only in richness to that pearl island in the gulf of
+Panama, which fifteen years before had cost John Oxenham his life.
+
+The next day saw them running along the north side of the island,
+having passed undiscovered (as far as they could see) the castle
+which the Spaniards had built at the eastern end for the protection
+of the pearl fisheries.
+
+At last they opened a deep and still bight, wooded to the water's
+edge; and lying in the roadstead a caravel, and three boats by her.
+And at that sight there was not a man but was on deck at once, and
+not a mouth but was giving its opinion of what should be done.
+Some were for sailing right into the roadstead, the breeze blowing
+fresh toward the shore (as it usually does throughout those islands
+in the afternoon).  However, seeing the billows break here and
+there off the bay's mouth, they thought it better, for fear of
+rocks, to run by quietly, and then send in the pinnace and the
+boat.  Yeo would have had them show Spanish colors, for fear of
+alarming the caravel; but Amyas stoutly refused, "counting it," he
+said, "a mean thing to tell a lie in that way, unless in extreme
+danger, or for great ends of state."
+
+So holding on their course till they were shut out by the next
+point, they started; Cary in the largest boat with twenty men, and
+Amyas in the smaller one with fifteen more; among whom was John
+Brimblecombe, who must needs come in his cassock and bands, with an
+old sword of his uncle's which he prized mightily.
+
+When they came to the bight's mouth, they found, as they had
+expected, coral rocks, and too many of them; so that they had to
+run along the edge of the reef a long way before they could find a
+passage for the boats.  While they were so doing, and those of them
+who were new to the Indies were admiring through the clear element
+those living flower-beds, and subaqueous gardens of Nereus and
+Amphitrite, there suddenly appeared below what Yeo called "a school
+of sharks," some of them nearly as long as the boat, who looked up
+at them wistfully enough out of their wicked scowling eyes.
+
+"Jack," said Amyas, who sat next to him, "look how that big fellow
+eyes thee: he has surely taken a fancy to that plump hide of thine,
+and thinks thou wouldst eat as tender as any sucking porker."
+
+Jack turned very pale, but said nothing.
+
+Now, as it befell, just then that very big fellow, seeing a parrot-
+fish come out of a cleft of the coral, made at him from below, as
+did two or three more; the poor fish finding no other escape,
+leaped clean into the air, and almost aboard the boat; while just
+where he had come out of the water, three or four great brown
+shagreened noses clashed together within two yards of Jack as he
+sat, each showing its horrible rows of saw teeth, and then sank
+sulkily down again, to watch for a fresh bait.  At which Jack said
+very softly, "In manus tuas, Domine!" and turning his eyes in
+board, had no lust to look at sharks any more.
+
+So having got through the reef, in they ran with a fair breeze, the
+caravel not being now a musket-shot off.  Cary laid her aboard
+before the Spaniards had time to get to their ordnance; and
+standing up in the stern-sheets, shouted to them to yield.  The
+captain asked boldly enough, in whose name?  "In the name of common
+sense, ye dogs," cries Will; "do you not see that you are but fifty
+strong to our twenty?"  Whereon up the side he scrambled, and the
+captain fired a pistol at him.  Cary knocked him over, unwilling to
+shed needless blood; on which all the crew yielded, some falling on
+their knees, some leaping overboard; and the prize was taken.
+
+In the meanwhile, Amyas had pulled round under her stern, and
+boarded the boat which was second from her, for the nearest was
+fast alongside, and so a sure prize.  The Spaniards in her yielded
+without a blow, crying "Misericordia;" and the negroes, leaping
+overboard, swam ashore like sea-dogs.  Meanwhile, the third boat,
+which was not an oar's length off, turned to pull away.  Whereby
+befell a notable adventure: for John Brimblecombe, casting about in
+a valiant mind how he should distinguish himself that day, must
+needs catch up a boat-hook, and claw on to her stern, shouting,
+"Stay, ye Papists!  Stay, Spanish dogs!"--by which, as was to be
+expected, they being ten to his one, he was forthwith pulled
+overboard, and fell all along on his nose in the sea, leaving the
+hook fast in her stern.
+
+Where, I know not how, being seized with some panic fear (his
+lively imagination filling all the sea with those sharks which he
+had just seen), he fell a-roaring like any town-bull, and in his
+confusion never thought to turn and get aboard again, but struck
+out lustily after the Spanish boat, whether in hope of catching
+hold of the boat-hook which trailed behind her, or from a very
+madness of valor, no man could divine; but on he swam, his cassock
+afloat behind him, looking for all the world like a great black
+monk-fish, and howling and puffing, with his mouth full of salt
+water, "Stay, ye Spanish dogs!  Help, all good fellows!  See you
+not that I am a dead man?  They are nuzzling already at my toes!
+He hath hold of my leg!  My right thigh is bitten clean off!  Oh
+that I were preaching in Hartland pulpit!  Stay, Spanish dogs!
+Yield, Papist cowards, least I make mincemeat of you; and take me
+aboard!  Yield, I say, or my blood be on your heads!  I am no
+Jonah; if he swallow me, he will never cast me up again! it is
+better to fall into the hands of man, than into the hands of devils
+with three rows of teeth apiece.  In manus tuas.  Orate pro anima--!"
+
+And so forth, in more frantic case than ever was Panurge in that
+his ever-memorable seasickness; till the English, expecting him
+every minute to be snapped up by sharks, or brained by the
+Spaniard's oars, let fly a volley into the fugitives, on which they
+all leaped overboard like their fellows; whereon Jack scrambled
+into the boat, and drawing sword with one hand, while he wiped the
+water out of his eyes with the other, began to lay about him like a
+very lion, cutting the empty air, and crying, "Yield, idolaters!
+Yield, Spanish dogs!"  However, coming to himself after a while,
+and seeing that there was no one on whom to flesh his maiden steel,
+he sits down panting in the sternsheets, and begins stripping off
+his hose.  On which Amyas, thinking surely that the good fellow had
+gone mad with some stroke of the sun, or by having fallen into the
+sea after being overheated with his rowing, bade pull alongside,
+and asked him in heaven's name what he was doing with his nether
+tackle.  On which Jack, amid such laughter as may be conceived,
+vowed and swore that his right thigh was bitten clean through, and
+to the bone; yea, and that he felt his hose full of blood; and so
+would have swooned away for imaginary loss of blood (so strong was
+the delusion on him) had not his friends, after much arguing on
+their part, and anger on his, persuaded him that he was whole and
+sound.
+
+After which they set to work to overhaul their maiden prize, which
+they found full of hides and salt-pork; and yet not of that alone;
+for in the captain's cabin, and also in the sternsheets of the boat
+which Brimblecombe had so valorously boarded, were certain frails
+of leaves packed neatly enough, which being opened were full of
+goodly pearls, though somewhat brown (for the Spaniards used to
+damage the color in their haste and greediness, opening the shells
+by fire, instead of leaving them to decay gradually after the
+Arabian fashion); with which prize, though they could not guess its
+value very exactly, they went off content enough, after some
+malicious fellow had set the ship on fire, which, being laden with
+hides, was no nosegay as it burnt.
+
+Amyas was very angry at this wanton damage, in which his model,
+Drake, had never indulged; but Cary had his jest ready.  "Ah!" said
+he, "'Lutheran devils' we are, you know; so we are bound to vanish,
+like other fiends, with an evil savor."
+
+As soon, however, as Amyas was on board again, he rounded his
+friend Mr. Brimblecombe in the ear, and told him he had better play
+the man a little more, roaring less before he was hurt, and keeping
+his breath to help his strokes, if he wished the crew to listen
+much to his discourses.  Frank, hearing this, bade Amyas leave the
+offender to him, and so began upon him with--
+
+"Come hither, thou recreant Jack, thou lily-livered Jack, thou
+hysterical Jack.  Tell me now, thou hast read Plato's Dialogues,
+and Aristotle's Logic?"
+
+To which Jack very meekly answered, "Yes."
+
+"Then I will deal with thee after the manner of those ancient
+sages, and ask whether the greater must not contain the less?"
+
+Jack.  Yes, sure.
+
+Frank.  And that which is more than a part, contain that part, more
+than which it is?
+
+Jack.  Yes, sure.
+
+Frank.  Then tell me, is not a priest more than a layman?
+
+Jack (who was always very loud about the dignity of the priesthood,
+as many of his cloth are, who have no other dignity whereon to
+stand) answered very boldly, "Of course."
+
+Frank.  Then a priest containeth a man, and is a man, and something
+over--viz, his priesthood?
+
+Jack (who saw whither this would lead).  I suppose so.
+
+Frank.  Then, if a priest show himself no man, he shows himself all
+the more no priest?
+
+"I'll tell you what, Master Frank," says Jack, "you may be right by
+logic; but sharks aren't logic, nor don't understand it neither."
+
+Frank.  Nay but, my recalcitrant Jack, my stiff-necked Jack, is it
+the part of a man to howl like a pig in a gate, because he thinks
+that is there which is not there?
+
+Jack had not a word to say.
+
+Frank.  And still more, when if that had been there, it had been
+the duty of a brave man to have kept his mouth shut, if only to
+keep salt water out, and not add the evil of choking to that of
+being eaten?
+
+"Ah!" says Jack, "that's all very fine; but you know as well as I
+that it was not the Spaniards I was afraid of.  They were Heaven's
+handiwork, and I knew how to deal with them; but as for those
+fiends' spawn of sharks, when I saw that fellow take the fish
+alongside, it upset me clean, and there's an end of it!"
+
+Frank.  Oh, Jack, Jack, behold how one sin begets another!  Just
+now thou wert but a coward, and now thou art a Manichee.  For thou
+hast imputed to an evil creator that which was formed only for a
+good end, namely, sharks, which were made on purpose to devour
+useless carcasses like thine.  Moreover, as a brother of the Rose,
+thou wert bound by the vow of thy brotherhood to have leaped
+joyfully down that shark's mouth.
+
+Jack.  Ay, very likely, if Mistress Rose had been in his stomach;
+but I wanted to fight Spaniards just then, not to be shark-bitten.
+
+Frank.  Jack, thy answer savors of self-will.  If it is ordained
+that thou shouldst advance the ends of the Brotherhood by being
+shark-bitten, or flea-bitten, or bitten by sharpers, to the
+detriment of thy carnal wealth, or, shortly, to suffer any shame or
+torment whatsoever, even to strappado and scarpines, thou art bound
+to obey thy destiny, and not, after that vain Roman conceit, to
+choose the manner of thine own death, which is indeed only another
+sort of self-murder.  We therefore consider thee as a cause of
+scandal, and a rotten and creaking branch, to be excised by the
+spiritual arm, and do hereby excise thee, and cut thee off.
+
+Jack.  Nay faith, that's a little too much, Master Frank.  How long
+have you been Bishop of Exeter?
+
+Frank.  Jack, thy wit being blinded, and full of gross vapors, by
+reason of the perturbations of fear (which, like anger, is a short
+madness, and raises in the phantasy vain spectres,--videlicet, of
+sharks and Spaniards), mistakes our lucidity.  For thy Manicheeism,
+let his lordship of Exeter deal with it.  For thy abominable
+howling and caterwauling, offensive in a chained cur, but
+scandalous in a preacher and a brother of the Rose, we do hereby
+deprive thee of thine office of chaplain to the Brotherhood; and
+warn thee, that unless within seven days thou do some deed equal to
+the Seven Champions, or Ruggiero and Orlando's self, thou shalt be
+deprived of sword and dagger, and allowed henceforth to carry no
+more iron about thee than will serve to mend thy pen.
+
+"And now, Jack," said Amyas, "I will give thee a piece of news.  No
+wonder that young men, as the parsons complain so loudly, will not
+listen to the Gospel, while it is preached to them by men on whom
+they cannot but look down; a set of softhanded fellows who cannot
+dig, and are ashamed to beg; and, as my brother has it, must needs
+be parsons before they are men.
+
+Frank.  Ay, and even though we may excuse that in Popish priests
+and friars, who are vowed not to be men, and get their bread
+shamefully and rascally by telling sinners who owe a hundred
+measures to sit down quickly and take their bill and write fifty:
+yet for a priest of the Church of England (whose business is not
+merely to smuggle sinful souls up the backstairs into heaven, but
+to make men good Christians by making them good men, good
+gentlemen, and good Englishmen) to show the white feather in the
+hour of need, is to unpreach in one minute all that he had been
+preaching his life long.
+
+"I tell thee," says Amyas, "if I had not taken thee for another
+guess sort of man, I had never let thee have the care of a hundred
+brave lads' immortal souls--"
+
+And so on, both of them boarding him at once with their heavy shot,
+larboard and starboard, till he fairly clapped his hands to his
+ears and ran for it, leaving poor Frank laughing so heartily, that
+Amyas was after all glad the thing had happened, for the sake of
+the smile which it put into his sad and steadfast countenance.
+
+The next day was Sunday; on which, after divine service (which they
+could hardly persuade Jack to read, so shamefaced was he; and as
+for preaching after it, he would not hear of such a thing), Amyas
+read aloud, according to custom, the articles of their agreement;
+and then seeing abreast of them a sloping beach with a shoot of
+clear water running into the sea, agreed that they should land
+there, wash the clothes, and again water the ship; for they had
+found water somewhat scarce at Barbados.  On this party Jack
+Brimblecombe must needs go, taking with him his sword and a great
+arquebuse; for he had dreamed last night (he said) that he was set
+upon by Spaniards, and was sure that the dream would come true; and
+moreover, that he did not very much care if they did, or if he ever
+got back alive; "for it was better to die than be made an ape, and
+a scarecrow, and laughed at by the men, and badgered with Ramus his
+logic, and Plato his dialectical devilries, to confess himself a
+Manichee, and, for aught he knew, a turbaned Turk, or Hebrew Jew,"
+and so flung into the boat like a man desperate.
+
+So they went ashore, after Amyas had given strict commands against
+letting off firearms, for fear of alarming the Spaniards.  There
+they washed their clothes, and stretched their legs with great joy,
+admiring the beauty of the place, and then began to shoot the seine
+which they had brought on shore with them.  "In which," says the
+chronicler, "we caught many strange fishes, and beside them, a sea-
+cow full seven feet long, with limpets and barnacles on her back,
+as if she had been a stick of drift-timber.  This is a fond and
+foolish beast: and yet pious withal; for finding a corpse, she
+watches over it day and night until it decay or be buried.  The
+Indians call her manati; who carries her young under her arm, and
+gives it suck like a woman; and being wounded, she lamenteth aloud
+with a human voice, and is said at certain seasons to sing very
+melodiously; which melody, perhaps, having been heard in those
+seas, is that which Mr. Frank reported to be the choirs of the
+Sirens and Tritons.  The which I do not avouch for truth, neither
+rashly deny, having seen myself such fertility of Nature's wonders
+that I hold him who denieth aught merely for its strangeness to be
+a ribald and an ignoramus.  Also one of our men brought in two
+great black fowls which he had shot with a crossbow, bodied and
+headed like a capon, but bigger than any eagle, which the Spaniards
+call curassos; which, with that sea-cow, afterwards made us good
+cheer, both roast and sodden, for the cow was very dainty meat, as
+good as a four-months' calf, and tender and fat withal."
+
+After that they set to work filling the casks and barricos, having
+laid the boat up to the outflow of the rivulet.  And lucky for them
+it was, as it fell out, that they were all close together at that
+work, and not abroad skylarking as they had been half-an-hour
+before.
+
+Now John Brimblecombe had gone apart as soon as they landed, with a
+shamefaced and doleful countenance; and sitting down under a great
+tree, plucked a Bible from his bosom, and read steadfastly, girded
+with his great sword, and his arquebuse lying by him.  This too was
+well for him, and for the rest; for they had not yet finished their
+watering, when there was a cry that the enemy was on them; and out
+of the wood, not twenty yards from the good parson, came full fifty
+shot, with a multitude of negroes behind them, and an officer in
+front on horseback, with a great plume of feathers in his hat, and
+his sword drawn in his hand.
+
+"Stand, for your lives!" shouted Amyas: and only just in time; for
+there was ten good minutes lost in running up and down before he
+could get his men into some order of battle.  But when Jack beheld
+the Spaniards, as if he had expected their coming, he plucked a
+leaf and put it into the page of his book for a mark, laid the book
+down soberly, caught up his arquebuse, ran like a mad dog right at
+the Spanish captain, shot him through the body stark dead, and
+then, flinging the arquebuse at the head of him who stood next,
+fell on with his sword like a very Colbrand, breaking in among the
+arquebuses, and striking right and left such ugly strokes, that the
+Spaniards (who thought him a very fiend, or Luther's self come to
+life to plague them) gave back pell-mell, and shot at him five or
+six at once with their arquebuses: but whether from fear of him, or
+of wounding each other, made so bad play with their pieces, that he
+only got one shrewd gall in his thigh, which made him limp for many
+a day.  But as fast as they gave back he came on; and the rest by
+this time ran up in good order, and altogether nearly forty men
+well armed.  On which the Spaniards turned, and went as fast as
+they had come, while Cary hinted that, "The dogs had had such a
+taste of the parson, that they had no mind to wait for the clerk
+and people."
+
+"Come back, Jack! are you mad?" shouted Amyas.
+
+But Jack (who had not all this time spoken one word) followed them
+as fiercely as ever, till, reaching a great blow at one of the
+arquebusiers, he caught his foot in a root; on which down he went,
+and striking his head against the ground, knocked out of himself
+all the breath he had left (which between fatness and fighting was
+not much), and so lay.  Amyas, seeing the Spaniards gone, did not
+care to pursue them: but picked up Jack, who, staring about, cried,
+"Glory be! glory be!--How many have I killed?  How many have I
+killed?"
+
+"Nineteen, at the least," quoth Cary, "and seven with one back
+stroke;" and then showed Brimblecombe the captain lying dead, and
+two arquebusiers, one of which was the fugitive by whom he came to
+his fall, beside three or four more who were limping away wounded,
+some of them by their fellows' shot.
+
+"There!" said Jack, pausing and blowing, "will you laugh at me any
+more, Mr. Cary; or say that I cannot fight, because I am a poor
+parson's son?"
+
+Cary took him by the hand, and asked pardon of him for his
+scoffing, saying that he had that day played the best man of all of
+them; and Jack, who never bore malice, began laughing in his turn,
+and--
+
+"Oh, Mr. Cary, we have all known your pleasant ways, ever since you
+used to put drumble-drones into my desk to Bideford school."  And
+so they went to the boats, and pulled off, thanking God (as they
+had need to do) for their great deliverance: while all the boats'
+crew rejoiced over Jack, who after a while grew very faint (having
+bled a good deal without knowing it), and made as little of his
+real wound as he made much the day before of his imaginary one.
+
+Frank asked him that evening how he came to show so cool and
+approved a valor in so sudden a mishap.
+
+"Well, my masters," said Jack, "I don't deny that I was very
+downcast on account of what you said, and the scandal which I had
+given to the crew; but as it happened, I was reading there under
+the tree, to fortify my spirits, the history of the ancient
+worthies, in St. Paul his eleventh chapter to the Hebrews; and just
+as I came to that, 'out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant
+in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens,' arose the cry
+of the Spaniards.  At which, gentlemen, thinking in myself that I
+fought in just so good a cause as they, and, as I hoped, with like
+faith, there came upon me so strange an assurance of victory, that
+I verily believed in myself that if there had been a ten thousand
+of them, I should have taken no hurt.  Wherefore," said Jack,
+modestly, "there is no credit due to me, for there was no valor in
+me whatsoever, but only a certainty of safety; and any coward would
+fight if he knew that he were to have all the killing and none of
+the scratches."
+
+Which words he next day, being Sunday, repeated in his sermon which
+he made on that chapter, with which all, even Salvation Yeo
+himself, were well content and edified, and allowed him to be as
+godly a preacher as he was (in spite of his simple ways) a valiant
+and true-hearted comrade.
+
+They brought away the Spanish officer's sword (a very good blade),
+and also a great chain of gold which he wore about his neck; both
+of which were allotted to Brimblecombe as his fair prize; but he,
+accepting the sword, steadfastly refused the chain, entreating
+Amyas to put it into the common stock; and when Amyas refused, he
+cut it into links and distributed it among those of the boat's crew
+who had succored him, winning thereby much good-will.  "And indeed"
+(says the chronicler), "I never saw in that worthy man, from the
+first day of our school-fellowship till he was laid in his parish
+church of Hartland (where he now sleeps in peace), any touch of
+that sin of covetousness which has in all ages, and in ours no less
+than others, beset especially (I know not why) them who minister
+about the sanctuary.  But this man, though he was ugly and lowly in
+person, and in understanding simple, and of breeding but a poor
+parson's son, had yet in him a spirit so loving and cheerful, so
+lifted from base and selfish purposes to the worship of duty, and
+to a generosity rather knightly than sacerdotal, that all through
+his life he seemed to think only that it was more blessed to give
+than to receive.  And all that wealth which he gained in the wars
+he dispersed among his sisters and the poor of his parish, living
+unmarried till his death like a true lover and constant mourner (as
+shall be said in place), and leaving hardly wherewith to bring his
+body to the grave.  At whom if we often laughed once, we should now
+rather envy him, desiring to be here what he was, that we may be
+hereafter where he is.  Amen."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA
+
+
+  "Great was the crying, the running and riding,
+Which at that season was made in the place;
+   The beacons were fired, as need then required,
+To save their great treasure they had little space."
+
+                                  Winning of Cales.
+
+
+The men would gladly have hawked awhile round Margarita and Cubagua
+for another pearl prize.  But Amyas having, as he phrased it,
+"fleshed his dogs," was loth to hang about the islands after the
+alarm had been given.  They ran, therefore, south-west across the
+mouth of that great bay which stretches from the Peninsula of Paria
+to Cape Codera, leaving on their right hand Tortuga, and on their
+left the meadow-islands of the Piritoos, two long green lines but a
+few inches above the tideless sea.  Yeo and Drew knew every foot of
+the way, and had good reason to know it; for they, the first of all
+English mariners, had tried to trade along this coast with Hawkins.
+And now, right ahead, sheer out of the sea from base to peak, arose
+higher and higher the mighty range of the Caracas mountains; beside
+which all hills which most of the crew had ever seen seemed petty
+mounds.  Frank, of course, knew the Alps; and Amyas the Andes; but
+Cary's notions of height were bounded by M'Gillicuddy's Reeks, and
+Brimblecombe's by Exmoor; and the latter, to Cary's infinite
+amusement, spent a whole day holding on by the rigging, and staring
+upwards with his chin higher than his nose, till he got a stiff
+neck.  Soon the sea became rough and chopping, though the breeze
+was fair and gentle; and ere they were abreast of the Cape, they
+became aware of that strong eastward current which, during the
+winter months, so often baffles the mariner who wishes to go to the
+westward.  All night long they struggled through the billows, with
+the huge wall of Cape Codera a thousand feet above their heads to
+the left, and beyond it again, bank upon bank of mountain, bathed
+in the yellow moonlight.
+
+Morning showed them a large ship, which had passed them during the
+night upon the opposite course, and was now a good ten miles to the
+eastward.  Yeo was for going back and taking her.  Of the latter he
+made a matter of course; and the former was easy enough, for the
+breeze blowing dead off the land, was a "soldier's wind, there and
+back again," for either ship; but Amyas and Frank were both
+unwilling.
+
+"Why, Yeo, you said that one day more would bring us to La Guayra."
+
+"All the more reason, sir, for doing the Lord's work thoroughly,
+when He has brought us safely so far on our journey."
+
+"She can pass well enough, and no loss."
+
+"Ah, sirs, sirs, she is delivered into your hands, and you will
+have to give an account of her."
+
+"My good Yeo," said Frank, "I trust we shall give good account
+enough of many a tall Spaniard before we return: but you know
+surely that La Guayra, and the salvation of one whom we believe
+dwells there, was our first object in this adventure."
+
+Yeo shook his head sadly.  "Ah, sirs, a lady brought Captain
+Oxenham to ruin."
+
+"You do not dare to compare her with this one?" said Frank and
+Cary, both in a breath.
+
+"God forbid, gentlemen: but no adventure will prosper, unless there
+is a single eye to the Lord's work; and that is, as I take it, to
+cripple the Spaniard, and exalt her majesty the queen.  And I had
+thought that nothing was more dear than that to Captain Leigh's
+heart."
+
+Amyas stood somewhat irresolute.  His duty to the queen bade him
+follow the Spanish vessel: his duty to his vow, to go on to La
+Guayra.  It may seem a far-fetched dilemma.  He found it a
+practical one enough.
+
+However, the counsel of Frank prevailed, and on to La Guayra he
+went.  He half hoped that the Spaniard would see and attack them.
+However, he went on his way to the eastward; which if he had not
+done, my story had had a very different ending.
+
+About mid-day a canoe, the first which they had seen, came
+staggering toward them under a huge three-cornered sail.  As it
+came near, they could see two Indians on board.
+
+"Metal floats in these seas, you see," quoth Cary.  "There's a
+fresh marvel, for you, Frank."
+
+"Expound," quoth Frank, who was really ready to swallow any fresh
+marvel, so many had he seen already.
+
+"Why, how else would those two bronze statues dare to go to sea in
+such a cockleshell, eh?  Have I given you the dor now, master
+courtier!"
+
+"I am long past dors, Will.  But what noble creatures they are! and
+how fearlessly they are coming alongside!  Can they know that we
+are English, and the avengers of the Indians?"
+
+"I suspect they just take us for Spaniards, and want to sell their
+cocoa-nuts.  See, the canoe is laden with vegetables."
+
+"Hail them, Yeo!" said Amyas.  "You talk the best Spanish, and I
+want speech of one of them."
+
+Yeo did so; the canoe, without more ado, ran alongside, and lowered
+her felucca sail, while a splendid Indian scrambled on board like a
+cat.
+
+He was full six feet high, and as bold and graceful of bearing as
+Frank or Amyas's self.  He looked round for the first moment
+smilingly, showing his white teeth; but the next, his countenance
+changed; and springing to the side, he shouted to his comrade in
+Spanish--
+
+"Treachery!  No Spaniard," and would have leaped overboard, but a
+dozen strong fellows caught him ere he could do so.
+
+It required some trouble to master him, so strong was he, and so
+slippery his naked limbs; Amyas, meanwhile, alternately entreated
+the men not to hurt the Indian, and the Indian to be quiet, and no
+harm should happen to him; and so, after five minutes' confusion,
+the stranger gave in sulkily.
+
+"Don't bind him.  Let him loose, and make a ring round him.  Now,
+my man, there's a dollar for you."
+
+The Indian's eyes glistened, and he took the coin.
+
+"All I want of you is, first, to tell me what ships are in La
+Guayra, and next, to go thither on board of me, and show me which
+is the governor's house, and which the custom-house."
+
+The Indian laid the coin down on the deck, and crossing himself,
+looked Amyas in the face.
+
+"No, senor!  I am a freeman and a cavalier, a Christian Guayqueria,
+whose forefathers, first of all the Indians, swore fealty to the
+King of Spain, and whom he calls to this day in all his
+proclamations his most faithful, loyal, and noble Guayquerias.  God
+forbid, therefore, that I should tell aught to his enemies, who are
+my enemies likewise."
+
+A growl arose from those of the men who understood him; and more
+than one hinted that a cord twined round the head, or a match put
+between the fingers, would speedily extract the required
+information.
+
+"God forbid!" said Amyas; "a brave and loyal man he is, and as such
+will I treat him.  Tell me, my brave fellow, how do you know us to
+be his Catholic majesty's enemies?"
+
+The Indian, with a shrewd smile, pointed to half-a-dozen different
+objects, saying to each, "Not Spanish."
+
+"Well, and what of that?"
+
+"None but Spaniards and free Guayquerias have a right to sail these
+seas."
+
+Amyas laughed.
+
+"Thou art a right valiant bit of copper.  Pick up thy dollar, and
+go thy way in peace.  Make room for him, men.  We can learn what we
+want without his help."
+
+The Indian paused, incredulous and astonished.  "Overboard with
+you!" quoth Amyas.  "Don't you know when you are well off?"
+
+"Most illustrious senor," began the Indian, in the drawling
+sententious fashion of his race (when they take the trouble to talk
+at all), "I have been deceived.  I heard that you heretics roasted
+and ate all true Catholics (as we Guayquerias are), and that all
+your padres had tails."
+
+"Plague on you, sirrah!" squeaked Jack Brimblecombe.  "Have I a
+tail?  Look here!"
+
+"Quien sabe?  Who knows?" quoth the Indian through his nose.
+
+"How do you know we are heretics?" said Amyas.
+
+"Humph!  But in repayment for your kindness, I would warn you,
+illustrious senor, not to go on to La Guayra.  There are ships of
+war there waiting for you; and moreover, the governor Don Guzman
+sailed to the eastward only yesterday to look for you; and I wonder
+much that you did not meet him."
+
+"To look for us!  On the watch for us!" said Cary.  "Impossible;
+lies!  Amyas, this is some trick of the rascal's to frighten us
+away."
+
+"Don Guzman came out but yesterday to look for us?  Are you sure
+you spoke truth?"
+
+"As I live, senor, he and another ship, for which I took yours."
+
+Amyas stamped upon the deck: that then was the ship which they had
+passed!
+
+"Fool that I was to have been close to my enemy, and let my
+opportunity slip!  If I had but done my duty, all would have gone
+right!"
+
+But it was too late to repine; and after all, the Indian's story
+was likely enough to be false.
+
+"Off with you!" said he; and the Indian bounded over the side into
+his canoe, leaving the whole crew wondering at the stateliness and
+courtesy of this bold sea-cavalier.
+
+So Westward-ho they ran, beneath the mighty northern wall, the
+highest cliff on earth, some seven thousand feet of rock parted
+from the sea by a narrow strip of bright green lowland.  Here and
+there a patch of sugar-cane, or a knot of cocoa-nut trees, close to
+the water's edge, reminded them that they were in the tropics; but
+above, all was savage, rough, and bare as an Alpine precipice.
+Sometimes deep clefts allowed the southern sun to pour a blaze of
+light down to the sea marge, and gave glimpses far above of strange
+and stately trees lining the glens, and of a veil of perpetual mist
+which shrouded the inner summits; while up and down, between them
+and the mountain side, white fleecy clouds hung motionless in the
+burning air, increasing the impression of vastness and of solemn
+rest, which was already overpowering.
+
+"Within those mountains, three thousand feet above our heads," said
+Drew, the master, "lies Saint Yago de Leon, the great city which
+the Spaniards founded fifteen years agone."
+
+"Is it a rich place?" asked Cary.
+
+"Very, they say."
+
+"Is it a strong place?" asked Amyas.
+
+"No forts to it at all, they say.  The Spaniards boast, that Heaven
+has made such good walls to it already, that man need make none."
+
+"I don't know," quoth Amyas.  "Lads, could you climb those hills,
+do you think?"
+
+"Rather higher than Harty Point, sir: but it depends pretty much on
+what's behind them."
+
+And now the last point is rounded, and they are full in sight of
+the spot in quest of which they have sailed four thousand miles of
+sea.  A low black cliff, crowned by a wall; a battery at either
+end.  Within, a few narrow streets of white houses, running
+parallel with the sea, upon a strip of flat, which seemed not two
+hundred yards in breadth; and behind, the mountain wall, covering
+the whole in deepest shade.  How that wall was ever ascended to the
+inland seemed the puzzle; but Drew, who had been off the place
+before, pointed out to them a narrow path, which wound upwards
+through a glen, seemingly sheer perpendicular.  That was the road
+to the capital, if any man dare try it.  In spite of the shadow of
+the mountain, the whole place wore a dusty and glaring look.  The
+breaths of air which came off the land were utterly stifling; and
+no wonder, for La Guayra, owing to the radiation of that vast fire-
+brick of heated rock, is one of the hottest spots upon the face of
+the whole earth.
+
+Where was the harbor?  There was none.  Only an open roadstead,
+wherein lay tossing at anchor five vessels.  The two outer ones
+were small merchant caravels.  Behind them lay two long, low, ugly-
+looking craft, at sight of which Yeo gave a long whew.
+
+"Galleys, as I'm a sinful saint!  And what's that big one inside of
+them, Robert Drew?  She has more than hawseholes in her idolatrous
+black sides, I think."
+
+"We shall open her astern of the galleys in another minute," said
+Amyas.  "Look out, Cary, your eyes are better than mine."
+
+"Six round portholes on the main deck," quoth Will.
+
+"And I can see the brass patararoes glittering on her poop," quoth
+Amyas.  "Will, we're in for it."
+
+"In for it we are, captain.
+
+
+     "Farewell, farewell, my parents dear.
+      I never shall see you more, I fear.
+
+
+Let's go in, nevertheless, and pound the Don's ribs, my old lad of
+Smerwick.  Eh?  Three to one is very fair odds."
+
+"Not underneath those fort guns, I beg leave to say," quoth Yeo.
+"If the Philistines will but come out unto us, we will make them
+like unto Zeba and Zalmunna."
+
+"Quite true," said Amyas.  "Game cocks are game cocks, but reason's
+reason."
+
+"If the Philistines are not coming out, they are going to send a
+messenger instead," quoth Cary.  "Look out, all thin skulls!"
+
+And as he spoke, a puff of white smoke rolled from the eastern
+fort, and a heavy ball plunged into the water between it and the
+ship.
+
+"I don't altogether like this," quoth Amyas.  "What do they mean by
+firing on us without warning?  And what are these ships of war
+doing here?  Drew, you told me the armadas never lay here."
+
+"No more, I believe, they do, sir, on account of the anchorage
+being so bad, as you may see.  I'm mortal afeared that rascal's
+story was true, and that the Dons have got wind of our coming."
+
+"Run up a white flag, at all events.  If they do expect us, they
+must have known some time since, or how could they have got their
+craft hither?"
+
+"True, sir.  They must have come from Santa Marta, at the least;
+perhaps from Cartagena.  And that would take a month at least going
+and coming."
+
+Amyas suddenly recollected Eustace's threat in the wayside inn.
+Could he have betrayed their purpose?  Impossible!
+
+"Let us hold a council of war, at all events, Frank."
+
+Frank was absorbed in a very different matter.  A half-mile to the
+eastward of the town, two or three hundred feet up the steep
+mountain side, stood a large, low, white house embosomed in trees
+and gardens.  There was no other house of similar size near; no
+place for one.  And was not that the royal flag of Spain which
+flaunted before it?  That must be the governor's house; that must
+be the abode of the Rose of Torridge!  And Frank stood devouring it
+with wild eyes, till he had persuaded himself that he could see a
+woman's figure walking upon the terrace in front, and that the
+figure was none other than hers whom he sought.  Amyas could hardly
+tear him away to a council of war, which was a sad, and only not a
+peevish one.
+
+The three adventurers, with Brimblecombe, Yeo, and Drew, went apart
+upon the poop; and each looked the other in the face awhile.  For
+what was to be done?  The plans and hopes of months were brought to
+naught in an hour.
+
+"It is impossible, you see," said Amyas, at last, "to surprise the
+town by land, while these ships are here; for if we land our men,
+we leave our ship without defence."
+
+"As impossible as to challenge Don Guzman while he is not here,"
+said Cary.
+
+"I wonder why the ships have not opened on us already," said Drew.
+
+"Perhaps they respect our flag of truce," said Cary.  "Why not send
+in a boat to treat with them, and to inquire for--
+
+"For her?" interrupted Frank.  "If we show that we are aware of her
+existence, her name is blasted in the eyes of those jealous
+Spaniards."
+
+"And as for respecting our flag of truce, gentlemen," said Yeo, "if
+you will take an old man's advice, trust them not.  They will keep
+the same faith with us as they kept with Captain Hawkins at San
+Juan d'Ulloa, in that accursed business which was the beginning of
+all the wars; when we might have taken the whole plate-fleet, with
+two hundred thousand pounds' worth of gold on board, and did not,
+but only asked license to trade like honest men.  And yet, after
+they had granted us license, and deceived us by fair speech into
+landing ourselves and our ordnance, the governor and all the fleet
+set upon us, five to one, and gave no quarter to any soul whom he
+took.  No, sir; I expect the only reason why they don't attack us
+is, because their crews are not on board."
+
+"They will be, soon enough, then," said Amyas.  "I can see soldiers
+coming down the landing-stairs."
+
+And, in fact, boats full of armed men began to push off to the
+ships.
+
+"We may thank Heaven," said Drew, "that we were not here two hours
+agone.  The sun will be down before they are ready for sea, and the
+fellows will have no stomach to go looking for us by night."
+
+"So much the worse for us.  If they will but do that, we may give
+them the slip, and back again to the town, and there try our luck;
+for I cannot find it in my heart to leave the place without having
+one dash at it."
+
+Yeo shook his head.  "There are plenty more towns along the coast
+more worth trying than this, sir: but Heaven's will be done!"
+
+And as they spoke, the sun plunged into the sea, and all was dark.
+
+At last it was agreed to anchor, and wait till midnight.  If the
+ships of war came out, they were to try to run in past them, and,
+desperate as the attempt might be, attempt their original plan of
+landing to the westward of the town, taking it in flank, plundering
+the government storehouses, which they saw close to the landing-
+place, and then fighting their way back to their boats, and out of
+the roadstead.  Two hours would suffice if the armada and the
+galleys were but once out of the way.
+
+Amyas went forward, called the men together, and told them the
+plan.  It was not very cheerfully received: but what else was there
+to be done!
+
+They ran down about a mile and a half to the westward, and
+anchored.
+
+The night wore on, and there was no sign of stir among the
+shipping; for though they could not see the vessels themselves, yet
+their lights (easily distinguished by their relative height from
+those in the town above) remained motionless; and the men fretted
+and fumed for weary hours at thus seeing a rich prize (for of
+course the town was paved with gold) within arm's reach, and yet
+impossible.
+
+Let Amyas and his men have patience.  Some short five years more,
+and the great Armada will have come and gone; and then that
+avenging storm, of which they, like Oxenham, Hawkins, and Drake,
+are but the avant-couriers, will burst upon every Spanish port from
+Corunna to Cadiz, from the Canaries to Havana, and La Guayra and
+St. Yago de Leon will not escape their share.  Captain Amyas
+Preston and Captain Sommers, the colonist of the Bermudas, or
+Sommers' Islands, will land, with a force tiny enough, though
+larger far than Leigh's, where Leigh dare not land; and taking the
+fort of Guayra, will find, as Leigh found, that their coming has
+been expected, and that the Pass of the Venta, three thousand feet
+above, has been fortified with huge barricadoes, abattis, and
+cannon, making the capital, amid its ring of mountain-walls,
+impregnable--to all but Englishmen or Zouaves.  For up that seven
+thousand feet of precipice, which rises stair on stair behind the
+town, those fierce adventurers will climb hand over hand, through
+rain and fog, while men lie down, and beg their officers to kill
+them, for no farther can they go.  Yet farther they will go, hewing
+a path with their swords through woods of wild plantain, and
+rhododendron thickets, over (so it seems, however incredible) the
+very saddle of the Silla,* down upon the astonished "Mantuanos" of
+St. Jago, driving all before them; and having burnt the city in
+default of ransom, will return triumphant by the right road, and
+pass along the coast, the masters of the deep.
+
+
+* Humboldt says that there is a path from Caravellada to St. Jago,
+between the peaks, used by smugglers.  This is probably the
+"unknowen way of the Indians," which Preston used.
+
+
+I know not whether any men still live who count their descent from
+those two valiant captains; but if such there be, let them be sure
+that the history of the English navy tells no more Titanic victory
+over nature and man than that now forgotten raid of Amyas Preston
+and his comrade, in the year of grace 1595.
+
+But though a venture on the town was impossible, yet there was
+another venture which Frank was unwilling to let slip.  A light
+which now shone brightly in one of the windows of the governor's
+house was the lodestar to which all his thoughts were turned; and
+as he sat in the cabin with Amyas, Cary, and Jack, he opened his
+heart to them.
+
+"And are we, then," asked he, mournfully, "to go without doing the
+very thing for which we came?"
+
+All were silent awhile.  At last John Brimblecombe spoke.
+
+"Show me the way to do it, Mr. Frank, and I will go."
+
+"My dearest man," said Amyas, "what would you have?  Any attempt to
+see her, even if she be here, would be all but certain death."
+
+"And what if it were?  What if it were, my brother Amyas?  Listen
+to me.  I have long ceased to shrink from Death; but till I came
+into these magic climes, I never knew the beauty of his face."
+
+"Of death?" said Cary.  "I should have said, of life.  God forgive
+me! but man might wish to live forever, if he had such a world as
+this wherein to live."
+
+"And do you forget, Cary, that the more fair this passing world of
+time, by so much the more fair is that eternal world, whereof all
+here is but a shadow and a dream; by so much the more fair is He
+before whose throne the four mystic beasts, the substantial ideas
+of Nature and her powers, stand day and night, crying, 'Holy, holy,
+holy, Lord God of hosts, Thou hast made all things, and for Thy
+pleasure they are and were created!'  My friends, if He be so
+prodigal of His own glory as to have decked these lonely shores,
+all but unknown since the foundation of the world, with splendors
+beyond all our dreams, what must be the glory of His face itself!
+I have done with vain shadows.  It is better to depart and to be
+with Him, where shall be neither desire nor anger, self-deception
+nor pretence, but the eternal fulness of reality and truth.  One
+thing I have to do before I die, for God has laid it on me.  Let
+that be done to-night, and then, farewell!"
+
+"Frank! Frank! remember our mother!"
+
+"I do remember her.  I have talked over these things with her many
+a time; and where I would fain be, she would fain be also.  She
+sent me out with my virgin honor, as the Spartan mother did her boy
+with the shield, saying, 'Come back either with this, or upon
+this;' and one or the other I must do, if I would meet her either
+in this life or in the next.  But in the meanwhile do not mistake
+me; my life is God's, and I promise not to cast it away rashly."
+
+"What would you do, then?"
+
+"Go up to that house, Amyas, and speak with her, if Heaven gives me
+an opportunity, as Heaven, I feel assured, will give."
+
+"And do you call that no rashness?"
+
+"Is any duty rashness?  Is it rash to stand amid the flying
+bullets, if your queen has sent you?  Is it more rash to go to seek
+Christ's lost lamb, if God and your own oath hath sent you?  John
+Brimblecombe answered that question for us long ago."
+
+"If you go, I go with you!" said all three at once.
+
+"No.  Amyas, you owe a duty to our mother and to your ship.  Cary,
+you are heir to great estates, and are bound thereby to your
+country and to your tenants.  John Brimblecombe--"
+
+"Ay!" squeaked Jack.  "And what have you to say, Mr. Frank, against
+my going?--I, who have neither ship nor estates--except, I suppose,
+that I am not worthy to travel in such good company?"
+
+"Think of your old parents, John, and all your sisters."
+
+"I thought of them before I started, sir, as Mr. Cary knows, and
+you know too.  I came here to keep my vow, and I am not going to
+turn renegade at the very foot of the cross."
+
+"Some one must go with you, Frank," said Amyas; "if it were only to
+bring back the boat's crew in case--" and he faltered.
+
+"In case I fall," replied Frank, with a smile.  "I will finish your
+sentence for you, lad; I am not afraid of it, though you may be for
+me.  Yet some one, I fear, must go.  Unhappy me! that I cannot risk
+my own worthless life without risking your more precious lives!"
+
+"Not so, Mr. Frank!  Your oath is our oath, and your duty ours!"
+said John.  "I will tell you what we will do, gentlemen all.  We
+three will draw cuts for the honor of going with him."
+
+"Lots?" said Amyas.  "I don't like leaving such grave matters to
+chance, friend John."
+
+"Chance, sir?  When you have used all your own wit, and find it
+fail you, then what is drawing lots but taking the matter out of
+your own weak hands, and laying it in God's strong hands?"
+
+"Right, John!" said Frank.  "So did the apostles choose their
+successor, and so did holy men of old decide controversies too
+subtle for them; and we will not be ashamed to follow their
+example.  For my part, I have often said to Sidney and to Spenser,
+when we have babbled together of Utopian governments in days which
+are now dreams to me, that I would have all officers of state
+chosen by lot out of the wisest and most fit; so making sure that
+they should be called by God, and not by man alone.  Gentlemen, do
+you agree to Sir John's advice?"
+
+They agreed, seeing no better counsel, and John put three slips of
+paper into Frank's hand, with the simple old apostolic prayer--
+
+"Show which of us three Thou hast chosen."
+
+The lot fell upon Amyas Leigh.
+
+Frank shuddered, and clasped his hands over his face.
+
+"Well," said Cary, "I have ill-luck to-night: but Frank goes at
+least in good company."
+
+"Ah, that it had been I!" said Jack; "though I suppose I was too
+poor a body to have such an honor fall on me.  And yet it is hard
+for flesh and blood; hard indeed to have come all this way, and not
+to see her after all!"
+
+"Jack," said Frank, "you are kept to do better work than this,
+doubt not.  But if the lot had fallen on you--ay, if it had fallen
+on a three years' child, I would have gone up as cheerfully with
+that child to lead me, as I do now with this my brother!  Amyas,
+can we have a boat, and a crew?  It is near midnight already."
+
+Amyas went on deck, and asked for six volunteers.  Whosoever would
+come, Amyas would double out of his own purse any prize-money which
+might fall to that man's share.
+
+One of the old Pelican's crew, Simon Evans of Clovelly, stepped out
+at once.
+
+"Why six only, captain?  Give the word, and any and all of us will
+go up with you, sack the house, and bring off the treasure and the
+lady, before two hours are out."
+
+"No, no, my brave lads!  As for treasure, if there be any, it is
+sure to have been put all safe into the forts, or hidden in the
+mountains; and as for the lady, God forbid that we should force her
+a step without her own will."
+
+The honest sailor did not quite understand this punctilio: but--
+
+"Well, captain," quoth he, "as you like; but no man shall say that
+you asked for a volunteer, were it to jump down a shark's throat,
+but what you had me first of all the crew.
+
+After this sort of temper had been exhibited, three or four more
+came forward--Yeo was very anxious to go, but Amyas forbade him.
+
+"I'll volunteer, sir, without reward, for this or anything; though"
+(added he in a lower tone) "I would to Heaven that the thought had
+never entered your head."
+
+"And so would I have volunteered," said Simon Evans, "if it were
+the ship's quarrel, or the queen's; but being it's a private matter
+of the captain's, and I've a wife and children at home, why, I take
+no shame to myself for asking money for my life."
+
+So the crew was made up; but ere they pushed off, Amyas called Cary
+aside--
+
+"If I perish, Will--"
+
+"Don't talk of such things, dear old lad."
+
+"I must.  Then you are captain.  Do nothing without Yeo and Drew.
+But if they approve, go right north away for San Domingo and Cuba,
+and try the ports; they can have no news of us there, and there is
+booty without end.  Tell my mother that I died like a gentleman;
+and mind--mind, dear lad, to keep your temper with the men, let the
+poor fellows grumble as they may.  Mind but that, and fear God, and
+all will go well."
+
+The tears were glistening in Cary's eyes as he pressed Amyas's
+hand, and watched the two brothers down over the side upon their
+desperate errand.
+
+They reached the pebble beach.  There seemed no difficulty about
+finding the path to the house--so bright was the moon, and so
+careful a survey of the place had Frank taken.  Leaving the men
+with the boat (Amyas had taken care that they should be well
+armed), they started up the beach, with their swords only.  Frank
+assured Amyas that they would find a path leading from the beach up
+to the house, and he was not mistaken.  They found it easily, for
+it was made of white shell sand; and following it, struck into a
+"tunal," or belt of tall thorny cactuses.  Through this the path
+wound in zigzags up a steep rocky slope, and ended at a wicket-
+gate.  They tried it, and found it open.
+
+"She may expect us," whispered Frank.
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"Why not?  She must have seen our ship; and if, as seems, the
+townsfolk know who we are, how much more must she!  Yes, doubt it
+not, she still longs to hear news of her own land, and some secret
+sympathy will draw her down towards the sea to-night.  See! the
+light is in the window still!"
+
+"But if not," said Amyas, who had no such expectation, "what is
+your plan?"
+
+"I have none."
+
+"None?"
+
+"I have imagined twenty different ones in the last hour; but all
+are equally uncertain, impossible.  I have ceased to struggle--I go
+where I am called, love's willing victim.  If Heaven accept the
+sacrifice, it will provide the altar and the knife."
+
+Aymas was at his wits' end.  Judging of his brother by himself, he
+had taken for granted that Frank had some well-concocted scheme for
+gaining admittance to the Rose; and as the wiles of love were
+altogether out of his province, he had followed in full faith such
+a sans-appel as he held Frank to be.  But now he almost doubted of
+his brother's sanity, though Frank's manner was perfectly collected
+and his voice firm.  Amyas, honest fellow, had no understanding of
+that intense devotion, which so many in those days (not content
+with looking on it as a lofty virtue, and yet one to be duly kept
+in its place by other duties) prided themselves on pampering into
+the most fantastic and self-willed excesses.
+
+Beautiful folly! the death-song of which two great geniuses were
+composing at that very moment, each according to his light.  For,
+while Spenser was embalming in immortal verse all that it contained
+of noble and Christian elements, Cervantes sat, perhaps, in his
+dungeon, writing with his left hand Don Quixote, saddest of books,
+in spite of all its wit; the story of a pure and noble soul, who
+mistakes this actual life for that ideal one which he fancies (and
+not so wrongly either) eternal in the heavens: and finding instead
+of a battlefield for heroes in God's cause, nothing but frivolity,
+heartlessness, and godlessness, becomes a laughing-stock,--and
+dies.  One of the saddest books, I say again, which man can read.
+
+Amyas hardly dare trust himself to speak, for fear of saying too
+much; but he could not help saying--
+
+"You are going to certain death, Frank."
+
+"Did I not entreat," answered he, very quietly, "to go alone?"
+
+Amyas had half a mind to compel him to return: but he feared
+Frank's obstinacy; and feared, too, the shame of returning on board
+without having done anything; so they went up through the wicket-
+gate, along a smooth turf walk, into what seemed a pleasure-garden,
+formed by the hand of man, or rather of woman.  For by the light,
+not only of the moon, but of the innumerable fireflies, which
+flitted to and fro across the sward like fiery imps sent to light
+the brothers on their way, they could see that the bushes on either
+side, and the trees above their heads, were decked with flowers of
+such strangeness and beauty, that, as Frank once said of Barbados,
+even the gardens of Wilton were a desert in comparison."  All
+around were orange and lemon trees (probably the only addition
+which man had made to Nature's prodigality), the fruit of which, in
+that strange colored light of the fireflies, flashed in their eyes
+like balls of burnished gold and emerald; while great white tassels
+swinging from every tree in the breeze which swept down the glade,
+tossed in their faces a fragrant snow of blossoms, and glittering
+drops of perfumed dew.
+
+"What a paradise!" said Amyas to Frank, "with the serpent in it, as
+of old.  Look!"
+
+And as he spoke, there dropped slowly down from a bough, right
+before them, what seemed a living chain of gold, ruby, and
+sapphire.  Both stopped, and another glance showed the small head
+and bright eyes of a snake, hissing and glaring full in their
+faces.
+
+"See!" said Frank.  "And he comes, as of old, in the likeness of an
+angel of light.  Do not strike it.  There are worse devils to be
+fought with to-night than that poor beast."  And stepping aside,
+they passed the snake safely, and arrived in front of the house.
+
+It was, as I have said, a long low house, with balconies along the
+upper story, and the under part mostly open to the wind.  The light
+was still burning in the window.
+
+"Whither now?" said Amyas, in a tone of desperate resignation.
+
+"Thither!  Where else on earth?" and Frank pointed to the light,
+trembling from head to foot, and pushed on.
+
+"For Heaven's sake!  Look at the negroes on the barbecue!"
+
+It was indeed time to stop; for on the barbecue, or terrace of
+white plaster, which ran all round the front, lay sleeping full
+twenty black figures.
+
+"What will you do now?  You must step over them to gain an
+entrance."
+
+"Wait here, and I will go up gently towards the window.  She may
+see me.  She will see me as I step into the moonlight.  At least I
+know an air by which she will recognize me, if I do but hum a
+stave."
+
+"Why, you do not even know that that light is hers!--Down, for your
+life!"
+
+And Amyas dragged him down into the bushes on his left hand; for
+one of the negroes, wakening suddenly with a cry, had sat up, and
+began crossing himself four or five times, in fear of "Duppy," and
+mumbling various charms, ayes, or what not.
+
+The light above was extinguished instantly.
+
+"Did you see her?" whispered Frank.
+
+"No."
+
+"I did--the shadow of the face, and the neck!  Can I be mistaken?"
+And then, covering his face with his hands, he murmured to himself,
+"Misery! misery!  So near and yet impossible?"
+
+"Would it be the less impossible were you face to face?  Let us go
+back.  We cannot go up without detection, even if our going were of
+use.  Come back, for God's sake, ere all is lost!  If you have seen
+her, as you say, you know at least that she is alive, and safe in
+his house--"
+
+"As his mistress? or as his wife?  Do I know that yet, Amyas, and
+can I depart until I know?"  There was a few minutes' silence, and
+then Amyas, making one last attempt to awaken Frank to the
+absurdity of the whole thing, and to laugh him, if possible, out of
+it, as argument had no effect--
+
+"My dear fellow, I am very hungry and sleepy; and this bush is very
+prickly; and my boots are full of ants--"
+
+"So are mine.--Look!" and Frank caught Amyas's arm, and clenched it
+tight.
+
+For round the farther corner of the house a dark cloaked figure
+stole gently, turning a look now and then upon the sleeping
+negroes, and came on right toward them.
+
+"Did I not tell you she would come?" whispered Frank, in a
+triumphant tone.
+
+Amyas was quite bewildered; and to his mind the apparition seemed
+magical, and Frank prophetic; for as the figure came nearer,
+incredulous as he tried to be, there was no denying that the shape
+and the walk were exactly those of her, to find whom they had
+crossed the Atlantic.  True, the figure was somewhat taller; but
+then, "she must be grown since I saw her," thought Amyas; and his
+heart for the moment beat as fiercely as Frank's.
+
+But what was that behind her?  Her shadow against the white wall of
+the house.  Not so.  Another figure, cloaked likewise, but taller
+far, was following on her steps.  It was a man's.  They could see
+that he wore a broad sombrero.  It could not be Don Guzman, for he
+was at sea.  Who then?  Here was a mystery; perhaps a tragedy.  And
+both brothers held their breaths, while Amyas felt whether his
+sword was loose in the sheath.
+
+The Rose (if indeed it was she) was within ten yards of them, when
+she perceived that she was followed.  She gave a little shriek.
+The cavalier sprang forward, lifted his hat courteously, and joined
+her, bowing low.  The moonlight was full upon his face.
+
+"It is Eustace, our cousin!  How came he here, in the name of all
+the fiends?"
+
+"Eustace!  Then that is she, after all!" said Frank, forgetting
+everything else in her.
+
+And now flashed across Amyas all that had passed between him and
+Eustace in the moorland inn, and Parracombe's story, too, of the
+suspicious gipsy.  Eustace had been beforehand with them, and
+warned Don Guzman!  All was explained now: but how had he got
+hither?
+
+"The devil, his master, sent him hither on a broomstick, I suppose:
+or what matter how?  Here he is; and here we are, worse luck!"
+And, setting his teeth, Amyas awaited the end.
+
+The two came on, talking earnestly, and walking at a slow pace, so
+that the brothers could hear every word.
+
+"What shall we do now?" said Frank.  "We have no right to be
+eavesdroppers."
+
+"But we must be, right or none."  And Amyas held him down firmly by
+the arm.
+
+"But whither are you going, then, my dear madam?" they heard
+Eustace say in a wheedling tone.  "Can you wonder if such strange
+conduct should cause at least sorrow to your admirable and faithful
+husband?"
+
+"Husband!" whispered Frank faintly to Amyas.  "Thank God, thank
+God!  I am content.  Let us go."
+
+But to go was impossible; for, as fate would have it, the two had
+stopped just opposite them.
+
+"The inestimable Senor Don Guzman--" began Eustace again.
+
+"What do you mean by praising him to me in this fulsome way, sir?
+Do you suppose that I do not know his virtues better than you?"
+
+"If you do, madam" (this was spoken in a harder tone), "it were
+wise for you to try them less severely, than by wandering down
+towards the beach on the very night that you know his most deadly
+enemies are lying in wait to slay him, plunder his house, and most
+probably to carry you off from him."
+
+"Carry me off?  I will die first!"
+
+"Who can prove that to him?  Appearances are at least against you."
+
+"My love to him, and his trust for me, sir!"
+
+"His trust?  Have you forgotten, madam, what passed last week, and
+why he sailed yesterday?"
+
+The only answer was a burst of tears.  Eustace stood watching her
+with a terrible eye; but they could see his face writhing in the
+moonlight.
+
+"Oh!" sobbed she at last.  "And if I have been imprudent, was it
+not natural to wish to look once more upon an English ship?  Are
+you not English as well as I?  Have you no longing recollections of
+the dear old land at home?"
+
+Eustace was silent; but his face worked more fiercely than ever.
+
+"How can he ever know it?"
+
+"Why should he not know it?"
+
+"Ah!" she burst out passionately, "why not, indeed, while you are
+here?  You, sir, the tempter, you the eavesdropper, you the
+sunderer of loving hearts!  You, serpent, who found our home a
+paradise, and see it now a hell!"
+
+"Do you dare to accuse me thus, madam, without a shadow of
+evidence?"
+
+"Dare?  I dare anything, for I know all!  I have watched you, sir,
+and I have borne with you too long."
+
+"Me, madam, whose only sin towards you, as you should know by now,
+is to have loved you too well?  Rose! Rose! have you not blighted
+my life for me--broken my heart?  And how have I repaid you?  How
+but by sacrificing myself to seek you over land and sea, that I
+might complete your conversion to the bosom of that Church where a
+Virgin Mother stands stretching forth soft arms to embrace her
+wandering daughter, and cries to you all day long, 'Come unto me,
+ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest!'  And
+this is my reward!"
+
+"Depart with your Virgin Mother, sir, and tempt me no more!  You
+have asked me what I dare; and I dare this, upon my own ground, and
+in my own garden, I, Donna Rosa de Soto, to bid you leave this
+place now and forever, after having insulted me by talking of your
+love, and tempted me to give up that faith which my husband
+promised me he would respect and protect.  Go, sir!"
+
+The brothers listened breathless with surprise as much as with
+rage.  Love and conscience, and perhaps, too, the pride of her
+lofty alliance, had converted the once gentle and dreamy Rose into
+a very Roxana; but it was only the impulse of a moment.  The words
+had hardly passed her lips, when, terrified at what she had said,
+she burst into a fresh flood of tears; while Eustace answered
+calmly:
+
+"I go, madam: but how know you that I may not have orders, and
+that, after your last strange speech, my conscience may compel me
+to obey those orders, to take you with me?"
+
+"Me? with you?"
+
+"My heart has bled for you, madam, for many a year.  It longs now
+that it had bled itself to death, and never known the last worst
+agony of telling you--"
+
+And drawing close to her he whispered in her ear--what, the
+brothers heard not--but her answer was a shriek which rang through
+the woods, and sent the night-birds fluttering up from every bough
+above their heads.
+
+"By Heaven!" said Amyas, "I can stand this no longer.  Cut that
+devil's throat I must--"
+
+"She is lost if his dead body is found by her."
+
+"We are lost if we stay here, then," said Amyas; "for those negroes
+will hurry down at her cry, and then found we must be."
+
+"Are you mad, madam, to betray yourself by your own cries?  The
+negroes will he here in a moment.  I give you one last chance for
+life, then:" and Eustace shouted in Spanish at the top of his
+voice, "Help, help, servants!  Your mistress is being carried off
+by bandits!"
+
+"What do you mean, sir?"
+
+"Let your woman's wit supply the rest: and forget not him who thus
+saves you from disgrace."
+
+Whether the brothers heard the last words or not, I know not; but
+taking for granted that Eustace had discovered them, they sprang to
+their feet at once, determined to make one last appeal, and then to
+sell their lives as dearly as they could.
+
+Eustace started back at the unexpected apparition; but a second
+glance showed him Amyas's mighty bulk; and he spoke calmly--
+
+"You see, madam, I did not call without need.  Welcome, good
+cousins.  My charity, as you perceive, has found means to outstrip
+your craft; while the fair lady, as was but natural, has been true
+to her assignation!"
+
+"Liar!" cried Frank.  "She never knew of our being--"
+
+"Credat Judaeus!" answered Eustace; but, as he spoke, Amyas burst
+through the bushes at him.  There was no time to be lost; and ere
+the giant could disentangle himself from the boughs and shrubs,
+Eustace had slipped off his long cloak, thrown it over Amyas's
+head, and ran up the alley shouting for help.
+
+Mad with rage, Amyas gave chase: but in two minutes more Eustace
+was safe among the ranks of the negroes, who came shouting and
+jabbering down the path.
+
+He rushed back.  Frank was just ending some wild appeal to Rose--
+
+"Your conscience! your religion!--"
+
+"No, never!  I can face the chance of death, but not the loss of
+him.  Go! for God's sake, leave me!"
+
+"You are lost, then,--and I have ruined you!"
+
+"Come off, now or never," cried Amyas, clutching him by the arm,
+and dragging him away like a child.
+
+"You forgive me?" cried he.
+
+"Forgive you?" and she burst into tears again.
+
+Frank burst into tears also.
+
+"Let me go back, and die with her--Amyas!--my oath!--my honor!" and
+he struggled to turn back.
+
+Amyas looked back too, and saw her standing calmly, with her hands
+folded across her breast, awaiting Eustace and the servants; and he
+half turned to go back also.  Both saw how fearfully appearances
+had put her into Eustace's power.  Had he not a right to suspect
+that they were there by her appointment; that she was going to
+escape with them?  And would not Eustace use his power?  The
+thought of the Inquisition crossed their minds.  "Was that the
+threat which Eustace had whispered?" asked he of Frank.
+
+"It was," groaned Frank, in answer.
+
+For the first and last time in his life, Amyas Leigh stood
+irresolute.
+
+"Back, and stab her to the heart first!" said Frank, struggling to
+escape from him.
+
+Oh, if Amyas were but alone, and Frank safe home in England!  To
+charge the whole mob, kill her, kill Eustace, and then cut his way
+back again to the ship, or die,--what matter? as he must die some
+day,--sword in hand!  But Frank!--and then flashed before his eyes
+his mother's hopeless face; then rang in his ears his mother's last
+bequest to him of that frail treasure.  Let Rose, let honor, let
+the whole world perish, he must save Frank.  See! the negroes were
+up with her now--past her--away for life! and once more he dragged
+his brother down the hill, and through the wicket, only just in
+time; for the whole gang of negroes were within ten yards of them
+in full pursuit.
+
+"Frank," said he, sharply, "if you ever hope to see your mother
+again, rouse yourself, man, and fight!"  And, without waiting for
+an answer, he turned, and charged up-hill upon his pursuers, who
+saw the long bright blade, and fled instantly.
+
+Again he hurried Frank down the hill; the path wound in zigzags,
+and he feared that the negroes would come straight over the cliff,
+and so cut off his retreat: but the prickly cactuses were too much
+for them, and they were forced to follow by the path, while the
+brothers (Frank having somewhat regained his senses) turned every
+now and then to menace them: but once on the rocky path, stones
+began to fly fast; small ones fortunately, and wide and wild for
+want of light--but when they reached the pebble-beach?  Both were
+too proud to run; but, if ever Amyas prayed in his life, he prayed
+for the last twenty yards before he reached the water-mark.
+
+"Now, Frank! down to the boat as hard as you can run, while I keep
+the curs back."
+
+"Amyas! what do you take me for?  My madness brought you hither:
+your devotion shall not bring me back without you."
+
+"Together, then!"
+
+And putting Frank's arm through his, they hurried down, shouting to
+their men.
+
+The boat was not fifty yards off: but fast travelling over the
+pebbles was impossible, and long ere half the distance was crossed,
+the negroes were on the beach, and the storm burst.  A volley of
+great quartz pebbles whistled round their heads.
+
+"Come on, Frank! for life's sake!  Men, to the rescue!  Ah! what
+was that?"
+
+The dull crash of a pebble against Frank's fair head!  Drooping
+like Hyacinthus beneath the blow of the quoit, he sank on Amyas's
+arm.  The giant threw him over his shoulder, and plunged blindly
+on,--himself struck again and again.
+
+"Fire, men!  Give it the black villains!"
+
+The arquebuses crackled from the boat in front.  What were those
+dull thuds which answered from behind?  Echoes?  No.  Over his head
+the caliver-balls went screeching.  The governors' guard have
+turned out, followed them to the beach, fixed their calivers, and
+are firing over the negroes' heads, as the savages rush down upon
+the hapless brothers.
+
+If, as all say, there are moments which are hours, how many hours
+was Amyas Leigh in reaching that boat's bow?  Alas! the negroes are
+there as soon as he, and the guard, having left their calivers, are
+close behind them, sword in hand.  Amyas is up to his knees in
+water--battered with stones--blinded with blood.  The boat is
+swaying off and on against the steep pebble-bank: he clutches at
+it--misses--falls headlong--rises half-choked with water: but Frank
+is still in his arms.  Another heavy blow--a confused roar of
+shouts, shots, curses--a confused mass of negroes and English, foam
+and pebbles--and he recollects no more.
+
+              .     .     .     .     .     .     .
+
+He is lying in the stern-sheets of the boat; stiff, weak, half
+blind with blood.  He looks up; the moon is still bright overhead:
+but they are away from the shore now, for the wave-crests are
+dancing white before the land-breeze, high above the boat's side.
+The boat seems strangely empty.  Two men are pulling instead of
+six!  And what is this lying heavy across his chest?  He pushes,
+and is answered by a groan.  He puts his hand down to rise, and is
+answered by another groan.
+
+"What's this?"
+
+"All that are left of us," says Simon Evans of Clovelly.
+
+"All?"  The bottom of the boat seemed paved with human bodies.  "Oh
+God! oh God!" moans Amyas, trying to rise.  "And where--where is
+Frank?  Frank!"
+
+"Mr. Frank!" cries Evans.  There is no answer.
+
+"Dead?" shrieks Amyas.  "Look for him, for God's sake, look!" and
+struggling from under his living load, he peers into each pale and
+bleeding face.
+
+"Where is he?  Why don't you speak, forward there?"
+
+"Because we have naught to say, sir," answers Evans, almost
+surlily.
+
+Frank was not there.
+
+"Put the boat about!  To the shore!" roars Amyas.
+
+"Look over the gunwale, and judge for yourself, sir!"
+
+The waves are leaping fierce and high before a furious land-breeze.
+Return is impossible.
+
+"Cowards! villains! traitors! hounds! to have left him behind."
+
+"Listen you to me, Captain Amyas Leigh," says Simon Evans, resting
+on his oar; "and hang me for mutiny, if you will, when we're
+aboard, if we ever get there.  Isn't it enough to bring us out to
+death (as you knew yourself, sir, for you're prudent enough) to
+please that poor young gentleman's fancy about a wench; but you
+must call coward an honest man that have saved your life this
+night, and not a one of us but has his wound to show?"
+
+Amyas was silent; the rebuke was just.
+
+"I tell you, sir, if we've hove a stone out of this boat since we
+got off, we've hove two hundredweight, and, if the Lord had not
+fought for us, she'd have been beat to noggin-staves there on the
+beach."
+
+"How did I come here, then?"
+
+"Tom Hart dragged you in out of five feet water, and then thrust
+the boat off, and had his brains beat out for reward.  All were
+knocked down but us two.  So help me God, we thought that you had
+hove Mr. Frank on board just as you were knocked down, and saw
+William Frost drag him in."
+
+But William Frost was lying senseless in the bottom of the boat.
+There was no explanation.  After all, none was needed.
+
+"And I have three wounds from stones, and this man behind me as
+many more, beside a shot through his shoulder.  Now, sir, be we
+cowards?"
+
+"You have done your duty," said Amyas, and sank down in the boat,
+and cried as if his heart would break; and then sprang up, and,
+wounded as he was, took the oar from Evans's hands.  With weary
+work they made the ship, but so exhausted that another boat had to
+be lowered to get them alongside.
+
+The alarm being now given, it was hardly safe to remain where they
+were; and after a stormy and sad argument, it was agreed to weigh
+anchor and stand off and on till morning; for Amyas refused to
+leave the spot till he was compelled, though he had no hope (how
+could he have?) that Frank might still be alive.  And perhaps it
+was well for them, as will appear in the next chapter, that morning
+did not find them at anchor close to the town.
+
+However that may be, so ended that fatal venture of mistaken
+chivalry.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS
+
+
+"Full seven long hours in all men's sight
+  This fight endured sore,
+Until our men so feeble grew,
+  That they could fight no more.
+And then upon dead horses
+  Full savorly they fed,
+And drank the puddle water,
+  They could no better get.
+
+"When they had fed so freely
+  They kneeled on the ground,
+And gave God thanks devoutly for
+  The favor they had found;
+Then beating up their colors,
+  The fight they did renew;
+And turning to the Spaniards,
+  A thousand more they slew."
+
+  The Brave Lord Willoughby.  1586.
+
+
+When the sun leaped up the next morning, and the tropic light
+flashed suddenly into the tropic day, Amyas was pacing the deck,
+with dishevelled hair and torn clothes, his eyes red with rage and
+weeping, his heart full--how can I describe it?  Picture it to
+yourselves, picture it to yourselves, you who have ever lost a
+brother; and you who have not, thank God that you know nothing of
+his agony.  Full of impossible projects, he strode and staggered up
+and down, as the ship thrashed close-hauled through the rolling
+seas.  He would go back and burn the villa.  He would take Guayra,
+and have the life of every man in it in return for his brother's.
+"We can do it, lads!" he shouted.  "If Drake took Nombre de Dios,
+we can take La Guayra."  And every voice shouted, "Yes."
+
+"We will have it, Amyas, and have Frank too, yet," cried Cary; but
+Amyas shook his head.  He knew, and knew not why he knew, that all
+the ports in New Spain would never restore to him that one beloved
+face.
+
+"Yes, he shall be well avenged.  And look there!  There is the
+first crop of our vengeance.  And he pointed toward the shore,
+where between them and the now distant peaks of the Silla, three
+sails appeared, not five miles to windward.
+
+"There are the Spanish bloodhounds on our heels, the same ships
+which we saw yesterday off Guayra.  Back, lads, and welcome them,
+if they were a dozen."
+
+There was a murmur of applause from all around; and if any young
+heart sank for a moment at the prospect of fighting three ships at
+once, it was awed into silence by the cheer which rose from all the
+older men, and by Salvation Yeo's stentorian voice.
+
+"If there were a dozen, the Lord is with us, who has said, 'One of
+you shall chase a thousand.'  Clear away, lads, and see the glory
+of the Lord this day."
+
+"Amen!" cried Cary; and the ship was kept still closer to the wind.
+
+Amyas had revived at the sight of battle.  He no longer felt his
+wounds, or his great sorrow; even Frank's last angel's look grew
+dimmer every moment as he bustled about the deck; and ere a quarter
+of an hour had passed, his voice cried firmly and cheerfully as of
+old--
+
+"Now, my masters, let us serve God, and then to breakfast, and
+after that clear for action."
+
+Jack Brimblecombe read the daily prayers, and the prayers before a
+fight at sea, and his honest voice trembled, as, in the Prayer for
+all Conditions of Men (in spite of Amyas's despair), he added, "and
+especially for our dear brother Mr. Francis Leigh, perhaps captive
+among the idolaters;" and so they rose.
+
+"Now, then," said Amyas, "to breakfast.  A Frenchman fights best
+fasting, a Dutchman drunk, an Englishman full, and a Spaniard when
+the devil is in him, and that's always."
+
+"And good beef and the good cause are a match for the devil," said
+Cary.  "Come down, captain; you must eat too."
+
+Amyas shook his head, took the tiller from the steersman, and bade
+him go below and fill himself.  Will Cary went down, and returned
+in five minutes, with a plate of bread and beef, and a great jack
+of ale, coaxed them down Amyas's throat, as a nurse does with a
+child, and then scuttled below again with tears hopping down his
+face.
+
+Amyas stood still steering.  His face was grown seven years older
+in the last night.  A terrible set calm was on him.  Woe to the man
+who came across him that day!
+
+"There are three of them, you see, my masters," said he, as the
+crew came on deck again.  "A big ship forward, and two galleys
+astern of her.  The big ship may keep; she is a race ship, and if
+we can but recover the wind of her, we will see whether our height
+is not a match for her length.  We must give her the slip, and take
+the galleys first."
+
+"I thank the Lord," said Yeo, "who has given so wise a heart to so
+young a general; a very David and Daniel, saving his presence,
+lads; and if any dare not follow him, let him be as the men of
+Meroz and of Succoth.  Amen!  Silas Staveley, smite me that boy
+over the head, the young monkey; why is he not down at the powder-
+room door?"
+
+And Yeo went about his gunnery, as one who knew how to do it, and
+had the most terrible mind to do it thoroughly, and the most
+terrible faith that it was God's work.
+
+So all fell to; and though there was comparatively little to be
+done, the ship having been kept as far as could be in fighting
+order all night, yet there was "clearing of decks, lacing of
+nettings, making of bulwarks, fitting of waist-cloths, arming of
+tops, tallowing of pikes, slinging of yards, doubling of sheets and
+tacks," enough to satisfy even the pedantical soul of Richard
+Hawkins himself.  Amyas took charge of the poop, Cary of the
+forecastle, and Yeo, as gunner, of the main-deck, while Drew, as
+master, settled himself in the waist; and all was ready, and more
+than ready, before the great ship was within two miles of them.
+
+And now while the mastiffs of England and the bloodhounds of Spain
+are nearing and nearing over the rolling surges, thirsting for each
+other's blood, let us spend a few minutes at least in looking at
+them both, and considering the causes which in those days enabled
+the English to face and conquer armaments immensely superior in
+size and number of ships, and to boast that in the whole Spanish
+war but one queen's ship, the Revenge, and (if I recollect right)
+but one private man-of-war, Sir Richard Hawkins's Dainty, had ever
+struck their colors to the enemy.
+
+What was it which enabled Sir Richard Grenville's Revenge, in his
+last fearful fight off the Azores, to endure, for twelve hours
+before she struck, the attack of eight Spanish armadas, of which
+two (three times her own burden) sank at her side; and after all
+her masts were gone, and she had been boarded three times without
+success, to defy to the last the whole fleet of fifty-four sail,
+which lay around her, waiting for her to sink, "like dogs around
+the dying forest king"?
+
+What enabled young Richard Hawkins's Dainty, though half her guns
+were useless through the carelessness or treachery of the gunner,
+to maintain for three days a running fight with two Spaniards of
+equal size with her, double the weight of metal, and ten times the
+number of men?
+
+What enabled Sir George Cary's illustrious ship, the Content, to
+fight, single-handed, from seven in the morning till eleven at
+night, with four great armadas and two galleys, though her heaviest
+gun was but one nine-pounder, and for many hours she had but
+thirteen men fit for service?
+
+What enabled, in the very year of which I write, those two "valiant
+Turkey Merchantmen of London, the Merchant Royal and the Tobie,"
+with their three small consorts, to cripple, off Pantellaria in the
+Mediterranean, the whole fleet of Spanish galleys sent to intercept
+them, and return triumphant through the Straits of Gibraltar?
+
+And lastly, what in the fight of 1588, whereof more hereafter,
+enabled the English fleet to capture, destroy, and scatter that
+Great Armada, with the loss (but not the capture) of one pinnace,
+and one gentleman of note?
+
+There were more causes than one: the first seems to have lain in
+the build of the English ships; the second in their superior
+gunnery and weight of metal; the third (without which the first
+would have been useless) in the hearts of the English men.
+
+The English ship was much shorter than the Spanish; and this (with
+the rig of those days) gave them an ease in manoeuvring, which
+utterly confounded their Spanish foes.  "The English ships in the
+fight of 1588," says Camden, "charged the enemy with marvellous
+agility, and having discharged their broadsides, flew forth
+presently into the deep, and levelled their shot directly, without
+missing, at those great ships of the Spaniards, which were
+altogether heavy and unwieldy."  Moreover, the Spanish fashion, in
+the West Indies at least, though not in the ships of the Great
+Armada, was, for the sake of carrying merchandise, to build their
+men-of-war flush-decked, or as it was called "race" (razes), which
+left those on deck exposed and open; while the English fashion was
+to heighten the ship as much as possible at stem and stern, both by
+the sweep of her lines, and also by stockades ("close fights and
+cage-works") on the poop and forecastle, thus giving to the men a
+shelter, which was further increased by strong bulkheads
+("cobridgeheads") across the main-deck below, dividing the ship
+thus into a number of separate forts, fitted with swivels ("bases,
+fowlers, and murderers") and loopholed for musketry and arrows.
+
+But the great source of superiority was, after all, in the men
+themselves.  The English sailor was then, as now, a quite
+amphibious and all-cunning animal, capable of turning his hand to
+everything, from needlework and carpentry to gunnery or hand-to-
+hand blows; and he was, moreover, one of a nation, every citizen of
+which was not merely permitted to carry arms, but compelled by law
+to practise from childhood the use of the bow, and accustomed to
+consider sword-play and quarter-staff as a necessary part and
+parcel of education, and the pastime of every leisure hour.  The
+"fiercest nation upon earth," as they were then called, and the
+freest also, each man of them fought for himself with the self-help
+and self-respect of a Yankee ranger, and once bidden to do his
+work, was trusted to carry it out by his own wit as best he could.
+In one word, he was a free man.
+
+The English officers, too, as now, lived on terms of sympathy with
+their men unknown to the Spaniards, who raised between the
+commander and the commanded absurd barriers of rank and blood,
+which forbade to his pride any labor but that of fighting.  The
+English officers, on the other hand, brought up to the same
+athletic sports, the same martial exercises, as their men, were not
+ashamed to care for them, to win their friendship, even on
+emergency to consult their judgment; and used their rank, not to
+differ from their men, but to outvie them; not merely to command
+and be obeyed, but, like Homer's heroes, or the old Norse Vikings,
+to lead and be followed.  Drake touched the true mainspring of
+English success when he once (in his voyage round the world)
+indignantly rebuked some coxcomb gentlemen-adventurers with--"I
+should like to see the gentleman that will refuse to set his hand
+to a rope.  I must have the gentlemen to hale and draw with the
+mariners."  But those were days in which her majesty's service was
+as little overridden by absurd rules of seniority, as by that
+etiquette which is at once the counterfeit and the ruin of true
+discipline.  Under Elizabeth and her ministers, a brave and a
+shrewd man was certain of promotion, let his rank or his age be
+what they might; the true honor of knighthood covered once and for
+all any lowliness of birth; and the merchant service (in which all
+the best sea-captains, even those of noble blood, were more or less
+engaged) was then a nursery, not only for seamen, but for warriors,
+in days when Spanish and Portuguese traders (whenever they had a
+chance) got rid of English competition by salvos of cannon-shot.
+
+Hence, as I have said, that strong fellow-feeling between officers
+and men; and hence mutinies (as Sir Richard Hawkins tells us) were
+all but unknown in the English ships, while in the Spanish they
+broke out on every slight occasion.  For the Spaniards, by some
+suicidal pedantry, had allowed their navy to be crippled by the
+same despotism, etiquette, and official routine, by which the whole
+nation was gradually frozen to death in the course of the next
+century or two; forgetting that, fifty years before, Cortez,
+Pizarro, and the early Conquistadores of America had achieved their
+miraculous triumphs on the exactly opposite method by that very
+fellow-feeling between commander and commanded by which the English
+were now conquering them in their turn.
+
+Their navy was organized on a plan complete enough; but on one
+which was, as the event proved, utterly fatal to their prowess and
+unanimity, and which made even their courage and honor useless
+against the assaults of free men.  "They do, in their armadas at
+sea, divide themselves into three bodies; to wit, soldiers,
+mariners, and gunners.  The soldiers and officers watch and ward as
+if on shore; and this is the only duty they undergo, except
+cleaning their arms, wherein they are not over curious.  The
+gunners are exempted from all labor and care, except about the
+artillery; and these are either Almaines, Flemings, or strangers;
+for the Spaniards are but indifferently practised in this art.  The
+mariners are but as slaves to the rest, to moil and to toil day and
+night; and those but few and bad, and not suffered to sleep or
+harbor under the decks.  For in fair or foul weather, in storms,
+sun, or rain, they must pass void of covert or succor."
+
+This is the account of one who was long prisoner on board their
+ships; let it explain itself, while I return to my tale.  For the
+great ship is now within two musket-shots of the Rose, with the
+golden flag of Spain floating at her poop; and her trumpets are
+shouting defiance up the breeze, from a dozen brazen throats, which
+two or three answer lustily from the Rose, from whose poop flies
+the flag of England, and from her fore the arms of Leigh and Cary
+side by side, and over them the ship and bridge of the good town of
+Bideford.  And then Amyas calls:
+
+"Now, silence trumpets, waits, play up!  'Fortune my foe!' and God
+and the Queen be with us!"
+
+Whereon (laugh not, reader, for it was the fashion of those musical
+as well as valiant days) up rose that noble old favorite of good
+Queen Bess, from cornet and sackbut, fife and drum; while Parson
+Jack, who had taken his stand with the musicians on the poop,
+worked away lustily at his violin, and like Volker of the
+Nibelungen Lied.
+
+"Well played, Jack; thy elbow flies like a lamb's tail," said
+Amyas, forcing a jest.
+
+"It shall fly to a better fiddle-bow presently, sir, an I have the
+luck--"
+
+"Steady, helm!" said Amyas.  "What is he after now?"
+
+The Spaniard, who had been coming upon them right down the wind
+under a press of sail, took in his light canvas.
+
+"He don't know what to make of our waiting for him so bold," said
+the helmsman.
+
+"He does though, and means to fight us," cried another.  "See, he
+is hauling up the foot of his mainsail, but he wants to keep the
+wind of us."
+
+"Let him try, then," quoth Amyas.  "Keep her closer still.  Let no
+one fire till we are about.  Man the starboard guns; to starboard,
+and wait, all small arm men.  Pass the order down to the gunner,
+and bid all fire high, and take the rigging."
+
+Bang went one of the Spaniard's bow guns, and the shot went wide.
+Then another and another, while the men fidgeted about, looking at
+the priming of their muskets, and loosened their arrows in the
+sheaf.
+
+"Lie down, men, and sing a psalm.  When I want you, I'll call you.
+Closer still, if you can, helmsman, and we will try a short ship
+against a long one.  We can sail two points nearer the wind than
+he."
+
+As Amyas had calculated, the Spaniard would gladly enough have
+stood across the Rose's bows, but knowing the English readiness,
+dare not for fear of being raked; so her only plan, if she did not
+intend to shoot past her foe down to leeward, was to put her head
+close to the wind, and wait for her on the same tack.
+
+Amyas laughed to himself.  "Hold on yet awhile.  More ways of
+killing a cat than choking her with cream.  Drew, there, are your
+men ready?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" and on they went, closing fast with the Spaniard,
+till within a pistol-shot.
+
+"Ready about!" and about she went like an eel, and ran upon the
+opposite tack right under the Spaniard's stern.  The Spaniard,
+astounded at the quickness of the manoeuvre, hesitated a moment,
+and then tried to get about also, as his only chance; but it was
+too late, and while his lumbering length was still hanging in the
+wind's eye, Amyas's bowsprit had all but scraped his quarter, and
+the Rose passed slowly across his stern at ten yards' distance.
+
+"Now, then!" roared Amyas.  "Fire, and with a will!  Have at her,
+archers: have at her, muskets all!" and in an instant a storm of
+bar and chain-shot, round and canister, swept the proud Don from
+stem to stern, while through the white cloud of smoke the musket-
+balls, and the still deadlier cloth-yard arrows, whistled and
+rushed upon their venomous errand.  Down went the steersman, and
+every soul who manned the poop.  Down went the mizzen topmast, in
+went the stern-windows and quarter-galleries; and as the smoke
+cleared away, the gorgeous painting of the Madre Dolorosa, with her
+heart full of seven swords, which, in a gilded frame, bedizened the
+Spanish stern, was shivered in splinters; while, most glorious of
+all, the golden flag of Spain, which the last moment flaunted above
+their heads, hung trailing in the water.  The ship, her tiller shot
+away, and her helmsman killed, staggered helplessly a moment, and
+then fell up into the wind.
+
+"Well done, men of Devon!" shouted Amyas, as cheers rent the
+welkin.
+
+"She has struck," cried some, as the deafening hurrahs died away.
+
+"Not a bit," said Amyas.  "Hold on, helmsman, and leave her to
+patch her tackle while we settle the galleys."
+
+On they shot merrily, and long ere the armada could get herself to
+rights again, were two good miles to windward, with the galleys
+sweeping down fast upon them.
+
+And two venomous-looking craft they were, as they shot through the
+short chopping sea upon some forty oars apiece, stretching their
+long sword-fish snouts over the water, as if snuffing for their
+prey.  Behind this long snout, a strong square forecastle was
+crammed with soldiers, and the muzzles of cannon grinned out
+through portholes, not only in the sides of the forecastle, but
+forward in the line of the galley's course, thus enabling her to
+keep up a continual fire on a ship right ahead.
+
+The long low waist was packed full of the slaves, some five or six
+to each oar, and down the centre, between the two banks, the
+English could see the slave-drivers walking up and down a long
+gangway, whip in hand.  A raised quarter-deck at the stern held
+more soldiers, the sunlight flashing merrily upon their armor and
+their gun-barrels; as they neared, the English could hear plainly
+the cracks of the whips, and the yells as of wild beasts which
+answered them; the roll and rattle of the oars, and the loud "Ha!"
+of the slaves which accompanied every stroke, and the oaths and
+curses of the drivers; while a sickening musky smell, as of a pack
+of kennelled hounds, came down the wind from off those dens of
+misery.  No wonder if many a young heart shuddered as it faced, for
+the first time, the horrible reality of those floating hells, the
+cruelties whereof had rung so often in English ears, from the
+stories of their own countrymen, who had passed them, fought them,
+and now and then passed years of misery on board of them.  Who knew
+but what there might be English among those sun-browned half-naked
+masses of panting wretches?
+
+"Must we fire upon the slaves?" asked more than one, as the thought
+crossed him.
+
+Amyas sighed.
+
+"Spare them all you can, in God's name; but if they try to run us
+down, rake them we must, and God forgive us."
+
+The two galleys came on abreast of each other, some forty yards
+apart.  To outmanoeuvre their oars as he had done the ship's sails,
+Amyas knew was impossible.  To run from them was to be caught
+between them and the ship.
+
+He made up his mind, as usual, to the desperate game.
+
+"Lay her head up in the wind, helmsman, and we will wait for them."
+
+They were now within musket-shot, and opened fire from their bow-
+guns; but, owing to the chopping sea, their aim was wild.  Amyas,
+as usual, withheld his fire.
+
+The men stood at quarters with compressed lips, not knowing what
+was to come next.  Amyas, towering motionless on the quarter-deck,
+gave his orders calmly and decisively.  The men saw that he trusted
+himself, and trusted him accordingly.
+
+The Spaniards, seeing him wait for them, gave a shout of joy--was
+the Englishman mad?  And the two galleys converged rapidly,
+intending to strike him full, one on each bow.
+
+They were within forty yards--another minute, and the shock would
+come.  The Englishman's helm went up, his yards creaked round, and
+gathering way, he plunged upon the larboard galley.
+
+"A dozen gold nobles to him who brings down the steersman!" shouted
+Cary, who had his cue.
+
+And a flight of arrows from the forecastle rattled upon the
+galley's quarter-deck.
+
+Hit or not hit, the steersman lost his nerve, and shrank from the
+coming shock.  The galley's helm went up to port, and her beak slid
+all but harmless along Amyas's bow; a long dull grind, and then
+loud crack on crack, as the Rose sawed slowly through the bank of
+oars from stem to stern, hurling the wretched slaves in heaps upon
+each other; and ere her mate on the other side could swing round,
+to strike him in his new position, Amyas's whole broadside, great
+and small, had been poured into her at pistol-shot, answered by a
+yell which rent their ears and hearts.
+
+"Spare the slaves!  Fire at the soldiers!" cried Amyas; but the
+work was too hot for much discrimination; for the larboard galley,
+crippled but not undaunted, swung round across his stern, and
+hooked herself venomously on to him.
+
+It was a move more brave than wise; for it prevented the other
+galley from returning to the attack without exposing herself a
+second time to the English broadside; and a desperate attempt of
+the Spaniards to board at once through the stern-ports and up the
+quarter was met with such a demurrer of shot and steel, that they
+found themselves in three minutes again upon the galley's poop,
+accompanied, to their intense disgust, by Amyas Leigh and twenty
+English swords.
+
+Five minutes' hard cutting, hand to hand, and the poop was clear.
+The soldiers in the forecastle had been able to give them no
+assistance, open as they lay to the arrows and musketry from the
+Rose's lofty stern.  Amyas rushed along the central gangway,
+shouting in Spanish, "Freedom to the slaves! death to the masters!"
+clambered into the forecastle, followed close by his swarm of
+wasps, and set them so good an example how to use their stings,
+that in three minutes more there was not a Spaniard on board who
+was not dead or dying.
+
+"Let the slaves free!" shouted he.  "Throw us a hammer down, men.
+Hark! there's an English voice!"
+
+There is indeed.  From amid the wreck of broken oars and writhing
+limbs, a voice is shrieking in broadest Devon to the master, who is
+looking over the side.
+
+"Oh, Robert Drew!  Robert Drew!  Come down, and take me out of
+hell!"
+
+"Who be you, in the name of the Lord!"
+
+"Don't you mind William Prust, that Captain Hawkins left behind in
+the Honduras, years and years agone?  There's nine of us aboard, if
+your shot hasn't put 'em out of their misery.  Come down, if you've
+a Christian heart, come down!"
+
+Utterly forgetful of all discipline, Drew leaps down hammer in
+hand, and the two old comrades rush into each other's arms.
+
+Why make a long story of what took but five minutes to do?  The
+nine men (luckily none of them wounded) are freed, and helped on
+board, to be hugged and kissed by old comrades and young kinsmen;
+while the remaining slaves, furnished with a couple of hammers, are
+told to free themselves and help the English.  The wretches answer
+by a shout; and Amyas, once more safe on board again, dashes after
+the other galley, which has been hovering out of reach of his guns:
+but there is no need to trouble himself about her; sickened with
+what she has got, she is struggling right up wind, leaning over to
+one side, and seemingly ready to sink.
+
+"Are there any English on board of her?" asks Amyas, loath to lose
+the chance of freeing a countryman.
+
+"Never a one, sir, thank God."
+
+So they set to work to repair damages; while the liberated slaves,
+having shifted some of the galley's oars, pull away after their
+comrade; and that with such a will, that in ten minutes they have
+caught her up, and careless of the Spaniard's fire, boarded her en
+masse, with yells as of a thousand wolves.  There will be fearful
+vengeance taken on those tyrants, unless they play the man this
+day.
+
+And in the meanwhile half the crew are clothing, feeding,
+questioning, caressing those nine poor fellows thus snatched from
+living death; and Yeo, hearing the news, has rushed up on deck to
+welcome his old comrades, and--
+
+"Is Michael Heard, my cousin, here among you?"
+
+Yes, Michael Heard is there, white-headed rather from misery than
+age; and the embracings and questionings begin afresh.
+
+"Where is my wife, Salvation Yeo?"
+
+"With the Lord."
+
+"Amen!" says the old man, with a short shudder.  "I thought so
+much; and my two boys?"
+
+"With the Lord."
+
+The old man catches Yeo by the arm.
+
+"How, then?" It is Yeo's turn to shudder now.
+
+"Killed in Panama, fighting the Spaniards; sailing with Mr.
+Oxenham; and 'twas I led 'em into it.  May God and you forgive me!"
+
+"They couldn't die better, cousin Yeo.  Where's my girl Grace?"
+
+"Died in childbed."
+
+"Any childer?"
+
+"No."
+
+The old man covers his face with his hands for a while.
+
+"Well, I've been alone with the Lord these fifteen years, so I must
+not whine at being alone a while longer--'t won't be long."
+
+"Put this coat on your back, uncle," says some one.
+
+"No; no coats for me.  Naked came I into the world, and naked I go
+out of it this day, if I have a chance.  You'm better to go to your
+work, lads, or the big one will have the wind of you yet."
+
+"So she will," said Amyas, who has overheard; but so great is the
+curiosity on all hands, that he has some trouble in getting the men
+to quarters again; indeed, they only go on condition of parting
+among themselves with them the new-comers, each to tell his sad and
+strange story.  How after Captain Hawkins, constrained by famine,
+had put them ashore, they wandered in misery till the Spaniards
+took them; how, instead of hanging them (as they at first
+intended), the Dons fed and clothed them, and allotted them as
+servants to various gentlemen about Mexico, where they throve,
+turned their hands (like true sailors) to all manner of trades, and
+made much money, and some of them were married, even to women of
+wealth; so that all went well, until the fatal year 1574, when,
+"much against the minds of many of the Spaniards themselves, that
+cruel and bloody Inquisition was established for the first time in
+the Indies;" and how from that moment their lives were one long
+tragedy; how they were all imprisoned for a year and a half, not
+for proselytizing, but simply for not believing in
+transubstantiation; racked again and again, and at last adjudged to
+receive publicly, on Good Friday, 1575, some three hundred, some
+one hundred stripes, and to serve in the galleys for six or ten
+years each; while, as the crowning atrocity of the Moloch
+sacrifice, three of them were burnt alive in the market-place of
+Mexico; a story no less hideous than true, the details whereof
+whoso list may read in Hakluyt's third volume, as told by Philip
+Miles, one of that hapless crew; as well as the adventures of Job
+Hortop, a messmate of his, who, after being sent to Spain, and
+seeing two more of his companions burnt alive at Seville, was
+sentenced to row in the galleys ten years, and after that to go to
+the "everlasting prison remediless;" from which doom, after twenty-
+three years of slavery, he was delivered by the galleon Dudley, and
+came safely home to Redriff.
+
+The fate of Hortop and his comrades was, of course, still unknown
+to the rescued men; but the history even of their party was not
+likely to improve the good feeling of the crew toward the Spanish
+ship which was two miles to leeward of them, and which must be
+fought with, or fled from, before a quarter of an hour was past.
+So, kneeling down upon the deck, as many a brave crew in those days
+did in like case, they "gave God thanks devoutly for the favor they
+had found;" and then with one accord, at Jack's leading, sang one
+and all the Ninety-fourth Psalm:*
+
+
+     "Oh, Lord, thou dost revenge all wrong;
+       Vengeance belongs to thee," etc.
+
+
+* The crew of the Tobie, cast away on the Barbary coast a few years
+after, "began with heavy hearts to sing the twelfth Psalm, 'Help,
+Lord, for good and godly men,' etc.  Howbeit, ere we had finished
+four verses, the waves of the sea had stopped the breaths of most."
+
+
+And then again to quarters; for half the day's work, or more than
+half, still remained to be done; and hardly were the decks cleared
+afresh, and the damage repaired as best it could be, when she came
+ranging up to leeward, as closehauled as she could.
+
+She was, as I said, a long flush-decked ship of full five hundred
+tons, more than double the size, in fact, of the Rose, though not
+so lofty in proportion; and many a bold heart beat loud, and no
+shame to them, as she began firing away merrily, determined, as all
+well knew, to wipe out in English blood the disgrace of her late
+foil.
+
+"Never mind, my merry masters," said Amyas, "she has quantity and
+we quality."
+
+"That's true," said one, "for one honest man is worth two rogues."
+
+"And one culverin three of their footy little ordnance," said
+another.  "So when you will, captain, and have at her."
+
+"Let her come abreast of us, and don't burn powder.  We have the
+wind, and can do what we like with her.  Serve the men out a horn
+of ale all round, steward, and all take your time."
+
+So they waited for five minutes more, and then set to work quietly,
+after the fashion of English mastiffs, though, like those mastiffs,
+they waxed right mad before three rounds were fired, and the white
+splinters (sight beloved) began to crackle and fly.
+
+Amyas, having, as he had said, the wind, and being able to go
+nearer it than the Spaniard, kept his place at easy point-blank
+range for his two eighteen-pounder culverins, which Yeo and his
+mate worked with terrible effect.
+
+"We are lacking her through and through every shot," said he.
+"Leave the small ordnance alone yet awhile, and we shall sink her
+without them."
+
+"Whing, whing," went the Spaniard's shot, like so many humming-
+tops, through the rigging far above their heads; for the ill-
+constructed ports of those days prevented the guns from hulling an
+enemy who was to windward, unless close alongside.
+
+"Blow, jolly breeze," cried one, "and lay the Don over all thou
+canst.--What the murrain is gone, aloft there?"
+
+Alas! a crack, a flap, a rattle; and blank dismay!  An unlucky shot
+had cut the foremast (already wounded) in two, and all forward was
+a mass of dangling wreck.
+
+"Forward, and cut away the wreck!" said Amyas, unmoved.  "Small arm
+men, be ready.  He will be aboard of us in five minutes!"
+
+It was too true.  The Rose, unmanageable from the loss of her head-
+sail, lay at the mercy of the Spaniard; and the archers and
+musqueteers had hardly time to range themselves to leeward, when
+the Madre Dolorosa's chains were grinding against the Rose's, and
+grapples tossed on board from stem to stern.
+
+"Don't cut them loose!" roared Amyas.  "Let them stay and see the
+fun!  Now, dogs of Devon, show your teeth, and hurrah for God and
+the queen!"
+
+And then began a fight most fierce and fell: the Spaniards,
+according to their fashion, attempting to board, the English, amid
+fierce shouts of "God and the queen!" "God and St. George for
+England!" sweeping them back by showers of arrows and musquet
+balls, thrusting them down with pikes, hurling grenades and stink-
+pots from the tops; while the swivels on both sides poured their
+grape, and bar, and chain, and the great main-deck guns, thundering
+muzzle to muzzle, made both ships quiver and recoil, as they
+smashed the round shot through and through each other.
+
+So they roared and flashed, fast clenched to each other in that
+devil's wedlock, under a cloud of smoke beneath the cloudless
+tropic sky; while all around, the dolphins gambolled, and the
+flying-fish shot on from swell to swell, and the rainbow-hued
+jellies opened and shut their cups of living crystal to the sun, as
+merrily as if man had never fallen, and hell had never broken loose
+on earth.
+
+So it raged for an hour or more, till all arms were weary, and all
+tongues clove to the mouth.  And sick men, rotting with scurvy,
+scrambled up on deck, and fought with the strength of madness; and
+tiny powder-boys, handing up cartridges from the hold, laughed and
+cheered as the shots ran past their ears; and old Salvation Yeo, a
+text upon his lips, and a fury in his heart as of Joshua or Elijah
+in old time, worked on, calm and grim, but with the energy of a boy
+at play.  And now and then an opening in the smoke showed the
+Spanish captain, in his suit of black steel armor, standing cool
+and proud, guiding and pointing, careless of the iron hail, but too
+lofty a gentleman to soil his glove with aught but a knightly
+sword-hilt: while Amyas and Will, after the fashion of the English
+gentlemen, had stripped themselves nearly as bare as their own
+sailors, and were cheering, thrusting, hewing, and hauling, here,
+there, and everywhere, like any common mariner, and filling them
+with a spirit of self-respect, fellow-feeling, and personal daring,
+which the discipline of the Spaniards, more perfect mechanically,
+but cold and tyrannous, and crushing spiritually, never could
+bestow.  The black-plumed senor was obeyed; but the golden-locked
+Amyas was followed, and would have been followed through the jaws
+of hell.
+
+The Spaniards, ere five minutes had passed, poured en masse into
+the Rose's waist, but only to their destruction.  Between the poop
+and forecastle (as was then the fashion) the upper-deck beams were
+left open and unplanked, with the exception of a narrow gangway on
+either side; and off that fatal ledge the boarders, thrust on by
+those behind, fell headlong between the beams to the main-deck
+below, to be slaughtered helpless in that pit of destruction, by
+the double fire from the bulkheads fore and aft; while the few who
+kept their footing on the gangway, after vain attempts to force the
+stockades on poop and forecastle, leaped overboard again amid a
+shower of shot and arrows.  The fire of the English was as steady
+as it was quick; and though three-fourths of the crew had never
+smelt powder before, they proved well the truth of the old
+chronicler's saying (since proved again more gloriously than ever,
+at Alma, Balaklava, and Inkerman), that "the English never fight
+better than in their first battle."
+
+Thrice the Spaniards clambered on board, and thrice surged back
+before that deadly hail.  The decks on both sides were very
+shambles; and Jack Brimblecombe, who had fought as long as his
+conscience would allow him, found, when he turned to a more
+clerical occupation, enough to do in carrying poor wretches to the
+surgeon, without giving that spiritual consolation which he longed
+to give, and they to receive.  At last there was a lull in that
+wild storm.  No shot was heard from the Spaniard's upper-deck.
+
+Amyas leaped into the mizzen rigging, and looked through the smoke.
+Dead men he could descry through the blinding veil, rolled in
+heaps, laid flat; dead men and dying: but no man upon his feet.
+The last volley had swept the deck clear; one by one had dropped
+below to escape that fiery shower: and alone at the helm, grinding
+his teeth with rage, his mustachios curling up to his very eyes,
+stood the Spanish captain.
+
+Now was the moment for a counter-stroke.  Amyas shouted for the
+boarders, and in two minutes more he was over the side, and
+clutching at the Spaniard's mizzen rigging.
+
+What was this?  The distance between him and the enemy's side was
+widening.  Was she sheering off?  Yes--and rising too, growing
+bodily higher every moment, as if by magic.  Amyas looked up in
+astonishment and saw what it was.  The Spaniard was heeling fast
+over to leeward away from him.  Her masts were all sloping forward,
+swifter and swifter--the end was come, then!
+
+"Back! in God's name back, men!  She is sinking by the head!"  And
+with much ado some were dragged back, some leaped back--all but old
+Michael Heard.
+
+With hair and beard floating in the wind, the bronzed naked figure,
+like some weird old Indian fakir, still climbed on steadfastly up
+the mizzen-chains of the Spaniard, hatchet in hand.
+
+"Come back, Michael!  Leap while you may!" shouted a dozen voices.
+Michael turned--
+
+"And what should I come back for, then, to go home where no one
+knoweth me?  I'll die like an Englishman this day, or I'll know the
+rason why!" and turning, he sprang in over the bulwarks, as the
+huge ship rolled up more and more, like a dying whale, exposing all
+her long black hulk almost down to the keel, and one of her lower-
+deck guns, as if in defiance, exploded upright into the air,
+hurling the ball to the very heavens.
+
+In an instant it was answered from the Rose by a column of smoke,
+and the eighteen-pound ball crashed through the bottom of the
+defenceless Spaniard.
+
+"Who fired?  Shame to fire on a sinking ship!"
+
+"Gunner Yeo, sir," shouted a voice up from the main-deck.  "He's
+like a madman down here."
+
+"Tell him if he fires again, I'll put him in irons, if he were my
+own brother.  Cut away the grapples aloft, men.  Don't you see how
+she drags us over?  Cut away, or we shall sink with her."
+
+They cut away, and the Rose, released from the strain, shook her
+feathers on the wave-crest like a freed sea-gull, while all men
+held their breaths.
+
+Suddenly the glorious creature righted herself, and rose again, as
+if in noble shame, for one last struggle with her doom.  Her bows
+were deep in the water, but her after-deck still dry.  Righted: but
+only for a moment, long enough to let her crew come pouring wildly
+up on deck, with cries and prayers, and rush aft to the poop,
+where, under the flag of Spain, stood the tall captain, his left
+hand on the standard-staff, his sword pointed in his right.
+
+"Back, men!" they heard him cry, "and die like valiant mariners."
+
+Some of them ran to the bulwarks, and shouted "Mercy!  We
+surrender!" and the English broke into a cheer and called to them
+to run her alongside.
+
+"Silence!" shouted Amyas.  "I take no surrender from mutineers.
+Senor," cried he to the captain, springing into the rigging and
+taking off his hat, "for the love of God and these men, strike! and
+surrender a buena querra."
+
+The Spaniard lifted his hat and bowed courteously, and answered,
+"Impossible, senor.  No querra is good which stains my honor."
+
+"God have mercy on you, then!"
+
+"Amen!" said the Spaniard, crossing himself.
+
+She gave one awful lounge forward, and dived under the coming
+swell, hurling her crew into the eddies.  Nothing but the point of
+her poop remained, and there stood the stern and steadfast Don,
+cap-a-pie in his glistening black armor, immovable as a man of
+iron, while over him the flag, which claimed the empire of both
+worlds, flaunted its gold aloft and upwards in the glare of the
+tropic noon.
+
+"He shall not carry that flag to the devil with him; I will have it
+yet, if I die for it!" said Will Cary, and rushed to the side to
+leap overboard, but Amyas stopped him.
+
+"Let him die as he has lived, with honor."
+
+A wild figure sprang out of the mass of sailors who struggled and
+shrieked amid the foam, and rushed upward at the Spaniard.  It was
+Michael Heard.  The Don, who stood above him, plunged his sword
+into the old man's body: but the hatchet gleamed, nevertheless:
+down went the blade through headpiece and through head; and as
+Heard sprang onward, bleeding, but alive, the steel-clad corpse
+rattled down the deck into the surge.  Two more strokes, struck
+with the fury of a dying man, and the standard-staff was hewn
+through.  Old Michael collected all his strength, hurled the flag
+far from the sinking ship, and then stood erect one moment and
+shouted, "God save Queen Bess!" and the English answered with a
+"Hurrah!" which rent the welkin.
+
+Another moment and the gulf had swallowed his victim, and the poop,
+and him; and nothing remained of the Madre Dolorosa but a few
+floating spars and struggling wretches, while a great awe fell upon
+all men, and a solemn silence, broken only by the cry
+
+
+     "Of some strong swimmer in his agony."
+
+
+And then, suddenly collecting themselves, as men awakened from a
+dream, half-a-dozen desperate gallants, reckless of sharks and
+eddies, leaped overboard, swam towards the flag, and towed it
+alongside in triumph.
+
+"Ah!" said Salvation Yeo, as he helped the trophy up over the side;
+"ah! it was not for nothing that we found poor Michael!  He was
+always a good comrade--nigh as good a one as William Penberthy of
+Marazion, whom the Lord grant I meet in bliss!  And now, then, my
+masters, shall we inshore again and burn La Guayra?"
+
+"Art thou never glutted with Spanish blood, thou old wolf?" asked
+Will Cary.
+
+"Never, sir," answered Yeo.
+
+"To St. Jago be it," said Amyas, "if we can get there; but--God
+help us!"
+
+And he looked round sadly enough; while no one needed that he
+should finish his sentence, or explain his "but."
+
+The foremast was gone, the main-yard sprung, the rigging hanging in
+elf-locks, the hull shot through and through in twenty places, the
+deck strewn with the bodies of nine good men, beside sixteen
+wounded down below; while the pitiless sun, right above their
+heads, poured down a flood of fire upon a sea of glass.
+
+And it would have been well if faintness and weariness had been all
+that was the matter; but now that the excitement was over, the
+collapse came; and the men sat down listlessly and sulkily by twos
+and threes upon the deck, starting and wincing when they heard some
+poor fellow below cry out under the surgeon's knife; or murmuring
+to each other that all was lost.  Drew tried in vain to rouse them,
+telling them that all depended on rigging a jury-mast forward as
+soon as possible.  They answered only by growls; and at last broke
+into open reproaches.  Even Will Cary's volatile nature, which had
+kept him up during the fight, gave way, when Yeo and the carpenter
+came aft, and told Amyas in a low voice--
+
+"We are hit somewhere forward, below the water-line, sir.  She
+leaks a terrible deal, and the Lord will not vouchsafe to us to lay
+our hands on the place, for all our searching."
+
+"What are we to do now, Amyas, in the devil's name?" asked Cary,
+peevishly.
+
+"What are we to do, in God's name, rather," answered Amyas, in a
+low voice.  "Will, Will, what did God make you a gentleman for, but
+to know better than those poor fickle fellows forward, who blow hot
+and cold at every change of weather!"
+
+"I wish you'd come forward and speak to them, sir," said Yeo, who
+had overheard the last words, "or we shall get naught done."
+
+Amyas went forward instantly.
+
+"Now then, my brave lads, what's the matter here, that you are all
+sitting on your tails like monkeys?"
+
+"Ugh!" grunts one.  "Don't you think our day's work has been long
+enough yet, captain?"
+
+"You don't want us to go in to La Guayra again, sir?  There are
+enough of us thrown away already, I reckon, about that wench
+there."
+
+"Best sit here, and sink quietly.  There's no getting home again,
+that's plain."
+
+"Why were we brought out here to be killed?"
+
+"For shame, men!" cries Yeo; "you're no better than a set of stiff-
+necked Hebrew Jews, murmuring against Moses the very minute after
+the Lord has delivered you from the Egyptians."
+
+Now I do not wish to set Amyas up as a perfect man; for he had his
+faults, like every one else; nor as better, thank God, than many
+and many a brave and virtuous captain in her majesty's service at
+this very day: but certainly he behaved admirably under that trial.
+Drake had trained him, as he trained many another excellent
+officer, to be as stout in discipline, and as dogged of purpose, as
+he himself was: but he had trained him also to feel with and for
+his men, to make allowances for them, and to keep his temper with
+them, as he did this day.  True, he had seen Drake in a rage; he
+had seen him hang one man for a mutiny (and that man his dearest
+friend), and threaten to hang thirty more; but Amyas remembered
+well that that explosion took place when having, as Drake said
+publicly himself, "taken in hand that I know not in the world how
+to go through with; it passeth my capacity; it hath even bereaved
+me of my wits to think of it," . . . and having "now set together
+by the ears three mighty princes, her majesty and the kings of
+Spain and Portugal," he found his whole voyage ready to come to
+naught, "by mutinies and discords, controversy between the sailors
+and gentlemen, and stomaching between the gentlemen and sailors."
+"But, my masters" (quoth the self-trained hero, and Amyas never
+forgot his words), "I must have it left; for I must have the
+gentlemen to haul and draw with the mariner, and the mariner with
+the gentlemen.  I would like to know him that would refuse to set
+his hand to a rope!"
+
+And now Amyas's conscience smote him (and his simple and pious soul
+took the loss of his brother as God's verdict on his conduct),
+because he had set his own private affection, even his own private
+revenge, before the safety of his ship's company, and the good of
+his country.
+
+"Ah," said he to himself, as he listened to his men's reproaches,
+"if I had been thinking, like a loyal soldier, of serving my queen,
+and crippling the Spaniard, I should have taken that great bark
+three days ago, and in it the very man I sought!"
+
+So "choking down his old man," as Yeo used to say, he made answer
+cheerfully--
+
+"Pooh! pooh! brave lads!  For shame, for shame!  You were lions
+half-an-hour ago; you are not surely turned sheep already!  Why,
+but yesterday evening you were grumbling because I would not run in
+and fight those three ships under the batteries of La Guayra, and
+now you think it too much to have fought them fairly out at sea?
+What has happened but the chances of war, which might have happened
+anywhere?  Nothing venture, nothing win; and nobody goes bird-
+nesting without a fall at times.  If any one wants to be safe in
+this life, he'd best stay at home and keep his bed; though even
+there, who knows but the roof might fall through on him?"
+
+"Ah, it's all very well for you, captain," said some grumbling
+younker, with a vague notion that Amyas must be better off than he,
+because he was a gentleman.  Amyas's blood rose.
+
+"Yes, sirrah! it is very well for me, as long as God is with me:
+but He is with every man in this ship, I would have you to know, as
+much as He is with me.  Do you fancy that I have nothing to lose?
+I who have adventured in this voyage all I am worth, and more; who,
+if I fail, must return to beggary and scorn?  And if I have
+ventured rashly, sinfully, if you will, the lives of any of you in
+my own private quarrel, am I not punished?  Have I not lost--?"
+
+His voice trembled and stopped there, but he recovered himself in a
+moment.
+
+"Pish! I can't stand here chattering.  Carpenter! an axe! and help
+me to cast these spars loose.  Get out of my way, there! lumbering
+the scuppers up like so many moulting fowls!  Here, all old
+friends, lend a hand!  Pelican's men, stand by your captain!  Did
+we sail round the world for nothing?"
+
+This last appeal struck home, and up leaped half-a-dozen of the old
+Pelicans, and set to work at his side manfully to rig the jury-mast.
+
+"Come along!" cried Cary to the malcontents; "we're raw longshore
+fellows, but we won't be outdone by any old sea-dog of them all."
+And setting to work himself, he was soon followed by one and
+another, till order and work went on well enough.
+
+"And where are we going, when the mast's up?" shouted some saucy
+hand from behind.
+
+"Where you daren't follow us alone by yourself, so you had better
+keep us company," replied Yeo.
+
+"I'll tell you where we are going, lads," said Amyas, rising from
+his work.  "Like it or leave it as you will, I have no secrets from
+my crew.  We are going inshore there to find a harbor, and careen
+the ship."
+
+There was a start and a murmur.
+
+"Inshore?  Into the Spaniards' mouths?"
+
+"All in the Inquisition in a week's time."
+
+"Better stay here, and be drowned."
+
+"You're right in that last," shouts Cary.  "That's the right death
+for blind puppies.  Look you!  I don't know in the least where we
+are, and I hardly know stem from stern aboard ship; and the captain
+may be right or wrong--that's nothing to me; but this I know, that
+I am a soldier, and will obey orders; and where he goes, I go; and
+whosoever hinders me must walk up my sword to do it."
+
+Amyas pressed Cary's hand, and then--
+
+"And here's my broadside next, men.  I'll go nowhere, and do
+nothing without the advice of Salvation Yeo and Robert Drew; and if
+any man in the ship knows better than these two, let him up, and
+we'll give him a hearing.  Eh, Pelicans?"
+
+There was a grunt of approbation from the Pelicans; and Amyas
+returned to the charge.
+
+"We have five shot between wind and water, and one somewhere below.
+Can we face a gale of wind in that state, or can we not?"
+
+Silence.
+
+"Can we get home with a leak in our bottom?"
+
+Silence.
+
+"Then what can we do but run inshore, and take our chance?  Speak!
+It's a coward's trick to do nothing because what we must do is not
+pleasant.  Will you be like children, that would sooner die than
+take nasty physic, or will you not?"
+
+Silence still.
+
+"Come along now!  Here's the wind again round with the sun, and up
+to the north-west.  In with her!"
+
+Sulkily enough, but unable to deny the necessity, the men set to
+work, and the vessel's head was put toward the land; but when she
+began to slip through the water, the leak increased so fast, that
+they were kept hard at work at the pumps for the rest of the
+afternoon.
+
+The current had by this time brought them abreast of the bay of
+Higuerote; and, luckily for them, safe out of the short heavy swell
+which it causes round Cape Codera.  Looking inland, they had now to
+the south-west that noble headland, backed by the Caracas
+Mountains, range on range, up to the Silla and the Neguater; while,
+right ahead of them to the south, the shore sank suddenly into a
+low line of mangrove-wood, backed by primaeval forest.  As they ran
+inward, all eyes were strained greedily to find some opening in the
+mangrove belt; but none was to be seen for some time.  The lead was
+kept going; and every fresh heave announced shallower water.
+
+"We shall have very shoal work off those mangroves, Yeo," said
+Amyas; "I doubt whether we shall do aught now, unless we find a
+river's mouth."
+
+"If the Lord thinks a river good for us, sir, He'll show us one."
+So on they went, keeping a south-east course, and at last an
+opening in the mangrove belt was hailed with a cheer from the older
+hands, though the majority shrugged their shoulders, as men going
+open-eyed to destruction.
+
+Off the mouth they sent in Drew and Cary with a boat, and watched
+anxiously for an hour.  The boat returned with a good report of two
+fathoms of water over the bar, impenetrable forests for two miles
+up, the river sixty yards broad, and no sign of man.  The river's
+banks were soft and sloping mud, fit for careening.
+
+"Safe quarters, sir," said Yeo, privately, "as far as Spaniards go.
+I hope in God it may be as safe from calentures and fevers."
+
+"Beggars must not be choosers," said Amyas.  So in they went.
+
+They towed the ship up about half-a-mile to a point where she could
+not be seen from the seaward; and there moored her to the mangrove-
+stems.  Amyas ordered a boat out, and went up the river himself to
+reconnoitre.  He rowed some three miles, till the river narrowed
+suddenly, and was all but covered in by the interlacing boughs of
+mighty trees.  There was no sign that man had been there since the
+making of the world.
+
+He dropped down the stream again, thoughtfully and sadly.  How many
+years ago was it that he passed this river's mouth?  Three days.
+And yet how much had passed in them!  Don Guzman found and lost--
+Rose found and lost--a great victory gained, and yet lost--perhaps
+his ship lost--above all, his brother lost.
+
+Lost! O God, how should he find his brother?
+
+Some strange bird out of the woods made mournful answer--"Never,
+never, never!"
+
+How should he face his mother?
+
+"Never, never, never!" wailed the bird again; and Amyas smiled
+bitterly, and said "Never!" likewise.
+
+The night mist began to steam and wreathe upon the foul beer-
+colored stream.  The loathy floor of liquid mud lay bare beneath
+the mangrove forest.  Upon the endless web of interarching roots
+great purple crabs were crawling up and down.  They would have
+supped with pleasure upon Amyas's corpse; perhaps they might sup on
+him after all; for a heavy sickening graveyard smell made his heart
+sink within him, and his stomach heave; and his weary body, and
+more weary soul, gave themselves up helplessly to the depressing
+influence of that doleful place.  The black bank of dingy leathern
+leaves above his head, the endless labyrinth of stems and withes
+(for every bough had lowered its own living cord, to take fresh
+hold of the foul soil below); the web of roots, which stretched
+away inland till it was lost in the shades of evening--all seemed
+one horrid complicated trap for him and his; and even where, here
+and there, he passed the mouth of a lagoon, there was no opening,
+no relief--nothing but the dark ring of mangroves, and here and
+there an isolated group of large and small, parents and children,
+breeding and spreading, as if in hideous haste to choke out air and
+sky.  Wailing sadly, sad-colored mangrove-hens ran off across the
+mud into the dreary dark.  The hoarse night-raven, hid among the
+roots, startled the voyagers with a sudden shout, and then all was
+again silent as a grave.  The loathly alligators, lounging in the
+slime, lifted their horny eyelids lazily, and leered upon him as he
+passed with stupid savageness.  Lines of tall herons stood dimly in
+the growing gloom, like white fantastic ghosts, watching the
+passage of the doomed boat.  All was foul, sullen, weird as
+witches' dream.  If Amyas had seen a crew of skeletons glide down
+the stream behind him, with Satan standing at the helm, he would
+have scarcely been surprised.  What fitter craft could haunt that
+Stygian flood?
+
+That night every man of the boat's crew, save Amyas, was down with
+raging fever; before ten the next morning, five more men were
+taken, and others sickening fast.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION UNDER THE TREE AT HIGUEROTE
+
+
+"Follow thee?  Follow thee?  Wha wad na follow thee?  Lang hast
+thou looed and trusted us fairly."
+
+
+Amyas would have certainly taken the yellow fever, but for one
+reason, which he himself gave to Cary.  He had no time to be sick
+while his men were sick; a valid and sufficient reason (as many a
+noble soul in the Crimea has known too well), as long as the
+excitement of work is present, but too apt to fail the hero, and to
+let him sink into the pit which he has so often over-leapt, the
+moment that his work is done.
+
+He called a council of war, or rather a sanitary commission, the
+next morning; for he was fairly at his wits' end.  The men were
+panic-stricken, ready to mutiny: Amyas told them that he could not
+see any possible good which could accrue to them by killing him,
+or--(for there were two sides to every question)--being killed by
+him; and then went below to consult.  The doctor talked mere
+science, or nonscience, about humors, complexions, and animal
+spirits.  Jack Brimblecombe, mere pulpit, about its being the
+visitation of God.  Cary, mere despair, though he jested over it
+with a smile.  Yeo, mere stoic fatalism, though he quoted Scripture
+to back the same.  Drew, the master, had nothing to say.  His
+"business was to sail the ship, and not to cure calentures."
+
+Whereon Amyas clutched his locks, according to custom; and at last
+broke forth--"Doctor! a fig for your humors and complexions!  Can
+you cure a man's humors, or change his complexion?  Can an
+Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots?  Don't shove off
+your ignorance on God, sir.  I ask you what's the reason of this
+sickness, and you don't know.  Jack Brimblecombe, don't talk to me
+about God's visitation; this looks much more like the devil's
+visitation, to my mind.  We are doing God's work, Sir John, and He
+is not likely to hinder us.  So down with the devil, say I.  Cary,
+laughing killed the cat, but it won't cure a Christian.  Yeo, when
+an angel tells me that it's God's will that we should all die like
+dogs in a ditch, I'll call this God's will; but not before.  Drew,
+you say your business is to sail the ship; then sail her out of
+this infernal poison-trap this very morning, if you can, which you
+can't.  The mischief's in the air, and nowhere else.  I felt it run
+through me coming down last night, and smelt it like any sewer: and
+if it was not in the air, why was my boat's crew taken first, tell
+me that?"
+
+There was no answer.
+
+"Then I'll tell you why they were taken first: because the mist,
+when we came through it, only rose five or six feet above the
+stream, and we were in it, while you on board were above it.  And
+those that were taken on board this morning, every one of them,
+slept on the main-deck, and every one of them, too, was in fear of
+the fever, whereby I judge two things,--Keep as high as you can,
+and fear nothing but God, and we're all safe yet."
+
+"But the fog was up to our round-tops at sunrise this morning,"
+said Cary.
+
+"I know it: but we who were on the half-deck were not in it so long
+as those below, and that may have made the difference, let alone
+our having free air.  Beside, I suspect the heat in the evening
+draws the poison out more, and that when it gets cold toward
+morning, the venom of it goes off somehow."
+
+How it went off Amyas could not tell (right in his facts as he
+was), for nobody on earth knew I suppose, at that day; and it was
+not till nearly two centuries of fatal experience that the settlers
+in America discovered the simple laws of these epidemics which now
+every child knows, or ought to know.  But common sense was on his
+side; and Yeo rose and spoke--
+
+"As I have said before, many a time, the Lord has sent us a very
+young Daniel for judge.  I remember now to have heard the Spaniards
+say, how these calentures lay always in the low ground, and never
+came more than a few hundred feet above the sea."
+
+"Let us go up those few hundred feet, then."
+
+Every man looked at Amyas, and then at his neighbor.
+
+"Gentlemen, 'Look the devil straight in the face, if you would hit
+him in the right place.'  We cannot get the ship to sea as she is;
+and if we could, we cannot go home empty-handed; and we surely
+cannot stay here to die of fever.--We must leave the ship and go
+inland."
+
+"Inland?" answered every voice but Yeo's.
+
+"Up those hundred feet which Yeo talks of.  Up to the mountains;
+stockade a camp, and get our sick and provisions thither."
+
+"And what next?"
+
+"And when we are recruited, march over the mountains, and surprise
+St. Jago de Leon."
+
+Cary swore a great oath.  "Amyas! you are a daring fellow!"
+
+"Not a bit.  It's the plain path of prudence."
+
+"So it is, sir," said old Yeo, "and I follow you in it."
+
+"And so do I," squeaked Jack Brimblecombe.
+
+"Nay, then, Jack, thou shalt not outrun me.  So I say yes too,"
+quoth Cary.
+
+"Mr. Drew?"
+
+"At your service, sir, to live or die.  I know naught about
+stockading; but Sir Francis would have given the same counsel, I
+verily believe, if he had been in your place."
+
+"Then tell the men that we start in an hour's time.  Win over the
+Pelicans, Yeo and Drew; and the rest must follow, like sheep over a
+hedge."
+
+The Pelicans, and the liberated galley-slaves, joined the project
+at once; but the rest gave Amyas a stormy hour.  The great question
+was, where were the hills?  In that dense mangrove thicket they
+could not see fifty yards before them.
+
+"The hills are not three miles to the south-west of you at this
+moment," said Amyas.  "I marked every shoulder of them as we ran
+in."
+
+"I suppose you meant to take us there?"
+
+The question set a light to a train--and angry suspicions were
+blazing up one after another, but Amyas silenced them with a
+countermine.
+
+"Fools! if I had not wit enow to look ahead a little farther than
+you do, where would you be?  Are you mad as well as reckless, to
+rise against your own captain because he has two strings to his
+bow?  Go my way, I say, or, as I live, I'll blow up the ship and
+every soul on board, and save you the pain of rotting here by
+inches."
+
+The men knew that Amyas never said what he did not intend to do;
+not that Amyas intended to do this, because he knew that the threat
+would be enough.  So they, agreed to go; and were reassured by
+seeing that the old Pelican's men turned to the work heartily and
+cheerfully.
+
+There is no use keeping the reader for five or six weary hours,
+under a broiling (or rather stewing) sun, stumbling over mangrove
+roots, hewing his way through thorny thickets, dragging sick men
+and provisions up mountain steeps, amid disappointment, fatigue,
+murmurs, curses, snakes, mosquitoes, false alarms of Spaniards, and
+every misery, save cold, which flesh is heir to.  Suffice it that
+by sunset that evening they had gained a level spot, a full
+thousand feet above the sea, backed by an inaccessible cliff which
+formed the upper shoulder of a mighty mountain, defended below by
+steep wooded slopes, and needing but the felling of a few trees to
+make it impregnable.
+
+Amyas settled the sick under the arched roots of an enormous
+cottonwood tree, and made a second journey to the ship, to bring up
+hammocks and blankets for them; while Yeo's wisdom and courage were
+of inestimable value.  He, as pioneer, had found the little brook
+up which they forced their way; he had encouraged them to climb the
+cliffs over which it fell, arguing rightly that on its course they
+were sure to find some ground fit for encampment within the reach
+of water; he had supported Amyas, when again and again the weary
+crew entreated to be dragged no farther, and had gone back again a
+dozen times to cheer them upward; while Cary, who brought up the
+rear, bullied and cheered on the stragglers who sat down and
+refused to move, drove back at the sword's point more than one who
+was beating a retreat, carried their burdens for them, sang them
+songs on the halt; in all things approving himself the gallant and
+hopeful soul which he had always been: till Amyas, beside himself
+with joy at finding that the two men on whom he had counted most
+were utterly worthy of his trust, went so far as to whisper to them
+both, in confidence, that very night--
+
+"Cortez burnt his ships when he landed.  Why should not we?"
+
+Yeo leapt upright; and then sat down again, and whispered--
+
+"Do you say that, captain?  'Tis from above, then, that's certain;
+for it's been hanging on my mind too all day."
+
+"There's no hurry," quoth Amyas; "we must clear her out first, you
+know," while Cary sat silent and musing.  Amyas had evidently more
+schemes in his head than he chose to tell.
+
+The men were too tired that evening to do much, but ere the sun
+rose next morning Amyas had them hard at work fortifying their
+position.  It was, as I said, strong enough by nature; for though
+it was commanded by high cliffs on three sides, yet there was no
+chance of an enemy coming over the enormous mountain-range behind
+them, and still less chance that, if he came, he would discover
+them through the dense mass of trees which crowned the cliff, and
+clothed the hills for a thousand feet above.  The attack, if it
+took place, would come from below; and against that Amyas guarded
+by felling the smaller trees, and laying them with their boughs
+outward over the crest of the slope, thus forming an abatis (as
+every one who has shot in thick cover knows to his cost) warranted
+to bring up in two steps, horse, dog, or man.  The trunks were sawn
+into logs, laid lengthwise, and steadied by stakes and mould; and
+three or four hours' hard work finished a stockade which would defy
+anything but artillery.  The work done, Amyas scrambled up into the
+boughs of the enormous ceiba-tree, and there sat inspecting his own
+handiwork, looking out far and wide over the forest-covered plains
+and the blue sea beyond, and thinking, in his simple
+straightforward way, of what was to be done next.
+
+To stay there long was impossible; to avenge himself upon La Guayra
+was impossible; to go until he had found out whether Frank was
+alive or dead seemed at first equally impossible.  But were
+Brimblecombe, Cary, and those eighty men to be sacrificed a second
+time to his private interest?  Amyas wept with rage, and then wept
+again with earnest, honest prayer, before he could make up his
+mind.  But he made it up.  There were a hundred chances to one that
+Frank was dead; and if not, he was equally past their help; for he
+was--Amyas knew that too well--by this time in the hands of the
+Inquisition.  Who could lift him from that pit?  Not Amyas, at
+least!  And crying aloud in his agony, "God help him! for I
+cannot!"  Amyas made up his mind to move.  But whither?  Many an
+hour he thought and thought alone, there in his airy nest; and at
+last he went down, calm and cheerful, and drew Cary and Yeo aside.
+They could not, he said, refit the ship without dying of fever
+during the process; an assertion which neither of his hearers was
+bold enough to deny.  Even if they refitted her, they would be
+pretty certain to have to fight the Spaniards again; for it was
+impossible to doubt the Indian's story, that they had been
+forewarned of the Rose's coming, or to doubt, either, that Eustace
+had been the traitor.
+
+"Let us try St. Jago, then; sack it, come down on La Guayra in the
+rear, take a ship there, and so get home."
+
+"Nay, Will.  If they have strengthened themselves against us at La
+Guayra, where they had little to lose, surely they have done so at
+St. Jago, where they have much.  I hear the town is large, though
+new; and besides, how can we get over these mountains without a
+guide?"
+
+"Or with one?" said Cary, with a sigh, looking up at the vast walls
+of wood and rock which rose range on range for miles.  "But it is
+strange to find you, at least, throwing cold water on a daring
+plot."
+
+"What if I had a still more daring one?  Did you ever hear of the
+golden city of Manoa?"
+
+Yeo laughed a grim but joyful laugh.  "I have, sir; and so have the
+old hands from the Pelican and the Jesus of Lubec, I doubt not."
+
+"So much the better;" and Amyas began to tell Cary all which he had
+learned from the Spaniard, while Yeo capped every word thereof with
+rumors and traditions of his own gathering.  Cary sat half aghast
+as the huge phantasmagoria unfolded itself before his dazzled eyes;
+and at last--
+
+"So that was why you wanted to burn the ship!  Well, after all,
+nobody needs me at home, and one less at table won't be missed.  So
+you want to play Cortez, eh?"
+
+"We shall never need to play Cortez (who was not such a bad fellow
+after all, Will), because we shall have no such cannibal fiends'
+tyranny to rid the earth of, as he had.  And I trust we shall fear
+God enough not to play Pizarro."
+
+So the conversation dropped for the time, but none of them forgot
+it.
+
+In that mountain-nook the party spent some ten days and more.
+Several of the sick men died, some from the fever superadded to
+their wounds; some, probably, from having been bled by the surgeon;
+the others mended steadily, by the help of certain herbs which Yeo
+administered, much to the disgust of the doctor, who, of course,
+wanted to bleed the poor fellows all round, and was all but
+mutinous when Amyas stayed his hand.  In the meanwhile, by dint of
+daily trips to the ship, provisions were plentiful enough,--beside
+the raccoons, monkeys, and other small animals, which Yeo and the
+veterans of Hawkins's crew knew how to catch, and the fruit and
+vegetables; above all, the delicious mountain cabbage of the Areca
+palm, and the fresh milk of the cow-tree, which they brought in
+daily, paying well thereby for the hospitality they received.
+
+All day long a careful watch was kept among the branches of the
+mighty ceiba-tree.  And what a tree that was!  The hugest English
+oak would have seemed a stunted bush beside it.  Borne up on roots,
+or rather walls, of twisted board, some twelve feet high, between
+which the whole crew, their ammunitions, and provisions, were
+housed roomily, rose the enormous trunk full forty feet in girth,
+towering like some tall lighthouse, smooth for a hundred feet, then
+crowned with boughs, each of which was a stately tree, whose
+topmost twigs were full two hundred and fifty feet from the ground.
+And yet it was easy for the sailors to ascend; so many natural
+ropes had kind Nature lowered for their use, in the smooth lianes
+which hung to the very earth, often without a knot or leaf.  Once
+in the tree, you were within a new world, suspended between heaven
+and earth, and as Cary said, no wonder if, like Jack when he
+climbed the magic bean-stalk, you had found a castle, a giant, and
+a few acres of well-stocked park, packed away somewhere amid that
+labyrinth of timber.  Flower-gardens at least were there in plenty;
+for every limb was covered with pendent cactuses, gorgeous
+orchises, and wild pines; and while one-half the tree was clothed
+in rich foliage, the other half, utterly leafless, bore on every
+twig brilliant yellow flowers, around which humming-birds whirred
+all day long.  Parrots peeped in and out of every cranny, while,
+within the airy woodland, brilliant lizards basked like living gems
+upon the bark, gaudy finches flitted and chirruped, butterflies of
+every size and color hovered over the topmost twigs, innumerable
+insects hummed from morn till eve; and when the sun went down,
+tree-toads came out to snore and croak till dawn.  There was more
+life round that one tree than in a whole square mile of English
+soil.
+
+And Amyas, as he lounged among the branches, felt at moments as if
+he would be content to stay there forever, and feed his eyes and
+ears with all its wonders--and then started sighing from his dream,
+as he recollected that a few days must bring the foe upon them, and
+force him to decide upon some scheme at which the bravest heart
+might falter without shame.  So there he sat (for he often took the
+scout's place himself), looking out over the fantastic tropic
+forest at his feet, and the flat mangrove-swamps below, and the
+white sheet of foam-flecked blue; and yet no sail appeared; and the
+men, as their fear of fever subsided, began to ask when they would
+go down and refit the ship, and Amyas put them off as best he
+could, till one noon he saw slipping along the shore from the
+westward, a large ship under easy sail, and recognized in her, or
+thought he did so, the ship which they had passed upon their way.
+
+If it was she, she must have run past them to La Guayra in the
+night, and have now returned, perhaps, to search for them along the
+coast.
+
+She crept along slowly.  He was in hopes that she might pass the
+river's mouth: but no.  She lay-to close to the shore; and, after a
+while, Amyas saw two boats pull in from her, and vanish behind the
+mangroves.
+
+Sliding down a liane, he told what he had seen.  The men, tired of
+inactivity, received the news with a shout of joy, and set to work
+to make all ready for their guests.  Four brass swivels, which they
+had brought up, were mounted, fixed in logs, so as to command the
+path; the musketeers and archers clustered round them with their
+tackle ready, and half-a-dozen good marksmen volunteered into the
+cotton-tree with their arquebuses, as a post whence "a man might
+have very pretty shooting."  Prayers followed as a matter of
+course, and dinner as a matter of course also; but two weary hours
+passed before there was any sign of the Spaniards.
+
+Presently a wreath of white smoke curled up from the swamp, and
+then the report of a caliver.  Then, amid the growls of the
+English, the Spanish flag ran up above the trees, and floated--
+horrible to behold--at the mast-head of the Rose.  They were
+signalling the ship for more hands; and, in effect, a third boat
+soon pushed off and vanished into the forest.
+
+Another hour, during which the men had thoroughly lost their
+temper, but not their hearts, by waiting; and talked so loud, and
+strode up and down so wildly, that Amyas had to warn them that
+there was no need to betray themselves; that the Spaniards might
+not find them after all; that they might pass the stockade close
+without seeing it; that, unless they hit off the track at once,
+they would probably return to their ship for the present; and
+exacted a promise from them that they would be perfectly silent
+till he gave the word to fire.
+
+Which wise commands had scarcely passed his lips, when, in the path
+below, glanced the headpiece of a Spanish soldier, and then another
+and another.
+
+"Fools!" whispered Amyas to Cary; "they are coming up in single
+file, rushing on their own death.  Lie close, men!"
+
+The path was so narrow that two could seldom come up abreast, and
+so steep that the enemy had much ado to struggle and stumble
+upwards.  The men seemed half unwilling to proceed, and hung back
+more than once; but Amyas could hear an authoritative voice behind,
+and presently there emerged to the front, sword in hand, a figure
+at which Amyas and Cary both started.
+
+"Is it he?"
+
+"Surely I know those legs among a thousand, though they are in
+armor."
+
+"It is my turn for him, now, Cary, remember!  Silence, silence,
+men!"
+
+The Spaniards seemed to feel that they were leading a forlorn hope.
+Don Guzman (for there was little doubt that it was he) had much ado
+to get them on at all.
+
+"The fellows have heard how gently we handled the Guayra squadron,"
+whispers Cary, "and have no wish to become fellow-martyrs with the
+captain of the Madre Dolorosa."
+
+At last the Spaniards get up the steep slope to within forty yards
+of the stockade, and pause, suspecting a trap, and puzzled by the
+complete silence.  Amyas leaps on the top of it, a white flag in
+his hand; but his heart beats so fiercely at the sight of that
+hated figure, that he can hardly get out the words--
+
+"Don Guzman, the quarrel is between you and me, not between your
+men and mine.  I would have sent in a challenge to you at La
+Guayra, but you were away; I challenge you now to single combat."
+
+"Lutheran dog, I have a halter for you, but no sword!  As you
+served us at Smerwick, we will serve you now.  Pirate and ravisher,
+you and yours shall share Oxenham's fate, as you have copied his
+crimes, and learn what it is to set foot unbidden on the dominions
+of the king of Spain."
+
+"The devil take you and the king of Spain together!" shouts Amyas,
+laughing loudly.  "This ground belongs to him no more than it does
+to me, but to the Queen Elizabeth, in whose name I have taken as
+lawful possession of it as you ever did of Caracas.  Fire, men! and
+God defend the right!"
+
+Both parties obeyed the order; Amyas dropped down behind the
+stockade in time to let a caliver bullet whistle over his head; and
+the Spaniards recoiled as the narrow face of the stockade burst
+into one blaze of musketry and swivels, raking their long array
+from front to rear.
+
+The front ranks fell over each other in heaps; the rear ones turned
+and ran; overtaken, nevertheless, by the English bullets and
+arrows, which tumbled them headlong down the steep path.
+
+"Out, men, and charge them.  See! the Don is running like the
+rest!"  And scrambling over the abattis, Amyas and about thirty
+followed them fast; for he had hope of learning from some prisoner
+his brother's fate.
+
+Amyas was unjust in his last words.  Don Guzman, as if by miracle,
+had been only slightly wounded; and seeing his men run, had rushed
+back and tried to rally them, but was borne away by the fugitives.
+
+However, the Spaniards were out of sight among the thick bushes
+before the English could overtake them; and Amyas, afraid lest they
+should rally and surround his small party, withdrew sorely against
+his will, and found in the pathway fourteen Spaniards, but all
+dead.  For one of the wounded, with more courage than wisdom, had
+fired on the English as he lay; and Amyas's men, whose blood was
+maddened both by their desperate situation, and the frightful
+stories of the rescued galley-slaves, had killed them all before
+their captain could stop them.
+
+"Are you mad?" cries Amyas, as he strikes up one fellow's sword.
+"Will you kill an Indian?"
+
+And he drags out of the bushes an Indian lad of sixteen, who,
+slightly wounded, is crawling away like a copper snake along the
+ground.
+
+"The black vermin has sent an arrow through my leg; and poisoned
+too, most like."
+
+"God grant not: but an Indian is worth his weight in gold to us
+now," said Amyas, tucking his prize under his arm like a bundle.
+The lad, as soon as he saw there was no escape, resigned himself to
+his fate with true Indian stoicism, was brought in, and treated
+kindly enough, but refused to eat.  For which, after much
+questioning, he gave as a reason, that he would make them kill him
+at once; for fat him they should not; and gradually gave them to
+understand that the English always (so at least the Spaniards said)
+fatted and ate their prisoners like the Caribs; and till he saw
+them go out and bury the bodies of the Spaniards, nothing would
+persuade him that the corpses were not to be cooked for supper.
+
+However, kind words, kind looks, and the present of that
+inestimable treasure--a knife, brought him to reason; and he told
+Amyas that he belonged to a Spaniard who had an "encomienda" of
+Indians some fifteen miles to the south-west; that he had fled from
+his master, and lived by hunting for some months past; and having
+seen the ship where she lay moored, and boarded her in hope of
+plunder, had been surprised therein by the Spaniards, and forced by
+threats to go with them as a guide in their search for the English.
+But now came a part of his story which filled the soul of Amyas
+with delight.  He was an Indian of the Llanos, or great savannahs
+which lay to the southward beyond the mountains, and had actually
+been upon the Orinoco.  He had been stolen as a boy by some
+Spaniards, who had gone down (as was the fashion of the Jesuits
+even as late as 1790) for the pious purpose of converting the
+savages by the simple process of catching, baptizing, and making
+servants of those whom they could carry off, and murdering those
+who resisted their gentle method of salvation.  Did he know the way
+back again?  Who could ask such a question of an Indian?  And the
+lad's black eyes flashed fire, as Amyas offered him liberty and
+iron enough for a dozen Indians, if he would lead them through the
+passes of the mountains, and southward to the mighty river, where
+lay their golden hopes.  Hernando de Serpa, Amyas knew, had tried
+the same course, which was supposed to be about one hundred and
+twenty leagues, and failed, being overthrown utterly by the Wikiri
+Indians; but Amyas knew enough of the Spaniards' brutal method of
+treating those Indians, to be pretty sure that they had brought
+that catastrophe upon themselves, and that he might avoid it well
+enough by that common justice and mercy toward the savages which he
+had learned from his incomparable tutor, Francis Drake.
+
+Now was the time to speak; and, assembling his men around him,
+Amyas opened his whole heart, simply and manfully.  This was their
+only hope of safety.  Some of them had murmured that they should
+perish like John Oxenham's crew.  This plan was rather the only way
+to avoid perishing like them.  Don Guzman would certainly return to
+seek them; and not only he, but land-forces from St. Jago.  Even if
+the stockade was not forced, they would be soon starved out; why
+not move at once, ere the Spaniards could return, and begin a
+blockade?  As for taking St. Jago, it was impossible.  The treasure
+would all be safely hidden, and the town well prepared to meet
+them.  If they wanted gold and glory, they must seek it elsewhere.
+Neither was there any use in marching along the coast, and trying
+the ports: ships could outstrip them, and the country was already
+warned.  There was but this one chance; and on it Amyas, the first
+and last time in his life, waxed eloquent, and set forth the glory
+of the enterprise, the service to the queen, the salvation of
+heathens, and the certainty that, if successful, they should win
+honor and wealth and everlasting fame, beyond that of Cortez or
+Pizarro, till the men, sulky at first, warmed every moment; and one
+old Pelican broke out with--
+
+"Yes, sir! we didn't go round the world with you for naught; and
+watched your works and ways, which was always those of a gentleman,
+as you are--who spoke a word for a poor fellow when he was in a
+scrape, and saw all you ought to see, and naught that you ought
+not.  And we'll follow you, sir, all alone to ourselves; and let
+those that know you worse follow after when they're come to their
+right mind."
+
+Man after man capped this brave speech; the minority, who, if they
+liked little to go, liked still less to be left behind, gave in
+their consent perforce; and, to make a long story short, Amyas
+conquered, and the plan was accepted.
+
+"This," said Amyas, "is indeed the proudest day of my life!  I have
+lost one brother, but I have gained fourscore.  God do so to me and
+more also, if I do not deal with you according to the trust which
+you have put in me this day!"
+
+We, I suppose, are to believe that we have a right to laugh at
+Amyas's scheme as frantic and chimerical.  It is easy to amuse
+ourselves with the premises, after the conclusion has been found
+for us.  We know, now, that he was mistaken: but we have not
+discovered his mistake for ourselves, and have no right to plume
+ourselves on other men's discoveries.  Had we lived in Amyas's
+days, we should have belonged either to the many wise men who
+believed as he did, or to the many foolish men, who not only
+sneered at the story of Manoa, but at a hundred other stories,
+which we now know to be true.  Columbus was laughed at: but he
+found a new world, nevertheless.  Cortez was laughed at: but he
+found Mexico.  Pizarro: but he found Peru.  I ask any fair reader
+of those two charming books, Mr. Prescott's Conquest of Mexico and
+his Conquest of Peru, whether the true wonders in them described do
+not outdo all the false wonders of Manoa.
+
+But what reason was there to think them false?  One quarter,
+perhaps, of America had been explored, and yet in that quarter two
+empires had been already found, in a state of mechanical, military,
+and agricultural civilization superior, in many things, to any
+nation of Europe.  Was it not most rational to suppose that in the
+remaining three-quarters similar empires existed?  If a second
+Mexico had been discovered in the mountains of Parima, and a second
+Peru in those of Brazil, what right would any man have had to
+wonder?  As for the gold legends, nothing was told of Manoa which
+had not been seen in Peru and Mexico by the bodily eyes of men then
+living.  Why should not the rocks of Guiana have been as full of
+the precious metals (we do not know yet that they are not) as the
+rocks of Peru and Mexico were known to be?  Even the details of the
+story, its standing on a lake, for instance, bore a probability
+with them.  Mexico actually stood in the centre of a lake--why
+should not Manoa?  The Peruvian worship centred round a sacred
+lake--why not that of Manoa?  Pizarro and Cortez, again, were led
+on to their desperate enterprises by the sight of small quantities
+of gold among savages, who told them of a civilized gold-country
+near at hand; and they found that those savages spoke truth.  Why
+was the unanimous report of the Carib tribes of the Orinoco to be
+disbelieved, when they told a similar tale?  Sir Richard
+Schomburgk's admirable preface to Raleigh's Guiana proves, surely,
+that the Indians themselves were deceived, as well as deceivers.
+It was known, again, that vast quantities of the Peruvian treasure
+had been concealed by the priests, and that members of the Inca
+family had fled across the Andes, and held out against the
+Spaniards.  Barely fifty years had elapsed since then;--what more
+probable than that this remnant of the Peruvian dynasty and
+treasure still existed?  Even the story of the Amazons, though it
+may serve Hume as a point for his ungenerous and untruthful attempt
+to make Raleigh out either fool or villain, has come from
+Spaniards, who had with their own eyes seen the Indian women
+fighting by their husbands' sides, and from Indians, who asserted
+the existence of an Amazonian tribe.  What right had Amyas, or any
+man, to disbelieve the story?  The existence of the Amazons in
+ancient Asia, and of their intercourse with Alexander the Great,
+was then an accredited part of history, which it would have been
+gratuitous impertinence to deny.  And what if some stories
+connected these warlike women with the Emperor of Manoa, and the
+capital itself?  This generation ought surely to be the last to
+laugh at such a story, at least as long as the Amazonian guards of
+the King of Dahomey continue to outvie the men in that relentless
+ferocity, with which they have subdued every neighboring tribe,
+save the Christians of Abbeokuta.  In this case, as in a hundred
+more, fact not only outdoes, but justifies imagination; and Amyas
+spoke common sense when he said to his men that day--
+
+"Let fools laugh and stay at home.  Wise men dare and win.  Saul
+went to look for his father's asses, and found a kingdom; and
+Columbus, my men, was called a madman for only going to seek China,
+and never knew, they say, until his dying day, that he had found a
+whole new world instead of it.  Find Manoa?  God only, who made all
+things, knows what we may find beside!"
+
+So underneath that giant ceiba-tree, those valiant men, reduced by
+battle and sickness to some eighty, swore a great oath, and kept
+that oath like men.  To search for the golden city for two full
+years to come, whatever might befall; to stand to each other for
+weal or woe; to obey their officers to the death; to murmur
+privately against no man, but bring all complaints to a council of
+war; to use no profane oaths, but serve God daily with prayer; to
+take by violence from no man, save from their natural enemies the
+Spaniards; to be civil and merciful to all savages, and chaste and
+courteous to all women; to bring all booty and all food into the
+common stock, and observe to the utmost their faith with the
+adventurers who had fitted out the ship; and finally, to march at
+sunrise the next morning toward the south, trusting in God to be
+their guide.
+
+"It is a great oath, and a hard one," said Brimblecombe; "but God
+will give us strength to keep it."  And they knelt all together and
+received the Holy Communion, and then rose to pack provisions and
+ammunition, and lay down again to sleep and to dream that they were
+sailing home up Torridge stream--as Cavendish, returning from round
+the world, did actually sail home up Thames but five years
+afterwards--"with mariners and soldiers clothed in silk, with sails
+of damask, and topsails of cloth of gold, and the richest prize
+which ever was brought at one time unto English shores."
+
+            .      .     .     .     .     .     .
+
+The Cross stands upright in the southern sky.  It is the middle of
+the night.  Cary and Yeo glide silently up the hill and into the
+camp, and whisper to Amyas that they have done the deed.  The
+sleepers are awakened, and the train sets forth.
+
+Upward and southward ever: but whither, who can tell?  They hardly
+think of the whither; but go like sleep-walkers, shaken out of one
+land of dreams, only to find themselves in another and stranger
+one.  All around is fantastic and unearthly; now each man starts as
+he sees the figures of his fellows, clothed from head to foot in
+golden filigree; looks up, and sees the yellow moonlight through
+the fronds of the huge tree-ferns overhead, as through a cloud of
+glittering lace.  Now they are hewing their way through a thicket
+of enormous flags; now through bamboos forty feet high; now they
+are stumbling over boulders, waist-deep in cushions of club-moss;
+now they are struggling through shrubberies of heaths and
+rhododendrons, and woolly incense-trees, where every leaf, as they
+brush past, dashes some fresh scent into their faces, and
+
+
+     "The winds, with musky wing,
+      About the cedarn alleys fling
+      Nard and cassia's balmy smells."
+
+
+Now they open upon some craggy brow, from whence they can see far
+below an ocean of soft cloud, whose silver billows, girdled by the
+mountain sides, hide the lowland from their sight.
+
+And from beneath the cloud strange voices rise; the screams of
+thousand night-birds, and wild howls, which they used at first to
+fancy were the cries of ravenous beasts, till they found them to
+proceed from nothing fiercer than an ape.  But what is that deeper
+note, like a series of muffled explosions,--arquebuses fired within
+some subterranean cavern,--the heavy pulse of which rolls up
+through the depths of the unseen forest?  They hear it now for the
+first time, but they will hear it many a time again; and the Indian
+lad is hushed, and cowers close to them, and then takes heart, as
+he looks upon their swords and arquebuses; for that is the roar of
+the jaguar, "seeking his meat from God."
+
+But what is that glare away to the northward?  The yellow moon is
+ringed with gay rainbows; but that light is far too red to be the
+reflection of any beams of hers.  Now through the cloud rises a
+column of black and lurid smoke; the fog clears away right and left
+around it, and shows beneath, a mighty fire.
+
+The men look at each other with questioning eyes, each half
+suspecting, and yet not daring to confess their own suspicions; and
+Amyas whispers to Yeo--
+
+"You took care to flood the powder?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir, and to unload the ordnance too.  No use in making a
+noise to tell the Spaniards our whereabouts."
+
+Yes; that glare rises from the good ship Rose.  Amyas, like Cortez
+of old, has burnt his ship, and retreat is now impossible.  Forward
+into the unknown abyss of the New World, and God be with them as
+they go!
+
+The Indian knows a cunning path: it winds along the highest ridges
+of the mountains; but the travelling is far more open and easy.
+
+They have passed the head of a valley which leads down to St. Jago.
+Beneath that long shining river of mist, which ends at the foot of
+the great Silla, lies (so says the Indian lad) the rich capital of
+Venezuela; and beyond, the gold-mines of Los Teques and Baruta,
+which first attracted the founder Diego de Losada; and many a
+longing eye is turned towards it as they pass the saddle at the
+valley head; but the attempt is hopeless, they turn again to the
+left, and so down towards the rancho, taking care (so the prudent
+Amyas had commanded) to break down, after crossing, the frail rope
+bridge which spans each torrent and ravine.
+
+They are at the rancho long before daybreak, and have secured
+there, not only fourteen mules, but eight or nine Indians stolen
+from off the Llanos, like their guide, who are glad enough to
+escape from their tyrants by taking service with them.  And now
+southward and away, with lightened shoulders and hearts; for they
+are all but safe from pursuit.  The broken bridges prevent the news
+of their raid reaching St. Jago until nightfall; and in the
+meanwhile, Don Guzman returns to the river mouth the next day to
+find the ship a blackened wreck, and the camp empty; follows their
+trail over the hills till he is stopped by a broken bridge;
+surmounts that difficulty, and meets a second; his men are worn out
+with heat, and a little afraid of stumbling on the heretic
+desperadoes, and he returns by land to St. Jago; and when he
+arrives there, has news from home which gives him other things to
+think of than following those mad Englishmen, who have vanished
+into the wilderness.  "What need, after all, to follow them?" asked
+the Spaniards of each other.  "Blinded by the devil, whom they
+serve, they rush on in search of certain death, as many a larger
+company has before them, and they will find it, and will trouble La
+Guayra no more forever."  "Lutheran dogs and enemies of God," said
+Don Guzman to his soldiers, "they will leave their bones to whiten
+on the Llanos, as may every heretic who sets foot on Spanish soil!"
+
+Will they do so, Don Guzman?  Or wilt thou and Amyas meet again
+upon a mightier battlefield, to learn a lesson which neither of you
+yet has learned?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE INQUISITION IN THE INDIES
+
+
+My next chapter is perhaps too sad; it shall be at least as short
+as I can make it; but it was needful to be written, that readers
+may judge fairly for themselves what sort of enemies the English
+nation had to face in those stern days.
+
+Three weeks have passed, and the scene is shifted to a long, low
+range of cells in a dark corridor in the city of Cartagena.  The
+door of one is open; and within stand two cloaked figures, one of
+whom we know.  It is Eustace Leigh.  The other is a familiar of the
+Holy Office.
+
+He holds in his hand a lamp, from which the light falls on a bed of
+straw, and on the sleeping figure of a man.  The high white brow,
+the pale and delicate features--them too we know, for they are
+those of Frank.  Saved half-dead from the fury of the savage
+negroes, he has been reserved for the more delicate cruelty of
+civilized and Christian men.  He underwent the question but this
+afternoon; and now Eustace, his betrayer, is come to persuade him--
+or to entrap him?  Eustace himself hardly knows whether of the two.
+
+And yet he would give his life to save his cousin.
+
+His life?  He has long since ceased to care for that.  He has done
+what he has done, because it is his duty; and now he is to do his
+duty once more, and wake the sleeper, and argue, coax, threaten him
+into recantation while "his heart is still tender from the
+torture," so Eustace's employers phrase it.
+
+And yet how calmly he is sleeping!  Is it but a freak of the
+lamplight, or is there a smile upon his lips?  Eustace takes the
+lamp and bends over him to see; and as he bends he hears Frank
+whispering in his dreams his mother's name, and a name higher and
+holier still.
+
+Eustace cannot find the heart to wake him.
+
+"Let him rest," whispers he to his companion.  "After all, I fear
+my words will be of little use."
+
+"I fear so too, sir.  Never did I behold a more obdurate heretic.
+He did not scruple to scoff openly at their holinesses."
+
+"Ah!" said Eustace; "great is the pravity of the human heart, and
+the power of Satan!  Let us go for the present."
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"The elder sorceress, or the younger?"
+
+"The younger--the--"
+
+"The Senora de Soto?  Ah, poor thing!  One could be sorry for her,
+were she not a heretic."  And the man eyed Eustace keenly, and then
+quietly added, "She is at present with the notary; to the benefit
+of her soul, I trust--"
+
+Eustace half stopped, shuddering.  He could hardly collect himself
+enough to gasp out an "Amen!"
+
+"Within there," said the man, pointing carelessly to a door as they
+went down the corridor.  "We can listen a moment, if you like; but
+don't betray me, senor."
+
+Eustace knows well enough that the fellow is probably on the watch
+to betray him, if he shows any signs of compunction; at least to
+report faithfully to his superiors the slightest expression of
+sympathy with a heretic; but a horrible curiosity prevails over
+fear, and he pauses close to the fatal door.  His face is all of a
+flame, his knees knock together, his ears are ringing, his heart
+bursting through his ribs, as he supports himself against the wall,
+hiding his convulsed face as well as he can from his companion.
+
+A man's voice is plainly audible within; low, but distinct.  The
+notary is trying that old charge of witchcraft, which the
+Inquisitors, whether to justify themselves to their own
+consciences, or to whiten their villainy somewhat in the eyes of
+the mob, so often brought against their victims.  And then
+Eustace's heart sinks within him as he hears a woman's voice reply,
+sharpened by indignation and agony--
+
+"Witchcraft against Don Guzman?  What need of that, oh God! what
+need?"
+
+"You deny it then, senora? we are sorry for you; but--"
+
+A confused choking murmur from the victim, mingled with words which
+might mean anything or nothing.
+
+"She has confessed!" whispered Eustace; "saints, I thank you!--she--"
+
+A wail which rings through Eustace's ears, and brain, and heart!
+He would have torn at the door to open it; but his companion forces
+him away.  Another, and another wail, while the wretched man
+hurries off, stopping his ears in vain against those piercing
+cries, which follow him, like avenging angels, through the dreadful
+vaults.
+
+He escaped into the fragrant open air, and the golden tropic
+moonlight, and a garden which might have served as a model for
+Eden; but man's hell followed into God's heaven, and still those
+wails seemed to ring through his ears.
+
+"Oh, misery, misery, misery!" murmured he to himself through
+grinding teeth; "and I have brought her to this!  I have had to
+bring her to it!  What else could I?  Who dare blame me?  And yet
+what devilish sin can I have committed, that requires to be
+punished thus?  Was there no one to be found but me?  No one?  And
+yet it may save her soul.  It may bring her to repentance!"
+
+"It may, indeed; for she is delicate, and cannot endure much.  You
+ought to know as well as I, senor, the merciful disposition of the
+Holy Office."
+
+"I know it, I know it," interrupted poor Eustace, trembling now for
+himself.  "All in love--all in love.--A paternal chastisement--"
+
+"And the proofs of heresy are patent, beside the strong suspicion
+of enchantment, and the known character of the elder sorceress.
+You yourself, you must remember, senor, told us that she had been a
+notorious witch in England, before the senora brought her hither as
+her attendant."
+
+"Of course she was; of course.  Yes; there was no other course
+open.  And though the flesh may be weak, sir, in my case, yet none
+can have proved better to the Holy Office how willing is the
+spirit!"
+
+And so Eustace departed; and ere another sun had set, he had gone
+to the principal of the Jesuits; told him his whole heart, or as
+much of it, poor wretch, as he dare tell to himself; and entreated
+to be allowed to finish his novitiate, and enter the order, on the
+understanding that he was to be sent at once back to Europe, or
+anywhere else; "Otherwise," as he said frankly, "he should go mad,
+even if he were not mad already."  The Jesuit, who was a kindly man
+enough, went to the Holy Office, and settled all with the
+Inquisitors, recounting to them, to set him above all suspicion,
+Eustace's past valiant services to the Church.  His testimony was
+no longer needed; he left Cartagena for Nombre that very night, and
+sailed the next week I know not whither.
+
+I say, I know not whither.  Eustace Leigh vanishes henceforth from
+these pages.  He may have ended as General of his Order.  He may
+have worn out his years in some tropic forest, "conquering the
+souls" (including, of course, the bodies) of Indians; he may have
+gone back to his old work in England, and been the very Ballard who
+was hanged and quartered three years afterwards for his share in
+Babington's villainous conspiracy: I know not.  This book is a
+history of men,--of men's virtues and sins, victories and defeats;
+and Eustace is a man no longer: he is become a thing, a tool, a
+Jesuit; which goes only where it is sent, and does good or evil
+indifferently as it is bid; which, by an act of moral suicide, has
+lost its soul, in the hope of saving it; without a will, a
+conscience, a responsibility (as it fancies), to God or man, but
+only to "The Society."  In a word, Eustace, as he says himself, is
+"dead."  Twice dead, I fear.  Let the dead bury their dead.  We
+have no more concern with Eustace Leigh.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE BANKS OF THE META
+
+
+                                     "My mariners,
+Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me--
+Death closes all: but something ere the end,
+Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
+Not unbecoming men that strove with gods!"
+
+                                    TENNYSON'S Ulysses.
+
+
+Nearly three years are past and gone since that little band had
+knelt at evensong beneath the giant tree of Guayra--years of
+seeming blank, through which they are to be tracked only by
+scattered notes and mis-spelt names.  Through untrodden hills and
+forests, over a space of some eight hundred miles in length by four
+hundred in breadth, they had been seeking for the Golden City, and
+they had sought in vain.  They had sought it along the wooded banks
+of the Orinoco, and beyond the roaring foam-world of Maypures, and
+on the upper waters of the mighty Amazon.  They had gone up the
+streams even into Peru itself, and had trodden the cinchona groves
+of Loxa, ignorant, as all the world was then, of their healing
+virtues.  They had seen the virgin snows of Chimborazo towering
+white above the thundercloud, and the giant cone of Cotopaxi
+blackening in its sullen wrath, before the fiery streams rolled
+down its sides.  Foiled in their search at the back of the Andes,
+they had turned eastward once more, and plunged from the alpine
+cliffs into "the green and misty ocean of the Montana."  Slowly and
+painfully they had worked their way northward again, along the
+eastern foot of the inland Cordillera, and now they were
+bivouacking, as it seems, upon one of the many feeders of the Meta,
+which flow down from the Suma Paz into the forest-covered plains.
+There they sat, their watch-fires glittering on the stream, beneath
+the shadow of enormous trees, Amyas and Cary, Brimblecombe, Yeo,
+and the Indian lad, who has followed them in all their wanderings,
+alive and well: but as far as ever from Manoa, and its fairy lake,
+and golden palaces, and all the wonders of the Indian's tale.
+Again and again in their wanderings they had heard faint rumors of
+its existence, and started off in some fresh direction, to meet
+only a fresh disappointment, and hope deferred, which maketh sick
+the heart.
+
+There they sit at last--four-and-forty men out of the eighty-four
+who left the tree of Guayra:--where are the rest?
+
+
+     "Their bones are scatter'd far and wide,
+      By mount, by stream, and sea."
+
+
+Drew, the master, lies on the banks of the Rio Negro, and five
+brave fellows by him, slain in fight by the poisoned arrows of the
+Indians, in a vain attempt to penetrate the mountain-gorges of the
+Parima.  Two more lie amid the valleys of the Andes, frozen to
+death by the fierce slaty hail which sweeps down from the condor's
+eyrie; four more were drowned at one of the rapids of the Orinoco;
+five or six more wounded men are left behind at another rapid among
+friendly Indians, to be recovered when they can be: perhaps never.
+Fever, snakes, jaguars, alligators, cannibal fish, electric eels,
+have thinned their ranks month by month, and of their march through
+the primeval wilderness no track remains, except those lonely
+graves.
+
+And there the survivors sit, beside the silent stream, beneath the
+tropic moon; sun-dried and lean, but strong and bold as ever, with
+the quiet fire of English courage burning undimmed in every eye,
+and the genial smile of English mirth fresh on every lip; making a
+jest of danger and a sport of toil, as cheerily as when they sailed
+over the bar of Bideford, in days which seem to belong to some
+antenatal life.  Their beards have grown down upon their breasts;
+their long hair is knotted on their heads, like women's, to keep
+off the burning sunshine; their leggings are of the skin of the
+delicate Guazu-puti deer; their shirts are patched with Indian
+cotton web; the spoils of jaguar, puma, and ape hang from their
+shoulders.  Their ammunition is long since spent, their muskets,
+spoilt by the perpetual vapor-bath of the steaming woods, are left
+behind as useless in a cave by some cataract of the Orinoco: but
+their swords are bright and terrible as ever; and they carry bows
+of a strength which no Indian arm can bend, and arrows pointed with
+the remnants of their armor; many of them, too, are armed with the
+pocuna or blowgun of the Indians--more deadly, because more silent,
+than the firearms which they have left behind them.  So they have
+wandered, and so they will wander still, the lords of the forest
+and its beasts; terrible to all hostile Indians, but kindly, just,
+and generous to all who will deal faithfully with them; and many a
+smooth-chinned Carib and Ature, Solimo and Guahiba, recounts with
+wonder and admiration the righteousness of the bearded heroes, who
+proclaimed themselves the deadly foes of the faithless and
+murderous Spaniard, and spoke to them of the great and good queen
+beyond the seas, who would send her warriors to deliver and avenge
+the oppressed Indian.
+
+The men are sleeping among the trees, some on the ground, and some
+in grass-hammocks slung between the stems.  All is silent, save the
+heavy plunge of the tapir in the river, as he tears up the water-
+weeds for his night's repast.  Sometimes, indeed, the jaguar, as he
+climbs from one tree-top to another after his prey, wakens the
+monkeys clustered on the boughs, and they again arouse the birds,
+and ten minutes of unearthly roars, howls, shrieks, and cacklings
+make the forest ring as if all pandemonium had broke loose; but
+that soon dies away again; and, even while it lasts, it is too
+common a matter to awaken the sleepers, much less to interrupt the
+council of war which is going on beside the watch-fire, between the
+three adventurers and the faithful Yeo.  A hundred times have they
+held such a council, and in vain; and, for aught they know, this
+one will be as fruitless as those which have gone before it.
+Nevertheless, it is a more solemn one than usual; for the two years
+during which they had agreed to search for Manoa are long past, and
+some new place must be determined on, unless they intend to spend
+the rest of their lives in that green wilderness.
+
+"Well," says Will Cary, taking his cigar out of his mouth, "at
+least we have got something out of those last Indians.  It is a
+comfort to have a puff at tobacco once more, after three weeks'
+fasting."
+
+"For me," said Jack Brimblecombe, "Heaven forgive me! but when I
+get the magical leaf between my teeth again, I feel tempted to sit
+as still as a chimney, and smoke till my dying day, without
+stirring hand or foot."
+
+"Then I shall forbid you tobacco, Master Parson," said Amyas; "for
+we must be up and away again to-morrow.  We have been idling here
+three mortal days, and nothing done."
+
+"Shall we ever do anything?  I think the gold of Manoa is like the
+gold which lies where the rainbow touches the ground, always a
+field beyond you."
+
+Amyas was silent awhile, and so were the rest.  There was no
+denying that their hopes were all but gone.  In the immense circuit
+which they had made, they had met with nothing but disappointment.
+
+"There is but one more chance," said he at length, "and that is,
+the mountains to the east of the Orinoco, where we failed the first
+time.  The Incas may have moved on to them when they escaped."
+
+"Why not?" said Cary; "they would so put all the forests, beside
+the Llanos and half-a-dozen great rivers, between them and those
+dogs of Spaniards."
+
+"Shall we try it once more?" said Amyas.  "This river ought to run
+into the Orinoco; and once there, we are again at the very foot of
+the mountains.  What say you, Yeo?"
+
+"I cannot but mind, your worship, that when we came up the Orinoco,
+the Indians told us terrible stories of those mountains, how far
+they stretched, and how difficult they were to cross, by reason of
+the cliffs aloft, and the thick forests in the valleys.  And have
+we not lost five good men there already?"
+
+"What care we?  No forests can be thicker than those we have bored
+through already; why, if one had had but a tail, like a monkey, for
+an extra warp, one might have gone a hundred miles on end along the
+tree-tops, and found it far pleasanter walking than tripping in
+withes, and being eaten up with creeping things, from morn till
+night."
+
+"But remember, too," said Jack, "how they told us to beware of the
+Amazons."
+
+"What, Jack, afraid of a parcel of women?"
+
+"Why not?" said Jack, "I wouldn't run from a man, as you know; but
+a woman--it's not natural, like.  They must be witches or devils.
+See how the Caribs feared them.  And there were men there without
+necks, and with their eyes in their breasts, they said.  Now how
+could a Christian tackle such customers as them?"
+
+"He couldn't cut off their heads, that's certain; but, I suppose, a
+poke in the ribs will do as much for them as for their neighbors."
+
+"Well," said Jack, "if I fight, let me fight honest flesh and
+blood, that's all, and none of these outlandish monsters.  How do
+you know but that they are invulnerable by art-magic?"
+
+"How do you know that they are?  And as for the Amazons," said
+Cary, "woman's woman, all the world over.  I'll bet that you may
+wheedle them round with a compliment or two, just as if they were
+so many burghers' wives.  Pity I have not a court-suit and a
+Spanish hat.  I would have taken an orange in one hand and a
+handkerchief in the other, gone all alone to them as ambassador,
+and been in a week as great with Queen Blackfacealinda as ever
+Raleigh is at Whitehall."
+
+"Gentlemen!" said Yeo, "where you go, I go; and not only I, but
+every man of us, I doubt not; but we have lost now half our
+company, and spent our ammunition, so we are no better men, were it
+not for our swords, than these naked heathens round us.  Now it
+was, as you all know, by the wonder and noise of their ordnance
+(let alone their horses, which is a break-neck beast I put no faith
+in) that both Cortez and Pizarro, those imps of Satan, made their
+golden conquests, with which if we could have astounded the people
+of Manoa--"
+
+"Having first found the said people," laughed Amyas.  "It is like
+the old fable.  Every craftsman thinks his own trade the one pillar
+of the commonweal."
+
+"Well! your worship," quoth Yeo, "it may be that being a gunner I
+overprize guns.  But it don't need slate and pencil to do this sum--
+Are forty men without shot as good as eighty with?"
+
+"Thou art right, old fellow, right enough, and I was only jesting
+for very sorrow, and must needs laugh about it lest I weep about
+it.  Our chance is over, I believe, though I dare not confess as
+much to the men."
+
+"Sir," said Yeo, "I have a feeling on me that the Lord's hand is
+against us in this matter.  Whether He means to keep this wealth
+for worthier men than us, or whether it is His will to hide this
+great city in the secret place of His presence from the strife of
+tongues, and so to spare them from sinful man's covetousness, and
+England from that sin and luxury which I have seen gold beget among
+the Spaniards, I know not, sir; for who knoweth the counsels of the
+Lord?  But I have long had a voice within which saith, 'Salvation
+Yeo, thou shalt never behold the Golden City which is on earth,
+where heathens worship sun and moon and the hosts of heaven; be
+content, therefore, to see that Golden City which is above, where
+is neither sun nor moon, but the Lord God and the Lamb are the
+light thereof.'
+
+There was a simple majesty about old Yeo when he broke forth in
+utterances like these, which made his comrades, and even Amyas and
+Cary, look on him as Mussulmans look on madmen, as possessed of
+mysterious knowledge and flashes of inspiration; and Brimblecombe,
+whose pious soul looked up to the old hero with a reverence which
+had overcome all his Churchman's prejudices against Anabaptists,
+answered gently,--
+
+"Amen! amen! my masters all: and it has been on my mind, too, this
+long time, that there is a providence against our going east; for
+see how this two years past, whenever we have pushed eastward, we
+have fallen into trouble, and lost good men; and whenever we went
+Westward-ho, we have prospered; and do prosper to this day."
+
+"And what is more, gentlemen," said Yeo, if, as Scripture says,
+dreams are from the Lord, I verily believe mine last night came
+from Him; for as I lay by the fire, sirs, I heard my little maid's
+voice calling of me, as plain as ever I heard in my life; and the
+very same words, sirs, which she learned from me and my good
+comrade William Penberthy to say, 'Westward-ho! jolly mariners
+all!' a bit of an ungodly song, my masters, which we sang in our
+wild days; but she stood and called it as plain as ever mortal ears
+heard, and called again till I answered, 'Coming! my maid, coming!'
+and after that the dear chuck called no more--God grant I find her
+yet!--and so I woke."
+
+Cary had long since given up laughing at Yeo about the "little
+maid;" and Amyas answered,--
+
+"So let it be, Yeo, if the rest agree: but what shall we do to the
+westward?"
+
+"Do?" said Cary; "there's plenty to do; for there's plenty of gold,
+and plenty of Spaniards, too, they say, on the other side of these
+mountains: so that our swords will not rust for lack of adventures,
+my gay knights-errant all."
+
+So they chatted on; and before night was half through a plan was
+matured, desperate enough--but what cared those brave hearts for
+that?  They would cross the Cordillera to Santa Fe de Bogota, of
+the wealth whereof both Yeo and Amyas had often heard in the
+Pacific: try to seize either the town or some convoy of gold going
+from it; make for the nearest river (there was said to be a large
+one which ran northward thence), build canoes, and try to reach the
+Northern Sea once more; and then, if Heaven prospered them, they
+might seize a Spanish ship, and make their way home to England,
+not, indeed, with the wealth of Manoa, but with a fair booty of
+Spanish gold.  This was their new dream.  It was a wild one: but
+hardly more wild than the one which Drake had fulfilled, and not as
+wild as the one which Oxenham might have fulfilled, but for his own
+fatal folly.
+
+Amyas sat watching late that night, sad of heart.  To give up the
+cherished dream of years was hard; to face his mother, harder
+still: but it must be done, for the men's sake.  So the new plan
+was proposed next day, and accepted joyfully.  They would go up to
+the mountains and rest awhile; if possible, bring up the wounded
+whom they had left behind; and then, try a new venture, with new
+hopes, perhaps new dangers; they were inured to the latter.
+
+They started next morning cheerfully enough, and for three hours or
+more paddled easily up the glassy and windless reaches, between two
+green flower-bespangled walls of forest, gay with innumerable birds
+and insects; while down from the branches which overhung the stream
+long trailers hung to the water's edge, and seemed admiring in the
+clear mirror the images of their own gorgeous flowers.  River,
+trees, flowers, birds, insects,--it was all a fairy-land: but it
+was a colossal one; and yet the voyagers took little note of it.
+It was now to them an everyday occurrence, to see trees full two
+hundred feet high one mass of yellow or purple blossom to the
+highest twigs, and every branch and stem one hanging garden of
+crimson and orange orchids or vanillas.  Common to them were all
+the fantastic and enormous shapes with which Nature bedecks her
+robes beneath the fierce suns and fattening rains of the tropic
+forest.  Common were forms and colors of bird, and fish, and
+butterfly, more strange and bright than ever opium-eater dreamed.
+The long processions of monkeys, who kept pace with them along the
+tree-tops, and proclaimed their wonder in every imaginable whistle,
+and grunt, and howl, had ceased to move their laughter, as much as
+the roar of the jaguar and the rustle of the boa had ceased to move
+their fear; and when a brilliant green and rose-colored fish, flat-
+bodied like a bream, flab-finned like a salmon, and saw-toothed
+like a shark, leapt clean on board of the canoe to escape the rush
+of the huge alligator (whose loathsome snout, ere he could stop,
+actually rattled against the canoe within a foot of Jack
+Brimblecombe's hand), Jack, instead of turning pale, as he had done
+at the sharks upon a certain memorable occasion, coolly picked up
+the fish, and said, "He's four pound weight!  If you can catch
+'pirai' for us like that, old fellow, just keep in our wake, and
+we'll give you the cleanings for wages."
+
+Yes.  The mind of man is not so "infinite," in the vulgar sense of
+that word, as people fancy; and however greedy the appetite for
+wonder may be, while it remains unsatisfied in everyday European
+life, it is as easily satiated as any other appetite, and then
+leaves the senses of its possessor as dull as those of a city
+gourmand after a lord mayor's feast.  Only the highest minds--our
+Humboldts, and Bonplands, and Schomburgks (and they only when
+quickened to an almost unhealthy activity by civilization)--can go
+on long appreciating where Nature is insatiable, imperious,
+maddening, in her demands on our admiration.  The very power of
+observing wears out under the rush of ever new objects; and the
+dizzy spectator is fain at last to shut the eyes of his soul, and
+take refuge (as West Indian Spaniards do) in tobacco and stupidity.
+The man, too, who has not only eyes but utterance,--what shall he
+do where all words fail him?  Superlatives are but inarticulate,
+after all, and give no pictures even of size any more than do
+numbers of feet and yards: and yet what else can we do, but heap
+superlative on superlative, and cry, "Wonderful, wonderful!" and
+after that, "wonderful, past all whooping"?  What Humboldt's self
+cannot paint, we will not try to daub.  The voyagers were in a
+South American forest, readers.  Fill up the meaning of those
+words, each as your knowledge enables you, for I cannot do it for
+you.
+
+Certainly those adventurers could not.  The absence of any attempt
+at word-painting, even of admiration at the glorious things which
+they saw, is most remarkable in all early voyagers, both Spanish
+and English.  The only two exceptions which I recollect are
+Columbus--(but then all was new, and he was bound to tell what he
+had seen)--and Raleigh; the two most gifted men, perhaps, with the
+exception of Humboldt, who ever set foot in tropical America; but
+even they dare nothing but a few feeble hints in passing.  Their
+souls had been dazzled and stunned by a great glory.  Coming out of
+our European Nature into that tropic one, they had felt like
+Plato's men, bred in the twilight cavern, and then suddenly turned
+round to the broad blaze of day; they had seen things awful and
+unspeakable: why talk of them, except to say with the Turks, "God
+is great!"
+
+So it was with these men.  Among the higher-hearted of them, the
+grandeur and the glory around had attuned their spirits to itself,
+and kept up in them a lofty, heroical, reverent frame of mind; but
+they knew as little about the trees and animals in an "artistic" or
+"critical" point of view, as in a scientific one.  This tree the
+Indians called one unpronounceable name, and it made good bows;
+that, some other name, and it made good canoes; of that, you could
+eat the fruit; that produced the caoutchouc gum, useful for a
+hundred matters; that was what the Indians (and they likewise) used
+to poison their arrows with; from the ashes of those palm-nuts you
+could make good salt; that tree, again, was full of good milk if
+you bored the stem: they drank it, and gave God thanks, and were
+not astonished.  God was great: but that they had discovered long
+before they came into the tropics.  Noble old child-hearted heroes,
+with just romance and superstition enough about them to keep them
+from that prurient hysterical wonder and enthusiasm, which is
+simply, one often fears, a product of our scepticism!  We do not
+trust enough in God, we do not really believe His power enough, to
+be ready, as they were, as every one ought to be on a God-made
+earth, for anything and everything being possible; and then, when a
+wonder is discovered, we go into ecstasies and shrieks over it, and
+take to ourselves credit for being susceptible of so lofty a
+feeling, true index, forsooth, of a refined and cultivated mind.
+
+They paddled onward hour after hour, sheltering themselves as best
+they could under the shadow of the southern bank, while on their
+right hand the full sun-glare lay upon the enormous wall of
+mimosas, figs, and laurels, which formed the northern forest,
+broken by the slender shafts of bamboo tufts, and decked with a
+thousand gaudy parasites; bank upon bank of gorgeous bloom piled
+upward to the sky, till where its outline cut the blue, flowers and
+leaves, too lofty to be distinguished by the eye, formed a broken
+rainbow of all hues quivering in the ascending streams of azure
+mist, until they seemed to melt and mingle with the very heavens.
+
+And as the sun rose higher and higher, a great stillness fell upon
+the forest.  The jaguars and the monkeys had hidden themselves in
+the darkest depths of the woods.  The birds' notes died out one by
+one; the very butterflies ceased their flitting over the tree-tops,
+and slept with outspread wings upon the glossy leaves,
+undistinguishable from the flowers around them.  Now and then a
+colibri whirred downward toward the water, hummed for a moment
+around some pendent flower, and then the living gem was lost in the
+deep blackness of the inner wood, among tree-trunks as huge and
+dark as the pillars of some Hindoo shrine; or a parrot swung and
+screamed at them from an overhanging bough; or a thirsty monkey
+slid lazily down a liana to the surface of the stream, dipped up
+the water in his tiny hand, and started chattering back, as his
+eyes met those of some foul alligator peering upward through the
+clear depths below.  In shaded nooks beneath the boughs, the
+capybaras, rabbits as large as sheep, went paddling sleepily round
+and round, thrusting up their unwieldy heads among the blooms of
+the blue water-lilies; while black and purple water-hens ran up and
+down upon the rafts of floating leaves.  The shining snout of a
+freshwater dolphin rose slowly to the surface; a jet of spray
+whirred up; a rainbow hung upon it for a moment; and the black
+snout sank lazily again.  Here and there, too, upon some shallow
+pebbly shore, scarlet flamingoes stood dreaming knee-deep, on one
+leg; crested cranes pranced up and down, admiring their own finery;
+and ibises and egrets dipped their bills under water in search of
+prey: but before noon even those had slipped away, and there
+reigned a stillness which might be heard--such a stillness (to
+compare small things with great) as broods beneath the rich shadows
+of Amyas's own Devon woods, or among the lonely sweeps of Exmoor,
+when the heather is in flower--a stillness in which, as Humboldt
+says, "If beyond the silence we listen for the faintest undertones,
+we detect a stifled, continuous hum of insects, which crowd the air
+close to the earth; a confused swarming murmur which hangs round
+every bush, in the cracked bark of trees, in the soil undermined by
+lizards, millepedes, and bees; a voice proclaiming to us that all
+Nature breathes, that under a thousand different forms life swarms
+in the gaping and dusty earth, as much as in the bosom of the
+waters, and the air which breathes around."
+
+At last a soft and distant murmur, increasing gradually to a heavy
+roar, announced that they were nearing some cataract; till turning
+a point, where the deep alluvial soil rose into a low cliff fringed
+with delicate ferns, they came full in sight of a scene at which
+all paused: not with astonishment, but with something very like
+disgust.
+
+"Rapids again!" grumbled one.  "I thought we had had enough of them
+on the Orinoco."
+
+"We shall have to get out, and draw the canoes overland, I suppose.
+Three hours will be lost, and in the very hottest of the day, too."
+
+"There's worse behind; don't you see the spray behind the palms?"
+
+"Stop grumbling, my masters, and don't cry out before you are hurt.
+Paddle right up to the largest of those islands, and let us look
+about us."
+
+In front of them was a snow-white bar of raging foam, some ten feet
+high, along which were ranged three or four islands of black rock.
+Each was crested with a knot of lofty palms, whose green tops stood
+out clear against the bright sky, while the lower half of their
+stems loomed hazy through a luminous veil of rainbowed mist.  The
+banks right and left of the fall were so densely fringed with a low
+hedge of shrubs, that landing seemed all but impossible; and their
+Indian guide, suddenly looking round him and whispering, bade them
+beware of savages; and pointed to a canoe which lay swinging in the
+eddies under the largest island, moored apparently to the root of
+some tree.
+
+"Silence all!" cried Amyas, "and paddle up thither and seize the
+canoe.  If there be an Indian on the island, we will have speech of
+him: but mind and treat him friendly; and on your lives, neither
+strike nor shoot, even if he offers to fight."
+
+So, choosing a line of smooth backwater just in the wake of the
+island, they drove their canoes up by main force, and fastened them
+safely by the side of the Indian's, while Amyas, always the
+foremost, sprang boldly on shore, whispering to the Indian boy to
+follow him.
+
+Once on the island, Amyas felt sure enough, that if its wild tenant
+had not seen them approach, he certainly had not heard them, so
+deafening was the noise which filled his brain, and seemed to make
+the very leaves upon the bushes quiver, and the solid stone beneath
+his feet to reel and ring.  For two hundred yards and more above
+the fall nothing met his eye but one white waste of raging foam,
+with here and there a transverse dyke of rock, which hurled columns
+of spray and surges of beaded water high into the air,--strangely
+contrasting with the still and silent cliffs of green leaves which
+walled the river right and left, and more strangely still with the
+knots of enormous palms upon the islets, which reared their
+polished shafts a hundred feet into the air, straight and upright
+as masts, while their broad plumes and golden-clustered fruit slept
+in the sunshine far aloft, the image of the stateliest repose amid
+the wildest wrath of Nature.
+
+He looked round anxiously for the expected Indian; but he was
+nowhere to be seen; and, in the meanwhile, as he stept cautiously
+along the island, which was some fifty yards in length and breadth,
+his senses, accustomed as they were to such sights, could not help
+dwelling on the exquisite beauty of the scene; on the garden of gay
+flowers, of every imaginable form and hue, which fringed every
+boulder at his feet, peeping out amid delicate fern-fans and
+luxuriant cushions of moss; on the chequered shade of the palms,
+and the cool air, which wafted down from the cataracts above the
+scents of a thousand flowers.  Gradually his ear became accustomed
+to the roar, and, above its mighty undertone, he could hear the
+whisper of the wind among the shrubs, and the hum of myriad
+insects; while the rock manakin, with its saffron plumage, flitted
+before him from stone to stone, calling cheerily, and seeming to
+lead him on.  Suddenly, scrambling over the rocky flower-beds to
+the other side of the isle, he came upon a little shady beach,
+which, beneath a bank of stone some six feet high, fringed the edge
+of a perfectly still and glassy bay.  Ten yards farther, the
+cataract fell sheer in thunder: but a high fern-fringed rock turned
+its force away from that quiet nook.  In it the water swung slowly
+round and round in glassy dark-green rings, among which dimpled a
+hundred gaudy fish, waiting for every fly and worm which spun and
+quivered on the eddy.  Here, if anywhere, was the place to find the
+owner of the canoe.  He leapt down upon the pebbles; and as he did
+so, a figure rose from behind a neighboring rock, and met him face
+to face.
+
+It was an Indian girl; and yet, when he looked again,--was it an
+Indian girl?  Amyas had seen hundreds of those delicate dark-
+skinned daughters of the forest, but never such a one as this.  Her
+stature was taller, her limbs were fuller and more rounded; her
+complexion, though tanned by light, was fairer by far than his own
+sunburnt face; her hair, crowned with a garland of white flowers,
+was not lank, and straight, and black, like an Indian's, but of a
+rich, glossy brown, and curling richly and crisply from her very
+temples to her knees.  Her forehead, though low, was upright and
+ample; her nose was straight and small; her lips, the lips of a
+European; her whole face of the highest and richest type of Spanish
+beauty; a collar of gold mingled with green beads hung round her
+neck, and golden bracelets were on her wrists.  All the strange and
+dim legends of white Indians, and of nations of a higher race than
+Carib, or Arrowak, or Solimo, which Amyas had ever heard, rose up
+in his memory.  She must be the daughter of some great cacique,
+perhaps of the lost Incas themselves--why not?  And full of simple
+wonder, he gazed upon that fairy vision, while she, unabashed in
+her free innocence, gazed fearlessly in return, as Eve might have
+done in Paradise, upon the mighty stature, and the strange
+garments, and above all, on the bushy beard and flowing yellow
+locks of the Englishman.
+
+He spoke first, in some Indian tongue, gently and smilingly, and
+made a half-step forward; but quick as light she caught up from the
+ground a bow, and held it fiercely toward him, fitted with the long
+arrow, with which, as he could see, she had been striking fish, for
+a line of twisted grass hung from its barbed head.  Amyas stopped,
+laid down his own bow and sword, and made another step in advance,
+smiling still, and making all Indian signs of amity: but the arrow
+was still pointed straight at his breast, and he knew the mettle
+and strength of the forest nymphs well enough to stand still and
+call for the Indian boy; too proud to retreat, but in the
+uncomfortable expectation of feeling every moment the shaft
+quivering between his ribs.
+
+The boy, who had been peering from above, leaped down to them in a
+moment; and began, as the safest method, grovelling on his nose
+upon the pebbles, while he tried two or three dialects; one of
+which at last she seemed to understand, and answered in a tone of
+evident suspicion and anger.
+
+"What does she say?"
+
+"That you are a Spaniard and a robber, because you have a beard."
+
+"Tell her that we are no Spaniards, but that we hate them; and are
+come across the great waters to help the Indians to kill them."
+
+The boy translated his speech.  The nymph answered by a
+contemptuous shake of the head.
+
+"Tell her, that if she will send her tribe to us, we will do them
+no harm.  We are going over the mountains to fight the Spaniards,
+and we want them to show us the way."
+
+The boy had no sooner spoken, than, nimble as a deer, the nymph had
+sprung up the rocks, and darted between the palm-stems to her
+canoe.  Suddenly she caught sight of the English boat, and stopped
+with a cry of fear and rage.
+
+"Let her pass!" shouted Amyas, who had followed her close.  "Push
+your boat off, and let her pass.  Boy, tell her to go on; they will
+not come near her."
+
+But she hesitated still, and with arrow drawn to the head, faced
+first on the boat's crew, and then on Amyas, till the Englishmen
+had shoved off full twenty yards.
+
+Then, leaping into her tiny piragua, she darted into the wildest
+whirl of the eddies, shooting along with vigorous strokes, while
+the English trembled as they saw the frail bark spinning and
+leaping amid the muzzles of the alligators, and the huge dog-
+toothed trout: but with the swiftness of an arrow she reached the
+northern bank, drove her canoe among the bushes, and leaping from
+it, darted through some narrow opening in the bush, and vanished
+like a dream.
+
+"What fair virago have you unearthed?" cried Cary, as they toiled
+up again to the landing-place.
+
+"Beshrew me," quoth Jack, "but we are in the very land of the
+nymphs, and I shall expect to see Diana herself next, with the moon
+on her forehead."
+
+"Take care, then, where you wander hereabouts, Sir John: lest you
+end as Actaeon did, by turning into a stag, and being eaten by a
+jaguar."
+
+"Actaeon was eaten by his own hounds, Mr. Cary, so the parallel
+don't hold.  But surely she was a very wonder of beauty!"
+
+Why was it that Amyas did not like this harmless talk?  There had
+come over him the strangest new feeling; as if that fair vision was
+his property, and the men had no right to talk about her, no right
+to have even seen her.  And he spoke quite surlily as he said--
+
+"You may leave the women to themselves, my masters; you'll have to
+deal with the men ere long: so get your canoes up on the rock, and
+keep good watch."
+
+"Hillo!" shouted one in a few minutes, "here's fresh fish enough to
+feed us all round.  I suppose that young cat-a-mountain left it
+behind her in her hurry.  I wish she had left her golden chains and
+ouches into the bargain."
+
+"Well," said another, " we'll take it as fair payment, for having
+made us drop down the current again to let her ladyship pass."
+
+"Leave that fish alone," said Amyas; "it is none of yours."
+
+"Why, sir!" quoth the finder in a tone of sulky deprecation.
+
+"If we are to make good friends with the heathens, we had better
+not begin by stealing their goods.  There are plenty more fish in
+the river; go and catch them, and let the Indians have their own."
+
+The men were accustomed enough to strict and stern justice in their
+dealings with the savages: but they could not help looking slyly at
+each other, and hinting, when out of sight, that the captain seemed
+in a mighty fuss about his new acquaintance.
+
+However, they were expert by this time in all the Indian's fishing
+methods; and so abundant was the animal life which swarmed around
+every rock, that in an hour fish enough lay on the beach to feed
+them all; whose forms and colors, names and families, I must leave
+the reader to guess from the wondrous pages of Sir Richard
+Schomburgk, for I know too little of them to speak without the fear
+of making mistakes.
+
+A full hour passed before they saw anything more of their Indian
+neighbors; and then from under the bushes shot out a canoe, on
+which all eyes were fixed in expectation.
+
+Amyas, who expected to find there some remnant of a higher race,
+was disappointed enough at seeing on board only the usual half-
+dozen of low-browed, dirty Orsons, painted red with arnotto: but a
+gray-headed elder at the stern seemed, by his feathers and gold
+ornaments, to be some man of note in the little woodland community.
+
+The canoe came close up to the island; Amyas saw that they were
+unarmed, and, laying down his weapons, advanced alone to the bank,
+making all signs of amity.  They were returned with interest by the
+old man, and Amyas's next care was to bring forward the fish which
+the fair nymph had left behind, and, through the medium of the
+Indian lad, to give the cacique (for so he seemed to be) to
+understand that he wished to render every one his own.  This offer
+was received, as Amyas expected, with great applause, and the canoe
+came alongside; but the crew still seemed afraid to land.  Amyas
+bade his men throw the fish one by one into the boat; and then
+proclaimed by the boy's mouth, as was his custom with all Indians,
+that he and his were enemies of the Spaniards, and on their way to
+make war against them,--and that all which they desired was a
+peaceable and safe passage through the dominions of the mighty
+potentate and renowned warrior whom they beheld before them; for
+Amyas argued rightly enough, that even if the old fellow aft was
+not the cacique, he would be none the less pleased at being
+mistaken for him.
+
+Whereon the ancient worthy, rising in the canoe, pointed to heaven,
+earth, and the things under, and commenced a long sermon, in tone,
+manner, and articulation, very like one of those which the great
+black-bearded apes were in the habit of preaching every evening
+when they could get together a congregation of little monkeys to
+listen, to the great scandal of Jack, who would have it that some
+evil spirit set them on to mimic him; which sermon, being partly
+interpreted by the Indian lad, seemed to signify, that the valor
+and justice of the white men had already reached the ears of the
+speaker, and that he was sent to welcome them into those regions by
+the Daughter of the Sun.
+
+"The Daughter of the Sun!" quoth Amyas; "then we have found the
+lost Incas after all."
+
+"We have found something," said Cary; "I only hope it may not be a
+mare's nest, like many another of our finding."
+
+"Or an adder's," said Yeo.  "We must beware of treachery."
+
+"We must beware of no such thing," said Amyas, pretty sharply.
+"Have I not told you fifty times, that if they see that we trust
+them, they will trust us, and if they see that we suspect them,
+they will suspect us?  And when two parties are watching to see who
+strikes the first blow, they are sure to come to fisticuffs from
+mere dirty fear of each other."
+
+Amyas spoke truth; for almost every atrocity against savages which
+had been committed by the Spaniards, and which was in later and
+worse times committed by the English, was wont to be excused in
+that same base fear of treachery.  Amyas's plan, like that of
+Drake, and Cook, and all great English voyagers, had been all along
+to inspire at once awe and confidence, by a frank and fearless
+carriage; and he was not disappointed here.  He bade the men step
+boldly into their canoes, and follow the old Indian whither he
+would.  The simple children of the forest bowed themselves
+reverently before the mighty strangers, and then led them smilingly
+across the stream, and through a narrow passage in the covert, to a
+hidden lagoon, on the banks of which stood, not Manoa, but a tiny
+Indian village.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+HOW AMYAS WAS TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL
+
+
+"Let us alone.  What pleasure can we have
+   To war with evil?  Is there any peace
+ In always climbing up the climbing wave?
+   All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave
+ In silence; ripen, fall, and cease:
+   Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease."
+
+                                                   TENNYSON.
+
+
+Humboldt has somewhere a curious passage; in which, looking on some
+wretched group of Indians, squatting stupidly round their fires,
+besmeared with grease and paint, and devouring ants and clay, he
+somewhat naively remarks, that were it not for science, which
+teaches us that such is the crude material of humanity, and this
+the state from which we all have risen, he should have been tempted
+rather to look upon those hapless beings as the last degraded
+remnants of some fallen and dying race.  One wishes that the great
+traveller had been bold enough to yield to that temptation, which
+his own reason and common sense presented to him as the real
+explanation of the sad sight, instead of following the dogmas of a
+so-called science, which has not a fact whereon to base its wild
+notion, and must ignore a thousand facts in asserting it.  His own
+good sense, it seems, coincided instinctively with the Bible
+doctrine, that man in a state of nature is a fallen being, doomed
+to death--a view which may be a sad one, but still one more
+honorable to poor humanity than the theory, that we all began as
+some sort of two-handed apes.  It is surely more hopeful to believe
+that those poor Otomacs or Guahibas were not what they ought to be,
+than to believe that they were.  It is certainly more complimentary
+to them to think that they had been somewhat nobler and more
+prudent in centuries gone by, than that they were such blockheads
+as to have dragged on, the son after the father, for all the
+thousands of years which have elapsed since man was made, without
+having had wit enough to discover any better food than ants and
+clay.
+
+Our voyagers, however, like those of their time, troubled their
+heads with no such questions.  Taking the Bible story as they found
+it, they agreed with Humboldt's reason, and not with his science;
+or, to speak correctly, agreed with Humboldt's self, and not with
+the shallow anthropologic theories which happened to be in vogue
+fifty years ago; and their new hosts were in their eyes immortal
+souls like themselves, "captivated by the devil at his will," lost
+there in the pathless forests, likely to be lost hereafter.
+
+And certainly facts seemed to bear out their old-fashioned
+theories; although these Indians had sunk by no means so low as the
+Guahibas whom they had met upon the lower waters of the same river.
+
+They beheld, on landing, a scattered village of palm-leaf sheds,
+under which, as usual, the hammocks were slung from tree to tree.
+Here and there, in openings in the forest, patches of cassava and
+indigo appeared; and there was a look of neatness and comfort about
+the little settlement superior to the average.
+
+But now for the signs of the evil spirit.  Certainly it was no good
+spirit who had inspired them with the art of music; or else (as
+Cary said) Apollo and Mercury (if they ever visited America) had
+played their forefathers a shabby trick, and put them off with very
+poor instruments, and still poorer taste.  For on either side of
+the landing-place were arranged four or five stout fellows, each
+with a tall drum, or long earthen trumpet, swelling out in the
+course of its length into several hollow balls from which arose,
+the moment the strangers set foot on shore, so deafening a
+cacophony of howls, and groans, and thumps, as fully to justify
+Yeo's remark, "They are calling upon their devil, sir."  To which
+Cary answered, with some show of reason, that "they were the less
+likely to be disappointed, for none but Sir Urian would ever come
+to listen to such a noise."
+
+"And you mark, sirs," said Yeo, "there's some feast or sacrifice
+toward.  "I'm not overconfident of them yet."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Amyas, "we could kill every soul of them in half-
+an-hour, and they know that as well as we."
+
+But some great demonstration was plainly toward; for the children
+of the forest were arrayed in two lines, right and left of the open
+space, the men in front, and the women behind; and all bedizened,
+to the best of their power, with arnotto, indigo, and feathers.
+
+Next, with a hideous yell, leapt into the centre of the space a
+personage who certainly could not have complained if any one had
+taken him for the devil, for he had dressed himself up carefully
+for that very intent, in a jaguar-skin with a long tail, grinning
+teeth, a pair of horns, a plume of black and yellow feathers, and a
+huge rattle.
+
+"Here's the Piache, the rascal," says Amyas.
+
+"Ay," says Yeo, "in Satan's livery, and I've no doubt his works are
+according, trust him for it."
+
+"Don't be frightened, Jack," says Cary, backing up Brimblecombe
+from behind.  "It's your business to tackle him, you know.  At him
+boldly, and he'll run."
+
+Whereat all the men laughed; and the Piache, who had intended to
+produce a very solemn impression, hung fire a little.  However,
+being accustomed to get his bread by his impudence, he soon
+recovered himself, advanced, smote one of the musicians over the
+head with his rattle to procure silence; and then began a harangue,
+to which Amyas listened patiently, cigar in mouth.
+
+"What's it all about, boy?"
+
+"He wants to know whether you have seen Amalivaca on the other
+shore of the great water?"
+
+Amyas was accustomed to this inquiry after the mythic civilizer of
+the forest Indians, who, after carving the mysterious sculptures
+which appear upon so many inland cliffs of that region, returned
+again whence he came, beyond the ocean.  He answered, as usual, by
+setting forth the praises of Queen Elizabeth.
+
+To which the Piache replied, that she must be one of Amalivaca's
+seven daughters, some of whom he took back with him, while be broke
+the legs of the rest to prevent their running away, and left them
+to people the forests.
+
+To which Amyas replied, that his queen's legs were certainly not
+broken; for she was a very model of grace and activity, and the
+best dancer in all her dominions; but that it was more important to
+him to know whether the tribe would give them cassava bread, and
+let them stay peaceably on that island, to rest a while before they
+went on to fight the clothed men (the Spaniards), on the other side
+of the mountains.
+
+On which the Piache, after capering and turning head over heels
+with much howling, beckoned Amyas and his party to follow him; they
+did so, seeing that the Indians were all unarmed, and evidently in
+the highest good humor.
+
+The Piache went toward the door of a carefully closed hut, and
+crawling up to it on all-fours in most abject fashion, began
+whining to some one within.
+
+"Ask what he is about, boy."
+
+The lad asked the old cacique, who had accompanied them, and
+received for answer, that he was consulting the Daughter of the
+Sun.
+
+"Here is our mare's nest at last," quoth Cary, as the Piache from
+whines rose to screams and gesticulations, and then to violent
+convulsions, foaming at the mouth, and rolling of the eyeballs,
+till he suddenly sank exhausted, and lay for dead.
+
+"As good as a stage play."
+
+"The devil has played his part," says Jack; "and now by the rules
+of all plays Vice should come on."
+
+"And a very fair Vice it will be, I suspect; a right sweet
+Iniquity, my Jack!  Listen."
+
+And from the interior of the hut rose a low sweet song, at which
+all the simple Indians bowed their heads in reverence; and the
+English were hushed in astonishment; for the voice was not shrill
+or guttural, like that of an Indian, but round, clear, and rich,
+like a European's; and as it swelled and rose louder and louder,
+showed a compass and power which would have been extraordinary
+anywhere (and many a man of the party, as was usual in musical old
+England, was a good judge enough of such a matter, and could hold
+his part right well in glee, and catch, and roundelay, and psalm).
+And as it leaped, and ran, and sank again, and rose once more to
+fall once more, all but inarticulate, yet perfect in melody, like
+the voice of bird on bough, the wild wanderers were rapt in new
+delight, and did not wonder at the Indians as they bowed their
+heads, and welcomed the notes as messengers from some higher world.
+At last one triumphant burst, so shrill that all ears rang again,
+and then dead silence.  The Piache, suddenly restored to life,
+jumped upright, and recommenced preaching at Amyas.
+
+"Tell the howling villain to make short work of it, lad!  His tune
+won't do after that last one."
+
+The lad, grinning, informed Amyas that the Piache signified their
+acceptance as friends by the Daughter of the Sun; that her friends
+were theirs, and her foes theirs.  Whereon the Indians set up a
+scream of delight, and Amyas, rolling another tobacco leaf up in
+another strip of plantain, answered,--
+
+"Then let her give us some cassava," and lighted a fresh cigar.
+
+Whereon the door of the hut opened, and the Indians prostrated
+themselves to the earth, as there came forth the same fair
+apparition which they had encountered upon the island, but decked
+now in feather-robes, and plumes of every imaginable hue.
+
+Slowly and stately, as one accustomed to command, she walked up to
+Amyas, glancing proudly round on her prostrate adorers, and
+pointing with graceful arms to the trees, the gardens, and the
+huts, gave him to understand by signs (so expressive were her
+looks, that no words were needed) that all was at his service;
+after which, taking his hand, she lifted it gently to her forehead.
+
+At that sign of submission a shout of rapture rose from the crowd;
+and as the mysterious maiden retired again to her hut, they pressed
+round the English, caressing and admiring, pointing with equal
+surprise to their swords, to their Indian bows and blow-guns, and
+to the trophies of wild beasts with which they were clothed; while
+women hastened off to bring fruit, and flowers, and cassava, and
+(to Amyas's great anxiety) calabashes of intoxicating drink; and,
+to make a long story short, the English sat down beneath the trees,
+and feasted merrily, while the drums and trumpets made hideous
+music, and lithe young girls and lads danced uncouth dances, which
+so scandalized both Brimblecombe and Yeo, that they persuaded Amyas
+to beat an early retreat.  He was willing enough to get back to the
+island while the men were still sober; so there were many leave-
+takings and promises of return on the morrow, and the party paddled
+back to their island-fortress, racking their wits as to who or what
+the mysterious maid could be.
+
+Amyas, however, had settled in his mind that she was one of the
+lost Inca race; perhaps a descendant of that very fair girl, wife
+of the Inca Manco, whom Pizarro, forty years before, had, merely to
+torture the fugitive king's heart, as his body was safe from the
+tyrant's reach, stripped, scourged, and shot to death with arrows,
+uncomplaining to the last.
+
+They all assembled for the evening service (hardly a day had passed
+since they left England on which they had not done the same); and
+after it was over, they must needs sing a Psalm, and then a catch
+or two, ere they went to sleep; and till the moon was high in
+heaven, twenty mellow voices rang out above the roar of the
+cataract, in many a good old tune.  Once or twice they thought they
+heard an echo to their song: but they took no note of it, till
+Cary, who had gone apart for a few minutes, returned, and whispered
+Amyas away.
+
+"The sweet Iniquity is mimicking us, lad."
+
+They went to the brink of the river; and there (for their ears were
+by this time dead to the noise of the torrent) they could hear
+plainly the same voice which had so surprised them in the hut,
+repeating, clear and true, snatches of the airs which they had
+sung.  Strange and solemn enough was the effect of the men's deep
+voices on the island, answered out of the dark forest by those
+sweet treble notes; and the two young men stood a long while
+listening and looking out across the eddies, which swirled down
+golden in the moonlight: but they could see nothing beyond save the
+black wall of trees.  After a while the voice ceased, and the two
+returned to dream of Incas and nightingales.
+
+They visited the village again next day; and every day for a week
+or more: but the maiden appeared but rarely, and when she did, kept
+her distance as haughtily as a queen.
+
+Amyas, of course, as soon as he could converse somewhat better with
+his new friends, was not long before he questioned the cacique
+about her.  But the old man made an owl's face at her name, and
+intimated by mysterious shakes of the head, that she was a very
+strange personage, and the less said about her the better.  She was
+"a child of the Sun," and that was enough.
+
+"Tell him, boy," quoth Cary, "that we are the children of the Sun
+by his first wife; and have orders from him to inquire how the
+Indians have behaved to our step-sister, for he cannot see all
+their tricks down here, the trees are so thick.  So let him tell
+us, or all the cassava plants shall be blighted."
+
+"Will, Will, don't play with lying!" said Amyas: but the threat was
+enough for the cacique, and taking them in his canoe a full mile
+down the stream, as if in fear that the wonderful maiden should
+overhear him, he told them, in a sort of rhythmic chant, how, many
+moons ago (he could not tell how many), his tribe was a mighty
+nation, and dwelt in Papamene, till the Spaniards drove them forth.
+And how, as they wandered northward, far away upon the mountain
+spurs beneath the flaming cone of Cotopaxi, they had found this
+fair creature wandering in the forest, about the bigness of a seven
+years' child.  Wondering at her white skin and her delicate beauty,
+the simple Indians worshipped her as a god, and led her home with
+them.  And when they found that she was human like themselves,
+their wonder scarcely lessened.  How could so tender a being have
+sustained life in those forests, and escaped the jaguar and the
+snake?  She must be under some Divine protection: she must be a
+daughter of the Sun, one of that mighty Inca race, the news of
+whose fearful fall had reached even those lonely wildernesses; who
+had, many of them, haunted for years as exiles the eastern slopes
+of the Andes, about the Ucalayi and the Maranon; who would, as all
+Indians knew, rise again some day to power, when bearded white men
+should come across the seas to restore them to their ancient
+throne.
+
+So, as the girl grew up among them, she was tended with royal
+honors, by command of the conjuror of the tribe, that so her
+forefather the Sun might be propitious to them, and the Incas might
+show favor to the poor ruined Omaguas, in the day of their coming
+glory.  And as she grew, she had become, it seemed, somewhat of a
+prophetess among them, as well as an object of fetish-worship; for
+she was more prudent in council, valiant in war, and cunning in the
+chase, than all the elders of the tribe; and those strange and
+sweet songs of hers, which had so surprised the white men, were
+full of mysterious wisdom about the birds, and the animals, and the
+flowers, and the rivers, which the Sun and the Good Spirit taught
+her from above.  So she had lived among them, unmarried still, not
+only because she despised the addresses of all Indian youths, but
+because the conjuror had declared it to be profane in them to
+mingle with the race of the Sun, and had assigned her a cabin near
+his own, where she was served in state, and gave some sort of
+oracular responses, as they had seen, to the questions which be put
+to her.
+
+Such was the cacique's tale; on which Cary remarked, probably not
+unjustly, that he "dared to say the conjuror made a very good thing
+of it:" but Amyas was silent, full of dreams, if not about Manoa,
+still about the remnant of the Inca race.  What if they were still
+to be found about the southern sources of the Amazon?  He must have
+been very near them already, in that case.  It was vexatious; but
+at least he might be sure that they had formed no great kingdom in
+that direction, or he should have heard of it long ago.  Perhaps
+they had moved lately from thence eastward, to escape some fresh
+encroachment of the Spaniards; and this girl had been left behind
+in their flight.  And then he recollected, with a sigh, how
+hopeless was any further search with his diminished band.  At
+least, he might learn something of the truth from the maiden
+herself.  It might be useful to him in some future attempt; for he
+had not yet given up Manoa.  If he but got safe home, there was
+many a gallant gentleman (and Raleigh came at once into his mind)
+who would join him in a fresh search for the Golden City of Guiana;
+not by the upper waters, but by the mouth of the Orinoco.
+
+So they paddled back, while the simple cacique entreated them to
+tell the Sun, in their daily prayers, how well the wild people had
+treated his descendant; and besought them not to take her away with
+them, lest the Sun should forget the poor Omaguas, and ripen their
+manioc and their fruit no more.
+
+Amyas had no wish to stay where he was longer than was absolutely
+necessary to bring up the sick men from the Orinoco; but this, he
+well knew, would be a journey probably of some months, and attended
+with much danger.
+
+Cary volunteered at once, however, to undertake the adventure, if
+half-a-dozen men would join him, and the Indians would send a few
+young men to help in working the canoe: but this latter item was
+not an easy one to obtain; for the tribe with whom they now were,
+stood in some fear of the fierce and brutal Guahibas, through whose
+country they must pass; and every Indian tribe, as Amyas knew well
+enough, looks on each tribe of different language to itself as
+natural enemies, hateful, and made only to be destroyed wherever
+met.  This strange fact, too, Amyas and his party attributed to
+delusion of the devil, the divider and accuser; and I am of opinion
+that they were perfectly right: only let Amyas take care that while
+he is discovering the devil in the Indians, he does not give place
+to him in himself, and that in more ways than one.  But of that
+more hereafter.
+
+Whether, however, it was pride or shyness which kept the maiden
+aloof, she conquered it after a while; perhaps through mere woman's
+curiosity; and perhaps, too, from mere longing for amusement in a
+place so unspeakably stupid as the forest.  She gave the English to
+understand, however, that though they all might be very important
+personages, none of them was to be her companion but Amyas.  And
+ere a month was past, she was often hunting with him far and wide
+in the neighboring forest, with a train of chosen nymphs, whom she
+had persuaded to follow her example and spurn the dusky suitors
+around.  This fashion, not uncommon, perhaps, among the Indian
+tribes, where women are continually escaping to the forest from the
+tyranny of the men, and often, perhaps, forming temporary
+communities, was to the English a plain proof that they were near
+the land of the famous Amazons, of whom they had heard so often
+from the Indians; while Amyas had no doubt that, as a descendant of
+the Incas, the maiden preserved the tradition of the Virgins of the
+Sun, and of the austere monastic rule of the Peruvian superstition.
+Had not that valiant German, George of Spires, and Jeronimo Ortal
+too, fifty years before, found convents of the Sun upon these very
+upper waters?
+
+So a harmless friendship sprang up between Amyas and the girl,
+which soon turned to good account.  For she no sooner heard that he
+needed a crew of Indians, than she consulted the Piache, assembled
+the tribe, and having retired to her hut, commenced a song, which
+(unless the Piache lied) was a command to furnish young men for
+Cary's expedition, under penalty of the sovereign displeasure of an
+evil spirit with an unpronounceable name--an argument which
+succeeded on the spot, and the canoe departed on its perilous
+errand.
+
+John Brimblecombe had great doubts whether a venture thus started
+by direct help and patronage of the fiend would succeed; and Amyas
+himself, disliking the humbug, told Ayacanora that it would be
+better to have told the tribe that it was a good deed, and pleasing
+to the Good Spirit.
+
+"Ah!" said she, naively enough, "they know better than that.  The
+Good Spirit is big and lazy; and he smiles, and takes no trouble:
+but the little bad spirit, he is so busy--here, and there, and
+everywhere," and she waved her pretty hands up and down; "he is the
+useful one to have for a friend!"  Which sentiment the Piache much
+approved, as became his occupation; and once told Brimblecombe
+pretty sharply, that he was a meddlesome fellow for telling the
+Indians that the Good Spirit cared for them; "for," quoth he, "if
+they begin to ask the Good Spirit for what they want, who will
+bring me cassava and coca for keeping the bad spirit quiet?"  This
+argument, however forcible the devil's priests in all ages have
+felt it to be, did not stop Jack's preaching (and very good and
+righteous preaching it was, moreover), and much less the morning
+and evening service in the island camp.  This last, the Indians,
+attracted by the singing, attended in such numbers, that the Piache
+found his occupation gone, and vowed to put an end to Jack's Gospel
+with a poisoned arrow.
+
+Which plan he (blinded by his master, Satan, so Jack phrased it)
+took into his head to impart to Ayacanora, as the partner of his
+tithes and offerings; and was exceedingly astonished to receive in
+answer a box on the ear, and a storm of abuse.  After which,
+Ayacanora went to Amyas, and telling him all, proposed that the
+Piache should be thrown to the alligators, and Jack installed in
+his place; declaring that whatsoever the bearded men said must be
+true, and whosoever plotted against them should die the death.
+
+Jack, however, magnanimously forgave his foe, and preached on, of
+course with fresh zeal; but not, alas! with much success.  For the
+conjuror, though his main treasure was gone over to the camp of the
+enemy, had a reserve in a certain holy trumpet, which was hidden
+mysteriously in a cave on the neighboring hills, not to be looked
+on by woman under pain of death; and it was well known, and had
+been known for generations, that unless that trumpet, after
+fastings, flagellations, and other solemn rites, was blown by night
+throughout the woods, the palm-trees would bear no fruit; yea, so
+great was the fame of that trumpet, that neighboring tribes sent at
+the proper season to hire it and the blower thereof, by payment of
+much precious trumpery, that so they might be sharers in its
+fertilizing powers.
+
+So the Piache announced one day in public, that in consequence of
+the impiety of the Omaguas, he should retire to a neighboring
+tribe, of more religious turn of mind; and taking with him the
+precious instrument, leave their palms to blight, and themselves to
+the evil spirit.
+
+Dire was the wailing, and dire the wrath throughout the village.
+Jack's words were allowed to be good words; but what was the Gospel
+in comparison of the trumpet?  The rascal saw his advantage, and
+began a fierce harangue against the heretic strangers.  As he
+maddened, his hearers maddened; the savage nature, capricious as a
+child's, flashed out in wild suspicion.  Women yelled, men scowled,
+and ran hastily to their huts for bows and blow-guns.  The case was
+grown critical.  There were not more than a dozen men with Amyas at
+the time, and they had only their swords, while the Indian men
+might muster nearly a hundred.  Amyas forbade his men either to
+draw or to retreat; but poisoned arrows were weapons before which
+the boldest might well quail; and more than one cheek grew pale,
+which had seldom been pale before.
+
+"It is God's quarrel, sirs all," said Jack Brimblecombe; "let Him
+defend the right."
+
+As he spoke, from Ayacanora's hut arose her magic song, and
+quivered aloft among the green heights of the forest.
+
+The mob stood spell-bound, still growling fiercely, but not daring
+to move.  Another moment, and she had rushed out, like a very
+Diana, into the centre of the ring, bow in hand, and arrow on the
+string.
+
+The fallen "children of wrath" had found their match in her; for
+her beautiful face was convulsed with fury.  Almost foaming in her
+passion, she burst forth with bitter revilings; she pointed with
+admiration to the English, and then with fiercest contempt to the
+Indians; and at last, with fierce gestures, seemed to cast off the
+very dust of her feet against them, and springing to Amyas's side,
+placed herself in the forefront of the English battle.
+
+The whole scene was so sudden, that Amyas had hardly discovered
+whether she came as friend or foe, before her bow was raised.  He
+had just time to strike up her hand, when the arrow flew past the
+ear of the offending Piache, and stuck quivering in a tree.
+
+"Let me kill the wretch!" said she, stamping with rage; but Amyas
+held her arm firmly.
+
+"Fools!" cried she to the tribe, while tears of anger rolled down
+her cheeks.  "Choose between me and your trumpet!  I am a daughter
+of the Sun; I am white; I am a companion for Englishmen!  But you!
+your mothers were Guahibas, and ate mud; and your fathers--they
+were howling apes!  Let them sing to you!  I shall go to the white
+men, and never sing you to sleep any more; and when the little evil
+spirit misses my voice, he will come and tumble you out of your
+hammocks, and make you dream of ghosts every night, till you grow
+as thin as blow-guns, and as stupid as aye-ayes!"*
+
+
+* Two-toed sloths.
+
+
+This terrible counter-threat, in spite of the slight bathos
+involved, had its effect; for it appealed to that dread of the
+sleep world which is common to all savages: but the conjuror was
+ready to outbid the prophetess, and had begun a fresh oration, when
+Amyas turned the tide of war.  Bursting into a huge laugh at the
+whole matter, he took the conjuror by his shoulders, sent him with
+one crafty kick half-a-dozen yards off upon his nose; and then,
+walking out of the ranks, shook hands round with all his Indian
+acquaintances.
+
+Whereon, like grown-up babies, they all burst out laughing too,
+shook hands with all the English, and then with each other; being,
+after all, as glad as any bishops to prorogue the convocation, and
+let unpleasant questions stand over till the next session.  The
+Piache relented, like a prudent man; Ayacanora returned to her hut
+to sulk; and Amyas to his island, to long for Cary's return, for he
+felt himself on dangerous ground.
+
+At last Will returned, safe and sound, and as merry as ever, not
+having lost a man (though he had had a smart brush with the
+Guahibas).  He brought back three of the wounded men, now pretty
+nigh cured; the other two, who had lost a leg apiece, had refused
+to come.  They had Indian wives; more than they could eat; and
+tobacco without end: and if it were not for the gnats (of which
+Cary said that there were more mosquitoes than there was air), they
+should be the happiest men alive.  Amyas could hardly blame the
+poor fellows; for the chance of their getting home through the
+forest with one leg each was very small, and, after all, they were
+making the best of a bad matter.  And a very bad matter it seemed
+to him, to be left in a heathen land; and a still worse matter,
+when he overheard some of the men talking about their comrades'
+lonely fate, as if, after all, they were not so much to be pitied.
+He said nothing about it then, for he made a rule never to take
+notice of any facts which he got at by eavesdropping, however
+unintentional; but he longed that one of them would say as much to
+him, and he would "give them a piece of his mind."  And a piece of
+his mind he had to give within the week; for while he was on a
+hunting party, two of his men were missing, and were not heard of
+for some days; at the end of which time the old cacique come to
+tell him that he believed they had taken to the forest, each with
+an Indian girl.
+
+Amyas was very wroth at the news.  First, because it had never
+happened before: he could say with honest pride, as Raleigh did
+afterwards when he returned from his Guiana voyage, that no Indian
+woman had ever been the worse for any man of his.  He had preached
+on this point month after month, and practised what he preached;
+and now his pride was sorely hurt.
+
+Moreover, he dreaded offence to the Indians themselves: but on this
+score the cacique soon comforted him, telling him that the girls,
+as far as he could find, had gone off of their own free will;
+intimating that he thought it somewhat an honor to the tribe that
+they had found favor in the eyes of the bearded men; and moreover,
+that late wars had so thinned the ranks of their men, that they
+were glad enough to find husbands for their maidens, and had been
+driven of late years to kill many of their female infants.  This
+sad story, common perhaps to every American tribe, and one of the
+chief causes of their extermination, reassured Amyas somewhat: but
+he could not stomach either the loss of his men, or their breach of
+discipline; and look for them he would.  Did any one know where
+they were?  If the tribe knew, they did not care to tell: but
+Ayacanora, the moment she found out his wishes, vanished into the
+forest, and returned in two days, saying that she had found the
+fugitives; but she would not show him where they were, unless he
+promised not to kill them.  He, of course, had no mind for so
+rigorous a method: he both needed the men, and he had no malice
+against them,--for the one, Ebsworthy, was a plain, honest, happy-
+go-lucky sailor, and as good a hand as there was in the crew; and
+the other was that same ne'er-do-weel Will Parracombe, his old
+schoolfellow, who had been tempted by the gipsy-Jesuit at
+Appledore, and resisting that bait, had made a very fair seaman.
+
+So forth Amyas went, with Ayacanora as a guide, some five miles
+upward along the forest slopes, till the girl whispered, "There
+they are;" and Amyas, pushing himself gently through a thicket of
+bamboo, beheld a scene which, in spite of his wrath, kept him
+silent, and perhaps softened, for a minute.
+
+On the farther side of a little lawn, the stream leapt through a
+chasm beneath overarching vines, sprinkling eternal freshness upon
+all around, and then sank foaming into a clear rock-basin, a bath
+for Dian's self.  On its farther side, the crag rose some twenty
+feet in height, bank upon bank of feathered ferns and cushioned
+moss, over the rich green beds of which drooped a thousand orchids,
+scarlet, white, and orange, and made the still pool gorgeous with
+the reflection of their gorgeousness.  At its more quiet outfall,
+it was half-hidden in huge fantastic leaves and tall flowering
+stems; but near the waterfall the grassy bank sloped down toward
+the stream, and there, on palm-leaves strewed upon the turf,
+beneath the shadow of the crags, lay the two men whom Amyas sought,
+and whom, now he had found them, he had hardly heart to wake from
+their delicious dream.
+
+For what a nest it was which they had found! the air was heavy with
+the scent of flowers, and quivering with the murmur of the stream,
+the humming of the colibris and insects, the cheerful song of
+birds, the gentle cooing of a hundred doves; while now and then,
+from far away, the musical wail of the sloth, or the deep toll of
+the bell-bird, came softly to the ear.  What was not there which
+eye or ear could need?  And what which palate could need either?
+For on the rock above, some strange tree, leaning forward, dropped
+every now and then a luscious apple upon the grass below, and huge
+wild plantains bent beneath their load of fruit.
+
+There, on the stream bank, lay the two renegades from civilized
+life.  They had cast away their clothes, and painted themselves,
+like the Indians, with arnotto and indigo.  One lay lazily picking
+up the fruit which fell close to his side; the other sat, his back
+against a cushion of soft moss, his hands folded languidly upon his
+lap, giving himself up to the soft influence of the narcotic coca-
+juice, with half-shut dreamy eyes fixed on the everlasting sparkle
+of the waterfall--
+
+
+     "While beauty, born of murmuring sound,
+      Did pass into his face."
+
+
+Somewhat apart crouched their two dusky brides, crowned with
+fragrant flowers, but working busily, like true women, for the
+lords whom they delighted to honor.  One sat plaiting palm fibres
+into a basket; the other was boring the stem of a huge milk-tree,
+which rose like some mighty column on the right hand of the lawn,
+its broad canopy of leaves unseen through the dense underwood of
+laurel and bamboo, and betokened only by the rustle far aloft, and
+by the mellow shade in which it bathed the whole delicious scene.
+
+Amyas stood silent for awhile, partly from noble shame at seeing
+two Christian men thus fallen of their own self-will; partly
+because--and he could not but confess that--a solemn calm brooded
+above that glorious place, to break through which seemed sacrilege
+even while he felt it a duty.  Such, he thought, was Paradise of
+old; such our first parents' bridal bower!  Ah! if man had not
+fallen, he too might have dwelt forever in such a home--with whom?
+He started, and shaking off the spell, advanced sword in hand.
+
+The women saw him, and springing to their feet, caught up their
+long pocunas, and leapt like deer each in front of her beloved.
+There they stood, the deadly tubes pressed to their lips, eyeing
+him like tigresses who protect their young, while every slender
+limb quivered, not with terror, but with rage.
+
+Amyas paused, half in admiration, half in prudence; for one rash
+step was death.  But rushing through the canes, Ayacanora sprang to
+the front, and shrieked to them in Indian.  At the sight of the
+prophetess the women wavered, and Amyas, putting on as gentle a
+face as he could, stepped forward, assuring them in his best Indian
+that he would harm no one.
+
+"Ebsworthy!  Parracombe!  Are you grown such savages already, that
+you have forgotten your captain?  Stand up, men, and salute!"
+
+Ebsworthy sprang to his feet, obeyed mechanically, and then slipped
+behind his bride again, as if in shame.  The dreamer turned his
+head languidly, raised his hand to his forehead, and then returned
+to his contemplation.
+
+Amyas rested the point of his sword on the ground, and his hands
+upon the hilt, and looked sadly and solemnly upon the pair.
+Ebsworthy broke the silence, half reproachfully, half trying to
+bluster away the coming storm.
+
+"Well, noble captain, so you've hunted out us poor fellows; and
+want to drag us back again in a halter, I suppose?"
+
+"I came to look for Christians, and I find heathens; for men, and I
+find swine.  I shall leave the heathens to their wilderness, and
+the swine to their trough.  Parracombe!"
+
+"He's too happy to answer you, sir.  And why not?  What do you want
+of us?  Our two years vow is out, and we are free men now."
+
+"Free to become like the beasts that perish?  You are the queen's
+servants still, and in her name I charge you--
+
+"Free to be happy," interrupted the man.  "With the best of wives,
+the best of food, a warmer bed than a duke's, and a finer garden
+than an emperor's.  As for clothes, why the plague should a man
+wear them where he don't need them?  As for gold, what's the use of
+it where Heaven sends everything ready-made to your hands?
+Hearken, Captain Leigh.  You've been a good captain to me, and I'll
+repay you with a bit of sound advice.  Give up your gold-hunting,
+and toiling and moiling after honor and glory, and copy us.  Take
+that fair maid behind you there to wife; pitch here with us; and
+see if you are not happier in one day than ever you were in all
+your life before."
+
+"You are drunk, sirrah!  William Parracombe!  Will you speak to me,
+or shall I heave you into the stream to sober you?"
+
+"Who calls William Parracombe?" answered a sleepy voice.
+
+"I, fool!--your captain."
+
+"I am not William Parracombe.  He is dead long ago of hunger, and
+labor, and heavy sorrow, and will never see Bideford town any more.
+He is turned into an Indian now; and he is to sleep, sleep, sleep
+for a hundred years, till he gets his strength again, poor fellow--"
+
+"Awake, then, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and
+Christ shall give thee light!  A christened Englishman, and living
+thus the life of a beast?"
+
+"Christ shall give thee light?" answered the same unnatural
+abstracted voice.  "Yes; so the parsons say.  And they say too,
+that He is Lord of heaven and earth.  I should have thought His
+light was as near us here as anywhere, and nearer too, by the look
+of the place.  Look round!" said he, waving a lazy hand, "and see
+the works of God, and the place of Paradise, whither poor weary
+souls go home and rest, after their masters in the wicked world
+have used them up, with labor and sorrow, and made them wade knee-
+deep in blood--I'm tired of blood, and tired of gold.  I'll march
+no more; I'll fight no more; I'll hunger no more after vanity and
+vexation of spirit.  What shall I get by it?  Maybe I shall leave
+my bones in the wilderness.  I can but do that here.  Maybe I shall
+get home with a few pezos, to die an old cripple in some stinking
+hovel, that a monkey would scorn to lodge in here.  You may go on;
+it'll pay you.  You may be a rich man, and a knight, and live in a
+fine house, and drink good wine, and go to Court, and torment your
+soul with trying to get more, when you've got too much already;
+plotting and planning to scramble upon your neighbor's shoulders,
+as they all did--Sir Richard, and Mr. Raleigh, and Chichester, and
+poor dear old Sir Warham, and all of them that I used to watch when
+I lived before.  They were no happier than I was then; I'll warrant
+they are no happier now.  Go your ways, captain; climb to glory
+upon some other backs than ours, and leave us here in peace, alone
+with God and God's woods, and the good wives that God has given us,
+to play a little like school children.  It's long since I've had
+play-hours; and now I'll be a little child once more, with the
+flowers, and the singing birds, and the silver fishes in the
+stream, that are at peace, and think no harm, and want neither
+clothes, nor money, nor knighthood, nor peerage, but just take what
+comes; and their heavenly Father feedeth them, and Solomon in all
+his glory was not arrayed like one of these--and will He not much
+more feed us, that are of more value than many sparrows?"
+
+"And will you live here, shut out from all Christian ordinances?"
+
+"Christian ordinances?  Adam and Eve had no parsons in Paradise.
+The Lord was their priest, and the Lord was their shepherd, and
+He'll be ours too.  But go your ways, sir, and send up Sir John
+Brimblecombe, and let him marry us here Church fashion (though we
+have sworn troth to each other before God already), and let him
+give us the Holy Sacrament once and for all, and then read the
+funeral service over us, and go his ways, and count us for dead,
+sir--for dead we are to the wicked worthless world we came out of
+three years ago.  And when the Lord chooses to call us, the little
+birds will cover us with leaves, as they did the babies in the
+wood, and fresher flowers will grow out of our graves, sir, than
+out of yours in that bare Northam churchyard there beyond the
+weary, weary, weary sea."
+
+His voice died away to a murmur, and his head sank on his breast.
+
+Amyas stood spell-bound.  The effect of the narcotic was all but
+miraculous in his eyes.  The sustained eloquence, the novel
+richness of diction in one seemingly drowned in sensual sloth,
+were, in his eyes, the possession of some evil spirit.  And yet he
+could not answer the Evil One.  His English heart, full of the
+divine instinct of duty and public spirit, told him that it must be
+a lie: but how to prove it a lie?  And he stood for full ten
+minutes searching for an answer, which seemed to fly farther and
+farther off the more he sought for it.
+
+His eye glanced upon Ayacanora.  The two girls were whispering to
+her smilingly.  He saw one of them glance a look toward him, and
+then say something, which raised a beautiful blush in the maiden's
+face.  With a playful blow at the speaker, she turned away.  Amyas
+knew instinctively that they were giving her the same advice as
+Ebsworthy had given to him.  Oh, how beautiful she was!  Might not
+the renegades have some reason on their side after all.
+
+He shuddered at the thought: but he could not shake it off.  It
+glided in like some gaudy snake, and wreathed its coils round all
+his heart and brain.  He drew back to the other side of the lawn,
+and thought and thought--
+
+Should he ever get home?  If he did, might he not get home a
+beggar?  Beggar or rich, he would still have to face his mother, to
+go through that meeting, to tell that tale, perhaps, to hear those
+reproaches, the forecast of which had weighed on him like a dark
+thunder-cloud for two weary years; to wipe out which by some
+desperate deed of glory he had wandered the wilderness, and
+wandered in vain.
+
+Could he not settle here?  He need not be a savage, he and his
+might Christianize, civilize, teach equal law, mercy in war,
+chivalry to women; found a community which might be hereafter as
+strong a barrier against the encroachments of the Spaniard, as
+Manoa itself would have been.  Who knew the wealth of the
+surrounding forests?  Even if there were no gold, there were
+boundless vegetable treasures.  What might he not export down the
+rivers?  This might be the nucleus of a great commercial
+settlement--
+
+And yet, was even that worth while?  To settle here only to torment
+his soul with fresh schemes, fresh ambitions; not to rest, but only
+to change one labor for another?  Was not your dreamer right?  Did
+they not all need rest?  What if they each sat down among the
+flowers, beside an Indian bride?  They might live like Christians,
+while they lived like the birds of heaven.--
+
+What a dead silence!  He looked up and round; the birds had ceased
+to chirp; the parroquets were hiding behind the leaves; the monkeys
+were clustered motionless upon the highest twigs; only out of the
+far depths of the forest, the campanero gave its solemn toll, once,
+twice, thrice, like a great death-knell rolling down from far
+cathedral towers.  Was it an omen?  He looked up hastily at
+Ayacanora.  She was watching him earnestly.  Heavens! was she
+waiting for his decision?  Both dropped their eyes.  The decision
+was not to come from them.
+
+A rustle! a roar! a shriek! and Amyas lifted his eyes in time to
+see a huge dark bar shoot from the crag above the dreamer's head,
+among the group of girls.
+
+A dull crash, as the group flew asunder; and in the midst, upon the
+ground, the tawny limbs of one were writhing beneath the fangs of a
+black jaguar, the rarest and most terrible of the forest kings.  Of
+one?  But of which?  Was it Ayacanora?  And sword in hand, Amyas
+rushed madly forward; before he reached the spot those tortured
+limbs were still.
+
+It was not Ayacanora, for with a shriek which rang through the
+woods, the wretched dreamer, wakened thus at last, sprang up and
+felt for his sword.  Fool! he had left it in his hammock!
+Screaming the name of his dead bride, he rushed on the jaguar, as
+it crouched above its prey, and seizing its head with teeth and
+nails, worried it, in the ferocity of his madness, like a mastiff-
+dog.
+
+The brute wrenched its head from his grasp, and raised its dreadful
+paw.  Another moment and the husband's corpse would have lain by
+the wife's.
+
+But high in air gleamed Amyas's blade; down with all the weight of
+his huge body and strong arm, fell that most trusty steel; the head
+of the jaguar dropped grinning on its victim's corpse;
+
+
+     "And all stood still, who saw him fall,
+      While men might count a score."
+
+
+"O Lord Jesus," said Amyas to himself, "Thou hast answered the
+devil for me!  And this is the selfish rest for which I would have
+bartered the rest which comes by working where Thou hast put me!"
+
+They bore away the lithe corpse into the forest, and buried it
+under soft moss and virgin mould; and so the fair clay was
+transfigured into fairer flowers, and the poor, gentle, untaught
+spirit returned to God who gave it.
+
+And then Amyas went sadly and silently back again, and Parracombe
+walked after him, like one who walks in sleep.
+
+Ebsworthy, sobered by the shock, entreated to come too: but Amyas
+forbade him gently,--
+
+"No, lad, you are forgiven.  God forbid that I should judge you or
+any man!  Sir John shall come up and marry you; and then, if it
+still be your will to stay, the Lord forgive you, if you be wrong;
+in the meanwhile, we will leave with you all that we can spare.
+Stay here and pray to God to make you, and me too, wiser men."
+
+And so Amyas departed.  He had come out stern and proud; but he
+came back again like a little child.
+
+Three days after Parracombe was dead.  Once in camp he seemed
+unable to eat or move, and having received absolution and communion
+from good Sir John, faded away without disease or pain, "babbling
+of green fields," and murmuring the name of his lost Indian bride.
+
+Amyas, too, sought ghostly council of Sir John, and told him all
+which had passed through his mind.
+
+"It was indeed a temptation of Diabolus," said that simple sage;
+"for he is by his very name the divider who sets man against man,
+and tempts one to care only for oneself, and forget kin and
+country, and duty and queen.  But you have resisted him, Captain
+Leigh, like a true-born Englishman, as you always are, and he has
+fled from you.  But that is no reason why we should not flee from
+him too; and so I think the sooner we are out of this place, and at
+work again, the better for all our souls."
+
+To which Amyas most devoutly said, "Amen!"  If Ayacanora were the
+daughter of ten thousand Incas, he must get out of her way as soon
+as possible.
+
+The next day he announced his intention to march once more, and to
+his delight found the men ready enough to move towards the Spanish
+settlements.  One thing they needed: gunpowder for their muskets.
+But that they must make as they went along; that is, if they could
+get the materials.  Charcoal they could procure, enough to set the
+world on fire; but nitre they had not yet seen; perhaps they should
+find it among the hills: while as for sulphur, any brave man could
+get that where there were volcanoes.  Who had not heard how one of
+Cortez' Spaniards, in like need, was lowered in a basket down the
+smoking crater of Popocatepetl, till he had gathered sulphur enough
+to conquer an empire?  And what a Spaniard could do an Englishman
+could do, or they would know the reason why.  And if they found
+none--why clothyard arrows had done Englishmen's work many a time
+already, and they could do it again, not to mention those same
+blow-guns and their arrows of curare poison, which, though they
+might be useless against Spaniards' armor, were far more valuable
+than muskets for procuring food, from the simple fact of their
+silence.
+
+One thing remained; to invite their Indian friends to join them.
+And that was done in due form the next day.
+
+Ayacanora was consulted, of course, and by the Piache, too, who was
+glad enough to be rid of the rival preacher, and his unpleasantly
+good news that men need not worship the devil, because there was a
+good God above them.  The maiden sang most melodious assent; the
+whole tribe echoed it; and all went smoothly enough till the old
+cacique observed that before starting a compact should be made
+between the allies as to their share of the booty.
+
+Nothing could be more reasonable; and Amyas asked him to name his
+terms.
+
+"You take the gold, and we will take the prisoners."
+
+"And what will you do with them?" asked Amyas, who recollected poor
+John Oxenham's hapless compact made in like case.
+
+"Eat them," quoth the cacique, innocently enough.
+
+Amyas whistled.
+
+"Humph!" said Cary.  "The old proverb comes true--'the more the
+merrier: but the fewer the better fare.'  I think we will do
+without our red friends for this time."
+
+Ayacanora, who had been preaching war like a very Boadicea, was
+much vexed.
+
+"Do you too want to dine off roast Spaniards?" asked Amyas.
+
+She shook her head, and denied the imputation with much disgust.
+
+Amyas was relieved; he had shrunk from joining the thought of so
+fair a creature, however degraded, with the horrors of cannibalism.
+
+But the cacique was a man of business, and held out stanchly.
+
+"Is it fair?" he asked.  "The white man loves gold, and he gets it.
+The poor Indian, what use is gold to him?  He only wants something
+to eat, and he must eat his enemies.  What else will pay him for
+going so far through the forests hungry and thirsty?  You will get
+all, and the Omaguas will get nothing."
+
+The argument was unanswerable; and the next day they started
+without the Indians, while John Brimblecombe heaved many an honest
+sigh at leaving them to darkness, the devil, and the holy trumpet.
+
+And Ayacanora?
+
+When their departure was determined, she shut herself up in her
+hut, and appeared no more.  Great was the weeping, howling, and
+leave-taking on the part of the simple Indians, and loud the
+entreaties to come again, bring them a message from Amalivaca's
+daughter beyond the seas, and help them to recover their lost land
+of Papamene; but Ayacanora took no part in them; and Amyas left
+her, wondering at her absence, but joyful and light-hearted at
+having escaped the rocks of the Sirens, and being at work once
+more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+HOW THEY TOOK THE GOLD-TRAIN
+
+
+"God will relent, and quit thee all thy debt,
+Who ever more approves, and more accepts
+Him who imploring mercy sues for life,
+Than who self-rigorous chooses death as due,
+Which argues over-just, and self-displeased
+For self-offence, more than for God offended."
+
+                            Samson Agonistes.
+
+
+A fortnight or more has passed in severe toil, but not more severe
+than they have endured many a time before.  Bidding farewell once
+and forever to the green ocean of the eastern plains, they have
+crossed the Cordillera; they have taken a longing glance at the
+city of Santa Fe, lying in the midst of rich gardens on its lofty
+mountain plateau, and have seen, as was to be expected, that it was
+far too large a place for any attempt of theirs.  But they have not
+altogether thrown away their time.  Their Indian lad has discovered
+that a gold-train is going down from Santa Fe toward the Magdalena;
+and they are waiting for it beside the miserable rut which serves
+for a road, encamped in a forest of oaks which would make them
+almost fancy themselves back again in Europe, were it not for the
+tree-ferns which form the undergrowth; and were it not, too, for
+the deep gorges opening at their very feet; in which, while their
+brows are swept by the cool breezes of a temperate zone, they can
+see far below, dim through their everlasting vapor-bath of rank hot
+steam, the mighty forms and gorgeous colors of the tropic forest.
+
+They have pitched their camp among the tree-ferns, above a spot
+where the path winds along a steep hill-side, with a sheer cliff
+below of many a hundred feet.  There was a road there once,
+perhaps, when Cundinamarca was a civilized and cultivated kingdom;
+but all which Spanish misrule has left of it are a few steps
+slipping from their places at the bottom of a narrow ditch of mud.
+It has gone the way of the aqueducts, and bridges, and post-houses,
+the gardens and the llama-flocks of that strange empire.  In the
+mad search for gold, every art of civilization has fallen to decay,
+save architecture alone; and that survives only in the splendid
+cathedrals which have risen upon the ruins of the temples of the
+Sun, in honor of a milder Pantheon; if, indeed, that can be called
+a milder one which demands (as we have seen already) human
+sacrifices, unknown to the gentle nature-worship of the Incas.
+
+And now, the rapid tropic vegetation has reclaimed its old domains,
+and Amyas and his crew are as utterly alone, within a few miles of
+an important Spanish settlement, as they would be in the solitudes
+of the Orinoco or the Amazon.
+
+In the meanwhile, all their attempts to find sulphur and nitre have
+been unavailing; and they have been forced to depend after all
+(much to Yeo's disgust) upon their swords and arrows.  Be it so:
+Drake took Nombre de Dios and the gold-train there with no better
+weapons; and they may do as much.
+
+So, having blocked up the road above by felling a large tree across
+it, they sit there among the flowers chewing coca, in default of
+food and drink, and meditating among themselves the cause of a
+mysterious roar, which has been heard nightly in their wake ever
+since they left the banks of the Meta.  Jaguar it is not, nor
+monkey: it is unlike any sound they know; and why should it follow
+them?  However, they are in the land of wonders; and, moreover, the
+gold train is far more important than any noise.
+
+At last, up from beneath there was a sharp crack and a loud cry.
+The crack was neither the snapping of a branch, nor the tapping of
+a woodpecker; the cry was neither the scream of the parrot, nor the
+howl of the monkey.
+
+"That was a whip's crack," said Yeo, "and a woman's wail.  They are
+close here, lads!"
+
+"A woman's?  Do they drive women in their gangs?" asked Amyas.
+
+"Why not, the brutes?  There they are, sir.  Did you see their
+basnets glitter?"
+
+"Men!" said Amyas, in a low voice, "I trust you all not to shoot
+till I do.  Then give them one arrow, out swords, and at them!
+Pass the word along."
+
+Up they came, slowly, and all hearts beat loud at their coming.
+
+First, about twenty soldiers, only one-half of whom were on foot;
+the other half being borne, incredible as it may seem, each in a
+chair on the back of a single Indian, while those who marched had
+consigned their heaviest armor and their arquebuses into the hands
+of attendant slaves, who were each pricked on at will by the pike
+of the soldier behind them.
+
+"The men are mad to let their ordnance out of their hands."
+
+"Oh, sir, an Indian will pray to an arquebus not to shoot him; he
+sure their artillery is safe enough," said Yeo.
+
+"Look at the proud villains," whispered another, "to make dumb
+beasts of human creatures like that!"
+
+"Ten shot," counted the business-like Amyas, "and ten pikes; Will
+can tackle them up above."
+
+Last of this troop came some inferior officer, also in his chair,
+who, as he went slowly up the hill, with his face turned toward the
+gang which followed, drew every other second the cigar from his
+lips, to inspirit them with those pious ejaculations to the various
+objects of his worship, divine, human, anatomic, wooden and
+textile, which earned for the pious Spaniards of the sixteenth
+century the uncharitable imputation of being at once the most
+fetish-ridden idolaters and the most abominable swearers of all
+Europeans.
+
+"The blasphemous dog!" said Yeo, fumbling at his bow-string, as if
+he longed to send an arrow through him.  But Amyas had hardly laid
+his finger on the impatient veteran's arm, when another procession
+followed, which made them forget all else.
+
+A sad and hideous sight it was: yet one too common even then in
+those remoter districts, where the humane edicts were disregarded
+which the prayers of Dominican friars (to their everlasting honor
+be it spoken) had wrung from the Spanish sovereigns, and which the
+legislation of that most wise, virtuous, and heroic Inquisitor
+(paradoxical as the words may seem), Pedro de la Gasca, had carried
+into effect in Peru,--futile and tardy alleviations of cruelties
+and miseries unexampled in the history of Christendom, or perhaps
+on earth, save in the conquests of Sennacherib and Zingis Khan.
+But on the frontiers, where negroes were imported to endure the
+toil which was found fatal to the Indian, and all Indian tribes
+convicted (or suspected) of cannibalism were hunted down for the
+salvation of their souls and the enslavement of their bodies, such
+scenes as these were still too common; and, indeed, if we are to
+judge from Humboldt's impartial account, were not very much amended
+even at the close of the last century, in those much-boasted Jesuit
+missions in which (as many of them as existed anywhere but on
+paper) military tyranny was superadded to monastic, and the Gospel
+preached with fire and sword, almost as shamelessly as by the first
+Conquistadores.
+
+A line of Indians, Negroes, and Zambos, naked, emaciated, scarred
+with whips and fetters, and chained together by their left wrists,
+toiled upwards, panting and perspiring under the burden of a basket
+held up by a strap which passed across their foreheads.  Yeo's
+sneer was but too just; there were not only old men and youths
+among them, but women; slender young girls, mothers with children,
+running at their knee; and, at the sight, a low murmur of
+indignation rose from the ambushed Englishmen, worthy of the free
+and righteous hearts of those days, when Raleigh could appeal to
+man and God, on the ground of a common humanity, in behalf of the
+outraged heathens of the New World; when Englishmen still knew that
+man was man, and that the instinct of freedom was the righteous
+voice of God; ere the hapless seventeenth century had brutalized
+them also, by bestowing on them, amid a hundred other bad legacies,
+the fatal gift of negro-slaves.
+
+But the first forty, so Amyas counted, bore on their backs a burden
+which made all, perhaps, but him and Yeo, forget even the wretches
+who bore it.  Each basket contained a square package of carefully
+corded hide; the look whereof friend Amyas knew full well.
+
+"What's in they, captain?"
+
+"Gold!"  And at that magic word all eyes were strained greedily
+forward, and such a rustle followed, that Amyas, in the very face
+of detection, had to whisper--
+
+"Be men, be men, or you will spoil all yet!"
+
+The last twenty, or so, of the Indians bore larger baskets, but
+more lightly freighted, seemingly with manioc, and maize-bread, and
+other food for the party; and after them came, with their bearers
+and attendants, just twenty soldiers more, followed by the officer
+in charge, who smiled away in his chair, and twirled two huge
+mustachios, thinking of nothing less than of the English arrows
+which were itching to be away and through his ribs.  The ambush was
+complete; the only question how and when to begin?
+
+Amyas had a shrinking, which all will understand, from drawing bow
+in cool blood on men so utterly unsuspicious and defenceless, even
+though in the very act of devilish cruelty--for devilish cruelty it
+was, as three or four drivers armed with whips lingered up and down
+the slowly staggering file of Indians, and avenged every moment's
+lagging, even every stumble, by a blow of the cruel manati-hide,
+which cracked like a pistol-shot against the naked limbs of the
+silent and uncomplaining victim.
+
+Suddenly the casus belli, as usually happens, arose of its own
+accord.
+
+The last but one of the chained line was an old gray-headed man,
+followed by a slender graceful girl of some eighteen years old, and
+Amyas's heart yearned over them as they came up.  Just as they
+passed, the foremost of the file had rounded the corner above;
+there was a bustle, and a voice shouted, "Halt, senors! there is a
+tree across the path!"
+
+"A tree across the path?" bellowed the officer, with a variety of
+passionate addresses to the Mother of Heaven, the fiends of hell,
+Saint Jago of Compostella, and various other personages; while the
+line of trembling Indians, told to halt above, and driven on by
+blows below, surged up and down upon the ruinous steps of the
+Indian road, until the poor old man fell grovelling on his face.
+
+The officer leaped down, and hurried upward to see what had
+happened.  Of course, he came across the old man.
+
+"Sin peccado concebida!  Grandfather of Beelzebub, is this a place
+to lie worshipping your fiends?" and he pricked the prostrate
+wretch with the point of his sword.
+
+The old man tried to rise: but the weight on his head was too much
+for him; he fell again, and lay motionless.
+
+The driver applied the manati-hide across his loins, once, twice,
+with fearful force; but even that specific was useless.
+
+"Gastado, Senor Capitan," said he, with a shrug.  "Used up.  He has
+been failing these three months!"
+
+"What does the intendant mean by sending me out with worn-out
+cattle like these?  Forward there!" shouted he.  "Clear away the
+tree, senors, and I'll soon clear the chain.  Hold it up,
+Pedrillo!"
+
+The driver held up the chain, which was fastened to the old man's
+wrist.  The officer stepped back, and flourished round his head a
+Toledo blade, whose beauty made Amyas break the Tenth Commandment
+on the spot.
+
+The man was a tall, handsome, broad-shouldered, high-bred man; and
+Amyas thought that he was going to display the strength of his arm,
+and the temper of his blade, in severing the chain at one stroke.
+
+Even he was not prepared for the recondite fancies of a Spanish
+adventurer, worthy son or nephew of those first conquerors, who
+used to try the keenness of their swords upon the living bodies of
+Indians, and regale themselves at meals with the odor of roasting
+caciques.
+
+The blade gleamed in the air, once, twice, and fell: not on the
+chain, but on the wrist which it fettered.  There was a shriek--a
+crimson flash--and the chain and its prisoner were parted indeed.
+
+One moment more, and Amyas's arrow would have been through the
+throat of the murderer, who paused, regarding his workmanship with
+a satisfied smile; but vengeance was not to come from him.
+
+Quick and fierce as a tiger-cat, the girl sprang on the ruffian,
+and with the intense strength of passion, clasped him in her arms,
+and leaped with him from the narrow ledge into the abyss below.
+
+There was a rush, a shout; all faces were bent over the precipice.
+The girl hung by her chained wrist: the officer was gone.  There
+was a moment's awful silence; and then Amyas heard his body
+crashing through the tree-tops far below.
+
+"Haul her up!  Hew her in pieces!  Burn the witch!" and the driver,
+seizing the chain, pulled at it with all his might, while all
+springing from their chairs, stooped over the brink.
+
+Now was the time for Amyas!  Heaven had delivered them into his
+hands.  Swift and sure, at ten yards off, his arrow rushed through
+the body of the driver, and then, with a roar as of the leaping
+lion, he sprang like an avenging angel into the midst of the
+astonished ruffians.
+
+His first thought was for the girl.  In a moment, by sheer
+strength, he had jerked her safely up into the road; while the
+Spaniards recoiled right and left, fancying him for the moment some
+mountain giant or supernatural foe.  His hurrah undeceived them in
+an instant, and a cry of "English!  Lutheran dogs!" arose, but
+arose too late.  The men of Devon had followed their captain's
+lead: a storm of arrows left five Spaniards dead, and a dozen more
+wounded, and down leapt Salvation Yeo, his white hair streaming
+behind him, with twenty good swords more, and the work of death
+began.
+
+The Spaniards fought like lions; but they had no time to fix their
+arquebuses on the crutches; no room, in that narrow path, to use
+their pikes.  The English had the wall of them; and to have the
+wall there, was to have the foe's life at their mercy.  Five
+desperate minutes, and not a living Spaniard stood upon those
+steps; and certainly no living one lay in the green abyss below.
+Two only, who were behind the rest, happening to be in full armor,
+escaped without mortal wound, and fled down the hill again.
+
+"After them!  Michael Evans and Simon Heard; and catch them, if
+they run a league."
+
+The two long and lean Clovelly men, active as deer from forest
+training, ran two feet for the Spaniard's one; and in ten minutes
+returned, having done their work; while Amyas and his men hurried
+past the Indians, to help Cary and the party forward, where shouts
+and musket shots announced a sharp affray.
+
+Their arrival settled the matter.  All the Spaniards fell but three
+or four, who scrambled down the crannies of the cliff.
+
+"Let not one of them escape!  Slay them as Israel slew Amalek!"
+cried Yeo, as he bent over; and ere the wretches could reach a
+place of shelter, an arrow was quivering in each body, as it rolled
+lifeless down the rocks.
+
+"Now then!  Loose the Indians!"
+
+They found armorers tools on one of the dead bodies, and it was
+done.
+
+"We are your friends," said Amyas.  "All we ask is, that you shall
+help us to carry this gold down to the Magdalena, and then you are
+free."
+
+Some few of the younger grovelled at his knees, and kissed his
+feet, hailing him as the child of the Sun: but the most part kept a
+stolid indifference, and when freed from their fetters, sat quietly
+down where they stood, staring into vacancy.  The iron had entered
+too deeply into their soul.  They seemed past hope, enjoyment, even
+understanding.
+
+But the young girl, who was last of all in the line, as soon as she
+was loosed, sprang to her father's body, speaking no word, lifted
+it in her thin arms, laid it across her knees, kissed the fallen
+lips, stroked the furrowed cheeks, murmured inarticulate sounds
+like the cooing of a woodland dove, of which none knew the meaning
+but she, and he who heard not, for his soul had long since fled.
+Suddenly the truth flashed on her; silent as ever, she drew one
+long heaving breath, and rose erect, the body in her arms.
+
+Another moment, and she had leaped into the abyss.
+
+They watched her dark and slender limbs, twined closely round the
+old man's corpse, turn over, and over, and over, till a crash among
+the leaves, and a scream among the birds, told that she had reached
+the trees; and the green roof hid her from their view.
+
+"Brave lass!" shouted a sailor.
+
+"The Lord forgive her!" said Yeo.  "But, your worship, we must have
+these rascals' ordnance."
+
+"And their clothes too, Yeo, if we wish to get down the Magdalena
+unchallenged.  Now listen, my masters all!  We have won, by God's
+good grace, gold enough to serve us the rest of our lives, and that
+without losing a single man; and may yet win more, if we be wise,
+and He thinks good.  But oh, my friends, remember Mr. Oxenham and
+his crew; and do not make God's gift our ruin, by faithlessness, or
+greediness, or any mutinous haste."
+
+"You shall find none in us!" cried several men.  "We know your
+worship.  We can trust our general."
+
+"Thank God!" said Amyas.  "Now then, it will be no shame or sin to
+make the Indians carry it, saving the women, whom God forbid we
+should burden.  But we must pass through the very heart of the
+Spanish settlements, and by the town of Saint Martha itself.  So
+the clothes and weapons of these Spaniards we must have, let it
+cost us what labor it may.  How many lie in the road?"
+
+"Thirteen here, and about ten up above," said Cary.
+
+"Then there are near twenty missing.  Who will volunteer to go down
+over cliff, and bring up the spoil of them?"
+
+"I, and I, and I;" and a dozen stepped out, as they did always when
+Amyas wanted anything done; for the simple reason, that they knew
+that he meant to help at the doing of it himself.
+
+"Very well, then, follow me.  Sir John, take the Indian lad for
+your interpreter, and try and comfort the souls of these poor
+heathens.  Tell them that they shall all be free."
+
+"Why, who is that comes up the road?"
+
+All eyes were turned in the direction of which he spoke.  And,
+wonder of wonders! up came none other than Ayacanora herself, blow-
+gun in hand, bow on back, and bedecked in all her feather garments,
+which last were rather the worse for a fortnight's woodland travel.
+
+All stood mute with astonishment, as, seeing Amyas, she uttered a
+cry of joy, quickened her pace into a run, and at last fell panting
+and exhausted at his feet.
+
+"I have found you!" she said; "you ran away from me, but you could
+not escape me!"  And she fawned round Amyas, like a dog who has
+found his master, and then sat down on the bank, and burst into
+wild sobs.
+
+"God help us!" said Amyas, clutching his hair, as he looked down
+upon the beautiful weeper.  "What am I to do with her, over and
+above all these poor heathens?"
+
+But there was no time to be lost, and over the cliff he scrambled;
+while the girl, seeing that the main body of the English remained,
+sat down on a point of rock to watch him.
+
+After half-an-hour's hard work, the weapons, clothes, and armor of
+the fallen Spaniards were hauled up the cliff, and distributed in
+bundles among the men; the rest of the corpses were thrown over the
+precipice, and they started again upon their road toward the
+Magdalena, while Yeo snorted like a war-horse who smells the
+battle, at the delight of once more handling powder and ball.
+
+"We can face the world now, sir!  Why not go back and try Santa Fe,
+after all?"
+
+But Amyas thought that enough was as good as a feast, and they held
+on downwards, while the slaves followed, without a sign of
+gratitude, but meekly obedient to their new masters, and testifying
+now and then by a sign or a grunt, their surprise at not being
+beaten, or made to carry their captors.  Some, however, caught
+sight of the little calabashes of coca which the English carried.
+That woke them from their torpor, and they began coaxing abjectly
+(and not in vain) for a taste of that miraculous herb, which would
+not only make food unnecessary, and enable their panting lungs to
+endure that keen mountain air, but would rid them, for awhile at
+least, of the fallen Indian's most unpitying foe, the malady of
+thought.
+
+As the cavalcade turned the corner of the mountain, they paused for
+one last look at the scene of that fearful triumph.  Lines of
+vultures were already streaming out of infinite space, as if
+created suddenly for the occasion.  A few hours and there would be
+no trace of that fierce fray, but a few white bones amid untrodden
+beds of flowers.
+
+And now Amyas had time to ask Ayacanora the meaning of this her
+strange appearance.  He wished her anywhere but where she was: but
+now that she was here, what heart could be so hard as not to take
+pity on the poor wild thing?  And Amyas as he spoke to her had,
+perhaps, a tenderness in his tone, from very fear of hurting her,
+which he had never used before.  Passionately she told him how she
+had followed on their track day and night, and had every evening
+made sounds, as loud as she dared, in hopes of their hearing her,
+and either waiting for her, or coming back to see what caused the
+noise.
+
+Amyas now recollected the strange roaring which had followed them.
+
+"Noises?  What did you make them with?"
+
+Ayacanora lifted her finger with an air of most self-satisfied
+mystery, and then drew cautiously from under her feather cloak an
+object at which Amyas had hard work to keep his countenance.
+
+"Look!" whispered she, as if half afraid that the thing itself
+should hear her.  "I have it--the holy trumpet!"
+
+There it was verily, that mysterious bone of contention; a handsome
+earthen tube some two feet long, neatly glazed, and painted with
+quaint grecques and figures of animals; a relic evidently of some
+civilization now extinct.
+
+Brimblecombe rubbed his little fat hands.  "Brave maid! you have
+cheated Satan this time," quoth he; while Yeo advised that the
+"idolatrous relic" should be forthwith "hove over cliff."
+
+"Let be," said Amyas.  "What is the meaning of this, Ayacanora?
+And why have you followed us?"
+
+She told a long story, from which Amyas picked up, as far as he
+could understand her, that that trumpet had been for years the
+torment of her life; the one thing in the tribe superior to her;
+the one thing which she was not allowed to see, because, forsooth,
+she was a woman.  So she determined to show them that a woman was
+as good as a man; and hence her hatred of marriage, and her
+Amazonian exploits.  But still the Piache would not show her that
+trumpet, or tell her where it was; and as for going to seek it,
+even she feared the superstitious wrath of the tribe at such a
+profanation.  But the day after the English went, the Piache chose
+to express his joy at their departure; whereon, as was to be
+expected, a fresh explosion between master and pupil, which ended,
+she confessed, in her burning the old rogue's hut over his head,
+from which he escaped with loss of all his conjuring-tackle, and
+fled raging into the woods, vowing that he would carry off the
+trumpet to the neighboring tribe.  Whereon, by a sudden impulse,
+the young lady took plenty of coca, her weapons, and her feathers,
+started on his trail, and ran him to earth just as he was unveiling
+the precious mystery.  At which sight (she confessed) she was
+horribly afraid, and half inclined to run; but, gathering courage
+from the thought that the white men used to laugh at the whole
+matter, she rushed upon the hapless conjuror, and bore off her
+prize in triumph; and there it was!
+
+"I hope you have not killed him?" said Amyas.
+
+"I did beat him a little; but I thought you would not let me kill
+him."
+
+Amyas was half amused with her confession of his authority over
+her; but she went on--
+
+"And then I dare not go back to the Indians; so I was forced to
+come after you."
+
+"And is that, then, your only reason for coming after us?" asked
+stupid Amyas.
+
+He had touched some secret chord--though what it was he was too
+busy to inquire.  The girl drew herself up proudly, blushing
+scarlet, and said:
+
+"You never tell lies.  Do you think that I would tell lies?"
+
+On which she fell to the rear, and followed them steadfastly,
+speaking to no one, but evidently determined to follow them to the
+world's end.
+
+They soon left the highroad; and for several days held on
+downwards, hewing their path slowly and painfully through the thick
+underwood.  On the evening of the fourth day, they had reached the
+margin of a river, at a point where it seemed broad and still
+enough for navigation.  For those three days they had not seen a
+trace of human beings, and the spot seemed lonely enough for them
+to encamp without fear of discovery, and begin the making of their
+canoes.  They began to spread themselves along the stream, in
+search of the soft-wooded trees proper for their purpose; but
+hardly had their search begun, when, in the midst of a dense
+thicket, they came upon a sight which filled them with
+astonishment.  Beneath a honeycombed cliff, which supported one
+enormous cotton-tree, was a spot of some thirty yards square
+sloping down to the stream, planted in rows with magnificent
+banana-plants, full twelve feet high, and bearing among their huge
+waxy leaves clusters of ripening fruit; while, under their mellow
+shade, yams and cassava plants were flourishing luxuriantly, the
+whole being surrounded by a hedge of orange and scarlet flowers.
+There it lay, streaked with long shadows from the setting sun,
+while a cool southern air rustled in the cotton-tree, and flapped
+to and fro the great banana-leaves; a tiny paradise of art and
+care.  But where was its inhabitant?
+
+Aroused by the noise of their approach, a figure issued from a cave
+in the rocks, and, after gazing at them for a moment, came down the
+garden towards them.  He was a tall and stately old man, whose
+snow-white beard and hair covered his chest and shoulders, while
+his lower limbs were wrapt in Indian-web.  Slowly and solemnly he
+approached, a staff in one hand, a string of beads in the other,
+the living likeness of some old Hebrew prophet, or anchorite of
+ancient legend.  He bowed courteously to Amyas (who of course
+returned his salute), and was in act to speak, when his eye fell
+upon the Indians, who were laying down their burdens in a heap
+under the trees.  His mild countenance assumed instantly an
+expression of the acutest sorrow and displeasure; and, striking his
+hands together, he spoke in Spanish:
+
+"Alas! miserable me!  Alas! unhappy senors!  Do my old eyes deceive
+me, and is it one of those evil visions of the past which haunt my
+dreams by night; or has the accursed thirst of gold, the ruin of my
+race, penetrated even into this my solitude?  Oh, senors, senors,
+know you not that you bear with you your own poison, your own
+familiar fiend, the root of every evil?  And is it not enough for
+you, senors, to load yourselves with the wedge of Achan, and
+partake his doom, but you must make these hapless heathens the
+victims of your greed and cruelty, and forestall for them on earth
+those torments which may await their unbaptized souls hereafter?"
+
+"We have preserved, and not enslaved these Indians, ancient senor,"
+said Amyas, proudly; "and to-morrow will see them as free as the
+birds over our heads."
+
+"Free?  Then you cannot be countrymen of mine!  But pardon an old
+man, my son, if he has spoken too hastily in the bitterness of his
+own experience.  But who and whence are you?  And why are you
+bringing into this lonely wilderness that gold--for I know too well
+the shape of those accursed packets, which would God that I had
+never seen!"
+
+"What we are, reverend sir, matters little, as long as we behave to
+you as the young should to the old.  As for our gold, it will be a
+curse or a blessing to us, I conceive, just as we use it well or
+ill; and so is a man's head, or his hand, or any other thing; but
+that is no reason for cutting off his limbs for fear of doing harm
+with them; neither is it for throwing away those packages, which,
+by your leave, we shall deposit in one of these caves.  We must be
+your neighbors, I fear, for a day or two; but I can promise you,
+that your garden shall be respected, on condition that you do not
+inform any human soul of our being here."
+
+"God forbid, senor, that I should try to increase the number of my
+visitors, much less to bring hither strife and blood, of which I
+have seen too much already.  As you have come in peace, in peace
+depart.  Leave me alone with God and my penitence, and may the Lord
+have mercy on you!"
+
+And he was about to withdraw, when, recollecting himself, he turned
+suddenly to Amyas again--
+
+"Pardon me, senor, if, after forty years of utter solitude, I
+shrink at first from the conversation of human beings, and forget,
+in the habitual shyness of a recluse, the duties of a hospitable
+gentleman of Spain.  My garden, and all which it produces, is at
+your service.  Only let me entreat that these poor Indians shall
+have their share; for heathens though they be, Christ died for
+them; and I cannot but cherish in my soul some secret hope that He
+did not die in vain."
+
+"God forbid!" said Brimblecombe.  "They are no worse than we, for
+aught I see, whatsoever their fathers may have been; and they have
+fared no worse than we since they have been with us, nor will, I
+promise you."
+
+The good fellow did not tell that he had been starving himself for
+the last three days to cram the children with his own rations; and
+that the sailors, and even Amyas, had been going out of their way
+every five minutes, to get fruit for their new pets.
+
+A camp was soon formed; and that evening the old hermit asked
+Amyas, Cary, and Brimblecombe to come up into his cavern.
+
+They went; and after the accustomed compliments had passed, sat
+down on mats upon the ground, while the old man stood, leaning
+against a slab of stone surmounted by a rude wooden cross, which
+evidently served him as a place of prayer.  He seemed restless and
+anxious, as if he waited for them to begin the conversation; while
+they, in their turn, waited for him.  At last, when courtesy would
+not allow him to be silent any longer, he began with a faltering
+voice:
+
+"You may be equally surprised, senors, at my presence in such a
+spot, and at my asking you to become my guests even for one
+evening, while I have no better hospitality to offer you."
+
+"It is superfluous, senor, to offer us food in your own habitation
+when you have already put all that you possess at our command."
+
+"True, senors: and my motive for inviting you was, perhaps,
+somewhat of a selfish one.  I am possessed by a longing to
+unburthen my heart of a tale which I never yet told to man, and
+which I fear can give to you nothing but pain; and yet I will
+entreat you, of your courtesy, to hear of that which you cannot
+amend, simply in mercy to a man who feels that he must confess to
+some one, or die as miserable as he has lived.  And I believe my
+confidence will not be misplaced, when it is bestowed upon you.  I
+have been a cavalier, even as you are; and, strange as it may seem,
+that which I have to tell I would sooner impart to the ears of a
+soldier than of a priest; because it will then sink into souls
+which can at least sympathize, though they cannot absolve.  And
+you, cavaliers, I perceive to be noble, from your very looks; to be
+valiant, by your mere presence in this hostile land; and to be
+gentle, courteous, and prudent, by your conduct this day to me and
+to your captives.  Will you, then, hear an old man's tale?  I am,
+as you see, full of words; for speech, from long disuse, is
+difficult to me, and I fear at every sentence lest my stiffened
+tongue should play the traitor to my worn-out brain: but if my
+request seems impertinent, you have only to bid me talk as a host
+should, of matters which concern his guests, and not himself."
+
+The three young men, equally surprised and interested by this
+exordium, could only entreat their host to "use their ears as those
+of his slaves," on which, after fresh apologies, he began:
+
+"Know, then, victorious cavaliers, that I, whom you now see here as
+a poor hermit, was formerly one of the foremost of that terrible
+band who went with Pizarro to the conquest of Peru.  Eighty years
+old am I this day, unless the calendar which I have carved upon
+yonder tree deceives me; and twenty years old was I when I sailed
+with that fierce man from Panama, to do that deed with which all
+earth, and heaven, and hell itself, I fear, has rung.  How we
+endured, suffered, and triumphed; how, mad with success, and
+glutted with blood, we turned our swords against each other, I need
+not tell to you.  For what gentleman of Europe knows not our glory
+and our shame?"
+
+His hearers bowed assent.
+
+"Yes; you have heard of our prowess: for glorious we were awhile,
+in the sight of God and man.  But I will not speak of our glory,
+for it is tarnished; nor of our wealth, for it was our poison; nor
+of the sins of my comrades, for they have expiated them; but of my
+own sins, senors, which are more in number than the hairs of my
+head, and a burden too great to bear.  Miserere Domine!"
+
+And smiting on his breast, the old warrior went on:
+
+"As I said, we were mad with blood; and none more mad than I.
+Surely it is no fable that men are possessed, even in this latter
+age, by devils.  Why else did I rejoice in slaying?  Why else was
+I, the son of a noble and truthful cavalier of Castile, among the
+foremost to urge upon my general the murder of the Inca?  Why did I
+rejoice over his dying agonies?  Why, when Don Ferdinando de Soto
+returned, and upbraided us with our villainy, did I, instead of
+confessing the sin which that noble cavalier set before us,
+withstand him to his face, ay, and would have drawn the sword on
+him, but that he refused to fight a liar, as he said that I was?"
+
+"Then Don de Soto was against the murder?  So his own grandson told
+me.  But I had heard of him only as a tyrant and a butcher."
+
+"Senor, he was compact of good and evil, as are other men: he has
+paid dearly for his sin; let us hope that he has been paid in turn
+for his righteousness."
+
+John Brimblecombe shook his head at this doctrine, but did not
+speak.
+
+"So you know his grandson?  I trust he is a noble cavalier?"
+
+Amyas was silent; the old gentleman saw that he had touched some
+sore point, and continued:
+
+"And why, again, senors, did I after that day give myself up to
+cruelty as to a sport; yea, thought that I did God service by
+destroying the creatures whom He had made; I who now dare not
+destroy a gnat, lest I harm a being more righteous than myself?
+Was I mad?  If I was, how then was I all that while as prudent as I
+am this day?  But I am not here to argue, senors, but to confess.
+In a word, there was no deed of blood done for the next few years
+in which I had not my share, if it were but within my reach.  When
+Challcuchima was burned, I was consenting; when that fair girl, the
+wife of Inca Manco, was tortured to death, I smiled at the agonies
+at which she too smiled, and taunted on the soldiers, to try if I
+could wring one groan from her before she died.  You know what
+followed, the pillage, the violence, the indignities offered to the
+virgins of the Sun.  Senors, I will not pollute your chaste ears
+with what was done.  But, senors, I had a brother."
+
+And the old man paused awhile.
+
+"A brother--whether better or worse than me, God knows, before whom
+he has appeared ere now.  At least he did not, as I did, end as a
+rebel to his king!  There was a maiden in one of those convents,
+senors, more beautiful than day: and (I blush to tell it) the two
+brothers of whom I spoke quarrelled for the possession of her.
+They struck each other, senors!  Who struck first I know not; but
+swords were drawn, and--  The cavaliers round parted them, crying
+shame.  And one of those two brothers--the one who speaks to you
+now--crying, 'If I cannot have her, no man shall!' turned the sword
+which was aimed at his brother, against that hapless maiden--and--
+hear me out, senors, before you flee from my presence as from that
+of a monster!--stabbed her to the heart.  And as she died--one
+moment more, senors, that I may confess all!--she looked up in my
+face with a smile as of heaven, and thanked me for having rid her
+once and for all from Christians and their villainy."
+
+The old man paused.
+
+"God forgive you, senor!" said Jack Brimblecombe, softly.
+
+"You do not, then, turn from me, do not curse me?  Then I will try
+you farther still, senors.  I will know from human lips, whether
+man can do such deeds as I have done, and yet be pitied by his
+kind; that so I may have some hope, that where man has mercy, God
+may have mercy also.  Do you think that I repented at those awful
+words?  Nothing less, senors all.  No more than I did when De Soto
+(on whose soul God have mercy) called me--me, a liar!  I knew
+myself a sinner; and for that very reason I was determined to sin.
+I would go on, that I might prove myself right to myself, by
+showing that I could go on, and not be struck dead from heaven.
+Out of mere pride, senors, and self-will, I would fill up the cup
+of my iniquity; and I filled it.
+
+"You know, doubtless, senors, how, after the death of old Almagro,
+his son's party conspired against Pizarro.  Now my brother remained
+faithful to his old commander; and for that very reason, if you
+will believe it, did I join the opposite party, and gave myself up,
+body and soul, to do Almagro's work.  It was enough for me, that
+the brother who had struck me thought a man right, for me to think
+that man a devil.  What Almagro's work was, you know.  He slew
+Pizarro, murdered him, senors, like a dog, or rather, like an old
+lion."
+
+"He deserved his doom," said Amyas.
+
+"Let God judge him, senor, not we; and least of all of us I, who
+drew the first blood, and perhaps the last, that day.  I, senors,
+it was who treacherously stabbed Francisco de Chanes on the
+staircase, and so opened the door which else had foiled us all; and
+I--  But I am speaking to men of honor, not to butchers.  Suffice
+it that the old man died like a lion, and that we pulled him down,
+young as we were, like curs.
+
+"Well, I followed Almagro's fortunes.  I helped to slay Alvarado.
+Call that my third murder, if you will, for if he was traitor to a
+traitor, I was traitor to a true man.  Then to the war; you know
+how Vaca de Castro was sent from Spain to bring order and justice
+where was naught but chaos, and the dance of all devils.  We met
+him on the hills of Chupas.  Peter of Candia, the Venetian villain,
+pointed our guns false, and Almagro stabbed him to the heart.  We
+charged with our lances, man against man, horse against horse.  All
+fights I ever fought" (and the old man's eyes flashed out the
+ancient fire) "were child's play to that day.  Our lances shivered
+like reeds, and we fell on with battle-axe and mace.  None asked
+for quarter, and none gave it; friend to friend, cousin to cousin--
+no, nor brother, O God! to brother.  We were the better armed: but
+numbers were on their side.  Fat Carbajal charged our cannon like
+an elephant, and took them; but Holguin was shot down.  I was with
+Almagro, and we swept all before us, inch by inch, but surely, till
+the night fell.  Then Vaca de Castro, the licentiate, the clerk,
+the schoolman, the man of books, came down on us with his reserve
+like a whirlwind.  Oh! cavaliers, did not God fight against us,
+when He let us, the men of iron, us, the heroes of Cuzco and
+Vilcaconga, be foiled by a scholar in a black gown, with a pen
+behind his ear?  We were beaten.  Some ran; some did not run,
+senors; and I did not.  Geronimo de Alvarado shouted to me, 'We
+slew Pizarro!  We killed the tyrant!' and we rushed upon the
+conqueror's lances, to die like cavaliers.  There was a gallant
+gentleman in front of me.  His lance struck me in the crest, and
+bore me over my horse's croup: but mine, senors, struck him full in
+the vizor.  We both went to the ground together, and the battle
+galloped over us.
+
+"I know not how long I lay, for I was stunned: but after awhile I
+lifted myself.  My lance was still clenched in my hand, broken but
+not parted.  The point of it was in my foeman's brain.  I crawled
+to him, weary and wounded, and saw that he was a noble cavalier.
+He lay on his back, his arms spread wide.  I knew that he was dead:
+but there came over me the strangest longing to see that dead man's
+face.  Perhaps I knew him.  At least I could set my foot upon it,
+and say, 'Vanquished as I am, there lies a foe!'  I caught hold of
+the rivets, and tore his helmet off.  The moon shone bright,
+senors, as bright as she shines now--the glaring, ghastly, tell-
+tale moon, which shows man all the sins which he tries to hide; and
+by that moonlight, senors, I beheld the dead man's face.  And it
+was the face of my brother!
+
+              .     .     .     .     .     .     .
+
+"Did you ever guess, most noble cavaliers, what Cain's curse might
+be like?  Look on me, and know!
+
+"I tore off my armor and fled, as Cain fled--northward ever, till I
+should reach a land where the name of Spaniard, yea, and the name
+of Christian, which the Spaniard has caused to be blasphemed from
+east to west, should never come.  I sank fainting, and waked
+beneath this rock, this tree, forty-four years ago, and I have
+never left them since, save once, to obtain seeds from Indians, who
+knew not that I was a Spanish Conquistador.  And may God have mercy
+on my soul!"
+
+The old man ceased; and his young hearers, deeply affected by his
+tale, sat silent for a few minutes.  Then John Brimblecombe spoke:
+
+"You are old, sir, and I am young; and perhaps it is not my place
+to counsel you.  Moreover, sir, in spite of this strange dress of
+mine, I am neither more nor less than an English priest; and I
+suppose you will not be willing to listen to a heretic."
+
+"I have seen Catholics, senor, commit too many abominations even
+with the name of God upon their lips, to shrink from a heretic if
+he speak wisely and well.  At least, you are a man; and after all,
+my heart yearns more and more, the longer I sit among you, for the
+speech of beings of my own race.  Say what you will, in God's
+name!"
+
+"I hold, sir," said Jack, modestly, "according to holy Scripture,
+that whosoever repents from his heart, as God knows you seem to
+have done, is forgiven there and then; and though his sins be as
+scarlet, they shall be white as snow, for the sake of Him who died
+for all."
+
+"Amen! Amen!" said the old man, looking lovingly at his little
+crucifix.  "I hope and pray--His name is Love.  I know it now; who
+better?  But, sir, even if He have forgiven me, how can I forgive
+myself?  In honor, sir, I must be just, and sternly just, to
+myself, even if God be indulgent; as He has been to me, who has
+left me here in peace for forty years, instead of giving me a prey
+to the first puma or jaguar which howls round me every night.  He
+has given me time to work out my own salvation; but have I done it?
+That doubt maddens me at whiles.  When I look upon that crucifix, I
+float on boundless hope: but if I take my eyes from it for a
+moment, faith fails, and all is blank, and dark, and dreadful, till
+the devil whispers me to plunge into yon stream, and once and for
+ever wake to certainty, even though it be in hell."
+
+What was Jack to answer?  He himself knew not at first.  More was
+wanted than the mere repetition of free pardon.
+
+"Heretic as I am, sir, you will not believe me when I tell you, as
+a priest, that God accepts your penitence."
+
+"My heart tells me so already, at moments.  But how know I that it
+does not lie?"
+
+"Senor," said Jack, "the best way to punish oneself for doing ill,
+seems to me to go and do good; and the best way to find out whether
+God means you well, is to find out whether He will help you to do
+well.  If you have wronged Indians in time past, see whether you
+cannot right them now.  If you can, you are safe.  For the Lord
+will not send the devil's servants to do His work."
+
+The old man held down his head.
+
+"Right the Indians?  Alas! what is done, is done!"
+
+"Not altogether, senor," said Amyas, "as long as an Indian remains
+alive in New Granada."
+
+"Senor, shall I confess my weakness?  A voice within me has bid me
+a hundred times go forth and labor, for those oppressed wretches,
+but I dare not obey.  I dare not look them in the face.  I should
+fancy that they knew my story; that the very birds upon the trees
+would reveal my crime, and bid them turn from me with horror."
+
+"Senor," said Amyas, "these are but the sick fancies of a noble
+spirit, feeding on itself in solitude.  You have but to try to
+conquer."
+
+"And look now," said Jack, "if you dare not go forth to help the
+Indians, see now how God has brought the Indians to your own door.
+Oh, excellent sir--"
+
+"Call me not excellent," said the old man, smiting his breast.
+
+"I do, and shall, sir, while I see in you an excellent repentance,
+an excellent humility, and an excellent justice," said Jack.  "But
+oh, sir, look upon these forty souls, whom we must leave behind,
+like sheep which have no shepherd.  Could you not teach them to
+fear God and to love each other, to live like rational men, perhaps
+to die like Christians?  They would obey you as a dog obeys his
+master.  You might be their king, their father, yea, their pope, if
+you would."
+
+"You do not speak like a Lutheran."
+
+"I am not a Lutheran, but an Englishman: but, Protestant as I am,
+God knows, I had sooner see these poor souls of your creed, than of
+none."
+
+"But I am no priest."
+
+"When they are ready," said Jack, "the Lord will send a priest.  If
+you begin the good work, you may trust to Him to finish it."
+
+"God help me!" said the old warrior.
+
+The talk lasted long into the night, but Amyas was up long before
+daybreak, felling the trees; and as he and Cary walked back to
+breakfast, the first thing which they saw was the old man in his
+garden with four or five Indian children round him, talking
+smilingly to them.
+
+"The old man's heart is sound still," said Will.  "No man is lost
+who still is fond of little children."
+
+"Ah, senors!" said the hermit as they came up, "you see that I have
+begun already to act upon your advice."
+
+"And you have begun at the right end," quoth Amyas; "if you win the
+children, you win the mothers."
+
+"And if you win the mothers," quoth Will, "the poor fathers must
+needs obey their wives, and follow in the wake."
+
+The old man only sighed.  "The prattle of these little ones softens
+my hard heart, senors, with a new pleasure; but it saddens me, when
+I recollect that there may be children of mine now in the world--
+children who have never known a father's love--never known aught
+but a master's threats--"
+
+"God has taken care of these little ones.  Trust that He has taken
+care of yours."
+
+That day Amyas assembled the Indians, and told them that they must
+obey the hermit as their king, and settle there as best they could:
+for if they broke up and wandered away, nothing was left for them
+but to fall one by one into the hands of the Spaniards.  They heard
+him with their usual melancholy and stupid acquiescence, and went
+and came as they were bid, like animated machines; but the negroes
+were of a different temper; and four or five stout fellows gave
+Amyas to understand that they had been warriors in their own
+country, and that warriors they would be still; and nothing should
+keep them from Spaniard-hunting.  Amyas saw that the presence of
+these desperadoes in the new colony would both endanger the
+authority of the hermit, and bring the Spaniards down upon it in a
+few weeks; so, making a virtue of necessity, he asked them whether
+they would go Spaniard-hunting with him.
+
+This was just what the bold Coromantees wished for; they grinned
+and shouted their delight at serving under so great a warrior, and
+then set to work most gallantly, getting through more in the day
+than any ten Indians, and indeed than any two Englishmen.
+
+So went on several days, during which the trees were felled, and
+the process of digging them out began; while Ayacanora, silent and
+moody, wandered into the woods all day with her blow-gun, and
+brought home at evening a load of parrots, monkeys, and curassows;
+two or three old hands were sent out to hunt likewise; so that,
+what with the game and the fish of the river, which seemed
+inexhaustible, and the fruit of the neighboring palm-trees, there
+was no lack of food in the camp.  But what to do with Ayacanora
+weighed heavily on the mind of Amyas.  He opened his heart on the
+matter to the old hermit, and asked him whether he would take
+charge of her.  The latter smiled, and shook his head at the
+notion.  "If your report of her be true, I may as well take in hand
+to tame a jaguar."  However, he promised to try; and one evening,
+as they were all standing together before the mouth of the cave,
+Ayacanora came up smiling with the fruit of her day's sport; and
+Amyas, thinking this a fit opportunity, began a carefully prepared
+harangue to her, which he intended to be altogether soothing, and
+even pathetic,--to the effect that the maiden, having no parents,
+was to look upon this good old man as her father; that he would
+instruct her in the white man's religion (at which promise Yeo, as
+a good Protestant, winced a good deal), and teach her how to be
+happy and good, and so forth; and that, in fine, she was to remain
+there with the hermit.
+
+She heard him quietly, her great dark eyes opening wider and wider,
+her bosom swelling, her stature seeming to grow taller every
+moment, as she clenched her weapons firmly in both her hands.
+Beautiful as she always was, she had never looked so beautiful
+before; and as Amyas spoke of parting with her, it was like
+throwing away a lovely toy; but it must be done, for her sake, for
+his, perhaps for that of all the crew.
+
+The last words had hardly passed his lips, when, with a shriek of
+mingled scorn, rage, and fear, she dashed through the astonished
+group.
+
+"Stop her!" were Amyas's first words; but his next were, "Let her
+go!" for, springing like a deer through the little garden and over
+the flower-fence, she turned, menacing with her blow-gun the
+sailors, who had already started in her pursuit.
+
+"Let her alone, for Heaven's sake!" shouted Amyas, who, he scarce
+knew why, shrank from the thought of seeing those graceful limbs
+struggling in the seamen's grasp.
+
+She turned again, and in another minute her gaudy plumes had
+vanished among the dark forest stems, as swiftly as if she had been
+a passing bird.
+
+All stood thunderstruck at this unexpected end to the conference.
+At last Aymas spoke:
+
+"There's no use in standing here idle, gentlemen.  Staring after
+her won't bring her back.  After all, I'm glad she's gone."
+
+But the tone of his voice belied his words.  Now he had lost her,
+he wanted her back; and perhaps every one present, except he,
+guessed why.
+
+But Ayacanora did not return; and ten days more went on in
+continual toil at the canoes without any news of her from the
+hunters.  Amyas, by the by, had strictly bidden these last not to
+follow the girl, not even to speak to her, if they came across her
+in their wanderings.  He was shrewd enough to guess that the only
+way to cure her sulkiness was to outsulk her; but there was no sign
+of her presence in any direction; and the canoes being finished at
+last, the gold, and such provisions as they could collect, were
+placed on board, and one evening the party prepared for their fresh
+voyage.  They determined to travel as much as possible by night,
+for fear of discovery, especially in the neighborhood of the few
+Spanish settlements which were then scattered along the banks of
+the main stream.  These, however, the negroes knew, so that there
+was no fear of coming on them unawares; and as for falling asleep
+in their night journeys, "Nobody," the negroes said, "ever slept on
+the Magdalena; the mosquitoes took too good care of that."  Which
+fact Amyas and his crew verified afterwards as thoroughly as
+wretched men could do.
+
+The sun had sunk; the night had all but fallen; the men were all on
+board; Amyas in command of one canoe, Cary of the other.  The
+Indians were grouped on the bank, watching the party with their
+listless stare, and with them the young guide, who preferred
+remaining among the Indians, and was made supremely happy by the
+present of Spanish sword and an English axe; while, in the midst,
+the old hermit, with tears in his eyes, prayed God's blessing on
+them.
+
+"I owe to you, noble cavaliers, new peace, new labor, I may say,
+new life.  May God be with you, and teach you to use your gold and
+your swords better than I used mine.
+
+The adventurers waved their hands to him.
+
+"Give way, men," cried Amyas; and as he spoke the paddles dashed
+into the water, to a right English hurrah! which sent the birds
+fluttering from their roosts, and was answered by the yell of a
+hundred monkeys, and the distant roar of the jaguar.
+
+About twenty yards below, a wooded rock, some ten feet high, hung
+over the stream.  The river was not there more than fifteen yards
+broad; deep near the rock, shallow on the farther side; and Amyas's
+canoe led the way, within ten feet of the stone.
+
+As he passed, a dark figure leapt from the bushes on the edge, and
+plunged heavily into the water close to the boat.  All started.  A
+jaguar?  No; he would not have missed so short a spring.  What,
+then?  A human being?
+
+A head rose panting to the surface, and with a few strong strokes
+the swimmer had clutched the gunwale.  It was Ayacanora!
+
+"Go back!" shouted Amyas.  "Go back, girl!"
+
+She uttered the same wild cry with which she had fled into the
+forest.
+
+"I will die, then!" and she threw up her arms.  Another moment, and
+she had sunk.
+
+To see her perish before his eyes! who could bear that?  Her hands
+alone were above the surface.  Amyas caught convulsively at her in
+the darkness, and seized her wrist.
+
+A yell rose from the negroes: a roar from the crew as from a cage
+of lions.  There was a rush and a swirl along the surface of the
+stream; and "Caiman! caiman!" shouted twenty voices.
+
+Now, or never, for the strong arm!  "To larboard, men, or over we
+go!" cried Amyas, and with one huge heave he lifted the slender
+body upon the gunwale.  Her lower limbs were still in the water,
+when, within arm's length, rose above the stream a huge muzzle.
+The lower jaw lay flat, the upper reached as high as Amyas's head.
+He could see the long fangs gleam white in the moonshine; he could
+see for one moment full down the monstrous depths of that great
+gape, which would have crushed a buffalo.  Three inches, and no
+more, from that soft side, the snout surged up--
+
+There was the gleam of an axe from above, a sharp ringing blow, and
+the jaws came together with a clash which rang from bank to bank.
+He had missed her!  Swerving beneath the blow, his snout had passed
+beneath her body, and smashed up against the side of the canoe, as
+the striker, overbalanced, fell headlong overboard upon the
+monster's back.
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"Yeo!" shouted a dozen.
+
+Man and beast went down together, and where they sank, the
+moonlight shone on a great swirling eddy, while all held their
+breaths, and Ayacanora cowered down into the bottom of the canoe,
+her proud spirit utterly broken, for the first time, by the terror
+of that great need, and by a bitter loss.  For in the struggle, the
+holy trumpet, companion of all her wanderings, had fallen from her
+bosom; and her fond hope of bringing magic prosperity to her
+English friends had sunk with it to the bottom of the stream.
+
+None heeded her; not even Amyas, round whose knees she clung,
+fawning like a spaniel dog: for where was Yeo?
+
+Another swirl; a shout from the canoe abreast of them, and Yeo
+rose, having dived clean under his own boat, and risen between the
+two.
+
+"Safe as yet, lads!  Heave me a line, or he'll have me after all."
+
+But ere the brute reappeared, the old man was safe on board.
+
+"The Lord has stood by me," panted he, as he shot the water from
+his ears.  "We went down together: I knew the Indian trick, and
+being uppermost, had my thumbs in his eyes before he could turn:
+but he carried me down to the very mud.  My breath was nigh gone,
+so I left go, and struck up: but my toes tingled as I rose again,
+I'll warrant.  There the beggar is, looking for me, I declare!"
+
+And, true enough, there was the huge brute swimming slowly round
+and round, in search of his lost victim.  It was too dark to put an
+arrow into his eye; so they paddled on, while Ayacanora crouched
+silently at Amyas's feet.
+
+"Yeo!" asked he, in a low voice, "what shall we do with her?"
+
+"Why ask me, sir?" said the old man, as he had a very good right to
+ask.
+
+"Because, when one don't know oneself, one had best inquire of
+one's elders.  Besides, you saved her life at the risk of your own,
+and have a right to a voice in the matter, if any one has, old
+friend."
+
+"Then, my dear young captain, if the Lord puts a precious soul
+under your care, don't you refuse to bear the burden He lays on
+you."
+
+Amyas was silent awhile; while Ayacanora, who was evidently utterly
+exhausted by the night's adventure, and probably by long
+wanderings, watchings, and weepings which had gone before it, sank
+with her head against his knee, fell fast asleep, and breathed as
+gently as a child.
+
+At last he rose in the canoe, and called Cary alongside.
+
+"Listen to me, gentlemen, and sailors all.  You know that we have a
+maiden on board here, by no choice of our own.  Whether she will be
+a blessing to us, God alone can tell: but she may turn to the
+greatest curse which has befallen us ever since we came out over
+Bar three years ago.  Promise me one thing, or I put her ashore the
+next beach, and that is, that you will treat her as if she were
+your own sister; and make an agreement here and now, that if the
+maid comes to harm among us, the man that is guilty shall hang for
+it by the neck till he's dead, even though he be I, Captain Leigh,
+who speak to you.  I'll hang you, as I am a Christian; and I give
+you free leave to hang me."
+
+"A very fair bargain," quoth Cary, "and I for one will see it kept
+to.  Lads, we'll twine a double strong halter for the captain as we
+go down along."
+
+"I am not jesting, Will."
+
+"I know it, good old lad," said Cary, stretching out his own hand
+to him across the water through the darkness, and giving him a
+hearty shake.  "I know it; and listen, men!  So help me God! but
+I'll be the first to back the Captain in being as good as his word,
+as I trust he never will need to be."
+
+"Amen!" said Brimblecombe.  "Amen!" said Yeo; and many an honest
+voice joined in that honest compact, and kept it too, like men.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+HOW THEY TOOK THE GREAT GALLEON
+
+
+"When captains courageous, whom death could not daunt,
+Did march to the siege of the city of Gaunt,
+They muster'd their soldiers by two and by three,
+But the foremost in battle was Mary Ambree.
+When brave Sir John Major was slain in her sight,
+Who was her true lover, her joy and delight,
+Because he was murther'd most treacherouslie,
+Then vow'd to avenge him fair Mary Ambree."
+
+                              Old Ballad, A. D. 1584.
+
+
+One more glance at the golden tropic sea, and the golden tropic
+evenings, by the shore of New Granada, in the golden Spanish Main.
+
+The bay of Santa Marta is rippling before the land-breeze one sheet
+of living flame.  The mighty forests are sparkling with myriad
+fireflies.  The lazy mist which lounges round the inner hills
+shines golden in the sunset rays; and, nineteen thousand feet
+aloft, the mighty peak of Horqueta cleaves the abyss of air, rose-
+red against the dark-blue vault of heaven.  The rosy cone fades to
+a dull leaden hue; but only for awhile.  The stars flash out one by
+one, and Venus, like another moon, tinges the eastern snows with
+gold, and sheds across the bay a long yellow line of rippling
+light.  Everywhere is glory and richness.  What wonder if the earth
+in that enchanted land be as rich to her inmost depths as she is
+upon the surface?  The heaven, the hills, the sea, are one
+sparkling garland of jewels--what wonder if the soil be jewelled
+also? if every watercourse and bank of earth be spangled with
+emeralds and rubies, with grains of gold and feathered wreaths of
+native silver?
+
+So thought, in a poetic mood, the Bishop of Cartagena, as he sat in
+the state cabin of that great galleon, The City of the True Cross,
+and looked pensively out of the window towards the shore.  The good
+man was in a state of holy calm.  His stout figure rested on one
+easy-chair, his stout ankles on another, beside a table spread with
+oranges and limes, guavas and pine-apples, and all the fruits of
+Ind.
+
+An Indian girl, bedizened with scarfs and gold chains, kept off the
+flies with a fan of feathers; and by him, in a pail of ice from the
+Horqueta (the gift of some pious Spanish lady, who had "spent" an
+Indian or two in bringing down the precious offering), stood more
+than one flask of virtuous wine of Alicant.  But he was not so
+selfish, good man, as to enjoy either ice or wine alone; Don Pedro,
+colonel of the soldiers on board, Don Alverez, intendant of his
+Catholic majesty's customs at Santa Marta, and Don Paul, captain of
+mariners in The City of the True Cross, had, by his especial
+request, come to his assistance that evening, and with two friars,
+who sat at the lower end of the table, were doing their best to
+prevent the good man from taking too bitterly to heart the present
+unsatisfactory state of his cathedral town, which had just been
+sacked and burnt by an old friend of ours, Sir Francis Drake.
+
+"We have been great sufferers, senors,--ah, great sufferers,"
+snuffled the bishop, quoting Scripture, after the fashion of the
+day, glibly enough, but often much too irreverently for me to
+repeat, so boldly were his texts travestied, and so freely
+interlarded by grumblings at Tita and the mosquitoes.  "Great
+sufferers, truly; but there shall be a remnant,--ah, a remnant like
+the shaking of the olive tree and the gleaning grapes when the
+vintage is done.--Ah! Gold?  Yes, I trust Our Lady's mercies are
+not shut up, nor her arms shortened.--Look, senors!"--and he
+pointed majestically out of the window.  "It looks gold! it smells
+of gold, as I may say, by a poetical license.  Yea, the very waves,
+as they ripple past us, sing of gold, gold, gold!"
+
+"It is a great privilege," said the intendant, "to have comfort so
+gracefully administered at once by a churchman and a scholar."
+
+"A poet, too," said Don Pedro.  "You have no notion what sweet
+sonnets--"
+
+"Hush, Don Pedro--hush!  If I, a mateless bird, have spent an idle
+hour in teaching lovers how to sing, why, what of that?  I am a
+churchman, senors; but I am a man and I can feel, senors; I can
+sympathize; I can palliate; I can excuse.  Who knows better than I
+how much human nature lurks in us fallen sons of Adam?  Tita!"
+
+"Um?" said the trembling girl, with a true Indian grunt.
+
+"Fill his excellency the intendant's glass.  Does much more
+treasure come down, illustrious senor?  May the poor of Mary hope
+for a few more crumbs from their Mistress's table?"
+
+"Not a pezo, I fear.  The big white cow up there"--and he pointed
+to the Horqueta--"has been milked dry for this year."
+
+"Ah!"  And he looked up at the magnificent snow peak.  "Only good
+to cool wine with, eh? and as safe for the time being as Solomon's
+birds."
+
+"Solomon's birds?  Explain your recondite allusion, my lord."
+
+"Enlighten us, your excellency, enlighten us."
+
+"Ah! thereby hangs a tale.  You know the holy birds who run up and
+down on the Prado at Seville among the ladies' pretty feet,--eh?
+with hooked noses and cinnamon crests?  Of course.  Hoopoes--Upupa,
+as the classics have it.  Well, senors, once on a time, the story
+goes, these hoopoes all had golden crowns on their heads; and,
+senors, they took the consequences--eh?  But it befell on a day
+that all the birds and beasts came to do homage at the court of his
+most Catholic majesty King Solomon, and among them came these same
+hoopoes; and they had a little request to make, the poor rogues.
+And what do you think it was?  Why, that King Solomon would pray
+for them that they might wear any sort of crowns but these same
+golden ones; for--listen, Tita, and see the snare of riches--
+mankind so hunted, and shot, and trapped, and snared them, for the
+sake of these same golden crowns, that life was a burden to bear.
+So Solomon prayed, and instead of golden crowns, they all received
+crowns of feathers; and ever since, senors, they live as merrily as
+crickets in an oven, and also have the honor of bearing the name of
+his most Catholic majesty King Solomon.  Tita! fill the senor
+commandant's glass.  Fray Gerundio, what are you whispering about
+down there, sir?"
+
+Fray Gerundio had merely commented to his brother on the bishop's
+story of Solomon's birds with an--
+
+"O si sic omnia!--would that all gold would turn to feathers in
+like wise!"
+
+"Then, friend," replied the other, a Dominican, like Gerundio, but
+of a darker and sterner complexion, "corrupt human nature would
+within a week discover some fresh bauble, for which to kill and be
+killed in vain."
+
+"What is that, Fray Gerundio?" asked the bishop again.
+
+"I merely remarked, that it were well for the world if all mankind
+were to put up the same prayer as the hoopoes."
+
+"World, sir?  What do you know about the world?  Convert your
+Indians, sir, if you please, and leave affairs of state to your
+superiors.  You will excuse him, senors" (turning to the Dons, and
+speaking in a lower tone).  "A very worthy and pious man, but a
+poor peasant's son; and beside--you understand.  A little wrong
+here; too much fasting and watching, I fear, good man."  And the
+bishop touched his forehead knowingly, to signify that Fray
+Gerundio's wits were in an unsatisfactory state.
+
+The Fray heard and saw with a quiet smile.  He was one of those
+excellent men whom the cruelties of his countrymen had stirred up
+(as the darkness, by mere contrast, makes the light more bright),
+as they did Las Casas, Gasca, and many another noble name which is
+written in the book of life, to deeds of love and pious daring
+worthy of any creed or age.  True Protestants, they protested, even
+before kings, against the evil which lay nearest them, the sin
+which really beset them; true liberals, they did not disdain to
+call the dark-skinned heathen their brothers; and asserted in terms
+which astonish us, when we recollect the age in which they were
+spoken, the inherent freedom of every being who wore the flesh and
+blood which their Lord wore; true martyrs, they bore witness of
+Christ, and received too often the rewards of such, in slander and
+contempt.  Such an one was Fray Gerundio; a poor, mean, clumsy-
+tongued peasant's son, who never could put three sentences
+together, save when he waxed eloquent, crucifix in hand, amid some
+group of Indians or negroes.  He was accustomed to such rebuffs as
+the bishop's; he took them for what they were worth, and sipped his
+wine in silence; while the talk went on.
+
+"They say," observed the commandant, "that a very small Plate-fleet
+will go to Spain this year."
+
+"What else?" says the intendant.  "What have we to send, in the
+name of all saints, since these accursed English Lutherans have
+swept us out clean?"
+
+"And if we had anything to send," says the sea-captain, "what have
+we to send it in?  That fiend incarnate, Drake--"
+
+"Ah!" said his holiness; "spare my ears!  Don Pedro, you will
+oblige my weakness by not mentioning that man;--his name is
+Tartarean, unfit for polite lips.  Draco--a dragon--serpent--the
+emblem of Diabolus himself--ah!  And the guardian of the golden
+apples of the West, who would fain devour our new Hercules, his
+most Catholic majesty.  Deceived Eve, too, with one of those same
+apples--a very evil name, senors--a Tartarean name,--Tita!"
+
+"Um!"
+
+"Fill my glass."
+
+"Nay," cried the colonel, with a great oath, "this English fellow
+is of another breed of serpent from that, I warrant."
+
+"Your reason, senor; your reason?"
+
+"Because this one would have seen Eve at the bottom of the sea,
+before he let her, or any one but himself, taste aught which looked
+like gold."
+
+"Ah, ah!--very good! But--we laugh, valiant senors, while the
+Church weeps.  Alas for my sheep!"
+
+"And alas for their sheepfold!  It will be four years before we can
+get Cartagena rebuilt again.  And as for the blockhouse, when we
+shall get that rebuilt, Heaven only knows, while his majesty goes
+on draining the Indies for his English Armada.  The town is as
+naked now as an Indian's back."
+
+"Baptista Antonio, the surveyor, has sent home by me a relation to
+the king, setting forth our defenceless state.  But to read a
+relation and to act on it are two cocks of very different hackles,
+bishop, as all statesmen know.  Heaven grant we may have orders by
+the next fleet to fortify, or we shall be at the mercy of every
+English pirate!"
+
+"Ah, that blockhouse!" sighed the bishop.  "That was indeed a
+villainous trick.  A hundred and ten thousand ducats for the ransom
+of the town!  After having burned and plundered the one-half--and
+having made me dine with them too, ah! and sit between the--the
+serpent, and his lieutenant-general--and drunk my health in my own
+private wine--wine that I had from Xeres nine years ago, senors and
+offered, the shameless heretics, to take me to England, if I would
+turn Lutheran, and find me a wife, and make an honest man of me--
+ah! and then to demand fresh ransom for the priory and the fort--
+perfidious!"
+
+"Well," said the colonel, "they had the law of us, the cunning
+rascals, for we forgot to mention anything but the town, in the
+agreement.  Who would have dreamed of such a fetch as that?"
+
+"So I told my good friend the prior, when he came to me to borrow
+the thousand crowns.  It was Heaven's will.  Unexpected like the
+thunderbolt, and to be borne as such.  Every man must bear his own
+burden.  How could I lend him aught?"
+
+"Your holiness's money had been all carried off by them before,"
+said the intendant, who knew, and none better, the exact contrary.
+
+"Just so--all my scanty savings! desolate in my lone old age.  Ah,
+senors, had we not had warning of the coming of these wretches from
+my dear friend the Marquess of Santa Cruz, whom I remember daily in
+my prayers, we had been like to them who go down quick into the
+pit.  I too might have saved a trifle, had I been minded: but in
+thinking too much of others, I forgot myself, alas!"
+
+"Warning or none, we had no right to be beaten by such a handful,"
+said the sea-captain; "and a shame it is, and a shame it will be,
+for many a day to come."
+
+"Do you mean to cast any slur, sir, upon the courage and conduct of
+his Catholic majesty's soldiers?" asked the colonel.
+
+"I?--No; but we were foully beaten, and that behind our barricades
+too, and there's the plain truth."
+
+"Beaten, sir!  Do you apply such a term to the fortunes of war?
+What more could our governor have done?  Had we not the ways filled
+with poisoned caltrops, guarded by Indian archers, barred with
+butts full of earth, raked with culverins and arquebuses?  What
+familiar spirit had we, sir, to tell us that these villains would
+come along the sea-beach, and not by the high-road, like Christian
+men?"
+
+"Ah!" said the bishop, "it was by intuition diabolic, I doubt not,
+that they took that way.  Satanas must need help those who serve
+him; and for my part, I can only attribute (I would the captain
+here had piety enough to do so) the misfortune which occurred to
+art-magic.  I believe these men to have been possessed by all
+fiends whatsoever."
+
+"Well, your holiness," said the colonel, "there may have been
+devilry in it; how else would men have dared to run right into the
+mouths of our cannon, fire their shot against our very noses, and
+tumble harmless over those huge butts of earth?"
+
+"Doubtless by force of the fiends which raged with them,"
+interposed the bishop.
+
+"And then, with their blasphemous cries, leap upon us with sword
+and pike?  I myself saw that Lieutenant-General Carlisle hew down
+with one stroke that noble young gentleman the ensign-bearer, your
+excellency's sister's son's nephew, though he was armed cap-a-pie.
+Was not art-magic here?  And that most furious and blaspheming
+Lutheran Captain Young, I saw how he caught our general by the
+head, after the illustrious Don Alonzo had given him a grievous
+wound, threw him to the earth, and so took him.  Was not art-magic
+here?"
+
+"Well, I say," said the captain, "if you are looking for art-magic,
+what say you to their marching through the flank fire of our
+galleys, with eleven pieces of ordnance, and two hundred shot
+playing on them, as if it had been a mosquito swarm?  Some said my
+men fired too high: but that was the English rascals' doing, for
+they got down on the tide beach.  But, senor commandant, though
+Satan may have taught them that trick, was it he that taught them
+to carry pikes a foot longer than yours?"
+
+"Ah, well," said the bishop, "sacked are we; and San Domingo, as I
+hear, in worse case than we are; and St. Augustine in Florida
+likewise; and all that is left for a poor priest like me is to
+return to Spain, and see whether the pious clemency of his majesty,
+and of the universal Father, may not be willing to grant some small
+relief or bounty to the poor of Mary--perhaps--(for who knows?) to
+translate to a sphere of more peaceful labor one who is now old,
+senors, and weary with many toils--Tita! fill our glasses.  I have
+saved somewhat--as you may have done, senors, from the general
+wreck; and for the flock, when I am no more, illustrious senors,
+Heaven's mercies are infinite; new cities will rise from the ashes
+of the old, new mines pour forth their treasures into the
+sanctified laps of the faithful, and new Indians flock toward the
+life-giving standard of the Cross, to put on the easy yoke and
+light burden of the Church, and--"
+
+"And where shall I be then?  Ah, where?  Fain would I rest, and
+fain depart.  Tita! sling my hammock.  Senors, you will excuse age
+and infirmities.  Fray Gerundio, go to bed!"
+
+And the Dons rose to depart, while the bishop went on maundering,--
+
+"Farewell!  Life is short.  Ah! we shall meet in heaven at last.
+And there are really no more pearls?"
+
+"Not a frail; nor gold either," said the intendant.
+
+"Ah, well!  Better a dinner of herbs where love is, than--Tita!"
+
+"My breviary--ah!  Man's gratitude is short-lived, I had hoped--
+You have seen nothing of the Senora Bovadilla?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Ah! she promised:--but no matter--a little trifle as a keepsake--a
+gold cross, or an emerald ring, or what not--I forget.  And what
+have I to do with worldly wealth!--Ah! Tita! bring me the casket."
+
+And when his guests were gone, the old man began mumbling prayers
+out of his breviary, and fingering over jewels and gold, with the
+dull greedy eyes of covetous old age.
+
+"Ah!--it may buy the red hat yet!--Omnia Romae venalia!  Put it by,
+Tita, and do not look at it too much, child.  Enter not into
+temptation.  The love of money is the root of all evil; and Heaven,
+in love for the Indian, has made him poor in this world, that he
+may be rich in faith.  Ah!--Ugh!--So!"
+
+And the old miser clambered into his hammock.  Tita drew the
+mosquito net over him, wrapt another round her own head, and slept,
+or seemed to sleep; for she coiled herself up upon the floor, and
+master and slave soon snored a merry bass to the treble of the
+mosquitoes.
+
+It was long past midnight, and the moon was down.  The sentinels,
+who had tramped and challenged overhead till they thought their
+officers were sound asleep, had slipped out of the unwholesome rays
+of the planet to seek that health and peace which they considered
+their right, and slept as soundly as the bishop's self.
+
+Two long lines glided out from behind the isolated rocks of the
+Morro Grande, which bounded the bay some five hundred yards astern
+of the galleon.  They were almost invisible on the glittering
+surface of the water, being perfectly white; and, had a sentinel
+been looking out, he could only have descried them by the
+phosphorescent flashes along their sides.
+
+Now the bishop had awoke, and turned himself over uneasily; for the
+wine was dying out within him, and his shoulders had slipped down,
+and his heels up, and his head ached! so he sat upright in his
+hammock, looked out upon the bay, and called Tita.
+
+"Put another pillow under my head, child!  What is that? a fish?"
+
+Tita looked.  She did not think it was a fish: but she did not
+choose to say so; for it might have produced an argument, and she
+had her reasons for not keeping his holiness awake.
+
+The bishop looked again; settled that it must be a white whale, or
+shark, or other monster of the deep; crossed himself, prayed for a
+safe voyage, and snored once more.
+
+Presently the cabin-door opened gently, and the head of the senor
+intendant appeared.
+
+Tita sat up; and then began crawling like a snake along the floor,
+among the chairs and tables, by the light of the cabin lamp.
+
+"Is he asleep?"
+
+"Yes: but the casket is under his head."
+
+"Curse him!  How shall we take it?"
+
+"I brought him a fresh pillow half-an-hour ago; I hung his hammock
+wrong on purpose that he might want one.  I thought to slip the box
+away as I did it; but the old ox nursed it in both hands all the
+while."
+
+"What shall we do, in the name of all the fiends?  She sails to-
+morrow morning, and then all is lost."
+
+Tita showed her white teeth, and touched the dagger which hung by
+the intendant's side.
+
+"I dare not!" said the rascal, with a shudder.
+
+"I dare!" said she.  "He whipt my mother, because she would not
+give me up to him to be taught in his schools, when she went to the
+mines.  And she went to the mines, and died there in three months.
+I saw her go, with a chain round her neck; but she never came back
+again.  Yes; I dare kill him!  I will kill him!  I will!"
+
+The senor felt his mind much relieved.  He had no wish, of course,
+to commit the murder himself; for he was a good Catholic, and
+feared the devil.  But Tita was an Indian, and her being lost did
+not matter so much.  Indians' souls were cheap, like their bodies.
+So he answered, "But we shall be discovered!"
+
+"I will leap out of the window with the casket, and swim ashore.
+They will never suspect you, and they will fancy I am drowned."
+
+"The sharks may seize you, Tita.  You had better give me the
+casket."
+
+Tita smiled.  "You would not like to lose that, eh? though you care
+little about losing me.  And yet you told me that you loved me!"
+
+"And I do love you, Tita! light of my eyes! life of my heart!  I
+swear, by all the saints, I love you.  I will marry you, I swear I
+will--I will swear on the crucifix, if you like!"
+
+"Swear, then, or I do not give you the casket," said she, holding
+out the little crucifix round her neck, and devouring him with the
+wild eyes of passionate unreasoning tropic love.
+
+He swore, trembling, and deadly pale.
+
+"Give me your dagger."
+
+"No, not mine.  It may be found.  I shall be suspected.  What if my
+sheath were seen to be empty?"
+
+"Your knife will do.  His throat is soft enough."
+
+And she glided stealthily as a cat toward the hammock, while her
+cowardly companion stood shivering at the other end of the cabin,
+and turned his back to her, that he might not see the deed.
+
+He stood waiting, one minute--two--five?  Was it an hour, rather?
+A cold sweat bathed his limbs; the blood beat so fiercely within
+his temples, that his head rang again.  Was that a death-bell
+tolling?  No; it was the pulses of his brain.  Impossible, surely,
+a death-bell.  Whence could it come?
+
+There was a struggle--ah! she was about it now; a stifled cry--Ah!
+he had dreaded that most of all, to hear the old man cry.  Would
+there be much blood?  He hoped not.  Another struggle, and Tita's
+voice, apparently muffled, called for help.
+
+"I cannot help you.  Mother of Mercies!  I dare not help you!"
+hissed he.  "She-devil! you have begun it, and you must finish it
+yourself!"
+
+A heavy arm from behind clasped his throat.  The bishop had broken
+loose from her and seized him!  Or was it his ghost? or a fiend
+come to drag him down to the pit?  And forgetting all but mere wild
+terror, he opened his lips for a scream, which would have wakened
+every soul on board.  But a handkerchief was thrust into his mouth
+and in another minute he found himself bound hand and foot, and
+laid upon the table by a gigantic enemy.  The cabin was full of
+armed men, two of whom were lashing up the bishop in his hammock;
+two more had seized Tita; and more were clambering up into the
+stern-gallery beyond, wild figures, with bright blades and armor
+gleaming in the starlight.
+
+"Now, Will," whispered the giant who had seized him, "forward and
+clap the fore-hatches on; and shout Fire! with all your might.
+Girl! murderess! your life is in my hands.  Tell me where the
+commander sleeps, and I pardon you."
+
+Tita looked up at the huge speaker, and obeyed in silence.  The
+intendant heard him enter the colonel's cabin, and then a short
+scuffle, and silence for a moment.
+
+But only for a moment; for already the alarm had been given, and
+mad confusion reigned through every deck.  Amyas (for it was none
+other) had already gained the poop; the sentinels were gagged and
+bound; and every half-naked wretch who came trembling up on deck in
+his shirt by the main hatchway, calling one, "Fire! another,
+"Wreck!" and another, "Treason!" was hurled into the scuppers, and
+there secured.
+
+"Lower away that boat!" shouted Amyas in Spanish to his first batch
+of prisoners.
+
+The men, unarmed and naked, could but obey.
+
+"Now then, jump in.  Here, hand them to the gangway as they come
+up.
+
+It was done; and as each appeared he was kicked to the scuppers,
+and bundled down over the side.
+
+"She's full.  Cast loose now and off with you.  If you try to board
+again we'll sink you."
+
+"Fire! fire!" shouted Cary, forward.  "Up the main hatchway for
+your lives!"
+
+The ruse succeeded utterly; and before half-an-hour was over, all
+the ship's boats which could be lowered were filled with Spaniards
+in their shirts, getting ashore as best they could.
+
+"Here is a new sort of camisado," quoth Cary.  "The last Spanish
+one I saw was at the sortie from Smerwick: but this is somewhat
+more prosperous than that."
+
+"Get the main and foresail up, Will!" said Amyas, "cut the cable;
+and we will plume the quarry as we fly."
+
+"Spoken like a good falconer.  Heaven grant that this big woodcock
+may carry a good trail inside!"
+
+"I'll warrant her for that," said Jack Brimblecombe.  "She floats
+so low."
+
+"Much of your build, too, Jack.  By the by, where is the
+commander?"
+
+Alas! Don Pedro, forgotten in the bustle, had been lying on the
+deck in his shirt, helplessly bound, exhausting that part of his
+vocabulary which related to the unseen world.  Which most
+discourteous act seemed at first likely to be somewhat heavily
+avenged on Amyas; for as he spoke, a couple of caliver-shots, fired
+from under the poop, passed "ping" "ping" by his ears, and Cary
+clapped his hand to his side.
+
+"Hurt, Will?"
+
+"A pinch, old lad--Look out, or we are 'allen verloren' after all,
+as the Flemings say."
+
+And as he spoke, a rush forward on the poop drove two of their best
+men down the ladder into the waist, where Amyas stood.
+
+"Killed?" asked he, as he picked one up, who had fallen head over
+heels.
+
+"Sound as a bell, sir: but they Gentiles has got hold of the
+firearms, and set the captain free."
+
+And rubbing the back of his head for a minute, he jumped up the
+ladder again, shouting--
+
+"Have at ye, idolatrous pagans!  Have at ye, Satan's spawn!"
+
+Amyas jumped up after him, shouting to all hands to follow; for
+there was no time to be lost.
+
+Out of the windows of the poop, which looked on the main-deck, a
+galling fire had been opened, and he could not afford to lose men;
+for, as far as he knew, the Spaniards left on board might still far
+outnumber the English; so up he sprang on the poop, followed by a
+dozen men, and there began a very heavy fight between two parties
+of valiant warriors, who easily knew each other apart by the
+peculiar fashion of their armor.  For the Spaniards fought in their
+shirts, and in no other garments: but the English in all other
+manner of garments, tag, rag, and bobtail; and yet had never a
+shirt between them.
+
+The rest of the English made a rush, of course, to get upon the
+poop, seeing that the Spaniards could not shoot them through the
+deck; but the fire from the windows was so hot, that although they
+dodged behind masts, spars, and every possible shelter, one or two
+dropped; and Jack Brimblecombe and Yeo took on themselves to call a
+retreat, and with about a dozen men, got back, and held a council
+of war.
+
+What was to be done?  Their arquebuses were of little use; for the
+Spaniards were behind a strong bulkhead.  There were cannon: but
+where was powder or shot?  The boats, encouraged by the clamor on
+deck, were paddling alongside again.  Yeo rushed round and round,
+probing every gun with his sword.
+
+"Here's a patararo loaded!  Now for a match, lads."
+
+Luckily one of the English had kept his match alight during the
+scuffle.
+
+"Thanks be!  Help me to unship the gun--the mast's in the way
+here."
+
+The patararo, or brass swivel, was unshipped.
+
+"Steady, lads, and keep it level, or you'll shake out the priming.
+Ship it here; turn out that one, and heave it into that boat, if
+they come alongside.  Steady now--so!  Rummage about, and find me a
+bolt or two, a marlin-spike, anything.  Quick, or the captain will
+be over-mastered yet."
+
+Missiles were found--odds and ends--and crammed into the swivel up
+to the muzzle: and, in another minute, its "cargo of notions" was
+crashing into the poop-windows, silencing the fire from thence
+effectually enough for the time.
+
+"Now, then, a rush forward, and right in along the deck!" shouted
+Yeo; and the whole party charged through the cabin-doors, which
+their shot had burst open, and hewed their way from room to room.
+
+In the meanwhile, the Spaniards above had fought fiercely: but, in
+spite of superior numbers, they had gradually given back before the
+"demoniacal possession of those blasphemous heretics, who fought,
+not like men, but like furies from the pit."  And by the time that
+Brimblecombe and Yeo shouted from the stern-gallery below that the
+quarter-deck was won, few on either side but had their shrewd
+scratch to show.
+
+"Yield, senor!" shouted Amyas to the commander, who had been
+fighting like a lion, back to back with the captain of mariners.
+
+"Never!  You have bound me, and insulted me!  Your blood or mine
+must wipe out the stain!"
+
+And he rushed on Amyas.  There was a few moments' heavy fence
+between them; and then Amyas cut right at his head.  But as he
+raised his arm, the Spaniard's blade slipped along his ribs, and
+snapped against the point of his shoulder-blade.  An inch more to
+the left, and it would have been through his heart.  The blow fell,
+nevertheless, and the commandant fell with it, stunned by the flat
+of the sword, but not wounded; for Amyas's hand had turned, as he
+winced from his wound.  But the sea-captain, seeing Amyas stagger,
+sprang at him, and, seizing him by the wrist, ere he could raise
+his sword again, shortened his weapon to run him through.  Amyas
+made a grasp at his wrist in return, but, between his faintness and
+the darkness, missed it.--Another moment, and all would have been
+over!
+
+A bright blade flashed close past Amyas's ear; the sea-captain's
+grasp loosened, and he dropped a corpse; while over him, like an
+angry lioness above her prey, stood Ayacanora, her long hair
+floating in the wind, her dagger raised aloft, as she looked round,
+challenging all and every one to approach.
+
+"Are you hurt?" panted she.
+
+"A scratch, child.--What do you do here?  Go back, go back."
+
+Ayacanora slipped back like a scolded child, and vanished in the
+darkness.
+
+The battle was over.  The Spaniards, seeing their commanders fall,
+laid down their arms, and cried for quarter.  It was given; the
+poor fellows were tied together, two and two, and seated in a row
+on the deck; the commandant, sorely bruised, yielded himself
+perforce; and the galleon was taken.
+
+Amyas hurried forward to get the sails set.  As he went down the
+poop-ladder, there was some one sitting on the lowest step.
+
+"Who is here--wounded?"
+
+"I am not wounded," said a woman's voice, low, and stifled with
+sobs.
+
+It was Ayacanora.  She rose, and let him pass.  He saw that her
+face was bright with tears; but he hurried on, nevertheless.
+
+"Perhaps I did speak a little hastily to her, considering she saved
+my life; but what a brimstone it is!  Mary Ambree in a dark skin!
+Now then, lads!  Get the Santa Fe gold up out of the canoes, and
+then we will put her head to the north-east, and away for Old
+England.  Mr. Brimblecombe! don't say that Eastward-ho don't bring
+luck this time."
+
+It was impossible, till morning dawned, either to get matters into
+any order, or to overhaul the prize they had taken; and many of the
+men were so much exhausted that they fell fast asleep on the deck
+ere the surgeon had time to dress their wounds.  However, Amyas
+contrived, when once the ship was leaping merrily, close-hauled
+against a fresh land-breeze, to count his little flock, and found
+out of the forty-four but six seriously wounded, and none killed.
+However, their working numbers were now reduced to thirty-eight,
+beside the four negroes, a scanty crew enough to take home such a
+ship to England.
+
+After awhile, up came Jack Brimblecombe on deck, a bottle in his
+hand.
+
+"Lads, a prize!"
+
+"Well, we know that already."
+
+"Nay, but--look hither, and laid in ice, too, as I live, the
+luxurious dogs!  But I had to fight for it, I had.  For when I went
+down into the state cabin, after I had seen to the wounded; whom
+should I find loose but that Indian lass, who had just unbound the
+fellow you caught--"
+
+"Ah! those two, I believe, were going to murder the old man in the
+hammock, if we had not come in the nick of time.  What have you
+done with them?"
+
+"Why, the Spaniard ran when he saw me, and got into a cabin; but
+the woman, instead of running, came at me with a knife, and chased
+me round the table like a very cat-a-mountain.  So I ducked under
+the old man's hammock, and out into the gallery; and when I thought
+the coast was clear, back again I came, and stumbled over this.  So
+I just picked it up, and ran on deck with my tail between my legs,
+for I expected verily to have the black woman's knife between my
+ribs out of some dark corner."
+
+"Well done, Jack!  Let's have the wine, nevertheless, and then down
+to set a guard on the cabin doors for fear of plundering."
+
+"Better go down, and see that nothing is thrown overboard by
+Spaniards.  As for plundering, I will settle that."
+
+And Amyas walked forward among the men.
+
+"Muster the men, boatswain, and count them."
+
+"All here, sir, but the six poor fellows who are laid forward."
+
+"Now, my men," said Amyas, "for three years you and I have wandered
+on the face of the earth, seeking our fortune, and we have found it
+at last, thanks be to God!  Now, what was our promise and vow which
+we made to God beneath the tree of Guayra, if He should grant us
+good fortune, and bring us home again with a prize?  Was it not,
+that the dead should share with the living; and that every man's
+portion, if he fell, should go to his widow or his orphans, or if
+he had none, to his parents?"
+
+"It was, sir," said Yeo, "and I trust that the Lord will give these
+men grace to keep their vow.  They have seen enough of His
+providences by this time to fear Him."
+
+"I doubt them not; but I remind them of it.  The Lord has put into
+our hands a rich prize; and what with the gold which we have
+already, we are well paid for all our labors.  Let us thank Him
+with fervent hearts as soon as the sun rises; and in the meanwhile,
+remember all, that whosoever plunders on his private account, robs
+not the adventurers merely, but the orphan and the widow, which is
+to rob God; and makes himself partaker of Achan's curse, who hid
+the wedge of gold, and brought down God's anger on the whole army
+of Israel.  For me, lest you should think me covetous, I could
+claim my brother's share; but I hereby give it up freely into the
+common stock, for the use of the whole ship's crew, who have stood
+by me through weal and woe, as men never stood before, as I
+believe, by any captain.  So, now to prayers, lads, and then to eat
+our breakfast."
+
+So, to the Spaniards' surprise (who most of them believed that the
+English were atheists), to prayers they went.
+
+After which Brimblecombe contrived to inspire the black cook and
+the Portuguese steward with such energy that, by seven o'clock, the
+latter worthy appeared on deck, and, with profound reverences,
+announced to "The most excellent and heroical Senor Adelantado
+Captain Englishman," that breakfast was ready in the state-cabin.
+
+"You will do us the honor of accompanying us as our guest, sir, or
+our host, if you prefer the title," said Amyas to the commandant,
+who stood by.
+
+"Pardon, senor: but honor forbids me to eat with one who has
+offered to me the indelible insult of bonds."
+
+"Oh!" said Amyas, taking off his hat, "then pray accept on the spot
+my humble apologies for all which has passed, and my assurances
+that the indignities which you have unfortunately endured, were
+owing altogether to the necessities of war, and not to any wish to
+hurt the feelings of so valiant a soldier and gentleman."
+
+"It is enough, senor," said the commandant, bowing and shrugging
+his shoulders--for, indeed, he too was very hungry; while Cary
+whispered to Amyas--
+
+"You will make a courtier, yet, old lad."
+
+"I am not in jesting humor, Will: my mind sadly misgives me that we
+shall hear black news, and have, perhaps, to do a black deed yet,
+on board here.  Senor, I follow you."
+
+So they went down, and found the bishop, who was by this time
+unbound, seated in a corner of the cabin, his hands fallen on his
+knees, his eyes staring on vacancy, while the two priests stood as
+close against the wall as they could squeeze themselves, keeping up
+a ceaseless mutter of prayers.
+
+"Your holiness will breakfast with us, of course; and these two
+frocked gentlemen likewise.  I see no reason for refusing them all
+hospitality, as yet."
+
+There was a marked emphasis on the last two words, which made both
+monks wince.
+
+"Our chaplain will attend to you, gentlemen.  His lordship the
+bishop will do me the honor of sitting next to me."
+
+The bishop seemed to revive slowly as he snuffed the savory steam;
+and at last, rising mechanically, subsided into the chair which
+Amyas offered him on his left, while the commandant sat on his
+right.
+
+"A little of this kid, my lord?  No--ah--Friday, I recollect.  Some
+of that turtle-fin, then.  Will, serve his lordship; pass the
+cassava-bread up, Jack!  Senor commandant! a glass of wine?  You
+need it after your valiant toils.  To the health of all brave
+soldiers--and a toast from your own Spanish proverb, 'To-day to me,
+tomorrow to thee!'"
+
+"I drink it, brave senor.  Your courtesy shows you the worthy
+countryman of General Drake, and his brave lieutenant."
+
+"Drake!  Did you know him, senor?" asked all the Englishmen at
+once.
+
+"Too well, too well--" and he would have continued; but the bishop
+burst out--
+
+"Ah, senor commandant! that name again!  Have you no mercy?  To sit
+between another pair of--, and my own wine, too!  Ugh, ugh!"
+
+The old gentleman, whose mouth had been full of turtle the whole
+time, burst into a violent fit of coughing, and was only saved from
+apoplexy by Cary's patting him on the back.
+
+"Ugh, ugh!  The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, and their
+precious balms.  Ah, senor lieutenant Englishman!  May I ask you to
+pass those limes?--Ah! what is turtle without lime?--Even as a fat
+old man without money!  Nudus intravi, nudus exeo--ah!"
+
+"But what of Drake?"
+
+"Do you not know, sir, that he and his fleet, only last year, swept
+the whole of this coast, and took, with shame I confess it,
+Cartagena, San Domingo, St. Augustine, and--I see you are too
+courteous, senors, to express before me what you have a right to
+feel.  But whence come you, sir?  From the skies, or the depth of
+the sea?"
+
+"Art-magic, art-magic!" moaned the bishop.
+
+"Your holiness!  It is scarcely prudent to speak thus here," said
+the commandant, who was nevertheless much of the same opinion.
+
+"Why, you said so yourself, last night, senor, about the taking of
+Cartagena."
+
+The commandant blushed, and stammered out somewhat--"That it was
+excusable in him, if he had said, in jest, that so prodigious and
+curious a valor had not sprung from mortal source."
+
+"No more it did, senor," said Jack Brimblecombe, stoutly: "but from
+Him who taught our 'hands to war, and our fingers to fight.'"
+
+The commandant bowed stiffly.  "You will excuse me, sir preacher:
+but I am a Catholic, and hold the cause of my king to be alone the
+cause of Heaven.  But, senor captain, how came you thither, if I
+may ask?  That you needed no art-magic after you came on board, I,
+alas! can testify but too well: but what spirit--whether good or
+evil, I ask not--brought you on board, and whence?  Where is your
+ship?  I thought that all Drake's squadron had left six months
+ago."
+
+"Our ship, senor, has lain this three years rotting on the coast
+near Cape Codera."
+
+"Ah! we heard of that bold adventure--but we thought you all lost
+in the interior."
+
+"You did?  Can you tell me, then, where the senor governor of La
+Guayra may be now?"
+
+"The Senor Don Guzman de Soto," said the commandant, in a somewhat
+constrained tone, "is said to be at present in Spain, having thrown
+up his office in consequence of domestic matters, of which I have
+not the honor of knowing anything."
+
+Amyas longed to ask more: but he knew that the well-bred Spaniard
+would tell him nothing which concerned another man's wife; and went
+on.
+
+"What befell us after, I tell you frankly."
+
+And Amyas told his story, from the landing at Guayra to the passage
+down the Magdalena.  The commandant lifted up his hands.
+
+"Were it not forbidden to me, as a Catholic, most invincible senor,
+I should say that the Divine protection has indeed--"
+
+"Ah," said one of the friars, "that you could be brought, senors,
+to render thanks for your miraculous preservation to her to whom
+alone it is due, Mary, the fount of mercies!"
+
+"We have done well enough without her as yet," said Amyas, bluntly.
+
+"The Lord raised up Nebuchadnezzar of old to punish the sins of the
+Jewish Church; and He has raised up these men to punish ours!" said
+Fray Gerundio.
+
+"But Nebuchadnezzar fell, and so may they," growled the other to
+himself.  Jack overheard him.
+
+"I say, my lord bishop," called he from the other end of the table.
+"It is our English custom to let our guests be as rude as they
+like; but perhaps your lordship will hint to these two friars, that
+if they wish to keep whole skins, they will keep civil tongues."
+
+"Be silent, asses! mules!" shouted the bishop, whose spirits were
+improving over the wine, who are you, that you cannot eat dirt as
+well as your betters?"
+
+"Well spoken, my lord.  Here's the health of our saintly and
+venerable guest," said Cary: while the commandant whispered to
+Amyas, "Fat old tyrant!  I hope you have found his money--for I am
+sure he has some on board, and I should be loath that you lost the
+advantage of it."
+
+"I shall have to say a few words to you about that money this
+morning, commandant: by the by, they had better be said now.  My
+lord bishop, do you know that had we not taken this ship when we
+did, you had lost not merely money, as you have now, but life
+itself?"
+
+"Money?  I had none to lose!  Life?--what do you mean?" asked the
+bishop, turning very pale.
+
+"This, sir.  That it ill befits one to lie, whose throat has been
+saved from the assassin's knife but four hours since.  When we
+entered the stern-gallery, we found two persons, now on board this
+ship, in the very act, sir, and article, of cutting your sinful
+throat, that they might rob you of the casket which lay beneath
+your pillow.  A moment more, and you were dead.  We seized and
+bound them, and so saved your life.  Is that plain, sir?"
+
+The bishop looked steadfastly and stupidly into Amyas's face,
+heaved a deep sigh, and gradually sank back in his chair, dropping
+the glass from his hand.
+
+"He is in a fit!  Call in the surgeon!  Run!" and up jumped kind-
+hearted Jack, and brought in the surgeon of the galleon.
+
+"Is this possible, senor?" asked the commandant.
+
+"It is true.  Door, there!  Evans! go and bring in that rascal whom
+we left bound in his cabin!"
+
+Evans went, and the commandant continued--
+
+"But the stern-gallery?  How, in the name of all witches and
+miracles, came your valor thither?"
+
+"Simply enough, and owing neither to witch nor miracle.  The night
+before last we passed the mouth of the bay in our two canoes, which
+we had lashed together after the fashion I had seen in the
+Moluccas, to keep them afloat in the surf.  We had scraped the
+canoes bright the day before, and rubbed them with white clay, that
+they might be invisible at night; and so we got safely to the Morro
+Grande, passing within half a mile of your ship."
+
+"Oh! my scoundrels of sentinels!"
+
+"We landed at the back of the Morro, and lay there all day, being
+purposed to do that which, with your pardon, we have done.  We took
+our sails of Indian cloth, whitened them likewise with clay which
+we had brought with us from the river (expecting to find a Spanish
+ship as we went along the coast, and determined to attempt her, or
+die with honor), and laid them over us on the canoes, paddling from
+underneath them.  So that, had your sentinels been awake, they
+would have hardly made us out, till we were close on board.  We had
+provided ourselves, instead of ladders, with bamboos rigged with
+cross-pieces, and a hook of strong wood at the top of each; they
+hang at your stern-gallery now.  And the rest of the tale I need
+not tell you."
+
+The commandant rose in his courtly Spanish way,--
+
+"Your admirable story, senor, proves to me how truly your nation,
+while it has yet, and I trust will ever have, to dispute the palm
+of valor with our own, is famed throughout the world for ingenuity,
+and for daring beyond that of mortal man.  You have succeeded,
+valiant captain, because you have deserved to succeed; and it is no
+shame to me to succumb to enemies who have united the cunning of
+the serpent with the valor of the lion.  Senor, I feel as proud of
+becoming your guest as I should have been proud, under a happier
+star, of becoming your host."
+
+"You are, like your nation, only too generous, senor.  But what
+noise is that outside?  Cary, go and see."
+
+But ere Cary could reach the door, it was opened; and Evans
+presented himself with a terrified face.
+
+"Here's villainy, sir!  The Don's murdered, and cold; the Indian
+lass fled; and as we searched the ship for her, we found an
+Englishwoman, as I'm a sinful man!--and a shocking sight she is to
+see!"
+
+"An Englishwoman?" cried all three, springing forward.
+
+"Bring her in!" said Amyas, turning very pale; and as he spoke, Yeo
+and another led into the cabin a figure scarcely human.
+
+An elderly woman, dressed in the yellow "San Benito" of the
+Inquisition, with ragged gray locks hanging about a countenance
+distorted by suffering and shrunk by famine.  Painfully, as one
+unaccustomed to the light, she peered and blinked round her.  Her
+fallen lip gave her a half-idiotic expression; and yet there was an
+uneasy twinkle in the eye, as of boundless terror and suspicion.
+She lifted up her fettered wrist to shade her face; and as she did
+so, disclosed a line of fearful scars upon her skinny arm.
+
+"Look there, sirs!" said Yeo, pointing to them with a stern smile.
+"Here's some of these Popish gentry's handiwork.  I know well
+enough how those marks came;" and he pointed to the similar scars
+on his own wrist.
+
+The commandant, as well as the Englishmen, recoiled with horror.
+
+"Holy Virgin! what wretch is this on board my ship?  Bishop, is
+this the prisoner whom you sent on board?"
+
+The bishop, who had been slowly recovering his senses, looked at
+her a moment; and then thrusting his chair back, crossed himself,
+and almost screamed, "Malefica!  Malefica!  Who brought her here?
+Turn her away, gentlemen; turn her eye away; she will bewitch,
+fascinate"--and he began muttering prayers.
+
+Amyas seized him by the shoulder, and shook him on to his legs.
+
+"Swine! who is this?  Wake up, coward, and tell me, or I will cut
+you piecemeal!"
+
+But ere the bishop could answer, the woman uttered a wild shriek,
+and pointing to the taller of the two monks, cowered behind Yeo.
+
+"He here?" cried she, in broken Spanish.  "Take me away!  I will
+tell you no more.  I have told you all, and lies enough beside.
+Oh! why is he come again?  Did they not say that I should have no
+more torments?"
+
+The monk turned pale: but like a wild beast at bay, glared firmly
+round on the whole company; and then, fixing his dark eyes full on
+the woman, he bade her be silent so sternly, that she shrank down
+like a beaten hound.
+
+"Silence, dog!" said Will Cary, whose blood was up, and followed
+his words with a blow on the monk's mouth, which silenced him
+effectually.
+
+"Don't be afraid, good woman, but speak English.  We are all
+English here, and Protestants too.  Tell us what they have done for
+you."
+
+"Another trap! another trap!" cried she, in a strong Devonshire
+accent.  "You be no English!  You want to make me lie again, and
+then torment me.  Oh! wretched, wretched that I am!" cried she,
+bursting into tears.  "Whom should I trust?  Not myself: no, nor
+God; for I have denied Him!  O Lord! O Lord!"
+
+Amyas stood silent with fear and horror; some instinct told him
+that he was on the point of hearing news for which he feared to
+ask.  But Jack spoke--
+
+"My dear soul! my dear soul! don't you be afraid; and the Lord will
+stand by you, if you will but tell the truth.  We are all
+Englishmen, and men of Devon, as you seem to be by your speech; and
+this ship is ours; and the pope himself sha'n't touch you."
+
+"Devon?" she said doubtingly; "Devon!  Whence, then?"
+
+"Bideford men.  This is Mr. Will Cary, to Clovelly.  If you are a
+Devon woman, you've heard tell of the Carys, to be sure."
+
+The woman made a rush forward, and threw her fettered arms round
+Will's neck,--
+
+"Oh, Mr. Cary, my dear life!  Mr. Cary! and so you be!  Oh, dear
+soul alive! but you're burnt so brown, and I be 'most blind with
+misery.  Oh, who ever sent you here, my dear Mr. Will, then, to
+save a poor wretch from the pit?"
+
+"Who on earth are you?"
+
+"Lucy Passmore, the white witch to Welcombe.  Don't you mind Lucy
+Passmore, as charmed your warts for you when you was a boy?"
+
+"Lucy Passmore!" almost shrieked all three friends.  "She that went
+off with--"
+
+"Yes! she that sold her own soul, and persuaded that dear saint to
+sell hers; she that did the devil's work, and has taken the devil's
+wages;--after this fashion!" and she held up her scarred wrists
+wildly.
+
+"Where is Dona de--Rose Salterne?" shouted Will and Jack.
+
+"Where is my brother Frank?" shouted Amyas.
+
+"Dead, dead, dead!"
+
+"I knew it," said Amyas, sitting down again calmly.
+
+"How did she die?"
+
+"The Inquisition--he!" pointing to the monk.  "Ask him--he betrayed
+her to her death.  And ask him!" pointing to the bishop; "he sat by
+her and saw her die."
+
+"Woman, you rave!" said the bishop, getting up with a terrified
+air, and moving as far as possible from Amyas.
+
+"How did my brother die, Lucy?" asked Amyas, still calmly.
+
+"Who be you, sir?"
+
+A gleam of hope flashed across Amyas--she had not answered his
+question.
+
+"I am Amyas Leigh of Burrough.  Do you know aught of my brother
+Frank, who was lost at La Guayra?"
+
+"Mr. Amyas!  Heaven forgive me that I did not know the bigness of
+you.  Your brother, sir, died like a gentleman as he was."
+
+"But how?" gasped Amyas.
+
+"Burned with her, sir!"
+
+"Is this true, sir?" said Amyas, turning to the bishop, with a very
+quiet voice.
+
+"I, sir?" stammered he, in panting haste.  "I had nothing to do--I
+was compelled in my office of bishop to be an unwilling spectator--
+the secular arm, sir; I could not interfere with that--any more
+than I can with the Holy Office.  I do not belong to it--ask that
+gentleman--sir!  Saints and angels, sir! what are you going to do?"
+shrieked he, as Amyas laid a heavy hand upon his shoulder, and
+began to lead him towards the door.
+
+"Hang you!" said Amyas.  "If I had been a Spaniard and a priest
+like yourself, I should have burnt you alive."
+
+"Hang me?" shrieked the wretched old Balaam; and burst into abject
+howls for mercy.
+
+"Take the dark monk, Yeo, and hang him too.  Lucy Passmore, do you
+know that fellow also?"
+
+"No, sir," said Lucy.
+
+"Lucky for you, Fray Gerundio," said Will Cary; while the good
+friar hid his face in his hands, and burst into tears.  Lucky it
+was for him, indeed; for he had been a pitying spectator of the
+tragedy.  "Ah!" thought he, "if life in this mad and sinful world
+be a reward, perhaps this escape is vouchsafed to me for having
+pleaded the cause of the poor Indian!"
+
+But the bishop shrieked on.
+
+"Oh! not yet.  An hour, only an hour!  I am not fit to die."
+
+"That is no concern of mine," said Amyas.  "I only know that you
+are not fit to live."
+
+"Let us at least make our peace with God," said the dark monk.
+
+"Hound! if your saints can really smuggle you up the back-stairs to
+heaven, they will do it without five minutes' more coaxing and
+flattering."
+
+Fray Gerundio and the condemned man alike stopped their ears at the
+blasphemy.
+
+"Oh, Fray Gerundio!" screamed the bishop, "pray for me.  I have
+treated you like a beast.  Oh, Fray, Fray!"
+
+"Oh, my lord! my lord!" said the good man, as with tears streaming
+down his face he followed his shrieking and struggling diocesan up
+the stairs, "who am I?  Ask no pardon of me.  Ask pardon of God for
+all your sins against the poor innocent savages, when you saw your
+harmless sheep butchered year after year, and yet never lifted up
+your voice to save the flock which God had committed to you.  Oh,
+confess that, my lord! confess it ere it be too late!"
+
+"I will confess all about the Indians, and the gold, and Tita too,
+Fray; peccavi, peccavi--only five minutes, senors, five little
+minutes' grace, while I confess to the good Fray!"--and he
+grovelled on the deck.
+
+"I will have no such mummery where I command," said Amyas, sternly.
+"I will be no accomplice in cheating Satan of his due."
+
+"If you will confess," said Brimblecombe, whose heart was melting
+fast, "confess to the Lord, and He will forgive you.  Even at the
+last moment mercy is open.  Is it not, Fray Gerundio?"
+
+"It is, senor; it is, my lord," said Gerundio; but the bishop only
+clasped his hands over his head.
+
+"Then I am undone!  All my money is stolen!  Not a farthing left to
+buy masses for my poor soul!  And no absolution, no viaticum, nor
+anything!  I die like a dog and am damned!"
+
+"Clear away that running rigging!" said Amyas, while the dark
+Dominican stood perfectly collected, with something of a smile of
+pity at the miserable bishop.  A man accustomed to cruelty, and
+firm in his fanaticism, he was as ready to endure suffering as to
+inflict it; repeating to himself the necessary prayers, he called
+Fray Gerundio to witness that he died, however unworthy, a martyr,
+in charity with all men, and in the communion of the Holy Catholic
+Church; and then, as he fitted the cord to his own neck, gave Fray
+Gerundio various petty commissions about his sister and her
+children, and a little vineyard far away upon the sunny slopes of
+Castile; and so died, with a "Domine, in manus tuas," like a
+valiant man of Spain.
+
+Amyas stood long in solemn silence, watching the two corpses
+dangling above his head.  At last he drew a long breath, as if a
+load was taken off his heart.
+
+Suddenly he looked round to his men, who were watching eagerly to
+know what he would have done next.
+
+"Hearken to me, my masters all, and may God hearken too, and do so
+to me, and more also, if, as long as I have eyes to see a Spaniard,
+and hands to hew him down, I do any other thing than hunt down that
+accursed nation day and night, and avenge all the innocent blood
+which has been shed by them since the day in which King Ferdinand
+drove out the Moors!"
+
+"Amen!" said Salvation Yeo.  "I need not to swear that oath, for I
+have sworn it long ago, and kept it.  Will your honor have us kill
+the rest of the idolaters?"
+
+"God forbid!" said Cary.  "You would not do that, Amyas?"
+
+"No; we will spare them.  God has shown us a great mercy this day,
+and we must be merciful in it.  We will land them at Cabo Velo.
+But henceforth till I die no quarter to a Spaniard."
+
+"Amen!" said Yeo.
+
+Amyas's whole countenance had changed in the last half-hour.  He
+seemed to have grown years older.  His brow was wrinkled, his lip
+compressed, his eyes full of a terrible stony calm, as of one who
+had formed a great and dreadful purpose, and yet for that very
+reason could afford to be quiet under the burden of it, even
+cheerful; and when he returned to the cabin he bowed courteously to
+the commandant, begged pardon of him for having played the host so
+ill, and entreated him to finish his breakfast.
+
+"But, senor--is it possible?  Is his holiness dead?"
+
+"He is hanged and dead, senor.  I would have hanged, could I have
+caught them, every living thing which was present at my brother's
+death, even to the very flies upon the wall.  No more words, senor;
+your conscience tells you that I am just."
+
+"Senor," said the commandant--"one word--I trust there are no
+listeners--none of my crew, I mean; but I must exculpate myself in
+your eyes."
+
+"Walk out, then, into the gallery with me."
+
+"To tell you the truth, senor--I trust in Heaven no one overhears.--
+You are just.  This Inquisition is the curse of us, the weight
+which is crushing out the very life of Spain.  No man dares speak.
+No man dares trust his neighbor, no, not his child, or the wife of
+his bosom.  It avails nothing to be a good Catholic, as I trust I
+am," and he crossed himself, "when any villain whom you may offend,
+any unnatural son or wife who wishes to be rid of you, has but to
+hint heresy against you, and you vanish into the Holy Office--and
+then God have mercy on you, for man has none.  Noble ladies of my
+family, sir, have vanished thither, carried off by night, we know
+not why; we dare not ask why.  To expostulate, even to inquire,
+would have been to share their fate.  There is one now, senor--
+Heaven alone knows whether she is alive or dead!--It was nine years
+since, and we have never heard; and we shall never hear."
+
+And the commandant's face worked frightfully.
+
+"She was my sister, senor!"
+
+"Heavens! sir, and have you not avenged her?"
+
+"On churchmen, senor, and I a Catholic?  To be burned at the stake
+in this life, and after that to all eternity beside?  Even a
+Spaniard dare not face that.  Beside, sir, the mob like this
+Inquisition, and an Auto-da-fe is even better sport to them than a
+bull-fight.  They would be the first to tear a man in pieces who
+dare touch an Inquisitor.  Sir, may all the saints in heaven obtain
+me forgiveness for my blasphemy, but when I saw you just now
+fearing those churchmen no more than you feared me, I longed,
+sinner that I am, to be a heretic like you."
+
+"It will not take long to make a brave and wise gentleman who has
+suffered such things as you have, a heretic, as you call it--a free
+Christian man, as we call it."
+
+"Tempt me not, sir!" said the poor man, crossing himself fervently.
+"Let us say no more.  Obedience is my duty; and for the rest the
+Church must decide, according to her infallible authority--for I am
+a good Catholic, senor, the best of Catholics, though a great
+sinner.--I trust no one has overheard us!"
+
+Amyas left him with a smile of pity, and went to look for Lucy
+Passmore, whom the sailors were nursing and feeding, while
+Ayacanora watched them with a puzzled face.
+
+"I will talk to you when you are better, Lucy," said he, taking her
+hand.  "Now you must eat and drink, and forget all among us lads of
+Devon."
+
+"Oh, dear blessed sir, and you will send Sir John to pray with me?
+For I turned, sir, I turned: but I could not help it--I could not
+abear the torments: but she bore them, sweet angel--and more than I
+did.  Oh, dear me!"
+
+"Lucy, I am not fit now to hear more.  You shall tell me all to-
+morrow;" and he turned away.
+
+"Why do you take her hand?" said Ayacanora, half-scornfully.  "She
+is old, and ugly, and dirty."
+
+"She is an Englishwoman, child, and a martyr, poor thing; and I
+would nurse her as I would my own mother."
+
+"Why don't you make me an Englishwoman, and a martyr?  I could
+learn how to do anything that that old hag could do!"
+
+"Instead of calling her names, go and tend her; that would be much
+fitter work for a woman than fighting among men."
+
+Ayacanora darted from him, thrust the sailors aside, and took
+possession of Lucy Passmore.
+
+"Where shall I put her?" asked she of Amyas, without looking up.
+
+"In the best cabin; and let her be served like a queen, lads."
+
+"No one shall touch her but me;" and taking up the withered frame
+in her arms, as if it were a doll, Ayacanora walked off with her in
+triumph, telling the men to go and mind the ship.
+
+"The girl is mad," said one.
+
+"Mad or not, she has an eye to our captain," said another.
+
+"And where's the man that would behave to the poor wild thing as he
+does?"
+
+"Sir Francis Drake would, from whom he got his lesson.  Do you mind
+his putting the negro lass ashore after he found out about--"
+
+"Hush!  Bygones be bygones, and those that did it are in their
+graves long ago.  But it was too hard of him on the poor thing."
+
+"If he had not got rid of her, there would have been more throats
+than one cut about the lass, that's all I know," said another; "and
+so there would have been about this one before now, if the captain
+wasn't a born angel out of heaven, and the lieutenant no less."
+
+"Well, I suppose we may get a whet by now.  I wonder if these Dons
+have any beer aboard."
+
+"Naught but grape vinegar, which fools call wine, I'll warrant."
+
+"There was better than vinegar on the table in there just now."
+
+"Ah," said one grumbler of true English breed, "but that's not for
+poor fellows like we."
+
+"Don't lie, Tom Evans; you never were given that way yet, and I
+don't think the trade will suit a good fellow like you."
+
+The whole party stared; for the speaker of these words was none
+other than Amyas himself, who had rejoined them, a bottle in each
+hand.
+
+"No, Tom Evans.  It has been share and share alike for three years,
+and bravely you have all held up, and share alike it shall be now,
+and here's the handsel of it.  We'll serve out the good wine fairly
+all round as long as it lasts, and then take to the bad: but mind
+you don't get drunk, my sons, for we are much too short of hands to
+have any stout fellows lying about the scuppers."
+
+But what was the story of the intendant's being murdered?
+Brimblecombe had seen him run into a neighboring cabin; and when
+the door of it was opened, there was the culprit, but dead and
+cold, with a deep knife-wound in his side.  Who could have done the
+deed?  It must have been Tita, whom Brimblecombe had seen loose,
+and trying to free her lover.
+
+The ship was searched from stem to stern: but no Tita.  The mystery
+was never explained.  That she had leapt overboard, and tried to
+swim ashore, none doubted: but whether she had reached it, who
+could tell?  One thing was strange; that not only had she carried
+off no treasure with her, but that the gold ornaments which she had
+worn the night before, lay together in a heap on the table, close
+by the murdered man.  Had she wished to rid herself of everything
+which had belonged to her tyrants?
+
+The commandant heard the whole story thoughtfully.
+
+"Wretched man!" said he, "and he has a wife and children in
+Seville."
+
+"A wife and children?" said Amyas; "and I heard him promise
+marriage to the Indian girl."
+
+That was the only hint which gave a reason for his death.  What if,
+in the terror of discovery and capture, the scoundrel had dropped
+any self-condemning words about his marriage, any prayer for those
+whom he had left behind, and the Indian had overheard them?  It
+might be so; at least sin had brought its own punishment.
+
+And so that wild night and day subsided.  The prisoners were kindly
+used enough; for the Englishman, free from any petty love of
+tormenting, knows no mean between killing a foe outright, and
+treating him as a brother; and when, two days afterwards, they were
+sent ashore in the canoes off Cabo Velo, captives and captors shook
+hands all round; and Amyas, after returning the commandant his
+sword, and presenting him with a case of the bishop's wine, bowed
+him courteously over the side.
+
+"I trust that you will pay us another visit, valiant senor
+capitan," said the Spaniard, bowing and smiling.
+
+"I should most gladly accept your invitation, illustrious senor
+commandant; but as I have vowed henceforth, whenever I shall meet a
+Spaniard, neither to give nor take quarter, I trust that our paths
+to glory may lie in different directions."
+
+The commandant shrugged his shoulders; the ship was put again
+before the wind, and as the shores of the Main faded lower and
+dimmer behind her, a mighty cheer broke from all on board; and for
+once the cry from every mouth was Eastward-ho!
+
+Scrap by scrap, as weakness and confusion of intellect permitted
+her, Lucy Passmore told her story.  It was a simple one after all,
+and Amyas might almost have guessed it for himself.  Rose had not
+yielded to the Spaniard without a struggle.  He had visited her two
+or three times at Lucy's house (how he found out Lucy's existence
+she herself could never tell, unless from the Jesuits) before she
+agreed to go with him.  He had gained Lucy to his side by huge
+promises of Indian gold; and, in fine, they had gone to Lundy,
+where the lovers were married by a priest, who was none other, Lucy
+would swear, than the shorter and stouter of the two who had
+carried off her husband and his boat--in a word, Father Parsons.
+
+Amyas gnashed his teeth at the thought that he had had Parsons in
+his power at Brenttor down, and let him go.  It was a fresh proof
+to him that Heaven's vengeance was upon him for letting one of its
+enemies escape.  Though what good to Rose or Frank the hanging of
+Parsons would have been, I, for my part, cannot see.
+
+But when had Eustace been at Lundy?  Lucy could throw no light on
+that matter.  It was evidently some by-thread in the huge spider's
+web of Jesuit intrigue, which was, perhaps, not worth knowing after
+all.
+
+They sailed from Lundy in a Portugal ship, were at Lisbon a few
+days (during which Rose and Lucy remained on board), and then away
+for the West Indies; while all went merry as a marriage bell.
+"Sir, he would have kissed the dust off her dear feet, till that
+evil eye of Mr. Eustace's came, no one knew how or whence."  And,
+from that time, all went wrong.  Eustace got power over Don Guzman,
+whether by threatening that the marriage should be dissolved,
+whether by working on his superstitious scruples about leaving his
+wife still a heretic, or whether (and this last Lucy much
+suspected) by insinuations that her heart was still at home in
+England, and that she was longing for Amyas and his ship to come
+and take her home again; the house soon became a den of misery, and
+Eustace the presiding evil genius.  Don Guzman had even commanded
+him to leave it--and he went; but, somehow, within a week he was
+there again, in greater favor than ever.  Then came preparations to
+meet the English, and high words about it between Don Guzman and
+Rose; till a few days before Amyas's arrival, the Don had dashed
+out of the house in a fury, saying openly that she preferred these
+Lutheran dogs to him, and that he would have their hearts' blood
+first, and hers after.
+
+The rest was soon told.  Amyas knew but too much of it already.
+The very morning after he had gone up to the villa, Lucy and her
+mistress were taken (they knew not by whom) down to the quay, in
+the name of the Holy Office, and shipped off to Cartagena.
+
+There they were examined, and confronted on a charge of witchcraft,
+which the wretched Lucy could not well deny.  She was tortured to
+make her inculpate Rose; and what she said, or did not say, under
+the torture, the poor wretch could never tell.  She recanted, and
+became a Romanist; Rose remained firm.  Three weeks afterwards,
+they were brought out to an Auto-da-fe; and there, for the first
+time, Lucy saw Frank walking, dressed in a San Benito, in that
+ghastly procession.  Lucy was adjudged to receive publicly two
+hundred stripes, and to be sent to "The Holy House" at Seville to
+perpetual prison.  Frank and Rose, with a renegade Jew, and a negro
+who had been convicted of practising "Obi," were sentenced to death
+as impenitent, and delivered over to the secular arm, with prayers
+that there might be no shedding of blood.  In compliance with which
+request, the Jew and the negro were burnt at one stake, Frank and
+Rose at another.  She thought they did not feel it more than twenty
+minutes.  They were both very bold and steadfast, and held each
+other's hand (that she would swear to) to the very last.
+
+And so ended Lucy Passmore's story.  And if Amyas Leigh, after he
+had heard it, vowed afresh to give no quarter to Spaniards wherever
+he should find them, who can wonder, even if they blame?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+HOW SALVATION YEO FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN
+
+
+"All precious things, discover'd late,
+   To them who seek them issue forth;
+For love in sequel works with fate,
+   And draws the veil from hidden worth."
+
+                    The Sleeping Beauty.
+
+
+And so Ayacanora took up her abode in Lucy's cabin, as a regularly
+accredited member of the crew.
+
+But a most troublesome member; for now began in her that perilous
+crisis which seems to endanger the bodies and souls of all savages
+and savage tribes, when they first mingle with the white man; that
+crisis which, a few years afterwards, began to hasten the
+extermination of the North American tribes; and had it not been for
+the admirable good sense and constancy of Amyas, Ayacanora might
+have ended even more miserably than did the far-famed Pocahontas,
+daughter of the Virginian king; who, after having been received at
+Court by the old pedant James the First, with the honors of a
+sister sovereign, and having become the reputed ancestress of more
+than one ancient Virginian family, ended her days in wretchedness
+in some Wapping garret.
+
+For the mind of the savage, crushed by the sight of the white man's
+superior skill, and wealth, and wisdom, loses at first its self-
+respect; while his body, pampered with easily obtained luxuries,
+instead of having to win the necessaries of life by heavy toil,
+loses its self-helpfulness; and with self-respect and self-help
+vanish all the savage virtues, few and flimsy as they are, and the
+downward road toward begging and stealing, sottishness and
+idleness, is easy, if not sure.
+
+And down that road, it really seemed at first, that poor Ayacanora
+was walking fast.  For the warrior-prophetess of the Omaguas soon
+became, to all appearance, nothing but a very naughty child; and
+the Diana of the Meta, after she had satisfied her simple wonder at
+the great floating house by rambling from deck to deck, and peeping
+into every cupboard and cranny, manifested a great propensity to
+steal and hide (she was too proud or too shy to ask for) every
+trumpery which smit her fancy; and when Amyas forbade her to take
+anything without leave, threatened to drown herself, and went off
+and sulked all day in her cabin.  Nevertheless, she obeyed him,
+except in the matter of sweet things.  Perhaps she craved naturally
+for the vegetable food of her native forests; at all events the
+bishop's stores of fruit and sweetmeats diminished rapidly; and
+what was worse, so did the sweet Spanish wine which Amyas had set
+apart for poor Lucy's daily cordial.  Whereon another severe
+lecture, in which Amyas told her how mean it was to rob poor sick
+Lucy; whereat she, as usual, threatened to drown herself; and was
+running upon deck to do it, when Amyas caught her and forgave her.
+On which a violent fit of crying, and great penitence and promises;
+and a week after, Amyas found that she had cheated Satan and her
+own conscience by tormenting the Portuguese steward into giving her
+some other wine instead: but luckily for her, she found Amyas's
+warnings about wine making her mad so far fulfilled, that she did
+several foolish things one evening, and had a bad headache next
+morning; so the murder was out, and Amyas ordered the steward up
+for a sound flogging; but Ayacanora, honorably enough, not only
+begged him off, but offered to be whipped instead of him,
+confessing that the poor fellow spoke truly when he swore that she
+had threatened to kill him, and that he had given her the wine in
+bodily fear for his life.
+
+However, her own headache and Amyas's cold looks were lesson
+enough, and after another attempt to drown herself, the wilful
+beauty settled down for awhile; and what was better, could hardly
+be persuaded, thenceforth to her dying day, to touch fermented
+liquors.
+
+But, in the meanwhile, poor Amyas had many a brains-beating as to
+how he was to tame a lady who, on the least provocation, took
+refuge in suicide.  Punish her he dared not, even if he had the
+heart.  And as for putting her ashore, he had an instinct, and
+surely not a superstitious one, that her strange affection for the
+English was not unsent by Heaven, and that God had committed her
+into his charge, and that He would require an account at his hands
+of the soul of that fair lost lamb.
+
+So, almost at his wits' end, he prayed to God, good simple fellow,
+and that many a time, to show him what he should do with her before
+she killed either herself, or what was just as likely, one of the
+crew; and it seemed best to him to make Parson Jack teach her the
+rudiments of Christianity, that she might be baptized in due time
+when they got home to England.
+
+But here arose a fresh trouble--for she roundly refused to learn of
+Jack, or of any one but Amyas himself; while he had many a good
+reason for refusing the office of schoolmaster; so, for a week or
+two more, Ayacanora remained untaught, save in the English tongue,
+which she picked up with marvellous rapidity.
+
+And next, as if troubles would never end, she took a violent
+dislike, not only to John Brimblecombe, whose gait and voice she
+openly mimicked for the edification of the men; but also to Will
+Cary, whom she never allowed to speak to her or approach her.
+Perhaps she was jealous of his intimacy with Amyas; or perhaps,
+with the subtle instinct of a woman, she knew that he was the only
+other man on board who might dare to make love to her (though Will,
+to do him justice, was as guiltless of any such intention as Amyas
+himself).  But when she was remonstrated with, her only answer was
+that Cary was a cacique as well as Amyas, and that there ought not
+to be two caciques; and one day she actually proposed to Amyas to
+kill his supposed rival, and take the ship all to himself; and
+sulked for several days at hearing Amyas, amid shouts of laughter,
+retail her precious advice to its intended victim.
+
+Moreover, the negroes came in for their share, being regarded all
+along by her with an unspeakable repugnance, which showed itself at
+first in hiding from them whenever she could, and, afterwards, in
+throwing at them everything she could lay hands on, till the poor
+Quashies, in danger of their lives, complained to Amyas, and got
+rest for awhile.
+
+Over the rest of the sailors she lorded it like a very princess,
+calling them from their work to run on her errands and make toys
+for her, enforcing her commands now and then by a shrewd box on the
+ears; while the good fellows, especially old Yeo, like true
+sailors, petted her, obeyed her, even jested with her, much as they
+might have done with a tame leopard, whose claws might be
+unsheathed and about their ears at any moment.  But she amused
+them, and amused Amyas too.  They must of course have a pet; and
+what prettier one could they have?  And as for Amyas, the constant
+interest of her presence, even the constant anxiety of her
+wilfulness, kept his mind busy, and drove out many a sad foreboding
+about that meeting with his mother, and the tragedy which he had to
+tell her, which would otherwise, so heavily did they weigh on him,
+have crushed his spirit with melancholy, and made all his worldly
+success and marvellous deliverance worthless in his eyes.
+
+At last the matter, as most things luckily do, came to a climax;
+and it came in this way.
+
+The ship had been slipping along now for many a day, slowly but
+steadily before a favorable breeze.  She had passed the ring of the
+West India islands, and was now crawling, safe from all pursuit,
+through the vast weed-beds of the Sargasso Sea.  There, for the
+first time, it was thought safe to relax the discipline which had
+been hitherto kept up, and to "rummage" (as was the word in those
+days) their noble prize.  What they found, of gold and silver,
+jewels, and merchandise, will interest no readers.  Suffice it to
+say, that there was enough there, with the other treasure, to make
+Amyas rich for life, after all claims of Cary's and the crew, not
+forgetting Mr. Salterne's third, as owner of the ship, had been
+paid off.  But in the captain's cabin were found two chests, one
+full of gorgeous Mexican feather dresses, and the other of Spanish
+and East Indian finery, which, having come by way of Havana and
+Cartagena, was going on, it seemed, to some senora or other at the
+Caracas.  Which two chests were, at Cary's proposal, voted amid the
+acclamations of the crew to Ayacanora, as her due and fit share of
+the pillage, in consideration of her Amazonian prowess and valuable
+services.
+
+So the poor child took greedy possession of the trumpery, had them
+carried into Lucy's cabin, and there knelt gloating over them many
+an hour.  The Mexican work she chose to despise as savage; but the
+Spanish dresses were a treasure; and for two or three days she
+appeared on the quarter-deck, sunning herself like a peacock before
+the eyes of Amyas in Seville mantillas, Madrid hats, Indian brocade
+farthingales, and I know not how many other gewgaws, and dare not
+say how put on.
+
+The crew tittered: Amyas felt much more inclined to cry.  There is
+nothing so pathetic as a child's vanity, saving a grown person
+aping a child's vanity; and saving, too, a child's agony of
+disappointment when it finds that it has been laughed at instead of
+being admired.  Amyas would have spoken, but he was afraid:
+however, the evil brought its own cure.  The pageant went on, as
+its actor thought, most successfully for three days or so; but at
+last the dupe, unable to contain herself longer, appealed to
+Amyas,--"Ayacanora quite English girl now; is she not?"--heard a
+titter behind her, looked round, saw a dozen honest faces in broad
+grin, comprehended all in a moment, darted down the companion-
+ladder, and vanished.
+
+Amyas, fully expecting her to jump overboard, followed as fast as
+he could.  But she had locked herself in with Lucy, and he could
+hear her violent sobs, and Lucy's faint voice entreating to know
+what was the matter.
+
+In vain he knocked.  She refused to come out all day, and at even
+they were forced to break the door open, to prevent Lucy being
+starved.
+
+There sat Ayacanora, her finery half torn off, and scattered about
+the floor in spite, crying still as if her heart would break; while
+poor Lucy cried too, half from fright and hunger, and half for
+company.
+
+Amyas tried to comfort the poor child, assured her that the men
+should never laugh at her again; "But then," added he, "you must
+not be so--so--"  What to say he hardly knew.
+
+"So what?" asked she, crying more bitterly than ever.
+
+"So like a wild girl, Ayacanora."
+
+Her hands dropped on her knees: a strong spasm ran through her
+throat and bosom, and she fell on her knees before him, and looked
+up imploringly in his face.
+
+"Yes; wild girl--poor, bad wild girl. . . .  But I will be English
+girl now!"
+
+"Fine clothes will never make you English, my child," said Amyas.
+
+"No! not English clothes--English heart!  Good heart, like yours!
+Yes, I will be good, and Sir John shall teach me!"
+
+"There's my good maid," said Amyas.  "Sir John shall begin and
+teach you to-morrow."
+
+"No!  Now! now!  Ayacanora cannot wait.  She will drown herself if
+she is bad another day!  Come, now!"
+
+And she made him fetch Brimblecombe, heard the honest fellow
+patiently for an hour or more, and told Lucy that very night all
+that he had said.  And from that day, whenever Jack went in to read
+and pray with the poor sufferer, Ayacanora, instead of escaping on
+deck as before, stood patiently trying to make it all out, and
+knelt when he knelt, and tried to pray too--that she might have an
+English heart; and doubtless her prayers, dumb as they were, were
+not unheard.
+
+So went on a few days more, hopefully enough, without any outbreak,
+till one morning, just after they had passed the Sargasso-beds.
+The ship was taking care of herself; the men were all on deck under
+the awning, tinkering, and cobbling, and chatting; Brimblecombe was
+catechising his fair pupil in the cabin; Amyas and Cary, cigar in
+mouth, were chatting about all heaven and earth, and, above all, of
+the best way of getting up a fresh adventure against the Spaniards
+as soon as they returned; while Amyas was pouring out to Will that
+dark hatred of the whole nation, that dark purpose of revenge for
+his brother and for Rose, which had settled down like a murky cloud
+into every cranny of his heart and mind.  Suddenly there was a
+noise below; a scuffle and a shout, which made them both leap to
+their feet; and up on deck rushed Jack Brimblecombe, holding his
+head on with both his hands.
+
+"Save me! save me from that she-fiend!  She is possessed with a
+legion!  She has broken my nose--torn out half my hair!--and I'm
+sure I have none to spare!  Here she comes!  Stand by me, gentlemen
+both!  Satanas, I defy thee!"  And Jack ensconced himself behind
+the pair, as Ayacanora whirled upon deck like a very Maenad, and,
+seeing Amyas, stopped short.
+
+"If you had defied Satan down below there," said Cary, with a
+laugh, "I suspect he wouldn't have broken out on you so boldly,
+Master Jack."
+
+"I am innocent--innocent as the babe unborn!  Oh! Mr. Cary! this is
+too bad of you, sir!" quoth Jack indignantly, while Amyas asked
+what was the matter.
+
+"He looked at me," said she, sturdily.
+
+"Well, a cat may look at a king."
+
+"But he sha'n't look at Ayacanora.  Nobody shall but you, or I'll
+kill him!"
+
+In vain Jack protested his innocence of having even looked at her.
+The fancy (and I verily believe it was nothing more) had taken
+possession of her.  She refused to return below to her lesson.
+Jack went off grumbling, minus his hair, and wore a black eye for a
+week after.
+
+"At all events," quoth Cary, re-lighting his cigar, "it's a fault
+on the right side."
+
+"God give me grace, or it may be one on the wrong side for me."
+
+"He will, old heart-of-oak!" said Cary, laying his arm around
+Amyas's neck, to the evident disgust of Ayacanora, who went off to
+the side, got a fishing-line, and began amusing herself therewith,
+while the ship slipped on quietly and silently as ever, save when
+Ayacanora laughed and clapped her hands at the flying-fish scudding
+from the bonitos.  At last, tired of doing nothing, she went
+forward to the poop-rail to listen to John Squire the armorer, who
+sat tinkering a headpiece, and humming a song, mutato nomine,
+concerning his native place--
+
+
+     "Oh, Bideford is a pleasant place, it shines where it stands,
+      And the more I look upon it, the more my heart it warms;
+      For there are fair young lasses, in rows upon the quay,
+      To welcome gallant mariners, when they come home from say."
+
+
+"'Tis Sunderland, John Squire, to the song, and not Bidevor," said
+his mate.
+
+"Well, Bidevor's so good as Sunderland any day, for all there's no
+say-coals there blacking a place about; and makes just so good
+harmonies, Tommy Hamblyn--
+
+
+     "Oh, if I was a herring, to swim the ocean o'er,
+      Or if I was a say-dove, to fly unto the shoor,
+      To fly unto my true love, a waiting at the door,
+      To wed her with a goold ring, and plough the main no moor."
+
+
+Here Yeo broke in--
+
+"Aren't you ashamed, John Squire, to your years, singing such
+carnal vanities, after all the providences you have seen?  Let the
+songs of Zion be in your mouth, man, if you must needs keep a
+caterwauling all day like that."
+
+"You sing 'em yourself then, gunner."
+
+"Well," says Yeo, "and why not?"  And out he pulled his psalm-book,
+and began a scrap of the grand old psalm--
+
+
+     "Such as in ships and brittle barks
+        Into the seas descend,
+      Their merchandise through fearful floods
+        To compass and to end;
+      There men are forced to behold
+        The Lord's works what they be;
+      And in the dreadful deep the same,
+        Most marvellous they see."
+
+
+"Humph!" said John Squire.  "Very good and godly: but still I du
+like a merry catch now and then, I du.  Wouldn't you let a body
+sing 'Rumbelow'--even when he's heaving of the anchor?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Yeo; "but the Lord's people had better
+praise the Lord then too, and pray for a good voyage, instead of
+howling about--
+
+
+     "A randy, dandy, dandy O,
+      A whet of ale and brandy O,
+   With a rumbelow and a Westward-ho!
+      And heave, my mariners all, O!"
+
+
+"Is that fit talk for immortal souls?  How does that child's-trade
+sound beside the Psalms, John Squire?"
+
+Now it befell that Salvation Yeo, for the very purpose of holding
+up to ridicule that time-honored melody, had put into it the true
+nasal twang, and rung it out as merrily as he had done perhaps
+twelve years before, when he got up John Oxenham's anchor in
+Plymouth Sound.  And it befell also that Ayacanora, as she stood by
+Amyas's side, watching the men, and trying to make out their chat,
+heard it, and started; and then, half to herself, took up the
+strain, and sang it over again, word for word, in the very same
+tune and tone.
+
+Salvation Yeo started in his turn, and turned deadly pale.
+
+"Who sung that?" he asked quickly.
+
+"The little maid here.  She's coming on nicely in her English,"
+said Amyas.
+
+"The little maid?" said Yeo, turning paler still.  "Why do you go
+about to scare an old servant, by talking of little maids, Captain
+Amyas?  Well," he said aloud to himself, "as I am a sinful saint,
+if I hadn't seen where the voice came from, I could have sworn it
+was her; just as we taught her to sing it by the river there, I and
+William Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade.  The Lord have
+mercy on me!"
+
+All were silent as the grave whenever Yeo made any allusion to that
+lost child.  Ayacanora only, pleased with Amyas's commendation,
+went humming on to herself--
+
+
+     "And heave, my mariners all, O!"
+
+
+Yeo started up from the gun where he sat.
+
+"I can't abear it!  As I live, I can't!  You, Indian maiden, where
+did you learn to sing that there?"
+
+Ayacanora looked up at him, half frightened by his vehemence, then
+at Amyas, to see if she had been doing anything wrong; and then
+turned saucily away, looked over the side, and hummed on.
+
+"Ask her, for mercy's sake--ask her, Captain Leigh!"
+
+"My child," said Amyas, speaking in Indian, "how is it you sing
+that so much better than any other English?  Did you ever hear it
+before?"
+
+Ayacanora looked up at him puzzled, and shook her head; and then--
+
+"If you tell Indian to Ayacanora, she dumb.  She must be English
+girl now, like poor Lucy."
+
+"Well then," said Amyas, "do you recollect, Ayacanora--do you
+recollect--what shall I say? anything that happened when you were a
+little girl?"
+
+She paused awhile; and then moving her hands overhead--
+
+"Trees--great trees like the Magdalena--always nothing but trees--
+wild and bad everything.  Ayacanora won't talk about that."
+
+"Do you mind anything that grew on those trees?" asked Yeo,
+eagerly.
+
+She laughed.  "Silly!  Flowers and fruit, and nuts--grow on all
+trees, and monkey-cups too.  Ayacanora climbed up after them--when
+she was wild.  I won't tell any more."
+
+"But who taught you to call them monkey-cups?" asked Yeo, trembling
+with excitement.
+
+"Monkey's drink; mono drink."
+
+"Mono?" said Yeo, foiled on one cast, and now trying another.  "How
+did you know the beasts were called monos?"
+
+"She might have heard it coming down with us," said Cary, who had
+joined the group.
+
+"Ay, monos," said she, in a self-justifying tone.  "Faces like
+little men, and tails.  And one very dirty black one, with a beard,
+say Amen in a tree to all the other monkeys, just like Sir John on
+Sunday."
+
+This allusion to Brimblecombe and the preaching apes upset all but
+old Yeo.
+
+"But don't you recollect any Christians?--white people?"
+
+She was silent.
+
+"Don't you mind a white lady?"
+
+"Um?"
+
+"A woman, a very pretty woman, with hair like his?" pointing to
+Amyas.
+
+"No."
+
+"What do you mind, then, beside those Indians?" added Yeo, in
+despair.
+
+She turned her back on him peevishly, as if tired with the efforts
+of her memory.
+
+"Do try to remember," said Amyas; and she set to work again at
+once.
+
+"Ayacanora mind great monkeys--black, oh, so high," and she held up
+her hand above her head, and made a violent gesture of disgust.
+
+"Monkeys? what, with tails?"
+
+"No, like man.  Ah! yes--just like Cooky there--dirty Cooky!"
+
+And that hapless son of Ham, who happened to be just crossing the
+main-deck, heard a marlingspike, which by ill luck was lying at
+hand, flying past his ears.
+
+"Ayacanora, if you heave any more things at Cooky, I must have you
+whipped," said Amyas, without, of course, any such intention.
+
+"I'll kill you, then," answered she, in the most matter-of-fact
+tone.
+
+"She must mean negurs," said Yeo; "I wonder where she saw them,
+now.  What if it were they Cimaroons?"
+
+"But why should any one who had seen whites forget them, and yet
+remember negroes?" asked Cary.
+
+"Let us try again.  Do you mind no great monkeys but those black
+ones?" asked Amyas.
+
+"Yes," she said, after a while,--"devil."
+
+"Devil?" asked all three, who, of course, were by no means free
+from the belief that the fiend did actually appear to the Indian
+conjurors, such as had brought up the girl.
+
+"Ay, him Sir John tell about on Sundays."
+
+"Save and help us!" said Yeo; "and what was he like unto?"
+
+She made various signs to intimate that he had a monkey's face, and
+a gray beard like Yeo's.  So far so good: but now came a series of
+manipulations about her pretty little neck, which set all their
+fancies at fault.
+
+"I know," said Cary, at last, bursting into a great laugh.  "Sir
+Urian had a ruff on, as I live!  Trunk-hose too, my fair dame?
+Stop--I'll make sure.  Was his neck like the senor commandant's,
+the Spaniard?"
+
+Ayacanora clapped her hands at finding herself understood, and the
+questioning went on.
+
+"The 'devil' appeared like a monkey, with a gray beard, in a ruff;--
+humph!--"
+
+"Ay!" said she in good enough Spanish, "Mono de Panama; viejo
+diablo de Panama."
+
+Yeo threw up his hands with a shriek--"Oh Lord of all mercies!
+Those were the last words of Mr. John Oxenham!  Ay--and the devil
+is surely none other than the devil Don Francisco Xararte!  Oh
+dear! oh dear! oh dear! my sweet young lady! my pretty little maid!
+and don't you know me?  Don't you know Salvation Yeo, that carried
+you over the mountains, and used to climb for the monkey-cups for
+you, my dear young lady?  And William Penberthy too, that used to
+get you flowers; and your poor dear father, that was just like Mr.
+Cary there, only he had a black beard, and black curls, and swore
+terribly in his speech, like a Spaniard, my dear young lady?"
+
+And the honest fellow, falling on his knees, covered Ayacanora's
+hands with kisses; while all the crew, fancying him gone suddenly
+mad, crowded aft.
+
+"Steady, men, and don't vex him!" said Amyas.  "He thinks that he
+has found his little maid at last."
+
+"And so do I, Amyas, as I live," said Cary.
+
+"Steady, steady, my masters all!  If this turn out a wrong scent
+after all, his wits will crack.  Mr. Yeo, can't you think of any
+other token?"
+
+Yeo stamped impatiently.  "What need then? it's her, I tell ye, and
+that's enough!  What a beauty she's grown!  Oh dear! where were my
+eyes all this time, to behold her, and not to see her!  'Tis her
+very mortal self, it is!  And don't you mind me, my dear, now?
+Don't you mind Salvation Yeo, that taught you to sing 'Heave my
+mariners all, O!' a-sitting on a log by the boat upon the sand, and
+there was a sight of red lilies grew on it in the moss, dear, now,
+wasn't there? and we made posies of them to put in your hair,
+now?"--And the poor old man ran on in a supplicating, suggestive
+tone, as if he could persuade the girl into becoming the person
+whom he sought.
+
+Ayacanora had watched him, first angry, then amused, then
+attentive, and at last with the most intense earnestness.  Suddenly
+she grew crimson, and snatching her hands from the old man's, hid
+her face in them, and stood.
+
+"Do you remember anything of all this, my child?" asked Amyas,
+gently.
+
+She lifted up her eyes suddenly to his, with a look of imploring
+agony, as if beseeching him to spare her.  The death of a whole old
+life, the birth of a whole new life, was struggling in that
+beautiful face, choking in that magnificent throat, as she threw
+back her small head, and drew in her breath, and dashed her locks
+back from her temples, as if seeking for fresh air.  She shuddered,
+reeled, then fell weeping on the bosom, not of Salvation Yeo, but
+of Amyas Leigh.
+
+He stood still a minute or two, bearing that fair burden, ere he
+could recollect himself.  Then,--
+
+"Ayacanora, you are not yet mistress of yourself, my child.  You
+were better to go down, and see after poor Lucy, and we will talk
+about it all to-morrow."
+
+She gathered herself up instantly, and with eyes fixed on the deck
+slid through the group, and disappeared below.
+
+"Ah!" said Yeo, with a tone of exquisite sadness; "the young to the
+young!  Over land and sea, in the forests and in the galleys, in
+battle and prison, I have sought her!  And now!--"
+
+"My good friend," said Amyas, "neither are you master of yourself
+yet.  When she comes round again, whom will she love and thank but
+you?"
+
+"You, sir!  She owes all to you; and so do I.  Let me go below,
+sir.  My old wits are shaky.  Bless you, sir, and thank you for
+ever and ever!"
+
+And Yeo grasped Amyas's hand, and went down to his cabin, from
+which he did not reappear for many hours.
+
+From that day Ayacanora was a new creature.  The thought that she
+was an Englishwoman; that she, the wild Indian, was really one of
+the great white people whom she had learned to worship, carried in
+it some regenerating change: she regained all her former
+stateliness, and with it a self-restraint, a temperance, a softness
+which she had never shown before.  Her dislike to Cary and Jack
+vanished.  Modest and distant as ever, she now took delight in
+learning from them about England and English people; and her
+knowledge of our customs gained much from the somewhat fantastic
+behaviour which Amyas thought good, for reasons of his own, to
+assume toward her.  He assigned her a handsome cabin to herself,
+always addressed her as madam, and told Cary, Brimblecombe, and the
+whole crew that as she was a lady and a Christian, he expected them
+to behave to her as such.  So there was as much bowing and scraping
+on the poop as if it had been a prince's court: and Ayacanora,
+though sorely puzzled and chagrined at Amyas's new solemnity,
+contrived to imitate it pretty well (taking for granted that it was
+the right thing); and having tolerable masters in the art of
+manners (for both Amyas and Cary were thoroughly well-bred men),
+profited much in all things, except in intimacy with Amyas, who
+had, cunning fellow, hit on this parade of good manners, as a fresh
+means of increasing the distance between him and her.  The crew, of
+course, though they were a little vexed at losing their pet,
+consoled themselves with the thought that she was a "real born
+lady," and Mr. Oxenham's daughter, too; and there was not a man on
+board who did not prick up his ears for a message if she approached
+him, or one who would not have, I verily believe, jumped overboard
+to do her a pleasure.
+
+Only Yeo kept sorrowfully apart.  He never looked at her, spoke to
+her, met her even, if he could.  His dream had vanished.  He had
+found her! and after all, she did not care for him?  Why should
+she?
+
+But it was hard to have hunted a bubble for years, and have it
+break in his hand at last.  "Set not your affections on things on
+the earth," murmured Yeo to himself, as he pored over his Bible, in
+the vain hope of forgetting his little maid.
+
+But why did Amyas wish to increase the distance between himself and
+Ayacanora?  Many reasons might be given: I deny none of them.  But
+the main one, fantastic as it may seem, was simply, that while she
+had discovered herself to be an Englishwoman, he had discovered her
+to be a Spaniard.  If her father were seven times John Oxenham (and
+even that the perverse fellow was inclined to doubt), her mother
+was a Spaniard--Pah! one of the accursed race; kinswoman--perhaps,
+to his brother's murderers!  His jaundiced eyes could see nothing
+but the Spanish element in her; or, indeed, in anything else.  As
+Cary said to him once, using a cant phrase of Sidney's, which he
+had picked up from Frank, all heaven and earth were "spaniolated,"
+to him.  He seemed to recollect nothing but that Heaven had "made
+Spaniards to be killed, and him to kill them."  If he had not been
+the most sensible of John Bulls, he would certainly have
+forestalled the monomania of that young Frenchman of rank, who,
+some eighty years after him, so maddened his brain by reading of
+the Spanish cruelties, that he threw up all his prospects and
+turned captain of filibusters in the West Indies, for the express
+purpose of ridding them of their tyrants; and when a Spanish ship
+was taken, used to relinquish the whole booty to his crew, and
+reserve for himself only the pleasure of witnessing his victims'
+dying agonies.
+
+But what had become of that bird-like song of Ayacanora's which had
+astonished them on the banks of the Meta, and cheered them many a
+time in their anxious voyage down the Magdalena?  From the moment
+that she found out her English parentage, it stopped.  She refused
+utterly to sing anything but the songs and psalms which she picked
+up from the English.  Whether it was that she despised it as a
+relic of her barbarism, or whether it was too maddening for one
+whose heart grew heavier and humbler day by day, the nightingale
+notes were heard no more.
+
+So homeward they ran, before a favoring southwest breeze: but long
+ere they were within sight of land, Lucy Passmore was gone to her
+rest beneath the Atlantic waves.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE THIRD TIME
+
+
+"It fell about the Martinmas,
+    When nights were lang and mirk,
+ That wife's twa sons cam hame again,
+    And their hats were o' the birk.
+
+"It did na graw by bush or brae,
+    Nor yet in ony shough;
+ But by the gates o' paradise
+    That birk grew fair eneugh."
+
+           The Wife of Usher's Well.
+
+
+It is the evening of the 15th of February, 1587, and Mrs. Leigh
+(for we must return now to old scenes and old faces) is pacing
+slowly up and down the terrace-walk at Burrough, looking out over
+the winding river, and the hazy sand-hills, and the wide western
+sea, as she has done every evening, be it fair weather or foul, for
+three weary years.  Three years and more are past and gone, and yet
+no news of Frank and Amyas, and the gallant ship and all the
+gallant souls therein; and loving eyes in Bideford and Appledore,
+Clovelly and Ilfracombe, have grown hollow with watching and with
+weeping for those who have sailed away into the West, as John
+Oxenham sailed before them, and have vanished like a dream, as he
+did, into the infinite unknown.  Three weary years, and yet no
+word.  Once there was a flush of hope, and good Sir Richard
+(without Mrs. Leigh's knowledge, had sent a horseman posting across
+to Plymouth, when the news arrived that Drake, Frobisher, and
+Carlisle had returned with their squadron from the Spanish Main.
+Alas! he brought back great news, glorious news; news of the
+sacking of Cartagena, San Domingo, Saint Augustine; of the relief
+of Raleigh's Virginian Colony: but no news of the Rose, and of
+those who had sailed in her.  And Mrs. Leigh bowed her head, and
+worshipped, and said, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;
+blessed be the name of the Lord!"
+
+Her hair was now grown gray; her cheeks were wan; her step was
+feeble.  She seldom went from home, save to the church, and to the
+neighboring cottages.  She never mentioned her sons' names; never
+allowed a word to pass her lips, which might betoken that she
+thought of them; but every day, when the tide was high, and red
+flag on the sandhills showed that there was water over the bar, she
+paced the terrace-walk, and devoured with greedy eyes the sea
+beyond in search of the sail which never came.  The stately ships
+went in and out as of yore; and white sails hung off the bar for
+many an hour, day after day, month after month, year after year:
+but an instinct within told her that none of them were the sails
+she sought.  She knew that ship, every line of her, the cut of
+every cloth; she could have picked it out miles away, among a whole
+fleet, but it never came, and Mrs. Leigh bowed her head and
+worshipped, and went to and fro among the poor, who looked on her
+as an awful being, and one whom God had brought very near to
+Himself, in that mysterious heaven of sorrow which they too knew
+full well.  And lone women and bed-ridden men looked in her
+steadfast eyes, and loved them, and drank in strength from them;
+for they knew (though she never spoke of her own grief) that she
+had gone down into the fiercest depths of the fiery furnace, and
+was walking there unhurt by the side of One whose form was as of
+the Son of God.  And all the while she was blaming herself for her
+"earthly" longings, and confessing nightly to Heaven that weakness
+which she could not shake off, which drew her feet at each high
+tide to the terrace-walk beneath the row of wind-clipt trees.
+
+But this evening Northam is in a stir.  The pebble ridge is
+thundering far below, as it thundered years ago: but Northam is
+noisy enough without the rolling of the surge.  The tower is
+rocking with the pealing bells: the people are all in the streets
+shouting and singing round bonfires.  They are burning the pope in
+effigy, drinking to the queen's health, and "So perish all her
+enemies!"  The hills are red with bonfires in every village; and
+far away, the bells of Bideford are answering the bells of Northam,
+as they answered them seven years ago, when Amyas returned from
+sailing round the world.  For this day has come the news that Mary
+Queen of Scots is beheaded in Fotheringay; and all England, like a
+dreamer who shakes off some hideous nightmare, has leapt up in one
+tremendous shout of jubilation, as the terror and the danger of
+seventeen anxious years is lifted from its heart for ever.
+
+Yes, she is gone, to answer at a higher tribunal than that of the
+Estates of England, for all the noble English blood which has been
+poured out for her; for all the noble English hearts whom she has
+tempted into treachery, rebellion, and murder.  Elizabeth's own
+words have been fulfilled at last, after years of long-suffering,--
+
+
+     "The daughter of debate,
+        That discord aye doth sow,
+      Hath reap'd no gain where former rule
+        Hath taught still peace to grow."
+
+
+And now she can do evil no more.  Murder and adultery, the heart
+which knew no forgiveness, the tongue which could not speak truth
+even for its own interest, have past and are perhaps atoned for;
+and her fair face hangs a pitiful dream in the memory even of those
+who knew that either she, or England, must perish.
+
+
+     "Nothing is left of her
+      Now, but pure womanly."
+
+
+And Mrs. Leigh, Protestant as she is, breathes a prayer, that the
+Lord may have mercy on that soul, as "clear as diamond, and as
+hard," as she said of herself.  That last scene, too, before the
+fatal block--it could not be altogether acting.  Mrs. Leigh had
+learned many a priceless lesson in the last seven years; might not
+Mary Stuart have learned something in seventeen?  And Mrs. Leigh
+had been a courtier, and knew, as far as a chaste Englishwoman
+could know (which even in those coarser days was not very much), of
+that godless style of French court profligacy in which poor Mary
+had had her youthful training, amid the Medicis, and the Guises,
+and Cardinal Lorraine; and she shuddered, and sighed to herself"--
+To whom little is given, of them shall little be required!"  But
+still the bells pealed on and would not cease.
+
+What was that which answered them from afar out of the fast
+darkening twilight?  A flash, and then the thunder of a gun at sea.
+
+Mrs. Leigh stopped.  The flash was right outside the bar.  A ship
+in distress it could not be.  The wind was light and westerly.  It
+was a high spring-tide, as evening floods are always there.  What
+could it be?  Another flash, another gun.  The noisy folks of
+Northam were hushed at once, and all hurried into the churchyard
+which looks down on the broad flats and the river.
+
+There was a gallant ship outside the bar.  She was running in, too,
+with all sails set.  A large ship; nearly a thousand tons she might
+be; but not of English rig.  What was the meaning of it?  A Spanish
+cruiser about to make reprisals for Drake's raid along the Cadiz
+shore!  Not that, surely.  The Don had no fancy for such
+unscientific and dare-devil warfare.  If he came, he would come
+with admiral, rear-admiral, and vice-admiral, transports, and
+avisos, according to the best-approved methods, articles, and
+science of war.  What could she be?
+
+Easily, on the flowing tide and fair western wind, she has slipped
+up the channel between the two lines of sandhill.  She is almost
+off Appledore now.  She is no enemy; and if she be a foreigner, she
+is a daring one, for she has never veiled her topsails,--and that,
+all know, every foreign ship must do within sight of an English
+port, or stand the chance of war; as the Spanish admiral found, who
+many a year since was sent in time of peace to fetch home from
+Flanders Anne of Austria, Philip the Second's last wife.
+
+For in his pride he sailed into Plymouth Sound without veiling
+topsails, or lowering the flag of Spain.  Whereon, like lion from
+his den, out rushed John Hawkins the port admiral, in his famous
+Jesus of Lubec (afterwards lost in the San Juan d'Ulloa fight), and
+without argument or parley, sent a shot between the admiral's
+masts; which not producing the desired effect, alongside ran bold
+Captain John, and with his next shot, so says his son, an eye-
+witness, "lackt the admiral through and through;" whereon down came
+the offending flag; and due apologies were made, but not accepted
+for a long time by the stout guardian of her majesty's honor.  And
+if John Hawkins did as much for a Spanish fleet in time of peace,
+there is more than one old sea-dog in Appledore who will do as much
+for a single ship in time of war, if he can find even an iron pot
+to burn powder withal.
+
+The strange sail passed out of sight behind the hill of Appledore;
+and then there rose into the quiet evening air a cheer, as from a
+hundred throats.  Mrs. Leigh stood still, and listened.  Another
+gun thundered among the hills; and then another cheer.
+
+It might have been twenty minutes before the vessel hove in sight
+again round the dark rocks of the Hubbastone, as she turned up the
+Bideford river.  Mrs. Leigh had stood that whole time perfectly
+motionless, a pale and scarcely breathing statue, her eyes fixed
+upon the Viking's rock.
+
+Round the Hubbastone she came at last.  There was music on board,
+drums and fifes, shawms and trumpets, which wakened ringing echoes
+from every knoll of wood and slab of slate.  And as she opened full
+on Burrough House, another cheer burst from her crew, and rolled up
+to the hills from off the silver waters far below, full a mile
+away.
+
+Mrs. Leigh walked quickly toward the house, and called her maid,--
+
+"Grace, bring me my hood.  Master Amyas is come home!"
+
+"No, surely?  O joyful sound!  Praised and blessed be the Lord,
+then; praised and blessed be the Lord!  But, madam, however did you
+know that?"
+
+"I heard his voice on the river; but I did not hear Mr. Frank's
+with him, Grace!"
+
+"Oh, be sure, madam, where the one is the other is.  They'd never
+part company.  Both come home or neither, I'll warrant.  Here's
+your hood, madam."
+
+And Mrs. Leigh, with Grace behind her, started with rapid steps
+towards Bideford.
+
+Was it true?  Was it a dream?  Had the divine instinct of the
+mother enabled her to recognize her child's voice among all the
+rest, and at that enormous distance; or was her brain turning with
+the long effort of her supernatural calm?
+
+Grace asked herself, in her own way, that same question many a time
+between Burrough and Bideford.  When they arrived on the quay the
+question answered itself.
+
+As they came down Bridgeland Street (where afterwards the tobacco
+warehouses for the Virginia trade used to stand, but which then was
+but a row of rope-walks and sailmakers' shops), they could see the
+strange ship already at anchor in the river.  They had just reached
+the lower end of the street, when round the corner swept a great
+mob, sailors, women, 'prentices, hurrahing, questioning, weeping,
+laughing: Mrs. Leigh stopped; and behold, they stopped also.
+
+"Here she is!" shouted some one; "here's his mother!"
+
+"His mother?  Not their mother!" said Mrs. Leigh to herself, and
+turned very pale; but that heart was long past breaking.
+
+The next moment the giant head and shoulders of Amyas, far above
+the crowd, swept round the corner.
+
+"Make a way!  Make room for Madam Leigh!"--And Amyas fell on his
+knees at her feet.
+
+She threw her arms round his neck, and bent her fair head over his,
+while sailors, 'prentices, and coarse harbor-women were hushed into
+holy silence, and made a ring round the mother and the son.
+
+Mrs. Leigh asked no question.  She saw that Amyas was alone.
+
+At last he whispered, "I would have died to save him, mother, if I
+could."
+
+"You need not tell me that, Amyas Leigh, my son."
+
+Another silence.
+
+"How did he die?" whispered Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"He is a martyr.  He died in the----"
+
+Amyas could say no more.
+
+"The Inquisition?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+A strong shudder passed through Mrs. Leigh's frame, and then she
+lifted up her head.
+
+"Come home, Amyas.  I little expected such an honor--such an honor--
+ha! ha! and such a fair young martyr, too; a very St. Stephen!
+God, have mercy on me; and let me not go mad before these folk,
+when I ought to be thanking Thee for Thy great mercies!  Amyas, who
+is that?"
+
+And she pointed to Ayacanora, who stood close behind Amyas,
+watching with keen eyes the whole.
+
+"She is a poor wild Indian girl--my daughter, I call her.  I will
+tell you her story hereafter."
+
+"Your daughter?  My grand-daughter, then.  Come hither, maiden, and
+be my grand-daughter."
+
+Ayacanora came obedient, and knelt down, because she had seen Amyas
+kneel.
+
+"God forbid, child! kneel not to me.  Come home, and let me know
+whether I am sane or mazed, alive or dead."
+
+And drawing her hood over her face, she turned to go back, holding
+Amyas tight by one hand, and Ayacanora by the other.
+
+The crowd let them depart some twenty yards in respectful silence,
+and then burst into a cheer which made the old town ring.
+
+Mrs. Leigh stopped suddenly.
+
+"I had forgotten, Amyas.  You must not let me stand in the way of
+your duty.  Where are your men?"
+
+"Kissed to death by this time; all of them, that is, who are left."
+
+"Left?"
+
+"We went out a hundred, mother, and we came home forty-four--if we
+are at home.  Is it a dream, mother?  Is this you? and this old
+Bridgeland Street again?  As I live, there stands Evans the smith,
+at his door, tankard in hand, as he did when I was a boy!"
+
+The brawny smith came across the street to them; but stopped when
+he saw Amyas, but no Frank.
+
+"Better one than neither, madam!" said he, trying a rough comfort.
+Amyas shook his hand as he passed him; but Mrs. Leigh neither heard
+nor saw him nor any one.
+
+"Mother," said Amyas, when they were now past the causeway, "we are
+rich for life."
+
+"Yes; a martyr's death was the fittest for him."
+
+"I have brought home treasure untold."
+
+"What, my boy?"
+
+"Treasure untold.  Cary has promised to see to it to-night."
+
+"Very well.  I would that he had slept at our house.  He was a
+kindly lad, and loved Frank.  When did he?"--
+
+"Three years ago, and more.  Within two months of our sailing."
+
+"Ah!  Yes, he told me so."
+
+"Told you so?"
+
+"Yes; the dear lad has often come to see me in my sleep; but you
+never came.  I guessed how it was--as it should be."
+
+"But I loved you none the less, mother!"
+
+"I know that, too: but you were busy with the men, you know, sweet;
+so your spirit could not come roving home like his, which was free.
+Yes--all as it should be.  My maid, and do you not find it cold
+here in England, after those hot regions?"
+
+"Ayacanora's heart is warm; she does not think about cold."
+
+"Warm? perhaps you will warm my heart for me, then."
+
+"Would God I could do it, mother!" said Amyas, half reproachfully.
+
+Mrs. Leigh looked up in his face, and burst into a violent flood of
+tears.
+
+"Sinful! sinful that I am!"
+
+"Blessed creature!" cried Amyas, "if you speak so I shall go mad.
+Mother, mother, I have been dreading this meeting for months.  It
+has been a nightmare hanging over me like a horrible black thunder-
+cloud; a great cliff miles high, with its top hid in the clouds,
+which I had to climb, and dare not.  I have longed to leap
+overboard, and flee from it like a coward into the depths of the
+sea.--The thought that you might ask me whether I was not my
+brother's keeper--that you might require his blood at my hands--and
+now, now! when it comes! to find you all love, and trust, and
+patience--mother, mother, it's more than I can bear!" and he wept
+violently.
+
+Mrs. Leigh knew enough of Amyas to know that any burst of this
+kind, from his quiet nature, betokened some very fearful struggle;
+and the loving creature forgot everything instantly, in the one
+desire to soothe him.
+
+And soothe him she did; and home the two went, arm in arm together,
+while Ayacanora held fast, like a child, by the skirt of Mrs.
+Leigh's cloak.  The self-help and daring of the forest nymph had
+given place to the trembling modesty of the young girl, suddenly
+cast on shore in a new world, among strange faces, strange hopes,
+and strange fears also.
+
+"Will your mother love me?" whispered she to Amyas, as she went in.
+
+"Yes; but you must do what she tells you."
+
+Ayacanora pouted.
+
+"She will laugh at me, because I am wild."
+
+"She never laughs at any one."
+
+"Humph! " said Ayacanora.  "Well, I shall not be afraid of her.  I
+thought she would have been tall like you; but she is not even as
+big as me."
+
+This hardly sounded hopeful for the prospect of Ayacanora's
+obedience; but ere twenty-four hours had passed, Mrs. Leigh had won
+her over utterly; and she explained her own speech by saying that
+she thought so great a man ought to have a great mother.  She had
+expected, poor thing, in her simplicity, some awful princess with a
+frown like Juno's own, and found instead a healing angel.
+
+Her story was soon told to Mrs. Leigh, who of course, woman-like,
+would not allow a doubt as to her identity.  And the sweet mother
+never imprinted a prouder or fonder kiss upon her son's forehead,
+than that with which she repaid his simple declaration, that he had
+kept unspotted, like a gentleman and a Christian, the soul which
+God had put into his charge.
+
+"Then you have forgiven me, mother?"
+
+"Years ago I said in this same room, what should I render to the
+Lord for having given me two such sons?  And in this room I say it
+once again.  Tell me all about my other son, that I may honor him
+as I honor you."
+
+And then, with the iron nerve which good women have, she made him
+give her every detail of Lucy Passmore's story and of all which had
+happened from the day of their sailing to that luckless night at
+Guayra.  And when it was done, she led Ayacanora out, and began
+busying herself about the girl's comforts, as calmly as if Frank
+and Amyas had been sleeping in their cribs in the next room.
+
+But she had hardly gone upstairs, when a loud knock at the door was
+followed by its opening hastily; and into the hall burst,
+regardless of etiquette, the tall and stately figure of Sir Richard
+Grenville.
+
+Amyas dropped on his knees instinctively.  The stern warrior was
+quite unmanned; and as he bent over his godson, a tear dropped from
+that iron cheek, upon the iron cheek of Amyas Leigh.
+
+"My lad! my glorious lad! and where have you been?  Get up, and
+tell me all.  The sailors told me a little, but I must hear every
+word.  I knew you would do something grand.  I told your mother you
+were too good a workman for God to throw away.  Now, let me have
+the whole story.  Why, I am out of breath!  To tell truth, I ran
+three-parts of the way hither."
+
+And down the two sat, and Amyas talked long into the night; while
+Sir Richard, his usual stateliness recovered, smiled stern approval
+at each deed of daring; and when all was ended, answered with
+something like a sigh:
+
+"Would God that I had been with you every step!  Would God, at
+least, that I could show as good a three-years' log-book, Amyas, my
+lad!"
+
+"You can show a better one, I doubt not."
+
+"Humph!  With the exception of one paltry Spanish prize, I don't
+know that the queen is the better, or her enemies the worse, for
+me, since we parted last in Dublin city."
+
+"You are too modest, sir."
+
+"Would that I were; but I got on in Ireland, I found, no better
+than my neighbors; and so came home again, to find that while I had
+been wasting my time in that land of misrule, Raleigh had done a
+deed to which I can see no end.  For, lad, he has found (or rather
+his two captains, Amadas and Barlow, have found for him) between
+Florida and Newfoundland, a country, the like of which, I believe,
+there is not on the earth for climate and fertility.  Whether there
+be gold there, I know not, and it matters little; for there is all
+else on earth that man can want; furs, timber, rivers, game, sugar-
+canes, corn, fruit, and every commodity which France, Spain, or
+Italy can yield, wild in abundance; the savages civil enough for
+savages, and, in a word, all which goes to the making of as noble a
+jewel as her majesty's crown can wear.  The people call it
+Wingandacoa; but we, after her majesty, Virginia."
+
+"You have been there, then?"
+
+"The year before last, lad; and left there Ralf Lane, Amadas, and
+some twenty gentlemen, and ninety men, and, moreover, some money of
+my own, and some of old Will Salterne's, which neither of us will
+ever see again.  For the colony, I know not how, quarrelled with
+the Indians (I fear I too was over-sharp with some of them for
+stealing--if I was, God forgive me!), and could not, forsooth, keep
+themselves alive for twelve months; so that Drake, coming back from
+his last West Indian voyage, after giving them all the help he
+could, had to bring the whole party home.  And if you will believe
+it, the faint-hearted fellows had not been gone a fortnight, before
+I was back again with three ships and all that they could want.
+And never was I more wroth in my life, when all I found was the
+ruins of their huts, which (so rich is the growth there) were
+already full of great melons, and wild deer feeding thereon--a
+pretty sight enough, but not what I wanted just then.  So back I
+came; and being in no overgood temper, vented my humors on the
+Portugals at the Azores, and had hard fights and small booty.  So
+there the matter stands, but not for long; for shame it were if
+such a paradise, once found by Britons, should fall into the hands
+of any but her majesty; and we will try again this spring, if men
+and money can be found.  Eh, lad?"
+
+"But the prize?"
+
+"Ah! that was no small make-weight to our disasters, after all.  I
+sighted her for six days' sail from the American coast: but ere we
+could lay her aboard it fell dead calm.  Never a boat had I on
+board--they were all lost in a gale of wind--and the other ships
+were becalmed two leagues astern of me.  There was no use lying
+there and pounding her till she sank; so I called the carpenter,
+got up all the old chests, and with them and some spars we floated
+ourselves alongside, and only just in time.  For the last of us had
+hardly scrambled up into the chains, when our crazy Noah's ark went
+all aboard, and sank at the side, so that if we had been minded to
+run away, Amyas, we could not; whereon, judging valor to be the
+better part of discretion (as I usually do), we fell to with our
+swords and had her in five minutes, and fifty thousand pounds'
+worth in her, which set up my purse again, and Raleigh's too,
+though I fear it has run out again since as fast as it ran in."
+
+And so ended Sir Richard's story.
+
+Amyas went the next day to Salterne, and told his tale.  The old
+man had heard the outlines of it already: but he calmly bade him
+sit down, and listened to all, his chin upon his hand, his elbows
+on his knees.  His cheek never blanched, his lips never quivered
+throughout.  Only when Amyas came to Rose's marriage, he heaved a
+long breath, as if a weight was taken off his heart.
+
+"Say that again, sir!"
+
+Amyas said it again, and then went on; faltering, he hinted at the
+manner of her death.
+
+"Go on, sir!  Why are you afraid?  There is nothing to be ashamed
+of there, is there?"
+
+Amyas told the whole with downcast eyes, and then stole a look at
+his hearer's face.  There was no sign of emotion: only somewhat of
+a proud smile curled the corners of that iron mouth.
+
+"And her husband?" asked he, after a pause.
+
+"I am ashamed to have to tell you, sir, that the man still lives."
+
+"Still lives, sir?"
+
+"Too true, as far as I know.  That it was not my fault, my story
+bears me witness."
+
+"Sir, I never doubted your will to kill him.  Still lives, you say?
+Well, so do rats and adders.  And now, I suppose, Captain Leigh,
+your worship is minded to recruit yourself on shore a while with
+the fair lass whom you have brought home (as I hear) before having
+another dash at the devil and his kin!"
+
+"Do not mention that young lady's name with mine, sir; she is no
+more to me than she is to you; for she has Spanish blood in her
+veins."
+
+Salterne smiled grimly.
+
+"But I am minded at least to do one thing, Mr. Salterne, and that
+is, to kill Spaniards, in fair fight, by land and sea, wheresoever
+I shall meet them.  And, therefore, I stay not long here,
+whithersoever I may be bound next."
+
+"Well, sir, when you start, come to me for a ship, and the best I
+have is at your service; and, if she do not suit, command her to be
+fitted as you like best; and I, William Salterne, will pay for all
+which you shall command to be done."
+
+"My good sir, I have accounts to square with you after a very
+different fashion.  As part-adventurer in the Rose, I have to
+deliver to you your share of the treasure which I have brought
+home."
+
+"My share, sir?  If I understood you, my ship was lost off the
+coast of the Caracas three years agone, and this treasure was all
+won since?"
+
+"True; but you, as an adventurer in the expedition, have a just
+claim for your share, and will receive it."
+
+"Captain Leigh, you are, I see, as your father was before you, a
+just and upright Christian man: but, sir, this money is none of
+mine, for it was won in no ship of mine.--Hear me, sir!  And if it
+had been, and that ship"--(he could not speak her name)--"lay safe
+and sound now by Bideford quay, do you think, sir, that William
+Salterne is the man to make money out of his daughter's sin and
+sorrow, and to handle the price of blood?  No, sir!  You went like
+a gentleman to seek her, and like a gentleman, as all the world
+knows, you have done your best, and I thank you: but our account
+ends there.  The treasure is yours, sir; I have enough, and more
+than enough, and none, God help me, to leave it to, but greedy and
+needy kin, who will be rather the worse than the better for it.
+And if I have a claim in law for aught--which I know not, neither
+shall ever ask--why, if you are not too proud, accept that claim as
+a plain burgher's thank-offering to you, sir, for a great and a
+noble love which you and your brother have shown to one who, though
+I say it, to my shame, was not worthy thereof."
+
+"She was worthy of that and more, sir.  For if she sinned like a
+woman, she died like a saint."
+
+"Yes, sir!" answered the old man, with a proud smile; "she had the
+right English blood in her, I doubt not; and showed it at the last.
+But now, sir, no more of this.  When you need a ship, mine is at
+your service; till then, sir, farewell, and God be with you."
+
+And the old man rose, and with an unmoved countenance, bowed Amyas
+to the door.  Amyas went back and told Cary, bidding him take half
+of Salterne's gift: but Cary swore a great oath that he would have
+none of it.
+
+"Heir of Clovelly, Amyas, and want to rob you?  I who have lost
+nothing,--you who have lost a brother!  God forbid that I should
+ever touch a farthing beyond my original share!"
+
+That evening a messenger from Bideford came running breathless up
+to Burrough Court.  The authorities wanted Amyas's immediate
+attendance, for he was one of the last, it seemed, who had seen Mr.
+Salterne alive.
+
+Salterne had gone over, as soon as Amyas departed, to an old
+acquaintance; signed and sealed his will in their presence with a
+firm and cheerful countenance, refusing all condolence; and then
+gone home, and locked himself into Rose's room.  Supper-time came,
+and he did not appear.  The apprentices could not make him answer,
+and at last called in the neighbors, and forced the door.  Salterne
+was kneeling by his daughter's bed; his head was upon the coverlet;
+his Prayer-book was open before him at the Burial Service; his
+hands were clasped in supplication; but he was dead and cold.
+
+His will lay by him.  He had left all his property among his poor
+relations, saving and excepting all money, etc., due to him as
+owner and part-adventurer of the ship Rose, and his new bark of
+three hundred tons burden, now lying East-the-water; all which was
+bequeathed to Captain Amyas Leigh, on condition that he should re-
+christen that bark the Vengeance,--fit her out with part of the
+treasure, and with her sail once more against the Spaniard, before
+three years were past.
+
+And this was the end of William Salterne, merchant.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS STOPPED BY THE QUEEN'S COMMAND
+
+
+"The daughter of debate,
+   That discord still doth sow,
+Shall reap no gain where former rule
+   Hath taught still peace to grow.
+No foreign banish'd wight
+   Shall anker in this port
+Our realm it brooks no stranger's force;
+   Let them elsewhere resort."
+
+                   QU. ELIZABETH. 1569.
+
+
+And now Amyas is settled quietly at home again; and for the next
+twelve months little passes worthy of record in these pages.  Yeo
+has installed himself as major domo, with no very definite
+functions, save those of walking about everywhere at Amyas's heels
+like a lank gray wolf-hound, and spending his evenings at the
+fireside, as a true old sailor does, with his Bible on his knee,
+and his hands busy in manufacturing numberless nicknacks, useful
+and useless, for every member of the family, and above all for
+Ayacanora, whom he insults every week by humbly offering some toy
+only fit for a child; at which she pouts, and is reproved by Mrs.
+Leigh, and then takes the gift, and puts it away never to look at
+it again.  For her whole soul is set upon being an English maid;
+and she runs about all day long after Mrs. Leigh, insisting upon
+learning the mysteries of the kitchen and the still-room, and,
+above all, the art of making clothes for herself, and at last for
+everybody in Northam.  For first, she will be a good housewife,
+like Mrs. Leigh; and next a new idea has dawned on her: that of
+helping others.  To the boundless hospitality of the savage she has
+been of course accustomed: but to give to those who can give
+nothing in return, is a new thought.  She sees Mrs. Leigh spending
+every spare hour in working for the poor, and visiting them in
+their cottages.  She sees Amyas, after public thanks in church for
+his safe return, giving away money, food, what not, in Northam,
+Appledore, and Bideford; buying cottages and making them almshouses
+for worn-out mariners; and she is told that this is his thank-
+offering to God.  She is puzzled; her notion of a thank-offering
+was rather that of the Indians, and indeed of the Spaniards,--
+sacrifices of human victims, and the bedizenment of the Great
+Spirit's sanctuary with their skulls and bones.  Not that Amyas, as
+a plain old-fashioned churchman, was unmindful of the good old
+instinctive rule, that something should be given to the Church
+itself; for the vicar of Northam was soon resplendent with a new
+surplice, and what was more, the altar with a splendid flagon and
+salver of plate (lost, I suppose, in the civil wars) which had been
+taken in the great galleon.  Ayacanora could understand that: but
+the almsgiving she could not, till Mrs. Leigh told her, in her
+simple way, that whosoever gave to the poor, gave to the Great
+Spirit; for the Great Spirit was in them, and in Ayacanora too, if
+she would be quiet and listen to him, instead of pouting, and
+stamping, and doing nothing but what she liked.  And the poor child
+took in that new thought like a child, and worked her fingers to
+the bone for all the old dames in Northam, and went about with Mrs.
+Leigh, lovely and beloved, and looked now and then out from under
+her long black eyelashes to see if she was winning a smile from
+Amyas.  And on the day on which she won one, she was good all day;
+and on the day on which she did not, she was thoroughly naughty,
+and would have worn out the patience of any soul less chastened
+than Mrs. Leigh's.  But as for the pomp and glory of her dress,
+there was no keeping it within bounds; and she swept into church
+each Sunday bedizened in Spanish finery, with such a blaze and
+rustle, that the good vicar had to remonstrate humbly with Mrs.
+Leigh on the disturbance which she caused to the eyes and thoughts
+of all his congregation.  To which Ayacanora answered, that she was
+not thinking about them, and they need not think about her; and
+that if the Piache (in plain English, the conjuror), as she
+supposed, wanted a present, he might have all her Mexican feather-
+dresses; she would not wear them--they were wild Indian things, and
+she was an English maid--but they would just do for a Piache; and
+so darted upstairs, brought them down, and insisted so stoutly on
+arraying the vicar therein, that the good man beat a swift retreat.
+But he carried off with him, nevertheless, one of the handsomest
+mantles, which, instead of selling it, he converted cleverly enough
+into an altar-cloth; and for several years afterwards, the
+communion at Northam was celebrated upon a blaze of emerald, azure,
+and crimson, which had once adorned the sinful body of some Aztec
+prince.
+
+So Ayacanora flaunted on; while Amyas watched her, half amused,
+half in simple pride of her beauty; and looked around at all
+gazers, as much as to say, "See what a fine bird I have brought
+home!"
+
+Another great trouble which she gave Mrs. Leigh was her conduct to
+the ladies of the neighborhood.  They came, of course, one and all,
+not only to congratulate Mrs. Leigh, but to get a peep at the fair
+savage; but the fair savage snubbed them all round, from the
+vicar's wife to Lady Grenville herself, so effectually, that few
+attempted a second visit.
+
+Mrs. Leigh remonstrated, and was answered by floods of tears.
+"They only come to stare at a poor wild Indian girl, and she would
+not be made a show of.  She was like a queen once, and every one
+obeyed her; but here every one looked down upon her."  But when
+Mrs. Leigh asked her, whether she would sooner go back to the
+forests, the poor girl clung to her like a baby, and entreated not
+to be sent away, "She would sooner be a slave in the kitchen here,
+than go back to the bad people."
+
+And so on, month after month of foolish storm and foolish sunshine;
+but she was under the shadow of one in whom was neither storm nor
+sunshine, but a perpetual genial calm of soft gray weather, which
+tempered down to its own peacefulness all who entered its charmed
+influence; and the outbursts grew more and more rare, and Ayacanora
+more and more rational, though no more happy, day by day.
+
+And one by one small hints came out which made her identity
+certain, at least in the eyes of Mrs. Leigh and Yeo.  After she had
+become familiar with the sight of houses, she gave them to
+understand that she had seen such things before.  The red cattle,
+too, seemed not unknown to her; the sheep puzzled her for some
+time, and at last she gave Mrs. Leigh to understand that they were
+too small.
+
+"Ah, madam," quoth Yeo, who caught at every straw, "it is because
+she has been accustomed to those great camel sheep (llamas they
+call them) in Peru."
+
+But Ayacanora's delight was a horse.  The use of tame animals at
+all was a daily wonder to her; but that a horse could be ridden was
+the crowning miracle of all; and a horse she would ride, and after
+plaguing Amyas for one in vain (for he did not want to break her
+pretty neck), she proposed confidentially to Yeo to steal one, and
+foiled in that, went to the vicar and offered to barter all her
+finery for his broken-kneed pony.  But the vicar was too honest to
+drive so good a bargain, and the matter ended, in Amyas buying her
+a jennet, which she learned in a fortnight to ride like a very
+Gaucho.
+
+And now awoke another curious slumbering reminiscence.  For one
+day, at Lady Grenville's invitation, the whole family went over to
+Stow; Mrs. Leigh soberly on a pillion behind the groom, Ayacanora
+cantering round and round upon the moors like a hound let loose,
+and trying to make Amyas ride races with her.  But that night,
+sleeping in the same room with Mrs. Leigh, she awoke shrieking, and
+sobbed out a long story how the "Old ape of Panama," her especial
+abomination, had come to her bedside and dragged her forth into the
+courtyard, and how she had mounted a horse and ridden with an
+Indian over great moors and high mountains down into a dark wood,
+and there the Indian and the horses vanished, and she found herself
+suddenly changed once more into a little savage child.  So strong
+was the impression, that she could not be persuaded that the thing
+had not happened, if not that night, at least some night or other.
+So Mrs. Leigh at last believed the same, and told the company next
+morning in her pious way how the Lord had revealed in a vision to
+the poor child who she was, and how she had been exposed in the
+forests by her jealous step-father, and neither Sir Richard nor his
+wife could doubt but that hers was the true solution.  It was
+probable that Don Xararte, though his home was Panama, had been
+often at Quito, for Yeo had seen him come on board the Lima ship at
+Guayaquil, one of the nearest ports.  This would explain her having
+been found by the Indians beyond Cotopaxi, the nearest peak of the
+Eastern Andes, if, as was but too likely, the old man, believing
+her to be Oxenham's child, had conceived the fearful vengeance of
+exposing her in the forests.
+
+Other little facts came to light one by one.  They were all
+connected (as was natural in a savage) with some animal or other
+natural object.  Whatever impressions her morals or affections had
+received, had been erased by the long spiritual death of that
+forest sojourn; and Mrs. Leigh could not elicit from her a trace of
+feeling about her mother, or recollection of any early religious
+teaching.  This link, however, was supplied at last, and in this
+way.
+
+Sir Richard had brought home an Indian with him from Virginia.  Of
+his original name I am not sure, but he was probably the "Wanchese"
+whose name occurs with that of "Manteo."
+
+This man was to be baptized in the church at Bideford by the name
+of Raleigh, his sponsors being most probably Raleigh himself, who
+may have been there on Virginian business, and Sir Richard
+Grenville.  All the notabilities of Bideford came, of course, to
+see the baptism of the first "Red man" whose foot had ever trodden
+British soil, and the mayor and corporation-men appeared in full
+robes, with maces and tipstaffs, to do honor to that first-fruits
+of the Gospel in the West.
+
+Mrs. Leigh went, as a matter of course, and Ayacanora would needs
+go too.  She was very anxious to know what they were going to do
+with the "Carib."
+
+"To make him a Christian."
+
+"Why did they not make her one?"
+
+Because she was one already.  They were sure that she had been
+christened as soon as she was born.  But she was not sure, and
+pouted a good deal at the chance of an "ugly red Carib" being
+better off than she was.  However, all assembled duly; the stately
+son of the forest, now transformed into a footman of Sir Richard's,
+was standing at the font; the service was half performed when a
+heavy sigh, or rather groan, made all eyes turn, and Ayacanora sank
+fainting upon Mrs. Leigh's bosom.
+
+She was carried out, and to a neighboring house; and when she came
+to herself, told a strange story.  How, as she was standing there
+trying to recollect whether she too had ever been baptized, the
+church seemed to grow larger, the priest's dress richer; the walls
+were covered with pictures, and above the altar, in jewelled robes,
+stood a lady, and in her arms a babe.  Soft music sounded in her
+ears; the air was full (on that she insisted much) of fragrant odor
+which filled the church like mist; and through it she saw not one,
+but many Indians, standing by the font; and a lady held her by the
+hand, and she was a little girl again.
+
+And after, many questionings, so accurate was her recollection, not
+only of the scene, but of the building, that Yeo pronounced:
+
+"A christened woman she is, madam, if Popish christening is worth
+calling such, and has seen Indians christened too in the Cathedral
+Church at Quito, the inside whereof I know well enough, and too
+well, for I sat there three mortal hours in a San Benito, to hear a
+friar preach his false doctrines, not knowing whether I was to be
+burnt or not next day."
+
+So Ayacanora went home to Burrough, and Raleigh the Indian to Sir
+Richard's house.  The entry of his baptism still stands, crooked-
+lettered, in the old parchment register of the Bideford baptisms
+for 1587-3:
+
+
+     "Raleigh, a Winganditoian: March 26."
+
+
+His name occurs once more, a year and a month after:
+
+
+     "Rawly, a Winganditoian, April 1589."
+
+
+But it is not this time among the baptisms.  The free forest
+wanderer has pined in vain for his old deer-hunts amid the fragrant
+cedar woods, and lazy paddlings through the still lagoons, where
+water-lilies sleep beneath the shade of great magnolias, wreathed
+with clustered vines; and now he is away to "happier hunting-
+grounds," and all that is left of him below sleeps in the narrow
+town churchyard, blocked in with dingy houses, whose tenants will
+never waste a sigh upon the Indian's grave.  There the two entries
+stand, unto this day; and most pathetic they have seemed to me; a
+sort of emblem and first-fruits of the sad fate of that worn-out
+Red race, to whom civilization came too late to save, but not too
+late to hasten their decay.
+
+But though Amyas lay idle, England did not.  That spring saw
+another and a larger colony sent out by Raleigh to Virginia, under
+the charge of one John White.  Raleigh had written more than once,
+entreating Amyas to take the command, which if he had done, perhaps
+the United States had begun to exist twenty years sooner than they
+actually did.  But his mother had bound him by a solemn promise
+(and who can wonder at her for asking, or at him for giving it?) to
+wait at home with her twelve months at least.  So, instead of
+himself, he sent five hundred pounds, which I suppose are in
+Virginia (virtually at least) until this day; for they never came
+back again to him.
+
+But soon came a sharper trial of Amyas's promise to his mother; and
+one which made him, for the first time in his life, moody, peevish,
+and restless, at the thought that others were fighting Spaniards,
+while he was sitting idle at home.  For his whole soul was filling
+fast with sullen malice against Don Guzman.  He was losing the
+"single eye," and his whole body was no longer full of light.  He
+had entered into the darkness in which every man walks who hates
+his brother; and it lay upon him like a black shadow day and night.
+No company, too, could be more fit to darken that shadow than
+Salvation Yeo's.  The old man grew more stern in his fanaticism day
+by day, and found a too willing listener in his master; and Mrs.
+Leigh was (perhaps for the first and last time in her life)
+seriously angry, when she heard the two coolly debating whether
+they had not committed a grievous sin in not killing the Spanish
+prisoners on board the galleon.
+
+It must be said, however (as the plain facts set down in this book
+testify), that if such was the temper of Englishmen at that day,
+the Spaniards had done a good deal to provoke it; and were just
+then attempting to do still more.
+
+For now we are approaching the year 1588, "which an astronomer of
+Konigsberg, above a hundred years before, foretold would be an
+admirable year, and the German chronologers presaged would be the
+climacterical year of the world."
+
+The prophecies may stand for what they are worth; but they were at
+least fulfilled.  That year was, indeed, the climacterical year of
+the world; and decided once and for all the fortunes of the
+European nations, and of the whole continent of America.
+
+No wonder, then, if (as has happened in each great crisis of the
+human race) some awful instinct that The Day of the Lord was at
+hand, some dim feeling that there was war in heaven, and that the
+fiends of darkness and the angels of light were arrayed against
+each other in some mighty struggle for the possession of the souls
+of men, should have tried to express itself in astrologic dreams,
+and, as was the fashion then, attributed to the "rulers of the
+planetary houses" some sympathy with the coming world-tragedy.
+
+But, for the wise, there needed no conjunction of planets to tell
+them that the day was near at hand, when the long desultory duel
+between Spain and England would end, once and for all, in some
+great death-grapple.  The war, as yet, had been confined to the
+Netherlands, to the West Indies, and the coasts and isles of
+Africa; to the quarters, in fact, where Spain was held either to
+have no rights, or to have forfeited them by tyranny.  But Spain
+itself had been respected by England, as England had by Spain; and
+trade to Spanish ports went on as usual, till, in the year 1585,
+the Spaniard, without warning, laid an embargo on all English ships
+coming to his European shores.  They were to be seized, it seemed,
+to form part of an enormous armament, which was to attack and
+crush, once and for all--whom?  The rebellious Netherlanders, said
+the Spaniards: but the queen, the ministry, and, when it was just
+not too late, the people of England, thought otherwise.  England
+was the destined victim; so, instead of negotiating, in order to
+avoid fighting, they fought in order to produce negotiation.
+Drake, Frobisher, and Carlisle, as we have seen, swept the Spanish
+Main with fire and sword, stopping the Indian supplies; while
+Walsingham (craftiest, and yet most honest of mortals) prevented,
+by some mysterious financial operation, the Venetian merchants from
+repairing the Spaniards' loss by a loan; and no Armada came that
+year.
+
+In the meanwhile, the Jesuits, here and abroad, made no secret,
+among their own dupes, of the real objects of the Spanish armament.
+The impious heretics,--the Drakes and Raleighs, Grenvilles and
+Cavendishes, Hawkinses and Frobishers, who had dared to violate
+that hidden sanctuary of just half the globe, which the pope had
+bestowed on the defender of the true faith,--a shameful ruin, a
+terrible death awaited them, when their sacrilegious barks should
+sink beneath the thunder of Spanish cannon, blessed by the pope,
+and sanctified with holy water and prayer to the service of "God
+and his Mother."  Yes, they would fall, and England with them.  The
+proud islanders, who had dared to rebel against St. Peter, and to
+cast off the worship of "Mary," should bow their necks once more
+under the yoke of the Gospel.  Their so-called queen, illegitimate,
+excommunicate, contumacious, the abettor of free-trade, the
+defender of the Netherlands, the pillar of false doctrine
+throughout Europe, should be sent in chains across the Alps, to sue
+for her life at the feet of the injured and long-suffering father
+of mankind, while his nominee took her place upon the throne which
+she had long since forfeited by her heresy.
+
+"What nobler work?  How could the Church of God be more gloriously
+propagated?  How could higher merit be obtained by faithful
+Catholics?  It must succeed.  Spain was invincible in valor,
+inexhaustible in wealth.  Heaven itself offered them an
+opportunity.  They had nothing now to fear from the Turk, for they
+had concluded a truce with him; nothing from the French, for they
+were embroiled in civil war.  The heavens themselves had called
+upon Spain to fulfil her heavenly mission, and restore to the
+Church's crown this brightest and richest of her lost jewels.  The
+heavens themselves called to a new crusade.  The saints, whose
+altars the English had rifled and profaned, called them to a new
+crusade.  The Virgin Queen of Heaven, whose boundless stores of
+grace the English spurned, called them to a new crusade.  Justly
+incensed at her own wrongs and indignities, that 'ever-gracious
+Virgin, refuge of sinners, and mother of fair love, and holy hope,'
+adjured by their knightly honor all valiant cavaliers to do battle
+in her cause against the impious harlot who assumed her titles,
+received from her idolatrous flatterers the homage due to Mary
+alone, and even (for Father Parsons had asserted it, therefore it
+must be true) had caused her name to be substituted for that of
+Mary in the Litanies of the Church.  Let all who wore within a
+manly heart, without a manly sword, look on the woes of 'Mary,'--
+her shame, her tears, her blushes, her heart pierced through with
+daily wounds, from heretic tongues, and choose between her and
+Elizabeth!"
+
+So said Parsons, Allen, and dozens more; and said more than this,
+too, and much which one had rather not repeat; and were somewhat
+surprised and mortified to find that their hearers, though they
+granted the premises, were too dull or carnal to arrive at the same
+conclusion.  The English lay Romanists, almost to a man, had hearts
+sounder than their heads, and, howsoever illogically, could not
+help holding to the strange superstition that, being Englishmen,
+they were bound to fight for England.  So the hapless Jesuits, who
+had been boasting for years past that the persecuted faithful
+throughout the island would rise as one man to fight under the
+blessed banner of the pope and Spain, found that the faithful, like
+Demas of old, forsook them and "went after this present world;"
+having no objection, of course, to the restoration of Popery: but
+preferring some more comfortable method than an invasion which
+would inevitably rob them of their ancestral lands and would seat
+needy and greedy Castilians in their old country houses, to treat
+their tenants as they had treated the Indians of Hispaniola, and
+them as they had treated the caciques.
+
+But though the hearts of men in that ungodly age were too hard to
+melt at the supposed woes of the Mary who reigned above, and too
+dull to turn rebels and traitors for the sake of those thrones and
+principalities in supra-lunar spheres which might be in her gift:
+yet there was a Mary who reigned (or ought to reign) below, whose
+woes (like her gifts) were somewhat more palpable to the carnal
+sense.  A Mary who, having every comfort and luxury (including
+hounds and horses) found for her by the English Government, at an
+expense which would be now equal to some twenty thousand a year,
+could afford to employ the whole of her jointure as Queen Dowager
+of France (probably equal to fifty thousand a year more), in
+plotting the destruction of the said government, and the murder of
+its queen; a Mary who, if she prospered as she ought, might have
+dukedoms, and earldoms, fair lands and castles to bestow on her
+faithful servants; a Mary, finally, who contrived by means of an
+angel face, a serpent tongue, and a heart (as she said herself) as
+hard as a diamond, to make every weak man fall in love with her,
+and, what was worse, fancy more or less that she was in love with
+him.
+
+Of her the Jesuits were not unmindful; and found it convenient,
+indeed, to forget awhile the sorrows of the Queen of Heaven in
+those of the Queen of Scots.  Not that they cared much for those
+sorrows; but they were an excellent stock-in-trade.  She was a
+Romanist; she was "beautiful and unfortunate," a virtue which, like
+charity, hides the multitude of sins; and therefore she was a
+convenient card to play in the great game of Rome against the Queen
+and people of England; and played the poor card was, till it got
+torn up by over-using.  Into her merits or demerits I do not enter
+deeply here.  Let her rest in peace.
+
+To all which the people of England made a most practical and
+terrible answer.  From the highest noble to the lowest peasant,
+arose one simultaneous plebiscitum: "We are tired of these
+seventeen years of chicanery and terror.  This woman must die: or
+the commonweal of England perish!"  We all know which of the two
+alternatives was chosen.
+
+All Europe stood aghast: but rather with astonishment at English
+audacity, than with horror at English wickedness.  Mary's own
+French kinsfolk had openly given her up as too bad to be excused,
+much less assisted.  Her own son blustered a little to the English
+ambassador; for the majesty of kings was invaded: whereon
+Walsingham said in open council, that "the queen should send him a
+couple of hounds, and that would set all right."  Which sage advice
+(being acted on, and some deer sent over and above) was so
+successful that the pious mourner, having run off (Randolph says,
+like a baby to see the deer in their cart), returned for answer
+that he would "thereafter depend wholly upon her majesty, and serve
+her fortune against all the world; and that he only wanted now two
+of her majesty's yeoman prickers, and a couple of her grooms of the
+deer."  The Spaniard was not sorry on the whole for the
+catastrophe; for all that had kept him from conquering England long
+ago was the fear lest, after it was done, he might have had to put
+the crown thereof on Mary's head, instead of his own.  But Mary's
+death was as convenient a stalking-horse to him as to the pope; and
+now the Armada was coming in earnest.
+
+Elizabeth began negotiating; but fancy not that she does nothing
+more, as the following letter testifies, written about midsummer,
+1587.
+
+
+"F. Drake to Captain Amyas Leigh.  This with haste.
+
+"DEAR LAD,
+
+"As I said to her most glorious majesty, I say to you now.  There
+are two ways of facing an enemy.  The one to stand off, and cry,
+'Try that again, and I'll strike thee'; the other to strike him
+first, and then, 'Try that at all, and I'll strike thee again.'  Of
+which latter counsel her majesty so far approves, that I go
+forthwith (tell it not in Gath) down the coast, to singe the king
+of Spain's beard (so I termed it to her majesty, she laughing), in
+which if I leave so much as a fishing-boat afloat from the Groyne
+unto Cadiz, it will not be with my good will, who intend that if he
+come this year, he shall come by swimming and not by sailing.  So
+if you are still the man I have known you, bring a good ship round
+to Plymouth within the month, and away with me for hard blows and
+hard money, the feel of both of which you know pretty well by now.
+
+"Thine lovingly,
+
+"F. Drake."
+
+
+Amyas clutched his locks over this letter, and smoked more tobacco
+the day he got it than had ever before been consumed at once in
+England.  But he kept true to his promise; and this was his reply:--
+
+
+
+"Amyas Leigh to the Worshipful Sir F. Drake, Admiral of her
+Majesty's Fleet in Plymouth.
+
+"MOST HONORED SIR,
+
+"A magician keeps me here, in bilboes for which you have no
+picklock; namely, a mother who forbids.  The loss is mine: but
+Antichrist I can fight any year (for he will not die this bout, nor
+the next), while my mother--but I will not trouble your patience
+more than to ask from you to get me news, if you can, from any
+prisoners of one Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto;
+whether he is in Spain or in the Indies; and what the villain does,
+and where he is to be found.  This only I entreat of you, and so
+remain behind with a heavy heart.
+
+"Yours to command in all else, and I would to Heaven, in this also,
+
+"AMYAS LEIGH."
+
+
+I am sorry to have to say, that after having thus obeyed his
+mother, Master Amyas, as men are too apt to do, revenged himself on
+her by being more and more cross and disagreeable.  But his temper
+amended much, when, a few months after, Drake returned triumphant,
+having destroyed a hundred sail in Cadiz alone, taken three great
+galleons with immense wealth on board, burnt the small craft all
+along the shore, and offered battle to Santa Cruz at the mouth of
+the Tagus.  After which it is unnecessary to say, that the Armada
+was put off for yet another year.
+
+This news, indeed, gave Amyas little comfort; for he merely
+observed, grumbling, that Drake had gone and spoiled everybody
+else's sport: but what cheered him was news from Drake that Don
+Guzman had been heard of from the captain of one of the galleons;
+that he was high in favor in Spain, and commandant of soldiers on
+board one of the largest of the marquis's ships.
+
+And when Amyas heard that, a terrible joy took possession of him.
+When the Armada came, as come it would, he should meet his enemy at
+last!  He could wait now patiently: if--and he shuddered at
+himself, as he found himself in the very act of breathing a prayer
+that Don Guzman might not die before that meeting.
+
+In the meanwhile, rumor flew thousand-tongued through the length
+and breadth of the land; of vast preparations going on in Spain and
+Italy; of timber felled long before for some such purpose, brought
+down to the sea, and sawn out for shipbuilding; of casting of
+cannon, and drilling of soldiers; of ships in hundreds collecting
+at Lisbon; of a crusade preached by Pope Sixtus the Fifth, who had
+bestowed the kingdom of England on the Spaniard, to be enjoyed by
+him as vassal tributary to Rome; of a million of gold to be paid by
+the pope, one-half down at once, the other half when London was
+taken; of Cardinal Allen writing and printing busily in the
+Netherlands, calling on all good Englishmen to carry out, by
+rebelling against Elizabeth, the bull of Sixtus the Fifth, said (I
+blush to repeat it) to have been dictated by the Holy Ghost; of
+Inquisitors getting ready fetters and devil's engines of all sorts;
+of princes and noblemen, flocking from all quarters, gentlemen
+selling their private estates to fit out ships; how the Prince of
+Melito, the Marquess of Burgrave, Vespasian Gonzaga, John Medicis,
+Amadas of Savoy, in short, the illegitimate sons of all the
+southern princes, having no lands of their own, were coming to find
+that necessary of life in this pleasant little wheat-garden.  Nay,
+the Duke of Medina Sidonia had already engaged Mount-Edgecombe for
+himself, as the fairest jewel of the south; which when good old Sir
+Richard Edgecombe heard, he observed quietly, that in 1555 he had
+the pleasure of receiving at his table at one time the admirals of
+England, Spain, and the Netherlands, and therefore had experience
+in entertaining Dons; and made preparations for the visit by
+filling his cellars with gunpowder, with a view to a house-warming
+and feu-de-joie on the occasion.  But as old Fuller says, "The bear
+was not yet killed, and Medina Sidonia might have catched a great
+cold, had he no other clothes to wear than the skin thereof."
+
+So flew rumor, false and true, till poor John Bull's wits were
+well-nigh turned: but to the very last, after his lazy fashion, he
+persuaded himself that it would all come right somehow; that it was
+too great news to be true; that if it was true, the expedition was
+only meant for the Netherlands; and, in short, sat quietly over his
+beef and beer for many a day after the French king had sent him
+fair warning, and the queen, the ministry, and the admirals had
+been assuring him again and again that he, and not the Dutchman,
+was the destined prey of this great flight of ravenous birds.
+
+At last the Spaniard, in order that there should be no mistake
+about the matter, kindly printed a complete bill of the play, to be
+seen still in Van Meteran, for the comfort of all true Catholics,
+and confusion of all pestilent heretics; which document, of course,
+the seminary priests used to enforce the duty of helping the
+invaders, and the certainty of their success; and from their hands
+it soon passed into those of the devout ladies, who were not very
+likely to keep it to themselves; till John Bull himself found his
+daughters buzzing over it with very pale faces (as young ladies
+well might who had no wish to follow the fate of the damsels of
+Antwerp), and condescending to run his eye through it, discovered,
+what all the rest of Europe had known for months past, that he was
+in a very great scrape.
+
+Well it was for England, then, that her Tudor sovereigns had
+compelled every man (though they kept up no standing army) to be a
+trained soldier.  Well it was that Elizabeth, even in those
+dangerous days of intrigue and rebellion, had trusted her people
+enough, not only to leave them their weapons, but (what we,
+forsooth, in these more "free" and "liberal" days dare not do) to
+teach them how to use them.  Well it was, that by careful
+legislation for the comfort and employment of "the masses" (term
+then, thank God, unknown), she had both won their hearts, and kept
+their bodies in fighting order.  Well it was that, acting as fully
+as Napoleon did on "la carriere ouverte aux talens," she had raised
+to the highest posts in her councils, her army, and her navy, men
+of business, who had not been ashamed to buy and sell as merchants
+and adventurers.  Well for England, in a word, that Elizabeth had
+pursued for thirty years a very different course from that which we
+have been pursuing for the last thirty, with one exception, namely,
+the leaving as much as possible to private enterprise.
+
+There we have copied her: would to Heaven that we had in some other
+matters!  It is the fashion now to call her a despot: but unless
+every monarch is to be branded with that epithet whose power is not
+as circumscribed as Queen Victoria's is now, we ought rather to
+call her the most popular sovereign, obeyed of their own free will
+by the freest subjects which England has ever seen; confess the
+Armada fight to have been as great a moral triumph as it was a
+political one; and (now that our late boasting is a little silenced
+by Crimean disasters) inquire whether we have not something to
+learn from those old Tudor times, as to how to choose officials,
+how to train a people, and how to defend a country.
+
+To return to the thread of my story.
+
+January, 1587-8, had well-nigh run through, before Sir Richard
+Grenville made his appearance on the streets of Bideford.  He had
+been appointed in November one of the council of war for providing
+for the safety of the nation, and the West Country had seen nothing
+of him since.  But one morning, just before Christmas, his stately
+figure darkened the old bay-window at Burrough, and Amyas rushed
+out to meet him, and bring him in, and ask what news from Court.
+
+"All good news, dear lad, and dearer madam.  The queen shows the
+spirit of a very Boadicea or Semiramis; ay, a very Scythian
+Tomyris, and if she had the Spaniard before her now, would verily,
+for aught I know, feast him as the Scythian queen did Cyrus, with
+'Satia te sanguine, quod sitisti.'"
+
+"I trust her most merciful spirit is not so changed already," said
+Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"Well, if she would not do it, I would, and ask pardon afterwards,
+as Raleigh did about the rascals at Smerwick, whom Amyas knows of.
+Mrs. Leigh, these are times in which mercy is cruelty.  Not England
+alone, but the world, the Bible, the Gospel itself, is at stake;
+and we must do terrible things, lest we suffer more terrible ones."
+
+"God will take care of world and Bible better than any cruelty of
+ours, dear Sir Richard."
+
+"Nay, but, Mrs. Leigh, we must help Him to take care of them!  If
+those Smerwick Spaniards had not been--"
+
+"The Spaniard would not have been exasperated into invading us."
+
+"And we should not have had this chance of crushing him once and
+for all; but the quarrel is of older standing, madam, eh, Amyas?
+Amyas, has Raleigh written to you of late?"
+
+"Not a word, and I wonder why."
+
+"Well; no wonder at that, if you knew how he has been laboring.
+The wonder is, whence he got the knowledge wherewith to labor; for
+he never saw sea-work to my remembrance."
+
+"Never saw a shot fired by sea, except ours at Smerwick, and that
+brush with the Spaniards in 1579, when he sailed for Virginia with
+Sir Humphrey; and he was a mere crack then."
+
+"So you consider him as your pupil, eh?  But he learnt enough in
+the Netherland wars, and in Ireland too, if not of the strength of
+ships, yet still of the weakness of land forces; and would you
+believe it, the man has twisted the whole council round his finger,
+and made them give up the land defences to the naval ones."
+
+"Quite right he, and wooden walls against stone ones for ever!  But
+as for twisting, he would persuade Satan, if he got him alone for
+half an hour."
+
+"I wish he would sail for Spain then, just now, and try the powers
+of his tongue," said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"But are we to have the honor, really?"
+
+"We are, lad.  There were many in the council who were for
+disputing the landing on shore, and said--which I do not deny--that
+the 'prentice boys of London could face the bluest blood in Spain.
+But Raleigh argued (following my Lord Burleigh in that) that we
+differed from the Low Countries, and all other lands, in that we
+had not a castle or town throughout, which would stand a ten days'
+siege, and that our ramparts, as he well said, were, after all,
+only a body of men.  So, he argued, as long as the enemy has power
+to land where he will, prevention, rather than cure, is our only
+hope; and that belongs to the office, not of an army, but of a
+fleet.  So the fleet was agreed on, and a fleet we shall have."
+
+"Then here is his health, the health of a true friend to all bold
+mariners, and myself in particular!  But where is he now?"
+
+"Coming here to-morrow, as I hope--for he left London with me, and
+so down by us into Cornwall, to drill the train-bands, as he is
+bound to do, being Seneschal of the Duchies and Lieutenant-General
+of the county."
+
+"Besides Lord Warden of the Stanneries!  How the man thrives!" said
+Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"How the man deserves to thrive!" said Amyas; "but what are we to
+do?"
+
+"That is the rub.  I would fain stay and fight the Spaniards."
+
+"So would I; and will."
+
+"But he has other plans in his head for us."
+
+"We can make our own plans without his help."
+
+"Heyday, Amyas!  How long?  When did he ask you to do a thing yet
+and you refuse him?"
+
+"Not often, certainly; but Spaniards I must fight."
+
+"Well, so must I, boy: but I have given a sort of promise to him,
+nevertheless."
+
+"Not for me too, I hope?"
+
+"No: he will extract that himself when he comes; you must come and
+sup to-morrow, and talk it over."
+
+"Be talked over, rather.  What chestnut does the cat want us
+monkeys to pull out of the fire for him now, I wonder?"
+
+"Sir Richard Grenville is hardly accustomed to be called a monkey,"
+said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"I meant no harm; and his worship knows it, none better: but where
+is Raleigh going to send us, with a murrain?"
+
+"To Virginia.  The settlers must have help: and, as I trust in God,
+we shall be back again long before this armament can bestir
+itself."
+
+So Raleigh came, saw, and conquered.  Mrs. Leigh consented to
+Amyas's going (for his twelve-month would be over ere the fleet
+could start) upon so peaceful and useful an errand; and the next
+five months were spent in continual labor on the part of Amyas and
+Grenville, till seven ships were all but ready in Bideford river,
+the admiral whereof was Amyas Leigh.
+
+But that fleet was not destined ever to see the shores of the New
+World: it had nobler work to do (if Americans will forgive the
+speech) than even settling the United States.
+
+It was in the long June evenings, in the year 1588; Mrs. Leigh sat
+in the open window, busy at her needle-work; Ayacanora sat opposite
+to her, on the seat of the bay, trying diligently to read "The
+History of the Nine Worthies," and stealing a glance every now and
+then towards the garden, where Amyas stalked up and down as he had
+used to do in happier days gone by.  But his brow was contracted
+now, his eyes fixed on the ground, as he plodded backwards and
+forwards, his hands behind his back, and a huge cigar in his mouth,
+the wonder of the little boys of Northam, who peeped in stealthily
+as they passed the iron-work gates, to see the back of the famous
+fire-breathing captain who had sailed round the world and been in
+the country of headless men and flying dragons, and then popped
+back their heads suddenly, as he turned toward them in his walk.
+And Ayacanora looked, and looked, with no less admiration than the
+urchins at the gate: but she got no more of an answering look from
+Amyas than they did; for his head was full of calculations of
+tonnage and stowage, of salt pork and ale-barrels, and the packing
+of tools and seeds; for he had promised Raleigh to do his best for
+the new colony, and he was doing it with all his might; so
+Ayacanora looked back again to her book, and heaved a deep sigh.
+It was answered by one from Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"We are a melancholy pair, sweet chuck," said the fair widow.
+"What is my maid sighing about, there?"
+
+"Because I cannot make out the long words," said Ayacanora, telling
+a very white fib.
+
+"Is that all?  Come to me, and I will tell you."
+
+Ayacanora moved over to her, and sat down at her feet.
+
+"H--e, he, r--o, ro, i--c--a--l, heroical," said Mrs. Leigh.
+
+"But what does that mean?"
+
+"Grand, good, and brave, like--"
+
+Mrs. Leigh was about to have said the name of one who was lost to
+her on earth.  His fair angelic face hung opposite upon the wall.
+She paused unable to pronounce his name; and lifted up her eyes,
+and gazed on the portrait, and breathed a prayer between closed
+lips, and drooped her head again.
+
+Her pupil caught at the pause, and filled it up for herself--
+
+"Like him?" and she turned her head quickly toward the window.
+
+"Yes, like him, too," said Mrs. Leigh, with a half-smile at the
+gesture.  "Now, mind your book.  Maidens must not look out of the
+window in school hours."
+
+"Shall I ever be an English girl?" asked Ayacanora.
+
+"You are one now, sweet; your father was an English gentleman."
+
+Amyas looked in, and saw the two sitting together.
+
+"You seem quite merry there," said he.
+
+"Come in, then, and be merry with us."
+
+He entered, and sat down; while Ayacanora fixed her eyes most
+steadfastly on her book.
+
+"Well, how goes on the reading?" said he; and then, without waiting
+for an answer--"We shall be ready to clear out this day week,
+mother, I do believe; that is, if the hatchets are made in time to
+pack them."
+
+"I hope they will be better than the last," said Mrs. Leigh.  "It
+seems to me a shameful sin to palm off on poor ignorant savages
+goods which we should consider worthless for ourselves."
+
+"Well, it's not over fair: but still, they are a sight better than
+they ever had before.  An old hoop is better than a deer's bone, as
+Ayacanora knows,--eh?"
+
+"I don't know anything about it," said she, who was always nettled
+at the least allusion to her past wild life.  "I am an English girl
+now, and all that is gone--I forget it."
+
+"Forget it?" said he, teasing her for want of something better to
+do.  "Should not you like to sail with us, now, and see the Indians
+in the forests once again?"
+
+"Sail with you?" and she looked up eagerly.
+
+"There!  I knew it!  She would not be four-and-twenty hours ashore,
+but she would be off into the woods again, bow in hand, like any
+runaway nymph, and we should never see her more."
+
+"It is false, bad man!" and she burst into violent tears, and hid
+her face in Mrs. Leigh's lap.
+
+"Amyas, Amyas, why do you tease the poor fatherless thing?"
+
+"I was only jesting, I'm sure," said Amyas, like a repentant
+schoolboy.  "Don't cry now, don't cry, my child, see here," and he
+began fumbling in his pockets; "see what I bought of a chapman in
+town to-day, for you, my maid, indeed, I did."
+
+And out he pulled some smart kerchief or other, which had taken his
+sailor's fancy.
+
+"Look at it now, blue, and crimson, and green, like any parrot!"
+and he held it out.
+
+She looked round sharply, snatched it out of his hand, and tore it
+to shreds.
+
+"I hate it, and I hate you!" and she sprang up and darted out of
+the room.
+
+"Oh, boy, boy!" said Mrs. Leigh, "will you kill that poor child?
+It matters little for an old heart like mine, which has but one or
+two chords left whole, how soon it be broken altogether; but a
+young heart is one of God's precious treasures, Amyas, and suffers
+many a long pang in the breaking; and woe to them who despise
+Christ's little ones!"
+
+"Break your heart, mother?"
+
+"Never mind my heart, dear son; yet how can you break it more
+surely than by tormenting one whom I love, because she loves you?"
+
+"Tut! play, mother, and maids' tempers.  But how can I break your
+heart?  What have I done?  Have I not given up going again to the
+West Indies for your sake?  Have I not given up going to Virginia,
+and now again settled to go after all, just because you commanded?
+Was it not your will?  Have I not obeyed you, mother, mother?  I
+will stay at home now, if you will.  I would rather rust here on
+land, I vow I would, than grieve you--" and he threw himself at his
+mother's knees.
+
+"Have I asked you not to go to Virginia?  No, dear boy, though
+every thought of a fresh parting seems to crack some new fibre
+within me, you must go!  It is your calling.  Yes; you were not
+sent into the world to amuse me, but to work.  I have had pleasure
+enough of you, my darling, for many a year, and too much, perhaps;
+till I shrank from lending you to the Lord.  But He must have
+you. . . .  It is enough for the poor old widow to know that her boy
+is what he is, and to forget all her anguish day by day, for joy that
+a man is born into the world.  But, Amyas, Amyas, are you so blind
+as not to see that Ayacanora--"
+
+"Don't talk about her, poor child.  Talk about yourself."
+
+"How long have I been worth talking about?  No, Amyas, you must see
+it; and if you will not see it now, you will see it one day in some
+sad and fearful prodigy; for she is not one to die tamely.  She
+loves you, Amyas, as a woman only can love."
+
+"Loves me?  Well, of course.  I found her, and brought her home;
+and I don't deny she may think that she owes me somewhat--though it
+was no more than a Christian man's duty.  But as for her caring
+much for me, mother, you measure every one else's tenderness by
+your own."
+
+"Think that she owes you somewhat?  Silly boy, this is not
+gratitude, but a deeper affection, which may be more heavenly than
+gratitude, as it may, too, become a horrible cause of ruin.  It
+rests with you, Amyas, which of the two it will be."
+
+"You are in earnest?"
+
+"Have I the heart or the time to jest?"
+
+"No, no, of course not; but, mother, I thought it was not comely
+for women to fall in love with men?"
+
+"Not comely, at least, to confess their love to men.  But she has
+never done that, Amyas; not even by a look or a tone of voice,
+though I have watched her for months."
+
+"To be sure, she is as demure as any cat when I am in the way.  I
+only wonder how you found it out."
+
+"Ah," said she, smiling sadly, "even in the saddest woman's soul
+there linger snatches of old music, odors of flowers long dead and
+turned to dust--pleasant ghosts, which still keep her mind attuned
+to that which may be in others, though in her never more; till she
+can hear her own wedding-hymn re-echoed in the tones of every girl
+who loves, and sees her own wedding-torch re-lighted in the eyes of
+every bride."
+
+"You would not have me marry her?" asked blunt, practical Amyas.
+
+"God knows what I would have--I know not; I see neither your path
+nor my own--no, not after weeks and months of prayer.  All things
+beyond are wrapped in mist; and what will be, I know not, save that
+whatever else is wrong, mercy at least is right."
+
+"I'd sail to-morrow, if I could.  As for marrying her, mother--her
+birth, mind me--"
+
+"Ah, boy, boy!  Are you God, to visit the sins of the parents upon
+the children?"
+
+"Not that.  I don't mean that; but I mean this, that she is half a
+Spaniard, mother; and I cannot!--Her blood may be as blue as King
+Philip's own, but it is Spanish still!  I cannot bear the thought
+that my children should have in their veins one drop of that
+poison."
+
+"Amyas! Amyas!" interrupted she, "is this not, too, visiting the
+parents' sins on the children?"
+
+"Not a whit; it is common sense,--she must have the taint of their
+bloodthirsty humor.  She has it--I have seen it in her again and
+again.  I have told you, have I not?  Can I forget the look of her
+eyes as she stood over that galleon's captain, with the smoking
+knife in her hand.--Ugh!  And she is not tamed yet, as you can see,
+and never will be:--not that I care, except for her own sake, poor
+thing!"
+
+"Cruel boy! to impute as a blame to the poor child, not only the
+errors of her training, but the very madness of her love!"
+
+"Of her love?"
+
+"Of what else, blind buzzard?  From the moment that you told me the
+story of that captain's death, I knew what was in her heart--and
+thus it is that you requite her for having saved your life!"
+
+"Umph! that is one word too much, mother.  If you don't want to
+send me crazy, don't put the thing on the score of gratitude or
+duty.  As it is, I can hardly speak civilly to her (God forgive
+me!) when I recollect that she belongs to the crew who murdered
+him"--and he pointed to the picture, and Mrs. Leigh shuddered as he
+did so.
+
+"You feel it!  You know you feel it, tender-hearted, forgiving
+angel as you are; and what do you think I must feel?"
+
+"Oh, my son, my son!" cried she, wringing her hands, "if I be
+wretch enough to give place to the devil for a moment, does that
+give you a right to entertain and cherish him thus day by day?"
+
+"I should cherish him with a vengeance, if I brought up a crew of
+children who could boast of a pedigree of idolaters and tyrants,
+hunters of Indians, and torturers of women!  How pleasant to hear
+her telling Master Jack, 'Your illustrious grand-uncle the pope's
+legate, was the man who burned Rose Salterne at Cartagena;' or Miss
+Grace, 'Your great-grandfather of sixteen quarterings, the Marquis
+of this, son of the Grand-equerry that, and husband of the Princess
+t'other, used to feed his bloodhounds, when beef was scarce, with
+Indians' babies!'  Eh, mother?  These things are true, and if you
+can forget them, I cannot.  Is it not enough to have made me forego
+for awhile my purpose, my business, the one thing I live for, and
+that is, hunting down the Spaniards as I would adders or foxes, but
+you must ask me over and above to take one to my bosom?"
+
+"Oh, my son, my son!  I have not asked you to do that; I have only
+commanded you, in God's name, to be merciful, if you wish to obtain
+mercy.  Oh, if you will not pity this poor maiden, pity yourself;
+for God knows you stand in more need of it than she does!"
+
+Amyas was silent for a minute or two; and then,--
+
+"If it were not for you, mother, would God that the Armada would
+come!"
+
+"What, and ruin England?"
+
+"No!  Curse them!  Not a foot will they ever set on English soil,
+such a welcome would we give them.  If I were but in the midst of
+that fleet, fighting like a man--to forget it all, with a galleon
+on board of me to larboard, and another to starboard--and then to
+put a linstock in the magazine, and go aloft in good company--I
+don't care how soon it comes, mother, if it were not for you."
+
+"If I am in your way, Amyas, do not fear that I shall trouble you
+long."
+
+"Oh, mother, mother, do not talk in that way!  I am half-mad, I
+think, already, and don't know what I say.  Yes, I am mad; mad at
+heart, though not at head.  There's a fire burning me up, night and
+day, and nothing but Spanish blood will put it out."
+
+"Or the grace of God, my poor wilful child!  Who comes to the
+door?--so quickly, too?"
+
+There was a loud hurried knocking, and in another minute a serving-
+man hurried in with a letter.
+
+"This to Captain Amyas Leigh with haste, haste!"
+
+It was Sir Richard's hand.  Amyas tore it open; and "a loud laugh
+laughed he."
+
+"The Armada is coming!  My wish has come true, mother!"
+
+"God help us, it has!  Show me the letter."
+
+It was a hurried scrawl.
+
+
+"DR. GODSON,--Walsingham sends word that the Ada. sailed from
+Lisbon to the Groyne the 18. of May.  We know no more, but have
+commandment to stay the ships.  Come down, dear lad, and give us
+counsel; and may the Lord help His Church in this great strait.
+
+"Your loving godfather,
+
+R. G."
+
+
+"Forgive me, mother, mother, once for all!" cried Amyas, throwing
+his arms round her neck.
+
+"I have nothing to forgive, my son, my son!  And shall I lose thee,
+also?"
+
+"If I be killed, you will have two martyrs of your blood, mother!--"
+
+Mrs. Leigh bowed her head, and was silent.  Amyas caught up his hat
+and sword, and darted forth toward Bideford.
+
+Amyas literally danced into Sir Richard's hall, where he stood
+talking earnestly with various merchants and captains.
+
+"Gloria, gloria! gentles all!  The devil is broke loose at last;
+and now we know where to have him on the hip!"
+
+"Why so merry, Captain Leigh, when all else are sad?" said a gentle
+voice by his side.
+
+"Because I have been sad a long time, while all else were merry,
+dear lady.  Is the hawk doleful when his hood is pulled off, and he
+sees the heron flapping right ahead of him?"
+
+"You seem to forget the danger and the woe of us weak women, sir?"
+
+"I don't forget the danger and the woe of one weak woman, madam,
+and she the daughter of a man who once stood in this room," said
+Amyas, suddenly collecting himself, in a low stern voice.  "And I
+don't forget the danger and the woe of one who was worth a thousand
+even of her.  I don't forget anything, madam."
+
+"Nor forgive either, it seems."
+
+"It will be time to talk of forgiveness after the offender has
+repented and amended; and does the sailing of the Armada look like
+that?"
+
+"Alas, no!  God help us!"
+
+"He will help us, madam," said Amyas.
+
+"Admiral Leigh," said Sir Richard, "we need you now, if ever.  Here
+are the queen's orders to furnish as many ships as we can; though
+from these gentlemen's spirit, I should say the orders were well-
+nigh needless."
+
+"Not a doubt, sir; for my part, I will fit my ship at my own
+charges, and fight her too, as long as I have a leg or an arm
+left."
+
+"Or a tongue to say, never surrender, I'll warrant!" said an old
+merchant.  "You put life into us old fellows, Admiral Leigh: but it
+will be a heavy matter for those poor fellows in Virginia, and for
+my daughter too, Madam Dare, with her young babe, as I hear, just
+born."
+
+"And a very heavy matter," said some one else, "for those who have
+ventured their money in these cargoes, which must lie idle, you
+see, now for a year maybe--and then all the cost of unlading again--
+"
+
+"My good sir," said Grenville, "what have private interests to do
+with this day?  Let us thank God if He only please to leave us the
+bare fee-simple of this English soil, the honor of our wives and
+daughters, and bodies safe from rack and fagot, to wield the swords
+of freemen in defence of a free land, even though every town and
+homestead in England were wasted with fire, and we left to rebuild
+over again all which our ancestors have wrought for us in now six
+hundred years."
+
+"Right, sir!" said Amyas.  "For my part, let my Virginian goods rot
+on the quay, if the worst comes to the worst.  I begin unloading
+the Vengeance to-morrow; and to sea as soon as I can fill up my
+crew to a good fighting number."
+
+And so the talk ran on; and ere two days were past, most of the
+neighboring gentlemen, summoned by Sir Richard, had come in, and
+great was the bidding against each other as to who should do most.
+Cary and Brimblecombe, with thirty tall Clovelly men, came across
+the bay, and without even asking leave of Amyas, took up their
+berths as a matter of course on board the Vengeance.  In the
+meanwhile, the matter was taken up by families.  The Fortescues (a
+numberless clan) offered to furnish a ship; the Chichesters
+another, the Stukelys a third; while the merchantmen were not
+backward.  The Bucks, the Stranges, the Heards, joyfully unloaded
+their Virginian goods, and replaced them with powder and shot; and
+in a week's time the whole seven were ready once more for sea, and
+dropped down into Appledore pool, with Amyas as their admiral for
+the time being (for Sir Richard had gone by land to Plymouth to
+join the deliberations there), and waited for the first favorable
+wind to start for the rendezvous in the Sound.
+
+At last, upon the twenty-first of June, the clank of the capstans
+rang merrily across the flats, and amid prayers and blessings,
+forth sailed that gallant squadron over the bar, to play their part
+in Britain's Salamis; while Mrs. Leigh stood watching as she stood
+once before, beside the churchyard wall: but not alone this time;
+for Ayacanora stood by her side, and gazed and gazed, till her eyes
+seemed ready to burst from their sockets.  At last she turned away
+with a sob,--
+
+"And he never bade me good-bye, mother!"
+
+"God forgive him!  Come home and pray, my child; there is no other
+rest on earth than prayer for woman's heart!"
+
+They were calling each other mother and daughter then?  Yes.  The
+sacred fire of sorrow was fast burning out all Ayacanora's fallen
+savageness; and, like a Phoenix, the true woman was rising from
+those ashes, fair, noble, and all-enduring, as God had made her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+HOW THE ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS
+
+
+"Oh, where be these gay Spaniards,
+   Which make so great a boast O?
+Oh, they shall eat the gray-goose feather,
+   And we shall eat the roast O!"
+
+                             Cornish Song.
+
+
+What if the spectators who last summer gazed with just pride upon
+the noble port of Plymouth, its vast breakwater spanning the Sound,
+its arsenals and docks, its two estuaries filled with gallant
+ships, and watched the great screw-liners turning within their own
+length by force invisible, or threading the crowded fleets with the
+ease of the tiniest boat,--what if, by some magic turn, the
+nineteenth century, and all the magnificence of its wealth and
+science, had vanished--as it may vanish hereafter--and they had
+found themselves thrown back three hundred years into the pleasant
+summer days of 1588?
+
+Mount Edgecombe is still there, beautiful as ever: but where are
+the docks, and where is Devonport?  No vast dry-dock roofs rise at
+the water's edge.  Drake's island carries but a paltry battery,
+just raised by the man whose name it bears; Mount Wise is a lone
+gentleman's house among fields; the citadel is a pop-gun fort,
+which a third-class steamer would shell into rubble for an
+afternoon's amusement.  And the shipping, where are they?  The
+floating castles of the Hamoaze have dwindled to a few crawling
+lime-hoys; and the Catwater is packed, not as now, with merchant
+craft, but with the ships who will to-morrow begin the greatest
+sea-fight which the world has ever seen.
+
+There they lie, a paltry squadron enough in modern eyes; the
+largest of them not equal in size to a six-and-thirty-gun frigate,
+carrying less weight of metal than one of our new gun-boats, and
+able to employ even that at not more than a quarter of our modern
+range.  Would our modern spectators, just come down by rail for a
+few hours, to see the cavalry embark, and return tomorrow in time
+for dinner, have looked down upon that petty port, and petty fleet,
+with a contemptuous smile, and begun some flippant speech about the
+progress of intellect, and the triumphs of science, and our
+benighted ancestors?  They would have done so, doubt it not, if
+they belonged to the many who gaze on those very triumphs as on a
+raree-show to feed their silly wonder, or use and enjoy them
+without thankfulness or understanding, as the ox eats the clover
+thrust into his rack, without knowing or caring how it grew.  But
+if any of them were of the class by whom those very triumphs have
+been achieved; the thinkers and the workers, who, instead of
+entering lazily into other men's labors, as the mob does, labor
+themselves; who know by hard experience the struggles, the self-
+restraints, the disappointments, the slow and staggering steps, by
+which the discoverer reaches to his prize; then the smile of those
+men would not have been one of pity, but rather of filial love.
+For they would have seen in those outwardly paltry armaments the
+potential germ of that mightier one which now loads the Black Sea
+waves; they would have been aware, that to produce it, with such
+materials and knowledge as then existed, demanded an intellect, an
+energy, a spirit of progress and invention, equal, if not superior,
+to those of which we now so loudly boast.
+
+But if, again, he had been a student of men rather than of
+machinery, he would have found few nobler companies on whom to
+exercise his discernment, than he might have seen in the little
+terrace bowling-green behind the Pelican Inn, on the afternoon of
+the nineteenth of July.  Chatting in groups, or lounging over the
+low wall which commanded a view of the Sound and the shipping far
+below, were gathered almost every notable man of the Plymouth
+fleet, the whole posse comitatus of "England's forgotten worthies."
+The Armada has been scattered by a storm.  Lord Howard has been out
+to look for it, as far as the Spanish coast; but the wind has
+shifted to the south, and fearing lest the Dons should pass him, he
+has returned to Plymouth, uncertain whether the Armada will come
+after all or not.  Slip on for a while, like Prince Hal, the
+drawer's apron; come in through the rose-clad door which opens from
+the tavern, with a tray of long-necked Dutch glasses, and a silver
+tankard of wine, and look round you at the gallant captains, who
+are waiting for the Spanish Armada, as lions in their lair might
+wait for the passing herd of deer.
+
+See those five talking earnestly, in the centre of a ring, which
+longs to overhear, and yet is too respectful to approach close.
+Those soft long eyes and pointed chin you recognize already; they
+are Walter Raleigh's.  The fair young man in the flame-colored
+doublet, whose arm is round Raleigh's neck, is Lord Sheffield;
+opposite them stands, by the side of Sir Richard Grenville, a man
+as stately even as he, Lord Sheffield's uncle, the Lord Charles
+Howard of Effingham, lord high admiral of England; next to him is
+his son-in-law, Sir Robert Southwell, captain of the Elizabeth
+Jonas: but who is that short, sturdy, plainly dressed man, who
+stands with legs a little apart, and hands behind his back, looking
+up, with keen gray eyes, into the face of each speaker?  His cap is
+in his hands, so you can see the bullet head of crisp brown hair
+and the wrinkled forehead, as well as the high cheek bones, the
+short square face, the broad temples, the thick lips, which are yet
+firm as granite.  A coarse plebeian stamp of man: yet the whole
+figure and attitude are that of boundless determination, self-
+possession, energy; and when at last he speaks a few blunt words,
+all eyes are turned respectfully upon him;--for his name is Francis
+Drake.
+
+A burly, grizzled elder, in greasy sea-stained garments,
+contrasting oddly with the huge gold chain about his neck, waddles
+up, as if he had been born, and had lived ever since, in a gale of
+wind at sea.  The upper half of his sharp dogged visage seems of
+brick-red leather, the lower of badger's fur; and as he claps Drake
+on the back, and, with a broad Devon twang, shouts, "be you a
+coming to drink your wine, Francis Drake, or be you not?--saving
+your presence, my lord;" the lord high admiral only laughs, and
+bids Drake go and drink his wine; for John Hawkins, admiral of the
+port, is the patriarch of Plymouth seamen, if Drake be their hero,
+and says and does pretty much what he likes in any company on
+earth; not to mention that to-day's prospect of an Armageddon fight
+has shaken him altogether out of his usual crabbed reserve, and
+made him overflow with loquacious good-humor, even to his rival
+Drake.
+
+So they push through the crowd, wherein is many another man whom
+one would gladly have spoken with face to face on earth.  Martin
+Frobisher and John Davis are sitting on that bench, smoking tobacco
+from long silver pipes; and by them are Fenton and Withrington, who
+have both tried to follow Drake's path round the world, and failed,
+though by no fault of their own.  The man who pledges them better
+luck next time, is George Fenner, known to "the seven Portugals,"
+Leicester's pet, and captain of the galleon which Elizabeth bought
+of him.  That short prim man in the huge yellow ruff, with sharp
+chin, minute imperial, and self-satisfied smile, is Richard
+Hawkins, the Complete Seaman, Admiral John's hereafter famous and
+hapless son.  The elder who is talking with him is his good uncle
+William, whose monument still stands, or should stand, in Deptford
+Church; for Admiral John set it up there but one year after this
+time; and on it record how he was, "A worshipper of the true
+religion, an especial benefactor of poor sailors, a most just
+arbiter in most difficult causes, and of a singular faith, piety,
+and prudence."  That, and the fact that he got creditably through
+some sharp work at Porto Rico, is all I know of William Hawkins:
+but if you or I, reader, can have as much or half as much said of
+us when we have to follow him, we shall have no reason to complain.
+
+There is John Drake, Sir Francis' brother, ancestor of the present
+stock of Drakes; and there is George, his nephew, a man not
+overwise, who has been round the world with Amyas; and there is
+Amyas himself, talking to one who answers him with fierce curt
+sentences, Captain Barker of Bristol, brother of the hapless Andrew
+Barker who found John Oxenham's guns, and, owing to a mutiny among
+his men, perished by the Spaniards in Honduras, twelve years ago.
+Barker is now captain of the Victory, one of the queen's best
+ships; and he has his accounts to settle with the Dons, as Amyas
+has; so they are both growling together in a corner, while all the
+rest are as merry as the flies upon the vine above their heads.
+
+But who is the aged man who sits upon a bench, against the sunny
+south wall of the tavern, his long white beard flowing almost to
+his waist, his hands upon his knees, his palsied head moving slowly
+from side to side, to catch the scraps of discourse of the passing
+captains?  His great-grandchild, a little maid of six, has laid her
+curly head upon his knees, and his grand-daughter, a buxom black-
+eyed dame of thirty, stands by him and tends him, half as nurse,
+and half, too, as showman, for he seems an object of curiosity to
+all the captains, and his fair nurse has to entreat again and
+again, "Bless you, sir, please now, don't give him no liquor, poor
+old soul, the doctor says."  It is old Martin Cockrem, father of
+the ancient host, aged himself beyond the years of man, who can
+recollect the bells of Plymouth ringing for the coronation of Henry
+the Eighth, and who was the first Englishman, perhaps, who ever set
+foot on the soil of the New World.  There he sits, like an old
+Druid Tor of primeval granite amid the tall wheat and rich clover
+crops of a modern farm.  He has seen the death of old Europe and
+the birth-throes of the new.  Go to him, and question him; for his
+senses are quick as ever; and just now the old man seems uneasy.
+He is peering with rheumy eyes through the groups, and seems
+listening for a well-known voice.
+
+"There 'a be again!  Why don't 'a come, then?"
+
+"Quiet, gramfer, and don't trouble his worship."
+
+"Here an hour, and never speak to poor old Martin!  I say, sir"--
+and the old man feebly plucks Amyas's cloak as he passes.  "I say,
+captain, do 'e tell young master old Martin's looking for him."
+
+"Marcy, gramfer, where's your manners?  Don't be vexed, sir, he'm
+a'most a babe, and tejous at times, mortal."
+
+"Young master who?" says Amyas, bending down to the old man, and
+smiling to the dame to let him have his way.
+
+"Master Hawkins; he'm never been a-near me all day."
+
+Off goes Amyas; and, of course, lays hold of the sleeve of young
+Richard Hawkins; but as he is in act to speak, the dame lays hold
+of his, laughing and blushing.
+
+"No, sir, not Mr. Richard, sir; Admiral John, sir, his father; he
+always calls him young master, poor old soul!" and she points to
+the grizzled beard and the face scarred and tanned with fifty years
+of fight and storm.
+
+Amyas goes to the Admiral, and gives his message.
+
+"Mercy on me!  Where be my wits?  Iss, I'm a-coming," says the old
+hero in his broadest Devon, waddles off to the old man, and begins
+lugging at a pocket.  "Here, Martin, I've got mun, I've got mun,
+man alive; but his Lordship keept me so.  Lookee here, then!  Why,
+I do get so lusty of late, Martin, I can't get to my pockets!"
+
+And out struggle a piece of tarred string, a bundle of papers, a
+thimble, a piece of pudding-tobacco, and last of all, a little
+paper of Muscovado sugar--then as great a delicacy as any French
+bonbons would be now--which he thrusts into the old man's eager and
+trembling hand.
+
+Old Martin begins dipping his finger into it, and rubbing it on his
+toothless gums, smiling and nodding thanks to his young master;
+while the little maid at his knee, unrebuked, takes her share also.
+
+"There, Admiral Leigh; both ends meet--gramfers and babies!  You
+and I shall be like to that one day, young Samson!"
+
+"We shall have slain a good many Philistines first, I hope."
+
+"Amen! so be it; but look to mun! so fine a sailor as ever drank
+liquor; and now greedy after a hit of sweet trade! 'tis piteous
+like; but I bring mun a hit whenever I come, and he looks for it.
+He's one of my own flesh like, is old Martin.  He sailed with my
+father Captain Will, when they was both two little cracks aboard of
+a trawler; and my father went up, and here I am--he didn't, and
+there he is.  We'm up now, we Hawkinses.  We may be down again some
+day."
+
+"Never, I trust," said Amyas.
+
+"'Tain't no use trusting, young man: you go and do.  I do hear too
+much of that there from my lad.  Let they ministers preach till
+they'm black in the face, works is the trade!" with a nudge in
+Amyas's ribs.  "Faith can't save, nor charity nether.  There, you
+tell with him, while I go play bowls with Drake.  He'll tell you a
+sight of stories.  You ask him about good King Hal, now, just--"
+
+And off waddled the Port Admiral.
+
+"You have seen good King Henry, then, father?" said Amyas,
+interested.
+
+The old man's eyes lighted at once, and he stopped mumbling his
+sugar.
+
+"Seed mun?  Iss, I reckon.  I was with Captain Will when he went to
+meet the Frenchman there to Calais--at the Field, the Field--"
+
+"The Field of the Cloth of Gold, gramfer," suggested the dame.
+
+"That's it.  Seed mun?  Iss, fegs.  Oh, he was a king!  The face o'
+mun like a rising sun, and the back o' mun so broad as that there"
+(and he held out his palsied arms), "and the voice of mun!  Oh, to
+hear mun swear if he was merry, oh, 'tas royal!--Seed mun?  Iss,
+fegs!  And I've seed mun do what few has; I've seed mun christle
+like any child."
+
+"What--cry?" said Amyas.  "I shouldn't have thought there was much
+cry in him."
+
+"You think what you like--"
+
+"Gramfer, gramfer, don't you be rude, now--
+
+"Let him go on," said Amyas.
+
+"I seed mun christle; and, oh dear, how he did put hands on mun's
+face; and 'Oh, my gentlemen,' says he, 'my gentlemen!  Oh, my
+gallant men!'  Them was his very words."
+
+"But when?"
+
+"Why, Captain Will had just come to the Hard--that's to Portsmouth--
+to speak with mun, and the barge Royal lay again the Hard--so; and
+our boot alongside--so; and the king he standth as it might be
+there, above my head, on the quay edge, and she come in near
+abreast of us, looking most royal to behold, poor dear! and went to
+cast about.  And Captain Will, saith he, 'Them lower ports is cruel
+near the water;' for she had not more than a sixteen inches to
+spare in the nether overloop, as I heard after.  And saith he,
+'That won't do for going to windward in a say, Martin.'  And as the
+words came out of mun's mouth, your worship, there was a bit of a
+flaw from the westward, sharp like, and overboard goeth my cap, and
+hitth against the wall, and as I stooped to pick it up, I heard a
+cry, and it was all over!"
+
+"He is telling of the Mary Rose, sir."
+
+"I guessed so."
+
+"All over: and the cry of mun, and the screech of mun!  Oh, sir, up
+to the very heavens!  And the king he screeched right out like any
+maid, 'Oh my gentlemen, oh my gallant men!' and as she lay on her
+beam-ends, sir, and just a-settling, the very last souls I seen was
+that man's father, and that man's.  I knowed mun by their armor."
+
+And he pointed to Sir George Carew and Sir Richard Grenville.
+
+"Iss! Iss!  Drowned like rattens.  Drowned like rattens!"
+
+"Now; you mustn't trouble his worship any more."
+
+"Trouble?  Let him tell till midnight, I shall be well pleased,"
+said Amyas, sitting down on the bench by him.  "Drawer! ale--and a
+parcel of tobacco."
+
+And Amyas settled himself to listen, while the old man purred to
+himself--
+
+"Iss.  They likes to hear old Martin.  All the captains look upon
+old Martin."
+
+"Hillo, Amyas!" said Cary, "who's your friend?  Here's a man been
+telling me wonders about the River Plate.  We should go thither for
+luck there next time."
+
+"River Plate?" said old Martin.  "It's I knows about the River
+Plate; none so well.  Who'd ever been there, nor heard of it
+nether, before Captain Will and me went, and I lived among the
+savages a whole year; and audacious civil I found 'em if they 'd
+had but shirts to their backs; and so was the prince o' mun, that
+Captain Will brought home to King Henry; leastwise he died on the
+voyage; but the wild folk took it cruel well, for you see, we was
+always as civil with them as Christians, and if we hadn't been, I
+should not have been here now."
+
+"What year was that?"
+
+"In the fifteen thirty: but I was there afore, and learnt the
+speech o' mun; and that's why Captain Will left me to a hostage,
+when he tuked their prince."
+
+"Before that?" said Cary; "why, the country was hardly known before
+that."
+
+The old man's eyes flashed up in triumph.
+
+"Knowed?  Iss, and you may well say that!  Look ye here!  Look to
+mun!" and he waved his hand round--"There's captains! and I'm the
+father of 'em all now, now poor Captain Will's in gloory; I, Martin
+Cockrem! . . .  Iss, I've seen a change.  I mind when Tavistock
+Abbey was so full o' friars, and goolden idols, and sich noxious
+trade, as ever was a wheat-rick of rats.  I mind the fight off
+Brest in the French wars--Oh, that was a fight, surely!--when the
+Regent and the French Carack were burnt side by side, being fast
+grappled, you see, because of Sir Thomas Knivet; and Captain Will
+gave him warning as he ran a-past us, saying, says he--"
+
+"But," said Amyas, seeing that the old man was wandering away,
+"what do you mind about America?"
+
+"America?  I should think so!  But I was a-going to tell you of the
+Regent--and seven hundred Englishmen burnt and drowned in her, and
+nine hundred French in the Brest ship, besides what we picked up.
+Oh dear!  But about America."
+
+"Yes, about America.  How are you the father of all the captains?"
+
+"How? you ask my young master!  Why, before the fifteen thirty, I
+was up the Plate with Cabot (and a cruel fractious ontrustful
+fellow he was, like all they Portingals), and bid there a year and
+more, and up the Paraguaio with him, diskivering no end; whereby,
+gentles, I was the first Englishman, I hold, that ever sot a foot
+on the New World, I was!"
+
+"Then here's your health, and long life, sir!" said Amyas and Cary.
+
+"Long life?  Iss, fegs, I reckon, long enough a'ready!  Why, I mind
+the beginning of it all, I do.  I mind when there wasn't a master
+mariner to Plymouth, that thought there was aught west of the
+Land's End except herrings.  Why, they held them, pure wratches,
+that if you sailed right west away far enough, you'd surely come to
+the edge, and fall over cleve.  Iss--'Twas dark parts round here,
+till Captain Will arose; and the first of it I mind was inside the
+bar of San Lucar, and he and I were boys about a ten year old,
+aboord of a Dartmouth ship, and went for wine, and there come in
+over the bar he that was the beginning of it all."
+
+"Columbus?"
+
+"Iss, fegs, he did, not a pistol-shot from us; and I saw mun stand
+on the poop, so plain as I see you; no great shakes of a man to
+look to nether; there's a sight better here, to plase me, and we
+was disappointed, we lads, for we surely expected to see mun with a
+goolden crown on, and a sceptre to a's hand, we did, and the ship
+o' mun all over like Solomon's temple for gloory.  And I mind that
+same year, too, seeing Vasco da Gama, as was going out over the
+bar, when he found the Bona Speranza, and sailed round it to the
+Indies.  Ah, that was the making of they rascally Portingals, it
+was! . . . And our crew told what they seen and heerd: but nobody
+minded sich things.  'Twas dark parts, and Popish, then; and nobody
+knowed nothing, nor got no schooling, nor cared for nothing, but
+scrattling up and down alongshore like to prawns in a pule.  Iss,
+sitting in darkness, we was, and the shadow of death, till the day-
+spring from on high arose, and shined upon us poor out-o' -the-way
+folk--The Lord be praised!  And now, look to mun!" and he waved his
+hand all round--"Look to mun!  Look to the works of the Lord!  Look
+to the captains!  Oh blessed sight!  And one's been to the Brazils,
+and one to the Indies, and the Spanish Main, and the North-West,
+and the Rooshias, and the Chinas, and up the Straits, and round the
+Cape, and round the world of God, too, bless His holy name; and I
+seed the beginning of it; and I'll see the end of it too, I will!
+I was born into the old times: but I'll see the wondrous works of
+the new, yet, I will!  I'll see they bloody Spaniards swept off the
+seas before I die, if my old eyes can reach so far as outside the
+Sound.  I shall, I knows it.  I says my prayers for it every night;
+don't I, Mary?  You'll bate mun, sure as Judgment, you'll bate mun!
+The Lord'll fight for ye.  Nothing'll stand against ye.  I've seed
+it all along--ever since I was with young master to the Honduras.
+They can't bide the push of us!  You'll bate mun off the face of
+the seas, and be masters of the round world, and all that therein
+is.  And then, I'll just turn my old face to the wall, and depart
+in peace, according to his word.
+
+"Deary me, now, while I've been telling with you, here've this
+little maid been and ate up all my sugar!"
+
+"I'll bring you some more," said Amyas; whom the childish bathos of
+the last sentence moved rather to sighs than laughter.
+
+"Will ye, then?  There's a good soul, and come and tell with old
+Martin.  He likes to see the brave young gentlemen, a-going to and
+fro in their ships, like Leviathan, and taking of their pastime
+therein.  We had no such ships to our days.  Ah, 'tis grand times,
+beautiful times surely--and you'll bring me a bit sugar?"
+
+"You were up the Plate with Cabot?" said Cary, after a pause.  "Do
+you mind the fair lady Miranda, Sebastian de Hurtado's wife?"
+
+"What! her that was burnt by the Indians?  Mind her?  Do you mind
+the sun in heaven?  Oh, the beauty!  Oh, the ways of her!  Oh, the
+speech of her!  Never was, nor never will be!  And she to die by
+they villains; and all for the goodness of her!  Mind her?  I
+minded naught else when she was on deck."
+
+"Who was she?" asked Amyas of Cary.
+
+"A Spanish angel, Amyas."
+
+"Humph!" said Amyas.  "So much the worse for her, to be born into a
+nation of devils."
+
+"They'em not all so bad as that, yer honor.  Her husband was a
+proper gallant gentleman, and kind as a maid, too, and couldn't
+abide that De Solis's murderous doings."
+
+"His wife must have taught it him, then," said Amyas, rising.
+"Where did you hear of these black swans, Cary?"
+
+"I have heard of them, and that's enough," answered he, unwilling
+to stir sad recollections.
+
+"And little enough," said Amyas.  "Will, don't talk to me.  The
+devil is not grown white because he has trod in a lime-heap."
+
+"Or an angel black because she came down a chimney," said Cary; and
+so the talk ended, or rather was cut short; for the talk of all the
+groups was interrupted by an explosion from old John Hawkins.
+
+"Fail?  Fail?  What a murrain do you here, to talk of failing?  Who
+made you a prophet, you scurvy, hang-in-the-wind, croaking, white-
+livered son of a corby-crow?"
+
+"Heaven help us, Admiral Hawkins, who has put fire to your
+culverins in this fashion?" said Lord Howard.
+
+"Who? my lord!  Croakers! my lord!  Here's a fellow calls himself
+the captain of a ship, and her majesty's servant, and talks about
+failing, as if he were a Barbican loose-kirtle trying to keep her
+apple-squire ashore!  Blurt for him, sneak-up! say I."
+
+"Admiral John Hawkins," quoth the offender, "you shall answer this
+language with your sword."
+
+"I'll answer it with my foot; and buy me a pair of horn-tips to my
+shoes, like a wraxling man.  Fight a croaker?  Fight a frog, an
+owl!  I fight those that dare fight, sir!"
+
+"Sir, sir, moderate yourself.  I am sure this gentleman will show
+himself as brave as any, when it comes to blows: but who can blame
+mortal man for trembling before so fearful a chance as this?"
+
+"Let mortal man keep his tremblings to himself, then, my lord, and
+not be like Solomon's madmen, casting abroad fire and death, and
+saying, it is only in sport.  There is more than one of his kidney,
+your lordship, who have not been ashamed to play Mother Shipton
+before their own sailors, and damp the poor fellows' hearts with
+crying before they're hurt, and this is one of them.  I've heard
+him at it afore, and I'll present him, with a vengeance, though I'm
+no church-warden."
+
+"If this is really so, Admiral Hawkins--"
+
+"It is so, my lord!  I heard only last night, down in a tavern
+below, such unbelieving talk as made me mad, my lord; and if it had
+not been after supper, and my hand was not oversteady, I would have
+let out a pottle of Alicant from some of their hoopings, and sent
+them to Dick Surgeon, to wrap them in swaddling-clouts, like
+whining babies as they are.  Marry come up, what says Scripture?
+'He that is fearful and faint-hearted among you, let him go and'--
+what? son Dick there?  Thou'rt pious, and read'st thy Bible.
+What's that text?  A mortal fine one it is, too."
+
+"'He that is fearful and faint-hearted among you, let him go
+back,'" quoth the Complete Seaman.  "Captain Merryweather, as my
+father's command, as well as his years, forbid his answering your
+challenge, I shall repute it an honor to entertain his quarrel
+myself--place, time, and weapons being at your choice."
+
+"Well spoken, son Dick!--and like a true courtier, too!  Ah! thou
+hast the palabras, and the knee, and the cap, and the quip, and the
+innuendo, and the true town fashion of it all--no old tarry-breeks
+of a sea-dog, like thy dad!  My lord, you'll let them fight?"
+
+"The Spaniard, sir; but no one else.  But, captains and gentlemen,
+consider well my friend the Port Admiral's advice; and if any man's
+heart misgives him, let him, for the sake of his country and his
+queen, have so much government of his tongue to hide his fears in
+his own bosom, and leave open complaining to ribalds and women.
+For if the sailor be not cheered by his commander's cheerfulness,
+how will the ignorant man find comfort in himself?  And without
+faith and hope, how can he fight worthily?"
+
+"There is no croaking aboard of us, we will warrant," said twenty
+voices, "and shall be none, as long as we command on board our own
+ships."
+
+Hawkins, having blown off his steam, went back to Drake and the
+bowls.
+
+"Fill my pipe, Drawer--that croaking fellow's made me let it out,
+of course!  Spoil-sports!  The father of all manner of troubles on
+earth, be they noxious trade of croakers!  'Better to meet a bear
+robbed of her whelps,' Francis Drake, as Solomon saith, than a fule
+who can't keep his mouth shut.  What brought Mr. Andrew Barker to
+his death but croakers?  What stopped Fenton's China voyage in the
+'82, and lost your nephew John, and my brother Will, glory and hard
+cash too, but croakers?  What sent back my Lord Cumberland's armada
+in the '86, and that after they'd proved their strength, too, sixty
+o' mun against six hundred Portugals and Indians; and yet wern't
+ashamed to turn round and come home empty-handed, after all my
+lord's expenses that he had been at?  What but these same beggarly
+croakers, that be only fit to be turned into yellow-hammers up to
+Dartymoor, and sit on a tor all day, and cry 'Very little bit of
+bread, and no chee-e-ese!'  Marry, sneak-up! say I again."
+
+"And what," said Drake, "would have kept me, if I'd let 'em, from
+ever sailing round the world, but these same croakers?  I hanged my
+best friend for croaking, John Hawkins, may God forgive me if I was
+wrong, and I threatened a week after to hang thirty more; and I'd
+have done it, too, if they hadn't clapped tompions into their
+muzzles pretty fast."
+
+"You'm right, Frank.  My old father always told me--and old King
+Hal (bless his memory!) would take his counsel among a thousand;--
+'And, my son,' says he to me, 'whatever you do, never you stand no
+croaking; but hang mun, son Jack, hang mun up for an ensign.
+There's Scripture for it,' says he (he was a mighty man to his
+Bible, after bloody Mary's days, leastwise), 'and 'tis written,'
+says he, 'It's expedient that one man die for the crew, and that
+the whole crew perish not; so show you no mercy, son Jack, or
+you'll find none, least-wise in they manner of cattle; for if you
+fail, they stamps on you, and if you succeeds, they takes the
+credit of it to themselves, and goes to heaven in your shoes.'
+Those were his words, and I've found mun true.--Who com'th here
+now?"
+
+"Captain Fleming, as I'm a sinner."
+
+"Fleming?  Is he tired of life, that he com'th here to look for a
+halter?  I've a warrant out against mun, for robbing of two
+Flushingers on the high seas, now this very last year.  Is the
+fellow mazed or drunk, then? or has he seen a ghost?  Look to mun!"
+
+"I think so, truly," said Drake.  "His eyes are near out of his
+head."
+
+The man was a rough-bearded old sea-dog, who had just burst in from
+the tavern through the low hatch, upsetting a drawer with all his
+glasses, and now came panting and blowing straight up to the high
+admiral,--
+
+"My lord, my lord!  They'm coming!  I saw them off the Lizard last
+night!"
+
+"Who? my good sir, who seem to have left your manners behind you."
+
+"The Armada, your worship--the Spaniard; but as for my manners,
+'tis no fault of mine, for I never had none to leave behind me."
+
+"If he has not left his manners behind," quoth Hawkins, "look out
+for your purses, gentlemen all!  He's manners enough, and very bad
+ones they be, when he com'th across a quiet Flushinger."
+
+"If I stole Flushingers' wines, I never stole negurs' souls, Jack
+Hawkins; so there's your answer.  My lord, hang me if you will;
+life's short and death's easy 'specially to seamen; but if I didn't
+see the Spanish fleet last sun-down, coming along half-moon wise,
+and full seven mile from wing to wing, within a four mile of me,
+I'm a sinner."
+
+"Sirrah," said Lord Howard, "is this no fetch, to cheat us out of
+your pardon for these piracies of yours?"
+
+"You'll find out for yourself before nightfall, my lord high
+admiral.  All Jack Fleming says is, that this is a poor sort of an
+answer to a man who has put his own neck into the halter for the
+sake of his country."
+
+"Perhaps it is," said Lord Howard.  "And after all, gentlemen, what
+can this man gain by a lie, which must be discovered ere a day is
+over, except a more certain hanging?"
+
+"Very true, your lordship," said Hawkins, mollified.  "Come here,
+Jack Fleming--what wilt drain, man?  Hippocras or Alicant, Sack or
+John Barleycorn, and a pledge to thy repentance and amendment of
+life."
+
+"Admiral Hawkins, Admiral Hawkins, this is no time for drinking."
+
+"Why not, then, my lord?  Good news should be welcomed with good
+wine.  Frank, send down to the sexton, and set the bells a-ringing
+to cheer up all honest hearts.  Why, my lord, if it were not for
+the gravity of my office, I could dance a galliard for joy!"
+
+"Well, you may dance, port admiral: but I must go and plan, but God
+give to all captains such a heart as yours this day!"
+
+"And God give all generals such a head as yours!  Come, Frank
+Drake, we'll play the game out before we move.  It will be two good
+days before we shall be fit to tackle them, so an odd half-hour
+don't matter."
+
+"I must command the help of your counsel, vice-admiral," said Lord
+Charles, turning to Drake.
+
+"And it's this, my good lord," said Drake, looking up, as he aimed
+his bowl.  "They'll come soon enough for us to show them sport, and
+yet slow enough for us to be ready; so let no man hurry himself.
+And as example is better than precept, here goes."
+
+Lord Howard shrugged his shoulders, and departed, knowing two
+things: first, that to move Drake was to move mountains; and next,
+that when the self-taught hero did bestir himself, he would do more
+work in an hour than any one else in a day.  So he departed,
+followed hastily by most of the captains; and Drake said in a low
+voice to Hawkins:
+
+"Does he think we are going to knock about on a lee-shore all the
+afternoon and run our noses at night--and dead up-wind, too--into
+the Dons' mouths?  No, Jack, my friend.  Let Orlando-Furioso-
+punctilio-fire-eaters go and get their knuckles rapped.  The
+following game is the game, and not the meeting one.  The dog goes
+after the sheep, and not afore them, lad.  Let them go by, and go
+by, and stick to them well to windward, and pick up stragglers, and
+pickings, too, Jack--the prizes, Jack!"
+
+"Trust my old eyes for not being over-quick at seeing signals, if I
+be hanging in the skirts of a fat-looking Don.  We'm the eagles,
+Drake; and where the carcase is, is our place, eh?"
+
+And so the two old sea-dogs chatted on, while their companions
+dropped off one by one, and only Amyas remained.
+
+"Eh, Captain Leigh, where's my boy Dick?"
+
+"Gone off with his lordship, Sir John."
+
+"On his punctilios too, I suppose, the young slashed-breeks.  He's
+half a Don, that fellow, with his fine scholarship, and his fine
+manners, and his fine clothes.  He'll get a taking down before he
+dies, unless he mends.  Why ain't you gone too, sir?"
+
+"I follow my leader," said Amyas, filling his pipe.
+
+"Well said, my big man," quoth Drake.  "If I could lead you round
+the world, I can lead you up Channel, can't I?--Eh? my little
+bantam-cock of the Orinoco?  Drink, lad!  You're over-sad to-day."
+
+"Not a whit," said Amyas.  "Only I can't help wondering whether I
+shall find him after all."
+
+"Whom?  That Don?  We'll find him for you, if he's in the fleet.
+We'll squeeze it out of our prisoners somehow.  Eh, Hawkins?  I
+thought all the captains had promised to send you news if they
+heard of him."
+
+"Ay, but it's ill looking for a needle in a haystack.  But I shall
+find him.  I am a coward to doubt it," said Amyas, setting his
+teeth.
+
+"There, vice-admiral, you're beaten, and that's the rubber.  Pay up
+three dollars, old high-flyer, and go and earn more, like an honest
+adventurer."
+
+"Well," said Drake, as he pulled out his purse, "we'll walk down
+now, and see about these young hot-heads.  As I live, they are
+setting to tow the ships out already!  Breaking the men's backs
+over-night, to make them fight the lustier in the morning!  Well,
+well, they haven't sailed round the world, Jack Hawkins."
+
+"Or had to run home from San Juan d'Ulloa with half a crew.
+
+"Well, if we haven't to run out with half crews.  I saw a sight of
+our lads drunk about this morning."
+
+"The more reason for waiting till they be sober.  Besides, if
+everybody's caranting about to once each after his own men,
+nobody'll find nothing in such a scrimmage as that.  Bye, bye,
+Uncle Martin.  We'm going to blow the Dons up now in earnest."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+THE GREAT ARMADA
+
+
+"Britannia needs no bulwarks,
+   No towers along the steep,
+Her march is o'er the mountain wave,
+   Her home is on the deep."
+
+   CAMPBELL, Ye Mariners of England.
+
+
+And now began that great sea-fight which was to determine whether
+Popery and despotism, or Protestantism and freedom, were the law
+which God had appointed for the half of Europe, and the whole of
+future America.  It is a twelve days' epic, worthy, as I said in
+the beginning of this book, not of dull prose, but of the thunder-
+roll of Homer's verse: but having to tell it, I must do my best,
+rather using, where I can, the words of contemporary authors than
+my own.
+
+"The Lord High Admirall of England, sending a pinnace before,
+called the Defiance, denounced war by discharging her ordnance; and
+presently approaching with in musquet-shot, with much thundering
+out of his own ship, called the Arkroyall (alias the Triumph),
+first set upon the admirall's, as he thought, of the Spaniards (but
+it was Alfonso de Leon's ship.  Soon after, Drake, Hawkins, and
+Frobisher played stoutly with their ordnance on the hindmost
+squadron, which was commanded by Recalde."  The Spaniards soon
+discover the superior "nimbleness of the English ships;" and
+Recalde's squadron, finding that they are getting more than they
+give, in spite of his endeavors, hurry forward to join the rest of
+the fleet.  Medina the Admiral, finding his ships scattering fast,
+gathers them into a half-moon; and the Armada tries to keep solemn
+way forward, like a stately herd of buffaloes, who march on across
+the prairie, disdaining to notice the wolves which snarl around
+their track.  But in vain.  These are no wolves, but cunning
+hunters, swiftly horsed, and keenly armed, and who will "shamefully
+shuffle" (to use Drake's own expression) that vast herd from the
+Lizard to Portland, from Portland to Calais Roads; and who, even in
+this short two hours' fight, have made many a Spaniard question the
+boasted invincibleness of this Armada.
+
+One of the four great galliasses is already riddled with shot, to
+the great disarrangement of her "pulpits, chapels," and friars
+therein assistant.  The fleet has to close round her, or Drake and
+Hawkins will sink her; in effecting which manoeuvre, the "principal
+galleon of Seville," in which are Pedro de Valdez and a host of
+blue-blooded Dons, runs foul of her neighbor, carries away her
+foremast, and is, in spite of Spanish chivalry, left to her fate.
+This does not look like victory, certainly.  But courage! though
+Valdez be left behind, "our Lady," and the saints, and the bull
+Caena Domini (dictated by one whom I dare not name here), are with
+them still, and it were blasphemous to doubt.  But in the
+meanwhile, if they have fared no better than this against a third
+of the Plymouth fleet, how will they fare when those forty belated
+ships, which are already whitening the blue between them and the
+Mewstone, enter the scene to play their part?
+
+So ends the first day; not an English ship, hardly a man, is hurt.
+It has destroyed for ever, in English minds, the prestige of
+boastful Spain.  It has justified utterly the policy which the good
+Lord Howard had adopted by Raleigh's and Drake's advice, of keeping
+up a running fight, instead of "clapping ships together without
+consideration," in which case, says Raleigh, "he had been lost, if
+he had not been better advised than a great many malignant fools
+were, who found fault with his demeanor."
+
+Be that as it may, so ends the first day, in which Amyas and the
+other Bideford ships have been right busy for two hours, knocking
+holes in a huge galleon, which carries on her poop a maiden with a
+wheel, and bears the name of Sta. Catharina.  She had a coat of
+arms on the flag at her sprit, probably those of the commandant of
+soldiers; but they were shot away early in the fight, so Amyas
+cannot tell whether they were De Soto' s or not.  Nevertheless,
+there is plenty of time for private revenge; and Amyas, called off
+at last by the admiral's signal, goes to bed and sleeps soundly.
+
+But ere he has been in his hammock an hour, he is awakened by
+Cary's coming down to ask for orders.
+
+"We were to follow Drake's lantern, Amyas; but where it is, I can't
+see, unless he has been taken up aloft there among the stars for a
+new Drakium Sidus."
+
+Amyas turns out grumbling: but no lantern is to be seen; only a
+sudden explosion and a great fire on board some Spaniard, which is
+gradually got under, while they have to lie-to the whole night
+long, with nearly the whole fleet.
+
+The next morning finds them off Torbay; and Amyas is hailed by a
+pinnace, bringing a letter from Drake, which (saving the spelling,
+which was somewhat arbitrary, like most men's in those days) ran
+somewhat thus:--
+
+
+"DEAR LAD,--I have been wool-gathering all night after five great
+hulks, which the Pixies transfigured overnight into galleons, and
+this morning again into German merchantmen.  I let them go with my
+blessing; and coming back, fell in (God be thanked!) with Valdez'
+great galleon; and in it good booty, which the Dons his fellows had
+left behind, like faithful and valiant comrades, and the Lord
+Howard had let slip past him, thinking her deserted by her crew.  I
+have sent to Dartmouth a sight of noblemen and gentlemen, maybe a
+half-hundred; and Valdez himself, who when I sent my pinnace aboard
+must needs stand on his punctilios, and propound conditions.  I
+answered him, I had no time to tell with him; if he would needs
+die, then I was the very man for him; if he would live, then, buena
+querra.  He sends again, boasting that he was Don Pedro Valdez, and
+that it stood not with his honor, and that of the Dons in his
+company.  I replied, that for my part, I was Francis Drake, and my
+matches burning.  Whereon he finds in my name salve for the wounds
+of his own, and comes aboard, kissing my fist, with Spanish lies of
+holding himself fortunate that he had fallen into the hands of
+fortunate Drake, and much more, which he might have kept to cool
+his porridge.  But I have much news from him (for he is a leaky
+tub); and among others, this, that your Don Guzman is aboard of the
+Sta. Catharina, commandant of her soldiery, and has his arms flying
+at her sprit, beside Sta. Catharina at the poop, which is a maiden
+with a wheel, and is a lofty built ship of 3 tier of ordnance, from
+which God preserve you, and send you like luck with.
+
+"Your deare Friend and Admirall,
+
+"F. Drake.
+
+"She sails in this squadron of Recalde.  The Armada was minded to
+smoke us out of Plymouth; and God's grace it was they tried not:
+but their orders from home are too strait, and so the slaves fight
+like a bull in a tether, no farther than their rope, finding thus
+the devil a hard master, as do most in the end.  They cannot
+compass our quick handling and tacking, and take us for very
+witches.  So far so good, and better to come.  You and I know the
+length of their foot of old.  Time and light will kill any hare,
+and they will find it a long way from Start to Dunkirk."
+
+
+"The admiral is in a gracious humor, Leigh, to have vouchsafed you
+so long a letter."
+
+"St. Catherine! why, that was the galleon we hammered all
+yesterday!" said Amyas, stamping on the deck.
+
+"Of course it was.  Well, we shall find her again, doubt not.  That
+cunning old Drake! how he has contrived to line his own pockets,
+even though he had to keep the whole fleet waiting for him."
+
+"He has given the lord high admiral the dor, at all events."
+
+"Lord Howard is too high-hearted to stop and plunder, Papist though
+he is, Amyas."
+
+Amyas answered by a growl, for he worshipped Drake, and was not too
+just to Papists.
+
+The fleet did not find Lord Howard till nightfall; he and Lord
+Sheffield had been holding on steadfastly the whole night after the
+Spanish lanterns, with two ships only.  At least there was no doubt
+now of the loyalty of English Roman Catholics, and indeed,
+throughout the fight, the Howards showed (as if to wipe out the
+slurs which had been cast on their loyalty by fanatics) a desperate
+courage, which might have thrust less prudent men into destruction,
+but led them only to victory.  Soon a large Spaniard drifts by,
+deserted and partly burnt.  Some of the men are for leaving their
+place to board her; but Amyas stoutly refuses.  He has "come out to
+fight, and not to plunder; so let the nearest ship to her have her
+luck without grudging."  They pass on, and the men pull long faces
+when they see the galleon snapped up by their next neighbor, and
+towed off to Weymouth, where she proves to be the ship of Miguel
+d'Oquenda, the vice-admiral, which they saw last night, all but
+blown up by some desperate Netherland gunner, who, being "misused,"
+was minded to pay off old scores on his tyrants.
+
+And so ends the second day; while the Portland rises higher and
+clearer every hour.  The next morning finds them off the island.
+Will they try Portsmouth, though they have spared Plymouth?  The
+wind has shifted to the north, and blows clear and cool off the
+white-walled downs of Weymouth Bay.  The Spaniards turn and face
+the English.  They must mean to stand off and on until the wind
+shall change, and then to try for the Needles.  At least, they
+shall have some work to do before they round Purbeck Isle.
+
+The English go to the westward again: but it is only to return on
+the opposite tack; and now begin a series of manoeuvres, each fleet
+trying to get the wind of the other; but the struggle does not last
+long, and ere noon the English fleet have slipped close-hauled
+between the Armada and the land, and are coming down upon them
+right before the wind.
+
+And now begins a fight most fierce and fell.  "And fight they did
+confusedly, and with variable fortunes; while, on the one hand, the
+English manfully rescued the ships of London, which were hemmed in
+by the Spaniards; and, on the other side, the Spaniards as stoutly
+delivered Recalde being in danger."  "Never was heard such
+thundering of ordnance on both sides, which notwithstanding from
+the Spaniards flew for the most part over the English without harm.
+Only Cock, an Englishman" (whom Prince claims, I hope rightfully,
+as a worthy of Devon), "died with honor in the midst of the enemies
+in a small ship of his.  For the English ships, being far the
+lesser, charged the enemy with marvellous agility; and having
+discharged their broadsides, flew forth presently into the deep,
+and levelled their shot directly, without missing, at those great
+and unwieldy Spanish ships."  "This was the most furious and bloody
+skirmish of all" (though ending only, it seems, in the capture of a
+great Venetian and some small craft), "in which the lord admiral
+fighting amidst his enemies' fleet, and seeing one of his captains
+afar off (Fenner by name, he who fought the seven Portugals at the
+Azores), cried, 'O George, what doest thou?  Wilt thou now
+frustrate my hope and opinion conceived of thee?  Wilt thou forsake
+me now?'  With which words he being enflamed, approached, and did
+the part of a most valiant captain;" as, indeed, did all the rest.
+
+Night falls upon the floating volcano; and morning finds them far
+past Purbeck, with the white peak of Freshwater ahead; and pouring
+out past the Needles, ship after ship, to join the gallant chase.
+For now from all havens, in vessels fitted out at their own
+expense, flock the chivalry of England; the Lords Oxford,
+Northumberland, and Cumberland, Pallavicin, Brooke, Carew, Raleigh,
+and Blunt, and many another honorable name, "as to a set field,
+where immortal fame and honor was to be attained."  Spain has
+staked her chivalry in that mighty cast; not a noble house of
+Arragon or Castile but has lent a brother or a son--and shall mourn
+the loss of one: and England's gentlemen will measure their
+strength once for all against the Cavaliers of Spain.  Lord Howard
+has sent forward light craft into Portsmouth for ammunition: but
+they will scarce return to-night, for the wind falls dead, and all
+the evening the two fleets drift helpless with the tide, and shout
+idle defiance at each other with trumpet, fife, and drum.
+
+The sun goes down upon a glassy sea, and rises on a glassy sea
+again.  But what day is this?  The twenty-fifth, St. James's-day,
+sacred to the patron saint of Spain.  Shall nothing be attempted in
+his honor by those whose forefathers have so often seen him with
+their bodily eyes, charging in their van upon his snow-white steed,
+and scattering Paynims with celestial lance?  He might have sent
+them, certainly, a favoring breeze; perhaps, he only means to try
+their faith; at least the galleys shall attack; and in their van
+three of the great galliasses (the fourth lies half-crippled among
+the fleet) thrash the sea to foam with three hundred oars apiece;
+and see, not St. James leading them to victory, but Lord Howard's
+Triumph, his brother's Lion, Southwell's Elizabeth Jonas, Lord
+Sheffield's Bear, Barker's Victory, and George Fenner's Leicester,
+towed stoutly out, to meet them with such salvoes of chain-shot,
+smashing oars, and cutting rigging, that had not the wind sprung up
+again toward noon, and the Spanish fleet come up to rescue them,
+they had shared the fate of Valdez and the Biscayan.  And now the
+fight becomes general.  Frobisher beats down the Spanish admiral's
+mainmast; and, attacked himself by Mexia and Recalde, is rescued by
+Lord Howard; who, himself endangered in his turn, is rescued in his
+turn; "while after that day" (so sickened were they of the English
+gunnery) "no galliasse would adventure to fight."
+
+And so, with variable fortune, the fight thunders on the livelong
+afternoon, beneath the virgin cliffs of Freshwater; while myriad
+sea-fowl rise screaming up from every ledge, and spot with their
+black wings the snow-white wall of chalk; and the lone shepherd
+hurries down the slopes above to peer over the dizzy edge, and
+forgets the wheatear fluttering in his snare, while he gazes
+trembling upon glimpses of tall masts and gorgeous flags, piercing
+at times the league-broad veil of sulphur-smoke which welters far
+below.
+
+So fares St. James's-day, as Baal's did on Carmel in old time,
+"Either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey; or
+peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked."  At least, the only
+fire by which he has answered his votaries, has been that of
+English cannon: and the Armada, "gathering itself into a roundel,"
+will fight no more, but make the best of its way to Calais, where
+perhaps the Guises' faction may have a French force ready to assist
+them, and then to Dunkirk, to join with Parma and the great
+flotilla of the Netherlands.
+
+So on, before "a fair Etesian gale," which follows clear and bright
+out of the south-southwest, glide forward the two great fleets,
+past Brighton Cliffs and Beachy Head, Hastings and Dungeness.  Is
+it a battle or a triumph?  For by sea Lord Howard, instead of
+fighting is rewarding; and after Lord Thomas Howard, Lord
+Sheffield, Townsend, and Frobisher have received at his hands that
+knighthood, which was then more honorable than a peerage, old
+Admiral Hawkins kneels and rises up Sir John, and shaking his
+shoulders after the accolade, observes to the representative of
+majesty, that his "old woman will hardly know herself again, when
+folks call her My Lady."
+
+And meanwhile the cliffs are lined with pike-men and musketeers,
+and by every countryman and groom who can bear arms, led by their
+squires and sheriffs, marching eastward as fast as their weapons
+let them, towards the Dover shore.  And not with them alone.  From
+many a mile inland come down women and children, and aged folk in
+wagons, to join their feeble shouts, and prayers which are not
+feeble, to that great cry of mingled faith and fear which ascends
+to the throne of God from the spectators of Britain's Salamis.
+
+Let them pray on.  The danger is not over yet, though Lord Howard
+has had news from Newhaven that the Guises will not stir against
+England, and Seymour and Winter have left their post of observation
+on the Flemish shores, to make up the number of the fleet to an
+hundred and forty sail--larger, slightly, than that of the Spanish
+fleet, but of not more than half the tonnage, or one third the
+number of men.  The Spaniards are dispirited and battered, but
+unbroken still; and as they slide to their anchorage in Calais
+Roads on the Saturday evening of that most memorable week, all
+prudent men know well that England's hour is come, and that the
+bells which will call all Christendom to church upon the morrow
+morn, will be either the death-knell or the triumphal peal of the
+Reformed faith throughout the world.
+
+A solemn day that Sabbath must have been in country and in town.
+And many a light-hearted coward, doubtless, who had scoffed (as
+many did) at the notion of the Armada's coming, because he dare not
+face the thought, gave himself up to abject fear, "as he now
+plainly saw and heard that of which before he would not be
+persuaded."  And many a brave man, too, as he knelt beside his wife
+and daughters, felt his heart sink to the very pavement, at the
+thought of what those beloved ones might be enduring a few short
+days hence, from a profligate and fanatical soldiery, or from the
+more deliberate fiendishness of the Inquisition.  The massacre of
+St. Bartholomew, the fires of Smithfield, the immolation of the
+Moors, the extermination of the West Indians, the fantastic horrors
+of the Piedmontese persecution, which make unreadable the too
+truthful pages of Morland,--these were the spectres, which, not as
+now, dim and distant through the mist of centuries, but recent,
+bleeding from still gaping wounds, flitted before the eyes of every
+Englishman, and filled his brain and heart with fire.
+
+He knew full well the fate in store for him and his.  One false
+step, and the unspeakable doom which, not two generations
+afterwards, befell the Lutherans of Magdeburg, would have befallen
+every town from London to Carlisle.  All knew the hazard, as they
+prayed that day, and many a day before and after, throughout
+England and the Netherlands.  And none knew it better than she who
+was the guiding spirit of that devoted land, and the especial mark
+of the invaders' fury; and who, by some Divine inspiration (as men
+then not unwisely held), devised herself the daring stroke which
+was to anticipate the coming blow.
+
+But where is Amyas Leigh all this while?  Day after day he has been
+seeking the Sta. Catharina in the thickest of the press, and cannot
+come at her, cannot even hear of her: one moment he dreads that she
+has sunk by night, and balked him of his prey; the next, that she
+has repaired her damages, and will escape him after all.  He is
+moody, discontented, restless, even (for the first time in his
+life) peevish with his men.  He can talk of nothing but Don Guzman;
+he can find no better employment, at every spare moment, than
+taking his sword out of the sheath, and handling it, fondling it,
+talking to it even, bidding it not to fail him in the day of
+vengeance.  At last, he has sent to Squire, the armorer, for a
+whetstone, and, half-ashamed of his own folly, whets and polishes
+it in bye-corners, muttering to himself.  That one fixed thought of
+selfish vengeance has possessed his whole mind; he forgets
+England's present need, her past triumph, his own safety,
+everything but his brother's blood.  And yet this is the day for
+which he has been longing ever since he brought home that magic
+horn as a fifteen years boy; the day when he should find himself
+face to face with an invader, and that invader Antichrist himself.
+He has believed for years with Drake, Hawkins, Grenville, and
+Raleigh, that he was called and sent into the world only to fight
+the Spaniard: and he is fighting him now, in such a cause, for such
+a stake, within such battle-lists, as he will never see again: and
+yet he is not content, and while throughout that gallant fleet,
+whole crews are receiving the Communion side by side, and rising
+with cheerful faces to shake hands, and to rejoice that they are
+sharers in Britain's Salamis, Amyas turns away from the holy
+elements.
+
+"I cannot communicate, Sir John.  Charity with all men?  I hate, if
+ever man hated on earth."
+
+"You hate the Lord's foes only, Captain Leigh."
+
+"No, Jack, I hate my own as well."
+
+"But no one in the fleet, sir?"
+
+"Don't try to put me off with the same Jesuit's quibble which that
+false knave Parson Fletcher invented for one of Doughty's men, to
+drug his conscience withal when he was plotting against his own
+admiral.  No, Jack, I hate one of whom you know; and somehow that
+hatred of him keeps me from loving any human being.  I am in love
+and charity with no man, Sir John Brimblecombe--not even with you!
+Go your ways in God's name, sir! and leave me and the devil alone
+together, or you'll find my words are true."
+
+Jack departed with a sigh, and while the crew were receiving the
+Communion on deck, Amyas sate below in the cabin sharpening his
+sword, and after it, called for a boat and went on board Drake's
+ship to ask news of the Sta. Catharina, and listened scowling to
+the loud chants and tinkling bells, which came across the water
+from the Spanish fleet.  At last, Drake was summoned by the lord
+admiral, and returned with a secret commission, which ought to bear
+fruit that night; and Amyas, who had gone with him, helped him till
+nightfall, and then returned to his own ship as Sir Amyas Leigh,
+Knight, to the joy and glory of every soul on board, except his
+moody self.
+
+So there, the livelong summer Sabbath-day, before the little high-
+walled town and the long range of yellow sandhills, lie those two
+mighty armaments, scowling at each other, hardly out of gunshot.
+Messenger after messenger is hurrying towards Bruges to the Duke of
+Parma, for light craft which can follow these nimble English
+somewhat better than their own floating castles; and, above all,
+entreating him to put to sea at once with all his force.  The duke
+is not with his forces at Dunkirk, but on the future field of
+Waterloo, paying his devotions to St. Mary of Halle in Hainault, in
+order to make all sure in his Pantheon, and already sees in visions
+of the night that gentle-souled and pure-lipped saint, Cardinal
+Allen, placing the crown of England on his head.  He returns for
+answer, first, that his victual is not ready; next, that his Dutch
+sailors, who have been kept at their post for many a week at the
+sword's point, have run away like water; and thirdly, that over and
+above all, he cannot come, so "strangely provided of great ordnance
+and musketeers are those five-and-thirty Dutch ships, in which
+round-sterned and stubborn-hearted heretics watch, like terriers at
+a rat's hole, the entrance of Nieuwport and Dunkirk.  Having
+ensured the private patronage of St. Mary of Halle, he will return
+to-morrow to make experience of its effects: but only hear across
+the flats of Dixmude the thunder of the fleets, and at Dunkirk the
+open curses of his officers.  For while he has been praying and
+nothing more, the English have been praying, and something more;
+and all that is left for the Prince of Parma is, to hang a few
+purveyors, as peace offerings to his sulking army, and then
+"chafe," as Drake says of him, "like a bear robbed of her whelps."
+
+For Lord Henry Seymour has brought Lord Howard a letter of command
+from Elizabeth's self; and Drake has been carrying it out so busily
+all that Sunday long, that by two o'clock on the Monday morning,
+eight fire-ships "besmeared with wild-fire, brimstone, pitch, and
+resin, and all their ordnance charged with bullets and with
+stones," are stealing down the wind straight for the Spanish fleet,
+guided by two valiant men of Devon, Young and Prowse.  (Let their
+names live long in the land!)  The ships are fired, the men of
+Devon steal back, and in a moment more, the heaven is red with
+glare from Dover Cliffs to Gravelines Tower; and weary-hearted
+Belgian boors far away inland, plundered and dragooned for many a
+hideous year, leap from their beds, and fancy (and not so far
+wrongly either) that the day of judgment is come at last, to end
+their woes, and hurl down vengeance on their tyrants.
+
+And then breaks forth one of those disgraceful panics, which so
+often follow overweening presumption; and shrieks, oaths, prayers,
+and reproaches, make night hideous.  There are those too on board
+who recollect well enough Jenebelli's fire-ships at Antwerp three
+years before, and the wreck which they made of Parma's bridge
+across the Scheldt.  If these should be like them!  And cutting all
+cables, hoisting any sails, the Invincible Armada goes lumbering
+wildly out to sea, every ship foul of her neighbor.
+
+The largest of the four galliasses loses her rudder, and drifts
+helpless to and fro, hindering and confusing.  The duke, having (so
+the Spaniards say) weighed his anchor deliberately instead of
+leaving it behind him, runs in again after awhile, and fires a
+signal for return: but his truant sheep are deaf to the shepherd's
+pipe, and swearing and praying by turns, he runs up Channel towards
+Gravelines picking up stragglers on his way, who are struggling as
+they best can among the flats and shallows: but Drake and Fenner
+have arrived as soon as he.  When Monday's sun rises on the quaint
+old castle and muddy dykes of Gravelines town, the thunder of the
+cannon recommences, and is not hushed till night.  Drake can hang
+coolly enough in the rear to plunder when he thinks fit; but when
+the battle needs it, none can fight more fiercely, among the
+foremost; and there is need now, if ever.  That Armada must never
+be allowed to re-form.  If it does, its left wing may yet keep the
+English at bay, while its right drives off the blockading
+Hollanders from Dunkirk port, and sets Parma and his flotilla free
+to join them, and to sail in doubled strength across to the mouth
+of Thames.
+
+So Drake has weighed anchor, and away up Channel with all his
+squadron, the moment that he saw the Spanish fleet come up; and
+with him Fenner burning to redeem the honor which, indeed, he had
+never lost; and ere Fenton, Beeston, Crosse, Ryman, and Lord
+Southwell can join them, the Devon ships have been worrying the
+Spaniards for two full hours into confusion worse confounded.
+
+But what is that heavy firing behind them?  Alas for the great
+galliasse!  She lies, like a huge stranded whale, upon the sands
+where now stands Calais pier; and Amyas Preston, the future hero of
+La Guayra, is pounding her into submission, while a fleet of hoys
+and drumblers look on and help, as jackals might the lion.
+
+Soon, on the south-west horizon, loom up larger and larger two
+mighty ships, and behind them sail on sail.  As they near a shout
+greets the Triumph and the Bear; and on and in the lord high
+admiral glides stately into the thickest of the fight.
+
+True, we have still but some three-and-twenty ships which can cope
+at all with some ninety of the Spaniards: but we have dash, and
+daring, and the inspiration of utter need.  Now, or never, must the
+mighty struggle be ended.  We worried them off Portland; we must
+rend them in pieces now; and in rushes ship after ship, to smash
+her broadsides through and through the wooden castles, "sometimes
+not a pike's length asunder," and then out again to re-load, and
+give place meanwhile to another.  The smaller are fighting with all
+sails set; the few larger, who, once in, are careless about coming
+out again, fight with top-sails loose, and their main and foreyards
+close down on deck, to prevent being boarded.  The duke, Oquenda,
+and Recalde, having with much ado got clear of the shallows, bear
+the brunt of the fight to seaward; but in vain.  The day goes
+against them more and more, as it runs on.  Seymour and Winter have
+battered the great San Philip into a wreck; her masts are gone by
+the board; Pimentelli in the San Matthew comes up to take the
+mastiffs off the fainting bull, and finds them fasten on him
+instead; but the Evangelist, though smaller, is stouter than the
+Deacon, and of all the shot poured into him, not twenty "lackt him
+thorough."  His masts are tottering; but sink or strike he will
+not.
+
+"Go ahead, and pound his tough hide, Leigh," roars Drake off the
+poop of his ship, while he hammers away at one of the great
+galliasses.  "What right has he to keep us all waiting?"
+
+Amyas slips in as best he can between Drake and Winter; as he
+passes he shouts to his ancient enemy,--
+
+"We are with you, sir; all friends to-day!" and slipping round
+Winter's bows, he pours his broadside into those of the San
+Matthew, and then glides on to re-load; but not to return.  For not
+a pistol shot to leeward, worried by three or four small craft,
+lies an immense galleon; and on her poop--can he believe his eyes
+for joy?--the maiden and the wheel which he has sought so long!
+
+"There he is!" shouts Amyas, springing to the starboard side of the
+ship.  The men, too, have already caught sight of that hated sign;
+a cheer of fury bursts from every throat.
+
+"Steady, men!" says Amyas, in a suppressed voice.  "Not a shot!
+Re-load, and be ready; I must speak with him first;" and silent as
+the grave, amid the infernal din, the Vengeance glides up to the
+Spaniard's quarter.
+
+"Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto!" shouts Amyas from
+the mizzen rigging, loud and clear amid the roar.
+
+He has not called in vain.  Fearless and graceful as ever, the
+tall, mail-clad figure of his foe leaps up upon the poop-railing,
+twenty feet above Amyas's head, and shouts through his vizor,--
+
+"At your service, sir whosoever you may be."
+
+A dozen muskets and arrows are levelled at him; but Amyas frowns
+them down.  "No man strikes him but I.  Spare him, if you kill
+every other soul on board.  Don Guzman!  I am Captain Sir Amyas
+Leigh; I proclaim you a traitor and a ravisher, and challenge you
+once more to single combat, when and where you will."
+
+"You are welcome to come on board me, sir," answers the Spaniard,
+in a clear, quiet tone; "bringing with you this answer, that you
+lie in your throat;" and lingering a moment out of bravado, to
+arrange his scarf, he steps slowly down again behind the bulwarks.
+
+"Coward!" shouts Amyas at the top of his voice.
+
+The Spaniard re-appears instantly.  "Why that name, senor, of all
+others?" asks he in a cool, stern voice.
+
+"Because we call men cowards in England, who leave their wives to
+be burnt alive by priests."
+
+The moment the words had passed Amyas's lips, he felt that they
+were cruel and unjust.  But it was too late to recall them.  The
+Spaniard started, clutched his sword-hilt, and then hissed back
+through his closed vizor,--
+
+"For that word, sirrah, you hang at my yardarm, if Saint Mary gives
+me grace."
+
+"See that your halter be a silken one, then," laughed Amyas, "for I
+am just dubbed knight."  And he stepped down as a storm of bullets
+rang through the rigging round his head; the Spaniards are not as
+punctilious as he.
+
+"Fire!"  His ordnance crash through the stern-works of the
+Spaniard; and then he sails onward, while her balls go humming
+harmlessly through his rigging.
+
+Half-an-hour has passed of wild noise and fury; three times has the
+Vengeance, as a dolphin might, sailed clean round and round the
+Sta. Catharina, pouring in broadside after broadside, till the guns
+are leaping to the deck-beams with their own heat, and the
+Spaniard's sides are slit and spotted in a hundred places.  And
+yet, so high has been his fire in return, and so strong the deck
+defences of the Vengeance, that a few spars broken, and two or
+three men wounded by musketry, are all her loss.  But still the
+Spaniard endures, magnificent as ever; it is the battle of the
+thresher and the whale; the end is certain, but the work is long.
+
+"Can I help you, Captain Leigh?" asked Lord Henry Seymour, as he
+passes within oar's length of him, to attack a ship ahead.  "The
+San Matthew has had his dinner, and is gone on to Medina to ask for
+a digestive to it."
+
+"I thank your lordship: but this is my private quarrel, of which I
+spoke.  But if your lordship could lend me powder--"
+
+"Would that I could!  But so, I fear, says every other gentleman in
+the fleet."
+
+A puff of wind clears away the sulphurous veil for a moment; the
+sea is clear of ships towards the land; the Spanish fleet are
+moving again up Channel, Medina bringing up the rear; only some two
+miles to their right hand, the vast hull of the San Philip is
+drifting up the shore with the tide, and somewhat nearer the San
+Matthew is hard at work at her pumps.  They can see the white
+stream of water pouring down her side.
+
+"Go in, my lord, and have the pair," shouts Amyas.
+
+"No, sir!  Forward is a Seymour's cry.  We will leave them to pay
+the Flushingers' expenses.  And on went Lord Henry, and on shore
+went the San Philip at Ostend, to be plundered by the Flushingers;
+while the San Matthew, whose captain, "on a hault courage," had
+refused to save himself and his gentlemen on board Medina's ship,
+went blundering miserably into the hungry mouths of Captain Peter
+Vanderduess and four other valiant Dutchmen, who, like prudent men
+of Holland, contrived to keep the galleon afloat till they had
+emptied her, and then "hung up her banner in the great church of
+Leyden, being of such a length, that being fastened to the roof, it
+reached unto the very ground."
+
+But in the meanwhile, long ere the sun had set, comes down the
+darkness of the thunderstorm, attracted, as to a volcano's mouth,
+to that vast mass of sulphur-smoke which cloaks the sea for many a
+mile; and heaven's artillery above makes answer to man's below.
+But still, through smoke and rain, Amyas clings to his prey.  She
+too has seen the northward movement of the Spanish fleet, and sets
+her topsails; Amyas calls to the men to fire high, and cripple her
+rigging: but in vain: for three or four belated galleys, having
+forced their way at last over the shallows, come flashing and
+sputtering up to the combatants, and take his fire off the galleon.
+Amyas grinds his teeth, and would fain hustle into the thick of the
+press once more, in spite of the galleys' beaks.
+
+"Most heroical captain," says cary, pulling a long face, "if we do,
+we are stove and sunk in five minutes; not to mention that Yeo says
+he has not twenty rounds of great cartridge left."
+
+So, surely and silent, the Vengeance sheers off, but keeps as near
+as she can to the little squadron, all through the night of rain
+and thunder which follows.  Next morning the sun rises on a clear
+sky, with a strong west-north-west breeze, and all hearts are
+asking what the day will bring forth.
+
+They are long past Dunkirk now; the German Ocean is opening before
+them.  The Spaniards, sorely battered, and lessened in numbers,
+have, during the night, regained some sort of order.  The English
+hang on their skirts a mile or two behind.  They have no
+ammunition, and must wait for more.  To Amyas's great disgust, the
+Sta. Catharina has rejoined her fellows during the night.
+
+"Never mind," says Cary; "she can neither dive nor fly, and as long
+as she is above water, we--  What is the admiral about?"
+
+He is signalling Lord Henry Seymour and his squadron.  Soon they
+tack, and come down the wind for the coast of Flanders.  Parma must
+be blockaded still; and the Hollanders are likely to be too busy
+with their plunder to do it effectually.  Suddenly there is a stir
+in the Spanish fleet.  Medina and the rearmost ships turn upon the
+English.  What can it mean?  Will they offer battle once more?  If
+so, it were best to get out of their way, for we have nothing
+wherewith to fight them.  So the English lie close to the wind.
+They will let them pass, and return to their old tactic of
+following and harassing.
+
+"Good-bye to Seymour," says Cary, "if he is caught between them and
+Parma's flotilla.  They are going to Dunkirk."
+
+"Impossible!  They will not have water enough to reach his light
+craft.  Here comes a big ship right upon us!  Give him all you have
+left, lads; and if he will fight us, lay him alongside, and die
+boarding."
+
+They gave him what they had, and hulled him with every shot; but
+his huge side stood silent as the grave.  He had not wherewithal to
+return the compliment.
+
+"As I live, he is cutting loose the foot of his mainsail! the
+villain means to run."
+
+"There go the rest of them! Victoria!" shouted Cary, as one after
+another, every Spaniard set all the sail he could.
+
+There was silence for a few minutes throughout the English fleet;
+and then cheer upon cheer of triumph rent the skies.  It was over.
+The Spaniard had refused battle, and thinking only of safety, was
+pressing downward toward the Straits again.  The Invincible Armada
+had cast away its name, and England was saved.
+
+"But he will never get there, sir," said old Yeo, who had come upon
+deck to murmur his Nunc Domine, and gaze upon that sight beyond all
+human faith or hope: "Never, never will he weather the Flanders
+shore, against such a breeze as is coming up.  Look to the eye of
+the wind, sir, and see how the Lord is fighting for His people!"
+
+Yes, down it came, fresher and stiffer every minute out of the gray
+north-west, as it does so often after a thunder-storm; and the sea
+began to rise high and white under the " Claro Aquilone," till the
+Spaniards were fain to take in all spare canvas, and lie-to as best
+they could; while the English fleet, lying-to also, awaited an
+event which was in God's hands and not in theirs.
+
+"They will be all ashore on Zealand before the afternoon," murmured
+Amyas; "and I have lost my labor!  Oh, for powder, powder, powder!
+to go in and finish it at once!"
+
+"Oh, sir," said Yeo, "don't murmur against the Lord in the very day
+of His mercies.  It is hard, to be sure; but His will be done."
+
+"Could we not borrow powder from Drake there?"
+
+"Look at the sea, sir!"
+
+And, indeed, the sea was far too rough for any such attempt.  The
+Spaniards neared and neared the fatal dunes, which fringed the
+shore for many a dreary mile; and Amyas had to wait weary hours,
+growling like a dog who has had the bone snatched out of his mouth,
+till the day wore on; when, behold, the wind began to fall as
+rapidly as it had risen.  A savage joy rose in Amyas's heart.
+
+"They are safe! safe for us!  Who will go and beg us powder?  A
+cartridge here and a cartridge there?--anything to set to work
+again!"
+
+Cary volunteered, and returned in a couple of hours with some
+quantity: but he was on board again only just in time, for the
+south-wester had recovered the mastery of the skies, and Spaniards
+and English were moving away; but this time northward.  Whither
+now?  To Scotland?  Amyas knew not, and cared not, provided he was
+in the company of Don Guzman de Soto.
+
+The Armada was defeated, and England saved.  But such great
+undertakings seldom end in one grand melodramatic explosion of
+fireworks, through which the devil arises in full roar to drag Dr.
+Faustus forever into the flaming pit.  On the contrary, the devil
+stands by his servants to the last, and tries to bring off his
+shattered forces with drums beating and colors flying; and, if
+possible, to lull his enemies into supposing that the fight is
+ended, long before it really is half over.  All which the good Lord
+Howard of Effingham knew well, and knew, too, that Medina had one
+last card to play, and that was the filial affection of that
+dutiful and chivalrous son, James of Scotland.  True, he had
+promised faith to Elizabeth: but that was no reason why he should
+keep it.  He had been hankering and dabbling after Spain for years
+past, for its absolution was dear to his inmost soul; and Queen
+Elizabeth had had to warn him, scold him, call him a liar, for so
+doing; so the Armada might still find shelter and provision in the
+Firth of Forth.  But whether Lord Howard knew or not, Medina did
+not know, that Elizabeth had played her card cunningly, in the
+shape of one of those appeals to the purse, which, to James's dying
+day, overweighed all others save appeals to his vanity.  "The title
+of a dukedom in England, a yearly pension of 5000 pounds, a guard
+at the queen's charge, and other matters" (probably more hounds and
+deer), had steeled the heart of the King of Scots, and sealed the
+Firth of Forth.  Nevertheless, as I say, Lord Howard, like the rest
+of Elizabeth's heroes, trusted James just as much as James trusted
+others; and therefore thought good to escort the Armada until it
+was safely past the domains of that most chivalrous and truthful
+Solomon.  But on the 4th of August, his fears, such as they were,
+were laid to rest.  The Spaniards left the Scottish coast and
+sailed away for Norway; and the game was played out, and the end
+was come, as the end of such matters generally comes, by gradual
+decay, petty disaster, and mistake; till the snow-mountain, instead
+of being blown tragically and heroically to atoms, melts helplessly
+and pitiably away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA
+
+
+"Full fathom deep thy father lies;
+   Of his bones are corals made;
+Those are pearls which were his eyes;
+   Nothing of him that doth fade,
+But doth suffer a sea-change
+   Into something rich and strange;
+Fairies hourly ring his knell,
+Hark! I hear them.  Ding dong bell."
+
+                       The Tempest.
+
+
+Yes, it is over; and the great Armada is vanquished.  It is lulled
+for awhile, the everlasting war which is in heaven, the battle of
+Iran and Turan, of the children of light and of darkness, of
+Michael and his angels against Satan and his fiends; the battle
+which slowly and seldom, once in the course of many centuries,
+culminates and ripens into a day of judgment, and becomes palpable
+and incarnate; no longer a mere spiritual fight, but one of flesh
+and blood, wherein simple men may choose their sides without
+mistake, and help God's cause not merely with prayer and pen, but
+with sharp shot and cold steel.  A day of judgment has come, which
+has divided the light from the darkness, and the sheep from the
+goats, and tried each man's work by the fire; and, behold, the
+devil's work, like its maker, is proved to have been, as always, a
+lie and a sham, and a windy boast, a bladder which collapses at the
+merest pinprick.  Byzantine empires, Spanish Armadas, triple-
+crowned papacies, Russian despotisms, this is the way of them, and
+will be to the end of the world.  One brave blow at the big
+bullying phantom, and it vanishes in sulphur-stench; while the
+children of Israel, as of old, see the Egyptians dead on the sea-
+shore,--they scarce know how, save that God has done it, and sing
+the song of Moses and of the Lamb.
+
+And now, from England and the Netherlands, from Germany and Geneva,
+and those poor Vaudois shepherd-saints, whose bones for generations
+past
+
+
+     "Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;"
+
+
+to be, indeed, the seed of the Church, and a germ of new life,
+liberty, and civilization, even in these very days returning good
+for evil to that Piedmont which has hunted them down like the
+partridges on the mountains;--from all of Europe, from all of
+mankind, I had almost said, in which lay the seed of future virtue
+and greatness, of the destinies of the new-discovered world, and
+the triumphs of the coming age of science, arose a shout of holy
+joy, such as the world had not heard for many a weary and bloody
+century; a shout which was the prophetic birth-paean of North
+America, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, of free
+commerce and free colonization over the whole earth.
+
+"There was in England, by the commandment of her majesty," says Van
+Meteran, "and likewise in the United Provinces, by the direction of
+the States, a solemn festival day publicly appointed, wherein all
+persons were solemnly enjoined to resort unto ye Church, and there
+to render thanks and praises unto God, and ye preachers were
+commanded to exhort ye people thereunto.  The aforesaid solemnity
+was observed upon the 29th of November: which day was wholly spent
+in fasting, prayer, and giving of thanks.
+
+"Likewise the Queen's Majesty herself, imitating ye ancient Romans,
+rode into London in triumph, in regard of her own and her subjects'
+glorious deliverance.  For being attended upon very solemnly by all
+ye principal Estates and officers of her Realm, she was carried
+through her said City of London in a triumphant Chariot, and in
+robes of triumph, from her Palace unto ye said Cathedral Church of
+St. Paul, out of ye which ye Ensigns and Colours of ye vanquished
+Spaniards hung displayed.  And all ye Citizens of London, in their
+liveries, stood on either side ye street, by their several
+Companies, with their ensigns and banners, and the streets were
+hanged on both sides with blue Cloth, which, together with ye
+foresaid banners, yielded a very stately and gallant prospect.  Her
+Majestie being entered into ye Church together with her Clergy and
+Nobles, gave thanks unto God, and caused a public Sermon to be
+preached before her at Paul's Cross; wherein none other argument
+was handled, but that praise, honour, and glory might be rendered
+unto God, and that God's Name might be extolled by thanksgiving.
+And with her own princely voice she most Christianly exhorted ye
+people to do ye same; whereunto ye people, with a loud acclamation,
+wished her a most long and happy life to ye confusion of her foes."
+
+Yes, as the medals struck on the occasion said, "It came, it saw,
+and it fled!"  And whither?  Away and northward, like a herd of
+frightened deer, past the Orkneys and Shetlands, catching up a few
+hapless fishermen as guides; past the coast of Norway, there, too,
+refused water and food by the brave descendants of the Vikings; and
+on northward ever towards the lonely Faroes, and the everlasting
+dawn which heralds round the Pole the midnight sun.
+
+Their water is failing; the cattle must go overboard; and the wild
+northern sea echoes to the shrieks of drowning horses.  They must
+homeward at least, somehow, each as best he can.  Let them meet
+again at Cape Finisterre, if indeed they ever meet.  Medina
+Sidonia, with some five-and twenty of the soundest and best
+victualled ships, will lead the way, and leave the rest to their
+fate.  He is soon out of sight; and forty more, the only remnant of
+that mighty host, come wandering wearily behind, hoping to make the
+south-west coast of Ireland, and have help, or, at least, fresh
+water there, from their fellow Romanists.  Alas for them!--
+
+
+     "Make Thou their way dark and slippery,
+      And follow them up ever with Thy storm."
+
+
+For now comes up from the Atlantic, gale on gale; and few of that
+hapless remnant reached the shores of Spain.
+
+And where are Amyas and the Vengeance all this while?
+
+At the fifty-seventh degree of latitude, the English fleet, finding
+themselves growing short of provision, and having been long since
+out of powder and ball, turn southward toward home, "thinking it
+best to leave the Spaniard to those uncouth and boisterous northern
+seas."  A few pinnaces are still sent onward to watch their course:
+and the English fleet, caught in the same storms which scattered
+the Spaniards, "with great danger and industry reached Harwich
+port, and there provide themselves of victuals and ammunition," in
+case the Spaniards should return; but there is no need for that
+caution.  Parma, indeed, who cannot believe that the idol at Halle,
+after all his compliments to it, will play him so scurvy a trick,
+will watch for weeks on Dunkirk dunes, hoping against hope for the
+Armada's return, casting anchors, and spinning rigging to repair
+their losses.
+
+
+     "But lang, lang may his ladies sit,
+        With their fans intill their hand,
+      Before they see Sir Patrick Spens
+        Come sailing to the land."
+
+
+The Armada is away on the other side of Scotland, and Amyas is
+following in its wake.
+
+For when the lord high admiral determined to return, Amyas asked
+leave to follow the Spaniard; and asked, too, of Sir John Hawkins,
+who happened to be at hand, such ammunition and provision as could
+be afforded him, promising to repay the same like an honest man,
+out of his plunder if he lived, out of his estate if he died;
+lodging for that purpose bills in the hands of Sir John, who, as a
+man of business, took them, and put them in his pocket among the
+thimbles, string, and tobacco; after which Amyas, calling his men
+together, reminded them once more of the story of the Rose of
+Torridge and Don Guzman de Soto, and then asked:
+
+"Men of Bideford, will you follow me?  There will be plunder for
+those who love plunder; revenge for those who love revenge; and for
+all of us (for we all love honor) the honor of having never left
+the chase as long as there was a Spanish flag in English seas."
+
+And every soul on board replied, that they would follow Sir Amyas
+Leigh around the world.
+
+There is no need for me to detail every incident of that long and
+weary chase; how they found the Sta. Catharina, attacked her, and
+had to sheer off, she being rescued by the rest; how when Medina's
+squadron left the crippled ships behind, they were all but taken or
+sunk, by thrusting into the midst of the Spanish fleet to prevent
+her escaping with Medina; how they crippled her, so that she could
+not beat to windward out into the ocean, but was fain to run south,
+past the Orkneys, and down through the Minch, between Cape Wrath
+and Lewis; how the younger hands were ready to mutiny, because
+Amyas, in his stubborn haste, ran past two or three noble prizes
+which were all but disabled, among others one of the great
+galliasses, and the two great Venetians, La Ratta and La Belanzara--
+which were afterwards, with more than thirty other vessels,
+wrecked on the west coast of Ireland; how he got fresh water, in
+spite of certain "Hebridean Scots" of Skye, who, after reviling him
+in an unknown tongue, fought with him awhile, and then embraced him
+and his men with howls of affection, and were not much more
+decently clad, nor more civilized, than his old friends of
+California; how he pacified his men by letting them pick the bones
+of a great Venetian which was going on shore upon Islay (by which
+they got booty enough to repay them for the whole voyage), and
+offended them again by refusing to land and plunder two great
+Spanish wrecks on the Mull of Cantire (whose crews, by the by,
+James tried to smuggle off secretly into Spain in ships of his own,
+wishing to play, as usual, both sides of the game at once; but the
+Spaniards were stopped at Yarmouth till the council's pleasure was
+known--which was, of course, to let the poor wretches go on their
+way, and be hanged elsewhere); how they passed a strange island,
+half black, half white, which the wild people called Raghary, but
+Cary christened it "the drowned magpie;" how the Sta. Catharina was
+near lost on the Isle of Man, and then put into Castleton (where
+the Manx-men slew a whole boat's-crew with their arrows), and then
+put out again, when Amyas fought with her a whole day, and shot
+away her mainyard; how the Spaniard blundered down the coast of
+Wales, not knowing whither he went; how they were both nearly lost
+on Holyhead, and again on Bardsey Island; how they got on a lee
+shore in Cardigan Bay, before a heavy westerly gale, and the Sta.
+Catharina ran aground on Sarn David, one of those strange
+subaqueous pebble-dykes which are said to be the remnants of the
+lost land of Gwalior, destroyed by the carelessness of Prince
+Seithenin the drunkard, at whose name each loyal Welshman spits;
+how she got off again at the rising of the tide, and fought with
+Amyas a fourth time; how the wind changed, and she got round St.
+David's Head;--these, and many more moving incidents of this
+eventful voyage, I must pass over without details, and go on to the
+end; for it is time that the end should come.
+
+It was now the sixteenth day of the chase.  They had seen, the
+evening before, St. David's Head, and then the Welsh coast round
+Milford Haven, looming out black and sharp before the blaze of the
+inland thunder-storm; and it had lightened all round them during
+the fore part of the night, upon a light south-western breeze.
+
+In vain they had strained their eyes through the darkness, to
+catch, by the fitful glare of the flashes, the tall masts of the
+Spaniard.  Of one thing at least they were certain, that with the
+wind as it was, she could not have gone far to the westward; and to
+attempt to pass them again, and go northward, was more than she
+dare do.  She was probably lying-to ahead of them, perhaps between
+them and the land; and when, a little after midnight, the wind
+chopped up to the west, and blew stiffly till day break, they felt
+sure that, unless she had attempted the desperate expedient of
+running past them, they had her safe in the mouth of the Bristol
+Channel.  Slowly and wearily broke the dawn, on such a day as often
+follows heavy thunder; a sunless, drizzly day, roofed with low
+dingy cloud, barred and netted, and festooned with black, a sign
+that the storm is only taking breath awhile before it bursts again;
+while all the narrow horizon is dim and spongy with vapor drifting
+before a chilly breeze.  As the day went on, the breeze died down,
+and the sea fell to a long glassy foam-flecked roll, while overhead
+brooded the inky sky, and round them the leaden mist shut out alike
+the shore and the chase.
+
+Amyas paced the sloppy deck fretfully and fiercely.  He knew that
+the Spaniard could not escape; but he cursed every moment which
+lingered between him and that one great revenge which blackened all
+his soul.  The men sate sulkily about the deck, and whistled for a
+wind; the sails flapped idly against the masts; and the ship rolled
+in the long troughs of the sea, till her yard-arms almost dipped
+right and left.
+
+"Take care of those guns.  You will have something loose next,"
+growled Amyas.
+
+"We will take care of the guns, if the Lord will take care of the
+wind," said Yeo.
+
+"We shall have plenty before night," said Cary, "and thunder too."
+
+"So much the better," said Amyas.  "It may roar till it splits the
+heavens, if it does but let me get my work done."
+
+"He's not far off, I warrant," said Cary.  "One lift of the cloud,
+and we should see him."
+
+"To windward of us, as likely as not," said Amyas.  "The devil
+fights for him, I believe.  To have been on his heels sixteen days,
+and not sent this through him yet!"  And he shook his sword
+impatiently.
+
+So the morning wore away, without a sign of living thing, not even
+a passing gull; and the black melancholy of the heaven reflected
+itself in the black melancholy of Amyas.  Was he to lose his prey
+after all?  The thought made him shudder with rage and
+disappointment.  It was intolerable.  Anything but that.
+
+"No, God!" he cried, "let me but once feel this in his accursed
+heart, and then--strike me dead, if Thou wilt!"
+
+"The Lord have mercy on us," cried John Brimblecombe.  "What have
+you said?"
+
+"What is that to you, sir?  There, they are piping to dinner.  Go
+down.  I shall not come."
+
+And Jack went down, and talked in a half-terrified whisper of
+Amyas's ominous words.
+
+All thought that they portended some bad luck, except old Yeo.
+
+"Well, Sir John," said he, "and why not?  What better can the Lord
+do for a man, than take him home when he has done his work?  Our
+captain is wilful and spiteful, and must needs kill his man
+himself; while for me, I don't care how the Don goes, provided he
+does go.  I owe him no grudge, nor any man.  May the Lord give him
+repentance, and forgive him all his sins: but if I could but see
+him once safe ashore, as he may be ere nightfall, on the Mortestone
+or the back of Lundy, I would say, 'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy
+servant depart in peace,' even if it were the lightning which was
+sent to fetch me."
+
+"But, master Yeo, a sudden death?"
+
+"And why not a sudden death, Sir John?  Even fools long for a short
+life and a merry one, and shall not the Lord's people pray for a
+short death and a merry one?  Let it come as it will to old Yeo.
+Hark! there's the captain's voice!"
+
+"Here she is!" thundered Amyas from the deck; and in an instant all
+were scrambling up the hatchway as fast as the frantic rolling of
+the ship would let them.
+
+Yes.  There she was.  The cloud had lifted suddenly, and to the
+south a ragged bore of blue sky let a long stream of sunshine down
+on her tall masts and stately hull, as she lay rolling some four or
+five miles to the eastward: but as for land, none was to be seen.
+
+"There she is; and here we are," said Cary; "but where is here? and
+where is there?  How is the tide, master?"
+
+"Running up Channel by this time, sir."
+
+"What matters the tide?" said Amyas, devouring the ship with
+terrible and cold blue eyes.  "Can't we get at her?"
+
+"Not unless some one jumps out and shoves behind," said Cary.  "I
+shall down again and finish that mackerel, if this roll has not
+chucked it to the cockroaches under the table."
+
+"Don't jest, Will!  I can't stand it," said Amyas, in a voice which
+quivered so much that Cary looked at him.  His whole frame was
+trembling like an aspen.  Cary took his arm, and drew him aside.
+
+"Dear old lad," said he, as they leaned over the bulwarks, "what is
+this?  You are not yourself, and have not been these four days."
+
+"No.  I am not Amyas Leigh.  I am my brother's avenger.  Do not
+reason with me, Will: when it is over I shall be merry old Amyas
+again," and he passed his hand over his brow.
+
+"Do you believe," said he, after a moment, "that men can be
+possessed by devils?"
+
+"The Bible says so."
+
+"If my cause were not a just one, I should fancy I had a devil in
+me.  My throat and heart are as hot as the pit.  Would to God it
+were done, for done it must be!  Now go."
+
+Cary went away with a shudder.  As he passed down the hatchway he
+looked back.  Amyas had got the hone out of his pocket, and was
+whetting away again at his sword-edge, as if there was some
+dreadful doom on him, to whet, and whet forever.
+
+The weary day wore on.  The strip of blue sky was curtained over
+again, and all was dismal as before, though it grew sultrier every
+moment; and now and then a distant mutter shook the air to
+westward.  Nothing could be done to lessen the distance between the
+ships, for the Vengeance had had all her boats carried away but
+one, and that was much too small to tow her: and while the men went
+down again to finish dinner, Amyas worked on at his sword, looking
+up every now and then suddenly at the Spaniard, as if to satisfy
+himself that it was not a vision which had vanished.
+
+About two Yeo came up to him.
+
+"He is ours safely now, sir.  The tide has been running to the
+eastward for this two hours."
+
+"Safe as a fox in a trap.  Satan himself cannot take him from us!"
+
+"But God may," said Brimblecombe, simply.
+
+"Who spoke to you, sir?  If I thought that He--  There comes the
+thunder at last!"
+
+And as he spoke an angry growl from the westward heavens seemed to
+answer his wild words, and rolled and loudened nearer and nearer,
+till right over their heads it crashed against some cloud-cliff far
+above, and all was still.
+
+Each man looked in the other's face: but Amyas was unmoved.
+
+"The storm is coming," said he, "and the wind in it.  It will be
+Eastward-ho now, for once, my merry men all!"
+
+"Eastward-ho never brought us luck," said Jack in an undertone to
+Cary.  But by this time all eyes were turned to the north-west,
+where a black line along the horizon began to define the boundary
+of sea and air, till now all dim in mist.
+
+"There comes the breeze."
+
+"And there the storm, too."
+
+And with that strangely accelerating pace which some storms seem to
+possess, the thunder, which had been growling slow and seldom far
+away, now rang peal on peal along the cloudy floor above their
+heads.
+
+"Here comes the breeze.  Round with the yards, or we shall be taken
+aback."
+
+The yards creaked round; the sea grew crisp around them; the hot
+air swept their cheeks, tightened every rope, filled every sail,
+bent her over.  A cheer burst from the men as the helm went up, and
+they staggered away before the wind, right down upon the Spaniard,
+who lay still becalmed.
+
+"There is more behind, Amyas," said Cary.  "Shall we not shorten
+sail a little?"
+
+"No.  Hold on every stitch," said Amyas.  "Give me the helm, man.
+Boatswain, pipe away to clear for fight."
+
+It was done, and in ten minutes the men were all at quarters, while
+the thunder rolled louder and louder overhead, and the breeze
+freshened fast.
+
+"The dog has it now.  There he goes!" said Cary.
+
+"Right before the wind.  He has no liking to face us."
+
+"He is running into the jaws of destruction," said Yeo.  "An hour
+more will send him either right up the Channel, or smack on shore
+somewhere."
+
+"There! he has put his helm down.  I wonder if he sees land?"
+
+"He is like a March hare beat out of his country," said Cary, "and
+don't know whither to run next."
+
+Cary was right.  In ten minutes more the Spaniard fell off again,
+and went away dead down wind, while the Vengeance gained on him
+fast.  After two hours more, the four miles had diminished to one,
+while the lightning flashed nearer and nearer as the storm came up;
+and from the vast mouth of a black cloud-arch poured so fierce a
+breeze that Amyas yielded unwillingly to hints which were growing
+into open murmurs, and bade shorten sail.
+
+On they rushed with scarcely lessened speed, the black arch
+following fast, curtained by the flat gray sheet of pouring rain,
+before which the water was boiling in a long white line; while
+every moment behind the watery veil, a keen blue spark leapt down
+into the sea, or darted zigzag through the rain.
+
+"We shall have it now, and with a vengeance; this will try your
+tackle, master," said Cary.
+
+The functionary answered with a shrug, and turned up the collar of
+his rough frock, as the first drops flew stinging round his ears.
+Another minute and the squall burst full upon them, in rain, which
+cut like hail--hail which lashed the sea into froth, and wind which
+whirled off the heads of the surges, and swept the waters into one
+white seething waste.  And above them, and behind them and before
+them, the lightning leapt and ran, dazzling and blinding, while the
+deep roar of the thunder was changed to sharp ear-piercing cracks.
+
+"Get the arms and ammunition under cover, and then below with you
+all," shouted Amyas from the helm.
+
+"And heat the pokers in the galley fire," said Yeo, "to be ready if
+the rain puts our linstocks out.  I hope you'll let me stay on
+deck, sir, in case--"
+
+"I must have some one, and who better than you?  Can you see the
+chase?"
+
+No; she was wrapped in the gray whirlwind.  She might be within
+half a mile of them, for aught they could have seen of her.
+
+And now Amyas and his old liegeman were alone.  Neither spoke; each
+knew the other's thoughts, and knew that they were his own.  The
+squall blew fiercer and fiercer, the rain poured heavier and
+heavier.  Where was the Spaniard?
+
+"If he has laid-to, we may overshoot him, sir!"
+
+"If he has tried to lay-to, he will not have a sail left in the
+bolt-ropes, or perhaps a mast on deck.  I know the stiff-neckedness
+of those Spanish tubs.  Hurrah! there he is, right on our larboard
+bow!"
+
+There she was indeed, two musket-shots' off, staggering away with
+canvas split and flying.
+
+"He has been trying to hull, sir, and caught a buffet," said Yeo,
+rubbing his hands.  "What shall we do now?"
+
+"Range alongside, if it blow live imps and witches, and try our
+luck once more.  Pah! how this lightning dazzles!"
+
+On they swept, gaining fast on the Spaniard.  "Call the men up, and
+to quarters; the rain will be over in ten minutes."
+
+Yeo ran forward to the gangway; and sprang back again, with a face
+white and wild--
+
+"Land right ahead!  Port your helm, sir!  For the love of God, port
+your helm!"
+
+Amyas, with the strength of a bull, jammed the helm down, while Yeo
+shouted to the men below.
+
+She swung round.  The masts bent like whips; crack went the fore-
+sail like a cannon.  What matter?  Within two hundred yards of them
+was the Spaniard; in front of her, and above her, a huge dark bank
+rose through the dense hail, and mingled with the clouds; and at
+its foot, plainer every moment, pillars and spouts of leaping foam.
+
+"What is it, Morte?  Hartland?"
+
+It might be anything for thirty miles.
+
+"Lundy!" said Yeo.  "The south end!  I see the head of the Shutter
+in the breakers!  Hard a-port yet, and get her close-hauled as you
+can, and the Lord may have mercy on us still!  Look at the
+Spaniard!"
+
+Yes, look at the Spaniard!
+
+On their left hand, as they broached-to, the wall of granite sloped
+down from the clouds toward an isolated peak of rock, some two
+hundred feet in height.  Then a hundred yards of roaring breaker
+upon a sunken shelf, across which the race of the tide poured like
+a cataract; then, amid a column of salt smoke, the Shutter, like a
+huge black fang, rose waiting for its prey; and between the Shutter
+and the land, the great galleon loomed dimly through the storm.
+
+He, too, had seen his danger, and tried to broach-to.  But his
+clumsy mass refused to obey the helm; he struggled a moment, half
+hid in foam; fell away again, and rushed upon his doom.
+
+"Lost! lost! lost!" cried Amyas madly, and throwing up his hands,
+let go the tiller.  Yeo caught it just in time.
+
+"Sir! sir!  What are you at?  We shall clear the rock yet."
+
+"Yes!" shouted Amyas, in his frenzy; "but he will not!"
+
+Another minute.  The galleon gave a sudden jar, and stopped.  Then
+one long heave and bound, as if to free herself.  And then her bows
+lighted clean upon the Shutter.
+
+An awful silence fell on every English soul.  They heard not the
+roaring of wind and surge; they saw not the blinding flashes of the
+lightning; but they heard one long ear-piercing wail to every saint
+in heaven rise from five hundred human throats; they saw the mighty
+ship heel over from the wind, and sweep headlong down the cataract
+of the race, plunging her yards into the foam, and showing her
+whole black side even to her keel, till she rolled clean over, and
+vanished for ever and ever.
+
+"Shame!" cried Amyas, hurling his sword far into the sea, "to lose
+my right, my right! when it was in my very grasp!  Unmerciful!"
+
+A crack which rent the sky, and made the granite ring and quiver; a
+bright world of flame, and then a blank of utter darkness, against
+which stood out, glowing red-hot every mast, and sail, and rock,
+and Salvation Yeo as he stood just in front of Amyas, the tiller in
+his hand.  All red-hot, transfigured into fire; and behind, the
+black, black night.
+
+             .     .     .     .     .     .     .
+
+A whisper, a rustling close beside him, and Brimblecombe's voice
+said softly:
+
+"Give him more wine, Will; his eyes are opening."
+
+"Hey day?" said Amyas, faintly, "not past the Shutter yet!  How
+long she hangs in the wind!"
+
+"We are long past the Shutter, Sir Amyas," said Brimblecombe.
+
+"Are you mad?  Cannot I trust my own eyes?"
+
+There was no answer for awhile.
+
+"We are past the Shutter, indeed," said Cary, very gently, "and
+lying in the cove at Lundy."
+
+"Will you tell me that that is not the Shutter, and that the
+Devil's-limekiln, and that the cliff--that villain Spaniard only
+gone--and that Yeo is not standing here by me, and Cary there
+forward, and--why, by the by, where are you, Jack Brimblecombe, who
+were talking to me this minute?"
+
+"Oh, Sir Amyas Leigh, dear Sir Amyas Leigh, blubbered poor Jack,
+"put out your hand, and feel where you are, and pray the Lord to
+forgive you for your wilfulness!"
+
+A great trembling fell upon Amyas Leigh; half fearfully he put out
+his hand; he felt that he was in his hammock, with the deck beams
+close above his head.  The vision which had been left upon his eye-
+balls vanished like a dream.
+
+"What is this?  I must be asleep?  What has happened?  Where am I?"
+
+"In your cabin, Amyas," said Cary.
+
+"What?  And where is Yeo?"
+
+"Yeo is gone where he longed to go, and as he longed to go.  The
+same flash which struck you down, struck him dead."
+
+"Dead?  Lightning?  Any more hurt?  I must go and see.  Why, what
+is this?" and Amyas passed his hand across his eyes.  "It is all
+dark--dark, as I live!"  And he passed his hand over his eyes
+again.
+
+There was another dead silence.  Amyas broke it.
+
+"Oh, God!" shrieked the great proud sea-captain, "Oh, God, I am
+blind! blind! blind!"  And writhing in his great horror, he called
+to Cary to kill him and put him out of his misery, and then wailed
+for his mother to come and help him, as if he had been a boy once
+more; while Brimblecombe and Cary, and the sailors who crowded
+round the cabin-door, wept as if they too had been boys once more.
+
+Soon his fit of frenzy passed off, and he sank back exhausted.
+
+They lifted him into their remaining boat, rowed him ashore,
+carried him painfully up the hill to the old castle, and made a bed
+for him on the floor, in the very room in which Don Guzman and Rose
+Salterne had plighted their troth to each other, five wild years
+before.
+
+Three miserable days were passed within that lonely tower.  Amyas,
+utterly unnerved by the horror of his misfortune, and by the over-
+excitement of the last few weeks, was incessantly delirious; while
+Cary, and Brimblecombe, and the men nursed him by turns, as sailors
+and wives only can nurse; and listened with awe to his piteous
+self-reproaches and entreaties to Heaven to remove that woe, which,
+as he shrieked again and again, was a just judgment on him for his
+wilfulness and ferocity.  The surgeon talked, of course, learnedly
+about melancholic humors, and his liver's being "adust by the over-
+pungency of the animal spirits," and then fell back on the
+universal panacea of blood-letting, which he effected with fear and
+trembling during a short interval of prostration; encouraged by
+which he attempted to administer a large bolus of aloes, was
+knocked down for his pains, and then thought it better to leave
+Nature to her own work.  In the meanwhile, Cary had sent off one of
+the island skiffs to Clovelly, with letters to his father, and to
+Mrs. Leigh, entreating the latter to come off to the island: but
+the heavy westerly winds made that as impossible as it was to move
+Amyas on board, and the men had to do their best, and did it well
+enough.
+
+On the fourth day his raving ceased: but he was still too weak to
+be moved.  Toward noon, however, he called for food, ate a little,
+and seemed revived.
+
+"Will," he said, after awhile, "this room is as stifling as it is
+dark.  I feel as if I should be a sound man once more if I could
+but get one snuff of the sea-breeze."
+
+The surgeon shook his head at the notion of moving him: but Amyas
+was peremptory.
+
+"I am captain still, Tom Surgeon, and will sail for the Indies, if
+I choose.  Will Cary, Jack Brimblecombe, will you obey a blind
+general?"
+
+"What you will in reason," said they both at once.
+
+"Then lead me out, my masters, and over the down to the south end.
+To the point at the south end I must go; there is no other place
+will suit."
+
+And he rose firmly to his feet, and held out his hands for theirs.
+
+"Let him have his humor," whispered Cary.  "It may be the working
+off of his madness."
+
+"This sudden strength is a note of fresh fever, Mr. Lieutenant,"
+said the surgeon, "and the rules of the art prescribe rather a
+fresh blood-letting."
+
+Amyas overheard the last word, and broke out:
+
+"Thou pig-sticking Philistine, wilt thou make sport with blind
+Samson?  Come near me to let blood from my arm, and see if I do not
+let blood from thy coxcomb.  Catch him, Will, and bring him me
+here!"
+
+The surgeon vanished as the blind giant made a step forward; and
+they set forth, Amyas walking slowly, but firmly, between his two
+friends.
+
+"Whither?" asked Cary.
+
+"To the south end.  The crag above the Devil's-limekiln.  No other
+place will suit."
+
+Jack gave a murmur, and half-stopped, as a frightful suspicion
+crossed him.
+
+"That is a dangerous place!"
+
+"What of that?" said Amyas, who caught his meaning in his tone.
+"Dost think I am going to leap over cliff?  I have not heart enough
+for that.  On, lads, and set me safe among the rocks."
+
+So slowly, and painfully, they went on, while Amyas murmured to
+himself:
+
+"No, no other place will suit; I can see all thence."
+
+So on they went to the point, where the cyclopean wall of granite
+cliff which forms the western side of Lundy, ends sheer in a
+precipice of some three hundred feet, topped by a pile of snow-
+white rock, bespangled with golden lichens.  As they approached, a
+raven, who sat upon the topmost stone, black against the bright
+blue sky, flapped lazily away, and sank down the abysses of the
+cliff, as if he scented the corpses underneath the surge.  Below
+them from the Gull-rock rose a thousand birds, and filled the air
+with sound; the choughs cackled, the hacklets wailed, the great
+blackbacks laughed querulous defiance at the intruders, and a
+single falcon, with an angry bark, dashed out from beneath their
+feet, and hung poised high aloft, watching the sea-fowl which swung
+slowly round and round below.
+
+It was a glorious sight upon a glorious day.  To the northward the
+glens rushed down toward the cliff, crowned with gray crags, and
+carpeted with purple heather and green fern; and from their feet
+stretched away to the westward the sapphire rollers of the vast
+Atlantic, crowned with a thousand crests of flying foam.  On their
+left hand, some ten miles to the south, stood out against the sky
+the purple wall of Hartland cliffs, sinking lower and lower as they
+trended away to the southward along the lonely ironbound shores of
+Cornwall, until they faded, dim and blue, into the blue horizon
+forty miles away.
+
+The sky was flecked with clouds, which rushed toward them fast upon
+the roaring south-west wind; and the warm ocean-breeze swept up the
+cliffs, and whistled through the heather-bells, and howled in
+cranny and in crag,
+
+
+     "Till the pillars and clefts of the granite
+        Rang like a God-swept lyre;"
+
+
+while Amyas, a proud smile upon his lips, stood breasting that
+genial stream of airy wine with swelling nostrils and fast-heaving
+chest, and seemed to drink in life from every gust.  All three were
+silent for awhile; and Jack and Cary, gazing downward with delight
+upon the glory and the grandeur of the sight, forgot for awhile
+that their companion saw it not.  Yet when they started sadly, and
+looked into his face, did he not see it?  So wide and eager were
+his eyes, so bright and calm his face, that they fancied for an
+instant that he was once more even as they.
+
+A deep sigh undeceived them.  "I know it is all here--the dear old
+sea, where I would live and die.  And my eyes feel for it; feel for
+it--and cannot find it; never, never will find it again forever!
+God's will be done!"
+
+"Do you say that?" asked Brimblecombe, eagerly.
+
+"Why should I not?  Why have I been raving in hell-fire for I know
+not how many days, but to find out that, John Brimblecombe, thou
+better man than I?"
+
+"Not that last: but Amen! Amen! and the Lord has indeed had mercy
+upon thee!" said Jack, through his honest tears.
+
+"Amen!" said Amyas.  "Now set me where I can rest among the rocks
+without fear of falling--for life is sweet still, even without
+eyes, friends--and leave me to myself awhile."
+
+It was no easy matter to find a safe place; for from the foot of
+the crag the heathery turf slopes down all but upright, on one side
+to a cliff which overhangs a shoreless cove of deep dark sea, and
+on the other to an abyss even more hideous, where the solid rock
+has sunk away, and opened inland in the hillside a smooth-walled
+pit, some sixty feet square and some hundred and fifty in depth,
+aptly known then as now, as the Devil's-limekiln; the mouth of
+which, as old wives say, was once closed by the Shutter-rock
+itself, till the fiend in malice hurled it into the sea, to be a
+pest to mariners.  A narrow and untrodden cavern at the bottom
+connects it with the outer sea; they could even then hear the
+mysterious thunder and gurgle of the surge in the subterranean
+adit, as it rolled huge boulders to and fro in darkness, and forced
+before it gusts of pent-up air.  It was a spot to curdle weak
+blood, and to make weak heads reel: but all the fitter on that
+account for Amyas and his fancy.
+
+"You can sit here as in an arm-chair," said Cary, helping him down
+to one of those square natural seats so common in the granite tors.
+
+"Good; now turn my face to the Shutter.  Be sure and exact.  So.
+Do I face it full?"
+
+"Full," said Cary.
+
+"Then I need no eyes wherewith to see what is before me," said he,
+with a sad smile.  "I know every stone and every headland, and
+every wave too, I may say, far beyond aught that eye can reach.
+Now go, and leave me alone with God and with the dead!"
+
+They retired a little space and watched him.  He never stirred for
+many minutes; then leaned his elbows on his knees, and his head
+upon his hands, and so was still again.  He remained so long thus,
+that the pair became anxious, and went towards him.  He was asleep,
+and breathing quick and heavily.
+
+"He will take a fever," said Brimblecombe, "if he sleeps much
+longer with his head down in the sunshine."
+
+"We must wake him gently if we wake him at all."  And Cary moved
+forward to him.
+
+As he did so, Amyas lifted his head, and turning it to right and
+left, felt round him with his sightless eyes.
+
+"You have been asleep, Amyas."
+
+"Have I?  I have not slept back my eyes, then.  Take up this great
+useless carcase of mine, and lead me home.  I shall buy me a dog
+when I get to Burrough, I think, and make him tow me in a string,
+eh?  So!  Give me your hand.  Now march!"
+
+His guides heard with surprise this new cheerfulness.
+
+"Thank God, sir, that your heart is so light already," said good
+Jack; "it makes me feel quite upraised myself, like."
+
+"I have reason to be cheerful, Sir John; I have left a heavy load
+behind me.  I have been wilful, and proud, and a blasphemer, and
+swollen with cruelty and pride; and God has brought me low for it,
+and cut me off from my evil delight.  No more Spaniard-hunting for
+me now, my masters.  God will send no such fools as I upon His
+errands."
+
+"You do not repent of fighting the Spaniards."
+
+"Not I: but of hating even the worst of them.  Listen to me, Will
+and Jack.  If that man wronged me, I wronged him likewise.  I have
+been a fiend when I thought myself the grandest of men, yea, a very
+avenging angel out of heaven.  But God has shown me my sin, and we
+have made up our quarrel forever."
+
+"Made it up?"
+
+"Made it up, thank God.  But I am weary.  Set me down awhile, and I
+will tell you how it befell."
+
+Wondering, they set him down upon the heather, while the bees
+hummed round them in the sun; and Amyas felt for a hand of each,
+and clasped it in his own hand, and began:
+
+"When you left me there upon the rock, lads, I looked away and out
+to sea, to get one last snuff of the merry sea-breeze, which will
+never sail me again.  And as I looked, I tell you truth, I could
+see the water and the sky; as plain as ever I saw them, till I
+thought my sight was come again.  But soon I knew it was not so;
+for I saw more than man could see; right over the ocean, as I live,
+and away to the Spanish Main.  And I saw Barbados, and Grenada, and
+all the isles that we ever sailed by; and La Guayra in Caracas, and
+the Silla, and the house beneath it where she lived.  And I saw him
+walking with her on the barbecue, and he loved her then.  I saw
+what I saw; and he loved her; and I say he loves her still.
+
+"Then I saw the cliffs beneath me, and the Gull-rock, and the
+Shutter, and the Ledge; I saw them, William Cary, and the weeds
+beneath the merry blue sea.  And I saw the grand old galleon, Will;
+she has righted with the sweeping of the tide.  She lies in fifteen
+fathoms, at the edge of the rocks, upon the sand; and her men are
+all lying around her, asleep until the judgment-day."
+
+Cary and Jack looked at him, and then at each other.  His eyes were
+clear, and bright, and full of meaning; and yet they knew that he
+was blind.  His voice was shaping itself into a song.  Was he
+inspired?  Insane?  What was it?  And they listened with awe-struck
+faces, as the giant pointed down into the blue depths far below,
+and went on.
+
+"And I saw him sitting in his cabin, like a valiant gentleman of
+Spain; and his officers were sitting round him, with their swords
+upon the table at the wine.  And the prawns and the crayfish and
+the rockling, they swam in and out above their heads: but Don
+Guzman he never heeded, but sat still, and drank his wine.  Then he
+took a locket from his bosom; and I heard him speak, Will, and he
+said: 'Here's the picture of my fair and true lady; drink to her,
+senors all.'  Then he spoke to me, Will, and called me, right up
+through the oar-weed and the sea: 'We have had a fair quarrel,
+senor; it is time to be friends once more.  My wife and your
+brother have forgiven me; so your honor takes no stain.'  And I
+answered, 'We are friends, Don Guzman; God has judged our quarrel
+and not we.'  Then he said, 'I sinned, and I am punished.'  And I
+said, 'And, senor, so am I.'  Then he held out his hand to me,
+Cary; and I stooped to take it, and awoke."
+
+He ceased: and they looked in his face again.  It was exhausted,
+but clear and gentle, like the face of a new-born babe.  Gradually
+his head dropped upon his breast again; he was either swooning or
+sleeping, and they had much ado to get him home.  There he lay for
+eight-and-forty hours, in a quiet doze; then arose suddenly, called
+for food, ate heartily, and seemed, saving his eyesight, as whole
+and sound as ever.  The surgeon bade them get him home to Northam
+as soon as possible, and he was willing enough to go.  So the next
+day the Vengeance sailed, leaving behind a dozen men to seize and
+keep in the queen's name any goods which should be washed up from
+the wreck.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+HOW AMYAS LET THE APPLE FALL
+
+
+"Would you hear a Spanish lady,
+   How she woo'd an Englishman?
+Garments gay and rich as may be,
+   Deck'd with jewels had she on."
+
+              Elizabethan Ballad.
+
+
+It was the first of October.  The morning was bright and still; the
+skies were dappled modestly from east to west with soft gray autumn
+cloud, as if all heaven and earth were resting after those fearful
+summer months of battle and of storm.  Silently, as if ashamed and
+sad, the Vengeance slid over the bar, and passed the sleeping sand-
+hills and dropped her anchor off Appledore, with her flag floating
+half-mast high; for the corpse of Salvation Yeo was on board.
+
+A boat pulled off from the ship, and away to the western end of the
+strand; and Cary and Brimblecombe helped out Amyas Leigh, and led
+him slowly up the hill toward his home.
+
+The crowd clustered round him, with cheers and blessings, and sobs
+of pity from kind-hearted women; for all in Appledore and Bideford
+knew well by this time what had befallen him.
+
+"Spare me, my good friends," said Amyas, "I have landed here that I
+might go quietly home, without passing through the town, and being
+made a gazing-stock.  Think not of me, good folks, nor talk of me;
+but come behind me decently, as Christian men, and follow to the
+grave the body of a better man than I."
+
+And, as he spoke, another boat came off, and in it, covered with
+the flag of England, the body of Salvation Yeo.
+
+The people took Amyas at his word; and a man was sent on to
+Burrough, to tell Mrs. Leigh that her son was coming.  When the
+coffin was landed and lifted, Amyas and his friends took their
+places behind it as chief mourners, and the crew followed in order,
+while the crowd fell in behind them, and gathered every moment;
+till ere they were halfway to Northam town, the funeral train might
+number full five hundred souls.
+
+They had sent over by a fishing-skiff the day before to bid the
+sexton dig the grave; and when they came into the churchyard, the
+parson stood ready waiting at the gate.
+
+Mrs. Leigh stayed quietly at home; for she had no heart to face the
+crowd; and though her heart yearned for her son, yet she was well
+content (when was she not content?) that he should do honor to his
+ancient and faithful servant; so she sat down in the bay-window,
+with Ayacanora by her side; and when the tolling of the bell
+ceased, she opened her Prayer-book, and began to read the Burial-
+service.
+
+"Ayacanora," she said, "they are burying old Master Yeo, who loved
+you, and sought you over the wide, wide world, and saved you from
+the teeth of the crocodile.  Are you not sorry for him, child, that
+you look so gay to-day?"
+
+Ayacanora blushed, and hung down her head; she was thinking of
+nothing, poor child, but Amyas.
+
+The Burial-service was done; the blessing said; the parson drew
+back: but the people lingered and crowded round to look at the
+coffin, while Amyas stood still at the head of the grave.  It had
+been dug by his command, at the west end of the church, near by the
+foot of the tall gray windswept tower, which watches for a beacon
+far and wide over land and sea.  Perhaps the old man might like to
+look at the sea, and see the ships come out and in across the bar,
+and hear the wind, on winter nights, roar through the belfry far
+above his head.  Why not?  It was but a fancy: and yet Amyas felt
+that he too should like to be buried in such a place; so Yeo might
+like it also.
+
+Still the crowd lingered; and looked first at the grave and then at
+the blind giant who stood over it, as if they felt, by instinct,
+that something more ought to come.  And something more did come.
+Amyas drew himself up to his full height, and waved his hand
+majestically, as one about to speak; while the eyes of all men were
+fastened on him.
+
+Twice he essayed to begin; and twice the words were choked upon his
+lips; and then,--
+
+"Good people all, and seamen, among whom I was bred, and to whom I
+come home blind this day, to dwell with you till death--Here lieth
+the flower and pattern of all bold mariners; the truest of friends,
+and the most terrible of foes; unchangeable of purpose, crafty of
+council, and swift of execution; in triumph most sober, in failure
+(as God knows I have found full many a day) of endurance beyond
+mortal man.  Who first of all Britons helped to humble the pride of
+the Spaniard at Rio de la Hacha and Nombre, and first of all sailed
+upon those South Seas, which shall be hereafter, by God's grace, as
+free to English keels as is the bay outside.  Who having afterwards
+been purged from his youthful sins by strange afflictions and
+torments unspeakable, suffered at the hands of the Popish enemy,
+learned therefrom, my masters, to fear God, and to fear naught
+else; and having acquitted himself worthily in his place and
+calling as a righteous scourge of the Spaniard, and a faithful
+soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ, is now exalted to his reward, as
+Elijah was of old, in a chariot of fire unto heaven: letting fall,
+I trust and pray, upon you who are left behind the mantle of his
+valor and his godliness, that so these shores may never be without
+brave and pious mariners, who will count their lives as worthless
+in the cause of their Country, their Bible, and their Queen.
+Amen."
+
+And feeling for his companions' hands he walked slowly from the
+churchyard, and across the village street, and up the lane to
+Burrough gates; while the crowd made way for him in solemn silence,
+as for an awful being, shut up alone with all his strength, valor,
+and fame, in the dark prison-house of his mysterious doom.
+
+He seemed to know perfectly when they had reached the gates, opened
+the lock with his own hands, and went boldly forward along the
+gravel path, while Cary and Brimblecombe followed him trembling;
+for they expected some violent burst of emotion, either from him or
+his mother, and the two good fellows' tender hearts were fluttering
+like a girl's.  Up to the door he went, as if he had seen it; felt
+for the entrance, stood therein, and called quietly, "Mother!"
+
+In a moment his mother was on his bosom.
+
+Neither spoke for awhile.  She sobbing inwardly, with tearless
+eyes, he standing firm and cheerful, with his great arms clasped
+around her.
+
+"Mother!" he said at last, "I am come home, you see, because I
+needs must come.  Will you take me in, and look after this useless
+carcase?  I shall not be so very troublesome, mother,--shall I?"
+and he looked down, and smiled upon her, and kissed her brow.
+
+She answered not a word, but passed her arm gently round his waist,
+and led him in.
+
+"Take care of your head, dear child, the doors are low."  And they
+went in together.
+
+"Will!  Jack!" called Amyas, turning round: but the two good
+fellows had walked briskly off.
+
+"I'm glad we are away," said Cary; "I should have made a baby of
+myself in another minute, watching that angel of a woman.  How her
+face worked and how she kept it in!"
+
+"Ah, well!" said Jack, "there goes a brave servant of the queen's
+cut off before his work was a quarter done.  Heigho! I must home
+now, and see my old father, and then--"
+
+"And then home with me," said Cary.  "You and I never part again!
+We have pulled in the same boat too long, Jack; and you must not go
+spending your prize-money in riotous living.  I must see after you,
+old Jack ashore, or we shall have you treating half the town in
+taverns for a week to come."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Cary!" said Jack, scandalized.
+
+"Come home with me, and we'll poison the parson, and my father
+shall give you the rectory."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Cary!" said Jack.
+
+So the two went off to Clovelly together that very day.
+
+And Amyas was sitting all alone.  His mother had gone out for a few
+minutes to speak to the seamen who had brought up Amyas's luggage,
+and set them down to eat and drink; and Amyas sat in the old bay-
+window, where he had sat when he was a little tiny boy, and read
+"King Arthur," and "Fox's Martyrs," and "The Cruelties of the
+Spaniards."  He put out his hand and felt for them; there they lay
+side by side, just as they had lain twenty years before.  The
+window was open; and a cool air brought in as of old the scents of
+the four-season roses, and rosemary, and autumn gilliflowers.  And
+there was a dish of apples on the table: he knew it by their smell;
+the very same old apples which he used to gather when he was a boy.
+He put out his hand, and took them, and felt them over, and played
+with them, just as if the twenty years had never been: and as he
+fingered them, the whole of his past life rose up before him, as in
+that strange dream which is said to flash across the imagination of
+a drowning man; and he saw all the places which he had ever seen,
+and heard all the words which had ever been spoken to him--till he
+came to that fairy island on the Meta; and he heard the roar of the
+cataract once more, and saw the green tops of the palm-trees
+sleeping in the sunlight far above the spray, and stept amid the
+smooth palm-trunks across the flower-fringed boulders, and leaped
+down to the gravel beach beside the pool: and then again rose from
+the fern-grown rocks the beautiful vision of Ayacanora--Where was
+she?  He had not thought of her till now.  How he had wronged her!
+Let be; he had been punished, and the account was squared.  Perhaps
+she did not care for him any longer.  Who would care for a great
+blind ox like him, who must be fed and tended like a baby for the
+rest of his lazy life?  Tut!  How long his mother was away!  And he
+began playing again with his apples, and thought about nothing but
+them, and his climbs with Frank in the orchard years ago.
+
+At last one of them slipt through his fingers, and fell on the
+floor.  He stooped and felt for it: but he could not find it.
+Vexatious!  He turned hastily to search in another direction, and
+struck his head sharply against the table.
+
+Was it the pain, or the little disappointment? or was it the sense
+of his blindness brought home to him in that ludicrous commonplace
+way, and for that very reason all the more humiliating? or was it
+the sudden revulsion of overstrained nerves, produced by that
+slight shock?  Or had he become indeed a child once more?  I know
+not; but so it was, that he stamped on the floor with pettishness,
+and then checking himself, burst into a violent flood of tears.
+
+A quick rustle passed him; the apple was replaced in his hand, and
+Ayacanora's voice sobbed out:
+
+"There! there it is!  Do not weep!  Oh, do not weep!  I cannot bear
+it!  I will get you all you want!  Only let me fetch and carry for
+you, tend you, feed you, lead you, like your slave, your dog!  Say
+that I may be your slave!" and falling on her knees at his feet,
+she seized both his hands, and covered them with kisses.
+
+"Yes!" she cried, "I will be your slave!  I must be!  You cannot
+help it!  You cannot escape from me now!  You cannot go to sea!
+You cannot turn your back upon wretched me.  I have you safe now!
+Safe!" and she clutched his hands triumphantly.  "Ah! and what a
+wretch I am, to rejoice in that! to taunt him with his blindness!
+Oh, forgive me!  I am but a poor wild girl--a wild Indian savage,
+you know: but--but--" and she burst into tears.
+
+A great spasm shook the body and soul of Amyas Leigh; he sat quite
+silent for a minute, and then said solemnly:
+
+"And is this still possible?  Then God have mercy upon me a
+sinner!"
+
+Ayacanora looked up in his face inquiringly: but before she could
+speak again, he had bent down, and lifting her as the lion lifts
+the lamb, pressed her to his bosom, and covered her face with
+kisses.
+
+The door opened.  There was the rustle of a gown; Ayacanora sprang
+from him with a little cry, and stood, half-trembling, half-
+defiant, as if to say, "He is mine now; no one dare part him from
+me!"
+
+"Who is it?" asked Amyas.
+
+"Your mother."
+
+"You see that I am bringing forth fruits meet for repentance,
+mother," said he, with a smile.
+
+He heard her approach.  Then a kiss and a sob passed between the
+women; and he felt Ayacanora sink once more upon his bosom.
+
+"Amyas, my son," said the silver voice of Mrs. Leigh, low, dreamy,
+like the far-off chimes of angels' bells from out the highest
+heaven, "fear not to take her to your heart again; for it is your
+mother who has laid her there."
+
+"It is true, after all," said Amyas to himself.  "What God has
+joined together, man cannot put asunder."
+
+             .     .     .     .     .     .     .
+
+From that hour Ayacanora's power of song returned to her; and day
+by day, year after year, her voice rose up within that happy home,
+and soared, as on a skylark's wings, into the highest heaven,
+bearing with it the peaceful thoughts of the blind giant back to
+the Paradises of the West, in the wake of the heroes who from that
+time forth sailed out to colonize another and a vaster England, to
+the heaven-prospered cry of Westward-Ho!
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley
+
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