diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/wstho10.txt | 29275 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/wstho10.zip | bin | 0 -> 573449 bytes |
2 files changed, 29275 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/wstho10.txt b/old/wstho10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8682b3e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/wstho10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,29275 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley +#8 in our series by Charles Kingsley + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +Westward Ho! + +by Charles Kingsley + +August, 1999 [Etext #1860] + + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley +*****This file should be named wstho10.txt or wstho10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, wstho11.txt. +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, wstho10a.txt. + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, for time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-two text +files per month, or 384 more Etexts in 1997 for a total of 1000+ +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach over 100 billion Etexts given away. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by the December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only 10% of the present number of computer users. 2001 +should have at least twice as many computer users as that, so it +will require us reaching less than 5% of the users in 2001. + + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- +Mellon University). + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +We would prefer to send you this information by email +(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail). + +****** +If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please +FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives: +[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type] + +ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd etext/etext90 through /etext96 +or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information] +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET INDEX?00.GUT +for a list of books +and +GET NEW GUT for general information +and +MGET GUT* for newsletters. + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + + + + +WESTWARD HO! + +by Charles Kingsley + + + + +TO + +THE RAJAH SIR JAMES BROOKE, K.C.B. + +AND + +GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, D.D. + +BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND + + +THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED + + +By one who (unknown to them) has no other method of expressing his +admiration and reverence for their characters. + +That type of English virtue, at once manful and godly, practical +and enthusiastic, prudent and self-sacrificing, which he has tried +to depict in these pages, they have exhibited in a form even purer +and more heroic than that in which he has drest it, and than that +in which it was exhibited by the worthies whom Elizabeth, without +distinction of rank or age, gathered round her in the ever glorious +wars of her great reign. + +C. K. + +FEBRUARY, 1855. + + + +CONTENTS + + +INTRODUCTION + +I. HOW MR. OXENHAM SAW THE WHITE BIRD + +II. HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE FIRST TIME + +III. OF TWO GENTLEMEN OF WALES, AND HOW THEY HUNTED WITH THE +HOUNDS, AND YET RAN WITH THE DEER + +IV. THE TWO WAYS OF BEING CROST IN LOVE + +V. CLOVELLY COURT IN THE OLDEN TIME + +VI. THE COMBES OF THE FAR WEST + +VII. THE TRUE AND TRAGICAL HISTORY OF MR. JOHN OXENHAM OF PLYMOUTH + +VIII. HOW THE NOBLE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE WAS FOUNDED + +IX. HOW AMYAS KEPT HIS CHRISTMAS DAY + +X. HOW THE MAYOR OF BIDEFORD BAITED HIS HOOK WITH HIS OWN FLESH + +XI. HOW EUSTACE LEIGH MET THE POPE'S LEGATE + +XII. HOW BIDEFORD BRIDGE DINED AT ANNERY HOUSE + +XIII. HOW THE GOLDEN HIND CAME HOME AGAIN + +XIV. HOW SALVATION YEO SLEW THE KING OF THE GUBBINGS + +XV. HOW MR. JOHN BRIMBLECOMBE UNDERSTOOD THE NATURE OF AN OATH + +XVI. THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE + +XVII. HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS, AND FOUND NO MEN THEREIN + +XVIII. HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS AT MARGARITA + +XIX. WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA + +XX. SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS + +XXI. HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION UNDER THE TREE AT HIGUEROTE + +XXII. THE INQUISITION IN THE INDIES + +XXIII. THE BANKS OF THE META + +XXIV. HOW AMYAS WAS TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL + +XXV. HOW THEY TOOK THE GOLD-TRAIN + +XXVI. HOW THEY TOOK THE GREAT GALLEON + +XXVII. HOW SALVATION YEO FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN + +XXVIII. HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE THIRD TIME + +XXIX. HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS STOPPED BY THE QUEEN'S COMMAND + +XXX. HOW THE ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS + +XXXI. THE GREAT ARMADA + +XXXII. HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA + +XXXIII. HOW AMYAS LET THE APPLE FALL + + + +WESTWARD HO! + + +CHAPTER I + + +HOW MR. OXENHAM SAW THE WHITE BIRD + + + "The hollow oak our palace is, + Our heritage the sea." + + +All who have travelled through the delicious scenery of North Devon +must needs know the little white town of Bideford, which slopes +upwards from its broad tide-river paved with yellow sands, and +many-arched old bridge where salmon wait for autumn floods, toward +the pleasant upland on the west. Above the town the hills close +in, cushioned with deep oak woods, through which juts here and +there a crag of fern-fringed slate; below they lower, and open more +and more in softly rounded knolls, and fertile squares of red and +green, till they sink into the wide expanse of hazy flats, rich +salt-marshes, and rolling sand-hills, where Torridge joins her +sister Taw, and both together flow quietly toward the broad surges +of the bar, and the everlasting thunder of the long Atlantic swell. +Pleasantly the old town stands there, beneath its soft Italian sky, +fanned day and night by the fresh ocean breeze, which forbids alike +the keen winter frosts, and the fierce thunder heats of the +midland; and pleasantly it has stood there for now, perhaps, eight +hundred years since the first Grenville, cousin of the Conqueror, +returning from the conquest of South Wales, drew round him trusty +Saxon serfs, and free Norse rovers with their golden curls, and +dark Silurian Britons from the Swansea shore, and all the mingled +blood which still gives to the seaward folk of the next county +their strength and intellect, and, even in these levelling days, +their peculiar beauty of face and form. + +But at the time whereof I write, Bideford was not merely a pleasant +country town, whose quay was haunted by a few coasting craft. It +was one of the chief ports of England; it furnished seven ships to +fight the Armada: even more than a century afterwards, say the +chroniclers, "it sent more vessels to the northern trade than any +port in England, saving (strange juxtaposition!) London and +Topsham," and was the centre of a local civilization and +enterprise, small perhaps compared with the vast efforts of the +present day: but who dare despise the day of small things, if it +has proved to be the dawn of mighty ones? And it is to the sea- +life and labor of Bideford, and Dartmouth, and Topsham, and +Plymouth (then a petty place), and many another little western +town, that England owes the foundation of her naval and commercial +glory. It was the men of Devon, the Drakes and Hawkins', Gilberts +and Raleighs, Grenvilles and Oxenhams, and a host more of +"forgotten worthies," whom we shall learn one day to honor as they +deserve, to whom she owes her commerce, her colonies, her very +existence. For had they not first crippled, by their West Indian +raids, the ill-gotten resources of the Spaniard, and then crushed +his last huge effort in Britain's Salamis, the glorious fight of +1588, what had we been by now but a popish appanage of a world- +tyranny as cruel as heathen Rome itself, and far more devilish? + +It is in memory of these men, their voyages and their battles, +their faith and their valor, their heroic lives and no less heroic +deaths, that I write this book; and if now and then I shall seem to +warm into a style somewhat too stilted and pompous, let me be +excused for my subject's sake, fit rather to have been sung than +said, and to have proclaimed to all true English hearts, not as a +novel but as an epic (which some man may yet gird himself to +write), the same great message which the songs of Troy, and the +Persian wars, and the trophies of Marathon and Salamis, spoke to +the hearts of all true Greeks of old. + + +One bright summer's afternoon, in the year of grace 1575, a tall +and fair boy came lingering along Bideford quay, in his scholar's +gown, with satchel and slate in hand, watching wistfully the +shipping and the sailors, till, just after he had passed the bottom +of the High Street, he came opposite to one of the many taverns +which looked out upon the river. In the open bay window sat +merchants and gentlemen, discoursing over their afternoon's draught +of sack; and outside the door was gathered a group of sailors, +listening earnestly to some one who stood in the midst. The boy, +all alive for any sea-news, must needs go up to them, and take his +place among the sailor-lads who were peeping and whispering under +the elbows of the men; and so came in for the following speech, +delivered in a loud bold voice, with a strong Devonshire accent, +and a fair sprinkling of oaths. + +"If you don't believe me, go and see, or stay here and grow all +over blue mould. I tell you, as I am a gentleman, I saw it with +these eyes, and so did Salvation Yeo there, through a window in the +lower room; and we measured the heap, as I am a christened man, +seventy foot long, ten foot broad, and twelve foot high, of silver +bars, and each bar between a thirty and forty pound weight. And +says Captain Drake: 'There, my lads of Devon, I've brought you to +the mouth of the world's treasure-house, and it's your own fault +now if you don't sweep it out as empty as a stock-fish.'" + +"Why didn't you bring some of they home, then, Mr. Oxenham?" + +"Why weren't you there to help to carry them? We would have +brought 'em away, safe enough, and young Drake and I had broke the +door abroad already, but Captain Drake goes off in a dead faint; +and when we came to look, he had a wound in his leg you might have +laid three fingers in, and his boots were full of blood, and had +been for an hour or more; but the heart of him was that, that he +never knew it till he dropped, and then his brother and I got him +away to the boats, he kicking and struggling, and bidding us let +him go on with the fight, though every step he took in the sand was +in a pool of blood; and so we got off. And tell me, ye sons of +shotten herrings, wasn't it worth more to save him than the dirty +silver? for silver we can get again, brave boys: there's more fish +in the sea than ever came out of it, and more silver in Nombre de +Dios than would pave all the streets in the west country: but of +such captains as Franky Drake, Heaven never makes but one at a +time; and if we lose him, good-bye to England's luck, say I, and +who don't agree, let him choose his weapons, and I'm his man." + +He who delivered this harangue was a tall and sturdy personage, +with a florid black-bearded face, and bold restless dark eyes, who +leaned, with crossed legs and arms akimbo, against the wall of the +house; and seemed in the eyes of the schoolboy a very magnifico, +some prince or duke at least. He was dressed (contrary to all +sumptuary laws of the time) in a suit of crimson velvet, a little +the worse, perhaps, for wear; by his side were a long Spanish +rapier and a brace of daggers, gaudy enough about the hilts; his +fingers sparkled with rings; he had two or three gold chains about +his neck, and large earrings in his ears, behind one of which a red +rose was stuck jauntily enough among the glossy black curls; on his +head was a broad velvet Spanish hat, in which instead of a feather +was fastened with a great gold clasp a whole Quezal bird, whose +gorgeous plumage of fretted golden green shone like one entire +precious stone. As he finished his speech, he took off the said +hat, and looking at the bird in it-- + +"Look ye, my lads, did you ever see such a fowl as that before? +That's the bird which the old Indian kings of Mexico let no one +wear but their own selves; and therefore I wear it,--I, John +Oxenham of South Tawton, for a sign to all brave lads of Devon, +that as the Spaniards are the masters of the Indians, we're the +masters of the Spaniards:" and he replaced his hat. + +A murmur of applause followed: but one hinted that he "doubted the +Spaniards were too many for them." + +"Too many? How many men did we take Nombre de Dios with? Seventy- +three were we, and no more when we sailed out of Plymouth Sound; +and before we saw the Spanish Main, half were gastados, used up, as +the Dons say, with the scurvy; and in Port Pheasant Captain Rawse +of Cowes fell in with us, and that gave us some thirty hands more; +and with that handful, my lads, only fifty-three in all, we picked +the lock of the new world! And whom did we lose but our trumpeter, +who stood braying like an ass in the middle of the square, instead +of taking care of his neck like a Christian? I tell you, those +Spaniards are rank cowards, as all bullies are. They pray to a +woman, the idolatrous rascals! and no wonder they fight like +women." + +"You'm right, captain," sang out a tall gaunt fellow who stood +close to him; "one westcountry-man can fight two easterlings, and +an easterling can beat three Dons any day. Eh! my lads of Devon? + + + "For O! it's the herrings and the good brown beef, + And the cider and the cream so white; + O! they are the making of the jolly Devon lads, + For to play, and eke to fight." + + +"Come," said Oxenham, "come along! Who lists? who lists? who'll +make his fortune? + + + "Oh, who will join, jolly mariners all? + And who will join, says he, O! + To fill his pockets with the good red goold, + By sailing on the sea, O!" + + +"Who'll list?" cried the gaunt man again; "now's your time! We've +got forty men to Plymouth now, ready to sail the minute we get +back, and we want a dozen out of you Bideford men, and just a boy +or two, and then we'm off and away, and make our fortunes, or go to +heaven. + + + "Our bodies in the sea so deep, + Our souls in heaven to rest! + Where valiant seamen, one and all, + Hereafter shall be blest!" + + +"Now," said Oxenham, "you won't let the Plymouth men say that the +Bideford men daren't follow them? North Devon against South, it +is. Who'll join? who'll join? It is but a step of a way, after +all, and sailing as smooth as a duck-pond as soon as you're past +Cape Finisterre. I'll run a Clovelly herring-boat there and back +for a wager of twenty pound, and never ship a bucketful all the +way. Who'll join? Don't think you're buying a pig in a poke. I +know the road, and Salvation Yeo, here, too, who was the gunner's +mate, as well as I do the narrow seas, and better. You ask him to +show you the chart of it, now, and see if he don't tell you over +the ruttier as well as Drake himself." + +On which the gaunt man pulled from under his arm a great white +buffalo horn covered with rough etchings of land and sea, and held +it up to the admiring ring. + +"See here, boys all, and behold the pictur of the place, dra'ed out +so natural as ever was life. I got mun from a Portingal, down to +the Azores; and he'd pricked mun out, and pricked mun out, +wheresoever he'd sailed, and whatsoever he'd seen. Take mun in +your hands now, Simon Evans, take mun in your hands; look mun over, +and I'll warrant you'll know the way in five minutes so well as +ever a shark in the seas." + +And the horn was passed from hand to hand; while Oxenham, who saw +that his hearers were becoming moved, called through the open +window for a great tankard of sack, and passed that from hand to +hand, after the horn. + +The school-boy, who had been devouring with eyes and ears all which +passed, and had contrived by this time to edge himself into the +inner ring, now stood face to face with the hero of the emerald +crest, and got as many peeps as he could at the wonder. But when +he saw the sailors, one after another, having turned it over a +while, come forward and offer to join Mr. Oxenham, his soul burned +within him for a nearer view of that wondrous horn, as magical in +its effects as that of Tristrem, or the enchanter's in Ariosto; and +when the group had somewhat broken up, and Oxenham was going into +the tavern with his recruits, he asked boldly for a nearer sight of +the marvel, which was granted at once. + +And now to his astonished gaze displayed themselves cities and +harbors, dragons and elephants, whales which fought with sharks, +plate ships of Spain, islands with apes and palm-trees, each with +its name over-written, and here and there, "Here is gold;" and +again, "Much gold and silver;" inserted most probably, as the words +were in English, by the hands of Mr. Oxenham himself. Lingeringly +and longingly the boy turned it round and round, and thought the +owner of it more fortunate than Khan or Kaiser. Oh, if he could +but possess that horn, what needed he on earth beside to make him +blest! + +"I say, will you sell this?" + +"Yea, marry, or my own soul, if I can get the worth of it." + +"I want the horn,--I don't want your soul; it's somewhat of a stale +sole, for aught I know; and there are plenty of fresh ones in the +bay." + +And therewith, after much fumbling, he pulled out a tester (the +only one he had), and asked if that would buy it? + +"That! no, nor twenty of them." + +The boy thought over what a good knight-errant would do in such +case, and then answered, "Tell you what: I'll fight you for it." + +"Thank 'ee, sir! + +"Break the jackanapes's head for him, Yeo," said Oxenham. + +"Call me jackanapes again, and I break yours, sir." And the boy +lifted his fist fiercely. + +Oxenham looked at him a minute smilingly. "Tut! tut! my man, hit +one of your own size, if you will, and spare little folk like me!" + +"If I have a boy's age, sir, I have a man's fist. I shall be +fifteen years old this month, and know how to answer any one who +insults me." + +"Fifteen, my young cockerel? you look liker twenty," said Oxenham, +with an admiring glance at the lad's broad limbs, keen blue eyes, +curling golden locks, and round honest face. "Fifteen? If I had +half-a-dozen such lads as you, I would make knights of them before +I died. Eh, Yeo?" + +"He'll do," said Yeo; "he will make a brave gamecock in a year or +two, if he dares ruffle up so early at a tough old hen-master like +the captain." + +At which there was a general laugh, in which Oxenham joined as +loudly as any, and then bade the lad tell him why he was so keen +after the horn. + +"Because," said he, looking up boldly, "I want to go to sea. I +want to see the Indies. I want to fight the Spaniards. Though I +am a gentleman's son, I'd a deal liever be a cabin-boy on board +your ship." And the lad, having hurried out his say fiercely +enough, dropped his head again. + +"And you shall," cried Oxenham, with a great oath; "and take a +galloon, and dine off carbonadoed Dons. Whose son are you, my +gallant fellow?" + +"Mr. Leigh's, of Burrough Court." + +"Bless his soul! I know him as well as I do the Eddystone, and his +kitchen too. Who sups with him to-night?" + +"Sir Richard Grenville." + +"Dick Grenville? I did not know he was in town. Go home and tell +your father John Oxenham will come and keep him company. There, +off with you! I'll make all straight with the good gentleman, and +you shall have your venture with me; and as for the horn, let him +have the horn, Yeo, and I'll give you a noble for it." + +"Not a penny, noble captain. If young master will take a poor +mariner's gift, there it is, for the sake of his love to the +calling, and Heaven send him luck therein." And the good fellow, +with the impulsive generosity of a true sailor, thrust the horn +into the boy's hands, and walked away to escape thanks. + +"And now," quoth Oxenham, "my merry men all, make up your minds +what mannered men you be minded to be before you take your +bounties. I want none of your rascally lurching longshore vermin, +who get five pounds out of this captain, and ten out of that, and +let him sail without them after all, while they are stowed away +under women's mufflers, and in tavern cellars. If any man is of +that humor, he had better to cut himself up, and salt himself down +in a barrel for pork, before he meets me again; for by this light, +let me catch him, be it seven years hence, and if I do not cut his +throat upon the streets, it's a pity! But if any man will be true +brother to me, true brother to him I'll be, come wreck or prize, +storm or calm, salt water or fresh, victuals or none, share and +fare alike; and here's my hand upon it, for every man and all! and +so-- + + + "Westward ho! with a rumbelow, + And hurra for the Spanish Main, O!" + + +After which oration Mr. Oxenham swaggered into the tavern, followed +by his new men; and the boy took his way homewards, nursing his +precious horn, trembling between hope and fear, and blushing with +maidenly shame, and a half-sense of wrong-doing at having revealed +suddenly to a stranger the darling wish which he had hidden from +his father and mother ever since he was ten years old. + +Now this young gentleman, Amyas Leigh, though come of as good blood +as any in Devon, and having lived all his life in what we should +even now call the very best society, and being (on account of the +valor, courtesy, and truly noble qualities which he showed forth in +his most eventful life) chosen by me as the hero and centre of this +story, was not, saving for his good looks, by any means what would +be called now-a-days an "interesting" youth, still less a "highly +educated" one; for, with the exception of a little Latin, which had +been driven into him by repeated blows, as if it had been a nail, +he knew no books whatsoever, save his Bible, his Prayer-book, the +old "Mort d'Arthur" of Caxton's edition, which lay in the great bay +window in the hall, and the translation of "Las Casas' History of +the West Indies," which lay beside it, lately done into English +under the title of "The Cruelties of the Spaniards." He devoutly +believed in fairies, whom he called pixies; and held that they +changed babies, and made the mushroom rings on the downs to dance +in. When he had warts or burns, he went to the white witch at +Northam to charm them away; he thought that the sun moved round the +earth, and that the moon had some kindred with a Cheshire cheese. +He held that the swallows slept all the winter at the bottom of the +horse-pond; talked, like Raleigh, Grenville, and other low persons, +with a broad Devonshire accent; and was in many other respects so +very ignorant a youth, that any pert monitor in a national school +might have had a hearty laugh at him. Nevertheless, this ignorant +young savage, vacant of the glorious gains of the nineteenth +century, children's literature and science made easy, and, worst of +all, of those improved views of English history now current among +our railway essayists, which consist in believing all persons, male +and female, before the year 1688, and nearly all after it, to have +been either hypocrites or fools, had learnt certain things which he +would hardly have been taught just now in any school in England; +for his training had been that of the old Persians, "to speak the +truth and to draw the bow," both of which savage virtues he had +acquired to perfection, as well as the equally savage ones of +enduring pain cheerfully, and of believing it to be the finest +thing in the world to be a gentleman; by which word he had been +taught to understand the careful habit of causing needless pain to +no human being, poor or rich, and of taking pride in giving up his +own pleasure for the sake of those who were weaker than himself. +Moreover, having been entrusted for the last year with the breaking +of a colt, and the care of a cast of young hawks which his father +had received from Lundy Isle, he had been profiting much, by the +means of those coarse and frivolous amusements, in perseverance, +thoughtfulness, and the habit of keeping his temper; and though he +had never had a single "object lesson," or been taught to "use his +intellectual powers," he knew the names and ways of every bird, and +fish, and fly, and could read, as cunningly as the oldest sailor, +the meaning of every drift of cloud which crossed the heavens. +Lastly, he had been for some time past, on account of his +extraordinary size and strength, undisputed cock of the school, and +the most terrible fighter among all Bideford boys; in which brutal +habit he took much delight, and contrived, strange as it may seem, +to extract from it good, not only for himself but for others, doing +justice among his school-fellows with a heavy hand, and succoring +the oppressed and afflicted; so that he was the terror of all the +sailor-lads, and the pride and stay of all the town's boys and +girls, and hardly considered that he had done his duty in his +calling if he went home without beating a big lad for bullying a +little one. For the rest, he never thought about thinking, or felt +about feeling; and had no ambition whatsoever beyond pleasing his +father and mother, getting by honest means the maximum of "red +quarrenders" and mazard cherries, and going to sea when he was big +enough. Neither was he what would be now-a-days called by many a +pious child; for though he said his Creed and Lord's Prayer night +and morning, and went to the service at the church every forenoon, +and read the day's Psalms with his mother every evening, and had +learnt from her and from his father (as he proved well in after +life) that it was infinitely noble to do right and infinitely base +to do wrong, yet (the age of children's religious books not having +yet dawned on the world) he knew nothing more of theology, or of +his own soul, than is contained in the Church Catechism. It is a +question, however, on the whole, whether, though grossly ignorant +(according to our modern notions) in science and religion, he was +altogether untrained in manhood, virtue, and godliness; and whether +the barbaric narrowness of his information was not somewhat +counterbalanced both in him and in the rest of his generation by +the depth, and breadth, and healthiness of his education. + +So let us watch him up the hill as he goes hugging his horn, to +tell all that has passed to his mother, from whom he had never +hidden anything in his life, save only that sea-fever; and that +only because he foreknew that it would give her pain; and because, +moreover, being a prudent and sensible lad, he knew that he was not +yet old enough to go, and that, as he expressed it to her that +afternoon, "there was no use hollaing till he was out of the wood." + +So he goes up between the rich lane-banks, heavy with drooping +ferns and honeysuckle; out upon the windy down toward the old +Court, nestled amid its ring of wind-clipt oaks; through the gray +gateway into the homeclose; and then he pauses a moment to look +around; first at the wide bay to the westward, with its southern +wall of purple cliffs; then at the dim Isle of Lundy far away at +sea; then at the cliffs and downs of Morte and Braunton, right in +front of him; then at the vast yellow sheet of rolling sand-hill, +and green alluvial plain dotted with red cattle, at his feet, +through which the silver estuary winds onward toward the sea. +Beneath him, on his right, the Torridge, like a land-locked lake, +sleeps broad and bright between the old park of Tapeley and the +charmed rock of the Hubbastone, where, seven hundred years ago, the +Norse rovers landed to lay siege to Kenwith Castle, a mile away on +his left hand; and not three fields away, are the old stones of +"The Bloody Corner," where the retreating Danes, cut off from their +ships, made their last fruitless stand against the Saxon sheriff +and the valiant men of Devon. Within that charmed rock, so +Torridge boatmen tell, sleeps now the old Norse Viking in his +leaden coffin, with all his fairy treasure and his crown of gold; +and as the boy looks at the spot, he fancies, and almost hopes, +that the day may come when he shall have to do his duty against the +invader as boldly as the men of Devon did then. And past him, far +below, upon the soft southeastern breeze, the stately ships go +sliding out to sea. When shall he sail in them, and see the +wonders of the deep? And as he stands there with beating heart and +kindling eye, the cool breeze whistling through his long fair +curls, he is a symbol, though he knows it not, of brave young +England longing to wing its way out of its island prison, to +discover and to traffic, to colonize and to civilize, until no wind +can sweep the earth which does not bear the echoes of an English +voice. Patience, young Amyas! Thou too shalt forth, and westward +ho, beyond thy wildest dreams; and see brave sights, and do brave +deeds, which no man has since the foundation of the world. Thou +too shalt face invaders stronger and more cruel far than Dane or +Norman, and bear thy part in that great Titan strife before the +renown of which the name of Salamis shall fade away! + +Mr. Oxenham came that evening to supper as he had promised: but as +people supped in those days in much the same manner as they do now, +we may drop the thread of the story for a few hours, and take it up +again after supper is over. + +"Come now, Dick Grenville, do thou talk the good man round, and +I'll warrant myself to talk round the good wife." + +The personage whom Oxenham addressed thus familiarly answered by a +somewhat sarcastic smile, and, "Mr. Oxenham gives Dick Grenville" +(with just enough emphasis on the "Mr." and the "Dick," to hint +that a liberty had been taken with him) "overmuch credit with the +men. Mr. Oxenham's credit with fair ladies, none can doubt. +Friend Leigh, is Heard's great ship home yet from the Straits?" + +The speaker, known well in those days as Sir Richard Grenville, +Granville, Greenvil, Greenfield, with two or three other +variations, was one of those truly heroical personages whom +Providence, fitting always the men to their age and their work, had +sent upon the earth whereof it takes right good care, not in +England only, but in Spain and Italy, in Germany and the +Netherlands, and wherever, in short, great men and great deeds were +needed to lift the mediaeval world into the modern. + +And, among all the heroic faces which the painters of that age have +preserved, none, perhaps, hardly excepting Shakespeare's or +Spenser's, Alva's or Farina's, is more heroic than that of Richard +Grenville, as it stands in Prince's "Worthies of Devon;" of a +Spanish type, perhaps (or more truly speaking, a Cornish), rather +than an English, with just enough of the British element in it to +give delicacy to its massiveness. The forehead and whole brain are +of extraordinary loftiness, and perfectly upright; the nose long, +aquiline, and delicately pointed; the mouth fringed with a short +silky beard, small and ripe, yet firm as granite, with just pout +enough of the lower lip to give hint of that capacity of noble +indignation which lay hid under its usual courtly calm and +sweetness; if there be a defect in the face, it is that the eyes +are somewhat small, and close together, and the eyebrows, though +delicately arched, and, without a trace of peevishness, too closely +pressed down upon them, the complexion is dark, the figure tall and +graceful; altogether the likeness of a wise and gallant gentleman, +lovely to all good men, awful to all bad men; in whose presence +none dare say or do a mean or a ribald thing; whom brave men left, +feeling themselves nerved to do their duty better, while cowards +slipped away, as bats and owls before the sun. So he lived and +moved, whether in the Court of Elizabeth, giving his counsel among +the wisest; or in the streets of Bideford, capped alike by squire +and merchant, shopkeeper and sailor; or riding along the moorland +roads between his houses of Stow and Bideford, while every woman +ran out to her door to look at the great Sir Richard, the pride of +North Devon; or, sitting there in the low mullioned window at +Burrough, with his cup of malmsey before him, and the lute to which +he had just been singing laid across his knees, while the red +western sun streamed in upon his high, bland forehead, and soft +curling locks; ever the same steadfast, God-fearing, chivalrous +man, conscious (as far as a soul so healthy could be conscious) of +the pride of beauty, and strength, and valor, and wisdom, and a +race and name which claimed direct descent from the grandfather of +the Conqueror, and was tracked down the centuries by valiant deeds +and noble benefits to his native shire, himself the noblest of his +race. Men said that he was proud; but he could not look round him +without having something to be proud of; that he was stern and +harsh to his sailors: but it was only when he saw in them any taint +of cowardice or falsehood; that he was subject, at moments, to such +fearful fits of rage, that he had been seen to snatch the glasses +from the table, grind them to pieces in his teeth, and swallow +them: but that was only when his indignation had been aroused by +some tale of cruelty or oppression, and, above all, by those West +Indian devilries of the Spaniards, whom he regarded (and in those +days rightly enough) as the enemies of God and man. Of this last +fact Oxenham was well aware, and therefore felt somewhat puzzled +and nettled, when, after having asked Mr. Leigh's leave to take +young Amyas with him and set forth in glowing colors the purpose of +his voyage, he found Sir Richard utterly unwilling to help him with +his suit. + +"Heyday, Sir Richard! You are not surely gone over to the side of +those canting fellows (Spanish Jesuits in disguise, every one of +them, they are), who pretended to turn up their noses at Franky +Drake, as a pirate, and be hanged to them?" + +"My friend Oxenham," answered he, in the sententious and measured +style of the day, "I have always held, as you should know by this, +that Mr. Drake's booty, as well as my good friend Captain +Hawkins's, is lawful prize, as being taken from the Spaniard, who +is not only hostis humani generis, but has no right to the same, +having robbed it violently, by torture and extreme iniquity, from +the poor Indian, whom God avenge, as He surely will." + +"Amen," said Mrs. Leigh. + +"I say Amen, too," quoth Oxenham, "especially if it please Him to +avenge them by English hands." + +"And I also," went on Sir Richard; "for the rightful owners of the +said goods being either miserably dead, or incapable, by reason of +their servitude, of ever recovering any share thereof, the +treasure, falsely called Spanish, cannot be better bestowed than in +building up the state of England against them, our natural enemies; +and thereby, in building up the weal of the Reformed Churches +throughout the world, and the liberties of all nations, against a +tyranny more foul and rapacious than that of Nero or Caligula; +which, if it be not the cause of God, I, for one, know not what +God's cause is!" And, as he warmed in his speech, his eyes flashed +very fire. + +"Hark now!" said Oxenham, "who can speak more boldly than he? and +yet he will not help this lad to so noble an adventure." + +"You have asked his father and mother; what is their answer?" + +"Mine is this," said Mr. Leigh; "if it be God's will that my boy +should become, hereafter, such a mariner as Sir Richard Grenville, +let him go, and God be with him; but let him first bide here at +home and be trained, if God give me grace, to become such a +gentleman as Sir Richard Grenville." + +Sir Richard bowed low, and Mrs. Leigh catching up the last word-- + +"There, Mr. Oxenham, you cannot gainsay that, unless you will be +discourteous to his worship. And for me--though it be a weak +woman's reason, yet it is a mother's: he is my only child. His +elder brother is far away. God only knows whether I shall see him +again; and what are all reports of his virtues and his learning to +me, compared to that sweet presence which I daily miss? Ah! Mr. +Oxenham, my beautiful Joseph is gone; and though he be lord of +Pharaoh's household, yet he is far away in Egypt; and you will take +Benjamm also! Ah! Mr. Oxenham, you have no child, or you would not +ask for mine!" + +"And how do you know that, my sweet madam!" said the adventurer, +turning first deadly pale, and then glowing red. Her last words +had touched him to the quick in some unexpected place; and rising, +he courteously laid her hand to his lips, and said--"I say no more. +Farewell, sweet madam, and God send all men such wives as you." + +"And all wives," said she, smiling, "such husbands as mine." + +"Nay, I will not say that," answered he, with a half sneer--and +then, "Farewell, friend Leigh--farewell, gallant Dick Grenville. +God send I see thee Lord High Admiral when I come home. And yet, +why should I come home? Will you pray for poor Jack, gentles?" + +"Tut, tut, man! good words," said Leigh; "let us drink to our merry +meeting before you go." And rising, and putting the tankard of +malmsey to his lips, he passed it to Sir Richard, who rose, and +saying, "To the fortune of a bold mariner and a gallant gentleman," +drank, and put the cup into Oxenham's hand. + +The adventurer's face was flushed, and his eye wild. Whether from +the liquor he had drunk during the day, or whether from Mrs. +Leigh's last speech, he had not been himself for a few minutes. He +lifted the cup, and was in act to pledge them, when he suddenly +dropped it on the table, and pointed, staring and trembling, up and +down, and round the room, as if following some fluttering object. + +"There! Do you see it? The bird!--the bird with the white +breast!" + +Each looked at the other; but Leigh, who was a quick-witted man and +an old courtier, forced a laugh instantly, and cried--"Nonsense, +brave Jack Oxenham! Leave white birds for men who will show the +white feather. Mrs. Leigh waits to pledge you." + +Oxenham recovered himself in a moment, pledged them all round, +drinking deep and fiercely; and after hearty farewells, departed, +never hinting again at his strange exclamation. + +After he was gone, and while Leigh was attending him to the door, +Mrs. Leigh and Grenville kept a few minutes' dead silence. At +last--"God help him!" said she. + +"Amen!" said Grenville, "for he never needed it more. But, indeed, +madam, I put no faith in such omens." + +"But, Sir Richard, that bird has been seen for generations before +the death of any of his family. I know those who were at South +Tawton when his mother died, and his brother also; and they both +saw it. God help him! for, after all, he is a proper man." + +"So many a lady has thought before now, Mrs. Leigh, and well for +him if they had not. But, indeed, I make no account of omens. +When God is ready for each man, then he must go; and when can he go +better?" + +"But," said Mr. Leigh, who entered, "I have seen, and especially +when I was in Italy, omens and prophecies before now beget their +own fulfilment, by driving men into recklessness, and making them +run headlong upon that very ruin which, as they fancied, was +running upon them." + +"And which," said Sir Richard, "they might have avoided, if, +instead of trusting in I know not what dumb and dark destiny, they +had trusted in the living God, by faith in whom men may remove +mountains, and quench the fire, and put to flight the armies of the +alien. I too know, and know not how I know, that I shall never die +in my bed." + +"God forfend! " cried Mrs. Leigh. + +"And why, fair madam, if I die doing my duty to my God and my +queen? The thought never moves me: nay, to tell the truth, I pray +often enough that I may be spared the miseries of imbecile old age, +and that end which the old Northmen rightly called 'a cow's death' +rather than a man's. But enough of this. Mr. Leigh, you have done +wisely to-night. Poor Oxenham does not go on his voyage with a +single eye. I have talked about him with Drake and Hawkins; and I +guess why Mrs. Leigh touched him so home when she told him that he +had no child." + +"Has he one, then, in the West Indies?" cried the good lady. + +"God knows; and God grant we may not hear of shame and sorrow +fallen upon an ancient and honorable house of Devon. My brother +Stukely is woe enough to North Devon for this generation." + +"Poor braggadocio!" said Mr. Leigh; "and yet not altogether that +too, for he can fight at least." + +"So can every mastiff and boar, much more an Englishman. And now +come hither to me, my adventurous godson, and don't look in such +doleful dumps. I hear you have broken all the sailor-boys' heads +already." + +"Nearly all," said young Amyas, with due modesty.. "But am I not +to go to sea?" + +"All things in their time, my boy, and God forbid that either I or +your worthy parents should keep you from that noble calling which +is the safeguard of this England and her queen. But you do not +wish to live and die the master of a trawler?" + +"I should like to be a brave adventurer, like Mr. Oxenham." + +"God grant you become a braver man than he! for, as I think, to be +bold against the enemy is common to the brutes; but the prerogative +of a man is to be bold against himself." + +"How, sir?" + +"To conquer our own fancies, Amyas, and our own lusts, and our +ambition, in the sacred name of duty; this it is to be truly brave, +and truly strong; for he who cannot rule himself, how can he rule +his crew or his fortunes? Come, now, I will make you a promise. +If you will bide quietly at home, and learn from your father and +mother all which befits a gentleman and a Christian, as well as a +seaman, the day shall come when you shall sail with Richard +Grenville himself, or with better men than he, on a nobler errand +than gold-hunting on the Spanish Main." + +"O my boy, my boy!" said Mrs. Leigh, "hear what the good Sir +Richard promises you. Many an earl's son would be glad to be in +your place." + +"And many an earl's son will be glad to be in his place a score +years hence, if he will but learn what I know you two can teach +him. And now, Amyas, my lad, I will tell you for a warning the +history of that Sir Thomas Stukely of whom I spoke just now, and +who was, as all men know, a gallant and courtly knight, of an +ancient and worshipful family in Ilfracombe, well practised in the +wars, and well beloved at first by our incomparable queen, the +friend of all true virtue, as I trust she will be of yours some +day; who wanted but one step to greatness, and that was this, that +in his hurry to rule all the world, he forgot to rule himself. At +first, he wasted his estate in show and luxury, always intending to +be famous, and destroying his own fame all the while by his +vainglory and haste. Then, to retrieve his losses, he hit upon the +peopling of Florida, which thou and I will see done some day, by +God's blessing; for I and some good friends of mine have an errand +there as well as he. But he did not go about it as a loyal man, to +advance the honor of his queen, but his own honor only, dreaming +that he too should be a king; and was not ashamed to tell her +majesty that he had rather be sovereign of a molehill than the +highest subject of an emperor." + +"They say," said Mr. Leigh, "that he told her plainly he should be +a prince before he died, and that she gave him one of her pretty +quips in return." + +"I don't know that her majesty had the best of it. A fool is many +times too strong for a wise man, by virtue of his thick hide. For +when she said that she hoped she should hear from him in his new +principality, 'Yes, sooth,' says he, graciously enough. 'And in +what style?' asks she. 'To our dear sister,' says Stukely: to +which her clemency had nothing to reply, but turned away, as Mr. +Burleigh told me, laughing." + +"Alas for him!" said gentle Mrs. Leigh. "Such self-conceit--and +Heaven knows we have the root of it in ourselves also--is the very +daughter of self-will, and of that loud crying out about I, and me, +and mine, which is the very bird-call for all devils, and the broad +road which leads to death." + +"It will lead him to his," said Sir Richard; "God grant it be not +upon Tower-hill! for since that Florida plot, and after that his +hopes of Irish preferment came to naught, he who could not help +himself by fair means has taken to foul ones, and gone over to +Italy to the Pope, whose infallibility has not been proof against +Stukely's wit; for he was soon his Holiness's closet counsellor, +and, they say, his bosom friend; and made him give credit to his +boasts that, with three thousand soldiers he would beat the English +out of Ireland, and make the Pope's son king of it." + +"Ay, but," said Mr. Leigh, "I suppose the Italians have the same +fetch now as they had when I was there, to explain such ugly cases; +namely, that the Pope is infallible only in doctrine, and quoad +Pope; while quoad hominem, he is even as others, or indeed, in +general, a deal worse, so that the office, and not the man, may be +glorified thereby. But where is Stukely now?" + +"At Rome when last I heard of him, ruffling it up and down the +Vatican as Baron Ross, Viscount Murrough, Earl Wexford, Marquis +Leinster, and a title or two more, which have cost the Pope little, +seeing that they never were his to give; and plotting, they say, +some hare-brained expedition against Ireland by the help of the +Spanish king, which must end in nothing but his shame and ruin. +And now, my sweet hosts, I must call for serving-boy and lantern, +and home to my bed in Bideford." + +And so Amyas Leigh went back to school, and Mr. Oxenham went his +way to Plymouth again, and sailed for the Spanish Main. + + + +CHAPTER II + +HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE FIRST TIME + + +"Si taceant homines, facient te sidera notum, + Sol nescit comitis immemor esse sui." + + Old Epigram on Drake. + + +Five years are past and gone. It is nine of the clock on a still, +bright November morning; but the bells of Bideford church are still +ringing for the daily service two hours after the usual time; and +instead of going soberly according to wont, cannot help breaking +forth every five minutes into a jocund peal, and tumbling head over +heels in ecstasies of joy. Bideford streets are a very flower- +garden of all the colors, swarming with seamen and burghers, and +burghers' wives and daughters, all in their holiday attire. +Garlands are hung across the streets, and tapestries from every +window. The ships in the pool are dressed in all their flags, and +give tumultuous vent to their feelings by peals of ordnance of +every size. Every stable is crammed with horses; and Sir Richard +Grenville's house is like a very tavern, with eating and drinking, +and unsaddling, and running to and fro of grooms and serving-men. +Along the little churchyard, packed full with women, streams all +the gentle blood of North Devon,--tall and stately men, and fair +ladies, worthy of the days when the gentry of England were by due +right the leaders of the people, by personal prowess and beauty, as +well as by intellect and education. And first, there is my lady +Countess of Bath, whom Sir Richard Grenville is escorting, cap in +hand (for her good Earl Bourchier is in London with the queen); and +there are Bassets from beautiful Umberleigh, and Carys from more +beautiful Clovelly, and Fortescues of Wear, and Fortescues of +Buckland, and Fortescues from all quarters, and Coles from Slade, +and Stukelys from Affton, and St. Legers from Annery, and Coffins +from Portledge, and even Coplestones from Eggesford, thirty miles +away: and last, but not least (for almost all stop to give them +place), Sir John Chichester of Ralegh, followed in single file, +after the good old patriarchal fashion, by his eight daughters, and +three of his five famous sons (one, to avenge his murdered brother, +is fighting valiantly in Ireland, hereafter to rule there wisely +also, as Lord Deputy and Baron of Belfast); and he meets at the +gate his cousin of Arlington, and behind him a train of four +daughters and nineteen sons, the last of whom has not yet passed +the town-hall, while the first is at the Lychgate, who, laughing, +make way for the elder though shorter branch of that most fruitful +tree; and so on into the church, where all are placed according to +their degrees, or at least as near as may be, not without a few +sour looks, and shovings, and whisperings, from one high-born +matron and another; till the churchwardens and sidesmen, who never +had before so goodly a company to arrange, have bustled themselves +hot, and red, and frantic, and end by imploring abjectly the help +of the great Sir Richard himself to tell them who everybody is, and +which is the elder branch, and which is the younger, and who +carries eight quarterings in their arms, and who only four, and so +prevent their setting at deadly feud half the fine ladies of North +Devon; for the old men are all safe packed away in the corporation +pews, and the young ones care only to get a place whence they may +eye the ladies. And at last there is a silence, and a looking +toward the door, and then distant music, flutes and hautboys, drums +and trumpets, which come braying, and screaming, and thundering +merrily up to the very church doors, and then cease; and the +churchwardens and sidesmen bustle down to the entrance, rods in +hand, and there is a general whisper and rustle, not without glad +tears and blessings from many a woman, and from some men also, as +the wonder of the day enters, and the rector begins, not the +morning service, but the good old thanksgiving after a victory at +sea. + +And what is it which has thus sent old Bideford wild with that +"goodly joy and pious mirth," of which we now only retain +traditions in our translation of the Psalms? Why are all eyes +fixed, with greedy admiration, on those four weather-beaten +mariners, decked out with knots and ribbons by loving hands; and +yet more on that gigantic figure who walks before them, a beardless +boy, and yet with the frame and stature of a Hercules, towering, +like Saul of old, a head and shoulders above all the congregation, +with his golden locks flowing down over his shoulders? And why, as +the five go instinctively up to the altar, and there fall on their +knees before the rails, are all eyes turned to the pew where Mrs. +Leigh of Burrough has hid her face between her hands, and her hood +rustles and shakes to her joyful sobs? Because there was fellow- +feeling of old in merry England, in county and in town; and these +are Devon men, and men of Bideford, whose names are Amyas Leigh of +Burrough, John Staveley, Michael Heard, and Jonas Marshall of +Bideford, and Thomas Braund of Clovelly: and they, the first of all +English mariners, have sailed round the world with Francis Drake, +and are come hither to give God thanks. + +It is a long story. To explain how it happened we must go back for +a page or two, almost to the point from whence we started in the +last chapter. + +For somewhat more than a twelvemonth after Mr. Oxenham's departure, +young Amyas had gone on quietly enough, according to promise, with +the exception of certain occasional outbursts of fierceness common +to all young male animals, and especially to boys of any strength +of character. His scholarship, indeed, progressed no better than +before; but his home education went on healthily enough; and he was +fast becoming, young as he was, a right good archer, and rider, and +swordsman (after the old school of buckler practice), when his +father, having gone down on business to the Exeter Assizes, caught +(as was too common in those days) the gaol-fever from the +prisoners; sickened in the very court; and died within a week. + +And now Mrs. Leigh was left to God and her own soul, with this +young lion-cub in leash, to tame and train for this life and the +life to come. She had loved her husband fervently and holily. He +had been often peevish, often melancholy; for he was a disappointed +man, with an estate impoverished by his father's folly, and his own +youthful ambition, which had led him up to Court, and made him +waste his heart and his purse in following a vain shadow. He was +one of those men, moreover, who possess almost every gift except +the gift of the power to use them; and though a scholar, a +courtier, and a soldier, he had found himself, when he was past +forty, without settled employment or aim in life, by reason of a +certain shyness, pride, or delicate honor (call it which you will), +which had always kept him from playing a winning game in that very +world after whose prizes he hankered to the last, and on which he +revenged himself by continual grumbling. At last, by his good +luck, he met with a fair young Miss Foljambe, of Derbyshire, then +about Queen Elizabeth's Court, who was as tired as he of the sins +of the world, though she had seen less of them; and the two +contrived to please each other so well, that though the queen +grumbled a little, as usual, at the lady for marrying, and at the +gentleman for adoring any one but her royal self, they got leave to +vanish from the little Babylon at Whitehall, and settle in peace at +Burrough. In her he found a treasure, and he knew what he had +found. + +Mrs. Leigh was, and had been from her youth, one of those noble old +English churchwomen, without superstition, and without severity, +who are among the fairest features of that heroic time. There was +a certain melancholy about her, nevertheless; for the recollections +of her childhood carried her back to times when it was an awful +thing to be a Protestant. She could remember among them, five-and- +twenty years ago, the burning of poor blind Joan Waste at Derby, +and of Mistress Joyce Lewis, too, like herself, a lady born; and +sometimes even now, in her nightly dreams, rang in her ears her +mother's bitter cries to God, either to spare her that fiery +torment, or to give her strength to bear it, as she whom she loved +had borne it before her. For her mother, who was of a good family +in Yorkshire, had been one of Queen Catherine's bedchamber women, +and the bosom friend and disciple of Anne Askew. And she had sat +in Smithfield, with blood curdled by horror, to see the hapless +Court beauty, a month before the paragon of Henry's Court, carried +in a chair (so crippled was she by the rack) to her fiery doom at +the stake, beside her fellow-courtier, Mr. Lascelles, while the +very heavens seemed to the shuddering mob around to speak their +wrath and grief in solemn thunder peals, and heavy drops which +hissed upon the crackling pile. + +Therefore a sadness hung upon her all her life, and deepened in the +days of Queen Mary, when, as a notorious Protestant and heretic, +she had had to hide for her life among the hills and caverns of the +Peak, and was only saved, by the love which her husband's tenants +bore her, and by his bold declaration that, good Catholic as he +was, he would run through the body any constable, justice, or +priest, yea, bishop or cardinal, who dared to serve the queen's +warrant upon his wife. + +So she escaped: but, as I said, a sadness hung upon her all her +life; and the skirt of that dark mantle fell upon the young girl +who had been the partner of her wanderings and hidings among the +lonely hills; and who, after she was married, gave herself utterly +up to God. + +And yet in giving herself to God, Mrs. Leigh gave herself to her +husband, her children, and the poor of Northam Town, and was none +the less welcome to the Grenvilles, and Fortescues, and +Chichesters, and all the gentle families round, who honored her +husband's talents, and enjoyed his wit. She accustomed herself to +austerities, which often called forth the kindly rebukes of her +husband; and yet she did so without one superstitious thought of +appeasing the fancied wrath of God, or of giving Him pleasure (base +thought) by any pain of hers; for her spirit had been trained in +the freest and loftiest doctrines of Luther's school; and that +little mystic "Alt-Deutsch Theologie" (to which the great Reformer +said that he owed more than to any book, save the Bible, and St. +Augustine) was her counsellor and comforter by day and night. + +And now, at little past forty, she was left a widow: lovely still +in face and figure; and still more lovely from the divine calm +which brooded, like the dove of peace and the Holy Spirit of God +(which indeed it was), over every look, and word, and gesture; a +sweetness which had been ripened by storm, as well as by sunshine; +which this world had not given, and could not take away. No wonder +that Sir Richard and Lady Grenville loved her; no wonder that her +children worshipped her; no wonder that the young Amyas, when the +first burst of grief was over, and he knew again where he stood, +felt that a new life had begun for him; that his mother was no more +to think and act for him only, but that he must think and act for +his mother. And so it was, that on the very day after his father's +funeral, when school-hours were over, instead of coming straight +home, he walked boldly into Sir Richard Grenville's house, and +asked to see his godfather. + +"You must be my father now, sir," said he, firmly. + +And Sir Richard looked at the boy's broad strong face, and swore a +great and holy oath, like Glasgerion's, "by oak, and ash, and +thorn," that he would be a father to him, and a brother to his +mother, for Christ's sake. And Lady Grenville took the boy by the +hand, and walked home with him to Burrough; and there the two fair +women fell on each other's necks, and wept together; the one for +the loss which had been, the other, as by a prophetic instinct, for +the like loss which was to come to her also. For the sweet St. +Leger knew well that her husband's fiery spirit would never leave +his body on a peaceful bed; but that death (as he prayed almost +nightly that it might) would find him sword in hand, upon the field +of duty and of fame. And there those two vowed everlasting +sisterhood, and kept their vow; and after that all things went on +at Burrough as before; and Amyas rode, and shot, and boxed, and +wandered on the quay at Sir Richard's side; for Mrs. Leigh was too +wise a woman to alter one tittle of the training which her husband +had thought best for his younger boy. It was enough that her elder +son had of his own accord taken to that form of life in which she +in her secret heart would fain have moulded both her children. For +Frank, God's wedding gift to that pure love of hers, had won +himself honor at home and abroad; first at the school at Bideford; +then at Exeter College, where he had become a friend of Sir Philip +Sidney's, and many another young man of rank and promise; and next, +in the summer of 1572, on his way to the University of Heidelberg, +he had gone to Paris, with (luckily for him) letters of +recommendation to Walsingham, at the English Embassy: by which +letters he not only fell in a second time with Philip Sidney, but +saved his own life (as Sidney did his) in the Massacre of St. +Bartholomew's Day. At Heidelberg he had stayed two years, winning +fresh honor from all who knew him, and resisting all Sidney's +entreaties to follow him into Italy. For, scorning to be a burden +to his parents, he had become at Heidelberg tutor to two young +German princes, whom, after living with them at their father's +house for a year or more, he at last, to his own great delight, +took with him down to Padua, "to perfect them," as he wrote home, +"according to his insufficiency, in all princely studies." Sidney +was now returned to England; but Frank found friends enough without +him, such letters of recommendation and diplomas did he carry from +I know not how many princes, magnificos, and learned doctors, who +had fallen in love with the learning, modesty, and virtue of the +fair young Englishman. And ere Frank returned to Germany he had +satiated his soul with all the wonders of that wondrous land. He +had talked over the art of sonneteering with Tasso, the art of +history with Sarpi; he had listened, between awe and incredulity, +to the daring theories of Galileo; he had taken his pupils to +Venice, that their portraits might be painted by Paul Veronese; he +had seen the palaces of Palladio, and the merchant princes on the +Rialto, and the argosies of Ragusa, and all the wonders of that +meeting-point of east and west; he had watched Tintoretto's mighty +hand "hurling tempestuous glories o'er the scene;" and even, by +dint of private intercession in high places, had been admitted to +that sacred room where, with long silver beard and undimmed eye, +amid a pantheon of his own creations, the ancient Titian, patriarch +of art, still lingered upon earth, and told old tales of the +Bellinis, and Raffaelle, and Michael Angelo, and the building of +St. Peter's, and the fire at Venice, and the sack of Rome, and of +kings and warriors, statesmen and poets, long since gone to their +account, and showed the sacred brush which Francis the First had +stooped to pick up for him. And (license forbidden to Sidney by +his friend Languet) he had been to Rome, and seen (much to the +scandal of good Protestants at home) that "right good fellow," as +Sidney calls him, who had not yet eaten himself to death, the Pope +for the time being. And he had seen the frescos of the Vatican, +and heard Palestrina preside as chapel-master over the performance +of his own music beneath the dome of St. Peter's, and fallen half +in love with those luscious strains, till he was awakened from his +dream by the recollection that beneath that same dome had gone up +thanksgivings to the God of heaven for those blood-stained streets, +and shrieking women, and heaps of insulted corpses, which he had +beheld in Paris on the night of St. Bartholomew. At last, a few +months before his father died, he had taken back his pupils to +their home in Germany, from whence he was dismissed, as he wrote, +with rich gifts; and then Mrs. Leigh's heart beat high, at the +thought that the wanderer would return: but, alas! within a month +after his father's death, came a long letter from Frank, describing +the Alps, and the valleys of the Waldenses (with whose Barbes he +had had much talk about the late horrible persecutions), and +setting forth how at Padua he had made the acquaintance of that +illustrious scholar and light of the age, Stephanus Parmenius +(commonly called from his native place, Budaeus), who had visited +Geneva with him, and heard the disputations of their most learned +doctors, which both he and Budaeus disliked for their hard +judgments both of God and man, as much as they admired them for +their subtlety, being themselves, as became Italian students, +Platonists of the school of Ficinus and Picus Mirandolensis. So +wrote Master Frank, in a long sententious letter, full of Latin +quotations: but the letter never reached the eyes of him for whose +delight it had been penned: and the widow had to weep over it +alone, and to weep more bitterly than ever at the conclusion, in +which, with many excuses, Frank said that he had, at the special +entreaty of the said Budaeus, set out with him down the Danube +stream to Buda, that he might, before finishing his travels, make +experience of that learning for which the Hungarians were famous +throughout Europe. And after that, though he wrote again and again +to the father whom he fancied living, no letter in return reached +him from home for nearly two years; till, fearing some mishap, he +hurried back to England, to find his mother a widow, and his +brother Amyas gone to the South Seas with Captain Drake of +Plymouth. And yet, even then, after years of absence, he was not +allowed to remain at home. For Sir Richard, to whom idleness was a +thing horrible and unrighteous, would have him up and doing again +before six months were over, and sent him off to Court to Lord +Hunsdon. + +There, being as delicately beautiful as his brother was huge and +strong, he had speedily, by Carew's interest and that of Sidney and +his Uncle Leicester, found entrance into some office in the queen's +household; and he was now basking in the full sunshine of Court +favor, and fair ladies' eyes, and all the chivalries and euphuisms +of Gloriana's fairyland, and the fast friendship of that bright +meteor Sidney, who had returned with honor in 1577, from the +delicate mission on behalf of the German and Belgian Protestants, +on which he had been sent to the Court of Vienna, under color of +condoling with the new Emperor Rodolph on his father's death. +Frank found him when he himself came to Court in 1579 as lovely and +loving as ever; and, at the early age of twenty-five, acknowledged +as one of the most remarkable men of Europe, the patron of all men +of letters, the counsellor of warriors and statesmen, and the +confidant and advocate of William of Orange, Languet, Plessis du +Mornay, and all the Protestant leaders on the Continent; and found, +moreover, that the son of the poor Devon squire was as welcome as +ever to the friendship of nature's and fortune's most favored, yet +most unspoilt, minion. + +Poor Mrs. Leigh, as one who had long since learned to have no self, +and to live not only for her children but in them, submitted +without a murmur, and only said, smiling, to her stern friend--"You +took away my mastiff-pup, and now you must needs have my fair +greyhound also." + +"Would you have your fair greyhound, dear lady, grow up a tall and +true Cotswold dog, that can pull down a stag of ten, or one of +those smooth-skinned poppets which the Florence ladies lead about +with a ring of bells round its neck, and a flannel farthingale over +its loins?" + +Mrs. Leigh submitted; and was rewarded after a few months by a +letter, sent through Sir Richard, from none other than Gloriana +herself, in which she thanked her for "the loan of that most +delicate and flawless crystal, the soul of her excellent son," with +more praises of him than I have room to insert, and finished by +exalting the poor mother above the famed Cornelia; "for those sons, +whom she called her jewels, she only showed, yet kept them to +herself: but you, madam, having two as precious, I doubt not, as +were ever that Roman dame's, have, beyond her courage, lent them +both to your country and to your queen, who therein holds herself +indebted to you for that which, if God give her grace, she will +repay as becomes both her and you." Which epistle the sweet mother +bedewed with holy tears, and laid by in the cedar-box which held +her household gods, by the side of Frank's innumerable diplomas and +letters of recommendation, the Latin whereof she was always +spelling over (although she understood not a word of it), in hopes +of finding, here and there, that precious excellentissimus Noster +Franciscus Leighius Anglus, which was all in all to the mother's +heart. + +But why did Amyas go to the South Seas? Amyas went to the South +Seas for two causes, each of which has, before now, sent many a lad +to far worse places: first, because of an old schoolmaster; +secondly, because of a young beauty. I will take them in order and +explain. + +Vindex Brimblecombe, whilom servitor of Exeter College, Oxford +(commonly called Sir Vindex, after the fashion of the times), was, +in those days, master of the grammar-school of Bideford. He was, +at root, a godly and kind-hearted pedant enough; but, like most +schoolmasters in the old flogging days, had his heart pretty well +hardened by long, baneful license to inflict pain at will on those +weaker than himself; a power healthful enough for the victim (for, +doubtless, flogging is the best of all punishments, being not only +the shortest, but also a mere bodily and animal, and not, like most +of our new-fangled "humane" punishments, a spiritual and fiendish +torture), but for the executioner pretty certain to eradicate, from +all but the noblest spirits, every trace of chivalry and tenderness +for the weak, as well, often, as all self-control and command of +temper. Be that as it may, old Sir Vindex had heart enough to feel +that it was now his duty to take especial care of the fatherless +boy to whom he tried to teach his qui, quae, quod: but the only +outcome of that new sense of responsibility was a rapid increase in +the number of floggings, which rose from about two a week to one +per diem, not without consequences to the pedagogue himself. + +For all this while, Amyas had never for a moment lost sight of his +darling desire for a sea-life; and when he could not wander on the +quay and stare at the shipping, or go down to the pebble-ridge at +Northam, and there sit, devouring, with hungry eyes, the great +expanse of ocean, which seemed to woo him outward into boundless +space, he used to console himself, in school-hours, by drawing +ships and imaginary charts upon his slate, instead of minding his +"humanities." + +Now it befell, upon an afternoon, that he was very busy at a map, +or bird's-eye view of an island, whereon was a great castle, and at +the gate thereof a dragon, terrible to see; while in the foreground +came that which was meant for a gallant ship, with a great flag +aloft, but which, by reason of the forest of lances with which it +was crowded, looked much more like a porcupine carrying a sign- +post; and, at the roots of those lances, many little round o's, +whereby was signified the heads of Amyas and his schoolfellows, who +were about to slay that dragon, and rescue the beautiful princess +who dwelt in that enchanted tower. To behold which marvel of art, +all the other boys at the same desk must needs club their heads +together, and with the more security, because Sir Vindex, as was +his custom after dinner, was lying back in his chair, and slept the +sleep of the just. + +But when Amyas, by special instigation of the evil spirit who +haunts successful artists, proceeded further to introduce, heedless +of perspective, a rock, on which stood the lively portraiture of +Sir Vindex--nose, spectacles, gown, and all; and in his hand a +brandished rod, while out of his mouth a label shrieked after the +runaways, "You come back!" while a similar label replied from the +gallant bark, "Good-bye, master!" the shoving and tittering rose to +such a pitch that Cerberus awoke, and demanded sternly what the +noise was about. To which, of course, there was no answer. + +"You, of course, Leigh! Come up, sir, and show me your +exercitation." + +Now of Amyas's exercitation not a word was written; and, moreover, +he was in the very article of putting the last touches to Mr. +Brimblecombe's portrait. Whereon, to the astonishment of all +hearers, he made answer-- + +"All in good time, sir!" and went on drawing. + +In good time, sir! Insolent, veni et vapula!" + +But Amyas went on drawing. + +"Come hither, sirrah, or I'll flay you alive!" + +"Wait a bit!" answered Amyas. + +The old gentleman jumped up, ferula in hand, and darted across the +school, and saw himself upon the fatal slate. + +"Proh flagitium! what have we here, villain?" and clutching at his +victim, he raised the cane. Whereupon, with a serene and cheerful +countenance, up rose the mighty form of Amyas Leigh, a head and +shoulders above his tormentor, and that slate descended on the bald +coxcomb of Sir Vindex Brimblecombe, with so shrewd a blow that +slate and pate cracked at the same instant, and the poor pedagogue +dropped to the floor, and lay for dead. + +After which Amyas arose, and walked out of the school, and so +quietly home; and having taken counsel with himself, went to his +mother, and said, "Please, mother, I've broken schoolmaster's +head." + +"Broken his head, thou wicked boy!" shrieked the poor widow; "what +didst do that for?" + +"I can't tell," said Amyas, penitently; "I couldn't help it. It +looked so smooth, and bald, and round, and--you know?" + +"I know? Oh, wicked boy! thou hast given place to the devil; and +now, perhaps, thou hast killed him." + +"Killed the devil?" asked Amyas, hopefully but doubtfully. + +"No, killed the schoolmaster, sirrah! Is he dead?" + +"I don't think he's dead; his coxcomb sounded too hard for that. +But had not I better go and tell Sir Richard?" + +The poor mother could hardly help laughing, in spite of her terror, +at Amyas's perfect coolness (which was not in the least meant for +insolence), and being at her wits' end, sent him, as usual, to his +godfather. + +Amyas rehearsed his story again, with pretty nearly the same +exclamations, to which he gave pretty nearly the same answers; and +then--"What was he going to do to you, then, sirrah?" + +"Flog me, because I could not write my exercise, and so drew a +picture of him instead." + +"What! art afraid of being flogged?" + +"Not a bit; besides, I'm too much accustomed to it; but I was busy, +and he was in such a desperate hurry; and, oh, sir, if you had but +seen his bald head, you would have broken it yourself!" + +Now Sir Richard had, twenty years ago, in like place, and very much +in like manner, broken the head of Vindex Brimblecombe's father, +schoolmaster in his day, and therefore had a precedent to direct +him; and he answered--"Amyas, sirrah! those who cannot obey will +never be fit to rule. If thou canst not keep discipline now, thou +wilt never make a company or a crew keep it when thou art grown. +Dost mind that, sirrah?" + +"Yes," said Amyas. + +"Then go back to school this moment, sir, and be flogged." + +"Very well," said Amyas, considering that he had got off very +cheaply; while Sir Richard, as soon as he was out of the room, lay +back in his chair, and laughed till he cried again. + +So Amyas went back, and said that he was come to be flogged; +whereon the old schoolmaster, whose pate had been plastered +meanwhile, wept tears of joy over the returning prodigal, and then +gave him such a switching as he did not forget for eight-and-forty +hours. + +But that evening Sir Richard sent for old Vindex, who entered, +trembling, cap in hand; and having primed him with a cup of sack, +said--"Well, Mr. Schoolmaster! My godson has been somewhat too +much for you to-day. There are a couple of nobles to pay the +doctor." + +"O Sir Richard, gratias tibi et Domino! but the boy hits shrewdly +hard. Nevertheless I have repaid him in inverse kind, and set him +an imposition, to learn me one of Phaedrus his fables, Sir Richard, +if you do not think it too much." + +"Which, then? The one about the man who brought up a lion's cub, +and was eaten by him in play at last?" + +"Ah, Sir Richard! you have always a merry wit. But, indeed, the +boy is a brave boy, and a quick boy, Sir Richard, but more +forgetful than Lethe; and--sapienti loquor--it were well if he were +away, for I shall never see him again without my head aching. +Moreover, he put my son Jack upon the fire last Wednesday, as you +would put a football, though he is a year older, your worship, +because, he said, he looked so like a roasting pig, Sir Richard." + +"Alas, poor Jack!" + +"And what's more, your worship, he is pugnax, bellicosus, +gladiator, a fire-eater and swash-buckler, beyond all Christian +measure; a very sucking Entellus, Sir Richard, and will do to death +some of her majesty's lieges erelong, if he be not wisely curbed. +It was but a month agone that he bemoaned himself, I hear, as +Alexander did, because there were no more worlds to conquer, saying +that it was a pity he was so strong; for, now he had thrashed all +the Bideford lads, he had no sport left; and so, as my Jack tells +me, last Tuesday week he fell upon a young man of Barnstaple, Sir +Richard, a hosier's man, sir, and plebeius (which I consider unfit +for one of his blood), and, moreover, a man full grown, and as big +as either of us (Vindex stood five feet four in his high-heeled +shoes), and smote him clean over the quay into the mud, because he +said that there was a prettier maid in Barnstaple (your worship +will forgive my speaking of such toys, to which my fidelity compels +me) than ever Bideford could show; and then offered to do the same +to any man who dare say that Mistress Rose Salterne, his worship +the mayor's daughter, was not the fairest lass in all Devon." + +"Eh? Say that over again, my good sir," quoth Sir Richard, who had +thus arrived, as we have seen, at the second count of the +indictment. "I say, good sir, whence dost thou hear all these +pretty stories?" + +"My son Jack, Sir Richard, my son Jack, ingenui vultus puer." + +"But not, it seems, ingenui pudoris. Tell thee what, Mr. +Schoolmaster, no wonder if thy son gets put on the fire, if thou +employ him as a tale-bearer. But that is the way of all pedagogues +and their sons, by which they train the lads up eavesdroppers and +favor-curriers, and prepare them--sirrah, do you hear?--for a much +more lasting and hotter fire than that which has scorched thy son +Jack's nether-tackle. Do you mark me, sir?" + +The poor pedagogue, thus cunningly caught in his own trap, stood +trembling before his patron, who, as hereditary head of the Bridge +Trust, which endowed the school and the rest of the Bideford +charities, could, by a turn of his finger, sweep him forth with the +besom of destruction; and he gasped with terror as Sir Richard went +on--"Therefore, mind you, Sir Schoolmaster, unless you shall +promise me never to hint word of what has passed between us two, +and that neither you nor yours shall henceforth carry tales of my +godson, or speak his name within a day's march of Mistress +Salterne's, look to it, if I do not--" + +What was to be done in default was not spoken; for down went poor +old Vindex on his knees:-- + +"Oh, Sir Richard! Excellentissime, immo praecelsissime Domine et +Senator, I promise! O sir, Miles et Eques of the Garter, Bath, and +Golden Fleece, consider your dignities, and my old age--and my +great family--nine children--oh, Sir Richard, and eight of them +girls!--Do eagles war with mice? says the ancient!" + +"Thy large family, eh? How old is that fat-witted son of thine?" + +"Sixteen, Sir Richard; but that is not his fault, indeed!" + +"Nay, I suppose he would be still sucking his thumb if he dared-- +get up, man--get up and seat yourself." + +"Heaven forbid!" murmured poor Vindex, with deep humility. + +"Why is not the rogue at Oxford, with a murrain on him, instead of +lurching about here carrying tales and ogling the maidens?" + +"I had hoped, Sir Richard--and therefore I said it was not his +fault--but there was never a servitorship at Exeter open." + +"Go to, man--go to! I will speak to my brethren of the Trust, and +to Oxford he shall go this autumn, or else to Exeter gaol, for a +strong rogue, and a masterless man. Do you hear?" + +"Hear?--oh, sir, yes! and return thanks. Jack shall go, Sir +Richard, doubt it not--I were mad else; and, Sir Richard, may I go +too?" + +And therewith Vindex vanished, and Sir Richard enjoyed a second +mighty laugh, which brought in Lady Grenville, who possibly had +overheard the whole; for the first words she said were-- + +"I think, my sweet life, we had better go up to Burrough." + +So to Burrough they went; and after much talk, and many tears, +matters were so concluded that Amyas Leigh found himself riding +joyfully towards Plymouth, by the side of Sir Richard, and being +handed over to Captain Drake, vanished for three years from the +good town of Bideford. + +And now he is returned in triumph, and the observed of all +observers; and looks round and round, and sees all faces whom he +expects, except one; and that the one which he had rather see than +his mother's? He is not quite sure. Shame on himself! + +And now the prayers being ended, the rector ascends the pulpit, and +begins his sermon on the text:-- + +"The heaven and the heaven of heavens are the Lord's; the whole +earth hath he given to the children of men;" deducing therefrom +craftily, to the exceeding pleasure of his hearers, the iniquity of +the Spaniards in dispossessing the Indians, and in arrogating to +themselves the sovereignty of the tropic seas; the vanity of the +Pope of Rome in pretending to bestow on them the new countries of +America; and the justice, valor, and glory of Mr. Drake and his +expedition, as testified by God's miraculous protection of him and +his, both in the Straits of Magellan, and in his battle with the +Galleon; and last, but not least, upon the rock by Celebes, when +the Pelican lay for hours firmly fixed, and was floated off unhurt, +as it were by miracle, by a sudden shift of wind. + +Ay, smile, reader, if you will; and, perhaps, there was matter for +a smile in that honest sermon, interlarded, as it was, with scraps +of Greek and Hebrew, which no one understood, but every one +expected as their right (for a preacher was nothing then who could +not prove himself "a good Latiner"); and graced, moreover, by a +somewhat pedantic and lengthy refutation from Scripture of Dan +Horace's cockney horror of the sea-- + + + "Illi robur et aes triplex," etc. + + +and his infidel and ungodly slander against the impias rates, and +their crews. + +Smile, if you will: but those were days (and there were never less +superstitious ones) in which Englishmen believed in the living God, +and were not ashamed to acknowledge, as a matter of course, His +help and providence, and calling, in the matters of daily life, +which we now in our covert atheism term "secular and carnal;" and +when, the sermon ended, the communion service had begun, and the +bread and the wine were given to those five mariners, every gallant +gentleman who stood near them (for the press would not allow of +more) knelt and received the elements with them as a thing of +course, and then rose to join with heart and voice not merely in +the Gloria in Excelsis, but in the Te Deum, which was the closing +act of all. And no sooner had the clerk given out the first verse +of that great hymn, than it was taken up by five hundred voices +within the church, in bass and tenor, treble and alto (for every +one could sing in those days, and the west-country folk, as now, +were fuller than any of music), the chant was caught up by the +crowd outside, and rang away over roof and river, up to the woods +of Annery, and down to the marshes of the Taw, in wave on wave of +harmony. And as it died away, the shipping in the river made +answer with their thunder, and the crowd streamed out again toward +the Bridge Head, whither Sir Richard Grenville, and Sir John +Chichester, and Mr. Salterne, the Mayor, led the five heroes of the +day to await the pageant which had been prepared in honor of them. +And as they went by, there were few in the crowd who did not press +forward to shake them by the hand, and not only them, but their +parents and kinsfolk who walked behind, till Mrs. Leigh, her +stately joy quite broken down at last, could only answer between +her sobs, "Go along, good people--God a mercy, go along--and God +send you all such sons!" + +"God give me back mine!" cried an old red-cloaked dame in the +crowd; and then, struck by some hidden impulse, she sprang forward, +and catching hold of young Amyas's sleeve-- + +"Kind sir! dear sir! For Christ his sake answer a poor old widow +woman!" + +"What is it, dame?" quoth Amyas, gently enough. + +"Did you see my son to the Indies?--my son Salvation?" + +"Salvation?" replied he, with the air of one who recollected the +name. + +"Yes, sure, Salvation Yeo, of Clovelly. A tall man and black, and +sweareth awfully in his talk, the Lord forgive him!" + +Amyas recollected now. It was the name of the sailor who had given +him the wondrous horn five years ago. + +"My good dame," said he, "the Indies are a very large place, and +your son may be safe and sound enough there, without my having seen +him. I knew one Salvation Yeo. But he must have come with-- By +the by, godfather, has Mr. Oxenham come home?" + +There was a dead silence for a moment among the gentlemen round; +and then Sir Richard said solemnly, and in a low voice, turning +away from the old dame,-- + +"Amyas, Mr. Oxenham has not come home; and from the day he sailed, +no word has been heard of him and all his crew." + +"Oh, Sir Richard! and you kept me from sailing with him! Had I +known this before I went into church, I had had one mercy more to +thank God for." + +"Thank Him all the more in thy life, my child!" whispered his +mother. + +"And no news of him whatsoever?" + +"None; but that the year after he sailed, a ship belonging to +Andrew Barker, of Bristol, took out of a Spanish caravel, somewhere +off the Honduras, his two brass guns; but whence they came the +Spaniard knew not, having bought them at Nombre de Dios." + +"Yes!" cried the old woman; "they brought home the guns, and never +brought home my boy!" + +"They never saw your boy, mother," said Sir Richard. + +"But I've seen him! I saw him in a dream four years last +Whitsuntide, as plain as I see you now, gentles, a-lying upon a +rock, calling for a drop of water to cool his tongue, like Dives to +the torment! Oh! dear me!" and the old dame wept bitterly. + +"There is a rose noble for you!" said Mrs. Leigh. + +"And there another!" said Sir Richard. And in a few minutes four +or five gold coins were in her hand. But the old dame did but look +wonderingly at the gold a moment, and then-- + +"Ah! dear gentles, God's blessing on you, and Mr. Cary's mighty +good to me already; but gold won't buy back childer! O! young +gentleman! young gentleman! make me a promise; if you want God's +blessing on you this day, bring me back my boy, if you find him +sailing on the seas! Bring him back, and an old widow's blessing +be on you!" + +Amyas promised--what else could he do?--and the group hurried on; +but the lad's heart was heavy in the midst of joy, with the thought +of John Oxenham, as he walked through the churchyard, and down the +short street which led between the ancient school and still more +ancient town-house, to the head of the long bridge, across which +the pageant, having arranged "east-the-water," was to defile, and +then turn to the right along the quay. + +However, he was bound in all courtesy to turn his attention now to +the show which had been prepared in his honor, and which was really +well enough worth seeing and hearing. The English were, in those +days, an altogether dramatic people; ready and able, as in Bideford +that day, to extemporize a pageant, a masque, or any effort of the +Thespian art short of the regular drama. For they were, in the +first place, even down to the very poorest, a well-fed people, with +fewer luxuries than we, but more abundant necessaries; and while +beef, ale, and good woollen clothes could be obtained in plenty, +without overworking either body or soul, men had time to amuse +themselves in something more intellectual than mere toping in pot- +houses. Moreover, the half century after the Reformation in +England was one not merely of new intellectual freedom, but of +immense animal good spirits. After years of dumb confusion and +cruel persecution, a breathing time had come: Mary and the fires of +Smithfield had vanished together like a hideous dream, and the +mighty shout of joy which greeted Elizabeth's entry into London, +was the key-note of fifty glorious years; the expression of a new- +found strength and freedom, which vented itself at home in drama +and in song; abroad in mighty conquests, achieved with the laughing +recklessness of boys at play. + +So first, preceded by the waits, came along the bridge toward the +town-hall a device prepared by the good rector, who, standing by, +acted as showman, and explained anxiously to the bystanders the +import of a certain "allegory" wherein on a great banner was +depicted Queen Elizabeth herself, who, in ample ruff and +farthingale, a Bible in one hand and a sword in the other, stood +triumphant upon the necks of two sufficiently abject personages, +whose triple tiara and imperial crown proclaimed them the Pope and +the King of Spain; while a label, issuing from her royal mouth, +informed the world that-- + + + "By land and sea a virgin queen I reign, + And spurn to dust both Antichrist and Spain." + + +Which, having been received with due applause, a well-bedizened +lad, having in his cap as a posy "Loyalty," stepped forward, and +delivered himself of the following verses:-- + + + "Oh, great Eliza! oh, world-famous crew! + Which shall I hail more blest, your queen or you? + While without other either falls to wrack, + And light must eyes, or eyes their light must lack. + She without you, a diamond sunk in mine, + Its worth unprized, to self alone must shine; + You without her, like hands bereft of head, + Like Ajax rage, by blindfold lust misled. + She light, you eyes; she head, and you the hands, + In fair proportion knit by heavenly hands; + Servants in queen, and queen in servants blest; + Your only glory, how to serve her best; + And hers how best the adventurous might to guide, + Which knows no check of foemen, wind, or tide, + So fair Eliza's spotless fame may fly + Triumphant round the globe, and shake th' astounded sky!" + + +With which sufficiently bad verses Loyalty passed on, while my Lady +Bath hinted to Sir Richard, not without reason, that the poet, in +trying to exalt both parties, had very sufficiently snubbed both, +and intimated that it was "hardly safe for country wits to attempt +that euphuistic, antithetical, and delicately conceited vein, whose +proper fountain was in Whitehall." However, on went Loyalty, very +well pleased with himself, and next, amid much cheering, two great +tinsel fish, a salmon and a trout, symbolical of the wealth of +Torridge, waddled along, by means of two human legs and a staff +apiece, which protruded from the fishes' stomachs. They drew (or +seemed to draw, for half the 'prentices in the town were shoving it +behind, and cheering on the panting monarchs of the flood) a car +wherein sate, amid reeds and river-flags, three or four pretty +girls in robes of gray-blue spangled with gold, their heads +wreathed one with a crown of the sweet bog-myrtle, another with +hops and white convolvulus, the third with pale heather and golden +fern. They stopped opposite Amyas; and she of the myrtle wreath, +rising and bowing to him and the company, began with a pretty blush +to say her say:-- + + + "Hither from my moorland home, + Nymph of Torridge, proud I come; + Leaving fen and furzy brake, + Haunt of eft and spotted snake, + Where to fill mine urns I use, + Daily with Atlantic dews; + While beside the reedy flood + Wild duck leads her paddling brood. + For this morn, as Phoebus gay + Chased through heaven the night mist gray, + Close beside me, prankt in pride, + Sister Tamar rose, and cried, + 'Sluggard, up! 'Tis holiday, + In the lowlands far away. + Hark! how jocund Plymouth bells, + Wandering up through mazy dells, + Call me down, with smiles to hail, + My daring Drake's returning sail.' + 'Thine alone?' I answer'd. 'Nay; + Mine as well the joy to-day. + Heroes train'd on Northern wave, + To that Argo new I gave; + Lent to thee, they roam'd the main; + Give me, nymph, my sons again.' + 'Go, they wait Thee,' Tamar cried, + Southward bounding from my side. + Glad I rose, and at my call, + Came my Naiads, one and all. + Nursling of the mountain sky, + Leaving Dian's choir on high, + Down her cataracts laughing loud, + Ockment leapt from crag and cloud, + Leading many a nymph, who dwells + Where wild deer drink in ferny dells; + While the Oreads as they past + Peep'd from Druid Tors aghast. + By alder copses sliding slow, + Knee-deep in flowers came gentler Yeo + And paused awhile her locks to twine + With musky hops and white woodbine, + Then joined the silver-footed band, + Which circled down my golden sand, + By dappled park, and harbor shady, + Haunt of love-lorn knight and lady, + My thrice-renowned sons to greet, + With rustic song and pageant meet. + For joy! the girdled robe around + Eliza's name henceforth shall sound, + Whose venturous fleets to conquest start, + Where ended once the seaman's chart, + While circling Sol his steps shall count + Henceforth from Thule's western mount, + And lead new rulers round the seas + From furthest Cassiterides. + For found is now the golden tree, + Solv'd th' Atlantic mystery, + Pluck'd the dragon-guarded fruit; + While around the charmed root, + Wailing loud, the Hesperids + Watch their warder's drooping lids. + Low he lies with grisly wound, + While the sorceress triple-crown'd + In her scarlet robe doth shield him, + Till her cunning spells have heal'd him. + Ye, meanwhile, around the earth + Bear the prize of manful worth. + Yet a nobler meed than gold + Waits for Albion's children bold; + Great Eliza's virgin hand + Welcomes you to Fairy-land, + While your native Naiads bring + Native wreaths as offering. + Simple though their show may be, + Britain's worship in them see. + 'Tis not price, nor outward fairness, + Gives the victor's palm its rareness; + Simplest tokens can impart + Noble throb to noble heart: + Graecia, prize thy parsley crown, + Boast thy laurel, Caesar's town; + Moorland myrtle still shall be + Badge of Devon's Chivalry!" + + +And so ending, she took the wreath of fragrant gale from her own +head, and stooping from the car, placed it on the head of Amyas +Leigh, who made answer-- + +"There is no place like home, my fair mistress and no scent to my +taste like this old home-scent in all the spice-islands that I ever +sailed by!" + +"Her song was not so bad," said Sir Richard to Lady Bath--"but how +came she to hear Plymouth bells at Tamar-head, full fifty miles +away? That's too much of a poet's license, is it not?" + +"The river-nymphs, as daughters of Oceanus, and thus of immortal +parentage, are bound to possess organs of more than mortal +keenness; but, as you say, the song was not so bad--erudite, as +well as prettily conceived--and, saving for a certain rustical +simplicity and monosyllabic baldness, smacks rather of the forests +of Castaly than those of Torridge." + +So spake my Lady Bath; whom Sir Richard wisely answered not; for +she was a terribly learned member of the college of critics, and +disputed even with Sidney's sister the chieftaincy of the +Euphuists; so Sir Richard answered not, but answer was made for +him. + +"Since the whole choir of Muses, madam, have migrated to the Court +of Whitehall, no wonder if some dews of Parnassus should fertilize +at times even our Devon moors." + +The speaker was a tall and slim young man, some five-and-twenty +years old, of so rare and delicate a beauty, that it seemed that +some Greek statue, or rather one of those pensive and pious knights +whom the old German artists took delight to paint, had condescended +to tread awhile this work-day earth in living flesh and blood. The +forehead was very lofty and smooth, the eyebrows thin and greatly +arched (the envious gallants whispered that something at least of +their curve was due to art, as was also the exceeding smoothness of +those delicate cheeks). The face was somewhat long and thin; the +nose aquiline; and the languid mouth showed, perhaps, too much of +the ivory upper teeth; but the most striking point of the speaker's +appearance was the extraordinary brilliancy of his complexion, +which shamed with its whiteness that of all fair ladies round, save +where open on each cheek a bright red spot gave warning, as did the +long thin neck and the taper hands, of sad possibilities, perhaps +not far off; possibilities which all saw with an inward sigh, +except she whose doting glances, as well as her resemblance to the +fair youth, proclaimed her at once his mother, Mrs. Leigh herself. + +Master Frank, for he it was, was dressed in the very extravagance +of the fashion,--not so much from vanity, as from that delicate +instinct of self-respect which would keep some men spruce and +spotless from one year's end to another upon a desert island; +"for," as Frank used to say in his sententious way, "Mr. Frank +Leigh at least beholds me, though none else be by; and why should I +be more discourteous to him than I permit others to be? Be sure +that he who is a Grobian in his own company, will, sooner or later, +become a Grobian in that of his friends." + +So Mr. Frank was arrayed spotlessly; but after the latest fashion +of Milan, not in trunk hose and slashed sleeves, nor in "French +standing collar, treble quadruple daedalian ruff, or stiff-necked +rabato, that had more arches for pride, propped up with wire and +timber, than five London Bridges;" but in a close-fitting and +perfectly plain suit of dove-color, which set off cunningly the +delicate proportions of his figure, and the delicate hue of his +complexion, which was shaded from the sun by a broad dove-colored +Spanish hat, with feather to match, looped up over the right ear +with a pearl brooch, and therein a crowned E, supposed by the +damsels of Bideford to stand for Elizabeth, which was whispered to +be the gift of some most illustrious hand. This same looping up +was not without good reason and purpose prepense; thereby all the +world had full view of a beautiful little ear, which looked as if +it had been cut of cameo, and made, as my Lady Rich once told him, +"to hearken only to the music of the spheres, or to the chants of +cherubim." Behind the said ear was stuck a fresh rose; and the +golden hair was all drawn smoothly back and round to the left +temple, whence, tied with a pink ribbon in a great true lover's +knot, a mighty love-lock, "curled as it had been laid in press," +rolled down low upon his bosom. Oh, Frank! Frank! have you come +out on purpose to break the hearts of all Bideford burghers' +daughters? And if so, did you expect to further that triumph by +dyeing that pretty little pointed beard (with shame I report it) of +a bright vermilion? But we know you better, Frank, and so does +your mother; and you are but a masquerading angel after all, in +spite of your knots and your perfumes, and the gold chain round +your neck which a German princess gave you; and the emerald ring on +your right fore-finger which Hatton gave you; and the pair of +perfumed gloves in your left which Sidney's sister gave you; and +the silver-hilted Toledo which an Italian marquis gave you on a +certain occasion of which you never choose to talk, like a prudent +and modest gentleman as you are; but of which the gossips talk, of +course, all the more, and whisper that you saved his life from +bravoes--a dozen, at the least; and had that sword for your reward, +and might have had his beautiful sister's hand beside, and I know +not what else; but that you had so many lady-loves already that you +were loath to burden yourself with a fresh one. That, at least, we +know to be a lie, fair Frank; for your heart is as pure this day as +when you knelt in your little crib at Burrough, and said-- + + + "Four corners to my bed + Four angels round my head; + Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, + Bless the bed that I lie on." + + +And who could doubt it (if being pure themselves, they have +instinctive sympathy with what is pure), who ever looked into those +great deep blue eyes of yours, "the black fringed curtains of whose +azure lids," usually down-dropt as if in deepest thought, you raise +slowly, almost wonderingly each time you speak, as if awakening +from some fair dream whose home is rather in your platonical +"eternal world of supra-sensible forms," than on that work-day +earth wherein you nevertheless acquit yourself so well? There--I +must stop describing you, or I shall catch the infection of your +own euphuism, and talk of you as you would have talked of Sidney or +of Spenser, or of that Swan of Avon, whose song had just begun when +yours--but I will not anticipate; my Lady Bath is waiting to give +you her rejoinder. + +"Ah, my silver-tongued scholar! and are you, then, the poet? or +have you been drawing on the inexhaustible bank of your friend +Raleigh, or my cousin Sidney? or has our new Cygnet Immerito lent +you a few unpublished leaves from some fresh Shepherd's Calendar?" + +"Had either, madam, of that cynosural triad been within call of my +most humble importunities, your ears had been delectate with far +nobler melody." + +"But not our eyes with fairer faces, eh? Well, you have chosen +your nymphs, and had good store from whence to pick, I doubt not. +Few young Dulcineas round but must have been glad to take service +under so renowned a captain?" + +"The only difficulty, gracious countess, has been to know where to +fix the wandering choice of my bewildered eyes, where all alike are +fair, and all alike facund." + +"We understand," said she, smiling;-- + + + "Dan Cupid, choosing 'midst his mother's graces, + Himself more fair, made scorn of fairest faces." + + +The young scholar capped her distich forthwith, and bowing to her +with a meaning look, + + + "'Then, Goddess, turn,' he cried, 'and veil thy light; + Blinded by thine, what eyes can choose aright?'" + + +"Go, saucy sir," said my lady, in high glee: "the pageant stays +your supreme pleasure." + +And away went Mr. Frank as master of the revels, to bring up the +'prentices' pageant; while, for his sake, the nymph of Torridge was +forgotten for awhile by all young dames, and most young gentlemen: +and his mother heaved a deep sigh, which Lady Bath overhearing-- + +"What? in the dumps, good madam, while all are rejoicing in your +joy? Are you afraid that we court-dames shall turn your Adonis's +brain for him?" + +"I do, indeed, fear lest your condescension should make him forget +that he is only a poor squire's orphan." + +"I will warrant him never to forget aught that he should +recollect," said my Lady Bath. + +And she spoke truly. But soon Frank's silver voice was heard +calling out-- + +"Room there, good people, for the gallant 'prentice lads!" + +And on they came, headed by a giant of buckram and pasteboard +armor, forth of whose stomach looked, like a clock-face in a +steeple, a human visage, to be greeted, as was the fashion then, by +a volley of quips and puns from high and low. + +Young Mr. William Cary, of Clovelly, who was the wit of those +parts, opened the fire by asking him whether he were Goliath, +Gogmagog, or Grantorto in the romance; for giants' names always +began with a G. To which the giant's stomach answered pretty +surlily-- + +"Mine don't; I begin with an O." + +"Then thou criest out before thou art hurt, O cowardly giant!" + +"Let me out, lads," quoth the irascible visage, struggling in his +buckram prison, "and I soon show him whether I be a coward." + +"Nay, if thou gettest out of thyself, thou wouldst be beside +thyself, and so wert but a mad giant." + +"And that were pity," said Lady Bath; "for by the romances, giants +have never overmuch wit to spare." + +"Mercy, dear lady!" said Frank, "and let the giant begin with an O." + +"A ----" + +"A false start, giant! you were to begin with an O." + +"I'll make you end with an O, Mr. William Cary!" roared the testy +tower of buckram. + +"And so I do, for I end with 'Fico!'" + +"Be mollified, sweet giant," said Frank, "and spare the rash youth +of yon foolish knight. Shall elephants catch flies, or Hurlo- +Thrumbo stain his club with brains of Dagonet the jester? Be +mollified; leave thy caverned grumblings, like Etna when its windy +wrath is past, and discourse eloquence from thy central omphalos, +like Pythoness ventriloquizing." + +"If you do begin laughing at me too, Mr. Leigh ----" said the +giant's clock-face, in a piteous tone. + +"I laugh not. Art thou not Ordulf the earl, and I thy humblest +squire? Speak up, my lord; your cousin, my Lady Bath, commands +you." + +And at last the giant began:-- + + + "A giant I, Earl Ordulf men me call,-- + 'Gainst Paynim foes Devonia's champion tall; + In single fight six thousand Turks I slew; + Pull'd off a lion's head, and ate it too: + With one shrewd blow, to let St. Edward in, + I smote the gates of Exeter in twain; + Till aged grown, by angels warn'd in dream, + I built an abbey fair by Tavy stream. + But treacherous time hath tripped my glories up, + The stanch old hound must yield to stancher pup; + Here's one so tall as I, and twice so bold, + Where I took only cuffs, takes good red gold. + From pole to pole resound his wondrous works, + Who slew more Spaniards than I e'er slew Turks; + I strode across the Tavy stream: but he + Strode round the world and back; and here 'a be!" + + +"Oh, bathos!" said Lady Bath, while the 'prentices shouted +applause. "Is this hedge-bantling to be fathered on you, Mr. +Frank?" + +"It is necessary, by all laws of the drama, madam," said Frank, +with a sly smile, "that the speech and the speaker shall fit each +other. Pass on, Earl Ordulf; a more learned worthy waits." + +Whereon, up came a fresh member of the procession; namely, no less +a person than Vindex Brimblecombe, the ancient schoolmaster, with +five-and-forty boys at his heels, who halting, pulled out his +spectacles, and thus signified his forgiveness of his whilom broken +head:-- + +"That the world should have been circumnavigated, ladies and +gentles, were matter enough of jubilation to the student of +Herodotus and Plato, Plinius and ---- ahem! much more when the +circumnavigators are Britons; more, again, when Damnonians." + +"Don't swear, master," said young Will Cary. + +"Gulielme Cary, Gulielme Cary, hast thou forgotten thy--" + +"Whippings? Never, old lad! Go on; but let not the license of the +scholar overtop the modesty of the Christian." + +"More again, as I said, when, incolae, inhabitants of Devon; but, +most of all, men of Bideford school. Oh renowned school! Oh +schoolboys ennobled by fellowship with him! Oh most happy +pedagogue, to whom it has befallen to have chastised a +circumnavigator, and, like another Chiron, trained another +Hercules: yet more than Hercules, for he placed his pillars on the +ocean shore, and then returned; but my scholar's voyage--" + +"Hark how the old fox is praising himself all along on the sly," +said Cary. + +"Mr. William, Mr. william, peace;--silentium, my graceless pupil. +Urge the foaming steed, and strike terror into the rapid stag, but +meddle not with matters too high for thee." + +"He has given you the dor now, sir," said Lady Bath; "let the old +man say his say." + +"I bring, therefore, as my small contribution to this day's feast; +first a Latin epigram, as thus--" + +"Latin? Let us hear it forthwith," cried my lady. + +And the old pedant mouthed out-- + + + "Torriguiam Tamaris ne spernat; Leighius addet + Mox terras terris, inclyte Drake, tuis." + + +"Neat, i' faith, la!" Whereon all the rest, as in duty bound, +approved also. + +"This for the erudite: for vulgar ears the vernacular is more +consonant, sympathetic, instructive; as thus:-- + + + "Famed Argo ship, that noble chip, by doughty Jason's steering, + Brought back to Greece the golden fleece, from Colchis home careering; + But now her fame is put to shame, while new Devonian Argo, + Round earth doth run in wake of sun, and brings wealthier cargo." + + +"Runs with a right fa-lal-la," observed Cary; "and would go nobly +to a fiddle and a big drum." + + + "Ye Spaniards, quake! our doughty Drake a royal swan is tested, + On wing and oar, from shore to shore, the raging main who breasted:-- + But never needs to chant his deeds, like swan that lies a-dying, + So far his name, by trump of fame, around the sphere is flying." + + +"Hillo ho! schoolmaster!" shouted a voice from behind; "move on, +and make way for Father Neptune!" Whereon a whole storm of +raillery fell upon the hapless pedagogue. + +"We waited for the parson's alligator, but we wain't for yourn." + +"Allegory! my children, allegory!" shrieked the man of letters. + +"What do ye call he an alligator for? He is but a poor little +starved evat!" + +"Out of the road, old Custis! March on, Don Palmado!" + +These allusions to the usual instrument of torture in West-country +schools made the old gentleman wince; especially when they were +followed home by-- + +"Who stole Admiral Grenville's brooms, because birch rods were +dear?" + +But proudly he shook his bald head, as a bull shakes off the flies, +and returned to the charge once more. + + + "Great Alexander, famed commander, wept and made a pother, + At conquering only half the world, but Drake had conquer'd t'other; + And Hercules to brink of seas!--" + + +"Oh--!" + +And clapping both hands to the back of his neck, the schoolmaster +began dancing frantically about, while his boys broke out +tittering, "O! the ochidore! look to the blue ochidore! Who've put +ochidore to maister's poll!" + +It was too true: neatly inserted, as he stooped forward, between +his neck and his collar, was a large live shore-crab, holding on +tight with both hands. + +"Gentles! good Christians! save me! I am mare-rode! Incubo, vel +ab incubo, opprimor! Satanas has me by the poll! Help! he tears +my jugular; he wrings my neck, as he does to Dr. Faustus in the +play. Confiteor!--I confess! Satan, I defy thee! Good people, I +confess! [Greek text]! The truth will out. Mr. Francis Leigh +wrote the epigram!" And diving through the crowd, the pedagogue +vanished howling, while Father Neptune, crowned with sea-weeds, a +trident in one hand, and a live dog-fish in the other, swaggered up +the street surrounded by a tall bodyguard of mariners, and followed +by a great banner, on which was depicted a globe, with Drake's ship +sailing thereon upside down, and overwritten-- + + + "See every man the Pelican, + Which round the world did go, + While her stern-post was uppermost, + And topmasts down below. + And by the way she lost a day, + Out of her log was stole: + But Neptune kind, with favoring wind, + Hath brought her safe and whole." + + +"Now, lads!" cried Neptune; "hand me my parable that's writ for me, +and here goeth!" + +And at the top of his bull-voice, he began roaring-- + + + "I am King Neptune bold, + The ruler of the seas + I don't understand much singing upon land, + But I hope what I say will please. + + "Here be five Bideford men, + Which have sail'd the world around, + And I watch'd them well, as they all can tell, + And brought them home safe and sound. + + "For it is the men of Devon. + To see them I take delight, + Both to tack and to hull, and to heave and to pull, + And to prove themselves in fight. + + "Where be those Spaniards proud, + That make their valiant boasts; + And think for to keep the poor Indians for their sheep, + And to farm my golden coasts? + + "'Twas the devil and the Pope gave them + My kingdom for their own: + But my nephew Francis Drake, he caused them to quake, + And he pick'd them to the bone. + + "For the sea my realm it is, + As good Queen Bess's is the land; + So freely come again, all merry Devon men, + And there's old Neptune's hand." + + +"Holla, boys! holla! Blow up, Triton, and bring forward the +freedom of the seas." + +Triton, roaring through a conch, brought forward a cockle-shell +full of salt-water, and delivered it solemnly to Amyas, who, of +course, put a noble into it, and returned it after Grenville had +done the same. + +"Holla, Dick Admiral!" cried neptune, who was pretty far gone in +liquor; "we knew thou hadst a right English heart in thee, for all +thou standest there as taut as a Don who has swallowed his rapier." + +"Grammercy, stop thy bellowing, fellow, and on; for thou smellest +vilely of fish." + +"Everything smells sweet in its right place. I'm going home." + +"I thought thou wert there all along, being already half-seas +over," said Cary. + +"Ay, right Upsee-Dutch; and that's more than thou ever wilt be, +thou 'long-shore stay-at-home. Why wast making sheep's eyes at +Mistress Salterne here, while my pretty little chuck of Burrough +there was playing at shove-groat with Spanish doubloons?" + +"Go to the devil, sirrah!" said Cary. Neptune had touched on a +sore subject; and more cheeks than Amyas Leigh's reddened at the +hint. + +"Amen, if Heaven so please!" and on rolled the monarch of the seas; +and so the pageant ended. + +The moment Amyas had an opportunity, he asked his brother Frank, +somewhat peevishly, where Rose Salterne was. + +"What! the mayor's daughter? With her uncle by Kilkhampton, I +believe." + +Now cunning Master Frank, whose daily wish was to "seek peace and +ensue it," told Amyas this, because he must needs speak the truth: +but he was purposed at the same time to speak as little truth as he +could, for fear of accidents; and, therefore, omitted to tell his +brother how that he, two days before, had entreated Rose Salterne +herself to appear as the nymph of Torridge; which honor she, who +had no objection either to exhibit her pretty face, to recite +pretty poetry, or to be trained thereto by the cynosure of North +Devon, would have assented willingly, but that her father stopped +the pretty project by a peremptory countermove, and packed her off, +in spite of her tears, to the said uncle on the Atlantic cliffs; +after which he went up to Burrough, and laughed over the whole +matter with Mrs. Leigh. + +"I am but a burgher, Mrs. Leigh, and you a lady of blood; but I am +too proud to let any man say that Simon Salterne threw his daughter +at your son's head;--no; not if you were an empress!" + +"And to speak truth, Mr. Salterne, there are young gallants enough +in the country quarrelling about her pretty face every day, without +making her a tourney-queen to tilt about." + +Which was very true; for during the three years of Amyas's absence, +Rose Salterne had grown into so beautiful a girl of eighteen, that +half North Devon was mad about the "Rose of Torridge," as she was +called; and there was not a young gallant for ten miles round (not +to speak of her father's clerks and 'prentices, who moped about +after her like so many Malvolios, and treasured up the very parings +of her nails) who would not have gone to Jerusalem to win her. So +that all along the vales of Torridge and of Taw, and even away to +Clovelly (for young Mr. Cary was one of the sick), not a gay +bachelor but was frowning on his fellows, and vying with them in +the fashion of his clothes, the set of his ruffs, the harness of +his horse, the carriage of his hawks, the pattern of his sword- +hilt; and those were golden days for all tailors and armorers, from +Exmoor to Okehampton town. But of all those foolish young lads not +one would speak to the other, either out hunting, or at the archery +butts, or in the tilt-yard; and my Lady Bath (who confessed that +there was no use in bringing out her daughters where Rose Salterne +was in the way) prophesied in her classical fashion that Rose's +wedding bid fair to be a very bridal of Atalanta, and feast of the +Lapithae; and poor Mr. Will Cary (who always blurted out the +truth), when old Salterne once asked him angrily in Bideford +Market, "What a plague business had he making sheep's eyes at his +daughter?" broke out before all bystanders, "And what a plague +business had you, old boy, to throw such an apple of discord into +our merry meetings hereabouts? If you choose to have such a +daughter, you must take the consequences, and be hanged to you." +To which Mr. Salterne answered with some truth, "That she was none +of his choosing, nor of Mr. Cary's neither." And so the dor being +given, the belligerents parted laughing, but the war remained in +statu quo; and not a week passed but, by mysterious hands, some +nosegay, or languishing sonnet, was conveyed into The Rose's +chamber, all which she stowed away, with the simplicity of a +country girl, finding it mighty pleasant; and took all compliments +quietly enough, probably because, on the authority of her mirror, +she considered them no more than her due. + +And now, to add to the general confusion, home was come young Amyas +Leigh, more desperately in love with her than ever. For, as is the +way with sailors (who after all are the truest lovers, as they are +the finest fellows, God bless them, upon earth), his lonely ship- +watches had been spent in imprinting on his imagination, month +after month, year after year, every feature and gesture and tone of +the fair lass whom he had left behind him; and that all the more +intensely, because, beside his mother, he had no one else to think +of, and was as pure as the day he was born, having been trained as +many a brave young man was then, to look upon profligacy not as a +proof of manhood, but as what the old Germans, and those Gortyneans +who crowned the offender with wool, knew it to be, a cowardly and +effeminate sin. + + + +CHAPTER III + +OF TWO GENTLEMEN OF WALES, AND HOW THEY HUNTED WITH THE HOUNDS, AND +YET RAN WITH THE DEER + + +"I know that Deformed; he has been a vile thief this seven years; +he goes up and down like a gentleman: I remember his name."--Much +Ado About Nothing. + + +Amyas slept that night a tired and yet a troubled sleep; and his +mother and Frank, as they bent over his pillow, could see that his +brain was busy with many dreams. + +And no wonder; for over and above all the excitement of the day, +the recollection of John Oxenham had taken strange possession of +his mind; and all that evening, as he sat in the bay-windowed room +where he had seen him last, Amyas was recalling to himself every +look and gesture of the lost adventurer, and wondering at himself +for so doing, till he retired to sleep, only to renew the fancy in +his dreams. At last he found himself, he knew not how, sailing +westward ever, up the wake of the setting sun, in chase of a tiny +sail which was John Oxenham's. Upon him was a painful sense that, +unless he came up with her in time, something fearful would come to +pass; but the ship would not sail. All around floated the sargasso +beds, clogging her bows with their long snaky coils of weed; and +still he tried to sail, and tried to fancy that he was sailing, +till the sun went down and all was utter dark. And then the moon +arose, and in a moment John Oxenham's ship was close aboard; her +sails were torn and fluttering; the pitch was streaming from her +sides; her bulwarks were rotting to decay. And what was that line +of dark objects dangling along the mainyard?--A line of hanged men! +And, horror of horrors, from the yard-arm close above him, John +Oxenham's corpse looked down with grave-light eyes, and beckoned +and pointed, as if to show him his way, and strove to speak, and +could not, and pointed still, not forward, but back along their +course. And when Amyas looked back, behold, behind him was the +snow range of the Andes glittering in the moon, and he knew that he +was in the South Seas once more, and that all America was between +him and home. And still the corpse kept pointing back, and back, +and looking at him with yearning eyes of agony, and lips which +longed to tell some awful secret; till he sprang up, and woke with +a shout of terror, and found himself lying in the little coved +chamber in dear old Burrough, with the gray autumn morning already +stealing in. + +Feverish and excited, he tried in vain to sleep again; and after an +hour's tossing, rose and dressed, and started for a bathe on his +beloved old pebble ridge. As he passed his mother's door, he could +not help looking in. The dim light of morning showed him the bed; +but its pillow had not been pressed that night. His mother, in her +long white night-dress, was kneeling at the other end of the +chamber at her prie-dieu, absorbed in devotion. Gently he slipped +in without a word, and knelt down at her side. She turned, smiled, +passed her arm around him, and went on silently with her prayers. +Why not? They were for him, and he knew it, and prayed also; and +his prayers were for her, and for poor lost John Oxenham, and all +his vanished crew. + +At last she rose, and standing above him, parted the yellow locks +from off his brow, and looked long and lovingly into his face. +There was nothing to be spoken, for there was nothing to be +concealed between these two souls as clear as glass. Each knew all +which the other meant; each knew that its own thoughts were known. +At last the mutual gaze was over; she stooped and kissed him on the +brow, and was in the act to turn away, as a tear dropped on his +forehead. Her little bare feet were peeping out from under her +dress. He bent down and kissed them again and again; and then +looking up, as if to excuse himself,-- + +"You have such pretty feet, mother!" + +Instantly, with a woman's instinct, she had hidden them. She had +been a beauty once, as I said; and though her hair was gray, and +her roses had faded long ago, she was beautiful still, in all eyes +which saw deeper than the mere outward red and white. + +"Your dear father used to say so thirty years ago." + +"And I say so still: you always were beautiful; you are beautiful +now." + +"What is that to you, silly boy? Will you play the lover with an +old mother? Go and take your walk, and think of younger ladies, if +you can find any worthy of you." + +And so the son went forth, and the mother returned to her prayers. + +He walked down to the pebble ridge, where the surges of the bay +have defeated their own fury, by rolling up in the course of ages a +rampart of gray boulder-stones, some two miles long, as cunningly +curved, and smoothed, and fitted, as if the work had been done by +human hands, which protects from the high tides of spring and +autumn a fertile sheet of smooth, alluvial turf. Sniffing the keen +salt air like a young sea-dog, he stripped and plunged into the +breakers, and dived, and rolled, and tossed about the foam with +stalwart arms, till he heard himself hailed from off the shore, and +looking up, saw standing on the top of the rampart the tall figure +of his cousin Eustace. + +Amyas was half-disappointed at his coming; for, love-lorn rascal, +he had been dreaming all the way thither of Rose Salterne, and had +no wish for a companion who would prevent his dreaming of her all +the way back. Nevertheless, not having seen Eustace for three +years, it was but civil to scramble out and dress, while his cousin +walked up and down upon the turf inside. + +Eustace Leigh was the son of a younger brother of Leigh of +Burrough, who had more or less cut himself off from his family, and +indeed from his countrymen, by remaining a Papist. True, though +born a Papist, he had not always been one; for, like many of the +gentry, he had become a Protestant under Edward the Sixth, and then +a Papist again under Mary. But, to his honor be it said, at that +point he had stopped, having too much honesty to turn Protestant a +second time, as hundreds did, at Elizabeth's accession. So a +Papist he remained, living out of the way of the world in a great, +rambling, dark house, still called "Chapel," on the Atlantic +cliffs, in Moorwinstow parish, not far from Sir Richard Grenville's +house of Stow. The penal laws never troubled him; for, in the +first place, they never troubled any one who did not make +conspiracy and rebellion an integral doctrine of his religious +creed; and next, they seldom troubled even them, unless, fired with +the glory of martyrdom, they bullied the long-suffering of +Elizabeth and her council into giving them their deserts, and, like +poor Father Southwell in after years, insisted on being hanged, +whether Burleigh liked or not. Moreover, in such a no-man's-land +and end-of-all-the-earth was that old house at Moorwinstow, that a +dozen conspiracies might have been hatched there without any one +hearing of it; and Jesuits and seminary priests skulked in and out +all the year round, unquestioned though unblest; and found a sort +of piquant pleasure, like naughty boys who have crept into the +store-closet, in living in mysterious little dens in a lonely +turret, and going up through a trap-door to celebrate mass in a +secret chamber in the roof, where they were allowed by the powers +that were to play as much as they chose at persecuted saints, and +preach about hiding in dens and caves of the earth. For once, when +the zealous parson of Moorwinstow, having discovered (what +everybody knew already) the existence of "mass priests and their +idolatry" at Chapel House, made formal complaint thereof to Sir +Richard, and called on him, as the nearest justice of the peace, to +put in force the act of the fourteenth of Elizabeth, that worthy +knight only rated him soundly for a fantastical Puritan, and bade +him mind his own business, if he wished not to make the place too +hot for him; whereon (for the temporal authorities, happily for the +peace of England, kept in those days a somewhat tight hand upon the +spiritual ones) the worthy parson subsided,--for, after all, Mr. +Thomas Leigh paid his tithes regularly enough,--and was content, as +he expressed it, to bow his head in the house of Rimmon like Naaman +of old, by eating Mr. Leigh's dinners as often as he was invited, +and ignoring the vocation of old Father Francis, who sat opposite +to him, dressed as a layman, and calling himself the young +gentleman's pedagogue. + +But the said birds of ill-omen had a very considerable lien on the +conscience of poor Mr. Thomas Leigh, the father of Eustace, in the +form of certain lands once belonging to the Abbey of Hartland. He +more than half believed that he should be lost for holding those +lands; but he did not believe it wholly, and, therefore, he did not +give them up; which was the case, as poor Mary Tudor found to her +sorrow, with most of her "Catholic" subjects, whose consciences, +while they compelled them to return to the only safe fold of Mother +Church (extra quam nulla salus), by no means compelled them to +disgorge the wealth of which they had plundered that only hope of +their salvation. Most of them, however, like poor Tom Leigh, felt +the abbey rents burn in their purses; and, as John Bull generally +does in a difficulty, compromised the matter by a second folly (as +if two wrong things made one right one), and petted foreign +priests, and listened, or pretended not to listen, to their +plottings and their practisings; and gave up a son here, and a son +there, as a sort of a sin-offering and scapegoat, to be carried off +to Douay, or Rheims, or Rome, and trained as a seminary priest; in +plain English, to be taught the science of villainy, on the motive +of superstition. One of such hapless scapegoats, and children who +had been cast into the fire to Moloch, was Eustace Leigh, whom his +father had sent, giving the fruit of his body for the sin of his +soul, to be made a liar of at Rheims. + +And a very fair liar he had become. Not that the lad was a bad +fellow at heart; but he had been chosen by the harpies at home, on +account of his "peculiar vocation;" in plain English, because the +wily priests had seen in him certain capacities of vague hysterical +fear of the unseen (the religious sentiment, we call it now-a- +days), and with them that tendency to be a rogue, which +superstitious men always have. He was now a tall, handsome, light- +complexioned man, with a huge upright forehead, a very small mouth, +and a dry and set expression of face, which was always trying to +get free, or rather to seem free, and indulge in smiles and dimples +which were proper; for one ought to have Christian love, and if one +had love one ought to be cheerful, and when people were cheerful +they smiled; and therefore he would smile, and tried to do so; but +his charity prepense looked no more alluring than malice prepense +would have done; and, had he not been really a handsome fellow, +many a woman who raved about his sweetness would have likened his +frankness to that of a skeleton dancing in fetters, and his smiles +to the grins thereof. + +He had returned to England about a month before, in obedience to +the proclamation which had been set forth for that purpose (and +certainly not before it was needed), that, "whosoever had children, +wards, etc., in the parts beyond the seas, should send in their +names to the ordinary, and within four months call them home +again." So Eustace was now staying with his father at Chapel, +having, nevertheless, his private matters to transact on behalf of +the virtuous society by whom he had been brought up; one of which +private matters had brought him to Bideford the night before. + +So he sat down beside Amyas on the pebbles, and looked at him all +over out of the corners of his eyes very gently, as if he did not +wish to hurt him, or even the flies on his back; and Amyas faced +right round, and looked him full in the face. with the heartiest +of smiles, and held out a lion's paw, which Eustace took +rapturously, and a great shaking of hands ensued; Amyas gripping +with a great round fist, and a quiet quiver thereof, as much as to +say, "I AM glad to see you;" and Eustace pinching hard with white, +straight fingers, and sawing the air violently up and down, as much +as to say, "DON'T YOU SEE how glad I am to see you?" A very +different greeting from the former. + +"Hold hard, old lad," said Amyas, "before you break my elbow. And +where do you come from?" + +"From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down +in it," said he, with a little smile and nod of mysterious self- +importance. + +"Like the devil, eh? Well, every man has his pattern. How is my +uncle?" + +Now, if there was one man on earth above another, of whom Eustace +Leigh stood in dread, it was his cousin Amyas. In the first place, +he knew Amyas could have killed him with a blow; and there are +natures, who, instead of rejoicing in the strength of men of +greater prowess than themselves, look at such with irritation, +dread, at last, spite; expecting, perhaps, that the stronger will +do to them what they feel they might have done in his place. Every +one, perhaps, has the same envious, cowardly devil haunting about +his heart; but the brave men, though they be very sparrows, kick +him out; the cowards keep him, and foster him; and so did poor +Eustace Leigh. + +Next, he could not help feeling that Amyas despised him. They had +not met for three years; but before Amyas went, Eustace never could +argue with him, simply because Amyas treated him as beneath +argument. No doubt he was often rude and unfair enough; but the +whole mass of questions concerning the unseen world, which the +priests had stimulated in his cousin's mind into an unhealthy +fungus crop, were to Amyas simply, as he expressed it, "wind and +moonshine;" and he treated his cousin as a sort of harmless +lunatic, and, as they say in Devon, "half-baked." And Eustace knew +it; and knew, too, that his cousin did him an injustice. "He used +to undervalue me," said he to himself; "let us see whether he does +not find me a match for him now." And then went off into an agony +of secret contrition for his self-seeking and his forgetting that +"the glory of God, and not his own exaltation," was the object of +his existence. + +There, dear readers, Ex pede Herculem; I cannot tire myself or you +(especially in this book) with any wire-drawn soul-dissections. I +have tried to hint to you two opposite sorts of men,--the one +trying to be good with all his might and main, according to certain +approved methods and rules, which he has got by heart, and like a +weak oarsman, feeling and fingering his spiritual muscles over all +day, to see if they are growing; the other not even knowing whether +he is good or not, but just doing the right thing without thinking +about it, as simply as a little child, because the Spirit of God is +with him. If you cannot see the great gulf fixed between the two, +I trust that you will discover it some day. + +But in justice be it said, all this came upon Eustace, not because +he was a Romanist, but because he was educated by the Jesuits. Had +he been saved from them, he might have lived and died as simple and +honest a gentleman as his brothers, who turned out like true +Englishmen (as did all the Romish laity) to face the great Armada, +and one of whom was fighting at that very minute under St. Leger in +Ireland, and as brave and loyal a soldier as those Roman Catholics +whose noble blood has stained every Crimean battlefield; but his +fate was appointed otherwise; and the Upas-shadow which has +blighted the whole Romish Church, blighted him also. + +"Ah, my dearest cousin!" said Eustace, "how disappointed I was this +morning at finding I had arrived just a day too late to witness +your triumph! But I hastened to your home as soon as I could, and +learning from your mother that I should find you here, hurried down +to bid you welcome again to Devon." + +"Well, old lad, it does look very natural to see you. I often used +to think of you walking the deck o' nights. Uncle and the girls +are all right, then? But is the old pony dead yet? And how's Dick +the smith, and Nancy? Grown a fine maid by now, I warrant. 'Slid, +it seems half a life that I've been away. + +"And you really thought of your poor cousin? Be sure that he, too, +thought of you, and offered up nightly his weak prayers for your +safety (doubtless, not without avail) to those saints, to whom +would that you--" + +"Halt there, coz. If they are half as good fellows as you and I +take them for, they'll help me without asking." + +"They have helped you, Amyas." + +"Maybe; I'd have done as much, I'm sure, for them, if I 'd been in +their place." + +"And do you not feel, then, that you owe a debt of gratitude to +them; and, above all, to her, whose intercessions have, I doubt +not, availed for your preservation? Her, the star of the sea, the +all-compassionate guide of the mariner?" + +"Humph!" said Amyas. "Here's Frank; let him answer." + +And, as he spoke, up came Frank, and after due greetings, sat down +beside them on the ridge. + +"I say, brother, here's Eustace trying already to convert me; and +telling me that I owe all my luck to the Blessed Virgin's prayers +for me. + +"It may be so," said Frank; "at least you owe it to the prayers of +that most pure and peerless virgin by whose commands you sailed; +the sweet incense of whose orisons has gone up for you daily, and +for whose sake you were preserved from flood and foe, that you +might spread the fame and advance the power of the spotless +championess of truth, and right, and freedom,--Elizabeth, your +queen." + +Amyas answered this rhapsody, which would have been then both +fashionable and sincere, by a loyal chuckle. Eustace smiled +meekly, but answered somewhat venomously nevertheless-- + +"I, at least, am certain that I speak the truth, when I call my +patroness a virgin undefiled." + +Both the brothers' brows clouded at once. Amyas, as he lay on his +back on the pebbles, said quietly to the gulls over his head--"I +wonder what the Frenchman whose head I cut off at the Azores, +thinks by now about all that." + +"Cut off a Frenchman's head?" said Frank. + +"Yes, faith; and so fleshed my maiden sword. I'll tell you. It +was in some tavern; I and George Drake had gone in, and there sat +this Frenchman, with his sword on the table, ready for a quarrel (I +found afterwards he was a noted bully), and begins with us loudly +enough about this and that; but, after awhile, by the instigation +of the devil, what does he vent but a dozen slanders against her +majesty's honor, one atop of the other? I was ashamed to hear +them, and I should be more ashamed to repeat them." + +"I have heard enough of such," said Frank. "They come mostly +through lewd rascals about the French ambassador, who have been +bred (God help them) among the filthy vices of that Medicean Court +in which the Queen of Scots had her schooling; and can only +perceive in a virtuous freedom a cloak for licentiousness like +their own. Let the curs bark; Honi soit qui mal y pense is our +motto, and shall be forever." + +"But I didn't let the cur bark; for I took him by the ears, to show +him out into the street. Whereon he got to his sword, and I to +mine; and a very near chance I had of never bathing on the pebble +ridge more; for the fellow did not fight with edge and buckler, +like a Christian, but had some newfangled French devil's device of +scryming and foining with his point, ha'ing and stamping, and +tracing at me, that I expected to be full of eyelet holes ere I +could close with him." + +"Thank God that you are safe, then!" said Frank. "I know that play +well enough, and dangerous enough it is." + +"Of course you know it; but I didn't, more's the pity." + +"Well, I'll teach it thee, lad, as well as Rowland Yorke himself, + + + 'Thy fincture, carricade, and sly passata, + Thy stramazon, and resolute stoccata, + Wiping maudritta, closing embrocata, + And all the cant of the honorable fencing mystery.'" + + +"Rowland Yorke? Who's he, then?" + +"A very roystering rascal, who is making good profit in London just +now by teaching this very art of fence; and is as likely to have +his mortal thread clipt in a tavern brawl, as thy Frenchman. But +how did you escape his pinking iron?" + +"How? Had it through my left arm before I could look round; and at +that I got mad, and leapt upon him, and caught him by the wrist, +and then had a fair side-blow; and, as fortune would have it, off +tumbled his head on to the table, and there was an end of his +slanders." + +"So perish all her enemies!" said Frank; and Eustace, who had been +trying not to listen, rose and said-- + +"I trust that you do not number me among them?" + +"As you speak, I do, coz," said Frank. "But for your own sake, let +me advise you to put faith in the true report of those who have +daily experience of their mistress's excellent virtue, as they have +of the sun's shining, and of the earth's bringing forth fruit, and +not in the tattle of a few cowardly back-stair rogues, who wish to +curry favor with the Guises. Come, we will say no more. Walk +round with us by Appledore, and then home to breakfast." + +But Eustace declined, having immediate business, he said, in +Northam town, and then in Bideford; and so left them to lounge for +another half-hour on the beach, and then walk across the smooth +sheet of turf to the little white fishing village, which stands +some two miles above the bar, at the meeting of the Torridge and +the Taw. + +Now it came to pass, that Eustace Leigh, as we have seen, told his +cousins that he was going to Northam: but he did not tell them that +his point was really the same as their own, namely, Appledore; and, +therefore, after having satisfied his conscience by going as far as +the very nearest house in Northam village, he struck away sharp to +the left across the fields, repeating I know not what to the +Blessed Virgin all the way; whereby he went several miles out of +his road; and also, as is the wont of crooked spirits, Jesuits +especially (as three centuries sufficiently testify), only +outwitted himself. For his cousins going merrily, like honest men, +along the straight road across the turf, arrived in Appledore, +opposite the little "Mariner's Rest" Inn, just in time to see what +Eustace had taken so much trouble to hide from them, namely, four +of Mr. Thomas Leigh's horses standing at the door, held by his +groom, saddles and mail-bags on back, and mounting three of them, +Eustace Leigh and two strange gentlemen. + +"There's one lie already this morning," growled Amyas; "he told us +he was going to Northam." + +"And we do not know that he has not been there," blandly suggested +Frank. + +"Why, you are as bad a Jesuit as he, to help him out with such a +fetch." + +"He may have changed his mind." + +"Bless your pure imagination, my sweet boy," said Amyas, laying his +great hand on Frank's head, and mimicking his mother's manner. "I +say, dear Frank, let's step into this shop and buy a penny-worth of +whipcord." + +"What do you want with whipcord, man?" + +"To spin my top, to be sure." + +"Top? how long hast had a top?" + +"I'll buy one, then, and save my conscience; but the upshot of this +sport I must see. Why may not I have an excuse ready made as well +as Master Eustace?" + +So saying, he pulled Frank into the little shop, unobserved by the +party at the inn-door. + +"What strange cattle has he been importing now? Look at that +three-legged fellow, trying to get aloft on the wrong side. How he +claws at his horse's ribs, like a cat scratching an elder stem!" + +The three-legged man was a tall, meek-looking person, who had +bedizened himself with gorgeous garments, a great feather, and a +sword so long and broad, that it differed little in size from the +very thin and stiff shanks between which it wandered uncomfortably. + +"Young David in Saul's weapons," said Frank. "He had better not go +in them, for he certainly has not proved them." + +"Look, if his third leg is not turned into a tail! Why does not +some one in charity haul in half-a-yard of his belt for him?" + +It was too true; the sword, after being kicked out three or four +times from its uncomfortable post between his legs, had returned +unconquered; and the hilt getting a little too far back by reason +of the too great length of the belt, the weapon took up its post +triumphantly behind, standing out point in air, a tail confest, +amid the tittering of the ostlers, and the cheers of the sailors. + +At last the poor man, by dint of a chair, was mounted safely, while +his fellow-stranger, a burly, coarse-looking man, equally gay, and +rather more handy, made so fierce a rush at his saddle, that, like +"vaulting ambition who o'erleaps his selle," he "fell on t'other +side:" or would have fallen, had he not been brought up short by +the shoulders of the ostler at his off-stirrup. In which shock off +came hat and feather. + +"Pardie, the bulldog-faced one is a fighting man. Dost see, Frank? +he has had his head broken." + +"That scar came not, my son, but by a pair of most Catholic and +apostolic scissors. My gentle buzzard, that is a priest's +tonsure." + +"Hang the dog! O, that the sailors may but see it, and put him +over the quay head. I've a half mind to go and do it myself." + +"My dear Amyas," said Frank, laying two fingers on his arm, "these +men, whosoever they are, are the guests of our uncle, and therefore +the guests of our family. Ham gained little by publishing Noah's +shame; neither shall we, by publishing our uncle's." + +"Murrain on you, old Franky, you never let a man speak his mind, +and shame the devil." + +"I have lived long enough in courts, old Amyas, without a murrain +on you, to have found out, first, that it is not so easy to shame +the devil; and secondly, that it is better to outwit him; and the +only way to do that, sweet chuck, is very often not to speak your +mind at all. We will go down and visit them at Chapel in a day or +two, and see if we cannot serve these reynards as the badger did +the fox, when he found him in his hole, and could not get him out +by evil savors." + +"How then?" + +"Stuck a sweet nosegay in the door, which turned reynard's stomach +at once; and so overcame evil with good." + +"Well, thou art too good for this world, that's certain; so we will +go home to breakfast. Those rogues are out of sight by now." + +Nevertheless, Amyas was not proof against the temptation of going +over to the inn-door, and asking who were the gentlemen who went +with Mr. Leigh + +"Gentlemen of Wales," said the ostler, "who came last night in a +pinnace from Milford-haven, and their names, Mr. Morgan Evans and +Mr. Evan Morgans." + +Mr. Judas Iscariot and Mr. Iscariot Judas," said Amyas between his +teeth, and then observed aloud, that the Welsh gentlemen seemed +rather poor horsemen. + +"So I said to Mr. Leigh's groom, your worship. But he says that +those parts be so uncommon rough and mountainous, that the poor +gentlemen, you see, being enforced to hunt on foot, have no such +opportunities as young gentlemen hereabout, like your worship; whom +God preserve, and send a virtuous lady, and one worthy of you." + +"Thou hast a villainously glib tongue, fellow!" said Amyas, who was +thoroughly out of humor; "and a sneaking down visage too, when I +come to look at you. I doubt but you are a Papist too, I do!" + +"Well, sir! and what if I am! I trust I don't break the queen's +laws by that. If I don't attend Northam church, I pay my month's +shilling for the use of the poor, as the act directs; and beyond +that, neither you nor any man dare demand of me." + +"Dare! act directs! You rascally lawyer, you! and whence does an +ostler like you get your shilling to pay withal? Answer me." The +examinate found it so difficult to answer the question, that he +suddenly became afflicted with deafness. + +"Do you hear?" roared Amyas, catching at him with his lion's paw. + +"Yes, missus; anon, anon, missus!" quoth he to an imaginary +landlady inside, and twisting under Amyas's hand like an eel, +vanished into the house, while Frank got the hot-headed youth away. + +"What a plague is one to do, then? That fellow was a Papist spy!" + +"Of course he was!" said Frank. + +"Then, what is one to do, if the whole country is full of them?" + +"Not to make fools of ourselves about them, and so leave them to +make fools of themselves." + +"That's all very fine: but--well, I shall remember the villain's +face if I see him again." + +"There is no harm in that," said Frank. + +"Glad you think so." + +"Don't quarrel with me, Amyas, the first day." + +"Quarrel with thee, my darling old fellow! I had sooner kiss the +dust off thy feet, if I were worthy of it. So now away home; my +inside cries cupboard." + +In the meanwhile Messrs. Evans and Morgans were riding away, as +fast as the rough by-lanes would let them, along the fresh coast of +the bay, steering carefully clear of Northam town on the one hand, +and on the other, of Portledge, where dwelt that most Protestant +justice of the peace, Mr. Coffin. And it was well for them that +neither Amyas Leigh, nor indeed any other loyal Englishman, was by +when they entered, as they shortly did, the lonely woods which +stretch along the southern wall of the bay. For there Eustace +Leigh pulled up short; and both he and his groom, leaping from +their horses, knelt down humbly in the wet grass, and implored the +blessing of the two valiant gentlemen of Wales, who, having +graciously bestowed it with three fingers apiece, became +thenceforth no longer Morgan Evans and Evan Morgans, Welshmen and +gentlemen; but Father Parsons and Father Gampian, Jesuits, and +gentlemen in no sense in which that word is applied in this book. + +After a few minutes, the party were again in motion, ambling +steadily and cautiously along the high table-land, towards +Moorwinstow in the west; while beneath them on the right, at the +mouth of rich-wooded glens, opened vistas of the bright blue bay, +and beyond it the sandhills of Braunton, and the ragged rocks of +Morte; while far away to the north and west the lonely isle of +Lundy hung like a soft gray cloud. + +But they were not destined to reach their point as peaceably as +they could have wished. For just as they got opposite Clovelly +dike, the huge old Roman encampment which stands about midway in +their journey, they heard a halloo from the valley below, answered +by a fainter one far ahead. At which, like a couple of rogues (as +indeed they were), Father Campian and Father Parsons looked at each +other, and then both stared round at the wild, desolate, open +pasture (for the country was then all unenclosed), and the great +dark furze-grown banks above their heads; and Campian remarked +gently to Parsons, that this was a very dreary spot, and likely +enough for robbers. + +"A likelier spot for us, Father," said Eustace, punning. "The old +Romans knew what they were about when they put their legions up +aloft here to overlook land and sea for miles away; and we may +thank them some day for their leavings. The banks are all sound; +there is plenty of good water inside; and" (added he in Latin), "in +case our Spanish friends--you understand?" + +"Pauca verba, my son!" said Campian: but as he spoke, up from the +ditch close beside him, as if rising out of the earth, burst +through the furze-bushes an armed cavalier. + +"Pardon, gentlemen!" shouted he, as the Jesuit and his horse +recoiled against the groom. "Stand, for your lives!" + +"Mater caelorum!" moaned Campian; while Parsons, who, as all the +world knows, was a blustering bully enough (at least with his +tongue), asked: What a murrain right had he to stop honest folks on +the queen's highway? confirming the same with a mighty oath, which +he set down as peccatum veniale, on account of the sudden +necessity; nay, indeed fraus pia, as proper to support the +character of that valiant gentleman of Wales, Mr. Evan Morgans. +But the horseman, taking no notice of his hint, dashed across the +nose of Eustace Leigh's horse, with a "Hillo, old lad! where ridest +so early?" and peering down for a moment into the ruts of the +narrow track-way, struck spurs into his horse, shouting, "A fresh +slot! right away for Hartland! Forward, gentlemen all! follow, +follow, follow!" + +"Who is this roysterer?" asked Parsons, loftily. + +"Will Cary, of Clovelly; an awful heretic: and here come more +behind." + +And as he spoke four or five more mounted gallants plunged in and +out of the great dikes, and thundered on behind the party; whose +horses, quite understanding what game was up, burst into full +gallop, neighing and squealing; and in another minute the hapless +Jesuits were hurling along over moor and moss after a "hart of +grease." + +Parsons, who, though a vulgar bully, was no coward, supported the +character of Mr. Evan Morgans well enough; and he would have really +enjoyed himself, had he not been in agonies of fear lest those +precious saddle-bags in front of him should break from their +lashings, and rolling to the earth, expose to the hoofs of heretic +horses, perhaps to the gaze of heretic eyes, such a cargo of bulls, +dispensations, secret correspondences, seditious tracts, and so +forth, that at the very thought of their being seen, his head felt +loose upon his shoulders. But the future martyr behind him, Mr. +Morgan Evans, gave himself up at once to abject despair, and as he +bumped and rolled along, sought vainly for comfort in professional +ejaculations in the Latin tongue. + +"Mater intemerata! Eripe me e--Ugh! I am down! Adhaesit +pavimento venter!--No! I am not! El dilectum tuum e potestate +canis--Ah! Audisti me inter cornua unicornium! Put this, too, down +in--ugh!--thy account in favor of my poor--oh, sharpness of this +saddle! Oh, whither, barbarous islanders!" + +Now riding on his quarter, not in the rough track-way like a +cockney, but through the soft heather like a sportsman, was a very +gallant knight whom we all know well by this time, Richard +Grenville by name; who had made Mr. Cary and the rest his guests +the night before, and then ridden out with them at five o'clock +that morning, after the wholesome early ways of the time, to rouse +a well-known stag in the glens at Buckish, by help of Mr. Coffin's +hounds from Portledge. Who being as good a Latiner as Campian's +self, and overhearing both the scraps of psalm and the "barbarous +islanders," pushed his horse alongside of Mr. Eustace Leigh, and at +the first check said, with two low bows towards the two strangers-- + +"I hope Mr. Leigh will do me the honor of introducing me to his +guests. I should be sorry, and Mr. Cary also, that any gentle +strangers should become neighbors of ours, even for a day, without +our knowing who they are who honor our western Thule with a visit; +and showing them ourselves all due requital for the compliment of +their presence." + +After which, the only thing which poor Eustace could do (especially +as it was spoken loud enough for all bystanders), was to introduce +in due form Mr. Evan Morgans and Mr. Morgan Evans, who, hearing the +name, and, what was worse, seeing the terrible face with its quiet +searching eye, felt like a brace of partridge-poults cowering in +the stubble, with a hawk hanging ten feet over their heads. + +"Gentlemen," said Sir Richard blandly, cap in hand, "I fear that +your mails must have been somewhat in your way in this unexpected +gallop. If you will permit my groom, who is behind, to disencumber +you of them and carry them to Chapel, you will both confer an honor +on me, and be enabled yourselves to see the mort more pleasantly." + +A twinkle of fun, in spite of all his efforts, played about good +Sir Richard's eye as he gave this searching hint. The two Welsh +gentlemen stammered out clumsy thanks; and pleading great haste and +fatigue from a long journey, contrived to fall to the rear and +vanish with their guides, as soon as the slot had been recovered. + +"Will!" said Sir Richard, pushing alongside of young Cary. + +"Your worship?" + +"Jesuits, Will!" + +"May the father of lies fly away with them over the nearest cliff!" + +"He will not do that while this Irish trouble is about. Those +fellows are come to practise here for Saunders and Desmond." + +"Perhaps they have a consecrated banner in their bag, the +scoundrels! Shall I and young Coffin on and stop them? Hard if +the honest men may not rob the thieves once in a way." + +"No; give the devil rope, and he will hang himself. Keep thy +tongue at home, and thine eyes too, Will." + +"How then?" + +"Let Clovelly beach be watched night and day like any mousehole. +No one can land round Harty Point with these south-westers. Stop +every fellow who has the ghost of an Irish brogue, come he in or go +he out, and send him over to me." + +"Some one should guard Bude-haven, sir." + +"Leave that to me. Now then, forward, gentlemen all, or the stag +will take the sea at the Abbey." + +And on they crashed down the Hartland glens, through the oak-scrub +and the great crown-ferns; and the baying of the slow-hound and the +tantaras of the horn died away farther and fainter toward the blue +Atlantic, while the conspirators, with lightened hearts, pricked +fast across Bursdon upon their evil errand. But Eustace Leigh had +other thoughts and other cares than the safety of his father's two +mysterious guests, important as that was in his eyes; for he was +one of the many who had drunk in sweet poison (though in his case +it could hardly be called sweet) from the magic glances of the Rose +of Torridge. He had seen her in the town, and for the first time +in his life fallen utterly in love; and now that she had come down +close to his father's house, he looked on her as a lamb fallen +unawares into the jaws of the greedy wolf, which he felt himself to +be. For Eustace's love had little or nothing of chivalry, self- +sacrifice, or purity in it; those were virtues which were not +taught at Rheims. Careful as the Jesuits were over the practical +morality of their pupils, this severe restraint had little effect +in producing real habits of self-control. What little Eustace had +learnt of women from them, was as base and vulgar as the rest of +their teaching. What could it be else, if instilled by men +educated in the schools of Italy and France, in the age which +produced the foul novels of Cinthio and Bandello, and compelled +Rabelais in order to escape the rack and stake, to hide the light +of his great wisdom, not beneath a bushel, but beneath a dunghill; +the age in which the Romish Church had made marriage a legalized +tyranny, and the laity, by a natural and pardonable revulsion, had +exalted adultery into a virtue and a science? That all love was +lust; that all women had their price; that profligacy, though an +ecclesiastical sin, was so pardonable, if not necessary, as to be +hardly a moral sin, were notions which Eustace must needs have +gathered from the hints of his preceptors; for their written works +bear to this day fullest and foulest testimony that such was their +opinion; and that their conception of the relation of the sexes was +really not a whit higher than that of the profligate laity who +confessed to them. He longed to marry Rose Salterne, with a wild +selfish fury; but only that he might be able to claim her as his +own property, and keep all others from her. Of her as a co-equal +and ennobling helpmate; as one in whose honor, glory, growth of +heart and soul, his own were inextricably wrapt up, he had never +dreamed. Marriage would prevent God from being angry with that, +with which otherwise He might be angry; and therefore the sanction +of the Church was the more "probable and safe" course. But as yet +his suit was in very embryo. He could not even tell whether Rose +knew of his love; and he wasted miserable hours in maddening +thoughts, and tost all night upon his sleepless bed, and rose next +morning fierce and pale, to invent fresh excuses for going over to +her uncle's house, and lingering about the fruit which he dared not +snatch. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE TWO WAYS OF BEING CROST IN LOVE + + + "I could not love thee, dear, so much, + Loved I not honor more."--LOVELACE. + + +And what all this while has become of the fair breaker of so many +hearts, to whom I have not yet even introduced my readers? + +She was sitting in the little farm-house beside the mill, buried in +the green depths of the valley of Combe, half-way between Stow and +Chapel, sulking as much as her sweet nature would let her, at being +thus shut out from all the grand doings at Bideford, and forced to +keep a Martinmas Lent in that far western glen. So lonely was she, +in fact, that though she regarded Eustace Leigh with somewhat of +aversion, and (being a good Protestant) with a great deal of +suspicion, she could not find it in her heart to avoid a chat with +him whenever he came down to the farm and to its mill, which he +contrived to do, on I know not what would-be errand, almost every +day. Her uncle and aunt at first looked stiff enough at these +visits, and the latter took care always to make a third in every +conversation; but still Mr. Leigh was a gentleman's son, and it +would not do to be rude to a neighboring squire and a good +customer; and Rose was the rich man's daughter and they poor +cousins, so it would not do either to quarrel with her; and +besides, the pretty maid, half by wilfulness, and half by her sweet +winning tricks, generally contrived to get her own way wheresoever +she went; and she herself had been wise enough to beg her aunt +never to leave them alone,--for she "could not a-bear the sight of +Mr. Eustace, only she must have some one to talk with down here." +On which her aunt considered, that she herself was but a simple +country-woman; and that townsfolks' ways of course must be very +different from hers; and that people knew their own business best; +and so forth, and let things go on their own way. Eustace, in the +meanwhile, who knew well that the difference in creed between him +and Rose was likely to be the very hardest obstacle in the way of +his love, took care to keep his private opinions well in the +background; and instead of trying to convert the folk at the mill, +daily bought milk or flour from them, and gave it away to the old +women in Moorwinstow (who agreed that after all, for a Papist, he +was a godly young man enough); and at last, having taken counsel +with Campian and Parsons on certain political plots then on foot, +came with them to the conclusion that they would all three go to +church the next Sunday. Where Messrs. Evan Morgans and Morgan +Evans, having crammed up the rubrics beforehand, behaved themselves +in a most orthodox and unexceptionable manner; as did also poor +Eustace, to the great wonder of all good folks, and then went home +flattering himself that he had taken in parson, clerk, and people; +not knowing in his simple unsimplicity, and cunning foolishness, +that each good wife in the parish was saying to the other, "He +turned Protestant? The devil turned monk! He's only after +Mistress Salterne, the young hypocrite." + +But if the two Jesuits found it expedient, for the holy cause in +which they were embarked, to reconcile themselves outwardly to the +powers that were, they were none the less busy in private in +plotting their overthrow. + +Ever since April last they had been playing at hide-and-seek +through the length and breadth of England, and now they were only +lying quiet till expected news from Ireland should give them their +cue, and a great "rising of the West" should sweep from her throne +that stiff-necked, persecuting, excommunicate, reprobate, +illegitimate, and profligate usurper, who falsely called herself +the Queen of England. + +For they had as stoutly persuaded themselves in those days, as they +have in these (with a real Baconian contempt of the results of +sensible experience), that the heart of England was really with +them, and that the British nation was on the point of returning to +the bosom of the Catholic Church, and giving up Elizabeth to be led +in chains to the feet of the rightful Lord of Creation, the Old Man +of the Seven Hills. And this fair hope, which has been skipping +just in front of them for centuries, always a step farther off, +like the place where the rainbow touches the ground, they used to +announce at times, in language which terrified old Mr. Leigh. One +day, indeed, as Eustace entered his father's private room, after +his usual visit to the mill, he could hear voices high in dispute; +Parsons as usual, blustering; Mr. Leigh peevishly deprecating, and +Campian, who was really the sweetest-natured of men, trying to pour +oil on the troubled waters. Whereat Eustace (for the good of the +cause, of course) stopped outside and listened. + +"My excellent sir," said Mr. Leigh, "does not your very presence +here show how I am affected toward the holy cause of the Catholic +faith? But I cannot in the meanwhile forget that I am an +Englishman." + +"And what is England?" said Parsons: "A heretic and schismatic +Babylon, whereof it is written, 'Come out of her, my people, lest +you be partaker of her plagues.' Yea, what is a country? An +arbitrary division of territory by the princes of this world, who +are naught, and come to naught. They are created by the people's +will; their existence depends on the sanction of him to whom all +power is given in heaven and earth--our Holy Father the Pope. Take +away the latter, and what is a king?--the people who have made him +may unmake him." + +"My dear sir, recollect that I have sworn allegiance to Queen +Elizabeth!" + +"Yes, sir, you have, sir; and, as I have shown at large in my +writings, you were absolved from that allegiance from the moment +that the bull of Pius the Fifth declared her a heretic and +excommunicate, and thereby to have forfeited all dominion +whatsoever. I tell you, sir, what I thought you should have known +already, that since the year 1569, England has had no queen, no +magistrates, no laws, no lawful authority whatsoever; and that to +own allegiance to any English magistrate, sir, or to plead in an +English court of law, is to disobey the apostolic precept, 'How +dare you go to law before the unbelievers?' I tell you, sir, +rebellion is now not merely permitted, it is a duty." + +"Take care, sir; for God's sake, take care!" said Mr. Leigh. +"Right or wrong, I cannot have such language used in my house. For +the sake of my wife and children, I cannot!" + +"My dear brother Parsons, deal more gently with the flock," +interposed Campian. "Your opinion, though probable, as I well +know, in the eyes of most of our order, is hardly safe enough here; +the opposite is at least so safe that Mr. Leigh may well excuse his +conscience for accepting it. After all, are we not sent hither to +proclaim this very thing, and to relieve the souls of good +Catholics from a burden which has seemed to them too heavy?" + +"Yes," said Parsons, half-sulkily, "to allow all Balaams who will +to sacrifice to Baal, while they call themselves by the name of the +Lord." + +"My dear brother, have I not often reminded you that Naaman was +allowed to bow himself in the house of Rimmon? And can we +therefore complain of the office to which the Holy Father has +appointed us, to declare to such as Mr. Leigh his especial grace, +by which the bull of Pius the Fifth (on whose soul God have mercy!) +shall henceforth bind the queen and the heretics only; but in no +ways the Catholics, at least as long as the present tyranny +prevents the pious purposes of the bull?" + +"Be it so, sir; be it so. Only observe this, Mr. Leigh, that our +brother Campian confesses this to be a tyranny. Observe, sir, that +the bull does still bind the so-called queen, and that she and her +magistrates are still none the less usurpers, nonentities, and +shadows of a shade. And observe this, sir, that when that which is +lawful is excused to the weak, it remains no less lawful to the +strong. The seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal did +not slay his priests; but Elijah did, and won to himself a good +reward. And if the rest of the children of Israel sinned not in +not slaying Eglon, yet Ehud's deed was none the less justified by +all laws human and divine." + +"For Heaven's sake, do not talk so, sir! or I must leave the room. +What have I to do with Ehud and Eglon, and slaughters, and +tyrannies? Our queen is a very good queen, if Heaven would but +grant her repentance, and turn her to the true faith. I have never +been troubled about religion, nor any one else that I know of in +the West country." + +"You forget Mr. Trudgeon of Launceston, father, and poor Father +Mayne," interposed Eustace, who had by this time slipped in; and +Campian added softly-- + +"Yes, your West of England also has been honored by its martyrs, as +well as my London by the precious blood of Story." + +"What, young malapert?" cried poor Leigh, facing round upon his +son, glad to find any one on whom he might vent his ill-humor; "are +you too against me, with a murrain on you? And pray, what the +devil brought Cuthbert Mayne to the gallows, and turned Mr. +Trudgeon (he was always a foolish hot-head) out of house and home, +but just such treasonable talk as Mr. Parsons must needs hold in my +house, to make a beggar of me and my children, as he will before he +has done." + +"The Blessed Virgin forbid!" said Campian. + +"The Blessed Virgin forbid? But you must help her to forbid it, +Mr. Campian. We should never have had the law of 1571, against +bulls, and Agnus Deis, and blessed grains, if the Pope's bull of +1569 had not made them matter of treason, by preventing a poor +creature's saving his soul in the true Church without putting his +neck into a halter by denying the queen's authority." + +"What, sir?" almost roared Parsons, "do you dare to speak evil of +the edicts of the Vicar of Christ?" + +"I? No. I didn't. Who says I did? All I meant was, I am sure-- +Mr. Campian, you are a reasonable man, speak for me." + +"Mr. Leigh only meant, I am sure, that the Holy Father's prudent +intentions have been so far defeated by the perverseness and +invincible misunderstanding of the heretics, that that which was in +itself meant for the good of the oppressed English Catholics has +been perverted to their harm." + +"And thus, reverend sir," said Eustace, glad to get into his +father's good graces again, "my father attaches blame, not to the +Pope--Heaven forbid!--but to the pravity of his enemies." + +"And it is for this very reason," said Campian, "that we have +brought with us the present merciful explanation of the bull." + +"I'll tell you what, gentlemen," said Mr. Leigh, who, like other +weak men, grew in valor as his opponent seemed inclined to make +peace, "I don't think the declaration was needed. After the new +law of 1571 was made, it was never put in force till Mayne and +Trudgeon made fools of themselves, and that was full six years. +There were a few offenders, they say, who were brought up and +admonished, and let go; but even that did not happen down here, and +need not happen now, unless you put my son here (for you shall +never put me, I warrant you) upon some deed which had better be +left alone, and so bring us all to shame." + +"Your son, sir, if not openly vowed to God, has, I hope, a due +sense of that inward vocation which we have seen in him, and +reverences his spiritual fathers too well to listen to the +temptations of his earthly father." + +"What, sir, will you teach my son to disobey me?" + +"Your son is ours also, sir. This is strange language in one who +owes a debt to the Church, which it was charitably fancied he meant +to pay in the person of his child." + +These last words touched poor Mr. Leigh in a sore point, and +breaking all bounds, he swore roundly at Parsons, who stood foaming +with rage. + +"A plague upon you, sir, and a black assizes for you, for you will +come to the gallows yet! Do you mean to taunt me in my own house +with that Hartland land? You had better go back and ask those who +sent you where the dispensation to hold the land is, which they +promised to get me years ago, and have gone on putting me off, till +they have got my money, and my son, and my conscience, and I vow +before all the saints, seem now to want my head over and above. +God help me!"--and the poor man's eyes fairly filled with tears. + +Now was Eustace's turn to be roused; for, after all, he was an +Englishman and a gentleman; and he said kindly enough, but firmly-- + +"Courage, my dearest father. Remember that I am still your son, +and not a Jesuit yet; and whether I ever become one, I promise you, +will depend mainly on the treatment which you meet with at the +hands of these reverend gentlemen, for whom I, as having brought +them hither, must consider myself as surety to you." + +If a powder-barrel had exploded in the Jesuits' faces, they could +not have been more amazed. Campian looked blank at Parsons, and +Parsons at Campian; till the stouter-hearted of the two, recovering +his breath at last-- + +"Sir! do you know, sir, the curse pronounced on those who, after +putting their hand to the plough, look back?" + +Eustace was one of those impulsive men, with a lack of moral +courage, who dare raise the devil, but never dare fight him after +he has been raised; and he now tried to pass off his speech by +winking and making signs in the direction of his father, as much as +to say that he was only trying to quiet the old man's fears. But +Campian was too frightened, Parsons too angry, to take his hints: +and he had to carry his part through. + +"All I read is, Father Parsons, that such are not fit for the +kingdom of God; of which high honor I have for some time past felt +myself unworthy. I have much doubt just now as to my vocation; and +in the meanwhile have not forgotten that I am a citizen of a free +country." And so saying, he took his father's arm, and walked out. + +His last words had hit the Jesuits hard. They had put the poor +cobweb-spinners in mind of the humiliating fact, which they have +had thrust on them daily from that time till now, and yet have +never learnt the lesson, that all their scholastic cunning, +plotting, intriguing, bulls, pardons, indulgences, and the rest of +it, are, on this side the Channel, a mere enchanter's cloud-castle +and Fata Morgana, which vanishes into empty air by one touch of +that magic wand, the constable's staff. "A citizen of a free +country!"--there was the rub; and they looked at each other in more +utter perplexity than ever. At last Parsons spoke. + +"There's a woman in the wind. I'll lay my life on it. I saw him +blush up crimson yesterday when his mother asked him whether some +Rose Salterne or other was still in the neighborhood." + +"A woman! Well, the spirit may be willing, though the flesh be +weak. We will inquire into this. The youth may do us good service +as a layman; and if anything should happen to his elder brother +(whom the saints protect!) he is heir to some wealth. In the +meanwhile, our dear brother Parsons will perhaps see the expediency +of altering our tactics somewhat while we are here." + +And thereupon a long conversation began between the two, who had +been sent together, after the wise method of their order, in +obedience to the precept, "Two are better than one," in order that +Campian might restrain Parsons' vehemence, and Parsons spur on +Campian's gentleness, and so each act as the supplement of the +other, and each also, it must be confessed, gave advice pretty +nearly contradictory to his fellow's if occasion should require, +"without the danger," as their writers have it, "of seeming +changeable and inconsistent." + +The upshot of this conversation was, that in a day or two (during +which time Mr. Leigh and Eustace also had made the amende +honorable, and matters went smoothly enough) Father Campian asked +Father Francis, the household chaplain, to allow him, as an +especial favor, to hear Eustace's usual confession on the ensuing +Friday. + +Poor Father Francis dared not refuse so great a man; and assented +with an inward groan, knowing well that the intent was to worm out +some family secrets, whereby his power would be diminished, and the +Jesuits' increased. For the regular priesthood and the Jesuits +throughout England were toward each other in a state of armed +neutrality, which wanted but little at any moment to become open +war, as it did in James the First's time, when those meek +missionaries, by their gentle moral tortures, literally hunted to +death the poor Popish bishop of Hippopotamus (that is to say, +London) for the time being. + +However, Campian heard Eustace's confession; and by putting to him +such questions as may be easily conceived by those who know +anything about the confessional, discovered satisfactorily enough, +that he was what Campian would have called "in love:" though I +should question much the propriety of the term as applied to any +facts which poor prurient Campian discovered, or indeed knew how to +discover, seeing that a swine has no eye for pearls. But he had +found out enough: he smiled, and set to work next vigorously to +discover who the lady might be. + +If he had frankly said to Eustace, "I feel for you; and if your +desires are reasonable, or lawful, or possible, I will help you +with all my heart and soul," he might have had the young man's +secret heart, and saved himself an hour's trouble; but, of course, +he took instinctively the crooked and suspicious method, expected +to find the case the worst possible,--as a man was bound to do who +had been trained to take the lowest possible view of human nature, +and to consider the basest motives as the mainspring of all human +action,--and began his moral torture accordingly by a series of +delicate questions, which poor Eustace dodged in every possible +way, though he knew that the good father was too cunning for him, +and that he must give in at last. Nevertheless, like a rabbit who +runs squealing round and round before the weasel, into whose jaws +it knows that it must jump at last by force of fascination, he +parried and parried, and pretended to be stupid, and surprised, and +honorably scrupulous, and even angry; while every question as to +her being married or single, Catholic or heretic, English or +foreign, brought his tormentor a step nearer the goal. At last, +when Campian, finding the business not such a very bad one, had +asked something about her worldly wealth, Eustace saw a door of +escape and sprang at it. + +"Even if she be a heretic, she is heiress to one of the wealthiest +merchants in Devon." + +"Ah!" said Campian, thoughtfully. "And she is but eighteen, you +say?" + +"Only eighteen." + +"Ah! well, my son, there is time. She may be reconciled to the +Church: or you may change." + +"I shall die first." + +"Ah, poor lad! Well; she may be reconciled, and her wealth may be +of use to the cause of Heaven." + +"And it shall be of use. Only absolve me, and let me be at peace. +Let me have but her," he cried piteously. "I do not want her +wealth,--not I! Let me have but her, and that but for one year, +one month, one day!--and all the rest--money, fame, talents, yea, +my life itself, hers if it be needed--are at the service of Holy +Church. Ay, I shall glory in showing my devotion by some special +sacrifice,--some desperate deed. Prove me now, and see what there +is I will not do!" + +And so Eustace was absolved; after which Campian added,-- + +"This is indeed well, my son: for there is a thing to be done now, +but it may be at the risk of life." + +"Prove me!" cried Eustace, impatiently. + +"Here is a letter which was brought me last night; no matter from +whence; you can understand it better than I, and I longed to have +shown it you, but that I feared my son had become--" + +"You feared wrongly, then, my dear Father Campian." + +So Campian translated to him the cipher of the letter. + +"This to Evan Morgans, gentleman, at Mr. Leigh's house in +Moorwinstow, Devonshire. News may be had by one who will go to the +shore of Clovelly, any evening after the 25th of November, at dead +low tide, and there watch for a boat, rowed by one with a red +beard, and a Portugal by his speech. If he be asked, 'How many?' +he will answer, 'Eight hundred and one.' Take his letters and read +them. If the shore be watched, let him who comes show a light +three times in a safe place under the cliff above the town; below +is dangerous landing. Farewell, and expect great things!" + +"I will go," said Eustace; "to-morrow is the 25th, and I know a +sure and easy place. Your friend seems to know these shores well." + +"Ah! what is it we do not know?" said Campian, with a mysterious +smile. "And now?" + +"And now, to prove to you how I trust to you, you shall come with +me, and see this--the lady of whom I spoke, and judge for yourself +whether my fault is not a venial one." + +"Ah, my son, have I not absolved you already? What have I to do +with fair faces? Nevertheless, I will come, both to show you that +I trust you, and it may be to help towards reclaiming a heretic, +and saving a lost soul: who knows?" + +So the two set out together; and, as it was appointed, they had +just got to the top of the hill between Chapel and Stow mill, when +up the lane came none other than Mistress Rose Salterne herself, in +all the glories of a new scarlet hood, from under which her large +dark languid eyes gleamed soft lightnings through poor Eustace's +heart and marrow. Up to them she tripped on delicate ankles and +tiny feet, tall, lithe, and graceful, a true West-country lass; and +as she passed them with a pretty blush and courtesy, even Campian +looked back at the fair innocent creature, whose long dark curls, +after the then country fashion, rolled down from beneath the hood +below her waist, entangling the soul of Eustace Leigh within their +glossy nets. + +"There!" whispered he, trembling from head to foot. "Can you +excuse me now?" + +"I had excused you long ago;" said the kindhearted father. "Alas, +that so much fair red and white should have been created only as a +feast for worms!" + +"A feast for gods, you mean!" cried Eustace, on whose common sense +the naive absurdity of the last speech struck keenly; and then, as +if to escape the scolding which he deserved for his heathenry-- + +"Will you let me return for a moment? I will follow you: let me +go!" + +Campian saw that it was of no use to say no, and nodded. Eustace +darted from his side, and running across a field, met Rose full at +the next turn of the road. + +She started, and gave a pretty little shriek. + +"Mr. Leigh! I thought you had gone forward." + +"I came back to speak to you, Rose--Mistress Salterne, I mean." + +"To me?" + +"To you I must speak, tell you all, or die!" And he pressed up +close to her. She shrank back, somewhat frightened. + +"Do not stir; do not go, I implore you! Rose, only hear me!" And +fiercely and passionately seizing her by the hand, he poured out +the whole story of his love, heaping her with every fantastic +epithet of admiration which he could devise. + +There was little, perhaps, of all his words which Rose had not +heard many a time before; but there was a quiver in his voice, and +a fire in his eye, from which she shrank by instinct. + +"Let me go!" she said; "you are too rough, sir!" + +"Ay!" he said, seizing now both her hands, "rougher, perhaps, than +the gay gallants of Bideford, who serenade you, and write sonnets +to you, and send you posies. Rougher, but more loving, Rose! Do +not turn away! I shall die if you take your eyes off me! Tell +me,--tell me, now here--this moment--before we part--if I may love +you!" + +"Go away!" she answered, struggling, and bursting into tears. +"This is too rude. If I am but a merchant's daughter. I am God's +child. Remember that I am alone. Leave me; go! or I will call for +help!" + +Eustace had heard or read somewhere that such expressions in a +woman's mouth were mere facons de parler, and on the whole signs +that she had no objection to be alone, and did not intend to call +for help; and he only grasped her hands the more fiercely, and +looked into her face with keen and hungry eyes; but she was in +earnest, nevertheless, and a loud shriek made him aware that, if he +wished to save his own good name, he must go: but there was one +question, for an answer to which he would risk his very life. + +"Yes, proud woman! I thought so! Some one of those gay gallants +has been beforehand with me. Tell me who--" + +But she broke from him, and passed him, and fled down the lane. + +"Mark it!" cried he, after her. "You shall rue the day when you +despised Eustace Leigh! Mark it, proud beauty!" And he turned +back to join Campian, who stood in some trepidation. + +"You have not hurt the maiden, my son? I thought I heard a +scream." + +"Hurt her! No. Would God that she were dead, nevertheless, and I +by her! Say no more to me, father. We will home." Even Campian +knew enough of the world to guess what had happened, and they both +hurried home in silence. + +And so Eustace Leigh played his move, and lost it. + +Poor little Rose, having run nearly to Chapel, stopped for very +shame, and walked quietly by the cottages which stood opposite the +gate, and then turned up the lane towards Moorwinstow village, +whither she was bound. But on second thoughts, she felt herself so +"red and flustered," that she was afraid of going into the village, +for fear (as she said to herself) of making people talk, and so, +turning into a by-path, struck away toward the cliffs, to cool her +blushes in the sea-breeze. And there finding a quiet grassy nook +beneath the crest of the rocks, she sat down on the turf, and fell +into a great meditation. + +Rose Salterne was a thorough specimen of a West-coast maiden, full +of passionate impulsive affections, and wild dreamy imaginations, a +fit subject, as the North-Devon women are still, for all romantic +and gentle superstitions. Left early without mother's care, she +had fed her fancy upon the legends and ballads of her native land, +till she believed--what did she not believe?--of mermaids and +pixies, charms and witches, dreams and omens, and all that world of +magic in which most of the countrywomen, and countrymen too, +believed firmly enough but twenty years ago. Then her father's +house was seldom without some merchant, or sea-captain from foreign +parts, who, like Othello, had his tales of-- + + + "Antres vast, and deserts idle, + Of rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads reach heaven." + + +And,-- + + + "And of the cannibals that each other eat, + The anthropophagi, and men whose heads + Do grow beneath their shoulders." + + +All which tales, she, like Desdemona, devoured with greedy ears, +whenever she could "the house affairs with haste despatch." And +when these failed, there was still boundless store of wonders open +to her in old romances which were then to be found in every English +house of the better class. The Legend of King Arthur, Florice and +Blancheflour, Sir Ysumbras, Sir Guy of Warwick, Palamon and Arcite, +and the Romaunt of the Rose, were with her text-books and canonical +authorities. And lucky it was, perhaps, for her that Sidney's +Arcadia was still in petto, or Mr. Frank (who had already seen the +first book or two in manuscript, and extolled it above all books +past, present, or to come) would have surely brought a copy down +for Rose, and thereby have turned her poor little flighty brains +upside down forever. And with her head full of these, it was no +wonder if she had likened herself of late more than once to some of +those peerless princesses of old, for whose fair hand paladins and +kaisers thundered against each other in tilted field; and perhaps +she would not have been sorry(provided, of course, no one was +killed) if duels, and passages of arms in honor of her, as her +father reasonably dreaded, had actually taken place. + +For Rose was not only well aware that she was wooed, but found the +said wooing (and little shame to her) a very pleasant process. Not +that she had any wish to break hearts: she did not break her heart +for any of her admirers, and why should they break theirs for her? +They were all very charming, each in his way (the gentlemen, at +least; for she had long since learnt to turn up her nose at +merchants and burghers); but one of them was not so very much +better than the other. + +Of course, Mr. Frank Leigh was the most charming; but then, as a +courtier and squire of dames, he had never given her a sign of real +love, nothing but sonnets and compliments, and there was no +trusting such things from a gallant, who was said (though, by the +by, most scandalously) to have a lady love at Milan, and another at +Vienna, and half-a-dozen in the Court, and half-a-dozen more in the +city. + +And very charming was Mr. William Cary, with his quips and his +jests, and his galliards and lavoltas; over and above his rich +inheritance; but then, charming also Mr. Coffin of Portledge, +though he were a little proud and stately; but which of the two +should she choose? It would be very pleasant to be mistress of +Clovelly Court; but just as pleasant to find herself lady of +Portledge, where the Coffins had lived ever since Noah's flood (if, +indeed, they had not merely returned thither after that temporary +displacement), and to bring her wealth into a family which was as +proud of its antiquity as any nobleman in Devon, and might have +made a fourth to that famous trio of Devonshire Cs, of which it is +written,-- + + + "Crocker, Cruwys, and Copplestone, + When the Conqueror came were all at home." + + +And Mr. Hugh Fortescue, too--people said that he was certain to +become a great soldier--perhaps as great as his brother Arthur--and +that would be pleasant enough, too, though he was but the younger +son of an innumerable family: but then, so was Amyas Leigh. Ah, +poor Amyas! Her girl's fancy for him had vanished, or rather, +perhaps, it was very much what it always had been, only that four +or five more girl's fancies beside it had entered in, and kept it +in due subjection. But still, she could not help thinking a good +deal about him, and his voyage, and the reports of his great +strength, and beauty, and valor, which had already reached her in +that out-of-the-way corner; and though she was not in the least in +love with him, she could not help hoping that he had at least (to +put her pretty little thought in the mildest shape) not altogether +forgotten her; and was hungering, too, with all her fancy, to give +him no peace till he had told her all the wonderful things which he +had seen and done in this ever-memorable voyage. So that, +altogether, it was no wonder, if in her last night's dream the +figure of Amyas had been even more forward and troublesome than +that of Frank or the rest. + +But, moreover, another figure had been forward and troublesome +enough in last night's sleep-world; and forward and troublesome +enough, too, now in to-day's waking-world, namely, Eustace, the +rejected. How strange that she should have dreamt of him the night +before! and dreamt, too, of his fighting with Mr. Frank and Mr. +Amyas! It must be a warning--see, she had met him the very next +day in this strange way; so the first half of her dream had come +true; and after what had past, she only had to breathe a whisper, +and the second part of the dream would come true also. If she +wished for a passage of arms in her own honor, she could easily +enough compass one: not that she would do it for worlds! And after +all, though Mr. Eustace had been very rude and naughty, yet still +it was not his own fault; he could not help being in love with her. +And--and, in short, the poor little maid felt herself one of the +most important personages on earth, with all the cares (or hearts) +of the country in her keeping, and as much perplexed with matters +of weight as ever was any Cleophila, or Dianeme, Fiordispina or +Flourdeluce, in verse run tame, or prose run mad. + +Poor little Rose! Had she but had a mother! But she was to learn +her lesson, such as it was, in another school. She was too shy +(too proud perhaps) to tell her aunt her mighty troubles; but a +counsellor she must have; and after sitting with her head in her +hands, for half-an-hour or more, she arose suddenly, and started +off along the cliffs towards Marsland. She would go and see Lucy +Passmore, the white witch; Lucy knew everything; Lucy would tell +her what to do; perhaps even whom to marry. + +Lucy was a fat, jolly woman of fifty, with little pig-eyes, which +twinkled like sparks of fire, and eyebrows which sloped upwards and +outwards, like those of a satyr, as if she had been (as indeed she +had) all her life looking out of the corners of her eyes. Her +qualifications as white witch were boundless cunning, equally +boundless good nature, considerable knowledge of human weaknesses, +some mesmeric power, some skill in "yarbs," as she called her +simples, a firm faith in the virtue of her own incantations, and +the faculty of holding her tongue. By dint of these she contrived +to gain a fair share of money, and also (which she liked even +better) of power, among the simple folk for many miles round. If a +child was scalded, a tooth ached, a piece of silver was stolen, a +heifer shrew-struck, a pig bewitched, a young damsel crost in love, +Lucy was called in, and Lucy found a remedy, especially for the +latter complaint. Now and then she found herself on ticklish +ground, for the kind-heartedness which compelled her to help all +distressed damsels out of a scrape, sometimes compelled her also to +help them into one; whereon enraged fathers called Lucy ugly names, +and threatened to send her into Exeter gaol for a witch, and she +smiled quietly, and hinted that if she were "like some that were +ready to return evil for evil, such talk as that would bring no +blessing on them that spoke it;" which being translated into plain +English, meant, "If you trouble me, I will overlook (i. e. +fascinate) you, and then your pigs will die, your horses stray, +your cream turn sour, your barns be fired, your son have St. +Vitus's dance, your daughter fits, and so on, woe on woe, till you +are very probably starved to death in a ditch, by virtue of this +terrible little eye of mine, at which, in spite of all your +swearing and bullying, you know you are now shaking in your shoes +for fear. So you had much better hold your tongue, give me a drink +of cider, and leave ill alone, lest you make it worse." + +Not that Lucy ever proceeded to any such fearful extremities. On +the contrary, her boast, and her belief too, was, that she was sent +into the world to make poor souls as happy as she could, by lawful +means, of course, if possible, but if not--why, unlawful ones were +better than none; for she "couldn't a-bear to see the poor +creatures taking on; she was too, too tender-hearted." And so she +was, to every one but her husband, a tall, simple-hearted rabbit- +faced man, a good deal older than herself. Fully agreeing with Sir +Richard Grenville's great axiom, that he who cannot obey cannot +rule, Lucy had been for the last five-and-twenty years training him +pretty smartly to obey her, with the intention, it is to be +charitably hoped, of letting him rule her in turn when his lesson +was perfected. He bore his honors, however, meekly enough, having +a boundless respect for his wife's wisdom, and a firm belief in her +supernatural powers, and let her go her own way and earn her own +money, while he got a little more in a truly pastoral method (not +extinct yet along those lonely cliffs), by feeding a herd of some +dozen donkeys and twenty goats. The donkeys fetched, at each low- +tide, white shell-sand which was to be sold for manure to the +neighboring farmers; the goats furnished milk and "kiddy-pies;" and +when there was neither milking nor sand-carrying to be done, old +Will Passmore just sat under a sunny rock and watched the buck- +goats rattle their horns together, thinking about nothing at all, +and taking very good care all the while neither to inquire nor to +see who came in and out of his little cottage in the glen. + +The prophetess, when Rose approached her oracular cave, was seated +on a tripod in front of the fire, distilling strong waters out of +penny-royal. But no sooner did her distinguished visitor appear at +the hatch, than the still was left to take care of itself, and a +clean apron and mutch having been slipt on, Lucy welcomed Rose with +endless courtesies, and--"Bless my dear soul alive, who ever would +have thought to see the Rose of Torridge to my poor little place!" + +Rose sat down: and then? How to begin was more than she knew, and +she stayed silent a full five minutes, looking earnestly at the +point of her shoe, till Lucy, who was an adept in such cases, +thought it best to proceed to business at once, and save Rose the +delicate operation of opening the ball herself; and so, in her own +way, half fawning, half familiar-- + +"Well, my dear young lady, and what is it I can do for ye? For I +guess you want a bit of old Lucy's help, eh? Though I'm most mazed +to see ye here, surely. I should have supposed that pretty face +could manage they sort of matters for itself. Eh?" + +Rose, thus bluntly charged, confessed at once, and with many +blushes and hesitations, made her soon understand that what she +wanted was "To have her fortune told." + +"Eh? Oh! I see. The pretty face has managed it a bit too well +already, eh? Tu many o' mun, pure fellows? Well, 'tain't every +mayden has her pick and choose, like some I know of, as be blest in +love by stars above. So you hain't made up your mind, then?" + +Rose shook her head. + +"Ah--well," she went on, in a half-bantering tone. "Not so asy, is +it, then? One's gude for one thing, and one for another, eh? One +has the blood, and another the money." + +And so the "cunning woman" (as she truly was), talking half to +herself, ran over all the names which she thought likely, peering +at Rose all the while out of the corners of her foxy bright eyes, +while Rose stirred the peat ashes steadfastly with the point of her +little shoe, half angry, half ashamed, half frightened, to find +that "the cunning woman" had guessed so well both her suitors and +her thoughts about them, and tried to look unconcerned at each name +as it came out. + +"Well, well," said Lucy, who took nothing by her move, simply +because there was nothing to take; "think over it--think over it, +my dear life; and if you did set your mind on any one--why, then-- +then maybe I might help you to a sight of him." + +"A sight of him?" + +"His sperrit, dear life, his sperrit only, I mane. I 'udn't have +no keeping company in my house, no, not for gowld untowld, I +'udn't; but the sperrit of mun--to see whether mun would be true or +not, you'd like to know that, now, 'udn't you, my darling?" + +Rose sighed, and stirred the ashes about vehemently. + +"I must first know who it is to be. If you could show me that-- +now--" + +"Oh, I can show ye that, tu, I can. Ben there's a way to 't, a +sure way; but 'tis mortal cold for the time o' year, you zee." + +"But what is it, then?" said Rose, who had in her heart been +longing for something of that very kind, and had half made up her +mind to ask for a charm. + +"Why, you'm not afraid to goo into the say by night for a minute, +are you? And to-morrow night would serve, too; 't will be just low +tide to midnight." + +"If you would come with me perhaps--" + +"I'll come, I'll come, and stand within call, to be sure. Only do +ye mind this, dear soul alive, not to goo telling a crumb about +mun, noo, not for the world, or yu'll see naught at all, indeed, +now. And beside, there's a noxious business grow'd up against me +up to Chapel there; and I hear tell how Mr. Leigh saith I shall to +Exeter gaol for a witch--did ye ever hear the likes?--because his +groom Jan saith I overlooked mun--the Papist dog! And now never he +nor th' owld Father Francis goo by me without a spetting, and +saying of their Ayes and Malificas--I do know what their Rooman +Latin do mane, zo well as ever they, I du!--and a making o' their +charms and incantations to their saints and idols! They be mortal +feared of witches, they Papists, and mortal hard on 'em, even on a +pure body like me, that doth a bit in the white way; 'case why you +see, dear life," said she, with one of her humorous twinkles, "tu +to a trade do never agree. Do ye try my bit of a charm, now; do +ye!" + +Rose could not resist the temptation; and between them both the +charm was agreed on, and the next night was fixed for its trial, on +the payment of certain current coins of the realm (for Lucy, of +course, must live by her trade); and slipping a tester into the +dame's hand as earnest, Rose went away home, and got there in +safety. + +But in the meanwhile, at the very hour that Eustace had been +prosecuting his suit in the lane at Moorwinstow, a very different +scene was being enacted in Mrs. Leigh's room at Burrough. + +For the night before, Amyas, as he was going to bed, heard his +brother Frank in the next room tune his lute, and then begin to +sing. And both their windows being open, and only a thin partition +between the chambers, Amyas's admiring ears came in for every word +of the following canzonet, sung in that delicate and mellow tenor +voice for which Frank was famed among all fair ladies:-- + + + "Ah, tyrant Love, Megaera's serpents bearing, + Why thus requite my sighs with venom'd smart? + Ah, ruthless dove, the vulture's talons wearing, + Why flesh them, traitress, in this faithful heart? + Is this my meed? Must dragons' teeth alone + In Venus' lawns by lovers' hands be sown? + + "Nay, gentlest Cupid; 'twas my pride undid me. + Nay, guiltless dove; by mine own wound I fell. + To worship, not to wed, Celestials bid me: + I dreamt to mate in heaven, and wake in hell; + Forever doom'd, Ixion-like, to reel + On mine own passions' ever-burning wheel." + + +At which the simple sailor sighed, and longed that he could write +such neat verses, and sing them so sweetly. How he would besiege +the ear of Rose Salterne with amorous ditties! But still, he could +not be everything; and if he had the bone and muscle of the family, +it was but fair that Frank should have the brains and voice; and, +after all, he was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, and it +was just the same as if he himself could do all the fine things +which Frank could do; for as long as one of the family won honor, +what matter which of them it was? Whereon he shouted through the +wall, "Good night, old song-thrush; I suppose I need not pay the +musicians." + +"What, awake?" answered Frank. "Come in here, and lull me to sleep +with a sea-song." + +So Amyas went in, and found Frank laid on the outside of his bed +not yet undrest. + +"I am a bad sleeper," said he; "I spend more time, I fear, in +burning the midnight oil than prudent men should. Come and be my +jongleur, my minnesinger, and tell me about Andes, and cannibals, +and the ice-regions, and the fire-regions, and the paradises of the +West." + +So Amyas sat down, and told: but somehow, every story which he +tried to tell came round, by crooked paths, yet sure, to none other +point than Rose Salterne, and how he thought of her here and +thought of her there, and how he wondered what she would say if she +had seen him in this adventure, and how he longed to have had her +with him to show her that glorious sight, till Frank let him have +his own way, and then out came the whole story of the simple +fellow's daily and hourly devotion to her, through those three long +years of world-wide wanderings. + +"And oh, Frank, I could hardly think of anything but her in the +church the other day, God forgive me! and it did seem so hard for +her to be the only face which I did not see--and have not seen her +yet, either." + +"So I thought, dear lad," said Frank, with one of his sweetest +smiles; "and tried to get her father to let her impersonate the +nymph of Torridge." + +"Did you, you dear kind fellow? That would have been too +delicious." + +"Just so, too delicious; wherefore, I suppose, it was ordained not +to be, that which was being delicious enough." + +"And is she as pretty as ever?" + +"Ten times as pretty, dear lad, as half the young fellows round +have discovered. If you mean to win her and wear her (and God +grant you may fare no worse!) you will have rivals enough to get +rid of." + +"Humph!" said Amyas, "I hope I shall not have to make short work +with some of them." + +"I hope not," said Frank, laughing. "Now go to bed, and to-morrow +morning give your sword to mother to keep, lest you should be +tempted to draw it on any of her majesty's lieges." + +"No fear of that, Frank; I am no swash-buckler, thank God; but if +any one gets in my way, I'll serve him as the mastiff did the +terrier, and just drop him over the quay into the river, to cool +himself, or my name's not Amyas." + +And the giant swung himself laughing out of the room, and slept all +night like a seal, not without dreams, of course, of Rose Salterne. + +The next morning, according to his wont, he went into his mother's +room, whom he was sure to find up and at her prayers; for he liked +to say his prayers, too, by her side, as he used to do when he was +a little boy. It seemed so homelike, he said, after three years' +knocking up and down in no-man's land. But coming gently to the +door, for fear of disturbing her, and entering unperceived, beheld +a sight which stopped him short. + +Mrs. Leigh was sitting in her chair, with her face bowed fondly +down upon the head of his brother Frank, who knelt before her, his +face buried in her lap. Amyas could see that his whole form was +quivering with stifled emotion. Their mother was just finishing +the last words of a well-known text,--"for my sake, and the +Gospel's, shall receive a hundred-fold in this present life, +fathers, and mothers, and brothers, and sisters." + +"But not a wife!" interrupted Frank, with a voice stifled with +sobs; "that was too precious a gift for even Him to promise to +those who gave up a first love for His sake!" + +"And yet," said he, after a moment's silence, "has He not heaped me +with blessings enough already, that I must repine and rage at His +refusing me one more, even though that one be--No, mother! I am +your son, and God's; and you shall know it, even though Amyas never +does!" And he looked up with his clear blue eyes and white +forehead; and his face was as the face of an angel. + +Both of them saw that Amyas was present, and started and blushed. +His mother motioned him away with her eyes, and he went quietly +out, as one stunned. Why had his name been mentioned? + +Love, cunning love, told him all at once. This was the meaning of +last night's canzonet! This was why its words had seemed to fit +his own heart so well! His brother was his rival. And he had been +telling him all his love last night. What a stupid brute he was! +How it must have made poor Frank wince! And then Frank had +listened so kindly; even bid him God speed in his suit. What a +gentleman old Frank was, to be sure! No wonder the queen was so +fond of him, and all the Court ladies!--Why, if it came to that, +what wonder if Rose Salterne should be fond of him too? Hey-day! +"That would be a pretty fish to find in my net when I come to haul +it!" quoth Amyas to himself, as he paced the garden; and clutching +desperately hold of his locks with both hands, as if to hold his +poor confused head on its shoulders, he strode and tramped up and +down the shell-paved garden walks for a full half hour, till +Frank's voice (as cheerful as ever, though he more than suspected +all) called him. + +"Come in to breakfast, lad; and stop grinding and creaking upon +those miserable limpets, before thou hast set every tooth in my +head on edge!" + +Amyas, whether by dint of holding his head straight, or by higher +means, had got the thoughts of the said head straight enough by +this time; and in he came, and fell to upon the broiled fish and +strong ale, with a sort of fury, as determined to do his duty to +the utmost in all matters that day, and therefore, of course, in +that most important matter of bodily sustenance; while his mother +and Frank looked at him, not without anxiety and even terror, +doubting what turn his fancy might have taken in so new a case; at +last-- + +"My dear Amyas, you will really heat your blood with all that +strong ale! Remember, those who drink beer, think beer." + +"Then they think right good thoughts, mother. And in the +meanwhile, those who drink water, think water. Eh, old Frank? and +here's your health." + +"And clouds are water," said his mother, somewhat reassured by his +genuine good humor; "and so are rainbows; and clouds are angels' +thrones, and rainbows the sign of God's peace on earth." + +Amyas understood the hint, and laughed. "Then I'll pledge Frank +out of the next ditch, if it please you and him. But first--I say-- +he must hearken to a parable; a manner mystery, miracle play, I +have got in my head, like what they have at Easter, to the town- +hall. Now then, hearken, madam, and I and Frank will act." And up +rose Amyas, and shoved back his chair, and put on a solemn face. + +Mrs. Leigh looked up, trembling; and Frank, he scarce knew why, +rose. + +"No; you pitch again. You are King David, and sit still upon your +throne. David was a great singer, you know, and a player on the +viols; and ruddy, too, and of a fair countenance; so that will fit. +Now, then, mother, don't look so frightened. I am not going to +play Goliath, for all my cubits; I am to present Nathan the +prophet. Now, David, hearken, for I have a message unto thee, O +King! + +"There were two men in one city, one rich, and the other poor: and +the rich man had many flocks and herds, and all the fine ladies in +Whitehall to court if he liked; and the poor man had nothing but--" + +And in spite of his broad honest smile, Amyas's deep voice began to +tremble and choke. + +Frank sprang up, and burst into tears: "Oh! Amyas, my brother, my +brother! stop! I cannot endure this. Oh, God! was it not enough to +have entangled myself in this fatal fancy, but over and above, I +must meet the shame of my brother's discovering it?" + +"What shame, then, I'd like to know?" said Amyas, recovering +himself. "Look here, brother Frank! I've thought it all over in +the garden; and I was an ass and a braggart for talking to you as I +did last night. Of course you love her! Everybody must; and I was +a fool for not recollecting that; and if you love her, your taste +and mine agree, and what can be better? I think you are a sensible +fellow for loving her, and you think me one. And as for who has +her, why, you're the eldest; and first come first served is the +rule, and best to keep to it. Besides, brother Frank, though I'm +no scholar, yet I'm not so blind but that I tell the difference +between you and me; and of course your chance against mine, for a +hundred to one; and I am not going to be fool enough to row against +wind and tide too. I'm good enough for her, I hope; but if I am, +you are better, and the good dog may run, but it's the best that +takes the hare; and so I have nothing more to do with the matter at +all; and if you marry her, why, it will set the old house on its +legs again, and that's the first thing to be thought of, and you +may just as well do it as I, and better too. Not but that it's a +plague, a horrible plague!" went on Amyas, with a ludicrously +doleful visage; "but so are other things too, by the dozen; it's +all in the day's work, as the huntsman said when the lion ate him. +One would never get through the furze-croft if one stopped to pull +out the prickles. The pig didn't scramble out of the ditch by +squeaking; and the less said the sooner mended; nobody was sent +into the world only to suck honey-pots. What must be must, man is +but dust; if you can't get crumb, you must fain eat crust. So I'll +go and join the army in Ireland, and get it out of my head, for +cannon balls fright away love as well as poverty does; and that's +all I've got to say." Wherewith Amyas sat down, and returned to +the beer; while Mrs. Leigh wept tears of joy. + +"Amyas! Amyas!" said Frank; "you must not throw away the hopes of +years, and for me, too! Oh, how just was your parable! Ah! mother +mine! to what use is all my scholarship and my philosophy, when +this dear simple sailor-lad outdoes me at the first trial of +courtesy!" + +"My children, my children, which of you shall I love best? Which +of you is the more noble? I thanked God this morning for having +given me one such son; but to have found that I possess two!" And +Mrs. Leigh laid her head on the table, and buried her face in her +hands, while the generous battle went on. + +"But, dearest Amyas!--" + +"But, Frank! if you don't hold your tongue, I must go forth. It +was quite trouble enough to make up one's mind, without having you +afterwards trying to unmake it again." + +"Amyas! if you give her up to me, God do so to me, and more also, +if I do not hereby give her up to you!" + +"He had done it already--this morning!" said Mrs. Leigh, looking up +through her tears. "He renounced her forever on his knees before +me! only he is too noble to tell you so." + +"The more reason I should copy him," said Amyas, setting his lips, +and trying to look desperately determined, and then suddenly +jumping up, he leaped upon Frank, and throwing his arms round his +neck, sobbed out, "There, there, now! For God's sake, let us +forget all, and think about our mother, and the old house, and how +we may win her honor before we die! and that will be enough to keep +our hands full, without fretting about this woman and that.--What +an ass I have been for years! instead of learning my calling, +dreaming about her, and don't know at this minute whether she cares +more for me than she does for her father's 'prentices!" + +"Oh, Amyas! every word of yours puts me to fresh shame! Will you +believe that I know as little of her likings as you do?" + +"Don't tell me that, and play the devil's game by putting fresh +hopes into me, when I am trying to kick them out. I won't believe +it. If she is not a fool, she must love you; and if she don't, +why, be hanged if she is worth loving!" + +"My dearest Amyas! I must ask you too to make no more such +speeches to me. All those thoughts I have forsworn." + +"Only this morning; so there is time to catch them again before +they are gone too far." + +"Only this morning," said Frank, with a quiet smile: "but centuries +have passed since then." + +"Centuries? I don't see many gray hairs yet." + +"I should not have been surprised if you had, though," answered +Frank, in so sad and meaning a tone that Amyas could only answer-- + +"Well, you are an angel!" + +"You, at least, are something even more to the purpose, for you are +a man!" + +And both spoke truth, and so the battle ended; and Frank went to +his books, while Amyas, who must needs be doing, if he was not to +dream, started off to the dockyard to potter about a new ship of +Sir Richard's, and forget his woes, in the capacity of Sir Oracle +among the sailors. And so he had played his move for Rose, even as +Eustace had, and lost her: but not as Eustace had. + + + +CHAPTER V + +CLOVELLY COURT IN THE OLDEN TIME + + + "It was among the ways of good Queen Bess, + Who ruled as well as ever mortal can, sir, + When she was stogg'd, and the country in a mess, + She was wont to send for a Devon man, sir." + + West Country Song. + + +The next morning Amyas Leigh was not to be found. Not that he had +gone out to drown himself in despair, or even to bemoan himself +"down by the Torridge side." He had simply ridden off, Frank +found, to Sir Richard Grenville at Stow: his mother at once divined +the truth, that he was gone to try for a post in the Irish army, +and sent off Frank after him to bring him home again, and make him +at least reconsider himself. + +So Frank took horse and rode thereon ten miles or more: and then, +as there were no inns on the road in those days, or indeed in +these, and he had some ten miles more of hilly road before him, he +turned down the hill towards Clovelly Court, to obtain, after the +hospitable humane fashion of those days, good entertainment for man +and horse from Mr. Cary the squire. + +And when he walked self-invited, like the loud-shouting Menelaus, +into the long dark wainscoted hall of the court, the first object +he beheld was the mighty form of Amyas, who, seated at the long +table, was alternately burying his face in a pasty, and the pasty +in his face, his sorrows having, as it seemed, only sharpened his +appetite, while young Will Cary, kneeling on the opposite bench, +with his elbows on the table, was in that graceful attitude laying +down the law fiercely to him in a low voice. + +"Hillo! lad," cried Amyas; "come hither and deliver me out of the +hands of this fire-eater, who I verily believe will kill me, if I +do not let him kill some one else." + +"Ah! Mr. Frank," said Will Cary, who, like all other young +gentlemen of these parts, held Frank in high honor, and considered +him a very oracle and cynosure of fashion and chivalry, "welcome +here: I was just longing for you, too; I wanted your advice on +half-a-dozen matters. Sit down, and eat. There is the ale." + +"None so early, thank you." + +"Ah no!" said Amyas, burying his head in the tankard, and then +mimicking Frank, "avoid strong ale o' mornings. It heats the +blood, thickens the animal spirits, and obfuscates the cerebrum +with frenetical and lymphatic idols, which cloud the quintessential +light of the pure reason. Eh? young Plato, young Daniel, come +hither to judgment! And yet, though I cannot see through the +bottom of the tankard already, I can see plain enough still to see +this, that Will shall not fight." + +"Shall I not, eh? who says that? Mr. Frank, I appeal to you, now; +only hear." + +"We are in the judgment-seat," said Frank, settling to the pasty. +"Proceed, appellant." + +"Well, I was telling Amyas, that Tom Coffin, of Portledge; I will +stand him no longer." + +"Let him be, then," said Amyas; "he could stand very well by +himself, when I saw him last." + +"Plague on you, hold your tongue. Has he any right to look at me +as he does, whenever I pass him?" + +"That depends on how he looks; a cat may look at a king, provided +she don't take him for a mouse." + +"Oh, I know how he looks, and what he means too, and he shall stop, +or I will stop him. And the other day, when I spoke of Rose +Salterne"--"Ah!" groaned Frank, "Ate's apple again!"--"(never mind +what I said) he burst out laughing in my face; and is not that a +fair quarrel? And what is more, I know that he wrote a sonnet, and +sent it to her to Stow by a market woman. What right has he to +write sonnets when I can't? It's not fair play, Mr. Frank, or I am +a Jew, and a Spaniard, and a Papist; it's not!" And Will smote the +table till the plates danced again. + +"My dear knight of the burning pestle, I have a plan, a device, a +disentanglement, according to most approved rules of chivalry. Let +us fix a day, and summon by tuck of drum all young gentlemen under +the age of thirty, dwelling within fifteen miles of the habitation +of that peerless Oriana." + +"And all 'prentice-boys too," cried Amyas, out of the pasty. + +"And all 'prentice-boys. The bold lads shall fight first, with +good quarterstaves, in Bideford Market, till all heads are broken; +and the head which is not broken, let the back belonging to it pay +the penalty of the noble member's cowardice. After which grand +tournament, to which that of Tottenham shall be but a flea-bite and +a batrachomyomachy--" + +"Confound you, and your long words, sir," said poor Will, "I know +you are flouting me." + +"Pazienza, Signor Cavaliere; that which is to come is no flouting, +but bloody and warlike earnest. For afterwards all the young +gentlemen shall adjourn into a convenient field, sand, or bog-- +which last will be better, as no man will be able to run away, if +he be up to his knees in soft peat: and there stripping to our +shirts, with rapiers of equal length and keenest temper, each shall +slay his man, catch who catch can, and the conquerors fight again, +like a most valiant main of gamecocks as we are, till all be dead, +and out of their woes; after which the survivor, bewailing before +heaven and earth the cruelty of our Fair Oriana, and the slaughter +which her basiliscine eyes have caused, shall fall gracefully upon +his sword, and so end the woes of this our lovelorn generation. +Placetne Domini? as they used to ask in the Senate at Oxford." + +"Really," said Cary, "this is too bad." + +"So is, pardon me, your fighting Mr. Coffin with anything longer +than a bodkin." + +"Bodkins are too short for such fierce Bobadils," said Amyas; "they +would close in so near, that we should have them falling to +fisticuffs after the first bout." + +"Then let them fight with squirts across the market-place; for by +heaven and the queen's laws, they shall fight with nothing else." + +"My dear Mr. Cary," went on Frank, suddenly changing his bantering +tone to one of the most winning sweetness, "do not fancy that I +cannot feel for you, or that I, as well as you, have not known the +stings of love and the bitterer stings of jealousy. But oh, Mr. +Cary, does it not seem to you an awful thing to waste selfishly +upon your own quarrel that divine wrath which, as Plato says, is +the very root of all virtues, and which has been given you, like +all else which you have, that you may spend it in the service of +her whom all bad souls fear, and all virtuous souls adore,--our +peerless queen? Who dares, while she rules England, call his sword +or his courage his own, or any one's but hers? Are there no +Spaniards to conquer, no wild Irish to deliver from their +oppressors, that two gentlemen of Devon can find no better place to +flesh their blades than in each other's valiant and honorable +hearts?" + +"By heaven!" cried Amyas, "Frank speaks like a book; and for me, I +do think that Christian gentlemen may leave love quarrels to bulls +and rams." + +"And that the heir of Clovelly," said Frank, smiling, "may find +more noble examples to copy than the stags in his own deer-park." + +"Well," said Will, penitently, "you are a great scholar, Mr. Frank, +and you speak like one; but gentlemen must fight sometimes, or +where would be their honor?" + +"I speak," said Frank, a little proudly, "not merely as a scholar, +but as a gentleman, and one who has fought ere now, and to whom it +has happened, Mr. Cary, to kill his man (on whose soul may God have +mercy); but it is my pride to remember that I have never yet fought +in my own quarrel, and my trust in God that I never shall. For as +there is nothing more noble and blessed than to fight in behalf of +those whom we love, so to fight in our own private behalf is a +thing not to be allowed to a Christian man, unless refusal imports +utter loss of life or honor; and even then, it may be (though I +would not lay a burden on any man's conscience), it is better not +to resist evil, but to overcome it with good." + +"And I can tell you, Will," said Amyas, "I am not troubled with +fear of ghosts; but when I cut off the Frenchman's head, I said to +myself, 'If that braggart had been slandering me instead of her +gracious majesty, I should expect to see that head lying on my +pillow every time I went to bed at night.'" + +"God forbid!" said Will, with a shudder. "But what shall I do? for +to the market tomorrow I will go, if it were choke-full of Coffins, +and a ghost in each coffin of the lot." + +"Leave the matter to me," said Amyas. "I have my device, as well +as scholar Frank here; and if there be, as I suppose there must be, +a quarrel in the market to-morrow, see if I do not--" + +"Well, you are two good fellows," said Will. "Let us have another +tankard in." + +"And drink the health of Mr. Coffin, and all gallant lads of the +North," said Frank; "and now to my business. I have to take this +runaway youth here home to his mother; and if he will not go +quietly, I have orders to carry him across my saddle." + +"I hope your nag has a strong back, then," said Amyas; "but I must +go on and see Sir Richard, Frank. It is all very well to jest as +we have been doing, but my mind is made up." + +"Stop," said Cary. "You must stay here tonight; first, for good +fellowship's sake; and next, because I want the advice of our +Phoenix here, our oracle, our paragon. There, Mr. Frank, can you +construe that for me? Speak low, though, gentlemen both; there +comes my father; you had better give me the letter again. Well, +father, whence this morning?" + +"Eh, company here? Young men, you are always welcome, and such as +you. Would there were more of your sort in these dirty times! How +is your good mother, Frank, eh? Where have I been, Will? Round +the house-farm, to look at the beeves. That sheeted heifer of +Prowse's is all wrong; her coat stares like a hedgepig's. Tell +Jewell to go up and bring her in before night. And then up the +forty acres; sprang two coveys, and picked a leash out of them. +The Irish hawk flies as wild as any haggard still, and will never +make a bird. I had to hand her to Tom, and take the little +peregrine. Give me a Clovelly hawk against the world, after all; +and--heigh ho, I am very hungry! Half-past twelve, and dinner not +served? What, Master Amyas, spoiling your appetite with strong +ale? Better have tried sack, lad; have some now with me." + +And the worthy old gentleman, having finished his oration, settled +himself on a great bench inside the chimney, and put his hawk on a +perch over his head, while his cockers coiled themselves up close +to the warm peat-ashes, and his son set to work to pull off his +father's boots, amid sundry warnings to take care of his corns. + +"Come, Master Amyas, a pint of white wine and sugar, and a bit of a +shoeing-horn to it ere we dine. Some pickled prawns, now, or a +rasher off the coals, to whet you?" + +"Thank you," quoth Amyas; "but I have drunk a mort of outlandish +liquors, better and worse, in the last three years, and yet never +found aught to come up to good ale, which needs neither shoeing- +horn before nor after, but takes care of itself, and of all honest +stomachs too, I think." + +"You speak like a book, boy," said old Cary; "and after all, what a +plague comes of these newfangled hot wines, and aqua vitaes, which +have come in since the wars, but maddening of the brains, and fever +of the blood?" + +"I fear we have not seen the end of that yet," said Frank. "My +friends write me from the Netherlands that our men are falling into +a swinish trick of swilling like the Hollanders. Heaven grant that +they may not bring home the fashion with them." + +"A man must drink, they say, or die of the ague, in those vile +swamps," said Amyas. "When they get home here, they will not need +it." + +"Heaven grant it," said Frank; "I should be sorry to see Devonshire +a drunken county; and there are many of our men out there with Mr. +Champernoun." + +"Ah," said Cary, "there, as in Ireland, we are proving her +majesty's saying true, that Devonshire is her right hand, and the +young children thereof like the arrows in the hand of the giant." + +"They may well be," said his son, "when some of them are giants +themselves, like my tall school-fellow opposite." + +"He will be up and doing again presently, I'll warrant him," said +old Cary. + +"And that I shall," quoth Amyas. "I have been devising brave +deeds; and see in the distance enchanters to be bound, dragons +choked, empires conquered, though not in Holland." + +"You do?" asked Will, a little sharply; for he had had a half +suspicion that more was meant than met the ear. + +"Yes," said Amyas, turning off his jest again, "I go to what +Raleigh calls the Land of the Nymphs. Another month, I hope, will +see me abroad in Ireland." + +"Abroad? Call it rather at home," said old Cary; "for it is full +of Devon men from end to end, and you will be among friends all day +long. George Bourchier from Tawstock has the army now in Munster, +and Warham St. Leger is marshal; George Carew is with Lord Grey of +Wilton (Poor Peter Carew was killed at Glendalough); and after the +defeat last year, when that villain Desmond cut off Herbert and +Price, the companies were made up with six hundred Devon men, and +Arthur Fortescue at their head; so that the old county holds her +head as proudly in the Land of Ire as she does in the Low Countries +and the Spanish Main." + +"And where," asked Amyas, "is Davils of Marsland, who used to teach +me how to catch trout, when I was staying down at Stow? He is in +Ireland, too, is he not?" + +"Ah, my lad," said Mr. Cary, "that is a sad story. I thought all +England had known it." + +"You forget, sir, I am a stranger. Surely he is not dead?" + +"Murdered foully, lad! Murdered like a dog, and by the man whom he +had treated as his son, and who pretended, the false knave! to call +him father." + +"His blood is avenged?" said Amyas, fiercely. + +"No, by heaven, not yet! Stay, don't cry out again. I am getting +old--I must tell my story my own way. It was last July,--was it +not, Will?--Over comes to Ireland Saunders, one of those Jesuit +foxes, as the Pope's legate, with money and bulls, and a banner +hallowed by the Pope, and the devil knows what beside; and with him +James Fitzmaurice, the same fellow who had sworn on his knees to +Perrott, in the church at Kilmallock, to be a true liegeman to +Queen Elizabeth, and confirmed it by all his saints, and such a +world of his Irish howling, that Perrott told me he was fain to +stop his own ears. Well, he had been practising with the King of +France, but got nothing but laughter for his pains, and so went +over to the Most Catholic King, and promises him to join Ireland to +Spain, and set up Popery again, and what not. And he, I suppose, +thinking it better that Ireland should belong to him than to the +Pope's bastard, fits him out, and sends him off on such another +errand as Stukely's,--though I will say, for the honor of Devon, if +Stukely lived like a fool, he died like an honest man." + +"Sir Thomas Stukely dead too?" said Amyas. + +"Wait a while, lad, and you shall have that tragedy afterwards. +Well, where was I? Oh, Fitzmaurice and the Jesuits land at +Smerwick, with three ships, choose a place for a fort, bless it +with their holy water, and their moppings and their scourings, and +the rest of it, to purify it from the stain of heretic dominion; +but in the meanwhile one of the Courtenays,--a Courtenay of +Haccombe, was it?--or a Courtenay of Boconnock? Silence, Will, I +shall have it in a minute--yes, a Courtenay of Haccombe it was, +lying at anchor near by, in a ship of war of his, cuts out the +three ships, and cuts off the Dons from the sea. John and James +Desmond, with some small rabble, go over to the Spaniards. Earl +Desmond will not join them, but will not fight them, and stands by +to take the winning side; and then in comes poor Davils, sent down +by the Lord Deputy to charge Desmond and his brothers, in the +queen's name, to assault the Spaniards. Folks say it was rash of +his lordship: but I say, what could be better done? Every one +knows that there never was a stouter or shrewder soldier than +Davils; and the young Desmonds, I have heard him say many a time, +used to look on him as their father. But he found out what it was +to trust Englishmen turned Irish. Well, the Desmonds found out on +a sudden that the Dons were such desperate Paladins, that it was +madness to meddle, though they were five to one; and poor Davils, +seeing that there was no fight in them, goes back for help, and +sleeps that night at some place called Tralee. Arthur Carter of +Bideford, St. Leger's lieutenant, as stout an old soldier as Davils +himself, sleeps in the same bed with him; the lacquey-boy, who is +now with Sir Richard at Stow, on the floor at their feet. But in +the dead of night, who should come in but James Desmond, sword in +hand, with a dozen of his ruffians at his heels, each with his glib +over his ugly face, and his skene in his hand. Davils springs up +in bed, and asks but this, 'What is the matter, my son?' whereon +the treacherous villain, without giving him time to say a prayer, +strikes at him, naked as he was, crying, 'Thou shalt be my father +no longer, nor I thy son! Thou shalt die!' and at that all the +rest fall on him. The poor little lad (so he says) leaps up to +cover his master with his naked body, gets three or four stabs of +skenes, and so falls for dead; with his master and Captain Carter, +who were dead indeed--God reward them! After that the ruffians +ransacked the house, till they had murdered every Englishman in it, +the lacquey-boy only excepted, who crawled out, wounded as he was, +through a window; while Desmond, if you will believe it, went back, +up to his elbows in blood, and vaunted his deeds to the Spaniards, +and asked them--'There! Will you take that as a pledge that I am +faithful to you?' And that, my lad, was the end of Henry Davils, +and will be of all who trust to the faith of wild savages." + +"I would go a hundred miles to see that Desmond hanged!" said +Amyas, while great tears ran down his face. "Poor Mr. Davils! And +now, what is the story of Sir Thomas?" + +"Your brother must tell you that, lad; I am somewhat out of +breath." + +"And I have a right to tell it," said Frank, with a smile. "Do you +know that I was very near being Earl of the bog of Allen, and one +of the peers of the realm to King Buoncompagna, son and heir to his +holiness Pope Gregory the Thirteenth?" + +"No, surely!" + +"As I am a gentleman. When I was at Rome I saw poor Stukely often; +and this and more he offered me on the part (as he said) of the +Pope, if I would just oblige him in the two little matters of being +reconciled to the Catholic Church, and joining the invasion of +Ireland." + +"Poor deluded heretic," said Will Cary, "to have lost an earldom +for your family by such silly scruples of loyalty!" + +"It is not a matter for jesting, after all," said Frank; "but I saw +Sir Thomas often, and I cannot believe he was in his senses, so +frantic was his vanity and his ambition; and all the while, in +private matters as honorable a gentleman as ever. However, he +sailed at last for Ireland, with his eight hundred Spaniards and +Italians; and what is more, I know that the King of Spain paid +their charges. Marquis Vinola--James Buoncompagna, that is--stayed +quietly at Rome, preferring that Stukely should conquer his +paternal heritage of Ireland for him while he took care of the bona +robas at home. I went down to Civita Vecchia to see him off; and +though his younger by many years, I could not but take the liberty +of entreating him, as a gentleman and a man of Devon, to consider +his faith to his queen and the honor of his country. There were +high words between us; God forgive me if I spoke too fiercely, for +I never saw him again." + +"Too fiercely to an open traitor, Frank? Why not have run him +through?" + +"Nay, I had no clean life for Sundays, Amyas; so I could not throw +away my week-day one; and as for the weal of England, I knew that +it was little he would damage it, and told him so. And at that he +waxed utterly mad, for it touched his pride, and swore that if the +wind had not been fair for sailing, he would have fought me there +and then; to which I could only answer, that I was ready to meet +him when he would; and he parted from me, saying, 'It is a pity, +sir, I cannot fight you now; when next we meet, it will be beneath +my dignity to measure swords with you.' + +"I suppose he expected to come back a prince at least--Heaven +knows; I owe him no ill-will, nor I hope does any man. He has paid +all debts now in full, and got his receipt for them." + +"How did he die, then, after all?" + +"On his voyage he touched in Portugal. King Sebastian was just +sailing for Africa with his new ally, Mohammed the Prince of Fez, +to help King Abdallah, and conquer what he could. He persuaded +Stukely to go with him. There were those who thought that he, as +well as the Spaniards, had no stomach for seeing the Pope's son +King of Ireland. Others used to say that he thought an island too +small for his ambition, and must needs conquer a continent--I know +not why it was, but he went. They had heavy weather in the +passage; and when they landed, many of their soldiers were sea- +sick. Stukely, reasonably enough, counselled that they should wait +two or three days and recruit; but Don Sebastian was so mad for the +assault that he must needs have his veni, vidi, vici; and so ended +with a veni, vidi, perii; for he Abdallah, and his son Mohammed, +all perished in the first battle at Alcasar; and Stukely, +surrounded and overpowered, fought till he could fight no more, and +then died like a hero with all his wounds in front; and may God +have mercy on his soul!" + +"Ah!" said Amyas, "we heard of that battle off Lima, but nothing +about poor Stukely." + +"That last was a Popish prayer, Master Frank," said old Mr. Cary. + +"Most worshipful sir, you surely would not wish God not to have +mercy on his soul?" + +"No--eh? Of course not: but that's all settled by now, for he is +dead, poor fellow." + +"Certainly, my dear sir. And you cannot help being a little fond +of him still." + +"Eh? why, I should be a brute if I were not. He and I were +schoolfellows, though he was somewhat the younger; and many a good +thrashing have I given him, and one cannot help having a tenderness +for a man after that. Beside, we used to hunt together in Exmoor, +and have royal nights afterward into Ilfracombe, when we were a +couple of mad young blades. Fond of him? Why, I would have sooner +given my forefinger than that he should have gone to the dogs +thus." + +"Then, my dear sir, if you feel for him still, in spite of all his +faults, how do you know that God may not feel for him still, in +spite of all his faults? For my part," quoth Frank, in his +fanciful way, "without believing in that Popish Purgatory, I cannot +help holding with Plato, that such heroical souls, who have wanted +but little of true greatness, are hereafter by some strait +discipline brought to a better mind; perhaps, as many ancients have +held with the Indian Gymnosophists, by transmigration into the +bodies of those animals whom they have resembled in their passions; +and indeed, if Sir Thomas Stukely's soul should now animate the +body of a lion, all I can say is that he would be a very valiant +and royal lion; and also doubtless become in due time heartily +ashamed and penitent for having been nothing better than a lion." + +"What now, Master Frank? I don't trouble my head with such +matters--I say Stukely was a right good-hearted fellow at bottom; +and if you plague my head with any of your dialectics, and +propositions, and college quips and quiddities, you sha'n't have +any more sack, sir. But here come the knaves, and I hear the cook +knock to dinner." + +After a madrigal or two, and an Italian song of Master Frank's, all +which went sweetly enough, the ladies rose, and went. Whereon Will +Cary, drawing his chair close to Frank's, put quietly into his hand +a dirty letter. + +"This was the letter left for me," whispered he, "by a country +fellow this morning. Look at it and tell me what I am to do." + +Whereon Frank opened, and read-- + + + "Mister Cary, be you wary + By deer park end to-night. + Yf Irish ffoxe com out of rocks + Grip and hold hym tight." + + +"I would have showed it my father," said Will, "but--" + +"I verily believe it to be a blind. See now, this is the +handwriting of a man who has been trying to write vilely, and yet +cannot. Look at that B, and that G; their formae formativae never +were begotten in a hedge-school. And what is more, this is no +Devon man's handiwork. We say 'to' and not 'by,' Will, eh? in the +West country?" + +"Of course." + +"And 'man,' instead of 'him'?" + +"True, O Daniel! But am I to do nothing therefore?" + +"On that matter I am no judge. Let us ask much-enduring Ulysses +here; perhaps he has not sailed round the world without bringing +home a device or two." + +Whereon Amyas was called to counsel, as soon as Mr. Cary could be +stopped in a long cross-examination of him as to Mr. Doughty's +famous trial and execution. + +Amyas pondered awhile, thrusting his hands into his long curls; and +then-- + +"Will, my lad, have you been watching at the Deer Park End of +late?" + +"Never." + +"Where, then?" + +"At the town-beach." + +"Where else? + +"At the town-head." + +"Where else?" + +"Why, the fellow is turned lawyer! Above Freshwater." + +"Where is Freshwater?" + +"Why, where the water-fall comes over the cliff, half-a-mile from +the town. There is a path there up into the forest." + +"I know. I'll watch there to-night. Do you keep all your old +haunts safe, of course, and send a couple of stout knaves to the +mill, to watch the beach at the Deer Park End, on the chance; for +your poet may be a true man, after all. But my heart's faith is, +that this comes just to draw you off from some old beat of yours, +upon a wild-goose chase. If they shoot the miller by mistake, I +suppose it don't much matter?" + +"Marry, no." + + + "'When a miller's knock'd on the head, + The less of flour makes the more of bread.'" + + +"Or, again," chimed in old Mr. Cary, "as they say in the North-- + + + "'Find a miller that will not steal, + Or a webster that is leal, + Or a priest that is not greedy, + And lay them three a dead corpse by; + And by the virtue of them three, + The said dead corpse shall quicken'd be.'" + + +"But why are you so ready to watch Freshwater to-night, Master +Amyas?" + +"Because, sir, those who come, if they come, will never land at +Mouthmill; if they are strangers, they dare not; and if they are +bay's-men, they are too wise, as long as the westerly swell sets +in. As for landing at the town, that would be too great a risk; +but Freshwater is as lonely as the Bermudas; and they can beach a +boat up under the cliff at all tides, and in all weathers, except +north and nor'west. I have done it many a time, when I was a boy." + +"And give us the fruit of your experience now in your old age, eh? +Well, you have a gray head on green shoulders, my lad; and I verily +believe you are right. Who will you take with you to watch?" + +"Sir," said Frank, "I will go with my brother; and that will be +enough." + +"Enough? He is big enough, and you brave enough, for ten; but +still, the more the merrier." + +"But the fewer, the better fare. If I might ask a first and last +favor, worshipful sir," said Frank, very earnestly, "you would +grant me two things: that you would let none go to Freshwater but +me and my brother; and that whatsoever we shall bring you back +shall be kept as secret as the commonweal and your loyalty shall +permit. I trust that we are not so unknown to you, or to others, +that you can doubt for a moment but that whatsoever we may do will +satisfy at once your honor and our own." + +"My dear young gentleman, there is no need of so many courtier's +words. I am your father's friend, and yours. And God forbid that +a Cary--for I guess your drift--should ever wish to make a head or +a heart ache; that is, more than--" + +"Those of whom it is written, 'Though thou bray a fool in a mortar, +yet will not his folly depart from him,'" interposed Frank, in so +sad a tone that no one at the table replied; and few more words +were exchanged, till the two brothers were safe outside the house; +and then-- + +"Amyas," said Frank, "that was a Devon man's handiwork, +nevertheless; it was Eustace's handwriting." + +"Impossible!" + +"No, lad. I have been secretary to a prince, and learnt to +interpret cipher, and to watch every pen-stroke; and, young as I +am, I think that I am not easily deceived. Would God I were! Come +on, lad; and strike no man hastily, lest thou cut off thine own +flesh." + +So forth the two went, along the park to the eastward, and past the +head of the little wood-embosomed fishing-town, a steep stair of +houses clinging to the cliff far below them, the bright slate roofs +and white walls glittering in the moonlight; and on some half-mile +farther, along the steep hill-side, fenced with oak wood down to +the water's edge, by a narrow forest path, to a point where two +glens meet and pour their streamlets over a cascade some hundred +feet in height into the sea below. By the side of this waterfall a +narrow path climbs upward from the beach; and here it was that the +two brothers expected to meet the messenger. + +Frank insisted on taking his station below Amyas. He said that he +was certain that Eustace himself would make his appearance, and +that he was more fit than Amyas to bring him to reason by parley; +that if Amyas would keep watch some twenty yards above, the escape +of the messenger would be impossible. Moreover, he was the elder +brother, and the post of honor was his right. So Amyas obeyed him, +after making him promise that if more than one man came up the +path, he would let them pass him before he challenged, so that both +might bring them to bay at the same time. + +So Amyas took his station under a high marl bank, and, bedded in +luxuriant crown-ferns, kept his eye steadily on Frank, who sat down +on a little knoll of rock (where is now a garden on the cliff-edge) +which parts the path and the dark chasm down which the stream +rushes to its final leap over the cliff. + +There Amyas sat a full half-hour, and glanced at whiles from Frank +to look upon the scene around. Outside the southwest wind blew +fresh and strong, and the moonlight danced upon a thousand crests +of foam; but within the black jagged point which sheltered the +town, the sea did but heave, in long oily swells of rolling silver, +onward into the black shadow of the hills, within which the town +and pier lay invisible, save where a twinkling light gave token of +some lonely fisher's wife, watching the weary night through for the +boat which would return with dawn. Here and there upon the sea, a +black speck marked a herring-boat, drifting with its line of nets; +and right off the mouth of the glen, Amyas saw, with a beating +heart, a large two-masted vessel lying-to--that must be the +"Portugal"! Eagerly he looked up the glen, and listened; but he +heard nothing but the sweeping of the wind across the downs five +hundred feet above, and the sough of the waterfall upon the rocks +below; he saw nothing but the vast black sheets of oak-wood sloping +up to the narrow blue sky above, and the broad bright hunter's +moon, and the woodcocks, which, chuckling to each other, hawked to +and fro, like swallows, between the tree-tops and the sky. + +At last he heard a rustle of the fallen leaves; he shrank closer +and closer into the darkness of the bank. Then swift light steps-- +not down the path, from above, but upward, from below; his heart +beat quick and loud. And in another half-minute a man came in +sight, within three yards of Frank's hiding-place. + +Frank sprang out instantly. Amyas saw his bright blade glance in +the clear October moonlight. + +"Stand in the queen's name!" + +The man drew a pistol from under his cloak, and fired full in his +face. Had it happened in these days of detonators, Frank's chance +had been small; but to get a ponderous wheel-lock under weigh was a +longer business, and before the fizzing of the flint had ceased, +Frank had struck up the pistol with his rapier, and it exploded +harmlessly over his head. The man instantly dashed the weapon in +his face and closed. + +The blow, luckily, did not take effect on that delicate forehead, +but struck him on the shoulder: nevertheless, Frank, who with all +his grace and agility was as fragile as a lily, and a very bubble +of the earth, staggered, and lost his guard, and before he could +recover himself, Amyas saw a dagger gleam, and one, two, three +blows fiercely repeated. + +Mad with fury, he was with them in an instant. They were scuffling +together so closely in the shade that he was afraid to use his +sword point; but with the hilt he dealt a single blow full on the +ruffian's cheek. It was enough; with a hideous shriek, the fellow +rolled over at his feet, and Amyas set his foot on him, in act to +run him through. + +"Stop! stay!" almost screamed Frank; "it is Eustace! our cousin +Eustace!" and he leant against a tree. + +Amyas sprang towards him: but Frank waved him off. + +"It is nothing--a scratch. He has papers: I am sure of it. Take +them; and for God's sake let him go!" + +"Villain! give me your papers!" cried Amyas, setting his foot once +more on the writhing Eustace, whose jaw was broken across. + +"You struck me foully from behind," moaned he, his vanity and envy +even then coming out, in that faint and foolish attempt to prove +Amyas not so very much better a man. + +"Hound, do you think that I dare not strike you in front? Give me +your papers, letters, whatever Popish devilry you carry; or as I +live, I will cut off your head, and take them myself, even if it +cost me the shame of stripping your corpse. Give them up! +Traitor, murderer! give them, I say!" And setting his foot on him +afresh, he raised his sword. + +Eustace was usually no craven: but he was cowed. Between agony and +shame, he had no heart to resist. Martyrdom, which looked so +splendid when consummated selon les regles on Tower Hill or Tyburn, +before pitying, or (still better) scoffing multitudes, looked a +confused, dirty, ugly business there in the dark forest; and as he +lay, a stream of moonlight bathed his mighty cousin's broad clear +forehead, and his long golden locks, and his white terrible blade, +till he seemed, to Eustace's superstitious eye, like one of those +fair young St. Michaels trampling on the fiend, which he had seen +abroad in old German pictures. He shuddered; pulled a packet from +his bosom, and threw it from him, murmuring, "I have not given it." + +"Swear to me that these are all the papers which you have in cipher +or out of cipher. Swear on your soul, or you die!" + +Eustace swore. + +"Tell me, who are your accomplices?" + +"Never!" said Eustace. "Cruel! have you not degraded me enough +already?" and the wretched young man burst into tears, and hid his +bleeding face in his hands. + +One hint of honor made Amyas as gentle as a lamb. He lifted +Eustace up, and bade him run for his life. + +"I am to owe my life, then, to you?" + +"Not in the least; only to your being a Leigh. Go, or it will be +worse for you!" And Eustace went; while Amyas, catching up the +precious packet, hurried to Frank. He had fainted already, and his +brother had to carry him as far as the park before he could find +any of the other watchers. The blind, as far as they were +concerned, was complete. They had heard and seen nothing. +Whosoever had brought the packet had landed they knew not where; +and so all returned to the court, carrying Frank, who recovered +gradually, having rather bruises than wounds; for his foe had +struck wildly, and with a trembling hand. + +Half-an-hour after, Amyas, Mr. Cary, and his son Will were in deep +consultation over the following epistle, the only paper in the +packet which was not in cipher:-- + + +"'DEAR BROTHER N. S. in Chto. et Ecclesia. + +"This is to inform you and the friends of the cause, that S. +Josephus has landed in Smerwick, with eight hundred valiant +Crusaders, burning with holy zeal to imitate last year's martyrs of +Carrigfolium, and to expiate their offences (which I fear may have +been many) by the propagation of our most holy faith. I have +purified the fort (which they are strenuously rebuilding) with +prayer and holy water, from the stain of heretical footsteps, and +consecrated it afresh to the service of Heaven, as the first-fruits +of the isle of saints; and having displayed the consecrated banner +to the adoration of the faithful, have returned to Earl Desmond, +that I may establish his faith, weak as yet, by reason of the +allurements of this world: though since, by the valor of his +brother James, he that hindered was taken out of the way (I mean +Davils the heretic, sacrifice well-pleasing in the eyes of +Heaven!), the young man has lent a more obedient ear to my +counsels. If you can do anything, do it quickly, for a great door +and effectual is opened, and there are many adversaries. But be +swift, for so do the poor lambs of the Church tremble at the fury +of the heretics, that a hundred will flee before one Englishman. +And, indeed, were it not for that divine charity toward the Church +(which covers the multitude of sins) with which they are +resplendent, neither they nor their country would be, by the carnal +judgment, counted worthy of so great labor in their behalf. For +they themselves are given much to lying, theft, and drunkenness, +vain babbling, and profane dancing and singing; and are still, as +S. Gildas reports of them, 'more careful to shroud their villainous +faces in bushy hair, than decently to cover their bodies; while +their land (by reason of the tyranny of their chieftains, and the +continual wars and plunderings among their tribes, which leave them +weak and divided, an easy prey to the myrmidons of the +excommunicate and usurping Englishwoman) lies utterly waste with +fire, and defaced with corpses of the starved and slain. But what +are these things, while the holy virtue of Catholic obedience still +flourishes in their hearts? The Church cares not for the +conservation of body and goods, but of immortal souls. + +"If any devout lady shall so will, you may obtain from her +liberality a shirt for this worthless tabernacle, and also a pair +of hose; for I am unsavory to myself and to others, and of such +luxuries none here has superfluity; for all live in holy poverty, +except the fleas, who have that consolation in this world for which +this unhappy nation, and those who labor among them, must wait till +the world to come.* + +"Your loving brother, + +"N. S." + + +* See note at end of chapter. + + +"Sir Richard must know of this before daybreak," cried old Cary. +"Eight hundred men landed! We must call out the Posse Comitatus, +and sail with them bodily. I will go myself, old as I am. +Spaniards in Ireland? not a dog of them must go home again." + +"Not a dog of them," answered Will; "but where is Mr. Winter and +his squadron?" + +"Safe in Milford Haven; a messenger must be sent to him too." + +"I'll go," said Amyas: "but Mr. Cary is right. Sir Richard must +know all first." + +"And we must have those Jesuits." + +"What? Mr. Evans and Mr. Morgans? God help us--they are at my +uncle's! Consider the honor of our family!" + +"Judge for yourself, my dear boy," said old Mr. Cary, gently: +"would it not be rank treason to let these foxes escape, while we +have this damning proof against them?" + +"I will go myself, then." + +"Why not? You may keep all straight, and Will shall go with you. +Call a groom, Will, and get your horse saddled, and my Yorkshire +gray; he will make better play with this big fellow on his back, +than the little pony astride of which Mr. Leigh came walking in (as +I hear) this morning. As for Frank, the ladies will see to him +well enough, and glad enough, too, to have so fine a bird in their +cage for a week or two." + +"And my mother?" + +"We'll send to her to-morrow by daybreak. Come, a stirrup cup to +start with, hot and hot. Now, boots, cloaks, swords, a deep pull +and a warm one, and away!" + +And the jolly old man bustled them out of the house and into their +saddles, under the broad bright winter's moon. + +"You must make your pace, lads, or the moon will be down before you +are over the moors." And so away they went. + +Neither of them spoke for many a mile. Amyas, because his mind was +fixed firmly on the one object of saving the honor of his house; +and Will, because he was hesitating between Ireland and the wars, +and Rose Salterne and love-making. At last he spoke suddenly. + +"I'll go, Amyas." + +"Whither?" + +"To Ireland with you, old man. I have dragged my anchor at last." + +"What anchor, my lad of parables?" + +"See, here am I, a tall and gallant ship." + +"Modest even if not true." + +"Inclination, like an anchor, holds me tight." + +"To the mud." + +"Nay, to a bed of roses--not without their thorns." + +"Hillo! I have seen oysters grow on fruit-trees before now, but +never an anchor in a rose-garden." + +"Silence, or my allegory will go to noggin-staves." + +"Against the rocks of my flinty discernment." + +"Pooh--well. Up comes duty like a jolly breeze, blowing dead from +the northeast, and as bitter and cross as a northeaster too, and +tugs me away toward Ireland. I hold on by the rosebed--any ground +in a storm--till every strand is parted, and off I go, westward ho! +to get my throat cut in a bog-hole with Amyas Leigh." + +"Earnest, Will?" + +"As I am a sinful man." + +"Well done, young hawk of the White Cliff!" + +"I had rather have called it Gallantry Bower still, though," said +Will, punning on the double name of the noble precipice which forms +the highest point of the deer park. + +"Well, as long as you are on land, you know it is Gallantry Bower +still: but we always call it White Cliff when you see it from the +sea-board, as you and I shall do, I hope, to-morrow evening." + +"What, so soon?" + +"Dare we lose a day?" + +"I suppose not: heigh-ho!" + +And they rode on again in silence, Amyas in the meanwhile being not +a little content (in spite of his late self-renunciation) to find +that one of his rivals at least was going to raise the siege of the +Rose garden for a few months, and withdraw his forces to the coast +of Kerry. + +As they went over Bursdon, Amyas pulled up suddenly. + +"Did you not hear a horse's step on our left?" + +"On our left--coming up from Welsford moor? Impossible at this +time of night. It must have been a stag, or a sownder of wild +swine: or may be only an old cow." + +"It was the ring of iron, friend. Let us stand and watch." + +Bursdon and Welsford were then, as now, a rolling range of dreary +moors, unbroken by tor or tree, or anything save few and far +between a world-old furze-bank which marked the common rights of +some distant cattle farm, and crossed. then, not as now, by a +decent road, but by a rough confused track-way, the remnant of an +old Roman road from Clovelly dikes to Launceston. To the left it +trended down towards a lower range of moors, which form the +watershed of the heads of Torridge; and thither the two young men +peered down over the expanse of bog and furze, which glittered for +miles beneath the moon, one sheet of frosted silver, in the heavy +autumn dew. + +"If any of Eustace's party are trying to get home from Freshwater, +they might save a couple of miles by coming across Welsford, +instead of going by the main track, as we have done." So said +Amyas, who though (luckily for him) no "genius," was cunning as a +fox in all matters of tactic and practic, and would have in these +days proved his right to be considered an intellectual person by +being a thorough man of business. + +"If any of his party are mad, they'll try it, and be stogged till +the day of judgment. There are bogs in the bottom twenty feet +deep. Plague on the fellow, whoever he is, he has dodged us! Look +there!" + +It was too true. The unknown horseman had evidently dismounted +below, and led his horse up on the other side of a long furze-dike; +till coming to the point where it turned away again from his +intended course, he appeared against the sky, in the act of leading +his nag over a gap. + +"Ride like the wind!" and both youths galloped across furze and +heather at him; but ere they were within a hundred yards of him, he +had leapt again on his horse, and was away far ahead. + +"There is the dor to us, with a vengeance," cried Cary, putting in +the spurs. + +"It is but a lad; we shall never catch him." + +"I'll try, though; and do you lumber after as you can, old +heavysides;" and Cary pushed forward. + +Amyas lost sight of him for ten minutes, and then came up with him +dismounted, and feeling disconsolately at his horse's knees. + +"Look for my head. It lies somewhere about among the furze there; +and oh! I am as full of needles as ever was a pin-cushion." + +"Are his knees broken?" + +"I daren't look. No, I believe not. Come along, and make the best +of a bad matter. The fellow is a mile ahead, and to the right, +too." + +"He is going for Moorwinstow, then; but where is my cousin?" + +"Behind us, I dare say. We shall nab him at least." + +"Cary, promise me that if we do, you will keep out of sight, and +let me manage him." + +"My boy, I only want Evan Morgans and Morgan Evans. He is but the +cat's paw, and we are after the cats themselves." + +And so they went on another dreary six miles, till the land trended +downwards, showing dark glens and masses of woodland far below. + +"Now, then, straight to Chapel, and stop the foxes' earth? Or +through the King's Park to Stow, and get out Sir Richard's hounds, +hue and cry, and queen's warrant in proper form?" + +"Let us see Sir Richard first; and whatsoever he decides about my +uncle, I will endure as a loyal subject must." + +So they rode through the King's Park, while Sir Richard's colts +came whinnying and staring round the intruders, and down through a +rich woodland lane five hundred feet into the valley, till they +could hear the brawling of the little trout-stream, and beyond, the +everlasting thunder of the ocean surf. + +Down through warm woods, all fragrant with dying autumn flowers, +leaving far above the keen Atlantic breeze, into one of those +delicious Western combes, and so past the mill, and the little knot +of flower-clad cottages. In the window of one of them a light was +still burning. The two young men knew well whose window that was; +and both hearts beat fast; for Rose Salterne slept, or rather +seemed to wake, in that chamber. + +"Folks are late in Combe to-night," said Amyas, as carelessly as he +could. + +Cary looked earnestly at the window, and then sharply enough at +Amyas; but Amyas was busy settling his stirrup; and Cary rode on, +unconscious that every fibre in his companion's huge frame was +trembling like his own. + +"Muggy and close down here," said Amyas, who, in reality, was quite +faint with his own inward struggles. + +"We shall be at Stow gate in five minutes," said Cary, looking back +and down longingly as his horse climbed the opposite hill; but a +turn of the zigzag road hid the cottage, and the next thought was, +how to effect an entrance into Stow at three in the morning without +being eaten by the ban-dogs, who were already howling and growling +at the sound of the horse-hoofs. + +However, they got safely in, after much knocking and calling, +through the postern gate in the high west wall, into a mansion, the +description whereof I must defer to the next chapter, seeing that +the moon has already sunk into the Atlantic, and there is darkness +over land and sea. + +Sir Richard, in his long gown, was soon downstairs in the hall; the +letter read, and the story told; but ere it was half finished-- + +"Anthony, call up a groom, and let him bring me a horse round. +Gentlemen, if you will excuse me five minutes, I shall be at your +service." + +"You will not go alone, Richard?" asked Lady Grenville, putting her +beautiful face in its nightcoif out of an adjoining door. + +"Surely, sweet chuck, we three are enough to take two poor polecats +of Jesuits. Go in, and help me to boot and gird." + +In half an hour they were down and up across the valley again, +under the few low ashes clipt flat by the sea-breeze which stood +round the lonely gate of Chapel. + +"Mr. Cary, there is a back path across the downs to Marsland; go +and guard that." Cary rode off; and Sir Richard, as he knocked +loudly at the gate-- + +"Mr. Leigh, you see that I have consulted your honor, and that of +your poor uncle, by adventuring thus alone. What will you have me +do now, which may not be unfit for me and you?" + +"Oh, sir!" said Amyas, with tears in his honest eyes, "you have +shown yourself once more what you always have been--my dear and +beloved master on earth, not second even to my admiral Sir Francis +Drake." + +"Or the queen, I hope," said Grenville, smiling, "but pocas +palabras. What will you do?" + +"My wretched cousin, sir, may not have returned--and if I might +watch for him on the main road--unless you want me with you." + +"Richard Grenville can walk alone, lad. But what will you do with +your cousin?" + +"Send him out of the country, never to return; or if he refuses, +run him through on the spot." + +"Go, lad." And as he spoke, a sleepy voice asked inside the gate, +"Who was there?" + +"Sir Richard Grenville. Open, in the queen's name?" + +"Sir Richard? He is in bed, and be hanged to you. No honest folk +come at this hour of night." + +"Amyas!" shouted Sir Richard. Amyas rode back. + +"Burst that gate for me, while I hold your horse." + +Amyas leaped down, took up a rock from the roadside, such as +Homer's heroes used to send at each other's heads, and in an +instant the door was flat on the ground, and the serving-man on his +back inside, while Sir Richard quietly entering over it, like Una +into the hut, told the fellow to get up and hold his horse for him +(which the clod, who knew well enough that terrible voice, did +without further murmurs), and then strode straight to the front +door. It was already opened. The household had been up and about +all along, or the noise at the entry had aroused them. + +Sir Richard knocked, however, at the open door; and, to his +astonishment, his knock was answered by Mr. Leigh himself, fully +dressed, and candle in hand. + +"Sir Richard Grenville! What, sir! is this neighborly, not to say +gentle, to break into my house in the dead of night?" + +"I broke your outer door, sir, because I was refused entrance when +I asked in the queen's name. I knocked at your inner one, as I +should have knocked at the poorest cottager's in the parish, +because I found it open. You have two Jesuits here, sir! and here +is the queen's warrant for apprehending them. I have signed it +with my own hand, and, moreover, serve it now, with my own hand, in +order to save you scandal--and it may be, worse. I must have these +men, Mr. Leigh." + +"My dear Sir Richard--!" + +"I must have them, or I must search the house; and you would not +put either yourself or me to so shameful a necessity?" + +"My dear Sir Richard!--" + +"Must I, then, ask you to stand back from your own doorway, my dear +sir?" said Grenville. And then changing his voice to that fearful +lion's roar, for which he was famous, and which it seemed +impossible that lips so delicate could utter, he thundered, +"Knaves, behind there! Back!" + +This was spoken to half-a-dozen grooms and serving-men, who, well +armed, were clustered in the passage. + +"What? swords out, you sons of cliff rabbits?" And in a moment, +Sir Richard's long blade flashed out also, and putting Mr. Leigh +gently aside, as if he had been a child, he walked up to the party, +who vanished right and left; having expected a cur dog, in the +shape of a parish constable, and come upon a lion instead. They +were stout fellows enough, no doubt, in a fair fight: but they had +no stomach to be hanged in a row at Launceston Castle, after a +preliminary running through the body by that redoubted admiral and +most unpeaceful justice of the peace. + +"And now, my dear Mr. Leigh," said Sir Richard, as blandly as ever, +"where are my men? The night is cold; and you, as well as I, need +to be in our beds." + +"The men, Sir Richard--the Jesuits--they are not here, indeed." + +"Not here, sir?" + +"On the word of a gentleman, they left my house an hour ago. +Believe me, sir, they did. I will swear to you if you need." + +"I believe Mr. Leigh of Chapel's word without oaths. Whither are +they gone?" + +"Nay, sir--how can I tell? They are--they are, as I may say, fled, +sir; escaped." + +"With your connivance; at least with your son's. Where are they +gone?" + +"As I live, I do not know." + +Mr. Leigh--is this possible? Can you add untruth to that treason +from the punishment of which I am trying to shield you?" + +Poor Mr. Leigh burst into tears. + +"Oh! my God! my God! is it come to this? Over and above having the +fear and anxiety of keeping these black rascals in my house, and +having to stop their villainous mouths every minute, for fear they +should hang me and themselves, I am to be called a traitor and a +liar in my old age, and that, too, by Richard Grenville! Would God +I had never been born! Would God I had no soul to be saved, and +I'd just go and drown care in drink, and let the queen and the Pope +fight it out their own way!" And the poor old man sank into a +chair, and covered his face with his hands, and then leaped up +again. + +"Bless my heart! Excuse me, Sir Richard--to sit down and leave you +standing. 'S life, sir, sorrow is making a hawbuck of me. Sit +down, my dear sir! my worshipful sir! or rather come with me into +my room, and hear a poor wretched man's story, for I swear before +God the men are fled; and my poor boy Eustace is not home either, +and the groom tells me that his devil of a cousin has broken his +jaw for him; and his mother is all but mad this hour past. Good +lack! good lack!" + +"He nearly murdered his angel of a cousin, sir! " said Sir Richard, +severely. + +"What, sir? They never told me." + +"He had stabbed his cousin Frank three times, sir, before Amyas, +who is as noble a lad as walks God's earth, struck him down. And +in defence of what, forsooth, did he play the ruffian and the +swashbuckler, but to bring home to your house this letter, sir, +which you shall hear at your leisure, the moment I have taken order +about your priests." And walking out of the house he went round +and called to Cary to come to him. + +"The birds are flown, Will," whispered he. "There is but one +chance for us, and that is Marsland Mouth. If they are trying to +take boat there, you may be yet in time. If they are gone inland +we can do nothing till we raise the hue and cry to-morrow." + +And Will galloped off over the downs toward Marsland, while Sir +Richard ceremoniously walked in again, and professed himself ready +and happy to have the honor of an audience in Mr. Leigh's private +chamber. And as we know pretty well already what was to be +discussed therein, we had better go over to Marsland Mouth, and, if +possible, arrive there before Will Cary: seeing that he arrived hot +and swearing, half an hour too late. + + +Note.--I have shrunk somewhat from giving these and other sketches +(true and accurate as I believe them to be) of Ireland during +Elizabeth's reign, when the tyranny and lawlessness of the feudal +chiefs had reduced the island to such a state of weakness and +barbarism, that it was absolutely necessary for England either to +crush the Norman-Irish nobility, and organize some sort of law and +order, or to leave Ireland an easy prey to the Spaniards, or any +other nation which should go to war with us. The work was done-- +clumsily rather than cruelly; but wrongs were inflicted, and +avenged by fresh wrongs, and those by fresh again. May the memory +of them perish forever! It has been reserved for this age, and for +the liberal policy of this age, to see the last ebullitions of +Celtic excitability die out harmless and ashamed of itself, and to +find that the Irishman, when he is brought as a soldier under the +regenerative influence of law, discipline, self-respect, and +loyalty, can prove himself a worthy rival of the more stern Norse- +Saxon warrior. God grant that the military brotherhood between +Irish and English, which is the special glory of the present war, +may be the germ of a brotherhood industrial, political, and +hereafter, perhaps, religious also; and that not merely the corpses +of heroes, but the feuds and wrongs which have parted them for +centuries, may lie buried, once and forever, in the noble graves of +Alma and Inkerman. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE COMBES OF THE FAR WEST + + + "Far, far from hence + The Adriatic breaks in a warm bay + Among the green Illyrian hills, and there + The sunshine in the happy glens is fair, + And by the sea and in the brakes + The grass is cool, the sea-side air + Buoyant and fresh, the mountain flowers + More virginal and sweet than ours." + + MATTHEW ARNOLD. + + +And even such are those delightful glens, which cut the high table- +land of the confines of Devon and Cornwall, and opening each +through its gorge of down and rock, towards the boundless Western +Ocean. Each is like the other, and each is like no other English +scenery. Each has its upright walls, inland of rich oak-wood, +nearer the sea of dark green furze, then of smooth turf, then of +weird black cliffs which range out right and left far into the deep +sea, in castles, spires, and wings of jagged iron-stone. Each has +its narrow strip of fertile meadow, its crystal trout stream +winding across and across from one hill-foot to the other; its gray +stone mill, with the water sparkling and humming round the dripping +wheel; its dark, rock pools above the tide mark, where the salmon- +trout gather in from their Atlantic wanderings, after each autumn +flood: its ridge of blown sand, bright with golden trefoil and +crimson lady's finger; its gray bank of polished pebbles, down +which the stream rattles toward the sea below. Each has its black +field of jagged shark's-tooth rock which paves the cove from side +to side, streaked with here and there a pink line of shell sand, +and laced with white foam from the eternal surge, stretching in +parallel lines out to the westward, in strata set upright on edge, +or tilted towards each other at strange angles by primeval +earthquakes;--such is the "mouth"--as those coves are called; and +such the jaw of teeth which they display, one rasp of which would +grind abroad the timbers of the stoutest ship. To landward, all +richness, softness, and peace; to seaward, a waste and howling +wilderness of rock and roller, barren to the fisherman, and +hopeless to the shipwrecked mariner. + +In only one of these "mouths" is a landing for boats, made possible +by a long sea-wall of rock, which protects it from the rollers of +the Atlantic; and that mouth is Marsland, the abode of the White +Witch, Lucy Passmore; whither, as Sir Richard Grenville rightly +judged, the Jesuits were gone. But before the Jesuits came, two +other persons were standing on that lonely beach, under the bright +October moon, namely, Rose Salterne and the White Witch herself; +for Rose, fevered with curiosity and superstition, and allured by +the very wildness and possible danger of the spell, had kept her +appointment; and, a few minutes before midnight, stood on the gray +shingle beach with her counsellor. + +"You be safe enough here to-night, miss. My old man is snoring +sound abed, and there's no other soul ever sets foot here o' +nights, except it be the mermaids now and then. Goodness, Father, +where's our boat? It ought to be up here on the pebbles." + +Rose pointed to a strip of sand some forty yards nearer the sea, +where the boat lay. + +"Oh, the lazy old villain! he's been round the rocks after pollock +this evening, and never taken the trouble to hale the boat up. +I'll trounce him for it when I get home. I only hope he's made her +fast where she is, that's all! He's more plague to me than ever my +money will be. O deary me!" + +And the goodwife bustled down toward the boat, with Rose behind +her. + +"Iss, 'tis fast, sure enough: and the oars aboard too! Well, I +never! Oh, the lazy thief, to leave they here to be stole! I'll +just sit in the boat, dear, and watch mun, while you go down to the +say; for you must be all alone to yourself, you know, or you'll see +nothing. There's the looking-glass; now go, and dip your head +three times, and mind you don't look to land or sea before you've +said the words, and looked upon the glass. Now, be quick, it's +just upon midnight." + +And she coiled herself up in the boat, while Rose went faltering +down the strip of sand, some twenty yards farther, and there +slipping off her clothes, stood shivering and trembling for a +moment before she entered the sea. + +She was between two walls of rock: that on her left hand, some +twenty feet high, hid her in deepest shade; that on her right, +though much lower, took the whole blaze of the midnight moon. +Great festoons of live and purple sea-weed hung from it, shading +dark cracks and crevices, fit haunts for all the goblins of the +sea. On her left hand, the peaks of the rock frowned down ghastly +black; on her right hand, far aloft, the downs slept bright and +cold. + +The breeze had died away; not even a roller broke the perfect +stillness of the cove. The gulls were all asleep upon the ledges. +Over all was a true autumn silence; a silence which may be heard. +She stood awed, and listened in hope of a sound which might tell +her that any living thing beside herself existed. + +There was a faint bleat, as of a new-born lamb, high above her +head; she started and looked up. Then a wail from the cliffs, as +of a child in pain, answered by another from the opposite rocks. +They were but the passing snipe, and the otter calling to her +brood; but to her they were mysterious, supernatural goblins, come +to answer to her call. Nevertheless, they only quickened her +expectation; and the witch had told her not to fear them. If she +performed the rite duly, nothing would harm her: but she could hear +the beating of her own heart, as she stepped, mirror in hand, into +the cold water, waded hastily, as far as she dare, and then stopped +aghast. + +A ring of flame was round her waist; every limb was bathed in +lambent light; all the multitudinous life of the autumn sea, +stirred by her approach, had flashed suddenly into glory;-- + + +"And around her the lamps of the sea nymphs, + Myriad fiery globes, swam heaving and panting, and rainbows, + Crimson and azure and emerald, were broken in star-showers, lighting + Far through the wine-dark depths of the crystal, the gardens of Nereus, + Coral and sea-fan and tangle, the blooms and the palms of the ocean." + + +She could see every shell which crawled on the white sand at her +feet, every rock-fish which played in and out of the crannies, and +stared at her with its broad bright eyes; while the great palmate +oarweeds which waved along the chasm, half-seen in the glimmering +water, seemed to beckon her down with long brown hands to a grave +amid their chilly bowers. She turned to flee; but she had gone too +far now to retreat; hastily dipping her head three times, she +hurried out to the sea-marge, and looking through her dripping +locks at the magic mirror, pronounced the incantation-- + + + "A maiden pure, here I stand, + Neither on sea, nor yet on land; + Angels watch me on either hand. + If you be landsman, come down the strand; + If you be sailor, come up the sand; + If you be angel, come from the sky, + Look in my glass, and pass me by; + Look in my glass, and go from the shore; + Leave me, but love me for evermore." + + +The incantation was hardly finished, her eyes were straining into +the mirror, where, as may be supposed, nothing appeared but the +sparkle of the drops from her own tresses, when she heard rattling +down the pebbles the hasty feet of men and horses. + +She darted into a cavern of the high rock, and hastily dressed +herself: the steps held on right to the boat. Peeping out, half- +dead with terror, she saw there four men, two of whom had just +leaped from their horses, and turning them adrift, began to help +the other two in running the boat down. + +Whereon, out of the stern sheets, arose, like an angry ghost, the +portly figure of Lucy Passmore, and shrieked in shrillest treble-- + +"Eh! ye villains, ye roogs, what do ye want staling poor folks' +boats by night like this?" + +The whole party recoiled in terror, and one turned to run up the +beach, shouting at the top of his voice, "'Tis a marmaiden--a +marmaiden asleep in Willy Passmore's boat!" + +"I wish it were any sich good luck," she could hear Will say; "'tis +my wife, oh dear!" and he cowered down, expecting the hearty cuff +which he received duly, as the White Witch, leaping out of the +boat, dared any man to touch it, and thundered to her husband to go +home to bed. + +The wily dame, as Rose well guessed, was keeping up this delay +chiefly to gain time for her pupil: but she had also more solid +reasons for making the fight as hard as possible; for she, as well +as Rose, had already discerned in the ungainly figure of one of the +party the same suspicious Welsh gentleman, on whose calling she had +divined long ago; and she was so loyal a subject as to hold in +extreme horror her husband's meddling with such "Popish skulkers" +(as she called the whole party roundly to their face)--unless on +consideration of a very handsome sum of money. In vain Parsons +thundered, Campian entreated, Mr. Leigh's groom swore, and her +husband danced round in an agony of mingled fear and covetousness. + +"No," she cried, "as I am an honest woman and loyal! This is why +you left the boat down to the shoore, you old traitor, you, is it? +To help off sich noxious trade as this out of the hands of her +majesty's quorum and rotulorum? Eh? Stand back, cowards! Will +you strike a woman?" + +This last speech (as usual) was merely indicative of her intention +to strike the men; for, getting out one of the oars, she swung it +round and round fiercely, and at last caught Father Parsons such a +crack across the shins, that he retreated with a howl. + +"Lucy, Lucy!" shrieked her husband, in shrillest Devon falsetto, +"be you mazed? Be you mazed, lass? They promised me two gold +nobles before I'd lend them the boot!" + +"Tu?" shrieked the matron, with a tone of ineffable scorn. "And do +yu call yourself a man?" + +"Tu nobles! tu nobles!" shrieked he again, hopping about at oar's +length. + +"Tu? And would you sell your soul under ten?" + +"Oh, if that is it," cried poor Campian, "give her ten, give her +ten, brother Pars--Morgans, I mean; and take care of your shins, +Offa Cerbero, you know--Oh, virago! Furens quid faemina possit! +Certainly she is some Lamia, some Gorgon, some--" + +"Take that, for your Lamys and Gorgons to an honest woman!" and in +a moment poor Campian's thin legs were cut from under him, while +the virago, "mounting on his trunk astride," like that more famous +one on Hudibras, cried, "Ten nobles, or I'll kep ye here till +morning!" And the ten nobles were paid into her hand. + +And now the boat, its dragon guardian being pacified, was run down +to the sea, and close past the nook where poor little Rose was +squeezing herself into the farthest and darkest corner, among wet +sea-weed and rough barnacles, holding her breath as they +approached. + +They passed her, and the boat's keel was already in the water; Lucy +had followed them close, for reasons of her own, and perceiving +close to the water's edge a dark cavern, cunningly surmised that it +contained Rose, and planted her ample person right across its +mouth, while she grumbled at her husband, the strangers, and above +all at Mr. Leigh's groom, to whom she prophesied pretty plainly +Launceston gaol and the gallows; while the wretched serving-man, +who would as soon have dared to leap off Welcombe Cliff as to +return railing for railing to the White Witch, in vain entreated +her mercy, and tried, by all possible dodging, to keep one of the +party between himself and her, lest her redoubted eye should +"overlook" him once more to his ruin. + +But the night's adventures were not ended yet; for just as the boat +was launched, a faint halloo was heard upon the beach, and a minute +after, a horseman plunged down the pebbles, and along the sand, and +pulling his horse up on its haunches close to the terrified group, +dropped, rather than leaped, from the saddle. + +The serving-man, though he dared not tackle a witch, knew well +enough how to deal with a swordsman; and drawing, sprang upon the +newcomer, and then recoiled-- + +"God forgive me, it's Mr. Eustace! Oh, dear sir, I took you for +one of Sir Richard's men! Oh, sir, you're hurt!" + +"A scratch, a scratch!" almost moaned Eustace. "Help me into the +boat, Jack. Gentlemen, I must with you." + +"Not with us, surely, my dear son, vagabonds upon the face of the +earth?" said kind-hearted Campian. + +"With you, forever. All is over here. Whither God and the cause +lead"--and he staggered toward the boat. + +As he passed Rose, she saw his ghastly bleeding face, half bound up +with a handkerchief, which could not conceal the convulsions of +rage, shame, and despair, which twisted it from all its usual +beauty. His eyes glared wildly round--and once, right into the +cavern. They met hers, so full, and keen, and dreadful, that +forgetting she was utterly invisible, the terrified girl was on the +point of shrieking aloud. + +"He has overlooked me!" said she, shuddering to herself, as she +recollected his threat of yesterday. + +"Who has wounded you?" asked Campian. + +"My cousin--Amyas--and taken the letter!" + +"The devil take him, then!" cried Parsons, stamping up and down +upon the sand in fury. + +"Ay, curse him--you may! I dare not! He saved me--sent me here!"-- +and with a groan, he made an effort to enter the boat. + +"Oh, my dear young gentleman," cried Lucy Passmore, her woman's +heart bursting out at the sight of pain, "you must not goo forth +with a grane wound like to that. Do ye let me just bind mun up--do +ye now!" and she advanced. + +Eustace thrust her back. + +"No! better bear it, I deserve it--devils! I deserve it! On +board, or we shall all be lost--William Cary is close behind me!" + +And at that news the boat was thrust into the sea, faster than ever +it went before, and only in time; for it was but just round the +rocks, and out of sight, when the rattle of Cary's horsehoofs was +heard above. + +"That rascal of Mr. Leigh's will catch it now, the Popish villain!" +said Lucy Passmore, aloud. "You lie still there, dear life, and +settle your sperrits; you'm so safe as ever was rabbit to burrow. +I'll see what happens, if I die for it!" And so saying, she +squeezed herself up through a cleft to a higher ledge, from whence +she could see what passed in the valley. + +"There mun is! in the meadow, trying to catch the horses! There +comes Mr. Cary! Goodness, Father, how a rid'th! he's over wall +already! Ron, Jack! ron then! A'll get to the river! No, a +wain't! Goodness, Father! There's Mr. Cary cotched mun! A's +down, a's down!" + +"Is he dead?" asked Rose, shuddering. + +"Iss, fegs, dead as nits! and Mr. Cary off his horse, standing +overthwart mun! No, a bain't! A's up now. Suspose he was hit wi' +the flat. Whatever is Mr. Cary tu? Telling wi' mun, a bit. Oh +dear, dear, dear!" + +"Has he killed him?" cried poor Rose. + +"No, fegs, no! kecking mun, kecking mun, so hard as ever was +futeball! Goodness, Father, who did ever? If a haven't kecked mun +right into river, and got on mun's horse and rod away!" + +And so saying, down she came again. + +"And now then, my dear life, us be better to goo hoom and get you +sommat warm. You'm mortal cold, I rackon, by now. I was cruel +fear'd for ye: but I kept mun off clever, didn't I, now?" + +"I wish--I wish I had not seen Mr. Leigh's face!" + +"Iss, dreadful, weren't it, poor young soul; a sad night for his +poor mother!" + +"Lucy, I can't get his face out of my mind. I'm sure he overlooked +me." + +"Oh then! who ever heard the like o' that? When young gentlemen do +overlook young ladies, tain't thikketheor aways, I knoo. Never you +think on it." + +"But I can't help thinking of it," said Rose. "Stop. Shall we go +home yet? Where's that servant?" + +"Never mind, he wain't see us, here under the hill. I'd much +sooner to know where my old man was. I've a sort of a forecasting +in my inwards, like, as I always has when aught's gwain to happen, +as though I shuldn't zee mun again, like, I have, miss. Well--he +was a bedient old soul, after all, he was. Goodness, Father! and +all this while us have forgot the very thing us come about! Who +did you see?" + +"Only that face!" said Rose, shuddering. + +"Not in the glass, maid? Say then, not in the glass?" + +"Would to heaven it had been! Lucy, what if he were the man I was +fated to--" + +"He? Why, he's a praste, a Popish praste, that can't marry if he +would, poor wratch." + +"He is none; and I have cause enough to know it!" And, for want of +a better confidant, Rose poured into the willing ears of her +companion the whole story of yesterday's meeting. + +"He's a pretty wooer!" said Lucy at last, contemptuously. "Be a +brave maid, then, be a brave maid, and never terrify yourself with +his unlucky face. It's because there was none here worthy of ye, +that ye seed none in glass. Maybe he's to be a foreigner, from +over seas, and that's why his sperit was so long a coming. A duke, +or a prince to the least, I'll warrant, he'll be, that carries off +the Rose of Bideford." + +But in spite of all the good dame's flattery, Rose could not wipe +that fierce face away from her eyeballs. She reached home safely, +and crept to bed undiscovered: and when the next morning, as was to +be expected, found her laid up with something very like a fever, +from excitement, terror, and cold, the phantom grew stronger and +stronger before her, and it required all her woman's tact and self- +restraint to avoid betraying by her exclamations what had happened +on that fantastic night. After a fortnight's weakness, however, +she recovered and went back to Bideford: but ere she arrived there, +Amyas was far across the seas on his way to Milford Haven, as shall +be told in the ensuing chapters. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE TRUE AND TRAGICAL HISTORY OF MR. JOHN OXENHAM OF PLYMOUTH + + + "The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew; + The furrow follow'd free; + We were the first that ever burst + Into that silent sea." + + The Ancient Mariner. + + +It was too late and too dark last night to see the old house at +Stow. We will look round us, then, this bright October day, while +Sir Richard and Amyas, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, are +pacing up and down the terraced garden to the south. Amyas has +slept till luncheon, i. e. till an hour ago: but Sir Richard, in +spite of the bustle of last night, was up and in the valley by six +o'clock, recreating the valiant souls of himself and two terrier +dogs by the chase of sundry badgers. + +Old Stow House stands, or rather stood, some four miles beyond the +Cornish border, on the northern slope of the largest and loveliest +of those combes of which I spoke in the last chapter. Eighty years +after Sir Richard's time there arose there a huge Palladian pile, +bedizened with every monstrosity of bad taste, which was built, so +the story runs, by Charles the Second, for Sir Richard's great- +grandson, the heir of that famous Sir Bevil who defeated the +Parliamentary troops at Stratton, and died soon after, fighting +valiantly at Lansdowne over Bath. But, like most other things +which owed their existence to the Stuarts, it rose only to fall +again. An old man who had seen, as a boy, the foundation of the +new house laid, lived to see it pulled down again, and the very +bricks and timber sold upon the spot; and since then the stables +have become a farm-house, the tennis-court a sheep-cote, the great +quadrangle a rick-yard; and civilization, spreading wave on wave so +fast elsewhere, has surged back from that lonely corner of the +land--let us hope, only for a while. + +But I am not writing of that great new Stow House, of the past +glories whereof quaint pictures still hang in the neighboring +houses; nor of that famed Sir Bevil, most beautiful and gallant of +his generation, on whom, with his grandfather Sir Richard, old +Prince has his pompous epigram-- + + + "Where next shall famous Grenvil's ashes stand? + Thy grandsire fills the sea, and thou the land." + + +I have to deal with a simpler age, and a sterner generation; and +with the old house, which had stood there, in part at least, from +gray and mythic ages, when the first Sir Richard, son of Hamon +Dentatus, Lord of Carboyle, the grandson of Duke Robert, son of +Rou, settled at Bideford, after slaying the Prince of South-Galis, +and the Lord of Glamorgan, and gave to the Cistercian monks of +Neath all his conquests in South Wales. It was a huge rambling +building, half castle, half dwelling-house, such as may be seen +still (almost an unique specimen) in Compton Castle near Torquay, +the dwelling-place of Humphrey Gilbert, Walter Raleigh's half- +brother, and Richard Grenville's bosom friend, of whom more +hereafter. On three sides, to the north, west, and south, the +lofty walls of the old ballium still stood, with their machicolated +turrets, loopholes, and dark downward crannies for dropping stones +and fire on the besiegers, the relics of a more unsettled age: but +the southern court of the ballium had become a flower-garden, with +quaint terraces, statues, knots of flowers, clipped yews and +hollies, and all the pedantries of the topiarian art. And toward +the east, where the vista of the valley opened, the old walls were +gone, and the frowning Norman keep, ruined in the Wars of the +Roses, had been replaced by the rich and stately architecture of +the Tudors. Altogether, the, house, like the time, was in a +transitionary state, and represented faithfully enough the passage +of the old middle age into the new life which had just burst into +blossom throughout Europe, never, let us pray, to see its autumn or +its winter. + +From the house on three sides, the hill sloped steeply down, and +the garden where Sir Richard and Amyas were walking gave a truly +English prospect. At one turn they could catch, over the western +walls, a glimpse of the blue ocean flecked with passing sails; and +at the next, spread far below them, range on range of fertile park, +stately avenue, yellow autumn woodland, and purple heather moors, +lapping over and over each other up the valley to the old British +earthwork, which stood black and furze-grown on its conical peak; +and standing out against the sky on the highest bank of hill which +closed the valley to the east, the lofty tower of Kilkhampton +church, rich with the monuments and offerings of five centuries of +Grenvilles. A yellow eastern haze hung soft over park, and wood, +and moor; the red cattle lowed to each other as they stood brushing +away the flies in the rivulet far below; the colts in the horse- +park close on their right whinnied as they played together, and +their sires from the Queen's Park, on the opposite hill, answered +them in fuller though fainter voices. A rutting stag made the +still woodland rattle with his hoarse thunder, and a rival far up +the valley gave back a trumpet note of defiance, and was himself +defied from heathery brows which quivered far away above, half seen +through the veil of eastern mist. And close at home, upon the +terrace before the house, amid romping spaniels and golden-haired +children, sat Lady Grenville herself, the beautiful St. Leger of +Annery, the central jewel of all that glorious place, and looked +down at her noble children, and then up at her more noble husband, +and round at that broad paradise of the West, till life seemed too +full of happiness, and heaven of light. + +And all the while up and down paced Amyas and Sir Richard, talking +long, earnestly, and slow; for they both knew that the turning +point of the boy's life was come. + +"Yes," said Sir Richard, after Amyas, in his blunt simple way, had +told him the whole story about Rose Salterne and his brother,-- +"yes, sweet lad, thou hast chosen the better part, thou and thy +brother also, and it shall not be taken from you. Only be strong, +lad, and trust in God that He will make a man of you." + +"I do trust," said Amyas. + +"Thank God," said Sir Richard, "that you have yourself taken from +my heart that which was my great anxiety for you, from the day that +your good father, who sleeps in peace, committed you to my hands. +For all best things, Amyas, become, when misused, the very worst; +and the love of woman, because it is able to lift man's soul to the +heavens, is also able to drag him down to hell. But you have +learnt better, Amyas; and know, with our old German forefathers, +that, as Tacitus saith, Sera juvenum Venus, ideoque inexhausta +pubertas. And not only that, Amyas; but trust me, that silly +fashion of the French and Italians, to be hanging ever at some +woman's apron string, so that no boy shall count himself a man +unless he can vagghezziare le donne, whether maids or wives, alas! +matters little; that fashion, I say, is little less hurtful to the +soul than open sin; for by it are bred vanity and expense, envy and +heart-burning, yea, hatred and murder often; and even if that be +escaped, yet the rich treasure of a manly worship, which should be +kept for one alone, is squandered and parted upon many, and the +bride at last comes in for nothing but the very last leavings and +caput mortuum of her bridegroom's heart, and becomes a mere +ornament for his table, and a means whereby he may obtain a +progeny. May God, who has saved me from that death in life, save +you also!" And as he spoke, he looked down toward his wife upon +the terrace below; and she, as if guessing instinctively that he +was talking of her, looked up with so sweet a smile, that Sir +Richard's stern face melted into a very glory of spiritual +sunshine. + +Amyas looked at them both and sighed; and then turning the +conversation suddenly-- + +"And I may go to Ireland to-morrow?" + +"You shall sail in the 'Mary' for Milford Haven, with these letters +to Winter. If the wind serves, you may bid the master drop down +the river tonight, and be off; for we must lose no time." + +"Winter?" said Amyas. "He is no friend of mine, since he left +Drake and us so cowardly at the Straits of Magellan." + +"Duty must not wait for private quarrels, even though they be just +ones, lad: but he will not be your general. When you come to the +marshal, or the Lord Deputy, give either of them this letter, and +they will set you work,--and hard work too, I warrant. + +"I want nothing better." + +"Right, lad; the best reward for having wrought well already, is to +have more to do; and he that has been faithful over a few things, +must find his account in being made ruler over many things. That +is the true and heroical rest, which only is worthy of gentlemen +and sons of God. As for those who, either in this world or the +world to come, look for idleness, and hope that God shall feed them +with pleasant things, as it were with a spoon, Amyas, I count them +cowards and base, even though they call themselves saints and +elect." + +"I wish you could persuade my poor cousin of that." + +"He has yet to learn what losing his life to save it means, Amyas. +Bad men have taught him (and I fear these Anabaptists and Puritans +at home teach little else), that it is the one great business of +every one to save his own soul after he dies; every one for +himself; and that that, and not divine self-sacrifice, is the one +thing needful, and the better part which Mary chose." + +"I think men are inclined enough already to be selfish, without +being taught that." + +"Right, lad. For me, if I could hang up such a teacher on high as +an enemy of mankind, and a corrupter of youth, I would do it +gladly. Is there not cowardice and self-seeking enough about the +hearts of us fallen sons of Adam, that these false prophets, with +their baits of heaven, and their terrors of hell, must exalt our +dirtiest vices into heavenly virtues and the means of bliss? +Farewell to chivalry and to desperate valor, farewell to patriotism +and loyalty, farewell to England and to the manhood of England, if +once it shall become the fashion of our preachers to bid every man, +as the Jesuits do, take care first of what they call the safety of +his soul. Every man will be afraid to die at his post, because he +will be afraid that he is not fit to die. Amyas, do thou do thy +duty like a man, to thy country, thy queen, and thy God; and count +thy life a worthless thing, as did the holy men of old. Do thy +work, lad; and leave thy soul to the care of Him who is just and +merciful in this, that He rewards every man according to his work. +Is there respect of persons with God? Now come in, and take the +letters, and to horse. And if I hear of thee dead there at +Smerwick fort, with all thy wounds in front, I shall weep for thy +mother, lad; but I shall have never a sigh for thee." + +If any one shall be startled at hearing a fine gentleman and a +warrior like Sir Richard quote Scripture, and think Scripture also, +they must be referred to the writings of the time; which they may +read not without profit to themselves, if they discover therefrom +how it was possible then for men of the world to be thoroughly +ingrained with the Gospel, and yet to be free from any taint of +superstitious fear, or false devoutness. The religion of those +days was such as no soldier need have been ashamed of confessing. +At least, Sir Richard died as he lived, without a shudder, and +without a whine; and these were his last words, fifteen years after +that, as he lay shot through and through, a captive among Popish +Spaniards, priests, crucifixes, confession, extreme unction, and +all other means and appliances for delivering men out of the hands +of a God of love:-- + +"Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind; for +that I have ended my life as a true soldier ought, fighting for his +country, queen, religion, and honor: my soul willingly departing +from this body, leaving behind the lasting fame of having behaved +as every valiant soldier is in his duty bound to do." + +Those were the last words of Richard Grenville. The pulpits of +those days had taught them to him. + +But to return. That day's events were not over yet. For, when +they went down into the house, the first person whom they met was +the old steward, in search of his master. + +"There is a manner of roog, Sir Richard, a masterless man, at the +door; a very forward fellow, and must needs speak with you." + +"A masterless man? He had better not to speak to me, unless he is +in love with gaol and gallows." + +"Well, your worship," said the steward, "I expect that is what he +does want, for he swears he will not leave the gate till he has +seen you." + +"Seen me? Halidame! he shall see me, here and at Launceston too, +if he likes. Bring him in." + +"Fegs, Sir Richard, we are half afeard. With your good leave--" + +"Hillo, Tony," cried Amyas, "who was ever afeard yet with Sir +Richard's good leave?" + +"What, has the fellow a tail or horns?" + +"Massy no: but I be afeard of treason for your honor; for the +fellow is pinked all over in heathen patterns, and as brown as a +filbert; and a tall roog, a very strong roog, sir, and a foreigner +too, and a mighty staff with him. I expect him to be a manner of +Jesuit, or wild Irish, sir; and indeed the grooms have no stomach +to handle him, nor the dogs neither, or he had been under the pump +before now, for they that saw him coming up the hill swear that he +had fire coming out of his mouth." + +"Fire out of his mouth?" said Sir Richard. "The men are drunk." + +"Pinked all over? He must be a sailor," said Amyas; "let me out +and see the fellow, and if he needs putting forth--" + +"Why, I dare say he is not so big but what he will go into thy +pocket. So go, lad, while I finish my writing." + +Amyas went out, and at the back door, leaning on his staff, stood a +tall, raw-boned, ragged man, "pinked all over," as the steward had +said. + +"Hillo, lad!" quoth Amyas. "Before we come to talk, thou wilt +please to lay down that Plymouth cloak of thine." And he pointed +to the cudgel, which among West-country mariners usually bore that +name. + +"I'll warrant," said the old steward, "that where he found his +cloak he found purse not far off." + +"But not hose or doublet; so the magical virtue of his staff has +not helped him much. But put down thy staff, man, and speak like a +Christian, if thou be one." + +"I am a Christian, though I look like a heathen; and no rogue, +though a masterless man, alas! But I want nothing, deserving +nothing, and only ask to speak with Sir Richard, before I go on my +way." + +There was something stately and yet humble about the man's tone and +manner which attracted Amyas, and he asked more gently where he was +going and whence he came. + +"From Padstow Port, sir, to Clovelly town, to see my old mother, if +indeed she be yet alive, which God knoweth." + +Clovally man! why didn't thee say thee was Clovally man?" asked all +the grooms at once, to whom a West-countryman was of course a +brother. The old steward asked-- + +"What's thy mother's name, then?" + +"Susan Yeo." + +"What, that lived under the archway?" asked a groom. + +"Lived?" said the man. + +"Iss, sure; her died three days since, so we heard, poor soul." + +The man stood quite silent and unmoved for a minute or two; and +then said quietly to himself, in Spanish, "That which is, is best." + +"You speak Spanish?" asked Amyas, more and more interested. + +"I had need to do so, young sir; I have been five years in the +Spanish Main, and only set foot on shore two days ago; and if you +will let me have speech of Sir Richard, I will tell him that at +which both the ears of him that heareth it shall tingle; and if +not, I can but go on to Mr. Cary of Clovelly, if he be yet alive, +and there disburden my soul; but I would sooner have spoken with +one that is a mariner like to myself." + +"And you shall," said Amyas. "Steward, we will have this man in; +for all his rags, he is a man of wit." And he led him in. + +"I only hope he ben't one of those Popish murderers," said the old +steward, keeping at a safe distance from him as they entered the +hall. + +"Popish, old master? There's little fear of my being that. Look +here!" And drawing back his rags, he showed a ghastly scar, which +encircled his wrist and wound round and up his fore-arm. + +"I got that on the rack," said he, quietly, "in the Inquisition at +Lima." + +"O Father! Father! why didn't you tell us that you were a poor +Christian?" asked the penitent steward. + +"Because I have had naught but my deserts; and but a taste of them +either, as the Lord knoweth who delivered me; and I wasn't going to +make myself a beggar and a show on their account." + +"By heaven, you are a brave fellow!" said Amyas. "Come along +straight to Sir Richard's room." + +So in they went, where Sir Richard sat in his library among books, +despatches, state-papers, and warrants; for though he was not yet, +as in after times (after the fashion of those days) admiral, +general, member of parliament, privy councillor, justice of the +peace, and so forth, all at once, yet there were few great men with +whom he did not correspond, or great matters with which he was not +cognizant. + +"Hillo, Amyas, have you bound the wild man already, and brought him +in to swear allegiance?" + +But before Amyas could answer, the man looked earnestly on him-- +"Amyas?" said he; "is that your name, sir?" + +"Amyas Leigh is my name, at your service, good fellow." + +"Of Burrough by Bideford?" + +"Why then? What do you know of me?" + +"Oh sir, sir! young brains and happy ones have short memories; but +old and sad brains too long ones often! Do you mind one that was +with Mr. Oxenham, sir? A swearing reprobate he was, God forgive +him, and hath forgiven him too, for His dear Son's sake--one, sir, +that gave you a horn, a toy with a chart on it?" + +"Soul alive!" cried Amyas, catching him by the hand; "and are you +he? The horn? why, I have it still, and will keep it to my dying +day, too. But where is Mr. Oxenham?" + +"Yes, my good fellow, where is Mr. Oxenham?" asked Sir Richard, +rising. "You are somewhat over-hasty in welcoming your old +acquaintance, Amyas, before we have heard from him whether he can +give honest account of himself and of his captain. For there is +more than one way by which sailors may come home without their +captains, as poor Mr. Barker of Bristol found to his cost. God +grant that there may have been no such traitorous dealing here." + +"Sir Richard Grenville, if I had been a guilty man to my noble +captain, as I have to God, I had not come here this day to you, +from whom villainy has never found favor, nor ever will; for I know +your conditions well, sir; and trust in the Lord, that if you will +be pleased to hear me, you shall know mine." + +"Thou art a well-spoken knave. We shall see." + +"My dear sir," said Amyas, in a whisper, "I will warrant this man +guiltless." + +"I verily believe him to be; but this is too serious a matter to be +left on guess. If he will be sworn--" + +Whereon the man, humbly enough, said, that if it would please Sir +Richard, he would rather not be sworn. + +"But it does not please me, rascal! Did I not warn thee, Amyas?" + +"Sir," said the man, proudly, "God forbid that my word should not +be as good as my oath: but it is against my conscience to be +sworn." + +"What have we here? some fantastical Anabaptist, who is wiser than +his teachers." + +"My conscience, sir--" + +"The devil take it and thee! I never heard a man yet begin to +prate of his conscience, but I knew that he was about to do +something more than ordinarily cruel or false." + +"Sir," said the man, coolly enough, "do you sit here to judge me +according to law, and yet contrary to the law swear profane oaths, +for which a fine is provided?" + +Amyas expected an explosion: but Sir Richard pulled a shilling out +and put it on the table. "There--my fine is paid, sirrah, to the +poor of Kilkhampton: but hearken thou all the same. If thou wilt +not speak an oath, thou shalt speak on compulsion; for to +Launceston gaol thou goest, there to answer for Mr. Oxenham's +death, on suspicion whereof, and of mutiny causing it, I will +attach thee and every soul of his crew that comes home. We have +lost too many gallant captains of late by treachery of their crews, +and he that will not clear himself on oath, must be held for +guilty, and self-condemned." + +"My good fellow," said Amyas, who could not give up his belief in +the man's honesty, "why, for such fantastical scruples, peril not +only your life, but your honor, and Mr. Oxenham's also? For if you +be examined by question, you may be forced by torment to say that +which is not true." + +"Little fear of that, young sir!" answered he, with a grim smile; +"I have had too much of the rack already, and the strappado too, to +care much what man can do unto me. I would heartily that I thought +it lawful to be sworn: but not so thinking, I can but submit to the +cruelty of man; though I did expect more merciful things, as a most +miserable and wrecked mariner, at the hands of one who hath himself +seen God's ways in the sea, and His wonders in the great deep. Sir +Richard Grenville, if you will hear my story, may God avenge on my +head all my sins from my youth up until now, and cut me off from +the blood of Christ, and, if it were possible, from the number of +His elect, if I tell you one whit more or less than truth; and if +not, I commend myself into the hands of God." + +Sir Richard smiled. "Well, thou art a brave ass, and valiant, +though an ass manifest. Dost thou not see, fellow, how thou hast +sworn a ten-times bigger oath than ever I should have asked of +thee? But this is the way with your Anabaptists, who by their very +hatred of forms and ceremonies, show of how much account they think +them, and then bind themselves out of their own fantastical self- +will with far heavier burdens than ever the lawful authorities have +laid on them for the sake of the commonweal. But what do they care +for the commonweal, as long as they can save, as they fancy, each +man his own dirty soul for himself? However, thou art sworn now +with a vengeance; go on with thy tale: and first, who art thou, and +whence?" + +"Well, sir," said the man, quite unmoved by this last explosion; +"my name is Salvation Yeo, born in Clovelly Street, in the year +1526, where my father exercised the mystery of a barber surgeon, +and a preacher of the people since called Anabaptists, for which I +return humble thanks to God." + +Sir Richard.--Fie! thou naughty knave; return thanks that thy +father was an ass? + +Yeo.--Nay, but because he was a barber surgeon; for I myself learnt +a touch of that trade, and thereby saved my life, as I will tell +presently. And I do think that a good mariner ought to have all +knowledge of carnal and worldly cunning, even to tailoring and +shoemaking, that he may be able to turn his hand to whatsoever may +hap. + +Sir Richard.--Well spoken, fellow: but let us have thy text without +thy comments. Forwards! + +Yeo.--Well, sir. I was bred to the sea from my youth, and was with +Captain Hawkins in his three voyages, which he made to Guinea for +negro slaves, and thence to the West Indies. + +Sir Richard.--Then thrice thou wentest to a bad end, though Captain +Hawkins be my good friend; and the last time to a bad end thou +camest. + +Yeo.--No denying that last, your worship: but as for the former, I +doubt--about the unlawfulness, I mean; being the negroes are of the +children of Ham, who are cursed and reprobate, as Scripture +declares, and their blackness testifies, being Satan's own livery; +among whom therefore there can be none of the elect, wherefore the +elect are not required to treat them as brethren. + +Sir Richard.--What a plague of a pragmatical sea-lawyer have we +here? And I doubt not, thou hypocrite, that though thou wilt call +the negroes' black skin Satan's livery, when it serves thy turn to +steal them, thou wilt find out sables to be Heaven's livery every +Sunday, and up with a godly howl unless a parson shall preach in a +black gown, Geneva fashion. Out upon thee! Go on with thy tale, +lest thou finish thy sermon at Launceston after all. + +Yeo.--The Lord's people were always a reviled people and a +persecuted people: but I will go forward, sir; for Heaven forbid +but that I should declare what God has done for me. For till +lately, from my youth up, I was given over to all wretchlessness +and unclean living, and was by nature a child of the devil, and to +every good work reprobate, even as others. + +Sir Richard.--Hark to his "even as others"! Thou new-whelped +Pharisee, canst not confess thine own villainies without making out +others as bad as thyself, and so thyself no worse than others? I +only hope that thou hast shown none of thy devil's doings to Mr. +Oxenham. + +Yeo.--On the word of a Christian man, sir, as I said before, I kept +true faith with him, and would have been a better friend to him, +sir, what is more, than ever he was to himself. + +Sir Richard.--Alas! that might easily be. + +Yeo.--I think, sir, and will make good against any man, that Mr. +Oxenham was a noble and valiant gentleman; true of his word, stout +of his sword, skilful by sea and land, and worthy to have been Lord +High Admiral of England (saving your worship's presence), but that +through two great sins, wrath and avarice, he was cast away +miserably or ever his soul was brought to the knowledge of the +truth. Ah, sir, he was a captain worth sailing under! + +And Yeo heaved a deep sigh. + +Sir Richard.--Steady, steady, good fellow! If thou wouldst quit +preaching, thou art no fool after all. But tell us the story +without more bush-beating. + +So at last Yeo settled himself to his tale:-- + +"Well, sirs, I went, as Mr. Leigh knows, to Nombre de Dios, with +Mr. Drake and Mr. Oxenham, in 1572, where what we saw and did, your +worship, I suppose, knows as well as I; and there was, as you've +heard maybe, a covenant between Mr. Oxenham and Mr. Drake to sail +the South Seas together, which they made, your worship, in my +hearing, under the tree over Panama. For when Mr. Drake came down +from the tree, after seeing the sea afar off, Mr. Oxenham and I +went up and saw it too; and when we came down, Drake says, 'John, I +have made a vow to God that I will sail that water, if I live and +God gives me grace;' which he had done, sir, upon his bended knees, +like a godly man as he always was, and would I had taken after him! +and Mr. O. says, 'I am with you, Drake, to live or die, and I think +I know some one there already, so we shall not be quite among +strangers;' and laughed withal. Well, sirs, that voyage, as you +know, never came off, because Captain Drake was fighting in +Ireland; so Mr. Oxenham, who must be up and doing, sailed for +himself, and I, who loved him, God knows, like a brother (saving +the difference in our ranks), helped him to get the crew together, +and went as his gunner. That was in 1575; as you know, he had a +140-ton ship, sir, and seventy men out of Plymouth and Fowey and +Dartmouth, and many of them old hands of Drake's, beside a dozen or +so from Bideford that I picked up when I saw young Master here." + +"Thank God that you did not pick me up too." + +"Amen, amen!" said Yeo, clasping his hands on his breast. "Those +seventy men, sir,--seventy gallant men, sir, with every one of them +an immortal soul within him,--where are they now? Gone, like the +spray!" And he swept his hands abroad with a wild and solemn +gesture. "And their blood is upon my head!" + +Both Sir Richard and Amyas began to suspect that the man's brain +was not altogether sound. + +"God forbid, my man," said the knight, kindly. + +"Thirteen men I persuaded to join in Bideford town, beside William +Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade. And what if it be said to +me at the day of judgment, 'Salvation Yeo, where are those fourteen +whom thou didst tempt to their deaths by covetousness and lust of +gold?' Not that I was alone in my sin, if the truth must be told. +For all the way out Mr. Oxenham was making loud speech, after his +pleasant way, that he would make all their fortunes, and take them +to such a Paradise, that they should have no lust to come home +again. And I--God knows why--for every one boast of his would make +two, even to lying and empty fables, and anything to keep up the +men's hearts. For I had really persuaded myself that we should all +find treasures beyond Solomon his temple, and Mr. Oxenham would +surely show us how to conquer some golden city or discover some +island all made of precious stones. And one day, as the captain +and I were talking after our fashion, I said, 'And you shall be our +king, captain.' To which he, 'If I be, I shall not be long without +a queen, and that no Indian one either.' And after that he often +jested about the Spanish ladies, saying that none could show us the +way to their hearts better than he. Which speeches I took no count +of then, sirs: but after I minded them, whether I would or not. +Well, sirs, we came to the shore of New Spain, near to the old +place--that's Nombre de Dios; and there Mr. Oxenham went ashore +into the woods with a boat's crew, to find the negroes who helped +us three years before. Those are the Cimaroons, gentles, negro +slaves who have fled from those devils incarnate, their Spanish +masters, and live wild, like the beasts that perish; men of great +stature, sirs, and fierce as wolves in the onslaught, but poor +jabbering mazed fellows if they be but a bit dismayed: and have +many Indian women with them, who take to these negroes a deal +better than to their own kin, which breeds war enough, as you may +guess. + +"Well, sirs, after three days the captain comes back, looking heavy +enough, and says, 'We played our trick once too often, when we +played it once. There is no chance of stopping another reco (that +is, a mule-train, sirs) now. The Cimaroons say that since our last +visit they never move without plenty of soldiers, two hundred shot +at least. Therefore,' he said, 'my gallants, we must either return +empty-handed from this, the very market and treasury of the whole +Indies, or do such a deed as men never did before, which I shall +like all the better for that very reason.' And we, asking his +meaning, 'Why,' he said, 'if Drake will not sail the South Seas, we +will;' adding profanely that Drake was like Moses, who beheld the +promised land afar; but he was Joshua, who would enter into it, and +smite the inhabitants thereof. And, for our confirmation, showed +me and the rest the superscription of a letter: and said, 'How I +came by this is none of your business: but I have had it in my +bosom ever since I left Plymouth; and I tell you now, what I +forbore to tell you at first, that the South Seas have been my mark +all along! such news have I herein of plate-ships, and gold-ships, +and what not, which will come up from Quito and Lima this very +month, all which, with the pearls of the Gulf of Panama, and other +wealth unspeakable, will be ours, if we have but true English +hearts within us.' + +"At which, gentles, we were like madmen for lust of that gold, and +cheerfully undertook a toil incredible; for first we run our ship +aground in a great wood which grew in the very sea itself, and then +took out her masts, and covered her in boughs, with her four cast +pieces of great ordnance (of which more hereafter), and leaving no +man in her, started for the South Seas across the neck of Panama, +with two small pieces of ordnance and our culverins, and good store +of victuals, and with us six of those negroes for a guide, and so +twelve leagues to a river which runs into the South Sea. + +"And there, having cut wood, we made a pinnace (and work enough we +had at it) of five-and-forty foot in the keel; and in her down the +stream, and to the Isle of Pearls in the Gulf of Panama." + +"Into the South Sea? Impossible!" said Sir Richard. "Have a care +what you say, my man; for there is that about you which would make +me sorry to find you out a liar." + +"Impossible or not, liar or none, we went there, sir." + +"Question him, Amyas, lest he turn out to have been beforehand with +you." + +The man looked inquiringly at Amyas, who said-- + +"Well, my man, of the Gulf of Panama I cannot ask you, for I never +was inside it, but what other parts of the coast do you know?" + +"Every inch, sir, from Cabo San Francisco to Lima; more is my +sorrow, for I was a galley-slave there for two years and more." + +"You know Lima?" + +"I was there three times, worshipful gentlemen, and the last was +February come two years; and there I helped lade a great plate- +ship, the Cacafuogo,' they called her." + +Amyas started. Sir Richard nodded to him gently to be silent, and +then-- + +"And what became of her, my lad?" + +"God knows, who knows all, and the devil who freighted her. I +broke prison six weeks afterwards, and never heard but that she got +safe into Panama." + +"You never heard, then, that she was taken?" + +"Taken, your worships? Who should take her?" + +"Why should not a good English ship take her as well as another?" +said Amyas. + +"Lord love you, sir; yes, faith, if they had but been there. +Many's the time that I thought to myself, as we went alongside, +'Oh, if Captain Drake was but here, well to windward, and our old +crew of the "Dragon"!' Ask your pardon, gentles: but how is +Captain Drake, if I may make so bold?" + +Neither could hold out longer. + +"Fellow, fellow!" cried Sir Richard, springing up, "either thou art +the cunningest liar that ever earned a halter, or thou hast done a +deed the like of which never man adventured. Dost thou not know +that Captain Drake took that 'Cacafuogo' and all her freight, in +February come two years?" + +"Captain Drake! God forgive me, sir; but--Captain Drake in the +South Seas? He saw them, sir, from the tree-top over Panama, when +I was with him, and I too; but sailed them, sir?--sailed them?" + +"Yes, and round the world too," said Amyas, "and I with him; and +took that very 'Cacafuogo' off Cape San Francisco, as she came up +to Panama." + +One glance at the man's face was enough to prove his sincerity. +The great stern Anabaptist, who had not winced at the news of his +mother's death, dropt right on his knees on the floor, and burst +into violent sobs. + +"Glory to God! Glory to God! O Lord, I thank thee! Captain Drake +in the South Seas! The blood of thy innocents avenged, O Lord! +The spoiler spoiled, and the proud robbed; and all they whose hands +were mighty have found nothing. Glory, glory! Oh, tell me, sir, +did she fight?" + +"We gave her three pieces of ordnance only, and struck down her +mizzenmast, and then boarded sword in hand, but never had need to +strike a blow; and before we left her, one of her own boys had +changed her name, and rechristened her the 'Cacaplata.'" + +"Glory, glory! Cowards they are, as I told them. I told them they +never could stand the Devon mastiffs, and well they flogged me for +saying it; but they could not stop my mouth. O sir, tell me, did +you get the ship that came up after her?" + +"What was that?" + +"A long race-ship, sir, from Guayaquil, with an old gentleman on +board,--Don Francisco de Xararte was his name, and by token, he had +a gold falcon hanging to a chain round his neck, and a green stone +in the breast of it. I saw it as we rowed him aboard. O tell me, +sir, tell me for the love of God, did you take that ship?" + +"We did take that ship, and the jewel too, and her majesty has it +at this very hour." + +"Then tell me, sir," said he slowly, as if he dreaded an answer; +"tell me, sir, and oh, try and mind--was there a little maid aboard +with the old gentleman?" + +"A little maid? Let me think. No; I saw none." + +The man settled his features again sadly. + +"I thought not. I never saw her come aboard. Still I hoped, like; +I hoped. Alackaday! God help me, Salvation Yeo!" + +"What have you to do with this little maid, then, good fellow!" +asked Grenville. + +"Ah, sir, before I tell you that, I must go back and finish the +story of Mr. Oxenham, if you will believe me enough to hear it." + +"I do believe thee, good fellow, and honor thee too." + +"Then, sir, I can speak with a free tongue. Where was I?" + +"Where was he, Amyas?" + +"At the Isle of Pearls." + +"And yet, O gentles, tell me first, how Captain Drake came into the +South Seas:--over the neck, as we did?" + +"Through the Straits, good fellow, like any Spaniard: but go on +with thy story, and thou shalt have Mr. Leigh's after." + +"Through the Straits! O glory! But I'll tell my tale. Well, sirs +both--To the Island of Pearls we came, we and some of the negroes. +We found many huts, and Indians fishing for pearls, and also a fair +house, with porches; but no Spaniard therein, save one man; at +which Mr. Oxenham was like a man transported, and fell on that +Spaniard, crying, 'Perro, where is your mistress? Where is the +bark from Lima?' To which he boldly enough, 'What was his mistress +to the Englishman?' But Mr. O. threatened to twine a cord round +his head till his eyes burst out; and the Spaniard, being +terrified, said that the ship from Lima was expected in a +fortnight's time. So for ten days we lay quiet, letting neither +negro nor Spaniard leave the island, and took good store of pearls, +feeding sumptuously on wild cattle and hogs until the tenth day, +when there came by a small bark; her we took, and found her from +Quito, and on board 60,000 pezos of gold and other store. With +which if we had been content, gentlemen, all had gone well. And +some were willing to go back at once, having both treasure and +pearls in plenty; but Mr. O., he waxed right mad, and swore to slay +any one who made that motion again, assuring us that the Lima ship +of which he had news was far greater and richer, and would make +princes of us all; which bark came in sight on the sixteenth day, +and was taken without shot or slaughter. The taking of which bark, +I verily believe, was the ruin of every mother's son of us." + +And being asked why, he answered, "First, because of the discontent +which was bred thereby; for on board was found no gold, but only +100,000 pezos of silver." + +Sir Richard Grenville.--Thou greedy fellow; and was not that enough +to stay your stomachs? + +Yeo answered that he would to God it had been; and that, moreover, +the weight of that silver was afterwards a hindrance to them, and +fresh cause of discontent, as he would afterwards declare. "So +that it had been well for us, sirs, if we had left it behind, as +Mr. Drake left his three years before, and carried away the gold +only. In which I do see the evident hand of God, and His just +punishment for our greediness of gain; who caused Mr. Oxenham, by +whom we had hoped to attain great wealth, to be a snare to us, and +a cause of utter ruin." + +"Do you think, then," said Sir Richard, "that Mr. Oxenham deceived +you wilfully?" + +"I will never believe that, sir: Mr. Oxenham had his private +reasons for waiting for that ship, for the sake of one on board, +whose face would that he had never seen, though he saw it then, as +I fear, not for the first time by many a one." And so was silent. + +"Come," said both his hearers, "you have brought us thus far, and +you must go on." + +"Gentlemen, I have concealed this matter from all men, both on my +voyage home and since; and I hope you will be secret in the matter, +for the honor of my noble captain, and the comfort of his friends +who are alive. For I think it shame to publish harm of a gallant +gentleman, and of an ancient and worshipful family, and to me a +true and kind captain, when what is done cannot be undone, and +least said soonest mended. Neither now would I have spoken of it, +but that I was inwardly moved to it for the sake of that young +gentleman there" (looking at Amyas), "that he might be warned in +time of God's wrath against the crying sin of adultery, and flee +youthful lusts, which war against the soul." + +"Thou hast done wisely enough, then," said Sir Richard; "and look +to it if I do not reward thee: but the young gentleman here, thank +God, needs no such warnings, having got them already both by +precept and example, where thou and poor Oxenham might have had +them also." + +"You mean Captain Drake, your worship?" + +"I do, sirrah. If all men were as clean livers as he, the world +would be spared one half the tears that are shed in it." + +"Amen, sir. At least there would have been many a tear spared to +us and ours. For--as all must out--in that bark of Lima he took a +young lady, as fair as the sunshine, sir, and seemingly about two +or three-and-twenty years of age, having with her a tall young lad +of sixteen, and a little girl, a marvellously pretty child, of +about a six or seven. And the lady herself was of an excellent +beauty, like a whale's tooth for whiteness, so that all the crew +wondered at her, and could not be satisfied with looking upon her. +And, gentlemen, this was strange, that the lady seemed in no wise +afraid or mournful, and bid her little girl fear naught, as did +also Mr. Oxenham: but the lad kept a very sour countenance, and the +more when he saw the lady and Mr. Oxenham speaking together apart. + +"Well, sir, after this good luck we were minded to have gone +straight back to the river whence we came, and so home to England +with all speed. But Mr. Oxenham persuaded us to return to the +island, and get a few more pearls. To which foolishness (which +after caused the mishap) I verily believe he was moved by the +instigation of the devil and of that lady. For as we were about to +go ashore, I, going down into the cabin of the prize, saw Mr. +Oxenham and that lady making great cheer of each other with, 'My +life,' and 'My king,' and 'Light of my eyes,' and such toys; and +being bidden by Mr. Oxenham to fetch out the lady's mails, and take +them ashore, heard how the two laughed together about the old ape +of Panama (which ape, or devil rather, I saw afterwards to my +cost), and also how she said that she had been dead for five years, +and now that Mr. Oxenham was come, she was alive again, and so +forth. + +"Mr. Oxenham bade take the little maid ashore, kissing her and +playing with her, and saying to the lady, 'What is yours is mine, +and what is mine is yours.' And she asking whether the lad should +come ashore, he answered, 'He is neither yours nor mine; let the +spawn of Beelzebub stay on shore.' After which I, coming on deck +again, stumbled over that very lad, upon the hatchway ladder, who +bore so black and despiteful a face, that I verily believe he had +overheard their speech, and so thrust him upon deck; and going +below again, told Mr. Oxenham what I thought, and said that it were +better to put a dagger into him at once, professing to be ready so +to do. For which grievous sin, seeing that it was committed in my +unregenerate days, I hope I have obtained the grace of forgiveness, +as I have that of hearty repentance. But the lady cried out, +'Though he be none of mine, I have sin enough already on my soul;' +and so laid her hand on Mr. Oxenham's mouth, entreating pitifully. +And Mr. Oxenham answered laughing, when she would let him, 'What +care we? let the young monkey go and howl to the old one;' and so +went ashore with the lady to that house, whence for three days he +never came forth, and would have remained longer, but that the men, +finding but few pearls, and being wearied with the watching and +warding so many Spaniards, and negroes came clamoring to him, and +swore that they would return or leave him there with the lady. So +all went on board the pinnace again, every one in ill humor with +the captain, and he with them. + +"Well, sirs, we came back to the mouth of the river, and there +began our troubles; for the negroes, as soon as we were on shore, +called on Mr. Oxenham to fulfil the bargain he had made with them. +And now it came out (what few of us knew till then) that he had +agreed with the Cimaroons that they should have all the prisoners +which were taken, save the gold. And he, though loath, was about +to give up the Spaniards to them, near forty in all, supposing that +they intended to use them as slaves: but as we all stood talking, +one of the Spaniards, understanding what was forward, threw himself +on his knees before Mr. Oxenham, and shrieking like a madman, +entreated not to be given up into the hands of 'those devils,' said +he, 'who never take a Spanish prisoner, but they roast him alive, +and then eat his heart among them.' We asked the negroes if this +was possible? To which some answered, What was that to us? But +others said boldly, that it was true enough, and that revenge made +the best sauce, and nothing was so sweet as Spanish blood; and one, +pointing to the lady, said such foul and devilish things as I +should be ashamed either for me to speak, or you to hear. At this +we were like men amazed for very horror; and Mr. Oxenham said, 'You +incarnate fiends, if you had taken these fellows for slaves, it had +been fair enough; for you were once slaves to them, and I doubt not +cruelly used enough: but as for this abomination,' says he, 'God do +so to me, and more also, if I let one of them come into your +murderous hands.' So there was a great quarrel; but Mr. Oxenham +stoutly bade put the prisoners on board the ships again, and so let +the prizes go, taking with him only the treasure, and the lady and +the little maid. And so the lad went on to Panama, God's wrath +having gone out against us. + +"Well, sirs, the Cimaroons after that went away from us, swearing +revenge (for which we cared little enough), and we rowed up the +river to a place where three streams met, and then up the least of +the three, some four days' journey, till it grew all shoal and +swift; and there we hauled the pinnace upon the sands, and Mr. +Oxenham asked the men whether they were willing to carry the gold +and silver over the mountains to the North Sea. Some of them at +first were loath to do it, and I and others advised that we should +leave the plate behind, and take the gold only, for it would have +cost us three or four journeys at the least. But Mr. Oxenham +promised every man 100 pezos of silver over and above his wages, +which made them content enough, and we were all to start the morrow +morning. But, sirs, that night, as God had ordained, came a mishap +by some rash speeches of Mr. Oxenham's, which threw all abroad +again; for when we had carried the treasure about half a league +inland, and hidden it away in a house which we made of boughs, Mr. +O. being always full of that his fair lady, spoke to me and William +Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade, and a few more, saying, +'That we had no need to return to England, seeing that we were +already in the very garden of Eden, and wanted for nothing, but +could live without labor or toil; and that it was better, when we +got over to the North Sea, to go and seek out some fair island, and +there dwell in joy and pleasure till our lives' end. And we two,' +he said, 'will be king and queen, and you, whom I can trust, my +officers; and for servants we will have the Indians, who, I +warrant, will be more fain to serve honest and merry masters like +us than those Spanish devils,' and much more of the like; which +words I liked well,--my mind, alas! being given altogether to +carnal pleasure and vanity,--as did William Penberthy, my good +comrade, on whom I trust God has had mercy. But the rest, sirs, +took the matter all across, and began murmuring against the +captain, saying that poor honest mariners like them had always the +labor and the pain, while he took his delight with his lady; and +that they would have at least one merry night before they were +slain by the Cimaroons, or eaten by panthers and lagartos; and so +got out of the pinnace two great skins of Canary wine, which were +taken in the Lima prize, and sat themselves down to drink. +Moreover, there were in the pinnace a great sight of hens, which +came from the same prize, by which Mr. O. set great store, keeping +them for the lady and the little maid; and falling upon these, the +men began to blaspheme, saying, 'What a plague had the captain to +fill the boat with dirty live lumber for that giglet's sake? They +had a better right to a good supper than ever she had, and might +fast awhile to cool her hot blood;' and so cooked and ate those +hens, plucking them on board the pinnace, and letting the feathers +fall into the stream. But when William Penberthy, my good comrade, +saw the feathers floating away down, he asked them if they were +mad, to lay a trail by which the Spaniards would surely track them +out, if they came after them, as without doubt they would. But +they laughed him to scorn, and said that no Spanish cur dared +follow on the heels of true English mastiffs as they were, and +other boastful speeches; and at last, being heated with wine, began +afresh to murmur at the captain. And one speaking of his counsel +about the island, the rest altogether took it amiss and out of the +way; and some sprang up crying treason, and others that he meant to +defraud them of the plate which he had promised, and others that he +meant to desert them in a strange land, and so forth, till Mr. O., +hearing the hubbub, came out to them from the house, when they +reviled him foully, swearing that he meant to cheat them; and one +Edward Stiles, a Wapping man, mad with drink, dared to say that he +was a fool for not giving up the prisoners to the negroes, and what +was it to him if the lady roasted? the negroes should have her yet; +and drawing his sword, ran upon the captain: for which I was about +to strike him through the body; but the captain, not caring to +waste steel on such a ribald, with his fist caught him such a +buffet behind the ear, that he fell down stark dead, and all the +rest stood amazed. Then Mr. Oxenham called out, 'All honest men +who know me, and can trust me, stand by your lawful captain against +these ruffians.' Whereon, sirs, I, and Penberthy my good comrade, +and four Plymouth men, who had sailed with Mr. O. in Mr. Drake's +ship, and knew his trusty and valiant conditions, came over to him, +and swore before God to stand by him and the lady. Then said Mr. +O. to the rest, 'Will you carry this treasure, knaves, or will you +not? Give me an answer here.' And they refused, unless he would, +before they started, give each man his share. So Mr. O. waxed very +mad, and swore that he would never be served by men who did not +trust him, and so went in again; and that night was spent in great +disquiet, I and those five others keeping watch about the house of +boughs till the rest fell asleep, in their drink. And next +morning, when the wine was gone out of them, Mr. O. asked them +whether they would go to the hills with him, and find those +negroes, and persuade them after all to carry the treasure. To +which they agreed after awhile, thinking that so they should save +themselves labor; and went off with Mr. Oxenham, leaving us six who +had stood by him to watch the lady and the treasure, after he had +taken an oath of us that we would deal justly and obediently by him +and by her, which God knows, gentlemen, we did. So he parted with +much weeping and wailing of the lady, and was gone seven days; and +all that time we kept that lady faithfully and honestly, bringing +her the best we could find, and serving her upon our bended knees, +both for her admirable beauty, and for her excellent conditions, +for she was certainly of some noble kin, and courteous, and without +fear, as if she had been a very princess. But she kept always +within the house, which the little maid (God bless her!) did not, +but soon learned to play with us and we with her, so that we made +great cheer of her, gentlemen, sailor fashion--for you know we must +always have our minions aboard to pet and amuse us--maybe a monkey, +or a little dog, or a singing bird, ay, or mice and spiders, if we +have nothing better to play withal. And she was wonderful sharp, +sirs, was the little maid, and picked up her English from us fast, +calling us jolly mariners, which I doubt but she has forgotten by +now, but I hope in God it be not so;" and therewith the good fellow +began wiping his eyes. + +"Well, sir, on the seventh day we six were down by the pinnace +clearing her out, and the little maid with us gathering of flowers, +and William Penberthy fishing on the bank, about a hundred yards +below, when on a sudden he leaps up and runs toward us, crying, +'Here come our hens' feathers back again with a vengeance!' and so +bade catch up the little maid, and run for the house, for the +Spaniards were upon us. + +"Which was too true; for before we could win the house, there were +full eighty shot at our heels, but could not overtake us; +nevertheless, some of them stopping, fixed their calivers and let +fly, killing one of the Plymouth men. The rest of us escaped to +the house, and catching up the lady, fled forth, not knowing +whither we went, while the Spaniards, finding the house and +treasure, pursued us no farther. + +"For all that day and the next we wandered in great misery, the +lady weeping continually, and calling for Mr. Oxenham most +piteously, and the little maid likewise, till with much ado we +found the track of our comrades, and went up that as best we might: +but at nightfall, by good hap, we met the whole crew coming back, +and with them 200 negroes or more, with bows and arrows. At which +sight was great joy and embracing, and it was a strange thing, +sirs, to see the lady; for before that she was altogether +desperate: and yet she was now a very lioness, as soon as she had +got her love again; and prayed him earnestly not to care for that +gold, but to go forward to the North Sea, vowing to him in my +hearing that she cared no more for poverty than she had cared for +her good name, and then--they being a little apart from the rest-- +pointed round to the green forest, and said in Spanish--which I +suppose they knew not that I understood,--'See, all round us is +Paradise. Were it not enough for you and me to stay here forever, +and let them take the gold or leave it as they will?' + +"To which Mr. Oxenham--'Those who lived in Paradise had not sinned +as we have, and would never have grown old or sick, as we shall.' + +"And she--'If we do that, there are poisons enough in these woods, +by which we may die in each other's arms, as would to Heaven we had +died seven years agone!' + +"But he--'No, no, my life. It stands upon my honor both to fulfil +my bond with these men, whom I have brought hither, and to take +home to England at least something of my prize as a proof of my own +valor.' + +"Then she smiling--'Am I not prize enough, and proof enough?' But +he would not be so tempted, and turning to us offered us the half +of that treasure, if we would go back with him, and rescue it from +the Spaniard. At which the lady wept and wailed much; but I took +upon myself to comfort her, though I was but a simple mariner, +telling her that it stood upon Mr. Oxenham's honor; and that in +England nothing was esteemed so foul as cowardice, or breaking word +and troth betwixt man and man; and that better was it for him to +die seven times by the Spaniards, than to face at home the scorn of +all who sailed the seas. So, after much ado, back they went again; +I and Penberthy, and the three Plymouth men which escaped from the +pinnace, keeping the lady as before. + +"Well, sirs, we waited five days, having made houses of boughs as +before, without hearing aught; and on the sixth we saw coming afar +off Mr. Oxenham, and with him fifteen or twenty men, who seemed +very weary and wounded; and when we looked for the rest to be +behind them, behold there were no more; at which, sirs, as you may +well think, our hearts sank within us. + +"And Mr. O., coming nearer, cried out afar off, 'All is lost!' and +so walked into the camp without a word, and sat himself down at the +foot of a great tree with his head between his hands, speaking +neither to the lady or to any one, till she very pitifully kneeling +before him, cursing herself for the cause of all his mischief, and +praying him to avenge himself upon that her tender body, won him +hardly to look once upon her, after which (as is the way of vain +and unstable man) all between them was as before. + +"But the men were full of curses against the negroes, for their +cowardice and treachery; yea, and against high Heaven itself, which +had put the most part of their ammunition into the Spaniards' +hands; and told me, and I believe truly, how they forced the enemy +awaiting them in a little copse of great trees, well fortified with +barricades of boughs, and having with them our two falcons, which +they had taken out of the pinnace. And how Mr. Oxenham divided +both the English and the negroes into two bands, that one might +attack the enemy in front, and the other in the rear, and so set +upon them with great fury, and would have utterly driven them out, +but that the negroes, who had come on with much howling, like very +wild beasts, being suddenly scared with the shot and noise of the +ordnance, turned and fled, leaving the Englishmen alone; in which +evil strait Mr. O. fought like a very Guy of Warwick, and I verily +believe every man of them likewise; for there was none of them who +had not his shrewd scratch to show. And indeed, Mr. Oxenham's +party had once gotten within the barricades, but the Spaniards +being sheltered by the tree trunks (and especially by one mighty +tree, which stood as I remembered it, and remember it now, borne up +two fathoms high upon its own roots, as it were upon arches and +pillars), shot at them with such advantage, that they had several +slain, and seven more taken alive, only among the roots of that +tree. So seeing that they could prevail nothing, having little but +their pikes and swords, they were fain to give back; though Mr. +Oxenham swore he would not stir a foot, and making at the Spanish +captain was borne down with pikes, and hardly pulled away by some, +who at last reminding him of his lady, persuaded him to come away +with the rest. Whereon the other party fled also; but what had +become of them they knew not, for they took another way. And so +they miserably drew off, having lost in men eleven killed and seven +taken alive, besides five of the rascal negroes who were killed +before they had time to run; and there was an end of the matter.* + + +* In the documents from which I have drawn this veracious history, +a note is appended to this point of Yeo's story, which seems to me +to smack sufficiently of the old Elizabethan seaman, to be inserted +at length. + +"All so far, and most after, agreeth with Lopez Vaz his tale, taken +from his pocket by my Lord Cumberland's mariners at the river +Plate, in the year 1586. But note here his vainglory and +falsehood, or else fear of the Spaniard. + +"First, lest it should be seen how great an advantage the Spaniards +had, he maketh no mention of the English calivers, nor those two +pieces of ordnance which were in the pinnace. + +"Second, he saith nothing of the flight of the Cimaroons: though it +was evidently to be gathered from that which he himself saith, that +of less than seventy English were slain eleven, and of the negroes +but five. And while of the English seven were taken alive, yet of +the negroes none. And why, but because the rascals ran? + +"Thirdly, it is a thing incredible, and out of experience, that +eleven English should be slain and seven taken, with loss only of +two Spaniards killed. + +"Search now, and see (for I will not speak of mine own small +doings), in all those memorable voyages, which the worthy and +learned Mr. Hakluyt hath so painfully collected, and which are to +my old age next only to my Bible, whether in all the fights which +we have endured with the Spaniards, their loss, even in victory, +hath not far exceeded ours. For we are both bigger of body and +fiercer of spirit, being even to the poorest of us (thanks so the +care of our illustrious princes), the best fed men of Europe, the +most trained to feats of strength and use of weapons, and put our +trust also not in any Virgin or saints, dead rags and bones, +painted idols which have no breath in their mouths, or St. +Bartholomew medals and such devil's remembrancers; but in the only +true God and our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom whosoever trusteth, one +of them shall chase a thousand. So I hold, having had good +experience; and say, if they have done it once, let them do it +again, and kill their eleven to our two, with any weapon they will, +save paper bullets blown out of Fame's lying trumpet. Yet I have +no quarrel with the poor Portugal; for I doubt not but friend Lopez +Vaz had looking over his shoulder as he wrote some mighty black +velvet Don, with a name as long as that Don Bernaldino Delgadillo +de Avellaneda who set forth lately his vainglorious libel of lies +concerning the last and fatal voyage of my dear friends Sir F. +Drake and Sir John Hawkins, who rest in peace, having finished +their labors, as would God I rested. To whose shameless and +unspeakable lying my good friend Mr. Henry Savile of this county +did most pithily and wittily reply, stripping the ass out of his +lion's skin; and Sir Thomas Baskerville, general of the fleet, by +my advice, send him a cartel of defiance, offering to meet him with +choice of weapons, in any indifferent kingdom of equal distance +from this realm; which challenge he hath prudently put in his pipe, +or rather rolled it up for one of his Spanish cigarros, and smoked +it, and I doubt not, found it foul in the mouth." + + +"But the next day, gentlemen, in came some five-and-twenty more, +being the wreck of the other party, and with them a few negroes; +and these last proved themselves no honester men than they were +brave, for there being great misery among us English, and every one +of us straggling where he could to get food, every day one or more +who went out never came back, and that caused a suspicion that the +negroes had betrayed them to the Spaniards, or, maybe, slain and +eaten them. So these fellows being upbraided, with that altogether +left us, telling us boldly, that if they had eaten our fellows, we +owed them a debt instead of the Spanish prisoners; and we, in great +terror and hunger, went forward and over the mountains till we came +to a little river which ran northward, which seemed to lead into +the Northern Sea; and there Mr. O.--who, sirs, I will say, after +his first rage was over, behaved himself all through like a valiant +and skilful commander--bade us cut down trees and make canoes, to +go down to the sea; which we began to do, with great labor and +little profit, hewing down trees with our swords, and burning them +out with fire, which, after much labor, we kindled; but as we were +a-burning out of the first tree, and cutting down of another, a +great party of negroes came upon us, and with much friendly show +bade us flee for our lives, for the Spaniards were upon us in great +force. And so we were up and away again, hardly able to drag our +legs after us for hunger and weariness, and the broiling heat. And +some were taken (God help them!) and some fled with the negroes, of +whom what became God alone knoweth; but eight or ten held on with +the captain, among whom was I, and fled downward toward the sea for +one day; but afterwards finding, by the noise in the woods, that +the Spaniards were on the track of us, we turned up again toward +the inland, and coming to a cliff, climbed up over it, drawing up +the lady and the little maid with cords of liana (which hang from +those trees as honeysuckle does here, but exceeding stout and long, +even to fifty fathoms); and so breaking the track, hoped to be out +of the way of the enemy. + +"By which, nevertheless, we only increased our misery. For two +fell from that cliff, as men asleep for very weariness, and +miserably broke their bones; and others, whether by the great toil, +or sunstrokes, or eating of strange berries, fell sick of fluxes +and fevers; where was no drop of water, but rock of pumice stone as +bare as the back of my hand, and full, moreover, of great cracks, +black and without bottom, over which we had not strength to lift +the sick, but were fain to leave them there aloft, in the sunshine, +like Dives in his torments, crying aloud for a drop of water to +cool their tongues; and every man a great stinking vulture or two +sitting by him, like an ugly black fiend out of the pit, waiting +till the poor soul should depart out of the corpse: but nothing +could avail, and for the dear life we must down again and into the +woods, or be burned up alive upon those rocks. + +"So getting down the slope on the farther side, we came into the +woods once more, and there wandered for many days, I know not how +many; our shoes being gone, and our clothes all rent off us with +brakes and briars. And yet how the lady endured all was a marvel +to see; for she went barefoot many days, and for clothes was fain +to wrap herself in Mr. Oxenham's cloak; while the little maid went +all but naked: but ever she looked still on Mr. Oxenham, and seemed +to take no care as long as he was by, comforting and cheering us +all with pleasant words; yea, and once sitting down under a great +fig-tree, sang us all to sleep with very sweet music; yet, waking +about midnight, I saw her sitting still upright, weeping very +bitterly; on whom, sirs, God have mercy; for she was a fair and a +brave jewel. + +"And so, to make few words of a sad matter, at last there were none +left but Mr. Oxenham and the lady and the little maid, together +with me and William Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade. And +Mr. Oxenham always led the lady, and Penberthy and I carried the +little maid. And for food we had fruits, such as we could find, +and water we got from the leaves of certain lilies which grew on +the bark of trees, which I found by seeing the monkeys drink at +them; and the little maid called them monkey-cups, and asked for +them continually, making me climb for them. And so we wandered on, +and upward into very high mountains, always fearing lest the +Spaniards should track us with dogs, which made the lady leap up +often in her sleep, crying that the bloodhounds were upon her. And +it befell upon a day, that we came into a great wood of ferns +(which grew not on the ground like ours, but on stems as big as a +pinnace's mast, and the bark of them was like a fine meshed net, +very strange to see), where was very pleasant shade, cool and +green; and there, gentlemen, we sat down on a bank of moss, like +folk desperate and fordone, and every one looked the other in the +face for a long while. After which I took off the bark of those +ferns, for I must needs be doing something to drive away thought, +and began to plait slippers for the little maid. + +"And as I was plaiting, Mr. Oxenham said, 'What hinders us from +dying like men, every man falling on his own sword?' To which I +answered that I dare not; for a wise woman had prophesied of me, +sirs, that I should die at sea, and yet neither by water or battle, +wherefore I did not think right to meddle with the Lord's purposes. +And William Penberthy said, 'That he would sell his life, and that +dear, but never give it away.' But the lady said, 'Ah, how gladly +would I die! but then la paouvre garse,' which is in French 'the +poor maid,' meaning the little one. Then Mr. Oxenham fell into a +very great weeping, a weakness I never saw him in before or since; +and with many tears besought me never to desert that little maid, +whatever might befall; which I promised, swearing to it like a +heathen, but would, if I had been able, have kept it like a +Christian. But on a sudden there was a great cry in the wood, and +coming through the trees on all sides Spanish arquebusiers, a +hundred strong at least, and negroes with them, who bade us stand +or they would shoot. William Penberthy leapt up, crying 'Treason!' +and running upon the nearest negro ran him through, and then +another, and then falling on the Spaniards, fought manfully till he +was borne down with pikes, and so died. But I, seeing no thing +better to do, sate still and finished my plaiting. And so we were +all taken, and I and Mr. Oxenham bound with cords; but the soldiers +made a litter for the lady and child, by commandment of Senor Diego +de Trees, their commander, a very courteous gentleman. + +"Well, sirs, we were brought down to the place where the house of +boughs had been by the river-side; there we went over in boats, and +found waiting for us certain Spanish gentlemen, and among others +one old and ill-favored man, gray-bearded and bent, in a suit of +black velvet, who seemed to be a great man among them. And if you +will believe me, Mr. Leigh, that was none other than the old man +with the gold falcon at his breast, Don Francisco Xararte by name, +whom you found aboard of the Lima ship. And had you known as much +of him as I do, or as Mr. Oxenham did either, you had cut him up +for shark's bait, or ever you let the cur ashore again. + +"Well, sirs, as soon as the lady came to shore, that old man ran +upon her sword in hand, and would have slain her, but some there +held him back. On which he turned to, and reviled with every foul +and spiteful word which he could think of, so that some there bade +him be silent for shame; and Mr. Oxenham said, 'It is worthy of +you, Don Francisco, thus to trumpet abroad your own disgrace. Did +I not tell you years ago that you were a cur; and are you not +proving my words for me?' + +"He answered, 'English dog, would to Heaven I had never seen you!' + +"And Mr. Oxenham, 'Spanish ape, would to Heaven that I had sent my +dagger through your herring-ribs when you passed me behind St. +Ildegonde's church, eight years last Easter-eve.' At which the old +man turned pale, and then began again to upbraid the lady, vowing +that he would have her burnt alive, and other devilish words, to +which she answered at last-- + +"'Would that you had burnt me alive on my wedding morning, and +spared me eight years of misery!' And he-- + +"'Misery? Hear the witch, senors! Oh, have I not pampered her, +heaped with jewels, clothes, coaches, what not? The saints alone +know what 'I have spent on her. What more would she have of me?' + +"To which she answered only but this one word, 'Fool!' but in so +terrible a voice, though low, that they who were about to laugh at +the old pantaloon, were more minded to weep for her. + +"'Fool!' she said again, after a while, 'I will waste no words upon +you. I would have driven a dagger to your heart months ago, but +that I was loath to set you free so soon from your gout and your +rheumatism. Selfish and stupid, know when you bought my body from +my parents, you did not buy my soul! Farewell, my love, my life! +and farewell, senors! May you be more merciful to your daughters +than my parents were to me!' And so, catching a dagger from the +girdle of one of the soldiers, smote herself to the heart, and fell +dead before them all. + +"At which Mr. Oxenham smiled, and said, 'That was worthy of us +both. If you will unbind my hands, senors, I shall be most happy +to copy so fair a schoolmistress.' + +"But Don Diego shook his head, and said-- + +"'It were well for you, valiant senor, were I at liberty to do so; +but on questioning those of your sailors whom I have already taken, +I cannot hear that you have any letters of license, either from the +queen of England, or any other potentate. I am compelled, +therefore, to ask you whether this is so; for it is a matter of +life and death.' + +"To which Mr. Oxenham answered merrily, that so it was: but that he +was not aware that any potentate's license was required to permit a +gentleman's meeting his lady love; and that as for the gold which +they had taken, if they had never allowed that fresh and fair young +May to be forced into marrying that old January, he should never +have meddled with their gold; so that was rather their fault than +his. And added, that if he was to be hanged, as he supposed, the +only favor which he asked for was a long drop and no priests. And +all the while, gentlemen, he still kept his eyes fixed on the +lady's corpse, till he was led away with me, while all that stood +by, God reward them for it, lamented openly the tragical end of +those two sinful lovers. + +"And now, sirs, what befell me after that matters little; for I +never saw Captain Oxenham again, nor ever shall in this life." + +"He was hanged, then?" + +"So I heard for certain the next year, and with him the gunner and +sundry more: but some were given away for slaves to the Spaniards, +and may be alive now, unless, like me, they have fallen into the +cruel clutches of the Inquisition. For the Inquisition now, +gentlemen, claims the bodies and souls of all heretics all over the +world (as the devils told me with their own lips, when I pleaded +that I was no Spanish subject); and none that it catches, whether +peaceable merchants or shipwrecked mariners, but must turn or +burn." + +"But how did you get into the Inquisition?" + +"Why, sir, after we were taken, we set forth to go down the river +again; and the old Don took the little maid with him in one boat +(and bitterly she screeched at parting from us and from the poor +dead corpse), and Mr. Oxenham with Don Diego de Trees in another, +and I in a third. And from the Spaniards I learnt that we were to +be taken down to Lima, to the Viceroy; but that the old man lived +hard by Panama, and was going straight back to Panama forthwith +with the little maid. But they said, 'It will be well for her if +she ever gets there, for the old man swears she is none of his, and +would have left her behind him in the woods, now, if Don Diego had +not shamed him out of it.' And when I heard that, seeing that +there was nothing but death before me, I made up my mind to escape; +and the very first night, sirs, by God's help, I did it, and went +southward away into the forest, avoiding the tracks of the +Cimaroons, till I came to an Indian town. And there, gentlemen, I +got more mercy from heathens than ever I had from Christians; for +when they found that I was no Spaniard, they fed me and gave me a +house, and a wife (and a good wife she was to me), and painted me +all over in patterns, as you see; and because I had some knowledge +of surgery and blood-letting, and my fleams in my pocket, which +were worth to me a fortune, I rose to great honor among them, +though they taught me more of simples than ever I taught them of +surgery. So I lived with them merrily enough, being a very heathen +like them, or indeed worse, for they worshipped their Xemes, but I +nothing. And in time my wife bare me a child; in looking at whose +sweet face, gentlemen, I forgot Mr. Oxenham and his little maid, +and my oath, ay, and my native land also. Wherefore it was taken +from me, else had I lived and died as the beasts which perish; for +one night, after we were all lain down, came a noise outside the +town, and I starting up saw armed men and calivers shining in the +moonlight, and heard one read in Spanish, with a loud voice, some +fool's sermon, after their custom when they hunt the poor Indians, +how God had given to St. Peter the dominion of the whole earth, and +St. Peter again the Indies to the Catholic king; wherefore, if they +would all be baptized and serve the Spaniard, they should have some +monkey's allowance or other of more kicks than pence; and if not, +then have at them with fire and sword; but I dare say your worships +know that devilish trick of theirs better than I." + +"I know it, man. Go on." + +"Well--no sooner were the words spoken than, without waiting to +hear what the poor innocents within would answer (though that +mattered little, for they understood not one word of it), what do +the villains but let fly right into the town with their calivers, +and then rush in, sword in hand, killing pell-mell all they met, +one of which shots, gentlemen, passing through the doorway, and +close by me, struck my poor wife to the heart, that she never spoke +word more. I, catching up the babe from her breast, tried to run: +but when I saw the town full of them, and their dogs with them in +leashes, which was yet worse, I knew all was lost, and sat down +again by the corpse with the babe on my knees, waiting the end, +like one stunned and in a dream; for now I thought God from whom I +had fled had surely found me out, as He did Jonah, and the +punishment of all my sins was come. Well, gentlemen, they dragged +me out, and all the young men and women, and chained us together by +the neck; and one, catching the pretty babe out of my arms, calls +for water and a priest (for they had their shavelings with them), +and no sooner was it christened than, catching the babe by the +heels, he dashed out its brains,--oh! gentlemen, gentlemen!-- +against the ground, as if it had been a kitten; and so did they to +several more innocents that night, after they had christened them; +saying it was best for them to go to heaven while they were still +sure thereof; and so marched us all for slaves, leaving the old +folk and the wounded to die at leisure. But when morning came, and +they knew by my skin that I was no Indian, and by my speech that I +was no Spaniard, they began threatening me with torments, till I +confessed that I was an Englishman, and one of Oxenham's crew. At +that says the leader, 'Then you shall to Lima, to hang by the side +of your captain the pirate;' by which I first knew that my poor +captain was certainly gone; but alas for me! the priest steps in +and claims me for his booty, calling me Lutheran, heretic, and +enemy of God; and so, to make short a sad story, to the Inquisition +at Cartagena I went, where what I suffered, gentlemen, were as +disgustful for you to hear, as unmanly for me to complain of; but +so it was, that being twice racked, and having endured the water- +torment as best I could, I was put to the scarpines, whereof I am, +as you see, somewhat lame of one leg to this day. At which I could +abide no more, and so, wretch that I am! denied my God, in hope to +save my life; which indeed I did, but little it profited me; for +though I had turned to their superstition, I must have two hundred +stripes in the public place, and then go to the galleys for seven +years. And there, gentlemen, ofttimes I thought that it had been +better for me to have been burned at once and for all: but you know +as well as I what a floating hell of heat and cold, hunger and +thirst, stripes and toil, is every one of those accursed craft. In +which hell, nevertheless, gentlemen, I found the road to heaven,--I +had almost said heaven itself. For it fell out, by God's mercy, +that my next comrade was an Englishman like myself, a young man of +Bristol, who, as he told me, had been some manner of factor on +board poor Captain Barker's ship, and had been a preacher among the +Anabaptists here in England. And, oh! Sir Richard Grenville, if +that man had done for you what he did for me, you would never say a +word against those who serve the same Lord, because they don't +altogether hold with you. For from time to time, sir, seeing me +altogether despairing and furious, like a wild beast in a pit, he +set before me in secret earnestly the sweet promises of God in +Christ,--who says, 'Come to me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I +will refresh you; and though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be +as white as snow,--till all that past sinful life of mine looked +like a dream when one awaketh, and I forgot all my bodily miseries +in the misery of my soul, so did I loathe and hate myself for my +rebellion against that loving God who had chosen me before the +foundation of the world, and come to seek and save me when I was +lost; and falling into very despair at the burden of my heinous +sins, knew no peace until I gained sweet assurance that my Lord had +hanged my burden upon His cross, and washed my sinful soul in His +most sinless blood, Amen!" + +And Sir Richard Grenville said Amen also. + +"But, gentlemen, if that sweet youth won a soul to Christ, he paid +as dearly for it as ever did saint of God. For after a three or +four months, when I had been all that while in sweet converse with +him, and I may say in heaven in the midst of hell, there came one +night to the barranco at Lima, where we were kept when on shore, +three black devils of the Holy Office, and carried him off without +a word, only saying to me, 'Look that your turn come not next, for +we hear that you have had much talk with the villain.' And at +these words I was so struck cold with terror that I swooned right +away, and verily, if they had taken me there and then, I should +have denied my God again, for my faith was but young and weak: but +instead, they left me aboard the galley for a few months more (that +was a whole voyage to Panama and back), in daily dread lest I +should find myself in their cruel claws again--and then nothing for +me, but to burn as a relapsed heretic. But when we came back to +Lima, the officers came on board again, and said to me, 'That +heretic has confessed naught against you, so we will leave you for +this time: but because you have been seen talking with him so much, +and the Holy Office suspects your conversion to be but a rotten +one, you are adjudged to the galleys for the rest of your life in +perpetual servitude.'" + +"But what became of him?" asked Amyas. + +"He was burned, sir, a day or two before we got to Lima, and five +others with him at the same stake, of whom two were Englishmen; old +comrades of mine, as I guess." + +"Ah!" said Amyas, "we heard of that when we were off Lima; and they +said, too, that there were six more lying still in prison, to be +burnt in a few days. If we had had our fleet with us (as we should +have had if it had not been for John Winter) we would have gone in +and rescued them all, poor wretches, and sacked the town to boot: +but what could we do with one ship?" + +"Would to God you had, sir; for the story was true enough; and +among them, I heard, were two young ladies of quality and their +confessor, who came to their ends for reproving out of Scripture +the filthy and loathsome living of those parts, which, as I saw +well enough and too well, is liker to Sodom than to a Christian +town; but God will avenge His saints, and their sins. Amen." + +"Amen," said Sir Richard: "but on with thy tale, for it is as +strange as ever man heard." + +"Well, gentlemen, when I heard that I must end my days in that +galley, I was for awhile like a madman: but in a day or two there +came over me, I know not how, a full assurance of salvation, both +for this life and the life to come, such as I had never had before; +and it was revealed to me (I speak the truth, gentlemen, before +Heaven) that now I had been tried to the uttermost, and that my +deliverance was at hand. + +"And all the way up to Panama (that was after we had laden the +'Cacafuogo') I cast in my mind how to escape, and found no way: but +just as I was beginning to lose heart again, a door was opened by +the Lord's own hand; for (I know not why) we were marched across +from Panama to Nombre, which had never happened before, and there +put all together into a great barranco close by the quay-side, +shackled, as is the fashion, to one long bar that ran the whole +length of the house. And the very first night that we were there, +I, looking out of the window, spied, lying close aboard of the +quay, a good-sized caravel well armed and just loading for sea; and +the land breeze blew off very strong, so that the sailors were +laying out a fresh warp to hold her to the shore. And it came into +my mind, that if we were aboard of her, we should be at sea in five +minutes; and looking at the quay, I saw all the soldiers who had +guarded us scattered about drinking and gambling, and some going +into taverns to refresh themselves after their journey. That was +just at sundown; and half an hour after, in comes the gaoler to +take a last look at us for the night, and his keys at his girdle. +Whereon, sirs (whether by madness, or whether by the spirit which +gave Samson strength to rend the lion), I rose against him as he +passed me, without forethought or treachery of any kind, chained +though I was, caught him by the head, and threw him there and then +against the wall, that he never spoke word after; and then with his +keys freed myself and every soul in that room, and bid them follow +me, vowing to kill any man who disobeyed my commands. They +followed, as men astounded and leaping out of night into day, and +death into life, and so aboard that caravel and out of the harbor +(the Lord only knows how, who blinded the eyes of the idolaters), +'with no more hurt than a few chance-shot from the soldiers on the +quay. But my tale has been over-long already, gentlemen--" + +"Go on till midnight, my good fellow, if you will." + +"Well, sirs, they chose me for captain, and a certain Genoese for +lieutenant, and away to go. I would fain have gone ashore after +all, and back to Panama to hear news of the little maid: but that +would have been but a fool's errand. Some wanted to turn pirates: +but I, and the Genoese too, who was a prudent man, though an evil +one, persuaded them to run for England and get employment in the +Netherland wars, assuring them that there would be no safety in the +Spanish Main, when once our escape got wind. And the more part +being of one mind, for England we sailed, watering at the Barbadoes +because it was desolate; and so eastward toward the Canaries. In +which voyage what we endured (being taken by long calms), by +scurvy, calentures, hunger, and thirst, no tongue can tell. Many a +time were we glad to lay out sheets at night to catch the dew, and +suck them in the morning; and he that had a noggin of rain-water +out of the scuppers was as much sought to as if he had been +Adelantado of all the Indies; till of a hundred and forty poor +wretches a hundred and ten were dead, blaspheming God and man, and +above all me and the Genoese, for taking the Europe voyage, as if I +had not sins enough of my own already. And last of all, when we +thought ourselves safe, we were wrecked by southwesters on the +coast of Brittany, near to Cape Race, from which but nine souls of +us came ashore with their lives; and so to Brest, where I found a +Flushinger who carried me to Falmouth and so ends my tale, in which +if I have said one word more or less than truth, I can wish myself +no worse, than to have it all to undergo a second time." + +And his voice, as he finished, sank from very weariness of soul; +while Sir Richard sat opposite him in silence, his elbows on the +table, his cheeks on his doubled fists, looking him through and +through with kindling eyes. No one spoke for several minutes; and +then-- + +"Amyas, you have heard this story. You believe it?" + +"Every word, sir, or I should not have the heart of a Christian +man." + +"So do I. Anthony!" + +The butler entered. + +"Take this man to the buttery; clothe him comfortably, and feed him +with the best; and bid the knaves treat him as if he were their own +father." + +But Yeo lingered. + +"If I might be so bold as to ask your worship a favor?--" + +"Anything in reason, my brave fellow." + +"If your worship could put me in the way of another adventure to +the Indies?" + +"Another! Hast not had enough of the Spaniards already?" + +"Never enough, sir, while one of the idolatrous tyrants is left +unhanged," said he, with a right bitter smile. "But it's not for +that only, sir: but my little maid--Oh, sir! my little maid, that I +swore to Mr. Oxenham to look to, and never saw her from that day to +this! I must find her, sir, or I shall go mad, I believe. Not a +night but she comes and calls to me in my dreams, the poor darling; +and not a morning but when I wake there is my oath lying on my +soul, like a great black cloud, and I no nearer the keeping of it. +I told that poor young minister of it when we were in the galleys +together; and he said oaths were oaths, and keep it I must; and +keep it I will, sir, if you'll but help me." + +"Have patience, man. God will take as good care of thy little maid +as ever thou wilt." + +"I know it, sir. I know it: but faith's weak, sir! and oh! if she +were bred up a Papist and an idolater; wouldn't her blood be on my +head then, sir? Sooner than that, sooner than that, I'd be in the +Inquisition again to-morrow, I would!" + +"My good fellow, there are no adventures to the Indies forward now: +but if you want to fight Spaniards, here is a gentleman will show +you the way. Amyas, take him with you to Ireland. If he has +learnt half the lessons God has set him to learn, he ought to stand +you in good stead." + +Yeo looked eagerly at the young giant. + +"Will you have me, sir? There's few matters I can't turn my hand +to: and maybe you'll be going to the Indies again, some day, eh? +and take me with you? I'd serve your turn well, though I say it, +either for gunner or for pilot. I know every stone and tree from +Nombre to Panama, and all the ports of both the seas. You'll never +be content, I'll warrant, till you've had another turn along the +gold coasts, will you now?" + +Amyas laughed, and nodded; and the bargain was concluded. + +So out went Yeo to eat, and Amyas having received his despatches, +got ready for his journey home. + +"Go the short way over the moors, lad; and send back Cary's gray +when you can. You must not lose an hour, but be ready to sail the +moment the wind goes about." + +So they started: but as Amyas was getting into the saddle, he saw +that there was some stir among the servants, who seemed to keep +carefully out of Yeo's way, whispering and nodding mysteriously; +and just as his foot was in the stirrup, Anthony, the old butler, +plucked him back. + +"Dear father alive, Mr. Amyas!" whispered he: "and you ben't going +by the moor road all alone with that chap?" + +"Why not, then? I'm too big for him to eat, I reckon." + +"Oh, Mr. Amyas! he's not right, I tell you; not company for a +Christian--to go forth with creatures as has flames of fire in +their inwards; 'tis temptation of Providence, indeed, then, it is." + +"Tale of a tub." + +"Tale of a Christian, sir. There was two boys pig-minding, seed +him at it down the hill, beside a maiden that was taken mazed (and +no wonder, poor soul!) and lying in screeching asterisks now down +to the mill--you ask as you go by--and saw the flames come out of +the mouth of mun, and the smoke out of mun's nose like a vire- +drake, and the roaring of mun like the roaring of ten thousand +bulls. Oh, sir! and to go with he after dark over moor! 'Tis the +devil's devices, sir, against you, because you'm going against his +sarvants the Pope of Room and the Spaniard; and you'll be Pixy-led, +sure as life, and locked into a bog, you will, and see mun vanish +away to fire and brimstone, like a jack-o'-lantern. Oh, have a +care, then, have a care!" + +And the old man wrung his hands, while Amyas, bursting with +laughter, rode off down the park, with the unconscious Yeo at his +stirrup, chatting away about the Indies, and delighting Amyas more +and more by his shrewdness, high spirit, and rough eloquence. + +They had gone ten miles or more; the day began to draw in, and the +western wind to sweep more cold and cheerless every moment, when +Amyas, knowing that there was not an inn hard by around for many a +mile ahead, took a pull at a certain bottle which Lady Grenville +had put into his holster, and then offered Yeo a pull also. + +He declined; he had meat and drink too about him, Heaven be +praised! + +"Meat and drink? Fall to, then, man, and don't stand on manners." + +Whereon Yeo, seeing an old decayed willow by a brook, went to it, +and took therefrom some touchwood, to which he set a light with his +knife and a stone, while Amyas watched, a little puzzled and +startled, as Yeo's fiery reputation came into his mind. Was he +really a salamander-sprite, and going to warm his inside by a meal +of burning tinder? But now Yeo, in his solemn methodical way, +pulled out of his bosom a brown leaf, and began rolling a piece of +it up neatly to the size of his little finger; and then, putting +the one end into his mouth and the other on the tinder, sucked at +it till it was a-light; and drinking down the smoke, began puffing +it out again at his nostrils with a grunt of deepest satisfaction, +and resumed his dog-trot by Amyas's side, as if he had been a +walking chimney. + +On which Amyas burst into a loud laugh, and cried-- + +"Why, no wonder they said you breathed fire? Is not that the +Indians' tobacco?" + +"Yea, verily, Heaven be praised! but did you never see it before?" + +"Never, though we heard talk of it along the coast; but we took it +for one more Spanish lie. Humph--well, live and learn!" + +"Ah, sir, no lie, but a blessed truth, as I can tell, who have ere +now gone in the strength of this weed three days and nights without +eating; and therefore, sir, the Indians always carry it with them +on their war-parties: and no wonder; for when all things were made +none was made better than this; to be a lone man's companion, a +bachelor's friend, a hungry man's food, a sad man's cordial, a +wakeful man's sleep, and a chilly man's fire, sir; while for +stanching of wounds, purging of rheum, and settling of the stomach, +there's no herb like unto it under the canopy of heaven." + +The truth of which eulogium Amyas tested in after years, as shall +be fully set forth in due place and time. But "Mark in the +meanwhile," says one of the veracious chroniclers from whom I draw +these facts, writing seemingly in the palmy days of good Queen +Anne, and "not having" (as he says) "before his eyes the fear of +that misocapnic Solomon James I. or of any other lying Stuart," +"that not to South Devon, but to North; not to Sir Walter Raleigh, +but to Sir Amyas Leigh; not to the banks of Dart, but to the banks +of Torridge, does Europe owe the day-spring of the latter age, that +age of smoke which shall endure and thrive, when the age of brass +shall have vanished like those of iron and of gold; for whereas Mr. +Lane is said to have brought home that divine weed (as Spenser well +names it) from Virginia, in the year 1584, it is hereby +indisputable that full four years earlier, by the bridge of Putford +in the Torridge moors (which all true smokers shall hereafter visit +as a hallowed spot and point of pilgrimage) first twinkled that +fiery beacon and beneficent lodestar of Bidefordian commerce, to +spread hereafter from port to port and peak to peak, like the +watch-fires which proclaimed the coming of the Armada or the fall +of Troy, even to the shores of the Bosphorus, the peaks of the +Caucasus, and the farthest isles of the Malayan sea, while +Bideford, metropolis of tobacco, saw her Pool choked with Virginian +traders, and the pavement of her Bridgeland Street groaning beneath +the savory bales of roll Trinadado, leaf, and pudding; and her +grave burghers, bolstered and blocked out of their own houses by +the scarce less savory stock-fish casks which filled cellar, +parlor, and attic, were fain to sit outside the door, a silver pipe +in every strong right hand, and each left hand chinking cheerfully +the doubloons deep lodged in the auriferous caverns of their trunk- +hose; while in those fairy-rings of fragrant mist, which circled +round their contemplative brows, flitted most pleasant visions of +Wiltshire farmers jogging into Sherborne fair, their heaviest +shillings in their pockets, to buy (unless old Aubrey lies) the +lotus-leaf of Torridge for its weight in silver, and draw from +thence, after the example of the Caciques of Dariena, supplies of +inspiration much needed, then as now, in those Gothamite regions. +And yet did these improve, as Englishmen, upon the method of those +heathen savages; for the latter (so Salvation Yeo reported as a +truth, and Dampier's surgeon Mr. Wafer after him), when they will +deliberate of war or policy, sit round in the hut of the chief; +where being placed, enter to them a small boy with a cigarro of the +bigness of a rolling-pin and puffs the smoke thereof into the face +of each warrior, from the eldest to the youngest; while they, +putting their hand funnel-wise round their mouths, draw into the +sinuosities of the brain that more than Delphic vapor of prophecy; +which boy presently falls down in a swoon, and being dragged out by +the heels and laid by to sober, enter another to puff at the sacred +cigarro, till he is dragged out likewise; and so on till the +tobacco is finished, and the seed of wisdom has sprouted in every +soul into the tree of meditation, bearing the flowers of eloquence, +and in due time the fruit of valiant action." With which quaint +fact (for fact it is, in spite of the bombast) I end the present +chapter. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +HOW THE NOBLE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE WAS FOUNDED + + +"It is virtue, yea virtue, gentlemen, that maketh gentlemen; that +maketh the poor rich, the base-born noble, the subject a sovereign, +the deformed beautiful, the sick whole, the weak strong, the most +miserable most happy. There are two principal and peculiar gifts +in the nature of man, knowledge and reason; the one commandeth, and +the other obeyeth: these things neither the whirling wheel of +fortune can change, neither the deceitful cavillings of worldlings +separate, neither sickness abate, neither age abolish."--LILLY's +Euphues, 1586. + + +It now falls to my lot to write of the foundation of that most +chivalrous brotherhood of the Rose, which after a few years made +itself not only famous in its native country of Devon, but +formidable, as will be related hereafter, both in Ireland and in +the Netherlands, in the Spanish Main and the heart of South +America. And if this chapter shall seem to any Quixotic and +fantastical, let them recollect that the generation who spoke and +acted thus in matters of love and honor were, nevertheless, +practised and valiant soldiers, and prudent and crafty politicians; +that he who wrote the "Arcadia" was at the same time, in spite of +his youth, one of the subtlest diplomatists of Europe; that the +poet of the "Faerie Queene" was also the author of "The State of +Ireland;" and if they shall quote against me with a sneer Lilly's +"Euphues" itself, I shall only answer by asking--Have they ever +read it? For if they have done so, I pity them if they have not +found it, in spite of occasional tediousness and pedantry, as +brave, righteous, and pious a book as man need look into: and wish +for no better proof of the nobleness and virtue of the Elizabethan +age, than the fact that "Euphues" and the "Arcadia" were the two +popular romances of the day. It may have suited the purposes of +Sir Walter Scott, in his cleverly drawn Sir Piercie Shafton, to +ridicule the Euphuists, and that affectatam comitatem of the +travelled English of which Languet complains; but over and above +the anachronism of the whole character (for, to give but one +instance, the Euphuist knight talks of Sidney's quarrel with Lord +Oxford at least ten years before it happened), we do deny that +Lilly's book could, if read by any man of common sense, produce +such a coxcomb, whose spiritual ancestors would rather have been +Gabriel Harvey and Lord Oxford,--if indeed the former has not +maligned the latter, and ill-tempered Tom Nash maligned the +maligner in his turn. + +But, indeed, there is a double anachronism in Sir Piercie; for he +does not even belong to the days of Sidney, but to those worse +times which began in the latter years of Elizabeth, and after +breaking her mighty heart, had full license to bear their crop of +fools' heads in the profligate days of James. Of them, perhaps, +hereafter. And in the meanwhile, let those who have not read +"Euphues" believe that, if they could train a son after the fashion +of his Ephoebus, to the great saving of their own money and his +virtue, all fathers, even in these money-making days, would rise up +and call them blessed. Let us rather open our eyes, and see in +these old Elizabeth gallants our own ancestors, showing forth with +the luxuriant wildness of youth all the virtues which still go to +the making of a true Englishman. Let us not only see in their +commercial and military daring, in their political astuteness, in +their deep reverence for law, and in their solemn sense of the +great calling of the English nation, the antitypes or rather the +examples of our own: but let us confess that their chivalry is only +another garb of that beautiful tenderness and mercy which is now, +as it was then, the twin sister of English valor; and even in their +extravagant fondness for Continental manners and literature, let us +recognize that old Anglo-Norman teachableness and wide-heartedness, +which has enabled us to profit by the wisdom and civilization of +all ages and of all lands, without prejudice to our own distinctive +national character. + +And so I go to my story, which, if any one dislikes, he has but to +turn the leaf till he finds pasturage which suits him better. + +Amyas could not sail the next day, or the day after; for the +southwester freshened, and blew three parts of a gale dead into the +bay. So having got the "Mary Grenville" down the river into +Appledore pool, ready to start with the first shift of wind, he +went quietly home; and when his mother started on a pillion behind +the old serving-man to ride to Clovelly, where Frank lay wounded, +he went in with her as far as Bideford, and there met, coming down +the High Street, a procession of horsemen headed by Will Cary, who, +clad cap-a-pie in a shining armor, sword on thigh, and helmet at +saddle-bow, looked as gallant a young gentleman as ever Bideford +dames peeped at from door and window. Behind him, upon country +ponies, came four or five stout serving-men, carrying his lances +and baggage, and their own long-bows, swords, and bucklers; and +behind all, in a horse-litter, to Mrs. Leigh's great joy, Master +Frank himself. He deposed that his wounds were only flesh-wounds, +the dagger having turned against his ribs; that he must see the +last of his brother; and that with her good leave he would not come +home to Burrough, but take up his abode with Cary in the Ship +Tavern, close to the Bridge-foot. This he did forthwith, and +settling himself on a couch, held his levee there in state, mobbed +by all the gossips of the town, not without white fibs as to who +had brought him into that sorry plight. + +But in the meanwhile he and Amyas concocted a scheme, which was put +into effect the next day (being market-day); first by the +innkeeper, who began under Amyas's orders a bustle of roasting, +boiling, and frying, unparalleled in the annals of the Ship Tavern; +and next by Amyas himself, who, going out into the market, invited +as many of his old schoolfellows, one by one apart, as Frank had +pointed out to him, to a merry supper and a "rowse" thereon +consequent; by which crafty scheme, in came each of Rose Salterne's +gentle admirers, and found himself, to his considerable disgust, +seated at the same table with six rivals, to none of whom had he +spoken for the last six months. However, all were too well bred to +let the Leighs discern as much; and they (though, of course, they +knew all) settled their guests, Frank on his couch lying at the +head of the table, and Amyas taking the bottom: and contrived, by +filling all mouths with good things, to save them the pain of +speaking to each other till the wine should have loosened their +tongues and warmed their hearts. In the meanwhile both Amyas and +Frank, ignoring the silence of their guests with the most provoking +good-humor, chatted, and joked, and told stories, and made +themselves such good company, that Will Cary, who always found +merriment infectious, melted into a jest, and then into another, +and finding good-humor far more pleasant than bad, tried to make +Mr. Coffin laugh, and only made him bow, and to make Mr. Fortescue +laugh, and only made him frown; and unabashed nevertheless, began +playing his light artillery upon the waiters, till he drove them +out of the room bursting with laughter. + +So far so good. And when the cloth was drawn, and sack and sugar +became the order of the day, and "Queen and Bible" had been duly +drunk with all the honors, Frank tried a fresh move, and-- + +"I have a toast, gentlemen--here it is. 'The gentlemen of the +Irish wars; and may Ireland never be without a St. Leger to stand +by a Fortescue, a Fortescue to stand by a St. Leger, and a +Chichester to stand by both.'" + +Which toast of course involved the drinking the healths of the +three representatives of those families, and their returning +thanks, and paying a compliment each to the other's house: and so +the ice cracked a little further; and young Fortescue proposed the +health of "Amyas Leigh and all bold mariners;" to which Amyas +replied by a few blunt kindly words, "that he wished to know no +better fortune than to sail round the world again with the present +company as fellow-adventurers, and so give the Spaniards another +taste of the men of Devon." + +And by this time, the wine going down sweetly, caused the lips of +them that were asleep to speak; till the ice broke up altogether, +and every man began talking like a rational Englishman to the man +who sat next him. + +"And now, gentlemen," said Frank, who saw that it was the fit +moment for the grand assault which he had planned all along; "let +me give you a health which none of you, I dare say, will refuse to +drink with heart and soul as well as with lips;--the health of one +whom beauty and virtue have so ennobled, that in their light the +shadow of lowly birth is unseen;--the health of one whom I would +proclaim as peerless in loveliness, were it not that every +gentleman here has sisters, who might well challenge from her the +girdle of Venus: and yet what else dare I say, while those same +lovely ladies who, if they but use their own mirrors, must needs be +far better judges of beauty than I can be, have in my own hearing +again and again assigned the palm to her? Surely, if the goddesses +decide among themselves the question of the golden apple, Paris +himself must vacate the judgment-seat. Gentlemen, your hearts, I +doubt not, have already bid you, as my unworthy lips do now, to +drink 'The Rose of Torridge.'" + +If the Rose of Torridge herself had walked into the room, she could +hardly have caused more blank astonishment than Frank's bold +speech. Every guest turned red, and pale, and red again, and +looked at the other as much as to say, "What right has any one but +I to drink her? Lift your glass, and I will dash it out of your +hand;" but Frank, with sweet effrontery, drank "The health of the +Rose of Torridge, and a double health to that worthy gentleman, +whosoever he may be, whom she is fated to honor with her love!" + +"Well done, cunning Frank Leigh!" cried blunt Will Cary; "none of +us dare quarrel with you now, however much we may sulk at each +other. For there's none of us, I'll warrant, but thinks that she +likes him the best of all; and so we are bound to believe that you +have drunk our healths all round." + +"And so I have: and what better thing can you do, gentlemen, than +to drink each other's healths all round likewise: and so show +yourselves true gentlemen, true Christians, ay, and true lovers? +For what is love (let me speak freely to you, gentlemen and +guests), what is love, but the very inspiration of that Deity whose +name is Love? Be sure that not without reason did the ancients +feign Eros to be the eldest of the gods, by whom the jarring +elements of chaos were attuned into harmony and order. How, then, +shall lovers make him the father of strife? Shall Psyche wed with +Cupid, to bring forth a cockatrice's egg? or the soul be filled +with love, the likeness of the immortals, to burn with envy and +jealousy, division and distrust? True, the rose has its thorn: but +it leaves poison and stings to the nettle. Cupid has his arrow: +but he hurls no scorpions. Venus is awful when despised, as the +daughters of Proetus found: but her handmaids are the Graces, not +the Furies. Surely he who loves aright will not only find love +lovely, but become himself lovely also. I speak not to reprehend +you, gentlemen; for to you (as your piercing wits have already +perceived, to judge by your honorable blushes) my discourse tends; +but to point you, if you will but permit me, to that rock which I +myself have, I know not by what Divine good hap, attained; if, +indeed, I have attained it, and am not about to be washed off again +by the next tide." + +Frank's rapid and fantastic oratory, utterly unexpected as it was, +had as yet left their wits no time to set their tempers on fire; +but when, weak from his wounds, he paused for breath, there was a +haughty murmur from more than one young gentleman, who took his +speech as an impertinent interference with each man's right to make +a fool of himself; and Mr. Coffin, who had sat quietly bolt +upright, and looking at the opposite wall, now rose as quietly, and +with a face which tried to look utterly unconcerned, was walking +out of the room: another minute, and Lady Bath's prophecy about the +feast of the Lapithae might have come true. + +But Frank's heart and head never failed him. + +"Mr. Coffin!" said he, in a tone which compelled that gentleman to +turn round, and so brought him under the power of a face which none +could have beheld for five minutes and borne malice, so imploring, +tender, earnest was it. "My dear Mr. Coffin! If my earnestness +has made me forget even for a moment the bounds of courtesy, let me +entreat you to forgive me. Do not add to my heavy griefs, heavy +enough already, the grief of losing a friend. Only hear me +patiently to the end (generously, I know, you will hear me); and +then, if you are still incensed, I can but again entreat your +forgiveness a second time." + +Mr. Coffin, to tell the truth, had at that time never been to +Court; and he was therefore somewhat jealous of Frank, and his +Court talk, and his Court clothes, and his Court company; and +moreover, being the eldest of the guests, and only two years +younger than Frank himself, he was a little nettled at being +classed in the same category with some who were scarce eighteen. +And if Frank had given the least hint which seemed to assume his +own superiority, all had been lost: but when, instead thereof, he +sued in forma pauperis, and threw himself upon Coffin's mercy, the +latter, who was a true-hearted man enough, and after all had known +Frank ever since either of them could walk, had nothing to do but +to sit down again and submit, while Frank went on more earnestly +than ever. + +"Believe me; believe me, Mr. Coffin, and gentlemen all, I no more +arrogate to myself a superiority over you than does the sailor +hurled on shore by the surge fancy himself better than his comrade +who is still battling with the foam. For I too, gentlemen,--let me +confess it, that by confiding in you I may, perhaps, win you to +confide in me,--have loved, ay and do love, where you love also. +Do not start. Is it a matter of wonder that the sun which has +dazzled you has dazzled me; that the lodestone which has drawn you +has drawn me? Do not frown, either, gentlemen. I have learnt to +love you for loving what I love, and to admire you for admiring +that which I admire. Will you not try the same lesson: so easy, +and, when learnt, so blissful? What breeds more close communion +between subjects than allegiance to the same queen? between +brothers, than duty to the same father? between the devout, than +adoration for the same Deity? And shall not worship for the same +beauty be likewise a bond of love between the worshippers? and each +lover see in his rival not an enemy, but a fellow-sufferer? You +smile and say in your hearts, that though all may worship, but one +can enjoy; and that one man's meat must be the poison of the rest. +Be it so, though I deny it. Shall we anticipate our own doom, and +slay ourselves for fear of dying? Shall we make ourselves unworthy +of her from our very eagerness to win her, and show ourselves her +faithful knights, by cherishing envy,--most unknightly of all sins? +Shall we dream with the Italian or the Spaniard that we can become +more amiable in a lady's eyes, by becoming hateful in the eyes of +God and of each other? Will she love us the better, if we come to +her with hands stained in the blood of him whom she loves better +than us? Let us recollect ourselves rather, gentlemen; and be sure +that our only chance of winning her, if she be worth winning, is to +will what she wills, honor whom she honors, love whom she loves. +If there is to be rivalry among us, let it be a rivalry in +nobleness, an emulation in virtue. Let each try to outstrip the +other in loyalty to his queen, in valor against her foes, in deeds +of courtesy and mercy to the afflicted and oppressed; and thus our +love will indeed prove its own divine origin, by raising us nearer +to those gods whose gift it is. But yet I show you a more +excellent way, and that is charity. Why should we not make this +common love to her, whom I am unworthy to name, the sacrament of a +common love to each other? Why should we not follow the heroical +examples of those ancient knights, who having but one grief, one +desire, one goddess, held that one heart was enough to contain that +grief, to nourish that desire, to worship that divinity; and so +uniting themselves in friendship till they became but one soul in +two bodies, lived only for each other in living only for her, +vowing as faithful worshippers to abide by her decision, to find +their own bliss in hers, and whomsoever she esteemed most worthy of +her love, to esteem most worthy also, and count themselves, by that +her choice, the bounden servants of him whom their mistress had +condescended to advance to the dignity of her master?--as I (not +without hope that I shall be outdone in generous strife) do here +promise to be the faithful friend, and, to my ability, the hearty +servant, of him who shall be honored with the love of the Rose of +Torridge." + +He ceased, and there was a pause. + +At last young Fortescue spoke. + +"I may be paying you a left-handed compliment, sir: but it seems to +me that you are so likely, in that case, to become your own +faithful friend and hearty servant (even if you have not borne off +the bell already while we have been asleep), that the bargain is +hardly fair between such a gay Italianist and us country swains." + +"You undervalue yourself and your country, my dear sir. But set +your mind at rest. I know no more of that lady's mind than you do: +nor shall I know. For the sake of my own peace, I have made a vow +neither to see her, nor to hear, if possible, tidings of her, till +three full years are past. Dixi?" + +Mr. Coffin rose. + +"Gentlemen, I may submit to be outdone by Mr. Leigh in eloquence, +but not in generosity; if he leaves these parts for three years, I +do so also." + +"And go in charity with all mankind," said Cary. "Give us your +hand, old fellow. If you are a Coffin, you were sawn out of no +wishy-washy elm-board, but right heart-of-oak. I am going, too, as +Amyas here can tell, to Ireland away, to cool my hot liver in a +bog, like a Jack-hare in March. Come, give us thy neif, and let us +part in peace. I was minded to have fought thee this day--" + +"I should have been most happy, sir," said Coffin. + +--"But now I am all love and charity to mankind. Can I have the +pleasure of begging pardon of the world in general, and thee in +particular? Does any one wish to pull my nose; send me an errand; +make me lend him five pounds; ay, make me buy a horse of him, which +will be as good as giving him ten? Come along! Join hands all +round, and swear eternal friendship, as brothers of the sacred +order of the--of what. Frank Leigh? Open thy mouth, Daniel, and +christen us!" + +"The Rose!" said Frank quietly, seeing that his new love-philtre +was working well, and determined to strike while the iron was hot, +and carry the matter too far to carry it back again. + +"The Rose!" cried Cary, catching hold of Coffin's hand with his +right, and Fortescue's with his left. "Come, Mr. Coffin! Bend, +sturdy oak! 'Woe to the stiffnecked and stout-hearted!' says +Scripture." + +And somehow or other, whether it was Frank's chivalrous speech, or +Cary's fun, or Amyas's good wine, or the nobleness which lies in +every young lad's heart, if their elders will take the trouble to +call it out, the whole party came in to terms one by one, shook +hands all round, and vowed on the hilt of Amyas's sword to make +fools of themselves no more, at least by jealousy: but to stand by +each other and by their lady-love, and neither grudge nor grumble, +let her dance with, flirt with, or marry with whom she would; and +in order that the honor of their peerless dame, and the brotherhood +which was named after her, might be spread through all lands, and +equal that of Angelica or Isonde of Brittany, they would each go +home, and ask their fathers' leave (easy enough to obtain in those +brave times) to go abroad wheresoever there were "good wars," to +emulate there the courage and the courtesy of Walter Manny and +Gonzalo Fernandes, Bayard and Gaston de Foix. Why not? Sidney was +the hero of Europe at five-and-twenty; and why not they? + +And Frank watched and listened with one of his quiet smiles (his +eyes, as some folks' do, smiled even when his lips were still), and +only said: "Gentlemen, be sure that you will never repent this +day." + +"Repent?" said Cary. "I feel already as angelical as thou lookest, +Saint Silvertongue. What was it that sneezed?--the cat?" + +"The lion, rather, by the roar of it," said Amyas, making a dash at +the arras behind him. "Why, here is a doorway here! and--" + +And rushing under the arras, through an open door behind, he +returned, dragging out by the head Mr. John Brimblecombe. + +Who was Mr. John Brimblecombe? + +If you have forgotten him, you have done pretty nearly what every +one else in the room had done. But you recollect a certain fat +lad, son of the schoolmaster, whom Sir Richard punished for tale- +bearing three years before, by sending him, not to Coventry, but to +Oxford. That was the man. He was now one-and-twenty, and a +bachelor of Oxford, where he had learnt such things as were taught +in those days, with more or less success; and he was now hanging +about Bideford once more, intending to return after Christmas and +read divinity, that he might become a parson, and a shepherd of +souls in his native land. + +Jack was in person exceedingly like a pig: but not like every pig: +not in the least like the Devon pigs of those days, which, I am +sorry to say, were no more shapely than the true Irish greyhound +who pays Pat's "rint" for him; or than the lanky monsters who +wallow in German rivulets, while the village swineherd, beneath a +shady lime, forgets his fleas in the melody of a Jew's harp-- +strange mud-colored creatures, four feet high and four inches +thick, which look as if they had passed their lives, as a collar of +Oxford brawn is said to do, between two tight boards. Such were +then the pigs of Devon: not to be compared with the true wild +descendant of Noah's stock, high-withered, furry, grizzled, game- +flavored little rooklers, whereof many a sownder still grunted +about Swinley down and Braunton woods, Clovelly glens and Bursdon +moor. Not like these, nor like the tame abomination of those +barbarous times, was Jack: but prophetic in face, figure, and +complexion, of Fisher Hobbs and the triumphs of science. A Fisher +Hobbs' pig of twelve stone, on his hind-legs--that was what he was, +and nothing else; and if you do not know, reader, what a Fisher +Hobbs is, you know nothing about pigs, and deserve no bacon for +breakfast. But such was Jack. The same plump mulberry complexion, +garnished with a few scattered black bristles; the same sleek skin, +looking always as if it was upon the point of bursting; the same +little toddling legs; the same dapper bend in the small of the +back; the same cracked squeak; the same low upright forehead, and +tiny eyes; the same round self-satisfied jowl; the same charming +sensitive little cocked nose, always on the look-out for a savory +smell,--and yet while watching for the best, contented with the +worst; a pig of self-helpful and serene spirit, as Jack was, and +therefore, like him, fatting fast while other pigs' ribs are +staring through their skins. + +Such was Jack; and lucky it was for him that such he was; for it +was little that he got to fat him at Oxford, in days when a +servitor meant really a servant-student; and wistfully that day did +his eyes, led by his nose, survey at the end of the Ship Inn +passage the preparations for Amyas's supper. The innkeeper was a +friend of his; for, in the first place, they had lived within three +doors of each other all their lives; and next, Jack was quite +pleasant company enough, beside being a learned man and an Oxford +scholar, to be asked in now and then to the innkeeper's private +parlor, when there were no gentlemen there, to crack his little +joke and tell his little story, sip the leavings of the guests' +sack, and sometimes help the host to eat the leavings of their +supper. And it was, perhaps, with some such hope that Jack trotted +off round the corner to the Ship that very afternoon; for that +faithful little nose of his, as it sniffed out of a back window of +the school, had given him warning of Sabean gales, and scents of +Paradise, from the inn kitchen below; so he went round, and asked +for his pot of small ale (his only luxury), and stood at the bar to +drink it; and looked inward with his little twinkling right eye, +and sniffed inward with his little curling right nostril, and +beheld, in the kitchen beyond, salad in stacks and fagots: salad of +lettuce, salad of cress and endive, salad of boiled coleworts, +salad of pickled coleworts, salad of angelica, salad of scurvy- +wort, and seven salads more; for potatoes were not as yet, and +salads were during eight months of the year the only vegetable. +And on the dresser, and before the fire, whole hecatombs of +fragrant victims, which needed neither frankincense nor myrrh; +Clovelly herrings and Torridge salmon, Exmoor mutton and Stow +venison, stubble geese and woodcocks, curlew and snipe, hams of +Hampshire, chitterlings of Taunton, and botargos of Cadiz, such as +Pantagruel himself might have devoured. And Jack eyed them, as a +ragged boy eyes the cakes in a pastrycook's window; and thought of +the scraps from the commoners' dinner, which were his wages for +cleaning out the hall; and meditated deeply on the unequal +distribution of human bliss. + +"Ah, Mr. Brimblecombe!" said the host, bustling out with knife and +apron to cool himself in the passage. "Here are doings! Nine +gentlemen to supper!" + +"Nine! Are they going to eat all that?" + +"Well, I can't say--that Mr. Amyas is as good as three to his +trencher: but still there's crumbs, Mr. Brimblecombe, crumbs; and +waste not want not is my doctrine; so you and I may have a somewhat +to stay our stomachs, about an eight o'clock." + +"Eight?" said Jack, looking wistfully at the clock. "It's but four +now. Well, it's kind of you, and perhaps I'll look in." + +"Just you step in now, and look to this venison. There's a breast! +you may lay your two fingers into the say there, and not get to the +bottom of the fat. That's Sir Richard's sending. He's all for +them Leighs, and no wonder, they'm brave lads, surely; and there's +a saddle-o'-mutton! I rode twenty miles for mun yesterday, I did, +over beyond Barnstaple; and five year old, Mr. John, it is, if ever +five years was; and not a tooth to mun's head, for I looked to +that; and smelt all the way home like any apple; and if it don't +ate so soft as ever was scald cream, never you call me Thomas +Burman." + +"Humph!" said Jack. "And that's their dinner. Well, some are born +with a silver spoon in their mouth." + +"Some be born with roast beef in their mouths, and plum-pudding in +their pocket to take away the taste o' mun; and that's better than +empty spunes, eh?" + +"For them that get it," said Jack. "But for them that don't--" +And with a sigh he returned to his small ale, and then lingered in +and out of the inn, watching the dinner as it went into the best +room, where the guests were assembled. + +And as he lounged there, Amyas went in, and saw him, and held out +his hand, and said-- + +"Hillo, Jack! how goes the world? How you've grown!" and passed +on;--what had Jack Brimblecombe to do with Rose Salterne? + +So Jack lingered on, hovering around the fragrant smell like a fly +round a honey-pot, till he found himself invisibly attracted, and +as it were led by the nose out of the passage into the adjoining +room, and to that side of the room where there was a door; and once +there he could not help hearing what passed inside; till Rose +Salterne's name fell on his ear. So, as it was ordained, he was +taken in the fact. And now behold him brought in red-hand to +judgment, not without a kick or two from the wrathful foot of Amyas +Leigh. Whereat there fell on him a storm of abuse, which, for the +honor of that gallant company, I shall not give in detail; but +which abuse, strange to say, seemed to have no effect on the +impenitent and unabashed Jack, who, as soon as he could get his +breath, made answer fiercely, amid much puffing and blowing. + +"What business have I here? As much as any of you. If you had +asked me in, I would have come: but as you didn't, I came without +asking." + +"You shameless rascal!" said Cary. "Come if you were asked, where +there was good wine? I'll warrant you for that!" + +"Why," said Amyas, "no lad ever had a cake at school but he would +dog him up one street and down another all day for the crumbs, the +trencher-scraping spaniel!" + +"Patience, masters! "said Frank. "That Jack's is somewhat of a +gnathonic and parasitic soul, or stomach, all Bideford apple-women +know; but I suspect more than Deus Venter has brought him hither." + +"Deus eavesdropping, then. We shall have the whole story over the +town by to-morrow," said another; beginning at that thought to feel +somewhat ashamed of his late enthusiasm. + +"Ah, Mr. Frank! You were always the only one that would stand up +for me! Deus Venter, quotha? 'Twas Deus Cupid, it was!" + +A roar of laughter followed this announcement. + +"What?" asked Frank; "was it Cupid, then, who sneezed approval to +our love, Jack, as he did to that of Dido and Aeneas?" + +But Jack went on desperately. + +"I was in the next room, drinking of my beer. I couldn't help +that, could I? And then I heard her name; and I couldn't help +listening then. Flesh and blood couldn't." + +"Nor fat either!" + +"No, nor fat, Mr. Cary. Do you suppose fat men haven't souls to be +saved as well as thin ones, and hearts to burst, too, as well as +stomachs? Fat! Fat can feel, I reckon, as well as lean. Do you +suppose there's naught inside here but beer?" + +And he laid his hand, as Drayton might have said, on that stout +bastion, hornwork, ravelin, or demilune, which formed the outworks +to the citadel of his purple isle of man. + +"Naught but beer?--Cheese, I suppose?" + +"Bread?" + +"Beef?" + +"Love!" cried Jack. "Yes, Love!--Ay, you laugh; but my eyes are +not so grown up with fat but what I can see what's fair as well as +you." + +"Oh, Jack, naughty Jack, dost thou heap sin on sin, and luxury on +gluttony?" + +"Sin? If I sin, you sin: I tell you, and I don't care who knows +it, I've loved her these three years as well as e'er a one of you, +I have. I've thought o' nothing else, prayed for nothing else, God +forgive me! And then you laugh at me, because I'm a poor parson's +son, and you fine gentlemen: God made us both, I reckon. You?--you +make a deal of giving her up to-day. Why, it's what I've done for +three miserable years as ever poor sinner spent; ay, from the first +day I said to myself, 'Jack, if you can't have that pearl, you'll +have none; and that you can't have, for it's meat for your masters: +so conquer or die.' And I couldn't conquer. I can't help loving +her, worshipping her, no more than you; and I will die: but you +needn't laugh meanwhile at me that have done as much as you, and +will do again." + +"It is the old tale," said Frank to himself; "whom will not love +transform into a hero?" + +And so it was. Jack's squeaking voice was firm and manly, his +pig's eyes flashed very fire, his gestures were so free and +earnest, that the ungainliness of his figure was forgotten; and +when he finished with a violent burst of tears, Frank, forgetting +his wounds, sprang up and caught him by the hand. + +"John Brimblecombe, forgive me! Gentlemen, if we are gentlemen, we +ought to ask his pardon. Has he not shown already more chivalry, +more self-denial, and therefore more true love, than any of us? My +friends, let the fierceness of affection, which we have used as an +excuse for many a sin of our own, excuse his listening to a +conversation in which he well deserved to bear a part." + +"Ah," said Jack, "you make me one of your brotherhood; and see if I +do not dare to suffer as much as any of you! You laugh? Do you +fancy none can use a sword unless he has a baker's dozen of +quarterings in his arms, or that Oxford scholars know only how to +handle a pen?" + +"Let us try his metal," said St. Leger. "Here's my sword, Jack; +draw, Coffin! and have at him." + +"Nonsense!" said Coffin, looking somewhat disgusted at the notion +of fighting a man of Jack's rank; but Jack caught at the weapon +offered to him. + +"Give me a buckler, and have at any of you!" + +"Here's a chair bottom," cried Cary; and Jack, seizing it in his +left, flourished his sword so fiercely, and called so loudly to +Coffin to come on, that all present found it necessary, unless they +wished blood to be spilt, to turn the matter off with a laugh: but +Jack would not hear of it. + +"Nay: if you will let me be of your brotherhood, well and good: but +if not, one or other I will fight: and that's flat." + +"You see, gentlemen," said Amyas, "we must admit him or die the +death; so we needs must go when Sir Urian drives. Come up, Jack, +and take the oaths. You admit him, gentlemen?" + +"Let me but be your chaplain," said Jack, "and pray for your luck +when you're at the wars. If I do stay at home in a country curacy, +'tis not much that you need be jealous of me with her, I reckon," +said Jack, with a pathetical glance at his own stomach. + +"Sia!" said Cary: "but if he be admitted, it must be done according +to the solemn forms and ceremonies in such cases provided. Take +him into the next room, Amyas, and prepare him for his initiation." + +"What's that?" asked Amyas, puzzled by the word. But judging from +the corner of Will's eye that initiation was Latin for a practical +joke, he led forth his victim behind the arras again, and waited +five minutes while the room was being darkened, till Frank's voice +called to him to bring in the neophyte. + +"John Brimblecombe," said Frank, in a sepulchral tone, "you cannot +be ignorant, as a scholar and bachelor of Oxford, of that dread +sacrament by which Catiline bound the soul of his fellow- +conspirators, in order that both by the daring of the deed he might +have proof of their sincerity, and by the horror thereof astringe +their souls by adamantine fetters, and Novem-Stygian oaths, to that +wherefrom hereafter the weakness of the flesh might shrink. +Wherefore, O Jack! we too have determined, following that ancient +and classical example, to fill, as he did, a bowl with the +lifeblood of our most heroic selves, and to pledge each other +therein, with vows whereat the stars shall tremble in their +spheres, and Luna, blushing, veil her silver cheeks. Your blood +alone is wanted to fill up the goblet. Sit down, John +Brimblecombe, and bare your arm!" + +"But, Mr. Frank!--"said Jack, who was as superstitious as any old +wife, and, what with the darkness and the discourse, already in a +cold perspiration. + +"But me no buts! or depart as recreant, not by the door like a man, +but up the chimney like a flittermouse." + +"But, Mr. Frank!" + +"Thy vital juice, or the chimney! Choose!" roared Cary in his ear. + +"Well, if I must," said Jack; "but it's desperate hard that because +you can't keep faith without these barbarous oaths, I must take +them too, that have kept faith these three years without any." + +At this pathetic appeal Frank nearly melted: but Amyas and Cary had +thrust the victim into a chair and all was prepared for the +sacrifice. + +"Bind his eyes, according to the classic fashion," said Will. + +"Oh no, dear Mr. Cary; I'll shut them tight enough, I warrant: but +not with your dagger, dear Mr. William--sure, not with your dagger? +I can't afford to lose blood, though I do look lusty--I can't +indeed; sure, a pin would do--I've got one here, to my sleeve, +somewhere--Oh!" + +"See the fount of generous juice! Flow on, fair stream. How he +bleeds!--pints, quarts! Ah, this proves him to be in earnest!" + +"A true lover's blood is always at his fingers' ends." + +"He does not grudge it; of course not. Eh, Jack? What matters an +odd gallon for her sake?" + +"For her sake? Nothing, nothing! Take my life, if you will: but-- +oh, gentlemen, a surgeon, if you love me! I'm going off--I 'm +fainting!" + +"Drink, then, quick; drink and swear! Pat his back, Cary. +Courage, man! it will be over in a minute. Now, Frank!--" + +And Frank spoke-- + + +"If plighted troth I fail, or secret speech reveal, +May Cocytean ghosts around my pillow squeal; +While Ate's brazen claws distringe my spleen in sunder, +And drag me deep to Pluto's keep, 'mid brimstone, smoke, and thunder!" + + +"Placetne, domine?" + +"Placet!" squeaked Jack, who thought himself at the last gasp, and +gulped down full three-quarters of the goblet which Cary held to +his lips. + +"Ugh--Ah--Puh! Mercy on us! It tastes mighty like wine!" + +"A proof, my virtuous brother," said Frank, "first, of thy +abstemiousness, which has thus forgotten what wine tastes like; and +next, of thy pure and heroical affection, by which thy carnal +senses being exalted to a higher and supra-lunar sphere, like those +Platonical daemonizomenoi and enthusiazomenoi (of whom Jamblichus +says that they were insensible to wounds and flame, and much more, +therefore, to evil savors), doth make even the most nauseous +draught redolent of that celestial fragrance, which proceeding, O +Jack! from thine own inward virtue, assimilates by sympathy even +outward accidents unto its own harmony and melody; for fragrance +is, as has been said well, the song of flowers, and sweetness, the +music of apples--Ahem! Go in peace, thou hast conquered!" + +"Put him out of the door, Will," said Amyas, "or he will swoon on +our hands." + +"Give him some sack," said Frank. + +"Not a blessed drop of yours, sir," said Jack. "I like good wine +as well as any man on earth, and see as little of it; but not a +drop of yours, sirs, after your frumps and flouts about hanging-on +and trencher-scraping. When I first began to love her, I bid good- +bye to all dirty tricks; for I had some one then for whom to keep +myself clean." + +And so Jack was sent home, with a pint of good red Alicant wine in +him (more, poor fellow, than he had tasted at once in his life +before); while the rest, in high glee with themselves and the rest +of the world, relighted the candles, had a right merry evening, and +parted like good friends and sensible gentlemen of devon, thinking +(all except Frank) Jack Brimblecombe and his vow the merriest jest +they had heard for many a day. After which they all departed: +Amyas and Cary to Winter's squadron; Frank (as soon as he could +travel) to the Court again; and with him young Basset, whose father +Sir Arthur, being in London, procured for him a page's place in +Leicester's household. Fortescue and Chicester went to their +brothers in Dublin; St. Leger to his uncle the Marshal of Munster; +Coffin joined Champernoun and Norris in the Netherlands; and so the +Brotherhood of the Rose was scattered far and wide, and Mistress +Salterne was left alone with her looking-glass. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +HOW AMYAS KEPT HIS CHRISTMAS DAY + + + "Take aim, you noble musqueteers, + And shoot you round about; + Stand to it, valiant pikemen, + And we shall keep them out. + There's not a man of all of us + A foot will backward flee; + I'll be the foremost man in fight, + Says brave Lord Willoughby!" + + Elizabethan Ballad. + + +It was the blessed Christmas afternoon. The light was fading down; +the even-song was done; and the good folks of Bideford were +trooping home in merry groups, the father with his children, the +lover with his sweetheart, to cakes and ale, and flapdragons and +mummer's plays, and all the happy sports of Christmas night. One +lady only, wrapped close in her black muffler and followed by her +maid, walked swiftly, yet sadly, toward the long causeway and +bridge which led to Northam town. Sir Richard Grenville and his +wife caught her up and stopped her courteously. + +"You will come home with us, Mrs. Leigh," said Lady Grenville, "and +spend a pleasant Christmas night?" + +Mrs. Leigh smiled sweetly, and laying one hand on Lady Grenville's +arm, pointed with the other to the westward, and said: + +"I cannot well spend a merry Christmas night while that sound is in +my ears." + +The whole party around looked in the direction in which she +pointed. Above their heads the soft blue sky was fading into gray, +and here and there a misty star peeped out: but to the westward, +where the downs and woods of Raleigh closed in with those of +Abbotsham, the blue was webbed and turfed with delicate white +flakes; iridescent spots, marking the path by which the sun had +sunk, showed all the colors of the dying dolphin; and low on the +horizon lay a long band of grassy green. But what was the sound +which troubled Mrs. Leigh? None of them, with their merry hearts, +and ears dulled with the din and bustle of the town, had heard it +till that moment: and yet now--listen! It was dead calm. There +was not a breath to stir a blade of grass. And yet the air was +full of sound, a low deep roar which hovered over down and wood, +salt-marsh and river, like the roll of a thousand wheels, the tramp +of endless armies, or--what it was--the thunder of a mighty surge +upon the boulders of the pebble ridge. + +"The ridge is noisy to-night," said Sir Richard. "There has been +wind somewhere." + +"There is wind now, where my boy is, God help him!" said Mrs. +Leigh: and all knew that she spoke truly. The spirit of the +Atlantic storm had sent forward the token of his coming, in the +smooth ground-swell which was heard inland, two miles away. To- +morrow the pebbles, which were now rattling down with each +retreating wave, might be leaping to the ridge top, and hurled like +round-shot far ashore upon the marsh by the force of the advancing +wave, fleeing before the wrath of the western hurricane. + +"God help my boy!" said Mrs. Leigh again. + +"God is as near him by sea as by land," said good Sir Richard. + +"True, but I am a lone mother; and one that has no heart just now +but to go home and pray." + +And so Mrs. Leigh went onward up the lane, and spent all that night +in listening between her prayers to the thunder of the surge, till +it was drowned, long ere the sun rose, in the thunder of the storm. + +And where is Amyas on this same Christmas afternoon? + +Amyas is sitting bareheaded in a boat's stern in Smerwick bay, with +the spray whistling through his curls, as he shouts cheerfully-- + +"Pull, and with a will, my merry men all, and never mind shipping a +sea. Cannon balls are a cargo that don't spoil by taking salt- +water." + +His mother's presage has been true enough. Christmas eve has been +the last of the still, dark, steaming nights of the early winter; +and the western gale has been roaring for the last twelve hours +upon the Irish coast. + +The short light of the winter day is fading fast. Behind him is a +leaping line of billows lashed into mist by the tempest. Beside +him green foam-fringed columns are rushing up the black rocks, and +falling again in a thousand cataracts of snow. Before him is the +deep and sheltered bay: but it is not far up the bay that he and +his can see; for some four miles out at sea begins a sloping roof +of thick gray cloud, which stretches over their heads, and up and +far away inland, cutting the cliffs off at mid-height, hiding all +the Kerry mountains, and darkening the hollows of the distant +firths into the blackness of night. And underneath that awful roof +of whirling mist the storm is howling inland ever, sweeping before +it the great foam-sponges, and the gray salt spray, till all the +land is hazy, dim, and dun. Let it howl on! for there is more mist +than ever salt spray made, flying before that gale; more thunder +than ever sea-surge wakened echoing among the cliffs of Smerwick +bay; along those sand-hills flash in the evening gloom red sparks +which never came from heaven; for that fort, now christened by the +invaders the Fort Del Oro, where flaunts the hated golden flag of +Spain, holds San Josepho and eight hundred of the foe; and but +three nights ago, Amyas and Yeo, and the rest of Winter's shrewdest +hands, slung four culverins out of the Admiral's main deck, and +floated them ashore, and dragged them up to the battery among the +sand-hills; and now it shall be seen whether Spanish and Italian +condottieri can hold their own on British ground against the men of +Devon. + +Small blame to Amyas if he was thinking, not of his lonely mother +at Burrough Court, but of those quick bright flashes on sand-hill +and on fort, where Salvation Yeo was hurling the eighteen-pound +shot with deadly aim, and watching with a cool and bitter smile of +triumph the flying of the sand, and the crashing of the gabions. +Amyas and his party had been on board, at the risk of their lives, +for a fresh supply of shot; for Winter's battery was out of ball, +and had been firing stones for the last four hours, in default of +better missiles. They ran the boat on shore through the surf, +where a cove in the shore made landing possible, and almost +careless whether she stove or not, scrambled over the sand-hills +with each man his brace of shot slung across his shoulder; and +Amyas, leaping into the trenches, shouted cheerfully to Salvation +Yeo-- + +"More food for the bull-dogs, Gunner, and plums for the Spaniards' +Christmas pudding!" + +"Don't speak to a man at his business, Master Amyas. Five mortal +times have I missed; but I will have that accursed Popish rag down, +as I'm a sinner." + +"Down with it, then; nobody wants you to shoot crooked. Take good +iron to it, and not footy paving-stones." + +"I believe, sir, that the foul fiend is there, a turning of my shot +aside, I do. I thought I saw him once: but, thank Heaven, here's +ball again. Ah, sir, if one could but cast a silver one! Now, +stand by, men!" + +And once again Yeo's eighteen-pounder roared, and away. And, oh +glory! the great yellow flag of Spain, which streamed in the gale, +lifted clean into the air, flagstaff and all, and then pitched +wildly down head-foremost, far to leeward. + +A hurrah from the sailors, answered by the soldiers of the opposite +camp, shook the very cloud above them: but ere its echoes had died +away, a tall officer leapt upon the parapet of the fort, with the +fallen flag in his hand, and rearing it as well as he could upon +his lance point, held it firmly against the gale, while the fallen +flagstaff was raised again within. + +In a moment a dozen long bows were bent at the daring foeman: but +Amyas behind shouted-- + +"Shame, lads! Stop and let the gallant gentleman have due +courtesy!" + +So they stopped, while Amyas, springing on the rampart of the +battery, took off his hat, and bowed to the flag-holder, who, as +soon as relieved of his charge, returned the bow courteously, and +descended. + +It was by this time all but dark, and the firing began to slacken +on all sides; Salvation and his brother gunners, having covered up +their slaughtering tackle with tarpaulings, retired for the night, +leaving Amyas, who had volunteered to take the watch till midnight; +and the rest of the force having got their scanty supper of biscuit +(for provisions were running very short) lay down under arms among +the sand-hills, and grumbled themselves to sleep. + +He had paced up and down in the gusty darkness for some hour or +more, exchanging a passing word now and then with the sentinel, +when two men entered the battery, chatting busily together. One +was in complete armor; the other wrapped in the plain short cloak +of a man of pens and peace: but the talk of both was neither of +sieges nor of sallies, catapult, bombard, nor culverin, but simply +of English hexameters. + +And fancy not, gentle reader, that the two were therein fiddling +while Rome was burning; for the commonweal of poetry and letters, +in that same critical year 1580, was in far greater danger from +those same hexameters than the common woe of Ireland (as Raleigh +called it) was from the Spaniards. + +Imitating the classic metres, "versifying," as it was called in +contradistinction to rhyming, was becoming fast the fashion among +the more learned. Stonyhurst and others had tried their hands at +hexameter translations from the Latin and Greek epics, which seem +to have been doggerel enough; and ever and anon some youthful wit +broke out in iambics, sapphics, elegiacs, and what not, to the +great detriment of the queen's English and her subjects' ears. + +I know not whether Mr. William Webbe had yet given to the world any +fragments of his precious hints for the "Reformation of English +poetry," to the tune of his own "Tityrus, happily thou liest +tumbling under a beech-tree:" but the Cambridge Malvolio, Gabriel +Harvey, had succeeded in arguing Spenser, Dyer, Sidney, and +probably Sidney's sister, and the whole clique of beaux-esprits +round them, into following his model of + + + "What might I call this tree? A laurel? O bonny laurel! + Needes to thy bowes will I bowe this knee, and vail my bonetto;" + + +after snubbing the first book of "that Elvish Queene," which was +then in manuscript, as a base declension from the classical to the +romantic school. + +And now Spenser (perhaps in mere melancholy wilfulness and want of +purpose, for he had just been jilted by a fair maid of Kent) was +wasting his mighty genius upon doggerel which he fancied antique; +and some piratical publisher (bitter Tom Nash swears, and with +likelihood that Harvey did it himself) had just given to the +world,--"Three proper wittie and familiar Letters, lately past +between two University men, touching the Earthquake in April last, +and our English reformed Versifying," which had set all town wits +a-buzzing like a swarm of flies, being none other than a +correspondence between Spenser and Harvey, which was to prove to +the world forever the correctness and melody of such lines as, + + + "For like magnificoes, not a beck but glorious in show, + In deede most frivolous, not a looke but Tuscanish always." + + +Let them pass--Alma Mater has seen as bad hexameters since. But +then the matter was serious. There is a story (I know not how +true) that Spenser was half bullied into re-writing the "Faerie +Queene" in hexameters, had not Raleigh, a true romanticist, "whose +vein for ditty or amorous ode was most lofty, insolent, and +passionate," persuaded him to follow his better genius. The great +dramatists had not yet arisen, to form completely that truly +English school, of which Spenser, unconscious of his own vast +powers, was laying the foundation. And, indeed, it was not till +Daniel, twenty years after, in his admirable apology for rhyme, had +smashed Mr. Campian and his "eight several kinds of classical +numbers," that the matter was finally settled, and the English +tongue left to go the road on which Heaven had started it. So that +we may excuse Raleigh's answering somewhat waspish to some +quotation of Spenser's from the three letters of "Immerito and G. H." + +"Tut, tut, Colin Clout, much learning has made thee mad. A good +old fishwives' ballad jingle is worth all your sapphics and +trimeters, and 'riff-raff thurlery bouncing.' Hey? have I you +there, old lad? Do you mind that precious verse?" + +"But, dear Wat, Homer and Virgil--" + +"But, dear Ned, Petrarch and Ovid--" + +"But, Wat, what have we that we do not owe to the ancients?" + +"Ancients, quotha? Why, the legend of King Arthur, and Chevy Chase +too, of which even your fellow-sinner Sidney cannot deny that every +time he hears it even from a blind fiddler it stirs his heart like +a trumpet-blast. Speak well of the bridge that carries you over, +man! Did you find your Redcross Knight in Virgil, or such a dame +as Una in old Ovid? No more than you did your Pater and Credo, you +renegado baptized heathen, you!" + +"Yet, surely, our younger and more barbarous taste must bow before +divine antiquity, and imitate afar--" + +"As dottrels do fowlers. If Homer was blind, lad, why dost not +poke out thine eye? Ay, this hexameter is of an ancient house, +truly, Ned Spenser, and so is many a rogue: but he cannot make way +on our rough English roads. He goes hopping and twitching in our +language like a three-legged terrier over a pebble-bank, tumble and +up again, rattle and crash." + +"Nay, hear, now-- + + + 'See ye the blindfolded pretty god that feathered archer, + Of lovers' miseries which maketh his bloody game?'* + + +True, the accent gapes in places, as I have often confessed to +Harvey, but--" + + +* Strange as it may seem, this distich is Spenser's own; and the +other hexameters are all authentic. + + +Harvey be hanged for a pedant, and the whole crew of versifiers, +from Lord Dorset (but he, poor man, has been past hanging some time +since) to yourself! Why delude you into playing Procrustes as he +does with the queen's English, racking one word till its joints be +pulled asunder, and squeezing the next all a-heap as the +Inquisitors do heretics in their banca cava? Out upon him and you, +and Sidney, and the whole kin. You have not made a verse among +you, and never will, which is not as lame a gosling as Harvey's +own-- + + +'Oh thou weathercocke, that stands on the top of Allhallows, + Come thy ways down, if thou dar'st for thy crown, and take the wall + on us.' + + +Hark, now! There is our young giant comforting his soul with a +ballad. You will hear rhyme and reason together here, now. He +will not miscall 'blind-folded,' 'blind-fold-ed, I warrant; or make +an 'of' and a 'which' and a 'his' carry a whole verse on their +wretched little backs." + +And as he spoke, Amyas, who had been grumbling to himself some +Christmas carol, broke out full-mouthed:-- + + + "As Joseph was a-walking + He heard an angel sing-- + 'This night shall be the birth night + Of Christ, our heavenly King. + + His birthbed shall be neither + In housen nor in hall, + Nor in the place of paradise, + But in the oxen's stall. + + He neither shall be rocked + In silver nor in gold, + But in the wooden manger + That lieth on the mould. + + He neither shall be washen + With white wine nor with red, + But with the fair spring water + That on you shall be shed. + + He neither shall be clothed + In purple nor in pall, + But in the fair white linen + That usen babies all.' + + As Joseph was a-walking + Thus did the angel sing, + And Mary's Son at midnight + Was born to be our King. + + Then be you glad, good people, + At this time of the year; + And light you up your candles, + For His star it shineth clear." + + +"There, Edmunde Classicaster," said Raleigh, "does not that simple +strain go nearer to the heart of him who wrote 'The Shepherd's +Calendar,' than all artificial and outlandish + + + 'Wote ye why his mother with a veil hath covered his face?' + + +Why dost not answer, man?" + +But Spenser was silent awhile, and then,-- + +"Because I was thinking rather of the rhymer than the rhyme. Good +heaven! how that brave lad shames me, singing here the hymns which +his mother taught him, before the very muzzles of Spanish guns; +instead of bewailing unmanly, as I have done, the love which he +held, I doubt not, as dear as I did even my Rosalind. This is his +welcome to the winter's storm; while I, who dream, forsooth, of +heavenly inspiration, can but see therein an image of mine own +cowardly despair. + + + 'Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath has wasted, + Art made a mirror to behold my plight.'* + + +Pah! away with frosts, icicles, and tears, and sighs--" + + +* "The Shepherd's Calendar." + + +"And with hexameters and trimeters too, I hope," interrupted +Raleigh: "and all the trickeries of self-pleasing sorrow." + +"--I will set my heart to higher work than barking at the hand +which chastens me." + +"Wilt put the lad into the 'Faerie Queene,' then, by my side? He +deserves as good a place there, believe me, as ever a Guyon, or +even as Lord Grey your Arthegall. Let us hail him. Hallo! young +chanticleer of Devon! Art not afraid of a chance shot, that thou +crowest so lustily upon thine own mixen?" + +"Cocks crow all night long at Christmas, Captain Raleigh, and so do +I," said Amyas's cheerful voice; "but who's there with you?" + +"A penitent pupil of yours--Mr. Secretary Spenser." + +"Pupil of mine?" said Amyas. "I wish he'd teach me a little of his +art; I could fill up my time here with making verses." + +"And who would be your theme, fair sir?" said Spenser. + +"No 'who' at all. I don't want to make sonnets to blue eyes, nor +black either: but if I could put down some of the things I saw in +the Spice Islands--" + +"Ah," said Raleigh, "he would beat you out of Parnassus, Mr. +Secretary. Remember, you may write about Fairyland, but he has +seen it." + +"And so have others," said Spenser; "it is not so far off from any +one of us. Wherever is love and loyalty, great purposes, and lofty +souls, even though in a hovel or a mine, there is Fairyland." + +"Then Fairyland should be here, friend; for you represent love, and +Leigh loyalty; while, as for great purposes and lofty souls, who so +fit to stand for them as I, being (unless my enemies and my +conscience are liars both) as ambitious and as proud as Lucifer's +own self?" + +"Ah, Walter, Walter, why wilt always slander thyself thus?" + +"Slander? Tut.--I do but give the world a fair challenge, and tell +it, 'There--you know the worst of me: come on and try a fall, for +either you or I must down.' Slander? Ask Leigh here, who has but +known me a fortnight, whether I am not as vain as a peacock, as +selfish as a fox, as imperious as a bona roba, and ready to make a +cat's paw of him or any man, if there be a chestnut in the fire: +and yet the poor fool cannot help loving me, and running of my +errands, and taking all my schemes and my dreams for gospel; and +verily believes now, I think, that I shall be the man in the moon +some day, and he my big dog." + +"Well," said Amyas, half apologetically, "if you are the cleverest +man in the world what harm in my thinking so?" + +"Hearken to him, Edmund! He will know better when he has outgrown +this same callow trick of honesty, and learnt of the great goddess +Detraction how to show himself wiser than the wise, by pointing out +to the world the fool's motley which peeps through the rents in the +philosopher's cloak. Go to, lad! slander thy equals, envy thy +betters, pray for an eye which sees spots in every sun, and for a +vulture's nose to scent carrion in every rose-bed. If thy friend +win a battle, show that he has needlessly thrown away his men; if +he lose one, hint that he sold it; if he rise to a place, argue +favor; if he fall from one, argue divine justice. Believe nothing, +hope nothing, but endure all things, even to kicking, if aught may +be got thereby; so shalt thou be clothed in purple and fine linen, +and sit in kings' palaces, and fare sumptuously every day." + +"And wake with Dives in the torment," said Amyas. "Thank you for +nothing, captain." + +"Go to, Misanthropos," said Spenser. "Thou hast not yet tasted the +sweets of this world's comfits, and thou railest at them?" + +"The grapes are sour, lad." + +"And will be to the end," said Amyas, "if they come off such a +devil's tree as that. I really think you are out of your mind, +Captain Raleigh, at times." + +"I wish I were; for it is a troublesome, hungry, windy mind as man +ever was cursed withal. But come in, lad. We were sent from the +lord deputy to bid thee to supper. There is a dainty lump of dead +horse waiting for thee." + +"Send me some out, then," said matter-of-fact Amyas. "And tell his +lordship that, with his good leave, I don't stir from here till +morning, if I can keep awake. There is a stir in the fort, and I +expect them out on us." + +"Tut, man! their hearts are broken. We know it by their +deserters." + +"Seeing's believing. I never trust runaway rogues. If they are +false to their masters, they'll be false to us." + +"Well, go thy ways, old honesty; and Mr. Secretary shall give you a +book to yourself in the 'Faerie Queene'--'Sir Monoculus or the +Legend of Common Sense,' eh, Edmund?" + +"Monoculus?" + +"Ay, Single-eye, my prince of word-coiners--won't that fit?--And +give him the Cyclops head for a device. Heigh-ho! They may laugh +that win. I am sick of this Irish work; were it not for the chance +of advancement I'd sooner be driving a team of red Devons on +Dartside; and now I am angry with the dear lad because he is not +sick of it too. What a plague business has he to be paddling up +and down, contentedly doing his duty, like any city watchman? It +is an insult to the mighty aspirations of our nobler hearts,--eh, +my would-be Ariosto?" + +"Ah, Raleigh! you can afford to confess yourself less than some, +for you are greater than all. Go on and conquer, noble heart! But +as for me, I sow the wind, and I suppose I shall reap the +whirlwind." + +"Your harvest seems come already; what a blast that was! Hold on +by me, Colin Clout, and I'll hold on by thee. So! Don't tread on +that pikeman's stomach, lest he take thee for a marauding Don, and +with sudden dagger slit Cohn's pipe, and Colin's weasand too." + +And the two stumbled away into the darkness, leaving Amyas to +stride up and down as before, puzzling his brains over Raleigh's +wild words and Spenser's melancholy, till he came to the conclusion +that there was some mysterious connection between cleverness and +unhappiness, and thanking his stars that he was neither scholar, +courtier, nor poet, said grace over his lump of horseflesh when it +arrived, devoured it as if it had been venison, and then returned +to his pacing up and down; but this time in silence, for the night +was drawing on, and there was no need to tell the Spaniards that +any one was awake and watching. + +So he began to think about his mother, and how she might be +spending her Christmas; and then about Frank, and wondered at what +grand Court festival he was assisting, amid bright lights and sweet +music and gay ladies, and how he was dressed, and whether he +thought of his brother there far away on the dark Atlantic shore; +and then he said his prayers and his creed; and then he tried not +to think of Rose Salterne, and of course thought about her all the +more. So on passed the dull hours, till it might be past eleven +o'clock, and all lights were out in the battery and the shipping, +and there was no sound of living thing but the monotonous tramp of +the two sentinels beside him, and now and then a grunt from the +party who slept under arms some twenty yards to the rear. + +So he paced to and fro, looking carefully out now and then over the +strip of sand-hill which lay between him and the fort; but all was +blank and black, and moreover it began to rain furiously. + +Suddenly he seemed to hear a rustle among the harsh sand-grass. +True, the wind was whistling through it loudly enough, but that +sound was not altogether like the wind. Then a soft sliding noise; +something had slipped down a bank, and brought the sand down after +it. Amyas stopped, crouched down beside a gun, and laid his ear to +the rampart, whereby he heard clearly, as he thought, the noise of +approaching feet; whether rabbits or Christians, he knew not, but +he shrewdly guessed the latter. + +Now Amyas was of a sober and business-like turn, at least when he +was not in a passion; and thinking within himself that if he made +any noise, the enemy (whether four or two-legged) would retire, and +all the sport be lost, he did not call to the two sentries, who +were at the opposite ends of the battery; neither did he think it +worth while to rouse the sleeping company, lest his ears should +have deceived him, and the whole camp turn out to repulse the +attack of a buck rabbit. + +So he crouched lower and lower beside the culverin, and was +rewarded in a minute or two by hearing something gently deposited +against the mouth of the embrasure, which, by the noise, should be +a piece of timber. + +"So far, so good," said he to himself; "when the scaling ladder is +up, the soldier follows, I suppose. I can only humbly thank them +for giving my embrasure the preference. There he comes! I hear +his feet scuffling." + +He could hear plainly enough some one working himself into the +mouth of the embrasure: but the plague was, that it was so dark +that he could not see his hand between him and the sky, much less +his foe at two yards off. However, he made a pretty fair guess as +to the whereabouts, and, rising softly, discharged such a blow +downwards as would have split a yule log. A volley of sparks flew +up from the hapless Spaniard's armor, and a grunt issued from +within it, which proved that, whether he was killed or not, the +blow had not improved his respiration. + +Amyas felt for his head, seized it, dragged him in over the gun, +sprang into the embrasure on his knees, felt for the top of the +ladder, found it, hove it clean off and out, with four or five men +on it, and then of course tumbled after it ten feet into the sand, +roaring like a town bull to her majesty's liege subjects in +general. + +Sailor-fashion, he had no armor on but a light morion and a +cuirass, so he was not too much encumbered to prevent his springing +to his legs instantly, and setting to work, cutting and foining +right and left at every sound, for sight there was none. + +Battles (as soldiers know, and newspaper editors do not) are +usually fought, not as they ought to be fought, but as they can be +fought; and while the literary man is laying down the law at his +desk as to how many troops should be moved here, and what rivers +should be crossed there, and where the cavalry should have been +brought up, and when the flank should have been turned, the +wretched man who has to do the work finds the matter settled for +him by pestilence, want of shoes, empty stomachs, bad roads, heavy +rains, hot suns, and a thousand other stern warriors who never show +on paper. + +So with this skirmish; "according to Cocker," it ought to have been +a very pretty one; for Hercules of Pisa, who planned the sortie, +had arranged it all (being a very sans-appel in all military +science) upon the best Italian precedents, and had brought against +this very hapless battery a column of a hundred to attack directly +in front, a company of fifty to turn the right flank, and a company +of fifty to turn the left flank, with regulations, orders, +passwords, countersigns, and what not; so that if every man had had +his rights (as seldom happens), Don Guzman Maria Magdalena de Soto, +who commanded the sortie, ought to have taken the work out of hand, +and annihilated all therein. But alas! here stern fate interfered. +They had chosen a dark night, as was politic; they had waited till +the moon was up, lest it should be too dark, as was politic +likewise: but, just as they had started, on came a heavy squall of +rain, through which seven moons would have given no light, and +which washed out the plans of Hercules of Pisa as if they had been +written on a schoolboy's slate. The company who were to turn the +left flank walked manfully down into the sea, and never found out +where they were going till they were knee-deep in water. The +company who were to turn the right flank, bewildered by the utter +darkness, turned their own flank so often, that tired of falling +into rabbit-burrows and filling their mouths with sand, they halted +and prayed to all the saints for a compass and lantern; while the +centre body, who held straight on by a trackway to within fifty +yards of the battery, so miscalculated that short distance, that +while they thought the ditch two pikes' length off, they fell into +it one over the other, and of six scaling ladders, the only one +which could be found was the very one which Amyas threw down again. +After which the clouds broke, the wind shifted, and the moon shone +out merrily. And so was the deep policy of Hercules of Pisa, on +which hung the fate of Ireland and the Papacy, decided by a ten +minutes' squall. + +But where is Amyas? + +In the ditch, aware that the enemy is tumbling into it, but unable +to find them; while the company above, finding it much too dark to +attempt a counter sortie, have opened a smart fire of musketry and +arrows on things in general, whereat the Spaniards are swearing +like Spaniards (I need say no more), and the Italians spitting like +venomous cats; while Amyas, not wishing to be riddled by friendly +balls, has got his back against the foot of the rampart, and waits +on Providence. + +Suddenly the moon clears; and with one more fierce volley, the +English sailors, seeing the confusion, leap down from the +embrasures, and to it pell-mell. Whether this also was "according +to Cocker," I know not: but the sailor, then as now, is not +susceptible of highly-finished drill. + +Amyas is now in his element, and so are the brave fellows at his +heels; and there are ten breathless, furious minutes among the +sand-hills; and then the trumpets blow a recall, and the sailors +drop back again by twos and threes, and are helped up into the +embrasures over many a dead and dying foe; while the guns of Fort +del Oro open on them, and blaze away for half an hour without +reply; and then all is still once more. And in the meanwhile, the +sortie against the deputy's camp has fared no better, and the +victory of the night remains with the English. + +Twenty minutes after, Winter and the captains who were on shore +were drying themselves round a peat-fire on the beach, and talking +over the skirmish, when Will Cary asked-- + +"Where is Leigh? who has seen him? I am sadly afraid he has gone +too far, and been slain." + +"Slain? Never less, gentlemen!" replied the voice of the very +person in question, as he stalked out of the darkness into the +glare of the fire, and shot down from his shoulders into the midst +of the ring, as he might a sack of corn, a huge dark body, which +was gradually seen to be a man in rich armor; who being so shot +down, lay quietly where he was dropped, with his feet (luckily for +him mailed) in the fire. + +"I say," quoth Amyas, "some of you had better take him up, if he is +to be of any use. Unlace his helm, Will Cary." + +"Pull his feet out of the embers; I dare say he would have been +glad enough to put us to the scarpines; but that's no reason we +should put him to them." + +As has been hinted, there was no love lost between Admiral Winter +and Amyas; and Amyas might certainly have reported himself in a +more ceremonious manner. So Winter, whom Amyas either had not +seen, or had not chosen to see, asked him pretty sharply, "What the +plague he had to do with bringing dead men into camp?" + +"If he's dead, it's not my fault. He was alive enough when I +started with him, and I kept him right end uppermost all the way; +and what would you have more, sir?" + +"Mr. Leigh!" said Winter, "it behoves you to speak with somewhat +more courtesy, if not respect, to captains who are your elders and +commanders." + +"Ask your pardon, sir," said the giant, as he stood in front of the +fire with the rain steaming and smoking off his armor; "but I was +bred in a school where getting good service done was more esteemed +than making fine speeches." + +"Whatsoever school you were trained in, sir," said Winter, nettled +at the hint about Drake; "it does not seem to have been one in +which you learned to obey orders. Why did you not come in when the +recall was sounded?" + +"Because," said Amyas, very coolly, "in the first place I did not +hear it; and in the next, in my school I was taught when I had once +started not to come home empty-handed." + +This was too pointed; and Winter sprang up with an oath--"Do you +mean to insult me, sir?" + +"I am sorry, sir, that you should take a compliment to Sir Francis +Drake as an insult to yourself. I brought in this gentleman +because I thought he might give you good information; if he dies +meanwhile, the loss will be yours, or rather the queen's." + +"Help me, then," said Cary, glad to create a diversion in Amyas's +favor, "and we will bring him round;" while Raleigh rose, and +catching Winter's arm, drew him aside, and began talking earnestly. + +"What a murrain have you, Leigh, to quarrel with Winter?" asked two +or three. + +"I say, my reverend fathers and dear children, do get the Don's +talking tackle free again, and leave me and the admiral to settle +it our own way." + +There was more than one captain sitting in the ring, but +discipline, and the degrees of rank, were not so severely defined +as now; and Amyas, as a "gentleman adventurer," was, on land, in a +position very difficult to be settled, though at sea he was as +liable to be hanged as any other person on board; and on the whole +it was found expedient to patch the matter up. So Captain Raleigh +returning, said that though Admiral Winter had doubtless taken +umbrage at certain words of Mr. Leigh's, yet that he had no doubt +that Mr. Leigh meant nothing thereby but what was consistent with +the profession of a soldier and a gentleman, and worthy both of +himself and of the admiral. + +From which proposition Amyas found it impossible to dissent; +whereon Raleigh went back, and informed Winter that Leigh had +freely retracted his words, and fully wiped off any imputation +which Mr. Winter might conceive to have been put upon him, and so +forth. So Winter returned, and Amyas said frankly enough-- + +"Admiral Winter, I hope, as a loyal soldier, that you will +understand thus far; that naught which has passed to-night shall in +any way prevent you finding me a forward and obedient servant to +all your commands, be they what they may, and a supporter of your +authority among the men, and honor against the foe, even with my +life. For I should he ashamed if private differences should ever +prejudice by a grain the public weal." + +This was a great effort of oratory for Amyas; and he therefore, in +order to be safe by following precedent, tried to talk as much as +he could like Sir Richard Grenville. Of course Winter could answer +nothing to it, in spite of the plain hint of private differences, +but that he should not fail to show himself a captain worthy of so +valiant and trusty a gentleman; whereon the whole party turned +their attention to the captive, who, thanks to Will Cary, was by +this time sitting up, standing much in need of a handkerchief, and +looking about him, having been unhelmed, in a confused and doleful +manner. + +"Take the gentleman to my tent," said Winter, "and let the surgeon +see to him. Mr. Leigh, who is he?--" + +"An enemy, but whether Spaniard or Italian I know not; but he +seemed somebody among them, I thought the captain of a company. He +and I cut at each other twice or thrice at first, and then lost +each other; and after that I came on him among the sand-hills, +trying to rally his men, and swearing like the mouth of the pit, +whereby I guess him a Spaniard. But his men ran; so I brought him +in." + +"And how?" asked Raleigh. "Thou art giving us all the play but the +murders and the marriages." + +"Why, I bid him yield, and he would not. Then I bid him run, and +he would not. And it was too pitch-dark for fighting; so I took +him by the ears, and shook the wind out of him, and so brought him +in." + +"Shook the wind out of him?" cried Cary, amid the roar of laughter +which followed. "Dost know thou hast nearly wrung his neck in two? +His vizor was full of blood." + +"He should have run or yielded, then," said Amyas; and getting up, +slipped off to find some ale, and then to sleep comfortably in a +dry burrow which he scratched out of a sandbank. + +The next morning, as Amyas was discussing a scanty breakfast of +biscuit (for provisions were running very short in camp), Raleigh +came up to him. + +"What, eating? That's more than I have done to-day." + +"Sit down, and share, then." + +"Nay, lad, I did not come a-begging. I have set some of my rogues +to dig rabbits; but as I live, young Colbrand, you may thank your +stars that you are alive to-day to eat. Poor young Cheek--Sir John +Cheek, the grammarian's son--got his quittance last night by a +Spanish pike, rushing headlong on, just as you did. But have you +seen your prisoner?" + +"No; nor shall, while he is in Winter's tent." + +"Why not, then? What quarrel have you against the admiral, friend +Bobadil? Cannot you let Francis Drake fight his own battles, +without thrusting your head in between them?" + +"Well, that is good! As if the quarrel was not just as much mine, +and every man's in the ship. Why, when he left Drake, he left us +all, did he not?" + +"And what if he did? Let bygones be bygones is the rule of a +Christian, and of a wise man too, Amyas. Here the man is, at +least, safe home, in favor and in power; and a prudent youth will +just hold his tongue, mumchance, and swim with the stream." + +"But that's just what makes me mad; to see this fellow, after +deserting us there in unknown seas, win credit and rank at home +here for being the first man who ever sailed back through the +Straits. What had he to do with sailing back at all! As well make +the fox a knight for being the first that ever jumped down a jakes +to escape the hounds. The fiercer the flight the fouler the fear, +say I." + +"Amyas! Amyas! thou art a hard hitter, but a soft politician." + +"I am no politician, Captain Raleigh, nor ever wish to be. An +honest man's my friend, and a rogue's my foe; and I'll tell both as +much, as long as I breathe." + +"And die a poor saint," said Raleigh, laughing. "But if Winter +invites you to his tent himself, you won't refuse to come?" + +"Why, no, considering his years and rank; but he knows too well to +do that." + +"He knows too well not to do it," said Raleigh, laughing as he +walked away. And verily in half-an-hour came an invitation, +extracted of course, from the admiral by Raleigh's silver tongue, +which Amyas could not but obey. + +"We all owe you thanks for last night's service, sir," said Winter, +who had for some good reasons changed his tone. "Your prisoner is +found to be a gentleman of birth and experience, and the leader of +the assault last night. He has already told us more than we had +hoped, for which also we are beholden to you; and, indeed, my Lord +Grey has been asking for you already." + +"I have, young sir," said a quiet and lofty voice; and Amyas saw +limping from the inner tent the proud and stately figure of the +stern deputy, Lord Grey of Wilton, a brave and wise man, but with a +naturally harsh temper, which had been soured still more by the +wound which had crippled him, while yet a boy, at the battle of +Leith. He owed that limp to Mary Queen of Scots; and he did not +forget the debt. + +"I have been asking for you; having heard from many, both of your +last night's prowess, and of your conduct and courage beyond the +promise of your years, displayed in that ever-memorable voyage, +which may well be ranked with the deeds of the ancient Argonauts." + +Amyas bowed low; and the lord deputy went on, "You will needs wish +to see your prisoner. You will find him such a one as you need not +be ashamed to have taken, and as need not be ashamed to have been +taken by you: but here he is, and will, I doubt not, answer as much +for himself. Know each other better, gentlemen both: last night +was an ill one for making acquaintances. Don Guzman Maria +Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto, know the hidalgo, Amyas Leigh!" + +As he spoke, the Spaniard came forward, still in his armor, all +save his head, which was bound up in a handkerchief. + +He was an exceedingly tall and graceful personage, of that sangre +azul which marked high Visigothic descent; golden-haired and fair- +skinned, with hands as small and white as a woman's; his lips were +delicate but thin, and compressed closely at the corners of the +mouth; and his pale blue eye had a glassy dulness. In spite of his +beauty and his carriage, Amyas shrank from him instinctively; and +yet he could not help holding out his hand in return, as the +Spaniard, holding out his, said languidly, in most sweet and +sonorous Spanish-- + +"I kiss his hands and feet. The senor speaks, I am told, my native +tongue?" + +"I have that honor." + +"Then accept in it (for I can better express myself therein than in +English, though I am not altogether ignorant of that witty and +learned language) the expression of my pleasure at having fallen +into the hands of one so renowned in war and travel; and of one +also," he added, glancing at Amyas's giant bulk, "the vastness of +whose strength, beyond that of common mortality, makes it no more +shame for me to have been overpowered and carried away by him than +if my captor had been a paladin of Charlemagne's." + +Honest Amyas bowed and stammered, a little thrown off his balance +by the unexpected assurance and cool flattery of his prisoner; but +he said-- + +"If you are satisfied, illustrious senor, I am bound to be so. I +only trust that in my hurry and the darkness I have not hurt you +unnecessarily." + +The Don laughed a pretty little hollow laugh: "No, kind senor, my +head, I trust, will after a few days have become united to my +shoulders; and, for the present, your company will make me forget +any slight discomfort." + +"Pardon me, senor; but by this daylight I should have seen that +armor before." + +"I doubt it not, senor, as having been yourself also in the +forefront of the battle," said the Spaniard, with a proud smile. + +"If I am right, senor, you are he who yesterday held up the +standard after it was shot down." + +"I do not deny that undeserved honor; and I have to thank the +courtesy of you and your countrymen for having permitted me to do +so with impunity." + +"Ah, I heard of that brave feat," said the lord deputy. "You +should consider yourself, Mr. Leigh, honored by being enabled to +show courtesy to such a warrior." + +How long this interchange of solemn compliments, of which Amyas was +getting somewhat weary, would have gone on, I know not; but at that +moment Raleigh entered hastily-- + +"My lord, they have hung out a white flag, and are calling for a +parley!" + +The Spaniard turned pale, and felt for his sword, which was gone; +and then, with a bitter laugh, murmured to himself--"As I +expected." + +"I am very sorry to hear it. Would to Heaven they had simply +fought it out!" said Lord Grey, half to himself; and then, "Go, +Captain Raleigh, and answer them that (saving this gentleman's +presence) the laws of war forbid a parley with any who are leagued +with rebels against their lawful sovereign." + +"But what if they wish to treat for this gentleman's ransom?" + +"For their own, more likely," said the Spaniard; "but tell them, on +my part, senor, that Don Guzman refuses to be ransomed; and will +return to no camp where the commanding officer, unable to infect +his captains with his own cowardice, dishonors them against their +will." + +"You speak sharply, senor," said Winter, after Raleigh had gone +out. + +"I have reason, Senor Admiral, as you will find, I fear, erelong." + +"We shall have the honor of leaving you here, for the present, sir, +as Admiral Winter's guest," said the lord deputy. + +"But not my sword, it seems." + +"Pardon me, senor; but no one has deprived you of your sword," said +Winter. + +"I don't wish to pain you, sir," said Amyas, "but I fear that we +were both careless enough to leave it behind last night." + +A flash passed over the Spaniard's face, which disclosed terrible +depths of fury and hatred beneath that quiet mask, as the summer +lightning displays the black abysses of the thunder-storm; but like +the summer lightning it passed almost unseen; and blandly as ever, +he answered: + +"I can forgive you for such a neglect, most valiant sir, more +easily than I can forgive myself. Farewell, sir! One who has lost +his sword is no fit company for you." And as Amyas and the rest +departed, he plunged into the inner tent, stamping and writhing, +gnawing his hands with rage and shame. + +As Amyas came out on the battery, Yeo hailed him: + +"Master Amyas! Hillo, sir! For the love of Heaven, tell me!" + +"What, then?" + +"Is his lordship stanch? Will he do the Lord's work faithfully, +root and branch: or will he spare the Amalekites?" + +"The latter, I think, old hip-and-thigh," said Amyas, hurrying +forward to hear the news from Raleigh, who appeared in sight once +more. + +"They ask to depart with bag and baggage," said he, when he came +up. + +"God do so to me, and more also, if they carry away a straw!" said +Lord Grey. "Make short work of it, sir!" + +"I do not know how that will be, my lord; as I came up a captain +shouted to me off the walls that there were mutineers; and, denying +that he surrendered, would have pulled down the flag of truce, but +the soldiers beat him off." + +"A house divided against itself will not stand long, gentlemen. +Tell them that I give no conditions. Let them lay down their arms, +and trust in the Bishop of Rome who sent them hither, and may come +to save them if he wants them. Gunners, if you see the white flag +go down, open your fire instantly. Captain Raleigh, we need your +counsel here. Mr. Cary, will you be my herald this time?" + +"A better Protestant never went on a pleasanter errand, my lord." + +So Cary went, and then ensued an argument, as to what should be +done with the prisoners in case of a surrender. + +I cannot tell whether my Lord Grey meant, by offering conditions +which the Spaniards would not accept, to force them into fighting +the quarrel out, and so save himself the responsibility of deciding +on their fate; or whether his mere natural stubbornness, as well as +his just indignation, drove him on too far to retract: but the +council of war which followed was both a sad and a stormy one, and +one which he had reason to regret to his dying day. What was to be +done with the enemy? They already outnumbered the English; and +some fifteen hundred of Desmond's wild Irish hovered in the forests +round, ready to side with the winning party, or even to attack the +English at the least sign of vacillation or fear. They could not +carry the Spaniards away with them, for they had neither shipping +nor food, not even handcuffs enough for them; and as Mackworth told +Winter when he proposed it, the only plan was for him to make San +Josepho a present of his ships, and swim home himself as he could. +To turn loose in Ireland, as Captain Touch urged, on the other +hand, seven hundred such monsters of lawlessness, cruelty, and +lust, as Spanish and Italian condottieri were in those days, was as +fatal to their own safety as cruel to the wretched Irish. All the +captains, without exception, followed on the same side. "What was +to be done, then?" asked Lord Grey, impatiently. "Would they have +him murder them all in cold blood?" + +And for a while every man, knowing that it must come to that, and +yet not daring to say it; till Sir Warham St. Leger, the marshal of +Munster, spoke out stoutly: "Foreigners had been scoffing them too +long and too truly with waging these Irish wars as if they meant to +keep them alive, rather than end them. Mercy and faith to every +Irishman who would show mercy and faith, was his motto; but to +invaders, no mercy. Ireland was England's vulnerable point; it +might be some day her ruin; a terrible example must be made of +those who dare to touch the sore. Rather pardon the Spaniards for +landing in the Thames than in Ireland!"--till Lord Grey became much +excited, and turning as a last hope to Raleigh, asked his opinion: +but Raleigh's silver tongue was that day not on the side of +indulgence. He skilfully recapitulated the arguments of his +fellow-captains, improving them as he went on, till each worthy +soldier was surprised to find himself so much wiser a man than he +had thought; and finished by one of his rapid and passionate +perorations upon his favorite theme--the West Indian cruelties of +the Spaniards, ". . . by which great tracts and fair countries are +now utterly stripped of inhabitants by heavy bondage and torments +unspeakable. Oh, witless Islanders!" said he, apostrophizing the +Irish, "would to Heaven that you were here to listen to me! What +other fate awaits you, if this viper, which you are so ready to +take into your bosom, should be warmed to life, but to groan like +the Indians, slaves to the Spaniard; but to perish like the +Indians, by heavy burdens, cruel chains, plunder and ravishment; +scourged, racked, roasted, stabbed, sawn in sunder, cast to feed +the dogs, as simple and more righteous peoples have perished ere +now by millions? And what else, I say, had been the fate of +Ireland had this invasion prospered, which God has now, by our weak +hands, confounded and brought to naught? Shall we then answer it, +my lord, either to our conscience, our God, or our queen, if we +shall set loose men (not one of whom, I warrant, but is stained +with murder on murder) to go and fill up the cup of their iniquity +among these silly sheep? Have not their native wolves, their +barbarous chieftains, shorn, peeled, and slaughtered them enough +already, but we must add this pack of foreign wolves to the number +of their tormentors, and fit the Desmond with a body-guard of +seven, yea, seven hundred devils worse than himself? Nay, rather +let us do violence to our own human nature, and show ourselves in +appearance rigorous, that we may be kind indeed; lest while we +presume to be over-merciful to the guilty, we prove ourselves to be +over-cruel to the innocent." + +"Captain Raleigh, Captain Raleigh," said Lord Grey, "the blood of +these men be on your head!" + +"It ill befits your lordship," answered Raleigh, "to throw on your +subordinates the blame of that which your reason approves as +necessary." + +"I should have thought, sir, that one so noted for ambition as +Captain Raleigh would have been more careful of the favor of that +queen for whose smiles he is said to be so longing a competitor. +If you have not yet been of her counsels, sir, I can tell you you +are not likely to be. She will be furious when she hears of this +cruelty." + +Lord Grey had lost his temper: but Raleigh kept his, and answered +quietly-- + +"Her majesty shall at least not find me among the number of those +who prefer her favor to her safety, and abuse to their own profit +that over-tenderness and mercifulness of heart which is the only +blemish (and yet, rather like a mole on a fair cheek, but a new +beauty) in her manifold perfections." + +At this juncture Cary returned. + +"My lord," said he, in some confusion, "I have proposed your terms; +but the captains still entreat for some mitigation; and, to tell +you truth, one of them has insisted on accompanying me hither to +plead his cause himself." + +"I will not see him, sir. Who is he?" + +"His name is Sebastian of Modena, my lord." + +"Sebastian of Modena? What think you, gentlemen? May we make an +exception in favor of so famous a soldier?" + +"So villainous a cut-throat," said Zouch to Raleigh, under his +breath. + +All, however, were for speaking with so famous a man; and in came, +in full armor, a short, bull-necked Italian, evidently of immense +strength, of the true Caesar Borgia stamp. + +"Will you please to be seated, sir?" said Lord Grey, coldly. + +"I kiss your hands, most illustrious: but I do not sit in an +enemy's camp. Ha, my friend Zouch! How has your signoria fared +since we fought side by side at Lepanto? So you too are here, +sitting in council on the hanging of me." + +"What is your errand, sir? Time is short," said the lord deputy. + +"Corpo di Bacco! It has been long enough all the morning, for my +rascals have kept me and my friend the Colonel Hercules (whom you +know, doubtless) prisoners in our tents at the pike's point. My +lord deputy, I have but a few words. I shall thank you to take +every soldier in the fort--Italian, Spaniard, and Irish--and hang +them up as high as Haman, for a set of mutinous cowards, with the +arch-traitor San Josepho at their head." + +"I am obliged to you for your offer, sir, and shall deliberate +presently as to whether I shall not accept it." + +"But as for us captains, really your excellency must consider that +we are gentlemen born, and give us either buena querra, as the +Spaniards say, or a fair chance for life; and so to my business." + +"Stay, sir. Answer this first. Have you or yours any commission +to show either from the King of Spain or any other potentate?" + +"Never a one but the cause of Heaven and our own swords. And with +them, my lord, we are ready to meet any gentlemen of your camp, man +to man, with our swords only, half-way between your leaguer and +ours; and I doubt not that your lordship will see fair play. Will +any gentleman accept so civil an offer? There sits a tall youth in +that corner who would suit me very well. Will any fit my gallant +comrades with half-an-hour's punto and stoccado?" + +There was a silence, all looking at the lord deputy, whose eyes +were kindling in a very ugly way. + +"No answer? Then I must proceed to exhortation. So! Will that be +sufficient?" + +And walking composedly across the tent, the fearless ruffian +quietly stooped down, and smote Amyas Leigh full in the face. + +Up sprang Amyas, heedless of all the august assembly, and with a +single buffet felled him to the earth. + +"Excellent!" said he, rising unabashed. "I can always trust my +instinct. I knew the moment I saw him that he was a cavalier worth +letting blood. Now, sir, your sword and harness, and I am at your +service outside!" + +The solemn and sententious Englishmen were altogether taken aback +by the Italian's impudence; but Zouch settled the matter. + +"Most noble captain, will you be pleased to recollect a certain +little occurrence at Messina, in the year 1575? For if you do not, +I do; and beg to inform this gentleman that you are unworthy of his +sword, and had you, unluckily for you, been an Englishman, would +have found the fashions of our country so different from your own +that you would have been then hanged, sir, and probably may be so +still." + +The Italian's sword flashed out in a moment: but Lord Grey +interfered. + +"No fighting here, gentlemen. That may wait; and, what is more, +shall wait till--Strike their swords down, Raleigh, Mackworth! +Strike their swords down! Colonel Sebastian, you will be pleased +to return as you came, in safety, having lost nothing, as (I +frankly tell you) you have gained nothing, by your wild bearing +here. We shall proceed to deliberate on your fate." + +"I trust, my lord," said Amyas, "that you will spare this +braggart's life, at least for a day or two. For in spite of +Captain Zouch's warning, I must have to do with him yet, or my +cheek will rise up in judgment against me at the last day." + +"Well spoken, lad," said the colonel, as he swung out. "So! worth +a reprieve, by this sword, to have one more rapier-rattle before +the gallows! Then I take back no further answer, my lord deputy? +Not even our swords, our virgin blades, signor, the soldier's +cherished bride? Shall we go forth weeping widowers, and leave to +strange embrace the lovely steel?" + +"None, sir, by heaven!" said he, waxing wroth. "Do you come +hither, pirates as you are, to dictate terms upon a foreign soil? +Is it not enough to have set up here the Spanish flag, and claimed +the land of Ireland as the Pope's gift to the Spaniard; violated +the laws of nations, and the solemn treaties of princes, under +color of a mad superstition?" + +"Superstition, my lord? Nothing less. Believe a philosopher who +has not said a pater or an ave for seven years past at least. Quod +tango credo, is my motto; and though I am bound to say, under pain +of the Inquisition, that the most holy Father the Pope has given +this land of Ireland to his most Catholic Majesty the King of +Spain, Queen Elizabeth having forfeited her title to it by heresy,-- +why, my lord, I believe it as little as you do. I believe that +Ireland would have been mine, if I had won it; I believe +religiously that it is not mine, now I have lost it. What is, is, +and a fig for priests; to-day to thee, to-morrow to me. Addio!" +And out he swung + +"There goes a most gallant rascal," said the lord deputy. + +"And a most rascally gallant," said Zouch. "The murder of his own +page, of which I gave him a remembrancer, is among the least of his +sins." + +"And now, Captain Raleigh," said Lord Grey, as you have been so +earnest in preaching this butchery, I have a right to ask none but +you to practise it." + +Raleigh bit his lip, and replied by the "quip courteous--" + +"I am at least a man, my lord, who thinks it shame to allow others +to do that which I dare not do myself." + +Lord Grey might probably have returned "the countercheck +quarrelsome," had not Mackworth risen-- + +"And I, my lord, being in that matter at least one of Captain +Raleigh's kidney, will just go with him to see that he takes no +harm by being bold enough to carry out an ugly business, and +serving these rascals as their countrymen served Mr. Oxenham." + +"I bid you good morning, then, gentlemen, though I cannot bid you +God speed," said Lord Grey; and sitting down again, covered his +face with his hands, and, to the astonishment of all bystanders, +burst, say the chroniclers, into tears. + +Amyas followed Raleigh out. The latter was pale, but determined, +and very wroth against the deputy. + +"Does the man take me for a hangman," said he, "that he speaks to +me thus? But such is the way of the great. If you neglect your +duty, they haul you over the coals; if you do it, you must do it on +your own responsibility. Farewell, Amyas; you will not shrink from +me as a butcher when I return?" + +"God forbid! But how will you do it?" + +"March one company in, and drive them forth, and let the other cut +them down as they come out.--Pah!" + + . . . . . . . + +It was done. Right or wrong, it was done. The shrieks and curses +had died away, and the Fort del Oro was a red shambles, which the +soldiers were trying to cover from the sight of heaven and earth, +by dragging the bodies into the ditch, and covering them with the +ruins of the rampart; while the Irish, who had beheld from the +woods that awful warning, fled trembling into the deepest recesses +of the forest. It was done; and it never needed to be done again. +The hint was severe, but it was sufficient. Many years passed +before a Spaniard set foot again in Ireland. + +The Spanish and Italian officers were spared, and Amyas had Don +Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto duly adjudged to him, as +his prize by right of war. He was, of course, ready enough to +fight Sebastian of Modena: but Lord Grey forbade the duel: blood +enough had been shed already. The next question was, where to +bestow Don Guzman till his ransom should arrive; and as Amyas could +not well deliver the gallant Don into the safe custody of Mrs. +Leigh at Burrough, and still less into that of Frank at Court, he +was fain to write to Sir Richard Grenville, and ask his advice, and +in the meanwhile keep the Spaniard with him upon parole, which he +frankly gave,--saying that as for running away, he had nowhere to +run to; and as for joining the Irish he had no mind to turn pig; +and Amyas found him, as shall be hereafter told, pleasant company +enough. But one morning Raleigh entered-- + +"I have done you a good turn, Leigh, if you think it one. I have +talked St. Leger into making you my lieutenant, and giving you the +custody of a right pleasant hermitage--some castle Shackatory or +other in the midst of a big bog, where time will run swift and +smooth with you, between hunting wild Irish, snaring snipes, and +drinking yourself drunk with usquebaugh over a turf fire." + +"I'll go," quoth Amyas; "anything for work." So he went and took +possession of his lieutenancy and his black robber tower, and there +passed the rest of the winter, fighting or hunting all day, and +chatting and reading all the evening, with Senor Don Guzman, who, +like a good soldier of fortune, made himself thoroughly at home, +and a general favorite with the soldiers. + +At first, indeed, his Spanish pride and stateliness, and Amyas's +English taciturnity, kept the two apart somewhat; but they soon +began, if not to trust, at least to like each other; and Don Guzman +told Amyas, bit by bit, who he was, of what an ancient house, and +of what a poor one; and laughed over the very small chance of his +ransom being raised, and the certainty that, at least, it could not +come for a couple of years, seeing that the only De Soto who had a +penny to spare was a fat old dean at St. Yago de Leon, in the +Caracas, at which place Don Guzman had been born. This of course +led to much talk about the West Indies, and the Don was as much +interested to find that Amyas had been one of Drake's world-famous +crew, as Amyas was to find that his captive was the grandson of +none other than that most terrible of man-hunters, Don Ferdinando +de Soto, the conqueror of Florida, of whom Amyas had read many a +time in Las Casas, "as the captain of tyrants, the notoriousest and +most experimented amongst them that have done the most hurts, +mischiefs, and destructions in many realms." And often enough his +blood boiled, and he had much ado to recollect that the speaker was +his guest, as Don Guzman chatted away about his grandfather's hunts +of innocent women and children, murders of caciques and burnings +alive of guides, "pour encourager les autres," without, seemingly, +the least feeling that the victims were human beings or subjects +for human pity; anything, in short, but heathen dogs, enemies of +God, servants of the devil, to be used by the Christian when he +needed, and when not needed killed down as cumberers of the ground. +But Don Guzman was a most finished gentleman nevertheless; and told +many a good story of the Indies, and told it well; and over and +above his stories, he had among his baggage two books,--the one +Antonio Galvano's "Discoveries of the World," a mine of winter +evening amusement to Amyas; and the other, a manuscript book, +which, perhaps, it had been well for Amyas had he never seen. For +it was none other than a sort of rough journal which Don Guzman had +kept as a lad, when he went down with the Adelantado Gonzales +Ximenes de Casada, from Peru to the River of Amazons, to look for +the golden country of El Dorado, and the city of Manoa, which +stands in the midst of the White Lake, and equals or surpasses in +glory even the palace of the Inca Huaynacapac; "all the vessels of +whose house and kitchen are of gold and silver, and in his wardrobe +statues of gold which seemed giants, and figures in proportion and +bigness of all the beasts, birds, trees, and herbs of the earth, +and the fishes of the water; and ropes, budgets, chests, and +troughs of gold: yea, and a garden of pleasure in an Island near +Puna, where they went to recreate themselves when they would take +the air of the sea, which had all kind of garden herbs, flowers, +and trees of gold and silver of an invention and magnificence till +then never seen." + +Now the greater part of this treasure (and be it remembered that +these wonders were hardly exaggerated, and that there were many men +alive then who had beheld them, as they had worse things, "with +their corporal and mortal eyes") was hidden by the Indians when +Pizarro conquered Peru and slew Atahuallpa, son of Huaynacapac; at +whose death, it was said, one of the Inca's younger brothers fled +out of Peru, and taking with him a great army, vanquished all that +tract which lieth between the great Rivers of Amazons and Baraquan, +otherwise called Maranon and Orenoque. + +There he sits to this day, beside the golden lake, in the golden +city, which is in breadth a three days' journey, covered, he and +his court, with gold dust from head to foot, waiting for the +fulfilment of the ancient prophecy which was written in the temple +of Caxamarca, where his ancestors worshipped of old; that heroes +shall come out of the West, and lead him back across the forests to +the kingdom of Peru, and restore him to the glory of his +forefathers. + +Golden phantom! so possible, so probable, to imaginations which +were yet reeling before the actual and veritable prodigies of Peru, +Mexico, and the East Indies. Golden phantom! which has cost +already the lives of thousands, and shall yet cost more; from Diego +de Ordas, and Juan Corteso, and many another, who went forth on the +quest by the Andes, and by the Orinoco, and by the Amazons; Antonio +Sedenno, with his ghastly caravan of manacled Indians, "on whose +dead carcasses the tigers being fleshed, assaulted the Spaniards;" +Augustine Delgado, who "came to a cacique, who entertained him with +all kindness, and gave him beside much gold and slaves, three +nymphs very beautiful, which bare the names of three provinces, +Guanba, Gotoguane, and Maiarare. To requite which manifold +courtesies, he carried off, not only all the gold, but all the +Indians he could seize, and took them in irons to Cubagua, and sold +them for slaves; after which, Delgado was shot in the eye by an +Indian, of which hurt he died;" Pedro d'Orsua, who found the +cinnamon forests of Loxas, "whom his men murdered, and afterwards +beheaded Lady Anes his wife, who forsook not her lord in all his +travels unto death," and many another, who has vanished with +valiant comrades at his back into the green gulfs of the primaeval +forests, never to emerge again. Golden phantom! man-devouring, +whose maw is never satiate with souls of heroes; fatal to Spain, +more fatal still to England upon that shameful day, when the last +of Elizabeth's heroes shall lay down his head upon the block, +nominally for having believed what all around him believed likewise +till they found it expedient to deny it in order to curry favor +with the crowned cur who betrayed him, really because he alone +dared to make one last protest in behalf of liberty and +Protestantism against the incoming night of tyranny and +superstition. Little thought Amyas, as he devoured the pages of +that manuscript, that he was laying a snare for the life of the man +whom, next to Drake and Grenville, he most admired on earth. + +But Don Guzman, on the other hand, seemed to have an instinct that +that book might be a fatal gift to his captor; for one day ere +Amyas had looked into it, he began questioning the Don about El +Dorado. Whereon Don Guzman replied with one of those smiles of +his, which (as Amyas said afterwards) was so abominably like a +sneer, that he had often hard work to keep his hands off the man-- + +"Ah! You have been eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, +senor? Well; if you have any ambition to follow many another brave +captain to the pit, I know no shorter or easier path than is +contained in that little book." + +"I have never opened your book," said Amyas; "your private +manuscripts are no concern of mine: but my man who recovered your +baggage read part of it, knowing no better; and now you are at +liberty to tell me as little as you like." + +The "man," it should be said, was none other than Salvation Yeo, +who had attached himself by this time inseparably to Amyas, in +quality of body-guard: and, as was common enough in those days, had +turned soldier for the nonce, and taken under his patronage two or +three rusty bases (swivels) and falconets (four-pounders), which +grinned harmlessly enough from the tower top across the cheerful +expanse of bog. + +Amyas once asked him, how he reconciled this Irish sojourn with his +vow to find his little maid? Yeo shook his head. + +"I can't tell, sir, but there's something that makes me always to +think of you when I think of her; and that's often enough, the Lord +knows. Whether it is that I ben't to find the dear without your +help; or whether it is your pleasant face puts me in mind of hers; +or what, I can't tell; but don't you part me from you, sir, for I'm +like Ruth, and where you lodge I lodge; and where you go I go; and +where you die--though I shall die many a year first--there I'll +die, I hope and trust; for I can't abear you out of my sight; and +that's the truth thereof." + +So Yeo remained with Amyas, while Cary went elsewhere with Sir +Warham St. Leger, and the two friends met seldom for many months; +so that Amyas's only companion was Don Guzman, who, as he grew more +familiar, and more careless about what he said and did in his +captor's presence, often puzzled and scandalized him by his +waywardness. Fits of deep melancholy alternated with bursts of +Spanish boastfulness, utterly astonishing to the modest and sober- +minded Englishman, who would often have fancied him inspired by +usquebaugh, had he not had ocular proof of his extreme +abstemiousness. + +"Miserable?" said he, one night in one of these fits. "And have I +not a right to be miserable? Why should I not curse the virgin and +all the saints, and die? I have not a friend, not a ducat on +earth; not even a sword--hell and the furies! It was my all: the +only bequest I ever had from my father, and I lived by it and +earned by it. Two years ago I had as pretty a sum of gold as +cavalier could wish--and now!"-- + +"What is become of it, then? I cannot hear that our men plundered +you of any." + +"Your men? No, senor! What fifty men dared not have done, one +woman did! a painted, patched, fucused, periwigged, bolstered, +Charybdis, cannibal, Megaera, Lamia! Why did I ever go near that +cursed Naples, the common sewer of Europe? whose women, I believe, +would be swallowed up by Vesuvius to-morrow, if it were not that +Belphegor is afraid of their making the pit itself too hot to hold +him. Well, sir, she had all of mine and more; and when all was +gone in wine and dice, woodcocks' brains and ortolans' tongues, I +met the witch walking with another man. I had a sword and a +dagger; I gave him the first (though the dog fought well enough, to +give him his due), and her the second; left them lying across each +other, and fled for my life,--and here I am! after twenty years of +fighting, from the Levant to the Orellana--for I began ere I had a +hair on my chin--and this is the end!--No, it is not! I'll have +that El Dorado yet! the Adelantado made Berreo, when he gave him +his daughter, swear that he would hunt for it, through life and +death.--We'll see who finds it first, he or I. He's a bungler; +Orsua was a bungler--Pooh! Cortes and Pizarro? we'll see whether +there are not as good Castilians as they left still. I can do it, +senor. I know a track, a plan; over the Llanos is the road; and +I'll be Emperor of Manoa yet--possess the jewels of all the Incas; +and gold, gold! Pizarro was a beggar to what I will be!" + +Conceive, sir, he broke forth during another of these peacock fits, +as Amyas and he were riding along the hill-side; "conceive! with +forty chosen cavaliers (what need of more?) I present myself before +the golden king, trembling amid his myriad guards at the new +miracle of the mailed centaurs of the West; and without +dismounting, I approach his throne, lift the crucifix which hangs +around my neck, and pressing it to my lips, present it for the +adoration of the idolater, and give him his alternative; that which +Gayferos and the Cid, my ancestors, offered the Soldan and the +Moor--baptism or death! He hesitates; perhaps smiles scornfully +upon my little band; I answer him by deeds, as Don Ferdinando, my +illustrious grandfather, answered Atahuallpa at Peru, in sight of +all his court and camp." + +"With your lance-point, as Gayferos did the Soldan?" asked Amyas, +amused. + +"No, sir; persuasion first, for the salvation of a soul is at +stake. Not with the lance-point, but the spur, sir, thus!"-- + +And striking his heels into his horse's flanks, he darted off at +full speed. + +"The Spanish traitor!" shouted Yeo. "He's going to escape! Shall +we shoot, sir? Shall we shoot?" + +"For Heaven's sake, no!" said Amyas, looking somewhat blank, +nevertheless, for he much doubted whether the whole was not a ruse +on the part of the Spaniard, and he knew how impossible it was for +his fifteen stone of flesh to give chase to the Spaniard's twelve. +But he was soon reassured; the Spaniard wheeled round towards him, +and began to put the rough hackney through all the paces of the +manege with a grace and skill which won applause from the +beholders. + +"Thus!" he shouted, waving his hand to Amyas, between his curvets +and caracoles, "did my illustrious grandfather exhibit to the +Paynim emperor the prowess of a Castilian cavalier! Thus!--and +thus!--and thus, at last, he dashed up to his very feet, as I to +yours, and bespattering that unbaptized visage with his Christian +bridle foam, pulled up his charger on his haunches, thus!" + +And (as was to be expected from a blown Irish garron on a peaty +Irish hill-side) down went the hapless hackney on his tail, away +went his heels a yard in front of him, and ere Don Guzman could +"avoid his selle," horse and man rolled over into neighboring bog- +hole. + +"After pride comes a fall," quoth Yeo with unmoved visage, as he +lugged him out. + +"And what would you do with the emperor at last?" asked Amyas when +the Don had been scrubbed somewhat clean with a bunch of rushes. +"Kill him, as your grandfather did Atahuallpa?" + +"My grandfather," answered the Spaniard, indignantly, "was one of +those who, to their eternal honor, protested to the last against +that most cruel and unknightly massacre. He could be terrible to +the heathen; but he kept his plighted word, sir, and taught me to +keep mine, as you have seen to-day." + +"I have, senor," said Amyas. "You might have given us the slip +easily enough just now, and did not. Pardon me, if I have offended +you." + +The Spaniard (who, after all, was cross principally with himself +and the "unlucky mare's son," as the old romances have it, which +had played him so scurvy a trick) was all smiles again forthwith; +and Amyas, as they chatted on, could not help asking him next-- + +"I wonder why you are so frank about your own intentions to an +enemy like me, who will surely forestall you if he can." + +"Sir, a Spaniard needs no concealment, and fears no rivalry. He is +the soldier of the Cross, and in it he conquers, like Constantine +of old. Not that you English are not very heroes; but you have +not, sir, and you cannot have, who have forsworn our Lady and the +choir of saints, the same divine protection, the same celestial +mission, which enables the Catholic cavalier single-handed to chase +a thousand Paynims." + +And Don Guzman crossed himself devoutly, and muttered half-a-dozen +Ave Marias in succession, while Amyas rode silently by his side, +utterly puzzled at this strange compound of shrewdness with +fanaticism, of perfect high-breeding with a boastfulness which in +an Englishman would have been the sure mark of vulgarity. + +At last came a letter from Sir Richard Grenville, complimenting +Amyas on his success and promotion, bearing a long and courtly +message to Don Guzman (whom Grenville had known when he was in the +Mediterranean, at the battle of Lepanto), and offering to receive +him as his own guest at Bideford, till his ransom should arrive; a +proposition which the Spaniard (who of course was getting +sufficiently tired of the Irish bogs) could not but gladly accept; +and one of Winter's ships, returning to England in the spring of +1581, delivered duly at the quay of Bideford the body of Don Guzman +Maria Magdalena. Raleigh, after forming for that summer one of the +triumvirate by which Munster was governed after Ormond's departure, +at last got his wish and departed for England and the Court; and +Amyas was left alone with the snipes and yellow mantles for two +more weary years. + + + +CHAPTER X + +HOW THE MAYOR OF BIDEFORD BAITED HIS HOOK WITH HIS OWN FLESH + + + "And therewith he blent, and cried ha! + As though he had been stricken to the harte." + + Palamon and Arcite. + + +So it befell to Chaucer's knight in prison; and so it befell also +to Don Guzman; and it befell on this wise. + +He settled down quietly enough at Bideford on his parole, in better +quarters than he had occupied for many a day, and took things as +they came, like a true soldier of fortune; till, after he had been +with Grenville hardly a month, old Salterne the Mayor came to +supper. + +Now Don Guzman, however much he might be puzzled at first at our +strange English ways of asking burghers and such low-bred folk to +eat and drink above the salt, in the company of noble persons, was +quite gentleman enough to know that Richard Grenville was gentleman +enough to do only what was correct, and according to the customs +and proprieties. So after shrugging the shoulders of his spirit, +he submitted to eat and drink at the same board with a tradesman +who sat at a desk, and made up ledgers, and took apprentices; and +hearing him talk with Grenville neither unwisely nor in a vulgar +fashion, actually before the evening was out condescended to +exchange words with him himself. Whereon he found him a very +prudent and courteous person, quite aware of the Spaniard's +superior rank, and making him feel in every sentence that he was +aware thereof; and yet holding his own opinion, and asserting his +own rights as a wise elder in a fashion which the Spaniard had only +seen before among the merchant princes of Genoa and Venice. + +At the end of supper, Salterne asked Grenville to do his humble +roof the honor, etc. etc., of supping with him the next evening, +and then turning to the Don, said quite frankly, that he knew how +great a condescension it would be on the part of a nobleman of +Spain to sit at the board of a simple merchant: but that if the +Spaniard deigned to do him such a favor, he would find that the +cheer was fit enough for any rank, whatsoever the company might be; +which invitation Don Guzman, being on the whole glad enough of +anything to amuse him, graciously condescended to accept, and +gained thereby an excellent supper, and, if he had chosen to drink +it, much good wine. + +Now Mr. Salterne was, of course, as a wise merchant, as ready as +any man for an adventure to foreign parts, as was afterwards proved +by his great exertions in the settlement of Virginia; and he was, +therefore, equally ready to rack the brains of any guest whom he +suspected of knowing anything concerning strange lands; and so he +thought no shame, first to try to loose his guest's tongue by much +good sack, and next, to ask him prudent and well-concocted +questions concerning the Spanish Main, Peru, the Moluccas, China, +the Indies, and all parts. + +The first of which schemes failed; for the Spaniard was as +abstemious as any monk, and drank little but water; the second +succeeded not over well, for the Spaniard was as cunning as any +fox, and answered little but wind. + +In the midst of which tongue-fence in came the Rose of Torridge, +looking as beautiful as usual; and hearing what they were upon, +added, artlessly enough, her questions to her father's: to her Don +Guzman could not but answer; and without revealing any very +important commercial secrets, gave his host and his host's daughter +a very amusing evening. + +Now little Eros, though spirits like Frank Leigh's may choose to +call him (as, perhaps, he really is to them) the eldest of the +gods, and the son of Jove and Venus, yet is reported by other +equally good authorities, as Burton has set forth in his "Anatomy +of Melancholy," to be after all only the child of idleness and +fulness of bread. To which scandalous calumny the thoughts of Don +Guzman's heart gave at least a certain color; for he being idle (as +captives needs must be), and also full of bread (for Sir Richard +kept a very good table), had already looked round for mere +amusement's sake after some one with whom to fall in love. Lady +Grenville, as nearest, was, I blush to say, thought of first; but +the Spaniard was a man of honor, and Sir Richard his host; so he +put away from his mind (with a self-denial on which he plumed +himself much) the pleasure of a chase equally exciting to his pride +and his love of danger. As for the sinfulness of the said chase, +he of course thought no more of that than other Southern Europeans +did then, or than (I blush again to have to say it) the English did +afterwards in the days of the Stuarts. Nevertheless, he had put +Lady Grenville out of his mind; and so left room to take Rose +Salterne into it, not with any distinct purpose of wronging her: +but, as I said before, half to amuse himself, and half, too, +because he could not help it. For there was an innocent freshness +about the Rose of Torridge, fond as she was of being admired, which +was new to him and most attractive. "The train of the peacock," as +he said to himself, "and yet the heart of the dove," made so +charming a combination, that if he could have persuaded her to love +no one but him, perhaps he might become fool enough to love no one +but her. And at that thought he was seized with a very panic of +prudence, and resolved to keep out of her way; and yet the days ran +slowly, and Lady Grenville when at home was stupid enough to talk +and think about nothing but her husband; and when she went to Stow, +and left the Don alone in one corner of the great house at +Bideford, what could he do but lounge down to the butt-gardens to +show off his fine black cloak and fine black feather, see the +shooting, have a game or two of rackets with the youngsters, a game +or two of bowls with the elders, and get himself invited home to +supper by Mr. Salterne? + +And there, of course, he had it all his own way, and ruled the +roast (which he was fond enough of doing) right royally, not only +on account of his rank, but because he had something to say worth +hearing, as a travelled man. For those times were the day-dawn of +English commerce; and not a merchant in Bideford, or in all +England, but had his imagination all on fire with projects of +discoveries, companies, privileges, patents, and settlements; with +gallant rivalry of the brave adventures of Sir Edward Osborne and +his new London Company of Turkey Merchants; with the privileges +just granted by the Sultan Murad Khan to the English; with the +worthy Levant voyages of Roger Bodenham in the great bark Aucher, +and of John Fox, and Lawrence Aldersey, and John Rule; and with +hopes from the vast door for Mediterranean trade, which the +crushing of the Venetian power at Famagusta in Cyprus, and the +alliance made between Elizabeth and the Grand Turk, had just thrown +open. So not a word could fall from the Spaniard about the +Mediterranean but took root at once in right fertile soil. +Besides, Master Edmund Hogan had been on a successful embassy to +the Emperor of Morocco; John Hawkins and George Fenner had been to +Guinea (and with the latter Mr. Walter Wren, a Bideford man), and +had traded there for musk and civet, gold and grain; and African +news was becoming almost as valuable as West Indian. Moreover, but +two months before had gone from London Captain Hare in the bark +Minion, for Brazil, and a company of adventurers with him, with +Sheffield hardware, and "Devonshire and Northern kersies," hollands +and "Manchester cottons," for there was a great opening for English +goods by the help of one John Whithall, who had married a Spanish +heiress, and had an ingenio and slaves in Santos. (Don't smile, +reader, or despise the day of small things, and those who sowed the +seed whereof you reap the mighty harvest.) In the meanwhile, Drake +had proved not merely the possibility of plundering the American +coasts, but of establishing an East Indian trade; Frobisher and +Davis, worthy forefathers of our Parrys and Franklins, had begun to +bore their way upward through the Northern ice, in search of a +passage to China which should avoid the dangers of the Spanish +seas; and Anthony Jenkinson, not the least of English travellers, +had, in six-and-twenty years of travel in behalf of the Muscovite +Company, penetrated into not merely Russia and the Levant, but +Persia and Armenia, Bokhara, Tartary, Siberia, and those waste +Arctic shores where, thirty years before, the brave Sir Hugh +Willoughby, + + + "In Arzina caught, + Perished with all his crew." + + +Everywhere English commerce, under the genial sunshine of +Elizabeth's wise rule, was spreading and taking root; and as Don +Guzman talked with his new friends, he soon saw (for he was shrewd +enough) that they belonged to a race which must be exterminated if +Spain intended to become (as she did intend) the mistress of the +world; and that it was not enough for Spain to have seized in the +Pope's name the whole new world, and claimed the exclusive right to +sail the seas of America; not enough to have crushed the +Hollanders; not enough to have degraded the Venetians into her +bankers, and the Genoese into her mercenaries; not enough to have +incorporated into herself, with the kingdom of Portugal, the whole +East Indian trade of Portugal, while these fierce islanders +remained to assert, with cunning policy and texts of Scripture, +and, if they failed, with sharp shot and cold steel, free seas and +free trade for all the nations upon earth. He saw it, and his +countrymen saw it too: and therefore the Spanish Armada came: but +of that hereafter. And Don Guzman knew also, by hard experience, +that these same islanders, who sat in Salterne's parlor, talking +broad Devon through their noses, were no mere counters of money and +hucksters of goods: but men who, though they thoroughly hated +fighting, and loved making money instead, could fight, upon +occasion, after a very dogged and terrible fashion, as well as the +bluest blood in Spain; and who sent out their merchant ships armed +up to the teeth, and filled with men who had been trained from +childhood to use those arms, and had orders to use them without +mercy if either Spaniard, Portugal, or other created being dared to +stop their money-making. And one evening he waxed quite mad, when, +after having civilly enough hinted that if Englishmen came where +they had no right to come, they might find themselves sent back +again, he was answered by a volley of-- + +"We'll see that, sir." + +"Depends on who says 'No right.'" + +"You found might right," said another, "when you claimed the Indian +seas; we may find right might when we try them." + +"Try them, then, gentlemen, by all means, if it shall so please +your worships; and find the sacred flag of Spain as invincible as +ever was the Roman eagle." + +"We have, sir. Did you ever hear of Francis Drake?" + +"Or of George Fenner and the Portugals at the Azores, one against +seven?" + +"Or of John Hawkins, at St. Juan d'Ulloa?" + +"You are insolent burghers," said Don Guzman, and rose to go. + +"Sir," said old Salterne, "as you say, we are burghers and plain +men, and some of us have forgotten ourselves a little, perhaps; we +must beg you to forgive our want of manners, and to put it down to +the strength of my wine; for insolent we never meant to be, +especially to a noble gentleman and a foreigner." + +But the Don would not be pacified; and walked out, calling himself +an ass and a blinkard for having demeaned himself to such a +company, forgetting that he had brought it on himself. + +Salterne (prompted by the great devil Mammon) came up to him next +day, and begged pardon again; promising, moreover, that none of +those who had been so rude should be henceforth asked to meet him, +if he would deign to honor his house once more. And the Don +actually was appeased, and went there the very next evening, +sneering at himself the whole time for going. + +"Fool that I am! that girl has bewitched me, I believe. Go I must, +and eat my share of dirt, for her sake." + +So he went; and, cunningly enough, hinted to old Salterne that he +had taken such a fancy to him, and felt so bound by his courtesy +and hospitality, that he might not object to tell him things which +he would not mention to every one; for that the Spaniards were not +jealous of single traders, but of any general attempt to deprive +them of their hard-earned wealth: that, however, in the meanwhile, +there were plenty of opportunities for one man here and there to +enrich himself, etc. + +Old Salterne, shrewd as he was, had his weak point, and the +Spaniard had touched it; and delighted at this opportunity of +learning the mysteries of the Spanish monopoly, he often actually +set Rose on to draw out the Don, without a fear (so blind does +money make men) lest she might be herself drawn in. For, first, he +held it as impossible that she would think of marrying a Popish +Spaniard as of marrying the man in the moon; and, next, as +impossible that he would think of marrying a burgher's daughter as +of marrying a negress; and trusted that the religion of the one, +and the family pride of the other, would keep them as separate as +beings of two different species. And as for love without marriage, +if such a possibility ever crossed him, the thought was rendered +absurd; on Rose's part by her virtue, on which the old roan (and +rightly) would have staked every farthing he had on earth; and on +the Don's part, by a certain human fondness for the continuity of +the carotid artery and the parts adjoining, for which (and that not +altogether justly, seeing that Don Guzman cared as little for his +own life as he did for his neighbor's) Mr. Salterne gave him +credit. And so it came to pass, that for weeks and months the +merchant's house was the Don's favorite haunt, and he saw the Rose +of Torridge daily, and the Rose of Torridge heard him. + +And as for her, poor child, she had never seen such a man. He had, +or seemed to have, all the high-bred grace of Frank, and yet he was +cast in a manlier mould; he had just enough of his nation's proud +self-assertion to make a woman bow before him as before a superior, +and yet tact enough to let it very seldom degenerate into that +boastfulness of which the Spaniards were then so often and so +justly accused. He had marvels to tell by flood and field as many +and more than Amyas; and he told them with a grace and an eloquence +of which modest, simple, old Amyas possessed nothing. Besides, he +was on the spot, and the Leighs were not, nor indeed were any of +her old lovers; and what could she do but amuse herself with the +only person who came to hand? + +So thought, in time, more ladies than she; for the country, the +north of it at least, was all but bare just then of young gallants, +what with the Netherland wars and the Irish wars; and the Spaniard +became soon welcome at every house for many a mile round, and made +use of his welcome so freely, and received so much unwonted +attention from fair young dames, that his head might have been a +little turned, and Rose Salterne have thereby escaped, had not Sir +Richard delicately given him to understand that in spite of the +free and easy manners of English ladies, brothers were just as +jealous, and ladies' honors at least as inexpugnable, as in the +land of demureness and duennas. Don Guzman took the hint well +enough, and kept on good terms with the country gentlemen as with +their daughters; and to tell the truth, the cunning soldier of +fortune found his account in being intimate with all the ladies he +could, in order to prevent old Salterne from fancying that he had +any peculiar predilection for Mistress Rose. + +Nevertheless, Mr. Salterne's parlor being nearest to him, still +remained his most common haunt; where, while he discoursed for +hours about + + + "Antres vast and deserts idle, + And of the cannibals that each other eat, + Of Anthropophagi, and men whose heads + Do grow beneath their shoulders," + + +to the boundless satisfaction of poor Rose's fancy, he took care to +season his discourse with scraps of mercantile information, which +kept the old merchant always expectant and hankering for more, and +made it worth his while to ask the Spaniard in again and again. + +And his stories, certainly, were worth hearing. He seemed to have +been everywhere, and to have seen everything: born in Peru, and +sent home to Spain at ten years old; brought up in Italy; a soldier +in the Levant; an adventurer to the East Indies; again in America, +first in the islands, and then in Mexico. Then back again to +Spain, and thence to Rome, and thence to Ireland. Shipwrecked; +captive among savages; looking down the craters of volcanoes; +hanging about all the courts of Europe; fighting Turks, Indians, +lions, elephants, alligators, and what not? At five-and-thirty he +had seen enough for three lives, and knew how to make the best of +what he had seen. + +He had shared, as a lad, in the horrors of the memorable siege of +Famagusta, and had escaped, he hardly knew himself how, from the +hands of the victorious Turks, and from the certainty (if he +escaped being flayed alive or impaled, as most of the captive +officers were) of ending his life as a Janissary at the Sultan's +court. He had been at the Battle of the Three Kings; had seen +Stukely borne down by a hundred lances, unconquered even in death; +and had held upon his knee the head of the dying King of Portugal. + +And now, as he said to Rose one evening, what had he left on earth, +but a heart trampled as hard as the pavement? Whom had he to love? +Who loved him? He had nothing for which to live but fame: and even +that was denied to him, a prisoner in a foreign land. + +Had he no kindred, then? asked pitying Rose. + +"My two sisters are in a convent;--they had neither money nor +beauty; so they are dead to me. My brother is a Jesuit, so he is +dead to me. My father fell by the hands of Indians in Mexico; my +mother, a penniless widow, is companion, duenna--whatsoever they +may choose to call it--carrying fans and lapdogs for some princess +or other there in Seville, of no better blood than herself; and I-- +devil! I have lost even my sword--and so fares the house of De +Soto." + +Don Guzman, of course, intended to be pitied, and pitied he was +accordingly. And then he would turn the conversation, and begin +telling Italian stories, after the Italian fashion, according to +his auditory: the pathetic ones when Rose was present, the racy +ones when she was absent; so that Rose had wept over the sorrows of +Juliet and Desdemona, and over many another moving tale, long +before they were ever enacted on an English stage, and the ribs of +the Bideford worthies had shaken to many a jest which Cinthio and +Bandello's ghosts must come and make for themselves over again if +they wish them to be remembered, for I shall lend them no shove +toward immortality. + +And so on, and so on. What need of more words? Before a year was +out, Rose Salterne was far more in love with Don Guzman than he +with her; and both suspected each other's mind, though neither +hinted at the truth; she from fear, and he, to tell the truth, from +sheer Spanish pride of blood. For he soon began to find out that +he must compromise that blood by marrying the heretic burgher's +daughter, or all his labor would be thrown away. + +He had seen with much astonishment, and then practised with much +pleasure, that graceful old English fashion of saluting every lady +on the cheek at meeting, which (like the old Dutch fashion of +asking young ladies out to feasts without their mothers) used to +give such cause of brutal calumny and scandal to the coarse minds +of Romish visitors from the Continent; and he had seen, too, fuming +with jealous rage, more than one Bideford burgher, redolent of +onions, profane in that way the velvet cheek of Rose Salterne. + +So, one day, he offered his salute in like wise; but be did it when +she was alone; for something within (perhaps a guilty conscience) +whispered that it might be hardly politic to make the proffer in +her father's presence: however, to his astonishment, he received a +prompt though quiet rebuff. + +"No, sir; you should know that my cheek is not for you." + +"Why," said he, stifling his anger, "it seems free enough to every +counter-jumper in the town!" + +Was it love, or simple innocence, which made her answer +apologetically? + +"True, Don Guzman; but they are my equals." + +"And I?" + +"You are a nobleman, sir; and should recollect that you are one." + +"Well," said he, forcing a sneer, "it is a strange taste to prefer +the shopkeeper!" + +"Prefer?" said she, forcing a laugh in her turn; "it is a mere form +among us. They are nothing to me, I can tell you." + +"And I, then, less than nothing?" + +Rose turned very red; but she had nerve to answer-- + +"And why should you be anything to me? You have condescended too +much, sir, already to us, in giving us many a--many a pleasant +evening. You must condescend no further. You wrong yourself, sir, +and me too. No, sir; not a step nearer!--I will not! A salute +between equals means nothing: but between you and me--I vow, sir, +if you do not leave me this moment, I will complain to my father." + +"Do so, madam! I care as little for your father's anger, as you +for my misery." + +"Cruel!" cried Rose, trembling from head to foot. + +"I love you, madam!" cried he, throwing himself at her feet. "I +adore you! Never mention differences of rank to me more; for I +have forgotten them; forgotten all but love, all but you, madam! +My light, my lodestar, my princess, my goddess! You see where my +pride is gone; remember I plead as a suppliant, a beggar--though +one who may be one day a prince, a king! ay, and a prince now, a +very Lucifer of pride to all except to you; to you a wretch who +grovels at your feet, and cries, 'Have mercy on me, on my +loneliness, my homelessness, my friendlessness.' Ah, Rose (madam I +should have said, forgive the madness of my passion), you know not +the heart which you break. Cold Northerns, you little dream how a +Spaniard can love. Love? Worship, rather; as I worship you, +madam; as I bless the captivity which brought me the sight of you, +and the ruin which first made me rich. Is it possible, saints and +Virgin! do my own tears deceive my eyes, or are there tears, too, +in those radiant orbs?" + +"Go, sir! " cried poor Rose, recovering herself suddenly; "and let +me never see you more." And, as a last chance for life, she darted +out of the room. + +"Your slave obeys you, madam, and kisses your hands and feet +forever and a day," said the cunning Spaniard, and drawing himself +up, walked serenely out of the house; while she, poor fool, peeped +after him out of her window upstairs, and her heart sank within her +as she watched his jaunty and careless air. + +How much of that rhapsody of his was honest, how much premeditated, +I cannot tell: though she, poor child, began to fancy that it was +all a set speech, when she found that he had really taken her at +her word, and set foot no more within her father's house. So she +reproached herself for the cruelest of women; settled, that if he +died, she should be his murderess; watched for him to pass at the +window, in hopes that he might look up, and then hid herself in +terror the moment he appeared round the corner; and so forth, and +so forth:--one love-making is very like another, and has been so, I +suppose, since that first blessed marriage in Paradise, when Adam +and Eve made no love at all, but found it ready-made for them from +heaven; and really it is fiddling while Rome is burning, to spend +more pages over the sorrows of poor little Rose Salterne, while the +destinies of Europe are hanging on the marriage between Elizabeth +and Anjou: and Sir Humphrey Gilbert is stirring heaven and earth, +and Devonshire, of course, as the most important portion of the +said earth, to carry out his dormant patent, which will give to +England in due time (we are not jesting now) Newfoundland, Nova +Scotia, and Canada, and the Northern States; and to Humphrey +Gilbert himself something better than a new world, namely another +world, and a crown of glory therein which never fades away. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +HOW EUSTACE LEIGH MET THE POPE'S LEGATE + + + "Misguided, rash, intruding fool, farewell! + Thou see'st to be too busy is some danger." + + Hamlet. + + +It is the spring of 1582-3. The gray March skies are curdling hard +and high above black mountain peaks. The keen March wind is +sweeping harsh and dry across a dreary sheet of bog, still red and +yellow with the stains of winter frost. One brown knoll alone +breaks the waste, and on it a few leafless wind-clipt oaks stretch +their moss-grown arms, like giant hairy spiders, above a desolate +pool which crisps and shivers in the biting breeze, while from +beside its brink rises a mournful cry, and sweeps down, faint and +fitful, amid the howling of the wind. + +Along the brink of the bog, picking their road among crumbling +rocks and green spongy springs, a company of English soldiers are +pushing fast, clad cap-a-pie in helmet and quilted jerkin, with +arquebus on shoulder, and pikes trailing behind them; stern +steadfast men, who, two years since, were working the guns at +Smerwick fort, and have since then seen many a bloody fray, and +shall see more before they die. Two captains ride before them on +shaggy ponies, the taller in armor, stained and rusted with many a +storm and fray, the other in brilliant inlaid cuirass and helmet, +gaudy sash and plume, and sword hilt glittering with gold, a quaint +contrast enough to the meager garron which carries him and his +finery. Beside them, secured by a cord which a pikeman has +fastened to his own wrist, trots a bare-legged Irish kerne, whose +only clothing is his ragged yellow mantle, and the unkempt "glib" +of hair, through which his eyes peer out, right and left, in +mingled fear and sullenness. He is the guide of the company, in +their hunt after the rebel Baltinglas; and woe to him if he play +them false. + +"A pleasant country, truly, Captain Raleigh," says the dingy +officer to the gay one. "I wonder how, having once escaped from it +to Whitehall, you have the courage to come back and spoil that gay +suit with bog-water and mud." + +"A very pleasant country, my friend Amyas; what you say in jest, I +say in earnest." + +"Hillo! Our tastes have changed places. I am sick of it already, +as you foretold. Would Heaven that I could hear of some adventure +Westward-ho! and find these big bones swinging in a hammock once +more. Pray what has made you so suddenly in love with bog and +rock, that you come back to tramp them with us? I thought you had +spied out the nakedness of the land long ago." + +"Bog and rock? Nakedness of the land? What is needed here but +prudence and skill, justice and law? This soil, see, is fat +enough, if men were here to till it. These rocks--who knows what +minerals they may hold? I hear of gold and jewels found already in +divers parts; and Daniel, my brother Humphrey's German assayer, +assures me that these rocks are of the very same kind as those +which yield the silver in Peru. Tut, man! if her gracious majesty +would but bestow on me some few square miles of this same +wilderness, in seven years' time I would make it blossom like the +rose, by God's good help." + +"Humph! I should be more inclined to stay here, then." + +"So you shall, and be my agent, if you will, to get in my mine- +rents and my corn-rents, and my fishery-rents, eh? Could you keep +accounts, old knight of the bear's-paw?" + +"Well enough for such short reckonings as yours would be, on the +profit side at least. No, no--I'd sooner carry lime all my days +from Cauldy to Bideford, than pass another twelve-month in the land +of Ire, among the children of wrath. There is a curse upon the +face of the earth, I believe." + +"There is no curse upon it, save the old one of man's sin--'Thorns +and thistles it shall bring forth to thee.' But if you root up the +thorns and thistles, Amyas, I know no fiend who can prevent your +growing wheat instead; and if you till the ground like a man, you +plough and barrow away nature's curse, and other fables of the +schoolmen beside," added he, in that daring fashion which +afterwards obtained for him (and never did good Christian less +deserve it) the imputation of atheism. + +"It is sword and bullet, I think, that are needed here, before +plough and harrow, to clear away some of the curse. Until a few +more of these Irish lords are gone where the Desmonds are, there is +no peace for Ireland." + +"Humph! not so far wrong, I fear. And yet--Irish lords? These +very traitors are better English blood than we who hunt them down. +When Yeo here slew the Desmond the other day, he no more let out a +drop of Irish blood, than if he had slain the lord deputy himself." + +"His blood be on his own head," said Yeo, "He looked as wild a +savage as the worst of them, more shame to him; and the ancient +here had nigh cut off his arm before he told us who he was: and +then, your worship, having a price upon his head, and like to bleed +to death too--" + +"Enough, enough, good fellow," said Raleigh. "Thou hast done what +was given thee to do. Strange, Amyas, is it not? Noble Normans +sunk into savages--Hibernis ipsis hiberniores! Is there some +uncivilizing venom in the air?" + +"Some venom, at least, which makes English men traitors. But the +Irish themselves are well enough, if their tyrants would let them +be. See now, what more faithful liegeman has her majesty than the +Inchiquin, who, they say, is Prince of Themond, and should be king +of all Ireland, if every man had his right?" + +"Don't talk of rights in the land of wrongs, man. But the +Inchiquin knows well that the true Irish Esau has no worse enemy +than his supplanter, the Norman Jacob. And yet, Amyas are even +these men worse than we might be, if we had been bred up masters +over the bodies and souls of men, in some remote land where law and +order had never come? Look at this Desmond, brought up a savage +among savages, a Papist among Papists, a despot among slaves; a +thousand easy maidens deeming it honor to serve his pleasure, a +thousand wild ruffians deeming it piety to fulfil his revenge: and +let him that is without sin among us cast the first stone." + +"Ay," went on Raleigh to himself, as the conversation dropped. +"What hadst thou been, Raleigh, hadst thou been that Desmond whose +lands thou now desirest? What wilt thou be when thou hast them? +Will thy children sink downwards, as these noble barons sank? Will +the genius of tyranny and falsehood find soil within thy heart to +grow and ripen fruit? What guarantee hast thou for doing better +here than those who went before thee? And yet, cannot I do justice +and love mercy? Can I not establish plantations, build and sow, +and make the desert valleys laugh with corn? Shall I not have my +Spenser with me, to fill me with all noble thoughts, and raise my +soul to his heroic pitch? Is not this true knight-errantry, to +redeem to peace and use, and to the glory of that glorious queen +whom God has given to me, a generous soil and a more generous race? +Trustful and tenderhearted they are--none more; and if they be +fickle and passionate, will not that very softness of temper, which +makes them so easily led to evil, make them as easy to be led +towards good? Yes--here, away from courts, among a people who +should bless me as their benefactor and deliverer--what golden days +might be mine! And yet--is this but another angel's mask from that +same cunning fiend ambition's stage? And will my house be indeed +the house of God, the foundations of which are loyalty, and its +bulwarks righteousness, and not the house of fame, whose walls are +of the soap-bubble, and its floor a sea of glass mingled with fire? +I would be good and great--When will the day come when I shall be +content to be good, and yet not great, like this same simple Leigh, +toiling on by my side to do his duty, with no more thought for the +morrow than the birds of God? Greatness? I have tasted that cup +within the last twelve months; do I not know that it is sweet in +the mouth, but bitter in the belly? Greatness? And was not Essex +great, and John of Austria great, and Desmond great, whose race, +but three short years ago, had stood for ages higher than I shall +ever hope to climb--castles, and lands, and slaves by thousands, +and five hundred gentlemen of his name, who had vowed to forswear +God before they forswore him and well have they kept their vow! +And now, dead in a turf-hovel, like a coney in a burrow! Leigh, +what noise was that?" + +"An Irish howl, I fancied: but it came from off the bog; it may be +only a plover's cry." + +"Something not quite right, sir captain, to my mind," said the +ancient. "They have ugly stories here of pucks and banshees, and +what not of ghosts. There it was again, wailing just like a woman. +They say the banshee cried all night before Desmond was slain." + +"Perhaps, then, this one may be crying for Baltinglas; for his turn +is likely to come next--not that I believe in such old wives' +tales." + +"Shamus, my man," said Amyas to the guide, "do you hear that cry in +the bog?" + +The guide put on the most stolid of faces, and answered in broken +English-- + +"Shamus hear naught. Perhaps--what you call him?--fishing in ta +pool." + +"An otter, he means, and I believe he is right. Stay, no! Did you +not hear it then, Shamus? It was a woman's voice." + +"Shamus is shick in his ears ever since Christmas." + +"Shamus will go after Desmond if he lies," said Amyas. "Ancient, +we had better send a few men to see what it is; there may be a poor +soul taken by robbers, or perhaps starving to death, as I have seen +many a one." + +"And I too, poor wretches; and by no fault of their own or ours +either: but if their lords will fall to quarrelling, and then drive +each other's cattle, and waste each other's lands, sir, you know--" + +"I know," said Amyas, impatiently; "why dost not take the men, and +go?" + +"Cry you mercy, noble captain, but--I fear nothing born of woman." + +"Well, what of that?" said Amyas, with a smile. + +"But these pucks, sir. The wild Irish do say that they haunt the +pools; and they do no manner of harm, sir, when you are coming up +to them; but when you are past, sir, they jump on your back like to +apes, sir,--and who can tackle that manner of fiend?" + +"Why, then, by thine own showing, ancient," said Raleigh, "thou +may'st go and see all safely enough, and then if the puck jumps on +thee as thou comest back, just run in with him here, and I'll buy +him of thee for a noble; or thou may'st keep him in a cage, and +make money in London by showing him for a monster." + +"Good heavens forefend, Captain Raleigh! but you talk rashly! But +if I must, Captain Leigh-- + + + 'Where duty calls + To brazen walls, + How base the slave who flinches' + + +Lads, who'll follow me?" + +"Thou askest for volunteers, as if thou wert to lead a forlorn +hope. Pull away at the usquebaugh, man, and swallow Dutch courage, +since thine English is oozed away. Stay, I'll go myself." + +"And I with you," said Raleigh. "As the queen's true knight- +errant, I am bound to be behindhand in no adventure. Who knows but +we may find a wicked magician, just going to cut off the head of +some saffron-mantled princess?" and he dismounted. + +"Oh, sirs, sirs, to endanger your precious--" + +"Pooh," said Raleigh. "I wear an amulet, and have a spell of art- +magic at my tongue's end, whereby, sir ancient, neither can a ghost +see me, nor I see them. Come with us, Yeo, the Desmond-slayer, and +we will shame the devil, or be shamed by him." + +"He may shame me, sir, but he will never frighten me," quoth Yeo; +"but the bog, captains?" + +"Tut! Devonshire men, and heath-trotters born, and not know our +way over a peat moor!" + +And the three strode away. + +They splashed and scrambled for some quarter of a mile to the +knoll, while the cry became louder and louder as they neared. + +"That's neither ghost nor otter, sirs, but a true Irish howl, as +Captain Leigh said; and I'll warrant Master Shamus knew as much +long ago," said Yeo. + +And in fact, they could now hear plainly the "Ochone, Ochonorie," +of some wild woman; and scrambling over the boulders of the knoll, +in another minute came full upon her. + +She was a young girl, sluttish and unkempt, of course, but fair +enough: her only covering, as usual, was the ample yellow mantle. +There she sat upon a stone, tearing her black dishevelled hair, and +every now and then throwing up her head, and bursting into a long +mournful cry, "for all the world," as Yeo said, "like a dumb four- +footed hound, and not a Christian soul." + +On her knees lay the head of a man of middle age, in the long +soutane of a Romish priest. One look at the attitude of his limbs +told them that he was dead. + +The two paused in awe; and Raleigh's spirit, susceptible of all +poetical images, felt keenly that strange scene,--the bleak and +bitter sky, the shapeless bog, the stunted trees, the savage girl +alone with the corpse in that utter desolation. And as she bent +her head over the still face, and called wildly to him who heard +her not, and then, utterly unmindful of the intruders, sent up +again that dreary wail into the dreary air, they felt a sacred +horror, which almost made them turn away, and leave her +unquestioned: but Yeo, whose nerves were of tougher fibre, asked +quietly-- + +"Shall I go and search the fellow, captain?" + +"Better, I think," said Amyas. + +Raleigh went gently to the girl, and spoke to her in English. She +looked up at him, his armor and his plume, with wide and wondering +eyes, and then shook her head, and returned to her lamentation. + +Raleigh gently laid his hand on her arm, and lifted her up, while +Yeo and Amyas bent over the corpse. + +It was the body of a large and coarse-featured man, but wasted and +shrunk as if by famine to a very skeleton. The hands and legs were +cramped up, and the trunk bowed together, as if the man had died of +cold or famine. Yeo drew back the clothes from the thin bosom, +while the girl screamed and wept, but made no effort to stop him. + +"Ask her who it is? Yeo, you know a little Irish," said Amyas. + +He asked, but the girl made no answer. "The stubborn jade won't +tell, of course, sir. If she were but a man, I'd make her soon +enough." + +"Ask her who killed him?" + +"No one, she says; and I believe she says true, for I can find no +wound. The man has been starved, sirs, as I am a sinful man. God +help him, though he is a priest; and yet he seems full enough down +below. What's here? A big pouch, sirs, stuffed full of somewhat." + +"Hand it hither." + +The two opened the pouch; papers, papers, but no scrap of food. +Then a parchment. They unrolled it. + +"Latin," said Amyas; "you must construe, Don Scholar." + +"Is it possible?" said Raleigh, after reading a moment. "This is +indeed a prize! This is Saunders himself!" + +Yeo sprang up from the body as if he had touched an adder. "Nick +Saunders, the Legacy, sir?" + +"Nicholas Saunders, the legate." + +"The villain! why did not he wait for me to have the comfort of +killing him? Dog!" and he kicked the corpse with his foot. + +"Quiet! quiet! Remember the poor girl," said Amyas, as she +shrieked at the profanation, while Raleigh went on, half to +himself: + +"Yes, this is Saunders. Misguided fool, and this is the end! To +this thou hast come with thy plotting and thy conspiring, thy lying +and thy boasting, consecrated banners and Pope's bulls, Agnus Deis +and holy waters, the blessing of all saints and angels, and thy +Lady of the Immaculate Conception! Thou hast called on the heavens +to judge between thee and us, and here is their answer! What is +that in his hand, Amyas? Give it me. A pastoral epistle to the +Earl of Ormond, and all nobles of the realm of Ireland; 'To all who +groan beneath the loathsome tyranny of an illegitimate adulteress, +etc., Nicholas Saunders, by the grace of God, Legate, etc.' Bah! +and this forsooth was thy last meditation! Incorrigible pedant! +Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni!" + +He ran his eye through various other documents, written in the +usual strain: full of huge promises from the Pope and the king of +Spain; frantic and filthy slanders against Elizabeth, Burghley, +Leicester, Essex (the elder), Sidney, and every great and good man +(never mind of which party) who then upheld the commonweal; +bombastic attempts to terrify weak consciences, by denouncing +endless fire against those who opposed the true faith; fulsome +ascriptions of martyrdom and sanctity to every rebel and traitor +who had been hanged for the last twenty years; wearisome arguments +about the bull In Caena Domini, Elizabeth's excommunication, the +nullity of English law, the sacred duty of rebellion, the right to +kill a prince impenitently heretical, and the like insanities and +villainies, which may be read at large in Camden, the Phoenix +Britannicus, Fox's Martyrs, or, surest of all, in the writings of +the worthies themselves. + +With a gesture of disgust, Raleigh crammed the foul stuff back +again into the pouch. Taking it with them, they walked back to the +company, and then remounting, marched away once more towards the +lands of the Desmonds; and the girl was left alone with the dead. + +An hour had passed, when another Englishman was standing by the +wailing girl, and round him a dozen shockheaded kernes, skene on +thigh and javelin in hand, were tossing about their tawny rags, and +adding their lamentations to those of the lonely watcher. + +The Englishman was Eustace Leigh; a layman still, but still at his +old work. By two years of intrigue and labor from one end of +Ireland to the other, he had been trying to satisfy his conscience +for rejecting "the higher calling" of the celibate; for mad hopes +still lurked within that fiery heart. His brow was wrinkled now; +his features harshened; the scar upon his face, and the slight +distortion which accompanied it, was hidden by a bushy beard from +all but himself; and he never forgot it for a day, nor forgot who +had given it to him. + +He had been with Desmond, wandering in moor and moss for many a +month in danger of his life; and now he was on his way to James +Fitz-Eustace, Lord Baltinglas, to bring him the news of Desmond's +death; and with him a remnant of the clan, who were either too +stout-hearted, or too desperately stained with crime, to seek peace +from the English, and, as their fellows did, find it at once and +freely. + +There Eustace stood, looking down on all that was left of the most +sacred personage of Ireland; the man who, as he once had hoped, was +to regenerate his native land, and bring the proud island of the +West once more beneath that gentle yoke, in which united +Christendom labored for the commonweal of the universal Church. +There he was, and with him all Eustace's dreams, in the very heart +of that country which he had vowed, and believed as he vowed, was +ready to rise in arms as one man, even to the baby at the breast +(so he had said), in vengeance against the Saxon heretic, and sweep +the hated name of Englishman into the deepest abysses of the surge +which walled her coasts; with Spain and the Pope to back him, and +the wealth of the Jesuits at his command; in the midst of faithful +Catholics, valiant soldiers, noblemen who had pledged themselves to +die for the cause, serfs who worshipped him as a demigod--starved +to death in a bog! It was a pretty plain verdict on the +reasonableness of his expectations; but not to Eustace Leigh. + +It was a failure, of course; but it was an accident; indeed, to +have been expected, in a wicked world whose prince and master, as +all knew, was the devil himself; indeed, proof of the righteousness +of the cause--for when had the true faith been other than +persecuted and trampled under foot? If one came to think of it +with eyes purified from the tears of carnal impatience, what was it +but a glorious martyrdom? + +"Blest Saunders!" murmured Eustace Leigh; "let me die the death of +the righteous, and let my last end he like this! Ora pro me, most +excellent martyr, while I dig thy grave upon this lonely moor, to +wait there for thy translation to one of those stately shrines, +which, cemented by the blood of such as thee, shall hereafter rise +restored toward heaven, to make this land once more 'The Isle of +Saints.'" + +The corpse was buried; a few prayers said hastily; and Eustace +Leigh was away again, not now to find Baltinglas; for it was more +than his life was worth. The girl had told him of the English +soldiers who had passed, and he knew that they would reach the earl +probably before he did. The game was up; all was lost. So he +retraced his steps, as a desperate resource, to the last place +where he would be looked for, and after a month of disguising, +hiding, and other expedients, found himself again in his native +county of Devon, while Fitz-Eustace Viscount Baltinglas had taken +ship for Spain, having got little by his famous argument to Ormond +in behalf of his joining the Church of Rome, "Had not thine +ancestor, blessed Thomas of Canterbury, died for the Church of +Rome, thou hadst never been Earl of Ormond." The premises were +certainly sounder than those of his party were wont to be; for it +was to expiate the murder of that turbulent hero that the Ormond +lands had been granted by Henry II.: but as for the conclusion +therefrom, it was much on a par with the rest. + +And now let us return to Raleigh and Amyas, as they jog along their +weary road. They have many things to talk of; for it is but three +days since they met. + +Amyas, as you see, is coming fast into Raleigh's old opinion of +Ireland. Raleigh, under the inspiration of a possible grant of +Desmond's lands, looks on bogs and rocks transfigured by his own +hopes and fancy, as if by the glory of a rainbow. He looked at all +things so, noble fellow, even thirty years after, when old, worn +out, and ruined; well for him had it been otherwise, and his heart +had grown old with his head! Amyas, who knows nothing about +Desmond's lands, is puzzled at the change. + +"Why, what is this, Raleigh? You are like children sitting in the +market-place, and nothing pleases you. You wanted to get to Court, +and you have got there; and are lord and master, I hear, or +something very like it, already--and as soon as fortune stuffs your +mouth full of sweet-meats, do you turn informer on her?" + +Raleigh laughed insignificantly, but was silent. + +"And how is your friend Mr. Secretary Spenser, who was with us at +Smerwick?" + +"Spenser? He has thriven even as I have; and he has found, as I +have, that in making one friend at Court you make ten foes; but +'Oderint dum metuant' is no more my motto than his, Leigh. I want +to be great--great I am already, they say, if princes' favor can +swell the frog into an ox; but I want to be liked, loved--I want to +see people smile when I enter." + +"So they do, I'll warrant," said Amyas. + +"So do hyenas," said Raleigh; "grin because they are hungry, and I +may throw them a bone; I'll throw you one now, old lad, or rather a +good sirloin of beef, for the sake of your smile. That's honest, +at least, I'll warrant, whosoever's else is not. Have you heard of +my brother Humphrey's new project?" + +"How should I hear anything in this waste howling wilderness?" + +"Kiss hands to the wilderness, then, and come with me to +Newfoundland!" + +"You to Newfoundland?" + +"Yes. I to Newfoundland, unless my little matter here is settled +at once. Gloriana don't know it, and sha'n't till I'm off. She'd +send me to the Tower, I think, if she caught me playing truant. I +could hardly get leave to come hither; but I must out, and try my +fortune. I am over ears in debt already, and sick of courts and +courtiers. Humphrey must go next spring and take possession of his +kingdom beyond seas, or his patent expires; and with him I go, and +you too, my circumnavigating giant." + +And then Raleigh expounded to Amyas the details of the great +Newfoundland scheme, which whoso will may read in the pages of +Hakluyt. + +Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Raleigh's half-brother, held a patent for +"planting" the lands of Newfoundland and "Meta Incognita" +(Labrador). He had attempted a voyage thither with Raleigh in +1578, whereof I never could find any news, save that he came back +again, after a heavy brush with some Spanish ships (in which his +best captain, Mr. Morgan, was killed), having done nothing, and +much impaired his own estate: but now he had collected a large sum; +Sir Gilbert Peckham of London, Mr. Hayes of South Devon, and +various other gentlemen, of whom more hereafter, had adventured +their money; and a considerable colony was to be sent out the next +year, with miners, assayers, and, what was more, Parmenius Budaeus, +Frank's old friend, who had come to England full of thirst to see +the wonders of the New World; and over and above this, as Raleigh +told Amyas in strictest secrecy, Adrian Gilbert, Humphrey's +brother, was turning every stone at Court for a patent of discovery +in the North-West; and this Newfoundland colony, though it was to +produce gold, silver, merchandise, and what not, was but a basis of +operations, a halfway house from whence to work out the North-West +passage to the Indies--that golden dream, as fatal to English valor +as the Guiana one to Spanish--and yet hardly, hardly to be +regretted, when we remember the seamanship, the science, the +chivalry, the heroism, unequalled in the history of the English +nation, which it has called forth among those our later Arctic +voyagers, who have combined the knight-errantry of the middle age +with the practical prudence of the modern, and dared for duty more +than Cortez or Pizarro dared for gold. + +Amyas, simple fellow, took all in greedily; he knew enough of the +dangers of the Magellan passage to appreciate the boundless value +of a road to the East Indies which would (as all supposed then) +save half the distance, and be as it were a private possession of +the English, safe from Spanish interference; and he listened +reverently to Sir Humphrey's quaint proofs, half true, half +fantastic, of such a passage, which Raleigh detailed to him--of the +Primum Mobile, and its diurnal motion from east to west, in +obedience to which the sea-current flowed westward ever round the +Cape of Good Hope, and being unable to pass through the narrow +strait between South America and the Antarctic Continent, rushed up +the American shore, as the Gulf Stream, and poured northwestward +between Greenland and Labrador towards Cathay and India; of that +most crafty argument of Sir Humphrey's--how Aristotle in his book +"De Mundo," and Simon Gryneus in his annotations thereon, declare +that the world (the Old World) is an island, compassed by that +which Homer calls the river Oceanus; ergo, the New World is an +island also, and there is a North-West passage; of the three +brothers (names unknown) who had actually made the voyage, and +named what was afterwards called Davis's Strait after themselves; +of the Indians who were cast ashore in Germany in the reign of +Frederic Barbarossa who, as Sir Humphrey had learnedly proved per +modum tollendi, could have come only by the North-West; and above +all, of Salvaterra, the Spaniard, who in 1568 had told Sir Henry +Sidney (Philip's father), there in Ireland, how he had spoken with +a Mexican friar named Urdaneta, who had himself come from Mar del +Zur (the Pacific) into Germany by that very North-West passage; at +which last Amyas shook his head, and said that friars were liars, +and seeing believing; "but if you must needs have an adventure, you +insatiable soul you, why not try for the golden city of Manoa?" + +"Manoa?" asked Raleigh, who had heard, as most had, dim rumors of +the place. "What do you know of it?" + +Whereon Amyas told him all that he had gathered from the Spaniard; +and Raleigh, in his turn, believed every word. + +"Humph!" said he after a long silence. "To find that golden +emperor; offer him help and friendship from the queen of England; +defend him against the Spaniards; if we became strong enough, +conquer back all Peru from the Popish tyrants, and reinstate him on +the throne of the Incas, with ourselves for his body-guard, as the +Norman Varangians were to the effeminate emperors of Byzant--Hey, +Amyas? You would make a gallant chieftain of Varangs. We'll do +it, lad!" + +"We'll try," said Amyas; "but we must be quick, for there's one +Berreo sworn to carry out the quest to the death; and if the +Spaniards once get thither, their plan of works will be much more +like Pizarro's than like yours; and by the time we come, there will +be neither gold nor city left." + +"Nor Indians either, I'll warrant the butchers; but, lad, I am +promised to Humphrey; I have a bark fitting out already, and all I +have, and more, adventured in her; so Manoa must wait." + +"It will wait well enough, if the Spaniards prosper no better on +the Amazon than they have done; but must I come with you? To tell +the truth, I am quite shore-sick, and to sea I must go. What will +my mother say?" + +"I'll manage thy mother," said Raleigh; and so he did; for, to cut +a long story short, he went back the month after, and he not only +took home letters from Amyas to his mother, but so impressed on +that good lady the enormous profits and honors to be derived from +Meta Incognita, and (which was most true) the advantage to any +young man of sailing with such a general as Humphrey Gilbert, most +pious and most learned of seamen and of cavaliers, beloved and +honored above all his compeers by Queen Elizabeth, that she +consented to Amyas's adventuring in the voyage some two hundred +pounds which had come to him as his share of prize-money, after the +ever memorable circumnavigation. For Mrs. Leigh, be it understood, +was no longer at Burrough Court. By Frank's persuasion, she had +let the old place, moved up to London with her eldest son, and +taken for herself a lodging somewhere by Palace Stairs, which +looked out upon the silver Thames (for Thames was silver then), +with its busy ferries and gliding boats, across to the pleasant +fields of Lambeth, and the Archbishop's palace, and the wooded +Surrey hills; and there she spent her peaceful days, close to her +Frank and to the Court. Elizabeth would have had her re-enter it, +offering her a small place in the household: but she declined, +saying that she was too old and heart-weary for aught but prayer. +So by prayer she lived, under the sheltering shadow of the tall +minster where she went morn and even to worship, and to entreat for +the two in whom her heart was bound up; and Frank slipped in every +day if but for five minutes, and brought with him Spenser, or +Raleigh, or Dyer, or Budaeus or sometimes Sidney's self: and there +was talk of high and holy things, of which none could speak better +than could she; and each guest went from that hallowed room a +humbler and yet a loftier man. So slipped on the peaceful months, +and few and far between came Irish letters, for Ireland was then +farther from Westminster than is the Black Sea now; but those were +days in which wives and mothers had learned (as they have learned +once more, sweet souls!) to walk by faith and not by sight for +those they love: and Mrs. Leigh was content (though when was she +not content?) to hear that Amyas was winning a good report as a +brave and prudent officer, sober, just, and faithful, beloved and +obeyed alike by English soldiers and Irish kernes. + +Those two years, and the one which followed, were the happiest +which she had known since her husband's death. But the cloud was +fast coming up the horizon, though she saw it not. A little +longer, and the sun would be hid for many a wintry day. + +Amyas went to Plymouth (with Yeo, of course, at his heels), and +there beheld, for the first time, the majestic countenance of the +philosopher of Compton castle. He lodged with Drake, and found him +not over-sanguine as to the success of the voyage. + +"For learning and manners, Amyas, there's not his equal; and the +queen may well love him, and Devon be proud of him: but book- +learning is not business: book-learning didn't get me round the +world; book-learning didn't make Captain Hawkins, nor his father +neither, the best ship-builders from Hull to Cadiz; and book- +learning, I very much fear, won't plant Newfoundland." + +However, the die was cast, and the little fleet of five sail +assembled in Cawsand Bay. Amyas was to go as a gentleman +adventurer on board of Raleigh's bark; Raleigh himself, however, at +the eleventh hour, had been forbidden by the queen to leave +England. Ere they left, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's picture was painted +by some Plymouth artist, to be sent up to Elizabeth in answer to a +letter and a gift sent by Raleigh, which, as a specimen of the men +and of the time, I here transcribe*-- + + +"BROTHER--I have sent you a token from her Majesty, an anchor +guided by a lady, as you see. And further, her Highness willed me +to send you word, that she wisheth you as great good hap and safety +to your ship as if she were there in person, desiring you to have +care of yourself as of that which she tendereth and, therefore, for +her sake, you must provide for it accordingly. Furthermore, she +commandeth that you leave your picture with her. For the rest I +leave till our meeting, or to the report of the bearer, who would +needs be the messenger of this good news. So I commit you to the +will and protection of God, who send us such life and death as he +shall please, or hath appointed. + +"Richmond, this Friday morning, + +"Your true Brother, + +"W. RALEIGH." + + +* This letter was a few years since in the possession of Mr. +Pomeroy Gilbert, fort-major at Dartmouth, a descendant of the +admiral's. + + +"Who would not die, sir, for such a woman?" said Sir Humphrey (and +he said truly), as he showed that letter to Amyas. + +"Who would not? But she bids you rather live for her." + +"I shall do both, young man; and for God too, I trust. We are +going in God's cause; we go for the honor of God's Gospel, for the +deliverance of poor infidels led captive by the devil; for the +relief of my distressed countrymen unemployed within this narrow +isle; and to God we commit our cause. We fight against the devil +himself; and stronger is He that is within us than he that is +against us." + +Some say that Raleigh himself came down to Plymouth, accompanied +the fleet a day's sail to sea, and would have given her majesty the +slip, and gone with them Westward-ho, but for Sir Humphrey's +advice. It is likely enough: but I cannot find evidence for it. +At all events, on the 11th June the fleet sailed out, having, says +Mr. Hayes, "in number about 260 men, among whom we had of every +faculty good choice, as shipwrights, masons, carpenters, smiths, +and such like, requisite for such an action; also mineral men and +refiners. Beside, for solace of our people and allurement of the +savages, we were provided of musique in good variety; not omitting +the least toys, as morris-dancers, hobby-horses, and May-like +conceits, to delight the savage people, whom we intended to win by +all fair means possible." An armament complete enough, even to +that tenderness towards the Indians, which is so striking a feature +of the Elizabethan seamen (called out in them, perhaps, by horror +at the Spanish cruelties, as well as by their more liberal creed), +and to the daily service of God on board of every ship, according +to the simple old instructions of Captain John Hawkins to one of +his little squadrons, "Keep good company; beware of fire; serve God +daily; and love one another"--an armament, in short, complete in +all but men. The sailors had been picked up hastily and anywhere, +and soon proved themselves a mutinous, and, in the case of the bark +Swallow, a piratical set. The mechanics were little better. The +gentlemen-adventurers, puffed up with vain hopes of finding a new +Mexico, became soon disappointed and surly at the hard practical +reality; while over all was the head of a sage and an enthusiast, a +man too noble to suspect others, and too pure to make allowances +for poor dirty human weaknesses. He had got his scheme perfect +upon paper; well for him, and for his company, if he had asked +Francis Drake to translate it for him into fact! As early as the +second day, the seeds of failure began to sprout above ground. The +men of Raleigh's bark, the Vice-Admiral, suddenly found themselves +seized, or supposed themselves seized, with a contagious sickness, +and at midnight forsook the fleet, and went back to Plymouth; +whereto Mr. Hayes can only say, "The reason I never could +understand. Sure I am that Mr. Raleigh spared no cost in setting +them forth. And so I leave it unto God!" + +But Amyas said more. He told Butler the captain plainly that, if +the bark went back, he would not; that he had seen enough of ships +deserting their consorts; that it should never be said of him that +he had followed Winter's example, and that, too, on a fair easterly +wind; and finally that he had seen Doughty hanged for trying to +play such a trick; and that he might see others hanged too before +he died. Whereon Captain Butler offered to draw and fight, to +which Amyas showed no repugnance; whereon the captain, having taken +a second look at Amyas's thews and sinews, reconsidered the matter, +and offered to put Amyas on board of Sir Humphrey's Delight, if he +could find a crew to row him. + +Amyas looked around. + +"Are there any of Sir Francis Drake's men on board?" + +"Three, sir," said Yeo. "Robert Drew, and two others." + +"Pelicans!" roared Amyas, "you have been round the world, and will +you turn back from Westward-ho?" + +There was a moment's silence, and then Drew came forward. + +"Lower us a boat, captain, and lend us a caliver to make signals +with, while I get my kit on deck; I'll after Captain Leigh, if I +row him aboard all alone to my own hands." + +"If I ever command a ship, I will not forget you," said Amyas. + +"Nor us either, sir, we hope; for we haven't forgotten you and your +honest conditions," said both the other Pelicans; and so away over +the side went all the five, and pulled away after the admiral's +lantern, firing shots at intervals as signals. Luckily for the +five desperadoes, the night was all but calm. They got on board +before the morning, and so away into the boundless West.* + + +* The Raleigh, the largest ship of the squadron, was of only 200 +tons burden; The Golden Hind, Hayes' ship, which returned safe, of +40; and The Squirrel (whereof more hereafter), of 10 tons! In such +cockboats did these old heroes brave the unknown seas. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +HOW BIDEFORD BRIDGE DINED AT ANNERY HOUSE + + + "Three lords sat drinking late yestreen, + And ere they paid the lawing, + They set a combat them between, + To fight it in the dawing"--Scotch Ballad. + + +Every one who knows Bideford cannot but know Bideford bridge; for +it is the very omphalos, cynosure, and soul, around which the town, +as a body, has organized itself; and as Edinburgh is Edinburgh by +virtue of its castle, Rome Rome by virtue of its capitol, and Egypt +Egypt by virtue of its pyramids, so is Bideford Bideford by virtue +of its bridge. But all do not know the occult powers which have +advanced and animated the said wondrous bridge for now five hundred +years, and made it the chief wonder, according to Prince and +Fuller, of this fair land of Devon: being first an inspired bridge, +a soul-saving bridge, an alms-giving bridge, an educational bridge, +a sentient bridge, and last, but not least, a dinner-giving bridge. +All do not know how, when it began to be built some half mile +higher up, hands invisible carried the stones down-stream each +night to the present site; until Sir Richard Gurney, parson of the +parish, going to bed one night in sore perplexity and fear of the +evil spirit who seemed so busy in his sheepfold, beheld a vision of +an angel, who bade build the bridge where he himself had so kindly +transported the materials; for there alone was sure foundation amid +the broad sheet of shifting sand. All do not know how Bishop +Grandison of Exeter proclaimed throughout his diocese indulgences, +benedictions, and "participation in all spiritual blessings for +ever," to all who would promote the bridging of that dangerous +ford; and so, consulting alike the interests of their souls and of +their bodies, "make the best of both worlds." + +All do not know, nor do I, that "though the foundation of the +bridge is laid upon wool, yet it shakes at the slightest step of a +horse;" or that, "though it has twenty-three arches, yet one Wm. +Alford (another Milo) carried on his back for a wager four bushels +salt-water measure, all the length thereof;" or that the bridge is +a veritable esquire, bearing arms of its own (a ship and bridge +proper on a plain field), and owning lands and tenements in many +parishes, with which the said miraculous bridge has, from time to +time, founded charities, built schools, waged suits at law, and +finally (for this concerns us most) given yearly dinners, and kept +for that purpose (luxurious and liquorish bridge that it was) the +best stocked cellar of wines in all Devon. + +To one of these dinners, as it happened, were invited in the year +1583 all the notabilities of Bideford, and beside them Mr. St. +Leger of Annery close by, brother of the marshal of Munster, and of +Lady Grenville; a most worthy and hospitable gentleman, who, +finding riches a snare, parted with them so freely to all his +neighbors as long as he lived, that he effectually prevented his +children after him from falling into the temptations thereunto +incident. + +Between him and one of the bridge trustees arose an argument, +whether a salmon caught below the bridge was better or worse than +one caught above; and as that weighty question could only be +decided by practical experiment, Mr. St. Leger vowed that as the +bridge had given him a good dinner, he would give the bridge one; +offered a bet of five pounds that he would find them, out of the +pool below Annery, as firm and flaky a salmon as the Appledore one +which they had just eaten; and then, in the fulness of his heart, +invited the whole company present to dine with him at Annery three +days after, and bring with them each a wife or daughter; and Don +Guzman being at table, he was invited too. + +So there was a mighty feast in the great hall at Annery, such as +had seldom been since Judge Hankford feasted Edward the Fourth +there; and while every one was eating their best and drinking their +worst, Rose Salterne and Don Guzman were pretending not to see each +other, and watching each other all the more. But Rose, at least, +had to be very careful of her glances; for not only was her father +at the table, but just opposite her sat none other than Messrs. +William Cary and Arthur St. Leger, lieutenants in her majesty's +Irish army, who had returned on furlough a few days before. + +Rose Salterne and the Spaniard had not exchanged a word in the last +six months, though they had met many times. The Spaniard by no +means avoided her company, except in her father's house; he only +took care to obey her carefully, by seeming always unconscious of +her presence, beyond the stateliest of salutes at entering and +departing. But he took care, at the same time, to lay himself out +to the very best advantage whenever he was in her presence; to be +more witty, more eloquent, more romantic, more full of wonderful +tales than he ever yet had been. The cunning Don had found himself +foiled in his first tactic; and he was now trying another, and a +far more formidable one. In the first place, Rose deserved a very +severe punishment, for having dared to refuse the love of a Spanish +nobleman; and what greater punishment could he inflict than +withdrawing the honor of his attentions, and the sunshine of his +smiles? There was conceit enough in that notion, but there was +cunning too; for none knew better than the Spaniard, that women, +like the world, are pretty sure to value a man (especially if there +be any real worth in him) at his own price; and that the more he +demands for himself, the more they will give for him. + +And now he would put a high price on himself, and pique her pride, +as she was too much accustomed to worship, to be won by flattering +it. He might have done that by paying attention to some one else: +but he was too wise to employ so coarse a method, which might raise +indignation, or disgust, or despair in Rose's heart, but would have +never brought her to his feet--as it will never bring any woman +worth bringing. So he quietly and unobtrusively showed her that he +could do without her; and she, poor fool, as she was meant to do, +began forthwith to ask herself--why? What was the hidden treasure, +what was the reserve force, which made him independent of her, +while she could not say that she was independent of him? Had he a +secret? how pleasant to know it! Some huge ambition? how pleasant +to share in it! Some mysterious knowledge? how pleasant to learn +it! Some capacity of love beyond the common? how delicious to have +it all for her own! He must be greater, wiser, richer-hearted than +she was, as well as better-born. Ah, if his wealth would but +supply her poverty! And so, step by step, she was being led to sue +in forma pauperis to the very man whom she had spurned when he sued +in like form to her. That temptation of having some mysterious +private treasure, of being the priestess of some hidden sanctuary, +and being able to thank Heaven that she was not as other women are, +was becoming fast too much for Rose, as it is too much for most. +For none knew better than the Spaniard how much more fond women +are, by the very law of their sex, of worshipping than of being +worshipped, and of obeying than of being obeyed; how their coyness, +often their scorn, is but a mask to hide their consciousness of +weakness; and a mask, too, of which they themselves will often be +the first to tire. + +And Rose was utterly tired of that same mask as she sat at table at +Annery that day; and Don Guzman saw it in her uneasy and downcast +looks, and thinking (conceited coxcomb) that she must be by now +sufficiently punished, stole a glance at her now and then, and was +not abashed when he saw that she dropped her eyes when they met +his, because he saw her silence and abstraction increase, and +something like a blush steal into her cheeks. So he pretended to +be as much downcast and abstracted as she was, and went on with his +glances, till he once found her, poor thing, looking at him to see +if he was looking at her; and then he knew his prey was safe, and +asked her, with his eyes, "Do you forgive me?" and saw her stop +dead in her talk to her next neighbor, and falter, and drop her +eyes, and raise them again after a minute in search of his, that he +might repeat the pleasant question. And then what could she do but +answer with all her face and every bend of her pretty neck, "And do +you forgive me in turn?" + +Whereon Don Guzman broke out jubilant, like nightingale on bough, +with story, and jest, and repartee; and became forthwith the soul +of the whole company, and the most charming of all cavaliers. And +poor Rose knew that she was the cause of his sudden change of mood, +and blamed herself for what she had done, and shuddered and blushed +at her own delight, and longed that the feast was over, that she +might hurry home and hide herself alone with sweet fancies about a +love the reality of which she felt she dared not face. + +It was a beautiful sight, the great terrace at Annery that +afternoon; with the smart dames in their gaudy dresses parading up +and down in twos and threes before the stately house; or looking +down upon the park, with the old oaks, and the deer, and the broad +land-locked river spread out like a lake beneath, all bright in the +glare of the midsummer sun; or listening obsequiously to the two +great ladies who did the honors, Mrs. St. Leger the hostess, and +her sister-in-law, fair Lady Grenville. All chatted, and laughed, +and eyed each other's dresses, and gossiped about each other's +husbands and servants: only Rose Salterne kept apart, and longed to +get into a corner and laugh or cry, she knew not which. + +"Our pretty Rose seems sad," said Lady Grenville, coming up to her. +"Cheer up, child! we want you to come and sing to us." + +Rose answered she knew not what, and obeyed mechanically. + +She took the lute, and sat down on a bench beneath the house, while +the rest grouped themselves round her. + +"What shall I sing?" + +"Let us have your old song, 'Earl Haldan's Daughter.'" + +Rose shrank from it. It was a loud and dashing ballad, which +chimed in but little with her thoughts; and Frank had praised it +too, in happier days long since gone by. She thought of him, and +of others, and of her pride and carelessness; and the song seemed +ominous to her: and yet for that very reason she dared not refuse +to sing it, for fear of suspicion where no one suspected; and so +she began per force-- + + +I. + +"It was Earl Haldan's daughter, +She look'd across the sea; +She look'd across the water, +And long and loud laugh'd she; +'The locks of six princesses +Must be my marriage-fee, +So hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat! +Who comes a wooing me?' + +II. + +"It was Earl Haldan's daughter, +She walk'd along the sand; +When she was aware of a knight so fair, +Come sailing to the land. +His sails were all of velvet, +His mast of beaten gold, +And 'hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat, +Who saileth here so bold?' + +III. + +"'The locks of five princesses +I won beyond the sea; +I shore their golden tresses, +To fringe a cloak for thee. +One handful yet is wanting, +But one of all the tale; +So hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat! +Furl up thy velvet sail!' + +IV. + +"He leapt into the water, +That rover young and bold; +He gript Earl Haldan's daughter, +He shore her locks of gold; +'Go weep, go weep, proud maiden, +The tale is full to-day. +Now hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat! +Sail Westward-ho, and away!'" + + +As she ceased, a measured voice, with a foreign accent, thrilled +through her. + +"In the East, they say the nightingale sings to the rose; Devon, +more happy, has nightingale and rose in one." + +"We have no nightingales in Devon, Don Guzman," said Lady +Grenville; "but our little forest thrushes sing, as you hear, +sweetly enough to content any ear. But what brings you away from +the gentlemen so early?" + +"These letters," said he, "which have just been put into my hand; +and as they call me home to Spain, I was loath to lose a moment of +that delightful company from which I must part so soon." + +"To Spain?" asked half-a-dozen voices: for the Don was a general +favorite. + +"Yes, and thence to the Indies. My ransom has arrived, and with it +the promise of an office. I am to be Governor of La Guayra in +Caracas. Congratulate me on my promotion." + +A mist was over Rose's eyes. The Spaniard's voice was hard and +flippant. Did he care for her, after all? And if he did, was it +nevertheless hopeless? How her cheeks glowed! Everybody must see +it! Anything to turn away their attention from her, and in that +nervous haste which makes people speak, and speak foolishly too, +just because they ought to be silent, she asked-- + +"And where is La Guayra?" + +"Half round the world, on the coast of the Spanish Main. The +loveliest place on earth, and the loveliest governor's house, in a +forest of palms at the foot of a mountain eight thousand feet high: +I shall only want a wife there to be in paradise." + +"I don't doubt that you may persuade some fair lady of Seville to +accompany you thither," said Lady Grenville. + +"Thanks, gracious madam: but the truth is, that since I have had +the bliss of knowing English ladies, I have begun to think that +they are the only ones on earth worth wooing." + +"A thousand thanks for the compliment; but I fear none of our free +English maidens would like to submit to the guardianship of a +duenna. Eh, Rose? how should you like to be kept under lock and +key all day by an ugly old woman with a horn on her forehead?" + +Poor Rose turned so scarlet that Lady Grenville knew her secret on +the spot, and would have tried to turn the conversation: but before +she could speak, some burgher's wife blundered out a commonplace +about the jealousy of Spanish husbands; and another, to make +matters better, giggled out something more true than delicate about +West Indian masters and fair slaves. + +"Ladies," said Don Guzman, reddening, "believe me that these are +but the calumnies of ignorance. If we be more jealous than other +nations, it is because we love more passionately. If some of us +abroad are profligate, it is because they, poor men, have no +helpmate, which, like the amethyst, keeps its wearer pure. I could +tell you stories, ladies, of the constancy and devotion of Spanish +husbands, even in the Indies, as strange as ever romancer +invented." + +"Can you? Then we challenge you to give us one at least." + +"I fear it would be too long, madam." + +"The longer the more pleasant, senor. How can we spend an hour +better this afternoon, while the gentlemen within are finishing +their wine?" + +Story-telling, in those old times, when books (and authors also, +lucky for the public) were rarer than now, was a common amusement; +and as the Spaniard's accomplishments in that line were well known, +all the ladies crowded round him; the servants brought chairs and +benches; and Don Guzman, taking his seat in the midst, with a proud +humility, at Lady Grenville's feet, began-- + +"Your perfections, fair and illustrious ladies, must doubtless have +heard, ere now, how Sebastian Cabota, some forty-five years ago, +sailed forth with a commission from my late master, the Emperor +Charles the Fifth, to discover the golden lands of Tarshish, Ophir, +and Cipango; but being in want of provisions, stopped short at the +mouth of that mighty South American river to which he gave the name +of Rio de la Plata, and sailing up it, discovered the fair land of +Paraguay. But you may not have heard how, on the bank of that +river, at the mouth of the Rio Terceiro, he built a fort which men +still call Cabot's Tower; nor have you, perhaps, heard of the +strange tale which will ever make the tower a sacred spot to all +true lovers. + +"For when he returned to Spain the year after, he left in his tower +a garrison of a hundred and twenty men, under the command of Nuno +de Lara, Ruiz Moschera, and Sebastian da Hurtado, old friends and +fellow-soldiers of my invincible grandfather Don Ferdinando da +Soto; and with them a jewel, than which Spain never possessed one +more precious, Lucia Miranda, the wife of Hurtado, who, famed in +the court of the emperor no less for her wisdom and modesty than +for her unrivalled beauty, had thrown up all the pomp and ambition +of a palace, to marry a poor adventurer, and to encounter with him +the hardships of a voyage round the world. Mangora, the cacique of +the neighboring Timbuez Indians (with whom Lara had contrived to +establish a friendship), cast his eyes on this fair creature, and +no sooner saw than he coveted; no sooner coveted than he plotted, +with the devilish subtilty of a savage, to seize by force what he +knew he could never gain by right. She soon found out his passion +(she was wise enough--what every woman is not--to know when she is +loved), and telling her husband, kept as much as she could out of +her new lover's sight; while the savage pressed Hurtado to come and +visit him, and to bring his lady with him. Hurtado, suspecting the +snare, and yet fearing to offend the cacique, excused himself +courteously on the score of his soldier's duty; and the savage, mad +with desire and disappointment, began plotting against Hurtado's +life. + +"So went on several weeks, till food grew scarce, and Don Hurtado +and Don Ruiz Moschera, with fifty soldiers, were sent up the river +on a foraging party. Mangora saw his opportunity, and leapt at it +forthwith. + +"The tower, ladies, as I have heard from those who have seen it, +stands on a knoll at the meeting of the two rivers, while on the +land side stretches a dreary marsh, covered with tall grass and +bushes; a fit place for the ambuscade of four thousand Indians, +which Mangora, with devilish cunning, placed around the tower, +while he himself went boldly up to it, followed by thirty men, +laden with grain, fruit, game, and all the delicacies which his +forests could afford. + +"There, with a smiling face, he told the unsuspecting Lara his +sorrow for the Spaniards' want of food; besought him to accept the +provision he had brought, and was, as he had expected, invited by +Lara to come in and taste the wines of Spain. + +"In went he and his thirty fellow-bandits, and the feast continued, +with songs and libations, far into the night, while Mangora often +looked round, and at last boldly asked for the fair Miranda: but +she had shut herself into her lodging, pleading illness. + +"A plea, fair ladies, which little availed that hapless dame, for +no sooner had the Spaniards retired to rest, leaving (by I know not +what madness) Mangora and his Indians within, than they were +awakened by the cry of fire, the explosion of their magazine, and +the inward rush of the four thousand from the marsh outside. + +"Why pain your gentle ears with details of slaughter? A few +fearful minutes sufficed to exterminate my bewildered and unarmed +countrymen, to bind the only survivors, Miranda (innocent cause of +the whole tragedy) and four other women with their infants, and to +lead them away in triumph across the forest towards the Indian +town. + +"Stunned by the suddenness of the evils which had passed, and still +more by the thought of those worse which were to come (as she too +well foresaw), Miranda travelled all night through the forest, and +was brought in triumph at day-dawn before the Indian king to +receive her doom. Judge of her astonishment, when, on looking up, +she saw that he was not Mangora. + +"A ray of hope flashed across her, and she asked where he was. + +"'He was slain last night,' said the king; 'and I, his brother +Siripa, am now cacique of the Timbuez.' + +"It was true; Lara, maddened with drink, rage, and wounds, had +caught up his sword, rushed into the thick of the fight, singled +out the traitor, and slain him on the spot; and then, forgetting +safety in revenge, had continued to plunge his sword into the +corpse, heedless of the blows of the savages, till he fell pierced +with a hundred wounds. + +"A ray of hope, as I said, flashed across the wretched Miranda for +a moment; but the next she found that she had been freed from one +bandit only to be delivered to another. + +"'Yes,' said the new king, in broken Spanish; 'my brother played a +bold stake, and lost it; but it was well worth the risk, and he +showed his wisdom thereby. You cannot be his queen now: you must +content yourself with being mine.' + +"Miranda, desperate, answered him with every fierce taunt which she +could invent against his treachery and his crime; and asked him, +how he came to dream that the wife of a Christian Spaniard would +condescend to become the mistress of a heathen savage; hoping, +unhappy lady, to exasperate him into killing her on the spot. But +in vain; she only prolonged thereby her own misery. For, whether +it was, ladies, that the novel sight of divine virtue and beauty +awed (as it may have awed me ere now), where it had just before +maddened; or whether some dream crossed the savage (as it may have +crossed me ere now), that he could make the wisdom of a mortal +angel help his ambition, as well as her beauty his happiness; or +whether (which I will never believe of one of those dark children +of the devil, though I can boldly assert it of myself) some spark +of boldness within him made him too proud to take by force what he +could not win by persuasion, certain it is, as the Indians +themselves confessed afterwards, that the savage only answered her +by smiles; and bidding his men unbind her, told her that she was no +slave of his, and that it only lay with her to become the sovereign +of him and all his vassals; assigned her a hut to herself, loaded +her with savage ornaments, and for several weeks treated her with +no less courtesy (so miraculous is the power of love) than if he +had been a cavalier of Castile. + +"Three months and more, ladies, as I have heard, passed in this +misery, and every day Miranda grew more desperate of all +deliverance, and saw staring her in the face, nearer and nearer, +some hideous and shameful end; when one day going down with the +wives of the cacique to draw water in the river, she saw on the +opposite bank a white man in a tattered Spanish dress, with a drawn +sword in his hand; who had no sooner espied her, than shrieking her +name, he plunged into the stream, swam across, landed at her feet, +and clasped her in his arms. It was no other, ladies, incredible +as it may seem, than Don Sebastian himself, who had returned with +Ruiz Moschera to the tower, and found it only a charred and +bloodstained heap of ruins. + +"He guessed, as by inspiration, what had passed, and whither his +lady was gone; and without a thought of danger, like a true Spanish +gentleman and a true Spanish lover, darted off alone into the +forest, and guided only by the inspiration of his own loyal heart, +found again his treasure, and found it still unstained and his own. + +"Who can describe the joy, and who again the terror, of their +meeting? The Indian women had fled in fear, and for the short ten +minutes that the lovers were left together, life, to be sure, was +one long kiss. But what to do they knew not. To go inland was to +rush into the enemy's arms. He would have swum with her across the +river, and attempted it; but his strength, worn out with hunger and +travel, failed him; he drew her with difficulty on shore again, and +sat down by her to await their doom with prayer, the first and last +resource of virtuous ladies, as weapons are of cavaliers. + +"Alas for them! May no true lovers ever have to weep over joys so +soon lost, after having been so hardly found! For, ere a quarter +of an hour was passed, the Indian women, who had fled at his +approach, returned with all the warriors of the tribe. Don +Sebastian, desperate, would fain have slain his wife and himself on +the spot; but his hand sank again--and whose would not but an +Indian's?--as he raised it against that fair and faithful breast; +in a few minutes he was surrounded, seized from behind, disarmed, +and carried in triumph into the village. And if you cannot feel +for him in that misery, fair ladies, who have known no sorrow, yet +I, a prisoner, can." + +Don Guzman paused a moment, as if overcome by emotion; and I will +not say that, as he paused, he did not look to see if Rose +Salterne's eyes were on him, as indeed they were. + +"Yes, I can feel with him; I can estimate, better than you, ladies, +the greatness of that love which could submit to captivity; to the +loss of his sword; to the loss of that honor, which, next to god +and his mother, is the true Spaniard's deity. There are those who +have suffered that shame at the hands of valiant gentlemen" (and +again Don Guzman looked up at Rose), "and yet would have sooner +died a thousand deaths; but he dared to endure it from the hands of +villains, savages, heathens; for he was a true Spaniard, and +therefore a true lover: but I will go on with my tale. + +"This wretched pair, then, as I have been told by Ruiz Moschera +himself, stood together before the cacique. He, like a true child +of the devil, comprehending in a moment who Don Sebastian was, +laughed with delight at seeing his rival in his power, and bade +bind him at once to a tree, and shoot him to death with arrows. + +"But the poor Miranda sprang forward, and threw herself at his +feet, and with piteous entreaties besought for mercy from him who +knew no mercy. + +"And yet love and the sight of her beauty, and the terrible +eloquence of her words, while she invoked on his head the just +vengeance of Heaven, wrought even on his heart: nevertheless the +pleasure of seeing her, who had so long scorned him, a suppliant at +his feet, was too delicate to be speedily foregone; and not till +she was all but blind with tears, and dumb with agony of pleading, +did he make answer, that if she would consent to become his wife, +her husband's life should be spared. She, in her haste and +madness, sobbed out desperately I know not what consent. Don +Sebastian, who understood, if not the language, still the meaning +(so had love quickened his understanding), shrieked to her not to +lose her precious soul for the sake of his worthless body; that +death was nothing compared to the horror of that shame; and such +other words as became a noble and valiant gentleman. She, +shuddering now at her own frailty, would have recalled her promise; +but Siripa kept her to it, vowing, if she disappointed him again, +such a death to her husband as made her blood run cold to hear of; +and the wretched woman could only escape for the present by some +story, that it was not the custom of her race to celebrate nuptials +till a month after the betrothment; that the anger of Heaven would +be on her, unless she first performed in solitude certain religious +rites; and lastly, that if he dared to lay hands on her husband, +she would die so resolutely, that every drop of water should be +deep enough to drown her, every thorn sharp enough to stab her to +the heart: till fearing lest by demanding too much he should lose +all, and awed too, as he had been at first by a voice and looks +which seemed to be, in comparison with his own, divine, Siripa bade +her go back to her hut, promising her husband life; but promising +too, that if he ever found the two speaking together, even for a +moment, he would pour out on them both all the cruelty of those +tortures in which the devil, their father, has so perfectly +instructed the Indians. + +"So Don Sebastian, being stripped of his garments, and painted +after the Indian fashion, was set to all mean and toilsome work, +amid the buffetings and insults of the whole village. And this, +ladies, he endured without a murmur, ay, took delight in enduring +it, as he would have endured things worse a thousand times, only +for the sake, like a true lover as he was, of being near the +goddess whom he worshipped, and of seeing her now and then afar +off, happy enough to be repaid even by that for all indignities. + +"And yet, you who have loved may well guess, as I can, that ere a +week had passed, Don Sebastian and the Lady Miranda had found +means, in spite of all spiteful eyes, to speak to each other once +and again; and to assure each other of their love; even to talk of +escape, before the month's grace should be expired. And Miranda, +whose heart was full of courage as long as she felt her husband +near her, went so far as to plan a means of escape which seemed +possible and hopeful. + +For the youngest wife of the cacique, who, till Miranda's coming, +had been his favorite, often talked with the captive, insulting and +tormenting her in her spite and jealousy, and receiving in return +only gentle and conciliatory words. And one day when the woman had +been threatening to kill her, Miranda took courage to say, 'Do you +fancy that I shall not be as glad to be rid of your husband, as you +to be rid of me? Why kill me needlessly, when all that you require +is to get me forth of the place? Out of sight, out of mind. When +I am gone, your husband will soon forget me, and you will be his +favorite as before.' Soon, seeing that the girl was inclined to +listen, she went on to tell her of her love to Don Sebastian, +entreating and adjuring her, by the love which she bore the +cacique, to pity and help her; and so won upon the girl, that she +consented to be privy to Miranda's escape, and even offered to give +her an opportunity of speaking to her husband about it; and at last +was so won over by Miranda, that she consented to keep all +intruders out of the way, while Don Sebastian that very night +visited Miranda in her hut. + +"The hapless husband, thirsting for his love, was in that hut, be +sure, the moment that kind darkness covered his steps:--and what +cheer these two made of each other, when they once found themselves +together, lovers must fancy for themselves: but so it was, that +after many a leave-taking, there was no departure; and when the +night was well-nigh past, Sebastian and Miranda were still talking +together as if they had never met before, and would never meet +again. + +"But it befell, ladies (would that I was not speaking truth, but +inventing, that I might have invented something merrier for your +ears), it befell that very night, that the young wife of the +cacique, whose heart was lifted up with the thought that her rival +was now at last disposed of, tried all her wiles to win back her +faithless husband; but in vain. He only answered her caresses by +indifference, then by contempt, then insults, then blows (for with +the Indians, woman is always a slave, or rather a beast of burden), +and went on to draw such cruel comparisons between her dark skin +and the glorious fairness of the Spanish lady, that the wretched +girl, beside herself with rage, burst out at last with her own +secret. 'Fool that you are to madden yourself about a stranger who +prizes one hair of her Spanish husband's head more than your whole +body! Much does your new bride care for you! She is at this +moment in her husband's arms!' + +"The cacique screamed furiously to know what she meant; and she, +her jealousy and hate of the guiltless lady boiling over once for +all, bade him, if he doubted her, go see for himself. + +"What use of many words? They were taken. Love, or rather lust, +repelled, turned in a moment into devilish hate; and the cacique, +summoning his Indians, bade them bind the wretched Don Sebastian to +a tree, and there inflicted on him the lingering death to which he +had at first been doomed. For Miranda he had more exquisite +cruelty in store. And shall I tell it? Yes, ladies, for the honor +of love and of Spain, and for a justification of those cruelties +against the Indians which are so falsely imputed to our most +Christian nation, it shall be told: he delivered the wretched lady +over to the tender mercies of his wives; and what they were is +neither fit for me to tell, nor you to hear. + +"The two wretched lovers cast themselves upon each other's neck; +drank each other's salt tears with the last kisses; accused +themselves as the cause of each other's death; and then, rising +above fear and grief, broke out into triumph at thus dying for and +with each other; and proclaiming themselves the martyrs of love, +commended their souls to God, and then stepped joyfully and proudly +to their doom." + +"And what was that?" asked half-a-dozen trembling voices. + +"Don Sebastian, as I have said, was shot to death with arrows; but +as for the Lady Miranda, the wretches themselves confessed +afterwards, when they received due vengeance for their crimes (as +they did receive it), that after all shameful and horrible +indignities, she was bound to a tree, and there burned slowly in +her husband's sight, stifling her shrieks lest they should wring +his heart by one additional pang, and never taking her eyes, to the +last, off that beloved face. And so died (but not unavenged) +Sebastian de Hurtado and Lucia Miranda,--a Spanish husband and a +Spanish wife." + +The Don paused, and the ladies were silent awhile, for, indeed, +there was many a gentle tear to be dried; but at last Mrs. St. +Leger spoke, half, it seemed, to turn off the too painful +impression of the over-true tale, the outlines whereof may be still +read in old Charlevoix. + +"You have told a sad and a noble tale, sir, and told it well; but, +though your story was to set forth a perfect husband, it has ended +rather by setting forth a perfect wife." + +"And if I have forgotten, madam, in praising her to praise him +also, have I not done that which would have best pleased his +heroical and chivalrous spirit? He, be sure, would have forgotten +his own virtue in the light of hers; and he would have wished me, I +doubt not, to do the same also. And beside, madam, where ladies +are the theme, who has time or heart to cast one thought upon their +slaves?" And the Don made one of his deliberate and highly- +finished bows. + +"Don Guzman is courtier enough, as far as compliments go," said one +of the young ladies; "but it was hardly courtier-like of him to +find us so sad an entertainment, upon a merry evening." + +"Yes," said another; "we must ask him for no more stories." + +"Or songs either," said a third. "I fear he knows none but about +forsaken maidens and despairing lovers." + +"I know nothing at all about forsaken ladies, madam; because ladies +are never forsaken in Spain." + +"Nor about lovers despairing there, I suppose?" + +"That good opinion of ourselves, madam, with which you English are +pleased to twit us now and then, always prevents so sad a state of +mind. For myself, I have had little to do with love; but I have +had still less to do with despair, and intend, by help of Heaven, +to have less." + +"You are valiant, sir." + +"You would not have me a coward, madam?" and so forth. + +Now all this time Don Guzman had been talking at Rose Salterne, and +giving her the very slightest hint, every now and then, that he was +talking at her; till the poor girl's face was almost crimson with +pleasure, and she gave herself up to the spell. He loved her +still; perhaps he knew that she loved him: he must know some day. +She felt now that there was no escape; she was almost glad to think +that there was none. + +The dark, handsome, stately face; the melodious voice, with its +rich Spanish accent; the quiet grace of the gestures; the wild +pathos of the story; even the measured and inflated style, as of +one speaking of another and a loftier world; the chivalrous respect +and admiration for woman, and for faithfulness to woman--what a man +he was! If he had been pleasant heretofore, he was now enchanting. +All the ladies round felt that, she could see, as much as she +herself did; no, not quite as much, she hoped. She surely +understood him, and felt for his loneliness more than any of them. +Had she not been feeling for it through long and sad months? But +it was she whom he was thinking of, she whom he was speaking to, +all along. Oh, why had the tale ended so soon? She would gladly +have sat and wept her eyes out till midnight over one melodious +misery after another; but she was quite wise enough to keep her +secret to herself; and sat behind the rest, with greedy eyes and +demure lips, full of strange and new happiness--or misery; she knew +not which to call it. + +In the meanwhile, as it was ordained, Cary could see and hear +through the window of the hall a good deal of what was going on. + +"How that Spanish crocodile ogles the Rose!" whispered he to young +St. Leger. + +"What wonder? He is not the first by many a one." + +"Ay--but-- By heaven, she is making side-shots at him with those +languishing eyes of hers, the little baggage!" + +"What wonder? He is not the first, say I, and won't be the last. +Pass the wine, man." + +"I have had enough; between sack and singing, my head is as mazed +as a dizzy sheep. Let me slip out." + +"Not yet, man; remember you are bound for one song more." + +So Cary, against his will, sat and sang another song; and in the +meanwhile the party had broken up, and wandered away by twos and +threes, among trim gardens and pleasaunces, and clipped yew-walks-- + + + Where west-winds with musky wing + About the cedarn alleys fling + Nard and cassia's balmy smells--" + + +admiring the beauty of that stately place, long since passed into +other hands, and fallen to decay, but then (if old Prince speaks +true) one of the noblest mansions of the West. + +At last Cary got away and out; sober, but just enough flushed with +wine to be ready for any quarrel; and luckily for him, had not gone +twenty yards along the great terrace before he met Lady Grenville. + +"Has your ladyship seen Don Guzman?" + +"Yes--why, where is he? He was with me not ten minutes ago. You +know he is going back to Spain." + +"Going! Has his ransom come?" + +"Yes, and with it a governorship in the Indies." + +"Governorship! Much good may it do the governed." + +"Why not, then? He is surely a most gallant gentleman." + +"Gallant enough--yes," said Cary, carelessly. "I must find him, +and congratulate him on his honors." + +"I will help you to find him," said Lady Grenville, whose woman's +eye and ear had already suspected something. "Escort me, sir." + +"It is but too great an honor to squire the Queen of Bideford," +said Cary, offering his hand. + +"If I am your queen, sir, I must be obeyed," answered she, in a +meaning tone. Cary took the hint, and went on chattering +cheerfully enough. + +But Don Guzman was not to be found in garden or in pleasaunce. + +"Perhaps," at last said a burgher's wife, with a toss of her head, +"your ladyship may meet with him at Hankford's oak." + +"At Hankford's oak! what should take him there?" + +"Pleasant company, I reckon" (with another toss). "I heard him and +Mistress Salterne talking about the oak just now." + +Cary turned pale and drew in his breath. + +"Very likely," said Lady Grenville, quietly. "Will you walk with +me so far, Mr. Cary?" + +"To the world's end, if your ladyship condescends so far." And off +they went, Lady Grenville wishing that they were going anywhere +else, but afraid to let Cary go alone; and suspecting, too, that +some one or other ought to go. + +So they went down past the herds of deer, by a trim-kept path into +the lonely dell where stood the fatal oak; and, as they went, Lady +Grenville, to avoid more unpleasant talk, poured into Cary's +unheeding ears the story (which he probably had heard fifty times +before) how old Chief-justice Hankford (whom some contradictory +myths make the man who committed Prince Henry to prison for +striking him on the bench), weary of life and sickened at the +horrors and desolations of the Wars of the Roses, went down to his +house at Annery there, and bade his keeper shoot any man who, +passing through the deer-park at night, should refuse to stand when +challenged; and then going down into that glen himself, and hiding +himself beneath that oak, met willingly by his keeper's hand the +death which his own dared not inflict: but ere the story was half +done, Cary grasped Lady Grenville's hand so tightly that she gave a +little shriek of pain. + +"There they are!" whispered he, heedless of her; and pointed to the +oak, where, half hidden by the tall fern, stood Rose and the +Spaniard. + +Her head was on his bosom. She seemed sobbing, trembling; he +talking earnestly and passionately; but Lady Grenville's little +shriek made them both look up. To turn and try to escape was to +confess all; and the two, collecting themselves instantly, walked +towards her, Rose wishing herself fathoms deep beneath the earth. + +"Mind, sir," whispered Lady Grenville as they came up; "you have +seen nothing." + +"Madam?" + +"If you are not on my ground, you are on my brother's. Obey me!" + +Cary bit his lip, and bowed courteously to the Don. + +"I have to congratulate you, I hear, senor, on your approaching +departure." + +"I kiss your hands, senor, in return; but I question whether it be +a matter of congratulation, considering all that I leave behind." + +"So do I," answered Cary, bluntly enough, and the four walked back +to the house, Lady Grenville taking everything for granted with the +most charming good humor, and chatting to her three silent +companions till they gained the terrace once more, and found four +or five of the gentlemen, with Sir Richard at their head, +proceeding to the bowling-green. + +Lady Grenville, in an agony of fear about the quarrel which she +knew must come, would have gladly whispered five words to her +husband: but she dared not do it before the Spaniard, and dreaded, +too, a faint or a scream from the Rose, whose father was of the +party. So she walked on with her fair prisoner, commanding Cary to +escort them in, and the Spaniard to go to the bowling-green. + +Cary obeyed: but he gave her the slip the moment she was inside the +door, and then darted off to the gentlemen. + +His heart was on fire: all his old passion for the Rose had flashed +up again at the sight of her with a lover;--and that lover a +Spaniard! He would cut his throat for him, if steel could do it! +Only he recollected that Salterne was there, and shrank from +exposing Rose; and shrank, too, as every gentleman should, from +making a public quarrel in another man's house. Never mind. Where +there was a will there was a way. He could get him into a corner, +and quarrel with him privately about the cut of his beard, or the +color of his ribbon. So in he went; and, luckily or unluckily, +found standing together apart from the rest, Sir Richard, the Don, +and young St. Leger. + +"Well, Don Guzman, you have given us wine-bibbers the slip this +afternoon. I hope you have been well employed in the meanwhile?" + +"Delightfully to myself, senor," said the Don, who, enraged at +being interrupted, if not discovered, was as ready to fight as +Cary, but disliked, of course, an explosion as much as he did; "and +to others, I doubt not." + +"So the ladies say," quoth St. Leger. "He has been making them all +cry with one of his stories, and robbing us meanwhile of the +pleasure we had hoped for from some of his Spanish songs." + +"The devil take Spanish songs!" said Cary, in a low voice, but loud +enough for the Spaniard. Don Guzman clapt his hand on his sword- +hilt instantly. + +"Lieutenant Cary," said Sir Richard, in a stern voice, "the wine +has surely made you forget yourself!" + +"As sober as yourself, most worshipful knight; but if you want a +Spanish song, here's one; and a very scurvy one it is, like its +subject-- + + + "Don Desperado + Walked on the Prado, + And there he met his enemy. + He pulled out a knife, a, + And let out his life, a, + And fled for his own across the sea." + + +And he bowed low to the Spaniard. + +The insult was too gross to require any spluttering. + +"Senor Cary, we meet?" + +"I thank your quick apprehension, Don Guzman Maria Magdalena +Sotomayor de Soto. When, where, and with what weapons?" + +"For God's sake, gentlemen! Nephew Arthur, Cary is your guest; do +you know the meaning of this?" + +St. Leger was silent. Cary answered for him. + +"An old Irish quarrel, I assure you, sir. A matter of years' +standing. In unlacing the senor's helmet, the evening that he was +taken prisoner, I was unlucky enough to twitch his mustachios. You +recollect the fact, of course, senor?" + +"Perfectly," said the Spaniard; and then, half-amused and half- +pleased, in spite of his bitter wrath, at Cary's quickness and +delicacy in shielding Rose, he bowed, and-- + +"And it gives me much pleasure to find that he whom I trust to have +the pleasure of killing tomorrow morning is a gentleman whose nice +sense of honor renders him thoroughly worthy of the sword of a De +Soto." + +Cary bowed in return, while Sir Richard, who saw plainly enough +that the excuse was feigned, shrugged his shoulders. + +"What weapons, senor?" asked Will again. + +"I should have preferred a horse and pistols," said Don Guzman +after a moment, half to himself, and in Spanish; "they make surer +work of it than bodkins; but" (with a sigh and one of his smiles) +"beggars must not be choosers." + +"The best horse in my stable is at your service, senor," said Sir +Richard Grenville, instantly. + +"And in mine also, senor," said Cary; "and I shall be happy to +allow you a week to train him, if he does not answer at first to a +Spanish hand." + +"You forget in your courtesy, gentle sir, that the insult being +with me, the time lies with me also. We wipe it off to-morrow +morning with simple rapiers and daggers. Who is your second?" + +"Mr. Arthur St. Leger here, senor: who is yours?" + +The Spaniard felt himself alone in the world for one moment; and +then answered with another of his smiles,-- + +"Your nation possesses the soul of honor. He who fights an +Englishman needs no second." + +"And he who fights among Englishmen will always find one," said Sir +Richard. "I am the fittest second for my guest." + +"You only add one more obligation, illustrious cavalier, to a two- +years' prodigality of favors, which I shall never be able to +repay." + +"But, Nephew Arthur," said Grenville, "you cannot surely be second +against your father's guest, and your own uncle." + +"I cannot help it, sir; I am bound by an oath, as Will can tell +you. I suppose you won't think it necessary to let me blood?" + +"You half deserve it, sirrah!" said Sir Richard, who was very +angry: but the Don interposed quickly. + +"Heaven forbid, senors! We are no French duellists, who are mad +enough to make four or six lives answer for the sins of two. This +gentleman and I have quarrel enough between us, I suspect, to make +a right bloody encounter." + +"The dependence is good enough, sir," said Cary, licking his sinful +lips at the thought. "Very well. Rapiers and shirts at three +tomorrow morning--Is that the bill of fare? Ask Sir Richard where, +Atty? It is against punctilio now for me to speak to him till +after I am killed." + +"On the sands opposite. The tide will be out at three. And now, +gallant gentlemen, let us join the bowlers." + +And so they went back and spent a merry evening, all except poor +Rose, who, ere she went back, had poured all her sorrows into Lady +Grenville's ear. For the kind woman, knowing that she was +motherless and guileless, carried her off into Mrs. St. Leger's +chamber, and there entreated her to tell the truth, and heaped her +with pity but with no comfort. For indeed, what comfort was there +to give? + + . . . . . . . + +Three o'clock, upon a still pure bright midsummer morning. A broad +and yellow sheet of ribbed tide-sands, through which the shallow +river wanders from one hill-foot to the other, whispering round +dark knolls of rock, and under low tree-fringed cliffs, and banks +of golden broom. A mile below, the long bridge and the white +walled town, all sleeping pearly in the soft haze, beneath a +cloudless vault of blue. The white glare of dawn, which last night +hung high in the northwest, has travelled now to the northeast, and +above the wooded wall of the hills the sky is flushing with rose +and amber. + +A long line of gulls goes wailing up inland; the rooks from Annery +come cawing and sporting round the corner at Landcross, while high +above them four or five herons flap solemnly along to find their +breakfast on the shallows. The pheasants and partridges are +clucking merrily in the long wet grass; every copse and hedgerow +rings with the voice of birds, but the lark, who has been singing +since midnight in the "blank height of the dark," suddenly hushes +his carol and drops headlong among the corn, as a broad-winged +buzzard swings from some wooded peak into the abyss of the valley, +and hangs high-poised above the heavenward songster. The air is +full of perfume; sweet clover, new-mown hay, the fragrant breath of +kine, the dainty scent of sea-weed wreaths and fresh wet sand. +Glorious day, glorious place, "bridal of earth and sky," decked +well with bridal garlands, bridal perfumes, bridal songs,--What do +those four cloaked figures there by the river brink, a dark spot on +the fair face of the summer morn? + +Yet one is as cheerful as if he too, like all nature round him, +were going to a wedding; and that is Will Cary. He has been +bathing down below, to cool his brain and steady his hand; and he +intends to stop Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto's +wooing for ever and a day. The Spaniard is in a very different +mood; fierce and haggard, he is pacing up and down the sand. He +intends to kill Will Cary; but then? Will he be the nearer to Rose +by doing so? Can he stay in Bideford? Will she go with him? +Shall he stoop to stain his family by marrying a burgher's +daughter? It is a confused, all but desperate business; and Don +Guzman is certain but of one thing, that he is madly in love with +this fair witch, and that if she refuse him, then, rather than see +her accept another man, he would kill her with his own hands. + +Sir Richard Grenville too is in no very pleasant humor, as St. +Leger soon discovers, when the two seconds begin whispering over +their arrangements. + +"We cannot have either of them killed, Arthur." + +"Mr. Cary swears he will kill the Spaniard, sir." + +"He sha'n't. The Spaniard is my guest. I am answerable for him to +Leigh, and for his ransom too. And how can Leigh accept the ransom +if the man is not given up safe and sound? They won't pay for a +dead carcass, boy! The man's life is worth two hundred pounds." + +"A very bad bargain,, sir, for those who pay the said two hundred +for the rascal; but what if he kills Cary?" + +"Worse still. Cary must not be killed. I am very angry with him, +but he is too good a lad to be lost; and his father would never +forgive us. We must strike up their swords at the first scratch." + +"It will make them very mad, sir." + +"Hang them! let them fight us then, if they don't like our counsel. +It must be, Arthur." + +"Be sure, sir," said Arthur, "that whatsoever you shall command I +shall perform. It is only too great an honor to a young man as I +am to find myself in the same duel with your worship, and to have +the advantage of your wisdom and experience." + +Sir Richard smiles, and says--"Now, gentlemen! are you ready?" + +The Spaniard pulls out a little crucifix, and kisses it devoutly, +smiting on his breast; crosses himself two or three times, and +says--"Most willingly, senor." + +Cary kisses no crucifix, but says a prayer nevertheless. + +Cloaks and doublets are tossed off, the men placed, the rapiers +measured hilt and point; Sir Richard and St. Leger place themselves +right and left of the combatants, facing each other, the points of +their drawn swords on the sand. Cary and the Spaniard stand for a +moment quite upright, their sword-arms stretched straight before +them, holding the long rapier horizontally, the left hand clutching +the dagger close to their breasts. So they stand eye to eye, with +clenched teeth and pale crushed lips, while men might count a +score; St. Leger can hear the beating of his own heart; Sir Richard +is praying inwardly that no life may be lost. Suddenly there is a +quick turn of Cary's wrist and a leap forward. The Spaniard's +dagger flashes, and the rapier is turned aside; Cary springs six +feet back as the Spaniard rushes on him in turn. Parry, thrust, +parry--the steel rattles, the sparks fly, the men breathe fierce +and loud; the devil's game is begun in earnest. + +Five minutes have the two had instant death a short six inches off +from those wild sinful hearts of theirs, and not a scratch has been +given. Yes! the Spaniard's rapier passes under Cary's left arm; he +bleeds. + +"A hit! a hit! Strike up, Atty!" and the swords are struck up +instantly. + +Cary, nettled by the smart, tries to close with his foe, but the +seconds cross their swords before him. + +"It is enough, gentlemen. Don Guzman's honor is satisfied!" + +"But not my revenge, senor," says the Spaniard, with a frown. +"This duel is a l'outrance, on my part; and, I believe, on Mr. +Cary's also." + +"By heaven, it is!" says Will, trying to push past. "Let me go, +Arthur St. Leger; one of us must down. Let me go, I say!" + +"If you stir, Mr. Cary, you have to do with Richard Grenville!" +thunders the lion voice. "I am angry enough with you for having +brought on this duel at all. Don't provoke me still further, young +hot-head!" + +Cary stops sulkily. + +"You do not know all, Sir Richard, or you would not speak in this +way." + +"I do, sir, all; and I shall have the honor of talking it over with +Don Guzman myself." + +"Hey!" said the Spaniard. "You came here as my second, Sir +Richard, as I understood, but not as my counsellor." + +"Arthur, take your man away! Cary! obey me as you would your +father, sir! Can you not trust Richard Grenville?" + +"Come away, for God's sake!" says poor Arthur, dragging Cary's +sword from him; "Sir Richard must know best!" + +So Cary is led off sulking, and Sir Richard turns to the Spaniard, + +"And now, Don Guzman, allow me, though much against my will, to +speak to you as a friend to a friend. You will pardon me if I say +that I cannot but have seen last night's devotion to--" + +"You will be pleased, senor, not to mention the name of any lady to +whom I may have shown devotion. I am not accustomed to have my +little affairs talked over by any unbidden counsellors." + +"Well, senor, if you take offence, you take that which is not +given. Only I warn you, with all apologies for any seeming +forwardness, that the quest on which you seem to be is one on which +you will not be allowed to proceed." + +"And who will stop me?" asked the Spaniard, with a fierce oath. + +"You are not aware, illustrious senor," said Sir Richard, parrying +the question, "that our English laity look upon mixed marriages +with full as much dislike as your own ecclesiastics." + +"Marriage, sir? Who gave you leave to mention that word to me?" + +Sir Richard's brow darkened; the Spaniard, in his insane pride, had +forced upon the good knight a suspicion which was not really just. + +"Is it possible, then, Senor Don Guzman, that I am to have the +shame of mentioning a baser word?" + +"Mention what you will, sir. All words are the same to me; for, +just or unjust, I shall answer them alike only by my sword." + +"You will do no such thing, sir. You forget that I am your host." + +"And do you suppose that you have therefore a right to insult me? +Stand on your guard, sir!" + +Grenville answered by slapping his own rapier home into the sheath +with a quiet smile. + +"Senor Don Guzman must be well enough aware of who Richard +Grenville is, to know that he may claim the right of refusing duel +to any man, if he shall so think fit." + +"Sir!" cried the Spaniard, with an oath, "this is too much! Do you +dare to hint that I am unworthy of your sword? Know, insolent +Englishman, I am not merely a De Soto, though that, by St. James, +were enough for you or any man. I am a Sotomayor, a Mendoza, a +Bovadilla, a Losada, a--sir! I have blood royal in my veins, and +you dare to refuse my challenge?" + +"Richard Grenville can show quarterings, probably, against even Don +Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto, or against (with no +offence to the unquestioned nobility of your pedigree) the bluest +blood of Spain. But he can show, moreover, thank God, a reputation +which raises him as much above the imputation of cowardice, as it +does above that of discourtesy. If you think fit, senor, to forget +what you have just, in very excusable anger, vented, and to return +with me, you will find me still, as ever, your most faithful +servant and host. If otherwise, you have only to name whither you +wish your mails to be sent, and I shall, with unfeigned sorrow, +obey your commands concerning them." + +The Spaniard bowed stiffly, answered, "To the nearest tavern, +senor," and then strode away. His baggage was sent thither. He +took a boat down to Appledore that very afternoon, and vanished, +none knew whither. A very courteous note to Lady Grenville, +enclosing the jewel which he had been used to wear round his neck, +was the only memorial he left behind him: except, indeed, the scar +on Cary's arm, and poor Rose's broken heart. + +Now county towns are scandalous places at best; and though all +parties tried to keep the duel secret, yet, of course, before noon +all Bideford knew what had happened, and a great deal more; and +what was even worse, Rose, in an agony of terror, had seen Sir +Richard Grenville enter her father's private room, and sit there +closeted with him for an hour and more; and when he went, upstairs +came old Salterne, with his stick in his hand, and after rating her +soundly for far worse than a flirt, gave her (I am sorry to have to +say it, but such was the mild fashion of paternal rule in those +times, even over such daughters as Lady Jane Grey, if Roger Ascham +is to be believed) such a beating that her poor sides were black +and blue for many a day; and then putting her on a pillion behind +him, carried her off twenty miles to her old prison at Stow mill, +commanding her aunt to tame down her saucy blood with bread of +affliction and water of affliction. Which commands were willingly +enough fulfilled by the old dame, who had always borne a grudge +against Rose for being rich while she was poor, and pretty while +her daughter was plain; so that between flouts, and sneers, and +watchings, and pretty open hints that she was a disgrace to her +family, and no better than she should be, the poor innocent child +watered her couch with her tears for a fortnight or more, +stretching out her hands to the wide Atlantic, and calling wildly +to Don Guzman to return and take her where he would, and she would +live for him and die for him; and perhaps she did not call in vain. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +HOW THE GOLDEN HIND CAME HOME AGAIN + + + "The spirits of your fathers + Shall start from every wave; + For the deck it was their field of fame, + And ocean was their grave." + + CAMPBELL. + + +So you see, my dear Mrs. Hawkins, having the silver, as your own +eyes show you, beside the ores of lead, manganese, and copper, and +above all this gossan (as the Cornish call it), which I suspect to +be not merely the matrix of the ore, but also the very crude form +and materia prima of all metals--you mark me?--If my recipes, which +I had from Doctor Dee, succeed only half so well as I expect, then +I refine out the luna, the silver, lay it by, and transmute the +remaining ores into sol, gold. Whereupon Peru and Mexico become +superfluities, and England the mistress of the globe. Strange, no +doubt; distant, no doubt: but possible, my dear madam, possible!" + +"And what good to you if it be, Mr. Gilbert? If you could find a +philosopher's stone to turn sinners into saints, now--but naught +save God's grace can do that; and that last seems ofttimes over +long in coming." And Mrs. Hawkins sighed. + +"But indeed, my dear madam, conceive now.--The Comb Martin mine +thus becomes a gold mine, perhaps inexhaustible; yields me +wherewithal to carry out my North-West patent; meanwhile my brother +Humphrey holds Newfoundland, and builds me fresh ships year by year +(for the forests of pine are boundless) for my China voyage." + +"Sir Humphrey has better thoughts in his dear heart than gold, Mr. +Adrian; a very close and gracious walker he has been this seven +year. I wish my Captain John were so too." + +"And how do you know I have naught better in my mind's eye than +gold? Or, indeed, what better could I have? Is not gold the +Spaniard's strength--the very mainspring of Antichrist? By gold +only, therefore, can we out-wrestle him. You shake your head, but +say, dear madam (for gold England must have), which is better, to +make gold bloodlessly at home, or take it bloodily abroad?" + +"Oh, Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Gilbert! is it not written, that those who +make haste to be rich, pierce themselves through with many sorrows? +Oh, Mr. Gilbert! God's blessing is not on it all." + +"Not on you, madam? Be sure that brave Captain John Hawkins's star +told me a different tale, when I cast his nativity for him.--Born +under stormy planets, truly, but under right royal and fortunate +ones." + +"Ah, Mr. Adrian! I am a simple body, and you a great philosopher, +but I hold there is no star for the seaman like the Star of +Bethlehem; and that goes with 'peace on earth and good will to +men,' and not with such arms as that, Mr. Adrian. I can't abide to +look upon them." + +And she pointed up to one of the bosses of the ribbed oak-roof, on +which was emblazoned the fatal crest which Clarencieux Hervey had +granted years before to her husband, the "Demi-Moor proper, bound." + +"Ah, Mr. Gilbert! since first he went to Guinea after those poor +negroes, little lightness has my heart known; and the very day that +that crest was put up in our grand new house, as the parson read +the first lesson, there was this text in it, Mr. Gilbert, 'Woe to +him that buildeth his house by iniquity, and his chambers by wrong. +Shalt thou live because thou closest thyself in cedar?' And it +went into my ears like fire, Mr. Gilbert, and into my heart like +lead; and when the parson went on, 'Did not thy father eat and +drink, and do judgment and justice? Then it was well with him,' I +thought of good old Captain Will; and--I tell you, Mr. Gilbert, +those negroes are on my soul from morning until night! We are all +mighty grand now, and money comes in fast, but the Lord will +require the blood of them at our hands yet, He will!" + +"My dearest madam, who can prosper more than you? If your husband +copied the Dons too closely once or twice in the matter of those +negroes (which I do not deny,) was he not punished at once when he +lost ships, men, all but life, at St. Juan d'Ulloa?" + +"Ay, yes," she said; "and that did give me a bit of comfort, +especially when the queen--God save her tender heart!--was so sharp +with him for pity of the poor wretches, but it has not mended him. +He is growing fast like the rest now, Mr. Gilbert, greedy to win, +and niggardly to spend (God forgive him!) and always fretting and +plotting for some new gain, and envying and grudging at Drake, and +all who are deeper in the snare of prosperity than he is. Gold, +gold, nothing but gold in every mouth--there it is! Ah! I mind +when Plymouth was a quiet little God-fearing place as God could +smile upon: but ever since my John, and Sir Francis, and poor Mr. +Oxenham found out the way to the Indies, it's been a sad place. +Not a sailor's wife but is crying 'Give, give,' like the daughters +of the horse-leech; and every woman must drive her husband out +across seas to bring her home money to squander on hoods and +farthingales, and go mincing with outstretched necks and wanton +eyes; and they will soon learn to do worse than that, for the sake +of gain. But the Lord's hand will be against their tires and +crisping-pins, their mufflers and farthingales, as it was against +the Jews of old. Ah, dear me!" + +The two interlocutors in this dialogue were sitting in a low oak- +panelled room in Plymouth town, handsomely enough furnished, +adorned with carving and gilding and coats of arms, and noteworthy +for many strange knickknacks, Spanish gold and silver vessels on +the sideboard; strange birds and skins, and charts and rough +drawings of coast which hung about the room; while over the +fireplace, above the portrait of old Captain Will Hawkins, pet of +Henry the Eighth, hung the Spanish ensign which Captain John had +taken in fair fight at Rio de la Hacha fifteen years before, when, +with two hundred men, he seized the town in despite of ten hundred +Spanish soldiers, and watered his ship triumphantly at the enemy's +wells. + +The gentleman was a tall fair man, with a broad and lofty forehead, +wrinkled with study, and eyes weakened by long poring over the +crucible and the furnace. + +The lady had once been comely enough, but she was aged and worn, as +sailors' wives are apt to be, by many sorrows. Many a sad day had +she had already; for although John Hawkins, port-admiral of +Plymouth, and patriarch of British shipbuilders, was a faithful +husband enough, and as ready to forgive as he was to quarrel, yet +he was obstinate and ruthless, and in spite of his religiosity (for +all men were religious then) was by no means a "consistent walker." + +And sadder days were in store for her, poor soul. Nine years hence +she would be asked to name her son's brave new ship, and would +christen it The Repentance, giving no reason in her quiet steadfast +way (so says her son Sir Richard) but that "Repentance was the best +ship in which we could sail to the harbor of heaven;" and she would +hear that Queen Elizabeth, complaining of the name for an unlucky +one, had re-christened her The Dainty, not without some by-quip, +perhaps, at the character of her most dainty captain, Richard +Hawkins, the complete seaman and Euphuist afloat, of whom, perhaps, +more hereafter. + +With sad eyes Mrs. (then Lady) Hawkins would see that gallant bark +sail Westward-ho, to go the world around, as many another ship +sailed; and then wait, as many a mother beside had waited, for the +sail which never returned; till, dim and uncertain, came tidings of +her boy fighting for four days three great Armadas (for the coxcomb +had his father's heart in him after all), a prisoner, wounded, +ruined, languishing for weary years in Spanish prisons. And a +sadder day than that was in store, when a gallant fleet should +round the Ram Head, not with drum and trumpet, but with solemn +minute-guns, and all flags half-mast high, to tell her that her +terrible husband's work was done, his terrible heart broken by +failure and fatigue, and his body laid by Drake's beneath the far- +off tropic seas. + +And if, at the close of her eventful life, one gleam of sunshine +opened for a while, when her boy Richard returned to her bosom from +his Spanish prison, to be knighted for his valor, and made a privy +councillor for his wisdom; yet soon, how soon, was the old cloud to +close in again above her, until her weary eyes should open in the +light of Paradise. For that son dropped dead, some say at the very +council-table, leaving behind him naught but broken fortunes, and +huge purposes which never were fulfilled; and the stormy star of +that bold race was set forever, and Lady Hawkins bowed her weary +head and died, the groan of those stolen negroes ringing in her +ears, having lived long enough to see her husband's youthful sin +become a national institution, and a national curse for generations +yet unborn. + +I know not why she opened her heart that night to Adrian Gilbert, +with a frankness which she would hardly have dared to use to her +own family. Perhaps it was that Adrian, like his great brothers, +Humphrey and Raleigh, was a man full of all lofty and delicate +enthusiasms, tender and poetical, such as women cling to when their +hearts are lonely; but so it was; and Adrian, half ashamed of his +own ambitious dreams, sate looking at her a while in silence; and +then-- + +"The Lord be with you, dearest lady. Strange, how you women sit at +home to love and suffer, while we men rush forth to break our +hearts and yours against rocks of our own seeking! Ah well! were +it not for Scripture, I should have thought that Adam, rather than +Eve, had been the one who plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree." + +"We women, I fear; did the deed nevertheless; for we bear the doom +of it our lives long." + +"You always remind me, madam, of my dear Mrs. Leigh of Burrough, +and her counsels." + +"Do you see her often? I hear of her as one of the Lord's most +precious vessels." + +"I would have done more ere now than see her," said he with a +blush, "had she allowed me: but she lives only for the memory of +her husband and the fame of her noble sons." + +As he spoke the door opened, and in walked, wrapped in his rough +sea-gown, none other than one of those said noble sons. + +Adrian turned pale. + +"Amyas Leigh! What brings you hither? how fares my brother? Where +is the ship?" + +"Your brother is well, Mr. Gilbert. The Golden Hind is gone on to +Dartmouth, with Mr. Hayes. I came ashore here, meaning to go north +to Bideford, ere I went to London. I called at Drake's just now, +but he was away." + +"The Golden Hind? What brings her home so soon?" + +"Yet welcome ever, sir," said Mrs. Hawkins. "This is a great +surprise, though. Captain John did not look for you till next +year." + +Amyas was silent. + +"Something is wrong!" cried Adrian. "Speak!" + +Amyas tried, but could not. + +"Will you drive a man mad, sir? Has the adventure failed? You +said my brother was well." + +"He is well." + +"Then what-- Why do you look at me in that fashion, sir?" and +springing up, Adrian rushed forward, and held the candle to Amyas's +face. + +Amyas's lip quivered, as he laid his hand on Adrian's shoulder. + +"Your great and glorious brother, sir, is better bestowed than in +settling Newfoundland." + +"Dead?" shrieked Adrian. + +"He is with the God whom he served!" + +"He was always with Him, like Enoch: parable me no parables, if you +love me, sir!" + +"And, like Enoch, he was not; for God took him." + +Adrian clasped his hands over his forehead, and leaned against the +table. + +"Go on, sir, go on. God will give me strength to hear all." + +And gradually Amyas opened to Adrian that tragic story, which Mr. +Hayes has long ago told far too well to allow a second edition of +it from me: of the unruliness of the men, ruffians, as I said +before, caught up at hap-hazard; of conspiracies to carry off the +ships, plunder of fishing vessels, desertions multiplying daily; +licenses from the general to the lazy and fearful to return home: +till Adrian broke out with a groan-- + +"From him? Conspired against him? Deserted from him? Dotards, +buzzards! Where would they have found such another leader?" + +"Your illustrious brother, sir," said Amyas, "if you will pardon +me, was a very great philosopher, but not so much of a general." + +"General, sir? Where was braver man?" + +"Not on God's earth, but that does not make a general, sir. If +Cortez had been brave and no more, Mexico would have been Mexico +still. The truth is, sir, Cortez, like my Captain Drake, knew when +to hang a man; and your great brother did not." + +Amyas, as I suppose, was right. Gilbert was a man who could be +angry enough at baseness or neglect, but who was too kindly to +punish it; he was one who could form the wisest and best-digested +plans, but who could not stoop to that hail-fellow-well-met +drudgery among his subordinates which has been the talisman of +great captains. + +Then Amyas went on to tell the rest of his story; the setting sail +from St. John's to discover the southward coast; Sir Humphrey's +chivalrous determination to go in the little Squirrel of only ten +tons, and "overcharged with nettings, fights, and small ordnance," +not only because she was more fit to examine the creeks, but +because he had heard of some taunt against him among the men, that +he was afraid of the sea. + +After that, woe on woe; how, seven days after they left Cape Raz, +their largest ship, the Delight, after she had "most part of the +night" (I quote Hayes), "like the swan that singeth before her +death, continued in sounding of trumpets, drums, and fifes, also +winding of the comets and hautboys, and, in the end of their +jollity, left off with the battle and doleful knells," struck the +next day (the Golden Hind and the Squirrel sheering off just in +time) upon unknown shoals; where were lost all but fourteen, and +among them Frank's philosopher friend, poor Budaeus; and those who +escaped, after all horrors of cold and famine, were cast on shore +in Newfoundland. How, worn out with hunger and want of clothes, +the crews of the two remaining ships persuaded Sir Humphrey to sail +toward England on the 31st of August; and on "that very instant, +even in winding about," beheld close alongside "a very lion in +shape, hair, and color, not swimming, but sliding on the water, +with his whole body; who passed along, turning his head to and fro, +yawning and gaping wide, with ugly demonstration of long teeth and +glaring eyes; and to bid us farewell (coming right against the +Hind) he sent forth a horrible voice, roaring or bellowing as doth +a lion." "What opinion others had thereof, and chiefly the general +himself, I forbear to deliver; but he took it for bonum omen, +rejoicing that he was to war against such an enemy, if it were the +devil." + +"And the devil it was, doubtless," said Adrian, "the roaring lion +who goes about seeking whom he may devour." + +"He has not got your brother, at least," quoth Amyas. + +"No," rejoined Mrs. Hawkins (smile not, reader, for those were days +in which men believed in the devil); "he roared for joy to think +how many poor souls would be left still in heathen darkness by Sir +Humphrey's death. God be with that good knight, and send all +mariners where he is now!" + +Then Amyas told the last scene; how, when they were off the Azores, +the storms came on heavier than ever, with "terrible seas, breaking +short and pyramid-wise," till, on the 9th September, the tiny +Squirrel nearly foundered and yet recovered; "and the general, +sitting abaft with a book in his hand, cried out to us in the Hind +so oft as we did approach within hearing, 'We are as near heaven by +sea as by land,' reiterating the same speech, well beseeming a +soldier resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testify he was. + +"The same Monday, about twelve of the clock, or not long after, the +frigate (the Squirrel) being ahead of us in the Golden Hind, +suddenly her lights were out; and withal our watch cried, the +general was cast away, which was true; for in that moment the +frigate was devoured and swallowed up of the sea." + +And so ended (I have used Hayes' own words) Amyas Leigh's story. + +"Oh, my brother! my brother!" moaned poor Adrian; "the glory of his +house, the glory of Devon!" + +"Ah! what will the queen say?" asked Mrs. Hawkins through her +tears. + +"Tell me," asked Adrian, "had he the jewel on when he died?" + +"The queen's jewel? He always wore that, and his own posy too, +'Mutare vel timere sperno.' He wore it; and he lived it." + +"Ay," said Adrian, "the same to the last!" + +"Not quite that," said Amyas. "He was a meeker man latterly than +he used to be. As he said himself once, a better refiner than any +whom he had on board had followed him close all the seas over, and +purified him in the fire. And gold seven times tried he was, when +God, having done His work in him, took him home at last." + +And so the talk ended. There was no doubt that the expedition had +been an utter failure; Adrian was a ruined man; and Amyas had lost +his venture. + +Adrian rose, and begged leave to retire; he must collect himself. + +"Poor gentleman!" said Mrs. Hawkins; "it is little else he has left +to collect." + +"Or I either," said Amyas. "I was going to ask you to lend me one +of your son's shirts, and five pounds to get myself and my men +home." + +"Five? Fifty, Mr. Leigh! God forbid that John Hawkins's wife +should refuse her last penny to a distressed mariner, and he a +gentleman born. But you must eat and drink." + +"It's more than I have done for many a day worth speaking of." + +And Amyas sat down in his rags to a good supper, while Mrs. Hawkins +told him all the news which she could of his mother, whom Adrian +Gilbert had seen a few months before in London; and then went on, +naturally enough, to the Bideford news. + +"And by the by, Captain Leigh, I've sad news for you from your +place; and I had it from one who was there at the time. You must +know a Spanish captain, a prisoner--" + +"What, the one I sent home from Smerwick?" + +"You sent? Mercy on us! Then, perhaps, you've heard--" + +"How can I have heard? What?" + +"That he's gone off, the villain?" + +"Without paying his ransom?" + +"I can't say that; but there's a poor innocent young maid gone off +with him, one Salterne's daughter--the Popish serpent!" + +"Rose Salterne, the mayor's daughter, the Rose of Torridge!" + +"That's her. Bless your dear soul, what ails you?" + +Amyas had dropped back in his seat as if he had been shot; but he +recovered himself before kind Mrs. Hawkins could rush to the +cupboard for cordials. + +"You'll forgive me, madam; but I'm weak from the sea; and your good +ale has turned me a bit dizzy, I think." + +"Ay, yes, 'tis too, too heavy, till you've been on shore a while. +Try the aqua vitae; my Captain John has it right good; and a bit +too fond of it too, poor dear soul, between whiles, Heaven forgive +him!" + +So she poured some strong brandy and water down Amyas's throat, in +spite of his refusals, and sent him to bed, but not to sleep; and +after a night of tossing, he started for Bideford, having obtained +the means for so doing from Mrs. Hawkins. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +HOW SALVATION YEO SLEW THE KING OF THE GUBBINGS + + +"Ignorance and evil, even in full flight, deal terrible backhanded +strokes at their pursuers."--HELPS. + + +Now I am sorry to say, for the honor of my country, that it was by +no means a safe thing in those days to travel from Plymouth to the +north of Devon; because, to get to your journey's end, unless you +were minded to make a circuit of many miles, you must needs pass +through the territory of a foreign and hostile potentate, who had +many times ravaged the dominions, and defeated the forces of her +Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and was named (behind his back at least) +the King of the Gubbings. "So now I dare call them," says Fuller, +"secured by distance, which one of more valor durst not do to their +face, for fear their fury fall upon him. Yet hitherto have I met +with none who could render a reason of their name. We call the +shavings of fish (which are little worth) gubbings; and sure it is +that they are sensible that the word importeth shame and disgrace. + +"As for the suggestion of my worthy and learned friend, Mr. Joseph +Maynard, that such as did inhabitare montes gibberosos, were called +Gubbings, such will smile at the ingenuity who dissent from the +truth of the etymology. + +"I have read of an England beyond Wales, but the Gubbings land is a +Scythia within England, and they pure heathens therein. It lieth +nigh Brent. For in the edge of Dartmoor it is reported that, some +two hundred years since, two bad women, being with child, fled +thither to hide themselves; to whom certain lewd fellows resorted, +and this was their first original. They are a peculiar of their +own making, exempt from bishop, archdeacon, and all authority, +either ecclesiastical or civil. They live in cots (rather holes +than houses) like swine, having all in common, multiplied without +marriage into many hundreds. Their language is the dross of the +dregs of the vulgar Devonian; and the more learned a man is, the +worse he can understand them. During our civil wars no soldiers +were quartered upon them, for fear of being quartered amongst them. +Their wealth consisteth in other men's goods; they live by stealing +the sheep on the moors; and vain is it for any to search their +houses, being a work beneath the pains of any sheriff, and above +the power of any constable. Such is their fleetness, they will +outrun many horses; vivaciousness, they outlive most men; living in +an ignorance of luxury, the extinguisher of life. They hold +together like bees; offend one, and all will revenge his quarrel. + +"But now I am informed that they begin to be civilized, and tender +their children to baptism, and return to be men, yea, Christians +again. I hope no CIVIL people amongst us will turn barbarians, now +these barbarians begin to be civilized."* + + +* Fuller, p. 398. + + +With which quip against the Anabaptists of his day, Fuller ends his +story; and I leave him to set forth how Amyas, in fear of these +same Scythians and heathens, rode out of Plymouth on a right good +horse, in his full suit of armor, carrying lance and sword, and +over and above two great dags, or horse-pistols; and behind him +Salvation Yeo, and five or six north Devon men (who had served with +him in Ireland, and were returning on furlough), clad in head- +pieces and quilted jerkins, each man with his pike and sword, and +Yeo with arquebuse and match, while two sumpter ponies carried the +baggage of this formidable troop. + +They pushed on as fast as they could, through Tavistock, to reach +before nightfall Lydford, where they meant to sleep; but what with +buying the horses, and other delays, they had not been able to +start before noon; and night fell just as they reached the +frontiers of the enemy's country. A dreary place enough it was, by +the wild glare of sunset. A high tableland of heath, banked on the +right by the crags and hills of Dartmoor, and sloping away to the +south and west toward the foot of the great cone of Brent-Tor, +which towered up like an extinct volcano (as some say that it +really is), crowned with the tiny church, the votive offering of +some Plymouth merchant of old times, who vowed in sore distress to +build a church to the Blessed Virgin on the first point of English +land which he should see. Far away, down those waste slopes, they +could see the tiny threads of blue smoke rising from the dens of +the Gubbings; and more than once they called a halt, to examine +whether distant furze-bushes and ponies might not be the patrols of +an advancing army. It is all very well to laugh at it now, in the +nineteenth century, but it was no laughing matter then; as they +found before they had gone two miles farther. + +On the middle of the down stood a wayside inn; a desolate and +villainous-looking lump of lichen-spotted granite, with windows +paper-patched, and rotting thatch kept down by stones and straw- +banks; and at the back a rambling court-ledge of barns and walls, +around which pigs and barefoot children grunted in loving communion +of dirt. At the door, rapt apparently in the contemplation of the +mountain peaks which glowed rich orange in the last lingering sun- +rays, but really watching which way the sheep on the moor were +taking, stood the innkeeper, a brawny, sodden-visaged, blear-eyed +six feet of brutishness, holding up his hose with one hand, for +want of points, and clawing with the other his elf-locks, on which +a fair sprinkling of feathers might denote: first, that he was just +out of bed, having been out sheep-stealing all the night before; +and secondly, that by natural genius he had anticipated the opinion +of that great apostle of sluttishness, Fridericus Dedekind, and his +faithful disciple Dekker, which last speaks thus to all gulls and +grobians: "Consider that as those trees of cobweb lawn, woven by +spinners in the fresh May mornings, do dress the curled heads of +the mountains, and adorn the swelling bosoms of the valleys; or as +those snowy fleeces, which the naked briar steals from the innocent +sheep to make himself a warm winter livery, are, to either of them +both, an excellent ornament; so make thou account, that to have +feathers sticking here and there on thy head will embellish thee, +and set thy crown out rarely. None dare upbraid thee, that like a +beggar thou hast lain on straw, or like a travelling pedlar upon +musty flocks; for those feathers will rise up as witnesses to choke +him that says so, and to prove thy bed to have been of the softest +down." Even so did those feathers bear witness that the possessor +of Rogues' Harbor Inn, on Brent-Tor Down, whatever else he lacked, +lacked not geese enough to keep him in soft lying. + +Presently he spies Amyas and his party coming slowly over the hill, +pricks up his ears, and counts them; sees Amyas's armor; shakes his +head and grunts; and then, being a man of few words, utters a +sleepy howl-- + +"Mirooi!--Fushing pooale!" + +A strapping lass--whose only covering (for country women at work in +those days dispensed with the ornament of a gown) is a green bodice +and red petticoat, neither of them over ample--brings out his +fishing-rod and basket, and the man, having tied up his hose with +some ends of string, examines the footlink. + +"Don vlies' gone!" + +"May be," says Mary; "shouldn't hay' left mun out to coort. May be +old hen's ate mun off. I see her chocking about a while agone." + +The host receives this intelligence with an oath, and replies by a +violent blow at Mary's head, which she, accustomed to such slight +matters, dodges, and then returns the blow with good effect on the +shock head. + +Whereon mine host, equally accustomed to such slight matters, +quietly shambles off, howling as he departs-- + +"Tell Patrico!" + +Mary runs in, combs her hair, slips a pair of stockings and her +best gown over her dirt, and awaits the coming guests, who make a +few long faces at the "mucksy sort of a place," but prefer to spend +the night there than to bivouac close to the enemy's camp. + +So the old hen who has swallowed the dun fly is killed, plucked, +and roasted, and certain "black Dartmoor mutton" is put on the +gridiron, and being compelled to confess the truth by that fiery +torment, proclaims itself to all noses as red-deer venison. In the +meanwhile Amyas has put his horse and the ponies into a shed, to +which he can find neither lock nor key, and therefore returns +grumbling, not without fear for his steed's safety. The baggage is +heaped in a corner of the room, and Amyas stretches his legs before +a turf fire; while Yeo, who has his notions about the place, posts +himself at the door, and the men are seized with a desire to +superintend the cooking, probably to be attributed to the fact that +Mary is cook. + +Presently Yeo comes in again. + +"There's a gentleman just coming up, sir, all alone." + +"Ask him to make one of our party, then, with my compliments." Yeo +goes out, and returns in five minutes. + +"Please, sir, he's gone in back ways, by the court." + +"Well, he has an odd taste, if he makes himself at home here." + +Out goes Yeo again, and comes back once more after five minutes, in +high excitement. + +"Come out, sir; for goodness' sake come out. I've got him. Safe +as a rat in a trap, I have!" + +"Who?" + +"A Jesuit, sir." + +"Nonsense, man!" + +"I tell you truth, sir. I went round the house, for I didn't like +the looks of him as he came up. I knew he was one of them villains +the minute he came up, by the way he turned in his toes, and put +down his feet so still and careful, like as if he was afraid of +offending God at every step. So I just put my eye between the wall +and the dern of the gate, and I saw him come up to the back door +and knock, and call 'Mary!' quite still, like any Jesuit; and the +wench flies out to him ready to eat him; and 'Go away,' I heard her +say, 'there's a dear man;' and then something about a 'queer +cuffin' (that's a justice in these canters' thieves' Latin); and +with that he takes out a somewhat--I'll swear it was one of those +Popish Agnuses--and gives it her; and she kisses it, and crosses +herself, and asks him if that's the right way, and then puts it +into her bosom, and he says, 'Bless you, my daughter;' and then I +was sure of the dog: and he slips quite still to the stable, and +peeps in, and when he sees no one there, in he goes, and out I go, +and shut to the door, and back a cart that was there up against it, +and call out one of the men to watch the stable, and the girl's +crying like mad." + +"What a fool's trick, man! How do you know that he is not some +honest gentleman, after all?" + +"Fool or none, sir; honest gentlemen don't give maidens Agnuses. +I've put him in; and if you want him let out again, you must come +and do it yourself, for my conscience is against it, sir. If the +Lord's enemies are delivered into my hand, I'm answerable, sir," +went on Yeo as Amyas hurried out with him. "'Tis written, 'If any +let one of them go, his life shall be for the life of him.'" + +So Amyas ran out, pulled back the cart grumbling, opened the door, +and began a string of apologies to--his cousin Eustace. + +Yes, here he was, with such a countenance, half foolish, half +venomous, as reynard wears when the last spadeful of earth is +thrown back, and he is revealed sitting disconsolately on his tail +within a yard of the terriers' noses. + +Neither cousin spoke for a minute or two. At last Amyas-- + +"Well, cousin hide-and-seek, how long have you added horse-stealing +to your other trades?" + +"My dear Amyas," said Eustace, very meekly, "I may surely go into +an inn stable without intending to steal what is in it." + +"Of course, old fellow," said Amyas, mollified, I was only in jest. +But what brings you here? Not prudence, certainly." + +"I am bound to know no prudence save for the Lord's work." + +"That's giving away Agnus Deis, and deceiving poor heathen wenches, +I suppose," said Yeo. + +Eustace answered pretty roundly-- + +"Heathens? Yes, truly; you Protestants leave these poor wretches +heathens, and then insult and persecute those who, with a devotion +unknown to you, labor at the danger of their lives to make them +Christians. Mr. Amyas Leigh, you can give me up to be hanged at +Exeter, if it shall so please you to disgrace your own family; but +from this spot neither you, no, nor all the myrmidons of your +queen, shall drive me, while there is a soul here left unsaved." + +"Come out of the stable, at least," said Amyas; "you don't want to +make the horses Papists, as well as the asses, do you? Come out, +man, and go to the devil your own way. I sha'n't inform against +you; and Yeo here will hold his tongue if I tell him, I know." + +"It goes sorely against my conscience, sir; but being that he is +your cousin, of course--" + +"Of course; and now come in and eat with me; supper's just ready, +and bygones shall be bygones, if you will have them so." + +How much forgiveness Eustace felt in his heart, I know not: but he +knew, of course, that he ought to forgive; and to go in and eat +with Amyas was to perform an act of forgiveness, and for the best +of motives, too, for by it the cause of the Church might be +furthered; and acts and motives being correct, what more was +needed? So in he went; and yet he never forgot that scar upon his +cheek; and Amyas could not look him in the face but Eustace must +fancy that his eyes were on the scar, and peep up from under his +lids to see if there was any smile of triumph on that honest +visage. They talked away over the venison, guardedly enough at +first; but as they went on, Amyas's straightforward kindliness +warmed poor Eustace's frozen heart; and ere they were aware, they +found themselves talking over old haunts and old passages of their +boyhood--uncles, aunts, and cousins; and Eustace, without any +sinister intention, asked Amyas why he was going to Bideford, while +Frank and his mother were in London. + +"To tell you the truth, I cannot rest till I have heard the whole +story about poor Rose Salterne." + +"What about her?" cried Eustace. + +"Do you not know?" + +"How should I know anything here? For heaven's sake, what has +happened?" + +Amyas told him, wondering at his eagerness, for he had never had +the least suspicion of Eustace's love. + +Eustace shrieked aloud. + +"Fool, fool that I have been! Caught in my own trap! Villain, +villain that he is! After all he promised me at Lundy!" + +And springing up, Eustace stamped up and down the room, gnashing +his teeth, tossing his head from side to side, and clutching with +outstretched hands at the empty air, with the horrible gesture +(Heaven grant that no reader has ever witnessed it!) of that +despair which still seeks blindly for the object which it knows is +lost forever. + +Amyas sat thunderstruck. His first impulse was to ask, "Lundy? +What knew you of him? What had he or you to do at Lundy?" but pity +conquered curiosity. + +"Oh, Eustace! And you then loved her too?" + +"Don't speak to me! Loved her? Yes, sir, and had as good a right +to love her as any one of your precious Brotherhood of the Rose. +Don't speak to me, I say, or I shall do you a mischief!" + +So Eustace knew of the brotherhood too! Amyas longed to ask him +how; but what use in that? If he knew it, he knew it; and what +harm? So he only answered: + +"My good cousin, why be wroth with me? If you really love her, now +is the time to take counsel with me how best we shall--" + +Eustace did not let him finish his sentence. Conscious that he had +betrayed himself upon more points than one, he stopped short in his +walk, suddenly collected himself by one great effort, and eyed +Amyas from underneath his brows with the old down look. + +"How best we shall do what, my valiant cousin?" said he, in a +meaning and half-scornful voice. "What does your most chivalrous +Brotherhood of the Rose purpose in such a case?" + +Amyas, a little nettled, stood on his guard in return, and answered +bluntly-- + +"What the Brotherhood of the Rose will do, I can't yet say. What +it ought to do, I have a pretty sure guess." + +"So have I. To hunt her down as you would an outlaw, because +forsooth she has dared to love a Catholic; to murder her lover in +her arms, and drag her home again stained with his blood, to be +forced by threats and persecution to renounce that Church into +whose maternal bosom she has doubtless long since found rest and +holiness!" + +"If she has found holiness, it matters little to me where she has +found it, Master Eustace, but that is the very point that I should +be glad to know for certain." + +"And you will go and discover for yourself?" + +"Have you no wish to discover it also?" + +"And if I had, what would that be to you?" + +"Only," said Amyas, trying hard to keep his temper, "that, if we +had the same purpose, we might sail in the same ship." + +"You intend to sail, then?" + +"I mean simply, that we might work together." + +"Our paths lie on very different roads, sir!" + +"I am afraid you never spoke a truer word, sir. In the meanwhile, +ere we part, be so kind as to tell me what you meant by saying that +you had met this Spaniard at Lundy?" + +"I shall refuse to answer that." + +"You will please to recollect, Eustace, that however good friends +we have been for the last half-hour, you are in my power. I have a +right to know the bottom of this matter; and, by heaven, I will +know it." + +"In your power? See that you are not in mine! Remember, sir, that +you are within a--within a few miles, at least, of those who will +obey me, their Catholic benefactor, but who owe no allegiance to +those Protestant authorities who have left them to the lot of the +beasts which perish." + +Amyas was very angry. He wanted but little more to make him catch +Eustace by the shoulders, shake the life out of him, and deliver +him into the tender guardianship of Yeo; but he knew that to take +him at all was to bring certain death on him, and disgrace on the +family; and remembering Frank's conduct on that memorable night at +Clovelly, he kept himself down. + +"Take me," said Eustace, "if you will, sir. You, who complain of +us that we keep no faith with heretics, will perhaps recollect that +you asked me into this room as your guest, and that in your good +faith I trusted when I entered it." + +The argument was a worthless one in law; for Eustace had been a +prisoner before he was a guest, and Amyas was guilty of something +very like misprision of treason in not handing him over to the +nearest justice. However, all he did was, to go to the door, open +it, and bowing to his cousin, bid him walk out and go to the devil, +since he seemed to have set his mind on ending his days in the +company of that personage. + +Whereon Eustace vanished. + +"Pooh!" said Amyas to himself, "I can find out enough, and too +much, I fear, without the help of such crooked vermin. I must see +Cary; I must see Salterne; and I suppose, if I am ready to do my +duty, I shall learn somehow what it is. Now to sleep; to-morrow up +and away to what God sends." + +"Come in hither, men," shouted he down the passage, "and sleep +here. Haven't you had enough of this villainous sour cider?" + +The men came in yawning, and settled themselves to sleep on the +floor. + +"Where's Yeo?" + +No one knew; he had gone out to say his prayers, and had not +returned. + +"Never mind," said Amyas, who suspected some plot on the old man's +part. "He'll take care of himself, I'll warrant him." + +"No fear of that, sir;" and the four tars were soon snoring in +concert round the fire, while Amyas laid himself on the settle, +with his saddle for a pillow. + + . . . . . . . + + +It was about midnight, when Amyas leaped to his feet, or rather +fell upon his back, upsetting saddle, settle, and finally, table, +under the notion that ten thousand flying dragons were bursting in +the window close to his ear, with howls most fierce and fell. The +flying dragons past, however, being only a flock of terror-stricken +geese, which flew flapping and screaming round the corner of the +house; but the noise which had startled them did not pass; and +another minute made it evident that a sharp fight was going on in +the courtyard, and that Yeo was hallooing lustily for help. + +Out turned the men, sword in hand, burst the back door open, +stumbling over pails and pitchers, and into the courtyard, where +Yeo, his back against the stable-door, was holding his own manfully +with sword and buckler against a dozen men. + +Dire and manifold was the screaming; geese screamed, chickens +screamed, pigs screamed, donkeys screamed, Mary screamed from an +upper window; and to complete the chorus, a flock of plovers, +attracted by the noise, wheeled round and round overhead, and added +their screams also to that Dutch concert. + +The screaming went on, but the fight ceased; for, as Amyas rushed +into the yard, the whole party of ruffians took to their heels, and +vanished over a low hedge at the other end of the yard. + +"Are you hurt, Yeo?" + +"Not a scratch, thank Heaven! But I've got two of them, the +ringleaders, I have. One of them's against the wall. Your horse +did for t'other." + +The wounded man was lifted up; a huge ruffian, nearly as big as +Amyas himself. Yeo's sword had passed through his body. He +groaned and choked for breath. + +"Carry him indoors. Where is the other?" + +"Dead as a herring, in the straw. Have a care, men, have a care +how you go in! the horses are near mad!" + +However, the man was brought out after a while. With him all was +over. They could feel neither pulse nor breath. + +"Carry him in too, poor wretch. And now, Yeo, what is the meaning +of all this?" + +Yeo's story was soon told. He could not get out of his Puritan +head the notion (quite unfounded, of course) that Eustace had meant +to steal the horses. He had seen the inn-keeper sneak off at their +approach; and expecting some night-attack, he had taken up his +lodging for the night in the stable. + +As he expected, an attempt was made. The door was opened (how, he +could not guess, for he had fastened it inside), and two fellows +came in, and began to loose the beasts. Yeo's account was, that he +seized the big fellow, who drew a knife on him, and broke loose; +the horses, terrified at the scuffle, kicked right and left; one +man fell, and the other ran out, calling for help, with Yeo at his +heels; "Whereon," said Yeo, "seeing a dozen more on me with clubs +and bows, I thought best to shorten the number while I could, ran +the rascal through, and stood on my ward; and only just in time I +was, what's more; there's two arrows in the house wall, and two or +three more in my buckler, which I caught up as I went out, for I +had hung it close by the door, you see, sir, to be all ready in +case," said the cunning old Philistine-slayer, as they went in +after the wounded man. + +But hardly had they stumbled through the low doorway into the back- +kitchen when a fresh hubbub arose inside--more shouts for help. +Amyas ran forward breaking his head against the doorway, and +beheld, as soon as he could see for the flashes in his eyes, an old +acquaintance, held on each side by a sturdy sailor. + +With one arm in the sleeve of his doublet, and the other in a not +over spotless shirt; holding up his hose with one hand, and with +the other a candle, whereby he had lighted himself to his own +confusion; foaming with rage, stood Mr. Evan Morgans, alias Father +Parsons, looking, between his confused habiliments and his fiery +visage (as Yeo told him to his face), "the very moral of a half- +plucked turkey-cock." And behind him, dressed, stood Eustace +Leigh. + +"We found the maid letting these here two out by the front door," +said one of the captors. + +"Well, Mr. Parsons," said Amyas; "and what are you about here? A +pretty nest of thieves and Jesuits we seem to have routed out this +evening." + +"About my calling, sir," said Parsons, stoutly. "By your leave, I +shall prepare this my wounded lamb for that account to which your +man's cruelty has untimely sent him." + +The wounded man, who lay upon the floor, heard Parsons' voice, and +moaned for the "Patrico." + +"You see, sir," said he, pompously, "the sheep know their +shepherd's voice." + +"The wolves you mean, you hypocritical scoundrel!" said Amyas, who +could not contain his disgust. "Let the fellow truss up his +points, lads, and do his work. After all, the man is dying." + +"The requisite matters, sir, are not at hand," said Parsons, +unabashed. + +"Eustace, go and fetch his matters for him; you seem to be in all +his plots." + +Eustace went silently and sullenly. + +"What's that fresh noise at the back, now?" + +"The maid, sir, a wailing over her uncle; the fellow that we saw +sneak away when we came up. It was him the horse killed." + +It was true. The wretched host had slipped off on their approach, +simply to call the neighboring outlaws to the spoil; and he had +been filled with the fruit of his own devices. + +"His blood be on his own head," said Amyas. + +"I question, sir," said Yeo, in a low voice, "whether some of it +will not be on the heads of those proud prelates who go clothed in +purple and fine linen, instead of going forth to convert such as +he, and then wonder how these Jesuits get hold of them. If they +give place to the devil in their sheepfolds, sure he'll come in and +lodge there. Look, sir, there's a sight in a gospel land!" + +And, indeed, the sight was curious enough. For Parsons was +kneeling by the side of the dying man, listening earnestly to the +confession which the man sobbed out in his gibberish, between the +spasms of his wounded chest. Now and then Parsons shook his head; +and when Eustace returned with the holy wafer, and the oil for +extreme unction, he asked him, in a low voice, "Ballard, interpret +for me." + +And Eustace knelt down on the other side of the sufferer, and +interpreted his thieves' dialect into Latin; and the dying man held +a hand of each, and turned first to one and then to the other +stupid eyes,--not without affection, though, and gratitude. + +"I can't stand this mummery any longer," said Yeo. "Here's a soul +perishing before my eyes, and it's on my conscience to speak a word +in season." + +"Silence!" whispered Amyas, holding him back by the arm; "he knows +them, and he don't know you; they are the first who ever spoke to +him as if he had a soul to be saved, and first come, first served; +you can do no good. See, the man's face is brightening already." + +"But, sir, 'tis a false peace." + +"At all events he is confessing his sins, Yeo; and if that's not +good for him, and you, and me, what is?" + +"Yea, Amen! sir; but this is not to the right person." + +"How do you know his words will not go to the right person, after +all, though he may not send them there? By heaven! the man is +dead!" + +It was so. The dark catalogue of brutal deeds had been gasped out; +but ere the words of absolution could follow, the head had fallen +back, and all was over. + +"Confession in extremis is sufficient," said Parsons to Eustace +("Ballard," as Parsons called him, to Amyas's surprise), as he +rose. "As for the rest, the intention will be accepted instead of +the act." + +"The Lord have mercy on his soul!" said Eustace. + +"His soul is lost before our very eyes," said Yeo. + +"Mind your own business," said Amyas. + +"Humph; but I'll tell you, sir, what our business is, if you'll +step aside with me. I find that poor fellow that lies dead is none +other than the leader of the Gubbings; the king of them, as they +dare to call him." + +"Well, what of that?" + +"Mark my words, sir, if we have not a hundred stout rogues upon us +before two hours are out; forgive us they never will; and if we get +off with our lives, which I don't much expect, we shall leave our +horses behind; for we can hold the house, sir, well enough till +morning, but the courtyard we can't, that's certain!" + +"We had better march at once, then." + +"Think, sir; if they catch us up--as they are sure to do, knowing +the country better than we--how will our shot stand their arrows?" + +"True, old wisdom; we must keep the road; and we must keep +together; and so be a mark for them, while they will be behind +every rock and bank; and two or three flights of arrows will do our +business for us. Humph! stay, I have a plan." And stepping +forward he spoke-- + +"Eustace, you will be so kind as to go back to your lambs; and tell +them, that if they meddle with us cruel wolves again to-night, we +are ready and willing to fight to the death, and have plenty of +shot and powder at their service. Father Parsons, you will be so +kind as to accompany us; it is but fitting that the shepherd should +be hostage for his sheep." + +"If you carry me off this spot, sir, you carry my corpse only," +said Parsons. "I may as well die here as be hanged elsewhere, like +my martyred brother Campian." + +"If you take him, you must take me too," said Eustace. + +"What if we won't?" + +"How will you gain by that? you can only leave me here. You cannot +make me go to the Gubbings, if I do not choose." + +Amyas uttered sotto voce an anathema on Jesuits, Gubbings, and +things in general. He was in a great hurry to get to Bideford, and +he feared that this business would delay him, as it was, a day or +two. He wanted to hang Parsons, he did not want to hang Eustace; +and Eustace, he knew, was well aware of that latter fact, and +played his game accordingly; but time ran on, and he had to answer +sulkily enough: + +"Well then; if you, Eustace, will go and give my message to your +converts, I will promise to set Mr. Parsons free again before we +come to Lydford town; and I advise you, if you have any regard for +his life, to see that your eloquence be persuasive enough; for as +sure as I am an Englishman, and he none, if the Gubbings attack us, +the first bullet that I shall fire at them will have gone through +his scoundrelly brains." + +Parsons still kicked. + +"Very well, then, my merry men all. Tie this gentleman's hands +behind his back, get the horses out, and we'll right away up into +Dartmoor, find a good high tor, stand our ground there till +morning, and then carry him into Okehampton to the nearest justice. +If he chooses to delay me in my journey, it is fair that I should +make him pay for it." + +Whereon Parsons gave in, and being fast tied by his arm to Amyas's +saddle, trudged alongside his horse for several weary miles, while +Yeo walked by his side, like a friar by a condemned criminal; and +in order to keep up his spirits, told him the woful end of Nicholas +Saunders the Legate, and how he was found starved to death in a +bog. + +"And if you wish, sir, to follow in his blessed steps, which I +heartily hope you will do, you have only to go over that big cow- +backed hill there on your right hand, and down again the other side +to Crawmere pool, and there you'll find as pretty a bog to die in +as ever Jesuit needed; and your ghost may sit there on a grass +tummock, and tell your beads without any one asking for you till +the day of judgment; and much good may it do you!" + +At which imagination Yeo was actually heard, for the first and last +time in this history, to laugh most heartily. + +His ho-ho's had scarcely died away when they saw shining under the +moon the old tower of Lydford castle. + +"Cast the fellow off now," said Amyas. + +"Ay, ay, sir!" and Yeo and Simon Evans stopped behind, and did not +come up for ten minutes after. + +"What have you been about so long?" + +"Why, sir," said Evans, "you see the man had a very fair pair of +hose on, and a bran-new kersey doublet, very warm-lined; and so, +thinking it a pity good clothes should be wasted on such noxious +trade, we've just brought them along with us." + +"Spoiling the Egyptians," said Yeo as comment. + +"And what have you done with the man?" + +"Hove him over the bank, sir; he pitched into a big furze-bush, and +for aught I know, there he'll bide." + +"You rascal, have you killed him? + +"Never fear, sir," said Yeo, in his cool fashion. "A Jesuit has as +many lives as a cat, and, I believe, rides broomsticks post, like a +witch. He would be at Lydford now before us, if his master Satan +had any business for him there." + +Leaving on their left Lydford and its ill-omened castle (which, a +century after, was one of the principal scenes of Judge Jeffreys's +cruelty), Amyas and his party trudged on through the mire toward +Okehampton till sunrise; and ere the vapors had lifted from the +mountain tops, they were descending the long slopes from Sourton +down, while Yestor and Amicombe slept steep and black beneath their +misty pall; and roaring far below unseen, + + + "Ockment leapt from crag and cloud + Down her cataracts, laughing loud." + + +The voice of the stream recalled these words to Amyas's mind. The +nymph of Torridge had spoken them upon the day of his triumph. He +recollected, too, his vexation on that day at not seeing Rose +Salterne. Why, he had never seen her since. Never seen her now +for six years and more! Of her ripened beauty he knew only by +hearsay; she was still to him the lovely fifteen years' girl for +whose sake he had smitten the Barnstaple draper over the quay. +What a chain of petty accidents had kept them from meeting, though +so often within a mile of each other! "And what a lucky one!" said +practical old Amyas to himself. "If I had seen her as she is now, +I might have loved her as Frank does--poor Frank! what will he say? +What does he say, for he must know it already? And what ought I to +say--to do rather, for talking is no use on this side the grave, +nor on the other either, I expect!" And then he asked himself +whether his old oath meant nothing or something; whether it was a +mere tavern frolic, or a sacred duty. And he held, the more that +he looked at it, that it meant the latter. + +But what could he do? He had nothing on earth but his sword, so he +could not travel to find her. After all, she might not be gone +far. Perhaps not gone at all. It might be a mistake, an +exaggerated scandal. He would hope so. And yet it was evident +that there had been some passages between her and Don Guzman. +Eustace's mysterious words about the promise at Lundy proved that. +The villain! He had felt all along that he was a villain; but just +the one to win a woman's heart, too. Frank had been away--all the +Brotherhood away. What a fool he had been, to turn the wolf loose +into the sheepfold! And yet who would have dreamed of it? . . . + +"At all events," said Amyas, trying to comfort himself, "I need not +complain. I have lost nothing. I stood no more chance of her +against Frank than I should have stood against the Don. So there +is no use for me to cry about the matter." And he tried to hum a +tune concerning the general frailty of women, but nevertheless, +like Sir Hugh, felt that "he had a great disposition to cry." + +He never had expected to win her, and yet it seemed bitter to know +that she was lost to him forever. It was not so easy for a heart +of his make to toss away the image of a first love; and all the +less easy because that image was stained and ruined. + +"Curses on the man who had done that deed! I will yet have his +heart's blood somehow, if I go round the world again to find him. +If there's no law for it on earth, there's law in heaven, or I'm +much mistaken." + +With which determination he rode into the ugly, dirty, and stupid +town of Okehampton, with which fallen man (by some strange +perversity) has chosen to defile one of the loveliest sites in the +pleasant land of Devon. And heartily did Amyas abuse the old town +that day; for he was detained there, as he expected, full three +hours, while the Justice Shallow of the place was sent for from his +farm (whither he had gone at sunrise, after the early-rising +fashion of those days) to take Yeo's deposition concerning last +night's affray. Moreover, when Shallow came, he refused to take +the depositions, because they ought to have been made before a +brother Shallow at Lydford; and in the wrangling which ensued, was +very near finding out what Amyas (fearing fresh loss of time and +worse evils beside) had commanded to be concealed, namely, the +presence of Jesuits in that Moorland Utopia. Then, in broadest +Devon-- + +"And do you call this Christian conduct, sir, to set a quiet man +like me upon they Gubbings, as if I was going to risk my precious +life--no, nor ever a constable to Okehampton neither? Let Lydfor' +men mind Lydfor' roogs, and by Lydfor' law if they will, hang first +and try after; but as for me, I've rade my Bible, and 'He that +meddleth with strife is like him that taketh a dog by the ears.' +So if you choose to sit down and ate your breakfast with me, well +and good: but depositions I'll have none. If your man is enquired +for, you'll be answerable for his appearing, in course; but I +expect mortally" (with a wink), "you wain't hear much more of the +matter from any hand. 'Leave well alone is a good rule, but leave +ill alone is a better.'--So we says round about here; and so you'll +say, captain, when you be so old as I." + +So Amyas sat down and ate his breakfast, and went on afterwards a +long and weary day's journey, till he saw at last beneath him the +broad shining river, and the long bridge, and the white houses +piled up the hill-side; and beyond, over Raleigh downs, the dear +old tower of Northam Church. + +Alas! Northam was altogether a desert to him then; and Bideford, as +it turned out, hardly less so. For when he rode up to Sir +Richard's door, he found that the good knight was still in Ireland, +and Lady Grenville at Stow. Whereupon he rode back again down the +High Street to that same bow-windowed Ship Tavern where the +Brotherhood of the Rose made their vow, and settled himself in the +very room where they had supped. + +"Ah! Mr. Leigh--Captain Leigh now, I beg pardon," quoth mine host. +"Bideford is an empty place now-a-days, and nothing stirring, sir. +What with Sir Richard to Ireland, and Sir John to London, and all +the young gentlemen to the wars, there's no one to buy good liquor, +and no one to court the young ladies, neither. Sack, sir? I hope +so. I haven't brewed a gallon of it this fortnight, if you'll +believe me; ale, sir, and aqua vitae, and such low-bred trade, is +all I draw now-a-days. Try a pint of sherry, sir, now, to give you +an appetite. You mind my sherry of old? Jane! Sherry and sugar, +quick, while I pull off the captain's boots." + +Amyas sat weary and sad, while the innkeeper chattered on. + +"Ah, sir! two or three like you would set the young ladies all +alive again. By-the-by, there's been strange doings among them +since you were here last. You mind Mistress Salterne!" + +"For God's sake, don't let us have that story, man! I heard enough +of it at Plymouth!" said Amyas, in so disturbed a tone that mine +host looked up, and said to himself-- + +"Ah, poor young gentleman, he's one of the hard-hit ones." + +"How is the old man?" asked Amyas, after a pause. + +"Bears it well enough, sir; but a changed man. Never speaks to a +soul, if he can help it. Some folk say he's not right in his head; +or turned miser, or somewhat, and takes naught but bread and water, +and sits up all night in the room as was hers, turning over her +garments. Heaven knows what's on his mind--they do say he was over +hard on her, and that drove her to it. All I know is, he has never +been in here for a drop of liquor (and he came as regular every +evening as the town clock, sir) since she went, except a ten days +ago, and then he met young Mr. Cary at the door, and I heard him +ask Mr. Cary when you would be home, sir." + +"Put on my boots again. I'll go and see him." + +"Bless you, sir! What, without your sack?" + +"Drink it yourself, man." + +"But you wouldn't go out again this time o' night on an empty +stomach, now?" + +"Fill my men's stomachs for them, and never mind mine. It's +market-day, is it not? Send out, and see whether Mr. Cary is still +in town;" and Amyas strode out, and along the quay to Bridgeland +Street, and knocked at Mr. Salterne's door. + +Salterne himself opened it, with his usual stern courtesy. + +"I saw you coming up the street, sir. I have been expecting this +honor from you for some time past. I dreamt of you only last +night, and many a night before that too. Welcome, sir, into a +lonely house. I trust the good knight your general is well." + +"The good knight my general is with God who made him, Mr. +Salterne." + +"Dead, sir?" + +"Foundered at sea on our way home; and the Delight lost too." + +"Humph!" growled Salterne, after a minute's silence. "I had a +venture in her. I suppose it's gone. No matter--I can afford it, +sir, and more, I trust. And he was three years younger than I! +And Draper Heard was buried yesterday, five years younger.--How is +it that every one can die, except me? Come in, sir, come in; I +have forgotten my manners. + +And he led Amyas into his parlor, and called to the apprentices to +run one way, and to the cook to run another. + +"You must not trouble yourself to get me supper, indeed." + +"I must though, sir, and the best of wine too; and old Salterne had +a good tap of Alicant in old time, old time, old time, sir! and you +must drink it now, whether he does or not!" and out he bustled. + +Amyas sat still, wondering what was coming next, and puzzled at the +sudden hilarity of the man, as well as his hospitality, so +different from what the innkeeper had led him to expect. + +In a minute more one of the apprentices came in to lay the cloth, +and Amyas questioned him about his master. + +"Thank the Lord that you are come, sir," said the lad. + +"Why, then?" + +"Because there'll be a chance of us poor fellows getting a little +broken meat. We'm half-starved this three months--bread and +dripping, bread and dripping, oh dear, sir! And now he's sent out +to the inn for chickens, and game, and salads, and all that money +can buy, and down in the cellar haling out the best of wine."--And +the lad smacked his lips audibly at the thought. + +"Is he out of his mind?" + +"I can't tell; he saith as how he must save mun's money now-a-days; +for he've a got a great venture on hand: but what a be he tell'th +no man. They call'th mun 'bread and dripping' now, sir, all town +over," said the prentice, confidentially, to Amyas. + +"They do, do they, sirrah! Then they will call me bread and no +dripping to-morrow!" and old Salterne, entering from behind, made a +dash at the poor fellow's ears: but luckily thought better of it, +having a couple of bottles in each hand. + +"My dear sir," said Amyas, "you don't mean us to drink all that +wine?" + +"Why not, sir?" answered Salterne, in a grim, half-sneering tone, +thrusting out his square-grizzled beard and chin. "Why not, sir? +why should I not make merry when I have the honor of a noble +captain in my house? one who has sailed the seas, sir, and cut +Spaniards' throats; and may cut them again too; eh, sir? Boy, +where's the kettle and the sugar?" + +"What on earth is the man at?" quoth Amyas to himself--'flattering +me, or laughing at me?" + +"Yes," he ran on, half to himself, in a deliberate tone, evidently +intending to hint more than he said, as he began brewing the sack-- +in plain English, hot negus; "Yes, bread and dripping for those who +can't fight Spaniards; but the best that money can buy for those +who can. I heard of you at Smerwick, sir--Yes, bread and dripping +for me too--I can't fight Spaniards: but for such as you. Look +here, sir; I should like to feed a crew of such up, as you'd feed a +main of fighting-cocks, and then start them with a pair of +Sheffield spurs a-piece--you've a good one there to your side, sir: +but don't you think a man might carry two now, and fight as they +say those Chineses do, a sword to each hand? You could kill more +that way, Captain Leigh, I reckon?" + +Amyas half laughed. + +"One will do, Mr. Salterne, if one is quick enough with it." + +"Humph!--Ah--No use being in a hurry. I haven't been in a hurry. +No--I waited for you; and here you are and welcome, sir! Here +comes supper, a light matter, sir, you see. A capon and a brace of +partridges. I had no time to feast you as you deserve." + +And so he ran on all supper-time, hardly allowing Amyas to get a +word in edge-ways; but heaping him with coarse flattery, and urging +him to drink, till after the cloth was drawn, and the two left +alone, he grew so outrageous that Amyas was forced to take him to +task good-humoredly. + +"Now, my dear sir, you have feasted me royally, and better far than +I deserve, but why will you go about to make me drunk twice over, +first with vainglory and then with wine?" + +Salterne looked at him a while fixedly, and then, sticking out his +chin--"Because, Captain Leigh, I am a man who has all his life +tried the crooked road first, and found the straight one the safer +after all." + +"Eh, sir? That is a strange speech for one who bears the character +of the most upright man in Bideford." + +"Humph. So I thought myself once, sir; and well I have proved it. +But I'll be plain with you, sir. You've heard how--how I've fared +since you saw me last?" + +Amyas nodded his head. + +"I thought so. Shame rides post. Now then, Captain Leigh, listen +to me. I, being a plain man and a burgher, and one that never drew +iron in my life except to mend a pen, ask you, being a gentleman +and a captain and a man of honor, with a weapon to your side, and +harness to your back--what would you do in my place?" + +"Humph!" said Amyas, "that would very much depend on whether 'my +place' was my own fault or not." + +"And what if it were, sir? What if all that the charitable folks +of Bideford--(Heaven reward them for their tender mercies!)--have +been telling you in the last hour be true, sir,--true! and yet not +half the truth?" + +Amyas gave a start. + +"Ah, you shrink from me! Of course a man is too righteous to +forgive those who repent, though God is not." + +"God knows, sir--" + +"Yes, sir, God does know--all; and you shall know a little--as much +as I can tell--or you understand. Come upstairs with me, sir, as +you'll drink no more; I have a liking for you. I have watched you +from your boyhood, and I can trust you, and I'll show you what I +never showed to mortal man but one." + +And, taking up a candle, he led the way upstairs, while Amyas +followed wondering. + +He stopped at a door, and unlocked it. + +"There, come in. Those shutters have not been opened since she--" +and the old man was silent. + +Amyas looked round the room. It was a low wainscoted room, such as +one sees in old houses: everything was in the most perfect +neatness. The snow-white sheets on the bed were turned down as if +ready for an occupant. There were books arranged on the shelves, +fresh flowers on the table; the dressing-table had all its woman's +mundus of pins, and rings, and brushes; even the dressing-gown lay +over the chair-back. Everything was evidently just as it had been +left. + +"This was her room, sir," whispered the old man. + +Amyas nodded silently, and half drew back. + +"You need not be modest about entering it now, sir," whispered he, +with a sort of sneer. "There has been no frail flesh and blood in +it for many a day." + +Amyas sighed. + +"I sweep it out myself every morning, and keep all tidy. See +here!" and he pulled open a drawer. "Here are all her gowns, and +there are her hoods; and there--I know 'em all by heart now, and +the place of every one. And there, sir--" + +And he opened a cupboard, where lay in rows all Rose's dolls, and +the worn-out playthings of her childhood. + +"That's the pleasantest place of all in the room to me," said he, +whispering still, "for it minds me of when--and maybe, she may +become a little child once more, sir; it's written in the +Scripture, you know--" + +"Amen!" said Amyas, who felt, to his own wonder, a big tear +stealing down each cheek. + +"And now," he whispered, "one thing more. Look here!"--and pulling +out a key, he unlocked a chest, and lifted up tray after tray of +necklaces and jewels, furs, lawns, cloth of gold. "Look there! +Two thousand pound won't buy that chest. Twenty years have I been +getting those things together. That's the cream of many a Levant +voyage, and East Indian voyage, and West Indian voyage. My Lady +Bath can't match those pearls in her grand house at Tawstock; I got +'em from a Genoese, though, and paid for 'em. Look at that +embroidered lawn! There's not such a piece in London; no, nor in +Alexandria, I'll warrant; nor short of Calicut, where it came +from. . . . Look here again, there's a golden cup! I bought that +of one that was out with Pizarro in Peru. And look here, again!"-- +and the old man gloated over the treasure. + +"And whom do you think I kept all these for? These were for her +wedding-day--for her wedding-day. For your wedding-day, if you'd +been minded, sir! Yes, yours, sir! And yet, I believe, I was so +ambitious that I would not have let her marry under an earl, all +the while I was pretending to be too proud to throw her at the head +of a squire's son. Ah, well! There was my idol, sir. I made her +mad, I pampered her up with gewgaws and vanity; and then, because +my idol was just what I had made her, I turned again and rent her. + +"And now," said he, pointing to the open chest, "that was what I +meant; and that" (pointing to the empty bed) "was what God meant. +Never mind. Come downstairs and finish your wine. I see you don't +care about it all. Why should you! you are not her father, and you +may thank God you are not. Go, and be merry while you can, young +sir! . . . And yet, all this might have been yours. And--but I +don't suppose you are one to be won by money--but all this may be +yours still, and twenty thousand pounds to boot." + +"I want no money, sir, but what I can earn with my own sword." + +"Earn my money, then!" + +"What on earth do you want of me!" + +"To keep your oath," said Salterne, clutching his arm, and looking +up into his face with searching eyes. + +"My oath! How did you know that I had one?" + +"Ah! you were well ashamed of it, I suppose, next day! A drunken +frolic all about a poor merchant's daughter! But there is nothing +hidden that shall not be revealed, nor done in the closet that is +not proclaimed on the house-tops." + +"Ashamed of it, sir, I never was: but I have a right to ask how you +came to know it?" + +"What if a poor fat squinny rogue, a low-born fellow even as I am, +whom you had baffled and made a laughing-stock, had come to me in +my loneliness and sworn before God that if you honorable gentlemen +would not keep your words, he the clown would?" + +"John Brimblecombe?" + +"And what if I had brought him where I have brought you, and shown +him what I have shown you, and, instead of standing as stiff as any +Spaniard, as you do, he had thrown himself on his knees by that +bedside, and wept and prayed, sir, till he opened my hard heart for +the first and last time, and I fell down on my sinful knees and +wept and prayed by him?" + +"I am not given to weeping, Mr. Salterne," said Amyas; "and as for +praying, I don't know yet what I have to pray for, on her account: +my business is to work. Show me what I can do; and when you have +done that, it will be full time to upbraid me with not doing it." + +"You can cut that fellow's throat." + +"It will take a long arm to reach him." + +"I suppose it is as easy to sail to the Spanish Main as it was to +sail round the world." + +"My good sir," said Amyas, "I have at this moment no more worldly +goods than my clothes and my sword, so how to sail to the Spanish +Main, I don't quite see." + +"And do you suppose, sir, that I should hint to you of such a +voyage if I meant you to be at the charge of it? No, sir; if you +want two thousand pounds, or five, to fit a ship, take it! Take +it, sir! I hoarded money for my child: and now I will spend it to +avenge her." + +Amyas was silent for a while; the old man still held his arm, still +looked up steadfastly and fiercely in his face. + +"Bring me home that man's head, and take ship, prizes--all! Keep +the gain, sir, and give me the revenge!" + +"Gain? Do you think I need bribing, sir? What kept me silent was +the thought of my mother. I dare not go without her leave." + +Salterne made a gesture of impatience. + +"I dare not, sir; I must obey my parent, whatever else I do." + +"Humph!" said he. "If others had obeyed theirs as well!--But you +are right, Captain Leigh, right. You will prosper, whoever else +does not. Now, sir, good-night, if you will let me be the first to +say so. My old eyes grow heavy early now-a-days. Perhaps it's old +age, perhaps it's sorrow." + +So Amyas departed to the inn, and there, to his great joy, found +Cary waiting for him, from whom he learnt details, which must be +kept for another chapter, and which I shall tell, for convenience' +sake, in my own words and not in his. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +HOW MR. JOHN BRIMBLECOMBE UNDERSTOOD THE NATURE OF AN OATH + + + "The Kynge of Spayn is a foul paynim, + And lieveth on Mahound; + And pity it were that lady fayre + Should marry a heathen hound." + + Kyng Estmere. + + +About six weeks after the duel, the miller at Stow had come up to +the great house in much tribulation, to borrow the bloodhounds. +Rose Salterne had vanished in the night, no man knew whither. + +Sir Richard was in Bideford: but the old steward took on himself to +send for the keepers, and down went the serving-men to the mill +with all the idle lads of the parish at their heels, thinking a +maiden-hunt very good sport; and of course taking a view of the +case as favorable as possible to Rose. + +They reviled the miller and his wife roundly for hard-hearted old +heathens; and had no doubt that they had driven the poor maid to +throw herself over cliff, or drown herself in the sea; while all +the women of Stow, on the other hand, were of unanimous opinion +that the hussy had "gone off" with some bad fellow; and that pride +was sure to have a fall, and so forth. + +The facts of the case were, that all Rose's trinkets were left +behind, so that she had at least gone off honestly; and nothing +seemed to be missing, but some of her linen, which old Anthony the +steward broadly hinted was likely to be found in other people's +boxes. The only trace was a little footmark under her bedroom +window. On that the bloodhound was laid (of course in leash), and +after a premonitory whimper, lifted up his mighty voice, and +started bell-mouthed through the garden gate, and up the lane, +towing behind him the panting keeper, till they reached the downs +above, and went straight away for Marslandmouth, where the whole +posse comitatus pulled up breathless at the door of Lucy Passmore. + +Lucy, as perhaps I should have said before, was now a widow, and +found her widowhood not altogether contrary to her interest. Her +augury about her old man had been fulfilled; he had never returned +since the night on which he put to sea with Eustace and the +Jesuits. + + + "Some natural tears she shed, but dried them soon"-- + + +as many of them, at least, as were not required for purposes of +business; and then determined to prevent suspicion by a bold move; +she started off to Stow, and told Lady Grenville a most pathetic +tale: how her husband had gone out to pollock fishing, and never +returned: but how she had heard horsemen gallop past her window in +the dead of night, and was sure they must have been the Jesuits, +and that they had carried off her old man by main force, and +probably, after making use of his services, had killed and salted +him down for provision on their voyage back to the Pope at Rome; +after which she ended by entreating protection against those +"Popish skulkers up to Chapel," who were sworn to do her a +mischief; and by an appeal to Lady Grenville's sense of justice, as +to whether the queen ought not to allow her a pension, for having +had her heart's love turned into a sainted martyr by the hands of +idolatrous traitors. + +Lady Grenville (who had a great opinion of Lucy's medical skill, +and always sent for her if one of the children had a "housty," i. +e. sore throat) went forth and pleaded the case before Sir Richard +with such effect, that Lucy was on the whole better off than ever +for the next two or three years. But now--what had she to do with +Rose's disappearance? and, indeed, where was she herself? Her door +was fast; and round it her flock of goats stood, crying in vain for +her to come and milk them; while from the down above, her donkeys, +wandering at their own sweet will, answered the bay of the +bloodhound with a burst of harmony. + +"They'm laughing at us, keper, they neddies; sure enough, we'm lost +our labor here." + +But the bloodhound, after working about the door a while, turned +down the glen, and never stopped till he reached the margin of the +sea. + +"They'm taken water. Let's go back, and rout out the old witch's +house." + +"'Tis just like that old Lucy, to lock a poor maid into shame." + +And returning, they attacked the cottage, and by a general +plebiscitum, ransacked the little dwelling, partly in indignation, +and partly, if the truth be told, in the hope of plunder; but +plunder there was none. Lucy had decamped with all her movable +wealth, saving the huge black cat among the embers, who at the +sight of the bloodhound vanished up the chimney (some said with a +strong smell of brimstone), and being viewed outside, was chased +into the woods, where she lived, I doubt not, many happy years, a +scourge to all the rabbits of the glen. + +The goats and donkeys were driven off up to Stow; and the mob +returned, a little ashamed of themselves when their brief wrath was +past; and a little afraid, too, of what Sir Richard might say. + +He, when he returned, sold the donkeys and goats, and gave the +money to the poor, promising to refund the same, if Lucy returned +and gave herself up to justice. But Lucy did not return; and her +cottage, from which the neighbors shrank as from a haunted place, +remained as she had left it, and crumbled slowly down to four fern- +covered walls, past which the little stream went murmuring on from +pool to pool--the only voice, for many a year to come, which broke +the silence of that lonely glen. + +A few days afterwards, Sir Richard, on his way from Bideford to +Stow, looked in at Clovelly Court, and mentioned, with a "by the +by," news which made Will Cary leap from his seat almost to the +ceiling. What it was we know already. + +"And there is no clue?" asked old Cary; for his son was speechless. + +"Only this; I hear that some fellow prowling about the cliffs that +night saw a pinnace running for Lundy." + +Will rose, and went hastily out of the room. + +In half an hour he and three or four armed servants were on board a +trawling-skiff, and away to Lundy. He did not return for three +days, and then brought news: that an elderly man, seemingly a +foreigner, had been lodging for some months past in a part of the +ruined Moresco Castle, which was tenanted by one John Braund; that +a few weeks since a younger man, a foreigner also, had joined him +from on board a ship: the ship a Flushinger, or Easterling of some +sort. The ship came and went more than once; and the young man in +her. A few days since, a lady and her maid, a stout woman, came +with him up to the castle, and talked with the elder man a long +while in secret; abode there all night; and then all three sailed +in the morning. The fishermen on the beach had heard the young man +call the other father. He was a very still man, much as a mass- +priest might be. More they did not know, or did not choose to +know. + +Whereon old Cary and Sir Richard sent Will on a second trip with +the parish constable of Hartland (in which huge parish, for its +sins, is situate the Isle of Lundy, ten miles out at sea); who +returned with the body of the hapless John Braund, farmer, +fisherman, smuggler, etc.; which worthy, after much fruitless +examination (wherein examinate was afflicted with extreme deafness +and loss of memory), departed to Exeter gaol, on a charge of +"harboring priests, Jesuits, gipsies, and other suspect and +traitorous persons." + +Poor John Braund, whose motive for entertaining the said ugly +customers had probably been not treason, but a wife, seven +children, and arrears of rent, did not thrive under the change from +the pure air of Lundy to the pestiferous one of Exeter gaol, made +infamous, but two years after (if I recollect right), by a "black +assizes," nearly as fatal as that more notorious one at Oxford; for +in it, "whether by the stench of the prisoners, or by a stream of +foul air," judge, jury, counsel, and bystanders, numbering among +them many members of the best families in Devon, sickened in court, +and died miserably within a few days. + +John Braund, then, took the gaol-fever in a week, and died raving +in that noisome den: his secret, if he had one, perished with him, +and nothing but vague suspicion was left as to Rose Salterne's +fate. That she had gone off with the Spaniard, few doubted; but +whither, and in what character? On that last subject, be sure, no +mercy was shown to her by many a Bideford dame, who had hated the +poor girl simply for her beauty; and by many a country lady, who +had "always expected that the girl would be brought to ruin by the +absurd notice, beyond what her station had a right to, which was +taken of her," while every young maiden aspired to fill the throne +which Rose had abdicated. So that, on the whole, Bideford +considered itself as going on as well without poor Rose as it had +done with her, or even better. And though she lingered in some +hearts still as a fair dream, the business and the bustle of each +day soon swept that dream away, and her place knew her no more. + +And Will Cary? + +He was for a while like a man distracted. He heaped himself with +all manner of superfluous reproaches, for having (as he said) first +brought the Rose into disgrace, and then driven her into the arms +of the Spaniard; while St. Leger, who was a sensible man enough, +tried in vain to persuade him that the fault was not his at all; +that the two must have been attached to each other long before the +quarrel; that it must have ended so, sooner or later; that old +Salterne's harshness, rather than Cary's wrath, had hastened the +catastrophe; and finally, that the Rose and her fortunes were, now +that she had eloped with a Spaniard, not worth troubling their +heads about. Poor Will would not be so comforted. He wrote off to +Frank at Whitehall, telling him the whole truth, calling himself +all fools and villains, and entreating Frank's forgiveness; to +which he received an answer, in which Frank said that Will had no +reason to accuse himself; that these strange attachments were due +to a synastria, or sympathy of the stars, which ruled the destinies +of each person, to fight against which was to fight against the +heavens themselves; that he, as a brother of the Rose, was bound to +believe, nay, to assert at the sword's point if need were, that the +incomparable Rose of Torridge could make none but a worthy and +virtuous choice; and that to the man whom she had honored by her +affection was due on their part, Spaniard and Papist though he +might be, all friendship, worship, and loyal faith for evermore. + +And honest Will took it all for gospel, little dreaming what agony +of despair, what fearful suspicions, what bitter prayers, this +letter had cost to the gentle heart of Francis Leigh. + +He showed the letter triumphantly to St. Leger; and he was quite +wise enough to gainsay no word of it, at least aloud; but quite +wise enough, also, to believe in secret that Frank looked on the +matter in quite a different light; however, he contented himself +with saying: + +"The man is an angel as his mother is!" and there the matter +dropped for a few days, till one came forward who had no mind to +let it drop, and that was Jack Brimblecombe, now curate of Hartland +town, and "passing rich on forty pounds a year. + +"I hope no offence, Mr. William; but when are you and the rest +going after--after her?" The name stuck in his throat. + +Cary was taken aback. + +"What's that to thee, Catiline the blood-drinker?" asked he, trying +to laugh it off. + +"What? Don't laugh at me, sir, for it's no laughing matter. I +drank that night naught worse, I expect, than red wine. Whatever +it was, we swore our oaths, Mr. Cary; and oaths are oaths, say I." + +"Of course, Jack, of course; but to go to look for her--and when +we've found her, cut her lover's throat. Absurd, Jack, even if she +were worth looking for, or his throat worth cutting. Tut, tut, +tut--" + +But Jack looked steadfastly in his face, and after some silence: + +How far is it to the Caracas, then, sir?" + +"What is that to thee, man?" + +"Why, he was made governor thereof, I hear; so that would be the +place to find her?" + +"You don't mean to go thither to seek her?" shouted Cary, forcing a +laugh. + +"That depends on whether I can go, sir; but if I can scrape the +money together, or get a berth on board some ship, why, God's will +must be done." + +Will looked at him, to see if he had been drinking, or gone mad; +but the little pigs' eyes were both sane and sober. + +Will knew no answer. To laugh at the poor fellow was easy enough; +to deny that he was right, that he was a hero and cavalier, +outdoing romance itself in faithfulness, not so easy; and Cary, in +the first impulse, wished him at the bottom of the bay for shaming +him. Of course, his own plan of letting ill alone was the +rational, prudent, irreproachable plan, and just what any gentleman +in his senses would have done; but here was a vulgar, fat curate, +out of his senses, determined not to let ill alone, but to do +something, as Cary felt in his heart, of a far diviner stamp. + +"Well," said Jack, in his stupid steadfast way, "it's a very bad +look-out; but mother's pretty well off, if father dies, and the +maidens are stout wenches enough, and will make tidy servants, +please the Lord. And you'll see that they come to no harm, Mr. +William, for old acquaintance' sake, if I never come back." + +Cary was silent with amazement. + +"And, Mr. William, you know me for an honest man, I hope. Will you +lend me a five pound, and take my books in pawn for them, just to +help me out?" + +"Are you mad, or in a dream? You will never find her!" + +"That's no reason why I shouldn't do my duty in looking for her, +Mr. William." + +"But, my good fellow, even if you get to the Indies, you will be +clapt into the Inquisition, and burnt alive, as sure as your name +is Jack." + +"I know that," said he, in a doleful tone; "and a sore struggle of +the flesh I have had about it; for I am a great coward, Mr. +William, a dirty coward, and always was, as you know: but maybe the +Lord will take care of me, as He does of little children and +drunken men; and if not, Mr. Will, I'd sooner burn, and have it +over, than go on this way any longer, I would!" and Jack burst out +blubbering. + +"What way, my dear old lad?" said Will, softened as he well might +be. + +"Why, not--not to know whether--whether--whether she's married to +him or not--her that I looked up to as an angel of God, as pure as +the light of day; and knew she was too good for a poor pot-head +like me; and prayed for her every night, God knows, that she might +marry a king, if there was one fit for her--and I not to know +whether she's living in sin or not, Mr. William.--It's more than I +can bear, and there's an end of it. And if she is married to him +they keep no faith with heretics; they can dissolve the marriage, +or make away with her into the Inquisition; burn her, Mr. Cary, as +soon as burn me, the devils incarnate!" + +Cary shuddered; the fact, true and palpable as it was, had never +struck him before. + +"Yes! or make her deny her God by torments, if she hasn't done it +already for love to that-- I know how love will make a body sell +his soul, for I've been in love. Don't you laugh at me, Mr. Will, +or I shall go mad!" + +"God knows, I was never less inclined to laugh at you in my life, +my brave old Jack." + +"Is it so, then? Bless you for that word!" and Jack held out his +hand. "But what will become of my soul, after my oath, if I don't +seek her out, just to speak to her, to warn her, for God's sake, +even if it did no good; just to set before her the Lord's curse on +idolatry and Antichrist, and those who deny Him for the sake of any +creature, though I can't think he would be hard on her,--for who +could? But I must speak all the same. The Lord has laid the +burden on me, and done it must be. God help me!" + +"Jack," said Cary, "if this is your duty, it is others'." + +"No, sir, I don't say that; you're a layman, but I am a deacon, and +the chaplain of you all, and sworn to seek out Christ's sheep +scattered up and down this naughty world, and that innocent lamb +first of all." + +"You have sheep at Hartland, Jack, already." + +"There's plenty better than I will tend them, when I am gone; but +none that will tend her, because none love her like me, and they +won't venture. Who will? It can't be expected, and no shame to +them?" + +"I wonder what Amyas Leigh would say to all this, if he were at +home?" + +"Say? He'd do. He isn't one for talking. He'd go through fire +and water for her, you trust him, Will Cary; and call me an ass if +he won't." + +"Will you wait, then, till he comes back, and ask him?" + +"He may not be back for a year and more." + +"Hear reason, Jack. If you will wait like a rational and patient +man, instead of rushing blindfold on your ruin, something may be +done." + +"You think so!" + +"I cannot promise; but--" + +"But promise me one thing. Do you tell Mr. Frank what I say--or +rather, I'll warrant, if I knew the truth, he has said the very +same thing himself already." + +"You are out there, old man; for here is his own handwriting." + +Jack read the letter and sighed bitterly. "Well, I did take him +for another guess sort of fine gentleman. Still, if my duty isn't +his, it's mine all the same. I judge no man; but I go, Mr. Cary." + +"But go you shall not till Amyas returns. As I live, I will tell +your father, Jack, unless you promise; and you dare not disobey +him." + +"I don't know even that, for conscience' sake," said Jack, +doubtfully. + +"At least, you stay and dine here, old fellow, and we will settle +whether you are to break the fifth commandment or not, over good +brewed sack." + +Now a good dinner was (as we know) what Jack loved, and loved too +oft in vain; so he submitted for the nonce, and Cary thought, ere +he went, that he had talked him pretty well round. At least he +went home, and was seen no more for a week. + +But at the end of that time he returned, and said with a joyful +voice-- + +"I have settled all, Mr. Will. The parson of Welcombe will serve +my church for two Sundays, and I am away for London town, to speak +to Mr. Frank." + +"To London? How wilt get there?" + +"On Shanks his mare," said Jack, pointing to his bandy legs. "But +I expect I can get a lift on board of a coaster so far as Bristol, +and it's no way on to signify, I hear." + +Cary tried in vain to dissuade him; and then forced on him a small +loan, with which away went Jack, and Cary heard no more of him for +three weeks. + +At last he walked into Clovelly Court again just before supper- +time, thin and leg-weary, and sat himself down among the serving- +men till Will appeared. + +Will took him up above the salt, and made much of him (which indeed +the honest fellow much needed), and after supper asked him in +private how he had sped. + +"I have learnt a lesson, Mr. William. I've learnt that there is +one on earth loves her better than I, if she had but had the wit to +have taken him." + +"But what says he of going to seek her?" + +"He says what I say, Go! and he says what you say, Wait." + +"Go? Impossible! How can that agree with his letter?" + +"That's no concern of mine. Of course, being nearer heaven than I +am, he sees clearer what he should say and do than I can see for +him. Oh, Mr. Will, that's not a man, he's an angel of God; but +he's dying, Mr. Will." + +"Dying?" + +"Yes, faith, of love for her. I can see it in his eyes, and hear +it in his voice; but I am of tougher hide and stiffer clay, and so +you see I can't die even if I tried. But I'll obey my betters, and +wait." + +And so Jack went home to his parish that very evening, weary as he +was, in spite of all entreaties to pass the night at Clovelly. But +he had left behind him thoughts in Cary's mind, which gave their +owner no rest by day or night, till the touch of a seeming accident +made them all start suddenly into shape, as a touch of the freezing +water covers it in an instant with crystals of ice. + +He was lounging (so he told Amyas) one murky day on Bideford quay, +when up came Mr. Salterne. Cary had shunned him of late, partly +from delicacy, partly from dislike of his supposed hard- +heartedness. But this time they happened to meet full; and Cary +could not pass without speaking to him. + +"Well, Mr. Salterne, and how goes on the shipping trade?" + +"Well enough, sir, if some of you young gentlemen would but follow +Mr. Leigh's example, and go forth to find us stay-at-homes new +markets for our ware." + +"What? you want to be rid of us, eh?" + +"I don't know why I should, sir. We sha'n't cross each other now, +sir, whatever might have been once. But if I were you, I should be +in the Indies about now, if I were not fighting the queen's battles +nearer home." + +"In the Indies? I should make but a poor hand of Drake's trade." +And so the conversation dropped; but Cary did not forget the hint. + +"So, lad, to make an end of a long story," said he to Amyas; "if +you are minded to take the old man's offer, so am I: and Westward- +ho with you, come foul come fair." + +"It will be but a wild-goose chase, Will." + +"If she is with him, we shall find her at La Guayra. If she is +not, and the villain has cast her off down the wind, that will be +only an additional reason for making an example of him." + +"And if neither of them are there, Will, the Plate-fleets will be; +so it will be our own shame if we come home empty-handed. But will +your father let you run such a risk?" + +"My father!" said Cary, laughing. "He has just now so good hope of +a long string of little Carys to fill my place, that he will be in +no lack of an heir, come what will." + +"Little Carys?" + +"I tell you truth. I think he must have had a sly sup of that +fountain of perpetual youth, which our friend Don Guzman's +grandfather went to seek in Florida; for some twelvemonth since, he +must needs marry a tenant's buxom daughter; and Mistress Abishag +Jewell has brought him one fat baby already. So I shall go, back +to Ireland, or with you: but somewhere. I can't abide the thing's +squalling, any more than I can seeing Mistress Abishag sitting in +my poor dear mother's place, and informing me every other day that +she is come of an illustrious house, because she is (or is not) +third cousin seven times removed to my father's old friend, Bishop +Jewell of glorious memory. I had three-parts of a quarrel with the +dear old man the other day; for after one of her peacock-bouts, I +couldn't for the life of me help saying, that as the Bishop had +written an Apology for the people of England, my father had better +conjure up his ghost to write an apology for him, and head it, 'Why +green heads should grow on gray shoulders.'" + +"You impudent villain! And what did he say?" + +Laughed till he cried again, and told me if I did not like it I +might leave it; which is just what I intend to do. Only mind, if +we go, we must needs take Jack Brimblecombe with us, or he will +surely heave himself over Harty Point, and his ghost will haunt us +to our dying day." + +"Jack shall go. None deserves it better." + +After which there was a long consultation on practical matters, and +it was concluded that Amyas should go up to London and sound Frank +and his mother before any further steps were taken. The other +brethren of the Rose were scattered far and wide, each at his post, +and St. Leger had returned to his uncle, so that it would be unfair +to them, as well as a considerable delay, to demand of them any +fulfilment of their vow. And, as Amyas sagely remarked, "Too many +cooks spoil the broth, and half-a-dozen gentlemen aboard one ship +are as bad as two kings of Brentford." + +With which maxim he departed next morning for London, leaving Yeo +with Cary. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE + + +"He is brass within, and steel without, +With beams on his topcastle strong; +And eighteen pieces of ordinance +He carries on either side along." + + Sir Andrew Barton. + + +Let us take boat, as Amyas did, at Whitehall-stairs, and slip down +ahead of him under old London Bridge, and so to Deptford Creek, +where remains, as it were embalmed, the famous ship Pelican, in +which Drake had sailed round the world. There she stands, drawn up +high and dry upon the sedgy bank of Thames, like an old warrior +resting after his toil. Nailed upon her mainmast are epigrams and +verses in honor of her and of her captain, three of which, by the +Winchester scholar, Camden gives in his History; and Elizabeth's +self consecrated her solemnly, and having banqueted on board, there +and then honored Drake with the dignity of knighthood. "At which +time a bridge of planks, by which they came on board, broke under +the press of people, and fell down with a hundred men upon it, who, +notwithstanding, had none of them any harm. So as that ship may +seem to have been built under a lucky planet." + +There she has remained since as a show, and moreover as a sort of +dining-hall for jovial parties from the city; one of which would +seem to be on board this afternoon, to judge from the flags which +bedizen the masts, the sounds of revelry and savory steams which +issue from those windows which once were portholes, and the rushing +to and fro along the river brink, and across that lucky bridge, of +white-aproned waiters from the neighboring Pelican Inn. A great +feast is evidently toward, for with those white-aproned waiters are +gay serving men, wearing on their shoulders the city-badge. The +lord mayor is giving a dinner to certain gentlemen of the Leicester +house party, who are interested in foreign discoveries; and what +place so fit for such a feast as the Pelican itself? + +Look at the men all round; a nobler company you will seldom see. +Especially too, if you be Americans, look at their faces, and +reverence them; for to them and to their wisdom you owe the +existence of your mighty fatherland. + +At the head of the table sits the lord mayor; whom all readers will +recognize at once, for he is none other than that famous Sir Edward +Osborne, clothworker, and ancestor of the dukes of Leeds, whose +romance now-a-days is in every one's hands. He is aged, but not +changed, since he leaped from the window upon London Bridge into +the roaring tide below, to rescue the infant who is now his wife. +The chivalry and promptitude of the 'prentice boy have grown and +hardened into the thoughtful daring of the wealthy merchant +adventurer. There he sits, a right kingly man, with my lord Earl +of Cumberland on his right hand, and Walter Raleigh on his left; +the three talk together in a low voice on the chance of there being +vast and rich countries still undiscovered between Florida and the +River of Canada. Raleigh's half-scientific declamation and his +often quotations of Doctor Dee the conjuror, have less effect on +Osborne than on Cumberland (who tried many an adventure to foreign +parts, and failed in all of them; apparently for the simple reason +that, instead of going himself, he sent other people), and Raleigh +is fain to call to his help the quiet student who sits on his left +hand, Richard Hakluyt, of Oxford. But he is deep in talk with a +reverend elder, whose long white beard flows almost to his waist, +and whose face is furrowed by a thousand storms; Anthony Jenkinson +by name, the great Asiatic traveller, who is discoursing to the +Christ-church virtuoso of reindeer sledges and Siberian steppes, +and of the fossil ivory, plain proof of Noah's flood, which the +Tungoos dig from the ice-cliffs of the Arctic sea. Next to him is +Christopher Carlile, Walsingham's son-in-law (as Sidney also is +now), a valiant captain, afterwards general of the soldiery in +Drake's triumphant West Indian raid of 1585, with whom a certain +Bishop of Carthagena will hereafter drink good wine. He is now +busy talking with Alderman Hart the grocer, Sheriff Spencer the +clothworker, and Charles Leigh (Amyas's merchant-cousin), and with +Aldworth the mayor of Bristol, and William Salterne, alderman +thereof, and cousin of our friend at Bideford. For Carlile, and +Secretary Walsingham also, have been helping them heart and soul +for the last two years to collect money for Humphrey and Adrian +Gilbert's great adventures to the North-West, on one of which +Carlile was indeed to have sailed himself, but did not go after +all; I never could discover for what reason. + +On the opposite side of the table is a group, scarcely less +interesting. Martin Frobisher and John Davis, the pioneers of the +North-West passage, are talking with Alderman Sanderson, the great +geographer and "setter forth of globes;" with Mr. Towerson, Sir +Gilbert Peckham, our old acquaintance Captain John Winter, and +last, but not least, with Philip Sidney himself, who, with his +accustomed courtesy; has given up his rightful place toward the +head of the table that he may have a knot of virtuosi all to +himself; and has brought with him, of course, his two especial +intimates, Mr. Edward Dyer and Mr. Francis Leigh. They too are +talking of the North-West passage: and Sidney is lamenting that he +is tied to diplomacy and courts, and expressing his envy of old +Martin Frobisher in all sorts of pretty compliments; to which the +other replies that, + +"It's all very fine to talk of here, a sailing on dry land with a +good glass of wine before you; but you'd find it another guess sort +of business, knocking about among the icebergs with your beard +frozen fast to your ruff, Sir Philip, specially if you were a bit +squeamish about the stomach." + +"That were a slight matter to endure, my dear sir, if by it I could +win the honor which her majesty bestowed on you, when her own ivory +hand waved a farewell 'kerchief to your ship from the windows of +Greenwich Palace." + +"Well, sir, folks say you have no reason to complain of lack of +favors, as you have no reason to deserve lack; and if you can get +them by staying ashore, don't you go to sea to look for more, say +I. Eh, Master Towerson?" + +Towerson's gray beard, which has stood many a foreign voyage, both +fair and foul, wags grim assent. But at this moment a Waiter +enters, and-- + +"Please my lord mayor's worship, there is a tall gentleman outside, +would speak with the Right Honorable Sir Walter Raleigh." + +"Show him in, man. Sir Walter's friends are ours." + +Amyas enters, and stands hesitating in the doorway. + +"Captain Leigh!" cry half a-dozen voices. + +"Why did you not walk in, sir?" says Osborne. "You should know +your way well enough between these decks." + +"Well enough, my lords and gentlemen. But, Sir Walter--you will +excuse me"--and he gave Raleigh a look which was enough for his +quick wit. Turning pale as death, he rose, and followed Amyas into +an adjoining cabin. They were five minutes together; and then +Amyas came out alone. + +In few words he told the company the sad story which we already +know. Ere it was ended, noble tears were glistening on some of +those stern faces. + +"The old Egyptians," said Sir Edward Osborne, "when they banqueted, +set a corpse among their guests, for a memorial of human vanity. +Have we forgotten God and our own weakness in this our feast, that +He Himself has sent us thus a message from the dead?" + +"Nay, my lord mayor," said Sidney, "not from the dead, but from the +realm of everlasting life." + +"Amen!" answered Osborne. "But, gentlemen, our feast is at an end. +There are those here who would drink on merrily, as brave men +should, in spite of the private losses of which they have just had +news; but none here who can drink with the loss of so great a man +still ringing in his ears." + +It was true. Though many of the guests had suffered severely by +the failure of the expedition, they had utterly forgotten that fact +in the awful news of Sir Humphrey's death; and the feast broke up +sadly and hurriedly, while each man asked his neighbor, "What will +the queen say?" + +Raleigh re-entered in a few minutes, but was silent, and pressing +many an honest hand as he passed, went out to call a wherry, +beckoning Amyas to follow him. Sidney, Cumberland, and Frank went +with them in another boat, leaving the two to talk over the sad +details. + +They disembarked at Whitehall-stairs; Raleigh, Sidney, and +Cumberland went to the palace; and the two brothers to their +mother's lodgings. + +Amyas had prepared his speech to Frank about Rose Salterne, but now +that it was come to the point, he had not courage to begin, and +longed that Frank would open the matter. Frank, too, shrank from +what he knew must come, and all the more because he was ignorant +that Amyas had been to Bideford, or knew aught of the Rose's +disappearance. + +So they went upstairs; and it was a relief to both of them to find +that their mother was at the Abbey; for it was for her sake that +both dreaded what was coming. So they went and stood in the bay- +window which looked out upon the river, and talked of things +indifferent, and looked earnestly at each other's faces by the +fading light, for it was now three years since they had met. + +Years and events had deepened the contrast between the two +brothers; and Frank smiled with affectionate pride as he looked up +in Amyas's face, and saw that he was no longer merely the +rollicking handy sailor-lad, but the self-confident and stately +warrior, showing in every look and gesture + + + "The reason firm, the temperate will, + Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill," + + +worthy of one whose education had been begun by such men as Drake +and Grenville, and finished by such as Raleigh and Gilbert. His +long locks were now cropped close to the head; but as a set-off, +the lips and chin were covered with rich golden beard; his face was +browned by a thousand suns and storms; a long scar, the trophy of +some Irish fight, crossed his right temple; his huge figure had +gained breadth in proportion to its height; and his hand, as it lay +upon the window-sill, was hard and massive as a smith's. Frank +laid his own upon it, and sighed; and Amyas looked down, and +started at the contrast between the two--so slender, bloodless, all +but transparent, were the delicate fingers of the courtier. Amyas +looked anxiously into his brother's face. It was changed, indeed, +since they last met. The brilliant red was still on either cheek, +but the white had become dull and opaque; the lips were pale, the +features sharpened; the eyes glittered with unnatural fire: and +when Frank told Amyas that he looked aged, Amyas could not help +thinking that the remark was far more true of the speaker himself. + +Trying to shut his eyes to the palpable truth, he went on with his +chat, asking the names of one building after another. + +"And so this is old Father Thames, with his bank of palaces?" + +"Yes. His banks are stately enough; yet, you see, he cannot stay +to look at them. He hurries down to the sea; and the sea into the +ocean; and the ocean Westward-ho, forever. All things move +Westward-ho. Perhaps we may move that way ourselves some day, +Amyas." + +"What do you mean by that strange talk?" + +"Only that the ocean follows the primum mobile of the heavens, and +flows forever from east to west. Is there anything so strange in +my thinking of that, when I am just come from a party where we have +been drinking success to Westward-ho?" + +"And much good has come of it! I have lost the best friend and the +noblest captain upon earth, not to mention all my little earnings, +in that same confounded gulf of Westward-ho." + +"Yes, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's star has set in the West--why not? +Sun, moon, and planets sink into the West: why not the meteors of +this lower world? why not a will-o'-the-wisp like me, Amyas?" + +"God forbid, Frank!" + +"Why, then? Is not the West the land of peace, and the land of +dreams? Do not our hearts tell us so each time we look upon the +setting sun, and long to float away with him upon the golden- +cushioned clouds? They bury men with their faces to the East. I +should rather have mine turned to the West, Amyas, when I die; for +I cannot but think it some divine instinct which made the ancient +poets guess that Elysium lay beneath the setting sun. It is bound +up in the heart of man, that longing for the West. I complain of +no one for fleeing away thither beyond the utmost sea, as David +wished to flee, and be at peace." + +"Complain of no one for fleeing thither?" asked Amyas. "That is +more than I do." + +Frank looked inquiringly at him; and then-- + +"No. If I had complained of any one, it would have been of you +just now, for seeming to be tired of going Westward-ho." + +"Do you wish me to go, then?" + +"God knows," said Frank, after a moment's pause. "But I must tell +you now, I suppose, once and for all. That has happened at +Bideford which--" + +"Spare us both, Frank; I know all. I came through Bideford on my +way hither; and came hither not merely to see you and my mother, +but to ask your advice and her permission." + +"True heart! noble heart!" cried Frank. "I knew you would be +stanch!" + +"Westward-ho it is, then?" + +"Can we escape?" + +"We?" + +"Amyas, does not that which binds you bind me?" + +Amyas started back, and held Frank by the shoulders at arm's +length; as he did so, he could feel through, that his brother's +arms were but skin and bone. + +"You? Dearest man, a month of it would kill you!" + +Frank smiled, and tossed his head on one side in his pretty way. + +"I belong to the school of Thales, who held that the ocean is the +mother of all life; and feel no more repugnance at returning to her +bosom again than Humphrey Gilbert did." + +"But, Frank,--my mother?" + +"My mother knows all; and would not have us unworthy of her." + +"Impossible! She will never give you up!" + +"All things are possible to them that believe in God, my brother; +and she believes. But, indeed, Doctor Dee, the wise man, gave her +but this summer I know not what of prognostics and diagnostics +concerning me. I am born, it seems, under a cold and watery +planet, and need, if I am to be long-lived, to go nearer to the +vivifying heat of the sun, and there bask out my little life, like +fly on wall. To tell truth, he has bidden me spend no more winters +here in the East; but return to our native sea-breezes, there to +warm my frozen lungs; and has so filled my mother's fancy with +stories of sick men, who were given up for lost in Germany and +France, and yet renewed their youth, like any serpent or eagle, by +going to Italy, Spain, and the Canaries, that she herself will be +more ready to let me go than I to leave her all alone. And yet I +must go, Amyas. It is not merely that my heart pants, as Sidney's +does, as every gallant's ought, to make one of your noble choir of +Argonauts, who are now replenishing the earth and subduing it for +God and for the queen; it is not merely, Amyas, that love calls +me,--love tyrannous and uncontrollable, strengthened by absence, +and deepened by despair; but honor, Amyas--my oath--" + +And he paused for lack of breath, and bursting into a violent fit +of coughing, leaned on his brother's shoulder, while Amyas cried, + +"Fools, fools that we were--that I was, I mean--to take that +fantastical vow!" + +"Not so," answered a gentle voice from behind: "you vowed for the +sake of peace on earth, and good-will toward men, and 'Blessed are +the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.' No +my sons, be sure that such self-sacrifice as you have shown will +meet its full reward at the hand of Him who sacrificed Himself for +you." + +"Oh, mother! mother!" said Amyas, "and do you not hate the very +sight of me--come here to take away your first-born?" + +"My boy, God takes him, and not you. And if I dare believe in such +predictions, Doctor Dee assured me that some exceeding honor +awaited you both in the West, to each of you according to your +deserts." + +"Ah!" said Amyas. "My blessing, I suppose, will be like Esau's, to +live by my sword; while Jacob here, the spiritual man, inherits the +kingdom of heaven, and an angel's crown." + +"Be it what it may, it will surely be a blessing, as long as you +are such, my children, as you have been. At least my Frank will be +safe from the intrigues of court, and the temptations of the world. +Would that I too could go with you, and share in your glory! Come, +now," said she, laying her head upon Amyas's breast, and looking up +into his face with one of her most winning smiles, "I have heard of +heroic mothers ere now who went forth with their sons to battle, +and cheered them on to victory. Why should I not go with you on a +more peaceful errand? I could nurse the sick, if there were any; I +could perhaps have speech of that poor girl, and win her back more +easily than you. She might listen to words from a woman--a woman, +too, who has loved--which she could not hear from men. At least I +could mend and wash for you. I suppose it is as easy to play the +good housewife afloat as on shore? Come, now!" + +Amyas looked from one to the other. + +"God only knows which of the two is less fit to go. Mother! +mother! you know not what you ask. Frank! Frank! I do not want you +with me. This is a sterner matter than either of you fancy it to +be; one that must be worked out, not with kind words, but with +sharp shot and cold steel." + +"How?" cried both together, aghast. + +"I must pay my men, and pay my fellow-adventurers; and I must pay +them with Spanish gold. And what is more, I cannot, as a loyal +subject of the queen's, go to the Spanish Main with a clear +conscience on my own private quarrel, unless I do all the harm that +my hand finds to do, by day and night, to her enemies, and the +enemies of God." + +"What nobler knight-errantry?" said Frank, cheerfully; but Mrs. +Leigh shuddered. + +"What! Frank too?" she said, half to herself; but her sons knew +what she meant. Amyas's warlike life, honorable and righteous as +she knew it to be, she had borne as a sad necessity: but that Frank +as well should become "a man of blood," was more than her gentle +heart could face at first sight. That one youthful duel of his he +had carefully concealed from her, knowing her feeling on such +matters. And it seemed too dreadful to her to associate that +gentle spirit with all the ferocities and the carnage of a +battlefield. "And yet," said she to herself, "is this but another +of the self-willed idols which I must renounce one by one?" And +then, catching at a last hope, she answered-- + +"Frank must at least ask the queen's leave to go; and if she +permits, how can I gainsay her wisdom?" + +And so the conversation dropped, sadly enough. + +But now began a fresh perplexity in Frank's soul, which amused +Amyas at first, when it seemed merely jest, but nettled him a good +deal when he found it earnest. For Frank looked forward to asking +the queen's permission for his voyage with the most abject +despondency and terror. Two or three days passed before he could +make up his mind to ask for an interview with her; and he spent the +time in making as much interest with Leicester, Hatton, and Sidney, +as if he were about to sue for a reprieve from the scaffold. + +So said Amyas, remarking, further, that the queen could not cut his +head off for wanting to go to sea. + +"But what axe so sharp as her frown?" said Frank in most lugubrious +tone. + +Amyas began to whistle in a very rude way. + +"Ah, my brother, you cannot comprehend the pain of parting from +her." + +"No, I can't. I would die for the least hair of her royal head, +God bless it! but I could live very well from now till Doomsday +without ever setting eyes on the said head." + +"Plato's Troglodytes regretted not that sunlight which they had +never beheld." + +Amyas, not understanding this recondite conceit, made no answer to +it, and there the matter ended for the time. But at last Frank +obtained his audience; and after a couple of hours' absence +returned quite pale and exhausted. + +"Thank Heaven, it is over! She was very angry at first--what else +could she be?--and upbraided me with having set my love so low. I +could only answer, that my fatal fault was committed before the +sight of her had taught me what was supremely lovely, and only +worthy of admiration. Then she accused me of disloyalty in having +taken an oath which bound me to the service of another than her. I +confessed my sin with tears, and when she threatened punishment, +pleaded that the offence had avenged itself heavily already,--for +what worse punishment than exile from the sunlight of her presence, +into the outer darkness which reigns where she is not? Then she +was pleased to ask me, how I could dare, as her sworn servant, to +desert her side in such dangerous times as these; and asked me how +I should reconcile it to my conscience, if on my return I found her +dead by the assassin's knife? At which most pathetic demand I +could only throw myself at once on my own knees and her mercy, and +so awaited my sentence. Whereon, with that angelic pity which +alone makes her awfulness endurable, she turned to Hatton and +asked, 'What say you, Mouton? Is he humbled sufficiently?' and so +dismissed me." + +"Heigh-ho!" yawned Amyas; + + + "If the bridge had been stronger, + My tale had been longer." + + +"Amyas! Amyas!" quoth Frank, solemnly, "you know not what power +over the soul has the native and God-given majesty of royalty +(awful enough in itself) when to it is superadded the wisdom of the +sage, and therewithal the tenderness of the woman. Had I my will, +there should be in every realm not a salique, but an anti-salique +law: whereby no kings, but only queens should rule mankind. Then +would weakness and not power be to man the symbol of divinity; +love, and not cunning, would be the arbiter of every cause; and +chivalry, not fear, the spring of all obedience." + +"Humph! There's some sense in that," quoth Amyas. "I'd run a mile +for a woman when I would not walk a yard for a man; and-- Who is +this our mother is bringing in? The handsomest fellow I ever saw +in my life!" + +Amyas was not far wrong; for Mrs. Leigh's companion was none other +than Mr. Secretary, Amyas's Smerwick Fort acquaintance; alias Colin +Clout, alias Immerito, alias Edmund Spenser. Some half-jesting +conversation had seemingly been passing between the poet and the +saint; for as they came in she said with a smile (which was +somewhat of a forced one)--"Well, my dear sons, you are sure of +immortality, at least on earth; for Mr. Spenser has been vowing to +me to give your adventure a whole canto to itself in his 'Faerie +Queene'" + +"And you no less, madam," said Spenser. "What were the story of +the Gracchi worth without the figure of Cornelia? If I honor the +fruit, I must not forget the stem which bears it. Frank, I +congratulate you." + +"Then you know the result of my interview, mother?" + +"I know everything, and am content," said Mrs. Leigh. + +"Mrs. Leigh has reason to be content," said Spenser," with that +which is but her own likeness." + +Spare your flattery to an old woman, Mr. Spenser. When, pray, did +I" (with a most loving look at Frank) "refuse knighthood for duty's +sake?" + +"Knighthood?" cried Amyas. "You never told me that, Frank!" + +"That may well be, Captain Leigh," said Spenser; "but believe me, +her majesty (so Hatton assures me) told him this day, no less than +that by going on this quest he deprived himself of that highest +earthly honor, which crowned heads are fain to seek from their own +subjects." + +Spenser did not exaggerate. Knighthood was then the prize of merit +only; and one so valuable, that Elizabeth herself said, when asked +why she did not bestow a peerage upon some favorite, that having +already knighted him, she had nothing better to bestow. It +remained for young Essex to begin the degradation of the order in +his hapless Irish campaign, and for James to complete that +degradation by his novel method of raising money by the sale of +baronetcies; a new order of hereditary knighthood which was the +laughing-stock of the day, and which (however venerable it may have +since become) reflects anything but honor upon its first +possessors. + +"I owe you no thanks, Colin," said Frank, "for having broached my +secret: but I have lost nothing after all. There is still an order +of knighthood in which I may win my spurs, even though her majesty +refuse me the accolade." + +"What, then? you will not take it from a foreign prince?" + +Frank smiled. + +"Have you never read of that knighthood which is eternal in the +heavens, and of those true cavaliers whom John saw in Patmos, +riding on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, +knights-errant in the everlasting war against the False Prophet and +the Beast? Let me but become worthy of their ranks hereafter, what +matter whether I be called Sir Frank on earth?" + +"My son," said Mrs. Leigh, "remember that they follow One whose +vesture is dipped, not in the blood of His enemies, but in His +own." + +"I have remembered it for many a day; and remembered, too, that the +garments of the knights may need the same tokens as their +captain's." + +"Oh, Frank! Frank! is not His precious blood enough to cleanse all +sin, without the sacrifice of our own?" + +"We may need no more than His blood, mother, and yet He may need +ours," said Frank. + + . . . . . . . + +How that conversation ended I know not, nor whether Spenser +fulfilled his purpose of introducing the two brothers and their +mother into his "Faerie Queene." If so, the manuscripts must have +been lost among those which perished (along with Spenser's baby) in +the sack of Kilcolman by the Irish in 1598. But we need hardly +regret the loss of them; for the temper of the Leighs and their +mother is the same which inspires every canto of that noblest of +poems; and which inspired, too, hundreds in those noble days, when +the chivalry of the Middle Ages was wedded to the free thought and +enterprise of the new. + + . . . . . . . + +So mother and sons returned to Bideford, and set to work. Frank +mortgaged a farm; Will Cary did the same (having some land of his +own from his mother). Old Salterne grumbled at any man save +himself spending a penny on the voyage, and forced on the +adventurers a good ship of two hundred tons burden, and five +hundred pounds toward fitting her out; Mrs. Leigh worked day and +night at clothes and comforts of every kind; Amyas had nothing to +give but his time and his brains: but, as Salterne said, the rest +would have been of little use without them; and day after day he +and the old merchant were on board the ship, superintending with +their own eyes the fitting of every rope and nail. Cary went about +beating up recruits; and made, with his jests and his frankness, +the best of crimps: while John Brimblecombe, beside himself with +joy, toddled about after him from tavern to tavern, and quay to +quay, exalted for the time being (as Cary told him) into a second +Peter the Hermit; and so fiercely did he preach a crusade against +the Spaniards, through Bideford and Appledore, Clovelly and +Ilfracombe, that Amyas might have had a hundred and fifty loose +fellows in the first fortnight. But he knew better: still smarting +from the effects of a similar haste in the Newfoundland adventure, +he had determined to take none but picked men; and by dint of labor +he obtained them. + +Only one scapegrace did he take into his crew, named Parracombe; +and by that scapegrace hangs a tale. He was an old schoolfellow of +his at Bideford, and son of a merchant in that town--one of those +unlucky members who are "nobody's enemy but their own"--a handsome, +idle, clever fellow, who used his scholarship, of which he had +picked up some smattering, chiefly to justify his own escapades, +and to string songs together. Having drunk all that he was worth +at home, he had in a penitent fit forsworn liquor, and tormented +Amyas into taking him to sea, where he afterwards made as good a +sailor as any one else, but sorely scandalized John Brimblecombe by +all manner of heretical arguments, half Anacreontic, half smacking +of the rather loose doctrines of that "Family of Love" which +tormented the orthodoxy and morality of more than one Bishop of +Exeter. Poor Will Parracombe! he was born a few centuries too +early. Had he but lived now, he might have published a volume or +two of poetry, and then settled down on the staff of a newspaper. +Had he even lived thirty years later than he did, he might have +written frantic tragedies or filthy comedies for the edification of +James's profligate metropolis, and roistered it in taverns with +Marlowe, to die as Marlowe did, by a footman's sword in a drunken +brawl. But in those stern days such weak and hysterical spirits +had no fair vent for their "humors," save in being reconciled to +the Church of Rome, and plotting with Jesuits to assassinate the +queen, as Parry and Somerville, and many other madmen, did. + +So, at least, some Jesuit or other seems to have thought, shortly +after Amyas had agreed to give the spendthrift a berth on board. +For one day Amyas, going down to Appledore about his business, was +called into the little Mariners' Rest inn, to extract therefrom +poor Will Parracombe, who (in spite of his vow) was drunk and +outrageous, and had vowed the death of the landlady and all her +kin. So Amyas fetched him out by the collar, and walked him home +thereby to Bideford; during which walk Will told him a long and +confused story; how an Egyptian rogue had met him that morning on +the sands by Boathythe, offered to tell his fortune, and prophesied +to him great wealth and honor, but not from the Queen of England; +had coaxed him to the Mariners' Rest, and gambled with him for +liquor, at which it seemed Will always won, and of course drank his +winnings on the spot; whereon the Egyptian began asking him all +sorts of questions about the projected voyage of the Rose--a good +many of which, Will confessed, he had answered before he saw the +fellow's drift; after which the Egyptian had offered him a vast sum +of money to do some desperate villainy; but whether it was to +murder Amyas or the queen, whether to bore a hole in the bottom of +the good ship Rose or to set the Torridge on fire by art-magic, he +was too drunk to recollect exactly. Whereon Amyas treated three- +quarters of the story as a tipsy dream, and contented himself by +getting a warrant against the landlady for harboring "Egyptians," +which was then a heavy offence--a gipsy disguise being a favorite +one with Jesuits and their emissaries. She of course denied that +any gipsy had been there; and though there were some who thought +they had seen such a man come in, none had seen him go out again. +On which Amyas took occasion to ask, what had become of the +suspicious Popish ostler whom he had seen at the Mariners' Rest +three years before; and discovered, to his surprise, that the said +ostler had vanished from the very day of Don Guzman's departure +from Bideford. There was evidently a mystery somewhere: but +nothing could be proved; the landlady was dismissed with a +reprimand, and Amyas soon forgot the whole matter, after rating +Parracombe soundly. After all, he could not have told the gipsy +(if one existed) anything important; for the special destination of +the voyage (as was the custom in those times, for fear of Jesuits +playing into the hands of Spain) had been carefully kept secret +among the adventurers themselves, and, except Yeo and Drew, none of +the men had any suspicion that La Guayra was to be their aim. + +And Salvation Yeo? + +Salvation was almost wild for a few days, at the sudden prospect of +going in search of his little maid, and of fighting Spaniards once +more before he died. I will not quote the texts out of Isaiah and +the Psalms with which his mouth was filled from morning to night, +for fear of seeming irreverent in the eyes of a generation which +does not believe, as Yeo believed, that fighting the Spaniards was +as really fighting in God's battle against evil as were the wars of +Joshua or David. But the old man had his practical hint too, and +entreated to be sent back to Plymouth to look for men. + +"There's many a man of the old Pelican, sir, and of Captain +Hawkins's Minion that knows the Indies as well as I, and longs to +be back again. There's Drew, sir, that we left behind (and no +better sailing-master for us in the West-country, and has accounts +against the Spaniards, too; for it was his brother, the Barnstaple +man, that was factor aboard of poor Mr. Andrew Barker, and got +clapt into the Inquisition at the Canaries); you promised him, sir, +that night he stood by you on board the Raleigh: and if you'll be +as good as your word, he'll be as good as his; and bring a score +more brave fellows with him." + +So off went Yeo to Plymouth, and returned with Drew and a score of +old never-strikes. One look at their visages, as Yeo proudly +ushered them into the Ship Tavern, showed Amyas that they were of +the metal which he wanted, and that, with the four North-Devon men +who had gone round the world with him in the Pelican (who all +joined in the first week), he had a reserve-force on which he could +depend in utter need; and that utter need might come he knew as +well as any. + +Nor was this all which Yeo had brought; for he had with him a +letter from Sir Francis Drake, full of regrets that he had not seen +"his dear lad" as he went through Plymouth. "But indeed I was up +to Dartmoor, surveying with cross-staff and chain, over my knees in +bog for a three weeks or more. For I have a project to bring down +a leat of fair water from the hill-tops right into Plymouth town, +cutting off the heads of Tavy, Meavy, Wallcomb, and West Dart, and +thereby purging Plymouth harbor from the silt of the mines whereby +it has been choked of late years, and giving pure drink not only to +the townsmen, but to the fleets of the queen's majesty; which if I +do, I shall both make some poor return to God for all His +unspeakable mercies, and erect unto myself a monument better than +of brass or marble, not merely honorable to me, but useful to my +countrymen."* Whereon Frank sent Drake a pretty epigram, comparing +Drake's projected leat to that river of eternal life whereof the +just would drink throughout eternity, and quoting (after the +fashion of those days) John vii. 38; while Amyas took more heed of +a practical appendage to the same letter, which was a list of hints +scrawled for his use by Captain John Hawkins himself, on all sea +matters, from the mounting of ordnance to the use of vitriol +against the scurvy, in default of oranges and "limmons;" all which +stood Amyas in good stead during the ensuing month, while Frank +grew more and more proud of his brother, and more and more humble +about himself. + + +* This noble monument of Drake's piety and public spirit still +remains in full use. + + +For he watched with astonishment how the simple sailor, without +genius, scholarship, or fancy, had gained, by plain honesty, +patience, and common sense, a power over the human heart, and a +power over his work, whatsoever it might be, which Frank could only +admire afar off. The men looked up to him as infallible, prided +themselves on forestalling his wishes, carried out his slightest +hint, worked early and late to win a smile from him; while as for +him, no detail escaped him, no drudgery sickened him, no +disappointment angered him, till on the 15th of November, 1583, +dropped down from Bideford Quay to Appledore Pool the tall ship +Rose, with a hundred men on board (for sailors packed close in +those days), beef, pork, biscuit, and good ale (for ale went to sea +always then) in abundance, four culverins on her main deck, her +poop and forecastle well fitted with swivels of every size, and her +racks so full of muskets, calivers, long bows, pikes, and swords, +that all agreed so well-appointed a ship had never sailed "out over +Bar." + +The next day being Sunday, the whole crew received the Communion +together at Northam Church, amid a mighty crowd; and then going on +board again, hove anchor and sailed out over the Bar before a soft +east wind, to the music of sacbut, fife, and drum, with discharge +of all ordnance, great and small, with cheering of young and old +from cliff and strand and quay, and with many a tearful prayer and +blessing upon that gallant bark, and all brave hearts on board. + +And Mrs. Leigh who had kissed her sons for the last time after the +Communion at the altar-steps (and what more fit place for a +mother's kiss?) went to the rocky knoll outside the churchyard +wall, and watched the ship glide out between the yellow denes, and +lessen slowly hour by hour into the boundless West, till her hull +sank below the dim horizon, and her white sails faded away into the +gray Atlantic mist, perhaps forever. + +And Mrs. Leigh gathered her cloak about her, and bowed her head and +worshipped; and then went home to loneliness and prayer. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS, AND FOUND NO MEN THEREIN + + +"The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out; +At one stride comes the dark." + + COLERIDGE. + + +Land! land! land! Yes, there it was, far away to the south and +west, beside the setting sun, a long blue bar between the crimson +sea and golden sky. Land at last, with fresh streams, and cooling +fruits, and free room for cramped and scurvy-weakened limbs. And +there, too, might be gold, and gems, and all the wealth of Ind. +Who knew? Why not? The old world of fact and prose lay thousands +of miles behind them, and before them and around them was the realm +of wonder and fable, of boundless hope and possibility. Sick men +crawled up out of their stifling hammocks; strong men fell on their +knees and gave God thanks; and all eyes and hands were stretched +eagerly toward the far blue cloud, fading as the sun sank down, yet +rising higher and broader as the ship rushed on before the rich +trade-wind, which whispered lovingly round brow and sail, "I am the +faithful friend of those who dare!" "Blow freshly, freshlier yet, +thou good trade-wind, of whom it is written that He makes the winds +His angels, ministering breaths to the heirs of His salvation. +Blow freshlier yet, and save, if not me from death, yet her from +worse than death. Blow on, and land me at her feet, to call the +lost lamb home, and die!" + +So murmured Frank to himself, as with straining eyes he gazed upon +that first outlier of the New World which held his all. His cheeks +were thin and wasted, and the hectic spot on each glowed crimson in +the crimson light of the setting sun. A few minutes more, and the +rainbows of the West were gone; emerald and topaz, amethyst and +ruby, had faded into silver-gray; and overhead, through the dark +sapphire depths, the Moon and Venus reigned above the sea. + +"That should be Barbados, your worship," said Drew, the master; +"unless my reckoning is far out, which, Heaven knows, it has no +right to be, after such a passage, and God be praised." + +"Barbados? I never heard of it." + +"Very like, sir: but Yeo and I were here with Captain Drake, and I +was here after, too, with poor Captain Barlow; and there is good +harborage to the south and west of it, I remember." + +"And neither Spaniard, cannibal, or other evil beast," said Yeo. +"A very garden of the Lord, sir, hid away in the seas, for an +inheritance to those who love Him. I heard Captain Drake talk of +planting it, if ever he had a chance." + +"I recollect now," said Amyas, "some talk between him and poor Sir +Humphrey about an island here. Would God he had gone thither +instead of to Newfoundland!" + +"Nay, then," said Yeo, "he is in bliss now with the Lord; and you +would not have kept him from that, sir?" + +"He would have waited as willingly as he went, if he could have +served his queen thereby. But what say you, my masters? How can +we do better than to spend a few days here, to get our sick round, +before we make the Main, and set to our work?" + +All approved the counsel except Frank, who was silent. + +"Come, fellow-adventurer," said Cary, "we must have your voice +too." + +"To my impatience, Will," said he, aside in a low voice, "there is +but one place on earth, and I am all day longing for wings to fly +thither: but the counsel is right. I approve it." + +So the verdict was announced, and received with a hearty cheer by +the crew; and long before morning they had run along the southern +shore of the island, and were feeling their way into the bay where +Bridgetown now stands. All eyes were eagerly fixed on the low +wooded hills which slept in the moonlight, spangled by fireflies, +with a million dancing stars; all nostrils drank greedily the +fragrant air, which swept from the land, laden with the scent of a +thousand flowers; all ears welcomed, as a grateful change from the +monotonous whisper and lap of the water, the hum of insects, the +snore of the tree-toads, the plaintive notes of the shore-fowl, +which fill a tropic night with noisy life. + +At last she stopped; at last the cable rattled through the +hawsehole; and then, careless of the chance of lurking Spaniard or +Carib, an instinctive cheer burst from every throat. Poor fellows! +Amyas had much ado to prevent them going on shore at once, dark as +it was, by reminding them that it wanted but two hours of day. + +"Never were two such long hours," said one young lad, fidgeting up +and down. + +"You never were in the Inquisition," said Yeo, "or you'd know +better how slow time can run. Stand you still, and give God thanks +you're where you are." + +"I say, Gunner, be there goold to that island?" + +"Never heard of none; and so much the better for it," said Yeo, +dryly. + +"But, I say, Gunner," said a poor scurvy-stricken cripple, licking +his lips, "be there oranges and limmons there?" + +"Not of my seeing; but plenty of good fruit down to the beach, +thank the Lord. There comes the dawn at last." + +Up flushed the rose, up rushed the sun, and the level rays +glittered on the smooth stems of the palm-trees, and threw rainbows +across the foam upon the coral-reefs, and gilded lonely uplands far +away, where now stands many a stately country-seat and busy engine- +house. Long lines of pelicans went clanging out to sea; the hum of +the insects hushed, and a thousand birds burst into jubilant song; +a thin blue mist crept upward toward the inner downs, and vanished, +leaving them to quiver in the burning glare; the land-breeze, which +had blown fresh out to sea all night, died away into glassy calm, +and the tropic day was begun. + +The sick were lifted over the side, and landed boat-load after +boat-load on the beach, to stretch themselves in the shade of the +palms; and in half-an-hour the whole crew were scattered on the +shore, except some dozen worthy men, who had volunteered to keep +watch and ward on board till noon. + +And now the first instinctive cry of nature was for fruit! fruit! +fruit! The poor lame wretches crawled from place to place plucking +greedily the violet grapes of the creeping shore vine, and staining +their mouths and blistering their lips with the prickly pears, in +spite of Yeo's entreaties and warnings against the thorns. Some of +the healthy began hewing down cocoa-nut trees to get at the nuts, +doing little thereby but blunt their hatchets; till Yeo and Drew, +having mustered half-a-dozen reasonable men, went off inland, and +returned in an hour laden with the dainties of that primeval +orchard,--with acid junipa-apples, luscious guavas, and crowned +ananas, queen of all the fruits, which they had found by hundreds +on the broiling ledges of the low tufa-cliffs; and then all, +sitting on the sandy turf, defiant of galliwasps and jackspaniards, +and all the weapons of the insect host, partook of the equal +banquet, while old blue land-crabs sat in their house-doors and +brandished their fists in defiance at the invaders, and solemn +cranes stood in the water on the shoals with their heads on one +side, and meditated how long it was since they had seen bipeds +without feathers breaking the solitude of their isle. + +And Frank wandered up and down, silent, but rather in wonder than +in sadness, while great Amyas walked after him, his mouth full of +junipa-apples, and enacted the part of showman, with a sort of +patronizing air, as one who had seen the wonders already, and was +above being astonished at them. + +"New, new; everything new!" said Frank, meditatively. "Oh, awful +feeling! All things changed around us, even to the tiniest fly and +flower; yet we the same, the same forever!" + +Amyas, to whom such utterances were altogether sibylline and +unintelligible, answered by: + +"Look, Frank, that's a colibri. You 've heard of colibris?" + +Frank looked at the living gem, which hung, loud humming, over some +fantastic bloom, and then dashed away, seemingly to call its mate, +and whirred and danced with it round and round the flower-starred +bushes, flashing fresh rainbows at every shifting of the lights. + +Frank watched solemnly awhile, and then: + +"Qualis Natura formatrix, si talis formata? Oh my God, how fair +must be Thy real world, if even Thy phantoms are so fair!" + +"Phantoms?" asked Amyas, uneasily. "That's no ghost, Frank, but a +jolly little honey-sucker, with a wee wife, and children no bigger +than peas, but yet solid greedy little fellows enough, I'll +warrant." + +"Not phantoms in thy sense, good fellow, but in the sense of those +who know the worthlessness of all below." + +"I'll tell you what, brother Frank, you are a great deal wiser than +me, I know; but I can't abide to see you turn up your nose as it +were at God's good earth. See now, God made all these things; and +never a man, perhaps, set eyes on them till fifty years agone; and +yet they were as pretty as they are now, ever since the making of +the world. And why do you think God could have put them here, +then, but to please Himself"--and Amyas took off his hat--"with the +sight of them? Now, I say, brother Frank, what's good enough to +please God, is good enough to please you and me." + +"Your rebuke is just, dear old simple-hearted fellow; and God +forgive me, if with all my learning, which has brought me no +profit, and my longings, which have brought me no peace, I presume +at moments, sinner that I am, to be more dainty than the Lord +Himself. He walked in Paradise among the trees of the garden, +Amyas; and so will we, and be content with what He sends. Why +should we long for the next world, before we are fit even for this +one?" + +"And in the meanwhile," said Amyas, "this earth's quite good +enough, at least here in Barbados." + +"Do you believe," asked Frank, trying to turn his own thoughts, "in +those tales of the Spaniards, that the Sirens and Tritons are heard +singing in these seas?" + +"I can't tell. There's more fish in the water than ever came out +of it, and more wonders in the world, I'll warrant, than we ever +dreamt of; but I was never in these parts before; and in the South +Sea, I must say, I never came across any, though Yeo says he has +heard fair music at night up in the Gulf, far away from land." + +"The Spaniards report that at certain seasons choirs of these +nymphs assemble in the sea, and with ravishing music sing their +watery loves. It may be so. For Nature, which has peopled the +land with rational souls, may not have left the sea altogether +barren of them; above all, when we remember that the ocean is as it +were the very fount of all fertility, and its slime (as the most +learned hold with Thales of Miletus) that prima materia out of +which all things were one by one concocted. Therefore, the +ancients feigned wisely that Venus, the mother of all living +things, whereby they designed the plastic force of nature, was born +of the sea-foam, and rising from the deep, floated ashore upon the +isles of Greece." + +"I don't know what plastic force is; but I wish I had had the luck +to be by when the pretty poppet came up: however, the nearest thing +I ever saw to that was maidens swimming alongside of us when we +were in the South Seas, and would have come aboard, too; but Drake +sent them all off again for a lot of naughty packs, and I verily +believe they were no better. Look at the butterflies, now! Don't +you wish you were a boy again, and not too proud to go catching +them in your cap?" + +And so the two wandered on together through the glorious tropic +woods, and then returned to the beach to find the sick already +grown cheerful, and many who that morning could not stir from their +hammocks, pacing up and down, and gaining strength with every step. + +"Well done, lads!" cried Amyas, "keep a cheerful mind. We will +have the music ashore after dinner, for want of mermaids to sing to +us, and those that can dance may." + +And so those four days were spent; and the men, like schoolboys on +a holiday, gave themselves up to simple merriment, not forgetting, +however, to wash the clothes, take in fresh water, and store up a +good supply of such fruit as seemed likely to keep; until, tired +with fruitless rambles after gold, which they expected to find in +every bush, in spite of Yeo's warnings that none had been heard of +on the island, they were fain to lounge about, full-grown babies, +picking up shells and sea-fans to take home to their sweethearts, +smoking agoutis out of the hollow trees, with shout and laughter, +and tormenting every living thing they could come near, till not a +land-crab dare look out of his hole, or an armadillo unroll +himself, till they were safe out of the bay, and off again to the +westward, unconscious pioneers of all the wealth, and commerce, and +beauty, and science which has in later centuries made that lovely +isle the richest gem of all the tropic seas. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS AT MARGARITA + + +P. Henry. Why, what a rascal art thou, then, to praise him so for + running! +Falstaff. O' horseback, ye cuckoo! but a-foot, he will not budge a + foot. +P. Henry. Yes, Jack, upon instinct. +Falstaff. I grant ye, upon instinct. + + Henry IV. Pt. I. + + +They had slipped past the southern point of Grenada in the night, +and were at last within that fairy ring of islands, on which nature +had concentrated all her beauty, and man all his sin. If Barbados +had been invested in the eyes of the newcomers with some strange +glory, how much more the seas on which they now entered, which +smile in almost perpetual calm, untouched by the hurricane which +roars past them far to northward! Sky, sea, and islands were one +vast rainbow; though little marked, perhaps, by those sturdy +practical sailors, whose main thought was of Spanish gold and +pearls; and as little by Amyas, who, accustomed to the scenery of +the tropics, was speculating inwardly on the possibility of +extirpating the Spaniards, and annexing the West Indies to the +domains of Queen Elizabeth. And yet even their unpoetic eyes could +not behold without awe and excitement lands so famous and yet so +new, around which all the wonder, all the pity, and all the greed +of the age had concentrated itself. It was an awful thought, and +yet inspiriting, that they were entering regions all but unknown to +Englishmen, where the penalty of failure would be worse than death-- +the torments of the Inquisition. Not more than five times before, +perhaps, had those mysterious seas been visited by English keels; +but there were those on board who knew them well, and too well; +who, first of all British mariners, had attempted under Captain +John Hawkins to trade along those very coasts, and, interdicted +from the necessaries of life by Spanish jealousy, had, in true +English fashion, won their markets at the sword's point, and then +bought and sold honestly and peaceably therein. The old mariners +of the Pelican and the Minion were questioned all day long for the +names of every isle and cape, every fish and bird; while Frank +stood by, listening serious and silent. + +A great awe seemed to have possessed his soul; yet not a sad one: +for his face seemed daily to drink in glory from the glory round +him; and murmuring to himself at whiles, "This is the gate of +heaven," he stood watching all day long, careless of food and rest, +as every forward plunge of the ship displayed some fresh wonder. +Islands and capes hung high in air, with their inverted images +below them; long sand-hills rolled and weltered in the mirage; and +the yellow flower-beds, and huge thorny cacti like giant +candelabra, which clothed the glaring slopes, twisted, tossed, and +flickered, till the whole scene seemed one blazing phantom-world, +in which everything was as unstable as it was fantastic, even to +the sun itself, distorted into strange oval and pear-shaped figures +by the beds of crimson mist through which he sank to rest. But +while Frank wondered, Yeo rejoiced; for to the southward of that +setting sun a cluster of tall peaks rose from the sea; and they, +unless his reckonings were wrong, were the mountains of Macanao, at +the western end of Margarita, the Isle of Pearls, then famous in +all the cities of the Mediterranean, and at the great German fairs, +and second only in richness to that pearl island in the gulf of +Panama, which fifteen years before had cost John Oxenham his life. + +The next day saw them running along the north side of the island, +having passed undiscovered (as far as they could see) the castle +which the Spaniards had built at the eastern end for the protection +of the pearl fisheries. + +At last they opened a deep and still bight, wooded to the water's +edge; and lying in the roadstead a caravel, and three boats by her. +And at that sight there was not a man but was on deck at once, and +not a mouth but was giving its opinion of what should be done. +Some were for sailing right into the roadstead, the breeze blowing +fresh toward the shore (as it usually does throughout those islands +in the afternoon). However, seeing the billows break here and +there off the bay's mouth, they thought it better, for fear of +rocks, to run by quietly, and then send in the pinnace and the +boat. Yeo would have had them show Spanish colors, for fear of +alarming the caravel; but Amyas stoutly refused, "counting it," he +said, "a mean thing to tell a lie in that way, unless in extreme +danger, or for great ends of state." + +So holding on their course till they were shut out by the next +point, they started; Cary in the largest boat with twenty men, and +Amyas in the smaller one with fifteen more; among whom was John +Brimblecombe, who must needs come in his cassock and bands, with an +old sword of his uncle's which he prized mightily. + +When they came to the bight's mouth, they found, as they had +expected, coral rocks, and too many of them; so that they had to +run along the edge of the reef a long way before they could find a +passage for the boats. While they were so doing, and those of them +who were new to the Indies were admiring through the clear element +those living flower-beds, and subaqueous gardens of Nereus and +Amphitrite, there suddenly appeared below what Yeo called "a school +of sharks," some of them nearly as long as the boat, who looked up +at them wistfully enough out of their wicked scowling eyes. + +"Jack," said Amyas, who sat next to him, "look how that big fellow +eyes thee: he has surely taken a fancy to that plump hide of thine, +and thinks thou wouldst eat as tender as any sucking porker." + +Jack turned very pale, but said nothing. + +Now, as it befell, just then that very big fellow, seeing a parrot- +fish come out of a cleft of the coral, made at him from below, as +did two or three more; the poor fish finding no other escape, +leaped clean into the air, and almost aboard the boat; while just +where he had come out of the water, three or four great brown +shagreened noses clashed together within two yards of Jack as he +sat, each showing its horrible rows of saw teeth, and then sank +sulkily down again, to watch for a fresh bait. At which Jack said +very softly, "In manus tuas, Domine!" and turning his eyes in +board, had no lust to look at sharks any more. + +So having got through the reef, in they ran with a fair breeze, the +caravel not being now a musket-shot off. Cary laid her aboard +before the Spaniards had time to get to their ordnance; and +standing up in the stern-sheets, shouted to them to yield. The +captain asked boldly enough, in whose name? "In the name of common +sense, ye dogs," cries Will; "do you not see that you are but fifty +strong to our twenty?" Whereon up the side he scrambled, and the +captain fired a pistol at him. Cary knocked him over, unwilling to +shed needless blood; on which all the crew yielded, some falling on +their knees, some leaping overboard; and the prize was taken. + +In the meanwhile, Amyas had pulled round under her stern, and +boarded the boat which was second from her, for the nearest was +fast alongside, and so a sure prize. The Spaniards in her yielded +without a blow, crying "Misericordia;" and the negroes, leaping +overboard, swam ashore like sea-dogs. Meanwhile, the third boat, +which was not an oar's length off, turned to pull away. Whereby +befell a notable adventure: for John Brimblecombe, casting about in +a valiant mind how he should distinguish himself that day, must +needs catch up a boat-hook, and claw on to her stern, shouting, +"Stay, ye Papists! Stay, Spanish dogs!"--by which, as was to be +expected, they being ten to his one, he was forthwith pulled +overboard, and fell all along on his nose in the sea, leaving the +hook fast in her stern. + +Where, I know not how, being seized with some panic fear (his +lively imagination filling all the sea with those sharks which he +had just seen), he fell a-roaring like any town-bull, and in his +confusion never thought to turn and get aboard again, but struck +out lustily after the Spanish boat, whether in hope of catching +hold of the boat-hook which trailed behind her, or from a very +madness of valor, no man could divine; but on he swam, his cassock +afloat behind him, looking for all the world like a great black +monk-fish, and howling and puffing, with his mouth full of salt +water, "Stay, ye Spanish dogs! Help, all good fellows! See you +not that I am a dead man? They are nuzzling already at my toes! +He hath hold of my leg! My right thigh is bitten clean off! Oh +that I were preaching in Hartland pulpit! Stay, Spanish dogs! +Yield, Papist cowards, least I make mincemeat of you; and take me +aboard! Yield, I say, or my blood be on your heads! I am no +Jonah; if he swallow me, he will never cast me up again! it is +better to fall into the hands of man, than into the hands of devils +with three rows of teeth apiece. In manus tuas. Orate pro anima--!" + +And so forth, in more frantic case than ever was Panurge in that +his ever-memorable seasickness; till the English, expecting him +every minute to be snapped up by sharks, or brained by the +Spaniard's oars, let fly a volley into the fugitives, on which they +all leaped overboard like their fellows; whereon Jack scrambled +into the boat, and drawing sword with one hand, while he wiped the +water out of his eyes with the other, began to lay about him like a +very lion, cutting the empty air, and crying, "Yield, idolaters! +Yield, Spanish dogs!" However, coming to himself after a while, +and seeing that there was no one on whom to flesh his maiden steel, +he sits down panting in the sternsheets, and begins stripping off +his hose. On which Amyas, thinking surely that the good fellow had +gone mad with some stroke of the sun, or by having fallen into the +sea after being overheated with his rowing, bade pull alongside, +and asked him in heaven's name what he was doing with his nether +tackle. On which Jack, amid such laughter as may be conceived, +vowed and swore that his right thigh was bitten clean through, and +to the bone; yea, and that he felt his hose full of blood; and so +would have swooned away for imaginary loss of blood (so strong was +the delusion on him) had not his friends, after much arguing on +their part, and anger on his, persuaded him that he was whole and +sound. + +After which they set to work to overhaul their maiden prize, which +they found full of hides and salt-pork; and yet not of that alone; +for in the captain's cabin, and also in the sternsheets of the boat +which Brimblecombe had so valorously boarded, were certain frails +of leaves packed neatly enough, which being opened were full of +goodly pearls, though somewhat brown (for the Spaniards used to +damage the color in their haste and greediness, opening the shells +by fire, instead of leaving them to decay gradually after the +Arabian fashion); with which prize, though they could not guess its +value very exactly, they went off content enough, after some +malicious fellow had set the ship on fire, which, being laden with +hides, was no nosegay as it burnt. + +Amyas was very angry at this wanton damage, in which his model, +Drake, had never indulged; but Cary had his jest ready. "Ah!" said +he, "'Lutheran devils' we are, you know; so we are bound to vanish, +like other fiends, with an evil savor." + +As soon, however, as Amyas was on board again, he rounded his +friend Mr. Brimblecombe in the ear, and told him he had better play +the man a little more, roaring less before he was hurt, and keeping +his breath to help his strokes, if he wished the crew to listen +much to his discourses. Frank, hearing this, bade Amyas leave the +offender to him, and so began upon him with-- + +"Come hither, thou recreant Jack, thou lily-livered Jack, thou +hysterical Jack. Tell me now, thou hast read Plato's Dialogues, +and Aristotle's Logic?" + +To which Jack very meekly answered, "Yes." + +"Then I will deal with thee after the manner of those ancient +sages, and ask whether the greater must not contain the less?" + +Jack. Yes, sure. + +Frank. And that which is more than a part, contain that part, more +than which it is? + +Jack. Yes, sure. + +Frank. Then tell me, is not a priest more than a layman? + +Jack (who was always very loud about the dignity of the priesthood, +as many of his cloth are, who have no other dignity whereon to +stand) answered very boldly, "Of course." + +Frank. Then a priest containeth a man, and is a man, and something +over--viz, his priesthood? + +Jack (who saw whither this would lead). I suppose so. + +Frank. Then, if a priest show himself no man, he shows himself all +the more no priest? + +"I'll tell you what, Master Frank," says Jack, "you may be right by +logic; but sharks aren't logic, nor don't understand it neither." + +Frank. Nay but, my recalcitrant Jack, my stiff-necked Jack, is it +the part of a man to howl like a pig in a gate, because he thinks +that is there which is not there? + +Jack had not a word to say. + +Frank. And still more, when if that had been there, it had been +the duty of a brave man to have kept his mouth shut, if only to +keep salt water out, and not add the evil of choking to that of +being eaten? + +"Ah!" says Jack, "that's all very fine; but you know as well as I +that it was not the Spaniards I was afraid of. They were Heaven's +handiwork, and I knew how to deal with them; but as for those +fiends' spawn of sharks, when I saw that fellow take the fish +alongside, it upset me clean, and there's an end of it!" + +Frank. Oh, Jack, Jack, behold how one sin begets another! Just +now thou wert but a coward, and now thou art a Manichee. For thou +hast imputed to an evil creator that which was formed only for a +good end, namely, sharks, which were made on purpose to devour +useless carcasses like thine. Moreover, as a brother of the Rose, +thou wert bound by the vow of thy brotherhood to have leaped +joyfully down that shark's mouth. + +Jack. Ay, very likely, if Mistress Rose had been in his stomach; +but I wanted to fight Spaniards just then, not to be shark-bitten. + +Frank. Jack, thy answer savors of self-will. If it is ordained +that thou shouldst advance the ends of the Brotherhood by being +shark-bitten, or flea-bitten, or bitten by sharpers, to the +detriment of thy carnal wealth, or, shortly, to suffer any shame or +torment whatsoever, even to strappado and scarpines, thou art bound +to obey thy destiny, and not, after that vain Roman conceit, to +choose the manner of thine own death, which is indeed only another +sort of self-murder. We therefore consider thee as a cause of +scandal, and a rotten and creaking branch, to be excised by the +spiritual arm, and do hereby excise thee, and cut thee off. + +Jack. Nay faith, that's a little too much, Master Frank. How long +have you been Bishop of Exeter? + +Frank. Jack, thy wit being blinded, and full of gross vapors, by +reason of the perturbations of fear (which, like anger, is a short +madness, and raises in the phantasy vain spectres,--videlicet, of +sharks and Spaniards), mistakes our lucidity. For thy Manicheeism, +let his lordship of Exeter deal with it. For thy abominable +howling and caterwauling, offensive in a chained cur, but +scandalous in a preacher and a brother of the Rose, we do hereby +deprive thee of thine office of chaplain to the Brotherhood; and +warn thee, that unless within seven days thou do some deed equal to +the Seven Champions, or Ruggiero and Orlando's self, thou shalt be +deprived of sword and dagger, and allowed henceforth to carry no +more iron about thee than will serve to mend thy pen. + +"And now, Jack," said Amyas, "I will give thee a piece of news. No +wonder that young men, as the parsons complain so loudly, will not +listen to the Gospel, while it is preached to them by men on whom +they cannot but look down; a set of softhanded fellows who cannot +dig, and are ashamed to beg; and, as my brother has it, must needs +be parsons before they are men. + +Frank. Ay, and even though we may excuse that in Popish priests +and friars, who are vowed not to be men, and get their bread +shamefully and rascally by telling sinners who owe a hundred +measures to sit down quickly and take their bill and write fifty: +yet for a priest of the Church of England (whose business is not +merely to smuggle sinful souls up the backstairs into heaven, but +to make men good Christians by making them good men, good +gentlemen, and good Englishmen) to show the white feather in the +hour of need, is to unpreach in one minute all that he had been +preaching his life long. + +"I tell thee," says Amyas, "if I had not taken thee for another +guess sort of man, I had never let thee have the care of a hundred +brave lads' immortal souls--" + +And so on, both of them boarding him at once with their heavy shot, +larboard and starboard, till he fairly clapped his hands to his +ears and ran for it, leaving poor Frank laughing so heartily, that +Amyas was after all glad the thing had happened, for the sake of +the smile which it put into his sad and steadfast countenance. + +The next day was Sunday; on which, after divine service (which they +could hardly persuade Jack to read, so shamefaced was he; and as +for preaching after it, he would not hear of such a thing), Amyas +read aloud, according to custom, the articles of their agreement; +and then seeing abreast of them a sloping beach with a shoot of +clear water running into the sea, agreed that they should land +there, wash the clothes, and again water the ship; for they had +found water somewhat scarce at Barbados. On this party Jack +Brimblecombe must needs go, taking with him his sword and a great +arquebuse; for he had dreamed last night (he said) that he was set +upon by Spaniards, and was sure that the dream would come true; and +moreover, that he did not very much care if they did, or if he ever +got back alive; "for it was better to die than be made an ape, and +a scarecrow, and laughed at by the men, and badgered with Ramus his +logic, and Plato his dialectical devilries, to confess himself a +Manichee, and, for aught he knew, a turbaned Turk, or Hebrew Jew," +and so flung into the boat like a man desperate. + +So they went ashore, after Amyas had given strict commands against +letting off firearms, for fear of alarming the Spaniards. There +they washed their clothes, and stretched their legs with great joy, +admiring the beauty of the place, and then began to shoot the seine +which they had brought on shore with them. "In which," says the +chronicler, "we caught many strange fishes, and beside them, a sea- +cow full seven feet long, with limpets and barnacles on her back, +as if she had been a stick of drift-timber. This is a fond and +foolish beast: and yet pious withal; for finding a corpse, she +watches over it day and night until it decay or be buried. The +Indians call her manati; who carries her young under her arm, and +gives it suck like a woman; and being wounded, she lamenteth aloud +with a human voice, and is said at certain seasons to sing very +melodiously; which melody, perhaps, having been heard in those +seas, is that which Mr. Frank reported to be the choirs of the +Sirens and Tritons. The which I do not avouch for truth, neither +rashly deny, having seen myself such fertility of Nature's wonders +that I hold him who denieth aught merely for its strangeness to be +a ribald and an ignoramus. Also one of our men brought in two +great black fowls which he had shot with a crossbow, bodied and +headed like a capon, but bigger than any eagle, which the Spaniards +call curassos; which, with that sea-cow, afterwards made us good +cheer, both roast and sodden, for the cow was very dainty meat, as +good as a four-months' calf, and tender and fat withal." + +After that they set to work filling the casks and barricos, having +laid the boat up to the outflow of the rivulet. And lucky for them +it was, as it fell out, that they were all close together at that +work, and not abroad skylarking as they had been half-an-hour +before. + +Now John Brimblecombe had gone apart as soon as they landed, with a +shamefaced and doleful countenance; and sitting down under a great +tree, plucked a Bible from his bosom, and read steadfastly, girded +with his great sword, and his arquebuse lying by him. This too was +well for him, and for the rest; for they had not yet finished their +watering, when there was a cry that the enemy was on them; and out +of the wood, not twenty yards from the good parson, came full fifty +shot, with a multitude of negroes behind them, and an officer in +front on horseback, with a great plume of feathers in his hat, and +his sword drawn in his hand. + +"Stand, for your lives!" shouted Amyas: and only just in time; for +there was ten good minutes lost in running up and down before he +could get his men into some order of battle. But when Jack beheld +the Spaniards, as if he had expected their coming, he plucked a +leaf and put it into the page of his book for a mark, laid the book +down soberly, caught up his arquebuse, ran like a mad dog right at +the Spanish captain, shot him through the body stark dead, and +then, flinging the arquebuse at the head of him who stood next, +fell on with his sword like a very Colbrand, breaking in among the +arquebuses, and striking right and left such ugly strokes, that the +Spaniards (who thought him a very fiend, or Luther's self come to +life to plague them) gave back pell-mell, and shot at him five or +six at once with their arquebuses: but whether from fear of him, or +of wounding each other, made so bad play with their pieces, that he +only got one shrewd gall in his thigh, which made him limp for many +a day. But as fast as they gave back he came on; and the rest by +this time ran up in good order, and altogether nearly forty men +well armed. On which the Spaniards turned, and went as fast as +they had come, while Cary hinted that, "The dogs had had such a +taste of the parson, that they had no mind to wait for the clerk +and people." + +"Come back, Jack! are you mad?" shouted Amyas. + +But Jack (who had not all this time spoken one word) followed them +as fiercely as ever, till, reaching a great blow at one of the +arquebusiers, he caught his foot in a root; on which down he went, +and striking his head against the ground, knocked out of himself +all the breath he had left (which between fatness and fighting was +not much), and so lay. Amyas, seeing the Spaniards gone, did not +care to pursue them: but picked up Jack, who, staring about, cried, +"Glory be! glory be!--How many have I killed? How many have I +killed?" + +"Nineteen, at the least," quoth Cary, "and seven with one back +stroke;" and then showed Brimblecombe the captain lying dead, and +two arquebusiers, one of which was the fugitive by whom he came to +his fall, beside three or four more who were limping away wounded, +some of them by their fellows' shot. + +"There!" said Jack, pausing and blowing, "will you laugh at me any +more, Mr. Cary; or say that I cannot fight, because I am a poor +parson's son?" + +Cary took him by the hand, and asked pardon of him for his +scoffing, saying that he had that day played the best man of all of +them; and Jack, who never bore malice, began laughing in his turn, +and-- + +"Oh, Mr. Cary, we have all known your pleasant ways, ever since you +used to put drumble-drones into my desk to Bideford school." And +so they went to the boats, and pulled off, thanking God (as they +had need to do) for their great deliverance: while all the boats' +crew rejoiced over Jack, who after a while grew very faint (having +bled a good deal without knowing it), and made as little of his +real wound as he made much the day before of his imaginary one. + +Frank asked him that evening how he came to show so cool and +approved a valor in so sudden a mishap. + +"Well, my masters," said Jack, "I don't deny that I was very +downcast on account of what you said, and the scandal which I had +given to the crew; but as it happened, I was reading there under +the tree, to fortify my spirits, the history of the ancient +worthies, in St. Paul his eleventh chapter to the Hebrews; and just +as I came to that, 'out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant +in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens,' arose the cry +of the Spaniards. At which, gentlemen, thinking in myself that I +fought in just so good a cause as they, and, as I hoped, with like +faith, there came upon me so strange an assurance of victory, that +I verily believed in myself that if there had been a ten thousand +of them, I should have taken no hurt. Wherefore," said Jack, +modestly, "there is no credit due to me, for there was no valor in +me whatsoever, but only a certainty of safety; and any coward would +fight if he knew that he were to have all the killing and none of +the scratches." + +Which words he next day, being Sunday, repeated in his sermon which +he made on that chapter, with which all, even Salvation Yeo +himself, were well content and edified, and allowed him to be as +godly a preacher as he was (in spite of his simple ways) a valiant +and true-hearted comrade. + +They brought away the Spanish officer's sword (a very good blade), +and also a great chain of gold which he wore about his neck; both +of which were allotted to Brimblecombe as his fair prize; but he, +accepting the sword, steadfastly refused the chain, entreating +Amyas to put it into the common stock; and when Amyas refused, he +cut it into links and distributed it among those of the boat's crew +who had succored him, winning thereby much good-will. "And indeed" +(says the chronicler), "I never saw in that worthy man, from the +first day of our school-fellowship till he was laid in his parish +church of Hartland (where he now sleeps in peace), any touch of +that sin of covetousness which has in all ages, and in ours no less +than others, beset especially (I know not why) them who minister +about the sanctuary. But this man, though he was ugly and lowly in +person, and in understanding simple, and of breeding but a poor +parson's son, had yet in him a spirit so loving and cheerful, so +lifted from base and selfish purposes to the worship of duty, and +to a generosity rather knightly than sacerdotal, that all through +his life he seemed to think only that it was more blessed to give +than to receive. And all that wealth which he gained in the wars +he dispersed among his sisters and the poor of his parish, living +unmarried till his death like a true lover and constant mourner (as +shall be said in place), and leaving hardly wherewith to bring his +body to the grave. At whom if we often laughed once, we should now +rather envy him, desiring to be here what he was, that we may be +hereafter where he is. Amen." + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA + + + "Great was the crying, the running and riding, +Which at that season was made in the place; + The beacons were fired, as need then required, +To save their great treasure they had little space." + + Winning of Cales. + + +The men would gladly have hawked awhile round Margarita and Cubagua +for another pearl prize. But Amyas having, as he phrased it, +"fleshed his dogs," was loth to hang about the islands after the +alarm had been given. They ran, therefore, south-west across the +mouth of that great bay which stretches from the Peninsula of Paria +to Cape Codera, leaving on their right hand Tortuga, and on their +left the meadow-islands of the Piritoos, two long green lines but a +few inches above the tideless sea. Yeo and Drew knew every foot of +the way, and had good reason to know it; for they, the first of all +English mariners, had tried to trade along this coast with Hawkins. +And now, right ahead, sheer out of the sea from base to peak, arose +higher and higher the mighty range of the Caracas mountains; beside +which all hills which most of the crew had ever seen seemed petty +mounds. Frank, of course, knew the Alps; and Amyas the Andes; but +Cary's notions of height were bounded by M'Gillicuddy's Reeks, and +Brimblecombe's by Exmoor; and the latter, to Cary's infinite +amusement, spent a whole day holding on by the rigging, and staring +upwards with his chin higher than his nose, till he got a stiff +neck. Soon the sea became rough and chopping, though the breeze +was fair and gentle; and ere they were abreast of the Cape, they +became aware of that strong eastward current which, during the +winter months, so often baffles the mariner who wishes to go to the +westward. All night long they struggled through the billows, with +the huge wall of Cape Codera a thousand feet above their heads to +the left, and beyond it again, bank upon bank of mountain, bathed +in the yellow moonlight. + +Morning showed them a large ship, which had passed them during the +night upon the opposite course, and was now a good ten miles to the +eastward. Yeo was for going back and taking her. Of the latter he +made a matter of course; and the former was easy enough, for the +breeze blowing dead off the land, was a "soldier's wind, there and +back again," for either ship; but Amyas and Frank were both +unwilling. + +"Why, Yeo, you said that one day more would bring us to La Guayra." + +"All the more reason, sir, for doing the Lord's work thoroughly, +when He has brought us safely so far on our journey." + +"She can pass well enough, and no loss." + +"Ah, sirs, sirs, she is delivered into your hands, and you will +have to give an account of her." + +"My good Yeo," said Frank, "I trust we shall give good account +enough of many a tall Spaniard before we return: but you know +surely that La Guayra, and the salvation of one whom we believe +dwells there, was our first object in this adventure." + +Yeo shook his head sadly. "Ah, sirs, a lady brought Captain +Oxenham to ruin." + +"You do not dare to compare her with this one?" said Frank and +Cary, both in a breath. + +"God forbid, gentlemen: but no adventure will prosper, unless there +is a single eye to the Lord's work; and that is, as I take it, to +cripple the Spaniard, and exalt her majesty the queen. And I had +thought that nothing was more dear than that to Captain Leigh's +heart." + +Amyas stood somewhat irresolute. His duty to the queen bade him +follow the Spanish vessel: his duty to his vow, to go on to La +Guayra. It may seem a far-fetched dilemma. He found it a +practical one enough. + +However, the counsel of Frank prevailed, and on to La Guayra he +went. He half hoped that the Spaniard would see and attack them. +However, he went on his way to the eastward; which if he had not +done, my story had had a very different ending. + +About mid-day a canoe, the first which they had seen, came +staggering toward them under a huge three-cornered sail. As it +came near, they could see two Indians on board. + +"Metal floats in these seas, you see," quoth Cary. "There's a +fresh marvel, for you, Frank." + +"Expound," quoth Frank, who was really ready to swallow any fresh +marvel, so many had he seen already. + +"Why, how else would those two bronze statues dare to go to sea in +such a cockleshell, eh? Have I given you the dor now, master +courtier!" + +"I am long past dors, Will. But what noble creatures they are! and +how fearlessly they are coming alongside! Can they know that we +are English, and the avengers of the Indians?" + +"I suspect they just take us for Spaniards, and want to sell their +cocoa-nuts. See, the canoe is laden with vegetables." + +"Hail them, Yeo!" said Amyas. "You talk the best Spanish, and I +want speech of one of them." + +Yeo did so; the canoe, without more ado, ran alongside, and lowered +her felucca sail, while a splendid Indian scrambled on board like a +cat. + +He was full six feet high, and as bold and graceful of bearing as +Frank or Amyas's self. He looked round for the first moment +smilingly, showing his white teeth; but the next, his countenance +changed; and springing to the side, he shouted to his comrade in +Spanish-- + +"Treachery! No Spaniard," and would have leaped overboard, but a +dozen strong fellows caught him ere he could do so. + +It required some trouble to master him, so strong was he, and so +slippery his naked limbs; Amyas, meanwhile, alternately entreated +the men not to hurt the Indian, and the Indian to be quiet, and no +harm should happen to him; and so, after five minutes' confusion, +the stranger gave in sulkily. + +"Don't bind him. Let him loose, and make a ring round him. Now, +my man, there's a dollar for you." + +The Indian's eyes glistened, and he took the coin. + +"All I want of you is, first, to tell me what ships are in La +Guayra, and next, to go thither on board of me, and show me which +is the governor's house, and which the custom-house." + +The Indian laid the coin down on the deck, and crossing himself, +looked Amyas in the face. + +"No, senor! I am a freeman and a cavalier, a Christian Guayqueria, +whose forefathers, first of all the Indians, swore fealty to the +King of Spain, and whom he calls to this day in all his +proclamations his most faithful, loyal, and noble Guayquerias. God +forbid, therefore, that I should tell aught to his enemies, who are +my enemies likewise." + +A growl arose from those of the men who understood him; and more +than one hinted that a cord twined round the head, or a match put +between the fingers, would speedily extract the required +information. + +"God forbid!" said Amyas; "a brave and loyal man he is, and as such +will I treat him. Tell me, my brave fellow, how do you know us to +be his Catholic majesty's enemies?" + +The Indian, with a shrewd smile, pointed to half-a-dozen different +objects, saying to each, "Not Spanish." + +"Well, and what of that?" + +"None but Spaniards and free Guayquerias have a right to sail these +seas." + +Amyas laughed. + +"Thou art a right valiant bit of copper. Pick up thy dollar, and +go thy way in peace. Make room for him, men. We can learn what we +want without his help." + +The Indian paused, incredulous and astonished. "Overboard with +you!" quoth Amyas. "Don't you know when you are well off?" + +"Most illustrious senor," began the Indian, in the drawling +sententious fashion of his race (when they take the trouble to talk +at all), "I have been deceived. I heard that you heretics roasted +and ate all true Catholics (as we Guayquerias are), and that all +your padres had tails." + +"Plague on you, sirrah!" squeaked Jack Brimblecombe. "Have I a +tail? Look here!" + +"Quien sabe? Who knows?" quoth the Indian through his nose. + +"How do you know we are heretics?" said Amyas. + +"Humph! But in repayment for your kindness, I would warn you, +illustrious senor, not to go on to La Guayra. There are ships of +war there waiting for you; and moreover, the governor Don Guzman +sailed to the eastward only yesterday to look for you; and I wonder +much that you did not meet him." + +"To look for us! On the watch for us!" said Cary. "Impossible; +lies! Amyas, this is some trick of the rascal's to frighten us +away." + +"Don Guzman came out but yesterday to look for us? Are you sure +you spoke truth?" + +"As I live, senor, he and another ship, for which I took yours." + +Amyas stamped upon the deck: that then was the ship which they had +passed! + +"Fool that I was to have been close to my enemy, and let my +opportunity slip! If I had but done my duty, all would have gone +right!" + +But it was too late to repine; and after all, the Indian's story +was likely enough to be false. + +"Off with you!" said he; and the Indian bounded over the side into +his canoe, leaving the whole crew wondering at the stateliness and +courtesy of this bold sea-cavalier. + +So Westward-ho they ran, beneath the mighty northern wall, the +highest cliff on earth, some seven thousand feet of rock parted +from the sea by a narrow strip of bright green lowland. Here and +there a patch of sugar-cane, or a knot of cocoa-nut trees, close to +the water's edge, reminded them that they were in the tropics; but +above, all was savage, rough, and bare as an Alpine precipice. +Sometimes deep clefts allowed the southern sun to pour a blaze of +light down to the sea marge, and gave glimpses far above of strange +and stately trees lining the glens, and of a veil of perpetual mist +which shrouded the inner summits; while up and down, between them +and the mountain side, white fleecy clouds hung motionless in the +burning air, increasing the impression of vastness and of solemn +rest, which was already overpowering. + +"Within those mountains, three thousand feet above our heads," said +Drew, the master, "lies Saint Yago de Leon, the great city which +the Spaniards founded fifteen years agone." + +"Is it a rich place?" asked Cary. + +"Very, they say." + +"Is it a strong place?" asked Amyas. + +"No forts to it at all, they say. The Spaniards boast, that Heaven +has made such good walls to it already, that man need make none." + +"I don't know," quoth Amyas. "Lads, could you climb those hills, +do you think?" + +"Rather higher than Harty Point, sir: but it depends pretty much on +what's behind them." + +And now the last point is rounded, and they are full in sight of +the spot in quest of which they have sailed four thousand miles of +sea. A low black cliff, crowned by a wall; a battery at either +end. Within, a few narrow streets of white houses, running +parallel with the sea, upon a strip of flat, which seemed not two +hundred yards in breadth; and behind, the mountain wall, covering +the whole in deepest shade. How that wall was ever ascended to the +inland seemed the puzzle; but Drew, who had been off the place +before, pointed out to them a narrow path, which wound upwards +through a glen, seemingly sheer perpendicular. That was the road +to the capital, if any man dare try it. In spite of the shadow of +the mountain, the whole place wore a dusty and glaring look. The +breaths of air which came off the land were utterly stifling; and +no wonder, for La Guayra, owing to the radiation of that vast fire- +brick of heated rock, is one of the hottest spots upon the face of +the whole earth. + +Where was the harbor? There was none. Only an open roadstead, +wherein lay tossing at anchor five vessels. The two outer ones +were small merchant caravels. Behind them lay two long, low, ugly- +looking craft, at sight of which Yeo gave a long whew. + +"Galleys, as I'm a sinful saint! And what's that big one inside of +them, Robert Drew? She has more than hawseholes in her idolatrous +black sides, I think." + +"We shall open her astern of the galleys in another minute," said +Amyas. "Look out, Cary, your eyes are better than mine." + +"Six round portholes on the main deck," quoth Will. + +"And I can see the brass patararoes glittering on her poop," quoth +Amyas. "Will, we're in for it." + +"In for it we are, captain. + + + "Farewell, farewell, my parents dear. + I never shall see you more, I fear. + + +Let's go in, nevertheless, and pound the Don's ribs, my old lad of +Smerwick. Eh? Three to one is very fair odds." + +"Not underneath those fort guns, I beg leave to say," quoth Yeo. +"If the Philistines will but come out unto us, we will make them +like unto Zeba and Zalmunna." + +"Quite true," said Amyas. "Game cocks are game cocks, but reason's +reason." + +"If the Philistines are not coming out, they are going to send a +messenger instead," quoth Cary. "Look out, all thin skulls!" + +And as he spoke, a puff of white smoke rolled from the eastern +fort, and a heavy ball plunged into the water between it and the +ship. + +"I don't altogether like this," quoth Amyas. "What do they mean by +firing on us without warning? And what are these ships of war +doing here? Drew, you told me the armadas never lay here." + +"No more, I believe, they do, sir, on account of the anchorage +being so bad, as you may see. I'm mortal afeared that rascal's +story was true, and that the Dons have got wind of our coming." + +"Run up a white flag, at all events. If they do expect us, they +must have known some time since, or how could they have got their +craft hither?" + +"True, sir. They must have come from Santa Marta, at the least; +perhaps from Cartagena. And that would take a month at least going +and coming." + +Amyas suddenly recollected Eustace's threat in the wayside inn. +Could he have betrayed their purpose? Impossible! + +"Let us hold a council of war, at all events, Frank." + +Frank was absorbed in a very different matter. A half-mile to the +eastward of the town, two or three hundred feet up the steep +mountain side, stood a large, low, white house embosomed in trees +and gardens. There was no other house of similar size near; no +place for one. And was not that the royal flag of Spain which +flaunted before it? That must be the governor's house; that must +be the abode of the Rose of Torridge! And Frank stood devouring it +with wild eyes, till he had persuaded himself that he could see a +woman's figure walking upon the terrace in front, and that the +figure was none other than hers whom he sought. Amyas could hardly +tear him away to a council of war, which was a sad, and only not a +peevish one. + +The three adventurers, with Brimblecombe, Yeo, and Drew, went apart +upon the poop; and each looked the other in the face awhile. For +what was to be done? The plans and hopes of months were brought to +naught in an hour. + +"It is impossible, you see," said Amyas, at last, "to surprise the +town by land, while these ships are here; for if we land our men, +we leave our ship without defence." + +"As impossible as to challenge Don Guzman while he is not here," +said Cary. + +"I wonder why the ships have not opened on us already," said Drew. + +"Perhaps they respect our flag of truce," said Cary. "Why not send +in a boat to treat with them, and to inquire for-- + +"For her?" interrupted Frank. "If we show that we are aware of her +existence, her name is blasted in the eyes of those jealous +Spaniards." + +"And as for respecting our flag of truce, gentlemen," said Yeo, "if +you will take an old man's advice, trust them not. They will keep +the same faith with us as they kept with Captain Hawkins at San +Juan d'Ulloa, in that accursed business which was the beginning of +all the wars; when we might have taken the whole plate-fleet, with +two hundred thousand pounds' worth of gold on board, and did not, +but only asked license to trade like honest men. And yet, after +they had granted us license, and deceived us by fair speech into +landing ourselves and our ordnance, the governor and all the fleet +set upon us, five to one, and gave no quarter to any soul whom he +took. No, sir; I expect the only reason why they don't attack us +is, because their crews are not on board." + +"They will be, soon enough, then," said Amyas. "I can see soldiers +coming down the landing-stairs." + +And, in fact, boats full of armed men began to push off to the +ships. + +"We may thank Heaven," said Drew, "that we were not here two hours +agone. The sun will be down before they are ready for sea, and the +fellows will have no stomach to go looking for us by night." + +"So much the worse for us. If they will but do that, we may give +them the slip, and back again to the town, and there try our luck; +for I cannot find it in my heart to leave the place without having +one dash at it." + +Yeo shook his head. "There are plenty more towns along the coast +more worth trying than this, sir: but Heaven's will be done!" + +And as they spoke, the sun plunged into the sea, and all was dark. + +At last it was agreed to anchor, and wait till midnight. If the +ships of war came out, they were to try to run in past them, and, +desperate as the attempt might be, attempt their original plan of +landing to the westward of the town, taking it in flank, plundering +the government storehouses, which they saw close to the landing- +place, and then fighting their way back to their boats, and out of +the roadstead. Two hours would suffice if the armada and the +galleys were but once out of the way. + +Amyas went forward, called the men together, and told them the +plan. It was not very cheerfully received: but what else was there +to be done! + +They ran down about a mile and a half to the westward, and +anchored. + +The night wore on, and there was no sign of stir among the +shipping; for though they could not see the vessels themselves, yet +their lights (easily distinguished by their relative height from +those in the town above) remained motionless; and the men fretted +and fumed for weary hours at thus seeing a rich prize (for of +course the town was paved with gold) within arm's reach, and yet +impossible. + +Let Amyas and his men have patience. Some short five years more, +and the great Armada will have come and gone; and then that +avenging storm, of which they, like Oxenham, Hawkins, and Drake, +are but the avant-couriers, will burst upon every Spanish port from +Corunna to Cadiz, from the Canaries to Havana, and La Guayra and +St. Yago de Leon will not escape their share. Captain Amyas +Preston and Captain Sommers, the colonist of the Bermudas, or +Sommers' Islands, will land, with a force tiny enough, though +larger far than Leigh's, where Leigh dare not land; and taking the +fort of Guayra, will find, as Leigh found, that their coming has +been expected, and that the Pass of the Venta, three thousand feet +above, has been fortified with huge barricadoes, abattis, and +cannon, making the capital, amid its ring of mountain-walls, +impregnable--to all but Englishmen or Zouaves. For up that seven +thousand feet of precipice, which rises stair on stair behind the +town, those fierce adventurers will climb hand over hand, through +rain and fog, while men lie down, and beg their officers to kill +them, for no farther can they go. Yet farther they will go, hewing +a path with their swords through woods of wild plantain, and +rhododendron thickets, over (so it seems, however incredible) the +very saddle of the Silla,* down upon the astonished "Mantuanos" of +St. Jago, driving all before them; and having burnt the city in +default of ransom, will return triumphant by the right road, and +pass along the coast, the masters of the deep. + + +* Humboldt says that there is a path from Caravellada to St. Jago, +between the peaks, used by smugglers. This is probably the +"unknowen way of the Indians," which Preston used. + + +I know not whether any men still live who count their descent from +those two valiant captains; but if such there be, let them be sure +that the history of the English navy tells no more Titanic victory +over nature and man than that now forgotten raid of Amyas Preston +and his comrade, in the year of grace 1595. + +But though a venture on the town was impossible, yet there was +another venture which Frank was unwilling to let slip. A light +which now shone brightly in one of the windows of the governor's +house was the lodestar to which all his thoughts were turned; and +as he sat in the cabin with Amyas, Cary, and Jack, he opened his +heart to them. + +"And are we, then," asked he, mournfully, "to go without doing the +very thing for which we came?" + +All were silent awhile. At last John Brimblecombe spoke. + +"Show me the way to do it, Mr. Frank, and I will go." + +"My dearest man," said Amyas, "what would you have? Any attempt to +see her, even if she be here, would be all but certain death." + +"And what if it were? What if it were, my brother Amyas? Listen +to me. I have long ceased to shrink from Death; but till I came +into these magic climes, I never knew the beauty of his face." + +"Of death?" said Cary. "I should have said, of life. God forgive +me! but man might wish to live forever, if he had such a world as +this wherein to live." + +"And do you forget, Cary, that the more fair this passing world of +time, by so much the more fair is that eternal world, whereof all +here is but a shadow and a dream; by so much the more fair is He +before whose throne the four mystic beasts, the substantial ideas +of Nature and her powers, stand day and night, crying, 'Holy, holy, +holy, Lord God of hosts, Thou hast made all things, and for Thy +pleasure they are and were created!' My friends, if He be so +prodigal of His own glory as to have decked these lonely shores, +all but unknown since the foundation of the world, with splendors +beyond all our dreams, what must be the glory of His face itself! +I have done with vain shadows. It is better to depart and to be +with Him, where shall be neither desire nor anger, self-deception +nor pretence, but the eternal fulness of reality and truth. One +thing I have to do before I die, for God has laid it on me. Let +that be done to-night, and then, farewell!" + +"Frank! Frank! remember our mother!" + +"I do remember her. I have talked over these things with her many +a time; and where I would fain be, she would fain be also. She +sent me out with my virgin honor, as the Spartan mother did her boy +with the shield, saying, 'Come back either with this, or upon +this;' and one or the other I must do, if I would meet her either +in this life or in the next. But in the meanwhile do not mistake +me; my life is God's, and I promise not to cast it away rashly." + +"What would you do, then?" + +"Go up to that house, Amyas, and speak with her, if Heaven gives me +an opportunity, as Heaven, I feel assured, will give." + +"And do you call that no rashness?" + +"Is any duty rashness? Is it rash to stand amid the flying +bullets, if your queen has sent you? Is it more rash to go to seek +Christ's lost lamb, if God and your own oath hath sent you? John +Brimblecombe answered that question for us long ago." + +"If you go, I go with you!" said all three at once. + +"No. Amyas, you owe a duty to our mother and to your ship. Cary, +you are heir to great estates, and are bound thereby to your +country and to your tenants. John Brimblecombe--" + +"Ay!" squeaked Jack. "And what have you to say, Mr. Frank, against +my going?--I, who have neither ship nor estates--except, I suppose, +that I am not worthy to travel in such good company?" + +"Think of your old parents, John, and all your sisters." + +"I thought of them before I started, sir, as Mr. Cary knows, and +you know too. I came here to keep my vow, and I am not going to +turn renegade at the very foot of the cross." + +"Some one must go with you, Frank," said Amyas; "if it were only to +bring back the boat's crew in case--" and he faltered. + +"In case I fall," replied Frank, with a smile. "I will finish your +sentence for you, lad; I am not afraid of it, though you may be for +me. Yet some one, I fear, must go. Unhappy me! that I cannot risk +my own worthless life without risking your more precious lives!" + +"Not so, Mr. Frank! Your oath is our oath, and your duty ours!" +said John. "I will tell you what we will do, gentlemen all. We +three will draw cuts for the honor of going with him." + +"Lots?" said Amyas. "I don't like leaving such grave matters to +chance, friend John." + +"Chance, sir? When you have used all your own wit, and find it +fail you, then what is drawing lots but taking the matter out of +your own weak hands, and laying it in God's strong hands?" + +"Right, John!" said Frank. "So did the apostles choose their +successor, and so did holy men of old decide controversies too +subtle for them; and we will not be ashamed to follow their +example. For my part, I have often said to Sidney and to Spenser, +when we have babbled together of Utopian governments in days which +are now dreams to me, that I would have all officers of state +chosen by lot out of the wisest and most fit; so making sure that +they should be called by God, and not by man alone. Gentlemen, do +you agree to Sir John's advice?" + +They agreed, seeing no better counsel, and John put three slips of +paper into Frank's hand, with the simple old apostolic prayer-- + +"Show which of us three Thou hast chosen." + +The lot fell upon Amyas Leigh. + +Frank shuddered, and clasped his hands over his face. + +"Well," said Cary, "I have ill-luck to-night: but Frank goes at +least in good company." + +"Ah, that it had been I!" said Jack; "though I suppose I was too +poor a body to have such an honor fall on me. And yet it is hard +for flesh and blood; hard indeed to have come all this way, and not +to see her after all!" + +"Jack," said Frank, "you are kept to do better work than this, +doubt not. But if the lot had fallen on you--ay, if it had fallen +on a three years' child, I would have gone up as cheerfully with +that child to lead me, as I do now with this my brother! Amyas, +can we have a boat, and a crew? It is near midnight already." + +Amyas went on deck, and asked for six volunteers. Whosoever would +come, Amyas would double out of his own purse any prize-money which +might fall to that man's share. + +One of the old Pelican's crew, Simon Evans of Clovelly, stepped out +at once. + +"Why six only, captain? Give the word, and any and all of us will +go up with you, sack the house, and bring off the treasure and the +lady, before two hours are out." + +"No, no, my brave lads! As for treasure, if there be any, it is +sure to have been put all safe into the forts, or hidden in the +mountains; and as for the lady, God forbid that we should force her +a step without her own will." + +The honest sailor did not quite understand this punctilio: but-- + +"Well, captain," quoth he, "as you like; but no man shall say that +you asked for a volunteer, were it to jump down a shark's throat, +but what you had me first of all the crew. + +After this sort of temper had been exhibited, three or four more +came forward--Yeo was very anxious to go, but Amyas forbade him. + +"I'll volunteer, sir, without reward, for this or anything; though" +(added he in a lower tone) "I would to Heaven that the thought had +never entered your head." + +"And so would I have volunteered," said Simon Evans, "if it were +the ship's quarrel, or the queen's; but being it's a private matter +of the captain's, and I've a wife and children at home, why, I take +no shame to myself for asking money for my life." + +So the crew was made up; but ere they pushed off, Amyas called Cary +aside-- + +"If I perish, Will--" + +"Don't talk of such things, dear old lad." + +"I must. Then you are captain. Do nothing without Yeo and Drew. +But if they approve, go right north away for San Domingo and Cuba, +and try the ports; they can have no news of us there, and there is +booty without end. Tell my mother that I died like a gentleman; +and mind--mind, dear lad, to keep your temper with the men, let the +poor fellows grumble as they may. Mind but that, and fear God, and +all will go well." + +The tears were glistening in Cary's eyes as he pressed Amyas's +hand, and watched the two brothers down over the side upon their +desperate errand. + +They reached the pebble beach. There seemed no difficulty about +finding the path to the house--so bright was the moon, and so +careful a survey of the place had Frank taken. Leaving the men +with the boat (Amyas had taken care that they should be well +armed), they started up the beach, with their swords only. Frank +assured Amyas that they would find a path leading from the beach up +to the house, and he was not mistaken. They found it easily, for +it was made of white shell sand; and following it, struck into a +"tunal," or belt of tall thorny cactuses. Through this the path +wound in zigzags up a steep rocky slope, and ended at a wicket- +gate. They tried it, and found it open. + +"She may expect us," whispered Frank. + +"Impossible!" + +"Why not? She must have seen our ship; and if, as seems, the +townsfolk know who we are, how much more must she! Yes, doubt it +not, she still longs to hear news of her own land, and some secret +sympathy will draw her down towards the sea to-night. See! the +light is in the window still!" + +"But if not," said Amyas, who had no such expectation, "what is +your plan?" + +"I have none." + +"None?" + +"I have imagined twenty different ones in the last hour; but all +are equally uncertain, impossible. I have ceased to struggle--I go +where I am called, love's willing victim. If Heaven accept the +sacrifice, it will provide the altar and the knife." + +Aymas was at his wits' end. Judging of his brother by himself, he +had taken for granted that Frank had some well-concocted scheme for +gaining admittance to the Rose; and as the wiles of love were +altogether out of his province, he had followed in full faith such +a sans-appel as he held Frank to be. But now he almost doubted of +his brother's sanity, though Frank's manner was perfectly collected +and his voice firm. Amyas, honest fellow, had no understanding of +that intense devotion, which so many in those days (not content +with looking on it as a lofty virtue, and yet one to be duly kept +in its place by other duties) prided themselves on pampering into +the most fantastic and self-willed excesses. + +Beautiful folly! the death-song of which two great geniuses were +composing at that very moment, each according to his light. For, +while Spenser was embalming in immortal verse all that it contained +of noble and Christian elements, Cervantes sat, perhaps, in his +dungeon, writing with his left hand Don Quixote, saddest of books, +in spite of all its wit; the story of a pure and noble soul, who +mistakes this actual life for that ideal one which he fancies (and +not so wrongly either) eternal in the heavens: and finding instead +of a battlefield for heroes in God's cause, nothing but frivolity, +heartlessness, and godlessness, becomes a laughing-stock,--and +dies. One of the saddest books, I say again, which man can read. + +Amyas hardly dare trust himself to speak, for fear of saying too +much; but he could not help saying-- + +"You are going to certain death, Frank." + +"Did I not entreat," answered he, very quietly, "to go alone?" + +Amyas had half a mind to compel him to return: but he feared +Frank's obstinacy; and feared, too, the shame of returning on board +without having done anything; so they went up through the wicket- +gate, along a smooth turf walk, into what seemed a pleasure-garden, +formed by the hand of man, or rather of woman. For by the light, +not only of the moon, but of the innumerable fireflies, which +flitted to and fro across the sward like fiery imps sent to light +the brothers on their way, they could see that the bushes on either +side, and the trees above their heads, were decked with flowers of +such strangeness and beauty, that, as Frank once said of Barbados, +even the gardens of Wilton were a desert in comparison." All +around were orange and lemon trees (probably the only addition +which man had made to Nature's prodigality), the fruit of which, in +that strange colored light of the fireflies, flashed in their eyes +like balls of burnished gold and emerald; while great white tassels +swinging from every tree in the breeze which swept down the glade, +tossed in their faces a fragrant snow of blossoms, and glittering +drops of perfumed dew. + +"What a paradise!" said Amyas to Frank, "with the serpent in it, as +of old. Look!" + +And as he spoke, there dropped slowly down from a bough, right +before them, what seemed a living chain of gold, ruby, and +sapphire. Both stopped, and another glance showed the small head +and bright eyes of a snake, hissing and glaring full in their +faces. + +"See!" said Frank. "And he comes, as of old, in the likeness of an +angel of light. Do not strike it. There are worse devils to be +fought with to-night than that poor beast." And stepping aside, +they passed the snake safely, and arrived in front of the house. + +It was, as I have said, a long low house, with balconies along the +upper story, and the under part mostly open to the wind. The light +was still burning in the window. + +"Whither now?" said Amyas, in a tone of desperate resignation. + +"Thither! Where else on earth?" and Frank pointed to the light, +trembling from head to foot, and pushed on. + +"For Heaven's sake! Look at the negroes on the barbecue!" + +It was indeed time to stop; for on the barbecue, or terrace of +white plaster, which ran all round the front, lay sleeping full +twenty black figures. + +"What will you do now? You must step over them to gain an +entrance." + +"Wait here, and I will go up gently towards the window. She may +see me. She will see me as I step into the moonlight. At least I +know an air by which she will recognize me, if I do but hum a +stave." + +"Why, you do not even know that that light is hers!--Down, for your +life!" + +And Amyas dragged him down into the bushes on his left hand; for +one of the negroes, wakening suddenly with a cry, had sat up, and +began crossing himself four or five times, in fear of "Duppy," and +mumbling various charms, ayes, or what not. + +The light above was extinguished instantly. + +"Did you see her?" whispered Frank. + +"No." + +"I did--the shadow of the face, and the neck! Can I be mistaken?" +And then, covering his face with his hands, he murmured to himself, +"Misery! misery! So near and yet impossible?" + +"Would it be the less impossible were you face to face? Let us go +back. We cannot go up without detection, even if our going were of +use. Come back, for God's sake, ere all is lost! If you have seen +her, as you say, you know at least that she is alive, and safe in +his house--" + +"As his mistress? or as his wife? Do I know that yet, Amyas, and +can I depart until I know?" There was a few minutes' silence, and +then Amyas, making one last attempt to awaken Frank to the +absurdity of the whole thing, and to laugh him, if possible, out of +it, as argument had no effect-- + +"My dear fellow, I am very hungry and sleepy; and this bush is very +prickly; and my boots are full of ants--" + +"So are mine.--Look!" and Frank caught Amyas's arm, and clenched it +tight. + +For round the farther corner of the house a dark cloaked figure +stole gently, turning a look now and then upon the sleeping +negroes, and came on right toward them. + +"Did I not tell you she would come?" whispered Frank, in a +triumphant tone. + +Amyas was quite bewildered; and to his mind the apparition seemed +magical, and Frank prophetic; for as the figure came nearer, +incredulous as he tried to be, there was no denying that the shape +and the walk were exactly those of her, to find whom they had +crossed the Atlantic. True, the figure was somewhat taller; but +then, "she must be grown since I saw her," thought Amyas; and his +heart for the moment beat as fiercely as Frank's. + +But what was that behind her? Her shadow against the white wall of +the house. Not so. Another figure, cloaked likewise, but taller +far, was following on her steps. It was a man's. They could see +that he wore a broad sombrero. It could not be Don Guzman, for he +was at sea. Who then? Here was a mystery; perhaps a tragedy. And +both brothers held their breaths, while Amyas felt whether his +sword was loose in the sheath. + +The Rose (if indeed it was she) was within ten yards of them, when +she perceived that she was followed. She gave a little shriek. +The cavalier sprang forward, lifted his hat courteously, and joined +her, bowing low. The moonlight was full upon his face. + +"It is Eustace, our cousin! How came he here, in the name of all +the fiends?" + +"Eustace! Then that is she, after all!" said Frank, forgetting +everything else in her. + +And now flashed across Amyas all that had passed between him and +Eustace in the moorland inn, and Parracombe's story, too, of the +suspicious gipsy. Eustace had been beforehand with them, and +warned Don Guzman! All was explained now: but how had he got +hither? + +"The devil, his master, sent him hither on a broomstick, I suppose: +or what matter how? Here he is; and here we are, worse luck!" +And, setting his teeth, Amyas awaited the end. + +The two came on, talking earnestly, and walking at a slow pace, so +that the brothers could hear every word. + +"What shall we do now?" said Frank. "We have no right to be +eavesdroppers." + +"But we must be, right or none." And Amyas held him down firmly by +the arm. + +"But whither are you going, then, my dear madam?" they heard +Eustace say in a wheedling tone. "Can you wonder if such strange +conduct should cause at least sorrow to your admirable and faithful +husband?" + +"Husband!" whispered Frank faintly to Amyas. "Thank God, thank +God! I am content. Let us go." + +But to go was impossible; for, as fate would have it, the two had +stopped just opposite them. + +"The inestimable Senor Don Guzman--" began Eustace again. + +"What do you mean by praising him to me in this fulsome way, sir? +Do you suppose that I do not know his virtues better than you?" + +"If you do, madam" (this was spoken in a harder tone), "it were +wise for you to try them less severely, than by wandering down +towards the beach on the very night that you know his most deadly +enemies are lying in wait to slay him, plunder his house, and most +probably to carry you off from him." + +"Carry me off? I will die first!" + +"Who can prove that to him? Appearances are at least against you." + +"My love to him, and his trust for me, sir!" + +"His trust? Have you forgotten, madam, what passed last week, and +why he sailed yesterday?" + +The only answer was a burst of tears. Eustace stood watching her +with a terrible eye; but they could see his face writhing in the +moonlight. + +"Oh!" sobbed she at last. "And if I have been imprudent, was it +not natural to wish to look once more upon an English ship? Are +you not English as well as I? Have you no longing recollections of +the dear old land at home?" + +Eustace was silent; but his face worked more fiercely than ever. + +"How can he ever know it?" + +"Why should he not know it?" + +"Ah!" she burst out passionately, "why not, indeed, while you are +here? You, sir, the tempter, you the eavesdropper, you the +sunderer of loving hearts! You, serpent, who found our home a +paradise, and see it now a hell!" + +"Do you dare to accuse me thus, madam, without a shadow of +evidence?" + +"Dare? I dare anything, for I know all! I have watched you, sir, +and I have borne with you too long." + +"Me, madam, whose only sin towards you, as you should know by now, +is to have loved you too well? Rose! Rose! have you not blighted +my life for me--broken my heart? And how have I repaid you? How +but by sacrificing myself to seek you over land and sea, that I +might complete your conversion to the bosom of that Church where a +Virgin Mother stands stretching forth soft arms to embrace her +wandering daughter, and cries to you all day long, 'Come unto me, +ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest!' And +this is my reward!" + +"Depart with your Virgin Mother, sir, and tempt me no more! You +have asked me what I dare; and I dare this, upon my own ground, and +in my own garden, I, Donna Rosa de Soto, to bid you leave this +place now and forever, after having insulted me by talking of your +love, and tempted me to give up that faith which my husband +promised me he would respect and protect. Go, sir!" + +The brothers listened breathless with surprise as much as with +rage. Love and conscience, and perhaps, too, the pride of her +lofty alliance, had converted the once gentle and dreamy Rose into +a very Roxana; but it was only the impulse of a moment. The words +had hardly passed her lips, when, terrified at what she had said, +she burst into a fresh flood of tears; while Eustace answered +calmly: + +"I go, madam: but how know you that I may not have orders, and +that, after your last strange speech, my conscience may compel me +to obey those orders, to take you with me?" + +"Me? with you?" + +"My heart has bled for you, madam, for many a year. It longs now +that it had bled itself to death, and never known the last worst +agony of telling you--" + +And drawing close to her he whispered in her ear--what, the +brothers heard not--but her answer was a shriek which rang through +the woods, and sent the night-birds fluttering up from every bough +above their heads. + +"By Heaven!" said Amyas, "I can stand this no longer. Cut that +devil's throat I must--" + +"She is lost if his dead body is found by her." + +"We are lost if we stay here, then," said Amyas; "for those negroes +will hurry down at her cry, and then found we must be." + +"Are you mad, madam, to betray yourself by your own cries? The +negroes will he here in a moment. I give you one last chance for +life, then:" and Eustace shouted in Spanish at the top of his +voice, "Help, help, servants! Your mistress is being carried off +by bandits!" + +"What do you mean, sir?" + +"Let your woman's wit supply the rest: and forget not him who thus +saves you from disgrace." + +Whether the brothers heard the last words or not, I know not; but +taking for granted that Eustace had discovered them, they sprang to +their feet at once, determined to make one last appeal, and then to +sell their lives as dearly as they could. + +Eustace started back at the unexpected apparition; but a second +glance showed him Amyas's mighty bulk; and he spoke calmly-- + +"You see, madam, I did not call without need. Welcome, good +cousins. My charity, as you perceive, has found means to outstrip +your craft; while the fair lady, as was but natural, has been true +to her assignation!" + +"Liar!" cried Frank. "She never knew of our being--" + +"Credat Judaeus!" answered Eustace; but, as he spoke, Amyas burst +through the bushes at him. There was no time to be lost; and ere +the giant could disentangle himself from the boughs and shrubs, +Eustace had slipped off his long cloak, thrown it over Amyas's +head, and ran up the alley shouting for help. + +Mad with rage, Amyas gave chase: but in two minutes more Eustace +was safe among the ranks of the negroes, who came shouting and +jabbering down the path. + +He rushed back. Frank was just ending some wild appeal to Rose-- + +"Your conscience! your religion!--" + +"No, never! I can face the chance of death, but not the loss of +him. Go! for God's sake, leave me!" + +"You are lost, then,--and I have ruined you!" + +"Come off, now or never," cried Amyas, clutching him by the arm, +and dragging him away like a child. + +"You forgive me?" cried he. + +"Forgive you?" and she burst into tears again. + +Frank burst into tears also. + +"Let me go back, and die with her--Amyas!--my oath!--my honor!" and +he struggled to turn back. + +Amyas looked back too, and saw her standing calmly, with her hands +folded across her breast, awaiting Eustace and the servants; and he +half turned to go back also. Both saw how fearfully appearances +had put her into Eustace's power. Had he not a right to suspect +that they were there by her appointment; that she was going to +escape with them? And would not Eustace use his power? The +thought of the Inquisition crossed their minds. "Was that the +threat which Eustace had whispered?" asked he of Frank. + +"It was," groaned Frank, in answer. + +For the first and last time in his life, Amyas Leigh stood +irresolute. + +"Back, and stab her to the heart first!" said Frank, struggling to +escape from him. + +Oh, if Amyas were but alone, and Frank safe home in England! To +charge the whole mob, kill her, kill Eustace, and then cut his way +back again to the ship, or die,--what matter? as he must die some +day,--sword in hand! But Frank!--and then flashed before his eyes +his mother's hopeless face; then rang in his ears his mother's last +bequest to him of that frail treasure. Let Rose, let honor, let +the whole world perish, he must save Frank. See! the negroes were +up with her now--past her--away for life! and once more he dragged +his brother down the hill, and through the wicket, only just in +time; for the whole gang of negroes were within ten yards of them +in full pursuit. + +"Frank," said he, sharply, "if you ever hope to see your mother +again, rouse yourself, man, and fight!" And, without waiting for +an answer, he turned, and charged up-hill upon his pursuers, who +saw the long bright blade, and fled instantly. + +Again he hurried Frank down the hill; the path wound in zigzags, +and he feared that the negroes would come straight over the cliff, +and so cut off his retreat: but the prickly cactuses were too much +for them, and they were forced to follow by the path, while the +brothers (Frank having somewhat regained his senses) turned every +now and then to menace them: but once on the rocky path, stones +began to fly fast; small ones fortunately, and wide and wild for +want of light--but when they reached the pebble-beach? Both were +too proud to run; but, if ever Amyas prayed in his life, he prayed +for the last twenty yards before he reached the water-mark. + +"Now, Frank! down to the boat as hard as you can run, while I keep +the curs back." + +"Amyas! what do you take me for? My madness brought you hither: +your devotion shall not bring me back without you." + +"Together, then!" + +And putting Frank's arm through his, they hurried down, shouting to +their men. + +The boat was not fifty yards off: but fast travelling over the +pebbles was impossible, and long ere half the distance was crossed, +the negroes were on the beach, and the storm burst. A volley of +great quartz pebbles whistled round their heads. + +"Come on, Frank! for life's sake! Men, to the rescue! Ah! what +was that?" + +The dull crash of a pebble against Frank's fair head! Drooping +like Hyacinthus beneath the blow of the quoit, he sank on Amyas's +arm. The giant threw him over his shoulder, and plunged blindly +on,--himself struck again and again. + +"Fire, men! Give it the black villains!" + +The arquebuses crackled from the boat in front. What were those +dull thuds which answered from behind? Echoes? No. Over his head +the caliver-balls went screeching. The governors' guard have +turned out, followed them to the beach, fixed their calivers, and +are firing over the negroes' heads, as the savages rush down upon +the hapless brothers. + +If, as all say, there are moments which are hours, how many hours +was Amyas Leigh in reaching that boat's bow? Alas! the negroes are +there as soon as he, and the guard, having left their calivers, are +close behind them, sword in hand. Amyas is up to his knees in +water--battered with stones--blinded with blood. The boat is +swaying off and on against the steep pebble-bank: he clutches at +it--misses--falls headlong--rises half-choked with water: but Frank +is still in his arms. Another heavy blow--a confused roar of +shouts, shots, curses--a confused mass of negroes and English, foam +and pebbles--and he recollects no more. + + . . . . . . . + +He is lying in the stern-sheets of the boat; stiff, weak, half +blind with blood. He looks up; the moon is still bright overhead: +but they are away from the shore now, for the wave-crests are +dancing white before the land-breeze, high above the boat's side. +The boat seems strangely empty. Two men are pulling instead of +six! And what is this lying heavy across his chest? He pushes, +and is answered by a groan. He puts his hand down to rise, and is +answered by another groan. + +"What's this?" + +"All that are left of us," says Simon Evans of Clovelly. + +"All?" The bottom of the boat seemed paved with human bodies. "Oh +God! oh God!" moans Amyas, trying to rise. "And where--where is +Frank? Frank!" + +"Mr. Frank!" cries Evans. There is no answer. + +"Dead?" shrieks Amyas. "Look for him, for God's sake, look!" and +struggling from under his living load, he peers into each pale and +bleeding face. + +"Where is he? Why don't you speak, forward there?" + +"Because we have naught to say, sir," answers Evans, almost +surlily. + +Frank was not there. + +"Put the boat about! To the shore!" roars Amyas. + +"Look over the gunwale, and judge for yourself, sir!" + +The waves are leaping fierce and high before a furious land-breeze. +Return is impossible. + +"Cowards! villains! traitors! hounds! to have left him behind." + +"Listen you to me, Captain Amyas Leigh," says Simon Evans, resting +on his oar; "and hang me for mutiny, if you will, when we're +aboard, if we ever get there. Isn't it enough to bring us out to +death (as you knew yourself, sir, for you're prudent enough) to +please that poor young gentleman's fancy about a wench; but you +must call coward an honest man that have saved your life this +night, and not a one of us but has his wound to show?" + +Amyas was silent; the rebuke was just. + +"I tell you, sir, if we've hove a stone out of this boat since we +got off, we've hove two hundredweight, and, if the Lord had not +fought for us, she'd have been beat to noggin-staves there on the +beach." + +"How did I come here, then?" + +"Tom Hart dragged you in out of five feet water, and then thrust +the boat off, and had his brains beat out for reward. All were +knocked down but us two. So help me God, we thought that you had +hove Mr. Frank on board just as you were knocked down, and saw +William Frost drag him in." + +But William Frost was lying senseless in the bottom of the boat. +There was no explanation. After all, none was needed. + +"And I have three wounds from stones, and this man behind me as +many more, beside a shot through his shoulder. Now, sir, be we +cowards?" + +"You have done your duty," said Amyas, and sank down in the boat, +and cried as if his heart would break; and then sprang up, and, +wounded as he was, took the oar from Evans's hands. With weary +work they made the ship, but so exhausted that another boat had to +be lowered to get them alongside. + +The alarm being now given, it was hardly safe to remain where they +were; and after a stormy and sad argument, it was agreed to weigh +anchor and stand off and on till morning; for Amyas refused to +leave the spot till he was compelled, though he had no hope (how +could he have?) that Frank might still be alive. And perhaps it +was well for them, as will appear in the next chapter, that morning +did not find them at anchor close to the town. + +However that may be, so ended that fatal venture of mistaken +chivalry. + + + +CHAPTER XX + +SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS + + +"Full seven long hours in all men's sight + This fight endured sore, +Until our men so feeble grew, + That they could fight no more. +And then upon dead horses + Full savorly they fed, +And drank the puddle water, + They could no better get. + +"When they had fed so freely + They kneeled on the ground, +And gave God thanks devoutly for + The favor they had found; +Then beating up their colors, + The fight they did renew; +And turning to the Spaniards, + A thousand more they slew." + + The Brave Lord Willoughby. 1586. + + +When the sun leaped up the next morning, and the tropic light +flashed suddenly into the tropic day, Amyas was pacing the deck, +with dishevelled hair and torn clothes, his eyes red with rage and +weeping, his heart full--how can I describe it? Picture it to +yourselves, picture it to yourselves, you who have ever lost a +brother; and you who have not, thank God that you know nothing of +his agony. Full of impossible projects, he strode and staggered up +and down, as the ship thrashed close-hauled through the rolling +seas. He would go back and burn the villa. He would take Guayra, +and have the life of every man in it in return for his brother's. +"We can do it, lads!" he shouted. "If Drake took Nombre de Dios, +we can take La Guayra." And every voice shouted, "Yes." + +"We will have it, Amyas, and have Frank too, yet," cried Cary; but +Amyas shook his head. He knew, and knew not why he knew, that all +the ports in New Spain would never restore to him that one beloved +face. + +"Yes, he shall be well avenged. And look there! There is the +first crop of our vengeance. And he pointed toward the shore, +where between them and the now distant peaks of the Silla, three +sails appeared, not five miles to windward. + +"There are the Spanish bloodhounds on our heels, the same ships +which we saw yesterday off Guayra. Back, lads, and welcome them, +if they were a dozen." + +There was a murmur of applause from all around; and if any young +heart sank for a moment at the prospect of fighting three ships at +once, it was awed into silence by the cheer which rose from all the +older men, and by Salvation Yeo's stentorian voice. + +"If there were a dozen, the Lord is with us, who has said, 'One of +you shall chase a thousand.' Clear away, lads, and see the glory +of the Lord this day." + +"Amen!" cried Cary; and the ship was kept still closer to the wind. + +Amyas had revived at the sight of battle. He no longer felt his +wounds, or his great sorrow; even Frank's last angel's look grew +dimmer every moment as he bustled about the deck; and ere a quarter +of an hour had passed, his voice cried firmly and cheerfully as of +old-- + +"Now, my masters, let us serve God, and then to breakfast, and +after that clear for action." + +Jack Brimblecombe read the daily prayers, and the prayers before a +fight at sea, and his honest voice trembled, as, in the Prayer for +all Conditions of Men (in spite of Amyas's despair), he added, "and +especially for our dear brother Mr. Francis Leigh, perhaps captive +among the idolaters;" and so they rose. + +"Now, then," said Amyas, "to breakfast. A Frenchman fights best +fasting, a Dutchman drunk, an Englishman full, and a Spaniard when +the devil is in him, and that's always." + +"And good beef and the good cause are a match for the devil," said +Cary. "Come down, captain; you must eat too." + +Amyas shook his head, took the tiller from the steersman, and bade +him go below and fill himself. Will Cary went down, and returned +in five minutes, with a plate of bread and beef, and a great jack +of ale, coaxed them down Amyas's throat, as a nurse does with a +child, and then scuttled below again with tears hopping down his +face. + +Amyas stood still steering. His face was grown seven years older +in the last night. A terrible set calm was on him. Woe to the man +who came across him that day! + +"There are three of them, you see, my masters," said he, as the +crew came on deck again. "A big ship forward, and two galleys +astern of her. The big ship may keep; she is a race ship, and if +we can but recover the wind of her, we will see whether our height +is not a match for her length. We must give her the slip, and take +the galleys first." + +"I thank the Lord," said Yeo, "who has given so wise a heart to so +young a general; a very David and Daniel, saving his presence, +lads; and if any dare not follow him, let him be as the men of +Meroz and of Succoth. Amen! Silas Staveley, smite me that boy +over the head, the young monkey; why is he not down at the powder- +room door?" + +And Yeo went about his gunnery, as one who knew how to do it, and +had the most terrible mind to do it thoroughly, and the most +terrible faith that it was God's work. + +So all fell to; and though there was comparatively little to be +done, the ship having been kept as far as could be in fighting +order all night, yet there was "clearing of decks, lacing of +nettings, making of bulwarks, fitting of waist-cloths, arming of +tops, tallowing of pikes, slinging of yards, doubling of sheets and +tacks," enough to satisfy even the pedantical soul of Richard +Hawkins himself. Amyas took charge of the poop, Cary of the +forecastle, and Yeo, as gunner, of the main-deck, while Drew, as +master, settled himself in the waist; and all was ready, and more +than ready, before the great ship was within two miles of them. + +And now while the mastiffs of England and the bloodhounds of Spain +are nearing and nearing over the rolling surges, thirsting for each +other's blood, let us spend a few minutes at least in looking at +them both, and considering the causes which in those days enabled +the English to face and conquer armaments immensely superior in +size and number of ships, and to boast that in the whole Spanish +war but one queen's ship, the Revenge, and (if I recollect right) +but one private man-of-war, Sir Richard Hawkins's Dainty, had ever +struck their colors to the enemy. + +What was it which enabled Sir Richard Grenville's Revenge, in his +last fearful fight off the Azores, to endure, for twelve hours +before she struck, the attack of eight Spanish armadas, of which +two (three times her own burden) sank at her side; and after all +her masts were gone, and she had been boarded three times without +success, to defy to the last the whole fleet of fifty-four sail, +which lay around her, waiting for her to sink, "like dogs around +the dying forest king"? + +What enabled young Richard Hawkins's Dainty, though half her guns +were useless through the carelessness or treachery of the gunner, +to maintain for three days a running fight with two Spaniards of +equal size with her, double the weight of metal, and ten times the +number of men? + +What enabled Sir George Cary's illustrious ship, the Content, to +fight, single-handed, from seven in the morning till eleven at +night, with four great armadas and two galleys, though her heaviest +gun was but one nine-pounder, and for many hours she had but +thirteen men fit for service? + +What enabled, in the very year of which I write, those two "valiant +Turkey Merchantmen of London, the Merchant Royal and the Tobie," +with their three small consorts, to cripple, off Pantellaria in the +Mediterranean, the whole fleet of Spanish galleys sent to intercept +them, and return triumphant through the Straits of Gibraltar? + +And lastly, what in the fight of 1588, whereof more hereafter, +enabled the English fleet to capture, destroy, and scatter that +Great Armada, with the loss (but not the capture) of one pinnace, +and one gentleman of note? + +There were more causes than one: the first seems to have lain in +the build of the English ships; the second in their superior +gunnery and weight of metal; the third (without which the first +would have been useless) in the hearts of the English men. + +The English ship was much shorter than the Spanish; and this (with +the rig of those days) gave them an ease in manoeuvring, which +utterly confounded their Spanish foes. "The English ships in the +fight of 1588," says Camden, "charged the enemy with marvellous +agility, and having discharged their broadsides, flew forth +presently into the deep, and levelled their shot directly, without +missing, at those great ships of the Spaniards, which were +altogether heavy and unwieldy." Moreover, the Spanish fashion, in +the West Indies at least, though not in the ships of the Great +Armada, was, for the sake of carrying merchandise, to build their +men-of-war flush-decked, or as it was called "race" (razes), which +left those on deck exposed and open; while the English fashion was +to heighten the ship as much as possible at stem and stern, both by +the sweep of her lines, and also by stockades ("close fights and +cage-works") on the poop and forecastle, thus giving to the men a +shelter, which was further increased by strong bulkheads +("cobridgeheads") across the main-deck below, dividing the ship +thus into a number of separate forts, fitted with swivels ("bases, +fowlers, and murderers") and loopholed for musketry and arrows. + +But the great source of superiority was, after all, in the men +themselves. The English sailor was then, as now, a quite +amphibious and all-cunning animal, capable of turning his hand to +everything, from needlework and carpentry to gunnery or hand-to- +hand blows; and he was, moreover, one of a nation, every citizen of +which was not merely permitted to carry arms, but compelled by law +to practise from childhood the use of the bow, and accustomed to +consider sword-play and quarter-staff as a necessary part and +parcel of education, and the pastime of every leisure hour. The +"fiercest nation upon earth," as they were then called, and the +freest also, each man of them fought for himself with the self-help +and self-respect of a Yankee ranger, and once bidden to do his +work, was trusted to carry it out by his own wit as best he could. +In one word, he was a free man. + +The English officers, too, as now, lived on terms of sympathy with +their men unknown to the Spaniards, who raised between the +commander and the commanded absurd barriers of rank and blood, +which forbade to his pride any labor but that of fighting. The +English officers, on the other hand, brought up to the same +athletic sports, the same martial exercises, as their men, were not +ashamed to care for them, to win their friendship, even on +emergency to consult their judgment; and used their rank, not to +differ from their men, but to outvie them; not merely to command +and be obeyed, but, like Homer's heroes, or the old Norse Vikings, +to lead and be followed. Drake touched the true mainspring of +English success when he once (in his voyage round the world) +indignantly rebuked some coxcomb gentlemen-adventurers with--"I +should like to see the gentleman that will refuse to set his hand +to a rope. I must have the gentlemen to hale and draw with the +mariners." But those were days in which her majesty's service was +as little overridden by absurd rules of seniority, as by that +etiquette which is at once the counterfeit and the ruin of true +discipline. Under Elizabeth and her ministers, a brave and a +shrewd man was certain of promotion, let his rank or his age be +what they might; the true honor of knighthood covered once and for +all any lowliness of birth; and the merchant service (in which all +the best sea-captains, even those of noble blood, were more or less +engaged) was then a nursery, not only for seamen, but for warriors, +in days when Spanish and Portuguese traders (whenever they had a +chance) got rid of English competition by salvos of cannon-shot. + +Hence, as I have said, that strong fellow-feeling between officers +and men; and hence mutinies (as Sir Richard Hawkins tells us) were +all but unknown in the English ships, while in the Spanish they +broke out on every slight occasion. For the Spaniards, by some +suicidal pedantry, had allowed their navy to be crippled by the +same despotism, etiquette, and official routine, by which the whole +nation was gradually frozen to death in the course of the next +century or two; forgetting that, fifty years before, Cortez, +Pizarro, and the early Conquistadores of America had achieved their +miraculous triumphs on the exactly opposite method by that very +fellow-feeling between commander and commanded by which the English +were now conquering them in their turn. + +Their navy was organized on a plan complete enough; but on one +which was, as the event proved, utterly fatal to their prowess and +unanimity, and which made even their courage and honor useless +against the assaults of free men. "They do, in their armadas at +sea, divide themselves into three bodies; to wit, soldiers, +mariners, and gunners. The soldiers and officers watch and ward as +if on shore; and this is the only duty they undergo, except +cleaning their arms, wherein they are not over curious. The +gunners are exempted from all labor and care, except about the +artillery; and these are either Almaines, Flemings, or strangers; +for the Spaniards are but indifferently practised in this art. The +mariners are but as slaves to the rest, to moil and to toil day and +night; and those but few and bad, and not suffered to sleep or +harbor under the decks. For in fair or foul weather, in storms, +sun, or rain, they must pass void of covert or succor." + +This is the account of one who was long prisoner on board their +ships; let it explain itself, while I return to my tale. For the +great ship is now within two musket-shots of the Rose, with the +golden flag of Spain floating at her poop; and her trumpets are +shouting defiance up the breeze, from a dozen brazen throats, which +two or three answer lustily from the Rose, from whose poop flies +the flag of England, and from her fore the arms of Leigh and Cary +side by side, and over them the ship and bridge of the good town of +Bideford. And then Amyas calls: + +"Now, silence trumpets, waits, play up! 'Fortune my foe!' and God +and the Queen be with us!" + +Whereon (laugh not, reader, for it was the fashion of those musical +as well as valiant days) up rose that noble old favorite of good +Queen Bess, from cornet and sackbut, fife and drum; while Parson +Jack, who had taken his stand with the musicians on the poop, +worked away lustily at his violin, and like Volker of the +Nibelungen Lied. + +"Well played, Jack; thy elbow flies like a lamb's tail," said +Amyas, forcing a jest. + +"It shall fly to a better fiddle-bow presently, sir, an I have the +luck--" + +"Steady, helm!" said Amyas. "What is he after now?" + +The Spaniard, who had been coming upon them right down the wind +under a press of sail, took in his light canvas. + +"He don't know what to make of our waiting for him so bold," said +the helmsman. + +"He does though, and means to fight us," cried another. "See, he +is hauling up the foot of his mainsail, but he wants to keep the +wind of us." + +"Let him try, then," quoth Amyas. "Keep her closer still. Let no +one fire till we are about. Man the starboard guns; to starboard, +and wait, all small arm men. Pass the order down to the gunner, +and bid all fire high, and take the rigging." + +Bang went one of the Spaniard's bow guns, and the shot went wide. +Then another and another, while the men fidgeted about, looking at +the priming of their muskets, and loosened their arrows in the +sheaf. + +"Lie down, men, and sing a psalm. When I want you, I'll call you. +Closer still, if you can, helmsman, and we will try a short ship +against a long one. We can sail two points nearer the wind than +he." + +As Amyas had calculated, the Spaniard would gladly enough have +stood across the Rose's bows, but knowing the English readiness, +dare not for fear of being raked; so her only plan, if she did not +intend to shoot past her foe down to leeward, was to put her head +close to the wind, and wait for her on the same tack. + +Amyas laughed to himself. "Hold on yet awhile. More ways of +killing a cat than choking her with cream. Drew, there, are your +men ready?" + +"Ay, ay, sir!" and on they went, closing fast with the Spaniard, +till within a pistol-shot. + +"Ready about!" and about she went like an eel, and ran upon the +opposite tack right under the Spaniard's stern. The Spaniard, +astounded at the quickness of the manoeuvre, hesitated a moment, +and then tried to get about also, as his only chance; but it was +too late, and while his lumbering length was still hanging in the +wind's eye, Amyas's bowsprit had all but scraped his quarter, and +the Rose passed slowly across his stern at ten yards' distance. + +"Now, then!" roared Amyas. "Fire, and with a will! Have at her, +archers: have at her, muskets all!" and in an instant a storm of +bar and chain-shot, round and canister, swept the proud Don from +stem to stern, while through the white cloud of smoke the musket- +balls, and the still deadlier cloth-yard arrows, whistled and +rushed upon their venomous errand. Down went the steersman, and +every soul who manned the poop. Down went the mizzen topmast, in +went the stern-windows and quarter-galleries; and as the smoke +cleared away, the gorgeous painting of the Madre Dolorosa, with her +heart full of seven swords, which, in a gilded frame, bedizened the +Spanish stern, was shivered in splinters; while, most glorious of +all, the golden flag of Spain, which the last moment flaunted above +their heads, hung trailing in the water. The ship, her tiller shot +away, and her helmsman killed, staggered helplessly a moment, and +then fell up into the wind. + +"Well done, men of Devon!" shouted Amyas, as cheers rent the +welkin. + +"She has struck," cried some, as the deafening hurrahs died away. + +"Not a bit," said Amyas. "Hold on, helmsman, and leave her to +patch her tackle while we settle the galleys." + +On they shot merrily, and long ere the armada could get herself to +rights again, were two good miles to windward, with the galleys +sweeping down fast upon them. + +And two venomous-looking craft they were, as they shot through the +short chopping sea upon some forty oars apiece, stretching their +long sword-fish snouts over the water, as if snuffing for their +prey. Behind this long snout, a strong square forecastle was +crammed with soldiers, and the muzzles of cannon grinned out +through portholes, not only in the sides of the forecastle, but +forward in the line of the galley's course, thus enabling her to +keep up a continual fire on a ship right ahead. + +The long low waist was packed full of the slaves, some five or six +to each oar, and down the centre, between the two banks, the +English could see the slave-drivers walking up and down a long +gangway, whip in hand. A raised quarter-deck at the stern held +more soldiers, the sunlight flashing merrily upon their armor and +their gun-barrels; as they neared, the English could hear plainly +the cracks of the whips, and the yells as of wild beasts which +answered them; the roll and rattle of the oars, and the loud "Ha!" +of the slaves which accompanied every stroke, and the oaths and +curses of the drivers; while a sickening musky smell, as of a pack +of kennelled hounds, came down the wind from off those dens of +misery. No wonder if many a young heart shuddered as it faced, for +the first time, the horrible reality of those floating hells, the +cruelties whereof had rung so often in English ears, from the +stories of their own countrymen, who had passed them, fought them, +and now and then passed years of misery on board of them. Who knew +but what there might be English among those sun-browned half-naked +masses of panting wretches? + +"Must we fire upon the slaves?" asked more than one, as the thought +crossed him. + +Amyas sighed. + +"Spare them all you can, in God's name; but if they try to run us +down, rake them we must, and God forgive us." + +The two galleys came on abreast of each other, some forty yards +apart. To outmanoeuvre their oars as he had done the ship's sails, +Amyas knew was impossible. To run from them was to be caught +between them and the ship. + +He made up his mind, as usual, to the desperate game. + +"Lay her head up in the wind, helmsman, and we will wait for them." + +They were now within musket-shot, and opened fire from their bow- +guns; but, owing to the chopping sea, their aim was wild. Amyas, +as usual, withheld his fire. + +The men stood at quarters with compressed lips, not knowing what +was to come next. Amyas, towering motionless on the quarter-deck, +gave his orders calmly and decisively. The men saw that he trusted +himself, and trusted him accordingly. + +The Spaniards, seeing him wait for them, gave a shout of joy--was +the Englishman mad? And the two galleys converged rapidly, +intending to strike him full, one on each bow. + +They were within forty yards--another minute, and the shock would +come. The Englishman's helm went up, his yards creaked round, and +gathering way, he plunged upon the larboard galley. + +"A dozen gold nobles to him who brings down the steersman!" shouted +Cary, who had his cue. + +And a flight of arrows from the forecastle rattled upon the +galley's quarter-deck. + +Hit or not hit, the steersman lost his nerve, and shrank from the +coming shock. The galley's helm went up to port, and her beak slid +all but harmless along Amyas's bow; a long dull grind, and then +loud crack on crack, as the Rose sawed slowly through the bank of +oars from stem to stern, hurling the wretched slaves in heaps upon +each other; and ere her mate on the other side could swing round, +to strike him in his new position, Amyas's whole broadside, great +and small, had been poured into her at pistol-shot, answered by a +yell which rent their ears and hearts. + +"Spare the slaves! Fire at the soldiers!" cried Amyas; but the +work was too hot for much discrimination; for the larboard galley, +crippled but not undaunted, swung round across his stern, and +hooked herself venomously on to him. + +It was a move more brave than wise; for it prevented the other +galley from returning to the attack without exposing herself a +second time to the English broadside; and a desperate attempt of +the Spaniards to board at once through the stern-ports and up the +quarter was met with such a demurrer of shot and steel, that they +found themselves in three minutes again upon the galley's poop, +accompanied, to their intense disgust, by Amyas Leigh and twenty +English swords. + +Five minutes' hard cutting, hand to hand, and the poop was clear. +The soldiers in the forecastle had been able to give them no +assistance, open as they lay to the arrows and musketry from the +Rose's lofty stern. Amyas rushed along the central gangway, +shouting in Spanish, "Freedom to the slaves! death to the masters!" +clambered into the forecastle, followed close by his swarm of +wasps, and set them so good an example how to use their stings, +that in three minutes more there was not a Spaniard on board who +was not dead or dying. + +"Let the slaves free!" shouted he. "Throw us a hammer down, men. +Hark! there's an English voice!" + +There is indeed. From amid the wreck of broken oars and writhing +limbs, a voice is shrieking in broadest Devon to the master, who is +looking over the side. + +"Oh, Robert Drew! Robert Drew! Come down, and take me out of +hell!" + +"Who be you, in the name of the Lord!" + +"Don't you mind William Prust, that Captain Hawkins left behind in +the Honduras, years and years agone? There's nine of us aboard, if +your shot hasn't put 'em out of their misery. Come down, if you've +a Christian heart, come down!" + +Utterly forgetful of all discipline, Drew leaps down hammer in +hand, and the two old comrades rush into each other's arms. + +Why make a long story of what took but five minutes to do? The +nine men (luckily none of them wounded) are freed, and helped on +board, to be hugged and kissed by old comrades and young kinsmen; +while the remaining slaves, furnished with a couple of hammers, are +told to free themselves and help the English. The wretches answer +by a shout; and Amyas, once more safe on board again, dashes after +the other galley, which has been hovering out of reach of his guns: +but there is no need to trouble himself about her; sickened with +what she has got, she is struggling right up wind, leaning over to +one side, and seemingly ready to sink. + +"Are there any English on board of her?" asks Amyas, loath to lose +the chance of freeing a countryman. + +"Never a one, sir, thank God." + +So they set to work to repair damages; while the liberated slaves, +having shifted some of the galley's oars, pull away after their +comrade; and that with such a will, that in ten minutes they have +caught her up, and careless of the Spaniard's fire, boarded her en +masse, with yells as of a thousand wolves. There will be fearful +vengeance taken on those tyrants, unless they play the man this +day. + +And in the meanwhile half the crew are clothing, feeding, +questioning, caressing those nine poor fellows thus snatched from +living death; and Yeo, hearing the news, has rushed up on deck to +welcome his old comrades, and-- + +"Is Michael Heard, my cousin, here among you?" + +Yes, Michael Heard is there, white-headed rather from misery than +age; and the embracings and questionings begin afresh. + +"Where is my wife, Salvation Yeo?" + +"With the Lord." + +"Amen!" says the old man, with a short shudder. "I thought so +much; and my two boys?" + +"With the Lord." + +The old man catches Yeo by the arm. + +"How, then?" It is Yeo's turn to shudder now. + +"Killed in Panama, fighting the Spaniards; sailing with Mr. +Oxenham; and 'twas I led 'em into it. May God and you forgive me!" + +"They couldn't die better, cousin Yeo. Where's my girl Grace?" + +"Died in childbed." + +"Any childer?" + +"No." + +The old man covers his face with his hands for a while. + +"Well, I've been alone with the Lord these fifteen years, so I must +not whine at being alone a while longer--'t won't be long." + +"Put this coat on your back, uncle," says some one. + +"No; no coats for me. Naked came I into the world, and naked I go +out of it this day, if I have a chance. You'm better to go to your +work, lads, or the big one will have the wind of you yet." + +"So she will," said Amyas, who has overheard; but so great is the +curiosity on all hands, that he has some trouble in getting the men +to quarters again; indeed, they only go on condition of parting +among themselves with them the new-comers, each to tell his sad and +strange story. How after Captain Hawkins, constrained by famine, +had put them ashore, they wandered in misery till the Spaniards +took them; how, instead of hanging them (as they at first +intended), the Dons fed and clothed them, and allotted them as +servants to various gentlemen about Mexico, where they throve, +turned their hands (like true sailors) to all manner of trades, and +made much money, and some of them were married, even to women of +wealth; so that all went well, until the fatal year 1574, when, +"much against the minds of many of the Spaniards themselves, that +cruel and bloody Inquisition was established for the first time in +the Indies;" and how from that moment their lives were one long +tragedy; how they were all imprisoned for a year and a half, not +for proselytizing, but simply for not believing in +transubstantiation; racked again and again, and at last adjudged to +receive publicly, on Good Friday, 1575, some three hundred, some +one hundred stripes, and to serve in the galleys for six or ten +years each; while, as the crowning atrocity of the Moloch +sacrifice, three of them were burnt alive in the market-place of +Mexico; a story no less hideous than true, the details whereof +whoso list may read in Hakluyt's third volume, as told by Philip +Miles, one of that hapless crew; as well as the adventures of Job +Hortop, a messmate of his, who, after being sent to Spain, and +seeing two more of his companions burnt alive at Seville, was +sentenced to row in the galleys ten years, and after that to go to +the "everlasting prison remediless;" from which doom, after twenty- +three years of slavery, he was delivered by the galleon Dudley, and +came safely home to Redriff. + +The fate of Hortop and his comrades was, of course, still unknown +to the rescued men; but the history even of their party was not +likely to improve the good feeling of the crew toward the Spanish +ship which was two miles to leeward of them, and which must be +fought with, or fled from, before a quarter of an hour was past. +So, kneeling down upon the deck, as many a brave crew in those days +did in like case, they "gave God thanks devoutly for the favor they +had found;" and then with one accord, at Jack's leading, sang one +and all the Ninety-fourth Psalm:* + + + "Oh, Lord, thou dost revenge all wrong; + Vengeance belongs to thee," etc. + + +* The crew of the Tobie, cast away on the Barbary coast a few years +after, "began with heavy hearts to sing the twelfth Psalm, 'Help, +Lord, for good and godly men,' etc. Howbeit, ere we had finished +four verses, the waves of the sea had stopped the breaths of most." + + +And then again to quarters; for half the day's work, or more than +half, still remained to be done; and hardly were the decks cleared +afresh, and the damage repaired as best it could be, when she came +ranging up to leeward, as closehauled as she could. + +She was, as I said, a long flush-decked ship of full five hundred +tons, more than double the size, in fact, of the Rose, though not +so lofty in proportion; and many a bold heart beat loud, and no +shame to them, as she began firing away merrily, determined, as all +well knew, to wipe out in English blood the disgrace of her late +foil. + +"Never mind, my merry masters," said Amyas, "she has quantity and +we quality." + +"That's true," said one, "for one honest man is worth two rogues." + +"And one culverin three of their footy little ordnance," said +another. "So when you will, captain, and have at her." + +"Let her come abreast of us, and don't burn powder. We have the +wind, and can do what we like with her. Serve the men out a horn +of ale all round, steward, and all take your time." + +So they waited for five minutes more, and then set to work quietly, +after the fashion of English mastiffs, though, like those mastiffs, +they waxed right mad before three rounds were fired, and the white +splinters (sight beloved) began to crackle and fly. + +Amyas, having, as he had said, the wind, and being able to go +nearer it than the Spaniard, kept his place at easy point-blank +range for his two eighteen-pounder culverins, which Yeo and his +mate worked with terrible effect. + +"We are lacking her through and through every shot," said he. +"Leave the small ordnance alone yet awhile, and we shall sink her +without them." + +"Whing, whing," went the Spaniard's shot, like so many humming- +tops, through the rigging far above their heads; for the ill- +constructed ports of those days prevented the guns from hulling an +enemy who was to windward, unless close alongside. + +"Blow, jolly breeze," cried one, "and lay the Don over all thou +canst.--What the murrain is gone, aloft there?" + +Alas! a crack, a flap, a rattle; and blank dismay! An unlucky shot +had cut the foremast (already wounded) in two, and all forward was +a mass of dangling wreck. + +"Forward, and cut away the wreck!" said Amyas, unmoved. "Small arm +men, be ready. He will be aboard of us in five minutes!" + +It was too true. The Rose, unmanageable from the loss of her head- +sail, lay at the mercy of the Spaniard; and the archers and +musqueteers had hardly time to range themselves to leeward, when +the Madre Dolorosa's chains were grinding against the Rose's, and +grapples tossed on board from stem to stern. + +"Don't cut them loose!" roared Amyas. "Let them stay and see the +fun! Now, dogs of Devon, show your teeth, and hurrah for God and +the queen!" + +And then began a fight most fierce and fell: the Spaniards, +according to their fashion, attempting to board, the English, amid +fierce shouts of "God and the queen!" "God and St. George for +England!" sweeping them back by showers of arrows and musquet +balls, thrusting them down with pikes, hurling grenades and stink- +pots from the tops; while the swivels on both sides poured their +grape, and bar, and chain, and the great main-deck guns, thundering +muzzle to muzzle, made both ships quiver and recoil, as they +smashed the round shot through and through each other. + +So they roared and flashed, fast clenched to each other in that +devil's wedlock, under a cloud of smoke beneath the cloudless +tropic sky; while all around, the dolphins gambolled, and the +flying-fish shot on from swell to swell, and the rainbow-hued +jellies opened and shut their cups of living crystal to the sun, as +merrily as if man had never fallen, and hell had never broken loose +on earth. + +So it raged for an hour or more, till all arms were weary, and all +tongues clove to the mouth. And sick men, rotting with scurvy, +scrambled up on deck, and fought with the strength of madness; and +tiny powder-boys, handing up cartridges from the hold, laughed and +cheered as the shots ran past their ears; and old Salvation Yeo, a +text upon his lips, and a fury in his heart as of Joshua or Elijah +in old time, worked on, calm and grim, but with the energy of a boy +at play. And now and then an opening in the smoke showed the +Spanish captain, in his suit of black steel armor, standing cool +and proud, guiding and pointing, careless of the iron hail, but too +lofty a gentleman to soil his glove with aught but a knightly +sword-hilt: while Amyas and Will, after the fashion of the English +gentlemen, had stripped themselves nearly as bare as their own +sailors, and were cheering, thrusting, hewing, and hauling, here, +there, and everywhere, like any common mariner, and filling them +with a spirit of self-respect, fellow-feeling, and personal daring, +which the discipline of the Spaniards, more perfect mechanically, +but cold and tyrannous, and crushing spiritually, never could +bestow. The black-plumed senor was obeyed; but the golden-locked +Amyas was followed, and would have been followed through the jaws +of hell. + +The Spaniards, ere five minutes had passed, poured en masse into +the Rose's waist, but only to their destruction. Between the poop +and forecastle (as was then the fashion) the upper-deck beams were +left open and unplanked, with the exception of a narrow gangway on +either side; and off that fatal ledge the boarders, thrust on by +those behind, fell headlong between the beams to the main-deck +below, to be slaughtered helpless in that pit of destruction, by +the double fire from the bulkheads fore and aft; while the few who +kept their footing on the gangway, after vain attempts to force the +stockades on poop and forecastle, leaped overboard again amid a +shower of shot and arrows. The fire of the English was as steady +as it was quick; and though three-fourths of the crew had never +smelt powder before, they proved well the truth of the old +chronicler's saying (since proved again more gloriously than ever, +at Alma, Balaklava, and Inkerman), that "the English never fight +better than in their first battle." + +Thrice the Spaniards clambered on board, and thrice surged back +before that deadly hail. The decks on both sides were very +shambles; and Jack Brimblecombe, who had fought as long as his +conscience would allow him, found, when he turned to a more +clerical occupation, enough to do in carrying poor wretches to the +surgeon, without giving that spiritual consolation which he longed +to give, and they to receive. At last there was a lull in that +wild storm. No shot was heard from the Spaniard's upper-deck. + +Amyas leaped into the mizzen rigging, and looked through the smoke. +Dead men he could descry through the blinding veil, rolled in +heaps, laid flat; dead men and dying: but no man upon his feet. +The last volley had swept the deck clear; one by one had dropped +below to escape that fiery shower: and alone at the helm, grinding +his teeth with rage, his mustachios curling up to his very eyes, +stood the Spanish captain. + +Now was the moment for a counter-stroke. Amyas shouted for the +boarders, and in two minutes more he was over the side, and +clutching at the Spaniard's mizzen rigging. + +What was this? The distance between him and the enemy's side was +widening. Was she sheering off? Yes--and rising too, growing +bodily higher every moment, as if by magic. Amyas looked up in +astonishment and saw what it was. The Spaniard was heeling fast +over to leeward away from him. Her masts were all sloping forward, +swifter and swifter--the end was come, then! + +"Back! in God's name back, men! She is sinking by the head!" And +with much ado some were dragged back, some leaped back--all but old +Michael Heard. + +With hair and beard floating in the wind, the bronzed naked figure, +like some weird old Indian fakir, still climbed on steadfastly up +the mizzen-chains of the Spaniard, hatchet in hand. + +"Come back, Michael! Leap while you may!" shouted a dozen voices. +Michael turned-- + +"And what should I come back for, then, to go home where no one +knoweth me? I'll die like an Englishman this day, or I'll know the +rason why!" and turning, he sprang in over the bulwarks, as the +huge ship rolled up more and more, like a dying whale, exposing all +her long black hulk almost down to the keel, and one of her lower- +deck guns, as if in defiance, exploded upright into the air, +hurling the ball to the very heavens. + +In an instant it was answered from the Rose by a column of smoke, +and the eighteen-pound ball crashed through the bottom of the +defenceless Spaniard. + +"Who fired? Shame to fire on a sinking ship!" + +"Gunner Yeo, sir," shouted a voice up from the main-deck. "He's +like a madman down here." + +"Tell him if he fires again, I'll put him in irons, if he were my +own brother. Cut away the grapples aloft, men. Don't you see how +she drags us over? Cut away, or we shall sink with her." + +They cut away, and the Rose, released from the strain, shook her +feathers on the wave-crest like a freed sea-gull, while all men +held their breaths. + +Suddenly the glorious creature righted herself, and rose again, as +if in noble shame, for one last struggle with her doom. Her bows +were deep in the water, but her after-deck still dry. Righted: but +only for a moment, long enough to let her crew come pouring wildly +up on deck, with cries and prayers, and rush aft to the poop, +where, under the flag of Spain, stood the tall captain, his left +hand on the standard-staff, his sword pointed in his right. + +"Back, men!" they heard him cry, "and die like valiant mariners." + +Some of them ran to the bulwarks, and shouted "Mercy! We +surrender!" and the English broke into a cheer and called to them +to run her alongside. + +"Silence!" shouted Amyas. "I take no surrender from mutineers. +Senor," cried he to the captain, springing into the rigging and +taking off his hat, "for the love of God and these men, strike! and +surrender a buena querra." + +The Spaniard lifted his hat and bowed courteously, and answered, +"Impossible, senor. No querra is good which stains my honor." + +"God have mercy on you, then!" + +"Amen!" said the Spaniard, crossing himself. + +She gave one awful lounge forward, and dived under the coming +swell, hurling her crew into the eddies. Nothing but the point of +her poop remained, and there stood the stern and steadfast Don, +cap-a-pie in his glistening black armor, immovable as a man of +iron, while over him the flag, which claimed the empire of both +worlds, flaunted its gold aloft and upwards in the glare of the +tropic noon. + +"He shall not carry that flag to the devil with him; I will have it +yet, if I die for it!" said Will Cary, and rushed to the side to +leap overboard, but Amyas stopped him. + +"Let him die as he has lived, with honor." + +A wild figure sprang out of the mass of sailors who struggled and +shrieked amid the foam, and rushed upward at the Spaniard. It was +Michael Heard. The Don, who stood above him, plunged his sword +into the old man's body: but the hatchet gleamed, nevertheless: +down went the blade through headpiece and through head; and as +Heard sprang onward, bleeding, but alive, the steel-clad corpse +rattled down the deck into the surge. Two more strokes, struck +with the fury of a dying man, and the standard-staff was hewn +through. Old Michael collected all his strength, hurled the flag +far from the sinking ship, and then stood erect one moment and +shouted, "God save Queen Bess!" and the English answered with a +"Hurrah!" which rent the welkin. + +Another moment and the gulf had swallowed his victim, and the poop, +and him; and nothing remained of the Madre Dolorosa but a few +floating spars and struggling wretches, while a great awe fell upon +all men, and a solemn silence, broken only by the cry + + + "Of some strong swimmer in his agony." + + +And then, suddenly collecting themselves, as men awakened from a +dream, half-a-dozen desperate gallants, reckless of sharks and +eddies, leaped overboard, swam towards the flag, and towed it +alongside in triumph. + +"Ah!" said Salvation Yeo, as he helped the trophy up over the side; +"ah! it was not for nothing that we found poor Michael! He was +always a good comrade--nigh as good a one as William Penberthy of +Marazion, whom the Lord grant I meet in bliss! And now, then, my +masters, shall we inshore again and burn La Guayra?" + +"Art thou never glutted with Spanish blood, thou old wolf?" asked +Will Cary. + +"Never, sir," answered Yeo. + +"To St. Jago be it," said Amyas, "if we can get there; but--God +help us!" + +And he looked round sadly enough; while no one needed that he +should finish his sentence, or explain his "but." + +The foremast was gone, the main-yard sprung, the rigging hanging in +elf-locks, the hull shot through and through in twenty places, the +deck strewn with the bodies of nine good men, beside sixteen +wounded down below; while the pitiless sun, right above their +heads, poured down a flood of fire upon a sea of glass. + +And it would have been well if faintness and weariness had been all +that was the matter; but now that the excitement was over, the +collapse came; and the men sat down listlessly and sulkily by twos +and threes upon the deck, starting and wincing when they heard some +poor fellow below cry out under the surgeon's knife; or murmuring +to each other that all was lost. Drew tried in vain to rouse them, +telling them that all depended on rigging a jury-mast forward as +soon as possible. They answered only by growls; and at last broke +into open reproaches. Even Will Cary's volatile nature, which had +kept him up during the fight, gave way, when Yeo and the carpenter +came aft, and told Amyas in a low voice-- + +"We are hit somewhere forward, below the water-line, sir. She +leaks a terrible deal, and the Lord will not vouchsafe to us to lay +our hands on the place, for all our searching." + +"What are we to do now, Amyas, in the devil's name?" asked Cary, +peevishly. + +"What are we to do, in God's name, rather," answered Amyas, in a +low voice. "Will, Will, what did God make you a gentleman for, but +to know better than those poor fickle fellows forward, who blow hot +and cold at every change of weather!" + +"I wish you'd come forward and speak to them, sir," said Yeo, who +had overheard the last words, "or we shall get naught done." + +Amyas went forward instantly. + +"Now then, my brave lads, what's the matter here, that you are all +sitting on your tails like monkeys?" + +"Ugh!" grunts one. "Don't you think our day's work has been long +enough yet, captain?" + +"You don't want us to go in to La Guayra again, sir? There are +enough of us thrown away already, I reckon, about that wench +there." + +"Best sit here, and sink quietly. There's no getting home again, +that's plain." + +"Why were we brought out here to be killed?" + +"For shame, men!" cries Yeo; "you're no better than a set of stiff- +necked Hebrew Jews, murmuring against Moses the very minute after +the Lord has delivered you from the Egyptians." + +Now I do not wish to set Amyas up as a perfect man; for he had his +faults, like every one else; nor as better, thank God, than many +and many a brave and virtuous captain in her majesty's service at +this very day: but certainly he behaved admirably under that trial. +Drake had trained him, as he trained many another excellent +officer, to be as stout in discipline, and as dogged of purpose, as +he himself was: but he had trained him also to feel with and for +his men, to make allowances for them, and to keep his temper with +them, as he did this day. True, he had seen Drake in a rage; he +had seen him hang one man for a mutiny (and that man his dearest +friend), and threaten to hang thirty more; but Amyas remembered +well that that explosion took place when having, as Drake said +publicly himself, "taken in hand that I know not in the world how +to go through with; it passeth my capacity; it hath even bereaved +me of my wits to think of it," . . . and having "now set together +by the ears three mighty princes, her majesty and the kings of +Spain and Portugal," he found his whole voyage ready to come to +naught, "by mutinies and discords, controversy between the sailors +and gentlemen, and stomaching between the gentlemen and sailors." +"But, my masters" (quoth the self-trained hero, and Amyas never +forgot his words), "I must have it left; for I must have the +gentlemen to haul and draw with the mariner, and the mariner with +the gentlemen. I would like to know him that would refuse to set +his hand to a rope!" + +And now Amyas's conscience smote him (and his simple and pious soul +took the loss of his brother as God's verdict on his conduct), +because he had set his own private affection, even his own private +revenge, before the safety of his ship's company, and the good of +his country. + +"Ah," said he to himself, as he listened to his men's reproaches, +"if I had been thinking, like a loyal soldier, of serving my queen, +and crippling the Spaniard, I should have taken that great bark +three days ago, and in it the very man I sought!" + +So "choking down his old man," as Yeo used to say, he made answer +cheerfully-- + +"Pooh! pooh! brave lads! For shame, for shame! You were lions +half-an-hour ago; you are not surely turned sheep already! Why, +but yesterday evening you were grumbling because I would not run in +and fight those three ships under the batteries of La Guayra, and +now you think it too much to have fought them fairly out at sea? +What has happened but the chances of war, which might have happened +anywhere? Nothing venture, nothing win; and nobody goes bird- +nesting without a fall at times. If any one wants to be safe in +this life, he'd best stay at home and keep his bed; though even +there, who knows but the roof might fall through on him?" + +"Ah, it's all very well for you, captain," said some grumbling +younker, with a vague notion that Amyas must be better off than he, +because he was a gentleman. Amyas's blood rose. + +"Yes, sirrah! it is very well for me, as long as God is with me: +but He is with every man in this ship, I would have you to know, as +much as He is with me. Do you fancy that I have nothing to lose? +I who have adventured in this voyage all I am worth, and more; who, +if I fail, must return to beggary and scorn? And if I have +ventured rashly, sinfully, if you will, the lives of any of you in +my own private quarrel, am I not punished? Have I not lost--?" + +His voice trembled and stopped there, but he recovered himself in a +moment. + +"Pish! I can't stand here chattering. Carpenter! an axe! and help +me to cast these spars loose. Get out of my way, there! lumbering +the scuppers up like so many moulting fowls! Here, all old +friends, lend a hand! Pelican's men, stand by your captain! Did +we sail round the world for nothing?" + +This last appeal struck home, and up leaped half-a-dozen of the old +Pelicans, and set to work at his side manfully to rig the jury-mast. + +"Come along!" cried Cary to the malcontents; "we're raw longshore +fellows, but we won't be outdone by any old sea-dog of them all." +And setting to work himself, he was soon followed by one and +another, till order and work went on well enough. + +"And where are we going, when the mast's up?" shouted some saucy +hand from behind. + +"Where you daren't follow us alone by yourself, so you had better +keep us company," replied Yeo. + +"I'll tell you where we are going, lads," said Amyas, rising from +his work. "Like it or leave it as you will, I have no secrets from +my crew. We are going inshore there to find a harbor, and careen +the ship." + +There was a start and a murmur. + +"Inshore? Into the Spaniards' mouths?" + +"All in the Inquisition in a week's time." + +"Better stay here, and be drowned." + +"You're right in that last," shouts Cary. "That's the right death +for blind puppies. Look you! I don't know in the least where we +are, and I hardly know stem from stern aboard ship; and the captain +may be right or wrong--that's nothing to me; but this I know, that +I am a soldier, and will obey orders; and where he goes, I go; and +whosoever hinders me must walk up my sword to do it." + +Amyas pressed Cary's hand, and then-- + +"And here's my broadside next, men. I'll go nowhere, and do +nothing without the advice of Salvation Yeo and Robert Drew; and if +any man in the ship knows better than these two, let him up, and +we'll give him a hearing. Eh, Pelicans?" + +There was a grunt of approbation from the Pelicans; and Amyas +returned to the charge. + +"We have five shot between wind and water, and one somewhere below. +Can we face a gale of wind in that state, or can we not?" + +Silence. + +"Can we get home with a leak in our bottom?" + +Silence. + +"Then what can we do but run inshore, and take our chance? Speak! +It's a coward's trick to do nothing because what we must do is not +pleasant. Will you be like children, that would sooner die than +take nasty physic, or will you not?" + +Silence still. + +"Come along now! Here's the wind again round with the sun, and up +to the north-west. In with her!" + +Sulkily enough, but unable to deny the necessity, the men set to +work, and the vessel's head was put toward the land; but when she +began to slip through the water, the leak increased so fast, that +they were kept hard at work at the pumps for the rest of the +afternoon. + +The current had by this time brought them abreast of the bay of +Higuerote; and, luckily for them, safe out of the short heavy swell +which it causes round Cape Codera. Looking inland, they had now to +the south-west that noble headland, backed by the Caracas +Mountains, range on range, up to the Silla and the Neguater; while, +right ahead of them to the south, the shore sank suddenly into a +low line of mangrove-wood, backed by primaeval forest. As they ran +inward, all eyes were strained greedily to find some opening in the +mangrove belt; but none was to be seen for some time. The lead was +kept going; and every fresh heave announced shallower water. + +"We shall have very shoal work off those mangroves, Yeo," said +Amyas; "I doubt whether we shall do aught now, unless we find a +river's mouth." + +"If the Lord thinks a river good for us, sir, He'll show us one." +So on they went, keeping a south-east course, and at last an +opening in the mangrove belt was hailed with a cheer from the older +hands, though the majority shrugged their shoulders, as men going +open-eyed to destruction. + +Off the mouth they sent in Drew and Cary with a boat, and watched +anxiously for an hour. The boat returned with a good report of two +fathoms of water over the bar, impenetrable forests for two miles +up, the river sixty yards broad, and no sign of man. The river's +banks were soft and sloping mud, fit for careening. + +"Safe quarters, sir," said Yeo, privately, "as far as Spaniards go. +I hope in God it may be as safe from calentures and fevers." + +"Beggars must not be choosers," said Amyas. So in they went. + +They towed the ship up about half-a-mile to a point where she could +not be seen from the seaward; and there moored her to the mangrove- +stems. Amyas ordered a boat out, and went up the river himself to +reconnoitre. He rowed some three miles, till the river narrowed +suddenly, and was all but covered in by the interlacing boughs of +mighty trees. There was no sign that man had been there since the +making of the world. + +He dropped down the stream again, thoughtfully and sadly. How many +years ago was it that he passed this river's mouth? Three days. +And yet how much had passed in them! Don Guzman found and lost-- +Rose found and lost--a great victory gained, and yet lost--perhaps +his ship lost--above all, his brother lost. + +Lost! O God, how should he find his brother? + +Some strange bird out of the woods made mournful answer--"Never, +never, never!" + +How should he face his mother? + +"Never, never, never!" wailed the bird again; and Amyas smiled +bitterly, and said "Never!" likewise. + +The night mist began to steam and wreathe upon the foul beer- +colored stream. The loathy floor of liquid mud lay bare beneath +the mangrove forest. Upon the endless web of interarching roots +great purple crabs were crawling up and down. They would have +supped with pleasure upon Amyas's corpse; perhaps they might sup on +him after all; for a heavy sickening graveyard smell made his heart +sink within him, and his stomach heave; and his weary body, and +more weary soul, gave themselves up helplessly to the depressing +influence of that doleful place. The black bank of dingy leathern +leaves above his head, the endless labyrinth of stems and withes +(for every bough had lowered its own living cord, to take fresh +hold of the foul soil below); the web of roots, which stretched +away inland till it was lost in the shades of evening--all seemed +one horrid complicated trap for him and his; and even where, here +and there, he passed the mouth of a lagoon, there was no opening, +no relief--nothing but the dark ring of mangroves, and here and +there an isolated group of large and small, parents and children, +breeding and spreading, as if in hideous haste to choke out air and +sky. Wailing sadly, sad-colored mangrove-hens ran off across the +mud into the dreary dark. The hoarse night-raven, hid among the +roots, startled the voyagers with a sudden shout, and then all was +again silent as a grave. The loathly alligators, lounging in the +slime, lifted their horny eyelids lazily, and leered upon him as he +passed with stupid savageness. Lines of tall herons stood dimly in +the growing gloom, like white fantastic ghosts, watching the +passage of the doomed boat. All was foul, sullen, weird as +witches' dream. If Amyas had seen a crew of skeletons glide down +the stream behind him, with Satan standing at the helm, he would +have scarcely been surprised. What fitter craft could haunt that +Stygian flood? + +That night every man of the boat's crew, save Amyas, was down with +raging fever; before ten the next morning, five more men were +taken, and others sickening fast. + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION UNDER THE TREE AT HIGUEROTE + + +"Follow thee? Follow thee? Wha wad na follow thee? Lang hast +thou looed and trusted us fairly." + + +Amyas would have certainly taken the yellow fever, but for one +reason, which he himself gave to Cary. He had no time to be sick +while his men were sick; a valid and sufficient reason (as many a +noble soul in the Crimea has known too well), as long as the +excitement of work is present, but too apt to fail the hero, and to +let him sink into the pit which he has so often over-leapt, the +moment that his work is done. + +He called a council of war, or rather a sanitary commission, the +next morning; for he was fairly at his wits' end. The men were +panic-stricken, ready to mutiny: Amyas told them that he could not +see any possible good which could accrue to them by killing him, +or--(for there were two sides to every question)--being killed by +him; and then went below to consult. The doctor talked mere +science, or nonscience, about humors, complexions, and animal +spirits. Jack Brimblecombe, mere pulpit, about its being the +visitation of God. Cary, mere despair, though he jested over it +with a smile. Yeo, mere stoic fatalism, though he quoted Scripture +to back the same. Drew, the master, had nothing to say. His +"business was to sail the ship, and not to cure calentures." + +Whereon Amyas clutched his locks, according to custom; and at last +broke forth--"Doctor! a fig for your humors and complexions! Can +you cure a man's humors, or change his complexion? Can an +Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? Don't shove off +your ignorance on God, sir. I ask you what's the reason of this +sickness, and you don't know. Jack Brimblecombe, don't talk to me +about God's visitation; this looks much more like the devil's +visitation, to my mind. We are doing God's work, Sir John, and He +is not likely to hinder us. So down with the devil, say I. Cary, +laughing killed the cat, but it won't cure a Christian. Yeo, when +an angel tells me that it's God's will that we should all die like +dogs in a ditch, I'll call this God's will; but not before. Drew, +you say your business is to sail the ship; then sail her out of +this infernal poison-trap this very morning, if you can, which you +can't. The mischief's in the air, and nowhere else. I felt it run +through me coming down last night, and smelt it like any sewer: and +if it was not in the air, why was my boat's crew taken first, tell +me that?" + +There was no answer. + +"Then I'll tell you why they were taken first: because the mist, +when we came through it, only rose five or six feet above the +stream, and we were in it, while you on board were above it. And +those that were taken on board this morning, every one of them, +slept on the main-deck, and every one of them, too, was in fear of +the fever, whereby I judge two things,--Keep as high as you can, +and fear nothing but God, and we're all safe yet." + +"But the fog was up to our round-tops at sunrise this morning," +said Cary. + +"I know it: but we who were on the half-deck were not in it so long +as those below, and that may have made the difference, let alone +our having free air. Beside, I suspect the heat in the evening +draws the poison out more, and that when it gets cold toward +morning, the venom of it goes off somehow." + +How it went off Amyas could not tell (right in his facts as he +was), for nobody on earth knew I suppose, at that day; and it was +not till nearly two centuries of fatal experience that the settlers +in America discovered the simple laws of these epidemics which now +every child knows, or ought to know. But common sense was on his +side; and Yeo rose and spoke-- + +"As I have said before, many a time, the Lord has sent us a very +young Daniel for judge. I remember now to have heard the Spaniards +say, how these calentures lay always in the low ground, and never +came more than a few hundred feet above the sea." + +"Let us go up those few hundred feet, then." + +Every man looked at Amyas, and then at his neighbor. + +"Gentlemen, 'Look the devil straight in the face, if you would hit +him in the right place.' We cannot get the ship to sea as she is; +and if we could, we cannot go home empty-handed; and we surely +cannot stay here to die of fever.--We must leave the ship and go +inland." + +"Inland?" answered every voice but Yeo's. + +"Up those hundred feet which Yeo talks of. Up to the mountains; +stockade a camp, and get our sick and provisions thither." + +"And what next?" + +"And when we are recruited, march over the mountains, and surprise +St. Jago de Leon." + +Cary swore a great oath. "Amyas! you are a daring fellow!" + +"Not a bit. It's the plain path of prudence." + +"So it is, sir," said old Yeo, "and I follow you in it." + +"And so do I," squeaked Jack Brimblecombe. + +"Nay, then, Jack, thou shalt not outrun me. So I say yes too," +quoth Cary. + +"Mr. Drew?" + +"At your service, sir, to live or die. I know naught about +stockading; but Sir Francis would have given the same counsel, I +verily believe, if he had been in your place." + +"Then tell the men that we start in an hour's time. Win over the +Pelicans, Yeo and Drew; and the rest must follow, like sheep over a +hedge." + +The Pelicans, and the liberated galley-slaves, joined the project +at once; but the rest gave Amyas a stormy hour. The great question +was, where were the hills? In that dense mangrove thicket they +could not see fifty yards before them. + +"The hills are not three miles to the south-west of you at this +moment," said Amyas. "I marked every shoulder of them as we ran +in." + +"I suppose you meant to take us there?" + +The question set a light to a train--and angry suspicions were +blazing up one after another, but Amyas silenced them with a +countermine. + +"Fools! if I had not wit enow to look ahead a little farther than +you do, where would you be? Are you mad as well as reckless, to +rise against your own captain because he has two strings to his +bow? Go my way, I say, or, as I live, I'll blow up the ship and +every soul on board, and save you the pain of rotting here by +inches." + +The men knew that Amyas never said what he did not intend to do; +not that Amyas intended to do this, because he knew that the threat +would be enough. So they, agreed to go; and were reassured by +seeing that the old Pelican's men turned to the work heartily and +cheerfully. + +There is no use keeping the reader for five or six weary hours, +under a broiling (or rather stewing) sun, stumbling over mangrove +roots, hewing his way through thorny thickets, dragging sick men +and provisions up mountain steeps, amid disappointment, fatigue, +murmurs, curses, snakes, mosquitoes, false alarms of Spaniards, and +every misery, save cold, which flesh is heir to. Suffice it that +by sunset that evening they had gained a level spot, a full +thousand feet above the sea, backed by an inaccessible cliff which +formed the upper shoulder of a mighty mountain, defended below by +steep wooded slopes, and needing but the felling of a few trees to +make it impregnable. + +Amyas settled the sick under the arched roots of an enormous +cottonwood tree, and made a second journey to the ship, to bring up +hammocks and blankets for them; while Yeo's wisdom and courage were +of inestimable value. He, as pioneer, had found the little brook +up which they forced their way; he had encouraged them to climb the +cliffs over which it fell, arguing rightly that on its course they +were sure to find some ground fit for encampment within the reach +of water; he had supported Amyas, when again and again the weary +crew entreated to be dragged no farther, and had gone back again a +dozen times to cheer them upward; while Cary, who brought up the +rear, bullied and cheered on the stragglers who sat down and +refused to move, drove back at the sword's point more than one who +was beating a retreat, carried their burdens for them, sang them +songs on the halt; in all things approving himself the gallant and +hopeful soul which he had always been: till Amyas, beside himself +with joy at finding that the two men on whom he had counted most +were utterly worthy of his trust, went so far as to whisper to them +both, in confidence, that very night-- + +"Cortez burnt his ships when he landed. Why should not we?" + +Yeo leapt upright; and then sat down again, and whispered-- + +"Do you say that, captain? 'Tis from above, then, that's certain; +for it's been hanging on my mind too all day." + +"There's no hurry," quoth Amyas; "we must clear her out first, you +know," while Cary sat silent and musing. Amyas had evidently more +schemes in his head than he chose to tell. + +The men were too tired that evening to do much, but ere the sun +rose next morning Amyas had them hard at work fortifying their +position. It was, as I said, strong enough by nature; for though +it was commanded by high cliffs on three sides, yet there was no +chance of an enemy coming over the enormous mountain-range behind +them, and still less chance that, if he came, he would discover +them through the dense mass of trees which crowned the cliff, and +clothed the hills for a thousand feet above. The attack, if it +took place, would come from below; and against that Amyas guarded +by felling the smaller trees, and laying them with their boughs +outward over the crest of the slope, thus forming an abatis (as +every one who has shot in thick cover knows to his cost) warranted +to bring up in two steps, horse, dog, or man. The trunks were sawn +into logs, laid lengthwise, and steadied by stakes and mould; and +three or four hours' hard work finished a stockade which would defy +anything but artillery. The work done, Amyas scrambled up into the +boughs of the enormous ceiba-tree, and there sat inspecting his own +handiwork, looking out far and wide over the forest-covered plains +and the blue sea beyond, and thinking, in his simple +straightforward way, of what was to be done next. + +To stay there long was impossible; to avenge himself upon La Guayra +was impossible; to go until he had found out whether Frank was +alive or dead seemed at first equally impossible. But were +Brimblecombe, Cary, and those eighty men to be sacrificed a second +time to his private interest? Amyas wept with rage, and then wept +again with earnest, honest prayer, before he could make up his +mind. But he made it up. There were a hundred chances to one that +Frank was dead; and if not, he was equally past their help; for he +was--Amyas knew that too well--by this time in the hands of the +Inquisition. Who could lift him from that pit? Not Amyas, at +least! And crying aloud in his agony, "God help him! for I +cannot!" Amyas made up his mind to move. But whither? Many an +hour he thought and thought alone, there in his airy nest; and at +last he went down, calm and cheerful, and drew Cary and Yeo aside. +They could not, he said, refit the ship without dying of fever +during the process; an assertion which neither of his hearers was +bold enough to deny. Even if they refitted her, they would be +pretty certain to have to fight the Spaniards again; for it was +impossible to doubt the Indian's story, that they had been +forewarned of the Rose's coming, or to doubt, either, that Eustace +had been the traitor. + +"Let us try St. Jago, then; sack it, come down on La Guayra in the +rear, take a ship there, and so get home." + +"Nay, Will. If they have strengthened themselves against us at La +Guayra, where they had little to lose, surely they have done so at +St. Jago, where they have much. I hear the town is large, though +new; and besides, how can we get over these mountains without a +guide?" + +"Or with one?" said Cary, with a sigh, looking up at the vast walls +of wood and rock which rose range on range for miles. "But it is +strange to find you, at least, throwing cold water on a daring +plot." + +"What if I had a still more daring one? Did you ever hear of the +golden city of Manoa?" + +Yeo laughed a grim but joyful laugh. "I have, sir; and so have the +old hands from the Pelican and the Jesus of Lubec, I doubt not." + +"So much the better;" and Amyas began to tell Cary all which he had +learned from the Spaniard, while Yeo capped every word thereof with +rumors and traditions of his own gathering. Cary sat half aghast +as the huge phantasmagoria unfolded itself before his dazzled eyes; +and at last-- + +"So that was why you wanted to burn the ship! Well, after all, +nobody needs me at home, and one less at table won't be missed. So +you want to play Cortez, eh?" + +"We shall never need to play Cortez (who was not such a bad fellow +after all, Will), because we shall have no such cannibal fiends' +tyranny to rid the earth of, as he had. And I trust we shall fear +God enough not to play Pizarro." + +So the conversation dropped for the time, but none of them forgot +it. + +In that mountain-nook the party spent some ten days and more. +Several of the sick men died, some from the fever superadded to +their wounds; some, probably, from having been bled by the surgeon; +the others mended steadily, by the help of certain herbs which Yeo +administered, much to the disgust of the doctor, who, of course, +wanted to bleed the poor fellows all round, and was all but +mutinous when Amyas stayed his hand. In the meanwhile, by dint of +daily trips to the ship, provisions were plentiful enough,--beside +the raccoons, monkeys, and other small animals, which Yeo and the +veterans of Hawkins's crew knew how to catch, and the fruit and +vegetables; above all, the delicious mountain cabbage of the Areca +palm, and the fresh milk of the cow-tree, which they brought in +daily, paying well thereby for the hospitality they received. + +All day long a careful watch was kept among the branches of the +mighty ceiba-tree. And what a tree that was! The hugest English +oak would have seemed a stunted bush beside it. Borne up on roots, +or rather walls, of twisted board, some twelve feet high, between +which the whole crew, their ammunitions, and provisions, were +housed roomily, rose the enormous trunk full forty feet in girth, +towering like some tall lighthouse, smooth for a hundred feet, then +crowned with boughs, each of which was a stately tree, whose +topmost twigs were full two hundred and fifty feet from the ground. +And yet it was easy for the sailors to ascend; so many natural +ropes had kind Nature lowered for their use, in the smooth lianes +which hung to the very earth, often without a knot or leaf. Once +in the tree, you were within a new world, suspended between heaven +and earth, and as Cary said, no wonder if, like Jack when he +climbed the magic bean-stalk, you had found a castle, a giant, and +a few acres of well-stocked park, packed away somewhere amid that +labyrinth of timber. Flower-gardens at least were there in plenty; +for every limb was covered with pendent cactuses, gorgeous +orchises, and wild pines; and while one-half the tree was clothed +in rich foliage, the other half, utterly leafless, bore on every +twig brilliant yellow flowers, around which humming-birds whirred +all day long. Parrots peeped in and out of every cranny, while, +within the airy woodland, brilliant lizards basked like living gems +upon the bark, gaudy finches flitted and chirruped, butterflies of +every size and color hovered over the topmost twigs, innumerable +insects hummed from morn till eve; and when the sun went down, +tree-toads came out to snore and croak till dawn. There was more +life round that one tree than in a whole square mile of English +soil. + +And Amyas, as he lounged among the branches, felt at moments as if +he would be content to stay there forever, and feed his eyes and +ears with all its wonders--and then started sighing from his dream, +as he recollected that a few days must bring the foe upon them, and +force him to decide upon some scheme at which the bravest heart +might falter without shame. So there he sat (for he often took the +scout's place himself), looking out over the fantastic tropic +forest at his feet, and the flat mangrove-swamps below, and the +white sheet of foam-flecked blue; and yet no sail appeared; and the +men, as their fear of fever subsided, began to ask when they would +go down and refit the ship, and Amyas put them off as best he +could, till one noon he saw slipping along the shore from the +westward, a large ship under easy sail, and recognized in her, or +thought he did so, the ship which they had passed upon their way. + +If it was she, she must have run past them to La Guayra in the +night, and have now returned, perhaps, to search for them along the +coast. + +She crept along slowly. He was in hopes that she might pass the +river's mouth: but no. She lay-to close to the shore; and, after a +while, Amyas saw two boats pull in from her, and vanish behind the +mangroves. + +Sliding down a liane, he told what he had seen. The men, tired of +inactivity, received the news with a shout of joy, and set to work +to make all ready for their guests. Four brass swivels, which they +had brought up, were mounted, fixed in logs, so as to command the +path; the musketeers and archers clustered round them with their +tackle ready, and half-a-dozen good marksmen volunteered into the +cotton-tree with their arquebuses, as a post whence "a man might +have very pretty shooting." Prayers followed as a matter of +course, and dinner as a matter of course also; but two weary hours +passed before there was any sign of the Spaniards. + +Presently a wreath of white smoke curled up from the swamp, and +then the report of a caliver. Then, amid the growls of the +English, the Spanish flag ran up above the trees, and floated-- +horrible to behold--at the mast-head of the Rose. They were +signalling the ship for more hands; and, in effect, a third boat +soon pushed off and vanished into the forest. + +Another hour, during which the men had thoroughly lost their +temper, but not their hearts, by waiting; and talked so loud, and +strode up and down so wildly, that Amyas had to warn them that +there was no need to betray themselves; that the Spaniards might +not find them after all; that they might pass the stockade close +without seeing it; that, unless they hit off the track at once, +they would probably return to their ship for the present; and +exacted a promise from them that they would be perfectly silent +till he gave the word to fire. + +Which wise commands had scarcely passed his lips, when, in the path +below, glanced the headpiece of a Spanish soldier, and then another +and another. + +"Fools!" whispered Amyas to Cary; "they are coming up in single +file, rushing on their own death. Lie close, men!" + +The path was so narrow that two could seldom come up abreast, and +so steep that the enemy had much ado to struggle and stumble +upwards. The men seemed half unwilling to proceed, and hung back +more than once; but Amyas could hear an authoritative voice behind, +and presently there emerged to the front, sword in hand, a figure +at which Amyas and Cary both started. + +"Is it he?" + +"Surely I know those legs among a thousand, though they are in +armor." + +"It is my turn for him, now, Cary, remember! Silence, silence, +men!" + +The Spaniards seemed to feel that they were leading a forlorn hope. +Don Guzman (for there was little doubt that it was he) had much ado +to get them on at all. + +"The fellows have heard how gently we handled the Guayra squadron," +whispers Cary, "and have no wish to become fellow-martyrs with the +captain of the Madre Dolorosa." + +At last the Spaniards get up the steep slope to within forty yards +of the stockade, and pause, suspecting a trap, and puzzled by the +complete silence. Amyas leaps on the top of it, a white flag in +his hand; but his heart beats so fiercely at the sight of that +hated figure, that he can hardly get out the words-- + +"Don Guzman, the quarrel is between you and me, not between your +men and mine. I would have sent in a challenge to you at La +Guayra, but you were away; I challenge you now to single combat." + +"Lutheran dog, I have a halter for you, but no sword! As you +served us at Smerwick, we will serve you now. Pirate and ravisher, +you and yours shall share Oxenham's fate, as you have copied his +crimes, and learn what it is to set foot unbidden on the dominions +of the king of Spain." + +"The devil take you and the king of Spain together!" shouts Amyas, +laughing loudly. "This ground belongs to him no more than it does +to me, but to the Queen Elizabeth, in whose name I have taken as +lawful possession of it as you ever did of Caracas. Fire, men! and +God defend the right!" + +Both parties obeyed the order; Amyas dropped down behind the +stockade in time to let a caliver bullet whistle over his head; and +the Spaniards recoiled as the narrow face of the stockade burst +into one blaze of musketry and swivels, raking their long array +from front to rear. + +The front ranks fell over each other in heaps; the rear ones turned +and ran; overtaken, nevertheless, by the English bullets and +arrows, which tumbled them headlong down the steep path. + +"Out, men, and charge them. See! the Don is running like the +rest!" And scrambling over the abattis, Amyas and about thirty +followed them fast; for he had hope of learning from some prisoner +his brother's fate. + +Amyas was unjust in his last words. Don Guzman, as if by miracle, +had been only slightly wounded; and seeing his men run, had rushed +back and tried to rally them, but was borne away by the fugitives. + +However, the Spaniards were out of sight among the thick bushes +before the English could overtake them; and Amyas, afraid lest they +should rally and surround his small party, withdrew sorely against +his will, and found in the pathway fourteen Spaniards, but all +dead. For one of the wounded, with more courage than wisdom, had +fired on the English as he lay; and Amyas's men, whose blood was +maddened both by their desperate situation, and the frightful +stories of the rescued galley-slaves, had killed them all before +their captain could stop them. + +"Are you mad?" cries Amyas, as he strikes up one fellow's sword. +"Will you kill an Indian?" + +And he drags out of the bushes an Indian lad of sixteen, who, +slightly wounded, is crawling away like a copper snake along the +ground. + +"The black vermin has sent an arrow through my leg; and poisoned +too, most like." + +"God grant not: but an Indian is worth his weight in gold to us +now," said Amyas, tucking his prize under his arm like a bundle. +The lad, as soon as he saw there was no escape, resigned himself to +his fate with true Indian stoicism, was brought in, and treated +kindly enough, but refused to eat. For which, after much +questioning, he gave as a reason, that he would make them kill him +at once; for fat him they should not; and gradually gave them to +understand that the English always (so at least the Spaniards said) +fatted and ate their prisoners like the Caribs; and till he saw +them go out and bury the bodies of the Spaniards, nothing would +persuade him that the corpses were not to be cooked for supper. + +However, kind words, kind looks, and the present of that +inestimable treasure--a knife, brought him to reason; and he told +Amyas that he belonged to a Spaniard who had an "encomienda" of +Indians some fifteen miles to the south-west; that he had fled from +his master, and lived by hunting for some months past; and having +seen the ship where she lay moored, and boarded her in hope of +plunder, had been surprised therein by the Spaniards, and forced by +threats to go with them as a guide in their search for the English. +But now came a part of his story which filled the soul of Amyas +with delight. He was an Indian of the Llanos, or great savannahs +which lay to the southward beyond the mountains, and had actually +been upon the Orinoco. He had been stolen as a boy by some +Spaniards, who had gone down (as was the fashion of the Jesuits +even as late as 1790) for the pious purpose of converting the +savages by the simple process of catching, baptizing, and making +servants of those whom they could carry off, and murdering those +who resisted their gentle method of salvation. Did he know the way +back again? Who could ask such a question of an Indian? And the +lad's black eyes flashed fire, as Amyas offered him liberty and +iron enough for a dozen Indians, if he would lead them through the +passes of the mountains, and southward to the mighty river, where +lay their golden hopes. Hernando de Serpa, Amyas knew, had tried +the same course, which was supposed to be about one hundred and +twenty leagues, and failed, being overthrown utterly by the Wikiri +Indians; but Amyas knew enough of the Spaniards' brutal method of +treating those Indians, to be pretty sure that they had brought +that catastrophe upon themselves, and that he might avoid it well +enough by that common justice and mercy toward the savages which he +had learned from his incomparable tutor, Francis Drake. + +Now was the time to speak; and, assembling his men around him, +Amyas opened his whole heart, simply and manfully. This was their +only hope of safety. Some of them had murmured that they should +perish like John Oxenham's crew. This plan was rather the only way +to avoid perishing like them. Don Guzman would certainly return to +seek them; and not only he, but land-forces from St. Jago. Even if +the stockade was not forced, they would be soon starved out; why +not move at once, ere the Spaniards could return, and begin a +blockade? As for taking St. Jago, it was impossible. The treasure +would all be safely hidden, and the town well prepared to meet +them. If they wanted gold and glory, they must seek it elsewhere. +Neither was there any use in marching along the coast, and trying +the ports: ships could outstrip them, and the country was already +warned. There was but this one chance; and on it Amyas, the first +and last time in his life, waxed eloquent, and set forth the glory +of the enterprise, the service to the queen, the salvation of +heathens, and the certainty that, if successful, they should win +honor and wealth and everlasting fame, beyond that of Cortez or +Pizarro, till the men, sulky at first, warmed every moment; and one +old Pelican broke out with-- + +"Yes, sir! we didn't go round the world with you for naught; and +watched your works and ways, which was always those of a gentleman, +as you are--who spoke a word for a poor fellow when he was in a +scrape, and saw all you ought to see, and naught that you ought +not. And we'll follow you, sir, all alone to ourselves; and let +those that know you worse follow after when they're come to their +right mind." + +Man after man capped this brave speech; the minority, who, if they +liked little to go, liked still less to be left behind, gave in +their consent perforce; and, to make a long story short, Amyas +conquered, and the plan was accepted. + +"This," said Amyas, "is indeed the proudest day of my life! I have +lost one brother, but I have gained fourscore. God do so to me and +more also, if I do not deal with you according to the trust which +you have put in me this day!" + +We, I suppose, are to believe that we have a right to laugh at +Amyas's scheme as frantic and chimerical. It is easy to amuse +ourselves with the premises, after the conclusion has been found +for us. We know, now, that he was mistaken: but we have not +discovered his mistake for ourselves, and have no right to plume +ourselves on other men's discoveries. Had we lived in Amyas's +days, we should have belonged either to the many wise men who +believed as he did, or to the many foolish men, who not only +sneered at the story of Manoa, but at a hundred other stories, +which we now know to be true. Columbus was laughed at: but he +found a new world, nevertheless. Cortez was laughed at: but he +found Mexico. Pizarro: but he found Peru. I ask any fair reader +of those two charming books, Mr. Prescott's Conquest of Mexico and +his Conquest of Peru, whether the true wonders in them described do +not outdo all the false wonders of Manoa. + +But what reason was there to think them false? One quarter, +perhaps, of America had been explored, and yet in that quarter two +empires had been already found, in a state of mechanical, military, +and agricultural civilization superior, in many things, to any +nation of Europe. Was it not most rational to suppose that in the +remaining three-quarters similar empires existed? If a second +Mexico had been discovered in the mountains of Parima, and a second +Peru in those of Brazil, what right would any man have had to +wonder? As for the gold legends, nothing was told of Manoa which +had not been seen in Peru and Mexico by the bodily eyes of men then +living. Why should not the rocks of Guiana have been as full of +the precious metals (we do not know yet that they are not) as the +rocks of Peru and Mexico were known to be? Even the details of the +story, its standing on a lake, for instance, bore a probability +with them. Mexico actually stood in the centre of a lake--why +should not Manoa? The Peruvian worship centred round a sacred +lake--why not that of Manoa? Pizarro and Cortez, again, were led +on to their desperate enterprises by the sight of small quantities +of gold among savages, who told them of a civilized gold-country +near at hand; and they found that those savages spoke truth. Why +was the unanimous report of the Carib tribes of the Orinoco to be +disbelieved, when they told a similar tale? Sir Richard +Schomburgk's admirable preface to Raleigh's Guiana proves, surely, +that the Indians themselves were deceived, as well as deceivers. +It was known, again, that vast quantities of the Peruvian treasure +had been concealed by the priests, and that members of the Inca +family had fled across the Andes, and held out against the +Spaniards. Barely fifty years had elapsed since then;--what more +probable than that this remnant of the Peruvian dynasty and +treasure still existed? Even the story of the Amazons, though it +may serve Hume as a point for his ungenerous and untruthful attempt +to make Raleigh out either fool or villain, has come from +Spaniards, who had with their own eyes seen the Indian women +fighting by their husbands' sides, and from Indians, who asserted +the existence of an Amazonian tribe. What right had Amyas, or any +man, to disbelieve the story? The existence of the Amazons in +ancient Asia, and of their intercourse with Alexander the Great, +was then an accredited part of history, which it would have been +gratuitous impertinence to deny. And what if some stories +connected these warlike women with the Emperor of Manoa, and the +capital itself? This generation ought surely to be the last to +laugh at such a story, at least as long as the Amazonian guards of +the King of Dahomey continue to outvie the men in that relentless +ferocity, with which they have subdued every neighboring tribe, +save the Christians of Abbeokuta. In this case, as in a hundred +more, fact not only outdoes, but justifies imagination; and Amyas +spoke common sense when he said to his men that day-- + +"Let fools laugh and stay at home. Wise men dare and win. Saul +went to look for his father's asses, and found a kingdom; and +Columbus, my men, was called a madman for only going to seek China, +and never knew, they say, until his dying day, that he had found a +whole new world instead of it. Find Manoa? God only, who made all +things, knows what we may find beside!" + +So underneath that giant ceiba-tree, those valiant men, reduced by +battle and sickness to some eighty, swore a great oath, and kept +that oath like men. To search for the golden city for two full +years to come, whatever might befall; to stand to each other for +weal or woe; to obey their officers to the death; to murmur +privately against no man, but bring all complaints to a council of +war; to use no profane oaths, but serve God daily with prayer; to +take by violence from no man, save from their natural enemies the +Spaniards; to be civil and merciful to all savages, and chaste and +courteous to all women; to bring all booty and all food into the +common stock, and observe to the utmost their faith with the +adventurers who had fitted out the ship; and finally, to march at +sunrise the next morning toward the south, trusting in God to be +their guide. + +"It is a great oath, and a hard one," said Brimblecombe; "but God +will give us strength to keep it." And they knelt all together and +received the Holy Communion, and then rose to pack provisions and +ammunition, and lay down again to sleep and to dream that they were +sailing home up Torridge stream--as Cavendish, returning from round +the world, did actually sail home up Thames but five years +afterwards--"with mariners and soldiers clothed in silk, with sails +of damask, and topsails of cloth of gold, and the richest prize +which ever was brought at one time unto English shores." + + . . . . . . . + +The Cross stands upright in the southern sky. It is the middle of +the night. Cary and Yeo glide silently up the hill and into the +camp, and whisper to Amyas that they have done the deed. The +sleepers are awakened, and the train sets forth. + +Upward and southward ever: but whither, who can tell? They hardly +think of the whither; but go like sleep-walkers, shaken out of one +land of dreams, only to find themselves in another and stranger +one. All around is fantastic and unearthly; now each man starts as +he sees the figures of his fellows, clothed from head to foot in +golden filigree; looks up, and sees the yellow moonlight through +the fronds of the huge tree-ferns overhead, as through a cloud of +glittering lace. Now they are hewing their way through a thicket +of enormous flags; now through bamboos forty feet high; now they +are stumbling over boulders, waist-deep in cushions of club-moss; +now they are struggling through shrubberies of heaths and +rhododendrons, and woolly incense-trees, where every leaf, as they +brush past, dashes some fresh scent into their faces, and + + + "The winds, with musky wing, + About the cedarn alleys fling + Nard and cassia's balmy smells." + + +Now they open upon some craggy brow, from whence they can see far +below an ocean of soft cloud, whose silver billows, girdled by the +mountain sides, hide the lowland from their sight. + +And from beneath the cloud strange voices rise; the screams of +thousand night-birds, and wild howls, which they used at first to +fancy were the cries of ravenous beasts, till they found them to +proceed from nothing fiercer than an ape. But what is that deeper +note, like a series of muffled explosions,--arquebuses fired within +some subterranean cavern,--the heavy pulse of which rolls up +through the depths of the unseen forest? They hear it now for the +first time, but they will hear it many a time again; and the Indian +lad is hushed, and cowers close to them, and then takes heart, as +he looks upon their swords and arquebuses; for that is the roar of +the jaguar, "seeking his meat from God." + +But what is that glare away to the northward? The yellow moon is +ringed with gay rainbows; but that light is far too red to be the +reflection of any beams of hers. Now through the cloud rises a +column of black and lurid smoke; the fog clears away right and left +around it, and shows beneath, a mighty fire. + +The men look at each other with questioning eyes, each half +suspecting, and yet not daring to confess their own suspicions; and +Amyas whispers to Yeo-- + +"You took care to flood the powder?" + +"Ay, ay, sir, and to unload the ordnance too. No use in making a +noise to tell the Spaniards our whereabouts." + +Yes; that glare rises from the good ship Rose. Amyas, like Cortez +of old, has burnt his ship, and retreat is now impossible. Forward +into the unknown abyss of the New World, and God be with them as +they go! + +The Indian knows a cunning path: it winds along the highest ridges +of the mountains; but the travelling is far more open and easy. + +They have passed the head of a valley which leads down to St. Jago. +Beneath that long shining river of mist, which ends at the foot of +the great Silla, lies (so says the Indian lad) the rich capital of +Venezuela; and beyond, the gold-mines of Los Teques and Baruta, +which first attracted the founder Diego de Losada; and many a +longing eye is turned towards it as they pass the saddle at the +valley head; but the attempt is hopeless, they turn again to the +left, and so down towards the rancho, taking care (so the prudent +Amyas had commanded) to break down, after crossing, the frail rope +bridge which spans each torrent and ravine. + +They are at the rancho long before daybreak, and have secured +there, not only fourteen mules, but eight or nine Indians stolen +from off the Llanos, like their guide, who are glad enough to +escape from their tyrants by taking service with them. And now +southward and away, with lightened shoulders and hearts; for they +are all but safe from pursuit. The broken bridges prevent the news +of their raid reaching St. Jago until nightfall; and in the +meanwhile, Don Guzman returns to the river mouth the next day to +find the ship a blackened wreck, and the camp empty; follows their +trail over the hills till he is stopped by a broken bridge; +surmounts that difficulty, and meets a second; his men are worn out +with heat, and a little afraid of stumbling on the heretic +desperadoes, and he returns by land to St. Jago; and when he +arrives there, has news from home which gives him other things to +think of than following those mad Englishmen, who have vanished +into the wilderness. "What need, after all, to follow them?" asked +the Spaniards of each other. "Blinded by the devil, whom they +serve, they rush on in search of certain death, as many a larger +company has before them, and they will find it, and will trouble La +Guayra no more forever." "Lutheran dogs and enemies of God," said +Don Guzman to his soldiers, "they will leave their bones to whiten +on the Llanos, as may every heretic who sets foot on Spanish soil!" + +Will they do so, Don Guzman? Or wilt thou and Amyas meet again +upon a mightier battlefield, to learn a lesson which neither of you +yet has learned? + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE INQUISITION IN THE INDIES + + +My next chapter is perhaps too sad; it shall be at least as short +as I can make it; but it was needful to be written, that readers +may judge fairly for themselves what sort of enemies the English +nation had to face in those stern days. + +Three weeks have passed, and the scene is shifted to a long, low +range of cells in a dark corridor in the city of Cartagena. The +door of one is open; and within stand two cloaked figures, one of +whom we know. It is Eustace Leigh. The other is a familiar of the +Holy Office. + +He holds in his hand a lamp, from which the light falls on a bed of +straw, and on the sleeping figure of a man. The high white brow, +the pale and delicate features--them too we know, for they are +those of Frank. Saved half-dead from the fury of the savage +negroes, he has been reserved for the more delicate cruelty of +civilized and Christian men. He underwent the question but this +afternoon; and now Eustace, his betrayer, is come to persuade him-- +or to entrap him? Eustace himself hardly knows whether of the two. + +And yet he would give his life to save his cousin. + +His life? He has long since ceased to care for that. He has done +what he has done, because it is his duty; and now he is to do his +duty once more, and wake the sleeper, and argue, coax, threaten him +into recantation while "his heart is still tender from the +torture," so Eustace's employers phrase it. + +And yet how calmly he is sleeping! Is it but a freak of the +lamplight, or is there a smile upon his lips? Eustace takes the +lamp and bends over him to see; and as he bends he hears Frank +whispering in his dreams his mother's name, and a name higher and +holier still. + +Eustace cannot find the heart to wake him. + +"Let him rest," whispers he to his companion. "After all, I fear +my words will be of little use." + +"I fear so too, sir. Never did I behold a more obdurate heretic. +He did not scruple to scoff openly at their holinesses." + +"Ah!" said Eustace; "great is the pravity of the human heart, and +the power of Satan! Let us go for the present." + +"Where is she?" + +"The elder sorceress, or the younger?" + +"The younger--the--" + +"The Senora de Soto? Ah, poor thing! One could be sorry for her, +were she not a heretic." And the man eyed Eustace keenly, and then +quietly added, "She is at present with the notary; to the benefit +of her soul, I trust--" + +Eustace half stopped, shuddering. He could hardly collect himself +enough to gasp out an "Amen!" + +"Within there," said the man, pointing carelessly to a door as they +went down the corridor. "We can listen a moment, if you like; but +don't betray me, senor." + +Eustace knows well enough that the fellow is probably on the watch +to betray him, if he shows any signs of compunction; at least to +report faithfully to his superiors the slightest expression of +sympathy with a heretic; but a horrible curiosity prevails over +fear, and he pauses close to the fatal door. His face is all of a +flame, his knees knock together, his ears are ringing, his heart +bursting through his ribs, as he supports himself against the wall, +hiding his convulsed face as well as he can from his companion. + +A man's voice is plainly audible within; low, but distinct. The +notary is trying that old charge of witchcraft, which the +Inquisitors, whether to justify themselves to their own +consciences, or to whiten their villainy somewhat in the eyes of +the mob, so often brought against their victims. And then +Eustace's heart sinks within him as he hears a woman's voice reply, +sharpened by indignation and agony-- + +"Witchcraft against Don Guzman? What need of that, oh God! what +need?" + +"You deny it then, senora? we are sorry for you; but--" + +A confused choking murmur from the victim, mingled with words which +might mean anything or nothing. + +"She has confessed!" whispered Eustace; "saints, I thank you!--she--" + +A wail which rings through Eustace's ears, and brain, and heart! +He would have torn at the door to open it; but his companion forces +him away. Another, and another wail, while the wretched man +hurries off, stopping his ears in vain against those piercing +cries, which follow him, like avenging angels, through the dreadful +vaults. + +He escaped into the fragrant open air, and the golden tropic +moonlight, and a garden which might have served as a model for +Eden; but man's hell followed into God's heaven, and still those +wails seemed to ring through his ears. + +"Oh, misery, misery, misery!" murmured he to himself through +grinding teeth; "and I have brought her to this! I have had to +bring her to it! What else could I? Who dare blame me? And yet +what devilish sin can I have committed, that requires to be +punished thus? Was there no one to be found but me? No one? And +yet it may save her soul. It may bring her to repentance!" + +"It may, indeed; for she is delicate, and cannot endure much. You +ought to know as well as I, senor, the merciful disposition of the +Holy Office." + +"I know it, I know it," interrupted poor Eustace, trembling now for +himself. "All in love--all in love.--A paternal chastisement--" + +"And the proofs of heresy are patent, beside the strong suspicion +of enchantment, and the known character of the elder sorceress. +You yourself, you must remember, senor, told us that she had been a +notorious witch in England, before the senora brought her hither as +her attendant." + +"Of course she was; of course. Yes; there was no other course +open. And though the flesh may be weak, sir, in my case, yet none +can have proved better to the Holy Office how willing is the +spirit!" + +And so Eustace departed; and ere another sun had set, he had gone +to the principal of the Jesuits; told him his whole heart, or as +much of it, poor wretch, as he dare tell to himself; and entreated +to be allowed to finish his novitiate, and enter the order, on the +understanding that he was to be sent at once back to Europe, or +anywhere else; "Otherwise," as he said frankly, "he should go mad, +even if he were not mad already." The Jesuit, who was a kindly man +enough, went to the Holy Office, and settled all with the +Inquisitors, recounting to them, to set him above all suspicion, +Eustace's past valiant services to the Church. His testimony was +no longer needed; he left Cartagena for Nombre that very night, and +sailed the next week I know not whither. + +I say, I know not whither. Eustace Leigh vanishes henceforth from +these pages. He may have ended as General of his Order. He may +have worn out his years in some tropic forest, "conquering the +souls" (including, of course, the bodies) of Indians; he may have +gone back to his old work in England, and been the very Ballard who +was hanged and quartered three years afterwards for his share in +Babington's villainous conspiracy: I know not. This book is a +history of men,--of men's virtues and sins, victories and defeats; +and Eustace is a man no longer: he is become a thing, a tool, a +Jesuit; which goes only where it is sent, and does good or evil +indifferently as it is bid; which, by an act of moral suicide, has +lost its soul, in the hope of saving it; without a will, a +conscience, a responsibility (as it fancies), to God or man, but +only to "The Society." In a word, Eustace, as he says himself, is +"dead." Twice dead, I fear. Let the dead bury their dead. We +have no more concern with Eustace Leigh. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE BANKS OF THE META + + + "My mariners, +Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me-- +Death closes all: but something ere the end, +Some work of noble note, may yet be done, +Not unbecoming men that strove with gods!" + + TENNYSON'S Ulysses. + + +Nearly three years are past and gone since that little band had +knelt at evensong beneath the giant tree of Guayra--years of +seeming blank, through which they are to be tracked only by +scattered notes and mis-spelt names. Through untrodden hills and +forests, over a space of some eight hundred miles in length by four +hundred in breadth, they had been seeking for the Golden City, and +they had sought in vain. They had sought it along the wooded banks +of the Orinoco, and beyond the roaring foam-world of Maypures, and +on the upper waters of the mighty Amazon. They had gone up the +streams even into Peru itself, and had trodden the cinchona groves +of Loxa, ignorant, as all the world was then, of their healing +virtues. They had seen the virgin snows of Chimborazo towering +white above the thundercloud, and the giant cone of Cotopaxi +blackening in its sullen wrath, before the fiery streams rolled +down its sides. Foiled in their search at the back of the Andes, +they had turned eastward once more, and plunged from the alpine +cliffs into "the green and misty ocean of the Montana." Slowly and +painfully they had worked their way northward again, along the +eastern foot of the inland Cordillera, and now they were +bivouacking, as it seems, upon one of the many feeders of the Meta, +which flow down from the Suma Paz into the forest-covered plains. +There they sat, their watch-fires glittering on the stream, beneath +the shadow of enormous trees, Amyas and Cary, Brimblecombe, Yeo, +and the Indian lad, who has followed them in all their wanderings, +alive and well: but as far as ever from Manoa, and its fairy lake, +and golden palaces, and all the wonders of the Indian's tale. +Again and again in their wanderings they had heard faint rumors of +its existence, and started off in some fresh direction, to meet +only a fresh disappointment, and hope deferred, which maketh sick +the heart. + +There they sit at last--four-and-forty men out of the eighty-four +who left the tree of Guayra:--where are the rest? + + + "Their bones are scatter'd far and wide, + By mount, by stream, and sea." + + +Drew, the master, lies on the banks of the Rio Negro, and five +brave fellows by him, slain in fight by the poisoned arrows of the +Indians, in a vain attempt to penetrate the mountain-gorges of the +Parima. Two more lie amid the valleys of the Andes, frozen to +death by the fierce slaty hail which sweeps down from the condor's +eyrie; four more were drowned at one of the rapids of the Orinoco; +five or six more wounded men are left behind at another rapid among +friendly Indians, to be recovered when they can be: perhaps never. +Fever, snakes, jaguars, alligators, cannibal fish, electric eels, +have thinned their ranks month by month, and of their march through +the primeval wilderness no track remains, except those lonely +graves. + +And there the survivors sit, beside the silent stream, beneath the +tropic moon; sun-dried and lean, but strong and bold as ever, with +the quiet fire of English courage burning undimmed in every eye, +and the genial smile of English mirth fresh on every lip; making a +jest of danger and a sport of toil, as cheerily as when they sailed +over the bar of Bideford, in days which seem to belong to some +antenatal life. Their beards have grown down upon their breasts; +their long hair is knotted on their heads, like women's, to keep +off the burning sunshine; their leggings are of the skin of the +delicate Guazu-puti deer; their shirts are patched with Indian +cotton web; the spoils of jaguar, puma, and ape hang from their +shoulders. Their ammunition is long since spent, their muskets, +spoilt by the perpetual vapor-bath of the steaming woods, are left +behind as useless in a cave by some cataract of the Orinoco: but +their swords are bright and terrible as ever; and they carry bows +of a strength which no Indian arm can bend, and arrows pointed with +the remnants of their armor; many of them, too, are armed with the +pocuna or blowgun of the Indians--more deadly, because more silent, +than the firearms which they have left behind them. So they have +wandered, and so they will wander still, the lords of the forest +and its beasts; terrible to all hostile Indians, but kindly, just, +and generous to all who will deal faithfully with them; and many a +smooth-chinned Carib and Ature, Solimo and Guahiba, recounts with +wonder and admiration the righteousness of the bearded heroes, who +proclaimed themselves the deadly foes of the faithless and +murderous Spaniard, and spoke to them of the great and good queen +beyond the seas, who would send her warriors to deliver and avenge +the oppressed Indian. + +The men are sleeping among the trees, some on the ground, and some +in grass-hammocks slung between the stems. All is silent, save the +heavy plunge of the tapir in the river, as he tears up the water- +weeds for his night's repast. Sometimes, indeed, the jaguar, as he +climbs from one tree-top to another after his prey, wakens the +monkeys clustered on the boughs, and they again arouse the birds, +and ten minutes of unearthly roars, howls, shrieks, and cacklings +make the forest ring as if all pandemonium had broke loose; but +that soon dies away again; and, even while it lasts, it is too +common a matter to awaken the sleepers, much less to interrupt the +council of war which is going on beside the watch-fire, between the +three adventurers and the faithful Yeo. A hundred times have they +held such a council, and in vain; and, for aught they know, this +one will be as fruitless as those which have gone before it. +Nevertheless, it is a more solemn one than usual; for the two years +during which they had agreed to search for Manoa are long past, and +some new place must be determined on, unless they intend to spend +the rest of their lives in that green wilderness. + +"Well," says Will Cary, taking his cigar out of his mouth, "at +least we have got something out of those last Indians. It is a +comfort to have a puff at tobacco once more, after three weeks' +fasting." + +"For me," said Jack Brimblecombe, "Heaven forgive me! but when I +get the magical leaf between my teeth again, I feel tempted to sit +as still as a chimney, and smoke till my dying day, without +stirring hand or foot." + +"Then I shall forbid you tobacco, Master Parson," said Amyas; "for +we must be up and away again to-morrow. We have been idling here +three mortal days, and nothing done." + +"Shall we ever do anything? I think the gold of Manoa is like the +gold which lies where the rainbow touches the ground, always a +field beyond you." + +Amyas was silent awhile, and so were the rest. There was no +denying that their hopes were all but gone. In the immense circuit +which they had made, they had met with nothing but disappointment. + +"There is but one more chance," said he at length, "and that is, +the mountains to the east of the Orinoco, where we failed the first +time. The Incas may have moved on to them when they escaped." + +"Why not?" said Cary; "they would so put all the forests, beside +the Llanos and half-a-dozen great rivers, between them and those +dogs of Spaniards." + +"Shall we try it once more?" said Amyas. "This river ought to run +into the Orinoco; and once there, we are again at the very foot of +the mountains. What say you, Yeo?" + +"I cannot but mind, your worship, that when we came up the Orinoco, +the Indians told us terrible stories of those mountains, how far +they stretched, and how difficult they were to cross, by reason of +the cliffs aloft, and the thick forests in the valleys. And have +we not lost five good men there already?" + +"What care we? No forests can be thicker than those we have bored +through already; why, if one had had but a tail, like a monkey, for +an extra warp, one might have gone a hundred miles on end along the +tree-tops, and found it far pleasanter walking than tripping in +withes, and being eaten up with creeping things, from morn till +night." + +"But remember, too," said Jack, "how they told us to beware of the +Amazons." + +"What, Jack, afraid of a parcel of women?" + +"Why not?" said Jack, "I wouldn't run from a man, as you know; but +a woman--it's not natural, like. They must be witches or devils. +See how the Caribs feared them. And there were men there without +necks, and with their eyes in their breasts, they said. Now how +could a Christian tackle such customers as them?" + +"He couldn't cut off their heads, that's certain; but, I suppose, a +poke in the ribs will do as much for them as for their neighbors." + +"Well," said Jack, "if I fight, let me fight honest flesh and +blood, that's all, and none of these outlandish monsters. How do +you know but that they are invulnerable by art-magic?" + +"How do you know that they are? And as for the Amazons," said +Cary, "woman's woman, all the world over. I'll bet that you may +wheedle them round with a compliment or two, just as if they were +so many burghers' wives. Pity I have not a court-suit and a +Spanish hat. I would have taken an orange in one hand and a +handkerchief in the other, gone all alone to them as ambassador, +and been in a week as great with Queen Blackfacealinda as ever +Raleigh is at Whitehall." + +"Gentlemen!" said Yeo, "where you go, I go; and not only I, but +every man of us, I doubt not; but we have lost now half our +company, and spent our ammunition, so we are no better men, were it +not for our swords, than these naked heathens round us. Now it +was, as you all know, by the wonder and noise of their ordnance +(let alone their horses, which is a break-neck beast I put no faith +in) that both Cortez and Pizarro, those imps of Satan, made their +golden conquests, with which if we could have astounded the people +of Manoa--" + +"Having first found the said people," laughed Amyas. "It is like +the old fable. Every craftsman thinks his own trade the one pillar +of the commonweal." + +"Well! your worship," quoth Yeo, "it may be that being a gunner I +overprize guns. But it don't need slate and pencil to do this sum-- +Are forty men without shot as good as eighty with?" + +"Thou art right, old fellow, right enough, and I was only jesting +for very sorrow, and must needs laugh about it lest I weep about +it. Our chance is over, I believe, though I dare not confess as +much to the men." + +"Sir," said Yeo, "I have a feeling on me that the Lord's hand is +against us in this matter. Whether He means to keep this wealth +for worthier men than us, or whether it is His will to hide this +great city in the secret place of His presence from the strife of +tongues, and so to spare them from sinful man's covetousness, and +England from that sin and luxury which I have seen gold beget among +the Spaniards, I know not, sir; for who knoweth the counsels of the +Lord? But I have long had a voice within which saith, 'Salvation +Yeo, thou shalt never behold the Golden City which is on earth, +where heathens worship sun and moon and the hosts of heaven; be +content, therefore, to see that Golden City which is above, where +is neither sun nor moon, but the Lord God and the Lamb are the +light thereof.' + +There was a simple majesty about old Yeo when he broke forth in +utterances like these, which made his comrades, and even Amyas and +Cary, look on him as Mussulmans look on madmen, as possessed of +mysterious knowledge and flashes of inspiration; and Brimblecombe, +whose pious soul looked up to the old hero with a reverence which +had overcome all his Churchman's prejudices against Anabaptists, +answered gently,-- + +"Amen! amen! my masters all: and it has been on my mind, too, this +long time, that there is a providence against our going east; for +see how this two years past, whenever we have pushed eastward, we +have fallen into trouble, and lost good men; and whenever we went +Westward-ho, we have prospered; and do prosper to this day." + +"And what is more, gentlemen," said Yeo, if, as Scripture says, +dreams are from the Lord, I verily believe mine last night came +from Him; for as I lay by the fire, sirs, I heard my little maid's +voice calling of me, as plain as ever I heard in my life; and the +very same words, sirs, which she learned from me and my good +comrade William Penberthy to say, 'Westward-ho! jolly mariners +all!' a bit of an ungodly song, my masters, which we sang in our +wild days; but she stood and called it as plain as ever mortal ears +heard, and called again till I answered, 'Coming! my maid, coming!' +and after that the dear chuck called no more--God grant I find her +yet!--and so I woke." + +Cary had long since given up laughing at Yeo about the "little +maid;" and Amyas answered,-- + +"So let it be, Yeo, if the rest agree: but what shall we do to the +westward?" + +"Do?" said Cary; "there's plenty to do; for there's plenty of gold, +and plenty of Spaniards, too, they say, on the other side of these +mountains: so that our swords will not rust for lack of adventures, +my gay knights-errant all." + +So they chatted on; and before night was half through a plan was +matured, desperate enough--but what cared those brave hearts for +that? They would cross the Cordillera to Santa Fe de Bogota, of +the wealth whereof both Yeo and Amyas had often heard in the +Pacific: try to seize either the town or some convoy of gold going +from it; make for the nearest river (there was said to be a large +one which ran northward thence), build canoes, and try to reach the +Northern Sea once more; and then, if Heaven prospered them, they +might seize a Spanish ship, and make their way home to England, +not, indeed, with the wealth of Manoa, but with a fair booty of +Spanish gold. This was their new dream. It was a wild one: but +hardly more wild than the one which Drake had fulfilled, and not as +wild as the one which Oxenham might have fulfilled, but for his own +fatal folly. + +Amyas sat watching late that night, sad of heart. To give up the +cherished dream of years was hard; to face his mother, harder +still: but it must be done, for the men's sake. So the new plan +was proposed next day, and accepted joyfully. They would go up to +the mountains and rest awhile; if possible, bring up the wounded +whom they had left behind; and then, try a new venture, with new +hopes, perhaps new dangers; they were inured to the latter. + +They started next morning cheerfully enough, and for three hours or +more paddled easily up the glassy and windless reaches, between two +green flower-bespangled walls of forest, gay with innumerable birds +and insects; while down from the branches which overhung the stream +long trailers hung to the water's edge, and seemed admiring in the +clear mirror the images of their own gorgeous flowers. River, +trees, flowers, birds, insects,--it was all a fairy-land: but it +was a colossal one; and yet the voyagers took little note of it. +It was now to them an everyday occurrence, to see trees full two +hundred feet high one mass of yellow or purple blossom to the +highest twigs, and every branch and stem one hanging garden of +crimson and orange orchids or vanillas. Common to them were all +the fantastic and enormous shapes with which Nature bedecks her +robes beneath the fierce suns and fattening rains of the tropic +forest. Common were forms and colors of bird, and fish, and +butterfly, more strange and bright than ever opium-eater dreamed. +The long processions of monkeys, who kept pace with them along the +tree-tops, and proclaimed their wonder in every imaginable whistle, +and grunt, and howl, had ceased to move their laughter, as much as +the roar of the jaguar and the rustle of the boa had ceased to move +their fear; and when a brilliant green and rose-colored fish, flat- +bodied like a bream, flab-finned like a salmon, and saw-toothed +like a shark, leapt clean on board of the canoe to escape the rush +of the huge alligator (whose loathsome snout, ere he could stop, +actually rattled against the canoe within a foot of Jack +Brimblecombe's hand), Jack, instead of turning pale, as he had done +at the sharks upon a certain memorable occasion, coolly picked up +the fish, and said, "He's four pound weight! If you can catch +'pirai' for us like that, old fellow, just keep in our wake, and +we'll give you the cleanings for wages." + +Yes. The mind of man is not so "infinite," in the vulgar sense of +that word, as people fancy; and however greedy the appetite for +wonder may be, while it remains unsatisfied in everyday European +life, it is as easily satiated as any other appetite, and then +leaves the senses of its possessor as dull as those of a city +gourmand after a lord mayor's feast. Only the highest minds--our +Humboldts, and Bonplands, and Schomburgks (and they only when +quickened to an almost unhealthy activity by civilization)--can go +on long appreciating where Nature is insatiable, imperious, +maddening, in her demands on our admiration. The very power of +observing wears out under the rush of ever new objects; and the +dizzy spectator is fain at last to shut the eyes of his soul, and +take refuge (as West Indian Spaniards do) in tobacco and stupidity. +The man, too, who has not only eyes but utterance,--what shall he +do where all words fail him? Superlatives are but inarticulate, +after all, and give no pictures even of size any more than do +numbers of feet and yards: and yet what else can we do, but heap +superlative on superlative, and cry, "Wonderful, wonderful!" and +after that, "wonderful, past all whooping"? What Humboldt's self +cannot paint, we will not try to daub. The voyagers were in a +South American forest, readers. Fill up the meaning of those +words, each as your knowledge enables you, for I cannot do it for +you. + +Certainly those adventurers could not. The absence of any attempt +at word-painting, even of admiration at the glorious things which +they saw, is most remarkable in all early voyagers, both Spanish +and English. The only two exceptions which I recollect are +Columbus--(but then all was new, and he was bound to tell what he +had seen)--and Raleigh; the two most gifted men, perhaps, with the +exception of Humboldt, who ever set foot in tropical America; but +even they dare nothing but a few feeble hints in passing. Their +souls had been dazzled and stunned by a great glory. Coming out of +our European Nature into that tropic one, they had felt like +Plato's men, bred in the twilight cavern, and then suddenly turned +round to the broad blaze of day; they had seen things awful and +unspeakable: why talk of them, except to say with the Turks, "God +is great!" + +So it was with these men. Among the higher-hearted of them, the +grandeur and the glory around had attuned their spirits to itself, +and kept up in them a lofty, heroical, reverent frame of mind; but +they knew as little about the trees and animals in an "artistic" or +"critical" point of view, as in a scientific one. This tree the +Indians called one unpronounceable name, and it made good bows; +that, some other name, and it made good canoes; of that, you could +eat the fruit; that produced the caoutchouc gum, useful for a +hundred matters; that was what the Indians (and they likewise) used +to poison their arrows with; from the ashes of those palm-nuts you +could make good salt; that tree, again, was full of good milk if +you bored the stem: they drank it, and gave God thanks, and were +not astonished. God was great: but that they had discovered long +before they came into the tropics. Noble old child-hearted heroes, +with just romance and superstition enough about them to keep them +from that prurient hysterical wonder and enthusiasm, which is +simply, one often fears, a product of our scepticism! We do not +trust enough in God, we do not really believe His power enough, to +be ready, as they were, as every one ought to be on a God-made +earth, for anything and everything being possible; and then, when a +wonder is discovered, we go into ecstasies and shrieks over it, and +take to ourselves credit for being susceptible of so lofty a +feeling, true index, forsooth, of a refined and cultivated mind. + +They paddled onward hour after hour, sheltering themselves as best +they could under the shadow of the southern bank, while on their +right hand the full sun-glare lay upon the enormous wall of +mimosas, figs, and laurels, which formed the northern forest, +broken by the slender shafts of bamboo tufts, and decked with a +thousand gaudy parasites; bank upon bank of gorgeous bloom piled +upward to the sky, till where its outline cut the blue, flowers and +leaves, too lofty to be distinguished by the eye, formed a broken +rainbow of all hues quivering in the ascending streams of azure +mist, until they seemed to melt and mingle with the very heavens. + +And as the sun rose higher and higher, a great stillness fell upon +the forest. The jaguars and the monkeys had hidden themselves in +the darkest depths of the woods. The birds' notes died out one by +one; the very butterflies ceased their flitting over the tree-tops, +and slept with outspread wings upon the glossy leaves, +undistinguishable from the flowers around them. Now and then a +colibri whirred downward toward the water, hummed for a moment +around some pendent flower, and then the living gem was lost in the +deep blackness of the inner wood, among tree-trunks as huge and +dark as the pillars of some Hindoo shrine; or a parrot swung and +screamed at them from an overhanging bough; or a thirsty monkey +slid lazily down a liana to the surface of the stream, dipped up +the water in his tiny hand, and started chattering back, as his +eyes met those of some foul alligator peering upward through the +clear depths below. In shaded nooks beneath the boughs, the +capybaras, rabbits as large as sheep, went paddling sleepily round +and round, thrusting up their unwieldy heads among the blooms of +the blue water-lilies; while black and purple water-hens ran up and +down upon the rafts of floating leaves. The shining snout of a +freshwater dolphin rose slowly to the surface; a jet of spray +whirred up; a rainbow hung upon it for a moment; and the black +snout sank lazily again. Here and there, too, upon some shallow +pebbly shore, scarlet flamingoes stood dreaming knee-deep, on one +leg; crested cranes pranced up and down, admiring their own finery; +and ibises and egrets dipped their bills under water in search of +prey: but before noon even those had slipped away, and there +reigned a stillness which might be heard--such a stillness (to +compare small things with great) as broods beneath the rich shadows +of Amyas's own Devon woods, or among the lonely sweeps of Exmoor, +when the heather is in flower--a stillness in which, as Humboldt +says, "If beyond the silence we listen for the faintest undertones, +we detect a stifled, continuous hum of insects, which crowd the air +close to the earth; a confused swarming murmur which hangs round +every bush, in the cracked bark of trees, in the soil undermined by +lizards, millepedes, and bees; a voice proclaiming to us that all +Nature breathes, that under a thousand different forms life swarms +in the gaping and dusty earth, as much as in the bosom of the +waters, and the air which breathes around." + +At last a soft and distant murmur, increasing gradually to a heavy +roar, announced that they were nearing some cataract; till turning +a point, where the deep alluvial soil rose into a low cliff fringed +with delicate ferns, they came full in sight of a scene at which +all paused: not with astonishment, but with something very like +disgust. + +"Rapids again!" grumbled one. "I thought we had had enough of them +on the Orinoco." + +"We shall have to get out, and draw the canoes overland, I suppose. +Three hours will be lost, and in the very hottest of the day, too." + +"There's worse behind; don't you see the spray behind the palms?" + +"Stop grumbling, my masters, and don't cry out before you are hurt. +Paddle right up to the largest of those islands, and let us look +about us." + +In front of them was a snow-white bar of raging foam, some ten feet +high, along which were ranged three or four islands of black rock. +Each was crested with a knot of lofty palms, whose green tops stood +out clear against the bright sky, while the lower half of their +stems loomed hazy through a luminous veil of rainbowed mist. The +banks right and left of the fall were so densely fringed with a low +hedge of shrubs, that landing seemed all but impossible; and their +Indian guide, suddenly looking round him and whispering, bade them +beware of savages; and pointed to a canoe which lay swinging in the +eddies under the largest island, moored apparently to the root of +some tree. + +"Silence all!" cried Amyas, "and paddle up thither and seize the +canoe. If there be an Indian on the island, we will have speech of +him: but mind and treat him friendly; and on your lives, neither +strike nor shoot, even if he offers to fight." + +So, choosing a line of smooth backwater just in the wake of the +island, they drove their canoes up by main force, and fastened them +safely by the side of the Indian's, while Amyas, always the +foremost, sprang boldly on shore, whispering to the Indian boy to +follow him. + +Once on the island, Amyas felt sure enough, that if its wild tenant +had not seen them approach, he certainly had not heard them, so +deafening was the noise which filled his brain, and seemed to make +the very leaves upon the bushes quiver, and the solid stone beneath +his feet to reel and ring. For two hundred yards and more above +the fall nothing met his eye but one white waste of raging foam, +with here and there a transverse dyke of rock, which hurled columns +of spray and surges of beaded water high into the air,--strangely +contrasting with the still and silent cliffs of green leaves which +walled the river right and left, and more strangely still with the +knots of enormous palms upon the islets, which reared their +polished shafts a hundred feet into the air, straight and upright +as masts, while their broad plumes and golden-clustered fruit slept +in the sunshine far aloft, the image of the stateliest repose amid +the wildest wrath of Nature. + +He looked round anxiously for the expected Indian; but he was +nowhere to be seen; and, in the meanwhile, as he stept cautiously +along the island, which was some fifty yards in length and breadth, +his senses, accustomed as they were to such sights, could not help +dwelling on the exquisite beauty of the scene; on the garden of gay +flowers, of every imaginable form and hue, which fringed every +boulder at his feet, peeping out amid delicate fern-fans and +luxuriant cushions of moss; on the chequered shade of the palms, +and the cool air, which wafted down from the cataracts above the +scents of a thousand flowers. Gradually his ear became accustomed +to the roar, and, above its mighty undertone, he could hear the +whisper of the wind among the shrubs, and the hum of myriad +insects; while the rock manakin, with its saffron plumage, flitted +before him from stone to stone, calling cheerily, and seeming to +lead him on. Suddenly, scrambling over the rocky flower-beds to +the other side of the isle, he came upon a little shady beach, +which, beneath a bank of stone some six feet high, fringed the edge +of a perfectly still and glassy bay. Ten yards farther, the +cataract fell sheer in thunder: but a high fern-fringed rock turned +its force away from that quiet nook. In it the water swung slowly +round and round in glassy dark-green rings, among which dimpled a +hundred gaudy fish, waiting for every fly and worm which spun and +quivered on the eddy. Here, if anywhere, was the place to find the +owner of the canoe. He leapt down upon the pebbles; and as he did +so, a figure rose from behind a neighboring rock, and met him face +to face. + +It was an Indian girl; and yet, when he looked again,--was it an +Indian girl? Amyas had seen hundreds of those delicate dark- +skinned daughters of the forest, but never such a one as this. Her +stature was taller, her limbs were fuller and more rounded; her +complexion, though tanned by light, was fairer by far than his own +sunburnt face; her hair, crowned with a garland of white flowers, +was not lank, and straight, and black, like an Indian's, but of a +rich, glossy brown, and curling richly and crisply from her very +temples to her knees. Her forehead, though low, was upright and +ample; her nose was straight and small; her lips, the lips of a +European; her whole face of the highest and richest type of Spanish +beauty; a collar of gold mingled with green beads hung round her +neck, and golden bracelets were on her wrists. All the strange and +dim legends of white Indians, and of nations of a higher race than +Carib, or Arrowak, or Solimo, which Amyas had ever heard, rose up +in his memory. She must be the daughter of some great cacique, +perhaps of the lost Incas themselves--why not? And full of simple +wonder, he gazed upon that fairy vision, while she, unabashed in +her free innocence, gazed fearlessly in return, as Eve might have +done in Paradise, upon the mighty stature, and the strange +garments, and above all, on the bushy beard and flowing yellow +locks of the Englishman. + +He spoke first, in some Indian tongue, gently and smilingly, and +made a half-step forward; but quick as light she caught up from the +ground a bow, and held it fiercely toward him, fitted with the long +arrow, with which, as he could see, she had been striking fish, for +a line of twisted grass hung from its barbed head. Amyas stopped, +laid down his own bow and sword, and made another step in advance, +smiling still, and making all Indian signs of amity: but the arrow +was still pointed straight at his breast, and he knew the mettle +and strength of the forest nymphs well enough to stand still and +call for the Indian boy; too proud to retreat, but in the +uncomfortable expectation of feeling every moment the shaft +quivering between his ribs. + +The boy, who had been peering from above, leaped down to them in a +moment; and began, as the safest method, grovelling on his nose +upon the pebbles, while he tried two or three dialects; one of +which at last she seemed to understand, and answered in a tone of +evident suspicion and anger. + +"What does she say?" + +"That you are a Spaniard and a robber, because you have a beard." + +"Tell her that we are no Spaniards, but that we hate them; and are +come across the great waters to help the Indians to kill them." + +The boy translated his speech. The nymph answered by a +contemptuous shake of the head. + +"Tell her, that if she will send her tribe to us, we will do them +no harm. We are going over the mountains to fight the Spaniards, +and we want them to show us the way." + +The boy had no sooner spoken, than, nimble as a deer, the nymph had +sprung up the rocks, and darted between the palm-stems to her +canoe. Suddenly she caught sight of the English boat, and stopped +with a cry of fear and rage. + +"Let her pass!" shouted Amyas, who had followed her close. "Push +your boat off, and let her pass. Boy, tell her to go on; they will +not come near her." + +But she hesitated still, and with arrow drawn to the head, faced +first on the boat's crew, and then on Amyas, till the Englishmen +had shoved off full twenty yards. + +Then, leaping into her tiny piragua, she darted into the wildest +whirl of the eddies, shooting along with vigorous strokes, while +the English trembled as they saw the frail bark spinning and +leaping amid the muzzles of the alligators, and the huge dog- +toothed trout: but with the swiftness of an arrow she reached the +northern bank, drove her canoe among the bushes, and leaping from +it, darted through some narrow opening in the bush, and vanished +like a dream. + +"What fair virago have you unearthed?" cried Cary, as they toiled +up again to the landing-place. + +"Beshrew me," quoth Jack, "but we are in the very land of the +nymphs, and I shall expect to see Diana herself next, with the moon +on her forehead." + +"Take care, then, where you wander hereabouts, Sir John: lest you +end as Actaeon did, by turning into a stag, and being eaten by a +jaguar." + +"Actaeon was eaten by his own hounds, Mr. Cary, so the parallel +don't hold. But surely she was a very wonder of beauty!" + +Why was it that Amyas did not like this harmless talk? There had +come over him the strangest new feeling; as if that fair vision was +his property, and the men had no right to talk about her, no right +to have even seen her. And he spoke quite surlily as he said-- + +"You may leave the women to themselves, my masters; you'll have to +deal with the men ere long: so get your canoes up on the rock, and +keep good watch." + +"Hillo!" shouted one in a few minutes, "here's fresh fish enough to +feed us all round. I suppose that young cat-a-mountain left it +behind her in her hurry. I wish she had left her golden chains and +ouches into the bargain." + +"Well," said another, " we'll take it as fair payment, for having +made us drop down the current again to let her ladyship pass." + +"Leave that fish alone," said Amyas; "it is none of yours." + +"Why, sir!" quoth the finder in a tone of sulky deprecation. + +"If we are to make good friends with the heathens, we had better +not begin by stealing their goods. There are plenty more fish in +the river; go and catch them, and let the Indians have their own." + +The men were accustomed enough to strict and stern justice in their +dealings with the savages: but they could not help looking slyly at +each other, and hinting, when out of sight, that the captain seemed +in a mighty fuss about his new acquaintance. + +However, they were expert by this time in all the Indian's fishing +methods; and so abundant was the animal life which swarmed around +every rock, that in an hour fish enough lay on the beach to feed +them all; whose forms and colors, names and families, I must leave +the reader to guess from the wondrous pages of Sir Richard +Schomburgk, for I know too little of them to speak without the fear +of making mistakes. + +A full hour passed before they saw anything more of their Indian +neighbors; and then from under the bushes shot out a canoe, on +which all eyes were fixed in expectation. + +Amyas, who expected to find there some remnant of a higher race, +was disappointed enough at seeing on board only the usual half- +dozen of low-browed, dirty Orsons, painted red with arnotto: but a +gray-headed elder at the stern seemed, by his feathers and gold +ornaments, to be some man of note in the little woodland community. + +The canoe came close up to the island; Amyas saw that they were +unarmed, and, laying down his weapons, advanced alone to the bank, +making all signs of amity. They were returned with interest by the +old man, and Amyas's next care was to bring forward the fish which +the fair nymph had left behind, and, through the medium of the +Indian lad, to give the cacique (for so he seemed to be) to +understand that he wished to render every one his own. This offer +was received, as Amyas expected, with great applause, and the canoe +came alongside; but the crew still seemed afraid to land. Amyas +bade his men throw the fish one by one into the boat; and then +proclaimed by the boy's mouth, as was his custom with all Indians, +that he and his were enemies of the Spaniards, and on their way to +make war against them,--and that all which they desired was a +peaceable and safe passage through the dominions of the mighty +potentate and renowned warrior whom they beheld before them; for +Amyas argued rightly enough, that even if the old fellow aft was +not the cacique, he would be none the less pleased at being +mistaken for him. + +Whereon the ancient worthy, rising in the canoe, pointed to heaven, +earth, and the things under, and commenced a long sermon, in tone, +manner, and articulation, very like one of those which the great +black-bearded apes were in the habit of preaching every evening +when they could get together a congregation of little monkeys to +listen, to the great scandal of Jack, who would have it that some +evil spirit set them on to mimic him; which sermon, being partly +interpreted by the Indian lad, seemed to signify, that the valor +and justice of the white men had already reached the ears of the +speaker, and that he was sent to welcome them into those regions by +the Daughter of the Sun. + +"The Daughter of the Sun!" quoth Amyas; "then we have found the +lost Incas after all." + +"We have found something," said Cary; "I only hope it may not be a +mare's nest, like many another of our finding." + +"Or an adder's," said Yeo. "We must beware of treachery." + +"We must beware of no such thing," said Amyas, pretty sharply. +"Have I not told you fifty times, that if they see that we trust +them, they will trust us, and if they see that we suspect them, +they will suspect us? And when two parties are watching to see who +strikes the first blow, they are sure to come to fisticuffs from +mere dirty fear of each other." + +Amyas spoke truth; for almost every atrocity against savages which +had been committed by the Spaniards, and which was in later and +worse times committed by the English, was wont to be excused in +that same base fear of treachery. Amyas's plan, like that of +Drake, and Cook, and all great English voyagers, had been all along +to inspire at once awe and confidence, by a frank and fearless +carriage; and he was not disappointed here. He bade the men step +boldly into their canoes, and follow the old Indian whither he +would. The simple children of the forest bowed themselves +reverently before the mighty strangers, and then led them smilingly +across the stream, and through a narrow passage in the covert, to a +hidden lagoon, on the banks of which stood, not Manoa, but a tiny +Indian village. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +HOW AMYAS WAS TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL + + +"Let us alone. What pleasure can we have + To war with evil? Is there any peace + In always climbing up the climbing wave? + All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave + In silence; ripen, fall, and cease: + Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease." + + TENNYSON. + + +Humboldt has somewhere a curious passage; in which, looking on some +wretched group of Indians, squatting stupidly round their fires, +besmeared with grease and paint, and devouring ants and clay, he +somewhat naively remarks, that were it not for science, which +teaches us that such is the crude material of humanity, and this +the state from which we all have risen, he should have been tempted +rather to look upon those hapless beings as the last degraded +remnants of some fallen and dying race. One wishes that the great +traveller had been bold enough to yield to that temptation, which +his own reason and common sense presented to him as the real +explanation of the sad sight, instead of following the dogmas of a +so-called science, which has not a fact whereon to base its wild +notion, and must ignore a thousand facts in asserting it. His own +good sense, it seems, coincided instinctively with the Bible +doctrine, that man in a state of nature is a fallen being, doomed +to death--a view which may be a sad one, but still one more +honorable to poor humanity than the theory, that we all began as +some sort of two-handed apes. It is surely more hopeful to believe +that those poor Otomacs or Guahibas were not what they ought to be, +than to believe that they were. It is certainly more complimentary +to them to think that they had been somewhat nobler and more +prudent in centuries gone by, than that they were such blockheads +as to have dragged on, the son after the father, for all the +thousands of years which have elapsed since man was made, without +having had wit enough to discover any better food than ants and +clay. + +Our voyagers, however, like those of their time, troubled their +heads with no such questions. Taking the Bible story as they found +it, they agreed with Humboldt's reason, and not with his science; +or, to speak correctly, agreed with Humboldt's self, and not with +the shallow anthropologic theories which happened to be in vogue +fifty years ago; and their new hosts were in their eyes immortal +souls like themselves, "captivated by the devil at his will," lost +there in the pathless forests, likely to be lost hereafter. + +And certainly facts seemed to bear out their old-fashioned +theories; although these Indians had sunk by no means so low as the +Guahibas whom they had met upon the lower waters of the same river. + +They beheld, on landing, a scattered village of palm-leaf sheds, +under which, as usual, the hammocks were slung from tree to tree. +Here and there, in openings in the forest, patches of cassava and +indigo appeared; and there was a look of neatness and comfort about +the little settlement superior to the average. + +But now for the signs of the evil spirit. Certainly it was no good +spirit who had inspired them with the art of music; or else (as +Cary said) Apollo and Mercury (if they ever visited America) had +played their forefathers a shabby trick, and put them off with very +poor instruments, and still poorer taste. For on either side of +the landing-place were arranged four or five stout fellows, each +with a tall drum, or long earthen trumpet, swelling out in the +course of its length into several hollow balls from which arose, +the moment the strangers set foot on shore, so deafening a +cacophony of howls, and groans, and thumps, as fully to justify +Yeo's remark, "They are calling upon their devil, sir." To which +Cary answered, with some show of reason, that "they were the less +likely to be disappointed, for none but Sir Urian would ever come +to listen to such a noise." + +"And you mark, sirs," said Yeo, "there's some feast or sacrifice +toward. "I'm not overconfident of them yet." + +"Nonsense!" said Amyas, "we could kill every soul of them in half- +an-hour, and they know that as well as we." + +But some great demonstration was plainly toward; for the children +of the forest were arrayed in two lines, right and left of the open +space, the men in front, and the women behind; and all bedizened, +to the best of their power, with arnotto, indigo, and feathers. + +Next, with a hideous yell, leapt into the centre of the space a +personage who certainly could not have complained if any one had +taken him for the devil, for he had dressed himself up carefully +for that very intent, in a jaguar-skin with a long tail, grinning +teeth, a pair of horns, a plume of black and yellow feathers, and a +huge rattle. + +"Here's the Piache, the rascal," says Amyas. + +"Ay," says Yeo, "in Satan's livery, and I've no doubt his works are +according, trust him for it." + +"Don't be frightened, Jack," says Cary, backing up Brimblecombe +from behind. "It's your business to tackle him, you know. At him +boldly, and he'll run." + +Whereat all the men laughed; and the Piache, who had intended to +produce a very solemn impression, hung fire a little. However, +being accustomed to get his bread by his impudence, he soon +recovered himself, advanced, smote one of the musicians over the +head with his rattle to procure silence; and then began a harangue, +to which Amyas listened patiently, cigar in mouth. + +"What's it all about, boy?" + +"He wants to know whether you have seen Amalivaca on the other +shore of the great water?" + +Amyas was accustomed to this inquiry after the mythic civilizer of +the forest Indians, who, after carving the mysterious sculptures +which appear upon so many inland cliffs of that region, returned +again whence he came, beyond the ocean. He answered, as usual, by +setting forth the praises of Queen Elizabeth. + +To which the Piache replied, that she must be one of Amalivaca's +seven daughters, some of whom he took back with him, while be broke +the legs of the rest to prevent their running away, and left them +to people the forests. + +To which Amyas replied, that his queen's legs were certainly not +broken; for she was a very model of grace and activity, and the +best dancer in all her dominions; but that it was more important to +him to know whether the tribe would give them cassava bread, and +let them stay peaceably on that island, to rest a while before they +went on to fight the clothed men (the Spaniards), on the other side +of the mountains. + +On which the Piache, after capering and turning head over heels +with much howling, beckoned Amyas and his party to follow him; they +did so, seeing that the Indians were all unarmed, and evidently in +the highest good humor. + +The Piache went toward the door of a carefully closed hut, and +crawling up to it on all-fours in most abject fashion, began +whining to some one within. + +"Ask what he is about, boy." + +The lad asked the old cacique, who had accompanied them, and +received for answer, that he was consulting the Daughter of the +Sun. + +"Here is our mare's nest at last," quoth Cary, as the Piache from +whines rose to screams and gesticulations, and then to violent +convulsions, foaming at the mouth, and rolling of the eyeballs, +till he suddenly sank exhausted, and lay for dead. + +"As good as a stage play." + +"The devil has played his part," says Jack; "and now by the rules +of all plays Vice should come on." + +"And a very fair Vice it will be, I suspect; a right sweet +Iniquity, my Jack! Listen." + +And from the interior of the hut rose a low sweet song, at which +all the simple Indians bowed their heads in reverence; and the +English were hushed in astonishment; for the voice was not shrill +or guttural, like that of an Indian, but round, clear, and rich, +like a European's; and as it swelled and rose louder and louder, +showed a compass and power which would have been extraordinary +anywhere (and many a man of the party, as was usual in musical old +England, was a good judge enough of such a matter, and could hold +his part right well in glee, and catch, and roundelay, and psalm). +And as it leaped, and ran, and sank again, and rose once more to +fall once more, all but inarticulate, yet perfect in melody, like +the voice of bird on bough, the wild wanderers were rapt in new +delight, and did not wonder at the Indians as they bowed their +heads, and welcomed the notes as messengers from some higher world. +At last one triumphant burst, so shrill that all ears rang again, +and then dead silence. The Piache, suddenly restored to life, +jumped upright, and recommenced preaching at Amyas. + +"Tell the howling villain to make short work of it, lad! His tune +won't do after that last one." + +The lad, grinning, informed Amyas that the Piache signified their +acceptance as friends by the Daughter of the Sun; that her friends +were theirs, and her foes theirs. Whereon the Indians set up a +scream of delight, and Amyas, rolling another tobacco leaf up in +another strip of plantain, answered,-- + +"Then let her give us some cassava," and lighted a fresh cigar. + +Whereon the door of the hut opened, and the Indians prostrated +themselves to the earth, as there came forth the same fair +apparition which they had encountered upon the island, but decked +now in feather-robes, and plumes of every imaginable hue. + +Slowly and stately, as one accustomed to command, she walked up to +Amyas, glancing proudly round on her prostrate adorers, and +pointing with graceful arms to the trees, the gardens, and the +huts, gave him to understand by signs (so expressive were her +looks, that no words were needed) that all was at his service; +after which, taking his hand, she lifted it gently to her forehead. + +At that sign of submission a shout of rapture rose from the crowd; +and as the mysterious maiden retired again to her hut, they pressed +round the English, caressing and admiring, pointing with equal +surprise to their swords, to their Indian bows and blow-guns, and +to the trophies of wild beasts with which they were clothed; while +women hastened off to bring fruit, and flowers, and cassava, and +(to Amyas's great anxiety) calabashes of intoxicating drink; and, +to make a long story short, the English sat down beneath the trees, +and feasted merrily, while the drums and trumpets made hideous +music, and lithe young girls and lads danced uncouth dances, which +so scandalized both Brimblecombe and Yeo, that they persuaded Amyas +to beat an early retreat. He was willing enough to get back to the +island while the men were still sober; so there were many leave- +takings and promises of return on the morrow, and the party paddled +back to their island-fortress, racking their wits as to who or what +the mysterious maid could be. + +Amyas, however, had settled in his mind that she was one of the +lost Inca race; perhaps a descendant of that very fair girl, wife +of the Inca Manco, whom Pizarro, forty years before, had, merely to +torture the fugitive king's heart, as his body was safe from the +tyrant's reach, stripped, scourged, and shot to death with arrows, +uncomplaining to the last. + +They all assembled for the evening service (hardly a day had passed +since they left England on which they had not done the same); and +after it was over, they must needs sing a Psalm, and then a catch +or two, ere they went to sleep; and till the moon was high in +heaven, twenty mellow voices rang out above the roar of the +cataract, in many a good old tune. Once or twice they thought they +heard an echo to their song: but they took no note of it, till +Cary, who had gone apart for a few minutes, returned, and whispered +Amyas away. + +"The sweet Iniquity is mimicking us, lad." + +They went to the brink of the river; and there (for their ears were +by this time dead to the noise of the torrent) they could hear +plainly the same voice which had so surprised them in the hut, +repeating, clear and true, snatches of the airs which they had +sung. Strange and solemn enough was the effect of the men's deep +voices on the island, answered out of the dark forest by those +sweet treble notes; and the two young men stood a long while +listening and looking out across the eddies, which swirled down +golden in the moonlight: but they could see nothing beyond save the +black wall of trees. After a while the voice ceased, and the two +returned to dream of Incas and nightingales. + +They visited the village again next day; and every day for a week +or more: but the maiden appeared but rarely, and when she did, kept +her distance as haughtily as a queen. + +Amyas, of course, as soon as he could converse somewhat better with +his new friends, was not long before he questioned the cacique +about her. But the old man made an owl's face at her name, and +intimated by mysterious shakes of the head, that she was a very +strange personage, and the less said about her the better. She was +"a child of the Sun," and that was enough. + +"Tell him, boy," quoth Cary, "that we are the children of the Sun +by his first wife; and have orders from him to inquire how the +Indians have behaved to our step-sister, for he cannot see all +their tricks down here, the trees are so thick. So let him tell +us, or all the cassava plants shall be blighted." + +"Will, Will, don't play with lying!" said Amyas: but the threat was +enough for the cacique, and taking them in his canoe a full mile +down the stream, as if in fear that the wonderful maiden should +overhear him, he told them, in a sort of rhythmic chant, how, many +moons ago (he could not tell how many), his tribe was a mighty +nation, and dwelt in Papamene, till the Spaniards drove them forth. +And how, as they wandered northward, far away upon the mountain +spurs beneath the flaming cone of Cotopaxi, they had found this +fair creature wandering in the forest, about the bigness of a seven +years' child. Wondering at her white skin and her delicate beauty, +the simple Indians worshipped her as a god, and led her home with +them. And when they found that she was human like themselves, +their wonder scarcely lessened. How could so tender a being have +sustained life in those forests, and escaped the jaguar and the +snake? She must be under some Divine protection: she must be a +daughter of the Sun, one of that mighty Inca race, the news of +whose fearful fall had reached even those lonely wildernesses; who +had, many of them, haunted for years as exiles the eastern slopes +of the Andes, about the Ucalayi and the Maranon; who would, as all +Indians knew, rise again some day to power, when bearded white men +should come across the seas to restore them to their ancient +throne. + +So, as the girl grew up among them, she was tended with royal +honors, by command of the conjuror of the tribe, that so her +forefather the Sun might be propitious to them, and the Incas might +show favor to the poor ruined Omaguas, in the day of their coming +glory. And as she grew, she had become, it seemed, somewhat of a +prophetess among them, as well as an object of fetish-worship; for +she was more prudent in council, valiant in war, and cunning in the +chase, than all the elders of the tribe; and those strange and +sweet songs of hers, which had so surprised the white men, were +full of mysterious wisdom about the birds, and the animals, and the +flowers, and the rivers, which the Sun and the Good Spirit taught +her from above. So she had lived among them, unmarried still, not +only because she despised the addresses of all Indian youths, but +because the conjuror had declared it to be profane in them to +mingle with the race of the Sun, and had assigned her a cabin near +his own, where she was served in state, and gave some sort of +oracular responses, as they had seen, to the questions which be put +to her. + +Such was the cacique's tale; on which Cary remarked, probably not +unjustly, that he "dared to say the conjuror made a very good thing +of it:" but Amyas was silent, full of dreams, if not about Manoa, +still about the remnant of the Inca race. What if they were still +to be found about the southern sources of the Amazon? He must have +been very near them already, in that case. It was vexatious; but +at least he might be sure that they had formed no great kingdom in +that direction, or he should have heard of it long ago. Perhaps +they had moved lately from thence eastward, to escape some fresh +encroachment of the Spaniards; and this girl had been left behind +in their flight. And then he recollected, with a sigh, how +hopeless was any further search with his diminished band. At +least, he might learn something of the truth from the maiden +herself. It might be useful to him in some future attempt; for he +had not yet given up Manoa. If he but got safe home, there was +many a gallant gentleman (and Raleigh came at once into his mind) +who would join him in a fresh search for the Golden City of Guiana; +not by the upper waters, but by the mouth of the Orinoco. + +So they paddled back, while the simple cacique entreated them to +tell the Sun, in their daily prayers, how well the wild people had +treated his descendant; and besought them not to take her away with +them, lest the Sun should forget the poor Omaguas, and ripen their +manioc and their fruit no more. + +Amyas had no wish to stay where he was longer than was absolutely +necessary to bring up the sick men from the Orinoco; but this, he +well knew, would be a journey probably of some months, and attended +with much danger. + +Cary volunteered at once, however, to undertake the adventure, if +half-a-dozen men would join him, and the Indians would send a few +young men to help in working the canoe: but this latter item was +not an easy one to obtain; for the tribe with whom they now were, +stood in some fear of the fierce and brutal Guahibas, through whose +country they must pass; and every Indian tribe, as Amyas knew well +enough, looks on each tribe of different language to itself as +natural enemies, hateful, and made only to be destroyed wherever +met. This strange fact, too, Amyas and his party attributed to +delusion of the devil, the divider and accuser; and I am of opinion +that they were perfectly right: only let Amyas take care that while +he is discovering the devil in the Indians, he does not give place +to him in himself, and that in more ways than one. But of that +more hereafter. + +Whether, however, it was pride or shyness which kept the maiden +aloof, she conquered it after a while; perhaps through mere woman's +curiosity; and perhaps, too, from mere longing for amusement in a +place so unspeakably stupid as the forest. She gave the English to +understand, however, that though they all might be very important +personages, none of them was to be her companion but Amyas. And +ere a month was past, she was often hunting with him far and wide +in the neighboring forest, with a train of chosen nymphs, whom she +had persuaded to follow her example and spurn the dusky suitors +around. This fashion, not uncommon, perhaps, among the Indian +tribes, where women are continually escaping to the forest from the +tyranny of the men, and often, perhaps, forming temporary +communities, was to the English a plain proof that they were near +the land of the famous Amazons, of whom they had heard so often +from the Indians; while Amyas had no doubt that, as a descendant of +the Incas, the maiden preserved the tradition of the Virgins of the +Sun, and of the austere monastic rule of the Peruvian superstition. +Had not that valiant German, George of Spires, and Jeronimo Ortal +too, fifty years before, found convents of the Sun upon these very +upper waters? + +So a harmless friendship sprang up between Amyas and the girl, +which soon turned to good account. For she no sooner heard that he +needed a crew of Indians, than she consulted the Piache, assembled +the tribe, and having retired to her hut, commenced a song, which +(unless the Piache lied) was a command to furnish young men for +Cary's expedition, under penalty of the sovereign displeasure of an +evil spirit with an unpronounceable name--an argument which +succeeded on the spot, and the canoe departed on its perilous +errand. + +John Brimblecombe had great doubts whether a venture thus started +by direct help and patronage of the fiend would succeed; and Amyas +himself, disliking the humbug, told Ayacanora that it would be +better to have told the tribe that it was a good deed, and pleasing +to the Good Spirit. + +"Ah!" said she, naively enough, "they know better than that. The +Good Spirit is big and lazy; and he smiles, and takes no trouble: +but the little bad spirit, he is so busy--here, and there, and +everywhere," and she waved her pretty hands up and down; "he is the +useful one to have for a friend!" Which sentiment the Piache much +approved, as became his occupation; and once told Brimblecombe +pretty sharply, that he was a meddlesome fellow for telling the +Indians that the Good Spirit cared for them; "for," quoth he, "if +they begin to ask the Good Spirit for what they want, who will +bring me cassava and coca for keeping the bad spirit quiet?" This +argument, however forcible the devil's priests in all ages have +felt it to be, did not stop Jack's preaching (and very good and +righteous preaching it was, moreover), and much less the morning +and evening service in the island camp. This last, the Indians, +attracted by the singing, attended in such numbers, that the Piache +found his occupation gone, and vowed to put an end to Jack's Gospel +with a poisoned arrow. + +Which plan he (blinded by his master, Satan, so Jack phrased it) +took into his head to impart to Ayacanora, as the partner of his +tithes and offerings; and was exceedingly astonished to receive in +answer a box on the ear, and a storm of abuse. After which, +Ayacanora went to Amyas, and telling him all, proposed that the +Piache should be thrown to the alligators, and Jack installed in +his place; declaring that whatsoever the bearded men said must be +true, and whosoever plotted against them should die the death. + +Jack, however, magnanimously forgave his foe, and preached on, of +course with fresh zeal; but not, alas! with much success. For the +conjuror, though his main treasure was gone over to the camp of the +enemy, had a reserve in a certain holy trumpet, which was hidden +mysteriously in a cave on the neighboring hills, not to be looked +on by woman under pain of death; and it was well known, and had +been known for generations, that unless that trumpet, after +fastings, flagellations, and other solemn rites, was blown by night +throughout the woods, the palm-trees would bear no fruit; yea, so +great was the fame of that trumpet, that neighboring tribes sent at +the proper season to hire it and the blower thereof, by payment of +much precious trumpery, that so they might be sharers in its +fertilizing powers. + +So the Piache announced one day in public, that in consequence of +the impiety of the Omaguas, he should retire to a neighboring +tribe, of more religious turn of mind; and taking with him the +precious instrument, leave their palms to blight, and themselves to +the evil spirit. + +Dire was the wailing, and dire the wrath throughout the village. +Jack's words were allowed to be good words; but what was the Gospel +in comparison of the trumpet? The rascal saw his advantage, and +began a fierce harangue against the heretic strangers. As he +maddened, his hearers maddened; the savage nature, capricious as a +child's, flashed out in wild suspicion. Women yelled, men scowled, +and ran hastily to their huts for bows and blow-guns. The case was +grown critical. There were not more than a dozen men with Amyas at +the time, and they had only their swords, while the Indian men +might muster nearly a hundred. Amyas forbade his men either to +draw or to retreat; but poisoned arrows were weapons before which +the boldest might well quail; and more than one cheek grew pale, +which had seldom been pale before. + +"It is God's quarrel, sirs all," said Jack Brimblecombe; "let Him +defend the right." + +As he spoke, from Ayacanora's hut arose her magic song, and +quivered aloft among the green heights of the forest. + +The mob stood spell-bound, still growling fiercely, but not daring +to move. Another moment, and she had rushed out, like a very +Diana, into the centre of the ring, bow in hand, and arrow on the +string. + +The fallen "children of wrath" had found their match in her; for +her beautiful face was convulsed with fury. Almost foaming in her +passion, she burst forth with bitter revilings; she pointed with +admiration to the English, and then with fiercest contempt to the +Indians; and at last, with fierce gestures, seemed to cast off the +very dust of her feet against them, and springing to Amyas's side, +placed herself in the forefront of the English battle. + +The whole scene was so sudden, that Amyas had hardly discovered +whether she came as friend or foe, before her bow was raised. He +had just time to strike up her hand, when the arrow flew past the +ear of the offending Piache, and stuck quivering in a tree. + +"Let me kill the wretch!" said she, stamping with rage; but Amyas +held her arm firmly. + +"Fools!" cried she to the tribe, while tears of anger rolled down +her cheeks. "Choose between me and your trumpet! I am a daughter +of the Sun; I am white; I am a companion for Englishmen! But you! +your mothers were Guahibas, and ate mud; and your fathers--they +were howling apes! Let them sing to you! I shall go to the white +men, and never sing you to sleep any more; and when the little evil +spirit misses my voice, he will come and tumble you out of your +hammocks, and make you dream of ghosts every night, till you grow +as thin as blow-guns, and as stupid as aye-ayes!"* + + +* Two-toed sloths. + + +This terrible counter-threat, in spite of the slight bathos +involved, had its effect; for it appealed to that dread of the +sleep world which is common to all savages: but the conjuror was +ready to outbid the prophetess, and had begun a fresh oration, when +Amyas turned the tide of war. Bursting into a huge laugh at the +whole matter, he took the conjuror by his shoulders, sent him with +one crafty kick half-a-dozen yards off upon his nose; and then, +walking out of the ranks, shook hands round with all his Indian +acquaintances. + +Whereon, like grown-up babies, they all burst out laughing too, +shook hands with all the English, and then with each other; being, +after all, as glad as any bishops to prorogue the convocation, and +let unpleasant questions stand over till the next session. The +Piache relented, like a prudent man; Ayacanora returned to her hut +to sulk; and Amyas to his island, to long for Cary's return, for he +felt himself on dangerous ground. + +At last Will returned, safe and sound, and as merry as ever, not +having lost a man (though he had had a smart brush with the +Guahibas). He brought back three of the wounded men, now pretty +nigh cured; the other two, who had lost a leg apiece, had refused +to come. They had Indian wives; more than they could eat; and +tobacco without end: and if it were not for the gnats (of which +Cary said that there were more mosquitoes than there was air), they +should be the happiest men alive. Amyas could hardly blame the +poor fellows; for the chance of their getting home through the +forest with one leg each was very small, and, after all, they were +making the best of a bad matter. And a very bad matter it seemed +to him, to be left in a heathen land; and a still worse matter, +when he overheard some of the men talking about their comrades' +lonely fate, as if, after all, they were not so much to be pitied. +He said nothing about it then, for he made a rule never to take +notice of any facts which he got at by eavesdropping, however +unintentional; but he longed that one of them would say as much to +him, and he would "give them a piece of his mind." And a piece of +his mind he had to give within the week; for while he was on a +hunting party, two of his men were missing, and were not heard of +for some days; at the end of which time the old cacique come to +tell him that he believed they had taken to the forest, each with +an Indian girl. + +Amyas was very wroth at the news. First, because it had never +happened before: he could say with honest pride, as Raleigh did +afterwards when he returned from his Guiana voyage, that no Indian +woman had ever been the worse for any man of his. He had preached +on this point month after month, and practised what he preached; +and now his pride was sorely hurt. + +Moreover, he dreaded offence to the Indians themselves: but on this +score the cacique soon comforted him, telling him that the girls, +as far as he could find, had gone off of their own free will; +intimating that he thought it somewhat an honor to the tribe that +they had found favor in the eyes of the bearded men; and moreover, +that late wars had so thinned the ranks of their men, that they +were glad enough to find husbands for their maidens, and had been +driven of late years to kill many of their female infants. This +sad story, common perhaps to every American tribe, and one of the +chief causes of their extermination, reassured Amyas somewhat: but +he could not stomach either the loss of his men, or their breach of +discipline; and look for them he would. Did any one know where +they were? If the tribe knew, they did not care to tell: but +Ayacanora, the moment she found out his wishes, vanished into the +forest, and returned in two days, saying that she had found the +fugitives; but she would not show him where they were, unless he +promised not to kill them. He, of course, had no mind for so +rigorous a method: he both needed the men, and he had no malice +against them,--for the one, Ebsworthy, was a plain, honest, happy- +go-lucky sailor, and as good a hand as there was in the crew; and +the other was that same ne'er-do-weel Will Parracombe, his old +schoolfellow, who had been tempted by the gipsy-Jesuit at +Appledore, and resisting that bait, had made a very fair seaman. + +So forth Amyas went, with Ayacanora as a guide, some five miles +upward along the forest slopes, till the girl whispered, "There +they are;" and Amyas, pushing himself gently through a thicket of +bamboo, beheld a scene which, in spite of his wrath, kept him +silent, and perhaps softened, for a minute. + +On the farther side of a little lawn, the stream leapt through a +chasm beneath overarching vines, sprinkling eternal freshness upon +all around, and then sank foaming into a clear rock-basin, a bath +for Dian's self. On its farther side, the crag rose some twenty +feet in height, bank upon bank of feathered ferns and cushioned +moss, over the rich green beds of which drooped a thousand orchids, +scarlet, white, and orange, and made the still pool gorgeous with +the reflection of their gorgeousness. At its more quiet outfall, +it was half-hidden in huge fantastic leaves and tall flowering +stems; but near the waterfall the grassy bank sloped down toward +the stream, and there, on palm-leaves strewed upon the turf, +beneath the shadow of the crags, lay the two men whom Amyas sought, +and whom, now he had found them, he had hardly heart to wake from +their delicious dream. + +For what a nest it was which they had found! the air was heavy with +the scent of flowers, and quivering with the murmur of the stream, +the humming of the colibris and insects, the cheerful song of +birds, the gentle cooing of a hundred doves; while now and then, +from far away, the musical wail of the sloth, or the deep toll of +the bell-bird, came softly to the ear. What was not there which +eye or ear could need? And what which palate could need either? +For on the rock above, some strange tree, leaning forward, dropped +every now and then a luscious apple upon the grass below, and huge +wild plantains bent beneath their load of fruit. + +There, on the stream bank, lay the two renegades from civilized +life. They had cast away their clothes, and painted themselves, +like the Indians, with arnotto and indigo. One lay lazily picking +up the fruit which fell close to his side; the other sat, his back +against a cushion of soft moss, his hands folded languidly upon his +lap, giving himself up to the soft influence of the narcotic coca- +juice, with half-shut dreamy eyes fixed on the everlasting sparkle +of the waterfall-- + + + "While beauty, born of murmuring sound, + Did pass into his face." + + +Somewhat apart crouched their two dusky brides, crowned with +fragrant flowers, but working busily, like true women, for the +lords whom they delighted to honor. One sat plaiting palm fibres +into a basket; the other was boring the stem of a huge milk-tree, +which rose like some mighty column on the right hand of the lawn, +its broad canopy of leaves unseen through the dense underwood of +laurel and bamboo, and betokened only by the rustle far aloft, and +by the mellow shade in which it bathed the whole delicious scene. + +Amyas stood silent for awhile, partly from noble shame at seeing +two Christian men thus fallen of their own self-will; partly +because--and he could not but confess that--a solemn calm brooded +above that glorious place, to break through which seemed sacrilege +even while he felt it a duty. Such, he thought, was Paradise of +old; such our first parents' bridal bower! Ah! if man had not +fallen, he too might have dwelt forever in such a home--with whom? +He started, and shaking off the spell, advanced sword in hand. + +The women saw him, and springing to their feet, caught up their +long pocunas, and leapt like deer each in front of her beloved. +There they stood, the deadly tubes pressed to their lips, eyeing +him like tigresses who protect their young, while every slender +limb quivered, not with terror, but with rage. + +Amyas paused, half in admiration, half in prudence; for one rash +step was death. But rushing through the canes, Ayacanora sprang to +the front, and shrieked to them in Indian. At the sight of the +prophetess the women wavered, and Amyas, putting on as gentle a +face as he could, stepped forward, assuring them in his best Indian +that he would harm no one. + +"Ebsworthy! Parracombe! Are you grown such savages already, that +you have forgotten your captain? Stand up, men, and salute!" + +Ebsworthy sprang to his feet, obeyed mechanically, and then slipped +behind his bride again, as if in shame. The dreamer turned his +head languidly, raised his hand to his forehead, and then returned +to his contemplation. + +Amyas rested the point of his sword on the ground, and his hands +upon the hilt, and looked sadly and solemnly upon the pair. +Ebsworthy broke the silence, half reproachfully, half trying to +bluster away the coming storm. + +"Well, noble captain, so you've hunted out us poor fellows; and +want to drag us back again in a halter, I suppose?" + +"I came to look for Christians, and I find heathens; for men, and I +find swine. I shall leave the heathens to their wilderness, and +the swine to their trough. Parracombe!" + +"He's too happy to answer you, sir. And why not? What do you want +of us? Our two years vow is out, and we are free men now." + +"Free to become like the beasts that perish? You are the queen's +servants still, and in her name I charge you-- + +"Free to be happy," interrupted the man. "With the best of wives, +the best of food, a warmer bed than a duke's, and a finer garden +than an emperor's. As for clothes, why the plague should a man +wear them where he don't need them? As for gold, what's the use of +it where Heaven sends everything ready-made to your hands? +Hearken, Captain Leigh. You've been a good captain to me, and I'll +repay you with a bit of sound advice. Give up your gold-hunting, +and toiling and moiling after honor and glory, and copy us. Take +that fair maid behind you there to wife; pitch here with us; and +see if you are not happier in one day than ever you were in all +your life before." + +"You are drunk, sirrah! William Parracombe! Will you speak to me, +or shall I heave you into the stream to sober you?" + +"Who calls William Parracombe?" answered a sleepy voice. + +"I, fool!--your captain." + +"I am not William Parracombe. He is dead long ago of hunger, and +labor, and heavy sorrow, and will never see Bideford town any more. +He is turned into an Indian now; and he is to sleep, sleep, sleep +for a hundred years, till he gets his strength again, poor fellow--" + +"Awake, then, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and +Christ shall give thee light! A christened Englishman, and living +thus the life of a beast?" + +"Christ shall give thee light?" answered the same unnatural +abstracted voice. "Yes; so the parsons say. And they say too, +that He is Lord of heaven and earth. I should have thought His +light was as near us here as anywhere, and nearer too, by the look +of the place. Look round!" said he, waving a lazy hand, "and see +the works of God, and the place of Paradise, whither poor weary +souls go home and rest, after their masters in the wicked world +have used them up, with labor and sorrow, and made them wade knee- +deep in blood--I'm tired of blood, and tired of gold. I'll march +no more; I'll fight no more; I'll hunger no more after vanity and +vexation of spirit. What shall I get by it? Maybe I shall leave +my bones in the wilderness. I can but do that here. Maybe I shall +get home with a few pezos, to die an old cripple in some stinking +hovel, that a monkey would scorn to lodge in here. You may go on; +it'll pay you. You may be a rich man, and a knight, and live in a +fine house, and drink good wine, and go to Court, and torment your +soul with trying to get more, when you've got too much already; +plotting and planning to scramble upon your neighbor's shoulders, +as they all did--Sir Richard, and Mr. Raleigh, and Chichester, and +poor dear old Sir Warham, and all of them that I used to watch when +I lived before. They were no happier than I was then; I'll warrant +they are no happier now. Go your ways, captain; climb to glory +upon some other backs than ours, and leave us here in peace, alone +with God and God's woods, and the good wives that God has given us, +to play a little like school children. It's long since I've had +play-hours; and now I'll be a little child once more, with the +flowers, and the singing birds, and the silver fishes in the +stream, that are at peace, and think no harm, and want neither +clothes, nor money, nor knighthood, nor peerage, but just take what +comes; and their heavenly Father feedeth them, and Solomon in all +his glory was not arrayed like one of these--and will He not much +more feed us, that are of more value than many sparrows?" + +"And will you live here, shut out from all Christian ordinances?" + +"Christian ordinances? Adam and Eve had no parsons in Paradise. +The Lord was their priest, and the Lord was their shepherd, and +He'll be ours too. But go your ways, sir, and send up Sir John +Brimblecombe, and let him marry us here Church fashion (though we +have sworn troth to each other before God already), and let him +give us the Holy Sacrament once and for all, and then read the +funeral service over us, and go his ways, and count us for dead, +sir--for dead we are to the wicked worthless world we came out of +three years ago. And when the Lord chooses to call us, the little +birds will cover us with leaves, as they did the babies in the +wood, and fresher flowers will grow out of our graves, sir, than +out of yours in that bare Northam churchyard there beyond the +weary, weary, weary sea." + +His voice died away to a murmur, and his head sank on his breast. + +Amyas stood spell-bound. The effect of the narcotic was all but +miraculous in his eyes. The sustained eloquence, the novel +richness of diction in one seemingly drowned in sensual sloth, +were, in his eyes, the possession of some evil spirit. And yet he +could not answer the Evil One. His English heart, full of the +divine instinct of duty and public spirit, told him that it must be +a lie: but how to prove it a lie? And he stood for full ten +minutes searching for an answer, which seemed to fly farther and +farther off the more he sought for it. + +His eye glanced upon Ayacanora. The two girls were whispering to +her smilingly. He saw one of them glance a look toward him, and +then say something, which raised a beautiful blush in the maiden's +face. With a playful blow at the speaker, she turned away. Amyas +knew instinctively that they were giving her the same advice as +Ebsworthy had given to him. Oh, how beautiful she was! Might not +the renegades have some reason on their side after all. + +He shuddered at the thought: but he could not shake it off. It +glided in like some gaudy snake, and wreathed its coils round all +his heart and brain. He drew back to the other side of the lawn, +and thought and thought-- + +Should he ever get home? If he did, might he not get home a +beggar? Beggar or rich, he would still have to face his mother, to +go through that meeting, to tell that tale, perhaps, to hear those +reproaches, the forecast of which had weighed on him like a dark +thunder-cloud for two weary years; to wipe out which by some +desperate deed of glory he had wandered the wilderness, and +wandered in vain. + +Could he not settle here? He need not be a savage, he and his +might Christianize, civilize, teach equal law, mercy in war, +chivalry to women; found a community which might be hereafter as +strong a barrier against the encroachments of the Spaniard, as +Manoa itself would have been. Who knew the wealth of the +surrounding forests? Even if there were no gold, there were +boundless vegetable treasures. What might he not export down the +rivers? This might be the nucleus of a great commercial +settlement-- + +And yet, was even that worth while? To settle here only to torment +his soul with fresh schemes, fresh ambitions; not to rest, but only +to change one labor for another? Was not your dreamer right? Did +they not all need rest? What if they each sat down among the +flowers, beside an Indian bride? They might live like Christians, +while they lived like the birds of heaven.-- + +What a dead silence! He looked up and round; the birds had ceased +to chirp; the parroquets were hiding behind the leaves; the monkeys +were clustered motionless upon the highest twigs; only out of the +far depths of the forest, the campanero gave its solemn toll, once, +twice, thrice, like a great death-knell rolling down from far +cathedral towers. Was it an omen? He looked up hastily at +Ayacanora. She was watching him earnestly. Heavens! was she +waiting for his decision? Both dropped their eyes. The decision +was not to come from them. + +A rustle! a roar! a shriek! and Amyas lifted his eyes in time to +see a huge dark bar shoot from the crag above the dreamer's head, +among the group of girls. + +A dull crash, as the group flew asunder; and in the midst, upon the +ground, the tawny limbs of one were writhing beneath the fangs of a +black jaguar, the rarest and most terrible of the forest kings. Of +one? But of which? Was it Ayacanora? And sword in hand, Amyas +rushed madly forward; before he reached the spot those tortured +limbs were still. + +It was not Ayacanora, for with a shriek which rang through the +woods, the wretched dreamer, wakened thus at last, sprang up and +felt for his sword. Fool! he had left it in his hammock! +Screaming the name of his dead bride, he rushed on the jaguar, as +it crouched above its prey, and seizing its head with teeth and +nails, worried it, in the ferocity of his madness, like a mastiff- +dog. + +The brute wrenched its head from his grasp, and raised its dreadful +paw. Another moment and the husband's corpse would have lain by +the wife's. + +But high in air gleamed Amyas's blade; down with all the weight of +his huge body and strong arm, fell that most trusty steel; the head +of the jaguar dropped grinning on its victim's corpse; + + + "And all stood still, who saw him fall, + While men might count a score." + + +"O Lord Jesus," said Amyas to himself, "Thou hast answered the +devil for me! And this is the selfish rest for which I would have +bartered the rest which comes by working where Thou hast put me!" + +They bore away the lithe corpse into the forest, and buried it +under soft moss and virgin mould; and so the fair clay was +transfigured into fairer flowers, and the poor, gentle, untaught +spirit returned to God who gave it. + +And then Amyas went sadly and silently back again, and Parracombe +walked after him, like one who walks in sleep. + +Ebsworthy, sobered by the shock, entreated to come too: but Amyas +forbade him gently,-- + +"No, lad, you are forgiven. God forbid that I should judge you or +any man! Sir John shall come up and marry you; and then, if it +still be your will to stay, the Lord forgive you, if you be wrong; +in the meanwhile, we will leave with you all that we can spare. +Stay here and pray to God to make you, and me too, wiser men." + +And so Amyas departed. He had come out stern and proud; but he +came back again like a little child. + +Three days after Parracombe was dead. Once in camp he seemed +unable to eat or move, and having received absolution and communion +from good Sir John, faded away without disease or pain, "babbling +of green fields," and murmuring the name of his lost Indian bride. + +Amyas, too, sought ghostly council of Sir John, and told him all +which had passed through his mind. + +"It was indeed a temptation of Diabolus," said that simple sage; +"for he is by his very name the divider who sets man against man, +and tempts one to care only for oneself, and forget kin and +country, and duty and queen. But you have resisted him, Captain +Leigh, like a true-born Englishman, as you always are, and he has +fled from you. But that is no reason why we should not flee from +him too; and so I think the sooner we are out of this place, and at +work again, the better for all our souls." + +To which Amyas most devoutly said, "Amen!" If Ayacanora were the +daughter of ten thousand Incas, he must get out of her way as soon +as possible. + +The next day he announced his intention to march once more, and to +his delight found the men ready enough to move towards the Spanish +settlements. One thing they needed: gunpowder for their muskets. +But that they must make as they went along; that is, if they could +get the materials. Charcoal they could procure, enough to set the +world on fire; but nitre they had not yet seen; perhaps they should +find it among the hills: while as for sulphur, any brave man could +get that where there were volcanoes. Who had not heard how one of +Cortez' Spaniards, in like need, was lowered in a basket down the +smoking crater of Popocatepetl, till he had gathered sulphur enough +to conquer an empire? And what a Spaniard could do an Englishman +could do, or they would know the reason why. And if they found +none--why clothyard arrows had done Englishmen's work many a time +already, and they could do it again, not to mention those same +blow-guns and their arrows of curare poison, which, though they +might be useless against Spaniards' armor, were far more valuable +than muskets for procuring food, from the simple fact of their +silence. + +One thing remained; to invite their Indian friends to join them. +And that was done in due form the next day. + +Ayacanora was consulted, of course, and by the Piache, too, who was +glad enough to be rid of the rival preacher, and his unpleasantly +good news that men need not worship the devil, because there was a +good God above them. The maiden sang most melodious assent; the +whole tribe echoed it; and all went smoothly enough till the old +cacique observed that before starting a compact should be made +between the allies as to their share of the booty. + +Nothing could be more reasonable; and Amyas asked him to name his +terms. + +"You take the gold, and we will take the prisoners." + +"And what will you do with them?" asked Amyas, who recollected poor +John Oxenham's hapless compact made in like case. + +"Eat them," quoth the cacique, innocently enough. + +Amyas whistled. + +"Humph!" said Cary. "The old proverb comes true--'the more the +merrier: but the fewer the better fare.' I think we will do +without our red friends for this time." + +Ayacanora, who had been preaching war like a very Boadicea, was +much vexed. + +"Do you too want to dine off roast Spaniards?" asked Amyas. + +She shook her head, and denied the imputation with much disgust. + +Amyas was relieved; he had shrunk from joining the thought of so +fair a creature, however degraded, with the horrors of cannibalism. + +But the cacique was a man of business, and held out stanchly. + +"Is it fair?" he asked. "The white man loves gold, and he gets it. +The poor Indian, what use is gold to him? He only wants something +to eat, and he must eat his enemies. What else will pay him for +going so far through the forests hungry and thirsty? You will get +all, and the Omaguas will get nothing." + +The argument was unanswerable; and the next day they started +without the Indians, while John Brimblecombe heaved many an honest +sigh at leaving them to darkness, the devil, and the holy trumpet. + +And Ayacanora? + +When their departure was determined, she shut herself up in her +hut, and appeared no more. Great was the weeping, howling, and +leave-taking on the part of the simple Indians, and loud the +entreaties to come again, bring them a message from Amalivaca's +daughter beyond the seas, and help them to recover their lost land +of Papamene; but Ayacanora took no part in them; and Amyas left +her, wondering at her absence, but joyful and light-hearted at +having escaped the rocks of the Sirens, and being at work once +more. + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +HOW THEY TOOK THE GOLD-TRAIN + + +"God will relent, and quit thee all thy debt, +Who ever more approves, and more accepts +Him who imploring mercy sues for life, +Than who self-rigorous chooses death as due, +Which argues over-just, and self-displeased +For self-offence, more than for God offended." + + Samson Agonistes. + + +A fortnight or more has passed in severe toil, but not more severe +than they have endured many a time before. Bidding farewell once +and forever to the green ocean of the eastern plains, they have +crossed the Cordillera; they have taken a longing glance at the +city of Santa Fe, lying in the midst of rich gardens on its lofty +mountain plateau, and have seen, as was to be expected, that it was +far too large a place for any attempt of theirs. But they have not +altogether thrown away their time. Their Indian lad has discovered +that a gold-train is going down from Santa Fe toward the Magdalena; +and they are waiting for it beside the miserable rut which serves +for a road, encamped in a forest of oaks which would make them +almost fancy themselves back again in Europe, were it not for the +tree-ferns which form the undergrowth; and were it not, too, for +the deep gorges opening at their very feet; in which, while their +brows are swept by the cool breezes of a temperate zone, they can +see far below, dim through their everlasting vapor-bath of rank hot +steam, the mighty forms and gorgeous colors of the tropic forest. + +They have pitched their camp among the tree-ferns, above a spot +where the path winds along a steep hill-side, with a sheer cliff +below of many a hundred feet. There was a road there once, +perhaps, when Cundinamarca was a civilized and cultivated kingdom; +but all which Spanish misrule has left of it are a few steps +slipping from their places at the bottom of a narrow ditch of mud. +It has gone the way of the aqueducts, and bridges, and post-houses, +the gardens and the llama-flocks of that strange empire. In the +mad search for gold, every art of civilization has fallen to decay, +save architecture alone; and that survives only in the splendid +cathedrals which have risen upon the ruins of the temples of the +Sun, in honor of a milder Pantheon; if, indeed, that can be called +a milder one which demands (as we have seen already) human +sacrifices, unknown to the gentle nature-worship of the Incas. + +And now, the rapid tropic vegetation has reclaimed its old domains, +and Amyas and his crew are as utterly alone, within a few miles of +an important Spanish settlement, as they would be in the solitudes +of the Orinoco or the Amazon. + +In the meanwhile, all their attempts to find sulphur and nitre have +been unavailing; and they have been forced to depend after all +(much to Yeo's disgust) upon their swords and arrows. Be it so: +Drake took Nombre de Dios and the gold-train there with no better +weapons; and they may do as much. + +So, having blocked up the road above by felling a large tree across +it, they sit there among the flowers chewing coca, in default of +food and drink, and meditating among themselves the cause of a +mysterious roar, which has been heard nightly in their wake ever +since they left the banks of the Meta. Jaguar it is not, nor +monkey: it is unlike any sound they know; and why should it follow +them? However, they are in the land of wonders; and, moreover, the +gold train is far more important than any noise. + +At last, up from beneath there was a sharp crack and a loud cry. +The crack was neither the snapping of a branch, nor the tapping of +a woodpecker; the cry was neither the scream of the parrot, nor the +howl of the monkey. + +"That was a whip's crack," said Yeo, "and a woman's wail. They are +close here, lads!" + +"A woman's? Do they drive women in their gangs?" asked Amyas. + +"Why not, the brutes? There they are, sir. Did you see their +basnets glitter?" + +"Men!" said Amyas, in a low voice, "I trust you all not to shoot +till I do. Then give them one arrow, out swords, and at them! +Pass the word along." + +Up they came, slowly, and all hearts beat loud at their coming. + +First, about twenty soldiers, only one-half of whom were on foot; +the other half being borne, incredible as it may seem, each in a +chair on the back of a single Indian, while those who marched had +consigned their heaviest armor and their arquebuses into the hands +of attendant slaves, who were each pricked on at will by the pike +of the soldier behind them. + +"The men are mad to let their ordnance out of their hands." + +"Oh, sir, an Indian will pray to an arquebus not to shoot him; he +sure their artillery is safe enough," said Yeo. + +"Look at the proud villains," whispered another, "to make dumb +beasts of human creatures like that!" + +"Ten shot," counted the business-like Amyas, "and ten pikes; Will +can tackle them up above." + +Last of this troop came some inferior officer, also in his chair, +who, as he went slowly up the hill, with his face turned toward the +gang which followed, drew every other second the cigar from his +lips, to inspirit them with those pious ejaculations to the various +objects of his worship, divine, human, anatomic, wooden and +textile, which earned for the pious Spaniards of the sixteenth +century the uncharitable imputation of being at once the most +fetish-ridden idolaters and the most abominable swearers of all +Europeans. + +"The blasphemous dog!" said Yeo, fumbling at his bow-string, as if +he longed to send an arrow through him. But Amyas had hardly laid +his finger on the impatient veteran's arm, when another procession +followed, which made them forget all else. + +A sad and hideous sight it was: yet one too common even then in +those remoter districts, where the humane edicts were disregarded +which the prayers of Dominican friars (to their everlasting honor +be it spoken) had wrung from the Spanish sovereigns, and which the +legislation of that most wise, virtuous, and heroic Inquisitor +(paradoxical as the words may seem), Pedro de la Gasca, had carried +into effect in Peru,--futile and tardy alleviations of cruelties +and miseries unexampled in the history of Christendom, or perhaps +on earth, save in the conquests of Sennacherib and Zingis Khan. +But on the frontiers, where negroes were imported to endure the +toil which was found fatal to the Indian, and all Indian tribes +convicted (or suspected) of cannibalism were hunted down for the +salvation of their souls and the enslavement of their bodies, such +scenes as these were still too common; and, indeed, if we are to +judge from Humboldt's impartial account, were not very much amended +even at the close of the last century, in those much-boasted Jesuit +missions in which (as many of them as existed anywhere but on +paper) military tyranny was superadded to monastic, and the Gospel +preached with fire and sword, almost as shamelessly as by the first +Conquistadores. + +A line of Indians, Negroes, and Zambos, naked, emaciated, scarred +with whips and fetters, and chained together by their left wrists, +toiled upwards, panting and perspiring under the burden of a basket +held up by a strap which passed across their foreheads. Yeo's +sneer was but too just; there were not only old men and youths +among them, but women; slender young girls, mothers with children, +running at their knee; and, at the sight, a low murmur of +indignation rose from the ambushed Englishmen, worthy of the free +and righteous hearts of those days, when Raleigh could appeal to +man and God, on the ground of a common humanity, in behalf of the +outraged heathens of the New World; when Englishmen still knew that +man was man, and that the instinct of freedom was the righteous +voice of God; ere the hapless seventeenth century had brutalized +them also, by bestowing on them, amid a hundred other bad legacies, +the fatal gift of negro-slaves. + +But the first forty, so Amyas counted, bore on their backs a burden +which made all, perhaps, but him and Yeo, forget even the wretches +who bore it. Each basket contained a square package of carefully +corded hide; the look whereof friend Amyas knew full well. + +"What's in they, captain?" + +"Gold!" And at that magic word all eyes were strained greedily +forward, and such a rustle followed, that Amyas, in the very face +of detection, had to whisper-- + +"Be men, be men, or you will spoil all yet!" + +The last twenty, or so, of the Indians bore larger baskets, but +more lightly freighted, seemingly with manioc, and maize-bread, and +other food for the party; and after them came, with their bearers +and attendants, just twenty soldiers more, followed by the officer +in charge, who smiled away in his chair, and twirled two huge +mustachios, thinking of nothing less than of the English arrows +which were itching to be away and through his ribs. The ambush was +complete; the only question how and when to begin? + +Amyas had a shrinking, which all will understand, from drawing bow +in cool blood on men so utterly unsuspicious and defenceless, even +though in the very act of devilish cruelty--for devilish cruelty it +was, as three or four drivers armed with whips lingered up and down +the slowly staggering file of Indians, and avenged every moment's +lagging, even every stumble, by a blow of the cruel manati-hide, +which cracked like a pistol-shot against the naked limbs of the +silent and uncomplaining victim. + +Suddenly the casus belli, as usually happens, arose of its own +accord. + +The last but one of the chained line was an old gray-headed man, +followed by a slender graceful girl of some eighteen years old, and +Amyas's heart yearned over them as they came up. Just as they +passed, the foremost of the file had rounded the corner above; +there was a bustle, and a voice shouted, "Halt, senors! there is a +tree across the path!" + +"A tree across the path?" bellowed the officer, with a variety of +passionate addresses to the Mother of Heaven, the fiends of hell, +Saint Jago of Compostella, and various other personages; while the +line of trembling Indians, told to halt above, and driven on by +blows below, surged up and down upon the ruinous steps of the +Indian road, until the poor old man fell grovelling on his face. + +The officer leaped down, and hurried upward to see what had +happened. Of course, he came across the old man. + +"Sin peccado concebida! Grandfather of Beelzebub, is this a place +to lie worshipping your fiends?" and he pricked the prostrate +wretch with the point of his sword. + +The old man tried to rise: but the weight on his head was too much +for him; he fell again, and lay motionless. + +The driver applied the manati-hide across his loins, once, twice, +with fearful force; but even that specific was useless. + +"Gastado, Senor Capitan," said he, with a shrug. "Used up. He has +been failing these three months!" + +"What does the intendant mean by sending me out with worn-out +cattle like these? Forward there!" shouted he. "Clear away the +tree, senors, and I'll soon clear the chain. Hold it up, +Pedrillo!" + +The driver held up the chain, which was fastened to the old man's +wrist. The officer stepped back, and flourished round his head a +Toledo blade, whose beauty made Amyas break the Tenth Commandment +on the spot. + +The man was a tall, handsome, broad-shouldered, high-bred man; and +Amyas thought that he was going to display the strength of his arm, +and the temper of his blade, in severing the chain at one stroke. + +Even he was not prepared for the recondite fancies of a Spanish +adventurer, worthy son or nephew of those first conquerors, who +used to try the keenness of their swords upon the living bodies of +Indians, and regale themselves at meals with the odor of roasting +caciques. + +The blade gleamed in the air, once, twice, and fell: not on the +chain, but on the wrist which it fettered. There was a shriek--a +crimson flash--and the chain and its prisoner were parted indeed. + +One moment more, and Amyas's arrow would have been through the +throat of the murderer, who paused, regarding his workmanship with +a satisfied smile; but vengeance was not to come from him. + +Quick and fierce as a tiger-cat, the girl sprang on the ruffian, +and with the intense strength of passion, clasped him in her arms, +and leaped with him from the narrow ledge into the abyss below. + +There was a rush, a shout; all faces were bent over the precipice. +The girl hung by her chained wrist: the officer was gone. There +was a moment's awful silence; and then Amyas heard his body +crashing through the tree-tops far below. + +"Haul her up! Hew her in pieces! Burn the witch!" and the driver, +seizing the chain, pulled at it with all his might, while all +springing from their chairs, stooped over the brink. + +Now was the time for Amyas! Heaven had delivered them into his +hands. Swift and sure, at ten yards off, his arrow rushed through +the body of the driver, and then, with a roar as of the leaping +lion, he sprang like an avenging angel into the midst of the +astonished ruffians. + +His first thought was for the girl. In a moment, by sheer +strength, he had jerked her safely up into the road; while the +Spaniards recoiled right and left, fancying him for the moment some +mountain giant or supernatural foe. His hurrah undeceived them in +an instant, and a cry of "English! Lutheran dogs!" arose, but +arose too late. The men of Devon had followed their captain's +lead: a storm of arrows left five Spaniards dead, and a dozen more +wounded, and down leapt Salvation Yeo, his white hair streaming +behind him, with twenty good swords more, and the work of death +began. + +The Spaniards fought like lions; but they had no time to fix their +arquebuses on the crutches; no room, in that narrow path, to use +their pikes. The English had the wall of them; and to have the +wall there, was to have the foe's life at their mercy. Five +desperate minutes, and not a living Spaniard stood upon those +steps; and certainly no living one lay in the green abyss below. +Two only, who were behind the rest, happening to be in full armor, +escaped without mortal wound, and fled down the hill again. + +"After them! Michael Evans and Simon Heard; and catch them, if +they run a league." + +The two long and lean Clovelly men, active as deer from forest +training, ran two feet for the Spaniard's one; and in ten minutes +returned, having done their work; while Amyas and his men hurried +past the Indians, to help Cary and the party forward, where shouts +and musket shots announced a sharp affray. + +Their arrival settled the matter. All the Spaniards fell but three +or four, who scrambled down the crannies of the cliff. + +"Let not one of them escape! Slay them as Israel slew Amalek!" +cried Yeo, as he bent over; and ere the wretches could reach a +place of shelter, an arrow was quivering in each body, as it rolled +lifeless down the rocks. + +"Now then! Loose the Indians!" + +They found armorers tools on one of the dead bodies, and it was +done. + +"We are your friends," said Amyas. "All we ask is, that you shall +help us to carry this gold down to the Magdalena, and then you are +free." + +Some few of the younger grovelled at his knees, and kissed his +feet, hailing him as the child of the Sun: but the most part kept a +stolid indifference, and when freed from their fetters, sat quietly +down where they stood, staring into vacancy. The iron had entered +too deeply into their soul. They seemed past hope, enjoyment, even +understanding. + +But the young girl, who was last of all in the line, as soon as she +was loosed, sprang to her father's body, speaking no word, lifted +it in her thin arms, laid it across her knees, kissed the fallen +lips, stroked the furrowed cheeks, murmured inarticulate sounds +like the cooing of a woodland dove, of which none knew the meaning +but she, and he who heard not, for his soul had long since fled. +Suddenly the truth flashed on her; silent as ever, she drew one +long heaving breath, and rose erect, the body in her arms. + +Another moment, and she had leaped into the abyss. + +They watched her dark and slender limbs, twined closely round the +old man's corpse, turn over, and over, and over, till a crash among +the leaves, and a scream among the birds, told that she had reached +the trees; and the green roof hid her from their view. + +"Brave lass!" shouted a sailor. + +"The Lord forgive her!" said Yeo. "But, your worship, we must have +these rascals' ordnance." + +"And their clothes too, Yeo, if we wish to get down the Magdalena +unchallenged. Now listen, my masters all! We have won, by God's +good grace, gold enough to serve us the rest of our lives, and that +without losing a single man; and may yet win more, if we be wise, +and He thinks good. But oh, my friends, remember Mr. Oxenham and +his crew; and do not make God's gift our ruin, by faithlessness, or +greediness, or any mutinous haste." + +"You shall find none in us!" cried several men. "We know your +worship. We can trust our general." + +"Thank God!" said Amyas. "Now then, it will be no shame or sin to +make the Indians carry it, saving the women, whom God forbid we +should burden. But we must pass through the very heart of the +Spanish settlements, and by the town of Saint Martha itself. So +the clothes and weapons of these Spaniards we must have, let it +cost us what labor it may. How many lie in the road?" + +"Thirteen here, and about ten up above," said Cary. + +"Then there are near twenty missing. Who will volunteer to go down +over cliff, and bring up the spoil of them?" + +"I, and I, and I;" and a dozen stepped out, as they did always when +Amyas wanted anything done; for the simple reason, that they knew +that he meant to help at the doing of it himself. + +"Very well, then, follow me. Sir John, take the Indian lad for +your interpreter, and try and comfort the souls of these poor +heathens. Tell them that they shall all be free." + +"Why, who is that comes up the road?" + +All eyes were turned in the direction of which he spoke. And, +wonder of wonders! up came none other than Ayacanora herself, blow- +gun in hand, bow on back, and bedecked in all her feather garments, +which last were rather the worse for a fortnight's woodland travel. + +All stood mute with astonishment, as, seeing Amyas, she uttered a +cry of joy, quickened her pace into a run, and at last fell panting +and exhausted at his feet. + +"I have found you!" she said; "you ran away from me, but you could +not escape me!" And she fawned round Amyas, like a dog who has +found his master, and then sat down on the bank, and burst into +wild sobs. + +"God help us!" said Amyas, clutching his hair, as he looked down +upon the beautiful weeper. "What am I to do with her, over and +above all these poor heathens?" + +But there was no time to be lost, and over the cliff he scrambled; +while the girl, seeing that the main body of the English remained, +sat down on a point of rock to watch him. + +After half-an-hour's hard work, the weapons, clothes, and armor of +the fallen Spaniards were hauled up the cliff, and distributed in +bundles among the men; the rest of the corpses were thrown over the +precipice, and they started again upon their road toward the +Magdalena, while Yeo snorted like a war-horse who smells the +battle, at the delight of once more handling powder and ball. + +"We can face the world now, sir! Why not go back and try Santa Fe, +after all?" + +But Amyas thought that enough was as good as a feast, and they held +on downwards, while the slaves followed, without a sign of +gratitude, but meekly obedient to their new masters, and testifying +now and then by a sign or a grunt, their surprise at not being +beaten, or made to carry their captors. Some, however, caught +sight of the little calabashes of coca which the English carried. +That woke them from their torpor, and they began coaxing abjectly +(and not in vain) for a taste of that miraculous herb, which would +not only make food unnecessary, and enable their panting lungs to +endure that keen mountain air, but would rid them, for awhile at +least, of the fallen Indian's most unpitying foe, the malady of +thought. + +As the cavalcade turned the corner of the mountain, they paused for +one last look at the scene of that fearful triumph. Lines of +vultures were already streaming out of infinite space, as if +created suddenly for the occasion. A few hours and there would be +no trace of that fierce fray, but a few white bones amid untrodden +beds of flowers. + +And now Amyas had time to ask Ayacanora the meaning of this her +strange appearance. He wished her anywhere but where she was: but +now that she was here, what heart could be so hard as not to take +pity on the poor wild thing? And Amyas as he spoke to her had, +perhaps, a tenderness in his tone, from very fear of hurting her, +which he had never used before. Passionately she told him how she +had followed on their track day and night, and had every evening +made sounds, as loud as she dared, in hopes of their hearing her, +and either waiting for her, or coming back to see what caused the +noise. + +Amyas now recollected the strange roaring which had followed them. + +"Noises? What did you make them with?" + +Ayacanora lifted her finger with an air of most self-satisfied +mystery, and then drew cautiously from under her feather cloak an +object at which Amyas had hard work to keep his countenance. + +"Look!" whispered she, as if half afraid that the thing itself +should hear her. "I have it--the holy trumpet!" + +There it was verily, that mysterious bone of contention; a handsome +earthen tube some two feet long, neatly glazed, and painted with +quaint grecques and figures of animals; a relic evidently of some +civilization now extinct. + +Brimblecombe rubbed his little fat hands. "Brave maid! you have +cheated Satan this time," quoth he; while Yeo advised that the +"idolatrous relic" should be forthwith "hove over cliff." + +"Let be," said Amyas. "What is the meaning of this, Ayacanora? +And why have you followed us?" + +She told a long story, from which Amyas picked up, as far as he +could understand her, that that trumpet had been for years the +torment of her life; the one thing in the tribe superior to her; +the one thing which she was not allowed to see, because, forsooth, +she was a woman. So she determined to show them that a woman was +as good as a man; and hence her hatred of marriage, and her +Amazonian exploits. But still the Piache would not show her that +trumpet, or tell her where it was; and as for going to seek it, +even she feared the superstitious wrath of the tribe at such a +profanation. But the day after the English went, the Piache chose +to express his joy at their departure; whereon, as was to be +expected, a fresh explosion between master and pupil, which ended, +she confessed, in her burning the old rogue's hut over his head, +from which he escaped with loss of all his conjuring-tackle, and +fled raging into the woods, vowing that he would carry off the +trumpet to the neighboring tribe. Whereon, by a sudden impulse, +the young lady took plenty of coca, her weapons, and her feathers, +started on his trail, and ran him to earth just as he was unveiling +the precious mystery. At which sight (she confessed) she was +horribly afraid, and half inclined to run; but, gathering courage +from the thought that the white men used to laugh at the whole +matter, she rushed upon the hapless conjuror, and bore off her +prize in triumph; and there it was! + +"I hope you have not killed him?" said Amyas. + +"I did beat him a little; but I thought you would not let me kill +him." + +Amyas was half amused with her confession of his authority over +her; but she went on-- + +"And then I dare not go back to the Indians; so I was forced to +come after you." + +"And is that, then, your only reason for coming after us?" asked +stupid Amyas. + +He had touched some secret chord--though what it was he was too +busy to inquire. The girl drew herself up proudly, blushing +scarlet, and said: + +"You never tell lies. Do you think that I would tell lies?" + +On which she fell to the rear, and followed them steadfastly, +speaking to no one, but evidently determined to follow them to the +world's end. + +They soon left the highroad; and for several days held on +downwards, hewing their path slowly and painfully through the thick +underwood. On the evening of the fourth day, they had reached the +margin of a river, at a point where it seemed broad and still +enough for navigation. For those three days they had not seen a +trace of human beings, and the spot seemed lonely enough for them +to encamp without fear of discovery, and begin the making of their +canoes. They began to spread themselves along the stream, in +search of the soft-wooded trees proper for their purpose; but +hardly had their search begun, when, in the midst of a dense +thicket, they came upon a sight which filled them with +astonishment. Beneath a honeycombed cliff, which supported one +enormous cotton-tree, was a spot of some thirty yards square +sloping down to the stream, planted in rows with magnificent +banana-plants, full twelve feet high, and bearing among their huge +waxy leaves clusters of ripening fruit; while, under their mellow +shade, yams and cassava plants were flourishing luxuriantly, the +whole being surrounded by a hedge of orange and scarlet flowers. +There it lay, streaked with long shadows from the setting sun, +while a cool southern air rustled in the cotton-tree, and flapped +to and fro the great banana-leaves; a tiny paradise of art and +care. But where was its inhabitant? + +Aroused by the noise of their approach, a figure issued from a cave +in the rocks, and, after gazing at them for a moment, came down the +garden towards them. He was a tall and stately old man, whose +snow-white beard and hair covered his chest and shoulders, while +his lower limbs were wrapt in Indian-web. Slowly and solemnly he +approached, a staff in one hand, a string of beads in the other, +the living likeness of some old Hebrew prophet, or anchorite of +ancient legend. He bowed courteously to Amyas (who of course +returned his salute), and was in act to speak, when his eye fell +upon the Indians, who were laying down their burdens in a heap +under the trees. His mild countenance assumed instantly an +expression of the acutest sorrow and displeasure; and, striking his +hands together, he spoke in Spanish: + +"Alas! miserable me! Alas! unhappy senors! Do my old eyes deceive +me, and is it one of those evil visions of the past which haunt my +dreams by night; or has the accursed thirst of gold, the ruin of my +race, penetrated even into this my solitude? Oh, senors, senors, +know you not that you bear with you your own poison, your own +familiar fiend, the root of every evil? And is it not enough for +you, senors, to load yourselves with the wedge of Achan, and +partake his doom, but you must make these hapless heathens the +victims of your greed and cruelty, and forestall for them on earth +those torments which may await their unbaptized souls hereafter?" + +"We have preserved, and not enslaved these Indians, ancient senor," +said Amyas, proudly; "and to-morrow will see them as free as the +birds over our heads." + +"Free? Then you cannot be countrymen of mine! But pardon an old +man, my son, if he has spoken too hastily in the bitterness of his +own experience. But who and whence are you? And why are you +bringing into this lonely wilderness that gold--for I know too well +the shape of those accursed packets, which would God that I had +never seen!" + +"What we are, reverend sir, matters little, as long as we behave to +you as the young should to the old. As for our gold, it will be a +curse or a blessing to us, I conceive, just as we use it well or +ill; and so is a man's head, or his hand, or any other thing; but +that is no reason for cutting off his limbs for fear of doing harm +with them; neither is it for throwing away those packages, which, +by your leave, we shall deposit in one of these caves. We must be +your neighbors, I fear, for a day or two; but I can promise you, +that your garden shall be respected, on condition that you do not +inform any human soul of our being here." + +"God forbid, senor, that I should try to increase the number of my +visitors, much less to bring hither strife and blood, of which I +have seen too much already. As you have come in peace, in peace +depart. Leave me alone with God and my penitence, and may the Lord +have mercy on you!" + +And he was about to withdraw, when, recollecting himself, he turned +suddenly to Amyas again-- + +"Pardon me, senor, if, after forty years of utter solitude, I +shrink at first from the conversation of human beings, and forget, +in the habitual shyness of a recluse, the duties of a hospitable +gentleman of Spain. My garden, and all which it produces, is at +your service. Only let me entreat that these poor Indians shall +have their share; for heathens though they be, Christ died for +them; and I cannot but cherish in my soul some secret hope that He +did not die in vain." + +"God forbid!" said Brimblecombe. "They are no worse than we, for +aught I see, whatsoever their fathers may have been; and they have +fared no worse than we since they have been with us, nor will, I +promise you." + +The good fellow did not tell that he had been starving himself for +the last three days to cram the children with his own rations; and +that the sailors, and even Amyas, had been going out of their way +every five minutes, to get fruit for their new pets. + +A camp was soon formed; and that evening the old hermit asked +Amyas, Cary, and Brimblecombe to come up into his cavern. + +They went; and after the accustomed compliments had passed, sat +down on mats upon the ground, while the old man stood, leaning +against a slab of stone surmounted by a rude wooden cross, which +evidently served him as a place of prayer. He seemed restless and +anxious, as if he waited for them to begin the conversation; while +they, in their turn, waited for him. At last, when courtesy would +not allow him to be silent any longer, he began with a faltering +voice: + +"You may be equally surprised, senors, at my presence in such a +spot, and at my asking you to become my guests even for one +evening, while I have no better hospitality to offer you." + +"It is superfluous, senor, to offer us food in your own habitation +when you have already put all that you possess at our command." + +"True, senors: and my motive for inviting you was, perhaps, +somewhat of a selfish one. I am possessed by a longing to +unburthen my heart of a tale which I never yet told to man, and +which I fear can give to you nothing but pain; and yet I will +entreat you, of your courtesy, to hear of that which you cannot +amend, simply in mercy to a man who feels that he must confess to +some one, or die as miserable as he has lived. And I believe my +confidence will not be misplaced, when it is bestowed upon you. I +have been a cavalier, even as you are; and, strange as it may seem, +that which I have to tell I would sooner impart to the ears of a +soldier than of a priest; because it will then sink into souls +which can at least sympathize, though they cannot absolve. And +you, cavaliers, I perceive to be noble, from your very looks; to be +valiant, by your mere presence in this hostile land; and to be +gentle, courteous, and prudent, by your conduct this day to me and +to your captives. Will you, then, hear an old man's tale? I am, +as you see, full of words; for speech, from long disuse, is +difficult to me, and I fear at every sentence lest my stiffened +tongue should play the traitor to my worn-out brain: but if my +request seems impertinent, you have only to bid me talk as a host +should, of matters which concern his guests, and not himself." + +The three young men, equally surprised and interested by this +exordium, could only entreat their host to "use their ears as those +of his slaves," on which, after fresh apologies, he began: + +"Know, then, victorious cavaliers, that I, whom you now see here as +a poor hermit, was formerly one of the foremost of that terrible +band who went with Pizarro to the conquest of Peru. Eighty years +old am I this day, unless the calendar which I have carved upon +yonder tree deceives me; and twenty years old was I when I sailed +with that fierce man from Panama, to do that deed with which all +earth, and heaven, and hell itself, I fear, has rung. How we +endured, suffered, and triumphed; how, mad with success, and +glutted with blood, we turned our swords against each other, I need +not tell to you. For what gentleman of Europe knows not our glory +and our shame?" + +His hearers bowed assent. + +"Yes; you have heard of our prowess: for glorious we were awhile, +in the sight of God and man. But I will not speak of our glory, +for it is tarnished; nor of our wealth, for it was our poison; nor +of the sins of my comrades, for they have expiated them; but of my +own sins, senors, which are more in number than the hairs of my +head, and a burden too great to bear. Miserere Domine!" + +And smiting on his breast, the old warrior went on: + +"As I said, we were mad with blood; and none more mad than I. +Surely it is no fable that men are possessed, even in this latter +age, by devils. Why else did I rejoice in slaying? Why else was +I, the son of a noble and truthful cavalier of Castile, among the +foremost to urge upon my general the murder of the Inca? Why did I +rejoice over his dying agonies? Why, when Don Ferdinando de Soto +returned, and upbraided us with our villainy, did I, instead of +confessing the sin which that noble cavalier set before us, +withstand him to his face, ay, and would have drawn the sword on +him, but that he refused to fight a liar, as he said that I was?" + +"Then Don de Soto was against the murder? So his own grandson told +me. But I had heard of him only as a tyrant and a butcher." + +"Senor, he was compact of good and evil, as are other men: he has +paid dearly for his sin; let us hope that he has been paid in turn +for his righteousness." + +John Brimblecombe shook his head at this doctrine, but did not +speak. + +"So you know his grandson? I trust he is a noble cavalier?" + +Amyas was silent; the old gentleman saw that he had touched some +sore point, and continued: + +"And why, again, senors, did I after that day give myself up to +cruelty as to a sport; yea, thought that I did God service by +destroying the creatures whom He had made; I who now dare not +destroy a gnat, lest I harm a being more righteous than myself? +Was I mad? If I was, how then was I all that while as prudent as I +am this day? But I am not here to argue, senors, but to confess. +In a word, there was no deed of blood done for the next few years +in which I had not my share, if it were but within my reach. When +Challcuchima was burned, I was consenting; when that fair girl, the +wife of Inca Manco, was tortured to death, I smiled at the agonies +at which she too smiled, and taunted on the soldiers, to try if I +could wring one groan from her before she died. You know what +followed, the pillage, the violence, the indignities offered to the +virgins of the Sun. Senors, I will not pollute your chaste ears +with what was done. But, senors, I had a brother." + +And the old man paused awhile. + +"A brother--whether better or worse than me, God knows, before whom +he has appeared ere now. At least he did not, as I did, end as a +rebel to his king! There was a maiden in one of those convents, +senors, more beautiful than day: and (I blush to tell it) the two +brothers of whom I spoke quarrelled for the possession of her. +They struck each other, senors! Who struck first I know not; but +swords were drawn, and-- The cavaliers round parted them, crying +shame. And one of those two brothers--the one who speaks to you +now--crying, 'If I cannot have her, no man shall!' turned the sword +which was aimed at his brother, against that hapless maiden--and-- +hear me out, senors, before you flee from my presence as from that +of a monster!--stabbed her to the heart. And as she died--one +moment more, senors, that I may confess all!--she looked up in my +face with a smile as of heaven, and thanked me for having rid her +once and for all from Christians and their villainy." + +The old man paused. + +"God forgive you, senor!" said Jack Brimblecombe, softly. + +"You do not, then, turn from me, do not curse me? Then I will try +you farther still, senors. I will know from human lips, whether +man can do such deeds as I have done, and yet be pitied by his +kind; that so I may have some hope, that where man has mercy, God +may have mercy also. Do you think that I repented at those awful +words? Nothing less, senors all. No more than I did when De Soto +(on whose soul God have mercy) called me--me, a liar! I knew +myself a sinner; and for that very reason I was determined to sin. +I would go on, that I might prove myself right to myself, by +showing that I could go on, and not be struck dead from heaven. +Out of mere pride, senors, and self-will, I would fill up the cup +of my iniquity; and I filled it. + +"You know, doubtless, senors, how, after the death of old Almagro, +his son's party conspired against Pizarro. Now my brother remained +faithful to his old commander; and for that very reason, if you +will believe it, did I join the opposite party, and gave myself up, +body and soul, to do Almagro's work. It was enough for me, that +the brother who had struck me thought a man right, for me to think +that man a devil. What Almagro's work was, you know. He slew +Pizarro, murdered him, senors, like a dog, or rather, like an old +lion." + +"He deserved his doom," said Amyas. + +"Let God judge him, senor, not we; and least of all of us I, who +drew the first blood, and perhaps the last, that day. I, senors, +it was who treacherously stabbed Francisco de Chanes on the +staircase, and so opened the door which else had foiled us all; and +I-- But I am speaking to men of honor, not to butchers. Suffice +it that the old man died like a lion, and that we pulled him down, +young as we were, like curs. + +"Well, I followed Almagro's fortunes. I helped to slay Alvarado. +Call that my third murder, if you will, for if he was traitor to a +traitor, I was traitor to a true man. Then to the war; you know +how Vaca de Castro was sent from Spain to bring order and justice +where was naught but chaos, and the dance of all devils. We met +him on the hills of Chupas. Peter of Candia, the Venetian villain, +pointed our guns false, and Almagro stabbed him to the heart. We +charged with our lances, man against man, horse against horse. All +fights I ever fought" (and the old man's eyes flashed out the +ancient fire) "were child's play to that day. Our lances shivered +like reeds, and we fell on with battle-axe and mace. None asked +for quarter, and none gave it; friend to friend, cousin to cousin-- +no, nor brother, O God! to brother. We were the better armed: but +numbers were on their side. Fat Carbajal charged our cannon like +an elephant, and took them; but Holguin was shot down. I was with +Almagro, and we swept all before us, inch by inch, but surely, till +the night fell. Then Vaca de Castro, the licentiate, the clerk, +the schoolman, the man of books, came down on us with his reserve +like a whirlwind. Oh! cavaliers, did not God fight against us, +when He let us, the men of iron, us, the heroes of Cuzco and +Vilcaconga, be foiled by a scholar in a black gown, with a pen +behind his ear? We were beaten. Some ran; some did not run, +senors; and I did not. Geronimo de Alvarado shouted to me, 'We +slew Pizarro! We killed the tyrant!' and we rushed upon the +conqueror's lances, to die like cavaliers. There was a gallant +gentleman in front of me. His lance struck me in the crest, and +bore me over my horse's croup: but mine, senors, struck him full in +the vizor. We both went to the ground together, and the battle +galloped over us. + +"I know not how long I lay, for I was stunned: but after awhile I +lifted myself. My lance was still clenched in my hand, broken but +not parted. The point of it was in my foeman's brain. I crawled +to him, weary and wounded, and saw that he was a noble cavalier. +He lay on his back, his arms spread wide. I knew that he was dead: +but there came over me the strangest longing to see that dead man's +face. Perhaps I knew him. At least I could set my foot upon it, +and say, 'Vanquished as I am, there lies a foe!' I caught hold of +the rivets, and tore his helmet off. The moon shone bright, +senors, as bright as she shines now--the glaring, ghastly, tell- +tale moon, which shows man all the sins which he tries to hide; and +by that moonlight, senors, I beheld the dead man's face. And it +was the face of my brother! + + . . . . . . . + +"Did you ever guess, most noble cavaliers, what Cain's curse might +be like? Look on me, and know! + +"I tore off my armor and fled, as Cain fled--northward ever, till I +should reach a land where the name of Spaniard, yea, and the name +of Christian, which the Spaniard has caused to be blasphemed from +east to west, should never come. I sank fainting, and waked +beneath this rock, this tree, forty-four years ago, and I have +never left them since, save once, to obtain seeds from Indians, who +knew not that I was a Spanish Conquistador. And may God have mercy +on my soul!" + +The old man ceased; and his young hearers, deeply affected by his +tale, sat silent for a few minutes. Then John Brimblecombe spoke: + +"You are old, sir, and I am young; and perhaps it is not my place +to counsel you. Moreover, sir, in spite of this strange dress of +mine, I am neither more nor less than an English priest; and I +suppose you will not be willing to listen to a heretic." + +"I have seen Catholics, senor, commit too many abominations even +with the name of God upon their lips, to shrink from a heretic if +he speak wisely and well. At least, you are a man; and after all, +my heart yearns more and more, the longer I sit among you, for the +speech of beings of my own race. Say what you will, in God's +name!" + +"I hold, sir," said Jack, modestly, "according to holy Scripture, +that whosoever repents from his heart, as God knows you seem to +have done, is forgiven there and then; and though his sins be as +scarlet, they shall be white as snow, for the sake of Him who died +for all." + +"Amen! Amen!" said the old man, looking lovingly at his little +crucifix. "I hope and pray--His name is Love. I know it now; who +better? But, sir, even if He have forgiven me, how can I forgive +myself? In honor, sir, I must be just, and sternly just, to +myself, even if God be indulgent; as He has been to me, who has +left me here in peace for forty years, instead of giving me a prey +to the first puma or jaguar which howls round me every night. He +has given me time to work out my own salvation; but have I done it? +That doubt maddens me at whiles. When I look upon that crucifix, I +float on boundless hope: but if I take my eyes from it for a +moment, faith fails, and all is blank, and dark, and dreadful, till +the devil whispers me to plunge into yon stream, and once and for +ever wake to certainty, even though it be in hell." + +What was Jack to answer? He himself knew not at first. More was +wanted than the mere repetition of free pardon. + +"Heretic as I am, sir, you will not believe me when I tell you, as +a priest, that God accepts your penitence." + +"My heart tells me so already, at moments. But how know I that it +does not lie?" + +"Senor," said Jack, "the best way to punish oneself for doing ill, +seems to me to go and do good; and the best way to find out whether +God means you well, is to find out whether He will help you to do +well. If you have wronged Indians in time past, see whether you +cannot right them now. If you can, you are safe. For the Lord +will not send the devil's servants to do His work." + +The old man held down his head. + +"Right the Indians? Alas! what is done, is done!" + +"Not altogether, senor," said Amyas, "as long as an Indian remains +alive in New Granada." + +"Senor, shall I confess my weakness? A voice within me has bid me +a hundred times go forth and labor, for those oppressed wretches, +but I dare not obey. I dare not look them in the face. I should +fancy that they knew my story; that the very birds upon the trees +would reveal my crime, and bid them turn from me with horror." + +"Senor," said Amyas, "these are but the sick fancies of a noble +spirit, feeding on itself in solitude. You have but to try to +conquer." + +"And look now," said Jack, "if you dare not go forth to help the +Indians, see now how God has brought the Indians to your own door. +Oh, excellent sir--" + +"Call me not excellent," said the old man, smiting his breast. + +"I do, and shall, sir, while I see in you an excellent repentance, +an excellent humility, and an excellent justice," said Jack. "But +oh, sir, look upon these forty souls, whom we must leave behind, +like sheep which have no shepherd. Could you not teach them to +fear God and to love each other, to live like rational men, perhaps +to die like Christians? They would obey you as a dog obeys his +master. You might be their king, their father, yea, their pope, if +you would." + +"You do not speak like a Lutheran." + +"I am not a Lutheran, but an Englishman: but, Protestant as I am, +God knows, I had sooner see these poor souls of your creed, than of +none." + +"But I am no priest." + +"When they are ready," said Jack, "the Lord will send a priest. If +you begin the good work, you may trust to Him to finish it." + +"God help me!" said the old warrior. + +The talk lasted long into the night, but Amyas was up long before +daybreak, felling the trees; and as he and Cary walked back to +breakfast, the first thing which they saw was the old man in his +garden with four or five Indian children round him, talking +smilingly to them. + +"The old man's heart is sound still," said Will. "No man is lost +who still is fond of little children." + +"Ah, senors!" said the hermit as they came up, "you see that I have +begun already to act upon your advice." + +"And you have begun at the right end," quoth Amyas; "if you win the +children, you win the mothers." + +"And if you win the mothers," quoth Will, "the poor fathers must +needs obey their wives, and follow in the wake." + +The old man only sighed. "The prattle of these little ones softens +my hard heart, senors, with a new pleasure; but it saddens me, when +I recollect that there may be children of mine now in the world-- +children who have never known a father's love--never known aught +but a master's threats--" + +"God has taken care of these little ones. Trust that He has taken +care of yours." + +That day Amyas assembled the Indians, and told them that they must +obey the hermit as their king, and settle there as best they could: +for if they broke up and wandered away, nothing was left for them +but to fall one by one into the hands of the Spaniards. They heard +him with their usual melancholy and stupid acquiescence, and went +and came as they were bid, like animated machines; but the negroes +were of a different temper; and four or five stout fellows gave +Amyas to understand that they had been warriors in their own +country, and that warriors they would be still; and nothing should +keep them from Spaniard-hunting. Amyas saw that the presence of +these desperadoes in the new colony would both endanger the +authority of the hermit, and bring the Spaniards down upon it in a +few weeks; so, making a virtue of necessity, he asked them whether +they would go Spaniard-hunting with him. + +This was just what the bold Coromantees wished for; they grinned +and shouted their delight at serving under so great a warrior, and +then set to work most gallantly, getting through more in the day +than any ten Indians, and indeed than any two Englishmen. + +So went on several days, during which the trees were felled, and +the process of digging them out began; while Ayacanora, silent and +moody, wandered into the woods all day with her blow-gun, and +brought home at evening a load of parrots, monkeys, and curassows; +two or three old hands were sent out to hunt likewise; so that, +what with the game and the fish of the river, which seemed +inexhaustible, and the fruit of the neighboring palm-trees, there +was no lack of food in the camp. But what to do with Ayacanora +weighed heavily on the mind of Amyas. He opened his heart on the +matter to the old hermit, and asked him whether he would take +charge of her. The latter smiled, and shook his head at the +notion. "If your report of her be true, I may as well take in hand +to tame a jaguar." However, he promised to try; and one evening, +as they were all standing together before the mouth of the cave, +Ayacanora came up smiling with the fruit of her day's sport; and +Amyas, thinking this a fit opportunity, began a carefully prepared +harangue to her, which he intended to be altogether soothing, and +even pathetic,--to the effect that the maiden, having no parents, +was to look upon this good old man as her father; that he would +instruct her in the white man's religion (at which promise Yeo, as +a good Protestant, winced a good deal), and teach her how to be +happy and good, and so forth; and that, in fine, she was to remain +there with the hermit. + +She heard him quietly, her great dark eyes opening wider and wider, +her bosom swelling, her stature seeming to grow taller every +moment, as she clenched her weapons firmly in both her hands. +Beautiful as she always was, she had never looked so beautiful +before; and as Amyas spoke of parting with her, it was like +throwing away a lovely toy; but it must be done, for her sake, for +his, perhaps for that of all the crew. + +The last words had hardly passed his lips, when, with a shriek of +mingled scorn, rage, and fear, she dashed through the astonished +group. + +"Stop her!" were Amyas's first words; but his next were, "Let her +go!" for, springing like a deer through the little garden and over +the flower-fence, she turned, menacing with her blow-gun the +sailors, who had already started in her pursuit. + +"Let her alone, for Heaven's sake!" shouted Amyas, who, he scarce +knew why, shrank from the thought of seeing those graceful limbs +struggling in the seamen's grasp. + +She turned again, and in another minute her gaudy plumes had +vanished among the dark forest stems, as swiftly as if she had been +a passing bird. + +All stood thunderstruck at this unexpected end to the conference. +At last Aymas spoke: + +"There's no use in standing here idle, gentlemen. Staring after +her won't bring her back. After all, I'm glad she's gone." + +But the tone of his voice belied his words. Now he had lost her, +he wanted her back; and perhaps every one present, except he, +guessed why. + +But Ayacanora did not return; and ten days more went on in +continual toil at the canoes without any news of her from the +hunters. Amyas, by the by, had strictly bidden these last not to +follow the girl, not even to speak to her, if they came across her +in their wanderings. He was shrewd enough to guess that the only +way to cure her sulkiness was to outsulk her; but there was no sign +of her presence in any direction; and the canoes being finished at +last, the gold, and such provisions as they could collect, were +placed on board, and one evening the party prepared for their fresh +voyage. They determined to travel as much as possible by night, +for fear of discovery, especially in the neighborhood of the few +Spanish settlements which were then scattered along the banks of +the main stream. These, however, the negroes knew, so that there +was no fear of coming on them unawares; and as for falling asleep +in their night journeys, "Nobody," the negroes said, "ever slept on +the Magdalena; the mosquitoes took too good care of that." Which +fact Amyas and his crew verified afterwards as thoroughly as +wretched men could do. + +The sun had sunk; the night had all but fallen; the men were all on +board; Amyas in command of one canoe, Cary of the other. The +Indians were grouped on the bank, watching the party with their +listless stare, and with them the young guide, who preferred +remaining among the Indians, and was made supremely happy by the +present of Spanish sword and an English axe; while, in the midst, +the old hermit, with tears in his eyes, prayed God's blessing on +them. + +"I owe to you, noble cavaliers, new peace, new labor, I may say, +new life. May God be with you, and teach you to use your gold and +your swords better than I used mine. + +The adventurers waved their hands to him. + +"Give way, men," cried Amyas; and as he spoke the paddles dashed +into the water, to a right English hurrah! which sent the birds +fluttering from their roosts, and was answered by the yell of a +hundred monkeys, and the distant roar of the jaguar. + +About twenty yards below, a wooded rock, some ten feet high, hung +over the stream. The river was not there more than fifteen yards +broad; deep near the rock, shallow on the farther side; and Amyas's +canoe led the way, within ten feet of the stone. + +As he passed, a dark figure leapt from the bushes on the edge, and +plunged heavily into the water close to the boat. All started. A +jaguar? No; he would not have missed so short a spring. What, +then? A human being? + +A head rose panting to the surface, and with a few strong strokes +the swimmer had clutched the gunwale. It was Ayacanora! + +"Go back!" shouted Amyas. "Go back, girl!" + +She uttered the same wild cry with which she had fled into the +forest. + +"I will die, then!" and she threw up her arms. Another moment, and +she had sunk. + +To see her perish before his eyes! who could bear that? Her hands +alone were above the surface. Amyas caught convulsively at her in +the darkness, and seized her wrist. + +A yell rose from the negroes: a roar from the crew as from a cage +of lions. There was a rush and a swirl along the surface of the +stream; and "Caiman! caiman!" shouted twenty voices. + +Now, or never, for the strong arm! "To larboard, men, or over we +go!" cried Amyas, and with one huge heave he lifted the slender +body upon the gunwale. Her lower limbs were still in the water, +when, within arm's length, rose above the stream a huge muzzle. +The lower jaw lay flat, the upper reached as high as Amyas's head. +He could see the long fangs gleam white in the moonshine; he could +see for one moment full down the monstrous depths of that great +gape, which would have crushed a buffalo. Three inches, and no +more, from that soft side, the snout surged up-- + +There was the gleam of an axe from above, a sharp ringing blow, and +the jaws came together with a clash which rang from bank to bank. +He had missed her! Swerving beneath the blow, his snout had passed +beneath her body, and smashed up against the side of the canoe, as +the striker, overbalanced, fell headlong overboard upon the +monster's back. + +"Who is it?" + +"Yeo!" shouted a dozen. + +Man and beast went down together, and where they sank, the +moonlight shone on a great swirling eddy, while all held their +breaths, and Ayacanora cowered down into the bottom of the canoe, +her proud spirit utterly broken, for the first time, by the terror +of that great need, and by a bitter loss. For in the struggle, the +holy trumpet, companion of all her wanderings, had fallen from her +bosom; and her fond hope of bringing magic prosperity to her +English friends had sunk with it to the bottom of the stream. + +None heeded her; not even Amyas, round whose knees she clung, +fawning like a spaniel dog: for where was Yeo? + +Another swirl; a shout from the canoe abreast of them, and Yeo +rose, having dived clean under his own boat, and risen between the +two. + +"Safe as yet, lads! Heave me a line, or he'll have me after all." + +But ere the brute reappeared, the old man was safe on board. + +"The Lord has stood by me," panted he, as he shot the water from +his ears. "We went down together: I knew the Indian trick, and +being uppermost, had my thumbs in his eyes before he could turn: +but he carried me down to the very mud. My breath was nigh gone, +so I left go, and struck up: but my toes tingled as I rose again, +I'll warrant. There the beggar is, looking for me, I declare!" + +And, true enough, there was the huge brute swimming slowly round +and round, in search of his lost victim. It was too dark to put an +arrow into his eye; so they paddled on, while Ayacanora crouched +silently at Amyas's feet. + +"Yeo!" asked he, in a low voice, "what shall we do with her?" + +"Why ask me, sir?" said the old man, as he had a very good right to +ask. + +"Because, when one don't know oneself, one had best inquire of +one's elders. Besides, you saved her life at the risk of your own, +and have a right to a voice in the matter, if any one has, old +friend." + +"Then, my dear young captain, if the Lord puts a precious soul +under your care, don't you refuse to bear the burden He lays on +you." + +Amyas was silent awhile; while Ayacanora, who was evidently utterly +exhausted by the night's adventure, and probably by long +wanderings, watchings, and weepings which had gone before it, sank +with her head against his knee, fell fast asleep, and breathed as +gently as a child. + +At last he rose in the canoe, and called Cary alongside. + +"Listen to me, gentlemen, and sailors all. You know that we have a +maiden on board here, by no choice of our own. Whether she will be +a blessing to us, God alone can tell: but she may turn to the +greatest curse which has befallen us ever since we came out over +Bar three years ago. Promise me one thing, or I put her ashore the +next beach, and that is, that you will treat her as if she were +your own sister; and make an agreement here and now, that if the +maid comes to harm among us, the man that is guilty shall hang for +it by the neck till he's dead, even though he be I, Captain Leigh, +who speak to you. I'll hang you, as I am a Christian; and I give +you free leave to hang me." + +"A very fair bargain," quoth Cary, "and I for one will see it kept +to. Lads, we'll twine a double strong halter for the captain as we +go down along." + +"I am not jesting, Will." + +"I know it, good old lad," said Cary, stretching out his own hand +to him across the water through the darkness, and giving him a +hearty shake. "I know it; and listen, men! So help me God! but +I'll be the first to back the Captain in being as good as his word, +as I trust he never will need to be." + +"Amen!" said Brimblecombe. "Amen!" said Yeo; and many an honest +voice joined in that honest compact, and kept it too, like men. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +HOW THEY TOOK THE GREAT GALLEON + + +"When captains courageous, whom death could not daunt, +Did march to the siege of the city of Gaunt, +They muster'd their soldiers by two and by three, +But the foremost in battle was Mary Ambree. +When brave Sir John Major was slain in her sight, +Who was her true lover, her joy and delight, +Because he was murther'd most treacherouslie, +Then vow'd to avenge him fair Mary Ambree." + + Old Ballad, A. D. 1584. + + +One more glance at the golden tropic sea, and the golden tropic +evenings, by the shore of New Granada, in the golden Spanish Main. + +The bay of Santa Marta is rippling before the land-breeze one sheet +of living flame. The mighty forests are sparkling with myriad +fireflies. The lazy mist which lounges round the inner hills +shines golden in the sunset rays; and, nineteen thousand feet +aloft, the mighty peak of Horqueta cleaves the abyss of air, rose- +red against the dark-blue vault of heaven. The rosy cone fades to +a dull leaden hue; but only for awhile. The stars flash out one by +one, and Venus, like another moon, tinges the eastern snows with +gold, and sheds across the bay a long yellow line of rippling +light. Everywhere is glory and richness. What wonder if the earth +in that enchanted land be as rich to her inmost depths as she is +upon the surface? The heaven, the hills, the sea, are one +sparkling garland of jewels--what wonder if the soil be jewelled +also? if every watercourse and bank of earth be spangled with +emeralds and rubies, with grains of gold and feathered wreaths of +native silver? + +So thought, in a poetic mood, the Bishop of Cartagena, as he sat in +the state cabin of that great galleon, The City of the True Cross, +and looked pensively out of the window towards the shore. The good +man was in a state of holy calm. His stout figure rested on one +easy-chair, his stout ankles on another, beside a table spread with +oranges and limes, guavas and pine-apples, and all the fruits of +Ind. + +An Indian girl, bedizened with scarfs and gold chains, kept off the +flies with a fan of feathers; and by him, in a pail of ice from the +Horqueta (the gift of some pious Spanish lady, who had "spent" an +Indian or two in bringing down the precious offering), stood more +than one flask of virtuous wine of Alicant. But he was not so +selfish, good man, as to enjoy either ice or wine alone; Don Pedro, +colonel of the soldiers on board, Don Alverez, intendant of his +Catholic majesty's customs at Santa Marta, and Don Paul, captain of +mariners in The City of the True Cross, had, by his especial +request, come to his assistance that evening, and with two friars, +who sat at the lower end of the table, were doing their best to +prevent the good man from taking too bitterly to heart the present +unsatisfactory state of his cathedral town, which had just been +sacked and burnt by an old friend of ours, Sir Francis Drake. + +"We have been great sufferers, senors,--ah, great sufferers," +snuffled the bishop, quoting Scripture, after the fashion of the +day, glibly enough, but often much too irreverently for me to +repeat, so boldly were his texts travestied, and so freely +interlarded by grumblings at Tita and the mosquitoes. "Great +sufferers, truly; but there shall be a remnant,--ah, a remnant like +the shaking of the olive tree and the gleaning grapes when the +vintage is done.--Ah! Gold? Yes, I trust Our Lady's mercies are +not shut up, nor her arms shortened.--Look, senors!"--and he +pointed majestically out of the window. "It looks gold! it smells +of gold, as I may say, by a poetical license. Yea, the very waves, +as they ripple past us, sing of gold, gold, gold!" + +"It is a great privilege," said the intendant, "to have comfort so +gracefully administered at once by a churchman and a scholar." + +"A poet, too," said Don Pedro. "You have no notion what sweet +sonnets--" + +"Hush, Don Pedro--hush! If I, a mateless bird, have spent an idle +hour in teaching lovers how to sing, why, what of that? I am a +churchman, senors; but I am a man and I can feel, senors; I can +sympathize; I can palliate; I can excuse. Who knows better than I +how much human nature lurks in us fallen sons of Adam? Tita!" + +"Um?" said the trembling girl, with a true Indian grunt. + +"Fill his excellency the intendant's glass. Does much more +treasure come down, illustrious senor? May the poor of Mary hope +for a few more crumbs from their Mistress's table?" + +"Not a pezo, I fear. The big white cow up there"--and he pointed +to the Horqueta--"has been milked dry for this year." + +"Ah!" And he looked up at the magnificent snow peak. "Only good +to cool wine with, eh? and as safe for the time being as Solomon's +birds." + +"Solomon's birds? Explain your recondite allusion, my lord." + +"Enlighten us, your excellency, enlighten us." + +"Ah! thereby hangs a tale. You know the holy birds who run up and +down on the Prado at Seville among the ladies' pretty feet,--eh? +with hooked noses and cinnamon crests? Of course. Hoopoes--Upupa, +as the classics have it. Well, senors, once on a time, the story +goes, these hoopoes all had golden crowns on their heads; and, +senors, they took the consequences--eh? But it befell on a day +that all the birds and beasts came to do homage at the court of his +most Catholic majesty King Solomon, and among them came these same +hoopoes; and they had a little request to make, the poor rogues. +And what do you think it was? Why, that King Solomon would pray +for them that they might wear any sort of crowns but these same +golden ones; for--listen, Tita, and see the snare of riches-- +mankind so hunted, and shot, and trapped, and snared them, for the +sake of these same golden crowns, that life was a burden to bear. +So Solomon prayed, and instead of golden crowns, they all received +crowns of feathers; and ever since, senors, they live as merrily as +crickets in an oven, and also have the honor of bearing the name of +his most Catholic majesty King Solomon. Tita! fill the senor +commandant's glass. Fray Gerundio, what are you whispering about +down there, sir?" + +Fray Gerundio had merely commented to his brother on the bishop's +story of Solomon's birds with an-- + +"O si sic omnia!--would that all gold would turn to feathers in +like wise!" + +"Then, friend," replied the other, a Dominican, like Gerundio, but +of a darker and sterner complexion, "corrupt human nature would +within a week discover some fresh bauble, for which to kill and be +killed in vain." + +"What is that, Fray Gerundio?" asked the bishop again. + +"I merely remarked, that it were well for the world if all mankind +were to put up the same prayer as the hoopoes." + +"World, sir? What do you know about the world? Convert your +Indians, sir, if you please, and leave affairs of state to your +superiors. You will excuse him, senors" (turning to the Dons, and +speaking in a lower tone). "A very worthy and pious man, but a +poor peasant's son; and beside--you understand. A little wrong +here; too much fasting and watching, I fear, good man." And the +bishop touched his forehead knowingly, to signify that Fray +Gerundio's wits were in an unsatisfactory state. + +The Fray heard and saw with a quiet smile. He was one of those +excellent men whom the cruelties of his countrymen had stirred up +(as the darkness, by mere contrast, makes the light more bright), +as they did Las Casas, Gasca, and many another noble name which is +written in the book of life, to deeds of love and pious daring +worthy of any creed or age. True Protestants, they protested, even +before kings, against the evil which lay nearest them, the sin +which really beset them; true liberals, they did not disdain to +call the dark-skinned heathen their brothers; and asserted in terms +which astonish us, when we recollect the age in which they were +spoken, the inherent freedom of every being who wore the flesh and +blood which their Lord wore; true martyrs, they bore witness of +Christ, and received too often the rewards of such, in slander and +contempt. Such an one was Fray Gerundio; a poor, mean, clumsy- +tongued peasant's son, who never could put three sentences +together, save when he waxed eloquent, crucifix in hand, amid some +group of Indians or negroes. He was accustomed to such rebuffs as +the bishop's; he took them for what they were worth, and sipped his +wine in silence; while the talk went on. + +"They say," observed the commandant, "that a very small Plate-fleet +will go to Spain this year." + +"What else?" says the intendant. "What have we to send, in the +name of all saints, since these accursed English Lutherans have +swept us out clean?" + +"And if we had anything to send," says the sea-captain, "what have +we to send it in? That fiend incarnate, Drake--" + +"Ah!" said his holiness; "spare my ears! Don Pedro, you will +oblige my weakness by not mentioning that man;--his name is +Tartarean, unfit for polite lips. Draco--a dragon--serpent--the +emblem of Diabolus himself--ah! And the guardian of the golden +apples of the West, who would fain devour our new Hercules, his +most Catholic majesty. Deceived Eve, too, with one of those same +apples--a very evil name, senors--a Tartarean name,--Tita!" + +"Um!" + +"Fill my glass." + +"Nay," cried the colonel, with a great oath, "this English fellow +is of another breed of serpent from that, I warrant." + +"Your reason, senor; your reason?" + +"Because this one would have seen Eve at the bottom of the sea, +before he let her, or any one but himself, taste aught which looked +like gold." + +"Ah, ah!--very good! But--we laugh, valiant senors, while the +Church weeps. Alas for my sheep!" + +"And alas for their sheepfold! It will be four years before we can +get Cartagena rebuilt again. And as for the blockhouse, when we +shall get that rebuilt, Heaven only knows, while his majesty goes +on draining the Indies for his English Armada. The town is as +naked now as an Indian's back." + +"Baptista Antonio, the surveyor, has sent home by me a relation to +the king, setting forth our defenceless state. But to read a +relation and to act on it are two cocks of very different hackles, +bishop, as all statesmen know. Heaven grant we may have orders by +the next fleet to fortify, or we shall be at the mercy of every +English pirate!" + +"Ah, that blockhouse!" sighed the bishop. "That was indeed a +villainous trick. A hundred and ten thousand ducats for the ransom +of the town! After having burned and plundered the one-half--and +having made me dine with them too, ah! and sit between the--the +serpent, and his lieutenant-general--and drunk my health in my own +private wine--wine that I had from Xeres nine years ago, senors and +offered, the shameless heretics, to take me to England, if I would +turn Lutheran, and find me a wife, and make an honest man of me-- +ah! and then to demand fresh ransom for the priory and the fort-- +perfidious!" + +"Well," said the colonel, "they had the law of us, the cunning +rascals, for we forgot to mention anything but the town, in the +agreement. Who would have dreamed of such a fetch as that?" + +"So I told my good friend the prior, when he came to me to borrow +the thousand crowns. It was Heaven's will. Unexpected like the +thunderbolt, and to be borne as such. Every man must bear his own +burden. How could I lend him aught?" + +"Your holiness's money had been all carried off by them before," +said the intendant, who knew, and none better, the exact contrary. + +"Just so--all my scanty savings! desolate in my lone old age. Ah, +senors, had we not had warning of the coming of these wretches from +my dear friend the Marquess of Santa Cruz, whom I remember daily in +my prayers, we had been like to them who go down quick into the +pit. I too might have saved a trifle, had I been minded: but in +thinking too much of others, I forgot myself, alas!" + +"Warning or none, we had no right to be beaten by such a handful," +said the sea-captain; "and a shame it is, and a shame it will be, +for many a day to come." + +"Do you mean to cast any slur, sir, upon the courage and conduct of +his Catholic majesty's soldiers?" asked the colonel. + +"I?--No; but we were foully beaten, and that behind our barricades +too, and there's the plain truth." + +"Beaten, sir! Do you apply such a term to the fortunes of war? +What more could our governor have done? Had we not the ways filled +with poisoned caltrops, guarded by Indian archers, barred with +butts full of earth, raked with culverins and arquebuses? What +familiar spirit had we, sir, to tell us that these villains would +come along the sea-beach, and not by the high-road, like Christian +men?" + +"Ah!" said the bishop, "it was by intuition diabolic, I doubt not, +that they took that way. Satanas must need help those who serve +him; and for my part, I can only attribute (I would the captain +here had piety enough to do so) the misfortune which occurred to +art-magic. I believe these men to have been possessed by all +fiends whatsoever." + +"Well, your holiness," said the colonel, "there may have been +devilry in it; how else would men have dared to run right into the +mouths of our cannon, fire their shot against our very noses, and +tumble harmless over those huge butts of earth?" + +"Doubtless by force of the fiends which raged with them," +interposed the bishop. + +"And then, with their blasphemous cries, leap upon us with sword +and pike? I myself saw that Lieutenant-General Carlisle hew down +with one stroke that noble young gentleman the ensign-bearer, your +excellency's sister's son's nephew, though he was armed cap-a-pie. +Was not art-magic here? And that most furious and blaspheming +Lutheran Captain Young, I saw how he caught our general by the +head, after the illustrious Don Alonzo had given him a grievous +wound, threw him to the earth, and so took him. Was not art-magic +here?" + +"Well, I say," said the captain, "if you are looking for art-magic, +what say you to their marching through the flank fire of our +galleys, with eleven pieces of ordnance, and two hundred shot +playing on them, as if it had been a mosquito swarm? Some said my +men fired too high: but that was the English rascals' doing, for +they got down on the tide beach. But, senor commandant, though +Satan may have taught them that trick, was it he that taught them +to carry pikes a foot longer than yours?" + +"Ah, well," said the bishop, "sacked are we; and San Domingo, as I +hear, in worse case than we are; and St. Augustine in Florida +likewise; and all that is left for a poor priest like me is to +return to Spain, and see whether the pious clemency of his majesty, +and of the universal Father, may not be willing to grant some small +relief or bounty to the poor of Mary--perhaps--(for who knows?) to +translate to a sphere of more peaceful labor one who is now old, +senors, and weary with many toils--Tita! fill our glasses. I have +saved somewhat--as you may have done, senors, from the general +wreck; and for the flock, when I am no more, illustrious senors, +Heaven's mercies are infinite; new cities will rise from the ashes +of the old, new mines pour forth their treasures into the +sanctified laps of the faithful, and new Indians flock toward the +life-giving standard of the Cross, to put on the easy yoke and +light burden of the Church, and--" + +"And where shall I be then? Ah, where? Fain would I rest, and +fain depart. Tita! sling my hammock. Senors, you will excuse age +and infirmities. Fray Gerundio, go to bed!" + +And the Dons rose to depart, while the bishop went on maundering,-- + +"Farewell! Life is short. Ah! we shall meet in heaven at last. +And there are really no more pearls?" + +"Not a frail; nor gold either," said the intendant. + +"Ah, well! Better a dinner of herbs where love is, than--Tita!" + +"My breviary--ah! Man's gratitude is short-lived, I had hoped-- +You have seen nothing of the Senora Bovadilla?" + +"No." + +"Ah! she promised:--but no matter--a little trifle as a keepsake--a +gold cross, or an emerald ring, or what not--I forget. And what +have I to do with worldly wealth!--Ah! Tita! bring me the casket." + +And when his guests were gone, the old man began mumbling prayers +out of his breviary, and fingering over jewels and gold, with the +dull greedy eyes of covetous old age. + +"Ah!--it may buy the red hat yet!--Omnia Romae venalia! Put it by, +Tita, and do not look at it too much, child. Enter not into +temptation. The love of money is the root of all evil; and Heaven, +in love for the Indian, has made him poor in this world, that he +may be rich in faith. Ah!--Ugh!--So!" + +And the old miser clambered into his hammock. Tita drew the +mosquito net over him, wrapt another round her own head, and slept, +or seemed to sleep; for she coiled herself up upon the floor, and +master and slave soon snored a merry bass to the treble of the +mosquitoes. + +It was long past midnight, and the moon was down. The sentinels, +who had tramped and challenged overhead till they thought their +officers were sound asleep, had slipped out of the unwholesome rays +of the planet to seek that health and peace which they considered +their right, and slept as soundly as the bishop's self. + +Two long lines glided out from behind the isolated rocks of the +Morro Grande, which bounded the bay some five hundred yards astern +of the galleon. They were almost invisible on the glittering +surface of the water, being perfectly white; and, had a sentinel +been looking out, he could only have descried them by the +phosphorescent flashes along their sides. + +Now the bishop had awoke, and turned himself over uneasily; for the +wine was dying out within him, and his shoulders had slipped down, +and his heels up, and his head ached! so he sat upright in his +hammock, looked out upon the bay, and called Tita. + +"Put another pillow under my head, child! What is that? a fish?" + +Tita looked. She did not think it was a fish: but she did not +choose to say so; for it might have produced an argument, and she +had her reasons for not keeping his holiness awake. + +The bishop looked again; settled that it must be a white whale, or +shark, or other monster of the deep; crossed himself, prayed for a +safe voyage, and snored once more. + +Presently the cabin-door opened gently, and the head of the senor +intendant appeared. + +Tita sat up; and then began crawling like a snake along the floor, +among the chairs and tables, by the light of the cabin lamp. + +"Is he asleep?" + +"Yes: but the casket is under his head." + +"Curse him! How shall we take it?" + +"I brought him a fresh pillow half-an-hour ago; I hung his hammock +wrong on purpose that he might want one. I thought to slip the box +away as I did it; but the old ox nursed it in both hands all the +while." + +"What shall we do, in the name of all the fiends? She sails to- +morrow morning, and then all is lost." + +Tita showed her white teeth, and touched the dagger which hung by +the intendant's side. + +"I dare not!" said the rascal, with a shudder. + +"I dare!" said she. "He whipt my mother, because she would not +give me up to him to be taught in his schools, when she went to the +mines. And she went to the mines, and died there in three months. +I saw her go, with a chain round her neck; but she never came back +again. Yes; I dare kill him! I will kill him! I will!" + +The senor felt his mind much relieved. He had no wish, of course, +to commit the murder himself; for he was a good Catholic, and +feared the devil. But Tita was an Indian, and her being lost did +not matter so much. Indians' souls were cheap, like their bodies. +So he answered, "But we shall be discovered!" + +"I will leap out of the window with the casket, and swim ashore. +They will never suspect you, and they will fancy I am drowned." + +"The sharks may seize you, Tita. You had better give me the +casket." + +Tita smiled. "You would not like to lose that, eh? though you care +little about losing me. And yet you told me that you loved me!" + +"And I do love you, Tita! light of my eyes! life of my heart! I +swear, by all the saints, I love you. I will marry you, I swear I +will--I will swear on the crucifix, if you like!" + +"Swear, then, or I do not give you the casket," said she, holding +out the little crucifix round her neck, and devouring him with the +wild eyes of passionate unreasoning tropic love. + +He swore, trembling, and deadly pale. + +"Give me your dagger." + +"No, not mine. It may be found. I shall be suspected. What if my +sheath were seen to be empty?" + +"Your knife will do. His throat is soft enough." + +And she glided stealthily as a cat toward the hammock, while her +cowardly companion stood shivering at the other end of the cabin, +and turned his back to her, that he might not see the deed. + +He stood waiting, one minute--two--five? Was it an hour, rather? +A cold sweat bathed his limbs; the blood beat so fiercely within +his temples, that his head rang again. Was that a death-bell +tolling? No; it was the pulses of his brain. Impossible, surely, +a death-bell. Whence could it come? + +There was a struggle--ah! she was about it now; a stifled cry--Ah! +he had dreaded that most of all, to hear the old man cry. Would +there be much blood? He hoped not. Another struggle, and Tita's +voice, apparently muffled, called for help. + +"I cannot help you. Mother of Mercies! I dare not help you!" +hissed he. "She-devil! you have begun it, and you must finish it +yourself!" + +A heavy arm from behind clasped his throat. The bishop had broken +loose from her and seized him! Or was it his ghost? or a fiend +come to drag him down to the pit? And forgetting all but mere wild +terror, he opened his lips for a scream, which would have wakened +every soul on board. But a handkerchief was thrust into his mouth +and in another minute he found himself bound hand and foot, and +laid upon the table by a gigantic enemy. The cabin was full of +armed men, two of whom were lashing up the bishop in his hammock; +two more had seized Tita; and more were clambering up into the +stern-gallery beyond, wild figures, with bright blades and armor +gleaming in the starlight. + +"Now, Will," whispered the giant who had seized him, "forward and +clap the fore-hatches on; and shout Fire! with all your might. +Girl! murderess! your life is in my hands. Tell me where the +commander sleeps, and I pardon you." + +Tita looked up at the huge speaker, and obeyed in silence. The +intendant heard him enter the colonel's cabin, and then a short +scuffle, and silence for a moment. + +But only for a moment; for already the alarm had been given, and +mad confusion reigned through every deck. Amyas (for it was none +other) had already gained the poop; the sentinels were gagged and +bound; and every half-naked wretch who came trembling up on deck in +his shirt by the main hatchway, calling one, "Fire! another, +"Wreck!" and another, "Treason!" was hurled into the scuppers, and +there secured. + +"Lower away that boat!" shouted Amyas in Spanish to his first batch +of prisoners. + +The men, unarmed and naked, could but obey. + +"Now then, jump in. Here, hand them to the gangway as they come +up. + +It was done; and as each appeared he was kicked to the scuppers, +and bundled down over the side. + +"She's full. Cast loose now and off with you. If you try to board +again we'll sink you." + +"Fire! fire!" shouted Cary, forward. "Up the main hatchway for +your lives!" + +The ruse succeeded utterly; and before half-an-hour was over, all +the ship's boats which could be lowered were filled with Spaniards +in their shirts, getting ashore as best they could. + +"Here is a new sort of camisado," quoth Cary. "The last Spanish +one I saw was at the sortie from Smerwick: but this is somewhat +more prosperous than that." + +"Get the main and foresail up, Will!" said Amyas, "cut the cable; +and we will plume the quarry as we fly." + +"Spoken like a good falconer. Heaven grant that this big woodcock +may carry a good trail inside!" + +"I'll warrant her for that," said Jack Brimblecombe. "She floats +so low." + +"Much of your build, too, Jack. By the by, where is the +commander?" + +Alas! Don Pedro, forgotten in the bustle, had been lying on the +deck in his shirt, helplessly bound, exhausting that part of his +vocabulary which related to the unseen world. Which most +discourteous act seemed at first likely to be somewhat heavily +avenged on Amyas; for as he spoke, a couple of caliver-shots, fired +from under the poop, passed "ping" "ping" by his ears, and Cary +clapped his hand to his side. + +"Hurt, Will?" + +"A pinch, old lad--Look out, or we are 'allen verloren' after all, +as the Flemings say." + +And as he spoke, a rush forward on the poop drove two of their best +men down the ladder into the waist, where Amyas stood. + +"Killed?" asked he, as he picked one up, who had fallen head over +heels. + +"Sound as a bell, sir: but they Gentiles has got hold of the +firearms, and set the captain free." + +And rubbing the back of his head for a minute, he jumped up the +ladder again, shouting-- + +"Have at ye, idolatrous pagans! Have at ye, Satan's spawn!" + +Amyas jumped up after him, shouting to all hands to follow; for +there was no time to be lost. + +Out of the windows of the poop, which looked on the main-deck, a +galling fire had been opened, and he could not afford to lose men; +for, as far as he knew, the Spaniards left on board might still far +outnumber the English; so up he sprang on the poop, followed by a +dozen men, and there began a very heavy fight between two parties +of valiant warriors, who easily knew each other apart by the +peculiar fashion of their armor. For the Spaniards fought in their +shirts, and in no other garments: but the English in all other +manner of garments, tag, rag, and bobtail; and yet had never a +shirt between them. + +The rest of the English made a rush, of course, to get upon the +poop, seeing that the Spaniards could not shoot them through the +deck; but the fire from the windows was so hot, that although they +dodged behind masts, spars, and every possible shelter, one or two +dropped; and Jack Brimblecombe and Yeo took on themselves to call a +retreat, and with about a dozen men, got back, and held a council +of war. + +What was to be done? Their arquebuses were of little use; for the +Spaniards were behind a strong bulkhead. There were cannon: but +where was powder or shot? The boats, encouraged by the clamor on +deck, were paddling alongside again. Yeo rushed round and round, +probing every gun with his sword. + +"Here's a patararo loaded! Now for a match, lads." + +Luckily one of the English had kept his match alight during the +scuffle. + +"Thanks be! Help me to unship the gun--the mast's in the way +here." + +The patararo, or brass swivel, was unshipped. + +"Steady, lads, and keep it level, or you'll shake out the priming. +Ship it here; turn out that one, and heave it into that boat, if +they come alongside. Steady now--so! Rummage about, and find me a +bolt or two, a marlin-spike, anything. Quick, or the captain will +be over-mastered yet." + +Missiles were found--odds and ends--and crammed into the swivel up +to the muzzle: and, in another minute, its "cargo of notions" was +crashing into the poop-windows, silencing the fire from thence +effectually enough for the time. + +"Now, then, a rush forward, and right in along the deck!" shouted +Yeo; and the whole party charged through the cabin-doors, which +their shot had burst open, and hewed their way from room to room. + +In the meanwhile, the Spaniards above had fought fiercely: but, in +spite of superior numbers, they had gradually given back before the +"demoniacal possession of those blasphemous heretics, who fought, +not like men, but like furies from the pit." And by the time that +Brimblecombe and Yeo shouted from the stern-gallery below that the +quarter-deck was won, few on either side but had their shrewd +scratch to show. + +"Yield, senor!" shouted Amyas to the commander, who had been +fighting like a lion, back to back with the captain of mariners. + +"Never! You have bound me, and insulted me! Your blood or mine +must wipe out the stain!" + +And he rushed on Amyas. There was a few moments' heavy fence +between them; and then Amyas cut right at his head. But as he +raised his arm, the Spaniard's blade slipped along his ribs, and +snapped against the point of his shoulder-blade. An inch more to +the left, and it would have been through his heart. The blow fell, +nevertheless, and the commandant fell with it, stunned by the flat +of the sword, but not wounded; for Amyas's hand had turned, as he +winced from his wound. But the sea-captain, seeing Amyas stagger, +sprang at him, and, seizing him by the wrist, ere he could raise +his sword again, shortened his weapon to run him through. Amyas +made a grasp at his wrist in return, but, between his faintness and +the darkness, missed it.--Another moment, and all would have been +over! + +A bright blade flashed close past Amyas's ear; the sea-captain's +grasp loosened, and he dropped a corpse; while over him, like an +angry lioness above her prey, stood Ayacanora, her long hair +floating in the wind, her dagger raised aloft, as she looked round, +challenging all and every one to approach. + +"Are you hurt?" panted she. + +"A scratch, child.--What do you do here? Go back, go back." + +Ayacanora slipped back like a scolded child, and vanished in the +darkness. + +The battle was over. The Spaniards, seeing their commanders fall, +laid down their arms, and cried for quarter. It was given; the +poor fellows were tied together, two and two, and seated in a row +on the deck; the commandant, sorely bruised, yielded himself +perforce; and the galleon was taken. + +Amyas hurried forward to get the sails set. As he went down the +poop-ladder, there was some one sitting on the lowest step. + +"Who is here--wounded?" + +"I am not wounded," said a woman's voice, low, and stifled with +sobs. + +It was Ayacanora. She rose, and let him pass. He saw that her +face was bright with tears; but he hurried on, nevertheless. + +"Perhaps I did speak a little hastily to her, considering she saved +my life; but what a brimstone it is! Mary Ambree in a dark skin! +Now then, lads! Get the Santa Fe gold up out of the canoes, and +then we will put her head to the north-east, and away for Old +England. Mr. Brimblecombe! don't say that Eastward-ho don't bring +luck this time." + +It was impossible, till morning dawned, either to get matters into +any order, or to overhaul the prize they had taken; and many of the +men were so much exhausted that they fell fast asleep on the deck +ere the surgeon had time to dress their wounds. However, Amyas +contrived, when once the ship was leaping merrily, close-hauled +against a fresh land-breeze, to count his little flock, and found +out of the forty-four but six seriously wounded, and none killed. +However, their working numbers were now reduced to thirty-eight, +beside the four negroes, a scanty crew enough to take home such a +ship to England. + +After awhile, up came Jack Brimblecombe on deck, a bottle in his +hand. + +"Lads, a prize!" + +"Well, we know that already." + +"Nay, but--look hither, and laid in ice, too, as I live, the +luxurious dogs! But I had to fight for it, I had. For when I went +down into the state cabin, after I had seen to the wounded; whom +should I find loose but that Indian lass, who had just unbound the +fellow you caught--" + +"Ah! those two, I believe, were going to murder the old man in the +hammock, if we had not come in the nick of time. What have you +done with them?" + +"Why, the Spaniard ran when he saw me, and got into a cabin; but +the woman, instead of running, came at me with a knife, and chased +me round the table like a very cat-a-mountain. So I ducked under +the old man's hammock, and out into the gallery; and when I thought +the coast was clear, back again I came, and stumbled over this. So +I just picked it up, and ran on deck with my tail between my legs, +for I expected verily to have the black woman's knife between my +ribs out of some dark corner." + +"Well done, Jack! Let's have the wine, nevertheless, and then down +to set a guard on the cabin doors for fear of plundering." + +"Better go down, and see that nothing is thrown overboard by +Spaniards. As for plundering, I will settle that." + +And Amyas walked forward among the men. + +"Muster the men, boatswain, and count them." + +"All here, sir, but the six poor fellows who are laid forward." + +"Now, my men," said Amyas, "for three years you and I have wandered +on the face of the earth, seeking our fortune, and we have found it +at last, thanks be to God! Now, what was our promise and vow which +we made to God beneath the tree of Guayra, if He should grant us +good fortune, and bring us home again with a prize? Was it not, +that the dead should share with the living; and that every man's +portion, if he fell, should go to his widow or his orphans, or if +he had none, to his parents?" + +"It was, sir," said Yeo, "and I trust that the Lord will give these +men grace to keep their vow. They have seen enough of His +providences by this time to fear Him." + +"I doubt them not; but I remind them of it. The Lord has put into +our hands a rich prize; and what with the gold which we have +already, we are well paid for all our labors. Let us thank Him +with fervent hearts as soon as the sun rises; and in the meanwhile, +remember all, that whosoever plunders on his private account, robs +not the adventurers merely, but the orphan and the widow, which is +to rob God; and makes himself partaker of Achan's curse, who hid +the wedge of gold, and brought down God's anger on the whole army +of Israel. For me, lest you should think me covetous, I could +claim my brother's share; but I hereby give it up freely into the +common stock, for the use of the whole ship's crew, who have stood +by me through weal and woe, as men never stood before, as I +believe, by any captain. So, now to prayers, lads, and then to eat +our breakfast." + +So, to the Spaniards' surprise (who most of them believed that the +English were atheists), to prayers they went. + +After which Brimblecombe contrived to inspire the black cook and +the Portuguese steward with such energy that, by seven o'clock, the +latter worthy appeared on deck, and, with profound reverences, +announced to "The most excellent and heroical Senor Adelantado +Captain Englishman," that breakfast was ready in the state-cabin. + +"You will do us the honor of accompanying us as our guest, sir, or +our host, if you prefer the title," said Amyas to the commandant, +who stood by. + +"Pardon, senor: but honor forbids me to eat with one who has +offered to me the indelible insult of bonds." + +"Oh!" said Amyas, taking off his hat, "then pray accept on the spot +my humble apologies for all which has passed, and my assurances +that the indignities which you have unfortunately endured, were +owing altogether to the necessities of war, and not to any wish to +hurt the feelings of so valiant a soldier and gentleman." + +"It is enough, senor," said the commandant, bowing and shrugging +his shoulders--for, indeed, he too was very hungry; while Cary +whispered to Amyas-- + +"You will make a courtier, yet, old lad." + +"I am not in jesting humor, Will: my mind sadly misgives me that we +shall hear black news, and have, perhaps, to do a black deed yet, +on board here. Senor, I follow you." + +So they went down, and found the bishop, who was by this time +unbound, seated in a corner of the cabin, his hands fallen on his +knees, his eyes staring on vacancy, while the two priests stood as +close against the wall as they could squeeze themselves, keeping up +a ceaseless mutter of prayers. + +"Your holiness will breakfast with us, of course; and these two +frocked gentlemen likewise. I see no reason for refusing them all +hospitality, as yet." + +There was a marked emphasis on the last two words, which made both +monks wince. + +"Our chaplain will attend to you, gentlemen. His lordship the +bishop will do me the honor of sitting next to me." + +The bishop seemed to revive slowly as he snuffed the savory steam; +and at last, rising mechanically, subsided into the chair which +Amyas offered him on his left, while the commandant sat on his +right. + +"A little of this kid, my lord? No--ah--Friday, I recollect. Some +of that turtle-fin, then. Will, serve his lordship; pass the +cassava-bread up, Jack! Senor commandant! a glass of wine? You +need it after your valiant toils. To the health of all brave +soldiers--and a toast from your own Spanish proverb, 'To-day to me, +tomorrow to thee!'" + +"I drink it, brave senor. Your courtesy shows you the worthy +countryman of General Drake, and his brave lieutenant." + +"Drake! Did you know him, senor?" asked all the Englishmen at +once. + +"Too well, too well--" and he would have continued; but the bishop +burst out-- + +"Ah, senor commandant! that name again! Have you no mercy? To sit +between another pair of--, and my own wine, too! Ugh, ugh!" + +The old gentleman, whose mouth had been full of turtle the whole +time, burst into a violent fit of coughing, and was only saved from +apoplexy by Cary's patting him on the back. + +"Ugh, ugh! The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, and their +precious balms. Ah, senor lieutenant Englishman! May I ask you to +pass those limes?--Ah! what is turtle without lime?--Even as a fat +old man without money! Nudus intravi, nudus exeo--ah!" + +"But what of Drake?" + +"Do you not know, sir, that he and his fleet, only last year, swept +the whole of this coast, and took, with shame I confess it, +Cartagena, San Domingo, St. Augustine, and--I see you are too +courteous, senors, to express before me what you have a right to +feel. But whence come you, sir? From the skies, or the depth of +the sea?" + +"Art-magic, art-magic!" moaned the bishop. + +"Your holiness! It is scarcely prudent to speak thus here," said +the commandant, who was nevertheless much of the same opinion. + +"Why, you said so yourself, last night, senor, about the taking of +Cartagena." + +The commandant blushed, and stammered out somewhat--"That it was +excusable in him, if he had said, in jest, that so prodigious and +curious a valor had not sprung from mortal source." + +"No more it did, senor," said Jack Brimblecombe, stoutly: "but from +Him who taught our 'hands to war, and our fingers to fight.'" + +The commandant bowed stiffly. "You will excuse me, sir preacher: +but I am a Catholic, and hold the cause of my king to be alone the +cause of Heaven. But, senor captain, how came you thither, if I +may ask? That you needed no art-magic after you came on board, I, +alas! can testify but too well: but what spirit--whether good or +evil, I ask not--brought you on board, and whence? Where is your +ship? I thought that all Drake's squadron had left six months +ago." + +"Our ship, senor, has lain this three years rotting on the coast +near Cape Codera." + +"Ah! we heard of that bold adventure--but we thought you all lost +in the interior." + +"You did? Can you tell me, then, where the senor governor of La +Guayra may be now?" + +"The Senor Don Guzman de Soto," said the commandant, in a somewhat +constrained tone, "is said to be at present in Spain, having thrown +up his office in consequence of domestic matters, of which I have +not the honor of knowing anything." + +Amyas longed to ask more: but he knew that the well-bred Spaniard +would tell him nothing which concerned another man's wife; and went +on. + +"What befell us after, I tell you frankly." + +And Amyas told his story, from the landing at Guayra to the passage +down the Magdalena. The commandant lifted up his hands. + +"Were it not forbidden to me, as a Catholic, most invincible senor, +I should say that the Divine protection has indeed--" + +"Ah," said one of the friars, "that you could be brought, senors, +to render thanks for your miraculous preservation to her to whom +alone it is due, Mary, the fount of mercies!" + +"We have done well enough without her as yet," said Amyas, bluntly. + +"The Lord raised up Nebuchadnezzar of old to punish the sins of the +Jewish Church; and He has raised up these men to punish ours!" said +Fray Gerundio. + +"But Nebuchadnezzar fell, and so may they," growled the other to +himself. Jack overheard him. + +"I say, my lord bishop," called he from the other end of the table. +"It is our English custom to let our guests be as rude as they +like; but perhaps your lordship will hint to these two friars, that +if they wish to keep whole skins, they will keep civil tongues." + +"Be silent, asses! mules!" shouted the bishop, whose spirits were +improving over the wine, who are you, that you cannot eat dirt as +well as your betters?" + +"Well spoken, my lord. Here's the health of our saintly and +venerable guest," said Cary: while the commandant whispered to +Amyas, "Fat old tyrant! I hope you have found his money--for I am +sure he has some on board, and I should be loath that you lost the +advantage of it." + +"I shall have to say a few words to you about that money this +morning, commandant: by the by, they had better be said now. My +lord bishop, do you know that had we not taken this ship when we +did, you had lost not merely money, as you have now, but life +itself?" + +"Money? I had none to lose! Life?--what do you mean?" asked the +bishop, turning very pale. + +"This, sir. That it ill befits one to lie, whose throat has been +saved from the assassin's knife but four hours since. When we +entered the stern-gallery, we found two persons, now on board this +ship, in the very act, sir, and article, of cutting your sinful +throat, that they might rob you of the casket which lay beneath +your pillow. A moment more, and you were dead. We seized and +bound them, and so saved your life. Is that plain, sir?" + +The bishop looked steadfastly and stupidly into Amyas's face, +heaved a deep sigh, and gradually sank back in his chair, dropping +the glass from his hand. + +"He is in a fit! Call in the surgeon! Run!" and up jumped kind- +hearted Jack, and brought in the surgeon of the galleon. + +"Is this possible, senor?" asked the commandant. + +"It is true. Door, there! Evans! go and bring in that rascal whom +we left bound in his cabin!" + +Evans went, and the commandant continued-- + +"But the stern-gallery? How, in the name of all witches and +miracles, came your valor thither?" + +"Simply enough, and owing neither to witch nor miracle. The night +before last we passed the mouth of the bay in our two canoes, which +we had lashed together after the fashion I had seen in the +Moluccas, to keep them afloat in the surf. We had scraped the +canoes bright the day before, and rubbed them with white clay, that +they might be invisible at night; and so we got safely to the Morro +Grande, passing within half a mile of your ship." + +"Oh! my scoundrels of sentinels!" + +"We landed at the back of the Morro, and lay there all day, being +purposed to do that which, with your pardon, we have done. We took +our sails of Indian cloth, whitened them likewise with clay which +we had brought with us from the river (expecting to find a Spanish +ship as we went along the coast, and determined to attempt her, or +die with honor), and laid them over us on the canoes, paddling from +underneath them. So that, had your sentinels been awake, they +would have hardly made us out, till we were close on board. We had +provided ourselves, instead of ladders, with bamboos rigged with +cross-pieces, and a hook of strong wood at the top of each; they +hang at your stern-gallery now. And the rest of the tale I need +not tell you." + +The commandant rose in his courtly Spanish way,-- + +"Your admirable story, senor, proves to me how truly your nation, +while it has yet, and I trust will ever have, to dispute the palm +of valor with our own, is famed throughout the world for ingenuity, +and for daring beyond that of mortal man. You have succeeded, +valiant captain, because you have deserved to succeed; and it is no +shame to me to succumb to enemies who have united the cunning of +the serpent with the valor of the lion. Senor, I feel as proud of +becoming your guest as I should have been proud, under a happier +star, of becoming your host." + +"You are, like your nation, only too generous, senor. But what +noise is that outside? Cary, go and see." + +But ere Cary could reach the door, it was opened; and Evans +presented himself with a terrified face. + +"Here's villainy, sir! The Don's murdered, and cold; the Indian +lass fled; and as we searched the ship for her, we found an +Englishwoman, as I'm a sinful man!--and a shocking sight she is to +see!" + +"An Englishwoman?" cried all three, springing forward. + +"Bring her in!" said Amyas, turning very pale; and as he spoke, Yeo +and another led into the cabin a figure scarcely human. + +An elderly woman, dressed in the yellow "San Benito" of the +Inquisition, with ragged gray locks hanging about a countenance +distorted by suffering and shrunk by famine. Painfully, as one +unaccustomed to the light, she peered and blinked round her. Her +fallen lip gave her a half-idiotic expression; and yet there was an +uneasy twinkle in the eye, as of boundless terror and suspicion. +She lifted up her fettered wrist to shade her face; and as she did +so, disclosed a line of fearful scars upon her skinny arm. + +"Look there, sirs!" said Yeo, pointing to them with a stern smile. +"Here's some of these Popish gentry's handiwork. I know well +enough how those marks came;" and he pointed to the similar scars +on his own wrist. + +The commandant, as well as the Englishmen, recoiled with horror. + +"Holy Virgin! what wretch is this on board my ship? Bishop, is +this the prisoner whom you sent on board?" + +The bishop, who had been slowly recovering his senses, looked at +her a moment; and then thrusting his chair back, crossed himself, +and almost screamed, "Malefica! Malefica! Who brought her here? +Turn her away, gentlemen; turn her eye away; she will bewitch, +fascinate"--and he began muttering prayers. + +Amyas seized him by the shoulder, and shook him on to his legs. + +"Swine! who is this? Wake up, coward, and tell me, or I will cut +you piecemeal!" + +But ere the bishop could answer, the woman uttered a wild shriek, +and pointing to the taller of the two monks, cowered behind Yeo. + +"He here?" cried she, in broken Spanish. "Take me away! I will +tell you no more. I have told you all, and lies enough beside. +Oh! why is he come again? Did they not say that I should have no +more torments?" + +The monk turned pale: but like a wild beast at bay, glared firmly +round on the whole company; and then, fixing his dark eyes full on +the woman, he bade her be silent so sternly, that she shrank down +like a beaten hound. + +"Silence, dog!" said Will Cary, whose blood was up, and followed +his words with a blow on the monk's mouth, which silenced him +effectually. + +"Don't be afraid, good woman, but speak English. We are all +English here, and Protestants too. Tell us what they have done for +you." + +"Another trap! another trap!" cried she, in a strong Devonshire +accent. "You be no English! You want to make me lie again, and +then torment me. Oh! wretched, wretched that I am!" cried she, +bursting into tears. "Whom should I trust? Not myself: no, nor +God; for I have denied Him! O Lord! O Lord!" + +Amyas stood silent with fear and horror; some instinct told him +that he was on the point of hearing news for which he feared to +ask. But Jack spoke-- + +"My dear soul! my dear soul! don't you be afraid; and the Lord will +stand by you, if you will but tell the truth. We are all +Englishmen, and men of Devon, as you seem to be by your speech; and +this ship is ours; and the pope himself sha'n't touch you." + +"Devon?" she said doubtingly; "Devon! Whence, then?" + +"Bideford men. This is Mr. Will Cary, to Clovelly. If you are a +Devon woman, you've heard tell of the Carys, to be sure." + +The woman made a rush forward, and threw her fettered arms round +Will's neck,-- + +"Oh, Mr. Cary, my dear life! Mr. Cary! and so you be! Oh, dear +soul alive! but you're burnt so brown, and I be 'most blind with +misery. Oh, who ever sent you here, my dear Mr. Will, then, to +save a poor wretch from the pit?" + +"Who on earth are you?" + +"Lucy Passmore, the white witch to Welcombe. Don't you mind Lucy +Passmore, as charmed your warts for you when you was a boy?" + +"Lucy Passmore!" almost shrieked all three friends. "She that went +off with--" + +"Yes! she that sold her own soul, and persuaded that dear saint to +sell hers; she that did the devil's work, and has taken the devil's +wages;--after this fashion!" and she held up her scarred wrists +wildly. + +"Where is Dona de--Rose Salterne?" shouted Will and Jack. + +"Where is my brother Frank?" shouted Amyas. + +"Dead, dead, dead!" + +"I knew it," said Amyas, sitting down again calmly. + +"How did she die?" + +"The Inquisition--he!" pointing to the monk. "Ask him--he betrayed +her to her death. And ask him!" pointing to the bishop; "he sat by +her and saw her die." + +"Woman, you rave!" said the bishop, getting up with a terrified +air, and moving as far as possible from Amyas. + +"How did my brother die, Lucy?" asked Amyas, still calmly. + +"Who be you, sir?" + +A gleam of hope flashed across Amyas--she had not answered his +question. + +"I am Amyas Leigh of Burrough. Do you know aught of my brother +Frank, who was lost at La Guayra?" + +"Mr. Amyas! Heaven forgive me that I did not know the bigness of +you. Your brother, sir, died like a gentleman as he was." + +"But how?" gasped Amyas. + +"Burned with her, sir!" + +"Is this true, sir?" said Amyas, turning to the bishop, with a very +quiet voice. + +"I, sir?" stammered he, in panting haste. "I had nothing to do--I +was compelled in my office of bishop to be an unwilling spectator-- +the secular arm, sir; I could not interfere with that--any more +than I can with the Holy Office. I do not belong to it--ask that +gentleman--sir! Saints and angels, sir! what are you going to do?" +shrieked he, as Amyas laid a heavy hand upon his shoulder, and +began to lead him towards the door. + +"Hang you!" said Amyas. "If I had been a Spaniard and a priest +like yourself, I should have burnt you alive." + +"Hang me?" shrieked the wretched old Balaam; and burst into abject +howls for mercy. + +"Take the dark monk, Yeo, and hang him too. Lucy Passmore, do you +know that fellow also?" + +"No, sir," said Lucy. + +"Lucky for you, Fray Gerundio," said Will Cary; while the good +friar hid his face in his hands, and burst into tears. Lucky it +was for him, indeed; for he had been a pitying spectator of the +tragedy. "Ah!" thought he, "if life in this mad and sinful world +be a reward, perhaps this escape is vouchsafed to me for having +pleaded the cause of the poor Indian!" + +But the bishop shrieked on. + +"Oh! not yet. An hour, only an hour! I am not fit to die." + +"That is no concern of mine," said Amyas. "I only know that you +are not fit to live." + +"Let us at least make our peace with God," said the dark monk. + +"Hound! if your saints can really smuggle you up the back-stairs to +heaven, they will do it without five minutes' more coaxing and +flattering." + +Fray Gerundio and the condemned man alike stopped their ears at the +blasphemy. + +"Oh, Fray Gerundio!" screamed the bishop, "pray for me. I have +treated you like a beast. Oh, Fray, Fray!" + +"Oh, my lord! my lord!" said the good man, as with tears streaming +down his face he followed his shrieking and struggling diocesan up +the stairs, "who am I? Ask no pardon of me. Ask pardon of God for +all your sins against the poor innocent savages, when you saw your +harmless sheep butchered year after year, and yet never lifted up +your voice to save the flock which God had committed to you. Oh, +confess that, my lord! confess it ere it be too late!" + +"I will confess all about the Indians, and the gold, and Tita too, +Fray; peccavi, peccavi--only five minutes, senors, five little +minutes' grace, while I confess to the good Fray!"--and he +grovelled on the deck. + +"I will have no such mummery where I command," said Amyas, sternly. +"I will be no accomplice in cheating Satan of his due." + +"If you will confess," said Brimblecombe, whose heart was melting +fast, "confess to the Lord, and He will forgive you. Even at the +last moment mercy is open. Is it not, Fray Gerundio?" + +"It is, senor; it is, my lord," said Gerundio; but the bishop only +clasped his hands over his head. + +"Then I am undone! All my money is stolen! Not a farthing left to +buy masses for my poor soul! And no absolution, no viaticum, nor +anything! I die like a dog and am damned!" + +"Clear away that running rigging!" said Amyas, while the dark +Dominican stood perfectly collected, with something of a smile of +pity at the miserable bishop. A man accustomed to cruelty, and +firm in his fanaticism, he was as ready to endure suffering as to +inflict it; repeating to himself the necessary prayers, he called +Fray Gerundio to witness that he died, however unworthy, a martyr, +in charity with all men, and in the communion of the Holy Catholic +Church; and then, as he fitted the cord to his own neck, gave Fray +Gerundio various petty commissions about his sister and her +children, and a little vineyard far away upon the sunny slopes of +Castile; and so died, with a "Domine, in manus tuas," like a +valiant man of Spain. + +Amyas stood long in solemn silence, watching the two corpses +dangling above his head. At last he drew a long breath, as if a +load was taken off his heart. + +Suddenly he looked round to his men, who were watching eagerly to +know what he would have done next. + +"Hearken to me, my masters all, and may God hearken too, and do so +to me, and more also, if, as long as I have eyes to see a Spaniard, +and hands to hew him down, I do any other thing than hunt down that +accursed nation day and night, and avenge all the innocent blood +which has been shed by them since the day in which King Ferdinand +drove out the Moors!" + +"Amen!" said Salvation Yeo. "I need not to swear that oath, for I +have sworn it long ago, and kept it. Will your honor have us kill +the rest of the idolaters?" + +"God forbid!" said Cary. "You would not do that, Amyas?" + +"No; we will spare them. God has shown us a great mercy this day, +and we must be merciful in it. We will land them at Cabo Velo. +But henceforth till I die no quarter to a Spaniard." + +"Amen!" said Yeo. + +Amyas's whole countenance had changed in the last half-hour. He +seemed to have grown years older. His brow was wrinkled, his lip +compressed, his eyes full of a terrible stony calm, as of one who +had formed a great and dreadful purpose, and yet for that very +reason could afford to be quiet under the burden of it, even +cheerful; and when he returned to the cabin he bowed courteously to +the commandant, begged pardon of him for having played the host so +ill, and entreated him to finish his breakfast. + +"But, senor--is it possible? Is his holiness dead?" + +"He is hanged and dead, senor. I would have hanged, could I have +caught them, every living thing which was present at my brother's +death, even to the very flies upon the wall. No more words, senor; +your conscience tells you that I am just." + +"Senor," said the commandant--"one word--I trust there are no +listeners--none of my crew, I mean; but I must exculpate myself in +your eyes." + +"Walk out, then, into the gallery with me." + +"To tell you the truth, senor--I trust in Heaven no one overhears.-- +You are just. This Inquisition is the curse of us, the weight +which is crushing out the very life of Spain. No man dares speak. +No man dares trust his neighbor, no, not his child, or the wife of +his bosom. It avails nothing to be a good Catholic, as I trust I +am," and he crossed himself, "when any villain whom you may offend, +any unnatural son or wife who wishes to be rid of you, has but to +hint heresy against you, and you vanish into the Holy Office--and +then God have mercy on you, for man has none. Noble ladies of my +family, sir, have vanished thither, carried off by night, we know +not why; we dare not ask why. To expostulate, even to inquire, +would have been to share their fate. There is one now, senor-- +Heaven alone knows whether she is alive or dead!--It was nine years +since, and we have never heard; and we shall never hear." + +And the commandant's face worked frightfully. + +"She was my sister, senor!" + +"Heavens! sir, and have you not avenged her?" + +"On churchmen, senor, and I a Catholic? To be burned at the stake +in this life, and after that to all eternity beside? Even a +Spaniard dare not face that. Beside, sir, the mob like this +Inquisition, and an Auto-da-fe is even better sport to them than a +bull-fight. They would be the first to tear a man in pieces who +dare touch an Inquisitor. Sir, may all the saints in heaven obtain +me forgiveness for my blasphemy, but when I saw you just now +fearing those churchmen no more than you feared me, I longed, +sinner that I am, to be a heretic like you." + +"It will not take long to make a brave and wise gentleman who has +suffered such things as you have, a heretic, as you call it--a free +Christian man, as we call it." + +"Tempt me not, sir!" said the poor man, crossing himself fervently. +"Let us say no more. Obedience is my duty; and for the rest the +Church must decide, according to her infallible authority--for I am +a good Catholic, senor, the best of Catholics, though a great +sinner.--I trust no one has overheard us!" + +Amyas left him with a smile of pity, and went to look for Lucy +Passmore, whom the sailors were nursing and feeding, while +Ayacanora watched them with a puzzled face. + +"I will talk to you when you are better, Lucy," said he, taking her +hand. "Now you must eat and drink, and forget all among us lads of +Devon." + +"Oh, dear blessed sir, and you will send Sir John to pray with me? +For I turned, sir, I turned: but I could not help it--I could not +abear the torments: but she bore them, sweet angel--and more than I +did. Oh, dear me!" + +"Lucy, I am not fit now to hear more. You shall tell me all to- +morrow;" and he turned away. + +"Why do you take her hand?" said Ayacanora, half-scornfully. "She +is old, and ugly, and dirty." + +"She is an Englishwoman, child, and a martyr, poor thing; and I +would nurse her as I would my own mother." + +"Why don't you make me an Englishwoman, and a martyr? I could +learn how to do anything that that old hag could do!" + +"Instead of calling her names, go and tend her; that would be much +fitter work for a woman than fighting among men." + +Ayacanora darted from him, thrust the sailors aside, and took +possession of Lucy Passmore. + +"Where shall I put her?" asked she of Amyas, without looking up. + +"In the best cabin; and let her be served like a queen, lads." + +"No one shall touch her but me;" and taking up the withered frame +in her arms, as if it were a doll, Ayacanora walked off with her in +triumph, telling the men to go and mind the ship. + +"The girl is mad," said one. + +"Mad or not, she has an eye to our captain," said another. + +"And where's the man that would behave to the poor wild thing as he +does?" + +"Sir Francis Drake would, from whom he got his lesson. Do you mind +his putting the negro lass ashore after he found out about--" + +"Hush! Bygones be bygones, and those that did it are in their +graves long ago. But it was too hard of him on the poor thing." + +"If he had not got rid of her, there would have been more throats +than one cut about the lass, that's all I know," said another; "and +so there would have been about this one before now, if the captain +wasn't a born angel out of heaven, and the lieutenant no less." + +"Well, I suppose we may get a whet by now. I wonder if these Dons +have any beer aboard." + +"Naught but grape vinegar, which fools call wine, I'll warrant." + +"There was better than vinegar on the table in there just now." + +"Ah," said one grumbler of true English breed, "but that's not for +poor fellows like we." + +"Don't lie, Tom Evans; you never were given that way yet, and I +don't think the trade will suit a good fellow like you." + +The whole party stared; for the speaker of these words was none +other than Amyas himself, who had rejoined them, a bottle in each +hand. + +"No, Tom Evans. It has been share and share alike for three years, +and bravely you have all held up, and share alike it shall be now, +and here's the handsel of it. We'll serve out the good wine fairly +all round as long as it lasts, and then take to the bad: but mind +you don't get drunk, my sons, for we are much too short of hands to +have any stout fellows lying about the scuppers." + +But what was the story of the intendant's being murdered? +Brimblecombe had seen him run into a neighboring cabin; and when +the door of it was opened, there was the culprit, but dead and +cold, with a deep knife-wound in his side. Who could have done the +deed? It must have been Tita, whom Brimblecombe had seen loose, +and trying to free her lover. + +The ship was searched from stem to stern: but no Tita. The mystery +was never explained. That she had leapt overboard, and tried to +swim ashore, none doubted: but whether she had reached it, who +could tell? One thing was strange; that not only had she carried +off no treasure with her, but that the gold ornaments which she had +worn the night before, lay together in a heap on the table, close +by the murdered man. Had she wished to rid herself of everything +which had belonged to her tyrants? + +The commandant heard the whole story thoughtfully. + +"Wretched man!" said he, "and he has a wife and children in +Seville." + +"A wife and children?" said Amyas; "and I heard him promise +marriage to the Indian girl." + +That was the only hint which gave a reason for his death. What if, +in the terror of discovery and capture, the scoundrel had dropped +any self-condemning words about his marriage, any prayer for those +whom he had left behind, and the Indian had overheard them? It +might be so; at least sin had brought its own punishment. + +And so that wild night and day subsided. The prisoners were kindly +used enough; for the Englishman, free from any petty love of +tormenting, knows no mean between killing a foe outright, and +treating him as a brother; and when, two days afterwards, they were +sent ashore in the canoes off Cabo Velo, captives and captors shook +hands all round; and Amyas, after returning the commandant his +sword, and presenting him with a case of the bishop's wine, bowed +him courteously over the side. + +"I trust that you will pay us another visit, valiant senor +capitan," said the Spaniard, bowing and smiling. + +"I should most gladly accept your invitation, illustrious senor +commandant; but as I have vowed henceforth, whenever I shall meet a +Spaniard, neither to give nor take quarter, I trust that our paths +to glory may lie in different directions." + +The commandant shrugged his shoulders; the ship was put again +before the wind, and as the shores of the Main faded lower and +dimmer behind her, a mighty cheer broke from all on board; and for +once the cry from every mouth was Eastward-ho! + +Scrap by scrap, as weakness and confusion of intellect permitted +her, Lucy Passmore told her story. It was a simple one after all, +and Amyas might almost have guessed it for himself. Rose had not +yielded to the Spaniard without a struggle. He had visited her two +or three times at Lucy's house (how he found out Lucy's existence +she herself could never tell, unless from the Jesuits) before she +agreed to go with him. He had gained Lucy to his side by huge +promises of Indian gold; and, in fine, they had gone to Lundy, +where the lovers were married by a priest, who was none other, Lucy +would swear, than the shorter and stouter of the two who had +carried off her husband and his boat--in a word, Father Parsons. + +Amyas gnashed his teeth at the thought that he had had Parsons in +his power at Brenttor down, and let him go. It was a fresh proof +to him that Heaven's vengeance was upon him for letting one of its +enemies escape. Though what good to Rose or Frank the hanging of +Parsons would have been, I, for my part, cannot see. + +But when had Eustace been at Lundy? Lucy could throw no light on +that matter. It was evidently some by-thread in the huge spider's +web of Jesuit intrigue, which was, perhaps, not worth knowing after +all. + +They sailed from Lundy in a Portugal ship, were at Lisbon a few +days (during which Rose and Lucy remained on board), and then away +for the West Indies; while all went merry as a marriage bell. +"Sir, he would have kissed the dust off her dear feet, till that +evil eye of Mr. Eustace's came, no one knew how or whence." And, +from that time, all went wrong. Eustace got power over Don Guzman, +whether by threatening that the marriage should be dissolved, +whether by working on his superstitious scruples about leaving his +wife still a heretic, or whether (and this last Lucy much +suspected) by insinuations that her heart was still at home in +England, and that she was longing for Amyas and his ship to come +and take her home again; the house soon became a den of misery, and +Eustace the presiding evil genius. Don Guzman had even commanded +him to leave it--and he went; but, somehow, within a week he was +there again, in greater favor than ever. Then came preparations to +meet the English, and high words about it between Don Guzman and +Rose; till a few days before Amyas's arrival, the Don had dashed +out of the house in a fury, saying openly that she preferred these +Lutheran dogs to him, and that he would have their hearts' blood +first, and hers after. + +The rest was soon told. Amyas knew but too much of it already. +The very morning after he had gone up to the villa, Lucy and her +mistress were taken (they knew not by whom) down to the quay, in +the name of the Holy Office, and shipped off to Cartagena. + +There they were examined, and confronted on a charge of witchcraft, +which the wretched Lucy could not well deny. She was tortured to +make her inculpate Rose; and what she said, or did not say, under +the torture, the poor wretch could never tell. She recanted, and +became a Romanist; Rose remained firm. Three weeks afterwards, +they were brought out to an Auto-da-fe; and there, for the first +time, Lucy saw Frank walking, dressed in a San Benito, in that +ghastly procession. Lucy was adjudged to receive publicly two +hundred stripes, and to be sent to "The Holy House" at Seville to +perpetual prison. Frank and Rose, with a renegade Jew, and a negro +who had been convicted of practising "Obi," were sentenced to death +as impenitent, and delivered over to the secular arm, with prayers +that there might be no shedding of blood. In compliance with which +request, the Jew and the negro were burnt at one stake, Frank and +Rose at another. She thought they did not feel it more than twenty +minutes. They were both very bold and steadfast, and held each +other's hand (that she would swear to) to the very last. + +And so ended Lucy Passmore's story. And if Amyas Leigh, after he +had heard it, vowed afresh to give no quarter to Spaniards wherever +he should find them, who can wonder, even if they blame? + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +HOW SALVATION YEO FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN + + +"All precious things, discover'd late, + To them who seek them issue forth; +For love in sequel works with fate, + And draws the veil from hidden worth." + + The Sleeping Beauty. + + +And so Ayacanora took up her abode in Lucy's cabin, as a regularly +accredited member of the crew. + +But a most troublesome member; for now began in her that perilous +crisis which seems to endanger the bodies and souls of all savages +and savage tribes, when they first mingle with the white man; that +crisis which, a few years afterwards, began to hasten the +extermination of the North American tribes; and had it not been for +the admirable good sense and constancy of Amyas, Ayacanora might +have ended even more miserably than did the far-famed Pocahontas, +daughter of the Virginian king; who, after having been received at +Court by the old pedant James the First, with the honors of a +sister sovereign, and having become the reputed ancestress of more +than one ancient Virginian family, ended her days in wretchedness +in some Wapping garret. + +For the mind of the savage, crushed by the sight of the white man's +superior skill, and wealth, and wisdom, loses at first its self- +respect; while his body, pampered with easily obtained luxuries, +instead of having to win the necessaries of life by heavy toil, +loses its self-helpfulness; and with self-respect and self-help +vanish all the savage virtues, few and flimsy as they are, and the +downward road toward begging and stealing, sottishness and +idleness, is easy, if not sure. + +And down that road, it really seemed at first, that poor Ayacanora +was walking fast. For the warrior-prophetess of the Omaguas soon +became, to all appearance, nothing but a very naughty child; and +the Diana of the Meta, after she had satisfied her simple wonder at +the great floating house by rambling from deck to deck, and peeping +into every cupboard and cranny, manifested a great propensity to +steal and hide (she was too proud or too shy to ask for) every +trumpery which smit her fancy; and when Amyas forbade her to take +anything without leave, threatened to drown herself, and went off +and sulked all day in her cabin. Nevertheless, she obeyed him, +except in the matter of sweet things. Perhaps she craved naturally +for the vegetable food of her native forests; at all events the +bishop's stores of fruit and sweetmeats diminished rapidly; and +what was worse, so did the sweet Spanish wine which Amyas had set +apart for poor Lucy's daily cordial. Whereon another severe +lecture, in which Amyas told her how mean it was to rob poor sick +Lucy; whereat she, as usual, threatened to drown herself; and was +running upon deck to do it, when Amyas caught her and forgave her. +On which a violent fit of crying, and great penitence and promises; +and a week after, Amyas found that she had cheated Satan and her +own conscience by tormenting the Portuguese steward into giving her +some other wine instead: but luckily for her, she found Amyas's +warnings about wine making her mad so far fulfilled, that she did +several foolish things one evening, and had a bad headache next +morning; so the murder was out, and Amyas ordered the steward up +for a sound flogging; but Ayacanora, honorably enough, not only +begged him off, but offered to be whipped instead of him, +confessing that the poor fellow spoke truly when he swore that she +had threatened to kill him, and that he had given her the wine in +bodily fear for his life. + +However, her own headache and Amyas's cold looks were lesson +enough, and after another attempt to drown herself, the wilful +beauty settled down for awhile; and what was better, could hardly +be persuaded, thenceforth to her dying day, to touch fermented +liquors. + +But, in the meanwhile, poor Amyas had many a brains-beating as to +how he was to tame a lady who, on the least provocation, took +refuge in suicide. Punish her he dared not, even if he had the +heart. And as for putting her ashore, he had an instinct, and +surely not a superstitious one, that her strange affection for the +English was not unsent by Heaven, and that God had committed her +into his charge, and that He would require an account at his hands +of the soul of that fair lost lamb. + +So, almost at his wits' end, he prayed to God, good simple fellow, +and that many a time, to show him what he should do with her before +she killed either herself, or what was just as likely, one of the +crew; and it seemed best to him to make Parson Jack teach her the +rudiments of Christianity, that she might be baptized in due time +when they got home to England. + +But here arose a fresh trouble--for she roundly refused to learn of +Jack, or of any one but Amyas himself; while he had many a good +reason for refusing the office of schoolmaster; so, for a week or +two more, Ayacanora remained untaught, save in the English tongue, +which she picked up with marvellous rapidity. + +And next, as if troubles would never end, she took a violent +dislike, not only to John Brimblecombe, whose gait and voice she +openly mimicked for the edification of the men; but also to Will +Cary, whom she never allowed to speak to her or approach her. +Perhaps she was jealous of his intimacy with Amyas; or perhaps, +with the subtle instinct of a woman, she knew that he was the only +other man on board who might dare to make love to her (though Will, +to do him justice, was as guiltless of any such intention as Amyas +himself). But when she was remonstrated with, her only answer was +that Cary was a cacique as well as Amyas, and that there ought not +to be two caciques; and one day she actually proposed to Amyas to +kill his supposed rival, and take the ship all to himself; and +sulked for several days at hearing Amyas, amid shouts of laughter, +retail her precious advice to its intended victim. + +Moreover, the negroes came in for their share, being regarded all +along by her with an unspeakable repugnance, which showed itself at +first in hiding from them whenever she could, and, afterwards, in +throwing at them everything she could lay hands on, till the poor +Quashies, in danger of their lives, complained to Amyas, and got +rest for awhile. + +Over the rest of the sailors she lorded it like a very princess, +calling them from their work to run on her errands and make toys +for her, enforcing her commands now and then by a shrewd box on the +ears; while the good fellows, especially old Yeo, like true +sailors, petted her, obeyed her, even jested with her, much as they +might have done with a tame leopard, whose claws might be +unsheathed and about their ears at any moment. But she amused +them, and amused Amyas too. They must of course have a pet; and +what prettier one could they have? And as for Amyas, the constant +interest of her presence, even the constant anxiety of her +wilfulness, kept his mind busy, and drove out many a sad foreboding +about that meeting with his mother, and the tragedy which he had to +tell her, which would otherwise, so heavily did they weigh on him, +have crushed his spirit with melancholy, and made all his worldly +success and marvellous deliverance worthless in his eyes. + +At last the matter, as most things luckily do, came to a climax; +and it came in this way. + +The ship had been slipping along now for many a day, slowly but +steadily before a favorable breeze. She had passed the ring of the +West India islands, and was now crawling, safe from all pursuit, +through the vast weed-beds of the Sargasso Sea. There, for the +first time, it was thought safe to relax the discipline which had +been hitherto kept up, and to "rummage" (as was the word in those +days) their noble prize. What they found, of gold and silver, +jewels, and merchandise, will interest no readers. Suffice it to +say, that there was enough there, with the other treasure, to make +Amyas rich for life, after all claims of Cary's and the crew, not +forgetting Mr. Salterne's third, as owner of the ship, had been +paid off. But in the captain's cabin were found two chests, one +full of gorgeous Mexican feather dresses, and the other of Spanish +and East Indian finery, which, having come by way of Havana and +Cartagena, was going on, it seemed, to some senora or other at the +Caracas. Which two chests were, at Cary's proposal, voted amid the +acclamations of the crew to Ayacanora, as her due and fit share of +the pillage, in consideration of her Amazonian prowess and valuable +services. + +So the poor child took greedy possession of the trumpery, had them +carried into Lucy's cabin, and there knelt gloating over them many +an hour. The Mexican work she chose to despise as savage; but the +Spanish dresses were a treasure; and for two or three days she +appeared on the quarter-deck, sunning herself like a peacock before +the eyes of Amyas in Seville mantillas, Madrid hats, Indian brocade +farthingales, and I know not how many other gewgaws, and dare not +say how put on. + +The crew tittered: Amyas felt much more inclined to cry. There is +nothing so pathetic as a child's vanity, saving a grown person +aping a child's vanity; and saving, too, a child's agony of +disappointment when it finds that it has been laughed at instead of +being admired. Amyas would have spoken, but he was afraid: +however, the evil brought its own cure. The pageant went on, as +its actor thought, most successfully for three days or so; but at +last the dupe, unable to contain herself longer, appealed to +Amyas,--"Ayacanora quite English girl now; is she not?"--heard a +titter behind her, looked round, saw a dozen honest faces in broad +grin, comprehended all in a moment, darted down the companion- +ladder, and vanished. + +Amyas, fully expecting her to jump overboard, followed as fast as +he could. But she had locked herself in with Lucy, and he could +hear her violent sobs, and Lucy's faint voice entreating to know +what was the matter. + +In vain he knocked. She refused to come out all day, and at even +they were forced to break the door open, to prevent Lucy being +starved. + +There sat Ayacanora, her finery half torn off, and scattered about +the floor in spite, crying still as if her heart would break; while +poor Lucy cried too, half from fright and hunger, and half for +company. + +Amyas tried to comfort the poor child, assured her that the men +should never laugh at her again; "But then," added he, "you must +not be so--so--" What to say he hardly knew. + +"So what?" asked she, crying more bitterly than ever. + +"So like a wild girl, Ayacanora." + +Her hands dropped on her knees: a strong spasm ran through her +throat and bosom, and she fell on her knees before him, and looked +up imploringly in his face. + +"Yes; wild girl--poor, bad wild girl. . . . But I will be English +girl now!" + +"Fine clothes will never make you English, my child," said Amyas. + +"No! not English clothes--English heart! Good heart, like yours! +Yes, I will be good, and Sir John shall teach me!" + +"There's my good maid," said Amyas. "Sir John shall begin and +teach you to-morrow." + +"No! Now! now! Ayacanora cannot wait. She will drown herself if +she is bad another day! Come, now!" + +And she made him fetch Brimblecombe, heard the honest fellow +patiently for an hour or more, and told Lucy that very night all +that he had said. And from that day, whenever Jack went in to read +and pray with the poor sufferer, Ayacanora, instead of escaping on +deck as before, stood patiently trying to make it all out, and +knelt when he knelt, and tried to pray too--that she might have an +English heart; and doubtless her prayers, dumb as they were, were +not unheard. + +So went on a few days more, hopefully enough, without any outbreak, +till one morning, just after they had passed the Sargasso-beds. +The ship was taking care of herself; the men were all on deck under +the awning, tinkering, and cobbling, and chatting; Brimblecombe was +catechising his fair pupil in the cabin; Amyas and Cary, cigar in +mouth, were chatting about all heaven and earth, and, above all, of +the best way of getting up a fresh adventure against the Spaniards +as soon as they returned; while Amyas was pouring out to Will that +dark hatred of the whole nation, that dark purpose of revenge for +his brother and for Rose, which had settled down like a murky cloud +into every cranny of his heart and mind. Suddenly there was a +noise below; a scuffle and a shout, which made them both leap to +their feet; and up on deck rushed Jack Brimblecombe, holding his +head on with both his hands. + +"Save me! save me from that she-fiend! She is possessed with a +legion! She has broken my nose--torn out half my hair!--and I'm +sure I have none to spare! Here she comes! Stand by me, gentlemen +both! Satanas, I defy thee!" And Jack ensconced himself behind +the pair, as Ayacanora whirled upon deck like a very Maenad, and, +seeing Amyas, stopped short. + +"If you had defied Satan down below there," said Cary, with a +laugh, "I suspect he wouldn't have broken out on you so boldly, +Master Jack." + +"I am innocent--innocent as the babe unborn! Oh! Mr. Cary! this is +too bad of you, sir!" quoth Jack indignantly, while Amyas asked +what was the matter. + +"He looked at me," said she, sturdily. + +"Well, a cat may look at a king." + +"But he sha'n't look at Ayacanora. Nobody shall but you, or I'll +kill him!" + +In vain Jack protested his innocence of having even looked at her. +The fancy (and I verily believe it was nothing more) had taken +possession of her. She refused to return below to her lesson. +Jack went off grumbling, minus his hair, and wore a black eye for a +week after. + +"At all events," quoth Cary, re-lighting his cigar, "it's a fault +on the right side." + +"God give me grace, or it may be one on the wrong side for me." + +"He will, old heart-of-oak!" said Cary, laying his arm around +Amyas's neck, to the evident disgust of Ayacanora, who went off to +the side, got a fishing-line, and began amusing herself therewith, +while the ship slipped on quietly and silently as ever, save when +Ayacanora laughed and clapped her hands at the flying-fish scudding +from the bonitos. At last, tired of doing nothing, she went +forward to the poop-rail to listen to John Squire the armorer, who +sat tinkering a headpiece, and humming a song, mutato nomine, +concerning his native place-- + + + "Oh, Bideford is a pleasant place, it shines where it stands, + And the more I look upon it, the more my heart it warms; + For there are fair young lasses, in rows upon the quay, + To welcome gallant mariners, when they come home from say." + + +"'Tis Sunderland, John Squire, to the song, and not Bidevor," said +his mate. + +"Well, Bidevor's so good as Sunderland any day, for all there's no +say-coals there blacking a place about; and makes just so good +harmonies, Tommy Hamblyn-- + + + "Oh, if I was a herring, to swim the ocean o'er, + Or if I was a say-dove, to fly unto the shoor, + To fly unto my true love, a waiting at the door, + To wed her with a goold ring, and plough the main no moor." + + +Here Yeo broke in-- + +"Aren't you ashamed, John Squire, to your years, singing such +carnal vanities, after all the providences you have seen? Let the +songs of Zion be in your mouth, man, if you must needs keep a +caterwauling all day like that." + +"You sing 'em yourself then, gunner." + +"Well," says Yeo, "and why not?" And out he pulled his psalm-book, +and began a scrap of the grand old psalm-- + + + "Such as in ships and brittle barks + Into the seas descend, + Their merchandise through fearful floods + To compass and to end; + There men are forced to behold + The Lord's works what they be; + And in the dreadful deep the same, + Most marvellous they see." + + +"Humph!" said John Squire. "Very good and godly: but still I du +like a merry catch now and then, I du. Wouldn't you let a body +sing 'Rumbelow'--even when he's heaving of the anchor?" + +"Well, I don't know," said Yeo; "but the Lord's people had better +praise the Lord then too, and pray for a good voyage, instead of +howling about-- + + + "A randy, dandy, dandy O, + A whet of ale and brandy O, + With a rumbelow and a Westward-ho! + And heave, my mariners all, O!" + + +"Is that fit talk for immortal souls? How does that child's-trade +sound beside the Psalms, John Squire?" + +Now it befell that Salvation Yeo, for the very purpose of holding +up to ridicule that time-honored melody, had put into it the true +nasal twang, and rung it out as merrily as he had done perhaps +twelve years before, when he got up John Oxenham's anchor in +Plymouth Sound. And it befell also that Ayacanora, as she stood by +Amyas's side, watching the men, and trying to make out their chat, +heard it, and started; and then, half to herself, took up the +strain, and sang it over again, word for word, in the very same +tune and tone. + +Salvation Yeo started in his turn, and turned deadly pale. + +"Who sung that?" he asked quickly. + +"The little maid here. She's coming on nicely in her English," +said Amyas. + +"The little maid?" said Yeo, turning paler still. "Why do you go +about to scare an old servant, by talking of little maids, Captain +Amyas? Well," he said aloud to himself, "as I am a sinful saint, +if I hadn't seen where the voice came from, I could have sworn it +was her; just as we taught her to sing it by the river there, I and +William Penberthy of Marazion, my good comrade. The Lord have +mercy on me!" + +All were silent as the grave whenever Yeo made any allusion to that +lost child. Ayacanora only, pleased with Amyas's commendation, +went humming on to herself-- + + + "And heave, my mariners all, O!" + + +Yeo started up from the gun where he sat. + +"I can't abear it! As I live, I can't! You, Indian maiden, where +did you learn to sing that there?" + +Ayacanora looked up at him, half frightened by his vehemence, then +at Amyas, to see if she had been doing anything wrong; and then +turned saucily away, looked over the side, and hummed on. + +"Ask her, for mercy's sake--ask her, Captain Leigh!" + +"My child," said Amyas, speaking in Indian, "how is it you sing +that so much better than any other English? Did you ever hear it +before?" + +Ayacanora looked up at him puzzled, and shook her head; and then-- + +"If you tell Indian to Ayacanora, she dumb. She must be English +girl now, like poor Lucy." + +"Well then," said Amyas, "do you recollect, Ayacanora--do you +recollect--what shall I say? anything that happened when you were a +little girl?" + +She paused awhile; and then moving her hands overhead-- + +"Trees--great trees like the Magdalena--always nothing but trees-- +wild and bad everything. Ayacanora won't talk about that." + +"Do you mind anything that grew on those trees?" asked Yeo, +eagerly. + +She laughed. "Silly! Flowers and fruit, and nuts--grow on all +trees, and monkey-cups too. Ayacanora climbed up after them--when +she was wild. I won't tell any more." + +"But who taught you to call them monkey-cups?" asked Yeo, trembling +with excitement. + +"Monkey's drink; mono drink." + +"Mono?" said Yeo, foiled on one cast, and now trying another. "How +did you know the beasts were called monos?" + +"She might have heard it coming down with us," said Cary, who had +joined the group. + +"Ay, monos," said she, in a self-justifying tone. "Faces like +little men, and tails. And one very dirty black one, with a beard, +say Amen in a tree to all the other monkeys, just like Sir John on +Sunday." + +This allusion to Brimblecombe and the preaching apes upset all but +old Yeo. + +"But don't you recollect any Christians?--white people?" + +She was silent. + +"Don't you mind a white lady?" + +"Um?" + +"A woman, a very pretty woman, with hair like his?" pointing to +Amyas. + +"No." + +"What do you mind, then, beside those Indians?" added Yeo, in +despair. + +She turned her back on him peevishly, as if tired with the efforts +of her memory. + +"Do try to remember," said Amyas; and she set to work again at +once. + +"Ayacanora mind great monkeys--black, oh, so high," and she held up +her hand above her head, and made a violent gesture of disgust. + +"Monkeys? what, with tails?" + +"No, like man. Ah! yes--just like Cooky there--dirty Cooky!" + +And that hapless son of Ham, who happened to be just crossing the +main-deck, heard a marlingspike, which by ill luck was lying at +hand, flying past his ears. + +"Ayacanora, if you heave any more things at Cooky, I must have you +whipped," said Amyas, without, of course, any such intention. + +"I'll kill you, then," answered she, in the most matter-of-fact +tone. + +"She must mean negurs," said Yeo; "I wonder where she saw them, +now. What if it were they Cimaroons?" + +"But why should any one who had seen whites forget them, and yet +remember negroes?" asked Cary. + +"Let us try again. Do you mind no great monkeys but those black +ones?" asked Amyas. + +"Yes," she said, after a while,--"devil." + +"Devil?" asked all three, who, of course, were by no means free +from the belief that the fiend did actually appear to the Indian +conjurors, such as had brought up the girl. + +"Ay, him Sir John tell about on Sundays." + +"Save and help us!" said Yeo; "and what was he like unto?" + +She made various signs to intimate that he had a monkey's face, and +a gray beard like Yeo's. So far so good: but now came a series of +manipulations about her pretty little neck, which set all their +fancies at fault. + +"I know," said Cary, at last, bursting into a great laugh. "Sir +Urian had a ruff on, as I live! Trunk-hose too, my fair dame? +Stop--I'll make sure. Was his neck like the senor commandant's, +the Spaniard?" + +Ayacanora clapped her hands at finding herself understood, and the +questioning went on. + +"The 'devil' appeared like a monkey, with a gray beard, in a ruff;-- +humph!--" + +"Ay!" said she in good enough Spanish, "Mono de Panama; viejo +diablo de Panama." + +Yeo threw up his hands with a shriek--"Oh Lord of all mercies! +Those were the last words of Mr. John Oxenham! Ay--and the devil +is surely none other than the devil Don Francisco Xararte! Oh +dear! oh dear! oh dear! my sweet young lady! my pretty little maid! +and don't you know me? Don't you know Salvation Yeo, that carried +you over the mountains, and used to climb for the monkey-cups for +you, my dear young lady? And William Penberthy too, that used to +get you flowers; and your poor dear father, that was just like Mr. +Cary there, only he had a black beard, and black curls, and swore +terribly in his speech, like a Spaniard, my dear young lady?" + +And the honest fellow, falling on his knees, covered Ayacanora's +hands with kisses; while all the crew, fancying him gone suddenly +mad, crowded aft. + +"Steady, men, and don't vex him!" said Amyas. "He thinks that he +has found his little maid at last." + +"And so do I, Amyas, as I live," said Cary. + +"Steady, steady, my masters all! If this turn out a wrong scent +after all, his wits will crack. Mr. Yeo, can't you think of any +other token?" + +Yeo stamped impatiently. "What need then? it's her, I tell ye, and +that's enough! What a beauty she's grown! Oh dear! where were my +eyes all this time, to behold her, and not to see her! 'Tis her +very mortal self, it is! And don't you mind me, my dear, now? +Don't you mind Salvation Yeo, that taught you to sing 'Heave my +mariners all, O!' a-sitting on a log by the boat upon the sand, and +there was a sight of red lilies grew on it in the moss, dear, now, +wasn't there? and we made posies of them to put in your hair, +now?"--And the poor old man ran on in a supplicating, suggestive +tone, as if he could persuade the girl into becoming the person +whom he sought. + +Ayacanora had watched him, first angry, then amused, then +attentive, and at last with the most intense earnestness. Suddenly +she grew crimson, and snatching her hands from the old man's, hid +her face in them, and stood. + +"Do you remember anything of all this, my child?" asked Amyas, +gently. + +She lifted up her eyes suddenly to his, with a look of imploring +agony, as if beseeching him to spare her. The death of a whole old +life, the birth of a whole new life, was struggling in that +beautiful face, choking in that magnificent throat, as she threw +back her small head, and drew in her breath, and dashed her locks +back from her temples, as if seeking for fresh air. She shuddered, +reeled, then fell weeping on the bosom, not of Salvation Yeo, but +of Amyas Leigh. + +He stood still a minute or two, bearing that fair burden, ere he +could recollect himself. Then,-- + +"Ayacanora, you are not yet mistress of yourself, my child. You +were better to go down, and see after poor Lucy, and we will talk +about it all to-morrow." + +She gathered herself up instantly, and with eyes fixed on the deck +slid through the group, and disappeared below. + +"Ah!" said Yeo, with a tone of exquisite sadness; "the young to the +young! Over land and sea, in the forests and in the galleys, in +battle and prison, I have sought her! And now!--" + +"My good friend," said Amyas, "neither are you master of yourself +yet. When she comes round again, whom will she love and thank but +you?" + +"You, sir! She owes all to you; and so do I. Let me go below, +sir. My old wits are shaky. Bless you, sir, and thank you for +ever and ever!" + +And Yeo grasped Amyas's hand, and went down to his cabin, from +which he did not reappear for many hours. + +From that day Ayacanora was a new creature. The thought that she +was an Englishwoman; that she, the wild Indian, was really one of +the great white people whom she had learned to worship, carried in +it some regenerating change: she regained all her former +stateliness, and with it a self-restraint, a temperance, a softness +which she had never shown before. Her dislike to Cary and Jack +vanished. Modest and distant as ever, she now took delight in +learning from them about England and English people; and her +knowledge of our customs gained much from the somewhat fantastic +behaviour which Amyas thought good, for reasons of his own, to +assume toward her. He assigned her a handsome cabin to herself, +always addressed her as madam, and told Cary, Brimblecombe, and the +whole crew that as she was a lady and a Christian, he expected them +to behave to her as such. So there was as much bowing and scraping +on the poop as if it had been a prince's court: and Ayacanora, +though sorely puzzled and chagrined at Amyas's new solemnity, +contrived to imitate it pretty well (taking for granted that it was +the right thing); and having tolerable masters in the art of +manners (for both Amyas and Cary were thoroughly well-bred men), +profited much in all things, except in intimacy with Amyas, who +had, cunning fellow, hit on this parade of good manners, as a fresh +means of increasing the distance between him and her. The crew, of +course, though they were a little vexed at losing their pet, +consoled themselves with the thought that she was a "real born +lady," and Mr. Oxenham's daughter, too; and there was not a man on +board who did not prick up his ears for a message if she approached +him, or one who would not have, I verily believe, jumped overboard +to do her a pleasure. + +Only Yeo kept sorrowfully apart. He never looked at her, spoke to +her, met her even, if he could. His dream had vanished. He had +found her! and after all, she did not care for him? Why should +she? + +But it was hard to have hunted a bubble for years, and have it +break in his hand at last. "Set not your affections on things on +the earth," murmured Yeo to himself, as he pored over his Bible, in +the vain hope of forgetting his little maid. + +But why did Amyas wish to increase the distance between himself and +Ayacanora? Many reasons might be given: I deny none of them. But +the main one, fantastic as it may seem, was simply, that while she +had discovered herself to be an Englishwoman, he had discovered her +to be a Spaniard. If her father were seven times John Oxenham (and +even that the perverse fellow was inclined to doubt), her mother +was a Spaniard--Pah! one of the accursed race; kinswoman--perhaps, +to his brother's murderers! His jaundiced eyes could see nothing +but the Spanish element in her; or, indeed, in anything else. As +Cary said to him once, using a cant phrase of Sidney's, which he +had picked up from Frank, all heaven and earth were "spaniolated," +to him. He seemed to recollect nothing but that Heaven had "made +Spaniards to be killed, and him to kill them." If he had not been +the most sensible of John Bulls, he would certainly have +forestalled the monomania of that young Frenchman of rank, who, +some eighty years after him, so maddened his brain by reading of +the Spanish cruelties, that he threw up all his prospects and +turned captain of filibusters in the West Indies, for the express +purpose of ridding them of their tyrants; and when a Spanish ship +was taken, used to relinquish the whole booty to his crew, and +reserve for himself only the pleasure of witnessing his victims' +dying agonies. + +But what had become of that bird-like song of Ayacanora's which had +astonished them on the banks of the Meta, and cheered them many a +time in their anxious voyage down the Magdalena? From the moment +that she found out her English parentage, it stopped. She refused +utterly to sing anything but the songs and psalms which she picked +up from the English. Whether it was that she despised it as a +relic of her barbarism, or whether it was too maddening for one +whose heart grew heavier and humbler day by day, the nightingale +notes were heard no more. + +So homeward they ran, before a favoring southwest breeze: but long +ere they were within sight of land, Lucy Passmore was gone to her +rest beneath the Atlantic waves. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE THIRD TIME + + +"It fell about the Martinmas, + When nights were lang and mirk, + That wife's twa sons cam hame again, + And their hats were o' the birk. + +"It did na graw by bush or brae, + Nor yet in ony shough; + But by the gates o' paradise + That birk grew fair eneugh." + + The Wife of Usher's Well. + + +It is the evening of the 15th of February, 1587, and Mrs. Leigh +(for we must return now to old scenes and old faces) is pacing +slowly up and down the terrace-walk at Burrough, looking out over +the winding river, and the hazy sand-hills, and the wide western +sea, as she has done every evening, be it fair weather or foul, for +three weary years. Three years and more are past and gone, and yet +no news of Frank and Amyas, and the gallant ship and all the +gallant souls therein; and loving eyes in Bideford and Appledore, +Clovelly and Ilfracombe, have grown hollow with watching and with +weeping for those who have sailed away into the West, as John +Oxenham sailed before them, and have vanished like a dream, as he +did, into the infinite unknown. Three weary years, and yet no +word. Once there was a flush of hope, and good Sir Richard +(without Mrs. Leigh's knowledge, had sent a horseman posting across +to Plymouth, when the news arrived that Drake, Frobisher, and +Carlisle had returned with their squadron from the Spanish Main. +Alas! he brought back great news, glorious news; news of the +sacking of Cartagena, San Domingo, Saint Augustine; of the relief +of Raleigh's Virginian Colony: but no news of the Rose, and of +those who had sailed in her. And Mrs. Leigh bowed her head, and +worshipped, and said, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; +blessed be the name of the Lord!" + +Her hair was now grown gray; her cheeks were wan; her step was +feeble. She seldom went from home, save to the church, and to the +neighboring cottages. She never mentioned her sons' names; never +allowed a word to pass her lips, which might betoken that she +thought of them; but every day, when the tide was high, and red +flag on the sandhills showed that there was water over the bar, she +paced the terrace-walk, and devoured with greedy eyes the sea +beyond in search of the sail which never came. The stately ships +went in and out as of yore; and white sails hung off the bar for +many an hour, day after day, month after month, year after year: +but an instinct within told her that none of them were the sails +she sought. She knew that ship, every line of her, the cut of +every cloth; she could have picked it out miles away, among a whole +fleet, but it never came, and Mrs. Leigh bowed her head and +worshipped, and went to and fro among the poor, who looked on her +as an awful being, and one whom God had brought very near to +Himself, in that mysterious heaven of sorrow which they too knew +full well. And lone women and bed-ridden men looked in her +steadfast eyes, and loved them, and drank in strength from them; +for they knew (though she never spoke of her own grief) that she +had gone down into the fiercest depths of the fiery furnace, and +was walking there unhurt by the side of One whose form was as of +the Son of God. And all the while she was blaming herself for her +"earthly" longings, and confessing nightly to Heaven that weakness +which she could not shake off, which drew her feet at each high +tide to the terrace-walk beneath the row of wind-clipt trees. + +But this evening Northam is in a stir. The pebble ridge is +thundering far below, as it thundered years ago: but Northam is +noisy enough without the rolling of the surge. The tower is +rocking with the pealing bells: the people are all in the streets +shouting and singing round bonfires. They are burning the pope in +effigy, drinking to the queen's health, and "So perish all her +enemies!" The hills are red with bonfires in every village; and +far away, the bells of Bideford are answering the bells of Northam, +as they answered them seven years ago, when Amyas returned from +sailing round the world. For this day has come the news that Mary +Queen of Scots is beheaded in Fotheringay; and all England, like a +dreamer who shakes off some hideous nightmare, has leapt up in one +tremendous shout of jubilation, as the terror and the danger of +seventeen anxious years is lifted from its heart for ever. + +Yes, she is gone, to answer at a higher tribunal than that of the +Estates of England, for all the noble English blood which has been +poured out for her; for all the noble English hearts whom she has +tempted into treachery, rebellion, and murder. Elizabeth's own +words have been fulfilled at last, after years of long-suffering,-- + + + "The daughter of debate, + That discord aye doth sow, + Hath reap'd no gain where former rule + Hath taught still peace to grow." + + +And now she can do evil no more. Murder and adultery, the heart +which knew no forgiveness, the tongue which could not speak truth +even for its own interest, have past and are perhaps atoned for; +and her fair face hangs a pitiful dream in the memory even of those +who knew that either she, or England, must perish. + + + "Nothing is left of her + Now, but pure womanly." + + +And Mrs. Leigh, Protestant as she is, breathes a prayer, that the +Lord may have mercy on that soul, as "clear as diamond, and as +hard," as she said of herself. That last scene, too, before the +fatal block--it could not be altogether acting. Mrs. Leigh had +learned many a priceless lesson in the last seven years; might not +Mary Stuart have learned something in seventeen? And Mrs. Leigh +had been a courtier, and knew, as far as a chaste Englishwoman +could know (which even in those coarser days was not very much), of +that godless style of French court profligacy in which poor Mary +had had her youthful training, amid the Medicis, and the Guises, +and Cardinal Lorraine; and she shuddered, and sighed to herself"-- +To whom little is given, of them shall little be required!" But +still the bells pealed on and would not cease. + +What was that which answered them from afar out of the fast +darkening twilight? A flash, and then the thunder of a gun at sea. + +Mrs. Leigh stopped. The flash was right outside the bar. A ship +in distress it could not be. The wind was light and westerly. It +was a high spring-tide, as evening floods are always there. What +could it be? Another flash, another gun. The noisy folks of +Northam were hushed at once, and all hurried into the churchyard +which looks down on the broad flats and the river. + +There was a gallant ship outside the bar. She was running in, too, +with all sails set. A large ship; nearly a thousand tons she might +be; but not of English rig. What was the meaning of it? A Spanish +cruiser about to make reprisals for Drake's raid along the Cadiz +shore! Not that, surely. The Don had no fancy for such +unscientific and dare-devil warfare. If he came, he would come +with admiral, rear-admiral, and vice-admiral, transports, and +avisos, according to the best-approved methods, articles, and +science of war. What could she be? + +Easily, on the flowing tide and fair western wind, she has slipped +up the channel between the two lines of sandhill. She is almost +off Appledore now. She is no enemy; and if she be a foreigner, she +is a daring one, for she has never veiled her topsails,--and that, +all know, every foreign ship must do within sight of an English +port, or stand the chance of war; as the Spanish admiral found, who +many a year since was sent in time of peace to fetch home from +Flanders Anne of Austria, Philip the Second's last wife. + +For in his pride he sailed into Plymouth Sound without veiling +topsails, or lowering the flag of Spain. Whereon, like lion from +his den, out rushed John Hawkins the port admiral, in his famous +Jesus of Lubec (afterwards lost in the San Juan d'Ulloa fight), and +without argument or parley, sent a shot between the admiral's +masts; which not producing the desired effect, alongside ran bold +Captain John, and with his next shot, so says his son, an eye- +witness, "lackt the admiral through and through;" whereon down came +the offending flag; and due apologies were made, but not accepted +for a long time by the stout guardian of her majesty's honor. And +if John Hawkins did as much for a Spanish fleet in time of peace, +there is more than one old sea-dog in Appledore who will do as much +for a single ship in time of war, if he can find even an iron pot +to burn powder withal. + +The strange sail passed out of sight behind the hill of Appledore; +and then there rose into the quiet evening air a cheer, as from a +hundred throats. Mrs. Leigh stood still, and listened. Another +gun thundered among the hills; and then another cheer. + +It might have been twenty minutes before the vessel hove in sight +again round the dark rocks of the Hubbastone, as she turned up the +Bideford river. Mrs. Leigh had stood that whole time perfectly +motionless, a pale and scarcely breathing statue, her eyes fixed +upon the Viking's rock. + +Round the Hubbastone she came at last. There was music on board, +drums and fifes, shawms and trumpets, which wakened ringing echoes +from every knoll of wood and slab of slate. And as she opened full +on Burrough House, another cheer burst from her crew, and rolled up +to the hills from off the silver waters far below, full a mile +away. + +Mrs. Leigh walked quickly toward the house, and called her maid,-- + +"Grace, bring me my hood. Master Amyas is come home!" + +"No, surely? O joyful sound! Praised and blessed be the Lord, +then; praised and blessed be the Lord! But, madam, however did you +know that?" + +"I heard his voice on the river; but I did not hear Mr. Frank's +with him, Grace!" + +"Oh, be sure, madam, where the one is the other is. They'd never +part company. Both come home or neither, I'll warrant. Here's +your hood, madam." + +And Mrs. Leigh, with Grace behind her, started with rapid steps +towards Bideford. + +Was it true? Was it a dream? Had the divine instinct of the +mother enabled her to recognize her child's voice among all the +rest, and at that enormous distance; or was her brain turning with +the long effort of her supernatural calm? + +Grace asked herself, in her own way, that same question many a time +between Burrough and Bideford. When they arrived on the quay the +question answered itself. + +As they came down Bridgeland Street (where afterwards the tobacco +warehouses for the Virginia trade used to stand, but which then was +but a row of rope-walks and sailmakers' shops), they could see the +strange ship already at anchor in the river. They had just reached +the lower end of the street, when round the corner swept a great +mob, sailors, women, 'prentices, hurrahing, questioning, weeping, +laughing: Mrs. Leigh stopped; and behold, they stopped also. + +"Here she is!" shouted some one; "here's his mother!" + +"His mother? Not their mother!" said Mrs. Leigh to herself, and +turned very pale; but that heart was long past breaking. + +The next moment the giant head and shoulders of Amyas, far above +the crowd, swept round the corner. + +"Make a way! Make room for Madam Leigh!"--And Amyas fell on his +knees at her feet. + +She threw her arms round his neck, and bent her fair head over his, +while sailors, 'prentices, and coarse harbor-women were hushed into +holy silence, and made a ring round the mother and the son. + +Mrs. Leigh asked no question. She saw that Amyas was alone. + +At last he whispered, "I would have died to save him, mother, if I +could." + +"You need not tell me that, Amyas Leigh, my son." + +Another silence. + +"How did he die?" whispered Mrs. Leigh. + +"He is a martyr. He died in the----" + +Amyas could say no more. + +"The Inquisition?" + +"Yes." + +A strong shudder passed through Mrs. Leigh's frame, and then she +lifted up her head. + +"Come home, Amyas. I little expected such an honor--such an honor-- +ha! ha! and such a fair young martyr, too; a very St. Stephen! +God, have mercy on me; and let me not go mad before these folk, +when I ought to be thanking Thee for Thy great mercies! Amyas, who +is that?" + +And she pointed to Ayacanora, who stood close behind Amyas, +watching with keen eyes the whole. + +"She is a poor wild Indian girl--my daughter, I call her. I will +tell you her story hereafter." + +"Your daughter? My grand-daughter, then. Come hither, maiden, and +be my grand-daughter." + +Ayacanora came obedient, and knelt down, because she had seen Amyas +kneel. + +"God forbid, child! kneel not to me. Come home, and let me know +whether I am sane or mazed, alive or dead." + +And drawing her hood over her face, she turned to go back, holding +Amyas tight by one hand, and Ayacanora by the other. + +The crowd let them depart some twenty yards in respectful silence, +and then burst into a cheer which made the old town ring. + +Mrs. Leigh stopped suddenly. + +"I had forgotten, Amyas. You must not let me stand in the way of +your duty. Where are your men?" + +"Kissed to death by this time; all of them, that is, who are left." + +"Left?" + +"We went out a hundred, mother, and we came home forty-four--if we +are at home. Is it a dream, mother? Is this you? and this old +Bridgeland Street again? As I live, there stands Evans the smith, +at his door, tankard in hand, as he did when I was a boy!" + +The brawny smith came across the street to them; but stopped when +he saw Amyas, but no Frank. + +"Better one than neither, madam!" said he, trying a rough comfort. +Amyas shook his hand as he passed him; but Mrs. Leigh neither heard +nor saw him nor any one. + +"Mother," said Amyas, when they were now past the causeway, "we are +rich for life." + +"Yes; a martyr's death was the fittest for him." + +"I have brought home treasure untold." + +"What, my boy?" + +"Treasure untold. Cary has promised to see to it to-night." + +"Very well. I would that he had slept at our house. He was a +kindly lad, and loved Frank. When did he?"-- + +"Three years ago, and more. Within two months of our sailing." + +"Ah! Yes, he told me so." + +"Told you so?" + +"Yes; the dear lad has often come to see me in my sleep; but you +never came. I guessed how it was--as it should be." + +"But I loved you none the less, mother!" + +"I know that, too: but you were busy with the men, you know, sweet; +so your spirit could not come roving home like his, which was free. +Yes--all as it should be. My maid, and do you not find it cold +here in England, after those hot regions?" + +"Ayacanora's heart is warm; she does not think about cold." + +"Warm? perhaps you will warm my heart for me, then." + +"Would God I could do it, mother!" said Amyas, half reproachfully. + +Mrs. Leigh looked up in his face, and burst into a violent flood of +tears. + +"Sinful! sinful that I am!" + +"Blessed creature!" cried Amyas, "if you speak so I shall go mad. +Mother, mother, I have been dreading this meeting for months. It +has been a nightmare hanging over me like a horrible black thunder- +cloud; a great cliff miles high, with its top hid in the clouds, +which I had to climb, and dare not. I have longed to leap +overboard, and flee from it like a coward into the depths of the +sea.--The thought that you might ask me whether I was not my +brother's keeper--that you might require his blood at my hands--and +now, now! when it comes! to find you all love, and trust, and +patience--mother, mother, it's more than I can bear!" and he wept +violently. + +Mrs. Leigh knew enough of Amyas to know that any burst of this +kind, from his quiet nature, betokened some very fearful struggle; +and the loving creature forgot everything instantly, in the one +desire to soothe him. + +And soothe him she did; and home the two went, arm in arm together, +while Ayacanora held fast, like a child, by the skirt of Mrs. +Leigh's cloak. The self-help and daring of the forest nymph had +given place to the trembling modesty of the young girl, suddenly +cast on shore in a new world, among strange faces, strange hopes, +and strange fears also. + +"Will your mother love me?" whispered she to Amyas, as she went in. + +"Yes; but you must do what she tells you." + +Ayacanora pouted. + +"She will laugh at me, because I am wild." + +"She never laughs at any one." + +"Humph! " said Ayacanora. "Well, I shall not be afraid of her. I +thought she would have been tall like you; but she is not even as +big as me." + +This hardly sounded hopeful for the prospect of Ayacanora's +obedience; but ere twenty-four hours had passed, Mrs. Leigh had won +her over utterly; and she explained her own speech by saying that +she thought so great a man ought to have a great mother. She had +expected, poor thing, in her simplicity, some awful princess with a +frown like Juno's own, and found instead a healing angel. + +Her story was soon told to Mrs. Leigh, who of course, woman-like, +would not allow a doubt as to her identity. And the sweet mother +never imprinted a prouder or fonder kiss upon her son's forehead, +than that with which she repaid his simple declaration, that he had +kept unspotted, like a gentleman and a Christian, the soul which +God had put into his charge. + +"Then you have forgiven me, mother?" + +"Years ago I said in this same room, what should I render to the +Lord for having given me two such sons? And in this room I say it +once again. Tell me all about my other son, that I may honor him +as I honor you." + +And then, with the iron nerve which good women have, she made him +give her every detail of Lucy Passmore's story and of all which had +happened from the day of their sailing to that luckless night at +Guayra. And when it was done, she led Ayacanora out, and began +busying herself about the girl's comforts, as calmly as if Frank +and Amyas had been sleeping in their cribs in the next room. + +But she had hardly gone upstairs, when a loud knock at the door was +followed by its opening hastily; and into the hall burst, +regardless of etiquette, the tall and stately figure of Sir Richard +Grenville. + +Amyas dropped on his knees instinctively. The stern warrior was +quite unmanned; and as he bent over his godson, a tear dropped from +that iron cheek, upon the iron cheek of Amyas Leigh. + +"My lad! my glorious lad! and where have you been? Get up, and +tell me all. The sailors told me a little, but I must hear every +word. I knew you would do something grand. I told your mother you +were too good a workman for God to throw away. Now, let me have +the whole story. Why, I am out of breath! To tell truth, I ran +three-parts of the way hither." + +And down the two sat, and Amyas talked long into the night; while +Sir Richard, his usual stateliness recovered, smiled stern approval +at each deed of daring; and when all was ended, answered with +something like a sigh: + +"Would God that I had been with you every step! Would God, at +least, that I could show as good a three-years' log-book, Amyas, my +lad!" + +"You can show a better one, I doubt not." + +"Humph! With the exception of one paltry Spanish prize, I don't +know that the queen is the better, or her enemies the worse, for +me, since we parted last in Dublin city." + +"You are too modest, sir." + +"Would that I were; but I got on in Ireland, I found, no better +than my neighbors; and so came home again, to find that while I had +been wasting my time in that land of misrule, Raleigh had done a +deed to which I can see no end. For, lad, he has found (or rather +his two captains, Amadas and Barlow, have found for him) between +Florida and Newfoundland, a country, the like of which, I believe, +there is not on the earth for climate and fertility. Whether there +be gold there, I know not, and it matters little; for there is all +else on earth that man can want; furs, timber, rivers, game, sugar- +canes, corn, fruit, and every commodity which France, Spain, or +Italy can yield, wild in abundance; the savages civil enough for +savages, and, in a word, all which goes to the making of as noble a +jewel as her majesty's crown can wear. The people call it +Wingandacoa; but we, after her majesty, Virginia." + +"You have been there, then?" + +"The year before last, lad; and left there Ralf Lane, Amadas, and +some twenty gentlemen, and ninety men, and, moreover, some money of +my own, and some of old Will Salterne's, which neither of us will +ever see again. For the colony, I know not how, quarrelled with +the Indians (I fear I too was over-sharp with some of them for +stealing--if I was, God forgive me!), and could not, forsooth, keep +themselves alive for twelve months; so that Drake, coming back from +his last West Indian voyage, after giving them all the help he +could, had to bring the whole party home. And if you will believe +it, the faint-hearted fellows had not been gone a fortnight, before +I was back again with three ships and all that they could want. +And never was I more wroth in my life, when all I found was the +ruins of their huts, which (so rich is the growth there) were +already full of great melons, and wild deer feeding thereon--a +pretty sight enough, but not what I wanted just then. So back I +came; and being in no overgood temper, vented my humors on the +Portugals at the Azores, and had hard fights and small booty. So +there the matter stands, but not for long; for shame it were if +such a paradise, once found by Britons, should fall into the hands +of any but her majesty; and we will try again this spring, if men +and money can be found. Eh, lad?" + +"But the prize?" + +"Ah! that was no small make-weight to our disasters, after all. I +sighted her for six days' sail from the American coast: but ere we +could lay her aboard it fell dead calm. Never a boat had I on +board--they were all lost in a gale of wind--and the other ships +were becalmed two leagues astern of me. There was no use lying +there and pounding her till she sank; so I called the carpenter, +got up all the old chests, and with them and some spars we floated +ourselves alongside, and only just in time. For the last of us had +hardly scrambled up into the chains, when our crazy Noah's ark went +all aboard, and sank at the side, so that if we had been minded to +run away, Amyas, we could not; whereon, judging valor to be the +better part of discretion (as I usually do), we fell to with our +swords and had her in five minutes, and fifty thousand pounds' +worth in her, which set up my purse again, and Raleigh's too, +though I fear it has run out again since as fast as it ran in." + +And so ended Sir Richard's story. + +Amyas went the next day to Salterne, and told his tale. The old +man had heard the outlines of it already: but he calmly bade him +sit down, and listened to all, his chin upon his hand, his elbows +on his knees. His cheek never blanched, his lips never quivered +throughout. Only when Amyas came to Rose's marriage, he heaved a +long breath, as if a weight was taken off his heart. + +"Say that again, sir!" + +Amyas said it again, and then went on; faltering, he hinted at the +manner of her death. + +"Go on, sir! Why are you afraid? There is nothing to be ashamed +of there, is there?" + +Amyas told the whole with downcast eyes, and then stole a look at +his hearer's face. There was no sign of emotion: only somewhat of +a proud smile curled the corners of that iron mouth. + +"And her husband?" asked he, after a pause. + +"I am ashamed to have to tell you, sir, that the man still lives." + +"Still lives, sir?" + +"Too true, as far as I know. That it was not my fault, my story +bears me witness." + +"Sir, I never doubted your will to kill him. Still lives, you say? +Well, so do rats and adders. And now, I suppose, Captain Leigh, +your worship is minded to recruit yourself on shore a while with +the fair lass whom you have brought home (as I hear) before having +another dash at the devil and his kin!" + +"Do not mention that young lady's name with mine, sir; she is no +more to me than she is to you; for she has Spanish blood in her +veins." + +Salterne smiled grimly. + +"But I am minded at least to do one thing, Mr. Salterne, and that +is, to kill Spaniards, in fair fight, by land and sea, wheresoever +I shall meet them. And, therefore, I stay not long here, +whithersoever I may be bound next." + +"Well, sir, when you start, come to me for a ship, and the best I +have is at your service; and, if she do not suit, command her to be +fitted as you like best; and I, William Salterne, will pay for all +which you shall command to be done." + +"My good sir, I have accounts to square with you after a very +different fashion. As part-adventurer in the Rose, I have to +deliver to you your share of the treasure which I have brought +home." + +"My share, sir? If I understood you, my ship was lost off the +coast of the Caracas three years agone, and this treasure was all +won since?" + +"True; but you, as an adventurer in the expedition, have a just +claim for your share, and will receive it." + +"Captain Leigh, you are, I see, as your father was before you, a +just and upright Christian man: but, sir, this money is none of +mine, for it was won in no ship of mine.--Hear me, sir! And if it +had been, and that ship"--(he could not speak her name)--"lay safe +and sound now by Bideford quay, do you think, sir, that William +Salterne is the man to make money out of his daughter's sin and +sorrow, and to handle the price of blood? No, sir! You went like +a gentleman to seek her, and like a gentleman, as all the world +knows, you have done your best, and I thank you: but our account +ends there. The treasure is yours, sir; I have enough, and more +than enough, and none, God help me, to leave it to, but greedy and +needy kin, who will be rather the worse than the better for it. +And if I have a claim in law for aught--which I know not, neither +shall ever ask--why, if you are not too proud, accept that claim as +a plain burgher's thank-offering to you, sir, for a great and a +noble love which you and your brother have shown to one who, though +I say it, to my shame, was not worthy thereof." + +"She was worthy of that and more, sir. For if she sinned like a +woman, she died like a saint." + +"Yes, sir!" answered the old man, with a proud smile; "she had the +right English blood in her, I doubt not; and showed it at the last. +But now, sir, no more of this. When you need a ship, mine is at +your service; till then, sir, farewell, and God be with you." + +And the old man rose, and with an unmoved countenance, bowed Amyas +to the door. Amyas went back and told Cary, bidding him take half +of Salterne's gift: but Cary swore a great oath that he would have +none of it. + +"Heir of Clovelly, Amyas, and want to rob you? I who have lost +nothing,--you who have lost a brother! God forbid that I should +ever touch a farthing beyond my original share!" + +That evening a messenger from Bideford came running breathless up +to Burrough Court. The authorities wanted Amyas's immediate +attendance, for he was one of the last, it seemed, who had seen Mr. +Salterne alive. + +Salterne had gone over, as soon as Amyas departed, to an old +acquaintance; signed and sealed his will in their presence with a +firm and cheerful countenance, refusing all condolence; and then +gone home, and locked himself into Rose's room. Supper-time came, +and he did not appear. The apprentices could not make him answer, +and at last called in the neighbors, and forced the door. Salterne +was kneeling by his daughter's bed; his head was upon the coverlet; +his Prayer-book was open before him at the Burial Service; his +hands were clasped in supplication; but he was dead and cold. + +His will lay by him. He had left all his property among his poor +relations, saving and excepting all money, etc., due to him as +owner and part-adventurer of the ship Rose, and his new bark of +three hundred tons burden, now lying East-the-water; all which was +bequeathed to Captain Amyas Leigh, on condition that he should re- +christen that bark the Vengeance,--fit her out with part of the +treasure, and with her sail once more against the Spaniard, before +three years were past. + +And this was the end of William Salterne, merchant. + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS STOPPED BY THE QUEEN'S COMMAND + + +"The daughter of debate, + That discord still doth sow, +Shall reap no gain where former rule + Hath taught still peace to grow. +No foreign banish'd wight + Shall anker in this port +Our realm it brooks no stranger's force; + Let them elsewhere resort." + + QU. ELIZABETH. 1569. + + +And now Amyas is settled quietly at home again; and for the next +twelve months little passes worthy of record in these pages. Yeo +has installed himself as major domo, with no very definite +functions, save those of walking about everywhere at Amyas's heels +like a lank gray wolf-hound, and spending his evenings at the +fireside, as a true old sailor does, with his Bible on his knee, +and his hands busy in manufacturing numberless nicknacks, useful +and useless, for every member of the family, and above all for +Ayacanora, whom he insults every week by humbly offering some toy +only fit for a child; at which she pouts, and is reproved by Mrs. +Leigh, and then takes the gift, and puts it away never to look at +it again. For her whole soul is set upon being an English maid; +and she runs about all day long after Mrs. Leigh, insisting upon +learning the mysteries of the kitchen and the still-room, and, +above all, the art of making clothes for herself, and at last for +everybody in Northam. For first, she will be a good housewife, +like Mrs. Leigh; and next a new idea has dawned on her: that of +helping others. To the boundless hospitality of the savage she has +been of course accustomed: but to give to those who can give +nothing in return, is a new thought. She sees Mrs. Leigh spending +every spare hour in working for the poor, and visiting them in +their cottages. She sees Amyas, after public thanks in church for +his safe return, giving away money, food, what not, in Northam, +Appledore, and Bideford; buying cottages and making them almshouses +for worn-out mariners; and she is told that this is his thank- +offering to God. She is puzzled; her notion of a thank-offering +was rather that of the Indians, and indeed of the Spaniards,-- +sacrifices of human victims, and the bedizenment of the Great +Spirit's sanctuary with their skulls and bones. Not that Amyas, as +a plain old-fashioned churchman, was unmindful of the good old +instinctive rule, that something should be given to the Church +itself; for the vicar of Northam was soon resplendent with a new +surplice, and what was more, the altar with a splendid flagon and +salver of plate (lost, I suppose, in the civil wars) which had been +taken in the great galleon. Ayacanora could understand that: but +the almsgiving she could not, till Mrs. Leigh told her, in her +simple way, that whosoever gave to the poor, gave to the Great +Spirit; for the Great Spirit was in them, and in Ayacanora too, if +she would be quiet and listen to him, instead of pouting, and +stamping, and doing nothing but what she liked. And the poor child +took in that new thought like a child, and worked her fingers to +the bone for all the old dames in Northam, and went about with Mrs. +Leigh, lovely and beloved, and looked now and then out from under +her long black eyelashes to see if she was winning a smile from +Amyas. And on the day on which she won one, she was good all day; +and on the day on which she did not, she was thoroughly naughty, +and would have worn out the patience of any soul less chastened +than Mrs. Leigh's. But as for the pomp and glory of her dress, +there was no keeping it within bounds; and she swept into church +each Sunday bedizened in Spanish finery, with such a blaze and +rustle, that the good vicar had to remonstrate humbly with Mrs. +Leigh on the disturbance which she caused to the eyes and thoughts +of all his congregation. To which Ayacanora answered, that she was +not thinking about them, and they need not think about her; and +that if the Piache (in plain English, the conjuror), as she +supposed, wanted a present, he might have all her Mexican feather- +dresses; she would not wear them--they were wild Indian things, and +she was an English maid--but they would just do for a Piache; and +so darted upstairs, brought them down, and insisted so stoutly on +arraying the vicar therein, that the good man beat a swift retreat. +But he carried off with him, nevertheless, one of the handsomest +mantles, which, instead of selling it, he converted cleverly enough +into an altar-cloth; and for several years afterwards, the +communion at Northam was celebrated upon a blaze of emerald, azure, +and crimson, which had once adorned the sinful body of some Aztec +prince. + +So Ayacanora flaunted on; while Amyas watched her, half amused, +half in simple pride of her beauty; and looked around at all +gazers, as much as to say, "See what a fine bird I have brought +home!" + +Another great trouble which she gave Mrs. Leigh was her conduct to +the ladies of the neighborhood. They came, of course, one and all, +not only to congratulate Mrs. Leigh, but to get a peep at the fair +savage; but the fair savage snubbed them all round, from the +vicar's wife to Lady Grenville herself, so effectually, that few +attempted a second visit. + +Mrs. Leigh remonstrated, and was answered by floods of tears. +"They only come to stare at a poor wild Indian girl, and she would +not be made a show of. She was like a queen once, and every one +obeyed her; but here every one looked down upon her." But when +Mrs. Leigh asked her, whether she would sooner go back to the +forests, the poor girl clung to her like a baby, and entreated not +to be sent away, "She would sooner be a slave in the kitchen here, +than go back to the bad people." + +And so on, month after month of foolish storm and foolish sunshine; +but she was under the shadow of one in whom was neither storm nor +sunshine, but a perpetual genial calm of soft gray weather, which +tempered down to its own peacefulness all who entered its charmed +influence; and the outbursts grew more and more rare, and Ayacanora +more and more rational, though no more happy, day by day. + +And one by one small hints came out which made her identity +certain, at least in the eyes of Mrs. Leigh and Yeo. After she had +become familiar with the sight of houses, she gave them to +understand that she had seen such things before. The red cattle, +too, seemed not unknown to her; the sheep puzzled her for some +time, and at last she gave Mrs. Leigh to understand that they were +too small. + +"Ah, madam," quoth Yeo, who caught at every straw, "it is because +she has been accustomed to those great camel sheep (llamas they +call them) in Peru." + +But Ayacanora's delight was a horse. The use of tame animals at +all was a daily wonder to her; but that a horse could be ridden was +the crowning miracle of all; and a horse she would ride, and after +plaguing Amyas for one in vain (for he did not want to break her +pretty neck), she proposed confidentially to Yeo to steal one, and +foiled in that, went to the vicar and offered to barter all her +finery for his broken-kneed pony. But the vicar was too honest to +drive so good a bargain, and the matter ended, in Amyas buying her +a jennet, which she learned in a fortnight to ride like a very +Gaucho. + +And now awoke another curious slumbering reminiscence. For one +day, at Lady Grenville's invitation, the whole family went over to +Stow; Mrs. Leigh soberly on a pillion behind the groom, Ayacanora +cantering round and round upon the moors like a hound let loose, +and trying to make Amyas ride races with her. But that night, +sleeping in the same room with Mrs. Leigh, she awoke shrieking, and +sobbed out a long story how the "Old ape of Panama," her especial +abomination, had come to her bedside and dragged her forth into the +courtyard, and how she had mounted a horse and ridden with an +Indian over great moors and high mountains down into a dark wood, +and there the Indian and the horses vanished, and she found herself +suddenly changed once more into a little savage child. So strong +was the impression, that she could not be persuaded that the thing +had not happened, if not that night, at least some night or other. +So Mrs. Leigh at last believed the same, and told the company next +morning in her pious way how the Lord had revealed in a vision to +the poor child who she was, and how she had been exposed in the +forests by her jealous step-father, and neither Sir Richard nor his +wife could doubt but that hers was the true solution. It was +probable that Don Xararte, though his home was Panama, had been +often at Quito, for Yeo had seen him come on board the Lima ship at +Guayaquil, one of the nearest ports. This would explain her having +been found by the Indians beyond Cotopaxi, the nearest peak of the +Eastern Andes, if, as was but too likely, the old man, believing +her to be Oxenham's child, had conceived the fearful vengeance of +exposing her in the forests. + +Other little facts came to light one by one. They were all +connected (as was natural in a savage) with some animal or other +natural object. Whatever impressions her morals or affections had +received, had been erased by the long spiritual death of that +forest sojourn; and Mrs. Leigh could not elicit from her a trace of +feeling about her mother, or recollection of any early religious +teaching. This link, however, was supplied at last, and in this +way. + +Sir Richard had brought home an Indian with him from Virginia. Of +his original name I am not sure, but he was probably the "Wanchese" +whose name occurs with that of "Manteo." + +This man was to be baptized in the church at Bideford by the name +of Raleigh, his sponsors being most probably Raleigh himself, who +may have been there on Virginian business, and Sir Richard +Grenville. All the notabilities of Bideford came, of course, to +see the baptism of the first "Red man" whose foot had ever trodden +British soil, and the mayor and corporation-men appeared in full +robes, with maces and tipstaffs, to do honor to that first-fruits +of the Gospel in the West. + +Mrs. Leigh went, as a matter of course, and Ayacanora would needs +go too. She was very anxious to know what they were going to do +with the "Carib." + +"To make him a Christian." + +"Why did they not make her one?" + +Because she was one already. They were sure that she had been +christened as soon as she was born. But she was not sure, and +pouted a good deal at the chance of an "ugly red Carib" being +better off than she was. However, all assembled duly; the stately +son of the forest, now transformed into a footman of Sir Richard's, +was standing at the font; the service was half performed when a +heavy sigh, or rather groan, made all eyes turn, and Ayacanora sank +fainting upon Mrs. Leigh's bosom. + +She was carried out, and to a neighboring house; and when she came +to herself, told a strange story. How, as she was standing there +trying to recollect whether she too had ever been baptized, the +church seemed to grow larger, the priest's dress richer; the walls +were covered with pictures, and above the altar, in jewelled robes, +stood a lady, and in her arms a babe. Soft music sounded in her +ears; the air was full (on that she insisted much) of fragrant odor +which filled the church like mist; and through it she saw not one, +but many Indians, standing by the font; and a lady held her by the +hand, and she was a little girl again. + +And after, many questionings, so accurate was her recollection, not +only of the scene, but of the building, that Yeo pronounced: + +"A christened woman she is, madam, if Popish christening is worth +calling such, and has seen Indians christened too in the Cathedral +Church at Quito, the inside whereof I know well enough, and too +well, for I sat there three mortal hours in a San Benito, to hear a +friar preach his false doctrines, not knowing whether I was to be +burnt or not next day." + +So Ayacanora went home to Burrough, and Raleigh the Indian to Sir +Richard's house. The entry of his baptism still stands, crooked- +lettered, in the old parchment register of the Bideford baptisms +for 1587-3: + + + "Raleigh, a Winganditoian: March 26." + + +His name occurs once more, a year and a month after: + + + "Rawly, a Winganditoian, April 1589." + + +But it is not this time among the baptisms. The free forest +wanderer has pined in vain for his old deer-hunts amid the fragrant +cedar woods, and lazy paddlings through the still lagoons, where +water-lilies sleep beneath the shade of great magnolias, wreathed +with clustered vines; and now he is away to "happier hunting- +grounds," and all that is left of him below sleeps in the narrow +town churchyard, blocked in with dingy houses, whose tenants will +never waste a sigh upon the Indian's grave. There the two entries +stand, unto this day; and most pathetic they have seemed to me; a +sort of emblem and first-fruits of the sad fate of that worn-out +Red race, to whom civilization came too late to save, but not too +late to hasten their decay. + +But though Amyas lay idle, England did not. That spring saw +another and a larger colony sent out by Raleigh to Virginia, under +the charge of one John White. Raleigh had written more than once, +entreating Amyas to take the command, which if he had done, perhaps +the United States had begun to exist twenty years sooner than they +actually did. But his mother had bound him by a solemn promise +(and who can wonder at her for asking, or at him for giving it?) to +wait at home with her twelve months at least. So, instead of +himself, he sent five hundred pounds, which I suppose are in +Virginia (virtually at least) until this day; for they never came +back again to him. + +But soon came a sharper trial of Amyas's promise to his mother; and +one which made him, for the first time in his life, moody, peevish, +and restless, at the thought that others were fighting Spaniards, +while he was sitting idle at home. For his whole soul was filling +fast with sullen malice against Don Guzman. He was losing the +"single eye," and his whole body was no longer full of light. He +had entered into the darkness in which every man walks who hates +his brother; and it lay upon him like a black shadow day and night. +No company, too, could be more fit to darken that shadow than +Salvation Yeo's. The old man grew more stern in his fanaticism day +by day, and found a too willing listener in his master; and Mrs. +Leigh was (perhaps for the first and last time in her life) +seriously angry, when she heard the two coolly debating whether +they had not committed a grievous sin in not killing the Spanish +prisoners on board the galleon. + +It must be said, however (as the plain facts set down in this book +testify), that if such was the temper of Englishmen at that day, +the Spaniards had done a good deal to provoke it; and were just +then attempting to do still more. + +For now we are approaching the year 1588, "which an astronomer of +Konigsberg, above a hundred years before, foretold would be an +admirable year, and the German chronologers presaged would be the +climacterical year of the world." + +The prophecies may stand for what they are worth; but they were at +least fulfilled. That year was, indeed, the climacterical year of +the world; and decided once and for all the fortunes of the +European nations, and of the whole continent of America. + +No wonder, then, if (as has happened in each great crisis of the +human race) some awful instinct that The Day of the Lord was at +hand, some dim feeling that there was war in heaven, and that the +fiends of darkness and the angels of light were arrayed against +each other in some mighty struggle for the possession of the souls +of men, should have tried to express itself in astrologic dreams, +and, as was the fashion then, attributed to the "rulers of the +planetary houses" some sympathy with the coming world-tragedy. + +But, for the wise, there needed no conjunction of planets to tell +them that the day was near at hand, when the long desultory duel +between Spain and England would end, once and for all, in some +great death-grapple. The war, as yet, had been confined to the +Netherlands, to the West Indies, and the coasts and isles of +Africa; to the quarters, in fact, where Spain was held either to +have no rights, or to have forfeited them by tyranny. But Spain +itself had been respected by England, as England had by Spain; and +trade to Spanish ports went on as usual, till, in the year 1585, +the Spaniard, without warning, laid an embargo on all English ships +coming to his European shores. They were to be seized, it seemed, +to form part of an enormous armament, which was to attack and +crush, once and for all--whom? The rebellious Netherlanders, said +the Spaniards: but the queen, the ministry, and, when it was just +not too late, the people of England, thought otherwise. England +was the destined victim; so, instead of negotiating, in order to +avoid fighting, they fought in order to produce negotiation. +Drake, Frobisher, and Carlisle, as we have seen, swept the Spanish +Main with fire and sword, stopping the Indian supplies; while +Walsingham (craftiest, and yet most honest of mortals) prevented, +by some mysterious financial operation, the Venetian merchants from +repairing the Spaniards' loss by a loan; and no Armada came that +year. + +In the meanwhile, the Jesuits, here and abroad, made no secret, +among their own dupes, of the real objects of the Spanish armament. +The impious heretics,--the Drakes and Raleighs, Grenvilles and +Cavendishes, Hawkinses and Frobishers, who had dared to violate +that hidden sanctuary of just half the globe, which the pope had +bestowed on the defender of the true faith,--a shameful ruin, a +terrible death awaited them, when their sacrilegious barks should +sink beneath the thunder of Spanish cannon, blessed by the pope, +and sanctified with holy water and prayer to the service of "God +and his Mother." Yes, they would fall, and England with them. The +proud islanders, who had dared to rebel against St. Peter, and to +cast off the worship of "Mary," should bow their necks once more +under the yoke of the Gospel. Their so-called queen, illegitimate, +excommunicate, contumacious, the abettor of free-trade, the +defender of the Netherlands, the pillar of false doctrine +throughout Europe, should be sent in chains across the Alps, to sue +for her life at the feet of the injured and long-suffering father +of mankind, while his nominee took her place upon the throne which +she had long since forfeited by her heresy. + +"What nobler work? How could the Church of God be more gloriously +propagated? How could higher merit be obtained by faithful +Catholics? It must succeed. Spain was invincible in valor, +inexhaustible in wealth. Heaven itself offered them an +opportunity. They had nothing now to fear from the Turk, for they +had concluded a truce with him; nothing from the French, for they +were embroiled in civil war. The heavens themselves had called +upon Spain to fulfil her heavenly mission, and restore to the +Church's crown this brightest and richest of her lost jewels. The +heavens themselves called to a new crusade. The saints, whose +altars the English had rifled and profaned, called them to a new +crusade. The Virgin Queen of Heaven, whose boundless stores of +grace the English spurned, called them to a new crusade. Justly +incensed at her own wrongs and indignities, that 'ever-gracious +Virgin, refuge of sinners, and mother of fair love, and holy hope,' +adjured by their knightly honor all valiant cavaliers to do battle +in her cause against the impious harlot who assumed her titles, +received from her idolatrous flatterers the homage due to Mary +alone, and even (for Father Parsons had asserted it, therefore it +must be true) had caused her name to be substituted for that of +Mary in the Litanies of the Church. Let all who wore within a +manly heart, without a manly sword, look on the woes of 'Mary,'-- +her shame, her tears, her blushes, her heart pierced through with +daily wounds, from heretic tongues, and choose between her and +Elizabeth!" + +So said Parsons, Allen, and dozens more; and said more than this, +too, and much which one had rather not repeat; and were somewhat +surprised and mortified to find that their hearers, though they +granted the premises, were too dull or carnal to arrive at the same +conclusion. The English lay Romanists, almost to a man, had hearts +sounder than their heads, and, howsoever illogically, could not +help holding to the strange superstition that, being Englishmen, +they were bound to fight for England. So the hapless Jesuits, who +had been boasting for years past that the persecuted faithful +throughout the island would rise as one man to fight under the +blessed banner of the pope and Spain, found that the faithful, like +Demas of old, forsook them and "went after this present world;" +having no objection, of course, to the restoration of Popery: but +preferring some more comfortable method than an invasion which +would inevitably rob them of their ancestral lands and would seat +needy and greedy Castilians in their old country houses, to treat +their tenants as they had treated the Indians of Hispaniola, and +them as they had treated the caciques. + +But though the hearts of men in that ungodly age were too hard to +melt at the supposed woes of the Mary who reigned above, and too +dull to turn rebels and traitors for the sake of those thrones and +principalities in supra-lunar spheres which might be in her gift: +yet there was a Mary who reigned (or ought to reign) below, whose +woes (like her gifts) were somewhat more palpable to the carnal +sense. A Mary who, having every comfort and luxury (including +hounds and horses) found for her by the English Government, at an +expense which would be now equal to some twenty thousand a year, +could afford to employ the whole of her jointure as Queen Dowager +of France (probably equal to fifty thousand a year more), in +plotting the destruction of the said government, and the murder of +its queen; a Mary who, if she prospered as she ought, might have +dukedoms, and earldoms, fair lands and castles to bestow on her +faithful servants; a Mary, finally, who contrived by means of an +angel face, a serpent tongue, and a heart (as she said herself) as +hard as a diamond, to make every weak man fall in love with her, +and, what was worse, fancy more or less that she was in love with +him. + +Of her the Jesuits were not unmindful; and found it convenient, +indeed, to forget awhile the sorrows of the Queen of Heaven in +those of the Queen of Scots. Not that they cared much for those +sorrows; but they were an excellent stock-in-trade. She was a +Romanist; she was "beautiful and unfortunate," a virtue which, like +charity, hides the multitude of sins; and therefore she was a +convenient card to play in the great game of Rome against the Queen +and people of England; and played the poor card was, till it got +torn up by over-using. Into her merits or demerits I do not enter +deeply here. Let her rest in peace. + +To all which the people of England made a most practical and +terrible answer. From the highest noble to the lowest peasant, +arose one simultaneous plebiscitum: "We are tired of these +seventeen years of chicanery and terror. This woman must die: or +the commonweal of England perish!" We all know which of the two +alternatives was chosen. + +All Europe stood aghast: but rather with astonishment at English +audacity, than with horror at English wickedness. Mary's own +French kinsfolk had openly given her up as too bad to be excused, +much less assisted. Her own son blustered a little to the English +ambassador; for the majesty of kings was invaded: whereon +Walsingham said in open council, that "the queen should send him a +couple of hounds, and that would set all right." Which sage advice +(being acted on, and some deer sent over and above) was so +successful that the pious mourner, having run off (Randolph says, +like a baby to see the deer in their cart), returned for answer +that he would "thereafter depend wholly upon her majesty, and serve +her fortune against all the world; and that he only wanted now two +of her majesty's yeoman prickers, and a couple of her grooms of the +deer." The Spaniard was not sorry on the whole for the +catastrophe; for all that had kept him from conquering England long +ago was the fear lest, after it was done, he might have had to put +the crown thereof on Mary's head, instead of his own. But Mary's +death was as convenient a stalking-horse to him as to the pope; and +now the Armada was coming in earnest. + +Elizabeth began negotiating; but fancy not that she does nothing +more, as the following letter testifies, written about midsummer, +1587. + + +"F. Drake to Captain Amyas Leigh. This with haste. + +"DEAR LAD, + +"As I said to her most glorious majesty, I say to you now. There +are two ways of facing an enemy. The one to stand off, and cry, +'Try that again, and I'll strike thee'; the other to strike him +first, and then, 'Try that at all, and I'll strike thee again.' Of +which latter counsel her majesty so far approves, that I go +forthwith (tell it not in Gath) down the coast, to singe the king +of Spain's beard (so I termed it to her majesty, she laughing), in +which if I leave so much as a fishing-boat afloat from the Groyne +unto Cadiz, it will not be with my good will, who intend that if he +come this year, he shall come by swimming and not by sailing. So +if you are still the man I have known you, bring a good ship round +to Plymouth within the month, and away with me for hard blows and +hard money, the feel of both of which you know pretty well by now. + +"Thine lovingly, + +"F. Drake." + + +Amyas clutched his locks over this letter, and smoked more tobacco +the day he got it than had ever before been consumed at once in +England. But he kept true to his promise; and this was his reply:-- + + + +"Amyas Leigh to the Worshipful Sir F. Drake, Admiral of her +Majesty's Fleet in Plymouth. + +"MOST HONORED SIR, + +"A magician keeps me here, in bilboes for which you have no +picklock; namely, a mother who forbids. The loss is mine: but +Antichrist I can fight any year (for he will not die this bout, nor +the next), while my mother--but I will not trouble your patience +more than to ask from you to get me news, if you can, from any +prisoners of one Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto; +whether he is in Spain or in the Indies; and what the villain does, +and where he is to be found. This only I entreat of you, and so +remain behind with a heavy heart. + +"Yours to command in all else, and I would to Heaven, in this also, + +"AMYAS LEIGH." + + +I am sorry to have to say, that after having thus obeyed his +mother, Master Amyas, as men are too apt to do, revenged himself on +her by being more and more cross and disagreeable. But his temper +amended much, when, a few months after, Drake returned triumphant, +having destroyed a hundred sail in Cadiz alone, taken three great +galleons with immense wealth on board, burnt the small craft all +along the shore, and offered battle to Santa Cruz at the mouth of +the Tagus. After which it is unnecessary to say, that the Armada +was put off for yet another year. + +This news, indeed, gave Amyas little comfort; for he merely +observed, grumbling, that Drake had gone and spoiled everybody +else's sport: but what cheered him was news from Drake that Don +Guzman had been heard of from the captain of one of the galleons; +that he was high in favor in Spain, and commandant of soldiers on +board one of the largest of the marquis's ships. + +And when Amyas heard that, a terrible joy took possession of him. +When the Armada came, as come it would, he should meet his enemy at +last! He could wait now patiently: if--and he shuddered at +himself, as he found himself in the very act of breathing a prayer +that Don Guzman might not die before that meeting. + +In the meanwhile, rumor flew thousand-tongued through the length +and breadth of the land; of vast preparations going on in Spain and +Italy; of timber felled long before for some such purpose, brought +down to the sea, and sawn out for shipbuilding; of casting of +cannon, and drilling of soldiers; of ships in hundreds collecting +at Lisbon; of a crusade preached by Pope Sixtus the Fifth, who had +bestowed the kingdom of England on the Spaniard, to be enjoyed by +him as vassal tributary to Rome; of a million of gold to be paid by +the pope, one-half down at once, the other half when London was +taken; of Cardinal Allen writing and printing busily in the +Netherlands, calling on all good Englishmen to carry out, by +rebelling against Elizabeth, the bull of Sixtus the Fifth, said (I +blush to repeat it) to have been dictated by the Holy Ghost; of +Inquisitors getting ready fetters and devil's engines of all sorts; +of princes and noblemen, flocking from all quarters, gentlemen +selling their private estates to fit out ships; how the Prince of +Melito, the Marquess of Burgrave, Vespasian Gonzaga, John Medicis, +Amadas of Savoy, in short, the illegitimate sons of all the +southern princes, having no lands of their own, were coming to find +that necessary of life in this pleasant little wheat-garden. Nay, +the Duke of Medina Sidonia had already engaged Mount-Edgecombe for +himself, as the fairest jewel of the south; which when good old Sir +Richard Edgecombe heard, he observed quietly, that in 1555 he had +the pleasure of receiving at his table at one time the admirals of +England, Spain, and the Netherlands, and therefore had experience +in entertaining Dons; and made preparations for the visit by +filling his cellars with gunpowder, with a view to a house-warming +and feu-de-joie on the occasion. But as old Fuller says, "The bear +was not yet killed, and Medina Sidonia might have catched a great +cold, had he no other clothes to wear than the skin thereof." + +So flew rumor, false and true, till poor John Bull's wits were +well-nigh turned: but to the very last, after his lazy fashion, he +persuaded himself that it would all come right somehow; that it was +too great news to be true; that if it was true, the expedition was +only meant for the Netherlands; and, in short, sat quietly over his +beef and beer for many a day after the French king had sent him +fair warning, and the queen, the ministry, and the admirals had +been assuring him again and again that he, and not the Dutchman, +was the destined prey of this great flight of ravenous birds. + +At last the Spaniard, in order that there should be no mistake +about the matter, kindly printed a complete bill of the play, to be +seen still in Van Meteran, for the comfort of all true Catholics, +and confusion of all pestilent heretics; which document, of course, +the seminary priests used to enforce the duty of helping the +invaders, and the certainty of their success; and from their hands +it soon passed into those of the devout ladies, who were not very +likely to keep it to themselves; till John Bull himself found his +daughters buzzing over it with very pale faces (as young ladies +well might who had no wish to follow the fate of the damsels of +Antwerp), and condescending to run his eye through it, discovered, +what all the rest of Europe had known for months past, that he was +in a very great scrape. + +Well it was for England, then, that her Tudor sovereigns had +compelled every man (though they kept up no standing army) to be a +trained soldier. Well it was that Elizabeth, even in those +dangerous days of intrigue and rebellion, had trusted her people +enough, not only to leave them their weapons, but (what we, +forsooth, in these more "free" and "liberal" days dare not do) to +teach them how to use them. Well it was, that by careful +legislation for the comfort and employment of "the masses" (term +then, thank God, unknown), she had both won their hearts, and kept +their bodies in fighting order. Well it was that, acting as fully +as Napoleon did on "la carriere ouverte aux talens," she had raised +to the highest posts in her councils, her army, and her navy, men +of business, who had not been ashamed to buy and sell as merchants +and adventurers. Well for England, in a word, that Elizabeth had +pursued for thirty years a very different course from that which we +have been pursuing for the last thirty, with one exception, namely, +the leaving as much as possible to private enterprise. + +There we have copied her: would to Heaven that we had in some other +matters! It is the fashion now to call her a despot: but unless +every monarch is to be branded with that epithet whose power is not +as circumscribed as Queen Victoria's is now, we ought rather to +call her the most popular sovereign, obeyed of their own free will +by the freest subjects which England has ever seen; confess the +Armada fight to have been as great a moral triumph as it was a +political one; and (now that our late boasting is a little silenced +by Crimean disasters) inquire whether we have not something to +learn from those old Tudor times, as to how to choose officials, +how to train a people, and how to defend a country. + +To return to the thread of my story. + +January, 1587-8, had well-nigh run through, before Sir Richard +Grenville made his appearance on the streets of Bideford. He had +been appointed in November one of the council of war for providing +for the safety of the nation, and the West Country had seen nothing +of him since. But one morning, just before Christmas, his stately +figure darkened the old bay-window at Burrough, and Amyas rushed +out to meet him, and bring him in, and ask what news from Court. + +"All good news, dear lad, and dearer madam. The queen shows the +spirit of a very Boadicea or Semiramis; ay, a very Scythian +Tomyris, and if she had the Spaniard before her now, would verily, +for aught I know, feast him as the Scythian queen did Cyrus, with +'Satia te sanguine, quod sitisti.'" + +"I trust her most merciful spirit is not so changed already," said +Mrs. Leigh. + +"Well, if she would not do it, I would, and ask pardon afterwards, +as Raleigh did about the rascals at Smerwick, whom Amyas knows of. +Mrs. Leigh, these are times in which mercy is cruelty. Not England +alone, but the world, the Bible, the Gospel itself, is at stake; +and we must do terrible things, lest we suffer more terrible ones." + +"God will take care of world and Bible better than any cruelty of +ours, dear Sir Richard." + +"Nay, but, Mrs. Leigh, we must help Him to take care of them! If +those Smerwick Spaniards had not been--" + +"The Spaniard would not have been exasperated into invading us." + +"And we should not have had this chance of crushing him once and +for all; but the quarrel is of older standing, madam, eh, Amyas? +Amyas, has Raleigh written to you of late?" + +"Not a word, and I wonder why." + +"Well; no wonder at that, if you knew how he has been laboring. +The wonder is, whence he got the knowledge wherewith to labor; for +he never saw sea-work to my remembrance." + +"Never saw a shot fired by sea, except ours at Smerwick, and that +brush with the Spaniards in 1579, when he sailed for Virginia with +Sir Humphrey; and he was a mere crack then." + +"So you consider him as your pupil, eh? But he learnt enough in +the Netherland wars, and in Ireland too, if not of the strength of +ships, yet still of the weakness of land forces; and would you +believe it, the man has twisted the whole council round his finger, +and made them give up the land defences to the naval ones." + +"Quite right he, and wooden walls against stone ones for ever! But +as for twisting, he would persuade Satan, if he got him alone for +half an hour." + +"I wish he would sail for Spain then, just now, and try the powers +of his tongue," said Mrs. Leigh. + +"But are we to have the honor, really?" + +"We are, lad. There were many in the council who were for +disputing the landing on shore, and said--which I do not deny--that +the 'prentice boys of London could face the bluest blood in Spain. +But Raleigh argued (following my Lord Burleigh in that) that we +differed from the Low Countries, and all other lands, in that we +had not a castle or town throughout, which would stand a ten days' +siege, and that our ramparts, as he well said, were, after all, +only a body of men. So, he argued, as long as the enemy has power +to land where he will, prevention, rather than cure, is our only +hope; and that belongs to the office, not of an army, but of a +fleet. So the fleet was agreed on, and a fleet we shall have." + +"Then here is his health, the health of a true friend to all bold +mariners, and myself in particular! But where is he now?" + +"Coming here to-morrow, as I hope--for he left London with me, and +so down by us into Cornwall, to drill the train-bands, as he is +bound to do, being Seneschal of the Duchies and Lieutenant-General +of the county." + +"Besides Lord Warden of the Stanneries! How the man thrives!" said +Mrs. Leigh. + +"How the man deserves to thrive!" said Amyas; "but what are we to +do?" + +"That is the rub. I would fain stay and fight the Spaniards." + +"So would I; and will." + +"But he has other plans in his head for us." + +"We can make our own plans without his help." + +"Heyday, Amyas! How long? When did he ask you to do a thing yet +and you refuse him?" + +"Not often, certainly; but Spaniards I must fight." + +"Well, so must I, boy: but I have given a sort of promise to him, +nevertheless." + +"Not for me too, I hope?" + +"No: he will extract that himself when he comes; you must come and +sup to-morrow, and talk it over." + +"Be talked over, rather. What chestnut does the cat want us +monkeys to pull out of the fire for him now, I wonder?" + +"Sir Richard Grenville is hardly accustomed to be called a monkey," +said Mrs. Leigh. + +"I meant no harm; and his worship knows it, none better: but where +is Raleigh going to send us, with a murrain?" + +"To Virginia. The settlers must have help: and, as I trust in God, +we shall be back again long before this armament can bestir +itself." + +So Raleigh came, saw, and conquered. Mrs. Leigh consented to +Amyas's going (for his twelve-month would be over ere the fleet +could start) upon so peaceful and useful an errand; and the next +five months were spent in continual labor on the part of Amyas and +Grenville, till seven ships were all but ready in Bideford river, +the admiral whereof was Amyas Leigh. + +But that fleet was not destined ever to see the shores of the New +World: it had nobler work to do (if Americans will forgive the +speech) than even settling the United States. + +It was in the long June evenings, in the year 1588; Mrs. Leigh sat +in the open window, busy at her needle-work; Ayacanora sat opposite +to her, on the seat of the bay, trying diligently to read "The +History of the Nine Worthies," and stealing a glance every now and +then towards the garden, where Amyas stalked up and down as he had +used to do in happier days gone by. But his brow was contracted +now, his eyes fixed on the ground, as he plodded backwards and +forwards, his hands behind his back, and a huge cigar in his mouth, +the wonder of the little boys of Northam, who peeped in stealthily +as they passed the iron-work gates, to see the back of the famous +fire-breathing captain who had sailed round the world and been in +the country of headless men and flying dragons, and then popped +back their heads suddenly, as he turned toward them in his walk. +And Ayacanora looked, and looked, with no less admiration than the +urchins at the gate: but she got no more of an answering look from +Amyas than they did; for his head was full of calculations of +tonnage and stowage, of salt pork and ale-barrels, and the packing +of tools and seeds; for he had promised Raleigh to do his best for +the new colony, and he was doing it with all his might; so +Ayacanora looked back again to her book, and heaved a deep sigh. +It was answered by one from Mrs. Leigh. + +"We are a melancholy pair, sweet chuck," said the fair widow. +"What is my maid sighing about, there?" + +"Because I cannot make out the long words," said Ayacanora, telling +a very white fib. + +"Is that all? Come to me, and I will tell you." + +Ayacanora moved over to her, and sat down at her feet. + +"H--e, he, r--o, ro, i--c--a--l, heroical," said Mrs. Leigh. + +"But what does that mean?" + +"Grand, good, and brave, like--" + +Mrs. Leigh was about to have said the name of one who was lost to +her on earth. His fair angelic face hung opposite upon the wall. +She paused unable to pronounce his name; and lifted up her eyes, +and gazed on the portrait, and breathed a prayer between closed +lips, and drooped her head again. + +Her pupil caught at the pause, and filled it up for herself-- + +"Like him?" and she turned her head quickly toward the window. + +"Yes, like him, too," said Mrs. Leigh, with a half-smile at the +gesture. "Now, mind your book. Maidens must not look out of the +window in school hours." + +"Shall I ever be an English girl?" asked Ayacanora. + +"You are one now, sweet; your father was an English gentleman." + +Amyas looked in, and saw the two sitting together. + +"You seem quite merry there," said he. + +"Come in, then, and be merry with us." + +He entered, and sat down; while Ayacanora fixed her eyes most +steadfastly on her book. + +"Well, how goes on the reading?" said he; and then, without waiting +for an answer--"We shall be ready to clear out this day week, +mother, I do believe; that is, if the hatchets are made in time to +pack them." + +"I hope they will be better than the last," said Mrs. Leigh. "It +seems to me a shameful sin to palm off on poor ignorant savages +goods which we should consider worthless for ourselves." + +"Well, it's not over fair: but still, they are a sight better than +they ever had before. An old hoop is better than a deer's bone, as +Ayacanora knows,--eh?" + +"I don't know anything about it," said she, who was always nettled +at the least allusion to her past wild life. "I am an English girl +now, and all that is gone--I forget it." + +"Forget it?" said he, teasing her for want of something better to +do. "Should not you like to sail with us, now, and see the Indians +in the forests once again?" + +"Sail with you?" and she looked up eagerly. + +"There! I knew it! She would not be four-and-twenty hours ashore, +but she would be off into the woods again, bow in hand, like any +runaway nymph, and we should never see her more." + +"It is false, bad man!" and she burst into violent tears, and hid +her face in Mrs. Leigh's lap. + +"Amyas, Amyas, why do you tease the poor fatherless thing?" + +"I was only jesting, I'm sure," said Amyas, like a repentant +schoolboy. "Don't cry now, don't cry, my child, see here," and he +began fumbling in his pockets; "see what I bought of a chapman in +town to-day, for you, my maid, indeed, I did." + +And out he pulled some smart kerchief or other, which had taken his +sailor's fancy. + +"Look at it now, blue, and crimson, and green, like any parrot!" +and he held it out. + +She looked round sharply, snatched it out of his hand, and tore it +to shreds. + +"I hate it, and I hate you!" and she sprang up and darted out of +the room. + +"Oh, boy, boy!" said Mrs. Leigh, "will you kill that poor child? +It matters little for an old heart like mine, which has but one or +two chords left whole, how soon it be broken altogether; but a +young heart is one of God's precious treasures, Amyas, and suffers +many a long pang in the breaking; and woe to them who despise +Christ's little ones!" + +"Break your heart, mother?" + +"Never mind my heart, dear son; yet how can you break it more +surely than by tormenting one whom I love, because she loves you?" + +"Tut! play, mother, and maids' tempers. But how can I break your +heart? What have I done? Have I not given up going again to the +West Indies for your sake? Have I not given up going to Virginia, +and now again settled to go after all, just because you commanded? +Was it not your will? Have I not obeyed you, mother, mother? I +will stay at home now, if you will. I would rather rust here on +land, I vow I would, than grieve you--" and he threw himself at his +mother's knees. + +"Have I asked you not to go to Virginia? No, dear boy, though +every thought of a fresh parting seems to crack some new fibre +within me, you must go! It is your calling. Yes; you were not +sent into the world to amuse me, but to work. I have had pleasure +enough of you, my darling, for many a year, and too much, perhaps; +till I shrank from lending you to the Lord. But He must have +you. . . . It is enough for the poor old widow to know that her boy +is what he is, and to forget all her anguish day by day, for joy that +a man is born into the world. But, Amyas, Amyas, are you so blind +as not to see that Ayacanora--" + +"Don't talk about her, poor child. Talk about yourself." + +"How long have I been worth talking about? No, Amyas, you must see +it; and if you will not see it now, you will see it one day in some +sad and fearful prodigy; for she is not one to die tamely. She +loves you, Amyas, as a woman only can love." + +"Loves me? Well, of course. I found her, and brought her home; +and I don't deny she may think that she owes me somewhat--though it +was no more than a Christian man's duty. But as for her caring +much for me, mother, you measure every one else's tenderness by +your own." + +"Think that she owes you somewhat? Silly boy, this is not +gratitude, but a deeper affection, which may be more heavenly than +gratitude, as it may, too, become a horrible cause of ruin. It +rests with you, Amyas, which of the two it will be." + +"You are in earnest?" + +"Have I the heart or the time to jest?" + +"No, no, of course not; but, mother, I thought it was not comely +for women to fall in love with men?" + +"Not comely, at least, to confess their love to men. But she has +never done that, Amyas; not even by a look or a tone of voice, +though I have watched her for months." + +"To be sure, she is as demure as any cat when I am in the way. I +only wonder how you found it out." + +"Ah," said she, smiling sadly, "even in the saddest woman's soul +there linger snatches of old music, odors of flowers long dead and +turned to dust--pleasant ghosts, which still keep her mind attuned +to that which may be in others, though in her never more; till she +can hear her own wedding-hymn re-echoed in the tones of every girl +who loves, and sees her own wedding-torch re-lighted in the eyes of +every bride." + +"You would not have me marry her?" asked blunt, practical Amyas. + +"God knows what I would have--I know not; I see neither your path +nor my own--no, not after weeks and months of prayer. All things +beyond are wrapped in mist; and what will be, I know not, save that +whatever else is wrong, mercy at least is right." + +"I'd sail to-morrow, if I could. As for marrying her, mother--her +birth, mind me--" + +"Ah, boy, boy! Are you God, to visit the sins of the parents upon +the children?" + +"Not that. I don't mean that; but I mean this, that she is half a +Spaniard, mother; and I cannot!--Her blood may be as blue as King +Philip's own, but it is Spanish still! I cannot bear the thought +that my children should have in their veins one drop of that +poison." + +"Amyas! Amyas!" interrupted she, "is this not, too, visiting the +parents' sins on the children?" + +"Not a whit; it is common sense,--she must have the taint of their +bloodthirsty humor. She has it--I have seen it in her again and +again. I have told you, have I not? Can I forget the look of her +eyes as she stood over that galleon's captain, with the smoking +knife in her hand.--Ugh! And she is not tamed yet, as you can see, +and never will be:--not that I care, except for her own sake, poor +thing!" + +"Cruel boy! to impute as a blame to the poor child, not only the +errors of her training, but the very madness of her love!" + +"Of her love?" + +"Of what else, blind buzzard? From the moment that you told me the +story of that captain's death, I knew what was in her heart--and +thus it is that you requite her for having saved your life!" + +"Umph! that is one word too much, mother. If you don't want to +send me crazy, don't put the thing on the score of gratitude or +duty. As it is, I can hardly speak civilly to her (God forgive +me!) when I recollect that she belongs to the crew who murdered +him"--and he pointed to the picture, and Mrs. Leigh shuddered as he +did so. + +"You feel it! You know you feel it, tender-hearted, forgiving +angel as you are; and what do you think I must feel?" + +"Oh, my son, my son!" cried she, wringing her hands, "if I be +wretch enough to give place to the devil for a moment, does that +give you a right to entertain and cherish him thus day by day?" + +"I should cherish him with a vengeance, if I brought up a crew of +children who could boast of a pedigree of idolaters and tyrants, +hunters of Indians, and torturers of women! How pleasant to hear +her telling Master Jack, 'Your illustrious grand-uncle the pope's +legate, was the man who burned Rose Salterne at Cartagena;' or Miss +Grace, 'Your great-grandfather of sixteen quarterings, the Marquis +of this, son of the Grand-equerry that, and husband of the Princess +t'other, used to feed his bloodhounds, when beef was scarce, with +Indians' babies!' Eh, mother? These things are true, and if you +can forget them, I cannot. Is it not enough to have made me forego +for awhile my purpose, my business, the one thing I live for, and +that is, hunting down the Spaniards as I would adders or foxes, but +you must ask me over and above to take one to my bosom?" + +"Oh, my son, my son! I have not asked you to do that; I have only +commanded you, in God's name, to be merciful, if you wish to obtain +mercy. Oh, if you will not pity this poor maiden, pity yourself; +for God knows you stand in more need of it than she does!" + +Amyas was silent for a minute or two; and then,-- + +"If it were not for you, mother, would God that the Armada would +come!" + +"What, and ruin England?" + +"No! Curse them! Not a foot will they ever set on English soil, +such a welcome would we give them. If I were but in the midst of +that fleet, fighting like a man--to forget it all, with a galleon +on board of me to larboard, and another to starboard--and then to +put a linstock in the magazine, and go aloft in good company--I +don't care how soon it comes, mother, if it were not for you." + +"If I am in your way, Amyas, do not fear that I shall trouble you +long." + +"Oh, mother, mother, do not talk in that way! I am half-mad, I +think, already, and don't know what I say. Yes, I am mad; mad at +heart, though not at head. There's a fire burning me up, night and +day, and nothing but Spanish blood will put it out." + +"Or the grace of God, my poor wilful child! Who comes to the +door?--so quickly, too?" + +There was a loud hurried knocking, and in another minute a serving- +man hurried in with a letter. + +"This to Captain Amyas Leigh with haste, haste!" + +It was Sir Richard's hand. Amyas tore it open; and "a loud laugh +laughed he." + +"The Armada is coming! My wish has come true, mother!" + +"God help us, it has! Show me the letter." + +It was a hurried scrawl. + + +"DR. GODSON,--Walsingham sends word that the Ada. sailed from +Lisbon to the Groyne the 18. of May. We know no more, but have +commandment to stay the ships. Come down, dear lad, and give us +counsel; and may the Lord help His Church in this great strait. + +"Your loving godfather, + +R. G." + + +"Forgive me, mother, mother, once for all!" cried Amyas, throwing +his arms round her neck. + +"I have nothing to forgive, my son, my son! And shall I lose thee, +also?" + +"If I be killed, you will have two martyrs of your blood, mother!--" + +Mrs. Leigh bowed her head, and was silent. Amyas caught up his hat +and sword, and darted forth toward Bideford. + +Amyas literally danced into Sir Richard's hall, where he stood +talking earnestly with various merchants and captains. + +"Gloria, gloria! gentles all! The devil is broke loose at last; +and now we know where to have him on the hip!" + +"Why so merry, Captain Leigh, when all else are sad?" said a gentle +voice by his side. + +"Because I have been sad a long time, while all else were merry, +dear lady. Is the hawk doleful when his hood is pulled off, and he +sees the heron flapping right ahead of him?" + +"You seem to forget the danger and the woe of us weak women, sir?" + +"I don't forget the danger and the woe of one weak woman, madam, +and she the daughter of a man who once stood in this room," said +Amyas, suddenly collecting himself, in a low stern voice. "And I +don't forget the danger and the woe of one who was worth a thousand +even of her. I don't forget anything, madam." + +"Nor forgive either, it seems." + +"It will be time to talk of forgiveness after the offender has +repented and amended; and does the sailing of the Armada look like +that?" + +"Alas, no! God help us!" + +"He will help us, madam," said Amyas. + +"Admiral Leigh," said Sir Richard, "we need you now, if ever. Here +are the queen's orders to furnish as many ships as we can; though +from these gentlemen's spirit, I should say the orders were well- +nigh needless." + +"Not a doubt, sir; for my part, I will fit my ship at my own +charges, and fight her too, as long as I have a leg or an arm +left." + +"Or a tongue to say, never surrender, I'll warrant!" said an old +merchant. "You put life into us old fellows, Admiral Leigh: but it +will be a heavy matter for those poor fellows in Virginia, and for +my daughter too, Madam Dare, with her young babe, as I hear, just +born." + +"And a very heavy matter," said some one else, "for those who have +ventured their money in these cargoes, which must lie idle, you +see, now for a year maybe--and then all the cost of unlading again-- +" + +"My good sir," said Grenville, "what have private interests to do +with this day? Let us thank God if He only please to leave us the +bare fee-simple of this English soil, the honor of our wives and +daughters, and bodies safe from rack and fagot, to wield the swords +of freemen in defence of a free land, even though every town and +homestead in England were wasted with fire, and we left to rebuild +over again all which our ancestors have wrought for us in now six +hundred years." + +"Right, sir!" said Amyas. "For my part, let my Virginian goods rot +on the quay, if the worst comes to the worst. I begin unloading +the Vengeance to-morrow; and to sea as soon as I can fill up my +crew to a good fighting number." + +And so the talk ran on; and ere two days were past, most of the +neighboring gentlemen, summoned by Sir Richard, had come in, and +great was the bidding against each other as to who should do most. +Cary and Brimblecombe, with thirty tall Clovelly men, came across +the bay, and without even asking leave of Amyas, took up their +berths as a matter of course on board the Vengeance. In the +meanwhile, the matter was taken up by families. The Fortescues (a +numberless clan) offered to furnish a ship; the Chichesters +another, the Stukelys a third; while the merchantmen were not +backward. The Bucks, the Stranges, the Heards, joyfully unloaded +their Virginian goods, and replaced them with powder and shot; and +in a week's time the whole seven were ready once more for sea, and +dropped down into Appledore pool, with Amyas as their admiral for +the time being (for Sir Richard had gone by land to Plymouth to +join the deliberations there), and waited for the first favorable +wind to start for the rendezvous in the Sound. + +At last, upon the twenty-first of June, the clank of the capstans +rang merrily across the flats, and amid prayers and blessings, +forth sailed that gallant squadron over the bar, to play their part +in Britain's Salamis; while Mrs. Leigh stood watching as she stood +once before, beside the churchyard wall: but not alone this time; +for Ayacanora stood by her side, and gazed and gazed, till her eyes +seemed ready to burst from their sockets. At last she turned away +with a sob,-- + +"And he never bade me good-bye, mother!" + +"God forgive him! Come home and pray, my child; there is no other +rest on earth than prayer for woman's heart!" + +They were calling each other mother and daughter then? Yes. The +sacred fire of sorrow was fast burning out all Ayacanora's fallen +savageness; and, like a Phoenix, the true woman was rising from +those ashes, fair, noble, and all-enduring, as God had made her. + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +HOW THE ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS + + +"Oh, where be these gay Spaniards, + Which make so great a boast O? +Oh, they shall eat the gray-goose feather, + And we shall eat the roast O!" + + Cornish Song. + + +What if the spectators who last summer gazed with just pride upon +the noble port of Plymouth, its vast breakwater spanning the Sound, +its arsenals and docks, its two estuaries filled with gallant +ships, and watched the great screw-liners turning within their own +length by force invisible, or threading the crowded fleets with the +ease of the tiniest boat,--what if, by some magic turn, the +nineteenth century, and all the magnificence of its wealth and +science, had vanished--as it may vanish hereafter--and they had +found themselves thrown back three hundred years into the pleasant +summer days of 1588? + +Mount Edgecombe is still there, beautiful as ever: but where are +the docks, and where is Devonport? No vast dry-dock roofs rise at +the water's edge. Drake's island carries but a paltry battery, +just raised by the man whose name it bears; Mount Wise is a lone +gentleman's house among fields; the citadel is a pop-gun fort, +which a third-class steamer would shell into rubble for an +afternoon's amusement. And the shipping, where are they? The +floating castles of the Hamoaze have dwindled to a few crawling +lime-hoys; and the Catwater is packed, not as now, with merchant +craft, but with the ships who will to-morrow begin the greatest +sea-fight which the world has ever seen. + +There they lie, a paltry squadron enough in modern eyes; the +largest of them not equal in size to a six-and-thirty-gun frigate, +carrying less weight of metal than one of our new gun-boats, and +able to employ even that at not more than a quarter of our modern +range. Would our modern spectators, just come down by rail for a +few hours, to see the cavalry embark, and return tomorrow in time +for dinner, have looked down upon that petty port, and petty fleet, +with a contemptuous smile, and begun some flippant speech about the +progress of intellect, and the triumphs of science, and our +benighted ancestors? They would have done so, doubt it not, if +they belonged to the many who gaze on those very triumphs as on a +raree-show to feed their silly wonder, or use and enjoy them +without thankfulness or understanding, as the ox eats the clover +thrust into his rack, without knowing or caring how it grew. But +if any of them were of the class by whom those very triumphs have +been achieved; the thinkers and the workers, who, instead of +entering lazily into other men's labors, as the mob does, labor +themselves; who know by hard experience the struggles, the self- +restraints, the disappointments, the slow and staggering steps, by +which the discoverer reaches to his prize; then the smile of those +men would not have been one of pity, but rather of filial love. +For they would have seen in those outwardly paltry armaments the +potential germ of that mightier one which now loads the Black Sea +waves; they would have been aware, that to produce it, with such +materials and knowledge as then existed, demanded an intellect, an +energy, a spirit of progress and invention, equal, if not superior, +to those of which we now so loudly boast. + +But if, again, he had been a student of men rather than of +machinery, he would have found few nobler companies on whom to +exercise his discernment, than he might have seen in the little +terrace bowling-green behind the Pelican Inn, on the afternoon of +the nineteenth of July. Chatting in groups, or lounging over the +low wall which commanded a view of the Sound and the shipping far +below, were gathered almost every notable man of the Plymouth +fleet, the whole posse comitatus of "England's forgotten worthies." +The Armada has been scattered by a storm. Lord Howard has been out +to look for it, as far as the Spanish coast; but the wind has +shifted to the south, and fearing lest the Dons should pass him, he +has returned to Plymouth, uncertain whether the Armada will come +after all or not. Slip on for a while, like Prince Hal, the +drawer's apron; come in through the rose-clad door which opens from +the tavern, with a tray of long-necked Dutch glasses, and a silver +tankard of wine, and look round you at the gallant captains, who +are waiting for the Spanish Armada, as lions in their lair might +wait for the passing herd of deer. + +See those five talking earnestly, in the centre of a ring, which +longs to overhear, and yet is too respectful to approach close. +Those soft long eyes and pointed chin you recognize already; they +are Walter Raleigh's. The fair young man in the flame-colored +doublet, whose arm is round Raleigh's neck, is Lord Sheffield; +opposite them stands, by the side of Sir Richard Grenville, a man +as stately even as he, Lord Sheffield's uncle, the Lord Charles +Howard of Effingham, lord high admiral of England; next to him is +his son-in-law, Sir Robert Southwell, captain of the Elizabeth +Jonas: but who is that short, sturdy, plainly dressed man, who +stands with legs a little apart, and hands behind his back, looking +up, with keen gray eyes, into the face of each speaker? His cap is +in his hands, so you can see the bullet head of crisp brown hair +and the wrinkled forehead, as well as the high cheek bones, the +short square face, the broad temples, the thick lips, which are yet +firm as granite. A coarse plebeian stamp of man: yet the whole +figure and attitude are that of boundless determination, self- +possession, energy; and when at last he speaks a few blunt words, +all eyes are turned respectfully upon him;--for his name is Francis +Drake. + +A burly, grizzled elder, in greasy sea-stained garments, +contrasting oddly with the huge gold chain about his neck, waddles +up, as if he had been born, and had lived ever since, in a gale of +wind at sea. The upper half of his sharp dogged visage seems of +brick-red leather, the lower of badger's fur; and as he claps Drake +on the back, and, with a broad Devon twang, shouts, "be you a +coming to drink your wine, Francis Drake, or be you not?--saving +your presence, my lord;" the lord high admiral only laughs, and +bids Drake go and drink his wine; for John Hawkins, admiral of the +port, is the patriarch of Plymouth seamen, if Drake be their hero, +and says and does pretty much what he likes in any company on +earth; not to mention that to-day's prospect of an Armageddon fight +has shaken him altogether out of his usual crabbed reserve, and +made him overflow with loquacious good-humor, even to his rival +Drake. + +So they push through the crowd, wherein is many another man whom +one would gladly have spoken with face to face on earth. Martin +Frobisher and John Davis are sitting on that bench, smoking tobacco +from long silver pipes; and by them are Fenton and Withrington, who +have both tried to follow Drake's path round the world, and failed, +though by no fault of their own. The man who pledges them better +luck next time, is George Fenner, known to "the seven Portugals," +Leicester's pet, and captain of the galleon which Elizabeth bought +of him. That short prim man in the huge yellow ruff, with sharp +chin, minute imperial, and self-satisfied smile, is Richard +Hawkins, the Complete Seaman, Admiral John's hereafter famous and +hapless son. The elder who is talking with him is his good uncle +William, whose monument still stands, or should stand, in Deptford +Church; for Admiral John set it up there but one year after this +time; and on it record how he was, "A worshipper of the true +religion, an especial benefactor of poor sailors, a most just +arbiter in most difficult causes, and of a singular faith, piety, +and prudence." That, and the fact that he got creditably through +some sharp work at Porto Rico, is all I know of William Hawkins: +but if you or I, reader, can have as much or half as much said of +us when we have to follow him, we shall have no reason to complain. + +There is John Drake, Sir Francis' brother, ancestor of the present +stock of Drakes; and there is George, his nephew, a man not +overwise, who has been round the world with Amyas; and there is +Amyas himself, talking to one who answers him with fierce curt +sentences, Captain Barker of Bristol, brother of the hapless Andrew +Barker who found John Oxenham's guns, and, owing to a mutiny among +his men, perished by the Spaniards in Honduras, twelve years ago. +Barker is now captain of the Victory, one of the queen's best +ships; and he has his accounts to settle with the Dons, as Amyas +has; so they are both growling together in a corner, while all the +rest are as merry as the flies upon the vine above their heads. + +But who is the aged man who sits upon a bench, against the sunny +south wall of the tavern, his long white beard flowing almost to +his waist, his hands upon his knees, his palsied head moving slowly +from side to side, to catch the scraps of discourse of the passing +captains? His great-grandchild, a little maid of six, has laid her +curly head upon his knees, and his grand-daughter, a buxom black- +eyed dame of thirty, stands by him and tends him, half as nurse, +and half, too, as showman, for he seems an object of curiosity to +all the captains, and his fair nurse has to entreat again and +again, "Bless you, sir, please now, don't give him no liquor, poor +old soul, the doctor says." It is old Martin Cockrem, father of +the ancient host, aged himself beyond the years of man, who can +recollect the bells of Plymouth ringing for the coronation of Henry +the Eighth, and who was the first Englishman, perhaps, who ever set +foot on the soil of the New World. There he sits, like an old +Druid Tor of primeval granite amid the tall wheat and rich clover +crops of a modern farm. He has seen the death of old Europe and +the birth-throes of the new. Go to him, and question him; for his +senses are quick as ever; and just now the old man seems uneasy. +He is peering with rheumy eyes through the groups, and seems +listening for a well-known voice. + +"There 'a be again! Why don't 'a come, then?" + +"Quiet, gramfer, and don't trouble his worship." + +"Here an hour, and never speak to poor old Martin! I say, sir"-- +and the old man feebly plucks Amyas's cloak as he passes. "I say, +captain, do 'e tell young master old Martin's looking for him." + +"Marcy, gramfer, where's your manners? Don't be vexed, sir, he'm +a'most a babe, and tejous at times, mortal." + +"Young master who?" says Amyas, bending down to the old man, and +smiling to the dame to let him have his way. + +"Master Hawkins; he'm never been a-near me all day." + +Off goes Amyas; and, of course, lays hold of the sleeve of young +Richard Hawkins; but as he is in act to speak, the dame lays hold +of his, laughing and blushing. + +"No, sir, not Mr. Richard, sir; Admiral John, sir, his father; he +always calls him young master, poor old soul!" and she points to +the grizzled beard and the face scarred and tanned with fifty years +of fight and storm. + +Amyas goes to the Admiral, and gives his message. + +"Mercy on me! Where be my wits? Iss, I'm a-coming," says the old +hero in his broadest Devon, waddles off to the old man, and begins +lugging at a pocket. "Here, Martin, I've got mun, I've got mun, +man alive; but his Lordship keept me so. Lookee here, then! Why, +I do get so lusty of late, Martin, I can't get to my pockets!" + +And out struggle a piece of tarred string, a bundle of papers, a +thimble, a piece of pudding-tobacco, and last of all, a little +paper of Muscovado sugar--then as great a delicacy as any French +bonbons would be now--which he thrusts into the old man's eager and +trembling hand. + +Old Martin begins dipping his finger into it, and rubbing it on his +toothless gums, smiling and nodding thanks to his young master; +while the little maid at his knee, unrebuked, takes her share also. + +"There, Admiral Leigh; both ends meet--gramfers and babies! You +and I shall be like to that one day, young Samson!" + +"We shall have slain a good many Philistines first, I hope." + +"Amen! so be it; but look to mun! so fine a sailor as ever drank +liquor; and now greedy after a hit of sweet trade! 'tis piteous +like; but I bring mun a hit whenever I come, and he looks for it. +He's one of my own flesh like, is old Martin. He sailed with my +father Captain Will, when they was both two little cracks aboard of +a trawler; and my father went up, and here I am--he didn't, and +there he is. We'm up now, we Hawkinses. We may be down again some +day." + +"Never, I trust," said Amyas. + +"'Tain't no use trusting, young man: you go and do. I do hear too +much of that there from my lad. Let they ministers preach till +they'm black in the face, works is the trade!" with a nudge in +Amyas's ribs. "Faith can't save, nor charity nether. There, you +tell with him, while I go play bowls with Drake. He'll tell you a +sight of stories. You ask him about good King Hal, now, just--" + +And off waddled the Port Admiral. + +"You have seen good King Henry, then, father?" said Amyas, +interested. + +The old man's eyes lighted at once, and he stopped mumbling his +sugar. + +"Seed mun? Iss, I reckon. I was with Captain Will when he went to +meet the Frenchman there to Calais--at the Field, the Field--" + +"The Field of the Cloth of Gold, gramfer," suggested the dame. + +"That's it. Seed mun? Iss, fegs. Oh, he was a king! The face o' +mun like a rising sun, and the back o' mun so broad as that there" +(and he held out his palsied arms), "and the voice of mun! Oh, to +hear mun swear if he was merry, oh, 'tas royal!--Seed mun? Iss, +fegs! And I've seed mun do what few has; I've seed mun christle +like any child." + +"What--cry?" said Amyas. "I shouldn't have thought there was much +cry in him." + +"You think what you like--" + +"Gramfer, gramfer, don't you be rude, now-- + +"Let him go on," said Amyas. + +"I seed mun christle; and, oh dear, how he did put hands on mun's +face; and 'Oh, my gentlemen,' says he, 'my gentlemen! Oh, my +gallant men!' Them was his very words." + +"But when?" + +"Why, Captain Will had just come to the Hard--that's to Portsmouth-- +to speak with mun, and the barge Royal lay again the Hard--so; and +our boot alongside--so; and the king he standth as it might be +there, above my head, on the quay edge, and she come in near +abreast of us, looking most royal to behold, poor dear! and went to +cast about. And Captain Will, saith he, 'Them lower ports is cruel +near the water;' for she had not more than a sixteen inches to +spare in the nether overloop, as I heard after. And saith he, +'That won't do for going to windward in a say, Martin.' And as the +words came out of mun's mouth, your worship, there was a bit of a +flaw from the westward, sharp like, and overboard goeth my cap, and +hitth against the wall, and as I stooped to pick it up, I heard a +cry, and it was all over!" + +"He is telling of the Mary Rose, sir." + +"I guessed so." + +"All over: and the cry of mun, and the screech of mun! Oh, sir, up +to the very heavens! And the king he screeched right out like any +maid, 'Oh my gentlemen, oh my gallant men!' and as she lay on her +beam-ends, sir, and just a-settling, the very last souls I seen was +that man's father, and that man's. I knowed mun by their armor." + +And he pointed to Sir George Carew and Sir Richard Grenville. + +"Iss! Iss! Drowned like rattens. Drowned like rattens!" + +"Now; you mustn't trouble his worship any more." + +"Trouble? Let him tell till midnight, I shall be well pleased," +said Amyas, sitting down on the bench by him. "Drawer! ale--and a +parcel of tobacco." + +And Amyas settled himself to listen, while the old man purred to +himself-- + +"Iss. They likes to hear old Martin. All the captains look upon +old Martin." + +"Hillo, Amyas!" said Cary, "who's your friend? Here's a man been +telling me wonders about the River Plate. We should go thither for +luck there next time." + +"River Plate?" said old Martin. "It's I knows about the River +Plate; none so well. Who'd ever been there, nor heard of it +nether, before Captain Will and me went, and I lived among the +savages a whole year; and audacious civil I found 'em if they 'd +had but shirts to their backs; and so was the prince o' mun, that +Captain Will brought home to King Henry; leastwise he died on the +voyage; but the wild folk took it cruel well, for you see, we was +always as civil with them as Christians, and if we hadn't been, I +should not have been here now." + +"What year was that?" + +"In the fifteen thirty: but I was there afore, and learnt the +speech o' mun; and that's why Captain Will left me to a hostage, +when he tuked their prince." + +"Before that?" said Cary; "why, the country was hardly known before +that." + +The old man's eyes flashed up in triumph. + +"Knowed? Iss, and you may well say that! Look ye here! Look to +mun!" and he waved his hand round--"There's captains! and I'm the +father of 'em all now, now poor Captain Will's in gloory; I, Martin +Cockrem! . . . Iss, I've seen a change. I mind when Tavistock +Abbey was so full o' friars, and goolden idols, and sich noxious +trade, as ever was a wheat-rick of rats. I mind the fight off +Brest in the French wars--Oh, that was a fight, surely!--when the +Regent and the French Carack were burnt side by side, being fast +grappled, you see, because of Sir Thomas Knivet; and Captain Will +gave him warning as he ran a-past us, saying, says he--" + +"But," said Amyas, seeing that the old man was wandering away, +"what do you mind about America?" + +"America? I should think so! But I was a-going to tell you of the +Regent--and seven hundred Englishmen burnt and drowned in her, and +nine hundred French in the Brest ship, besides what we picked up. +Oh dear! But about America." + +"Yes, about America. How are you the father of all the captains?" + +"How? you ask my young master! Why, before the fifteen thirty, I +was up the Plate with Cabot (and a cruel fractious ontrustful +fellow he was, like all they Portingals), and bid there a year and +more, and up the Paraguaio with him, diskivering no end; whereby, +gentles, I was the first Englishman, I hold, that ever sot a foot +on the New World, I was!" + +"Then here's your health, and long life, sir!" said Amyas and Cary. + +"Long life? Iss, fegs, I reckon, long enough a'ready! Why, I mind +the beginning of it all, I do. I mind when there wasn't a master +mariner to Plymouth, that thought there was aught west of the +Land's End except herrings. Why, they held them, pure wratches, +that if you sailed right west away far enough, you'd surely come to +the edge, and fall over cleve. Iss--'Twas dark parts round here, +till Captain Will arose; and the first of it I mind was inside the +bar of San Lucar, and he and I were boys about a ten year old, +aboord of a Dartmouth ship, and went for wine, and there come in +over the bar he that was the beginning of it all." + +"Columbus?" + +"Iss, fegs, he did, not a pistol-shot from us; and I saw mun stand +on the poop, so plain as I see you; no great shakes of a man to +look to nether; there's a sight better here, to plase me, and we +was disappointed, we lads, for we surely expected to see mun with a +goolden crown on, and a sceptre to a's hand, we did, and the ship +o' mun all over like Solomon's temple for gloory. And I mind that +same year, too, seeing Vasco da Gama, as was going out over the +bar, when he found the Bona Speranza, and sailed round it to the +Indies. Ah, that was the making of they rascally Portingals, it +was! . . . And our crew told what they seen and heerd: but nobody +minded sich things. 'Twas dark parts, and Popish, then; and nobody +knowed nothing, nor got no schooling, nor cared for nothing, but +scrattling up and down alongshore like to prawns in a pule. Iss, +sitting in darkness, we was, and the shadow of death, till the day- +spring from on high arose, and shined upon us poor out-o' -the-way +folk--The Lord be praised! And now, look to mun!" and he waved his +hand all round--"Look to mun! Look to the works of the Lord! Look +to the captains! Oh blessed sight! And one's been to the Brazils, +and one to the Indies, and the Spanish Main, and the North-West, +and the Rooshias, and the Chinas, and up the Straits, and round the +Cape, and round the world of God, too, bless His holy name; and I +seed the beginning of it; and I'll see the end of it too, I will! +I was born into the old times: but I'll see the wondrous works of +the new, yet, I will! I'll see they bloody Spaniards swept off the +seas before I die, if my old eyes can reach so far as outside the +Sound. I shall, I knows it. I says my prayers for it every night; +don't I, Mary? You'll bate mun, sure as Judgment, you'll bate mun! +The Lord'll fight for ye. Nothing'll stand against ye. I've seed +it all along--ever since I was with young master to the Honduras. +They can't bide the push of us! You'll bate mun off the face of +the seas, and be masters of the round world, and all that therein +is. And then, I'll just turn my old face to the wall, and depart +in peace, according to his word. + +"Deary me, now, while I've been telling with you, here've this +little maid been and ate up all my sugar!" + +"I'll bring you some more," said Amyas; whom the childish bathos of +the last sentence moved rather to sighs than laughter. + +"Will ye, then? There's a good soul, and come and tell with old +Martin. He likes to see the brave young gentlemen, a-going to and +fro in their ships, like Leviathan, and taking of their pastime +therein. We had no such ships to our days. Ah, 'tis grand times, +beautiful times surely--and you'll bring me a bit sugar?" + +"You were up the Plate with Cabot?" said Cary, after a pause. "Do +you mind the fair lady Miranda, Sebastian de Hurtado's wife?" + +"What! her that was burnt by the Indians? Mind her? Do you mind +the sun in heaven? Oh, the beauty! Oh, the ways of her! Oh, the +speech of her! Never was, nor never will be! And she to die by +they villains; and all for the goodness of her! Mind her? I +minded naught else when she was on deck." + +"Who was she?" asked Amyas of Cary. + +"A Spanish angel, Amyas." + +"Humph!" said Amyas. "So much the worse for her, to be born into a +nation of devils." + +"They'em not all so bad as that, yer honor. Her husband was a +proper gallant gentleman, and kind as a maid, too, and couldn't +abide that De Solis's murderous doings." + +"His wife must have taught it him, then," said Amyas, rising. +"Where did you hear of these black swans, Cary?" + +"I have heard of them, and that's enough," answered he, unwilling +to stir sad recollections. + +"And little enough," said Amyas. "Will, don't talk to me. The +devil is not grown white because he has trod in a lime-heap." + +"Or an angel black because she came down a chimney," said Cary; and +so the talk ended, or rather was cut short; for the talk of all the +groups was interrupted by an explosion from old John Hawkins. + +"Fail? Fail? What a murrain do you here, to talk of failing? Who +made you a prophet, you scurvy, hang-in-the-wind, croaking, white- +livered son of a corby-crow?" + +"Heaven help us, Admiral Hawkins, who has put fire to your +culverins in this fashion?" said Lord Howard. + +"Who? my lord! Croakers! my lord! Here's a fellow calls himself +the captain of a ship, and her majesty's servant, and talks about +failing, as if he were a Barbican loose-kirtle trying to keep her +apple-squire ashore! Blurt for him, sneak-up! say I." + +"Admiral John Hawkins," quoth the offender, "you shall answer this +language with your sword." + +"I'll answer it with my foot; and buy me a pair of horn-tips to my +shoes, like a wraxling man. Fight a croaker? Fight a frog, an +owl! I fight those that dare fight, sir!" + +"Sir, sir, moderate yourself. I am sure this gentleman will show +himself as brave as any, when it comes to blows: but who can blame +mortal man for trembling before so fearful a chance as this?" + +"Let mortal man keep his tremblings to himself, then, my lord, and +not be like Solomon's madmen, casting abroad fire and death, and +saying, it is only in sport. There is more than one of his kidney, +your lordship, who have not been ashamed to play Mother Shipton +before their own sailors, and damp the poor fellows' hearts with +crying before they're hurt, and this is one of them. I've heard +him at it afore, and I'll present him, with a vengeance, though I'm +no church-warden." + +"If this is really so, Admiral Hawkins--" + +"It is so, my lord! I heard only last night, down in a tavern +below, such unbelieving talk as made me mad, my lord; and if it had +not been after supper, and my hand was not oversteady, I would have +let out a pottle of Alicant from some of their hoopings, and sent +them to Dick Surgeon, to wrap them in swaddling-clouts, like +whining babies as they are. Marry come up, what says Scripture? +'He that is fearful and faint-hearted among you, let him go and'-- +what? son Dick there? Thou'rt pious, and read'st thy Bible. +What's that text? A mortal fine one it is, too." + +"'He that is fearful and faint-hearted among you, let him go +back,'" quoth the Complete Seaman. "Captain Merryweather, as my +father's command, as well as his years, forbid his answering your +challenge, I shall repute it an honor to entertain his quarrel +myself--place, time, and weapons being at your choice." + +"Well spoken, son Dick!--and like a true courtier, too! Ah! thou +hast the palabras, and the knee, and the cap, and the quip, and the +innuendo, and the true town fashion of it all--no old tarry-breeks +of a sea-dog, like thy dad! My lord, you'll let them fight?" + +"The Spaniard, sir; but no one else. But, captains and gentlemen, +consider well my friend the Port Admiral's advice; and if any man's +heart misgives him, let him, for the sake of his country and his +queen, have so much government of his tongue to hide his fears in +his own bosom, and leave open complaining to ribalds and women. +For if the sailor be not cheered by his commander's cheerfulness, +how will the ignorant man find comfort in himself? And without +faith and hope, how can he fight worthily?" + +"There is no croaking aboard of us, we will warrant," said twenty +voices, "and shall be none, as long as we command on board our own +ships." + +Hawkins, having blown off his steam, went back to Drake and the +bowls. + +"Fill my pipe, Drawer--that croaking fellow's made me let it out, +of course! Spoil-sports! The father of all manner of troubles on +earth, be they noxious trade of croakers! 'Better to meet a bear +robbed of her whelps,' Francis Drake, as Solomon saith, than a fule +who can't keep his mouth shut. What brought Mr. Andrew Barker to +his death but croakers? What stopped Fenton's China voyage in the +'82, and lost your nephew John, and my brother Will, glory and hard +cash too, but croakers? What sent back my Lord Cumberland's armada +in the '86, and that after they'd proved their strength, too, sixty +o' mun against six hundred Portugals and Indians; and yet wern't +ashamed to turn round and come home empty-handed, after all my +lord's expenses that he had been at? What but these same beggarly +croakers, that be only fit to be turned into yellow-hammers up to +Dartymoor, and sit on a tor all day, and cry 'Very little bit of +bread, and no chee-e-ese!' Marry, sneak-up! say I again." + +"And what," said Drake, "would have kept me, if I'd let 'em, from +ever sailing round the world, but these same croakers? I hanged my +best friend for croaking, John Hawkins, may God forgive me if I was +wrong, and I threatened a week after to hang thirty more; and I'd +have done it, too, if they hadn't clapped tompions into their +muzzles pretty fast." + +"You'm right, Frank. My old father always told me--and old King +Hal (bless his memory!) would take his counsel among a thousand;-- +'And, my son,' says he to me, 'whatever you do, never you stand no +croaking; but hang mun, son Jack, hang mun up for an ensign. +There's Scripture for it,' says he (he was a mighty man to his +Bible, after bloody Mary's days, leastwise), 'and 'tis written,' +says he, 'It's expedient that one man die for the crew, and that +the whole crew perish not; so show you no mercy, son Jack, or +you'll find none, least-wise in they manner of cattle; for if you +fail, they stamps on you, and if you succeeds, they takes the +credit of it to themselves, and goes to heaven in your shoes.' +Those were his words, and I've found mun true.--Who com'th here +now?" + +"Captain Fleming, as I'm a sinner." + +"Fleming? Is he tired of life, that he com'th here to look for a +halter? I've a warrant out against mun, for robbing of two +Flushingers on the high seas, now this very last year. Is the +fellow mazed or drunk, then? or has he seen a ghost? Look to mun!" + +"I think so, truly," said Drake. "His eyes are near out of his +head." + +The man was a rough-bearded old sea-dog, who had just burst in from +the tavern through the low hatch, upsetting a drawer with all his +glasses, and now came panting and blowing straight up to the high +admiral,-- + +"My lord, my lord! They'm coming! I saw them off the Lizard last +night!" + +"Who? my good sir, who seem to have left your manners behind you." + +"The Armada, your worship--the Spaniard; but as for my manners, +'tis no fault of mine, for I never had none to leave behind me." + +"If he has not left his manners behind," quoth Hawkins, "look out +for your purses, gentlemen all! He's manners enough, and very bad +ones they be, when he com'th across a quiet Flushinger." + +"If I stole Flushingers' wines, I never stole negurs' souls, Jack +Hawkins; so there's your answer. My lord, hang me if you will; +life's short and death's easy 'specially to seamen; but if I didn't +see the Spanish fleet last sun-down, coming along half-moon wise, +and full seven mile from wing to wing, within a four mile of me, +I'm a sinner." + +"Sirrah," said Lord Howard, "is this no fetch, to cheat us out of +your pardon for these piracies of yours?" + +"You'll find out for yourself before nightfall, my lord high +admiral. All Jack Fleming says is, that this is a poor sort of an +answer to a man who has put his own neck into the halter for the +sake of his country." + +"Perhaps it is," said Lord Howard. "And after all, gentlemen, what +can this man gain by a lie, which must be discovered ere a day is +over, except a more certain hanging?" + +"Very true, your lordship," said Hawkins, mollified. "Come here, +Jack Fleming--what wilt drain, man? Hippocras or Alicant, Sack or +John Barleycorn, and a pledge to thy repentance and amendment of +life." + +"Admiral Hawkins, Admiral Hawkins, this is no time for drinking." + +"Why not, then, my lord? Good news should be welcomed with good +wine. Frank, send down to the sexton, and set the bells a-ringing +to cheer up all honest hearts. Why, my lord, if it were not for +the gravity of my office, I could dance a galliard for joy!" + +"Well, you may dance, port admiral: but I must go and plan, but God +give to all captains such a heart as yours this day!" + +"And God give all generals such a head as yours! Come, Frank +Drake, we'll play the game out before we move. It will be two good +days before we shall be fit to tackle them, so an odd half-hour +don't matter." + +"I must command the help of your counsel, vice-admiral," said Lord +Charles, turning to Drake. + +"And it's this, my good lord," said Drake, looking up, as he aimed +his bowl. "They'll come soon enough for us to show them sport, and +yet slow enough for us to be ready; so let no man hurry himself. +And as example is better than precept, here goes." + +Lord Howard shrugged his shoulders, and departed, knowing two +things: first, that to move Drake was to move mountains; and next, +that when the self-taught hero did bestir himself, he would do more +work in an hour than any one else in a day. So he departed, +followed hastily by most of the captains; and Drake said in a low +voice to Hawkins: + +"Does he think we are going to knock about on a lee-shore all the +afternoon and run our noses at night--and dead up-wind, too--into +the Dons' mouths? No, Jack, my friend. Let Orlando-Furioso- +punctilio-fire-eaters go and get their knuckles rapped. The +following game is the game, and not the meeting one. The dog goes +after the sheep, and not afore them, lad. Let them go by, and go +by, and stick to them well to windward, and pick up stragglers, and +pickings, too, Jack--the prizes, Jack!" + +"Trust my old eyes for not being over-quick at seeing signals, if I +be hanging in the skirts of a fat-looking Don. We'm the eagles, +Drake; and where the carcase is, is our place, eh?" + +And so the two old sea-dogs chatted on, while their companions +dropped off one by one, and only Amyas remained. + +"Eh, Captain Leigh, where's my boy Dick?" + +"Gone off with his lordship, Sir John." + +"On his punctilios too, I suppose, the young slashed-breeks. He's +half a Don, that fellow, with his fine scholarship, and his fine +manners, and his fine clothes. He'll get a taking down before he +dies, unless he mends. Why ain't you gone too, sir?" + +"I follow my leader," said Amyas, filling his pipe. + +"Well said, my big man," quoth Drake. "If I could lead you round +the world, I can lead you up Channel, can't I?--Eh? my little +bantam-cock of the Orinoco? Drink, lad! You're over-sad to-day." + +"Not a whit," said Amyas. "Only I can't help wondering whether I +shall find him after all." + +"Whom? That Don? We'll find him for you, if he's in the fleet. +We'll squeeze it out of our prisoners somehow. Eh, Hawkins? I +thought all the captains had promised to send you news if they +heard of him." + +"Ay, but it's ill looking for a needle in a haystack. But I shall +find him. I am a coward to doubt it," said Amyas, setting his +teeth. + +"There, vice-admiral, you're beaten, and that's the rubber. Pay up +three dollars, old high-flyer, and go and earn more, like an honest +adventurer." + +"Well," said Drake, as he pulled out his purse, "we'll walk down +now, and see about these young hot-heads. As I live, they are +setting to tow the ships out already! Breaking the men's backs +over-night, to make them fight the lustier in the morning! Well, +well, they haven't sailed round the world, Jack Hawkins." + +"Or had to run home from San Juan d'Ulloa with half a crew. + +"Well, if we haven't to run out with half crews. I saw a sight of +our lads drunk about this morning." + +"The more reason for waiting till they be sober. Besides, if +everybody's caranting about to once each after his own men, +nobody'll find nothing in such a scrimmage as that. Bye, bye, +Uncle Martin. We'm going to blow the Dons up now in earnest." + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE GREAT ARMADA + + +"Britannia needs no bulwarks, + No towers along the steep, +Her march is o'er the mountain wave, + Her home is on the deep." + + CAMPBELL, Ye Mariners of England. + + +And now began that great sea-fight which was to determine whether +Popery and despotism, or Protestantism and freedom, were the law +which God had appointed for the half of Europe, and the whole of +future America. It is a twelve days' epic, worthy, as I said in +the beginning of this book, not of dull prose, but of the thunder- +roll of Homer's verse: but having to tell it, I must do my best, +rather using, where I can, the words of contemporary authors than +my own. + +"The Lord High Admirall of England, sending a pinnace before, +called the Defiance, denounced war by discharging her ordnance; and +presently approaching with in musquet-shot, with much thundering +out of his own ship, called the Arkroyall (alias the Triumph), +first set upon the admirall's, as he thought, of the Spaniards (but +it was Alfonso de Leon's ship. Soon after, Drake, Hawkins, and +Frobisher played stoutly with their ordnance on the hindmost +squadron, which was commanded by Recalde." The Spaniards soon +discover the superior "nimbleness of the English ships;" and +Recalde's squadron, finding that they are getting more than they +give, in spite of his endeavors, hurry forward to join the rest of +the fleet. Medina the Admiral, finding his ships scattering fast, +gathers them into a half-moon; and the Armada tries to keep solemn +way forward, like a stately herd of buffaloes, who march on across +the prairie, disdaining to notice the wolves which snarl around +their track. But in vain. These are no wolves, but cunning +hunters, swiftly horsed, and keenly armed, and who will "shamefully +shuffle" (to use Drake's own expression) that vast herd from the +Lizard to Portland, from Portland to Calais Roads; and who, even in +this short two hours' fight, have made many a Spaniard question the +boasted invincibleness of this Armada. + +One of the four great galliasses is already riddled with shot, to +the great disarrangement of her "pulpits, chapels," and friars +therein assistant. The fleet has to close round her, or Drake and +Hawkins will sink her; in effecting which manoeuvre, the "principal +galleon of Seville," in which are Pedro de Valdez and a host of +blue-blooded Dons, runs foul of her neighbor, carries away her +foremast, and is, in spite of Spanish chivalry, left to her fate. +This does not look like victory, certainly. But courage! though +Valdez be left behind, "our Lady," and the saints, and the bull +Caena Domini (dictated by one whom I dare not name here), are with +them still, and it were blasphemous to doubt. But in the +meanwhile, if they have fared no better than this against a third +of the Plymouth fleet, how will they fare when those forty belated +ships, which are already whitening the blue between them and the +Mewstone, enter the scene to play their part? + +So ends the first day; not an English ship, hardly a man, is hurt. +It has destroyed for ever, in English minds, the prestige of +boastful Spain. It has justified utterly the policy which the good +Lord Howard had adopted by Raleigh's and Drake's advice, of keeping +up a running fight, instead of "clapping ships together without +consideration," in which case, says Raleigh, "he had been lost, if +he had not been better advised than a great many malignant fools +were, who found fault with his demeanor." + +Be that as it may, so ends the first day, in which Amyas and the +other Bideford ships have been right busy for two hours, knocking +holes in a huge galleon, which carries on her poop a maiden with a +wheel, and bears the name of Sta. Catharina. She had a coat of +arms on the flag at her sprit, probably those of the commandant of +soldiers; but they were shot away early in the fight, so Amyas +cannot tell whether they were De Soto' s or not. Nevertheless, +there is plenty of time for private revenge; and Amyas, called off +at last by the admiral's signal, goes to bed and sleeps soundly. + +But ere he has been in his hammock an hour, he is awakened by +Cary's coming down to ask for orders. + +"We were to follow Drake's lantern, Amyas; but where it is, I can't +see, unless he has been taken up aloft there among the stars for a +new Drakium Sidus." + +Amyas turns out grumbling: but no lantern is to be seen; only a +sudden explosion and a great fire on board some Spaniard, which is +gradually got under, while they have to lie-to the whole night +long, with nearly the whole fleet. + +The next morning finds them off Torbay; and Amyas is hailed by a +pinnace, bringing a letter from Drake, which (saving the spelling, +which was somewhat arbitrary, like most men's in those days) ran +somewhat thus:-- + + +"DEAR LAD,--I have been wool-gathering all night after five great +hulks, which the Pixies transfigured overnight into galleons, and +this morning again into German merchantmen. I let them go with my +blessing; and coming back, fell in (God be thanked!) with Valdez' +great galleon; and in it good booty, which the Dons his fellows had +left behind, like faithful and valiant comrades, and the Lord +Howard had let slip past him, thinking her deserted by her crew. I +have sent to Dartmouth a sight of noblemen and gentlemen, maybe a +half-hundred; and Valdez himself, who when I sent my pinnace aboard +must needs stand on his punctilios, and propound conditions. I +answered him, I had no time to tell with him; if he would needs +die, then I was the very man for him; if he would live, then, buena +querra. He sends again, boasting that he was Don Pedro Valdez, and +that it stood not with his honor, and that of the Dons in his +company. I replied, that for my part, I was Francis Drake, and my +matches burning. Whereon he finds in my name salve for the wounds +of his own, and comes aboard, kissing my fist, with Spanish lies of +holding himself fortunate that he had fallen into the hands of +fortunate Drake, and much more, which he might have kept to cool +his porridge. But I have much news from him (for he is a leaky +tub); and among others, this, that your Don Guzman is aboard of the +Sta. Catharina, commandant of her soldiery, and has his arms flying +at her sprit, beside Sta. Catharina at the poop, which is a maiden +with a wheel, and is a lofty built ship of 3 tier of ordnance, from +which God preserve you, and send you like luck with. + +"Your deare Friend and Admirall, + +"F. Drake. + +"She sails in this squadron of Recalde. The Armada was minded to +smoke us out of Plymouth; and God's grace it was they tried not: +but their orders from home are too strait, and so the slaves fight +like a bull in a tether, no farther than their rope, finding thus +the devil a hard master, as do most in the end. They cannot +compass our quick handling and tacking, and take us for very +witches. So far so good, and better to come. You and I know the +length of their foot of old. Time and light will kill any hare, +and they will find it a long way from Start to Dunkirk." + + +"The admiral is in a gracious humor, Leigh, to have vouchsafed you +so long a letter." + +"St. Catherine! why, that was the galleon we hammered all +yesterday!" said Amyas, stamping on the deck. + +"Of course it was. Well, we shall find her again, doubt not. That +cunning old Drake! how he has contrived to line his own pockets, +even though he had to keep the whole fleet waiting for him." + +"He has given the lord high admiral the dor, at all events." + +"Lord Howard is too high-hearted to stop and plunder, Papist though +he is, Amyas." + +Amyas answered by a growl, for he worshipped Drake, and was not too +just to Papists. + +The fleet did not find Lord Howard till nightfall; he and Lord +Sheffield had been holding on steadfastly the whole night after the +Spanish lanterns, with two ships only. At least there was no doubt +now of the loyalty of English Roman Catholics, and indeed, +throughout the fight, the Howards showed (as if to wipe out the +slurs which had been cast on their loyalty by fanatics) a desperate +courage, which might have thrust less prudent men into destruction, +but led them only to victory. Soon a large Spaniard drifts by, +deserted and partly burnt. Some of the men are for leaving their +place to board her; but Amyas stoutly refuses. He has "come out to +fight, and not to plunder; so let the nearest ship to her have her +luck without grudging." They pass on, and the men pull long faces +when they see the galleon snapped up by their next neighbor, and +towed off to Weymouth, where she proves to be the ship of Miguel +d'Oquenda, the vice-admiral, which they saw last night, all but +blown up by some desperate Netherland gunner, who, being "misused," +was minded to pay off old scores on his tyrants. + +And so ends the second day; while the Portland rises higher and +clearer every hour. The next morning finds them off the island. +Will they try Portsmouth, though they have spared Plymouth? The +wind has shifted to the north, and blows clear and cool off the +white-walled downs of Weymouth Bay. The Spaniards turn and face +the English. They must mean to stand off and on until the wind +shall change, and then to try for the Needles. At least, they +shall have some work to do before they round Purbeck Isle. + +The English go to the westward again: but it is only to return on +the opposite tack; and now begin a series of manoeuvres, each fleet +trying to get the wind of the other; but the struggle does not last +long, and ere noon the English fleet have slipped close-hauled +between the Armada and the land, and are coming down upon them +right before the wind. + +And now begins a fight most fierce and fell. "And fight they did +confusedly, and with variable fortunes; while, on the one hand, the +English manfully rescued the ships of London, which were hemmed in +by the Spaniards; and, on the other side, the Spaniards as stoutly +delivered Recalde being in danger." "Never was heard such +thundering of ordnance on both sides, which notwithstanding from +the Spaniards flew for the most part over the English without harm. +Only Cock, an Englishman" (whom Prince claims, I hope rightfully, +as a worthy of Devon), "died with honor in the midst of the enemies +in a small ship of his. For the English ships, being far the +lesser, charged the enemy with marvellous agility; and having +discharged their broadsides, flew forth presently into the deep, +and levelled their shot directly, without missing, at those great +and unwieldy Spanish ships." "This was the most furious and bloody +skirmish of all" (though ending only, it seems, in the capture of a +great Venetian and some small craft), "in which the lord admiral +fighting amidst his enemies' fleet, and seeing one of his captains +afar off (Fenner by name, he who fought the seven Portugals at the +Azores), cried, 'O George, what doest thou? Wilt thou now +frustrate my hope and opinion conceived of thee? Wilt thou forsake +me now?' With which words he being enflamed, approached, and did +the part of a most valiant captain;" as, indeed, did all the rest. + +Night falls upon the floating volcano; and morning finds them far +past Purbeck, with the white peak of Freshwater ahead; and pouring +out past the Needles, ship after ship, to join the gallant chase. +For now from all havens, in vessels fitted out at their own +expense, flock the chivalry of England; the Lords Oxford, +Northumberland, and Cumberland, Pallavicin, Brooke, Carew, Raleigh, +and Blunt, and many another honorable name, "as to a set field, +where immortal fame and honor was to be attained." Spain has +staked her chivalry in that mighty cast; not a noble house of +Arragon or Castile but has lent a brother or a son--and shall mourn +the loss of one: and England's gentlemen will measure their +strength once for all against the Cavaliers of Spain. Lord Howard +has sent forward light craft into Portsmouth for ammunition: but +they will scarce return to-night, for the wind falls dead, and all +the evening the two fleets drift helpless with the tide, and shout +idle defiance at each other with trumpet, fife, and drum. + +The sun goes down upon a glassy sea, and rises on a glassy sea +again. But what day is this? The twenty-fifth, St. James's-day, +sacred to the patron saint of Spain. Shall nothing be attempted in +his honor by those whose forefathers have so often seen him with +their bodily eyes, charging in their van upon his snow-white steed, +and scattering Paynims with celestial lance? He might have sent +them, certainly, a favoring breeze; perhaps, he only means to try +their faith; at least the galleys shall attack; and in their van +three of the great galliasses (the fourth lies half-crippled among +the fleet) thrash the sea to foam with three hundred oars apiece; +and see, not St. James leading them to victory, but Lord Howard's +Triumph, his brother's Lion, Southwell's Elizabeth Jonas, Lord +Sheffield's Bear, Barker's Victory, and George Fenner's Leicester, +towed stoutly out, to meet them with such salvoes of chain-shot, +smashing oars, and cutting rigging, that had not the wind sprung up +again toward noon, and the Spanish fleet come up to rescue them, +they had shared the fate of Valdez and the Biscayan. And now the +fight becomes general. Frobisher beats down the Spanish admiral's +mainmast; and, attacked himself by Mexia and Recalde, is rescued by +Lord Howard; who, himself endangered in his turn, is rescued in his +turn; "while after that day" (so sickened were they of the English +gunnery) "no galliasse would adventure to fight." + +And so, with variable fortune, the fight thunders on the livelong +afternoon, beneath the virgin cliffs of Freshwater; while myriad +sea-fowl rise screaming up from every ledge, and spot with their +black wings the snow-white wall of chalk; and the lone shepherd +hurries down the slopes above to peer over the dizzy edge, and +forgets the wheatear fluttering in his snare, while he gazes +trembling upon glimpses of tall masts and gorgeous flags, piercing +at times the league-broad veil of sulphur-smoke which welters far +below. + +So fares St. James's-day, as Baal's did on Carmel in old time, +"Either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey; or +peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked." At least, the only +fire by which he has answered his votaries, has been that of +English cannon: and the Armada, "gathering itself into a roundel," +will fight no more, but make the best of its way to Calais, where +perhaps the Guises' faction may have a French force ready to assist +them, and then to Dunkirk, to join with Parma and the great +flotilla of the Netherlands. + +So on, before "a fair Etesian gale," which follows clear and bright +out of the south-southwest, glide forward the two great fleets, +past Brighton Cliffs and Beachy Head, Hastings and Dungeness. Is +it a battle or a triumph? For by sea Lord Howard, instead of +fighting is rewarding; and after Lord Thomas Howard, Lord +Sheffield, Townsend, and Frobisher have received at his hands that +knighthood, which was then more honorable than a peerage, old +Admiral Hawkins kneels and rises up Sir John, and shaking his +shoulders after the accolade, observes to the representative of +majesty, that his "old woman will hardly know herself again, when +folks call her My Lady." + +And meanwhile the cliffs are lined with pike-men and musketeers, +and by every countryman and groom who can bear arms, led by their +squires and sheriffs, marching eastward as fast as their weapons +let them, towards the Dover shore. And not with them alone. From +many a mile inland come down women and children, and aged folk in +wagons, to join their feeble shouts, and prayers which are not +feeble, to that great cry of mingled faith and fear which ascends +to the throne of God from the spectators of Britain's Salamis. + +Let them pray on. The danger is not over yet, though Lord Howard +has had news from Newhaven that the Guises will not stir against +England, and Seymour and Winter have left their post of observation +on the Flemish shores, to make up the number of the fleet to an +hundred and forty sail--larger, slightly, than that of the Spanish +fleet, but of not more than half the tonnage, or one third the +number of men. The Spaniards are dispirited and battered, but +unbroken still; and as they slide to their anchorage in Calais +Roads on the Saturday evening of that most memorable week, all +prudent men know well that England's hour is come, and that the +bells which will call all Christendom to church upon the morrow +morn, will be either the death-knell or the triumphal peal of the +Reformed faith throughout the world. + +A solemn day that Sabbath must have been in country and in town. +And many a light-hearted coward, doubtless, who had scoffed (as +many did) at the notion of the Armada's coming, because he dare not +face the thought, gave himself up to abject fear, "as he now +plainly saw and heard that of which before he would not be +persuaded." And many a brave man, too, as he knelt beside his wife +and daughters, felt his heart sink to the very pavement, at the +thought of what those beloved ones might be enduring a few short +days hence, from a profligate and fanatical soldiery, or from the +more deliberate fiendishness of the Inquisition. The massacre of +St. Bartholomew, the fires of Smithfield, the immolation of the +Moors, the extermination of the West Indians, the fantastic horrors +of the Piedmontese persecution, which make unreadable the too +truthful pages of Morland,--these were the spectres, which, not as +now, dim and distant through the mist of centuries, but recent, +bleeding from still gaping wounds, flitted before the eyes of every +Englishman, and filled his brain and heart with fire. + +He knew full well the fate in store for him and his. One false +step, and the unspeakable doom which, not two generations +afterwards, befell the Lutherans of Magdeburg, would have befallen +every town from London to Carlisle. All knew the hazard, as they +prayed that day, and many a day before and after, throughout +England and the Netherlands. And none knew it better than she who +was the guiding spirit of that devoted land, and the especial mark +of the invaders' fury; and who, by some Divine inspiration (as men +then not unwisely held), devised herself the daring stroke which +was to anticipate the coming blow. + +But where is Amyas Leigh all this while? Day after day he has been +seeking the Sta. Catharina in the thickest of the press, and cannot +come at her, cannot even hear of her: one moment he dreads that she +has sunk by night, and balked him of his prey; the next, that she +has repaired her damages, and will escape him after all. He is +moody, discontented, restless, even (for the first time in his +life) peevish with his men. He can talk of nothing but Don Guzman; +he can find no better employment, at every spare moment, than +taking his sword out of the sheath, and handling it, fondling it, +talking to it even, bidding it not to fail him in the day of +vengeance. At last, he has sent to Squire, the armorer, for a +whetstone, and, half-ashamed of his own folly, whets and polishes +it in bye-corners, muttering to himself. That one fixed thought of +selfish vengeance has possessed his whole mind; he forgets +England's present need, her past triumph, his own safety, +everything but his brother's blood. And yet this is the day for +which he has been longing ever since he brought home that magic +horn as a fifteen years boy; the day when he should find himself +face to face with an invader, and that invader Antichrist himself. +He has believed for years with Drake, Hawkins, Grenville, and +Raleigh, that he was called and sent into the world only to fight +the Spaniard: and he is fighting him now, in such a cause, for such +a stake, within such battle-lists, as he will never see again: and +yet he is not content, and while throughout that gallant fleet, +whole crews are receiving the Communion side by side, and rising +with cheerful faces to shake hands, and to rejoice that they are +sharers in Britain's Salamis, Amyas turns away from the holy +elements. + +"I cannot communicate, Sir John. Charity with all men? I hate, if +ever man hated on earth." + +"You hate the Lord's foes only, Captain Leigh." + +"No, Jack, I hate my own as well." + +"But no one in the fleet, sir?" + +"Don't try to put me off with the same Jesuit's quibble which that +false knave Parson Fletcher invented for one of Doughty's men, to +drug his conscience withal when he was plotting against his own +admiral. No, Jack, I hate one of whom you know; and somehow that +hatred of him keeps me from loving any human being. I am in love +and charity with no man, Sir John Brimblecombe--not even with you! +Go your ways in God's name, sir! and leave me and the devil alone +together, or you'll find my words are true." + +Jack departed with a sigh, and while the crew were receiving the +Communion on deck, Amyas sate below in the cabin sharpening his +sword, and after it, called for a boat and went on board Drake's +ship to ask news of the Sta. Catharina, and listened scowling to +the loud chants and tinkling bells, which came across the water +from the Spanish fleet. At last, Drake was summoned by the lord +admiral, and returned with a secret commission, which ought to bear +fruit that night; and Amyas, who had gone with him, helped him till +nightfall, and then returned to his own ship as Sir Amyas Leigh, +Knight, to the joy and glory of every soul on board, except his +moody self. + +So there, the livelong summer Sabbath-day, before the little high- +walled town and the long range of yellow sandhills, lie those two +mighty armaments, scowling at each other, hardly out of gunshot. +Messenger after messenger is hurrying towards Bruges to the Duke of +Parma, for light craft which can follow these nimble English +somewhat better than their own floating castles; and, above all, +entreating him to put to sea at once with all his force. The duke +is not with his forces at Dunkirk, but on the future field of +Waterloo, paying his devotions to St. Mary of Halle in Hainault, in +order to make all sure in his Pantheon, and already sees in visions +of the night that gentle-souled and pure-lipped saint, Cardinal +Allen, placing the crown of England on his head. He returns for +answer, first, that his victual is not ready; next, that his Dutch +sailors, who have been kept at their post for many a week at the +sword's point, have run away like water; and thirdly, that over and +above all, he cannot come, so "strangely provided of great ordnance +and musketeers are those five-and-thirty Dutch ships, in which +round-sterned and stubborn-hearted heretics watch, like terriers at +a rat's hole, the entrance of Nieuwport and Dunkirk. Having +ensured the private patronage of St. Mary of Halle, he will return +to-morrow to make experience of its effects: but only hear across +the flats of Dixmude the thunder of the fleets, and at Dunkirk the +open curses of his officers. For while he has been praying and +nothing more, the English have been praying, and something more; +and all that is left for the Prince of Parma is, to hang a few +purveyors, as peace offerings to his sulking army, and then +"chafe," as Drake says of him, "like a bear robbed of her whelps." + +For Lord Henry Seymour has brought Lord Howard a letter of command +from Elizabeth's self; and Drake has been carrying it out so busily +all that Sunday long, that by two o'clock on the Monday morning, +eight fire-ships "besmeared with wild-fire, brimstone, pitch, and +resin, and all their ordnance charged with bullets and with +stones," are stealing down the wind straight for the Spanish fleet, +guided by two valiant men of Devon, Young and Prowse. (Let their +names live long in the land!) The ships are fired, the men of +Devon steal back, and in a moment more, the heaven is red with +glare from Dover Cliffs to Gravelines Tower; and weary-hearted +Belgian boors far away inland, plundered and dragooned for many a +hideous year, leap from their beds, and fancy (and not so far +wrongly either) that the day of judgment is come at last, to end +their woes, and hurl down vengeance on their tyrants. + +And then breaks forth one of those disgraceful panics, which so +often follow overweening presumption; and shrieks, oaths, prayers, +and reproaches, make night hideous. There are those too on board +who recollect well enough Jenebelli's fire-ships at Antwerp three +years before, and the wreck which they made of Parma's bridge +across the Scheldt. If these should be like them! And cutting all +cables, hoisting any sails, the Invincible Armada goes lumbering +wildly out to sea, every ship foul of her neighbor. + +The largest of the four galliasses loses her rudder, and drifts +helpless to and fro, hindering and confusing. The duke, having (so +the Spaniards say) weighed his anchor deliberately instead of +leaving it behind him, runs in again after awhile, and fires a +signal for return: but his truant sheep are deaf to the shepherd's +pipe, and swearing and praying by turns, he runs up Channel towards +Gravelines picking up stragglers on his way, who are struggling as +they best can among the flats and shallows: but Drake and Fenner +have arrived as soon as he. When Monday's sun rises on the quaint +old castle and muddy dykes of Gravelines town, the thunder of the +cannon recommences, and is not hushed till night. Drake can hang +coolly enough in the rear to plunder when he thinks fit; but when +the battle needs it, none can fight more fiercely, among the +foremost; and there is need now, if ever. That Armada must never +be allowed to re-form. If it does, its left wing may yet keep the +English at bay, while its right drives off the blockading +Hollanders from Dunkirk port, and sets Parma and his flotilla free +to join them, and to sail in doubled strength across to the mouth +of Thames. + +So Drake has weighed anchor, and away up Channel with all his +squadron, the moment that he saw the Spanish fleet come up; and +with him Fenner burning to redeem the honor which, indeed, he had +never lost; and ere Fenton, Beeston, Crosse, Ryman, and Lord +Southwell can join them, the Devon ships have been worrying the +Spaniards for two full hours into confusion worse confounded. + +But what is that heavy firing behind them? Alas for the great +galliasse! She lies, like a huge stranded whale, upon the sands +where now stands Calais pier; and Amyas Preston, the future hero of +La Guayra, is pounding her into submission, while a fleet of hoys +and drumblers look on and help, as jackals might the lion. + +Soon, on the south-west horizon, loom up larger and larger two +mighty ships, and behind them sail on sail. As they near a shout +greets the Triumph and the Bear; and on and in the lord high +admiral glides stately into the thickest of the fight. + +True, we have still but some three-and-twenty ships which can cope +at all with some ninety of the Spaniards: but we have dash, and +daring, and the inspiration of utter need. Now, or never, must the +mighty struggle be ended. We worried them off Portland; we must +rend them in pieces now; and in rushes ship after ship, to smash +her broadsides through and through the wooden castles, "sometimes +not a pike's length asunder," and then out again to re-load, and +give place meanwhile to another. The smaller are fighting with all +sails set; the few larger, who, once in, are careless about coming +out again, fight with top-sails loose, and their main and foreyards +close down on deck, to prevent being boarded. The duke, Oquenda, +and Recalde, having with much ado got clear of the shallows, bear +the brunt of the fight to seaward; but in vain. The day goes +against them more and more, as it runs on. Seymour and Winter have +battered the great San Philip into a wreck; her masts are gone by +the board; Pimentelli in the San Matthew comes up to take the +mastiffs off the fainting bull, and finds them fasten on him +instead; but the Evangelist, though smaller, is stouter than the +Deacon, and of all the shot poured into him, not twenty "lackt him +thorough." His masts are tottering; but sink or strike he will +not. + +"Go ahead, and pound his tough hide, Leigh," roars Drake off the +poop of his ship, while he hammers away at one of the great +galliasses. "What right has he to keep us all waiting?" + +Amyas slips in as best he can between Drake and Winter; as he +passes he shouts to his ancient enemy,-- + +"We are with you, sir; all friends to-day!" and slipping round +Winter's bows, he pours his broadside into those of the San +Matthew, and then glides on to re-load; but not to return. For not +a pistol shot to leeward, worried by three or four small craft, +lies an immense galleon; and on her poop--can he believe his eyes +for joy?--the maiden and the wheel which he has sought so long! + +"There he is!" shouts Amyas, springing to the starboard side of the +ship. The men, too, have already caught sight of that hated sign; +a cheer of fury bursts from every throat. + +"Steady, men!" says Amyas, in a suppressed voice. "Not a shot! +Re-load, and be ready; I must speak with him first;" and silent as +the grave, amid the infernal din, the Vengeance glides up to the +Spaniard's quarter. + +"Don Guzman Maria Magdalena Sotomayor de Soto!" shouts Amyas from +the mizzen rigging, loud and clear amid the roar. + +He has not called in vain. Fearless and graceful as ever, the +tall, mail-clad figure of his foe leaps up upon the poop-railing, +twenty feet above Amyas's head, and shouts through his vizor,-- + +"At your service, sir whosoever you may be." + +A dozen muskets and arrows are levelled at him; but Amyas frowns +them down. "No man strikes him but I. Spare him, if you kill +every other soul on board. Don Guzman! I am Captain Sir Amyas +Leigh; I proclaim you a traitor and a ravisher, and challenge you +once more to single combat, when and where you will." + +"You are welcome to come on board me, sir," answers the Spaniard, +in a clear, quiet tone; "bringing with you this answer, that you +lie in your throat;" and lingering a moment out of bravado, to +arrange his scarf, he steps slowly down again behind the bulwarks. + +"Coward!" shouts Amyas at the top of his voice. + +The Spaniard re-appears instantly. "Why that name, senor, of all +others?" asks he in a cool, stern voice. + +"Because we call men cowards in England, who leave their wives to +be burnt alive by priests." + +The moment the words had passed Amyas's lips, he felt that they +were cruel and unjust. But it was too late to recall them. The +Spaniard started, clutched his sword-hilt, and then hissed back +through his closed vizor,-- + +"For that word, sirrah, you hang at my yardarm, if Saint Mary gives +me grace." + +"See that your halter be a silken one, then," laughed Amyas, "for I +am just dubbed knight." And he stepped down as a storm of bullets +rang through the rigging round his head; the Spaniards are not as +punctilious as he. + +"Fire!" His ordnance crash through the stern-works of the +Spaniard; and then he sails onward, while her balls go humming +harmlessly through his rigging. + +Half-an-hour has passed of wild noise and fury; three times has the +Vengeance, as a dolphin might, sailed clean round and round the +Sta. Catharina, pouring in broadside after broadside, till the guns +are leaping to the deck-beams with their own heat, and the +Spaniard's sides are slit and spotted in a hundred places. And +yet, so high has been his fire in return, and so strong the deck +defences of the Vengeance, that a few spars broken, and two or +three men wounded by musketry, are all her loss. But still the +Spaniard endures, magnificent as ever; it is the battle of the +thresher and the whale; the end is certain, but the work is long. + +"Can I help you, Captain Leigh?" asked Lord Henry Seymour, as he +passes within oar's length of him, to attack a ship ahead. "The +San Matthew has had his dinner, and is gone on to Medina to ask for +a digestive to it." + +"I thank your lordship: but this is my private quarrel, of which I +spoke. But if your lordship could lend me powder--" + +"Would that I could! But so, I fear, says every other gentleman in +the fleet." + +A puff of wind clears away the sulphurous veil for a moment; the +sea is clear of ships towards the land; the Spanish fleet are +moving again up Channel, Medina bringing up the rear; only some two +miles to their right hand, the vast hull of the San Philip is +drifting up the shore with the tide, and somewhat nearer the San +Matthew is hard at work at her pumps. They can see the white +stream of water pouring down her side. + +"Go in, my lord, and have the pair," shouts Amyas. + +"No, sir! Forward is a Seymour's cry. We will leave them to pay +the Flushingers' expenses. And on went Lord Henry, and on shore +went the San Philip at Ostend, to be plundered by the Flushingers; +while the San Matthew, whose captain, "on a hault courage," had +refused to save himself and his gentlemen on board Medina's ship, +went blundering miserably into the hungry mouths of Captain Peter +Vanderduess and four other valiant Dutchmen, who, like prudent men +of Holland, contrived to keep the galleon afloat till they had +emptied her, and then "hung up her banner in the great church of +Leyden, being of such a length, that being fastened to the roof, it +reached unto the very ground." + +But in the meanwhile, long ere the sun had set, comes down the +darkness of the thunderstorm, attracted, as to a volcano's mouth, +to that vast mass of sulphur-smoke which cloaks the sea for many a +mile; and heaven's artillery above makes answer to man's below. +But still, through smoke and rain, Amyas clings to his prey. She +too has seen the northward movement of the Spanish fleet, and sets +her topsails; Amyas calls to the men to fire high, and cripple her +rigging: but in vain: for three or four belated galleys, having +forced their way at last over the shallows, come flashing and +sputtering up to the combatants, and take his fire off the galleon. +Amyas grinds his teeth, and would fain hustle into the thick of the +press once more, in spite of the galleys' beaks. + +"Most heroical captain," says cary, pulling a long face, "if we do, +we are stove and sunk in five minutes; not to mention that Yeo says +he has not twenty rounds of great cartridge left." + +So, surely and silent, the Vengeance sheers off, but keeps as near +as she can to the little squadron, all through the night of rain +and thunder which follows. Next morning the sun rises on a clear +sky, with a strong west-north-west breeze, and all hearts are +asking what the day will bring forth. + +They are long past Dunkirk now; the German Ocean is opening before +them. The Spaniards, sorely battered, and lessened in numbers, +have, during the night, regained some sort of order. The English +hang on their skirts a mile or two behind. They have no +ammunition, and must wait for more. To Amyas's great disgust, the +Sta. Catharina has rejoined her fellows during the night. + +"Never mind," says Cary; "she can neither dive nor fly, and as long +as she is above water, we-- What is the admiral about?" + +He is signalling Lord Henry Seymour and his squadron. Soon they +tack, and come down the wind for the coast of Flanders. Parma must +be blockaded still; and the Hollanders are likely to be too busy +with their plunder to do it effectually. Suddenly there is a stir +in the Spanish fleet. Medina and the rearmost ships turn upon the +English. What can it mean? Will they offer battle once more? If +so, it were best to get out of their way, for we have nothing +wherewith to fight them. So the English lie close to the wind. +They will let them pass, and return to their old tactic of +following and harassing. + +"Good-bye to Seymour," says Cary, "if he is caught between them and +Parma's flotilla. They are going to Dunkirk." + +"Impossible! They will not have water enough to reach his light +craft. Here comes a big ship right upon us! Give him all you have +left, lads; and if he will fight us, lay him alongside, and die +boarding." + +They gave him what they had, and hulled him with every shot; but +his huge side stood silent as the grave. He had not wherewithal to +return the compliment. + +"As I live, he is cutting loose the foot of his mainsail! the +villain means to run." + +"There go the rest of them! Victoria!" shouted Cary, as one after +another, every Spaniard set all the sail he could. + +There was silence for a few minutes throughout the English fleet; +and then cheer upon cheer of triumph rent the skies. It was over. +The Spaniard had refused battle, and thinking only of safety, was +pressing downward toward the Straits again. The Invincible Armada +had cast away its name, and England was saved. + +"But he will never get there, sir," said old Yeo, who had come upon +deck to murmur his Nunc Domine, and gaze upon that sight beyond all +human faith or hope: "Never, never will he weather the Flanders +shore, against such a breeze as is coming up. Look to the eye of +the wind, sir, and see how the Lord is fighting for His people!" + +Yes, down it came, fresher and stiffer every minute out of the gray +north-west, as it does so often after a thunder-storm; and the sea +began to rise high and white under the " Claro Aquilone," till the +Spaniards were fain to take in all spare canvas, and lie-to as best +they could; while the English fleet, lying-to also, awaited an +event which was in God's hands and not in theirs. + +"They will be all ashore on Zealand before the afternoon," murmured +Amyas; "and I have lost my labor! Oh, for powder, powder, powder! +to go in and finish it at once!" + +"Oh, sir," said Yeo, "don't murmur against the Lord in the very day +of His mercies. It is hard, to be sure; but His will be done." + +"Could we not borrow powder from Drake there?" + +"Look at the sea, sir!" + +And, indeed, the sea was far too rough for any such attempt. The +Spaniards neared and neared the fatal dunes, which fringed the +shore for many a dreary mile; and Amyas had to wait weary hours, +growling like a dog who has had the bone snatched out of his mouth, +till the day wore on; when, behold, the wind began to fall as +rapidly as it had risen. A savage joy rose in Amyas's heart. + +"They are safe! safe for us! Who will go and beg us powder? A +cartridge here and a cartridge there?--anything to set to work +again!" + +Cary volunteered, and returned in a couple of hours with some +quantity: but he was on board again only just in time, for the +south-wester had recovered the mastery of the skies, and Spaniards +and English were moving away; but this time northward. Whither +now? To Scotland? Amyas knew not, and cared not, provided he was +in the company of Don Guzman de Soto. + +The Armada was defeated, and England saved. But such great +undertakings seldom end in one grand melodramatic explosion of +fireworks, through which the devil arises in full roar to drag Dr. +Faustus forever into the flaming pit. On the contrary, the devil +stands by his servants to the last, and tries to bring off his +shattered forces with drums beating and colors flying; and, if +possible, to lull his enemies into supposing that the fight is +ended, long before it really is half over. All which the good Lord +Howard of Effingham knew well, and knew, too, that Medina had one +last card to play, and that was the filial affection of that +dutiful and chivalrous son, James of Scotland. True, he had +promised faith to Elizabeth: but that was no reason why he should +keep it. He had been hankering and dabbling after Spain for years +past, for its absolution was dear to his inmost soul; and Queen +Elizabeth had had to warn him, scold him, call him a liar, for so +doing; so the Armada might still find shelter and provision in the +Firth of Forth. But whether Lord Howard knew or not, Medina did +not know, that Elizabeth had played her card cunningly, in the +shape of one of those appeals to the purse, which, to James's dying +day, overweighed all others save appeals to his vanity. "The title +of a dukedom in England, a yearly pension of 5000 pounds, a guard +at the queen's charge, and other matters" (probably more hounds and +deer), had steeled the heart of the King of Scots, and sealed the +Firth of Forth. Nevertheless, as I say, Lord Howard, like the rest +of Elizabeth's heroes, trusted James just as much as James trusted +others; and therefore thought good to escort the Armada until it +was safely past the domains of that most chivalrous and truthful +Solomon. But on the 4th of August, his fears, such as they were, +were laid to rest. The Spaniards left the Scottish coast and +sailed away for Norway; and the game was played out, and the end +was come, as the end of such matters generally comes, by gradual +decay, petty disaster, and mistake; till the snow-mountain, instead +of being blown tragically and heroically to atoms, melts helplessly +and pitiably away. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA + + +"Full fathom deep thy father lies; + Of his bones are corals made; +Those are pearls which were his eyes; + Nothing of him that doth fade, +But doth suffer a sea-change + Into something rich and strange; +Fairies hourly ring his knell, +Hark! I hear them. Ding dong bell." + + The Tempest. + + +Yes, it is over; and the great Armada is vanquished. It is lulled +for awhile, the everlasting war which is in heaven, the battle of +Iran and Turan, of the children of light and of darkness, of +Michael and his angels against Satan and his fiends; the battle +which slowly and seldom, once in the course of many centuries, +culminates and ripens into a day of judgment, and becomes palpable +and incarnate; no longer a mere spiritual fight, but one of flesh +and blood, wherein simple men may choose their sides without +mistake, and help God's cause not merely with prayer and pen, but +with sharp shot and cold steel. A day of judgment has come, which +has divided the light from the darkness, and the sheep from the +goats, and tried each man's work by the fire; and, behold, the +devil's work, like its maker, is proved to have been, as always, a +lie and a sham, and a windy boast, a bladder which collapses at the +merest pinprick. Byzantine empires, Spanish Armadas, triple- +crowned papacies, Russian despotisms, this is the way of them, and +will be to the end of the world. One brave blow at the big +bullying phantom, and it vanishes in sulphur-stench; while the +children of Israel, as of old, see the Egyptians dead on the sea- +shore,--they scarce know how, save that God has done it, and sing +the song of Moses and of the Lamb. + +And now, from England and the Netherlands, from Germany and Geneva, +and those poor Vaudois shepherd-saints, whose bones for generations +past + + + "Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;" + + +to be, indeed, the seed of the Church, and a germ of new life, +liberty, and civilization, even in these very days returning good +for evil to that Piedmont which has hunted them down like the +partridges on the mountains;--from all of Europe, from all of +mankind, I had almost said, in which lay the seed of future virtue +and greatness, of the destinies of the new-discovered world, and +the triumphs of the coming age of science, arose a shout of holy +joy, such as the world had not heard for many a weary and bloody +century; a shout which was the prophetic birth-paean of North +America, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, of free +commerce and free colonization over the whole earth. + +"There was in England, by the commandment of her majesty," says Van +Meteran, "and likewise in the United Provinces, by the direction of +the States, a solemn festival day publicly appointed, wherein all +persons were solemnly enjoined to resort unto ye Church, and there +to render thanks and praises unto God, and ye preachers were +commanded to exhort ye people thereunto. The aforesaid solemnity +was observed upon the 29th of November: which day was wholly spent +in fasting, prayer, and giving of thanks. + +"Likewise the Queen's Majesty herself, imitating ye ancient Romans, +rode into London in triumph, in regard of her own and her subjects' +glorious deliverance. For being attended upon very solemnly by all +ye principal Estates and officers of her Realm, she was carried +through her said City of London in a triumphant Chariot, and in +robes of triumph, from her Palace unto ye said Cathedral Church of +St. Paul, out of ye which ye Ensigns and Colours of ye vanquished +Spaniards hung displayed. And all ye Citizens of London, in their +liveries, stood on either side ye street, by their several +Companies, with their ensigns and banners, and the streets were +hanged on both sides with blue Cloth, which, together with ye +foresaid banners, yielded a very stately and gallant prospect. Her +Majestie being entered into ye Church together with her Clergy and +Nobles, gave thanks unto God, and caused a public Sermon to be +preached before her at Paul's Cross; wherein none other argument +was handled, but that praise, honour, and glory might be rendered +unto God, and that God's Name might be extolled by thanksgiving. +And with her own princely voice she most Christianly exhorted ye +people to do ye same; whereunto ye people, with a loud acclamation, +wished her a most long and happy life to ye confusion of her foes." + +Yes, as the medals struck on the occasion said, "It came, it saw, +and it fled!" And whither? Away and northward, like a herd of +frightened deer, past the Orkneys and Shetlands, catching up a few +hapless fishermen as guides; past the coast of Norway, there, too, +refused water and food by the brave descendants of the Vikings; and +on northward ever towards the lonely Faroes, and the everlasting +dawn which heralds round the Pole the midnight sun. + +Their water is failing; the cattle must go overboard; and the wild +northern sea echoes to the shrieks of drowning horses. They must +homeward at least, somehow, each as best he can. Let them meet +again at Cape Finisterre, if indeed they ever meet. Medina +Sidonia, with some five-and twenty of the soundest and best +victualled ships, will lead the way, and leave the rest to their +fate. He is soon out of sight; and forty more, the only remnant of +that mighty host, come wandering wearily behind, hoping to make the +south-west coast of Ireland, and have help, or, at least, fresh +water there, from their fellow Romanists. Alas for them!-- + + + "Make Thou their way dark and slippery, + And follow them up ever with Thy storm." + + +For now comes up from the Atlantic, gale on gale; and few of that +hapless remnant reached the shores of Spain. + +And where are Amyas and the Vengeance all this while? + +At the fifty-seventh degree of latitude, the English fleet, finding +themselves growing short of provision, and having been long since +out of powder and ball, turn southward toward home, "thinking it +best to leave the Spaniard to those uncouth and boisterous northern +seas." A few pinnaces are still sent onward to watch their course: +and the English fleet, caught in the same storms which scattered +the Spaniards, "with great danger and industry reached Harwich +port, and there provide themselves of victuals and ammunition," in +case the Spaniards should return; but there is no need for that +caution. Parma, indeed, who cannot believe that the idol at Halle, +after all his compliments to it, will play him so scurvy a trick, +will watch for weeks on Dunkirk dunes, hoping against hope for the +Armada's return, casting anchors, and spinning rigging to repair +their losses. + + + "But lang, lang may his ladies sit, + With their fans intill their hand, + Before they see Sir Patrick Spens + Come sailing to the land." + + +The Armada is away on the other side of Scotland, and Amyas is +following in its wake. + +For when the lord high admiral determined to return, Amyas asked +leave to follow the Spaniard; and asked, too, of Sir John Hawkins, +who happened to be at hand, such ammunition and provision as could +be afforded him, promising to repay the same like an honest man, +out of his plunder if he lived, out of his estate if he died; +lodging for that purpose bills in the hands of Sir John, who, as a +man of business, took them, and put them in his pocket among the +thimbles, string, and tobacco; after which Amyas, calling his men +together, reminded them once more of the story of the Rose of +Torridge and Don Guzman de Soto, and then asked: + +"Men of Bideford, will you follow me? There will be plunder for +those who love plunder; revenge for those who love revenge; and for +all of us (for we all love honor) the honor of having never left +the chase as long as there was a Spanish flag in English seas." + +And every soul on board replied, that they would follow Sir Amyas +Leigh around the world. + +There is no need for me to detail every incident of that long and +weary chase; how they found the Sta. Catharina, attacked her, and +had to sheer off, she being rescued by the rest; how when Medina's +squadron left the crippled ships behind, they were all but taken or +sunk, by thrusting into the midst of the Spanish fleet to prevent +her escaping with Medina; how they crippled her, so that she could +not beat to windward out into the ocean, but was fain to run south, +past the Orkneys, and down through the Minch, between Cape Wrath +and Lewis; how the younger hands were ready to mutiny, because +Amyas, in his stubborn haste, ran past two or three noble prizes +which were all but disabled, among others one of the great +galliasses, and the two great Venetians, La Ratta and La Belanzara-- +which were afterwards, with more than thirty other vessels, +wrecked on the west coast of Ireland; how he got fresh water, in +spite of certain "Hebridean Scots" of Skye, who, after reviling him +in an unknown tongue, fought with him awhile, and then embraced him +and his men with howls of affection, and were not much more +decently clad, nor more civilized, than his old friends of +California; how he pacified his men by letting them pick the bones +of a great Venetian which was going on shore upon Islay (by which +they got booty enough to repay them for the whole voyage), and +offended them again by refusing to land and plunder two great +Spanish wrecks on the Mull of Cantire (whose crews, by the by, +James tried to smuggle off secretly into Spain in ships of his own, +wishing to play, as usual, both sides of the game at once; but the +Spaniards were stopped at Yarmouth till the council's pleasure was +known--which was, of course, to let the poor wretches go on their +way, and be hanged elsewhere); how they passed a strange island, +half black, half white, which the wild people called Raghary, but +Cary christened it "the drowned magpie;" how the Sta. Catharina was +near lost on the Isle of Man, and then put into Castleton (where +the Manx-men slew a whole boat's-crew with their arrows), and then +put out again, when Amyas fought with her a whole day, and shot +away her mainyard; how the Spaniard blundered down the coast of +Wales, not knowing whither he went; how they were both nearly lost +on Holyhead, and again on Bardsey Island; how they got on a lee +shore in Cardigan Bay, before a heavy westerly gale, and the Sta. +Catharina ran aground on Sarn David, one of those strange +subaqueous pebble-dykes which are said to be the remnants of the +lost land of Gwalior, destroyed by the carelessness of Prince +Seithenin the drunkard, at whose name each loyal Welshman spits; +how she got off again at the rising of the tide, and fought with +Amyas a fourth time; how the wind changed, and she got round St. +David's Head;--these, and many more moving incidents of this +eventful voyage, I must pass over without details, and go on to the +end; for it is time that the end should come. + +It was now the sixteenth day of the chase. They had seen, the +evening before, St. David's Head, and then the Welsh coast round +Milford Haven, looming out black and sharp before the blaze of the +inland thunder-storm; and it had lightened all round them during +the fore part of the night, upon a light south-western breeze. + +In vain they had strained their eyes through the darkness, to +catch, by the fitful glare of the flashes, the tall masts of the +Spaniard. Of one thing at least they were certain, that with the +wind as it was, she could not have gone far to the westward; and to +attempt to pass them again, and go northward, was more than she +dare do. She was probably lying-to ahead of them, perhaps between +them and the land; and when, a little after midnight, the wind +chopped up to the west, and blew stiffly till day break, they felt +sure that, unless she had attempted the desperate expedient of +running past them, they had her safe in the mouth of the Bristol +Channel. Slowly and wearily broke the dawn, on such a day as often +follows heavy thunder; a sunless, drizzly day, roofed with low +dingy cloud, barred and netted, and festooned with black, a sign +that the storm is only taking breath awhile before it bursts again; +while all the narrow horizon is dim and spongy with vapor drifting +before a chilly breeze. As the day went on, the breeze died down, +and the sea fell to a long glassy foam-flecked roll, while overhead +brooded the inky sky, and round them the leaden mist shut out alike +the shore and the chase. + +Amyas paced the sloppy deck fretfully and fiercely. He knew that +the Spaniard could not escape; but he cursed every moment which +lingered between him and that one great revenge which blackened all +his soul. The men sate sulkily about the deck, and whistled for a +wind; the sails flapped idly against the masts; and the ship rolled +in the long troughs of the sea, till her yard-arms almost dipped +right and left. + +"Take care of those guns. You will have something loose next," +growled Amyas. + +"We will take care of the guns, if the Lord will take care of the +wind," said Yeo. + +"We shall have plenty before night," said Cary, "and thunder too." + +"So much the better," said Amyas. "It may roar till it splits the +heavens, if it does but let me get my work done." + +"He's not far off, I warrant," said Cary. "One lift of the cloud, +and we should see him." + +"To windward of us, as likely as not," said Amyas. "The devil +fights for him, I believe. To have been on his heels sixteen days, +and not sent this through him yet!" And he shook his sword +impatiently. + +So the morning wore away, without a sign of living thing, not even +a passing gull; and the black melancholy of the heaven reflected +itself in the black melancholy of Amyas. Was he to lose his prey +after all? The thought made him shudder with rage and +disappointment. It was intolerable. Anything but that. + +"No, God!" he cried, "let me but once feel this in his accursed +heart, and then--strike me dead, if Thou wilt!" + +"The Lord have mercy on us," cried John Brimblecombe. "What have +you said?" + +"What is that to you, sir? There, they are piping to dinner. Go +down. I shall not come." + +And Jack went down, and talked in a half-terrified whisper of +Amyas's ominous words. + +All thought that they portended some bad luck, except old Yeo. + +"Well, Sir John," said he, "and why not? What better can the Lord +do for a man, than take him home when he has done his work? Our +captain is wilful and spiteful, and must needs kill his man +himself; while for me, I don't care how the Don goes, provided he +does go. I owe him no grudge, nor any man. May the Lord give him +repentance, and forgive him all his sins: but if I could but see +him once safe ashore, as he may be ere nightfall, on the Mortestone +or the back of Lundy, I would say, 'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy +servant depart in peace,' even if it were the lightning which was +sent to fetch me." + +"But, master Yeo, a sudden death?" + +"And why not a sudden death, Sir John? Even fools long for a short +life and a merry one, and shall not the Lord's people pray for a +short death and a merry one? Let it come as it will to old Yeo. +Hark! there's the captain's voice!" + +"Here she is!" thundered Amyas from the deck; and in an instant all +were scrambling up the hatchway as fast as the frantic rolling of +the ship would let them. + +Yes. There she was. The cloud had lifted suddenly, and to the +south a ragged bore of blue sky let a long stream of sunshine down +on her tall masts and stately hull, as she lay rolling some four or +five miles to the eastward: but as for land, none was to be seen. + +"There she is; and here we are," said Cary; "but where is here? and +where is there? How is the tide, master?" + +"Running up Channel by this time, sir." + +"What matters the tide?" said Amyas, devouring the ship with +terrible and cold blue eyes. "Can't we get at her?" + +"Not unless some one jumps out and shoves behind," said Cary. "I +shall down again and finish that mackerel, if this roll has not +chucked it to the cockroaches under the table." + +"Don't jest, Will! I can't stand it," said Amyas, in a voice which +quivered so much that Cary looked at him. His whole frame was +trembling like an aspen. Cary took his arm, and drew him aside. + +"Dear old lad," said he, as they leaned over the bulwarks, "what is +this? You are not yourself, and have not been these four days." + +"No. I am not Amyas Leigh. I am my brother's avenger. Do not +reason with me, Will: when it is over I shall be merry old Amyas +again," and he passed his hand over his brow. + +"Do you believe," said he, after a moment, "that men can be +possessed by devils?" + +"The Bible says so." + +"If my cause were not a just one, I should fancy I had a devil in +me. My throat and heart are as hot as the pit. Would to God it +were done, for done it must be! Now go." + +Cary went away with a shudder. As he passed down the hatchway he +looked back. Amyas had got the hone out of his pocket, and was +whetting away again at his sword-edge, as if there was some +dreadful doom on him, to whet, and whet forever. + +The weary day wore on. The strip of blue sky was curtained over +again, and all was dismal as before, though it grew sultrier every +moment; and now and then a distant mutter shook the air to +westward. Nothing could be done to lessen the distance between the +ships, for the Vengeance had had all her boats carried away but +one, and that was much too small to tow her: and while the men went +down again to finish dinner, Amyas worked on at his sword, looking +up every now and then suddenly at the Spaniard, as if to satisfy +himself that it was not a vision which had vanished. + +About two Yeo came up to him. + +"He is ours safely now, sir. The tide has been running to the +eastward for this two hours." + +"Safe as a fox in a trap. Satan himself cannot take him from us!" + +"But God may," said Brimblecombe, simply. + +"Who spoke to you, sir? If I thought that He-- There comes the +thunder at last!" + +And as he spoke an angry growl from the westward heavens seemed to +answer his wild words, and rolled and loudened nearer and nearer, +till right over their heads it crashed against some cloud-cliff far +above, and all was still. + +Each man looked in the other's face: but Amyas was unmoved. + +"The storm is coming," said he, "and the wind in it. It will be +Eastward-ho now, for once, my merry men all!" + +"Eastward-ho never brought us luck," said Jack in an undertone to +Cary. But by this time all eyes were turned to the north-west, +where a black line along the horizon began to define the boundary +of sea and air, till now all dim in mist. + +"There comes the breeze." + +"And there the storm, too." + +And with that strangely accelerating pace which some storms seem to +possess, the thunder, which had been growling slow and seldom far +away, now rang peal on peal along the cloudy floor above their +heads. + +"Here comes the breeze. Round with the yards, or we shall be taken +aback." + +The yards creaked round; the sea grew crisp around them; the hot +air swept their cheeks, tightened every rope, filled every sail, +bent her over. A cheer burst from the men as the helm went up, and +they staggered away before the wind, right down upon the Spaniard, +who lay still becalmed. + +"There is more behind, Amyas," said Cary. "Shall we not shorten +sail a little?" + +"No. Hold on every stitch," said Amyas. "Give me the helm, man. +Boatswain, pipe away to clear for fight." + +It was done, and in ten minutes the men were all at quarters, while +the thunder rolled louder and louder overhead, and the breeze +freshened fast. + +"The dog has it now. There he goes!" said Cary. + +"Right before the wind. He has no liking to face us." + +"He is running into the jaws of destruction," said Yeo. "An hour +more will send him either right up the Channel, or smack on shore +somewhere." + +"There! he has put his helm down. I wonder if he sees land?" + +"He is like a March hare beat out of his country," said Cary, "and +don't know whither to run next." + +Cary was right. In ten minutes more the Spaniard fell off again, +and went away dead down wind, while the Vengeance gained on him +fast. After two hours more, the four miles had diminished to one, +while the lightning flashed nearer and nearer as the storm came up; +and from the vast mouth of a black cloud-arch poured so fierce a +breeze that Amyas yielded unwillingly to hints which were growing +into open murmurs, and bade shorten sail. + +On they rushed with scarcely lessened speed, the black arch +following fast, curtained by the flat gray sheet of pouring rain, +before which the water was boiling in a long white line; while +every moment behind the watery veil, a keen blue spark leapt down +into the sea, or darted zigzag through the rain. + +"We shall have it now, and with a vengeance; this will try your +tackle, master," said Cary. + +The functionary answered with a shrug, and turned up the collar of +his rough frock, as the first drops flew stinging round his ears. +Another minute and the squall burst full upon them, in rain, which +cut like hail--hail which lashed the sea into froth, and wind which +whirled off the heads of the surges, and swept the waters into one +white seething waste. And above them, and behind them and before +them, the lightning leapt and ran, dazzling and blinding, while the +deep roar of the thunder was changed to sharp ear-piercing cracks. + +"Get the arms and ammunition under cover, and then below with you +all," shouted Amyas from the helm. + +"And heat the pokers in the galley fire," said Yeo, "to be ready if +the rain puts our linstocks out. I hope you'll let me stay on +deck, sir, in case--" + +"I must have some one, and who better than you? Can you see the +chase?" + +No; she was wrapped in the gray whirlwind. She might be within +half a mile of them, for aught they could have seen of her. + +And now Amyas and his old liegeman were alone. Neither spoke; each +knew the other's thoughts, and knew that they were his own. The +squall blew fiercer and fiercer, the rain poured heavier and +heavier. Where was the Spaniard? + +"If he has laid-to, we may overshoot him, sir!" + +"If he has tried to lay-to, he will not have a sail left in the +bolt-ropes, or perhaps a mast on deck. I know the stiff-neckedness +of those Spanish tubs. Hurrah! there he is, right on our larboard +bow!" + +There she was indeed, two musket-shots' off, staggering away with +canvas split and flying. + +"He has been trying to hull, sir, and caught a buffet," said Yeo, +rubbing his hands. "What shall we do now?" + +"Range alongside, if it blow live imps and witches, and try our +luck once more. Pah! how this lightning dazzles!" + +On they swept, gaining fast on the Spaniard. "Call the men up, and +to quarters; the rain will be over in ten minutes." + +Yeo ran forward to the gangway; and sprang back again, with a face +white and wild-- + +"Land right ahead! Port your helm, sir! For the love of God, port +your helm!" + +Amyas, with the strength of a bull, jammed the helm down, while Yeo +shouted to the men below. + +She swung round. The masts bent like whips; crack went the fore- +sail like a cannon. What matter? Within two hundred yards of them +was the Spaniard; in front of her, and above her, a huge dark bank +rose through the dense hail, and mingled with the clouds; and at +its foot, plainer every moment, pillars and spouts of leaping foam. + +"What is it, Morte? Hartland?" + +It might be anything for thirty miles. + +"Lundy!" said Yeo. "The south end! I see the head of the Shutter +in the breakers! Hard a-port yet, and get her close-hauled as you +can, and the Lord may have mercy on us still! Look at the +Spaniard!" + +Yes, look at the Spaniard! + +On their left hand, as they broached-to, the wall of granite sloped +down from the clouds toward an isolated peak of rock, some two +hundred feet in height. Then a hundred yards of roaring breaker +upon a sunken shelf, across which the race of the tide poured like +a cataract; then, amid a column of salt smoke, the Shutter, like a +huge black fang, rose waiting for its prey; and between the Shutter +and the land, the great galleon loomed dimly through the storm. + +He, too, had seen his danger, and tried to broach-to. But his +clumsy mass refused to obey the helm; he struggled a moment, half +hid in foam; fell away again, and rushed upon his doom. + +"Lost! lost! lost!" cried Amyas madly, and throwing up his hands, +let go the tiller. Yeo caught it just in time. + +"Sir! sir! What are you at? We shall clear the rock yet." + +"Yes!" shouted Amyas, in his frenzy; "but he will not!" + +Another minute. The galleon gave a sudden jar, and stopped. Then +one long heave and bound, as if to free herself. And then her bows +lighted clean upon the Shutter. + +An awful silence fell on every English soul. They heard not the +roaring of wind and surge; they saw not the blinding flashes of the +lightning; but they heard one long ear-piercing wail to every saint +in heaven rise from five hundred human throats; they saw the mighty +ship heel over from the wind, and sweep headlong down the cataract +of the race, plunging her yards into the foam, and showing her +whole black side even to her keel, till she rolled clean over, and +vanished for ever and ever. + +"Shame!" cried Amyas, hurling his sword far into the sea, "to lose +my right, my right! when it was in my very grasp! Unmerciful!" + +A crack which rent the sky, and made the granite ring and quiver; a +bright world of flame, and then a blank of utter darkness, against +which stood out, glowing red-hot every mast, and sail, and rock, +and Salvation Yeo as he stood just in front of Amyas, the tiller in +his hand. All red-hot, transfigured into fire; and behind, the +black, black night. + + . . . . . . . + +A whisper, a rustling close beside him, and Brimblecombe's voice +said softly: + +"Give him more wine, Will; his eyes are opening." + +"Hey day?" said Amyas, faintly, "not past the Shutter yet! How +long she hangs in the wind!" + +"We are long past the Shutter, Sir Amyas," said Brimblecombe. + +"Are you mad? Cannot I trust my own eyes?" + +There was no answer for awhile. + +"We are past the Shutter, indeed," said Cary, very gently, "and +lying in the cove at Lundy." + +"Will you tell me that that is not the Shutter, and that the +Devil's-limekiln, and that the cliff--that villain Spaniard only +gone--and that Yeo is not standing here by me, and Cary there +forward, and--why, by the by, where are you, Jack Brimblecombe, who +were talking to me this minute?" + +"Oh, Sir Amyas Leigh, dear Sir Amyas Leigh, blubbered poor Jack, +"put out your hand, and feel where you are, and pray the Lord to +forgive you for your wilfulness!" + +A great trembling fell upon Amyas Leigh; half fearfully he put out +his hand; he felt that he was in his hammock, with the deck beams +close above his head. The vision which had been left upon his eye- +balls vanished like a dream. + +"What is this? I must be asleep? What has happened? Where am I?" + +"In your cabin, Amyas," said Cary. + +"What? And where is Yeo?" + +"Yeo is gone where he longed to go, and as he longed to go. The +same flash which struck you down, struck him dead." + +"Dead? Lightning? Any more hurt? I must go and see. Why, what +is this?" and Amyas passed his hand across his eyes. "It is all +dark--dark, as I live!" And he passed his hand over his eyes +again. + +There was another dead silence. Amyas broke it. + +"Oh, God!" shrieked the great proud sea-captain, "Oh, God, I am +blind! blind! blind!" And writhing in his great horror, he called +to Cary to kill him and put him out of his misery, and then wailed +for his mother to come and help him, as if he had been a boy once +more; while Brimblecombe and Cary, and the sailors who crowded +round the cabin-door, wept as if they too had been boys once more. + +Soon his fit of frenzy passed off, and he sank back exhausted. + +They lifted him into their remaining boat, rowed him ashore, +carried him painfully up the hill to the old castle, and made a bed +for him on the floor, in the very room in which Don Guzman and Rose +Salterne had plighted their troth to each other, five wild years +before. + +Three miserable days were passed within that lonely tower. Amyas, +utterly unnerved by the horror of his misfortune, and by the over- +excitement of the last few weeks, was incessantly delirious; while +Cary, and Brimblecombe, and the men nursed him by turns, as sailors +and wives only can nurse; and listened with awe to his piteous +self-reproaches and entreaties to Heaven to remove that woe, which, +as he shrieked again and again, was a just judgment on him for his +wilfulness and ferocity. The surgeon talked, of course, learnedly +about melancholic humors, and his liver's being "adust by the over- +pungency of the animal spirits," and then fell back on the +universal panacea of blood-letting, which he effected with fear and +trembling during a short interval of prostration; encouraged by +which he attempted to administer a large bolus of aloes, was +knocked down for his pains, and then thought it better to leave +Nature to her own work. In the meanwhile, Cary had sent off one of +the island skiffs to Clovelly, with letters to his father, and to +Mrs. Leigh, entreating the latter to come off to the island: but +the heavy westerly winds made that as impossible as it was to move +Amyas on board, and the men had to do their best, and did it well +enough. + +On the fourth day his raving ceased: but he was still too weak to +be moved. Toward noon, however, he called for food, ate a little, +and seemed revived. + +"Will," he said, after awhile, "this room is as stifling as it is +dark. I feel as if I should be a sound man once more if I could +but get one snuff of the sea-breeze." + +The surgeon shook his head at the notion of moving him: but Amyas +was peremptory. + +"I am captain still, Tom Surgeon, and will sail for the Indies, if +I choose. Will Cary, Jack Brimblecombe, will you obey a blind +general?" + +"What you will in reason," said they both at once. + +"Then lead me out, my masters, and over the down to the south end. +To the point at the south end I must go; there is no other place +will suit." + +And he rose firmly to his feet, and held out his hands for theirs. + +"Let him have his humor," whispered Cary. "It may be the working +off of his madness." + +"This sudden strength is a note of fresh fever, Mr. Lieutenant," +said the surgeon, "and the rules of the art prescribe rather a +fresh blood-letting." + +Amyas overheard the last word, and broke out: + +"Thou pig-sticking Philistine, wilt thou make sport with blind +Samson? Come near me to let blood from my arm, and see if I do not +let blood from thy coxcomb. Catch him, Will, and bring him me +here!" + +The surgeon vanished as the blind giant made a step forward; and +they set forth, Amyas walking slowly, but firmly, between his two +friends. + +"Whither?" asked Cary. + +"To the south end. The crag above the Devil's-limekiln. No other +place will suit." + +Jack gave a murmur, and half-stopped, as a frightful suspicion +crossed him. + +"That is a dangerous place!" + +"What of that?" said Amyas, who caught his meaning in his tone. +"Dost think I am going to leap over cliff? I have not heart enough +for that. On, lads, and set me safe among the rocks." + +So slowly, and painfully, they went on, while Amyas murmured to +himself: + +"No, no other place will suit; I can see all thence." + +So on they went to the point, where the cyclopean wall of granite +cliff which forms the western side of Lundy, ends sheer in a +precipice of some three hundred feet, topped by a pile of snow- +white rock, bespangled with golden lichens. As they approached, a +raven, who sat upon the topmost stone, black against the bright +blue sky, flapped lazily away, and sank down the abysses of the +cliff, as if he scented the corpses underneath the surge. Below +them from the Gull-rock rose a thousand birds, and filled the air +with sound; the choughs cackled, the hacklets wailed, the great +blackbacks laughed querulous defiance at the intruders, and a +single falcon, with an angry bark, dashed out from beneath their +feet, and hung poised high aloft, watching the sea-fowl which swung +slowly round and round below. + +It was a glorious sight upon a glorious day. To the northward the +glens rushed down toward the cliff, crowned with gray crags, and +carpeted with purple heather and green fern; and from their feet +stretched away to the westward the sapphire rollers of the vast +Atlantic, crowned with a thousand crests of flying foam. On their +left hand, some ten miles to the south, stood out against the sky +the purple wall of Hartland cliffs, sinking lower and lower as they +trended away to the southward along the lonely ironbound shores of +Cornwall, until they faded, dim and blue, into the blue horizon +forty miles away. + +The sky was flecked with clouds, which rushed toward them fast upon +the roaring south-west wind; and the warm ocean-breeze swept up the +cliffs, and whistled through the heather-bells, and howled in +cranny and in crag, + + + "Till the pillars and clefts of the granite + Rang like a God-swept lyre;" + + +while Amyas, a proud smile upon his lips, stood breasting that +genial stream of airy wine with swelling nostrils and fast-heaving +chest, and seemed to drink in life from every gust. All three were +silent for awhile; and Jack and Cary, gazing downward with delight +upon the glory and the grandeur of the sight, forgot for awhile +that their companion saw it not. Yet when they started sadly, and +looked into his face, did he not see it? So wide and eager were +his eyes, so bright and calm his face, that they fancied for an +instant that he was once more even as they. + +A deep sigh undeceived them. "I know it is all here--the dear old +sea, where I would live and die. And my eyes feel for it; feel for +it--and cannot find it; never, never will find it again forever! +God's will be done!" + +"Do you say that?" asked Brimblecombe, eagerly. + +"Why should I not? Why have I been raving in hell-fire for I know +not how many days, but to find out that, John Brimblecombe, thou +better man than I?" + +"Not that last: but Amen! Amen! and the Lord has indeed had mercy +upon thee!" said Jack, through his honest tears. + +"Amen!" said Amyas. "Now set me where I can rest among the rocks +without fear of falling--for life is sweet still, even without +eyes, friends--and leave me to myself awhile." + +It was no easy matter to find a safe place; for from the foot of +the crag the heathery turf slopes down all but upright, on one side +to a cliff which overhangs a shoreless cove of deep dark sea, and +on the other to an abyss even more hideous, where the solid rock +has sunk away, and opened inland in the hillside a smooth-walled +pit, some sixty feet square and some hundred and fifty in depth, +aptly known then as now, as the Devil's-limekiln; the mouth of +which, as old wives say, was once closed by the Shutter-rock +itself, till the fiend in malice hurled it into the sea, to be a +pest to mariners. A narrow and untrodden cavern at the bottom +connects it with the outer sea; they could even then hear the +mysterious thunder and gurgle of the surge in the subterranean +adit, as it rolled huge boulders to and fro in darkness, and forced +before it gusts of pent-up air. It was a spot to curdle weak +blood, and to make weak heads reel: but all the fitter on that +account for Amyas and his fancy. + +"You can sit here as in an arm-chair," said Cary, helping him down +to one of those square natural seats so common in the granite tors. + +"Good; now turn my face to the Shutter. Be sure and exact. So. +Do I face it full?" + +"Full," said Cary. + +"Then I need no eyes wherewith to see what is before me," said he, +with a sad smile. "I know every stone and every headland, and +every wave too, I may say, far beyond aught that eye can reach. +Now go, and leave me alone with God and with the dead!" + +They retired a little space and watched him. He never stirred for +many minutes; then leaned his elbows on his knees, and his head +upon his hands, and so was still again. He remained so long thus, +that the pair became anxious, and went towards him. He was asleep, +and breathing quick and heavily. + +"He will take a fever," said Brimblecombe, "if he sleeps much +longer with his head down in the sunshine." + +"We must wake him gently if we wake him at all." And Cary moved +forward to him. + +As he did so, Amyas lifted his head, and turning it to right and +left, felt round him with his sightless eyes. + +"You have been asleep, Amyas." + +"Have I? I have not slept back my eyes, then. Take up this great +useless carcase of mine, and lead me home. I shall buy me a dog +when I get to Burrough, I think, and make him tow me in a string, +eh? So! Give me your hand. Now march!" + +His guides heard with surprise this new cheerfulness. + +"Thank God, sir, that your heart is so light already," said good +Jack; "it makes me feel quite upraised myself, like." + +"I have reason to be cheerful, Sir John; I have left a heavy load +behind me. I have been wilful, and proud, and a blasphemer, and +swollen with cruelty and pride; and God has brought me low for it, +and cut me off from my evil delight. No more Spaniard-hunting for +me now, my masters. God will send no such fools as I upon His +errands." + +"You do not repent of fighting the Spaniards." + +"Not I: but of hating even the worst of them. Listen to me, Will +and Jack. If that man wronged me, I wronged him likewise. I have +been a fiend when I thought myself the grandest of men, yea, a very +avenging angel out of heaven. But God has shown me my sin, and we +have made up our quarrel forever." + +"Made it up?" + +"Made it up, thank God. But I am weary. Set me down awhile, and I +will tell you how it befell." + +Wondering, they set him down upon the heather, while the bees +hummed round them in the sun; and Amyas felt for a hand of each, +and clasped it in his own hand, and began: + +"When you left me there upon the rock, lads, I looked away and out +to sea, to get one last snuff of the merry sea-breeze, which will +never sail me again. And as I looked, I tell you truth, I could +see the water and the sky; as plain as ever I saw them, till I +thought my sight was come again. But soon I knew it was not so; +for I saw more than man could see; right over the ocean, as I live, +and away to the Spanish Main. And I saw Barbados, and Grenada, and +all the isles that we ever sailed by; and La Guayra in Caracas, and +the Silla, and the house beneath it where she lived. And I saw him +walking with her on the barbecue, and he loved her then. I saw +what I saw; and he loved her; and I say he loves her still. + +"Then I saw the cliffs beneath me, and the Gull-rock, and the +Shutter, and the Ledge; I saw them, William Cary, and the weeds +beneath the merry blue sea. And I saw the grand old galleon, Will; +she has righted with the sweeping of the tide. She lies in fifteen +fathoms, at the edge of the rocks, upon the sand; and her men are +all lying around her, asleep until the judgment-day." + +Cary and Jack looked at him, and then at each other. His eyes were +clear, and bright, and full of meaning; and yet they knew that he +was blind. His voice was shaping itself into a song. Was he +inspired? Insane? What was it? And they listened with awe-struck +faces, as the giant pointed down into the blue depths far below, +and went on. + +"And I saw him sitting in his cabin, like a valiant gentleman of +Spain; and his officers were sitting round him, with their swords +upon the table at the wine. And the prawns and the crayfish and +the rockling, they swam in and out above their heads: but Don +Guzman he never heeded, but sat still, and drank his wine. Then he +took a locket from his bosom; and I heard him speak, Will, and he +said: 'Here's the picture of my fair and true lady; drink to her, +senors all.' Then he spoke to me, Will, and called me, right up +through the oar-weed and the sea: 'We have had a fair quarrel, +senor; it is time to be friends once more. My wife and your +brother have forgiven me; so your honor takes no stain.' And I +answered, 'We are friends, Don Guzman; God has judged our quarrel +and not we.' Then he said, 'I sinned, and I am punished.' And I +said, 'And, senor, so am I.' Then he held out his hand to me, +Cary; and I stooped to take it, and awoke." + +He ceased: and they looked in his face again. It was exhausted, +but clear and gentle, like the face of a new-born babe. Gradually +his head dropped upon his breast again; he was either swooning or +sleeping, and they had much ado to get him home. There he lay for +eight-and-forty hours, in a quiet doze; then arose suddenly, called +for food, ate heartily, and seemed, saving his eyesight, as whole +and sound as ever. The surgeon bade them get him home to Northam +as soon as possible, and he was willing enough to go. So the next +day the Vengeance sailed, leaving behind a dozen men to seize and +keep in the queen's name any goods which should be washed up from +the wreck. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +HOW AMYAS LET THE APPLE FALL + + +"Would you hear a Spanish lady, + How she woo'd an Englishman? +Garments gay and rich as may be, + Deck'd with jewels had she on." + + Elizabethan Ballad. + + +It was the first of October. The morning was bright and still; the +skies were dappled modestly from east to west with soft gray autumn +cloud, as if all heaven and earth were resting after those fearful +summer months of battle and of storm. Silently, as if ashamed and +sad, the Vengeance slid over the bar, and passed the sleeping sand- +hills and dropped her anchor off Appledore, with her flag floating +half-mast high; for the corpse of Salvation Yeo was on board. + +A boat pulled off from the ship, and away to the western end of the +strand; and Cary and Brimblecombe helped out Amyas Leigh, and led +him slowly up the hill toward his home. + +The crowd clustered round him, with cheers and blessings, and sobs +of pity from kind-hearted women; for all in Appledore and Bideford +knew well by this time what had befallen him. + +"Spare me, my good friends," said Amyas, "I have landed here that I +might go quietly home, without passing through the town, and being +made a gazing-stock. Think not of me, good folks, nor talk of me; +but come behind me decently, as Christian men, and follow to the +grave the body of a better man than I." + +And, as he spoke, another boat came off, and in it, covered with +the flag of England, the body of Salvation Yeo. + +The people took Amyas at his word; and a man was sent on to +Burrough, to tell Mrs. Leigh that her son was coming. When the +coffin was landed and lifted, Amyas and his friends took their +places behind it as chief mourners, and the crew followed in order, +while the crowd fell in behind them, and gathered every moment; +till ere they were halfway to Northam town, the funeral train might +number full five hundred souls. + +They had sent over by a fishing-skiff the day before to bid the +sexton dig the grave; and when they came into the churchyard, the +parson stood ready waiting at the gate. + +Mrs. Leigh stayed quietly at home; for she had no heart to face the +crowd; and though her heart yearned for her son, yet she was well +content (when was she not content?) that he should do honor to his +ancient and faithful servant; so she sat down in the bay-window, +with Ayacanora by her side; and when the tolling of the bell +ceased, she opened her Prayer-book, and began to read the Burial- +service. + +"Ayacanora," she said, "they are burying old Master Yeo, who loved +you, and sought you over the wide, wide world, and saved you from +the teeth of the crocodile. Are you not sorry for him, child, that +you look so gay to-day?" + +Ayacanora blushed, and hung down her head; she was thinking of +nothing, poor child, but Amyas. + +The Burial-service was done; the blessing said; the parson drew +back: but the people lingered and crowded round to look at the +coffin, while Amyas stood still at the head of the grave. It had +been dug by his command, at the west end of the church, near by the +foot of the tall gray windswept tower, which watches for a beacon +far and wide over land and sea. Perhaps the old man might like to +look at the sea, and see the ships come out and in across the bar, +and hear the wind, on winter nights, roar through the belfry far +above his head. Why not? It was but a fancy: and yet Amyas felt +that he too should like to be buried in such a place; so Yeo might +like it also. + +Still the crowd lingered; and looked first at the grave and then at +the blind giant who stood over it, as if they felt, by instinct, +that something more ought to come. And something more did come. +Amyas drew himself up to his full height, and waved his hand +majestically, as one about to speak; while the eyes of all men were +fastened on him. + +Twice he essayed to begin; and twice the words were choked upon his +lips; and then,-- + +"Good people all, and seamen, among whom I was bred, and to whom I +come home blind this day, to dwell with you till death--Here lieth +the flower and pattern of all bold mariners; the truest of friends, +and the most terrible of foes; unchangeable of purpose, crafty of +council, and swift of execution; in triumph most sober, in failure +(as God knows I have found full many a day) of endurance beyond +mortal man. Who first of all Britons helped to humble the pride of +the Spaniard at Rio de la Hacha and Nombre, and first of all sailed +upon those South Seas, which shall be hereafter, by God's grace, as +free to English keels as is the bay outside. Who having afterwards +been purged from his youthful sins by strange afflictions and +torments unspeakable, suffered at the hands of the Popish enemy, +learned therefrom, my masters, to fear God, and to fear naught +else; and having acquitted himself worthily in his place and +calling as a righteous scourge of the Spaniard, and a faithful +soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ, is now exalted to his reward, as +Elijah was of old, in a chariot of fire unto heaven: letting fall, +I trust and pray, upon you who are left behind the mantle of his +valor and his godliness, that so these shores may never be without +brave and pious mariners, who will count their lives as worthless +in the cause of their Country, their Bible, and their Queen. +Amen." + +And feeling for his companions' hands he walked slowly from the +churchyard, and across the village street, and up the lane to +Burrough gates; while the crowd made way for him in solemn silence, +as for an awful being, shut up alone with all his strength, valor, +and fame, in the dark prison-house of his mysterious doom. + +He seemed to know perfectly when they had reached the gates, opened +the lock with his own hands, and went boldly forward along the +gravel path, while Cary and Brimblecombe followed him trembling; +for they expected some violent burst of emotion, either from him or +his mother, and the two good fellows' tender hearts were fluttering +like a girl's. Up to the door he went, as if he had seen it; felt +for the entrance, stood therein, and called quietly, "Mother!" + +In a moment his mother was on his bosom. + +Neither spoke for awhile. She sobbing inwardly, with tearless +eyes, he standing firm and cheerful, with his great arms clasped +around her. + +"Mother!" he said at last, "I am come home, you see, because I +needs must come. Will you take me in, and look after this useless +carcase? I shall not be so very troublesome, mother,--shall I?" +and he looked down, and smiled upon her, and kissed her brow. + +She answered not a word, but passed her arm gently round his waist, +and led him in. + +"Take care of your head, dear child, the doors are low." And they +went in together. + +"Will! Jack!" called Amyas, turning round: but the two good +fellows had walked briskly off. + +"I'm glad we are away," said Cary; "I should have made a baby of +myself in another minute, watching that angel of a woman. How her +face worked and how she kept it in!" + +"Ah, well!" said Jack, "there goes a brave servant of the queen's +cut off before his work was a quarter done. Heigho! I must home +now, and see my old father, and then--" + +"And then home with me," said Cary. "You and I never part again! +We have pulled in the same boat too long, Jack; and you must not go +spending your prize-money in riotous living. I must see after you, +old Jack ashore, or we shall have you treating half the town in +taverns for a week to come." + +"Oh, Mr. Cary!" said Jack, scandalized. + +"Come home with me, and we'll poison the parson, and my father +shall give you the rectory." + +"Oh, Mr. Cary!" said Jack. + +So the two went off to Clovelly together that very day. + +And Amyas was sitting all alone. His mother had gone out for a few +minutes to speak to the seamen who had brought up Amyas's luggage, +and set them down to eat and drink; and Amyas sat in the old bay- +window, where he had sat when he was a little tiny boy, and read +"King Arthur," and "Fox's Martyrs," and "The Cruelties of the +Spaniards." He put out his hand and felt for them; there they lay +side by side, just as they had lain twenty years before. The +window was open; and a cool air brought in as of old the scents of +the four-season roses, and rosemary, and autumn gilliflowers. And +there was a dish of apples on the table: he knew it by their smell; +the very same old apples which he used to gather when he was a boy. +He put out his hand, and took them, and felt them over, and played +with them, just as if the twenty years had never been: and as he +fingered them, the whole of his past life rose up before him, as in +that strange dream which is said to flash across the imagination of +a drowning man; and he saw all the places which he had ever seen, +and heard all the words which had ever been spoken to him--till he +came to that fairy island on the Meta; and he heard the roar of the +cataract once more, and saw the green tops of the palm-trees +sleeping in the sunlight far above the spray, and stept amid the +smooth palm-trunks across the flower-fringed boulders, and leaped +down to the gravel beach beside the pool: and then again rose from +the fern-grown rocks the beautiful vision of Ayacanora--Where was +she? He had not thought of her till now. How he had wronged her! +Let be; he had been punished, and the account was squared. Perhaps +she did not care for him any longer. Who would care for a great +blind ox like him, who must be fed and tended like a baby for the +rest of his lazy life? Tut! How long his mother was away! And he +began playing again with his apples, and thought about nothing but +them, and his climbs with Frank in the orchard years ago. + +At last one of them slipt through his fingers, and fell on the +floor. He stooped and felt for it: but he could not find it. +Vexatious! He turned hastily to search in another direction, and +struck his head sharply against the table. + +Was it the pain, or the little disappointment? or was it the sense +of his blindness brought home to him in that ludicrous commonplace +way, and for that very reason all the more humiliating? or was it +the sudden revulsion of overstrained nerves, produced by that +slight shock? Or had he become indeed a child once more? I know +not; but so it was, that he stamped on the floor with pettishness, +and then checking himself, burst into a violent flood of tears. + +A quick rustle passed him; the apple was replaced in his hand, and +Ayacanora's voice sobbed out: + +"There! there it is! Do not weep! Oh, do not weep! I cannot bear +it! I will get you all you want! Only let me fetch and carry for +you, tend you, feed you, lead you, like your slave, your dog! Say +that I may be your slave!" and falling on her knees at his feet, +she seized both his hands, and covered them with kisses. + +"Yes!" she cried, "I will be your slave! I must be! You cannot +help it! You cannot escape from me now! You cannot go to sea! +You cannot turn your back upon wretched me. I have you safe now! +Safe!" and she clutched his hands triumphantly. "Ah! and what a +wretch I am, to rejoice in that! to taunt him with his blindness! +Oh, forgive me! I am but a poor wild girl--a wild Indian savage, +you know: but--but--" and she burst into tears. + +A great spasm shook the body and soul of Amyas Leigh; he sat quite +silent for a minute, and then said solemnly: + +"And is this still possible? Then God have mercy upon me a +sinner!" + +Ayacanora looked up in his face inquiringly: but before she could +speak again, he had bent down, and lifting her as the lion lifts +the lamb, pressed her to his bosom, and covered her face with +kisses. + +The door opened. There was the rustle of a gown; Ayacanora sprang +from him with a little cry, and stood, half-trembling, half- +defiant, as if to say, "He is mine now; no one dare part him from +me!" + +"Who is it?" asked Amyas. + +"Your mother." + +"You see that I am bringing forth fruits meet for repentance, +mother," said he, with a smile. + +He heard her approach. Then a kiss and a sob passed between the +women; and he felt Ayacanora sink once more upon his bosom. + +"Amyas, my son," said the silver voice of Mrs. Leigh, low, dreamy, +like the far-off chimes of angels' bells from out the highest +heaven, "fear not to take her to your heart again; for it is your +mother who has laid her there." + +"It is true, after all," said Amyas to himself. "What God has +joined together, man cannot put asunder." + + . . . . . . . + +From that hour Ayacanora's power of song returned to her; and day +by day, year after year, her voice rose up within that happy home, +and soared, as on a skylark's wings, into the highest heaven, +bearing with it the peaceful thoughts of the blind giant back to +the Paradises of the West, in the wake of the heroes who from that +time forth sailed out to colonize another and a vaster England, to +the heaven-prospered cry of Westward-Ho! + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley + diff --git a/old/wstho10.zip b/old/wstho10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..30b1afc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/wstho10.zip |